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POPSObamaCare endorsements: What the bribe was The AARP got a financial windfall in return for its support of the healthcare bill. Over the past decade, the AARP has morphed from an advocacy group to an insurance company (through its subsidiary company). It is one of the main suppliers of Medi-gap insurance, a high-cost, privately purchased coverage that picks up where Medicare leaves off. But President Bush-43 passed the Medicare Advantage program, which offered a subsidized, lower-cost alternative to Medi-gap. Under Medicare Advantage, the elderly get all the extra coverage they need plus coordinated, well-managed care, usually by the same physician. So more than 10 million seniors went with Medicare Advantage, cutting into AARP Medi-gap revenues. Presto! Obama solved their problem. He eliminates subsidies for Medicare Advantage. The elderly will have to pay more for coverage under Medigap, but the AARP — which supposedly represents them — will make more money
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POPSObamaCare: A Bad Deal for Young Adults Massachusetts benefits from another type of subsidy that props up its regime of mandates and price controls: large subsidies from the federal government. In contrast, the United States as a whole has no external party it can exploit to subsidize a nationwide Massachusetts-style health care overhaul"unless Congress finances that overhaul through additional deficit spending, which is really just another way of taxing the young to subsidize the old. by Aaron Yelowitz Aaron Yelowitz is an associate professor of economics at the University of Kentucky and an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. This paper is based on a lecture delivered to the Undergraduate Economics Society at the University of Kentucky on October 1, 2009.
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POPSHealth Care Takeover Roll Call Vote — and What GOP Rep. Joseph Cao Got from Obama
Well, since he was elected, Cao has backed the S-CHIP expansion, the $108 billion IMF bailout, and the omni-waste spending bill. And he voted to rebuke GOP Rep. Joe Wilson for calling out President Obama on his health care lies. That is a steep price to pay for Rep. William Jefferson’s removal. Can’t the GOP do better? For what it is worth, here is the cheap price the Democrats paid for Cao’s vote: Louisiana Congressman Anh “Joseph” Cao on Sunday morning released a statement after he voted as the only Republican in favor of the Democratic health care reform bill. The health care reform bill, dubbed the “Affordable Health Care for America Act” (H.R. 3962), passed the U.S. House of Representatives in a 220 " 215 vote. “Tonight, I voted to keep taxpayer dollars from funding abortion and to deliver access to affordable health care to the people of Louisiana,” Cao said in a statement released by his office. “I read the versions of the House
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POPSPalin & the Dysfunctional Political Class The current GOP seems to look for mediocrity...someone who will *fit*...a person who appears *electable*, a vanilla-type. It seems to stand for everything and yet nothing. Whether Mrs. Palin would make a good Presidential candidate, I don't know. But I'm weary to death of the clandestine people who mouth conservative rhetoric and then fold when the game is on. Give me a candidate who gives me a clear choice; not one who bows to the current political breeze blowing through Washington. I've just about lost all "Hope" because I don't see any on the horizon.
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POPSCoerciveCare Bill Passes House 220-215, Sat Night Mandatory health care insurance reform bill passes House. Socialist Security 2.0. Never mind that half the population opposed this. And the "public option" is not optional--it is now mandated that you must buy health insurance. How is it that the Federal government can force you to buy something? Private property rights are trampled, the government thinks it can tell you to buy something or face jail and/or tax penalties. This also then means every American's private and personal health information will be put into a data-base system, the end of privacy. Your health care, and body, will belong to the Collectivist Society now and the Government , which will no doubt link this to your National ID Card (REAL ID and PASS ID system) --increasing the Electronic Leash on "free" Americans.
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POPSHouse passes health care bill FTA: The legislation would require most Americans to carry insurance and provide federal subsidies to those who otherwise could not afford it. Large companies would have to offer coverage to their employees. Both consumers and companies would be slapped with penalties if they defied the government's mandates. Insurance industry practices such as denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions would be banned, and insurers would no longer be able to charge higher premiums on the basis of gender or medical history. In a further slap, the industry would lose its exemption from federal antitrust restrictions on price gouging, bid rigging and market allocation.
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POPS Economic Stimulation I’m a little late to today’s economic-stimulus exasperation party. Sorry. I was busy working at my unstimulated private-sector job, which uses pulp, ink, trucks, pens, notebooks and a lot of eletronics plus electricity and employs hundreds of taxpayers directly and indirectly to tell people how the hacks are trying to shaft them in Boston. It was great. I enjoyed it. Even though, far from looking for or getting any support, we’ve had to fight the government over simple things like the freedom to enter business relationships with other news organizations that might have made us more financially viable. Thank you, Ted Kennedy, liberal lion.
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POPSApproved by White House ~ Reform Media.Transform Democracy Is Dissent ‘Legitimate’? Not According to Campaign Finance Laws by Bert Gall and Robert Frommer -- Pajamas Media After the administration decreed that Fox is not a “legitimate news organization” and that people shouldn’t watch it, more people than ever are tuning in to see Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly fight back. Fundamentally, it’s because the administration’s media war against Fox is but a minor display of the tremendous power the government has to stifle speech it views as illegitimate. Much of this power is the result of long-standing “campaign finance” laws. These laws impose all sorts of restrictions on political speech, and it’s no coincidence that the most draconian of these restrictions are targeted at those who can speak the most effectively against a politician’s reelection. The most effective speakers tend to be those who can spend the most money. Corporations, many of which have lots of money, receive particularly harsh treatment under
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POPSPork Report - 28 Oct 09 Junket watch: Speaking at a beachfront spa and resort, Federal Reserve Chairman says Americans need to save more and the country must “substantially reduce federal deficits”
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POPSProfessors want UCB to stop subsidizing sports programs at expense of academics More: "The data is eye-opening and quite troubling - athletic expenditures are rising three or four times faster than academic budgets," said William "Brit" Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland. He's co-chairman of the Knight Commission, which on Monday released a survey of university presidents' views on the cost of programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the nation's 120 top college football teams. "We're painfully aware of the global fiscal implosion and the impact it's having on academic institutions," Kirwan said. "As a result, 75 percent of presidents say we can't continue on this path."… The last time the athletes ran up a multiyear debt - owing the university $31.4 million by 2007 - the bill was forgiven, according to a written explanation of Cal's athletics budget and policies prepared in response to questions from the faculty.
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POPSObamaCare To Thwack Middle Class With Up To 70% Marginal Tax Rate Jim Capretta, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, calculates that when combined with other policies like the Earned Income Tax Credit that also phase out, the effective marginal rate would rise to nearly 70% at twice the poverty level. (HT: hot air Handcrafted by Flip
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POPSDemocrats work to finalize health legislation Does anyone else believe that the big rush to pass this Health Care Bill is because some of these Congressmen know they may not survive the 2010 election? And am I the only one who trusts the "health insurance industry" more than I trust Washington? It certainly has not been listening to it's constituents.
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POPSThird Stimulus? Thanks, But You’ve Already Done Enough Damage Already
Sure just keep throwing money at the problem since we have ‘proof’ that it works so well. Abraham Maslow said, "If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail." The government has spent almost one trillion dollars trying to stimulate the economy. That's one expensive hammer. How exactly are they planning to stimulate the economy this time? First, is to extend unemployment benefits. Secondly, they will extend a tax credit for first time home buyers. Finally, the Associated Press reports a possible extension of subsidies for COBRA. I think it is high time that Congress roll up their sleeves and actually work out a successful method instead of repeating their lazy-man’s-mistakes of the past. The most logical stimulation plan is one that would allow business to produce and trade without government interference. This would free the government to do what it was intended to do, namely, protect its citizens rights as laid out in the constitution.
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POPSA win-win policy Fuel subsidies cost hundred of billions to poor nations an decnourage waste of fossil fuels, while not helping the poor. They are yet another big- government failure.
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POPSWind industry blowing away our tax dollars Investment bankers are all aflutter with the onset of stimulus money for renewable energy projects according to the August 31 Wall Street Journal. After a long lag, numerous firms have again invested upwards of $100 million in wind farms. Investors are attracted by the quick returns made possible by the hefty federal grants and tax benefits. The growing subsidies for wind power mask wind's high cost and inherent limitations, but only for so long. ...Although appealing to many, wind power is an extremely expensive, inefficient, and unreliable source of electricity, incapable of providing base load power. Wind's intermittency, variability, line loss, necessary back-up generation, transmission needs, and dispatch complexity limit the amount of electricity wind can secure.
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POPS Things to Worry About in the CBO's Score That's a very bad thing, particularly in the first years of the plan. It means that, with no warning, subsidies will be cut by 15 percent, and insurance that families were able to afford the year before will become totally unaffordable. That needs to be changed. By Ezra Klein | October 7, 2009
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POPSGreenback Acres - Growing the Welfare Crop The payments now account for nearly half of the nation's expanding agricultural subsidy system, a complex web that has little basis in fairness or efficiency. What began in the 1930s as a limited safety net for working farmers has swollen into a far-flung infrastructure of entitlements that has cost $172 billion over the past decade. In 2005 alone, when pretax farm profits were at a near-record $72 billion, the federal government handed out more than $25 billion in aid, almost 50 percent more than the amount it pays to families receiving welfare.
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POPSSo Much For Health Care Reform Anybody following the money on this issue knew we'd never see any real progress, and now that's been confirmed. Corporations pay to keep health expenses high, so that's where they'll stay for yet another administration. This has been going on for six decades.
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POPSSenate panel rejects health 'public option' Thank goodness. More work needs to be done to see that private insurance companies meet the needs of their policy holders while still being able to have the money to PAY for the costs. In my opinion, the answer lies in tort reform, independent oversight, freedom to choose, and no federal interference in how my doctor & I negotiate my healthcare.
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POPSWhat next...............Tax on toilet paper. House Democrats are struggling with getting their 10-year, $1 trillion-plus bill down to the $900 billion price tag Obama prefers. Major cuts could be required, but Democrats want to protect the subsidies their plan offers to low-income Americans to help them buy coverage. Those subsidies are the most costly part of the bill.
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POPSUnderstanding Government Subsidies There are many people who will rally behind "socialized" oil, but read on: Hidden Oil Subsidies The real price of gasoline is what people actually pay for it, not just what they pay for it at the pump. That might seem subtle, but there's a big difference. The Cato Institute, a libertarian think-thank, did a study on the subject. What they found is simply mind-boggling. They calculated that the US spent between $30 to $60 billion (with a 'b') a year safeguarding oil supplies in the Middle East during the 1990s, even though its imports from that region totaled only about $10 billion a year during that period. A more comprehensive study that includes the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and other oil protection services (the coast guard is clearing shipping lanes and doing navigational support to oil tankers, etc) shows that actual subsidies to Big Oil are between $78 to $158 billion (again, with a 'b') per year.
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