Tag: regulation

Doctors rejecting the AMA over its support of Obamacare

10:23 pm

Repeal it! Doctors in large numbers are rejecting the AMA over its support of Obamacare. More significantly,

In February, the National Physicians Survey discovered that more than three times as many doctors believed that the quality of American health care would “deteriorate” rather than “improve” under ObamaCare. Nine of ten physicians think ObamaCare will have a negative impact on their profession.

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Petition to repeal Obamacare on White House website

2:31 pm

Want to repeal Obamacare? Well, someone has posted a petition to repeal the law on the White House’s own website.

Essentially, the new White House petition website allows anyone to create a petition. Once it reaches 150 signers it becomes public. Once it reaches 5,000 the administration promises an official response.

What will the White House say if their own website is overwhelmed with signatories to a petition calling for the repeal of Obamacare? To find out I’ve added my name. You should to!

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Obama: “You’ve got a governor whose state is on fire denying climate change.”

1:58 pm

Obama on Sunday at a fundraiser, attacking Rick Perry: “You’ve got a governor whose state is on fire denying climate change.”

Here is another example of a politician making a fool of himself. The wildfires in Texas have nothing to do with climate change. And if Obama thinks they do, he immediately shows himself to be completely ignorant of the science behind the Earth’s climate.

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Philadelphia City Council looks to regulate satellite dish placement

8:48 am

We’re here to help you! The Philadelphia City Council wants to regulate the placement and color of residential satellite dishes.

On Thursday, Clarke is expected to offer final amendments to a bill requiring satellite companies to try to install dishes somewhere other than the front of a building. Roofs, rear or side yards, and backs of buildings all are acceptable, the bill says. The measure would also require some customers to paint their dishes to match the front of their buildings.

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House proposes trimming budget of FAA’s commercial space office

2:36 pm

A House subcommittee has proposed trimming the budget of the FAA’s commercial space office from the $15.2 million it received in 2010 and 2011 to $13 million for 2012.

This is good, to my mind. Cutting their budget will pull the teeth from their regulatory efforts. As the commercial space industry ramps up, the political pressure on this office to approve permits will increase, and if they are short of cash they will have no choice but to keep things simple and say yes.

Update: Thanks to Joe2 for noting my error: the budget numbers above have been corrected to millions, not billions.

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Don’t you dare touch my space junk!

11:01 am

cataloged objects in orbit

A just released National Research Council report on space junk, Limiting Future Collision Risk to Spacecraft: an assessment of NASA’s meteoroid and orbital debris programs, describes in great and worthwhile detail the increasing problem of orbital debris as well as the technical and budgetary problems that exist for removing it. It is especially worth reading for the stories, such as when a Colorado hiker heard a high-pitched sound and then found a still warm thirty-inch diameter sphere in a foot deep crater. The object turned out to be a titanium tank from a Russian upper stage rocket, launched two months earlier.

What I want to focus on here, however, is one issue the report discusses that, as far as I can tell, has generally been missed. Worse, this issue — somewhat ridiculous when you think about a little — will make removing most of the space junk in Earth orbit far more complicated than ever imagined by engineers.

Simply put, under already agreed-to international treaties, no nation can salvage or collect any debris placed in orbit by another nation. To do so will violate international law, and almost certainly cause an international incident. To quote the report:
» Read more

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New California law will require workers’ compensation benefits, rest and meal breaks and paid vacation time for…babysitters

10:26 am

Why no one should want to live in California: A new proposed law there would require workers’ compensation benefits, rest and meal breaks and paid vacation time for babysitters.

Under AB 889, household “employers” (aka “parents”) who hire a babysitter on a Friday night will be legally obligated to pay at least minimum wage to any sitter over the age of 18 (unless it is a family member), provide a substitute caregiver every two hours to cover rest and meal breaks, in addition to workers’ compensation coverage, overtime pay, and a meticulously calculated timecard/paycheck.

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Many businesses are considering dropping healthcare when Obamacare goes into effect in 2014

12:46 pm

Depending on the survey, from 9 to 30 percent of all businesses are considering dropping their employer-sponsored healthcare plans when Obamacare goes into effect in 2014.

In other words, Obama was lying when he said you could keep your plan under Obamacare.

Note too that poll numbers continue to show a solid majority of the public wants Obamacare repealed.

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One man’s response to Obama’s demand that taxes on the rich be raised

10:00 pm

One man’s response to Obama’s demand that taxes on the rich be raised.

I deeply resent that President Obama has decided that I don’t need all the money I’ve not paid in taxes over the years, or that I should leave less for my children and grandchildren and give more to him to spend as he thinks fit.

and

Governments have an obligation to spend our tax money on programs that work. They fail at this fundamental task. Do we really need dozens of retraining programs with no measure of performance or results? Do we really need to spend money on solar panels, windmills and battery-operated cars when we have ample energy supplies in this country? Do we really need all the regulations that put an estimated $2 trillion burden on our economy by raising the price of things we buy? Do we really need subsidies for domestic sugar farmers and ethanol producers?

Read the whole thing.

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Did Obamacare cause the economic collapse

6:56 pm

“The elephant in the room.”

By the spring of 2010, private sector job growth turned positive. In April job growth increased to 230,000 net private-sector jobs. The economy appeared on track for a normal recovery from an awful recession. The administration began confidently predicting a “Recovery Summer.” But Recovery Summer fizzled instead of sizzled. In May private sector job growth dropped sharply to less than 50,000 net jobs. Thereafter, monthly improvement in private job growth averaged just 6,500 jobs.

What else happened in the spring of 2010? Despite obstacles that many believed would kill the bill, Congress passed the Affordable Care Act. Within two months, the trend in job growth dropped sharply. Monthly job creation had been on pace to top out in the hundreds of thousands. Post-Affordable Care Act, it has barely kept pace with population growth. [emphasis mine]

and

The health-care measure raises business costs and makes planning for the future more difficult. It should be expected to slow hiring.

Federal Reserve officials report that the law has had exactly this effect. Dennis Lockhart, president of the Atlanta Fed, reports that “prominent among these (factors businesses explain are impeding hiring) is the lack of clarity about the cost implications of the recent health care legislation. We’ve frequently heard strong comments to the effect of ‘my company won’t hire a single additional worker until we know what health insurance costs are going to be.'” Surveys bear out these warnings. In a recent poll one-third of small business owners identified the healthcare bill as one of their top two obstacles to hiring. [emphasis mine]

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66 Percent of CEOs Plan to Freeze or Downsize Workforce Size

10:13 pm

Two-thirds of the country’s CEOs plan to freeze or downsize their workforce over the next year, according to a new survey.

“As I approach my 44th year in business, the last 20 as CEO, I can never remember a time when I felt so disenfranchised from our leadership in Washington. They seem determined to continue their ongoing anti-business attitude and to frustrate small and mid-sized businesses by uncertainty on taxes, government regulations, and simply too many bureaucratic restrictions. We desperately need a change in Washington.”

I guarantee that much of this reluctance to hire stems from uncertainty and fear of Obamacare and the regulations it brings.

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