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Archive for the ‘US Congress’ Category

Pessimistic Outlook: US Government Is Broke(n), It Will Never Be Fixed

22 Mar

I remember when Katrina hit the south back in 2005. I followed the hurricane tangentially. It didn’t  hit me until the news media started calling American citizens “refugees” that I realized how bad it was.

I had a conversation with friends afterward, and they were surprised by the gross incompetence of the local, state and federal government. I looked at them, wanting to know: Where have they been the last 5-to-30 plus years? Haven’t they noticed that the US has been in a slow and steady decline since the inflationary, decrepit, corrupt and stagnate 1970′s?

Despite the celebratory big-talk of the Reagan years, I would say that when he helped usher in the we’re-going-for-broke-sorta-war against the country formerly known as the USSR, it would likewise take us down. When the government decided to have a mano-a-mano battle with the USSR, it drained a number of internal well-thought-out strategies for keeping our country whole, solid, and well functioning with it.

A rising stock market doesn’t contrast well against jobs that evaporate from the industrial US to overseas. A rising top 1% making more money than ever doesn’t contrast well against white collar jobs that evaporate from the service economy to overseas. A society cannot survive on consumption alone, it must make durable goods as well.

Every job lost is a tax payment lost. Every job lost is a Social Security payment lost. Every job lost is a Medicaid/Medicare payment lost. “Economists” love to say that the loss of a US job to someone overseas due to slave wage labor is something we benefit from, because we can purchase “cheap” goods. I wonder why they never mention that lower paying jobs here mean people could only afford cheap goods, buy less higher-end products, and contribute less to the taxes that are necessary to keep the US afloat. It is no accident that to finance its grand entitlement schemes the US is borrowing nearly every dime.

In the future, when good and excellent historians look at this country, they will draw a line from whatever took place in this country in its attempts to keep its supremacy, and what it lost in the balance. The founders had it right: let’s mind our business, and stop trying to micromanage the rest of the world.

A man fighting fires in other people’s houses will not notice that his own home is burning down to the ground.

9/11 didn’t happen due to any conspiracies within the government. It happened because of gross indifference, incompetence, and negligence. Bureaucracy exists only for the bureaucracy. It took over 40 years for that to happen. It will take another 30 plus years for the country to entirely collapse.

In nearly every facet of our lives, if it’s not Corporate America, then it’s an officer, agent, or bureaucrat of the government(s) watching, spying, monitoring, and cataloging everyone. Everyone is “guilty” of everything. Everything is illegal. Everything is restricted. Every time a “crime” occurs the sheeple request more interference, monitoring, and watching. I bet no one feels “safer” either.

Nothing improves, and nothing will improve.

9/11 put the icing on the cake for the totalitarianism this government has always wanted to embrace and deploy. A permanent war with no ending. The never ending battlefield encapsulates the entire country. The US Constitution can be ignored, suspended, and deemed irrelevant. Travel has the same atmospherics as being in a prison. Yet somehow, millions of illegal aliens can easily enter the country.

We are a prison(er) society. We will be in a state of martial law, until foreign governments stop purchasing USA debt, the country collapses under the weight of illegitimacy and stupidity, or deliberate ignorance of basic governance, fairness, due process, and economics. Take your pick.

We are told that things are getting better, but they’re not, and they wont. We’ve reached the turning point, and since the country is already flying over the cliff, there is no going back. We’re waiting for the impact once we hit bottom.

The difference for me is that I used to care. Starting today, I don’t.

Prediction

They will come and confiscate your savings and all other assets, and they wont need a reason. You can count on it. There’s nothing restraining the jackals in DC.

 
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Posted in Barack Obama, IRS, US, US Congress, airlines, bully, consumers, consumption, consumptive, corporate America, globalism, politics, safety, savings, thief, usa

 

Researchers at Dartmouth Assess Health Bills – Prescriptions Blog – NYTimes.com

15 Nov

Article Source

Is That So?

Health care and health insurance meant to help with extreme costs of treatment are two different topics that are always deliberately melded into a confusing dog-chasing-the-tail circle by politicians.

The only time I care about health insurance is if the costs of treatment exceeds reasonable out-of-pocket monies I have. I don’t think it should be for every little doctor’s visit or low-cost tests, unless the purchaser can afford to pay for that type of coverage.

Nearly everything that gets touched by some form of government management, control, and subsidy becomes unwieldy in waste, costs, or competence. College is ridiculously expensive and almost completely out of the reach of low income people. Public schools and public housing are a nightmare.

Mandate Is A Bad Idea

So why are we assuming things will improve wilth Congressional interference? The best they could do is make sure insurance companies don’t let patients die – unless they signed off on it – just to save money by denying them life saving treatment. Congress could also make it illegal to deny someone coverage with a pre-existing condition.

However, a thousand page bill to “reform health care” means they will make things worse. Especially mandating that Americans buy something they cannot afford in the first place.

I’m not even sure if health insurance should be allowed to exist in its present incarnation. The health insurance industry requires the big change, but the government is doing nothing about that with the recent passage of that monstrous bill.

I Prefer These Solutions

Hospitals, EMT, doctors and medical personnel of all stripes have to list the costs of their services. This should be as widely available as the blue book for automobiles.

The grading of Hospitals, EMT, doctors and medical personnel of all stripes are graded based on quality: mortality rates, inability to diagnose or screen properly, over screening, and anything else that should be helpful to patients. This information should be as widely available as a Zagat’s restaurant guide.

Expand Medicaid to allow those with slightly higher incomes to get into the program. Raise that amount by a small percentage every 2-3 years.

Expand Medicare to allow those who are younger, starting at 50, to get into the program. If they want to join, they can do so.
 
Since we have no problems outsourcing: as long as they are certified, considered safe and what-not, organizations outside the US should be able to provide health care – that includes other governments. People are leaving now, but I think it should be as simple and standard as visiting the local pharmacy.

No mandates.

People with pre-existing conditions don’t get turned down for insurance, but perhaps are subsidized if they are too poor to pay the price of insurance, or they can turn to Medicaid.  They are given a choice.

If people do not want health insurance – leave them alone. They are not the problem with the system. I find the demonizing of them by Obama and the Democrats to be disgusting. Being alive and walking about is not the same as buying car insurance. A health care mandate will be the first time in US history the government is compelling citizens to buy something from a private organization. That’s evil corporatism in action.

It makes me wonder, What’s next? The reinstatement of slavery?

Free health care check-up clinics by non-profits organizations with generous grants supplied by private individuals, the government, or charities. The government would encourage these organizations with tax incentives and no direct dollar involvement.

Other than those ideas listed, I don’t want the US government getting anymore involved with health care. They usually make everything worse. The US Congress lacks the ability to write simple, non-complex and non-intrusive legislation, perhaps they should stop getting lobbyists to compose it for them.

 
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Posted in US Congress, health care, health care reform bill, health insurance, insurance