Obama to Endorse House Healthcare Bill Today

The President according to reports plans to endorse the House healthcare bill today, so what does that mean. Firstly, I must confess to largely ignoring the House bill as a Pelosi build disaster area, but not the WH. The WH initially had expressed so much enthusiasm with the Senate's machinations around healthcare, so why the sea change?

I'm frankly not sure. Is this a desperate last second throw to the end zone? If I were pressed to render a judgment I guess that I'd have to say that it is. Let's digress, no substantive bill will pass Congress without the complicity of the Senate, yet the House bill has absolutely no chance of passing the Senate. So why does the Administration decide to weigh in at this moment.

I'm a little lost, is this Administration, which so capably managed the Presidential campaign, unable to recognize the minefield that they have stumbled into? Does anyone above the age of 25 really believe that any plan that our federal government enacts can actually bend the cost curve. Please, put aside all the crazy talk surrounding this debate.

Health care is 16-17% of our economy albeit with poor results relative to the world (i.e., child mortality, neo-natal care etc.). Put aside that our critical care medicine is without peer, that is where our competitive advantage lies. The level of medical costs is clearly detrimental to the overall economy, but can the government cure it. My 46 years on this planet leave me with a jaundiced view. Maybe it could happen and it certainly is worthy of Congressional and Presidential attention, but the House bill is a train wreck.

We're going to save $50 billion on fraud and abuse in Medicare. If so, why are we waiting to pass a bill to realize that savings. That mere proposal of the foregoing shows its insanity. The House bill is a testimony to bureaucracy not to added efficiency, how does the Administration feel that this represents our best answer to a clearly vexing problem. I am disappointed that the President's advisers have apparently told him that this is the best he can hope for. I don't pretend to know the answer, but I'm confident that the House bill ain't it.

January 20th is Soon Enough

Left-leaning talking heads and op-ed writers are banging the drum for Obama to take the reins of government ahead of the constitutionally mandated date for the presidential transition.  On the other side of the political spectrum, there are silly claims of the "Obama recession."  

Neither of the foregoing persons possess much beyond a remedial understanding of the current financial crisis, if fact listening to them opine on these matters is painful.  Talk about being out of their collective depth, most of these folks most readily resemble Sarah Palin's rambling, nonsensical blather when they seek to characterize what's going on.

I argue that it is prudent for President-elect Obama move .cautiously.  This crisis is dynamic.  As the current administration's efforts have evidenced, today's "solution" may be next week's folly.  The US (and the world's) economy is trodding virgin territory.  Some of what will happen is beyond the control of government.  Better to move slowly and prudently, than respond as ifin  campaign mode.  The next administration needs to guard its credibility fiendishly with regard to our present circumstances.  A rapid response methodology is the polar opposite of what current circumstances demand.  Careful, thoughtful and to extent practicable, consistent economic messages are imperative to allow world markets to heal.  

Obama Mania?

Oodles of press for the current golden child of US politics Barack Obama, the junior Senator from Illinois. Covers of GQ, Newsweek and Time. What gives? Why now? Aesthetically, this guy has a resume to die for: son of an Kenyan immigrant and a Kansas mom, editor of Harvard Law Review.

Truth is I've reworked an initial Obama post for so long its hardly relevant. Anyway, he's as hot as he can be right now and while pundits can claim he lacks the gravitas necessary for the position (hey, wait I thought GWB extinguished that prerequisite for good already) given a mere two years on the national scene, this time may be his single best shot. Firstly, if you're hot now don't think that 4 more years of refinement guarantees you anything, grab lightening when it's stormin'.

Just ask Mario Cuomo who probably had the '92 democratic nomination for the asking but was scared away by Poppy Bush's sky-high poll numbers following the vanquishing of Saddam in Kuwait. He demurred, intending to grab the brass ring at a more politically opportune moment. The only problem was a bulbous-nosed politician from Arkansas, who came form nowhere while Mario ended up where Bill started - no where.

Obama's lack of a senate record is a distinct advantage, legislative records are difficult to explain. Tonight he's in NYC with big money folks trying to figure out who's going to pony up. My guess is that plenty are willing to give plenty at this point, but it is far too early to discount Senator Clinton.