The American Mind

Should the Supreme Court keep a large portion of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) on the books, companies could get thwacked with an unauthorized tax according to Professor Jonathan Adler and Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute. In a USA Today op-ed, they tie together the employer mandate, health insurance tax credits, and health insurance exchanges to be created under Obamacare.

Adler and Cannon write,

The [PPPACAs] “employer mandate” taxes employers up to $3,000 per employee if they fail to offer required health benefits. But that tax kicks in only if their employees receive tax credits or subsidies to purchase a health plan through a state-run insurance “exchange.”

The wrinkle is “state-run” exchanges. Because of political opposition, many states haven’t created them. In response, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has said they’ll run federal exchanges for those states that don’t have them. On May 18, the IRS declared that tax credits will be available for employees to buy insurance through these federally-run exchanges.

However, Adler and Cannon argue that the IRS can’t do this:

The language limiting tax credits to state-established exchanges is clear and consistent with the rest of the statute. The law’s chief sponsor, Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), is on record explaining creation of an exchange is among the conditions states must satisfy before credits become available. Indeed, all previous drafts of the law also withheld credits from states to push them to cooperate.

At The Volokh Conspiracy, Adler points out that the “IRS rule may be illegal, but that doesn’t mean there will be a lawsuit.” However, the IRS making available tax credits from federal exchanges would trigger a penalty on the employer because of the employer mandate. “So by expanding tax credit eligibility to federal exchanges, the IRS is exposing employers in states without their own exchanges to financial penalties, and this should be sufficient for an affected employer to file suit,” Adler writes.

The Supreme Court’s ruling on Obamacare could make this moot or open up another line of lawsuits.

Rush (the band)’s Clockwork Angels is out now. After a few listens I’m amazed how the Canadian power trio balances amazing musical performances with tight compositions. And when some of the songs run over six minutes, that’s saying a lot.

For a taste, here’s “Headlong Flight,” a song that starts with a great bass line and drives further ahead.

Then watch an interview with bassist Geddy Lee about the story behind the concept album and what keeps him interested in playing after 38 years.

On Fox Sports’ coverage of Saturday’s Milwaukee Brewers-St. Louis Cardinals baseball game analyst Tim McCarver theorized about why home runs seems to be flying out of ball parks. He thinks it’s global warming/climate change:

Tim McCarver: “[T]he air is thinning…. There have been climatic changes over the last 50 years…. I think that’s one of the reasons balls are carrying much better now.”

Joe Buck [Fox Sports play-by-play announcer]: “So that’s your ‘inconvenient truth’ about it?”

McCarver: “You’re going to find it out one of these days, yes.”

Photo via Wikicommons.
Video via Deadspin.

Rush (the band) leaked the song, “Headlong Flight,” off the upcoming Clockwork Angels album. It has a 70s prog rock vibe to it, but tighter. It reminds me of something that would fit well on Moving Pictures. Take a listen and let me know what you think.

From the I Love You, It’s Cool album.

I’ve been writing for the U.S. Chamber for a little over six months and have had a blast. In the over 250 posts I’ve written in that time I’ve covered the EPA, taxes, had a little fun at Canada’s expense, and even covered Metallica hedging foreign exchange rate risk with derivatives.

Here are the most-trafficked posts I’ve written at ChamberPost:

1. The New York Times’ Keystone XL Illogic
2. Get Serious About Jobs
3. High-Skilled Workers Needed to Fire Up the Economy
4. Salazar Endorses Hydraulic Fracturing
5. They Gave This Guy a Nobel Prize?

My favorite post of the year has to be this diatribe against my nemesis, Paul Krugman.

In 2012, expect exciting things from me when the U.S. Chamber launches its new web property.

Avoid the dubstep phenomenon and listen to some good drum and bass music that is the former’s ancestor.

Never accuse Next Media Animation of being sympathetic toward the death of brutal dictator Kim Jong-Il.

I thought the man with the Hennssey sign was a nice touch. Kim Jong-Il was quite the fan of the liquor.

Christopher Hitchen, acerbic critic and writer, died. He was our Orwell–in fact, he wrote much about him. While being a one-time Troskyist, he realized the world was more complex than a strand of Marxism could handle.

He also was too complex to be contained by labels. Over the decades he moved away from the Left to, not so much the Right, but a place where the Right was comfortable enough to embrace his observations…but not always as seen in this piece from earlier in the year critical of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s public “union busting” and gushing of state political legend, “Fighting Bob” LaFollette.

He certainly wasn’t perfect. Heck, I’m certain he wasn’t that great a guy, but he could write, and argue, and think. And he did it all with aplomb, style, and audacity.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

2011 has been amazing for me. I have a new job, am living in a new apartment, am cooking up a storm, and am enjoying it all.

Here is what I’m thankful for:

• A generous God who has given me more than I deserve.
• A wonderful family.
• Great friends.
• A great job.
• Books.
• Rush (the band).
• New Orleans.
• The Milwaukee Brewers.
• The 13-time World Champion (and still undefeated) Green Bay Packers.

I wish all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving.

For thinkers like Richard Epstein and Thomas Sowell (as well as Adam Smith), it’s about having a systemic analysis of society. Good political economies involves establishing good processes and institutions that direct people’s incentives to benefit society as a whole. Attempting to manage particular outcomes through wealth redistribution ends up failing due to the inability to collect, process, and adequately adapt to constantly changing information.

Watch Does U.S. Economic Inequality Have a Good Side? on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

[via The Coalition of the Swilling.]

There’s a gap between Warren Buffett’s idea to tax high-income earners and the administration’s “Buffett Rule”. Today, Buffett said on CNBC [emphasis mine]:

My program is to have a tax on ultra-rich people who are very tax rates. Not just all rich people. It would probably apply to 50,000 people in a population of 300 million.

In essence, Buffett wants another Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) while the administration proposes a broader tax that applies higher tax rates "to those making over $1 million." Neither are good, because both would hurt American job creators and make them less competitive globally.

UPDATE: The difference between the “Oracle of Omaha” and the administration is the scope of their tax increases. Buffett is making a (debatable) fairness argument that a few of the “ultra-rich” pay higher tax rates–about 50,000 people. The White House, seeking ways to pay for their jobs plan, wants more affected–about 450,000 people.

Buffett’s concern is tax fairness, while the White House wants more revenue. Gregg Sargent can claim otherwise, but these are two different ends.

Being a big Burn Notice fan, I follow Jeffery Donovan (Michael Westin) on Twitter (@Jeffery_Donovan). He tweeted this, which is news to me:

Last night finished work at 1030pm and started at 8am. Do the math. We start today with new cast members. Dean Cain and Kristanna Loken!!!

A Google search turned up nothing about either joining the cast.

Dean Cain is most famous for playing Superman on ABC’s Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman in the 1990s.

Kristanna Loken played the bad guy in Terminator 3 and also had roles in televisions shows such as The L Word and Painkiller Jane.

• A 5.8 magnitude earthquake centered in central Virginia shook Washington, DC and the East Coast. It was felt as far away as North Carolina and Ottawa, Canada.
• In the Washington, DC-area, cell phone service went down for many who were trying to contact loved ones. The White House and the Capitol were evacuated. A National Park Police spokesman said, all national monuments and parks in Washington are "stable but closed." A local television station reports that National Cathedral received damage. Also, there was a report of a possible building collapse at a bank on Capitol Hill.
• Politico reporter, Seung Min Kim, tweeted, "Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del) is holding pro forma session of Senate at Postal Museum following #DCQuake, spox says."
• Two reactors of the North Anna Power Station, near the epicenter of the quake, were shut down and are running on emergency generators.

This was my first earthquake. I just returned from lunch when the building started shaking for ten seconds. Then the fire alarm begin ringing signally all staff to evacuate the building. In downtown DC, where the Chamber is located, office workers filled Farragut Square Park. Electricity and traffic lights remained on, and the situation was orderly as you can see from a few pictures I took.

UPDATE: The local Fox station reports, the “US weather service expects no threat of tsunami.” That means someone seriously thought that was a danger.

By hitting a 3-run homer in the National League’s All-Star Game victory, Prince Fielder was named MVP. It was a great game by a great slugger.

MLB.com is being a pain by not letting me embed the video of Prince’s home run. So instead, here’s a fitting music video interlude:

“Royal Blast: Prince’s Homer Lifts NL Past AL”