What are you willing to cut?

"America is a milk cow with 310 million tits. There's not a person in this country not getting something from the thing called government - state, local, municipal, federal, and bitching about that government as if it were an enemy." - Alan Simpson

It's easy to say you want a balanced budget and that you want to cut the national debt; until your interests are at stake.  Don't just point your finger at others and say they need to go on a budget diet, ask first what are YOU willing to do to go on a budget diet?  I for one am willing to have my taxes raised or have some of my deductions (home loan, student loan) or tax credits (child tax credit, hybrid credit) eliminated.

Once you've identified the things you're willing to sacrifice, you are now free to point your finger without guilt.  I feel that even so-called non-discretionary spending - Medicare, Medicaid and national defense could all use budget trims.  I am also for the creation of a Social Security fraud agency (if one doesn't already exist) whose budget is completely dependent on the amount of money recovered from those gaming the system.  Fifty percent recovered goes to the agency and the other half goes back to the American people.  Still, this sort of selective cutting may be costly in terms of money and politics and we may be better off simply saying "Once unemployment is 6% or less and GDP is growing by 2.5% or more, all government programs will be cut by 10%."

But this sort of sacrifice and compromise is hard work.  It may just be easier to keep pointing fingers.

Why Governor Walker's Delegation of Obamacare is a Good Thing.

In the post election world of 2012, faced with the inevitable decision on what to do with the new "law of the land" as John Boehner lovingly calls the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Scott Walker has elected to punt.  Many conservatives have gleefully proclaimed this David of Goliath level defiance as freedom from Obamacare in Wisconsin.  In reality, this is a perfectly legal option exercised by the governor.  More on that in a minute, first a quick lesson on Obamacare.

Starting in 2014, anyone earning over 150% of the poverty rate will be required to buy health insurance (the individual mandate) and any company employing more that 50 full-time employees will be required to provide (not necessarily pay for) health insurance.  For people who work for a small employer (<50), are self-employed or otherwise not able access health insurance, they will have two options: seek insurance as an individual, a daunting task for all but the healthiest vegan marathon runners, or buy insurance through your state's exchange so you have group bargaining power.  State exchanges can be administered one of three ways: by the state itself, by the federal government on behalf of the state, or as a partnership.  At the time of this writing, according to the NY Times, 18 states are going it alone, 12 are seeking a partnership, and 20 are punting to the federal government.  Keep in mind that these exchanges are nothing more than large group coverage containers with limited subsidization and plan formulation powers, they are not embodyment of socialized medicine.  People in joining state exchanges will buy insurance from private companies NOT the federal government.

Back to Wisconsin being one of the 20 deferring to the feds to run our exchange.  How could this be a good thing?  In a word, standardization.  Instead of a patchwork of 50 state run exchanges over half of these will be run or influenced by the federal government.  What the federal exchanges lose in personalization they more than make up for in efficiency.  We live in an age where it doesn't take months to cross the republic and weeks to share information.  Centralized policy administration makes sense and reduces redundancy.  You're giving up a lot of money in the first three years, but regardless of your motivations, Scott Walker, I salute your rightness, even if it's for the wrong reasons.