I used to be wowed out by the baffle 'em with bullsh** approach of Greenspan (remember him?). I'd listen and think he must be a really smart guy...which perhaps he is, but it takes more than smarts to be effective. I realized this when he retreated into reality for a brief moment during hearings about the "crisis" and gave one of those "I have no idea what happened" answers that the really smart give when they screw things up.
Listening to the bank guys yesterday, listening to Geithner, and listening to Obama, I think we're all back in the baffle 'em with bull** mode.
Obama needs to plan his route, but he definitely needs to click on the most direct route button. It is appalling how we're listening to all the twists and turns of why things don't work and meanwhile, we're getting billed first for salaries and benefits for all the "smart" guys, then for the money they're throwing out hoping it will fix something and finally in trying to pay for our own stupid choices, investments.
The paradigm is now simple: If housing is fixed, all will be well. Really? All those issues, and of course, health reform being nearest and dearest to this voter, will be fixed by a great housing market? And some of the ideas that are being thrown around? "RESCUING" people with crummy mortgages.
Why don't we RESCUE people who are facing bankruptcy because of exploitive insurance company rates and coverage? Why don't we RESCUE people who have paid for health insurance year after year only to be ineligible now that they are sick? Why don't we RESCUE people who are willing to pay reasonable rates for their grown children to have health insurance? Why don't we RESCUE college grads who own neither homes nor stocks but can't afford health insurance because there is no program to cover those who volunteer or work part time or obtain entry positions in a variety of fields?
The very word RESCUE for people who made bad or greedy decisions is an insult.
Obama promised health care reform. It looks like he thinks he's done it through the expansion of SCHIP and his push for technology. In order to cover his butt, he's using words like "patience", "inherited problem", "complexity."
Okay Obama, time for some direct routing: If you want health care reform you must address Access, Affordability and Quality of Medical Services available to US citizens. The insurance company seal of approval for guaranteed government dollars for uninsured children is an indirect route that really shows what Obama's all about: He's looking for the least traffic, the fewest hurdles in getting through and he doesn't care how far out of the way he has to go to avoid any confrontation.
Time for Obama to man up in one of two ways: Admit he lied when he campaigned without the lame duck excuses of "I had no idea" "It's bigger than I thought" "Be Patient" "I inherited this mess," OR start doing what he very well can do: SUSPEND FURTHER BLEEDING OF DOLLARS UNTIL THERE IS A WELL THOUGHT OUT PLAN WITH A HIGH LIKELIHOOD OF SHORT TERM AND MAYBE EVEN LONG TERM SUCCESS.
Health reform requires action. If it's too complex and difficult to be eligible for enabling Obama to meet his promise then the least he can do is stop the provision of cushy benefits for civil servants until new ideas are available. It's been great for them, but we can no longer afford it. This will stop the financial costs of such superior benefits programs and will incentivize action by all our "smart" workers in Washington because they will be living the "solution" they've hoisted on the American people.
Keep it Simple Today: Directly Address Health Reform: 1) No number of people who quit smoking or get thin will PREVENT insurance companies from exploiting customers who have had any medical "event." This is a distraction that has successfully been used by insurers but has unsuccessfully been used by individuals who find out that they are one high blood pressure reading, depressive episode or high cholesterol reading away from becoming a special category themselves.
2) Giving into the threats of physicians is NOT going to improve Medicare accessibility to physicians, it will shut them up only until the next pay raise.
3) Forget housing. That's right, forget it. Bad mortgage, too bad, so sad. Let the banks become multiple homeowners and over time prices will stabilize as they try to lower their inventory. It's JOBS, not houses that are the issue.
4) REDUCE government payrolls, don't expand them. Cut programs like HIPAA which were great in theory but have produced NONE of the benefits for individuals they were supposed to: HIPAA has not fined one entity for violating privacy, in all these years. How? By leaving so much room for insurance companies to use your information that they are even allowed to request doctor's notes from psychiatric exams before providing coverage. Same with meds, a simple prescription is not enough, they want to know how that prescription need was determined.
5) Health insurance companies must first and foremost provide INSURANCE, coverage of the risk of the COST of illness. That's ALL they are qualified and justified to provide. IF companies do not comply with reasonable mandates for such coverage then they should go the way of the banks...out of business.
6) Acknowledge that you OWE your position to the American people. Volunteers should be eligible for health benefits or you should MAN UP and tell them their efforts are really meaningless. Part time workers should be eligible for benefits or you should MAN UP and tell them they just don't count. Young people should be provided with health insurance options or you should MAN UP and tell them that now that they've voted you're about to show them how much they really count. And the cost of throwing money directly at people for health insurance? Less than what you're throwing at the banks.
Keep it Simple Today: Focus on the needs of the people who put you in office, starting with the young adults and for them it is not some "elect me again and you'll see progress maybe" circuitous route to self-promotion, it's here and now: Students, young adults need JOBS and BENEFITS...they are not bankers or homeowners or stockholders.
