I am getting so frustrated with politics as they are that I must do something so I will write.
I HATE CHICKEN LITTLE!
I am listening to all sides and I am getting sick of the asinine propaganda that is just flying out of their mouths.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
I am Tired
It has come to me that I have been wasting a tremendous amount of time paying attention to "Both Sides"... What was I thinking. I live in America, there is only Americans here and only one side. There are not 2 sides, we are "One Nation". How do we get the people of this country to understand that?
My first vote is to expose the likes of Olberman, Maddow, Matthews, Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, and the likes. Any time you have a loudmouth blathering on about what the other guy is doing, you have a divider. One whose main goal is to put themselves out there as right and those who believe differently as wrong, or as so eloquently put by a former leader, you are either with us or you are the enemy~! Whaa!! For real?
My first vote is to expose the likes of Olberman, Maddow, Matthews, Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, and the likes. Any time you have a loudmouth blathering on about what the other guy is doing, you have a divider. One whose main goal is to put themselves out there as right and those who believe differently as wrong, or as so eloquently put by a former leader, you are either with us or you are the enemy~! Whaa!! For real?
Monday, March 29, 2010
Insurance Reform ???? WHY?
Why do they blame the big insurance companies. I need to know, do they feel it is the Insurance companies charging $27.50 for a band-aid at the hospital? They are so close yet so far.
The mistake they make is not understanding that the insurance company is the one that is paying the bills, not the ones setting the prices. We should know that every insurance company in every state is only allowed to make a 35% profit on individual plans and a 30% profit margin in group plans and "The Bill" has changed that to 20% and 15% respectively (Sec. 1001, as modified by Sec. 10101)
Now the health care industry on the other hand has no restrictions on what they can charge. I have seen CT scans come with a charge of $400 to $4000 in Minnesota. Health Cost is the problem, as a nation we spend 15.3% of our GDP on health care. Not on insurance, on the cost of the product. Compare that to other nations and you will see the next closest is Germany with 11.1% and the average being 9.34% of all modern nations. (Not third world) The health care industry has been able to run at an inflation rate of an average of 12% per year over the past 35 years. A baby that cost $165 to be born in 1970 now costs around $10000. Why, when the number of days spent in the hospital has gone down from 5 days to 1.5 days, has something so natural inflated so much? Because they could. You see the health care industry learned that it didn't matter what they charged because the people never saw the bill and never asked, and the insurance companies just paid the bill. This continued on for years because the insurance company never promised they would keep your premiums down. As a matter of fact, if anyone bothered to read their health insurance binder, they would see that the insurance company plans to spend $65 of every $100 taken in and if they have to spend more the have the right to raise your rates. So, if they paid too much they raised the rates.
Thus we get to the real problem which gives the pundits half credit for being right. Since the inception of health insurance provided by the work place, people haven’t had to care how much it cost and went to the MD or ER for everything because to them it only cost $20, their co-pay. To emphasize my point, in a Tucson Citizen special report / By Carla McClain –they reported that bees have become more aggressive over the past 35 years. They cited emergency room reports of bee stings as a source. Now call me old fashioned, but if I ever got stung by a bee, my mom told me to put some mud on it, now it deserves an emergency room visit? Why? Twenty bucks that’s why.
By not being responsible and shopping price we have made health care a business that does not need to compete. Now they are telling everyone about the under payments and the HMO’s and PPO’s taking over everything when really, they own most of them. U-Care Minnesota is owned by the MD’s. They are trading but what they are trading for is an automatic paycheck whether they work or not, as long as their client signs up for the plan. The primary clinic gets a portion of the monthly premium for every client they have on the plan.
To blame the people who are paying the bills is absurd. It’s also about people wanting insurance to pay for everything making it cost more, and not checking on how what your doctor charges for a service compares to another doctor is also why it costs more. When you crash your car do you bring it to the first guy to fix and say have at it or do you get a few estimates?
Now the sad part for the United States, is that 161 million of the 303 million people are already on “The Public Option”. Medicare and Medicaid but also VA, TriCare, Military active and their families, and The Federal Employee Insurance.
We all know that America is broke. We have huge deficits, and we cannot afford to pay for half of the US health care bills. In 2003 all types of government insurances provided 46 % of all health care expenditures. It is only worse now. So my 2 cents is simple. Make the MD’s and Hospitals compete and let capitalism work and there would be no crisis.
As long as you want to blame the person paying the bills and avoid the real issues, the crisis will continue until there is a single payer system (which likely will happen as a result of this bill) at which time the problem will be solved because the MD’s and Hospitals will have no other choice than accept the payment.
Finally, in respect to the big bad insurance companies not insuring pre-existing conditions, would you believe it to be fair for a person to call her agent and say I want a million dollars more insurance on my husband, and when asked why is that, she says he’ll be dead in a week. Or perhaps, you could light your home on fire and call your agent and ask him to double your coverage. Do you at all understand how insurance works. We buy insurance in case something happens. Not because something happened. We also buy insurance for that which we cannot replace, not things we can. All of these are factors on what insurance should cost. What person, let alone a company would bet on the loser of a game that has already been played and lost?
What is wrong with the bill, it doesn’t address the problem that created the crisis “Health Care Costs”, and the people have no idea what the real problem is.
I am for healthcare reform, it is just my reform is to make competitive markets for health care, use the model we have in Minnesota for the un-insured and un-insurable (Minnesota Care, and MCHA) in the rest of the US, and to turn all of Medicare and Medicaid into a known expense by handing it over to Private Insurance Companies like they did with Medicare Part C, Advantage Plans.
Ask every American become insured at birth, if they refuse, then charge them a penalty for the years they abused the system when they do decide to get insurance. You may ask why, and again I say, we buy insurance in case…not because. The only way everyone can get insurance at a fair price, is if everyone is accountable for them self and insures that which they cannot replace.
The mistake they make is not understanding that the insurance company is the one that is paying the bills, not the ones setting the prices. We should know that every insurance company in every state is only allowed to make a 35% profit on individual plans and a 30% profit margin in group plans and "The Bill" has changed that to 20% and 15% respectively (Sec. 1001, as modified by Sec. 10101)
Now the health care industry on the other hand has no restrictions on what they can charge. I have seen CT scans come with a charge of $400 to $4000 in Minnesota. Health Cost is the problem, as a nation we spend 15.3% of our GDP on health care. Not on insurance, on the cost of the product. Compare that to other nations and you will see the next closest is Germany with 11.1% and the average being 9.34% of all modern nations. (Not third world) The health care industry has been able to run at an inflation rate of an average of 12% per year over the past 35 years. A baby that cost $165 to be born in 1970 now costs around $10000. Why, when the number of days spent in the hospital has gone down from 5 days to 1.5 days, has something so natural inflated so much? Because they could. You see the health care industry learned that it didn't matter what they charged because the people never saw the bill and never asked, and the insurance companies just paid the bill. This continued on for years because the insurance company never promised they would keep your premiums down. As a matter of fact, if anyone bothered to read their health insurance binder, they would see that the insurance company plans to spend $65 of every $100 taken in and if they have to spend more the have the right to raise your rates. So, if they paid too much they raised the rates.
Thus we get to the real problem which gives the pundits half credit for being right. Since the inception of health insurance provided by the work place, people haven’t had to care how much it cost and went to the MD or ER for everything because to them it only cost $20, their co-pay. To emphasize my point, in a Tucson Citizen special report / By Carla McClain –they reported that bees have become more aggressive over the past 35 years. They cited emergency room reports of bee stings as a source. Now call me old fashioned, but if I ever got stung by a bee, my mom told me to put some mud on it, now it deserves an emergency room visit? Why? Twenty bucks that’s why.
By not being responsible and shopping price we have made health care a business that does not need to compete. Now they are telling everyone about the under payments and the HMO’s and PPO’s taking over everything when really, they own most of them. U-Care Minnesota is owned by the MD’s. They are trading but what they are trading for is an automatic paycheck whether they work or not, as long as their client signs up for the plan. The primary clinic gets a portion of the monthly premium for every client they have on the plan.
To blame the people who are paying the bills is absurd. It’s also about people wanting insurance to pay for everything making it cost more, and not checking on how what your doctor charges for a service compares to another doctor is also why it costs more. When you crash your car do you bring it to the first guy to fix and say have at it or do you get a few estimates?
Now the sad part for the United States, is that 161 million of the 303 million people are already on “The Public Option”. Medicare and Medicaid but also VA, TriCare, Military active and their families, and The Federal Employee Insurance.
We all know that America is broke. We have huge deficits, and we cannot afford to pay for half of the US health care bills. In 2003 all types of government insurances provided 46 % of all health care expenditures. It is only worse now. So my 2 cents is simple. Make the MD’s and Hospitals compete and let capitalism work and there would be no crisis.
As long as you want to blame the person paying the bills and avoid the real issues, the crisis will continue until there is a single payer system (which likely will happen as a result of this bill) at which time the problem will be solved because the MD’s and Hospitals will have no other choice than accept the payment.
Finally, in respect to the big bad insurance companies not insuring pre-existing conditions, would you believe it to be fair for a person to call her agent and say I want a million dollars more insurance on my husband, and when asked why is that, she says he’ll be dead in a week. Or perhaps, you could light your home on fire and call your agent and ask him to double your coverage. Do you at all understand how insurance works. We buy insurance in case something happens. Not because something happened. We also buy insurance for that which we cannot replace, not things we can. All of these are factors on what insurance should cost. What person, let alone a company would bet on the loser of a game that has already been played and lost?
What is wrong with the bill, it doesn’t address the problem that created the crisis “Health Care Costs”, and the people have no idea what the real problem is.
I am for healthcare reform, it is just my reform is to make competitive markets for health care, use the model we have in Minnesota for the un-insured and un-insurable (Minnesota Care, and MCHA) in the rest of the US, and to turn all of Medicare and Medicaid into a known expense by handing it over to Private Insurance Companies like they did with Medicare Part C, Advantage Plans.
Ask every American become insured at birth, if they refuse, then charge them a penalty for the years they abused the system when they do decide to get insurance. You may ask why, and again I say, we buy insurance in case…not because. The only way everyone can get insurance at a fair price, is if everyone is accountable for them self and insures that which they cannot replace.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Dow Jones
Wow, Isn't this interesting. We are watching this and most people do not understand what is going on. What we are being told is that the housing crisis has caused this and that it was the law Clinton passed in Dec. 1999 is what made is happen.
So let me get this straight, a law passed in Dec. 1999 by a Democratic President, that passed through a Republican House, and Senate was the cause. So if it was the catalyst, why did the Republicans allow it to remain in force? Didn't they control the House, Senate, and Presidency for 6 of the past 8 years? Maybe because they and all of their friends were reaping the benefits.
We don't want to sit and listen to blaming because there is enough fault to go around for everyone.
As far as I was concerned this market has been doomed for years. My son Richard said in his blog, math doesn't lie, over and over again. Well I felt the same thing. I sat down 3 years ago and started looking at the PE's (profits to earnings ratio) and saw that the math wasn't adding up. I argued that the market belonged between 7500 and 7800. There is no justifiable reason for a company to have a PE over 14. We were seeing between 40:1 to 150:1 PE's. What this meant was that companies were making $150 on $1 investments. Worse yet they were selling no products. So why were they doing so well. SPECULATION. there was no reason for it people just got greedy and thought that this company was valuable and kept buying it and drove the prices up and up. It's kind of like a pyramid scheme, every one give a dollar and they tell friends to do so and so on. Now we all know only the ones at the top of the pyramid make money but that didn't stop these people from investing because they all got greedy.
This market will settle in at $7500-7800 and I believe that enough people have been stung to allow for normal growth from now on. The market will get better, and not due to any political candidate, but due to the fact that people are now understanding that playing the market is gambling. You can play the $5 slots and hope for a big win or you can go the the Blackjack table and have a %50 chance of winning. If people invest in companies with between 7 and 10 to 1 PE companies, they will receive steady growth and get their accounts back on track. Do not listen to the pundants who talk about this being a good time to get great deals on breakout companies, stay with many small companies that have lower PE's and be comfortable in the knowledge that I am just a guy that kind of gets it. Those pundants, they are called BROKERS and what is the root word of Broker...BROKE.
So let me get this straight, a law passed in Dec. 1999 by a Democratic President, that passed through a Republican House, and Senate was the cause. So if it was the catalyst, why did the Republicans allow it to remain in force? Didn't they control the House, Senate, and Presidency for 6 of the past 8 years? Maybe because they and all of their friends were reaping the benefits.
We don't want to sit and listen to blaming because there is enough fault to go around for everyone.
As far as I was concerned this market has been doomed for years. My son Richard said in his blog, math doesn't lie, over and over again. Well I felt the same thing. I sat down 3 years ago and started looking at the PE's (profits to earnings ratio) and saw that the math wasn't adding up. I argued that the market belonged between 7500 and 7800. There is no justifiable reason for a company to have a PE over 14. We were seeing between 40:1 to 150:1 PE's. What this meant was that companies were making $150 on $1 investments. Worse yet they were selling no products. So why were they doing so well. SPECULATION. there was no reason for it people just got greedy and thought that this company was valuable and kept buying it and drove the prices up and up. It's kind of like a pyramid scheme, every one give a dollar and they tell friends to do so and so on. Now we all know only the ones at the top of the pyramid make money but that didn't stop these people from investing because they all got greedy.
This market will settle in at $7500-7800 and I believe that enough people have been stung to allow for normal growth from now on. The market will get better, and not due to any political candidate, but due to the fact that people are now understanding that playing the market is gambling. You can play the $5 slots and hope for a big win or you can go the the Blackjack table and have a %50 chance of winning. If people invest in companies with between 7 and 10 to 1 PE companies, they will receive steady growth and get their accounts back on track. Do not listen to the pundants who talk about this being a good time to get great deals on breakout companies, stay with many small companies that have lower PE's and be comfortable in the knowledge that I am just a guy that kind of gets it. Those pundants, they are called BROKERS and what is the root word of Broker...BROKE.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Debating Politics
I am a very active debater. I love to talk politics. It is so much fun to me and I learn so much. I love hearing opposing views and doing the best I can to refute them. In argumentative situations there are do's and don'ts.
Do allow the other person to make their point.
Don't interrupt.
Do offer valid points and counterpoints.
Don't use slippery slope or straw man arguments.
Do know what you are talking about.
Don't speak if you know not the subject.
Do use facts.
Don't use talking points.
When ever you get into a debate about politics, speak of your opinions, never use the words you hear on TV or in the news or on political campaigns. If a person asks you a question about your party or candidate, answer it. Stop using the "oh Yeah. well what about their party or candidate. Answer the f' ing question asked. There is nothing so ignorant to me as when I ask and their come back is a talking point or an attack on my belief. There is no way you can enlighten a person as to what it is you believe in if you never tell them what it is or why you believe in it.
I am irritated when watching the 2 parties debate on TV after a big event. It is just ridiculous. It's like watching 4th graders in the school yard. Na na na na boo boo. After watching the VP debate, I was astounded that everyone was going so ga ga over the fact that Sarah Palin didn't fall on her face. Well, I for one, feel like she did. I saw an antagonistic, undereducated, semi-illiterate, unjustifiable excuse for a candidate. She has no grasp of the English language, and doesn't understand the difference between NUCLEAR and NUCULAR. I have cringed for 8 years as our current President has butchered the English language and cannot believe that they want me to go through this again.
Her demeanor, her winks, her talkin' strait to the people of Amairaker bullshit was offensive to me. If there is a "g" on the end of a word...use it. For sure, golly gee, gosh darn it.
IF I WANTED THE GROCERY STORE CHECK OUT GIRL TO RUN THE COUNTRY I ASK HER TO RUN MYSELF. I want an educated person that has a grasp of the English language, who doesn't try to play cutesy when they don't have a good answer for me, and does not speak of the American Public as Joe Six Pack and Hockey Moms.
I wrote this before the SNL skit...Man they nailed it!
Do allow the other person to make their point.
Don't interrupt.
Do offer valid points and counterpoints.
Don't use slippery slope or straw man arguments.
Do know what you are talking about.
Don't speak if you know not the subject.
Do use facts.
Don't use talking points.
When ever you get into a debate about politics, speak of your opinions, never use the words you hear on TV or in the news or on political campaigns. If a person asks you a question about your party or candidate, answer it. Stop using the "oh Yeah. well what about their party or candidate. Answer the f' ing question asked. There is nothing so ignorant to me as when I ask and their come back is a talking point or an attack on my belief. There is no way you can enlighten a person as to what it is you believe in if you never tell them what it is or why you believe in it.
I am irritated when watching the 2 parties debate on TV after a big event. It is just ridiculous. It's like watching 4th graders in the school yard. Na na na na boo boo. After watching the VP debate, I was astounded that everyone was going so ga ga over the fact that Sarah Palin didn't fall on her face. Well, I for one, feel like she did. I saw an antagonistic, undereducated, semi-illiterate, unjustifiable excuse for a candidate. She has no grasp of the English language, and doesn't understand the difference between NUCLEAR and NUCULAR. I have cringed for 8 years as our current President has butchered the English language and cannot believe that they want me to go through this again.
Her demeanor, her winks, her talkin' strait to the people of Amairaker bullshit was offensive to me. If there is a "g" on the end of a word...use it. For sure, golly gee, gosh darn it.
IF I WANTED THE GROCERY STORE CHECK OUT GIRL TO RUN THE COUNTRY I ASK HER TO RUN MYSELF. I want an educated person that has a grasp of the English language, who doesn't try to play cutesy when they don't have a good answer for me, and does not speak of the American Public as Joe Six Pack and Hockey Moms.
I wrote this before the SNL skit...Man they nailed it!
The Surge Is Working
That is one of the most ludicrous talking points out there. What are they gauging this by? The fact that there is less violence now does not mean it is working. The 911 attack on America was done to destroy the American Economy. Every one thought it was over when the stock market crashed on Feb 16th 2002. What they didn't know is that the terrorist knew the Arrogant Americans will buy anything from their government if they call it "The War On". Think about it, The War On Drugs...The War on Terror, The War on Poverty, and The War on Crime. All those three words preceding anything the government wants to go after mean, is that they will get an open checkbook from the people of America. After all if you care about your country, you want to win all of these battles.
So Bin Laden attacks us, our supposed conservative Republican Party comes to power, and proceeds to spend 10 billion dollars a month on a war against "TERROR". There is no uniformed enemy, no face, no locale, just a word...Terror. Now the open checkbook that can be spent on anything! The terrorists knew that if they did this they could watch our country destroy its own economy by chasing their own tail and spending every penny they had to prove that we are "Right". They are laughing at our stupidity, 10 billion a month! Isn't that amazing, Since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, Congress has approved $691 billion to pay for the War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. So was it really the fault of the lenders, the buyers who couldn't afford to buy homes, the big CEO's salaries, Clinton for changing the lending rules so that there were different rules for investment banks and savings banks? I contend no! If there wasn't this war, there wouldn't be these problems.
Even I understand the basics of economics. If you set your budget up based upon what you can afford, and an unexpected expense comes up, you must choose which expense is more important and sacrifice one. Instead our government decided that "the fundamentals of the economy were sound" so they could just keep writing bad checks to both causes. These blind mice lead all of the United States into a giant mouse trap and we all followed like lemmings jumping off of the cliff in unison.
I am not saying which the most important cause was, I am just saying that during the entire Bush Administration, interest rates stayed as low as they have ever been in history, and the War has continued without regard for how much it will cost. We are being told we cannot stop until we achieve victory. Well, ask yourself what is going to be the gauge of victory. I believe that victory has already been accomplished, by the terrorist. They have destroyed our economy which was their goal. Now if you listen to what our government is saying, they believe they can still achieve a victory in the physical battles. So we are bigger and stronger than you...WOW. Kind of sounds like the schoolyard bully to me. He comes from a broken home, has no money, no education, and has a very false high opinion of himself, but if you want to fight, he can beat you up.
It is the constant barrage of "Patriotism, Country First, Flag waving" politics that have duped Americans into believing that we are right and the rest of the world is wrong giving us a very false high opinion of ourselves, that have broken our homes, broken our banks, and lead us to become a nation that other countries look at and shake their heads wondering what the hell are they thinking. But don't worry folks...we can just beat them up!
So Bin Laden attacks us, our supposed conservative Republican Party comes to power, and proceeds to spend 10 billion dollars a month on a war against "TERROR". There is no uniformed enemy, no face, no locale, just a word...Terror. Now the open checkbook that can be spent on anything! The terrorists knew that if they did this they could watch our country destroy its own economy by chasing their own tail and spending every penny they had to prove that we are "Right". They are laughing at our stupidity, 10 billion a month! Isn't that amazing, Since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, Congress has approved $691 billion to pay for the War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. So was it really the fault of the lenders, the buyers who couldn't afford to buy homes, the big CEO's salaries, Clinton for changing the lending rules so that there were different rules for investment banks and savings banks? I contend no! If there wasn't this war, there wouldn't be these problems.
Even I understand the basics of economics. If you set your budget up based upon what you can afford, and an unexpected expense comes up, you must choose which expense is more important and sacrifice one. Instead our government decided that "the fundamentals of the economy were sound" so they could just keep writing bad checks to both causes. These blind mice lead all of the United States into a giant mouse trap and we all followed like lemmings jumping off of the cliff in unison.
I am not saying which the most important cause was, I am just saying that during the entire Bush Administration, interest rates stayed as low as they have ever been in history, and the War has continued without regard for how much it will cost. We are being told we cannot stop until we achieve victory. Well, ask yourself what is going to be the gauge of victory. I believe that victory has already been accomplished, by the terrorist. They have destroyed our economy which was their goal. Now if you listen to what our government is saying, they believe they can still achieve a victory in the physical battles. So we are bigger and stronger than you...WOW. Kind of sounds like the schoolyard bully to me. He comes from a broken home, has no money, no education, and has a very false high opinion of himself, but if you want to fight, he can beat you up.
It is the constant barrage of "Patriotism, Country First, Flag waving" politics that have duped Americans into believing that we are right and the rest of the world is wrong giving us a very false high opinion of ourselves, that have broken our homes, broken our banks, and lead us to become a nation that other countries look at and shake their heads wondering what the hell are they thinking. But don't worry folks...we can just beat them up!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Bail Out
Doesn't it seem ironic that companies want a Capitalistic Government when they are doing well in the market but then want a Socialistic Government when they get in trouble?
Really, I do get it. I can relate because I have been on both sides of the spectrum in my life when I struggled, and when I have had more fortunate times. That is why I am so against the ideology of the Republican Platform. You would think that more people would get this, and with the way things are going maybe they will. It really depends on just how we get out of this mess.
I am fearful and skeptical of the McCain move to "Suspend" his campaign to get back to work. The skeptisism comes from knowing that he is slipping in the polls and needs to distance himself from the attitude that his party was responsible for the "do nothing" government to create this mess. On the other hand if he goes back and they do accomplish something, albeit they will come up with something even if he isn't there, he will come out boasting the propaganda that he went in and saved the world while the other candidates sat back and did nothing.
This is nothing but politics as usual and again, the public fails to see it.
We really do need a change. I again will say it is not necessarily Obama, but this country is in a mess and if we keep going along with the tide, we will end up like every other great society and come tumbling down.
Really, I do get it. I can relate because I have been on both sides of the spectrum in my life when I struggled, and when I have had more fortunate times. That is why I am so against the ideology of the Republican Platform. You would think that more people would get this, and with the way things are going maybe they will. It really depends on just how we get out of this mess.
I am fearful and skeptical of the McCain move to "Suspend" his campaign to get back to work. The skeptisism comes from knowing that he is slipping in the polls and needs to distance himself from the attitude that his party was responsible for the "do nothing" government to create this mess. On the other hand if he goes back and they do accomplish something, albeit they will come up with something even if he isn't there, he will come out boasting the propaganda that he went in and saved the world while the other candidates sat back and did nothing.
This is nothing but politics as usual and again, the public fails to see it.
We really do need a change. I again will say it is not necessarily Obama, but this country is in a mess and if we keep going along with the tide, we will end up like every other great society and come tumbling down.
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