Unless something happens in Washington, the Post Office might miss an August 1 payment into a healthcare fund for future retirees. As jawboning continues in Washington, we’re left to wonder why the federal government doesn’t do the obvious: Auction off the Post Office to FedEx, UPS, or whoever else (American-based companies only) wants to step up.
The bad news about the default is that so far all that’s likely to miss is a payment or more into a future benefit fund. Bills will still show up in the mailbox with irritating regularity.
—
The situation reminds me of an email that goes around periodically suggesting that if we really want to fix things like retirement (social security) and retiree healthcare (like the Post Office plans) what we ought to do is require members of congress to have the same coverage.
—
For a country which is based on the notion of equality, we sure seem to have tiered retirement healthcare. The ugly fact is there’s more money to be made from a zillion systems and I’m not convinced that Obamacare is anything more than another corporate stick-up motivated by money and not a universal leveling of the delivered services with even pricing.
I assume you have figured out that Medicare supplemental insurance and gaps was the price paid to buy K-Street mob backing of Medicare. That’s why Part C and Part D were created, near as I can figure it: They look suspiciously like carve-outs for the for-profit insurance industry.
Without it, though, campaign contributions would dry up and gosh…can’t have that, can we?
Public policy is NOT making sure every American has equal access to great healthcare. It is what? Everything’s a business model ought to be a hint.
Government’s Cut
Might want to do some math on the Deal Book story about Capital One having to ante up to a $210 million deceptive credit card practices action .
If I’m reading this right, $150-million goes to the consumers – got no problem with that. But $60-million in fines and costs?
One might well ask “What were the hard costs in this?“ And, if the costs were significantly lower does it lean over toward “fee justice?”
I’ve been looking at the government cut on enforcement actions a lot lately so we may start to keep a running tally. 28.57% overhead sounds rich to me – about what big lawsuits get in the private sector. But, shouldn’t they be a lot lower?
The notion that such high fees are any kind of deterrent to such practices isn’t the point (they don’t seem to be). What is the point is that regulatory agencies continue expanding unelected officialdom and taking big bites.
Agencies get paid off the budget, which we get the tab for. So, why isn’t 95% going to consumers who were harmed?
Syria Simmers
And while it does president Obama and Putin are getting on the blower to chat about things.
(Related: See remote viewing notes in Coping Section, following)
Fierce fighting continues and I’m hitting the dictionary today to look for synonyms to use in tomorrow’s report.
Jobs Panel MIA
Those writers over at Politico have noted that the president’s Jobs Panel doesn’t seem to have met in six months…
Gosh, folks get busy this time of year and all…
—
Weekly claims figures from this morning’s Labor Department release:
“In the week ending July 14, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 386,000, an increase of 34,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 352,000. The 4-week moving average was 375,500, a decrease of 1,500 from the previous week’s revised average of 377,000. “
Heat Wave Shutdowns
With much of the East doubling up on Right Guard due to heat, interesting to notice that four reactors went off line yesterday.
Wonder if the coolant towers were hot enough to make tea?
Selective Genius Dept
Japan is planning to look for active faults under its nuclear power plants.
Lemme see here: 14-months after Fukushima is all it took ‘em to figure this out. No, I have no clue what they were doing the other 13 months, 29 days, 23-hours and 59-minutes. Pachinko maybe?
More after this…
