“Finance Committee members are considering a new proposal from Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., that would raise $100 billion over 10 years by imposing new fees on health insurance companies.”

But if we call it a “tax”, I’m afraid it would end up like the Monty Python Argument sketch.

“It’s not a tax.”
“Yes, it is.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“Yes, it is.”
ad infinitum.

jangar said:

These libs have gone over the line in many ways every way so far, and as #1 dickweed says “you ain’t seen nothing yet”.

I haven’t seen anything good come out of Congress since 2006. Anything really foul that did not pass was because enough of us out here burned up their switchboard/in-box/voice mail. But I’m afraid that tactic is now getting ignored in order to please the tyrant-in-chief.

That’s right. Every time you turn around, there’ something going on that is outrageous. Yet, we’ll never see it on the evening news.

George Will’s article from yesterday sheds some light on another nefarous action by Obama that significantly changes the business landscape. He’s rewarding the Teamsters for their vote, at the expense of FedEx and businesses that use it. The good news is… FedEx’s CEO Fred Smith isn’t going to just sit there and take it. Read to the end.. it’s worth knowing about.

Sorry about be OT. But this is yet another slap in the face to America by Obama.

How does the Obama administration love organized labor? Let us count the ways it uses power to repay unions for helping to put it in power. It has given the UAW majority ownership of Chrysler. It has sent $135 billion of “stimulus” money to states to protect unionized public-sector employees from layoffs and other sacrifices that private-sector workers are making. It has sedated the Office of Labor-Management Standards, which protects workers against misbehavior by union leaders.

Now it is the Teamsters’ turn at the trough. Congress might change labor law to assist UPS, a Teamsters stronghold, by hindering its principal competitor, FedEx.

The growth of railroads had put the economy at the mercy of local strikes. “Brakemen in Altoona, signalmen in Wichita,” says Fred Smith, could cripple the transportation network.

Smith, FedEx’s founder and CEO, says that in 1926 Congress, to protect the arteries of commerce, passed the Railway Labor Act. It ensured that any workers’ bargaining unit must be systemwide so that no local unit could hold the railroads hostage.

In 1936, airlines were brought under the RLA. FedEx, which began as an air-freight company and created the modern express business, is exactly the sort of integrated system for which the RLA was written. This matters: 53 percent of all US exports by value travel by air; almost all priority and express US mail is carried by FedEx.

FedEx characterizes itself as the “world’s most effective airline” and UPS as “a 100-year-old trucking company.” FedEx, Smith insists, isn’t anti-union; its pilots are unionized. He says that the pay and benefits for its drivers are, on average, higher than those of UPS drivers.

Nevertheless, Congress, with UPS now aligned with the Teamsters, wants to put FedEx’s ground-pickup and delivery operations under the NLRA, thereby making FedEx’s entire integrated system susceptible to disruption by local disputes.

“Bailout” is now both a noun and a verb, and FedEx characterizes what Congress might do for UPS as the “Brown Bailout.” But properly used, “bailout” denotes a rescue of an economic entity from financial distress. Although UPS is suffering from the recession, so is FedEx. Furthermore, UPS, whose revenue is 36 percent more than FedEx’s, began advocating this injury to FedEx long before this recession.

What UPS is doing is called rent-seeking — bending public power for private advantage by hindering a competitor. This practice is banal but can have entertaining ricochets:

If Congress makes FedEx’s operations more precarious by changing the law to make it easier for local disputes to cripple its operations, Smith says a multibillion-dollar order for 15 Boeing 777s will be automatically canceled. One union lobbying on behalf of UPS and the Teamsters is the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, whose members make 777s.

In a potential setback to their efforts, Congress’ budget umpire warned on Thursday that their health care bills won’t meet Obama’s goal of slowing the ruinous rise of medical costs, giving weight to critics who say the legislation could break the bank.

What a surprise. Obama’s gigantic health care industry grab isn’t going to save anyone any money.

Give the optimism of gov’t spending projections, I would take that as confirmation that Obama’s radical health care socialization move is going to cost 2 or 3 times what they are saying now.

These libs have gone over the line in many ways every way so far, and as #1 dickweed says “you ain’t seen nothing yet”.

I haven’t seen anything good come out of Congress since 2006. Anything really foul that did not pass was because enough of us out here burned up their switchboard/in-box/voice mail. But I’m afraid that tactic is now getting ignored in order to please the tyrant-in-chief.

I guess Al Gore decided to go for a swim.

Scary.

Via AP: “Finance Committee members are considering a new proposal from Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., that would raise $100 billion over 10 years by imposing new fees on health insurance companies.”

If you want more of something you subsidize it, and if you want less of it you tax it.

Obviously, the charade of ‘you can keep your current provider’ is out the window.

Does this mean that Obama’s insane claim that a government program can be ‘well run’ is a total lie like everything else that he says?

And MM’s medical savings plan is out the window as well.

Don’t worry MM, I have no doubt that the democrats in charge of your health care will never consider your activities as a blogger when they schedule your medical visits and treatments.

Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Legislation.
Farewell 1st Ammendment and religous freedoms…we were busy worrying about our money (not that prosperity is not important, but our right to free speech and the freedom to read The Holy Bible is a HUGE cornerstone to why we are the land of the free and home of the brave…but nobody wanted to talk about it).

On July 16th, 2009 at 10:19 pm, Pasadena Phil said:

Palin is the ONLY conservative who can campaign for candidates, raise money for them and herself, and impose herself on the national convention in 2012. That is how winners do it. She needs to get conservatives indebted and grateful. She will not be denied if that happens.

If you check your politcal history (unfortuantely I am old enough to remember} that strategy is precisely how Richard Nixon got the 1968 nomination.

He worked hard all over the country helping candidates in the 1966 election cycle and in 1968. When the time came, those he helped, stepped up.