Filed under: Capitalism, Economy, Energy, Law, National Security | Tags: Democrat Demagogues, Jobs and Spending and the Economy
President Obama loves his analogy of the previous administration “driving the car into the ditch.” He repeats it ad nauseum at every opportunity. But since January 20, 2009, it has been his car to drive. Lately he has embellished the analogy by indicating that “the Republicans have to sit in the back.” Nice.
So let’s take it a little further. Obama is the licensed driver, and the Republicans are in the back seat. But Obama is driving recklessly, taking left turns against the yellow light, going too fast. Those of us in the back seat are nervous, asking him to slow down, to be more careful, but he goes careening on.
Now we are frightened, he’s weaving all over the road, we beg him again to slow down, consider what he is doing. We cite statistics of the dangers to our health from his reckless driving, warn of difficult curves in the road ahead, all to no avail. There’s wet pavement ahead, glistening with an oil slick — he may lose control. But he will not listen.
He knows better what speeds the car is capable of. Never mind the speed limit signs, the yellow lights flashing, and now there’s a siren. Finally, he’ll have to stop. He is endangering us all. The people are waving their arms trying desperately to catch his attention, screaming. Patrol cars are right on our tail. We cling together, bracing ourselves for the crash. If we survive this — he will surely have to pay, and pay, and pay.
Filed under: Capitalism, Economy, Health Care, Taxes | Tags: Democrat Demagogues, Liberal Illusions, The Faillure of ObamaCare
Consumers are, about now, receiving the bad news about their health care premiums. They are going up, and in many cases going up very significantly. Naive members of Congress believe that just because something would be “nice” that writing it into law would be a fine idea. The Law of Unintended Consequences simply says that the actions of people — especially people in government — often have effects that are unanticipated or unintended.
Because Democrats are reluctant to rely on the evidence of the experience of others, or to look at studies and scholarly investigations with care, they get socked with unintended consequences more often than Republicans do, but Republicans have their share as well. Democrats can be depended on to rail against evil insurance companies without any understanding that issuing health insurance policies is a business. The Health Care Plans business ranks #86 by profit margin, at 3.3%. There are 85 industries more profitable than health care plans which includes companies like Cigna, Aetna, Well Point, etc.
So why will insurance costs go up? 1) Mandated Benefits. The CBO estimates that the benefit mandates in ObamaCare will increase premiums 27-30 percent in the individual market and up to 3% in the small group market.
2) Preventive Services. No cost sharing. Preventive care is likely to increase costs, and do little to improve health outcomes.
3) Minimal Discount for the Young and Healthy. Estimated premiums for those 18-14 will rise by 45 percent, 36 percent for those age 25-59 and 26 percent for those age 30-34.
4) Limits on Cost Sharing and Deductibles. Means that individuals have little incentive to economize on their use of health care services. The CBO says a 10% decrease in cost sharing increases spending by 1-2 percent.
5) Elimination of Good Health Discount. In order to keep costs down for older folks, young healthy people will have to pay a larger share.
6) Taxes on Insurers, Pharmaceutical Companies and Medical Device Makers. These taxes will all be passed on to consumers, increasing premiums by 2.5 % or more.
These are only a few of the many unintended consequences that will raise costs to consumers. Common sense will tell you why they will kick in. The authors of the bill seemed to think that making lots of tests free for patients would catch potential disease in the early stages, but lab tests and scans are very expensive, and usually ordered by a doctor in response to a symptom. A lot of tests on perfectly healthy people will not turn up much disease.
The mandates for everyone to buy insurance depend on the young and healthy bearing much of the cost for those not quite so young and not quite so healthy. ObamaCare also relies heavily on the idea that there are “best practices” that can be chosen by bureaucrats that all doctors must follow. This demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the doctor-patient relationship.
When you get down to the most basic ideas behind this whole thing, you find an arrogant belief that the elite in Washington know better than you do, and can, with enough regulation of doctors and hospitals and providers of all sorts make health care cost less. Most doctors will not accept Medicaid patients, and drastic cuts in Medicare payments suggest that Medicare will soon follow.
My sense of the whole thing is that it will fail in a fairly short time span if it is not repealed. Perhaps I am overly cynical, but I am familiar with the evidence from other countries. We have had the best health care system in the world. Costs have risen unnecessarily because of government interference in the marketplace.
The members of Congress who had a hand in writing this 2,409 page monstrosity have a lot to answer for. We should get rid of the lot of them this next week.
Filed under: Islam, Liberalism, Media Bias, Terrorism, The Constitution | Tags: Debunking Liberal Lies, Democrat Demagogues, The Ground Zero Mosque
Democrat pollsters like Charlie Cook are telling Democrats that the election in November is going to be a “wave” election. Democrats are running scared, and they’re desperate.
They were going to run against George W. Bush, but that’s not working. Obama has been president for 19 months, and the “blame Bush” theme has worn out. Most people don’t blame Bush. Then Democrats were going to blame Republicans as “The Party of No,” but that won’t work either. Democrats have control of the House, the Senate and the Presidency. It doesn’t matter if Republicans say no.
Democrats have done exactly what they wanted to do, and it isn’t working.
Liberals just hate it when you disagree with them. They are quick to assign evil motives to conservatives when they disagree, and they quite literally hate conservatives for having the nerve to do so. Part of the problem is that liberals start with the policy that fulfills their dreams, and aren’t much interested in evidence of how that policy has worked previously. Liberals assume that of course it will work. Conservatives want to know how a policy will work before they pass it into law, so they look for studies and examples and history.
What this means is that when liberals are ecstatic about having passed a long-desired bill, there are the conservatives carefully explaining why it is not going to work, with facts and figures. Liberals cannot understand this way of operating, and assume that conservatives are just being their normal, evil, disgusting selves trying to destroy the liberal accomplishment.
So now, not only are conservatives saying bad things about liberals’ amazing accomplishments, but they are convincing the common folk out there that the Democrats were wrong. That makes them very angry.
So we return to the question of the mosque at Ground Zero. It is, technically, 360 feet from the World Trade Center site. The building that the mosque purchased was damaged when the undercarriage of one of the planes fell through the roof.
Muslims, of course, have freedom of religion: the only argument is that it is inappropriate to build a mosque so close to the site of 9/11, an attack made in the name of Islam. The families who lost their loved ones and friends in the World Trade Center are offended that the backers do not understand the inappropriateness of the mosque site.
Democrats saw an opportunity to demonize Republicans and are out in full-throated attack mode. Republicans are bigots and racists. They can have no other reason to oppose the mosque. Isn’t it about time they got over 9/11? Hypocrites as well — always talking about the Constitution as if it is a holy document and they can’t even recognize the poor Muslims’ right to freedom of religion.
- Michael Kinsley, editor at large, The Atlantic”: “Is there any reason to oppose the mosque that isn’t bigoted, or demagogic, or unconstitutional? None that I’ve heard or read.”
- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times blog, August 19: The far right-wing has seized on the issue as an occasion for fanning hatred against Muslims.”
- Tony Norman, columnist, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “…a handful of politicians who cynically conflate the religion of American Muslims with the nihilism of the 9/11 terrorists.”
- More, much more, from the likes of Peter Beinart, Tony Norman, Keith Olberman, James Zogby, Andrew Sullivan, here, and here,and here.
So some brilliant PR person has decided that the best move is to accuse Conservatives of being racist, evil, disgusting bigots. But what do they say about the moderate Muslims who say that of course the mosque is intended as a provocation? Other sources have noted that several floors of the “community center” are intended as offices for an effort to promote Sharia law in the United States.
I do believe that those who immigrate to the United States have an obligation to become Americans. They don’t get to bring their culture here and insist that the religious laws of their former country be observed here.
Filed under: Conservatism, Economy, Election 2010, Health Care, Liberalism, Politics | Tags: Culture War, Democrat Demagogues, Obamacare, Republicans
Pat Caddell was a long-time Democrat pollster and political consultant. He worked for Jimmy Carter, George McGovern, Gary Hart, Joe Biden and Jerry Brown. His analysis on polls and campaign issues has often put him at odds with the current leadership of the Democrat Party; and as he has become more conservative and criticizes Democrats, they like him less.
Democrats don’t like disagreement in the ranks. But Caddell is quite free with his criticism of Republicans as well. The odd thing is that Republicans don’t mind. He is a frequent guest on Fox News, and as he knows his way around politics intimately — he’s very interesting.
Filed under: Law, National Security, Politics | Tags: Arizona Border, Democrat Demagogues, Illegal Immigration
— President George W. Bush sent 6,000 National Guard troops to the border as a temporary measure, while the numbers of the border patrol were being built up. His administration significantly increased the number of border patrol agents by 20,000, and then removed the troops.
— Janet Napolitano, former Arizona Governor and now Secretary of Homeland Security, says the Southern Border is secure. But that’s what she claimed when she was Governor too.
— A team of Justice Department attorneys has written a recommendation challenging the Arizona immigration law. The draft claims Arizona exceeded its authority, or there might be abuses based on race, but no formal recommendation has been sent to the White House. If the administration eventually does sponsor a challenge to the Arizona law, the president’s move to send 1,200 National Guardsmen to the Arizona border does begin to look like a bit of political theater.
— The Mexican embassy released a statement on the Guard deployment: “Additionally, the Government of Mexico expects that National Guard personnel will strengthen US operations in the fight against transnational organized crime that operates on both sides of our common border and that it will not, in accordance to its legal obligations, conduct activities directly linked to the enforcement of immigration laws.
— The administration has clarified the role of the 1,200 National Guard troops it is sending to the Arizona border. They will not be enforcing immigration laws. “US National Guard troops being sent to the Mexican border will be used to stem the flow of guns and drugs across the frontier and not to enforce US immigration laws, the State Department said Wednesday.”
— State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said “We have explained the president’s announcement to the government of Mexico, and they fully understand the rationale behind it.” … “The extra troops would be used to free up civilians engaged in support functions so that law enforcement personnel can be increased along the 2,999 mile-long border.”
Let’s see, we have immigration laws, but Mexico doesn’t like them, so we won’t enforce them. Russia doesn’t like the anti-missile defense against Iran that we arranged to deploy in Eastern Europe, so we canceled that. Russia said it would agree to some mild sanctions on Iran, but they didn’t like the restrictions on their sales of missiles and weapons to Iran, so we said go ahead and sell them. South Korea is incensed at North Korea’s torpedoing their ship and killing over 40 South Korean personnel, but we’re not willing to throw our weight around.
Do you think that there is a pattern here?
Filed under: Europe, Foreign Policy, Israel, Middle East, Politics | Tags: Democrat Demagogues, Individual Liberty, the Freedom Agenda
Here at American Elephants, we are especially critical of the Obama administration’s foreign policy. We are big believers in liberty, and if freedom appears at all on the Obama team agenda, it’s way, way down at the bottom of the list.
If you need evidence, I offer the Green movement in Iran. Afraid that displeasing the Mullahs could mean an end to the hopes of the administration for an opportunity to persuade Iran to give up their nuclear efforts, the administration could not bring themselves to offer even vigorous verbal support for the dissidents.
Then there is the administration’s support for the legally ousted president of Honduras, lack of support for Georgia, for Israel, for Columbia and South Korea. Casual insults to our closest allies in Europe — and even Australia and Canada are inexplicable.
For another look at ” the freedom agenda,” the Wall Street Journal today has a splendid article on just what it means to make freedom a priority:
No one seems to know precisely who is behind the “Miss Me Yet?” billboard—the cheeky one featuring a grinning George W. Bush that looks out over I-35 near Wyoming, Minn. But Syrian dissident Ahed Al-Hendi sympathizes with the thought.
In 2006, Mr. Hendi was browsing pro-democracy Web sites in a Damascus Internet café when plainclothes cops carrying automatic guns swooped in, cuffed him, and threw him into the trunk of a car. He spent over a month in prison, some of it alone in a 5-by-3 windowless basement cell where he listened to his friend being tortured in the one next door. Those screams, he says, were cold comfort—at least he knew his friend hadn’t been killed.
Mr. Hendi was one of the lucky ones: He’s now living in Maryland as a political refugee where he works for an organization called Cyberdissidents.org. And this past Monday, he joined other international dissidents at a conference sponsored by the Bush Institute at Southern Methodist University to discuss the way digital tools can be used to resist repressive regimes.
He also got to meet the 43rd president. In a private breakfast hosted by Mr. and Mrs. Bush, Mr. Hendi’s message to the former president was simple: “We miss you.” There have been “a lot of changes” under the current administration, he added, and not for the better.
Adrian Hong, who was imprisoned in China in 2006 for his work helping North Koreans escape the country (a modern underground railroad), echoed that idea. “When I was released [after 10 days] I was told it was because of very strong messaging from the White House and the culture you set,” he told Mr. Bush.
There is much more, and real food for thought. Do read the whole thing. Standing up for individuals who are risking their lives for freedom should not be a partisan issue. It is he most basic of American values.
Filed under: Economy, Health Care, Politics, Statism | Tags: Debunking Liberal Lies, Democrat Demagogues, Obamacare
Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute, points out some of the danger signs for ObamaCare revealed in the actuary report. The White House says that only 23 million people will remain uninsured, instead of the previously estimated 24 million. The bill won’t really take effect until 2014, but there seems to be plenty of trouble ahead.
Here are the danger spots, as Ms. Turner lists them:
1. About 14 million people will lose their employer coverage by 2019, as smaller employers terminate their plans and workers who have employer coverage enroll in Medicaid. Half of all seniors on Medicare Advantage could lose their coverage.
2. Big fines for companies: Businesses will pay $878 billion in penalties in the first five years after the fines trigger in 2014, partly because they can’t afford to offer government-mandated insurance, and because some employees will apply for taxpayer-subsidized insurance.
3. Tens of billions in new fees and excise taxes will “be passed through to consumers in the form of higher drug and devices prices and higher premiums. Small businesses will be hardest hit.
4. The “CLASS Act” long-term-care insurance will face a significant risk of failure. There is a serious risk that the program will be unsustainable.
5. National health spending will increase by $311 billion over the coming decade. The federal spending curve will increase by a net total of $251 billion over the next ten years.
6. An estimated 23 million will remain uninsured by 2019, 5 million undocumented aliens, and 18 million who pay the penalty rather than buy insurance.
7. Estimated reductions in the growth rate of health spending “may not be fully achievable” because productivity adjustments could become unsustainable even within 10 years
8. Fifteen percent of all hospitals, nursing homes and other providers treating Medicare patients could be operating at a loss by 2019, which will jeopardize care for beneficiaries. Doctors are threatening to drop Medicare if reimbursement rates mean they can’t cover their costs.
9. A significant number of those newly eligible for Medicaid will have trouble finding physicians who will see them.
Republicans on the Joint Economic Committee explain in a new report the impact of a #14.3 billion per year tax on health insurance, effective in 2014. This tax will be passed through to consumers in the form of higher premiums for private coverage. It will cost the typical family of four with job-based coverage an additional $1,000 a year and will fall more often on small businesses and their employees.
These things stand out at this point, but there are many more money-saving claims that Democrats have made, that seem destined to fail to reduce costs. Governmental plans oft go awry, and things always cost far more than estimated. But we knew all that too, didn’t we.
Filed under: Capitalism, Economy, Foreign Policy, National Security, Politics | Tags: Democrat Demagogues, False Narratives, Straw Men
Politics is a strange world. There’s the territory “inside the beltway” and then there’s — the rest of the country. Washington D.C. is often described as a bubble where people live and operate with no contact whatsoever with those folks out in flyover country. Think of the slightly sneering reference to a major part of America as “fly over country,” unimportant, unrecognized, until election time when it becomes, temporarily — “the heartland.”
“Inside the beltway”is composed mostly of Democrats these days, and they are marveling at Obama’s “success,” effectiveness and political standing. Obama aides (and there are 1,700 full-time White House aides, the most in history) are enthusiastic about his foreign-policy successes, job growth, health care and lower-than-expected costs for the bailout. Foreign policy success? Job growth? Lower-than-expected costs for the bailout?
They seem to grasp that there is some, um, unrest about health care; but the answer is for the president to get out there and sell it. The answer is always, always, more PR. Another appearance, another speech, but no one seems to recognize that the pleasant words Obama uses to describe the health care bill bear no relation whatsoever to the actual contents of the bill.
Longtime NBC science correspondent Jay Barbree, speaking from the Space Center, said that during the campaign Obama came to the Space Center, and told the 15,000 workers that he would preserve NASA’s cutting-edge science and engineering expertise, and if they would vote for him he would protect their jobs Now 9,000 of them are about to lose their jobs.
Obama has returned to the Space Center to try to build support for his efforts to revamp the nation’s space program. He spoke before 200 or so people, by invitation only. He has not invited a single space worker from the space port to attend. It’s only academics and other high officials. Jay Barbree was stunned at the president’s duplicity.
MSNBC’s Alex Witt responded “I will say, on behalf of the Obama administration, they contend that 2500 new jobs will be created, even more, they say, than the 2012 Constellation would have created, that program.
Nice to know that Ms. Witt speaks for the Obama Administration. That clears up a little about MSNBC.
Elsewhere, it has been noted that Obama’s poll numbers have been falling because — he hasn’t been blaming Bush enough. The theory seems to be that the portrayal of the Bush years as a disastrous time of anti-regulation, tax-cutting policies that led to the 2008 meltdown has faded from public memory. Possibly because it was another lie to begin with.
The Obama team has remarkable skills in creating straw men, false narratives, and blaming everyone but themselves. America is in trouble, and the people want the transparency promised by the president that never seems to arrive.
The levels of spending, increases in government size and control over the most minute elements of American life are deeply troubling. The stock market is up, but cities and small towns are filled with empty storefronts. The only place where there is vigorous hiring is in the federal government, and hiring is frequently limited to union members. Stimulus money went to supporters — the blue states, while fly over country was ignored. Crony capitalism.
Perhaps Obama could get away with blaming Bush for everything during the campaign, though that narrative wasn’t true even then. This has been Obama’s show for fifteen months. Blaming his predecessor at this late date simply makes Obama seem like an irresponsible whiner.
Filed under: Developing Nations, Foreign Policy, National Security | Tags: 70s Nuclear Freeze Movement, Democrat Demagogues, Nuclear Proliferation
Mark Steyn points out today that Obama held “the biggest meeting of world leaders on American soil since the founding of the U.N. 65 years ago” on nuclear nonproliferation — and Iran wasn’t on the agenda.
Iran has already offered to share its nuclear technology with Sudan.
The mound of corpses being piled up around the world today is not from high-tech nuclear states but from low-tech psycho states. It’s not that Britain has nukes and poor old Sudan has to make do with machetes. It’s that the machete crowd is willing to kill on an industrial scale and the high-tech guys can’t figure out a way to stop them. Perhaps for his next pointless yakfest the president might consider a machete nonproliferation initiative.
“So the principle underpinning Obama’s Seventies-retro nuke summit — that the size of a civilized state’s stockpile adds to the global threat — is not just false but dangerously delusional.”
Filed under: Foreign Policy, National Security, Statism, Terrorism | Tags: Democrat Demagogues, Iran, Nuclear Summit
President Obama has checked off another little item on his list. He has saved the world from the horrors of nuclear weapons. As The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank began his piece today:
World leaders arriving in Washington for President Obama’s Nuclear Security Summit must have felt for a moment that they had instead been transported to Soviet-era Moscow.
They entered a capital that had become a military encampment, with camo-wearing military police in Humvees and enough Army vehicles to make it look like a May Day parade on New York Avenue, where a bicyclist was killed Monday by a National Guard Truck.
In the middle of it all was Obama — occupant of an office once informally known as “leader of the free world” — putting on a clinic for some of the world’s greatest dictators in how to circumvent a free press.
Reporters for foreign outlets, admitted for the first time to the White House Press pool were ushered out after Obama’s eight-minute opening statement — which ended with the words: “I’m going to ask that we take a few moments to allow the press to exit before our first session.”
Obama’s official schedule for Tuesday would have pleased China’s Central Committee. Excerpts: “The President will attend the Heads of Delegation working lunch. This lunch is closed press. . . . The President will meet with Prime Minster Erdogan of Turkey. This meeting is closed press. . . . The President will attend Plenary Session II of the Nuclear Security Summit. This session is closed press.”
President Transparency has believed since his undergraduate days in the Nuclear Freeze movement, that nuclear weapons kill people. So he has signed a START treaty with Russia to reduce nuclear weapons — that includes a long list of just when Moscow will ignore the treaty. The Russians were apparently adamant about excluding tactical weapons, where they have a 10-1 advantage, from the treaty.
The big Nuke Summit doesn’t yield much of anything at all. Canada and Chile agreed to send some uranium to the United States. ( We were really worried about Canada). The Ukraine will send some to Russia. Obama insulted some more allies and bowed to despots once again.
And surprise, surprise, our greatest nuclear threat is not addressed at all by the uranium transfers announced with such fanfare. One would think that someone in the administration might take seriously Iran’s announced threat to America, Israel,and Europe, but that might take something more than pretty speeches, and summit meetings that promise to meet once again — just like the eternal and useless climate meetings.
The threat of Islamic terrorists getting hold of nuclear weapons more likely comes from Iran, Pakistan or North Korea than any other source. But this was not addressed at all. Of course if we actually got any nuclear material from one of the 47 nations in attendance, what would we do with it? We have no place to put it, since President Obama shut down Yucca Mountain.
But is our greatest threat terrorists? Or is it the mullahs who lead the chant of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” and proudly announce how many centrifuges they have operating? And does President Transparency have any intention of doing anything at all about Iran? Even encouraging the dissidents who want to overthrow the government? Didn’t think so. Big speeches, not open to the press, are more his speed, and banning words like jihad, and Islam, and terrorist.
Filed under: Capitalism, Economy, Taxes | Tags: Cutting Government Costs, Democrat Demagogues, Or Raising Taxes
When corporations in the private sector run extended losses — spending more than they take in — employees share in the adjustments that have to be made. Jobs are lost, and salaries cut. When governments spend more than they take in, running huge and extended deficits, they are inclined to raise taxes and their own salaries.
It is well-known that government employees on average receive higher pay and more benefits than the private sector employees who perform similar jobs. So when unemployment is high and debt is high and deficit spending is really high, what should happen then?
The recession hit Ireland hard. Known as the Celtic Tiger, Ireland went from being one of the poorest countries in the European Union to one of the richest. Financial services became a major part of Ireland’s economy, and left it vulnerable to the housing bubble and the financial crisis.
Ireland took action. The current Irish budget (translating from euros to dollars and rounding) takes these steps:
- Government employees’ salaries up to $40,000 will be reduced by 5%.
- The next $54,000 of salary will be reduced by 7.5%.
- The next $74,000 of salary will be reduced by 10%.
This gets up to salaries of $168,000. Salaries over that amount may have marginal reductions of as much as 15%.
Economics 101: When you tax something, you get less of it. Oddly enough, Congress is searching for more ways to raise taxes on American citizens. They might take a leaf from Ireland’s plan. Just a thought.
(h/t: Alex J. Pollock)
American Elephants 