Today's Tabbloid: 28 July 2009

28 July 2009
Today’s Tabbloid
PERSONAL NEWS FOR lgn@limitedgovernmentnetwork.com
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS Michelletti states that
What Keeps Poor Kids Out of “The Honduran people must have confidence that their
Congress is a co-equal branch of government. They must be
College? [Cato at Liberty] assured that the rule of law in Honduras applies to everyone,
JUL 27, 2009 07:56P.M. even their president, and that their Supreme Court’s orders
will not be dismissed and swept aside by other nations as
In his Washington Post column today, Jay Mathews suggests that inconvenient obstacles.”
poverty isn’t what keeps poor, especially urban kids out of college. The
problem according to Mathews, is that too few schools prepare these kids The message is clear: there’s separation of powers in Honduras, and the
to enter and succeed in college in the first place. True, so far as it goes. country’s authorities cannot simply ignore the rulings of both Congress
But, no doubt due to his long-standing aversion to writing about policy and the Supreme Court in order to reach an agreement. The
rather than individuals, Jay neglects to mention the policy solution to the international community, which is supposedly acting on behalf of
problem he has correctly identified. democracy, should know that.
There’s ample econometric evidence showing that private schools boost

high school graduation rates, college acceptance rates, and college
graduation rates, especially for urban minorities, over the levels seen in FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
public schools (and after appropriate controls for student and family
background). Policies that give these studens easier access to private Obama Floats Latest Tax Hike:
schools should thus improve their college prospects significantly.
Health Care Benefits Tax
And you know what, there’s even a way for Jay to write this up as a
human interest story: just interview kids from the DC voucher program [Americans for Tax Reform]
who credit it with helping them get into college. And perhaps ask them JUL 27, 2009 05:57P.M.
what they think of the fact that Congress, ed. sec. Duncan, and president
Obama have decided to kill the program that gave them a boost up the Over the weekend, President Obama floated his latest tax hike plan in a
ladder to higher education. desperate attempt to rescue his failing government healthcare plan.
Under the idea, any family plan premium in excess of $...
Jay?
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS

Voinovich Slams Coburn and
Message to the International
DeMint [The Club for Growth]
Community: There’s Separation JUL 27, 2009 05:46P.M.
of Powers in Honduras [Cato at The Hill has this bombastic scoop about Senator George Voinovich
(RINO-Ohio):
Liberty]
JUL 27, 2009 07:56P.M. “We got too many Jim DeMints and Tom Coburns,”
Voinovich told the Columbus Dispatch. “It’s the southerners.”
Roberto Michelleti, the interim president of Honduras, has an op-ed in
today’s Wall Street Journal that should be read by members of the Voinovich, a native Clevelander who retires after the 2010
international community that continue to push for the immediate election, continued after the southern elements of the GOP.
restoration of Manuel Zelaya to the presidency.
1
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR lgn@limitedgovernmentnetwork.com 28 July 2009
“They get on TV and go ‘errrr, errrrr,’” he said. “People hear

them and say, ‘These people, they’re southerners. The party’s FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
being taken over by southerners. What they hell they got to
do with Ohio?’” NIP/TUCK/TAX [The Club for
I’m not exactly sure Oklahoma is in the south, but I digress. Voinovich is Growth]
thankfully retiring at the end of 2010. His support for bailouts and JUL 27, 2009 03:57P.M.
earmarks and his hostility towards tax cuts won’t be missed.
According to CongressDaily ($):
Face-lifts, tummy tucks and hair transplants could be hit with

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS a new tax to help finance the trillion-dollar healthcare
overhaul plan, according to sources familiar with the Senate
The 10th Amendment [The Club talks.
for Growth] The Senate Finance Committee has discussed imposing a 10

JUL 27, 2009 05:34P.M. percent excise tax on cosmetic surgery deemed unnecessary
for medical purposes. The idea was broached in a meeting
State legislatures are starting to invoke the 10th Amendment. This story with OMB Director Orszag in mid-July, after which Senate
is about three Nebraska state senators who are trying to reclaim their Finance Chairman Max Baucus told reporters he had heard
state’s rights, but there are other examples from across the country at the some “interesting,” “creative,” and “kind of fun” ideas.
bottom of the article.
[...]A number of states have tried to impose excise taxes on
And here’s an good look at how popular the 10th Amendment has been cosmetic surgery, with little success. The only state with such
lately on Google: a law on the books is New Jersey. Democratic Gov. Jon
Corzine vetoed a bill to repeal the state’s 6 percent tax on
cosmetic surgery gross receipts in 2007, even after the repeal
passed unanimously in both the state Assembly and Senate.
Malcolm Roth, vice president for health policy and advocacy

at the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, said the New
Jersey tax has only brought in about 25 percent of anticipated
revenue since it was enacted in 2004 and imposes “another
bureaucratic layer,” including questions of how to determine
what procedures are eligible. Roth said lawmakers at the
federal level could expect the same administrative headaches
and lack of anticipated revenues if they went down the New
Jersey route.
Anybody who thinks tax hikes are “kind of fun” and then wants to
socially engineer the country by taxing some things, but not others,
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS should not be writing tax policy.
Censorship in the Health Care

Debate [Americans for Tax
Reform]
JUL 27, 2009 05:16P.M.
The health care overhaul debate has become more contentious than
some of its proponents initially assumed - and the gloves are off.
Tonight, House Republicans are taking to the floor to defend their ...
2
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS “Like Car Insurance, Health Coverage May Be Mandated”
[July 22, page A1] paints a misleading picture of proposals to
Nader Supports Health Savings require Americans to purchase health insurance – i.e., an
“individual mandate.”
Accounts? [Cato at Liberty]
JUL 27, 2009 02:30P.M. First, the article lacks balance. It cites three politicians who
support an individual mandate but none who oppose it, a
In a recent article Ralph Nader attacks several critics of Obama’s health group that includes a majority of Republicans. The article
care reform proposal, including Cato: claims an individual mandate “has its roots in the
conservative philosophy of self-reliance,” even though most
Now enters the well-insured libertarian Cato Institute with conservatives, including the movement’s flagship magazine
full-page ads in the Washington Post and The New York National Review, oppose the idea. The closest the article
Times charging Obama with pursuing government-run health comes to offering an opposing perspective is one conservative
care. A picture of Uncle Sam pointing under the headline who has supported an individual mandate in the past and
“Your New Doctor.” Nonsense. The well-insured people at may yet again, just not yet.
Cato should know better than to declare that this
“government takeover” would “reduce health care quality.” Second, the article makes the demonstrably inaccurate claims
that an individual mandate “lowers overall costs” and
I agree that Cato employees are “well-insured” – a description so “help[s] keep premiums down” by adding more young and
appropriate that Nader used it twice in a single paragraph. At Cato we healthy people to the insurance market. Forcing healthy
have Health Savings Accounts, which are probably the closest thing to people to purchase insurance does not affect premiums for
free market health insurance allowed by law. sicker purchasers, because insurers set premiums according
to each purchaser’s health risk. The article confuses a
It’s nice to see Nader, a proponent of socialized medicine, praise HSAs. mandate with price controls, which force low risks to pay
But it’s unfortunate that his preferred options for health care would more so that high risks can pay less.
abolish HSAs entirely.
Finally, if an individual mandate reduced overall costs, then
health care spending would be falling in Massachusetts,
which enacted the nation’s only individual mandate in 2006.
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS Instead, overall health spending is rising, and the rate of
growth has accelerated under the mandate. Rising health
Flake Files Over 540 spending implies rising health insurance premiums, which
has also been the Massachusetts experience.
Amendments to Defense Bill
[The Club for Growth]
JUL 27, 2009 02:17P.M. FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Rep. Jeff Flake has filed over 540 amendments in order to strip Market Bets that ObamaCare
earmarks out of the House Defense appropriations bill. Nice.
Won’t Cut Costs [Cato at
Liberty]
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS JUL 27, 2009 01:14P.M.
Washington Post Misrepresents According to Don Johnson of The Health Care Blog:
Individual Mandates [Cato at Speculators seem to be betting that a watered down health
insurance reform bill won’t hurt health insurers, hospitals,
Liberty] drug makers or medical device and supply manufacturers.
JUL 27, 2009 02:15P.M.
Stocks for almost all of these health sectors and for exchange
Here’s a poor, unsuccessful letter to the editor I sent to The Washington trade funds that track health stock indexes turned higher last
Post: week.
3
In other words, those with real money at stake don’t believe that health FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
reform will hurt the firms that make a living off of America’s highly
inefficient health sector — President Obama’s assurances Gallup Poll: Federal Reserve
notwithstanding.
Makes the IRS Look Good [Cato
Johnson provides seven possible explanations for this development,
including: at Liberty]
JUL 27, 2009 12:45P.M.
3. If the very liberal Coastal Democrats who lead Congress
and most of the five committees drafting health insurance A recent Gallup Poll surveyed the public’s impression of how various
legislation want to get the support of Democrats from federal agencies were doing their job. Of the agencies evaluated, on the
Western, Midwestern and Southern states, they’ll have to up bottom was the Federal Reserve Board. Only 30 percent of the
Medicare payments to providers in those states. This is respondents rated the Fed’s performance as either excellent or good. I
bullish for hospital chains, which operate mostly in the fly- can understand now why Chairman Bernanke felt the need to take his act
over states… on the road. Even the IRS managed to get 40 percent of respondents to
see its job performance as excellent or good. A majority of the public, 57
6. Proposals to tax millionaires to pay for covering the percent, sees the Fed’s current performance as either poor or fair.
uninsured and increasing benefits for others are in trouble, if
not dead on arrival. The economy’s in no shape to be stalled The result is not just driven by a general public disdain for federal
by tax hikes, and there appear to be enough Democrats agencies; over a majority of respondents thought such agencies as the
opposed to the tax to stop it. Center for Disease Control, NASA and the FBI were doing an excellent or
good job.
7. While the so-called Blue Dog Democrats are stalling health
insurance reform for economic and ideological reasons, the Nor is the result driven by public ignorance or indifference to the Fed;
Congressional Black Caucus has made it clear that it won’t only a few years ago, back in 2003, 53 percent of Americans said the
support a bill that the Blue Dogs will support. Throw in the Federal Reserve was doing an excellent or good job and only 5% called its
opposition by anti-abortionists who don’t want the legislation job performance poor. But then, the Fed was also giving us negative real
to use taxpayers money to pay for abortions, and you have a interest rates at that time as well. Perhaps there’s a good reason to
pretty complex political problem for President Obama, Sen. insulate the Fed from short-term public and political pressures. Let’s
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Speaker Nancy hope Chairman Bernanke does not read these results as an excuse for
Pelosi (D-CA). While the Speaker claimed Sunday that she repeating the Fed’s 2003 monetary policies.
has the votes to pass health insurance reform, few believe
her.
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS ‘The presence of terrorists is not

Pelosi Ignores Simple an excuse to surrender to your
Economics [The Club for limbic system—quite the
Growth] opposite.’ [‘Cato at
JUL 27, 2009 01:07P.M.
Liberty—quite the opposite.’]
Last week, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House health care bill means “a JUL 27, 2009 11:37A.M.
cap on your costs, but no cap on your benefit.” Can someone send me the
economic model that allows this to happen without pure gold falling . . . says a commenter on a Federal Computer Week story about the
from the heavens? Department of Homeland Security gathering more personal information
about employees, contractors, and volunteers accessing DHS facilities.
And well said indeed.
4
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
Does the Left Know We Had a Monday’s Daily News [The Club
Housing Bubble? [Cato at for Growth]
JUL 27, 2009 11:30A.M.
Liberty]
JUL 27, 2009 11:32A.M. THE DAILY NEWS ‘Waterloo’ Backfires - Amanda Carpenter,
Washington Times The New PC: Public Choice - Amity Shlaes,
Over the last week, speaking at a variety of events, I heard three different Forbes.com Bernanke Does Not Deserve Reappointment - Anna
representatives of the Left; first a Democrat US Senator, then a senior Schwartz, NYT Stocks Rally on Death of Health-Care Reform - Don
member of the Obama Administration, and finally a “consumer” Luskin, Smart Money 5 freedoms You’d Lose in Health Care Reform -
advocate, all repeat the same narrative: all was fine in the housing Shawn Tully, Fortune Markets Don’t Work in Health Care? - Don
market until predatory lenders forced hard-working honest families into Boudreaux, Cafe Hayek Morality and Charlie Rangel’s Taxes - Wall
foreclosure, which reduced house prices, bringing the economy to a Street Journal Editorial Free Trade is a Plus for Us - Mankato Free Press
crash. That’s correct, apparently the Left believes we all would still be Editorial Creative Destruction: What’s Next? - Bryan Caplan, EconLog
seeing double-digit home price appreciation if it wasn’t for those evil Tweeting All the Way to the Bank - The Economist Cubs 5, Reds 2 -
lenders. Associated Press (Cubs now in first place!)
Undoubtedly foreclosures, especially those that result in houses that

remain vacant for a considerable amount of time, have an adverse
impact on surrounding property values. Many constitute a serious eye- FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
sore and provide a haven for criminal activity. But did foreclosures really
drive down prices, or were foreclosures first driven by price declines French Folly [Cato at Liberty]
resulting from a bursting housing bubble? While causality is always JUL 27, 2009 11:00A.M.
difficult to establish with certainty, we do know that the rate of house
price appreciation peaked and started declining about 18 months before Following the dubious example set recently by U.S. legislators, French
the dramatic up-turn in mortgage delinquencies. If one prefers a more politicians have informally proposed slapping punitive tariffs on goods
rigorous test, economists at the Boston Fed have directly tested if prices from countries who refuse to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The
first drove foreclosures or whether foreclosures drove prices. Their German State Secretary for the Environment has, quite rightly, called
results conclude that its was declining prices that matter, and that the foul:
price effect of foreclosures is minimal.
There are two problems — the WTO (World Trade
Why does any of this ultimately matter? Because if we craft policies to Organization), and the signal would be that this is a new form
avoid the adverse impacts of the next property bubble based upon a of eco-imperialism,” Machnig said.
narrative of “consumer protection” — as is being pushed by the Obama
Administration, we will do little to avoid the creation of the next housing ”We are closing our markets for their products, and I don’t
bubble and its damaging aftermath. Instead we should be focusing think this is a very helpful signal for the international
attention on those policies that contributed to the creation of the housing negotiations.”
bubble: expansionary monetary policy and the Federal government’s
blind pursuit of ever-expanding home-ownership rates at any cost. I have a paper forthcoming on the carbon tariff issue, but in the
meantime here’s a recent op-ed (written jointly with Pat Michaels) on
climate change policy mis-steps.
5
Obama the Uniter [Cato at

Liberty] FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
JUL 27, 2009 10:52A.M.
Remembering Government at
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), commenting on
President Obama’s health plan: “The only thing bipartisan about the Its Worst [Cato at Liberty]
measure so far is the opposition to it.” JUL 27, 2009 10:21A.M.
The 20th Century featured many examples of genocide, mass murder,

brutality, and other forms of human horror at the hands of totalitarian
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS governments. Perhaps none was worse — at least in terms of the
proportion of the population slaughtered and resulting impact on the
Obama Approval Index = -10 survivors — than Cambodia.
[The Club for Growth] The commandant of the notorious S-21, or Tuol Sleng, is currently on
JUL 27, 2009 10:45A.M. trial. The proceedings offer a stark reminder of what monstrosities cruel
social engineers with guns can wreak. Reports Reuters:
From Rasmussen Reports:
A senior Khmer Rouge prison guard on Thursday told a war
crimes tribunal he was forced to send thousands of detainees
to an execution site, where they were brutally killed and their
bodies thrown into mass graves.
Him Huy, 54, a guard at Phnom Penh’s notorious S-21

prison, said he was ordered by Pol Pot’s chief jailor to
transport prisoners to a rice field where they were stripped
naked and beaten with clubs as they bled to death.
“All prisoners were blindfolded so they did not know where

they were taken and their hands were tied up to prevent them
from contesting us,” Huy told the joint United Nations-
Cambodian tribunal.
“They were asked to sit on the edge of the pits and they were
struck with stick on their necks,” he said, his voice breaking
as he gave his harrowing account of the Choeung Ek
executions.
“Their throats were slashed before we removed their

handcuffs and clothes, and they were thrown into the pits.”
Huy was testifying against S-21 chief Duch, whose real name
Gov. Perry May Invoke 10th is Kaing Guek Eav, the first of the five indicted former Khmer
Rouge cadres to face trial.
Amendment [The Club for
I’ve visited both Tuol Sleng and the so-called Killing Fields. The
Growth] experience is incredibly depressing and moving. These sites should be
JUL 27, 2009 10:42A.M. mandatory viewing for anyone tempted to surrender his or her liberty,
even to the most supposedly well-meaning politicians, bureaucrats, and
Texas Governor Rick Perry may invoke the 10th Amendment if activists.
ObamaCare passes into law.
6
(H/t to Paul Chesser, who has been blogging regularly on the trial.) more notes.”
The dollar won’t easily be displaced as the world’s principal reserve

currency. But Washington appears to be doing everything possible to
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS hasten that day.
Why a “Public Option” Is Perhaps Americans should consider keeping their wealth in yuan or even
ringgits. At least they might retain their value even as the Fed and
Hazardous to Your Health [Cato Treasury attempt to inflate and spend the U.S. economy into oblivion.
at Liberty“Public Option” Is
Hazardous to Your Health] FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
JUL 27, 2009 10:18A.M.
Time to Cut Back Boondoggle
President Obama and other leading Democrats have proposed creating a
new government health insurance program as an “option” for Americans Embassy in Iraq [Cato at
under the age of 65. In a new study, Cato scholar Michael F. Cannon
shows that government programs cost more and deliver lower-quality Liberty]
care than private insurance. “If Congress wants to make health care more JUL 27, 2009 08:30A.M.
efficient and increase competition in health insurance markets, there are
far better options,” argues Cannon. The Bush administration has many legacies. One is the more than $700
million U.S. embassy, set on 104 acres, only slightly smaller than the
Fannie Med? Why a “Public Option” Is Hazardous to Your Health, Cato Vatican’s land holdings, in Baghdad. It was an embassy designed for an
Policy Analysis No. 642 imperial power intent on ruling a puppet state.
It turns out that Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki doesn’t plan on
being anyone’s puppet. U.S. troops have come out of the cities and will
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS be coming home in coming months. Provincial reconstruction teams also
will be leaving. The Bush administration’s plan for maintaining scores of
What’s A Dollar Worth? [Cato at bases for use in attacking Iran or other troublesome Middle Eastern
states is stillborn. And Prime Minister Maliki isn’t likely to ask for
Liberty] Washington’s advice on what kind of society U.S. officials want him to
JUL 27, 2009 08:33A.M. create.
It’s not just Americans worried about the flood of dollars from the Fed. So just what should the Obama administration do with this White
The Chinese and now the Malaysians also are wondering if they should Elephant on the Euphrates? Cut it down, says the State Department’s
keep dealing in greenbacks. own Inspector General.
Reports the Wall Street Journal: Reports the Washington Post:
Malaysia’s prime minister said China and his country are The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad — the United States’ largest
considering conducting their trade in Chinese yuan and and most costly overseas diplomatic mission, with 1,873
Malaysian ringgit, joining a growing number of nations employees — is overstaffed and must be reduced to a size
thinking of phasing out the dollar. more in keeping with the evolving U.S.-Iraq relationship and
budget constraints, government auditors said in a report
“We can consider whether we can use local currencies to issued Wednesday.
facilitate trade financing between our two countries,”
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak told reporters The State Department’s inspector general said that although
at a briefing Wednesday after meeting with China’s premier, the U.S. presence in Iraq will become more civilian as the
Wen Jiabao. military withdraws over the next two years, the embassy
“should be able to carry out all of its responsibilities with
“What worries us is that the [U.S.] deficit is being financed by significantly fewer staff and in a much-reduced footprint.”
printing more money,” Mr. Najib said. “That is what is The reduction “has to begin immediately,” the report said,
happening. The Treasury in the United States is printing before Foreign Service officers complete their next
7
assignment bidding cycle and other employees are extended

or hired.
The U.S. should be preparing to have a normal relationship with Iraq.

That includes maintaining a normal embassy.

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28 July 2009

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS Michelletti states that

There’s ample econometric evidence showing that private schools boost

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS

“They get on TV and go ‘errrr, errrrr,’” he said. “People hear

Face-lifts, tummy tucks and hair transplants could be hit with

for Growth] The Senate Finance Committee has discussed imposing a 10

Malcolm Roth, vice president for health policy and advocacy

Censorship in the Health Care

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS ‘The presence of terrorists is not

And well said indeed.

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS

Undoubtedly foreclosures, especially those that result in houses that

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS

Obama the Uniter [Cato at

The 20th Century featured many examples of genocide, mass murder,

Him Huy, 54, a guard at Phnom Penh’s notorious S-21

“All prisoners were blindfolded so they did not know where

“Their throats were slashed before we removed their

The dollar won’t easily be displaced as the world’s principal reserve

Reports the Wall Street Journal: Reports the Washington Post:

assignment bidding cycle and other employees are extended

The U.S. should be preparing to have a normal relationship with Iraq.

You might also like