The latest math on ObamaCare is a prime example of the above.
The Congressional Budget Office has revised its figures on the Baucus bill,which at present doesn't include a government run insurance program.
Based on that, it's projected to cost $829 billion while allegedly cutting the deficit by by $81 billion over a decade.
Let's bring this down to earth a bit.
I've got a deal for you - I want you to refinance your mortgage now in 2009 dollars and spend $8,299 in fees and costs. In exchange you'll save $812 over ten years..if my figures are correct and nothing changes.*
Any takers out there?
If there are, I have some friends in Nigeria with an amazing business proposition for you - But Your Trust Is Required.
* Those figures are absolutely certain to be bogus because the Democrats made sure that provisions requiring a photo ID and proof of citizenship to access coverage were stripped out of the bill. Language supposedly prohibiting this kind of abuse is in the Baucus bill - at least it is now - but with no means of enforcement, so it's cosmetic.
And since our southern border is still a sieve and likely to remain so under this administration,any projections on savings that don't take into consideration the system abuse by non-citizens are seriously out of whack.
Eventually we will have to save. There are really only three options. 1.)Borrow more money.
ReplyDelete2.)Print more money. 3.)Grow the economy so that there is enough tax money coming in to pay for all of this. As for option 1, foreign creditors are not going to lend the US government money indefinitely. As for option 2, printing more money will only lead to hyperinflation making it impossible to afford the programs any way.
The only way out, as I see it, is to grow the economy and massively cut government spending. Unless this is done, there is no way the programs that the Democrats want can come to fruition.
One way to grow the economy would be to open all of our domestic oil and natural gas sources for drilling and to build more refineries. This would result in the creation of millions of jobs in a only a few months. We could likely cut the unemployment rate from the current estimated 10% to around 5% in only a few short months.
Whats more is most of these newly created jobs would be highly paid union jobs. This would have the added advantage of increasing the amount of tax money coming into the Federal and State governments. Also, the beauty of this from a government beuracrat's perspective is you get to grow the economy AND you don't have to cut taxes. It gets even better for the Democrats, if they did this. They would not only coast to reelection but they would realize huge net gains in both the House and the Senate!! After all they will have fixed the "Bush economy" AND deprived our mortal enemies of a major source of funding. What's not to like about this?
The Democrats will never push for this either because they are a.)blinded by their ideology, b.)America haters who wish to see the country destroyed, or c.)some combination of a and b. I think the answer is a, however, I would not necessarily rule out b or c.
The Republicans could challenge the Democrats on this issue and make it the centerpiece of their campaign, Unfortunately enviro whackos have made significant inroads into the Republican and still others are deathly afraid of these groups.
With our borders as wide open as they are it is virtually impossible to defend against a terrorist attack. Then again Islamic terrorists and their supporters have made such inroads into the American government that they may not deem another 911 type necessary.
Unfortunately even if we had the right leadership in place with our massive national debt, worn down military that desparately needs to be upgraded, and a crumbling infrastructure and not enough money to address any of these problems I see no conceivable way for America to remain a major world power for more than another year or maybe two. The leaders of Russia and China have to wake up thanking what ever God they may believe in that the problems they face are no where near as severe as what America faces.
Finally, if there is a silver lining in all of this, under George W. Bush the proverbial frog was being boiled slowly enough that he did not realize he was being boiled. He simply realized he was getting slightly uncomfortable. Had John McCain been elected the boiling would have continued at approximately the same rate as under Bush. As such, the proverbial frog, in this case the American people and America itself, would have been boiled before they realized it. President Obama and his team have turned up the heat so high that many people who would not recognized it other wise realize they are being boiled. As such, there may still be enough time to reverse the process when there may not have been had McCain been elected. If things work out this way and we are able to reverse the process of decline, we may be able to say that God is still looking out for us.