An industrial-era monstrosity, forced on a digital age
With Obamacare’s main provisions only a few months from full implementation, the law is now moving through the economy like a statutory disruptor beam. It’s hard to see how this thing will ever be workable, or affordable.
Many small businesses are trying keep payrolls below 50 workers to remain exempt. … Read More »
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Women’s pay discrimination fears are overstated
Next month, brace yourself for another round of grumbling about gender discrimination in the workplace. April 9 is Equal Pay Day, supposedly the magic point at which women finally make what men made in the previous year.
The National Committee for Pay Equity, citing a Census Bureau number, says earnings … Read More »
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A welcome ruling against Mayor Mike’s dictatorial soda ban
A New York state judge struck down the controversial ban on 16-oz. sodas rammed through by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, calling it “arbitrary.” Yeah, that would be the word. The now-blocked ban had been set to take effect today. It would have fallen on restaurants, movie houses and bodegas but not … Read More »
2
Obama’s media coverage may take on a harsher tone
Second terms have a habit of being unkind to presidents and one wonders whether the pattern will apply to Barack Obama, whose treatment by the press has been unusually respectful, to put it mildly.
But that may be changing, and a big clue is how the sequester fight between Obama … Read More »
2
Former Obama economist leery of minimum-wage hike
Christina Romer was President Obama’s first chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, so her skepticism toward the president’s proposed minimum-wage increase is news in itself.
In a piece in The New York Times, Romer notes that the issue is complicated and the research largely inconclusive. Does … Read More »
5
How to fix Obamacare by using Obamacare
I’ve read all sorts of articles over the last few months on how to deal with the Obamacare disaster. Here’s a blog post that discusses one of the more intriguing. The idea is to use Obamacare’s main provisions — the insurance exchanges — as a vehicle for changing … Read More »
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Dems trying to distance themselves from Obamacare
This topic has been bubbling on the back burners of the news for several weeks now — the growing fear among Dems that implementing, or attempting to implement, the main provisions of Obamacare will be a political disaster.
Last month, The Wall Street Journal ran a big story headlined “Some … Read More »
2
Obama’s speech, as seen by people ‘on the margin’
At any given moment, there are millions of people and businesses “on the margin,” as economists say. In plain terms, they’re barely getting by. Here’s how the president’s speech last week might have been viewed by one of them.
Reginald Busby, owner and sole proprietor of Reamurpipe Plumbing, arrived at … Read More »
5
You can stop worrying about the polar bears
Given the miserable predictive record of so many environmentists (the latest word from the ever-gloomy Paul Ehrlich is that we have only a 10 percent chance of avoiding a collapse of global civilization) it’s surprising so many people still pay attention. Maybe as a species we’re simply inclined to believe … Read More »
2
A suitable remedy for unsuitable Kansas school ruling
A single word can cause a great deal of mischief, especially if the word lurks in a legal document. Consider the word “suitable.”
The Kansas Constitution says the state must make “suitable provision for finance” of public schools. Whatever committee came up with that may have seen the word as … Read More »
8
First Phil, now Fran: Yep, taxes are too high
Most people aren’t inclined to weep over the tax problems of rich athletes, except that Phil Mickelson and now Fran Tarkenton are making a legitimate point: Too-high tax rates hurt the economy, and that hurts everyone.
Last month, Mickelson raised hackles in some quarters when he observed that thanks to … Read More »
4
Why GOP should back immigration reform
Considering the difficulties facing any immigration-reform proposal, last week’s opening moves were encouraging.
A bipartisan group of eight senators released an outline of basic principles: tougher border security, a guest-worker program, a path to legal status for the 11 million undocumented workers now in the country.
President Barack Obama followed … Read More »
5
European cap-and-trade system slides into ‘near meaninglessness’
A cap-and-trade system is supposed to use market mechanisms to reduce pollution. The government issues emission permits, or carbon allowances, which trade in a market. Industries with big carbon footprints have to buy more credits, but they know that if they cut their emissions they will need fewer allowances. In … Read More »
8
Ignore those people in the back and party on!
President Obama’s inaugural speech struck the notes expected on such occasions. He evoked our founding documents. He used words like “timeless” and “enduring,” and as with most Obama speeches, it was a fine performance. Yet after four years you know this president doesn’t always mean what he says.
To some … Read More »
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Harbingers of the Obamacare spending blowout
The structure of Obamacare was based on a plan adopted earlier in Massachusetts by then-Gov. Mitt Romney, and the fiscal agonies of that state may be providing the rest of the country a preview of what to expect when Obamacare is fully implemented.
Thanks in large part to the state’s … Read More »