United Liberty

My former colleague, Maxwell Borders, knows exactly why American health care is so expensive. He gives a list of ten reasons (hint: the first has something to do with the tax code).

For those who prefer visual stimluation, Max is not the sort of fellow to let anyone down. I’ve added a videos produced by Max on the topic of health care reform below. You can watch the follow-up video here.

In a book review by Clive Crook in todays Financial Times, we read about the new work Getting Off Track by John Taylor, creator of the “Taylor Rule” for monetary policy. According to Taylor, if the Federal Reserve had followed his famous Rule instead of their own discretion over the last decade, we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in today.

Taylor’s Rule gives a mathematical formula for the calculation of monetary policy. As Crook describes it:

The title of this article is a graphic of a T-shirt that can be found at the conservative vendor Right Wear. The point is valid, though it’s worth questioning if the designers were as worked up about the spending of the “Deficits don’t matter” Bush administration.

Republican talk radio host Hugh Hewitt has a book out illustrating his vision for electoral renewal for the Republican Party. Here is the synopsis:

The GOP’s fall from the triumphant elections of 2004 to the consecutive defeats in 2006 and 2008 didn’t have to happen, and doesn’t have to be prolonged. But change in crucial aspects of the party’s message and messaging must occur quickly if the potential pick-ups of 2010 are to be achieved, and the White House reclaimed in 2012. As soon as the dust settled in 2008, Hugh Hewitt began an intensive series of interviews with key GOP leaders and political analysts and tacticians across the ideological spectrum. The blueprint for Republican renewal presented here reflects the best of that thinking.

Texas State Rep. Betty Brown apparently thinks that the rest of America is as verbally impaired as her:

“Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?” Brown said.

Brown later told [Organization of Chinese Americans representative Ramey] Ko: “Can’t you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with?”

There has been a lot of reaction in the blogosphere about a new Rasmussen poll which shows that 53% of Americans believe capitalism is better than socialism:

Only 53% of American adults believe capitalism is better than socialism.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 20% disagree and say socialism is better. Twenty-seven percent (27%) are not sure which is better.

Adults under 30 are essentially evenly divided: 37% prefer capitalism, 33% socialism, and 30% are undecided. Thirty-somethings are a bit more supportive of the free-enterprise approach with 49% for capitalism and 26% for socialism. Adults over 40 strongly favor capitalism, and just 13% of those older Americans believe socialism is better.