This blog post at The Economist is on older Americans’ hostility to proposed cuts in Medicare. The post is entitled “Keeping government hands off their benefits.”
The head aches, spins, and becomes dizzy at the confusion evidenced by this title – a title that, alas, seems to describe reasonably accurately the attitude of Medicare advocates: ‘Don’t mess with my Medicare!’
But I can’t help but ask: how can government possibly keep its hands off of Americans’ Medicare benefits given that it’s the very hands of government – andonly those hands – that create Medicare benefits to begin with? The process by which $$ is taken from Mr. and Ms. Young and given as Medicare benefits to Mr. and Ms. Elder necessarily involves the hands of government. If government kept its hands off of Medicare benefits no such benefits would exist in the first place.
So I say, indeed – government hands off of Medicare!
New York Post columnist Kyle Smith writes wisely and entertainingly on politically correct vs. politically incorrect doomsaying. (Both varieties are specious.)
Speaking of predicting the future, in Salem, MA, it’s illegal to work as a practicing psychic without a government-issued license. (HT Roger Meiners)
Doug Bandow points out that the laws of economics apply to medical care.
Bryan Caplan poses some penetrating questions to supporters of a legislated minimum-wage.
And speaking of posing penetrating questions, Mark Perry has two of his own.
MAKE THAT 137
Tim Blair – Tuesday, May 31, 11 (05:51 am)
The list of 140 prominent Australians who want a carbon tax is slightly inflated:
It emerged yesterday that three of the signatories – [Sydney restaurateur Christine] Manfield, Boost Juice founder Janine Allis and Melbourne priest Bob Maguire – were not aware their names were being used as part of the advertising campaign, and do not even agree with Canberra’s proposed carbon tax.
“I’m not agreeing with Julia Gillard on that one, I think it’s a really wimpy way out,” Manfield told The Australian.
“It’s just another f…king tax – it doesn’t solve anything.”
Interestingly, Manfield subsequently tried to backtrack following an angry directive from the taxation sisterhood:
Manfield later sought to retract her statements after she said she was “blasted” in a telephone call from an organiser of 1 Million Women, a carbon emissions reduction campaign for which she is an ambassador.
That “one million” number, too, may be subject to inflation. If it runs close to the accuracy of our prominent 140, the actual total will be closer to 978,572. Also in retraction mode is AustralianPolitics.com’s Malcolm Farnsworth, who had this to say on April 29:
Gillard says celebrity is partly about a sense of connection. Who will rid of us this dreadful woman?
And on June 27:
We are surrounded by banal and frivolous celebrity.
But Farnsie changes his tune when – by deft use of carbon tax magic – a frivolous celebrity transforms into an “Australian citizen”:
The dumbed-down populism of the tabloid press is nothing new but it has about it now a vehemence and viciousness that can still surprise, especially in its casual, off-hand dismissal of an Australian citizen’s right to speak her mind.
Just a second, Mal. Wouldn’t it indicate “dumbed-down populism” if we took seriously an actress’s views on complex economic and scientific matters? I’d take this argument further, but I’m busy trying to find out if Posh Spice has said anything important about the arrest of Ratko Mladic.
(Via Currency Lad)
THEY SHOULD GROW SOMETHING MORE PROFITABLE, LIKE FILMS
Tim Blair – Tuesday, May 31, 11 (05:25 am)
Carbon complaints from the rural sector:
Farmers fear a carbon tax will cost them $36,000 a year and seriously threaten SA’s $3.4 billion grain industry.
National Farmers Federation president Jock Laurie called for the tax to be rejected and said the federation’s research into the impacts on input costs for fuel, feed and other necessities found that a $36-a-tonne tax would cost each grain farmer more than $36,000 a year.
Only 36 grand? That’s nothing. Why, I know of one woman who can pay that much every 12 months until the year 3483.
WAARMING IS HARAAM
Tim Blair – Tuesday, May 31, 11 (04:15 am)
An anniversary for Arwa Aburawa:
A couple more weeks of blogging will make it a full year since I joined the Green Prophet team writing on Eco-Islam. I’ve enjoyed every moment of it and learnt a lot about writing green blogs for Muslims, which is why I have put together a short guide to green blogging for Muslims!
Has this been approved by our old mate at Ask an Imam? Apparently solar heating is banned in hot countries, which takes Australia out of the picture.
HAPPY NINETIETH
Tim Blair – Monday, May 30, 11 (10:18 pm)
God bless you, Prince Philip.
CATE’S MATES
Tim Blair – Monday, May 30, 11 (01:48 pm)
Over the weekend, several of Australia’s most ridiculous people gathered in Canberra to work out how to change the weather.
Climate change minister Greg Combet, Greens senator Christine Milne and Independent MPs Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor joined Labor pet economist Ross Garnaut in discussions to work out a starting price for the carbon dioxide tax – the purpose of which is to somehow turn down the global thermostat a notch or two by making you poorer.
It’s a case of the unelectable leading the unrepresentative towards the impossible. Consider the colourful characters in this carbon circus.
Even the list of celebrities is exaggerated
Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, May 31, 11 (06:43 am)
A fake fix to a fake problem is backed by a faked petition:
AT least three high-profile Australians have been included in the pro-carbon tax advertising campaign without their approval, including celebrated Sydney restaurateur Christine Manfield, who believes the tax is “unethical”.
A letter containing the signatures of 140 “Australian leaders” and community groups was delivered to Parliament House in Canberra yesterday. The group is calling on the federal government to put a price on carbon.
But it emerged yesterday that three of the signatories—Manfield, Boost Juice founder Janine Allis and Melbourne priest Bob Maguire—were not aware their names were being used as part of the advertising campaign, and do not even agree with Canberra’s proposed carbon tax.
“I’m not agreeing with Julia Gillard on that one, I think it’s a really wimpy way out,” Manfield told The Australian.
“It’s just another f . . king tax—it doesn’t solve anything.”
But then the thought police crack down on this dangerous outbreak of someone thinking for themselves:
Manfield later sought to retract her statements after she said she was “blasted” in a telephone call from an organiser of 1 Million Women, a carbon emissions reduction campaign for which she is an ambassador.
The lady in first class instructs us to cut our emissions
Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, May 31, 11 (06:40 am)
Gerard Henderson is right - it’s the hypocrisy of the Cate Blanchetts that makes them a target:
One of the problems facing Julia Gillard is that so many of those who speak the loudest about the need to reduce carbon emissions have a personal carbon emissions footprint that would be the envy of most Australians.
Abbott on Abbott
Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, May 31, 11 (06:35 am)
Tony Abbott defines his ideology - or not:
Ideologically, Abbott doesn’t like to be pigeonholed and he is indeed hard to describe with one label. “Right wing” is misleading. He’s conservative on moral questions but on a range of policy issues he’s much more in the centre. He was never an industrial relations hardliner of the Howard ilk. Once, his tough attitudes on welfare might have been labelled “right”, but the debate has shifted; he, Gillard and even a charity such as Mission Australia stand on the same ground.
He describes himself as both liberal (in the sense of giving a priority to freedom and choice) and conservative. “I think I’m very much part of the Australian mainstream, and I’d be disappointed with myself if I wasn’t,” he says. “A good leader, I mean every successful national leader, has transcended category.”
The tax you didn’t vote for, set by people you’ll never vote for
Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, May 31, 11 (06:12 am)
We didn’t vote for the tax, and now we won’t be able to vote for the people who’ll set the target:
JULIA Gillard’s climate change negotiators are working on developing an independent committee to set Australia’s emissions reduction levels to break the biggest deadlock to a deal between Labor and the Greens on the carbon tax…
The plan could bridge the biggest divide between Labor, which has committed to a reduction target of 5 per cent below 2000 levels by 2020, and the Greens, who want a 25-40 per cent target and who voted against Kevin Rudd’s carbon pollution reduction scheme because it set a “ceiling” of 5 per cent.
Not just his fault
Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, May 31, 11 (06:06 am)
The Australian teases Joe Hockey:
We advised the shadow treasurer yesterday:
Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey also needs to keep his nose clean in these affairs. He still has the job ahead of him to consolidate his hold on the key economic portfolio and demonstrate that he has a vision for economic reform.But he chose to ignore us. In a letter in The Australian Financial Review:
This article claims my budget address at the National Press Club was light on detail yet fails to mention it was a collaborative effort with the Coalition economic team, including Tony Abbott, Andrew Robb and other senior policy-makers....
The Treasurer in question time:
We have seen today the absolutely extraordinary effort from the shadow treasurer who’s started to blame all of his colleagues for the shocker that he had at the press club.
UPDATE
For heaven’s sake, could someone tell Hockey and Turnbull that it’s not about them but their party - and the country:
Only days after Mr Turnbull was publicly embarrassed for missing a parliamentary vote, Mr Hockey wrote that in the first year of Labor, internal and external polling showed Mr Swan “was a much preferred economic manager ahead of Malcolm Turnbull”.
“Since I took over as the opposition’s treasury spokesman, the reverse is now the case,” he said in the letter to The Australian Financial Review.
Replying to criticism of his recent National Press Club speech on the budget, Mr Hockey also wrote that his speech was a “collaborative effort with the Coalition economic team, including Tony Abbott, Andrew Robb and other senior policymakers”.
Senior opposition members described this defence as childish.
Still, the one consolation for Tony Abbott is that while Turnbull and Hockey duke it out, they won’t unite against him.
Manners maketh the Baillieu
Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, May 31, 11 (06:02 am)
Premier Ted Baillieu tosses conservatives another bone:
Victoria Police will get permanent powers to slap potty-mouthed perpetrators with on-the-spot fines of up to $240 for using language deemed to be indecent, disorderly, offensive or threatening…
Attorney-General Robert Clark said the idea was to lower the police workload by allowing them to issue fines instead of tackling bad language using the court system.
That’s not a huge lead
Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, May 31, 11 (05:47 am)
Yet allowing for a margin of error, Labor is still not out of it, thanks to Turnbull:
Despite two weeks of publicity about infighting and squabbles within the Liberal Party, and a concerted government campaign against the Opposition Leader, there has been virtually no change in the party standings.
According to the latest Newspoll survey, conducted exclusively for The Australian last weekend, the Coalition’s primary vote fell from 46 per cent to 44 per cent over the past fortnight, while Labor’s rose one point to 34 per cent and the Greens jumped four percentage points to 14 per cent.
Based on preference flows at last year’s election, the Coalition’s two-party preferred vote dropped from 54 per cent to 52 per cent and Labor’s rose from 46 per cent to 48 per cent.
UPDATE
Dennis Shanahan thinks the Opposition should take a rosier view:
THE latest Newspoll survey is significant because of what didn’t change - the Coalition has kept its lead and Tony Abbott remains within reach of Julia Gillard as preferred prime minister.
Labor’s woes, which worsened dramatically the weekend the Prime Minister announced she’d break a promise and introduce a carbon tax, suggest the electorate is not listening to whatever it is the government has to say.
But we’d agree on this:
There is also a message in this survey for Turnbull.
Despite his intervention on climate change, Abbott’s leadership is proving successful and durable and there will be Liberal MPs who will wonder what the polls would be like this week if there hadn’t been two weeks of self-inflicted damage.
If the rest of the world is cutting, why are emissions rising?
Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, May 31, 11 (12:36 am)
Julia Gillard yesterday claimed Australia would not be alone in slashing its emissions:
Oh, really? Almost at that very moment, the Guardian reported:
Greenhouse gas emissions increased by a record amount last year, to the highest carbon output in history, putting hopes of holding global warming to safe levels all but out of reach, according to unpublished estimates from the International Energy Agency…
Last year, a record 30.6 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide poured into the atmosphere, mainly from burning fossil fuel – a rise of 1.6Gt on 2009...
That’s a 1,600 million tonne increase in a single year.
Now let’s see what Gillard’s tax will evenutally do to stop this rise, if she really does manage to meet her increasingly impossible target of a five per cent cut of our 2000 emissions by 2020:
...we are confident our plan will reduce Australia’s emissions by 160 million tonnes in 2020.
Hewson should declare
Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, May 31, 11 (12:04 am)
If John Hewson is going to be a spruiker for Julia Gillard’s carbon dioxide tax, he should at least declare a potential conflict of interest.
After all, a company such as Change Investment Management would greatly benefit from a tax designed to drive us off coal-fired power to “green” alternatives:
The fund is a global equities fund with a highly targeted focus on quality sustainable businesses in the water, waste management, food and agriculture, renewable energy, energy efficiency, and smart grid infrastructure sectors…
There has already been a strong global economic shift towards renewable energy, clean technology and energy efficiency. This trend will accelerate with the continued development of government mandated renewable energy targets around the world, energy security concerns, commitment of public funds and groundswell of private investment into low carbon energy…
The Change Opportunities Fund is designed for sophisticated investors seeking sustainable superior returns today and into the future. Contact us for full details.
And which embittered former Liberal leader is a non-executive director?
I make no allegation of impropriety. I note only a potential conflict of interest which, in my opinion, should be declared.
(Thanks to reader Michael.)
Green power runs out of puff
Andrew Bolt – Tuesday, May 31, 11 (12:04 am)
When the wind don’t blow, the power doesn’t flow - and when the wind don’t blow for decades to come...:
...climate experts are warning that many of Britain’s wind farms may soon run out of puff.... According to government figures, 13 of the past 16 months have been calmer than normal - while 2010 was the “stillest” year of the past decade.
Last year, wind speeds over the UK averaged 7.8 knots (8.9mph), a fall of 20 per cent on 2008, and well below the mean for this century, which stands at 9.1 knots (10.5mph)…
Meteorologists have found that the position of the jet stream has been influenced by the lower levels of activity on the Sun.
(Thanks to readers Nick, John and others.)
Gillard sinking, her tax wrapped around her ankles
Andrew Bolt – Monday, May 30, 11 (06:27 pm)
Labor’s pain continues, even after Malcolm Turnbull tries to blow up the Liberals. From the Essential Research poll:
Coalition 2PP 54%, up one
Labor 2PP 46%, down one.
Even a leading question on support for Gillard’s carbon dioxide tax can’t produce a response better than this:
Q. Do you support or oppose the Government’s recent announcement to introduce a carbon pricing scheme from 1 July 2012, which will require industries to pay a tax based on the amount of carbon pollution they emit?
Total support 38%
Total oppose 48%
(Thanks to reader Gab.)
Murdoch must crush me and my editor
Andrew Bolt – Monday, May 30, 11 (04:55 pm)
Finally I get it. The problem was never that Rupert Murdoch allegedly told his journalists what to write. The problem was that he didn’t tell them to write what the Left wants written:
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s stance on climate change is at odds with that of his Australian newspapers, entrepreneur Dick Smith says.
At the launch of his book, Dick Smith’s Population Crisis, he said that, while Mr Murdoch believed that climate change should be addressed, the views of the many papers he owned were contradictory…
“Rupert, I ask you to come back to Australia and show the leadership that has made you one of the most successful businessmen in the world,” he said…
“Rupert, we need you back here in Australia,” Mr Smith said.
”Come back and take the reins, your editors are losing the plot and need to be reminded that you accept we must transform the way we use energy and that we need to act now.
“Perhaps it’s time for you to take up Australian citizenship again - dual citizenship is now allowed - and help guide us wisely through this difficult and confusing age.”
So now my own sin is not that I take dictation from Murdoch, but that I don’t. Shouldn’t the Left applaud my courage?
Japan, China and Russia don’t believe what Gillard tells us
Andrew Bolt – Monday, May 30, 11 (03:57 pm)
Which makes it even crazier for Australia to slash its own emissions, unilaterally:
AUSTRALIA’S mining industry has seized on the refusal of three major economies to sign on to a new round of Kyoto Protocol emissions cuts, as Tony Abbott warned even a business-endorsed $10-a-tonne carbon price would cost jobs.
Russia, Japan and Canada confirmed at the weekend G8 meeting they would not join a second round of carbon cuts if developing countries are not being required to make their own emissions reductions.
Now, note the reason given by these countries for not making further cuts themselves:
They argued that the Kyoto format did not require developing countries, including China, the world’s No. 1 carbon emitter, to make targeted emission cuts.
China’s emissions are soaring and it will not agree to cut them. This puts the lie to Julia Gillard’s attempts to fool us into thinking China was also slashing emissions:
You know, China [is] closing down a dirty coal-fired power generation facility at the rate of one every one or two weeks. Putting up a wind turbine at the rate of one every hour. They set their own targets by 2020 of reducing carbon pollution by 40 to 45 per cent per unit of GDP
It also puts the lie to the attempt by Climate Comnmisioner Will Steffen to make us think our own cuts were matched by China’s:
Steffen: Australia’s not acting alone. China’s already acting… They’re phasing out inefficient coal-fired power stations.
So if China really was “already acting”, why do Japan, Canada and Russia not buy that argument?
Oh, make that four nations:
At last Thursday’s G8 dinner the US President, Barack Obama, confirmed Washington would not join an updated Kyoto Protocol, the diplomats said.
Two signs of strife for the latest boat people deal
Andrew Bolt – Monday, May 30, 11 (03:35 pm)
This sounds ominous for the Gillard Government:
THE Government is facing humiliation over its so called “Malaysian solution” with a key independent calling it an “abomination” during a debate on a motion to condemn it.
Andrew Wilkie told parliament this morning the way Labor treated asylum seekers was a key reason why he supported Julia Gillard’s minority government…
“The Labor Party has now lost the moral superiority it had regarding asylum seekers. The Labor Party’s approach to asylum seekers was not an insignificant consideration some nine months ago when I was struggling who to give support to,’’ Mr Wilkie told parliament…
“It may well help to deter asylum seekers from attempting the risky (boat journey) to Australia but it is wrong, so wrong in fact I detest it even more than the so called Pacific solution,” he said…
Greens MP Adam Bandt moved the motion to condemn the policy and called on the government to reverse it, claiming it was not compassionate.
And so does this:
Another suspected asylum seeker boat has arrived in Australian waters… The boat was carrying an estimated 52 passengers and four crew, Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor said.
That makes 159 boat people to arrive since the provisional agreement with Malaysia to swap 800 of ours for 4000 of theirs was announced. That’s 159 of the 800 spots filled already. No reason yet to say the (unsigned) deal has failed, but the Government won’t want many more boats to arrive.
This week’s ratings
Andrew Bolt – Monday, May 30, 11 (03:20 pm)
It seems many of you have switched to watching The Bolt Report at 4.30pm, rather than 10am - 178,000 to 101,000.
Cumulative audience yesterday…
The Bolt Report: 279,000 (up 12,000).
Insiders (ABC1 and ABC24) : 225,000
I’m not Big Coal, and still think Blanchett is silly
Andrew Bolt – Monday, May 30, 11 (12:42 pm)
Has Adam Bandt got any evidence at all that the coal companies are behind the criticism of Cate Blanchett over her deceitful ad?
The Australian Greens say big polluters are behind the criticism.
”I think it’s time the coal companies started playing the ball, not the woman,” Greens MP Adam Bandt told reporters in Canberra on Sunday.
“I think this is an extraordinarily ugly attack from the defenders of enormous pollution in Australia and it’s time they engaged in the debate in a constructive way.”
Does Bandt seriously believe all the hundreds of readers here and here are in the pay of Big Coal? That would sure be some wild conspiracy theory.
(Thanks to reader Craig.)
No, it’s not “carbon pollution”
Andrew Bolt – Monday, May 30, 11 (12:20 pm)
The lie tackled, from 4:22.
