Subject to Change

Twelve years ago on this day, August 29, Skynet became self aware. God save us all!

Incidentally, that means Terminator 2 is MORE than twelve years old. Those fancy computer graphics are looking really dated now.

I was inspired by a comment Mark Belling made this afternoon. He pointed out that not only are wind farms impractical for all the reasons involving noise, land space, and generation capacity. They also take energy to produce. He danced around the perfect question:

How many windmills does it take to produce a new windmill?

While I don’t know the exact answer to that question, I do know that it would take many windmills to generate the power needed for just one factory to manufacture a windmill. I’ve worked in factory environments and I have an appreciation for how much energy manufacturing equipment needs. If you want those windmills quickly or lots of them you’ll need even more power, too.

It’s getting interesting in Fond du Lac. Some of the workers aren’t happy going down without a fight.

I’d like to see them take another vote, even if it is meaningless. If a vast majority change their vote it will demonstrate to all those watching that the union screwed the people.

An even better scenario would be for the workers to spontaneously vote the union out. The workers believed that the union existed to serve their best interests, and they’re learning a hard lesson now. But, it’s the union organization that really needs to be taught a lesson. Unions have been playing politics with people’s lives for far too long.

Maybe I’m having this idea too late. I’m not sure. I think there’s still stimulus money out there that hasn’t been assigned to any project, and I’ve thought of a way to use it that could actually stimulate the economy.

I’m not really on Madison’s must read list anymore, but if any of you guys are reading here’s a simple plan: Sales Tax Holiday.

State and local governments should use their stimulus money to forgo sales tax revenue until the “free” money from the federal government dries up. You can bet that this would encourage plenty of people to buy big ticket items they’ve been holding out on, like dishwashers (energy efficient ones, too), televisions, and CARS (some made by GM). No doubt restaurants and retailers would see an increase in business.

Or, we could try an alternate plan. This would also be an interesting social experiment, demonstrating the effect taxation has on the economy. The money is “free,” so we’ve got nothing (more) to lose. Why not lower taxes (property, sales, corporate, or whatever) in half of Milwaukee county while leaving them at current levels in the other half and we’ll see what happens?

It’s not a surpise to hear suggestions that we need to memorialize Ted Kennedy by passing universal health care. I just have one question for anyone who thinks that the passing of a Kennedy is a valid reason to end the debate.

Do you really want to be buried right beside the senator?

I haven’t done one of these things in ages!

The weather’s been pretty wee-wee’d up this year hasn’t it?

We jumped from near freezing yesterday to near boiling today. At this rate I’d say we’ve got less than eight days to stop global warming or we’re all going to die.

Here’s a tip for the global warming crowd: you might want to write off 2009 as a “statistical anomaly.” It doesn’t fit your model. And, if I were you I’d lay low until at least next year, to avoid looking like a complete tool.

SEC. 113. INSURANCE RATING RULES.

AKA: Tinkering with premiums.

This section establishes the guidelines for premiums charged by a qualifying health plan. Since I’m not in the insurance business, it’s hard for me to say what the impact would be. I’m sure there’s no shortage of opinions.

Sec. 113(b)(2) REPORTS- Not later than 18 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commissioner shall submit to Congress and the applicable agencies a report on the study conducted under paragraph (1). Such report shall include any recommendations the Commissioner deems appropriate to ensure that the law does not provide incentives for small and mid-size employers to self-insure or create adverse selection in the risk pools of large group insurers and self-insured employers. Not later than 18 months after the first day of Y1, the Commissioner shall submit to Congress and the applicable agencies an updated report on such study, including updates on such recommendations.

“Such report shall include any recommendations the Commissioner deems appropriate to ensure that the law does not provide incentives for small and mid-size employers to self-insure…”

I read that part aloud to my wife. If there’s any question about whether this bill is attempting to kill private insurance it’s answered in that statement.

“ensure that the law does not provide incentives for small and mid-size employers to self-insure…”

I have a diabetic friend who runs his own business. He’s not going to like reading that.

SEC. 111. PROHIBITING PRE-EXISTING CONDITION EXCLUSIONS

A qualified health benefits plan may not impose any pre-existing condition exclusion (as defined in section 2701(b)(1)(A) of the Public Health Service Act) or otherwise impose any limit or condition on the coverage under the plan with respect to an individual or dependent based on any health status-related factors (as defined in section 2791(d)(9) of the Public Health Service Act) in relation to the individual or dependent.

As I understand it, there are protections currently in place to provide continuous coverage. You cannot be denied by your employer’s insurance for pre-existing conditions, so long as you have no lapse in coverage. This looks like an expansion to that idea. Nobody can be denied coverage, period. This, of course, sound nice. The debate that must be had is whether the change is economically prudent.

There’s a comment section on this post if you care to begin the debate right now.

In case you haven’t heard, HR 3200 is the health care bill that’s getting all the attention lately, also known as ‘America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009.’ A co-worker challenged me to slug through this bill, like I did with the ISG report, and I decided to give it a shot. I have no idea how far I’ll get before my brain melts, but here we go!

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