President Obama’s latest silly little campaign trope is the life of Julia. Like the composite girlfriend in his autobiography, Julia represents a composite of the sheeple he would like to see suckling at the teat of government dependence. Much has been tweeted about it today in the conservative twitter sphere, showing it for the joke that it is.

That being said, our archivist, @MbernadetteE requested your Gormogons take on this topic. It is Dr. J.’s hope that his fellow Gormos’s bring their spin, he had a few minutes at lunch to take a shot at the topic. What he will do is go line item by line item comparing his life with that of Julia.

• 3 years old – Dr. J. is the child of an intact nuclear family. Papa J. works and brings home the bacon. Mrs. Dr. J. maintains the homestead, much like Mrs. Romney does because Papa and Mama J. live within their means rather then leveraging themselves out on crazy amounts of credit to have a fancier house or car than they need. Indeed their TV set was paid for with Green Stamps (remember those?). Through a combination of reading to, playing with, having coffee with him and grandma, and exposing Dr. J. to some Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, Looney Tunes and Speed Racer, it was decided that it was time for Dr. J. to get his edjumacation on. Papa and Mama J cut a check to the local Episcopal (GASP) nursery school and Dr. J. hopped on a van with a lil bear painted on it 3 days a week with hopes that it would be a springboard to an elite private school in the next town over. Under Obama, the combination of tax burden, cost of living, and preschool regulation are such that Mama J. would have to decrease discretionary spending to float the tuition to Nursery School. Under Romney/Ryan, she’d have more of her own money to save towards his college education as he’s pretty frickin smart for a 3 year old.
• 17 years old – Dr. J. attended an independent school that had high academic standards and permitted freedom of expression, including freedom of religious expression. He was extremely well prepared for college. The public high school in town and in the next town over were outstanding, and because of local control the families in those towns voluntarily increased their own property taxes to fund those schools. The town Dr. J. grew up in, enjoyed lower property taxes, and while the public schools were ok, over 50% of families sent their children to Catholic or independent schools, so it worked for them. Under Obama, a local issue is a national issue due to pandering to the teachers unions who have themselves propped up as a priority above the children. Under Romney/Ryan, it is hoped that local control of schools will increase unions can be busted, and sanity will return to public education.
• 18 years old – Dr. J. rocked the SAT and is admitted early to Ivy University and a number of other colleges. His parents were warned in 2nd grade that Ivy U. was his first choice, so they saved very aggressively, foregoing purchasing a summer home, or driving a luxury car. Their priority was his education. So when he got in, they had the money saved up. As the valedictorian, he received a Garden State Scholarship which covered 8% of his tuition, an additional 2% was covered by a National Merit Corporate Scholarship. Because his parents believed in rewarding excellence and already had college covered, they gave him the equivalent money in cash so he could travel abroad on summer and improve his foreign language skills and alcohol tolerance. Under Obama, their taxes would be sufficiently higher, and with his energy policies draining their wallets that they would be scratching their heads trying to figure out how cover college without him taking student loans. Given that they make ‘too much money’ Dr. J. wouldn’t have qualified for need based financial aid. Given that Dr. J. is not as diverse as Elizabeth Warren, there would not have been a scholarship bidding war for him between Ivy League institutions who are more interested in giving their aid to diverse persons than the best and brightest applicants. Under Romney/Ryan, Dr. J.’s parents would have enough money saved up to cover his tuition. 
• 22 years old – Dr. J. had to have his wisdom teeth out. (Well he was actually 18 for that one.) Mama J. and Papa J. cut a check to the oral surgeon. Dr. J. had a deviated septum and needed it repaired (Well, he was 26 for that one). Anyway, Dr. J. paid a student health premium in college and medical school that covered a couple of sinus infections and a sebaceous cyst removal. That being said, Mama J. because Dr. J. was a STUDENT was permitted by the insurance company to pay to keep him on her health insurance plan. This was long before Obamacare mind you. She probably would have saved money paying cash for the deviated septum. The rates were high. Under Obama, Papa J.’s company would have dropped health-insurance as a benefit and taken the fine as it is better for their bottom line.  The single payer Trojan Horse would be sprung and Dr. J. would still be on a government health care wait list of this nose to be fixed. Alternatively, the approved plans available by exchanges are so expensive that no student would buy them because they contain all sorts of extra stuff they don’t need. Under Romney, Obamacare repeal FOLLOWED BY MARKET BASED REFORMS THAT THE LEFT ALWAYS LEAVES OUT SO THEY CAN SCARE PEOPLE would make it such that there would be a plan available that Dr. J., can afford as a young healthy person.
• 26 years old – Dr. J. starts work as a resident. Guess what, all the residents make the same damned amount of money whether they have a Barr body or not. So he thinks that a lot of this equal pay crap is just that, crap for lawyers to make money shaking down corporations. Under Obama, Fair Pay Acts will result in frivolous law suits from individuals demanding equal pay for unequal work and calling it equal work because it’s not fair that they suck at negotiating a salary, have to take time off to raise children and miss valuable years in the workplace or choose to work 30 hours a week rather than 40 and for these reasons aren’t promoted for not being a go-getter. This goes for dads who double as ‘working moms.’ Under Romney, who knows, but really, who cares, because there really is parity in the working place in 21st century America and when there isn’t it is because of choices made by the individual. 
• 26 years old – Dr. J. is buried under student loans. He thus deferred them with accruing interest during his residency. He would be a hypocrite to say that he did not take advantage of a federal program called the NIH loan repayment program. This along with the Indian Health Service/Public Health Service, and the ROTC medical programs are ways medical students can choose to provide needed services that benefit the public welfare. Some of you may say that Dr. J. is rationalizing, but he isn’t. Here is the deal. Many doctors won’t work in underserved areas because reimbursement is so low that it is hard for them, as small business people, to keep the lights on. These people need care, therefore the government will pay the student loans and in the case of IHS and PHS, salaries, to maintain a pipeline of doctors who serve for a couple of 2 year tours in order to take care of these people in need. The NIH loan repayment program is the same deal, but it pays back loans only. Medical school costs have spiraled along with the rest of Big Skool. As a consequence people like Dr. J. graduated with $165,000 in principal over a decade ago. By the time training is done that spirals to $210,000 by the time the doctor earns a salary. This translates to $2000 a month in loan payments, which cannot be paid on an academic salary unless you’re a bachelor, living an ascetic lifestyle. This is because physician scientists get paid dramatically less than their private practice peers. With starting salaries $200,000 less than their private practice peers who in their right mind with that kind of debt burden would go into research. Now the NIH has an interest in getting the best and brightest to do research, the ones who went to top 25 medical schools, so this is a way to keep them in academics rather than feeling financial pressure to go into clinical medicine. If this program didn’t exist, Dr. J. would have been in private practice. In addition, Dr. J. would have been fine choosing private practice if the economics of the situation did not permit him to participate in the NIH program. Under Obama, we’d all be the guv’mint’s bitches rather than those of us who chose to be guv’mint’s bitches for a time. Under Romney people will be free to make the best rational economic decisions for themselves. Programs like these will still exist. They exist because there are certain things the free market cannot do.  If some of us choose to participate so as to permit a tangible win/win for the participant and the general public, so be it.
• 27 years old – If Dr. J. got lucky, and he’s not saying he did, he and/or his partner took personal and financial responsibility to insure an unanticipated pregnancy did not occur. Then he went swiftly to confession the next day. But in all seriousness, requiring ‘free’ items in health insurance increases the cost of premiums creating a dependance on the state for subsidization of health insurance and a clamor for the government to do something. In addition, nothing is free. Making people and organizations who are against birth control to pay for it is a violation of our religious freedom.  Under Obama, the ultimate goal of Obamacare is to collapse the system leaving people to beg the government for a single payer system, and religious freedom will continue to be under threat. Under Romney, people can pay for their own damned birth control. Market based solutions will make other preventative services affordable to individuals. Furthermore religious freedom will be respected.
• 31 years old – (Well 30) – Lil Resident is born. Dr. J. and Mrs. Dr. J. after working hard in school and picking  had jobs, paid for health insurance and paid out of pocket for health care expenses not covered by our private insurance. An overwhelming majority of Americans were able to afford health insurance before Obamacare. Under Obama, 9 million more people can’t afford health insurance because Obamacare made it more expensive. Under Romney, repeal of Obamacare and market based solutions will decreased costs for all. The safety net for those who truly need will still be there. 
• 37 years old – Dr. J. and Mrs. Dr. J. have chosen independent schools like the Jedi Academy for the Lil Resident and Lil Medstudent. While there are some outstanding public schools available to the J.’s The J’s enjoy the intellectual and religious freedom of an independent school and that the other families uniformly  have similar goals for their children’s education as the J.’s do. Furthermore, independent school teachers are not unionized, so much of the BS and negative stories about public education are rare in independent schools. Besides, in heavily unionized areas, benefits, especially for retirees have depleted much of the public school budget so less is spent on the kids. The Czar and Puter will have more to say about this. Under Obama, there will be big federal carve outs for unions. Under Romney, hopefully less federal carve outs for Big Skool, as public education should be a local issue. 
• 41 years old – Dr. J. has no interest in starting a small business, but were he so inclined, he would go to a bank and obtain a loan like it’s been done for generations before the Obama administration. Under Obama, the government wants to be your bank too. Under Romney, banks will be banks, and if you can’t get a loan, shore up what needs shoring up and apply again in the future, LIKE NORMAL PEOPLE. If a bank won’t lend you money, go to private investors and venture capitalists. If they like your idea, the will invest. 
• 65 years old – Dr. J. hopes Medicare ends as we know it because it will destroy the economy before he is 65. When he is 65 he still plans on working full time and plans on using his employer provided insurance, assuming we still live in a free country. Under Obama, we will be Greece because we are fiddling while entitlements burn. A mixed metaphor, I know, so shut up! Under the Romney/Ryan plan, adults will try to fix this problem for those currently under the age of 55. Really we should have a plan that leads to self-insurance at retirement.
• 67 years old – Dr. J. hopes to still be gainfully employed. He doubts Social Security will be there, so he is saving as aggressively as he can for retirement. He really thinks it should be replaced with allowing individuals to pay into the federal Thrift Savings Plan. He would go so far as to be willing to subsidize 5% total income savings with matching funds that come from a tax credit from your income tax.  Seriously people, you need to take care of yourselves. It worked in Texas. Under Obama, we will be Spain and Greece. Instead, the solutions need to be sustainable and realistic. Social Security as the 3rd rail has to end. Seriously. Folks like Paul Ryan are ahead of the curve on this.

Dr. J.