Max Baucus, a true Montana villain
Wow, there are so many things screwed up right now that I don’t even know where to begin!
Let’s start off with one of the premier financial minds, Alan Greenspan. In a June 7 report called Greenspan: US 'Way Underestimating' the National Debt, the former Federal Reserve chairman said that we’re “way underestimating” our $18 trillion national debt. What’s more, we’re creating a series of contingent liabilities.
What the hell are those?
Contingent liabilities seem to be liabilities that are contingent upon some external factor, like some future event that may or may not happen.
What does that mean?
What this means is that the federal deficit isn’t $18 trillion and could be twice that, or even more. I like the figure of $85 trillion, myself, because we know that’s what it will in 2035 be if interest rates were to go up by 5%.
Let’s start off with one of the premier financial minds, Alan Greenspan. In a June 7 report called Greenspan: US 'Way Underestimating' the National Debt, the former Federal Reserve chairman said that we’re “way underestimating” our $18 trillion national debt. What’s more, we’re creating a series of contingent liabilities.
What the hell are those?
Contingent liabilities seem to be liabilities that are contingent upon some external factor, like some future event that may or may not happen.
What does that mean?
What this means is that the federal deficit isn’t $18 trillion and could be twice that, or even more. I like the figure of $85 trillion, myself, because we know that’s what it will in 2035 be if interest rates were to go up by 5%.
National debt will reach $85 trillion if interest rates go up by 5%
Besides that, however, the contingent liabilities that Greenspan is talking about has more to do with things like bailing out financial institutions, such as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. “What is the probability that in today’s environment JP Morgan would be allowed to default?” he asked at one point. “The answer is zero or less.”
There are no consequences in our economy, not for the big boys on top. They can do whatever they want, knowing that you will bail them out…or bail them in. Already 11 other countries have been forced to adopt bail in rules by the European Commission, which in turn gets its direction from the central banks of Europe. The catch? Instead of the government bailing out the next Wall Street crash with your tax dollars, they’ll save those and let the banks take your bank deposits.
There are no consequences in our economy, not for the big boys on top. They can do whatever they want, knowing that you will bail them out…or bail them in. Already 11 other countries have been forced to adopt bail in rules by the European Commission, which in turn gets its direction from the central banks of Europe. The catch? Instead of the government bailing out the next Wall Street crash with your tax dollars, they’ll save those and let the banks take your bank deposits.
That doesn’t really help you and I, however. Something that would really help struggling Millennials is if the older generation would get out of the workforce, opening up some jobs. They can’t do that, however, because they never learned how to save.
I suppose we should allow them to blame our consumerist society instead of blaming themselves though. After all, we don’t want them to get temperamental and defensive. When that happens they dig in their heels, take on a spiteful attitude, and thwart everything.
So we have a real dilemma here – old folks that can’t and won’t retire, and young folks that have to sit on the sidelines until they do. It was recently reported that the age group of 55- to 64-year olds that’s in the labor force is at an all-time high.
It’s the exact same thing that happened to the kids born in the 1910s, the forgotten and miserly generation that was first trying to find work in the 1930s. The whole reason Lyndon B. Johnson did the Great Society in 1964 was to get rid of poverty among the elderly. Those people were the ones that hadn’t found any work in the Depression, hung on over the war years, and then struggled through the ‘affluent’ times of Ike. By the 60s they were nearing their sixties, looking around, and realizing the American Dream had escaped them.
Baby Boomers are the same today, or at least the 29% that have “saved absolutely nothing” for retirement, according to this June 7 story originally from the Guardian called More than half of all Americans over 55 have no retirement savings at all. The average 401(k) balance right now is $91,800.
I suppose we should allow them to blame our consumerist society instead of blaming themselves though. After all, we don’t want them to get temperamental and defensive. When that happens they dig in their heels, take on a spiteful attitude, and thwart everything.
So we have a real dilemma here – old folks that can’t and won’t retire, and young folks that have to sit on the sidelines until they do. It was recently reported that the age group of 55- to 64-year olds that’s in the labor force is at an all-time high.
It’s the exact same thing that happened to the kids born in the 1910s, the forgotten and miserly generation that was first trying to find work in the 1930s. The whole reason Lyndon B. Johnson did the Great Society in 1964 was to get rid of poverty among the elderly. Those people were the ones that hadn’t found any work in the Depression, hung on over the war years, and then struggled through the ‘affluent’ times of Ike. By the 60s they were nearing their sixties, looking around, and realizing the American Dream had escaped them.
Baby Boomers are the same today, or at least the 29% that have “saved absolutely nothing” for retirement, according to this June 7 story originally from the Guardian called More than half of all Americans over 55 have no retirement savings at all. The average 401(k) balance right now is $91,800.
We know people are angry, both young and old. This is a disgrace, and we have to stop pretending it’s not. We don’t want to talk about it, however, for if it’s a disgrace, then we are too.
How the lack of good jobs, pay for millennials fouls up the economy was a June 10 story on Market Watch that really lays out how bad things are for 25- to 34-year olds. An astounding 41% of them “say they make less than $25,000 a year,” the article says. If they haven’t finished college their unemployment rate is 9%, and if they dropped out of high school it’s 13%. What is the reason for this? “Millions of U.S. manufacturing jobs have disappeared or moved overseas to countries such as China since the turn of the century,” the article says, “and a housing bust wiped out more than 2 million construction jobs from 2006 to 2010.”
We’ve got a real crisis of confidence here, where young people can’t get good jobs and many think they’ll never get good jobs. A whopping 80% of people in their twenties don’t think they’ll ever get Social Security. Thankfully 67% of them are saving for retirement, most likely because they see their own parents still working, and the hell that this is for them. They also know the federal government is broke, and most of the states too. Many think we’ll be heading to war soon, with 47% of young people fearing nuclear war.
How the lack of good jobs, pay for millennials fouls up the economy was a June 10 story on Market Watch that really lays out how bad things are for 25- to 34-year olds. An astounding 41% of them “say they make less than $25,000 a year,” the article says. If they haven’t finished college their unemployment rate is 9%, and if they dropped out of high school it’s 13%. What is the reason for this? “Millions of U.S. manufacturing jobs have disappeared or moved overseas to countries such as China since the turn of the century,” the article says, “and a housing bust wiped out more than 2 million construction jobs from 2006 to 2010.”
We’ve got a real crisis of confidence here, where young people can’t get good jobs and many think they’ll never get good jobs. A whopping 80% of people in their twenties don’t think they’ll ever get Social Security. Thankfully 67% of them are saving for retirement, most likely because they see their own parents still working, and the hell that this is for them. They also know the federal government is broke, and most of the states too. Many think we’ll be heading to war soon, with 47% of young people fearing nuclear war.
I feel these are serious issues, but no one else feels that way. I wrote a letter to the Missoulian today talking about it, but that did no good.
Montana Democrats don’t really care, and I think that’s because most are working for organizations and such, or at least not real jobs. Instead of discussing things like this, many are gallivanting on about Greg Gianforte. Their boss feels threatened by Gianforte, so he’s sent the attack dogs out. That’s why we see things like this:
Montana Democrats don’t really care, and I think that’s because most are working for organizations and such, or at least not real jobs. Instead of discussing things like this, many are gallivanting on about Greg Gianforte. Their boss feels threatened by Gianforte, so he’s sent the attack dogs out. That’s why we see things like this:
We really are pathetic, aren’t we? Without social security, most of our seniors would die. They never saved anything, and many probably never worked much anyway. I had a grandma in Helena like that – never worked a day in her life at a ‘real job.’
So I don’t think parading things like this out and about is something to be proud of. We should be trying to find people jobs so they can have more than just social security to rely on.
Hey, I’m not against social security, it’s just that I know that will be gone by the time I hit the magic number, whatever it may be at that point. What’s more, I’d rather try and make some money so I don’t have to rely on that pittance.
Montana Democrats don’t seem to care about this, however, and instead of figuring out how to create new jobs or attract industry, they find ways to stifle the economy. Two of the biggest this year were our debt-for-infrastructure bill and Obamacare.
We’ve talked about these issues a lot on this site, and we don’t need to get into them now. Suffice it to say that the state was saved $67 million in 20-year interest payments and many Montanans are now fortunate enough to realize they have to pay both insurance premiums each month and cash when they go to the doctor.
So those are successes, and we wouldn’t be able to claim them without these two boondoggles. Of course, we could have quite a bit of infrastructure if our governor wasn’t joined at the hip with the Montana Association of Bankers and we could have free healthcare for all if Max Baucus hadn’t sold out America and sold out the people he grew up with. But he did, and he did that so he could have the approval and acceptance of the rich oligarchs that control our insurance industry.
So I don’t think parading things like this out and about is something to be proud of. We should be trying to find people jobs so they can have more than just social security to rely on.
Hey, I’m not against social security, it’s just that I know that will be gone by the time I hit the magic number, whatever it may be at that point. What’s more, I’d rather try and make some money so I don’t have to rely on that pittance.
Montana Democrats don’t seem to care about this, however, and instead of figuring out how to create new jobs or attract industry, they find ways to stifle the economy. Two of the biggest this year were our debt-for-infrastructure bill and Obamacare.
- For debt-for-infrastructure, we traded in tons of jobs and state improvements for a bankful of money the bankers can lend to each other at inflated rates, while we draw 0% interest on it.
- For Obamacare, we increased the rates of every single insurance payer in the state while driving up the costs for businesses, all so a small minority of people can get health insurance at a reduced cost or for free.
We’ve talked about these issues a lot on this site, and we don’t need to get into them now. Suffice it to say that the state was saved $67 million in 20-year interest payments and many Montanans are now fortunate enough to realize they have to pay both insurance premiums each month and cash when they go to the doctor.
So those are successes, and we wouldn’t be able to claim them without these two boondoggles. Of course, we could have quite a bit of infrastructure if our governor wasn’t joined at the hip with the Montana Association of Bankers and we could have free healthcare for all if Max Baucus hadn’t sold out America and sold out the people he grew up with. But he did, and he did that so he could have the approval and acceptance of the rich oligarchs that control our insurance industry.
Companies that Max Baucus sold out Montana and America for, so he could stuff his pockets
Way to go, Max, way to go.
Max Baucus is a Montana Villain, and he’ll always be remembered that way, for the people writing the state’s history will make it so. He’s never apologized for what he did, he’s never had the integrity to tell us he was wrong, to tell us he betrayed us, sold us out. In that regard he’s no different from Marc Racicot, another Montana Villain.
You like the way I talk, and you’re getting eager for me to finish my history, I know it. You want to see these scoundrels skewered, and they will be. They’ve earned your enmity, and the enmity of future generations. Greed motivated these two, pure and unbridled greed. It might not always have been the case, but power corrupted them, corrupted them badly.
Their time will come, as it always does for the unjust. Those that walk all over the downtrodden always get their due, always. Unfortunately until then, we the people have to continue to suffer.
Max Baucus and his insurance cronies have created a new form of slavery in this country, one that has us eliminating all wage or retirement increases with insurance rate hikes. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, “premiums for employer-provided health insurance have risen 59 percent since 2000, far outstripping wage gains.”
People are actually making less, because the insurance companies have to take more. And what are they taking that more for? Easy – profits.
In 2014 UnitedHealth Group had $10.3 billion in profits, up 7% from the previous year. Their stock is up 375% since 2010. In fact, all the Big Five health insurers have their stock going up. These companies include:
Hospitals are also doing well, including the big hospital corporations – Universal Health Services, Community Health Systems, and HCA. And let’s not forget some of Big Pharma – Pfizer, Merck, and Bristol-Myers Squibb – which are all doing better than ever, especially now that more doctors than ever are convincing a gullible and low-information public to take their terrible and injurious products.
You like the way I talk, and you’re getting eager for me to finish my history, I know it. You want to see these scoundrels skewered, and they will be. They’ve earned your enmity, and the enmity of future generations. Greed motivated these two, pure and unbridled greed. It might not always have been the case, but power corrupted them, corrupted them badly.
Their time will come, as it always does for the unjust. Those that walk all over the downtrodden always get their due, always. Unfortunately until then, we the people have to continue to suffer.
Max Baucus and his insurance cronies have created a new form of slavery in this country, one that has us eliminating all wage or retirement increases with insurance rate hikes. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, “premiums for employer-provided health insurance have risen 59 percent since 2000, far outstripping wage gains.”
People are actually making less, because the insurance companies have to take more. And what are they taking that more for? Easy – profits.
In 2014 UnitedHealth Group had $10.3 billion in profits, up 7% from the previous year. Their stock is up 375% since 2010. In fact, all the Big Five health insurers have their stock going up. These companies include:
- Aetna;
- Cigna;
- Humana;
- Anthem;
- UnitedHealth.
Hospitals are also doing well, including the big hospital corporations – Universal Health Services, Community Health Systems, and HCA. And let’s not forget some of Big Pharma – Pfizer, Merck, and Bristol-Myers Squibb – which are all doing better than ever, especially now that more doctors than ever are convincing a gullible and low-information public to take their terrible and injurious products.
Yes, I think we have some problems in this country. The people that have sworn to protect us are instead hurting us. Instead of giving us honor and integrity, they give us lies and excuses and false promises.
These are terrible people, these public officials that we elect. They don’t care about us at all, they only care about money, and themselves. It’s a real shame, a real shame indeed.
Thankfully it’ll get better. Marc Racicot was born in 1948 so he’s 67-years old and Max Baucus was born in 1941, so he’s 74-years old. They’ll be dead soon, and so will their generation.
We can move on, thank you, God, we can move on!
The Silent Generation. They sure were silent on the issues that they knew would plague us, weren't they?
Those two men and others just like them betrayed their generation so they could profit. Dante told us of a level of hell that’s reserved just for them, as you can see:
These are terrible people, these public officials that we elect. They don’t care about us at all, they only care about money, and themselves. It’s a real shame, a real shame indeed.
Thankfully it’ll get better. Marc Racicot was born in 1948 so he’s 67-years old and Max Baucus was born in 1941, so he’s 74-years old. They’ll be dead soon, and so will their generation.
We can move on, thank you, God, we can move on!
The Silent Generation. They sure were silent on the issues that they knew would plague us, weren't they?
Those two men and others just like them betrayed their generation so they could profit. Dante told us of a level of hell that’s reserved just for them, as you can see:
The lowest level is for those that betray others
Yep, right there on the 9th and lowest circle of hell. It’s hot there, hot as hell. Have fun with all your corporate friends down there, guys!
