Time For Some Humor

I have been under the weather the last couple days, so I thought a little humor was needed. I hope you enjoy. I'll be back soon.



Unions



New America

The Class Act...Gotta Love The Terms They Use

We now have, or soon will have government health care. So, what about when you are not ready to go back home following a stay in the hospital after a significant medical problem? Enter The Class Act.

"The Class Act, otherwise known as the Community Living Assistance Services and Support Act, is the federal government's first long-term care insurance program."

Well, behind our backs Congress slipped in our "get better at home with our Home Healthcare plan that you peasents can pay for whether you want it or not" plan.

According to the article from Fox News:

"...the program will allow workers to have an average of roughly $150 or $240 a month, based on age and salary, automatically deducted from their paycheck to save for long-term care."
I'm thinking that this will break many people as they are living from paycheck to paycheck. Taking out an additional $1800 - $2880 per year will break many of household budgets.
"Supporters say the program will relieve pressure on Medicaid and should help keep us out of nursing homes by enabling Americans to save for something most will eventually need -- assistance in eating, bathing or dressing in their old age."
"Keep us out of nursing homes", which means you will have an aide come in every other day for an hour, and maybe Physical Therapy three time a week. Who will take care of you after that?

"Scheduled to go into effect in January, actual deductions could take place in 2012."
It goes into effect in January, but we don't pay into it until 2012? I guess this will give employees a year to budget for the loss.

Per Fox News...Here's how the program will work:


-- The federal government will approach employers next year about alerting workers to the proposed deduction.


-- The deduction will work on a sliding scale based on age. Younger workers will be charged less, older workers more. The Congressional Budget Office pegged the average monthly deduction at $146. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services put it higher, at $240.


-- After a five-year vesting period, enrollees who need help bathing, eating or dressing will be eligible to take out benefits, estimated to be around $75 a day for in-home care.
$75 doesn't get you much for home health services today. Don't know what the new home healthcare rates will be under Obamacare.

"This is a scary proposition where the government passed a huge new entitlement program with gimmicks and tricks and the American people don't know they will be automatically enrolled in it by their employer if they don’t watch out," said Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA).
"This creates a whole new bureaucracy that is going to break this country," Nunes said. "In the early years there will be money in it, but at the end of the day there won't be enough money to cover the problems because there will be too many people in the program."
I can't add anything here that wasn't said by Rep. Nunes

The statute says the program is designed to be self-sustaining, with an advisory board to assure the fund remains solvent. But opponents say the fine print already tells another story. Unless modifications are made, according to a CBO analysis of the bill, "the program will add to future federal budget deficits in a large and growing fashion."

Self-sustaining...hmm, kind of like Social Security which is now broke, paying more out that collecting. Sure it is. If it is self-sustaining then why does the CBO say it will add to the federal budget deficits...IN A LARGE AND GROWING FASHION!

Here Is A Brief Overview Of Your New Health Care

I found this link when researching the Health Care bill. It does a good job explaining when things will be implemented.

Health Care Bill Explained

Good and Wefare Clause in Constitution?

When asked, Rep. John Conyers said the Health Care bill is Constitutional because of the "good and welfare clause." Wow, I must have an old copy of the Constitution as I cannot find that clause.



Most likely Rep. Conyers is refering to Article 1 Section 8 , specifically "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States"
Now I believe that this refers to the "general wefare" of the United States, not the "general welfare" of the people of the United States. If the founders were refering to the people, I believe they would have written it that way.
In researching this further I found that James Madison, who was considered a major contributor to the Constitution, stayed alive long enough after The Constitution became law to fight against those who wished to use phrases from it to try and justify legislation like Rep. Conyers is doing today.

Being that James Madison was the founding father of the Constitution he addressed the words "general welfare" in a letter to James Robertson. “With respect to the two words ‘general welfare’, I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.” James Madison also said, “If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions.” He addressed it again in a letter to Albert Gallitin "Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.” Now what did he consider "those specifically enumerated." In the Federalist Paper No. 45 he stated “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined . . . to be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce."

Unfortunately we have many government programs that are in effect today, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, etc. We have become people that will chastise any politician that stands up against an entitlement program even if it is truely unconstitutional. Those politicians that oppose entitlement programs are look at as calloused, mean, politically incorrect men/women that don't want to help those less fortunate. Many of our fellow Americans have come to accept that it is our "right" to live at the expense of others. They feel it is okay to tax "those that have money" to pay for their lifestyle. We can only blame ourselves as we have let this procede for the last 50+ years.
Now don't get me wrong, I don't believe that we should just give up, but we are fighting an uphill battle. We need to go to the polls in November and let our voices be heard.
Remember this quote from Karl Marx, "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs." Isn't that the way we are heading, taking from those that have the ability to give (whether they want to give) and giving to those that need? As long as we have freeloaders going to the polls in higher numbers than us, we will continue heading down this socialist path.

Socialism Anyone?

Well the government has control of two U.S. automobile makers, the housing industry with Freddie and Fannie, the banking industry with the big bank bailouts and now our health care. Guess what, Obama is not done yet. It seems he wants more control Obama to push harder .

According to this article:

"An emboldened President Barack Obama will take a stronger hand with Congress in coming weeks, planning to push lawmakers to pass new regulations for Wall Street by September..."
Yeah, I don't think he is looking at bipartisan agreement.
"No more. Aides say that with the momentum from the most complex domestic bill to pass Congress in 45 years, Obama now will push Congress to close campaign-finance loopholes opened by the Citizens United case, adopt his overhaul of the No Child Left Behind education bill and perhaps even tackle a clean-energy bill."
More teachers plus smaller class sizes equals bigger costs for the public. Clean-energy bill. This is dangerous as it most likely will require private companies to implement "green" technologies within a certain time frame. These "green" technologies will be expensive, which the costs will be passed down to the comsumer.

"White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said in an interview. “Congress proved to itself that it’s well within their power to do the big things that’ll bring about the type of change that they were elected to bring.”
Within their power until November elections. Disregard the Constitution and you can pass anything with majorities in both Houses.

"Gibbs said that Obama told him the night of the House vote that when people bet against him, they don’t realize that “I’m just that stubborn.”
He will not let anything stand in his way. Even a CNN poll showed the majority of Americans do not want this Health Care bill.

Get ready folks he is going to continue to push these socialist ideals while he has a majority in both Houses. He, I believe, sees that his big push on taking over or at least having the proverbial government fingers in as many pieces of the economic pie needs to be done before the November 2010 elections as he most likely will lose democratic majority. The more sectors that this government can control or have a major impact on will clearly affect our lives on a daily basis.

Don't get caught unprepared folks. Start planning for your future today.

Are You Sitting Down?

You may want to be sitting down, and have your blood pressure pills handy when you read this BofA likely won't pay taxes for 2009 . The largest and fourth largest banks may not have to pay any taxes for 2009.
According to The Charlotte Observer:
"The idea of the country's No. 1 and No. 4 banks not paying federal income taxes may be anathema to millions of Americans who are grumbling as they fill out their own tax forms this month. But tax experts say the banks' situation is hardly unique".

Well, I'm no tax attorney or even an accountant, but this doesn't seem right. It probably is legal, but that doesn't make it right. They probably paid their execs miliions of dollars, and probably were able to carryover past "losses" from previous years. Our tax system is broken. We need to look towars something like The Fair Tax .

Now is the time...

Bank Closures

Well, I checked yesterday with the FDIC to see if any bank closures had occured Friday. None were reported when I checked, which was about mid-afternoon. I re-checked today and low and behold 4 more closures are reported. Two in Georgia, 1 in Florida and 1 in Arizona. This raises the total clousres to 41 this year.

These are from the FDIC website:

1. McIntosh Commercial Bank, Carrollton, Georgia, was closed today by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with CharterBank, West Point, Georgia, to assume all of the deposits of McIntosh Commercial Bank. The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $123.3 million.

2. Key West Bank, Key West, Florida, was closed today by the Office of Thrift Supervision, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Centennial Bank, Conway, Arkansas, to assume all of the deposits of Key West Bank. The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $23.1 million.

3. Unity National Bank, Cartersville, Georgia, was closed today by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Bank of the Ozarks, Little Rock, Arkansas, to assume all of the deposits of Unity National Bank. The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $67.2 million.

4. Desert Hills Bank, Phoenix, Arizona, was closed today by the Arizona Department of Financial Institutions, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with New York Community Bank, Westbury, New York, to assume all of the deposits of Desert Hills Bank. The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $106.7 million.

The total cost to the DIF for these four bank closures this week is : $320.3 million

I went back and looked at all the press releases for all bank closures for 2010 and tallied up the DIF costs and found it totaled...$6.510 billion.

I will try and keep a running total each week of the costs to the DIF.

SSA

I posted this on March 15

My March 15th Post

Now this is being reported on In The New York Times today:

Social Security Needs Money
"This year, the system will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes, an important threshold it was not expected to cross until at least 2016, according to the Congressional Budget Office."

Graph
"Analysts have long tried to predict the year when Social Security would pay out more than it took in because they view it as a tipping point — the first step of a long, slow march to insolvency, unless Congress strengthens the program’s finances."

"Although Social Security is often said to have a “trust fund,” the term really serves as an accounting device, to track the pay-as-you-go program’s revenue and outlays over time. Its so-called balance is, in fact, a history of its vast cash flows: the sum of all of its revenue in the past, minus all of its outlays. The balance is currently about $2.5 trillion because after the early 1980s the program had surplus revenue, year after year.

That statement concerns me!

Now that accumulated revenue will slowly start to shrink, as outlays start to exceed revenue. By law, Social Security cannot pay out more than its balance in any given year."

I think this speaks for itself. The SSA is running through the money and will need to cash in some of it's IOU's. The government needs to come up with more cash for the SSA. That may be a problem. Will wait and see where they get this cash from.

What Changes Will We See With Health Care

Health Care Changes
It seems there will be some changes that will take effect fairly quick. Let me outline a few from this article.

"Insurers will be required by September to begin providing health coverage to kids with pre-existing illnesses and allow parents to keep children younger than 26 on their plans as the clock has begun ticking on many of the law’s provisions."

Let's think about this one. How many private insurers will survive with this, and if they can survive where do you think they will get the money to pay for it. If you said, oh, OUR premiums will go up, bingo...you win the prize. They will have to provide coverage for all diseases, asthma, heart disease, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis, etc. This will be very expensive for insurance providers to cover. The added expense will be tacked onto all other policies, which means our prices will increase.

"Insurers also will have to reveal how much of members’ premiums they spend on medical care, as opposed to executive salaries or other administrative costs. Next year, they’ll owe a rebate to customers if the insurers spend less than 80 percent on benefits for people in individual or small-group plans."

Washington is putting a cap on what type of profits the insures can make. It looks like they will be "allowed" to have 20%, since 80% will go to benefits. The remaining 20% needs to pay salaries, mortgages, maintance on building, advertising, utilities, office supplies, vehicles and vehicle maintance, etc. There probably won't be too much left over for shareholders if I had to guess. This means many people that bought stock in insurance companies may not see the return on investments they might want.

"The legislation also creates an Independent Payment Advisory Board to suggest cuts in spending by Medicare, the government health program for the elderly and disabled, that could threaten payments for drug and device-makers."

This concerns me as well and should concern you as well. This Board will suggest cuts in spending by Medicare. Have to watch this one closely.

Obamacare Day One
"Even before President Obama signed the bill on Tuesday, Caterpillar said it would cost the company at least $100 million more in the first year alone. Medical device maker Medtronic warned that new taxes on its products could force it to lay off a thousand workers. Now Verizon joins the roll of businesses staring at adverse consequences."

Well, how do you think Caterpillar will make up for the $100 million? I'll tell you, increase in prices on their products and services as well as layoffs. They will probably also send jobs overseas as it's less expensive to get workers in India to build parts and equipment.

"In an email titled "President Obama Signs Health Care Legislation" sent to all employees Tuesday night, the telecom giant warned that "we expect that Verizon's costs will increase in the short term." ...Expect changes for the worse to your health benefits as the direct result of this bill, and maybe as soon as this year."

Verizon seems to think their costs will increase also. How will they deal with it, I think the last sentance gives a clue. Benefits will get worse, meaning less coverage or other employee benefits will be discontinued to pay for the increased cost of the health insurance.

"In its employee note, Verizon also warned about the 40% tax on high-end health plans, though that won't take effect until 2018. "Many of the plans that Verizon offers to employees and retirees are projected to have costs above the threshold in the legislation and will be subject to the 40 percent excise tax." These costs will start to show up soon, and, as we repeatedly argued, the tax is unlikely to drive down costs. The tax burden will simply be spread to all workers—the result of the White House's too-clever decision to tax insurers, rather than individuals. Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg's health-reform ideas are 180 degrees from Mr. Obama's, but Verizon's shareholders and 900,000 employees and retirees will still pay the price."

The government will decide what is a "high-end" health plan. If your employer or you have what is considered a "high-end" plan, then there will be a tax imposed. If the employer is paying this tax, you can bet this cost will be passed on to someone, either higher prices for their goods/services or a decrease in saleries, layoffs, or decrease in other employee benefits.

"Businesses around the country are making the same calculations as Verizon and no doubt sending out similar messages. It's only a small measure of the destruction that will be churned out by the rewrite of health, tax, labor and welfare laws that is ObamaCare, and only the vanguard of much worse to come."

People, I believe that if the health care plan goes through as it is written it will backrupt America. Watch this closely, because if it continues to move forward without SIGNIFICANT changes I believe you better start to prepare for living in America that will be drastically different.  Be warned, and keep your eyes open, wide open on this issue

Obamacare will eventually "Control The People" says Rep. Dingell

He meant 300,000,000 people that will be on National Health Care.
When a government, or anyone in that manner, controls your health care, they control you to a certain degree. There is no doubt about that.

Freudian slip, I think not.

Makes you want to go....Hmmm