Political fireworks

Have kept my ears to the ground listening to political garb. The fractious factions or realignment of incumbents posturing for survival has begun. It’s analogous to hermit crabs squeezing into larger shells, hoping the new home fits like fully tailored suits.

So far the latest murmur from mini-camps have been very interesting. Nothing is earth-shattering, though fodder for amusement. A certain group looks forward to the challenge while another ponders if it’s worth it, exhausted. Still another quizzes if it should be a spoiler.

In a short while we should be able to see the official emergence of all candidates for the most coveted seat on the islands. Each is like a fish with a head, body, and tail. We ought to see which would be fished out of the water to lead rebuilding the decimated or destroyed livelihood of simple villagers NMI-wide.

With voter sophistication manifested in the last midterm election, this year’s general election ought to see major shift in the sentiment of the people. In its quiet ways, voters are ready to dispose of its sentiment come November. Incumbents must have something better than lackluster performance lest they seal their self-inflicted political doom. There’s a lot of fodder for comedy script as the political mercury spins out of control.

May you live in “interesting times” after the election dust settles quietly this November.

Our illustrious Delegate Kilili fancy-footed with his explanation of the exclusion of the CNMI in the fraud-laden Nobamacare law. Furthermore, his ill-fated explanation is two years late!

Sir, it’s sad listening to families who have opted to drop health insurance policies because it’s too steep for their meager income. Its increase is a whopping 40 percent and it isn’t helping retirees either whose pension was cut by 25 percent last year. The cost of medication has also gone up by another 40 percent. So retirees and employees must navigate how much of the deductibles they must pay through the nose. This as other costs pile up, robbing families of their buying power while salaries remain basically the same or stagnant. Where’s leadership on this score? Or do we settle for more of the same as victims of mediocrity?

Some of those who would drop their health premiums aren’t likely recipients for Medicaid—a program designed for the poor. So who picks up their expenses when they have to report to the ER? How do we navigate recent spikes in deductibles when 25 percent of retirees’ pension was cut since last year? Isn’t this a significant issue to ward off Nobamacare? Are we as U.S. citizens supposed to swallow Obama’s egregiously miscalculated health system that has ruined the health industry full square?

The impending increase in food commodities is another issue that would further compromise the buying power of people all over. Hello? Anybody home? Did legislators forget that they were elected and tasked to work on Capital Hill and not in the golden skies of the Pacific, junketing on taxpayers’ expense or some weird freebie?

The collective negligence has forced many of the people you’ve ignored to buckle down counting pennies, nickels, and dimes. What’s your contribution to ease the misery they have to endure in the deepening economic mess? Ooops! Lest we forget, this year’s election is no walk in the park either.

Simple folks all over the archipelago are yearning for leadership to ease the teething troubles of increases that has robbed them of their buying power. It’s known as the “cost of living” or sparks of costly explosions ripping family pocketbooks throughout the archipelago.

The suffering and unbearably miserable hardship had the multitude yearning for help from the hill. Isn’t leadership about attending to the needs of others? It’s all about the people you represent in our government institutions, isn’t it? What’s your performance rating on substantive issues?

Have you ably and promptly listened to the voice of your people searching for decent answers, struggling to ward off increases in health premiums and medication by 40 percent? What about the impending increase in food and power bills while family income remains the same or stagnant since recent past? Is leadership up to the task to fix the deepening economic mess at home?

Understandably, revenue generation has gone Deep South while obligations spiral upwards beyond what’s available in local coffers. There’s the scramble to find $12 million to meet settlement agreement on pension pay, $11 million to pay off DB plan members’ withdrawal, $8 million to defray government share in the increase in health cost, and $18 million to pay off utilities owed CUC.

The added cost against employees and retirees is a whopping 65 percent-plus as the former simultaneously struggles with pension pay cut of 25 percent. This is no fun walk in the park of filial bankruptcy. Families still must deal with making timely payment of the first family home. Otherwise a lot of them would simply pack up and leave home sooner than later. Remember the 3,000-plus locals who relocated elsewhere in the last two years, prompted by dire economic conditions at home?

Perhaps the “voice of experience” has met its challenge but can’t fathom the dizzying discrepancy of obligations spiraling upwards while revenue heads in the other direction. I fear the day when the entire archipelago is torched by the merciless magma of bankruptcy. It’s a bad economic indicator that sends goosebumps up my neck.

The deepening economic disaster forces many families to start intoning, “Lullaby and Good Night” as life in paradise turns into one unbearable hellish hole. Need it be this way?

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