We all have heard (or read) how middle class wealth has been devastated over the past quarter century. Even now, as the economy seems to be perking up, it’s only the very wealthy that are seeing those gains. Mostly because the stock market is way up (interest rates are so low, it’s the only place for the wealthy and the retired to park their funds)- and housing has still not recovered (which is where the bulk of middle class wealth is found) to those pre-2009 levels.
Tag Archives: Medicare
Doctor, Doctor, Mr. MD, Can You Tell Me What’s Ailing Me?
When I got married in 1989, the last time I had visited a physician’s office was more than a quarter century earlier. Oh, I’d been to hospitals (broken arms, shattered glass, shattered vertebrae, horrendous wrecks), but to a physician per se- nope.
Continue reading Doctor, Doctor, Mr. MD, Can You Tell Me What’s Ailing Me?
Dialysis Boondoggle
I wrote earlier about how one company managed to get a bonus slipped into the Fiscal Cliff bill. One that “made them” $ ½ billion. Well, they are about to take a big hit, if no one tries to overrule Medicare (or slip another ‘mickey’ to the American public in another bill).
Really? This is the Fiscal Cliff Act?
Many of you know I spent a great portion of my life in the dialysis arena. From the time I was eight years old, I wanted to develop an artificial kidney. So, I’ve seen a lifetime- and then some- of changes to the therapy. From the first “washing machine” devices, to flat-plates that required soaking-spreading-tightening, to the disposable devices of today.
Budget Malarkey
Counting Social Security and Medicare, the US Government spend 20 cents of every dollar to fund the Defense Department. And, worse yet, almost a nickel of the total budget is assigned to Iraq and Afghanistan. And, the $ 700 billion defense budget is the same as China, France, Russia, Japan, Germany, India, Canada, Israel and NINE (9) other countries spend … combined together.
Who ya’ gonna call? (That’s the problem- NOT them! Us!)
I am sure you have seen these ads: “The IRS claimed I owed $ 200,000, but I settled the deal for only $ 12,000. You can get the same results if you hire TaxFixersRUs.” The problem with this ad- it’s factually correct, but, in practice, full of more cow chips than you would find in an active feedlot.
Continue reading Who ya’ gonna call? (That’s the problem- NOT them! Us!)
Go Directly to Jail. Do NOT Pass Go!
The guaranteed way a company owner can get himself (or herself) in deep, almost unrecoverable, trouble with the IRS is to not pay employment taxes. Employment taxes are the withholdings of income tax, Social Security, and Medicare from an employee’s paycheck. The IRS is forever on the lookout for companies that fail to pay these taxes on time.
Let’s kill the big lie!
OK, I need to inject a little politics into the blog today. I try not to do so. But, there is no way to discuss this matter without injecting politics into the discussion.
Fact-laden, but NOT factual…
Ah, yes, newspapers, the web, the politicians… ok, that’s not really the subject of this post. But…
Why are "they" complaining about home dialysis?
Imagine my surprise. Dialysis would become a political weapon. (In light of this weekend’s events, this statement seems superfluous.)
Continue reading Why are "they" complaining about home dialysis?