Van Hollen Calls Simpson-Bowles a Framework for Debt Deal
Representative Chris Van Hollen, the House Budget Committee’s top Democrat, predicted the proposal by President Barack Obama’s 2010 deficit panel will be the “framework” for averting the so-called fiscal cliff of spending cuts in January.
Has no one in policy or journalism ever heard of William Vickrey, or Marriner Eccles, or FDR, or even fiat currency itself - let alone modern currency operations? Do they really think we're still on a gold standard currency system, or that they can simply continue to lie outright to a public whose intelligence they treat with complete disdain?
Talk about a COMPLETE abdication by the press of its responsibility to challenge political statements and financial lobbies! I'm beginning to wonder if any journalist now working reads anything except lobbyist press releases. No one seems prepared to just do their job - to just think, and simply ask useful questions.
I sent this to the Bloomberg journalist who wrote this story, James Rowley, and cc'd Warren Mosler. Let's see if Rowley responds, and rises to the occasion.
16 comments:
This smells to me like the next step in the Democratic establishment uniting with the GOP establishment to deliver SS to Wall Street and Medicare to the insurance companies so that the 1% (read large donors) don't align too heavily with either side.
The top of the town really doesn't care all that much about a depression since it doesn't hit them and they actually come out of it wealthier percentage-wise through vulture capitalism and more powerful through consolidation of power.
Only until the next complete collapse, ala 1929 or 2008. They always blink & say "no one could have predicted that!"
Is it possible that we're all sharing a bad dream where the world never learned anything from history and it's the 1930's all over again ?
Hard to envision this ending well.
"deliver SS to Wall Street and Medicare to the insurance companies"
I would point out that Warren's healthcare proposal (provide balances at beginning of year) would be at some level compatible with the concept of "delivering healthcare to the insurance companies".
And Ryan's Medicare proposal (even though how much I cant stand that guy) I have to admit is VERY similar to Warren's proposal in significant ways (provides balances for private purchase); the only question is 'How much?'. As Ryan thinks we are "borrowing from the future", the risk is that he would not provide adequate balances and heathcare sector would remain under-compensated and in chaos in some ways...
Under "Obamacare" I think we face a REAL threat of rationing of care due to the belief in the false notion that "we are out of money"... this where the "death panels" come from.
Which is the lesser of these 2 evils to vote for????
rsp,
Health insurance is missing the point. We need diet, lifestyle & prevention insurance.
Cheap prevention, not expensive repair.
Doing things backwards guarantees gridlock & failure. It's only a matter of time.
Last thing you want in a adaptive race is to coddle bad methods. Some other nation won't.
Which is the lesser of these 2 evils to vote for????
Under a private system, participants have "control" by preference, which in a system of large corps and limited competition is no real choice at all.
At least with a theoretically democratic government, there are periodic chances at the polls to address the issue.
The point is that there is always rationing of scarce resources. Is market price the best way to handle all such choices when the deciding factor is income and wealth? Or are some goods public goods that should be rationed in some other way, e.g., based on actual need.
For example, in a case before the public now, should the youngest and healthiest people be first in line for limited organ availability, since they will make the most and best use of it, or should money be the deciding factor regardless of other factors such as age and condition? To me this seems obvious.
Roger,
" not expensive"
"Expensive" in what terms? "Fiat"????
Don't tell me "we're out of money"...
rsp,
Tom,
The only reason there are "scarce resources" in health care is because the morons think "we can't afford it"....
Here's one of Obama's main Democrat fixers in the NYT on "Death Panels":
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/opinion/health-care-reform-beyond-obamacare.html
Quote: "WE need death panels".
Quote: "unless we start allocating health care resources more prudently — rationing, by its proper name — the exploding cost of Medicare will swamp the federal budget."
Not even deranged Ryan takes it this far... this is evil.
rsp,
We already have rationing, Matt. We might as well discuss it openly and come to a majority decision democratically, which can alway be changed or modified down the line.
Rationing decisions now are being made largely by price, and pricing a lot of people out of the market, and insurance co. bureaucrats, sometimes denying care unless a person is willing to sue. Not a great system.
@Matt
>"Expensive" in what terms? Fiat"????
At minimum. Worse, it distracts time & effort & real resources away from cheap prevention.
Drain swamps? Check.
Discourage smoking? Check.
Discourage junk food & obesity? (No way? Just divert whole institutes & professions to cleaning up the mess we self-create? Sure. That'll fix it! What part of illogic doesn't our whole electorate understand? Instead of hiring people to fill in holes, why not just pay people to stick their heads in them?)
Forget foie gras, we've moved on to large scale dumb & fat ass.
"We already have rationing, Matt."
We have DENIAL OF CARE Tom.
Unless of course you are talking about such things as an organ transplant, then of course, there can be shortages in REAL TERMS.
We are not short of tongue depressors.
We are not short of anti-biotics.
What about that woman in Cali who was out on the roadside begging for USD balances for her stem cell treatment? Do we have to ration stem cells because we dont have enough? or was this woman being denied care due to morons believing "we are out of money" and she had to get some balances from the beanie baby guy?
You would have to prove to me that we have rationing currently (with evidence) due to real shortages in heathcare that are NOT caused by morons in control who think "we cant afford it"... sorry.
rsp,
Roger,
"At minimum."
???
What concern about an expense in fiat terms????
(btw YOU should be telling ME this...)
The only economic issues are REAL...
"prevention" is PART of CARE these days Roger...
Prevention takes TIME and EDUCATION and adequate USD balances.
It takes time to exercise and for relaxation, it takes time to shop for healthy foods, it takes time to prepare them, etc..
Sounds like what we need is a shorter work week and earlier retirements... and more time off.. lower taxes, higher EITC, etc..
rsp,
Matt, We have DENIAL OF CARE Tom.
The denial of care is not about being mean, it's about price and maintaing profit margin. All of this can be analyzed into rationing by price.
@MF "prevention" is PART of CARE these days ...
Baloney. Pure & simple.
Last I checked, ~10 years back, the entire budget of all 29 National Institutes of Health was ~29Billion $US. At that time the advertising budget ALONE for the food industry was 85Billion $US.
Preventive common sense in diet & lifestyle is completely sold out to the mania for making profits regardless of consequences ... with the complete acceptance that whatever those consequences of our own habits are, health "CARE" should fix anything. It's foolish, and we're unproductively lying to ourselves.
I think I reported already that my physician told me recently that food is proving to be one of the biggest threats to health and well-being today and not to eat anything processed in any way. Lack of appropriate exercise is another, and smoking, active and passive, is another.
She didn't mention it but so is breathing the air in most places, especially in cities, industrial areas and congested areas. A lot of so-called potable water is sub-standard, too.
Negative externalities foisted on the public to make a buck. "Privatize the gains, socialize the losses."
summed up well here
http://econintersect.com/b2evolution/blog1.php/2012/10/07/infographic-of-the-day-does-the-food-we-eat-affect-our-productivity#more4307
When was the last time YOUR care provider told you to cease, forever, eating balloon bread? Or sodas? Or any & all high-carb pastries? Or iceberg lettuce? (try 100% kale, colllards, beet greens, turnip greens, etc). Now THAT would be prevention, pure & simple.
Oh, and no hydrogenated vegetable oils? (Essentially motor oil.)
Post a Comment