“Here You Go Again”
Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE
In
recent days President Obama and his team have ramped up a coordinated effort to
depict Paul Ryan as a candidate that will destroy Medicare with vouchers. His
team is doing this to scare seniors into voting for President Obama.
President
Obama has been disingenuous throughout this campaign. He has had little success
in fixing the economy despite his promise to do so.
American
are less better off in 2012 than they were is 2008. I believe President Obama
has weakened institutions that have strengthened American democracy and the freedoms
its citizens enjoy.
With
executive orders and the bully pulpit he has weakened the balance of power
between the executive branch, the legislative branch and the judicial branch. He
has ignored many of the principle tenets of the U.S. Constitution.
He has trampled States Rights in favor of his
notion of central government control. In turn, Americans are feeling the freedoms
they have enjoyed are being taken away by central government executive orders.
President
Obama does not have a record of achievement to sell to the American people. The
only option he has is to destroy the character and credibility of his opponents. He character assassination
tactics have been disingenuous and irrelevant.
The
traditional media have been our surrogates in the past for news and
information. However the traditional media have been biased and have supported
President Obama’s tactics. The traditional media have ignore the real issues of
the day.
What
could Governor Romney’s perfect reaction be to President Obama’s now hollow
promises for America’s future?
The
perfect response could be Governor Reagan’s reaction to President Jimmy Carter
during the 1980 Presidential Debate.
President
Carter’s unsuccessful policies were not congruent with America’s desires for economic
prosperity and freedom. During the debate Reagan’s response to a Carter
soliloquy on what he wanted to achieve was simple.
One big issue is the escalating deficit. A
principle cause of the increasing deficits is President Obama’s excessive
spending on failed entitlement programs. Medicare is a failing program.
Obamacare is adding 30 million more people to a failing program and increasing
its complexity. This new entitlement program is increasing the deficits and will
bankrupt the U.S. quicker.
None of the “improvements” have been proven or
shown to be executable. This certainly will lead to increased central
government control of the distribution of medical care.
“Former vice
presidential candidate Sen. Joe Lieberman said last year, "We can't save
Medicare as we know it. We can only save Medicare if we change it."
President
Obama isn’t taking the deficit crisis seriously. He has caused in excess of 1
trillion dollars in deficits yearly for a total of 4 trillion dollars during he
term as President.
He
has no regard for fiscal responsibility. He has ignored the recommendations of
his own Bowles Simpson commission on deficit reduction.
Through a disingenuous marketing campaign he ridicules Paul Ryan’s comprehensive alternative.
About President's Obama's budget, which failed in the
Senate in May by a vote of 97 to zero, Mr. Bowles said, "I don't think
anybody (including
President Obama) took that budget very seriously."
Since President Obama doesn’t take the deficit
crisis seriously, the traditional media has not taken the deficit crisis
seriously. The traditional media are President Obama fans.
How can we expect the public to understand the
seriousness of the deficit crisis?
It is hard to imagine the meaning of a 16
trillion dollar deficit much less the significance of an increase of 1 trillion
dollars a year. It is difficult to understand the deficit reduction compromise
the congress has come to with respect to the deficit as these numbers are
thrown around.
It is difficult to visualize the breadth of the
deficit when speaking in trillions of dollars.
Last week a reader sent me an easy to
understand explanation. Everyone needs
to understand the scope of the deficit. President Obama should not take us to
be fools.
It is easy to become agitated by these numbers.
U.S. 2011 Financial Statement
U.S. Revenue
$ 2,170,000,000,000 or
$2.17 trillion dollars
Federal Money Spent $
3.820,000,000,000 or
$3.82 trillion dollars
New Debt
$ 1,650,000,000,000 or
$1.65 trillion dollars
National Debt
$14,271,000,000,000 $
14.271 trillion dollars
Recent Budget cuts
$ 35,500,000,000 $ 35.5 billion dollars
Congress and President Obama have agreed to
$35.5 billion dollars of recent budget cuts. It sounds like a lot of money. There
has been a lot of tradition media babble and coverage on this insignificant reduction.
It makes us think the President and congress
are doing something significant to reduce the deficit. Everyone understands the
waste inherent in government spending on government programs.
If we pretend these financial figures are a
family budget, we can see that the budget cuts are ludicrous.
Let us remove all the zero’s from the trillion
dollar numbers to arrive at understandable amounts. Then let us pretend it represents
a family financial statement.
Family 2011 Financial Statement
Annual Family Income is $ 21,700 dollars in the year.
The family spends $ 38,200 dollars that year.
New credit card interest bearing debt increases
by $16,500.
Outstanding Balance on the credit card
increases to $142,710 dollars.
The reaction of most people is this is crazy.
He will never repay the family debt.
The head of the family promises the credit card
company he is going to decrease
spending.
He cuts family spending by $35.50 a year after
he promises the credit card company he would decrease his debt by 50% in 4
years.
The head of the family has three choices. He
can increase revenue somehow but his boss does not want to raise his salary. He
can raise the debt ceiling. His lender does not want to raise his debt ceiling
because he is a bad risk. Raising the debt ceiling means he has to manufacture
more money with credit card borrowing. The lender said enough is a enough.
His last choice is to decrease his family’s
unnecessary spending.
President Obama’s decrease in spending is a
joke and an insult to a lender.
President Obama is not serious about lowing the
deficit. Paul Ryan is. He has presented a sensible way to save Medicare.
Whom do you think the creditors of the United
States would trust more?
The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone
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