Archive for September 2nd, 2009

Throw the bums out … 57% say “get rid of the entire Congress”

September 2, 2009

A recent Rasmussen survey asked likely voters:

“Suppose you could vote this fall on whether to get rid of the entire Congress and start over again.
Would you vote to keep the entire Congress or get rid of the entire Congress? “

The survey said:

25% Keep the entire Congress
57% Get rid of the entire Congress
18% Not sure

70% of independents said they would vote to replace all of the elected politicians in the House and Senate.

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Some drill down diagnostics:

74% trust their own economic judgment more than Congress’.

67% are NOT Confident that Congress knows what its doing on economy

59% think that members of Congress are overpaid

54% do NOT think that members of Congress understand legislation that they vote on

42% think that a group selected from the phone book would do a better job

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Interesting background:

More than 90% of Congress routinely gets reelected every two years.

When the Constitution was written, the nation’s founders expected that there would be a 50% turnover in the House of Representatives every election cycle since that was the experience they witnessed in state legislatures at the time.

For well over 100 years after the Constitution was adopted, the turnover averaged in the 50% range as expected.

In the 20th century, starting with the New Deal era, turnover began to decline.

In 1968, congressional turnover fell to single digits for the first time ever, and it has remained very low ever since.

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Source: Rasmussen, “57% Would Like to Replace Entire Congress”,  August 30, 2009:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/august_2009/57_would_like_to_replace_entire_congress

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Posted in Congress - Senate | 5 Comments »

No one should have to move from NJ to Kentucky …

September 2, 2009

We lived in Kentucky for 2 years and enjoyed our time there, but …

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Excerpted from WSJ:The Competition Cure, Aug 23, 2009

In places like New Jersey, the annual cost of an individual plan for a 25-year-old male in 2006 was $5,880.

A similar plan in Kentucky,  cost less than $1,000 in 2006.

The higher cost of medical services in the Garden State only explains a small part of the difference.

The main reason: New Jersey is highly regulated, with costly mandated benefits and guaranteed access to insurance.

Affordability would improve if consumers could escape states where each policy is loaded with mandates.

“If consumers do not want expensive ‘Cadillac’ health plans that pay for acupuncture, fertility treatments or hairpieces, they could buy from insurers in a state that does not mandate such benefits”

If consumers can’t escape heavily mandated states,  “risk selection” is a problem.

As more healthy people opt out of health insurance because it is too expensive relative to what they consume, the pool transforms into a group of older, sicker people. Prices go higher still and more healthy people flee.

High-mandate states are in what experts call an “adverse selection death spiral.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203550604574360923109310680.html?mod=djemEditorialPage

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The Rx: let health insurance policies be sold across state lines … in effect, working around state mandates and letting folks buy only the coverage they want.

Note: Like tort reform, ObamaCare doesn’t include the selling of policies across state lines.

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Posted in Health Care / Medical Insurance | Leave a Comment »