Mitt Romney’s Back and Forth on Obamacare

Unsurprisingly, the Romney campaign has been to this point vehemently against the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as Obamacare. It came as a bit of a shock then, when Romney had this exchange with Meet the Press‘s David Gregory:

GREGORY:  Well, let me ask you about a couple of specific areas.  On healthcare, you say that you would rescind the president’s healthcare plan on day one.  Does that mean that you’re prepared to say to Americans, young adults and those with pre-existing conditions, that they would no longer be guaranteed healthcare?

MR. ROMNEY:  Well, of course not.  I say we’re going to replace Obamacare.  And I’m replacing it with my own plan.  And, you know, even in Massachusetts where I was governor, our plan there deals with pre-existing conditions and with young people.  Everybody…

GREGORY:  So you’d keep that part of the federal plan?

MR. ROMNEY:  Well, I’m not getting rid of all of healthcare reform.  Of course, there are a number of things that I like in healthcare reform that I’m going to put in place.  One is to make sure that those with pre-existing conditions can get coverage.  Two is to assure that the marketplace allows for individuals to have policies that cover their– their family up to whatever age they might like.  I also want individuals to be able to buy insurance, health insurance, on their own as opposed to only being able to get it on a tax advantage basis through their company.

This has some interesting and contradictory implications, and those implications comprise today’s topic.

Continue reading “Mitt Romney’s Back and Forth on Obamacare” →

Trains, Planes, and Automobiles

Recently, I was asked to comment on the debate over state investment in infrastructure, specifically the role that high speed rail has to play. Today I’d like to investigate to what extent high speed rail is a viable option in developed countries as a means of expanding and improving the transportation network and the economy more broadly, comparing it to added investment in airport infrastructure or highway infrastructure.

Continue reading “Trains, Planes, and Automobiles” →

Welfare and Wage Slavery

Recently, Barack Obama was accused of “gutting welfare reform” in some of Mitt Romney’s ads of which the following is an example:

This has been widely recognised as a distortion; PolitiFact calls it a “pants on fire” lie. In reality, Obama is allowing state governments to waive certain parts of the welfare reform’s performance measures in favour of alternatives, provided that there is evidence that the state is achieving the principle aim of the reforms–putting people on welfare to work.

That’s all widely known at this point. What I’d like to talk about today is why we really would be better off if Obama had in fact gutted American welfare reform. It’s a bold claim, and not a very politically popular one in the times in which we live, but hear me out. I propose that a welfare system with no demand or encouragement to reenter the workforce is in fact better for the capitalist system.

Continue reading “Welfare and Wage Slavery” →

Bill Nye the Anti-Creationism Guy

A few days ago, before it went viral, I happened upon this video from Bill Nye (of Bill Nye the Science Guy) commenting on creationism:

 

The video certainly struck me as interesting, but not particularly controversial. Big Think, the YouTube channel that put out the video, frequently posts intellectually engaging videos that encourage viewers to reassess their ideas or consider new ones, and videos like this one are what I’ve come to expect from them as a subscriber. However, a few days later I discovered that it had attained over a million views, and as I check today the count is over three million. I’d like to discuss Nye’s comments and why they seem to have struck a nerve, for good or for bad, with so many people.

Continue reading “Bill Nye the Anti-Creationism Guy” →