“Hospitals and insurers who benefit from the NHHPP have agreed to make voluntary contributions in order that the NHHPP be reauthorized.” – Jeb Bradley

That would be NH State Senator Jeb Bradley (and I wonder what NH State Rep Joe LaChance thinks of this?).  Boy, he’s turning into being the Poster Boy for Crony Capitalism – on the Government side.  Of COURSE they will give “voluntary” contributions.  He certainly can’t call them payoffs for his other bill that essentially made “no compete” areas for these same hospitals – rendering the CON-Board impotent.  So now they can charge what they want.  Steve has the info: Jeb Bradley’s Hospital Monopoly Bill

Jeb Bradley’s Health Care CON board bill is on the State Senate to-do list today. It sounds like your average, run-of-the-mill regulatory business as usual, which is usually bad enough. This particular bit of regulatory “business as usual” is much worse.  It will create health-care fiefdoms around the major players (Hospitals) in the state, dividing the territory like a crime family, and forcing other players to bow to the regulatory gods of Bradley Care or get out.

SB 481 will result in,

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Perverse Tax Incentives

In part II of our conversation with Emily Sandblade and Susan Olsen we discuss the perverse tax incentives behind expanding Medicaid in NH, like how it will favor residents who work outside the state over those who stay and work in New Hampshire. (Part I) (Full broadcast)

ICYMI – January 30th, 2016 Podcast

ICYMI – Chrissy Harbin from AFP joins us to talk EPA overreach, David McIntosh – President of Club for Growth on Trump vs. Conservatism, Aaron Day on the Medicaid Expansion, Sen. Bob Smith on Sen. Ted Cruz, and introducing the NH Income Tax Calculator.

Carter Will Beat Reagan 58 to 40

GOP doomsayers have not changed much in 36 years. Back in 1980 the “establishment” was convinced that only Gerry Ford could beat Carter, and that Ronald Reagan would lose.  

Cruz Calms Farmer Angry About Proposed Ethanol Subsidy Rollback

Sooper Mexican |  You can sense how angry the farmer is, but Cruz employs his impressively deep knowledge of the subject to explain calmly why his policies will HELP farmers, even though he’ll phase out the government subsidy. Maybe the farmer was just being nice at the end, but he went from total anger to … Read more

Trump’s Kryptonite?

kryptonite

Washington Examiner

By far, the most bothersome bit of information tested (by the Des Moines Register/Bloomberg poll) about either candidate (Trump or Cruz): “Donald Trump supports the use of eminent domain to take private property for public or private projects, with compensation to the landowners.” Presented with this information, 60 percent of Republican voters said it bothered them, compared with 35 percent who said it did not. …

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It really is looking like The Law no longer applies to Federal Employees

VA to reinstate official who stole $130,000 from agency

“The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.”  – President Obama, Inauguration (2009)

VASo when you steal and defraud, is that the way our Federal Government is supposed to work?  Certainly Lois Lerner (of IRS targeting of Conservative groups, but also did so while at the FEC) is emblematic of it and Hillary Clinton is starting to become the even bigger poster child of it as her use of a private email server having classified, top secret, and “I have to kill you” level documents on it.  But PLEASE, how bad can this get, especially in the VA that has been accused of allowing those they are supposed to serve die because they simply wanted money (emphasis mine, reformatted)?

A Department of Veterans Affairs official who was demoted after allegedly stealing thousands of taxpayer dollars from the agency was quietly reinstated to her position earlier this week.

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“This is what happens when McDonald’s listens to its customers”

mcdonalds sign - Unions ending jobs inviting technology to replase peopleMickey D’s has been a hurtin’ puppy in the fast food industry for quite some time – its competitors have been eating its lunch (and supper, pun intended).  Sales down, franchisees mad (and broker given the $$ spent on store redoes for a more contemporary look), and the “more healthy” food didn’t make it for them.  So a change was made and imagine that – they actually listened to what customers wanted and SURPRISE!

Customers bought what they said they wanted to eat!

Sure, polls are one thing, sales are another and they don’t always align; this time, they did:

On Monday, McDonald’s said that same-store sales (those open for at least 13 months) increased by 5.7 percent in the last three months of 2015, more than twice what analysts had expected. The hefty jump is the largest the company has reported in almost four years.  For years, adoring fans pleaded with McDonald’s to extend its breakfast menu beyond the current 10:30 a.m. cutoff. For nearly as long, the fast-food behemoth shrugged off the ask,

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“11 Reasons the Sexual Revolution Has Been a Complete, Utter, and Deadly Failure That Have Nothing to do with the Catholic Church”

  1. Women are depressed. Polling shows that with the widespread availability of the contraceptive pill, rather than entering into blissful sunny uplands of consequence-free sex, women are, well, sad, increasingly so.
  1. Young women are even more depressed.
  2. Declining rates of marriage.
  3. Fatherless children. When Daniel Patrick Moynihan first raised alarms about fatherless black children back during the Nixon administration, he was excoriated. The black fatherless rate at that time was roughly 25 percent. It is now more than 70 percent. The white fatherless rate now stands where the black rate used to be. The nearly intractable problems in the black communities are coming to a white suburb near you.
  4. Our immense porn culture.
  5. The objectification of women.

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BlogHeadline of the Day – for any rock ribbed Conservative…

New York Times endorses Kasich in GOP primary Should be exactly this scene from the GodFather: Really NYT; if you think this was going to help persuade the Republican base to vote their famous, they are clueless.  Even though GraniteGrok (and I) have endorsed Ted Cruz, if their decision was to have picked him, I’d be sorely … Read more

Data Point – State-Local Tax Burdens by State

State-Local tax burderns by State

We have Democrats, once again, calling for an Income Tax here in NH.  We have Republicans getting ready to pass a huge increase in the size and cost of NH State Government – Medicaid Expansion using Obamacare money (whose percentage of payments by the Feds about to downard trend leaving NH taxpayers on the hook).  The Republicans are creating the reason for the Democrats’ call for that tax (for neither will cut other parts of Government as a trade-off).  I ask you: how well did implementing an income tax in NJ because of high property taxes work out for their overall taxes?

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Iowa: but there is still a reason they (and we) play the game

Said mostly about sports but still in politics too.  This is just out – the Bloomberg Politics / Des Moines Register poll.  I hadn’t taken much notice of this in previous races but I am seeing, not that this “breaking news” is out, it is rather spot on the majority of the time.  Sure, it … Read more

Laws For Thee, Not For Me

“He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it.”? George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant “Laws for thee, but not for me…”Meet Representative David W. Hess, State Representative for Merrimack County residing in Hooksett NH. It would appear that Representative Hess cares little for our laws governing handicapped parking. So many people do, you … Read more

Notable Quote – Larry White

Government grows as its beneficiaries find ways to outmaneuver the interests of the taxpayers. -Larry White ( The Clash of Economic Ideas) (H/T: Cafe Hayek) It’s always “The Bigger the Government, the smaller the citizens”  

Data Point – Electric Obama

GM EV-1I’ve blogged a number of times on how badly Obama’s promise to transform our car buying behaviors (as that’s what Progressives do with their I know better than you what is best for you “tell”. And then we, who make up the Free Market decision makers (aka, telling the Central Planners to go….do something else) actually told the auto economy our choices. And given that this was his last year to get to that Million Electric Car end point, I am happy to anounce #FAIL:

In his 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama predicted that there would be “a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.”  But only 382,176 plug-in electrified vehicles (PEVs) have been sold in the U.S. since 2008, according to Hybridcars.com. That’s just 38 percent of Obama’s one million vehicle goal.  And although auto sales in the U.S. were at an all-time-high last year with 17.47 million sold, electric vehicles actually lost market share, dropping from 3.47 percent of all vehicles sold in the U.S. to 2.87 percent, according to the Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA).

But of course, Americans MUST have heeded his call to be more efficient (via the EPA / DOT jacking up mandatory MPG standards – yet another Administrative Law decree (instead of Congressionally pass legislation)), right?  Er 

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Need a short, pithy definition of Conservativism? This is BRILLIANT!

From US Senator Ben Sasse who points out, for the Progressives that have lost their way (and their minds) that America is not great because of its Government but because of Civil Society.  That would be the interactions of individuals who our Founders knew were the sovereigns and not a Monarchy, a Royal class, or the courtiers.

I keep saying that Progressives are not FORWARD looking but are,

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