What’s interesting in the news today?
Open thread, what’s on your mind?
The “official” national debt sat at the same number (20 Million under) for 150 days leading up to the extension of the debt ceiling. Everyone knew it was a fraud and a lie. Now we know how big of a lie it was. About a 328 Billion dollar lie. How is this not fraud?
From TheWashingtonTimes “U.S. debt jumped a record $328 billion on Thursday, the first day the federal government was able to borrow money under the deal President Obama and Congress sealed this week.
The debt now equals $17.075 trillion, according to figures the Treasury Department posted online on Friday.”
“The $328 billion increase shattered the previous high of $238 billion set two years ago.”
“In this case, the Treasury Department borrowed $400 billion from other funds beginning in May, awaiting a final deal from Congress and Mr. Obama.”
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It. Just. Gets. Worse.
From WSJ/MarketWatch “Insurers say the federal health-care marketplace is generating flawed data that
is straining their ability to handle even the trickle of enrollees who have gotten through so far, in a sign that technological problems extend further than the website traffic and software issues already identified.”
“Emerging errors include duplicate enrollments, spouses reported as children, missing data fields and suspect eligibility determinations, say executives at more than a dozen health plans. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Nebraska said it had to hire temporary workers to contact new customers directly to resolve inaccuracies in submissions. Medical Mutual of Ohio said one customer had successfully signed up for three of its plans.”
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Tech experts say it needs a complete overhaul.
From USAToday “The federal health care exchange was built using 10-year-old technology that may require constant fixes and updates for the next six months and the eventual overhaul of the entire system, technology experts told USA TODAY.
The site could be perfect, but if the systems from which it draws data are not up to speed, it doesn’t matter, said John Engates, chief technology officer at Rackspace, a cloud computer service provider.
“It is a core problem in the sense of it’s fundamental to this thing actually working, but it’s not necessarily a problem that the people who wrote HealthCare.gov can get to,” Engates said. “Even if they had a perfect system, it still won’t work.”
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And as I predicted, after all, it wasn’t hard to figure out, more than half of the first sign-ups are low-income and pre-existing conditions. Those that will be heavily subsidized, or dumped into Medicaid.
From MyNorthWest.com “Enrollments in health care plans through Washington state’s new health care exchange continue to increase, but it turns out a majority of the enrollees so far won’t be paying for their plans.
“The Medicaid newly eligible population accounts for a little more than half of the 25,000 that we’ve seen,” Michael Marchand, with the new Washington Health Care Exchange, tells KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross.”
“”We’ve figured out that probably more than 90 percent of those who are of the 1 million who are currently uninsured, they’re going to receive financial help in one way or another, whether it’s free or through tax credits.”
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Wandering Views 
We could almost balance the budget if we disbanded the military. Then the government could return to its primary functions:
1. Giving our poor people so much food that they become obese and chronically ill; and
2. Providing free healthcare to treat those illnesses.
What a country!
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Some speculation on what would happen if we disbanded our military???
China would immediatly have hegemony in every place from Hawaii to India.
Islam would be extended from India to the Atlantic.
Israel would be attacked immediately.
Some South American nation would be domanent in the Hemisphere.
Not afraid of being taken over by someone in the near term. Trying to conquer and control the USA would be a colossal headeache for anyone. Soviets didn’t want us. Hitler and Hirohito didn’t want us. They just wanted us out of the way.
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Chas, we’d be all right. Obama would make a speech.
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Commentators here frequently or more accurately always doubt my assertion that the media is not “liberal”. Now reporters may self-identify as liberal but so do many professionals. In order to appear impartial, reporters often lapsed into a false equivalency narrative or they tend to report on the political process as if its on-going horse. The following link in my opinion makes a good point in terms of the failure of the MSM from a leftist perspective. From this, you might understand why the left is as upset with the media as the right.
http://www.occupy.com/article/why-big-media-lied-americans-about-government-shutdown
The US spends more than the rest of the world combined on defense. In some cases, its a waste and a result of overpricing and gouging by private contractors who reside at the gov’t trough. However, the US could easily cut the military to a far more reasonable size without a cost to security. The Chinese are currently attempting to break through the naval barrier the US has established from Japan to Australia. The barrier can be maintained with bases only in South Korea, Taiwan, and maybe the Philippines. And if you really want to save money, close them all and rely on Pearl Harbour. In response to this naval barrier, China has turned its attention landward or its West — it has cast an economic shadow on the ‘Stans. And is even repairing its relationships with India and Pakistan. In these cases, the US military can do nothing and its better off trying to use “soft” power which is cheaper and the method of the EU and China. The US tendency to use hard power makes it easy for its rivals to portray it as a bully.
The same problem exists in Latin America — the US tendency to hard power and subversion will be difficult to change and has made it harder for it to have an impact in the south. Instead, the Latin American countries are trying to avoid the bully as much as possible. It would be far cheaper for the US to withdraw from Latin America and attempt to repair its image. China has made inroads in Latin America and Africa by focusing solely on economic relationships rather than political control, And with the seamless integration of corporate and national interest in China, its far easier for China. The US has corporate “citizens” who have differing interests than the national interest of the US people and this leads to a schizophrenic foreign policy.
Beyond corporate interests increasing defense costs, domestic political concerns have led to the US spending money to defend Israel’s interests. In additional to subsidizing the continuation of the Camp David agreement in China, the US has involved itself in middle eastern disputes in Syria, Iran, Iraq which do not concern its national interest. To be accurate, the US naval presence in the Persian Gulf is to safeguard the supply of oil rather than protect Israel. In this case, its far cheaper and in its long term interest to find alternate fuel sources and stop patrolling the Persian Gulf like hired mercenaries of the Gulf States. Cutting defensse in half would only result in abandoning the defense of other states ie Israel, the Gulf states and Taiwan to name a few and pose little danger to the US.
As for the spread of Islam, its already present from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean and beyond. The immigration policies of the EU shouldn’t factor into US defense policy. I didn’t intend to write this much but in essence I was trying to demonstrate Ricky’s somewhat cynical comment …. the US can cut its defense spending with little effect on its own security. And thus have money leftover for domestic concerns.
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If the US had no military and China dominated Asia, would it promote anything worse than the abortion, perversion and green energy garbage promoted by the US?
I would argue that the stupid and counterproductive actions of the US from the invasion of Iraq to the promotion of Arab democracy has strengthened radical Islam.
Israel won its first three wars with little US support.
Would Brazil or Mexico promote worse things than the US? They would probably say if foolish Americans want to take illegal drugs, let them. They are already taking billions of prescription drugs, many of which are paid for by the US government.
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China has bought up all the precious metal mineral rights in Africa. Life will get interesting for a lot of us soon with them controlling it.
The US could go to energy independence with fracking. We have the largest supply of natural gas in the world. (Surprise, Israel also has a large supply). There’s enough to keep us going for 100 years. In California, if the taxes are not modified in any way, there’s enough to pour $1 Trillion into the CA economy over the next ten years.
That’s why Governor Brown is “allowing” fracking in CA. It’s going on off Santa Barbara and there’s talk of moving into Monterey. Two very scenic parts of CA which are economically stuck. (Santa Barbara is outrageously expensive and has no water; Monterey has lost most of its economic resources with the overfishing and the pull out of Fort Ord).
In CA, it’s a fight between the unions and the ecologists on the fracking issue. Since fracking involves union jobs, the unions are winning.
Otherwise, current policies in this state are economically unsustainable. We have to have fracking since Facebook IPO did not save the treasury.
The US military has been working for at least the last 20 years on curtailing their expenses. We have friends who have spent most of these years trying to figure out how to make do with less money in the Navy. Some of the problems with the military budget is what is pork barreled in by our Congressional folks–bloated programs the military neither needs nor wants.
Further expenses are caused by political correctness. Do you have any idea how much money it costs to backfit submarines to allow three or four women officers to serve on them?
There are plenty of wise and good money managers in the military. You just have to give them the freedom to do their job. My own husband saved billions of dollars–you read the number correct–while doing his job. Some rice bowls, however, had to be forfeited by stunned non-military execs in DC.
The officer corps, however, smiled.
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RickyWeaver,
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.
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**PREACH IT, BROTHER!!!***
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“Radical elements of the Republican Party held a gun to Uncle Sam’s head and threatened to shoot if they didn’t get their way. Is that the storyline you heard in corporate media? … ”
Um, actually, yes, more than a few times.
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Michelle, That is an interesting story about the submarines.
The people who are running out country and who will be running it for the foreseeable future do not care about the military or our security. They care about liberal social engineering.
Defense spending won’t go down, but changes are taking place:
1. Units that can actually fight are being cut.
2. Standards are being lowered so women can be added to the Marine fighting units and the Army Rangers.
3. Homosexuality is spreading. In the next war our troops may be handcuffed to light poles as the Dutch were in the Balkans.
In short, the US military is becoming as big a joke as the rest of the country. It is probably a good time for a rebirth of isolationism.
Some other nation will need to keep the peace. We could hire Russia to do so just as we hire them to shoot our satellites into space. Their military will consist largely of heterosexual males for the foreseeable future, they are tough and they don’t waste money like Americans. There are still some states in the US that could produce an efficient military, but they would have to do so without any federal interference.
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Only mildly surprising.
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/10/18/la-times-bans-letters-from-climate-skeptics/
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But Donna J, HRW assured us the media is not liberal.
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The military has long been a sorce of social engineer, for both good and bad. No one is complaining about the racial integration of the troops, for example.
My husband once asked a chaplain at his college, a young black woman, why she went into ministry.
“I view the church as an agent of social change. What better place should I be?”
Even as an 18 year old, he wondered why she would not mention a love of God . . .
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michelle, reminds me of a mainline Presby pastor I once went out with years ago (we lived in the same neighborhood). I asked him why he went into the ministry and he gave me a long answer about helping people, doing social justice, etc., but not a single mention of God. I found that so curious.
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