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Post by Bwoods11 on Feb 24, 2017 9:54:19 GMT -6
Crop insurance is a necessary subsidy. What farmer would be able to afford to plant 320, 640,1000 acres of corn (input costs) and just risk that he could lose it all with a drought, flood, or hail? Make the farmer pay all the premium cost??... the numbers do not work, and insurance companies are not into 100% risk either, it is unfortunately the cost we pay to have food on the table. The deal with crop insurance and subsidies is this. If you borrow from a bank for crop inputs, they require you to have crop insurance or you get no money. To get all the crop insurance paperwork you sign up at the FSA office. It's a forced situation most don't like. Me included! And if you are planting knowing your planting costs are $3 a bushel and the current cash price is $3 in the fall, a bank would be nuts not to require you to have insurance. In my area, most of the dollar amount printed on the EWG website is the crop insurance subsidies payed directly from the gov, to the crop insurance company for overpriced insurance. It is a great scam that we are forced to take part in. Get labeled as taking in huge money, money we never see but pay taxes on! Lol It will never end, no possible way we will fix the crop insurance situation. Food is not something we will mess with.
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Post by MoBuckChaser on Feb 24, 2017 10:02:10 GMT -6
Exactly! The gov has watched other countries go without food and saw all of them go into a civil war. They know full bellies don't revolt! And they know it is important to have as cheap of food as possible for the masses! So they control farmers and prices as close as possible.
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Post by westbranch on Feb 24, 2017 10:16:38 GMT -6
The farm subsidies, including crop insurance, bring stability to food prices and the supply of food. Without there would be times of oversupply and cheaper food, but also times of limited food and much higher prices. So a necessary welfare system for stable economy and keeping the populace happy. Pretty much the same reason why the gov't covered all the layer chickens with bird flu in 2015, no way an insurance company is going to take on the risk of a disease wiping out all of those animals. Some people said we would have expensive eggs for 3-4 years, but we went from the highest egg prices ever to the lowest in 5 years in <12 months.
I am not sure how a free market would handle something like that. Using the bird flu as an example, insurance companies won't insure it, so farmers might be able to start some sort of mutual or coop insurance to cover losses in regional areas, as the industry and population grows they would be moving birds/eggs across larger areas and they might not trust the other regions, so they decide to merge and/or make some sort of big trade association that has members from all over that vote on things and pay dues to cover losses. You would pretty much end up with something like the USDA, either people would have to pay higher prices on food to get this price stability, or you end up paying in indirectly through taxes. One thing I think most people don't realize is that the large egg/pork/beef producers have USDA inspectors on sight that they pay for directly based on hours and production of product. So they aren't just getting covered by tax payers.
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Post by mclovin on Feb 24, 2017 10:42:12 GMT -6
Serious question here since this thread is turning this direction. If Trump is successful at getting rid of all the illegal Mexicans, what kind of price increases can we expect for produce? Fresh produce is already the most expensive thing I purchase at the grocery store. Is a head of lettuce going to cost me 10 bucks? Am I going to need a co-signer for a taco supreme?
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Post by MoBuckChaser on Feb 24, 2017 10:50:27 GMT -6
Too many csa's you can buy from now. I don't think it would get that high.
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Post by westbranch on Feb 24, 2017 10:59:38 GMT -6
Health care costs and insurance seems to have many of the same issues as food. If you have issues like diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol issues, high risk of cancer, etc. opening up insurance markets across state lines might temporarily bring prices down but you will only be able to buy insurance if insurance companies are required by law to sell it to you. Keep the pre-existing conditions exemption and get rid of the individual mandate, health insurance goes up. For the people with pre existing conditions, the GOP has talked about bringing back high risk pools managed by the states (this was in place before Obamacare), read about those a little bit if you haven't before, get on the welfare train. But don't worry right wing bible thumpers they said they won't cover any abortions! And good luck to anyone if you 50+ years old and your insurance kept going up under Obamacare, remember that they are limited to only charging you 3 times as much as the youngest people. One of the changes the GOP talked about was increasing the multiple to 5 times, which Trump fans should be happy with since it gets reduces that welfare program. Also, my insurance might go down (short term), yay me?
I hear a lot of old school republicans say that they paid into medicare so they should be covered. All it takes is one hip replacement and they probably over the max of what they paid in during their lifetime, even if you a assume a generous rate of return. Get into a nursing home that is covered by medicaid and they will cost far more than they paid in. Should they still be covered once they hit some max based what they paid in? I think they should be, but if someone bitches about welfare programs not sure how they could agree with me?
I do not know what the solution is for health insurance and nothing I have read from the GOP sounds like it will solve any long term issues. It sure would be nice to shop around if they provided prices on everything, maybe a nice GOP branded app that you can pull up quickly while having a heart attack or stroke? They keep talking about tax credits for everyone, they like to buy votes just as much as democrats! Most people are going to act irrationally, and as long as they save money now they will think it is a good plan, and once they get sick and it costs them 10s or 100s of thousands of $, they will blame it on the opposite political party. The free market option for the health insurance companies is to drop you once your one year policy period is up and let god sort it out.
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Post by Freeborn on Feb 24, 2017 11:17:44 GMT -6
The one thing you don't see with any of these comparisons is going after the cost of healthcare. Zero based budgeting where you rationalize every cost. I have done work at a number of healthcare companies and believe me their margins are high enough that costs can be removed.
To much arguing over who gets what and not enough going after the root cause of higher costs. To much profit in healthcare providing companies (Drug, equipment, hospitals etc.), to high of demand (unhealthy people)and way to high of overhead costs (UHG admin for example). Bottom line neither of the political parties do any of the heavy lifting of solving the root cause of rising costs and instead argue over how to shift things to other people.
Go after the drivers of the costs and you will lower everyone's healthcare costs. Also, most of the high profits go to the top 5 percent of those companies.
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Post by mclovin on Apr 6, 2017 21:09:08 GMT -6
One month in office and this is what you write, seriously? Where is the evidence of him being a war monger? At this moment the rest of the country is seeing the left (citizens, media, congress) behave so poorly that if it continues they will damage their brand and they will lose the mid term elections. Just because the media and the left wants to focus on the rights of the few (like today's LGBT issue) at the expense of the many is nothing more than a left agenda and media hype. At this time with how the left and media is behaving they have zero credibility with the public and their approval ratings are plummeting. Trump may hang himself in the long run but to date I would not rate him based on the lefts false narratives.
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Post by mclovin on Apr 6, 2017 21:10:24 GMT -6
Just to get this out there. I hate government and all politicians, regardless of party. I am a "live and let live" type of person. Don't like abortions? Then don't have one. Don't like sucking dicks? Then don't suck them. Don't like welfare? Then take it away from the farmers at the same time you take it away from the black people. I dislike hypocrisy and I feel very strongly that all politicians are out to make backroom deals to line their pockets, not create policy that "Makes America Great". I believe with every fiber of my being that politicians love to keep us arguing about fetuses, gay stuff, bathrooms, etc., so they can continue, Dems and Reps alike, to steal our money while we argue. It makes very little difference to me if I have less money in my pocket because a Democrat gave it to a black, gay immigrant or because a republican broke my union, and lets every major corporation monopolize industries and collude to fix prices. Either way Donald Trump isn't going to do a damn thing to make my life better, just as Hillary wouldn't have. However, I do believe that Trump is a narcissistic, barely literate moron that could start a nuclear war with Putin after he releases the pee-pee tapes. theweek.com/articles/681360/president-trump-pitiless-warmongerAnd if you'd actually looked through the links I provided you'd be extremely concerned with Trump's ties to Russia. Russia is bad, Russia has always been bad. Russia does bad things. Very Bad things. The worst things. And our president and his people are way too cozy with them. I'm much more of a Libertarian myself but I have commented more about the left as they are the primary architect of the current situation in the US. That does not mean I like Republicans but I see them as far less aggressive and far less dangerous then Democrats.
I looked at your links and as someone who does not like either party why would you post sources that are directly out of the left wing bastion of liberal journalism? The video; all of this is low on substance and high on Innuendo: the DNC hacking from whomever/Russia had little impact on the election and did not cause Hillary to lose the election, Flynn being an idiot and not realizing he was being taped by the intelligence department does mean there is a Russian conspiracy and I won't comment on the last one as it is Idiotic. Like I said, no substance and allot less than the taped conversation of Obama unilaterally telling Putin he could offer more once he was elected.
Your link above quotes the Huffington post, I pasted the first paragraph below. Trump is a war monger because in his first 30 days he does not take action to reverse an Obama policy?? This all looks like media hype, creation of news and an effort to create a narrative to sell. One thing I dislike as much as politicians is the media, people forget they are for profit corporation too and they create news because its good business.
Until Trump's administration does something proactively aggressive towards another nation I don't see someone who wants war. Trump will most likely make every effort to use surrogates like China to convince North Korea rather than have the U.S. be seen as the aggressor.
"As Jessica Schulberg and Ryan Grim report in The Huffington Post, not only has he not reversed President Obama's disastrous enabling of Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen, he shows every sign of pushing for further escalation — this time in reportedly allowing the Saudis to bomb the port of Al Hudaydah, one of the few remaining routes for humanitarian supplies to reach the country's most desperate areas. Yemen is already suffering one of the world's worst humanitarian emergencies, and this could easily cause a full-blown famine.
President Trump is every bit the warmonger his critics feared."
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Post by chummer16 on Apr 7, 2017 6:14:01 GMT -6
Just curious if you had an answer for N. Korea? Should we wait for them to drop a nuke? They are getting hit next, will that be warmongering? They have stated they want to nuke us, should Trump burry his head in the sand like Bush and Obama did. On the bright side they will hit California...so we have that going for us.
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Post by kabic on Apr 7, 2017 14:52:36 GMT -6
Just curious if you had an answer for N. Korea? Should we wait for them to drop a nuke? They are getting hit next, will that be warmongering? They have stated they want to nuke us, should Trump burry his head in the sand like Bush and Obama did. On the bright side they will hit California...so we have that going for us. If he does here is hoping he does it from DC instead of Florida. (to keep on topic) I'm getting tired of paying extra so he can go Golf...sure those tax dollars could be better spent elsewhere. ..or in my pocket.
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Post by chummer16 on Apr 7, 2017 17:00:17 GMT -6
Just curious if you had an answer for N. Korea? Should we wait for them to drop a nuke? They are getting hit next, will that be warmongering? They have stated they want to nuke us, should Trump burry his head in the sand like Bush and Obama did. On the bright side they will hit California...so we have that going for us. If he does here is hoping he does it from DC instead of Florida. (to keep on topic) I'm getting tired of paying extra so he can go Golf...sure those tax dollars could be better spent elsewhere. ..or in my pocket. Those numbers are inflated. How could it possibly cost 2 million more or whatever it is to go to FL for a weekend. It's not like they are moving battle ships back and forth to cover him. Lots of deals are made on a golf course. Wish it wasn't so. I only golf to make deals. I suck, my customers expect golf outings and it usually results in getting business out of them. Is he even golfing? There were pictures of obama golfing every day. The only pictures I have seen of Trump golfing was with the PM from Japan. They should have a budget for presidential travel, when it is gone they sit home in the WH. Better yet have companies sponsor his trips and in return they get a few minutes of his time.
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Post by kabic on Apr 7, 2017 18:24:02 GMT -6
If he does here is hoping he does it from DC instead of Florida. (to keep on topic) I'm getting tired of paying extra so he can go Golf...sure those tax dollars could be better spent elsewhere. ..or in my pocket. Those numbers are inflated. How could it possibly cost 2 million more or whatever it is to go to FL for a weekend. It's not like they are moving battle ships back and forth to cover him. Lots of deals are made on a golf course. Wish it wasn't so. I only golf to make deals. I suck, my customers expect golf outings and it usually results in getting business out of them. Is he even golfing? There were pictures of obama golfing every day. The only pictures I have seen of Trump golfing was with the PM from Japan. They should have a budget for presidential travel, when it is gone they sit home in the WH. Better yet have companies sponsor his trips and in return they get a few minutes of his time. My understanding is it is not the cost of travel per say, but the cost is in securing that location. Since it is a public hotel, that needs a lot more agents etc, than say the Bush ranch in Texas.
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Post by chummer16 on Apr 7, 2017 18:59:20 GMT -6
Those numbers are inflated. How could it possibly cost 2 million more or whatever it is to go to FL for a weekend. It's not like they are moving battle ships back and forth to cover him. Lots of deals are made on a golf course. Wish it wasn't so. I only golf to make deals. I suck, my customers expect golf outings and it usually results in getting business out of them. Is he even golfing? There were pictures of obama golfing every day. The only pictures I have seen of Trump golfing was with the PM from Japan. They should have a budget for presidential travel, when it is gone they sit home in the WH. Better yet have companies sponsor his trips and in return they get a few minutes of his time. My understanding is it is not the cost of travel per say, but the cost is in securing that location. Since it is a public hotel, that needs a lot more agents etc, than say the Bush ranch in Texas. He should build a course at camp David then. You would think since he owns every place he stays it would be cheaper.
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Post by kabic on Apr 11, 2017 2:05:54 GMT -6
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