The US Government buys a truck to go into the apple business.

They drive from Washington DC to Washington state to pick up the apples.

They buy the apples for $1 each.

They sell the apples in Washington DC for $1 each.

They decide in order to start making a profit, they need 1 million more trucks.

Here endeth the lesson

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Two to Four Players compete at exploring for oil and building platforms. Players must avoid the “hazard cards” which read such set-backs as, “Blow-out! Rig Damaged,” and “Oil Clean Up Cost. Pay $1 Million.”

$1 Million? BP wishes it was only that much.

The rest of the info on the game is even more sketchy than the actual disaster. Supposedly endorsed by BP and other oil companies the game was produced around 1970 with little sales (wow, there is a surprise).

I suspect this game will now emerge from dark closets across Europe and start selling on eBay along with Connect Four Hurricanes and Chutes and Failed Car Companies.

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Let’s start with last night’s monumental passing of the Health Care Reform package shall we?

For starters, let me be very clear. It is terrible that 40+ Million people living in the US do not have health care. Few elect not to have it while the greater part of the group simply cannot afford it. That tragedy certainly needs attention and needs to be fixed but in the correct manner. With that said…

The Bi-Partisan Bill with only One Party’s Votes.

Must Have: American’s will be required to have health care, or pay a fine. Seriously? Who decides what is affordable or not for another individual? Since when are American’s required to purchase something? Will we be required to purchase a Ford if the US car companies get in trouble again?

Dollars and Sense: “We,” the taxpayers, will pay somewhere around $950 Billion dollars, initially, for the plan. It may reduce the national deficit by $150 Billion in the first 10 years (second grade math tells me the plan then initially costs taxpayers $800 Billion right?).

The plan is suppose to save close to a trillion dollars the following 10 years (2024-2034) – but that assumes that no significant costs go up in the next 20 years (I am sure doctors and politicians are more or less ok with a 20-year pay freeze?).

Increase Payroll: Thousands of non-medical personal need to be hired to implement and maintain the program. Those new employees are probably pretty annoying people and are going to want to get paid to work. Sheesh, the nerve.

Who Loses First?: Medicare benefits will change dramatically. The biggest item being used to pay for the new program is $500 Billion in cuts to the Medicare program. This all happens as 72 million baby boomers become eligible for Medicare in the next decade. The second biggest move to pay for this is by raising and expanding the Medicare tax.

Is it Getting Crowded in Here?: With the average wait time to see a doctor measured in days and weeks (not hours), 32 Million additional people will have a negative impact without first building and infrastructure to handle it. (For example, Massachusetts is the only state that offers universal coverage. It suffers from some of the worst primary care wait times in the United States yet has the highest concentration of doctors nationwide.)

Hey Buddy, Here is an Envelope: Don’t even get me started on all the “special kick-backs” and bribes that were written in to garner votes – those dollars are in the millions and millions as well.

Now, that is not to say there are not some great provisions in the plan…

Medicare: Prescription drug coverage gap closed; affected over-65s receive rebate and discount on brand name drugs

Medicaid: Expanded to include families under 65 with gross income of up to 133% of federal poverty level and childless adults

Insurance reforms: Insurers can no longer deny coverage to those with pre-existing conditions

Insurance exchanges: Uninsured and self-employed able to purchase insurance through state-based exchanges

Subsidies: By 2014, according to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill will give 19 million uninsured Americans subsidies averaging $6,000 to help pay premiums and other medical charges – (although the $6,000 must be paid by someone else somehow).

In the Family: Your child can stay on your policy until they are 26 (as a parent, tell me why that is a good thing?)

Great stuff, but it all of it needs to be paid for somehow.

The expense of health care is not fully paid by the newly insured – For 19 Million people their insurance is supplemented. That means the bulk of the medical costs need to come from somewhere.

That “from somewhere” is a new tax structure imposed on individuals and businesses.

Go Socialized or Go Home?

Here is my overall point (man you had to wait awhile didn’t you?) America is stuck in what I call a “politically correct middle ground.” We want to maintain our core democratic values but we keep injecting the contrary.

For example, true democracy is survival of the fittest. When a poorly run business shuts its doors, the next one steps up to the plate. But the new just-bail-them-out-with-taxpayer-money messes it up.

Bailouts protect those that have failed. It messes with the natural order of things. Forcing citizens to purchase insurance or making someone pay for someone else’s insurance is not only an infringement of rights but also an infringement of core constitutional values.

The government has “ownership” of banks, insurance companies, car manufactures, and now, health insurance.

This “take from the rich and give to the poor” middle ground stifles entrepreneurism and growth. If a person or business is penalized for becoming too successful or making too much money why try at all?

The Bottom Line

Certainly we need to help all fellow human beings regardless of race, religion, age, or geographical location. And we do need to find a way to insure millions of people without insurance. But…

You cannot take away the inalienable rights of one individual’s pursuit of happiness to supplement another.

You cannot pose “caps” on those that try to succeed beyond the norm – they are the ones that create jobs for others to then fulfill their dreams.

Time will tell what the net effect will be on American’s both financially and physically. Last night is a start, but not one that is off on solid footing.

I am done. I now return you to your regularly scheduled Slow Bleed topics.

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If seems an employee contractor was sent to the wrong property when it believed the owner of the property was in default on her mortgage.

The women was not home at the time, but the contractor changed the locks, cut the water pipes and electricity, poured anti-freeze into the sinks and toilets.

If that was not enough, the contractor took Luke, her blue macaw.

When the women contacted B of A, she was told the company had zero tolerance for that kind of error; but the women still had to drive 80 miles to recover her parrot.

She is suing B of A for $50,000 in damages.

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When people are depressed or undergoing financial hardships, they drink. Who would have thought?

My proof? Anheuser-Busch made $1.28 billion in the last quarter of 2009. Budweiser remains the market leader in the US and Brazil.

Sure some people will say it had nothing to do with the economy but I beg to differ. If it is not due to the economy, what is it?

• Certainly there were not that many NASCAR events going on.

• Martha Stewart has not changed from cooking with wine to beer.

• With the increasing shortage on chicken wings; beer and wing combos have not increased.

• Beer is still more expensive than water (for now).

Yep, I pretty much think it was the economy but will need extensive time and money to research fully.

[Insert government approved grant here for further testing]

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The Commerce Department has just announced that retail spending, in January, was up o.5%. This far exceeded the estimates*.

*Understand the estimates were pretty low to begin with. Pretty much the economic equivalent of expecting a “special” kid to make the Taj Majal out Popsicle sticks. Unless it is the Elephant man or that kid from the movie Mask, it just isn’t going to happen.

Seriously? 0.5% is worth the “hey-the-recession-is-over” celebration?? Isn’t that the equivalent of some tourist going in and paying full price for a NASCAR t-shirt during the Daytona 500?

Ok, maybe it is a bit more, but certainly not worth celebrating the end of an economic crisis. I guess if we hear “it is over” enough times we will believe it.

What do you think? Now I can go buy an iPad?

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In the treasury report released a couple days ago the government indicated the loss [on the loan to CIT] at $2.3 Billion. The loan was an effort to save the failing company which ended up declaring bankruptcy in December 2008.

However all is not lost…

So far Treasury has recovered two-thirds of TARP investments in banks and earned $17 billion in income from those investments. – oh, and one plate sent in by Mrs. Gladice Milson of Wells, NV.

*SPECIAL DISCLAIMER: I made up Gladice Milson. As far as I know, Who’s the Boss commemorative plates do not exist. Please do not try and buy them or send me hate mail if they actually do exist. Any investment in Franklin Mint plates is not recommended by the Godfather. Investment has risk. So do plates (they fall on the ground and break).

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I am so confused. Can I buy the new Apple iPad or should I be buying rice and beans to store in my cellar?

This is from Mr. Greenspan on Meet the Press this week. (read the whole transcript here).

MR. GREENSPAN: The recession is over. It bottomed back in the middle of last year. And while it doesn’t have the strong momentum I had hoped it would have, strangely, because of the fact that we had such a strong fourth quarter, which was essentially using up a lot of the latent power of events, which was the gradual reduction in the rate of decline in inventories. We did it all in the fourth quarter, and we since–we shot our ammunition. So it’s going to be a slow, trudging thing, but I do think we’re going to be moving forward. And, as Hank says, the issue here is basically innovation. Innovation by definition is not forecastable, so we don’t know where the jobs are coming from. We don’t know how this market is exactly in terms of dynamics going to move forward. But we know that this process is under way, and there’s every reason to believe that it will continue to do so.

Click your heals and just believe Dorothy. There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.

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