Economic Reality

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As the government of the United States and it's cohorts in the federal reserve banking system and large corporations continue to play with economic numbers in every way they can figure out in an attempt to paint a rosy picture for Americans still fortunate enough to have a job many 'other things' are saying otherwise...

The SPX, the S&P 500 if you will, is/was up 69% from it's March 2009 lows... We hear talk everyday about how the economy is improving and things are getting better... The banks are once again making lots and lots of profits trading the markets with money freshly printed by the Federal Reserve... The Greatest Depression has been 'avoided', or so we are told...

Do you read your local newspaper? Do you see the same things going on that I see on a daily basis?

Phone customers seeing added tax on monthly bill

Yesterday was an article about how the state of Missouri won a law suit against the evil phone company AT&T... HOORAY! we say... But, as a result of having to pay a settlement to the state of Missouri for wrong doing AT&T raised our phone rates 1.99 a month... AT&T isn't going to bear the cost of losing a law suit... No corporation is... They ALWAYS simply pass the cost on to consumers... us...

Now is an extra 1.99 a month going to send me to the poor house? No... But what our leaders at every level of government fail to understand is that it isn't JUST one company that is reaching into our pockets! It's more like ALL of them! At the SAME TIME! In a HORRIBLE economy (regardless of what 'they' say)...

Today's paper is full of MORE 'good' news.. (sarcasm)

The forcing through, ramming down our throats, of a health care reform plan that NO ONE WANTS!

Missouri cutting highway spending

MoDOT is eliminating 400 salaried positions by immediately instituting a hiring freeze on 75% of positions that become vacant. For God's sake, don't quit your job guys and gals... Their plan also includes cutting spending for inventory, vehicles and maintenance... MoDOT will also reduce the number of offices and buildings it owns... In other words they will be selling off assets due to budget shortfalls...

Health centers facing cuts in state funding
-Slow economy drives need, tough choices in health care

"State lawmakers in Missouri next week are expected to start reviewing a bill that would cut state funding for federally qualified health centers like 'Access Family Care'", (our own).

"Lawmakers need to make budget cuts amid a still struggling economy, but health officials say that weakness is likely to fuel an increase in demand for services that could be cut -- in this case, for services like Access.

Access Family Care is the only federally qualified health center in the Joplin area, and it uses a sliding fee schedule based on household income for uninsured and Medicaid patients.

Three area clinics saw a total of 40,000 patients last year (2009). Total patient visits increased 26% in 2009 as compared to 2008. Missouri has a total of 23 federally qualified health centers. A bill approved Feb 16th would eliminate the entire 9.25 million dollars in state grants that normally go to the health centers.

Dr. Charles Bentlage, medical director for Access Family Care, said the cuts would be coming at a time when Access is seeing "an ever increasing demand for services that we provide."

Of course our local paper was unable to contact any of the representatives for comments on the issue... Par for the course huh?

These "health centers" are "federally qualified" but about to go out of the business of helping cash strapped Americans due to budget cuts and the economy... And yet we are expected to believe that the federal government can effiently run our entire health care system???

And just one more story from today that I'd like to touch on...

Board narrowly OKs closing nearly half of K.C.'s schools

The Kansas City school board narrowly approved a plan Wednesday night to close nearly half the district's schools in a desperate bid to avoid a potential bankruptcy.

It seems the district is facing a 50 million dollar budget shortfall...

The approved plan calls for shuttering 29 of 61 schools -- a striking amount even as public school closures rise nationwide while the recession eats away at academic budgets.

Under the approved plan, buildings will be shuttered before the next school year. Teachers at six other low-performing schools will be required to reapply for their jobs, and the district will sell it's downtown central office. About 700 of the district's 3,000 jobs-- including 285 teachers--also are expectd to be cut.

Add to that 'stuff' the fact that Empire District Electric Company, our own profitable utility company, has proposed a 20% rate increase... All utilities are going up. The cost of everything is already rising. Inflation is already occurring... Every single entity in this country is currently desperately seeking ONE THING! MORE MONEY! From the federal government to local governments at every level, pension funds that can't be funded, government employees that can't be paid, to every corporation, all seeing sales slump, to every American, employed and unemployed alike...

American's cannot BEAR any more of the burden's of this collapsing economy... period.

Does any of this sound like an economy that's improving to you???

It is my own personal opinion that everything will continue to get worse... not better... Tax revenue has totally collapsed everywhere... It is my own personal opinion that eventually the entire fabric of our society will collapse as well.

This is the price everyone pays for completely unsustainable debt and an economy built entirely as a house of cards by people "leaders" who should have known better...

Greg