The Nation's Financial Condition

[jhu72]

How McKinsey destroyed the middle class.

+1 - extremely interesting article about the widening gap between the top and bottom of society...

That was a great read, thanks for posting. Interesting how businesses like mckinsey can control how we operate. Certainly makes you wonder why they are perceived as smarter than the next guy.

As someone who dealt with them first-hand, management who hired them took everything they said like it was from The Almighty. Their M.O. is waste all of the real workers time who have all the information telling them how how things work and then re-package that knowledge as their own to management. Then when management agrees to all of their recommendations, fire all of those interviewees and hire McKinsey people to replace them. When they crash and burn, re-hire McKinsey to do it all over again....a never ending con job....sort of like the currentl WH.

Yup. Management consultants are to be avoided like the plague.

[calourie]

GDP forecast to grow at a torrid 1.5% this coming year. Buckle up Trump tin-hatters, and then just sit back and watch the "GREATEST" economy this country has ever experienced. ????

[a fan]

Watch for one massive spending bill before the election. Pelosi would sign it without hesitation.

And if Trump gets elected? He has to keep the party going, right?

It's going to get worse, fellas.

[jhu72]

Watch for one massive spending bill before the election. Pelosi would sign it without hesitation.

And if Trump gets elected? He has to keep the party going, right?

It's going to get worse, fellas.

Yup. It will be a give away to his supporters. I am not convinced the Pelosi will sign. Probably, but maybe not.

[foreverlax]

Both of them were talking about infrastructure today, and a drug bill.

House passes Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s drug pricing bill

Dec 2019

The bill’s chances of becoming law are slim. The legislation is unlikely to be taken up in the Senate, where lawmakers have introduced a competing health-care bill. Additionally, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has previously ruled out any action on Pelosi’s bill, and President Donald Trump, who is in the middle of an impeachment inquiry, has vowed to veto it. Nevertheless, the legislation will likely give voters a preview of the party’s platform on health care ahead of the 2020 elections.

The legislation “delivers on President Trump’s promise to the American people,” Pelosi said Thursday, referring to Trump’s comments in 2016 that he would “negotiate” the cost of drugs “like crazy.” “Negotiation is what this bill is about.”

Current rules prohibit the Department of Health and Human Services from negotiating drug prices on behalf of Medicare — the federal government’s health insurance plan for the elderly. Private insurers use pharmacy benefit managers to negotiate drug rebates from pharmaceutical manufacturers in exchange for better coverage.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates Pelosi’s bill, if enacted, would save Medicare $456 billion over a decade but also keep eight new drugs from coming to the U.S. market.

Republicans and the drug industry were heavily opposed to the bill. House Republicans criticized it as highly partisan and warned that the legislation would spur the loss of lifesaving cures and medical innovation.

Why can't Medicare negotiate?

What is the possible logic for being UN-able to negotiate?

[jhu72]

Both of them were talking about infrastructure today, and a drug bill.

House passes Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s drug pricing bill

Dec 2019

The bill’s chances of becoming law are slim. The legislation is unlikely to be taken up in the Senate, where lawmakers have introduced a competing health-care bill. Additionally, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has previously ruled out any action on Pelosi’s bill, and President Donald Trump, who is in the middle of an impeachment inquiry, has vowed to veto it. Nevertheless, the legislation will likely give voters a preview of the party’s platform on health care ahead of the 2020 elections.

The legislation “delivers on President Trump’s promise to the American people,” Pelosi said Thursday, referring to Trump’s comments in 2016 that he would “negotiate” the cost of drugs “like crazy.” “Negotiation is what this bill is about.”

Current rules prohibit the Department of Health and Human Services from negotiating drug prices on behalf of Medicare — the federal government’s health insurance plan for the elderly. Private insurers use pharmacy benefit managers to negotiate drug rebates from pharmaceutical manufacturers in exchange for better coverage.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates Pelosi’s bill, if enacted, would save Medicare $456 billion over a decade but also keep eight new drugs from coming to the U.S. market.

Republicans and the drug industry were heavily opposed to the bill. House Republicans criticized it as highly partisan and warned that the legislation would spur the loss of lifesaving cures and medical innovation.

Why can't Medicare negotiate?

What is the possible logic for being UN-able to negotiate?

Republican's under W wanted it that way. Deal with big pharma. Obama had a chance to roll it back but didn't, as a trade for "support" of ACA.

Anyone ready to support Bernie or Warren, yet?

[CU88]

The pricetag for President Trump's border wall has topped $11 billion — or nearly $20 million a mile — to become the most expensive wall of its kind anywhere in the world.

https://www.npr.org/2020/01/19/79731996 ... ost-costly

Thank goodness there is some much waste in the US Military budget that he can keep stealing funds from there to fund this farce.

[njbill]

Gee, how much would it cost if it was built well enough so it wouldn’t blow over in the wind? But it is no big deal since Mexico is paying for it.

[Typical Lax Dad]

But,but, but.....it's about the economy!

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/06/economy/ ... index.html

[youthathletics]

Gee, how much would it cost if it was built well enough so it wouldn’t blow over in the wind? But it is no big deal since Mexico is paying for it.

viewtopic.php?f=66&t=691&p=105122&hilit=wind#p105122

[foreverlax]

WH budget -

The White House proposes to cut spending by $4.4 trillion over a decade. Of that, it targets $2 trillion in savings from mandatory spending programs, including $130 billion from changes to Medicare prescription-drug pricing, $292 billion from safety-net cuts—such as work requirements for Medicaid and food stamps—and $70 billion from tightening eligibility access to disability benefits.

The White House projects the economy will grow 3.1% in the fourth quarter of 2020 compared with a year earlier, and 3% in 2021, and that it will continue to expand at that pace for the rest of the decade. But the administration expects year-over-year growth—comparing total GDP for the year—to be slightly lower in 2020 than it forecast last year, the senior administration official said.

The federal budget deficit would shrink to $966 billion next year from an estimated $1 trillion in 2020, but more than twice what Mr. Trump projected in his first budget proposal in 2017. The administration forecasts total deficits over the next decade would shrink $4.6 trillion under its plan, and annual deficits would be eliminated by 2035. During his 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump discussed paying off the federal debt within eight years.

Meanwhile, tax cuts enacted in 2017 have reduced government revenues as a share of economic output, pushing deficits as a share of GDP to 4.7%, well above the 2.7% average over the past 50 years.

New math...same results as the old math.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-to-p ... 1581274525

[a fan]

Aaaaaaand here comes the fake "we're going to cut government" stuff that the R's "forgot" to do when they they controlled Congress. Now they play the "golly gee, we want to cut government, but the Dems won't let us" game that they played under Bush and Trump.

So their voters get to stay on the dole ,and Trump looks like he's against big, bad government. And the R voters will buy it hook, line, and sinker.

Rinse. Repeat.

Trump to Propose $4.8 Trillion Budget With Big Safety-Net Cuts
White House boosts funds for military, veterans and aims to reduce deficits by $4.6 trillion over a decade, in part through curbs on Medicare, Medicaid


If I'm Pelosi, I'd call the bluff and pass the law. And tell America "we don't agree with these cuts, but we thought we'd try the Republican vision and show voters what America looks like under Republican economics".

And sit back and laugh, and laugh as the last of rural America moves, in desperation, to cities.

[Trinity]

Can they code?

[a fan]

Nope.

Oh well. They have it all figured out, and don't need help from the Federal government, so we shouldn't care.....

[youthathletics]

We are a socialist country already (afan told us so), so spending should never be a problem when it takes care of everyone. We just need to raise taxes so high we net a profit.

[ardilla secreta]

Last week with Fareed, Jared insinuated that there would be more tax cuts. How awesome is that.

[holmes435]

We are a socialist country already (afan told us so), so spending should never be a problem when it takes care of everyone. We just need to raise taxes so high we net a profit.

Well we've cut our taxes to record lows. Why not a middle ground between where we are now and the high levels of the roaring 50's when America was Great™? Then cut spending accordingly so we're taking in a little bit more than we spend.

[Trinity]

“During Trump’s first 36 months in office, the U.S. economy has gained 6.6 million jobs.
But during a comparable 36-month period at the end of Obama’s tenure, employers added 8.1 million jobs.”
Frank Lunz, gop consultant

[foreverlax]

Pence talks January jobs report

The labor participation rate tells the story

Up .4% since Trump took office...best economy ever.

after eight years of the last administration that thought we can tax and borrow and bail our way back to a growing economy, this president put common sense, American principles into work. He used what he in Davos called the American model, the free market model of less taxes. less regulation, more affordable energy and fair trade. And the American economy is booming.

America Model??

we saw in the last administration, a doubling of the national debt. But we also saw an American economy that wasn't growing by more than 2%. It was the slowest economic recovery since the Great Depression. And the President came into office and he said, First and foremost, we have to restore growth. That's how we will deal with the long-term fiscal challenges facing our country. And deficits and debt are right in line

.
Yea, things are right in line.

But it's first about getting this economy moving again. And we really do believe the trajectory of this economy, we're going to end the next year in the 3% range, which is what President Trump said back on the campaign trail in 2016.

Promises kept....

[CU88]

r's want to keep on spending!

McConnell will not bring budget resolution to the floor

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/482 ... -the-floor