“The FSOC’s decision to expand the too-big-to-fail designation to nonbank firms will be seen as the most damaging action taken under Dodd-Frank”

Instead of going away, “Too Big To Fail” is expanding:

 

It was no surprise that the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) decided last week to cite a number of nonbank firms as systemically significant, placing them in line for greater regulatory scrutiny by the Federal Reserve. What was a surprise is that — in the midst of a huge outcry in Congress about banks that are too big to fail (TBTF) — neither Congress nor the administration asked the FSOC to stop the designation process until the too-big-to-fail issue had been fully thought through. After all, by designating some nonbanks firms as TBTF — GE Capital, AIG, and Prudential Insurance are in the group — the FSOC has created a whole new set of institutions that will now be considered TBTF. [via The American]

 

America move from entrepreneurial capitalism to state crony capitalism continues step-by-step.

IMO, companies that are “too-big-to-fail” need to be broken up.

 

 

Time for a Theme Song for the “Financial Cliff”

My choice is “Ship of Fools” by World Party:

I’ve used it before.

Idea for Avoiding the Fiscal Cliff: 4 X 4 X 4

How about this idea for 4 year plan:

• 4% across the board income tax surcharge for all taxpayers regardless of income bracket
• 4% across the board reduction in real spending (not projected increases in funding) for year one
• In each subsequent year, total real spending has to decrease an additional 4% (it doesn’t have to be 4% across the board though)
• At the end of 4 years, the income tax surcharge expires automatically
• If in any year, total real spending doesn’t decrease 4%, the Income Tax surcharge is suspended
• If in any year, total real spending doesn’t decrease by 4% the permanent base pay of members of congress, congressional political staffers, POTUS, VPOTUS, and executive branch political staffers decreases by 4%

Its better then the cliff. Also a “4 year” plan sounds like a “5 year” plan so the lefties should like that. I think Instapundit’s  ideas should be included as well.

Call it the Purpleslog 4 x4 x 4 Plan.

 

Brain Dump: Triple Entry Accounting?

Has anybody else heard about Triple Entry Accounting? I have four references: here, here, here, and here.

 

Would this really be an pro-transparency and anti-fraud control? Any accountants out there? This is outside my expertise.

 

 

Brain Dump: New States From Old

CA into 3 (maybe 4…Los Angles as a city-state)
TX into 2 (maybe 3)
FL into 2
IL into 2 (IL and Chicago as a city-state)
NY into 3 (maybe 4, NYC as a city-state, Long Island, West York, Buffalo)
PA into 2 (West and East)
Form Superior from Upper MI/Northern WI

My USA Job Creation Notes

…feel free to crib, comment, add to, or criticize them.  I needed to to do a brain dump.

Short Term

– Dump SOX

– Dump Dodd-Frank

– POTUS should grant 30-year waivers for Obamacare to all businesses and organizations and instead work to implement something like this

– Lease out and/or sell idle governement assets through dutch auctions

– POTUS should sign existing but unsigned Free Trade Agreements

– Smack down the NRLB. Defund it immediately.

– Defund the Lemonade stand police. Reduce aid to municipalities who go after kids Lemonade stands by the fund equivalent to 2 Police officers, 1 police supervisors, 1 alderman, 1 mayor, and 1 city attorney. This won’t create jobs but it will send a good anti-statist message. It will also make me feel better.

– Hands-off Gibson Guitars. Reduce the budget of those parts of USGOV going against it.

– Freeze regulations. No more regulations for 48 months.

– Publish the real debt numbers

– Freeze non-defense hiring for 24 months

– Raise small claims court limits

– Cheap plentiful / multi-source energy

– Instant green cards with fast track citizenship path for STEM-related Phd for foreign students graduating from US Universities.

– “Double the exemption numbers for small businesses: that is, whatever regulations you are exempt from by dint of having 10 or fewer employees, you will now be exempt if you have 20 or fewer; similarly for larger numbers. The regulations will still apply, but the exemption numbers are doubled.” [Jerry Pournelle ?]

Long-Term

– Implement modern fraud detection technology into all Federal billing and financial systems and increase OIG Forensic Accounting capabilities

– US Trade Systems should move to Free-but-not-a-sucker Trade with Tit-fo-Tat Tariffs

– Create five regulatory rollback commissions (National Security, infrastructure, Agriculture, Human Resources, Other) to present to congress (on an up and down votes only) regulations to repeal.

– Replace “base-line” budgeting with “zero-based” budgeting.

– Require all spending to be authorized regularly by Congress.

– Switch to 2-year budgeting

-Congress should establish a special Joint Committee on USGOV size reduction

– Tort reform – Basically loser pays and caps on damages

– prize for moon base
– prize for mars base
– prize for orbital habitat X 3

– Patent Reform: no software or process patents, crowd sourcing for prior art, late career path as HR source for Patent Examiners, fully funded

– only tax corps on us income
– tax holiday for repatriation for return of overseas profits

– amnesty for tax cheaters (they pay tax +$100 processing fee and sign

– no permission needed t start a sole proprietorship

– Reduce size and scope of USGOV

– Adapt Zubrin flex-fuel mandate for vehicles

Others…

– Moratorium on (or ceiling percentage)  IVY League grads at high levels in USGOV!

– Start up Lean Six Sigma Programs throughout the Federal Government (Put Jack Welch in Charge)  [This is Newts idea from a Debate

– reverse federalization of local/state crimes
– Create EOPOTUS ombudsman to identify and begin to reverse
– All future legislation should have sunset clauses

– A sort of SUper IRA to replace pensions and Social Security

– A Flat-ish Income tax  with low-to-zero deductions and no AMT to replace the current systems

– Balanced Budge amendment

– Reform Fed to have two missions: Sound Money and  use rule based inflation targeting

– immigration reform: Secure borders, migrant guest worker program

– Dramatically Rein In The EPA

– Reform The FDA By Streamlining The Testing And Approval Process

“We owe it to our veterans and to ourselves not to continue to blindly walk the path of the trajectory of 9/11, but to pause and reflect on what changes in the last ten years have been for the good and which require reassessment. Or repeal. To reassert ourselves, as Americans, as masters of our own destiny rather than reacting blindly to events while carelessly ceding more and more control over our lives and our livelihoods to the whims of others and a theatric quest for perfect security. America needs to regain the initiative, remember our strengths and do a much better job of minding the store at home.”

Zenpundit also gets it.

“Bottom-up, inductive, spontaneous self-organization is the essence of America”

Lexington Green at ChicagoBoyz gets it.

9/10/2001 and 9/11/2001

I don’t have anything to add to my old 9/10/2001 and 9/11/2001 posts.

My country – The USA – is a divided nation. USGOV and large parts of the public refuse to name our enemies. The enemy hasn’t been defeated – yet. The US Economy nosedive is harming US National Security. Our future capabilities and freedom of action are being reduced. I guess I did have something to add.

Hmmm…”Limited Purpose Banking”

From Wikipedia:

Kotlikoff has actively proposed extremely simple reforms of the U.S. financial system, tax system, health care system, and retirement income system. His proposed reform of the financial system[6][7][8], discussed in Jimmy Stewart Is Dead, called Limited Purpose Banking, transforms all financial companies with limited liability, including incorporated banks, insurance companies, financial exchanges, and hedge funds, into pass-through mutual funds, which do not borrow to invest in risky assets, but, instead, allows the public to directly choose what risks it wishes to bear by purchasing more or less risky mutual funds. Limited Purpose Banking keeps banks, insurance companies, hedge funds and other financial corporations from borrowing short and lending long and leaving the public to pick up the pieces when things go south. Instead, it forces financial intermediaries to limit their activities to their sole legitimate purpose—financial inter-mediation. Limited Purpose Banking substitutes the vast array of extant federal and state financial regulatory bodies with a single financial regulator called the Federal Financial Authority (FFA). The FFA would have a narrow purpose namely to verify, disclosure, and oversee the independent rating and custody off all securities purchased and sold by mutual funds.

 

From Amazon.com:

Limited Purpose Banking puts takes the multifaceted fraud out of our financial system by turning all banks, insurance companies, hedge funds, etc. into fully transparent mutual fund companies. Limited Purpose Banking also abolishes over 115 federal and state regulatory authorities and replaces them with the Federal Financial Authority, which verifies, fully and immediately discloses, and independently rates and appraises all securities held by the mutual funds.

In a nut shell, Limited Purpose Banking makes Wall Street safe for Main Street. Under Limited Purpose Banking we will never again experience financial collapse and contagion.
[…]
Narrow Banking says that the monies invested in checking accounts and similar short-term deposits must be invested in very safe securities, like federal government Treasury bills. It lets the rest of the financial system do its own thing and tells that part of the system – “Boys and girls, you’re on your own.” If you borrow money to invest in fraudulent or simply risky securities and lose your shirts, we’re not going to bail you out. Well, this was tried in the case of Lehman’s failure and it blew up in the government’s face.

Limited Purpose Banking includes cash mutual funds, which are held strictly in cash. So one element of LPB is narrow banking. But LPB is much broader. It precludes any financial intermediary of any kind, which is protected by limited liability, from doing anything but marketing mutual funds and the mutual funds are themselves never leveraged. So the entire financial piping system is made safe, not just a few pipes that weren’t at much risk to begin with.
[…]
The biggest difference between what we now have and Limited Purpose Banking is we’ll have a financial system that’s honest and that we can trust. This will make all the difference in the world in getting the American economy back on its feet.

Time to order the book.

Where is the Purpleslog 2012 POTUS Candidate?

I am looking for a candidate that…

– is of good moral character
– has executive experience
– has an adult lifetime that includes significant time outside of DC
– embraces the principles of the US constitution
– is a fiscal conservative and will focus on the fiscal/financial as US President
– supports a balanced budget amendment
– is pro-entrepreneur
– has a plan on how to roll back job killing/anti-entrepreneurial regulations
– is not a Keynesian of any flavor
– wants the Fed to focus on anti-inflation measures to protect the currency
– is pro-federalism
– has a preference for individuals and markets over central planning
– ruthlessly against corruption/cronyism/ethic-less-ness in gov and has a record to back that up
– is a social moderate or has libertarian social leanings
– does not engage in overt gratuitous religious displays and pandering
– will not continue to abandon our international allies
– doesn’t feel a need or desire to apologize or be ashamed of America for  being America
– does not wish for a US that is more like China, nor  embraces a USA future where we are China’s little subservient buddy
– is not soft on, nor an apologist of Islamism
– will not accept a weaker or backwards-looking us national security capability
– is not a “slave” to biggov/bigbiz interests
– is not “climate change” or “global warming” zealot
– is for more energy from more sources, not less,  especially including nuclear power
– is willing to push tax system reform to make it flat, transparent and cheaper (e.g. fair tax, Forbes flat tax, purple tax reform)
– is willing to address retirement and de-coupling of pensions from employer (e.g. a super IRA or PRA)
– is willing to push replacement of Obamacare with something like this and addresses at least Paul Ryan’s plan
– wants a smaller federal government and can name some specifics cuts
– names 2 cabinet departments or major agencies targeted for elimination
– if there were in the US congress, they did NOT vote/support tarp, the faux-stimulus, and the various bailouts (or they better have  a good reason for me to over look this)
– has a plan for the US  in space
– wants to address border security and immigration…and doesn’t call others who want to racists
-has not graduated from an ivy league university (or at least seems free of that taint)

Lastly: I want somebody who when they read this post and the post at this link won’t consider me to be a fucking hobbit/terrorist/racist.

So.

Who is this person?

“I wasn’t talking to you”

Another reason I don’t like Rep. Paul Ryan…

…is here:

Inventors and entrepreneurs who would like to see the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office keep the fees it collects – rather than have the agency further decimated by congressional raids on its funds – have a powerful and newly outspoken opponent.

U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has signed a strongly worded letter to the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, objecting to a key provision in pending patent-reform legislation that would let the patent office retain those fees and spend them on rebuilding itself after years of underfunding.

I could never vote for Ryan. With the exception of his good Medicare reform idea, he is firmly in the BigGov/BigBiz part of the Republican party. I am not.

More background on this issue here:

Reacting to Congress’ decision to raid another $100 million from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the agency’s director has thrown the brakes on nearly every one of its planned internal reforms, triggering new warnings that the congressional action will cause a “catastrophic” setback for American innovation, competitiveness and job creation.

“It’s a tax imposed on innovators,” said Paul Michel, recently retired chief justice of the federal court in Washington, D.C., that handles patent cases.

Because the patent office is structured to be self-supporting by charging fees without costing taxpayers a penny, Congress effectively has helped itself to funds that belong to garage entrepreneurs, start-ups and inventors, Michel said Monday.

“Instead of helping innovators by speeding the patent system, Congress is impeding innovators by taxing their innovations,” he said.

I hope more incumbents are turned out of Congress in 2014.

Instead of non-high speed taxpayer-subsidized “high-speed rail…

…how about privately owned and operated luxury bus lines?

 

 

Travel by intercity bus is growing at an extraordinary pace: reflecting a rise in travel demand, escalating fuel prices, and investments in new routes. This confluence of factors has propelled scheduled bus service between cities to its highest level in years and has made the intercity bus the country’s fastest growing mode of transportation for the third year in the row.  “Curbside operators,” including BoltBus, DC2NY Bus, and Megabus.com, which eschew traditional stations in favor of curbside pickup and provide customers access to WiFi and other amenities, have enjoyed particular success.

The comeback of the intercity bus is noteworthy for the fact that it is taking place without government subsidies or as a result of efforts by planning agencies to promote energy efficient forms of transportation.  Instead, it is a market-driven phenomenon that is gradually winning back demographic groups that would have scarcely contemplated setting foot on an intercity bus only a few years ago. Our DePaul University study estimates that curbside operators like Megabus expanded the number of daily departures by 23.9% last year.   In the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, service grew at an even faster rate.[Link]

Recent Space Stuff

I would like to actually have the Science Fiction future I felt was come when I was young.

 

Falcon Heavy links.

 

A “Coast Guard for Space“…

 

 

Over the years, analysts have proposed several alternative schemes for organizing the American space sector. Most of these proposals have related specifically to the nation’s military space activities. So, for instance, some proposals call for the creation of a Space Corps that would relate to the Air Force in much the same way that the Marine Corps relates to the Navy: autonomous, but under the control of the Secretary of the Navy, and relying on the Navy for various functions such as legal and medical services. Other proposals would adopt the model of the historical Army Air Corps or the later U.S. Army Air Forces, making space a quasi-autonomous service within the parent service.

There is another proposal, however, that would restructure not just military but also civilian space activities. This proposal would create a U.S. Space Guard on the model of the U.S. Coast Guard, charged with carrying out a variety of infrastructure, support, constabulary, and regulatory tasks. The Space Guard would assume some functions now performed by the Air Force, NASA, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

 

 

Zubrin: It’s time to build a transorbital railroad

 

The core idea is simple. The space shuttle program is ending. So, instead of funding NASA to spend the next decade developing another white elephant to replace it, let’s just take a quarter of the shuttle’s budget and use it to set up a regularly scheduled launch service to orbit using the most cost-effective boosters on the commercial market.

One-quarter of the shuttle program would provide a budget of $1.2 billion per year. Right now, the choice of most cost-effective launcher is a horse race…
[…]
Having bought these launches for $80 million each, the NASA transorbital railroad office would then turn around and sell payload space on board at a steep discount price of $50 per kilogram. Thus, a 53-ton-capacity launch could be offered for sale at $2.5 million or divided into 5-ton compartments for sale at $250,000 each, with half-ton compartments made available for $25,000. While recovering just a tiny fraction of the transorbital railroad’s costs, such low fees (levied primarily to discourage spurious use) would make spaceflight readily affordable.

As with a normal railroad here on earth, the transorbital railroad’s launches would occur in accordance with its schedule, regardless of whether or not all of its cargo capacity was subscribed by customers. Unsubscribed space would be filled with containers of water, food or space-storable propellants. These standardized, pressurizable containers, equipped with tracking beacons, plumbing attachments, hatches and electrical pass-throughs, would be released for orbital recovery by anyone with the initiative to collect them and put their contents and volumes to use in space. A payload dispenser, provided and loaded by the launch companies as part of their service, would be used to release each payload to go its separate way once orbit was achieved.

As noted above, the budget required to run the transorbital railroad would be 25 percent that of the space shuttle program, but it would accomplish far more. The U.S. government could use it to save a great deal of money because its own departments in NASA, the military and other agencies could avail themselves of the transorbital railroad’s low rates to launch their payloads at trivial cost. Much greater savings would occur, however, because with launch costs so reduced, it would no longer be necessary to spend billions to ensure the ultimate degree of spacecraft reliability. Instead, commercial-grade parts could be used, thereby cutting the cost of spacecraft construction by orders of magnitude. While some failures would result, they would be eminently affordable and, moreover, would enable a greatly accelerated rate of technological advance in spacecraft design, because unproven, non-space-rated components could be put to the test much more rapidly. With both launch and spacecraft costs so sharply reduced, the financial consequences of any failures could be readily met by the purchase of insurance by the launch companies, which would reimburse both the government and payload owners in the event of a mishap.

With such a huge amount of lift capability available to the public at low cost, both public and private initiatives of every kind could take flight.
[…]

 

I want my Science Fiction Future.

The US Postal Service is Broken

The US Postal Service is broken and a drain on taxpayers.

Note: I am in the middle of a 6+ month fight with my local post office, which clouds my opinion on this a little bit (I complained about some packages delivery in December and since then I have not really been able to get my mail delivered at all).

One way to look at this is the USPS and postal delivery is a public good, so the ongoing suck from the US taxpayers is acceptable.

On the other hand, the Taxpayer’s purse isn’t meant to be a charity.

My entire adult lifetime the USPS has been failing and nothing serious has been done fix this.

If our federal leaders can’t fix USPS, can we really expect them to fix anything else?

Fun excerpts from the Business Week article:

Since 2007 the USPS has been unable to cover its annual budget, 80 percent of which goes to salaries and benefits. In contrast, 43 percent of FedEx’s (FDX) budget and 61 percent of United Parcel Service’s (UPS) pay go to employee-related expenses.
[…]
The USPS has stayed afloat by borrowing $12 billion from the U.S. Treasury. This year it will reach its statutory debt limit. After that, insolvency looms.
[…]
This should be a moment for the country to ask some basic questions about its mail delivery system. Does it make sense for the postal service to charge the same amount to take a letter to Alaska that it does to carry it three city blocks? Should the USPS operate the world’s largest network of post offices when 80 percent of them lose money?

How about less post offices…AND have longer consumer-open hours?

Democrats receive the vast majority of the contributions made by postal workers’ unions, according to campaign finance records, so they tend to be sympathetic. President Barack Obama inserted a proposal in his 2012 budget to absolve the USPS of $4 billion of its retiree health-care liabilities in 2011. This would enable it to slog through another year without extraordinary changes.
[…]
Indeed, many other countries have figured out profitable ways to run a postal service. The U.S. could learn a lot from them. Yet hardly anybody is talking about this, except for Herr.
[…]
What’s more, Donahoe wants to close post offices and move some of their operations into convenience stores and supermarkets, where nonunion workers can staff them. The USPS is targeting 2,000 of its 31,871 post offices. That’s not much for an agency that’s nearly $15 billion in debt. Donahoe says he’s doing what he can, despite a federal stricture that forbids the closing of post offices solely for economic reasons. He tells anybody who will listen on Capitol Hill that the prohibition makes little sense at a time when his agency’s coffers are nearly depleted.
[…]
The USPS has historically placed the interests of its unions first. That hasn’t changed. In March it reached a four-and-a-half-year agreement with the 250,000-member American Postal Workers Union, which represents mail clerks, drivers, mechanics, and custodians. The pact extends the no-layoff provision and provides a 3.5 percent raise for APWU members over the period of the contract, along with seven upcapped cost-of-living increases. The union is happy. “Despite the fact that the postal service is on the edge of insolvency, the union and management have reached an agreement that is a ‘win-win’ proposition,” said APWU President Cliff Guffey on the union’s website. A USPS spokeswoman said the agency agreed to the raise because it feared the decision would otherwise be made by an arbitrator who might be even more deferential to the union.

So, like many GOV units, the USPS is oriented toward the Democrat-Gov-Union Complex instead of running as a consumer oriented solvent enterprise.

Balanced Budget Amendment?

When I was younger and just becoming political aware, I was against the idea of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the US Constitution. After all, congress can balance the budget when they need to….or so I thought.

Since then, I have come to realize that congress has acted irresponsibly during my entire adulthood. It can not be trusted to balance the budget. It has not the skill. It has not the wisdom. It has not the will. Bottom line: Congress is filled with Assholes beholden to public choice economic effects.

As Americans, we should not continue to reply upon a broken system to get the results we want  after decades of failure.

It is time for a Balanced Budget Amendment to the US Constitution.

Here is the outlines of a possible version from Orrin Hatch:

1. Its mandates that total budgetary outlays for any fiscal year not exceed total revenues unless you have a two thirds vote to overturn it.
2. It caps federal spending at 20% of GDP.
3. It requires the President to submit a balanced budget to Congress every fiscal year.
4. It prohibits revenue raising measures (like increasing taxes) that are not approved by two thirds of both the House and Senate.
5. Provisions can be waived if there is a formal declaration of war or if the US is engaged in a military conflict constituting a threat to national security or if two thirds of both the House and the Senate approve.

The above works for me.

The time is now for this sort of thing!

Come on Tea-Partyers, make this happen!!! Demand pledges from candidates for this any other related measures!!!

“The Purple Tax Plan”

This is not “purple” in the sense of “Purpleslog”, but it would be a vast improvement over what the US has now. What I also like about this plan, is that it covers the transition from what we have not to the plan.

Anyways…here it is:

Principles of Tax Reform

1. Our federal tax system is broken and needs fundamental reform.
2. Our new tax system should be simple, transparent, and efficient.
3. Our new tax system should improve incentives to work and save.
4. Our new tax system should operate with very low compliance cost.
5. Our new tax system should ensure that all Americans pay their fair share of taxes.
6. Our new tax system should ensure that our poorest citizens face very limited taxation.
7. Our new tax system should be progressive, with the rich paying a larger share of their resources.

The Purple Tax Plan

1. Replaces the personal and corporate income taxes with a 17.5 percent retail sales tax on consumption.
2. Taxes consumption of all final goods and services, including services derived from boats, planes, and owner-occupied homes.
3. Permits those in economic distress to defer paying taxes on the consumption of housing services.
4. Includes in the tax base all consumption expenditures by households, governments, non-profits, and businesses.
5. Requires those living or traveling abroad to pay taxes on annual consumption expenditures made abroad above $5,000.
6. Provides the option to pay all or part of one’s consumption tax up front in the form of a 15.0 percent tax on wages and wealth. (Paying 15.0 percent up front is equivalent to paying 17.5 percent at the store.)
7. Provides an electronic sales tax credit for use when shopping, which exempts one dollar of consumption purchases from the 17.5 percent retail sales tax for every dollar on which taxes are paid up front.
8. Unused sales tax credits earn interest so that there is no tax advantage to spending early.
9. Provides a monthly retail sales tax rebate/demogrant to all households based on family composition.
10. Rebate/demogrant set high enough to ensure that those at or below poverty line pay no tax on net.
11. Exempts the first $40,000 of earnings from the employee portion of the FICA payroll tax.
12. Eliminates the ceiling on FICA taxation.
13. Subjects to FICA tax all income from ownership rights derived from businesses in which one works.
14. Taxes at a 15.0 percent rate the cumulative value, above $1 million, of all gifts and inheritances received, directly or via trusts, with the government making appropriate tax deferral arrangements for receipt of illiquid gifts and inheritances.
15. In transiting to the new system, taxes at a 15.0 percent rate pensions and 401(k), regular IRA, and other tax-deferred retirement account assets on which future taxes are due.
16. In transiting to the new system, taxes businesses and individuals on unrealized capital gains, calculated as of the date of the reform, on existing asset holdings.
17. Maintains the real purchasing power of Social Security benefits; increases in prices due to the retail sales tax will raise the CPI and lead to proportionately higher benefits due to the system’s CPI indexing.

Here is a different take.

I Watch this and think…send in the National Guard…

…and clear out all of the grounds of the Leftists and throw in jail any who resist or do not comply.

 

 

Fucking Leftists. I am embarrassed for my home state of Wisconsin.

We shouldn’t pretend the Left and their activist vanguard and their willing public union dupes are just practicing democracy. They are at their very core anti-democratic. They are the problem.

Enough is enough.

Crush them.

Bust their Unions.

Sue their orgs and individuals for damages. Lawfare, fuck yeah. Bankrupt them.

Impeach the WI Dem Senators who have fled the state.

Recall any republican legislator who caves.

Fuck them.

Video Link HT

Health Mandate Unconstitutional? How it should be done…

The personal mandate for the Obamacare has been found unconstitutional.  Obamacare is a an expense/bureaucratic mess that the US is better of.

Remember though, I am not against de-coupling Health Care from Employment/Employer:

I am pro entrepreneurial capitalism, pro-growth, pro-tech, pro-innovation, pro-higher productivity and progress. This is possibly the most important thing for the American System. The unleashing of human capital through entrepreneurialism (business, social, cultural, heh and political) will continue to make us economically and cultural rich. The rest of the world is better off for this too.

Domestic policy should be changed to increase, support and create incentives for this activity. This mean changes to the legal and financial systems. It also means a pension system not tied social security and long-term single employer employment. It also means a health care system not tied to a particular employer or type of employment (this does not mean government run national health care though).

Here what should have been done…and still can be (without being Unconstittional):

• USGOV: Allow anybody or business or any org to buy into the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan (it is everywhere)
• https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Federal_Employees_Health_Benefits_Program
• USGOV: Allow USRESIDENTS to buy insurance across state borders
• USGOV: Require Orgs that sell or provide health services across state borders to not exlude people on the basis of pre-existing condition
• USGOV: Tax All Employer Provided Health Benefits (insurance + Pre-paid health care)
• USGOV: Provide a Tax Credit (regionalized) to USRESIDENTS equivalent to the cost of the middle-to-low-end option of the Federal Health Plan for all USRESIDENTS who participate in any real health benefits plan.

That was easy. No new Federal health-related bureaucracy needed. No unconditional mandate. Nobody is forced to buy Health Insurance if they don’t want to (they don’t get the Tax Credit though if they don’t).

Of course to really bring down costs…

• USRESIDENT need better health, nutrition and regular exercise (I am guilty of being bad on this)
• Increase use of less costly Para-Professionals over MDs (Physician Assistants, Nurse Practitioners, Nurse Specialist, Physical Therapist, Pharmacists). The AMA won’t like it. Fuck the AMA.
• Better use of IT to reduce administrative cost and inefficiencies.
• A Portable Electronic Health Care Record program for USRESIDENTS.
• Healthcare and Medical service Tort Reform
• NSF/NIH grants into research for more vaccinations, anti-virals, anti-disease gene modified food
• Anti-Drug Abuse Vaccination/shots? Hell yes. Anti-Drunk/de-drunking Pills? Hell Yes. Anti-THC/De-Highification  pill? Hell yes.

Am I wrong in thinking this would work?

Source: John Hopkins on Flickr

“The most important country to the United States is…” and a bit more (strategy and energy)

I started writing this as a comment on a post at Coming Anarchy, but it is a bit too long for that.

 

So in answer to their question…not really an answer but a steam of thoughts…

 

The USA long peaceful border with Canada makes it an important relationship. They are a no problem neighbor.

The USA should want the Mexico relationship to evolve into the same type  of thing. The relationship matters economically and because a failed Mexico impacts the security of the US. Even longer term, the US goal should be to integrate (peacefully and voluntarily) Mexico fully into the USA in the next 100 years.

The UK had been the most important USA overseas ally. The decline of the UK (and NATO), the rise of the EU, and the actions of the current US President have reduced that relationship. Our challenge with the EU is to both prop up Europe slowing/preventing it from turning in Eurabia, and to at the same time benefit from an exodus of smart/innovative/entrepreneurial/motivated Europeans (with their brains and capital) from pre-Eurabia Europe to the US.

India needs to be targeted as a future most important relationship – Economics/Security/Democracy – it all comes together for the USA with India. The US should also support India getting a permanent UN Security Council seat (good for Obama on this).

The USA relationship with China is important because of the economic interrelationship (for better or worse), China’s rise toward superpower status, and because the PRC leadership is clearly positioning China as the alternative/opponent/adversary of the US. China is essentially waging a 5GW against the US now. The US needs to step up to it or face it that US decline is coming sooner rather than later/never.

Russia matters because it has nukes, oil, and KGB/Active-Measure skills a plenty. Russia is not the USSR. Russia is in decline. The challenge here is to manage the relationship so that while declining, Russia doesn’t hatch any Black Swans. The US also wants to avoid the creation of Russia/Turkey/Iran Axis of Mischief.

Iran matters to the US because they have oil, can effect access to lots of oil, will have nukes soon, has revolutionary Islamic expansionary activities, and has leadership that seems hell-bent on future war with the US. The US goal here must be regime change – hopefully without massive Iranian population/infrastructure destruction. One way or another, this is going to get ugly since most of the non-ugly options have been disregarded/ignored by the US ostrich strategy.

Japan matters to US right now because it is distinct (not Europe, not China, not Muslim) and for its partner potential. The US should support Japan’s JDF expanding and getting expeditionary (lots of US officers and SNCO’s should be detailed to the JDF). We should support this capital rich nation getting involved with financing/engineering stuff in Eastern Russia and Africa. The US should encourage Japan and India to become better friends. and to inter-operate.

Saudi Arabia only matters because of oil, and because (along with Egypt and Pakistan) it is at the heart of the 4GW Islamofascist War by Al-Qada et all against the US/West and of the Muslim Brotherhood/Salafist et all 5GW against the US and the West.

As for the nations that matter in a big way because of Oil (e.g. Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran, Venezuela), the US should have as a major strategic goal that of breaking the world’s dependence upon oil for energy. The way to do that is:

1) Adopt something like Zubrin’s Flex-Fuel requirement for all new vehicles sold in the US (which means it would be adopted everywhere);

2) Easing/promoting/financing next-generation nuke and min-nuke power in the US and abroad (the US should want to be a world leader in this);

3) Adopting/promoting/financing Municipal Plasma Furnaces to generate electricity efficiently from trash in the US and abroad (the US should want to be a world leader in this);

4) Updating the US power grid into a network of smart grids and financing/deploying/promoting this around the world (the US should want to be a world leader in this);

5) The US should be making a major push for Orbital Solar Power systems and the related technology and processes. The US must be the world leader in this;

Note I am not calling for so-called hippy-friendly green energy (e.g earth-based solar, wind, etc, hemp/organic burning). Hippies can have an upside, just not on energy. There just isn’t potential enough of that at a reasonable costs to be the answer. Also, conservation isn’t the answer. I want more energy usage not less. I also want a future where Africans and Chinese, and Indians and everybody can have AC, bright lights in every corner of their homes and all of that. The happy future I want has more energy in total and more energy per capita, not less.

 

I want the Science Fiction Future of my youth.

 

“Can you govern yourself, or do you need a Federal Czar to govern your life for you?”

ChicagoBoyz has a must read post entitled “This is the FRAME that wins 2012”.

Message from the Fed: Bend over, here it comes Proles! (On the Bailout Series)

My fellow Americans, prepare to get fucked again.

Bad news from the Federal Reserve.

01. Quantitative Easing is DC newspeak for increasing the money supply big time.

02. This type of monetary action has the effect of causing Inflation.

03. Yes, my follow Moorlocks, the Fed wants to ramp inflation up.

04. They don’t have the balls to say so.

05. And they waited until after the election, so those of us who do…well fuck us there is nothing we can do about it.

…anyways..

06. Inflation sucks.

07. Inflation devalues your debt.

08. Inflation devalues your savings.

…in other words…

09. Inflation rewards bad economic behavior and punishes good economic behavior

10. Inflation-as-policy is a way for the Political Class to deal with the Debt issue that protects them and their fellow elites and Big Gov types (both here and abroad), saves those who made really bad economic decisions, and punished everybody else.

11.  I was never one of those who wanted to alter or dismantle the Fed. No longer. My mind is a clean slate on this issue. The Fed is was supposed to be about fighting inflation. Now that they have dropped that duty by their actions, what should the next/future US Central Bank Systems look like (properties to include simplicity, transparency, mission focus, smaller-size)?

Listen to World Party’s Ship of Fools – Purpleslog’s chosen financial debacle theme song

No quarter. No respite. Time for the takeback.

The American System isn’t supposed to be about Crony Capitalism to reward the Elites and the political connected. The elites hate and disdain the rest of us. They need to come to fear us. Time for the takeback has come. It will take a while – years. Relentless small-steps must be taken over time on fronts to rollback the elites back bit my bit. No quarter, no respite.

 

Found via TDAXP.

Me and Mitch Daniels: Crossing him off for 2012

I like what Mitch Daniels is doing in Indiana -Fiscal fixer with the  social conservative agenda not being that important. So far so good, right?

Alas, he likes the VAT Tax – a type of consumption tax.

In general, consumption tasks are a good thing (only non-savings, non-investment gets taxed).

A VAT though is a hidden tax. It is a little tax at each stage of the production and delivery of a good or service. The tax burden is hidden from the view of voting citizens.  A tax system based on hidden taxes can be manipulated  by the elites and the “connected” for their own benefit and to reward their supports.

Implementing a Hidden Tax System goes against the principles of what I hope the next USA will become.

I will not support a VAT or anybody who does.

Even if they ride a Harley.