Survival at Night: Two Hands are Always Better than One

Published: Fri, 05/31/13

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Paul Krugman is Rarely Right about Anything and this Debt/Growth Flap is no Exception

“Your characterization of our work and our policy impact is selective and shallow. It is deeply misleading about where we stand on the issues,” wrote Harvard economists Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart, in a letter, to New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. As Brenda Cronin of The Wall Street Journal writes, “The gloves are off in the roiling academic dispute over the merits of austerity and the dangers of debt.”

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An Unlimited and Arrogant Government

You are not a customer, you are a citizen. The IRS scandal is not about bad customer service. It’s about government that’s too big. Citizens are voting with their feet and moving to states, like Texas, where they’re well treated. As Matthew Continetti writes at the Weekly Standard:

But why stop there? Deny the IRS further power over American lives by repealing Obamacare. Welcome homeschooling, Internet-friendly deregulation, and school choice, increase health care competition through price transparency and point-of-service payment, privatize government services where appropriate, create the option of shielding income from tax through universal savings accounts—all of these measures would enhance the freedom and prosperity of America.

Ultimately, it would be a waste if the investigations consuming Washington led to nothing but posturing and lawyering and political drift. Better to make Steven Miller famous as the spokesman for an unlimited and arrogant government, and to direct the Tea Party energies loosed by this scandal toward a program of choice, competition, and renewal. That would be the best service Republicans could provide.

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Americans Giving up in Switzerland

Americans living in Switzerland are giving up their U.S. passports because of the Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act.

“An increasing number of Americans living in Switzerland are renouncing their citizenship as a result of ever intrusive demands from the tax authorities in their “home” country.

The US embassy to Switzerland told swissinfo.ch that it had processed 411 renunciations in the first nine months of this year. This compares to 180 Americans giving up their passports in 2011.

Read more here

Are you aware of the seriousness of the problem? I just returned from France and observed one especially nasty black-suited protest march. Be glad you were not there. Anyone not paying attention to what is going on in France, England and Sweden is missing the heart of the immigration issue. Our politicians, in total self-interest, are working against Americans in a new bill working through the Senate. Here’s the close-up, current update, courtesy of my friends at the Cato Institute. Read this with care.

Are you aware of what is going on right under your nose in Washington? My Cato friend Jim Harper is onto the impending travesty and lays out the issue for you here. Americans should be enraged. What do you plan to do about having your rights destroyed?

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Hello! It’s Pretty Simple: Jobs Work

You can continue to add big jobs to the list of big things to love about big Texas. In yet another report, this one from the American Legislative Exchange Council, Texas ranked number one over the last decade in jobs and economic growth.

One of the cities creating those jobs is Houston, described by Mayor Annise Parker as a “redneck white city down in Texas.”

According to Matthew Kaminski at The Wall Street Journal:

The mayor herself is a walking testament to the cosmopolitan contrarian reality of modern Houston. Annise Parker is a Democrat in a deep-red state, the first openly gay mayor of a major American city. She’s a social liberal who’s also a former oil-industry executive with a pro-business attitude running what may be the nation’s least-regulated metropolis….

Houston’s recent track record is startling. For the calendar year ending in February, it saw the fastest pace of job growth (4.5%) among the country’s 20 largest metropolitan areas. (With a population of 2.1 million, it’s the fourth-largest U.S. city.) In 2011, the last year such data are available, Houston had the fastest-growing large metropolitan economy, at 3.7%.

Add to that a cost of living that is 7.8% below the U.S. average—New York is 53.4% above the average—and you can see the attraction for waves of new arrivals. Housing costs run a third less than the average in the 29 largest metro areas. Adjusting for these lower costs, Houston has the highest per-capita income of any city in the nation.

Houston is also home to Cabela’s, which is a huge beneficiary of President Obama’s policies. Its stock is up 95% over the last year and 70% so far this year. Its cash cow is firearms, ammunition, and accessories, which made up a third of its sales last year and helped with most of its 24% same-store sales growth. That’s how the government has been working overtime for the brothers Cabela, Richard, 76, and James, 73. As Nathan Vardi points out in Forbes:

It has been an incredible run for the company founded in 1961 by Richard Cabela and his wife, Mary, at their kitchen table in Chappell, Nebr. Within two years younger brother James Cabela joined the catalog business, and the duo eventually moved their headquarters to Sidney, Nebr. and developed stores that have become like shopping amusement parks for sportsmen, known for elaborate taxidermy displays of animals from deer to lions. In addition to its stores and direct-sales channels, Cabela’s offers a cobranded Visa credit card and even owns an FDIC-insured bank.

Then you have Houston’s John Arnold. He wants the government to work for you too. He’s got around $4 billion to make that happen. The 39-year-old made his fortune away from Wall Street through his hedge fund, Centaurus Energy. His approach to philanthropy is anything but mainstream. He’s not interested in building more libraries that we don’t need. In “The New Science of Giving,” Brad Reagan of The Wall Street Journal writes:

The Arnolds want to see if they can use their money to solve some of the country’s biggest problems through data analysis and science, with an unsentimental focus on results and an aversion to feel-good projects—the success of which can’t be quantified. No topic is too ambitious: Along with obesity, the Arnolds’ plan to dig into criminal justice and pension reform, among others. Anne Milgram, the former New Jersey attorney general hired to tackle the criminal-justice issue, has a name for all this: She calls it the “Moneyball” approach to giving, a reference to the book and movie about how the Oakland A’s used smart statistical analysis to upend some of baseball’s conventional wisdom. And the Arnolds are in no hurry for answers. Indeed, they believe patience is a key resource behind their giving.

There are plenty more reason why Texas works. But you don’t have to look much beyond Houston as a template to get other cities and states in America working too.

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What’s the Most Lucrative Song?

The 27^th Margaritavile opened last week in Atlantic City. Keenan Mayo reports at Bloomberg Businessweek:

Margaritaville Enterprises, founded in 2006 and based in Orlando, sells everything from beachwear to furniture and also oversees at least one Caribbean island resort, two American resorts, and four casinos. You can buy Margaritaville rum and combine it with a Margaritaville drink mixer in your very own Margaritaville blender that costs $349.99. According to the Orlando Business Journal, the company brought in at least $100 million in revenue in 2007. As a private company, Margaritaville doesn’t release information about its holdings, but by all accounts it has only expanded since then.

Go to www.openthebooks.com or get the “app” using your phone by searching “open the books” in your App Store. You will have at your finger-tips a map of how your dollars are being wasted by the government. The app was created by Adam Andrzejewski who writes:

Here are just three tidbits I found out using the new app:

• The brother of a former state director of agriculture under former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has received nine federally guaranteed loans totaling $1.67 million since 2006. He has also received hundreds of thousands in direct payments and subsidies from the federal government, all based on his ownership of a single hog farm in Teutopolis, Ill.

• In Bradley, a small town 60 miles south of Chicago, a beauty school with 105 students and based in a shopping mall charges $20,000 for tuition and supplies. Yet the school has received over $8.2 million in federal Pell grants and federal student loans. Thanks to the taxpayer subsidy, the college of cosmetology has tuition that exceeds tuition payments at some Big Ten universities.

• In my upscale suburb of Hinsdale—where the average home sells for nearly $900,000 and the median household income is over $150,000 per year—a nonprofit called Community House received a million-dollar grant for children’s programming. In addition, taxpayers guaranteed a low-interest government loan for $1.5 million to the local Lamborghini dealership. That’s spreading the wealth to the wealthy.

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America has No Vital Interest in Syria

U.S. involvement in Syria would be tragic. As Pat Buchanan correctly points out:

Why should Americans die for a Sunni triumph in Syria? At best, we might bring about a new Muslim Brotherhood regime in Damascus, as in Cairo. At worst, we could get a privileged sanctuary for that al-Qaida affiliate, the Al-Nusra Front.

As the Sykes-Picot borders disappear and the nations created by the mapmakers of Paris in 1919-1920 disintegrate, a Muslim Thirty Years’ War may be breaking out in the thrice-promised land.

It is not, and it should not become, America’s war.

The IRS acknowledged its targeted enforcement.

A Pennsylvania pro-Israel group called Z Street says it filed for 501(c)(3) status in December 2009, intending to operate purely as an educational group. Founder Lori Lowenthal Marcus says that its tax counsel called the IRS in July 2010 to check on the slow pace of approval, and the IRS acknowledged its targeted enforcement.

Asked about the slow pace of approval, the IRS auditor on the case, Diane Gentry, said the application was taking so long because auditors were supposed to give special scrutiny to groups “connected with Israel.” Ms. Marcus says Ms. Gentry further explained that many applications related to Israel had to be sent to “a special unit in D.C. to determine whether the organization’s activities contradict the Administration’s public policies.” Z Street filed suit in August 2010 in federal court in Pennsylvania alleging “viewpoint discrimination,” and its case has since been moved to Washington, D.C. Ms. Gentry did not return our phone calls.

Read more here

As the pressure of the scandals build-up, so does the arrogance. “The Benghazi tragedy shows the naiveté of thinking that our nation would be loved and the world safer simply because of the power of Mr. Obama’s personality. The IRS abuses and Justice’s snooping on the press, reminiscent of the worst of President Nixon, highlight for all the danger of larger government involvement in our lives,” writes Pete Du Pont at The Wall Street Journal.

Debbie and I split our twice-a-year European research trips into three parts, including a front-end and back-end centered in Paris and a mid trip destination that in the past has included Switzerland, where I tried to open a Swiss bank account and was promptly shown the door. Swiss banking doors, thanks to our government, are no longer as regular course open to Americans. Among other mid-trip destinations have been the D-Day beaches in Normandy (my previous posts point you to the historian you want as your guide), Beaune (Burgundy’s must-visit wine capital), Avignon, and Aix-en-Provence. This year our mid-trip stop was the Cote d’Azur. We took the high-speed TGV from Paris to Nice, where we were met by our car/driver service. Flying into Nice is also an option.

Get your printed copy, first class TGV tickets in advance of your trip, which eliminates the need to validate your tickets at the little yellow validation machines. I have previously advised that you want to travel like a Navy SEAL, rather than as if you are on safari. Two decades of Harley riding have taught us to pack light with wick-away clothing in the many wonderful fabrics available today. We do not check luggage. Tumi has worked well for us, but there also are many new super-light Polycarp spinner bags with options for smaller, under-the-seat-size soft bags that slip over the retractable handle of your roller bag. So equipped, you can roll through airport and rail stations. No steamer trunks for you. Trust me on the packing issue. If you attempt to heft your NFL duffle bags or Louis Vuitton monsters onto the TGV, you are in for a gang of headaches.

A word on boarding the TGV: be certain to get on the correct coach. Show up well in advance so as soon as your track number is posted (check for the correct track and platform), you can arrive first on the scene. If you are late or get on the wrong car, you’ll soon know why I warned you against such travel travesty. I’ve seen many the poor soul who has gotten on the wrong car and had to fight against the flow of boarding traffic to retreat and re-group. Racks for luggage are usually provided at both the front and rear of your first class coach. Take your soft bag to your seat or on the racks above. We were quite happy for having brought along a delicious jambon iberique on a ficelle aux raisins de Corinthe from Bread and Roses in the 6^th. I speak clutch-and-grab food/wine French and can struggle through menus, but it can be a challenge dealing with the often French-only-speaking harried food vendors.

There is direct train service to Nice and no need to get routed through the industrial city of Marseille. Advance planning and attention to detail will put a smile on your face. And unlike in the U.S., the French high-speed TGV is likely to leave on time. Engaging in a last minute sprint is not what you want, especially if dragging your steamer trunk behind you.

Our travel facilitator is adept at avoiding travel unpleasantries. Ryland Stacy knows all the ropes and can save you a world of trouble. Through Ry, we were able to hire southern France’s primo car/driver service, AKKA Limousine. Security of travel is the name of the game with AKKA. Driver Luc spent decades in Monaco’s military protecting the royal family. He moves through Monaco with aplomb and can get you places you’d never see on your own. Luc was recently voted one of France’s five best drivers for a wide array of reasons that you will quickly recognize shortly after you meet him. Whether you are travelling to Marseille, St. Tropez, Cannes, Antibes, Nice, Monaco or San Remo, have Ryland hire AKKA for you. We also worked with young AKKA driver Gabby who grew up in Nice and worked miracles getting us into little hill town cafes for real Provincial fare.

The situation in Syria could not be more of a mess. Infighting has led to complete disarray among opposition leadership. Edward Yeranian and Lisa Schlein have explained it all at Globalsecurity.org.

A group of Syria-based opposition factions has accused the main opposition coalition-in-exile of failing to represent the Syrian people, in a sign of further disarray among opponents of President Bashar al-Assad.

The four opposition factions issued a statement Wednesday threatening to withdraw recognition from the Turkey-based Syrian National Coalition unless it expands its membership to include “revolutionary forces” inside Syria.

The Syria-based groups said the sharply-divided SNC has failed to represent the two-year old anti-Assad rebellion at the “organizational, political and humanitarian levels.”

The statement came as SNC members struggled to reach any agreements on future strategy despite holding more than a week of meetings in Istanbul.

Technology isn’t only about start-ups and IPOs. The future of technology in Norway could hinge on its relationship with oil and gas companies. As Ben Rooney of The Wall Street Journal writes:

“In much the same way as Israeli startups have a relationship with the military sector, so too can Norwegian ones work with oil and gas,” Mr. Grønsund said. Tech companies “can deliver services to the oil-and-gas industry and that will create spillovers that will give back to the tech scene in general. Startups can use it as a springboard.”

Hallstein Bjercke, Oslo’s vice mayor, said there are moves to diversify away from natural resources. “Even though oil is peak right now—the income has never been bigger—I would say that the focus is shifting in Norway,” he said. “Tech is becoming more and more important. We see knowledge-based industry as the future. You can’t live on resources forever.”

Drug resistant bacteria can be more dangerous to patients than what they’ve been admitted to the hospital for in the first place. Laura Landro of The Wall Street Journal explains how doctors can mitigate the risks of these super-bugs.

To prevent deadly infections in intensive-care units, hospitals often screen all patients for the drug-resistant bacteria MRSA, then isolate or treat those found to carry it with germ-killing soap and ointment.

In the study of nearly 75,000 patients at 74 adult ICUs in 43 Hospital Corp. of America HCA -0.73% facilities, the protocol, known as universal decolonization, reduced all bloodstream infections, including those caused by other germs, by 44%, and reduced the incidence of MRSA-positive cultures in the ICU by 37%. Patients were washed with cloths containing antimicrobial soap chlorhexidine and received a nasal antibiotic ointment, mupirocin.

Two starkly different visions of the future of public policy are being laid out by France’s central bank chief Christian Noyer and recently elected Socialist President François Hollande. The Wall Street Journal explains those positions today.

“The underlying objective,” Mr. Noyer writes, “is growth. Not just a temporary spurt, sustained artificially by public spending, but strong and lasting growth that creates jobs and is based on the development of modern and competitive production capacity. This kind of growth cannot just be summoned up. It requires a profound change in public policy.”

With French President François Hollande pushing older workers into retirement to “make room” for the jobless young, we hope he pays attention to Mr. Noyer’s words on jobs: “Public policies are often overly concerned with preserving the jobs of the past, at times to the detriment of future job creation.” He adds: “Today’s jobs are not the same as those of yesterday and, likewise, those of tomorrow will be different from the jobs that exist today.”

Obamacare is a train-wreck already as small businesses see huge cost spikes ahead. Here are three examples, as reported by The Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Laine, 52, a University of California Los Angeles graduate with three children, says he spoke to his insurance broker in December and was told that when he renews his company’s health plan for 2014, his premiums could go up by anywhere from 15% to 60%—regardless of whether more employees choose to be covered by his firm.

“The message is, ‘We really don’t know; we have no way to predict for you what it will cost in any reasonable way,’ ” he says.

On the other hand, his firm could drop insurance, and face $94,000 in penalties. But the decision is a lot more complicated than which option is cheaper. Insurance benefits are tax-free, and a lot of firms don’t want to risk losing workers to competitors—or getting bad publicity for ditching coverage.

Despite continued rapid money creation in japan, stock prices are pulling back. Meanwhile gold has jumped back over $1,400/ounce in early morning trading reports the Wall Street Journal.

Gold prices hit an eight-day high, reaching $1,410.73 a troy ounce in early European trade. Prices took support from the weak Asian stock markets overnight, which boosted gold’s appeal as a hedge against wider market insecurity. Spot gold was up recently at $1,402.90 an ounce.

Cato Institute’s Doug Bandow lays out an obvious choice for America.

Europe is slowly disarming. That really isn’t America’s business, but for the traditional expectation that America would fill the gap. That is ever less likely, however, as budget pressures slow U.S. military expenditures. Now the French are appear to be ready to do more in response.

European expenditures will continue on a downward path because Europe no longer faces any serious, let alone existential, threats. European Union leaders might talk about creating a continental foreign policy and military, but European peoples exhibit little interest in paying the resulting bill, especially with the continent in economic crisis.

Surefire is the gold standard for lighting. One of the many uses I like for this head-lamp is fishing at night in Newport, RI. When darkness rolls in you can keep working.

From SureFire:

Surefire HS2 Minimus Headlamp
Multiple-Output LED Headlamp – 2011 Model (100/1 Lumens)

HS2-A-BK The Minimus^™ headlamp features a high-efficiency LED that provides a brilliant white light, adjustable in output from zero to 100 lumens via the knurled no-slip right-hand output control knob. The proprietary refractive optic produces a wide beam optimized for your natural field of view, and an included red filter gives you the option of low-signature light that also preserves dark-adapted vision. A valuable safety feature: a setting for a long-running SOS beacon. The Minimus runs on a single 123A battery contained within the tilt-control knob, and the battery access cap has a short leash to prevent dropping or loss. The fine-weave headband is strong but comfortable, and features a moisture-wicking Breathe-O-Prene™ forehead pad. Built from tough polymer and hard-anodized aerospace aluminum, the Minimus is lightweight, yet like its siblings the Minimus™ Vision, the Minimus™ Tactical, and the Minimus™ AA, it’s tough enough for the rigors of combat, caving, and mountaineering, and is submersible to 3 feet for up to thirty minutes.

Features

Virtually indestructible LED emitter regulated to maximize output and runtime
Variable light-output dial controls levels from 0 to 100 lumens
Proprietary refractive optic produces a smooth, wide beam optimized for your field of vision
Built-in SOS beacon can run for days on end
Light housing can be rotated up or down 90 degrees
Red filter (included) for low light signature and/or preserving dark-adapted vision
High-strength aerospace aluminum body, Mil-Spec hard-anodized for extreme durability
Submersible to 3 feet for thirty minutes
Headband provides comfort, durability, and a secure fit with or without a helmet
Compact integral compartment holds one 123A lithium battery
Includes high-energy 123A battery with 10-year shelf life

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First Aid App

How well do you know your first aid? Wouldn’t help to have an app in your phone to help you in times of emergency? Now you can.

“The official American Red Cross First Aid app puts expert advice for everyday emergencies in your hand. Available for iPhone and Android devices, the official American Red Cross First Aid app gives you instant access to the information you need to know to handle the most common first aid emergencies. With videos, interactive quizzes and simple step-by-step advice it’s never been easier to know first aid.”–American Red Cross

Features:

Simple step-by-step instructions guide you through everyday first aid scenarios.
Fully integrated with 911 so you can call EMS from the app at any time.
Videos and animations make learning first aid fun and easy.
Safety tips for everything, from severe winter weather to hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes help you prepare for emergencies.
Preloaded content means you have instant access to all safety information at anytime, even without reception or an Internet connection.
Interactive quizzes allow you to earn badges that you can share with your friends and show off your lifesaving knowledge.

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Obama’s Approval Rating Falls to 45%

Kim Strassel on how the Washington press corps is turning against the Obama administration.

A new Quinnipiac poll shows President Obama’s job approval falling to 45%, but the survey also ranks the public’s focus on today’s Washington controversies. Nearly 45% of voters said the IRS scandal is most important, followed by 24% who picked Benghazi. A mere 15% thought the Justice Department’s seizure of press records was a big deal.

For years, much of the Washington press corps has served as this White House’s front-line defense. As recently as a month ago, the press was still playing no-see-um with Benghazi.

Yet since the AP story broke, the Beltway media have been doing a passable impression of a credible Fourth Estate. White House press secretary Jay Carney’s daily briefings now resemble “Survivor” episodes, with journalists firing off questions, rejecting answers, and even rolling their eyes at responses. The White House’s evasiveness on the press scandal has suddenly got the press corps wondering what else this administration isn’t being straight on.

After fighting the president tooth and nail on immigration, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer seems bent on throwing in with Obama on Obamacare. National Review explains it here.

Governor Brewer’s desire to expand Medicaid is predicated on a particular kind of economic illiteracy – to wit, the belief that there is such a thing as “free money” from the federal government, as though Arizona taxpayers were not also federal taxpayers. Medicaid is an extraordinarily expensive program, and one that has been shown in study after study to produce little or nothing in the way of measurable health benefits for recipients. It is an additional indicator of the program’s low quality that nearly a third of all U.S. doctors refuse to take on new Medicaid patients. It is the definitive federal entitlement boondoggle: big cost, little upside.

Rich Lowry at Politico gets to the heart of the problem of creeping executive branch power.

In an excellent essay in the journal National Affairs, Chris DeMuth calls the regulatory agency “the most potent institutional innovation in American government since the Constitution.” He notes that the regulatory state has three hallmarks, at least since the 1970s when its independent power began to grow.

One, Congress delegates lawmaking to the agencies by giving them massive discretion in implementing the vaguest of mandates. Two, there are no constraints on their effective spending power since the costs of their rules “are borne almost entirely by the private sector.” Third, they enjoy “relative insulation from public debate and criticism.”

Neocons are gearing up for a push to intervene in Syria. Donna Cossata of the AP explains his trip to Syria to meet rebel leaders.

McCain spent about two hours in Syria, crossing over the border from Turkey, and met with about 10-15 rebel commanders, Idris said in a telephone interview from inside Syria. His discussions focused on the fighting on the ground, the need for military assistance, humanitarian aid and medical care.

“We are peaceful people, we would like to see our country liberated from this dictatorship, liberated from this murder regime, and we would like to have the best relations with all the countries in the world,” Idris said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press.

McCain, R-Ariz., a member of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, favors providing arms to rebel forces in Syria and creation of a no-fly zone. He has stopped short of backing U.S. ground troops in Syria.

Spokesman Jay Carney said Tuesday that the White House was aware in advance of McCain’s plans to travel to Syria. Carney declined to say whether McCain was carrying any message from the administration, but he said White House officials looked forward to hearing about his trip.

Edgardo Buscaglia describes the ticking time bomb that is Mexico in a New York Times op-ed that should give Mexico boosters second thoughts.

All countries, of course, are afflicted to some degree with internal organized crime. Russia and China generate criminal groups even more powerful than those in Mexico; West European nations face the lawless cross-border activities of many well-financed criminal groups. But none of these countries experience such extreme forms of organized violence as do Mexico and some of its Central American neighbors, all of which face unprecedented rates of homicide, human trafficking, kidnapping and extortion.

Mexico’s extreme violence is caused rather by the power vacuums and failures created by the country’s chronically corrupt governments. The corruption creates huge incentives for criminal groups to consolidate their markets through savage competition for voids in “authority.”

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The U.S. Tax Code Farce

America needs to junk the tax code, close the IRS as today configured, and switch over to a flat and simple 10/10/10/ plan. Under such a plan, worldwide corporate income would be taxed at 10% as would individual income and retail purchases. The New York Times Editorial Board lays out its position today.

In response to the recent Senate hearing on tax avoidance at Apple, some pundits have argued that the best solution is to abolish the corporate income tax altogether. Their contention is that multinational corporations — which hold trillions of dollars in mostly untaxed profits offshore — are so complex and so expert at avoidance that even trying to tax them is pointless. It would be better, they say, to quit trying and to raise needed tax revenue in other ways. This would be a completely wrong approach.

David Malpass correctly identifies today’s market trouble as poor fundamentals glossed over by Federal Reserve money printing.

As this month’s stock and bond market gyrations showed, traders are obsessively focused on every nuance of the Fed’s monetary plans. Billions of dollars are at stake for Wall Street, which profits mightily from the Fed’s bond buying and cheap credit.

The problem is the broader economy’s poor performance in growth and jobs. The Fed, which was once a key proponent of market-based economic policies, has forced U.S. interest rates to near zero for four-and-a-half years with no plans to stop. It has bought nearly $3 trillion in bonds, with the express goal of channeling credit to the government, government-owned enterprises and large corporations in the hope that this will boost employment.

Cato Institute’s Michael Cannon explains that 54% of Americans oppose Obamacare, and that two-thirds of states have refused to implement Obamacare’s health insurance “exchanges.”

But the main reason Obamacare is encountering obstacles is simple: the American people do not want it. Recent polls show 54 percent of Americans oppose the law, 53 percent want opponents to “continue trying to change or stop it,” and 56 percent want to return what we had before. This June will mark four solid years of public opposition. Some polls show a mere third of the public supports Obamacare. Unions thatsupported it are now “frustrated and angry” over its unintended consequences. One such union is calling for repeal.

A dose of reality on taxation from Pat Buchanan.

Sen. Carl Levin was aghast.
Before his committee sat, unapologetic and uncontrite, Apple CEO Tim Cook, whose company had paid no U.S. corporate income taxes on the $74 billion it had earned abroad in recent years.

“Apple has sought the Holy Grail of tax avoidance,” said Levin. “Apple has exploited an absurdity.”

Actually, Apple had done nothing wrong, except hire some crack accountants who chose Ireland’s County Cork as the headquarters of their international division. Thus Apple paid on profits earned outside the U.S.A. nothing but a 2 percent tax imposed by the Irish government.

Far from being condemned, Apple’s CPAs ought to be inducted into the Accountants Hall of Fame.

It is no more immoral for Apple to move its headquarters for foreign sales to Ireland than for Big Apple residents to move to Florida to escape the 12 percent combined state and city income tax.

Among the reasons the Sun Belt is booming at the expense of the Rust Belt is not just the weather. Southern states strive to keep income and estate taxes low or nonexistent. They want companies and families to relocate and live there, and to spend their money there.

>> read more

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