Tag: Social Security

–Republicans fall into Obama trap

An alternative to popular faith

04/01/10: (AP) “GOP wary of health law repeal push in fall races”

You read it here, “Republicans are on the wrong side of history.” (Sabotaging health care, March 24, 2010).

As I’ve told you, historically I’ve voted for Republicans, because I’ve felt they better understood the economy. Though they never have been leaders for social improvements, whether Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare or human rights, they traditionally have been strong for business, which benefits everyone. Though they always have had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into anything that smacks of human benefits for the less fortunate, at least a strong minority of Republicans did participate in passing these major intitiatives.

Not this time. An astounding 100% toed the party line. As if that weren’t bad enough, after the vote they all picked up the right-wing mantra, “repeal and replace.” What a horrible, self-destructive plan.

First, repeal isn’t going to happen. As more people see what they receive from the program, they will be less likely to want to give it up. And many of these perks are quite attractive: Millions more people covered, restrictions on dropping people from coverage, no pre-existing health declinations, ability to change jobs without losing your insurance. Even the insurance industry will begin to like it, because they won’t have to spend millions evaluating for pre-existing conditions.

Second, because repeal isn’t going to happen, those voters calling for repeal will become disillusioned with the Republican party for failing to fulfill its pledge. In short, the Republicans will disappoint everyone.

Make no mistake. That 100% vote was an unmitigated disaster, compounded by the failure of Republican leadership to understand what has happened. If each Republican had voted his/her conscience and beliefs, some could have voted for the program “with misgivings,” and the party would have been able to claim it “participated” in one of the great movements in American history.

Instead, for many years and many elections, well into the future, Democrats will be able to throw this in Republican faces — “the party that voted against health care.” The Republican party, by pandering to the extreme right, has positioned itself as a fringe party, left behind in the social march to the future.

And this I regret most. We need the Republican support of business. The Democrats, left to their own whims, will tax, tax, tax, especially business and wealthier Americans, the very ones who supply employment for all and make our economy grow. A one-party Congress will hurt America.

I curse the Republican leaders, who have fallen into Obama’s trap. (As I write this, here arrives yet another “repeal and replace” letter from John McCain.) This Grand Old Party has been McCained, Palined and Fox Newsed into believed and following the strident voices of the religious right.

Remember this Republicans: Those voices may be loud, but they each carry only one vote, just like the more numerous moderate voices. It’s too late to undo that shameful 100% vote, but now is the time to move away from “the party of ‘No.” to the party of progress.

First step: Disavow the McCains, the Palins and the Fox News right-wing panderers. Go to your strength, which is business and jobs. Teach voters that strong business means employment, and employment means wealth. Teach America you know the path to the American dream.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com

–Debt “unsustainable” no longer.

An alternative to popular faith

        Just when I thought the Chicago Tribune was starting to get it, they ruined everything. For years, the Tribune has told its readers the federal deficits and debt are unsustainable, that China and the other nations would refuse to lend to us, that the government would be unable to service its debts and that federal taxes needed to be increased or spending reduced.
        And because the federal debt is unsustainable, the government is not able to support Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid and universal health care without significant tax increases or benefit cuts.
        Then I saw this in the March 30, 2010 editorial titled, “Debt Dangers”:“But the U.S. is not about to run out of money, even if it keeps overspending. Why not? First it can appropriate more of its citizens earnings through the tax system. Second and most important, it can print money to pay its bills.”
        Wow, is the staid, old Tribune finally starting to understand? Do they realize the government can support Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid and universal health care, even if taxes are reduced? Do they understand we don’t need China and the other nations to lend to us, because we can create money without borrowing?
         Sadly we were not to be so fortunate, for a few sentences later, the editorial said, “The danger is that (the government) would create money to make those debts payable, a course that would lead to much higher inflation.”
        Never mind that today, following the most massive deficits in our history, the government’s chief worry is deflation, not inflation. Never mind that for the past forty years, there has been zero relationship between deficits and inflation, and in fact, the largest deficits have corresponded with inflation reductions. (See the graph, below).

Debt vs inflation

        And never mind that deficits repeatedly have proved stimulative, while reduced deficits are depressive. Intuition and popular faith trump facts every time.
        Then the Tribune editors compounded the crime by stating, “The economy would also suffer as businesses and households scrambled to cope with the disruptive effects of soaring prices. It would suffer again if and when the government decided to curb inflation by driving up interest rates — a step that virtually guarantees a sharp downturn.”
        Never mind that high interest rates have not slowed GDP, nor have low rates stimulated, which is why the Fed’s twenty rate cuts failed to prevent or cure the recession. (See the next graph. If high interest rates slowed GDP, the peaks of the blue line would have to correspond with the troughs of the red line.)

InterestratesvsGDP

         But at least, the Tribune has taken the first step, and perhaps we never again shall see that ridiculous sentence, “The federal debt is unsustainable.”

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com

–Sabotaging health care

An alternative to popular faith

It has been a disgrace that the world’s leading, industrial nation, the proudest, most powerful nation in world history, has not provided health care for all its citizens.

Yes, I have voted more often for Republicans than for Democrats, because I felt they were better economists. But today I must give the Democrats credit for doing what is morally right, while taking the big political risk to start the ball rolling.

My Republicans, left to their own devices, would have done nothing. They never have been leaders for social improvements, whether Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare or human rights. While Republicans traditionally have been strong for business, they always have had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into anything that smacks of human benefits for the less fortunate.

That said, the health care plan is far from ideal. Way too many questions to be answered. Consider it only a start, a prototype; you can expect hundreds of changes. My only hope is that the nay-sayers will not try to gut the bill for political advantage.

The question is, and always has been, who will pay for it? I believe the federal government should, and there exists massive evidence on this blog and elsewhere, to prove the government can afford huge deficit increases that will stimulate the economy, and without inflation.

But what if, despite all the evidence, taxes are increased? Economically, a bad idea, no matter what taxes they are. But, which Americans are willing to say, “I’ve got mine and I’m not willing to help those less fortunate than me?” If that’s your attitude, you’re not really an American, although ironically, it seems those who boast loudest about their patriotism often are least likely to extend a hand.

Now we need to see how the program can be improved for the benefit of all. We’ve taken two hundred years to get this far, because that first step always is the hardest. My Republicans, by trying to do everything to sabotage the plan, are on the wrong side of history.

I say now is the time to work with the plan, not against it. Our best minds, cooperating toward on goal, can make the improvements that will protect Americans for decades.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com

–The cost of ignorance

An alternative to popular faith
        Ignorance is expensive. Government ignorance is especially costly.
        Here is just one of many, many projects prevented because of Congressional ignorance about money and federal finances. It may not be as immediately harmful as the lack of universal health care, a fully funded Social Security and the elimination of an expensive, byzantine tax system; it’s a terrible shame, nevertheless:

Cost-cutting NASA eyes three cheap space missions

WASHINGTON (AFP) – NASA has named low-cost missions to Venus, the moon and an asteroid on a shortlist to become its latest space adventure, as the US agency faces astronomical political pressure to cut costs.
        The proposed probes — to the surface of Venus, the moon and to bring back a piece of a primitive asteroid — must all come with a price tag of less than 650 million dollars, a fraction of the cost of manned space flight.
        The agency, in a statement Tuesday, said the winner of the competition will be announced in mid-2011, with the project to launch by the end of 2018.
        NASA has faced growing pressure to cut its budget as the US government’s debt soars and as the United States buckles under the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
        The agency has also seen dwindling political support, with its White House and congressional paymasters reluctant to fund the type of expensive manned space exploration that saw the agency put 12 men on the moon.
        A plan to return humans to the moon by 2020 came under withering criticism from a panel tasked by US President Barack Obama to look into the future of space exploration, as the project’s initial budget of 28 billion dollars exploded past 44 billion.
        Against this backdrop, the agency is asking scientists to come up with low-cost ideas to further space exploration.
        One project led by the University of Colorado’s Larry Esposito would send a explorer to Earth’s sister planet, Venus.
        The explorer would descend through the carbon dioxide-rich Venusian atmosphere, landing on the planet’s surface in the hope of gathering evidence that could explain why it is so different from Earth, despite being close in size and space.
        A second project would place a lander on the moon’s southern pole, collecting rocks that are thought to come from the lunar core, offering an insight into how the moon and Earth developed.
        Another project would travel to an asteroid to snatch around two ounces (56 grams) of material before returning the payload to Earth for extensive tests.
        The winner will be the third in NASA’s cost-saving New Frontiers program, which was launched in 2006.
        The first mission will fly by Pluto and its moon Charon in 2015 and then a target in the Kuiper belt, at the outer reaches of the Solar System.
        “These three proposals provide the best science value among eight submitted to NASA this year,” said NASA’s Ed Weiler.
        “These are projects that inspire and excite young scientists, engineers and the public.”

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
http://www.rodgermitchell.com