Myths Of The Raptor

Myths Of The Raptor: "Add up all the real-world facts and there does not seem to be much of a victory here for any one--the possible exception being those nations who are planning to do battle with the U.S. in the future and will now face a mere token force of F-22s. The decision not to continue F-22 production might be justified on other grounds, but this week's vote has been based on a set of false assumptions and creates a false sense of economy. The future of U.S. combat airpower is much too serious a business for it to be held hostage to this manner of legislative myth-making."

If the Dems really wanted a "shovel ready" project to stimulate the economy, the F-22 was it. 24,000 jobs if I am not mistaken. Arguably good for our nation's defense, too. Canceling these programs after we have eaten all the up-front sunk costs, but before we have a viable force is just nuts. Gates and McCain are on the wrong side of this one.

When a Lib Asks Why You Oppose Government Run Health Care, Respond "Tennessee, Hawaii, and Massachusetts

Tried and Found Wanting: "'There is not a credible example of having brought about a cost savings and insured everyone. We have seen that in TennCare,' Blackburn told me. 'I just find it unconscionable that they are not talking about the lessons that they learned from the TennCare experience, the lessons that are still being learned every day from the TennCare experience.'

Blackburn, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one of the committees that have reviewed health care legislation, had a simple enough question for Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius. 'I would like to know what lessons the administration has taken from Tennessee's experiment with 'public option' health care; a program known as TennCare,' Blackburn wrote."

You don't need to point to foreign countries like Canada and Great Britain. Tennessee, Hawaii, and Massachusetts have already demonstrated the myriad flaws in the Dems health care proposals. And none of these systems is remotely the size of what Pelosi, Reid, and Obama are trying to ram down our throats.

I Thought Obama Was The Hope President

Health Reform and Cancer - WSJ.com: "I have been battling non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, an incurable blood cancer, for the past nine years. Last year, I was also diagnosed with uterine cancer.

I didn’t run to Canada for treatment. Medicare took care of my needs right here in New York City. To endure, I just need the freedom to choose my insurance, my doctors, and get the diagnostic scans and care I need. And one more thing: I need hope that a treatment will be developed that can control my diseases the way insulin controls diabetes.

Every cancer patient needs these things, especially hope. But the government’s plan to reform the health-care system in this country threatens all of this—particularly the development of new treatments."

She's right. The Lefties are going to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs (miracle drugs, innovative treatments and surgeries, etc.). Their plan for the health care system will squash the incentives that today make the US the engine of health care innovation for the world. They don't seem to realize that after it's dead, the goose doesn't keep on laying those golden eggs.

There Is No ‘Right’ to Health Care - WSJ.com

Dalrymple: There Is No ‘Right’ to Health Care - WSJ.com: "The question of health care is not one of rights but of how best in practice to organize it. America is certainly not a perfect model in this regard. But neither is Britain, where a universal right to health care has been recognized longest in the Western world.

Not coincidentally, the U.K. is by far the most unpleasant country in which to be ill in the Western world. Even Greeks living in Britain return home for medical treatment if they are physically able to do so.

The government-run health-care system—which in the U.K. is believed to be the necessary institutional corollary to an inalienable right to health care—has pauperized the entire population."

A British physician explains how the concept of a "right to health care" has taken Britain, the leader in such thinking, down a path to substandard health care.

More One-Sided Diplomacy

U.S. Woos Damascus by Easing Export Ban - WSJ.com: "'The regime feels very confident politically now,' said Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian democracy activist based in Washington. 'Damascus feels like it's getting a lot without giving up anything.'"

More gifts to tyrants courtesy of the Obama administration. Gifts to a regime that has been complicit in the deaths of untold numbers of US servicemen, and a friend to bloodthirsty terrorists like Hamas and Hezbollah.

Rationing Health Care - Forbes.com

Rationing Health Care - Forbes.com: "the president keeps repeating his straw man argument--that we must support his government-centered options for reforming our health system, because 'the alternative of doing nothing' is unacceptable. But specific alternative reforms that would reduce health care costs, such as removing government-defined barriers to competition, eliminating special interest insurance mandates and empowering the consumer rather than government with control of the money, information and choice, have already been proposed, despite their invisibility to mainstream media.

The honest debate should be about whether the costs should be forced down by increasing government intervention and control, or if Americans and their families should be in control of their health care."

Beware the straw man, as we have noted many times before (search this blog for "straw man").

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs???

The Associated Press: SPIN METER: 'Help Wanted' counting stimulus jobs: "PORTLAND, Ore. — How much are politicians straining to convince people that the government is stimulating the economy? In Oregon, where lawmakers are spending $176 million to supplement the federal stimulus, Democrats are taking credit for a remarkable feat: creating 3,236 new jobs in the program's first three months.

But those jobs lasted on average only 35 hours, or about one work week. After that, those workers were effectively back unemployed, according to an Associated Press analysis of state spending and hiring data. By the state's accounting, a job is a job, whether it lasts three hours, three days, three months, or a lifetime."

This is even worse than Obama's dissembling via the words "new jobs." As Dennis Prager often points out, government can always create "new jobs" by fiat. But they can't create net additional new jobs unless the actions of the government are neutral or stimulative to the creation of jobs elsewhere in the economy.

This is well illustrated by Spain's experience with "green job" creation, commented on last month in this blog. In Spain, the "creation" of each new green job is calculated to have come at the cost of 2.2 other jobs.

Surprising - A Government Program That Seems Dazed and Confused

U.S. Effort to Modify Mortgages Falters - WSJ.com: "An Obama administration effort to reduce home foreclosures by lowering the mortgage payments of struggling borrowers before they fall behind is failing to help as many people as expected.

Among the problems: Some homeowners are being told they must be behind on their payments to receive help, which runs counter to the aim of the program. In other cases, delays are so long that borrowers who are current on their payments when they ask for a loan modification are delinquent by the time they receive one. There is also confusion about who qualifies."

Let's sign this crew up to decide which sorts of cancer protocols have the best efficacy/dollar. That'll be good.

Is This the Best the Nobel Prize Winner Can Do?

Why markets can’t cure healthcare - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com: "Why markets can’t cure healthcare

Judging both from comments on this blog and from some of my mail, a significant number of Americans believe that the answer to our health care problems — indeed, the only answer — is to rely on the free market. Quite a few seem to believe that this view reflects the lessons of economic theory.

Not so."

Krugman so vastly oversimplifies things as to render this whole column meaningless. I don't think anyone is arguing for laissez faire health care. But showing that a laissez faire free market approach cannot totally solve all health care economics problems is a far cry showing that free market principles have no place in health care. Read the column. Krugman claims:

1) that the free market is not relevant to health care because the expenditures are large and unpredictable. Sounds to me like he's focusing only on the catastrophic side of health care. But today's bloated "insurance" plans, distorted by more than a half century of government meddling are about a lot more than catastrophic care. They cover virtually all doctor visits, drugs, therapies, etc. In each of these myriad smaller transactions, market forces would be vastly more effective at optimizing the use of health care resources than the arbitrary guidlines and mandates coming down from government. A quick recent example: I was at the dermatologist and he said he needed to remove a large mole from my back. He could either cut out all the skin in the affected area (as a previous dermatologist had done elsewhere on my back a year earlier), or he could shave off only the affected layers of the skin, eliminating the need for stitches. At this point, we should have had a conversation about the cost of the two procedures, but since it was irrelevant to me, we didn't. I'd pay the same either way. But the skin removal procedure was in fact significantly more expensive. I chose the less expensive procedure in this case, but not because of cost, but because the more involved procedure would have required two extra visits to the doctor's office. Think how many millions of times a day such small decisions are made, and think how hard it is for government to oversee them all vs. just giving the patient appropriate information and incentives.

2) You can't trust insurance companies.
Well, sorry, but I trust an insurance company competing for my business FAR more than I trust a monopoly board of faceless government bureaucrats. I have been on private insurance for nearly thirty years, and no member of my family has been denied needed care, even through some pretty serious and expensive medical issues.

3) Private insurers waste money in their efforts to resist paying out on claims.
I am sure that there is truth to this, but it is certainly not as significant as another fact. It is estimated that waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid are in the 15-18% range, whereas in private plans it is about 2%.

4) You can't rely on experience or comparison shopping.
You can't now, because there is no market for such information. Consumers of health care currently don't give a darn about cost. When consumers do pay out of their pocket, for example with Lasik eye surgery, or cosmetic procedures, there is a lot more information available about costs and outcomes. And by the way, competition has continuously driven lower costs and better procedures in these areas.

Krugman's column is sloppy, lazy, and wrong. There is certainly a legitimate government role in health care, to address the ways in which health care does not behave economically like other goods and services. But as much as possible, we must deliver health care in a way that leverages free market principles, not central government control, to optimally utilize scarce resources.

Reality Deals Obama Health Care Savings Claims Another Punch in the Gut

Obama Defends Proposed Health Office - NYTimes.com: "WASHINGTON — The Congressional Budget Office said Saturday that a new agency proposed by President Obama as a way to cut health costs might save only $2 billion in its first four years, and that there was a high probability that “no savings would be realized.”"

I say it again, thank God for Mr Elmendorf and the CBO.

Stop - Don't Confuse Us With Facts

IBDeditorials.com: Editorials, Political Cartoons, and Polls from Investor's Business Daily -- Ignoring Science: "The true believers will not be moved by the peer-reviewed findings of Chris de Freitas, John McLean and Bob Carter, scientists at universities in Australia and New Zealand...

Their research, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, indicates that nature, not man, has been the dominant force in climate change in the late 20th century.

'The surge in global temperatures since 1977 can be attributed to a 1976 climate shift in the Pacific Ocean that made warming El Nino conditions more likely than they were over the previous 30 years and cooling La Nina conditions less likely' says co-author de Freitas.

'We have shown that internal global climate-system variability accounts for at least 80% of the observed global climate variation over the past half-century. It may even be more if the period of influence of major volcanoes can be more clearly identified and the corresponding data excluded from the analysis.'"

More facts to add to the growing mountain of evidence that crap and trade is not not only economically disastrous, but environmentally insignificant.

George F. Will - Cold Shoulder to Climate 'Urgency' - washingtonpost.com

George F. Will - Cold Shoulder to Climate 'Urgency' - washingtonpost.com: "Unfortunately, China's president had to dash home to suppress ethnic riots. Had he stayed in Italy at the recent Group of Eight summit, he could have continued the Herculean task of disabusing Barack Obama of his amazingly durable belief, shared by the U.S. Congress, that China -- and India, Brazil, Mexico and other developing nations -- will sacrifice their modernization on the altar of climate change."...

...the [G-8] having vowed to cut emissions of greenhouse gases 80 percent by 2050, which is 41 years distant. As is 1968, which seems as remote as the Punic Wars, considering that more than half of all living Americans were born after 1966. If you do not want to do anything today, promise to do everything tomorrow, which is always a day away.

You MUST READ the entire column, linked above. I couldn't decide what the best excerpts were. It is devastating to the whole crap and trade proposition.

The Post-Special Interest Era - Part XXIV

George F. Will - UPS-FedEx Dispute Shows Labor's Control Over the White House - washingtonpost.com: "It has given the United Auto Workers majority ownership of Chrysler. It has sent $135 billion of supposed stimulus money to state governments to protect unionized public-sector employees from layoffs and other sacrifices that private-sector workers are making. It has sedated the Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards, which protects workers against misbehavior by union leaders. Cap-and-trade legislation might please unions with protectionism -- tariffs on imports from countries not foolish enough to similarly burden their manufacturers. If Congress, seeking money for more socialized medicine, decides that some employer-paid health insurance should be taxed as employees' compensation -- which it obviously is -- generous union-negotiated benefits might be exempted.

Now it is the Teamsters' turn at the trough. Congress might change labor law to assist UPS, a Teamsters stronghold, by hindering its principal competitor, FedEx."

Yet another installment in the chronicle of union pay-offs from this president and his party. I have been tracking it in this blog (search on the tags at the bottom of this post). Have you seen this covered by the MSM?

Here's a quiz: what do the state of California, Delphi, and the Detroit school system have in common?

a) They are all essentially bankrupt
b) They are all heavily unionized

Now the Dems want to cripple another national treausre, FedEx.

Voluntary Amnesia

George F. Will - Liberal Policies Paving Way for Higher Taxes - washingtonpost.com: "But before embarking on Stimulus III, note that only about 10 percent of Stimulus II has yet been injected into the economy. This is not the administration's fault, the administration's defenders say, because government is cumbersome, sluggish and inefficient. But this sunburst of insight comes as the administration toils to enlarge governmental control of health care, energy, finance, education, etc. The administration guesses that these government projects will do better than the Postal Service (its second-quarter loss, $1.9 billion, was 68 percent of its losses for all of 2008) and the government's railroad (Amtrak has had 38 money-losing years, and this year's losses are on pace to set a record)."

The President and his party push forward their big government agenda in complete disregard of every bit of available evidence regarding the efficacy of government programs. It is lunacy (well not so loony if your ultimate goal is to amass maximum power in the central government).

We must not allow the Left to impose its amnesia on the American public. Recent polls are beginning to indicate that they are failing in that effort.

The Era of Special Interest Payoffs Is Over...

Delphi and PBGC settle pension dispute - WSJ.com: "When the PBGC was created in 1974, Democrats running Congress assured everyone there was no taxpayer risk because the agency would be funded by fees from pension plans, as well as by the assets of plans the company takes over. But like Fannie Mae, we are learning that sooner or later these government guarantees always come due. Now the PBGC has a $33.5 billion deficit even before Delphi, and more bankruptcies are headed its way. Mark it down as one more way the taxpayers are being put on the hook for GM, the UAW and Michigan’s 17 electoral votes in 2012."

... RIGHT...

It's much worse than I realized when I first posted on this multi-billion political payoff (I know what you're thinking, why are you wasting your time on multi-billion dollar corruption in a new era of trillion dollar corruption?), under the name of saving the auto industry. Read the column - not only are we now on the hook to the tune of $6B for Delphi's pension obligations, but in a stunning display of a political cronyism, the UAW members are being put at the front of the line for yet another bailout. UAW retirees are slated to get 100% of their benefits, while members of other unions, and former non-unionized employees will have to settle for a fraction of what they are owed.

Obama - Post-Partisan Like LBJ Was Post Partisan

Let’s Face It: Obama Is No Post-Partisan - WSJ.com: "here’s nothing inherently wrong with opting to forgo bipartisanship support for the sake of getting your ideas through. That, however, is not what Candidate Obama promised. And just think how the debate would change if the press were to begin describing Mr. Obama in a way that seems reserved for Republicans: a highly partisan president pursuing a narrow partisan agenda."

This is an interesting exposition of how the President, his handlers, and his media flunkies are "dumbing down" the definition of bipartisan.

Doing His Constitutional Duty

Perry raises possibility of states' rights showdown with White House over healthcare | Top Stories | Star-Telegram.com: "AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry, raising the specter of a showdown with the Obama administration, suggested Thursday that he would consider invoking states’ rights protections under the 10th Amendment to resist the president’s healthcare plan, which he said would be 'disastrous' for Texas."

Apparently Gov Perry is one of the few state officials in the US who takes seriously his oath of office and the sovereignty of the state that elected him. This brings to mind an aspect of the ObamaCare debate that hasn't been front & center - the crushing burden of the President's programs that will fall increasingly upon the states in the out years. The federal government is essentially obligating the states to future state expenditures. Last time I checked, that was the sovereign right of the legislatures of the individual states. State officials who do not defend their citizens against such encroachment should be subject to removal from office.

In Case You Missed the Press Conference

IBDeditorials.com: Editorials, Political Cartoons, and Polls from Investor's Business Daily: "From the president we now know that cops are stupid, doctors are greedy, Republicans don't play nice, people are dying and we're all going broke if we don't embrace socialized medicine in a week or so."

I wonder how Obama thinks he can pin his problems on the Republicans when they are so outnumbered the Dems can pass anything they want? Pretty pathetic.

How The Left Thinks

Dennis Prager : Americans Are Beginning to Understand the Left - Townhall.com: "The left everywhere seeks to make as big and powerful a state as possible. It does so because only the state can redistribute society's wealth. And because only a strong and powerful state can impose values on society. The idea of small government, the American ideal since its inception, is the antithesis of the left's ideal."

Dennis Prager, perhaps my favorite pundit of all, lays out clearly and succinctly in this column what motivates the left and how leftist values differ from our nation's founding principles. Read it. If his radio show is on where you live, tune him in. If not, like me, subscribe to his podcast at www.pragertopia.com. It's one of the best investments in your mind that you can make - a comfort, a joy, an education, and a lot of fun. Also, search YouTube for Prager University, where you'll find some excellent Prager videos.

That Giant Sucking Sound - Another $6B of YOUR Money Sucked Into the Black Hole of Detroit

Delphi Gets $6.2 Billion Bailout of Pensions - WSJ.com: "The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. agreed to take on $6.2 billion in pension liabilities from bankrupt auto supplier Delphi Corp., putting in place a key piece in the bailout of the car industry but renewing pressure on a government agency facing huge burdens as more companies fail.

The pension rescue is the PBGC's second-largest ever, ranked by dollars, after that of United Airlines in 2005, which totaled $7.5 billion. As a result, the government will take over payments for 70,000 workers and retirees that Delphi says it can't afford under its restructuring plan."

Another payoff to the UAW, and Obama digs the US auto industry bailout hole another $6B deeper.