Americanly Yours

This is a great article that I got off of Real Clear Politics.  You can find the original article here.

The Stimulus — The Anatomy of a Failure

By Rich Lowry

Barack Obama spent all of 2008 running against the sputtering economy and warned earlier this year of a crisis “we may not be able to reverse.” Yet, as the unemployment rate climbs beyond the administration’s projections, Vice President Joe Biden informs us that the administration “misread how bad the economy was.”

Apparently we were going to experience a once-in-a-lifetime economic crisis comparable to the Great Depression without a particularly high unemployment rate. This was the promise of the Obama administration, which indulged in hair-raisingly alarmist economic rhetoric while pumping out unduly hopeful economic projections. If the Reagan administration gave us the rosy scenario, the Obama administration has given us the rosy apocalypse.

The rosy apocalypse is an artifact of both ideological naïveté and knowing cynicism. The administration genuinely believed, against all historical experience, that government spending would boost us out of the recession. And it knew it had to assume an unrealistically rapid, robust economic recovery, because otherwise the already-horrid deficit projections would look worse. So Obama talked up the crisis to get the stimulus passed, and after that . . . happy days again!

If only the job market were cooperating. In a report prior to the passage of the stimulus, the soon-to-be head of the Council of Economic Advisers, Christina Romer, suggested the unemployment rate wouldn’t increase beyond 8 percent. It now stands at 9.5 percent and will go higher. The Obama stimulus is falling victim to the poor timing and inefficiencies of all such recession-fighting spending programs.

Out of the $787 billion of the stimulus, roughly 60 percent goes to individuals in temporary tax rebates and increased entitlement spending. This will provide little boost to the economy. History says that people will only spend 20 percent to 40 percent of a temporary tax rebate, for the very good reason that they know it’s temporary.

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, disposable personal income increased at a healthy 1.2 percent in April and 1.6 percent in May. Is this money coursing through the economy? No, it appears most of it is being saved. In April, personal consumption declined 0.10 percent, and in May it ticked up a mere 0.20 percent. Americans refuse to spend their money as heedlessly as Obama’s economic gurus hope.

Then there is the direct government spending. It will definitely make its way into the economy. The question is when. It has to run through various bureaucracies, which means delay. According to Doug Elmendorf, the head of the Congressional Budget Office, only about half of the $308 billion in spending will make it out the door by the end of fiscal year 2010 (i.e., by next September). That’s about $150 billion during the next year and a half in a $14 trillion economy – in other words, a trifling 0.70 percent of the economy during that period.

Only 11 percent of that spending will take place by the end of fiscal year 2009. Most economists think the economy will be growing by the end of this year, so ideally the stimulus would begin receding in 2010 rather than taking effect in earnest. According to Elmendorf, even by the end of fiscal 2011, only 72 percent of the spending will have occurred. That means more of the spending will come in fiscal 2012 and beyond than is happening this year during the recession.

And this stimulus was touted as timely and targeted? Confronted by the inadequacies of the current program, its advocates have a predictable solution – a new one. Since the worthiest projects were presumably already covered in the first stimulus, a second stimulus would have to fund even more marginal priorities, and it would get into the economy even later. In other words, it would replicate rather than rectify the failures of the first stimulus.

Obama is resisting a second stimulus so far, but was foolish ever to go down this route. Now he’s stuck hoping for the advent of his rosy apocalypse – as soon as possible.

Americanly Yours,

Phred Barnet

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This is an interesting and humerus video on health care.  It compares the health care systems in the State of Georgia and Massachusetts.

You may recall that the health care plans being pushed by the Administration and Democrats in Congress are very similar to the provisions passed in Massachusetts’ 2006 health care reform bill.

While it may sound good to pass a bill that will subsidize a scarce resource (in this case health care), doing so always has consequences.  In this case, dropping the price of health care has led to an increase in the number of people taking advantage of these services, resulting in a massive shortage in services.  This in turn results in an increase in the price of services for those who are notable to take advantage of the government subsidy.  Watch:

What a great video!  Please pass that along to your friends.

Americanly Yours,

Phred Barnet

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Dont take my word for it:

“President Obama may mouth very different rhetoric,” said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. “He may have a more complicated process with members of Congress. But in the end, there is no substantive break from the policies of the Bush administration.”

Americanly Yours,

Phred Barnet

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The new nationalized health care bill from Senators Kennedy and Dodd just keeps getting worse.

According to the AP:  “Americans who refuse to buy affordable medical coverage could be hit with fines of more than $1,000 under a health care overhaul bill unveiled Thursday by key Senate Democrats looking to fulfill President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority.”

I thought this was America.  I thought this was the land of the free.  I thought that people in this Nation were allowed to live their personal lives as they choose.

Apparently I thought wrong.

Who do these Senators and this President think they are?

Congress and President Obama have no right to fine people for choosing not to purchase health coverage.

If the President and others can justify abortion by citing privacy rights and the right to choose, cant the same rights be applied to those who privately choose not to purchase health insurance?

And what will happen if you dont purchase health insurance and then you refuse to pay the fines?  Will the government have you thrown in prison?

In lingo straight out of the socialist phrase book, these fines will be called “shared responsibility payments!”

Shared responsibility payments?  Are you kidding me?  I share absolutely NO responsibility for the health and well being of others. The punishment for not purchasing health care coverage should come in the form of denied or increased cost for services rendered, not a government imposed fine.

Americanly Yours,

Phred Barnet

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Senators Chris Dodd and Ted Kennedy have introduced a new health care bill to the Senate.  This bill will keep the same basic government run insurance plan as their previous bill.  Yet, this new plan also hits “large” businesses (defined as businesses with over 25 employees!!!) with “fines” of $750 for failing to provide employees with health insurance. The bill’s authors argue that this “fine” will force businesses to provide their employees with health care and will save the government money.  According to Senators Christopher Dodd and Ted Kennedy, this bill “virtually eliminates the dropping of currently covered employees from employer-sponsored health plans.”

Senators Dodd and Kennedy are either lying or are unbelievably stupid.

In fact, this bill only encourages employers to drop coverage for their employees.  According to the National Coalition on Health Care, “The annual premium for  single coverage [employer health plans] averaged over $4,700.^“

Under this plan, employers can drop their employees coverage, knowing that the government will pick up the tab.  Doing so will result in a “fine” of $750 per full time worker, but will actually result in cost savings around $4000 per employee!  This is a massive subsidy for corporations who choose not to insure their employees.

This plan will encourage employers to abandon their private insurance plans knowing that their employees will still be covered.  This will lead to a “race to the bottom” among companies because dropping coverage will lead to massive cost savings.

For example, at the end of last year Microsoft employed around 56,000 workers in America.  If they were to drop all of their employees’ health care plans, they would be subjected to fines of around $42 million  However, considering that the average health care plan costs employers around $4,700 per person, Microsoft would actually save around $221.2 million per year–after paying the “fines” by dropping coverage.

This new bill is a rotten one that will destroy private health insurance.  It will cause employers to drop coverage for their employees and will result in more Americans using the government “option.”

This bill will cost Americans a lot of money, will subsidize corporations who drop employee coverage, and will destroy the private insurance industry.  This bill will be ironically called the “Affordable Health Choices Act.”  Please call your Senator at 1-800-833-6354 and voice your opposition to this bill.  It will only take you two minutes.

Americanly Yours,

Phred Barnet

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