We analyze the news for a living here, and have been very successful for more than 13 years. But I can honestly tell you I do not know what is true and what is false when it comes to financing Obamacare.
That's because it's impossible to know. No one knows, yet both sides are trying to convince us they have the facts.
The president said Wednesday that higher taxes on the wealthy and more efficient spending on things like Medicare and Medicaid would pay for the trillion-dollar health care reform legislation. Mr. Obama says he has it under control.
Republicans say not true. Dick Morris estimates Obamacare will cost $6 trillion and the feds will never be able to pay for it.
On Thursday in The Wall Street Journal, Republican Congressman Paul Ryan makes the following points: that President Obama is misleading the nation because he is using 10 years of revenue and spending cuts to cover six years of health care entitlements. Ryan claims that when you honestly add up the cost, Obamacare would lead to about $500 billion in deficit spending over 10 years.
"Talking Points" knows a few things for sure: that both Medicare and Medicaid are going bankrupt. Even if there is no health care reform, the feds will have to find trillions of dollars to keep those things afloat.
Social Security is also running out of money, and with 77 million baby boomers about to start collecting, another fiscal crisis looms.
President Obama sincerely believes that health care reform will make America stronger. The man really believes that. Just as President Bush sincerely believed Saddam Hussein was a threat to the world.
But both could be wrong, and it is very possible that Obamacare will cause mass chaos in our medical system and drive the Treasury into bankruptcy.
This is not a scare tactic; this is real life.
The president must know Obamacare is a huge risk for the country, and at this point, I believe the risk is not worth taking. Strict government oversight and new rules on health insurance companies does not cost anything. Try private reform first, even as you figure out how to pay for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
Statistics out this week say 10 percent of Americans now pay more than 70 percent of federal income tax, and 50 percent of Americans pay close to nothing. That means that affluent Americans are pretty much tapped out. Draconian tax increases against them will likely lead to more economic chaos.
Unlike some who disagree with President Obama, I do not believe his intentions are bad. But I do believe he is taking a huge risk with all of our lives by the colossal spending that's coming down the road.
And that's "The Memo."
Pinheads & Patriots
In Palm Beach, Florida, two divers came across a shark on the bottom of the ocean. But instead of the shark menacing them, they saved the creature.
It seems a large plastic ring – pollution — had ensnared the shark, preventing it from eating. The divers removed the ring, which wasn't easy.
They are patriots.
On the pinhead front, there is still snow on the ground in northern New Jersey and that prompted one family to make a snowwoman. They based the lady on the Venus de Milo sculpture, which of course is undraped.
Well that caused a bit of a ruckus, so the family clothed Venus, kind of.
Are they pinheads? You make the call.
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