Anything Goes No More.
Colleague Laura Meckler, WSJ, comments carefully and accurately that the Obama administration is unlikely to meet its self-imposed deadline of the August 6 congressional recess to pass the healthcare reform bills in both houses. My professionals on Sunday 19 were uniform in asserting that the healthcare legislation was bogged down by cross-currents. Chief problem at the moment is that the CBO has scored the legislation as raising costs, not lowering costs, and this destroys the argument for the legislation. The larger issue is politics. The Democrat majorities in the houses are looking ahead to the fall 2010 and see that there is widespread disregard for the spending from stimulus to healthcare. The public is pulling back from the anything goes remedy of last winter. Anything goes no more. John Fund regularly reminds the audience that there are 49 especially at-risk Democrats in the House who won election in districts that voted for John McCain in 2008. There are also a few national polls that show a steady decline in approval for POTUS policies and even for POTUS. The advantage POTUS has is that there is no credible Republican opposition. This is the same advantage that the Democrats in the Congress have, not including the McCain districts. Late in the news cycle, Bloomberg reports that Steny Hoyer is now hinting loudly that the House may depart August 6 without voting on healthcare. RX RIP.
"I don't think staying in session" is "necessary to continuing to work on getting consensus," Hoyer, of Maryland, said at a news conference today. "We are continuing to talk about how to improve the bill," he said. "Obviously, members have concerns."
Taxes.
Also, my professionals, Rob Pollock, James Taranto, Diana West, John Avlon, Larry Johnson, Craig Unger, were adamant that the Democrat majorities in Congress cannot (and perhaps will not) move to lower taxes despite the recession. And that the proposal by Charles Rangel at the Ways and Means, backed up by remarks from the White House, that a surtax on "the rich" is possible for the healthcare bills. John Avlon emphasized that the independents (majority cadre in voting public) are recoiling from the Obama administration's spending, and that raising taxes in a recession is reckless and self-destructive. Astonishing political deafness in Washington. Who is not listening at the White House? The Politburo? POTUS? The cabinet officers are listening, but there has only been one Cabinet meeting since the beginning, and that was on Day 100. I am writing in detail about problems that are now showing in the polling. The jobless number is a poison. Housing is worse. Dawn Kopecki, Bloomberg, told me Sunday 19 that Freddie Mac has adjusted the mortgage interest of exactly one house since the POTUS plan to help underwater homeowners. One. And Fannie Mae has not helped even one. Fannie is getting 80,000 inquiries a day. Congress provided the money. But the lenders are holding up the resets. Rather forcelose than adjust the rates and maintain a cash flow. This is the kind of bad news story that spreads across the country slowly yet undermines confidence fast when it is heard.
The administration has "encountered a few difficulties" in starting the Making Home Affordable refinancing program for troubled borrowers, said William Apgar, an adviser at the Housing and Urban Development Department. The program, intended to help as many as 4 million people, has so far extended modification offers to about 325,000, he told the committee.
Healthcare- Stealthcare-
By age 72, my mother who suffered chronic, debilitating pain for 15- 16 years due to undetermined reasons, had been to any number of specialists and alternative practitioners, tried physical rehab, acupuncture, massage therapy, cortisone injections, medicinal controls and on and on, etc. Nothing she endured proved to have lasting, rehabilitative relief. From this sprung a "just have to live with it" state of being that promised sleepless nights and pain filled days.
Over the years, us children watched as she became less mobile and more bent over, being pulled down physically by non subsiding pain and mentally by hopelessness.
At one point she went to a nerve specialist who had developed a procedure that had been proven effective for certain conditions that were related to spinal degeneration. As I remember, the procedure was extremely excruciating and several treatments were required for recovery that involved rehab and pain meds during the following weeks. No, this didn't help either. It was supposed to... for sure, the promise was there and expectations were high or they wouldn't have done it, right? They wouldn't just practice on a patient for large sums of money, would they?
Eventually, at age 72, she comes to a specialist who was gaining a great reputation as the very best in evaluating and in the operative correction of the spine and its intricacies. After several travels and consultations, he convinces her and my father to agree to go under the knife and schedules her for surgery to occur in several weeks at his new multi- million dollar facility.
As time went on and I heard what this doctor had told them, I became more and more suspicious because he had told her that if she didn't have this surgery, she would become incontinent, paralysis would follow, and would be totally dependent on others for day to day living. And this could possibly start happening in six months or even less. This was a suffering, 72 year old woman for whom walking across the room was risky and for whom recovery from this operation would entail being in a fixed, immobile state for three weeks and then into restricted mobility for up to two months... all the while having to travel for follow ups.
Knowing that she had trouble moving if she sat still in her chair for more than thirty minutes, I became very concerned at this commitment and its true effect, but, I didn't want to meddle, either. Finally, as time moved on, I did ask mother what had been told her about the results she might expect that would improve her condition. She was astounded.
She had so pinned her hopes in anguish for some respite that she had never asked how this was going to help and all she had heard from the surgeon was what the risks were if she didn't have the surgery. We talked about this at length and she agreed that there should be something to assure her that all of this was actually going to be worthwhile. She asked me to call the surgeon and query him relevant to a positive result, which I did.
The day I called, I was prepared, congenial, and I confined my questions to something like "Well, you have told her that she can expect this and that if she doesn't follow your advice, but, you have not said what she can expect if she does agree to follow your advice. So, what can she look forward to?"
Of course, more or less, he would not commit to voicing this aspect of her case. He couldn't say if it would help alot, if it might help a little, or none at all. To all of our dismay, it became obvious what he had done in consultation. He had frightened her to get her in his system and process her through for the money. Come to find out, he did several of these specific surgeries every day during the week at a minimum of roughly 50K to 60K each.
Anyway, it's been 8- 9 years now. She went into the pain management aspect shortly after this story I have related. She get's around okay for her condition. She keeps getting shorter and shorter, but, she cooks, takes care of daddy, walks around with a walker or a crutch, gossips with neighbors, still goes to some events to see her grandchildren get married and great- grandchildren at play. She has a scooter that she doesn't ever use and she doesn't need diapers.
She served my boy and me strawberries and whip cream this afternoon.
Went down to the beach first thing this morning. There was a solar eclipse in progress. The local TV station had their cameras whirring. People were taking pictures with their cell phones. Others were meditating; some went for an auspicious swim. Here at home, my wife and her mother were watching it on TV.
Down here in Chennai, of course, it was only a partial eclipse. It didn't even get dark. The real thing happened up north in Varanasi where the Buddha once sat under the Peepal Tree.
They say the alignment of stars and planets is particularly bad this time around. The last time it happened like this was just before the Second World War started. In addition, some of the newspapers are predicting the end of the world for this Thursday.
If we survive, the next eclipse similar to this one is scheduled to occur in approximately a hundred years. Who knows what our politicians will have cooked up by then?
Maybe Obama too is starting to get bad vibes. A Republican senator proclaims publicly that if we should succeed in stopping Healthcare Reform (Health Insurance Reform, in Obamaspeak) now, it’ll serve as Obama’s Waterloo. Obama, unused to criticism, reacts angrily, singling out the agitator and playing the part of the victim (without tears). He is also well aware that his poll numbers are sinking (which makes it ever so hard to walk on water).
How he will ultimately react if things should not go his way is anybody’s guess. One thing is for sure, unlike Bush, he’ll take it personal. An out-and-out defeat could eclipse the image Obama has of himself. Already, several self-imposed deadlines have come and gone without too much fuss. Healthcare, however, is the big one. It’ll be interesting to see what he’ll do when he feels himself cornered. Will he resort to unorthodox measures to force a resolution in his favor? Or will he remain magnanimous? We should know very soon.
http://peterkoelliker.blogspot.com/
In discussion, I don't know what you good people pay for "health insurance," but, mine approaches !@K+ a year. I have never had a chronic condition, not one surgery (yet), never filed a claim over deductibles, etc, etc.
I don't fully understand the system and it's exclusions, preconditions, deductibles, allowances, and whether or not "Insurance" is really an obligation that reaches beyond its own self interests. Want to file a claim?? Hmm.. let's see here. Well, according to Section 9, para 27, 36, and 54... you owe us $$$$. Huh?
"Insurance" in its infancy was actually considered a scam, wasn't it? Just a way to get at peoples money with the ruse of being protected from an inevitable catastrophe. You know it's coming, don't you? It took a smooth talker to sell it to the general population.
Burial insurance, life insurance, health, hospitalization, car, home, liability, flood, hail, accident, dental, and on and on insurance all attired with .
At one time, about 20 years ago, it was told that insurance companies controlled more than 60% of the world's money. I wonder what it is now?
VISIT OF HILLARY CLINTON TO INDIA
B.RAMAN
The following comments were recorded by me separately in a group discussion through the Internet on the just-ended visit of Mrs.Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, to India (July 17 to 21,2009):
Whenever US leaders visit India, the issues which figure in private conversations and public interactions, fall into three categories:
(a).Issues of global interest such as non-proliferation, climate, trade etc.
(b). Issues having a bearing on Indo-Pakistan relations such as
Pakistani action against terrorism, Indo-Pak dialogue etc.
(c). China--- more indirectly than directly
2.The impression I have is that while Mrs.Hillary Clinton was eloquent and forthcoming on the first two categories mentioned above, she controlled her eloquence on China. She was careful not to create any misunderstanding in the US relations with China. The role of the Indian Defence Ministry in her official engagements was marginal..
3. I notice that from New Delhi she has flown to Phuket to attend the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' meeting and the meeting of the ARF. Her Indian engagements were coupled with her ASEAN/ARF engagements. She is going to sign at Phuket the ASEAN's Treaty of Amity and Co-operation, which successive US administrations had refrained from signing for nearly two decades. One of its three principles is non-interference in the internal affairs of the countries of the ASEAN region. Among other reasons for the reluctance of the previous administrations to sign it was the concern that it could inhibit their activist role in Myanmar.The Obama Administration has decided to sign it
4.The impression I have is that whereas the Pentagon continues to attach the same importance to the US relations with India as it did under Bush, there is a growing lack of convergence between the State Department and the Pentagon on the importance of the relations with India. In Pentagon, it is more action than words. In the State Department, it is more words than action.
5.For years, different US Administrations had been pressing New Delhi to allow the US to send a mission to Arunachal Pradesh to look for the remains of US Air Force personnel who went missing during the Second World War. All the previous Indian Governments had rejected the US request. There was a change of policy when Bush became the President. As an Indian gesture to Bush's gesture to India on various issues, the Government of India accepted the US request for a search in Arunachal
Pradesh. The Indian gesture also had a China-related angle----to indirectly get the US endorsement of the status quo in Arunachal Pradesh, which China has been challenging. A mission from the US came and visited Arunachal Pradesh when Bush was the President. The Obama Administration seems to be going slow on the follow-up. Why? ( 22-7-09)
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. He is also associated with the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-Mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )
I think Obama's always known that this reform was a non starter. Did he have to propose it? Oh, yes, absolutely. Did it have to be Kennedy's proposal? Maybe, in deference. Does he have to act like it's important? You bet! That and more, too.
The only sense this makes is in Insurance reform and he's alluded to this. Some words to the affect of "This is not some plot, as some believe, to nationalize or socialize healthcare in America" and the succinct use of the term "Health insurance reform" might denote the flexibility from the administration. "I will not sign HC reform legislation that adds to the deficit"
Throw a flow chart up to scare everyone and suddenly there's no support for it. Very clever.
Get it done by the break and seize the opportunity, it may be the only one there is for a generation.
If it was in the top five of the WH legislative agenda, there would be a WH proposal. Not the same rehashed and rebutted rigamorro(?) that hasn't seen the light of day for years and years.
Is this really "Dispose of this in a hurry, so, we can move on" ????
TO REFINANCE OR TO ADJUST? THAT IS THE QUESTION.
When an Adjustable Rate Mortgage (ARM) is refinanced into a 30-year fixed rate mortgage, it means the borrower gets a whole new mortgage. This means the poor schlub actually has to pay the closings costs for a whole new mortgage all over again -- even though he or she paid thousands of dollars in closing costs just a few, short years ago. This includes paying for a new title search, even though it's clear the borrower owns the property. Most, if not all, of the closing costs are rolled over into the new mortgage. This means that the new mortgage may actually have a higher principle amount than the old original mortgage had. Now add into this that the new fixed rate mortgage will probably have a much higher rate of interest than the borrower was paying before, because the ARM was offered at an extremely low interest rate, and you can see: 1) To adjust a loan means to actually increase the interest rate and 2) Why the borrower can't pay the new mortgage.
A while back I thought that the answer was to give the person with the subprime ARM a new 40 or 50-year mortgage. This would make for lower monthly payments. The downside was that this loan could never possibly be paid off. The upside was that it would allow the borrower to stay in his or her house and, maybe, in a few years when housing prices come back -- to sell without losing money.
Now I think I was too optimistic. If closing costs are not taken out of the equation, it would probably have to be a 60-year mortgage to get interest rates down to where it's affordable. But how to get rid of closing costs? One way is to make banks eat them and, possibly, get some sort of tax credit. Right now, banks have no incentive to help. My guess is that by foreclosing and selling a house for less money than the mortgage, probably allows banks to get a write-off, which they're not getting by refinancing.
The divergence of which B. Raman speaks comes about because the Pentagon is still in the mode of pursuing the notion of strategic advantage. On the other hand, Obama and the State Department think purely along ideological lines. Obama has no special affinity for democracies. In fact, he feels threatened by them. He’s watching his poll numbers and doesn’t like what he sees. He has already demonstrated that he prefers autocratic rule over Democracy any day.
I’m looking forward to his news conference tonight in which he is expected to list all his accomplishments in the first six months. The talk shows will rip him apart but the American people will most likely believe him. I really don’t understand how he gets away with it.
When I was going to college, I felt like a dummy most of the time. Then, when I started working, I suddenly began feeling smart. Seeing these politicians pull the wool over people’s eyes time and time again, makes me feel... sad.
"Insurance" should mean "Insurance" as defined... not as delineated in legalese fine print ad infinitum.
I propose an "Insurance" scheme that charges premiums for a specified protection and if that specific event occurs then the "Insured" is compensated for which they duly entitled under the policy. However, if in the course of a fiscal year there are no claim actions needed or taken by the "Insured," then the "Insurance" company reimburses the "Insured" their premiums less an administration fee of some reasonable amount. How's that for change? Sounds sensible, doesn't it?
I once knew a family doctor that had built and maintained a very successful practice over the years. When he came to the place where the looming reality of retirement and closing his practice was confronting him, he thought first of all the people who relied on his doors being open. His patients, his staff, and yes, himself. You see, he was of the kind that would just as likely treat you then waive his fees at the front desk while you were checking out. He would give a little glance up from the clipboard as he was writing and grin ever so slightly, maybe even mischievously, then turn down into the hallway while his staff sent you on your way with words like "Don't worry about it" and "That's just the way he is." Yes, he took great pleasure from giving back to the ones who had supported him over the decades.
Of course, there is no halting the progression of things, but, he carried on for as long as he could.
Some people know what it is they treasure most; I knew a good doctor, who genuinely worried about doors that would eventually be locked and never opened again and the impact they had had on those who had passed through them... a true treasure.
At the risk of defending insurance companies I must say your "sensible" proposal is without any merit. you obviously don't understand the most basic aspects of insurance. The idea is to pool premiums to cover the catastrophes that affect a sub-set of the premium payers. If only the afflicted paid premiums the insurance company would go broke.
The next claimant would find there's nothing left to pay for his bills.
It is easy to vilify what you do not understand. If its so damned easy to make obscene profits as an insurance company, why don't you start one? Or why doesn't Microsoft or Safeway? Could it be that it isn't all that profitable?
I don't know who invented insurance; I do know Ben Franklin started the first fire insurance arrangement in Philadelphia circa 1775.
Like most idiots, I was just being nugatory.
Anyway, I do sort of know about the pool and all that Jeez; I know that it's a ponzi scheme as you referred to it.
I'm not totally stupit.
Insurance sumpanies are lecording lechered prophets! In a spheression, nonthelesth