Mcnorman's Weblog

More on Public Employees Pay

In this morning’s Wall Street Journal, you can read all about the differences in pay between public and private employees. Their data is based on the work of Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute.

Via South Korean ship sinking, North attack suspected: report:

Earlier on Friday, North Korea’s military accused the United States and South Korea of trying to topple the Pyongyang regime and said it was ready to launch nuclear attacks to frustrate any provocations.

The military General Staff cited a South Korean newspaper report as evidence of “desperate moves of the US imperialists and the South Korean puppet warmongers” for regime change.

A General Staff spokesman warned the official Korean Central News Agency that there would be a retaliation for any attack.

“Those who seek to bring down the system in the DPRK (North Korea)… will fall victim to the unprecedented nuclear strikes of the invincible army,” he said.

What else can go wrong?

South Korea’s YTN TV network said the government was investigating whether the sinking was due to a torpedo attack by the North, and Yonhap news agency said the Seoul government had convened an emergency meeting of security-related ministers.

Yonhap also reported a South Korean navy ship firing toward an unidentified vessel to the north.

North Korea in recent weeks has said it was bolstering its defenses in response to joint South Korean-U.S. military drills that were held this month.

From GP

Washington Post reports:

The Obama administration plans to overhaul how it’s tackling the foreclosure crisis, in part by requiring lenders to temporarily slash or eliminate monthly mortgage payments for many borrowers who are unemployed, senior officials said Thursday.

Banks and other lenders would have to reduce the payments to no more than 31 percent of a borrower’s income, which would typically be their unemployment insurance, for up to six months. In some cases, administration officials said, a lender could allow a borrower to make no payments at all.

I resent this.  I have always worked two to three jobs in order to pay my bills on time.  Many of the jobs that I have taken were less than choice, but I did it.   I have NEVER lived above my means.

Personally, the tax isn’t worth the skin cancer.

From the Tax Prof:

A lawyer asks whether the new 10% tanning tax included in the health care bill unconstitutionally discriminates against whites:

I [have] a question about the intersection of taxation and civil rights law. It strikes me that the health care bill which requires that indoor tanning salons will charge customers a 10% tax beginning in July will necessarily only impact tanning salon customers. I have never been to a tanning salon, but since their purpose is to turn light skin darker, I can only assume that the overwhelming majority, if not totality, of customers are white. Does Adarand apply to taxation decision as it does to spending decisions like the Section 8(a) program, but what about taxing decisions?

Via Cato @ Liberty

Explains the Times:

The bursting of the real estate bubble and the ensuing recession have hurt jobs, home prices and now Social Security.

This year, the system will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes, an important threshold it was not expected to cross until at least 2016, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Stephen C. Goss, chief actuary of the Social Security Administration, said that while the Congressional projection would probably be borne out, the change would have no effect on benefits in 2010 and retirees would keep receiving their checks as usual.

The problem, he said, is that payments have risen more than expected during the downturn, because jobs disappeared and people applied for benefits sooner than they had planned. At the same time, the program’s revenue has fallen sharply, because there are fewer paychecks to tax.

Analysts have long tried to predict the year when Social Security would pay out more than it took in because they view it as a tipping point — the first step of a long, slow march to insolvency, unless Congress strengthens the program’s finances.

The crisis is now, since the vaunted “trust fund” is filled with non-recourse government bonds–essentially worthless pieces of paper.

Any more questions about that third world status that Barack has tossed us into?

Don’t laugh, it might just happen.

This is not a proposal to halt immigration. It’s a call for rationalizing immigration. In some domains, in fact, health-care reform may lead to a heightened need of immigrants. Who knows? If the Obama reforms squeeze the incomes of health-care professionals tightly enough, doctoring may become one of those jobs that Americans “just won’t do.”

via How immigration reform threatens health reform. Incredibly honest read about amnesty.  Who pays, more or less and the outcomes.

IMO, amnesty does not work.  The largest threat is who will enforce this?  Will the illegal population pay, even if forced? Call me skeptical, but I have to ask how? This population lives in the shadows. The penalty to not purchase into the system is high for citizens. Will the non citizens be excused for not purchasing insurance because their pay is not sufficient to pay into the system? Will the penalty be the same for those who are not citizens? How will all of this be enforced? Frankly, they can easily run away and leave the tab unpaid. It happens all the time.