Taypayer Handouts and Ripoffs

Government to Account for More Than Half of Healthcare Spending

February 7, 2010

The Health Care Blog - Amid all the gloomy numbers in the latest government projections for health care spending, one statistic stands out: Public sector involvement in health care this year will surpass private sector spending for the first time in U.S. history.

The actual projections show it will only reach 49.3% of $2.57 trillion, but that assumes Congress won't throw more money at physicians at the end of this month when previously legislated cutbacks in Medicare pay are slated to go into effect. Congress can't pass health care reform, but spending more on physicians (mean salary for cardiologists and radiologists in 2009 was over $400,000) has unusual bipartisan support.

What's driving the growing public role is no mystery: With unemployment at 10 percent and underemployment widespread, millions of Americans have lost employer-based coverage and now must rely on public sector programs. Even where people remain employed, their firms can no longer afford skyrocketing premiums and thus are abandoning or cutting back on coverage.

And there's no end in sight to those trends, even with an improving economy. Health care spending, which surged to 17.3% of gross domestic product in 2009 from 16.2 percent in 2008, the largest single jump in the history of government recordkeeping, is slated to rise to 19.3% in 2019, a year when the public sector will account for 51.9% of the $4.49 trillion health care economy. And that's without paying physicians more.

Here's another way to look at it: In 2019, U.S. government agencies at the state and federal level ALONE will spend 10% of GDP on health. That's a greater share of economic activity than many other highly industrialized nations that insure everyone, yet the U.S. will still have one in six or seven people without any coverage at all at some point during the year.

Health Spending Hits 17.3 Percent of GDP in Largest Annual Jump
2009 U.S. Health Spending Estimated At $2.5 Trillion

The Electric Car Revolution Will Soon Take to the Streets

January 21, 2010

YaleEnvironment360 - For years, the promise and hype surrounding electric cars failed to materialize. But as this year’s Detroit auto show demonstrated, major car companies and well-funded startups — fueled by federal clean-energy funding and rapid improvement in lithium-ion batteries — are now producing electric vehicles that will soon be in showrooms.

Electric cars are a green movement that is finally moving. Shunted to the side as the public indulged its love affair with gas-guzzling SUVs and four-wheel-drive trucks, history has finally caught up with the plug-in vehicle.

The North American International Auto Show in Detroit is the domestic auto industry’s biggest annual showcase, and the new models have traditionally been brought out in a son et lumière of dancing girls, deafening music, and dry ice smoke. The few green cars that made it this far were usually for display only — very few actually made it to showrooms.

But not this year. It’s become a race to market for green cars, and soon you’ll be able to buy many of the electric vehicles that were on display last week in Detroit. The auto show featured one hybrid and battery electric car introduction after another. Although the only truly road-worthy, plug-in electric vehicle you can buy today is the $109,000 Tesla Roadster, by the end of 2010 it will be joined by such contenders as the Nissan Leaf, Coda sedan, and the Think City.

Indeed, the entire auto industry — from giants such as Ford, GM, and Renault-Nissan to startups such as Fisker Automotive — has joined the movement to build and market affordable electric vehicles.

There’s a reason the automakers in Detroit are finally plugging in as something more than a greenwashing exercise. Spurring them forward is a historic confluence of events. Chief among them are Obama administration green initiatives, including Department of Energy (DOE) loans and grants, as well as economic stimulus funds that provide $30 billion for green energy programs, tax credits for companies that invest in advanced batteries, and $2.4 billion in strategic grants to speed the adoption of new batteries. (Much of that money is going to Michigan, which despite record unemployment is emerging as something of a green jobs center.)

Other factors behind the push to manufacture electric vehicles are a federal mandate to improve fuel efficiency to an average of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016, concerns about global warming and peak oil, and sheer technological progress building better batteries ...

Obama Speeds Government Purchase of Hybrid Cars to Replace Federal Fleet
Green Executive Order: Feds Must Cut Emissions 28% By 2020
Obama Orders Government to Slash GHG Emissions 28%

GM to Spend $455 Million on Thai Expansion

GM filed for bankruptcy protection on June 1, 2009. The U.S. government now owns 60% of it in return for $50 billion in funding to keep the company afloat while it is being reorganized. Canada owns 12%. A union health trust received 17.5% ownership in lieu of the $20 billion needed to cover benefits for 650,000 retirees. Bondholders received 10% ownership in lieu of $27 billion in bonds. GM will shut-down 11 factories and close 40% of its 6,000 dealerships. In May, GM stock fell below $1 a share for the first time since the Great Depression. - The Facts Behind Why GM Filed for Bankruptcy (Source: CNN; Washington Post)

January 29, 2010

Reuters - General Motors Corp announced plans on Friday to spend 15 billion baht ($455 million) in Thailand over the next two years, reviving plans for a new diesel-engine plant and retooling existing production lines.

The expansion at its existing plant in Thailand's Rayong Province, a region dubbed "the Detroit of Asia" for its large concentration of global carmakers, will be financed by 13.5 billion baht local syndicated loan, GM executives said.

The rest will be provided through injection of equity by the Detroit automaker to its wholly owned Thai unit.

Bangkok Bank, Siam Commercial Bank and Tisco Bank signed contracts pledging to provide GM (Thailand) Ltd the credit line.

GM executives said the company would spend $150 million building a diesel-engine plant with a 106,000-unit annual capacity and another $330 million retooling the plant's machinery.

"After the retooling process needed for our next generation pick-up trucks and special utility vehicles, our annual capacity would be around 120,000 units," Steve Carlisle, GM chief executive for South East Asia, said.

GM had shelved the diesel engine project in late 2008 after the global financial crisis forced its Detroit head office to seek a U.S. government bailout.

With the downturn of the auto industry in 2008 and 2009, GM's Thai car and truck output plunged to around 40,000 units in 2009 from 104,000 a year earlier.

Industry data showed GM sold 15,111 vehicles in Thailand in 2009, down from 22,204 in 2008. GM executives said on Friday they expected the recovering auto sector would help raise its output to about 60,000 units this year, of which about 60-70 percent are to be exported.

Tim Lee, Shanghai-based president of GM operations outside the United States and the European Union, told Reuters his firm and its Chinese joint venture partners expected to sell over two million vehicles in China this year, up from 1.83 million in 2009.

"China's recent decision to curb bank loans has not yet affected our business and we are prepared to participate in the industry's further growth in this big market," Lee said.

China is the world biggest auto market with total vehicle sales of 13.6 million units in 2009.