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US Government Has Failed
U. S. Government Has Failed by Bill Hennessy on May 12, 2009
in Headline
The United States government has failed its fiduciary responsibilities to the people and to the states through nearly criminal mismanagement of Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. Now our failed servants in government want to take over the medical business. If we let them, then we deserve to die from lack of availability, just as Britons now die from highly treatable forms of cancer.
The Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees released their report on the state of those funds today, calling for massive increases in payroll taxes to continue operations of the un-Constitutional programs. (Both programs are prohibited by the 10th Amendment.) According to the Trustees, the FICA payroll taxes must increase to 21.2 percent from 15.3 percent. If Congress increases benefits, taxes would have to rise.
To see the massive cost of these and other entitlement programs, see the chart below:
Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, and other “entitlement” programs comprise 53.5 percent of the FY 2009 budget. As Baby Boomers retire, as fewer young people enter the work force, as the current administration eliminates high paying jobs (its stated goal), entitlement programs will consume and ever-larger portion of the federal budget.
Moreover, government borrowing, currently 50 cents of every $1.00 spent, will become more expensive as inflation increases and the price of government bonds falls. (The more government bonds available, the less valuable they become, and the less lenders are willing to pay for them.) That means that interest on the debt, currently 8.5 percent of the budget, will have to increase in terms of dollars. Moreover, because of the cost-of-living-allowances built in to Social Security, inflation will demand significant increases in annual benefit payments.
If the government cannot handle a pension plan or a medical savings plan, can we really trust it with the entire medical establishment in this country?
Some will argue that the administration–and so-called conservatives like Orin Hatch–do not want to take over the medical business, they simple want to “help.” Look back at LBJ’s orginal promises of Medicare and Medicaid. LBJ lied in order to get the bill passed:
To help pass Medicare, Johnson went so far as to underestimate its true cost and avoided projecting the legislation’s economic impact so the bill could more quickly. “An accurate economic forecast might have sunk Medicare,” Blumenthal and Morone wrote. Johnson decided “to expand coverage now and worry about how to afford it later.”
Supporters of the current medical plan have encouraged Obama to follow LBJ’s example by lying to the American people:
Johnson’s keys to success—moving quickly, using political capital and ignoring costs—could put Obama on the right path, Blumenthal and Morone said, but added that even with employing such actions, the president-elect faces a tough path on health care. [Emphasis mine.]
If the truth would make Obama’s healthcare bill dead-on-arrival, should we lie to ourselves and our children by ignoring its costs in dollars and freedom?
Finally, in the UK, the government healthcare rationing board goes to great lengths to (a) justify the long waiting periods for cancer screenings, (b) the longer waits for diagnoses when screenings indicate a problem, and (c) the even longer waits for treatment to begin. Moreover, the Brits will not treat late stages of the disease even when it reached stages 3 or 4 while the patient waited for his or her turn in the socialized medicine roulette wheel.
Do you want the DMV making your life-or-death healthcare decisions?
in Headline
The United States government has failed its fiduciary responsibilities to the people and to the states through nearly criminal mismanagement of Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. Now our failed servants in government want to take over the medical business. If we let them, then we deserve to die from lack of availability, just as Britons now die from highly treatable forms of cancer.
The Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees released their report on the state of those funds today, calling for massive increases in payroll taxes to continue operations of the un-Constitutional programs. (Both programs are prohibited by the 10th Amendment.) According to the Trustees, the FICA payroll taxes must increase to 21.2 percent from 15.3 percent. If Congress increases benefits, taxes would have to rise.
To see the massive cost of these and other entitlement programs, see the chart below:
Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, and other “entitlement” programs comprise 53.5 percent of the FY 2009 budget. As Baby Boomers retire, as fewer young people enter the work force, as the current administration eliminates high paying jobs (its stated goal), entitlement programs will consume and ever-larger portion of the federal budget.
Moreover, government borrowing, currently 50 cents of every $1.00 spent, will become more expensive as inflation increases and the price of government bonds falls. (The more government bonds available, the less valuable they become, and the less lenders are willing to pay for them.) That means that interest on the debt, currently 8.5 percent of the budget, will have to increase in terms of dollars. Moreover, because of the cost-of-living-allowances built in to Social Security, inflation will demand significant increases in annual benefit payments.
If the government cannot handle a pension plan or a medical savings plan, can we really trust it with the entire medical establishment in this country?
Some will argue that the administration–and so-called conservatives like Orin Hatch–do not want to take over the medical business, they simple want to “help.” Look back at LBJ’s orginal promises of Medicare and Medicaid. LBJ lied in order to get the bill passed:
To help pass Medicare, Johnson went so far as to underestimate its true cost and avoided projecting the legislation’s economic impact so the bill could more quickly. “An accurate economic forecast might have sunk Medicare,” Blumenthal and Morone wrote. Johnson decided “to expand coverage now and worry about how to afford it later.”
Supporters of the current medical plan have encouraged Obama to follow LBJ’s example by lying to the American people:
Johnson’s keys to success—moving quickly, using political capital and ignoring costs—could put Obama on the right path, Blumenthal and Morone said, but added that even with employing such actions, the president-elect faces a tough path on health care. [Emphasis mine.]
If the truth would make Obama’s healthcare bill dead-on-arrival, should we lie to ourselves and our children by ignoring its costs in dollars and freedom?
Finally, in the UK, the government healthcare rationing board goes to great lengths to (a) justify the long waiting periods for cancer screenings, (b) the longer waits for diagnoses when screenings indicate a problem, and (c) the even longer waits for treatment to begin. Moreover, the Brits will not treat late stages of the disease even when it reached stages 3 or 4 while the patient waited for his or her turn in the socialized medicine roulette wheel.
Do you want the DMV making your life-or-death healthcare decisions?
