Senate backers of a long-shot bid to pass legislation with greenhouse gas caps got some fresh help Wednesday when the Congressional Budget Office reported that one high-profile proposal would help curb the federal deficit by about $19 billion over the next decade.
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No one opposes unemployment benefits as a transition aid for people to get back on their feet and find a new job. Unemployment benefits are a safeguard for individuals down on their luck. But to argue that unemployment benefits actually reduce unemployment is disingenuous at best, and could induce our government to enact policies that have the effect of destroying our nation’s production base from whence all benefits ultimately flow, says Arthur B. Laffer, chairman of Laffer Associates and co-author of “The End of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy — If We Let It Happen.” A new report by the National Taxpayer Advocate, which acts as an ombudsman within the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), has warned in a report to Congress that the agency is currently ill-equipped to handle the implementation of the new national health care law and that the legislation will place severe burdens on businesses. “I have no doubt the IRS is capable of administering social programs, including health care,” advocate Nina Olson said in a press release. “But Congress must provide sufficient funding and the IRS itself must recognize that the skills and training required to administer social benefit programs are very different from the skills and training that employees of an enforcement agency typically possess.” In addition, the report expresses concern that a new reporting requirement contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act may impose significant compliance burdens on businesses, charities and government agencies: June’s employment report was disappointing. Though the national unemployment rate fell slightly — it’s now at 9.5 percent from 9.7 percent in May — the report reveals deep structural problems that go beyond the number of those who remain without jobs, says Mohamed A. El-Erian, CEO and co-CIO of PIMCO, and author of “When Markets Collide.” For example:
The Government Accounting Office (GAO), which monitors how Washington manages tax money, has uncovered yet another expensive boondoggle amid the well-intentioned federal giveaway of billions of dollars, this time in the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, serving 8.3 million U.S. households. The program is supposed to provide low-income households “energy assistance,” another way of saying government-subsidized air conditioning and heating. But the feds paid $116 million in subsidies to applicants who used 11,000 dead people’s Social Security numbers, to 725 imprisoned convicts and to 1,100 well-paid — and ineligible — government workers. |
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We The People of Longview, TX is Stephen Fry proof thanks to caching by WP Super Cache |
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