Federal Aid Creates Central ‐Planning Power
This study argues that Congress should repeal all federal aid-to-state programs for many reasons, including that aid comes with costly strings attached that destroy local democracy.Richard Epstein and Mario Loyolanoted about aid programs: “When Americans vote in state and local elections, they think they are voting on state and local policies. But often they are just deciding which local officials get to implement the dictates of distant and insulated federal bureaucrats, whom even Congress can’t control.”I came across a table (p. 82) in New Jersey ’s budget that lists the $15 billion the state received in 2020 fro...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - September 4, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Chris Edwards Source Type: blogs
The Republican Party ’s Confusion on Trade
David BoazThere ’s been a lot oftalk this week about what today ’s Republican Partystands for. Is it still the Buckley ‐Reagan fusionist platform of of lower taxes, less regulation, traditional values, and a strong national defense? Is it George W. Bush ’s “compassionate conservatism”? Trump’s “America First,” which always seemed less ideological than most platforms? The talk heated up when the GOP announced that it wouldn ’t produce a party platform for the first time in memory, and the Republican National Committeeunanimously voted in lieu of a platform its “undivided sup...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 28, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: David Boaz Source Type: blogs
Stamped From the Beginning
Today I finished Ibram X. Kendi’s book Stamped From the Beginning, which is about the history of racist ideas in the USA. I found it insightful and eye-opening, and it gave me some meaningful perspective shifts on racism.
I’m glad I read this book after White Fragility because the former book was much more lightweight, a very basic starter book compared to the scope and depth of Stamped From the Beginning.
In particular I found it illuminating to consider that racist ideas ultimately arise from self-interest, which often includes economic interests but could also include social interests, political intere...
Source: Steve Pavlina's Personal Development Blog - August 24, 2020 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Steve Pavlina Tags: Relationships Values Source Type: blogs
D.C. Circuit Strikes Blow to Leverage Policymaking
William YeatmanDuring the Obama administration, an unfortunate innovation in executive power was “leverage policymaking,” by which I mean that regulatory agencies would use individual transactions —such as enforcement or licensing actions—to achieve broad policy results.Examples will help explain this concept.In 2011, afterpromising to put one million electric cars on the road, the Obama administrationrequested $300 million in appropriations to spend on infrastructure for “zero emissions vehicles.” Congress demurred. Five years later, President Obama again sought such federal spending for the “21st Centu...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 17, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: William Yeatman Source Type: blogs
The Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act At 10 –A Stocktaking
Yaniv Heled (Georgia State University), The Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act At 10 –A Stocktaking, Texas A&M U. J. Prop. Law (2020, Forthcoming): On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCIA)... (Source: HealthLawProf Blog)
Source: HealthLawProf Blog - August 14, 2020 Category: Medical Law Authors: Katharine Van Tassel Source Type: blogs
The Obama Admin Claimed More Bureaucracy Would Stop H-2B Violations —It Was Wrong
ConclusionDOL should recognize the failure of the 2015 H-2B rules, streamline the processing of H-2B applications, and rescind many of its complex rules to end processing delays and increase compliance with the program. The Obama DOL’s experiment with more bureaucratic H-2B processing has clearly failed. It’s time for reform. (Source: Cato-at-liberty)
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 13, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: David J. Bier Source Type: blogs
Trump's America
Riots, anarchy, demonstrators and military-grade militias killing each other, cities on fire. This is what Trump wants you believe is “Biden’s America.” How many voters are that stupid?Because he ’s describinghis America. We ’ve seen Joe Biden’s, when he was with President Barack Obama. You might not have liked their policies, but you didn’t see protests with armed citizens shooting at them; nor would they have been praised. Whoever fired the first shots in the recent horrors, it’s only from Trump and rightwing media that we’ve heard laudatory words for confrontational caravans and the Kenosha killer.&nbs...
Source: Surgeonsblog - August 7, 2020 Category: Surgery Authors: Sid Schwab Source Type: blogs
What's At Stake
How inured we ’ve become to Trump’s atrocities. The Republican-majority Senate Intelligence Committee just released its final report on Trump/Russia, and it’s been practically ignored, especially by Republicans. It’s damning. They concluded Trump and Roger Stone lied to Robert Mueller, and that Trump’s first campaign manager “represented a grave counterintelligence threat,” and did business with “a Russian intelligence officer.” The Republican-led investigation also concluded the White House “significantly hampered” their efforts, and coordinated the testimony of witnesses before they appea...
Source: Surgeonsblog - August 5, 2020 Category: Surgery Authors: Sid Schwab Source Type: blogs
All They've Got
It ’s doubtful Trumpists want their children and grandchildren to die of the carcinogens he has deregulated. Because it’s likely they share other human characteristics, too, we assume they, like the rest of us, prefer a livable planet for their progeny; unflooded cities, temperatures compatible wit h human life, oceans able to support sea life. If forced to make the choice, one can ’t doubt most Trump voters would choose the health of their grandkids over the pleasure of seeing undocumented children in cages at our borders, shouting “Lock her up,” or calling Democrats stupid names.It ’s pretty certain that...
Source: Surgeonsblog - August 5, 2020 Category: Surgery Authors: Sid Schwab Source Type: blogs
Problems and Insights within NBC ’s Report on H-2A Abuses
ConclusionI have asked NBC to correct its report with respect to the claim that 5,000 H-2A workers were cheated out of their wages in 2019, since it is incorrect, but so far no correction has come. It would have been nice if they had quoted at least one worker supportive of the program (there are hundreds of thousands) or quoted a proponent of the program that wasn ’t an employer (which may have caught some of the issues above). Another bit of missing context is the fact that entirely aside from the H-2A program, some employers in every industry sometimes lie and defraud U.S. workers too. They fail to pay them what they ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 31, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: David J. Bier Source Type: blogs
“Delay the Election???”
Gene HealyAs if America 2020 didn ’t already haveenough of a banana‐republic feel to it, lately President Trump has seemed unusually focused on adding to the lingering pall of dysfunctional authoritarianism. First there was his attempt in Portland to use federal law enforcement as a sort of ad hocinternal security force. Now there ’s yesterday’s suggestion—on Twitter, naturally—that maybe we should “Delay the Election until people can properly, securely, and safely vote???” I recall a lot of paranoid chatter on the Right a few years back about President Obama building a“civilian national securi...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 31, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Gene Healy Source Type: blogs
Only In America
Once, it seemed the answer was humanity itself; the question being, how did things get this bad. The imperfection of the human brain was to blame, having created problems beyond its capabilities to solve. Pretending it away, making up conspiracies, it ’s gone into “tilt” mode as self-preservation. But that can ’t be the explanation. Every country but ours has been addressing climate change, and, now, attacking the pandemic successfully, as virtually all their citizens accepted responsibility. The problem, in other words, isn’t humankind. It’s us. Only “we” pulled out of the climate accords. “Our...
Source: Surgeonsblog - July 30, 2020 Category: Surgery Authors: Sid Schwab Source Type: blogs
Trump, Zoning, and Discrimination
Michael D. TannerThere is perhaps no more archetypical example of the American suburban lifestyle than Levittown. The New York community wasdeveloped starting in 1947 as a new opportunity for Americans to own their own homes. The original 2,000 unit planned community sold out almost immediately and became nearly synonymous with the dream of single‐family homes, white picket fences, and the growing American middle‐class.It alsoincluded in its lease documents a provision that property in the community could not“be used or occupied by any person other than members of the Caucasian race.”Such racist practices...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 30, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Michael D. Tanner Source Type: blogs
U.S. Leaders (Still) Learning the Wrong Lessons from China ’s Rise
Daniel J. IkensonWhile collecting materials to offer a retort to arguments favoring robust U.S. industrial policy, I came across anarticle I wrote on the subject published inChina-U.S. Focus on March 15, 2011. I am struck by how much of that piece is still relevant to today ’s debate. The article also notes that perceptions developed during the Great Recession (particularly among U.S. policymakers) were the catalyst for the steady decline in the U.S.-China relationship during the Obama administration, which accelerated with rise of Xi Jinping and the election of Dona ld Trump (a chronology covered in more detail inthis a...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 7, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Daniel J. Ikenson Source Type: blogs
The Bipartisan Consensus to Destroy U.S. Trade Policy
Daniel J. IkensonOn June 16, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer testified before theHouse Ways and Means andSenate Finance committees. The hearings were billed as opportunities for Congress to raise questions and air concerns about the Trump administration ’s trade policy actions and priorities. Instead, through more than seven hours of statements and discussion, lawmakers from both chambers and both sides of the aisle confirmed a general harmony with the administration ’s trade policy performance.How else to explain the dearth of probing inquiry and push back? With a few limited exceptions, the day ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - July 1, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Daniel J. Ikenson Source Type: blogs
