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The Libertarian Party just nominated Gary Johnson for President and William Weld for Vice President on the Libertarian Party ticket at their convention.
This is very interesting. With these two men who have extensive governing experience, we have clearly the best candidates running for office but they won’t win because they just won’t get enough traction. It will be interesting to see if they pull more from the Democrats or the Republicans.
Polls show them between 8-12% right now. If they get to 15%, they are allowed to participate in the debates. For the sake of healthy policy discussion during the election season, I hope they meet that threshold.
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The 1st quarter economic report was released — showing minimal growth, and The White House pointed to factors other than its own policies, of course.
“The Department of Commerce reported that U.S. gross domestic product rose 0.5 percent in the first quarter of 2016, the third straight sluggish start to a year. Consumer spending and business purchases both fell. Jason Furman, Mr. Obama’s top economic adviser, blamed the first-quarter slowdown on “weak foreign demand and low oil prices,” and some private economists say growth should pick up later this year.”
Time will tell when the jobs report comes out in early June if growth is apparent or not.
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Let me be perfectly clear: I am no fan of Denny Hastert. He should suffer the consequences of his deplorable actions.
However, let me also be perfectly clear that I am equally horrified at the machinations of the justice system in this particular case. Unfortunately it is equally clear that those actions are now subject to prosecution even though the statute of limitations has long since passed for them.
As a result of his actions, someone he had issues with in the negotiated money with him. Hastert’s actions were only revealed when the government went about questioning how he handled large transactions of his own money. I have written numerous times about practice of structuring and the oftentimes suspicious and overreaching government search and seizures. Hastert was trying to hide what could be considered extortion money. His actual charges were related to his banking transactions, not for anything else, because the statute of limitations had run out.
However, you cannot in any way justify an 18 month jail sentence for money structuring. Everyone admitted that the reason he got such a lengthy penalty was because he couldn’t be charged in the other activities. But how is that justice? Is this what we’ve come to — that you can now actually penalize someone for something completely unrelated to the charge because of emotion or outdated law? That is not justice. That is a criminal system run amok.
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Elizabeth Warren attempted to address the rise of the gig economy this week, but completely missed the extenuating circumstances contributing to its growing influence. “Gig economy” is the catchphrase for the portion of the economy made up of freelancers and independent consultants. It’s estimated that 1 in 3 workers now, about 53 million, fall into this category.
The gig economy has the potential to be a wonderful thing. What Warren fails to acknowledge is that the ever-increasing government regulations — especially over the last few years –have made it utterly difficult to become a business or stay in business. Couple that with a continuously weak economy and crushing legislation such as Obamacare, and it’s certainly no wonder that businesses are seeking alternative forms of employer-employee relationships. Yet, Warren seems to blame the rich for the economic situation, and then calls for more regulation for how workers are classified.
Of course, the reality is that small businesses have been single-handedly ruined by Obama’s failed policies and overreach. More than a year ago, I pointed out how more businesses are now closing than opening, and this trend has not improved. On the other hand, the rising “gig economy” is how many people are now making ends meet, and how many businesses are now able to stay afloat. The last thing we need is more government interference in the economy.
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You can count on Bernie Sanders to be consistent. He loves pointing to Sweden as the hallmark of Socialist success. But a recent compelling article in Reason magazine does an excellent job laying out the history of Sweden’s economic failures and successes, and shows how Sweden’s current approach to business and has rendered their economy more free and flourishing than the United States.
Some key points:
- Real wages in Sweden fell by around 5 percent between 1975 and 1995. Nominal wages increased, but runaway inflation devoured it.
- But in the early 1990s Sweden began to abandon its brief detour into Bernienomics. It deregulated, privatized, reduced taxes, and opened the public sector to private providers. The two decades that followed saw real wages increase by almost 70 percent.
- In the summary Fraser Institute rankings, Sweden and Denmark are more economically free than the United States when it comes to legal structure and property rights, sound money, free trade, business regulation, and credit market regulations. We don’t have the multitude of occupational licensing laws that block competition in the United States.
The article is worth reading in its entirety. If Bernie truly believes Sweden is a blueprint for success, he would do well to pay attention to the Sweden of today, and not the Sweden of 40-50 years ago, when he was coming-of-age in his Socialist beliefs. If Bernie wants America to be like Sweden — America would need a good dose of deregulation and lower taxes, exactly the opposite of what Bernie espouses for America! Perhaps then the American economy would finally begin to recover, because freer markets mean a freer economy and a freer people.
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The Washington Free Beacon is following up on a Wall Street Journal article in April, which revealed a coordinated effort to silence dissent on the subject of climate change.
“The attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands is targeting dozens of conservative and libertarian organizations in a racketeering lawsuit against climate change skeptics that has been widely described as an effort to silence political opponents.
In a subpoena issued in March, the office of USVI attorney general Claude Walker demanded from Exxon Mobil copies of communications between the oil company and 90 different political and policy organizations “and any other organizations engaged in research or advocacy concerning Climate Change or policies.”
The subpoena was part of a national, coordinated legal campaign by state attorneys general and left-wing advocacy groups to use the legal system against companies and organizations that disagree with and advocate against Democratic policies to address global climate change.”
The organizations suspected of “collusion” with Exxon are considered to be both libertarian and conservative in politics. Some of the big names are: the Cato Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, The Federalist Society, the Heritage Foundation, the Hoover Institute, the Mercatus Institute, and the Reason Foundation.
The subpoena for communication is “part of a coordinated effort by Democratic attorneys general spearheaded by New York’s Eric Schneiderman and undertaken in consultation and cooperation with leading environmental advocacy groups.
The participants huddled at a Jan. 8 meeting at the headquarters of the Rockefeller Family Fund, a left-wing foundation.
At the meeting, RFF, Greenpeace, other environmental groups discussed ways to “delegitimize [ExxonMobil] as a political actor,” “force officials to disassociate themselves from Exxon,” and “drive divestment from Exxon,” according to a copy of the meeting agenda obtained by the Washington Free Beacon last month.
One strategy that activists discussed was to enlist like-minded state attorneys general to use their powers to go after the oil company.
Emails subsequently obtained by the Energy and Environment Legal Institute show that staffers at groups involved in the effort then briefed aides to those AGs. They discussed using “climate change litigation” to advance their political goals.”
This political stunt is absolutely ridiculous and legally uncertain. It’s worth keeping an eye on in the coming months as climate change is certain to be a factor in the November elections.
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Obamacare futures continue to worsen in recent weeks. A couple of weeks ago, UnitedHealth Group chose to exit the majority of Obamacare exchanges because it expects roughly 2/3 billion in losses. Next, Aetna announced that it might break even this year, but called for Congressional fixes to ensure sustainability in the marketplace.
The immediate fix, however, will be another round of premium rate hikes — with some expecting to be more than 10%. However, timing may play a key in the November elections; the rate hikes will hit when Obamacare open enrollment begins on November 1, just days before the presidential and Congressional elections. If high premium rate hikes happen as expected, voters may express their resentment at the ballot box.
Some notes on the current state of insurers and exchanges:
**”Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans, which dominate many state exchanges, saw profits plummet by 75 percent between 2013 and 2015, according to an analysis by A.M. Best Co. A chief reason for the financial woes: “the intensity of losses in the exchange segment.””
**Health Care Service Corp., which operates Blue plans in five states, dropped out of New Mexico’s exchange for this year after regulators refused to approve rate hikes as big as the company sought. In Texas, Illinois and two other states where HCSC does business, medical costs for individual customers exceeded premiums by more than $1.3 billion last year.
**Just over half of the 23 nonprofit startups seeded with Obamacare loan dollars have collapsed after hemorrhaging red ink. The 11 surviving plans continue to struggle, with more than $400 million in combined losses last year.
**New York-based Oscar, the much ballyhooed, tech-savvy startup bankrolled with billions in venture capital dollars, is sputtering. Medical costs for Oscar’s individual customers in New York, where it has the most customers, outstripped premiums by nearly 50 percent last year, according to financial filings.
**Just 28 percent of HealthCare.gov customers for 2016 were between the ages of 18 and 34, significantly below the 35 percent threshold typically considered necessary for a balanced marketplace.
Health and Human Services has yet to put out fresh numbers on the amount of enrollees who have actually paid premiums. The enrollment numbers were already widely off the mark from the predicted CBO numbers calculated when Obamacare was passed. Though many think Obamacare is an issue that has expired with the American electorate, it is certain to become more important in the days leading up to election day in November.
