Fixing healthcare – again

I am fixing this post based on insight from a Huffington Post poster who goes by ‘Stephen S’….

I’ve written about this before, but I’m caught in a great gust of hot air on one of the forums I frequent, so I’ll restate my position on healthcare.  It costs too much, and it needs to be fixed.  We are the only ones who can fix it, nobody can fix it for us.

Healthcare costs too much because Americans don’t have to pay the bill directly, and they don’t have to make cost/benefit judgments about their own healthcare.  This is similar to a “Tragedy of the Commons” situation, where there’s no downside for any individual grabbing as much as they can at everyone else’s expense.  When nearly everyone is doing that, you end up with the healthcare costs we have.

Fixing this is simple: present the bill to the consumer.  That is also impossible without some very substantial preparations beforehand.  I don’t have the entire 200 page bill written, your Congressperson has the staff to do that.  Here is the logical outline (a line diagram, if you will).

1.  Forbid third party payers, except (eliminate “perhaps”) for military personnel delivering healthcare to military servicemembers.  No person not a direct and close blood relative may pay anyone else’s medical bills.  This is necessary to achieve the objective of having Americans shop as thoughtfully and diligently for health care as they do for running shoes.

2.  Provide tax exempt and subsidized health care savings accounts.  Set a reasonable amount (obviously, somewhat less than the average health insurance premium is today) and insure that all Americans have that much set aside each year.  The wealthy get little gov’t help, perhaps a tax break, and then on a sliding scale the less well off get more and more help.  Until those at the bottom get a direct subsidy to insure their account is funded.

This account can only be used for healthcare, at the citizen’s discretion.  Families (based on Stephen S’s input, expand this to any concerned citizen, and provide for tax exempt, tax advantaged fund raisers when needed) can pool/share accounts as necessary.  Residual funds can be bequeathed (passed on) to heirs.  Any facility accepting payment from these accounts must meet certain standards, including a published list of representative fees.

3.  A national catastrophic/chronic insurance program to cover those expenses for individuals afflicted with these conditions.  This is true “insurance”, like auto liability or term life, where everyone pays in a small amount, but only those who are affected draw benefits.  No refusal for pre-existing conditions.  A panel of widely respected industry, government, and academic experts to develop the definition of these conditions and how insurance referrals would work.

Conclusion – and that’s it, that’s all it takes (unless there’s something I’m missing, but so far no one has pointed anything out [obviously Stephen S has contributed, my thanks to him]).  These measures, taken together, will provide a human, equitable, high quality, and affordable health care system for America.  A true single payer system that leverages comparison shopping and human judgment at the most granular level.

G’night all, and may God continue to bless America!

Two things

Regarding the economy, there are two things on my mind right now.

FDR on economic recovery, spending and taxes

The first is the ongoing debate between the spenders and the cutters.  Liberals favor government deficit spending to stimulate economic growth.  They have a point.  We know all about labor strikes, but what we have right now is a capital strike.  In the 30’s, FDR knew all about this and tried to get an “undistributed profits tax” to break the capital strike back then.  That was the wrong solution, and it was shot down.  Conservatives favor cuttings taxes to leave more money in the economy, stimulating economic activity without using the federal government as the middleman.  This is based on the extraordinarily shaky assumption that the invigorated economic activity will actually produce more growth and tax revenues, leading to a cycle of virtue.

To the Liberals, I have this to say.  The New Deal never solved the Great Depression, it was only the singularly massive spending of WWII that did that.  And even that recovery depended on the aftermath of the war for a) sustained prosperity, and b) to pay off the accumulated debt.  For the past 20 years, we have been deficit spending at a rate far higher than FDR ever imagined.  In the last couple years, we have spent in deficit at a rate three times higher than the highest deficits FDR ever ran in peacetime.  It didn’t work then, and it’s not working now.

To the Conservatives, this is what I say.  You are living in a fantasy world if you think you can bring prosperity today by cutting taxes.  Perhaps in the past, when the budget was in balance and the federal debt was 1/3rd what it is today, maybe then tax cuts made sense.  The government should not run a surplus, that is taking resources out of productive use to feed the government beast.  But we aren’t in that situation today.

Both Liberals and Conservatives have their heads in the ideological, fact-denying sand.  I would offer a plan for the solution, but it’s far too lengthy to present here.  It’s based on sound premises.  If we cut government spending, that reduces money in circulation, which reduces demand, which depresses economic activity.  If we recognize that most of the income, and all the discretionary income, is concentrated at the very top of the income scale (top 0.5% or less of the population, incomes above $1,000,000) – - – and that wild disparity of incomes is a destabilizing force – - – and that excessive compensation paid to corporate and celebrity plutocrats, exactly like taxes, takes resources away from productive use in the economy – - – then it’s obvious we need to fix the income tax code.  And we need to fix our industrial and trade policies and regulations.  And on, and on, and on.  It’s stunningly boring stuff.

I should stop there, but I’ll press on.

A war without a plan?  You mean Iraq?  Afghanistan?  No, I mean our economic recovery efforts are a war without a plan, and will lead to the same result.

We regularly demand that the civil federal government explain precisely what the objective is before we commit to military action.  And we likewise demand that the military explain precisely how they intend to accomplish the previously defined national objective.  When we fail to do this, taking nothing for granted, we end up in a quagmire.  When we’ve demanded these conditions, we’ve been successful (Desert Shield/Storm).  When we’ve failed to demand this formal statement of objectives and methods, we have failed and had to improvise at enormous expense.

We are now faced with the prospect of a far larger and more costly effort by the federal government and the nation, to restore the economy.  But we have never defined the objective, we have never established how we will measure success, we have never bounded the means and methods we will use, and the consequences of each. Ouch!  I can hear the outraged screams from here!!!

There’s a slim chance that you’re nodding your head right now, thinking something to the effect of “I’ve been saying that” or else “You know, that’s a good point”.  There’s a far better chance that you’re having a much more negative reaction to this.  Something like, “Of course we’ll know when we’ve won, it’s just common sense.”  Or perhaps, “This is way too much intellectual thumb wrestling over trivia, we need to fix the problem”.  Perhaps, “This is a waste of time, intended to manipulate the situation, to end up doing nothing just like you wanted to all along.”

If we don’t take the time to define and document the objectives, the means and methods, the measures of success, and the where and how of an exit strategy, we invite failure.  We’ll just be adding “economic recovery” to “Iraq” and “Afghanistan” as noble efforts spun out of control.  As a nation, in this far grander, infinitely more complex, and logarithmically more expensive effort – - – if we refuse to do what we demand that the military do, we will dissipate the wealth and promise of our nation and gain no benefit in return.

G’day all, and may God continue to bless America!

iRudeness

I had a guy from, I suspect, the Huffington Post post a highly critical response to one of my posts here.  I read it, wrinkled my nose, there were no facts, no logic, lots of name calling and irrational ideology, and then approved it to be posted.  I have no intention to censor or shut down discussion.  As is my normal practice, I sent him an email to let him know his response was posted.

I received an email rejection from his mail service almost immediately.  “Not approved to receive email, spam filter”.  I sent the provided request for permission to send him email with the following message:

Your response was approved until my email was rejected, I have now deleted it. I will not tolerate rudeness.

It doesn’t matter if we disagree, I will approve your comment.  But if you have your spam filter or email account set up to reject an email from me, I will delete your response, and then I’ll post on here about how I won’t tolerate your rudeness.  People who do stuff like this are iThugs, plain and simple.  And expect me to tell the world about your lack of social skills, and post a link to this as often as possible on HuffPo.  Get used to it, iThug.

G’nite all, and may God continue to bless America.

Breaded and fried

When I was growing up, these were words that were never applied to anything that Mom made for dinner.  She was a deadly foe of anything dipped in batter and then fried.  I’m not sure exactly why, I think she saw this cooking method as not very sophisticated, like “you could bread and fry a shoe tongue and people would eat it”.  I carried some of that into adulthood, but I’m getting over it now.  Some things are just flat, plain, better when battered and fried.

My obstacle has always been how to get a nice even coating on the food item that would stick without falling off in clumps, or gumming up the finished product, or any of the other ways that “breading and frying” can fail.  I’ve figured this out, I think, and intend to share with you here.  Of course, this would be a lot more effective with some photos, if not a video, to demonstrate.  Sorry about that, next time I do this, I’ll get photos and post them.  But the secrets are so simple, they scarcely need a graphic presentation.

Secret #1: ingredients.  Don’t use flour, use corn starch.  Don’t use a beaten egg, use “egg beaters” (or other prepared scrambled egg-like product).  Then use whatever breading you desire: corn meal, panko, bread crumbs, whatever.  Three trays: corn starch, egg beater, crumbs.  Bread your item just before it goes into the frying pan.

First, pat the item almost dry.  Then sprinkle to item with corn starch and energetically rub/brush the corn starch over the surface.  You should end up with a chicken breast, pork chop, or whatever, that has a very fine coating of corn starch, almost hazy looking on the surface of the item.

Second, stab the item with a fork and dip it into the egg beater on all sides.

Third, dip and press the item into the breading material.  Don’t roll it around too much, this will break your newly installed breading off the surface.  Use a spoon to scoop up breading and pour it on uncoated spots.

Secret #2:  Plenty of high smoke point oil (the best is grapeseed) at the right temperature.  If the oil is too hot, things will burn before getting cooked.  Too cold and you won’t get a proper golden brown.  Secret #2.5:  You may not be able to finish cooking in the fry pan, you might need to have a baking sheet with rack available and the oven preheated to 350F or so.  When the breading is just right, if the interior of the item isn’t done, put it on the roasting rack and finish cooking in the oven.

No matter what you do, you’re going to end up with a mess on your hands.  Breading is messy, and frying breaded food is messy.  The best thing to do, really, is to do all this outside and simply bring the finished food indoors (if you’re going to eat indoors).  But learning to be proficient at this technique has made me feel like a kitchen superhero, and I hope it does the same for you!

G’night all, and may God continue to bless America!

Fix the income tax–simplified

As long as we have an income tax, we need to have a progressive income tax.  Those who earn more pay more, because 20% of $60,000 is a far different proposition from 20% or $6,000,000.  Yet today, because of our defective system, that’s almost exactly what we have.  How to fix it?  Tax millionaires at a higher rate than those with more modest, normal, mortal-human incomes.

Change nothing else!  Everyone keeps their existing tax rates.  Just create an income tax bracket for millionaires.  A new tax bracket that begins at $1,000,000/yr income and taxes all income above that at the same rate as during President Kennedy’s administration: 70%.  All income, capital gains or stock options or whatever, taxed at that one rate.

Hard working professionals and small businesspeople keep their existing rates, everyone keeps their existing rates.  Except the millionaires.  This closes the entire revenue gap, plus some.  I can’t make it any simpler, but I suspect this still won’t be simple enough for those on the extreme who already know everything they need to know about taxes, and have no room for new ideas.

And of course the corporate and celebrity plutocrats who will never support this because it will cost them their free ride.  I throw down the gauntlet: you celebrity plutocrats you, Matthews, Beck, Maddow, O’Reilly, Olbermann, Hannity, Stewart; come on and belly up to the bar.  Come out and support this.  Show some principles.

G’nite all, and may God continue to bless America!

A delta seasoning blend, Creolifornia style

I spent six months living in New Orleans, and that plus a quasi-French background, I developed a real affection for Louisiana cooking.  Now, one thing is clear.  Nobody not born and raised in or around New Orleans and Lafayette has any business claiming ‘cajun’ or ‘creole’.  So I got all cutesy, which I hate, and invented ‘Creolifornia’ to describe what I do.  Thereby stealing not just one namesake I’m not entitled to, but two!

What follows is my ultra-super-secret recipe for my basic Creolifornia seasoning mix.  This, together with the Trinity, forms based flavors for a variety of dishes.  I make this without salt (blood pressure issues), so I can adjust to suit as the dish cooks.  You will need some salt, plus a ‘salt booster’ like lemon juice or vinegar which seem to develop the maximum amount of tang from any given amount of salt.  So the full seasoning package runs about 1/2 tbsp of this seasoning + 1/4 tsp of salt per serving.  This make about 1 cup, put in a snap top plastic container and store in the refrig:

2 tbsp onion powder
2 tbsp garlic powder
3 tbsp sweet paprika
2 tbsp smoked paprika
4 tbsp Italian herb mix
1 tbsp thyme leaves
1 tbsp lemon pepper
1 tbsp ground white pepper
1 tbsp El Mexicano ‘mariscos’ or ground cayenne

That’s it, the secret’s out of the bag now!  This seasoning is better than any of the products I’ve found in the store, and it’s way cheaper (considering most products are most cheap salt).  The idea to the heat is to develop a “full mouth warmth”, anyone who wants “hot” should be given a bottle of Tabasco.

Enjoy!  And may God continue to bless America!