Month: April 2015

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U.S. Manufacturing still depressed

The declining fortunes of American manufacturing are being belatedly understood. In February, the New York Analysis of Policy & Government  reported that:

U.S. manufacturing is in a state of crisis…The January 2015 report from the Federal Reserve notes that there are fewer jobs in that industry than at the start of the Obama presidency, when there was 12,561,000 manufacturing jobs in the nation.  By January of 2015, that number had been reduced to 12,330,000. The crisis has its antecedents long before President Obama took office, during the tenure of President Clinton. In October 0f 2000, Clinton signed legislation granting permanent normal trade relations to China. The measure had been bitterly opposed by conservatives, human rights groups, and unions.

In several reports, the Information, Technology & Information Technology Foundation (ITIF) organization has revealed how deep the U.S. manufacturing crisis is, and how little notice the problem has received. A prior study reported:

“In the 2000s, U.S. manufacturing suffered its worst performance in American history in terms of jobs. Not only did America lose 5.7 million manufacturing jobs, but the decline as a share of total manufacturing jobs (33 percent) exceeded the rate of loss in the Great Depression. Despite this unprecedented negative performance, most economists, pundits and elected officials remain remarkably blasé about what has transpired. Manufacturing, they argue, has simply become incredibly productive. While tough on workers who are laid off, outsized job losses actually indicate superior performance. All that might be needed are better programs to help laid-off production workers. And there is certainly no need for a determined national manufacturing competitiveness strategy.

“The alarm bells are largely silent for two reasons. First, most economists and pundits do not extend their analysis beyond one macro-level number—change in real manufacturing value-added relative to real GDP—which at first glance appears stable. But this number masks real decline in many industries. In 2010, 13 of the 19 U.S. manufacturing sectors (employing 55 percent of manufacturing workers) were producing less than in 2000.
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“Second, and more fundamentally, U.S. government statistics significantly overstate the change in U.S. manufacturing output, and by definition productivity, in part because of massive overestimation of output growth in the computer and electronics sector and because of problems with how manufacturing imports are measured. When measured properly, U.S. manufacturing output actually fell 11 percent over the last decade while GDP increased 17 percent, something that has not happened before, at least since WWII.”

“In a report released this year, ITIF notes that “American manufacturing has still not recovered to 2007 output or employment levels.  Moreover, the lion’s share of growth that has occurred appears to have been driven by a cyclical, rather than structural, recovery, and as such may represent only a temporary trend…for years, many think tanks,scholars, and pundits turned a blind eye towards the severity of U.S. manufacturing decline, preferring to believe that manufacturing loss is either natural or inconsequential.”

The effect on employment has been harsh.  Real Clear Markets reports:

“Focusing on the last decade, the BLS employment data offer a sobering perspective on the manufacturing sector’s growth in employment in recent years. Between 2010-2014, 762,000 new U.S. manufacturing jobs were created over that five-year period, at an annual average rate of 152,400 new jobs. In contrast, during the preceding five-year period (2005 to 2009), 2.8 million manufacturing jobs were lost in the U.S. economy, or an average decline of 562,200 jobs per year. Placed in perspective, this means that only 762,000 and about 27 percent of the 2.8 million manufacturing jobs lost during the five years between 2005 and 2009 were actually recovered in the last five years (2010-2014) of economic recovery. And compared to the start of the Great Recession, American manufacturers employ 1.4 million fewer factory workers today than in December 2007…In September 2012, President Obama announced a national goal to create 1 million new manufacturing positions by the end of 2016. Since that announcement, the US manufacturing sector has created payroll jobs at a rate of only 11,000 per month and fewer than 300,000 jobs in total over the last 27 months. That rate of factory job creation would generate only about 560,000 new jobs by the time Obama leaves office — a 440,000 job shortfall compared to the president’s unrealistic goal of 1 million new factory jobs by the end of next year.”

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SHOULD BIASED UNIVERSITIES BE DEFUNDED?

Should institutions of higher learning be defunded until they cease militantly pushing a hard-left bias on their students?

The existence of the leftist bias is statistically well-documented and this overwhelming majority seeks to suppress contrary voices.  A number of studies have provided solid statistical evidence of this, many of which were cited in a Discover the Networks article:

A  2003 Center for the Study of Popular Culture study examined the ratio of registered Democrats to registered Republicans on the faculties of 32 elite colleges and universities nationwide, finding that the overall ratio of registered Democrats to registered Republicans was greater than 10-to-1 . “At four schools—Williams, Oberlin, MIT and Haverford—the researchers could not identify a single Republican faculty member.” It was also found that administrators at the “32 schools examined in the CSPC study leaned just as far to the left as did the faculties: At schools like the University of Pennsylvania, Carnegie Melon, and Cornell, not a single Republican administrator could be found. In the entire Ivy League, the researchers were able to identify only 3 Republican administrators.

  • The survey’s results have been backed by other investigations.  A “2005 national survey directed by Smith College Professor Stanley Rothman and co-authored by Professors Neil Nevitte (University of Toronto) and S. Robert Lichter (George Mason University) found that left-leaning professors outnumbered conservatives by a ratio of 5-to-1 on American campuses…
  • “Another survey of faculty political views released in 2006 by Professors Christopher Cardiff and Daniel Klein yielded similar results. Cardiff and Klein looked at the political party registration records for tenure-track faculty at 11 California universities—including large public universities as well as smaller, religiously-affiliated campuses. The ratios they uncovered, particularly in certain departments, were striking. In the field of sociology, for instance, the researchers found a Democrat-to-Republican ratio of 44-to-1, whereas in the humanities overall the ratio was 10-to-1.
  • “These findings were again duplicated in 2007 by Professors Neil Gross of Harvard and Solon Simmons of George Mason University, who surveyed a random sampling of more than 1,400 faculty members teaching at 500+ colleges and universities across the United States. ..Gross and Simmons’ results indicated that 9.4% of respondents considered themselves “extremely liberal” and 34.7% considered themselves “liberal,” as compared with 1.2% who labeled themselves “very conservative” and 8.0% who answered “conservative.” Overall, only 19.7% of respondents identified themselves as any shade of conservative, as compared to 62.2% who identified themselves as any shade of liberal…

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The article notes that “These increasingly lopsided figures suggest that most students at these schools probably graduate without ever taking a class taught by a professor with a conservative viewpoint.”

Numerous inflammatory examples have been reported in the general media.  A recent Wall Street Journal article noted that “Conservative thought on campuses these days is rare, though for some, it’s still not rare enough.” Among the most salient of the described incidents:

  •  Fox News  reports   that Charles Angeletti, a professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver, has his class recite an anti-American takeoff on the Pledge of Allegiance that denounces the U.S. as a Republican-controlled bastion of injustice.
  • A Campus Reform  article provided several other  examples:  “Donna Shalala, the president of the University of Miami, attracted criticism in the national press based on her administration’s decision to reject the application of four female students who wanted to organize a conservative group on campus. … the university reversed its decision after public criticism… Shalala, of course, is a prominent Democratic official, having served as Secretary of Health and Human Services for eight years during the Clinton administration. She was recently named the CEO of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation…Condoleezza Rice, who served at the highest levels of government, [was essentially] forced to withdrew as a commencement speaker at Rutgers University after protests. Students and faculty didn’t like the fact that she’d worked in the George W. Bush administration. They were successful in making sure her voice was not heard.”

In contradiction to America’s tradition of religious tolerance, universities have displayed bias against religious Christians and Jews. The Daily Beast recently reported that “From neo-Nazi graffiti at Berkeley to the grilling of a Jewish student at UCLA, anti-Semitism is on the rise at liberal schools thought to be bastions of political correctness.”

As these institutions continue to indoctrinate, rather than instruct, they absorb ever greater amounts of taxpayer, parental, and student loan dollars. A New America Foundation  study notes that “The federal government provided $30.2 billion in grant aid to help individuals pay for a higher education in the 2014-15 school year.” In addition, Washington allows a variety of credits, deductions and exemptions for college attendance. And, of course, there are federally-backed student loans, which increasingly are the topic of discussion due to concerns that students may not be able to repay them going forward.

The states are increasing their higher education spending, as well. A 2014 US News   report  revealed the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association found state funding for higher education increased from $81.1 billion in 2012 to $81.6 billion in 2013. Overall, 30 states increased spending from 2012 to 2013.

All of this funding and loan activity pays for sharply escalating tuition. The National Center for Education Statistics reports that “Between 2001–02 and 2011–12, prices for undergraduate tuition, room, and board at public institutions rose 40 percent, and prices at private nonprofit institutions rose 28 percent, after adjustment for inflation.”

Does it make sense for taxpayers to continue to provide ever greater support to institutions that indoctrinate, not teach? Indeed, are Americans financing the very forces that are seeking to overturn the principles and practices they believe in?

Thomas Jefferson had a firm belief that an educated public was essential to the success of a free nation. In a 1787 letter  to James Madison, he noted:

“Above all things I hope the education of the common people will be attended to, convinced that on their good sense we may rely with the most security for the preservation of liberty.”

Far too many American universities, at ever greater cost, are striving to eliminate the very concepts that gave rise to the founding of the United States.  Rather than, as Jefferson hoped, provide a foundation for the preservation of personal freedom, colleges are now becoming a wellspring of collectivist authoritarianism.  It’s time to defund them.

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Analysis: should Americans fund biased universities?

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US military lacks resources to fulfill defense strategy

The United States is developing military policies it doesn’t have the resources to uphold.

In an attempt in push the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter  spoke at the John McCain Institute in Tempe, Arizona, on Monday as the first part of a trip that took him to Japan, South Korea and Hawaii.

According to Carter “America is a Pacific power and will remain one,” noting that the United States will continue to engage with nations in the Asia-Pacific region. Carter said his stops in Japan and South Korea highlight the importance of America’s decades-old alliances with both countries. He stressed that “60 percent of the U.S. fleet will be in the Pacific-Indian Ocean area. U.S. Marines already have a rotational presence in Australia, Carter said, and U.S. and Filipino authorities are working on ways to strengthen military-to-military cooperation.”

What Carter didn’t admit was that the fleet he mentioned is a mere shadow of America’s former naval strength.  The Navy’s 600-ship strength is down to about 250 vessels, the smallest since World War One.  Many of its most experienced and vital personnel have been forced out due to budget cuts.  In its currently weakened condition, it faces a revitalized and expanding Russian navy across the world, a Chinese navy that is becoming dominant in the Eastern Pacific, and an Iranian navy that practices assaults on mockups of U.S. aircraft carriers.

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“…But the situation is changing in the Western Pacific as Beijing is gradually challenging America’s ability to operate with impunity along China’s periphery. This is evolving as China acquires ballistic missiles, submarines, and air defense systems, and as it gains capacity to deploy aircraft offshore. All of this tests America’s superiority to operate around and near Taiwan. The change is raising concerns among defense planners in the United States and China’s neighbors. There is a real concern that it will alter the reality in the Western Pacific and along China’s periphery and brings into question how long the United States can remain the clearly predominant military power in the Western Pacific. For most U.S. policy makers, such predominance is essential to the defense of U.S. and allied security interests in that region. The implication for the balance of power is the key question over the next several decades.”

Last year, former Defense Secretary Hagel emphasized the impact of budget cuts, stressing that the reductions — including shrinking the Army to its smallest size since before World War II, becoming by the end of 2015 smaller than North Koreas’, and eliminating an entire fleet of Air Force fighter planes —  were “difficult choices” that will change defense institutions for years to come. The Air Force is now at smaller than at any other point in its history.

Rep. William “Mac” Thornberry, R-Texas, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, requested a $16 billion increase over the White House’s defense budget, but given the dramatic drop in defense spending (as noted in a prior NY Analysis of Policy & Government report, “the Pentagon’s 10-year budget projections have absorbed more than $750 billion in cuts, or more than three-quarters of the trillion-dollar cuts that would be required if sequestration is allowed to run its course. The fiscal year 2016 budget is at a near-historic low, representing about 14 percent of total federal discretionary and nondiscretionary outlays.” The 2016  defense budget is $172 billion lower than its 2010 counterpart.

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America’s Embattled Seniors

A combination of government policies, inflationary economics, and employer bias is making life exceedingly difficult for those over 50 years old.

From Obamacare’s “Independent Patient Advisory Boards” that are empowered to decide if providing medical services to seniors are cost effective, to the President’s proposed Medicare Part D changes, seniors’ health is clearly subject to economic pressure. A  Philly.com report notes that   “In February, the president recommended a change that would result in doubling co-payments on brand-name medications for low-income Americans who use Medicare Part D, the prescription drug benefit. That could raise the out-of-pocket costs of prescription drugs for 11 million beneficiaries…Medicare Part D provides essential drug coverage to America’s seniors.”

The problem is not confined to medical issues. The Federal Reserve’s practice of keeping interest rates artificially low to mask a failing economy harms older Americans living off their savings. Also, the historic low cost of living social security increases during the tenure of the current White House has made life increasingly hard for America’s senior citizens.

The extraordinary increase in the federal debt, which soared 70% under President Obama, (from $10.626 trillion when he took office to over $18 trillion currently) is a key factor in the current inflationary spiral. Inflation, particularly in the cost of food, has been devastating to those on fixed incomes, which describes a substantial portion of older Americans. In 2014, the price of standard grocery items soared.

The President’s environmental policies, particularly his move to sharply reduce the role of coal in the energy equation, will result in devastating cost increases that will have deeply harmful effects on the nation’s seniors. In July, according to the Washington Examiner,  “Regulations for new coal plants would increase electricity prices by as much as 80 percent…Julio Friedmann, deputy assistant secretary for clean coal at the Department of Energy, told members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.”

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Unfortunately, the private sector has added to the challenges faced by older Americans.  “Older” is, of course, a relative term. In the eyes of far too many employers, “older” may mean a job seeker only 40 year old.

An AARP report recently released outlines the extraordinary difficulties—far greater than the general population– faced by those who have lost their job but, because of age, are met with resistance in getting hired.

“On average, 45 percent of older jobseekers (ages 55 and older) were long-term unemployed (out of work for 27 weeks or more) in 2014.” [The national average is about 29.8%.] Many of those who are fortunate enough to find some work “end up accepting jobs at lower pay, with fewer hours, and with limited benefits…Almost half (48 percent) of the reemployed said that they were earning less on their current jobs than the job they had before they recently became unemployed…among the reemployed, half were earning less because they were being paid less, 10 percent were working fewer hours, and 39 percent gave both as reasons.”

In an era when the media and the White House are over-eager to claim unfairness or discrimination in so many instances, the most verifiable, inexcusable and harmful bias–that against America’s older population—is substantially under-reported, ignored, or even facilitated by government practice and employer decisions.

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Russian nukes in Ukraine signal danger for the West

Why is Russia setting up a nuclear weapons infrastructure in its captured portion of Ukraine, and what does it mean for the West? (The Jamestown Foundation notes that “TU-22M3 long-range bombers, which would be able to carry and deliver [nuclear] weapons, have now been deployed to Crimea.”)

Although it rarely gets mentioned, Ukraine voluntarily surrendered its nuclear arsenal—the third largest in the world– in return for guarantees of its territorial sovereignty.

The US, the UK, and Russia signed the Budapest Memorandum in 1994 supposedly safeguarding Ukraine . Clearly, all three guarantors, Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, have broken their word.  Moscow invaded and annexed a portion of Ukraine, and neither London nor Washington did anything substantive in response.

That failure sent a reverberating, powerful message to aggressors across the globe. Russia, which is in violation of other treaties, has learned that it can abrogate agreements with impunity.  So can other anti-Western powers.

Moscow currently is also in violation of the 1987 Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) . The Hudson Institute notes that “The agreement bans the testing or deployment of intermediate range cruise and ballistic missiles, those with a range between 500km and 5500 km. In its annual 2014 arms control Compliance Report, the Department of State noted that Russia had violated the pact when it deployed a ground-launched cruise missile, whose unique Iskandar system can fire both cruise and ballistic missiles and a system Russia plans to deploy to Crimea… Nor is it Russia’s only INF violation. Moscow also has converted a single-warhead ICBM into a three-warhead intermediate-range ballistic missile, a violation missing from the 2014 Compliance Report.”
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Iran and Syria know that America’s threats, and promises of protection to its allies, are not serious. China has harassed and stolen assets from its neighbors.

Apologists for Putin may claim that Russia is only solidifying his grip on a strategic occupied portion of Ukraine.  However, Jamestown reports that “Nor are these Russian military reinforcements seemingly aimed only at the strategic Ukrainian port city of Mariupol. They are also occurring in and around Belarus and sites in western Russia like Belgorod, where massed Russian forces can be turned against the inviting defense-industry target of Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, March 16). These reinforcements also derive from previously announced plans to emphasize Russian military buildups for 2015, in the Baltic, Crimea and the Arctic (RIA Novosti, March 17). Moscow’s boosting of its nuclear and conventional forces suggests a continuing Russian effort not just to deter NATO but also to intimidate European governments.”

The message to the West is clear: Russia is asserting hegemony over the former Soviet republics and the Kremlin’s former captive nations in Eastern Europe. It is also returning to Moscow’s former desire to cow the rest of Europe into relative submission.

There has been an historically rapid turnaround from the late 20th century collapse of the Soviet Empire, and the potential era of peace that could have resulted from it.  The failure of the West, the United States in particular, to maintain an adequate military capability, and the pacifist/isolationist policies of the Obama Administration in particular, have squandered what was a true opportunity for a prolonged period of international peace.

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Amount & complexity of taxes vexes Americans

Americans are filing their taxes today, but “Tax Freedom Day” won’t occur until April 24, one day later than last year, according to the Tax Foundation.

“Tax Freedom Day® is the day when the nation as a whole has earned enough money to pay off its total tax bill for the year. Tax Freedom Day provides Americans with an easy way to gauge the overall tax take-a task that can otherwise be daunting due to the multiplicity of taxes at various levels of government and “hidden” taxes and fees that are often buried in the cost of living. Tax Freedom Day computed by dividing total tax collections by the nation’s income, as reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Every dollar that is officially called income by the government is counted, and every payment that is officially considered a tax is counted. The resulting percentage is then converted into days of a 365-day calendar year.”

It’s not only the amount of taxes that vexes Americans; it’s the complexity of the tax system.

The National Taxpayers Union Foundation  (NTUF) has released a new annual study of tax code complexity in the U.S., “finding the economy lost $233.8 billion due to 6.1 billion hours of lost productivity (an estimated value of $202.1 billion) and $31.7 billion in out-of-pocket costs spent complying with a complex and invasive tax code.”

‘Americans face a rising tax complexity burden that essentially prevents anyone from being able to comply without assistance,’ Study author and NTUF Policy Analyst Michael Tasselmyer said. ‘This year’s study gives an indication of future challenges, revealing the additional complications the Affordable Care Act will add to the Tax Code and filing.’
“Additionally, a new analysis of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) impact on complexity found 3,322 pages of legal guidance related to the ACA added to IRS.gov – this overlaps partially with 1,865 pages of new ACA regulations.

“NTUF’s report also highlights complexity issues related to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), heavier paperwork burdens, taxpayer service challenges, and identity theft.

“This year’s key findings include:

  • According to the IRS National Taxpayer Advocate, the total time burden of tax compliance totals an astounding 1 billion hoursthis year.
    • That is the equivalent of 152.5 million 40-hour workweeks. It would take 59,580 American workers working every week with no days off from age 18 until reaching the full Social Security retirement age of 67, to account for that much time.
    • Or, enough time for the Voyager spacecraft to fly to the nearest star (Proxima Centauri) and back four times!

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  • The total compliance cost is $233.813 billiona year. More than the GDP of Ireland, Portugal, or Pakistan.
    • Of this, individuals spend a combined $31.72 billiona year on tax software and other out-of-pocket costs.
    • When calculated at the average hourly wage, the value of the labor involved in tax compliance is a jaw-dropping $202.093 billion.
  • NTUF found a staggering 3,322 pagesof legal guidancefor the Affordable Care Act added to IRS.gov – including regulations (1,077), Treasury decisions (1,377), notices (669), revenue procedures (100), and revenue rulings (12).
  • The Treasury’s paperwork burden (most of it due to taxes) imposed on the public has grown from 6.4 billion hours to 7 billion hours over the period from fiscal year 2005 to 2013, never making up less than 74 percent of the burden imposed by all government agencies combined.
  • With paid preparers and tax preparation software accounting for 94 percent of returns, it is nearly impossible for any taxpayer to file without assistance.Meanwhile, the average retail fee per return for H&R Block rose to a high of $215. 
  • Most estimates put the length of the Tax Code at roughly 4 million words. This is seven timesthe length of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace; more than two times the length of the King James Bible plus the entire works of Shakespearecombined; or, for a more modern reference, well over twice the length of the five Song of Ice and Fireseries books that inspired the TV show “Game of Thrones.”
  • Over 75 years ago, the Form 1040 instructions were just two pages Today, taxpayers must wade through 209 pages of instructions, quadruple the number in 1985, the year before taxes were “simplified.”

“Between 2009 and 2011 the cost of tax complexity spiked from under $150 billion per year to well over $200 billion per year. It has not fallen below that threshold since, and 2015’s estimates are nearly $10 billion higher than last year, showing complexity costs are back on the rise.

‘The IRS has never had more power over America’s taxpayers, thanks to even greater cost and complexity added to the code by Obamacare and FATCA,’ added Tasselmyer. ‘Without reform there is little reason to expect anything other than a rising time and financial burden, not to mention more invasion of privacy.”

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Alternatives to Obamacare

It has become a standard line of those defending Obamacare (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148)  and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-152)  that there is no alternative to the deeply flawed  program, which has cost the taxpayers so much, and produced so little.

The National Center for Public Policy Research has compiled a list of alternatives that have been proposed, including those presented by the CATO Institute; Senators Hatch, Burr, Coburn, and Upton; the Republican Study Committee; Rep. Tom Price; and Senator Ted Cruz.  The continuing  statements by the White House, many legislators, and much of the media that no alternatives have been developed is manifestly incorrect.

In addition, many of the concepts to address the escalating costs of health care and health care insurance have yet to be enacted, and remain actively opposed by special interest groups, including lawyers groups and insurance companies.  These include innovations such as allowing health care insurance to be sold nationally, instead of state by state to enhance competition and reduce prices; enacting tort reform, to address the skyrocketing cost of malpractice insurance for doctors and medical institutions due to non-substantive nuisance law suits; and permitting policies that more precisely fit the needs of the insured, such as coverage for catastrophic care only.

The need to address Obamacare has been summarized by the Heritage Foundation,  which outlined how the legislation detrimentally affects Americans:

“Seniors: The law cuts an estimated $716 billion from Medicare over ten years. However, these “savings” are not set aside to preserve Medicare’s future, instead they are used to fund new spending created by the law. Nearly one-third of all seniors rely on Medicare Advantage, the private health care option in Medicare. Despite the program’s growing enrollment and beneficiary satisfaction, Obamacare makes deep cuts to the program that jeopardize its viability in coming years. In addition to payment cuts, Obamacare imposes new taxes on drug companies and medical device makers, and new regulations that will make health care more costly for seniors.

“Doctors: The United States is facing a severe physician shortage. By 2020, the nation will need an additional 91,500 doctors to meet medical demand. Obamacare exacerbates this problem by further increasing physicians’ workload and worsening their attitudes regarding the health care system.

A 2012 survey found that Obamacare is motivating doctors to change their retirement timeline, with 43 percent of respondents stating that they are considering retiring within the next five years as a result of the law.
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“Business & The Economy: The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Obamacare subsidies will discourage Americans from working, and cause 2.5 million employees to drop out of the labor force.

Obamacare’s employer mandate will raise the minimum cost of hiring a full-time worker to $10.30/hour in 2015. Congress has already raised the minimum wage from an employer’s point of view, but the money goes to the government instead of the employees.

“States: Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion worsens the already heavy burdens facing states. By 2021, approximately 78 million people are projected to be enrolled in Medicaid—requiring billions of dollars from state budgets and taxpayers. In the individual market, Obamacare’s exchanges have on average decreased insurer competition by an estimated 29 percent nationwide. Furthermore, over half of the counties in the U.S. have only one or two insurers to choose from in their Obamacare exchange.

“Families: Obamacare adds nearly $2 trillion in new health care spending according to the Congressional Budget Office. Over the next 10 years, Obamacare will levy about$771 billion in new taxes and fees.

Obamacare imposes significant financial penalties on the decision to get or remain married – over $10,000 per year for certain couples.

“Uninsured: The Congressional Budget Office estimates that “between 6 and 7 million fewer people will have employment-based coverage each year from 2016 through 2024 than would be the case in the absence of [the new health law].”In 2024, after ten years of full implementation, 31 million people are projected to remain uninsured.”

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Obama’s unexplained Cuban policy

The New York Analysis has released its report on the President’s move Where a doctor can offer the best advice, sildenafil pills secretworldchronicle.com many men count on Ultimate X. The minerals present in this ingredient are not like minerals found in other health supplements as they are available at one-tenth price of its branded counterparts. generic viagra in canada Impotence is an outcome of dearth on line cialis secretworldchronicle.com in blood flow towards the penis making it hard to erect. Under the strict supervision of IVF speviagra generika t and embryologist the process is conducted in any IVF clinic in London have shown that only 5% of couples who adopted a child were able to conceive later, proving the fact that their health is most important part of fibromyalgia treatments. to normalize relations with Cuba.  The report can be accessed below.

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NY Analysis

Obama’s Unjustified Cuban Policy

Mr. Obama has engaged in yet another radical departure in U.S. foreign policy with his opening of relations with Cuba for the first time since 1961.

Two vital questions remain unanswered.

Why has the White House chosen this peculiar point in time to engage with Havana, and

what benefit does the U.S., other than public relations praise from several Latin America leaders, stand to gain from the move?

The President is, once again, using Executive Authority rather than consultation with Congress in this matter, resulting in both those questions remaining insufficiently answered.

Mr. Obama’s penchant for ignoring long-standing and unresolved issues in dealing with nations at odds with America was again on display as he maintained, in a well-publicized recent quote about his stance on Cuban-U.S. relations, “The United States will not be imprisoned by the past — we’re looking to the future. I’m not interested in having battles that frankly started before I was born… The Cold War has been over for a long time.” The Cold War remark is rather strange, in light of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, dramatic arms buildup, threatening actions towards Europe, and nuclear patrols off U.S. coastlines.

There have been debates concerning a softening of relations with Havana for years.  However, the Castro leadership’s continued intransigence in refusing to provide basic human rights to its people, support of terrorism, and continuing military threats to other nations including the United States prevented any progress.  Those factors have not improved, and, in terms of its willingness to allow Moscow to use Cuba as a military base for actions compromising the national security of the United States, their actions have in fact recently worsened.

Under the terms of the new relationship, Cuba will be removed from the list of states sponsoring terrorism, despite the fact that it continues to do so. Example includes continuing support for Basque terrorists and sheltering Joanne Chesimard and Charles Hill, who murdered U.S. police officers, and Guillermo Morales,  an explosives expert/bomb maker for the FALN (Fuerzas Armadas Liberacion Nacional), an extremist organization advocating for Puerto Rican independence through acts of violence. The group, active in the 1970s and early 1980s, is credited with committing more than 100 bombings that caused several deaths, multiple injuries, and millions of dollars in damage.

The two nations will exchange embassies, and engage in some prisoner exchanges. Some restrictions on commerce will be eased, but the embargo will not be completely removed unless Congress approves. The move would allow U.S. residents to send funds to family members in Cuba, and ends most travel restrictions. This should substantially assist Havana’s economy. There is no substantial benefit to the U.S. economy, or a resolution of the confiscation of American property by the Castro regime.

There is no indication that Havana will ease its extreme suppression of human rights on the island following the normalization of relations. Indeed, even during the discussions leading to the new relationship, Cuba imprisoned 140 additional people for political reasons. Freedom House noted that “In 2014, the Cuban government increased its systematic use of short-term “preventive” detentions—along with harassment, beatings, and ‘acts of repudiation’—to intimidate the political opposition, isolate dissidents from the rest of the population, and maintain political control of all public spaces. A record number of politically motivated detentions were recorded in 2014, and crackdowns on activists continued. For example, an attempted performance that addressed social and political issues, orchestrated by artist Tania Bruguera, was met with harsh repression in December.” Freedom House also reported that “Cuba is the only country in the Americas that consistently makes Freedom House’s list of the Worst of the Worst: the World’s Most Repressive Societies for widespread abuses of political rights and civil liberties.”

Considering that the United States is receiving no substantive financial incentive from Obama’s initiative, and human rights considerations are essentially ignored, why has the White House chosen to aid the Castro regime at a time when Havana is assisting Moscow’s expanding military presence in Latin America?
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Last July, The Guardian reported that “Russia has quietly reached an agreement with Cuba to reopen a Soviet-era spy base on America’s doorstep, …The deal to reopen the signals intelligence facility in Lourdes, south of Havana.”

The move is part of a larger Russian effort to expand militarily throughout Latin America. The authoritative Jamestown Foundation  has reported:

“Nobody should think that Moscow’s aggressive campaign to restore its former status as a global great power or its fundamentally anti-American policy is currently confined to Ukraine. Indeed, while the invasion, occupation and annexation of Crimea—not to mention the threats to eastern Ukraine—continue, Moscow is also seeking to expand its military, political and economic footprint in Latin America. Russia seeks to establish permanent bases in the Western Hemisphere to challenge the U.S.  With Brazil, Moscow is trying to generate interest in joint development of combat aircraft and surface-to-air missile systems. If successful, this would mark a step toward creating a group of industrialized countries that employ Russian designs and design bureaus for creating their own military hardware, thereby making the Russian defense sector more secure, pervasive and particularly significant in high-tech areas. Meanwhile, Moscow will sell entire weapons systems to less-developed countries endowed with cash, as it has done with Venezuela he United States’ policies as well as to try to peel away US allies from Washington’s influence. … But arms sales hardly exhaust Russia’s repertoire here. Perhaps the most significant move was revealed on February 26 by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu when he described a global plan of potential bases for the Russian Navy. These targets for bases also include countries in Asia like the Seychelles Islands and Singapore (RIA Novosti, February 26). In Latin America, Russia is seeking bases in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, all of whom are Moscow’s allies. Yet, significantly, two of these states—Cuba and Venezuela—could face a change of leadership or even regime in the near future. These proposed naval bases represent an effort to undermine the US and its allies in Latin America (ITAR-TASS March 5; lignet.com, March 18). Indeed, the Russian military is also seeking equatorial bases for refueling its Long-Range Aircraft, suggesting combat missions for them in the vicinity of either Latin America or North America (ITAR-TASS, March 5). Nicaraguan media reports, meanwhile, pointed to the expansionist logic behind Russia’s bases and Moscow’s desire to challenge the United States in its “backyard.” These reports also noted that the Barack Obama Administration has done little or nothing to counter the expansion of Russian and Chinese influence into Latin America (La Prensa, March 3, 4).”

Moscow has helped create and foster anti-U.S. activities in Latin America that go far beyond the usual verbal expressions of disdain for the United States.

As previously reported in the New York Analysis of Policy & Government  “With the assistance of China, Russia, and Iran, a number of Latin American and Caribbean nations are developing a new, hostile military structure. The Strategy Center’s study on the Advance of Radical Populist Doctrine in Latin America describes how Venezuela has utilized its vast income from oil sales to develop an anti-U.S. movement in the western hemisphere. Entitled ALBA (also known as the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America) it was initially formed by the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in 2004 and includes Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Dominica, Ecuador, Antigua & Barbuda, and Saint Vincent & the Grenadines.

“The organization espouses an overtly anti-capitalist agenda.

“According to a Bolivian diplomatic document reviewed by the New York Analysis of Policy & Government, the organization seeks to develop a number of cooperative economic initiatives, and most importantly, a “new military doctrine.”  This alliance is clearly anti-U.S….

“Gen. John Kelly, in charge of the U.S. Southern Command which has responsibility for Latin American security matters, is deeply worried that the slashed American defense budget has been deeply detrimental to our interests in Latin America and is ‘significantly degrading our ability to defend the southern approaches to the United States.”

Clearly, America gains very little from normalizing relations with Cuba. The White House has failed to explain its motive for doing so, other than the President’s dislike for continuing policies that predate his administration.

Providing unreciprocated concessions to a regime that continues to violate human rights, supports terrorism, and has recently welcomed military threats against America onto its soil renders both the existence and timing of Mr. Obama’s actions deeply troubling.