Single Payer Healthcare – Been There, Done That

The left is committed to the concept of a single payer health care delivery model similar to those in Europe.  “Committed” is actually not a strong enough term – religiously obsessed is probably more accurate.

Their devotion to this concept is as deep as the Pope’s devotion to the Catholic Church…maybe even more so.  Everything in their world revolves around the effort to enact this system in the US under the direct control of the federal government.

They claim that this system is the ONLY solution to the economic issues in the health care sector.  They further claim that we haven’t tried it yet, and no one can know that it will not work as they describe.

They are either lying or ignorant beyond imagining.  We have “tried” single payer health care models in numerous ways, large and small, and they are all less effective in every measure than the private market model in place in (most) of the US today.

After Obamacare – What the GOP Should Do Next

Assuming reports assuming that the decision of the US Supreme Court regarding Obamacare will result in the entire legislation being struck down are accurate, the question becomes “Now what?”.

The decision will probably be delivered in the summer of 2012, before the presidential elections, and while the GOP is still in control of the US House.

I believe the GOP will have a limited and important opportunity to frame the discussion on the issue of health care.  Up to now, the left has set the parameters of the debate, which of course benefitted their policy and political desires.

When the decision comes, the GOP should immediately start to solicit input from people outside the political sphere, with expertise in the health care sector of the economy, and this time actually listen.

Open Letter to Iron Workers Local 8

I see that you have changed your marquee sign along I-94 just over the Milwaukee County border.  It used to say “1 million Wisconsinites can’t be wrong“

Now it says “I thought democracy was for the people, not the corporations or the parties“.

I assume that this message is referring to the recent Democrat-led defeat of the mining legislation in the Wisconsin Senate that would have resulted in new union jobs in Milwaukee and other parts of Wisconsin.

I have a suggestion for another marquee message that might be more appropriate, especially in the minds of your members.

“I thought unions were for the members, not the leaders or the parties“.

I appreciate that recent events have caused you to question some things, but I think you, the members, should be asking some very hard questions of your leadership right now.  Specifically, I think you should be very concerned that your union leaders are far more interested in state politics than your interests.

The Left’s “Fairness” vs. the Right’s “Justice”

The left loves to throw the word “fair” around a lot.  The President uses the word “fair” as often as he says “let me be clear”.

So……let me be clear (sarcasm intended), fairness and justice are NOT the same thing.  Furthermore, we are a nation founded on the concept of justice, not fairness.   Fairness has nothing to do with our system of government, and should not be a criterion for our laws or policies.

Before you freak out, allow me to explain further.

Simple – Not Easy – Solutions

The biggest long term threat to the US economy and federal budget is the unfunded liabilities related to federal entitlement programs.

Over the next 20 years, these programs if left unaltered will consume every tax dollar collected by the federal government.  All spending on any other program, from national defense to environmental protection, would need to be reduced to zero or be funded with borrowed money.

Its a big problem, and so far no one has advanced an acceptable solution.  But maybe the solutions are not at complex as the political class would have you believe.

The Free Market ALWAYS Wins – Why Socialism Can Never Succeed

Capitalism, with its reliance on the rules of a free market, has been under very public assault for the last 3 years. Recently, the President himself stated that economic models based on the rules of supply and demand have never worked. Occupy Wall Streeters echo this sentiment and call for a European Socialist economic model in the US.

As stunningly brazen as these statements are, they are just the most recent of their type. We have heard arguments against capitalism for over 100 years. Socialism, and its evil twin communism, have been advocated by egg headed academics since before the turn of the 20th century.

This thinking is rooted in the ever present desire of the left to ignore human nature entirely and advocate policies based on how they WISH people would behave. The truth is that socialism cannot work, because the laws of the free market say so.  Those laws are as immutable and irresistible as the law of gravity and will not be violated.

Denying the laws of the free market and advocating socialism is like jumping off a cliff expecting to float away in utopian bliss. Sure, you will be airborne for a while feeling weightless, but eventually you will realize, very painfully, that gravity was always there even when you didn’t “feel” it.

Tax the Rich…Entertainers!

The left, led by the President of the United States, has for many years been calling on increased taxation of “the rich”.  Nevermind that the definition of ”the rich” has changed more times than Lady GaGa’s wardrobe.  The left sees whoever they define as “the rich” today as fair targets for punitive taxation.

What I find most interesting is that most of the entertainment industry, dominated by liberals, supports this call without reservation.  Hollywood and other assorted media millionaires even went so far as to join Occupy Wall Street to lend credibility to the cause, and promote the left’s call for increased taxes on “the rich”.

I have a simple proposal that will allow us to determine the genuineness of their beliefs on this subject.

I call on the GOP Senate members and House members to draft and propose a simple piece of legislation:  The Entertainment Industry Fair Share Tax Act (aka – The Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is Act)

What Does “Poor” Really Mean?

My previous posting (link) discussed the data related to inflation adjusted incomes over the last 43 years (1967 to 2010).  The data showed that all income quintiles (20% segments of the population by income) saw real income growth in that time.  All quintiles saw double digit increases, including the bottom 20% of incomes (17% increase).

The next question I asked myself is what does it mean to be at the Federal Poverty line of $22,350, or roughly the bottom 20%, in monetary terms?  You see that number and probably think “How can anyone live on so little money?”.

I endeavoured to determine what that amount really means, after you include all the things beyond actual earned income that the quintile analysis leaves out.   I was stunned to say the least, and I think you will be too.

Exploding the Myth That “The Poor Got Poorer”

The occupy crowd and liberals everywhere repeat the mantra of “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer” to justify their continued calls for income redistribution and taxing “the rich” at ever higher levels.

But does the data support their claims?  Statisticians have developed convoluted and overly complicated equations to determine ”income inequality”, and they  show that the distribution of wealth is indeed unequal (not surprisingly since most are probably lefty professors).

My observations of the world around me conflict with this conclusion, so I tried to do my own investigation using US Census Bureau numbers or other “official” sources, and let the data tell me the truth.  (Advance warning, there are a lot of numbers in the post and it’s kinda long, but I promise it is worth the read.)

The conclusions I drew seem more in line with what I (and probably you) see everyday.  The US has (by far) the wealthiest “poor people” in human history.  Furthermore, while the “rich have gotten richer”, so have the poor, just at a slower rate.

The Truth About the Top 1% Occupiers Don’t Want You to Know

The Occupy {Fill In The Blank} “movement” bills itself as the representation of the 99% of the US population (based on wealth), and as such they have been railing against the 1%.  They have portrayed the 1% as villains and scoundrels, who have abused the “poor, little people”.

This message is the only proof you need that these smelly people in tents (who are by the way breaking the law) occupying public spaces are about as smart as the boxes of rocks they have stashed for the inevitable riots.

They obviously know almost NOTHING about the 1% they hate.  Allow me to elaborate.