According to a new poll by CNN, Americans think Obama's health care reform package will cost too much. 51% polled said they favor the President's plan to 45% against. Two-thirds believe that they could still see the same doctors with Obama's plan.
Heated debate and a close margin was the rule, but the U.S. House passed the cap and trade energy bill. The vote was 219 - 212. About 40 Democrats voted against the bill. President Obama earlier in the week said that America must look for new energy alternatives and this bill was the way to go. Republicans said that the policy will result in higher energy prices for consumers and businesses.
In oil trading, August light sweet crude settled at $69.16, down $1.07 for the session. Oil finished the week down $1.27.
Personal income jumped up 1.4 percent due mainly to stimulus benefit payments from the government and lower taxes. Disposable personal income rose 0.2 percent in May.
In a press conference on June 23rd, President Obama said the government run universal heath insurance plan won't put private companies out of business. Obama's plan will cost $1.6 trillion according to the Congressional Budget Office. That's more than Obama projected. That number brought criticism from the U.S. House Republican leaders. They said the plan costs too much.
House Republicans weren't in too good of a mood because they felt jilted that Obama hadn't used any Republican ideas when it came to economic recovery. The reduction of patient choice also was a concern with Republicans on the government health insurance issue. One item that concerned most Republicans was the issue of Americans losing their private health insurace coverage.
Cost may be a larger issue than one might think. In a recent poll Americans are concerned more with reigning in the debt rather than with stimulating the economy. When we get to the last quarter of this year, we'll see that the government is propping up the economy more than it probaly should.
Housing sales may be higher and that would be a bull signal for the economy, but sales figures are very distorted due to the government's intervention in the housing market.
The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) created a pool of $700 billion. An article on Seeking Alpha has a chart that shows the progress of TARP.
$435 billion has been committed to specific transactions.
An article by Bary Ritholtz sums up the new government spending we've seen lately. He mentioned that he gets puzzled looks from people when he mentions trillions instead of billions. Really? The very concept of a billion is enough to make me pull over and wonder how many years the earth is old. But now, bring me trillion.... ok.
In this article is a "building block" picture that shows what has been spent in the last 12 months versus the last 206 years. You take some major spending projects found in the illustration like the New Deal and the Vietnam War, they both pale in comparison to the Commercial Paper Funding Facility.
This "graphic way" to illustrate the spending tells the tale of massive debt laid on us...... or should I say our great grandchildren and beyond. How will "we" ever pay back this debt? And what impact will it have on the economy right now?
