We have been here before!
July 30, 2011
...Hostage takers: Right now our economic and nation security is under threat – not from the outside, but from a minority cabal of ultra-right hostage takers. The Tea Party caucus has cowed the Republican leadership to adopt positions that if adopted would create irreparable damage to the economic well being of the great majority of the American people and that has made compromise on an acceptable solution difficult or downright impossible. Note that Tea Party House members forced Speaker Boehner to make changes in his bill that would create even greater havoc. The bill would not only have slashed critical benefits for the poor, the middle class, the sick, senior citizens, college students, and much needed research and infrastructure development but would require another vote on the debt ceiling by year’s end – clearly a ploy to hold the nation hostage again (during the Holiday season and before the next election)....
The Debt Ceiling is coming in Mid-October and this will no doubt continue to be a problem. Anarchists don't care about people or the government.
Sept. 30 2013 1:51 PM
By Eric Posner
...Barring a compromise (click here) with House Republicans, the government closes Tuesday. The showdown over the debt ceiling will come in mid-October. The implications of the threats, as well as the timing, are different. If the debt ceiling is not raised, and the executive branch stops borrowing, the government will need to cut spending by about 15 to 20 percent—or almost 40 percent of spending on everything (yes, Medicare and defense) other than the interest on the debt. The decision about what to cut appears to be largely, but not entirely, up to President Obama....
So much for being a Superpower.
September 26, 2013
David Thomas
..."We believe (click here) that the government would continue to pay interest on Treasury securities. However, the government would have to make painful choices as to which expenditure to cut, and there is no historic precedent that provides confidence that interest payments would be prioritized over discretionary spending. In the 2014 fiscal year, the CBO projects that interest payments will account for about 7% of total federal spending, leaving still considerable room to meet interest payments in the event of 15%-20% expenditure cuts. October interest payments are relatively small, but on 15 November, the Treasury will need to pay interest of about $16 billion - equal to about 6% of average monthly revenues in fiscal 2014, although monthly revenue collection varies considerably.
"Financial market and economic consequences would likely be more severe if the debt limit is not raised than under a government shutdown. Although the expenditure reduction under the debt limit scenario is smaller, the perception that the US government could default on servicing its debt if the debt limit is not raised could roil financial markets and damage business and consumer confidence."
--MNI London Bureau; tel: +44 207-862-7492; email: dthomas@mni-news.com
The liabilities in these paradigms are huge and threaten the sovereign nature of the USA and future generations.
The Republicans like to think this is all a game and ridding the nation of federal authority a victory in many instances, however, the level of irresponsibility cannot be overlooked. The current debt of the USA and it's recent (2008 was not that long ago on an economic timeline) economic disaster provides a danger to the country's sovereign ability. That ability is tainted by the increase in government inefficiency when there are fewer or no employees carrying out their responsibilities and the lawlessness that results in having that occur. Add to that the INABILITY of the USA to service it's indebtness and making choices that have negative consequences on the people and there is are chance the USA will continue to slide into the ranking of a second class nation.
Make no doubt about it, when the USA can't service it's debt and the well being of it's people are in the balance of choice in servicing that debt, the USA will enter into a slippery slope of increased impoverishment. That started when the Tea Party insisted on austerity over investment. It continues and now we are burgeoning on dysfunction. The slide into poverty by the USA will continue into future generations. Investment is cumulative and the lack of it is exponential. So, while the Tea Party plays with anarchy and impoverishment of the people, they are also altering the course of country. Everyday there is less stability and investment by the federal government is another day into the adverse outcome of our children's futures.
The longer the impoverishment of the federal government continues the more each state in the USA will look like Mississippi AND the dependency of the people grows on government help. LACK of investment INCREASE poverty and neediness, not decreases it.
1. Mississippi (click here)
In Mississippi, about one in five households depended on food stamps last year, second only to Oregon. The state’s poverty rate was 24.2%, the highest in the nation by more than three percentage points. Like many of America’s poorest states, the median household income in Mississippi has declined considerably since 2008, when it was just over $40,000. Fewer households earned over $200,000 last year, proportionally, than any other state except West Virginia. In addition to poverty, income inequality was also extremely severe in Mississippi, ranking behind only New York and Connecticut.
Maryland, on the other hand, has the highest incomes in the nation. Gee, where is Maryland? Oh, yeah, right there by DC.
1. Maryland
Maryland was the only state in the country with a median household income to exceed $70,000 in both 2011 and 2012. Also, nearly 11% of households in Maryland earned $200,000 or more last year, the third-highest percentage in the nation and close to double the national rate of 5.9%. People in Maryland were more likely to be employed and to hold good jobs. Just 6.8% of the workforce was unemployed in 2012, compared to 8.1% nationwide. Conversely, 15.5% of the workforce, the highest percentage in the nation, were employed in professional, scientific and management occupations, which are generally high skill and high pay.
The Affordable Care Act is an INVESTMENT in the well being, health and future of our nation. The highest financial failure rate of any individual American is medical and surgical costs. When a person has a glide path that is not effected by high medical debt they achieve financial stability and WEALTH. This breaks down among socio-economic classes. The reality of that is most obvious in our minority populations. The poor are less well than the wealthy. Increasing the opportunity for every American to be healthier increases the ability of the USA to have a healthy economy. The less well the populous of the USA, the less likely it will have economic stability and growth.
I have to laugh when I hear Republicans complain about the so called increase costs of health care. What increased costs? Oh, the premiums? That ain't nothing. You mean the CHOICE between health care or no health care. The CHOICE between increasing health costs to all people when the poor are unable to pay? You mean making choices between a home cooked meal and eating at McDonalds? Those CHOICES? You mean the CHOICE between irresponsible and responsible behavior. Those CHOICES?
What will result with the Affordable Care Act is better access to quality health care and bending the curve down over time. As bills are paid and hospitals and physicians receive reimbursement from all their patients the cost of health care will come down, it is inevitable. There is NO rolling back the Affordable Care Act, the future of our children are counting on it. Rather than increasing dependency on government, the nation will have less and less.
Currently THE MYOPIC rule in US House of Representatives. The politics of THE MYOPIC actually provides them power to be elected. That says something about the people of their districts as well. Gerrymandered were they and/or simply impoverished and feeling the pinch of every penny. In looking across the populous of THE MYOPIC in Congress, they are some of the most impoverished people of this nation and have no concept as to what security means.
A Seven-Part Series Bundled into Four Television
Hours
The opening 56-minute episode, “In Sickness and In Wealth,”
presents the series’ overarching themes. Each supporting half-hour
episode, set in a different ethnic/racial community, provides a deeper
exploration of how social conditions affect population health and how
some communities are extending their lives by improving them.......The net effect is a health-wealth gradient, (click here) in which every descending rung of the socioeconomic ladder corresponds to worse health. And it’s not just the poorest among us who are suffering, but the middle classes too. Louisville Metro Public Health Department data maps reveal 5- and 10-year gaps in life expectancy between the city’s rich, middle and working-class neighborhoods. We also see how racial inequality imposes an additional burden on people of color....
...Compared to other countries, the U.S. has the greatest income inequality – and the worst health. Today, the top one percent of Americans owns more wealth than the bottom 90% combined. Economic inequality is greater than at any time since the 1920s. One out of every 5 children in the U.S. lives in poverty (21%) compared with approximately 4% of Sweden. Social spending makes up most of the difference: in Sweden, social spending reduces child poverty by 70%, while in the U.S. it reduces child poverty only 5%, down from 26%....
The subsidies will be a part of the American Dream and there will be equal opportunity for a quality of life for all people. The hate of each other will end.
...Neonatologists James Collins and Richard David (click here) believe that African American women are at increased risk during pregnancy, not because of something innate to their biology, but because of the cumulative impact of racism they experience over their lifetime - an impact that can outweigh even the benefits of higher social and class status.
To demonstrate their theory, Drs. Collins and David showed that African immigrants to the U.S. and U.S.-born white women had similar birth outcomes, yet African American women tended to have babies that weighed significantly less. Moreover, they showed that the results changed over time: outcomes for the African-born group worsened within one generation and became comparable to the African American group.
So how does racism get "under the skin" and affect pregnancy? Researchers like Michael Lu believe that chronic stress is the culprit: unequal treatment causes anxiety and the release of stress hormones, which over a lifetime of constant activation not only creates wear and tear on the body's organs and systems, but can trigger premature labor....
The impacts of USA inequality even strike the well being of immigrants.
...Recent Mexican immigrants, (click here) although poorer, tend to be healthier than the average American. They have lower rates of death, heart disease, cancer, and other illnesses, despite being less educated, earning less and having the stress of adapting to a new country and a new language. In research circles, this is the Latino paradox.
But as they are here longer, their health advantage erodes. After five years or more in the U.S., they are 1.5 times more likely to have high blood pressure – and be obese – than when they arrived. Within one generation, their health is as poor as other Americans of similar income status.
In Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, about 40 miles south of Philadelphia, Mexican immigrants like Amador Bernal now make up a quarter of the town's population. After almost 25 years in the U.S., Amador has never been to a doctor. And he's not alone....
Keep in mind the word "erodes." Erode in the case of the human experience is a synonym of poverty. Erodes is an active verb, however. That means poverty has a dynamic that is manageable. The one place it is manageable is in wellness. Poverty in a capital based economy, such as the USA, includes the 'entire' of one's life. Poverty should mean one cannot afford a Rolls Royce, but, what it has come to mean in the USA is that one cannot afford a full longevity.
CHOICES. The choices one makes in nutrition and health ERODES the very lives of Americans. In the USA there are fewer and fewer choices as income inequality progresses across the income spectrum.
The Affordable Care Act REQUIRES basic services. Those mandated requirements have a purpose and that is to be sure every American is NOT ERODING their health outcomes over their lives. The Affordable Care Act DIRECTLY interprets into longevity and wealth over time.
The Affordable Care Act will have a direct effect on the nation's disability rate: (click here)These are the disability rates of Mississippi, Maryland and the USA.
The closer the USA gets to the level of poverty, income inequality and wealth distribution of Mississippi, the higher the disability rates will be.
The Republicans always like to pretend this is about politics and Right vs Left, but, rarely are the political aspirations of the Democrats ever frivilous or unrealistic. The Democrats know that certain requirements are necessary for a functional economy and government and health is one of them.
The Affordable Care Act is the only market based solution in a First World nation. Now, either it works or it doesn't and if the Republicans are going to shoot it down before it has a chance at proving itself, then there is no possible market based solution anywhere in any country and Single Payer is the only reasonable answer and we may as well get on with it.
I don't know about anyone else, but, I am damn tired of carrying the Red States on the back of the nation. The economies and people are those of the impoverished and are Third World. It needs to be finished already. The Red States across the board receive more federal dollars for social programs than any Blue State. Enough already. Their economics are the most regressive, their social priorities lack esteem and they count on federal monies for their state treasuries. It is time to remove these problems from the national debt and bring equality to them.
