|
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Obamacare Meeting
Today, President Obama and members of the House and Senate met to discuss health care reform. It is very
clear that Obama and most of the Democrats want to pass a bill no matter what the total cost of bill may be to American people.
They won't even address the $37 Trillion unfunded Medicare program liability.
Paul Ryan,
R-Wis, did a great job discussing the real cost of Obamacare. No one can dispute Ryan's numbers. The Democrats
want to increase coverage to more people, create more demand, and assume cost to the government will go down.
This is just outright illogical. The Democrats have gimmicked up the numbers to sell their plan.
Costs only can be reduced by reduced total demand and reduced overhead cost. We need fewer people receiving
fewer services, not more. We need less people to obtain fewer services. The aging baby boomer generation
makes this very tough to do. We need to make people think twice before requesting medical services.
We need insurance companies to cut their staffing levels and out-of-pocket costs so they can reduce insurance rates by simplifying
their businesses. We need to allow interstate competition so that low cost insurance companies can gain market share
against high cost insurers.
We need to solve the Medicare financing problem first and go from there. The
current Obamacare proposal doesn't work.
I have to give President Obama credit for holding today's meeting and
showing it on TV. We have all been able to see the differing opinions in DC. He ran the meeting fairly so that
all views were heard.
We need to make the big decisions on the big money items in DC in a financially responsible
manner for once.
TPM
4:40 pm
Friday, February 19, 2010
Bipartisan Commission on Debt
President Obama officially established a bipartisan commission to propose ways to rein in the growing
national debt, Both Democrats and Republicans will be on the panel that will address this critical issue. I congradulate
the President for establishing the commission. This effort might be a constructive step forward for our nation,
if the US Congress will adopt a well thought out set of recommendations from the commission.
I doubt that the debt
commission will recommend any significant changes to the current status quo. The commission will be filled
with politicians that have already shown they can't make the tough decisions that are needed to put the nation back on a reasonable
financial path. Even if the commission makes some solid recommendations will the Congress put them into law? I
seriously doubt it. Federal spending is a major part of elected officials political power. There are very few
politicians that will willingly reduce their power.
We will see if the politicians can step up and get the
job done. I will keep an open mind but I will not hold my breath waiting for constructive progress on the
US government's financial situation.
TPM
1:28 pm
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Washington Buried in Snow (Debt)
Washington is about a half day away from being buried in a massive snow storm. The weather forecasters
are talking about a major snowfall of more than a foot and maybe two feet. There will be enough snow to paralyze
Washington for almost a week and maybe longer if the snow breaks all time records. It seems likely that the snowfall
will make the top ten of Washington's all time snow storms. We had a big snow storm in December that made the top ten
of all time snow storms. The 2009/2010 snow season may come close or break the all time record for total snowfall.
Nature may be trying to send Washington a message that it will slow Washington down in its efforts to spend
the USA into bankruptcy by applying its own solution to the spending problem. Deny the government the opportunity to
spend money by keeping everyone at home during the big snowfalls and the clean up.
Our government leaders
don't appear to know basic math and a principle called "compounding". Continuously compounding debt has only
one outcome for individuals, businesses or governments. That outcome is called bankruptcy. In bankruptcy a
debtor can't make the interest or principle payments that are due to the lenders. The US government is well on
its way to hitting the wall in the years ahead. It is only a matter of time before the compounding effect
will force the US government to the wall. The solution will be massive money printing which will have the
effect of a massive devaluation of existing debt, which is no different than a partial payment to settle a debt.
The snow is sure to come tomorrow. The weather forecasters have learned to predict big storms accurately
using their computer models. It doesn't take a genius to figure out the math on the outcome of compounding
US debt.
Wake up US citizens! We need to change the direction of the debt storm before we get buried.
TPM
8:48 pm
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Obama's 2011 Budget Deficit
How big a deficit can Barrack Obama and friends rack up during FY 2011? It appears that they will attempt
to hit a deficit of about $1.3T in FY2011 after racking up a deficit of about $1.6T in the current fiscal year.
These numbers are totally outrageous. Government expenditures are completely out of control. In addition
they want to increase personal income taxes on everyone that makes $200K or more, $250K for couples.
Obama and
company are trying hard to put US citizens back into the tax avoidance mode that existed for decades until the marginal
tax rates were lowered to reasonable levels during the Bush administration. The socialist idea-logs of the Democratic
party appear to have control of the budget process. The financial mismanagement of the country by our government continues
unabated. Government expenditures of all kinds must be slashed.
The economic theorists that are
guiding the political leaders have been completely wrong and it is time to radically change course. The US is a
nation for those individuals that want to engage in the "pursuit of happiness", not have a mediocre
life handed to them by the government.
I have converted my blog entry on the End of the Post World War II Era into
an article on the site in order to make it available for everyone to read on a long term basis. Our government leaders
have turned themselves into cartoon characters. This situation would be a good laugh if it wasn't so serious.
Insightful financial observers have been predicting the current situation would occur for years. Therefore, it is not
a big surprise that the current circumstances have happened.
The citizens of the US must turn
the gigantic ship of the United States government on a course where there are smoother financial seas ahead.
If we don't change soon we will end up shipwrecked on the rocks of a financial disaster.
TPM
8:35 pm
|
