The Stimulus May Have Lacked Earmarks, but....

It does not appear the earmarks have gone away for good. I was given a website today, by one of you, my loyal readers. This one is about the FY2009 Omnibus spending bill. Here is the link on earmarks. I am hoping that this not true. I am not sure the motivation behind this website, it seems bi-partisan, but I do not know for sure. Time Magazine seemed to confirm this.

Last year in the FY2008 there was about $7.4 billion in disclosed earmarks. The earmarks totaled just over 8,800 earmarks. The earmarks are just as equal for the Democrats as they are the Republicans. Both still love their earmarks despite an economy that needs to be more accountable than ever.

How Much Did We Borrow To Pay For These Seats?

President Obama attended last night's Chicago Bulls - Washington Wizards game in D.C. His hometown Bulls were defeated 113-90. At least we know he likes the Bulls, hopefully in terms of the stock market as well.

Rick Santelli Needs a Diaper Change

Last week, our once champion of the Chicago Tea Party completely craps the bed. Against Matt Lauer of all people, too! They work for the same employer, GE.

I believe that Robert Gates and the White House acted very inappropriately in the way they responded to the reporter's question on Santelli's outburst. It was arrogant, condescending, and a little frightening to know if you challenge the President's ideas on something, you could face that kind of wrath. But, it was not threatening to Rick Santelli's family. The fact that Santelli cowered himself and then threw his family in front of the bus was disappointing. I like Rick very much, he knows more about the financial markets than most will ever know. He was right to stand up for himself and for the traders who aren't crooked, but he should not have felt threatened at all and should have kept fighting.

Special thanks to Dylan Ratigan for trying to save the day, but Santelli sunk himself before the Tea Party could start.

HEALTH CARE FOR EVERYONE? YOU BET!

My plan to change Health Care is one that is controversial, it would not be a perfect fix, but I think we can do more with this plan than we could with the current tragic climate of health care in America today.

Health care has turned into Wealth Care. The health insurance we have covers us when we get ill, but we have it because we know without health insurance and should we become seriously ill, there would be no way possible to pay off the medical bills. Health insurance has become not only something to protect your health, but something to protect our wealth, and that is not right.

We should be able to take care of people who need health care. If over 40 million Americans are not covered, this means the system is greatly flawed. I am not advocating a national health care plan, that would be a disaster. I know in Canada it can take 6 months or more just to get a colonoscopy and I have heard from Canadians that I know that some come down to the US to get a procedure like that done, because they cannot afford the wait.

If you do have insurance, the pitfalls are endless. Almost everyone I know and have worked with as a Benefit Administrator has had a problem with their insurance company denying something that has been authorized by a physician. With a majority of large health companies being publicly held; the insurance companies have to choose between your care and their profits. I cannot tell you how many times an employee's tests for certain cancers have been denied, many of these tests cost less than $1,000. Yet, the insurance company will cover hundreds of thousands in expenses for cancer treatment. It is downright crazy.

Employers bare too much of the burden on health care.

Employers are baring too much of the burden on carrying health care for their employees. The costs to cover a single employee for a company can range from $300 to over $500 per month. More employers are increasing the employee payroll deductions, employee doctor and hospital copays and prescription copays. It is their only option to fight off annual double digit increases from the health insurance carriers. Employers now have to choose between giving larger raises or reducing the employee's health benefits. It is not fair that an employee is dependent on their employer and really does not have a fair say in the matter. The new term of employee-driven healthcare is nothing but a way to keep your deductible high and keep you from going to the doctor for something that may appear to be small but could be larger.

LIGHTING UP FOR CHILDREN'S HEALTHCARE

The first bill signed by President Obama into law on February 4th, was an expansion of the SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program). This bill allows an extra 4 million uninsured children to take part in the program. The addition $32.8 billion to SCHIP is coming via the funding of the largest cancer-causing related death in men, and the second largest cancer-causing related death in women. That cancer is lung cancer. The government will receive that $32.8 billion through just one method. That method will be a 62 cent per pack increase in federal taxes on the purchase of a pack of cigarettes. You certainly will not hear these words ever uttered by a politician but, "The government needs smokers". With the new federal tax on a pack of cigarettes, if you live in New York, the state with the highest per pack tax on cigarettes, the total amount you pay in taxes on a pack is $3.76, $1.01 to the Federal government and $2.75 to the State. If you are smoker, the government does not have the words to thank you enough. If you see a smoker, do not look nasty at them, thank them for supporting the government's plans better than any way possible besides the income tax.

My question is how come cigarettes are the only item that gets overtaxed?

I found a very good website on what each state government receives in gasoline, alcohol and tobacco tax revenue. Here is another good website to look at just alcohol I wanted to get a closer look at the alcohol taxes. The numbers are in gallons. This is about the equivalent of a 12 pack of beer. The state of Wyoming has not increased its $.02 per gallon of beer cost since 1935. It would take 533 six-packs of beer to equal the tax revenue on a carton of cigarettes. Only a handful of states have raised the beer tax this decade. For every 12 pack of beer sold in the United States the average tax is about 20 cents. Now, I know what the critics will say, I pay enough taxes, are you suggesting that I pay more? First, the governments need to balance their budgets and cut wasteful spending, but that rarely ever happens. We do pay our fair share in taxes and then some, but what I am saying is if we can generate more revenue without raising income taxes can we all have health care too?

What if the beer I am drinking not only quenches my thirst, but also helps pay for my medical coverage? Now, that sounds like a pretty good deal, yes.

LEGALIZE MORE GAMBLING AND THAT MARIJUANA, TOO

Last week, Pennsylvania Governor, Ed Rendell, a Democrat proposed to give establishments with a liquor license the right to put video poker machines in their establishments. Governor Rendell said that this could generate about $550 million in revenue for the state. Now, whether that is true in a struggling economy, remains to be seen. There are critics to this, but I love it. The one problem I have is that the bill will only benefit students from families making $100,000 or less. I think that number should be increased to at least $250,000. More residents should reap the benefit, and it would keep more students in the your own state, which in turn would mean more state revenues within the borders.

There are millions of people who like to gamble, some of whom, only get to do it at casinos every so often. My solution, legalize gambling online, and legalize sports betting in all states. Why is Nevada the only state where sports betting is legal?

In 2006, Americans wagered an estimated $12 billion wagered in the online gaming industry. After 2006, broadband internet access became more prevalent and those who now had high-speed Internet and wanted to gamble online, were either too afraid or did not really know how.

As we have seen in the last few months, putting your money in the stock market may be the biggest risk of all. You have a better chance of getting struck by lighting 7 TIMES, before you can win the Mega Millions lottery jackpot. The odds of winning are over 175 million to one. But, this form of gambling is completely legal! Here are the complete lottery odds for Mega Millions. I guess because the state really does not mind that you have a better chance of marrying a multi-millionaire than you actually becoming one through their lottery.

If we are allowed to play the lottery, a game with absolutely horrendous odds, why should we not be able to gamble online. If the government can reap the billions in revenue from online gaming

Oh, I know, this will lead to more gamblers becoming addicted and that would be unfortunate. But, you know what there are hundreds of millions of addicted gamblers in America today. It is each and every one of us who has any money in the stock market. I tried to find a website or a toll-free number for support in assisting me in consoling me for my losses in my stocks and retirement plans.

I would make a fair wager to say that if someone was given a $1,000, to wager on sporting events, odds are pretty favorable that they would not lose most of it, or would have a better chance of coming back with a nice return on their investment than if they used that money in the stock market or lottery in 2009. If the government could receive not only the revenues from someone winning from online gaming, but by taking a percentage of the action (like a vig) at the time of the bet, the amounts that would be coming into the coffers of this new health plan could be staggering.

But it is completely legal that I can invest thousands and thousands of dollars every year into the stock market only to have it get shredded by some greedy pigs and by financial investors whom you could not trust with a dollar, let alone billions. You would not even want them to pick your lottery numbers, because with their knowledge they may not be intelligent enough to understand how to even pick 6 numbers!

I have not smoked pot since 1996, and I will never smoke pot again. It is very addictive and can lead to other drugs. But, then again so can cigarettes and alcohol. There are millions of Americans who enjoy as Adam Sandler would say, "Their marijuanaca", unfortunately this is still deemed as an illegal activity and we do not reap much money in revenue from the pot smokers of the country. The only revenues that come in, come from arrests and the fines that the local governments receive because of pot.

I have never paid for pot, and I would have no idea what a dime bag now costs on the street. If it did cost $10, and the government made $2 on each dime bag, how much revenue would that bring in? If we taxed marijuana like we do cigarettes the windfall of money that would come in to each state would likely be staggering.

The money that would be received by the federal and state governments from these ventures would ONLY be used to fund our health care system. There would be no taking from Peter to pay Paul like our governments love to do.

WILL THIS NEW HEALTH CARE PLAN BE FREE FOR EVERYONE?

Chances are, if you are still reading this; I have your attention. So will this new plan be free for all? The answer to that is no. While it would be nice to have a free health care system; it is not prudent. There needs to be at least a small hurdle to prevent this system from being completely ravaged by abuse. The new plan will cost each American $50 per month. Children will be $25 per month per child. A typical family of four is covered for $2,400 per year. The money can be directly taken out of your paycheck or it can be sent directly via the government, online or through the mail.

Doctor visits will be a copay of $20.

Prescription drugs will be $20 for a brand name prescription, and up to $10 for generics.

Emergency Room visits are $50. Overnight hospital visits up to a max of $200 per night.

A minimum of 75% of the hospitals and doctors in each state would be part of the network. Pre-existing conditions will be extinct.

If each person goes to the doctor twice a year for $40 in copays and has an annual prescription bill of $100 in copays per year, (these are very generic figures), the amount money that would be collected would be $30 billion.

Let's say their are 200 million adult Americans who subscribe to the plan. That would be a total of $120 billion in premiums. If 50 million children are signed up in to the system that adds another $15 billion. We would recoup the money from SCHIP, which we no longer be needed, that would be another $60 billion into the new system. If you add in the costs that would be saved from each state having its own health care, and then the additional revenues from tobacco, alcohol, gambling, marijuana taxes; I think we could have a pretty good health care system taking shape and about as much money as was in either "stimulus" package to get this much needed plan rolling.

After one year on the plan, your account will be evaluated and depending on usage the monthly amount that you pay may increase or decrease. The new annual amount cannot exceed more than 50% of the prior's year premium. If you do not use the plan much, your premium will be decreased by an amount not to exceed 50%.

WHAT IF I WANT MORE HEALTH CARE?

Opponents will say, oh great, public health care, you have just destroyed the system. Actually, no. It makes it fair for everyone. There are no free rides, but no one left out in the cold. Private companies will still be in business. You would be fully eligible to purchase a plan with benefits tailored to your needs in addition to the standard American plan. Insurance companies would be in the same situation they are with Medicare. There are many millions of Americans who have additional coverage through Medigap plans. You would have the option to increase your coverage and be able to see any physician in that network you chose.

Medicare will still exist.

Employers will no longer bear the burden of health care and can save millions a year, which hopefully can lead to bigger raises for you and for me.

There you have it. Health care for everyone. I did not even have to raise income taxes to get it. In fact, I may have saved you some money, by not having to pay for health insurance at work where your deductions can be hundreds of dollars a month, alone.

I just gave you more of the things you wanted to do, but could not do legally in the past. If this behavior makes you sick, you paid for your health care and helped many more people along the way than what the system used to be. Used to be you just ruined your life and did not help anyone else.

Welcome to 1600 Pennsylvania, President Obama

Welcome to 1600 Pennsylvania, President Barack Obama. I may not have voted for you, but as John McCain said, you are my President. I thought the best speech I heard throughout the entire campaign was McCain's concession speech where he said my former opponent will be my President. That is how I feel today. Unfortunately, for Republicans, McCain had given his best speech after the votes came in that Tuesday night.

Now, I know President Obama has said and offered a lot, but I am going to give him a chance to work at delivering on those words. He has earned that. And if he does not deliver, then I will be critical. Now is not the time for that. One day I hope what was said about Joe Louis, can be said for Barack Obama. New York Daily News columnist Jimmy Cannon once wrote, "Joe Louis is a credit to his race, the human race."

I think when Lincoln was elected in 1860, no one knew how great he would be. He was a true unknown to those outside of Illinois. He ran as a third party candidate, from a party that would be called the Republican Party. While Obama is from the same state, Lincoln did not have the luxuries of the media constantly tooting his horn or butchering current President James Buchanan or butchering the vice-presidential candidate from the Know Nothing party.

This is a time for greatness. Not merely a time to talk about greatness. President Obama has been given a chance to lift the country up from its knees. It will difficult, but the prize at the end can be very rewarding. Today, I wish to discuss the Generation closest to me, those who were born in the 70's and 80's. This is the generation that President Obama will need to lead the country in the years to come.

The world has changed, our attention spans are far shorter than they used to be. A lot of that is do to the fact that there is so much in the world that can be distracting. It was not that long ago that our news came from the local TV channel, radio, newspapers and magazines. Now, with the Internet, many of those stories are old news. There used to be only 10 channels of TV, now there is are1,000 and counting. There were only a few radio stations, now thanks to satellite radio, there are hundreds. There is a magazine for just about anything these days.

Have you noticed how much smaller your magazines have become? And newspapers, forgettaboutit! You can't even wrap Pepperidge Farm Goldfish in those! The Help Wanted section has to stretch to make a page in the papers, except on Sundays. The shrinkage is not due to less content, but less advertising. That is something that we have not experienced in this country for a very long time. This is the real scary part of the economy, less people are trying to sell you something. It will be very difficult to see how so many of them will survive. The magazines practically give away the subscriptions. For newspapers, I could see them cutting back to 3 or 5 days a week. For magazines, some will collapse and I can see many mergers of titles among the large publication companies.

I think in the newspaper realm, the advance of faster and more abundant Internet connections this was something you could see the losses coming. Especially, that is does not cost a penny to read your local paper online. Why would it behoove anyone to subscribe? If the bacon is given away, do you really want the rest of the pig?

This generation is the I, Me, My Generation. We have the iPod, the iPhone, MySpace, Youtube, Reality TV, and countless other items that are engineered for the attention of one. We update our HTML clipboardfacebook page 20 times a day, as if anyone truly gives a crap that right now, "Michael is taking a crap." And best of all is, we can get all of this information, anywhere at any time. It is tough to tie us down for long periods of time. "The Greatest Generation" as Tom Brokaw calls them, got the bigger picture that it was about being part of something, and not being the something. So many of us want to rise to be chief, but unfortunately we forget that you need Indians that are willing to work as a team so that a leader and not chaos emerges. Many of the people in their 20's and 30's want to be Managers or Leaders, and not really satisfied with being on the road to Management or Leadership. We can be Indians, but we need to be shown that there is a path to being chief or at least something that is motivating us for a higher cause.

We are cynical and sarcastic, but for the most part we have good hearts. We enjoy watching TMZ, commenting on Deadspin, reading the latest on someone in Wikipedia. We do like seeing Britney getting fat, Terrell Owens crying, seeing who isn't Jennifer Aniston now, human car accidents and what politician is now in hot water. We Google what we don't know, and think it is knowledge, even though it is only information. We love our country just as much as "The Greatest Generation", because where else could we say and laugh at such drivel. We just learned to laugh at it a little more.

President Bush is a good man, who just didn't always come across on TV as the brightest light bulb in the room. He tried hard, he lowered our taxes, gave us two nice stimulus checks, dreamed for peace in the Middle East, wanted to give every child a chance, kept the hopes and our country safe for 8 years after 9/11, gave us unprecedented growth in the real estate market, low unemployment for six of his eight years, and was entertaining with some of the new vocabulary he brought to the world. Some of those things did not come true from his dreams, and a few of them backfired mightily. Unfortunately, when we needed him to be more serious, President Bush tried to be witty, and was terrible at it. See: Bushisms

President Obama, welcome to 1600 Pennsylvania. In terms of football, the head coach has been changed. While you are not inheriting the 0-16 Lions, right now we feel about anywhere from 1-15 to 4-12. No one expects you to be 16-0 next season. You will probably never be perfect. But maybe, with a little help and putting those words you like so much like Hope and Change into action we can go 9-7 and make a surprising run like this year's Arizona Cardinals.

There is work to be done, and you can be that leader who comes across as knowledgeable on TV, but also strong when we really need you. Please work to be above the extreme bleeding heart liberals and ultra Jesus-loving conservatives.

One side note, if McCain had won; do you think MSNBC would have even televised the inauguration? Better yet, would the event even been put on their news ticker on the bottom of the screen? I know it certainly would not have made Keith Olbermann's Countdown. The camera operator would have to reduce the zoom to 1:1000 in order for Keith's tremendous noggin and ego to step aside. Congrats on the big contract Keith, but what are you and Chris Matthews going to talk about now? You can only blame the old coach so much, before the blame carries on to the new coach.