Old Wizard

6 Ways to Short the Obama Health Plan

Some of you probably don't realize the danger the country is in and believe that global warming is the biggest and most immediate problem. I think that while you are well intentioned, you don't realize the economic peril in which the country finds itself. We cannot continue to have a negative operating cash flow approaching a trillion a year, borrow a trillion a year to balance our domestic deficit and survive without selling our country. Solving our dependency on foreign oil is more important from an operating cash flow than the amount of carbon dioxide emissions and solving the rest of the balance of trade issues means that we have to1] use the energy resources we can produce domestically and 2] inventing new products and services that we can sell abroad. A solution like natural gas powered transportation provides a near term solution that satisfies all of these requirements while reducing carbon dioxide emissions, yet the Obama administration refuses to incorporate the solution in its energy program and sets trivial goals for alternate energy,talks about pie in the sky clean coal, forces the auto industry to try to retool to produce electric cars where the battery technology is only able to support vehicles like the mini-cooper where off-shore producers have a competitive advantage. All of you who are for mass transportation, as I am, can you find a coherent plan in the administration's cap and trade bill that will really make a difference in the next 10 to 15 years? The analysis of the options that leads to a real solution to the country's most pressing problems has been so trivial that it's hard to discern, however the arrogance of the so called intellectuals in charge doesn't permit any objective one to be accomplished such that a real comprehensive energy plan can be articulate, funded and implemented.

6 Ways to Short the Obama Health Plan

All of you commenters that believe Obama is doing a good job ought to get more factual data. Do you really believe that Obama or anyone in Congress knows what is in the cap and trade bill that passed the house? 1500 pages, 300 added in the middle of the night before the vote. It is obvious that Obama has no comprehensive energy or economic plan. Our country has had an increasingly negative current account since 1991 which with oil moving toward 100/barrel and our negative trade balances with China and germany is approaching 1 trillion/year. This is operating cash flow and does not include the trillion plus we need to borrow to balance our domestic deficits. The remedy for these problems should provide a solution in 5 to 7 years where significant progress results. Providing 15% of our energy with wind and solar by 2020 is a non-starter. Electric cars will not fix the problem soon enough either. Converting half the cars to natural gas-powered in 5 to 7 years, while phasing in nuclear power plants, and electric cars powered by batteries that have sufficient voltage, recharge times and safety to satisfy the public's needs would begin to be reasonable. This plan might make our car companies solvent, reduce the negative cash flow significantly and put many americans to work in real, well-paying jobs. Other energy alternatives like wind and solar need to be acceleated into stretch goals not trivial ones. From an environmental view, natural gas produces 20% less carbon dipxide for the same energy as gasoline and no other pollutants. The US has plenty of natural gas and would not have to rely on foreign suppliers for at least 60 years. You have to listen to Obama closely. He states that he wants to double the electrical generation from wind and solar in 3 years. It stands at less than 1% now and according to the president his plan is to make it less than 2% in three years. This is the kind of rhetoric that sounds good but is meaningless. Then he signs an executive order mandating new mercury-based light bulbs that no doubt will save energy,but doesn't tell the public that these bulbs are made in China. This group in Washington are unable to define a problem, analyze the relationship of the affected variables and derive and implement a real program that solves the underlying problem. They seem more interested in political victories, glib speeches and satisfiying each of their single issue constituencies with programs that cannot converge to the solutions of our country's most pressing problems.