Open Source Study Included In US Stimulus Package 187
gclef writes "Buried deep in the details of the US stimulus package is an interesting provision that might go a long way toward helping Open Source software break into the medical area. It says that the Secretary of Health and Human Services should study the availability of open source health technology systems (PDF, page 488), compare their TCO against proprietary systems and report on what they find no later than Oct 1, 2010. Slashdotters may also be interested in the language that starts on page 553 of that PDF to see just what the final package says about broadband."
The stimulus plan was approved by the Senate on Friday and is expected to be signed by President Obama by Monday.
Re:i'm-sure-that-makes-us-socialists-somehow dept. (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, but no matter what it makes us, the US population in general will not know about it till well past 2010. It will take that long for our legislators to actually read the damn thing. Sure there will be watchdog groups who have read it before then, but like those that nay-sayed on the DMCA and US PATRIOT Act, they will be ignored until we are suffering the bad and unintended consequences of caveats in this bill.
TCO and open vs closed source (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What and how (Score:2, Insightful)
If you make health care more affordable by increasing its efficiency, fewer Americans will be spending money on health-care overhead and bureaucracy, which means they'll have more money to spend on other things.
Don't be obtuse (Score:4, Insightful)
That's kind of a dumb question. (I might be excused from inferring your agenda from your question, but I'll refrain — we already have too much of that.) Anything that causes money to be spent stimulates the economy. The issue with the stimulus bill (including this part) is not whether it will stimulate the economy, but whether it will stimulate it enough to justify adding most of a terabuck to the national debt.
As for this particular question, have you been following the news at all? Part of the stimulus is building up our technical infrastructure. Do I have to explain how software fits into that? You may not agree that this will work, but how it's supposed to work should be obvious.
Re:Don't be obtuse (Score:2, Insightful)
Person B will have more to spend, admittedly, but person A will have less. The net effect on the economy is null.
I guess economy isn't your strongest subject?
If you e.g. take money from the poor and give it to the rich, you will be slowing the economy down. The poor person would have spent that money almost immediately on essential things like food, whereas the rich person would have put a substantial amount into savings. (This kind of reverse Robin-Hood is often good for the economy overall). The same thing works in reverse, and therefore when unemployment is high or the industry has unused capacity, it is often a good idea to move money from the rich to the poor.
Another alternative is public spending, which is guaranteed to create activity instantly.
Re:What and how (Score:2, Insightful)
just out of curiosity (Score:5, Insightful)
every economist that I've read says that ironically, that massive layoffs are the beginning of the end of an economic downturn, and that it appears as though things will be back into shape around the end of 2009 or the beginning of 2010
What were those same economists saying this time last year about the economy at the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009?
Re:what stimulus package? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:i'm-sure-that-makes-us-socialists-somehow dept. (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, but no matter what it makes us, the US population in general will not know about it till well past 2010. It will take that long for our legislators to actually read the damn thing. Sure there will be watchdog groups who have read it before then, but like those that nay-sayed on the DMCA and US PATRIOT Act, they will be ignored until we are suffering the bad and unintended consequences of caveats in this bill.
You know, this bill is a perfect example of why we need DownsizeDC's Read the Bills Act [downsizedc.org]. It is unacceptable that Congress votes for legislation they haven't fscking read. Please contact your Representative and Senators about that act.
Three other DownsizeDC campaigns that this bill perfectly shows the need for are:
Enumerated Powers Act [downsizedc.org] - "It's time for Congress to, "Cite it, chapter and verse." Where do they derive their authority? When they pass new laws or spend taxpayer money, they should be required to point to specific language in the Constitution. The Enumerated Powers Act would require them to do precisely that."
One Subject at a Time Act [downsizedc.org] - "Congress routinely passes unpopular laws by combining them with completely unrelated bills that have majority support".
Federal deficit causes Congressional pay cut [downsizedc.org]
Federal deficit causes Congressional pay cut - "Congress needs incentives to Downsize DC. H.R. 500 would provide such an incentive. If the federal government runs a deficit, then Congress will suffer a cut in pay. Tell your elected representatives to sponsor H.R. 500."
Re:TCO and open vs closed source (Score:3, Insightful)
"That's right folks! They're using this bill as a means to regulate the treatment your doctor provides. "
Three words. Medicare, Medicaid, HMO. As long as someone else is footing the majority of the bill (employer, government) then you'll have someone else calling the shots. The only system where you're calling the shots (within reason and legality) is all the money comes from your pocket.
Re:what stimulus package? (Score:4, Insightful)
The tax cuts that satisfy Republicans are always income tax, and their favorite is the upper bracket. Recall trickle down economics, where the theory goes that rich people will invest money in the economy, providing jobs and rah rah rah. It just doesn't hold though; investors this year have plenty of write offs to work through before they even care about taxes. Many are sitting in treasury bonds rather than corporate equities or bonds.
In contrast, payroll taxes rarely get touched. In part that's because they fund things like Medicare and Social Security, the golden cows of the AARP. But there's a worry that the working poor won't contribute to the economic recovery either; there's a lot of consumer debt out there and it's unlikely the top tax bracket has most of that. Paying off credit cards might slightly alleviate the banking crisis via balance sheet improvement, but it's not going to directly create new demand. Especially in a downward economy, a lot of them will be saving more and spending less. Can you remember what happened in 2002 with the early Tax Refund insanity?
Everyone, rich or poor, thinks the banks are bankrupt on paper, while Washington is hoping America can spend its way back to higher real estate prices and avoid a severe reckoning with those agents of failure that brought us to the brink. Republicans simply think private investment can restore it, while Democrats argue that the government is the only body that can raise enough capital to take the necessary action (I'll note that it can also do it very cheaply).
It's worth noting that the free market suffered from a widespread principle-agent failure. Management approved risky transactions like Credit Default swaps because they didn't fully understand the risk they exposed shareholders to, but liked the profit they were earning in the short term. Credit rating agencies also failed to solve the information asymmetry problem. Mortgage brokers made loans they'd never consider holding, and quickly fell apart when their market for shitty debtors dried up. What's going to solve this isn't more jobs or more demand for housing, but a significant rewriting of the social contract between management and investors. I wish Republicans had the balls to bring that up instead of asking for tax cuts for the companies and businessmen that fill their campaign coffers. It'd be far more interesting than people demanding executives dispense with their private jets and fly coach.
Re:what stimulus package? (Score:3, Insightful)
Specter is a RINO. If it wasn't for him, the bill wouldn't have passed. And this isn't a tax cut, it's a tax deferral. If the Republicans wanted the bill to pass, they would have voted for it. You can't spin it the other way.
Re:what stimulus package? (Score:3, Insightful)
Specter is a RINO. If it wasn't for him, the bill wouldn't have passed.
And Collins. Don't worry, you'll be able to primary them both out, get ideologues on the ticket, and see moderate dems defeat them in the general. If you want your party to actually be staffed by nothing but wingnuts, and to perpetually represent 40%, this is a very effective approach.
And this isn't a tax cut, it's a tax deferral.
By that standard the Bush Tax Cuts of '01 were a tax deferral. Nobody seriously cuts discretionary spending, I just belong to the party that's honest about it :P