How many trillions could we save over the next decade if we get our political goals accomplished

[Juche]

Obama talked about $2 trillion in savings over 10 years by finding alot of budget items that are basically just corporate welfare. Fine by me.

however he has based his healthcare policy on ideas from the commonwealth fund, which is an independent org that researches healthcare. They have found that if the ideas they propose are implemented we could save $3 trillion in healthcare costs between now and 2020. Not only that but with more Healthcare IT we would easily save hundreds of thousands of lives over that time frame.

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Content/Publications/Fund-Reports/2009/Feb/The-Path-to-a-High-Performance-US-Health-System.aspx


Renewable energy and updating our infrastructure for energy (weatherization and insulation, higher CAFE standards, alternative energies, updated grid) will make our energy cheaper and we will need less of it than if we did nothing to address the problem. I don't have a figure offhand, but I wouldn't be surprised if we are looking at around $500-1000 billion in total savings between now and 2020 due to lower energy costs. We will see lower grid prices, less grid energy needed (due to better building codes), higher MPG cars, more alt fuels that are cheaper than gas, more public transport, etc. I don't have a figure but again, $500-1000 billion between now and 2020 seems reasonable. We use about 145 billion gallons of gasoline a year and 40 billion in diesel, even mild improvement in alt energies and higher MPG cars will save huge amounts of money in consumer transportation alone. Even saving 20 billion gallons of gasoline a year is going to save $40 billion a year in lower energy, and that is with gas still at $2 a gallon. It'll go back up to $4+ a gallon after this economic crisis is over.

So overall, just from progressive advances in healthcare, corporate welfare and energy we could be saving $6 trillion over the next decade. Combine that with the money we save from ending the war in Iraq and progressive tax hikes and our long term economic future looks far better than it has in a long time IMO.

I put about $1500 into supporting democrat and progressives candidates as well as progressive organizations in this election. It was totally worth it. When I was donating the money I thought 'with the middle class tax cuts I'll see a return on my investment in about 2 or 3 years', but when you consider the overall health of our economy, damn. It was a great investment. I don't say that to brag, just to point out that in retrospect it was a really good investment. Not only will I make the money back in a few years with middle class tax cuts, but I will have competent leadership again.

[elocs]

1. Ahh, one of the very biggest words in the English language--"if".

"If wishes were horses, beggars would ride".

[Juche]

2. There has already been progress

The stimulus bill was passed, and the budget cannot be filibustered. The dems have 59 seats in the senate, and in 2010 the GOP is likely to lose another 3-5 seats. So I think we can get all this accomplished.

[elocs]

4. It's still in the early innings and there's a long way to go.

As the game goes on, Obama may have to worry about some Democrats in Congress as much as the Republicans.

In the end nothing succeeds like success, but he who high-5s last, high-5s best.

[dkf]

3. Yes, but how much MORE could we have saved if we had put

more emphasis on things like this, especiallly Energy and infrastructure.

I think when we look back at the money we spent (or more precisely, didn't spend), our greatest regret will be that we weren't more aggressive about transitioning our economy to a post oil world.

We still have a lot more to do if we don't want to experience an oil shock later, and we could have helped global warming at the same time.

[msongs]

5. Obama is gonna deliver corporate health care nt