I don’t like the new health care reform because we can’t afford this right now. We are facing trillion dollar deficits for years to come! We should get our financial house in order before trying to use government funds to subsidize health insurance for millions of new people.
However, many on the right are overreacting to [...]

In my last post I wrote: “The country’s #1 priority for the next decade should be to get our financial house in order - not coming up with extravagant new spending programs.” An article today shows why:
WASHINGTON – It’s bad enough that Greece’s debt problems have rattled global financial markets. In the world’s largest economic [...]

In presidential elections, I vote for the Republican. It’s a no-brainer. Democrats are for more government and more social control (except for woman aborting fetuses and gays getting married). Hard core liberals, as a group, are very intolerant. Just go to any of the big lefty blogs and read the comments. Or just read Atrios [...]

Sorry, this is a long post.
With the stampede to denounce Jena, LA as racist, I have been trying to understand what has really gone on there. That is hard to do when people like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson get involved. The message is simple: Jena is racist and a symbol of all America. Sharpton [...]

Tyler Cowen, of the Marginal Revolution blog, today proposes (via Half Sigma) making 401k plans universal and then subsidizing the 401ks for the poor. That is one way to consider going. I have thought quite a bit on the subject of how to best provide subsidies to the poor. Personally I don’t like the idea [...]

At NoSpeedBumps I have often proposed an Effective Flat Tax (EFT) that is integrated with Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and Retirement Savings Accounts (RSAs). One key to making these policies sustainable and predictable over time is that the EFT must be loophole free. Otherwise the income tax code will just end up over time back [...]

The graph above shows the number of Americans that pay no income taxes. The Tax Foundation says:
America has become divided between a growing class of people who pay no income taxes and a shrinking class of people who are bearing the lion’s share of the burden.
Libertarians don’t like income taxes. It seems that the lower [...]

Here is an updated summary of links related to NoSpeedBumps social policy reform proposals:

NoSpeedBumps Major Reforms: RSA+HSA+EFT
Phasing Out Social Security and Medicare
The Effective Flat Tax: Steamrolling Marginal Tax Rates
A Stark Tax Choice: Zero Loopholes or Zillions
Cut the Clutter: Real Tax Simplification
Those Un-Flat Flat Taxes
Free-Market Junkies: Needin’ a “Consumption Tax” Fix
Cracks in Socialized Medicine in Canada
Private [...]

The U.S. unemployment rate has been falling. It fell to 4.7% in January, the lowest in years.
Davids Medienkritic, a German blog, notes this:
In the Euro area, the standardised unemployment rate remained at 8.3% in November 2005, 0.5 percentage point lower than a year earlier. The United States’ standardised unemployment rate for December 2005 [...]

Just watched President Bush’s State of the Union speech. I thought it was a good speech. One amusing moment is when he said something about Congress acting on his previous proposed Social Security reforms - and the Democrats all stood up and cheered. It was a cheer of defiance. Their point was that they acted [...]

If true, this is a tragedy: Bush Social Security Plan Laid to Rest.
Unfortunately, the left in America have become the reactionaries. They resist all change to policies, as good reactionaries have all through history. They love the status quo; they love things as they are. The only allowed policy discussions are for funding increases [...]