|
Here is an eye-opening forecast by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: “The nursing shortage in the United States is intensifying: it is expected to triple over the next 13 years, leaving a shortfall of 340,000 nurses in 2020.” For the U.S. to get itself back to “even” or “normal”, an EXTRA 34,000 nurses would have to graduate and get licensed each year. Somewhere there’s another forecast that said 1.5 Million nurses would be leaving the workforce in the next ten years and that only 1 Million new nurses would be trained. In that scenario, there is an urgent need for an EXTRA 50,000 nurses each year. Today, the media is reporting on trillion dollar proposals for bank bailouts, fiscal stimulus, and throwing borrowed money at the American people via tax “rebates.” Wouldn’t you feel better to have a list of specific, concrete goals for worthwhile, valuable projects in front of you? The politicians’ catchphrase is “shovel-ready.” By that, the idea is to jumpstart the “economy” by funding only projects like roads that can be started the next day (or month). “Shovel-ready” is some kind of red herring requirement. It just takes our focus off the big picture. Who says that the U.S. shouldn’t try to catch up? And catching up can also take a few years. Back to the shortage of nurses . . . a dramatic push to save the medical system would seem to be a very popular, visible, and valuable program. The existing nursing schools report turning away qualified applicants simply due to lack of space. There are plenty of American men and women want nursing as a career. But lack of teaching staff and facilities and money is the cause of the crisis. And, the crisis is going to worsen each year. This is a completely understandable situation. Perhaps the whole world has heard of the baby boom . . . except the U.S. Congress. The baby boom has been common knowledge for years so the nursing shortage is no surprise. First, the baby boomers expanded the number of nurses. Second, the baby boomer generation is a big generation, and they’re retiring. Third, these retired boomers themselves will create their own huge demand for medical care. This week, Barack Obama is sworn in as president. In 1960, John Kennedy was sworn in as president. Both are known for their eloquence. John Kennedy stated his goal to put an American on the moon within ten years. I’d like to hear Barack Obama set a goal to train an extra (that’s extra) 340,000 nurses within ten years. Click here to contact your representatives in Washington, D.C.: –- Byron References: |
Archive for January, 2009
The Bailout Congress
Monday, January 12th, 2009|
In November, Bill Maher had a great line regarding the “financial fiasco”:
“New Rule: Hank Paulson must drop the $700 billion in bailout money from a plane and let everyone scramble for it on the ground. Sure, it’ll be chaos, but at least this way we have a chance of getting our money back.”
Yes, it’s a funny line. But, the satire does not need to stop with the
Try this one. Since the 1970’s, every candidate for president, for the
One part of the program was to establish some standard for gas mileage for a car manufacturer to meet. It was a standard for their “fleet” so the And, then the Congress outdid themselves using the tax code. They gave an incentive for businesses and self-employed people to purchase gas-guzzlers. Thus, folks could take a 100% deduction of the costs immediately. For example, anyone purchasing a $75,000 SUV wrote off $75,000. In the highest tax bracket, that meant the federal government gave the owner $25,000 plus. And, the government borrowed the money from China to fund the giveaway for Americans to buy more gas-guzzlers. Next, how about that foreign oil? Well, the Congress approves of going to war in Iraq to protect the foreign oil supply. World’s only superpower, you know. So, the federal government borrows more money from China to pay for that war. (Are we seeing a pattern here?) And, guess what? The price of gas soared above $4 per gallon. Now few people want to buy such vehicles. Thus, the auto companies are losing money because they staked their success on gas-guzzling big-ticket vehicles. So what happens now? Well, the Congress says it has to bail out the auto companies. And, of course, to do that they have to borrow more money from China. Maybe Bill Maher is actually on to something. Maybe throwing money from airplanes, or maybe from skyscrapers, should be discussed in Congress. All things considered, it might have cost America less. In 1928, on his radio program, Will Rogers observed: “No nation in the history of the world was ever sitting so pretty. If we want anything, all we have to do is go and buy it on credit. So that leaves us without any economic problems whatever, except some day to have to pay for them,” he told America. “But we are certainly not thinking about that this early.” One year later, the stock market crashed big-time. Oh, yes, it rose to new records before finally settling to a new low in 1932. Stocks had lost 90% of their value.
Click here to contact your representatives in Washington, D.C.: – Byron
|
Fix America First!
Friday, January 9th, 2009|
There are about 600,000 bridges in the United States. The most recent
There are over 4 millon miles of highways in the U.S. Note that the
Let’s skip all of the mind-numbing statistics. The above two paragraphs
In a letter to Speaker Pelosi, the American Society of Civil Engineers How much planning does it take to start re-surfacing? It’s “shovel-ready” today! Once started, why stop? In the Sun Belt, the work can continue year-round. Tougher projects like bridges are also ready to go, but just need funding. Meantime, the new engineering projects can be put to blueprints. And, the full program will be a dynamic growth engine for at least 5 years.
A 50% increase in the per gallon user fees would put us on the road to
This “infrastructure” program fits nicely into the “fiscal stimulus” being Fixing America first is a great way to go.
Click here to contact your representatives in Washington, D.C.: – Byron
Testimony of The American Society of Civil Engineers
|