Friday, September 24, 2010

Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” —Ronald Reagan

Here we go again: Hoover got us in, and WWII got us out. Bush got us in, and

to his credit, started trying to get us out. Though, mostly he gave money to Wall Street bankers.

In the Great Depression, Roosevelt tried deficit spending, but he and the country ran out of money.So then he stopped in 1937 and the economy nose-dived. It took the humongous spending on the war effort of WWII to pull us out of the Great Depression. The spending was for jobs that lasted four years building airplanes, tanks and guns. This change the economy from depression into overdrive.It was not the WPA or a myriad of other make work programs that Roosevelt fostered. It was the building of a sustainable industrial base that employed millions of people for decades.

Of course after the war, we had to pay off a huge national debt, but during that time, from 1946 to 1980, the economy was quite prosperous. We hit a bad recession when Reagan took office, and his early deficit spending made sense (though he didn’t know it). But then he began to cut taxes and let the companies and the people keep more of their hard-earned money and the economy boomed!

We are now headed into the worst slump since 1938, and you itf you have a false hope that Obama can fix it because he is spending money with the help of an elitist Congress that is only too anxious to “bring home the bacon for his constituents.You are sadly wrong!!

The main thing to remember is that, with consumer spending going down, business is going to lay people off—not hire them. You can’t blame business for this. It’s just a vicious cycle that the economy gets into. And you can’t blame consumers for not spending in bad times. The only way out of this, is for the government not to spend, continue to pay unemployment insurance, or give tax breaks to people that only last for one year.

It is to cut taxes and extend the tax brakes the president Bush signed into law that will expire if not extended before they expire in 2010.

Obama should stop saving the Wall Street bankers, and just let those who perform poorly fail. There is only one thing that is too big to fail, and it is the USA!!

One of the charts above is showing government debt as a percentage of GDP by Curious Cat Investing Economics Blog, Creative Commons Attribution, data from OECD, March 2009.

The USA federal government debt is far too large, in my opinion. We have been raising taxes on future taxpayers for several decades, to finance our current spending. Within reason deficit spending is fine. What that reasonable level is however, is not easy to know. One big problem with the past few decades is that during very prosperous economic times we spent money that we didn’t have,and despite the warnings from economists who are not in the hip pocket of Obama, Congress continues to spend!!

This will only transfer to our children and grand children trillions of dollars of debt that will have to be paid or this country will become a “banana republic” very soon!

By not even paying for what we are spending when times were prosperous we put ourselves in a bad situation when we have poor economic conditions – like today. Even if we did not pay down debt, just by not increasing the outstanding debt while the economy grew the ratio of debt to GDP would decline. Then when times were bad, we could afford to run deficits and perhaps bring the debt level up to some reasonable level (maybe 40% of GDP – though it is hard to know what the target should be, 27% seems within the realm of reason to all but Obama sycophants. But today we have the debt to GDP ratio at 98% when you count in the unfunded guarentees that are included in entitlements!

There is at least one more point to remember, the figures in the chart are based on reported debt. The USA has huge liabilities that are not accounted for. So you must remember that the actually debt is much higher than reported in the official debt calculation.I mentioned them in the previous paragraph.And a Boston College Economist estimated yesterday that our actual debt is 200 trillion when you included unfunded social security, mediare and medicaid!

Now on to the good news. As bad as the USA has been at spending tomorrows increases in taxes today, compared to the OECD countries we are actually better than average. The OECD is made up of countries in Europe, the USA, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The chart shows the percentage of GDP that government debt represents for various countries. The USA ended 2006 at 62% while the overall OECD total is 77%.Most probably because of the financial debacle in Greece. A subject I will discuss later in this post.

In 1990 the USA was at 63% and the OECD was at 57%. Japan is the line way at the top with a 2006 total of 180% (that is a big problem for them). Korea is in the best shape at just a 28% total in 2006 but that is an increase from just 8% in 1990.And rember just 50 years ago they were involved in a War with North Korea and China that many of our brave men and women died to keep them from become Communist!

Iin Europe, Greece has already accumulated a mountain of debt that will be difficult if not impossible to pay off. The government has borrowed more than 110 percent of the country’s economic output over the years, and if investors lose confidence in the bonds, a meltdown could happen as early as next year.

Although this is a country far away we should learn from their experience that spending money you do not have and “fudging” the debt numbers can result in a similar outcome here at home!

When the government borrowers in Athens will be required to refinance €25 billion worth of debt — that is, repay what they owe using funds borrowed from the financial markets. But if no buyers can be found for its securities, Greece will have no choice but to declare insolvency — just as Mexico, Ecuador, Russia and Argentina have done in past decades.Will the USA be far behind?

This puts Brussels the seat of the European government and monetary system, in a predicament. European Union rules preclude the 27-member block from lending money to member states to plug holes in their budgets or bridge deficits.If only we had a law against bailing out States like California and New York!

And even if there were a way for the EU to circumvent this prohibition, the consequences could be disastrous. The lack of concern over budget discipline in countries like Spain, Italy and Ireland would spread like wildfire across the entire continent. The message would be clear: Why save, if others will eventually foot the bill? It says a lot about the future we are preparing, or I should say Congress and the Obama administration is preparing for our future generations with the tax and SPENDING running unchecked!

Central bankers in the euro zone are already speculating, behind closed doors, what would happen if the Greeks started printing euros without ECB approval. There is no answer to the question, and that makes central bankers from Lisbon to Dublin even more nervous than they are already.

The Greeks managed to increase their official gross national product by a hefty 25 percent, partly because they included the black market and prostitution in economic output. This brought down the deficit rate — on paper, at any rate — to 2.9 percent.

The government in Athens received a rebuke from Brussels, but so far, however, the Greek government has shown little inclination to take any significant steps. It does intend to reduce the deficit, but only to 9.1 percent next year. This is far too little for many European foreign ministers. As the new Greek finance minister, Giorgos Papakonstantinou, recently announced, the country will need at least four years to get its deficit under control “without jeopardizing the economic recovery.” If only we here in the USA could predict that we could get the deficit under control in four years!

With the debt approaching 13 trillion over the next ten years there is a good possibility that we will become insolvent and our money will be worthless if the brave few that oppose BIG government can succeed in repealing the Health Care Bill and stopping Cap and Trade bills, but I am afraid it is a fait complete!
Soon we will have to decide whether it’s “guns or butter”! And with the present administration it will decimate the military to further their march to socialism. Then who will protect us?

When the government deficit will have reached about €400 billion, or about 150 percent of GDP. Servicing that amount of debt, even at current interest rates of about 5 percent, will make up at least one-third of government spending.

A London investment banker is betting on the continued decline of prices for Greek bonds in the short-term, while simultaneously waiting for the right time to start buying the securities again. He jokes: “If someone has €1,000 in debt, he has a problem. If someone has €10 million in debt, his bank has a problem. And the bank, in this case, is Europe.”
Will we be next?

Source: Telegraph uk.com

Posted by BILL at Friday, September 24, 2010

Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” —Ronald Reagan First and foremost, the US state debt has skyrocketed from $2 trillion to $11 trillion within a decade. The USA will never be able to pay off the debt. Secondly, the political structure of the nation is vulnerable. There is neither universal legislation in the country, nor common traffic rules. The US Army does not execute its major function – defense – anymore since many foreign nationals prefer to serve in the army to obtain the US citizenship. Thirdly, the split of elites, which was especially visible under the conditions of the crisis. The problems, which Panarin named, are absolutely real. However, there is only one thing that is real: America will not be able to cope with these problems. The USA is sick, but the illness began a long time ago and had a number of exacerbation. However, none of those illnesses has ever resulted in the collapse of the nation. The USA survived several immigration and economic crises. There was the split of elites before – it once resulted in the civil war between the North and the South. Winston Churchill once said that Americans will find a way out of a difficult situation only after they try all other ways. It goes without saying that the map of the United States will remain unchanged in 2010. Igor Panarin made his map in 1998, although it did not produce any attention on either the Russians or the Americans. For those who have not seen the map It divides the USA into sections that will be taken over by foreign countries, such as Alaska by the Russians, the South West and the West Coast by the mexicans and so on! Any American knows that the economy is based on a large market. The larger the market can be, the faster the nation can overcome economic difficulties. America has never suffered from any crisis after WWII, that is why they perceive the current crisis so painfully. However, the interest, which so many Americans have shown to the research of the Russian professor, proves they treat the imminent threat seriously. The USA will not take a risk of triggering a global war. If it does, the nation will suffer from much greater damage than it did during WWII. There were no intercontinental ballistic missiles 70 years ago. However, the nation can provoke smaller, local wars, for example a conflict between China and India. If it happens, the USA will not try to have Russia involved in any regional conflict because Russia, for the time being, is the only state that is technically capable of destroying America, as referenced in yesterday’s post. Within six months (April through September) the dollar lost over 10 percent at the world foreign exchange trading, which marked the sharpest decline since 1991. Some experts believe that the American currency is close to collapse, which may lead to a new financial crisis. Our present GDP to the amount of money in circulation, due to the government printing money as fast as they can spend it, is 120 times the GDP. The slide of the US dollar devaluation has been observed for a few years, but the current rate of decline is unprecedented. Some jokester even rushed to re-read the letters of Karl Marx to Friedrich Engels written during the US financial panic of 1857 discussing the collapse of America. It would have been funny if it wasn’t so serious. The chief economist of HSBC Bank Stephen King believes that if the US officials fail to stop the fall of American currency, it may provoke another financial crisis. “A dollar collapse would be a disaster all round… It would leave the international monetary system short of stability and long on fear. It would unleash economic upheavals on a similar scale to those seen in the 1970,” King wrote for The Independent. American government officials, including the Treasury and the Congress. don’t seem to be overly concerned since nothing is being done about it.And the spending marches on at a rapid pace despite the Tea Parties and protests by concerned citizens. The US hasn’t done anything to support the currency since 1955. But is a collapse inevitable? From the viewpoint of macroeconomic indicators, the US state of affairs is, indeed, scary: A record budget deficit of $1.4 trillion, record state debt that now exceeds $11.9 trillion, high unemployment and weak currency. Huge inflows of capital into the economy that Obama is proud of haven’t yet shown results! AND WHILE OBAMA CUTS ONLY THE DEFENSE BUDGET, THE RUSSIANS HAVE DEVELOPED A NUCLEAR CARRYING ROCKET THAT THEY SECRETLY FIRED AT THE POLAR REGION. On 11 October 2008 Russia’s northern fleet held military exercises in the Murmansk region. Russia’s President Dimitry Medvedev praised the maneuvers paying special attention to the launch of the intercontinental missile ‘Sineva’, which he watched from Russia’s only aircraft carrier. The ministry of defence says the rocket, which was fired from the fleet’s nuclear submarine ‘Tula’, reached its longest distance yet – 11,547 kilometers. An aide to the Russian navy commander said it was the first time a submarine had launched the Sineva ballistic missile to its maximum range. “For the first time in Navy history, the launch was not to the Kura test range in Kamchatka [Russian Far East], but to the area of an equatorial part of the Pacific,” Captain 1st rank Igor Dygalo said, adding that the launch was made to check the preparedness of naval strategic nuclear forces. The Sineva launch was made as part of the Dvina tactical exercises of the Russian Northern Fleet, which are also part of larger-scale Stability-2008 exercises conducted with Belarus that started in September and ran until October 21. The RSM-54 R-29RM “>Sineva (NATO designation SS-N-23 Skiff) is a third-generation liquid-propellant intercontinental ballistic missile that entered service with the Russian Navy in July 2007. R-29RM Sineva has been designed by Makeyev Design Bureau  and is said to be one of the most promising projects of Russia’s military industry. These RSM-54 missiles will be able to stand on alert status until 2030. The K-84 Ekaterinburg strategic submarine of the Project 667BDRM/Dela IV class of the Northern Fleet conducted a successful launch of a R-29RM Sineva/SS-N-23 missile at 15:20 MSK (11:20 UTC) on September 9, 2006. The missile was launched from a surfaced submarine from an ice-covered polar region toward the Chizha test site at the Kanin Peninsula. The three warheads that the missile was reported to carry successfully reached their targets. In contrast to the Americans, who have always used only solid propellant SLBMs, the Russians have continued to use liquid-propelled missiles, perhaps on grounds of extensive experience and confidence in their safety, but surely because of consistent disappointment with the solid-propelled R-31 (SS-N-17) and R-39 (SS-N-20). Unlike its predecessor, the Skif, the Sineva carries 10 independently targetable re-entry vehicles instead of four. The new missile has a longer range and a modern control system developed for Makeyev’s Bark SLBM (SS-NX-28). It can carry four or 10 nuclear warheads, depending on the modification. The RSM-54 carries four, and the Sineva (with a service life of several decades) 10 individually targetable reentry vehicles, with a yield of 100Kt each. source: Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces.com So now after Obama and his followers in the Congress manage to spend US into insolvency that will make paying the present military force impossible. All the Russians and Chinese have to do to take over the USA is threatened to annihilate us with their nukes, and Kruschefs prediction that we will not have to beat you on the battle field will become a truism! Close Preview

Danger – if you meet it promptly and without flinching – you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!…Winston Churchill

Until the Left voted in their “messia”they hated all the provisions of the Patriot Act. Instead of admitting that it provided the tools needed to prevent another 9/11. The Left attacked the Act based on the specious argument that it took away our freedom.

Well, now that they control Congress, the White House and all branches of the Federal government it appears that they like the power that the Patriot Act gives them to gag anyone who prints or speaks against the power grab Obama and his “capos”from Chicago are steam rolling on the USA.

In order to understand the position change the Left has taken it is important to review a little recent history.

On April 8, 2008,working with the Bush administration, Congressional Republicans were maneuvering to make permanent the sweeping anti-terrorism powers granted to federal law enforcement agents after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The Patriot Act

The move touched off strong objections from many Democrats and even some Republicans(RINOS) in Congress who believed that the Patriot Act, as the legislation that grew out of the attacks is known, has already given the government too much power to spy on Americans.

The landmark legislation expanded the government’s power to use eavesdropping, surveillance, access to financial and computer records and other tools to track terrorist suspects.

Justice Department officials credited the Patriot Act with allowing the F.B.I. to move with greater speed and flexibility to disrupt terrorist operations before they occur, and they say they wanted to see the time limit on the legislation lifted.

“The Patriot Act has been an extremely useful tool, a demonstrated success, and we don’t want that to expire on us,” a senior department official said on condition of anonymity.

Despite this endorsement from an agency that protects Americans from another 9/11. Democrats opposed the extension when Bush was president.

The Kyl-Schumer measure eliminated the need for federal agents seeking secret surveillance warrants to show that a suspect is affiliated with a foreign power or agent, like a terrorist group.

The proposal was approved unanimously by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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Senator Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin,  added amendments that would require the Justice Department to give detailed information about how the secret warrants are being used and that could give defense lawyers access to some information generated by the warrants in criminal cases.

Fast forward to this week, and this story will demonstrate how opinions change when power changes hands!

In a case that raises questions about online journalism and privacy rights, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a formal request to an independent news site ordering it to provide details of all reader visits on a certain day.

The grand jury subpoena also required the Philadelphia-based Indymedia.us Web site “not to disclose the existence of this request” unless authorized by the Justice Department, a gag order that presents an unusual quandary for any news organization.

Kristina Clair, a 34-year old Linux administrator living in Philadelphia who provides free server space for Indymedia.us, said she was shocked to receive the Justice Department’s subpoena. (The Independent Media Center is a left-of-center amalgamation of journalists and advocates that – according to their principles of unity and mission statement – work toward “promoting social and economic justice” and “social change.”)

The subpoena (PDF) from U.S. Attorney Tim Morrison in Indianapolis demanded “all IP traffic to and from http://www.indymedia.us” on June 25, 2008. It instructed Clair to “include IP addresses, times, and any other identifying information,” including e-mail addresses, physical addresses, registered accounts, and Indymedia readers’ Social Security Numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, and so on.

“I didn’t think anything we were doing was worthy of any (federal) attention,” Clair said in a telephone interview with CBSNews.com on Monday. After talking to other Indymedia volunteers, Clair ended up calling the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, which represented her at no cost.

Under long-standing Justice Department guidelines, subpoenas to members of the news media are supposed to receive special treatment. One portion of the guidelines, for instance, says that “no subpoena may be issued to any member of the news media” without “the express authorization of the attorney general” – that would be current attorney general Eric Holder – and subpoenas should be “directed at material information regarding a limited subject matter.”

Still unclear is what criminal investigation U.S. Attorney Morrison was pursuing. Last Friday, a spokeswoman initially promised a response, but Morrison sent e-mail on Monday evening saying: “We have no comment.” The Justice Department in Washington, D.C. also declined to respond.

Kevin Bankston, a senior staff attorney at the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, replied to the Justice Department on behalf of his client in a February 2009 letter (PDF) outlining what he described as a series of problems with the subpoena, including that it was not personally served, that a judge-issued court order would be required for the full logs, and that Indymedia did not store logs in the first place.

Morrison replied in a one-sentence letter saying the subpoena had been withdrawn. Around the same time, according to the EFF, the group had a series of discussions with assistant U.S. attorneys in Morrison’s office who threatened Clair with possible prosecution for obstruction of justice if she disclosed the existence of the already-withdrawn subpoena — claiming it “may endanger someone’s health” and would have a “human cost.”

Lucy Dalglish, the executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of The Press, said a gag order to a news organization wouldn’t stand up in court: “If you get a subpoena and you’re a journalist, they can’t gag you.”

My fear is that this kind of bogus gag order is much more common than one would hope, considering they’re legally baseless,” Bankston says. “We’re telling this story in hopes that more providers will press back and go public when the government demands their silence.” After all we still have the freedom to speak even it is opposition to what Obama and Pelosi want!

Update 1:59pm E.T.: A Justice Department official familiar with this subpoena just said that the attorney general’s office never saw it and that it had not been submitted to the department’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. for review. If that’s correct, it suggests that U.S. Attorney Tim Morrison and Assistant U.S. Attorney Doris Pryor did not follow department regulations requiring the “express authorization of the attorney general” for media subpoenas — and it means that neither Attorney General Eric Holder nor Acting Attorney General Mark Filip were involved. I wouldn’t be surprised to see an internal investigation by the Office of Professional Responsibility. As usual, the deniability game is being played by the Obama administration. Things just happen and no one appears to know about it at the top of the chain of Command!

How long will Americans stand by while the Marxist Liberals destroy our money and freedoms as they incrementally take away pieces of our Constitutional rights?

Obama Names Rationing Czar to Run Medicare

By Terence Jeffrey (Archive) · Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Dr. Donald Berwick of the Harvard Medical School does not like free enterprise, but he does like rationing.

Two years ago, in England, he delivered a talk celebrating the 60th birthday of Great Britain’s National Health Service, the bureaucracy that runs that nation’s socialized medical system. He apparently entertained some fear that day that the Brits might turn back to free enterprise. So, in his address (as reprinted in the July 26, 2008, edition of the British Medical Journal), and as reported this week by Matt Cover of CNSNews.com, he offered British socialists some words of advice.

“Please,” he told them, “don’t put your faith in market forces — it’s a popular idea: that Adam Smith’s invisible hand would do a better job of designing care than leaders with plans can. I find little evidence that market forces relying on consumers choosing among an array of products, with competitors fighting it out, leads to the health care system you want and need. In the U.S., competition is a major reason for our duplicative, supply driven, fragmented care system.”

To Berwick, America’s health care system is not the model for the world. Great Britain’s is. In his view, it is vital for the Brits to hold high the flame of socialized medicine so the world can follow its lead.

The Obama administration is using the disaster in the Gulf as an excuse to bo to his eco-freak supporters and reverse his “decision” to allow off shore drilling in the Atlantic ocean for crude oil.

The latest estimate of 5,000 gallons of crude oil being leaked into the Gulf waters is truly a disaster of unknown proportions, but it is no excuse to allow the Chinese Communists and the Brazilians to fatten their oil reserves in the gulf at our expense.

Whether we like it or not. It is a fact the millions of trucks travel the highways daily to deliver the foods and supplies we rely on to live our lives, and tanks and fighter jets cannot run on batteries or wind power if they are to be effective in battle against our enemies. And there are many reasons why the Obama administration is wrong to turn to green jobs and ignore the oil we have off the shores of both oceans and the gulf not to mention the millions of barrels that are lying under the surface of the lands in the form of oil-sands located in the western states of our Nation.

While we a trying to build an oil free energy grid for America, which I personally think is a pipe dream unless we start building nuclear power plants as they have in European countries like France. The Chinese and the Brazilians are drilling today offshore of Cuba to extract crude oil from the same Gulf of Mexico, and I do not think they give a damn about oil spills!

China is rapidly becoming a super power that is not only drilling in the Gulf, but also in many African countries where they have made deals with the money they generated while they were becoming the largest source of Americans products that are made over seas that once were made in America.

At the same time that China is drilling for oil in the Gulf. The China Petrochemical (aka SINOPEC) has made a 4.65 billion dollar deal with ConocoPhillips for a large stake in the oil-sands producer Syncrude Canada.

China is the fastest growing economy in the world. and they are not hamstrung by America’s new religion,the Ecology Movement. China is on a Global quest for resources to power their economy.While we here in America are letting Obama and his merry band of communists and socialists lead us down the path to economic ruin!

China plowed 32 billion dollars into mining and energy acquisitions last year. Most of the investment was made by PetroChina! We invest in windmills and act like Don Quixote in a fight against those who should be our mortal enemies China and Russia who are energy free of OPEC!

I would ask the young people of America what makes them believe that Obama’s “hope and change” will benefit them?

The Obama Health Care bill that was just past will not increase the quality of medical care. All it does is increase tens of millions of more people into a system that is already short of nurses and a dwindling number of Physicians who are reaching retirement age or have decide they do not want some government employee telling them how to practice and are planning to leave medical practice.

What this and every other scheme Obama and his sycophants plan for US is add thousands of government workers to the federal payroll and further bloat the retirement load that taxpayers like you will have to pay in twenty or thirty years

The following is an excerpt from an article published in the London Telegraph by a doctor who has experienced the National Health Service in Great Britain for the past 30 years.

He notes that the nurse population is being cut by thousands to reduce the monies paid out by NHS to pay for the salaries and retirement of the 1,5 million government workers that “administer”the NHS. This plus the fact that the NHS has reduced the hours from 30,000 to 6000 for the training of specialty doctors has led to a cadre of  limited educated physicians who do not know anything but the particular specialty that they studied. This has resulted in more consultations with other specialists and a log jam in the referral process. His conclusions are worth any one who is a “young” voter, as it will happen in this country within 20-30 years if this Obama machine is not stopped!

”

Young voters have a vital role in determining policy at this election. Whereas older voters, employed or often not, will vote for a “free” health service and continuing pensions, the demographic reality is that none of this money is stacked up in a bank account. It will only come from increased taxation on the declining percentage of working, i.e. economically active, people and will directly impinge on education costs and therefore education standards in the next 25 years.

Politicians cannot continue to be economical with the truth. We treat all-comers, from malnourished infants of economic migrants to octogenarians seeking care at the end of a long hard life. We do our best, and we need a rapid clear-out of the non-essential bureaucracy which is slowing patient care and diverting funds needed for the care and cure of sick citizens”.

The latest ploy that the Obama stooges in congress has come up with is to pass the so-called financial reform bill. This legislation crafted by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Fannie Mae) and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Countrywide) that would ramp up regulations of financial firms in an effort — so Democrats claim — to avoid a recurrence of the collapse and ensuing bailouts of 2008. The bill is scheduled for a first test vote Monday.

As The Wall Street Journal reports, “The legislation would grant the federal government the power to seize teetering financial giants and dismantle them the same way the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation now can seize failing banks. It would create a new financial consumer regulator, would boost the strength and budget of the Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] and would impose new transparency rules on the trading of derivatives, the complex financial instruments that helped bankrupt Lehman Brothers and nearly wipe out American International Group and Merrill Lynch.”

The only problem in my mind is that “too big to fail” is a buzz word to mean we cannot let these large financial institutions that were previously called bank to fail or else the campaign financing money that the big houses on Wall Street have contributed to lect Obama in the 2008 presidential election. Unknown to me is the amount their Lobbyists gave to the election campaigns of the congressmen and senators who crafted this horrendous bill!

To refresh all who bother to read this posting I want to remind you that these institutions theat are deemed to big to fail gave the following amounts to Obama’s campaign: 

Obama took $994,795 from Goldman for his 2008 campaign, as well as $701,290 from Citigroup, $695,132 from JP Morgan Chase, and $514,881 from Morgan Stanley. (John McCain’s biggest donor among this Big Four was Citigroup, which gave him $322,051.) Obama has numerous other ties with Goldman. Also, while Goldman lawyers negotiated with the SEC, its Chief Executive, Lloyd Blankfein, visited the White House four times. source: Patriot Post

This is ignoring the important fact that this Bill that Obama is pushing makes two categories of banks. The large ones whom the government will back what ever they decide to invest in, even if it looses millions. But the small banks, the heart of small town banking is put in a category that will allow them to fail. I wonder how much money these Banks donate to the democrats and Obama? Probably very little!

As the lead article of the Patriot Post says: “this financial “reform” bill is like every other big government power grab in the last two years. The goal is to further the Left’s agenda, and to reward Democrat constituents, who, these days, include the very Wall Street “fat cats” that Obama has been cynically denouncing. Besides, the root of all these problems was, and is, government itself, starting with the subprime mortgage mess, and the subsequent collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Why are they not covered by this so-called reform?”

That is a question that needs to be asked and answered!

The Davey family’s £815-a-week state handouts pay for a four-bedroom home, top-of-the-range mod cons and two vehicles including a Mercedes people carrier.

Father-of-seven Peter gave up work because he could make more living on benefits.

Yet he and his wife Claire are still not happy with their lot.

With an eighth child on the way, they are demanding a bigger house, courtesy of the taxpayer.

More on the way: The Davey family at home

‘It’s really hard,’ said Mrs Davey, 29, who is seven months pregnant. ‘We can’t afford holidays and I don’t want my kids living on a council estate and struggling like I have.

‘The price of living is going up but benefits are going down. My carer’s allowance is only going up by 80p this year and petrol is so expensive now, I’m worried how we’ll cope.

Mrs Davey has never had a full-time job while her 35-year-old husband gave up his post in administration nine years ago after realising they would be better off living off the state.

At their semi on the Isle of Anglesey, the family have a 42in flatscreen television in the living room with Sky TV at £50 a month, a Wii games console, three Nintendo DS machines and a computer – not to mention four mobile phones.

With their income of more than £42,000 a year, they run an 11-seater minibus and the seven-seat automatic Mercedes.

But according to the Daveys they have nothing to be thankful for.

‘It doesn’t bother me that taxpayers are paying for me to have a large family,’ added Mrs Davey.

‘We couldn’t afford to care for our children without benefits, but as long as they have everything they need, I don’t think I’m selfish.  

‘Most of the parents at our kids’ school are on benefits.’

She added: ‘I don’t feel bad about being subsidised by people who are working. I’m just working with the system that’s there. 

‘If the government wants to give me money, I’m happy to take it. We get what we’re entitled to. I don’t put in anything because I don’t pay taxes, but if I could work I would.’

 The couple met in a pub 13 years ago. A year later, at the age of 17, Mrs Davey gave birth to Jessica, now 12.

 She was followed by Jade, ten, Jamie-Anne, eight, Harriet, six, Adele, four, the couple’s only son Tie, three, and Mercedes, two.

 ‘It cost too much to carry on working as we were actually better off unemployed,’ said Mr Davey.

 In addition to income support, housing benefit, child tax credits and a council tax discount, the couple receive carer’s allowance and disability living allowance for Tie, who suffers from a severe skin disorder.

 Despite filing for bankruptcy 18 months ago after racking up £20,000 of debt on mail order catalogues they still insist on splashing out on four presents per child at birthdays and last Christmas spent £2,000 on gifts alone.

 ‘Santa is always generous in our house,’ said Mrs Davey, who once applied to join the police but was turned down.

 She insists her husband would do any job ‘as long as we could still afford the lifestyle we have now’.

 Mrs Davey, who spends £160 a week at Tesco, says she does not intend to stop at eight children. Her target is 14.

 And she adds: ‘I’ve always wanted a big family – no one can tell me how many kids I can have whether I’m working or not.’ 

 SOURCE: DAILY MAIL

 

 

Now that we have Obamacare as the law of the land it is appropriate to look at what has happened in England where government controled health care has been in force for decades.

Despite growing the bureaucracy that runs it the numbers of doctors and nurses has decreased over the years. This has resulted in waiting times for appointments to see physicians and dentists, and even longer waiting periods for surgical procedures–even years for some surgeries.

But now a problem has been revealed with the medicines available to cancer patients from the National Health Service. 

Many cancer medicines which are widely available in Europe, such as the bowel cancer drug, Bevacizumab, and the kidney cancer drug, Sorafenib, are not available in the United Kingdom.

France gives out on average 1,600 mg of Bevacizumab per bowel cancer case, compared to virtually none in the UK.

Some of the more expensive drugs which have been approved by NICE are used less than in other countries, the figures show.

Patients are 20 per cent more likely to be given the breast cancer drug Herceptin on average in Europe than in the UK; 50 per cent more likely if they live in France or Spain.

Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said: “It is unforgivable that thousands of cancer sufferers in England die each year because they are not given the drugs that they need when we spend over a hundred billion pounds a year on the NHS.

“Gordon Brown has doubled the amount we spend on the NHS but we have not got a good return for our money – so much of it has been spent on waste and bureaucracy.

“There is no reason why we should not be able to get cancer drugs in England that are readily available in the rest of Europe.”

Figures released by NICE show that 15 cancer drugs have been assessed since Mr Johnson’s promise of November 2008, of which four have been turned down and 11 only partially approved.

They include Hycamtin (topotecan), for lung and cervical cancer, Mabthera (rituximab) for chronic lymphocytes leukaemia and Sutent (sunitinib) for stomach tumours.

Sir Andrew Dillon, chief executive of Nice, insisted however that partial recommendations were the best way to deal with new drugs, because it allowed them to be limited to certain patients who would most benefit from their use. Note this is a bureaucrat not a doctor deciding who gets the potential life saving drugs!!!

He added: “We recommend the use of most (85 per cent) of the new drugs we look at.( I guess he lets the other 255 DIE BECAUSE HE THINKS THEY WOULD BE A WASTE OF MONEY!!)

“Not all patients with a particular condition benefit from a drug and some drugs only work really well for some patients or at a particular stage in a disease.

“It is wrong to recommend the use of treatments where the additional benefit is uncertain.( THIS IS A NON-DOCTOR TALKING!!)

President B.H. Obama has thrown down the gauntlet to the “special interests” as he calls the insurance companies, and today asked Congress to ignore their pleas and I guess money that they use to get their way. So he NOW HAS his socialized medicine.

He reminded all that he campaigned on the promise to deliver medical care for all. and WAS bound and very determined to get his way. He found a willing Democrat controlled Congress to give him his socialized medicine despite the fact that in doing so he hasl destroyed the best medical system in the World.

If you doubt me, spend and hour in the waiting room of the Mayo clinic and listen to all the foreign languages spoken. People from every where come to the USA for medical care, but they won’t now that he has done to medicine what the government has done to the Postal Service and the IRS!

There are not many people I know who have experienced socialized medicine in a life threatening situation. I am one who has! So I have republished a blog I posted in 2006 that explain the horrors of “free” medical care.I put free in quotes, because even now that socialized medicine is passed it will not be free. You taxpayers will pay for the “crap”” that is passed off as medicine for all! And the defit will continue to rise by the day!

NOT ONLY DOES THE U.S. CONSTITUTION NOT SAY ANYTHING ABOUT HEALTH CARE RIGHTS, BUT THIS INITIATIVE IS NOTHING MORE THAN BLATANT SOCIALISM WHICH WILL ROB FROM THE “HAVES” TO PAY FOR THE “HAVE NOTS”.
THIS IS NOTHING MORE OR LESS BUT WHAT THE GREAT SENATOR FROM NEW YORK, HILLARY CLINTON, TRIED TO DO BEHIND CLOSED DOORS THE FIRST YEAR HER HUSBAND WAS PRESIDENT.

I USUALLY DON’T WRITE ABOUT MYSELF IN THESE FLEDGLING ATTEMPTS TO BE A BLOGGER. BUT THIS SUBJECT IS SOMETHING I CAN WRITE ABOUT FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. A YEAR AGO THIS PAST MAY MY WIFE AND MY YOUNGEST SON WERE IN ROME FOR OUR 32 ND ANNIVERSARY WHEN I AWOKE IN A HOTEL ROOM AROUND 5AM WITH THE DREADED ELEPHANT SITTING ON MY CHEST! YES, IT WAS A HEART ATTACK! I WAS SCARED AS HELL!
XXX
IN ITALY THEY HAVE TOTAL SOCIALIZED MEDICINE—EVEN FOR VISITORS FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES. KIND OF LIKE OUR MEDICAID PROGRAM FOR ILLEGAL MEXICANS. I DID NOT KNOW THIS UNTIL I CHECKED OUT OF THE HOSPITAL 4 DAYS LATER TO FLY HOME FOR DEFINITIVE TREATMENT OF MY HEART. BUT AT ANY RATE AN AMBULANCE FINALLY CAME TO OUR HOTEL AROUND 7:30 AND TOOK ME TO A LARGE HOSPITAL NEAR THE ITALIAN PARLIAMENT. THE RIDE ITSELF WAS AN EXPERIENCE. SIRENS BLARING AND WEAVING IN AND OUT OF TRAFFIC I WAS LUCKY I WAS STRAPPED IN. WHEN I GOT TO SAN JACQUIMO HOSPITAL I WAS ROLLED INTO A HALLWAY WHERE I WAITED FOR 50 MIN. OR SO, WHEN A NURSE WHO COULDN’T SPEAK ENGLISH TRIED TO GET MY HISTORY,ETC. FROM A MAN WHO SPEAKS SPANISH FAIRLY WELL BUT KNEW ONLY A FEW WORDS OF ITALIAN. AFTER SOME TIME THEY GAVE ME A SHOT THAT RELIEVED MY PAIN,DREW BLOOD AND ROLLED ME BACK OUT INTO THE HALLWAY WITH DOZENS OF OTHER PATIENTS. FINALLY A DOCTOR CAME TO TELL ME IN FAIRLY GOOD ENGLISH THAT, YES, I HAD A HEART ATTACK. HE TOLD ME THE CARDIAC CARE WARD WAS FULL, BUT HE WOULD TRY AND GET ME A BED IN THE SURGICAL WARD.THE CARDIAC WARD HAS FOUR BEDS!
XXX
SOME HOURS LATER I WAS TRANSPORTED TO A ROOM THAT HAD TO BE UNLOCKED BEFORE THEY COULD ROLL ME IN, AND WAS LOCKED AS SOON AS I ENTERED. HAVING OVER 30 YEARS AS AN ORAL SURGEON ON THE STAFFS OF TWO HOSPITALS I WAS SUDDENLY TRANSPORTED INTO THIRD WORLD MEDICINE! INSIDE THE ROOM WERE FOUR BEDS THREE OF WHICH WERE OCCUPIED BY MAJOR SURGERY POST OPERATIVE PATIENTS. ONE LADY HAD A MASTECTOMY, ONE MAN HAD A THROAT OPERATION, AND THE THIRD WAS A LADY WHO HAD SOME TYPE OF ABDOMINAL SURGERY. I WAS THE ONLY ONE WITHOUT A HEALING, OPEN WOUND.
XXX
THE FIRST THING I NOTICED BEFORE THEY RAMMED A TOO LARGE CATHETER WITHOUT LUBRICATION UP MY URETHRA ,THAT MADE ME BLEED FOR TWO DAYS, WAS THAT THERE WAS JUST ONE WINDOW IN THE ROOM AND IT WAS WIDE OPEN WITH NO SCREEN ON IT! THIS WAS A ROOM FOR SURGERY PATIENTS HOPING TO RECOVER AND THE FLYS WERE MERRILY FLYING IN AND OUT OF THE WINDOW.
XXX
AFTER THE IVs WERE INSERTED I WAS AWARE THAT ALL THE DRESSINGS REMOVED FROM THE SURGERY PATIENTS WERE BEING PLACED IN AN OPEN BOX LINED WITH A PLASTIC BAG ABOUT 4 FEET FROM MY BED NEXT TO THE LOCKED DOOR. THE IV THAT WAS PUT IN HAD PUNCTURED MY VEIN WALL, AND ABOUT AN HOUR LATER MY RIGHT FOREARM WAS SWOLLEN AND HURT LIKE BLAZES. SINCE NO ONE IN THE ROOM COULD UNDERSTAND A WORD OF ENGLISH. I YELLED THE UNIVERSAL DISTRESS, “HELP” AS LOUD AS I COULD. IF I HAD KNOWN WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO “JUST GEORGE”, AS THEY LEARNED TO CALL ME, WAS ABOUT TO BECOME A PIN CUSHION FOR TWO DIFFERENT PEOPLE I THOUGHT WERE NURSES. I MIGHT HAVE SAID NOTHING EVEN THOUGH I KNEW IT WASN’T INSERTED CORRECTLY. IF I KNEW THEY WERE GOING TO JAB ME SO MANY TIMES WITH LARGE NEEDLES(nine times unsuccessfully). FINALLY AFTER RIPPING UP MY VEINS IN BOTH FOREARMS THEY CALLED A FEMALE DOCTOR TO HELP. SHE SPOKE ENGLISH AND HAD THE IV IN MY HAND ON THE FIRST TRY. NICE LADY, BUT I NEVER SAW HER AGAIN.
XXX
SINCE THERE WAS NO IV INSERTED FOR ABOUT THREE HOURS THEY STARTED TO STICK ME IN THE BELLY WITH INJECTABLE HEPARIN . I VAGUELY REMEMBER 8 OR TEN JABS IN THE BELLY WHICH MADE MY STOMACH LOOK LIKE I WENT TEN ROUNDS WITH “JOE LOW BLOW” BOXER! AT DINNER TIME I LEARNED THAT THE HOSPITAL PROVIDED NEITHER FOOD NOR WATER, NOR TOILET PRODUCTS SUCH AS SOAP AND TOOTHBRUSH. THEY EXPECTED THE RELATIVES OF THE PATIENTS TO BRING IN THE FOOD,ETC. THE ONLY THING THEY PROVIDED THREE TIMES A DAY WAS A GRUEL LIKE WATERED DOWN SOUP AND 3 “ZWIEBACK” TYPE CRACKERS. I LOST 12 POUND IN FOUR DAYS!
XXX
FINALLY ON THE MORNING OF THE THIRD DAY I WAS TRANSFERRED TO THE CARDIAC CARE UNIT. IT WAS LIKE GETTING BACK TO THE 21ST CENTURY! THE ONLY PROBLEM WAS THEY ONLY HAD FOUR BEDS! IN THIS LARGE VERY STERILE LOOKING ROOM WITH THE NURSES STATION BEHIND A DOOR AND LARGE WINDOWS WITH NO CALL BUTTON AT ANY BED. YOU WERE ON YOUR OWN.
XXX
THE REAL CLOSE CALL CAME LATER THAT DAY. I HAD BEEN PUT ON AN IV DRIP OF NITROGLYCERIN AND AN IV WITH SOME NARCOTIC FOR PAIN. THERE WAS A VERY NICE CARDIOLOGIST WHO COULD SPEAK ENGLISH WELL ENOUGH FOR ME TO COMMUNICATE WITH HIM, BUT HE ONLY CAME IN ONCE A DAY. THE PROBLEM DEVELOPED WHEN I TOLD HIM I WAS STILL HAVING SOME CHEST PAIN. HE ORDERED A SLIGHT INCREASE IN THE NARCOTIC AND NITROGLYCERIN DRIP. THE DRUGS MADE MY SLEEPY AND I DRIFTED OFF TO SLEEP FOR HE FIRST TIME IN THREE DAYS. I WAS TOO SCARED TO FALL ASLEEP IN THE SURGERY ROOM AS THE STAFF SPENT MOST OF THEIR TIME DAY AND NIGHT BEHIND A CLOSED DOOR JUST OUTSIDE THE WARD. AT NIGHT THE “HANK-PANKY GOING ON COULD WAKE THE DEAD!
XXX
WHILE I WAS SLEEPING, THE SHIFTS CHANGED, AND APPARENTLY THE “NURSE” WHO HAD INCREASED MY IV DRIP HAD NOT MADE A NOTE IN MY CHART. SO WHEN THE NEW CREW CAME IN THEY INCREASED THE AMOUNT OF NARCOTIC AN NITRO DRIP. A SHORT TIME LATER WHEN I AWOKE LUCKILY, I BEGAN TO GO BLIND. EVERYTHING GREW BLACK, AND I THOUGHT I WAS DYING! APPARENTLY MY BLOOD PRESSURE DROPPED TO 50/30 AND ALL I COULD DO WAS WAVE MY HANDS AND TRY TO YELL HELP. LUCKY FOR ME A NEW NIGHT DOCTOR WAS IN THE NURSES STATION AND SAW ME WAVING FRANTICALLY. HE CAME AND AFTER CHECKING MY BLOOD PRESSURE HAD THE NURSING STAFF RAISE THE FOOT OF MY BED SO HIGH I SLIPPED UP TO THE BEDSTEAD, BUT IT SAVED MY LIFE ALONG WITH THE IV INJECTIONS OF MEDS. HE GAVE ME TO RAISE MY BLOOD PRESSURE. THAT WAS AS CLOSE AS I HAD EVER COME TO HAVING A STROKE.
XXX
ON THE FOuRTH DAY MY WIFE, MY SON AND I DECIDED THIS HOSPITAL WAS DANGEROUS TO MY HEALTH AND MADE UP OUR MINDS TO FLY BACK TO THE U.S. I TOLD THE DOCTOR WHO SPOKE ENGLISH THAT I WANTED TO GO HOME BUT HE INSISTED I MUST STAY AND HAVE A HEART CATHETERIZING IN THE MORNING. I ASKED HIM IF I WAS IN A PRISON OR COULD I SIGN MYSELF OUT AGAINST HIS ADVICE. AFTER A LENGTHY TALK WITH HIS SUPERIORS HE BROUGHT ME THE RELEASE PAPERS TO SIGN. FOR ALL I KNOW THEY COULD BE A DEATH WARRANT OR DEED TO MY HOUSE AS THEY WERE IN ITALIAN. I SIGNED THE PAPERS AND TOOK A CAB TO THE HOTEL. THE NEXT DAY WE FLEW HOME IN A 747 WITH NITRO PATCHES CHANGED EVERY FOUR HOURS AND ROOM ENOUGH FOR ME TO LAY DOWN AND SLEEP MOST OF THE 10 HOUR FLIGHT. THUS ENDED MY EXPERIENCE WITH TOTALLY SOCIALIZED MEDICINE. SOME PEOPLE RAVE ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCES IN COUNTRIES WITH SOCIALIZED MEDICINE. BUT I WILL NEVER FORGET THE NIGHTMARE THAT WAS MINE ALL FOR FREE. IT DID NOT COST A CENT! Caps are for emphasis not shouting!!