Be Heard

Here is Senator Bernie Sanders' letter to the President. You can co-sign it here: [Co-sign here]

Dear Mr. President,

This is a pivotal moment in the history of our country. Decisions are being made about the national budget that will impact the lives of virtually every American for decades to come. As we address the issue of deficit reduction we must not ignore the painful economic reality of today - which is that the wealthiest people in our country and the largest corporations are doing phenomenally well while the middle class is collapsing and poverty is increasing. In fact, the United States today has, by far, the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on earth.

Everyone understands that over the long-term we have got to reduce the deficit - a deficit that was caused mainly by Wall Street greed, tax breaks for the rich, two wars, and a prescription drug program written by the drug and insurance companies. It is absolutely imperative, however, that as we go forward with deficit reduction we completely reject the Republican approach that demands savage cuts in desperately-needed programs for working families, the elderly, the sick, our children and the poor, while not asking the wealthiest among us to contribute one penny.

Mr. President, please listen to the overwhelming majority of the American people who believe that deficit reduction must be about shared sacrifice. The wealthiest Americans and the most profitable corporations in this country must pay their fair share. At least 50 percent of any deficit reduction package must come from revenue raised by ending tax breaks for the wealthy and eliminating tax loopholes that benefit large, profitable corporations and Wall Street financial institutions. A sensible deficit reduction package must also include significant cuts to unnecessary and wasteful Pentagon spending.

Please do not yield to outrageous Republican demands that would greatly increase suffering for the weakest and most vulnerable members of our society. Now is the time to stand with the tens of millions of Americans who are struggling to survive economically, not with the millionaires and billionaires who have never had it so good.

Respectfully,

Sen. Bernie Sanders;
and Co-signers

Again, you can co-sign it here: [Co-sign here]

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Violence is OK. Porn not so OK

The Hill: The Supreme Court

“What kind of First Amendment would permit the government to protect children by restricting sales of that extremely violent video game only when the woman — bound, gagged, tortured and killed — is also topless?”

I'm not really against this decision, I think kids are tougher and handle these kind of influences better than we expect but .... how can you allow the violence but not the sex? It just doen't make any sense. We are ruled by idiots.

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America - Age of Obama - The Reality Show

Gin And Tacos wonders if [the country has lost it's god-damned mind].

In a year in which not one but two separate Reality TV Stars have been treated with the utmost seriousness by the Beltway media as potential presidential candidates – fortunately Trump and, apparently, Palin are unlikely to run but happy to milk the free publicity – it is hard not to see similar trends creeping into politics. Is/Was "The Donald" a serious candidate or was his might-be candidacy all a big joke? It's impossible to tell because there is no difference. The media and public see reality TV stardom as a perfectly plausible credential for the White House…because what happens on reality shows is "real", right? So why wouldn't the guy who picks the right apprentice or the woman with all that folksy Lil' Abner-esque wisdom be a serious candidate?

Even among the field of declared candidates it is somewhat complicated to distinguish the Serious candidates from those that would have been dismissed as charlatans in the past. James Stockdale openly laughed about how he had no business being in a presidential debate while Sarah Palin's camp got indignant at the mere suggestion that she didn't belong. Everyone laughs at Mike Gravel, Alan Keyes, Lyndon LaRouche, or Dennis Kucinich when they run, but no one uses the Sunday shows as a platform to announce that, come on, people, Michelle Bachmann cannot be a serious option in any electorate that hasn't completely lost its goddamn mind.

I have to agree. How can our press treat Palin, Trump, and Bachmann as legitimate candidates? Even when treating them as real candidates they report only the really stupid shit they do. Who cares if Bachmann confused the two John Waynes, she's dumb as hell and a religious nut, this kind of stuff is going to happen. They should be reporting about her nutzoid, religious leanings, which would be OK, I guess, if we were electing the US's evangelical equivalent of the Ayatollah.

I'm afraid we are fucked.

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Tax and Spend

Two good posts on taxes and spending.

First, The Baseline Scenario discusses what that "Washington" thing is that eats our tax dollars.

[The Baseline Scenario - What is this Washington]

Next, Conservative Bruce Bartlett looks at the 50% who don't pay any Federal income taxes.

[Who doesn't pay Federal Income Tax?]

of note is this

There are 78,000 tax filers with incomes of $211,000 to $533,000 who will pay no federal income taxes this year. Even more amazingly, there are 24,000 households with incomes of $533,000 to $2.2 million with zero income tax liability, and 3,000 tax filers with incomes above $2.2 million with the same federal income tax liability as most of those with incomes barely above the poverty level.

and this

Perhaps the right and left can at least agree that it is unseemly for those in the top 1 percent of income distribution, with incomes at least 10 times the median income, to pay no federal income taxes. It’s not socialism to ask them to pay something.

Tax rates on the super rich need to be raised.

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Cops Arrest Woman - update

Here's an update on this [Cops arrest woman who filmed them from her own yard].

Prosecuters have dropped the charges. Will the cops be disciplined?

[Dropped Charges]

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Income Inequality

A very good post on Inequality in the US.

[ECHIDNE of the Snakes]

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Freedom of speech

Balkinization touches Libertarianism, campaign finanace and freedom of speech in a good post on the recent Supreme Court ruling.

Balkinization - Libertarian premises and campaign finance

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Greece and other stuff

A couple of late night finds.

[Protect the bond holders at all costs]

How does the chief risk officer at Lehman Brothers from 2002-2007 ever get another job? [Ex Lehman chief risk officer appointed world bank treasurer]

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How the computer changed our world?

Summed-up very nicely by this cartoon [Found Here]

This comic may be the best explanation of how the PC changed our world that I've ever seen. Of course today it's not really happening on a desk computer but on a phone.

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Accident?

[Russian Nuclear experts who helped Iran killed in plane crash]

I'm sure this was an accident.

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Hey Tea-Baggers

What do you think of these?

[Cops arrest woman who filmed them from her own yard]. Then [Cops Harass] people who think it was wrong.

I think it sucks. A well functioning society should have a well-informed populace, free to act, to document and supervise the actions of their government. Just like a free press should hold our political leaders feet to the fire, the people should hold their law-enforcement agencies feet to the fire. Both should serve the people not force the people to bend to their will.

I think we're screwed.

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Wealth and Income Inequality #2

Another good post on wealth and income inequality: [Barry Ritholtz - Worlds wealthiest richer than before the credit crunch]

I think we should cut social security and medicare.

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Atheists vs Believers

Here's a good exchange between a religious crank and an atheist. Read through these and ask yourself who the reasonable one is? Who want to have an open and honest discussion? Who would you want teaching your kid?

The bible-banger posts this, [Nine Year Old Challenges NASA], basically bragging that he's proud his teachings are reaching kids and helping them discover what stooges these science-types are. (Actually, I'll bet the whole episode was setup by the mother. The kid could have played a part but it sounds like the mother was the driving force to me.)

My favorite atheist, [P.Z. Myers at Pharyngula] responds with this, very good, [letter-he-wouldn't-actually-send] to the kid.

[The bible-banger responds]", well, sort of, as he hides the atheist's arguments from his readers and paints all atheists and the letter as evil.

Then the [Evil Atheist responds].

Well, once again, who would you want teaching your kids?

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Wealth and Income Inequality in the US

Here are several good charts showing that the super rich are taking more and more of US wealth and income. [Business Insider]

This charts shows that from the 40s to about 1980 income inequality was relatively stable. Then in the 80's we fell in love with cutting taxes to spur the economy and the money started piling up in the super-wealthy's hands. Now the super wealthy have the biggest slice of the American Wealth pie and the economy sucks for the rest of us.

So, go look through these 16 charts and then explain to me again why we should attack our current debt problem by cutting Social Security and Medicare and not raising the tax rate on the rich.

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The Power of Propaganda?

[Nate Silver] talks about a shift toward Libertarianism.

I'd say the dramatic increase starting in 2009 shows less about a change in views but more about the power of The Propaganda Network.

More on Fox's influence here: [TNB - Fox news]

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Capitalist - Socialist - Managerialist

[Mark Roe] argues that the US is managerialist. It's a pretty good argument.

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Conservatives

Fox news should be forced to run this as a public service announcement.

Fareed Zakaria - How Today's Conservative lost touch with reality

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Corporate Profits

A couple of links on Corporate profits.
Steve Sailer - Why are corporate profits so high compared to a generation ago?

You might think that regional monopolies and oligopolies that allowed higher profits than the risk adjusted cost of capital would have been worn down over the decades by increased competition caused by the huge improvements in shipping, communications, data processing, and globalization. But I don't see much evidence for that.

I'm not surprised that Apple has very high profit margins on innovative products, but why does, say, P&G do so well these days on toothpaste and detergent?

I mean, sure, we all know that corporate executives have been winning in the struggle with workers over pay. But why hasn't increased competition between corporations competed away the profits won away from employees?

Well,... my best guess is that it's because,... those monopolies and oligopolies own our government. They pay for laws that protect their interests over consumer and working class interests and for laws that add barriers to, or limit real competition. Both of which feed their profits.

Another on Corporate profits.

32 Corporations Spent More On Compensation For Top Executives In 2010 Than They Paid In Income Taxes

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Do Tax Cuts Raise Revenue

[EconoSpeak] with some evidence.

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Obama and Oppression

Al Jazeera: Life Sentences for Bahrain Activists

If the Obama administration was really as oppressive and evil as Glenn beck and some of his Tea-Bagger followers claim, many of them would be setting in jail right now. Truely oppressive regimes lock their enemies up.

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Indiana Planned Parenthood

Some crazy from my home state. via [The Booman Tribune: Indiana Planned Parenthood]

Indiana Republicans have forced the closure of all 28 Planned Parenthood clinics in their state, even though only four of them provided any abortion services. Previously, Planned Parenthood in Indiana earned $1.3 million a year for its work with Medicaid recipients. Those low-income women will now find it much harder to get access to female contraception and basic health care. Many of them will, as a result of this hostility from Indiana Republicans, experience an unplanned pregnancy and will seek out abortions, or they will have less access to health care during their pregnancy, resulting in less healthy babies. I know it's hard to get inside the brains of Republicans, but the opposite of planned parenthood is unplanned parenthood. And it is only the latter that causes elective abortions to occur in the first place. No organization prevents more abortions than Planned Parenthood. Nice work, assholes.

And our great leader Mitch Daniels, who wanted the republican presidential candidates to back-off the moral issues and focus on the fiscal issues, signed this into law.

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US Drug Policy

Jimmy Carter questions the US drug policy in this op-ed from the NYT. Jimmy Carter - Call off the War on Drugs

There are 743 people in prison for every 100,000 Americans, a higher portion than in any other country and seven times as great as in Europe. Some 7.2 million people are either in prison or on probation or parole — more than 3 percent of all American adults!

and

Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pointed out that, in 1980, 10 percent of his state’s budget went to higher education and 3 percent to prisons; in 2010, almost 11 percent went to prisons and only 7.5 percent to higher education.

That we'd rather lock up our kids than educate them says a lot.

Hell, with Carter's stance on The Middle East and our drug laws, I'd vote for him over all the other bozo's we have running for president today.

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A Republican On Taxes

[Bruce Bartlett on Taxes]

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Fox News

A few links related to the propaganda network. First, a couple on the Jon Stewart appearance on Fox.

[Jon Stewart] and [Jon Stewart 2]

And one from GinAndTacos on Voter enthusiasm. [Gin and Tacos: Enthusiasm]

I think the Tea Party enthusiasm of the last election cycle can be directly attributed to the power of The Propaganda Network. All those old retired folk, at home all day, getting fired up by the crap on Fox were about as motivated as any voter could be. It wouldn't have been the same election without the Fox News created outrage.

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The Economy

Robert Reich on the current state of the economy



We'd never see an explanation like this in our corporate media because it and most of our politicians are owned by the super rich, or at least by the corporations and lobby groups they control.

Another "division" would be democrat vs republican. The corporate ruling class keep the middle and lower classes divided (about 50-50, D vs R)with a corrupt, fake, two-party system that forces people to choose our leaders based on moral, race, religious, or other manufactured, hot-button issues like debt/deficit. In reality we only get to choose from one party, the corporate elite, the Corporat party.

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Common Sense on Government

The Big Picture: Maybe Government is the answer.

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Tea Party Peak?

Economist: Has the tea party peaked

All the crap in this post sounds good and the Tea party probably has peaked but I think the post underestimates, even ignores the effect of the right wing propaganda machine.

I'd say that the turning point, as shown in the chart, was when the financial crisis hit and it suddenly looked like a liberal black man could win the election. At that point, Fox news and the conservative media went on a full-on, attack against government and even remotely liberal ideas, a propagand push of lies, rumors and scare tactics this country hadn't seen in my lifetime, and basically scared a bunch of retired old white people to death. Without Fox news there wouldn't be a Tea Party.

I think the reason the Tea-party seems to have cooled is that the conservative leaders and their propaganda wings know they can't win the presidency with a wacked-out Tea-bagger so now conservative media is pulling back the propaganda push in an attempt to attrack some of the middle ground voters that the crazy propaganda pushes away.

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Michele Bachmann

It's scary to think that someone this far out there really could win the presidency.

[Michele Bachmann - Religious Nut]

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Indoctrination Camps

Remember a couple of years ago when Beck, Palin, Bachmann and all your Tea-bagger friends were wound up because Obama was going to send our kids to "Indoctrination Camps". Well, its happening now, except the "Indoctrination camps" are being run by the Tea-Baggers.

The right wing in this country has lost it's fucking mind.

Indoctrination Camps for kids

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Palestinian Statehood

Lieberman: Israel will renounce past agreements if Palestinians seek unilateral statehood

I don't see how Israel renoucing past agreements could put much pressure on the Palestinians. Hell, they don't have any rights anyway. Israel does anything it wants to and completely dominates the Palestinians. What do the they have to lose by declaring statehood? They've been backed into a corner and see this as their best move.

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Paul Ryan

[Paul Ryan - reads his lines]

Our leaders don't really want to answer tough questions. I guess that's why they stick with the mainstream media.

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Health Care - US vs the World.

The British don't want an American health care system and according to Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, they won't be getting one.

"We will not be selling off the NHS, we will not be moving towards an insurance scheme, we will not introduce an American-style private system," Prime Minister David Cameron emphatically told a group of healthcare workers in a nationally televised address last week.

In case they didn't hear it the first time, Cameron repeated the dreaded "A"-word in a list of five guarantees he offered the British people at the end of his speech.

"If you're worried that we're going to sell off the NHS or create some American-style private system, we will not do that," he said. "In this country we have the most wonderful, precious institution and also precious idea that whenever you're ill … you can walk into a hospital or a surgery and get treated for free, no questions asked, no cash asked. It is the idea at the heart of the NHS, and it will stay. I will never put that at risk."

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Palin and Paul Revere

This is the best take on the Palin-Revere story I've seen.

The Rude Pundit

Yeah, yeah, Godzilla of Wasilla was busy this weekend, stomping on the Tokyo of Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum's futile presidential dreams. You've heard about her strange version of the Paul Revere story. You may have even heard when she told Fox "news" host Chris Wallace that it was in response to a "gotcha type of question," which is odd since the question she was responding to was "What have you seen so far today and what are you going to take away from your visit?"

The problem ain't the question. Palin could have answered, "We saw Paul Revere's house. What a great patriot." Done. No, the problem is that Sarah Palin can't shut the fuck up. Like a desperate college student who thinks that, if she keeps talking, the professor will just give her a "C" and let her pass, Palin treads water under the synapses in her brain fire off something like a sentence that includes some dreadful, devolved belief of hers. In this case, it was contorting the Paul Revere story into some kind of 2nd Amendment-related bullshit about arms.

The Rude Pundit is right. She would do much better if she'd just stop talking and follow the "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt" policy. [Abraham Lincoln]

Though she would probably twist this quote into something like,..."better to try and speak out about the fools that, that seek, the socialists that try and seek, to destroy this great, our great, nation while the real americans, the true great patroits, remain silent, but speak out only to save our great nation, the real americans, who built this great America, from the liberals that want to destroy it."

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Weiner

Glenn Greenwald on WeinerGate.

[The joys of repressed voyeuristic titillation]

Cutting the Deficit

Dean Baker ponders how cutting the deficit will lead to increased growth and job creation.

Dean Baker: The faith-based economics of deficit reduction


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Another War

Our politicians are just the foot soldiers of the corporate wars.

"We the people, don't have much of a chance.

[Beer wars in Wisconsin 1] - [Beer wars in Wisconsin 2]

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Drug Testing Welfare Recipients - #2

I thought of a couple questions about this .... Rick Scott and Florida: Drug Testing Welfare Recipients

How do you tea-baggers feel about these drug tests being forced on the people by the big, bad government? Doesn't this impose on those individual rights you're so concerned about? Should we also drug test social security or medicare recipients? What about farm subsidy recipients?

and

For everyone who though that Al Gore only cared about the environment because he was invested heavily in environmental firms. What do you think about this guy creating a law that will directly affect his firm?


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Drug Testing Welfare Recipients

Here's Florida's Gov. Rick Scott (R) on Florida's new "drug test for welfare recipients" law.

"I want to make sure our taxpayers are not subsidizing drug addiction."
[Fla. Welfare Recipients Must Pass Drug Test]

I wonder what he thinks about the taxpayers subsidizing him.

From his present: Rick Scott owns a firm that does drug testing [GinAndTacos - Certain Rights for Certain People]

A friend of mine posted the following on Facebook recently:

After reading that Gov. Scott wants random drug tests for Government employees, and mandatory drug tests for welfare recipients, my cynical response was, "What, does he own a drug testing facility?"

Ha! Funny, but no. Of course he doesn't.

He transferred his $62 million stake in Solantic, a walk-in clinic chain that contracts with employers and government agencies to provide drug screening, to his wife – in a revocable trust, so the moment he leaves office he can regain control of the company. So you see, Rick Scott does not own a drug testing facility. He merely founded a chain of fast food-style walk-in clinics and transferred his ownership share to his wife. (This kind of "share shuffle" is prohibited by federal law and in most states wherein at least the pretense of preventing cronyism and conflicts of interest is maintained. But in Florida it's A-OK. Way to go, Shitshine State.)

And from his past: Rick Scott CEO of company that defrauds the government
Wikipedia - Rick Scott

He was forced to resign as Chief Executive of Columbia/HCA in 1997 amid a scandal over the company's business and Medicare billing practices; the company ultimately admitted to fourteen felonies and agreed to pay the federal government over $600 million.

... Columbia/HCA admitted systematically overcharging the government by claiming marketing costs as reimbursable, by striking illegal deals with home care agencies, and by filing false data about use of hospital space. They also admitted fraudulently billing Medicare and other health programs by inflating the seriousness of diagnoses and to giving doctors partnerships in company hospitals as a kickback for the doctors referring patients to HCA. They filed false cost reports, fraudulently billing Medicare for home health care workers, and paid kickbacks in the sale of home health agencies and to doctors to refer patients. In addition, they gave doctors "loans" never intending to be repaid, free rent, free office furniture, and free drugs from hospital pharmacies

Defrauding the government health care system a few years ago and now, as governor, passing laws that can feed money to you own company! Now that is being subsidized by the taxpayer. Hell, some might even call it stealing from the taxpayer.

This guy looks like one crooked bastard.

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What are Fair Taxes?

Here's a good take... [A Taxing Matter]

It's worth reading.

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Israeli Terrorists?

[Israeli settlers Roll Burning Tires into a mosque]

This might be considered terrorism?

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The Top 1% - US vs the world

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/06/the-world-top-incomes-database/

The rich certainly have done well since 1985. What changed?

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Evan Bayh the Lobbyist

A few thoughts on Evan from around the web. Evan 1 Evan 2 Evan 3

He was the Senator from my state but he didn't really live here until he entered politics. It's very unlikely he'd have been politically successful if he hadn't had the "Bayh" name. He didn't really live in the state much. His kids didn't go to school here. He never had a real job here. He was bought and paid for, by corporate interests putting his wife on corporate boards. Now he continues his work in DC. His title was Senator from Indiana but it should have been "Senator from Wellpoint, Duke of Indiana".

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Corporats vs The Common People

[Robert Reich - Why Washington isn't doing squat about jobs and wages.]

But there’s a third reason for Washington’s inaction. It’s not being talked about — which is itself evidence of the problem.

The unemployed are politically invisible. They don’t make major campaign donations. They don’t lobby Congress. There’s no National Association of Unemployed People.

Their ranks are filled with women who had been public employees, single mothers, minorities, young people trying to enter the labor force, and middle-aged men who have been out of work for longer than six months. You couldn’t find a collection of people with less political clout.

The wealthy-corporate elite, the Corporat, is our only real political party. Democrats and Republicans are just the different wings of the Corporat party that we're allowed to choose from. Vote either way and the common people lose.

We need that "none of the above" choice on the ballot.

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Israel Kills a few More

[Israel Kills a few Non-Violent Protestors #1]
[Israel Kills a few Non-Violent Protestors #2]

Your US Tax Dollars at work.

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Welfare Drug Tests

From [GinAndTacos]

- Yes, Rick Scott is quite proud of his measure requiring drug testing for all welfare recipients as well as random drug testing for state employees.

He transferred his $62 million stake in Solantic, a walk-in clinic chain that contracts with employers and government agencies to provide drug screening, to his wife – in a revocable trust, so the moment he leaves office he can regain control of the company. So you see, Rick Scott does not own a drug testing facility. He merely founded a chain of fast food-style walk-in clinics and transferred his ownership share to his wife. (This kind of "share shuffle" is prohibited by federal law and in most states wherein at least the pretense of preventing cronyism and conflicts of interest is maintained. But in Florida it's A-OK. Way to go, Shitshine State.)

This move by Florida Gov. Rick Scott looks like political corruption at its finest. Own a chain of drug screening clinics, get elected governer, then pass legislation requiring all welfare recipients to get drug tests, rake in the cash.

I guess our media would be all over it if they didn't have more important stories to cover like [Palin-Revere] and [WeinerGate]

We're doomed.

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Voucher Care - Medicare

Paul Krugamn says [Voucher Care is not Medicare]

One problem I have with voucher-care is that it will feed these bastards: [Inside the Wellpoint Shareholder Meeting]. A few highlights...

This 2011 meeting was as tightly scripted as a professional wrestling match. The outcome was never in doubt. Years past it was more informal, with a reception afterward where common stockholders could actually mix with the elite. Now the Directors come and go through a separate door. This time they didn't even introduce the Board, which includes luminaries like Susan Bayh, wife of former Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, Don Riegle, former Senator from Michigan, and William "Bucky" Bush, brother of the first President Bush and uncle of GW.

and

Contradictions abounded during this meeting. Lip service only was given to the needs of patients ("customers" in their lingo), but the main course served was for their Wall Street masters. WellPoint is making record profits and sitting on record piles of cash. What are they doing with it? Like so many other Fortune 500 companies these days, they are buying up smaller companies, not insurance companies this time, but health-related companies involved in things like medical information technology and expanding their presence in China.

In 2011, for the first time in their history they paid a dividend, which Ms. Braly explained would make the stock more attractive to investors.

While they claim to be investing in "infrastructure, new products and programs that improve the quality of service to customers and members," data suggest otherwise. Since 2008 the company has spent $66.9 million on federal lobbying as well as millions on campaign donations. Over the past 10 years WellPoint's total compensation to its CEO's has totaled over $164 million.

If they are spending on infrastructure, why did they announce in June 2010 that a security breach may have exposed the social security numbers and medical records of 470,000 people? The same month the Indiana State Medical Society reported that WellPoint has the worst claims accuracy rating among the largest health insurers.

Most outrageous of all, from 2003 through 2010, WellPoint spent $21.6 billion (that's billion with a "B") of patients' premium dollars to buy back its own stock.

Spending billions on stock buybacks benefits a tiny elite of CEOs and top officers who are compensated with stock options which increase in value as the share price is manipulated upward. This is an enormous transfer of wealth from hard-pressed employers and patients to CEOs and Wall Street. Not only do the stock buybacks allow executives to line their own pockets, the process strips companies of resources that could otherwise be used reduce premiums, improve benefits, create jobs and bring innovation to the business of health insurance.

The only thing Ms. Braly made clear and unobscure during her comments was that this is a company committed to growth, growth in profits, growth in stock price, and there was nary a mention about the uninsured, the underinsured, medical bankruptcy, denial of care and coverage, or WellPoint's signature profit-making ploy: rescission, policy cancellation after an insured patient becomes ill.

and

The lesson to be learned from the last few years is that the health insurance industry cannot be reformed. Not from the inside by shareholder resolutions or from the outside by the Affordable Care Act. They are just too powerful. They have amassed too much money and own too many politicians.

They will not be reformed. They can only be counted on to protect their profits over their patients. They must be replaced by a simple single payer plan like an expanded Medicare For All, guaranteeing health care, not just "coverage," starting at birth.

Conservatives like to claim government is inefficient but a health care system with these bastards as a major player will never be cost effective.

I agree, we need a single payer system.

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Fighting Misinformation #2

Brad Delong still at it. [Misinformation]

1. The claim that if Medicare starts limiting the procedures it will pay for, this would be an infringement of your freedom of choice: Paul Krugman: "Nobody is proposing that the government deny you the right to have whatever medical care you want at your own expense. We’re only talking about what medical care will be paid for by the government. And right-wingers, of all people, shouldn’t believe that everyone has the right to have whatever they want, at taxpayers’ expense.... What will it take to shoot this zombie in the head?..."

2. Peter Diamond unqualifed to be a Federal Reserve Governor: Peter Diamond: "Last October, I won the Nobel Prize in economics for my work on unemployment and the labor market. But I am unqualified to serve on the board of the Federal Reserve — at least according to the Republican senators who have blocked my nomination. How can this be? The easy answer is to point to shortcomings in our confirmation process and to partisan polarization in Washington. The more troubling answer, though... a failure to recognize that analysis of unemployment is crucial to conducting monetary policy.... The leading opponent to my appointment, Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the committee, has questioned the relevance of my expertise. “Does Dr. Diamond have any experience in conducting monetary policy? No,” he said in March. “His academic work has been on pensions and labor market theory.” But understanding the labor market... is critical to devising an effective monetary policy..."

3. Haley Barbour's claim that Obama is raising gas prices on purpose: The United States government does not control world oil prices--indeed, right now there is no swing producer that controls world oil prices: it is global supply and demand that set gas prices.

4. Stephen L. Carter’s very bad Bloomberg column that demand is slack because of "uncertainty": Jim Henley: "We’ve worked for more than one business... we know the typical share-of-revenue that incremental labor expense takes across various business lines. and we have a lived understanding of all the uncertainties and risks attending pretty much any business. Comparing this last bundle of risks and uncertainties to the possible impact of regulatory change on additional incremental labor, we’re left with a set of reasonable possibilities.... 1) The guy is telling the truth, but his business is unusual.... 2) The guy is a blowhard whose business is doing worse than he says. 3) The guy is a moron or coward... leaving money on the table.... 4) The guy is a prophet who should liquidate his business immediately! Because any regulatory risk that applies to new workers he might hire that’s big enough to keep him from hiring more also applies to the workers he currently has on his payroll.... Any of these seems more plausible than Carter’s conclusion that this man’s story holds lessons for us all. It’s certainly suggestive that Carter describes his business as “low margin” but with demand picking up. If demand is picking up and he isn’t ramping production then either demand was really weak and is only getting back to normal, one or more of his competitors beat him to the punch on cranking up the volume, or nobody here knows how to play this game. The article reminds me of the criticism that intellectuals tend to lack real-world business experience.... Certainly Carter presents us with a piece of “pro-business” advocacy that suffers from apparent unfamiliarity with business..."

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Fighting Misinformation

Brad Delong, Fighting Misinformation on day at a time. Here are three things large groups of people believe, or at least say, that are not true. There are many more at the link.

For the Virtual Green Room: June 5, 2011 - Grasping Reality with Both Hands

1.Tort reform is the way to control health-care costs: Aaron Carroll: "How much does the malpractice system really cost in the U.S.?... $55.6 billion in 2008 dollars, or about 2.4 percent of all U.S. health-care spending.... So yes, that is real money, and it theoretically could be reduced.... [W]e could look at Texas, where non-economic damages on malpractice lawsuits were capped at $250,000 about eight years ago... Medicare spending seems to have gone up faster than the nation’s since 2003. Hardly a persuasive argument for tort reform = cost control.... [T]ort reform, which might lead to a 10 percent reduction in malpractice premiums (not small), which might translate into a health-care spending reduction of 0.1 percent..."

2.The RomneyCare that so many Republicans used to support is very different from ObamaCare: Rudi Giuliani: "The reality is that Obamacare and Romneycare are almost exactly the same. It’s not very helpful trying to distinguish them. I would think the best way to handle it is to say: 'It was a terrible mistake and if I could do it over again, I wouldn’t do it'..."

3.Doctors are all leaving Canada to practice in the U.S.: Aaron Carroll: Except for Austria and Germany, fewer doctors were satisfied practicing medicine in the United States in 2009 than in any other surveyed country. That includes Canada. And it was before health care reform, so you can’t blame any dissatisfaction on the PPACA.... Except for Germany, more physicians in the United Sates felt that the system needed to be completely rebuilt than physicians in any other country.... So let’s stop pretending that doctors in outer countries are miserable, and practicing in the Unites States is paradise.... The meme is that physicians are leaving Canada in droves and moving here. Is that true?... In the mid-1990s, the number leaving for the U.S. spiked at about 400 to 500 a year. However, in recent years, this number has declined, with only 169 physicians leaving for the States in 2003; 138 in 2004; and 122 in each of 2005 and 2006. These numbers represent less than half a percent of all doctors working in Canada..."

tnb

What do you Save?

A very good post, from a very good site, here [Gin And Tacos - Default Mode]

Interesting and unsurprising poll data from the Associated Press reveals that substantial majorities of Americans oppose Paul Ryan-style Medicare reform or cuts to Social Security. The public also considers the two programs highly important.

Overall, 70 percent in the poll said Social Security is "extremely" or "very" important to their financial security in retirement, and 72 percent said so for Medicare. Sixty-two percent said that both programs are extremely or very important.

This is the basic dilemma of modern American politics, as you already know. Large majorities support balancing the budget…and oppose raising taxes, meaningfully cutting defense spending, altering Social Security or Medicare, or doing much of anything else that would bring the budget closer to balanced.

There is almost a temptation to feel bad for our elected officials – damned if they do, damned if they don't. The public howls about the deficit but won't accept cuts to anything except programs that we imagine to be large but are actually insignificant (foreign aid, NPR, etc.) and the usual killing of the draft animals (education, social welfare, etc.) Combined, these cuts make hardly a dent in the problem. The temptation to pity them evaporates when one realizes why they inevitably drift toward "solutions" like these. Even among the unpopular solutions, why would they propose something like Medicare cuts – let's be honest, even the GOP knows this is political suicide – before tax increases, defense spending cuts, and so on?

The answer is pretty obvious: because when the chips are down, they will stab you in the back at the drop of the hat. They don't care about you, regardless of party. You are not important. They would rather try to ram Medicare reform down your throat than to bite the Pentagon and Wall Street hands that feed them or raise taxes on their own income bracket. The choice between cutting Social Security and lifting the payroll tax cap (without which Social Security would be solvent in perpetuity) is no choice at all. The default solution is always, always to throw you under the bus.

You can learn a lot about someone when you force them to make choices, eliminating the natural tendency of individuals to take the path of least resistance and please everyone. If I have four cats and I tell you I love them all equally, that doesn't tell you much. If the house is on fire and I can only save one of them, you're about to find out which one I actually love the most. In flush times our elected officials will gladly appease us – doing so is good politics and the path of least resistance. If the money is there to pay for everyone's wants (see: 1950-1970), why not just pay for it all? When reality demands selectivity, we quickly discover what and who really matter.

Our elites are slowly discovering that they need to touch one of the untouchables: raising taxes, cutting the Dept. of Defense, or cutting SS/Medicare. Faced with three politically unappealing choices, it's quite revealing to see which one people like Paul Ryan and Obama's catfood commission decided to bite the bullet and endorse.

I'm not convinced the US house is on fire. I think there are those who want the people to believe it is for their own politic motives but regardless, think about it.

The US House is on fire, who do you want to save? Corporations or People? Workers or Stockholders? Rich or Poor? Our ability to bomb the hell out of brown, non-christians or our old/sick People? A few tax dollars for the WalMart heirs or our ability to educate our children?

tnb

The Debt

The Baseline Scenario sums it up.

When people hold certain ideological beliefs strongly enough, no amount of facts will get in their way. If you believe that the current deficit is the result of excessive government spending (passed by Democrats, even though they only controlled Congress and the White House for four out of the past thirty years*), no pile of charts will be big enough to convince you otherwise — just like if you believe that tax cuts increase tax revenues, that the deficit has produced high interest rates, or that Barack Obama was born on Mars, no amount of evidence will convince you otherwise.

This is just fine if you are my daughter, who is four years old — although, actually, she admits it when she makes a mess (and helps clean it up). But if you are a legislator in the most powerful country in the world –and the one whose debt is the definitionally risk-free asset against which the yield of every other financial asset in the entire world is measured — it’s not good enough.

tnb

Accepting Israel

According to Haaretz, the French Peace Plan would require the Palestinians to Accept Israel as a Jewish state.

I wonder if Isreal would accept the new Palestinian state as an Islamic state?

tnb

The United States is doomed

A good short post from Andrew Leonard at Salon: [This is why the United States is doomed - How the World Works - Salon.com]

The Hill reports the House Republican response to Friday morning's distressing jobs report.

House Republicans pinned the blame for Friday's disappointing jobs report squarely on the White House, saying the Obama administration's "over-taxing, over-regulating and over-spending" has stifled economic growth.

"One look at the jobs report should be enough to show the White House it's time to get serious about cutting spending and dealing with our ailing economy," Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said.

How many blatant untruths can a Republican speaker of the House stuff into one sentence? Quite a few!

1) President Obama has cut taxes. His stimulus bill included tax cuts for 95 percent of all American working families. He signed off on the extension of the Bush tax cuts, while throwing in a new payroll tax cut for good measure.

2) Over-regulating? Set aside, if you can, the fact that under-regulation clearly played a significant role in creating the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Let's just take a look at the two sectors of the economy that we might expect to have been affected by the two biggest signature pieces of legislation signed into law by Obama -- the Affordable Care Act and the Dodd-Frank bank reform act. According to this morning's jobs report, the health care sector has averaged 24,000 news jobs a month over the past year -- and accounted for almost a third of May's overall 54,000 gain. Meanwhile, Wall Street had its fourth most profitable year ever in 2010. If that's over-regulation, we need more of it!

3) Private economic forecasters, the kind of profit-minded companies that make their money by analyzing economic trends for business clients, generally agree that without Obama's stimulus spending, unemployment would be higher.

We could raise other issues. We could ask: What changed between May and the previous six months in which job growth was relatively strong? But that would require examining actual facts about what is going on the world, like Japan's recession or high gas prices or declining government spending, particularly at the state level.

I know, I know, it's not worth getting agitated when Washington politicians of either party spout blatant misrepresentations of reality. But as we accelerate towards a debt ceiling budget deal that is virtually guaranteed to accelerate negative economic trends, it does matter what House Republicans say, because it gives us a pretty darn good idea of what they're going do.

There are good "Arguing with Tea-Bagger Types" points here.

1. Obama has cut taxes for 95%, cut payroll taxes and compromised, showed bi-partisanship, by extending the Bush Tax cuts.

2. The industries most affected by the two big regulatory moves, Health care and Dodd-Frank Bank regulation are doing fine. Health care was 30% of the private job increase in May 2011 and has been growing for a year. Wall Street had 4th best year ever. It's the rest of the economy that slipping.

3. Most agree that without the stimulus, unemployment would be even higher.

My guess is that most Fox News Watchers won't believe #1 and #3 but they won't know #2 and it will make them think.

tnb

Wisdom of crowds

[How social influence can undermine the wisdom of crowd effect - Jan Lorenza - Heiko Rauhutb - Frank Schweitzera - Dirk Helbingb]

This study finds that sharing information can destroy the "Wisdom of crowds".

Some good comments here: [Economist's View]

So applied to the stock market, you have a bunch of independent people determining the value of a share of stock in a company. The median estimate of the group will likely be as or more accurate than an expert's. The wisdom of the crowd. Then CNBC, FOX Finance, the Wall street journal and all those other "experts" destroy this wisdom by letting those in the group know what the others think.

This would mean that free-markets, which may be efficient by themselves, may be corrupted by mass media informing the people of others expectations?

tnb

Because They're Special

Our ruling elites get a lot of deals the rest of us never see.
[Newt's sweet deal]

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Who pays Taxes?

[About Taxes]

This is the first time I've heard that the "51% of the people paid no income tax in 2009" story is an aberation caused by the recession. In most normal years, the number is between 35 and 40%, for example, 37.9 percent of households paid no Income tax in 2007. Of course this doesn't include social security and medicare taxes, gas tax, sales taxes, sin taxes, all of which hit the poor harder than the wealthy.

Conservatives, who are always pushing for tax cuts, were pushing this story like its a bad thing that so many don't pay any income taxes but wouldn't more tax cuts lead to even more housholds paying no income taxes?

tnb

War on Drugs

BBC News - Global war on drugs 'has failed' say former leaders

The War on Drugs is the greatest government failure of my lifetime.

tnb

Budget Deficits

 

A good post about why budget deficits aren’t really as bad as we’re led to believe.

The President remains trapped in the talons of the deficit hawks | Credit Writedowns