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Politics : The Obama - Clinton Disaster -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (16233)	7/27/2009 1:08:07 PM
From: JakeStraw	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 103300

Kenneth, I know you get some kind of strange joy blaming all the country's problems on Bush and republican's in general. That in itself is not very constructive and accomplishes nothing. Then of course there's the other fact that the deficit used to bother you when Bush was in office, but we all know why that was. Now all of a sudden there's a free-spending democrat in charge and deficits don't bother you at all. The present fact is that Obama has been and continues to be fiscally reckless. If you became a CEO of a corporation with major debt problems would you add more to it?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (16233)	7/27/2009 1:29:20 PM
From: jlallen	2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 103300

Even if that was all true Kenny boy....we don't get out of the mess by doubling down on the prior mess.... Face it, there is no way to justify this level of spending just as there was no justification for Bush's spending...

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (16233)	7/27/2009 3:07:30 PM
From: Bill	1 Recommendation Respond to of 103300

You were mad at Bush for not spending more.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (16233)	7/28/2009 5:33:28 AM
From: puborectalis	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 103300

Obesity Medical Costs Balloon to $147 Billion, Study Finds By Shannon Pettypiece July 27 (Bloomberg) -- Medical spending for obesity is estimated to have reached $147 billion in 2008, an 87 percent increase in the past decade, according to a government-sponsored study. Each obese patient costs health insurers and government programs $1,429, or 42 percent, more a year than a normal-weight individual in 2006, according to the analysis of health expenses released today by the journal Health Affairs. In 1998, the medical costs of obesity were estimated to have reached $78.5 billion. President Barack Obama has said his administration wants to control the rising cost of health care in part through preventive medicine programs, such as those to help people lose weight or quit smoking. Medicare, the government run program for the elderly and disabled, spent $7 billion on obesity-related prescriptions drugs, such as those to treat diabetes, high cholesterol and blood pressure, the study said. “Although health reform may be necessary to address health inequities and rein in rising health spending, real savings are more likely to be achieved through reforms that reduce the prevalence of obesity and related risk factors, including poor diet and inactivity,” said the study’s authors. “These reforms will require policy and environmental changes that extend far beyond what can be achieved through changes in health care financing and delivery.” Expanding Obesity Rate The incidence of obesity, a major cause of diabetes, stroke and heart attacks, has more than doubled in the past 30 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 32 percent of American adults are obese, according to data from the CDC’s Web site. A person is obese if their body mass index is greater than 30 or about 186 pounds for a person who is five feet, six inches tall. Without obesity, spending by the government-funded Medicaid program for the poor would be 8.5 percent less and Medicare would be lowered by 11.8 percent, the study said. Researchers analyzed data between 1998 and 2006 from the government-sponsored Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, which collects information on health services that Americans use, how frequently they use the services and the cost. The study was conducted by researchers at RTI International in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, the CDC in Atlanta, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in Rockville, Maryland. The study was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.