Category: Guest Authors

Raising Debt Ceiling Failed Solution

After last month’s boardwalk fire in Seaside Heights, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, self-proclaimed fiscal hawk, immediately allocated $15 million in taxpayer money to business owners.

Sorry, Guv, but that’s why God made insurance. Government had absolutely no reason to get involved. Yet it did.

That decision is symbolic of how the United States became so paralyzed by its monstrous debt. A little here, a lot there, often for things that tug at the heart but have no relevance to government, multiplied countless times over decades. The result is municipalities and entire governments, such as Detroit and Puerto Rico, on the verge of collapse.

Now the Piper is calling the granddaddy of them all: The United States government and its incomprehensible $17 trillion debt, and no bailouts or bankruptcies can save that behemoth. Short of a complete reversal of business-as-usual in Washington — cutting debt rather than adding it — things are about to get uglier than ever before.

The airwaves are filled with “experts” admonishing Congress to raise America’s debt ceiling (the amount of debt the U.S. can legally incur) so as to avoid the “catastrophic” consequences of “default” if it doesn’t.

I’m not sure what’s worse: The deliberately disingenuous politicians and media outlets pushing that misinformation, or the ones who, without thinking, actually swallow that pap.

They want you to think this a complicated issue. It’s not. In fact, it’s remarkably straightforward: Aggressively rein in spending with a commonsense approach, or risk an eventual currency collapse that will turn America into a second-world nation in record time. It’s that simple.

So let’s cut through the white noise and look at the facts:

1. Without question, there will be pain if the debt ceiling isn’t raised, but there will be no default. By law, payment on the national debt comes first, and there’s plenty of money to pay our interest obligation ($220 billion) since revenue is more than 10 times that amount ($2.6 trillion). Granted, that’s a ticking time bomb since the principle isn’t being touched, but it’s clear we don’t have to incur more debt to “pay off” existing debt. So let’s not do it.

2. Most everyone concedes the astronomical debt poses a significant problem, yet every time the ceiling is reached, Congress raises it even further — and the shopping spree continues. This of course leads to more deficits and more debt, creating a vicious cycle. (Quick primer: The deficit is the amount we overspend each year; the debt is the total amount we owe). Enough is enough. Keep the ceiling where it is, and force the government to tighten its belt and live within its means, just as solvent businesses and stable families do. Identifying a problem yet looking the other way is impotence. Enabling its growth is cowardice.

3. All the economists, politicians and Wall Streeters who say that not raising the debt ceiling would be the height of irresponsibility need to look in the mirror. How is raising it any saner? Doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result — in this case, thinking that increasing debt will prove beneficial — is lunacy. If they’re the best and brightest, I shudder to think of the dumb ones.

4. Prioritize the budget. Force Congress to finally do its job, making them fight like cats and dogs to fund what is most needed. You’d be amazed at how quickly they figure out what’s important — and what isn’t. Pass a law requiring across-the-board cuts. No exceptions, even the sacred cows of entitlements and defense. While it won’t be pretty, people will be much more accepting if they know everyone feels the pain. Most important, get the ball rolling on a constitutional amendment mandating a balanced budget, as almost all states have that requirement.

5. Magically creating money to pay our bills is insane, but the Fed has been doing just that, inventing $85 billion per month with a keystroke (they don’t even print it anymore. Ain’t technology great?), which then gets pumped into the “economy” via Wall Streeters’ pockets. That’s why, despite the stagnant economy, the stock market remains so robust, artificially propped up by an entitlement program for the super-wealthy. Wall Street has become so addicted to the Fed’s drug that the mere mention of cutting back sends the market tanking, so the funny money keeps rolling. This must end now, on our terms, before the big meltdown occurs, since what goes up must come crashing down.

6. While unfathomable a generation ago, the world now views America as an increasingly bad credit risk. That’s why there has been such a drop-off in the purchasing of Treasuries, and why the Fed itself is buying a trillion dollars’ worth each year.

Many are concerned with the substantial U.S. debt owned by the Chinese, but that’s yesterday’s news. Not only aren’t the Chinese buying Treasuries like they once were, but they (and the Japanese) have been dumping significant U.S. debt while buying gold and silver at a record pace. Think they know something?

The game is up, and everyone knows it — except those in Washington.

A wise man once said there’s what people want to hear, there’s what people want to believe, there’s everything else — and then there’s the truth. And the hard truth is that all of the easy answers are behind us.

To think America can’t fall is arrogance at best, stupidity at worst. It can, and will, unless drastic action is immediately taken, starting with the current debt ceiling being kept intact. Doing so would send an unmistakable message that America is serious about making a comeback. But raising it as a “solution” would be akin to rearranging deck chairs on the Titantic.

Anyone remember how that turned out?

 

Obamacare Republic

Stop blaming President Obama for sabotaging the nation’s health care system. After all, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act wasn’t all his doing. He had plenty of help from congressional Democrats.

House and Senate Democrats were instrumental in coercing their colleagues to vote for the legislation, which offended about half the voting public at the time it was enacted, and while the lawmakers may not have been aware of all the ill effects their actions would have three years later, apparently those same Democrats support the disastrous law to this day.

Whether intentionally or not, these Democrats were complicit with Obama in the many misleading statements — or outright lies — he told us about how terrific the health care reform law would be.

A stunning 17-minute YouTube video compiles the many claims the president made publicly while pitching his so-called health care reform legislation:

http://youtu.be/KxWMbqxgMDo

The president told Americans not to worry, they would be able to keep their current physicians after his massive health care system overhaul passed Congress; that insurance premiums would fall by $2,500 annually.

However, people are now finding out their premiums are rising significantly, and are unsure whether they’ll always be able to keep their doctors if forced into a new government-approved health plan.

Obamacare Republic is excerpted from Delco Conservative

Anything To Stop Healthcare

According to Democracy Now,
Republicans in the House are quite upset because the Senate Leader
refuses to call a session to vote on the idea put forward by
Republicans, that threatens to shut down the government if
Obama-care, a health care system that would give the opportunity to
those who were cut out because of pre-existing conditions, the poor,
the lower middle class and working class and millions of working
poor, to purchase insurance, and would make it almost impossible for
bankruptcy to result from large hospital bills.

I must say, during my lifetime, I have
never before seen one part of the government resort to extortion and
holding the citizens hostage, or using them as human shields, to
overturn an initiative voted for and passed by the House and Senate
and signed into law by the President of the United States. This
great turn around, in fact, is after most of the Republican
Representatives and Senators signed onto the bill on the condition
that it would slowly fade in beginning 2014.

Now the U.S. has become the laughing
stock of most of the world. Everything that we stood for in the past
has been turned upside down. We work to export democracy and the
democratic process throughout the world as those who tout democracy,
and who claim to be Christians, do whatever they want to against the
will of the people to keep people poor and destitute without the type
of healthcare that almost every industrial nation (I can’t think of
any that doesn’t), has.

We are being pushed backward and the
heritage of the United States…the True Heritage, is being stolen by
the ones who have pledged to preserve it. This heritage can be seen
in the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution of the United
States, the Gettysburg Address, and on the plaque on the Statue of
Liberty. The belief and application of these values are the only
thing that ever made us exceptional. They are the only things that
differentiated us from most of the western world. They will soon be
gone.

I just pray for our children and their
children as this country erodes into Neo-feudalism and all of those
who wasted their time and energy fighting against true exceptionalism
by trying to push us back to a time of Pre-civil War mentality and
block others from partaking of the opportunities afforded us by this
great nation. For this is what will ultimately bring about the
destruction of this nation and will garner curses and hatred from our
descendents because we didn’t stand up when it was the time and
protect the heritage of our own. Who are our own. Every citizen is
our own.

Wonderfully Wasted

The Environmental Protection Agency’s recently announced decision to, in effect, ban the construction of traditional coal-fired power plants in the United States is a non-solution to a hypothetical problem, enacted upon a legal basis that is shaky and an economic basis that is nonexistent. The cost-benefit analysis is almost entirely one-sided: The costs will be very high, and the benefits the EPA hopes to secure will remain out of reach.

The EPA is demanding that new U.S. plants that will use coal to generate electricity must meet standards that today are met by no commercial coal-fired plant operating anywhere in the world. There are, however, two plants coming on line — one in Saskatchewan, one in Mississippi — that incorporate new technology designed to capture enough carbon dioxide to satisfy the EPA demands. Whether that new technology will be effective in practice remains to be seen; whether it will be both effective and cost-effective is a much more important and complex question, one that the EPA has no genuine interest in contemplating.

That is a problem, inasmuch as the Clean Air Act requires that the EPA perform a cost-benefit analysis of new rules. EPA administrator Gina McCarthy not only says that the agency has conducted such an analysis but goes on to characterize it as “wonderful,” and we are indeed filled with a sense of wonder at her proclamation, though perhaps not in the way she intended.

The costs remain a mystery. The industry expects them to be high, but how high is anybody’s guess: The CO2-capture technology that the EPA expects to become standard as a result of its new mandate is, as noted, not currently in commercial use. There is no demand in the market for it, and its costs can therefore be estimated on a wild-guess basis at best.

It is easier to estimate the benefits: They will be nonexistent. Even if we assume that the general thrust of the case for anthropogenic global warming is accurate (an assumption that requires setting aside the recent failure of climate-change models and the less confident scientific consensus as to the meaning of recent data), the fact remains that global warming is, if it is anything at all, global. Local controls on U.S. power plants, even if they are draconian, will have little impact on the overall atmospheric composition of the planet and its effect on global temperatures.

Carbon dioxide is only one greenhouse gas among many, and the United States is not the world’s largest producer of it. The United States, in fact, produces about 15 percent of the world’s carbon-dioxide emissions, and U.S. power plants are responsible only for about 33 percent of that 15 percent. And the new rule applies only to newly constructed plants, though the EPA has signaled that it intends to demand the retrofitting of existing plants in the future.

What all this means is that even if the EPA were wildly successful in its implementation of the new standards, it still would not achieve any substantial reduction in global greenhouse-gas emissions. It is equally likely, if not more, that it will achieve an increase instead: Being a fungible commodity, the coal not consumed by U.S. generators will find its way to China, India, and the rest of the developing world, where it will be consumed in high-pollution plants that make those in the United States look as pure as vestal virgins by comparison.

So: Costs unknown, benefits negligible. “Wonderful,” indeed.

No doubt surviving members of the 88th Congress, which passed the Clean Air Act, are filled with a similar sense of wonder that their law is being used to police carbon dioxide emissions, an outcome the legislators did not intend. The legal basis for declaring carbon dioxide a “pollutant” under the act is questionable at best, as is the EPA’s rationale for picking and choosing what sorts of emitters will be subject to its new rules. If you would like a preview of what medicine is going to look like under Obamacare, consider the high-handed, letter-of-the-law-be-damned approach of the EPA and the courts that have enabled it.

The new rule may prove wonderful for the manufacturers of the capture technology that will effectively be mandated. As with the case of Solyndra et al., this maneuver is not about producing environmental benefits but about creating markets for politically favored firms and industries. But even those cronies may fare less well than they expect to.

The Obama administration, despite its obvious desire, has not yet been successful in strangling the natural-gas renaissance that is changing the face of the American energy industry. Though coal remains the largest single source of electricity, it already has been falling out of favor with those building new generating capacity, because natural gas is cheaper and plentiful. It is also less damaging to the environment, contra the  ill-informed hysteria about the gas-extraction technique known as fracking. But the United States has a complex economy, and there is no single “right” source for fuel. Left to its own devices, the industry probably will move toward natural gas and away from coal, but coal will remain an important part of the picture for the foreseeable future.

In 2012, Barack Obama became the first major-party presidential candidate since statehood to fail to win in a single county of West Virginia. He lost the statewide vote by a substantial margin, with two out of three against him . The people of West Virginia rightly appreciated that their best-known commodity is the target of a regulatory jihad by the White House that has no environmental or economic justification.

The real motive here is the administration’s messianic pretentions, its belief that its bureaucrats and managers are more humane and more intelligent than the producers and consumers over whom they reign, and that they have been chosen to lead the United States into a future that is relatively free of such relics of the Industrial Revolution as coal-fired power plants and petroleum products. Unhappily for them, there is a wide gulf between social engineering and real engineering, and the most impressive products the green-energy revolution has delivered so far are a couple of nifty electric motorcycles — which are recharged by a power grid that gets 40 percent of its juice from coal.

A functioning modern society requires reliable electricity. A modern industrial economy requires affordable electricity. To impose incalculable costs on electricity generation in exchange for ideological satisfaction with no real-world environmental benefit is the sign of an agency that has put its own political agenda ahead of the national interest, playing fast and loose with the law in the process. The EPA is a menace, and Congress should put it on a leash.

Hat tip Paul Olivett

Wonderfully Wasted

The Politic of Black Mail

By Dr. John Gilmore

What do you do when the government begins to hate their opposition so much they begin to black mail them by holding the citizens hostage? This is something that has been happening regularly nowadays with the GOP and the debt ceiling. I find it amazing that such a thing would ever happen in the United States. Some people say that this comes as a result of the type of greed that destroyed the Athenian Empire and the Roman Empire. Both of those empires were powerful. They fell because of the corruption inside, not because of outside forces.

We find our system beginning to get
more corrupt as tons of money is being poured in by large
international corporations with no real allegiance to the United
States or any other country, just to themselves. The question is
“What do we do about it?” Cutting the food stamp program doesn’t
seem to help. Union busting, which ultimately lowers everyone’s
wages and causes less money to go back into the economy doesn’t seem
to be helping. Fighting about abortion and marriage equality doesn’t
seem to help. What do we do during these trying times?

I think we need to create jobs with a
living wage. The idea of Green Energy Jobs was a good one. Building
wind turbines and solar panels is working for Germany. They have
reduced their dependency on Nuclear Power-plants in less than two
years by converting to 1/3 solar energy, just by giving the citizens
incentives to put solar panels on their homes and then feeding the
energy back into the grid. Only 1/3 of their energy needs are
petroleum based, while the other 1/3 is bio-diesel. These are the
types of policies we need, instead of grid lock. On top of it all,
they have had national healthcare for years and are one of the
strongest economies in the world.

I think it is time for our government
to stop playing politics, stop trying to turn one religion against
the other, one race against the other, one gender against the other,
the old against the young…to create any type of division they can
so they can become more progressive and really govern in line with
the ideals put forward by Abraham Lincoln when he spoke of this
country of the people, by the people, and for the people. Instead we
have a country for 1% of the people and division among others.
Officials are being paid to make decisions based on the health and
welfare of the highest bidders. It is time to unite and work to
rebuild this American Dream for all of the people and stop the
divisiveness. I hope that U.S. Citizens can do this, or there just
may not be a country that is worth having very soon. .

Will Iran’s Charm Offensive Fool Obama?

By Keith Phucas

The real moment of truth for the Obama administration may come next week when Iranian President Hassan Rouhani flies to the U.S. in hopes of cutting a favorable deal on Iran’s nuclear program.

Will the U.S. continue to support punitive measures against Iran for its nuclear development or soften its position?

Numerous economic sanctions have been imposed on Iran since 2006 for continuing with its nuclear development and not allowing inspectors to verify all of the country’s nuclear activities. The regime insists its program is strictly for its energy needs.

The sanctions, imposed by United Nations Security Council resolutions, have significantly cut Iran’s oil exports and isolated the country from international banking systems, and the country is seeking relief from the crippling measures.

Yet, Iran continues enriching uranium in “clear contravention” of U.N. resolutions, according to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Yukiyo Amano. And, if the regime is able eventually to produce highly-enriched uranium, that fissile material would be ideal for nuclear warheads.

Given Tehran’s hostility toward Israel and Iran’s insistence on forging ahead with its nuclear plans, Israel signaled several years back that it might attack Iran’s nuclear sites.

Recently it was revealed Rouhani and President Obama have exchanged letters that the new Iranian leader described as “positive and constructive.”

The U.N. Security Council meets next week. And after witnessing the U.S. president’s Syria Shuffle — first threatening to attack Syria for using chemical weapons, then backing down — the Iranian leadership sensed a fresh opportunity to negotiate with the U.S. over Iran’s nuclear program and launched a so-called “charm offensive.”

Read more about Iran’s Charm Offensive at Keith Phucas’ Delco Conservative

Why We’re Losing The War On Terror

Why we’re losing the war on terror.

By Chris Freind

In the 12 years since the 9/11 attacks, thousands of Americans have made the ultimate sacrifice, and trillions have been spent fighting overseas battles. But the hard truth is that the United States has thus far lost the foreign “War on Terror.”

What makes the sin mortal is that this was eminently preventable. But the failure to learn from history, combined with a lack of foresight and common sense, have allowed true victory to slip away. And in true bipartisan spirit, both parties have been equally incompetent.

Can America turn the tide? Of course, but since Washingtonians keep coming up with “new” ideas to solve our old Middle Eastern problems — code speak for recycled policy failures — it’s more likely that history will keep repeating itself, to the detriment of the West and the delight of radical fundamentalists.

***

Let’s review the most pronounced failures in post-9/11 foreign policy:

No Energy Independence: The most incomprehensible mistake after 9/11 was President Bush’s failure to understand what precipitated the attack, which left him unable to solve the problem. While he should have gone after bin Laden and the Taliban, the ultimate goal should have been withdrawing troops from the volatile Middle East — there because of America’s huge dependence on foreign oil — whose presence infuriated radical Muslims.

Doing so would obviously require America to once and for all become energy independent, easily accomplished by opening up America’s vast petroleum reserves, including the ANWR in Alaska, and lifting the offshore drilling moratorium imposed by the first President Bush. With an approval rating in the ’90s and substantial Republican majorities in Congress, winning the day on these crucial issues would have been a layup for George W. Bush, had he tried.

But he didn’t.

Iraq Quagmire: So Bush and Dick Cheney, both oilmen, instead chose to invade Iraq, a country that hadn’t attacked America, nor had any involvement in 9/11. Oil prices skyrocketed — bankrupting countless American companies and throwing the economy into chaos — while Big Oil made record profits. Thousands of American soldiers lost their lives, and hundreds of billions exited the Treasury, all for a war where “victory” was never defined.

Throwing fuel on the fire, the promise of Iraqi oil revenue rebuilding Iraq was a bust, and American taxpayers forked over $60 billion for that reconstruction, while American infrastructure continued to deteriorate at home.

So how’s Iraq doing after the American “liberation?’ Almost 80 percent of its oil now flows to China, creating a powerful Baghdad-Beijing partnership. And sectarian violence is everywhere, with 3,000 Iraqis killed in just the last few months, including 1,000 in July, the deadliest month since 2008. That chaos has allowed Iraq to become a haven for America’s enemies, which it was not prior to invasion. As a comparison, when Saddam Hussein was in control, there were virtually no car bombs nor terror attacks in Iraq.

So if what we’re seeing now is “victory,” what the hell is defeat?

Afghanistan: While hitting the Taliban and hunting Osama bin Laden were appropriate, we have stayed in-country far too long with no clear objectives. Now, American troops can’t even operate alongside Afghan forces because “friendly Afghanis” have routinely opened fire on our troops. With friends like that, who needs enemies?

Enabling Iran: The same neo-conservatives who led us to invade Iraq are back at it, demanding a strike on Iran to stop it from developing nuclear weapons.

The irony would be comical if not so tragic.

Any guesses why Iran didn’t have a bona fide WMD program before America engaged in Iraqi regime change? Simple. Iran and Iraq were mortal enemies, and their ongoing mutual hatred kept both countries in check; neither developed WMD’s because they were wholly consumed with killing each other.

But ignorant American leaders broke that stalemate in the name of “democracy” when they took out Hussein, destroying the critical balance of power. By taking out Iran’s archenemy, the U.S. gave Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad all the time and resources he needed to develop WMDs. Brilliant.

Democracy For Radicals: A constant in Middle Eastern countries is that large majorities view America with extreme contempt. Common sense tells us that, in a democracy, these people will always vote for fundamentalist governments reflecting that vitriolic mindset. So why do we constantly push that concept?

Democracy simply doesn’t work in many countries, and would certainly be counter-productive to American interests if it took hold in the Middle East. Yet president after president pursues that unwise goal, usually through regime change. The fact that it hasn’t worked should be a sign to change course, but instead, we continue full-steam ahead.

Iraq, Libya, Egypt and even Afghanistan have proven to be disastrous “experiments,” yet obtuse leaders like John McCain now want leadership change in Syria, despite no idea who would assume power. At least when the U.S. orchestrated the Iranian coup in 1953, it knew it was installing the Shah as leader. Since Assad is fighting al-Qaeda-affiliated Syrians, the odds of seeing a leader who doesn’t despise America? Less than zero.

***

In less than two decades, the United States has invaded two Middle Eastern nations and bombed seven, with plans to strike an eighth and possibly a ninth (Iran). Trillions have been spent and thousands of lives lost, yet radical fundamentalism keeps rising while America’s credibility continues to diminish.

It is not too late to right the ship, but it will take immense political will. A good starting point would be to reflect on the tragedy of 12 years ago, and remember the forgotten message. Eliminate dependence on the Middle East by becoming energy independent, stop playing policeman to the world, and start taking care of the ones who matter most: our own.

The thousands who gave their lives that day, and those who fell defending their honor, deserve no less.

America Must Avoid Syrian Entanglement

If the United States were a body part, it wouldn’t be a brain, but a nose. The world’s biggest, always being stuck where it doesn’t belong.

Right now, it’s in Syria. And if America rains down bombs there, its nose will be broken yet again. How many times will we get punched before learning how to better pick our fights? As the saying goes, “You can’t always pick your friends (apparently, we have none regarding an attack on Syria), but you can always pick your nose.”

The incompetence, unconscionableness and insanity are mindboggling. Let’s review:

■ Incompetence: First, President Obama shoots off his mouth about attacking Syria. Not only doesn’t he do it, but then announces he’ll wait for Congressional approval, even though as commander in chief, he could act alone. As Congress debates endlessly — all while America proclaims to the world what and where it will strike — Syria has all the time it needs to harden targets, shift assets and move human shields to strategic areas.

Questions: If Congress nixes the idea, will the president bomb anyway? And why did he not secretly meet with key Congressional leaders first, gain their approval and strike without warning? Any third-grader playing Capture The Flag knows that the element of surprise is always — always — a strategic and tactical advantage. But the New American Way is to go public with absolutely everything, even war plans, discretion be damned. We have even stated our intention to limit the bombing to 60 days. Well, that’s a relief.

America’s worldwide loss of credibility is staggering, no matter what the final outcome on an attack.

■ Unconscionable: John McCain must go. Period. He’s a disgrace not just to the Senate and his party, but much more importantly, the people of the United States. During the extremely important hearings as to whether America will go to war in Syria (and yes, bombing a sovereign nation is war), McCain, Mr. Warmonger himself, was playing poker on his iPhone.

Hey, John, if you want to play games of chance, great. Do it on your own time. But when you are gambling with Americans’ lives by sending them into battle, and likely some to their deaths (as there will always be some boots on the ground, despite claims to the contrary), playing games — and then joking about it by tweeting, “Worst of all, I lost!” — is absolutely unconscionable. There are no higher stakes than playing with people’s lives, but that seems lost on McCain, who should know better, having been held for years as a POW in Vietnam.

This author is the last one to overreact on controversial situations, but if the Senate were smart, it would immediately remove him from that committee. And if the GOP has any brains, it would lead that charge. John McCain’s ineptness is legendary, but not punishable. His callousness and calculated misjudgment is. Kick him off, now.

■ Insanity: Talk about history repeating itself.

We are poised to bomb yet another Muslim country, which, if possible, will inflame anti-American passions even more.

But to what end?

What is the objective? Indefinable. And the strategy? Well, since there is no clear objective, there can’t be a winning strategy. That should be the first thing to consider before letting bombs fly. Instead, our modus operandi is to put it last.

Is Syria at war with America? No. Did they harm us in any way? No. Have they orchestrated terror attacks against us? No. Yet the same cannot be said about our “allies,” like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, whose governments have often funded and even tacitly supported attacks on Americans and our interests. But we want to attack Syria anyway, even though the Assad government is fighting some of the same fundamentalists America has been engaging since 9/11. Brilliant.

And is our intention just to take out targets or engage in regime change, like McCain wants to do?

Has it dawned on anyone in Washington to look at the Libyan debacle? We took out a sovereign leader who kept radical fundamentalism in check, in favor of rebels who had comprised one of the largest foreign forces fighting Americans in Iraq. Now, Libya is unstable (bet the ranch that Benghazi wouldn’t have occurred under Gaddafi) and 10,000 surface-to-air missiles are missing.

And now we are doing the same in Syria in the name of “freedom and democracy.”

Really? Do we really want to take our chances with a democratically elected Syrian government? Do that and you’ll be praying for an Assad return. A look at Egypt is all the proof you need to take that to the bank.

Here’s an idea: Become energy independent. If we were, Syria, Egypt, Libya and all the Middle East oil barons wouldn’t mean squat to us. American blood and treasure wouldn’t be expended, and our economic and national security would be exponentially bolstered.

That message has become a broken record, but if we followed it, we wouldn’t be in for another broken nose.

Workers Lose Under Obamacare

Workers Lose Under Obamacare

By Elizabeth Stelle

Yes, workers lose under Obamacare.

Imagine one Monday your boss tells you the company is cutting your hours so they don’t have to give you health insurance.  This bad news is compounded when you start shopping for insurance and discover that premiums have skyrocketed in the last few years.

That’s a tough blow for any worker, but it’s becoming the new normal for individuals and families across Pennsylvania—even labor unions that supported the law are voicing their concerns.

Recently, the Nevada Chapter of the prominent union coalition AFL-CIO released a resolution stating, “The unintended consequences of the [Affordable Care Act] will lead to the destruction of the 40-hour work week, higher taxes, and force union members onto more costly plans—eventually destroying [union health plans] completely.”

No wonder Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius visited Philadelphia to defend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) against growing public opposition. Secretary Sebelius continues to deny the law’s adverse impact on workers, but stories of layoffs due to Obamacare are a dime a dozen.

Thanks to the ACA, public sector workers like school aides around the state are losing hours, pay and in some cases even their jobs.  East Lancaster County School District and Dallas School District in Luzerne County are cutting back on support staff to avoid the ACA’s “employer mandate” that penalizes employers for not offering health insurance to full-time employees—encouraging employers to use part-time workers and contractors, instead.

Ironically, the very organizations that ostensibly exist to protect these public sector workers—government unions—enthusiastically supported the job-killing law.

For example, in 2012 and 2013 the National Education Association gave $250,000 to Health Care for America Now!—a group lobbying for Obamacare.  The Service Employees International Union also launched $12 million in television ads supporting the law. It seems these unions failed to take into account the law’s many negative consequences.

The ACA was intended to expand access to health insurance, but in practice it reduces employment, increases insurance premiums, and hikes taxes through a complex labyrinth of rules and regulations. In effect, it’s making it harder—not easier—for the average person to access health insurance.

Under the ACA, all employers, including governments, with more than 50 employees must provide full-time workers—those working 30 hours or more per week—with health insurance.  Moreover, employer health insurance plans must meet new federal regulations and mandates regarding the cost to employees.  Failure to meet these mandates results in a substantial fine.

That’s a major burden on job creators around the country and here in Pennsylvania.

Because of the health care law’s harsh financial penalties, restaurant chains including Applebee’s and Papa John’s, big box stores like Wal-Mart and even grocery stores like Wegmans are cutting hours or benefits.  In fact, the people who struggle the most to find affordable health care—the working poor—are those hardest hit as their hours and paychecks shrink.

President Obama recently suspended this job-killing employer mandate—though his authority to do so is questionable—until after the next election.  Unfortunately, that still leaves businesses trapped in an state of uncertainty, not knowing when the government will require them to provide insurance or face a penalty.

Not only are these workers being hurt with fewer hours and less pay, but they will pay more for insurance under the ACA.  So, too, will small businesses and full-time workers.

Three years into the ACA, average family premiums have increased by $3,000.  The CEO of Highmark predicts premiums will continue to rise ¾this after Highmark already increased Pennsylvania’s individual and small group rates in 2010 and 2013.  Meanwhile, Aetna raised premiums in Pennsylvania by 10 percent in 2011, noting the ACA as a significant cost driver.

Elected officials must now find ways to protect both public and private sector workers from such skyrocketing premiums and pay cuts. A good start would be giving those without employer-based insurance the same tax benefits businesses receive—leveling the playing field for all Pennsylvania workers.

Elizabeth Stelle is a policy analyst at the Commonwealth Foundation

Workers Lose Under Obamacare

Union Membership Labors

 Union membership labors

By Chris Freind

Talk about freeloading. The nine of 10 Americans who aren’t part of organized labor still took full advantage of Labor Day, that hallowed holiday honoring unions, aka “the working class.”
And since those 90 percent aren’t considered “working people” (meaning they must not work) every day is clearly a holiday for them. So relaxing on Labor Day just seems like sticking it to the unions.

What else is new? Public-sector unions are seeing their salaries, benefits and pensions under constant threat of reform from dastardly Republicans trying to stave off bankruptcy. The nerve!

For some unions, that might mean paying more than, God forbid, 5 percent of their health care costs, even though most in the private sector pay far more.

Far “worse,” some Republicans want to allow public union members to negotiate with their prospective employer individually, with free market-type incentives allowing for a fair offer for both employee and “employer” (the taxpayer).

An offer is made and the individual accepts or declines, same as in the private sector. Accountability and efficiency would increase, and unmotivated, bureaucratic sloths would be eliminated.

Sound fair? It is, and it’s called the elimination of collective bargaining. But union leaders demonize its supporters while fighting to continue a system that is completely broke, even opposing attempts to replace antiquated pension plans with 401(k)s. The result? Only 11 percent of the workforce is now unionized, and the decline continues.

Despite a complete inability to articulate its message, the GOP is not anti-labor. It just happens to be the one cleaning up the mess, especially in states like Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin. Noticeably absent is soon-to-implode Pennsylvania, where Gov. Tom Corbett has pursued a business-as-usual policy.

For decades, unions have reaped the rewards of Ponzi-style pay-me-later deals made between union bosses and gutless politicians interested only in self-preservation. But the piper has finally come calling.

Math doesn’t lie. There simply isn’t enough money to continue paying high wages and lavish benefits. It’s either reform or bankruptcy. There’s no third option.

Originally, joining a public-sector union was a trade-off: You wouldn’t make as much, but received a healthy pension and job security. But all that changed after millions in union dues were used to defeat politicians who dared cross labor.

Now, salaries of many public workers are higher than those in the private sector, with pensions so extravagant that Wall Streeters blush with envy.

But with an economy still in shambles, tax revenue down, and baby boomer retirements skyrocketing, the pension system has become permanently unsustainable.

Is it right to reform pensions and benefits? Don’t public-sector union members deserve what they were promised?

At the risk of seeming callous, that’s irrelevant. There isn’t enough money. Period. Unlike the feds, states and municipalities can’t print cash so cutbacks are inevitable, especially on big-ticket items like labor and pension costs.

The alternative is far worse: Bankruptcy. And municipalities can and are declaring. In towns nationwide, including Detroit, the message is simple: Agree to reforms, or risk losing everything. Yet unfathomably, that message is lost on the teachers union in America’s eighth-largest school district (Philadelphia), which is refusing any pay concessions despite a massive deficit, making the district one of the nation’s foremost candidates for bankruptcy. Obviously, it’s not fair. Rank-and-file union members were promised an unfulfillable bill of goods by long-gone hacks. But to paraphrase JFK, anyone who believes in fairness is seriously misinformed.

Unions are not being singled out, as the private sector has fared far worse, with considerably higher job losses and some pensions returning pennies on the dollar. That’s not fair either, but it’s reality. So what now?

Union leaders should tone down the hype, stop the personal attacks, and enter the real world. Reforms are imminent, not because of political principle, but because the money is gone. Failure to be reasonable will result in a protracted battle the unions cannot win, guaranteeing unnecessary pain.

Union bosses are supposed to represent their members’ interests, so it would behoove the rank-and-file to hold their leaders accountable, which they haven’t done. On the two issues that mattered most — defeating NAFTA and Most-Favored-Nation trading status for China — union leaders batted zero. Ironically, both passed under Bill Clinton. Yet labor still blindly supports the Democrats, who take their votes for granted.

Want to stop the union bleeding? Repair the roof now, while there’s still a little sunshine, and don’t wait until the monsoon strikes.

There will never be a perfect “union,” but if reforms aren’t made quickly, there could soon be a Labor Day with no labor. And we’ll all be the poorer for that.

Union Membership Labors