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Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former Director of the CBO, spoke before the National Association of Health Underwriters recently. During his presentation Holtz-Eakin he gave his opinion on several aspects of the ‘Affordable Care Act.’

The 4 kinds of costs associated with the act:
- Budget
- Missed opportunity
- Economic policy
- Political

He also gives his perspective on the CBO scoring process and the restrictions inherent in it. “The CBO is not allowed to ever say two things about a piece of legislation: It can not by law ever say ‘That’s not a good idea’ and it can not ever say ‘That’s never going to happen’.”

These ‘golden handcuffs’ lead to a CBO score that is based on the legislative language rather than the other reality’s that may effect the actual costs when the law is implemented. This is not limited to ObamaCare but, given the enormous costs (and promised savings), has frightening implications.

Over at “Just One Minute.”

The notion that income inequality is on the rise is pervasive, reinforced by the recent Congressional Budget Office report on income distribution.

…the distribution of income in the U.S. is basically the same as it was a quarter-century ago—and the middle class has gained ground over the last decade.

The CBO report only goes through 2007, despite the fact that it was released in late 2011.

…most of the reported rise in income disparity since 1979 had already occurred by 1986, and there has been no significant trend since then.

Read the whole thing.

Paul Rahe writes about Bill Daley’s decision to ‘spend more time with his family.’

If the Republicans falter and confer on Barack Obama a great victory in November, 2012, Daley will be remembered as the last exemplar of a dying breed. If, however, the Republicans pull together and if their nominee for the Presidency shows more moxie in the general election than any of the aspirants to that role has thus far displayed, and if the Great Prevaricator goes down to an ignominious defeat, taking his party even further into the wilderness, then we may hear once again from the likes of Bill Daley, if not from the man himself, before too long.

Read the whole thing.

OWS owned.

Got to love these jokers who testified on Wednesday for higher taxes. But when offered the opportunity to go to the Treasury Department’s donation page they all backed out.

If you only read one post about the current environment you might want it to be this one. Kevin Williamson schools the self proclaimed “99%” on capitalism and free enterprise in the context of Steve Jobs’ passing.

Once you figure out why your cell phone gets better and cheaper every year but your public schools get more expensive and less effective, you can apply that model to answer a great many questions about public policy. Not all of them, but a great many.

…

Mr. Jobs’s contribution to the world is Apple and its products, along with Pixar and his other enterprises, his 338 patented inventions — his work — not some Steve Jobs Memorial Foundation for Giving Stuff to Poor People in Exotic Lands and Making Me Feel Good About Myself. Because he already did that: He gave them better computers, better telephones, better music players, etc. In a lot of cases, he gave them better jobs, too. Did he do it because he was a nice guy, or because he was greedy, or because he was a maniacally single-minded competitor who got up every morning possessed by an unspeakable rage to strangle his rivals?