Our Current and Escalating Economic Mess

As we are all distracted by the mess that is healthcare reform we need to keep one eye on our economy. Unless you are the Vice President, or a lobbyist for a labor union, you probably realize that the $787 BILLION stimulus package so far has been a bust. Millions more jobs have been lost, unemployment in most areas is hitting levels not seen in a quarter of a century or more, and the US government is borrowing almost half of every dollar they spend. Deficits are planned for more than 10 years out of approximately $1 TRILLION per year. That’s planned spending that doesn’t even include the full impact of healthcare reform (if that survives in any form). This cannot go on forever. Unlike what some in congress may say, we cannot borrow our way to prosperity. The United States is not immune to reality.

The Fed continues to print money to buy up debt from the Treasury and our lenders are getting tired of it. China has said that they will start to diversify their foreign reserves. Of course when they say that, they mean that they are going to start dumping the $2 TRILLION dollars that they hold in US currency. Certainly this is one of the reasons gold has come back up to $1000 an ounce as China and other countries move away from the dollar towards investments that will provide protection against American inflation. For us that means an uptick in inflation considering $2 TRILLION will start floating back into the system.

Economists have started to say that we are pulling out of the recession, which is true, we are pulling out of the latest trough. But was that the bottom? Cash for clunkers spurred an artificial boom of 700K cars sold, but what will an artificial boom do to demand in the next two quarters?

The method deployed for the stimulus has never worked and is not going to work for us long term. The government can’t borrow and spend the country into sustained prosperity.

What’s worse is that the backlash against these monstrous deficits will not result in a cut back in spending, but rather an increase in taxes. This will only force more jobs and more companies off shore or out of business. Throw in a health insurance mandate and you’ll crush the small businesses that make up half of the economy. Mandating insurance coverage doesn’t magically give companies the ability to afford it.

The dollar just hit a new low for the year. Gold is soaring. High unemployment.

Have we paved the way for a solid, sustained recovery, or are we going through a sugar spike that is going to leave us worse than how it found us.

Cut spending. Cut taxes. Pull some money out of the system. Stop lending money to ourselves. Restore investor confidence in the US dollar.

Friday Rant

Just a quick rant list for Friday:

- Van Jones the “Green Jobs” Czar. This is just one more example of the kind of people that the President chooses to associate himself with. This week Van Jones made news by referring to republicans using a cheap, school yard expletive. But more research into Van Jones reveals several odd things. Number one he is a self described communist. Ok, that’s a little different. He also signed on to a 9/11 “truther” petition that demands investigations into the US government and makes claims that the Bush administration at the very least KNEW about the 9/11 attacks and did nothing to stop them. Oh yah, definitely cabinet level material here.

- Rep Charlie Rangel. Under investigation by the ethics committee for failing to correctly report his income from rental properties around the world, Congressman Rangel, the Chairmen of the House Ways and Means Committee (you know the one that is responsible for tax law), gave campaign contributions to members of the ethics committee that were investigating him. Hmmm…. sounds kind of fishy to me.

- Sen Harry Reid. Recently the Senator Majority Leader endeared himself further to his constituents by telling the largest newspaper in Las Vegas that he hopes they go out of business. The paper responded with this scathing editorial that left me laughing and cheering. Combine that with the fact that Reid trails either of his republican challengers significantly, I would say the Senator Majority Leader will be looking at unemployment come 2010.

- Vice President Biden. Well, just saying Vice President Biden kind of explains everything, but this week he said that the economic stimulus package had exceeded their expectations. REALLY!? I hope someone on his staff showed him the new unemployment figures. Of course unemployment figures stop counting people who have given up looking for jobs. The official number is 9.7, but some say that real unemployment may be as high as 16%.

- The Presidential address to the school children of the nation. My first thought was, “wow, has the President already run out of groups that want to hear him speak?” Then when I read the “accompanying materials” that encouraged teachers to prepare for the speech by reading books about presidents, or a book about Barack Obama, and included all kinds of activities for kids to discuss how they are going to help the President. I don’t know the whole thing just seems creepy. My kids say that their school hasn’t even mentioned it. Personally I think the whole thing is going to back fire and the kids that do see it will mock, rather than admire, the effort.

Health Care Reform Goes Hand in Hand with Tort Reform

As politicians head back to Washington and start reviewing and debating the latest version of what will be the Kennedy Healthcare Act or some version thereof, I thought it would be good to look at something this bill is guaranteed to miss, tort reform.

It’s one of those political, Washington sounding phrases that basically means we need to get a hold of the trial lawyers who troll around outside doctor’s offices waiting for them to make a mistake. Don’t get me wrong; just like anything that has been abused, there are legitimate cases against irresponsible doctors. The system should be set up to deal reasonably with those and discourage and weed out the vampires that bleed the system.

These frivolous lawsuits cost you money and drive up the over all cost of healthcare. Malpractice insurance isn’t cheap! It varies by region and the type of practice you have, but it can easily run into the six figure range for an annual premium, especially for more high risk type specialties like OBs and nuerosurgeons. But the costs aren’t all direct. Every time a doctor meets with a patient they not only have to focus on treating a condition, or finding the cause of a problem, they have to think about what tests they need to run just to cover their backside in case of a lawsuit. The costs for people in rural areas are even more significant because many times a doctor can’t make enough money with a rural practice to cover his costs, so many communities don’t have a doctor, forcing them to commute to the doctor’s office. Sound familiar?

Now lets look at the scenario that occurred in Texas.

According to an Op-ed by the Texas Governor, Rick Perry, they were faced with a serious issue six years ago. Doctors were leaving the state in droves. 13 out of 17 liability insurers (providing malpractice insurance) left the state. Costs to doctors were going through the roof, which elevates the costs to the patients. 24 counties had no primary care doctors at all. 2/3 of the counties had no practicing obstetricians and 6/10 had no pediatricians.

Sounds like a mess doesn’t it?

So they reformed it, capping non-economic damages and put and end to law suits dragging on for years that do nothing but rack up lawyer’s fees.

And the market responded.

Ten insurance companies came into the state and malpractice insurance costs plummeted by an average of 27%. Over 14,000 doctors have come back to, or started up their practices in Texas in the first five years since the reforms. More OBs, pediatricians, and general practitioners are moving into areas that have never had these services in their communities.

In all fairness, there is one group that is very unhappy with the changes; the trial lawyers.

So why doesn’t the President’s healthcare reform plan include tort reform?

Take a look at this list of donations of trial lawyers to politicians, then take a look at the fact that lawyers/law firms gave over $178 million dollars to Democrats during the last election cycle ($54 million to Republicans). $eem$ like a pretty $trait forward an$wer to me.

Tell your reps you don’t want ANY healthcare reform without TORT reform. Let’s fix the system.

A healing elixir

It’s been quite the week. After a very busy weekend I went to bed early Monday night with a sore throat. Other than a trip to the doctor’s office, an occasional visit to the rest room, and two occasions where I became so hungry the pain woke me up, I stayed in bed until Wednesday morning. Nothing like a week’s worth of sleep and some antibiotics to clear things up.

The funny thing is I tried herbal teas with honey, Advil, Tylenol, and even a special prescription mouthwash that is suppose to be great for sore throats, but none of it made my throat feel any better. Non-contagious I came into work yesterday with my throat still killing me and poured myself the first coffee I had had in three days. It worked beautifully. My throat felt better for hours. I honestly thought it was going to make it worse, but it was like a magic salve of goodness running down my throat. I’ve had strep before and coffee has never helped, but I’ve never tried French press coffee with strep. I think there must be something about the oils in it… I don’t know, but it was beautiful. Later in the afternoon it started bothering me again and I poured myself another cup and it got better with every sip. I highly recommend.

Of course, I highly recommend the press anyway, especially if you are a heavy coffee drinker and want to cut back. Huh? Oh yes, I use to drink pots, if not gallons of coffee a day. Now, just two to three cups a day and I am gooooood. If you don’t like coffee because of its bitterness, but you really like the smell of coffee, you have to try the press. It’s all the beauties of coffee and none of the draw backs. I’ve been on the press for a couple of years now and have even converted my wife. In fact… we don’t even OWN a drip coffee maker right now. The two that we had both busted and we have no desire to replace them. I am in the market for a bigger press, just in case we have guests who want an amazing cup of coffee.

I still have some drip coffee on occasion and in a pinch it gets you through, but why someone would be willing to subject themselves to that on a regular basis, knowing the rich, bold, flavorful goodness of the French press, is beyond me.

Speaking of which… I think it’s time for some right now.

Outrageous!!!

I’m a fan of the second amendment, just like I’m a fan of the first amendment, but I don’t own a gun and I certainly don’t carry a gun. Recently at an anti-Obamacare rally in AZ, one of our many gun-toting citizens decided to appear at the rally armed; a gun on the hip and an assault rifle over the shoulder - all of it perfectly LEGAL.

Do I think it was necessarily a good idea? No. It’s not something that I would do. But I am not about to tell someone else that they can’t. Especially when it’s legal and… well… they have an assault rifle. J

Now here is the interesting part that I wanted to talk about. The American Thinker has a clip of the man (obviously cropped like mad) that was played on MSNBC. The reason MSNBC played the clip is so that they could go on a long rampage about how all of this healthcare protesting has a racist tint to it. REALLY!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Here is the best part…

Are you ready?

The part that they cropped out of the video is the part that shows that the man CARRYING the assault rifle… is BLACK.

Go to American Thinker and watch the video then look at the full picture below it. Ridiculous.

Once again. This has nothing to do with race. It has everything to do with a BAD IDEA and a BAD BILL. By calling it racist or even strongly hinting that this is racist, totally diverts people from the real issue, which of course, is the goal. How dishonest of MSNBC to do that. It just goes to prove… once again… how IN THE TANK they are for this administration that they would sacrifice any shred of professional integrity that they might have one time had, in order to smear people that oppose the administrations agenda.

Shame on you MSNBC!

BTW... if you watch the video, the MSNBC egghead says "a Mark Hinckley figure", but obviously, being a moron, he messes it up. The man who tried to assassinate President Reagan was mentally deranged, JOHN Hinckley. Seriously, where do they get these people?

Poll Comparisons to Past Presidents

It’s been a rough start. Just my personal opinion. I think it’s a combination of the speed with which he is moving combined with the far left policies that he is pushing that have translated into this sudden move downward. Peter Wehner has a poll comparison between the initial approval rating of Presidents since Eisenhower to their average during August. Some of the numbers are very impressive, some for good reasons... others for bad.

Eisenhower +6 (from 68 to 74 percent)
Kennedy +4 (from 72 to 76 percent)
Nixon +3 (from 59 to 62 percent)
Carter -3 (from 66 to 63 percent)
Reagan +9 (from 51 to 60 percent)
George H. W. Bush +18 (from 51 to 69 percent)
Clinton -14 (from 58 to 44 percent)
George W. Bush -1 (from 57 to 56 percent)
Obama -14 (from 68 to 54 percent).

The numbers aren’t really that important at this point in the game. The real key is that conservatives need to keep good solid pressure on the administration and bring out the information that the media is ignoring. Read the bills. Watch what is going on. Keep the information flowing.

A letter to Congressmen Waxman and Stupak

Congress is on a witch hunt to try and embarass executives at all of the major insurance companies and gather information about their business.

This is ridiculous.

So, I drafted the following letter which I will be sending to my reps and to Congressman Waxman and Congressman Stupak.

Congressman Waxman and Congressman Stupak,


Recently the Congress sent letters requesting information from insurance companies regarding executive pay and bonus structure, bonuses and salaries paid, along with information regarding profit from different aspects of their business. As an American I am always encouraged when the government supports transparent and open policies.

It is in that vein that I would like to request documentation from the Congress regarding the following items. Please include all requested information for all years encompassing the 105th through 111th Congresses.

(1) Information regarding earmarks. Including, but not limited to
a. Which congressional member requested all earmarks whether finally approved or not.
b. Which congressional member received campaign contributions directly or indirectly tied to companies, firms, or organizations who received any earmarks or other forms of government assistance.
c. As well detail any travel, dinners, parties, or fundraisers that were hosted or sponsored by any organization, company, or firm which received tax payer funds.

(2) Information concerning Congressional travel. Include detailed and itemized information in regards to all of the following:
a. Per diems received by Congressional members. How and where those per diems were spent and a detailed list of excess funds which are required to be returned if not needed.
b. A list of congressional trips taken during the 105th – 111th Congress, including all trips that were funded through public or private means. Any travel that may have already been detailed in Section (1) should be noted again here as well.
c. Please clearly state all congressional members, family, and friends who were also present during such trips and the purpose for each attendee.
d. As well state the over all purpose for each congressional trip and provide justification for repeated trips to and from Washington D.C. in excess of one round trip per month. Please include all travel and provide dollar approximations for accommodations made to Congressional members through the Air Force and give written justification why Congressional members needed Air Force assistance, rather than taking readily available commercial transportation.
(3) A detailed accounting of all funds associated with Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and a detailed plan for returning all of the funds that have been “borrowed” from these accounts for the last seven decades.

Being an understanding member of the electorate, I will allow you until the end of the calendar year to provide the above information. I may request further information from you on all of the included topics, after all, we are all interested in finding and eliminating wasteful spending during this financial crisis.

I would like to state that in the future all such information should be readily available and included in one of the governments myriads of web pages. As a concerned citizen I am sure that you will understand our desire for brilliant light to shine into the practices of our elected officials.

Best regards,

Keith Jones
www.keithjonesblog.com

Pre-existing Conditions

This is a hot button, I understand that, but read and keep an open mind.

I have some family members who are not employed where they get healthcare coverage. They have tried to seek private insurance, willing to pay the premiums themselves, and they have been denied because of certain chronic health factors. At the same time they don’t qualify for state assistance. This means when they go to the doctor they have to negotiate a price and pay out of their own pocket. That’s not too bad, but a trip to the ER ends up costing them huge and there just isn’t much they can do about it.

In this case it seems only right to say that insurance companies cannot deny someone coverage because of a pre-existing condition.

I hope that this exact scenario is the reason for Section 111, of HR3200, which across the board prohibits insurance companies from denying coverage because of a pre-existing condition. I hope. But sometimes things that are put in place for good reasons have ‘unintended’ bad consequences.

Now, let’s think for a minute. Say Jane is in her thirties. She’s self employed and relatively healthy and only goes to the doctor every couple of years, so when it comes to insurance she decides to pass and pocket the money. One morning, Jane finds a lump. She goes to the doctor and finds out that she has an aggressive form of breast cancer. Facing huge medical costs as well as the personal and emotional trauma of the situation she goes and applies for insurance, which they cannot deny. She gets her coverage and begins treating her cancer. She has a mastectomy, but finds a lump in the other breast resulting in another mastectomy. She goes through chemo and radiation and is in remission. Things are improving. The insurance company is also required to cover breast reconstructive surgery after a mastectomy, so she decides to have that as well. She’s finally recovered from this personal struggle and she finally hears the words from the doctor that she has been waiting for, a clean bill of health. Fantastic! But, it’s been two years of struggle and she wants to do some things to have fun, go on vacation, buy a new car, live life again. So, she looks at her expenses and decides to drop her medical insurance since she really doesn’t need it anymore.

The insurance company has just fit the bill for two years of treatments, including multiple surgeries, very expensive treatments and medications, and has collected a tiny fraction of that money back in premiums. They are literally tens of thousands of dollars in the red for just one case. They are a company, with stockholders and investors, they have to show a profit, so they increase premiums across the board. Naturally that causes other people who aren’t in the midst of a personal tragedy to drop their insurance, knowing they can pick it up again should a tragedy occur.

Realistically speaking, how can the insurance company stay in business? Insurance companies don’t really make money off of sick people, they make money off of healthy people.

So then do we start bailing out insurance companies?

Undoubtedly you suddenly have people being dropped as insurance companies go out of business. Amid the national outcry to help the average family that is suddenly without coverage, the government steps in with a plan to help those who have been hit hard by this unfortunate turn of events.

Hmmm…

Public option or no public option, this bill has some good intentions with some very negative possible consequences.

Are you serious? Predictions for 2012?! Yes! It's Entertaining!

A recent poll showed that the country is moving to the right, despite the fact, or maybe even because of the fact that we just elected a far left president. Certainly the push towards bigger government, higher taxes, and increased government intervention into EVERYTHING has spawned right wingers like a virtual conservative ideological baby boom. Conservatives and the Republican Party are now looking at the 2010 election with mouths watering. Some estimate that as many as 70 congressional democrats could be on the chopping block. Ouch.

With that in mind, I recently got an email asking about 2012. Granted in politics, three years can be a life time (the last seven months have certainly dragged by). But really over the next probably 12 to 18 months you are going to see a field of Republican leaders emerge.

This far out, these are my best guesses of who might be in it and what I think their chances are… just because it’s fun to do.

Some familiar faces:
- Mitt Romney. He’s never left the public eye with frequent appearances on talk shows, radio, and even a tour around the country. He’s got plenty of money and a solid understanding of economics, which, if things continue to circle the bottom of the toilet, may still be a major issue in 2012. He also carries a lot of baggage with the MA healthcare system sucking wind, but, I think he would be a solid candidate.
- Sarah Palin. First let me say, I like Sarah Palin. She is a very likeable person. In hindsight I think she was thrust onto the national stage too early. She needs more exposure, which she is getting VERY cheap right now, winning some body blows against the healthcare mess by posting messages on FB. Ouch. She energizes the base and I think will be a huge asset in raising funds for conservatives if she chooses to. That being said, I don’t think she would make a very good Presidential candidate yet, if ever. I do think she would be a great person to replace Michael Steele as head of the GOP, since she could really bring in the funds from the base and people trust her to back conservative principles.
- Mike Huckabee. The former governor is somebody else that I really like. I like listening to him, he is an excellent speaker and did very well in most of the large debates last time around. We’ll see if he has honed his international policy portfolio at all, which last time really hurt him.

Some newer faces:
- Tim Pawlenty: The current governor of Minnesota is poking his face out into the national scene more and more. He was rumored a possible VP candidate last time around and holds some fairly decent conservative credentials. He has also been a sane voice in state that was once run by a former professional wrestler and recently elected an SNL character to the Senate. I like Minnesota, but there is just a lot of crazy up there.
- Rick Perry: The current governor of Texas may be in a prime spot if the economy is still in the tank, considering he is leading a state with a thriving economy, a growing business environment, and a stable housing market. He has also recently been making some international house calls to Israel, promising a close relationship between the loan star state and our only real ally in the Middle East. He is actively recruiting foreign businesses from allied nations to come set up shop in Texas, rather than driving businesses away with ever increasing taxes. What a novel concept! At the same time he has said some really stupid things in the last six months, which may fly well in TX and win him another term as governor, but don’t sound too good on the national stage. He’ll need to taper his TX rhetoric a bit to win the country.
- Piyush Jindal: I know you probably said, “who?” Piyush is actually Bobby Jindal’s real first name. At 37, the LA governor is young. Very young. But if anybody could pull it off, I would be betting on him. Educated as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, Jindal is nothing short of brilliant. Even though he underwhelmed at his first major national speech, he is a gifted public speaker and very good off the cuff. Throw that on top of the fact that he was very easily elected governor of LA, without a typical run-off election. He enjoys an approval rating in a historically liberal state 11% above the current liberal president and he is doing amazing things to turn Louisiana around. He has already pledged to run for re-election in 2011 which I think is a great move. I really think he would be a better candidate in 2016 or even 2020. After all, he’s so young, he has plenty of time and he is on track to build up a great record. Whenever he runs, I think you are looking at the first President of east Indian immigrants.

And the wild card:
- There are a few politically entrenched people out there that have the ability to jump into the race and make an impact. People you might not think of until they actually announced and then you’d go, “oh yeah, sure!” Some random names come to mind, like Newt Gingrich and even Rick Santorum, but I think either of those would be long shots.

In any case, I think there is a great possibility that someone with some national exposure, though not widely considered could still come to the front and be a major force. Maybe even some Hollywood type like a Kelsey Grammer or Gary Sinise, should they decide to put their careers on hold to put their hat into the political ring. In any of these cases they would need to start hinting at their intentions with speeches and appearances just to get themselves as at least an option in people’s minds.

In any case, for political junkies like me the next two elections are going to be very interesting. Of course, in the meantime we’ll be enduring some very interesting… if not trying times. We should probably consider the “fasten seatbelt sign” radiantly illuminated.

God's blessings

I don’t talk about it nearly as much as I should, but I am a very blessed man. Really in too many ways to count God has just filled my cup to over flowing. One of those ways that just hits me every single week is at my church home. It’s not the sermons, although those are outstanding. It’s not the worship, although it is powerful and moving. It’s not any of the things that happen during the normal adult worship experience. It’s when I get a chance to go help teach kids in our Kidzone Large Group at Mission.

It really is an amazing experience. For an hour each week I get to come together with my truly amazing wife, Brandi, our good friend and fellow goofball, Kevin, one of the teens who doesn’t say much but keeps the whole thing rolling in the tech booth, Matt, and somehow God takes all of our talents or lack thereof and makes something really great. I hope that it makes half of the impact on the kids that it makes on me.

Seeing my wife up there praising God and getting fifty kids at a time to join her in singing and worshipping and celebrating God is just so awesome. Then to see her turn around and sit down with kids. She has this heart of gold that the kids just pick up on and… I can’t describe it, I can get the kids to give me five, but she gets them to pour out their hearts for five minutes. She hears about the hurts and fears and then prays with them and ministers to them – it is truly awesome to witness.

Then Kevin, my goofy twin separated at birth, gets up there and gets the kids totally involved with his jokes and stories and completely gets their attention, and then after it’s over he completely flips the switch and so many times will sit down and give a personal testimony to the kids and the adults, of how he has seen God work in his life. It’s powerful stuff. I know he connects with the kids, but that guy also blows me away on a regular basis.

Somewhere in there I get to get up and tell a story. Usually one that I heard a hundred times growing up, or one that I’ve read fifty times, and even some that nearly bring me to tears because they so clearly convey the love and mercy of Jesus. I have a script, but I never follow it exactly. The points all seem to come out at one time or another, but I just feel like God is taking the small gift he has given me and used it to plant some seeds, water some seedlings, and reinforce the footholds that God is making in kids’ lives. It’s moving to me. I think I get more out of it than the kids do. I love it.

10:30 on Sunday morning has become one of the highlights of my whole week. Definitely one of, if not the most, uplifting hour of my whole week.

If you don’t have a church home, you need to get one. More importantly, if you don’t know Jesus, you need to seek him out. I’d love to introduce him to you. I might have to tell you a couple of really cool stories to do it, but hey that was Jesus’ method too.  I’m KeithJonesBlog on FB.

If you have a church home, but you aren’t serving, or you aren’t serving in an area where you really feel you are using the talents that God has given you; then please find your spot. There is room for everyone to serve in God’s kingdom, and the experience and fulfillment that God can bring through that can really shed some important light on life.