Wind Energy Shutting Down in Europe : A Waste of Revenue

I wonder when the United States will wake up to the fact, as apparently many in Europe are, that green energy is a future resource, not a present replacement for fossil fuels. To allow an insignificant minority demand that the majority of citizens have their collective lives totally changed just to satisfy their ideology that defines you as the planets problems and must change their ways, but allows the instigators to live lives as they see fit. After all, who is the smartest in the room?

How is this fair? Where is the logic from the progressive socialists that they always thump their chests claiming how they are the ones saving the planet, but in reality they couldn't care less about the planet. Environmentalism is just a tool to force the population into activities that don't understand or want. No matter. just shut up and vote like you are told.

Offshore Wind Industry Having Problems
Source: Alex Morales, "Offshore Wind Industry Slowed by Birds, Bombs, Sharks," Bloomberg, February 20, 2014.

February 28, 2014

Birds, sharks and World War II-era bombs are getting the blame for holding up offshore wind farms and raising doubts about the costs of the technology, says Bloomberg.

This month, three utilities tossed aside plans to expand the world's biggest offshore wind farm in the Thames estuary in England. Over the last three months, each of the six largest U.K. utility companies have pulled back from marine energy projects, citing cost and technical challenges as well as environmental issues.

• "There's a bit of realism that unless we can deliver these projects for a lower price, then it's unrealistic to expect to continue to get political and government support," said Keith Anderson, chief executive officer of Iberdrola SA's ScottishPower Renewables unit.
• The British government has set an industry goal of reducing costs to £100 ($167) per megawatt hour by 2020. Currently, costs are estimated at £147, and meeting that target is unlikely.
• Companies are trying to find all sorts of ways to bring down costs, including building more powerful turbines.

Companies have closed down projects for a number of reasons.

• In December, ScottishPower pointed to basking sharks as their reasons for ending a wind project.
• German and British companies have had problems with finding old munitions. Two years ago, one company found a number of World War II mines as it began laying cables for a project. The discovery slowed down the cable-laying process, which was only just completed.
• Last week, EON, a German utility, along with Dong Energy A/S and Masdar Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co., scrapped expansion plans as the company could not guarantee that it could make required progress, even if it could meet the required three-year-long study on the impact that the wind machines would have on a fish-eating bird.

 

Productive Individuals Taxed To Destruction : Progressive's Redistribution of Income

The truth is 'a rising tide does raise all boats'. As much as the progressive socialists demonize the productive as being ruthless and cutthroat, and the how the middle and the poor are always on the losing side of prosperity, this article and many others shows the progressives socialist democrats to be the trouble-makers, advocating class warfare and division among the American people.

It has always been the ideology of the progressive socialist liberal left democrats to use class warfare to divide the population into the 'haves' and the 'have nots' to gain votes from the have nots, but at the same time accepting donations from the haves. 

Interestingly enough, this has always worked well for the progressive democrats but raises the question, why would the 1% believe it wise to contribute to those that want to destroy them? The reality of course is the progressive socialist doesn't want to destroy the hand that feeds them, in fact the progressive democrat is one of the upper class and finds the lower classes repugnant, loathed.

If the truth be known, this loathing is for all minorities as well. The lower classes and minorities are just tools to be used and abused when the progressive democrats need the votes. Sadly, the lower classes and a huge majority of the most disadvantaged are always the ones to vote like they are told and then suffer the most as the progressive socialist democrats never deliver.

I wonder what it will take to bring the disadvantaged to the conclusion they are being used and abused they most change their collective voting habits to give them a chance at the American dream?

The Truth about the One Percent
Source: James Piereson, "James Piereson: The Truth about the 'One Percent'," Wall Street Journal, February 18, 2014.

The typical rich person actually works for a salary, says James Piereson, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Concern over "income inequality" has swept the nation, but the crusade against the top 1 percent is based on dubious assertions.

• Last year, of 119 million households that filed tax returns, 1.1 million were in the top 1 percent of the income distribution.
• Congressional Budget Office data indicate that the top 1 percent received 15 percent of national income before taxes in 2010.
• Just $307,000 qualified a person to be in the top 1 percent which, Piereson points out, does not go very far in cities like New York or San Francisco.

Are the wealthy mostly Wall Street bankers generating earnings from stocks and real estate, or else executives with extravagant salaries? Not at all.

• A study of 2004 and 2005 tax returns indicates that 30 percent of the top 1 percent were actually salaried executives at nonfinancial business; 14 percent were doctors; 13 percent worked in finance; and 8 percent were lawyers. Of the 110,000 households in the top 0.1 percent, 41 percent were business executives versus 18 percent who worked in finance.
• These figures indicate that the vast majority of the top 1 percent earned salaries in small and medium-sized businesses, not large financial firms.
• Moreover, the top 1 percent includes a growing number of athletes, entertainers and coaches. The minimum salary in the NBA, the NFL and MLB is sufficient to put every player in the top 1 percent automatically.
• The federal government raised $900 billion in individual income taxes in 2010, $350 billion of which came from the top 1 percent. That same year, the top 1 percent earned 36 percent of their income from salaries and wages -- 22 percent came from businesses, farms and partnerships, while only 19 percent came from capital gains.

Notably, the same factors that have raised incomes of the wealthy -- a boom in asset prices, globalization and technical innovations that have increased the earning power of education individuals -- have elevated living standards across the world.
 

Government Sending & Taxing : A Short History

WOW who knew?  To bring efficiency and transparency to tax policy will take more then the will of congress, it will take an act of God. The problem is too much money and to few morals.

A Short History of Government Taxing and Spending
Source: Michael Schuyler, "A Short History of Government Taxing and Spending in the United States," Tax Foundation, February 19, 2014.
February 28, 2014

From 1930 to 2012, government expenditures rose from 12.1 percent to 35.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), says Michael Schuyler, a fellow at the Tax Foundation.

It is necessary to describe government receipts and expenditures as shares of economic output, because the size of the economy determines whether a particular burden is manageable -- $100 billion in taxes would crush a $150 billion economy but would be much less problematic for an economy of $600 billion.

• Schuyler notes that there are also other factors in addition to the size of GDP that should be considered in assessing the true impact of revenue and spending, including the complexity of taxes and whether programs are managed efficiently or wastefully, for example.
• The cost of regulations (federal regulations were estimated at $1.8 trillion in 2013) is also significant but are not considered in Schuyler's analysis.

From 1900 to 2012, federal government expenditures were less than 3 percent of the overall economy. The government was very small up to the New Deal era, spending on defense, the postal service and a few federal laws. Budgets were balanced, if not at a surplus, and, up to 1917, most revenue came from customs duties and excise taxes.
But in 2012, federal expenditures had hit 24 percent of GDP.

• Spending growth began in the Hoover administration and was amplified by Franklin Roosevelt. The same is true of taxes. Hoover increased the top marginal rate from 25 percent to 63 percent, with Roosevelt raising it up to 79 percent.
• War years tend to be marked by higher spending and budget deficits, and in fact, expenditures reached 20 percent of output during World War I. From 1950 to 2006, average federal expenditures have exceeded the maximum spending levels of World War I.
• Budget deficits became the norm after 1950, with Washington running a surplus very briefly at the end of the 20th century.
• With the 2007-2009 recession, federal spending reached its highest levels at any time since World War II, while revenue dropped to its lowest level since the 1940s.

The size of government has soared since 1930, with receipts increasing from 11.1 percent of GDP to 26.4 percent and expenditures rising from 12.1 percent of GDP to 35.6 percent. If the government wants to continue this expansion, something must be done to cut out unnecessary programs and bring efficiency and transparency to tax policy.
 

Policies Study Shows Small Government Works Best

Why study economic policy at all? When the progressive socialists liberal lift democrats are in power, there is only one policy agenda, ideology, and that's total control of all outcomes from a central totalitarian government. Discussion over.

Which Policies Bring Economic Growth?
Source: John Hood, "Laboratories for Prosperity," Reason Magazine, March 2014.
February 28, 2014

A review of economic literature confirms that small government policies strengthen economic growth, says John Hood, president of the John Locke Foundation.

The John Locke Foundation assembled a summary of 528 economic policy articles published from 1992 to 2013. The studies presented strong evidence that limited, not big, government is best for economic progress. 112 of the academic studies focused on state and local taxes.

• Only two of these studies found a link between higher tax burdens and stronger growth.
• Seventy-two of them, on the other hand, showed that taxes negatively impacted economic growth.
• There was also a link between state taxes and foreign investment in the United States. In one study, a 1 percent change in the state tax rate resulted in an 8 percent change in the share of manufacturing investment from taxed investors.

The evidence also indicated that states do not invest effectively and that regulations harm the economy.

• While education outcomes appeared to be correlated with economic growth, education expenditures did not. Of 79 studies on the subject, only 30 found a positive relationship between spending and growth in education, while 34 had mixed or insignificant results and 15 had negative results (due to the offset in growth from the additional taxes).
• A study that looked at the growth of major state government programs -- from public safety to education to housing subsidies and health care -- found that raising taxes to fund that additional spending almost always hurts economic growth. But slowing that spending and reducing tax rates, the study found, leads to higher investment and employment.
• Of 123 articles on regulatory policy, there was a positive economic effect from less regulation, not more, 67 percent of the time.

North Carolina serves as an example of a state that has latched on to policies that positively impact economic growth. The legislature dropped the income tax from 7.75 percent to a flat 5.75 percent and cut the corporate tax down from 6.9 percent to 3 percent.

Regulations that are not cost effective automatically expire and all regulations must undergo a review every decade. And in education, the state expanded charter schools and replaced teacher tenure with multiyear contracts based on merit pay.
 

Clinton Associations : Who Is Ed Mezvinsky?

Anybody can say anything they want and proclaim it true, and just because Snopes proclaims it to be true still begs a close look and some skepticism.   Even so, and given what we already know about the Clinton background of political intrigue and malfeasance or worse, this little bit of information on the Clinton associations with other like minded individuals, and now with the daughter is carrying on the association, does beg some thought as to just who are the Clintons and just what do they plan for our country if Hillary becomes president?   As the saying goes, 'you are known by the company you keep'.   http://www.snopes.com/politics/clintons/mezvinsky.asp SNOPES says it is true!--           Do You Know This Guy? He is Edward "Ed" Mezvinsky, born January 17, 1937.    Then you’ll probably say, “Who is Ed Mezvinsky?” Well, he is a former Democrat congressman who represented Iowa's 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives for two terms, from 1973 to 1977. He sat on the House Judiciary Committee that decided the fate of Richard Nixon. He was outspoken saying that Nixon was a crook and a disgrace to politics and the nation and should be impeached. He and the Clintons were friends and very politically intertwined for many years. Ed Mezvinsky had an affair with NBC News reporter Marjorie Sue Margolies and later married her after his wife divorced him.  n 1993, Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, then a freshman Democrat in Congress, cast the deciding vote that got President Bill Clinton’s controversial tax package through the House of Representatives.  In March 2001, Mezvinsky was indicted and later pleaded guilty to 31 of 69 counts of bank fraud, mail fraud, and wire fraud.  Ed Mezvinsky embezzled more than $10 million dollars from people via both a Ponzi scheme and the notorious Nigerian e-mail scams. He was found guilty and sentenced to 80 months in federal prison. After serving less than five years in federal prison, he was released in April 2008 and remains on federal probation. To this day, he still owes $9.4 million in restitution to his victims.  About now you are saying, “So what!”; Well, this is Marc and Chelsea Mezvinsky.  That’s right; Ed Mezvinsky is Chelsea Clinton's father-in law. Now Marc and Chelsea are in their early thirties and purchased a 10.5 million dollar NYC apartment.  Has anyone heard mention of any of this in any of the media? If this guy was Jenna or Barbara Bush's, or better yet, Sarah Palin's daughter's father-in- law, the news would be an everyday headline and every detail would be reported over and over.  And yet liberals say there are no double standards in political reporting.  And people are already talking about Hillary as our next President.   When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.         ~~Thomas Jefferson

Government Spending Cuts : Where - Who - How?

Cut government spending? Who will do this? Democrats? Republicans? Really? If spending is ever to be cut the present government will need to be totally reformed or all will be lost!

Theft and corruption is the rule of the day in our government as it is presently organized.

Where to Cut Government Spending
Source: Chris Edwards, "How to Spend $3.9 Trillion," Cato Institute, February 2014.

February 27, 2014

Over half of the federal government's spending in 2013 went toward transferring wealth through subsidies and benefit programs, says Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute.
Last year, the federal government spent $3.9 trillion.

• Of that, $1.98 trillion, or 51 percent, went toward wealth transfers (whether in the form of subsidies or government benefits such as Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, unemployment insurance and farm subsidies). This is the fastest-growing federal spending activity, growing at an average yearly rate of 6.7 percent.
• Fifteen percent, or $571 billion, was spent to purchase goods and services. These purchases run anywhere from defense equipment to paperclips.
• $510 billion went toward state aid, which comes in the form of health care programs, education and highway funding, and housing money.
• $414 billion was paid in interest on the federal debt, accounting for 11 percent of last year's spending.
• Federal employees -- 3.7 million of them -- were compensated to the tune of $407 billion. Defense workers are responsible for 60 percent of compensation costs.

Edwards suggests ways that the government could cut spending, as Americans' standards of living and economic growth will suffer if today's budget deficits continue. Transfers and aid to the states should be the biggest source of cuts.

• Transfer payments are not free: every dollar of spending that goes toward one person has to come from taxes on another person. Moreover, they discourage both taxpayers and aid recipients from being productive, hurting the economy even further. Social Security also suppresses savings and encourages early retirement. It should be privatized, which would encourage working and saving and increase growth.
• Federal aid to states only encourages states to overspend while inflating bureaucracy. Eliminating aid programs would lead to more transparent, responsible and frugal government.
• A look at government purchases reveals a massive amount of waste. Low-priority weapons systems should be cut, and activities that could be done by the private sector should be transferred out of government hands.
• The average wage and benefits for federal workers in 2012 was $114,976 -- 74 percent more than that of average private-sector worker, who received only $65,917. Cutting down on pension benefits would lead to major savings, as federal benefits are especially massive compared to those in the private sector.

 

Medicare (Part D) Drug Plans from CMS Due to End : Seniors Will Suffer

The given taking points from the progressive socialist democrats says they care about seniors and Medicare and Medicaid, 'the third rail', but in reality they couldn't care less what happens to seniors just as long as they get their votes.

Progressives are all about taking power from the people and then using that power to destroy them. Are the seniors stupid or just uninformed or misinformed? The trouble is this is the same message that the democrats have used to abuse seniors for decades and yet the seniors continue to collectively vote for more abuse.

Hopefully this time, November 2014 will be different as seniors are actually living the nightmare of the progressive socialist agenda.

Medicare Drug Plans: Don't Mess with Success
Source: Devon M. Herrick, "Medicare Drug Plans: Don't Mess with Success," National Center for Policy Analysis, February 27, 2014.

February 27, 2014

Provisions throughout the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will hurt seniors, says Devon Herrick, a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis. Older Americans are about to be hit with a series of new laws and regulations that will seriously impact their quality of, and access to, care.

• $716 billion has been cut from Medicare over the next 10 years in order to fund the ACA.
• Physicians are facing a 25 percent fee reduction for treating Medicare enrollees.
• The Independent Payment Advisory Board will have the power to reduce Medicare spending, regardless of the adverse impact on doctors who treat those enrolled in Medicare.
• Medicare Advantage (MA) plans cover 25 percent of seniors and add $825 in benefits to enrollees each year. But the ACA plans to cut funding for these plans.

On top of this, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) plans to do away with preferred pharmacy networks (arrangements between drug companies and pharmacy networks that promise exclusive business in exchange for lower drug costs) in Medicare Part D plans.

• This will only raise the cost of drugs and restrict access to them for many. Of the 39 million Americans on Medicare, 36 million are enrolled in Medicare Part D plans.
• Currently, pharmacy networks bid to offer their drugs at low cost and the winning bidders agree to exclusive arrangements with drug plans. The CMS proposal would not allow drug plans to exclude the pharmacy networks that do not offer the lowest prices; rather it would allow all of those networks to participate in the drug plan on the same terms as the winning bidder.
• This leaves no incentive for pharmacy networks to offer low costs, as they are assured the ability to participate in a drug plan regardless. Drug plans would lose all bargaining power, and pharmacies will only be incentivized to bid higher.

All told, nearly 14 million seniors with Medicare Part D will lose their drug plans if preferred networks are banned for 2015.
 

Practiciing Medicine Across State Lines : Why The Restrictions?

It seems licensing doctors is similar to getting a license to drive a taxi cab. If the state cab regulates who get a license, and from what I read this is no easy task given the unions and cronies in office, why not open the regulation so doctors can apply to other states while practicing in the state of choice? There can be some restriction like where did you get your degree, but for the most part medical universities in this country are reliably consistent.

Seems logical given if the doctors can be competent enough to get a license in one state they should be competent enough to preform in another.

Why the compression? dah! It's the power, money and the control that politicians believe they must have to do their job, the citizens be dammed.

Practicing Medicine across State Lines
Source: Robert Kocher, "Doctors without State Borders: Practicing across State Lines," Health Affairs Blog, February 18, 2014.

February 27, 2014

States should honor physicians' licenses in other states, says Robert Kocher, a partner at Venrock, a venture capital firm.

• Physician licensing is controlled by a mess of federal and state regulations, and doctors must be licensed for each state in which they practice medicine, though there are exceptions for emergencies and for doctors in bordering states, as well as for consultations.
• This system makes it difficult for doctors to care for patients in other states and it also poses a hurdle to telemedicine, a growing trend.
• Kocher encourages states to adopt "mutual recognition agreements," agreements between states that would honor the licenses of their respective physicians.

Medical standards today are set nationally by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Graduate Medical Education standards, and the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. To become a doctor, all aspiring physicians must pass one of two tests: the United States Medical Licensure Examinations or the Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination.

In addition to these uniform requirements, states have a variety of rules by which doctors must abide to obtain and maintain their licenses. While all states require proof of graduation from an accredited medical school and completion of a residency program, others have unique requirements, be it further testing, the completion of specific course work, or in-person interviews.

• Kocher says that the system is costly, not just in terms of complying with the regulations but indirectly for doctors and patients alike, who are prevented from treating patients in locations where they may be needed the most.
• These could become harmful in public health emergencies, he says, as 18 states lack license exemptions for volunteer doctors during disasters.

Kocher argues that the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation should initiate a project to deal with this issue, offering funding to states that agree to recognize one another's doctors' licenses.
 

Harry Reid's Screed Signs of Dementia (Video) : Sen. Ron Johnson Fires Back

Progressive socialist liberal democrat Harry Reid, along with Mr Obama, is the face of power that is destroying our country. If you want to be the person that pounds the last nail in our collective coffin, then vote for more progressive democrats.

 

Believe, it not the progressive socialist democrat that is driving us all into an early grave, it's the voter that put him in power in the first place. 

Watch the video at the end to get that warm and fuzzy feeling knowing this man wants you on your knees.

 

Is the new Democrat strategy to call victims of

Obamacare liars?

 

Senator Ron Johnson: Harry Reid's Comments "Astounding and Offensive"

By RightWisconsin

 

Senator Harry Reid may have previewed the latest left/Dem/media talking point on Wednesday when he lashed out at critics who recounted how they had been hurt by Obamacare, saying  "There’s plenty of horror stories being told. All of them are untrue."

 

Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson was quick to fire back:

"Today Senator Reid stood on the floor of the Senate and called thousands of Wisconsinites liars.

 

"Here are his exact words about Obamacare:   "There’s plenty of horror stories being told. All of them are untrue."  Watch the video here. Senator Reid’s statement is not only shockingly offensive, it is ignorant and irresponsible.

 

"This is an astounding and offensive statement.  I have heard directly from hundreds of individuals, families, and businesses in Wisconsin who are being truly harmed by the law – premiums increasing by several hundred percent or the health plans that they liked and wanted to keep are being lost. 

 

"It is shocking, even in today’s crass political climate, that the leader of the Senate Democrats would have the audacity to say outright that those real people with real stories are all liars.  An apology is in order.  And if Senator Reid truly believes what he says, then he needs to step outside of the Washington, D.C., bubble to listen and see what is really happening in this country."

In his  Victims of Government video series, Johnson has highlighted stories of those affected by Obamacare.  the series recently featured Kathi Rose, a Neenah woman who lost her health insurance despite the President's promise. 

 

Johnson has also introduced the "If You Like Your Health Plan You Can Keep It" Act to help millions of Americans keep their plans.
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSJOLivL-NU&feature=player_embedded



Vote for me - I love your vote

Olympic Ice Dancing Pair Find Likely Roles : Each to His Own

This is embarrassing - why did Mr Obama have to wear the tutu and not Putin? How did this get decided?

Italian Golfers live Long Lives : Why? (Humor)

An 80-year-old Italian goes a new doctor for a check-up.  The doctor is amazed at what good shape the guy is in and asks, 'how do you stay in such great physical condition?'

 

I'm Italian and I am a golfer,' says the old guy, 'and that's why I'm in such good shape.  I'm up well before daylight and out golfing up and down the fairways.  I then have a glass of vino and all is well.'

 

"'Well' says the doctor, 'I'm sure that helps, but there's got to be more to it.  How old was your Father when he died?'

 

'Who said my Father's dead?'

 

The doctor is amazed. 'You mean you're 80 years old and your Father's still alive.  How old is he?'

 

'He's 100 years old,' says the Old Italian golfer.  'In fact he golfed with me this morning, and then we went to the topless beach for a walk and had a little vino and that's why he's still alive.  He's Italian and he's a golfer too.'

 

'Well,' the doctor says, 'that's great, but I'm sure there's more to it than that.  How about your Father's Father?  How old was he when he died?'

 

'Who said my Nono's dead?'

 

Stunned, the doctor asks, 'you mean you're 80 years old and your grandfather's still living!  Incredible, and how old is he?'

 

'He's 118 years old,' says the Old Italian golfer.

 

The doctor is getting frustrated at this point, 'So, I guess he went golfing with you this morning too?'

 

'No, Nono couldn't go this morning because he's getting married today.'

 

At this point the doctor is close to losing it. 'Getting married?  Why would a 118 year- old guy want to get married?'

 

'Who said that he wanted to?'

Charter Schools Emerge From Chaos : Public Education Needs Reform

Isn't this just a good innovation to be rewarded but the reality is the charter schools are being attacked daily by the public school unions that see them as the 'dagger' that will eventually be their collective undoing.

The only the unions will survive is to innovate as well. But on the other hand, as Wisconsin pointed out with the passage of Act 10 freeing teachers to make the decisions to join a union or not can work and work well, proving unions are not necessary to make public education viable.

The success of charter schools is innovation at it's best, when the need is apparent, solutions will emerge.

600 New Charter Schools Established
Source: "Estimated Number of Public Charter Schools & Students," National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, February 12, 2014
February 25, 2014

An estimated 600 new public charter schools opened for the 2013-2014 school year, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools' (NAPCS) annual charter school report.

With the new schools in place, an additional 288,000 students are attending charters this school year, placing the total number of Americans in public charter schools at 2.5 million. That is an increase of 7 percent in the number of public charters and a 13 percent increase in student enrollment.

200 charter schools that were open in the last academic year closed their doors this past fall, for reasons ranging from low enrollment to financial problems to poor academic performance. NAPCS took the closures as evidence that charter schools work, with successful institutions staying open but those that fail to meet the needs of their students closing.

The report also looked at some state-specific figures for charter schools:

• California opened the most new charters for 2013-2014, with 104 new schools serving 48,000 additional students. The state also had the highest number of school closures, with 39 charters closing this year.
• Arizona, Florida and Texas followed California with the largest increases in charters, adding an additional 87, 75 and 52 new schools, respectively. That increase meant that Arizona upped enrollment by 39,000 students, with Florida adding 33,000 students and Texas adding 36,000.

With the closures, the net gain for charters in the 2013-2014 school year is 436 new schools, placing the total number of charters nationwide at 6,440.
 

Regulations Accumulate to Build Security : More Red Tape Equals Success

I don't know when congress will ever have the back bone to actually do something that will benefit this country without having it give them some votes. Reducing regulations will not be at the top of any politicians list of things to get done. It's much easier to do nothing except make things worse by producing or regulations. The politicians believes if they aren't producing more laws and regulations the citizens won't believe they are do their job.

Our government is out of control - it seems no one really cares.

A Solution to Regulatory Accumulation
Source: Patrick A. McLaughlin and Richard Williams, "The Consequences Of Regulatory Accumulation And A Proposed Solution," Mercatus Center, February 2014.

February 25, 2014

The 2012 Code of Federal Regulations, which contains all federal regulations currently in operation, was a whopping 170,000 pages. Regulations only continue to build up over the years, with new rules placed atop new rules as events suggest the need for more regulations. Obsolete and poorly performing regulations should be eliminated, say Patrick A. McLaughlin, a senior research fellow, and Richard Williams, director of policy research, at the Mercatus Center.

All of this accumulation negatively impacts businesses and industry, which are forced to comply with an ever-growing web of regulations that, while they may appear to make sense at the time of enactment, can prove not to be cost-effective.

• One study found that the accumulation of regulations between 1949 and 2005 slowed down economic growth by an average 2 percent per year.
• These regulations also impact investment. When the United States and the United Kingdom liberalized markets in the late 1970s and early 1980s, investment as a share of capital stock grew from 3.7 percent in 1975 to 8.15 percent in 1998. But countries that did not implement deregulatory reforms saw investment rates decrease by 5 percentage points.

Attempts to deal with the issue have largely been done through executive order and have not been able to achieve the type of large-scale reform that could be accomplished by an evidence-based, analytical process. Models do exist, however, that could be used to deal with this issue.

• The United States created the BRAC Commission to deal with the problem of closing military bases after the cold war. Congress made the commission independent, so as to keep special interest influence to a minimum, and required its members to agree to abide by its recommendations unless it passed a joint resolution of disapproval. The commission was able to close 11 major bases as a result.
• In the Netherlands, the Dutch set a goal of reducing regulatory costs by 25 percent and required all of its regulatory agencies to measure their regulatory costs using a standard model. As such, they were able to make comparisons and reduce 25 percent of costs.

Following these successful models, an independent regulatory review commission could be created to evaluate existing regulations in the United States. The authors suggest that with strict parameters -- such as requiring the commission to make changes that would reduce the administrative burden by 25 percent -- effective changes could actually be made, and those regulations no longer useful could be tossed out. They suggest that the commission's recommendations automatically go into effect unless Congress issues a joint resolution of disapproval of the entire cutback scheme, keeping pork barrel politics in check and limiting the influence of interest groups.
 

Education Savings Accounts Supports Parents Needs

Good innovation in education for parents that take an interest in their kids. Even when the state has taken an interest in making this work makes a good point we are headed in the right direction.

Education Savings Accounts Provide Solution
Source: Spencer Irvine, "Education Savings Saves Students," Accuracy in Academia, February 10, 2014.

February 25, 2014

American education is in need of reform and Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) provide a potential solution, says Spencer Irvine of Accuracy in Academia.

Detailing a panel discussion put on by the Heritage Foundation on school choice, Irvine describes the panelists' contributions to the school choice debate, which focused on ESAs, a program that would place state funds in a bank account for parents that can be used to pay for private school tuition or other education expenses.

In Arizona, ESA funds are $3,000 per student. While they were originally only available for special needs students, ESAs have been expanded to adopted children, children of military families and students in failing schools.

Foundation for Excellence in Education Senior Adviser Matthew Ladner pointed to the United States' unsustainable education spending, noting that the elderly and K-12 populations are simultaneously growing at a rapid pace in many states.

• Without a new education model, states are going to struggle to produce the level of funds for these students to which Americans are accustomed, he said. Ladner used Florida as an example, where the supply of public dollars is only dropping while demand for those dollars is increasing.
• On top of this disparity between supply and demand, Ladner noted that the system is plainly ineffective. "[W]e spend on average about $12,000 per child per year and about a third of our kids are full grade level proficiency...that's a system we can't afford."
• The ESA model works, Ladner said, because parents economize and make the decision as to where to send their education dollars, rather than leaving that decision up to "bureaucrats and lawmakers." And with parents in charge of these funds, it incentivizes the creation of better, and cheaper, educational models, he explained.

Jason Bedrick, a Cato Institute education policy analyst, pointed to parental satisfaction as an important factor in assessing the success of ESAs. In Arizona, 49 percent of parents were dissatisfied with their previous public school, but all parents in the ESA program were satisfied, with no parents responding that they were "strongly dissatisfied" with the accounts.

Bedrick distinguished an ESA from a voucher because "it allows parents to maximum their value in such a way that voucher programs...simply don't allow." Lowest income families were those least satisfied with their previous public schooling and therefore received the most benefit from ESAs.
 

Capital Gains Tax Strangles Prosperity & Innovation : Progressives Hate Success In Others?

This capital gains tax can not be lowered as it would allow more success in America - to the progressive socialist liberal democrats when in or out of power, success is abhorrent, especially when it is someone other then themselves.

The entire ideology of the progressive is based on dependency to government, and so the idea that allows individuals to become prosperous and therefore more independent rather then dependent is not in the best interest of the progressive democrat party. All individuals must be subservient to the greater good, that is absolute power in the hands of progressive democrats.

Progressives must have total control of all aspects of American life or they will not rest until they are. If they fall out of power their entire existence will be dedicated to getting power back and 'by any means necessary, a fundamental progressive strategy. To attack an opponent's party, family and friends is a main stay in their strategy.

Need an example, progressive socialist democrats attacking Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin and his family on nearly a daily basis. There is no tool for political and personal destruction of the opponent that the progressive will not use to gain or regain power. Nothing, and I mean nothing is more important the getting and keeping power.

History has shown they are ruthless and relentless. To believe otherwise is to assure your own demise.

Impact of the Capital Gains Tax
Source: Kyle Pomerleau, "The High Burden of State and Federal Capital Gains Tax Rates," Tax Foundation, February 11, 2014.

February 25, 2014

There are many problems with the capital gains tax, says Kyle Pomerleau, an economist at the Tax Foundation.

First of all, it is a tax on income that was already taxed when it was earned originally.

• When an individual earns a wage, that wage is taxed by the state and federal governments. He then takes what is left and purchases stock. When he sells that stock and realizes a gain, that profit (the difference between the value of the stock at time of sale and time of original purchase) is again taxed.
• Most notably, the difference in stock value is often merely attributable to inflation, not an actual gain. As such, the effective capital gains tax rate is often much higher than what is stated on paper, as the individual may not even have profited from the sale.

Second, the tax encourages an individual to consume rather than to save. An individual who spends his money now on purchases will have to pay a one-time sales tax. However, one who saves his money and invests in stocks or bonds will not only be subject to the capital gains tax, but also to additional sales taxes once he uses the income generated to make purchases.

Because the tax encourages consumption, fewer funds are invested. And people who do invest are hesitant, due to the tax, to move from one investment to another, even if it would be better. All of this slows economic growth.

The United States is further harmed by the tax because it encourages corporations to move to countries that have lower capital gains tax rates, making it easier to raise capital. The opposite is also true.  When the capital gains tax in the United States was lowered in 1978 from 39 percent to 20 percent, American firms were able to raise funds through stock offerings much more easily. In just five years, the daily volume on the New York Stock Exchange increased from 28.6 million shares to 85 million shares.

The capital gains tax in the United States outstrips much of the industrialized world. Lowering the tax would spur economic growth and increase savings and investment.
 

New Element Found : Pelosium

This is a little worn but still innovative and fun - still as well, scary and unfortunately true. The science of absurdity.

 

 

Discovery Announcement - The densest element in the known Universe has been found!

 

 

 

 

 

Pelosium:

 

A major research institution has just announced the discovery of the densest element yet known to science.  The new element has been named Pelosium.  Pelosium has one neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons, and 223 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 311.

 

These particles are held together by dark forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.

The symbol of Pelosium is PU.

 

Pelosium's mass actually increases over time, as morons randomly interact with various elements in the atmosphere and become assistant deputy neutrons within the Pelosium molecule, leading to the formation of isodopes.

 

This characteristic of moron-promotion leads some scientists to believe that Pelosium is formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity in concentration.

 

 

Identity Theft (Hackers Stealing Information) : Obama Stealing Souls

As ObamaCare becomes more and more infested in our health care system, and the fact that we now know there are no protections from hackers that want to steal all identities of everyone that has signed up for this catastrophe, it becomes very clear the Obama administration doesn't care about identity theft as long as they can have access to the information as well for expanding their voter base. Knowledge is power.

While the hacker steals your information, the Obama administration is stealing your soul.

Rise of Medical Identity Theft
Source: Michael Ollove, "The Rise of Medical Identity Theft," Stateline, February 7, 2014.

February 17, 2014

Medical identity theft has risen alongside technological developments, says Stateline.
In 2013, 43 percent of all data breaches in the United States involving personal information were breaches of medical records.

Not only does medical identity theft lead to financial consequences for victims, but often victims end up with incorrect medical information in their files as a result of the thief's use of their information. Medical identity theft is used to obtain medical services, devices, insurance reimbursements or drugs.
One of the concerns with the Affordable Care Act has been whether the health insurance exchanges could lead to privacy concerns. Moreover, the law has emphasized digitizing medical records as a way to cut costs and increase efficiency, but growing concerns exist that digital records only open the door to further identity theft.

According to the World Privacy Forum, medical identify theft can come in a number of forms:

• A psychiatrist in Massachusetts created false diagnoses of drug addiction and depression for patients that he had never actually treated in order to submit insurance claims for psychiatric sessions that never happened. When one of the victims applied for a job, he found out about the false diagnosis, despite never having been a patient of the psychiatrist.
• One man in Colorado received a $44,000 bill for a surgery that he had never had after his personal information was stolen.
• One thief used a Pennsylvania man's identity at five hospitals, receiving more than $100,000 worth of treatment. All of his medical records were in the victim's name.
• A Missouri thief created false driver's licenses for those whose identities she stole. Using one of the licenses, she went to a hospital, obtained the victim's health records and received a prescription.

Personal information can be stolen from hacking into computer networks or from stealing laptops. The Department of Health and Human Services says that half of all medical security breaches result from the theft of a computer or electronic device.
 

Corporate Taxes : Consumers & Workers Pay

That the public continually understands that corporations don't pay any income tax is a direct result of the media. Where else would the general public get the information that they need to make informed decisions?

Little wonder then why the general public is so misinformed unless they watch FOX News. 'They report and then the public decides' but the main stream media, the letter channels and most printed media, have other ideas about reporting the news and just who gets to make the decisions.

But the bottom line is a matter of perception of the truth, which is the very basis of the ideology of the main stream press. It's formula that has worked for decades for the press, managing the news to support an agenda, and in this case, it's the agenda of the progressive democrats.

Little wonder then the belief among the masses that corporations are villains as this is how they are portrayed in the press. That the corporation do pay taxes is of little concern to the individuals that wish them harm.

So it's not about the truth, it's about the perception of the truth, and for the most part, perception is reality.

Who Actually Pays Corporate Income Taxes?
Source: Philip Cross, "Corporate Income Taxes -- Who Pays?" Fraser Institute, January 2014.
February 24, 2014

Regular people are the ones who ultimately pay corporate income taxes, says Philip Cross of the Fraser Institute.

When governments need a revenue source, many people turn immediately to corporations, thinking that the corporate income tax is an easy way to bring in more money. Many see the corporation -- a big, profitable business that can stand to pay the taxes -- as an ideal revenue source. But it is ultimately consumers, workers and investors who bear the cost of corporate income taxes:

• A corporate income tax is already a form of "double taxation," as corporate profits are already taxed when they are paid out in dividends.
• The tax also hurts workers. When corporations face a high income tax, they take steps to offset that cost, often by lowering labor costs. This could mean lowering wages or even shifting operations to places with lower taxes, causing workers to lose jobs entirely.
• Lastly, corporations can also choose to offset their taxes by increasing their prices, passing on the tax to consumers in the form of more expensive goods and services.

Despite the fact that the corporate income tax is always passed on to individuals, it has proven a difficult argument politically, as people are persist in their belief that it is unfair to allow corporations to operate untaxed. If abolishing the tax is politically impossible, at the very least, governments should seek to lower the income tax on corporations as much as they can.

Every percentage point increase in corporate tax rates erodes the tax base. In fact, one study found that every one point increase in tax rates results in a drop of 13.6 percent in the corporate tax base. This illustrates how easily businesses can simply move their operations to lower-tax jurisdictions to avoid paying exorbitant rates.

The biggest hurdle to overcome in resolving the corporate income tax situation is public perception of the fairness of corporate income taxes.
 

Governor Blasio (NYC) Attacking Charter Schools : Blasio Hates the Poor?

This act by Blasio rings a little similar in tone as one of the first acts of Mr Obama after he took office was to close the charter schools in Washington DC. This is a little confusing in that one of the very basic understandings in the progressive socialist liberal left democrat ideology is that they are for the poor and disadvantaged.

Why attack and destroy the very members of our society that need the help the most? Do you think that maybe the progressive socialist are not telling us the truth about how they care so much for the poor? A progressive socialist democrat wouldn't lie about such a thing, would they?

New York City Mayor Opposes Charter School Growth
Source: "Killing the Golden Goose," The Economist, February 15, 2014.

February 24, 2014

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio wants to curb charter school growth, says The Economist.

• Support for charters is strong, with 70 percent of Americans favoring them, according to a poll from PDK and Gallup last year.
• But only 5 percent of the nation's children are actually in charters, largely due to teachers' union opposition (as charter schools are not unionized).
• Enrollment in charters has grown by 80 percent over the last five years.
• A full 79 percent of New Orleans children are enrolled in charter schools, 51 percent in Detroit and 43 percent in Washington, D.C.

New York City had been enrolling some of the largest numbers of charter students, but its newly elected mayor, Bill de Blasio, is not a fan. De Blasio's schools chancellor announced a plan at the end of January to move $210 million in charter school funds to pay for pre-kindergarten teaching and declared that all charter school expansion plans are going to be reviewed.

The mayor also intends to charge charter schools rent for the use of public school spaces.

• Charters do not receive state funding for facility costs, and New York City rent is incredibly expensive. As a result, Mayor Bloomberg had allowed charters to use underutilized public school space (such as gyms, libraries and cafeterias) for free.
• 115 of New York City's 183 charters share space in this fashion, and they would suffer if they are suddenly charged rent. Those 68 charters that do not share space pay an average $515,137 for facility space annually.
• The Manhattan Institute estimates that 71 percent of charters would fall into deficit if they are charged rent for these spaces.

As an example of who would be affected by this rule, Bronx 2 -- a charter school that serves mainly black and Latino children -- shares space with PS 55, a district public school.

• Ninety-seven percent of Bronx 2 students passed their state mathematics exam and 77 percent of students passed English, making the school number three in the entire state.
• At PS 55, on the other hand, only 3 percent of students passed English and only 14 percent passed math.

These policies are not expected to be popular, as charter schools in New York City routinely outperform district schools and most residents want more charters, not less. That demand is evidenced by the fact that New York has 50,000 children currently on charter school waiting lists.
 

Toll Roads Better Then Gas Taxes For Maintenance?

Hmmmm - what may be similar to this concept of having only those that use the highways pay to have them maintained could also apply to school funding.  Just think of all the people that don't have children in school but still have to pay the school tax at the end of the year.

Why not just have the parents that have school aged children pay the bill? That's fair, right? I wonder if the concept for our highways, users pay the tolls, would be attacked at the same rate that a school proposal to have individual funding would be contested? Food for thought.

Why Per-Mile Tolling Is Better Than Fuel Taxes
Source: Robert W. Poole and Adrian T. Moore, "Ten Reasons Why Per-Mile Tolling Is a Better Highway User Fee Than Fuel Taxes," Reason Foundation, February 2014.

February 24, 2014 maintenance

The fuel tax should be replaced with a per-mile tax, say Robert W. Poole and Adrian T. Moore of the Reason Foundation.

Highways are primarily funded by fuel taxes and have been since 1919, when Oregon became the very first state to institute a fuel tax for the purpose of establishing and maintaining highways. By 1930, the rest of the states had done the same. And in 1956, the federal government established its own fuel tax.

During the 20th century, federal and state fuel tax revenue increased year to year, with the exception of World War II. But the 21st century has been different. Funding has suffered, and will continue to suffer, due to a combination of decreased vehicle travel (due to unemployment as a result of the recession), stringent fuel-economy standards (a per-gallon tax generates a lot less revenue when cars require fewer gallons of gas), and political opposition to increasing the fuel tax.

Poole and Moore provide reasons why a per-mile charge, rather than a tax on fuel, would be a better solution to highway funding, including:

• A toll per-mile is a direct fee based upon actual use. A fuel tax, on the other hand, is paid regardless of whether a person actually travels on a highway. Funding, thus, would be funneled back to the highway providers in proportion to the amount of miles driven on each road.
• It is sustainable for the long term. Even if fuel economy standards change -- or if gasoline is replaced entirely with a different energy source -- revenue is steady and directly related to the use, and therefore to the needed maintenance, of the highway system.
• Those who are actually using highways and bridges will be the ones paying for them, while drivers who do not use those roads will not have to pay the costs of upkeep.
• If a road needs maintenance or needs to be expanded, the project is more likely to happen because the roads that are used by more people will also generate more revenue, providing necessary financing.
• Tolling would lead to a reduction in traffic congestion, as demonstrated by pilot projects in various states.

 

EU Green Energy Policy A Failure : Consumer's Rates Skyrocket

The environmental movement that is strangling energy production in America is not about saving the planet or pollution for the most part, it is about developing an agenda that controls outcomes.

There are some in the movement that truly believe fossil fuels will destroy everything on the planet including all living things, acid rain and green house gases etc., but the number of individuals that claim the mantle of global warming or climate change or what ever the present irritation is for the media talking heads have, a different agenda running  and are most vocal contingent.

The agenda of the modern environmentalists is taking the power away from the individual to determine their own destiny, and then turning it over to an agency of the federal government that is under the control of the progressive socialists, the EPA.

Given all the corruption that is associated with the global warming agenda, think Al Gore and the new rules for CO2 emissions from the EPA for coal fired electricity generation, why would any rational individual believe anything they say as fact?

And related to this corruption of misinformation of environmentalists and their out right lies, and then with our federal government so riff with failure and mismanagement as well, which is dominated by individuals willingly lying about every aspect of their collective actions, we have to invoke those famous words from Hillary Clinton, "We have to have a willing suspension of disbelief".

United States Should Not Follow EU Energy Policies
Source: Robert Bryce, "Maintaining the Advantage: Why the U.S. Should Not Follow the EU's Energy Policies," Manhattan Institute, February 2014.

February 24, 2014

The United States should not follow the European Union's lead in crafting energy policy, says Robert Bryce, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Electricity prices in Europe are far higher than those in the United States.

• The average price of residential electricity in the EU increased by 55 percent between 2005 and 2013, and industrial electricity rates have risen by 26 percent.
• Today, a German household pays three times what an American household pays for electricity, thanks to European energy policies marked by government interference.

EU energy costs have gone up thanks to massive subsidies for renewable energy producers, renewable energy mandates, and a cap-and-trade system that distorts the market and discourages efficiency.

Still, some American lawmakers have called for a European-style energy policy. Such a policy would raise prices -- increasing household energy bills by 29 percent -- and destroy America's energy competitiveness.
The European Union recently issued a mandate requiring wind and solar to generate 27 percent of overall energy. What would happen if the United States did this?

• Assuming no increase in electricity consumption in the United States in future years, producing a megawatt-hour of electricity from wind will cost an additional 32 percent more than from natural gas.
• And an additional megawatt-hour of solar will cost 120 percent more than natural gas.
• One natural gas megawatt-hour of electricity would cost $65.60, but producing that from wind would be $86.60 and from solar $144.30.
• A 27 percent mandate would require a cost of $43.4 billion per year, adding $31.41 on average to each household's bill per month.

Instead, the United States should do away with subsidies for renewable energy and craft policies that would encourage energy development. By removing restrictions on coal-fired electricity plants and keeping fracking free of unnecessary regulations, the United States can reduce energy costs even further.
 

Battery Stroage Safety (Video) : Practice Safety First

This short video is on the safety of 9 volt batteries when storied  - in one case batteries that were set aside for disposal caused a house fire.

Good information to know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=OSJH21WmALc

Genius Is Ordinary For 5 Year Old : (Video) This Is Astounding!

Okay, take a minute and watch this video of a five year old that knows every country in the world and their capitals and the proper pronunciation. He appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel show.

This is absolutely incredible!!


http://www.radio1.si/strani/Oddaje.aspx?ID=24235

Progressive's Socialism in Health Care : Hospitals / Physicans Innovate

This is interesting - the landscape is changing in health care as innovation in the free market is starting to take hold despite the progressive socialist  governments 'jack boot' on the collective necks of the general public.

More Doctors Becoming Employees
Source: Elisabeth Rosenthal, "Apprehensive, Many Doctors Shift to Jobs With Salaries," New York Times, February 13, 2014.

February 21, 2014 physicans

An increasing number of doctors are moving to salaried hospital jobs, says the New York Times.

• In 2004, physician placement firm Meritt Hawkins saw 11 percent of job offers filled involving hospital employment.
• Last year, that number skyrocketed to 64 percent.
• Over the next two years, Merritt Hawkins expects that figure to reach 75 percent.
• Rather than work independently, 60 percent of family doctors and pediatricians are classified as employees.
• The same is true for half of all surgeons in the United States and a quarter of all surgical subspecialists (earn, nose and throat surgeons, for example).

But will this move toward salaried doctors lead to lower costs? That question is unclear.

• One economist at Brandeis University, Robert Mechanic, says that he expects more expensive care to result, at least in the short run.
• Hospitals add a "facility fee" to procedures, so when private practice officers are purchased by a hospital, even a test performed in that office has that fee added on.
• Also, salaried doctors often receive a bonus based upon how much billing they generate. As a result, doctors could be incentivized to order more, and unnecessary, tests.

Efforts are being made across the board to change incentives that drive up health care costs.

• More employees and insurers, for example, have taken to paying health systems an annual, all-inclusive payment for each patient, regardless of how many tests are required. Unnecessary tests, therefore, end up costing the hospital money.
• Similarly, some hospitals are changing their bonus structure. Instead of awarding bonuses for billing, some hospital systems are awarding bonuses based on quality and effectiveness of care.

Merritt Hawkins president Mark E. Smith described the trend as a shift from a focus on volume to a focus on quality.