Journal tomhudson's Journal: You can kiss US health care reform good-bye. 7
With no sign of a plan to tame the deficit, the GAO, OMB, and Treasury all in agreement that current and future fiscal policy is unsustainable, doomed bail-outs that throw good money after bad (GM) rather than allowing others to gather strength through increased market share, China wanting to convert its' US debt holdings to other currencies and refusing to buy long-term US debt instruments as bonds roll over, California (8th largest economy in the world) running out of money in the next month or two, 1 in every 2 mortgages predicted to be under water in the future, a continued rise in unemployment rates
There's simply no money for it.
And any borrowing is going to have to fund more bail-outs, more emergency funding, and new funding for states that find themselves as economic basket cases.
It was a nice dream, but the dream is dead. Reality bites, and with very sharp fangs indeed.
With unemployment the way it's going, the promise to "create or preserve millions of jobs" just isn't going to be enough, even if it were met 100%. Too much money went to bailing out banks directly and rewarding the cuprits, rather than keeping your powder dry, letting them fail, THEN spending the money where it would have the most multiplier effect.
Directly nationalizing the banks ultimately would have been quicker, cheaper, and more effective. Obama blinked. Not letting GM fail, which failed to clear the field for Ford to become a stronger competitor on global markets: another blink. Trying to prop up housing prices at artificial levels, rather than letting the market decide what a home is worth in a sated market with high unemployment and too much inventory; Obama blinked again.
The price for these failures of will, of nerve, of policy, are two-fold: In terms of public policy, health care reform won't happen. The money isn't there. The combination of political capital and credibility is no longer there either. The other cost is in public perception and confidence. Rewarding pigs on the back of the taxpayers, who are seeing their future debt obligations spiral out of sight without any immediate benefit in return unless you're "too big to fail", and failing to deliver on key promises will also extract a price - that price being faith in the government being a government of the people, for the people, and by the people.
Anyone doubt that the next big failure will involve the budget problems of California and other states?
With the printing presses running overtime, and an economy largely on the skids, the scene is set for a huge bout of stagflation. Watch for rising interest rates, higher taxes, rising unemployment, and continued declines in both housing values and family finances in general.
Is it Obama's fault? To a certain extent, yes. Rewarding special interests and moral hazard breaks the faith with the average citizen, no matter what their political stripe.
My grade system is simple: A = 90-100%, B = anything in the 80s, C = anything in the 70s, and D anything in the 60s.
So far, Obama has earned an F, same as his predecessor. If this keeps on, I'm going to start calling him Barry.
health care (Score:2)
I think we'll get something for Health Reform and that something will be better than the mess we have now (but not as good as single payer would have been).
I'm not willing to count out a strong public option either. Some surprising voices have come out in favor of it including the rather powerful and normally conservative Senator Rockefeller.
Again even without a "public option" what the Senate Finance committee is currently proposing would be a major improvement on the current system.
As for the government b
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Problem solved...
No shit. But nobody's voting for anybody that would implement it. They're all blinded by the shiny objects held up by the regulars. There will be no government, or any other kind of reform until we get voting public reform.
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No shit. But nobody's voting for anybody that would implement it. They're all blinded by the shiny objects held up by the regulars. There will be no government, or any other kind of reform until we get voting public reform.
Actually I've been kind of surprised by who has supported the idea of single payer, universal coverage, or a robust public option financed with some form of payroll tax.
On the other hand I've been rather surprised by who has caved and claimed we can't do anything but give the insurance companies and big pharma exactly what they want.
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Next year's deficit is forecast at $1.75 Trillion. Cutting $350 billion won't do it. ALL spending would have to be cut in half to get rid of the deficit - and some stuff, like interest on the debt, is simply not possible to cut without going into default.
This forecast was made months ago, and is already obsolete. Interest rates and program spending will be higher next year, and receipts (taxes, etc) will be lower, so $2 Trillion is more likely ... but who will buy that much debt? China sure won't. Even
Not sure universal coverage was ever alive... (Score:2)
And we have, pretty much with every nomination cycle in recent memory, had candidates who wanted to make universal coverage a reality. They were almost without fail labeled as "too extreme" and pushed out to the fringe. It is a crying shame that
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Not only was it never alive, it turns out she was never even pregnant. Dad's shootin' blanks.
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The sad part: a true single-payer system would be cheaper than the current system, but the costs of getting from "here" to "there" are too high, and the political will is lacking.