Mar

14

No public option. We will be getting a bill that does not allow insurance companies to drop us people with pre-existing conditions. But, does this legislation dictate what the insurance companies can charge? No, it does not. Without a public option your premiums can still be raised to the point that you will not be able to afford them.

The facts remain that healthcare insurance is more about paying for normal care than it is about insurance.

This bill we are going to pass is better than doing nothing, but it pretty much sucks because it does not address the real problems.

The solution to healthcare is the following steps to take:

1) 

Make medicare available to everyone. Increase the medicare tax to cover premiums, not for normal care, rather for catastophic care (cancer, and the other big ticket items), and also for certain nornaml preventitive care (annual checkups, dental cleanings, mammograms, etc…)

2)

Expand upon medical savings accounts that private individuals fund, that rollover each year. Create tax incentives similar to 401k tax breaks. Allow these funds to be put into interest bearing accounts, or buy into treasury bond funds so that they also grow over time.

3)

Deal with our food supply chain that is currently controlled by chemical companies and is the main reason we have so many serious healthcare problems. Do this by imposing higher taxes on the these foods. This will level the playing field and allow more organic and healthier foods to gain market share and make their way into the supply chain.

4)

Allow insurance companies to sell insurnace policies and various products that would allow weathier Americans to have enhanced care if they so desire. This and item #1 is pretty much how the British system works.

 

 

 

Feb

25

More lies.

The Bush Tax cuts which were debt financed were passed by Dick Cheney casting the final 51st vote in the Senate using reconciliation.

The Bush Tax cuts represented 2.48 trillion dollars of unfunded debt from 2001 through 2010.  What may be in dispute are the numbers. If we go with the CBO’s more conservative numbers we are still at 1.8 trillion dollars. This is not a big thing?

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts (which are scheduled to expire in 2010) would cost the U.S. Treasury nearly $1.8 trillion in the following decade dramatically increasing federal deficits. This comes directly from their report titled “An Analysis of the President’s Budgetary Proposals for Fiscal Year 2008″ that was released on March 2007. Here is a link to this report…

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/78xx/doc7878/03-21-PresidentsBudget.pdf (see page 6 of the document, pdf page 16). The line item on that page is titled “Subtotal, proposed extensions.”

Also, to see what you actually received for this tax cut see my blog entry Repealing the Bush Tax Cuts.

 

 

 

 

Feb

25

Representative Pelosi at the recent healtcare summit said the “Insurance companies have acted shamelessly.”

I disagree. The insurance companies have acted like a “for profit” business needs to act. There fiduciary duty is to their shareholders and it is to making a profit. A business makes money by cutting its bottom line.

Dropping people they are covering that have a higher probability for illness and disease is a smart business decision. Not wanting to cover people with pre-existing conditions is a good business decision. Covering the elderly that have a higher need for care is a good business decision. Without medicare how may people over 65 do you think the insurance companies would be covering.

No. Health insurance companies are acting the way they are supposed to act. This is a fact. You may not like it, I may not like it, but this does not change the reality of the situation.

Feb

24

It will be more of the same.

Republicans coming with no ideas. If you read what they have proposed they have not proposed anything substantative. It will be more of the same. They are really out of touch with what the mainstream populace wants.

I suppose I have to give credit for our President for playing this out. It is sad we only have two and a half branches of our geovernment trying to govern. Our nation is being held hostage by 40 Senators (jury is still out on Scott Brown).

Get to reconciliation and lets begin round one of healthcare reform.

Feb

16

I said this on Oct 12th and I am saying it again. The insurance companies want the Government to pass a healthcare bill. Why? They will be able to make more money.

Do you think these people are that stupid to announce rate increases up to 39% at this point in time?

 

 

Feb

12

Insurance companies reported 12.2 billion dollars in profits in fy 2009. They did this while dropping 2.7 million Americans from coverage. All done in a year that saw double digit unemployment and the worst economic climate since the Great Depression.

Democrats, get with the program. You are in the majority. Republicans used reconciliation five times during Bush’s tenure. Republicans are out of the picture. Success or failure is on your shoulders. We see that party is being obstructionist. But, you are in charge. Start being in charge or your tenure in charge will be short.

 

Feb

9

Medicare is clearly an entitlement program. It is also technically “socialized” medicine. We each pay 1.45% and your employer has to pay a matching amount. If you are earning $100,000 a year (close to 2 times the national average) you had a grand total of $3000.00 toward medicare. If you were 21 years old and tried to find a healthcare policy equivalent to medicare you cold not find one at 3 times that price. Try finding private insurance at age 65.

So here is my idea/offer.

I think the government should let anyone that is against socialized medicine opt out of medicare. They will rebate the 1.45% you have paid in back to you, but you are offically out of medicare and they are off the hook. I wonder how many of you tea party people would sign up for that deal.

Do you think Big Business, Rush Limbaugh, and other millionaires like Dick Armey are going to help you out? Think again. You are a nothing more than pawn in their game. And, oh how you are being played.

 

Jan

25

Today I saw an op-ed piece in the NY Times by a guy named Harold Ford Jr. The title was “Democrats, Get Down to Business.” My first thought was another right wing numb-nuts talking trash. This is how disgusted I have become with the Republican party. But, I gave myself a good talking to and read the piece. It had some good talking points in it. It had the type of dialogue we needed long ago.

(Word to Democrats. Pull your heads out and get that bill passed. Your majority and political future depends on this legislation.)

I also saw Mark McKinnon on Rachel Maddow. I really like that guy. He was McCain’s campaign advisor. I have always liked him and the way he communicates and many of his positions. It is nice to see him back on the public scene. If Republicans were wise they will bring more like him to the forefront.

Also, I find the media to largely be a bunch of dinks that are reading the wrong tea leaves. Especially regarding the election of the new Senator from Mass. Maybe more on this later.

 

 

Jan

6

We recently purchased a new car. Our credit is good. I had no doubt walking in that we would be approved and we were. If your credit is good you can borrow money.

Banks have begun lending to people and businesses that are a good credit risk. This is a good thing. People in debt are paying off their debts. This is a very good thing. Savings rates which were actually zero have dramatically gone up in the past 14 months. This is actually a good thing as banks are allowed to loan money based upon a multiplier (this is called leverage) based upon the deposits they have on  hand.  Manufacturing is up which is a good thing.

They call all this capitalism, something we have failed to practice in the last decade. 

On the flip-side. Most the banks have paid the government TARP money back. They have done this based upon these 0 interest rate loans that they invested back into the stock market that is now up. Unfortunately they still are holding many of these stocks. If the market takes another dip, guess what? We are back in the same boat.

The behavior of wall street is still reckless. We still have a mortgage crisis in both the commercial and residential sectors. This is not so good. We need to kick some ass and take names on this front.

We are still fighting and paying for two wars, this is not good.

Government deficits are out of control with no end in sight. To add to this we are between a rock and hard place in the respect that to get out of this mess for the next few years we need to keep spending more than we have. This is not good.

The biggest challenge we face is medicare and medicade expenditures. This is why healthcare reform is so damn important. The Democrats less the blue-dogs holding the party hostage actually have the 51 votes in Congress to pass real reform that will help us reign in costs in both the short term and for the future. Unfortunately the Democrats are too stupid to use reconciliation. They say doing so would take to long. Hmmmmmm, you mean like the Republicans did to you to get through tax cuts during the Bush administration when we were running two wars. They seemed to be able to do it pretty quick. For those of you with short memories Dick “Lucifer” Cheney cast the deciding vote to break the 50-50 deadlock. Hmmmmm, Tea-party people where was your outrage back then on this?

To be fair here are the republicans that voted no.

Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine,
Gordon Smith of Oregon,
Mike DeWine of Ohio and
Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island.

Voting no on a tax cut in the midst of running two wars, low unemployment, and huge federal deficits is beyond insane. These five did the right thing. Three are out of office now. That was their reward. Only the Maine Senators remain. Obviously Maine has their head screwed on straight. Maybe when we stop voting people out of office for doing the hard but right thing more of our elected officials will be inclined to do the right thing.

Anyone that tells you that they are going to increase spending and lower taxes and it will all balance out is an idiot. Anyone that thinks that makes sense is an idiot. Maybe it is time that we stop listening to idiots.

Out #1 immediate priority is to drop unemployment back to pre meltdown levels. This will require more deficit spending but is needed. On the day we accomplish this the next priority is to have a tax increase that affects every American making more than the poverty level.

Yes, a tax increase!

We also need to cut federal spending and to take the excess and pay down our debt owned to foreign nations. The only way we are going to pull this off is to give the president line item veto like Clinton had. He was able to have 4 years of budget surpluses. It worked back then it will work again. He was the last president since Eisenhower that had budget surpluses.

It is time to pull our heads out and quit living on fantasy island. I am completely aligned with the tea-party on this one. But this includes all Americans and all of our elected officials irrespective of political party.

Once we pull our collective heads out many of you could go out to your vehicles and scrape off the bumper sticker that says “We are spending are children inheritance.”

Spending tomorrows money today screws future generations. It is not funny. It is selfish. It is immoral. Knock it off.

Dec

17

The majority elected you partly on Healthcare Reform. Here is what you need to do.

White House / President Obama - Chill Out. You have time to get this done.

House - Show some stones, and stand up to the Senate. Mobilize and force them to go into reconciliation.

Senate - If you do not have 51 votes fess us now, otherwise get you butts into reconciliation and get the Bill back to where it needs to be.

Any questions? No. Good. Get busy!

 

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