What's going on in Tehran? Over the past seven days, this blog was accessed eight times from Iran! Could it be that the Mullahs are interested in the Ashcan school of modern art? I am watching my back.
JL
Government in Health Care - Court Upholds Affordable Health Care Act's Mandate's Penalty Provision as a "Tax" and not "Commerce between States."
The
United States trails most of the western industrialized world in providing
health care to all of its citizens, just as its public schools are bringing up the
rear in science and mathematics education.
Government intervention and investment, and the taxation necessary to
bring them about, are needed to correct both of these ills. Why? Unfortunately,
if an area of endeavor is not capable of producing a profit, and both health
care and education are in this category when more than just limited profitable
cherry-picked areas are included, the private sector is not interested in
providing a solution. Government,
however, which is not out there to make a profit, is better suited to come up with solutions for such problems.
Affordable Care Act Will Eliminate Insureds and Taxpayers Paying for Health Care Freeloaders
Many Americans, however, feel that increased government involvement in anything is the first step on the “Road to Serfdom,” as conservative economist Frederich Hayek postulated in the 1940s, and therefore, they oppose such government involvement. FORTUNATELY, THE SUPREME COURT DID NOT SUPPORT THIS CONSERVATIVE POSITION IN DECLARING THE PATIENT PROTECTION AND AFFORDABLE CARE ACT CONSTITUTIONAL TODAY.
Affordable Care Act Will Eliminate Insureds and Taxpayers Paying for Health Care Freeloaders
Many Americans, however, feel that increased government involvement in anything is the first step on the “Road to Serfdom,” as conservative economist Frederich Hayek postulated in the 1940s, and therefore, they oppose such government involvement. FORTUNATELY, THE SUPREME COURT DID NOT SUPPORT THIS CONSERVATIVE POSITION IN DECLARING THE PATIENT PROTECTION AND AFFORDABLE CARE ACT CONSTITUTIONAL TODAY.
The
Democratic Congress passed this legislation in 2009 and the President signed
it. Despite claims from the right to the contrary, It did not provide for socialized
medicine. It regulates how private
health insurance works and mandated that everyone have it, so that its provisions might be
properly funded through the participation of both healthy and unhealthy people. It is a private enterprise, free-market,
capitalistic approach to solving the problem which the Supreme Court has declared to be constitutional because it considered the penalizing of those who refuse to purchase insurance to be a tax, and not an extension of the Constitution's commerce clause, an argument which the Court rejected.
Supreme Court Building
The Court's decision is a big step toward our avoiding a government-run, single payer of benefits plan as much of the western industrialized world utilizes. Conservatives should therefore support it. But they won't. Unfortunately, they will continue to oppose it, but probably will do so because it amounts to a new tax (on those who choose not to be insured) and to those on the right, any new tax and anything the President supports, is anathema. If the Affordable Care Act does not succeed in the long run, despite its being declared to be constitutional, the nation may yet have to consider a single-payer system, as is in effect in Canada and most of Europe.
The Court's decision is a big step toward our avoiding a government-run, single payer of benefits plan as much of the western industrialized world utilizes. Conservatives should therefore support it. But they won't. Unfortunately, they will continue to oppose it, but probably will do so because it amounts to a new tax (on those who choose not to be insured) and to those on the right, any new tax and anything the President supports, is anathema. If the Affordable Care Act does not succeed in the long run, despite its being declared to be constitutional, the nation may yet have to consider a single-payer system, as is in effect in Canada and most of Europe.
.
Jack Lippman
My Solution to the
Underwater Real Estate Crisis
Enough
of the drivel economists are blathering about in regard to the nation’s
economic crisis! Here is my latest two
cent’s worth.
I
do not see how the nation’s problems with unemployment and debt can be resolved
without first coming up with a solution to the mess left by the collapse of the
real estate bubble which permeated most of the first decade of this century. Solving that problem is the key to solving
the other problems besetting our economy.
First, give a person a place to confidently call “home” and then, that
will free up their mind and muscles to address these other challenges.
People
borrowed more than rational bankers should have lent them, with government
complicity, and when they found they couldn’t make their contractually
ballooning mortgage payments, or refinance on any terms whatsoever, their homes
fell into foreclosure, bankruptcies ensued or they simply walked away from
their property and obligations. Some of
these folks were without jobs and living off of reduced incomes, but some were
quite comfortable but preposterously overextended. And that is where we stand today.
Other than for
this paragraph, I won’t touch upon the sordid story of how these very risky
mortgages were bundled by unscrupulous Wall Streeters and bankers into fine looking
derivative securities and peddled as good solid investments, some of which were
even insured against failure by supposedly reputable but overextended insurers
like AIG. Well, Lehman Brothers went
down the tube and the Government had to rescue AIG and some of the bankers
(none of whom are in jail where some should surely be) and the economy is on
the mend, sort of, but that is not the problem being addressed here. Suffice it to say that stricter government
regulation of the banking and financial marketplaces is the only way future
tragedies like this can be prevented.
But
let us get back to all that mortgage debt, which isn’t being paid, and which is
stalling the recovery of the real estate and construction industries, not to
speak of making the lives miserable of the poor folks who were suckered into
purchasing homes with money from mortgages that defied all logic.
One
of the arguments against a government rescue of these homeowners who are tied
into mortgages for more than their homes are worth (referred to as being "underwater"), and unable to make
payments, is that it would be unfair to those who are, despite hardship,
managing to make their payments in similar situations, and hand a gift package
to those who chose not to make their payments, some of whom are otherwise
solvent and comfortable, or perhaps merely greedy real estate speculators who
got hung out to dry. Many Americans would object to the government bailing out all
of these homeowners on an equal basis. I recognize this, and asking the age old
question, “When was life ever fair?” I offer my attempt at a solution.
Everyone
who has a mortgage balance for more than the appraised value of their property,
regardless of whether they are making payments or not, should be bailed out in
the following manner. It should not be a
matter of choice. All in this situation
should be treated the same. Perhaps
there can be some sort of prioritization to put those who are making payments
at the head of the line and the speculators and non-payers at the tail of the
line, but it must be mandatory for it to work.
First, the mortgage holder, the bank or whomever the bank passed the mortgage on to, should be responsible for one half of the amount owed over and above the value of the property. They will have to “eat this amount,” writing if off and treating it as a tax-deductible loss on their books. The other half of the amount owed over and above the value of the property should be paid to the bank by the Federal Government. The mortgage would then be rolled over into a conventional thirty year mortgage for the value of the property. If at any time, the property were sold for a greater value than its value at the time of the new mortgage’s inception, that excess money would be split between the bank and the Federal Government. The amount of mortgage balance forgiveness to the property owner would not be considered income to them for tax purposes. If a mortgagor is not able to afford the payments under the new mortgage, the bank would foreclose on the property and sell it to the Federal Government, and the mortgagor would then have the option of remaining in the home as a rent-paying tenant. Ultimately, the Government would sell off such rental properties to independent private landlords.
Assume
a home is appraised at $150,000 but there is an outstanding mortgage of
$250,000 on it. The bank would absorb
$50,000, the Federal Government would pay the bank the other $50,000 and the
mortgagor would have the choice of getting a new 30 year conventional mortgage
for $150,000 or remaining in the home as a rent paying tenant.
This
procedure would transfer the pain of our real estate crisis on to the Federal
Government and to the banks from the backs of the homeowners. The banks, which caused the problem in the
first place, would get a generous tax deduction from profits made in other
areas and suffer for a while. But they
would be getting some money from the Federal Government which they might
otherwise never receive. As for the
Federal Government, it would have to find revenues to provide funds to pay its
half of the unpaid loans. Initially,
bonds might be sold to provide such revenue, but eventually, with the
resolution of the mortgage crisis, economic recovery and expansion might
provide these funds without there having to be new taxes. This mandatory solution of the real estate
problem, as suggested above, might very well “kick start” the entire economy.
Would it work?
Would it work?
Okay,
I am not an economist, accountant, real estate person, banker nor professor,
but I haven’t heard any better solutions from such folks. Have you? We have to do something. And soon.
Jack Lippman
John’s Story
Sid
Bolotin
As I
was feeding the old man his breakfast in the hospice care center where I
volunteered, John clutched my hand and asked if he could tell me a story. This
was not an unusual request…many times I had been asked to sit with patients, to
just be with them, to simply bear witness to their exiting the final stage of
their life, or to just listen if they needed to chat. In this case, knowing
that John was a successful, published writer of short stories, I eagerly
removed his breakfast tray, pulled up a chair, and clasped his hand as he
began:
“’I’ll kill you and then kill myself,’ screamed the distraught
woman.”
“Spittle from her mouth rained down on her cowering six year old
son as he once again gaped at his loving mother turning into a raving madwoman,
stamping her feet and pulling her hair as the stress and sorrow of her life
brought her to her mental knees.
“These words of death were actually less terrifying than her
usual, ‘I’m calling the orphanage for them to come for you.’ as she dialed the
telephone. On some of those occasions she actually had his small suitcase at
her feet as she dialed.
“In the late 30’s, in the depths of The Great Depression, this
struggling, twenty-five-year-old widow had determined to raise her infant alone
when her twenty-seven-year-old husband suddenly died.
“She rented one room of the four-room, tenement apartment to a
border who became her son’s sort-of male role model for the next eighteen, or
so, years. And she went to beautician’s school to learn hairdressing and
manicuring while earning a meager living in Boston’s garment industries.
“After graduating she operated her illegal, off the radar,
“beauty shop” out of the kitchen and bath room of her tiny apartment. Her fear
of getting caught permeated the boy’s psyche as did her never ending stories of
how wonderful life was like before the great tragedy…all the while telling him
that she was determined to raise him normally even though he was different from
the other children because he didn’t have a father. Sort of like pointing out
the 800-pound gorilla in the room while saying, ‘Don’t notice that 800-pound
gorilla.’
“It hardly helped the boy’s mental confusion when she regaled
him with recounts of his breech birth causing her fifty-six hours of excruciating
birth pain followed by ten years of wearing a back brace. Add to all this her
woeful tales of her going hungry because, being so poor, she gave him her food.
Fertilizing the child’s blossoming sense of guilt were her descriptions of her
shuttling from her husband in one hospital to her son in another…wondering who
was going to die. Somehow all this sparked a lingering whisper of doubt in the
boy as to whether the angel of death had gone to the wrong hospital. His
ongoing education in guilt was deepened by his mother’s continual self-blame
for his father’s catching pneumonia because she had refused to move closer to
his job so that he wouldn’t have to wait as long in the cold for public
transportation. She had insisted to continue living close to her sister and
father who resided within walking distance.
“His mother’s yearly, ceremonial visits to the cemetery during
the Jewish High Holy Days…without him until he was thirteen…then forcing his
participation in his early teens kept the tragedy eternally alive in both their
minds. Although she had men friends through the years, she never remarried, and
when her son asked, ‘Why?’ she told him that she was afraid that they would not
be good to him…additional proof to him that he was the guilty cause of her sorrow
and aloneness. All of this planted a permanent acorn of wariness in the boy
that could instantly erupt into a full grown oak tree to cast a pall of
hesitation to fully enjoy events in his life that triggered memories of ‘the
times before’.
“However, balancing all this was the devotion and love with
which she blanketed him…sort of a Yin-Yang emotional see-saw. As an
intelligent, lover-of-learning creature, who was studying to be a lawyer before
she emigrated from Russia, she counterpoised her unknowing damages by
instilling in her son the self-same desire for wisdom. He was an honor student
throughout his school years…even being on the National Honor Society in high
school. He also took on her persevering determination to provide for family…no
matter the physical, mental hardship.
“When her son was in his early twenties, and he bought his first
house north of Boston, his mother took driving lessons, bought a car, and drove
out each weekend loaded with goodies from her local delicatessen. When
grandchildren began to arrive, she was in seventh heaven…even though the
blanket of despair over her loss never ceased to cast a shadow over the
sunshine in her life. She finally found peace in her early seventies after an
undignified, six-year siege of dementia…the last two in a high chair, in
diapers, drooling from Bell’s palsy.
“Not being adequately counseled in high school regarding
scholarships for college, he tried various jobs in an effort to support his
mother and later his own family. After putting himself through ten years of
night college while working days and raising his family, he savored the
American dream of home ownership and suburban life that began to flourish in
the 1950’s.
“And now 60-plus years later, living in one of those gated
retirement communities in Florida, he’s bearing witness to familiar journeys
being embarked upon by his children and grandchildren…but maybe, hopefully,
with softer emotional scarring.”
With
that John closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, a smile on his face. When I
returned to volunteer at the center the following week, I learned that he had
passed during the interim. I never got to ask if it was just a story or his
story.
Tip for South Florida Theatre
Goers:
Half-Price same day
tickets for many live shows
in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties are available at www.culturalconnection.org. Even though there is a $5.00 service fee per
ticket ($2 to WLRN, $1 to the Theatre League of South Florida and $2.00 for
processing costs), this is still a bargain! Orders must be placed on the day of the show
prior to 4:00 p.m. and tickets picked up at the box office.
JL
Addendum to June 20 Posting on Myelodysplastic Syndrome:
Most readers of this blog are alerted by Email every time a new posting appears. If you wish to be added to that Email list, just let me know by contacting me at Riart1@aol.com.
Also, be aware that www.Jackspotpourri.com is now available on your mobile devices in a modified, easy-to-read, format.
Our family of web sites includes: www.computerdrek.com - www.politicaldrek.com - www.sportsdrek.com - www.healthdrek.com.
Check all of them out, find out what “drek” really means and feel free to submit your thoughts and articles for publication on these sites, which, while still “under construction,” already contain some interesting content.
Additional new material will continue to be posted on www.politicaldrek.com until the Presidential election. New material will resume being added to the other three “drek” sites after November of 2012.
In the June 20 posting, where Myelodysplastic Syndrome was discussed, it was pointed out that it often is "pre-lukemic" and sometimes is the result of chemotherapy damaging the bone marrow. With sadness, we add to the the names of those whom this disease struck the name of author, dramatist and screenwriter Nora Ephron, whose MDS had developed into a fatal leukemia which took her life this week. The MDS Foundation and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Foundation (which sponsors "Light the Night" Walks locally) are charitable organizations doing good work in seeking a cure for this disease and other serious blood disorders.
JL Most readers of this blog are alerted by Email every time a new posting appears. If you wish to be added to that Email list, just let me know by contacting me at Riart1@aol.com.
Also, be aware that www.Jackspotpourri.com is now available on your mobile devices in a modified, easy-to-read, format.
Our family of web sites includes: www.computerdrek.com - www.politicaldrek.com - www.sportsdrek.com - www.healthdrek.com.
Check all of them out, find out what “drek” really means and feel free to submit your thoughts and articles for publication on these sites, which, while still “under construction,” already contain some interesting content.
Additional new material will continue to be posted on www.politicaldrek.com until the Presidential election. New material will resume being added to the other three “drek” sites after November of 2012.
Jack
Lippman
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