Kennedy’s Second Victim

We all know Edward Kennedy’s first victim, Mary Jo Kopechne, who tragically got in the car with a reckless and drunk senator from MA and paid for her mistake with her life. Today, after the special election in MA, we will likely meet the second victim, the Obama/Pelosi/Reid Democrat Party. Just like the first, they too hitched-up with the late Senator from MA who drove them off a bridge and now they too may pay the ultimate price.

The irony of the dream of socialized medicine dying along with one of its biggest sponsors is almost too rich to fathom. You’d think that by now everyone would have understood the dangers of being seduced by Uncle Teddy.  As the old saying goes: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”

Interestingly, the first sound blaring out of the PA on the west lawn of the Capital when they held the big healthcare rally this fall was The Who, and everyone at that rally sang along and pumped their fists; “We won’t get fooled again!” At least the descendants of another Massachusetts legacy, The Boston Tea Party, refuse to be victims.

Magic Bullets Part V - Health Care (plus Climategate)

I like this little video I saw on PajamasMedia today.  It goes well with Magic Bullets Part III...
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/89362/

Also, while at Instapundit, I saw this on Climategate.  PajamasMedia is doing great work every day!
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PajamasMedia, Hide-The-Decline! Video

Magic Bullets Part III – The Health Care Gecko

Here’s a question for you; why is there no healthcare Gecko? Wouldn’t it be great if 15 minutes could save you 15% or more in health insurance? For that matter, where is the Progressive girl with the red lipstick selling health insurance? Is it possible that this is the real problem with healthcare? In other words, is it possible that the real problem with healthcare is that there is no such thing as a true individual market? The fact is, only 5% of the insured buy their own health insurance. 95% get insurance from the government or their employer. For car insurance, the numbers are reversed and there is no similar crisis in car insurance. The difference is the Gecko. Give us a healthcare Gecko, and the crisis dissolves like magic.

Now I know what you’re saying, “Healthcare is way more expensive than transportation so there is just no comparison.” Consider this; Americans spend on average four times more on transportation than they do on healthcare. (Source: US Government, BLS)  Is your car more important than your life? Given this, why is there no demand for a public option in car insurance? Simple. There is a functioning free market (although regulated to the gills) in car insurance. Ever hear of Warren Buffet? He is a car insurance capitalist among other things; a slick profiteer making obscene amounts of money off the backs of innocent Americans who just need a little car insurance mandated by their government. Now I don’t buy into the tone of that last sentence, but that’s what the rhetoric about health insurance companies amounts to. It’s nonsense and it’s leading us down a Marxist class-warfare path.

Here’s the magic-bullet way out led by the Gecko, and the best part is, it is cost-neutral to employees, employers, and the government: Eliminate the deductibility of health insurance for employers and offset the difference with a reduction in payroll taxes. That’s it. Employers would instantly transfer their health insurance plans to employee ownership and increase wages to offset the costs. Tax implications for all parties would be neutralized by lowering payroll taxes across the board. End of story. It’s simple to explain and would set in motion all the other market forces like portability, availability, and cost which will solve this government-made crisis. Shouldn’t we try this before re-making one sixth of the economy in the image of the IRS and your local DMV? The only difference is there will be a healthcare Gecko within hours of this magic bullet. In Gecko we trust. Maybe Warren Buffet could explain this to the President?

(Remember, we’d still have a nifty public option called Medicaid for those unable or unwilling to “Go Gecko”.)

Microwave Government

Ever try to cook a steak in a microwave oven? Most likely you’ll end up with a ghastly grey slab that has the consistency of shoe leather and is about as appealing as road kill. Some things are better done the simple way; slowly over an open fire. Consider the case of our federal government: We declared independence in 1776 but didn’t ratify a constitution until 1788. That document was debated ad nauseum by it's authors in voluminous print before the colonies voted it in.  Wasn't that effort worth the time to get it right? Now Washington votes on major legislation running 2000 pages long which radically transforms the very essence of our republic that not a single member of the legislature has even taken the time to read.  Moreover, these bills are comprised almost entirely of venal political favors and payoffs. We are cooking all our laws including those concerning banking, health care, business, energy, environment, and defense in a giant dirty microwave oven. Supper anyone?

Optional Option???

Now that the so-called "public-option" is "optional" what's not to like?  Oh, I don't know, maybe all of it?   Let me get this straight; the helpful folks in Washington who have bankrupted Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Amtrak, The US Post Office, and every other entity they have ever meddled in, are going to avoid making the same mistakes by socializing medicine but allowing states to "opt-out" of this wonderful benefit?  Is Harry Reid serious?  Have you ever heard of a federal tax that you could "opt-out" of?  In other words,  the taxes and devalued currency to pay for this boondoggle will be mandatory for all Americans, but not-to-worry, the subsidized benefit is strictly optional.   Think of it like Mafia thugs coming to you and shaking you down for "protection money".  To stop the beatings, you pay up and as they are leaving, they wink and inform you that the payments must continue but you have the right to "opt-out" of the "protection" part of the deal.  Hey, "That's the Chicago Way"...  

Food Reform Now!

Are you not sick and tired of the food industry making obscene profits and denying people the very food they need for survival?  Think about it; in order for greedy food companies to make the outrageous profits they do, they must constantly deny hard working Americans the very food they want and need.  How many times have you heard someone complain that they wanted a big steak, salad, potato, and an apple pie only to be told that their "plan" only included a burger and fries.  That's fine for the average person but what about a 300 pound person who needs more calories just to stay alive?  Should they be punished just because their genetic make-up makes them big? 

Now,  I'm not one of those people who think the government should do everything for everyone, but I think our government needs to take a close look at how the food industry denies food all the time to hard working Americans just to make obscene profits.  Just think how much better it would be if we all had a single-payer non-profit government option to bring efficiency to the food business.  And make no mistake about it, food is big business in America.  Food dwarfs healthcare in terms of numbers of people who profit from it and the numbers of people who must pay for those profits by paying more than they should to do something that is necessary for everyday survival! 

Experts estimate that some sellers of food are profiting by up to 20% on the sale of food which would indicate that if we eliminated the greed in food with a public option, we would have enough money left over to fund healthcare for all American citizens, documented and undocumented alike!  Chew on that...


      

A is A

Ayn Rand's masterpiece philosophical novel "Atlas Shrugged" was ostensibly a dissertation on the simple axiom  that "A is A".   Following the news in October 2009 I question how long we can pretend that "A is not A" before something gives a la Atlas Shrugged.  Can the government do something it has never done before; take-over huge parts of the economy, increase access, lower cost, increase quality, and make huge advances in technology?   Can the government make us safer by alienating our allies and appeasing our enemies?  Can we break every law of economics and build a stronger economy?  Can we criminalize intelligence and become more intelligent?  Can we fill our government with Marxists and not end up with a Marxist government?    Can we print money without restraint and not debase our currency?  Can we force the redistribution of wealth without destroying the engine that creates wealth?  Can the government make the sun cooler by taxing energy? Can we burn food to run our cars and not end up with less food?  Can "A not be A"?  Somethings gotta give and all I know is it's just a matter of time.  But timing is everything...

Magic Bullets - Part I - Healthcare

What if there really are Magic Bullets?  "Experts" always say, with thoughtful pauses, "Well, of course this is a complex problem we have with (insert problem here) and there are of course no Magic Bullets, but I think with the right mix of policy changes...blah, blah, blah, etc. etc. etc."  You get the idea.  I reject that notion in many areas because I do believe in magic bullets and I can see them working throughout history.  Unfortunately, they can work both good magic and bad. 

Let's take for example the "black-magic" bullet that first caused our Healthcare mess; a freeze on wages during WWII which led companies to provide health insurance as a dodge around the wage freeze.  From that point on, there was an imbalance in the tax treatment between employer provided (tax deductable) and individually owned (fully taxed) health insurance.  In other words, that wage freeze caused a cascade of unintended consequences which has tragically led us to our current mess.  Today only about 5% of the population pays for their own health insurance leaving almost everyone in the US in a situation where someone else foots the bill.  No wonder healthcare is considered an entitlement! 

So what is the magic bullet fix?  Writing in the Wall  Street Journal a couple of  weeks ago, noted economist Martin Feldstein said  that (and I'm paraphrasing), virtually every economist he knows believes that tax changes are the key to bringing down costs.  After all, isn't this ultimately about cost?  If catastrophic insurance was affordable to everyone, everyone would buy it, right?  So the magic bullet is to make the tax changes which would re-establish an individual market for health insurance and once established, that would obviate a government takeover.  This could easily be done by giving individuals the same tax savings as employers and that would mean re-fundable tax credits for those who pay no income tax or are in low brackets.  The effect would be revenue neutral to the government and a true market would emerge for health insurance. 

So why not do it?  The answer is simple; this is not about fixing the problem but rather about political power and permanent electoral majorities forever for the entitlement class, which just happens to be another "black-magic" bullet.