No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Archive for January 18th, 2010

Health Care and MA Senate Race

by @ 17:18. Filed under Miscellaneous.

I predicted weeks ago that the health care legislation would not pass out of conference committee. I still might end up being wrong. But I am sticking to my original story.

I believe a win by Scott Brown in MA will be the undoing of President Obama’s health care legislation. I know there is talk of various ways in which the House and Senate could come together and send something to the President. But a Brown win makes that politically untenable.

My critics will argue that my forecast turned out to be correct (if it does) because of the Scott Brown win, which nobody could have predicted. But that argument confuses cause and effect. If Brown wins, it will be (at least in large part) because of the voters’ disapproval of Obamacare. My argument all along has been that public disapproval would be the undoing of the health care overhaul. And it just happens that the MA senate race is the venue in which that disapproval will manifest itself.

History tells us that large scale legislative initiatives don’t get passed in this country when the people overwhelmingly disapprove. I still believe this case will be no different.

Monday Hot Read – The WSJ’s “The ‘Responsibility’ Tax”

by @ 7:42. Tags:
Filed under Business, Politics - National.

The folks on The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board fired for effect on the “Subsidize Government Companies” proposal from Barack Obama on Saturday (emphasis in the original):

Mr. Obama’s new “Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee”—please don’t call it a tax—is being sold as a way to cover expected losses in the Troubled Asset Relief Program. That sounds reasonable, except that the banks designated to pay the fee aren’t those responsible for the losses. With the exception of Citigroup, those banks have repaid their TARP money with interest.

The real TARP losers—General Motors, Chrysler and delinquent mortgage borrowers—are exempt from the new tax. Why the auto companies? An Administration official told the Journal that the banks caused the crisis that doomed the auto companies, which apparently were innocent bystanders to their own bankruptcy. The fact that the auto companies remain wards of Washington no doubt has nothing to do with their free tax pass.

Also exempt are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which operate outside of TARP but also surely did more than any other company to cause the housing boom and bust. The key to understanding their free tax pass is that on Christmas Eve Treasury lifted the $400 billion cap on their potential taxpayer losses expressly so they can rewrite more underwater mortgages at a loss.

In other words, the White House wants to tax more capital away from profit-making banks to offset the intentional losses that the politicians have ordered up at Fan and Fred. The bank tax revenue will flow directly into the Treasury to be spent on whatever immediate cause Congress favors. Come the next “systemic risk” bailout, taxpayers will still be on the hook. “Responsibility” is not the word that comes to mind here.

It also notes that the $50 billion in assets floor for this new tax is not exactly a “too big to fail” threshhold.

I Don’t Have The Right Tools

by @ 5:48. Filed under Free Shoebox.

You’ve got to love this opening paragraph:

A big reason why the government is inefficient and ineffective is because Washington has outdated technology, with federal workers having better computers at home than in the office.

The paragraph comes from this articlein which Peter Orszag claims that a significant reason for ineffective and inefficient government services is that their computers aren’t and other technology aren’t up to the latest standards.

You may have heard about my recent challenges with a particularly intrusive government agency.  It turns out they actually have a process for resolving my “problem.”  Step one was to fill out an internet form giving them basic information about myself, information about when and where I ceased to be able to fly freely and a couple of other items.  They then asked for me to send in COPIES of my passport and drivers license.  On their website they tell you VERY clearly that if they don’t receive your copies within 30 days, your file will be dumped and you will have to start the process all over again.

I had send in my documents about 12 days ago.  I had been checking their website daily.  I put in my case number and kept getting a message that they had not yet received my documents.  They also give you the option of emailing your information.  Because I hadn’t heard anything on the USPS version and I had already burned more than a third of my 30 days, I emailed the information. 

Two days went by and still they were not showing that they had received my information.  Assuming they had received it but hadn’t started working on it yet, and concerned that they at least acknowledge receipt before 30 days passed, I sent them an email stating when I had sent my information and asked if they could confirm receipt of my information.  The email was cordial and respectful.

The next day I got an email response.  This is what I received:

We received your submission. Documents are processed in the order of receipt and remain in a “pending paperwork” status until they have been reviewed and verified as complete.  No further action by you is required at this time. To that end, please do not resend. The website will not be updated until your documents have been reviewed by the triage team. Moreover, the message will not change until the documents are uploaded from the holding queue. Your request for redress will be reviewed and you will receive a final determination in writing. Reviews of requests for redress take a minimum of 30 business days.

If I may paraphrase:

Hey schlub, we received your stuff.  We’ll get to it when we’re good and ready.  However, you’ll have to guess as to whether we think you’ve sent us the right stuff or not.  We will not correspond with you until we make a unilateral decision and tell you whether you will ever again fly inconvenienced.  We won’t tell you what the normal expectation of time frame is because we are the government and have no expectations of accomplishing anything within a “normal” time frame.  What we can tell you is you will be inconvenienced a minimum of 6 weeks from the time that we decide to even start a review of your case!

Piss off!

The Government!

It’s probably just me but it would seem that a nice note saying “thanks for your inquiry.  We have received your documentation” and an update on their website indicating such, would have gone a long way to making me think these folks were actually serious about my information and serious about attempting to resolve my situation.  I would also think that resolving “he is who he says he is” issues like mine shouldn’t take more than a very few weeks.

Notice that my suggestions would improve both the effectiveness and the efficiency for both the agency and myself.  I’ll also point out that none of this requires anymore technology than the agency has available to them today.  In fact, I could step them back to 386 technology and do what I’ve suggested. 

For this particular agency to improve both their effectiveness and efficiency, no improved technology is required.  The only thing required is to use their brains rather than their CYA manual and they could improve themselves dramatically.

I know, I know, it’s not the people, it’s their tools!

It’s About Time!

by @ 5:25. Filed under MMSD - The Crap People, Politics - National.

It’s about time someone had the balls to do this: (I wish I could embed the video)

And yes, my choice of words WAS intentional!

Revisions/extensions (6:50 am 1/18/2010, steveegg) – ABC News video now embedded…

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