Imagine that. Only 125,000 extra cars were sold. 690,000 sold, but only 125,000 would not have been purchased but for the cash for clunkers program. And what did we pay per extra sale? $24,000.
Net spending cut there. Glad it came out of Obama’s stash and not our money.
Posted by Steven
1. Remove all restrictions at State and Federal levels that prohibit and discourage the purchasing of individual health insurance plans across state lines, thus flooding the market with true competition. (Did you know in NC that 96% of the individual plans are BCBS? That is because no one out of state can really challenge them).
2. Encourage health insurance to be purchased individually instead of through a business by shifting the tax benefit from the corporations to the individuals. We don’t buy our car, life, homeowners, or any other insurance (usually) through our employer, but we expect health insurance that way. This will lower costs by adding consumers to the market place. A nice tax credit for individual plans will encourage their purchase.
3. Increase the maximum income levels for Medicaid for those who truly can’t afford health insurance.
4. No tax/fee penalties for healthy persons who want to get in a HSA or other high-deductible health plans that only cover catastrophic injury. No tax/fee penalties to those who are wealthy and want to self-insure.
Now, the only one of those plans that cost taxpayers a dime is number 3. I can live with that. What do you say?
Posted by Steven
The Administration is going to instruct the prosecutors that it is not a good use of time to arrest users of and doctors providing medical marijuana in states where it is permitted. I think this is a move in the right direction. I’ve always been irked that the government thinks it can make better decisions for the patient than the doctor can.
Posted by Steven
Back during the campaign, she remembered ducking and running in Bosnia from non-existent sniper fire. Now she remembers bomb damage that was repaired 22 months before she got there.
I guess she just “mis-spoke” again. In my mind, mis-speaking is when you screw up a word or two. When you fabricate something that didn’t happen, that’s a lie.
Posted by Steven
Respect, ok?
Participation… not a good idea.
More info here, he may have been bowing to the priest, but either way…
Posted by Steven
Over at the Corner on NRO, I agree with John Miller:
Obama isn’t the first American president to win the Nobel Peace Prize, but he’s the first to win it without having accomplished anything. In 1906, Theodore Roosevelt (five years on the job) had encouraged international arbitration and helped mediate peace between Russia and Japan. In 1919, Woodrow Wilson (six years on the job) helped end the First World War through American intervention and then worked for peace afterward—the Versailles Conference was a disaster, but nobody understood quite how at the time and Wilson, for all his faults, was certainly well intentioned. In 2002, Jimmy Carter (more than two decades after the job) was recognized, rightly or wrongly, for a variety of humanitarian efforts. They all had track records. Obama’s award is simply the projection of wishful thinking.
Posted by Steven
The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Barack Obama.
Now, I do think that it is a honor for our president to get such a prestigious award. But I also think that it was awarded because he has constantly put the interests of other countries ahead of the interest of the United States when it comes to world affairs. He threw our allies under the bus with the missile defense shield, and I’m sure that the committee loved that. He has promised to sit down with Iran’s nutjob of a president. He has presided over a drop in morale and a worsening of the situation in Afghanistan, refusing to listen to the generals in the field. He signed an order to close Club Gitmo and has proceeded to do just about nothing else to bring his order to fruition. He had been a president of words and few actions. He has governed as a citizen of the world, not as the president of the United States. As the committee stated:
“His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.”
What does that tell you, when the majority of the world’s population hates America?
But that does not lessen the congratulations that are owed to Obama. I hope we finally do see peace through victory under his administration.
Posted by Steven
I do believe this is the first judge to rule gay marriage a right under the federal constitution. The others have relied on their state constitutions in creating the right. I’m guessing the odds of this standing on appeal are 1 in 100 million. This is Texas we are talking about.
Posted by Steven
If you haven’t heard, our fearless leader absolutely failed in bringing home the Olympics to Chicago.
This picture sums it up: Olympic fail!
Posted by Steven
Posted by Steven
