Congress to Investigate Fake Districts
Amanda Carpenter broke the news Tuesday that "The government Web site that promised to show exactly where the $787 billion in stimulus spending was going to 'create or save' jobs is allocating billions of tax dollars to hundreds of congressional districts that don’t exist." Researchers at the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity found 440 “phantom districts” listed on Recovery.gov, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 19, 2009 12:28
Kelo Follow Up
Well looks like the entire town of New London, Conn. is going to get screwed by Pfizer. “Look what they did,” Mr. Cristofaro said on Thursday. “They stole our home for economic development. It was all for Pfizer, and now they get up and walk away.” That sentiment has been echoing around New London since Monday, when Pfizer, the giant drug company, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 13, 2009 18:52
Health Reform & Standards for Equal Justice
The Urban Institute's Eugene Stuerle is not very happy with the health care expansion legislation that is likely to be passed into law. Stuerle argues that the legislation violates the standards of equal justice. Of course, families in this income bracket pay far more than $14,700 for health care. They get hit by uninsured expenses or covered expenses they have ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 13, 2009 14:11
UPS vs. FedEx Whiteboard Video
Reason's Nick Gillespie has a bit of fun with the UPS-FedEx fight to make a larger argument about unions. What's particularly amusing about this is that, rather than seeking to get the favorable regulatory treatment that FedEx enjoys, UPS is fighting to put FedEx under the same onerous rules. I'm reminded of the old joke about the Russian who gets a wish ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 10, 2009 13:18
Political Control of Government Motors
Back when talks about bailing out General Motors started one potential issue was that GM would “encouraged” to make decisions based on political considerations vs. a sound business plan. Looks like there is evidence for such concerns with this story of how Montana’s Congressional Representative and two Senators are pushing to get a contract reinstated with a Montana palladium ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 2, 2009 15:01
Obama Spoils System Champ
A USA Today report that "Nearly a year after he was elected on a pledge to change business-as-usual in Washington, Obama also has taken a cue from his predecessors and appointed fundraisers to coveted ambassadorships" and in fact has done so at "a rate higher than any president in more than four decades" combined with story in The Hill that ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 30, 2009 08:52
Fire Chief Shot in Court Over Tickets
Yes, that headline is not an exaggeration. The Chief of the Jericho Fire Department went to court and was shot by the police for disputing two tickets requiring two trips to the court house. JERICHO, Ark. – It was just too much, having to return to court twice on the same day to contest yet another traffic ticket, and Fire ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 4, 2009 14:11
Resource Allocation and Health Care
Over at his web site Dave has put up a post discussing how resources are allocated. I've touched on this very briefly in comments and a post or two, but nothing this extensive. As such, go read it, it's good. Here is a snippet, Despite the author’s attempt to assuage concern by pooh-poohing the idea of rationing, rationing or ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 25, 2009 19:29
Obama’s Op-Ed on Health Care
President Obama, seeing that he is taking a beating in the polls, and that health care is starting to founder took to the pages of the New York Times to lay out the case for health care reform. I think he did a rather bad job of it. He could have done it with far, far fewer ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 17, 2009 14:25
Buh-Bye Public Option
The Obama Administration may be dropping the public option requirement from its health care agenda. PHOENIX — The White House, facing increasing skepticism over President Obama’s call for a public insurance plan to compete with the private sector, signaled Sunday that it was willing to compromise and would consider a proposal for a nonprofit health cooperative being developed in the Senate. Along ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 17, 2009 13:12
Get Married Or Leave Town
In answer to James' query below about when a state or county have forced unmarried people not to live together, meet Olivia Shelltrack, Fondray Loving and their three children. Welcome to Wednesday afternoon at 12475 Parkwood Lane in Black Jack, Mo.: In his room on the second floor, 8-year-old Cortez Loving wages an intergalactic battle with dozens of action figures; next ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 28, 2009 16:05
Controlling Medicare Costs—IMAC
The CBO has analyzed some of the suggested methods for controlling health care costs, and the Independent Medicare Advisory Council (IMAC) in particular. The findings so far is not all that good, In particular, CBO reviewed draft legislation transmitted to the Congress by the Administration on July 17, 2009, titled the Independent Medicare Advisory Council Act of 2009. CBO estimates ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 27, 2009 13:09
Health Care Reform Costs
Via Greg Mankiw comes this quote from Michael Kinsley But people, even liberals, are starting to get unnerved by the cost of all this. We now talk of trillions the way, even a few months ago, we spoke of billions. In mid-June, the Senate health committee put out its version of reform and was horrified when the Congressional Budget Office figured ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 10, 2009 17:05
More on Administrative Costs
I actually like this article by Ezra Klein. Often I've found his articles lacking in understanding of economics, an appreciation for incentives, etc. But this looks quite good. Well balanced and displaying a healthy skepticism about why Medicare's adminstative costs are lower and if we can get such low costs in general for health care and if ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 10, 2009 12:03
Efficiency and Administrative Costs
For the sake of argument let us assume that Medicare’s administrative costs are lower than those of the typical health insurance company. Does this imply that Medicare is more efficient than the private company? I’ve been skeptical of this view point since one thing I’ve learned in economics is that firms want to maximize profits. You ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 7, 2009 16:18
