Unfortunately, you are 100% right

I say unfortunately, for obvious reasons..  YET, we have people even on this board who swear by and defend the concept of government spending more money for things like universal health care..  Never mind the fact that the government is over $70 "T"rillion dollars in debt when we consider what it has promised to pay out to everyone over the next 30 years...  Politicians don't want to admit to more than $9 "T"rillian...

This is what happens when we have a government with 3 different sets of books, and not even the slightest interest in trying something other than the tried and true, FAILED ECONOMIC POLICIES!

 It is like watching people in a psych ward continuing to do the same activities over and over hoping for a different result!  (and they call these people educated....  

 Thank you for posting this.

Ciao, CZ 

by steve scheetz (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 587 comments) on Monday, April 7, 2008 at 11:38:15 AM
 

Don't get twisted, this is a teeny tiny arguing quibble

Just your line about people 'right here among us, on this board,' of otherwise sensible folks, losing it where they go off on a tangent to believe in 'government paid' universal health coverage ... when everyone knows there is no. more. money. for such unnecessary luxury, and all accounts are Trillion$ overdrawn already (you're right about the "70 T.$," and maybe it's double that), and 'promises' of health is too messy, and impossible, and it's a bottomless pit, and people would make unreasonable extreme demands, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera

... which I guess I identified with, and where you touched a nerve.  And here's my little quibble.

As I see it, it is not a matter of spending more money, but rather of spending money differently, and so spending less.  And buying universal health care at the same time.  Spending less.

Real simple:  Line item veto the Pentagon budget.  ZZZIP -- a black ink line right across the top of that sucker.  $650 Billion ANNUALLY, (also probably another 'double that') SAVINGS.

It seems like people are just too scared -- of imaginary ghosts! -- to tell the military dinosaurs where to get off, their ride is sooo over.  Yeah, yeah, there are some messy details that have to be worked out, and veterans' benefits have to continue, and some other stuff, but just set our willpower to do it and get 'er done.  Make the change.  Do the do.

To be really very short about it, (there's a lot of history books to read I am skipping over, thinking you know all this), there has been no actual 'THREAT' threatening us since World War II, (and even then ... but nevermind), and every. single. SCAREtheBEJEEZUSoutofYOU for over sixty years now, said on TV, has been made up.  Like Santa Claus.  The Easter Bunny.  Made. UP.  (But you ask any 3-year-old kid and they'll tell you, 'sure!, totally!, there is a Santa Claus ... he's on TV!')

Except, we are not 3-year-old kids.  We grew up.  We can talk to and deal with each other, all around the world.  And when you go all around the world, there ain't no army, guns, bombs, attack, danger, THREAT to us or to anybody, except us right here in the good ol' U S of A.

Every bit of boombang problem since dubya,dubya,II has been made up by our Pentagon public employees.  Think of it as 'job security.'  Like cops who do crimes, and firemen who start fires.  It's a 'head case' thing.  We TAXPAYERS have paid for all this threat to us, we caused every bit of 'trouble' that has happened.  When there was no one causing trouble, the Pentagon spent our money on causing the booms themselves, so it'd look like there was trouble ... but you better believe they didn't tell us that.

... on TV.

(In TV news, ya' know, they say, "if it bleeds, it leads."  Okay, what if nothing is bleeding?  Whatcha got, TV, if you ain't got violence ...?)

Here's kinda one article that talks about it, Big Picture-style, A Hundred Years in the World.  'Is an International Financial Conspiracy Driving World Events?,' by Richard C. Cook.

So, anyway, stop buying bullets and bombs and hot-head case careers, and spend the money instead on health coverage.  And a whole lot of other things; like free college tuition, and more and more and more.  And still have change coming back from today's taxes.

Besides, fewer people would need medical care, fewer people would be sick from the polluted environment, more of us would take care of ourselves, when we stop the Pentagon manufacturing illness.

So, yeah, I am one of those people here on this board who believe in and support medical care coverage for all.  Are you one of those people who believe we gotta have the military to protect us from the boogeyman, oh he'll get us?

As for the article itself, about the funny-money mortgage collapse, and economic collapse, and obliteration of the way we always done things ... and how common sense can see it coming, it's so predictable ... well, yeah, I agree with it, too, except I think it is closer than the article says.  Like, I'm thinking, next month.  May '08.

Got food?

(So, what if I'm wrong and it's not for twelve months, or fifty months? ... got food then? ....)

Good luck.  Good people, right here on this board.

by meremark (1 articles, 3 quicklinks, 25 diaries, 495 comments) on Monday, April 7, 2008 at 12:42:42 PM
 

100%

But isn't there at least a possibility of ending the current wars and therefore freeing up some funding for universal medical care? A long term look at the problem would seem to point to that solution as the right one. Helping the whole populace stay healthy must in the end save money rather than cost more money.

by Archie (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1130 comments) on Monday, April 7, 2008 at 1:23:02 PM
 

Sure ... good point ...

if you still had any hope for humanity.

Me - I'm betting that Space-Aliens will land before mankind comes to his senses and starts applying intelligent commonsense solutions to the astronomical amount of problems man-kind itself created.

We don't have a solution - we're the problem.

by Mr M (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 1428 comments) on Monday, April 7, 2008 at 9:48:36 PM
 

Steve

Thanks for the comment.

In a speech March 25, 2008, Richard Fisher, President of the Dallas Federal Reserve, put the present value of the combined Social Security and Medicare unfunded debt, at $99.2 Trillion.

As a reminder, a Trillion seconds in time is equal to 32,000 years and $99.2 Trillion equals an amount greater than the total wealth of this nation!

The problem is much, much deeper than George Bush (who is an economic disaster). It is a mathematically failed economic basis. Until that is changed, party lines will have no effect on the eventual outcome.

by Mike Folkerth (120 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 566 comments) on Monday, April 7, 2008 at 12:12:54 PM
 

meremark

Thanks for the comments and your remark about being "closer than we think" is probably accurate.

Your comment regarding "having change back from our taxes"...Well, assure you that I wish it were true.

The current unfunded debt in the U.S. for Medicare and Social Security alone, is greater than the combined wealth of all American households, let alone their taxes.

The prescription drug benefit has to date, recorded more red ink than the entire Social Security program.

On a macro scale, the future for our current entitlement programs are impossible to fund and today we must factor in a failing economy. Growth of the magnitude necessary for these programs to remain solvent has reached physical limitations.

I continue to search for viable solutions.

by Mike Folkerth (120 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 566 comments) on Monday, April 7, 2008 at 2:01:00 PM
 

OUT OF THIN AIR

WHEN A BOOMER RETIRES HE GETS A CHECK. HE SPENDS THE MONEY. HE CAUSES SOMEONE ELSE TO GET A PAYCHECK, AND ANOTHER TO GET PROFITS ON AN INVESTMENT IN A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE. WITH THIS STIMULOUS THE FICA AND MEDICARE FUNDS WILL GET FUNDED. IN FACT THE RETIREES ARE NOT ALL LAZY. MANY GET ONE, TWO, OR MORE PART TIME JOBS TO GET POCKET CHANGE AND KARMA. THE IMMIGRANTS WILL NOT ONLY BECOME EMPLOYED , THEY PAY INTO THE FUNDS AS WELL. MANY WHO WORK WILL NEVER RECEIVE THE BENEFITS OF THE FUNDS THEY CONTRIBUTED INTO. INSTEAD OF WHINING ABOUT IMMIGRANTS AND THEIR NEGATIVE EFFECTS, THINK HOW THEY INCREASE THE RATIO OF WORKIERS TO RETIREES IN A POSITIVE WAY. THESE IMMIGRANTS ,AS WELL, PAY FOR THEIR NEEDED GOODS AND SERVICES THAT PROVIDE OTHER JOBS AND INVESTOR GAINS. SEEMS LIKE WE OUGHT TO THANK THE RETIREES AND IMMIGRANTS FOR BEING WONDERFUL CITIZENS.

WOLFIE THE ECONOMIC MAVEN

by Wolfie (8 articles, 0 quicklinks, 31 diaries, 1188 comments) on Monday, April 7, 2008 at 5:07:24 PM
 

Another good one Mike

Mike, I don't know how you do it, but you continue to turn out "truisms" for the benefit of all of us.  Thanks.

BTW, read my "comment"  (it's the 10th one) under "A Morning After"  on today's (4/7/08) OpEd page.  Conspiracy theory?  Maybe. But it seems perfectly rational to a lot of us.

by im4unity (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 52 comments) on Monday, April 7, 2008 at 6:19:51 PM
 

The sky IS falling

However give Medicare the ability to take bids for prescriptions, reduce the skyrocketing medical costs associated with 47 million Americans having to use emergency rooms as primary medical fiacitlites and reign in the enormous profit taking and poor care giving of the HMO's and other suspect and for profit medical care and we see a great reduction in costing.

Medicare is still the single most economical coverage available with an overhead of 3%, expand it to include every single American , with low cost family coverage, eliminate the vast sums spent on defense as well, moneys spent foolishly  for  overpriced and unneeded weapons systems and th epicture changes.

We simply cannot afford NOT to have single payer health care in this nation.

by ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments) on Monday, April 7, 2008 at 7:03:27 PM
 

The Wolf

I only report actual numbers and mathematical probability. How you could possibly come to the conclusions that you espouse is puzzling.

Your claim is that of an economist, yet your methodology suggests a shallow grasp of the macro-economics that must be considered when contemplating the health and furtherance of the underlying U.S. economy.

Please respond to the manner in which you see the growth occurring that is necessary to fund an unfunded debt whose current value is $99.2 Trillion.

by Mike Folkerth (120 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 566 comments) on Monday, April 7, 2008 at 8:04:38 PM
 

mr. folkerth

i am not questioning your need for concern. i can not see the rich give in to tax all their earnings toward fica. i see a tough fight to overcome the big pharma and medical industries. if the congress is indebted to the military-industrial-complex k streeters, then they are quite sustained by pharma/ med companies as well.

the only way to remove the head of the snake is to make all campaign contributions come from public funds. then we can start to make our way to resolve the myriad problems we face.

i only feared that you sounded as if the problem could be caused solely by boomers and illegals. don't make them the next "others" that the r c (ruling class) will use to divide and conquer.

i am thankful for your intelligence and efforts. please keep up the good work.

wolfie , a fan

by Wolfie (8 articles, 0 quicklinks, 31 diaries, 1188 comments) on Monday, April 7, 2008 at 9:27:00 PM
 

Ardee

I would dearly love to see single payer health insurance. And, your comment that we simply cannot afford not to have such a plan is not accurate.

The U.S. is for all practical purposes, broke, down and busted. I can't change that as much as I would like to.

Medicare will take in less money this year than it pays out. The outstanding bill for Medicare thus far, if we paid it today, is $84 Trillion. Add 78,000,000 boomers and a failing economy and yes, we can't afford to have such a plan.

The young people in this country are swimming in our debt. In the last 3 months alone, we have lost 232,000 jobs and 540,000 new job seekers have failed to find employment.

As tax employment and tax collection dwindle, funds for the existing social plans will be in jeopardy.

by Mike Folkerth (120 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 566 comments) on Monday, April 7, 2008 at 8:21:43 PM
 

Total Overhaul

Mike, great article and your right about the math.  The ever growing economy and the vultures behind it are busting this country and their getting out fast.  Former US Trans-National Corporations are moving not only jobs but headquarters out of the country.  

Medicare Part D was written by Big Pharma and the Health Insurance industry - it's rapidly adding to the National Debt.  Medicare is forbidden to negotiate for cheap drugs.  Congress people's arms were twisted in the middle of the night in a marathon session of Congress while America was sleeping.  George Bush was passed around on a cell phone to encourage Congress to vote for it.  All the bloody bastards walked away with promises of campaign cash.

Big Pharma has formula - get every American hooked on some form of life long chronic care medicine.  They haven't cured a damn thing.  And the life long therapies are tweaked ever so slightly just so they can "re-patent" a new formula forcing people to pay many times what the medication is worth.

These "public benefit" corporations should be forever privatized.  Big Pharma should be put out of business as with the Health Insurance blood suckers.

We have horrible care in this country.  And we have devised a way for these companies to get endless resources while our country goes broke.

Cuba does a better job.  So do many other "undeveloped" countries.

Our industrialized counter parts all do a better job for far less.

Without addressing the cost side of the equation - we'll be "going out of business" soon.

Great article Mike.

by August Adams (10 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 442 comments) on Monday, April 7, 2008 at 8:58:02 PM
 

August

Thank you for your well written comments. My wife and I had a perfectly good, well planned retirement in mind. We worked hard, followed our plan and everything worked except healthcare.

We had a few issues and our policy went up to $1200 per month and would have continued to climb. My wife now teaches school in order that we have affordable health insurance. I spend most of my waking hours trying to consider a plan that lets us retire and at the same time not risk all we have worked for in a lifetime.

So you see, I would really like to see a way out but the numbers are staggering. I report the facts and everyone wants to shoot the messenger.

by Mike Folkerth (120 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 566 comments) on Monday, April 7, 2008 at 9:28:42 PM
 

Thanks for getting the Conversation Started

Mike, you have a great way of simplifying the complex.  Thanks for what you do to wake people up.  

 I worked as a finance manager for a fortune 23 Health Care company.  The profits they rake in are astronomical.  Health care in this country costs us 16% of GNP.  Most countries do a better job for less.  In the US there is no cost control - in fact, the more they waste, the higher the premiums - the more they make.  That's a broken system.

We pay, and pay, and pay again.  (ER's, Gov't, EE's, Co-pays, deductibles, co-insurance, pharmaceutical co-pays). Medicare is in trouble but so is the entire health care system - and it's not just the way it is financed - it's the out of control cost structures of Big Insurance and Big Pharma, new medications are pushed when older medications patents expire.

Sorry to hear about your health care difficulties , I'm watching my parents struggle with interpreting "medicare part D" - the "Donut hole" and attempting to figure out what they need to do.

I know that gets repeated over and over again throughout this country....  individuals with pre-existing conditions, small business owners that can't afford coverage.

Talk about a waste.  The thing is there is enough money being paid for health care - it's just not going for quality care.  

by August Adams (10 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 442 comments) on Monday, April 7, 2008 at 10:14:56 PM
 

Math?

I know I have a tendency to be obtuse but when I read this article and all the posts I still can't understand why you can't have universal healthcare. Certainly it will mean some fundamental changes in funding priorities. Defense expenditures will have to become reasonable for instance and wars may not be entered into so willingly in the future but if the country can potentially spend up to a trillion dollars on a non productive thing such as war than it can also find the funding for healthcare. Healthcare can sponsor preventitive care thus cutting down on the costs of remedial surgeries etc. All the other major countries in the world and many smaller ones have universal healthcare so how can the wealthiest one not afford it? Financing healthcare is an ongoing process well into the future and in fact will become a part of "overhead" so to speak. It will be there and therefore it will be funded. If frills ( all the expensive and useless weapon systems) have to go by the wayside so be it.

by Archie (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1130 comments) on Tuesday, April 8, 2008 at 12:31:12 AM
 

universal healthcare

I have a history of medical issues that would never had occurred if there had been universal healthcare. When I was young and poor, I went to a dental school for my teeth and ended up having two root canals because they screwed up. Then I had to get an implant 15 years later. Now I have to get another one.

I had no health insurance last year and had a eye problem I decided to go to a cheaper eye doctor than the one in NY,, and I didn't get a second opinion. If I HAd I might have avoided the 4 eye surgeries , the last two were covered by state health insurance that I was now qualified for. There is also my lost productivity and the other collateral damage . The problem of people not treating problems until they become serious is ubuquitous in this country and I am sure results in something on the order of trillions of dollars of wasted money and human productivity.

Also in new York, When I drive there I can spend as much as an hour waiting for a parking space, rather than pay $40 to park overnight. The traffic during rush hour adds 1/2 to 1 hour of commute time to most people. At $20/hour that is maybe $10 million a day, or $3 billion a year for just one city.

There are so many places where simple changes could be done, so objectively I don't see that there is a problem. It is just the structure of the system, and I am assuming that there is going to have to be some pretty traumatic event to break the system apart enough for people to start actually dealing realistically with the artificial problems we have cornered ourselves into 

by Tony Duncan (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 31 comments) on Tuesday, April 8, 2008 at 1:10:06 AM
 

Thanks

I want to thank everyone for your great comments. In my book, I state that healthcare is the second greatest problem in the U.S., the first is that growth is the answer.

To answer a couple of questions that were posed. First a disclaimer...I very much oppose the war! That being said, the money being spent on the war wouldn't make a dent in current Medicare costs and forward booked liabilities.

The opinion that we could move the war money over to healthcare does not change the numbers; debt is debt, just entered in a different column. If we move that debt to medical care, we would continue to plunge hopelessly into debt. Debt that our children and grandchildren will inherit, but cannot pay.

David Walker, our past Comptroller General, has been telling us this since 1990, he recently resigned in exasperation.

The medical system is badly broken as August testifies to. We have to get the lawyers, insurance companies, and politicians out of medicine. There is just no other way to change the system. I don't see that happening in my lifetime.

by Mike Folkerth (120 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 566 comments) on Tuesday, April 8, 2008 at 7:42:33 AM
 

Just rephrasing a couple of points

Your pessimism seems so ready-made, sorta facile, and I wonder if further consideration of the situation might buoy the spirits a touch.

It seems to me the great gulf is the one between those who watch to see changes made, and those who act to make change.  Neither 'the system' nor 'the public' is going to spontaneously alter course (of events, of cognitive consensus, of worldworking); only self-actualization in realizing We Are The World, the system, the public, changes everything because one person matters to make all the difference. 

The process is (supposedly, in theory) straightforward:  Change congresspersons by electing those who are going to enact the new plan.  Those persons are ourself or someone in agreement like ourself.  Run for Congress, stand for election.  At the very least, it gets the 'talk' of one's ideas into circulation.

The 'new plan' is defund everything military.  Form swords into plowshares.

It is more than the superficial figure of transferring the money from 'the war' into medical (health care allocated spending).  And, the money amount is not only this 'war' spending, it is ALL military, year after year, and all the 'private' (industrial) businesses and 'defense contractors' which wage jobs that are feeding on militarism -- a predominant substrate of 'the economy.' The more is that stopping military stops people getting sick, so less medical is needed or for a given level of medical (spending) more cases can be remedied since the cases are less lethal.

And it isn't only about war casualties, from bodily wounded to psychologically wounded.  It is about the environmental destruction of militarism, and the toxic substances of militarism, as, for example, teflon.  That example is chosen for being so innocuous, although ubiquitous -- a small thing but everywhere and so, easily overlooked -- yet it is toxic and public health is compromised, we all are contaminated.  An example at the other extreme, certainly, is radioactive debris and radiation toxicity which has killed millions of humans prematurely and tens of millions more are presently terminally ill from it, in cancers and many other systemic metabolic somatic frailties and failures.  So, completely quit all radioactive manufacture processes.  Just stop it.  The casualties from it then cease burdening the medical health care costs.

And, again, there are health improvements (not requiring funding) on the reciprocal end, of quitting militaristic policies.  What I mean by that is, without the 'mechanization' which characterizes so much of militarism, then we do more manual labor and physical activity which is very healthful.  A convenient example is people working the food crops part of the time each week, instead of being those hours at a white-collar desk job indoors under flourescent lights, (instead of spending one's time making wages to buy the food, just cut out the middleman:  dollar bills, and spend the time making food directly), planting, watering, tending, harvesting, preserving into storage.  A 'fanciful' example to draw a more direct connection between stopping militaristic mechanization and starting physical exercise, is, that without the Army Corps of Engineers bulldozing up earthen dams and levees, then hundreds of us could be out there passing sandbags to emplacement -- an overly simplistic example, perhaps ridiculous ... and perhaps not so ridiculous.

Things look different in the perspective of a changed mind's way of thinking and looking at 'infrastructure,' pastime, occupation, and involvement.  Things look different in the doing of them ... less pessimistic, I think.

by meremark (1 articles, 3 quicklinks, 25 diaries, 495 comments) on Wednesday, April 9, 2008 at 4:16:10 AM
 

Universal Health care

The latest numbers I have heard is that the US is currently spending 16% of GDP on Health care. I had also heard that the other industrialized countries that have universal health spend an average of 7% of GDP. If we could spend 7% with universal health care we would save 1.21 Trillion per year.

End this war, shut down most of the bases we have in 130 other countries and reduce defense spending to a still bloated 200 billion and we could save another half a trillion per year.

Increase the Social Security cap to $200,000 from the current $98,000 and shore up the fund. Or remove the cap entirely and Social Security would be fully funded for the next 100 years.

(There are other ways to help reduce costs and improve peoples health - Educate Americans about eating healthy, remove unnecessary chemical poisons from homes (household cleaners, bug sprays, weed killers, etc.) Remove anything that off-gasses VOC's in the home- carpet, paint etc. Stop the coal companies from dumping mercury and pollution in the air and water. Ban all chemical fertilizers and weed killers on farms, ETC. ETC. ETC.)

There are ways to solve the problems we face in this country but we need new leadership.  All our current leaders are in the pockets of big business and are leading this country to disaster.

Just my two cents worth. 

by Kevin McCaffery (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 18 comments) on Tuesday, April 8, 2008 at 12:54:29 PM
 

Theft

I believe I am right when I say Congress "borrowed" the investment money from Social Security and Medicare that was making the money for the Boomers retirement.  Then they gave themselves raises and huge retirements and capped who pays into Social Security and Medicare.  So, not only cut that ridiculous Pentagon budget starting with the black budget and then cut the retirement for Congress completely.  They had no conscience about cutting the retirement of any other company's employees while allowing golden paracutes for the perps when the CEOs caused the companies to go bankrupt.  We are bankrupt.

Take that stolen money back and put it back into Social Security and Medicare to tune that was stolen and cut those raises of the incompetent Congress. 

They did this misappropriation of funds nonsence here in San Diego which has gone bankrupt and yet those raises and retirements live on for the perps who get more arrogant with spending for rich and cuts for regular taxpayers. They build a stadium for the Chargers and Padres and now the Chargers want another stadium or they will leave - all this while our sewers are bursting into the ocean that draws the tourists that this town feeds off.   They are gutting our school while their raises live on.  Incompetents all. 

Can you imagine a household budget being run this way - spend the best part of your money on defense or glorified dog fight arenas and let the children go ignorance and mothers and infants and the grandparents die of starvation and untreated illness. 

In reality, few people would walk by a person lying on the sidewalk bleeding, but few would shell out their own bucks to help because they believe just having them dumped on the doorsteps of the ER will be the sum of their responsibility.  And, you are responsible just because you are human and would hold out your hand and cry for help if you were on that sidewalk in the same situation - expecting in/having faith in the humanity of passersby.  Heartlessness is what got us in this situation.  If you knew that person on the sidewalk dying was NOT going to be helped because ERs would not take people without ability to pay, you/most people would shell out the money.  I did it for a dog on the road (and have her and her pups still.) 

Just pay back what was stolen and quit spending all our money on defense and redistribute it to the taxpayers and not corporate thiefs or greedy Congressmen.  You would make a poor black woman pay for steeling even to feed her children and look what these corporate/congressional/military contractor/pharmaceutical thiefs have stolen.  It is payback time.

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