Republicans Not Saving Money

In a legitimate debate about health care, Democrats would want single payer system assuring coverage for everybody.  Republicans would want a system that reduced costs.  What actually happened with Obama Care, however, was that the Republican insistence on using private heath insurance companies actually increased costs by increasing the power and profits of  insurance companies without reducing doctors' or hospitals' costs.  A single payer system would have given the government leverage to bring down costs; whether it would have actually done so will never be known.  Congress was quick to restore doctors' Medicare fees to the old, higher level when they were in danger of being reduced by some of the automatic budget reductions.  

Some doctors refuse to accept Medicare patients because Medicare pays less than private insurance.  If Congress had passed "Medicare for everybody," however, doctors would have had less opportunity to earn the high rates they currently do, although for the doctors who treat the richest "one-percent" price is irrelevant.  

In a New York Times report on the richest one percent,they found that after a general category called "managers," physicians made up the next largest portion of the one percent, with those working out of their own offices earning the most. Almost none of these rich doctors work in a world where fees are set by a free market; they are either paid by insurance companies or the government, in both cases with fees set in advance.  A patient who walks in the door of a doctor's office has no bargaining rights.  The doctors make sure up front that they are will paid.

The Republicans did nothing to insert free market principles in the health care law.  If anything, they strengthened the hands of the doctors in negotiating with the insurance companies and the government, assuring that the most expensive health care in the world will become even more expensive.  

Bankers Pay Obama for Dumping Warren

Bloomberg reports that JP Morgan and other banks are among the top donors to Obama's campaign.  Obama has sold out to the bankers.  For me Obama's  most egregious act was throwing Elizabeth Warren under the bus.  Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan led the campaign against her, and now he is paying Obama for dumping her.  It's good for Morgan, good for Obama, bad for America, and bad for the middle class.  Jamie Dimon has said that his bank does not want to do business with anyone who has less than $100,000 in his account.  Obama has sold out the majority of his supporters for Wall Street money, figuring that the middle class has nowhere else to go.  Right now the only thing that would get me to vote for Obama is for the Republicans to nominate Rick Santorum.  America is becoming the Roman Empire.  Nero start fiddling!  Caligula start partying!  Let's run a budget deficit of $5 trillion; who cares?  America ranks 34th in infant mortality according to Wikipedia.  The Republicans are against birth control and abortion because they love to kill babies after they are born.  This is NOT a great country.

Bloomberg has recently posted a story about how many payday lenders are supporting Romney, because he has pledged to overturn Dodd-Frank, which under the leadership of Elizabeth Warren, cracked down on payday lenders and other unscrupulous loan businesses through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which Warren created. 

It's interesting that the big banks, like JP Morgan, have responded to the new regulations by supporting Obama for getting rid of Warren, while the little guys, like the payday lenders, have responded by supporting Romney, hoping to get rid of the regulation entirely. 

Sad That Sen. Snowe Is Leaving

It's sad that Sen. Olympia Snowe is leaving the Senate.  She has been a moderate, responsible voice there.  It's worse that she cited the worsening political stalemate as a reason for her leaving.  It's a sign of America's decline as a great nation.  She's leaving uneducated, hateful, unwashed rabble  behind in the Senate, which once used to call itself the world's greatest deliberative body.  Now it's a cesspool.  Poor America!

Obama Tax Cuts

Obama's proposal to cut the corporate income tax rate to 28% is just another present for the richest 1%. It will help more than the 1%, but most of the beneficiaries will be relatively rich, and will probably benefit more than the regular people will from their payroll tax cut. It's arguable that that the corporate rate cut will provide needed stimulus, but the rich are already pretty well stimulated.

One reason interest rates are so low is that rich have plenty of money are are not investing. Thus relatively few people are borrowing to start businesses, etc. The current wisdom is that banks are not lending, but mainly that means not lending to regular people. The rich can get loans; they just don't need or want them.

Obama's going to help them out anyway, because they will give him money if he does. Of course, they will end up making a lot more money than they contribute to his campaign, but he'll get his cut.