The World is a Complicated Place (V)

David Brooks presents a comprehensive thought piece on income inequality.  It is not as simple as income redistribution as some Democrats maintain.  It is not as simple as the minimum wage (although I disagree with David and believe a person who works 40 hours a week should at least earn wages that equal the poverty level) as other Democrats maintain.  And it cannot be fixed by a focus on human capital alone as those Republicans who care maintain.

It is a complicated issue.

Here is a link to that column.      David Brooks

In the comments section of the column, I added one issue to David's list of things that need to be considered in developing policy.  "An additional issue is the hollowing out of the rural manufacturing that has paid middle class wages to people with high school degrees.  This is a complicated issue that involves multiple issues, with no single solution, but needs to be addressed if income inequality trends are to be reversed."


And Thomas Egan addresses the real problem the Republican Party now has with it's anti-women, anti-immigrant, anti-anything in the middle policies.  Calling any woman who uses birth control a slut is not a way to get women to identify with your political party and vote you into the Presidency.

Tom Egan

Finally, an unemotional critique of some of the anti-Obamacare arguments from an economist.  He specifically points out that the gender neutral policy pricing in the individual small business market required by Obamacare, has actually been part and parcel of every large company private health insurance market for years; including Congress, where older Congressman and Staff members are for the 1st time facing some age related pricing as a result of ObamaCare; having previously been subsidized by the perennial churn of younger staff members through the halls of Congress.

Since ObamaCare creates gender neutrality in the individual small business market, it is creating a wealth transfer there from men to women that is identical to that which occurs in the large corporation market.  And when the GOP states they want to repeal ObamaCare, they are harming women who buy health insurance in the individual small business market.  And that at the very least supports the charge that the GOP is waging a war on women.

Link to Column


And I almost forgot.  Charles Krauthammer went off the deep end this morning.  He says President Obama did a disservice to the War on Terror troops by "not believing in the war in Afghanistan".

Now I don't know what more you can do than fund and provide every means possible to support the troops doing the fighting, provide medical and psychiatric help for the troops that need it, find and eliminate Osama bin Laden, use drones to kill Taliban and try to raise revenues to pay for this war, rather than borrow it from the market.  If that is not believing in the War in Afghanistan, I don't know what would constitute believing in the War.  Just because the President asked questions about the viability of specific strategies and wants to bring the troops home does not mean he is not supporting those troops.  No one wants to come home with the War on Terror in Afghanistan concluded more than the troops that are there for the 17th time.

Krauthammer is trying to manufacture something that is not present.  Kind of like saying the President wasn't born in Hawaii.  What is it about Obama that makes Republican voters and columnists manufacture falsehoods time and time again?