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Originally Posted by dieselman70
Kane, I agree that a primary role of government, granted in the Constitution, is to regulate interstate commerce. This is effectively done through regulatory agencies such as HUD/FHA, SEC, NASD, FAA, FCC, and so forth. We have laws on the books that are not being enforced allowing corporations and entire industries to operate "at will" with no accoutability until the shit hits the fan. Then the Politicians call for an entire industry overhaul. Example: healthcare. I sold health insurance for several years. Health insurance in AZ is very affordable through a variety of carriers. If Washington wants to overhaul the healthcare industry, start with the lawyers and tort reform limiting liable payouts from occurances that were truly accidents. Gynocologists have to join local professional OB/GYN groups in order to afford malpractice insurance. They are the most sued medical group in america. The docotor that wants nothing more than your baby to come into world healthy and well is the one who gets sued the most. The ONE doctor who acts on the spur of a moment, when you baby is ready to come into the world, is the one who has to worry if your going to take him/her for everything your ambulence chasing - John Edwards - lawyer can get. Reduce that abuse and you'll see premiums drop remarkebly.
Why did the SEC not stop Madoff 10 YEARS AGO when they were originally tipped off? Why did the SEC not investigate Credit Default Swaps and Deriviatives when notified in 2003 that they are out there unregulated and heavily traded between banks, insurance companies and uber large multi national corporations? Why did Barney Franks, Mass. Senator and Chairman of the Senate Finance and Banking Comittee, turn a blind eye to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's terrible lending guidelines? Also, isn't he the Distinguished Congressman who took a multi million dollar home loan from Countrywide with no payback rquirements? That's like the fox gaurding the hen house.
My point is, yes we need reform in all major sectors of our economy. But, we do not need to throw the baby out the window with the water. Look at the current laws and enforcememnt of those laws. Get the agencies in order and go stop the bad guys. We do not need one of the world's largest industries taken oven by Washington in order to make it effecient.
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I agree. I won't pretend to know what laws are on the books now that are not being enforced, but if they are they, they need to be used and enforced. You make a great point about Madoff. The SEC has been told many times about him in the past and did nothing about it. They could have done their jobs and stopped him from causing a lot of problems. One of the problems with our politicians is that when something happens they refuse to go back and look at the system that is in place and see if it failed somewhere. If they did that they would often see laws in place that if they just funded/enforced them would solve the problem, but instead they want to make a bunch of noise so they start passing new laws before they consider any other path.
While I agree that tort reform should be part of health care reform I think it is just a small part of the puzzle. You have to take into effect the millions of uninsured that get care, but never pay the bill so it is passed on to those that do pay or have insurance. You have to also count the extreme costs of medicine. We here in the states often get charged 2-4 times as much for the same medicine as other countries. Like I said before, I'm not sure that government controlled health care is the answer. They seem to screw up everything they handle, but I feel like something major must be done or the middle class is going to get hammered in the next 10-15 years.