Healthcare Reform What Would You Do

[DreamStalker]

While I am working on my taxes and finances and doing some light work for clients this afternoon, the little TV on my desk is playing a C-SPAN rerun from Thursday that I caught a little bit of. My friend Bill Clinton is on with an international panel of business people talking about help for Haiti in rebuilding after the immediate crisis work.

Well surprise, Bill and the business leaders are saying that the international private sector is the most important part of rebuilding. They are calling on business leaders to make investments (build evil, greedy corporations) in Haiti. They are explaining how the Haiti government and the U.S. government will work to ensure a free market there which is a good environment for corporations.

They are explaining how the international business should make investments because they can make good profits. They even stated "don't make investments because of humanitarian reasons, make them because they are going to be profitable". They know that strong corporations do more good for a citizenry than all the bleeding hearts put together.


Bill Clinton and those guys know what works to build good societies that provide a higher economic level of living. They know that protecting the property rights of corporations and allowing them to be profitable is the surest, quickest way to freedom and better lives for the Haitians. They know that strong, profitable businesses do more good for the citizens of any country than all the government social programs put together.


Good for you Bill Clinton. Our country was in much better hands during the latter parts of your Presidency that it will ever be in the hands of that leftist ideologue Obama in whom I am so disappointed.

I'm so overjoyed for you Rooster.

I hope you're able to migrate to Haiti once they get that free market in place so that you can live your dream.

Or you could just move now to Somalia or Yemen where free markets rule as there is no real government to regulate anything. It is about as close to a Mad Max world as you can get these days.

Hey Guys ... <snip> ...

"Obama's administration made a tremendous mistake by not immediately branding the economic collapse that we had just had as the Republicans' Depression, caused by the Bush administration's ideology of unregulated greed. The result is that now people blame him."

...<snip>...
Reverse revolution

"You vote to strike a blow against elitism and you receive a social order in which wealth is more concentrated than ever before in our life times, workers have been stripped of power, and CEOs are rewarded in a manner that is beyond imagining.

"It's like a French Revolution in reverse in which the workers come pouring down the street screaming more power to the aristocracy."
...<snip>...

I like the reverse revolution analogy ...

[roster]

OK, so the BBC wrote an article and threw in a lot of stuff to explain what is happening. Good for them; that is their job; that is how they earn their living; I don’t expect any less from them.

But it is much simpler than that.

Consider three things.

What Obama said about how Washington operates in his State of the Union Address on January 27, 2010

Washington has been unable or unwilling to solve any of our problems

partisanship and the shouting and the pettiness

the numbing weight of our politics

Washington has been telling us to wait for decades

uncomfortable and contentious

massive fiscal hole

political posturing

projected deficits of $8 trillion over the next decade

Washington gimmicks that lets us pretend we solved a problem

tired battles that have dominated Washington for decades

a deficit of dollars

a deficit of trust – deep and corrosive doubts about how Washington works

divisions that are deeply entrenched

a Washington where every day is Election Day

the only goal is to see who can get the most embarrassing headlines about the other side

pet projects or grudges of a few individuals

saying anything about the other side, no matter how false, no matter how malicious, is just part of the game.

schoolyard taunts about who's tough

politicians tear each other down

do what's necessary to keep our poll numbers high

get through the next election

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-off ... on-address .

How Washington Runs Its Business

Washington has created a national debt of $12.3 trillion (as of this morning) which is $113,000 per taxpayer. http://www.usdebtclock.org/

Washington has created unfunded liabilities of $107 trillion (as of this morning) or $347,000 per citizen.

Washington is running an annual budget deficit which in 2010 is projected to be $1.17 trillion, the difference between $3.55 trillion in spending and $2.38 trillion in revenue. The Office of Management and Budget forecasts a deficit of at least $500 billion through at least 2019.

Finally,

About 595,800 establishments make up the healthcare industry; they vary greatly in terms of size, staffing patterns, and organizational structures. There are over 14 million workers in the healthcare industry. (http://www.bls.gov/oco/cg/cgs035.htm )

The USA's medical industry comprises of more than 750,000 physicians and 5,200 hospitals. USA witnesses approximately 3.8 million inpatient visits and 20 million outpatients visit on a daily basis. http://www.themedica.com/industry-overview.html

Spending on healthcare is about 16% of the total economy.

Now let’s add 1 + 1 + 1 and see if we agree the sum is three.
- President Obama described the horribly pitiful way things are done in Washington.
- You see the numbers which are the result of how poor Washington manages their own business.
- You see the enormity of the healthcare industry.

Most Americans seeing this would not trust Washington to mow their back yard. They sure as heck won’t trust them to manage their healthcare.

[roster]

I'm so overjoyed for you Rooster.

I hope you're able to migrate to Haiti once they get that free market in place so that you can live your dream.

Or you could just move now to Somalia or Yemen where free markets rule as there is no real government to regulate anything. It is about as close to a Mad Max world as you can get these days.


I like the reverse revolution analogy ...

When your side of the argument is reduced to nothing but sarcasm, extreme and irrelevant examples, smiley icons, and ridiculing the other side, it is an indication that your side is either 1) wrong or 2) too lazy to make a decent point or 3) too incompetent to make a decent point or 4) any combination of 1, 2 or 3.

[montana]

I thought this thread was about health care and ideas about what would to do....looks like the same political bashing type threads and no one gives a crap . Don't hate on Haiti

[roster]

I thought this thread was about health care and ideas about what would to do....looks like the same political bashing type threads and no one gives a crap . Don't hate on Haiti

Nobody is "hating on Haiti" (Well, DreamStalker did express a wish that I would migrate to Haiti, Somalia or Yemen, if that is what you mean).

My posts are about high hopes for Haiti if they follow the right political and economic paths with the help from the international free market communities.

Currently Haiti's President Rene Preval is a fan of the Castros (Cuba) and President Hugo Chavez (Venezuela). This is not good for Haiti and their future political, economic and social condition.

The Castros are communist dictators that are responsible for the oppressive and impoverished condition of their citizens.

Chavez is a leftist who is making alliances to other leftist countries in South America. Chavez's leftist policies promise no hope for the citizens' improvement from 84th world position in per capita GDP of $13,500. This miserable performance is despite large resources of petroleum, gold, diamonds and iron ore.

Haiti's leadership needs to align itself with the market-oriented countries of the international community and work toward protecting property rights and allowing an economic base to be built. Then the issue of badly needed healthcare can be addressed.

Discussion about Haiti is a good thing.

Your ideas about healthcare reform would be eagerly read.

[DreamStalker]

I'm so overjoyed for you Rooster.

I hope you're able to migrate to Haiti once they get that free market in place so that you can live your dream.

Or you could just move now to Somalia or Yemen where free markets rule as there is no real government to regulate anything. It is about as close to a Mad Max world as you can get these days.


I like the reverse revolution analogy ...

When your side of the argument is reduced to nothing but sarcasm, extreme and irrelevant examples, smiley icons, and ridiculing the other side, it is an indication that your side is either 1) wrong or 2) too lazy to make a decent point or 3) too incompetent to make a decent point or 4) any combination of 1, 2 or 3.

So let's see, 1 + 2 + 3 = 6 ... no wait, uhhh 4. No? err em, mowing the front yard?

Boo-hoo-hoo! Ok you got me. I was never any good at addition.

Whatever dude, I made my point. If you can't understand it, maybe you should study some more of your high level math classes.

[Wulfman]

An AP/Yahoo! article I read this morning......

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100204/ap_ ... nment_role


Den

[roster]

An AP/Yahoo! article I read this morning......

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100204/ap_ ... nment_role


Den

I was working with a number of 46% for the amount of healthcare that government currently pays. In the article they say it was 48% ($1.2 trillion out of 2.5 trillion) in 2009.

A Libertarian friend, who generally stays out of political debates, has often reminded me, "Did you know you are not debating whether or not our country will have a socialist healthcare? You are just debating how broad socialism will be."

[Wulfman]

An AP/Yahoo! article I read this morning......

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100204/ap_ ... nment_role


Den

I was working with a number of 46% for the amount of healthcare that government currently pays. In the article they say it was 48% ($1.2 trillion out of 2.5 trillion) in 2009.

A Libertarian friend, who generally stays out of political debates, has often reminded me, "Did you know you are not debating whether or not our country will have a socialist healthcare? You are just debating how broad socialism will be."

That's true. The various forms/levels of "government" has it's fingers poked into so many aspects of our lives......and spending us into oblivion......


Den