Planting the Seeds of Disaster

Planting the Seeds of Disaster

STEYN: A healthy dose of catastrophe - Washington Times

STEYN: A healthy dose of catastrophe - Washington Times: "Can we afford this? No. Even on the official numbers, we're projected to add to the existing $8 trillion in debt another $12 trillion over the next decade. What could we do? Tax those big, bad corporations a bit more? Medtronic has just announced that the new Obamacare taxes on its products could force it to lay off 1,000 workers. What do those guys do? Well, they develop products such as the recently approved pacemaker that's safe for MRI scans and the InterStim bladder-control device. So that's 1,000 fewer people who'll be working on new stuff. Well, so what? The public won't miss what it never knew it had. So again, the effect is one of disincentivization - in this case, of innovation."

Book Review: The Next Hundred Million - WSJ.com

Book Review: The Next Hundred Million - WSJ.com: "How to respond? 'Declinists have always projected America's imminent demise,' the editors of Newsweek wrote earlier this month. 'For a change, they're onto something.' Joel Kotkin would disagree. In fact, he is in a cheerful mood, in part because he has been thinking less about the present than about the near future, when the news, he says, is likely to be much brighter, at least for America."

It’s over: MPs say the special relationship with US is dead - Times Online

It’s over: MPs say the special relationship with US is dead - Times Online: "BRITAIN’S special relationship with the US — forged by Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt in the second world war — no longer exists, says a committee of influential MPs.

Instead, America’s relationship with Britain is no more special than with its other main allies, according to a report by the Commons foreign affairs committee published today.

The report also warns that the perception of the UK after the Iraq war as America’s “subservient poodle” has been highly damaging to Britain’s reputation and interests around the world. The MPs conclude that British prime ministers have to learn to be less deferential to US presidents and be “willing to say no” to America."

Becker's and Dupont's Take on Healthcare

Two articles in today's WSJ by Pete Dupont and gary becker  frame the underlying cultural issue confronting our nation--balancing the the Nation's dynamism and its populace's need for some basic stability.  Maintaining dynamism is essential for long term growth and expansion of opportunity.  But the people who live in the present value stability in their day to day life, and as the health care bill shows will sacrifice future well being for benefit now.

 Welcome to Europe

By PETE DU PONT

Late Sunday night America made its largest public-policy course change since the 1930s: Congress moved 17% of our national economy from the market place to full regulation and control by the federal government. The vote in the House was close, 219-212, but our country's health care system will now be organized, operated and regulated by the federal government.

Read it in the WSJ (subscription required)

'Basically an Optimist'—Still

The Nobel economist says the health-care bill will cause serious damage, but that the American people can be trusted to vote for limited government in November.

Read at WSJ (subscirption required)