My friend Miss Magnolia asked me what Medicare means when she looks at her “Preventive Services” and sees some marked with a little green flag and the words “Denotes an elapsed service.”

I told her to ask Medicare. If she receives a reply, you’ll see it here first!

Source: Myths & Taxes by David Cay Johnston

• The 22nd Amendment, limiting a President to two terms [now the President spends the first four years trying/lying to get re-elected, and the second four as a lame duck]
• Privitazation of the US Postal Service [it's on the verge of bankruptcy]
• Deregulation of the airlines [is air travel cheaper? better? friendlier? more comfortable?]
• Deregulation of the electrical industry [you can buy electricity from many companies but it all comes from the same source, so aren't you just paying more for a bigger infrastructure?]
• Break-up of the original Ma Bell AT&T [let's face it: Telephone "service" no longer exists--have you dialed zero lately?]
• Permission for lawyers/doctors to advertise [if we have to "sell" you on our professional expertise, doesn't that imply that we don't have any?]
• Permission for drug companies to advertise ["ask your doctor if DRUGS are right for you"]
• Permission for banks, brokerage houses, and insurance companies to merge [profit, profit and profit = no service]
• Decreasing taxes while increasing debt [ "It's morning again in America," says President Reagan]
• Repeal of the Fairness Doctrine [Reagan's FCC chairman killed it in 1985, leading to a massive change in the financing of political campaigns]

This is such a short list; surely you can add to it. Help me out by appending your nominations in the comments section.

Ryan’s plan is not “comprehensive” by any stretch of the imagination. Ryan’s plan does limit taxes to 19 percent of GDP and outlays to 14.75 percent of GDP by by 2050, producing a huge surplus. How does he achieve this budgetary miracle? In part, he does it by waving his magic wand.

* * *

Let’s try an example. Today, we pay $100 in taxes; Medicare pays $5 in expenses and buys us $95 in health care. (That $5 in administrative expenses is just to have a round number, not a real estimate.) Let’s say that buys us all the health care we need.

The “Medicare crisis” is that thirty years from now, taxes will grow to $150, but to get the future-world equivalent of $95 of health care, the government will need to spend $200: $10 on expenses and $190 on health care. In other words, we’ll have a shortfall of $50. Because Medicare is an entitlement program, that shows up as a $50 government deficit.

Under the Ryan plan, we still pay $150 in taxes, only now we get back a voucher worth $150 that we can use to buy health insurance. Voilà! No government deficit. But to get a plan that is equivalent to what Medicare would have been, we now have to pay $210 to a private insurer, which will spend $20 on expenses and $190 on health care.

In other words, we’ve taken a $50 government deficit and replaced it with a $60 household deficit.

http://baselinescenario.com/2011/04/05/moment-of-blather/

There is a new cruise ship class system. A growing number of cruise lines have built lavish—and separate—cocoons for their biggest spenders. It is a departure from the egalitarianism that had reigned on most ships for the last several decades when everyone from the humblest inside stateroom to the most luxurious suite would rub elbows in the same bars, dining rooms and pool decks. In a way, the trend is a throwback to the heyday of trans-Atlantic crossings in the 1920s, when first-, second- and third-class passengers were assigned separate areas of vessels.

Wall Street Journal

 

In another recent article, the rich are complaining about the poor service on airlines.

With airfares on the rise and airlines cramming more fliers per plane, it’s no surprise that passengers are feeling increasingly unhappy about the service they get from U.S. carriers.

And well-heeled passengers — who presumably spend more on airline flights — feel even worse about the service they get, according to a survey released last week.

Los Angeles Times

 

Does this tell you anything at all about the changes that have taken place in this country in the last decade? (If not, perhaps you’ve not been paying much attention.)

The ruling class (aka the wealthy) have returned to power, and this time, they are in it for the long haul. Don’t look for a  Roosevelt to save us this time. All politicians are now for sale to the highest bidder, and, sadly, that now includes the Oval Office.

http://chrome.blogspot.com/2011/03/fresh-take-on-icon.html

The 747-8 Intercontinental that completed its first flight was emblazoned with the logos of the first four commercial customers of the plane: Lufthansa, Korean Air, Boeing Business Jets, and Air China.

http://www.zdnet.com/photos/flawless-first-landing-for-boeings-747-8-intercontinental-photos/6203615?seq=22&tag=content;photo-frame#photo-frame

Why are there no US passenger carriers in this list?

And where is Pan Am when you need it?

But in the big picture, if most internet access goes mobile (as Gartner predicted will happen by 2013), then there might be less and less reason for web developers to use Flash. It could be that HTML5 might become the norm, and Flash might fade into the mists of tech history.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/mobile/03/14/adobe.flash.war/index.html?iref=NS1

Further into the story, the author references a piece written about Adobe and Apple’s long history of conflict. It’s a worthwhile read, if you have the time…..

Chronicles of Conflict: the History of Adobe vs. Apple (April 14th, 2010) by Daniel Eran Dilger

In a piece to be published in tomorrow’s New York Times, Henry Alford hangs out with a bunch of elderly gourmands who continue to indulge their fried, butter-soaked, béarnaise-drenched desires, despite being warned against it by doctors. (Says one 95-year-old: “The main thing to understand about the people who have constantly warned me about what I eat is that I’m here and they’re not.”)

http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/browbeat/archive/2011/03/01/the-filthiest-parts-of-the-new-york-times-piece-on-elderly-foodies.aspx?wpisrc=obnetwork

The NYT article mentioned is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/dining/02Elder.html

JIM LEHRER: Iraq and Afghanistan were not counted.

MARK SHIELDS: Not counted.And then we had Medicare prescription drugs. And that was off the book. That wasn’t funded. And so you look around, and they doubled, doubled the deficit in — the debt — excuse me — in eight years, doubled it, OK, took Clinton’s balanced budgets and went right by.And now, all of a sudden, they come back in office, and wait a minute, they’re born-again budget-balancers. I mean, I’m not questioning their sincerity, but for eight years, they were mute — not Tom Coburn, but the overwhelming majority of them were mute.

via Shields and Brooks on Boehner’s ‘New World Order,’ Wisconsin Protests | PBS NewsHour | Feb. 18, 2011 | PBS.