For many, many years we have written about the ineptness, ignorance, and inability of the American political class to efficiently and effectively manage out tax dollars and resolve the problems facing the county. They never learn from past mistakes and continue to just make stupid decisions. Today’s political class insanity discussion just reinforces their historical incompetence.
1)Government intervention in the medical care/health care industry around the world and through history has rarely ended well:
Nationalized health care in England, Canada, and elsewhere has shown that health care quality deteriorates while the cost for government care management rises and rises when politicians get involved.
Obama Care promised to get every American on an affordable health insurance plan and “bend the cost curve” of health care while in reality over 25 million Americans still don't have health insurance coverage and the Obama Car insurance policies failed to bend any curve.
The Federal government has already tried to manage the nation's health via Medicare and Medicaid, two programs that are rocketing towards bankruptcy and as we have discussed extensively in our government fraud posts, both programs are infested with fraud that steals billions and billions of taxpayer wealth every year.
Vermont, one of the most liberal states in the country, tried to implement a total state based government healthcare process over 12 years ago and had to give up before even starting its implementation since they could not find any way to fund it without going bankrupt.
Oregon voters voted against a universal care strategy and plan at the state level in 2002 with only about 20% voting in favor.
So history has shown that government controlled/politician-controlled healthcare management has rarely, if ever, delivered better health care in an economical manner. And yet, that has not stopped the politicians out in Oregon to try and do what has never been successfully and efficiently accomplished before:
Oregon politicians want to take total control of healthcare over every Oregon resident by taking over Medicare and Medicaid control, Obama Care, and private insurance programs in the state.
The state politicians created the so-called Universal Health Plan Governance Board in 2023.
The purpose of the Board was to design a publicly funded, government controlled health care system for every resident, a “publicly funded health plan covering everyone who lives in Oregon.”
“Publicly funded” are code words for taxpayer funded.
The original plan was to develop the plan and roll it out starting in 2028 and complete the rollout by 2032.
However, the Board has delayed its final report because those serving on the board cannot figure out how to pay for the plan.
Such stupidity. Every resident in Oregon likely has a unique health care need. To think that the state politicians can come up with a program that efficiently serves every resident and their unique health care needs is Soviet Union-like thinking, another example where government-control of health care failed dramatically.
Dr. Delose Cosgrove is the former CEO of the Cleveland Clinic. I would bet that he has more health care and medical knowledge than every member of the Oregon state legislature combined. We previously discussed his belief that smoking, diet, and lack of exercise contribute to 40% of premature deaths in this country, 70% of chronic diseases such as heart disease, and account for 75% of the nation's total health care.
He proved his point by implementing healthier food in the Clinic cafeteria and sponsoring exercise and smoke cessation sessions. The result was massive weight loss of Clinic employees and healthier employees and greatly reduced smoking levels. Politicians seem to always want to resolve public health issues with economic solutions while the best way to resolve public health issues is with public health solutions.
Advice to Oregon politicians via Einstein: the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Trying to implement government-controlled health care is insanity, it has rarely if ever worked before..
2)Speaking of government incompetence, let’s head out to Los Angeles, a city that suffered through decimating wildfires a year ago:
A recent investigation into the wildfires was recently finished and released.
Findings of the report, over 700 pages long, included the fact that fire-fighters were prematurely sent home despite the presence of high/dangerous winds, and evacuation orders to residents did not go out until their homes were already on fire.
The report also concluded that the city fire department ignored warnings that a wildfire was still alive and smoldering and which eventually reignited into a fury.
The report stated that firefighting efforts and communications were uncoordinated and disjointed.
Combine these findings with the reality that is already known about firefighting infrastructure, ( e.g. dry hydrants, dry reservoirs, etc.) and you see a massive failure of the local government agencies and politicians, a failure that destroyed homes, businesses, lives, and trust.
A very basic duty of any government entity is to protect the lives and property of the citizens it serves. In the case of the wildfires, Los Angeles politicians failed dramatically.
3)Obviously, American politicians do not know much about affordable and available healthcare or fire fighting. But Seattle politicians show that politicians constantly show their economic ignorance:
We have recently and often discussed the reality that Seattle may actually be the leading city candidate to go bankrupt first.
Violent crime, high taxes, high homelessness problem, and fleeing residents and businesses have seriously degraded the size of the city’s tax base and revenue stream.
The fleeing tax base has created a severe crisis in the city, with expected city tax revenues facing a three year budget hole totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.
The business office vacancy rate is now the highest in the country with about 35% of the business space in the city now vacant.
Obviously, city politicians in Seattle have not managed the city economy efficiently and effectively. And their recent decision is going to make this bad situation even worse:
According to reporting by the Western Journal, the city is raising the minimum wage to $22.14 on January 1st, up from the current level of $21.30.
That will give it one of the highest minimum wage levels of any major American city.
But this higher and higher rate puts additional profitability strain especially on small businesses in the city, a population that has already been shrinking because of crime, a shrinking customer base, and already high taxes
These small business owners will likely reduce the number of workers, reduce the number of hours of operation, take away other employee benefits, replace workers with automation, and possibly leave the city altogether.
These options are not theoretical, we have reported on similar economic insanity of raising the minimum wage too quickly in other cities and other states with the same consequences.
An old saying goes as follows: “When stuck in a hole, stop digging.” Seattle is stuck in a financial crisis hole. Businesses are shutting down or moving their operations out of the city for various reasons. Making it harder for a business to remain profitable and viable should be the priority, not increasing the major expense item in its operation, labor.
All of which leads to another saying; ”The good news is that your wages just went up. The bad news is you no longer have a job.” Which is exactly what will happen if history is any guideline: businesses will tighten up their labor expense line to compensate for the higher minimum wage, resulting in fewer jobs, fewer employee benefits, fewer hours, and use of automation to replace human labor. Or they will abandon the city, further reducing a shrinking tax base. In either case, residents, employees, and the Seattle city income statement suffer.
Enough insanity for today: Seattle continues to commit economic suicide, Los Angeles politicians failed dramatically in fire protection, and Oregon politicians want to go somewhere where no one has been successful before, government controlled healthcare.
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If you agree that we need to deseat every member of Congress for their lack of success and accomplishment, then please consider going to the following petition link to help the cause:
https://www.change.org/p/deseat-congress-reset-freedom
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