Who says the healthcare bill didn’t nationalize the healthcare industry? Under the new law, the Obama administration will be reviewing all health insurance rate increases next year, approving only those it agrees with.
Repeal the damn bill!
Power grab! Eight former park superintendents are pressing the U.S. and Canadian governments to expand government control over lands adjacent to Glacier National Park in Montana and Waterton Lakes National Park.
Your tax dollars at work: Twenty idiotic things the U.S. government is spending money on. My favorite, #8, also happens to be one of the most expensive:
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs spent $175 million during 2010 to maintain hundreds of buildings that it does not even use. This includes a pink, octagonal monkey house in the city of Dayton, Ohio.
Ho! Ho! Ho! The members of an informal high school “Christmas Sweater Club” have been punished by their school for spreading Christmas cheer. Key quote:
Mother Kathleen Flannery said an administrator called her and explained “not everyone wants Christmas cheer. That suicide rates are up over Christmas, and that they should keep their cheer to themselves, perhaps.”
A TSA worker gets probation after being convicted of using TSA surveillance equipment to steal travelers’ laptops.
Want to trim the federal debt? Here’s a place to start: Federal paychecks in the San Diego area are one third higher than private pay, according to census numbers. The pay raises were also more than three times higher.
A law student at Syracuse University is facing possible expulsion for “harassment,” but the university won’t tell him who his accusers are or even the details of his offense.
The space war over NASA continues: The continuing resolution being offered by the Senate would freeze NASA’s budget at 2010 numbers through March. Also,
NASA would be prohibited from initiating new programs, and could be required to continue spending about $200 million per month on the Moon-bound Constellation program.
As I’ve said repeatedly, the whole thing is a mess.
A few words in praise of fear. Key quote:
In Washington and in statehouses around the country, the reality of the pending Fiscal Armageddon is starting to seep into the thick skulls of the elected class. Jerry Brown pronounced himself “shocked” once he got a good peek at California’s balance sheet. Off the record, politicians of both parties are starting to concede that a lot of the old ideological disputes at now moot, because there simply isn’t any money. It’s not a question of whether there are going to be deep cuts and fundamental restructuring, but when and how much. [emphasis mine]
The lack of money affects NASA’s future as much as anything. The future of space does not lie in government funding, no matter what people tell you.
Giving credit where credit is due: Ed Morrissey notes that the Republicans have shown significant progress in reducing the number of earmarks requested by their members, while the Democrats have not.
Not only do the Republicans have to continue to improve their numbers, now is the time for Democrats to see the writing on the wall and get with the program. Cut spending!
In a related note: Loaded gun slips past TSA screeners.
Amen! The omnibus 2000 page trillion dollar budget bill is dead.
This is only a start. The spending must come down, by a lot!
Note also that yes, Congress will still be forced to pass a continuing resolution, but that will freeze spending at last year’s level, rather than the gobs of additional spending including in the omnibus bill. Like I said, this is a start.
Want to know what’s been killing our honeybees? It appears the EPA has known all along and looked the other way: A leaked EPA document shows that it knowingly allowed use a pesticide, despite warnings from its own scientists that it would kill honeybees.
Maybe this might stop the spending: Republican Senator Jim DeMint wants the Senate to read the entire 1900-plus omnibus budget bill before anyone votes on it. Key quote
The reading could take 40 hours, some news outlets estimate. Last year, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., forced the reading of an 800-page amendment on the Senate floor. The reading ended when Sanders, who had proposed the amendment, came to the floor to withdraw it.
This is how tyrants respond to democracy: Violence erupts in Rome after the head of Italy’s center-right government survived a no-confidence vote. Though the article does not tell us much about the political views of the protesters, this quote gives a strong hint that they might be leftwing:
The protesters were mostly students but also included workers and immigrants.
Science discovers the obvious! Researchers at the University of Colorado have found that the post-9/11 security efforts — such as the TSA — do little to increase security and much to turn society into a police state.
The TSA makes us all feel safer! “He said there was something suspicious hanging from between my legs.”
In competition with the Orbital/Virgin Galactic proposal I mentioned yesterday, Boeing has submitted its own proposal to provide crew and cargo ferrying service to ISS.
Considering the federal budget debt and the political winds for reducing that debt, I have great doubts the subsidies for these proposals will ever arrive. Nonetheless, with the end of the shuttle program and nothing to replace it, the United States has a serious need for a system to get crew and cargo into space. And in a free society, fulfilling that need means profits, which is why these proposals are beginning to appear, and will get built, regardless of whether Congress funds them up front or later buys the services.
Two stories on the recent attempts of the EPA under the Obama administrions to create new climate regulations. First, a federal appeals court decided Friday not to block the new EPA climate regulations. Second, the war between Texas and the EPA over the EPA’s effort to regulate Texas industry continues unabated.
