The Budget

Trump put out his proposed budget and Bernie Sanders had this to say about it:

President Trump's budget is morally obscene and bad economic policy. It will cause devastating pain to the very people Trump promised to help during the campaign. At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, when 43 million Americans are living in poverty and half of older Americans have no retirement savings, we should not slash programs that senior citizens, children and working people rely on in order to provide a massive increase in spending to the military industrial complex. Trump's priorities are exactly opposite of where we should be heading as a nation.

The words “morally obscene” is a very peculiar in its descriptiveness. His choice of words, demonstrates his political adeptness at sodomizing the voter’s mind with an intangible abstraction.

43 million people are living in poverty. That’s about 13 percent of the population. You will not starve to death, on food stamps, but you could die of type two diabetes from being severely overweight. For what it’s worth, a lot of people work in the underground economy pay no income taxes, so they automatically fit the government’s profile for poverty. The neat thing about food stamps, is that it frees up money for cell phones and cable TV.

Half of older Americans have no retirement savings. The sad fact is that most people don’t feel old, so they put off saving for retirement. Reality clicks in about age 55 to 65 and then you realize that age snuck up on you. You were young and vibrant even in your 50’s and proud that you didn’t show your age. Reality and your age meld, and you realize that you haven’t saved a dime. Social Security isn’t going to provide the lifestyle you had in your dreams for retirement. Your new retirement reality, is sitting in a rocking chair watching TV reruns until you die.

The Federal government’s job is Defense of the country, protection of its citizens, and regulation of trade and commerce. The fact needs to be realized, we can’t have everything we want from government. When a lawmaker attempts to cut a program, some bleeding heart brings out a pregnant woman or a couple of very young kids.

There is a general disconnect between the taxpayer and what the government spends the tax dollars on. You have paid what you were assessed in taxes and assume that all of the bills will be paid. The bills will get paid, but with borrowed money. The taxpayer wasn’t given a true bill for services to be rendered. This concept eludes 95 percent of the voters. So, getting reelected is no real problem. You just have to prove to your constituents that you voted for "Save the whales" and Bill Gore’s "Green earth programs."

This uncontrolled spending by the government, is increasing the rate of inflation and ruining the savings of our nation. It is a tax on your savings for retirement. California Democrats looked at the idea of a single payer health insurance and came up with sticker shock. The cost of the program would run about 400 billion a year for the state. The current budget is only 175 billion. Common sense suggests that estimated cost doesn’t attempt to cover those here illegally.

When you examine the Congressional problem of financing the budget, the real question isn’t "where do we cut?" Rather your Congressman is mentally thinking “What benefits can I give away to get reelected?” It’s a little like sitting on the limb your sawing off of a tree. It works until it doesn’t.

Obama Care Vs Insurance

Universal free health care, what makes it free? If you can afford to pay health insurance now, you know the free market cost of it. Imagine if you also had to cover the premiums of someone else who could not afford to pay for it? Add the fact that a government plan doesn’t have to be concerned with making a profit. This would destroy the free market concept of health insurance. You only need insurance to protect you and your family from an unexpected event.

People need to know the terms of what is being tossed around.

Insurance is a form of family financial protection, planning for the anticipation of a future event. The cost is determined by the likely hood of the event occurring among insured participants. You have many options that allow you to select a price you can live with.

Medicare is the federal health insurance program for people who are 65 or older, certain younger people with disabilities, and people with End-Stage Renal Disease (permanent kidney failure requiring dialysis or a transplant, sometimes called ESRD).

Medicaid provides health coverage to millions of Americans, including eligible low-income adults, children, pregnant women, elderly adults and people with disabilities. Medicaid is administered by states, according to federal requirements. The program is funded jointly by states and the federal government. If you are bed ridden, very old, broke and need a rest home, this is where the money comes from

Obamacare is a health care plan that does not deal with insurance. It is a group plan that pays the cost of treatment for a group of people that may be very sick who have very little money to pay for health care maintenance that they need. The Government draws its finances from the group of people between the age of 18 and 65. Most people between the ages of 18 and 45 are never sick so, the premiums are nothing more than a tax. The group between the age of 45 and 65 are those that didn’t think they would ever need coverage, that is until something serious happed to them.

Notice one thing, without Obamacare, Insurance, Medicare and Medicaid covered all health care. There was one problem, the government ended up paying for those who couldn’t pay for their treatment. And who’s the government?--- you and me, we pick up the tab--our tax dollars.

With Obamacare, the net desire of the Congress was to double their tax base. A $4,500 health care charge for every working person in the US would not be considered an income tax, but rather an employee benefit surcharge like social security. You get to pay for your benefits in advance of using them. This could have raised between ½ trillion to about a trillion a year. This is what the Democrats are so mad about, the loss of a new tax source that never got fully operational.

You’ll notice that the Democrats blend Insurance, Medicare, Medicaid and Obamcare all in to one package when they talk about it. This is kind of like inserting an egg beater inside the average voter’s brain. A scrambled egg doesn’t have the symmetry of a poached egg plus the process is irreversible, the voter at that point cannot separate out the blended parts. Obamacare will destroy the insurance industry, because it eliminates the sharing of the risk, there is none. The government has no profit motive, and doesn't even have to worry about costs. An insurance company cannot compete against that sort of financial organization.

President Trump is not trying to get rid of Medicare, Medicaid or insurance. He wants to kill the government tax plan built around health care. Government has no business being in health care, they don’t have a bottom line to meet. Competency is not a job qualification. What we have to realize is that government is grossly inefficient. The private sector can always do a better job. The maddening thing is that Congress will take the money collected for health care and spend it on something else. Just like they did for Social Security.

Remember how you used to save for a vacation or a new car? Imagine $4,500 coming off the top of your paycheck every year. I remember being young and poor; health insurance wasn’t on the list, ahead of the wheels I could barely afford. It was about the age of 55 that I started seeing a doctor. Half of the people in this country have never been to a dentist; figure that one out. Your teeth will fail you way before age 50 without proper care.

I digress, but think about it. Real health insurance is not a government program. "Free health benefits" is story you tell your kids at night to get them to go to sleep.

A Modest Proposal

It sounds so lame when Democratic Congressmen whine that the proposed tax cut is a tax cut for the rich. 50 percent of the people in this country pay no Federal income tax. We can be pretty certain that the other 50 percent pays all of the taxes. 10 million cash in a bank, doesn’t raise the sort of tax money this “tax the rich” concept is selling. Figure 200k in interest nets about 40 thousand in taxes. Thousands of immigrants have made their money elsewhere in the world and have moved here to enjoy our freedom and their untaxed wealth, without the burden of paying taxes.

Giving the rich a tax break means less money for the largess of Congress. It is really immaterial if we give a tax break to the rich. We are already spending twice as much as we collect in taxes. The rich pay twice their share because the poor pay nothing. How about a voting law; you get as many votes as dollars paid in taxes. This would give the taxpayers a say in their government. You pay a million in taxes, you get one million votes. You pay nothing, you get one vote.

The rich could buy the election, but at least they would get a say on where their tax dollars are being spent. And it certainly isn’t free drinks for everyone. Our current voting system favors those who want to distribute free government benefits. Bernie had the right name for it, Socialism.