Economic Growth Meager : Longer Hours, Not Higher Wages

Who knew? The latest figures that just came out from the government  indicates that the GDP for this quarter was 2.3%, which is terrible in it's self, but worse, this figure is not actuate. The government is using new methods to calculate the GDP now so as to make the economy look better then it actually is. It's just progressive politics. Deception rules the day.

Just watch what happens to the economic figures if a Republican wins the White House?

Longer Hours, Not Higher Wages, Have Driven Modest Earnings Growth
Source: Elise Gould, "Longer Hours, Not Higher Wages, Have Driven Modest Earnings Growth for Most American Households," Economic Policy Institute, July 23, 2015.

July 30, 2015

Elise Gould of the Economic Policy Institute finds that American households are working longer hours -- hours they used to have for other activities such as leisure or family time. These longer hours are the main reason why household earnings increased over the last 35 years.

• Between 1979 and 2007, annual earnings of most households (those between the 20th and 80th percentiles of earnings) increased by 15.2 percent, rising to just under $60,000 by 2007.
• During this period, the average hourly wages of these households grew $1.05 per hour, while annual hours rose by 289 hours.

The figure above shows the majority (61 percent) of the rise in annual earnings of middle-earning households was due to increasing annual hours and not increasing wages. Less than half (only 39 percent) of the increase in annual earnings was due to increasing hourly wages.

For lower-earning households, increasing annual hours contributed nearly 75 percent to increases in annual earnings. Meanwhile, households at the top experienced the reverse phenomenon: for them, increasing hourly earnings explained over 90 percent of rising annual earnings.

So that there is no concern about cherry-picking endpoints, it's useful to note that if we examine the full period (1979-2013), the meager rise in annual earnings for moderate-earning households is driven even more by increasing hours, as opposed to increasing hourly wages. During this period, increasing hours contributed 74 percent to annual middle-earning household earnings, while hourly earnings only contributed the remaining 26 percent.
 

Genetically Engineered Products Stonewalled : Ideology of Fear & Ignorance

When the ideology of ignorance and fear of the unknown rules the day, only bad things can be expected of occur. That a progressive socialist liberal government would decide that innovation in agriculture products is a threat to our safety just because they don't like or understand innovation, is just another reason, among many others, to vote them all out of office.

Isn't this much like the global warming, climate change insanity that infests the minds of the progressives that are in control of our government? When logic and common sense are a thing of the past, and replaced with ideological principles of repression and control, all will be lost.

The question again is what advantage did the Obama administration believe it had to have by stopping genetically engendered products? Was it just to stop American leadership for prosperity? Can it be that simple? New products that bring new forms of prosperity to the citizens and therefore a threat to progressive socialistic ideology?


To Market, To Market
Source: Henry I. Miller, "To Market, To Market," Hoover Institute, 2015.

July 30, 2015

In March the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) certified that several new varieties of genetically engineered potatoes and apples are safe to eat, closely following the Department of Agriculture's approval of them for unlimited cultivation and sale. The new products offer intriguing benefits such as:

• Bruise-resistance.
• Browning resistance when cut.
• Less waste.
• Less of a chemical that is converted to a presumptive carcinogen when heated.

By withholding or delaying approvals of new products that offer improvements in safety, agronomic traits, and appeal to consumers, federal regulators for years have done their best to prevent U.S. researchers and companies from realizing transformative changes in American agriculture using the most modern techniques of genetic engineering:

• High amounts of time are needed from submission to decision for genetically engineered plants (1,210 days for the USDA, compared to 372 days for Brazil and 771 days for Canada).
• The average cost of bringing a genetically engineered crop plant to market is $136 million, far more than for other new plant varieties.
• Redundant prolonged case-by-case reviews are the rule for organisms modified with molecular genetic engineering techniques.

The blame and shame are shared by senior officials at USDA and FDA and in the Obama White House. Kathleen Merrigan, deputy secretary of agriculture during the first Obama term, was relentlessly opposed to genetic engineering and obstructed its advances at every opportunity.

Excessive regulation comes at a cost of preventing the introduction of beneficial innovation, and eventually lack of innovation is a source of heightened risk to human health and the environment.
 

ACA Enrollment Fraud : A Control Nightmare

My goodness. We knew that the ACA, ObamaCare, would be a nightmare to implement and enforce, but the full breath of just how catastrophically invasive this law is only now becoming the actual disaster for our health care and our nation we all thought it would be.

Given the $trillions of dollars that this will cost the taxpayers over the next several decades, it isn't a stretch to believe this new mandate could be the trigger that once and for all brings our country to it's knees.

Observations on 18 Undercover Tests of Enrollment Controls for Health-Care Coverage and Consumer Subsidies Provided under the Act
Source: Seto Bagdoyan, "Observations on 18 Undercover Tests of Enrollment Controls for Health-Care Coverage and Consumer Subsidies Provided under the Act," Government Accountability Office, July 16, 2015.

July 30, 2015

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) conducted undercover tests to assess the enrollment controls of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) federal Health Insurance Marketplace. The Marketplace approved 11 of the 12 fictitious applicants who received a total of $30,000 in annual advance premium tax credits, plus eligibility for lower costs at time of service.

• For 7 of the 11 fictitious applicants, the GAO intentionally did not submit all required verification documentation but their subsidized coverage was not cancelled.
• The Marketplace did not accurately record all inconsistencies.
• The Marketplace reported incorrect information for tax filing purposes for 3 of the enrollees.
• The Marketplace terminated coverage for 6 of the 11 enrollees because they lacked necessary documentation, however the GAO was able to reinstate 5 of the terminations and received increases in subsidies.
• GAO was not able to receive telephone assistance for 5 of the 6 enrollees.

To be eligible, the individual must be a U.S. citizen, not be incarcerated and they shall be determined if they are eligible for income-based subsidies. The tests included fictitious applications who provided invalid Social Security identities, noncitizens and applicants who did not provide Social Security numbers. GAO used publicly available hardware and software to produce fictitious documents to submit.

The Marketplace resolved inconsistencies that should have disqualified applicants from subsidies to allow them to continue subsidies. When reviewing documentation, the document-process contractor does not inspect for fraud because it is not equipped to do so.

A "good-faith effort" policy has been employed for applicants that have submitted at least one documentation to not cancel their policy, but this does not explain the three applicants that had no documentation but received subsidies.  For three applicants there were open inconsistences related to citizenship status. GAO never submitted any citizenship documentation to the Marketplace but still had subsidized coverage restored.
 

American Dream Fading? : Defenseless Subjects All

But the problem is the longer restraint exists to push back against the surging socialists, the harder it will be to change the direction of the nation. Twice the nation voted to continue the socialist nightmare. Twice the nation voted to allow courts to rule the nation. Where's the outrage from the majority? Are they asleep at the wheel?

As citizens become frustrated and fearful with a hopeless attitude that they, as individuals, can not stop the surge, there are many that willingly succumb to the siren call of government promises of a  life style where everyone is free from responsibility, the only requirement is they have do what they are told. That's easy enough, right?

Sadly, in America, that number of individuals, willing to bend the knee, is growing faster then those that are fearful of losing the America dream of freedom to chose and individual liberty. 

The question remains, who will lead the country back to prosperity? Will there be enough citizens left to take up the banners of freedom and march as one to defeat the enemies of our Constitution?

Armed Citizens or Defenseless Subjects: Gun Laws in the U.S.
Source: Allen West, "We Don't Need Obama to Develop 'Gun Safety Laws' - Guns Already Have Safeties," CNS News, July 28, 2015.

July 30, 2015

Recently the U.S. Supreme Court used the 14th Amendment to painstakingly create a new right based upon individual behavioral choice and redefined the meaning of marriage. Yet we have the liberal progressive left who believes that a long-established individual right -- the Second Amendment -- should not be a right, says Allen B. West, president and CEO of the National Center for Policy Analysis.

President Obama doesn't seem to understand that we do not need him to develop a policy of "gun safety laws" -- guns already have safeties on them. If you examine the gun violence in Chicago or Baltimore you will find that they have the most stringent of gun control laws on the books. The sad incidents in Lafayette, Louisiana or Aurora, Colorado were not caused by guns. They were the result of individuals who raised serious, unattended red flags, just like the shooter in Sandy Hook.
At a time when we are facing grave threats to liberty we must reject the notion of making America defenseless.

• Our borders are unsecured.
• We have sanctuary cities providing free operating zones for criminal illegal immigrants being released by our government.
• We have the domestic threat of militant Islamic jihadists.
• We are decimating our U.S. military capacity and capability.

The reason why Americans stood at Lexington Green and Concord Bridge: A tyrant wanted gun control -- the answer was the "shot heard 'round the world." The lesson to be learned from American history is that you can push law-abiding people only so far.
 

Economic Validation : Young Women Love Bernie?

Rush Limbaugh says if he raises his voice to make a point,  these young women run in terror into the arms of the socialist democrats that comfort them with promises they will validate their ignorance.

Are the democrats right? Is the "Life of Julia" alive and well?

Jon Stewart Dances On Strings

Jon, Jon - I thought I knew ye ? But no, I was delusional to think he was anything other then what he is, just one more clown dancing to the tune of the progressive socialists.

Medicare & Medicaid Mandates : 50 Years of Failure to Deliver

 It's the third rail of politics and the existing thinking that anyone that has the idea to reform these two mandates to save the systems will suffer destruction. It has always been this way and it seem nothing has changed in today's politics, the people be dammed.

50 Years of Dysfunction: The Failures of Medicare and Medicaid
Robert Moffit / Nina Owcharenko        (Daily Signal)       

Fifty years ago, on July 30, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed legislation creating the nation’s two largest federal health entitlements, Medicare and Medicaid.

Medicare was created as a social insurance program for seniors and those with disabilities. It is financed primarily by payroll taxes collected during a recipient’s working life, and secondarily by personal and business income taxes.

Medicaid was designed as a welfare program to provide health care services to vulnerable low-income groups. Medicaid is jointly financed by federal and state governments.

Unfortunately, at the age of 50, both Medicare and Medicaid continue to suffer from problems inherent to their structure and organization.

For example, both programs:

• Limit choice
• Are overly bureaucratic and slow to change
• Suffer from crucial gaps in coverage and inefficient pricing
• Are plagued with losses through waste, fraud and abuse

Medicare is the largest purchaser of health care in the nation, covering roughly 55 million persons.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates Medicare’s total annual cost at $615 billion in 2015, and it is scheduled to exceed $1 trillion by 2023.

In other words, over the next 75 years, American seniors are expecting tens of trillions of dollars of Medicare benefits that are not paid for. Today, working taxpayers, mostly through business and personal income taxes, fund an estimated 86 percent of the program’s annual cost.

For Medicaid, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) Office of the Actuary estimates that Medicaid’s total (federal and state combined) spending is expected to reach $529 billion in 2015, with 68.9 million enrollees. Fifty years later, in its July 22, 2015 memo to Senate Budget Committee staff, Medicare’s Office of the Actuary reports that Medicare’s debt—the program’s long-term unfunded liability—ranges from $27.9 to $36.8 trillion. Whether it’s the lower or higher debt number, this year’s estimates are worse than last year’s by more than a $1 trillion.

For Medicaid, cost and enrollment are expected to continue to grow, in particular due to the expansion of the program under the Affordable Care Act. By 2023, total Medicaid spending is projected to climb to $835 billion, and enrollment will near 80 million.

The president’s answer is to cut Medicare payments to medical professionals and institutions.
Under Obamacare, the Medicare Trustees warn, “[b]y 2040, approximately half of hospitals, 70 percent of skilled nursing facilities and 90 percent of home health agencies would have negative total facility margins, ” adding that this creates the “possibility of access and quality of care issues for Medicare beneficiaries.” For Medicaid, access and quality of care are already a top concern.

A recent CDC study found that only 68.9 percent of physicians would accept new Medicaid patients.
For the next 50 years, Congress could initiate transformative changes through defined contribution (“premium support”) financing in both programs, giving patients direct control over the flow of health care dollars and compelling health plans and providers to compete for patients’ dollars on a level playing field.

Intense competition among health plans and providers would stimulate innovation in benefit design and care delivery, improve patient outcomes and enhance patient satisfaction and save serious money for seniors and taxpayers alike.

Tocqueville Predicted America's Tyranny?

 Incredible! Tocqueville understood what can happen when we become to self important and forget our responsibilities to sustain the rights and privileges that our forefathers gave us in our Constitution.

Again Tocqueville foresaw what will happen if government is allowed to become god, it's hard work to take responsibility for your actions, it's just easier to let others that are driven by a destructive ideology for the hearts and minds of the population win the day and therefore submit to their control.

Has the Tocqueville prediction come true? I truly fear he is right. Is the war on Christianity one of the steps to replace God in Heaven with the god of government? But maybe even worse, that it's not the majority that brings the tyranny in America that Tocqueville predicted, but the minority.

'Majority Rule and Minority Right' is a thing of the past, now it's 'minority rule and the majority must stand down and shut up'.


Born 225 Years Ago, Tocqueville Predicted the Tyranny of the Majority in Our Modern World
Arthur Milikh                (Daily Signal)

 We often boast about having attained some unimaginable redefinition of ourselves and our nation. How odd, then, that someone born 225 years ago today could understand us with more clarity and depth than we understand ourselves.

Back in 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville accurately foresaw both much of what ails us and our remarkable uniqueness and strengths. Tocqueville’s deservedly famous book, “Democracy in America,” was the product of his nine-month excursion throughout Jacksonian America. The purpose of this trip was to study our country’s political institution and the habits of mind of its citizens.

America’s Place in the World
Tocqueville correctly thought the then-developing America was the way of the future. As such, he foresaw that Europe would never be restored to its former greatness—though he hoped it could serve as the cultural repository of the West.

 

He also predicted Russian despotism, thinking that Russia was not yet morally exhausted like Europe and would bring about a new, massive tyranny. In fact, he conjectured that America and Russia would each “hold the destinies of half the world in its hands one day.”

The majority’s moral power makes individuals internally ashamed to contradict it, which in effect silences them, and this silencing culminates in a cessation of thinking.

He therefore hoped America would serve as an example to the world—a successful combination of equality and liberty. And an example of this was needed, since equality can go along with freedom, but it can even more easily go along with despotism. In fact, much of the world did go in the direction of democratic despotism—wherein the great mass of citizens is indeed equal, save for a ruling elite, which governs them. In a strange sense, Tocqueville would think that North Korea is egalitarian.
Despite his hopes for America, Tocqueville thought grave obstacles would diminish our freedom—though he didn’t think them insurmountable.

The Power of the Majority
Most alarming to him was the power of the majority, which he thought would distort every sphere of human life.
Despots of the past tyrannized through blood and iron. But the new breed of democratic despotism “does not proceed in this way; it leaves the body and goes straight for the soul.”
That is, the majority reaches into citizens’ minds and hearts. It breaks citizens’ will to resist, to question its authority, and to think for themselves. The majority’s moral power makes individuals internally ashamed to contradict it, which in effect silences them, and this silencing culminates in a cessation of thinking. We see this happen almost daily: to stand against the majority is to ruin yourself.

Moreover, Tocqueville feared that the majority’s tastes and opinions would occupy every sphere of sentiment and thought. One among many illuminating examples is his commentary on democratic art. He foresaw that the majority would have no taste for portraying great human beings doing great deeds. Art used to be the pictorial representation of man’s connection to the natural or divine order to which he belongs. But in modern democracies, art would go in the direction of the majority’s tastes: it would be abstract, focused on color and shape.

Why? Because to experience this kind of art, one needs to only have senses, whereas to experience the art of the past, one needs an education in the classics—the Bible and ancient literature especially. It’s easy to pontificate about Jackson Pollock, while it’s difficult to understand Michelangelo. But most revealing is that abstract art is an expression of democracy’s hatred for human greatness, the very theme of art.

Tocqueville’s Predictions About the Modern State
The influence on the mind of democracy and the majority weakens and isolates individuals. This creates fertile ground for a new kind of oppression that “will resemble nothing that has preceded it in the world.”
Tocqueville foresaw an “immense tutelary power”—the modern state—which would degrade men rather than destroy their bodies. Over time, he feared, the state would take away citizens’ free will, their capacity to think and act, reducing them to “a herd of timid and industrious animals of which the government is the shepherd.” Are contemporary China and Russia substantially different?

But Tocqueville did prescribe some solutions. He hoped that those having read his prescient book would come to understand that the defects of modern democracy require great attention and careful management. Specifically, he hoped, we would strive “to preserve for the individual the little independence, force, and originality” that remains to him.

In other words, when looking at any given policy, our lawmakers might look not at the benefits for their home district, or vainly calculate attention from the next media hit, but rather look at what any given policy proposal’s long-term effect will be on securing freedom and rights. Making individuals stronger, more independent, more able to resist the tyranny of the majority and of a constantly growing administrative state is the goal.

Tocqueville’s critiques are given in the spirit of friendship. He wanted us to “remember constantly that a nation cannot long remain strong when each man in it is individually weak, and that neither social forms nor political schemes have yet been found that can make a people energetic by composing it of pusillanimous and soft citizens.”

On the 225th anniversary of Tocqueville’s birth, asking contemporary Americans to pick up “Democracy in America” is perhaps too great a request. Nonetheless, we may at the least recall his clarity of vision and take seriously that America requires statesmanship and intelligent guidance to fight off the natural propensities that diminish our freedom.

What Would Jesus Say About Mercury & Gluten?

What would Jesus say to such things? And you know when he comes again there will those that have issues that must be addressed, right?

SS & Medicare Outlook Bleak : A Third Rail Problem

Social Security and Medicare - the third rails of politics. It will be easier to have it run out, causing chaos among the mandated individuals that is sure to occur, then to make hard decision that the politicians know they will be attacked for. And, when the system does fail, those same politicians that wanted to fix it will be attacked anyway for not coming up with a plan to solve this huge problem back when they had a chance.

Fixing a mandate this huge is a lose lose proposition. 

Social Security, Medicare Outlook: Better but Still Bleak
Source: Nick Timiraos, "Social Security, Medicare Outlook: Better but Still Bleak," The Wall Street Journal, July 22, 2015.

July 29, 2015

The long-term solvency of Medicare and Social Security has improved slightly, but the imminent depletion of a fund for disabled workers highlights the risk of delays in addressing rising costs of the government programs.

An annual report card Wednesday from the trustees of both programs showed:

• The long-term deficits associated with the two largest benefit programs would be slightly smaller than forecast last year.
• The Social Security disability-insurance program will exhaust its reserves late next year, which would trigger a 19 percent cut in benefit payments.
• Around 6 percent of workers who were eligible for disability insurance claimed those benefits in 2013, up from 4 percent in 2001.
• Social Security was designed as a pay-as-you-go program, but it has been paying out more in benefit dollars than it collects in tax revenue since 2010.
• Excluding interest, the program ran a deficit of $74 billion last year, versus a slightly larger $76 billion deficit in the prior year.

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said the shortfall should be addressed by Congress by reallocating the share of payroll taxes that fund the disability-insurance trust fund and the much larger retirement-benefit reserves. The reallocation would leave both funds depleted by 2034, one year later than estimated in last year's report.

Wednesday's report isn't likely to alter that dynamic, but it could shape policy debates in the 2016 presidential campaign. The next president could see domestic priorities crowded out by rising spending on the benefit programs. Medicare and Social Security accounted for 42 percent of federal spending last year, up from 36 percent in 2011.
 

SS Disability Insurance Failing : No Incentive to Work

Why would anyone that opts for disability from SS (DI) even though they have no reason to have the DI other then they don't want to work, want to return to a working environment that requires dedication and responsibility? Even worse, they keep getting more money the longer they are receiving funds? And not to mention all of the other agencies that provide excuses not to work, why go back?

Truly, did anyone ever wonder why the SS disability program expanded at such a high rate as unemployment started to run out?

Return-to-Work Outcomes Among Social Security Disability Insurance Program Beneficiaries
Source: Yonatan Ben-Shalom and Arif A. Mamun, "Return-to-Work Outcomes Among Social Security Disability Insurance Beneficiaries," Mathematica Policy Research, May 1, 2015.

July 29, 2015

Yonatan Ben-Shalom and Arif A. Mamun of Mathematica Policy Research followed a sample of working-age Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) program beneficiaries for 5 years after their first benefit award to learn how certain factors are associated with achievement of four return-to-work milestones:

Enrollment for employment services provided by a state vocational rehabilitation agency or employment network. Start of a trial work period. Completion of TWP, and suspension or termination of benefits because of work. The researchers found:

Younger beneficiaries are more likely than are older beneficiaries to achieve the milestones. Milestone achievement rates vary a lot between different disability types. The probability of achieving the milestones is higher for individuals with more years of education, for Blacks, and for individuals residing in states with low unemployment rates at the times of receiving the benefit.

The probability of achieving the milestones is lower for beneficiaries with a high disability insurance benefit amount. The probability of achieving the milestones is higher when the beneficiary receives supplemental Security Income or Medicare benefits at the time of the disability insurance award.

The study found large variation in the probability of achieving the milestones across states and across time. The authors attribute these variations to unobserved factors at the state-level, policy changes and trends in unobserved beneficiary characteristics.

Overall, the study reveals that higher award amounts correlate with a lower chance of returning to work.

ObamaCare Exchanges Still Disfunctional : Billions Spent & Lost

Who knew? When has any progressive socialist government program that spends $billions of tax dollars, Stimulus 1, 2, 3, ever intended to have control how money is spent? In reality the money was given to support the voter base in states that opted for the feds money. This was predicted and has been an ongoing debate between Conservatives and socialists that insisted the system would work as designed.

But of course, even after Mr Gruber came into the spot light a few months ago explaining how the Obama administration had to lie to get this disastrous program pasted and jammed down the populations throat, the media lap dogs still sing the Obama tune about how well ObamaCare is working.

Billions have been lost. And speaking of lap dogs, where's the outrage from the Republicans?

Government Watchdog: Billions in Funding for Obamacare’s Exchanges Not Tracked Well, Many Functions Remain Incomplete
Source: Peter Suderman, "Government Watchdog: Billions in Funding for Obamacare\'s Exchanges Not Tracked Well, Many Functions Remain Incomplete," Reason, July 20, 2015.

July 27, 2015

The federal government spent billions on creating Obamacare\'s exchanges, but didn\'t track the money well -- and many of the state-run exchanges funded under the law still aren't working properly, according to a draft Government Accountability Office report obtained by Reason.
Specifically, Peter Suderman at Reason writes that the GAO found:

• Neither select states nor the federal government tracked how much of $2.78 billion in Medicaid matching funds were used to fund exchange operations or development.
• Of the 14 state-based marketplaces, for example, only eight were "fully operational" and "operating without service interruptions" in their enrollment functions as of February 2015.
• Only one of the state-based exchanges, Kentucky, had completed "development of hub services functions such as verifying an individual\'s identity and citizenship, and retrieving tax information for evaluating taxpayer eligibility for insurance affordability program."
• Only Vermont had finished work on technology to send data to the IRS, such as information on tax credits.
• Seven states working through the federal exchange could not transfer applications between state Medicaid systems and the federal data hub, according to the report. 

The report comes just months after the CMS Inspector General sent a cautionary letter warning that states may have used exchange funds illegally. The law authorized states to use the money for developing the exchanges, but not for most ongoing operational costs.
And in a separate report last week, the GAO said the federal system's document processor "is not required to seek to detect fraud," a GAO official said, and contractors "do not perform antifraud duties."
 

U.S. Coal Industry In Decline : World Wide, Coal Usage Expands

Good report. The only thing here is in the United States coal is in decline because it isn't allowed to compete. Mr Obama and his administration of progressive socialists, including the environmental industry that hates coal, also socialists, have deemed coal bad for the planet and therefore must be eliminated. That there is not real proof that coal is destroying the environment is of no concern, yet the politicians and many voters can't or won't take notice of this simple fact.

There is no man made global warming, climate change, period. But who cares, it's all about the money and control of the population. Nothing more.

Under Pressure in the U.S., Coal Still Thriving Internationally
Source: Rob Nikolewski, "Under pressure in the U.S., coal still thriving internationally," Watchdog.org, July 20, 2015.

July 27, 2015

The coal industry may be feel like it\'s fighting for its very survival in the U.S., but recent reports from the International Energy Agency show coal is far from dead internationally, especially among developing countries.

IAEA reports indicate the following about the international market:

• "Coal remained the fastest-growing fossil fuel in 2013 in both absolute and relative terms, accounting for approximately 30 percent of global primary energy consumption, second only to oil," said an IEA report on coal markets, released in December.
• Another IEA report, tracking the progress of clean energy showed low-priced coal was the fastest-growing fossil fuel in 2013 and that coal production worldwide outpaced the growth of oil and gas in 2012.
• India\'s use of coal is predicted to remain steady at a 5 percent annual growth rate. India will become the second-largest coal consumer surpassing the United States.

While growth is predicted internationally, the trend is exactly the opposite in the United States:

• Coal is shrinking in the U.S. as health and climate concerns about CO2 emissions drive states and the federal government to curb the use of coal-fired power plants.
• Coal slipped from the No. 1 producer of electric power generation to No. 2, falling behind natural gas.
• The U.S. Department of Energy pulled all future federal dollars from the FutureGen 2.0 coal plant in Illinois.

Rob Nikolewski concludes, after reviewing various opinions, that the international growth is driven by the cheapness of coal for developing nations relative to other energy forms. The U.S. decline is driven by environmental concerns and natural gas competition.
 

State Dependency on Feds : Some More Then Others

Interesting in that blue states depend less on the feds then red, as most red states are Republican and should know better. Still, it's the tax thing that brings the negativity, lower taxes but higher dependency on the feds. What to do?  Puzzling.

2015 States Most and Least Dependent on the Federal Government
Source: John S. Kiernan, "2015\'s States Most and Least Dependent on the Federal Government," WalletHub.

July 27, 2015

The extent to which the average American's tax burden varies based on his or her state of residence represents a significant point of differentiation between state economies. But it\'s only one piece of the puzzle. What if, for example, a particular state can afford not to tax its residents at high rates because it receives disproportionately more funding from the federal government than states with apparently oppressive tax codes?

John Kierman writes that WalletHub found the following:

• New Jersey was the least dependent on the Federal government while New Mexico was the most.
• Louisiana, Virginia, Alaska, Florida and Maryland received the lowest direct payments per federal taxes paid, while Kentucky, South Carolina, Indiana, Wisconsin, and North Dakota received the most.
• North Dakota, South Carolina, Florida, Virginia, and Alabama received the least amount of money in corporate grants per dollar of federal taxes paid, while Arkansas, Maine, Alaska, New York, and Vermont received the most.

Economically, Alaska, North Dakota, Wyoming, Connecticut and Delaware have the highest per capita GDP, while Alabama, West Virginia, Idaho, South Carolina, and Mississippi have the lowest.

Overall blue States are less dependent on the federal government than red states. The data show that there is a negative correlation between state tax level and federal dependency, meaning that as states tax less they appear to be more dependent on the federal government.
 

Life Explained : It's good

THE FRONT PORCH
                    

On the first day, God created the dog and said, "Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. 

For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years."

The dog said, "That's a long time to be barking.

How about only ten years and I'll give you back the other ten?"

And God saw it was good.

On the second day, God created the monkey and said,

"Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh.

For this, I'll give you a twenty-year life span."

The monkey said, "Monkey tricks for twenty years?

That's a pretty long time to perform.

How about I give you back ten like the dog did?"

And God, again saw it was good.

On the third day, God created the cow and said,

"You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer's family.

For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years."

The cow said, "That's kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I'll give back the other forty?"

And God agreed it was good.

On the fourth day, God created humans and said,

"Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I'll give you twenty years."

But the human said, "Only twenty years?

Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back,

the ten the monkey gave back,

and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?"

"Okay," said God, "You asked for it."

So that is why for our first twenty years, we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves.

For the next forty years, we slave in the sun to support our family.
For the next ten years, we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years, we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.

Life has now been explained to you. 

There is no need to thank me for this valuable information.

I'm doing it as a public service.

If you are looking for me I will be on the front porch.

 

Traditions In America : Showing Respect IS Necessary

I wonder is anyone else noticed this person's understanding of what is required of citizens when the national anthem is played or reciting the pledge?

But then again, if you are from a different country it isn't necessary. But even then you show respect.

Conversation Loses Ground : Cell Contact the New Norm?

I wonder how often this happens and what is the future of conservation and human interaction?

As anyone that has been paying attention, that is lifted the head long enough to take notice, having eye contact and actually speaking to someone is becoming a lost necessity to getting and giving information that will better our lives.

From what I've witnessed of late, this picture is not an exaggeration for the most part, but the new norm as to how we pass the time in close company, or worse, how we avoid having to actually let others know that they exist and care enough to address them face to face.

Stand and Deliever (Video) : News Anchor Explains

Goodness, what a great video on just how angry and frustrated our bed rock people are- I believe this is what is happening across our great country. We are becoming more and more angry about our leadership or the huge lack of leadership, and we aren't going to just wring our hands and whine anymore.

It's time to stand up and take the leadership away from those that believe America is no longer worth saving from destruction, yeah destruction, that is from a free and prosperous nation to one that is subservient to the new religion of progressive socialism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8Q0MMHwx4k

History Lesson (Video) : Hillary From Then Till Now

This is a little history lesson on just who Hillary Clinton is and what she is all about.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/TfG0bSK6fH4

Insanity Unrestricted : Take A Break (Humor)

When insanity becomes the norm, as it seems to be these days, it pays to take a break and turn away from the inane and stupid to have a good laugh. This is a good one.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

A drunk staggers into a Catholic Church, enters the confessional booth, sits down but says nothing!

 

The Father coughs a few times to get his attention…but the drunk continues just to sit there.  Finally, the Priest pounds three times on the wall.

 

The drunk mumbles, “Ain't no use knockin!!!’, there's no paper on this side either!”

 

 

Jesus Heals the Sick But Not The Disabled? (Humor)

 If you know the truth it will set you free.

(Author unknown)

Republican, in a wheelchair, entered a restaurant  one afternoon and asked the waitress for a cup of coffee. The Republican looked across the restaurant and asked, "Is that Jesus sitting over there?"

The waitress nodded "yes!" So, the Republican requested that she give Jesus a cup of coffee, on him.

The next patron to come in was a Libertarian, with a hunched back. He shuffled over to a booth, painfully sat down, and asked the waitress for a cup of hot tea. He also glanced across the restaurant and asked, "Is that Jesus, over there?" 

The waitress nodded, so the Libertarian asked her to give Jesus a cup of hot tea, "My treat."

The third patron, to come into the restaurant, was a Democrat on crutches. He hobbled over to a booth, sat down and hollered, "Hey there honey! How's about getting me a cold mug of Miller Light!" He, too, looked across the restaurant and asked, "Isn't that God's boy over there?"

The waitress nodded, so the Democrat directed her to give Jesus a cold beer. "On my bill," he said loudly. 

As Jesus got up to leave, he passed by the Republican, touched him  and said, "For your kindness, you are healed." The Republican felt the strength come back into his legs, got up and began to praise the Lord. 

Jesus passed by the Libertarian, touched him and said, "For your kindness, you are healed." The Libertarian felt his back straightening up, he raised his hands and he, too, began to praise the Lord.

Then,  Jesus walked, with a huge smile on his face, towards the Democrat. The  Democrat jumped up and yelled, "Don't touch me....... I'm on disability." 

Gone Till Tuesday : Family Reunion - Very Cool

Back on Tuesday the 28th - But I will leave you with this item to ponder - has our president decided 'to get along, go along'?

Federal Liabilities Staggering : $37.8 Trillion +

The Obama administration, with a straight face and voice tones of sincerity, on a daily basis, trots out glowing figures explaining how the economy is moving forward and our plan is working, but never mentions, and has no intention of doing so, the continuing debt accumulation and how it will effect current retires and all those that are soon to follow.

It appears the new motto of the progressive democrats is 'take the money and run', let other fix the problems when we are on vacation.

Federal Liabilities: 2015 Update
 Source: Liqun Liu, Andrew Rettenmaier and Thomas Saving, "Federal Liabilities: 2015 Update," Texas A&M University, July 2015.

July 21, 2015

Limiting the Social Security and Medicare benefits to just those payable to current retirees produces a liability measure of almost 17 trillion. However, when official liabilities and the Social Security and Medicare benefits to be received are totaled, the liability measure rises to $37.8 trillion, which is 217 percent of GDP.

Liqun Liu, Andrew Rettenmaier and Thomas Saving of Texas A&M's Private Enterprise Research Center argue that Social Security and Medicare benefits payable to current retirees should be included as federal liabilities. Their main reasons are: These benefits fit the definition of liabilities in the Financial Report of the United States Government. These benefits are almost identical to federal employees' accrued benefits, and federal employees' accrued benefits are included already.

Not including these benefits underestimates the liability position of the federal government. These benefits are relied upon by retirees, so they are politically motivated to assure their benefits are not reduced.

Paying off this new measure of federal liabilities would take 12 years of federal revenues. The debt held by the public tells one part of the federal liability story. Accrued retirement liabilities payable to federal payable to federal employees are another part and including Social Security and Medicare benefits payable to retirees is a further step towards completing the story.

Dodd/Frank Is A Failure : Intention Was Control

But then again it was never intended to promote stability - it was about taking away option for free enterprise and strengthen government control. It has succeeded. The banking industry is failing the population. Exactly when did any such bill coming out of  a democrat controlled government ever work as promoted?

Dodd/Frank is a disaster for America's prosperity. It's called "fundamental Change". Remember?

After Five Years, Dodd-Frank is a Failure
NACP
July 21, 2015

The Dodd-Frank law itself declared that it would "end too big to fail" and "promote financial stability." Dodd-Frank was based on the premise that the financial crisis was the result of deregulation. Yet George Mason University's Mercatus Center reports that regulatory restrictions on financial services grew every year from 1999 to 2008. It wasn't deregulation that caused the crisis, it was dumb regulation.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, analyzes the effects of Dodd-Frank, finding that it has not ended too big to fail banks and it has not helped the average American:

• Government figures indicate that the country is losing on average one community bank or credit union a day.
• Before Dodd-Frank, 75 percent of banks offered free checking. Two years after it passed, only 39 percent did so — a trend various scholars have attributed to Dodd-Frank.
• Bank fee have also increased due to Dodd-Frank, leading to a rise of the unbanked and underbanked among low- and moderate-income Americans.

Hensarling also finds that Dodd-Frank has not promoted financial stability, but has rather concentrated power in the government's hands:

• Post-crisis regulatory mandates have reduced liquidity of fixed income assets in some markets, or the degree to which those assets can be easily bought and sold.
• Because of Dodd-Frank, financial markets will have less capacity to deal with shocks and are more likely to seize up in a panic.
• The "heightened prudential supervision" Dodd-Frank allows the Fed to exercise over "systemically important" banks essentially places them under government control.
• Dodd-Frank requires that bank holding companies worth $50 billion or more must submit a "living will" to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Fed.

Overall, Rep. Hensarling concludes that failure of Dodd-Frank to achieve its stated goals should encourage reform or replacement of the law.

News Reporters Demand Freedom of Speech : No Matter How Wrong

The modern news reporter, I can't call them journalist, and how they demand the freedom to tell their side of the story no matter how wrong it might be -


The Harley Biker

    A Harley biker is riding by the zoo in Washington, DC when he sees a little girl leaning into the lion's cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the collar of her jacket and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her under the eyes of her screaming parents.
   The biker jumps off his Harley, runs to the cage, and hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch.
  Whimpering from the pain, the lion jumps back letting go of the girl; and, the biker brings her to her terrified parents who thank him endlessly.  A reporter had watched the entire event.
  The reporter said to the Harley rider, 'Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I've seen a man do in my whole life.'
   The Harley rider replies, 'Why, it was nothing, really, the lion was behind bars.  I just saw this little kid in danger and acted as I felt right.'
  The reporter says, 'Well, I'll make sure this won't go unnoticed.  I'm a journalist, you know, and tomorrow's paper will have this story on the front page.  So, tell me, what do you do for a living and what political affiliations do you have?'
  The biker replies, 'I'm a U.S. Marine and a Republican.'
 The journalist leaves.
  The following morning the biker buys the paper out of curiosity to see if it, indeed, brings news of his actions, and reads, on the front page:

  U.S. MARINE ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH!

  And that pretty much sums up the media's approach to the news these days.  

Pain Pill Bottles Are Racist

Yeah, I know, this has to be a joke but wait a minute, given how crazy our country has become, nothing can be beyond the limits of common sense or logic. Everything that brings the ideology and agenda of those that want to gain power is okay.

Know this, this is the very essence of the new morality as defined by the progressive socialist liberal democrats.

The New Morality & Integrity : Compromise

The nation is moving in the wrong direction - we are being forced to fend off disaster by living in a fantasy that everything that came before is wrong and what's new is okay.

The reality of freedoms lost is too hard to comprehend for millions of people that can't or won't understand. So it back to the smart phone or IPad to pretend history won't repeat it self.

Morality and integrity can not be glue to the soul, it has to be earned. But once lost, compromised, it can never be regained.

I sincerely hope it isn't already too late.

Blood Tests Made Easy : Innovation for Prosperity

I just love innovation - this is the life's blood of the free market. Little wonder this system for prosperity is under attack by the progressive socialist liberal democrats. It's really about the freedom to chose. Something that is not acceptable for socialists.

Blood Tests Could Soon Be as Easy as a Trip to The Drugstore
Source: Anna Almendrala, "Blood Tests Could Soon Be As Easy As A Trip To The Drugstore," Huffington Post, July 8, 2015.

July 13, 2015

A little-known healthcare start-up is slowly setting the stage to transform blood tests. Theranos, a California based company that offers about 153 tests for under $10, scored three major coups in the past week.

• They won FDA approval for their patented technology that performs complex medical tests using just a few drops,
• A bill the company co-sponsored in Arizona that allows state residents to pay for a lab test without requiring a doctor's order or insurance company's participation was signed into law.
• The company just announced their expansion to Pennsylvania, where they're partnering with the state's largest health insurer to offer their lab services to policy members.

There are two big reasons Americans should care about these new developments:

• If Theranos successfullys roll out their finger-stick blood tests in more than 8,000 Walgreens stores throughout the nation, a person who is closely monitoring his cholesterol levels could pay just $2.99 -- half the Medicare rate -- to get his numbers without paying a doctor to order them first.
• Theranos' clear, simple list of blood tests could have the effect of forcing other labs and blood testing services to lower their own costs. Like many other medical procedures in the United States, the cost of blood work can vary hugely from laboratory to laboratory, and having health insurance doesn't make a difference.

"Many states have all kinds of medical procedures that patients themselves aren't allowed to access unless their doctor orders it. A doctor will tell you patients are not equipped to make decisions like this, but I think increasingly patients are deciding that maybe they don't want to run to the doctor for every single ache and pain," explained National Center for Policy Analysis senior fellow Devon Herrick.
 

Voter Fraud Live and Well in America : Extensive & Perverse

Voter fraud is real - and many politicians know it but support it to get elected and reelected. One example, in Milwaukee Wisconsin during the 2008 election, fraud was rampant, documented cases, but the democrat government leaders said 'nothing to see here' and ignored the hard facts of these active political criminals.

The main steam media scoffed at the very thought of democrats committing voter fraud even in the face of proof of thousands of cases.

Perhaps the worst case of voter fraud was the involvement of the IRS, the DOJ and the FBI, among other federal government agencies, that participated in voter fraud during the 2012 elections. They targeted  only Conservative groups, 292 groups in all, that wanted tax except status for their efforts but were denied and then attacked by these taxpayer supported federal agencies.

For all to see it was clear, the 2012 presidential election was stolen by the democrats but the public remained unconcerned.  And of course the main stream media remained silent. Little wonder Voter ID is so frightening to democrats.

From Sea to Shining Sea: 5 Examples of Voter Fraud across America
Jason Snead / @jasonwsnead / Robert Batista               

Contrary to the assertions of many, voter fraud is not a myth. It is a stark reality that exists nationwide, from the rural counties of Georgia to the urban centers of New York.
The Heritage Foundation has documented nearly 250 cases where nefarious citizens, officials, candidates and campaign operatives conspired to commit vote fraud, compromising the integrity of our elections to achieve their ideological goals.

That list is just a tiny sampling of voter fraud, and it keeps growing. In May, the Heritage Foundation highlighted several recent cases.

 

Here are some of the egregious new additions to the voter fraud database:

1. Kentucky
In eastern Kentucky, Ross Harris and Loren Glenn Turner funneled $41,000 to the 2002 county judgeship campaign of Doug Hays for what the defendants claimed was a lawful operation to pay more than 1,200 people $50 each to drive voters to the polls. But a jury determined that this alleged vote-hauling program was just a disguise for what was in reality a vote-buying scheme. The punishment reflected the severity of the fraud: Hays was sentenced to six months behind bars, and Harris was hit with a $100,000 fine.
2. Mississippi
Not to be outdone, William Greg Eason of Tallahatchie County, Mississippi bribed voters with beer and money to cast fraudulent absentee ballots for a district supervisor candidate in a 2003 run-off election. A jury found him guilty, and he was sentenced to two years in prison, a punishment that also clearly reflected the severity of the offense.
3. West Virginia
Voter fraud and its ill effects are not limited to elections for local offices. On the contrary, voter fraud can and often does occur in connection with elections to the nation’s highest offices. In Lincoln County, West Virginia, Circuit Clerk Greg Stowers and five other Democrats were charged in 2005 with participating in a conspiracy to buy votes in congressional and presidential elections dating back to 1990.
The men paid for votes in liquor and cash (typically $20 per vote), handed out slates listing preferred candidates, and performed favors for supporters. All six eventually pleaded guilty to these charges in 2006, and Stowers was sentenced to six months in federal prison.
4. Georgia
A case out of Georgia shows that voter fraud has the power to steal an election from the rightful victor.
Tommy Raney, a 2007 candidate for a city council seat, and his campaign worker, Debra Brown, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit absentee ballot fraud. Raney won the election against Larry Pickett by only 27 votes. Raney and Brown were fined $158,000 and $20,000, respectively. Despite the fraud, the election results were never officially overturned, and Raney did not resign his city council seat until nearly two years later, in September of 2009.
5. Iowa
Martia Yvonne Phillips and eight others in Iowa pleaded guilty to voting in the 2008 election despite being convicted felons who had not had their voting rights restored. Phillips voted while still on probation for a 2006 felony drug conviction. She was subsequently sentenced to five years in prison, a sentence that was suspended to two years’ probation.

Voter fraud clearly exists in many forms and in many places despite earnest efforts by some authorities to crack down hard on offenders. Moreover, voter fraud is easy to commit and tough to investigate after the fact, particularly when inadequate safeguards exist to detect the crime in the first place. That is why it is important for state legislatures to enact commonsense legislation designed to combat voter fraud before it can distort an electoral result. Voter ID laws—which many liberals love to criticize, but which a majority of Americans across ideological lines support—are an answer to many types of voter fraud, including fraudulent use of absentee ballots.

But other measures are also needed, such as requiring proof of citizenship to register and verification of the accuracy of voter registration information. Critics often argue that laws intended to uphold the integrity of elections are ineffective and unnecessary.

Voting Fraud Prevented
But take the case of Carol Hannah of Colorado. Hannah was registered to vote in Mohave County, Arizona and Adams County, Colorado and was convicted of voting in both states during the 2010 election. Hannah’s double-voting was detected by the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program, a system that examines shared voter data from more than 25 states and checks for identical name and date-of-birth matches to ensure the accuracy of voter rolls and to ensure that individuals like Hannah cannot unlawfully double-dip.

In that case, the program did exactly what it was designed to do. Hannah was sentenced to three years of supervised probation and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine.

Democracy is one of America’s finest traditions; voter fraud is not. The implications of these cases are clear: election fraud exists, and it is neither isolated nor inconsequential. We can and must take steps to detect and deter this problem.

Racism Decided by Politics : Who's Racist and Who Isn't

But wait - your a racist if you like the wrong black people? Who decides who the good  black people are and who are bad black people?

Alinsky Theorem for Destruction : Race & Religious Are Victims

It's the ideology of hate by division- It's the Saul Alinsky  theorem of 'identify, separate and then destroy' the victim. 

Given the mental weakness of some many among us, it's working to destroy the America dream.

Police Misconduct Costs Cities $$ : Not Poor Policy?

That police are always to blame is a little too much to comprehend for most of the misconduct, what ever happened to city leaders' poor policies that brought on surges in a criminals ability to commit crime? Past history and recent events in Baltimore?

The best example of how past history of city  policy is New York City before Rudy Giuliani became mayor.

Cost of Police Misconduct Soars in Big U.S. Cities
Source: Zusha Elinson and Dan Frosch, "Cost of Police-Misconduct Soars in Big U.S. Cities," Wall Street Journal, July 15, 2015.

July 20, 2015

The cost of resolving police-misconduct cases has surged for big U.S. cities in recent years. The 10 cities with the largest police departments paid out $248.7 million last year in settlements and court judgments in police-misconduct cases, up 48 percent from $168.3 million in 2010.

Collectively these cities paid out $1.02 billion between 2010 and 2015. Data shows that cases have gotten more expensive to resolve. For example, Philadelphia police have faced criticism for numerous shootings in recent years. Last year, the city settled 10 shooting cases for an average of $536,500 each.

Although data does not support it, surveys suggest that the prevalence of video may have an effect on how quickly cities are willing to settle.  The article cites two possible incidents of police misconduct that were settled for a total of $5.65 million even before lawsuits were filed.

However, city officials and others say the large payouts stem not just from new cases, but from efforts to resolve decades-old police scandals. Cities are cutting more checks to people who were wrongfully imprisoned years ago because of police misconduct.

• New York City agreed last year to pay $41 million to five black and Hispanic men imprisoned for the 1989 beating and rape of a jogger in Central Park.
• Chicago has paid out more than $60 million for alleged misconduct by police led by former commander Jon Burge from the 1970s to early 1990s.

Some cities are self-insured, meaning settlement funds come from city funds. Others have insurance that kicks in at a certain payment level in each case, however, the cost of premiums can increase after incidents occur, much like car insurance.  Either way, taxpayers foot the bill one way or another.
 

Millennial's Future Dim : Wake Up or Parish

Maybe this new generation, the millennials, the young and desperate, will begin to wake up to the fact they are the ones that will suffer the most from their own inaction to change the political scene that brought the progressive socialists into power back in 2008 and then again in 2012. 

Why Millennials Should Pay Attention to Monetary Policy
Source: Jared Meyer, "Why Millennials Should Pay Attention to Monetary Policy," Economics 21, July 13, 2015.

July 20, 2015

With all the media coverage of the Federal Reserve, it is surprising that few commentators have discussed how U.S. monetary policy harms millennials. Though monetary policy often flies below the radar of tax and regulatory reform, misguided actions by the Fed can and do have major negative effects, especially on young people, says Jared Meyer of Economics 21.

• A slow economy disproportionately affects new entrants to the labor force. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that the unemployment rate for 20- to 24-year olds in June was 10 percent, compared to 4 percent for those 25 and over. The teen unemployment rate was 18 percent.
• The Fed's policies have resulted in inflated values for housing. But young Americans do not own houses. In the first quarter of 2015, homeownership for Americans under 35 years old declined to 35 percent -- the lowest on record since the Census Bureau began tracking these statistics in 1982.
• The dollar's purchasing power has declined by over 80 percent since the early 1970s.
• The Federal Reserve signed off on hundreds of risky bank mergers that were blatant political bargains between megabanks and activists.

 Short-term winners, including some investors and homeowners, are currently benefiting from the Federal Reserve's policies, but the young and the economy as a whole are losers.
 

Physician Shortage Addressed

With retirement of doctors and the those that are leaving the profession because of the ObamaCare nightmare of demand regulations, the out look for the near future of health care in America is dim. The out look for health care in the distant future is grim at best.

How sad that America once had the best health care in the world by far, even better then Cuba's, but is now headed backwards into some dark place where individual freedom to chose is lost to corrupt bureaucrats.

A doctor I know several years ago said it was his duty to provide health care to all those that needed it even if he didn't get paid for his services. But now, today, given the magnitude of the demand for more services, he has changed is outlook and is considering early retirement.

How in the world did this happen and so quickly?

Fixing the Physician Shortage
Source: Thomas A Hemphill and Gerald Knesk, "The Non-Medical Remedy to the Physician Shortage," Regulation, Cato Institute, Summer 2015.

July 20, 2015

Over the last 10 years there has been increasing concern about an impending shortage of practicing primary care physicians in the United States, fueled by several factors, says Thomas Hemphill and Gerald Knesk.. These include:

• A significant percentage of American physicians will reach retirement age by 2020.
• An unprecedented growth in the number of Americans living beyond age 65.
• An influx of up to 30 million Americans entering the health care system as a result of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

There is also a projected shortage in practicing non-primary care physicians. This shortage will amount to around 33,100 physicians by 2015. Specifically there is a chronic shortage of psychiatrists in the United States. Yet, according to the AANP, as of 2013, only 3.2 percent of all nurse practitioners are certified as psychiatric mental health NPs.
To address this:

• States that currently do not allow "full scope of practice" status for nurse practitioners should do so.
• Telepsychiatry,  or providing mental health care via video technology, is a way of reducing the shortage. Removing regulatory barriers to this practice may help solve the shortages.
• Standardizing the PA curriculum to two years and allowing the NCCPA, a private organization, to handle the requirements will help remove the current patchwork of requirements.

Through a combination of professional self-regulation and public regulatory reform measures, the authors argue that the shortage in non-primary care physicians can be partially alleviated.

CBO NOW Finds Repeal of ACA A Good Thing? : Who Knew

Interesting in that at this late stage of investigation, the CBO finds ObamaCare repeal a good thing for the population. But as stated in the last sentence, it's probably too late for the next president or members of congress with spines of jelly, to change the outcome for complete implementation of the largest mandate in our history.

And just what we need now is another disastrous mandate. We are broke and headed into a debtors hell.

CBO Finds Repealing Obamacare Would Grow Economy
Source: John R. Graham, "Repealing Obamacare Would Grow Economy, Reduce Uninsured by 10 Million," Heartland Institute, July 16, 2015.

July 20, 2015

The main takeaway from the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) comprehensive estimate of the effects of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is "repealing the ACA would increase Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by about 0.7 percent in the 2021-2025 period, mostly because provisions of the law that are expected to reduce the supply of labor would be repealed," says senior fellow John Graham of the National Center for Policy Analysis.

CBO concludes repeal would increase federal budget deficits. This effect is much smaller than previous estimates, because this is the first time CBO has used so-called "dynamic scoring," taking macroeconomic effects of repeal into account, instead of just a simple static bookkeeping type of estimate. If we exclude the effects of macroeconomic feedback -- as has been done for previous estimates related to ACA -- and most other CBO cost estimates, CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimate federal deficits would increase by $353 billion over the 2016-25 period if ACA is repealed.

CBO also misreports the number of people who would become uninsured as 24 million. Actually, it would be 10 million, because CBO includes 14 million who are on Medicaid as a result of Obamacare as losing health insurance. In fact, they would lose access to a welfare program.

CBO is not entirely to blame for these two errors. It measures things as the Congress tells it to. Nevertheless, there is one paragraph in the new estimate that is remarkable for a different reason: "Implementing a repeal of the ACA would present major challenges.

In the five years since its enactment, nearly every key provision of the law has taken effect and has been incorporated into final rules and other administrative actions. Undoing the ACA would thus be quite complicated."

Supreme Court Justices Changing Constitutional Law

I wonder how soon the Supreme Court will be totally converted to progressive socialists? And is it possible to defund the Supreme Court?

It just 'feels like the right thing to do'.

Mr Obama Silent On Kate Steinle Murder : Megyn Kelly Asks Why?

Questions - Questions but no answers. The only thing left for the population is anxiety, frustration and fear for the future. I wonder who voted twice to make sure this would happen?

Megyn Kelly: Why Is Obama Silent About Murder of Kate Steinle?
Chelsea Scism               

In the wake of 32-year-old Kate Steinle’s murder by an illegal immigrant in San Francisco, the Obama administration has remained silent, Fox News host Megyn Kelly pointed out.
“Surrounded by friends and family, it does not appear at this hour that anyone from the Obama administration was in attendance,” Kelly said of Steinle’s funeral services that were held Thursday evening.

“Kate’s murder has since exploded into a national debate on illegal immigrants, sanctuary cities, and crime, with the White House ducking this issue of its own acquiescence in these cities’ decision to flout the federal immigration laws which were duly enacted,” Kelly said.
Kelly pointed out that the absence of any comment on the part of the administration is unique in comparison to Obama’s reactions to other recent murders around the country. She continued:

A stark contrast to what we saw after Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Missouri, a man we now know was attacking a police officer at the time of his death.  His funeral saw three Obama officials in attendance, his death drew comments from President Obama personally, and the administration also sent in the DOJ [Department of Justice] and 40 FBI agents, dispatched to Missouri after Michael Brown was killed.

“Then there was Freddie Gray in Baltimore, a repeat drug offender who was killed in police custody. Here again, his funeral was attended by three Obama administration officials,” Kelly highlighted. “And again, the president spoke personally to Freddy Gray’s death, and again sent the DOJ in to investigate.”
“When Trayvon Martin was killed in Florida, the president spoke to his death, which was later ruled to be in self-defense.”
“But Kate Steinle?” Kelly asked.
“Nothing. No comments, no swarm of FBI agents, no DOJ investigation. Nothing. Why?”