Is Your Senator In the Pocket of Small Dairy?
Will Bill O'Reilly ignorantly rage against "Big Dairy"?
Actually, there is a conspiracy story here. Big Government has conspired with Small Dairy (heartstring tuggingly refered to as "family farms") to enact legislation that allows cartelization (known euphemistically as a "milk marketing board") of milk producers who artificially restrict the growth of milk production capacity. Let's review: Restrict supply + Demand Rises Naturally = Prices Go Up. Milk, oil, labor, appendectomies, you name it, they are all subject to this, cause it's like ya' know, a real law.
I still think we should have "Law of Supply and Demand Day" in the schools.
Actually, there is a conspiracy story here. Big Government has conspired with Small Dairy (heartstring tuggingly refered to as "family farms") to enact legislation that allows cartelization (known euphemistically as a "milk marketing board") of milk producers who artificially restrict the growth of milk production capacity. Let's review: Restrict supply + Demand Rises Naturally = Prices Go Up. Milk, oil, labor, appendectomies, you name it, they are all subject to this, cause it's like ya' know, a real law.
I still think we should have "Law of Supply and Demand Day" in the schools.
posted by Donny Baseball at 11:52 AM
2 Comments:
This week's backroom talks -- led by health-care innovators Tom Coburn and Jim DeMint in the Senate, and Paul Ryan and Jim McCrery in the House -- were therefore about getting beyond Schip. The goal: a system that eliminates today's corporate subsidy and gives the money to individuals, cutting costs and reducing the number of uninsured. The political message: Dems want to put a few million more under government control for $60 billion, Republicans want to put 300 million in charge of their own care at zero extra cost.
The good news is that after 10 years of tinkering, Republicans have laid the foundation for bigger reform, from Health Savings Accounts to tort liability reform. The more intense policy debate this week instead focused on the biggie: how to revamp the tax code to get that money to individuals. On one side are tax wonks, among them Sen. Jon Kyl, who prefer giving every American a tax deduction -- as President Bush has advocated. They argue it does the least damage to the tax code, and is less of a handout. On the other side are health-care wonks, among them Sen. Coburn, who prefer a refundable tax credit. They argue it does more to help with the uninsured, and is coincidentally a better political sell.
By the end of this week, the architects were coalescing around a tax-credit approach, on the belief it will attract the most GOP support. In a signal of White House approval, President Bush deliberately noted in his speech Wednesday that a tax credit would have a "similar outcome" to his deduction plan, and that he was "open to further discussion." Word was that Republican leaders were also climbing on board, with all concerned hoping to debut something big in coming weeks.
Does this have a chance?
Hard to say. On the merits I would say yes, but given the horrible performance of the Sausage Factory as of late, I would say that it is a tough call. That said, the same could be said of a Democratic, collectivist plan. People are so pissed at congress I doubt they're much in the mood for Congress to tinker with anything in a major way.
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