Tag Archives: political economy

A Tiny Step

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But sufficient for the moment.  Recall this in the next Congress, though, and address it more firmly then.

What is this?  It’s the food stamp compromise just reached between the Democrat-controlled Senate and the people’s House of Representatives.  The compromise keeps food stamp benefits for most Americans while cutting them overall by $800 million per year—a 1% cut.

That’s a step in the right direction, albeit chump change, but serious revamping isn’t possible so long as the Democrats control the Senate.  First things, first, and that means here, as with most items to come up this year, Republicans and Conservatives have to stay focused—and they have to develop a unified message with concrete solutions beyond just saying “No” to the Democrats (“No” is the Progressives’ knee-jerk answer to real reform) on which to focus—on the failures of President Barack Obama and the Reid/Schumer/Durbin Senate and on Republican/Conservative solutions to those failures.

With that, they can increase their hold on the House and gain control of the Senate and thereby start, in the next Congress, making real progress toward redressing the damage done by the Progressive policies of the last five (six, by this fall) years.  Building on that, they can also win the White House in 2016 and then truly start repairing the damage done.

Income Inequality

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According to a recent Fox News poll, most Americans don’t agree with President Barack Obama’s emphasis on income inequality, nor are we as dumb as Obama makes us out to be on the matter.

Obama’s latest squirrel is income inequality.  However,

  • all of 21% of voters with annual household incomes below $30,000 think the government should do something about it
  • 12% of those with incomes $100,000 or more feel that way.

What’s up with that?  It turns out that most Americans understand that economics in a free market isn’t a zero-sum game.

  • 84% of voters understand that if someone makes a lot of money, it does not mean someone else has to make less

It’s income agnostic, too:

  • 83% of voters with incomes below $50,000 say that
  • 84% of those with incomes $50,000 or more say that

Most Americans also understand that “spreading the wealth around” isn’t the path to prosperity.

  • 55% of voters think giving unemployment benefits to people who have been out of work for a long time discourages them from looking for a job.

Again, it’s income agnostic:

  • More voters than not in both higher and lower income groups say the benefits keep people from trying to find work.

Obama’s Obamacare Tax Increases

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Here are many of the ones that start this year.  As does President Barack Obama’s war on marriage, using his IRS to prosecute it.

  • top marginal tax rate rose to 39.6% for those at higher incomes
    • $400,000 for single filers
    • $450,000 for married couples filing jointly
    • $425,000 for heads of household
  • itemized deductions and personal exemptions phase out as income increases
    • beginning at $300,000 for married couples filing jointly
    • $250,000 for singles
  • higher capital gains taxes—up to 20% for some taxpayers
  • additional 0.9% Medicare tax
    • on earnings over $250,000 for married couples filing jointly
    • $200,000 for singles and heads of household
  • 3.8% tax on investment income
    • on earnings over $250,000 for married couples filing jointly
    • $200,000 for singles and heads of household

Notice that marriage penalty.

It’s Time

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…I think, to end the monopoly that is the United States Post Office.  The Constitution does not support this monopoly, saying only that one of the powers of Congress is To establish Post Offices and Post Roads.  Congress can do this just fine by fostering competition and getting out of the way of the private sector handling all of our mail delivery.

The trigger for this is the USPS’ union mendacious claims concerning USPS’ new partnership with Staples to open mini-post offices in Staples stores

…staffed by Staples employees, not postal workers

The American Postal Workers Union objects; the move “replaces good-paying union jobs with low-wage, nonunion workers.”

Don’t worry about what’s good for the customer; worry only about what’s good for the union.  Meanwhile, the price of a first class stamp keeps rising steadily.

In the end, nearly the only thing left to de-monopolize is first class mail delivery; the private sector competes quite effectively in all other classes of mail.  Package delivery, for instance, in direct competition with the USPS is faster and cheaper.  The only place where the private sector declines to compete (as opposed to being barred from competing) is in bulk junk mail delivery.  I still get my Tuesday and Wednesday rations of that like clockwork.  And I won’t miss it in the slightest.  I suspect my city’s recycling center won’t miss the clutter, also.

Hotel ObamaMart

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You can check in, but they do everything they can to keep you from checking out.

A Missouri citizen had her preferred insurance coverage canceled out from under her by Obamacare.  She was forced by circumstance into the ObamaMart, where she got coverage for $950/mo (that’s $11,400 each and every year, for those of you following along at home).

After that, she found a better plan with coverage that better suited her needs on what’s left of the private market, and she tried to sign up.  No dice; the insurer told her she’d have to cancel her Obamacare policy first (not allowed to buy two policies from two different stores, apparently).

Cancel an Obamacare plan?  Hah.  Wolves have easier times escaping from traps.

  • the citizen tried ObamaMart’s Help line, to be kept on hold “literally…for several hours a day”
  • multiple attempts, with no luck; on to ObamaMart’s online chat facility
  • sent back to the “Help” line where, still, the pseudo-helpers on the ObamaMart end of the line only would read from a script that had no checklist items for canceling plans
  • despite her efforts, a $950 premium was withdrawn from her account
  • finally getting through ObamaMart’s “Help” facility to another bureaucratic layer, the bureaucrat inhabiting that cubicle told her cancellations are handled by a “special department”
  • asked how to contact that “special department,” the bureaucrat claimed, “I’m not allowed to tell you that”
  • drove to Kansas City, hoping her prospective private market insurer could help her get rid of this ObamaMart yoke
  • insurer succeeded in getting the ObamaMart plan canceled—after a total of six weeks from start to finish

When Fox News asked HHS what the proper procedures are for canceling an ObamaMart policy, the spokesman just said to talk to the hand:

Consumers should call the Marketplace consumer call center for assistance at 1-800-318-2596.

And the run-around takes another lap.

No word on whether she got her $950 back.  Probably not, though; that’s just part of President Barack Obama’s “spread the wealth around” mandate.