I would like to know more about this… what were they voting on? I imagine it wasn’t terribly serious, but still a politician shows his true colors when he has the power.
People think our democracy is very robust but this video is a demonstration of human nature and we can not forget where power leads people (no matter what party).
Direct from Obama’s website.
“To help address this, we need to stand up to the special interests, bring Republicans and Democrats together, and pass the Farm Bill immediately.” – Then Senator Obama
HT:Megan McArdle via Cafe Hayek
This weekend I had several projects to complete. The first one had origins 6 years ago, when my yet to be wife purchased an extended warranty on her car. At the time the finance guy at the dealership said that the premium would be fully refundable at the end of the period if we did not use it. When I heard this I thought it almost sounded too good to be true, but he practically pinky swore to it. Well fast forward 6 years later… This whole time I have had it listed on the spread sheet where I track my finances, so I wouldn’t forget about it, I decided to look up the information, which I had filed. Well, long story short, and many phone calls later we found out that we can only get the refund if we process the transaction within 60 days of the expiration. Well it expired 12/27/09 so we are right in that window. I shared with the Toyota guy how angry I would have been if I found out I couldn’t get this after the previous guy made it sound so simple. The point is, being on top of that and making the effort is going to get me a check for over $1000.
Also, this weekend for the same car, I took it in to get serviced and for them to check out an increasingly loud noise coming from the rear of the car. It turned out to be a wheel bearing going out. The dealer quoted me $535. I thought, “I’ve heard dealers are expensive I should look around.” After going to one random shop (who quoted me $425) and then finding out my family’s recommended place went out of business, I finally found a really friendly professional place (B&D Auto Repair in Glendora) who ended up giving me a price of $276.
Now, you may be thinking, “What the heck is the point to all of this?” Well, I have three (I know you probably think, “How are you going to get one?”) First, both of these situations where lessons in consumer economic psychology. Do you know what my first reaction to each of these situations was? Whatever took the least effort on my part. For the warranty, I just wanted to put it off, thinking that it doesn’t matter I could do it later. With the repair I thought, “I don’t want to hassle with finding another place to get the repair done.” Just from a personal finance perspective we all need to be aware of this and its potentially huge consequences at times (this weekend over $1300!).
The second point is about how the market works. The repair was a classic case of a consumer using some of their time and energy to reward a higher quality service at a lower price. This feeds directly into the healthcare debate, I don’t have any incentive whatsoever to look for better and cheaper service at the doctors when insurance is paying for almost everything.
The third point is don’t get repairs done at a car dealership, they are ripping you off!
Ohhh! I have a fourth point, think about how much Americans waste every year with potentially lazy mistakes like the ones I could have made (and I’m sure I have made). People need to take more responsibility for their financial situations, and put in the time and effort it takes to be an educated, well-informed consumer and investor.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
BBC: What’s the Matter With Americans?
The BBC has a snobby and biased piece up basically whinning that, in rejecting Obamacare, Americans are voting “against their interests.”
The piece spends a great deal of time telling the reader that American health care is soooo expensive (without explaining why) and that Americans must be crazy not to want rationing. Well, that’s my take on it, anyway.
But it is striking that the people who most dislike the whole idea of healthcare reform – the ones who think it is socialist, godless, a step on the road to a police state – are often the ones it seems designed to help.
In Texas, where barely two-thirds of the population have full health insurance and over a fifth of all children have no cover at all, opposition to the legislation is currently running at 87%…
Instead, to many of those who lose out under the existing system, reform still seems like the ultimate betrayal.
Why are so many American voters enraged by attempts to change a horribly inefficient system that leaves them with premiums they often cannot afford?
Why are they manning the barricades to defend insurance companies that routinely deny claims and cancel policies?
It would have been nice if the BBC had actually talked to those who oppose Obamacare, rather than just generalizing about them, insinuating that they’re stupid or “just angry” if they don’t think a government run system is in their best interests.
Protein Wisdom notes that ” in other countries, people demonstrate for the government to do more things for them. Only Americans would turn out in the streets for huge demos, demanding that the government leave them the hell alone.” Those silly Americans!
More analysis here.
“I swear this guy (Chris Matthews) is one scotch away from being Ron Burgundy” – Jon Stewart
The Quote comes only at about 3:45 but really the first 4:30 minutes are worth watching…it goes downhill from there.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Speech Therapy – Post-Racial | ||||
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President’s State of the Union – Commentary
January 27th, 2010Quotes from the President
“People are hurting, they need our help!” – NO! What people need is for the government to stop messing with every stinking thing in our lives. Our government has caused most of this hurt, and they want to help by intervening even more, what the heck!
“China’s not waiting to revamp its economy” – China is run by a communist undemocratic government. I don’t really want to follow their path.
“A new generation of safe, clean, nuclear energy facilities. Opening certain areas to oil and gas exploration.” – Amen! Now lets remove some of the government imposed restrictions that mean no new nuclear reactors have been built in 30 years.
Earmark Reform – All earmarks to be posted online – Awesome! Now we need to make sure congress actually does it, and that they post it more than an hour before the vote.
“We will double our exports over the next 5 years. This will create 2,000,000 jobs.” – I’m sorry this is a ridiculous statement and goal. First off, who’s going to buy it? The rest of the world is suffering as much, if not more than we are. They don’t want to buy our expensive products. Also, we are already #3 in the world for exporters, so its not like we aren’t already doing a whole lot of it. As to the number of jobs, you’re saying it takes $1,000,000 of exports to create one job?
“Our [healthcare] reforms will bring down the deficit by 1 trillion over the next two decades. ” – Really two decades to get 1 trillion in savings? We spend $750 billion a year on Medicare alone, so his grand idea is to save about 5% a year (I’m assuming growth in spending)? I really think we can do better than that.
“I took on health care, because of the stories I’ve heard.” – Stories are a dime a dozen, lets look at the facts and not all the emotions that surround this important subject. The government controls about 50% of medical spending this country, where has that gotten us? In business, a company that controls 50% of its market has huge control over that market. The government and structure of the medical industry are the main reasons why we have a problem in this country.
“We had a $1 trillion deficit before I walked in the door” – This is a very, very misleading statement. That trillion consisted largely of TARP funding, which was not spending, but a short term investment. As was planned, most has been returned. Now they want to actually spend it.
“We are going to identify $20 billion in savings for next year.” – Again, I’m sorry but this is another ridiculous statement, he’s actually talking about saving less than 1% of the budget? We are currently financing 40% of the government spending, 1% is nothing, I think he was just hoping the word billion would make people think it was a lot.
The general theme = Intervention! Intervention! Intervention! (child care tax credits, green energy subsidies, Health Care Reform, small business loan fund, increased college tax credit, limit on student loan payments, jobs bill, climate change bill, export program, etc.)
You know what, we are now ranked behind Canada as the 8th most economically free country in the world. We are no longer considered “Free” but “Partially Free” by the Heritage Foundation’s recent study. I don’t like this direction.
Tags: Commentary, Obama, State of the Union
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