Much is being made of Ted Cruz’s quixotic pursuit of killing Obamacare. Even those that generally are supportive of economic liberty and hostile to Obamacare did not support the Cruz effort, such as the editorial page of the WSJ. The conventional wisdom by these elites is that Obamacare can’t be stopped this way, but there […]
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Newtonian Echos–the Cruz Phenomenon
30 Sep 2013
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The jury is still partly out on the immediate fate of the Affordable Care Act. After the heroic filibuster of Ted Cruz, the Senate ended debate and voted overwhelmingly to re-insert the funding language for “Obamacare” into the overall spending bill. The vote was 79-19, so there were many Republicans voting with all of the […]
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Government Tyranny and Economic Life
27 Sep 2013
There was an interesting article here by Peter Gumbel http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2013/09/25/with-unemployment-high-france-forces-stores-to-close-early/ earlier this week on what France is doing in the face of high unemployment. Before you read, remember this is France, since the nineteenth century, one of the most socialist (small “c”) nations in Europe, allowing for brief intervals of sanity. It appears that Parisian officlals–the only […]
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Nudge, Nudge
25 Sep 2013
Economics is often thought of as a quasi-hard science; a field where number crunching and rationality yield positive and true results. While Ph.D.s in the field acknowledge that it is often hard to account for all the variables, in the past they would argue that if it were possible to account for all factors, a mathematical […]
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Changing Perceptions of Government’s Power?
24 Sep 2013
Gallup recently released polling data that suggests Americans are becoming more concerned with government’s power. The figure above shows the steady increase in the percent of respondents who see a problem and a similar decline in those who see government as having just the right amount of power. Notice, also, the relatively unchanged number of […]
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The Affordable Care Act and Claims Costs
24 Sep 2013
A friend of mine posted the following graphic on Facebook: The graphic was posted on the Independent Journal Review site and is based on a March 2013 article “Cost of the Future Newly Insured under the Affordable Healthcare Act (ACA)” sponsored by the Society of Actuaries. […]
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Mr. Obama wants a budget fight
24 Sep 2013
and Republicans are seemingly going to give him what he wants. Both the budget and the debt limit are coming up and Mr. Obama says there is no negotiation. No longer will there be any discussion on the debt limit (indeed, he does not believe we should have one), since we have to “pay our […]
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Study War No More? No, More.
19 Sep 2013
Washington, DC, aside from its various political denizens, is always full of opportunities to hear interesting lectures, speeches and debates on myriads of topics. Last night my daughter and I attended a debate at the Library of Congress entitled “Freedom, Security and America’s Role in the World.” It was sponsored by the Koch Institute and […]
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David Barton’s Influence
19 Sep 2013
Politico ran a story recently attesting to David Barton’s controversial influence within the Republican Party and the Christian community. For those who may not know, Barton is a famous figure among conservative Christians, primarily for his persistent belief that America was founded as a Christian nation. Barton’s influence is beyond argument. He is the most prominent and […]
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Obamacare will continue to gain attention for the foreseeable future, but today’s news give two opposing and irreconcilable views. Mr Obama was asked if American’s were wrong about his health care bill (since so many oppose it). His answer? Yes, they are wrong. Yes, they are…….The problem we have is that over the last four […]