Too Much News Chew

There is way too much news for me to comment on at one time and I have other matters that demand my time. Get ready to click.

The Republicans want to privatize Medicare. A really, really bad idea. The fact that Fox News would run this story (from the Associated Press) -- with this headline -- makes you wonder what the Republicans are really up to. (I suspect pushing Overton’s Window further right.)

House GOP Considers Privatizing Medicare

”Months after they hammered Democrats for cutting Medicare, House Republicans are debating whether to relaunch their quest to privatize the health program for seniors.”

As always, check Krugman for clear-headed thinking on the subject.

In what seems to be a clear indication of too much news to keep up with, it appears there was a great “save” of UAL497 in New Orleans and it isn’t getting much attention. (Too many cracks on Southwest’s airplanes I guess.) I have to admit, I haven’t had time to catch up on it yet.

But in all the chaos, make sure that Russ Chew (yes, our Russ Chew) doesn’t get under the radar.

GUARANTEED NEXTGEN RESULTS . . . OR IT'S FREE!

"Industry's newest approach to selling NextGen, which is beginning to look like a white elephant with a tattoo saying "Solution in Search of A Sucker", is to use complex derivative financing to pay for the gizmos, because the inscrutability of derivatives is socially acceptable and we're running out of ways to sell this stuff - which, again, nobody will buy with their own money."

If that much thinking hurts your head, you can find a simplified version at Aviation Today.

House Bill Backs Public-Private NextGen Financing

”The House of Representatives passed long-delayed FAA reauthorization legislation April 1, including an amendment supporting a public-private approach to accelerating NextGen equipage for the air transport and general aviation sectors. ”

”The fund, whose leadership includes former FAA ATO chief operating officer and JetBlue Airways President Russell Chew, is partnered with ITT Corp., “other aerospace companies and Wall Street” in providing a financing mechanism. That offering “combines financing at competitive rates backed by loan guarantees with proven credit management practices that drive default risks to near-zero,” the fund said. ”

Follow along now...The crowd that wants to privatize Medicare (after trying and failing to privatize Social Security) wants to use public funds to finance the privatization of the air traffic control system because...private industry that is actually involved in aviation (airlines) won’t invest the funds needed to make the privatization of ATC by outside companies a reality.

”The contractor will own the equipment, the software and the expertise. In other words, they’ll “own” the FAA.”

It’s not enough that they are going to take away your (the American Public’s) National Airspace System. Now they want you to finance them so they can do it.

Don Brown
April 6, 2011