When Congress Commits Malpractice... Can We Sue?

In order to fix the “Health Care Crisis,” the House passed legislation on Sunday which outlaws sound health insurance underwriting practices; if they don't immediately follow that by repealing the laws of Economics we're all pretty much screwed! Healthcare reform, as passed, will transform the Health Insurance industry from one where companies assess medical risk and price their products based on that assessment into one that merely processes payments, leaving it to collect what will be an ever shrinking pool of premiums while confronting the inevitable explosion in cost that subsidized health care, our newest entitlement program, will lead to.

According to the Democratic Policy Committee's website, as of 2014 the bill does the following:

Implements strong health insurance reforms that prohibit insurance companies from engaging in discriminatory practices that enable them to refuse to sell or renew policies due to an individual’s health status. Insurers can no longer exclude coverage for treatments based on pre-existing health conditions. It also limits the ability of insurance companies to charge higher rates due to heath status, gender, or other factors. Premiums can vary only on age (no more than 3:1), geography, family size, and tobacco use.

Sounds good doesn't it? Yes, but there's just one enormous little problem with it. All insurance has one universal characteristic that defines it as insurance; it is the current pooling of resources to protect against a potential future risk. Absent this characteristic, insurance ceases to be insurance, and is instead merely a pool of money used to pay current medical bills.

Recent articles that suggest that reform will turn Health Insurers into a regulated industry, much like the Electric utilities, miss the mark completely. Is your monthly electric bill the same as your neighbor's regardless of how much power you consume? I'll bet the answer is no. You pay only for the power you currently use, and that's not insurance.

Healthcare reform, as enacted, will force insurers to take all comers while at the same time limiting their ability to charge premiums that are appropriate for the risk involved in providing coverage. This will raise the cost of insurance for healthy premium payers as it has done wherever community rating is the law of the land. If you can buy health insurance after you become ill, why would anyone pay premiums until then? The answer; they wouldn't unless the government fine was higher than their premium. In other words, the government's $695 per year fine for those who don't buy mandated health insurance is a just a sick joke!

When only sick people pay premiums that are less than the cost of their treatment, how long will it be before the bankrupted health insurance companies are added to our growing list of tax payer owned and funded not for profit businesses?

Making health care treatment available to those who can't afford it should be one of our nations priorities but this giant Rube Goldberg of a system they are creating surely isn't the right way to go about it.

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The Nuclear Option ... A Neutron Bomb Aimed at the Democratic Majority

It's looking more and more likely that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid will trigger the so called nuclear option to push through their health care legislation for the benefit of the American people; the very same people whom overwhelmingly have rejected it and it's big government solutions to rising medical costs.

Her fanatical desire to pass this legislation has overwhelmed her ability to reason critically, as is evidenced by recent interviews in which she is quoted as saying, "Representatives are not in Washington to self perpetuate their political careers." While Mrs. Pelosi may inhabit a very safe district her words have probably come as quite a surprise to a number of her less safe Democratic colleagues, but hopefully will give them enough advanced warning to begin in earnest the search for a new career.

It has become something of an urban legend among the Democrats that it was their inability to pass health care reform in the first Clinton administration that was responsible for their loss of the Majority in the House. In other words, the American people were deeply upset by the Democrats' inability to deliver on legislation that would greatly increase their taxes and add mountains of new regulations to an already over regulated health care industry.

This is simply a major misread of history on their part. A more plausible reason for their rebuke and loss of Majority in the following Midterm elections were the Clinton tax increases and the arrogance of their members, as exemplified by the check kiting scandals of the house. This same arrogance was last displayed by members of the Republican party shortly before they lost their Majority status in the midterms in 2006.

Their fall back reasoning to vote for this legislation is no better. The idea that voters will seek retribution against the legislators who first cast a yes vote for the bill, and then once it became clear that nobody wanted it voted against it, is just silly. Do they really believe that if you vote for a bill that is hated by the majority of the public twice somehow you are safe? Have they never heard the old saying that “two wrongs don't make a right?”

Before the Democrats trigger their Nuclear option, they should review their college physics text books one last time and realize that at it's essence the Nuclear option, like the bomb it is named after, is an uncontrollable chain reaction. This Nuclear option has all the makings of a Political Neutron Bomb for their party; a tactical nuclear weapon designed to eliminate people but leave buildings intact. The Democratic Leadership should take a deep cleansing breath, remove their ideological 3D health care shades and have a look around. Somehow in the mass confusion that has been characteristic of this torturous process of producing health care legislation they have overlooked the Bright red rings outlining the bulls eye that this monstrosity has imprinted on their political careers.

Mouse Clicks.... The New Brute Force in Politics

With the election of Scott Brown to the Senate in Massachusetts, internet- enabled voters have given the political parties and their machine politicians the same bruising that a whole host of formerly successful business models have received, while barely lifting a finger in the process. They have bested the legions of campaign workers and party bosses by going straight to the candidate digitally (note: none of these puns are intended;) a political progression that has rendered the power structure of the Political Parties irrelevant. Politicians can no longer count on the machine to protect them. What's in store for Representatives who refuse to represent is going to rock their worlds!

It's no coincidence that the Big City Newspapers have experienced this same digital beat down; they are a glaring example of a industry that has also lost it's focus: reporting news. As a result, their business models and bottom lines that rely on the continuing trust and confidence of their readers have been crushed. More and more, people get their news on line these days, with fewer and fewer of them perusing the offerings of the MSM. Newspaper Editors are left seething in a state of denial as they watch their circulation numbers and ad revenue continue to plummet. So too, the C's as in the ABC, NBC, CBS , CNN and MSNBC who have suffered similar losses in viewership and ad revenue. Why have they fallen so far, so fast? The answer is simple. Their own voters, the readers and viewers who vote daily with their remote controls and pocketbooks, are no longer confident that they are reporting the truth to them. They have been punished in the market place because they stopped representing the truth to their readers.

Scott Brown's victory in the Massachusetts Senate election is just the latest example of the incredible power of the internet to organize and flatten distribution channels. The money-bomb posted on Glen Reynold's Instapundit and elsewhere to solicit campaign contributions first met, then exceeded, then nearly doubled Scott Brown's Campaign fund raising goal as contributions poured in from all over the country. A couple of lines of code had replaced the many hundreds of bodies of the party's machine and nullified two of the biggest advantages of incumbency: name recognition and the ability that comes with it to raise money. This new way to political prominence is brought to you Courtesy of ordinary people and their mouse clicks. Ouch, that's got to sting!

Martha Coakley and the political elites, who were trying to save "Ted Kennedy's seat" by flying to Washington and holding a wine and cheese party for the big Pharma and the Health-care lobbyists ( tell me again, who was she representing?) were no match for the ordinary people who voted first with their visa and debit cards and then when it mattered most: their ballots on election day. Poor Martha, having to go all the way to Washington to scoop up campaign contributions. It just seems so inconvenient.

This new Digital Revolution is being fought by patriots armed not with pitch forks and ax handles but by voters armed with PC's using visa and debit cards as ammunition to defeat those who claim to represent their interests, but instead serve their real masters: the special interest groups and the party. They organize in digital Town Hall meetings, and gather at rallies to show their support for candidates who will truly represent their values.

And so, the latest business that has been forever changed by the power of the internet is Politics, an Industry whose business model had for too long counted on brute force instead of brain power to carry the day. Mouse clicks are the new brute force in this unfamiliar Political paradigm. It's about to get real interesting.

Jobs Created ZERO, Jobs Saved or Imagined Make Up Your Own Number That's What They Do!

It's time for this administration to fold up their wishful thinking that the country can spend it's way out of economic problems, put it back on the shelf, and get in the game by doing something effective on the Job Creation front. Their singular accomplishment, if you can call it that, since taking office has been to pass a boondoggle of a Stimulus Bill, and that was a year ago. Their gigantic spending bill that was going to keep the economy from going over the cliff has been, by any measure, an abject failure; so much so that they had to invent an unmeasurable new measure in an attempt to quantify how many jobs were saved or imagined. Oh please!

Who cares how many jobs were saved or imagined? Am I really supposed to congratulate them for taxing me to give government employees (employee: one who is employed) who already have a job, a raise. Where I come from that's not creating jobs; but then again, I wasn't one of the folks under the illusion that the so called stimulus bill would actually create any jobs.

Perhaps I'm being to hard on them. Passing the stimulus bill is not their only accomplishment. They have managed to make possible the election of Republican Governors in NJ and VA, and a REPUBLICAN SENATOR to represent the good people of Massachusetts, so I guess they have done some good!

A real Jobs recovery can start tomorrow or not; all that need happen is for the government to give up on their current wish list of job destruction legislation and pursue policies that are pro growth and pro entrepreneur instead. The President can announce that he's ditched his favorite job killing bills like Health-Care Reform, Cap and Tax, the Bank Tax, the 250 thousandaire tax and all the other business choking regulations he wants Congress to enact.

He can instead champion tax reform that rewards the job creators by increasing the return on successful risk taking. Why not cut the corporate tax rate to 25% so that American corporations are not at a competitive disadvantage to foreign firms . Making American firms more competitive means more production and more jobs in America.

While he's at it, he can give give all those evil 250 thousandaires he's been verbally persecuting as though they were the Jihadist a break; a tax break. Many of them are owners of S-Corps who are paying a 35% marginal tax rate that will soon be 39.6% or more. The balance of them are a part of the top 5% that are picking up the tab for his massive government spending spree.

As Jack Kemp was quick to remind us, you can't have Capitalism with out capital.Taxing capital out of the hands of Entrepreneurs who would use it to create more jobs is no different than eating the farmer's seed corn. The next crop of jobs will always be smaller as a result.
Larry Kudlow inadvertantly illustrated the real problem while calling for a cut in the capital gains tax rate on his show the other night. Larry is a Free Market Capitalist to the bone, but he has made the mistake of letting the Democrats frame the debate. He spoke of a study which showed that the optimal rate at which to tax capital to maximize revenue is 10%, and called for a reduction in the rate.

Here is where Larry's went wrong: it's not about the government and it's revenues, it's about the citizens of this country and their well being. The optimal tax rate on capital is 0%, that's the rate at which the most capital is available to finance the most businesses to create the most JOBS. Our Government has lost it's way, it's needs now take priority over those they govern; they are more worried about their budgets and programs, not your well being. To this government, it is all about how much revenue they can squeeze out of you. It's time for you to squeeze back!

White House Hopes for Economic Growth... But Won't Change It's Counterproductive Policies

Yeah, Well, Good Luck with that! The Irrational Policies coming from this administration couldn't be more wrong if they are truly attempting to promote an economic expansion, they would change them. The tried and true methods to promote economic growth don't include any of the following: tax hikes, a weak dollar, trade wars, additional regulatory burdens, increased energy costs or a takeover of the health-care industry.

Only a year ago Democrats were mouthing phrases denoting the sheer folly of raising taxes in a recession. Having passed their massive public spending free for all they called a stimulus, which I call the Mother of all things pork, and wasting a mountain of taxpayer dollars the results are in and are at best, unimpressive. It has resulted in the creation of a large number of bogus jobs but very few real ones, but has been fairly good at increasing the wages of public sector employees (people who are already employed)and building a few skate parks. Now their sensible tone along with any notion that fixing the economy was job one, is gone, having been thrown under the progressive bus, in favor of their standard class warfare vernacular, an ideology they are much more comfortable articulating. Once again they wrap themselves in the mantle of Public Savior, guarding the poor, the planet and the working men and women of America from evil capitalists and business owners everywhere. Righteous crusaders, who but for the lack of an extra trillion or so more tax dollars can make all of our wildest dreams come true.

It is the focus of their ire, Businesses and the rich whom I call capitalist (you know, the ones with capital)who will lead us out of this economic malaise or not. Whether the time is right for them to lead is dependent solely upon their own very rational assessment of the business climate going forward, and that outlook is not promising. The President and his advisers hope that brow beating bankers will lead to more business borrowing to expand output and create additional jobs. He acts as though CEO's will plow ahead, willy nilly, borrowing and investing no matter how many additional burdens he and his political allies on the hill ask them to bear.

As far as private sector job creation goes, the President has missed the point entirely, quite possibly because very few of his advisers know anything about the private sector, having never worked in it. So I'm going to let him in on the dirty little secret of job creation, one that those of us out here in the real world already know. Businesses borrow money only so that they can earn additional profits, jobs that are created are really incidental to their focus, which is to grow the bottom line. Many of the policies the President promotes serve only to diminish the ability of a business to earn a profit. No Profit! No Growth! No Jobs!

The Business world is totally different than the political world. Companies don't have to expand. Investors don't have to risk their capital. They only do so when the conditions in place enable them to forecast an increased profits. When CEO's look at projections showing a bottom line that is shrinking, their thoughts are not of expansion and job creation, but rather they work nonstop trying to rationalize their cost structures to insure profitability, enabling them to survive the downturn. Labor savings is at the top of the heap when it comes to cutting expenses.

The good news is that an accelerated recovery can get underway any time the administration wants, but it will require them to make that hard pivot they have been talking about. They need to turn away from raising taxes, encourage the production of our domestic energy resources and stabilize the value of the dollar.

Domestic drilling will directly create thousands of real jobs in US oil fields and have the added benefit of reducing energy prices, enabling a more robust economic recovery and the jobs that come along with it.The prospect of lower taxes and a stable dollar will renew the incentive for investors and their Capital who are clearly watching from the sidelines to get back into the game of providing the fuel for economic growth. The nightmare of a health care bill, which seeks to punish healthy people with higher premiums and younger folks with fines for being young needs, to be scrapped in order to promote an economic environment that is, if not Employer friendly, at least not hostile.

Obama's Golden Opportunities an Anchor for the Dollar A Parachute for Bernanke

President Obama has one opportunity born of this current economic crisis that he shouldn't waste; a crisis that could not have happened but for the mismanagement of monetary policy by the Fed and it's Chairman, Ben Bernanke. The President can right the fiasco that our modern day dalliance with a floating dollar has been. Now is the time to bring back the dollar's Golden anchor, and give Helicopter Ben his Golden Parachute.

Bernanke, like his predecessor at the FED Alan Greenspan, conducts monetary policy by feel and not according to any predictable standard. A “keep them guessing” approach to monetary policy, with it's gyrations in the FED funds rate and the swings it has produced in the dollars value, has been the cause of much of the economic misery that Americans have suffered over the nearly 40 years since Richard Nixon took the US off the gold standard in 1971. The latest fiasco, the housing market blow up and bust, could not have happened on a gold standard, nor would the future inflation that is already baked in the economic cake be a cause for concern.

The dollar's value hasn't always been an ethereal notion. The dollar was defined by Alexander Hamilton as a specific weight of gold in 1792. One ounce of gold was worth $20.67 from the time he initiated this standard until President Roosevelt's devaluation of the dollar in 1931, which changed its value to $35 dollars per ounce, a measurement which held until Nixon took the US off the gold standard in 1971. This protracted period of stable money, and the low interest rate environment it produced in combination with the other economic freedoms enshrined by the founders in our Constitution, are what enabled the US to become the world's economic Superpower.

With the loss of it's golden definition, the value of the dollar has plummeted. The $35 dollars that would have bought you an ounce of gold or a good men's suit in 1971 won't buy you a decent tie today. Today you would need to exchange nearly 1100 dollars for that same ounce of gold. One is hard pressed to see the benefits of our floating dollar!

Mr. Bernanke, who is proclaimed as the world's greatest student of the Great Depression, has taken all the wrong lessons from it. He, like most other Keynesian economists, believe a deflationary monetary policy was the cause of the Great Depression. As a result, he is pursuing a monetary policy designed to avoid a deflation at all cost. There is one very conspicuous problem with his approach. It is a misdiagnosis of both the cause of the Great Depression and our current recession, neither of which are deflationary contractions.

An email exchange that I've have read between Jude Wanniski and Bernanke from 2004 that has been made public clearly demonstrates Bernanke's complete lack of understanding of the stable money a gold standard produces. It is not feasible that he could lead the country back to the hard money policies that played a key part in making the US a safe haven for investors around the globe, enabling us to outpace the world in economic growth and the jobs that come along with it.

The folks who praise Bernanke for getting us past this financial meltdown miss the point that it was his mismanagement of the dollar that was at the very heart of the problem. By giving him the boot and restoring the dollar's golden link, the President will have removed the man who made this financial debacle possible and restored focus to the Fed whose primary mission is to maintain a stable dollar. Relieved of this impossibly conflicting mission of guarding the Dollar's value and keeping unemployment low, the Fed will once again be back to doing what it is supposed to do. Congress can then get busy providing sound fiscal policy and low tax rates, which in combination with the stable dollar, are the surest path to a robust economic expansion and the jobs it will create for Americans and the rest of the world.

Airline Security A Very Dangerous Oxymorn

All this talk about profiling is just a right-wing knee jerk reaction to the failure of one terrorist who tried to blow up his fellow passengers and couldn't pull it off. Had he accomplished his mission we would now all be celebrating with an Alah Akbarh shout out. Wait one minute, that's right, I'm not actually a terrorist, I'm just treated like one every time I fly. Pardon my confusion while I cancel the celebration.

The first problem with our passenger screening process is that it is run by a one size fits all Politically Correct to the bone government agency, which requires that no one get special treatment, and everyone get the same treatment, lest it offend some special interest group. Islamic Terrorists are threatening our lives, and the recent spectacle in Detroit has made it blatantly apparent that the government's real concern is being Politically Correct. How pathetic is that? Thoroughly searching everyone is not possible, and randomly picking people for enhanced security measures isn't working. That's why grandma gets frisked, but not the terrorist. The TSA is just busy going through the motions.

For an administration that is enamored with law enforcement, and apparently thinks that the Panty Bomber was a criminal (why else would you arrest him on criminal charges?) they should take a tip from the NYPD, who when summoned to the scene of a homicide don't question the dead guy. There is simply no need, he has been excluded because he doesn't fit the profile of the killer. He can't,because he's dead, and as such doesn't have much to say anyway. What the police will do is ask people questions to rule them out as suspects, something I've never been subjected to at the airport. The TSA employees that I've encountered do their best not to talk to you, other than to scold you for not putting your shampoo in a clear zip lock bag, or not emptying your pockets completely. Perhaps this is some kind of an advanced terrorist counter measure and I'm just not aware of it.

The second problem is that they are searching luggage and not screening people to determine if they are terrorists. Those in charge say that they must search everyone because finding the one terrorist among all of the passengers boarding planes each day is like searching for a needle in a haystack. I concede that it is a difficult task, one made more difficult by their lack of profiling, but if you are looking at every piece of hay in the stack you are never going to find the needle. You need to focus on the needle. Unless you are just trying to look busy, in which case a lot of people going through the motions will do the trick.

Necessitating that everyone be subjected to the same level of screening is ridiculous. A simple profile would eliminate as suspected terrorist 90% of the flying public, making a thorough screening of the remaining 10% no longer a daunting task, but a small chore. The reason profiling works is that when you put together an accurate threat assessment profile it tends to make the actions of the people you are looking for stand out from the rest of the crowd. You profile to eliminate suspects, greatly reducing the number of people that need to be searched. It's got nothing to do with racism. There, I said it. As a matter of fact, a blind man could have successfully profiled Omar.

These people never learn, which is why, after taking into account what had happened that day, the TSA implemented new rules to prevent further attacks. One of the new rules is that no one can leave their seat for the last hour of the flight. It's a good thing they had not instituted that rule until after the Flying Dutchman had thwarted the Isolated Jihadist on flight 253, or our hero might have waited patiently in his seat on his way to meeting his maker.