Border crisis hits home

This was predictable. There has been a giant uptick in serious but rare sicknesses among American school children. In fact I believe I even predicted it in a blog post from July.

http://www.protohuman.blogspot.com/2014/07/invasion-plain-and-simple.html

quoting myself...
This is a crisis in more ways than one. The Obama Administration's response so far has been limited and predictable. He has called for 2 billion dollars to help facilitate the processing of these children. Where ever these immigrants land it will eventually overwhelm the community or state and exceed $2 billion in a heartbeat. The financial crisis aside the health crisis these unvaccinated, unhealthy third world children could spawn is phenomenal. 
...unquote

The Ebola crisis has overwhelmed the news of a deadly outbreak of a rare (rare to America) respiratory illnesses that has hospitalized thousands of children and even killed some. The CDC has confirmed hundreds of cases of EV-D68 an enterovirus that is rare in the U.S. but quite common in Latin America where the child immigrants came from in this year's unprecedented mass border crossing. These kids were quickly distributed to facilities across the country by the Federal Government and allowed to enter public schools.

It has been confirmed that schools where outbreaks have occurred all accept “undocumented children” into their programs, although it was impossible to determine whether or not this included this year’s arrivals. Since school districts are not allowed to ask about a student’s citizenship or immigration status, nor can they inquire of parents’ immigration status it's impossible to know for sure that the newly immigrated are causing this - but it's way too suspicious to reject out of hand.

How rare is EV-D68? Between 1970 and 2005, only 26 cases of EV-D68 were reported in the U.S. Yet this year, in less than two months, the CDC has reported 780 cases in 46 states, and there are likely many more undiagnosed. It began just about the time children began returning to school.

Children’s Mercy Hospital’s division director for Infectious Diseases, Dr. Mary Anne Jackson, called it “unprecedented,” adding that “It’s worse in terms of scope of critically ill children who require intensive care…I’ve practiced for 30 years in pediatrics, and I’ve never seen anything quite like this.”

The information blackout about this very real outbreak in disturbing. At first the national and local media reported on it due to the sheer numbers, more or less in a matter of fact manner. The interest by the "media" has evaporated, not that anyone was doing an exhaustive investigation anyway. As for the officials, the CDC is nearly silent and state and local agencies have been tight lipped - almost as if they've "received orders". The Border Patrol agencies and those charged with caring for the illegal children were also warned - threatened if they made any public statements as their facilities became overwhelmed.

Regardless of how the Ebola mess ends up this EV-D68 outbreak seems to be a direct result of the Obama administration's actions or inactions. People have already died, innocent people. Children have been left paralyzed. This is a scandal that is being glossed over, just like almost all the rest. If Obama's opposition pushes on this scandal then the spotlight will be turned on them - not what they are sounding the alarms about. They will be called racist and that will be the end of it.

The American Devolution continues.


Ugh

Planting seeds... for death panels

Citizens, hear this: it is your duty to end your life on the day of your 76th birthday. Failure to comply will be met with harsh and painful action. 

- Minister of Death Ezekiel Emanuel 

Right out of the movies, sci-fi is spooky isn't it? Yes, yes it is spooky, but this isn't sci-fi. Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel argued that living to be 75 years old was long enough for anyone. After 75, Emanuel suggests, “We are no longer remembered as vibrant and engaged but as feeble, ineffectual, even pathetic.”
 

Now the good doctor is not just anybody, he was a chief adviser for President Obama during the run-up to the passing of the ACA, also known as ObamaCare. So why is this even news? The ACA is law, it's done. Not really. Much of the specifics is yet to be written, by design. This is planting seeds of euthanasia in the public discourse. Planting seeds... for death panels. Cry foul all you want - but what else could it be? 


This is the way the leftists do everything. 

Want a minimum wage increase. Plant the seed in a NYT article. Want to unionize day care workers, plant a seed with a public demonstration in the city so the news vans roll. Want to declare amnesty for millions of illegal aliens, plant a seed by fomenting a border crisis involving innocent children. Each seed slowly grows as the initial shock and inevitable condemnation wears thin. Water the seed with armies of minions appearing on cable news shows and articles in the op-ed sections of hundreds of newspapers to normalize the conversation. Prune the growing idea to make it palatable to the fringe of your right-wing enemies. That way their opposition makes it seem like they are the radicals. 

It's a winning strategy. Been working since the 1930's - why stop now?

There are a thousand reasons to condemn Dr. Emanuel's thinly veiled proclamation. I'm sure you can find plenty of  them with a simple Google search. It's simply preposterous to toss this out there from the position this man holds officially and unofficially and not extrapolate the implications. As if age is a barometer of anything. Plenty of young people cost society a lot of money while contributing absolutely nothing - shouldn't we be looking at a extermination policy for them as well? 

This my friends is the real devolution of America in a nutshell. It makes me sick. Good thing I'm not 75...


Ugh 

ACA: Schadenfreude

schadenfreude
scha·den·freu·de
noun:
1. pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune.




It's an awful sentiment this schadenfreude, but it's part of mankind's fallen nature. I mean who doesn't love a little slapstick or vaudevillian humor? Even my children laugh at their father when I step on the business end of a rake and the handle comes up to whack me in the face. Imagine how the NYC creative class felt when they received their health insurance cancellation notices recently. After all they were shocked to find out that what was good for thee was not good for we. Me, I smiled. Schadenfreude.




In his column on PJMedia's Unexamined Premises site Michael Walsh describes a classic schadenfreude moment. We all know that the artists, actors and cultural elites in NYC are all big supporters of liberal causes and of course their messiah Barack Obama, and by all means the Affordable Care Act. They were all happy with the health insurance coverage they obtained through their professional associations at far better rates than the individual insurance market. Imagine the fear and rage they experienced when they opened the cancellation notices. You see their plans didn't meet Obamacare criteria and had to be discontinued. The schadenfreude comes from the pitiless attitude you know they had when they heard stories of the rubes in flyover country losing their insurance by the millions. Boom!

Eventually leftism eats it's own. Every time it happens throughout history the presumably untouchable are shocked. When they find out that their agenda boomerangs on them it's a shock that those in the ivory tower see them as part of the unwashed masses too.

By and large the average politically liberal voter has solid personal principles and just wants to do good. A few are malevolent, but most of them just don't think things all the way through. The unintended consequences of principled "policies" are often far worse than any good that comes of them. They refuse to factor in human nature. I mean why would young people forgo buying affordable health care instead of paying a fine? Why would rich people who can easily afford higher taxes move business or expensive purchases overseas rather than pay a little more in taxes? It's human nature. They do it themselves after doing gyro-dance of rationalization.

Put the shoe on the other foot. Why would these cultural elites not be happy to pay higher premiums if it meant that the insurance pool for the poor and less advantaged was increased? Because they don't want to or can't actually afford higher premiums.

Personally, I'm OK for another year having an employer sponsored health plan. My out of pocket costs are shy high now, so I am not not unaffected mind you. This can all change next year. I, however, won't be shocked.




Ugh

Roosevelt Security

With all this talk about ObamaCare also known the Affordable Care Act something serious is getting lost in the noise. As bad as ObamaCare seems to be it pales in comparison to the culturally pervasive and universally accepted Roosevelt Security Act. ObamaCare could only hope to be a tenth as successful as the Roosevelt Security Act.


Never heard of the Roosevelt Security Act? How about Johnsoncare or Johnsonaid? Of course not. That's not what they are called. Neither Roosevelt or Johnson would have stood for it, not for one minute. ObamaCare, it just seems so damn pretentious. I realize that it didn't start at the White House, but the President has embraced the moniker wholeheartedly. Of course now his detractors are hoping he wears it around his neck like the albatross it is, but he could have insisted the news media called it by it's rightful name - or at least never allowed his personal army of talking heads in and out of government from referring to the ACA by its nickname.

This phenomenon of derisively re-labeling programs and legislative bills probably started in earnest with overly cute nickname given to Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a missile defense system. It came to be known as Star Wars - brought to you by Ronnie Raygun. But President Reagan didn't call it Star Wars, no one in his administration called it that.

As for the reality of what ObamaCare is and how it came to be it probably should be perpetually tagged to one of the most partisan and constitutionally subversive figures to ever come to power in the history of the United States. Its seemingly inevitable failure should serve as a lesson, but it probably won't. More likely it will serve as a model to get what you want in Washington. F--k the opposition party!

Was this legislation really written by the health insurance industry? No one knows, because there were no negotiations, there were no hearings on the final bill. It was finally rammed through the Senate on Dec 24th 2009 on the last day of the session without a single Republican vote. No one had read the bill that they passed - no one. Speaker Nancy Pelosi famously said "you'll have to pass it to see what's in it". Let's just imagine this happening when Roosevelt was pushing Social Security, or with Johnson when Medicare or the Civil Rights Act was passed. Something this big needed careful consideration, give and take, and bi-partisan support.

Even after it was the law of the land, upheld by the Supreme Court and frankly inevitable do you suppose it became transparent public policy? No and hell no. So paranoid was the Obama Administration they held the whole thing close to the vest - failed to hire the best and the brightest to craft and develop a system that would touch the lives of every single American in one way or another. What were they afraid of? Well, I think they were afraid of the truth coming out about the total BS it really is until it was too late. I'm afraid it's too late.

So far more people have lost their insurance than have been added to ObamaCare's roles. It doesn't look like it will get better anytime soon. The technical issues with the website and the integration with the states and the insurance carriers is just the tip of the iceberg. Its success hinges on getting enough people - particularly young, healthy people - signed up to offset the cost of the poorest and sickest. It doesn't seem it's likely to happen, at least not until it is buried financially.

Some believe that was the plan all along. The system will get in so deep that a government rescue will be in order - that will mean a single payer system which of course will be the Federal government - the one institution the most ill-equipped to handle it. This doesn't really sound like a good deal for the health insurance industry, does it?

The true believers will pin this failure on those evil Republicans. Sorry folks, that dog won't hunt. Even if some of the provisions in the law are old Republican ideas it doesn't mean the Republicans had any say in this monstrosity. They were constantly and continually shut out. I'm not saying the ever vigilant strategy of trying to overturn or de-fund the law was good and right, its just that human nature eventually clicks on when you been whipped and kicked to the curb over and over.

Yes, by all means and measures there were - are - serious problems with access and cost in the American health system. There are some good ideas - even Republican ideas - to help the situation, but I am doubting Obama and the hard left were ever interested in fiddling around the edges where experimentation might unearth a good model. Total control is the only goal.

ObamaCare is a disaster precisely because it was designed to be a problem not the solution. It may be too late to fix it if the make up of Washington doesn't change soon. I just don't see that happening.




Ugh

We Have Lost: It's a Tax! It's a Penalty!

A difference without a distinction

The Supreme Court lands another blow on the American people. I remember being dumbstruck by the Kelo Decision. In that landmark decision the Court ruled in favor of the City of New London, Connecticut which essentially acted as a strongman by seizing private property from one group of people (homeowners) for the benefit of a more powerful private interest (a giant pharmaceutical company). Ordinarily private property can only taken if there will be direct benefit to the public at large. The tragic irony is that the company never did build on the site - the economy tanked, remember.

In the case against the Affordable Care Act or Obama-Care I am not at all surprised the court ruled for the President's side. It remains to be seen if it will help or hurt the President's re-election chances, but this monstrosity will hurt the country as a whole. What may be constitutional is not necessarily good policy. You buy insurance or you pay a tax/penalty.

With these words the justification was found to allow the Affordable Care Act to stand in it's entirety... “Members of this Court are vested with the authority to interpret the law; we possess neither the expertise nor the prerogative to make policy judgements.  Those decisions are entrusted to our Nation’s elected leaders, who can be thrown out of office if the people disagree with them.  It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices.” (Chief Justice John Roberts, 27 Jun 2012)

So we move on.

Already 13000 pages of regulations have been written - but as yet not put into practice. The IRS will be hiring 800 new auditors immediately with a eventual goal of 16000. This is going to improve the health care system - even I can see that. However...


Medical schools are already seeing a dearth of new medical students. Why would any bright young person spend years training while racking up mountains of debt only to find they will be forced to become unionized government workers like postal carriers and teachers. Don't think that's the goal? It's time you wake up.

Somewhere in that ridiculous bill is a law against doctor owned hospitals. Does it matter at all to you that doctor owned hospitals and clinic systems have been the best run, most mistake free and successful health institutions in the country? The innovation that has given America the most dynamic and advanced health care stems from doctors and systems being allowed to take risks and chances on new therapies and procedures. This phenomenon is already being destroyed by just the fear this new law instills in corporate lawyers. Hospitals have begun forcing doctors to perform surgeries and procedures in a system-wide approved manner only. Innovation is already dying.

This and many other tragedies await us all if this monstrosity is allowed to stand. Of course you won't read or hear about these kinds of esoteric things. You'll only hear that the Republicans want to kick your ADULT child off your employer's health plan. You'll hear that Republicans want to deny insurance for all per-existing conditions and force 10 million people to use emergency rooms for their health care. Frankly that is as much the Republican's fault as it is the rascally media's. They need to clearly articulate a better plan, but they won't (because they're idiots).

We have lost. Don't kid yourself, this will bankrupt the country and the actual health care system will deteriorate - and you'll pay a lot more for it.




CW

Apple is rich, yeah so...

America's most valuable company in a mid-March statement underscored a truth that is lost on so many Americans. Our corporate tax code (in fact our entire tax code) is insane. The inability of American corporations to repatriate offshore profits has become a major impediment for doing business job creation  here at home. Apple Computer is going to keep $65 billion out of the U.S. to avoid surrendering a ridiculous amount of it in taxes.

Today corporate cash held in foreign accounts would be subject to the 35% corporate tax rate if it was transferred into U.S. accounts. These days it's not unusual for American corporations to make 50% or more of their revenue outside of the U.S. This is a good thing. Companies that haven't expanded outside the U.S. are eventually going to be overrun by their competition.

Apple had accumulated over $90 billion in cash. Good corporate governance compelled the company to disburse some of this money to share holders, reinvest in it's own stock or invest the money in growing the company. Whatever... Clearly current law stopped the majority of this cash from being put in play here in the U.S.

Apple along with Cisco, Microsoft and Oracle and others have been pushing for this overseas cash to come home with a tax holiday  The fact that the Obama Administration and many members of Congress are opposed to a "tax holiday" is beside the point. The current law is bad and needs to be changed. It simply makes no sense keeping this money from coming into the U.S. economy. There's no rational reason hold this money at bay. The liberals and their "rich get richer while the poor get poorer" argument are being anything but rational. The poor are not poor because the rich are rich - they're poor because they haven't got a job. This is not a tax break for the wealthy, it's an impediment for our homegrown corporations from doing more business here. No other country does anything this counter-productive, none.

If you asked the average person on the street about this they would either be ignorant of it or believe that the government ought to stick it to these rich corporations. People getting their beliefs fed to them by media sound bites and Occupy Wall Street protest signs won't be persuaded that taxing corporations like this is a real problem. But the rest of us need to open our eyes. We can't let masked envy or the false rhetoric of fairness sway us into accepting something that is clearly wrong.

When you hear this being defended as a way to keep companies from using loopholes and special breaks to pay little or no taxes then it's time to call them on it. Year after year legislation is introduced to kill all tax loopholes, special incentives and breaks while significantly reducing corporate tax rates as a way to broaden the base, and year after year these bills go nowhere. It's not that they're bad bills or that it isn't the wise and prudent thing to do. It's that some large companies and self interested politicians like things the way they are. It's that simple.

Too often this is the case. The right thing is shoved aside because a few well connected have powerful friends in the right places. Take health care reform for example. Everyone knows that one simple change in the law would bring down the cost of health insurance overnight - and I mean everyone knows this. If the government would allow health insurance companies to sell policies across state lines the new competition would begin to drive costs down immediately. Health systems, hospitals and doctors would quickly get their cost structures in line with the new reality. We know healthy competition is good for costs and for quality. The car insurance business have never been as competitive and as affordable as it is now that these companies can sell insurance to any American, anywhere - and it is still a highly regulated business.

Yet, what we got was a top down solution that removes competition and introduces the specter of total government dictation over health care policy across the board. Yes, in theory it is still a private health care system, but without competition and diversity it might as well be a government entity once everything is a government decree.

As with the tax system, there are players in the health care business and their cronies in elective office that like things the way they are (or where they are headed) so the right thing is once again shoved aside.

I'm not saying it's like snapping your fingers and the structural problems are fixed, but a few rational and relatively simple changes would go a long way to getting things upright. It is cronyism and the special interests of the few that skew righteousness and feed the cynicism that engulfs Americans today. It doesn't have to be this way.

In a weird cosmic twist this is exactly what the Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party protesters have been saying. One says it's the corporations and their filthy rich political cronies that are the problem and the other says it the government and their unscrupulous corporate cronies that are the problem. They're both right!!!



CW

Get Out of Jail Free Cards

So far 113 "ObamaCare" waivers have been granted to companies and unions. These are 1 year exemptions, but I just wonder how easy it will be to extend them? Should we be surprised? Not really. What needs to be asked is if these institutions are Democratic Party donors. Hmmm.

This health care law is going to be a disaster in so many ways. Liberals can cite many good and righteous things about it, but in the end everyone knows 2 things: the uninsured could have been covered far more cheaply and efficiently than what this will cost, secondly, this is merely the grease for the skids to usher in government-owned health care.

The ill-effects of this law are already affecting hospitals and doctors - and patients. Locally a large health care system of hospitals and clinics have made the move to completely homogenize the delivery of medicine. Innovative surgeons are already moving out because they will be bound by hospitals rules directly or indirectly compelled by the new Federal laws that prescribe but one approved procedure for all hospitals in the chain. Cutting edge medicine will suffer. Eventually when the government controls the insurance apparatus it will be government panels that will decide if your mother gets the lifesaving surgery she needs or sent home to die. Death panels anyone?

Private hospitals will take no chances on expensive new or experimental equipment that may or may not pay off. Since reimbursement will be dictated by the government expensive equipment that may take ten or more years to payoff will never be purchased. How do I know this? We have a perfect example on our northern border. My home state with 5 million people has more MRI machines, more CT scanners than the entire nation of Canada with well over 30 million people. The Canadian government owns health care, owns it...

Standard operating procedure in Washington DC, sad as it may be, is for legislators to propose bills, lobbyists, corporations and business groups to actually craft the legislation, politicians (not same as legislators) to wrangle over them for their own purposes and then finally put them up for a vote. It seems wrong, even criminal considering we didn't elect industry insiders to write the laws, but at least these people know something about the way things actually work. This health care bill was written by socialist utopians that did not care how things actually work. They crafted it precisely to wreck the current health care system so that we clamor for the government to step in and rescue us. The legislators who voted for it never even read it, no one did.

So, as the fine print is disseminated institutions either change their business model to protect themselves, petition for a waver or get out of health care altogether. Health care experts, not the ones on TV, but the ones in the hospitals and clinics know this is a disaster in the making. A complete above board takeover of the health care system would've been better than this. At least then we would move directly to rationing and sub par health care, instead this law will collapse the system causing unprecedented suffering.

You ought to be mad about it.



CW

Like the Amish - Medical Expense Sharing

I learned that the new ObamaCare bill has a loophole that should be utilized to the point of collapsing the whole charade of "government" mandated health care insurance.

There is a religious exemption in the bill based on the Amish (and other Christian sects) belief it is the religious duty of communities is to provide for one another when they are sick. There has been a long-standing historical tradition to grant exemptions based on religious beliefs. The bill uses the same religious exemption that was used for Medicare, which exempts certain groups if they have religious objections and they belong to a recognized religion. The existence of the exemption, would release an Amish person or Old Order Mennonite from the individual mandate.

To qualify for the exemption, a person will have to prove he is a member of a qualifying religious group that has been in existence continuously since 1950. The details of the bill, such as how to apply for such an exemption, have yet to be determined.

The interesting thing is that it would be unconstitutional for the government to reject, let's say, a mainline Christian medical sharing organization the same exemption.

Largely unknown to the general public and surely not examined during the "health care" debate is the fact that there exists serious alternatives to standard health insurance that have been around since the 90's when health care costs started rising into the stratosphere. One is a medical sharing plan. In short, the participants in the plans assume responsibility for paying the medical expenses of the program members. This is done by averaging the cost of health care and dividing that into a monthly premium or pledge that each participant is required to make. Instead of pooling the money, the participants send their monthly pledge directly to another participant who has a current medical expense. Participants pledge that they are church-going Christians and that they abstain from alcohol and tobacco. This helps keep the health costs lower than those of the general population.

As many as five Christian-based medical sharing programs have been successfully administered for over a decade. Almost all participants are generally satisfied and find the medical sharing programs equal or superior to standard health insurance policies.

There are some downsides to any of these programs, not the least of which is the problem of dealing with health care providers without standard insurance. Most of these plans have indicated that this is not a serious problem. As it happens many hospitals and doctors already have experience with one or more of the medical sharing plans. Additionally it is not uncommon for hospitals and doctors to give very decent discounts because they are being paid in cash rather than having to deal with insurance companies.

One serious problem has been if expensive health care is needed the hospital and doctors have not wanted to perform costly procedures without a substantial down payment. It seems to me that this could be worked out by creating a reserve in advance. Also, in some of these plans there is little in the way of maternity care. If there are complications for mother or child in childbirth, or within the first six months of the child's life one could be stuck with a bill of tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, with no way to pay it.

Obviously someone gaming the system and the good will of the "Plan" could sour the whole concept. It is a voluntary system and it is my understanding that no contracts are signed. Looking at the Samaritan Ministries program: (PLEASE NOTE, THIS INFO FOUND ON THE INTERNET...) the cost is $85 per month for single, $170 for married, and $195 for a family with three or more children. There is also a $150 per year fee that goes to the operation of Samaritan Ministries. The subscriber pays for the first three medical incidents per year under $300, and the program shares the cost of treatments over $300 (up to $100,000). Simply put, based on what I pay for health care through my employer this is comparable. My guess is that if this practice of medical sharing became larger these costs would come down simply because no one is trying to make a profit. Since the hospitals an doctors get paid as a fee for service the free market system would be preserved. There would be more cooperation between the patient and the provider to keep the costs down and the need for the government to control every aspect of the delivery of medical care would disappear.

In my mind this sort thing is closer to what we should be doing than a Canadian style government owned health care system. Doctors, nurses and hospital workers all across this country do not want to be federal employees - and nothing good will come if they are.



CW

Pessimistic About Optimism

We want to be optimistic, we want to believe things will soon get better for the economy...

According to the latest quarterly AP Economy Survey economists in general have turned gloomier. Weaker growth and higher unemployment seems more likely than a strong recovery. This will probably cause the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates near zero until at least next spring.

Economists, who are second only to weather forecasters in their ability to be wrong most of the time and still keep their jobs, seem not to be bothered by the Fed keeping interest rates so artificially low. Not being an "economist" myself I may be uninformed - or ill informed - but it was these ridiculously low interest rates that got us into this mess wasn't it?

It's a fine line to be sure, low rates help governments fund deficit spending without crippling interest payments and they're a boon to banks allowing the inter-day bank loans to help the balance sheets without introducing risk. On the other hand cheap loans have been a huge factor in the housing and commercial property bubbles which have devastated the economy. Low, low interest is devastating to pensioners and savers who rely on interest income. There is no historic evidence that these kind of prolonged low interest rates will rescue an economy.

In reality interest rates like government deficits are a symptom of a greater depressive force. The real culprit is articulated so well be the estimable Thomas Sowell:

"wonderful-sounding ideas that have been tried as government policies have failed disastrously. Because so few people bother to study history, often the same ideas and policies have been tried again, either in another country or in the same country at a later time-- and with the same disastrous results.

One of the ideas that has proved to be almost impervious to evidence is the idea that wise and far-sighted people need to take control and plan economic and social policies so that there will be a rational and just order, rather than chaos resulting from things being allowed to take their own course. It sounds so logical and plausible that demanding hard evidence would seem almost like nit-picking."

When we pine for someone to take care of us - namely the government - we give up something important and vital, our money and a portion of our freedom. You can go on and say that health care and retirement are just too expensive for any individual to handle alone. This is probably true today. Why is it so expensive? My opinion: government meddling. As Sowell describes these wonderful sounding government remedies usually collapse under the weight of unintended consequences. Subsequent remedies for the remedies create things like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or taxing on Social Security payments.

Government almost never backs off, most often the government doubles down. Medicare is a looming disaster. Evidence that the Medicare system is driving the inflation of medical costs across the board is legend. Does the government heed the evidence and truly reform Medicare while leaving the parts of the health care industry that are second to none alone? No, of course not. They double down and create a law that destroys both Medicare and the best parts of the rest of the system.

The people who are (were) most satisfied with Medicare were those who had Medicare supplement insurance. The new ObamaCare law gets rid of that, of course. Ample evidence that central control of health care systems results in poor quality didn't matter to the elites running the government, come hell or high water their 60 year quest to get control of the health care system was going to happen.

Therein lies the major problem - wise and intellectual elites in power who "know" what's best for the lower classes and the rest of the human dregs below them. They honestly or intellectually believe that if the stupid herd would just follow their plans life would be wonderful. Well humans might as well be a herd of cats. The beauty of the decentralized, chaotic real world is that millions and billions of daily interactions and transactions usually result in a workable system. It's when an artificial power - a government, a dictator, a corporation imposes their "vision" that things turn bad and people suffer, people other than the intellectual elites who are insulated in ivory towers, in corporate boardrooms or the halls of government. They continue revel in their own brilliance while the rest suffer the consequences of their vision.

But as Sowell explains: experience trumps brilliance.

"Elites may have more brilliance, but those who make decisions for society as a whole cannot possibly have as much experience as the millions of people whose decisions they pre-empt. The education and intellects of the elites may lead them to have more sweeping presumptions, but that just makes them more dangerous to the freedom, as well as the well-being, of the people as a whole."

I couldn't agree more Mr. Sowell.

CW

Ryan Shoots, He Scores!!!

Congressman Paul Ryan (R) WI is becoming a star. If you watch any of the so-called Health Care Summit the President convened last this week watch this clip of Congressman Ryan as he dresses down the President's own numbers on how the Democrat's plan will destroy the federal budgets for the foreseeable future. It's going to be hard to argue that Ryan is wrong since he is using the words, yes, the very words of the President's own chief actuary. Please watch...



Ryan is so well spoken and has a Kennedyesque stature in the way he carries himself. I do believe he has the goods and I think the Republican Party should give this guy a serious look for bigger things.



CW

Apocalypse When?

With the impending doom, err, I mean impending Senate health care legislation the demise of the republic is being stepped up. The blogoshere is imploding. Insanity reigns! Well... Frankly, I don't think it's all crazy talk anymore. The nation is already bankrupt and the people in power seem to have no restraint mechanism whatsoever.

The comment sections of these blogs and mainstream web pages often make the most interesting reading. Here I pulled just 3 comments that I think they sum things up pretty well. FYI I've done some minor editing for brevity.

_______________

There is absolutely no chance that the US can get out of the fiscal mess we are in. The Great Society in sequence with the Vietnam War was the financial ruin of the US, one not sustainable and the other not winnable. With unfunded liabilities in the scores of trillions, and yearly budget deficits in the trillions, and the forced monetization of the debt due to the lack of demand for treasuries, we are finished financially. Finished.

The question. What should we do? On a personal level, reduce or eliminate your debt, buy land if you can, or invest in precious medals if you can't. Get the hell out of major cities now, before it's too late. The end of the welfare state will cause massive disruptions, and violence will take place. Learn a trade, it might be as simple as gardening or as complex as an automobile mechanic, but do something other than sitting in an office behind a computer. Local junior colleges offer many of these courses.

As for the nation at large, the events will now play themselves out. One doesn't know exactly what the large scale effects of massive defaults will have on the world's financial makets, but it is likely that the entire multi-national system will fall apart. World trade as we know it will cease to exist, at least for a period of time. It is very likely that we will no longer live in the world that we know, but one much different. One more like it was much longer ago. We shall see, and I hope and pray that I'm wrong.

Posted by: templar knight | Monday, December 21, 2009 at 11:10 AM

________

By all reasonable, logical standards the world economy should have ALREADY collapsed as a result of the financial meltdown caused by the US invented and backed shell game of derivatives/credit default swaps/etc. as well as the predictions of U.S. debt as far into the future as the eye can see.

The financial markets have been exposed as a Las Vegas den of gamblers ponzi scheme that is backed up by nothing other than the investor confidence, there is no 'there' there. And yet, S&P and the Dow have risen over the past year even though on the ground nothing has changed.

Same goes for the dollar, there is no reasonable way the U.S. is going to be able to manage the debt load w/out massive inflation some time in the future. Logically, a person/country would sell all of their dollars now and cash out. But, that isn't happening, investors are still confident about the U.S. dollar, even though the numbers would argue otherwise.

I would say we will have to pay the piper and one day there WILL be a collapse of epic proportion...like what happened to the French when they defaulted on their debt and lo and behold violence and revolution ensued. But when? How long can the patient AKA global financial system be kept alive on life support? Ten years? Twenty years? Fifty years? Five years?

Posted by: Anon| Monday, December 21, 2009 at 11:11 AM

_____________

Here is what I sent to Rep. Boehner:
Forget about the Democrats and their socialist running dogs, they have been lying, corrupt, power hungry scum for at least 50 years now. It is no surprise that they have engineered this convoluted monstrosity of a bill. And it will pass – to the utter damnation of their souls. But, Congressman Boehner, you and your fellow Republicans in the House and Senate are to blame for allowing these vermin to come to power. You squandered the support and faith we citizens placed in you and the Republican Party.

The fall of the United States of America…and make no mistake sir, it is coming about, will be laid directly at your feet by future historians. You have not the backbone to stand up, the honesty to stop playing along with Democrats in the interest of ‘compromise’, nor the courage to stand at the gate of freedom and defend it. The Democrats play Monopoly with our money and you have made no effort to cry foul; to bring the game to an end, to tip the board over and scatter the cards. In short, sir, you and your minions have no shame. Being professional politicians instead of Statesmen, you will pat yourselves on your backs, thump yourselves on your chests and declare that you have done everything you can to defend our interest, but it will be a lie.

Posted by: Philip McDaniel | Monday, December 21, 2009 at 11:30 AM

It's really hard to argue with any of these points. Unless and until someone comes along to really bring hope and change - not this pablum from Barack Obama we've had to endure for 2 years - but real ideas, real discipline and a real "vision" the United States of America is doomed. One almost gets the sense that this is what the current regime wants.

Many are saying we can't leave this up to the politicians (of either party) to fix, since they are precisely the ones who screwed it up. It's like giving the bull a tube of crazy glue and telling him to fix the China shop. It is far too complicated for sound bite drivel and special interest pandering - this is all the politicians are capable of - yes, including President Obama. It seems by way of their actions that the Democrats care only about power and the Republicans care only about money. The only thing keeping this rust bucket afloat is the hard work of the American citizen - and I include the public sector worker too. But we simply can't bail out a boat with a ten foot gash with an ice cream pail.

Apocalypse When?

CW

Any Bill at Any Cost

The Democrats in the Senate have reached agreement. They now have the 60 votes they need to ram through their "historic" health reform bill. They need zero Republican votes and can defeat any filibuster. It's even possible that the House will simply put the Senate bill up to a vote without any conference committee compromises. Almost no one including the President will know what's in the bill. What they know is that it will cost us all dearly. The demands of Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) for tighter restrictions on insurance coverage for abortions not withstanding this Senate sold it's soul for any bill at any cost.

Nelson's Nebraska will get billions for his vote. Senator Landrieu's $300 million deal is being called the 2nd Louisiana Purchase. These deals are just the tip of the ice berg... Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). "This is not renaming the post office. Make no mistake -- this bill will reshape our nation and our lives."

Medicare is slated to suffer billions in cuts in order for the Democrat's fantasy numbers to line up with all cost savings their reform promises. Does anyone believe that when push comes to shove even $1 will be cut? This thing will bankrupt the country.

All I can say is elections have consequences - this is what the voters get whether they wanted it or not. Close to 60% of the public was not in favor of this sweeping power grab. The real brilliance is that Americans won't start feeling the pain until 2014. How convenient that the 2012 elections will be in the rear view mirror by then.

It's anybody's guess what this ram job will actually cost in direct dollars, but I am reasonably sure it will stifle the economy for some time to come until businesses large and small sort it all out.

It's hard to be optimistic about anything coming out of Washington these days - I pray to God I'm completely wrong when I say nothing good will come out this.



CW

Brit's to NHS: "Heal our Hospitals!!!"

Last week (the hospital) Basildon was condemned by inspectors who found “blood-spattered” walls and filthy conditions...

The Sunday Telegraph

When my friends who support (for all intents and purposes) a nationalized health care system in America via a single payer system they repeatedly cite the "better outcomes" in countries who have already so wisely adopted such a system. Well not so fast.

We have all heard anecdotal horror stories about Canadian and British patients, whose countries that have gone whole hog into socialized medicine, but we also hear how happy most Brits and Canadians are with their health system. Rich Canadians have the advantage of a pay for service system just south of the border. Rich Brits have Germany nearby. The average Brit however is stuck with very low standards and by all accounts they are getting lower.


Shamed: the top hospitals with the worst death rates

FTA:
(recent) disclosures have cast further doubt on Labour’s flagship foundation hospitals’ policy, which has been under attack since appalling standards of care at Mid Staffordshire Hospital were exposed in March.

Last night patients’ groups demanded that ministers carry out a “total overhaul” of the system, which they said was “failing” patients. Investigations by this paper have found:

- Eight foundation hospitals are failing so badly that they have breached the terms of their licence to operate and are being placed under close supervision by the NHS watchdog, Monitor.

- The leading children’s hospital Alder Hey has been issued with a “warning notice” for breaching basic infection standards and putting vulnerable young patients at risk of killer infections – just two weeks after the trust declared itself “the best in the country”.

- Three ambulance services have also been issued with the same notices after failing to properly decontaminate equipment, or provide clean services for the most high-risk patients.

- Bosses of foundation trusts with high death rates have awarded themselves bumper pay rises. Chief executives at the eight foundation trusts with the highest death rates in 2007-08 had average salary rises of 15 per cent when their institutions took on the coveted status.

It is not a scare tactic to declare that this is what is in store for America if we allow the health care system to become nationalized over the next few years. We have heard similar stories as this in regards to our own Veterans hospitals. I think the most appalling aspect of these revelations out of Britain is the rewards the administrators are bestowing on themselves as their hospitals fall apart.

I fully acknowledge that America has a serious problem with the health care delivery system as it is currently instituted. I absolutely worry about my children who will soon be entering a world without good job prospects and therefore very poor health insurance options. But a wholesale conversion to a government take over (this is what President Obama and the core Democrats really desire) will destroy the parts of the system that are unparalleled and replace them with something like what is described above.

This is one issue where tinkering around the edges is justified - following the Hippocratic Oath of first do no harm. There are other solutions out there. Right now the powers that be will not give any of them a fair hearing simply because the 60 year obsession to nationalize our health care is so very, very close to reality for the Democrats. It seems that a majority of Americans know instinctively to oppose a top down one-size fits all solution. The question now is will Congress be listening?



CW

10% and rising

Unemployment figures released today show the official rate at over 10% for the first time in 26 years. The actual rate is probably closer to 20%. It's so telling that the Obama team and the Democrats in Congress have pushed hard for their radical agenda instead of focusing on repairing the fabric of America - the economy. Pushing a complete overhaul of the health care system at a time when millions are out of work to satisfy their decades old obsession to socialize American medicine is self destructive and frankly its selfish.

The self destructive part comes from the pall of uncertainty floating about the business world over this thing. Even if such a monstrosity as this 1990 page Pelosi plan is passed into law the uncertainty of what it will do to businesses big and small will stunt growth and hiring plans for months and even years to come.

Next on the agenda is so-called Cap and Trade legislation which is really nothing more than an energy tax on businesses and individuals who dare to go about their day to day lives just as they have for decades. The pie in the sky promise of alternative energy is not even such a bad thing, but we aren't going to get there if we are economically stunted. Are these Democrats this obtuse or do they actually want China to lead the way since the Chinese have no intention of shackling themselves as they ramp up for the future.

So millions of unemployed Americans and perhaps even millions more will have to wait (and suffer) because the Democrats in power want their Christmas in July. The fact that they haven't just rammed these radical policy objectives through is also telling. They can pretend it's because of the Republicans (and Fox News) but that would be a lie. The own both houses of Congress, they have a veto proof/filibuster proof majority in the Senate. The only thing stopping them is the ire of the American people.

There are tried and true ways to ease unemployment just as there are small and practical incremental steps that can be taken to reform areas of the health care system. I'm here to tell you that the Obama White House and the Pelosi/Reid Congress don't give a damn about 10% unemployment - they want their agenda advanced first.

The truly appalling thing about this is that the actual cause of the dire situation we find ourselves in has not been addressed. If anything the Obama team has doubled down on the mistakes and policy flaws that led us here. With the government acting as a backstop for all manner of poor behavior from Wall Street all way down to Rondo Ave. where the poor folk live why would anyone act responsibly. If the government is going to bailout risky investing and risky behavior at every turn then both the rich and the poor are going to take stupid (dangerous) risks - why wouldn't they?

I can't believe the Democrats are fools. They are doing exactly what they want to do. America's unemployed be damned.




CW

Random Thoughts

Just some random thoughts on issues great and small...

1.) Did you hear the Bob Griese (football legend) ooops when he made a racially insensitive remark about NASCAR driver Juan Pablo Montoya?

They were discussing a promo graphic listing the top five drivers in the Chase for the Cup race, when broadcast partner Chris Spielman asked, "Where's Montoya?" to which Griese responded, "Out eating a taco."

OMG what a horrible, terrible, racist, God-awful, earth-shattering thing to say. OK, so he wasn't too bright to say that in this day of hyper-sensitivity, but for Heaven's sake it was a minor fopaugh. Ask yourself this: If someone had asked "where's Tony Stewart?" and Griese had said, "out eating a cheeseburger" would anyone have to apologise? The answer is no.

Move on, nothing to see here.

2.) It seems to me that the average (uninformed) person regards the "fight" against climate change with the same passion they give to recycling. No one, not even those evil American flag waving conservatives, want waste and pollution to choke the planet. So most people casually go along with this hoax of "fighting climate change" because they want to feel good about themselves the way they do every week when they put the recycling on the curb. So far they have paid nothing but the cost of an overpriced hybrid in the driveway.

The problem is the purveyors of this hoax are using the good will and noble intentions of the hybrid driving recyclers to advance an agenda they know will do nothing to stop climate change - because it a preposterous goal on the face of it. Their real goal is to redistribute the wealth of the hardworking and productive to the backward and corrupt as if somehow the hardworking and productive are cheating the poor out of their share of the wealth. If people really understood what the "climate" pimps (including and especially President Obama) are doing I doubt they would go along with it.

3.) The health care issues in this country are real, no question about it. Too many people have no access to health care coverage. So, when the "government is the only answer" crowd toss up one lie after another to demonize their opponents it becomes harder and harder to weed out the good ideas from the bad. The biggest whopper of all is the constant lie about obscene profits for the health care insurance industry. It's just plain not true...

The truth is that the healthcare insurance industry's profits are small fraction of that of other industries. For example, Network Equipment manufacturers reap 20.4% profits, Railroads 12.6%, Crude Oil extraction 11.5%, Securities 10.7 %, Household & personal products 8.7%. Where does the health care insurance industry fall? A whopping 2.2%. Why that's obscene!

4.) The White House vs Fox News is either a brilliant strategy by one or both parties or a disaster for the seemingly thinned skinned Obama administration. One school of thought is that the White House having no illusions of turning Fox News around is firing a warning shot at the other networks. This one is a little weak. The other theory I heard that the more Fox is attacked the more shrill and over the top it will become making the already near-parody news/opinion operation even more goofy. This one is plausible. The most likely scenario is the one that seems most obvious. This White House feels entitled to complete and utter adoration and Fox News just isn't playing along. The hissy fit angle seems about right to me.

5.) The Stock Market Rally that's been ongoing since March is perplexing on the face of it. Really though it's not that surprising. Companies will enjoy increased profits and increased dividends when they have slashed their payrolls to the bone and reduced their inventories to one deep. Lead times for manufactured goods are going way up because the reduced work force. Eventually this will backfire. Without (employed) consumers driving demand across all non military sectors eventually profits and dividends will fall. Unless employers see the need to start calling people back to work a double dip recession (or worse) is a distinct possibility. There are a few proven forecasters predicting the "or worse" part.

I'm jumping down from the watchtower now... I've got work to do.



CW

Health Care Debate: What about Germany?

In all this debate about what our health care system should look like when all is said and done we never hear about Germany. We hear about Britain and Canada - with total government control and ownership of the health care systems in their respective countries. It seems clear that one, the American people don't want government control regardless of President Obama's real agenda, and two, politicians and the lapdog media are not being square with us.

What is Germany's story?

The Germans have universal health care - everyone is covered. Get this: it is a totally private system. The doctors, the hospitals, the clinics, the pharmaceuticals and yes, even the insurance companies are private companies. How do they do it and still keep their administrative costs to around 5%? There are a few reasons. They don't have a layer of bureaucratic red tape imposed by individual states like we do here in America. They don't have Medicare. Just as significant the private insurance industry in Germany is non-profit.

American health care administrative costs are triple what they are in all the other modern countries. Our per capita health care costs are double and we don't even cover everybody. Why? Part of the issue is Medicare itself. Medicare has administrative costs of around 3%. You might say "brilliant"! How do they do it? They do it by pushing those costs on to the providers. There is a sub-specialty in medical collections for Medicare reimbursement. I know this to be true because my wife is one. There is a time limit imposed getting money out of Medicare - if all "i's" are not dotted and your "t's" are not crossed forget it, you will not get paid. Billers are required to resubmit multiple times which obviously drives up administrative costs. Sure, Medicare doesn't get between the doctor and the patient by denying treatment - they just don't pay up on the other end.

Additionally, a non-profit insurance model makes a lot of sense for health care. Health insurance is not like car insurance and other insurance offerings where we have and should have choices. Not everyone drives a car or owns a home. We all have health issues. There is no value added with for profit health care insurance.

We definitely need to straighten out the administrative side of our health care system - this doesn't mean it has to be government controlled like the current congress and the President favor. There is a working model we are overlooking...

Have you heard anything about Germany and how they have been a success in marrying universal coverage with a private health care industry? I thought not. We should try to emulate Germany rather than Canada or Britain, but this is not what the left - the Democrats really want.



CW

Not So Smart?

For all the talk of how smart Barack Obama is I find his gaffes to be far more telling (and concerning) than George Bush's frequent grammatical stumbles.

The other day while defending his Health Care Reform plan I heard the President claiming multiple times that the AARP had endorsed it enthusiastically. The AARP begs to differ - they have not endorsed it. Hmmmm, rather a large oversight I'd say.

Later that day I heard the President say (paraphrasing) "people ask me all the time, how can private insurance possibly compete with a public option? I say to them what about UPS and Fed Ex, they seem to be doing pretty well. It seems to me it's the Postal Service that's always having problems."

Excuse me??? So, Mr. President you are going to justify a federal takeover of the health care industry (which is what he truly wants, make no mistake about it) by using the Postal Service as an example. Fed Ex and UPS produce profits year after year while the Postal Service reports projections of massive deficits even though they have a legal monopoly over daily first class mail delivery. How smart does this sound?

Yesterday while handing out the "Medal of Freedom" awards at the White House one of the recipients didn't recognize the person she was supposed to be. Tennis great Billie Jean King looked on as the President didn't get any of it right - according to King herself.

"They didn't get any of my facts right," King lightheartedly noted afterward. "Did you see all the - how many titles I won? I was cracking up."
"Not even in the ballpark," she continued.

It should be noted that the President did not have his teleprompter for this event. While he generally doesn't claim to be the decider or worry about obstetricians who are no longer able to practice their love, don't misunderestimate his ability to say stupid, illogical things.

Minus the teleprompter President Obama does not exude the pure intellect so often attributed to him by his adorers. One day they will see that the emperor has no clothes - maybe.




CW

A New Tact on Health Care "Reform"

Is the Obama team signaling a new tact on the presentation of health care reform to the public?

It's clear that the strategy originally taken by the Administration of "crisis, crisis, crisis" and strict deadlines has failed. Obama, cognizant of what befell Hillary Clinton's secretive health care "reform" cabal in the early 90's, opted for a transparent approach by throwing the ball in the congressional court. Only Congress wrote up a turd that no one actually read (including Obama himself) that began to whither the instant sunlight fell upon it. The key question is: has anyone devulged who actually wrote this bill?

Instead of sitting down with his vast MAJORITY in both houses of congress and carefully crafting a thoughtful and practical bill Obama merely accepted what was thrown against the wall by congressional lobbyists and pushed hard. The more the opposition press read and reported on the small print in the House bill the further support for his health care reform bill fell.

So today I found this article "Is Health Care Talk Toxic for Cable TV" and it made me think that a major change in strategy is coming. Obviously health care is an enormously complicated issue and cable TV has no forum other than CSPAN to give it a fair hearing. After a while the blather and bickering over the "Public Option" gets the nation's clickers looking for re-runs of Gilligan's Island. People in general will tune out complicated subjects and ratings will suffer - but support for the bill suffers right along with it. (Michael Jackson's untimely death has perhaps saved Obama's health care reform from irreparable damage)

Soon there will be a new crisis, crisis, crisis real or imagined that will dominate the traditional news and health care reform will plod along with key milestones getting passed in the middle of the night. The adoring Obama press will present it on a gold plated platter without the debate and declare that a new era has begun.

Once complete it will be impossible for anyone to unwind the takeover of the health care industry.



CW

Health Care Debate: Boiling My Blood

With every tidbit that comes out about the government's attempt to revamp our health care system the more my blood boils.

Currently those who have employer sponsored health insurance are not taxed on this benefit. This is how it should be - oh, but not for long.

Obama himself ran ads during the campaign chastising McCain for even putting this on the table. Now he is open to it. But wait, not for his union buddies, no, no, no. We learn today from Bloomberg News - that

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, the chief congressional advocate of taxing some employer-provided benefits to help pay for an overhaul of the U.S. health system, says any change should exempt perks secured in existing collective- bargaining agreements, which can be in place for as long as five years.

What the??? How can this be justified?

In their never ending zeal to stick it to the rich, Democrats over looked the fact that many times union negotiated health plans are some of the most generous out there. Many of these plans would fall into the criteria they've established for "rich" people and these benefits would be taxed. Max Baucus will change that.

While it is understandable that the unions "believe" they should be exempt because collective bargaining concessions they've made in order to keep their benefits make any new tax unfair. But what makes them special? How is fair that I will be taxed just because I am not a union member? And I'm not rich!!!

I dislike Washington more and more each day...



CW

Health Care Competiton? Nonsense, Mr. Obama

How can Barack Obama say the things he says with a straight face? His proposal for a public option for health care insurance finds him insisting that the public option is essential for introducing competition. Nonsense. Pure hooey.

The question that one must ask his holiness is will this new "public option" be forced to register in every state and abide by each individual state's laws and regulations the way the private insurance companies do now? If the answer is no (which it is) then it is not competition, it's an advantage that will cause the private plans dry up. Obama knows this, he's just not telling you.

When will he tell the truth about the so-called 47 million uninsured people he claims must be brought into the system? He won't.

Because the number is a lie.

A quarter of those uninsured choose to be uninsured. Another huge percent of that number are illegal aliens - who shouldn't be here in the first place. There are also those who are already eligible for existing programs but out of ignorance or laziness they do not apply. Also consider that the vast majority of those without health care insurance at any given time are within a year of getting insurance in the traditional way - getting a job. The real number of chronically uninsured is probably under 10 million. Surely we can fund a small government program to help them.

This "something has to done" mantra doesn't mean that we must first destroy what is good in order to make it better.

Remember Mr. President: first do no harm.



CW