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Piketty Gets It Wrong | Cato Institute: "does it matter if some people become super-rich as long as we reduce poverty along the way? Which matters more, equality or prosperity?"
"In the end, there are two ways to address inequality. You can bring the top down, or you can lift the bottom up."
Thursday, April 24, 2014
ACA Exchanges at Risk | Cato Institute
ACA Exchanges at Risk | Cato Institute: "Obamacare makes going uninsured an even safer bet. It increases premiums for healthy people and the penalty for not buying health insurance is largely toothless. So if you earn too much to qualify for subsidies or you take steps to avoid paying the penalty, going uninsured will save you even more money than before.
Obamacare even more dramatically reduces the downside of going uninsured. For example, suppose the day after you cancel your health insurance, you receive a serious diagnosis like diabetes, or cancer. Pre-Obamacare, you would not be able to buy coverage for that illness. Under Obamacare, however, insurers are required to cover you at the same premium they charged when you were healthy. You may have to wait until January for that coverage to take effect, but even so the downside risk of going uninsured is much smaller.
And in many cases, you can get coverage before January."
Obamacare even more dramatically reduces the downside of going uninsured. For example, suppose the day after you cancel your health insurance, you receive a serious diagnosis like diabetes, or cancer. Pre-Obamacare, you would not be able to buy coverage for that illness. Under Obamacare, however, insurers are required to cover you at the same premium they charged when you were healthy. You may have to wait until January for that coverage to take effect, but even so the downside risk of going uninsured is much smaller.
And in many cases, you can get coverage before January."
Our Oligarchs Can Thank James Madison - Ryan McMaken - Mises Daily
Our Oligarchs Can Thank James Madison - Ryan McMaken - Mises Daily: "In the essay, Madison’s position is that large expansive republics are superior to small limited republics because they balance a variety of “factions” (by which he meant interest groups and voting blocs) against each other and prevent any single group from unduly influencing the government. In a small republic, Madison argued, small factions are able to easily take control of the state’s resources or the state itself. Included among these factions is any large voting bloc with similar interests. The majority and its alleged penchant for the oppression of the minority can be controlled by cancelling out the interests of local majorities at the national level with majorities from other states, thus leading to a balanced population in which no particular faction can gain an upper hand.
Madison’s purpose was to demonstrate that if the American states were allowed to remain largely independent, as they indeed were in 1787, they would degenerate into despotism, but if the states were all consolidated into one federal system, the different factions within the many states would be balanced out and no group or alliance could ever take control of the new government."
Madison’s purpose was to demonstrate that if the American states were allowed to remain largely independent, as they indeed were in 1787, they would degenerate into despotism, but if the states were all consolidated into one federal system, the different factions within the many states would be balanced out and no group or alliance could ever take control of the new government."
Saving the Asylum System | Cato Institute
Saving the Asylum System | Cato Institute: "Making such a claim starts a long legal process that allows many unauthorized immigrants claiming asylum to work legally in the United States for years on a de facto work permit. This is an effective loophole that is growing in popularity but reformers must be careful not to close off this vital humanitarian safety valve.
From independence to the 20th century, America was the world’s safe haven for religious refugees. But in 1921 the federal government imposed the nation’s first immigration quotas, removing the last hope for many millions of people seeking to flee dictatorship, war, and genocide. Those restrictions led to the U.S. government shamefully turning away ships full of German Jews fleeing Nazi Germany."
"the asylum loophole is an unintended consequence of severe restrictions that make it exceedingly difficult for lower-skilled immigrants to enter the country legally. The asylum loophole problem could be resolved by creating a low-skilled guest worker visa program to channel would-be unauthorized immigrants into the legal system — removing the incentive for some of them to make dubious asylum claims."
"Individuals apprehended by the Border Patrol who then seek asylum status could be paroled, electronically monitored, and levied a large fine to be paid within one year. Raising the cost for illegally entering incentivizes honest asylum seekers to go through ports of entry.
Legal behavior should be rewarded. Asylum seekers who apply through a port of entry should also receive their work permit within a brief period of parole, ideally a week, instead of the current 180 days."
"Under today’s asylum rules, the pilgrims would probably not pass the first stage of interviews because they were relatively unmolested in the Netherlands. Any proposed reform to the asylum system that would deny our ancestors the right to settle here should be rejected."
From independence to the 20th century, America was the world’s safe haven for religious refugees. But in 1921 the federal government imposed the nation’s first immigration quotas, removing the last hope for many millions of people seeking to flee dictatorship, war, and genocide. Those restrictions led to the U.S. government shamefully turning away ships full of German Jews fleeing Nazi Germany."
"the asylum loophole is an unintended consequence of severe restrictions that make it exceedingly difficult for lower-skilled immigrants to enter the country legally. The asylum loophole problem could be resolved by creating a low-skilled guest worker visa program to channel would-be unauthorized immigrants into the legal system — removing the incentive for some of them to make dubious asylum claims."
"Individuals apprehended by the Border Patrol who then seek asylum status could be paroled, electronically monitored, and levied a large fine to be paid within one year. Raising the cost for illegally entering incentivizes honest asylum seekers to go through ports of entry.
Legal behavior should be rewarded. Asylum seekers who apply through a port of entry should also receive their work permit within a brief period of parole, ideally a week, instead of the current 180 days."
"Under today’s asylum rules, the pilgrims would probably not pass the first stage of interviews because they were relatively unmolested in the Netherlands. Any proposed reform to the asylum system that would deny our ancestors the right to settle here should be rejected."
Florida elementary school stops serving Mountain Dew to students before standardized tests | Fox News
Florida elementary school stops serving Mountain Dew to students before standardized tests | Fox News: "A central Florida elementary school has stopped a long-standing practice of serving students Mountain Dew before standardized tests."
"it was part of an effort to get kids excited about the FCAT"
"it was part of an effort to get kids excited about the FCAT"
Federal Government: Sorry America, no powdered alcohol for you - Campaign for Liberty
Federal Government: Sorry America, no powdered alcohol for you - Campaign for Liberty: "Last week, the Federal Alcohol, Tobacco, Tax, and Trade Bureau announced it had approved the sale of powdered alcohol, which is dry alcohol that can be mixed with water to create an alcoholic beverage. Today the agency announced that the initial approval was issued “in error” and has now been rescinded. So we can add powdered alcohol to the list of products that the federal bureaucrats have decided we cannot be allowed to have – even though the 21st amendment explicitly leaves the power to regulate alcohol to the states."
IRS workers who didn't pay taxes got bonuses
IRS workers who didn't pay taxes got bonuses: "he Internal Revenue Service handed out $2.8 million in bonuses to employees with disciplinary issues — including more than $1 million to employees who didn't pay their federal taxes"
Civil Liberties Hodgepodge - Campaign for Liberty
Civil Liberties Hodgepodge - Campaign for Liberty: "The court found that because high ranking officials have publicly discussed the existence of the targeted killing program, and in February 2013, the DOJ released a 16-page white paper defending the program, the administration waved any “states secrets privilege” that might have prevented them from having to disclose their legal reasoning."
" As the Atlantic reported last year, we haven’t seen a lockdown and an occupation of an American city on the scale of what happened in Boston after the marathon since the Watts riots — not in Oklahoma City after the Murrah Federal Building bombing in 1995, not in Atlanta after the 1996 bombing in Centennial Olympic Park, not in D.C. during the 2002 sniper attacks, not after a series of pipe bombs went off in federal courthouse in San Diego in 2008, not during the dozens of instances in which a mass killer or serial killer was still at large. In Boston, 19,000 National Guard troops moved into an American city, not to put down a civil uprising, quell riots or dispel an insurrection, but to search for a single man. Armored vehicles motored up and down residential neighborhoods. Innocent people were confronted in their homes at gunpoint or had guns pointed at them for merely peering through the curtains of their own windows.
In the end, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev wasn’t found by Guardsmen, a commando team or a police officer in an armored vehicle. After the shelter in place had been lifted, he was spotted by a resident of Watertown who saw something unusual in his back yard and called the police. Only then did SWAT teams respond to apprehend the suspected bomber. (More on that later.) For such a massive show of force, the fugitive was captured in a pretty conventional manner."
" As the Atlantic reported last year, we haven’t seen a lockdown and an occupation of an American city on the scale of what happened in Boston after the marathon since the Watts riots — not in Oklahoma City after the Murrah Federal Building bombing in 1995, not in Atlanta after the 1996 bombing in Centennial Olympic Park, not in D.C. during the 2002 sniper attacks, not after a series of pipe bombs went off in federal courthouse in San Diego in 2008, not during the dozens of instances in which a mass killer or serial killer was still at large. In Boston, 19,000 National Guard troops moved into an American city, not to put down a civil uprising, quell riots or dispel an insurrection, but to search for a single man. Armored vehicles motored up and down residential neighborhoods. Innocent people were confronted in their homes at gunpoint or had guns pointed at them for merely peering through the curtains of their own windows.
In the end, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev wasn’t found by Guardsmen, a commando team or a police officer in an armored vehicle. After the shelter in place had been lifted, he was spotted by a resident of Watertown who saw something unusual in his back yard and called the police. Only then did SWAT teams respond to apprehend the suspected bomber. (More on that later.) For such a massive show of force, the fugitive was captured in a pretty conventional manner."
Ron Paul Classic: Close down the Export-Import Bank - Campaign for Liberty
Ron Paul Classic: Close down the Export-Import Bank - Campaign for Liberty: "the beneficiaries of Eximbank are visible to all; what is not seen is the products that would have been built, the businesses that would have been started, and the jobs that would have been created had the funds used for the Eximbank been left in the hands of consumers."
"True free trade involves the peaceful, voluntary exchange of goods across borders, not forcing taxpayers to subsidize the exports of politically powerful companies. Eximbank is not free trade, but rather managed trade, where winners and losers are determined by how well they please government bureaucrats instead of how well they please consumers."
"small businesses receive only 12-15% of Eximbank funds; the vast majority of Eximbank funds benefit large corporations. These corporations can certainly afford to support their own exports without relying on the American taxpayer."
"It never ceases to amaze me how members who criticize welfare for the poor on moral and constitutional grounds see no problem with the even more objectionable programs that provide welfare for the rich."
"True free trade involves the peaceful, voluntary exchange of goods across borders, not forcing taxpayers to subsidize the exports of politically powerful companies. Eximbank is not free trade, but rather managed trade, where winners and losers are determined by how well they please government bureaucrats instead of how well they please consumers."
"small businesses receive only 12-15% of Eximbank funds; the vast majority of Eximbank funds benefit large corporations. These corporations can certainly afford to support their own exports without relying on the American taxpayer."
"It never ceases to amaze me how members who criticize welfare for the poor on moral and constitutional grounds see no problem with the even more objectionable programs that provide welfare for the rich."
Campaign Finance: Untangling Citizens United and McCutcheon | Cato Institute
Campaign Finance: Untangling Citizens United and McCutcheon | Cato Institute: "three truths about campaign finance regulations: First, their stated reason — to prevent corruption — is too often trumped by their real motive, which is to protect incumbent officeholders from under-funded challengers. Second, each new regulation inevitably spawns an adroit means by which the regulation is circumvented. Third, campaign money is mostly designed to support candidates whose views agree with those of the donor — not to entice candidates to change their views in return for a donation."
Let Interns Be Interns | Cato Institute
Let Interns Be Interns | Cato Institute: "In modern America, it’s never more than a short jump from “this isn’t for everyone” to “let’s ban it.”"
"Paying to Learn Nothing = Legal. Paying Nothing to Learn = Illegal"
"Paying to Learn Nothing = Legal. Paying Nothing to Learn = Illegal"
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