One Giant Leap

Working in Gary Indiana this week. And next week. Oh, and the week after that. Sweet.

I’m confused. Six months ago banks stocks were tanking, financial institutions were hemorrhaging money and taxpayers were turning over their life savings to bail them out. It was generally agreed that this was a bad thing. Yesterday, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase notified Wall Street that they had repaid the billions of dollars loaned to them under the TARP (money many “experts” swore we would never get back), and oh, by the way, made a neat little profit on the side. Sweet. That’s what we wanted, right? Wrong. Apparently there are some people who believe this is somehow also a bad thing. They’re wrong, but they’re loud and annoying and obscuring a very important detail. The market is experiencing somewhat of a recovery. Instead of watching the stock ticker bleed all over their balance sheets, many of the bulwarks of the American economy are actually beginning to reverse their 10 month tailspin. That, is a good thing. General Motors emerging from bankruptcy in 45 days instead of the “impossible” 60 days promised by the government, is a good thing. The fact that factory orders new home starts and consumer purchases have increased over the last quarter, is a good thing. The fact that in spite of record deficits and unprecedented levels of borrowing inflation is still virtually non-existent, is a good thing. Yes, things are still bad, but they’re better than they were three months ago, which is better than they were six months ago. It’s sad to actually have to remind people of this, but improvement is always good. Get a grip people!

Apparently, some people think they voted for Jesus Christ on November 4, 2008, instead of Barack Obama. Two months prior to the election, the American economy completely imploded. In less than six months the market lost nearly half its value, icons of Americana were driven out of business and the unemployment rate almost doubled. President Obama took office in late January, and by April politicians, reporters and citizens alike were demanding to know why he hadn’t fixed the economy. When did we exit reality and enter bizarro world? Things take time. Something we don’t seem to have any concept of anymore. We’re like a bunch of four-year-olds on a road trip to grandma’s house driving our parents crazy asking, “Are we there yet?” as soon as we pull out of the driveway and every five minutes after that. How about we cut back on the double shot expressos and give things a little time to work. If by January 2011 the stock market is hovering around 7,000, the Federal Reserve has major banks on life support and unemployment is still rising at a rate of half-a-million jobs a month I will entertain all the critics.

And now for this week’s musings on healthcare. There’s been a lot of talk on Capitol Hill, leading to stark raving panic regarding the projected cost of a proposed healthcare overhaul. The Congressional Budget Office pegs the cost of the current House proposal at about $1.6 trillion over 10 years and the cost of the most recent Senate proposal at approximately $600 billion over 10 years, averaging about $1.1 trillion over the coming decade. Sounds like a lot of money, doesn’t it? Congress seems to think so. At the mere mention of a trillion dollars Republicans call down lightning from heaven to smite the socialist president while Democrats run for the hills and beg for the rocks to fall on them. But let’s put that number in perspective, shall we? Like Denzel Washington said in Philadelphia, “Explain it to me like I’m a six-year-old.”

One trillion dollars over 10 years. The most recent calculation of US GDP (gross domestic product) puts the market value of all final goods and services produced within our borders within the year at approximately $13 trillion per annum, $130 trillion over 10 years. That puts the cost of this healthcare reform at a whopping 0.85% of the US economy. According to RNC chairman Michael Steele, this 0.85% of American wealth is too much to risk to ensure healthcare to 97% percent of our citizens.

If you prefer to reduce these to annual figures, healthcare breaks down to about $110 billion dollars a year. In comparison, this country spends almost a trillion dollars each year on defense-related purposes. This country spends nearly ten times as much per year on defense as Congress is thinking about spending on healthcare reform. Ten times! In 2003, 47% of the WORLD’S total military spending was spent by the United States. By 2005 the United States was spending almost as much on defense as the rest of the world COMBINED. And none of that includes the black ops budget. Why is it that we can always seem to find enough money to blow things up, but have such difficulty finding the cash to keep people healthy?

Also, I’m a little tired of all this garbage about a friend of a friend of a nephew of an aunt of a monkey’s uncle told some Republican senator from Kentucky about how his brother’s niece died in Canada because they were denied treatment due to rationed care. How many people die in this country every single year from being denied cancer treatment or AIDS medication or heart surgery or whatever else because their insurance company decided they had exceeded their coverage limit, or had a pre-existing condition, or weren’t covered under the particular plan, or simply weren’t covered at all? Quit pretending there is nothing wrong with current system. Quit trying to frighten people by relating anecdotal stories for which you have little to no proof while ignoring similar anecdotal stories occurring under the very system you are trying to defend. Please. PLEASE. Give us something more than the worn out politics of fear and loathing.

It’s been a rough couple of weeks for ESPN reporter Erin Andrews. Twelve days ago she was hit square in the chin by a foul ball during a Mets-Dodgers game and had to be taken to the hospital. Then, a few days ago, a hidden camera video hit the web of Andrews naked and changing in her hotel room. I understand that there is a huge market for videos of attractive women without their clothes on. But there is a significant difference between Kim Kardashian knowingly selling the private videotape of her sexcapades with her boyfriend for distribution over the internet, and a some creep drilling a hole in a hotel wall, inserting a camera, invading someone’s privacy and exposing a private moment never intended for public consumption to the rest of the world. There is a line. Don’t cross it.

Tiger Woods missed the cut at the British open last Friday. Wow. The apocalypse is nigh.

Finally, this week marks the fortieth anniversary of the moon landing. Forty years ago Neil Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on an extra-terrestrial body. Five other landings followed Apollo 11, but no one has returned since the end of 1972. NASA recently announced they are working on rockets that could carry men back to the moon by 2020. Why they can’t simply borrow the rocket they used in 1969 from the Smithsonian is unclear. What’s wrong with this picture? In 1970 NASA developed a plan to put a man on Mars by 1987. Yet in 2009 NASA is trumpeting sending men back to the moon by 2020. You want to know why America has lost interest in space flight? Because in 40 years we have accomplished pretty close to nothing. You want us to be excited? Give us something cheer about.