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Thursday, January 15, 2009
Limiting lawsuits, college access, bike theft
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thinking Right’s weekend free-for-all. Pick a topic:
Gov. Sonny Perdue is dead-on correct. When the federal Food and Drug Administration, as the final authority on the safety of drugs and medical devices, grants approval, it should mean something. Approval should free companies from pursuing product-liability claims in state courts. Such legislation, he said, will make the state more attractive to biotechnology companies. Another good proposal: A limited loser-pays law to discourage frivolous lawsuits.
No problem here with paying higher rates for nuclear power plant construction before the facilities are finished. Georgia Power wants to build two reactors at Plant Vogtle near Augusta and to charge customers $1.6 billion of its $6.4 billion share-cost before they’re finished. We need the power. We’ll pay ultimately anyway. Why wait?
The bicycles owned by former President and first lady Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were stolen from the Carter Center. The thousand-dollar bikes were gifts, prompting the giver to declare that they’ve “probably been sold for a $10 rock of crack.” To the conservative, this is a crime warranting pursuit. What would a liberal do? Choose one:
1) Blame the Bush Administration for cutting funds for community policing.
2) Create a new federal program to provide free or low-cost bicycles to those who don’t have them.
3) Create new federal counseling and treatment programs for druggies.
4) All of the above.
- Which will we find first?
1) Oil and gas in Georgia, for which State Sen. Chip Pearson wants a bigger bounty.
2) A casino in Underground Atlanta.
3) An Atlanta politician who thinks his or her financial problems are not caused by somebody else.
4 ) None of the above.
Mistake. Bad mistake. Letting bankruptcy judges rewrite home mortgages, as Democrats in Congress propose, means simply that the risk that a mortgage contract can be altered will be written into everybody’s loan as fees and higher interest rates. Congress loves to hide the cost of its social programs in the private sector and in your household budget.
Not a bad idea, actually. The Chancellor of the University System of Georgia warns that with tax revenues down, public colleges may have to limit enrollment to maintain quality. Some private colleges may well identify as their market niche serving students who aren’t college material. A ceiling on public enrollment based on merit is an idea worth exploring. A quarter of incoming freshmen aren’t ready for college. At some point in life the burden shifts from “your failure is my problem” (public education) to “your failure is your problem” (those who aren’t qualified for college).
When Democrats in Congress freeze the death tax at this year’s level rather than allow it to drop to zero next year, that’s a tax increase. When they choose next year not to extend or make permanent the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, that’s a tax increase. When Gov. Sonny Perdue opts not to include the existing $428 million in tax-relief grants to homeowners in next year’s budget, that is a tax increase of $200 to $300 per homeowner.
On torture, a new definition emerges from Susan J. Crawford, the top judge overseeing trials for enemy combatants. According to her, the combination of techniques that singly are not torture — loud music, long periods of restraint in uncomfortable positions or exposure to uncomfortable chill — are torture. Therefore, the case against the suspected terrorist believed to be the “20th hijacker,” Mohammed al-Qahtani, cannot be brought to trial, she said. The administration denies the torture allegations. Soon failure to provide a new toothbrush every three months will constitute torture, and sooner if Obama takes his cue from the left.
Fascinating how the “culture of corruption” disappeared once the election was over. Once upon a time, a failure to pay taxes by a presidential appointee would have been evidence of its existence. Now it’s an “innocent mistake.”
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Block it up: ‘Cash for clunkers’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Got leftover food in the refrigerator that’s about to go bad? Consuming it could make you sick. And if you get sick, you drive up the nation’s health care cost. So sit tight. Any day now, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) or some other creative economic stimulus guru in Congress, will devise a plan to issue vouchers for nearly-spoiled leftovers that can be used to purchase more nutritious meals at Whole Foods or at a certified health foods store.
That’s coming, for sure, just as soon as her new plan to get gas guzzlers off the highway gets off concrete blocks. Under “Cash for Clunkers” legislation introduced Wednesday in both the House and the Senate, motorists could get a voucher for up to $4,500 for turning in an old, fuel-inefficient vehicle, which would then be scrapped. A “clunker” is one that had a fuel-economy rating of less than 18 miles per hour when new.
The voucher could be used for a new or used vehicle costing $45,000 or less with a fuel economy rating that exceeds by 25 percent the federal targets for that particular class. The vouchers could also be used for transit fare credit.
“This is an even better trade-in offer than they could get from any car dealership,” said Your Friend in the Fuel-Efficient Car Business, Smilin’ Chuck Schumer, the U.S. Senator from New York, a co-sponsor.
This is one reason, incidentally, that we never wanted to make taxpayers partners with Detroit in the car business. It encourages politicians, spending other people’s money, to dabble in investment-connected social policy.
The bill, said Feinstein, “would be an important part of helping getting America’s struggling automobile industry back on its feet, and help consumers who are concerned about covering the cost of buying a more fuel-efficient vehicle.” Too, said Republican Susan Collins of Maine, another co-sponsor, this keen idea helps reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
Today’s market tip to savvy Thinking Right blogsters: Corner the market on clunkers. Politicians with sacks of cash are on a spending spree. And, yes, putting a clunker on concrete blocks in your front yard is today’s symbol to the neighborhood that you are committed to energy independence and to revving up the nation’s economic engine and getting American moving again (in a socially responsible, fuel-efficient way).
