Medicare – Republican representative, Paul Ryan, and Democratic Senator, Ron Wyden, have put together a bipartisan plan to save Medicare. "Beginning in 2023 there will be a cap on cost growth of 1 percent over Gross Domestic Product, plus inflation. Any increase over that cap will be reflected in reduced support for the sectors most responsible for cost growth, including providers, drug companies, and means-tested premiums." Unfortunately, waiting to 2023 is too long to wait to begin cost control measures.
Native American Poverty – John Koppisch wrote a good article about the reason for Native American poverty citing “the vast majority of land on reservations is held communally.” This is a socialism model at work. Koppisch explains when people do not own their land they have no equity and they do not properly care for the property. Case in point, look how the Occupy Wall Street people are destroying park lands.
Dollar Coins – The U.S. will stop printing its one dollar presidential coins because of a lack in interest. Interestingly, it only costs the government 18 cents to manufacture dollar coin pieces and if they replaced dollar bills it would save the country 6 billion dollars over 30 years (because coins last longer than paper bills). Actually, the government should stop manufacturing pennies and nickels because the government loses money making these coin pieces. The US Treasury is like all government entities; they are wasting taxpayer money and making bad decisions.
Occupy Wall Street – Adam Carolla had a good YouTube video that went viral explaining why Americans have both envy and jealousy over the wealthy and argues most people who got wealthy worked their a%s off to get there. In other news, over 50 protestors were arrested in Times Square New York.
China – China has imposed a 21% tariff on U.S. automaker exports. This was a direct response to the tariff Obama placed on China made cars (this is good example of why protectionism policies do not work). In other news, China bought less U.S. Treasury debt in October than in past months, the Treasury Department reported this past week. China, the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt, owns $1.13 trillion in government debt.
Spending - President Obama has issued an executive order mandating that federal agencies cut unnecessary travel in an effort to promote efficient spending.
Big Government - Sixty-four percent of Americans say big government is a bigger threat to the nation’s future than big business or big labor, Gallup reports.
New Budget Bill – The omnibus budget bill suspends the ban on incandescent light bulbs; does not increase taxes on the wealthy; extends Bush tax cuts; and approves the building of the Keystone oil pipeline. This is a huge win for Republicans over Democrats.
Fannie and Freddie – The SEC has charged several executives of the mortgage giants with fraud.
Sackett v. EPA – The Supreme Court will hear arguments over a case where the EPA denied the Sackett family from building a home on property they own in a residential area. The EPA claims the .63 acre lot in Idaho is a protected wetland, which is incidentally surrounded by homes.
My Book: Is America Dying? (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble)
The whole Fannie and Freddie thing is getting under my skin at this point. Why can't these institutions just be eliminated? Egads.
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