The typically staid pages of the Washington Post Business Section were graced this morning with subtle humor from the virtual pen of the ever-sober, oft sagacious Steven Pearlstein. In a piece titled “Keeping an open mind on solutions to the budget deficit”, Pearlstein neatly lays out the argument one typically hears from open-minded liberals today. What makes the argument humorous is that they really believe they can pull this off. The essential of the argument is simple enough. Using Pearlstein’s numbers, federal spending is running at about 26 percent of …
This week, the House of Representatives will vote on the $86 billion “America Competes Act.” Just a few years ago, an $86 billion authorization would have been considered real money, even by Washington standards. But in this new era of trillion-dollar spending bills (and, not coincidentally, trillion-dollar budget deficits), an $86 billion bill is not even considered major legislation. Yet this provides another opportunity for lawmakers to draw the line on spending and deficits. Members of Congress typically bemoan runaway spending and deficits, even as they continue rubber stamping nearly …
Vague statutory language can make laws hard to interpret and enforce. And that’s certainly true of the recently-passed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Exhibit A: Obamacare requires insurers to spend at least 85 percent of group market premiums–and 80 percent of individual market premiums–on medical expenses. The remainder goes to administrative costs and profits. But what does–and doesn’t–count as a medical expense? Health insurers, legislators and regulators are already haggling over that question.
The European economic model is dead. Don’t believe us? – Ask The Washington Post. Yesterday’s front-page story reported that the loans being made to stave off the debt crisis come with conditions which, if enforced, would require “European governments [to] rewrite a post-World War II social contract that has been generous to workers and retirees but has become increasingly unaffordable for an aging population.” There is an obvious and painful connection to the U.S. and our economic direction. Unless we adopt a much better set of economic policies, the American …
“We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told us just weeks before Congress passed President Barack Obama’s health care plan. Well, the nation’s post-passage Obamacare education continued yesterday when the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirmed that the federal government will have to spend an additional $115 billion implementing the law, bringing the total estimated cost to over $1 trillion. The estimate had been requested before passage of the bill by Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), but the CBO …
Will North Korea’s Kim Jong-il get away with murder? That’s a question Koreans, and many in the region, are asking a month and a half after a South Korean naval vessel was sunk, killing 46. An investigation, assisted by U.S. naval intelligence, and other international partners, is still ongoing. Yet it’s all but certain that the Cheonan was torpedoed, an act of war. While North Korean motives (escalation for aid? Kim Jong-il consolidating his power base? rogue captain?) remain the subject of debate, the destruction is clear.
Most people in Britain will be glad to see the back of the New Labour era after 13 years of socialist rule. Gordon Brown was a disastrous prime minister, whose list of achievements is nonexistent. He leaves behind a broken Britain, heavily in debt, fearful of its future, and in a state of decline. It will be up to the new PM, David Cameron, to get Britain back on its feet, both at home and abroad, heading an unprecedented Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition, in curious tandem with Nick Clegg, the most …
Senator’s John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) are set to release the Senate version of a cap and trade bill tomorrow that will call for a 17 percent cut in emissions below 2005 levels by 2020. But if cap and trade cannot garner enough support, Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) is prepared with a backup plan. Over the weekend Senator Reid told Spanish television network Univision, “I can do one this big because I have a couple of Republicans who would help me on that. But the big bill that …
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group often seen as an exclusive club of rich countries, voted unanimously on Monday to admit Israel. The admittance of Israel, along with two other new members (EU members Estonia and Slovenia) brings OECD membership to 34 countries. OECD membership rewards the many efforts by the three to reform their economies, including in such areas as combating corruption, protecting intellectual property rights and ensuring high standards of corporate governance. Those areas are also important factors used by The Heritage Foundation and The …
Ryan Mauro, an intelligence analyst with the Asymmetric Warfare and Intelligence Center, flags this new video by the Russian company Concern Morinformsystem-Agat selling its Club-K Container Missile System. Mauro reports: The system allows a weak nation to strike the land and sea targets of a superior force by placing cruise missiles into any type of 40 foot container. The video uses a ship, truck and train as examples of potential launching platforms. This means that once this weapon is sold, any of these transportation vehicles have to be seen as …
