Patterico's Pontifications

12/16/2009

A Health Care Riddle

Filed under: Health Care,Obama — DRJ @ 9:13 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Today President Obama said the costs of Medicare and Medicaid are increasing on an “unsustainable” trajectory.” Obama also said we must pass health care reform or “health care costs are going to consume the entire federal budget” and the U.S. will go bankrupt.

Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP accounted for $718 billion in health care costs in 2006 — “slightly more than one-third of the country’s total health care expenditures and almost three-fourths of all public spending on health care.” The federal government paid an additional $252 billion in publicly-funded health care for veterans, Indians, federal workers compensation, federally-sponsored womens’ and childrens’ programs, substance abuse programs, assistance to the states, and for public research.

It sounds like Obama’s answer to our bankrupt federal health care programs is to cover everyone. Won’t that make us go bankrupt that much faster?

— DRJ

19 Responses to “A Health Care Riddle”

  1. We must spend our way out of bankruptcy. It is really rather simple.

    Olbergasm and MadCow and Stewart were in a complete lather tonight.

    JD (459763)

  2. “It sounds like Obama’s answer to our bankrupt federal health care program is to cover everyone. Won’t that just make us go bankrupt that much faster?”

    DRJ – Not really because a) he’s lying and b) he’s going to tax the shit out of people in numerous ways to offset the increased cost of covering more people.

    daleyrocks (718861)

  3. JD – You have it wrong – We are going to tax our way to greatness!

    daleyrocks (718861)

  4. There you go again…if you think health care reform is about making you healthier, well…
    if you think crap and trade is about saving the planet, well…
    We spend way too much time debating the semantics of the “dire” problem du jour, when we should be realising that it is all a distraction. And that’s exactly what Barry and the Ballerina are counting on.

    Gazzer (1e0374)

  5. He won’t be president then!

    htom (412a17)

  6. I emailed my senators asking them to vote “no” on this bill. I got a form letter, thanking me for my interest and then praising themselves that “We are closer than ever to accomplishing monumental reform” and promising “a bill that gives patients more choices, reduces costs and doesn’t add one dime to the deficit”.

    As if.

    Don’t these yahoos realize that NOTHING the government does EVER “saves money”?

    I’m sure the people we’ve elected to Congress are intelligent; no dummies there. They sound so earnest when they’re talking about this bill, it seems as if they truly believe what they’re saying. But — I absolutely do NOT understand how they can look at the economy and the enormous deficit, agree that it’s too high, it’s a danger to the nation; then they pass trillion-dollar legislation after trillion-dollar legislation while chanting “this will not increase our debt”.

    Huh? On what planet?

    Is it just “agreed among those who know” that we’re going to print enough money to cause Zimbabwean inflation, to the point we’re paying off our multi-trillions-of-dollars of debt with so-called dollars which have been devalued to the point they’re worth only fractions of pennies?? Don’t they know what happens when citizens have to take wheelbarrows full of cash to the store to buy a loaf of bread?

    Still, they look us straight in the eye and swear that this huge monstrosity is prudent, necessary and cost-cutting. There’s no evidence of cognitive dissonance (the unease that normal psyches experience when an individual tries to hold two opposing, mutually-exclusive views at the same time). Do we have “Stepford Senators”?

    A_Nonny_Mouse (929709)

  7. Perhaps Obama will find FDR’s solution: 90% tax rates.

    Kevin Murphy (3c3db0)

  8. its no problem: he says there are still plenty of checks in the check book. %-)

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  9. It sounds like Obama’s answer to our bankrupt federal health care programs is to cover everyone. Won’t that make us go bankrupt that much faster?

    Didn’t Obie say that reducing the deficit was a priority after he ran it up over a trillion bucks?

    Kinda makes me wonder what the hell’s going through his little head when he comes up with this crap.

    Blacque Jacques Shellacque (76097c)

  10. well, since they keep saying they’re going to cut Medicare payments by $500 billion or so, maybe it will all w*rk out in the long run…..spending wise.

    %-)

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  11. Why use logic when simple demagoguery is simply so much more effective?

    Dr. K (adb7ba)

  12. Obama says what he means. It’s what he intends it to mean. QED.

    Phil Smith (1cf25d)

  13. I think they should agree to at least one thing in Copenhagen, that the US kills no more trees in printing more money.

    Raising taxes will not help, though, because the amount taken in will decrease as the economy further deteriorates.

    And they used to say Reagan’s policies were “voodoo economics” (and I, in my foolish relative youth, believed them- of course I only had about 90 seconds a day to listen to the news, then).

    MD in Philly (d4668b)

  14. DRJ-
    Did you miss the memo about “The One” being able to perform miracles? Obviously only a god, the messiah, could take a program that has run a deficit for decades, add more people and not bankrupt the country.

    PRM (310ebf)

  15. “Perhaps Obama will find FDR’s solution: 90% tax rates,
    which will complement the 100% regulation of key industries (that’s pretty much everyone except the paper-boy…oops…they already out-sourced him).

    AD - RtR/OS! (2917cb)

  16. You’re operating under the assumption that there will be actual key industries left within the next few years.

    Dmac (a964d5)

  17. #3, dailyrocks said, ” We are going to tax our way to greatness!”

    Isn’t that exactly how the Golden State became the Pyrite State?

    ropelight (a8f812)

  18. Sounds like Barry’s bipolar.

    Audacity (2fd5ad)

  19. Check out this fun, short video. It makes you wonder why our health care system is set up the way it is.

    ChristineWithRegence (9724af)


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