Fiscal Malpractice

I know that the Democrats are trying hard to do what they think is best. Nevertheless, the cold hard facts show that what is going on in Washington is nothing short of fiscal malpractice. The chart below is produced by the CBO (Congressional Budget Office). The Democrats are under heavy pressure from Obama to pass health care reform before the August recess, but just look at these numbers! I am growing weary of being flabbergasted, but should 'cap and trade' and health care reform go through as designed by the current congressional leadership, our country will be crushed by the mountain of debt. I must repeat, it is selfishness in the extreme for us to continue to spend the money of future citizens of our nation for our own selfishness.

(The extended baseline scenario was calculated based on massive tax hikes. Even still, the inevitable is only delayed by a few years.)

Update: The following graph is more, err, 'graphic.' These are White House and CBO numbers.

Just the facts....

We have already established that polls can be skewed to say many things. This was just the headliner poll on yahoo.com when I signed in today. Not going to make any judgment, just copied and pasted.....

The survey found the ranks of people who think the country is on the right track dropping to 40 percent, down 12 points since early June and the lowest since Obama took office in January.

As unemployment continues to rise, Americans who say the country' s on the wrong track jumped to 54 percent, a 12-point rise and the highest since Obama took office.

The number of Americans who approve of the way Obama is doing his job also dropped, to 57 percent, a 7-point decline from early June and the lowest of his presidency that McClatchy-Ipsos has recorded.

His biggest loss of support was among independents, whose approval decreased from 58 percent to 50 percent. However, he also lost ground among Democrats, down 5 points, and Republicans, down 3 points.

Notably, the total of Americans who "strongly" approve of Obama's job performance dropped 11 points in a month, to 29 percent, his lowest ever. Conversely, 22 percent said they strongly disapprove, up 6 points and the highest of his six months in office.

Let's start the discussion: health care reform.

Although Alan opened with a posting on his blog some time ago, I think that it would be interesting to see what our family thinks of health care reform in general and the specific debates that are now occurring. Much of the public has unjustified beliefs about what might occur with any form of reform.

The first question is of course whether or not one thinks that our system needs reform.

The second question might concern various plans proposed, or perhaps an outright prioritizing of what one thinks needs to be fixed.

It ought to be an enlightening discussion.

I believe that reform is urgent but as I have said before, contrary to many liberals, I do no longer endorse a single-payer option. I believe that open but controlled competition can be very beneficial and even superior .

It seems to me that the government needs to get involved in two areas in which it is not currently involved. The first is some form of price controlling (I have my reason for this and will be happy to discuss them if anyone disagrees.) The second is the establishment of a public option administered by the government (failing that, I would be adamant about a federal law obliging an open, completely non-exclusionary enrollment plan on all insurance companies.)

There are a lot of details, but this is enough of a start in a highly complex arena.

Collecting your social security benefits

Interesting article. I didn't know this about collecting our SS. I thought I would share it with ya'll.

Top 25 Travel Destinations

The top 25 travel destinations in the United States., according to Forbes Traveler, are as follows: (sites and annual visitor counts).
1. Times Square, 37.6 million
2. Las Vegas Strip, Nevada, 30 million
3. National Mall and Memorial Parks, Washington, 25 million
4. Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Boston, 20 million
5. Disney World's Magic Kingdom, Lake Buena Vista, Fla., 17.1 million
6. Disneyland Park, Anaheim, Calif., 14.9 million
7. Fisherman's wharf, Golden Gate National Park, San Francisco, 14.1 million
8. Niagara Falls, N.Y. 12 million
9. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tenn., N.C., 9.04 million
10. Navy Pier, Chicago, 8.6 million
11. Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Ariz.-Nev., 7.6 million
12. Universal Studios -- Islands of Adventure, Orlando, 6.2 million
13. Sea World Florida, Orlando, 5.8 million
14. Delaware Water Gap National, Penn. N.J., 5.13
15. San Antonio Riverwalk, Texas, 5.1 million
16.Temple Square, Salt Lake City, 5 million
17. Universal Studios Hollywood, Calif., 4.7 million
18. Metropolitan Museum, New York, N.Y., 4.7 million
19. Cape Cod National Seashore, Mass., 4.64 million
20. Grand Canyon, Ariz., 4.43 million
21. Busch Gardens Africa, Tampa Bay, Fla., 4.4 million
22. SeaWorld San Diego, San Diego, Calif., 4.26 million
23. Independence National Historic Park, Philadelphia, Penn., 4.08 million
24. American Museum of Natural History, New York, 4 million
25. Waikiki Beach, Oahu, Hawaii, 3.67 million

I know it's pathetic, but I have visited only seven on the list (#1, #2, #6, #7, #8, #16, and #22).

$18 million Website

ABC news reports that the Obama administration will spend $18 million dollars on a website that is to show us how the stimulus money is being spent. I am happy about the website, but $18 million dollars? You could probably buy 1,800 top-of-the-line websites for that amount. Why is it that government has no clue how much things actually cost in the real world? It is bureaucracy at its worst and incompetence at its best.

Astonishing words from Judge Ginsberg

I just ran across some surprising words stated by Ruth Ginsberg of the US Supreme Court.

"Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of. So that Roe was going to be then set up for Medicaid funding for abortion. Which some people felt would risk coercing women into having abortions when they didn’t really want them. But when the court decided McRae, the case came out the other way. And then I realized that my perception of it had been altogether wrong."

I looked for the broader context to see if she was taken out of context. The broader context of this statement was made in relation to the Court’s 1980 decision in Harris v. McRae, which ruled that the Hyde Amendment’s exclusion of nontherapeutic abortions from Medicaid reimbursement was constitutionally permissible. In other words, I-don't-want-the-child type of abortions could not be reimbursed by Medicaid.

Did Ginsberg misspeak? Am I somehow misunderstanding her words? What populations is she talking about limiting? Is the limiting certain populations what the abortion crowd is really all about?

Honduras: Was it really a coup?

If you are interested in this topic, there is an interesting article here.
However, a more academic analysis was done by Max Bader, senior counsel at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. He writes:

Obama is quite wrong to claim that the removal of Zelaya was "illegal." The Honduran president forfeited his right to rule under Article 239 of the Honduran Constitution, which bans presidents from holding office if they even propose to alter the constitutional term limits for presidents. And the Honduran military, which acted on orders of the Honduran supreme court, expressly had the right to remove the president for seeking to alter the constitutional term limit, under Article 272 of the Honduran Constitution. . . .The Honduran military's role in enforcing the court order does not make it a "coup" anymore than federal troops' role in enforcing the court-ordered integration of the Little Rock public schools in 1957 constituted a military occupation or takeover.

So it appears that Obama is again on the wrong side of an international incident and his recent positions seem to always fall on the side of those against freedom and democracy. Only in the case of Iran did he finally make a statement in favor of the protesters, but only by being goaded into it by Hillary Clinton (who I still think would have been a better president).

The Question for Obama in 2012

The question for Obama in 2012 is: Will he keep Biden on the ticket? In terms of campaigning, he is quite a liability. He loves to blabber on and say things contrary to the talking points. I think Obama will likely be on defense in 2010 and thereafter, so he will need a better attack dog than Biden.

Mitt Romney: flying low and laughing all the way!

The antics or even outright political demise of Ensign, the SC gov, soon ex-gov Palin are opening wide the door for Mitt Romney to be the next Republican presidential nominee. The guy from Louisiana (B. Jindle ?) had a bad debut, Republicans can't seem to find a leader, Huckabee is not strong enough to win nationally, I know, I'm rambling which is exactly what the Republican Party is doing these days. Rambling without a firm message. Romney is being wise and I bet following the advice of his handlers: let the rivals hang themselves, you'll be the last man standing!

Google Reader

In relation to the separated pages, it is hard to please everyone, but some were not visiting or participating in the blog because of the opinion posts. I think that is a serious enough drawback to justify the split. Nevertheless, for those of you unhappy with the separate pages, please add Google Reader to your iGoogle page (I am assuming everyone has one.). Google reader will let you know when there is a new post on any page that you regularly visit. In other words, you don't have to actually go to each website to see if something has been posted. Google Reader will tell and show you the post, all on your iGoogle page.

American's becoming more conservative?

The Gallup poll finds that Americans describe themselves as having gotten more conservative in recent years:

Americans, by a 2-to-1 margin, say their political views in recent years have become more conservative rather than more liberal, 39% to 18%, with 42% saying they have not changed. While independents and Democrats most often say their views haven't changed, more members of all three major partisan groups indicate that their views have shifted to the right rather than to the left.

Hmm, that does not jive with the recent elections. I have always wondered about the accuracy of Gallup polls. It could be that the electorate was simply fed up with those in power and decided to throw the bums out. The GOP often behaved in non-conservative ways and followed the northeastern liberal Republican thought, which has always gotten them into deep trouble. Nevertheless, the electorate will eventually get tired of those currently in power and throw the bums out. I think the 'eventually' timeframe is going to be rather short in this case. I also think that the Dems know it and that is why they are in such a hurry to pass all these big spending bills and continue with the gravy train to Democrat constituents (a.k.a. ACORN).

Bankruptcy rates

Utah and Tennessee have the worst bankruptcy rates among the 50 states.
The knee jerk reaction of the media is to claim that the situation is a reflection on the people, i.e., Mormons and redneck evangelicals. However, a new study shows that the bankruptcy rates are a reflection of local government policies rather than people.

New Wortham Family News Blog

This blog was created in the midst of last year's election and its original purpose was to provide a venue for family members to post opinions and respond to opinions about current events. However, the blog has become a mixture of opinions and family news. This is unpleasant for some and it has been suggested by several people that the two should be divided to create two blogs: one for family news and one for opinion and discussion. Since the blog you are currently reading is titled "Wortham Family and Relatives Discussion" and since the web address is very similar, it seems logical to keep this blog as the opinion and discussion blog. I have set up a new blog titled "Wortham Family News." Invitations to access the page have been sent out to Mom and Dad and their immediate family. Please give me addresses of grandkids who need to be invited. Such will constitute a downward expansion, which all will welcome I am sure. However, should we expand it horizontally to aunts, uncles, cousins, etc? Perhaps they already have such a webpage for their own immediate families, and such a horizontal expansion could get unwieldy over time (which doesn't mean I am against it by any means).

As a reminder, the reason for the invitations is to prevent "trolls" from accessing our page. "Trolls" are creatures who 'troll' around the web to find open web pages where they can post inflammatory and crude messages.

Le Tour de France

The Tour de France begins tomorrow. I get up early every morning in July to watch. It is my second favorite sporting event after football. I don't even care for basketball or baseball anymore. Lance Armstrong is back this year and riding for Team Astana. The first day is individual time trials.
Click on the image to enlarge.