2011 Apr 22- Headline News

Why are some states growing and other states lagging? Don’t ask the liberals, because they’re busy covering their ears and saying, “La-la-la-la-la-la” to avoid hearing the truths revealed in the 2010 census.

Michael Barone explains the economic facts of life at Investors.com:

The eight states with no state income tax grew 18% in the last decade. The other states (including the District of Columbia) grew just 8%.

The 22 states with right-to-work laws grew 15% in the last decade. The other states grew just 6%.

The 16 states where collective bargaining with public employees is not required grew 15% in the last decade. The other states grew 7%.

If we’re not mistaken, this is what’s called a trend.

[more....]
http://www.ihatethemedia.com/2010-census-reveals-truths-liberals-dont-want-to-hear

Contemplating the 2012 election that can already be seen looming on the distant horizon, the President's advisors were no doubt hoping that the "death panel" debate was… well… dead. But Obama himself inadvertently resurrected it when, in response to Republican budget proposals, he claimed that Medicare costs will be kept under control by the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). Obamacare opponents have been screaming about this committee since it was first added to the "reform" bill. And, since that time, anyone with the temerity to call it by its proper name -- death panel -- has been vilified by the Democrats and the "news" media. Nonetheless, that's precisely what IPAB will be. Its sole purpose is to cut funding for some health care services seniors now take for granted. And those cuts will kill people.

IPAB was created pursuant to section 3403 of the ironically named Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), and its ostensible purpose is to "control costs." In reality, it will do nothing at all about costs. Instead, the board's fifteen "experts" will impose old-fashioned price controls. Before Obamacare was signed into law in March of 2010, only Congress had the power to make changes to Medicare's reimbursement rates. But PPACA, for all intents and purposes, transfers that power to this tiny cadre of presidential appointees who will have no accountability to the voters. In theory, IPAB can only propose changes to Medicare's payment rates. In practice, however, the board's proposals will take effect automatically unless Congress passes contrary legislation and the President signs it into law.

This concentrates a huge amount of power in the hands of these fifteen people. As Obama's former Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Peter Orszag, phrased it last year in a discussion at the Economic Club of Washington: "This institution could prove to be far more important to the future of our fiscal health than, for example, the Congressional Budget Office. It has an enormous amount of potential power." This comment suggests that the Obama administration always intended to maintain the country's "fiscal health" by stinting on Granny's physical health. Hyperbole? Consider Orszag's description of the automatic implementation feature of IPAB's proposals: "So the default is now switched in a very important way on the biggest driver of our long-term costs, which is the Medicare program."

[more....]
http://www.marklevinshow.com/goout.asp?u=http://spectator.org/archives/2011/04/22/ipab-is-an-acronym-for-death-p

This Day in History:

American Revolution: Apr 22, 1778:
John Paul Jones leads American raid on Whitehaven, England