Medicare Vouchers Won’t Reduce Health Spending

Medicare Vouchers Won’t Reduce Health Spending by Howard Gleckman

The entire debate is premature until the impact of pre-existing condition reforms on the market is known. If people start dropping insurance until they get sick – which is rational given the weakness of mandates – then private health insurance will require a bailout into an effective single payer system.

The only way to stop this from happening is to enact a subsidized public option for those with pre-existing conditions while repealing mandates and pre-existing condition reforms.

This will require more funding, probably some kind of employer payroll or net business receipts tax – which would also fund the shortfall in Medicare and Medicaid (and take over most of their public revenue funding).

If cost savings are desired within such a formulation, allow companies to offer services privately to both employees and retirees in exchange for a substantial tax benefit. Employers who fund catastrophic care would get an even higher benefit, with the proviso that any care so provided be superior to the care available through Medicaid.

Making employers responsible for most costs and for all cost savings allows them to use some market power to get lower rates, but no so much that the free market is destroyed.

Run, Sarah, Run

Run, Sarah, Run by Michael Sean Winters

My response: She's not running. The only money she has raised is for her personal fortune, not her campaign. She has not campaign structure and if she tried to build one, it is hard to believe she will get anyone worth having.

Silk Takes on Donohue Over John Jay Report

Silk Takes on Donohue Over John Jay Report by Michael Sean Winters

My comment: Donohue speaks for his tribe. His response, however, is not that much different in kind than the Jay's, which blames sexual liberation for the problem rather than seeing it as the reason people are coming forward to report a centuries old phenomenon.

Romney Gives Obama an "F"

Romney Gives Obama an "F" by Michael Sean Winters

The secret to getting this economy moving is not giving everyone a benefit, but in helping underwater borrowers, which will allow them to sell their houses if they desire, take new jobs, or simply feel OK about spending money. If they start doing better, everyone else will feel more secure and the economy will rebound. Obama gets an F for not doing this, but I don't see Romney going down this road either.

Property Tax Caps and Local Governance

Property Tax Caps and Local Governance by Len Burman

My comments:

2% is awfully low when compared to the increase that Home Owners Associations usually get, which is inflation.

The problem with property taxes in general is WHAT they fund. Schools are a redistributional activity – and unless you have a Georgist level of land value taxation with a citizen dividend – the proper tax to fund it is an income tax or maybe a net business receipts tax (provided that the net includes taxing wages and employees can chose education providers).

The property tax should fun local infrastructure and public safety – basically what an HOA would provide. Indeed, if everyone had a strong HOA with privatized roads, fire protection and security, property taxes could be dispensed with altogether.

Of course, in modern smart growth communities, there would be a great deal of overlap between neighbors and co-workers. If the local employers were cooperatively owned, the overlap could increase further without the danger of old style company towns turning workers into slaves.

Of course, in a smart-growth, employee-owned world, the cooperative would provide all the services (see Mondragon in Spain) and there would be no need for taxation or a separate government.

Don’t Cut the Gas Tax for Summer Holidays, Double It

Don’t Cut the Gas Tax for Summer Holidays, Double It

Gas taxes need to go up, or better yet be set a a fixed percentage rather than a fixed excise. The feds should do this too.

The last I checked air pollution and warming levels, we need less driving, not more. The last time I drove, I noted we need more road repair – especially given the effect of the snows we have on roads.

We also need more gas tax revenue to build and operate more rail.

Rewards: God, Oughtness and Others

No one goes to Hell for believing the wrong thing on the Trinity. Our knowledge is wholly incomplete, and indeed must be. By definition, it is wrong. We cannot understand it. The reason doctrinal discipline on it is necessary is that common belief is essential for common worship - which is one part of loving God - although the main part is the second part of the Great Commandment, which is about loving others.


The whole discussion we had in Ethics class in Minor Seminary on oughtness really only has meaning when it applies to loving others. There is no way around loving God because that completes us rather than because He deserves it - because frankly, He does not need our Love at all - it is all for our benefit - to deserve is to have need of something. The oughtness of loving God must therefore come by loving others, which is impossible fully without the assistance of God (whether one honors God in worship or not). When we love each other for their intrinic value, rather than the reward that comes to us for doing so, we are getting the oughtness thing down. Indeed, some athiests are more worthy than Christians, since they love others with no expectation of reward, but only because compassion is simply the right thing to do.

The Lessons of Doomsday 2011

Unless someone has hidden under a rock for the last week or so, it has been impossible to notice the the claims by Rev. Camping that the Rapture and Doomsday were to occur at 6 pm, EDT yesterday. The public took great delight in ridiculing his claims, Christian and non-Christian alike. He probably had it coming, least of which because we are advised not to be date setters. This verse included in the Gospels probably because the early Church had more than its share of those who believed the return of Christ was sure to happen on some set date - or imminently. Indeed, the letters of Paul and his calls for personal sexual sanctity come from this expectation.

I have never been one to believe in the Rapture of the faithful. The verse which says we shall meet the Lord in the air is more about individual end of life experience than a prophetic event - and it may be based on Paul's own near death experience when he was stoned and came back to life. Modern neuroscience is positing that such experiences can be chalked up to brain chemistry and physics - which makes sense since when one is dead, the organ that remembers things - the brain - is not working.

Belief in life after death requires more faith than belief in God, since no evidence is possible. Even reason fails us - since using reason one can only conclude that if we survive, we would experience a being whose very presence would annihilate our souls in the same way as if we had no soul or if only a Nirvana existed. Only through faith in a loving God is it possible to expect that whatever happens, we will be taken care of.

Much of the belief in the Rapture comes from Revelation 7:1-8, which states that twelve thousand people from each tribe of Israel shall be sealed. While the numbering has numerological significance, as significant is the fact that the children of Israel are called out, not the followers of Christ. If any kind of Rapture occurs, it would seem to apply to the Jews and descendants of the exiles of the Northern Kingdom - who frequent readers know I believe to be the Romany, as well as the Palestinians who can trace their ancestry to the David kingdom. (I don't recall inviting non-Israelite Protestants to our party - especially given their history of persecuting us - indeed, for that reason, they should not expect to be raptured).

Rather than being preserved, the followers of Christ are identified in Revelation 7:9-17 as those who suffered and died for the Jesus. It is a weakness of faith to want to go the easy route. In the early Church, glory was reserved for martyrs - those who would lose their lives for Christ - who would give all of their possessions and follow Jesus. There was no Prosperity Gospel or what we call "cheap grace" in the early church (or rather, there probably was, which is why it is mentioned and condemned).

This desire in the followers of Luther likely comes in reaction to as unhealthy obsession with personal salvation in the Roman Church, with the selling of indulgences to finance the building of St. Peter's Basilica acting as its own form of cheap grace, as is the obsession with mortal sin, especially sexual sin, in modern times and the need for frequent confession (an obsession which has thankfully declined in recent years).

The obsession with personal salvation leads to beliefs such as the rapture and the equally condemnable example of Bishop Olmsted excommunicating Sister Margaret McBride for allowing an indirect abortion to save the life of a woman dying of pulmonary hypertension because of her pregnancy. Had he not pronounced excommunication, he likely feared for the state of his own soul - in a very real way taking the life of another to save his own. Such an action, especially in the name of Christ, sets the Gospel on its ear.  As condemnable is the current campaign against gay marriage, including the denial of health benefits to all married Catholic Charities employees in the Archdiocese of Washington as a way to avoid paying them to gay spouses.

It is ironic that the Rapture was predicted for this weekend, as the reading today in the Roman Church was from the Acts of the Apostles where the Deacons were appointed so that the Apostles would not have to wait tables, but instead concentrate on preaching the Gospel. They were already forgetting the example of Jesus washing their feet and the parable of the Good Samaritan (brothers of the Romany), who helped the victim of an attack where members of the priest caste had not.

It is easy to see this as a commentary on the Jews. It is harder, but more necessary, to see this as a comment on what the Church should be focusing on - and what we should be focusing on as Christians - serving the least among us - both on an individual basis and in the public sphere. To deny the social nature of the Gospel is to again obsess on personal salvation rather than serving others as Jesus would have us serve them - not to get into Heaven, but to bring Heaven to the Earth, as we pray to do in the Our Father.

Obama, Israel & the '67 Borders

Obama, Israel & the '67 Borders by Michael Sean Winters

My reaction:

It is more about trying to pander to Jewish voters, who seem out of the reach of the GOP. I suspect that the land swaps required to keep a Jewish state Jewish without resort to minority oppression will involve much more than nibbling around the edges of the 1967 borders. Major portions of Arab northern Israel will have to be joined with the West Bank to avoid the destiny of demography, with relocations to match where Jews have settled in those areas.

Of course, a two state solution is a cop out. One motivation for a united Israel is the re-establishment of the Temple, but I can not see the God of the Old Testament allowing this as long as the Palestinians are oppressed. Indeed, if there is anything to the belief of the Ethiopean Copts that they actually have the Ark of the Covenant, I can't see the Coptic Church allowing its return while the Jewish state represses anyone, particularly Christians.

The end times meme has an interesting twist, as the part of it that most don't get is the return of the lost tribes of the north, not just the return of the Jews (who come from Levi and Judah only). There are those in the Romany community who are coming to believe that we are the exiles of the Northern kingdom, having migrated from Assyria through Persia to India. The real irony is the fact that our legends clearly state that we were Christianized by the Apostle Thomas. Indeed, our tradition is older than Rome and as such is a "purer" Christianity - although most of us have assimilated into the Roman Church - with growing numbers becoming Evangelical as well.

We are related to the Samaritans, who are few - although it is likely that many of them were converts to Christianity in the early years or prior to that took up Judaism. Some undoubtedly are Palestinian Muslims, adopting Islam to get along. This is the sad tragedy of the entire situation - that those most persecuted by the state of Israel are most likely ethnically Jewish from generations in the past.

Going back to the Romany narrative, since we are already Christian, the end times prophesy on our conversion has already occurred. What is necessary is repatriation for the prophesy to be fulfilled. Given the low esteem we are held in by much of the world, it is unlikely the cause of Romany return will be taken up any time soon - although that is clearly what is required by the prophesy.

Is Corporate Tax Reform Realistic?

Is Corporate Tax Reform Realistic? by Howard Gleckman

My comments:

Corporate tax rate reform should probably go hand in hand with personal and payroll tax reform or reduction. The biggest base broadener is to turn the Corporate income (really profits) tax into a Net Business Receipts Tax by ending the deductibility of labor costs and expanding filing to all businesses, not just corporations.

There could a surtax for higher salaried employees and investors – although that brings up a reporting problem most conveniently solved by preserving an income surtax on the highest earners. This prevents the taxation of lower income investors and preserves the privacy of people who have independent income – who might be unemployable if doing so requires payment of a higher tax on their behalf.

Such a reform should also have a VAT portion, so that the public is conscious of taxation at every level.

Finally, the VAT should be zero rated at the border, but not the NBRT so that the NBRT can continue to have deductions for things like health care.

I would expand the range of deductions and credits for health care for workers, their families and retirees, with robust mental health care provisions (to replace incarceration of the mentally ill and addicted) as well as educational benefits at the state and federal levels for children and for new hires (with college students hired before junior year and their employers picking up the tab in exchange for tax benefits and a service commitment – which would be replaced by a marketable loan if the employment did not work out).

Most importantly, the child tax credit would shift to the NBRT from income taxation. Because of these tax payments, the NBRT would not be zero rated for exports, since the importing country benefits from services to employees and their families in a way that they don’t benefit from services provided to taxpayers through a VAT.

Bishops at center of abuse scandal, and potential reform

Bishops at center of abuse scandal, and potential reform

The report has it wrong. This has always been a problem in the Church. The sexual revolution simply opened up discussion of sex so that victims who would have suffered in silence began coming forward. This, more than anything else, is what stopped the ongoing patterns of abuse.

Congrats, Class of 2011: You're Hired!

Congrats, Class of 2011: You're Hired!
by Kathleen Deveny

The sad fact is that many of these graduates will be replacing much more experienced workers who have recently been let go. It does not have to be that way, if longevity were compensated with stock rather than higher salary and compensation for family size was direct in a larger refundable tax credit - rather than through ever increasing salaries through the working career.

Sadly, many of these grad have huge educational debt. It would have been better if they had been hired before junior year, with tuition and living expenses paid by the employer for that period - with government aid paying for the first two years. I bet the smartest kids would have taken and gotten that deal.

Assessing the GOP Field

Assessing the GOP Field by Michael Sean Winters

My response: Gerson is not the only one trying to sell T-Paw to Christian Conservatives. Mitch Daniels is the only other possible choice (the very same Daniels who presided over the economic debacle that was the Bush II presidency). The establishment and the cultural conservatives hate Romney, so the GOP does not have many options. Of course, if the deal to extend the debt limit leads to a much feared palace coup in the House, there won't be a GOP to run in.

Medicaid Cuts & Subsidiarity

Medicaid Cuts & Subsidiarity by Michael Sean Winters

Medicaid is actually three programs. With the passage of the ACA, it will be the chief health insurance provider for the working poor. It is the payer of last resort for Seniors in nursing homes. Finally, it cares for the chronically poor who don't work - either due to medical reasons or illiterarcy - which makes it a target for those whose Christianity includes the Protestant work ethic (and those Catholics who have bought into that, through Rand).

The Senior portion should simply be fedralized - which Reagan offerred to do in New Federalism in 1982 (in an echo of Nixon's proposal). Ryan is probably too young to remember the Gipper's proposal. More's the pity.

Health care for the working poor should probably be provided through employers rather than Medicaid. The way to force this is not a mandate but a tax deduction (which would also be how to get employers to cover retirees - including the chronically ill). Taxes on employers could be consolidated from personal income taxes on all but the wealthiest, the Hospital Insurance payroll tax and the corporate income tax into a Value Added Tax (to cover discretionary spending) and a Net Business Receipts Tax. The NBRT would be like a VAT, but would not be on the receipt because businesses would have the option of taking deductions for family support, education and health care costs for employees and retirees. The tax should be set high enough that even marginal employers would have an interest to offer care rather than have employees use a "public option."

Such a plan would meet the needs of subsidiarity. It could not be entirely voluntary, however. If voluntary charity could meet social needs, coffers would be full for this purpose since tax rates for the wealthy are at historic lows. (A parallel is the current evidence aganist supply side economics - which, if true, would have led to historically low unemployment as employers are flush with cash).

Libertopia could exist, however it takes a high nominal tax rate on business to get us there.