Jimmie Carter Strikes Again

SEP 18, 2009

Those of you who have followed my blog since its inception may recall my very first blog, Obama's Panama Canal. In April of this year only a few hours after Kim Jung Il launched a rocket over our ally Japan, President Obama offered to destroy all our nuclear weapons. Similar to Carter, Obama promised to leverage our strategic advantage against a promise of peace. Giving up our nuclear strategic advantage is lunacy. Believing that articulating such a stance, bullies like Kim Jung Il, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are going to suddenly become peaceful is equally ridiculous. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has done nothing but thumb his nose at Obama's gestures and Kim Jung Il continues to defy UN Sanctions.

So what does President Obama go and do to top that one? He cancels a missile defense system set for deployment in Poland and the Czech Republic. Here are just a few headlines from this week's news related to this topic. I think they say it all.

September 12 CNN.com: Venezuela bought Russian arms, Chavez says as trip continues¹

September 15 Daily Times: Russia helping Venezuela develop nuclear energy²

Sept 17 The Economist: Venezuela's foreign policy - Dreams of a different world³ [A quote from this article - "Mr Chávez told Le Figaro, a French newspaper, that he had clinched a deal on nuclear co-operation with his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad."]

September 17 Times Online: Dismay in Europe as Obama ditches missile defence⁴

September 18 Associated Press: Poles, Czechs: US missile defense shift a betrayal⁵

September 18 Reuters: Iranian president raises stakes against Israel⁶ [A quote from the article - "This regime (Israel) will not last long. Do not tie your fate to it ... This regime has no future. Its life has come to an end," he said in a speech broadcast live on state radio."]

September 18 guardian.com IAEA secrete report: Iran worked on nuclear warhead - 'Secret Annexe' to UN nuclear inspection agency report reveals Iran has 'sufficient information to make a nuclear weapon7

So let's break this down. In the face of Vladimir Putin giving Chávez weapons, missiles, and nuclear technology, the Unites States pulls back its defensive missile shield protecting European Allies and us. On the day he briefs the world on pulling these missiles out, a report leaks from the Atomic Watch Dog organization saying Iran's capability to build a nuclear bomb is greater than we thought. And a day later, the psychopathic leader of Iran again threatens to destroy Israel.

I think it is insulting for the President to say the "intelligence" data caused us to change our plans. Come on, Iran has put a satellite into space for goodness sake. They have the missile technology.⁸ We all know that if Russia had not been so vehemently opposed to this, the system would have deployed on schedule.

And to top it all off, guess what happened 70 years ago yesterday? That's right, the US President decided to announce that he was taking back the promised missile defense system from Poland, on the 70th anniversary of Russia's Invasion of Poland.⁹ It's almost too hard to believe. But what can you expect from a Narcissist who gives the Queen of England an iPod loaded with his speeches. It's getting to the point where it is difficult to believe these actions, which are leading to a global weakening of America, are accidental. No one is this dumb.

¹http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/09/12/venezuela.chavez.home/

²http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009%5C09%5C15%5Cstory_15-9-2009_pg4_7

³http://www.economist.com/world/americas/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14460201

⁴http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6838058.ece

⁵http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iWR-3rEXusvVBWlZ-74ZbnZbKlZAD9APVE2O0

⁶http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-42553620090918

⁷http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/18/iran-nuclear-warhead-iaea-report

⁸http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7866357.stm

⁹http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_invasion_of_Poland

A Public Option? No, Public Assistance? Absolutely!

A friend who is reading my blogs told me he appreciated my comments on defensive medicine but implied disagreement with me stating he believed there needed to be a public option for healthcare.

If I have not thus far made it clear, I want to do so now. I am for government assistance to needy persons for health care. If you read my blog on the SNAP program below you will see it is not government assistance I want to do away with, but government price setting. With Medicaid and Medicare, the government sets the price too low causing cost shifting to insurance companies, which then results in higher premiums and fewer people able to afford insurance. As the pool of people paying insurance decreases the premiums must go up further and the spiral continues.

We must help the poor fund their healthcare. But we must do it in a way that keeps the government from disrupting the market forces. Please see my blogs on comparing healthcare and rent control. The free market will set the price lower.

Look at LASIK eye surgery. Health insurance and government medical care do not cover the price of this procedure. Meaning true market forces are setting the price. What has happened? When LASIK was introduced it cost $5,000 to $6,000 dollars. I saw an ad yesterday for LASIK for $499 per eye. Granted the average LASIK procedure is roughly $1,800 dollars, but even this amount is significantly less than where it started. As ophthalmologists competed for the dollars people were willing to spend, the price fell. This year's average was less than last year's. This decrease in the average cost of a surgical procedure on the eye happened in the face of an increase in healthcare costs that was twice the rate of inflation.

I truly believe something similar to the Food Stamp program would be ideal for healthcare. The consumer would make the decisions and the price would be set where market forces would put the price. Every time government rent control (which forcibly set the price lower for housing leading to cost shifting) has been lifted, the supply of housing increased and the price fell to affordable levels. Government intrusion by setting a price for services lower does not work in housing or in medicine.

Some might point out that currently health insurance and managed care companies are prevented from really competing in the market. That is true, and is significantly contributing to both cost and thus the lack of affordability. The government prevents companies from competing across state borders. There are some 1300 insurance companies in the United States, but in one district in California only 6 are allowed by the government to offer services. The redundancy of Blue Cross Kentucky and Blue Cross Tennessee and Blue Cross Alabama, you get the point, is an astronomical overhead cost forced on the insurance companies by...you guessed it, the federal government.

Allowing the insurance companies to compete across state lines would significantly reduce the costs of health insurance and would lead to more people affording health insurance. This is just another example of how government inserts itself into the free market and makes the situation worse.

We need to help poor families afford healthcare by taking actions that reduce their costs by allowing the free market to set the price, and where necessary provide them a method to pay for services and chose the type of care they want. The SNAP food stamps debit card like healthcare system with a catastrophic back up plan is, I believe, a viable alternative. It allows consumers to make the choice and incentivizes people to not abuse the healthcare system, especially if there is a pay back of saved revenue. We must act soon.

A Great Video From You Tube on Healthcare

Gang, take a look at this video on YouTube.

Mark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G44NCvNDLfc&feature=player_embedded