Right Mind

How Big Do They Want It?

I posted earlier that the Tax Foundation reports that the top 1% taxpayers are paying more than the bottom 95%

How much do the progressive liberals want the “rich” to pay in order to make things more fair?

Quote of the Day

Regarding the broke "Cash for Clunkers" program:

"If they can't administer a program like this, I'd be a little concerned about my health insurance."

—car salesman Rob Bojaryn, WCBS TV

What’s really in the healthcare bill?

World Magazine. has summarized the  “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act.”

If you don’t believe what’s below, check out the references yourself. To read HR 3200 in its entirety, click here to download.

Scary stuff here. But we wanted change. Right?

• The government will audit your books if you self-insure: The newly created Commissioner will submit a report to the government that includes "any recommendations the Commissioner deems appropriate to ensure that the law does not provide incentives for small and mid-size employers to self-insure." (21.23-23.3)

• The government will define your "health benefits": "[Establish] a private-public advisory committee . . . of medical and other experts to be known as the Health Benefits Advisory Committee" to recommend what will be in the "covered benefits" and what are "essential, enhanced, and premium plans." (30.13-30.18)

• The government will ration your care: Establish an annual limitation on cost sharing to ensure that "the cost-sharing incurred . . . with respect to an individual (or family) for a year does not exceed the applicable level specified--$5,000 for an individual and $10,000 for a family." (29.4-29.16)

• The government will establish and administer a public health insurance option: "The Secretary's primary responsibility is to create a low-cost plan without compromising quality or access to care." (page 116, lines 1-17)

• The government will define how doctors manage their time: "The Secretary shall establish a process" to assign value units to "components and elements" of a doctor's health care work, basing the relative value on "time, mental effort and professional judgment, technical skill and physical effort, and stress due to risk." (page 253, lines 10-18)

• The government will tax employers for not providing healthcare: If an employer does not provide health insurance coverage, a contribution "shall be paid to the Health Choices Commissioner for deposit into the Health Insurance Exchange Trust Fund." The rate will be 8 percent for a large employer payroll (over $400,000), 6 percent and lower for a small employer payroll. (page 149, line 14--page 151, line 5)

• The government will tax individuals unless you are a foreign resident: "Tax on individuals without acceptable health care coverage...imposed tax equal to 2.5 percent of the [gross income]." (page 167, line 17--page 168, line 4) This "shall not apply to any individual who is a non-resident alien." (page 170, lines 1-3)

• The government will order you to get end-of-life counseling and show proof: "[An ] advance care planning consultation between the individual and a practitioner . . . [is required if] the individual involved has not had such a consultation within the last 5 years," including an explanation by the practitioner of "end-of-life services." (page 424, line 20--page 425, line 23) "A consultation . . . may include the formulation of an order regarding life sustaining treatment or a similar order," including end-of-life services. (page 429, lines 1-3). "Orders regarding life sustaining treatment," including "end of life" directions, can be signed either by a physician or "a nurse practitioner or physician's assistant who has the authority under State law." (page 429, line 8-16)

• The government will limit your hospital readmissions by penalizing hospitals: "The Secretary shall reduce the payments" to any hospital with "excess re-admissions," based upon a ranking of hospitals by a national readmission ratio to be developed by the Secretary. (280.10-288.22) The Secretary "shall conduct a study to determine how the readmissions policy described in the previous subsections could be applied to physicians . . . [including] a payment reduction for physicians who treat the patient during the initial admission that results in a readmission." (page 297, line 17--page 298, line 14)

• The government will restrict coverage of special needs patients: Restrict enrollment of new "special needs plans" within Social Security, beginning January 1, 2011, and "the Secretary shall submit to Congress a report" on recommendations regarding the treatment of existing plans, "as the Secretary deems appropriate." (page 353, line 13--page 355, line 6)

• The government will not let you sue over coverage limits and costs decisions: "There shall be no administrative or judicial review of a payment rate or methodology established under this section or under section 224." (page 124, line 4--page 125, line 2)

• The government will mandate what physicians make: The Secretary "shall provide for" physician participation under the public health insurance option, "for which payment may be made for services furnished during the year. . . ." (page 127, lines 1-16)

• The government will have access to your bank accounts: "Require the use of a standard electronic transaction with which health care providers may quickly and efficiently enroll with a health plan to conduct the other electronic transactions provided for in this part." (page 59, line 21--page 60, line 8)

• The government will not call the fees it imposes taxes: "The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax imposed by this chapter for purposes of determining the amount of any credit under this chapter or for purposes of section 55." (page 203, lines 13-18)

• The government will issue you a health ID card: "include utilization of a machine-readable health plan beneficiary identification card." (page 58, lines 5-13)

• The government will enlist or create outreach programs like ACORN to sign-up individuals to government-run plan: "The Commissioner shall conduct outreach activities . . . for enrollments in Exchange-participating health benefits plans . . . through means such as the mail, by telephone, electronically, and in person." (page 95, line 3--page 96, line 9)

  • The government will create a new bureaucracy to include phone healthcare: "The Secretary shall appoint a Telehealth Advisory Committee to make recommendations to the Secretary on policies of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services regarding telehealth services. . . ." (page 379, line 8--page 380, line 14)

Man Carjacks Own Family Hoping for Obama Invite

From Scott Ott over at Scrapple Face:

East Stroudsburg (Pa.) police reported today that a man seen forcing his way into a car downtown was actually a local university professor carjacking his family in his own vehicle in hopes of getting an invitation to the White House.

The incident happened just hours after President Barack Obama shared a beer with Cambridge (Ma.) Police Sgt. James Crowley, and Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates, a friend of the president’s who Mr. Crowley had recently arrested for disorderly conduct.

A spokesman for the East Stroudsburg police department said officers responding to the call were taken aback when the man busted out the driver’s side window and began shouting accusations of racism as they were stepping out of their cruiser.

According to the police report, as officers approached, the man hollered at passersby, “This is how the pigs treat the negro man. Our nation is haunted by racist cops acting stupidly. They’re going to cuff me and drag me to the paddy wagon just because I couldn’t get into my own car.”

When officers tried to calm the man, asking him to put the crow bar down, witnesses said he shouted, “Your mother puts the crow bar down.”

“The officers’ suspicions were heightened when they noticed the children in the back seat clapping, and the woman in the passenger seat smiling,” the spokesman said. Later, the suspect’s wife acknowledged that she had asked him to do it as an anniversary present to fulfill her dream of meeting the President and the First Lady.

She said she was impressed by the professionalism of the police toward her husband, but wished that “they had roughed him up a bit to increase my chances of seeing Michelle’s bare arms in person.”

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said a presidential invitation seemed unlikely, since Mr. Obama “has already schooled the nation in how to treat police officers.”

Police withheld the name of the faux carjacker under the terms of his university tenure.

 

Funding Dries Up in ‘Cash for Incumbents’ Program

From Scott Ott over at Scrapple Face:

A pilot program to replace older, inefficient, high carbon-emission Congressmen with greener models has already run out of funding, according to a bipartisan statement by Congressional leaders.

“It’s all gone,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, “America will just have to keep what I like to call her ‘classic’ members of Congress.”

The so-called ‘Cash for Incumbents’ program provided up to $4,500,000 for each politician who voters replaced with a modern public servant that burns less IRS revenue, and emits fewer vitriolic toxins into the atmosphere. The measure contained a provision requiring voters to ‘junk’ the old politician, to ensure he doesn’t return to Capitol Hill as a lobbyist.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-OH, explained that the funding disappeared overnight.

“It didn’t get spent. It just vanished,” said Rep. Boehner. “I’ve heard reports that it was transferred to the Congressional Franking Commission to be used by members to send important legislative information to their constituents…but that’s just a rumor.”

 

Doing that Beer-Meet-Thing

Day By Day© by Chris Muir.

Obama's Not-so-secret police

Take a second to watch this video.

If you go to Cars.gov, the Federal Government takes over your computer forever.

Here is the agreement you accept when your computer accesses the Cars.gov website in order to sign up for “Cash for Clunkers”:

“This application provides access to the DoT CARS system. When logged on to the CARS system, your computer is considered a Federal computer system and is the property of the U.S. Government.

Any or all uses of this system and all files on this system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorized CARS, DoT, and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign.”

I guess this is the “change” that the progressives were looking for.

Truly scary.

HT: Chris W.

Obama’s Secret Police: Government Spies Infiltrate Antiwar Movement

An interesting look at Obama’s Secret Police over at Antiwar.

[War is] "the parent of armies; and from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few." —James Madison

“War is the Health of the State.”

That applies equally to Democrats as Republicans.

Stuff Fundies Like

A humorous look at American fundamentalists.

http://www.stufffundieslike.com/

HT: John L.

CNN: Blue Dogs on constituents' short leash over health care

Here’s an interesting Idaho take on Blue Dog Democrats.

They are in a catch-22 situation. If they don’t vote like Republicans, they get voted out of office.

If they do vote like Republicans, they still get voted out because of their tipping the scale on the majority liberal party.

I’ll focus on the Minnick portion.

From CNN:

ST. MARIES, Idaho (CNN)
…
Over breakfast at Bud's, Griesel jokes that Ronald Reagan became his hero "despite being a little too liberal for me."

Griesel sees the Obama agenda as a recipe for fiscal disaster and applauds Minnick for opposing Democratic energy initiatives and for objecting to the Democratic health-care approach on several fronts, cost and the role of government chief among them.

"I've agreed with him and told him so," Griesel said of Minnick's early months in Washington.

But here's the rub: Even as he cheers on this Blue Dog Democrat, Griesel says he will vote Republican for Congress in the 2010 midterm elections.

"As we all know, Congress is controlled by the numbers game," Griesel said. "That's who gets to be speaker of the House and Senate majority leader. So, if he doesn't change his party, there is no way I can vote Democrat, because right now, they control the House, and that is what is killing America."

That negative perception of national Democrats, especially House Democrats, is not uncommon here in Idaho's 1^st Congressional District, which cuts a swath from the Boise area north to the Canadian border and is largely conservative territory dotted with small towns built around timber, mining and farming.

Minnick's leader in Washington is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, of whom McQuide says with a grin, "They would not like her. Most in the district are conservative whether they are Democrat or Republican."

Of Minnick, he said, "Western Blue Dog Democrats tend to be more fiscally conservative. They want smaller government. 'Keep the government out of my life.' "

Consider the dilemma of Minnick and many other Blue Dogs from districts that tilt rightward: Many Republicans, like Griesel, applaud his efforts to scale back the Democratic health-care plan yet won't vote for him come 2010. And some Democrats see Minnick opposing the young administration and grow frustrated.

"I'm concerned about him being too conservative," psychologist Patricia Bauer said of her congressman. "I'd like him to loosen up a little more. I'm concerned that 'fiscally responsible' becomes a 'nay' vote on health care."

Well, yes it does. You cannot vote to socialize the entire US healthcare system and be fiscally responsible at the same time. Those are mutually exclusive.

I wonder if Bauer keeps her own books at home the same way she wishes Minnick would account for our economy.

St. Maries is a tiny town in a small county: Benewah County backed McCain over then-Sen. Obama by nearly 2-to-1; Minnick carried the county by 139 votes.

Cheryl Halverson is the county Democratic chairwoman and says of Minnick's opposition to several key Obama initiatives, "I worry about that a little bit sometimes. But then there is a whole long list of bills where he is supporting the president. The big ones that are big money is where he is saying, 'Slow down.' "

It is an attitude reflective of the territory.

Halverson said that being fiscally conservative is a bipartisan commitment here and that being a Westerner often means a libertarian streak that leaves even many Democrats hesitant of too much involvement by the federal government.

"Even the Democrats, yeah. And a little more skeptical that some of the solutions that might work in the big cities or that might be necessary in big cities, don't work in rural areas," Halverson said. "Guns being one of them. ... This is a hunting and fishing place. People don't want to give up their guns."

During the 2008 campaign, Minnick was quoted as saying, "I own seven guns, and nobody's going to take them away from me."

Now, he told a spring town hall in the district that health care is the "900-pound gorilla" in national affairs.

Wotring is watching closely now as Minnick and fellow Blue Dogs play a critical role, raising questions about the overall cost of the legislation, how to pay for it and whether, as most Democrats insist, the plan must have a government-backed "public" insurance option to compete with private insurers.

Here’s another lie that, when repeated often enough, the gullible start to believe. The government doesn’t compete with private insurers. The government doesn’t have to make a profit. If they are performing poorly, they just get more money sent their way. In fact, there’s a diabolical incentive to do poorly.

Just look at the USPS, Amtrak, Department of Motor Vehicles, Medicare, Social Security, Veterans Hospitals, etc., as great examples.

I had a great opportunity to talk to my boys about government monopolies today. We’ve had the opportunity to visit large urban post offices last week. On one day, there was a line out the door. There was only one man working the 5 windows. He rang the bell repeatedly for the other 4 postal workers to come help him. No one came the entire time we waited in line (about 15 minutes).

Another day, the line was out the door again. This time there were 4 postal employees working the windows. My sons remarked how slowly the postal employees were moving. I explained that they had no incentive to move quickly. They were going to be paid the same regardless of how many customers they helped. In fact, there was an incentive to help as few people as possible.

Such is the case with socialized medicine.

She employs 25 workers at Bud's but says she cannot afford to provide them with health insurance.

"The majority of them are single women, single moms who don't have that prerogative to have health insurance. They can't afford it."

Wotring personally is willing to see a stronger federal hand in health care, including the public option. "I think the government needs to take over health care," is her view.

But she says she fully understands Minnick's skepticism for such an expanded government role.

"He needs to do that," she said. "Because that's what his constituents are for."

Still, based on the spirited breakfast and lunchtime political conversations here, Wotring says this of Minnick's re-election odds: "He may lose."

McQuide concurs, though he gives Minnick high marks for his fundraising and for taking positions that reflect his conservative district. But, given the district's leanings, those pluses may not be enough if next year has a traditional midterm election climate working against the party that controls the presidency.

McQuide says that rising doubts nationally about Obama's handling of the economy are magnified in a state with such GOP leanings. That and how the health-care debate turns out will be big factors in whether a Blue Dog who narrowly won in 2008 can navigate what is almost certain to be a much more difficult political climate for Democrats in 2010.

"Obama is going to be an issue, especially if there are more and more liberal components coming in. That may swing things more towards a Republican direction," McQuide said. "Next year's election here is probably going to be one of the nationally looked-at races. It's going to be an exciting race."

It depends: on whether the Republicans are going to behave like soft-socialists or hold their ground like capitalists.

I’m personally not sure that the spanking that they got in 2008 will be enough to drive them back to their purported core convictions.

Blue Dogs See Red over Abortion

That’s not blood-red. Just red.

See: Watch FRC Action's Health Care Ad

From the FRC:

The Democrats who had hoped for a relaxing August away from Washington are in for a rocky road home after last night's news that abortion coverage has been explicitly included in the House bill. FRC staffers were in the room when Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) introduced an amendment in committee that mandated taxpayer-funded abortion as part of the overhaul. The measure, which was debated during the Energy and Commerce mark-up, passed 30-28. Not only does the Capps amendment ensure that abortion will be covered, but it also requires that an abortion plan be made available in every U.S. region!

FRC has warned for months that taxpayers would be forced into the abortion business as part of health care "reform," and Planned Parenthood called us liars. MSNBC, NARAL, Daily Kos, and the "religious left" have all accused FRC of misleading the public about the existence of an abortion mandate. Now there's further proof. Of course, we didn't need the Capps amendment to verify that abortion would be included in the final package. All voters needed to know is that Congress has had the opportunity to ban abortion coverage outright, and it didn't. Multiple amendments have now been offered by pro-life members to specifically prohibit taxpayer-funded abortion as part of these bills. And every single one--including last night's from Reps. Bart Stupak and Joe Pitts--failed. Led by Stupak, six Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee joined with the Republicans to keep this radical expansion of government-sponsored abortion out of the House bill. Today, pro-life Democrats pushed back with another amendment that would have nullified the Capps amendment and protected taxpayers from subsidizing abortion. Unfortunately, it also lost.

While Stupak tries to block abortion coverage, conservative Democrats are working around the clock on a deal with their liberal members to trim costs and eliminate the government's heavy hand in the system. Despite all the time spent ironing out the Democrats' differences, it seems that this "compromise" is nothing but political theater. According to the liberal leadership, most of the changes made by conservative Democrats could be stripped from the bill when it leaves committee. Minority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) told ABC News yesterday that "he could not guarantee that the concessions negotiated into the bill by conservative 'Blue Dog' Democrats would survive in a final product." The leadership is making a mockery of conservative Democrats--a decision sure to haunt the Speaker if the Blue Dogs retaliate by pulling their support.

Tax Foundation Releases First-Ever Mid-Year Update of Facts & Figures State Rankings Booklet

From The Tax Foundation:

We have re-released the 2009 version of Facts and Figures, a pocket-sized booklet comparing the 50 states on 37 different measures of taxing and spending, including individual and corporate income tax rates, business tax climates, excise taxes, tax burdens and state spending. The number and significance of state tax changes that have occurred in the first half of 2009 has necessitated the first mid-year update of the booklet in the annual publication's history.

According to Tax Foundation President Scott Hodge:

Many states have started the new fiscal year with tax codes that are vastly different compared to just a few months ago. Accurate and timely information on state fiscal issues is more important now than ever-especially as lawmakers in many states continue to struggle with budget shortfalls. As legislators look to the tax code for solutions, our Facts & Figures handbook provides a yardstick against which they can measure their state's fiscal competitiveness compared to others.

Here is Idaho’s rankings:

• Total Income per capita: 42^nd ($36,492)
• Tax Freedom Day: 18th

The ranking below is a measure of how each state’s tax laws affect economic performance. The lower the ranking (the higher the index value), the more favorable a state’s tax system is for business.

• State Business Tax Climate: 29th
• Corporate Tax Index: 17th
• Individual Income Tax Index: 32nd
• Sales Tax Index: 32nd
• Property Tax Index: 3rd

There’s a lot more data out there worth looking over.

Bottom line: for one of the reddest of red states, we sure have blue taxes.  

Income Tax Payment of Top 1% of Filers Exceeds that of Bottom 95%

More on the class warfare.

From The Tax Foundation:

Income Tax Payment of Top 1% of Filers Exceeds that of Bottom 95%

The top 1 percent of tax filers earned about 22.8 percent of the nation's income in 2007 (the latest IRS data available) and paid 40.4 percent of all federal income taxes—more than the bottom 95 percent of tax filers combined, according to a Tax Foundation analysis of just-released IRS data.  In Fiscal Fact No. 183, "Summary of Latest Federal Individual Income Tax Data," Tax Foundation Senior Economist Gerald Prante notes that the record-setting trend for income and income tax shares is likely to end with 2007, given the economic downturn in 2008.

The new Tax Foundation Fiscal Fact includes eight charts of new data, and the accompanying datasets break the numbers down even further, presenting data for the top .1%, 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, and 5% of  filers.

Read the new Tax Foundation Fiscal Fact or view the data (an Excel sheet is available for download at the bottom of the data page).

Breaking: House OKs $2b in Additional Funds

Easy come, easy go. It’s just money.

Is anyone even asking where this money is coming from?

From CNN:

House OKs $2 billion in additional funds for cash for clunkers program. Senate votes next week.

Sikh soldiers guard Queen Elizabeth II

From the Associated Press:

LONDON – Queen Elizabeth II has switched bearskin hats for turbans outside Buckingham Palace, where Sikh soldiers have begun guarding the monarch and her treasures, Britain's defense ministry said Friday.

Most Easily Offended by Movies: Mormons, JW's, Evangelicals

Via the CT Blog:

Just recently, we posted a blog bit about the top "faith-offending" films. Now we've learned which faith group is most easily offended: Mormons.

According to a recent Religion News Service story, "Mormons are the faith group most likely to say Hollywood threatens their values, followed by Jehovah's Witnesses and evangelicals, according to a new study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life."

The story also noted that "more than two-thirds of Mormons (68%) rebuffed the entertainment industry, followed by 54% of Jehovah's Witnesses and 53% of evangelicals. Less than half (42%) of the general population said Hollywood threatens their values."

I have to wonder we shouldn’t all be offended more often by the values and culture that Hollywood is pumping out.

Town halls gone wild

From The Politico:

Screaming constituents, protesters dragged out by the cops, congressmen fearful for their safety — welcome to the new town-hall-style meeting, the once-staid forum that is rapidly turning into a house of horrors for members of Congress.

On the eve of the August recess, members are reporting meetings that have gone terribly awry, marked by angry, sign-carrying mobs and disruptive behavior. In at least one case, a congressman has stopped holding town hall events because the situation has spiraled so far out of control.

“I had felt they would be pointless,” Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) told POLITICO, referring to his recent decision to temporarily suspend the events in his Long Island district. “There is no point in meeting with my constituents and [to] listen to them and have them listen to you if what is basically an unruly mob prevents you from having an intelligent conversation.”

In Bishop’s case, his decision came on the heels of a June 22 event he held in Setauket, N.Y., in which protesters dominated the meeting by shouting criticisms at the congressman for his positions on energy policy, health care and the bailout of the auto industry.

Within an hour of the disruption, police were called in to escort the 59-year-old Democrat — who has held more than 100 town hall meetings since he was elected in 2002 — to his car safely.

…

Bishop isn’t the only one confronted by boiling anger and rising incivility. At a health care town hall event in Syracuse, N.Y., earlier this month, police were called in to restore order, and at least one heckler was taken away by local police. Close to 100 sign-carrying protesters greeted Rep. Allen Boyd (D-Fla.) at a late June community college small-business development forum in Panama City, Fla. Last week, Danville, Va., anti-tax tea party activists claimed they were “refused an opportunity” to ask Rep. Thomas Perriello (D-Va.) a question at a town hall event and instructed by a plainclothes police officer to leave the property after they attempted to hold up protest signs.

The targets in most cases are House Democrats, who over the past few months have tackled controversial legislation including a $787 billion economic stimulus package, a landmark energy proposal and an overhaul of the nation’s health care system.

Democrats, acknowledging the increasing unruliness of the town-hall-style events, say the hot-button issues they are taking on have a lot to do with it.

“I think it’s just the fact that we are dealing with some of the most important public policy issues in a generation,” said Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa), who was confronted by a protester angry about his position on health care reform at a town hall event several weeks ago.

“I think in general what is going on is we are tackling issues that have been ignored for a long time, and I think that is disruptive to a lot of people,” said Bishop, a four-term congressman. “We are trying, one by one, to deal with a set of issues that can’t be ignored, and I think that’s unsettling to a lot of people.”

What is the American taxpayer to do when every politician is commmitted to violating the Constitution that they swear to uphold and defend? I think this explains some of the rage that people are experiencing.

(Note, I’m not excusing the behavior, just seeking to understand where it coe froms).

Pullman Walmart site plan gets OK from city

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

The site plan for a planned Walmart Supercenter on Bishop Boulevard in Pullman was approved by the city's public works director Thursday.

Public Works Director Mark Workman said despite some deficiencies in the plan submitted earlier this month by Walmart's Spokane contractor, CLC Associates, Inc., he's convinced the problems will be corrected in the store's construction drawings, which will need to be approved before site work begins.

Now here comes the shenanigans from the anti-progress progressives:

Christopher Lupke, a spokesman for the Pullman Alliance for Responsible Development, said the group is "encouraged Walmart has revised the plan, but we still feel there are problems with it."

PARD appealed the store's SEPA checklist and original site plan in 2005 on the grounds that the store would negatively affect stormwater run-off, traffic and Pullman's local economy. PARD unsuccessfully took the case through a hearing examiner, Whitman County Superior Court and the Washington Division III Court of Appeals before
giving up its efforts in June 2008.

Lupke said Walmart needs to commission an independent fiscal impact study to show how the store will affect businesses in Pullman, pay its fair portion of a citywide stormwater utility and pay for a portion of street repairs necessary to handle the increased traffic the store would create.

Lupke pointed to a city-commissioned traffic study that indicated it could cost between $2 million and $9 million to make necessary upgrades, such as widening the roadway and adding bike paths.

"The Walmart is going to be the single biggest impact to traffic on Bishop Boulevard," he said. "If they insist on this location, they should help pay for the impact that that's going to cause. It's baffling to me why the city of Pullman hasn't already negotiated this with them."

Lupke said PARD has not yet decided whether it will appeal the site plan, but noted that the decision likely will be based on how the city and Walmart react to the group's concerns.

"If the city was willing to go to Walmart and say, 'This is what the people are saying, are you reasonable on these issues? Are you willing to contribute to the issue of traffic on Bishop Boulevard in a significant way?' If they do those things, we will not appeal."

Lupke said if PARD does push an appeal, "we're not going to go all through the court system like last time."

I should send money to PARD just to get them to appeal, that way Wal-Mart will build the big Superstore that they originally intended. That would be a win-win: PARD would get to talk in court and the customers will get the store we want.

Health care is ALREADY 90% socialized: that's why it costs too much

From Ann Coulter:

Take Two Aspirin and call me when your Cancer is Stage 4

All the problems with the American health care system come from government intervention, so naturally the Democrats' idea for fixing it is more government intervention. This is like trying to sober up by having another drink.

The reason seeing a doctor is already more like going to the DMV, and less like going to the Apple "Genius Bar," is that the government decided health care was too important to be left to the free market. Yes -- the same free market that has produced such a cornucopia of inexpensive goods and services that, today, even poor people have cell phones and flat-screen TVs.

As a result, it's easier to get your computer fixed than your health. Thanks, government!

We already have near-universal health coverage in the form of Medicare, Medicaid, veterans' hospitals, emergency rooms and tax-deductible employer-provided health care -- all government creations.

So now, everyone expects doctors to be free. People who pay $200 for a haircut are indignant if it costs more than a $20 co-pay to see a doctor.

The government also "helped" us by mandating that insurance companies cover all sorts of medical services, both ordinary -- which you ought to pay for yourself -- and exotic, such as shrinks, in vitro fertilization and child-development assessments -- which no normal person would voluntarily pay to insure against.

This would be like requiring all car insurance to cover the cost of gasoline, oil and tire changes -- as well as professional car detailing, iPod docks, leather seats and those neon chaser lights I have all along the underbody of my chopped, lowrider '57 Chevy.

But politicians are more interested in pleasing lobbyists for acupuncturists, midwives and marriage counselors than they are in pleasing recent college graduates who only want to insure against the possibility that they'll be hit by a truck. So politicians at both the state and federal level keep passing boatloads of insurance mandates requiring that all insurance plans cover a raft of non-emergency conditions that are expensive to treat -- but whose practitioners have high-priced lobbyists.

Cash for Clunkers, A Case Study in Why Obamanomics Is Failing

From the Heritage Foundation:

If you watch television you’ve seen the ads: “So bring in that old jalopy and get up to $4500 towards the purchase of a new or select used vehicle. That’s right get up to $4500 for that old piece of junk, plus you keep the rebates. You have to hurry! Since funds are limited for this program it’s first come first served!” Well we’re about to find out just how limited those funds were. The Obama administration’s cash-for-clunkers program has been such a “success” that in just the first week of full implementation, the $1 billion originally allocated for the program is about to be exhausted already. Does this mean the program is over? We don’t know. Nobody does. And that is just the beginning of why this program is a perfect illustration of why Obamanomics will fail.

• Does Nothing for Environment: Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) are open to allocating more money for the program, but only if the rules are changed so that the program might actually do something for environment; because right now it is not. Edmunds.com auto analyst Jessica Caldwell explains why: “What you buy has to have an increase in fuel economy from what you traded in. But in some cases, that increase can be minimal. Owners of large pickup trucks like a Ford F150 only have to buy a replacement that increases efficiency by one mile per gallon. And they still get a $3,500 rebate. The environmental impact is negligible and the impact on national fuel demand and consumption is very small. The only real benefit in a like-for-like swap can be improved emissions standards on newer vehicles. Rather than discourage those people, they included them in this program.” Caldwell didn’t even mention the pollution costs of actually building a new car and the disposal of the old car, rather than just the pollution caused by driving the vehicle.
• Hurts Working Americans: The federal government’s push to help auto makers has unintended consequences which will hut many lower-income Americans. Economist, Freakonomics author and New York Times blogger Steven Levitt writes: “People who drive clunkers are generally not in the market for new cars. Presumably their replacement car will be a used car. The increased demand for used cars will lead to higher prices for used cars.” Driving up the cost of older cars may be an intended consequence for policymakers to encourage people to buy new, but it’s a bad deal for consumers.
• Hurts Charities: Speaking of ads, you probably have heard a ton on the radio from charities asking you to donate your old in exchange for a tax deduction. Do a Google search of “Donating Cars for Charity” and you will see a list of charities that cash-for-clunkers is taking money from.
• Further Entangles Government in Market: The program has already spent $150 million and has another $800 million to $850 million in obligations. What that means is that the nation’s auto dealers have already paid car buyers almost a billion dollars but are still waiting for their cash from the federal government. The USA Today reports: “Carmakers and dealers have booked expensive advertising to capitalize on buyers’ interest in CARS, and now will be left promoting a tie-in with a discontinued government program — one that wasn’t supposed to end until Nov. 1. “Disappointed,” said Chrysler spokesman Scott Brown. “It’s too late to recall the ads,” says Beau Boeckmann of Galpin Ford, the nation’s largest Ford dealer, in Los Angeles. “We had increased our ad budget to get the word out. We are very heavy on radio, newspaper and getting direct mail together,” Boeckmann says. “Now what do you tell people when they walk in” for a clunker deal? “It’s tough.”
• Only Adds to Debt: Just this week, President Barack Obama told Business Week: “We’re not going to be able to drive the next big stretch of economic growth through debt.” But the first $1 billion was also deficit spending, and the extra $3 to $4 billion needed to fully fund the program will also have to be borrowed.  And much like most government programs, Congress was incapable of actually estimating how much it would cost.  They are now facing the prospect of tripling down on a program only a week after it began. 

HT: Rod D. Martin

The Problems With Free Healthcare Provided by Government-Run Healthcare Monopolies

Take a minute to read this. From Economist Tom DiLorenzo:

The more money that has been spent on government-run healthcare, the less healthcare we have gotten. This kind of result is generally true of all government bureaucracies because of the absence of any market feedback mechanism. Since there are no profits in an accounting sense, by definition, in government, there is no mechanism for rewarding good performance and penalizing bad performance. In fact, in all government enterprises, exactly the opposite is true: bad performance (failure to achieve ostensible goals, or satisfy "customers") is typically rewarded with larger budgets. Failure to educate children leads to more money for government schools. Failure to reduce poverty leads to larger budgets for welfare state bureaucracies. This is guaranteed to happen with healthcare socialism as well.

All government-run healthcare monopolies, whether they are in Canada, the UK, or Cuba, experience an explosion of both cost and demand — since healthcare is "free." Socialized healthcare is not really free, of course; the true cost is merely hidden, since it is paid for by taxes. Costs always explode whenever the government gets involved, and governments always lie about it.

Age Distributions of Brazil and Japan

This from Swivel Graphs.

Brazil is the dark blue; Japan is the teal.

The question for Japan: how will their decreasing number of younger workers pay for the entitlements of the increasing number of aging workers?

Health Reform and Cancer: The danger is that ObamaCare will stifle medical innovations that could save patients like me

From the Wall Street Journal:

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.
…
But I couldn't get the vaccine because the Food and Drug Administration required another trial that would take nine more years. Over-regulation has kept this treatment from patients for 21 years, as some 24,000 lymphoma patients died each year. 
…
I am still here because my care was managed by doctors-not a government agency. My doctors do what the bureaucracy can't: They see me as a human being.

Patient-as-person will be a lost concept under the new health-care plan, where treatments will be based not upon individual patient needs, but upon what's best for everyone. So cancer drugs for seniors might take second place to jungle gyms and farmers' markets-so-called preventive care-which are covered under both the House and Senate versions of the health bill.
…
In order to finance health-care reform, Democrats in Congress have proposed cutting $500 billion from Medicare over the next 10 years. Yet in his press conference last Wednesday, President Barack Obama denied that Medicare benefits would be cut. He has surrounded himself with advisers who believe otherwise.

Tom Daschle, Mr. Obama's original pick to head Health and Human Services, argues in his book "Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis," that we should accept "hopeless diagnoses" and "forgo experimental treatments." Mr. Daschle blames the "use and overuse of new technologies and treatments" for runaway health-care costs. He suggests a Federal Health Board modeled after the British "NICE" board to make decisions on health-care rationing.

But the British system is infamous for denying state-of-the-art drugs to cancer patients. Thus cancer-survival rates in Britain are far below those in America, just as they are in Canada.

Canadian cancer patients told to wait months for treatment and diagnostic scans frequently go south and pay out-of-pocket for care in the United States. A number of Quebeckers even sued their government for violating their "right to life and security" under the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Canada's Supreme Court has acknowledged the pervasive rationing that occurs. In the 2005 case Chaoulli v. Quebec (Attorney General) , the majority opinion stated: "The evidence in this case shows that delays in the public health care system are widespread, and that, in some serious cases, patients die as a result of waiting lists for public health care."
…
Despite its warts, our system works. Carelessly tinkering with it will have a world-wide penalty-the stifling of new drug development. What company would spend a billion dollars to develop a drug that will not be reimbursed by the new health plan? This would be a direct, devastating blow to the most vulnerable Americans.

In spite of the president's assurances, there is every sign that this plan will be financed by deep cuts to Medicare, which, like the public option, will limit payments for specialists, radiology scans, and cutting-edge cancer drugs. These are prime targets because they are more expensive than other services. But are we really expected to forgo new medical technology and return to the cancer care of the 1970s?

When members of Congress are asked if they will opt for the public plan, they say no. That's for the rest of us.

The number of Americans who have cancer exceeds 10 million. It's time for cancer patients and their families to remind those on Capitol Hill that health-care reform is a matter of life and death for us.

HT: Ashley L.

Who in the world believes in climate change?

From Swivel Graphs:

A poll conducted by World Public Opinion asked 19 different countries whether their governments should put "addressing climate change" lower or higher on their list of priorities. This graph shows the mean and median responses by country with answers ranging from 0 (not a priority at all) to 10 (a very high priority). You can access the report from the organization here.

Who has drunk the Kool-Aid?

Layoffs

Dear employee:
 
As the CEO of this organization, I have resigned myself to the fact that Barrack Obama is our President and that our taxes and government fees will increase in a BIG way. To compensate for these increases, our prices would have to increase by about 10%. But since we cannot increase our prices right now due to the dismal state of the economy, we will have to lay off sixty of our employees instead. This has really been bothering me, since I believe we are family here and I didn't know how to choose who would have to go.
 
So, this is what I did. I walked through our parking lots and found sixty 'Obama' bumper stickers on our employees' cars and have decided these folks will be the ones to let go. I can't think of a more fair way to approach this problem. They voted for change so I gave it to them.

I will see the rest of you at the annual company picnic.
 
THE BOSS

Via: David D.

7-Year-Old Takes Joyride, Leads Police on Chase to Avoid Church

From Fox 13:

PLAIN CITY, Utah - A 7-year-old Plain City boy took unprecedented measures Sunday to avoid going to church. The boy was spotted Sunday morning behind the wheel of a white Dodge Intrepid. Authorities were called after the boy ran a stop sign and nearly hit another motorist. Weber County Sheriffs deputies caught up to the Intrepid on 4700 West and attempted to block it, but the 7-year-old driver turned down another street.
 
"Another deputy from the other direction pulled into the intersection and stopped to block the intersection, turned on his lights," said Cpt. Clint Anderson of the Weber County Sheriff's Office. "Instead of stopping the car, this white Intrepid turned down another street."
 
Deputies say the boy pulled into Fremont High School, where he drove around the parking lot a bit before getting back onto 4700 West. The boy finally drove home, parked in the driveway and ran inside to hide. The boy's father approached his son at home and asked him what happened. The boy admitted that he stole the car for a joy ride.

HT: Gary E.

Breaking News: Walmart site plan approved for Bishop Boulevard

As reported in today’s online edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Pullman Public Works Director Mark Workman approved today the site plan for a Bishop Boulevard Walmart store. A 10-day appeal period will expire August 10 at 5 p.m.

Workman said despite some deficiencies in the plan submitted earlier this month by Walmart’s Spokane contractor, CLC Associates, Inc., he’s assured the problems will be corrected in the store’s construction drawings which will need to be approved before site work begins.

He added that the retail giant’s plan is to begin building during the winter months and wait on the site work — which includes mass grading and utility installation — until next summer.

The approval of the site plan also includes an amendment to the State Environmental Protection Act, which was necessary because of the company’s plans to decrease the store’s square-footage.

A new site plan was necessary when Walmart announced in early June its intention to construct a 155,000-square-foot building, which would be much smaller than the originally proposed 223,000-square-feet store.

If conservatives were as meddlesome as the Statists, one would file a complaint with the city of Pullman, forcing Wal-Mart to build the bigger store.

Seattle breaks temperature record

Why when you break a record high it’s a sign of global warming, but when you break a record low it’s just an anomaly that’s ignored?

Remember, we’ve broken more lows than highs this year.

From the Associated Press:

Northwesterners more accustomed to rain and cooler climate sought refuge from a heat wave Wednesday, as Seattle recorded the hottest temperature in its history and Portland fell just 1 degree short of its own record-breaker.

The National Weather Service in Seattle recorded 103 degrees at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, breaking a previous record of 100 degrees, set in downtown Seattle in 1941 and repeated at the airport in 1994.

Wage law inflicts pain

The following letter to the editor appeared in the Lewiston Tribune:

Wage law inflicts pain

For years, advocates of raising the minimum wage have maintained it helps employees. In fact, its effects have ranged from negligible to hurtful, riding on comfortable myths and feel-good politics.
...
In fact, when Washington raised its minimum wage to the highest in the country several years ago, the big box stores in Washington were already paying $1-$2 an hour above this and doing so before that minimum wage was raised, not afterwards. As your editorial notes, Walmart today still outdoes the minimum wage in Washington and Idaho. At least for the big box stores, the minimum wage is irrelevant and, at best, a piece of feel-good legislation. It should not be surprising then that Walmart's move to Clarkston ignores the costs of the minimum wage.

I want to make one observation here: it’s common for businesses who pay more than the minimum wage to lobby their politicians to raise the minimum wage. Why? Because it hurts their competition — those small businesses who cannot compete with the big boys. And this is all done under the guise of “helping the poor”.

...
Outside of big box stores, other businesses, such as mom and pop businesses and many agricultural jobs, in fact feel the minimum wage as an imposed artificial expense. Studies show the cruel consequences. For example, when Santa Fe, N.M., imposed an increased minimum wage several years ago before the recession, unskilled jobs were lost, hours worked reduced and the unemployment rate increased almost 16 percent. Why? Because such an artificial wage increase is a type of unfunded mandate and hence an unfunded expense imposed by governments on business. It does not even require Econ 101 to realize if you artificially hike prices (here labor) fewer will be able to buy it (here employers). Further, the brutal effects fall most heavily on those unskilled residents seeking an economic start, those seeking to supplement an income and those with the least education.
...
The minimum wage was not intended nor could it produce an annual income permitting a family of four to own a mega-house, with a four-car garage and a Lexus in every bay. It is a starter job, a supplemental job, a learning job, a way to take the first steps up into better-paying jobs. And, until this ugly recession, hard-working people could do so, as a related article in your paper made clear.

There are ways to target and help those at the low end of the wage scale, but fawning over feel-good policies is counter-productive and doubly destructive - to business and to
workers.

K. V. Kardong, Moscow 

Excellent letter! Spot on!

Graffiti found in a number of Moscow neighborhoods

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

A rash of overnight graffiti incidents has the Moscow Police Department looking for leads.

Police Lt. Dave Lehmitz said graffiti was reported at five locations Wednesday morning: a garage on North Grant Street, Moscow Church of the Nazarene, Short's Funeral Chapel, Paris Vision Center and the Idaho National Guard.

Lehmitz said the writing in all but the North Grant Street incident was the same, and the color of spray paint was the same in all incidents.

Anyone with information is asked to call (208) 882-2677.