You Can Not Lead From Behind

Governor Christie on the debt crisis. 

We need a large tax increase, and an even larger spending cut. 

To Save Life As We Know it

It almost goes without saying, Nancy Pelosi said something rather odd:

“What we’re trying to do is save the world from the Republican budget….we’re trying to save life on this planet as we know it today.”

While I have said that the Republicans have good and valid reasons to be reluctant to raise taxes, raising taxes is necessary. Even if the Democrats were given all the tax increases they might want, lets say 4 trillion-4 times what they have been asking for, that would still leave 9 trillion in deficits over the next 10 years. So with a large tax increase no one is talking about we would still need an across the board cut of 33% to balance the budget. Social Security checks would be 33% less; Military payroll would be 33% less; Medicare would be 33% less. I do not think that many in government will admit, even to themselves, how bad the situation really is. 

Thelma & Louise: Republicans & Democrats?

I have been trying on facebook to explain my assertion that interest, soldier's pay checks, Medicare and Social Security can be paid even with the debt ceiling crisis. Maybe this chart will help.

While I do not think defense contractors will receive that high a priority, the chart shows that if Obama does not pay Social Security it is because he has chosen not to pay it. I talked about this last week. 

George Wallace said in 1968 that there was not a spits worth of difference between the Republicans and the Democrats. On many issues this is correct. Both parties debt proposals are inadequate-both parties are spiting on the people. Where are we headed riding in our national car piloted by Republicans and Democrats? Click here to find out. 

Does The President Have A Plan?

No, he doesn't. I do not understand why Obama has no published plan, everyone else does. This is excruciating to watch. Sorry to inflict it one you. 

The legend, probably apocryphal, is that Nero played a fiddle while Rome burned. Obama refuses to produce a plan because it is his perception that it benefits him politically. 

We need his proposal now. 

My Medical Bill

I just received my medical bill for a procedure that was done one year ago. The delay was an accounting error. But this does give me an opportunity to talk about medical expenses. The bill was for $835. The insurance paid about $375. I paid $85. Where is the rest of the bill, you might ask? Well the $835-$375-$85 leaves $375. This is the amount of a deduction I get because I have insurance. It is called the contracted rate. If I do not have insurance, I pay the full amount of $835.

This highlights a big problem in our medical system. The poor pay more than everyone else—that is, the poor who are working and do not qualify for Medicaid. A bill like this is just not going to be paid by someone without insurance making $17,000 for one night in the hospital!minimum wage. The fact this bill is not paid by this kind of patient is factored into the price, and then everyone pays for it. It is a vicious circle. What would the cost be if insurance, the hospitals, and yes, even us patients, were not gaming the system? No one knows, but my guess is that it would be less than $400-maybe a lot less.

If I could actually pay the discounted amount on all my medical bills it would be cheaper than my insurance bill is every month. Of course I would still need catastrophic insurance-but maybe not. When I had cancer surgery, the bill for my Hospital stay was $17,000. This was for one night. Since I was at a hospital that was in my network, they dropped it to $2000. In the year I was the sickest, my medical bills, if they had been at the free market rate, would have been less than my insurance bill every year. The whole system is corrupt.

So for our very expensive health care, do we receive good value?

Chart from Zero Hedge

There are many reasons for the expense of our system and our relatively low life expectancy—the way things are measured, for example, make things look worse than they are. But the structure of our health system is to blame. No doubt the people in the system are doing the best they can, but the system itself makes progress difficult.Health Care 2015?

In our system the young do not get the care they need, and the old get too much. I am not sure I would go as far as former Colorado Governor Lamb who said the old had a duty to die, but this is a problem that is not being addressed. Sarah Palin was wrong, we do need death panels. If we don't eventually have them, the whole system will collapse like a proverbial house of cards. 

One final note: In any other industry, charging such violently different rates would be illegal—and the people that did it would go to jail.