Ray Hanania Columns

Special Column: Is there really a difference between anti-Vaxxers and the vaccinated?

Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2021

Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2021

Special Column: I sympathize with both the anti-Vaxxers and the vaccinated

• Apparently getting vaccinated doesn't guarantee anything. Anti-Vaxxers and the vaccinated are both getting infected by one of the many strains of COVID that have crippled this country for the past two years.

• The biggest victims of this Pandemic mess are the Senior Citizens who are not only most vulnerable but are also at the bottom of the long priority list of who our politicians really care about.

By Ray Hanania

 
When it comes to COVID, clearly, it doesn't matter whether you get vaccinated or not. Everyone is getting sick. We've seen it rising this past month.
 
People who I know got vaccinated, have tested positive with COVID, catching one of the many new virus strains. People who I also know who did not get vaccinated, have also tested positive, too.
 
The symptoms for each vary widely depending on your physical condition. But everyone is getting the COVID virus.
 
So far, having had both heart and cancer surgeries in my recent past, I'm in that category of being the most susceptible to the virus. Maybe I have been lucky, or maybe just successful being cautious. I haven't gotten the virus.
 
I clean my hands constantly with hand sanitizer. I wear a mask when I am around people. I maintain distance from strangers and carefully determine who to be near among friends. I avoid large gatherings, although I have gone to restaurants occasionally to eat.
 
The greatest threat of the virus is to senior citizens, you know the people the government says they care about but in reality they don't care about.
 
Seniors are in the "taken for granted" category. You know how they talk about President Joe Biden not being in full control of his memory or capacity, making it sound like only fans of Donald Trump suspect him of having coherence issues. The truth is even his supporters have concerns, and for political reasons they don't want to talk about it.
 
The biggest victim of today's polarized politics is "truth." People will bend the truth in any way possible to achieve their goals. And they will lie and say they care about Seniors when the truth is, the y only care about making seniors feel like they are important so they can get the senior vote.
 
Seniors have the highest and most consistent voting rate for Democrats and Republicans. They care, unlike many of the young people and even the poor who get most of the country's attention, services and monies.
 
If government really cared about Seniors they would make them a priority, not just an afterthought. Instead, they offer breadcrumbs instead of bread. They gave us a 5.9 percent social security Cost-of-Living increase that finally reflects the real Cost-of-Living inflation increases. Over the past decade,  however, government has given seniors of Social Security literally nothing, and average increase of about 1.2 percent. So event hat 5.9 percent is nothing compared to what we deserve.
 

CHART OF SOCIAL SECURITY COST OF LIVING ADJUSTMENTS SINCE 1975.

This chart should be an eye-opener about how little government cares about Senior Citizens and Social Security. Look at the downward trend of COLA increase for social security since 1975.



Biden increased the fee for Medicare, 17 percent, which more than likely will off-set the Social Security COLA hike, maybe leaving many Senior Citizens actually owing money.
 
Seniors deserve to be an Official Category of their own, like all the other categories members of Congress and the Senate talk about all the time, always fighting to get them more benefits, funding and services. Those categories: Black Lives Matter, illegal or undocumented immigrants, LGBTQ, single mothers, college students who are getting their loans erased, Union workers who want to build roads and bridges, massive increases for the military, and continued funding for dozens of foreign countries.

I'm glad they are getting benefits, but my argument is that Senior Citizens are being left out in the cold. Forgotten. Marginalized. Pandered to when addressed.
 
The list of recipients being cared for by the officials is long and endless, but at the very bottom of that list are the Seniors.
 
Seniors should be moved to the top of the list and be given priority. They fought in the wars to defend our country. They went to college and earned scholarships and took out loans that they repaid in full and by working hard building careers. They worked longer than any other group and paid more in taxes than any other group, including paying into Social Security from their paychecks, a fund that government keeps saying is in jeopardy. Who has done more to help this country?
 
The politicians don't want to spend money on Seniors, believing that first and foremost, seniors have deteriorating memories and the majority won't remember what they demanded or what they were promised. They don't want to spend money on seniors because we are approaching the end of our lives. We won't be here long, they surmise quietly without saying in publicly. They put a priority on youth, but most young people don't vote.
 
These are the things the officials don't talk about or won't talk about because these are "sensitive" topics.
 
But you know that's what they are thinking.
 
My proposal is to eliminate all taxes on all Social Security money and increase social security. I also think Seniors, earning under $100,000 total taxable income with Social Security, shouldn't have to pay property taxes and should receive Health Insurance for free.
 
How do we do that? By imposing a small tax of .5 percent on the rest of the working country. That tax would not only cover the taxes not collected from Senior Social security but could also cover senior incomes of up to $100,000.
 
A .5 percent Federal income tax hike to give the Seniors what they deserve.
 
And the best argument against those who are not seniors who will complain and moan as they sit back and count their cash from work or the government dole, is that one day they will all be seniors, too, and the .5 tax hike will help, them too.
 
It's time for Seniors to get angry and get active. It's time for Seniors to stand up and complain. Make noise, Reach out to your elected officials demanded they do something. Hold back your votes if you don't get satisfaction.
 
THE POLITICAL GRAPEVINE
 
Former Congressman Bill Lipinski and I recorded two new podcasts, the first on the challenge facing America from Russia and the new Cold War that is starting. The second is on the economic impact that China is having on us. China's economic leverage and their investments and mortgage in America are more threatening to America than the threat of nuclear war, which drove the fears we faced after World War II.
 
Check them out at www.TwoGuysonPoliticsa.com.
 
My column this week in the Southwest News Newspaper group expresses my opinion that Japan should reject former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel who was named by President Joe Biden as America's Ambassador to Japan during a midnight vote, ushered through by U.S. Senator Dick Durbin. Emanuel was one of Chicago's worst mayors, although he is tied with Mayor Lori Lightfoot who has empowered crime by undermining support for the police. This column will be posted online in the Opinion Section at SuburbanChicagoland.com Thursday.

My prior column spoke to the entire embarrassing scandal over how Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, former First Lady Michelle Obama, and ABC’s Good Morning America host Robin Robinson hustled public opinion in favor of racist hoaxter Jussie Smollett, and how that has contributed to the ugly message that justice is not as important as race-influenced crime here in America or overseas. The perception of corruption has fueled an even wider and uglier message about how our national leaders are leading us in the wrong direction internationally, including with the terrorist government of Iran. Corrupt politics domestically is no different than corrupt politics internationally.

Click here to read that column.

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Click here to listen to the "Two Guys on Politics" a podcast that speaks from the "Reagan Democrat" centrist political position of commonsense and reason.

You can find my mainstream columns in the Des Plaines Valley News, The Regional News, the Southwest News-Herald and The Reporter on the Southwest News Newspaper Group website, & SuburbanChicagoland.com. 

For more information on Ray Hanania's columns, or to Book Ray Hanania as a speaker, visit www.Hanania.com. Email Ray at rghanania@gmail.com.)

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