Do you have any confidence that ANY of these issues will be addressed with rational choices like reduction of benefits, reduction of COLA, clear and public increases in funding for these plans? Or is every single state and municipality going to keep lying until TOTAL DEFAULT?
To be fair, it's very likely just the first few total defaults will cripple the whole US financial system to the point the rest is meaningless. That's the future I see.
Let me be fair -- I generally cover only those states/cities that are craptastic in their choices, and not ones, like Wisconsin, that have turned things around. We all like gawking at a wreck, after all.
So perhaps I should actually show something of the ones that aren't doing crappy things.
There is nothing inherently wrong with having COLAs, lifetime benefits, etc., if one properly thinks through the levels that can be supported and follows through. It's just that there is a temptation to ratchet up levels... and the way most systems are set up, once things are ratcheted up, one cannot pull them back (except there are some systems where benefits can go up and down -- like in Wisconsin.)
I have a proposal to address federal budget deficits: ELIMINATE ALL SPENDING ON HEALTH CARE.
Medicaid, Medicare: GONE
Federal employees' health insurance: GONE
FDA, CDC, all of it: GONE
Money spent on medical care is completely wasted. 90% goes to old people at the very end of life anyway. People will whine: But I need AFFORDABLE health care! What if the entire global auto industry could not produce a new car that cost less than $250,000? It would collapse immediately. That is what needs to happen to health care. The industry exists to extract government money and give it to lobbyists and doctors.
Dear Mary Pat,
Do you have any confidence that ANY of these issues will be addressed with rational choices like reduction of benefits, reduction of COLA, clear and public increases in funding for these plans? Or is every single state and municipality going to keep lying until TOTAL DEFAULT?
To be fair, it's very likely just the first few total defaults will cripple the whole US financial system to the point the rest is meaningless. That's the future I see.
Let me be fair -- I generally cover only those states/cities that are craptastic in their choices, and not ones, like Wisconsin, that have turned things around. We all like gawking at a wreck, after all.
So perhaps I should actually show something of the ones that aren't doing crappy things.
There is nothing inherently wrong with having COLAs, lifetime benefits, etc., if one properly thinks through the levels that can be supported and follows through. It's just that there is a temptation to ratchet up levels... and the way most systems are set up, once things are ratcheted up, one cannot pull them back (except there are some systems where benefits can go up and down -- like in Wisconsin.)
I have a proposal to address federal budget deficits: ELIMINATE ALL SPENDING ON HEALTH CARE.
Medicaid, Medicare: GONE
Federal employees' health insurance: GONE
FDA, CDC, all of it: GONE
Money spent on medical care is completely wasted. 90% goes to old people at the very end of life anyway. People will whine: But I need AFFORDABLE health care! What if the entire global auto industry could not produce a new car that cost less than $250,000? It would collapse immediately. That is what needs to happen to health care. The industry exists to extract government money and give it to lobbyists and doctors.