Pop Economy!

December Update: I’m disheartened, dear readers.  Now that we’ve had a chance to compare the major brush strokes of the recently-passed House Bill (Affordable Health Care for America Act, price tag estimated at $1.2T over 10 years) and the pending Senate Bill (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, price tag estimated at $849B over 10 years), the question naturally comes up: how are we going to pay for it?

Sadly, between the 100 Senators, 435 Congressmen and their staffs who put their collective heads together, this is the sort of innovation they came up with.  Senators first: “Fees on insurance companies, drugmakers, medical device manufacturers. Medicare payroll tax increased to 1.95 percent on income over $200,000 a year for individuals; $250,000 for couples. New 5 percent tax on elective cosmetic surgery. Cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. Excise tax on insurance companies, keyed to premiums paid on health care plans costing more than $8,500 annually for individuals and $23,000 for families. Fees on employers whose workers receive government subsidies to help them pay premiums. Fines on people who fail to purchase coverage.” 

Reps, you have the floor: “$460 billion over the next decade from new income taxes on single people making more than $500,000 a year and couples making more than $1 million.  The original House bill taxed individuals making $280,000 a year and couples making more than $350,000, but the threshold was increased in response to lawmakers’ concerns that the taxes would hit too many people and small businesses. There are also more than $400 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid; a new $20 billion fee on medical device makers; $13 billion from limiting contributions to flexible spending accounts; sizable penalties paid by individuals and employers who don’t obtain coverage; and a mix of other corporate taxes and fees.”

So I guess I would ask, Why have I been busting my balls at PopEconomy trying to find you things that save, oh I don’t know, $40 freaking Billion per year, when you’re barely able to eke out $13B over 10 years by limiting FSA contributions?  Why am I able to (and I swear I will prevail, given a little more time) offset a single-year deficit running around $1T, when you– faced with the task of coming up with $1T over 10 years– immediately run out and slash Medicare reimbursements and increase payroll taxes?  Am I the only one who picks up a Parade Magazine on Sundays?  Everything you need to know is right there…

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November Update: Greetings faithful readers!  Although I haven’t been putting out as much content as I’d like, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been assembling plenty of material for R&D.  For the newly-initiated, the goal of Pop Economy! is to save money.  Not coupons, that’s for amateurs.  We’re talking billions of dollars.  Like a fisherman, you’ve got to “fish where the fish are”, and my idea of a beautiful, clear-blue lake is Parade Magazine.  Every Sunday they seem to regurgitate some sunny prescription for turning America right-side-up again.  But by Monday morning, it’s into the trash and long forgotten (please allow 6 – 8 weeks for delivery of your ”Barack Obama Road to the White House Commerorative Coins”) .  I realized that if someone actually kept track of all these cost-cutting, money-saving ideas in one place, we’d actually have a gazillion dollars at the end of the year.  But I digress…here are the stories I am working on for future posts:

 

 

• Cost savings of expanding “Telemedicine”
• Costs of “Alternative Medicine”
• Costs of “Defensive Medicine”
• Cost savings of “Preventive Medicine”
• Costs of “Not Auditing Federal Contractors”
• Cost savings of “Going Green”
• Cost savings of “Restorative Justice”
• Cost savings of “Increased IRS Audits”
• Implications of “Rolling Back Reagan Tax Cuts”
• Implications of “Legalizing Marijuana”
• Implications of ”Ultraball: a National Lottery”

Well, I’m excited to get to it, I hope you are too!  Keep checking back for future posts…

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September Update:  With the spate of news coverage being given to healthcare reform, and the myriad Bills emerging from various House and Senate Committees related to same, one topic is curiously absent: long-term care.  LTC is the largest component of Medicaid, and the holy triumvirate of Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security are the largest component of our non-discretionary budget.  In truth, some of the Bills had incorporated the late Sen. Kennedy’s pet CLASS Act– which would have provided a modicum of long-term care coverage to millions of Americans– before falling by the wayside after being eviscerated by a scathing analysis by the American Academy of Actuaries. 

 

 

Having said all that, the US Budget Deficit, Calendar YTD grew to $1.429 Trillion as of October, so I will adjust the Ledger below accordingly. 

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August Update: Courtesy of TheHill.com, we’ve learned that the deficit grew by $181 Billion in July.  The Congressional Budget Office has projected the 2009 Deficit to reach $1.8 Trillion by fiscal year-end (9/30/09), far surpassing 2008’s recordbreaker of $455 Billion.  Commenting on the accelerating liabilities, the CBO had this to say, ”Spending through July of 2009 has increased by $530 billion, which is 21 percent over the same period in 2008. The bailout money for banks, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae accounted for almost half of the spending increase. Unemployment benefits have more than doubled, Medicaid spending has grown by a quarter and Medicare spending has increased by 11 percent.” 

 

 

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 This is where it all goes down– the official year-to-date ledger.  From here you can easily drink the collected resourcefulness of American economic pop research in one fizzy gulp because we care enough about you not to waste your time searching out these fun factoids on your own.  

 

 

The 2009 Budget Deficit was last updated on July 1st, but I will be updating it again with an August number since the last time I checked, I believe it had risen significantly (it never stops of course).  My work here at Pop Economy! consists largely of finding ways to save money at a pace which exceeds the rate at which we are spending into oblivion.  We try mightily to keep the ol’ finger in the dike and prevent a sea of red ink from washing over America.  Luckily, I’ve got a lot of ideas yet to write about.  If you have a story idea, please share it with me at pop@popeconomy.com. 

 

Links to Pop Research	2009 Projected Savings	2009 US Budget Deficit (CYTD)
		($1,429,000,000,000)
Cracking Down on OffShore Accounts	$40,000,000,000
Coaching Students to Stay in School	$320,000,000,000
AARP Pushes for HealthCare Reform	$17,400,000,000
Obama Open to Taxing HealthCare Benefits	$250,000,000,000
Campaign to Prevent Teen Smoking	$1,800,000,000
Obesity Epidemic Results in Lost Productivity and HealthCare Costs	$393,000,000,000
Talking to Your Doctor About End-of-Life Care	$76,000,000
Brain Fitness Videogames	$10,004,000,000
Photoradar Cameras	$7,215,088,130
Taxing Soft Drinks	$15,000,000,000
Personalized Medicine	$6,220,000,000
Tax on Cosmetic Surgery	$6,000,000,000
Adjusted for Pop Economic Savings		($402,284,911,870)