Greece, Health Care and the World Economy

(Please read yesterday's posting first. Also--added later--
Although the Stock market dropped on a broker's mistake, please do not think anything in this posting has changed. You can say we dodged a bullet, or you can see the Hand of God giving us a warning, but in any case the message stands.)

It is now just a few minutes after three. I sat down at 2:30 to re-read the FOCUS piece included in Catholic church bulletins this past weekend which emphasized the need for health care as a right of all Americans accompanied by statements throughout the years by various church Fathers and Diocesan statements.

Last night I spoke to you about the problems with the Greek economy and the protests there with a couple of comparisons including the debt as percent of GDP. Granted that the GDP of Greece is only 2% of ours, there is much to be learned from what is happening "over there."

Please keep in mind that what they call the "PIIGS" meaning Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain have somewhat the same problems, but it would make sense to remember that the UK, France and other members of the Euro countries can't be far behind in their approach with cradle to grave government services.

The scenario: Within 20 minutes I watched the Dow Jones drop over 7% of its value which was coming closer than I want to think to the 10% necessary to close the DJ to trading in order to give so-called "breathing space" to the Players. A couple of days ago the numbers were over $11,000 and today I saw those numbers drop nearly 1000 points before they started moving up again. Right now it's "only" down about 500.

Why do I tell you this? Because the FOCUS piece was eerily similar to the Democrat talking points, using the same fictitious numbers (such as that 45 million number of uninsured), mixing Michigan and National statistics, does not differentiate between illegal and legal immigrants for specificity and stops woefully short of offering any remedies such as tort reform, being able to purchase insurance across state lines and on and on.

Bottom line is that Greece is demonstrating what can and may happen in other areas of the world and that message is: YOU CANNOT HAVE EVERYTHING AT NO COST!

The European countries have institutionalized their help and before they help Greece monetarily, the Greek government has agreed to cut some programs. That is what the riots are all about. After those countries have voluntarily come to their aid the next stop is the IMF to which we contribute close to 50% of the funding (last time I looked.) Interestingly enough, there is no specific reference in our budget--the amount is just lumped in with the rest of the Interest numbers.)

So don't let anyone tell you that we can just ignore this. We can't and we shouldn't. Everything is connected to everything else as the old saying goes and since we deal with European banks and the IMF we cannot get away from this problem. Add to that the potential for other countries and California following in these footsteps makes it imperative that we start cutting our budgets NOW!

As for health care for everyone, of course we should approach the problem with heart. Republicans have always been responsive to need and a kind approach. Obamacare is not the answer. We need to be loving and smart. What a combination.

Work as though everything depends on us, pray as though everything depends on God--
God bless..........

Sorry that those of you who read late in the day will find both last night's post and today's, but they are inter related. Hope you understand.