Long, but awesome.
One other thing I would recommend is the Heritage Foundation's research that shows how Medicare's administrative costs are higher — not lower — than those of private insurance.
(h/t Hotair)
Lawmakers have issued a request for a consultant who will analyze the state’s tax structure, measure the public’s willingness to accept a broader tax base and examine the balance between local and state revenue…The thing that drives me the craziest about all this is Sen. Horsford's assertion that we need a revenue structure that works in good and bad times. Look at California. According the Tax Foundation, the Golden State has the fourth-highest individual income tax rate in the country, the highest corporate income tax rate in the West, the highest sales tax rate in the nation, and, despite Prop 13, only slightly below-average property tax collections.
Horsford tried unsuccessfully last session to push for some kind of corporate income tax. He won’t commit to supporting any one idea at this point, but he said the need to change the tax system is evident.
“We absolutely have to fundamentally change our revenue structure to have one that works, in good economic times and bad economic times,” Horsford said…
Though legislators did not mention a dollar figure, earlier estimates were that $500,000 should be set aside for the study.
Join Organizing for America to build support for Sen. Harry Reid's work on health insurance reform. The Reno event is Saturday at 9 a.m. at the Davidson School, 1164 N. Virginia St.If you go, take a camera and be safe.
Click here to register.
The Las Vegas event will be Monday at 5 p.m. at the UNLV Student Union. Space is limited and registration is required.
Click this link to register.
Thousands of women are having to give birth outside maternity wards because of a lack of midwives and hospital beds.Remember, with the Trojan-horse-for-socialized-medicine Obamacare plan, health rationing is your patriotic duty.
The lives of mothers and babies are being put at risk as births in locations ranging from lifts to toilets - even a caravan - went up 15 per cent last year to almost 4,000.
Health chiefs admit a lack of maternity beds is partly to blame for the crisis, with hundreds of women in labour being turned away from hospitals because they are full.
Ideal Government Program -- Build New Clunkers, Then Immediately Junk Them: Can anyone explain why American taxpayers are being taxed, via the Cash for Clunkers program, to subsidize the destruction of low-mileage cars -- while simultaneously being taxed to support General Motors, which just released a 426-horsepower, 16-mpg Camaro to complement its 556-horsepower, 15-mpg Cadillac? Under the Cash for Clunkers mileage rules, both cars classify as clunkers! Taxpayers are simultaneously paying to destroy old low-mileage cars and build new low-mileage cars. Check the Detroit-manufactured cars listed by the EPA as "worst in class" for fuel waste -- you are being taxed to subsidize the building and promotion of these cars. Plus, the White House and many in Congress want to begin restricting greenhouse gases. I think action against greenhouse gases is scientifically justified [Editor's note: Obligatory counter evidence]. But if greenhouse gas regulation is enacted, you will simultaneously be taxed to reduce greenhouse gases and taxed to support construction of polluting machines such as the 556-horsepower Cadillac, which the EPA says emits 11 tons of greenhouse gases per year, one of the worst global-warming scores of any current passenger vehicle. General Motors has started to build high-quality, good-mileage cars, including the new Malibu and the new fuel-efficient Equinox SUV. That's good news. Why are average people being taxed to subsidize everything General Motors builds, including wasteful, high-polluting rich men's playthings like this?Just another reason why government shouldn't pick the winners and losers in an economy.
Meanwhile, auto dealers who credited customers with $4,500 for clunker deals are discovering federal rebate checks have not yet arrived. What's the matter, dealers -- didn't you read the fine print? Perhaps auto dealers have fallen for a bait-and-switch! Here, a dealer negotiates with Barack Obama:
AUTO DEALER: Where's my check for $4,500? You said it was in the mail.
OBAMA: [Waves thick contract] Look right here, subparagraph 14d. It clearly states the money will be paid on the third Tuesday of a month that begins with a waning gibbous moon. You read subparagraph 14d, didn't you?
DEALER: No -- I was tired -- you assured me it was just paperwork.
OBAMA: Well! Maybe I can still get you the discount, if you buy rustproofing and splashguards.
DEALER: Your ads didn't say anything about rustproofing.
OBAMA: [Waves printout] Look, I am giving you everything below my cost. See, here's my factory invoice. My revenue is $2.2 trillion, yet I am spending $3.9 trillion. [Note: actual federal budget figures for current fiscal year]
DEALER: Wait a minute -- if you're really selling below cost, how do you stay in business?
OBAMA: We make it up in volume.
DEALER: Just give me my $4,500!
OBAMA: OK. I have to ask my manager. [Disappears into back]
DEALER: I wonder if he's really checking with his manager.
OBAMA: [Returns] Tell you what, you can use the $4,500 as a down payment on the $11 trillion debt your children will owe. While you're here, would you like free health care? It's going to cost you.
Another important reform would change the tax structure surrounding health care benefits. So long as health insurance is tied to the job and not to the individual, there will always be a sizable uninsured population as individuals move from one job to another. That tax structure should change to give the individual power over his own health care decisions. Rather than allow only the employer to purchase health insurance with pre-tax dollars, the individual should be able to claim a tax exemption on the cost of any private insurance plan that he purchases on his own. If such a change in the tax code were implemented, private health coverage tailored to the unique needs of the individual would become much more accessible, as businesses transformed job-related health care benefits into higher wages instead.Read the full article to find out what other solutions Geoff suggests.
After arriving on the Mayflower, the Pilgrims (sometimes called separatists) decided to practice socialized agriculture. They took the available cleared land and had the whole community (of about 100 settlers) work the land and divide the profits as each family (or individual) had a need.As America debates the merits of Obamacare and socialized medicine, we should remember the lesson of the pilgrims. When you take away the incentive for people to work hard and achieve, everyone is worse off.
The result was disaster–widespread starvation occurred and only help from some nearby Indians kept the community going. As Governor William Bradford reported, without private property, the Pilgrims became lazy and selfish. Young men complained “that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense. The strong, or man of parts, had no more in division of victuals and clothes than he that was weak. . . .”
Next year Governor Bradford, after seeking advice from leading Pilgrims, “assigned to every family a parcel of land.” Now America had a system of private property. What happened? According to Bradford, “This had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious.” The result was “much more corn was planted” and “some of the abler sort and more industrious had to spare, and sell to others; so as any general want or famine hath not been amongst them since to this day.”
While the private sector has shed 6.9 million jobs since the beginning of the recession, state and local governments have expanded their payrolls and added 110,000 jobs, according to a report issued Thursday by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government.
The report, based on an analysis of federal jobs data, found that state and local governments steadily added jobs for eight months after the recession began in December 2007, with their employment peaking last August. State and local governments have since lost 55,000 jobs, but from the beginning of the recession through last month they gained a net of 110,000 jobs, the report found, in part because of the federal stimulus program.
The expansion, coming as many states and localities are raising taxes, troubled Tad DeHaven, a budget analyst for the Cato Institute, a libertarian research group in Washington. “That is disturbing,” Mr. DeHaven said. “Basically what you have is your producers in society losing their jobs and looking for work, and their tax burden isn’t necessarily going down — and as a matter of fact they are likely to face tax increases going forward — and government growing.”Although Nevada passed a record-setting, job-killing, billion dollar, secret tax increase less than three months ago, the Interim Finance Committee is already meeting to "study" Nevada's tax structure. And by "study," of course, it means "try to justify another tax increase."
Nevada Senator Harry Reid will host a tele-town hall on August 28th with small business owners, health care providers, seniors and any other Nevadans interested in voicing their opinions and asking questions about health insurance reform.First, I just talked with Sen. Reid's office and even if you're able to sign up, there's no guarantee you'll get called. His office said only a portion of those who sign up will get called. And even if you get called, there is only the smallest — totally "random," I'm sure — chance you'll get selected to ask a question.
America is the Afghanistan of the western world: That’s to say, it has a slightly higher infant mortality rate than other developed nations (there are reasons for that which I’ll discuss in an upcoming column). That figure depresses our overall “life expectancy at birth.” But, if you can make it out of diapers, you’ll live longer than you would pretty much anywhere else. By age 40, Americans’ life expectancy has caught up with Britons’. By 60, it equals Germany’s. At the age of 80, Americans have greater life expectancy than Swedes.Why?
Well, amazingly, millions of freeborn citizens’ exercising their own judgment as to which of the latest drugs, tests, and procedures suits their own best interests has given Americans a longer, better, more fulfilling old age to the point where there are entire states designed to cater to it. (There is no Belgian or Scottish Florida.) I had an elderly British visitor this month who’s had a recurring problem with her left hand. At one point it swelled up alarmingly and so we took her to the emergency room. They did a CT scan, X-rays, blood samples, the works. In two hours at a small, rural, undistinguished, no-frills hospital in northern New Hampshire, this lady got more tests than she’s had in the last decade in Britain — even though she goes to see her doctor once a month. He listens sympathetically, tells her old age often involves adjusting to the loss of mobility, and then advises her to take the British version of Tylenol and rest up. Anything else would use up those valuable resources. So, in two hours in New Hampshire, she got tested and diagnosed (with gout) and prescribed something to deal with it. It’s the difference between health “care” (i.e., going to the doctor’s every month to no purpose) and health treatment — and on the latter America is the best in the world.Just something to keep in mind as the health care debate unfolds.
Rose Friedman, economist and wife of the late Dr. Milton Friedman, passed away this morning at the age of 97. NPRI recognizes her life and her work, especially in helping her husband adapt his ideas in his preeminent work for the layman, Free to Choose, a PBS documentary on free markets that she later helped craft into a book by the same name.Mukilteo Councilwoman Jennifer Gregerson earned a mention on the Cracked.com political satire site on a list of Six Places You Should Never Twitter From.And this meeting wouldn't be illegal for Nevada's legislature, because the legislature specifically excluded itself from Nevada's open meetings law. Convenient.
Showing up at No. 2 is Gregerson under the headline, "From an illegal city council meeting (in a bar)."
She made a post from Ivar's Restaurant following the June 16 Mukilteo City Council meeting. She called it a "debriefing" after a majority of city council members showed up, creating a quorum.
Gregerson told The Everett Herald the experience taught her to create separate personal and council Twitter accounts and to be more careful about what she posts.Just another example of why politicians need constant reminders that they work for the people, not over the people.
I made it clear in earlier statements that I felt the actions of the Interim Finance Committee were inappropriate. I have decided that rather than wasting the taxpayer’s money by filing a legal challenge against the IFC, Nevadans will be better served by me taking immediate steps to get the whole job done right. I will leave it to the Nevada Legislature to determine if they wish to waste taxpayer dollars in an effort to usurp my Constitutional responsibilities. Doing so will cause needless delay in the distribution of federal stimulus funds to the Nevada citizens who need help now.
“If you think about it, UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. Right? The, uh … No, they are. I mean, it's the Post Office that's always having problems.”
How refreshing it would be to hear a politician say something akin to, "Yes, government-run health care would be inefficient. Yes, it would increase costs and would result in lower quality and longer waits to get care. But you know what? Even if it did none of these things, I would still oppose it. That's because I believe in freedom."
But this, for the most part, is not what we hear. Instead, we hear the practical arguments — the summary of which is that government-run health care is a bad idea only because it won't work.
Why some American values are obstacles to insurance system overhaulNote, that's the headline for a news story, not an editorial. Maybe this was one of those "sponsored" stories?
Reformers must overcome attachments to individualism, capitalism, experts say
Two fundamental American values — capitalism and individualism — present obstacles to significant change. American culture embraces commerce, consumption and profit and elevates the rights of the individual over obligations to the community. This makes it easy for some critics to heap disdain on changes that can be painted as limiting free enterprise, cutting into profits or leading to the real boogeyman — socialism.So a belief in capitalism and individualism is an obstacle to change, but then Marshall Allen, the reporter, writes that critics are using a "boogeyman" when they point out that a government takeover of health care is socialism. Think about that.
Health care reform advocates are urging a shift in perspective so that medicine moves from a private good, for the benefit of individuals, to a social good for the benefit of all. This raises fears of “rationing,” [Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis center for health policy director Eric] Wright said, but health care is already rationed — on the basis of a person’s ability to get health insurance…The entire article is hilarious. Just remember, your belief in capitalism and individualism (read: freedom) is hindering real health care "reform," but don't you dare describe the government takeover of health care as socialism, you scare monger.
An effective health care overhaul would require a trade-off in values, [Hastings Center research scholar Josephine Johnston] said, and sometimes it comes down to how values are emphasized. For example, Americans are individualistic, but they’re also incredibly generous, she said. “People have a sense they need to help the disadvantaged,” she said.
Rob Curley — the president and executive editor of Greenspun Interactive, a division of the Sun and Greenspun Media Group — appeared at something called International Newsmedia Marketing Association and actually boasted about having reporters go on advertising sales calls.
Listen for yourself:
Dear Big Brother:
I’d like to take this opportunity to voluntarily “flag” myself for spreading “stubborn” facts about your pending hostile takeover of the American health care industry. I had considered allowing the complaints to filter through the standard bureaucratic maze before the Gestapo are informed with the appropriate intelligence and take measures to stop my “subversive” actions. However, I have resolved to save the taxpayers some money in that regard and go ahead and report myself. Don’t worry, I do not anticipate my generosity toward the American taxpayer to be rewarded so please do not concern yourself with recognizing this magnanimous gesture with any positive feedback.
I recognize that our philosophical differences can never be resolved. I believe in the liberal traditions of limited government, individual rights and free enterprise. This philosophical viewpoint has informed my belief that health care decisions are best when made between an individual and his or her physician. This is best facilitated through an open marketplace for individual insurance policies coupled with health savings accounts and reform of the tax code.
It has become increasingly clear that your viewpoint, Big Brother, is that you should rule with absolute power over all subjects and that one essential component of this form of despotism is to empower government bureaucrats with the ability to arbitrarily determine who lives or who dies by denying health care to those who might threaten your authoritarian control.
In point of highlighting my lack of conformity to the Ministry of Propaganda’s official teachings, please allow me to call your attention to the following publications: Personal and Portable; Health Care for the Newly Unemployed. These have had the audacity to run in private publications that have not fallen under the auspices of official Ministry censorship.
Once again, I am acting only out of compassion for the American taxpayer in order to lower the burden on your expanding bureaucracy. Of course, I am not so presumptuous as to anticipate that constitutional protections might be extended to me regarding these infractions. You, Big Brother, have made clear through the so-called “bailouts” and “stimulus” activities in which you have recently engaged as well as the illegal bankruptcy workout of General Motors that the rule of law has been suspended here in these United States and that the Constitution is no longer in force.
I’d further like to highlight that I still have a meager amount of income that I am able to use to provide for some of my basic needs and which is not being sacrificed for “the greater good.” Please come confiscate it as well as any means I might have available to protect myself from your tyrannical control.
I am looking forward to my new home in one of your new government work camps.
Sincerely,
Geoffrey Lawrence
*The Wizard of Obama: "Pay no attention to those videos where I say I want universal health care...instead watch these unrelated clips."I keep reading about health-care "reform," but I have yet to see anyone explain how the government can make it easier for more people to obtain medical services, control the already exploding cost of those services and not interfere with people's most intimate decisions.Arthur Laffer:
You don't need to be a Ph.D. in economics to understand that government cannot do all three things. (Judging by what Paul Krugman writes, a Ph.D. may be an obstacle.)
And Thomas Sowell:Rather than expanding the role of government in the health-care market, Congress should implement a patient-centered approach to health-care reform. A patient-centered approach focuses on the patient-doctor relationship and empowers the patient and the doctor to make effective and economical choices.
A patient-centered health-care reform begins with individual ownership of insurance policies and leverages Health Savings Accounts, a low-premium, high-deductible alternative to traditional insurance that includes a tax-advantaged savings account. It allows people to purchase insurance policies across state lines and reduces the number of mandated benefits insurers are required to cover. It reallocates the majority of Medicaid spending into a simple voucher for low-income individuals to purchase their own insurance. And it reduces the cost of medical procedures by reforming tort liability laws.
What is both dangerous and mindless is rushing a massive new medical-care scheme through Congress so fast that lawmakers do not even have time to read it before voting on it. Legislation that is far less sweeping in its effects can get months of hearings before congressional committees, followed by debates in the Senate and the House of Representatives, with all sorts of people voicing their views in the media and in letters to Congress, while ads from people on both sides of the issue appear in newspapers and on television.The fine work of these three (and a whole lot of others) over the past several weeks is a big part of the reason why the Right has already won the policy argument over health care reform.
If this new medical scheme is so wonderful, why can’t it stand the light of day or a little time to think about it?
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