VA

As the almost daily reports of problems with the Veterans Administration health care system are reported, please recall that during the run up to Obamacare the press often portrayed the VA as a good example of how well government health care works. This was just one more bit of misinformation that surrounded this program. The number of uninsured decreased from 17.5% to 11.5% which means that 18 million who were previously uninsured are now insured. About 6 million of these people were eligible for free insurance under Medicaid and another 6 million lost their private insurance through their employer and another 6 million are people who had no insurance and signed up and most of these are getting some subsidy. The Medicaid sign ups were people who were eligible before Obamacare but chose not to sign up because there was a small fee and pre-existing conditions were covered. Thus they would just wait until they needed the service and then they would sign up. At this time we still have 35 million uninsured and they are the people whose income is high enough that they don’t qualify for subsidies. As the tax penalties for being uninsured increase more of these people will sign up. Most of these people are deterred by the high deductibles. They feel if they have to pay the first $5,000 each year that this is not really insurance. In fact it is the best kind of insurance to buy since the high deductible keeps the cost down while protecting a person from a catastrophic illness or injury. The people on Medicaid pay zero deductible and those with subsidies pay partial deductibles so the problem is for those whose incomes are high enough that they get no subsidy. Many of these people are now buying a new kind of insurance plan that helps cover the deductible. The others just use medical care when absolutely necessary. There is a belief that prevention promotes better health and while this may be the case on an individual basis it is prohibitively costly on a general basis. For example a test for TB cost about $20 and there are about 2,000 cases annually in the US. If we tested 320 million people to find those 2,000 the cost would be 3.2 million dollars for each case discovered. While prevention is good it is not cost effective.

Pope and family

As I listen to the Pope and his emphasis on family, I am reminded of Mary Wright Edelman. She is the lady who founded the Children’s Defense Fund. This is the group that Hilary Clinton is so enamored with and often talks about. She was the youngest of five children and her father was a Baptist Minister. She grew up in South Carolina when everything was segregated and her family had only the bare necessities. Her father told her that while she would be discriminated against that education was the big equalizer and she worked hard and became a lawyer. She spent most of her life fighting for equality among the races. I read her first book and it was a dichotomy. In the first half she talks about how the blacks survived by combining the strength of family and church. In the second half she writes only about how the government should do more for families. Little did she know that when the government stepped in with the Great Society the black family would be ripped apart. Even when she witnessed the deterioration of the black family she did not connect it with government rules about poverty and what was needed to receive government benefits. While she may not see the damage done to the black family, the Pope is well aware of over 70% of children born into families without a father. He knows that lack of education leads to drugs and crime but Mrs. Edelman feels that what is needed is more government programs.

Papal economics

I don’t know who the Pope’s economic advisor is but something isn’t right. The poorest counties in the world contribute practically nothing to air pollution. Throughout Africa, most of South American and Southeast Asia, where there is very little in the way of industry, there is very little air pollution. These countries cannot be accused of adding to the problem of climate change. The developing countries of the world, countries like the United States, Western Europe and to a greater extent China and India are the polluters. The people living in the non-polluting countries are suffering from lack of food, lack of proper housing and very little in the way of medical care. The number one cause of death in Africa, are communicable diseases and the main cause is unclean drinking water. Dirty water kills millions of people every year in these countries. Infant mortality from lack of proper nutrition kills babies before they have a chance to get a start in life. Diseases like measles, malaria, whooping cough, tetanus, meningitis and syphilis, diseases we mostly thought were gone kill millions. In these non-polluting countries there are no schools for most children, no laws to protect children and many of these countries women are second class citizens. For most of my life, the developing countries have sent food and medical supplies to the poor countries and in 1955 life expectancy in Africa was 38 and today it is 60. This is a direct result of the excess food production in the United States and Canada. The United States could convert everything to natural gas and lower air pollution but that would not help the people who need clean water and medical supplies. The best way to help those people is to get them jobs that pay a decent wage and the way to do that is to use free market capitalism. The perfect example is North and South Korea. The people in the north are starving while those in the south are thriving. These people are the same culture, same religion and same ethnicity but one chose communism and the other chose capitalism.

Papal economics

I don’t know who the Pope’s economic advisor is but something isn’t right. The poorest counties in the world contribute practically nothing to air pollution. Throughout Africa, most of South American and Southeast Asia, where there is very little in the way of industry, there is very little air pollution. These countries cannot be accused of adding to the problem of climate change. The developing countries of the world, countries like the United States, Western Europe and to a greater extent China and India are the polluters. The people living in the non-polluting countries are suffering from lack of food, lack of proper housing and very little in the way of medical care. The number one cause of death in Africa, are communicable diseases and the main cause is unclean drinking water. Dirty water kills millions of people every year in these countries. Infant mortality from lack of proper nutrition kills babies before they have a chance to get a start in life. Diseases like measles, malaria, whooping cough, tetanus, meningitis and syphilis, diseases we mostly thought were gone kill millions. In these non-polluting countries there are no schools for most children, no laws to protect children and many of these countries women are second class citizens. For most of my life, the developing countries have sent food and medical supplies to the poor countries and in 1955 life expectancy in Africa was 38 and today it is 60. This is a direct result of the excess food production in the United States and Canada. The United States could convert everything to natural gas and lower air pollution but that would not help the people who need clean water and medical supplies. The best way to help those people is to get them jobs that pay a decent wage and the way to do that is to use free market capitalism. The perfect example is North and South Korea. The people in the north are starving while those in the south are thriving. These people are the same culture, same religion and same ethnicity but one chose communism and the other chose capitalism.

Papal economics

I don’t know who the Pope’s economic advisor is but something isn’t right. The poorest counties in the world contribute practically nothing to air pollution. Throughout Africa, most of South American and Southeast Asia, where there is very little in the way of industry, there is very little air pollution. These countries cannot be accused of adding to the problem of climate change. The developing countries of the world, countries like the United States, Western Europe and to a greater extent China and India are the polluters. The people living in the non-polluting countries are suffering from lack of food, lack of proper housing and very little in the way of medical care. The number one cause of death in Africa, are communicable diseases and the main cause is unclean drinking water. Dirty water kills millions of people every year in these countries. Infant mortality from lack of proper nutrition kills babies before they have a chance to get a start in life. Diseases like measles, malaria, whooping cough, tetanus, meningitis and syphilis, diseases we mostly thought were gone kill millions. In these non-polluting countries there are no schools for most children, no laws to protect children and many of these countries women are second class citizens. For most of my life, the developing countries have sent food and medical supplies to the poor countries and in 1955 life expectancy in Africa was 38 and today it is 60. This is a direct result of the excess food production in the United States and Canada. The United States could convert everything to natural gas and lower air pollution but that would not help the people who need clean water and medical supplies. The best way to help those people is to get them jobs that pay a decent wage and the way to do that is to use free market capitalism. The perfect example is North and South Korea. The people in the north are starving while those in the south are thriving. These people are the same culture, same religion and same ethnicity but one chose communism and the other chose capitalism.

Religion

Presidential candidate Ben Carson was asked about a Muslim being president and he botched the answer. If he had said as long as his religion does not interfere with his responsibility to carry out the constitution it would be no problem. This could be said for affiliation with any group in regards to a person running for any office. I thought we as a country had advanced beyond such questions after John Kennedy was elected. Here is a news item from 1960. John F. Kennedy's presidential bid was challenged by Protestant leaders who charged that he would be a tool of the Vatican. Concerns were widespread about Catholic leaders demanding political loyalty on issues involving church doctrine Apparently we have not moved as far along as I thought.

Afghan boys

Several years ago I wrote a short essay on the concept that the United States was supposed to respect the culture of other countries. This was at a time when the government was trying to appease some of the different things taking place in Muslim countries. I used absurdity to press the point that not all cultural differences can be ignored. I said if we saw soldiers tossing babies in the air and catching on bayonets would we be obligated to intervene. While this was a ridiculous idea, the news today is striking in its ridiculousness. American soldiers are told to turn a blind eye to the practice of Afghan soldiers who tie up young boys and rape them as this is a part of their culture. This story was in the New York Times today but similar stories have appeared over the past few months. An American soldier who intervened on behalf of a young Afghan boy was discharged from the service. Rampant sexual abuse of children has long been a problem in Afghanistan,particularly among armed commanders who dominate much of the rural landscape and can bully the population. The practice is called bacha bazi, literally “boy play,” and American soldiers and Marines have been instructed not to intervene — in some cases, not even when their Afghan allies have abused boys on military bases, according to interviews and court records.

Wealth

the famine in the The Pope is coming to the United States and one of his concerns is the poor and how much the rich have. He is worried about greed making the rich, richer and the poor, poorer. He needs to do the math before he starts espousing solutions. Here are some simple facts which I have presented before but need to be reviewed at this time. Eighty people hold the same amount of wealth as the world’s 3.6 billion poorest people according to an analysis just released from Oxfam. Thirty-five of the 80 richest people in the world are U.S. citizens, with combined wealth of $941 billion in 2014. Remember now this is wealth not income, so it includes everything these people own and if we take it all away and give it to the 317 million other Americans we will each get 941 billion divided by 317 million and that equals $3,000 each. Does the Pope understand that the best way to help the poor is through an expanding economy that supplies good paying jobs and history has proven that the best way to do that is through the free market capitalist system. This system has pulled more people out of poverty than anything else. Without this system there would have been no industrial revolution and Malthus would have been right. Recall that Malthus was the guy who in 1800 said that the population would expand faster than the food supply and millions would starve. Another example is Henry Ford, the man who almost single handedly destroyed the ideas of Socialist Karl Marx. Marx said the free market would always cause the poor to be slaves to the rich but he never expected a case where the workers would make enough money to buy the products they made. Ford started paying wages that allowed this to happen. In 1915 Ford started paying $5 per day when a Model T cost $390 so a worker could purchase a car with 78 days pay. Today the average household makes $50,000 per year and a car costing $20,000 requires 100 days pay. The road to a more equitable distribution of income is a good paying job and that must be done in the private sector. You can’t make the poor wealthy by making the wealthy poor. As has always been the case there are too few wealthy and too many poor.

Elections

As I observe the political process unfold in this year’s presidential rumble I hear the big weakness of Donald Trump is his lack of knowledge about foreign policy and I am reminded of Robert McNamara. He was the CEO of Ford Motor Company and then became Secretary of Defense and then President of the World Bank. He had a managerial talent known as administrative skills. It was not his knowledge of the subject matter but his understanding of people and how organizations work that allowed him to move through such diversely different groups. There are many assets needed to be this type of person, things like being a quick learner, and know how to select qualified people. I am beginning to see these qualifications Carly Fiorina. While she was fired for the changes she made at HP the current CEO, Meg Whitman says what Fiorina saved the company during the economic downturn and since the company has showed solid growth. I am still looking at Kasich with Rubio as VP to be the winning combination.

Immigrants

In the past I have shown you emails I received from my friend in Croatia. She likes Obama because he said the US should not try to tell European countries what to do. She was glad he did not try to interfere in Syria. In her latest she expresses serious concern about the Muslim immigrants pouring into Europe and she wants the US to come to their aid. Many Americans feel that countries around the world don’t want the US to interfere except when they face a problem and the first thing they do is call for the US to help. This sort of confirms that belief.

FOIA

The free press is the watch dog that protects the people from an over reaching government and one of its most important tools is FOIA (freedom of information act) established in 1966. This Act has come under attack with the Clinton emails. The State Department has affirmed her right to delete personal emails and now the Justice Department has come to the same conclusion. What they did not explain is how this is to be done. Left unexplained it opens the door for individuals to decide for themselves what emails are personal and may be deleted. If this is allowed to stand it permits people leaving office the ability to cover up any questionable activity and thus weaken the FOIA. It should be pointed out that since Clinton used a private server it is not subject to FOIA rules. Most people were not surprised when the State Department went along with Hilary but many were surprised when the Justice Department agreed. The feeling was that the Justice Department headed by Attorney General Lorette Lynch would demand a procedure to oversee any deletions. Now there is suspicion that politics is interfering and if the FBI investigation starts to be compromised then it will be assumed that there is some kind of cover up.

Ethinicity

The country is excited about having a woman president as it should be just as the excitement flowed around the first African American president. But what about the other groups. Except for one German American and one African American all of our presidents have been from the British Isles. We have 10 million Polish Americans, 10 million French Americans, 17 million Italian Americans, 50 million German Americans and 43 million African Americans. I bring this up because this year we have 8 candidates whose ancestors do not come from the British Isle. They are Carson, Cruz, Fiorina, Jindal, Kasich, Pataki, Rubio and Santorum.

Wealth

I just listened to a speech by Senator Sanders who is running for president and I learned something new. He is not talking about the redistribution of income but he is talking about redistribution of wealth. Now here is a way to make a difference with the poor people. The top one tenth of one percent own 6 trillion dollars of assets. If we take all of that and give it to the bottom 99.9 % each working family would get $40,000. This is not sharing their income but their assets. In other words we could take all of the Walmart stock from the Walton family, we could take the 50 billion of stock from Bill Gates. We would also get their other non- stock assets. We could take the billions from the young tech wizards and real estate moguls like Face Book owner Mark Zuckerberg and Warren Buffet. Of course this is a onetime thing since next year these people will be broke. Now you might say let’s don’t take it all so pick a percentage say half. Now each working family will get $20,000. Then you can take the other half next year but then the money is gone. Since we are talking about working families this does not include the 20 million who are not working or the 70 million who are retired. If we want to really help the poor we need to get the assets from the top one percent not just the top one tenth percent. If we take the assets from the top one percent and give that to the poor each working family would get $120,000. Now we talking but remember next year it is all gone. The point is that I don’t think people understand the difference between income and wealth when Senator Sanders speaks. My guess is that most people would be uncomfortable taking assets from others.

Liar politics

It is reported daily that the American people are fed up with government and feel that Washington is filled with a bunch of losers. Responsibility for this problem lies with the voters. Recent polls show that Hilary Clinton is considered dishonest and untrustworthy. When asked what one word best describes her, the word is “liar”. These same polls show she is the leading candidate for the presidency. Why would we expect good government when we elect people of questionable character?

40%

The one open road to the White House for Trump. In a typical presidential election fewer than 60% of eligible voters make it to the polls. Those 40% who stay home represent the people who think that all politicians are bums and it doesn’t matter who wins because they are all controlled by big business and big labor. They feel their vote is just a waste of time. If these people see Trump as someone who is different and will make a difference they might be motivated to go to the polls. When experts talk about turn out they are referring to people who normally vote and not about those who never vote. Are these silent 40% riled up enough to go out and vote? We will see.

CNN debate

Here is an interesting new twist. Donald Trump is putting his mouth where CNN’s money is, demanding that all profits from the broadcast of next week’s GOP debate go to veterans. ADVERTISEMENT Following news that CNN has been capitalizing on Trump-mania by raising ad prices for the Sept. 16 debate to 40 times their normal rate, the GOP front-runner sent a letter to the news network’s president, Jeff Zucker, to insist that he share the wealth. “While I refuse to brag,” Trump writes, “this tremendous increase in viewer interest and advertising is due 100% to ‘Donald J. Trump.’ ” Will Trump refuse to show up if CNN doesn’t comply with his request!

Personal belief's

I have watched with interest the case of the county clerk in Kentucky who refused to issue a marriage license to a gay couple. She objected on religious grounds. Today in the news an airline stewardess refused to serve alcohol to a passenger based on her religious beliefs. The cases differ in that the first is a government employee and the second a private business employee but both have the same solution. They can resign. The case in Kentucky should never have come to the attention of the public because the lady could have asked her assistant to sign the application. The couple involved could have avoided any controversy by just going to another county but both sides wanted to make an issue out of it. My way of looking at these situations is that when your personal beliefs run up against the law then you should follow your heart but be prepared to pay the penalty. The colonist broke the law and rose up against the king and many paid with their lives. Blacks in the south who sat in on white restaurants and broke the law were harassed, sometimes beaten, jailed and occasionally killed. On a less violent basis government whistle blowers often times lose their jobs and end up deep in debt paying for legal fees. It takes a great deal of personal courage to stand up against the establishment and to follow your heart but in our society you must pay the penalty and in some cases the end result was a change in the law.

The fifth

Clinton aide Bryan Pagliano is taking the fifth rather than testifying before congress and I don’t blame him one bit. A few years ago Scooter Libby an aide to Vice-President Chaney was accused of revealing the identity of a covert CIA agent named Valerie Plame. The special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald recognized the national stage he was on and even though Richard Armitage came forth and admitted that it was he who outed Mrs. Plame the case went forward and during several extensive cross examinations Libby contradicted himself and was convicted of perjury and spent 30 months in jail. If Bryan testifies and anything negative about Mrs. Clinton comes out he will find himself and a most precarious position. He will have to hire expensive lawyers and will be vilified in the press and the famous Clinton machine will go after him.

Big Government

I suggested some time ago that perhaps our form of government is in adequate to deal with 300 million people and wonder what kind of changes could be made to improve efficiency. I have taken a closer look at the various federal agencies and what I see is not good. Veterans Affairs: Stories of poor treatment of veterans appear regularly in the news. Education: The gap between white and black students keeps widening and college cost are going through the roof. Energy: We have almost unlimited supply of methane that can be used without adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere but the government spends all its efforts on wind and solar so they can reward certain campaign donors. Transportation: Roads and bridges are in disrepair and our elected officials only talk about it. Just model a plan after the Interstate Hwy system like Eisenhower did. Health and Human Services: Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are all going broke and officials just keep kicking the can down the road. Homeland Security: Billions are spent on Airport Security and recent test show that 67 out of 70 times agents got weapons and explosives on the plane. Labor: The President added new members to the board while congress what out of session and then later had to reverse the process leaving many rules that were enacted in limbo. This board has become a partisan political group that is currently anti-business. Commerce: This group couldn’t even figure out a way to sell insurance across state lines which would make the industry more competitive and lower cost for consumers. Agriculture: The government pays billions of dollars to large corporate farms not to grow crops. More billions on school lunches that the kids don’t like and thus don’t eat. Justice: The Attorney Generals office has become politicized to the point where it fails to enforce laws that The President doesn’t like. Defense: Senators who force the military into using equipment they don’t need because it is manufactured in their home districts is a common occurrence and only one small example of waste and corruption. State: We have ambassadors around the world who are appointed for their campaign contributions, who know little about the country they are assigned to and can’t speak the language.

Elections

As I observe the run up to the coming presidential election, I am reminded of something that I wrote, tongue in cheek, about 20 years ago. I was watching a TV show where President Bush 41 was talking with Magic Johnson about AIDS and the thought came to me that there sat The President earning $200,000 a year and Magic earning 2 million and why is that? Then the answer came to me loud and clear. While Magic could be President there was no way that Bush could play point guard for the Lakers. In our society you can earn a lot of money if you can do something that very few others can do and I reasoned that anyone could be president. As I look at this year’s field of contestants, I think that what I said as a kind of joke, has now come to pass. I believe that a reasonably intelligent person could use their personal life’s experience along with their God given common sense and be president. In the past this was not possible because the political system would not allow it but that seems to be changing.