The Overton Window

Overton described a method for moving that window, thereby including previously excluded ideas, while excluding previously acceptable ideas. The technique relies on people promoting ideas even less acceptable than the previous "outer fringe" ideas. That makes those old fringe ideas look less extreme, and thereby acceptable. The idea is that priming the public with fringe ideas intended to be and remain unacceptable, will make the real target ideas seem more acceptable by comparison.
The degrees of acceptance of public ideas can be described roughly as:

• Unthinkable
• Radical
• Acceptable
• Sensible
• Popular
• Policy

The Overton Window is a means of visualizing which ideas define that range of acceptance by where they fall in it, and adding new ideas that can push the old ideas towards acceptance merely by making the limits more extreme.

Fence Post Turtle

 

While suturing up a cut on the hand of a 75 year old southerner, whose hand had been caught in the gate while working his cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Obama, and his being our President.

The  old southerner said, "Well, ya’ll know, Obama is just a Post Turtle."

Now not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked, “What's a "Post Turtle?"

The old southerner said, "When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a post turtle."

The old southerner saw the puzzled look on the doctor's face so he continued to explain. “You know he didn't get up there by himself, he doesn't belong up there, he doesn't know what to do while he's up there, he sure as heck ain't goin' anywhere, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put him up there in the first place…”

What’s Wrong with this Argument?

Nicholas Kristof still hasn’t mastered the syllogism. In The New York Times, he writes:

The question isn’t: Can we afford to reform health care? Rather: Can we afford not to?

No need to read the entire editorial. I’ll summarize it for you. Like so many others who support ObamaCare, Kristof thinks like this:

Major Premise:		Without change, the health care system is on a calamitous course.
Minor Premise:		ObamaCare promises change.
Conclusion:		We need ObamaCare.

Let’s hope that if Kristof ever needs serious medical care his doctors think more clearly than this.

States to Feds: Step Off

By Ashby Jones

We had no idea: states across the land are assembling their legislatures and passing these resolutions asserting their sovereignty. It’s all part of this push, it seems, to remind whomever — citizens, the federal government — that the 9th and 10th amendments to the Constitution imbue the states with certain powers.
The number of states deciding that these resolutions are worth doing are growing. South Carolina passed one this week. A Kansas resolution affirming the state’s 10th amendment rights was on Thursday sent to the state Senate for a full vote. Late last month, the Alabama legislature sent up a resolution essentially reaffirming the 10th amendment. For a full list of what states have done on this front, click here, for information from the Tenth Amendment center; click here for
By way of quick refresher, the 10th Amendment reads:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

On its face, it certainly sounds like an amendment that’s worth being mindful of (which one isn’t?). Thing is, however, that any new application or enforcement of the 10th amendment is going to require some new, perhaps forward-thinking litigation, and a Supreme Court that decides it’s high time to breathe new life into the largely moribund amendment.
Last fall, we cited Radley Balko, writing in Reason, who cited this passage from Ken at Popehat:
“The Tenth Amendment is close to a dead letter in American jurisprudence; the unrestrained growth of the federal government reflects that modern courts have refused to find that it acts as any sort of brake on federal power.”
As we wrote, it would take an enormously courageous (or ill-advised, depending on your perspective) federal judge to strike down federal legislation on Tenth amendment grounds. But this is a court that decided to pick up the Second amendment and give it another look. So who knows?

violence against Republicans

Two of the most popular liberal news sites are calling for violence against Republicans for obstructing the radical agenda of President Barack Obama.

CNN, Huffington Post Urge Violence Against Republicans

http://biggovernment.com/ktaylor/2010/02/15/cnn-huffington-post-urge-violence-against-republicans/

In case the message wasn’t clear, Huffington Post illustrated the call to violence with a wooden baseball bat with Obama’s first name on it in large letters.

The Cultural Consequences of Unemployment

Last November nearly a fifth of all men between 25 and 54 did not have jobs, the highest figure since the labor bureau began counting in 1948. We are either at or about to reach a historical marker: for the first time there will be more women in the work force than men.

read the entire NYT editorial from David Brooks Here.

ten of the changes needed to make ObamaCare acceptable.

What’s the purpose of the health summit — bringing the president and Republican and Democratic Congressional leaders together? The Republicans hoped it meant we would start over. Toss out the highly defective legislation that has been working its way through the House and Senate and begin anew with a clean slate.
The White House is rejecting that idea. Apparently, all they want is to ascertain the minimum changes they have to accept in order to get a bill passed.
Okay. Here are ten of the changes needed to make ObamaCare acceptable.

1. Establish Equality Under the Law. That means everyone should be treated equally. Specifically: Treat every Medicare enrollee the same. There should be no special subsidy for Medicare Advantage members in Florida, while millions of seniors are losing their coverage in other states.
   Treat every Medicaid enrollee the same. There should be no federal bailout of Nebraska’s Medicaid expansion, while other states are forced to pay their own way.
   Treat every taxpayer the same. There should be no tax on some workers, while exempting others because they happen to be longshoremen or members of other unions.
   
   
2. Drop Individual and Employer Mandates. Remember Barack Obama’s admonition to Hillary Clinton: We should not require people to buy something they cannot afford and then fine them when they don’t buy it. Further, we should not have one set of rules for carpenters, plumbers and bricklayers, while a more generous set of rules applies to employees of every other small business. Accordingly, we should: Replace the mandates with a fair and efficient system of economic incentives. We should provide generous financial support through the federal tax system to make health insurance affordable for every American.
   Give all insurance the same subsidy — regardless of where it is purchased. We should treat all insurance the same — whether it is provided through an employer, purchased in the marketplace or acquired in a health insurance exchange.
   Give every individual the same subsidy — regardless of how insurance is obtained. We should treat all individuals at the same income level the same — regardless of where they obtain their insurance. (See details in my commentary, “Level the Playing Field for U.S. Health Insurance.”)
   
   
3. Encourage Comprehensive Coverage for Seniors. We should encourage rather than discourage Medicare Advantage plans, which give seniors access to the type of broad comprehensive coverage most nonseniors have. We should encourage, rather than tax, employers’ supplemental Medicare benefits.
4. Allow Health Insurance to be Sold Across State Lines. We should encourage a national market for health insurance, allowing the citizens of each state access to the types of products routinely sold in the other 49 states. (See details in the NCPA Brief Analysis, “How to Create a Competitive Insurance Market.”)
5. Encourage Personal and Portable Insurance. We should end the current practice of barring employers from purchasing the type of insurance employees most want and need: insurance they own and can take with them as they go from job to job and in and out of the labor market. (See details in the NCPA Brief Analysis, “Personal and Portable Health Insurance.”)
6. Allow Private Insurance Alternatives to Medicaid and S-CHIP. Instead of trapping more children and more families in public health plans that all too often ration care by waiting, we should make those dollars available to subsidize private coverage which gives patients access to the full range of medical providers and facilities. (See details in the NCPA Policy Report, “Opportunities for State Medicaid Reform.”)
7. Allow Special Health Savings Accounts for the Chronically Ill. One of the most successful Medicaid pilot programs is Cash and Counseling, under which the homebound and disabled manage their own budget and are free to hire and fire those who provide them with services. We should use this experience as a model to liberate the chronically ill and empower them in a newly-competitive medical marketplace. (See details in a previous Health Alert on chronic illness and Health Savings Accounts.)
8. Allow Health Insurance Plans to Specialize in Solving the Problems of the Chronically Ill. Instead of requiring health plans to treat all enrollees as though they were the same, we should encourage special needs plans that specialize in treating the health problems of the chronically ill. (See details in a previous Health Alert on chronic illness and Health Savings Accounts.)
9. Allow Employers and Their Employees to Prefund Post-Retirement Health Care. Although one-third of baby boomer workers have an employer promise of post-retirement health care, almost none of these promises have been funded. We should allow employers to help their retirees obtain personally-owned, portable insurance for their retirees and to build up funds in order to keep their promises. (See details in a previous Health Alert, “What to Do About Early Retirees.”)
10. Enact Sensible Malpractice Reform. Encourage a health care system in which victims of unexpected adverse events are promptly compensated by episode-specific insurance and in which providers and facilities have economic incentives to reduce medical errors — without the need of lawyers, judges, jurors and courthouses. (See details in the chapter, “Five Steps to Liability by Contract,” from the NCPA’s Handbook on State Health Care Reform.)