Month: March 2010

I Have A Health Care Plan

This is a re-post of one of my previous posts on Info Ink….this one is from April 2007…..

An Alternative Healthcare Proposal

For years, the most pressing problem that the US faces is that of adequate healthcare for all the American people. Leaders have toyed with the problem, the people have wanted more, presidents have given it tons of lip service, but yet no one has an idea that will work. It either would cost too much money or it would not be politically advantageous or……..and the beat goes on. To date there is still no adequate healthcare or a workable plan. My question is–how long will they debate and promise and ……?

I have had a thought on one possible path they could be taken to help the American people with adequate healthcare. And the really good part of it, it will not add much cost to the system that would needed to be funded by more taxes.

But I start I want to make it clear that this plan is for doctors and visists it will not encompass hospitalization of any kind. The easy part would be the doctor’s end of the equation, the hospital part will take a massive plan to fix it. This then is just a small part of the problem, but could be fixed with little increase to the American people.

This is a plan that I sent to my Congressman several years ago and his reply had nothing to do with what I had outlined. In other words, the pig did not read it and some low level gopher sent me a reply to my proposal. Needless to say, I have little use for my congressman, who by the way is still on my dime in Washington.

First let us start with seemingly unrelated problems; the healthcare of the American people and those who default on their student loans. Is there a connection? Well, yeah! One of the worst abusers of non-payment of student loans are those in the medical field; doctors to be more exact.

There have been many plans over the years to try an get the money out of these abusers, but most were a dismal failure. One such plan, the doctor would go where the US needed him/her and work until the loan was paid down. Not bad, but unfortunately, there were always loopholes that allowed the people to escape from this plan.

My proposal is simple, the doctor opens a clinic in Willacuchi, Ga and begins seeing patients. He would then choose a day a week that the poor would be treated. The amount of the visit, supplies and medication that he used that day would be deducted from his loan balance and this would be continued until the entire loan was paid off. NO ESCAPE CLAUSES!

The doctor, no matter what city or town, would not have to give up their private practice or their goals of riches accumulation. The Dept. of Health and Human Services would monitor the transactions, to keep them honest.

This proposal will not eliminate the need for more sweeping changes in the healthcare of Americans, but it would be a start at helping those who cannot afford to visit the doctor on regular basis. Those people who do not have insurance or money enough for doctors appointments. I realize that this is simplistic and if the government gets involved it might become a nightmare, but it is a start

It would not take DHHS long to come up with a satisfactory method of determining who is in need and who is scamming. This would not be that difficult and I say why not give it a try?  Plus it would not grow the size of the bureaucracy; it is already in place.  The only cost to the government would be to vote it in and then get the word out…there are agencies in every state that could handle that……

CHUQ

31/03/07

Obama’s Health Reform (A Continuing Saga)

Stop your grinning!  Here it comes!  The VOTE that will be heard around the country!

Like a song that will NOT end….the health reform debate has gone on and on and on and……..it is the time of a maximum of lying on both sides trying to influence a vote here and a vote there……

They say, whoever they are, that the passage of the health reform bill is close, very close…..The Repubs are still defying proper conduct in the Senate and as well as in the House…….Washington!  The town misinformation built……But if you are interested in the newest version of the reform bill then I have what you need….

The AP did a great job putting together the facts, just the facts, they felt the bullsh*t and misinformation behind…..

IMMEDIATE CHANGES:  Uninsured people with medical problems will have a workable alternative. The bill pumps $5 billion into high-risk insurance pools run by the states to provide coverage to those in frail health. Taxpayer-backed insurance won’t be free, but premiums should be much lower than what’s charged by private insurers willing to take those in poor health.

For people with private health insurance — about two-thirds of Americans — there would be some new safeguards. For example, insurers would be barred from placing lifetime dollar limits on coverage and from canceling policies except in cases of fraud. Children could stay on their parents’ coverage until age 26.

THE SELF-EMPLOYED:  Starting in 2014, self-employed people and those whose employers don’t offer coverage would be able to pick a plan through a health insurance exchange, like a supermarket. It’s modeled on the federal employee health program available to members of Congress, which offers a range of private insurance. Small businesses could also join the exchange.

More than 30 million people would buy their own coverage through state exchanges, and nearly 6 in 10 would be eligible for tax credits to help pay premiums. The aid would be generous for lower-income families, less so for those solidly in the middle class.

SENIORS:  Seniors have been understandably worried about the health care plan, since much of it is financed with Medicare cuts the government’s own experts say could be unsustainable.

On the block are subsidies to private Medicare Advantage insurance plans, which now enroll about one-quarter of seniors. The government overpays the plans when compared to the cost of care under traditional Medicare. That largesse translates to lower out-of-pocket costs for seniors in the plans, and the bill could trigger an exodus from Medicare Advantage as insurers are forced to raise their rates to stay in business.

But seniors stand to gain as well. Obama would gradually close the coverage gap in the middle of the Medicare prescription drug benefit. The so-called doughnut hole would start to shrink immediately, but it wouldn’t be fully closed until 2020. In the meantime, seniors in the gap would get a 50 percent discount on brand name drugs.

The plan also improves preventive benefits for seniors in traditional Medicare.

DOCTORS:  Primary care doctors and general surgeons practicing in underserved areas such as inner cities and rural communities would get a 10 percent bonus from Medicare. But the more significant changes for doctors would unfold slowly. The goal is to start rewarding doctors for keeping patients healthy, not just treating them when they get sick.

The plan would use Medicare as a testing ground for new ways of coordinating care for patients with multiple chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure, diabetes and heart problems, a common combination. Primary care doctors would become care managers for such patients, keeping close tabs on medications and basic health indicators.

EMPLOYERS:  Obama’s plan wouldn’t require employers to provide insurance to their workers, but it would hit them with a stiff fine if even one of their workers gets a federally subsidized coverage. Companies with 50 or fewer workers would be exempt, and those with 25 workers or fewer could get federal assistance.

INSURANCE COMPANIES:  Health insurance companies would face unprecedented federal regulation and particularly close scrutiny of their bottom line. A fixed percentage of income from premiums would have to go to medical care, otherwise insurers would be forced to provide rebates to consumers. That share is 85 percent for large group plans, and 80 percent for plans in the small group and individual markets.

There you have the facts…..like them or not……personally, I think it is a cop out from the Progressive stance held during the campaign……Rep. Kucinich is dead set against Obama’s bill…..he is a lone voice for 300 million Americans and NO one is listening….it is NOT reform it is a tweak that will be challenged at the next change in Congress and all will be for naught and then we can start all over again….You asked for it…You got it!

UPDATE:  Kucinich was come around and will now vote yes on the bill……CBO report is in and the bill will cut budget by $394 billion in the 1st 10 yrs and $1.3 trillion in the next 10….

Mr. Dodd Has A Plan

With the heated back and forth of the health reform, very little has been reported on the new financial reform bill….Sen. Dodd and some Repub from Tennessee are quietly negotiating for the passage of a financial reform bill….now that it is pretty close Dodd has hit the airways to try and block any  “tea bag”-esque attacks that the health reform bill has received.

I was going to write a piece trying to explain Dodd’s lame attempt to regulate the thieves but the Washington Post beat me to it and theirs is a lot simple and more understandable than mine would have been:

1 A Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, housed inside the Federal Reserve, would write and enforce rules protecting borrowers from abuse by lenders.

WHAT IT MEANS: The location of the agency is a nod to Republicans and conservative Democrats who oppose the creation of a free-standing consumer agency, but everything else about this proposal is designed to please liberals, giving the consumer agency sweeping powers and imposing few checks on that authority.

2 A Financial Stability Oversight Council, chaired by the Treasury secretary, would coordinate federal efforts to identify and manage risks to the financial system and the broader economy.

What it means: Dodd wanted to give the council broad responsibility for policing systemic risks. After massive administration pressure, he agreed instead to give much of that power to the Fed. The oversight council will instead function essentially as the Fed’s board of directors on regulatory issues, signing off on its decisions.

3 A new process would allow for the liquidation of large, failing financial firms.

WHAT IT ME ANS: Companies could be liquidated by joint agreement of the Treasury Department, the Fed and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which already administers bank failures and would play a similar role in the new process. Costs would be paid from a $50 billion pool of money gathered from large financial companies.

4 Credit-rating agencies would be regulated and liable for errors.

WHAT IT MEANS: Breaking with the administration and the House version of financial reform, Dodd’s bill would hold Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and other rating agencies potentially liable for their judgments about the safety of bonds and other investments. The industry also would be regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

5 Banks would face new limits on trading and investment activities.

WHAT IT MEANS: The bill would restrict banks from running their own investment portfolios or hedge funds, an administration proposal known as the “Volcker Rule” that Dodd initially had rejected. The bill also would regulate the massive trade in derivatives, increasing the proportion of such trades that are publicly reported.

6 Some renovations would be made to the structure of federal banking regulation.

WHAT IT MEANS: Dodd abandoned his earlier proposal to create a single banking regulator after critics argued that the upside was not worth the effort. The bill still would eliminate the Office of Thrift Supervision. The Fed’s authority over smaller banks would be split between the FDIC and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Is something better than nothing?  I hear a lot of the henceforths and heretowiths …..in other words legal-ese and the “too big to fail” group will still have its relief valve….US, we will still be on the hook whenever they screw up….I guess it is a start….but like health reform…..it is NOT reform….it is a tweak of an already broken system.

A 2011 Prediction

We see daily that the media wants us to believe that the economy is recovering, slow but slowly……but is it really in recovery mode?

A good question that has numerous good answers…..if you were around for Reagan then you should be acquainted with the name Laffer…if not then let me help…Laffer is the father of trickle down economics, where if the wealthy get big tax cuts then the benefits will filter down to all strata of the economy…….bullsh*t!……I am still waiting for it to trickle down to my strata!  Anyway Laffer has some predictions for 2011…..

Arthur Laffer, President Reagan’s favorite economist and creator of the famous Laffer Curve, believes the economy is headed for a “train wreck” in 2011. And he thinks it will be so bad that the current recession look like the good ol’ days by comparison.

Human Events reports the details:

In a wide-ranging discussion about where the economy is headed, and the fiscal, tax and monetary reasons why, Laffer gives a bleak forecast of where President Obama and his administration are taking the country in the next three years — which he predicts will end with Obama’s defeat in 2012.

“Obama is a fine, very impressive person. He really is. Unfortunately, everything that he is doing in economics is exactly wrong. He is a crappy president,” Laffer said.

Personally, I do not put much faith in any of his predictions……but there are days when hell freezes over and today is one of those days…….I will agree with Laffer that it is NOT over…..commercial paper is close to exploding, and the great Satan of the current crisis, derivatives are still being done by the large players in our economy and there seems to be NO taste for financial reform in Washington…all that leads me to think that it can only get worse, but it will give a false sense of confidence first before the sh*t hits the fan….again!

Is The Middle East Impossible?

Professor’s Classroom

Subject:  Middle East Conflict

Note:  Repost…..This is something I wrote about 3 years ago on my now defunct blog entitled Studies And Observations…..I thought I would try to post on International situations on Wednesday, if there is enough crap to make it interesting……

To answer my question…..It seems so and why is that, Professor?

INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF CONFLICT

First, let us begin with a few definitions–institution–a tradition or custom, now conflict–a clash of ideas or interests. Now we can continue with the thoughts.

It is 1920 and most likely a lively day and a British mandate over what is known as Palestine. Jewish settlers start trickling into the country and almost immediately the conflicts between Jew and Palestinian begins. Most of them were small clashes here and there and occasionally the Brits were involved. These differences in opinion continued as well as the settlers entry into the country. And then in the year 1936, an Arab revolt began against Zionists and the Brits. The revolt continue for some three years of bloody confrontations. Nothing was really settled by the revolt and nothing really changed. Clashes between the two antagonists, Jew and Arab continued with more bloody conflicts. After WWII, Jews had an exodus to Palestine and the clashes became bigger and bloodier. Then Israel declared itself a country and nation in 1948 and then the real crap hits the fan. It becomes a moral imperative to crush one another. Shortly after the statehood declaration the 1st Arab-Israeli war began. It was not a pretty thing. The conflict ended but the hatred simmered. And simmered. Conflicts, attacks and brutalities continued on b oth sides of the issue. Then 1967, a really big show, the 6 Day War; Arab arnies and the Israelis clashed and death was everywhere. At the brokered end of the war Israel annexed the West Bank and Gaza, but the end of the war did not cease the hatred or the violence. This is a simple history lesson that deserves more depth, but for the purposes of this piece it will be sufficient.

Let’s be honest, there were other minor wars like Yom Kippur and the like. Do not misunderstand me, any and all these conflicts and confrontations were bad for both sides, many bad and unfortunate incidents occurred from both antagonists. That in itself is just ducky, but I would like to concentrate on the concept of conflict now.

Since the beginning of the Jewish migration there has been anger, hatred and conflict. These conflicts have caused lasting divisions and lasting hatreds. Father passed on stories about the other side’s atrocities to sons and sons to sons and sons to………….on and on. Both Palestinian and Jew is guilty of this. Stories of stolen land, killed loved ones. destroyed house and farms, and the list continues. Because of this word of mouth story telling the hatreds just build and continue for decade after decade. As the stories are past down the hatreds are past down and thus clashes between antagonist continue from year to year.

Both sides know their families stories and then firearms enter the picture and now the clashes become deadly. With each clash a new chapter is written in the hatreds. The more one acts the more the other reacts and it just keeps escalating; the death tolls escalate and sorrows escalates.

Because of the continuing escalation decade after decade, generation to generation, the conflict becomes a tradition, a custom, which after 60 yrs of escalation will be extremely difficult to break. It has become an institution, something that has a mind of its own and left unchecked will ruin both sides of the conflict. Because of the escalation over several generations the conflict has become institutionalized.

The only way this institution can be broken is with the work of both antagonist trying to end the hatred; both have got to desire peace at all costs, without a mutual desire for peace the institution of conflict will destroy both. Only the people can break the tradition, the custom of conflict. Some wealthy second or third partner cannot bring the institution to an end by throwing money at it or threats tossed around. These techniques only strengthen the institution. The people have got to want to live in peace and security. Without that desire all that is accomplished is a minor ceasefire that awaits the next act to ignite the fires of conflict once again.

CHUQ
13/02/07

An Equal Rights Economy

Inkwell Institute

Budget Deficit Series #4

Everyone in Washington is scrambling around trying to find the best way to lessen the deficit and work on a balanced budget…..I have been pointing out that there are a wealth of choices that NO one wants to talk about as a solution.

For years now I have tried to get more people interested in the concept of Land Value Taxation (LVT) and found an interesting article on the website,  http://www.ied.info:

By paying land (resource) rents to ourselves (socially collected) a citizenry is quintuply repaid through those continually circulating social-credits building roads, railroads, water systems, sewer systems, and electric grids (any natural monopoly) as well as fund governments, provide education, health care and retirement.

  • Infrastructure and populations, not capitalists, establish the use-value of land and resources and their rental values provide the social credits to fund all essential social services (the community social-credit-process).
  • Restructure to the just described honest capitalism and taxes disappear as your employed working hours and resource consumption drops by half as all enjoy a quality, secure, life.
  • This requires sharing the “productive” remaining jobs and equal pay for equally-productive labor.
  • Each region of the world, each nation, each region of a nation, each state, each county, each community, and each entrepreneur must have equal rights to their share of both created and saved finance capital (created money and savings). With those rights, entrepreneurs (private industry) will fill every niche within the production-distribution process.

You can follow those flows of money and commerce within this efficient economy in your head. Both the community process operating those natural monopolies and efficient private industry producing consumer products and services are fully visible.

There are answers to the money problems that we are facing as far as a country….the problem is NO one is willing to offer hard answers to hard questions….eventually, Americans will have to do the tough things if the country is to survive…..right now the country is settling for feel good slogans that accomplish absolutely nothing….but as we are witnessing those things are not working….the “real” solutions are lacking and the Congress keeps talking……

There are other ways to lessen the budget deficit without totally screwing the American people………as I have said before it would take hard choices that few politicians are willing to make….

A Prius Of A Story

Daily Agitator

By now absolutely everyone knows the story of the old guy driving to the highway and his Prius (Toyota) accelerates and refuses to stop and the highway patrol dude that used his patrol car to bring the runaway Tonka toy to a stop……and the story has only begun….

This from Market Watch:

Technicians with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Toyota Motor Corp. could not duplicate the unintended acceleration reported by a Prius driver in California last week, according to a published report.

A Toyota official who attended the inspection was cited as saying the drive power of the Prius would have shut down during a circumstance when both the gas pedal and the brake were fully engaged.

“It does not appear to be feasibly possible, both electronically and mechanically that his gas pedal was stuck to the floor and he was slamming on the brake at the same time,” according to the congressional report for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform….

That is not all of the story….I heard a report that the man involved in the incident was in debt, still owed $20,000 on the Prius…..now this seemed like an attempt to make the man involved into some sort of scam artist….that he is somehow a shaddy character because he is in debt…..but really?  Name me 10 Americans that are not in debt or owe money on their car……

The man may well be a scammer…..but more FACTS need to be offered before I called him thus….besides I own guns, does that make me a terrorist?

Announcement

I have changed the theme of my blog…I wanted to make it more user friendly….I do a lot of writing and it is difficult to keep up with me normally….this new theme will let my reader click on a specific category and find all the posts there….I am hoping this will increase the number of people commenting because I would like to hear all points of view on any given subject…..Please if you disagree with me or just want to add to the discussion, please do so…..I always respect someone’s opinion and I do demand civility from all comments…..we can disagree with being disagreeable…..I hope you enjoy the change….if not let me know and we can readjust the blog…..look forward to the comments and the debate……

2010 Anal-Ocity #7

Beauty is skin deep, but stupid goes all the way to the bone…..and is forever…

In case you are new to the site…my anal-ocities are anal statements made by people in the “Know”……dumbass knows no bounds……it hits all parties, all races, all….you get the idea…

This one is from one of my favs….a man that cannot go a week without saying something stupid….Mr. Glenn beck…..

Beck’s newest rant is all about the 2010 Census……thanx to thinkprogress.org…..

He took particular issue with a question asking for the respondent’s race.

BECK: Why were they asking the race question, you said when, in 1790? … Right, they want to know, do you count as three-fifths? Do you count at all? So, you have to know how many slaves did you have? People find that offensive today because the idea was, if we’re going to count, we want to know how many are here for services etc. etc. and slaves would get less. Well that’s not right. One. One. ‘I’m not three-fifths, I’m one. Whites are not worth than me.’ Now reverse it, why are they asking this question today?

So you will get more dollars if you are a minority. So you are worth more as a monitory. Well there is no difference. The reason you don’t answer the race question is because one, everyone counts as one. All men are created equal. If you were offended back in 1790 about slavery and that everyone should count the same, do not answer the race question. How dare you. How dare you. At least in 1790, they were doing it to slow the South down on slavery. To try to stop it as much as they can. Today they are asking the race question to try to increase slavery. Your dependence on the master in Washington. No way, don’t answer that question.

This guy always makes the most outlandish statements and yet he is still on the air and on a network that claims to be “fair and balance”……but to say that the census will return the detestable practice of slavery is far beyond an anal statement and approaches mental illness…..but yet his moronic rants seem to play well with low information people…….btw, that means STUPID!


Equality? What Is It Good For?

Inkwell Institute

Professor’s Classroom

Subject:  Equality/Philosophy/

Paper #7

Absolutely…NOTHING!

In the days of yore….a group of like minded aristocrats got together and with the help of a writer came up with a document for independence and the immortal words, “All men are created equal”…….now that brings us to the question what is equality?  And what the Hell were they talking about?

I must preface my post with the fact that the concept of equality is subjective…..it means what you want it to mean….and that is not necessarily the most accurate of definitions…..

“All men are created equal”…..a great statement but here is absolute NO one that believes that for a second…..we all have our little things that we are somehow a bit better than someone else….if you do not agree then you are ignoring a basic human belief….we are not all born equal!  Some are more intelligent or more gifted in certain duties than others….this is not to say that it is racist or bigotry just a basic evolutionary fact…..

If the Framers really believed the quote then why did they allow the institution of slavery to continue?….I do not think the Founders real believed that we were all born equal….however they did believe that we all have an equal opportunity to succeed…not would be a stark difference than their little line in a document…..but after all they were trying to get people on board with the whole independence thing….

If you truly think that the Founders believed their own words, would Jefferson have said this:

“Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people [blacks] are to be free. Nor is it less certain that the two races, equally free, cannot live in the same government. Nature, habit, opinion has drawn indelible lines of distinction between them.” –Thomas Jefferson: Autobiography, 1821. ME 1:72

The “Opportunity for Equality” or to put it another way, the “Equality of Opportunity”…..that we all have the opportunity to be equal as far as economic issues go….with hard work and the rest of that imaginary crap goes…..

Equality?  Like I have stated…there will be a wealth of opinions on just what the word means…..and in the beginning….the masters of the revolution  never really intended for it to actually mean that we are all total equal……more that we all have an equal chance at success…..to put it simply….

Ain’t equality great?  Thoughts?