When the Truth Arrives in the Mail

How do you get your news? Some stubbornly old-fashioned folks still read it from the smudgy ink on the cut-rate paper that mysteriously arrives every morning on the driveway, and some are even so hidebound they continue to get it from the early evening newscasts that the broadcast networks still provide by force of habit. The more up-to-date among us now stay informed on the internet, where a variety of sites such as this one provide news and commentary suited to the reader’s preferred prejudices, or settle for the “tweet”-sized opinions of their slight acquaintances on social media. These days most people seem find the half-hourly news updates on the pop radio stations sufficient to keep them well-informed, or they try to infer what’s going on from the jokes on The Daily Show or the other late-night comedy programs, or they do their best to avoid the news altogether.

Almost all of these options tend to reiterate the liberal point of view, except to those daring souls who venture to dissident sites such as this one, but conservatives can take solace in knowing that every person still gets a heavy dose of irrefutable reality to counteract this in his mailbox. This explains the continuing and increasing unpopularity of Obamacare, which sounds great when reading about it in the newspapers or hearing about on the newscasts, but no longer seems as appealing when the costs at last show up in an official envelope. The President of the United States continues to assure the public that health insurance costs will go down as a result of the law, and that everyone satisfied with their current arrangements will be able to keep them, but no matter how many times he repeats the claims nor how many times the various media corroborate them millions of Americans will be more inclined to believe the bottom line of the bill that has arrived in the mail.

So many people have lately received contradictory information about Obamacare in the mail, with hefty payment demanded by the end of the month, that the cold, hard facts have begun to seep into even the most Obama-obeisant news reports. It’s gotten to the point that such an impeccably liberal publication as The San Jose Mercury News, a newspaper that still survives by its steadfast effort to shield its liberal Bay Area readership from any facts that might challenge its most cherished assumptions, was forced to acknowledge that not everyone will be pleased with Obamacare’s results. In an article headlined “Obamacare’s Winners and Losers in Bay Area” the newspaper struggled mightily to find a few sympathetic winners, but could not avoid interviewing some formerly enthusiastic losers.

The San Jose Mercury’s tiny minority of right-wing readers will have to be forgiven the schadenfreude they no doubt felt when reading about two die-hard Obama supporters admit that their health care costs will rise and their health care services decline as a result of the hilariously-named “Affordable Care Act.” One of the interviewees will see her health insurance costs increase by $1,800 a year, which she considers a significant amount for someone of her modest income, while another more affluent liberal will be forced to cough up an extra $10,000 per annum, which is a sizeable sum even by the standards of a well-heeled Bay Area liberal. Neither are yet willing to recant their devotion to the president or his historic legislative achievement, but both begrudgingly admit to nagging doubts with some quotes that conservatives will cherish.

“I was laughing at (House Speaker John) Boehner — until the mail came today,” said Tom Waschura, the 52-year-old self-employed engineer who received notice of the $10,000 price hike. “I really don’t like the Republican tactics, but at least now I can understand why they are so pissed about this. When you take $10,000 out of my family’s pocket each year, that’s otherwise disposable income or retirement savings that will not being going into our local economy.” An even more satisfying quote came from Cindy Vinson, the 60-year-old retired teacher stuck with the extra $1,800 deduction from her fixed income, who said “Of course I want people to have health care, I just didn’t realize I would be the one who was going to pay for it personally.”

To compound its journalistic heresy, The San Jose Mercury News also quotes a couple of health insurance experts who confirm that these are not mere anecdotes but examples of a much larger trend. One of the experts assures that “There’s going to be a number of people” receiving such rate shocks, and another explains that “The upper middle-class are the people who are essentially being asked to foot the bill, and that’s true across the country.” With 60-year-old retired teachers in the pricey Bay Area now included among the “upper middle class,” it will likely be a very large percentage of the country finding that the presidential promises will go unfulfilled.

The president and his press will continue to repeat those promises, but even Bay Area liberals are more likely to believe what they find in the mail. Any congressional Republicans thinking of going wobbly on the shut-down battle because of the negative would do well to remember this.

— Bud Norman

Come Saturday Morning

Being conservative in both temperament and political philosophy, we greeted the news that the United States Postal Service will soon cease Saturday deliveries with conflicting feelings.

There was a satisfying sense of vindication for our skepticism of government, of course. Saturday deliveries are ending because the Postal Service incurred a $15.9 billion dollar loss last year, with more red ink expected yet again this year, and according to the perverse incentives of government work cutting back a sixth of its service is expected to save the agency $2 billion a year. Several private enterprises provide the same services as the post office at a substantial profit, and they do so by working more rather than less, but we assume the government sector unions would never stand for such nonsense. Whatever inconvenience the end of Saturday delivery might cause, it is good to know that the post office still stands ready, in rain or snow, to stand as an example of bureaucratic inefficiency.

Still, something in the conservative soul hates to see yet another longstanding tradition come to a modernity-induced end. Much of the post office’s trouble is commonly attributed to the popularity of e-mail, which is postage-free and far, far faster than traditional mail, but we also lament the passing of the written-on-paper letter. For those of you too young to recall, actual letters would begin with “Dear” or some similarly endearing salutation, end with a cordial “sincerely” or perhaps even “love,” and in between care would be taken to communicate a message with a clear and correct style of English. E-mails tend to begin with a blunt “hey” or just rush right into whatever incoherent ramblings are on offer, then end just as brusquely. For those who can’t rise even to an e-mail level of literacy there are now “tweets,” which limit the rambling to such precious few characters that they require incomprehensible acronyms and shortened spellings that might mean anything.

The post office will continue Saturday delivery of packages, a burgeoning business that has largely offset the demise of the letter, but despite our fondness for capitalist innovation we have some misgivings about the internet sales boom that is behind this development. Ordering something through the internet might well be more convenient, less expensive, and in some locales sales-tax-free, but we find it rather impersonal and with none of the satisfaction of sifting through the racks at a favorite store. The modern world already offers too many reasons not to get out of the house, and we don’t need another one.

As a more practical concern, we’re unlikely to even notice the absence of mail on Saturdays. Except for a dwindling number of Christmas cards each December and some occasional correspondence from family, all of whom are quite prolific with e-mail, our mailbox is mainly devoted to bills and what is aptly called “junk mail.” A stubborn old-fashionedness compels us to continue paying the bills via the mail, now affixed with those chintzy new stamps that the machines print out, but we always drop those off at the post office anyway. We might have to wait an extra couple of days for the occasional Netflix delivery, but we will endure it as a patriotic chore.

— Bud Norman