There’s a new book
Actually, if the Chinese were really racing an Ares I, they’d have nothing to worry about. They should be a little more concerned now, though, assuming they’re racing at all (which they aren’t).
Category Archives: Political Commentary
An Open Letter To Two NPR Reporters
Worth reposting here:
Ms. Chana Joffe-Walt and Mr. David Kestenbaum
All Things Considered
National Public RadioDear Ms. Joffe-Walt and Mr. Kestenbaum:
Your excellent February 26, 2010, report on the history of how government officials chose the different methods that Medicare has used over the years to determine doctors’ pay is frightening because…
… in your report, Joe Califano, a chief architect of Medicare, admits that the first method of determining doctors’ pay was chosen for political reasons, namely, to buy doctors’ support for Medicare.
… you report that Mr. Califano, LBJ, and Congress were genuinely surprised by the rapid cost increases sparked by this first method.
… you reveal that much of the treatment that Medicare paid for was previously provided free by physicians; that is, Medicare crowded out a sizable chunk of private-sector philanthropy.
… you tell how attempts to change this first method of paying doctors were deeply influenced by skilled lobbyists working on behalf of doctors.
… in describing the development of the method currently used for determining doctors’ pay, you (perhaps without realizing it) reveal that this current method is the product of a comically childish labor-theory-of-value analysis – the same sort of analysis that is at the foundation of Marxian economics.
… your report ends with the admission that, because the current method isn’t working so well, Uncle Sam – 45 years after Medicare was launched – is still searching for a sound method for determining physicians’ pay.
Given this history, what reason is there to suppose that Obamacare is a good idea?
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
Because this time, it will be different.
The Keynes-Hayek Rap Video
The Cliffs Notes version. At DailyKos, of all places.
Reality Bites
Roger Handberg has a useful history of NASA and its budgets for those who still fantasize that we can (or should) resurrect Apollo.
What A Fool
Does Warren Buffet really think that Obama is going to pay any attention to him, now that he’s served his purpose in getting him into the White House?
So Where Are All The Editorials?
…blaming Al Gore for this?
Argentines Francisco Lotero, 56, and Miriam Coletti, 23, shot their children before killing themselves after making an apparent suicide pact over fears about global warming.
You know that if this had happened as a result of “right-wing” fear mongering (in this case, warm mongering), they’d be all over it.
Hurdles To Health-Care Deform
A long analysis by Keith Hennesey. Let’s hope the hurdles are sufficiently high. The best scenario is that they go all-out to pass this legislative totalitarian abomination, further enraging the electorate, but fail to do so.
A Response To Frank Rich’s Latest Vile Slander
“If Our Colleges And Universities Do Not Breed Men Who Riot…”
As noted, one of the left’s distinguishing features is to continually rewrite its own violent history, and attribute it and project it onto others. In addition to the slander, it also creates a continual amnesia, or ahistorical attitude on the part of new adherents to it who are so mistaught the history.
Walt, Walt, Walt…
I admire Walt Cunningham as a hero of Apollo, but it’s hard to do so as a policy analyst. The very title of his opinion piece is nonsense:
We must not discard greatest innovator in history
Presumably he’s talking about NASA, and specifically the human spaceflight program. But in fact, due to risk aversion, it is probably the least innovative technology program going, with “Apollo on Steroids” the most prominent and recent example. I’d wager that we get more innovation out of Silicon Valley in a month than we have from the entire history of the human spaceflight program. He expands in the first paragraph:
What A Surprise
The president doesn’t understand how insurance works. It seems he’s just as ignorant about it now as he was when he was a kid. I’d have laughed at him, too. I still do. Or would, if he weren’t running the country.
[Update monday morning]
More (amusing) thoughts from Tom Maguire:
Obama apparently blundered to the common (and thriftier) conclusion, since no one buys collision on a junker.
However, months later he realized that paying more for collision would have been a great idea, so history is re-written. It is now due to ACME’s rapaciousness that they are unwilling to right this wrong and write him a check. And they laughed! Surely Chait can hear the racial overtones there! After the laughter died they should have explained to the college grad that he could file a third-party claim against the other driver, assuming Obama was not at fault, but that also may have been too confusing.
Well. If even Obama can be duped by greedy insurers into saving his money and taking a sensible risk, what hope do the rest of us have? Surely we need these new health insurance mandates to make sure both that we buy policies and that the policies we buy have everything we need, not just everything we (stupidly think we) want.
I find the condescension and arrogance of these “brilliant” “liberals” insufferable.