Saving money
Republican state
governors as well as members of Congress are trying to save money by
reducing the number of people having access to Medicaid – the
health insurance system for the very poor. Rep. Paul Ryan proposes to
save $300 billion by slashing Medicaid expenditures radically.
It is no doubt
true that the federal government is spending more than it should. It
is equally true that we will have to learn to live more closely to
our income. But the big debate is how to save a significant amount of
money every year.
I started thinking
about this when I read an article in the newspaper about the federal
flood insurance program, begun in 1968, that insures houses built
right on the ocean. That's a perilous location and every year a
significant number of beachfront houses are destroyed by storms. But
people don't learn and more houses than ever are being built on the
dunes. The federal government insures these houses because no private
company would be willing to do so. The federal flood insurance
program is $30 billion in the red.
Suppose we told
people not to build right on the oceanfront, or if they do, to do it
at their own risk. That would save a nice chunk of money.
The next day there
was a story in the paper that the government gave a grant to find out
how to build computers that are more sensitive to human beings.
Should we finance that and take away health care for the very poor?
Somehow that does not sound right.
Maybe Medicare
could remain intact if we made global corporations like Exxon and
General Motors pay fair taxes. Maybe we could end military
procurement programs for weapons the military does not want, which
are kept going by local congresspeople afraid that jobs will be lost
if the program is canceled. For years we have heard of contractors
overcharging the military for hammers, toilet seats, and other
mundane supplies. Maybe we could finally control those costs.
Medications that
cost more than a $100.00 in the US, sell for a tenth of that in
Europe. Our government has refused to bargain with drug companies and
the government bears the brunt of drug companies overcharging
patients. There is a lot of money to be saved here. The same is
obviously true of private health insurance and the manufacture of
medical technology.
The government
gives out lots money to businesses, nonprofits, and others. Here is
one interesting example: Every time an oil company brings up a gallon
of crude from below, the government gives them money because they can
sell that gallon of oil only once. Every day we work we get older and
lose a bit of strength and endurance. The government does not pay us
any depletion allowance. Why should they pay that to the oil
companies? I suspect a goodly sum of money could be saved there.
Cutting Medicare
is not a financial necessity. It is a spiteful, hateful measure
instigated by people who have long ago lost the human qualities the
government now pays to built into computers. If they succeed they
definitely should send computers to Congress. They would be kinder to
ordinary citizens than the present incumbents.
Perhaps we need a
grant to humanize our representatives in Congress.
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