Election, socialism and health care

The Missouri Senate has more than the two-thirds vote for the Republicans to override a veto by Gov. Jay Nixon. The Republican margin in the House is only two or three votes short of the two-thirds vote required. Should be an interesting year -- especially with the redistricting of our congressional delegation on the agenda (anticipating a projected loss of one congressman when the census report comes out).

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"Republicans... you are not fighting for the extension of the 'Bush Tax Cuts,' you are fighting to stop the Obama tax increase."

-- Michelle Malkin

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Although I generally liked the general outcome of the recent state and federal elections, I'm not in the mood to celebrate. The Missouri and federal economic budget challenges still have to be addressed.

The game is only at halftime, and at least one more election will be required to address the economic issues -- as serious as they are.

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The collapse of socialism

The lack of viability of socialism has unequivocally been proven by the recent events in Europe. The unavailability of additional sovereign credit, the persistent excessive spending and deficits, the accumulated sovereign debt and other indications of insolvency validate the conclusion that socialism has failed.

As the pace of globalization accelerates, socialism and its tenets will be crushed by ever more efficient competition from around the world.

Austerity measures in United Kingdom

At this time it is critically instructive for all American citizens to examine very closely the fiscal and monetary condition of Great Britain and the voluntary program, including hard decisions the country and its citizens must make as summarized by the courageous Prime Minister David Cameron to now pull back from the edge of the abyss, the dark hole created by past fiscal imprudence and loose monetary policy. Some of the elements of the plan, including the most painful spending cuts that Britain has ever faced, are:

* Harsh budget medicine is vital to cut Britain's bloated budget deficit, 10 percent of GDP this year;

* Early token budget cuts did not solve the problem;

* 500,000 jobs out of some six million will be eliminated from the government payroll;

* Government has announced a two year pay freeze for public sector staff;

* Public pension contributions, more from government employees and less from government. The pension qualification age will rise;

* Welfare spending will be reduced and welfare payments for millions will shrink;

* Child benefit payment reductions and elimination;

* Perk and welfare cuts: bus travel, trains, winter fuel subsidies and others;

* Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne took the ax to middle class entitlements;

* Budget forecasts do not include an escalation factor for inflation;

* Debt interest is surging because budget deficits including interest are paid by additional borrowing;

* 67 percent budget cuts for communities and local governments;

* 30 percent budget cut for the environmental department;

* 27 percent budget cut for local authority grants;

* 25 percent budget cut within four years for the Ministry of Justice for prisons and policemen;

* 11 percent budget cut for the Education Department causing university tuition fees to rise;

* 7.5 percent budget cuts for defense;

* Historically, Britain and its general public have supported strong military power;

* Reduction in military force, including less ability to deploy sizable forces;

* Britain currently has 2 aircraft carriers but only one has a full complement of aircraft;

* Four nuclear submarines with Trident ballistic missile launch capability will be maintained.

Severely flawed UK universal health care will suffer no budget cuts, yet

It is very significant that the UK health care program, National Health Service, NHS, will suffer no budget reduction at this time even given the condition of a rigorous austerity plan.

It is generally accepted that the NHS is ever more expensive, is government dominated and has long wait times for patient care. The government rations health care for citizens by its sole bureaucratic standards, and quality of professional care lags badly against competitive free market health care results.

There is much to be learned by the citizens of the U.S. from reflecting on the dysfunctional NHS.

Universal medical care provided solely by inefficient, bureaucratic government is the single most destructive fiscal expense within a society

Year after year government controlled medical care becomes more and more expensive and delivers much lower quality and inferior care to its patients.

Even more destructive is the fact that the government universal medical program draws in more and more citizens, the pace accelerating as citizens become older. The ultimate result is that most citizens become more dependent on the government health benefit with no private alternatives then available to them. The government is less and less able to perform because of the overwhelming demographic fact of longevity improvement. The results are an ever more bankrupt program, ever more subservient citizens and a bigger and more dominant central government.

-- Excerpts from newsletter