Here Comes Health Care

I have had the dubious duty of dealing with the Internal Revenue Service and Motor Vehicle Department for the last week-and-a-half. Without getting into too much boring detail, I had mailed in my company's crane registrations renewals a month ago; they came back rejected because we didn't provide proof of payment of our IRS 2290 form. This form is so that we can pay a fee to the federal government for the privilege of putting large trucks on its highways. Now, the people who used to take of this "stuff" at our company have died or retired, so I had to do some back-tracking. I went to MVD in Wethersfield, figuring they could help me out. "Oh yeah," said the man at the information desk, "you need to go to Newington to the DOT. They have all that information there."

Off to DOT (Department of Transportation) I go. After showing proper ID, I was whisked off the the Oversize Overweight Division. (That's because of the cranes' sizes, not mine). They were thoroughly baffled, and actually called one of our competitors to find out what I was looking for. He told them that I needed to go to the IRS in Hartford. Rebel that I am, I went to the IRS Waterbury office. They looked over what I had, looked up our company on the computer, and informed me that I was several months late. When I asked why we never got notification, I was told that it sometimes happens but, of course, we would be responsible for the late penalty.

After filling out all the proper forms with all the proper documentation I returned to the IRS, paid the fee, and got the proper receipt the MVD needed. "Hey, I'm on a roll," I figured. "Might as well head over to MVD and get this finished up." Moron. Did you really think it was gonna be that easy?

When I got to MVD (Waterbury), they told me I didn't have the cranes in question listed on the IRS form; therefore, I couldn't register them. Into the peaceful recesses of my office I retired. I found that our cranes have been exempted by the IRS dating back to 1996 (that's as far back as our records go) because they cannot be used to haul loads. I read the IRS manual line by line, underlining the relevant passages showing that cranes are indeed exempt and therefore do not have to be listed or paid for on the glorious form 2290.

I wrote a respectful letter detailing why we should be exempt, made copies of all the aforementioned relevant passages, and set out this beautiful morning on my pilgrimage to MVD Wethersfield, since that's where all the honchos are. I got to the information line, was told I needed to see a supervisor, and was directed to window 12. The nice lady there took the registration forms and disappeared to find a supervisor. After a few trips back to let me know she was working on it, she disappeared for about 20 minutes. She came back with supervisor in tow, who informed me that we were exempt and produced a copy of the IRS regulations to prove that I was right and that the MVD had been mistaken a month ago when they rejected our renewals. I smiled and showed her that I had brought the exact same regulations with me. I got the proper registration stickers and was sent on my way, victorious.

A few important points:
First, since I have taken over these additional duties at my job, part of this whole problem was me, learning the ropes and feeling my way along.
Second, to a person, everyone I dealt with at every department was respectful and sincerely trying to help me solve my problem.

So what's the point of this whole rant? It's not to get you to feel sorry for me. I made it through this whole thing. I did my job and was successful. But if this is what it takes to register a few cranes at a relatively small company in Connecticut, what the hell can we expect when this inefficient, plodding entity we call government takes over the health care system?

When you put that many people into a government system, the layers of accountability (or lack thereof), the endless regulations and documentation, and the overall process become so bloated and ponderous that efficiency is impossible. I truly fear the future of health care in this country. If you feel the same way, vote every single person who rammed this travesty down our throats out of office in November and in 2012. Let them know that 62% (that's the amount of people who opposed the bill) is a majority and that if they can't represent us (which is what their job), then they don't deserve to be rehired. It's high time that we stop calling them leaders (they're not) and remind them that they are elected to be our representatives. They sure as hell haven't represented the majority of Americans. I want them out.