I don’t know if I have the time, but perhaps I’ll have to at least send some money.
The Fairfax County wildlife management program is seeking interested volunteers to join an effort to help control the growing population of Canada geese across the region.
Volunteers will learn to use a safe and humane technique called “addling.” Addling is a simple process that was developed by the United States Humane Society that involves applying oil to goose eggs to prevent embryo development.
[link]
Not bad. Reflects how I feel most of the time. But perhaps a little rude.
This one, however, I might actually buy.
Congressional budget scorekeepers say a Medicare fix that Democrats included in earlier versions of their health care bill would push it into the red…
The so-called doc fix was part of the original House bill. Because of its high cost, Democrats decided to pursue it separately. Republicans say the cost should not be ignored. Congress has usually waived the cuts to doctors year by year.
And rosy assumptions:
There has been a lot of talk lately about the CBO scoring of the health bill. Here is one thing people should understand about their numbers: When they estimate the budget impact of a bill like this, they assume the path of GDP is unchanged.
Recall that the bill raises taxes substantially. Some of these tax hikes are the explicit tax increases on capital income to pay for the insurance subsidies. Some of these tax hikes are the implicit marginal rate increases from the phase-out of the insurance subsidies as a person’s income rises. Both of these would be expected to reduce GDP growth.
Indeed, to be very wonkish about it, these tax changes could have especially large GDP effects. Some people like to argue that taxes have small GDP effects because income and substitution effects offset each other. But if you give someone a subsidy and then phase it out, both the income and substitution effects work in the direction of reducing work effort.
Dear upset, book-reviewing Kindle Users,
Please die in a fire.
Short of that, quit negatively reviewing books that you haven’t even read simply because there exists no Kindle version yet. I could do without seeing a book reviewed terribly only because you dimwits are, well, dimwits.
But seriously, die in a fire.
- Nobrainer
I read this AP article this morning, and it brought to mind an exchange from the movie Trainspotting. In it Sick Boy details his grand theory. The exchange ends thusly:
Renton: So we all get old and then we can’t hack it anymore. Is that it?
Sick Boy: Yeah.
Renton: That’s your theory?
So the article was about health care.
The budget office concluded that premiums for people buying their own coverage would go up by an average of 10 percent to 13 percent, compared with the levels they’d reach without the legislation. That’s mainly because policies in the individual insurance market would provide more comprehensive benefits than they do today.
For most households, those added costs would be more than offset by the tax credits provided under the bill, and they would pay significantly less than they have to now.
That’s the fucking plan? That’s the savings? The savings plan is to force prices higher and say they’re lower by adding further complication to the tax code via new credits? Brilliant!
Geezus. It’s 9AM and I’m so ready for a Guinness.
For the first time ever last night, I attended an HOA meeting. Surprisingly, it was not the worst part of my day. I was also a bit surprised by remarks from one of our elected county officials.
First there was some discussion about big nearby road projects. One of them was begun around 2002 with an estimated cost around $40million. Now of course it’s still not finished and the total cost will be closer to $120 million. Most everyone was a little stunned, but no one seemed to question why we should trust the government-critters involved.
Later there was discussion of the state budget. Apparently, in Richmond, they devised a formula to determine how to split up money for education. We, in Fairfax county, were to receive a $61 million cut from previous levels this year due the latest formula run. Of course this raised a stink and the state has apparently decided to ultimately change the funding method whereby funding levels aren’t allowed to decline. This seemed funny for two reasons. First, Fairfax county has the 2nd highest median income of any county in the country and here we are begging the almighty powers in Richmond for the handout we so desperately deserve. Secondly, no one in attendance — other than me — thought it at all odd that we engage in a system where we send money away only to fight and beg to have it sent back to us.
From the latter paragraph I take away 2 things. First, even smart people with a lot of money can be incredibly stupid whenever the the gov’t offers “free” money. Secondly, it really doesn’t matter if you increase taxes on the rich, because they’re going to be the first ones in line at the state house to get the money handed right back to them.
