It’s hard to grasp how much one trillion dollars is. Here are some ways to think about it.
1. If you spend one million dollars a day it would take over 2,739 years to spend one trillion dollars.
2. You could buy over twenty-eight and one-half million new cars at $35,000 each.
3. You could buy over two million eight hundred thousand new homes costing $350,000 each.
4. At a three percent interest rate, you would get over eighty-two million dollars a day.
5. Assuming that every American cost $100 per week to feed, you could feed the entire population for 33 weeks (probably longer if you initially invested the one trillion at the above three percent interest.
6. One trillion dollars could create one million millionaires.
I think you get the idea. One trillion dollars is a lot of money. This amount is approximately the amount that our politicians initially want to spend on health care reform in order (they say) to provide insurance for twenty-five to thirty million uninsured Americans. Let’s use the thirty million number for our calculations. That’s $33,333 dollars for each uninsured person. Doesn’t this seem a bit ridiculous? I don’t like to take sides but after seeing the Congressional Budget Office assessment for the “Pelosi” bill and the Republican alternative bill and comparing the approach, I have to believe that the alternative bill will cost you and I a lot less, keep the Government out of the insurance and health care business, and actually reduce health care costs.
There are many examples of how well the Government handles health care. Medicare – no negotiation for prescription drugs (some deal with the drug companies). Look what Walmart has done with bulk purchasing and negotiation with drug companies. The same situation exists with Medicaid, which also impacts every State (and by the way, requires State Government staff to oversee). Even the Stimulus Plan expects fraud, waste, and abuse to amount to over ten percent of the cost.
If your checkbook says zero, you stop writing checks, but not the Government! They just print more dollars. By doing so, they decrease the value of the dollar for purchasing imports and cause prices to go up. I don’t know how they are hiding it but I certainly have noticed prices creeping up.
Over the next few weeks, I am going to list those Congressmen/women who have been in Washington too long and should go home. These politicians have been in Washington so long that they no longer feel the need to listen to the voters – they have gotten comfortable taking lobbyists gifts and contributions and have forgotten that lobbyists do not have a vote! They have also gotten used to spending money that does not belong to them and doing it irresponsibly.
Keep the pressure on!
Friday, November 6, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
There are Monsters Everywhere
It’s getting close to Halloween so I thought it would be a good time for a monster column. I just got back from a week in Washington DC (now that’s a scary thought). I started thinking while I was there about all the Big Monsters we hear about.
The first one I thought about was “Big Oil”. You may remember a year or so ago, when prices at the pump went over three bucks. The politicians cried “Foul, big oil is reaping massive profits on the backs of the little people.” However, I wasn’t satisfied with just a comment from some politician so I did a little investigation. The government was continuing to spend taxpayer money to buy oil to place in the strategic reserves, which added to the global demand. In addition, China and India were continuing to increase imports of oil. Finally, every request for drilling for oil in the United States was turned down by our Government. In addition, the House of Representatives, earlier this year, passed a “Cap and Trade” bill, which would increase the cost of “carbon” energy to such a point that most citizens will see a 30-60 percent increase in their electricity, gas, oil, and fuel bills.
Next, “Big Wall Street”. The politicians cried “Wall Street is getting rich by taking granny’s savings”, but the first thing they did when they heard that Wall Street was in trouble was to bail them out with “Big Money”. Wall Street has contributed massive amounts of cash to politicians on both sides of the aisle.
Next, “Big Banks and Mortgage Lenders”. Poor management by the banks has caused this problem and we have to bail them out now. Well, how did this happen? Mainly banks were forced to provide risky loans to people that were not qualified. Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac (quasi-government organizations) lied about their financial position so that the executives could receive Big Bonuses. Both were products of the Congress who supposedly has oversight. What surprises me is that both Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac are allowed to make contributions to Congressmen/women and Senators, and they have. In addition several politicians have gotten VIP treatment in new mortgages.
Next, “Big Car Makers”. GM, Ford, and Chrysler all went to Capital Hill to ask for loan guarantees. We were told that if Congress didn’t bail them out, jobs would be lost and they would all have to declare bankruptcy. Well, Congress bailed GM and Chrysler out and what happened? Both laid off significant numbers of workers and they both declared bankruptcy anyway. Now, both are continuing to lose money and the likelihood that the money loaned to them will be repaid is near zero.
Now, it’s “Big Health Insurance”. They say “it’s about competition and choice” but if that is true, the answer would be to allow purchase of health insurance across state lines (currently against the law). This would increase competition and allow choices from over 1,000 insurance companies. Second, insurance companies are protected by The McCarran-Ferguson Act, passed by Congress in 1945. The Act provides that federal anti-trust laws will not apply to the "business of insurance" as long as the state regulates in that area. This Act should be repealed. Last, under existing laws, organizations cannot act as a group to purchase health insurance and therefore do not have the advantage of size when dealing with the insurance companies. What type of deal do you think an organization like the Lions Club, Rotary International, Real Estate Brokers of America, Veteran’s of Foreign Wars, National Rifle Association, or any other large group would get? Talk about choice! There would be so many different choices that you would hardly be able to keep up with them.
So, are these the “Big Monsters” we should all be afraid of? Let’s look at a couple of Big Monsters you may not have thought about.
Big Monster Number One: The State Department.
The Department of State operates with a budget of over $35 billion dollars, has over 30,000 employees, and is responsible for developing and implementing U.S. Foreign policy. It has been responsible for overseeing reconstruction funding in Iraq and Afghanistan. It just completed building the largest Embassy in the world in Iraq at a cost to US taxpayers of over $2 billion dollars. The scary part is that the State Department, charged with monitoring expenditures in Iraq has been unable to account for several billion dollars.
Big Monster Number Two: The Department of Education.
The Department of Education operates with a budget of over $60 billion dollars, has over 5,000 employees, and is responsible for creating programs to generate funds for education and enforcement of privacy and civil rights laws. The scary part of this Department is that since its establishment under then President Jimmy Carter in 1979, costs for public education have skyrocketed and the quality of education as determined by testing scores has consistently decreased. It is also interesting to note that the Stimulus bill allocated an additional $90 billion to this Department.
Big Monster Number Three: The Department of Health and Human Services.
The Department of Health and Human Services operates with a budget of over $800 billion dollars, has over 67,000 employees, and is responsible for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Fraud, waste, and abuse account for roughly 5% of their budget or $40 billion dollars each year. As large as they are, they can’t seem to negotiate cost reductions in health care costs. The scary thing is that they might be in charge of parts or all of the proposed Health Care legislation.
Big Monster Number Four: The Department of Energy.
The Department of Energy operates with a budget of over $22 billion dollars, has over 116,000 employees, and is responsible for the nation's nuclear weapons program, nuclear reactor production for the United States Navy, energy conservation, energy-related research, radioactive waste disposal, and domestic energy production. The scary thing about this Department is that they have routinely denied any requests for new Nuclear Power Plants, new domestic drilling for oil, and have actually spent more for energy each year, while advocating conservation of energy.
Happy Halloween!
The first one I thought about was “Big Oil”. You may remember a year or so ago, when prices at the pump went over three bucks. The politicians cried “Foul, big oil is reaping massive profits on the backs of the little people.” However, I wasn’t satisfied with just a comment from some politician so I did a little investigation. The government was continuing to spend taxpayer money to buy oil to place in the strategic reserves, which added to the global demand. In addition, China and India were continuing to increase imports of oil. Finally, every request for drilling for oil in the United States was turned down by our Government. In addition, the House of Representatives, earlier this year, passed a “Cap and Trade” bill, which would increase the cost of “carbon” energy to such a point that most citizens will see a 30-60 percent increase in their electricity, gas, oil, and fuel bills.
Next, “Big Wall Street”. The politicians cried “Wall Street is getting rich by taking granny’s savings”, but the first thing they did when they heard that Wall Street was in trouble was to bail them out with “Big Money”. Wall Street has contributed massive amounts of cash to politicians on both sides of the aisle.
Next, “Big Banks and Mortgage Lenders”. Poor management by the banks has caused this problem and we have to bail them out now. Well, how did this happen? Mainly banks were forced to provide risky loans to people that were not qualified. Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac (quasi-government organizations) lied about their financial position so that the executives could receive Big Bonuses. Both were products of the Congress who supposedly has oversight. What surprises me is that both Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac are allowed to make contributions to Congressmen/women and Senators, and they have. In addition several politicians have gotten VIP treatment in new mortgages.
Next, “Big Car Makers”. GM, Ford, and Chrysler all went to Capital Hill to ask for loan guarantees. We were told that if Congress didn’t bail them out, jobs would be lost and they would all have to declare bankruptcy. Well, Congress bailed GM and Chrysler out and what happened? Both laid off significant numbers of workers and they both declared bankruptcy anyway. Now, both are continuing to lose money and the likelihood that the money loaned to them will be repaid is near zero.
Now, it’s “Big Health Insurance”. They say “it’s about competition and choice” but if that is true, the answer would be to allow purchase of health insurance across state lines (currently against the law). This would increase competition and allow choices from over 1,000 insurance companies. Second, insurance companies are protected by The McCarran-Ferguson Act, passed by Congress in 1945. The Act provides that federal anti-trust laws will not apply to the "business of insurance" as long as the state regulates in that area. This Act should be repealed. Last, under existing laws, organizations cannot act as a group to purchase health insurance and therefore do not have the advantage of size when dealing with the insurance companies. What type of deal do you think an organization like the Lions Club, Rotary International, Real Estate Brokers of America, Veteran’s of Foreign Wars, National Rifle Association, or any other large group would get? Talk about choice! There would be so many different choices that you would hardly be able to keep up with them.
So, are these the “Big Monsters” we should all be afraid of? Let’s look at a couple of Big Monsters you may not have thought about.
Big Monster Number One: The State Department.
The Department of State operates with a budget of over $35 billion dollars, has over 30,000 employees, and is responsible for developing and implementing U.S. Foreign policy. It has been responsible for overseeing reconstruction funding in Iraq and Afghanistan. It just completed building the largest Embassy in the world in Iraq at a cost to US taxpayers of over $2 billion dollars. The scary part is that the State Department, charged with monitoring expenditures in Iraq has been unable to account for several billion dollars.
Big Monster Number Two: The Department of Education.
The Department of Education operates with a budget of over $60 billion dollars, has over 5,000 employees, and is responsible for creating programs to generate funds for education and enforcement of privacy and civil rights laws. The scary part of this Department is that since its establishment under then President Jimmy Carter in 1979, costs for public education have skyrocketed and the quality of education as determined by testing scores has consistently decreased. It is also interesting to note that the Stimulus bill allocated an additional $90 billion to this Department.
Big Monster Number Three: The Department of Health and Human Services.
The Department of Health and Human Services operates with a budget of over $800 billion dollars, has over 67,000 employees, and is responsible for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Fraud, waste, and abuse account for roughly 5% of their budget or $40 billion dollars each year. As large as they are, they can’t seem to negotiate cost reductions in health care costs. The scary thing is that they might be in charge of parts or all of the proposed Health Care legislation.
Big Monster Number Four: The Department of Energy.
The Department of Energy operates with a budget of over $22 billion dollars, has over 116,000 employees, and is responsible for the nation's nuclear weapons program, nuclear reactor production for the United States Navy, energy conservation, energy-related research, radioactive waste disposal, and domestic energy production. The scary thing about this Department is that they have routinely denied any requests for new Nuclear Power Plants, new domestic drilling for oil, and have actually spent more for energy each year, while advocating conservation of energy.
Happy Halloween!
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Support it or not – It’s a Good Bill
While reviewing current legislation being introduced in the House of Representatives, I cam across HR 3611. HR 3611, “Limiting the Intrusive Miles of International Terrorist Sponsors Act of 2009” is an example of a bill that is clear, concise, to the point, doesn’t contain any lengthy amendments, earmarks, or pork. This is what a good bill should look like. Sponsored by Representative Paul Brown (R) GA and co-sponsored by forty-seven representatives from both parties, this bill would restrict the diplomatic travel of officials and representatives of state sponsors of terrorism, and for other purposes. Basically, it keeps diplomats visiting the United Nations in New York from being able to travel outside of the immediate area of the United Nations Headquarters complex.
The bill is less than three pages long but if you take the time to read it on Thomas http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.3611: you will see that it covers everything needed in simple, easy to understand language and is not cluttered up with useless information.
Although a bi-partisan bill, I doubt that the current Speaker of the House will ever allow a vote on it. Our State Department has routinely provided visas for over 8,000 suspect individuals over the past five years with very few restrictions. In addition to these individuals coming from countries who are extremely unfriendly towards the United States, no background check is ever done by the State Department. On a few occasions some of these persons were caught photographing and videotaping the New York City subway and other popular landmarks.
The United Nations has basically been a haven for third-world country dictators, military juntas, and other corrupt countries whose sole purpose is to exploit money from Western-style governments. The United Nations has been a corrupt organization for many years and should be thrown out of the Untied States. Every program they have sponsored has been full of fraud, waste, and abuse. Members are a bunch of elite socialists (at best), or a bunch of common thugs (at worst). This bill would at least keep those persons visiting the UN from straying and gathering intelligence to be used for subversive actions against the United States.
If your Representative is not on the list of sponsors, I recommend that you contact them and have them add their name as additional co-sponsor.
The bill is less than three pages long but if you take the time to read it on Thomas http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.3611: you will see that it covers everything needed in simple, easy to understand language and is not cluttered up with useless information.
Although a bi-partisan bill, I doubt that the current Speaker of the House will ever allow a vote on it. Our State Department has routinely provided visas for over 8,000 suspect individuals over the past five years with very few restrictions. In addition to these individuals coming from countries who are extremely unfriendly towards the United States, no background check is ever done by the State Department. On a few occasions some of these persons were caught photographing and videotaping the New York City subway and other popular landmarks.
The United Nations has basically been a haven for third-world country dictators, military juntas, and other corrupt countries whose sole purpose is to exploit money from Western-style governments. The United Nations has been a corrupt organization for many years and should be thrown out of the Untied States. Every program they have sponsored has been full of fraud, waste, and abuse. Members are a bunch of elite socialists (at best), or a bunch of common thugs (at worst). This bill would at least keep those persons visiting the UN from straying and gathering intelligence to be used for subversive actions against the United States.
If your Representative is not on the list of sponsors, I recommend that you contact them and have them add their name as additional co-sponsor.
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