State tax incentives for filmmakers has opposite desired effect
Los Angeles, CA (March 22, 2010) Providing tax credit incentives to the movie industry to attract filming to non-traditional locations actually has a negative impact on state revenues, according to a study in the latest issue of the Journal of Planning Education and Research.
Many states offer producers tax-based subsidies to help finance film and television productions. Researchers explored the fiscal impacts of the subsidy programs, along with the methods used to calculate job creation and tourism impacts. Also studied was the potential for developing film and television industries outside Los Angeles and New York. The findings illuminate why policy makers need to carefully evaluate the methods used to rationalize public expenditures on incentives for economic development.
The researchers found that film subsidy programs:
* reduce finite state funds usually allocated for other needs
* benefit few citizens in one industry while leaving the tax burden to all taxpayers and other industries that are not subsidized
* foster a race-to-the-bottom mentality where states continually up-the-ante to "remain competitive"
"The case of the entertainment media industries demonstrates the difficulties involved in sorting out competing claims and evaluating economic impact," write the authors Susan Christopherson and Ned Rightor. "Ultimately, close questioning of those claims may drive policy reform requiring data transparency and substantiation of economic development benefit. Meanwhile, however, the worldwide taxpayer-funded production financing 'gold rush' in entertainment media is still on."
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The article, "The Creative Economy as 'Big Business': Evaluating State Strategies to Lure Filmmakers," published in Journal of Planning Education and Research, is available free for a limited time at http://jpe.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/29/3/336.
#1
I think they are missing the point. I believe states hope to have two effects when they lure filmmakers. (1) Long term movie industry. If you have more and more films in your area you have a chance of breaking in big like Vancouver and becoming a second Hollywood. At that point the numbers listed change and incentives can be reduced. (2) Promoting tourism by showing the state. Yeah its not a state but ask New Zealand about the impact Lord of the Rings has been on tourism for a major example.
The national group ACORN is folding, an official there, Kevin Whelan, said in an emailed statement:
The ACORN Association Board met on Sunday March 21 and approved a set of steps to responsibly manage the process of bringing its operations to a close over the coming months. These include:
* Closing ACORN's remaining state affiliates and field offices by April 1st; and
* Developing a plan to resolve all outstanding debts, obligations and other issues.
ACORN's members have a great deal to be proud of--from promoting to homeownership to helping rebuild New Orleans, from raising wages to winning safer streets, from training community leaders to promoting voter participation--ACORN members have worked hard to create stronger to communities, a more inclusive democracy, and a more just nation.
ACORN was always a very decentralized group, with a great deal of its activity and power concentrated in local chapters from New York to Arkansas -- the strongest of which will survive. The collapse of the national group, though, reflects the impact of a conservative assault that never prompted any prosecutions.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2010 00:00 ||
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conservative assault that never prompted any prosecutions.
Thereby proving there was nothing to it. And had there been prosectution, but no convictions? Or some convictions, but not all?
Is my spin detector getting better, or is the MSM getting sloppier?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/23/2010 6:06 Comments ||
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But now, ACORN has reached a settlement under the Ohio Corrupt Activities Act, similar to the federal RICO Act – the same law that’s used to prosecute mobsters and drug kingpins. Under the settlement, ACORN, along with Project Vote, agreed “to file a certificate permanently surrendering its business license in Ohio by June 1,” according to The Columbus Dispatch.
The next part of the settlement was critical: it bars ACORN from simply changing its name and moving back into the state. From the Dispatch:
The centerÂ’s lawyer, Maurice A. Thompson, said the settlement is mostly confidential but permanently bars ACORN from doing business in Ohio or reconstituting as another group and perpetuating its practices - source
#8
it bars ACORN from simply changing its name and moving back into the state
I may be wrong, I thought that I read that a "company" with basically the same functionality popped up all of a sudden and that most of the employees suddenly showed up with that brand new employer. And whatever happened to the companies Corruption Chief Executive Officer? Is she out, or did she show up there, too?
"I don't think we are done with this," Iowa Republican Congressman Steve King, a noted ACORN critic, told Fox News. "This is a big step in the right direction because I believe they are a corrupt, criminal enterprise."
King calls the move "a downsize of ACORN," but believes its operations will be shifted to state organizations that "may well grow." He says “tigers don’t change their stripes and neither to people who are operating in a corrupt fashion.”
The successful House vote on the legislation following over a year of intense and fraught negotiations will clear a path for the administration to turn to its next large piece of administrative business: climate change. Some senior Democrat Senators have suggested that following such a long battle to pass healthcare legislation the Senate will have "no appetite" to deal with a climate change bill that is likely to prove equally contentious.
However, both the administration and Democrat leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives remain adamant that they want to pursue a vote this year and with the party still behind in the polls ahead of November's mid-term elections the race is now on to move the legislation forward as quickly as possible. They think this is gonna improve their ratings? I can hardly wait!
The key healthcare vote comes just days after the compromise version of the climate change bill being prepared by the bi-partisan trio of Senators Democrat John Kerry, Republican Lindsey Graham, and independent Joe Lieberman, received a further boost when both environmental and industrial groups signaled their support for the proposed legislation. Maybe they've got a real compromise?
In a surprise move, Bruce Josten, the top lobbyist at the US Chamber of Commerce, told reporters last week that the work being done by the three senators was "largely in synch" with the business group's views. Josten stopped short of fully endorsing the bill, but following a meeting with the Senator's last Wednesday he struck a markedly different tone to the outright opposition to previous versions of the bill that the Chamber adopted last year.
Significantly, a coalition of 20 environmental groups released a statement on Friday signaling that they were "encouraged" by the progress being made towards a final version of the bill. The statement warned that "legislative details are important, and are not settled yet," but suggested that the group - which included influential organisations such as the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Union of Concerned Scientists – is largely happy with the direction of the bill. And the Chamber of Commerce, too? Somebody pinch me!
As a result fresh details of the structure of the bill have emerged, including confirmation that the proposed carbon cap-and-trade scheme for energy firms will emulate the early phase of the EU emissions trading scheme by awarding free emission allowances to participating firms. The compromise version of the scheme is also reportedly expected to allow energy companies to purchase carbon offset credits from the developing world to help them comply with their emission caps.
Critics of free allocation argue that it limits the financial incentive for firms to curb carbon emissions and can result in sizable windfall profits. However, the approach would reduce inflationary pressure on energy bills and still ensure firms pay a penalty if they exceed their imposed emission caps.
The Senators have also signaled that the scheme will incorporate a price floor and a price ceiling, thought to stand at $10 and $30 a tonne respectively and designed to provide investors with certainty over future prices. And they said the scheme would become more demanding over time, with the bill proposing that industrial plants will be brought into the cap-and-trade regime from 2016.
Additional details of the draft bill emerged last week, including controversial proposals for a tax on oil designed to drive up fuel prices and incentivise motorists to switch to more efficient vehicles; a $10bn fund to drive investment in low carbon technologies, including clean coal; up to $54bn in loan guarantees for new nuclear power plants; and proposals for a carbon tariff on imports from countries without carbon regulations in place. New nukes? In whose backyard?
There were also reports that a proposed renewable energy standard designed to ensure a set amount of energy is generated from renewable sources could be expanded to cover all low carbon energy sources, including nuclear.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/23/2010 16:52 ||
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Lindsey Graham? Someone please beat him senseless.
#5
Thus the purpose of the bill is nothing to do with climate change (already covered, if real, by EPA), but how to make money on it - either for the government or for their favored contributors.
#6
--If you go to the article, this publication has another article stating that at least 15 states have filed suits challenging the EPA's right to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. BOHICA !!
Durham, N.C. — Uninsured Triangle residents said Monday that they eagerly await the overhaul of the nation's health care system.
"It's just going to be like Christmas," said DeCarlo Flythe, who lost health coverage for his family when he was laid off almost three years ago. "It's going to be great. You know, no worries (about) the bills. We are going to go ahead and pay our co-pay and be alright."
Flythe, a diabetic, said he checked into buying a policy for his family, but he couldn't afford it. He recently landed another job, but the new benefits haven't kicked in yet. Wait till he figures out ObamaCare doesn't kick in for four years!
"I worry day to day, honestly," he said. "I pray to make sure my child or my wife don't' get sick because, if they go to the hospital, we are looking at a couple of thousand (dollars in bills)."
Flythe was among the patients Monday at the Walltown Clinic, a joint program of Duke University and Lincoln Community Health Center that serves the low-income neighborhoods near Duke's campus. The clinic serves 3,000 to 4,000 patients a year – 80 percent don't have health insurance – and charges co-pays based on what patients can afford.
"People will come in and say, 'I suddenly don't have a job. I've lost my insurance. Can you help me?'" said Kaity Granda, a physician's assistant at the clinic.
Norman Rucker said he hasn't had health insurance in almost 10 years because his employers haven't offered it. Never occurred to him to purchase his own?
"I'm not a person who gets sick a lot, so I didn't think I'd need any medicine," said Rucker, who racked up about $100,000 in hospital bills over that period by going to the emergency room whenever he needed care. "I'm trying to pay them off. Collection agencies call me all the time." Doh!
Rucker's wife has insurance, but the couple couldn't afford to put him on the policy. Now, he's excited he may also have coverage because of health care reform.
"It'll make the world better. It'll make us all better, actually," he said.
#1
You know... I'm still waiting for Obama to start paying my mortgage and keep gas in my car.
It hasn't happened yet. But not to worry - Obama would never lie to me... I'm sure the payments will start any time now and maybe I'll even get reimbursed for past payments....
#3
The media has never revisited the exuberant woman who said her troubles were over now that obama was gonna pay her mortgage and buy gas for her car. I wonder why?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/23/2010 15:43 Comments ||
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I talked with a young lady not too long ago. She and her husband are both college graduates and both work; yet they elected not to purchase health care insurance. She is an Obama supporter. She also thinks ObamaShamaHealthCare is going to be great. I got the impression she thinks it is going to be provided for free as a benefit of the government. God help our country.
#5
Norman Rucker said he hasn't had health insurance in almost 10 years because his employers haven't offered it.Never occurred to him to purchase his own?
No kidding, how entitled are these fuquewads, personal responsibility is totally alien to them. This is the kind of crap that makes me crazy!!!
#7
bill collectors call Mr. Rucker all the time for the hospital bills huh. Sounds like he isn't even trying too pay anything on them is probabl;y why. Alot of times if you even try too pay a little of a hospital bill they will either send your check back which means you are no longer responsible or work with you. Believe me been there done that many times.
Posted by: chris ||
03/23/2010 16:55 Comments ||
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bill collectors call Mr. Rucker all the time for the hospital bills huh. Sounds like he isn't even trying too pay anything on them is probabl;y why. Alot of times if you even try too pay a little of a hospital bill they will either send your check back which means you are no longer responsible or work with you. Believe me been there done that many times.
Posted by: chris ||
03/23/2010 16:55 Comments ||
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If you're "not a person who gets sick a lot", how the hell do you rack up 100k in ER charges over 10 years?
#10
The media has never revisited the exuberant woman who said her troubles were over now that obama was gonna pay her mortgage and buy gas for her car. I wonder why?
#11
Not any more Gomez. Acorn closed its doors. Now she gets perm unemployment! She hit the welfare lotto with Obama!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/23/2010 18:00 Comments ||
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A comment seen on Facebook: I'm so excited that I will be able to put my 20 y/o daughter on my health insurance @ work. Sorry that the "n" word & the Hitler reference were being thrown around by some who felt healthcare reform should've gone the other way. As I predicted on fb t he other day, the name calling has begun. Too often it's about wanting to be right, rather than what is best for the majority of people.Wish folks would really investigate what it involves & not allow Rush Limbaugh to explain, er, put his spin on it. Probably won't be the best thing for the wealthy, especially insurance execs."
Darlin, it won't be very good for you, either.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/23/2010 18:31 Comments ||
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how the hell do you rack up 100k in ER charges
Cornsilk, it's not hard if you use it as your primary care physician at $1500 a pop. Of course you could use the urgent care clinic down the street for $50 a pop, but you'd have to pay that yourself.
I just dropped my daughter off mine two months ago - can I put her back? No! She bought catastrophic coverage for herself - too bad she won't be allowed to renew it and will have to buy full-coverage, which she can't afford, so she'll have to just pay the fine and buy insurance if something happens.
#15
I'm so excited that I will be able to put my 20 y/o daughter on my health insurance @ work.
Hell, back in the '80s I was on my daddy's insurance when I was 20. Of course, I had to go to college full time....y'know, getting edumacated. BFD, honey. If you think this is something "new" you're not too hip to world.
You're a pretty cheap date, ya know that? (Kinda like I bet her daughter is if she couldn't get covered until now....but I digress....)
#16
Blondie- The jibe at the daughter was unnecessary. As a young woman, my insurance rates are horribly high if I don't have insurance through a job (which is quite sexist, but that is another discussion. Heaven forbid I be fertile.).
As a young woman with pre-existing conditions beyond my control it is absolutely impossible for me to get insurance without having my job. I checked out a lot of companies after college and none would give me insurance.
When I leave this job I will likely have more problems as I work in the health industry and had a blood pathogen exposure. While nothing has come of it (and hopefully never will) the mere fact that I had to take an HIV prophylaxis means that I am not eligible for nearly all insurance policies. Think of what happens if a young women is raped. Simply going to the doctor and getting tested and treated counts as a pre-existing condition.
I am not saying that I agree with this healthcare. I don't. BUT on the other hand I am coming from the other side of people who don't know what the answer is but know that our system drastically needs overhaul.
I'm sorry but this is a very sore subject with me that lends itself to ranting.
OLYMPIA (WA) -- Gov. Chris Gregoire lashed out Monday afternoon at Attorney General Rob McKenna's decision to join a multistate lawsuit challenging the health-care legislation just approved by Congress.
"I don't know who he represents. He doesn't represent me," Gregoire said. Maybe because he represents the PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON
In a statement announcing his decision Monday, McKenna said he believes the health-care measure's requirement that everyone buy health insurance is unconstitutional.
Continued on Page 49
#1
She's a freak show and we're stuck with her massive overspending and defecits, McKenna Thank God, is one of the sane voices in Washington State along with Norm Dicks, a thankfully moderate Dem! go figure....
#2
She doesnt even live here most of the time spending her summers at the Posh Hayden Lake country club in Northern Idaho where all "respectible" people are seen, or should be.....
#8
746 -- But think of how proud we'll be when the legislature passes the additional sales tax so we can have the highest in the nation. We're #1! We're #1!
Posted by: Dar ||
03/23/2010 13:17 Comments ||
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--I believe I heard that the Dem A-G in Ariz refused to join the 'suit' fray, so the Rep Gov is proceeding on his own.
#11
The thing is, Gregoire used to be the Attorney General for the State of Washington. She knows full well that the office is *not* accountable to the Governor but is a separate, elected, position.
You've probably never heard of Dan Benishek, but he's a Republican running against Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), who struck a deal with Nancy Pelosi that is believed to be the decisive vote to pass ObamaCare.
More than 1,700 people have already joined Benishek's Facebook page.
Liberty First PAC has added Stupak to its target list, and Stupak is probably going to be on a lot of other lists pretty soon.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2010 00:00 ||
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Like many, I choose to donate to specific candidates as opposed to the RNC. Click here for the Benishek link:
Some of the American people probably thought they were voting for hope and change when they voted for President Barack Obama on Nov. 4, 2008. But according to Rev. Al Sharpton, they were voting for socialism.
Sharpton, the founder of the National Action Network and talk radio host told Fox News on March 21, during their special coverage of the House of Representatives' passage of health care reform legislation, this victory for President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would begin "transforming" the country.
"I think that the president and Nancy Pelosi get credit," Sharpton said. "I think this began the transforming of the country the way the president had promised. This is what he ran on."
"First of all, then we have to say the American public overwhelmingly voted for socialism when they elected President Obama," Sharpton said. "Let's not act as though the president didn't tell the American people - the president offered the American people health reform when he ran. He was overwhelmingly elected running on that and he has delivered what he promised."
And if that transformation is socialism, then so be it, he explained. That is what the American public "overwhelmingly" voted for.
"First of all, then we have to say the American public overwhelmingly voted for socialism when they elected President Obama," Sharpton said. "Let's not act as though the president didn't tell the American people - the president offered the American people health reform when he ran. He was overwhelmingly elected running on that and he has delivered what he promised."
Despite polling showing otherwise leading up to the momentous occasion of the vote on health care reform, the claim this goes against the wishes of the American people is false based on the 2008 presidential election.
"I don't understand Republicans saying this is against the will of the American people," Sharpton said. "They voted for President Obama who said this was going to be one of the first things he would do and he has done the first hurdle of that tonight. So I think the American people was very loud and clear. This was not some concept the president introduced after he won. He ran on this and the American people won tonight because they got finally something from a president they voted for."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2010 00:00 ||
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Damn Al, a sign of the apocalypse - we agree on something - the 53% of fools that voted for the Messiah did wittingly (though probably not) vote for socialism. IMHO, if you were too stupid or fecklessly giddy to vote for this empty shirted buffoon you earned socialism. Congrats to the *ssholes who voted for Wonder Boy - you got what you deserved. Too bad the rest of us have to deal w/your lack of intellect and in the case of white libs - your white guilt complex.
#2
Unfortunately, Dull Al may be right. Ben Franklin warned of this... when the "volkes" would become so corrupt that they themselves wouild see tyrrany come to power in that they were no longer capable of governing themselves.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
03/23/2010 1:35 Comments ||
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Yes Reverent Sharpton, we already got that message well before the election of President Soetoro from folks like Thomas Sowell, Ken Blackwell, Mike Steele, Allen West, Star Parker, Keyes, Doggett, and others.
Difference is, unlike you and Jesse, they all 'WORK' for a living, contribute to society, and thus command a high degree of respect!
#7
"I don't understand Republicans saying this is against the will of the American people," Sharpton said. "They voted for President Obama who said this was going to be one of the first things he would do and he has done the first hurdle of that tonight.
Yeah, well when the president says that he is going to force the passage even if that makes him unpopular and a 1 term president, then obviously he is talking about his opinion with the American voters and not his standing in congress.
Therefore, against the will of the American people. Furthermore, Mr. Sharpton, unlike you and your salesmen ilk who must maintaint the same message no matter what to stay relevant, average person has the ability to change their mind especially after a certain amount of time has passed, say a year and a half. Its like this: been out at the bar, had a few drinks, buddy says he'll drive. Sounds like a good idea since ya had a few...until you get to the car and watch your buddy drop the keys twice before putting the wrong key in the door. Second thoughts? You betchya.
#9
You got it wrong buddy. In your socialists dreams. A lot of people voted for Obama because they believed the "Hope and Change" smoke and mirrors talks. They were also pi$$ed because of the financial crisis. Don't forget Al, the people of Massachussetts struck a blow for freedom by dumping the Kennedy heir to the Senate throne and they elected Scott Brown. So I think you got it wrong.
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it must be a duck - but just be prepared to have your spelling skills challenged when you reach that conclusion.
And so goes CNN's Roland Martin. On the network's March 21 special coverage of the House of Representatives passage of health care legislation, host Wolf Blitzer asked Martin, a CNN political analyst, about his views of those who call these so-called reform measures Soviet-style communism or socialism.
"That's just stuck on stupid," Martin said. "I mean to sit there on the House floor and all of a sudden you're talking about, oh, this is communism and you're sitting here and reaching - that's just dumb, OK? You know what? If Republicans truly cared about health care, why in the world didn't they do anything for eight years? So don't stand here now when the Democrats have been pushing the issue and now say, oh, no, 'Republicans - we really care about health care,' when you had the opportunity to make changes to our system."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2010 00:00 ||
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"I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description [hard-core pornography]; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that." * Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184 (1964) - Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart.
The broad scope of the American people know socialism and communism [aka collectivism] when they see it. This redistribution of income and government grasp of power are just that.
#4
If they can't, its likely they went to public school.
Pretty sure I've read some parts of some olde books where the literacy rate was likely not what it is today, yet everyone still knew what a tax collecter was.
Roland Martin's laugh-in, I'm not sure what the word for thief is in Italian, German, or Russian...does that make me some sort of clunk as well? There are some towns around theez parts where English is a second language - perhaps, said people may be able to spell those two words and many more in their native language leading them to make the big move out thisaway..what are you saying about them?
#6
If Republicans truly cared about health care, why in the world didn't they do anything for eight years?
I care about health care. That's why I've worked my butt off all my life so I could have a good job with benefits and health insurance. And in times when I didn't have a good job I paid for my own health insurance out of my own pocket because I believe in being responsible for myself. But now we have these C - O - M - M - U - N - I - S - T - S in Congress telling me I have to be responsible for all the fat, stupid, lazy, drug addicted, worthless bums in this country who refuse to be responsible for anything. That's not care, that's robbery. Communism = robbery. So by definition that's what these people are.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/23/2010 13:44 Comments ||
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I care about education. That's why I've worked my butt off all my life so I could have a good job with education benefits, GI Bill, etc. And in times when I ran out of GI-Bill, I paid for my own tuition and the tuition my children to attend good private schools. But now we have these C - O - M - M - U - N - I - S - T - S in Congress telling me I have to be responsible for all the fat, stupid, lazy, drug addicted, worthless bums in this country who refuse to be responsible for anything. That's not care, that's robbery. Communism = robbery. So by definition that's what these people are
Republican Senator John McCain said Monday morning that Democrats have not heard the last of the health care debate, and said he was repulsed by "all this euphoria going on." Those Blue Doggies best not go messin' with the Maverick!
McCain, who was Obama's rival in the 2008 presidential election, told ABC television that "outside the (Washington) Beltway, the American people are very angry. They don't like it, and we're going to repeal this."
Republican Mitt Romney, who challenged McCain for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, also called for repeal of the reform bill Monday. In a statement, Romney called the passage of the legislation "an historic usurpation of the legislative process."
While national health care has been a goal of presidents stretching back decades, it has proved elusive, in part because self-reliance and suspicion of a strong central government remain strong in America.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2010 00:00 ||
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One last look a Pelosi celebrating...
... my apologies to Jennie for comparing her to Pelosi.
#4
..he was repulsed by "all this euphoria going on."
errr...why, because it wasn't McCaincare? Come on John, look at your own record and say you wouldn't have just pushed a 'gentler kinder' version. And then we'd watch your lips fall off.
#5
Repulsed you say? No more of this boardwatering! Maverick mounts his faithful steed named TARP and rides out of town in disgust. But never fear. He'll be back again, like the barn fly, hovering over horse piles and bothering people. Please senator, take it to the barn will you? You've earned it, give it a rest.
#6
McCain helped to contribute to this disaster with the way he ran his presidential campaign and his lack of spine as a senator and presidential candidate on fundamental issues facing this nation. As a senator, he makes things worse instead of better.
It is time for him to leave and retire.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Tok, AK ||
03/23/2010 9:56 Comments ||
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It is time for him to leave and retire.
I could not agree more. Go quietly...and stay quiet.
#8
A cowboy from Texas attends a social function where Barack Obama is trying to gather support for his Health Plan. Once he discovers the cowboy is from President Bush's home area, he starts to belittle him by talking in a southern drawl and single syllable words.
As he was doing that, he kept swatting at some flies that were buzzing around his head. The cowboy says, "Y'all havin' some problem with them circle flies?"
Obama stopped talking and said, "Well, yes, if that's what they're called, but I've never heard of circle flies."
"Well, sir," the cowboy replies, "Circle flies hang around ranches. They're called circle flies because they're almost always found circling around the back end of a horse."
"Oh," Obama replies as he goes back to rambling.
But, a moment later he stops and bluntly asks, "Are you calling me a horse's ass?"
"No, sir," the cowboy replies, "I have too much respect for the citizens of this country to call their president a horse's ass."
"That's a good thing," Obama responds and begins rambling on once more.
After a long pause, the cowboy, in his best Texas drawl says, "Hard to fool them flies, though." And I'm one of them.
#12
Little tired of Maverick's Faux-outrage when he really should've been mad and knelt down "for honor". He and his trashy daughter would be better left in a political environment - more local, say City Council
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/23/2010 19:37 Comments ||
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(CNSNews.com) - The U.S. House of Representatives voted 219-212 on Sunday night to socialize health care in the United States, making the government the paymaster of, and giving it sweeping regulatory authority over, the U.S. health care industry which represents one-sixth of the U.S. economy.
The legislation also enacts a dramatic and unprecedented diminution in the individual liberty of citizens. It does so by mandating that all Americans buy a government-approved health care plan while redistributing wealth on a massive scale by promising annual federal insurance subsidies to all Americans who earn less than 400 percent of the poverty level, which is currently $88,200 for a family of four.
The new health-care system the legislation will put in place over the next four years amounts to a massive and mandatory new welfare program that will ensnare middle-class and middle-aged Americans in dependency on the federal government for a vital element of their lives.
The health care legislation approved by Congress Sunday gives the administration sweeping power to regulate health insurance companies. These regulations will include instructing insurance companies on what benefits they must provide and what rates they can charge.
The mandate that all Americans buy health insurance represents a fundamental change in the relationship between individuals and the federal government in the United States. According to the Congressional Budget Office, this is the first time in the history of the country that the federal government has ever ordered American citizens to buy any good or service.
Many members of Congress, including former Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah), have argued that this unprecedented mandate is unconstitutional. Hatch told CNSNews.com last fall that if the federal government could constitutionally force individuals to buy health insurance there wasn't anything the federal government could not force individuals to do.
Many congressional advocates of the individual mandate interviewed by CNSNews.com over the past year could not say where the Constitution authorized the federal government to force people to buy health insurance.
The final votes that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Obama needed to push the legislation through the House came on Sunday when Rep. Bart Stupak (D.-Mich.) and a small group of other Democrats abandoned their insistence that congressional health care legislation include language that would prevent any federal dollars from going to any health care plan that covers abortion.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2010 00:00 ||
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Well, if you can't even force healthy young men to join the U.S. military then how in the hell can you force healthy Americans to carry health insurance...or pay for those who abuse drugs, alcohol, tabacco and food? Oh how I hate 219 clowns in congress right now.
It is designed to fail. Healthy young people will elect to pay the $700 fine rather than the 7,000+ in premiums - until they get something serious then they will want on the Insurance bandwagon and cannot be refused. This will drive premiums through the roof for those of us who pay (or drive 'evil' insurance companies right out of business) until the only affordable insurance is the Government one. Subsidized by the Taxpayer - either via a direct tax or an indirect tax (via business taxes).
And of course once we're all on the government teat - they *own* us lock stock and barrel. You don't dare vote non-democrat - you will lose your health insurance.
#3
I just spoke to a fellow at Cat Tractor in Peoria last evening. There is an ominous cloud hanging over the entire workforce as a result of the passage of this bill.
#4
Besoeker, would it be fair to say that this was a jobs bill for China?
Who is pulling the strings here?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/23/2010 6:19 Comments ||
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#5
I really don't think Barry and his cadre are thinking that strategically or internationally no mo uro. I believe it has more to do with a graduate level community organizer obtaining benefits and entitlements for his Chicago ward bosses constituents and locking in their endorsement. It's what he knows, it's worked in the past for him and he's sticking with it. A simple Harold Washington, sideside Chicago politics and payoffs programme of extorting tax dollars at the now, national level. Everything else is diversionary background noise.
#6
Everything else is diversionary background noise. Unless & until the roof caves in when the US finds it can't borrow to finance the national debt, &/or the banking system caves in, &/or unemployment massively increases, the sort of thing you can't shuck & jive past.
#8
"Broken Glass Patriots" - I will crawl over broken glass to vote these assholes out of power
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/23/2010 19:48 Comments ||
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#9
In Massachusetts, I am carrying health insurance for my family, pay State taxes in order to pay for Romneycare and now this B.S. Sometimes, I wonder what the hell I am doing working in the first place.
Thanks to the Big "O" and his followers, I see us also having to eventually pay for the 12 million illegals that may get legalized under the soon to be unveiled "Immigration Reform Act" if this gets passed the same way. November won't be here soon enough, to throw these bums out.
Bart Stupak's surrender on ObamaCare likely signals the end of pro-life Democrats, as several commentators have noted.
But Sunday's votes also may mark the end of Democrats' revival in the South and Midwest. The party made a concerted effort in 2006 and 2008 to recruit candidates that could win moderate or GOP-leaning districts. That's a key reason why Democrats won such big congressional majorities.
But after forging a big-tent caucus, Speaker Pelosi has not governed that way. Instead, she pushed Blue Dog and other moderate Democrats to vote as if they represented her San Francisco district.
The GOP already is targeting five Democrats who voted no on the House health bill in November but flipped to yes on the overhaul on Sunday: Ohio's John Boccieri, Florida's Allen Boyd, Colorado's Betsy Markey, Florida's Susanne Kosmas and New York's Scott Murphy. John McCain carried the first four districts in 2008 while Murphy only won 50% of the vote that year. Boyd, Markey and Murphy are all part of the Blue Dog coalition.
These five members may be especially at-risk, but in this year, even Democrats that voted no on all of Obama's big agenda items may be vulnerable.
Pelosi and other House leaders largely represent ultrasafe seats, so they don't have to worry about voter backlash. Nor do liberal pundits, who heaped scorn on moderates for not jumping joyfully at the chance to commit political suicide.
Pelosi, Obama and the NYC-D.C. liberal blogosphere have talked themselves into believing their own press releases. They think that voting for ObamaCare will not hurt dozens of Democratic members across the country in November, the polls and recent history be damned. They care little about the people those moderate Democrats represent.
Remember when these folks called themselves the "reality-based community"?
Such hubris has its price. It will be a long, long time before voters in battleground districts and states trust Democratic candidates. And why would quality centrists run when national leaders are going to treat them like shock troops?
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
I was surprised when Lipinski (IL-3) stuck to his beliefs, and darned pleased too! Good on ya Dan!
#5
I wouldn't bother much with going off on Kosmas and her supposed "blue dog" pedigree or her theoretical "pro-life" position. Trust me, no one cares about that crap in her home district.
Hammer that cow with her vote on this health care monstrosity....AND the fact that she was worthless in saving thousands of jobs at NASA even though she's on the damn subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics. (BTW, unemployment there on the Space Coast is already over 10%. Losing these jobs, many of them with good pay and bennies, is not something you would want on your watch.)
With the basketball tournament season upon us, it's worth noting that Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is throwing up one of the political year's most embarrassing air balls. Mr. Graham says if the White House sends September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to a military tribunal instead of a New York courtroom, he'll help rally Republicans to support closing the prison in Guantanamo. Why?
The plan for KSM's tour of the civilian justice system is already a political dead horse. The White House has been backing away from its plan to try terrorists in civilian courts. What's left is Mr. Obama's unfortunate campaign promise to "close Guantanamo." So Senator Graham is working with chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to help them out of this bind.
It's hard to fathom. The Administration has struggled to get even Congressional Democrats to cough up the $80 million to close Guantanamo. Since November, when Attorney General Eric Holder announced his plan try terrorists as common criminals, political opposition has made the issue another liberal albatross for the Administration.
Last month, a bipartisan group of Senators wrote a letter to the President opposing the plan to handle KSM in a civilian courtroom. New York's political establishment, including even Mayor Michael Bloomberg and hyperpartisan Senator Chuck Schumer, dropped their initial support.
Virginia Senator Jim Webb has sponsored legislation to move them back to military tribunals. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell said he'd rather see KSM "plead guilty before a military tribunal in Gitmo." Ditto Connecticut Attorney General and Democratic Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal, who says a military tribunal is the better place to try an "enemy combatant directed by foreign terrorists and a foreign government to attack this nation."
Mr. Holder has insisted "failure is not an option" in the civilian court system, but that depends on the meaning of failure. Any defense lawyer worth his pin stripes will try to suppress information allegedly gained from "torture," or from communications intercepts, while quizzing government officials on classified information to make them look evasive. Given the evidence rules for civilian trials, defendants could end up charged with the terrorist equivalent of mail fraud, requiring the Administration to revert to indefinite detention to keep them from walking the streets.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
So does Graham want to see him tried in NYC, or secretly want to close Gitmo? Or is this some sort of reverse psychology thing?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/23/2010 6:03 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The national group ACORN is folding, an official there, Kevin Whelan, said in an emailed statement:
Some of the American people probably thought they were voting for hope and change when they voted for President Barack Obama on Nov. 4, 2008. But according to Rev. Al Sharpton, they were voting for socialism. 
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it must be a duck - but just be prepared to have your spelling skills challenged when you reach that conclusion. 
Republican Senator John McCain said Monday morning that Democrats have not heard the last of the health care debate, and said he was repulsed by "all this euphoria going on."
(CNSNews.com) - The U.S. House of Representatives voted 219-212 on Sunday night to socialize health care in the United States, making the government the paymaster of, and giving it sweeping regulatory authority over, the U.S. health care industry which represents one-sixth of the U.S. economy.
Bart Stupak's surrender on ObamaCare likely signals the end of pro-life Democrats, as several commentators have noted.
With the basketball tournament season upon us, it's worth noting that Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is throwing up one of the political year's most embarrassing air balls. Mr. Graham says if the White House sends September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to a military tribunal instead of a New York courtroom, he'll help rally Republicans to support closing the prison in Guantanamo. Why?
