With gas prices over $4.00 US per gallon here in Mexico
The government will raise the price another 3% on the 1st of the year
All while gas can be purchased for $1.81 per gallon back in the US
Wayne Overby

Damn you Obama!

The low prices on gas are caused by drilling that Obama could not stop
He has tried to shut the industry down in every way that he could
But despite Obama the drilling has gone on
Just imagine how low energy prices could be with a decent leader with a good energy policy
Wayne Overby

low prices are caused by the Saudis having their spicits wide open...

Thanks for all the nice comments Bill
Wayne Overby

my blue cross insurance is now 78$ a month compared to 457$ before obamacare.....I just might need it next week ..I think I fractured my dam foot getting knock off my scooter by a tour van that pulled out in front of me in tangolunda wensday morning...

Pedroblog



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2015 11:32AM by Pedro.

WO....

Talk about what you know and know what you're talking about.

You obviously have no clue what you're talking about.

Wanna know how I know? Because you cannot back up your claim with anything at all. Not one thing. Nothing. You have nothing to back up your claim. Nope. Not a single thing.

Once again, talk about what you know and know what you're talking about.

my friend is here this evening and she is talking about the same thing....food prices are going up up up......I think premium gas is now 15p a litro..its no fun with a 4 wd jeep...dozen eggs 30 p...taxi fares are the next thing to go up..........gas is under 2 bucks a gallon in Chicago suburbs though..........after this week and getting beat up on scooter I need a vacation from here!!......

Mexico is in competition with Canada for the importation of oil to the USA. With a pipeline from Canada to the southern US states, and directly to refineries the market has adjusted. OPEC has successfully set prices for decades but that dynamic has been disrupted and the big oil Saudis are taking care of themselves. It's still too early to know what the next "energy market" will look like in the long run but shale oil has certainly changed the game. What will that mean for Pemex and the Mexican consumer?

Obama is a lame duck and nowhere near the powerful political force much of the world thinks he is. I think Mr. Putin is also adjusting these days.

He who has the gold (the black kind) rules, right? Or does the prize go to whoever has the best hackers?

I wonder what the price of gas will be in 2016 when it is Clinton v Bush ? Instead of hanging chads will some foreign power hack the polls?

Dunno, but we are packing for Huatulco and unplugging the cord very soon (at least for a few weeks).

Hang in there, Wayne. If they can't out-think you they can only yell at you or cry.

Thanks for the kind thoughts painter
No problem hanging in there
There are those that disagree with me about the size and scope of what government is and what it should be
The problem is that those that disagree would rather call me names or a raciest rather then discuss the subject
I have no control over this kind of thought process that brings everything down to name calling
I simply ignore those that do
Wayne Overby

As to Frank and his decrease in health care coverage
What Frank really has is welfare under His new coverage
The rest of the tax payers are paying the difference for Frank
Makes a tear come to my eye when I realize that I am paying for part of his coverage
Wayne Overby

Lots of things going on we don't know. What I do know is we pay $10,000 per year in medical premiums, but if we actually want to access medical care, well that's extra. If I need a ten thousand dollar "procedure" I have to pay 6,000 out of pocket. Notions of fairness are for kids. Nice move on the insurance HTA. Like all things some benefit and some don't. Nothing lasts forever. Not even our gods.

Hi Wayne, Frank was describing a decrease in the cost of health care coverage rather than a decrease in that coverage. You may describe that decrease as a form of welfare and bemoan that your taxes are contributing to pay for his and others coverage but doing so indicates a rather selfishly craven view, in my opinion. While the United States is the peculiar exception, most societies, including all our NATO allies have come to the conclusion that a universal health care approach is a wise investment of taxpayer resources. While an ideological bias may prevent you from accepting this as true, a review of the costs those societies incur to provide healthcare to their citizens as compared to healthcare costs in the United States will show that it is.
Perhaps, Puerto Bill can furnish the relevant data in a subsequent post, along with a few more choice words. Happy New Year and keep raising the intelligence level in both nations by staying there!

Yes I understand that Frank is getting a huge deduction on his cost of health insurance coverage
To me this is legalized theft
Frank is a Self employed contractor back in Chicago
He owns a condo here in Huatulco and another vacation home in Wisconsin (yes a trailer on a camp site)
Yet he has the legal to righto reach into other taxpayers wallets and use their money to help in pay for his insurance coverage
No matter How I think about this it is still legal theft
No difference then big business receiving free stadiums or all the other ways of legal theft
Wayne Overby

[thinkprogress.org]

[www.newsmax.com]

When the money printing machine breaks down and we cant even pay the interest on our 17 trillion dollar debt we will see how fast a country can go down the toilet. Ask the Romans. Of course the debt is all Bush's fault.

but I did put 10 dollars in the salvation army pot this year so I feel better now...

When I owe the banks a thousand dollars that is my problem. When I owe them 17 trillion dollars that is their problem.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/04/2015 02:04PM by Frank in Texas.

frank in Texas
You forget you are them
You owe the 17 trillion
Today the US government is spending $1.47 dollars of every dollar it collects in tax's
Or 47% more then the government has is income
No home can last very long with this as its budget
Wayne Overby

Hi, again, Wayne. This oxymoronic concept of legal theft needs more of your thinking. I suppose one could, in some philosophical netherworld, label all forms of taxation β€œlegal theft”, but where does that leave you?
Governments tax, and, then in ours, the elected represntatives decide how to spend that revenue. Extending health care to more citizens is part of that process. Accusing Frank of having β€œrighto reach into other taxpayers wallets…” is simplistic and misleading. He is just following the law and is apparently happy with its result. That you are not is not his problem or fault.
Governments are not houses, their means and budgets are different. To compare the two as if they are the same is, again, simplistic and misleading.
Anyway, have fun with the volleyball. We learn a lot about individuals and groups by engaging in team sports.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/04/2015 09:35AM by alan vlautin.

you are correct alan......in fact my insurance broker did all the paperwork and financials and the 78$ is what hecame up with........he handles my life insurance and health insurance for many years..................I have never received any food stamps..disability or unemployment comp. my entire life to date...nothing.... but if this offer was available for me under THE LAW I took it........anyway my feet are ok after xrays and my scrapes are bad but are being tended to thanks to my insurance.........be back in huatulco in no time........weather I ride my scooter again is still up for grabs.........go packers!

Alan you are correct that is how most look at it
It is the law and I benefit
I do not care that others are paying for my benefit
Now you know why the US has this debt and so many on the dole
When you break it down past all of the BS it is simply legalized theft
The government is no different my house when it comes to debt and how much
You can justify all that you want but at this time the US does not have the means to pay its debt
Wayne Overby

LI try not to worry about things I have no control over, but do try to stay informed in order to guess what may be coming next.

For the last 15 years I have made a point of asking almost every Canadian and every Mexican I meet to tell me what they think of the healthcare system in thier country. I ask open ended questions to encourage the most comprehensive answers. My interest is in learning about socialized medicine from those who use and pay for it.

In hundreds of conversations, nobody ever said some of the people should NOT be covered. There seems to be a universal (or at least widespread) consensus that part of our basic social contract with each other is the right to healthcare. So the conversations have been about access & timeliness, quality of care, the costs and fairness of payment methods.

While opinions varied, the discussion I had with a very wealthy Canadian sticks out in my mind. This was a mature gentleman with international business interest. He thought it barbaric to consider denying healthcare to anyone. When asked about the costs he made an interesting and enlightening argument.

With respect to doing business, Cost is secondary to KNOWING and being able to PREDICT the cost. His position is, that in Canada, his cost is known & predictable. It can be priced into every deal. In the USA, who can predict what they will be paying for healthcare ( or fuel) in a decade?

Cheap fuel, likewise, is a boon to some, but a real problem for those sellers who weren't able to predict it. To a large degree, I would submit, printing dollars is a predictable phenomenon. Only the interest is being paid and that has been the case for decades. Sometimes I think we forget that money is nothing more than promises. One does not need an extensive understanding of history to recognize the conditions under which demand for delivery on those promises can be made.

This all strikes me as excellent reasons to fire up the blender for a round of boat drinks, sea breezes and sunshine.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/04/2015 01:21PM by Painter1.

"The government is no different my house when it comes to debt and how much"
This proves my point above. Government debt and household debt is not the same.
Is the debt all Bush's fault? Not all of it (There was Bush I and Reagan) but when he came to office there was a surplus that would have paid off the debt in ten years. His claim was that surplus belonged to tax payers and did not pay off the debt and instead put us into deficit spending and left a $1,200,000,000,000 deficit. Fact. Also when the economy failed catastrophically under his watch it had to be fixed. It is impossible to flip a switch and turn around an economy as big as the U.S.. What was done needed to be done. Fact. Whether you want to be willfully ignorant about this or not it is your decision. History will show that what was done to get the U.S. out of the free fall and get it back to normal was pretty damn good.

Debt, Debt, Debt…Wayne, the country was founded, expanded and sustained on the debt. What do you think John Adams and other founding fathers were doing over there in Paris and Amsterdam? Getting the, yet to be, country into debt! Why did Alexander Hamilton push through as part of the Constitutional compromise, absorbing the debts individual States had incurred during the Revolutionary war into the Federal governments books? To get the new country into debt!
If you continue this myopic view that governmental debt is akin to household debt, you will have no peace and continue to make others aware of your conceptual shortcomings. Debt for governments, those entities than create money, can be beneficial in creating the infrastructures, schools, roads, etc., that enable citizens the opportunities to improve their conditions and as such: debt is a good thing.
i agree with you that there can be too much of a good thing. I would direct your attention to the recent wars that have been funded solely on debt, without tax increases and would like to remind you that when the Bush tax cuts were enacted the unemployment rate was 4.5%. Accordingly, governments are different than your house when it comes to debt and you would be wise to spike that thought that they are not.

I only wish that there truly was a Gaults Gulch to go to
Wayne Overby

I only wish you’d broadened your fiction reading list and not bought into so much of the selfish swill that atheist, Ayn Rand, was spreading!

Yes she is an Atheist
But I do agree with every thing else the lady wrote
Wayne Overby

Ouch!