I'd like to reiterate that its a mistake to expect that our legislators will produce wise, smart or efffective legislation in the healthcare area. Particularly now that we have Congressional leaders openly mocking the idea of even reading the legislation they vote for.
Take a look at a few things from another area - energy policy:
1) We have a corn ethanol industry created by government mandates and subsides that makes no financial or energy sense.
2) Consider the cash for clunkers programs moving goalposts:
Many people who thought they were eligible to benefit from "Cash for Clunkers" rebate and made a deal for a new car out this week found that they are not. It seems that just before the program was to go into effect on July 24 the EPA changed its fuel efficiency ratings on many models. According to CNN Money:
...as part of the official launch, the EPA conducted "quality assurance and quality control effort regarding fuel economy calculations on more than 30,000 vehicle model types spanning the past 25 years," according to an e-mail sent by EPA spokesman Dale Kemery.
As a result, eligibility for roughly 100 vehicles was affected, Kemery wrote. However, roughly equal numbers became newly eligible and newly ineligible.
Since it is the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that administers the rebate program, one might wonder if one part of the Government knows exactly what the other is doing. This is particularly the case here since the benefits were retroactive to July 1. Thus dealers were entering into agreements with customers based on the published MPG figures found at fueleconomy.gov and waiting until July 24 to file for the rebate itself. When those published figures changed without warning, ...
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3) Consider the substitution of clean expensive wind power for clean cheap hydro power (that is discarded) in the Columbia river basin as a result of government mandates and subsidies:
In the space of one hour last month, electricity generated at wind farms in the eastern end of the Columbia River Gorge shot up by 1,000 megawatts – enough to power some 680,000 homes.
Less than an hour later, it plummeted almost as much.
Sitting in front of 10 computer screens in a fifth-floor room of the federal Bonneville Power Administration headquarters in Portland, Kim Randolph had to react quickly.
Working from a keyboard, she diverted millions of gallons of water away from massive turbines spinning in Columbia River dams and sent it around the dams.
...despite the electricity it is putting in the grid, wind is contributing…nothing. Note that when wind production is surging, the utility is sending water around the turbines of the dam. That lost potential energy is gone forever. All the wind power did in this case is substitute for clean hydro power. It has no value in this particular case (beyond the ability of the utility to put wind on its annual report and seek subsidies from the Obama administration).
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Our legislators are ignorant (and now brazenly arrogant about that ignorance) and corrupt and the legislation they produce reflects that.
The idea of people who produced the stupid wasteful boondoggles listed above being in charge of our health care should scare the crap out of people.
BTW I listed three examples of government absurdity in the energy policy. Cap and trade is an even greater example that the three items I chose, but covering its built in problems would take too much space here. |
