Speaker Boehner Won't Play Ball

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Can anyone out there believe the nonsense going on in Washington D.C.? What is with these politicians? They seem more interested in running for re-election rather than running the country. The GOP lead by House Speaker Boehner decided to walk out on negotiations designed at cutting the US federal deficit. This reminds me of the little boy who comes to play a game, brings his own baseball and when things are not going the way he wants them to, he takes his ball and goes home. Childish is the word that best describes Speaker Boehner. Does he not realize the serious financial implications that could befall the American people if some sort of agreement is not reached?  At least President Obama is willing to negotiate and offer real comprises towards a solution to the US Financial problem.

Let’s hope that this financial mess is straightened out before America is trust into a default position. The ramifications of a US default will be felt world wide and could precipitate a world wide recession or even depression. Why? Because speaker Boehner took his ball and went home. Time for the GOP to grow up.


Stay on Track,Money Magazine Hoss

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Financial Crisis Deepens: Obama

From The Hoss's Mouth

Just twelve days before his inauguration President Elect Obama delivered a major speech on the economy, or rather the financial crisis in America. Hoss Cents Free Financial Money Magazine presents highlights of his speech.

Obama's opening remarks clearly demonstrate the seriousness of the financial crisis facing Americans. He highlighted the following :

• Nearly two million jobs lost

• More jobs lost last year than at any time since World War II

• 2.8 million Americans working part time rather than full time

• Manufacturing at a 28-year low

• Many businesses cannot meet financial obligations

• Many families cannot meet their financial obligations (pay bills, mortgages)

• Recession could linger for years

• Unemployment could reach double digits

• Economy could fall $1 trillion short of its capacity

President Elect Obama summed up the financial crisis by stating, "In short, a bad situation could become dramatically worse."

Obama did not stop there. He went on to explain how this financial crisis occurred. He did not pull any punches.

"We arrived at this point due to an era of profound irresponsibility that stretched from corporate boardrooms to the halls of power in Washington, DC." His honesty about how the Americans came to be in this economic crisis is refreshing. He further provided examples of this irresponsibility:

• Imprudent and dangerous decisions by Wall Street executives seeking profits without regard to risk

• Too little regulatory scrutiny

• Too little accountability

• Banks making loans with no concern for whether borrowers could repay

• Borrowers taking on loans they couldn't afford

• Politicians spending taxpayer money without wisdom or concern

President Elect Obama summed it up this way: "The result has been a devastating loss of trust and confidence in our economy, our financial markets and our government."

After presenting this factual assessment of the current financial crisis, President Elect Obama then spoke of the action he has already taken and intends to take to solve the financial problems facing Americans.

He his currently working with his economic team and leaders of both political parties on an "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan".

He openly admitted that the budget deficit would increase in the short-term, but the alternative of doing too little, or nothing at all, would result in a worsening of the financial crisis.




The primary steps in this financial plan (in no particular order) are as follows:

• The creation of a clean energy plan

• Lower the cost and improve the quality of health care

• Improve the educational system

• Rebuild the American infrastructure

• Provide immediate relief to States, workers and families

• Eliminate unwise and unnecessary spending

He promises to make the plan transparent and that every American will be able to go online and see where their tax dollars are being spent.

Their will be nay sayers who will claim the steps he is taking are not part of the financial plan outlined in his election campaign. The Hoss says, way to go President elect Obama. You have recognized the fact the financial crisis has deepened and are taking action to address this very serious financial crisis. You, as promised in your election campaign, are listening to economic experts from both sides of the political spectrum and with their help and that of your own economic team you just may, over time, be able to mend the American financial crisis.

Stay on track,
The Hoss

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Obama or McCain

From The Hoss's Mouth

Today, Hoss Cents Free Financial Money Magazine endorses Barack Obama for President of the United States of America. The Hoss has closely watched the Presidential election campaign and has come to the conclusion that Barack Obama is the best choice to be President of the United States.

It is clear that Obama and McCain have well defined differences on such election issues as:

• Economy

• Health Care

• Education

• Taxes

• War in Iraq

• Energy

• Environment

• Free Trade

• Foreign Policy

• Abortion

Although The Hoss's philosophy is closer to that of Obama than McCain, he recognizes that supporting any candidate based only on their election platform can be a problem. Once elected, many unknown factors could and do crop up which severely limited the ability of the elected candidate to carry out election promises.

Furthermore, no one person can be expected to solely govern the United States of America. The President Elect must have the ability to select an administration that will govern the United States with the best interest of the American people.

With this in mind, The Hoss decided to not only consider each platform but also evaluate Obama and McCain's election campaign and determine which candidate demonstrates the best ability to select a team of people capable of working together towards a common goal.

McCain's choice for Vice President (Palin does not inspire confidence), the much publicized in-fighting of his campaign staff (calling Palin a "Divvia"), and failure to coordinate attendees at rallies (Joe the Plumber a no-show) clearly indicate a lack of leadership.

Obama and his staff have far out-performed McCain during this campaign. Obama has demonstrated leadership ability beyond his years. The Hoss believes Barack Obama has shown he is capable of selecting an administration that can work together for the greater good. McCain has not.

The Hoss is proud to support Barack Obama for President of the United States.

Stay on track,

The Hoss


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Obama and McCain Economic Plans

From the Hoss's Mouth

Hoss Cents Free Financial Money Magazine provides the highlights of the economic plans of presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain. For comprehensive details on the implementation and characteristics of these plans, visit the respective Obama and McCain websites.

Barack Obama’s Economic Plan

Homeowner Protection:

• Protect homeownership and crack down on mortgage fraud
• Ensure more accountability in the subprime mortgage industry
• Mandate accurate loan disclosure
• Create fund to help homeowners avoid foreclosures
• Close bankruptcy loophole for mortgage companies
• Create a universal mortgage credit

Taxes:

• Provide middle class Americans tax relief
• Provide a tax cut for working families
• Simplify tax filings for middle class Americans
• Create the American Opportunity Tax Credit
• Expand the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit

For Seniors:

• Strengthen retirement security
• Eliminate income taxes for seniors making less than $50,000
• Create automatic workplace pensions
• Expand retirement savings incentives for working families

Credit Cards:

• Address predatory credit card practices
• Create a credit card rating system to improve disclosure
• Establish a credit card bill of rights to protect consumers
• Ban unilateral changes
  
• Apply interest rate increases only to future debt
• Prohibit interest on fees
• Prohibit “Universal Defaults”
• Require prompt and fair crediting of cardholder payments

Stimulate Economic Growth:

• Fix the health care crisis in America
  
• Invest in U.S. manufacturing
• Create new job training programs for clean technologies
• Boost the renewable energy sector and create new jobs
• Fight for fair trade
• Invest in the Sciences
• Make the Research & Development Tax Credit permanent
• Deploy "Next-Generation Broadband"
• Improve transparency in the market
• Investigate potential conflict of interest between credit rating agencies and financial institutions

John McCain’s Economic Plan

Bring the budget to balance by 2013 with a three-step process:

1. Provide For Reasonable economic growth

• Low individual tax rates
• Low tax rates on dividends and capital gains
• Minimize expensive mandates
• Keep jobs here
• Lower corporate tax rate
• Improve investment and research incentives
• Reduce federal borrowing

2. Institute comprehensive spending controls

• One-year spending pause; freeze non-defense, non-veterans discretionary spending
  
• Comprehensive review of all spending programs
• Take back earmark funds

3. Eliminating wasteful spending

• Stop earmarks, pork-barrel spending, and waste
• Eliminate broken government programs
• Reform civil service system
• Reform procurement programs
  
• Reform Social Security:
• Control Medicare growth

The Lexington Project highlights:

• Increase domestic exploration of oil and natural gas
• Build 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030
• Research that will allow the clean use of coal

Controlling health care costs:

• Provide $5,000 for health insurance to every American family
• Safe re-importation of drugs and faster introduction of generic drugs
• Federal research into treating and curing chronic disease
• Coordinated care
• Greater access and convenience
• Information technology improvement
• Reform the payment systems in Medicaid and Medicare
• Promote the availability of smoking cessation programs
• Improve transparency
• Provide Tort Reform

Taxes:

• Keep tax rates low
• Keep the top tax rate at 35 percent
• Maintain the 15 percent rates on dividends and capital gains
• Phase-out the Alternative Minimum Tax
• Cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 25 percent
• Allow first-year deduction or "expensing" of equipment and technology investments
• Establish permanent tax credit equal to 10 percent of wages spent on Research & Development
• Reduce the estate tax rate to 15 percent with a $10 million exemption
• Ban Internet taxes
• Ban new cell phone taxes

Immediate relief for American families:

• Suspend the 18.4-cent federal gas tax and 24.4-cent diesel tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day
• Implement policies to increase the value of the dollar
• Repeal tax on imported sugar-based ethanol
• Roll back corn-based ethanol mandates
• “Home Plan” to assist those caught in the mortgage crisis
• Propose a student loan continuity plan

Mrs. Hoss insists that The Hoss provide links for those of you who would like to explore these economic plans in depth, so here they are:

Barack Obama Economic Plan

John McCain Economic Plan


Stay on track,

The Hoss

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Obama and McCain Health Care Plans

From The Hoss's Mouth

Hoss Cents Free Financial Money Magazine turns its attention to the Obama and McCain presidential election. The Hoss has researched both Obama and McCain campaign literature. Each candidate has a clearly defined and opposing view. Over the next several weeks, The Hoss will provide information on the key issue's important to the public. He will provide summary information on Obama's and McCain's plans for health care, education, taxation, and military strategy.


The winner of this presidential election will have a huge impact on the direction of the American economy over the next four years. The Hoss hopes the information he provides will help you to vote for the candidate whose values are closest to your own, whether that be Barack Obama or John McCain.


Onto the issue at hand...health care in the United States costs over $2 trillion a year. The Hoss has provided a summary of each candidate's health care plan below, which is by no means a complete picture. For detailed information, The Hoss suggests you visit their respective websites.


Barack Obama: According to Obama's website, he has a three part plan to improve the U.S. health care system:


(1) Provide affordable, comprehensive and portable health coverage for every American:

• Guaranteed eligibility
• Comprehensive benefits
• Affordable premiums, co-pays and deductibles
• Simplify paperwork and rein in health costs
• Easy enrollment
• Portability and choice
• Quality and efficiency
• National health insurance exchange
• Employer contributions
• Mandatory coverage of children
• Expansion of Medicaid and SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program)
• Flexibility for state plans

(2) Modernize the U.S. health care system to contain spiraling health care costs and improve the quality of patient care:

• Reduce costs of catastrophic illnesses for employers and their employees
• Lower costs by ensuring patients receive quality care
• Support disease management programs
• Coordinate and integrate care
• Require full transparency about quality and costs
• Ensure providers deliver quality care
• Promote patient safety
• Align incentives for excellence
• Utilize comparative effectiveness reviews and research
• Tackle disparities in health care
• Reform medical malpractice while preserving patient rights
• Lower costs through investment in electronic health information
• Improve technological systems
• Lower costs by increasing competition in the insurance and drug markets
• Increase competition
• Drug re-importation
• Increase use of generic medications
• Lower Medicare prescription drug benefit costs

(3) Promote prevention and strengthen public health, to prevent disease and protect against natural and man-made disasters.


John McCain: According to McCain's website, his health care plan will provide better health care at a lower cost for every American. He has listed the following initiatives:

• Provide cheaper drugs
• Provide initiatives to reduce chronic disease
• Provide coordinated care
• Improve access and convenience
• Deploy information technology
• Reform Medicaid and Medicare
• Promote the availability of smoking cessation programs
• Tort reform. Fight for medical liability reform that eliminates lawsuits directed at doctors who follow clinical guidelines and adhere to proven safety protocols.
• Improve transparency
• Reforms to make health insurance innovative, portable and affordable
• Health care costs: Make it easier for individuals and families to obtain insurance
• Make the Tax Subsidy fair
• Make insurance more portable

Again, The Hoss reminds you this is a summary of the health care plans of Obama and McCain. Details of how each intends to achieve these goals can be found on their respective websites.


Stay on track,

The Hoss


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