A plea for human exceptionalism.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) are working behind the scenes to repeal one of the most controversial taxes in ObamaCare, multiple sources tell The Hill.And where is this drive to repeal the tax on certain healthcare plans coming from?Reid and Pelosi have been talking since the spring with President Obama about repealing the “Cadillac tax” on employer healthcare benefits, a senior Democratic aide confirmed on Friday.
“Point is, they both want to get this done,” the Democratic aide said.
Opponents of the 40 percent excise tax on high-cost health plans believe 2015 is their last, best chance to get the provision repealed before presidential politics grind the legislative process to a halt. With just two months left in the year, sources say the most ideal option for Democrats is attaching repeal to the package known as “tax extenders.”♠ The cost of the extenders bill is typically not offset, making it an attractive vehicle for ending one of ObamaCare’s biggest revenue generators.
Powerful labor groups such as the AFL-CIO and the American Federation of Teachers vehemently opposed the Cadillac tax from the start. They say repeal needs to happen soon, before employers begin trimming back healthcare benefits.There is a problem with this plan. Cost. The PP&ACA is predicated, in part, on the Federal Government reaping $87 billion (Billion) a year in revenue from taxing the "Cadillac" health care plans. Repealing the tax is just more money added to what at this writing is a US Federal Debt of $18,560 Trillion. Per the article,
Health officials and economists close to the law are dead set against abandoning the tax, which they argue should nudge employers and employees toward cheaper insurance plans with less waste.In English that says that if you have a decent health care plan you should pare it back, to avoid medical health care waste. Frankly, this is just manipulating the marketplace in contravention of the economic rules that have been exploited to pull millions out of poverty.
But, Pelosi and Reid are the minority party in Congress and the President is dead set against repeal. What to do?
To get Republicans to the table, Leibfried said Reid and Pelosi might have to agree to the repeal of the medical device tax — another unpopular funding mechanism for the healthcare law that many Democrats oppose.That is pretty much the only mention of the Republican side of the aisle. And, cutting the medical device tax will only add to the deficit, and the debt.
Hat tip to Memeorandum.
Regards — Cliff
♠ Tax Extenders…This is the Wikipedia discussion: "The Act increased the statutory limit on the public debt by US$700 billion to US$11.3 trillion. However, the legislation is designed to have a net zero long-term cost, and includes language that mandates the President and Congress to develop a plan to recoup any money that is not recouped within 5 years." Of course it does.
Police are horrible, racist monsters who want to lock up minorities over even trivial violations of the law! And police are also the only ones who should have guns!The is the progressive thesis as interpreted by Georgetown Law School Professor Robert J. Cottrol at a recent conference on 5 November.
Of course police are not and of course police are also not the only ones who should have guns.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
The Comments are interesting, with some telling their stories and a few questioning if this is real of just a put-up job from the CDC. That is a wood question.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
With a headline like that, one would expect at least one comment on "parting the Red Sea", but nota. I was disappointed.
This was a he said, she said kind of discussion. I was surprised by two things. The first was the mention of Richard Nixon and the "Southern Strategy". For one thing, there was no strategy involved. It was just going to happen. The other is, if I can't bring up the racist tradition of the Democrat Party, and Democrats tell me I can't, why do we go back to the Nixon Era, almost half a century ago?
The second thing is the minimum discussion of minorities. The article does talk about "white working class" voters, but while it mentions Hispanics once, it skips over Blacks. I wonder if the author privately thinks Blacks may go back to voting Republican if Dr Ben Carson is on the ticket? If there is a growing class of Black entrepreneurs out there they might well wander over to the other side, the side that has the values that is probably present in Northeast Washington, but not necessarily Southeast.
I read this article so you don't have to.
Regards — Cliff
★ I have noted that the Press is making up stories to try to damage Dr Carson, stories the likes of which they would not make up over Candidate Senator Obama. In fact, the MSM is still covering for the earlier life of President Obama, and that is fine, but one should never suggest it is equal coverage.
To reprise, a 31 October flight out of the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh came apart at 30,000 feet and provided a debris field stretched over 8 miles. There were 224 souls on board (SOBs), most of them Russian tourists. The aircraft was an Airbus A321-200.
Here is an important paragraph out of the article:
"All scenarios are being considered ... it could be lithium batteries in the luggage of one of the passengers, it could be an explosion in the fuel tank, it could be fatigue in the body of the aircraft, it could be the explosion of something," said [Ayman] El-Muqadem, who is Egyptian and leading the investigation committee that includes experts from Russia, France, Germany and Ireland, where the plane was registered. El-Muqadem appeared alone at the news conference in Cairo.While we await the findings, TSA is going to be trying to tighten up. Some action will be effective and some won't.
UPDATE: A friend who monitors Russian media noted this AM that "One of the early speculations in the Russian media was the plane broke up during evasive maneuver to avoid colliding with a Western fighter jet."
Regards — Cliff
When I sat down to hear his case a few weeks ago, he didn’t evince much patience for the argument that American politicians couldn’t agree even on whether climate change is real, much less on how to combat it. “If you’re not bringing math skills to the problem,” he said with a sort of amused asperity, “then representative democracy is a problem.”And so it is. The subsequent problem is the alternatives. We have the system under scientific materialism, which gave us Stalin and Mao. We had Bonaparte. We had that brand of socialism known as Fascism. And we have had the example of strong man, of the Caudillo. While some were satisfactory for a short period of time (Juan Perón), none have been very satisfactory over the longer run.
And it isn't just Mr Gates who is unhappy with Democracy. Look at Greece. Here is a 5 November article in The Old Gray Lady by Reporter Steven Erlanger—"Resistance to Authority in Greece as Pessimism Takes Hold".
The Article finds the Greeks, or at least the New York City born mayor of Athens, Mr Yiorgos Kaminis, to be looking to a bleak future. As Mayor Kaminis says in the article:
Greeks no longer believe, if they ever did, he said, in the functionality of politics.So, the Greeks are losing faith in representative democracy. What we have is public unhappiness, demonstrations, rising crime, increasing abuse of alcohol and drugs and a continuing exodus by younger Greeks. The question is if and when someone decides bringing back "The Colonels" is the solution?
I am not sure I see a solution for Greece. And it is sad.
As for the US, perhaps the problem is those who have talked about climate change. Back in the 1970s it was global cooling. Today we are told that no one really believed in global cooling, but it was the popular meme of the time. Then we had global warming, with dire predictions of problems soon, with soon being pushed back over time. This kind of thing leads to skepticism, and rightfully so. If you are talking and you don't have your stuff together, if all you can do is say "believe me, I am a scientist", then you have problems.
Don't get me wrong. There probably is climate change of sort coming our way. I am doubtful the "experts" actually know what is going to happen. I do think we need to be doing the planning needed to make projects to deal with rising oceans "shovel ready". Fixing our power grid would be a good idea. Not doing the Keystone Pipeline is just more propaganda. The oil will be sold and more men like Rafael Bienvenido Cruz will go to Canada for work, since it won't be here.
Of course, Mr Gates and others of his ilk could stop using private jets.
In the mean time, we need to protect our Democracy from those who promise a better way, a way guided by those who can do math, or science, or something.
Hat tip to the InstaPundit.
Regards — Cliff
