Time Travel Guide to Health Care

Go look at the pictographs, read the little comments on the sides of them and see if you notice some seriously messed up patterns there? That is the link to the wasted money we dump into our for-profit system, though, they try to justify it as the investment we make in innovation. You kind of have to squint and look sideways at the right side top of the page - under "Related" - to find the links to the next part. But the information there is pretty relevant and paints an accurate depiction of many of the problems with our broken system.

GOP Votes Against Biggest Tax Cut In History

And the GOP is clueless as to what just happened:

The compromise stimulus plan includes $282 billion in tax cuts over two years.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Bush's first two years of tax cuts amounted to $174 billion. A second batch in 2004 and 2005 cost $231. And those were thought to be bigger than the tax cuts offered by Reagan, Kennedy or others.

As much as I was against most of the tax cuts, since we really need the money to bail out the failed republican economy of the bush years, it will be entertaining to watch the far right wing try to explain this.

[update] Just something fun to do when you are a sometime insomniac:



[ed. Note] Originally posted - 2/14/2009 12:52:00 AM Bump.

RIP Dave

bigdavefromqueens around these parts, and David Weintraub in real life. There was someone that wasn't afraid to climb out on a limb if it was a cause he believed in.




He thought this was important, important enough to have it as a signature:

"I shall not rest until right wing conservatives are 4th party gadflies limited to offering minor corrections on legislation once or twice a year."

They aren't 4th party, yet, but you pushed them halfway there. And they seem determined to try their best to get the rest of the way.

2008 Bankruptcies Skyrocketed in Connecticut

According to The New London Day, 2008 bankruptcies across the rest of the nation too:

Filings for one of the most common forms of personal bankruptcy have increased by more than 60 percent in 2008 in Connecticut, according to a report released Monday by The Warren Group.

According to the report, Chapter 7 filings of the U.S. bankruptcy code increased 66 percent last year, from 3,417 in 2007 to 5,676 in 2008 and more than doubled since 2006. Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the most common option for individuals seeking relief from debt, wipes away most debt after non-exempt assets are used to pay off creditors.
When combined with Chapter 13 filings, which permit repayment of debt, filings are up 51 percent in the state since last year.

Oh yeah... Chapter 7 bankruptcies are down compared to 2005 levels courtesy of what was little more than the "indentured servitude act - 2005" making it near impossible to get out from underneath debt. You can thank the entire bank loving Congress for that. There are way too many Democratic members in the House and Senate that deserve special attention on this to bother list, never mind the ever-screwing-us-over Republicans.

Tell me something, all you Senators and Representatives, are you proud of this and do you think about this as you hand over TRILLIONS of our tax dollars to these corrupt and incompetent robber baron banks? And how do you live with yourselves knowing that we know you are robbing us?

Politicians and bankers... Criminals with a fancy title.