Now is the time for people who wish to maintain the right to make decisions about the care used to keep healthy and alive ... to maintain one's quality of life ... to stand up, take action, and be a part of the last line of defense in stopping a government takeover of healthcare.
FIRST, call the following number and ask to talk with (name your Congressman) and tell them (or leave a message) that you wish for them to vote NO on the Senate Healthcare Legislation from the House of Representatives floor.
!-877-762-8762
SECOND, write your representative - especially if they appear on this list of all TARGET representatives here>>
THIRD, share this information with all of the people you know who would like to be able to remain in adult control over their own lives.
This effort may be directed by the National Republican Political Party, but this effort benefits all citizens who believe that the personal freedom to make decisions about one's own life is more important than having someone in the Government be in CONTROL over all human activity that happens in this nation.
Analysis of the latest impossible and discrediting statement made by the President of the United States, Barack Obama, about healthcare by The American Thinker -
Monday in Strongsville, Ohio, President Obamasaid that ObamaCare will reduce health insurance premiums by "3,000 percent." [YouTube videoHERE] Considering that a 50 percent decrease in premiums would mean that we'd be paying half as much as we now pay for health insurance and that a 100 percent decrease in premiums would mean that we'd be paying nothing for health insurance, President Obama is telling us that insurance companies will actually start paying us money to keep our health insurance.
If your current health insurance policy costs $5,000 a year, insurance companies will pay you $145,000 a year (2,900 percent multiplied by $5,000). If you're fortunate enough to be paying $25,000 a year for health insurance, insurance companies will pay you $725,000 a year. There's no word whether you can purchase a more expensive health insurance policy to increase the amount of money that insurers pay you each year.
"Obama has cut the remembering-what-we-don't-like-about-Democrats stage of this process down from two to four years to about 10 months. Folks, I'm convinced that if we all work really hard, we can get it down to three months." - Ann Coulter, from "That Old Obama Magic Is Back" 1-20-2010 - Image Credit: Organizing For America
Barack Obama's second year begins - More 153 & 411 moments
This morning, Don Imus mentioned that Barack Obama has given about 153 interviews and issued or delivered 411 comments and speeches on health care reform since he has taken office.
Obama’s failure to communicate on health care By Jon Ward - The Daily Caller 01/20/10 at 9:14 pm
President Obama on Wednesday said the reason his health-care reform is on life support because Congress took too long to debating it and he didn’t talk enough to citizens about its benefits for them. ---- “One of the things that I have learned in Washington is you have to repeat yourself a lot because because unfortunately it doesn’t penetrate,” he said.
The president, making his first public comments after a Republican candidate on Tuesday won the special election to fill Sen. Ted Kennedy’s Massachusetts Senate seat, said he understands that some Americans view his administration as a bunch of “technocrats up here … making decisions.”
But he said the main reason for this was not his policies but rather his communications strategy.
“What I haven’t always been successful at doing is breaking through the noise and speaking directly to the American people in a way that during the campaign you could do,” he said. ---- He also admitted he has failed to “change the tone here in Washington.” Reference Here>>
With the context of this being the first day of the second year of this 44th Presidency, why don't we just recognize what we can see is the obvious delusional mind of Barack Obama ... it isn't that He has failed to change the tone in Washington, just the TONE DEAFNESS.
Also, He fails to hear the American people when they speak through Tea Party gatherings, Town Hall questions, and now votes in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts ... even though he believes that the American people have NOT been listening and hearing what he has said over the 153 interviews and 411 comments and speeches.
We American people have heard what has been said ... when will the Obama Administration resolve to begin to listen to the American people, in this, the first day of year two, of the destructive path of this 44th Presidency?
When emergencies occur… awareness is the key to your safety! The CodeRED system allows safety officials to send recorded messages to the entire community, or a specific area within moments. These messages will inform residents of the situation and give instructions for action. Caption & Image Credit: brunswick.oh.us
Get up, stand up - "Code Red" rally Dec. 15, 1:00PM ET
United we stand ... for the Constitution. The 2,000 plus page Healthcare reform bill is about to become law which will create an entitlement program that will effectively turn our country into a Totalitarian regime.
This Government and its leadership would want every citizen who voted for TRANSPARENCY, equity, low unemployment, mortgage stabilization, and spending control to believe that what they are proposing in the Senate on behalf of healthcare reform is inevitable.
It is time for every Democrat, Republican, Independent, Libertarian, and Undeclared voting citizen to show this country's leadership that their vote is not inevitable and the direction they are headed with the potential approval of a 2,000 plus page monstrosity of a public takeover in the decisions that are critical to our lives is the wrong direction. It is time for every voting citizen that wishes to stop the erosion of our country's Constitution to converge on the mall in Washington DC.
CODE RED RALLY - stop congress now! - The Capitol Building and Mall in Washington DC - December 15, 2009 - 1:00PM ET (speakers to address rally at 1:30PM ET - many Senators, Congressmen, and freedom fighters are scheduled to talk)
This excerpted and edited from Laura Ingraham's website, "Laura Unleashed" -
Code Red Rally Tuesday 1pm Dec 15th US Capitol By Laura Ingraham - December 8, 2009, Posted 11:00PM ET
It's time we all stop pretending that what is happening with this Obamacare debate is about "helping the uninsured" or "fixing the healthcare system" or "giving the people what they want." It's about none of those things. Its about amassing as much power in a central government as humanly possible. Its about wealth redistribution. It's social engineering at its absolute worst.
The American people must take this political system back from those who have hijacked it in one of the most abhorrent power grabs that we the voters have ever seen. It's the holiday season so the Democrats are counting on you to be otherwise occupied and too busy to stand against their massive expansion of government.
Let them underestimate us again just as they did last summer. Let these unrepresentative politicians proceed with their legislative chicanery and self-righteous grandstanding. We can expose them and confront them in the classic American spirit--a public gathering on their doorstep.
On December 15th at 1 pm, we will remind Pelosi, Reid, Schumer et al. that they work for us and not the other way around. We will demand that they follow the will of the people, not dismiss and degrade it by putting future generations into a deficit dungeon. We will put every politician who supports this travesty on notice: enjoy your remaining time in the U.S. Capitol because we're coming for your seat.
The American people will not forget those who turned their backs on us and voted for a bill that they hadn't read and which will do nothing but ensure that one of the best healthcare systems in the world is compromised. Reference Here>>
Many voters in the last election cycle stuffed their brains into a "hate" bucket and voted with their minds and freedoms closed putting both at risk of being totally controlled by a Government that has an Us against Them agenda based on an end result of totalitarian country ... stripped of its freedoms and sovereignty (Copenhagen).
It is time to stop this run-away spending spree, TARP slush-fund using Government and show these leaders why they are wrong when they suggest that what this leadership attempts to do is inevitable ... there is NO CONSENSUS - show up at the Capitol December 15, 2009 at 1:00PM ET and show these folks who's the boss! Affirm American exceptional-ism.
The U.S. Preventive Service Task Force announced Nov. 16, 2009, that it now recommends against annual mammograms for women 40 to 49 because the potential harms of routine screening in this age group outweigh the benefits. These downsides include radiation exposure, cost and the trauma of false positives. Many doctors agree with the new guidelines. But some breast cancer survivors back the screenings. ABC News asked BreastCancer.org and Breast Cancer Network of Strength for stories from women who believe that mammograms they received before age 50 saved their lives. Here are the experiences of a few of the women who shared their stories with us. Image Credit: Stephanie Scott/Jaclyn Fisher/Joann Long/Susan Lorenz
Today's vote in the Senate - Slavery?
Today, we will see a forced vote in the Senate brought about by the Democrat Political party and the leader in the Senate, Harry Reid (D-NV).
People would like real reform of our healthcare system as it has evolved over these last five decades, but what the Senate is voting on does nothing to reform or correct where our healthcare system has strayed off of the tracks. Instead, this 2,000 plus page monstrosity is designed to make average citizens economic line items of the state while creating a defined ruling class who do not have to subject themselves to the same life determining rules, assistance (or lack thereof), and costs as the rest of us.
The clear signal of what this Administration and Congressional leadership intends for the healthcare management for the rest of us came early this week when a committee working in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under Obama Administration’s Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius came out with recommendations to reduce screening for breast cancer in women. The new mammography guidelines, released by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Monday, suggest fewer mammograms for those 50 and older and no routine mammograms at all for those younger than 50. For those opposed to the health care bill going before the Senate today, the guidelines have become a rallying cry against comparative effectiveness -- which, simply put, means the comparison of different medical approaches to determine which one delivers the best balance of benefits with the fewest possible downsides.
To add even greater insult to injury, for the second time in a week, another group of medical experts has recommended that some women can be tested less frequently for cancer … in general. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists just recommended that young women can hold off until 21 before getting their first Pap smear and get them every two years through the rest of their 20s, instead of annually. Previously, the doctor group had said young women should get a Pap smear three years after first having sex or age 21, whichever came earlier.
I do not understand why this Government is targeting women and showing them “the door” now, just before the Government is poised to vote to take over all decision-making on healthcare issues while exempting themselves from the process … but these recommendations appear to be sexist at best.
The real problem comes when this type of discernment is applied to all of the citizens in the population while the members of Congress, the Executive Branch, and the Supreme Court remain exempt from being forced into Government run healthcare system sets up a structure of slavery.
This excerpted and edited from Pajamas Media –
Congress: Gov’t healthcare for thee but not for me By Roger L. Simon - November 20th, 2009 4:52 pm
I guess many Members of Congress secretly realize the Dean of Harvard Med was correct when he attacked the proposed healthcare legislation as a virtual anti-health boondoggle in the WSJ last week, because those members aren’t signing onto the legislation for themselves. They are only signing on for you.
Yes, the healthcare legislation still does not require Members of Congress to be part of the public plan, option, call it what you will, only poor sucker citizens. Those Congressmen are no fools. They know government-run medicine hasn’t worked in Canada and the UK. You think they want their wives lining up for a mammogram?
Here are some interesting tidbits that have been pointed out to me on my current brief visit to DC:
Ways and Means Committee – Rep. Heller (R-NV) offered an amendment to require all (”exchange eligible”) Members of Congress and their families to get insurance through the government-run plan. It failed, by a vote of 18-21, with three Democrats supporting the amendment: Berkley, Davis (AL), and Yarmuth. You can read all about it on p. 518 of this interminable document. (Who says PJM isn’t a full-service media company?) When a similar amendment was offered at the Energy and Commerce markup, it was dismissed by chairman Henry Waxman as “nongermane.” That’s my Congressman, of course. No comment necessary.
Over at the Rules Committee several amendments were filed on this subject, but ultimately not permitted under their rules. Rep. Sessions moved to make an order and provide the necessary waivers for amendment #1 offered by Reps. Fleming (R-LA), Wilson (R-SC), Gingrey (R-GA), and Herger (R-CA), which would automatically enroll all Members of Congress and all Senators in the public option. His motion was defeated on a party line vote of 4-6, with the following Members absent: Slaughter, Matsui, Pingree. ---- You won’t read about this nonsense in the MSM, of course, but we’re going to try to deliver more on PJTV and the pages of Pajamas Media. Reference Here>>
Do your best to end slavery … medical (and life sustaining) slavery now. Call or email your Senator TODAY, before it’s too late! We need 41 NO votes on cloture!
We need to lean hard on the below Senators, they are our best chance of this getting this stopped in the Senate:
Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) - As Rep. Fleming says, “If it’s so great for the rest of America, why can’t congress be a part of it as well?” Image Credit: House of Representatives
HR615: Congress Should Live Under Health Care Plan They Create
Has anyone noticed how the one-party leadership running the American government enjoys forcing their ideas on everyone else while not having to personally live with the consequences of those ideas themselves?
The socialized health care plan being debated in congress right now is no exception. They want to force Americans into their inefficient, costly, freedom-robbing plan while they continue living high on the taxpayer-funded hog of a different, privately managed plan.
This excerpted and edited from dakotavoice.com -
"Rep. John Flemming (R-LA) proposes to make all the animals on the “Animal Farm” truly equal. He has proposed HR 615 which says
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that Members who vote in favor of the establishment of a public, federal government run health insurance option are urged to forgo their right to participate in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) and agree to enroll under that public option.
As Rep. Fleming says, “If it’s so great for the rest of America, why can’t congress be a part of it as well?”
He has 43 Republican co-sponsors,yet despite reaching out to Democrats to sign on, not a single Democrat has joined as a sponsor. What’s good for the goose is apparently not at all acceptable to the gander.
He says that if Members of Congress believe so strongly that government-run health care is the best solution for hard working American families,it’s only fitting that Americans see them lead the way. Public servants should always be accountable and responsible for what they advocate and pass for the public, so they should have to live with the consequences, too."
Barack Obama - President Obama asks supporters to declare their support for his three core principles for health care reform, and to share their personal stories to help build support for the reforms that are so desperately needed. [ctrl-click to launch video] Learn more at http://my.barackobama.com/healthcare
"Madoffing America" - The Marketing Of ObamaCare
The atmosphere here in America is laden heavy with the feel of Caveat Emptor ... let the buyer beware.
We are being told almost daily, that the Government needs to get what the Obama Administration wants to get done in terms of (name program here) legislation immediately, otherwise (name imperative here) will befall all of us and people are suffering.
Further, the Obama Administration is responding to the information that is leaking out about some programs they are fighting for with plastered over non-truths in order to be able to give the patina of cover for the Congress as they go back to their districts during the summer recess.
Linda Douglass - In this video, Linda Douglass, the communications director for the White Houses Health Reform Office, addresses a story that makes it look like the President intends to eliminate private coverage, when the reality couldn't be further from the truth. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0XCl6OHgiM
The Obama healthcare agenda, ObamaCare, is rife with misrepresentations and lies that are designed to have people believe that what this Administration is proposing is not a single payer, a one-size fits all healhcare system, that will push out and eliminate free market solutions that exist today.
Just like Bernie Madoff, who induced investors to give his company money with promises of unbelievable returns, the Obama Administration, with the help of the Democrat Political Party leadership in Congress, are promising something they can not, and do not intend to deliver.
The principles, as outlined on the wbsite - http://my.barackobama.com/healthcare - claims the following so that we citizens can feel comfortable about the proposed Government take-over of one-sixth of our economy - the healthcare system.
Example:
The Principles
President Obama has announced three bedrock requirements for real health insurance reform:
* Reduce Costs — Rising health care costs are crushing the budgets of governments, businesses, individuals and families and they must be brought under control
* Guarantee Choice — Every American must have the freedom to choose their plan and doctor – including the choice of a public insurance option
* Ensure Quality Care for All — All Americans must have quality and affordable health care
All of the above principles are not only untrue ... they are impossible promises to deliver given the text of H.R 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 (currently 1,018 pages) passed through the House Energy and Commerce Committee on a 31-28 vote last Friday.
Obama to Jane Sturm: Hey, take a pill - Jane asks the President if her 100 year old mother (now 105) would have gotten a pacemaker under his plan. Well now that's a tough one ... that costs a lot and maybe we will have to say, just take a pill. Priceless. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-dQfb8WQvo
This excerpted and edited from the Charlotte Conservative Examiner and About.com -
Obamacare: death and taxes Hailey Wilson - Charlotte Conservative Examiner - August 4, 12:13 AM
House Democrats have narrowly pushed Obama’s Healthcare bill - H.R 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 - through a key congressional committee this past Friday. ---- The official vote [by all of Congress] should be sometime in September, leaving little time for representatives and Americans to learn what the bill is really about.
Here is a start:
This new healthcare plan will take the independence you have in deciding where and how you get your healthcare and put those decisions into bureaucratic hands.
Think about it this way: going to your doctor will be like going to your DMV—long waiting lines, substandard service and inefficient care.
There is one very important difference, however: you or your loved one will be sick, hurt or dying. The inevitable delays in government-funded healthcare mean death, pain or a worsened condition. And what is worse, the government will decide what quality of healthcare is acceptable.
Here are some of the provisions in Obama’s Healthcare bill:
Page 29: Health care will be rationed.
Page 30: A government committee will decide what treatments and benefits you get (and, unlike an insurer, there will be no appeals process)
Page 42: The "Health Choices Commissioner" will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice. None.
Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services. ---- About.com: Page 57, under section 163, there is something that would give the government power to reach into benefits recipients' bank accounts. It is called "Administrative Simplification," and Subsection 1173A of this measure, "Standardize Electronic Transactions" has a provision (a)(2)(B) that ensures that this new governmental power:
"be authoritative, permitting no additions or constraints for electronic transactions ..." (C) "be comprehensive, efficient and robust, requiring minimal augmentation by paper transactions or clarification by further communications;" and, finally, (D) enable the real-time (or near real-time) determination of an individual’s financial responsibility at the point of service and, to the extent possible, prior to service, including whether the individual is eligible for a specific service with a specific physician at a specific facility, which may include utilization of a machine-readable health plan beneficiary identification card;" ... (E) "enable, where feasible, near real-time adjudication of claims ..." (Emphasis added) ---- Page 58: Every person will be issued a National ID Healthcard.
Page 72: All private healthcare plans must conform to government rules to participate in a Healthcare Exchange.
Page 84: All private healthcare plans must participate in the Healthcare Exchange (i.e., total government control of private plans)
Page 95: The Government will pay ACORN and Americorps to sign up individuals for Government-run Health Care plan.
Page 102: Those eligible for Medicaid will be automatically enrolled: you have no choice in the matter.
Page 124: No company can sue the government for price-fixing. No "judicial review" is permitted against the government monopoly. Put simply, private insurers will be crushed.
Page 127: The AMA sold doctors out: the government will set wages.
Page 145: An employer MUST auto-enroll employees into the government-run public plan. No alternatives.
Page 126: Employers MUST pay healthcare bills for part-time employees AND their families.
Page 167: Any individual who doesn’t have acceptable healthcare (according to the government) will be taxed 2.5% of income.
Page 170: Any NON-RESIDENT alien is exempt from individual taxes (Americans will pay for them).
Page 195: Officers and employees of Government Healthcare Bureaucracy will have access to ALL American financial and personal records.
Page 239: Bill will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Seniors and the poor most affected."
Page 241: Doctors: no matter what speciality you have, you'll all be paid the same (thanks, AMA!)
Page 253: Government sets value of doctors' time, their professional judgment, etc.
Page 265: Government mandates and controls productivity for private healthcare industries.
Page 272: Cancer patients: welcome to the wonderful world of rationing!
Page 280: Hospitals will be penalized for what the government deems preventable re-admissions.
Page 298: Doctors: if you treat a patient during an initial admission that results in a readmission, you will be penalized by the government.
Page 317: Doctors: you are now prohibited for owning and investing in healthcare companies!
Page 318: Prohibition on hospital expansion. Hospitals cannot expand without government approval.
Page 335: Government mandates establishment of outcome-based measures: i.e., rationing.
Page 341: Government has authority to disqualify Medicare Advantage Plans, HMOs, etc.
Page 354: Government will restrict enrollment of SPECIAL NEEDS individuals.
Page 425: More bureaucracy: Advance Care Planning Consult: Senior Citizens, assisted suicide, euthanasia.
Page 425: Government will instruct and consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney, etc. Mandatory. Appears to lock in estate taxes ahead of time. Reference Here and Here>>
There is more ... a lot more (and will be updated here from time to time) and it is not pretty.
Single Payer as articulated by now President Barack Obama at an AFL-CIO union meeting.
People are up in arms, showing up in record numbers at politician summer recess community meetings and having their voices heard. Last weekend, 10,000 people showed up at one of these gatherings in Ohio and the press reported that only 200 citizens were in attendance.
The Democrat Political Party leadership have drafted up some talking points to confront this display by condemning it as a manufactured response organized by "Big Insurance" companies, yet AARP, one of the biggest insurance marketers, is on record in supporting the Obama Administration's efforts - no matter what.
We, at MAXINE, are reminded of an anthem song produced by Bob Marley and the Wailers - "Get Up, Stand Up ... Stand Up For Your Right! [ctrl-click to launch music video] - don't give up the fight!" The time is now to not be duped by the efforts of our one-party leadership scheme and its efforts to nationalize healthcare, no matter how minimal their intrusion. Medicare and Medicaid are government programs that have failed, and all the Democrat leadership wants to do is give all of us this type of program as our only option.
Be very aware of the efforts of the one-party leadership represented by the Obama Administration and the Democrat Political Party led Congress to convince us to invest in their healthcare (big, bigger, biggest government control) ponzi scheme ... their Madoffing of America.
Did you play Monopoly when you were a kid? Did you play it alot? Do you remember how you felt initially about buying Boardwalk (Mayfair) and Park Place (Park Lane)? They were too expensive, right? What happens to the game when a new player enters who can set and change the rules in the middle of the game, play as many game pieces as they want, and print and issue money for any purpose in the game to their own whim? It is not good. Image Credit: allthings.tv
Free-Lunch Faith Vs The Reality Of Economics
On what is beginning to feel like a daily basis, the Obama Administration, with the unprecedented aid of the mainstream media (last night, ABC spent most of their broadcast time broadcasting directly from ... The White House), is attempting to sell the faith of a free-lunch to a hungry hoard of faithless people.
What is being sold to the American public is a cure to all process ills and an improvement in ones life if one would just let the Government take over and run everything from our Free Enterprise Manufacturing, Healthcare, and Energy systems (and this is just a start). The Obama Administration loves to cleave to the argument that with the Government becoming a "PLAYER" in an enterprise they are promoting competition by delivering an alternative approach to a marketplace but this logic is grossly flawed.
The reality of economics that derails this logic is the it is difficult for anyone to compete on a level playing field when one of the players is also the referee, and the body that makes the rules ... and prints the money upon which the game is played.
We, at MAXINE, would like to ask - Would anyone play a game on the board game, MONOPOLY (our cultural introduction to economics), with a person who had the ability to create game board pieces without a cost or penalty, print and issue money to himself without really having to tell anyone when he expects to use it during the game to purchase pieces and/or set up hotels and set the rules beyond what had been printed and distributed at the beginning of the game (example: this player has an unlimited supply of "Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free" cards)? The answer is NO!
In every human endeavor there is really NO Free Lunch, and the reality of economics always shows that when a corrupt and over influential force enters into the mix of a free enterprise system, the system becomes corrupted and tilted to the influence that has the ability to change the common sense rules that govern the system.
Homeschool Real World Math - Here is another fun addition of real world math. Firstly, we use and adore Math-U-See consistently throughout the year in our homeschool. There are days however, that I like to mix it up and do something a little playful to get them thinking about math in the real world. /// This morning we played a game of monopoly. We received the newest version of Monopoly: Here and Now the real World Edition for Christmas. It is a fun version that incorporates geography, world facts on the chance and community chest cards, and interesting games pieces that take the kids literally around the world in every game. /// Our youngest got to work on basic counting by moving the pieces and rolling the dice. Our middle worked on basic addition by adding everyone’s dice together and telling them how far they had to move the pieces and our oldest had to read out all of the chance and community chest cards for each player. We had a ton of fun. This particular edition, does not have money, but cards and a banker machine that you add and subtract money for each transaction made. By the end of the first game, they were working through place values in the millions, Large number addition and subtraction and how to work the key pad which is similar to a calculator and a keypad on the computer. I wont even get into the idea of money management and budgeting as more abstract ideas they begin to absorb through this game. /// All in all, I think I hid a little real world math by way of a game today. Give it a try it is easy and fun to do. /// Tomorrow, we will do a little more real world math, when they get to spend a few real dollars at the zoo to purchase a drink and choose a few animals they would like to feed. I will hand them each a zip lock bag of coins and they will have to count their way out of it. That should be a barrel full of monkeys…excuse the pun. Grace and Peace to all budding mathematicians in the real world! Caption & Image Credit: homeschool-diva.com
This excerpted and edited from Townhall.com
Tilting at Green Windmills by George Will - Townhall.com - Thursday, June 25, 2009
The Spanish professor is puzzled. Why, Gabriel Calzada wonders, is the U.S. president recommending that America emulate the Spanish model for creating "green jobs" in "alternative energy" even though Spain's unemployment rate is 18.1 percent -- more than double the European Union average -- partly because of spending on such jobs?
Calzada, 36, an economics professor at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, has produced a report which, if true, is inconvenient for the Obama administration's green agenda, and for some budget assumptions that are dependent upon it.
Calzada says Spain's torrential spending -- no other nation has so aggressively supported production of electricity from renewable sources -- on wind farms and other forms of alternative energy has indeed created jobs. But Calzada's report concludes that they often are temporary and have received $752,000 to $800,000 each in subsidies -- wind industry jobs cost even more, $1.4 million each. And each new job entails the loss of 2.2 other jobs that are either lost or not created in other industries because of the political allocation -- sub-optimum in terms of economic efficiency -- of capital. (European media regularly report "eco-corruption" leaving a "footprint of sleaze" -- gaming the subsidy systems, profiteering from land sales for wind farms, etc.) Calzada says the creation of jobs in alternative energy has subtracted about 110,000 jobs from elsewhere in Spain's economy. ---- What matters most, however, is not that reports such as Calzada's and the Republicans' are right in every particular. It is, however, hardly counterintuitive that politically driven investments are economically counterproductive. Indeed, environmentalists with the courage of their convictions should argue that the point of such investments is to subordinate market rationality to the higher agenda of planetary salvation.
Still, one can be agnostic about both reports while being dismayed by the frequency with which such findings are ignored simply because they question policies that are so invested with righteousness that methodical economic reasoning about their costs and benefits seems unimportant. When the president speaks of "new green energy economies" creating "countless well-paying jobs," perhaps they really are countless, meaning incapable of being counted.
For fervent believers in governments' abilities to control the climate and in the urgent need for them to do so, believing is seeing: They see, through their ideological lenses, governments' green spending as always paying for itself. This is a free-lunch faith comparable to that of those few conservatives who believe that tax cuts always completely pay for themselves by stimulating compensating revenues from economic growth.
Windmills are iconic in the land of Don Quixote, whose tilting at them became emblematic of comic futility. Spain's new windmills are neither amusing nor emblematic of policies America should emulate. The cheerful and evidently unshakable confidence in such magical solutions to postulated problems is yet another manifestation -- Republicans are not immune: No Child Left Behind decrees that by 2014 all American students will be proficient in math and reading -- of what the late Sen. Pat Moynihan called "the leakage of reality from American life." Reference Here>>
Welcome to the free-lunch faith and evangelism due to the leakage of reality from American life delivered to us from the Obama Administration, here in Carter's Second Term!
NRCC Code Red header logo - Image Credit: NRCC.org
