Obama Presidency Watch/post election & first 100 days, page 21

reply to post by xpert11

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From what I have been able the US version of Treasury has informed Obama and congress that the planned changes to heath care isn’t affordable. Just like Bush failed to Budget for the war in Iraq, Obama and the Dems will continue to push the Health Care plans thou into law. Not to be all negative even thou it is completely unrelated I supported Obama handling of the protests in Iran.

Treasury is of the Executive Branch. It was the Congressional Budget Office, a bureaucracy staffed by career employees of Congress (which number of employees all tolled exceed 38,000. They read the 1,000 page bills for the Congressmen).

PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPER - PWC - is one of the largest auditing firms in the world.

The price of excess: Identifying waste in healthcare spending

To appropriately address waste in health spending, health industry leaders, policymakers and consumers must work together on system-wide goals and incentives. In April 2008,

Our research found that wasteful spending in the health system has been calculated at up to $1.2 trillion of the $2.2 trillion spent in the United States, more than half of all health spending. Defensive medicine, such as redundant, inappropriate or unnecessary tests and procedures, was identified as the biggest area of excess, followed by inefficient healthcare administration and the cost of care necessitated by conditions such as obesity, which can be considered preventable by lifestyle changes.

PricewaterhouseCoopers’ paper classified health system inefficiencies into three “wastebaskets” that are driving up costs:

1) Behavioral where individual behaviors are shown to lead to health problems, and have potential opportunities for earlier,
non-medical interventions.

2) Clinical where medical care itself is considered inappropriate, entailing overuse, misuse or under-use of particular interventions, missed opportunities for earlier interventions, and overt errors leading to quality problems for the patient, plus cost and rework.

3) Operational where administrative or other business processes appear to add costs without creating value.

When added together, the opportunities for eliminating wasteful spending add up to as much as $1.2 trillion. The impact of issues such as non-adherence to medical advice and prescriptions, alcohol abuse, smoking and obesity are exponential, and fall into all three baskets. www.pwc.com...

You can see that PWC has an entirely different conclusion than the CBO.

reply to post by xpert11

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Whatever the merits of Obama or the Dems health care plans it strikes a cord with people in the same way the Nuclear issue does in New Zealand. Once an issue enters the national conciseness all rationality goes out the window. If Obama’s health care bill does pass into law I dread to think just what kind of pork projects will be included. Cheers xpert11

I think everyone knows but no one wants to admit that what you say to get a vote is not necessarily what you end up being able to deliver. This gap - the wished for versus the attainable - makes the setting of benchmarks by outside observers not only plausible but the benchmark often becomes more important than the goal itself. Recall all the First 100 Days hoopla?!

I prefer the parliamentary form of governance (which can be called responsible) over the American way of fixed terms for its public officials (which can be called irresponsible). It does benefit any sitting president who fails to accomplish an important objective. Like him or not, he remains the man for the fixed term.

Americans are peculiarly uninformed of the function of Congress or its history. Schools and mainstream media are much to blame for this dangerous shortfall. The current model of Congress began as a compromise calculated to preserve the institution of slavery. Whereas our first national government formed under the 1775 Articles of Confederation had an unicameral legislature, the 1787 replacement document provided for a bicameral legislature.

The framers perceived the popularly elected lower chamber - the House - in a far more powerful central government was more likely sooner rather than later to vote laws impeding or even abolishing slavery. To block that very real possibility, the framers conceded a bicameral legislature with the upper chamber membership allotted equally to the states, thereby assuring NO anti-slavery meatuses could pass the Senate. In 1787, 11 of the 13 colonies recognized slavery as legal.

It is very difficult for the average American who spends very little time on political matters, to comprehend why Bush could seem to do what he wanted without Congress, and to successfully defy the 2007-08 Democratic controlled Congress as he did through to the end of his term in ‘09. Yet Obama with a strong Democratic majority cannot cross the street without the approval of Congress which is not always forthcoming.

Bush enjoyed the luxury and took full advantage of having a Newt Gingrich Republican sycophant congress whereas Obama has a Democratic congress that really wants to do its job according to law and which Obama respects as Bush did not.

Consider Guantanamo Bay. Bush never sought nor got permission from Congress (per se) to establish a holding place - called a prison - for people he - Bush - designated to be enemy combatants. People Bush planned to hold for LIFE without TRIAL. (We know 21 of them were totally innocent of wrong-doing. Nothing new there; Bush probably had 10 or 11 inoncent men executed while he was governor of Texas). Yet Obama who wants to close the unauthorized facility, cannot get the approval of Congress to do it.

WHY? Although Obama won HIS election by 10 million popular votes, half of the members of Congress hold their seats on LESS than 5% of the popular vote, district by district or state by state. Note: I said above “per se” about the consent or lack thereof from Congress on the Git-mo issue; Congress after the fact regularly approved funding in the annual Defense Appropriations bills for the facility.

Obama has already outdone Harry Truman’s puny efforts to get universal access to health care in 1946, and has exceeded even the frequently applauded Clinton initiative of 1993-1994. The status quo forces still enjoy the limelight at no cost to themselves as they offer NO alternative comprehensive plan. They are still riding high by using the ‘Just Say No’ approach! Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa is the most disappointing of the NAYSAYERS as he is repeating lies told by others I know he knows are LIES.

Our next TARGET date is September 15.


[edit on 8/16/2009 by donwhite]

reply to post by donwhite

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IMO when the time comes for New Zealand to become a Republic the country would be very advised to stick with the Parliamentary system . It is true that in a bicameral Parliamentary democracy Obama could simple go to the polls to resolve the health care debate . It is also equally true that under the Westminster System and its variations the democratic party would have elected Obama as the leader of there party . Assuming that they had done so the American electorate would have elected Obama as an MP . So under the system you support and I live under Obama wouldn't truly be the elected leader like he currently is in the US .

BTW why is September 15th the next important date ?
Is that when Congress meets next ?

reply to post by xpert11

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When the time comes for New Zealand to become a Republic the country would be very well advised to stick with the Parliamentary system. It is true that in a bicameral Parliamentary democracy Obama could simple go to the polls to resolve the health care debate. Under the system you support and I live under Obama wouldn't truly be the elected leader like he currently is. BTW why is September 15th the next important date? Is that when Congress meets next?

Congress reconvenes September 8. I assume the September 15 date is a self-imposed time line. The Dems effort to involve the GOP in the debate ends on that day. It will then be a matter of who has the votes.

reply to post by xpert11

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I am embarrassed. How can 300 million people be so stupid, collectively speaking? Believe me, it ain’t easy! We already have the “magic bullet” or “silver bullet” if you are a Lone Ranger fan, in our Medicare program for senior citizens. We have added people who use dialysis to Medicare and maybe some other chronic diseases too. There are about 45 million people under Medicare. The total cost of administration is about 3% of revenues.

Private insurance companies run from 8% to 20% depending on what you include in the “cost of administration” portion. There are two rough categories, “overhead and management” and “insurance and taxes.” Insurance in this case refers to public liability and property damage insurance anyone business encounters. Overhead means the cost of doing business. Rent or own space. Paying commissions to sellers of your product.

Medicaid which is often lumped into any Medicare conversation, is entirely different. It is for poor people of which the US has more than its share. Republican as usual hate the poor, and have constantly CUT THE PAYMENTS available to health care provider under the Medicaid program. Today only 20% of practitioners will accept Medicaid. Communities have to contract with hospitals to subsidize the Medicaid patients. It’s a scandal but the POOR have no one to speak for them. Even Jesus did not hold out much hope for the poor for in the Sermon on the Mount, He said only this, “Blessed are the poor for they shall see God!” And SEE God is about all they’ll get unless things change at the Pearly Gates!

We should put everyone on Medicare - not Medicaid - and lay on a tax on people, say 5% to be matched by the employer if working or by the government if not working, for a total revenue of 10%. Based on $13 t. GDP we’d have a shortfall of about $1 t. to deal with. The well respected auditing frim of PriceWaterhouseConnor says there is $1.2 t. of WASTE in our current $2.4 t. outlay. This would solve so many problems at one fell swoop! But alas, it is TOO smart for us. Sorry about that.

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