Fasten Your Seatbelts

Meet Radical Islam's New #1 Recruiter

Not only has the Trump Administration violated the basic ethos at the heart of the American experiment, he has instantly made us much less safe in the process.

Because the Adminstration's broad-brush application of immigration policy is widely perceived to be anti-Islam, moderating Muslim voices will have a hard time getting heard, inevitably leading to a further rise in extremist thought and action, both here and abroad. Some will argue that this is "their" problem, not ours, but the fight for the hearts and minds of moderate Muslims has always been central to U.S. diplomacy.

Judges can reverse his executive order, but the damage has been done. Those who are now less safe than before are:

#1) U.S. and allied troops serving in the Middle East.
#2) Muslim leaders who are allied to the U.S.
#3) Americans living and working in predominantly Muslim countries.
#4) Americans at home.

Once again, I struggle to see the logic in this new administration's thought process. There are other, more diplomatic, ways to achieve their basic goals if they want to limit or even shut off the flow of refugees without issuing radical and polarizing executive orders; a quiet internal memo, or maybe even a few well-placed phone calls, might have sufficed.

So, it seems as if the Trump Administration is hell-bent on sowing chaos in order to shift to a new paradigm. Another word for that? Anarchy.

Pinche Muro Estúpido

Part of the already existing border wall, this section in Nogales, Texas

Why is Donald Trump trying to do everything he can to burn every ounce of goodwill that we might have accumulated since the Mexican-American War? How is that part of a good negotiating strategy when dealing with a close neighbor and ally? This is exactly what I feared when Donald Trump was getting close to winning the Republican nomination, which is that his style would degrade the discourse and elevate our most base instincts.

For example, does he not understand that making a border wall such a high priority, and insisting that his neighbor pay the construction cost, is the perfect recipe for a complete disintegration in diplomatic relations? Is that his objective? How is that in the interest of the United States or in the region's interest, for that matter?

Not to mention, that we already have walls in place where the Border Control agents have determined they are most needed (typically where there are two contiguous urban areas that cross the international border, such as in between Nogales, Texas and Nogales, Mexico), and adding walls in the vast, desolate areas where there are few people or eyes watching will serve as little obstacle to a determined migrant.

Add to all of this the completely irresponsible Trump threat to impose a 20% duty on all Mexican imports, when he knows perfectly well that customs duties between the U.S. and Mexico are set by international treaty and that arbitrary contravention of said treaty, except in times of war, is illegal?

Mexico and the United States have many common interests and many ways in which to benefit one another. Shutting down Mexican imports will not miraculously bring back American jobs and will not stem the flow of migrants and drugs from Mexico. To the contrary, Trump's actions, which are already destabilizing Mexico in dangerous ways and are threatening to weaken the U.S. economy, could cause these problems to get much, much worse.

Health Care Super-Consumers

Some healthcare consumers are in and out of the ER constantly

In the healthcare industry there is a term for patients who consume exceedingly high health care dollars: health care super-consumers.

It turns out that these super-consumers, who represent 5% of all domestic health care consumers, consume 50% of the total health care dollars.

I need to repeat that: 5% of consumers of health care services demand 50% of all health care dollars.

No wonder, when Obamacare demanded that health insurance providers cover all consumers regardless of prior health conditions, premiums for the rest of us started going through the roof and insurance companies started leaving the marketplace.

Prior to Obamacare, these patients were either not covered by any plan or were covered by Medicaid. After Obamacare, they were able to join the ranks of the insured, resulting in an explosion in claims costs for the insurance companies.

This is why the federal government, or the state governments with or without federal funding, need to insure these super-consumers and get them off the rolls of the health insurance companies.

The way the system is now, at least 50% of the typical consumer's health care insurance premiums go to fund the needs of only 5% of the population. It is fundamentally unfair to ask that of the average U.S. family.

As a nation, particularly a nation as powerful as the United States, has a moral obligation to provide for the health care needs of its populace. However, charging exorbitant insurance premiums with ridiculously high deductibles is not an answer.

If the insurance companies go back to the model where they can red line certain consumers based on pre-existing health conditions, thereby pushing them into a federal or state plan, the majority of the population can go back to health care plans with low premiums and low deductibles.

God knows the status quo is not working anymore.

German Healthcare Engineering

By any measure, the U.S. healthcare system is failing in its primary mission: to provide the overall population access to healthcare at a cost that does not bankrupt the nation.

We can argue about the details, but why, when an example of how a healthcare system should work already exists, in Germany?

Without going into too much detail, the German system is the best existing hybrid of public and private, without the rationing of care that exists in Canada and the UK, and at a reasonable cost. The efficient, German system costs the Germans 10.5% of their GDP, while our fractured, chaotic system cost the U.S. economy 17.9% of GDP in 2015, and is rising dramatically.

So, we should simply adapt the German system to the U.S. market with one primary interest in mind: the health and satisfaction of the U.S. healthcare consumer.