Readers of the American Energy Crisis know that I have called this Era "The Age of Personal Responsibility".
I don't know about you, but I am pretty impressed with the president (after all, great minds think alike). hahaha...
On another happy note, Caroline Kennedy has withdrawn from consideration to be appointed to Hillary Clinton's Senate seat. Thankfully, enough clear thinking people got to the Governor. Long live our meritocracy.
17 comments:
" great minds think alike"
Greg,
WE will refer to this post in one YEAR! Haha! He did sound good yesterday. Now to support him to follow through.
Robert
Robert:
I consider myself a keen observer of the human condition - no more, no less, and with absolutely NO qualifications or credentials...
That said, the more I watch and listen to this man the more I believe we have a chance to have a watershed presidency. I said CHANCE. I am not a starry eyed college student. But I am thrilled with his public rhetoric so far. He certainly fooled me during the primaries, when he was appealing to the far Left (I should have known better. Repubs do the same thing in appealing to the fundamentalist wackjobs).
I really want to see him take a leadership position on the "War on Drugs". Both he and Bush used cocaine, and had they been caught by law enforcement at the time, both would have been precluded from holding public office as convicted felons.
It is time to end the hypocrisy. This is a vestigial remnant of the parents of the boomers.
Mr. President:
Please end the War on Drugs. Please free the Americans rotting in prison for minor drug offenses and addiction before you release the folks in Guantanamo.
Obama doesn't have a prayer. He's been handed a bag of rotten economic apples. At best he'll come out in 4 years even, with no gains or losses.
And thank God we aren't going to have any more discussion about the damn Kennedys!!! :)
I like the Obama's rhetoric about responsibility, but I fear that our responsibility will to pay lots more taxes to support lots more social programs. I'm waiting for the legislation, and what he supports and what he vetoes. Talk is cheap.
Regards,
Coal Guy
Burea,
I wonder if Caroline Kennedy is holding off for something else?
Robert
Caroline is playing the "Biden" card? (Hillary should have been Vice Pres but she got nominated to something even higher in power). Maybe Caroline thinks she can get something better .... hmmmm ...
And if nobody has mentioned it, we need higher taxes just to support the social programs we already have! I can't get my parents to understand this either ... the existing programs are not being fully funded w tax dollars, but with BORROWED/PRINTED dollars as well. We all will/should have higher taxes anyway just to support the programs we ALREADY have, and LOVE! (Social security, Medicare, Medicaid, Interest on the debt/interest paid on Treasuries, Veterans benefits, etc. etc.)
I am the author of Just In Case: how to be self-sufficient when the unexpected happens. I have just begun my own blog and want to do a post on the blogs I visit daily with a short description of each. I would very much like to include american energy crisis but thought I should ask permission first. My url is justincasebook.net if you would like to check it out before deciding although there are only a few postings up so far. I can be reached at bruchrrsn@aol.com. Kathy Harrison
Dear Beaurocrat,
WE don't just love these social programs. YOU do. What you don't understand, that your conservative millionaire parents (AND GOOD FOR THEM!) might is that we have over promised and overextended beyond the capacity of our ability to pay.
Look around the net for the national debt in GAAP terms. Its out there. Our unfunded future liabilities are rising faster each year than 100% of the national payroll. We couldn't fund what we've promised now with a 100% income tax on everyone. But, that won't stop Congress from spending more. The result of this kind of malfeasance is to doom us all to perpetual poverty.
Regards,
Coal Guy
I think I will go along with the people (and there are such people) that with some minor adjustments, Social Security can be made solvent. The younger people (I'm 41 now) don't need to retire at age 62, 65, 67 or 69. 75 perhaps. My view is that the massive increases in govt. benefits you mention are health care-related, and national health care is coming, which should take care of "that" prob. :) I can't believe universal health care for the U.S. is impossible. The Canadians, the British and the French all like their national health care systems. Look at the taxes we pay for supplemental health systems: county taxes, city taxes, state taxes, charity care, increased private premiums, veterans care on all levels .... I don't think national health care would be prohibitively expensive.
>Long live our meritocracy. <
The repeated election of George W Bush illustrates to the world the soundness of the great American meritocracy.
Hey Bureaucrat,
Just my point! You actually think that costs will be reduced by producing more bloated government programs. OY!
HoooRah!!! for national health care. My friend's mother had a stroke in the UK and came under the watchful eye of the NHS. The doctor came by on his daily rounds every 3 or 4 days. None of the nurses on her ward spoke English. She had lost the ability to swallow, but the "Doctor" prescribed oral medication, which the nurses simply shoved into her numb mouth.
In the US, think about the much derided VA hospital system that abuses our fallen heroes, and your last trip to the DMV. It's just great until you get sick. NO THANKS!
Regards,
Coal Guy
My $250,000 head issue (which was eventully cured with $100 worth of steriods) was treated at Northwestern Hospital, one of the premiere private hospitals in the country. I had problems with my three-month visit, so much so that I was running around the floor demanding to find out what was going on. :) I'm sure your friend's mother's care generated complaints. Everybodys' hospital visits cause them, no matter what. It makes for good story telling.
>HoooRah!!! for national health care.
A nationalized health system would have some advantages and some disadvantages...
The current US health system is very clearly a predatory system where the big players have corrupted the regulators and ramped up charges each and every year. The health insurance industry alone sucks in about 1/3 of all health care dollars- we can figure out a lot better way of doing this.
This is a situation where "the market" did not produce a cheaper better healthcare product- but instead produced massive corruption, overcharges, and exclusion of large parts of the population from health services.
But national health care will become a reality more likely due to private corporate interests who are tired of the associated costs of keeping their employees healthy.
dear anon@11:36am:
Wow:
An incredibly lucid, well thought out summation of the healthcare system.
Keep it coming!
Greg
The Japanese, hardly communists, like their national health care system. With the longest average life span and one of the lowest infant mortality rates on the planet (two of the oft-cited qualifiers for the measure of care delivered), their system costs a fraction of what US health care does in % GDP per capita.
In fact, the US remains the only industrialized nation on the planet WITHOUT a national health care system. Even tiny and poor nations like Portugal, Greece, and god forbid Cuba can somehow manage it, and all three have better care, more doctors per person, and lower infant mortality.
>An incredibly lucid, well thought out summation of the healthcare system.<
Well, Jeffers, what is your analysis of the US healthcare system?
We have the following...
*Big Pharma able to get everything they want with money/political muscle. This is acknowledged by the political players.
*Prescription Drug Benefit where Big Pharma has muscled in a provision that the US govt (taxpayer) who is paying medicare costs for 60 million elderly patients cannot get volume discounts or negotiate prices on such massive sales volume.
*Pharmaceutical industry conducts drug testing and then is legally able to hide test results for any reason ie tests that reflect negatively on their featured product. And shoddy tests at that.
*Over 250,000 preventable hospital deaths resulting from medical mistakes in the years 2004-2006. And 1,100,000 medical mistakes during that time with a 20% chance of death for each incident. And these are only the acknowledged number- there may be a whole lot more going on.
*Medical costs rising at 3-5 times the rate of overall inflation.
*Increasing numbers re 50 million with no access to healthcare. Many of these uninsured are the folks you see out working and doing the real hard work ie latinos doing roofing, roadwork, agricultural. All the hard work that white service workers deem below us.
*No investment of any kind in preventive medicine or lifestyle education. Of course, the big money is in the big repair jobs ie heart bypass operations etc.
*Constant propaganda from Pharma on marketed drug products based on deceptive marketing campaigns. There is seemingly no limit to the lies these folks think up to boost their product sales... and no consequences. You can see this very clearly in the statin ad campaigns.
*Too many medical students going in to specialty medicine when the real social need is for GPs, geriatrics, obstetrics.
*Ask almost anybody who works in medicine and they will tell you that the system is broken.
Much of the time capitalism works great. It's not working great in the medical field. And it's not working great in preparing the US for the challenges of energy and resource depletion. It's too short sighted maybe?
Healthcare in the U.S. is plagued by people quoting the 3 lies - mine, yours, and statistics.
Comparing the U.S. to Japan? I could go on on this forever... My wife is from Japan, her parents and family all live there. You CANNOT compare the U.S. to Japan!
I come from lower working class to poor inner city stock (Philly and New York). Comparing folks from my neighborhood with working class Japanese is like comparing alien life forms. For the most part, America's white trash and poor "of color" folks spend the vast majority of their lives destroying their health, and the health of their children. Don't like my conclusions? Perhaps that is because you come from White Suburbia - take a ride with me tonight through the hoods of South Florida - try and find ONE non obese woman over the age of 25. JUST ONE! I DARE YOU!!
Try to find ONE that does not smoke! I don't even have to get into the drug thing.
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