Do you think it is wise to trust the government to ...

You mean like they do the DMV or the Post Office??, My answer is: No, No, No, and Hell No.

Medicare's Hospital Program Went Broke in 2008. Nobody Noticed.

This is taken from a March 25, 2008 press release from the U.S. government's Department of Health and Human Services.

This year the HI Trust Fund will spend more than its income, and from 2009 through 2017, about $342 billion will need to be transferred from the Federal treasury to cover beneficiaries' hospital insurance costs.

Was this front-page news? Of course not. Did the media cover this up? In the sense of not reporting it, yes. In the sense of actively comprehending it and deliberately suppressing it, no.

The one-sentence admission indicated that the Federal deficit is going to climb. Medicare is politically untouchable. Old people have been promised coverage, and no politician is going to tell granny she must fork over her life's savings to pay for her own health care expenses. Not yet, anyway. Not this year.

But what about the famous Medicare trust fund? Whenever we read about Medicare's projected deficit, it always refers to Medicare's trust fund. It never says this: "Medicare's trust fund is 100% filled with unmarketable IOUs from the U.S. Treasury." Yet that is the situation. Medicare's trust fund is just like Social Security's.

You may think, "North, you are exaggerating. It can't be this bad." Well, if I'm exaggerating, it's because I believe the Board of Trustees of Social Security and Medicare. I think you should, too.

In a little-noticed official report, A SUMMARY OF THE 2009 ANNUAL REPORTS Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees, the public is presented with the truth. The truth is not expressed in stark language. The truth is too shocking. Bureaucrats cover up shocking truths with bureaucratese. But they are required by law to tell the truth, statistically speaking.

Let me take you through the highlights.

As was true in 2008, Medicare's Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund is expected to pay out more in hospital benefits and other expenditures this year than it receives in taxes and other dedicated revenues. The difference will be made up by redeeming trust fund assets.

Truth: Expenditures will exceed revenues in 2009. They did in 2008, too. The phrase, "reducing trust fund assets" means "raiding the cookie jar."

Then comes the initial cover-up: no mention of the nature of the assets in the trust fund. What is said about reducing trust fund assets is true. What is not said is far more significant.

Growing annual deficits are projected to exhaust HI reserves in 2017, after which the percentage of scheduled benefits payable from tax income would decline from 81 percent in 2017 to about 50 percent in 2035 and 30 percent in 2080.

That seems to indicate that we have time before the cookie jar is empty: until 2017. We don't. Here's why.

In addition, the Medicare Supplementary Medical Insurance (SMI) Trust Fund that pays for physician services and the prescription drug benefit will continue to require general revenue financing and charges on beneficiaries that grow substantially faster than the economy and beneficiary incomes over time.

Obamacare Meltdown
 

The revelation last week that a majority of Americans may actually disagree with the President was something for which his team was clearly not prepared.  Their attempt to marginalize citizens across the country who dared to speak out against a government-takeover of health care is shameful, arrogant, and desperately sad.

With the American people growing increasingly unhappy with the President’s health care plan, Democrats in Congress are working feverishly to cast those who are concerned as radical props to the special interests.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in a sign of bold leadership, last week told reporters that protests of government-run health care were “phony” and “staged.”  He stepped up to a microphone holding a piece of artificial sod and declared that the nationwide dissent was but a marketing ploy, just “Astroturf.”  White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called the movement “manufactured.”

This week, a Blue Dog Democrat in the House (Indiana’s Baron Hill) said these folks were “political terrorists”.  And of course Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, and Steny Hoyer, House Majority Leader, took to the pages of USA Today and called those who wanted to speak up “un-American.”

 

The notion that Americans may not want the federal government making health care decisions on their behalf appears to be truly beyond the comprehension of Democrats in Congress and the White House.  So they have responded by slandering honest folks looking to have their voices heard.  

The arrogance which the Democrats have displayed by name-calling and discrediting these people reveals their insolence and hypocrisy.

It appears that community organizing and grassroots are terms reserved solely for liberal activism.  A number of taxpayer and patients rights groups post the location of town halls on the internet, and Democrats in charge act as though it is an abomination to democracy.  Yet when then Senator Obama throws together an operation of a million liberal activists, so organic they created an iPhone app for it, that’s just good old fashioned political organizing.  Right!

The hypocrisy is astounding but not all that surprising.  The fact of the matter is that the White House and Democrats in power don’t want to hear from anyone who may have a different opinion on matters.  As Blue Dog Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) revealed, Democrats were told directly not to work with Republicans.  The only dialogue taking place is between Democrats and, well, Democrats.  That’s when they’re not bullying doctors, hospitals, or insurance groups.  The notion that health care protests are now getting in the way of a civil discussion on health care is nonsense.

If Speaker Pelosi and President Obama had gotten their wish, this bill would have passed both chambers by the end of July, before any such discussions could have begun.

It’s been this lack of willingness for debate and stifling of criticism that has folks fired up today.  When Americans spoke out and said “Read the Bill,” a powerful Democrat Chairman in the House literally laughed at the idea.  When folks expressed concern about the reckless speed at which health reform was being pushed through Congress, Democrats said it was just a creation of Republican meddling.  

When public support for a government-run plan began to fall, the Speaker decried “immoral” insurance companies as the “villain” behind it all.

Americans have serious problems with a bill that will directly affect them in their most personal medical decisions, but Democrats paint them as agents of corporate greed.  And they wonder where the outrage is coming from.  

The outrage is coming from a health care plan that will force millions of Americans into a government-run system.  The outrage is coming from folks who don’t want a bureaucrat between them and their doctor.  The outrage is coming from a President whose actions lead many to believe he simply is not interested in people’s real concerns.

When Americans feel like no one is listening to them, they are going to speak up. There’s nothing manufactured about that!  It’s what has defined our democracy for more than two centuries.  That the White House has asked people to report casual conversations they hear about those who may be opposed to their intrusive health care plan is both astounding and frightening.  When average Americans are not allowed to express dissent without having their motives being purposefully perverted, our democracy is truly at risk.    

Americans want health system reform.  But they want reform that respects them, their decision making power, and their well-being.  And they want a debate that respects the democratic principles by which so much greatness has been accomplished.  If the White House wants to achieve positive reform,  they ought to start with a baseline that preserves the positive elements of the best healthcare system in the world. That’s the one we have, not the one envisioned by the House bill against which Americans are speaking out.

ginagreen wise to trust the government

They screwed up
1 social security
2 postal service
3 medicare
4 fanny may & fredy mac
5 American Indians have the worse(FEDERALLY RUN) healthcare in the USA.
6 GM

 All of the above are broke No future No money.I wouldn't trust the government to run a lemonaid stand in hell

China reduces holdings in US debt

China wants to establish a new global currency regime
China reduced its holdings of US government debt by the largest margin in nearly nine years in June, according to data from the US Treasury.
China holds more US government debt than any other country and cut its holdings of US securities by more that 3% in June, said the BBC's Chris Hogg.
Japan and the UK - second and third largest holders of US debt - increased their holdings over the same period.
China's holding of US debt is about 7% higher than at the turn of the year.
Inflation fear
In recent months the US government's budget deficit has widened thanks in part to the Obama administration's costly stimulus plan.
Our correspondent in Shanghai says that China is worried about this, and fears the stimulus efforts will fuel inflation in the US, reducing the value of the dollar.
This would then erode the value of the debt China holds in the US currency.
In June, China cut its holdings of US securities by about $25bn, a fall of 3.1%.
'Dollar alternative'
The sales were made as the US treasury secretary was visiting Beijing to try to reassure the Chinese that their investment in his country's government debt is safe.
In 2008, the Chinese increased their holdings in US debt by 52% over 12 months.
"China has said it would like to establish an alternative to the US dollar as the world's favoured currency for foreign exchange reserves," said our correspondent.
"So far there is no evidence that there is a suitable alternative. But these figures suggest they are exploring ways to diversify their investments where they can."

Lisa, Let see Social Security, Medicade, Medicare and now the post office in trouble of bankruptcy. Who run all of this and they want Universal health care. Everything the government touches becomes a money pit. It will never stop. Everthing in government is waste of taxpayer monies. If it was a corporation it would be bankrupt.

GeeGee, You are an idiot. Being in trillions in debt more than what Bush has spent on the whole war is whos fault. Did you get a dividend check from GM or Chrysler yet. You own it now. Know you facts. Have a good day, Live Free or Die

It's a tough job cleaning up the republican mess.