patrick.net

2ndClassCitizen says

Ever wonder why it costs over 1000% more for a first class stamp than it did about 50 years ago? Over 1000% more for a bottle of coke than it did 50 years ago. I’m sure it has nothing to do with taxes

Have you heard of inflation?

elvis says

Some of you posters will be eager to attack the truth of these statements…why not offer up some solutions instead? I’m waiting.

Solutions for what? I think we disagree about what the "problems" are...

I'd like to see real campaign finance laws. I think that would do a lot to diminsh the influence of corporate and special interests in Washington. Mr. Smith goes to Washington is as relevent today as it was 70 years ago...

All this rubbish about taxes, the Fed, sound currency. Those are all distractions from the real problem...

HaHaHa, spoken like a true liberal. Others write about the underlining causes of our problems and you speak of more (campaign finance) laws, haha. Rubbish??? Sound currency is a distraction from the "real peoblem"? HELLOOOOO... Earth to tatupu, anybody home? The lack of sound currency is a MAJOR PART of America's problems.

Special interest is as relevant today as it was 70 years ago, I'll agree to that.The fact that you cannot recognize that sound currency is as relevent today as it was 5,000 years ago shows a significant lack of understanding of history AND economics on your part.

As a licensed teacher with a lifetime teaching credential in two states I'm going to grade your verbal thesis right now, FINAL GRADE: FAIL.

tatupu70 says

2ndClassCitizen says

I don’t memorize the numbers but the CBO estimates tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud waste and abuse in Medicare alone.

And? Of course there is fraud and abuse of Medicare. Just as there is fraud and abuse of private insurance. My question was more in reference to your statement that it’s a “drop in the bucket”. Not sure how you can say that.

By all means educate us. How much money do we spend on deadbeats then sir.

tatupu70 says

2ndClassCitizen says

Ever wonder why it costs over 1000% more for a first class stamp than it did about 50 years ago? Over 1000% more for a bottle of coke than it did 50 years ago. I’m sure it has nothing to do with taxes

Have you heard of inflation?

Inflation, caused by deficit spending and the debt based monetary system authorized by US Congress and run by the quasi governmental body the FED. But I'm sure OBAMACARE won't increase the deficit at all.

"In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation." Alan Greenspan.

It doesn't feel good to have our own government authorize a policy wherein our savings are confiscated. It's dishonest.

Homework assignment for Tatupu70: Look up the meaning of deficit spending, debt based monetarty system, inflation and confiscation. Look up and explain the benefits of a sound money system. Define fiat currency. Test will be in one week.

Nonograph, I'll assign you the same lesson as I did for Tatupu70. Except you need even more help for several reasons. In reality inflation affects more than just savings because the cost of everything goes up...you know, more dollars chasing a limited supply. The result = higher prices.

What I'm crying about is how the government is victimizing EVERYONE. That means me, my children, future grandchildren, and YES it pisses me off that our own government is stealing from all of us, ALL OF US. The government is stealing from you too but it appears you have not learned enough about The Fed, inflation, sound money, fractional reserve banking, fiat currency and government policy to even realize it. Ignorance is bliss.

If you became aware of a con-artist who was stealing from your sister, mother, brother, and your kind hearted next door neighbor lady, would you be upset? What if you became aware of an organization that was stealing from everyone? Would you ignore it? Would you suffer in silence? Or would you speak out? Since you won't speak out against such an outrage I can only imagine that you are unaware of the issue.

Personally, I spend MUCH more time learning about the inter-relationship of government policies and how it negatively affects us all. My goal is to fight to improve things, for all of us, including YOU. Who is John Galt?

@Elvis and Honest Abe

OK--why exactly is a sound currency so important then? You speak about it as if it is the holy grail of economics. What good would come from going back on a gold standard?

Because there is a lot of bad that would come. High inflation. Many, many more jobs lost overseas. Recession, possibly depression. Lots of ugly.

Just as a thinking point for you--if a sound currency is so good, why is China doing everything it can to devalue its currency?? To keep it artificially weak.

gold has no value when compaired to oil. Oil has no value compaired to clean drinking water. We should not be on a paper dollar backed with gold. We should be on a paper dollar backed by clean drinking water.

Bap33 says

gold has no value when compaired to oil. Oil has no value compaired to clean drinking water. We should not be on a paper dollar backed with gold. We should be on a paper dollar backed by clean drinking water.

Er, that is essentially what it's based on. Not "clean drinking water" specifically, but rather the overall strength of the society. Clean drinking water, political stability, arable land, and other core elements of a successful society. Dollars are merely a proxy for these things, since it's extraordinarily difficult to accurately measure them.

Tatupu70 - THANKS FOR ASKING WHY A SOUND CURRENCY IS SO IMPORTANT. Our financial system is in crisis because our government has allowed the integrity and safety of a gold backed currency to be replaced with fraud and theft by inflation via a steadily declining fiat currency.

Our founding fathers wanted sound currency, money backed by gold and silver, not a fiat currency. Fiat currency is money that is "declared" by the government to be legal tender, although it has no value. There is no fiat currency in the history of the world that has survived. Fiat money is, and always will be, fradulant money. Since the currency is not backed by gold or silver it has no value and will ultimately collapse.

History is clear on this issue. Fiat currencies are immoral because they have no value and because of that they fail...without exception. Repeat: without exception, as documented throughout the history of man.

"Paper money always returns to its original value - zero." Voltaire, 1694-1778.

Returning to a gold standard would PREVENT inflation. In doing so it would also prevent recession and depression. A gold standard represents integrity. It insures the people's control over the governments use of public funds. It is the best guarantee against the socialization of a nation. It enables the people to keep the government and the banks in check. It prevents currency expansion (inflation) from getting out of bounds until it becomes worthless. It tends to force standards of honesty on government and bank officials. It is the symbol of a free society and an honorable government. It is a necessary prerequisite to economic health.

As you can see, this alone would go a long way to healing our current economic problems.

China is doing nothing wrong, and is simply protecting its economic assets, like any other responsible country would do. China is proctecting itself from America's reckless economic policies by pegging its currency to our currency. If our dollar increases in value so does theirs, and if our dollar decreases in value so does theirs. Hardley "currency manipulation."

"There is no subtler or surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debase its currency."

I read a lot of rants about banks on this site, and rightfully so. As you read above, one of the best restraints on banks would be the gold standard.

Honest Abe says

Returning to a gold standard would PREVENT inflation. In doing so it would also prevent recession and depression.

Wrong. You really need to read up on how globalization and trade works.

Honest Abe says

If our dollar increases in value so does theirs, and if our dollar decreases in value so does theirs. Hardley “currency manipulation.”

Again--wrong. I'm not sure you understand what currency manipulation is. And your statement doesn't even make sense. China is tying their currency to ours so that when we ruin our econonmy by debasing our currency, it will also ruin theirs?

Honest Abe says

It is the symbol of a free society and an honorable government

Are there any free societies or honorable governments in existence then? Because none are on the gold standard....

Honest Abe says

In doing so it would also prevent recession and depression

Hmm.. The US was on the gold standard until ~1970. And the Great Depression was in the 1930's. So I guess it really wouldn't prevent recession and/or depression. In fact, it would create deeper, longer recessions and depressions.

Nomograph says

If you were actually being victimized, you wouldn’t need to spend so much time figuring it out; it would be quite obvious.

Spoken like a man who doesn't know when he is being robbed.
Do you also believe that a loss of purchasing power in your dollars of roughly 97% over 100 years is a in your best interest? (and please don't argue against saving money, not everyone can preserve wealth on investments as last fall reminded us all) Do you think that having two parents working outside the home and sometimes two jobs where one used to suffice a generation ago is a good thing? Do you believe that Goldman Sachs needs a bailout (tax transfer from you to them) to protect it from big bad YOU? I hope so because if these things are not in your best interest then YOU ARE BEING ROBBED!

It reminds me of the story told to me by some people who had visited China. They talked to some of the people there who lived in small cramped barracks like apartments. There was no heater in them and it got rather cold at night. So cold in fact that during the middle of the night everyone got up at least once to go to the center of the settlement to get some warm water to drink an warm up (no running water in the apartments). The thing is that they looked at their lifestyle as the most healthy way to live, and looked down on wasteful America. Now true, America is wasteful, but living with no heat or running water is not one of our excesses.

Honest Abe,

Thanks for picking up on the fact that it is the dishonest money system (where money is created out of nothing rather then held as a stable store of value) that is the most important cause of the health care problems (affordability), as well as loss in value of savings for the working class (negative return on savings).

I was talking to a mom the other day, she recalled how in the mid seventies she had her first child. They were poor living in mobile home with essentially no savings and had NO health insurance. She spent 4-5 days in the hospital after giving birth as was the custom then. So at the end of the stay they got a bill. They paid the bill over time and it was not onerous. Since that time the dollar has lost so much of its purchasing power that the simple act of giving birth in a medical facility is enough to drive a young family to the brink of ruin. It isn't really the drug companies, the doctors or hospitals fault. It is the dishonest money system which transfers true wealth the the ultra-elites that is to blame for the high cost of medicine. (government programs push up prices/costs and this needs to end, but faster than that the FED is devaluing the dollar and it is killing the middle class and creating an ever growing class of people who are ENTIRELY dependent on "entitlements" from the government -via taxes on the middle/working class- to survive).

2ndClassCitizen says

Do you also believe that a loss of purchasing power in your dollars of roughly 97% over 100 years is a in your best interest? (and please don’t argue against saving money, not everyone can preserve wealth on investments as last fall reminded us all) Do you think that having two parents working outside the home and sometimes two jobs where one used to suffice a generation ago is a good thing? Do you believe that Goldman Sachs needs a bailout (tax transfer from you to them) to protect it from big bad YOU? I hope so because if these things are not in your best interest then YOU ARE BEING ROBBED!

Oh please. You really think people were so much better off "a generation ago" and weren't being "robbed"? Do you know what the tax rates were in the 70s? Do you realize what kinds of poisons were being put into our drinking water and our building supplies?

"Ordinary folks" have been getting fleeced by the privileged since the dawn of human civilization. The fact that you're just now complaining about it tells me that you must have been blissfully ignorant. This is nothing new, and none of your magical proposals would do a god damned thing to change it.

100 years ago we had, as you call it, an "honest" money system (notwithstanding bullshit like the various coinage acts that rendered certain people's money worthless just because they preferred silver to gold), and you know what? The middle class was virtually non existent and the "working class", if you can call it that, had no work.

Please cite some real examples of a place in the world that is now, or has been in the past, more prosperous for the "average joe" because of a sound monetary system than what we have today.

2ndClass - as Glen Beck would say "why argue with idiots?". Liberals will not, can not, ever care about individual liberty, freedom, privacy, or private property. Facts don't matter.

America is drowning in debt, but the liberal's solution is to stick a fire hose of additional debt down America's throat and open the spiggot FULL BLAST. Ugh.

Why argue with idiots?

I am John Galt.

Honest Abe says

2ndClass - as Glen Beck would say “why argue with idiots?”. Liberals will not, can not, ever care about individual liberty, freedom, privacy, or private property. Facts don’t matter.
America is drowning in debt, but the liberal’s solution is to stick a fire hose of additional debt down America’s throat and open the spiggot FULL BLAST. Ugh.
Why argue with idiots?
I am John Galt.

Why argue with idiots? We do it because you continue to come back for more.

If you were John Galt, you'd be really, really old by now.

Kevin says

2ndClassCitizen says

Do you also believe that a loss of purchasing power in your dollars of roughly 97% over 100 years is a in your best interest? (and please don’t argue against saving money, not everyone can preserve wealth on investments as last fall reminded us all) Do you think that having two parents working outside the home and sometimes two jobs where one used to suffice a generation ago is a good thing? Do you believe that Goldman Sachs needs a bailout (tax transfer from you to them) to protect it from big bad YOU? I hope so because if these things are not in your best interest then YOU ARE BEING ROBBED!

Please cite some real examples of a place in the world that is now, or has been in the past, more prosperous for the “average joe” because of a sound monetary system than what we have today.

Simple Kevin,

It was in my previous post. A family with one worker outside the home could provide for his family, and pay the bills even with no health insurance.

Nearly everything that was essential was more affordable and wages compared to cost of living had a much more favorable ratio. People in the seventies and eighties bought houses and paid them off in 5-10 years! That is practically unheard of now.

Over the course of roughly 100 years the unsound monetary system has eroded away the savings and prosperity of a growing number of US citizens. It really began to accelerate in the 1980's. We are now so far in debt as individuals and a nation that it is very likely we will end up bankrupt. The empire is crumbling in debt. Who will bail us out? The "new" world order?

Please cite some real examples of how much better things are now. How much less dependent on government the average joe is now. How much more affordable the essentials like food, energy, housing and health care are now. How much more freedom and prosperity there is now in the post 9/11 post crash/bailout world.

2ndClassCitizen says

Do you also believe that a loss of purchasing power in your dollars of roughly 97% over 100 years is a in your best interest?

This is an absolutely meaningless statement. Uh what about the corresponding increase in wages? Purchasing power is measured in hours worked for the purchase. On that basis many things are much cheaper than in the past. Some from increased efficiency, some from sending the manufacturing offshore to cheaper workers, and some from scientific discoveries that enabled cheaper production (think integrated chips). As many people have tried to point out money, gold, seashells, whatever is simply a medium of exchange for goods and services.

Here's a chart from measuring worth showing gas priced by various criteria in 2008 dollars:

Year Price of Gasoline CPI GDP Deflator Unskilled Wage Consumer Bundle GDP per capita Share GDP

1949 0.27 2.44 2.02 4.08 3.88 7.15 14.59
1950 0.27 2.41 2.00 3.90 3.68 6.61 13.28
1951 0.27 2.24 1.87 3.60 3.50 5.82 11.49
1952 0.27 2.19 1.83 3.40 3.37 5.61 10.88
1953 0.29 2.33 1.95 3.42 3.45 5.79 11.04
1954 0.29 2.32 1.93 3.26 3.37 5.87 11.01
1955 0.29 2.33 1.90 3.13 3.15 5.48 10.10
>>>skip the middle it goes up and down as low as 1.80 and as high as 4.00
2004 1.88 2.14 2.11 2.09 2.21 2.20 2.29
2005 2.3 2.54 2.50 2.50 2.53 2.55 2.63
2006 2.59 2.77 2.72 2.77 2.73 2.74 2.79
2007 2.8 2.91 2.86 2.93 2.88 2.85 2.87
2008 3.27 3.27 3.27 3.27 3.27 3.27 3.27

Even with the big jump in price for 2008 the cost of 3.27 in 2008 vs 2.44 using the CPI in 1948 hardly represents a 97% (or whatever the % is for only 60 years) decrease in purchasing power.

How about food?

According to the USDA the cost of food has varied between 20-30% of disposable family budget until the 1950's. Since 2000 it's been below 10% and currently stands at 5.6%. That certainly represents a huge decrease in purchasing power. Not.

The middle class is losing ground and has been since the 1970's but it has very little to do with the monetary system. It has a lot to do with global economic forces and domestic politics.

On the global front after WWII every industrial nation except America was in ruin. America's industry was not only untouched by the war but had been expanding exponentially to meet the needs of war production. This resulted in American manufacturing enjoying 25 years in an almost competition free environment. The upside was profits and wages were terrific. The downside is companies grew fat and lazy. Competition returned and has been relentless ever since.

Domestically the Reagan tax policies cut the 80% top tax rate for very high earners BUT steeply raised tax rates on everyone else. Whether this unleashed the greatest economic boom in history or just the greatest series of bubbles and crashes is subject to serious debate. Either way the result has been the most enormous transfer of wealth from the middle class to the top couple of percent of society in the history of the world. The so called trickle down economics actually trickled up.

I am NOT advocating raising taxes. I am advocating balancing the budget and paying down debt. This will require raising taxes AND sharply cutting the military. There is simply no other way it can be done, that's where the money is. On our current course paying interest on the debt will consume every tax dollar in 20 years.

bob2356 says

I am NOT advocating raising taxes. I am advocating balancing the budget and paying down debt. This will require raising taxes AND sharply cutting the military. There is simply no other way it can be done, that’s where the money is. On our current course paying interest on the debt will consume every tax dollar in 20 years.

Bob, much of what you say is good.

However if we are to be honest CPI grossly underestimates inflation (they keep changing the rules used to calculate costs. For example if one year you use prime rib price and then next year you use 80% lean ground beef, it is not a fair comparison). Furthermore the government wizards decided not to include important costs like energy in their calculations.

I don't know about you but last year I got a small raise (less than 2%). This doesn't even come close to keeping up with inflation.

I appreciate a lot of what you said, and agree with much as well. However the loss of purchasing power of the US dollar must not be underestimated as a factor in the shrinking opportunities for upward mobility or wealth preservation. In a world where the rules and best way of protecting wealth are constantly changing, the public is at the mercy of the rule makers. A sound money would be the greatest weapon against the elites, we would not have to buy and sell and invest to please them if we could protect our wealth without them.

Furthermore, I am wondering what you mean when you say "I am NOT advocating raising taxes." and yet two sentences later you say we need to raise taxes to pay down the debt. Is this doublespeak?

In the end, all of this is a smokescreen. I started this thread to allow us to discuss the fact that more government control over health care is going to result in greater deficit spending, reduced freedom in selecting and obtaining health care, as well as lower quality of care thanks to the vampire bureaucracy/fraud/waste/abuse.

AdHominem says

Kevin says

2ndClassCitizen says

Do you also believe that a loss of purchasing power in your dollars of roughly 97% over 100 years is a in your best interest? (and please don’t argue against saving money, not everyone can preserve wealth on investments as last fall reminded us all) Do you think that having two parents working outside the home and sometimes two jobs where one used to suffice a generation ago is a good thing? Do you believe that Goldman Sachs needs a bailout (tax transfer from you to them) to protect it from big bad YOU? I hope so because if these things are not in your best interest then YOU ARE BEING ROBBED!

Please cite some real examples of a place in the world that is now, or has been in the past, more prosperous for the “average joe” because of a sound monetary system than what we have today.

Simple Kevin,
It was in my previous post. A family with one worker outside the home could provide for his family, and pay the bills even with no health insurance.
Nearly everything that was essential was more affordable and wages compared to cost of living had a much more favorable ratio. People in the seventies and eighties bought houses and paid them off in 5-10 years! That is practically unheard of now.
Over the course of roughly 100 years the unsound monetary system has eroded away the savings and prosperity of a growing number of US citizens. It really began to accelerate in the 1980’s. We are now so far in debt as individuals and a nation that it is very likely we will end up bankrupt. The empire is crumbling in debt. Who will bail us out? The “new” world order?
Please cite some real examples of how much better things are now. How much less dependent on government the average joe is now. How much more affordable the essentials like food, energy, housing and health care are now. How much more freedom and prosperity there is now in the post 9/11 post crash/bailout world.

Again, you're attributing to the monetary system things which have nothing to do with it.

Do both parents need to work because of inflation or because there are a billion chinese and indian workers? Do both parents need to work because, prior to the 1960s, women were essentially barred from performing any decent paying job in the first place?

If we went on the gold standard, is it going to make american labor more competitive? Is it going to increase american wages? Is it going to lower the cost of goods? HOW?

Your assertion about people paying off homes in 5-10 years in the 70s and 80s is pure and utter bullshit. 30 year mortgages were the norm then and they're the norm now. They've been the norm since the great depression.

And you can't go back to the 70s and 80s and compare it, because we *DID NOT* have a sound monetary system then. We haven't had a sound monetary system since Nixon.

Your blanket assertion that things were "better" in years past is bizarre. We're freaking out about 10% unemployment rates now, but they were 15+% into the 1940s (when we had "sound money"). Our homes were built with aesbestos and hollow drywall. Our cities were full of polluting factories. non-white, non-males were treated as, at best, second class citizens.

Do you even have parents or grandparents? Life was NOT easy in the last generation (the 60s/70s/80s), nor in the generation before it. Selectively ignoring things that were much, much worse (like becoming homeless when you were no longer able to work, or dying in your early 60s because you can't afford to see a doctor) and citing things which are subjectively "better" is a weak argument.

If you want to point the finger at any single thing that has caused life to become more difficult for regular folks since the 1970s, you need to look to Asia. In the period between WWII and the rise of china (really, the *only* time where you can objectively say that things were "better"), we were really the only productive economy on the planet. All the jobs were here, Europe was undergoing reconstruction, and Japan hadn't yet hit its stride.

We're nowhere near that any more.

The only real alternative would be to go back to our pre WWII isolationist policy, and keep everything we do domestic (few imports, few exports, no foreign ownership, no foreign employment). There's little reason to think that life would be any better in this mode of operation though, because we can see exactly what life was like then, and it wasn't very good. Unemployment was high, and the rich controlled even more than they do today.

There is *NO* going back to the post WWII environment, no matter what policy we implement.

Kev,

Are you saying we are better off today than we were 8, 10, 20, 50 years ago? I'm glad you feel that way. But you are wrong. The FED has not caused all our problems, but it has caused more than it has solved. And it is the primary factor allowing deficit spending. If we could not create money out of nothing we could not continue to spend ourselves into debt. No FED, no ballooning national debt. It is that simple.

We have not had sound money since 1913. However the FED did not kick their machine into high gear until the 1970's.

Now we have nearly one in 10 Americans on Food stamps. 100 years ago that number was zero. And how many people died of homelessness or starvation back then? I am sure the number is greater today.

How come during the past 50 years government workers have increased at a rate much greater than the increase in population? How come the average government employee receives salary and compensation worth over $110,000?

Who is paying for that? Not just tax payers but everyone who holds dollar bills. Dollar bills that are losing value at a mind boggling rate. If we stay on our present course we will be bankrupt in less than 20 years, perhaps as few as 4.

I could go on, but this is a straw man argument anyway. The purpose of this thread is to point out how the proposed "health care" reforms are going to increase the deficit, increase dependency on the government, limit choices, and result in greater fraud, waste and abuse.

AdHominem, don't waste your time with facts, logic and common sense. You are doing what I've tried to do... argue with idiots. The policies they support have brought America to her knees. Big government, liberal policies, labor unions, greedy lawyers, over regulation, weak money, The Fed, over spending and crushing debt,etc is what has crippled our economy. YOU know that, and I know that. But they refuse to acknowledge it.

And their solution? To attack your ideas. They offer no solutions of their own. Why? Because it would be too damaging for them to come right out and say " YES, our policy is: MORE deficit spending, LESS freedom, MORE taxes, MORE regulation, MORE job-killing laws, MORE unions, MORE
thought crime regulation, LESS privacy and MORE government control. But those are their policies...the ugly truth.

Pointing out the ugly truth to a statist is a waste of both our times. Todays book: 1984 by George Orwell. Cheers.

AdHominem says

re you saying we are better off today than we were 8, 10, 20, 50 years ago? I’m glad you feel that way. But you are wrong.

AdHominem says

Now we have nearly one in 10 Americans on Food stamps. 100 years ago that number was zero. And how many people died of homelessness or starvation back then? I am sure the number is greater today.

You are joking right. Lots of people died of homelessness and starvation 100 years ago. We had child labor (down to age 5 or 6) in factories 10 hours a day 6 days a week. Food processing was done totally unsupervised under disgusting conditions resulting in untold numbers of deaths, average life span was 50 years, blacks were killed simply because they were black with total impunity, toilets in the cities and towns consisted of dumping a bucket in front of your house along with the diseases it brought, dental work was done with hammers and chisels with no anaesthesia of and kind, surgery was done with carpenters saws with no anaesthesia of any kind, how about the 1918 influenza pandemic, polio with people in iron lungs (the last person in an iron lung died this year), smallpox, children with rickets from malnutrician, 20% infant mortality rate, no electricity, no running water, lots of mother and child graves with one women in 4 dieing in from childbirth, the list goes on and on and on.

How are we not better off than even 50 years ago? Longer life span, much much cheaper food costs, the fall of communism, civil rights, better health care, better houses of 2800 sq ft vs 1200 sq ft with garages central heat/ac, better cars, better roads (especially the interstate highway system), jet air travel,, computers, internet, , instant communications worldwide ( I live overseas and manage to do all my domestic business over the internet and with voip can call anywhere in the world for 5 cents a minute), cities that are clean and livable, cleaner air, cleaner water (remember the Cuyahoga river through cleveland actually caught fire in the 60's), etc. etc. etc..

If you wanted to go back to a 1950's lifestyle with a 1200 sq ft house, 1 car, no internet, no cable, no going out for dinner, no ipod, no computer, no xbox where mom stays home and cooks, cleans, shops (for FOOD at the best price not clutter and junk) , and sews all the clothes it is possible to do on one income.

Sorry but these are facts and common sense. The aspect where we are the worst off compared to the past is debt, both public and private. That was a very poor choice to fund lifestyles that were not sustainable. That is what has crippled the economy.

YES the government has grown too big and intrusive, BUT some of the money was used to pay for vast improvements in daily life which you seem to enjoy but don't want to pay for. A huge amount the national debt was from money spent on the military which no one seems anxious to be point out while ranting against government spending. A very curious omission on the part of Honest Abe and Adhominum. Can you say hypocrisy??? I am pretty conservative but am willing to freely admit that conservatives can and do waste government money just as well as liberals. Conservatives are also frequently embarrassingly anxious to trample all over privacy and civil rights for the sake of power and control cloaked in the guise of national security.

So cut the liberals are responsible for all evils crap and start looking in a mirror. I don't agree with the liberal agenda, but if the conservative movement hadn't screwed the pooch under George Bush it wouldn't be an issue.

BOB,

Technology has made many aspects of life in 2009 "better" than 8 or 50 years ago, but during that time freedom, constitutional government have been mocked and destroyed on a regular basis. But this is just straw man. The thread is about health care "reform."

By the way you never answered how you could claim to NOT be advocating tax increases and yet two sentences later claimed it was necessary. Not interested in explaining yourself, but rather attacking your own ranks?

I agree, we need to drastically cut military spending. Thanks for bringing it up, but I was primarily discussing health care reform.

George Bush was just one in a long line of traitors to the "conservative" movement. What about the Republican majority in Congress a decade ago that squandered their opportunity for real change? "Conservatives" and "republicans" aught to be ashamed, outraged or both. But this too is straw man.

You are wasting our time with straw man. If you really are a "conservative" please consider directing your energy against the true enemies of freedom. But then again you could just be another Bush, posing as a conservative but really a big government collectivist.

@Ad

Seems like you are the one who keeps changing the subject.. About the time when other posters have proven your postings to be completely false. Now all the sudden you want to go back to the original topic of this thread?

fyi--the biggest threat to freedom in the US in the last 50 years was the Patriot Act.

OK--let's get back to it then. Are you for reform at all? Or do you just not like the bills currently in the House and Senate? How would you fix Health Care?

AdHominem says

As a matter of fact I do have some ideas on how to make health care more affordable. Starting with removing the tax breaks to employers who buy insurance and instead giving those tax breaks to individuals. Let us all write off 100% of our health care expenses and insurance premiums. Allow people to have the same tax breaks employers have now except that individuals buy their own health insurance (and thus will not lose it when they change jobs or move to a different state).

Second we need to drastically reduce government involvement in health care. Medicare, medicaid are driving up costs due to fraud, waste and abuse. This will be true of every government program. Instead we could offer qualifying beneficiaries a health care account. They can use the money in this account for health expenses only. This will encourage competition among health care providers as well as encouraging beneficiaries to seek out the most bang for their buck by choosing providers who do not overcharge (funds would be limited in these accounts so both patients and providers must be wise stewards of the money so that it will last them all year).

Insurance should be restricted to what it was meant to be: for unexpected and relatively infrequent events like car accidents, broken bones, cancer etc…
This would drive insurance costs down and give the consumer more money in their pocket for health maintenance like regular check ups, maintenance blood pressure meds etc..

We also need to remove the onerous regulations that have driven non-profits and churches out of the health care business. There is too much red tape and much of it has to do with medicare. In my home town alone two hospitals have closed in my lifetime. At the same time the city has grown to nearly double. So people have to drive farther to wait in longer lines.

We need to encourage the establishment of more minute clinics and such for simple illnesses like yeast infections, sinus infections and ear aches. Allow people to visit a nurse practitioner or PA for less than half to cost of an ER or Walk in Clinic with an overpaid and overworked MD. Allow qualified beneficiaries to use their medical accounts mentioned earlier for these visits to make their health care dollars last longer. The PA and nurse practitioners are qualified professionals and they know when they are out of their league and need to refer people on to a specialist.

These are just a few ideas that will make health care more affordable and accessible to everyone.

AdHominem says

Are you saying we are better off today than we were 8, 10, 20, 50 years ago?

We didn't have "sound money" 8, 10, or 20 years ago. We also didn't have two nations of a billion+ people to compete with.

50 years ago we were absolutely worse off.

Again, I ask you to prove that things were "better". Running around claiming that anyone who disagrees with you hates freedom is not a way to win an argument.

Kevin says

AdHominem says

Are you saying we are better off today than we were 8, 10, 20, 50 years ago?

We didn’t have “sound money” 8, 10, or 20 years ago. We also didn’t have two nations of a billion+ people to compete with.
50 years ago we were absolutely worse off.
Again, I ask you to prove that things were “better”. Running around claiming that anyone who disagrees with you hates freedom is not a way to win an argument.

Straw man. Premise is health care reform will result in higher deficits etc... as posted earlier.

Start a new thread if you want to argue about "better off"

AdHominem says

Kevin says

AdHominem says

Are you saying we are better off today than we were 8, 10, 20, 50 years ago?

We didn’t have “sound money” 8, 10, or 20 years ago. We also didn’t have two nations of a billion+ people to compete with.

50 years ago we were absolutely worse off.

Again, I ask you to prove that things were “better”. Running around claiming that anyone who disagrees with you hates freedom is not a way to win an argument.

Straw man. Premise is health care reform will result in higher deficits etc… as posted earlier.
Start a new thread if you want to argue about “better off”

You're the one who turned this conversation into "sound money" and how we were being "robbed", because you didn't really have any sound arguments about health care reform other than "the government is out to get you".

AdHominem says

By the way you never answered how you could claim to NOT be advocating tax increases and yet two sentences later claimed it was necessary. Not interested in explaining yourself, but rather attacking your own ranks?

Poorly worded is all. Should have said I am NOT an advocate of tax increases BUT they will be necessary. Hardly an earthshattering inconsistency.

AdHominem says

But then again you could just be another Bush, posing as a conservative but really a big government collectivist.

What the heck is a big government collectivist? I am willing to put up with a level of government to achieve a level of public services. What we had in about 1956 is within my comfort zone. The great society isn't. Quick quiz, where on a scale between total lack of government Somalia and total control by government in communist Russia do you see as the correct level of government? Are you one of those people who rants and raves there should be no government while using lots of government services (internet, highways, air traffic control, children in public schools, parks, safety from police/fire), etc., etc., etc.? Your positions seem to sway in the wind.

The biggest enemies of freedom in the US in the last 50 years were named George Bush and Dick Cheney.

AdHominem says

Straw man. Premise is health care reform will result in higher deficits etc… as posted earlier.

Straw man also. The only real question would be if the cost of health care would be reduced or not. It doesn't matter what pocket the money comes out of. If you company is holding down you salary to pay for health care or there is a higher tax to pay for health care or you are paying for health care out of pocket it doesn't matter at all. You pay in all cases. So the bottom line is how do we reduce the $5,000+ per year per person cost of health care, which is about double the rest of the first world.

Your suggestions are to let people write off medical on their taxes (very good for the 20% that itemize, useless for everyone else) and eliminate all government involvement in health care. You don' explain how this will reduce the costs.

Oh yes I forgot, we will eliminate fraud and waste in medicare. Just out of curiosity do you know the administrative cost of medicare? Surprise, it's 3%. Do you know the administrative costs of the medical system overall? With over 1,500 different companies, each offering multiple plans, each with its own marketing program and enrollment procedures, its own paperwork and policies, its CEO salaries, sales commissions, political lobbying costs, advertising, and other non-clinical costs -- and, of course, if it is a for-profit company, its profits, the cost of billing and administration for doctors offices and hospitals? Surprise it's 25%. One dollar out of 4 gets eaten up in the billing process with medicare's really low costs included in the number. Take out medicare and the cost is even higher. WOW, that's really great how private industry is keeping our costs down.

Oh my that terrible medicare. It costs $8500 per person per year. That's outrageous. Obviously a horrible government program that wastes tons of money. Oh wait, it's for people over 65, many that are way over 65. Maybe they are sicker than other people. DUH! What about the part of medicare that covers low income households that are under 65 (mostly children) one might ask if one were interested in a truly fair evaluation instead of demagogary. Hmmm, that only costs $1500 per person per year. WHAT? How can that be with all the fraud and waste??

NO I am not a "big government collectivist". I am a pragmatist. Whatever works. The current system of paying for medical care doesn't work very well at all. I used to write software for medical billing and medical office management so I really do know how bad it is. I have lived and worked in France, Canada, and currently New Zealand. People there are very satisfied with their medical care (and their death panels) at half the cost of the US despite the horror stories people manage to dredge up. There are, of course, no horror stories about medical care in the US. Anyway, it can be done. My solution, which Obama has not solicited, would be to study what works best, and conversely what works poorly, from each system around the world and implement it. We should be cribbing what works rather than reinventing the wheel. It worked great for Microsoft.

elvis says

Americans are becoming more and more dependant upon government (dependency is not a good thing). Dependency breeds bondage (bondage is not a good thing). Bondage is slavery (slavery is not a good thing). Any questions?

Juts one.

Where do you get the good weed that makes you think that health care is slavery? Because I'd like to smoke some of that.

Me paying for YOUR health care is slavery if I have no choice but to pay or be fined or imprisoned.

AdHominem says

Me paying for YOUR health care is slavery if I have no choice but to pay or be fined or imprisoned.

Me paying for YOUR roads is slavery!

AdHominem says

Me paying for YOUR health care is slavery if I have no choice but to pay or be fined or imprisoned.

There's good, free healthcare in prison. Just sayin'

elliemae says

AdHominem says

Me paying for YOUR health care is slavery if I have no choice but to pay or be fined or imprisoned.

There’s good, free healthcare in prison. Just sayin’

Not what I hear. But feel free to check it out if you feel so inclined.

I guess is it benefits AH it's a government investment in infrastructure, if not it's wasteful government spending. If you want to be totally free of the yoke of government then move to Somalia or Zaire. Lovely places.

Nobody wants that. Just to be free of violence coercion by anyone. INCLUDING "government."

elvis says

Kevin, with the proposed HC costs, the legacy to our children will be a lifetime of involuntary financial servitude to our country’s creditors. Wouldn’t that be a type of slavery? A debt slave?

Why do people keep dishonestly pretending that any government portion of health care payments will be in addition to the costs we already have? Any government health care plan, if it comes, won't double down. The costs will be reduced somewhere else. The trick would be reducing the total costs while shifting the payer. Obama's plan is going to manage that or even come close, but it would be possible to do.

Why are people so adamant that the status quo is so great? I think it sucks. Cost are huge, inefficiencies are unbelievable, and lots of people don't get any kind of health care at all.

I know, I know. All we need to do is get government out of health care and let the health care companies experience the joys of pure capitalism. Like Bear Stearns, Aig, and Lehman Brothers perhaps? Maybe we should have an adult in the room just in case.

bob2356 says

Obama’s plan is going to manage that or even come close, but it would be possible to do.

I have to point this out here:

There is no such thing as "Obama's plan". If any single person can be said to own any of the plans currently being debated, it's Harry Reid.

Although with the Republicans trying their hardest to defend the broken financing system that makes up Medicare, the CBO's projections that the plan will save us money are probably doomed.

Obama will get "credit" for all of these "reforms". He made them all possible.
Yes WE CAN!