How to Wreck Health Care Reform.
Peggy Noonan writes today in the WSJ on how the President's insistence on a thousand-page, kitchen-sink "comprehensive" approach to health care reform has likely doomed it. Why can't we simply address the most pressing problems in health care coverage, such as assisting the truly needy and providing for insurance portability, where agreement can be found and does not require radical changes?
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
The Fundamental Principles of "Health Care Reform".
FreeOurHealthCareNow has articulated the major elements that health care reform plans must include: (i) the right to choose care providers and plans, (ii) timely, unrestricted, patient-centered care, (iii) fairness between individual insurance programs and tax-subsidized employer programs, (iv) the focus of government assistance on the truly needy, (v) portable health plans, and (vi) maximum freedom for patient decisions on care.
FreeOurHealthCareNow has articulated the major elements that health care reform plans must include: (i) the right to choose care providers and plans, (ii) timely, unrestricted, patient-centered care, (iii) fairness between individual insurance programs and tax-subsidized employer programs, (iv) the focus of government assistance on the truly needy, (v) portable health plans, and (vi) maximum freedom for patient decisions on care.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
TARP Tsunami.
The Inspector General overseeing the TARP program will report to Congers today that the total potential exposure (i.e., the amount for which we taxpayers could be on the hook) of federal programs and departments that are "supporting" U.S. financial institutions totals $23.7T. We'll pause to let this fact sink in...
We can only respond with: this insanity must stop. The people of the United States cannot have the futures of their families held hostage by cosigning to such an apocalyptic sum.
The Inspector General overseeing the TARP program will report to Congers today that the total potential exposure (i.e., the amount for which we taxpayers could be on the hook) of federal programs and departments that are "supporting" U.S. financial institutions totals $23.7T. We'll pause to let this fact sink in...
We can only respond with: this insanity must stop. The people of the United States cannot have the futures of their families held hostage by cosigning to such an apocalyptic sum.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Monday, July 06, 2009
Perro Caliente!Cigar Aficionado appreciates the Noble Frankfurter.
(shown here in its most sublime instantiation, the Chicago Dog).
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Back to the Moon.The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is returning its first images of our planetary companion. Also, the June 2009 issue of IEEE's Spectrum is devoted to a manned voyage to Mars.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Saturday, June 27, 2009
The Circus is in Town!
We Americans can only handle serious issues for brief periods of time. The stretch from February through June was as a geologic timescale for us, filled with Pork Bills, Pirates, North Korea, Iran, Gitmo, Carbon Taxes, Obama Motors, and National(ized) Health Care. So do we now hear calliope music in the air? Yes, indeed, the Circus is back in town, courtesy of the sad passing of Mr. Jackson. The Meatpackers will be consumed by the grisly details of the inquest, rumors, rumors about rumors, indictments, legal fistfighting over the estate, 24-hour televigils, and the massteria of the funeral, burial, tributes, riots, and the associated merchandising. A great time for a backcountry vacation or getting some of that summer reading done. A siren will signal the all clear.
We Americans can only handle serious issues for brief periods of time. The stretch from February through June was as a geologic timescale for us, filled with Pork Bills, Pirates, North Korea, Iran, Gitmo, Carbon Taxes, Obama Motors, and National(ized) Health Care. So do we now hear calliope music in the air? Yes, indeed, the Circus is back in town, courtesy of the sad passing of Mr. Jackson. The Meatpackers will be consumed by the grisly details of the inquest, rumors, rumors about rumors, indictments, legal fistfighting over the estate, 24-hour televigils, and the massteria of the funeral, burial, tributes, riots, and the associated merchandising. A great time for a backcountry vacation or getting some of that summer reading done. A siren will signal the all clear.
Some Carbon Math.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed an heavily amended version of the Waxman-Markey "Cap and Trade" Bill, which beginning in 2012 levies a tax to emit carbon dioxide at a rate of $13 per ton. This rate will increase steadily over the years, with the goal of forcing reductions of CO2 to less than 17% of current emissions by 2050 (83% by 2020).
The CBO claims that such a tax will cost the average household only $175 in energy costs by 2020. Shall we check the numbers?
The current total US emission of CO2 is about 6400 million US tons per year. The 2012 tax on this CO2 emission will total $83B. If we assume that all of this tax ultimately will be assessed on the 185 million taxpayers in the country (all costs to utilities, manufacturing, transportation, etc. are passed on to the total taxpayer base), the total 2012 tax increase on average per taxpayer is about $450. About one third of the taxpayers actually pay no tax; if we assume that this will also be the case for the CO2 tax (the bill provides for a CO2 tax credit for each lower income household), then the total burden in 2012 per net paying taxpayer will be more like $650. So, a household of two taxpayers will get walloped with an effective $1300 CO2 bill.
To account for the huge disparity with the CBO estimate, either the government will force some entities upstream in the cost flow to eat these costs - with accompanying adverse consequences to the economy, or only a fraction of CO2 emissions will be taxed, which defeats the purpose of the legislation. Something doesn't quite make sense here, and we will post clarifications or revisions to our estimates if the need should become evident.
Intellectual honesty requires us to disclose that we do detect some faint strains of free-market environmentalism in this approach, which has appeal. Free-market environmentalism applied to fair-value pricing of federally owned timber or mineral resources makes sense, since such environmental effects are nearly wholly confined to the land mass of the United States. We could in principle tax ourselves to oblivion for CO2 and do nothing about the increasing emissions from industrialized China and India. Perhaps we could send them the bill?
P.S. - Intellectual honesty, too, would require Democrats to concede that nuclear power must play a prominent role in reducing our dependence on fossil fuels for energy generation. We will not hold our breath for such a proclamation.
Addendum: The Heritage Foundation has produced a bar graph showing the increased household energy costs caused by Waxman-Markey through 2035.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed an heavily amended version of the Waxman-Markey "Cap and Trade" Bill, which beginning in 2012 levies a tax to emit carbon dioxide at a rate of $13 per ton. This rate will increase steadily over the years, with the goal of forcing reductions of CO2 to less than 17% of current emissions by 2050 (83% by 2020).
The CBO claims that such a tax will cost the average household only $175 in energy costs by 2020. Shall we check the numbers?
The current total US emission of CO2 is about 6400 million US tons per year. The 2012 tax on this CO2 emission will total $83B. If we assume that all of this tax ultimately will be assessed on the 185 million taxpayers in the country (all costs to utilities, manufacturing, transportation, etc. are passed on to the total taxpayer base), the total 2012 tax increase on average per taxpayer is about $450. About one third of the taxpayers actually pay no tax; if we assume that this will also be the case for the CO2 tax (the bill provides for a CO2 tax credit for each lower income household), then the total burden in 2012 per net paying taxpayer will be more like $650. So, a household of two taxpayers will get walloped with an effective $1300 CO2 bill.
To account for the huge disparity with the CBO estimate, either the government will force some entities upstream in the cost flow to eat these costs - with accompanying adverse consequences to the economy, or only a fraction of CO2 emissions will be taxed, which defeats the purpose of the legislation. Something doesn't quite make sense here, and we will post clarifications or revisions to our estimates if the need should become evident.
Intellectual honesty requires us to disclose that we do detect some faint strains of free-market environmentalism in this approach, which has appeal. Free-market environmentalism applied to fair-value pricing of federally owned timber or mineral resources makes sense, since such environmental effects are nearly wholly confined to the land mass of the United States. We could in principle tax ourselves to oblivion for CO2 and do nothing about the increasing emissions from industrialized China and India. Perhaps we could send them the bill?
P.S. - Intellectual honesty, too, would require Democrats to concede that nuclear power must play a prominent role in reducing our dependence on fossil fuels for energy generation. We will not hold our breath for such a proclamation.
Addendum: The Heritage Foundation has produced a bar graph showing the increased household energy costs caused by Waxman-Markey through 2035.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The Most Brilliant Musical Ever.
"How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" is the Zeitgeist for the early 1960s. All of the numbers in the film version are superb, but here is our favorite (close second: "Gotta Stop That Man"). Robert Morse is brilliant here, and his role as a partner in Don Draper's ad agency in AMC's "Mad Men" was inspired casting. Like bookends for a commentary of those times. Enjoy.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Situational Support for Freedom.
A puzzling phenomena is occurring in Mainstream Meatpacker World: a large-scale insurrection appears to be breaking out in an authoritarian regime, and the President of the United States, the Leader of the Free World, has shown great reluctance to condemn the regime's theft of a recent national election. The reaction of Meatpacker editorial boards? Exercises in pretzel-logic to support the President's diffidence. Quite remarkable.
A puzzling phenomena is occurring in Mainstream Meatpacker World: a large-scale insurrection appears to be breaking out in an authoritarian regime, and the President of the United States, the Leader of the Free World, has shown great reluctance to condemn the regime's theft of a recent national election. The reaction of Meatpacker editorial boards? Exercises in pretzel-logic to support the President's diffidence. Quite remarkable.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Behind the Curtain.
Many have called for the President to employ additional rhetoric against the Ahmadinejad regime for its theft of the Iranian presidential election. Perhaps it will be useful. The real action, however, will occur behind the scenes, something like the actions of the Reagan Administration to shred the Iron Curtain and push the Soviet Union into the ditch.
One can only hope that neither ideology nor diffidence will prevent President Obama from acting during this decisive moment.
Many have called for the President to employ additional rhetoric against the Ahmadinejad regime for its theft of the Iranian presidential election. Perhaps it will be useful. The real action, however, will occur behind the scenes, something like the actions of the Reagan Administration to shred the Iron Curtain and push the Soviet Union into the ditch.
One can only hope that neither ideology nor diffidence will prevent President Obama from acting during this decisive moment.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
So Much for our Enlightened and Intelligent Diplomacy.
North Korea is not following the White House script.
North Korea is not following the White House script.
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Pass the Wild Turkey, Please!
If you are not yet convinced of the psychotic disaster that is the Stimulus Spending, consider this: Uncle Sugar Daddy will be plunking nearly a billion bucks in Michigan to pursue such projects as a Neat-O Futuristic Keen high-speed rail line to connect Ann Arbor to the Cool Places. But meanwhile the roads in Michigan will go unrepaired; Michigan cannot provide matching funds for road repair, and therefore the federal government will be withdrawing their contribution. But as our teeth rattle over the potholes, we can take comfort in the Fantastic High-Speed Rail Report that will be produced.
If you are not yet convinced of the psychotic disaster that is the Stimulus Spending, consider this: Uncle Sugar Daddy will be plunking nearly a billion bucks in Michigan to pursue such projects as a Neat-O Futuristic Keen high-speed rail line to connect Ann Arbor to the Cool Places. But meanwhile the roads in Michigan will go unrepaired; Michigan cannot provide matching funds for road repair, and therefore the federal government will be withdrawing their contribution. But as our teeth rattle over the potholes, we can take comfort in the Fantastic High-Speed Rail Report that will be produced.
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