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July 2009
| A common theme in science fiction literature and movies is technology run wild. The machines take over, bioweapons researchers accidentally release an engineered virus into the population, or nano-sized machines suddenly develop intelligence and start malevolently chewing through the biosphere, leaving a sea of “grey goo” in their wake. There’s just enough of a nugget of truth in the setup of these dramas to make them remotely believable. But that’s where science fiction doomsday scenarios depart from human experience. The fact is that innovation and technology have led to the creation of wealth, better health, greater access to knowledge, and thus overall greater quality of life. But there are still parts of the world that innovation hasn’t reached—where people don’t have access to clean water, adequate health care, basic energy and educational resources. Read More...
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Is There an Easy Way to Reduce Greenhouse Gases? The Institute for Policy Innovation’s Dr. Merrill Matthews says it’s time for scientists to ask, where’s the beef?
The UN says that cows are responsible for 18 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases. That’s more than trains, planes and cars, combined.
See, a cow’s digestive system produces a lot of methane gas, which causes them to burp. And that methane goes into the atmosphere.
So scientists are working to change cow diets to reduce those gases—and, hopefully, global warming.
If they do, maybe we won’t need those little electric cars the government wants GM to make—but which consumers may not want to buy.
And we certainly won’t need the Democrats’ new “cap and trade” tax that will raise energy costs for every American household.
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 Burping Bessie |
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Democrats just can’t seem to get a break on their budget numbers. It seems like every time they try to convince the public that they’re being good stewards of the country’s fiscal future, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) shoots them down.
First there was the Democratic claim that the various House and Senate health care reform bills would “bend the curve” on health care spending. Not so, said CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf. Health care spending would go up—significantly.
Then, in an effort to get American Medical Association (AMA) buy in for their legislation, Democrats proposed fixing the “sustainable growth rate” (SGR) provision in Medicare that forces doctors’ reimbursement rates down if Medicare spending grows too fast.
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OK, OK, we’re No. 2.
Which is to say, Texas now ranks after Virginia, in a CNBC survey, as the best state in the country in which to do business. Last year we were No. 1.
We’re still tops for overall economy and for transportation and infrastructure. Maybe now is the time to ask what we’re doing right—especially with major governmental turnover in Austin coming our way.
And for the pats on the back, there are areas of needed improvement. Living costs here (7th lowest) are way below rival Virginia’s (27th ); but property taxes, on which state government relies too heavily, especially for education, will drag down our growth rate. Property taxation needs the major overhaul the Legislature should have given it this session.
In addition, Texas ranked 30th for education. Too many Texas high school students, especially in the big cities, never finish school. Read More...
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Back in 2006, a United States Court of Appeals issued a permanent injunction against EchoStar Communications for illegally retransmitting local broadcast network signals— allowing virtually anyone who asked to receive local signals through their DISH Network subscription.
Under existing law, satellite companies are only allowed to provide local channels to customers who reside within the market area of a local broadcaster but who for reasons of distance or geography are unable to adequately receive those signals.
The law is clear—rights exist in a local broadcast stream and are owned by the local broadcaster. Also clear—when the property rights of local broadcasters are run over, the penalties are severe.
Breaking this law required the “death penalty”—that the violator could no longer provide local channels to anyone outside of certain broadcast markets.
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What Is a Monument to Me? The Institute for Policy Innovation’s Dr. Merrill Matthews says it’s a member of Congress who’s forgotten who he serves....
When members of Congress put pork-barrel funding requests in the federal budget, it’s called an “earmark.”
But when that earmark is to build or support some building or project named after that member, it can be referred to as a “Monument to Me.”
Rep. David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat who controls the appropriations process in the House, has stopped the Monuments to Me—before Republicans ban them out right.
It looks a little too self-indulgent, he thinks, for congressmen to spend millions of taxpayers’ dollars putting their names on buildings and parks and airports. That honor should be reserved for members who have died or left office.
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Monuments |
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There's a big of a dust-up going on between some liberal Democratic activists who are angry at Howard Dean because he's
Now, I'm no fan of Howard Dean, and beyond that, as a conservative and as a Republican I get a kick out of internecine warfare on the other side of the aisle. I thought it was only Republicans who turned the knives on each other, so it's fun to see that it happens on the other side, too.
This is happening within a context where the anti-intellectual property activists within the Democrat Party were convinced that the new Obama administration was going to hand them their IP skeptic agenda on a silver platter.
But it isn't happening, and I didn't think it would happen. The IP case for the American economy and for American innovation is so strong, such a slam dunk, that even Democrats get it (sorry, couldn't resist). Read More...
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Yesterday we learned that, in order to “stimulate the economy,” the federal government spent millions of dollars buying boiled ham. Pushing back against the public outcry, Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack proudly proclaimed that his department had purchased the ham for the needy, and at $1.50 per pound.
It didn’t take long for people to point out that any shopper could purchase that same ham for (drumroll please) about 79 cents per pound.
So the federal government paid twice the market price for ham, right? No, it’s worse than that.
When you’re buying millions of dollars worth of ham, shouldn’t you be able to negotiate the best possible price? A price lower than the full retail price that any consumer pays at the grocery store? Isn’t it more likely that the Feds paid 3 or 4 times what they should have for boiled ham?
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Should the federal government have the power to monitor and control Internet traffic to make sure that our critical cyber-infrastructure is not harmed?
New legislation seems to think so. The “Cybersecurity Act of 2009” would give the president the power to “declare a cybersecurity emergency,” allowing for the shut down or limitation of Internet traffic “in the interest of national security”— though “critical information network” and “cybersecurity emergency” are not defined and left to the president to determine.
There is no doubt that our cyber critical infrastructure is at risk. Every few weeks or so the mainstream press uncovers new reasons for concern—most recently after attacks presumably originating in North Korea on the Pentagon, White House and Department of Treasury among others.
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When Is Congress Like the Film Industry? Dr. Merrill Matthews of the Institute for Policy Innovation says when it releases lousy products and hopes the public won’t notice.
When members of Congress are running for re-election, they want to pass popular legislation shortly before the election so they can campaign on it.
That’s what happened in August of 1996. Both Republicans and Democrats passed a health care reform bill known as HIPAA right before the presidential conventions.
But when congressmen think new legislation will anger voters, they try to pass it as far away from the next election as possible.
That’s why President Obama wants to pass this year both health care reform and the cap and trade energy bill that creates huge new taxes with little effect on global warming.
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Bad Legislation |
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Well, who couldn’t have seen this one coming?
Presidential candidate Barack Obama campaigned on ending Washington’s culture of earmarks, where members of Congress specify how much and for which projects federal money will be spent in their respective states.
But President Obama has embraced earmarks, signing the $787 billion stimulus bill and the federal budget, both of which were chock full of earmarks.
Now comes the health care bill and, guess what, it appears the House and Senate versions will both include earmarks.
The Boston Globe reports, “Tucked within [the bill] is a provision that could provide billions of dollars for walking paths, streetlights, jungle gyms and even farmers’ markets.”
There has been a growing support in Washington for more preventive care and wellness programs. Read More...
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Generally we all love it when the Legislature goes home, leaving citizens to live life by and for themselves. Wouldn’t it have been nice, all the same, if our lawmakers had spent just a little extra time in Austin to work on eminent domain reform—one of the great unaddressed tasks of 2009?
Reform proposals didn’t get to the goal line during the regular session—but then, not many things did. Eminent domain reform didn’t even get on the governor’s call for the quickie special session in early July. It’s urgently needed, though. Here’s why.
Property-owner indignation over the taking of private land for supposedly public uses does restrain cities and counties a bit—just not enough to make owners breathe easily. The U.S. Supreme Court’s Kelo decision of 2005, okaying property seizure for “economic development,” shows that protective walls for property rights should be high and strong.
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Well, it didn't take long. Only 40 minutes into the WIPO conference on global challenges, the speaker from Brazil has suggested compulsory licensing for patented green technologies.
I'm attending an important 2-day conference of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on intellectual property and public policy issues. The key policy issues are climate change, public health and access to medicines, and food security.
I'm here braced for arguments that patents are an obstacle to pressing public policy issues in these three areas.
These green technologies are being referred to as "adaptation and mitigation technologies."
The speaker from Brazil, Haraldo de Oliveira Machado Filho, concluded "An agreement along these lines is crucial to 'seal the deal' in Copenhagen."
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Back in March, U.S. Attorney General Holder expressed sympathy and understanding of how antitrust restrictions were making it difficult for newspapers to consolidate and survive. Holder said, in response to the urging by Speaker Pelosi to give newspapers leeway to merge to combine operations, “I think it’s important for this nation to maintain a healthy newspaper industry. So to the extent that we have to look at our enforcement policies and conform them to the realities that the industry faces, that’s something that I’m going to be willing to do.”
Given this week’s news that the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division has begun a “review” of “large telecom carriers” to see whether they have “abused” their so-called market power, it seems that the AG has lost his sympathy – at least for the wireless industry.
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Think It’s Expensive to Imprison Terrorists? Dr. Merrill Matthews of the Institute for Policy Information says not imprisoning them costs even more...
President Obama has finally found a way to empty the Guantanamo Bay detention camp of terrorists: paying other countries to take them.
Critics attacked President Bush for sending terrorists to Guantanamo, known as Gitmo. But no country offered to take them voluntarily. And members of Congress don’t want terrorists shipped to their states.
So the U.S. government will give the tiny Pacific island of Palau $200 million to take 17 of the least-dangerous terrorists off our hands. That’s about $11 million per terrorist.
The Wall Street Journal says at that rate we could spend $615 billion emptying Gitmo—if anyone will take the others.
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Terrorists |
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Congress has passed a massive “cap and trade” energy bill designed to raise the price of energy in the U.S. in order to reduce the use of fossil fuels by 17 percent by 2020 and by 83 percent by 2050.
President Barack Obama has called the bill a “jobs bill.” But sentencing the U.S. economy to high-cost energy is not a particularly good strategy for creating jobs. Charles River Associates, a Harvard-based economics consulting firm, estimates a net loss of about 2.5 million jobs each year.
During the campaign, candidate Obama also pledged that he would never raise taxes in any form on Americans making less than $250,000 per year. But his cap and trade tax is estimated to cost American families almost $2,000 a year when it becomes effective—due to higher prices for electricity, oil, gasoline, natural gas, home heating oil, coal, food and transportation costs—to almost $7,000 a year for a family of four by 2035.
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Dear Friend,
Happy 4th of July from IPI!
Whether it's fireworks, hot dogs, a tea party, a baseball game or a meetup with family, we at IPI hope you have a spectacular 4th of July holiday.
At some point this weekend, try to find time to read the text of the Declaration of Independence. It's surprising how many Americans are unfamiliar with the language and the arguments in the Declaration. It inspires me every time I read it.
The principles of limited government, personal freedom, property rights, and a government that respects and encourages these rights, is what animates us here at IPI. We have to be constantly vigilant, constantly at the ready, and always communicating these values and applying them in as many ways as possible to the policy debates of the moment.
Our goal is NOT to take the country in an exciting new communitarian and egalitarian direction envisioned by European socialists and Latin American Marxists. No, let's leave that vision to them. Our vision for America is the vision of Jefferson, and Madison, and Reagan.
Happy 4th of July! Read More...
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What’s the Best Way to Clean a House? The Institute for Policy Innovation’s Dr. Merrill Matthews says by letting the sunshine in.
Great Britain is reeling since London’s Daily Telegraph started digging into members’ of Parliament reimbursed expenses. While most of them were legal, many were also outrageous.
- About $3,400 was spent to drain a castle moat.
- Members expensed horse manure, changing light bulbs, tennis court repairs and massage chairs.
- And, one member even expensed an $8 charitable donation.
The scandal has led to several resignations. And the Speaker of the House of Commons has been forced out—the first to do that in 300 years.
In a preemptive strike, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has ordered all House members’ expenses be posted online for public viewing. That’s a good start.
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Clean House |
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Author: Tom Giovanetti || Location: Lewisville, Texas, USA