Why Republicans will continue to struggle to gover...

The Republican Congress is having a really hard time getting its majority to actually pass legislation. Why? It is almost facile to note that since Republicans don’t really believe in governance, they are unlikely to try to get good at it. But there is something deeper going on, too, and it has to do with the nature of democracy. A Democracy consists of diverse interest groups who all want slightly different things....

Trump and the AMT

The main thing we learned from Trump’s 2005 tax return: We need the AMT. The AMT is the “Alternative Minimum Tax”. It makes sure that rich people with a lot of deductions still pay a minimum amount of tax. In 2005 Trump made $150 million in income (that doesn’t count his businesses profits, just his personal income). After his deductions, he claimed he owed only 4% in taxes (FWIW that’s less...

How Trump hurts American Agri-businesses

How Trump hurts American businesses (agricultural version): Bloomberg BusinessWeek week recently reported that Brazil, Argentina, the Ukraine, Russia, and Australia are now all eager to displace the United States as the world’s largest exporter of grains and bulk food crops. Since–the article notes–Trump has signaled to the world that supplies and exports from the United States may become suddenly...

Motives on the left and right

I tend to resist facile equivalences. The motives and methods on the left and right are not the same. There are some principled Republicans who oppose any government involvement in health care. This is a principled stand, and people can disagree, but it is grounded in a certain worldview. Now it so happens that a lot of people who don’t want government in health care happen to be extraordinarily rich. Which has two...

Republicans and Democrats are not unanimous blocks

Like Republicans, Democrats are a collection of different interest/identity groups in a marriage of convenience forced by a political system that by (unintended) design can only support two parties. Republicans have a strange alliance of pro-business/pro-plutocrats, libertarians, and social conservatives. Each of these groups are at odds. But they are all Republican. Democrats include social progressives, economic...

Clarifying Trump

Lately the White House has been “clarifying” Trumps statements. So for example, when Trump said “wire tap” the White House claims he didn’t actually mean there was a wiretap. I’m waiting for the upcoming “clarifications”. For example, when Trump said “no one loses coverage” we’ll hear he didn’t actually mean health insurance. And when he said...

The US Military and Climate Change

The military are serious professionals. They care about doing their job well. And when your naval base ends up underwater (Norfolk, VA) that really harms military readiness. The last place you want people ignoring reality is the military. And the military doesn’t ignore reality. They’ve been assessing the impacts of climate change for years, and building it into all their short and long range planning. This is...

RIP

What to call the Ryan health plan? How about Republican Insurance Plan, or RIP for short. Because that is their plan for you if you get sick – RIP. But at least they saved $660 billion to “give back” to people making over $200,000 per year! It’s all about priorities. The Ryan plan takes care of “our people” alright. $660 billion in tax cuts for the wealthy. The 24 million people kicked off...

Kasich on bipartisanship

Today John Kasich published an editorial in the New York Times urging Republicans to reach out to Democrats to fix health insurance, and Democrats to pitch in. It upset a lot of people for the serious spin on history. My comment: This is the kind of simplistic “kumbaya” article that is all the more cynical for it’s intent. It is designed to get people who aren’t paying attention to think that the only...

The Structural Problem with Heath Insurance

So here’s the dirty secret about health insurance companies: They don’t really care what the rules of the marketplace are. They are insurance pools. They will price their policies based on whatever it costs to pay out the claims and have a little left over. (Health insurance companies average about 5% profits, FWIW). Change the rules so the pools are full of sick people, and they will adjust prices upwards...

Rep. Burgess puts ideology over people

Speaking of the health insurance of millions of Americans: “If you ask someone to give up something, there will be resentment,” said Representative Michael C. Burgess, Republican of Texas and chairman of the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health. But, he added, “If that claims my congressional career, so be it. It will be worth it to me to have effected this change.” (NY Times, 3/11/17) I’m not sure if this is the...

Thoughts on Income Inequality

In an article so blind to the obvious that it might as well be willful, The Wall Street Journal opined, “Americans Are Richer Than Ever, But They Don’t Feel That Way: U.S. household net worth is expected to hit another record, but that won’t mean much to most people”. And not once does the article mention income inequality. Boiling the problem down to the simplest example, let me point out that, between us, Bill Gates and I...