All Things in Moderation

MORNING FILLER 7/30/12

18 Responses

1. 

   lmsinca, on July 30, 2012 at 11:32 am said:

   Number 1, I wish Bsimon would come back to comment here and number 2, I can verify some overseas nightmares just in the ten years we’ve owned our business. I think as wages increase in China and elsewhere, the medium to small manufacturers will have more trouble than it’s worth and will move back or stay home. The really large ones though have more negotiating power and are financially able to control production, quality, and shady practices better so will still benefit from off shoring.

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2. 

   jnc4p, on July 30, 2012 at 12:44 pm said:

   Bill Keller finally admits it:

   “The Entitled Generation
   By BILL KELLER
   Published: July 29, 2012″
   …

   ” This brings me to a soon-to-be released study by the incorrigible pragmatists at Third Way, the centrist Democratic think tank. The study takes a familiar refrain and presents it with a graphic wallop. Though it was intended as a wake-up call, not an indictment of a generation, it can be read as both.

   The authors examined two categories of federal spending over the past 50 years, representing two of government’s fundamental missions. One was “investments,” which includes maintaining our national infrastructure, keeping our military equipped, helping assure that our work force is educated to a high standard, and underwriting the kind of basic scientific research that is too risky or long-term to attract private money. The report calls this the legacy of President Kennedy’s New Frontier, though the largest infrastructure project in our history, the interstate highway system, was Eisenhower’s baby, a reminder of the days when Republicans still believed in that stuff. The other category was “entitlements,” a catchall word for the safety-net programs that provide a measure of economic stability for the aging and poor: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc.

   You will not be surprised to hear that the red line tracking entitlements goes up while the blue line reflecting investments goes down. What is alarming is the trajectory.

   In 1962, we were laying down the foundations of prosperity. About 32 cents of every federal dollar, excluding interest payments, was spent on investments, only 14 percent on entitlements. In the mid-70s the lines crossed. Today we spend less than 15 cents on investment and 46 cents on entitlements. And it gets worse. By 2030, when the last of us boomers have surged onto the Social Security rolls, entitlements will consume 61 cents of every federal dollar, starving our already neglected investment and leaving us, in the words of the study, with “a less-skilled work force, lower rates of job creation, and an infrastructure unfit for a 21st-century economy.” ”

   http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/opinion/keller-the-entitled-generation.html?ref=opinion

   Original piece that Keller is referencing:

   “Collision Course: Why Democrats Must Back Entitlement Reform

   by Jessica Perez, Gabe Horwitz and David Kendall”

   http://thirdway.org/publications/564

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3. 

   lmsinca, on July 30, 2012 at 1:27 pm said:

   jnc, as a Boomer, that was really depressing. It’s strange too because except for those of us who are public employees or very wealthy, the rest of us will probably be working much longer age-wise than our parents generation. We can then be blamed for not giving up our jobs to younger people. I think most of us understand that the entitlements that need to be reformed are medicare and medicaid and yet it’s the cost of health care that is killing them. Unless we fix those costs, the rest of it won’t really matter because we’re all going to go broke paying medical bills anyway.

   I did find out today that my husband will be able to get his insurance premium lowered to $578 per month after he goes on medicare. He has to go through the small group insurance rates though, which are higher than other supplemental plans, as I can’t get insurance any other way until I’m 65. I guess I don’t know what everyone wants from those of us who are facing retirement in the next few years. I don’t object to working until I’m dead but some people can’t do that and once you stop, you’ll never get back into the work force and have the ability to pay for the continuing cost increases.

   I still believe the best thing for the country would be to separate health insurance from employment………………………….you’d see a massive movement to lower costs then.

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4. 

   jnc4p, on July 30, 2012 at 2:44 pm said:

   “I still believe the best thing for the country would be to separate health insurance from employment………………………….you’d see a massive movement to lower costs then”

   Amen.

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5. 

   lmsinca, on July 30, 2012 at 2:46 pm said:

   jnc

   Yay, we agree on something.

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6. 

   jnc4p, on July 30, 2012 at 2:52 pm said:

   That argument is the entire basis for Wyden-Bennett.

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Americans_Act

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   • 

     markinaustin, on July 30, 2012 at 2:58 pm said:

     To this day I do not understand how W-B, 60 pp. long, bipartisan sponsors, got shelved for a 1300 p. bill.

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7. 

   lmsinca, on July 30, 2012 at 3:11 pm said:

   I know, I was in favor of W-B also. A lot of us were, at least the ones who knew about it. And remember how Dems blew off the re-importation bill over a weekend. There were a lot of things wrong with how the ACA was written and passed.

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8. 

   lmsinca, on July 30, 2012 at 3:16 pm said:

   I don’t think either of you frequented Greg’s place during the health care debate in 2009 (Who Runs Gov) but that’s when I really started getting in trouble with other libs/progressives because I thought there were better ideas out there. There was this one guy NewsRef who was very progressive but hated ACA and he was always taking my side but was annoying everyone else……………….it’s funny now, but not so much back then. Scott and I had some looooonnnnng fights over health care too. It took me a little while to really comprehend that the employment connection was really skewing the system.

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9. 

   jnc4p, on July 30, 2012 at 3:44 pm said:

   “Fussbudget
   How Paul Ryan captured the G.O.P.
   by Ryan Lizza August 6, 2012”

   http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/08/06/120806fa_fact_lizza?currentPage=all

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10. 

    jnc4p, on July 30, 2012 at 3:45 pm said:

    ” It took me a little while to really comprehend that the employment connection was really skewing the system.”

    There’s a reason you don’t go on AutoCare and HouseCare for your other insurance needs when you turn 65.

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11. 

    jnc4p, on July 30, 2012 at 3:46 pm said:

    “markinaustin, on July 30, 2012 at 2:58 pm said:

    To this day I do not understand how W-B, 60 pp. long, bipartisan sponsors, got shelved for a 1300 p. bill.”

    The fundamentally corrupt nature of the American federal government?

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    • 

      markinaustin, on July 30, 2012 at 5:19 pm said:

      jncp, this Hiatt opinion seems to me to be about where they are in the two party campaign:

      http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fred-hiatt-the-motivation-for-voters-is-stopping-the-other-guy/2012/07/29/gJQAwAE7IX_story.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions

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12. 

    bannedagain5446, on July 30, 2012 at 6:29 pm said:

    mark:

    As you know, no legislation happens if not enough people get “paid” by it.

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13. 

    lmsinca, on July 30, 2012 at 7:13 pm said:

    That Hiatt piece is just a refection of what many of us have been saying for almost a year now Mark. He may have said it a little better but it does seem it’s another typical presidential election, vote for me, the other guy’s worse, or as voters like to say, the lesser of two evils. I don’t believe either of them is evil but neither is much of a leader IMO.

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14. 

    jnc4p, on July 30, 2012 at 7:19 pm said:

    It’s nice to be able to actually not care which major party candidate wins and vote for Gary Johnson.

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15. 

    jnc4p, on July 30, 2012 at 7:30 pm said:

    Tick, tick, tick,tick

    “As ‘fiscal cliff’ looms, debate over pre-Election Day layoff notices heats up
    By Zachary A. Goldfarb, Updated: Monday, July 30, 8:18 PM

    The deep federal spending cuts scheduled to take effect at the start of next year may trigger dismissal notices for tens of thousands of employees of government contractors, companies and analysts say, and the warnings may start going out at a particularly sensitive time:

    Days before the presidential election.

    By law, all but the smallest companies must notify their workforce at least 60 days in advance when they know of specific job cuts likely to happen.”

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/as-fiscal-cliff-looms-debate-over-pre–election-day-layoff-notices-heats-up/2012/07/30/gJQAxNlSLX_story.html?hpid=z1

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16. 

    lmsinca, on July 30, 2012 at 8:00 pm said:

    jnc

    It’s nice to be able to actually not care which major party candidate wins and vote for Gary Johnson

    Haaaahaaaahaaa, it’s even nicer to live in CA and my vote doesn’t matter at all except at the local level. I can’t vote for GJ, sorry, not after his macho statement re the Aurora shooting. I’m not impressed by men with big guns who are so certain they’d do the right thing at the right time. I’m more impressed by men who jump in front of their loved ones to save them or at least acknowledge who the real heroes are. I may not even vote for president at all but just vote all the down ticket races and props, I used to be able to write in “none of the above”.

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