On her new blog (mentioned below), Representative Susan Lynn takes on the economic fallacies underlying Phil Bredesen’s Cover Tennessee proposal

Now the Governor wants the state to actually enter the insurance business by creating healthcare plans for the uninsured. Once implemented, steep enrollment increases are projected; eventually expanding limits to include even more Tennesseans.

Public policy analysis? Sparse benefits will ensure public lobbying for broader coverage year after year. Fee structures will entice businesses to drop current more generous health and prescription coverage for the state’s version. Guaranteed issue may encourage people to buy the insurance as they need it and drop it when they don’t. Rationed benefits, meant to curb usage, risk hurting people who are truly medically needy.

Rationing typically is used to curb the natural effects of supply and demand. In health care, it is precisely the absence of the  unimpeded interaction between supply and demand that has caused costs and health care usage to unnaturally increase. The solution to reducing health care costs and increasing availability lies not in taking the consumer/provider interaction out of the equation, but immersing the consumer and provider in it. This is Lynn’s idea

We could accomplish this by promoting Health Savings Accounts (HSA) in conjunction with a major medical policy. The premise is to save for minor illnesses and insure for major ones.

Because HSA owners decide how to spend their healthcare dollars they’re encouraged to become better consumers, pursue healthful lifestyles, and curb over consumption on their own.

They cost less too. HSA’s earn interest and grow with before tax dollars. HSA’s follow employees from job to job, through unemployment, into retirement and ultimately, can be passed onto heirs. Physicians work for patients and help them make good medical decisions instead of working for a healthcare bureaucracy to limit costs.

Precisely. If you’re using your own funds, or have an immediate financial stake in pursuing a healthy lifestyle, you will do so.  In turn, there is no overusage of health care and there is minimal incentive for health care providers to increase price if the real result will be a reduction in demand. As of now, with the way that the government handles health care benefits, the price of those benefits has become perversely inelastic. The cost to the consumer goes up, but the consumer doesn’t immediately feel the impact, so the use of what may actually be optional medical care continues at the same or greater rate. There is no reduction in demand for an increase in price. Lynn is right on this one. And for all his extended use of game theory and bait-and-switch on the issue of TennCare, Bredesen is dead wrong.

It has come to my attention that Representative Susan Lynn has started a blog. It’s well written and since she started it, well updated. Be sure to check it out!

Susan also has assured me that the minimum wage bill in the General Assembly is unlikely to pass. Those who support free markets, oppose union overreach and have read the simplest of elementary economics books can now all rejoice.

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Welcome to this week’s Carnival of Entrepreneurship. There were many good submissions this week, but alas, time and space are of the essence (two categories good entrepreneurs ought to be all-to-familiar with). Without further ado…

Jeffrey Strain, who began writing personal finance advice for ex-pats in Japan, has posted on the hobby-to-business growth of his wife’s Hello Kitty! enterprise

I really didn’t want to get into more detail about the entire Hello Kitty business because, let’s face it, it forces me to reveal that I know more about Hello Kitty than is healthy for any grown man to know (how many men do you know that can name all the members of Hello Kitty’s family, when she was born or how to tell her apart from her twin sister Mimmy?) Furthermore, all my ads here are going to start being for Hello Kitty related websites & items and that really will be depressing.

We won’t hold it against him, too much. In light of the monster success of Ebay, the prospect of turning one’s hobby into a business empire isn’t all that far-fetched (never was, really). But it takes time and dedication – in other words, how much do you really enjoy your hobby?

Pamela Slim warns against the paralyzing potential of fear, and how to manage fear to lessen your risk and expectedly, to maximize the reward

Fear is simply nature’s way of telling us that there is some risk involved in a situation. Here is how to face it head on so that you work with it, not against it:

1. Examine the truth in the fear.

…

2. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

…

3. Develop a strong safety net.

If I had to pick one to focus and work on, I’d have to pick #2. Click through for some excellent analysis.

And over at Small Biz Survival, we get a list anyone can use – how to delegate without hiring anyone. Online service providers and interns are where I concentrate in my practice. Each model is different, though – the list is worth a look.

From Canada (the Carnival is truly international), Centrerion offers some handy tips to keep tax preparation as un-obtrusive as possible, which is particularly important in Canada. Oh, and in California…

Professor Bainbridge notes the best and worst state tax regimes for business expansion. California has improved since last year, but still falls into the lowest quintile. Plus, Meathead gets a dose.

That’s the carnival for this week! Be sure to check out About’s page on Entrepreneurs for next week’s location, and some good info during the week.

Rich Eisen on the NFL network has announced the Titans will be selecting Vince Young.

I do hope the rumor is legit.

Nathan and I received a card of congratulations on our new arrival from Governor Bredesen and his wife today. Between you and me, I don’t think it was personally signed by “Phil” and “Andrea” themselves (who knew we were on first-name basis with our state’s head executive?).

The point of the card is to remind new parents to get their baby immunized. A tear-out tab is included to take to the doctor’s office. My favorite sentence of the card is as follows:

“Please take your infant to be immunized before two months of age.”

Catherine celebrated her three-month birthday on Saturday. Whoops! Gotta love that government efficiency!

Despite the lack of timely concern from the Governor, Catherine has had all of her required immunizations up to this point. And, I think she somewhat enjoys them. After getting stuck the first time, she screamed for a second and then glared at the nurse with a “is that all you’ve got, woman” look.

It is a nice gesture for the Governor’s office to mail out these cards. However, I hope that Tennessee doesn’t see a rise in diphtheria because some parents didn’t get their congratulations/reminder to get your kid stuck with needles-card in time!

In all seriousness, it worries me to think how many new parents need a card from the government to remind them to maintain the wellness of their child.

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I usually put Catherine to sleep by singing along to whatever dedicated songs happen to be selected that evening by Delilah, the leading mistress of nighttime love songs (on 92.9 FM). This is largely out of necessity, since I only know the words to two lullabies. I go through “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” every night, but that only gets you so far. And, I refuse to sing a lullaby that ends with a baby falling out of a tree along with her cradle. (For the record, the 3:00am feeding is accompained by the gentle voices on Fox Sports Radio and no singing … we have a system and it works for us.)

I was forced to switch the dial away from Delilah this evening because she started playing something by Cher. Seeking talk radio as my alternative, I caught some of the “Demagnetization Rally” hosted by Phil Valentine and broadcast on 99.7 FM today. I am wondering if the contradiction between the following statements was caught:

Statement One: “These people need to learn English if they expect to live in our country!”

Statement Two: “Metro schools paid $12 million last year in ESOL classes” (followed by loud boos and hisses)

Ummm … if we want immigrants to learn English, then shouldn’t ESOL courses be an important part of the curriculum for the schools in which such instruction is needed. I am sorry that the parents didn’t deem it necessary, or were unable, to teach English to their children. However, doesn’t it benefit the assimilation process and the cries for “English only” to make sure the children learn to speak good ol’ American?

For those who might not know, Dwight Lewis is a regular columnist for The Tennessean. For all that I own and hold dear, I cannot figure out why he merits the position he holds. His writing is weak, his columns mostly consist of cutting and pasting from other people’s writing or emails, and his views are rarely substantiated.

Besides the chum printed a few days a week in the paper, we have actually had a personal experience. In 2003, Sarah was running for Metro Council. She went in to interview with the editorial board, of which Lewis is a member. She was asked what her vision for Nashville was , and it consisted of two immediate goals. One was to increase the incentives for downtown development and living, the other was to work to reduce the size of council to make it more effective as a representative body. Lewis laughed at both, telling her that it was too expensive to live downtown and no one wanted to do it, and that a smaller council could simply never represent the people effectively.

Well, then. Wrong on both counts. One only needs to look at the Viridian (almost done), the Signature Tower (nearly 50 floors, all-residential, to be built), and every old warehouse and feed shack downtown being turned into loft apartments, and you can see how “in touch” Dwight Lewis is. As for the size of council, Lewis’ favored mayor is even technically in support of it. He simply doesn’t get it (it being the all-encompassing “it” symbolized by ).

Which brings me to his column today, which offers a conclusion without a means. Sort of like wishing for world piece and telling the good guys to disarm. It’s about guns. A friend heard a shooting in his blue collar neighborhood, and today’s column was inspired

I thought about my colleague and the shooting in his neighborhood after reading a story out of New York Tuesday saying the mayors of 10 major U.S. cities had gathered at a summit on gun violence that day, with organizers saying the federal government is not doing enough to stop the spread of illegal weapons.

“If the leadership won’t come from Congress or from the White House, it will have to come from us,” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was quoted as saying in the Associated Press story. The story said Bloomberg was heading the summit along with Boston Mayor Thomas Menino.

“Gun crime is a national problem that needs a national response,” Menino was quoted as saying, adding that many guns used in the 73 homicides in Boston last year came from other states.

The mayors hope to create a loose coalition that will trade crime fighting information, work together on city and state legislation and form a louder voice in Washington.

That sounds like a terrific idea, even here in Nashville where there have been 27 homicides this year. That’s almost the same number as this time last year, so it’s apparent more is needed to reduce the high incidence of violence we’re seeing.

Gun control summits aren’t ever a good idea, actually. The focus is always on more laws, the class of which are broken with impunity as it is. True, gun violence is bad. It’s the deadliest kind. There are a variety of solutions that may work, such as more police in high violence areas (instead of writing traffic tickets in Donelson and Hermitage, why don’t we put more patrols in Antioch?). Ceteris paribus, It is proven that the frequency of apprehension is more of a deterrent than the magnitude of the punishment. In short, more laws will only affect those who follow them. Lewis continues. Here’s where the fantasy world descends from the heavens

And while all of the homicides have not included guns, most have. That’s why the anti-gun summit taking place in New York was a good idea, and it’s also why we need stricter gun laws here in Tennessee.

Having done enough criminal defense, I see the assistant DAs in Nashville already pressing on the gun issue. The laws are there, and guns typically come with other crimes, such as Aggravated Robbery, Aggravated Assault, Attempted Homicide, etc. If you use a gun, you’re going to do some time. The punishment is already there. The difference in doing 6 years or 8 years in the Tennessee Department of Corrections is negligible to your average criminal defendant. They’ll still get paroled. More restrictive laws like Lewis advocate won’t accomplish a thing.

But as Bloomberg and the other mayors were having their anti-gun summit in New York, another group was criticizing their actions.

The group, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, called the anti-gun summit a session “to devise more schemes to restrict the rights of law-abiding citizens, which will only lead to more crime because people will be unable to protect themselves.”

“Rather than devising and suggesting more restrictions on the rights of law-abiding gun owners, these mayors need to recognize that urban violence is a symptom of deeper problems that their bankrupt social policies perpetuate,” CCRKBA Executive Director Joe Waldron said in one of the many e-mails his group sends out across the nation.

Every time I see such an e-mail I wonder if Waldron’s group will ever see the light. Will they ever realize that guns are taking the lives of too many people in America, or do they really care? •

Well, Waldron is right. Urban violence doesn’t occur because of guns. Urban violence stems from societal decay. Chanting “gun control” is an easy, feel good endeavor. Focusing on fixing real problems, like the illegitimacy rate among black urban families, is not.

It’s hard to argue with Lewis, as one can’t assign much logic to Lewis’ position, anyway. It’s an emotional and intellectually inconsistent one. Picking and choosing parts of the Constitution is a favorite past time of those seeking immediate public policy gratification without regard for the long term effects. Gun control doesn’t work, anywhere. The laws are there, and are enforced as much as practicable in many jurisdictions. The Second Amendment is as legitimate as any other part of the Bill of Rights. I do wish liberals would start treating it that way.

One need only look to the Left to see that the conservative cause is not losing ground. From Drudge

‘PROGRESSIVE’ MEDIA STALLS: ‘AIR AMERICA’ IN AUDIENCE PLUNGE NYC, ‘DAILY KOS’ BOOK SELLS ONLY 3,600 COPIES
Wed Apr 26 2006 11:39:51 ET

Left-leaning new media has hit turbulence at the marketplace, newly released stats show.

A book hyped by major media as documenting a progressive revolution of “blogs” and political power, DAILY KOS ‘CRASHING THE GATE,’ has sold only 3,630 copies since its release last month, according to NIELSEN’s BOOKSCAN.

[NIELSEN claims only 2,062 copies of DAILY KOS have been purchased at the retail level; the rest coming through 'discount' outlets. The NIELSEN figures do include online sales from AMAZON.COM, and others.]

Meanwhile, the just released radio Winter Book [Jan-Mar 2006] from ARBITRON shows AIR AMERICA in New York City losing more than a third of its audience — in the past year!

Among all listeners 12+, it was a race to the bottom for AIR AMERICA and WLIB as mid-days went from a 1.6 share during winter 2005 to a 1.0 share winter 2006.

During PM drive, host Randi Rhodes plunged to 27,900 listeners every quarter hour, finishing 25th place in her time slot, down from 60,900 listeners every quarter hour in the fall.

A network source says the radio ratings released today do not reflect the overall growth of the broadcast.

“The demos are better, and listeners trust AIR AMERICA to give them the real truth on issues and the Bush presidency,” says the insider.

I am typically not one to make hay of others misfortunes for the sole sake of spite and mockery (well, sometimes), but the Kos numbers truly surprise me. I could write a book and find some way to get three thousand copies “sold”. On the other hand, the Air America story is not so surprising. That diminishing trend has existed for some time. Just listen to Randi Rhodes and you won’t wonder why. The content and presentation is simply not good. You can hate Limbaugh all you want, but you have to admit he’s entertaining. And he started and succeeded in New York. Not so with Randi and the rest.

I believe Air America died in Washington, DC late last year. Now it’s dying in New York, the bluest of the blue and the largest of the large. Air America has discovered a way to play Sinatra backwards. If you’re a liberal talk show host and you can’t make it in New York, good luck anywhere else.

UPDATE Apparently Drudge’s numbers were off a few thousand – actually, somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 books were sold. Still, my original point stands.

Catherine and I watched Chris Wallace’s interview of President Clinton together on Sunday morning.  My infant daughter is mesmerized by our former leader!  I was trying to nurse Catherine and provide her with life-sustaining nourishment, but she kept craning her neck to see the television.  Her eyes were glued to Clinton’s white hair and even whiter legs that snuck out between his pant legs and socks (shouldn’t some handler have been giving him the “pull down your pants” sign … and not in the way he might assume?).  Clinton’s reputation for projecting overwhelming charisma holds true with Moore offspring.
My daughter has had this reaction to only one other politician — Rep. Barney Frank.  I have C-Span on quite a bit, and Catherine cannot focus on anything else when the distinguished gentleman from Massachusetts is speaking.  He does have a lilting, good at reciting nursery rhymes effect to his voice.

I am struggling to determine the common links between these two men that have such a strong effect on Catherine.  They are both Democrats.   Ummm ….. well, let’s see … what else?  I’ve seen them both wear glasses, but I don’t think poor eyesight is the connection.  They both like the company of young women … wait, that’s not it.  I’m at a loss.  What am I missing here?

A recently released poll notes

AP/AOL Poll: More Than Half Of Baseball Fans Say The Sport Hasn’t Done Enough To Curb Use Of Steroids

They’re right. Baseball hasn’t banned Barry Bonds yet.

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Van Hilleary, erstwhile known as “Straw Man”, proclaims yet another straw poll victory in Johnson County in an emailed press release.

What does this mean?

Nothing. But I enjoy pointing out all the pointing out that Van does with the straw polls. If straw were gold, he’d be a mint.

The Tennessee Educators (sic) Association has gone on the offensive, attacking SJR629, Jim Bryson’s proposal to limit the growth of state spending

Since Tennessee is already near the bottom of most rankings in investing in education, such a constitutional cap on spending would be severely limiting and irresponsible. SJR 629 is largely modeled after the so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) which was enacted in Colorado in 1991. The 1991 provision had such a negative impact that Colorado voters last year suspended several key provisions of the amendment. SJR 629 is sponsored by Sen. Jim Bryson (R-Franklin) who recently announced that he would seek the Republican nomination to oppose Governor Phil Bredesen in this year’s election. The resolution is scheduled for a vote in the Senate Finance, Ways & Means Committee on Tuesday, April 25. TEA members are urged to contact senators on the Finance Committee and ask that they vote “NO” on SJR 629. The message should be that SJR 629 would place a “straitjacket” on the funding of essential state services, including public education. It would tie the hands of future legislatures in attempting to address the changing needs of state government.

Well, first of all there is no proven correlation between per-pupil spending and results. That myth continues to be touted as fact by educators unions without fail. Somehow the “changing needs of state government” are almost always going to include growing the size and reach of said government. The TEA’s view is myopic at best. That’s one fallacy. Hobbs takes them to task for another

Colorado’s TABOR is an extensive and complex constitutional provision that affects not just the growth of the state budget but also tax increases, creation of new taxes, and increases in bond debt – at both the state and the county and city level. And Colorado’s TABOR requires voter approval in referenda for any spending over the year-over-year growth cap, for any tax increase, for any new tax, and for any increase in bond debt.

By contrast, SJR 629 really only does three things:

1. It changes the Tennessee constitution’s existing cap on the annual growth of the state budget to allow it to be broken only if two-thirds of the legislature approves, rather than the current simple-majority vote.
2. It puts unspent surplus funds in the state’s rainy day fund.
3. Once the rainy day fund reaches a set target, additional surpluses go to reducing the state sales tax.

SJR 629 does not affect local or county budgets or taxes, has no impact on the state’s bond debt, and does not require or authorize voter referenda on such issues.

To be an educators union, one would think they would be…well, educated. Or at least generally informed. But certainly not completely clueless. Not only are they wrong in their comparison to Colorado’s experience with TABOR, they are wrong is their assessment as to what really happened in Colorado

The TEA compounds the deception by claiming that Colorado’s TABOR had “a negative impact” on Colorado’s state budget, leading voters there to “suspend” TABOR in a recent election. In a related comment,, TEA asserts SJR 629 would place a “straitjacket” on the funding of public education and “would tie the hands of future legislatures in attempting to address the changing needs of state government.”

None of that is true.

A decade ago, a few years after adopting TABOR, Colorado voters approved “Amendment 23, which exempted public education from the TABOR cap, and in fact required funding for public education to grow faster than the rest of the state budget. It was that decision which made Colorado’s budgetary position increasingly untenable. A few months ago, Colorado voters approved a plan to break the TABOR limits for five years, in order to “catch up” on the spending cuts caused by that state’s education lobby’s insatiable lust for tax dollars.

Hobbs goes on to note that with SJR629 in effect, the TEA could actually make the better case of diverting funds from less useful government programs to education. Sounds reasonable to me, but the union doesn’t want that. Unfortunately, the TEA’s scope and public policy goals are far in excess of obtaining funds for education. It’s government they want – bigger but not necessarily better.

Remember folks – the TEA is a union. They do not represent a single student. This in itself is fine, but the TEA makes an effort not to be straightforward about it, couching their rhetoric in “for the children” soundbites, which is something that the UAW or Teamsters can’t do. They oppose any proposal that would limit their power, which trumps the needs of education itself. Their opposition to SJR629 is no more noble than that.

We are currently in Savannah for my sister’s wedding this weekend. As one can imagine, the schedule will be tight.

More to come later.

We have help from the “goddess” on how to define violence.

Did you know that “poverty is an insidious form of violence”?

Or that “abandonment is a covert form of violence”?

I didn’t either.

Because they’re not. For more silly overthought and introspection, feel free to click thru.

Those following the Kopp slime of Bill Hobbs should find humor in this.

The refrain from Blogging Against Corker questioning Bob Corker’s conservatism comes on the heels of yet another financial disclosure where Corker easily outdistanced his two Republican opponents in fundraising.

And those people giving to Corker are Republicans – and 95% live in Tennessee.

Bob Corker has also been named #48 in the Tennessee Business Journal’s top 100 power list for his achievements as a businessman.

Bob Corker’s conservatism is by example. Question it all you want.

I noted a few days ago the vitriole that seems to characterize a significant portion of the leftist blogosphere. Six Meat Buffet takes time to note the ever-so-tolerant web-literate left and its sexually and ethinically sensitive treatment of Michelle Malkin.

Just when we thought no one could potentially be worse than New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, we get this – the less offensive but potentially more incompetent Disney version.

When the city you want to govern isn’t good enough for you, go find the next best version.

Mary Mancini goes to the trouble of posting the contact information of everyone on the Senate Finance Committee.

Be sure to contact them all – and make sure they know the right vote is a YES vote on SJR 629. Her citation to the “disaster” of TABOR in Colorada has for some time been thoroughly debunked. The City Paper notes it way back in 2002. Bill Hobbs took care of things impressively here.