I read today that they now are selling Narcan as a nasal spray...a drug that reverses the effects of heroin and other opiate derivatives...to addicts and families of addicts.  Heroin overdoses unfortunately knock out your biological ability to breathe.  I have saved a bunch of lives with the stuff. Hopefully those people went on to live productive and happy lives...yea...well...at least they get the chance to continue. Some 10,000 lives have been saved  since the program started in 1996. This is a wonderful thing.
   The article, written by Denise Lavoie with the Associated Press, included the notion that opponents say the program makes it less likely that addicts will seek treatment. Those opponents are not the sharpest knives in the drawer.
  
    

Debt and the GNP

   As the President signed the new ceiling for Federal Borrowing our National debt passed the total GDP for the country...now 15.67 Trillion dollars in debt. That is...15.7 thousand billion dollar bills. A billion is a thousand million. A pile of money, for sure.
  Gross domestic product (GDP), the featured measure of U.S. output, is the entire market value of the goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States for one year.
  The reason this is important is that when a country has borrowed so much money that it equals it's GDP, that is a signal to investors...other countries, big US and foriegn banks, pension funds, etc...that they can expect to demand higher interest rates on future bond auctions...because our credit worthiness is damaged when we are seen to be in poor financial control.
  Just another little side note about this...When our Bond interest rates go up, so will mortgage rates...and so will all of those Adjustable Rate Mortgages so many of us own. That will be very bad news for the entire country...just when we are trying to come out of recession.
  President Obama and company have said that the reason our country is having to finance our government by borrowing approximately half of all spending by selling bonds...in other words...going broke... because the wealthy aren't paying their fair share. According to Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary...who has a political reason to paint an untrue, rosy picture...if he could get away with it but can't...said the Buffet Rule...which would raise the taxes on millionaires to 30%...said that would only bring in an additional 5 billion dollars a year. It is a drop in the bucket.  Insignificant. The President has since backed off from the statement. Is he really a "Pie in the Sky" type of guy?  Can he really say anything...and what's not true we will forgive him for it?  Is that really his attitude when he is talking? 
   The other end of this thing is that when we raise the taxes on Capital Gains...which is what he is really talking about...we will see an instant reduction in investment in the market. How much is a guess but it will come down...not go up...which is what drives job growth. The Republicans are correct in voting this down...even if you hate them...they are correct. We need jobs...not "Pie in the Sky" fantasies about fairness. Do we want to give a man a check or a job? There you go.
   Geithner's political angle...what the President wanted him to say so he isn't shown to be weak or in failure mode prior to the election...was that the Buffet Rule is a "part of a very comprehensive, detailed, long term fiscal program that would bring our deficits down to  sustainable levels". His words.  Two months ago he told House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan..."You are right to say we're not coming before you today to say that we have a definitive solution to the long term problem." He then said, "What we do know is we don't like yours."  What happened to all of the detailed, comprehensive, long term program stuff?
   After four years we aren't any closer to fixing the debt problem than this?
   Is this Buffet Rule an attempt to make the Republicans look bad in the eyes of voters who don't understand how insignificant it really is?  Well, of course it is. The Democrats need to cultivate mistrust of  the "Rich" by those who aren't rich. It's political. It's meant to garner votes by a man who has a "Pie in the Sky" mouth and nothing but our amazing ability to forgive a lie...or a "mistake"... to back him up.
   I have no reason to hate President Obama but we need a Fix It guy. He is not fixing the problem.
   He is in re-election mode and I'm afraid he thinks we are stupid. 

Solution to Medicare?

   A wonderful idea...Medicare...but who knew it would lead to this?  Uncle Sam shouldn't be a provider in the health care insurance business.  Why not move all Medicare recipients to Health Care Insurance Companies? The Government could pay some or all of the premiums. It could provide policies with the same co-payments. I haven't done the math but I instinctively feel with certainty it would be much, much cheaper. Let them handle it and I bet they wouldn't see 60 billion dollars of fraud drain their bottom lines in a year like Medicare did.
   They haven't made a deal with the drug companies about getting our seniors reduced rates. What about that?
   If they are going to do so crappy a job as to have seniors forced to buy supplemental insurance to cover what Medicare doesn't, it's just a step from allowing seniors to opt out and buy their own insurance...using what the supplemental insurance costs them plus a tax credit. If anyone deserves a break in the form of a tax credit it is the seniors.
   Instead they are giving dumbasses who build families without the ability to support them the tax credit. That's the Earned Income Tax Credit...Check it out if you don't already know. Be informed. You'll still be broke, but it may help you feel better about it.