VP says we misread the economy...not so says Obama, we didnt have the complete information!!!! [Krugman at least had the courage to say he didnt forsee it would be this bad.] Obama will never have the "complete information" on an estimate until it becomes reality/history. The One is too clever by half... can't get right if I dont have complete info and hey I just set prioities, goals and objectives, congress and the cabinet must fill in the blanks. Making decisions with out all the facts is a fact of life in many adult endeavors. Some call it judgment....others might call it management 101.
Or is it a case of being thin-skinned; do not like being criticized, second guessed, what ever. Either way, welcome to the real world, Mr President
Within 24 hours of a Quinnipac poll citing lower approval levels in Ohio re handling of the economy , WH announces a "tour" of rural towns in former swing states. Why not urban tours in bigger cities and surroundings where 75% of the economy is generated? By all means include NY, SF, LA to ensure some friendly faces are visible. The only thing new is the siren's voice; the rest is the same old, same old...
When faced with trillion $ costs for the health care initiatives, what does DC do? First off, we begin to massage the health care cost curve A.K.A play with the numbers,modify the assumptions. Next maybe we will change actuarial longevity best guesses on how long we will live and, behold...now we will "tax the rich" to take care of the left outs. We will have to do that anyway in an attempt to righten the good ship deficit at some point so why not do it now. Never waste a good crisis!! Eventually to paraphrase Thatcher there will be no one else left to tax some more. And then when it's time to tackle the deficit, the Democrats will have to define rich as anyone with more than $25,000 in the bank and today's California as a model for us all to emulate ,ohee, ohee.
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Jumping ahead, since Dad and I started talking about Frank Rich
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As for Rich, I was suprised too. And surprised I agree. But I somehow suspect that most of the country actually does agree on Healthcare - much more so than polls would indicate.
*Most* people would agree that our insurance system is broken, that the way we provide medicine is broken, and it needs to be fixed. The "how to fix" part obviously divides people dynamically, but that's where he just has to get over the " by the people" part and say, "this is how it's gonna get done, and you're gonna have to get the hell out of my way, or be known in history as the guy that thought american's didn't deserve medical care".
It's ridiculous not to have a public option - especially if you believe in the free market! How on earth can the Govt have any clout if they aren't the swaggering bully in the space. As for Govt vs Corp efficiency, the efficiency gap is way overrated. I worked at Pfizer - I got paid $100/hour to talk about the "user experience" of scheduling jets for the executive leadership team! That company makes $50 billion and could acquire Arkansas if it wanted to. Meanwhile, I can renew my license without showing up, move apts and my voter registration follows me, take the ferry to Staten Island for free, and when I call the city, potholes get fixed!
Govt is bloated an inefficien,t sure, but so are big companies. And both are worse in flush times.
Ed grosso in reply to Andrew...I too suspect a majority of the country would like to see improvements to the health care and the health insurance situation. What separates people is their views of [1] the various solutions being proposed on any given day, [2] their view of whether a public option is desirable or necessary and [3] can we afford the cost of improving what we have for those who have something plus covering an additional 30 million people.
ReplyDeleteI for one would welcome the govt legislating; an end to pre-existing conditions I gotchas, providing doctors with govt sponsored mal practice insurance for a fee, enacting tort reform, repealing state laws to eliminate the monopolies/oligolopies in geographic areas to spark competition and equalizing tax treatment of emploer provided and individually owned health insurance. Likewise I would like to see the govt.enabling the import of cheaper foreign drugs under patent.
As for the govt option they already are the 600 pound gorrila or swaggering bully in the room through the DoJ, 32 czars,the regulators and I almost fogot, Medicare...which is going broke. They couldnt control costs for medicare how are they going to control costs much less reduce costs for the entire populations health insurance...trying harder? This is the govt where the President challenged his cabinet to come up with 100 million $ of savings in a 3 trillion $ budget? Reminiscent of Pollyanna or Pangloss?
I suppose we could emulate France where all employed are insured through their public option for 20% of their income...btw, 95% of them purchase supplemental private insurance for an additional 3% of their income. The bottom line on that program is a deficit of nearly 10 billion euros a year for 60 million people which extrapolates to what? nearly 100 billion $ a year for our population or ~ 1 trillion over 10 years ...sound familar?
You want the govt option? Great, use it for the 30 million [another ever shifting number] who lack insurance...and yes raise taxes on the population to pay for it...what politician would do that? openly that is