Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Gov't Knows Best? White House creates 'nudge squad' to shape behavior
The federal government is hiring what it calls a "Behavioral Insights Team" that will look for ways to subtly influence people's behavior, according to a document describing the program obtained by FoxNews.com. Critics warn there could be unintended consequences to such policies, while supporters say the team could make government and society more efficient.
While the program is still in its early stages, the document shows the White House is already working on such projects with almost a dozen federal departments and agencies including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture.
"Behavioral sciences can be used to help design public policies that work better, cost less, and help people to achieve their goals," reads the government document describing the program, which goes on to call for applicants to apply for positions on the team.
The document was emailed by Maya Shankar, a White House senior adviser on social and behavioral sciences, to a university professor with the request that it be distributed to people interested in joining the team. The idea is that the team would "experiment" with various techniques, with the goal of tweaking behavior so people do everything from saving more for retirement to saving more in energy costs.
The document praises subtle policies to change behavior that have already been implemented in England, which already has a "Behavioral Insights Team." One British policy concerns how to get late tax filers to pay up.
Via: Fox NewsContinue Reading...
Republicans suspect administration of trying to block self-funded insurance
Obamacare's Achilles heel. Republicans fight Obama's plan to crush small businesses' self-funded insurance plans
The majority of U.S. employers now offer self-funded insurance plans, in which companies finance employee health plans from their own funds
. Many of the companies purchase stop-loss insurance plans from insurance providers. These companies would therefore avoid many Obamacare regulations when the law takes full effect in 2014. The practice of self-funded insurance, which was outright banned in early drafts of Obamacare, represents the “Achilles heel” for Obamacare implementation, according to insiders.
. Many of the companies purchase stop-loss insurance plans from insurance providers. These companies would therefore avoid many Obamacare regulations when the law takes full effect in 2014. The practice of self-funded insurance, which was outright banned in early drafts of Obamacare, represents the “Achilles heel” for Obamacare implementation, according to insiders.
Phyllis Borzi, the Obama administration’s assistant secretary for employee benefits security in the Department of Labor, is a well-known opponent of stop-loss insurance and is suspected of making behind-the-scenes moves to prevent small companies from providing it, according to Washington insiders. The Department of Health and Human Services is capable of implementing new regulations on self-funded insurance on a federal level.
Via: The Daily Caller in the Department of Labor, is a well-known opponent of stop-loss insurance and is suspected of making behind-the-scenes moves to prevent small companies from providing it, according to Washington insiders. The Department of Health and Human Services is capable of implementing new regulations on self-funded insurance on a federal level.Continue Reading....
FL SHERIFF TO LOCAL NAACP PRESIDENT: I CANNOT SUPPORT YOUR AGENDA
Lee County, Florida Sheriff Mike Scott sent a letter to Lee County Branch NAACP president James Muwakkil explaining his disdain for the way he believes the NAACP ignores "epidemic" black-on-black violence in certain parts of Florida while allegedly trying to recast the Trayvon Martin shooting as white vs. black violence to score political points.
Sheriff Scott was invited to the NAACP's "Freedom Fund Awards Banquet" and was even asked to sponsor the event financially, but as he made clear in his July 16 letter, "[he] will not be doing either." Regarding the lack of NAACP response to black-on-black violence, Scott writes:
Record numbers of young, black males have been gunned down in Ft. Myers in an epidemic of alarming proportions over the last few years. In virtually every instance the killer was also black and the majority of those cases remain open... To date I am unaware of any appreciable attention or public outcry the NAACP locally or nationally have afforded these issues in our own, proverbial backyard.
Scott then turned his attention to the Zimmerman trial: "Conversely, you immediately inserted yourself and the Lee County Branch in the matter of Trayvon Martin's tragic death in a city hours from ours and publicly declared the matter to have been mishandled by the police."
The Sheriff went on to describe how that local NAACP branch had reacted to Zimmerman's "not guilty" verdict and suggested they would have "applauded" it had the same trial, verdict, and "justice system" convicted Zimmerman. He suggests that by going along with the media ploy of labeling Zimmerman "white" instead of Latino or "half Latino," the local NAACP put itself in a position where only a guilty verdict could be accepted.
In the closing paragraph of the letter, Scott highlights other ongoing issues he believes the Lee County Branch of the NAACP ignores while seizing instead on issues that garner political capital.
I consider you a friend and hope my candor does not ruin that; however, I simply find myself unable to support your professional agenda, which I believe actually contradicts the goal of eliminating double standards.
Via Breitbart
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Monday, July 29, 2013
Forbes to Newsmax: Obama in a 'Bubble' As US 'Crumbles' Under Obamacare
Forbes magazine editor and former presidential candidate Steve Forbes tells Newsmax that Obamacare is "ridiculous and destructive" and is imploding because it wasn't workable in the first place.But President Obama is in a "bubble" regarding the healthcare reform bill while the "rest of the country crumbles," Forbes asserts.
He also says the immigration reform bill passed in the Senate won't fly in the House, and he favors a piecemeal approach instead.
Forbes is president and CEO of Forbes Inc. He ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1996 and 2000, urging the adoption of a flat income tax with a single tax rate.
His latest book is "Freedom Manifesto: Why Free Markets Are Moral and Big Government Isn't."
The White House clearly sees the negative impact Obamacare's employer mandate would have had on the economy and that is why it is being delayed. But some employers are still saying they want to hold back on hiring and maybe cut back on hours.
In an exclusive interview with Newsmax TV on Monday, Forbes offers his take on the healthcare bill.
"In terms of implementation, Obamacare is imploding because it's unworkable in the first place — the idea that people with spreadsheets in Washington can run 20 percent of the economy," he declares.
"Bad ideas or destructive ideas die a very hard death. So they still have this illusion in healthcare. It's going to get worse, it's not going to get better. They're doing real harm to the medical device industry, which has been critical for improvements in the standard of healthcare in this country.
"They are hoping that maybe putting implementation off a year on the employer mandate would somehow get businesses to hire. In the real world if you think something is going to hit you hard a year from now or a month from now, you're not going to hire when you see bad things coming down the road. So it has distorted patterns in terms of hiring, which is why in these jobs reports you see more part-time jobs being created than full-time jobs. It's ridiculous and destructive."
According to an article from Forbes.com, the IRS employees union is very concerned about having to join the Obamacare healthcare insurance exchanges — and that is the agency in charge of running Obamacare.
Via: Newsmax
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New book shows radical teachers how to mix traditional mathematics with ‘social justice’ political lessons
MILWAUKEE – It’s said that misery loves company.
Perhaps that’s one reason a group of gloomy, radical teachers is trying so hard to poison the minds of the nation’s K-12 students with their anti-American, anti-free market ideas.
Perhaps that’s one reason a group of gloomy, radical teachers is trying so hard to poison the minds of the nation’s K-12 students with their anti-American, anti-free market ideas.
They’re miserable living in “the land of the free,” and want others to share their pain.
The educators are part of Rethinking Schools, an organization that’s been sneaking left-wing “social justice” lessons into America’s K-12 classrooms for nearly three decades.
The group’s latest effort to indoctrinate the nation’s youth is a 286-page book aimed at teachers, titled “Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers.” The book is a mix of math lesson plans and essays from activist educators who explain how they’ve used their classrooms to advance a progressive political philosophy.
Two main themes emerge from the pages of “Rethinking Mathematics.”
The first is that the U.S. is a hopelessly racist country that routinely oppresses “people of color.”
This message is conveyed through lessons and essays about racial profiling, environmental racism, unfair mortgage lending practices of Big Banks, the “overabundance of liquor stores” in minority communities, and slave-owning U.S. presidents.
The book’s other major theme is that capitalism’s unequal distribution of wealth is the root cause of the world’s suffering. Students learn to despise free market economics in lessons about third-world sweatshops, “living wage” laws, the earnings of fast food workers and restaurant CEOs, and the “hidden” costs of meat production.
All of this sounds like material from a college sociology textbook. What could it possibly have to do with mathematics?
As the “Rethinking” teachers demonstrate, the math concepts of ratios, averages, percentages, bar graphs, density and geometric formulas are very useful when training kids to see the world in their preferred categories of “haves” and “have nots.”
Whites below poverty line at 41%, twice number of poor blacks...
EXCLUSIVE: SIGNS OF DECLINING ECONOMIC SECURITY
Survey data exclusive to The Associated Press points to an increasingly globalized U.S. economy, the widening gap between rich and poor, and the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend.
The findings come as President Barack Obama tries to renew his administration's emphasis on the economy, saying in recent speeches that his highest priority is to "rebuild ladders of opportunity" and reverse income inequality.
As nonwhites approach a numerical majority in the U.S., one question is how public programs to lift the disadvantaged should be best focused - on the affirmative action that historically has tried to eliminate the racial barriers seen as the major impediment to economic equality, or simply on improving socioeconomic status for all, regardless of race.
Hardship is particularly growing among whites, based on several measures. Pessimism among that racial group about their families' economic futures has climbed to the highest point since at least 1987. In the most recent AP-GfK poll, 63 percent of whites called the economy "poor."
Obama comments on Keystone spark ire, more concerns about project’s future
President Obama’s latest comments on the Keystone XL oil pipeline -- including an attempt to downplay the number of jobs it would create -- are re-igniting concerns that the administration may not approve the project.
The proposed Canada-to-Texas pipeline has been one of the most divisive political issues of the past four years, essentially pitting Republicans and other pro-business groups including unions against environmentalists and their Democratic allies.
The president, in an interview Saturday with the New York Times
, repeated his position that the administration’s decision will be “based on whether or not this is going to significantly contribute to carbon in our atmosphere.”
, repeated his position that the administration’s decision will be “based on whether or not this is going to significantly contribute to carbon in our atmosphere.”
However, he also took a swipe at what he described as the Republicans’ argument that Keystone would be a “big jobs generator.”
“There is no evidence that that's true,” Obama said, arguing the best estimate is 2,000 initial construction jobs followed by no more than an additional 100 jobs. The newspaper's transcript of the interview showed Obama chuckling as he made the point.
“That is a blip relative to the need,” he said.
His estimate is significantly lower than his own State Department’s projection of 42,000 constructions jobs and way smaller than the 118,935 that project developer TransCanada expects.
Regardless of the accuracy of the numbers, the comments only fueled concern that the administration is viewing the pipeline with increasing skepticism, after sidelining the decision during the presidential election year.
Via: Fox News
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White House: Detroit’s health care dump highlights ‘the benefits’ of Obamacare
Detroit’s reported plan to drop health care coverage for retirees and force them into Obamacare exchanges highlights “the benefits of the Affordable Care Act,” according to President Obama’s spokesman.
“One of the benefits of the Affordable Care Act is making sure that those Americans that don’t get health insurance through their employer are able go on the open market, though these [exchanges] and purchase insurance,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters. “That is something that didn’t exist before.” The New York Times reported on Detroit’s plan today. “Officials say the plan would be part of a broader effort to save Detroit tens of millions of dollars in health costs each year, a major element in a restructuring package that must be approved by a bankruptcy judge,” according to the report. “It is being watched closely by municipal leaders around the nation, many of whom complain of mounting, unsustainable prices for the health care promised to retired city workers,” the Times added. Earnest maintained, though, that he doesn’t know what the Obama team thinks of the proposal. “I have not heard a close analysis of this,” he said.
Virtually Unreported: Detroit's Bankruptcy Came With Sky-High Tax Rates, Not 'Small Government'
The truth, of course, is that Detroit has had quite a large government. It also had and still has frightening rates of violent and nonviolent crime, incredibly awful schools, and a race-based culture that the press once praised. What is far less appreciated is what Detroit did to chase citizens and businesses out of the city in the form of sky-high taxes.
In 2012, Detroit's income tax was the highest in Michigan by far. Using the correct language of taxation, the city's 2.5% rate is 25% higher than 2% rate in the state's runner-up, Highland Park (0.5% divided by 2% is 25%), and is 2-1/2 times as high as most other cities which have a 1% rate.
At Townhall today, the Cato Institute's Chris Edwards went to an even less-known element of taxation: the property tax. The following graph illustrates how Detroit's property tax rates compare to the average of the 50 largest other cities in the U.S. (HT I Hate the Media):
In the liberal financial model, clearly the template used by the establishment press, people and businesses don't react to tax increases, other than to accept them, pay them, and go on with life and business as usual. The reality is that they don't.
Usually, they vote with their feet and leave. But in extreme cases like Detroit, they simply fail to pay them:
Nearly half of the owners of Detroit's 305,000 properties failed to pay their tax bills last year, exacerbating a punishing cycle of declining revenues and diminished services for a city in a financial crisis, according to a Detroit News analysis of government records.... "Why pay taxes?" asked Fred Phillips, who owes more than $2,600 on his home on an east-side block where five owners paid 2011 taxes. "Why should I send them taxes when they aren't supplying services? It is sickening. ... Every time I see the tax bill come, I think about the times we called and nobody came."
Though there are surely many others in Detroit who feel the same way, there are more than likely quite a few who simply can't afford to pay what the city says they owe
Via: NewsbustersContinue Reading....
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