You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.
John C. Maxwell
One of My New Favorite Columnists: A Barton Hinkle
My blog has phased in more discussion over the past several months of my classical liberal, i.e., libertarian, points of view. There are some nuances, e.g., I personally have never smoked or used illicit drugs (I barely touched the pain pills I was prescribed after an outpatient procedure a couple of years back), but I do support certain decriminalization (vs. legalization) efforts. I have often featured media files (including one below) or references to articles from reason.com or Cato.
A frequent contributor to reason.com is A. Barton Hinkle. I have provided a link above where you can find some of his contributions to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and I was introduced to his frequent contributions at reason.com. A week ago he wrote a tongue-in-cheek Michelle Obama Christmas letter, and here's a sample of its contents:
Needless to say, 2011 was a very big year for Barack, even though he did not win another Nobel Prize like he should have...Of course it was easier to find OBL than it was to get the Republicans in Congress to agree to a tax hike on the “millionaires and billionaires” who make more than $250,000 a year, as Barack likes to say. I swear, sometimes I think the Republicans do not actually want to help a Democratic president win a second term — which is really weird, when you remember how hard Democrats worked to help re-elect Bush.I have to chuckle over that last point: Hinkle is making clear reference to how Democrats are trying to make an issue over how Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was quoted in saying in how he wanted Obama to be a one-term President. GOP principled opposition to progressive Democratic legislation is thus attributed to petty politics, not basic core political principles.
Why States Should Refuse to Set Up Health Exchanges Under Obamacare
A lot of focus to date on Obamacare, at least in this blog, has focused on the mandate question: without a mandate, forcing healthier people to subsidize poorer health risks, there is a vicious circle where poor health risks end up paying the true higher costs of their care (plus overhead and any relevant modest profit markup). This creates a problem for Democrats because ill people often can't afford their own "true cost" health care bills (in fact, they may not be able to work).
But there's a different Achilles heel to ObamaCare which deals with how the federal government subsidizes the costs of high-risk health insured. Obamacare does describe a mechanism for subsidizing the costs under state-established health care exchanges. The law does provide for the establishment of a federal exchange if states don't establish an exchange. But allegedly there is no provision for subsidizing the premiums for those in the federal exchange. Without subsidies, we essentially would have the equivalent of the status quo, with insurance companies pursuing better health risks for a given level of affordable premiums.
Conservative/libertarian analysts say that the Obama Administration is aware of the problem and knows there is no way to fix it through a GOP-controlled House. So they are quietly drafting an unauthorized subsidy scheme and are dodging the issue with Congress. The analysts are suggesting that if states react in a passive-aggressive manner by simply refusing to establish relevant exchanges, this design flaw is enough to collapse Obamacare or force Obamacare to be renegotiated.
Towards a More Balanced Foreign Policy
I don't have to remind readers that this week saw another anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack resulting in America entering WWII against Japan. (Our second front was a consequence of Axis Japanese allies Germany and Italy subsequently declaring war on us.)
In the video historian Craig Shirley describes how America transitioned from an isolationist/"America First" power which had rejected the League of Nations, to a global interventionist power. Even though reason.com sponsors the video, there is no heavy-handed message; many, if not most libertarians argue that an interventionist policy is unsustainable in costs, particularly given our existing deficits and national debt. I wouldn't regard myself as isolationist, but I'm worried about our military getting tied down in the Middle East or reacting in similar knee-jerk fashion to the War on Terror.
Remy's The Incandescent Light Bulb Song
Remy (remember his spoof of Occupy Wall Street with the melody of Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changing"?) decided to shine a little light in federal Big Nanny light bulb regulation. Now, personally, I don't have an incandescent light bulb and haven't had one in years, but I'm fine with others having that choice. I also believe if you want to watch movies on VHS or listen to music on phonographs or cassettes, you should have that option, too.
Musical Interlude: Nostalgic/Instrumental Christmas
Harry Simeone Chorale, "Do You Hear What I Hear?"
Bing Crosby
Mannheim Steamroller
