The Repubs are guaranteeing to make this the #1 issue in this year’s midterm elections.  Some are even proposing to repeal the bill.  Of course, Obama, has struck back with ‘bring it on’ which is scary since weren’t those the exact (or very close) words Bush used when referring to Osama Bin Laden and his rag-tag crew a few years ago?

But at least we, the people, are now getting a chance to look at the bill (several web sites including  Whitehouse.g0v link to copies).

Politics aside this bill is clearly better (at least for 30 million Americans) than nothing . . . and there are some real advantages to what has been passed: no lifetime limits for coverage of serious illness (like the cancer that has struck both the mother and father of a great family we know), and no arbitrary exclusion of coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Great.  And of course as the only developed nation in the world that doesn’t offer health care as a ‘right’ we have just added those 30 million mentioned above to the system so we are a bit closer to the health equity of all other rich nations.

And this is probably a good thing.

Yesterday I was driving home from a doctor’s appointment with my wife when we heard a discussion about that very point on the radio.  She turned to me and said something I had never heard from her before–and believe you me it pressed home the point.

“I remember my Dad telling my Mom with real astonishment a few months after we had emigrated here from Germany, ‘I had no idea that you get no health care in America — you have to pay for it all yourself, either with insurance or out of your own pocket.  The government does nothing.’  They were both worried and the result was that while I grew up my brothers and I  hardly ever saw dentists or doctors because we couldn’t afford to.”

Boy that struck home.  If my 4 kids had not had good insurance while growing up then none of them (nor I) would be around today.

Of course from a social justice point (and to heck with that airhead Glen Beck for ridiculing that term) America should provide health care to those who need it.  How can we have ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ without good health?

BUT . . . on the other hand.  How do we (and believe me it is you and I that will) pay for it??

Big issue and one that the Obama plan practically ignores.

I took a survey and extended it from the one person I polled to the entire nation.  Here is what I found out.

Most Americans would like to see the government provide health care to all . . . they just don’t want to pay for it with more taxes.  What they DO want is to lower the out-of-control inflation of health care costs and the crazy increases in insurance premiums.  Did you know that if health insurance premiums continue at the rate of the last decade then in another decade or two all of our paychecks will go to health insurance?  True.  And that is a scary thought.

Government always over-extends social benefits–and not just the democrats.

Social Security?  The standard employee withholding in 1950 was 0.2% (the amount the government takes out of your wages for you to contribute to S.S.) and today it is 6.2% or a 3100% increase!  Further S.S. is the most expensive government program in the world and America’s biggest federal budget expenditure all while being essentially bankrupt.

Medicare?  Medicaid?  Same kind of thing with even worse funding and cost problems down the raod.  Do your own search but I assure you that what you read will be scary.  And now we add another program that is almost just as bad and will certainly bet worse?

What is going to happen with this new reform?  We know that, at least, in the next ten years it is going to cost about $1 trillion and as our government gets into it and as entitlements increase the costs are going to soar just like other entitlement programs in the past.  That seems to be inevitable human and political nature.

This reform does very little to deal with the most critical issue on the health care horizon:  costs.

America has to find a way to lower cost inflation in health care.  Actual costs have to be lowered while still providing reasonable service.  The bill is silent on the issue.  No interstate competition for insurers (Adam Smith assured us that competition would always drive prices lower), no effort to deal with Tort Reform and limit frivolous law suits (that enrich greedy lawyers who then run for Congress, yech), no legislation that deals with incredible RX costs (ours are much higher than most nations even though a majority of new drugs are developed by U.S. companies), and there are other ways to cut costs too — but Obama failed to address them.

Seems like tax and spend, or spend and tax, all over again.

How the heck are we going to pay for this thing 10 years down the road.  Will the 4% surtax on the wealthy be increased by 3100% and extended to everyone like Social Security funding?  My math shows that is not even possible but the thought is scary enough.

We can’t afford  to have another Social Security system or another Medicare/Medicaid system.  Not without giving up defense programs, the war on terror, and many other federal programs.

Maybe, and it pains me to admit this, the repubs have it right and they should try to repeal this bill and start over by taking health care issues one at a time and do each of them methodically and  right.  I do know that as it stands we surely have moved one step to the left and are closer to European socialism than we have ever been before.

For a free market, true democracy, freedom of choice guy like me this bill smells bad.  Something is rotten in Denmark Washington D.C. and in a few years our Treasury is going to need open heart surgery and a full financial-resucitation all at once!!

Sorry folks, but the truth hurts.

Stocks have rallied, the $ is stronger, and government bond interest rates have gone up.  Signs that confidence and the economy continues on a growth path.

Sadly, but naturally, commodity prices also went up–from oil ( over $81 –yikes!) and gas (natural gas remains near an all-time low) to corn and copper.

Unemployment (click on the above chart for a better view) remains the #1 priority on President Obama’s desk (despite his continuing push for the democrats to force health care as defined by the dems) down American’s throats.  But, the question is will he act?

Obama and his minions just have to start taking tax uncertainty and health care cost uncertainty off the table.  They should waste no further time and simply announce that ALL the Bush tax cuts will remain in place (maybe expanded with business friendly cuts) and that health care (if not passed by the dems in the next two weeks) will be taken off the table for the rest of Obama’s term.

Then, I think we will see businesses’ opening their healthy coffers of cash (the big ones) or their entrepreneurial resources )the smaller ones)  to ‘full speed ahead.’

thanks to speaker pelosi for the chart

As to health care, congress should forget the massive restructuring they contemplate and start working on the important pieces one at a time.  Like a bill to open interstate competition.  Then a bill directed at tort reform to reduce costs.  Finally (this year anyway) a bill to regulate the insurance companies with the interests of the entire country in mind (no denials of benefits, insurance available to even the sick, and rate increases limited to inflation adjusted health care costs.

There is a lot to do and a lot to look forward to.  I am hopeful for the first time in months (see prior blog on the Obama ‘Home star’ program).

I would just love to see the March unemployment #’s drop but right here and now I will predict a slight increase to 9.8% in March (primarily because Obama and the dems will not likely do anything to mitigate the above mentioned uncertainty).

The next couple of weeks will really determine the rest of the year.  Act now Mr. President.  Help him Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.  Pleeeeease!

It passed early this morning.  The vote?  60-39.  No republicans voted for the plan.  Every single Democrat voted for it.

Jeeze Louise!  When will the partisan politics end?  When will the mantra of ‘what is good for the country’ replace the partisan one of ‘what is good for my re-election?’

I wish I could tell you the details of the democrats plans (the one that passed the House and the one that passed the Senate).  But I can’t.  Because I don’t have the time to read four or five thousand pages.  And you know what?  That goes for most of our Senators and Congressmen either (they have only read the parts they drafted).

Are the two bills that must now be merged before final passage any good?  Who really knows.

But this much is clear.  There was no real effort on the part of democrats to engage republicans so that the bills would be widely acceptable.  Further, there was no real effort by the republicans to seek such engagement and get strategies important to them in the bills.

Consequently these bills (as drafted) do nothing to limit frivolous medical lawsuits, nothing to effectively lower the cost of medications (Americans pay twice as much as other countries in some cases), do little to stop the incredible growth of health care costs,  do little to extend coverage to all Americans (about 25 million people are left out in the cold), do little to limit the extravagant benefits Congress has, and leave many other questions unanswered as well.

These draft bills are NOT what President Obama promised.  They are partisan and offensive to most knowledgeable Americans.

Why does onlyNebraska get added medicare costs payed by the government (at the expense of citizens of all other states)?  As a bonus thrown in to get Nebraska’s vote, that’s why!

And there are other unfair and ‘porkified’ benefits thrown in as well simply to get votes that otherwise would not be there.

I don’t know what the final bill will look like and I am not really interested in the details yet.

It is enough to know that this bill was cobbled together by democrats so that democrats will get re-elected.  Another case of incumbent politics.  It is enough to know that this bill was cobbled together without any republican help so that those republicans could oppose, oppose and oppose — to help them get re-elected.

How does Congress work?  Whatever it takes to get re-elected and NOT what it takes to make America a better place for our 300 million citizens.

Harry Reid should be ashamed.  Nancy Pelosi should be ashamed.  President Obama should be ashamed.  The democrats should be ashamed and the republicans too!

It seems that costs of the final bill will be much higher than the benefits.  This bill alone (when finally written and passed) could add billions of $$ to our already impossibly high deficit.  It has no hope of being anything but an economic disaster.

The problem is that it will take years to prove itself one way or the other.  By then it will be forgotten by the voters and new issues will arise that force the majority party to act selfishly  to get re-elected.  The minority party will act just as selfishly to fight anything new . . . not because it is the right thing to do but because acting selfishly will help get them re-elected.

This partisan approach to running our government must end.

America is NOT the place for life long, professional politicians.   The only way to make this happen is with term limits.  America is no place for entitled political leaders.  America is no place for decisions to be made based on re-election probabilities. The only way to make this happen is with term limits.

America should be the country where normal citizens take four or eight years off of their regular life to serve the country as best they can and then return to earning a living the old fashioned way (and with no life-long benefits or retirement for their limited service).

Term limits!

But, incumbents will NEVER vote for term limits.  So we must.  Do NOT vote for any incumbents anymore.  No more than one term for anyone.  When politicians at EVERY level get the message and vote in laws regarding term limits then we can start voting our conscience again.

Until then?  No more ridiculous one party bills.

Good-bye incumbents!!

Ignore this message at your own peril.

thanks to flickr’s joe beone for the photo

The Senate Finance Committee has passed their version of a reform bill.  Guess what?  I don’t see a lot to celebrate but both the majority party and the White House seem to think there is.

What kind of reform is this?  As drafted the proposal will leave 29,000,000 of our citizens without any kind of health insurance plan.  Wasn’t the whole purpose of this reform effort to give EVERYONE some kind of health care plan?

Guess not.  According to Senator Max Baugh of Montana, the chairman of the committee, this is a good plan that meets our needs.  Hello?

How can that be.  It is only half of what was promised.  In fact less than half, since more than half of the previously uninsured will still be without a viable health insurance option.

Crazy huh?  Only from our congress!

I suppose you had just better hope you are not one of those unlucky 29 MILLION people who will end up out in the cold (literally when it come to health care).

Surely we can do better.

We must not remain as the only developed nation in the world to abandon so many of our citizens.  The democrats PR guys and gals are careful to point out that 1/3 of the 29 million are illegal immigrants.  Wow!  That sure makes me feel good.  They are here aren’t they?  Why treat them so different when they are living and working and getting sick and dying right here in our country.

What happened to that equality that our founding fathers pointed out as so important? What does it say on the Statue of Liberty?  Not … ‘give us your healthy and rich and educated’ that is for sure.

Come on Congress!  Come on President Obama!  Wake up Republicans and Democrats!

If we are going to do this let’s do it right.

Health care for everyone!  Health care for a reasonable price!  Health insurance for everyone at a reasonable price!

That must mean no more frivolous lawsuits by greedy lawyers.  Forget tort reform as proposed by Senator Hatch.  Just make the loser pay all legal costs of any suit . . . and the lawyers pay half of that.  Whoppee that will put a screeching halt to frivolous lawsuits.  It also must mean limiting egregious profits for monopoly exempt health insurance companies and their high-paid executives who pay even higher-paid lobbyists.  Putting an end to excessive premiums and exclusions and refusal to insure is a must.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to do this right.

So let your congressman know that you want it done right and you don’t mind a relatively small increase in the deficit so that everyone benefits.  Heck, just cut some of the budget from congress’s perks and benefits and health insurance and that alone might cover the cost.

Call ‘em.  Write ‘em.  Email ‘em.

Let ‘em know we won’t stand for this incompetence any longer.

Then vote all incumbents out at every election until term limits becomes a fait accomplit!

Thanks for reading.  If you have a different take let me know.  If not do what you have to.

Thanks to flickr’s thetruthabout for the photo

So, to meet Obama’s stringent criteria of ‘no increase in deficit’ the dems leave half of the uninsured out of the system.  That really sucks!

Fact is that I (and I think most other reasonable Americans) would gladly have a modest increase in the deficit for this important civil right (health).  How much of a deficit?  Well, I would say $100 billion

Thanks heavens there were some fireworks to make it all interesting.  Can it be true that someone really called the President a liar, shouting it actually, during his speech?  Way to go Republican congressman (he who shall not be named — but whose last names rhymes with ‘Wilson’).  How reasonable can that nutcase be?  Shame on the people that voted for him and I hope they see the light next year.

The fireworks and unkind reception the President got from the republican side of the aisle shows just how difficult and divisive this issue is.  It also is a clear indication that the republicans don’t have any real interest in trying to work things out.  Maybe that is why the President spoke about bipartisan discussions but then went on to make it clear that something is going to get done regardless of those who oppose reform (the right wing of our political system).

I watched his speech and also listened later to the whole thing so that I wasn’t prejudiced by the emotions of the assembly.  Frankly this was NOT the home run I was hoping for.  Obama really did shrug . . . apparently the world on his shoulders is a bigger burden than he wants to bear (pity good old Atlas then . . . he has been at it for millenia).

I liked and approved of much that was said.  Many of the crucial points I outlined yesterday were addressed –  some in slightly different ways, but that is okay.  Give and take is a good thing when it comes to legislation.

The thing that bothered me was that he really hedged on the republicans desire for effective Tort reform.  He didn’t make any friends on the other side of the aisle as a result.  To make this a success, the President has to give the other side something and Tort reform is easy and good for everyone (except trial lawyers).  It just might be the difference that would get the legislation some votes from liberal republicans.

So, Atlas Obama shrugged.  It is going to take months to know who far he leaned, but I really hope congress takes his outline and puts some meat on it.  Fast (‘cuz we sure got a few other things to deal with).

We need this reform.  I wish it would be faster than the four years Obama talked about, but the fact is he put some fire in the democrats and now everyone should understand the issues.

Don’t listen to the lies and ignore the media idiots who can NEVER find anything good to say about this administration.  Push for passage along the basic lines Obama spoke of.

thanks for the picture to flickr’s informatique

If you have been listening or watching the news the past week then you will see the results of our ‘leaders’ holiday romping.

Anger, frustration, and confusion abound.

Nobody is home in the Capitol to deal, generally anyway, with the many falsehoods and misrepresentations that the enemies of Democrats have promulgated.  Nor to offer any sensible alternative from the other side of the aisle.

Now, I am no friend of the Dem’s efforts to socialize our nation, and that is what is seems they are trying to do.  But, I am also no friend of the incompetent handling of issues that has become the trademark of Republicans.

Dang, I wish we had a real third party choice in this country. Crap, I wish we could just throw all the bums out and start over.

Lincoln is turning over in his grave at what the Repubs have become.

Truman and Roosevelt are crying in their Apple-Beer at what the Dems are NOT.

And what happens?

Our celebrity President is beginning to find out that early popularity is not enough to carry the day on every single issue he has ever dreamed up.

At the end of the day, American’s will be left with the same ‘ol broken health care system that requires me to spend more every year for health insurance than it costs to buy a good car!  And I am one of the lucky ones.  At least I have insurance.

Am I frustrated?

Dang right.

What we have doesn’t work and what is proposed is frightening to the electorate.  Does anybody out there speak English?

And we are going to be left with the status quo.

Canada is looking like a good option.

Can I join the Cannucks (he said lovingly)?  And still live in America?

Guess not.

Thanks for screwing this up Congress and Obama.

I blame every single one of you and I think the rest of my country-men will too.

Four years for you Obama.

One term for the rest of you nuts.

Remember, I have been advocating term-limits for, well, like EVER!!

No picture today.  I couldn’t even bear trying to find one that describes how I feel on this awful Friday the Fourteenth.