With the decision by the Supreme Court to consider and probably reverse a lower court’s ruling that the EPA exceeded its authority in issuing a “cross-state” pollution rule last year, environmentalists were delighted. The lower court’s decision was “confusing”, according to Janice Nolen, assistant vice president of the American Lung Association, adding that
Tag Archives: mandates
Supreme Court Expected to Allow the EPA to Impose Severe Rules on Coal-fired Plants
- Monday, 07 September 2020 08:54
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The Lessons of Socialism Being Taught in Venezuela
- Monday, 07 September 2020 08:54
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This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, June 26, 2017:
The Coat of arms of Venezuela
Thanks to Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the lessons being taught by the on-going destruction of Venezuela have been codified. It’s called “10 Biggest Lies of Socialism” and seven of them apply directly to the once-prosperous oil-rich South American country. First the lie is stated and then the reality:
- Under socialism there will be income equality, as everyone will contribute what they can and receive what they need. But, says AFP, the system instead guarantees that everyone (except the elites in charge) will be equally poor.
- Under socialism private companies will be forced by the government to charge what it determines to be “reasonable” prices through price fixing. Rationing follows when goods previously available disappear from the market. All that these mandates do, says AFP, is guarantee bread lines and shortages as producers cannot produce under such strictures without going bankrupt.
- Under socialism, the economy, having eliminated the overhead cost of “profits” needed under a free market capitalist system, is touted as being able to make the economy grow. In Venezuela, however, the oil-rich nation is unable to feed itself, thanks to bureaucratic miscues and massive corruption among government officials doing the rationing of goods and services.
- Socialism is sold as guaranteeing a class-free society that turns out, according to AFP, to be a society where “everyone is equal in their misery.”
- Socialism guarantees free college educations and free healthcare for everyone but without asking, and answering, the key question: at whose expense? The myth that everyone can live at the expense of everyone else has been exposed in Venezuela.
- Socialism claims that everyone is entitled to material goods (see 5 above) but fails as instead it favors those at the top at the expense of everyone else, leaving the population destitute.
- Socialism promises that workers will be “liberated” from their capitalist slave masters, but discover that they are now slaves of the state, subject to the orders of the state and having their earnings taken from them and distributed to the state for distribution to others.
The sad forced transition of Venezuela into a backward, third-world country whose starving citizens are forced to barter has been tracked extensively. Starting in April,
Establishment Insider Calls for Military Intervention in Venezuela
- Thursday, 11 January 2018 06:34
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, January 10, 2018:
Ricardo Hausmann
When an obscure college professor nearing retirement age suggests that the only way to “solve” the Venezuelan “crisis” is through military intervention, few people would pay any attention. But when that person, Ricardo Hausmann, is a professor at Harvard and a director of the John F. Kennedy School of Government there, his proposal represents much more than just wishful thinking.
Hausmann, with a Ph.D. in economics from Cornell University, is a bona fide Keynesian interventionist. Considering that Hausmann was a former minister of planning in Venezuela and a member of the board of directors of the Central Bank of Venezuela in the early 1990s, one can rest assured that free market principles aren’t being considered as any part of his solution to Venezuela’s problems.
Under socialism, things have gotten so bad in Venezuela that Hausmann now thinks military intervention is the only cure. His plan, “D Day Venezuela,”
18 States Raise Minimum Wage in 2018
- Wednesday, 03 January 2018 06:40
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Tuesday, January 2, 2018:
Faith, Fraud & Minimum Wage
Through new legislation, successful ballot measures or inflation adjustments built in to previous statutes, some 4.5 million people should see increases in their paychecks in the New Year. Ten of those states — Maine, Vermont, Washington, Michigan, New York, Rhode Island, California, Colorado, Arizona, and Hawaii — are seeing increases as the result of legislative or ballot measures. The other eight — Alaska, Florida, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, and South Dakota — will see so-called “automatic” increases in their minimum wage laws in 2018.
Most new minimum wage legislation is phased-in through gradual increases, declaring loudly the hypocritical claim that such increases won’t affect employment. It’s like feeding nightshade to a victim in such small doses that he doesn’t even notice — until he’s dead.
Take Washington State for example.
Justice Department Closes File on Officers Charged in Freddie Gray Case
- Thursday, 14 September 2017 05:31
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, September 13, 2017:
In a press release issued late Tuesday the Justice Department announced its decision not to prosecute six officers involved in the death of Freddie Gray in 2015:
Chicago Immigration Lawsuit Fraught With Errors, Inconsistencies, Illogic
- Thursday, 17 August 2017 05:50
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, August 16, 2017:
A closer look at the lawsuit that Chicago filed against Attorney General Jeff Sessions last week over his threat to withhold grant money reveals enough errors, inconsistencies, and just plain poor logic that might be enough for the judge to toss it, with prejudice.
The lawsuit that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel had threatened over Session’s imposition of new conditions for receiving Bryne Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) funds — including alerting the federal government when an illegal alien has been arrested and is about to be released — claimed that the threat of lost funding was unconstitutional, violated states’ rights, and threatened the city’s long-standing Welcoming City ordinance. The Welcoming City ordinance includes language that
At Least Papa John’s Pizza Arrives Fresh, Warm, and Tasty
- Thursday, 27 July 2017 05:12
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This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Wednesday, July 26, 2017:
Democrats are so upset over the Democrat Party’s new slogan that some demanded that its originator be fired immediately. The slogan, unveiled by Democrat Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer in the New York Times on Monday, is: “A Better Deal: Better Jobs, Better Wages, Better Future.” This was birthed after months of intense mental analysis of last November’s loss to Donald Trump, and it was, according to many, stillborn. The Gateway Pundit massaged Papa John’s Pizza logo on its website, showing Nancy Pelosi beneath the banner, and below, instead of “Papa John’s” was “Dems: Still Pelosi.” It’s worth clicking on it. (See Sources below).
Other Democrats were less charitable.
Trump Keeps Another Promise: Ignore Social Security’s Impending Shortfalls
- Thursday, 13 July 2017 05:38
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, July 12, 2017:
During his presidential campaign, Republican Party candidate Donald Trump made it abundantly clear that he would not do anything to restore the financial integrity of Social Security:
I’m not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican, and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid. Every other Republican is going to cut, and even if they wouldn’t, they don’t know what to do because they don’t know where the money is. I do.
Now that he is president, he no doubt has discovered just “where the money is”: It’s been spent by the government. And likely due to the commitment by the Democrats to oppose anything and everything he’d like to do, he’s just going to leave the failing and shrinking program alone.
This has caused angst among realists who see the federal program failing to meet its promises in less than 17 years and offering various ideas and suggestions on how to “fix” it.
Trump, Mexico Settle Sugar Dispute Just in Time for NAFTA Renegotiations
- Thursday, 08 June 2017 05:23
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, June 7, 2017:
The sugar settlement between the United States and Mexico, announced on Tuesday by U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, sets the stage for the NAFTA “renegotiation” scheduled to begin in August. And the settlement is going to cost Americans more to satisfy their sweet tooths.
At bottom, it’s all about protecting an inefficient American industry from foreign competition. Sugar is an enormous industry, and economic and political interests want to keep protections in place in order to save it from foreign competition. On one side is Big Sugar:
China’s Surveillance State Now Monitors Foreign Companies, as Well as Citizens
- Saturday, 27 May 2017 05:58
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Friday, May 26, 2017:
Xi Jinping, no friend of freedom
The Wall Street Journal’s claim that China’s surveillance state, which now records the behaviors of foreign companies operating there, is only intended to “monitor and rate” them falls far short of the communist government’s real intentions. Using sophisticated tracking technology — meters in chimneys monitoring air pollution, recording of excessive energy usage by a company’s meters, and so on — it intends to change the behavior of those companies to keep them in line with state policy and objectives.
China’s State Council — the government’s all-seeing eye — already monitors every citizen’s behavior.
Supreme Court’s Non-decision Expands Passenger Ridesharing Freedom
- Friday, 28 April 2017 05:13
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Thursday, April 27, 2017:
By declining to hear an appeal, the Supreme Court on Monday essentially declared that rules protecting the taxi cartel in Chicago were null and void, thus expanding passenger freedom. As an attorney with the Institute for Justice (IJ), which represented Chicago Uber driver Dan Burgess, explained: “Today’s decision makes clear what [IJ] has said for years. The Constitution does not require [city] governments to stick with outdated protectionist regulations in the face of technological innovation.”
When Uber and other ride-sharing companies entered the Chicago market several years ago, they soon became a thorn in the side of the taxi cartel that had operated under protectionist rules dating back to 1937. Those rules
Trump Administration Tips Its Hand, Oks Third Greek Bailout
- Tuesday, 18 April 2017 06:18
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, April 17, 2017:
It took EURACTIV, the online source that focuses on European policymaking, to report that the Trump administration has signaled that, previous protestations to the contrary, it won’t object to a third Greek bailout. The anonymous Trump administration tipster told its reporters: “We’re looking for the Europeans to help Greece to resolve its economic problems by the Fund [the International Monetary Fund], despite the criticism of many Republicans regarding the two previous bailout programs in 2010 and 2012.”
This anonymous tip kicks to the curb protestations voiced by Trump’s Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin in February that
How Trump Can Accelerate the Failure of ObamaCare
- Tuesday, 28 March 2017 05:53
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, March 27, 2017:
With the withdrawal of a House bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare, Market Watch explored the options the Trump administration has to hasten the collapse of the ACA. ThinkProgress has reported that the process has already started.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, in announcing the withdrawal of the bill on Thursday, said that ObamaCare would remain in place “for the foreseeable future.” He didn’t define that future.
The government healthcare plan is already fraying around its edges. Premiums are rising far beyond original estimates, partly due to the withdrawal of major health insurers UnitedHealth Group, Humana, and Aetna from offering coverages. And those remaining in the market have only until June 21 to submit their bids for offering coverages starting in November. But without certainty, a stable market and a broader pool made up more of healthy customers than those who are sick, those bids are almost certain to push premiums even higher.
Trump’s head of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Tom Price, an opponent of the ACA, has already ordered the ending of the promotion of ObamaCare, which has caused a drop-off of enrollment of 400,000 compared to last year.
In addition,
Cash-only Medical Care Benefits From IRS Non-enforcement of ObamaCare Mandate
- Tuesday, 28 March 2017 05:45
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Monday, March 27, 2017:
Exterior of the Internal Revenue Service office in midtown New York. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Following the issuance of President Trump’s executive order in January in which he ordered the Health and Human Services Department to “waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay the implementation of any provision or requirement of [ObamaCare, or ACA] that would impose a financial burden on any State, or a cost, fee, tax, penalty, or regulatory burden on individuals, families…” the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) responded last month:
ObamaCare is Imploding All by Itself
- Tuesday, 28 March 2017 05:37
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This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Monday, March 27, 2017:
The best person to ask about ObamaCare is not the patient, but the doctor. He’s the one carrying the burden: trying to help his patients with one hand while trying to manage the requirements of the state with the other. One who knows is Jeffery Barke, M.D., a 54-year-old family practice physician in Newport Beach, California. He not only predicted the collapse of ObamaCare (ACA) but wrote that it was planned that way:
As ObamaCare’s troubles mount, I’ve heard my patients and my peers in healthcare ask: How could the law’s authors not have seen this coming?
For my part, I think a different question needs to be asked: What if they did? What if ObamaCare was purposely designed to fail?
Every day, it seems like there are a dozen new headlines about the crisis facing ObamaCare. Premiums are rising faster than ever. Meanwhile, health insurance companies are abandoning the law’s exchanges left and right, unable to compete in the top-down, regulation-driven environment created by the law. Less than three years into its implementation, the law has never looked so precarious.
He saw firsthand that ObamaCare never did what it was supposed to do:
AG Sessions’ Strong Support of Local Police Misses Key Point
- Saturday, 18 March 2017 06:09
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Friday, March 17, 2017:
Attorney General Jeff Sessions addressed a gathering of federal, state, and local law-enforcement officials in Richmond, Virginia, on Wednesday morning, announcing a new direction in law enforcement under the Trump administration. He stated: “[President] Trump issued a policy to [his] administration to reduce crime, and that’s what I take as my marching order.”
He decried the jump in violent crime and murders in major cities over the last two years, ending the long steady decline in those numbers nationally over the past several decades:
Venezuela’s Marxist Dictator Orders Arrest of Bakers Making Croissants
- Saturday, 18 March 2017 06:00
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Friday, March 17, 2017:
Four bakers trying to make ends meet were arrested earlier this week in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, a country that was once one of South America’s premier economic powerhouses. Venezuela’s ruler, Nicolas Maduro, mandated that 90 percent of scarce flour be turned into bread, which must be sold at a loss, rather than higher-priced sweet bread, ham-filled croissants, pastries, and cakes.Two bakers apparently broke this law, and two used out-of-date wheat for brownies. At least one baker will have his bakery taken over by the government for 90 days. The bakers, operating under Maduro’s mandates that they use government-imported wheat for flour to bake bread and sell it below their costs, were on survival mode, as are most of the people living in Venezuela’s socialist paradise.
Maduro, rather than to take the justified blame for the economic malaise that his socialist policies have caused, has dreamed up all manner of straw men to blame for the country’s woes, starting with
ObamaCare Replacement Plan Introduced in Congress
- Friday, 17 February 2017 06:47
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This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Thursday, February 16, 2017:
Senator Rand Paul
Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Representative Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) introduced their ObamaCare Replacement Act (ORA) on Wednesday. It would simultaneously repeal nearly all of ObamaCare’s most onerous demands and mandates while opening up the health-insurance market to individuals to purchase, or not to purchase, coverage. The bill, S.222, might more appropriately be named the “Health Insurance Freedom to Purchase Act,” putting the decision to buy, or not to buy, coverage back in the hands of individual citizens and taking it out of the hands of the federal government.
Senator Paul said,
Bill to Repeal Obamacare Represents Major Paradigm Shift
- Friday, 17 February 2017 06:31
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This article was published by The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor on Friday, February 17, 2017:
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson said many things on which classical liberals and libertarians agree. The one most apropos to Obamacare is this: “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.”
Anything that requires government force (or threat of) to gain compliance is, on its face, immoral. But Obamacare did something else: it was a deliberate forced attempt to shift personal responsibility for one’s health care from a citizen to his government. Jefferson had this to say about that:
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