I AGREE WITH OBAMA

Finally I've heard President Obama say something about health care that I can agree with wholeheartedly.  In a recent news interview talking about health care reform, he said he didn't think a person should "have to go bankrupt to pay for health care" in this country.  I definitely agree with him there.  We do live in the richest nation in the world and there is no good reason why anyone in this country should have to be destroyed financially because they get sick.

However, what the President and Judge Vinson (Florida judge who declared it unconstitutional for the federal government to require individuals to purchase insurance coverage) may or may not be missing here is, individuals who would be required to purchase health insurance under the health care reform bill are not necessarily people who stubbornly refuse to buy coverage, but most likely are ones who simply can't afford to do so.  I certainly would love to have insurance coverage again, especially after having a couple of heart attacks and heart surgery, but there is simply no way possible for me to stretch my income to pay for it.  As it turned out, I was able to negotiate with health care providers and settle my debts for much less than originally billed.  So in my case it all worked out and I avoided going broke. 

Perhaps what we really need is to make sure people are aware of programs already in place to help those who cannot afford health insurance coverage. 

Public Option Insurance Plan, or Slush Fund for Politicians?

I watched Obama's speech about health care reform and I'm still amazed that the politicians don't get that the majority of taxpayers are against new programs that would increase the tax burden. So I'm watching the speech, wondering what their motivation is for passing a bill that is so obviously unpopular to so many people.

Then it occurred to me to think along business lines, instead of from a political point of view. A public health care bill, that included a public option insurance program, would essentially create a government run insurance company. I've written about insurance companies before and about how they practically print money, since they have tremendous inflows of cash. Normal insurance companies invest this money to produce even more profits, before having to cover any payouts to policy holders or investors. What do you suppose a government bureaucracy would do with such a tremendous amount of cash?

In the case of Social Security, they raided the Social Security fund to pay for pork barrel projects and garner support from special interest groups. They replaced the money in the Social Security Trust Fund with government IOU's, in the form of Treasury notes, which are paid off by taxpayers. So, they subtract money from our paychecks to fund Social Security, borrow that money to fund other projects, then increase taxes to pay off the IOU's, for the money they borrowed from taxpayers in the first place. I'm sure this helps them raise a lot of contributions for their re-election campaigns, but are they looking out for the interests of the average taxpayer? I don't think so.

So now they're trying to pass a public option insurance plan and create a huge bureaucracy with tremendous cash inflows. Does anybody really believe that this money will be used only for health care for the poor? I don't. I think it's more likely to be seen by politicians as one great big slush fund, which will undoubtedly lead to even more runaway spending at the taxpayers expense.

If this bill is passed, which it looks as though it will be, then at the very least, safeguards should be put in to place to prevent politicians from raiding the money taken in for health care. I doubt that this will happen. I think the best that we can hope for is, taxpayers will see through the slick talking politicians and vote them out of office.

I COULDN'T HAVE SAID IT BETTER

"You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."

Adrian Rogers, 1931


We need to stop Cap and Trade, or Cap and Spend as I like to call it, forget about health care and any other programs we can't afford to pay for. Eliminate wasteful government spending and overburdening U.S. citizens with ever increasing taxes. Let people keep more of what they earn, not less. Then you have the incentive for prosperity.

Anger at Town Hall Meetings

If politicians needed a wake up call to tell them the American people were not satisfied with the way they are handling things in Washington, they need look no further than their own "town hall" meetings. Lately, you can't turn on any news channel without seeing a lot of angry citizens calling their representatives to task for what is going on in the nation. While most of these meetings are about health care reform, I suspect a lot of the anger comes from the apparent lack of interest in Washington of how average citizens view their recent actions. I think the following article sums it up pretty well:

So why are Americans “mad as Hell”?

For the past year, we watched as the housing and financial sectors imploded, taking with them manufacturing and automotive companies. Job losses, foreclosures, and personal bankruptcies mounted into the millions, and the response of government has been to pass pork-laden legislation that spent huge amounts of future taxpayer dollars for questionable results. And when it is revealed that many of the same government policies, regulations, and politicians created the problems in the first place, it becomes obvious that politicians via the government are out of control and have no qualms about feeding at the public trough to achieve their own ends.

The current crop of politicians in office have run on the platform of hope, change, and transparency. That hope has changed into a morbid hopelessness, the change for the better is changing for the worse, and the only transparency there is the obvious attempt of the politicians to cram as much legislation loaded with their pet projects through before the public catches on. Are there any doubts that the government that we now have is not what the majority voted for?

And when the voters are protesting, they are called un-American, un-patriotic, and a whole host of other nasty names by the supporters of the current Administration. All for voicing their opinions. What is so hypocritical is that they did the same thing when the former Administration was in power, and they called it their God-given right under the power of Free Speech granted by the Constitution.

http://tomsplace.iblogger.org/

We heard a lot of politicians proclaiming their indignity at the banks who handed out bonuses while avoiding bankruptcy on the taxpayers dime. Yet the bank executives, who seem to have forgotten that they are only still in business because of the massive bailouts from taxpayers, doled out bonus money like their was no tomorrow. Over 4,800 people received more than a million dollars each, for what? Because they helped orchestrate one of the worst economies since the great depression? Maybe that was their intent all along and they are getting the bonuses for accomplishing their goals. Otherwise, I see no reason anyone working at any of the bailed out institutions should be collecting anything other than an hourly wage. And they should thank their lucky stars that they still have a job, since that puts them way ahead of the millions of Americans they helped put out of work.

Back on the health care front, I can't believe how dense some of our politicians are. It is as plain as the nose on their faces that the average citizen does not want government run health care. Some of the politicians have actually talked down to their constituents, saying we already have government run health care, in the form of medicare, medicaid and V.A. health care. If I were them, I would not be holding up these programs as an argument for more government involvement in medical treatment. While they all do some good, they are notoriously inefficient and let's not forget about the recent bout of infections caused by unsanitary equipment at some of the V.A. hospitals. If the current administration is so hell bent on ignoring what the people want, then they should be voted out. Let's get rid of them, lock, stock and barrel.

Adding to Long Term Holdings

With the big drop in the market on Monday, I'm taking advantage of the lower prices to pick up some extra shares in AT&T and General Electric. Both stocks are part of my long term holdings. AT&T for their great dividend payout and General Electric for their long term prospects. GE does pay a dividend, but not near the amount they used to pay. Still, I think they have great, long term prospects.

Now the government is talking about taxing health care benefits in the workplace. Hey, Obama! What happened to, "95% of Americans would see their taxes reduced."???? Did you mean South or Central Americans, because I'm just not seeing it. I'm seeing increased taxes and not much stimulus from the "stimulus package." First it was a massive tax increase on tobacco products, affecting mostly poor and middle class taxpayers, then the talk of taxing sugary products (again affecting mostly poor and middle class), now health care benefits???? Have the people in Washington taken complete leave of their senses? I'm beginning to believe so. I'll spell it out so even they can understand: Increasing taxes, in ANY FORM, hurts the economy, the recovery and the U.S. taxpayer.

On a brighter note, today's market is expected to go higher, after Monday's big sell-off. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm not expecting to see any more big moves with the market until the fall. We may have a few small rallies and some drops through the summer, but I'm not expecting anything big.

My Thoughts on the New Tobacco Tax

The Obama administration, in their infinite wisdom, decided to help out the poor by providing additional funds for health care through a massive tax increase on tobacco products. While helping improve health care for the poor is an admirable goal, I think it is doomed to fail.

Until 5 weeks ago, I was a cigarette smoker. I never really smoked more than a pack a day, so I guess I was never really a heavy smoker. At any rate, the increase in price on cigarettes, due to the new tobacco tax, was just the incentive I needed to quit smoking. I went on the patch and have had a pretty easy time of it. A friend on mine, who chain smoked for years, decided to try Chantix and has also stopped smoking. Not only that, but I've noticed when I go to the store to buy nicotine patches, there have been several times that they were sold out. So I'm sure a lot of other people have decided to quit smoking. You might say, good for us! It is a good thing to quit smoking. I've always known it, I just didn't want to quit. But now, like millions of fellow Americans I'm sure, I can no longer justify the expense.

So, I've concluded that the government has probably made a serious mistake in passing this new tax. While their intentions were good, their thinking was flawed. When the market can no longer bear the price, demand drops and therefor tax revenue from tobacco products decrease. So not only do they fail to raise money to finance health care for the poor, but they will also lose the tremendous tax revenues that they were already taking in from smokers. This program will no doubt cause a tremendous decrease in the sale of tobacco products in the U.S., which will cause those companies to cut back on employees and reduce business operations, leading to even further losses in tax revenues. Add to this, all of the people who will live longer by not smoking, thereby increasing their exposure to age related illnesses when they are likely to be on Medicare and Medicaid and not only will the government fail to help the poor, they will be exposing taxpayers to even more costs related to care of the elderly.

I have been a long term investor in Altria Group (MO), but have decided it's time to sell and re-invest the money in something with a more promising future. Perhaps Phillip Morris International. Don't get me wrong, I think smoking is a bad habit, but there are a lot worse things. At any rate, I think the tobacco industry is on the way out in the U.S., having been taxed and sued out of business.