Tag Archives: political economy

Because Stuff Happens

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Another seemingly mendacious defense of Obamacare.  Congressman Jackie Speier (D, CA) decries objections to unqualified or even unvetted Obamacare “Navigators” having access to individual Americans’ health and financial data.  Speier dismisses the concerns as just a

systematic effort by some Republican state officials to obstruct implementation of the Affordable Care Act[.]

She’s joined by HHS spokesman Brian Cook, who insists,

The navigator program is similar to Medicare counselors, which have existed for years and never faced this kind of criticism from Congress.  The shameful and unprecedented attempt by some in Congress to bully and intimidate these private organizations is clearly an ideologically driven attempt to prevent uninsured Americans from gaining health coverage.

Never mind that personal medical and financial data weren’t so easily hacked into when Medicare was being gutsed up.  Hey, stuff happens, and we should just live with it.

Wrong.  These people know stuff happens, and they should be getting in the way of it, not excusing it.

Obama’s Government Shutdown

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Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew had this to say in a Tuesday speech to the Economic Club. The President

will not accept measures that would tie a debt-limit increase to defunding or delaying the Affordable Care Act.  There are not and will not be negotiations about the debt limit.

There it is in so many words.  President Barack Obama insists on blowing up our economy and trashing what’s left of our national credit rating because his ego will not let him negotiate—anything—on the debt ceiling.

Obama’s shutdown.  Obama’s trash.  He’s even setting up for his shutdown.

Now That’s Just Dumb

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House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp of Michigan and others are quietly floating the idea of accepting a slightly higher tax on capital income in order to win support from Democrats on tax reform.

“Capital income” includes both capital gain and dividend income.  But if you raise the taxes on investment, you’ll get less of it.  Any high school student of economics knows this.

[C]ommittee insiders in the House tell us that Republicans have been weighing the trade-off between higher taxes on capital in exchange for lower rates on wages and salaries and small businesses.

To what end?  This tax policy just distorts the market and our economy, even more than the existing tax-code-as-social-engineering-tool already does.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana, a Democrat, wants to equalize the rates for capital gains and taxes on wages and salaries.  For Democrats, he has said, this is a matter “of basic fairness.”

Fair or not, I agree with the idea of equalizing “the rates for capital gains and taxes on wages and salaries.”  A flat tax of 10% on all income, regardless of source, does the trick.  And a low, flat tax won’t distort our economy.  Although, it will take away a vote buying tool that members of both parties use for personal political gain: promising “lower taxes” by Republicans and selling tax credits and subsidies by Democrats.  That’s not dumb.

Government Spending

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…there are also liberal members of the party who have said the government has done too much to reduce the budget deficit and should focus on short-term spending to boost the economy.

A larger point, albeit outside the scope of Damien Paletta’s column, is that when “short-term spending” simply is repeated “short-term” after “short-term,” it becomes long-term—permanent.  And that’s disastrous for our economy, quite beyond what these liberal members’ hero, JM Keynes, had to say about government (deficit) spending; that man is spinning in his grave.

Another One of those Non-Existent Republican Health Care Alternatives

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Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (R) is implementing one.  Understanding the risks of accepting Federal money (no, he’s not reading my blog), he accepted a federal Medicaid funding cut and imposed it on the Louisiana State University’s health care system, choosing to privatize much of it.

The LSU System had operated 10 hospitals around the state and their network of outpatient clinics.  Outsourcing agreements have been worked out for nine of the hospitals and their clinics.

Jindal outsourced much of that.

[T]he first outsourcing deals, rolled out in April and June…private health providers have taken over the services previously run by LSU.

What are Louisianans getting for this?

Shortened emergency room waits and an eliminated prescription backlog in Baton Rouge.  A re-established gynecology clinic in Lake Charles.  The reopening of operating rooms in New Orleans and an orthopedic clinic in Lafayette that were previously shuttered by budget cuts.

And

[T]he numbers of graduate medical education residents have grown in Lafayette, a breast health clinic and a cardiology clinic have been added at LSU’s outpatient clinic site in Lake Charles, and a new psychiatry residency program is being added in Baton Rouge.

And

The administration estimates the state will save more than $100 million this year from the arrangements….

Hmm….