BloggeRhythms

A couple of articles buried on Drudge this morning, provide an idea of the financial aspects involved in liberal Democrats causes. The items are worth mentioning simply because it is those same Democrats that continually claim it’s Republicans whose interests stem primarily around enriching themselves and their compatriots.  

 

Richard Johnson asks in the New York Post’s pagesix.com: “Ever wonder how lowly paid lawmakers leave office filthy rich?”

 

In answer, Mr. Johnson writes, “Sen. Dianne Feinstein is showing how it’s done.

 

“The US Postal Service plans to sell 56 buildings — so it can lease space more expensively — and the real estate company of the California senator’s husband, Richard Blum, is set to pocket about $1 billion in commissions.

 

“Blum’s company, CBRE, was selected in March 2011 as the sole real estate agent on sales expected to fetch $19 billion. Most voters didn’t notice that Blum is a member of CBRE’s board and served as chairman from 2001 to 2014.”

 

Now, naturally, “This feat of federal spousal support was ignored by the media after Feinstein’s office said the senator, whose wealth is pegged at $70 million, had nothing to do with the USPS decisions.

 

When the national debt is $18 trillion, a billion seems like small change.”

 

Item two comes from Christine Vestal of Stateline.org and swtimes.com, as follows: “Under the Affordable Care Act, millions of low-income adults last year became eligible for Medicaid and subsidized health insurance for the first time. Now states face a huge challenge: how to deal with an onslaught of able-bodied, 18- to 64-year olds who haven’t seen a doctor in years.“It took a lot of time and effort to enroll everyone, particularly those who were new to the system,” said Matt Salo, director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors. “The next big step, and the biggest unknown, is finding out exactly how this newly insured population will use the health care system.” 

 

Ms Vestal goes on: “The newly insured, most of them young adults, have different needs. Though not as sick as existing Medicaid beneficiaries, the newcomers are more likely than the general population to have undiagnosed and untreated chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease.The starkest difference between the new population and the old one, however, is that the new enrollees have much higher rates of drug and alcohol addiction and mental illness.Of the estimated 18 million adults potentially eligible for Medicaid in all 50 states, at least 2.5 million have substance-abuse disorders. Of the 19 million uninsured adults with slightly higher incomes who are eligible for subsidized exchange insurance, an estimated 2.8 million have substance-abuse problems, according to the most recent national survey by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration”

 

“As a result, the number of Medicaid enrollees receiving addiction services is expected to skyrocket over the next two years.

 

“Eight million people have signed up for exchange insurance policies and 7.2 million have enrolled in Medicaid since last year, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Because Medicaid enrollment is continuous, those numbers are expected to rise substantially this year and next.” 

 

And now comes the staggering information regarding the upcoming costs of those now eligible for free or subsidized medical coverage: “Under the ACA, states have the option of expanding Medicaid to adults with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level ($11,670 for an individual). The federal government will pay the entire bill for 2014 through 2016, and then it will pay a declining share over the following three years, and 90 percent thereafter. So far, only 27 states have taken up the option, but several Republican-led states are considering it, potentially adding millions more adults to the Medicaid rolls this year. Fourteen percent of the low-income adults who are newly eligible for Medicaid under the ACA have drug and alcohol addictions, compared with 10 percent in the general population.”

 

Because the new Medicaid population is dominated by young, single men — a group at much higher risk for drug and alcohol abuse — Medicaid enrollees needing treatment could more than double, from 1.5 million before last year’s Medicaid expansion to about 4 million in the next five years.”

 

So, here we have a situation that, in concept, makes considerable sense from a purely humanitarian perspective. However, at the present time, and with no indication of any change in the foreseeable future, only half the nation's population is financially productive. And therefore, the earning segment of the society is carrying the burden of all the others.

 

Add to that a current $18 trillion dollar debt, and one has to wonder just how long the concept of incredibly costly socialism can go on. Because while there's certainly no doubt that, in theory, supporting those who can’t sustain themselves certainly sounds like the noble thing to do. 

 

However, in today’s cases we clearly see that while socialists have no problem redistributing the wealth of those who have it, when it comes to themselves, a senator like Feinstein also rakes in a billion for self via her husband, which ranks her right up next to the Clinton’s in attaining personal gain from public office.   

 

That’s it for today folks.

 

Adios