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HomeDo You Trust Uncle Sam to Deliver on Healthcare?
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 23rd, 2010 6:11 AM |
Sifting through all of the pros and cons of healthcare reform, I strongly believe the greatest fear for the majority of Americans is that Uncle Sam will screw up the delivery of healthcare itself. Healthcare is the equivalent of the third rail for Americans. Uncle Sam can go ahead and touch almost every other aspect of our lives, but when it comes to our health and access to our physicians, now that is truly personal.
Can Uncle Sam deliver? I guess it is possible, but regrettably Americans increasingly do not trust the “old man” on this topic. (more…)
Healthcare Reform To Make You Ill
Posted by Larry Doyle on January 7th, 2010 4:29 PM |
A loyal Sense on Cents reader asked me to comment on the dramatic rise in health-care premiums highlighted in an article, Soaring Health Premium Just Makes Me Feel Sick, from the Irish Independent. The author, Martina Devlin, writes of an individual in Ireland who just received her new health-care premium. Devlin offers:
I SERIOUSLY debated cancelling my private health insurance recently. When the renewal notice arrived in the post I did a double-take at the size of the bill, cross-checked the increase — which was almost 20pc — and gulped.
Value for money it wasn’t. In fact, it struck me as a hefty charge to cover what I regarded as an insubstantial risk. You can never discount the danger, but I’m still reasonably young and healthy (touch wood).
Reviewing the article immediately reminded me of a conversation that I had with my wife’s cousin, a doctor in a community hospital. I spoke with him over the holidays and asked him his take on the propsects for healthcare reform and legislation here in our country.
His take was as follows: (more…)
Health Care Payoffs
Posted by Larry Doyle on December 23rd, 2009 12:26 PM |
Washington may think the “payoff politics as usual” is justified under the guise of working toward goals, but I would beg to differ. In my opinion, the payoffs garnered by Senators Ben Nelson (D-NE), Chris Dodd (D-CT), and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) are emblematic of the broken political process in America.
Why is it that citizens of some states are not required to pay the same freight as citizens of all other states? Why is it that citizens of some states garner ’special’ benefits and advantages not accorded to citizens of all other states?
I do not doubt for a second that this ‘payoff politics’ has been going on for a lot longer than we may appreciate. I would also maintain that a significant portion of our fiscal and moral deficits are generated from this very approach.
The fact that representatives hold out for these payoffs and then promote them as benefiting their states should be more widely broadcast as unpatriotic and divisive.
The fact that administrations from both sides of the aisle have chosen the ‘payoff’ style of politics is merely an indication as to the lack of character, courage, and political intellect needed to craft real legislative reforms.
When the ‘for sale’ sign is constantly out, that lowest common denominator will always be reached.
If this ‘payoff politics’ is the best America has to offer, then I am increasingly concerned that our collective future will be far less than it ought to be.
Where are the real statesmen?
LD
“You Can’t Make a Weak Man Strong by Making a Strong Man Weak”
Posted by Larry Doyle on November 12th, 2009 11:42 AM |
Barack Obama would like to think he represents the second coming of Abraham Lincoln. During his campaign and inauguration and now also during his Presidency, Obama and his minions are working to overtake and fundamentally change the structure and fabric of large parts of our economy and nation. He is the President and he has every right and obligation to perform. That said, the American population also has the right and obligation to speak its mind. In regard to the Lincoln comparisons, let’s revisit that later in this commentary.
Those in Washington pushing health care reform would seemingly like to present this situation as being so complex and so convoluted that the American public neither appreciates nor has a choice in the eventual passage of this legislation. I hear time and time again that the government must institute real change and that the government must be the driving force in bringing about that change. Is the American public being prepped to have the largest single government overhaul of a sector representing approximately 18% of 2009 GDP literally rammed down our throats?
While the wizards in Washington pushing this so-called reform seem to believe they know what is in the American public’s best interests, in my opinion they are tone deaf to large segments of the American population.
As I touched upon the other day, proposed health care reform is merely another in the myriad of government redistribution programs. Who gets this? Mike Rogers, Congressman from Michigan (R-MI). He spoke earlier this year about this exceptionally important topic from a macro standpoint. Let’s revisit his comments. Please listen closely. His references to information emantating from the U.K and Canada are chilling to those who have worked hard to take care of themselves and their loved ones.
This video clip runs less than four minutes. The message lasts a lifetime.
Please share the clip and your comments.
LD
“You can’t make a weak man strong by making a strong man weak”
— Abraham Lincoln
Health Care Reform or Merely Another Redistribution Program
Posted by Larry Doyle on November 9th, 2009 8:49 AM |
Why is an ever increasing percentage of the American public getting angry?
In my opinion, more and more Americans are not only questioning but now realizing that they are largely disenfranchised. How so? Seemingly each and every program emanating from Washington is merely another form of income and wealth redistribution.
Make no mistake, the redistribution is running in both directions; that is, to the large monied interests on Wall Street and those who are increasingly dependent on Washington’s welfare and largesse. While funds are flowing in both directions, America’s great middle class feels more squeezed and screwed than at any point in their lifetime. We witness this reality again in Congress’ passage of its health-care reform legislation late on Saturday night.
While the health-care legislation will continue to be hotly debated, I view it as another government program imposing on the lives of those who have worked tirelessly to make this country great. Clearly, people are passionate on both sides of the health-care debate but ultimately this so called reform is merely another form of rationing and redistribution. Is that what America truly wants? I think not. Washington’s Democratic establishment will pass this bill at their political peril. They know it.
Arrogance comes in many forms, but ultimately I believe the height of arrogance is willful blindness. I see a lot of that in Washington these days.
LD
Robert Reich Assails Obama Deal with Big Pharma as ‘Assault on Democracy’
Posted by Larry Doyle on August 10th, 2009 7:54 AM |
Likened to extortion. Assault on democracy.
Strong charges put forth by Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich in regard to a deal cut by the Obama administration with Big Pharma (major pharmaceutical companies) to support his proposed health-care reform.
If you start to see a major advertising blitz by the pharmaceutical companies in support of Obamacare (and you will) and wonder how it happened, I strongly recommend How the White House’s Deal with Big Pharma Undermines Democracy, recently posted at Wall Street Pit.
Reich weighs in:
I want universal health insurance. And having had a front-row seat in 1994 when Big Pharma and the rest of the health-industry complex went to battle against it, I can tell you first hand how big and effective the onslaught can be. So I appreciate Big Pharma’s support this time around, and I like it that the industry is doing the reverse of what it did last time, and airing ads to persuade the public of the rightness of the White House’s effort.
But I also care about democracy, and the deal between Big Pharma and the White House frankly worries me. It’s bad enough when industry lobbyists extract concessions from members of Congress, which happens all the time. But when an industry gets secret concessions out of the White House in return for a promise to lend the industry’s support to a key piece of legislation, we’re in big trouble. That’s called extortion: An industry is using its capacity to threaten or prevent legislation as a means of altering that legislation for its own benefit. And it’s doing so at the highest reaches of our government, in the office of the President.
When the industry support comes with an industry-sponsored ad campaign in favor of that legislation, the threat to democracy is even greater.
We’re on a precarious road — and wherever it leads, it’s not toward democracy.
Do yourself the favor and read this entire piece by Reich and then share it with friends and colleagues. I know that Washington is bought and sold many times over, but this deal strikes more deeply at the heart of the democratic process.
Those aren’t my words, but those of Robert Reich!! I concur.
What do you think?
LD
Obama’s Lessened Popularity Is Helping the Market
Posted by Larry Doyle on July 30th, 2009 5:12 PM |
What is driving the equity markets higher?
1. an end to the recession?
2. green shoots?
3. better than expected earnings?
4. excess liquidity?
5. all of the above?
How about President Obama’s decline in popularity? In a perverse way, is a lessened approval rating for President Obama, in fact, supporting our markets?
Has the decline been statistically significant? What has caused the decline? Given that we are living in the Sense on Cents designated Uncle Sam Economy, we would be foolhardy to neglect what political polls are saying.
Gallup reports, Obama Approval Slips Three Points in Past Week:
Amidst President Obama’s push in July to revamp the nation’s healthcare system, Gallup finds his average job approval rating registering 56% for the seven-day period ending Sunday, down from 59% the previous week. This three percentage point drop is the largest week-to-week decline seen in Obama’s job approval thus far in his presidency, and punctuates a gradual descent from his 66% rating in early May.
The current week is starting off no better for Obama than the previous one. His job approval score in Gallup Poll Daily tracking, conducted July 25-27, is 54%; this is his lowest individual reading to date. Thirty-seven percent of Americans currently disapprove of the job he is doing and 9% have no opinion. (more…)
Uncle Sam Giveth and Taketh
Posted by Larry Doyle on July 11th, 2009 7:46 AM |
Give a penny, take a penny? How about give $50 billion, take $50 billion, if not a lot more . . .
Welcome to a Saturday morning chapter of “Uncle Sam Giveth and Taketh.”
While reviewing a number of news outlets, I was struck by the juxtaposition of two reports from The Washington Post:
White House Eyes Bailout Funds to Aid Small Firms and Democrats Agree on Tax Hike to Fund Health Care.
Standard fare, right?? Let’s not be quite so hasty.
From the former, we learn that:
The Obama administration is developing an initiative to take money from the $700 billion rescue program for the banking system and make it available to millions of small businesses, which officials say are essential to any economic recovery because they employ so many people, according to sources familiar with the plan.
The effort would represent a striking shift from the rescue program’s original mandate, since it would direct billions of bailout dollars toward a plan that aims more at saving jobs than at righting the financial system. Some economists estimate that small businesses, defined as firms with fewer than 500 workers, employ most of the country’s workforce.
From the latter, we learn that:
House Democrats agreed yesterday to raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for a sweeping expansion of the nation’s health-care system, proposing a surtax on the highest earners that could send the top federal tax rate toward 45 percent.
Republicans assailed the idea, saying the new tax would fall heavily on small-business owners, who tend to report business income on their personal tax returns.
Don’t think for a second that our political wizards in Washington are capable of precision execution on either of these fronts. Given the size of the respective programs, I think jobs saved (via increased SBA assistance) versus jobs lost (via higher taxes on small business) will be at best a push.
A few questions and comments:
1. How does Uncle Sam, in the name of the Small Business Administration, determine who receives assistance? Can Uncle Sam be influenced in picking winners and losers? Hmmmm . . .
2. Does it even matter anymore that the TARP legislation was not written for purposes of allocating funds to small business? Does the rule of law count for anything in our country?
3. On the tax front, to think the Obama administration is going to increase taxes on upper incomes (both individuals and small businesses) to as high as 45% and not touch tax rates below that is beyond naive. There is NO doubt in my mind the taxman cometh across the board at the federal, state, and local levels.
Thoughts and opinions, especially from those involved in small business, are deeply appreciated!!
LD
