Ryan Price's Soapbox

For the first time since credit ratings began in 1917, the US has had the distinguished honor of having a AAA credit rating. Having a triple A credit rating in the world assured that the money you borrowed from a foreign investor (example: China) would be paid back without risk. Fast forward to August 5th 2011, well after the markets closed. S&P one of the main credit rating agencies downgraded the US based on its long term outlook which isn’t good. With the expected debt to reach into the $20 trillion mark, the S&P saw that the most recent debt debate did not yield the desired result they wanted to see. According to S&P the plan that cut 4 trillion and had the cut cap and balance plan would have been enough to salvage our AAA rating. In light of this, as usual, Republicans and Democrats alike are pointing fingers on who is to blame. We’ll in my opinion it would be the democrats and here’s why:

1. S&P warned of a downgrade if drastic measures to get our financial house in order.
• What happened: They went with a bill that planned cuts rather than actually making them
2. The democratically controlled Senate tabled cut cap and balance with not even so much as a debate.
• Result: Instant defeat of the only bill that would have saved our rating and provided the cuts necessary to get us back on the road to prosperity.
3. Why have the Democrats waited 840+ days and not yet provided a budget, why have they continued to spend into deep deficits.
• Why? – Democrats believe they can spend their way out a financial problem – look at the 800 billion dollar Stimulus, look at the massive amounts of money they have thrown at projects that didn’t create jobs and didn’t help everyday Americans? While you bailed out banks for their idiotic greed, people were losing their homes that they had worked their entire live to get.

The tea party, was the only group who stepped up and tried to provide a plan that would prevent us from losing our AAA rating. So now where do we stand? Well Moody and Fitch still have us at AAA but they are currently reviewing our rating and may not make a decision until 2013. While S&P said a further downgrade of our rating could occur again in 6-18 months meaning we’d be at the same borrowing rating as China, Japan and other AA- countries. The only real question I have here is…what are we going to do about it? We can sit here and say we’re going to cut and not actually cut and we’ll be in this same situation at 20 trillion except countries will be less likely to give us money to borrow. If we were able to cut our debt in the 1940s after WWII, there’s no excuse why we can’t do it now. We just need the right people in congress and a president who cares not weather or not he’s going to get re elected… but what’s best for the American people.

We knew it was about to get bad for Obama and the Democrats; we just didn’t know it would get *this* low *this* quickly.

Rasmussen Reports’ new poll out this morning shows Obama’s approval rating at an astonishingly low 44%. Moreover, his “strongly disapprove” numbers are at a record high of 46%.  The majority of independents now disapprove of Obama’s job performance.  Republicans are favored for the fourth straight month over Democrats on the generic congressional ballot.

With Obama’s numbers as low as they are and the Democrats passing his wildly unpopular health control initiative through Congress, one has to wonder if he’s a Republican plant.  Yes, I’m kidding.  But as a political strategy, it certainly makes more sense than his current actions do if he’s trying to maintain control of Congress in 2010 and get re-elected in 2012.  He’s looking more and more like Jimmy Carter every day.

Can we trade him in as part of a cash for clunkers deal?  With some cash we could work on paying down that burgeoning deficit.

All party lines aside i decided to post this important piece of work because it is currently the health care bill that recently passed 220-215 in the House of Representatives on Saturday 11/7/2009. Please have a look and feel free to point out any issues you see wrong with this.

http://docs.house.gov/rules/health/111_ahcaa.pdf

Potential Concerns list:

1. Violates the 10th Amendment in the Constitution -  This is unconstitutional according to this:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

2. ‘Death Panel Clause survives in HR3962 – The provision allows Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling to help beneficiaries deal with the complex and painful decisions families face when a loved one is approaching death. Basically what this means is that the government has the right to tell you they will not provide health care to a loved one and to optionally provide counseling for end of life.
3. Over 500 Billion dollars will be cut from Medicare to help pay for the government take over of health care.
4. Weak Public Option: H.R. 3962 contains the negotiated rate version of Medicare Part E. It is both more expensive and more of a burden on the states than the Medicare +5% fixed rate version, as it moves 7 million uninsured (those making less than 150% of the poverty level) over to Medicaid, which is a joint federal/state program. That means the states have to pick up about 10% of the tab. It also means much of H.R. 3962’s cost is due to subsidies to help people afford insurance. Worse, CBO expects that this public option will cost consumers slightly more than private plans, so only 6 million are expected to enroll. How did the House allow this to happen?
5. Delayed Fair Coverage: Yes, the House thought it a great idea to delay fair access for those with pre-existing conditions until 2013. So they are spending big bucks on risk pools until then, which most people can’t afford anyway. John McCain’s really bad idea lives.
6. No Doc Fix: The $230 billion “doc fix” was stripped out of the bill. That means doctors treating Medicare patients are left in limbo regarding a 21% January fee cut until House members vote on a separate bill.

Please please america, consider what you are doing, it all sounds good when they wrap it in pretty wrapping paper but when you actually read the bill which your representatives refuse to do. Only then can we put the right people in congress who WILL listen to us.

Ryan Price