In Plain English

By PeterFratarcangelo

Peter Fratarcangelo feels the frustration that all of us feel with our “most trusted” institutions. Our schools are failing and healthcare costs are skyrocketing. Politicians feather their own nests while taxes cripple families and job creation. Children suffer abuse. Social Security is a sham. While most of us throw up our hands in dismay, Mr. Fratarcangelo has sought solutions to get back on track. He has laid them out on these pages—and In Plain English. America must hear what he has to say.

• Language: English
• Publisher: PeterFratarcangelo
• Release date: Mar 27, 2014
• ISBN: 9780988650985

PeterFratarcangelo

Peter Fratarcangelo has been devoted to medical research for the last 40 years. As Associate Director of new drug development at both Pfizer and Richardson-Vicks (now Proctor & Gamble), and as CEO of his successful medical research company, International HealthCare, he has successfully guided the development and FDA approval of over 35 new drugs and medical devices now on the market. He has patented medical devices as well as published and presented over 12 articles in major peer reviewed journals and at Global Medical Conferences. He has a BS, MSc and PhD in Operations Research (the use of advanced analytical methods to help make better decisions).His life long experience and expertise on how best to collect and use all data before making a major decision to move forward to market a new drug or device is what drove him to write this book. He applies this knowledge on how to approach the problems we all face and how best to implement a solution that will benefit all of us.Peter lives in Norwalk, CT with his wife of 44 years. He has 3 daughters and seven grandchildren.

Book preview

Preface

My effort in this book is to suggest ways by which we, as Americans, can move our country forward and improve our Economy, our Healthcare, our Education, our Defense, our Social Security and Medicare, and improve the Protection of our Children. To do so we need to be aware of the facts, and not facts twisted to satisfy one group’s position or another.

In working to accomplish these goals I realized there is a big impediment: We are being told half-truths. Over the past decade I have become amazed that politicians and media firms have been trying to knock down their competition by stretching the truth, saying half-truths and even saying and writing outright lies. Their goal is to convince us that, They are the ones to believe in, They are the ones that provide us with the information the fastest and most accurate. Don't believe the other guys. These influential people are misguiding us down a path that is paved by lies and innuendo. The only effective way to stop this is to show to them that they will lose their following, their audience, if they continue to give us half-truths.

Therefore, in addition to describing possible solutions to our major issues and a pathway to get there, I also emphasize that we must always have the facts that have been verified and validated. Before we agree to move forward with a plan to solve our problems, we must be assured that the steps we are about to take are correct and will lead to success, even if some of the smaller steps are unpleasant. If any are unpleasant, we have to make sure that all the unpleasantness doesn't fall on one group, but is equally divided among all. Equally share in the hard work, so we can equally share in the success. The problem is we have been getting the incomplete facts or suggested steps to solve our problems that are embellished to coddle us so we would support their recommendations. The old adage is, You can fool some of the people some of the time but not all the people all the time. They have been trying to fool all of us most of the time and we need to stand up and say Stop: STOP the B…S… and TELL US THE FACTS.

The title of my book is a call to act – act decisively – but only when you know that the facts you have are correct. If we are going to be successful and improve the health of the USA, we need to STOP making the quick, radical decisions that just make us swing back and forth like a pendulum. When radical decisions are made we of course see changes happening and so we wait to see if these new changes will fix and solve our problems. Big changes will happen when you make big radical decisions, but as we have been experiencing over the last 40-plus years, we just get deeper and deeper into debt, failing to solve our problems, and failing to improve the lives of all Americans. Three years or so after every election we hope that by accepting these radical changes, life would get better or at least start to improve. Unfortunately, we find ourselves again with our hope deflated. Guess what happens next - we have elections again, politicians promising they can do better and we grow more and more disgusted with their promises failing so miserably.

But there’s a better way to give us the confidence that we are doing it correctly, for a change. This book will help provide that guide … IN PLAIN ENGLISH.

In Plain English

This book describes how we can get from here to there –

The here is chaotic -- a weak economy, with healthcare problems surrounded by poor politics, political maneuverings and wasteful spending that is preventing us from moving forward… The there is a healthy, strong America, with action to become debt-free, while at the same time control costs of healthcare, control spending, protect our borders and secure our interests throughout the world without creating wars and without always looking to put our troops in harm’s way…

Just who needs to get out of the way? The answer is The Federal Government – as it operates TODAY. The Government (and all our elected officials) are there to PROTECT us, not TAKE from us. They are there to help us in our needs, and not be always needy, and they certainly have become experts on taxing us every which way you can imagine.

The Problem in brief: Our elected officials are supposed to spend only for the greater good of all Americans, not for their party or ‘pet’ projects.

Over the years this has become their standard operating procedure. Each new senator or congressperson has a ‘caucus’ (gathering) with their party faithful after the election. At this gathering, what is made crystal clear are the ‘rules’ that they need to follow. What is reiterated, of course, are the platform mantras, as well as what is expected of them regarding the bills they need to back and others where they need to vote ‘nay.’ In the same breath they are told how the party will help them pay off some of the debt they amassed during their campaigns. If they thought they party was giving them that money for nothing, they’d better think again.

So being beholden to the party, they ‘toe the line’ on what spending is acceptable from the party’s point of view. Therefore, the principle which guides them on how to ‘redistribute’ the funds the country receives from the taxpayers is based on that Congressman’s party platform? This is how they decide what bill they will pass and what will be delayed for some future generation or administration?

These elected officials must change the way taxpayer money is redistributed. When the government prepares the budget, the party in power focuses spending on how the use of those funds will advance and promote their party’s agenda. But that is ass-backwards.

To be assured that they maximize their control of the budget and attribute delivery of these funds to their constituents, they create more and more entitlement programs. They append sections and tack on new categories to these programs that add more and more people who will become ‘entitled’ to the benefits. The more taxpayer funds they control and distribute via the entitlement programs, the more they believe they have demonstrated to their constituents and party bosses that they should remain in office so they can do more of the same year after year.

If you take a step back and look at that action, there is phrase that comes to mind: They are buying your vote. They want to be re-elected and this is the most impressive way to show to you that they are helping you.

What these elected officials are really doing is robbing the state of funds that should have been allocated to them. When the government sets up a program and provides the initial start-up funds where people can ‘join’ or apply, these citizens of the state end up getting money because they met the qualifications of the program. All looks rosy especially when the money is ‘freely flowing.’ Then the state gets ‘hooked’ into the delivering the benefits of the program and the inevitable happens - the government decides it cannot fund the program anymore. The dilemma – the people of the state who receive the extra funds integrate those funds into their daily lives. The state can continue to give out these funds only if they add the entitlement to their already lean budget.

Yes, we can say it is the fault of the people who integrate it into their daily living, and the answer is YES, it is their fault. But sometimes when you are in need of additional funds to make ends meet, it is difficult to reject these extra funds. Unfortunately the carrot was hanging out there and they took it. As a politician in that state they will not want to disappoint their constituents and so they will put those funds in the budget even though there are more critical services that need to be funded. So here we go again: politics is driving federal and state funds; politics and the need to be re-elected are driving these politicians. Doing what is right plays second fiddle to doing what it takes to win another term.

What is the answer? The federal government must focus on funding country-wide programs not that are ideologically correct, but that are financially and responsibly correct. You might take a step back and say to yourself, ‘They believe what they are funding is what they believe should be funded based upon their ideological preferences.’ Sorry, but you are truly fooling yourself if you believe that, and they have done a great job of selling you the Brooklyn Bridge.

There are so many vital programs that are not ideologically based, but necessity based. These are not at the forefront of a ‘TO-DO’ list because why should these be solved first; they will not receive thanks from the influential party donors. These donors give huge sums of money to their party of choice and get their ‘man’ elected because they want their ‘pet’ programs pushed forward ahead of any other program. Many influential donors within a party expect the same push from the people they helped elect with their funds. By the time they get all the programs urged by their donors funded, there is little to go around to address necessary but not ideologically based programs.

We must establish an unbiased way to fund the projects that truly need to get done. The federal government should not provide funds to the state for any specific project. If there are funds that can be allocated to states, they should be allocated to the state, the governor and the legislature, so they can decide what to spend it on. All their citizens in that state will definitely know where they need to spend money. All they have to do is to look at the items in the approved state budget, which the legislature and governor worked out among themselves. Goodbye to ‘pork barrel’ spending.

Here is a link to the most recent federal budget (http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collectionGPO.action?collectionCode=BUDGET). Just take a look at all the ‘pork’ laden within. It is clear these politicians do not care if a state could make better use of those funds. Instead of that shiny new community center, what about increasing the quality of food at lunch time for school children … or allocating funds for the elderly to help pay their heating oil bills in the winter. Whatever the reason, the funds from the federal government should go to the governor and state legislators, as they know best what the state needs.

If we can accomplish this, an amazing thing might happen with these funds: The state legislators may opt to use these federal funds to start paying down their debt. Whatever they do with that money, at least, it will be allocated for use by the state representatives who know where the funds use can best serve their people.

The Solution:

As the federal government collects taxes it should focus on using those funds only for country-wide issues that affect all Americans. That will mean a lot of money left over (much of which unfortunately is the present day ‘pork’). This ‘excess revenue’ should be distributed to the states based upon the revenue the citizens of that state are giving to the federal government in the form of the federal taxes they pay. The federal government should withhold 10 percent for less fortunate states. That is, before redistributing back to the state the ‘extra’ taxes it received, the federal government should hold back 10 percent to be re-distributed to those states that are poorer than other states – because those states either have fewer citizens or fewer companies that pay taxes to the Federal government. This re-distribution of taxes to the states with the excess funds collected from the citizens of the states is a topic for another book. It doesn’t mean those states can waste their revenue so they can receive ‘less-fortunate-state’ funds.

This book focuses on the major issues that affect all Americans. These are the issues that need funding by the federal government, by U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives. This is their job, not creating pork to spend on their preferential pet projects.

Our step now is to discuss how to get our U.S. house (USA) in order. We must show to the states that we can manage our money and still provide assistance to them. To start we need to clearly identify the major problems confronting us.

Introduction

With the economy malfunctioning the way it has been over the past 20 years or so, we need to define our overall goals so we can focus on resolving our problems as soon as possible.

Below is an outline of key issues for all Americans and a discussion on how best we can look at different ways to solve these issues and how the solutions will affect other issues. We cannot simply take one major issue in a vacuum and work to resolve it. Many of these issues interrelate. We also must not shy away from these issues because of the inherent interrelationships they entail. Look upon the complexity of interrelated issues as a blessing, that if we carefully understand the issues as a group, addressing one issue will help influence solutions of other issues. We may get a break and see aspects of the other interrelated issues also get some level of resolution.

As a first step, we need to define the problems/issues, and in the definition state the end objective. This book takes you through each step including a realistic way to solve each of these problems:

A Healthcare policy for everyone, where everyone pays an appropriate premium that is Significantly Low In Cost and delivers Long Term Good Health Care;

A Robust, Healthy Economy – More Jobs, where we spend for a surplus and raise revenue, not taxes. We want jobs, well-paying jobs; we want to work, not through ‘make work projects’ paid through a stimulus package that results in a lost job when there is no more stimulus money. The job of big government is not to RUN our lives, but to PROTECT and IMPROVE ALL our lives. This can be accomplished by building:

Strong Domestic Security, where Protection is No. 1. This plan must be designed for long-term security, not long-term spending. And lastly, by far the most important goal to assure America’s future is to build:

The Best Education system in the world and provide it to all our children. This, in turn, will result in raising the standard of living of every new generation, where every American can get a job that pays a good wage and where every American has the education to demand that wage (whether the American is a plumber, scientist, teacher, doctor, lawyer, office clerk or a bumbling book writer like me). We want to educate our children to do a better job in running our country, and for their children to do even better. An important step in achieving these goals is to have:

Politicians who are refocused to start serving us, their constituents, first, and not their party.

This book will identify a number of significant issues; some, like the education goal and how to best reach it, will touch our everyday lives. All of these solutions will require a stepwise approach. Without exception, all of these issues must be addressed and solutions need to be implemented in order for us to survive as a nation – a nation that is the best, the greatest in the world!!!

These solutions are not quick fixes. They are designed to be implemented in steps. No matter how well we plan to solve a problem, we will never see the whole scope of how it affects everyone. We need a solution that is a stepwise approach – one that will allow us to ‘tweak’ the solution yet keep us on the path; a path that is designed to correct the problem and not leave anyone or any group behind.

We also need to be totally transparent about the solution and the steps to get there. To accomplish transparency, we need to inform the public what is expected to be achieved by completing each step, how long each step will take and when the next step will be implemented, as we approach total resolution of the problem. The public must always be in the know; it must be explained very clearly with no ambiguity. In essence, no bullshitting!

To date, for the most part, we have been unwilling to address a problem that won’t be solved in some way before the next election. For the past 14 years, both the present and last several Congresses and administrations have failed us miserably. Each in their own unique way, they saw the solution to all problems as spend, spend, spend. This attitude and action damns the future generations. But let’s not be so naïve – even the present generation will be damned if we don’t reverse the spending and put our house in order, put our accounting books in order. As the heads of households, can you simply buy, buy, buy, spend, spend and spend some more and then say to your creditors, Don’t worry, our children will pay you back! - HA!

We need to nurture the USA back to health – develop a healthy economy, significantly improve the innate capability of our children so they can not only function in today’s society, but also be educated to the extent that they will play a major role in advancing our society. They will become the next society, and therefore they need to create a secure environment wherein all Americans will feel safe and secure in their homes, on the street and traveling throughout the U.S. We must also secure the long-term health of all our citizens. We have to take steps – some big but mostly small and definitive steps. To start we need a political structure that puts the power back in the hands of the people.

These are tall tasks to accomplish, but they need to be started – not tomorrow – but now!!! It may take many tomorrows to get it done, but we must start now!

I will make it clear in this book that no one person has all the answers, BUT maybe the answers I am presenting below are good first steps to take to secure their success. As you will see all of these tasks and goals are carefully thought out, and most importantly, they all are based on facts.

We must also be aware of those politicians, journalists and others from the media who talk with ‘sound bites’ or with a ‘silk’ speech: Smooth, concise, slithering, easy to remember but primarily biased, misleading and inaccurate.

A sound bite as defined on Wikipedia is "a short clip of speech or music extracted from a longer piece of audio, often used to promote or exemplify the full length piece. In the context of journalism, a sound bite is characterized by a short phrase or sentence that captures the ‘essence’ of what the speaker was trying to say, and is used to summarize information and entice the reader or viewer. The term was coined by the U.S. media in the 1970s. Since then, politicians have increasingly employed sound bites to summarize their positions. Due to its brevity, the sound bite often overshadows the broader context in which it was spoken, and can be misleading or inaccurate. The insertion of sound bites into news broadcasts or documentaries is open to manipulation, leading to conflict over journalistic ethics."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_bite

Stop the Merry-Go-Round WE Want to Get Off

As the table of contents details, this book addresses nine issues. But before we look at the first major issue – HealthCare, we need to highlight an infection that if we don’t cut it out of our lives, it will sidetrack every effort we make to correct all of these major issues and many others.

The infection of ‘Political Pandering and Gerrymandering’ will put us on a merry-go-round with one party trying to sell an idea as theirs and then trying to force it down the throats of the other party members. Gridlock will occur as one party does not want to show to the voters that their counterparts upstaged them; so they will try to undermine that political party’s plan or prevent it from becoming a success ‐ if it ever gets approved – Gridlock = Stupidity.

This sounds like what we have witnessed for the past 20 years. The parties argue, postulate themselves, blaming others while we go deeper into debt and become weaker, less educated, poorer, less healthy and have an even more dimmer view of the future.

How do we cure this infection?

This may sound complicated, but it is not. It may sound like a big deal to others, but it is not. Just read the next several pages and you too will agree that creating districts of representatives by an unbiased method will force elected officials to follow the will of their constituents first and foremost, and their political party will play less of a role in getting things accomplished and influencing our elected representatives.

Political parties will still be a useful entity, but they will be moved to a secondary role when it comes to a relationship of the elected representatives and us. It is not such a difficult chore to establish a new unbiased method of defining districts. It is also the right time, since reapportionment and redrawing districts will be implemented due to the 2010 census. Let us put our best foot forward and implement this unbiased redistricting now so we can effectively get on to the work of restoring a Healthy USA.

You can read more details about the solution to this problem in Section 5 – Healthy Politics. For now I will give you enough understanding about this problem to make you realize the resolution of this issue will serve as the basic foundation to achieve our goals of