I've seen many figures recently suggesting we are in similar straits as Greece or Portugal, nations that recently had their debt ratings lowered, their stock markets crushed, and their workers on the streets throwing bottles and burning cars.
Head of the Dallas Fed, Richard Fisher, recently said he was worried about "the very deep hole [our political leaders] have dug in incurring unfunded liabilities of retirement and health-care obligations" that "we at the Dallas Fed believe total over $99 trillion."
Obamacare is supposed to be paid for by a half-a-trillion-dollar cut in Medicare, and a tax on rich people making more than $200,000 a year that will bring in another half a trillion.
But this, my friends, is a pipe dream.
The cut in Medicare won't happen because it is political suicide. The Republicans are already fighting it.
And the tax on the rich won't be adjusted for inflation. So, in a few years — when the new health care kicks in — the average worker will not only pay the last "rich guy tax" (the AMT), but he'll be shelling out for this year's "rich guy tax" on health care.
Meanwhile, back at the Dallas Fed, Mr. Fisher is worried about the U.S. fiscal picture:
Throughout history, what the political class has done is they have turned to the central bank to print their way out of an unfunded liability. We can't let that happen. That's when you open the floodgates. So I hope and I pray that our political leaders will just have to take this bull by the horns at some point. You can't run away from it.
They are running away from it. They will continue to do so.
In the end, Obamacare will deliver more debt, less competition, more bureaucrats, less service, higher insurance bills, and an ever-climbing burden on the middle class.
After inflation, the new "rich" middle class will pay for the slackers — including their own offspring — who won't be able to afford insurance because of ever-climbing college tuition bills and massive unemployment.
The rich will fly to Costa Rica or India to get top-notch resort health care from former Johns Hopkins doctors who simply return home for more pay and less stress...
The young will pay the $450 fine to opt out, and then call an insurance company on the way to the hospital's using the "no preexisting conditions" exclusive hotline...
The working class will see its coverage cut entirely by their employers and spend countless hours with their sick, crying children, waiting in HHS offices for some type of certificate...
But at least we know that the politicians, bureaucrats, and associated nabobs will have the same problems as we peons. They will have the same coverage.
No. Wait a second. The politicians have doctors on staff...
According to the St. Petersburg Times, "Members of Congress have their own pharmacy, right in the Capitol. They also have a team of doctors, technicians and nurses standing by in case someone's appendix bursts in a filibuster. They can get a physical exam, an X-ray or an electrocardiogram, without leaving work." Well, they are important.
This new entitlement is one more straw on the camel's back. Inflation will show up; the dollar will fall.
Sincerely,
Christian DeHaemer
