Getting a handle on the size of our fiscal problem

[MsGuy]

I don't know enough to have an opinion on whether this draft proposal to reduce the deficit makes any sense but I do like the way it illustrates the gravity of the problem. Or, as the writer puts it, who all would get their hair on fire at any serious effort to reduce the deficit?

Draft report of Commission to Reduce Deficit

I'll leave it to Lucky to point out the impact on high tax states like Cali of the elimination of the Federal tax deduction for state and local taxes. I can smell the hair burning all the way down here in Mississippi.

[Lucky]

The proposals don't stand a chance in hell, so your hair is safe. Dropping the mortgage exemption now would devastate what is left of the housing market as hundreds of thousands of homeowners who are underwater or near there would finally give up and walk away. Medicare now is not cheap. Wipe out some of the bureaucrats and the fraud might help though. I favor raising the age for Social Security, but not for anyone close to retirement now. And the tax increases? Good luck with that when we are already fighting over extending tax CUTS.

[lookin]

One of my favorite Saturday Night Live sketches highlights the concern that we could do a walk-away on China.

[Lucky]

One reason medicare is expensive: they cannot consider the cost of a drug when deciding to approve it.

And, now this from the NYTimes:

Prostate Cancer Drug Gets Lukewarm Review

By ANDREW POLLACK

There is only “moderate’’ evidence that the newly approved prostate cancer drug Provenge helps patients, according to an analysis done for Medicare that was made public on Wednesday.

The analysis is part of a controversial review by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services of whether to pay for Provenge, which costs $93,000 per patient and extended lives by about four months in clinical trials. Medicare advisers will meet next Wednesday to discuss the drug, which was developed by Dendreon, a Seattle-based biotechnology company.

Provenge is the first so-called therapeutic cancer vaccine – meaning it works by training the patient’s immune system to attack the tumor – to win F.D.A. approval. The treatment is made for each patient from his own blood. Sales have been small so far because Dendreon’s manufacturing capacity has been limited.

While Medicare generally pays for drugs that are approved by the Food and Drug Administration, its debate over paying for Provenge has raised concerns among some cancer patients, doctors and investors who say the government is sending a warning shot that it will not automatically pay for high-priced medicines.

[Guest Conway]

Texas Governor Rick Perry recently called social security a ponzi scheme.

And, he's right when you think about it.

If any company in the public sector created a retirement product, raided its investment fund to pay for unrelated projects and then paid current claims with the investment that others were making for their own future benefit, the executives of that company would be jailed and their assets sold to payback their investors.

[Guest CharliePS]

Allowing people to deduct mortgage interest on their federal taxes is basically unfair, since it privileges owners over renters. However, making it fair would involve denying the break to homeowners, which, as Lucky says, would make the housing market even worse, or giving a break to renters, which would worsen the deficit. Reducing the COL increase on SS would simply push those who are dependent on SS as their only source of income even deeper into poverty. Doctors are already limiting the number of Medicare patients they will see because of cuts in reimbursement; what good is Medicare if you can't see the doctor that you need?

What's wrong with taxing the rich? The argument that they use their extra money to create middle class jobs is nonsense. Most of it is invested with banks and stockbrokers to simply make more money, and the jobs created are in China and India.

[RA1]

" Most of it is invested with banks and stockbrokers to simply make more money, and the jobs created are in China and India.

Not picking on you Charlie but whose fault is this?

Best regards,

RA1