Dems Agree That ObamaCare Panel Will Not Work

So, Sarah Palin was right all along, the ObamaCare IPAB (Independent Payment Advisory Board) won't work.  It will hurt and possibly kill people.

This 'board' is an unworkable "medical rationing" committee which will make pronouncements about medical spending for large categories of persons (with no knowledge of each individual situation) to try to "save" costs.   An unelected, unaccountable panel of 15 persons can't do squat except cause millions of problems!  It's totally unworkable!  It's like a Soviet-style "politburo" trying to preside over the health care of 100s of  millions of persons. What a joke!  Can you imagine the contempt that will emerge from doctors?

Even Howard Dean, a physician and former Governor of Vermont, agrees.  From the WSJ, an article by Howard Dean called The Affordable Care Act's Rate Setting Won't Work:

One major problem is the so-called Independent Payment Advisory Board. The IPAB is essentially a health-care rationing body. By setting doctor reimbursement rates for Medicare and determining which procedures and drugs will be covered and at what price, the IPAB will be able to stop certain treatments its members do not favor by simply setting rates to levels where no doctor or hospital will perform them.

However, rate setting—the essential mechanism of the IPAB—has a 40-year track record of failure. What ends up happening in these schemes (which many states including my home state of Vermont have implemented with virtually no long-term effect on costs) is that patients and physicians get aggravated because bureaucrats in either the private or public sector are making medical decisions without knowing the patients. Most important, once again, these kinds of schemes do not control costs. The medical system simply becomes more bureaucratic.

I believe the IPAB will never control costs based on the long record of previous attempts in many of the states, including my own state of Vermont. If Medicare is to have a secure future, we have to move away from fee-for-service medicine, which is all about incentives to spend more, and has no incentives in the system to keep patients healthy. The IPAB has no possibility of helping to solve this major problem and will almost certainly make the system more bureaucratic and therefore drive up administrative costs.

 But Dean still supports the legislation!! 

Why We Can't Borrow and Spend Our Way to Prosperity

The following charts go a long way to explain why the US can no longer create prosperity by deficit spending and pushing more debt into the economy/population.  The charts show the diminishing returns to national income (GDP) for each additional dollar of debt creation.  They are extrapolated to show that the year 2015 is the year where an increase in debt gives no increase in GDP.

The charts help explain what we've all witnessed in recent years; that after trillions of deficit spending and money printing, that the economy has been extremely lackluster.  It may be because of the diminishing returns of debt.

If so, it's also a dagger in the hearts of the Keynesians who live, breath and die espousing their belief that MORE and MORE deficit spending is the right prescription. The charts show that their 'prescription' is still true,  but it would now involve HUGE amounts of additional debt for very paltry return.  Remember the 2009 stimulus that created (or saved) 1.5 million jobs at a cost of over $500,000 per job ($790 billion divided by 1.5 million)?  It's the same phenomenon.  If the charts are true, then at some point debt accumulation might even be detrimental to GDP growth. 

 

Spanish High Speed Train Derailment Caught on CCTV

The tragic Spanish high-speed train wreck was caught on CCTV. The train was traveling at over 190 km/h or 118 mph and over double the speed limit.  The speed limit was only 50 mph.  Some 79 people on board were killed and 178 injured.

Here's the clip:

Obama: If I Had a City, It Would Look Like Detroit

In my blog post Detroit, Obama and African American Failure, I detail how the combination of 'progressive' liberal Democrats, the failure of US automakers, the big labor unions, the decay/collapse of African American 'culture', and the corruption of the local (black) politicians have resulted in the burned-out hulk known as Detroit.

Democrats and Obama are all about uncontrolled spending, huge debt, unsustainable entitlements, public employee unions and big government.  It will bring America down just as it has in Detroit.

And don't rationalize and blame Detroit's decline just on the decline of the automakers either.  Pittsburgh also suffered the same 55% population decline as Detroit with the complete loss of steel making.  And Detroit didn't completely lose the automakers and 'benefited' from a recent auto bailout. 

Blaming Race is Just An Excuse Now

The only widespread racism that I'm seeing regarding the Zimmerman trial is from black people---not white people.  After all, it was TRAYVON who called Zimmerman a "creepy-ass cracker."   Zimmerman never made such a comment.

The black race-baiters like Al Sharpton and Quanell X are trying to play the race card that mostly doesn't exist anymore. They are the only racists now.

Large majorities of white Americans are not racist.  Barack Obama was elected, after all, by comfortable margins.  I think that proves the point to a great extent. Our culture has been bending over backward to give black people a fair shake and this has been true for decades now.  

Holder, Stop the 'Witch Hunt' Against Zimmerman

Our idiot Attorney General, who is still in contempt of Congress for not honoring a subpoena from Congress to provide "fast and furious" documents to Congress, apparently doesn't trust the very Judicial system that he's supposedly in charge of when he continues to question the verdict in the Zimmerman case.  He's vowed to bring Federal charges against Zimmerman.  It's not going to happen. There is no case. 

The FBI itself has confirmed that race wasn't a factor.  One of the jurists has confirmed that race wasn't a factor.

People like Obama and Holder and all of black apologist celebrities and "black racist leaders" are making me a racist!  How much idiocy can one person stand??

Updated: An Ambitious Energy Plan For the US

In a recent blog The US Top Oil Producer in World March 2013, I mention that the US is producing about 11.7 million barrels of oil and condensate, exceeding the liquids production of both of the perennial top producers of Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Meanwhile since 2004, oil consumption has been declining due to high oil and gasoline prices, better automobile mileage, lower miles driven, recessionary conditions, etc.  Now oil consumed is about 18 million barrels per day.  This means that our oil import situation is drastically improved from recent years.  See the energy outlook graphs from the EIA:

 

The Failed Political Prosecution of Zimmerman

There never was a good case against George Zimmerman, which is why Sanford police never even arrested him in the first place. Local and State police won't prosecute cases where they don't have a reasonable chance of winning. The local police alone knew the facts of the case early on and decided that there was no case. The case is sad, but it is now proven in court that there was no crime; and this despite the fact that the court resembled more of a Kangaroo court.

This whole episode is a "political" prosecution. The trial was precipitated only because many discredited black leaders (are there any that aren't discredited??), including Obama, whipped up protests and racial resentment and ALL jumped to the WRONG conclusions---before hearing the facts. That's called mob justice, which isn't justice at all. 

Then the liberal media jumped in (incorrectly). Then celebrities jumped in (incorrectly). Most black people jumped in (incorrectly). These people never get it.

Meanwhile, 67 people were shot and 12 killed by gun violence over the long 4th of July weekend (Wed to Sun) in Chicago alone. And BJS statistics say that, on average, at least 57% of those killings are committed by black men and that over 90% of those committed by blacks are black-on-black murders. Where's the outrage about that??

If black folks are tired of being profiled, then they need to stop committing crimes at rates up to 7 times the rate of whites!  And if you don't want others to assume that you're a criminal, don't dress like a thug by wearing a hoodie!

Budget Cutting and Reducing Government Works

History has more than a few examples where government expenditures were drastically reduced but the private economy boomed.  For instance, government spending dropped drastically in the US after World War II and after the Korean war.  US Government spending fell from about 50% of GDP to 11% of GDP after WWII.  There was a recession, but the 50's are remembered as a golden era for the US economy with strong growth, low inflation and low interest rates.

It's also interesting that the US is now seeing a rebounding economy even after the Sequester cuts; which most economists and most other people (Keynesians), including our Socialist-lite President Obama, said would trigger "disaster."  I've seen descriptions by competent commentators that sequester cuts, along with the increase in payroll taxes, are the deepest austerity in 50 years. Scary right?  Well, the economy is not tanking as predicted. In fact, it appears to be going the other way.

Socialist Presidents Part 2: Cristina De Kirchner of Argentina

In my previous blog Socialist Presidents Come from the Same Mold,  I complain about the idiot socialist president of France, Francois Hollande.  Rather than see the light on the dangers of stagnation due to higher and higher taxes on the population feeding a government that, more and more dominates the economy, he doubles down with more taxes on the people.  Socialists never cut spending and most certainly never lower taxes on their people.

In fact, all Governments rarely cut spending or taxes.  When they do, it brings prosperity!  Iceland cut spending after the 2008/2009 crash and they are logging strong growth now, unlike the rest of Socialist States of Europe.  See my blog European Austerity Is All About Tax Increases.  It's also interesting that the US is seeing a rebounding economy even after the Sequester cuts; which most economists and other people, including our socialist president, said would trigger disaster.  See my blog Budget Cutting and Reducing Government Helps.

100 Things I Hate About Government

Starting with John Stoessel's "100 things that I hate about government," I've taken his list and modified it to suit.  You know, sadly the government is made up of people and therefore just reflects "us" with all of our problems and beliefs.  Add the problem that money has corrupted too many in our government. Furthermore, groups will always perform poorly compared to individuals. At the end of day, however, the collective "we" is the real problem.

No, You Can't Keep Your Existing Coverage

I just got a notice from Aetna saying that my individual policy will no longer comply with ObamaCare's requirements.  I will be forced to upgrade my coverage which will dramatically increase my costs due to the law whether I want it or not!

I was happy before, now not so much.  I'm being forcibly upgraded to a higher cost policy against my will!  Maybe I'll move to Thailand where the government is not screwing everything up.

My "impermissible" policy is a policy that only covers only hospitalization and ambulance transport but has a fairly low deductible and moderate maximum out-of-pocket limit.  The policy doesn't cover doctor's visits or even prescriptions.  Interestingly it does cover preventative medicine. I bought the policy to keep my monthly cost low but mainly to cover myself against financial calamity (the true nature of insurance) caused by a hospital stay due to a serious condition.  I was OK with the cost but even the cost of this type of policy ($233 per month) has more than doubled, maybe tripled, since Obama started his "crusade."