Politics, Politics, Politics

Of course the democrats don’t have any integrity on such issues. It’s all about power, not an equal standard.

Does Obama Plan to Deny Seniors Medical Care?

interesting, related article….

“Congressional Democrats will soon put forward their legislative proposals for reforming health care. Should they succeed, tens of millions of Americans will potentially be joining a new public insurance program and the federal government will increasingly be involved in treatment decisions.

Not long ago, I would have applauded this type of government expansion. Born and raised in Canada, I once believed that government health care is compassionate and equitable. It is neither.

My views changed in medical school. Yes, everyone in Canada is covered by a “single payer” — the government. But Canadians wait for practically any procedure or diagnostic test or specialist consultation in the public system.

The problems were brought home when a relative had difficulty walking. He was in chronic pain. His doctor suggested a referral to a neurologist; an MRI would need to be done, then possibly a referral to another specialist. The wait would have stretched to roughly a year. If surgery was needed, the wait would be months more. Not wanting to stay confined to his house, he had the surgery done in the U.S., at the Mayo Clinic, and paid for it himself.

Such stories are common. For example, Sylvia de Vries, an Ontario woman, had a 40-pound fluid-filled tumor removed from her abdomen by an American surgeon in 2006. Her Michigan doctor estimated that she was within weeks of dying, but she was still on a wait list for a Canadian specialist.

Indeed, Canada’s provincial governments themselves rely on American medicine. Between 2006 and 2008, Ontario sent more than 160 patients to New York and Michigan for emergency neurosurgery — described by the Globe and Mail newspaper as “broken necks, burst aneurysms and other types of bleeding in or around the brain.”

Only half of ER patients are treated in a timely manner by national and international standards, according to a government study. The physician shortage is so severe that some towns hold lotteries, with the winners gaining access to the local doc.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124451570546396929.html#mod=rss_opinion_main

Does Obama Plan to Deny Seniors Medical Care?

Donald,

“All our out year budget problems exist for one reason, rising health care costs. ”

Not really, and you are missing the point. The upcoming problem is a demographic one. Yea, we can save money by denying care, and that’s exactly what the democrats are pushing.

“The economy has already determined retirement is a long way off for most baby boomers. Most saw at least a 30-40% loss in investment income between their 401K’s and loss of home equity. Most boomers will work well into their 60’s assuming they can find a job.”

Still won’t be enough. Well into 60s isn’t going to solve the problem, not even close. Take a good look at the numbers. The former comptroller isn’t partisan. You could eliminate nearly everything else in the budget and still not pay for Medicare. That means no national defense, no Homeland security, etc,…and we know that won’t happen. We need far-reaching and drastic cuts across the board and some way to balance the demographic nightmare.

“Social Security is easily fixed. If we change the cola from prices to wages and have every retiree that enters the system take a one time 10% cut in benefits we solve SS funding.”

More easily fixed than Medicare but I’d like to see your numbers because I don’t think a 10% cut will do it, not even close.

Ryan is right. The Republican conservatives are the only ones attempting to solve the problem. Dems would rather politicize it and basically kill off retirees early to save money.

Why We Won't See Much of a Recovery

Interesting analysis. I don’t know enough about how the numbers are generated but unemployment was said to be fairly low during Bush’s tenure, for example, and high during Carter’s and yet that seems to conflict with your data.

Maybe 100k new jobs per month isn’t required?

Another issue is that demographically we are going to see more people retiring than entering the workforce.

On the economy, it’s easy to get burned thinking the fundamentals rule all the time. A lot of it is market psychology and sometimes that alone is not enough to generate sufficient confidence to actually change the fundamentals. Works the opposite way as well. Fear can make a recession worse than it is, and the markets can over-correct.

On suggestions, we absolutely should become energy independent. There is no excuse. Nearly all of Obama’s so-called stimulus should have been directed towards that because it’s the easiest, no-brainer way to stimulate the economy by investing in something that should generate a high rate of return.

Borrowing money to spend elsewhere creates more economic disfunction by artificially allocating resources to a losing proposition. You create jobs with a debt stream with no likelihood of success in terms of profit, and then those same jobs and years and time and effort will simply turn to trouble and grief when those jobs are lost when the borrowed money dries up. It’s basic business. Borrowing and spending to create a profitable business makes sense. Doing so to lose more money does not.

We should cut defense….agree with you on that. We can’t solve the education problem as long as unions and liberal, PC ideologues dominate the sector.