This is Senator Whitehouse (D-RI) explaining the political landscape as it relates to health care reform:
Really, with politicians like Sen. Whitehouse at the helm of our federal ship I don't see why people are so worried about the impending government "takeover" of the health care system. Clearly, this is a class of people that were born to usher us into a new era.
Ace has more.
Stossel: Life, Death, and Pork.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
A story about Government
"Tax collectors ended up with just 25,000 euros, way below the 800,000 euros in the costs of staff charged with collecting the payments..."
Germany should consider themselves lucky, probably. Dieter Engels, head of Germany's Federal Accounting Office, had this to say:
"While the financial and customs authorities are too lax on some occasions, they go overboard in others," Engels said.
"This has led to somewhat grotesque results in coffee taxation."
And so it goes...
Avatar
Yes, I saw it - in the IMAX 3D theater. Yes, the visuals are quite amazing. I can't speak for the regular (non-3D) film but the 3D version has quite a few scenes that visually (CGI-wise, it's mostly all computer done) are head and shoulders above anything else in film at the moment. Based on that alone I do recommend you see it in the 3D theater. Anywhere else and you are taking your money in your own hands because... (possible spoilers)
Keynes vs. Hayek
The Right Coast points out an interesting segment on the competing economic ideas of our time.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Links
You don't say: Report says 'imprudent spending' at Postal Service.
Teacher's Unions fight against reform: UTLA files suit over charter schools
The biggest lie?
The Wall Street Journal explains the surreptitious nature of our current political climate.
"And tidings of comfort and joy from Harry Reid too. The Senate Majority Leader has decided that the last few days before Christmas are the opportune moment for a narrow majority of Democrats to stuff ObamaCare through the Senate to meet an arbitrary White House deadline. Barring some extraordinary reversal, it now seems as if they have the 60 votes they need to jump off this cliff, with one-seventh of the economy in tow.
Mr. Obama promised a new era of transparent good government, yet on Saturday morning Mr. Reid threw out the 2,100-page bill that the world's greatest deliberative body spent just 17 days debating and replaced it with a new "manager's amendment" that was stapled together in covert partisan negotiations. Democrats are barely even bothering to pretend to care what's in it, not that any Senator had the chance to digest it in the 38 hours before the first cloture vote at 1 a.m. this morning. After procedural motions that allow for no amendments, the final vote could come at 9 p.m. on December 24."
Remember this? Via Naked Emperor News:
Healthcare costs shouldn't matter?
Kirsten Powers, writing for the NY Post, breaks it down for us. Comparing the Iraq War to some unnamed future "Health Insurance" reform she says:
“Just like the Iraq war debate where everyone was up in arms about how it was going to cost us billions of dollars a year. . . . Oh, wait -- that never happened.
Why? Because the people who supported the war -- at the time the majority of Americans and Congress members -- believed that our very lives were at risk and that invading Iraq was imperative to protecting American lives.
Anyone suggesting that we should consider costs is met with complete derision. Cost doesn't matter when American lives are at stake, was the mantra.”
I hope that Kirsten is being a bit tongue and cheek with this argument. As a quick aside though, I'm not sure what she was watching or reading in early 2003 but plenty if people were worried over the possible cost of the war. Even on the right (9). Further, even if she is correct - that any sort of cost benefit analysis was met with derision - that does not excuse the sloppy reasoning she is employing here. Just because other people were able to "get away" with poor logic during past discussions does not mean we should allow arguments that are similarly weak to stand today.
She implies that cost shouldn't matter at all since Americans "will die" if we don't pass health insurance reform. Clearly even a bit of reflection proves her wrong. Obviously there is a point at which it becomes too expensive; at some point we simply can't afford it. What she probably means though, is that the costs being thrown around are low enough or acceptable enough so that the “cost” shouldn’t enter into the discussion when the more important “ethical” issues should be what concerns us. However, there is nothing but red on the federal government’s balance sheet and indeed we have reached the so-called “debt ceiling” and Congress has moved to raise it in the last few days. Here is a chart of the costs associated with the health care bill:
$2.5 trillion is nothing to sneeze at either. Especially when government programs never seem to actually meet their initial budget and indeed continue to expand and grow enormously as time passes. Quick, name a large government program that has been cut, ever. Medicare costs were $3 billion in 1965 when first passed. The 2010 budget allocates $453 billion for Medicare and in 2008 Medicare actually cost more than it received in revenue. Not that this is any great surprise really, we all knew this day would come. But we've been putting off doing anything about it for who knows how long by using the very same feeling (logic) that Kirsten is using here.
At the end of the day, we had all better hope that Kirsten is right - that the costs don’t matter - because you can be damn sure that Washington will act that way regardless.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Joe Biden is an idiot
"the president has made something exquisitely clear to each of the generals: He said do not occupy any portion of that country that you are not confident within 18 months you're going to be able to turn over to the Afghans. Do not occupy what you cannot turn over."
If true that's extremely troubling. And it should be obvious to anyone with half a brain that if it is true you should keep your trap shut about it.
Joe Biden has become a parody of himself. During his laughable debate with Palin it was clear Biden has no idea what's going on. The supposed foreign policy expert showed a glaring lack of knowledge on basic statistics and facts. Seemingly unfazed by his own ignorance he lept from one mistake to another, rattling off numbers as if when Joe said something, it had to be true. The whole time he had this insolent smirk on his face as if he knew damn well he was the smartest guy in the room and it was just, well, beneath him to be humble about it. As it turns out, he was just making stuff up. "Homogenizing", as it were. Post election hasn't been much better. He's always been kind of a liar and a jerk but with his promotion to VP his comments can't be as readily dismissed as eccentricity by left-er pundits: "Oh, that's just Joe being Joe!" or ignored by an empathetic media. Instead we are forced to deal with the Vice President of the United States telling our enemies (and friends) exactly when, and to what degree, we will be jumping ship.
This is the guy supposedly handling economic oversight effort. Nobody messes with Joe, am I right?
And what does it say about Obama that he chose this guy to be his VP?
Blue on Blue
Howard Dean says kill the healthcare bill.
“This is essentially the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate. Honestly the best thing to do right now is kill the Senate bill, go back to the House, start the reconciliation process, where you only need 51 votes and it would be a much simpler bill.”
Monday, December 14, 2009
Obama grades himself on his first year: B+
Obama rattles off the list of things he believes earns him the grade. Hit the links after the jump and see if you agree.
American Innovation: How California closed the gap with France in the wine industry
Is a health insurance mandate unconstitutional?
Randy Barnett, posting at The Volokh Conspiracy, discusses this issue. He posts a video of Orrin Hatch giving a speech on the subject, which I highly recommend:
Here is the memorandum by Randy over at the Heritage Foundation that goes into more detail.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Stereotypes
Tom Smith at The Right Coast links this article about a Mom who is worried about the fact that she and her sons have different interests. I know, I know, quite the shocker. The boys seem to have become interested in space and astronomy and she wonders how she should handle it given her ...disinterest, let's say. He covers the silliness of the whole thing pretty well but this gem by the Mom at the end of her article caught my eye:
Talk about your stereotypes. I cringed when I read it - how insulting to mothers. Aside from all the practical inventions that arose from our push into space, there's also the huge advances in the sciences: physics, math, astronomy etc. that have come directly from the space program. Our knowledge of the world and the universe has increased immensely because we have pushed at the limits of our current understanding of how-things-work. And I have no doubt she would have written the same thing 50 years ago, advances be damned. At least she seems to realize the irony of worrying about her sons thinking women don't like science when she wants to throw future scientific advances away for... social security.
Sigh.
Never mind the fact that NASA's entire budget is about $20 billion and the annual budget for Social Security is $644 billion. That's about 3% if you're keeping score at home. Not to mention the unfunded liability of Social Security, which is $17.5 trillion.
Mmm, yeah, not as much as you might think. You'd be amazed how fast those great social programs can suck down the cash. Almost like... black holes...
To cleanse the unscientific air: NASA's Alien Eyes
Or check out the gallery at Hubble.
Maybe he'll be a rebel astronomer, and someday reform NASA, or call for an end to manned space missions so that the money can be used to fix Social Security? A mother can dream.
Talk about your stereotypes. I cringed when I read it - how insulting to mothers. Aside from all the practical inventions that arose from our push into space, there's also the huge advances in the sciences: physics, math, astronomy etc. that have come directly from the space program. Our knowledge of the world and the universe has increased immensely because we have pushed at the limits of our current understanding of how-things-work. And I have no doubt she would have written the same thing 50 years ago, advances be damned. At least she seems to realize the irony of worrying about her sons thinking women don't like science when she wants to throw future scientific advances away for... social security.
Sigh.
Never mind the fact that NASA's entire budget is about $20 billion and the annual budget for Social Security is $644 billion. That's about 3% if you're keeping score at home. Not to mention the unfunded liability of Social Security, which is $17.5 trillion.
Just think what we could do on this planet with all the time and energy we spend trying to reach other ones.
Mmm, yeah, not as much as you might think. You'd be amazed how fast those great social programs can suck down the cash. Almost like... black holes...
To cleanse the unscientific air: NASA's Alien Eyes
Or check out the gallery at Hubble.
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