U.S. Democracy Versus Putin's Democracy

Left caption: Obama inauguration

Right caption: Putin's inauguration

Marco Rubio on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace

Chris Wallace devoted a half hour to an interview with Marco Rubio yesterday. This was the first time I have really seen him in action. Rubio is articulate, knows the issues, has ideas of his own, and is a good debater.

If he has no major skeletons in his closet, Romney should sign him on ASAP to get him into the campaign conversation.

My overall reaction:  WOW!

Dr. Gregory's latest book can be found at Amazon.com.

The Handling of Chen Is a Shame. Romney is Correct

The Sunday talk shows and the New York Times are attacking Romney for calling the handling of the Chen case a "shame for America." Romney, they say, spoke too soon. Hillary has worked out a good deal that will bring Chen and his family to the U.S. to "study."

Romney should hold his ground. The Chen case was badly fumbled and must be called a cave in to the Chinese.

When Chen left the U.S. Embassy, we lost all leverage. His family would have been as safe as possible with him in the embassy. We could have begun negotiations without undue haste to arrange a reasonable solution for Chen, his family, and for those who helped him. Once we delivered Chen to the Chinese authorities, we lost all leverage.

Hillary, who claims that negotiations are proceeding well with respect to visas for Chen and his family, is totally at the mercy of her Chinese interlocutors. She holds no cards. Chen's colleagues, who aided his escape, are left out in the cold.

Romney is right. We shamefully caved in to the Chinese either through ineptitude or self interest.

Dr. Gregory's latest book can be purchased at Amazon.com.

Hollande Wins and Europe Descends into No-Man’s Land

Socialist candidate Hollande has won the French election as expected. His high-tax, pro-stimulus, welfare-state-protection platform, in effect, scuttles the Eurozone rescue program engineered by Merkel and a reluctant Sarkozy.

Hollande’s election leaves the European Union with three stark choices, none of which are good: 1) Germany and the European Central Bank cave and bail out any and all debtor countries under the cover of some fictitious future fiscal discipline, or 2) The Eurozone countries muddle along from one band-aid fix to the next as the bond vigilantes breathe down their necks while they hope to catch a break, or 3) Germany and the Nordic states withdraw from the Eurozone to their own currency. The rest of the Eurozone can stay on the devalued Euro or revert to their own currencies.

go to forbes.com to continue reading this story

Dr. Gregory's latest book can be found at Amazon.com.

Chen Guangcheng: A Day of Shame for the U.S.

We only know that blind dissident Chen Guangcheng is in a Chinese hospital out of the range of American protection. According to preliminary reports, Chen was pressured by U.S. officials to leave the embassy. Chen, knowing the consequences, would have left American protection only to save his family. During his house arrest, Chen’s wife had been severely beaten. Unconfirmed but believable reports suggest Chinese authorities threatened to beat her to death. His escape and appearance at the U.S. embassy so outraged and unnerved Chinese officials that Chen knew that they would not hesitate to carry out their threat.
go to Forbes.com to continue reading this post

Dr. Gregory's latest book can be found at Amazon.com.

Medical Costs Slowing Down? Obama Care Will Take Care of That

The New York Times’ In Hopeful Sign, Health Spending is Flattening Out cheerfully announced the slowing of health spending growth in the past few years. The article is featured as the top page one new story. The author, Anita Lowry, ponders whether we might be able to dispense with austerity now that one of our main fiscal problems is solving itself.

Lowry’s readers discover that the recession has been the major cause of the slowdown in health-care spending. Unless recession becomes permanent, we cannot count on it to “bend the medical cost curve downwards” (one of the most awful examples of Washington bureaucratize). But Lowry assures us that there are  other factors “changing the behavior by consumers and health care providers” in the right direction:

“Many experts — and the Medicare and Medicaid center itself — point to the explosion of high-deductible plans, in which consumers have lower premiums but pay more out of pocket, as one main factor. The share of employees enrolled in high-deductible plans surged to 13 percent in 2011 from 3 percent in 2006, according to Mercer Consulting.That means thousands of consumers with an incentive to think twice about heading to the doctor.  RAND Corporation found that health spending among people who shifted into a high-deductible plan dropped [a huge] 14 percent — though the study also found that enrollees cut back on some care that tended to save money in the long run, like vaccinations.”

What Lowry has discovered is that when we use the market to allocate medical care, remarkably “consumers think twice.” They run to the doctor less, they demand generic drugs. Maybe they take better care of themselves.  Well, Lowry grumbles a little about using markets. People might make the wrong decisions. They may forego vaccinations!  But maybe it is worth it because slowing the growth of health spending offers “some fuel for optimism about the federal government’s long-term fiscal performance.” Foolish people may die of the flu, but we can have our infrastructure bank.

It turns out we will not have to worry about the downward-bending health-care cost curve if and when Obama Care goes into effect. In its ObamaCare Rule May Bar HSAs, Low-Cost Health Plans, the Investors Business Daily points out that so-called Bronze health care plans (the high deductible plans of which Lowry writes) will be phased out. They may lower health care costs, but they will not be around. They do not pass the muster of Obama Care’s bureaucrats.

Under ObamaCare, non-partisan technocrats decide which medical services should be expanded and which cut back. Such decisions are not to be left to families who have to “think twice” about how they spend their money.

Dr. Gregory's latest book can be found at Amazon.com.