Grasping at straws / 6-12-09

I have a buddy who's a Republican, and proud of it. He's a proselytizer, too, always making an argument for his side. I chortled when he claimed earlier this week that Obama was going to ruin the economy. Look at the unemployment figures, he crowed. Where's the stimulation that the stimulus was supposed to stimulate, he raved.

Pick your battles, my friend. If there's one thing that will look better when Obama runs again, it's the economy.

BHO may or may not get us out of either Iraq or Afghanistan, and the country might still be running massive deficits in 2012 when we get to have another presidential campaign. But I can guarantee that when people are asked, during that glorious season of debates and stump speeches, if they are better off now than they were four years ago, it will be the resoundingest "yes" we've heard in a while.

Tie your fortunes to Obama's health care reform agenda. Tie your political fortunes to his foreign policy, which will certainly include a blunder or two. Hope for a debilitating scandal that ensnares Biden and Pelosi and makes the D's look corrupt. But unless you're a complete idiot, don't bet on the economy tanking. Seriously people. It hit rock bottom with the Bush League, but those days are over and the adults are back in charge now.

Don't get sick / 6-5-09

If you were planning on breaking both your legs, replacing a kidney, or having a couple-three rounds of brain surgery for fun this summer, you might want to rethink things.

Insurmountable medical bills were a factor in 62 percent of bankruptcies last year (meaning 2007). This according to a study in the American Journal of Medicine.

Well, we gotta start gettin some health insurance to these poor saps, then, huh? Well... 75 percent of the newly bankrupt actually HAD medical coverage.

Oh.

And here I was thinking that layoffs and the recessionaryismentation-ness of the economy were to blame. And all the suckers who bought $800,000 homes on $40k jobs. For sure, those things play their role, but it's the medical bills that push people over the edge, it appears.

The data is for 2007, as I said. Which leads some to conclude that the 2008 numbers will be even more striking.

Possibly, health care reform is the biggest challenge we face today. Bigger than terrorism... bigger than Social Security's coming insolvency, bigger than climate change, even. (All that's going to do is displace a billion people and de-stabilize the poor countries of the world and raise sea levels and mess with the food supply. OK, so maybe they're tied.)

Generally Bankrupt Motors, Inc. / 6-1-09

With Chrysler and GM due to emerge from bankruptcy as leaner, meaner, presumably greener machines, it will be fascinating to see if the companies' main stockholder, the United States government, benefits financially in the long run.

I own two Japanese cars, but I'm rooting for the Amerikan yonrisha seizousha here.