CBO Director's Blog The Long-Term Budget Outlook

Money shot: "Under current law, the federal budget is on an unsustainable path, because federal debt will continue to grow much faster than the economy over the long run."
Director’s Blog » Blog Archive » The Long-Term Budget Outlook

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OBAMA WILL REPEAL MEDICARE at DickMorris.com

Mickey Kause says Dick Morris is right twice a day. Fair enough; I think he's right on this one!
"Obama's health care proposal is, in effect, the repeal of the Medicare program as we know it. The elderly will go from being the group with the most access to free medical care to the one with the least access. Indeed, the principal impact of the Obama health care program will be to reduce sharply the medical services the elderly can use. No longer will their every medical need be met, their every medication prescribed, their every need to improve their quality of life answered."
OBAMA WILL REPEAL MEDICARE at DickMorris.com

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Glenn Reynolds on the hidden cost of national health care | OpEd Contributor | Washington Examiner

Glenn Reynolds on the hidden cost of national health care | OpEd Contributor | Washington Examiner

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In Retooled Health-Care System, Who Will Say no? - washingtonpost.com

Probably won't be Doctors. Obviously won't be the eeevvviiilll healthcare companies. I'm betting on my fellow bureaucrats. "I'm sorry to tell you that granny's going to die because a GS12 doesn't like the ROI on the proposed medical plan".
In Retooled Health-Care System, Who Will Set Limits? - washingtonpost.com

Money quote:
"The question came from a Colorado neurologist. "Mr. President," he said at a recent forum, "what can you do to convince the American public that there actually are limits to what we can pay for with our American health-care system? And if there are going to be limits, who . . . is going to enforce the rules for a system like that?" President Obama called it the "right question" -- then failed to answer it."
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Here's Mickey Kause of Slate on the same subject:

"WaPo's Alec MacGillis notes that Obama's health care reformers

are clearly spooked by the notion that they could be accused of denying, for example, hip surgery to an 80-year-old.

If so, they largely have themselves to blame. They brought it up! It wasn't the Republicans who billed health care reform as a cost saving, budget-balancing measure that would start to deny payments for treatments deemed "ineffective," or (as one acolyte put it) when "a person's life, or health, is not worth the price." And to think when they heard that people started to worry about rationing! Fancy that."[Yes, the emphasis is mine]

The 'acolyte' is Ezra Klein from www.prospect.org, arguably the most progressive of modern progressivists. This gets more distasteful, if this quote attributed to Justice Ginsburg,
AJSCOTUS, is correct:
"Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of." --Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

If it is, the modern progressives are getting closer and closer to traditional progressives. Eugenics. Who'da thunk.

Public Engagement Forum on Healthcare Reform

As we Americans attempt to recover from the current economic crisis, another, more serious crisis looms on the horizon. With a national budget deficit of nearly 1.67 trillion dollars, an expanding aging population, and the already strained programs of Medicare, and Medicaid, Americans will be forced to make difficult decisions in the coming years regarding their health insurance. Health care costs are projected to rise to levels that will be unaffordable without major tax increases at federal, state and local governments. President Obama has led the Congress to the threshold of major reform, both to extend coverage to the uninsured and to reduce costs. The reforms on the table promise to significantly change health care for all of us in the future.
George Mason University, in conjunction with the Concord Coalition, is inviting the public to attend a public engagement meeting on health care reform. Local government leaders, business leaders, students, and community members will come together to discuss the future of health care reform.
What: Public Engagement Forum on Health care Reform
Where: George Mason University - Mason Hall, Meese Board Room, Fairfax Campus
When: - Monday, July 27, 2009 - 4:30pm – 6:00pm
Questions? Contact Jeremy Milliken –JeremyMilliken@gmail.com

The Big Public Pension Squeeze

The cost of public sector pensions is set to soar in coming years because the recent meltdown in the financial markets has worsened the health of systems that were already badly underfunded. Municipal and state governments across the country are struggling with massive budget shortfalls, leaving them in no position to fill the pension gap. As a result, public workers look likely to bear the burden through cutbacks in their salaries and benefits and increases in their pension contributions.
The Big Public Pension Squeeze

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The Big Public Pension Squeeze

The Big Public Pension Squeeze

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America's long-awaited fiscal train wreck is now underway

The money quote is actually the last sentence of this paragraph, "Not only will those factors steadily lower our standard of living, but they will imperil economic and financial stability. There are 'things' that happen when economic & financial stability goes down the drain. People start demanding a fix by, as the saying goes, any means necessary. In platonic terms, people call for a champion. And a champion will emerge. Think Lenin, think Mussolini, yes, think Hitler. And think of the effect on unpopular minorities when society implodes this way...
America's long-awaited fiscal train wreck is now underway. Depending on policy actions taken now and over the next few years, federal deficits will likely average as much as 6% of GDP through 2019, contributing to a jump in debt held by the public to as high as 82% of GDP by then - a doubling over the next decade. Worse, barring aggressive policy actions, deficits and debt will rise even more sharply thereafter as entitlement spending accelerates relative to GDP. Keeping entitlement promises would require unsustainable borrowing, taxes or both, severely testing the credibility of our policies and hurting our long-term ability to finance investment and sustain growth. And soaring debt will force up real interest rates, reducing capital and productivity and boosting debt service. Not only will those factors steadily lower our standard of living, but they will imperil economic and financial stability.
Morgan Stanley - Global Economic Forum

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