Perhaps We Should Send Some Ritalin To Washington

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304506904575180331528424238.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, with the new health care bill passed, the United States may find itself short by 150,000 doctors within the next 15 years. Which, in case you were wondering, would be a bad thing. Doctors take years to train, so a shortage of general practitioners is a serious thing. We can’t just fix the problem in a few months; it would take years, starting now, to even begin to address the problem.

The bill does address the problem somewhat, by giving monetary incentive to primary care doctors, however, the cause of the shortage isn’t lack of people trying to become doctors, it’s the lack of residency positions available. “The residency is the minimum three-year period when medical-school graduates train in hospitals and clinics.” In 1997, Congress put a cap on the funding residency positions can receive, severely restricting the amount of new doctors we can train. This was not addressed in the health care bill, and remains in effect. There is a lot of work being done to try and address the problem, but according to the AAMC’s chief advocacy officer, Atul Grover, "It will probably take 10 years to even make a dent into the number of doctors that we need out there.”


This article is really starting to give me a new way of looking at the Obama administration. To me, they’re starting to look like a really hyper kid with ADD. They just can’t focus on one idea, working on it until it’s actually a feasible legislation. Instead, they’re trying to get everything done at once, rushing stuff through Congress, never actually looking at what they’re doing long enough to realize, “Hey, this might not be such a good idea…. Perhaps we should think about this before trying to make it a law?”
I mean, hell, his administration seems to go something like, “Okay, elected, bailout, bailout, saving the economy, okay that’s all good, gotta go save our foreign affairs, good, everyone loves us now, time for Afghanistan, send in troops, troops, troops, okay forget that now, rescuing health care, gotta pass the bill, gotta pass the bill no matter what, bill’s passed, focus on the environment, oh crap, economies still not in good shape, time to save that again….”
What exactly was the purpose of rushing all these things? Why did the health care bill need to be passed so quickly? I’ve heard some people say they were trying to get it passed before the public support for it went away, but a lot of their public support was vanishing because of all the shortcuts they were taking to get it passed! Sure, taking your time may not be glamorous, and it definitely isn’t always the solution, but there was no imminent crisis that required we fix health care NOW. Had they actually focused on fine tuning and perfecting the bill instead of just trying to get it passed as fast as possible, they might have actually taken into account the lack of doctors, and provided means to help that. Or they may have even, dare I say, convinced people to vote for the bill by addressing their concerns instead of just giving their state special benefits?

And now that the health care bill’s been passed, the administration, like any good child with Attention Deficit Disorder, has completely lost interest and is now chasing their new pet project, fixing the economy and our budget (again). Here’s they’re latest idea on solving our budget problem (link courtesy of Damios):

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/108/1083875p1.html

Yes, it’s just as ridiculous as it sounds. I can just imagine the White House staff sitting around one day, playing Mario Party, and one of them says, “Hey, video games are awesome! We should use video games to solve all our problems!” And thus, this was born.


And here’s Obama’s latest bill for fixing our economy:

http://financialservices.house.gov/Key_Issues/Financial_Regulatory_Reform/FinancialRegulatoryReform/4173highlightsFINAL.pdf

This bill seems to be another case of a bunch of people shouting ideas that sound really good without actually stopping to think about what they’re saying. Here’s some of the worst examples:


“The bill creates an inter-agency oversight council that will identify financial companies that are so large, interconnected, or risky that their collapse would put the entire economy at risk. These systemically risky firms will be subject to heightened oversight, standards, and regulation. “

Let me get this straight. You’re going to identify large corporate bodies with connections to multiple aspects of our economy, whose collapse could destroy our economy…. And you’re going to put restrictions on them? Do you realize what regulations do? They weaken a company! If you find someone holding up the building, you don’t try to prevent the roof from falling by putting weights on the man!

“If a large institution collapses, the bill holds Wall Street - not taxpayers - accountable. Any costs associated with dismantling a failed firm will be paid first from the company’s assets at the expense of shareholders and creditors. Any additional costs will then be covered by a “dissolution fund” pre-funded by large financial companies. “

A “dissolution fund”? You’re basically asking companies to pay an additional tax to cover the cost if someone else collapses? Wall Street is not some single, large entity! The heads of corporations do not gather together to discuss how they will make money/rule their shadow government! You can’t treat all companies involved in Wall Street as though they were one, because they aren’t! While it does make sense for a company to cover the cost of its own collapse, making other companies to do the same is just nonsense!

“The bill will create the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), a new federal agency solely devoted to protecting Americans from unfair and abusive financial products and services. Last year’s crisis demonstrated that deceptive products – such as predatory mortgages and hidden credit card fees – can not only damage the livelihoods of American families, they can destabilize the entire economy.”

Because that’s just what we need. Another agency. Weren’t you trying to reduce debt a few minutes ago?

This entire thing is just reaching a level of absurdity I didn’t even think possible. Damios has the right idea; screw all of it, and just laugh at the ridiculousness of our world.