Last week, the Congressional Budget Office released their analysis of the Waxman-Markey climate change bill that had proponents of the bill claiming we could save the planet for just $175 per household. That was the figure CBO estimated cap and trade would cost households in 2020, which “includes the cost of restructuring the production and use of energy and of payments made to foreign entities under the program, but it does not include the economic benefits and other benefits of the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and the associated slowing …
Last Wednesday, several DC voters filed a lawsuit (PDF) asking the DC Superior Court to allow DC residents to vote on whether same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions should be recognized in the District. The lawsuit followed a ruling from the DC Board of Elections and Ethics that DC residents should not be allowed to vote on whether same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions should be recognized in DC. In May, the DC Council passed legislation that would recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions. Individuals who support marriage as the …
All three Democrat health care plans (the House, Kennedy-Dodd, and Baucus bills) feature an employer mandate which will make it more expensive for employers to add employees. But as the New York Times reported last week, health care provisions in the stimulus are already making it harder for employers to hire new people: As I understand it, there are two basic changes: First, employees who initially turned down Cobra have another chance to say yes (if they became eligible for it after Sept. 8). Second, business owners who have more …
Even before the Congressional Budget Office put $1 to $1.6 trillion price tags on the latest Senate health care plans, President Barack Obama proposed to cut Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates for various health care providers by an additional $313 billion over 10 years. Those cuts came on top of the $309 billion the President proposed in his 2010 budget submission to Congress, for a total proposed reduction in Medicare and Medicaid of $622 billion over 10 years. As admirable as the President’s desire to control health care costs is, …
University of Michigan Flint economics and finance professor Mark Perry flags the following story in the Windsor Star: Between April 2007 and April of this year, 55 Ontario patients have been referred to Roswell Park in Buffalo, NY to receive IL-2 treatments for stage IV melanoma, and four patients were sent to the Harper University Hospital and the Karmanos Cancer Center in Detroit, Michigan. Dr. Perry comments: The story is about a 30-year old Canadian man with melanoma who lives in Windsor, Ontario and has been approved for IL-2 treatments …
Pacific Research Institute Senior Fellow Jeffrey Anderson reports: The centerpiece of President Obama’s plan is a “public option,” described by Tom Daschle as “a government-run insurance program, modeled after Medicare.” The president asserts that this new Medicare-like program would cut costs. But there are nearly 40 years of experience to consult, and they offer a resounding rebuttal. Across the years, Medicare’s costs have risen far more than the costs of privately purchased care.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Select Committee on Global Warming met last week to discuss the impacts of global warming on agriculture and forestry bill. Some of the more interesting testimony came from Ford B. West, President of The Fertilizer Institute, who elaborated on the challenges cap-and-trade legislation presents to the fertilizer industry. West began by noting his industry’s significant efficiency improvements in its use of energy over the past 23 years. However, he cautioned that government policy cannot count on future efficiency improvements occurring at the same pace …
I will go along with this, even though I am somewhat skeptical, if I can be convinced that this is going to work, that it’s practical, that it makes sense. That’s where I am coming from. I am not carrying water for anybody, I’m just trying to make sense out of this.” The “this” Representative Collin Peterson, House Agriculture Committee chairman, is referring to is cap and trade, with the Waxman-Markey bill currently making its way through the House. It’s something Denver Post columnist David Harsanyi recently called “preposterously convoluted.” …
This past Monday, while selling his health care plan, President Barack Obama told the American Medical Association: “No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise to the American people. If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.” The Congressional Budget Office disagrees. Their preliminary analysis of an incomplete Democratic health plan estimated that 10 million …
Demonstrations and violent police actions on the streets of Tehran continued late into Saturday night and state television reported at least 10 people were killed and more than 100 wounded when police clashed with “terrorists.” Witnesses reported that the police used live ammunition, batons, tear gas and water cannons to disrupt demonstrations and prevent protesters from assembling in large crowds. The official reports, which cannot be confirmed, accused “rioters” of setting two gas stations and a mosque ablaze in protest at a disputed poll result. Meanwhile, Iran’s most senior dissident, …
