Tag Archives: political economy

The Failure of the Department of Veterans Affairs

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It’s gotten even worse, astoundingly.

The Department of Veterans Affairs wants to hear from its customers, so to speak, but check your skin color before raising your hand. The VA is holding dozens of “listening sessions” for patients at its medical facilities. Eight cities are being virtually canvassed, with hearings for “racial/ethnic minorities,” “LGBTQ+ veterans,” and so forth.

For instance:

At a session on race last week in Augusta, Ga., a woman who described herself as white spoke in favor of inclusive language and safe spaces. “I appreciate your being upfront about the fact that you’re not a person of color yourself,” the VA’s facilitator chided, “because this listening session is for those from racial and ethnic minorities, to give them that kind of safe space.”

The woman was a member of a VA- and Government-disfavored group of Americans, and so she was told to shut up and sit down.

Now the VA has gone openly racist and sexist, and that’s not only damaging to our nation, it’s despicably harming those who defend and have defended our nation.

The VA is long past reparability; it must be eliminated entirely and all personnel returned to the private sector, not merely reallocated to other government sectors.

Veteranos Administratio delende est.

Let it Fail

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Progressive-Democrats are moving to attach a debt ceiling increase, or “temporary” waiver to the debt ceiling, to a continuing resolution that would fund the Federal government for a few more months. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) and Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D):

The legislation to avoid a government shutdown will also include a suspension of the debt limit through December 2022 to once again meet our obligations and protect the full faith and credit of the United States[.]

This proposal is both unnecessary and disingenuous. It’s unnecessary because as the Schumer Shutdown and the Obama Shutdowns both showed, the Federal government isn’t all that necessary in its present size. Indeed, some agencies and departments, forced to furlough employees due to the length of those closures, discovered that as many as 90% of their employees were unneeded, at least in those short- to mid-term periods.

The proposal is disingenuous because the debt ceiling needn’t be raised at all were Federal spending reduced to fit within existing revenue collections. The Progressive-Democrats, though, are hell-bent on passing their splendiferously wasteful multi-trillion-dollar reconciliation bill.

If the Progressive-Democrats insist on shutting down our government in favor of their out-of-control spending, let them. If their continuing resolution contains a debt ceiling raise or waiver, let the bill fail. Let a “clean” continuing resolution fail, too.

There’s an election coming up.

Update: Late last night, the House passed their version of a Continuing Resolution and debt ceiling raise bill along party lines: 220-211. Shamefully, the House Progressive-Democrat managers stripped out $1 billion that would have gone to Israel to replenish its Iron Dome system, depleted during the last terrorist rocket attacks from Gaza. Then Party voted down a resolution that would have restored the billion dollars to the bill.

That election….

Affordable Housing

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People’s Republic of China style.

The PRC is cracking down on excessive debt in the country’s housing industry, or so it claims. The government also claims it wants

to lower inequality and keep housing affordable for the masses.

But it just blew up 15 high rise apartment buildings. Those were already built, their cost sunk. Those complexes could have been at the core of the Communist Chinese Party’s claim of affordable housing.

Oh, wait—nobody wanted to live there.

That’s centrally planned economics in action. And a lesson for us, were our politicians interested in learning.

Inflation

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The subheadline on a recent wall Street Journal editorial claimed

Voters know how much prices are rising even if politicians don’t.

As some might expect, I have a couple things to say about that.

One thing is that politicians certainly do know prices are rising, and they know the rate of rise; they just don’t care.

The other thing is that there is a world of difference between price rise, inflation, and price level, what we actually pay.

It may be the case that price rise/inflation is abating, and to the extent it is, that’ll be useful for us consumers’ planning for our future expenses. But until price levels return to the status quo ante Wuhan Virus, we’ll still be paying those higher prices, and that still will continue damaging our pocketbooks.

More Taxing Foolishness

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This time, it’s on plastics and plastic production. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D, NY) and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D, RI) each have their schemes for generating a national tax on plastic production as part of their $3.5 trillion reconciliation spend- and tax-a-thon.

Such a tax would be intended to discourage plastic production and sale as part of the Progressive-Democrats’ move to eliminate carbon from our economy.

Here are some uses to which plastics are put, though, products of which Progressive-Democrats’ move would greatly increase the cost for average Americans.

  • piping
  • plumbing
  • vinyl siding
  • gutters
  • automobiles (up to 20% plastic)
  • furniture
  • toys
  • polymer implants and other medical devices
  • food and medical packaging
  • clothing
  • seals and washers
  • gears, plain bearings, valve seats
  • shatter-resistant alternative to glass
  • insulation
  • flotation devices
  • waxed cardboard containers (20% plastic)

The list goes on and on.

Progressive-Democrats truly are waging war on our economy.