The Health Care Scare

Pharmaceutical Incentives, Tort reform and Some Sanity

Yes I am sick over this – we just can’t afford it. In fact, many insured will actually end up paying more into another form of welfare. It appears though that Congress is holding up the Bill and I suspect everyone there is trying to cut back room deals and get their snout into the trough. We all know in order to get the votes needed to pass legislation deals for money are being extracted. So not only can we not afford this – politicians are looking to extract ridiculous sums of money for their communities as they have done with the stimulus and so many other Bills. Our political machine is so screwed up it even allows this to happen so these people can favor their communities to re elected.

Back to Health Care Legislation. The majority of the cost of care in America is liability insurance. Someone cuts their finger in an office and they sue for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Hey even if McDonalds serves coffee and it spills in the lap (yeh right – that person spilled and we all know it) of the person they can sue. So is it Health Care reform or is it tort reform that is necessary. I do think both but establishing another broke system like social security, Medicare and Medicaid is not the answer.

How about this. The drug companies operating in the US get a slight tax break and a donation tax credit to offer large supplies of drugs to the marketplace for these entitlement programs. That is a huge chunk of expense for those that need it most. Now doesn’t that make a huge amount of sense. Reducing liability insurance for docs allowing them to build their practices and incent them to offer more care would be a great backroom deal to cut. Incent docs and hospitals and it will be another reduction in the cost of care.

My wife had a kidney stone while we were Florida. She had to call 911 and I was in NYC doing a deal. I rushed back. The hospital in Clear Water Florida treated her in an appalling fashion – the worst health care experience we have ever had. Then our insurance had a whopping bill for almost $10k. For 4 hours of care and some tests it cost $10k. What is wrong? That is clearing insane. And also given socialized medicine you better expect a lot of the same - inferior levels of care and the staff just don’t care. If you want subpar care then another welfare system will give it to you.

Election promises – to get elected – then following through on impossible programs and massive pandering to us through television, the web, town hall meetings is horrifying. Imagine running for office and making all these promises when in fact you don’t even know what the heck the county’s finances or system is doing. Somebody owes somebody for certain and a $600 million dollar campaign owes a lot of people – count the lawyer’s lobby into that.

If I were President – and I would never run by the way as most great people wouldn’t – I would stand up there and the first words out of my mount would be “You know what I am going to promise you” NOTHING! How could I if I don’t know what the heck I am up against. And with a $2 trillion deficit and spiraling debt how could I ever run a business where I am bankrupt and then offering more healthcare to employees. Someone tell me I am wrong.

Healthcare Reform Makes Me Sick

I am healthy but the more I hear of socialized healthcare the more sick I get. Don’t get me wrong I think It will be great to get the 47 million uninsured – insured.

But being a fiscal watchdog this is the worst time in history to push another huge borrowing bill. If they say $1 trillion we know it will be way more expensive than that. Although this worked well in Massachusetts nationally it won’t. Plus with unemployment at levels we haven’t seen since World War II and those using far extended benefits how much more will that impact the cost? Did anyone in DC figure that in?

Much like car insurance everyone would be required to have it or get a nice tax penalty. Low income families will get a waiver or a voucher to use. Of course the pigs are at the trough already with Insurance companies, hospitals and drug companies spending hundreds of millions to lobby for healthcare reform. But the doctors have had little representation and it will be horrifying for them - the providers. Add it up! Unemployed, can’t afford it, low income etc.. And you have one of the most expensive efforts in US history.

Following European and Canadian Liberal programs like this and massive expansion of government is going to weigh heavily on an already bankrupt America. The hidden costs of the program won’t be understood until they institute another entitlement program that fails. Welfare, Medicaid, Medicare are already so screwed up and cost us so much money how can we add more fuel to the fire. Worse this is just another cookie jar for politicians to dig into. Why do you think the bill is having trouble getting structured? You got it – every side deal and backroom bribe is being tossed into it.

Bottom line is America can’t afford to run our business this way. Our profit and loss statement is $2 trillion in the hole. We are $12 trillion and soon $19 trillion in debt. Revenue is being cut (taxes) and to make up for all this we borrow money from the World. Now on top of that our failed company decides that although it is on the brink of bankruptcy that it is going to borrow another few trillion to provide employees huge healthcare programs. Not only is American sovereignty now held in the hands of foreign nations with another few trillion in socialized healthcare America ensures that the spiral drives us right off Capital Cliff.

$5 trillion Skeleton in Congress’ Closet

Contingent Liabilities Add up to Almost $30 Trillion          

How’s that!  Someone telling the truth.  Better than my economic bulimia. The figures are out and  just the bank bailout program alone will equal more than ONE THIRD of the US Economy. And  yes there is more to come – commercial real estate and jumbo loans – so it’s not over yet.  But I think some real business people are realizing that Congress has no clue how much money is being spent (whoops borrowed to be spent), how much it is costing and oh by the way all those financial commitments to Freddie and Fannie and a host of others.  If you add all that to the $111 trillion of unfunded liabilities of the government we start to see the picture they don’t want us to see.  “The Full Faith of The US Government” is backing up all these commitments, liabilities, contingent liabilities and the world’s investments in our country. 

Oh add a $2 trillion deficit this year – and over $1 trillion for healthcare reform.  So in a nutshell our sovereignty has been forfeited to foreign nations, we are bankrupt at best, moral and social decay, uneducated and ignorant voters, subpar education for our children and a nuclear economy.  It is true that I am a radical thinker but it doesn’t take any education to see all the cave drawings on our wall.  You tell me if I am wrong. 

History in the Making: Deficit tops $1 trillion

Expected $2 trillion by year end

A direct quote from me “If the US was a company our Board of Directors, Management and employees would be fired, the business bankrupt and a lot of people would go to jail”

I just brushed me teeth and tongue this morning because I had just choked on my own vomit. The US has many milestones that have impacted our nation and the world very positively. Now we are seeing the negative side of our leader’s actions and management. Try to comprehend what a $2 trillion deficit will do to the national debt. Yes $2 trillion more. This doesn’t include the minting of currency and other debt we are taking on but simply our national profit and loss. Imagine if the US was really a company!

Well the best way to gain perspective and a proxy for where we are fiscally is to see the US as a business. We are a capitalist nation after all.

First our government promises tax cuts. OK? This means that revenue will be reduced. In order to make up for voluntary revenue reduction the company executives decide to raise money to offset this. Did you hear that! Voluntary reduction of revenue and issuing debt to pay for it. Well fire management right there because that is so twisted and backward that anyone proposing that in the business world would be banished from the company and may never get a job again. Certainly wouldn’t deserve one.

Now as revenue is reduced the company itself is having a negative $2 trillion year. So reduce revenue, borrow money to stay afloat and take a bankrupt balance sheet and pile on more debt. Then comes the hammer. The shareholders – you and me – have to have full disclose of the liabilities that don’t get reported to us because they are like Enron off balance sheet transactions. This amounts to $111 trillion, and growing massively, of unfunded liabilities. These contingent liabilities have to be reported to show the health of the company and was one of the biggest reasons for Sarbanes Oxley laws. Now take a snap shot of that. Bankrupt correct. You better believe it.

So like AIG we allow our executives to take wild trips and parties and in this case spend billions on projects that directly benefit their job security. When completely bankrupt our management and board of directors use shareholder money and borrow to spend it for their benefit. Well people just went to jail for that – Enron, WorldCom, Adelphi etc... Worse while that is happening the managers decide to raid the company ESOP or 401k to pay for their projects. Yes, take money from federal programs like Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and others and give them IOUs because they took the money. Madoff looks like a walk in the park because many people are getting rich from this and the investors – again you and me – will have our investment in those programs wiped out. Yes our retirement and more.

What is the worst thing is that Americans (shareholders) have no choice in the matter. We hired this management team to run a tight ship and do a turnaround of the largest company in the world and we got shafted AGAIN. Like GM shareholders that “SACRAFICED” we too have worthless stock in a mismanaged, bankrupt enterprise that even Geithner thinks is still a good investment. Didn’t he get laughed at by a bunch of Chinese people for uttering the Full Faith of The US Government is solid as a rock. Would you personally invest your money in the American Company? Think of it that way and I am sure you will wake up and realize why the rest of the world has lost confidence in the investment worthiness of our company.

Stop The Stimulus: The Fox is in the White House and Congress.

Democrats are turning up the volume on the stimulus while the GOP has finally put their foot down.  Obama is using TV, again, to pander to us.  Can you even imagine that there are now talks about another stimulus package of borrowing and spending in DC.  I don’t know if I am blind, deaf and dumb but wasn't it borrowing and spending money across every part of economy that got us here in the first place?

The current stimulus package has already shown the typical mismanagement and ineffectiveness of the government to run this kind of operation.  Pilfering the money already for pet projects should have every American marching in the streets and a real sign of what else is coming.  Worse we are allowing them to do it.  Why?  Because they don’t care about, listen to or even acknowledge our ideas, sentiment and outrage.  How does it feel to be impotent and marginalized in America.

It should be more than apparent that McCain is correct in his dialogue that this money is being used for political gain and pet projects.  It is also apparent that the program only, 4 months into it, is not working as planned and the unemployment and economic downturn continues to get worse.  Only %6.8 has been invested in the turn around which is appalling from my perspective.  If you are going to do it – do it quickly and massively.

As the pandering continues and the promise that the money will be invested (after borrowing I may say) in the second half of the year and next year is bad policy.  The money should have been shelter from the politicians and put under the reigns of our best business executives to make sure it all – I mean 100% – went into a massive and radical economic boost.  But in DC it is another piggy bank to raid and now they want even more.  We can all see the paw prints on the cookie jar and writing all over that wall. 

You see the IQ in DC – especially the Economic IQ – is sub par.  Economic savvy by career politicians and academics would be the last thing I would ever retain to run my business or manage money.  Economic IQ to just borrow and spend is their only solution?  And worse they want to do it again!  What is wrong with these people – our representatives.  I just can’t believe this happening.  I really am sick to my stomach.

We must stop the borrowing and spending.  The world needs a signal that we can get our fiscal crap together and fast.  But the very people that have bankrupted our nation are all foxes in the White House and Congress eating away at us – the stupid chickens that let them in to begin with. 

The Big Blue States Bellying Up: How about IOUs!

California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania

The economies of the most liberal and largest states in our union are in jeopardy of bankruptcy and collapse. Who would ever think that we would see such chaos and fiscal mismanagement across the nation. It is hard to believe that California, one of the world’s largest economies, is on the brink of bankruptcy. Is this writing on the wall for the Federal government too? You Bet! This should be taken with the utmost seriousness on Capitol Hill – or should is say CAPITOL CLIFF because that is what America is teetering on and close to going over while our government has the peddle to the floor.

Does anyone see the borrowing and spending coming to a halt at the state or Federal level? Poll people and I bet an overwhelming majority would say no – even Hell No! When state governments across the nation are in dire need of money, in political statement after stalemate what is their answer? More borrowing – even California is ready to issue IOUs to keep itself afloat. That means more debt on top of mountains of debt. Our currency and Treasuries are not dissimilar – these are IOUs to the world. How long can states and the Federal Government keep the house of cards afloat?

This house of cards is cracking from the inside and from the outside. We are fighting a multiple front war against collapse – like the Wizard of Oz pulling all the levers behind a curtain of promises and pandering of social programs that are further bankrupting America. Can you imagine around $ 111 trillion of un funded government liabilities. A $12 billion debt load and growing astronomically. Do we have anyway of changing this? Poll the people again and I bet an overwhelming majority would say NO! Write a letter to a Congressman. Even I tried that – what a joke! If they won’t listen to me on innovative solutions like the 10% solution to buy back our national debt – why would they listen to Joe Bag of Doughnuts. The only reason why is if it could be publicized and pandered all over the TV for political gain.

Even if the states get their act together and steer clear of political, social and financial meltdown – what changes would they make to end the irresponsibility. NONE! Things won’t change until we run off Capitol Cliff. Change in our nation is reactive not proactive. In my opinion we will see massive debt issued at all levels – maintained borrowing and then spending and we are sure to crash and burn. The world is looking and it sees even great states like California teetering on bankruptcy what do you think they are saying about America itself?