Tag Archives: Decision

Videos

Michele Bachmann explains the impact of health care mandates on small businesses

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Michele Bachmann explains what would happen if small businesses were forced to provide health care for their employees.

There are really too many companies – some of the small ones should just go out of business. People don’t really need a choice of employers, do they? Wouldn’t it be much better if everyone were taken care of by the government? Then we would all be equal, just like the socialists want! Free labor markets and right-to-work laws are so nasty, because people are paid different salaries. It’s not fair!

Gateway Pundit linked to a video of John Kyl, who explains the problems with Obamacare.

The Republican plan:

“Republicans have put forward common-sense ideas, including rooting out Medicare and Medicaid fraud, reforming medical liability laws to discourage frivolous lawsuits, strengthening wellness and prevention programs that encourage healthy living, and allowing small businesses to band together and purchase health insurance like large corporations do.

“These changes do not require government takeover of the healthcare system, or massive new spending, job-killing taxes, or rationing of care.

The Democrat plan:

“Democrats in Congress have a different approach. Their plan would increase spending by more than two trillion dollars when fully implemented, and would, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, “’add additional costs onto an already unsustainable system.’

“It would empower Washington, not doctors and patients, to make health care decisions and would impose a new tax on working families during a recession. A study by the respected Lewin Group shows it would also move millions of people who are happy with their current insurance to a new government plan.

“They propose to pay for this new Washington-run health care system by dramatically raising taxes on small business owners. Small businesses create jobs — approximately two-thirds of new jobs in the last decade.

“With a shaky economy and the need for new jobs, the last thing the President and the Congress should do is impose new taxes on America’s small businesses. New taxes on small business would cripple job creation, especially jobs for low-wage earners.

Don’t forget about my post from last week with all the wonderful podcasts. I listened to them all again, taking notes, and re-organized them with headings for you. They are awesome! Plus I read some more of the Regina Hertzlinger book. A lot of people came by to ask me about it while I was reading it, including the waitress! She could barely speak English, but I tried to explain it to her anyway.

Videos

Keith Hennessey and Howard Dean debate health care reform on CNBC

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You need to click through to see the video. (11 minutes long)

It’s a great little debate! I recommend watching it.

HINT: Somebody won, and somebody lost. And it’s obvious.

About Keith Hennessey

Keith Hennessey is the former Assistant to the U.S. President for Economic Policy and Director of the U.S. National Economic Council. He was appointed to the position in November 2007 by President George W. Bush, and served until the end of Bush’s second term in office. Mr. Hennessey served in the White House since August 2002, when he was appointed to his previous position of Deputy Assistant to the U.S. President for Economic Policy and Deputy Director of the U.S. National Economic Council.

Hennessey holds a B.S. in Mathematics and Political Science from Stanford University as well as a Master of Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. The title of his Harvard public policy thesis was Unintended Consequences: Critical Assumptions in the Clinton Health Plan.

About Howard Dean

Yeaarrrrrrghhh! He makes Al Franken look like an even-tempered centrist.

Commentary

Do affirmative action policies help or hurt quality of service?

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Commenter ECM sent me an article from a newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, written by a professor at the Naval Academy. The author is a professor of English, and he doesn’t think that affirmative action provides taxpayers with good quality service. Quality of service is very important because the Navy keeps us safe from harm. They have an important job, so shouldn’t we be hiring the best candidates?

Excerpt:

Midshipmen are admitted by two tracks. White applicants out of high school who are not also athletic recruits typically need grades of A and B and minimum SAT scores of 600 on each part for the Board to vote them “qualified.” Athletics and leadership also count.

A vote of “qualified” for a white applicant doesn’t mean s/he’s coming, only that he or she can compete to win the “slate” of up to 10 nominations that (most typically) a Congress(wo)man draws up. That means that nine “qualified” white applicants are rejected. SAT scores below 600 or C grades almost always produce a vote of “not qualified” for white applicants.

Not so for an applicant who self-identifies as one of the minorities who are our “number one priority.” For them, another set of rules apply. Their cases are briefed separately to the board, and SAT scores to the mid-500s with quite a few Cs in classes (and no visible athletics or leadership) typically produce a vote of “qualified” for them, with direct admission to Annapolis. They’re in, and are given a pro forma nomination to make it legit.

Minority applicants with scores and grades down to the 300s with Cs and Ds (and no particular leadership or athletics) also come, though after a remedial year at our taxpayer-supported remedial school, the Naval Academy Preparatory School.

By using NAPS as a feeder, we’ve virtually eliminated all competition for “diverse” candidates: in theory they have to get a C average at NAPS to come to USNA, but this is regularly re-negotiated.

Try and reflect on the fact that when quality goes down in an area where performance means life or death, the consequences for NOT hiring the best could be disastrous.