John Goodman’s Commentaries

Although he rarely talks about it, the most significant gift Donald Trump bequeathed to economic prosperity was deregulation. And the one sector that was deregulated more than any other was health care. Since Joe Biden has been re-regulating the economy, it’s hard to think of a starker contrast between the two leading presidential candidates this year – and it affects all aspects of health care. More

In the early 20^th century, they called themselves “progressives.” Then, they were “liberals.” Now they are “progressives” again. Early on, they embraced racism and endorsed eugenics. Then they became advocates for civil rights. Now they endorse racism of a different sort – wokeness. If you had to the describe the distinguishing characteristic of modern liberalism, what would your answer be? John Goodman gives a novel answer. More

To get seniors to support Social Security reform, there are additional abuses that need correcting. These include: stopping the double taxation of senior income through the Social Security benefits tax, no longer forcing seniors to dissave, abolishing the Social Security earnings penalty, and ending taxation by inflation. More

March 23rd will mark the 14th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, and it is now ten years since the creation of the Obamacare exchanges. There are three ways to look at Obamacare today: in terms of (1) what the Obama administration said it was about, (2) what policy wonks thought it was about, and (3) how it really works. More at my post at Forbes.

The key to reform is to make today’s retirees positive beneficiaries of reform.

A golden opportunity to do so exists for two reasons: (1) the current system is abusing senior retirees in myriad ways, and (2) many of these abuses can be eliminated without any cost to the Treasury. In other words, some aspects of responsible reform are a free lunch.

How to Reform Social Security, Part I

The bottom fifth of households in 2017 had an average (after tax and after entitlement spending) income of $33,653 per person. Almost all of this “income” is in the form of noncash welfare benefits. If all those benefits were converted into cash, a family of four in the bottom fifth of the (earned) income distribution would have $134,652 a year to spend, after taxes! The bottom fifth also had more per capita “income” than the next fifth and the middle fifth. To answer the question, “What’s Wrong?” I really shouldn’t have to say anything more. But, I did find a few more things to say in my most recent post at Forbes.

Short-term health insurance and indemnity insurance are meeting needs not met by Obamacare. You would appreciate why that is a good thing if you understand:

Goodman’s Rule for Rational Public Policy: Let the markets handle all the problems markets can solve; and turn to government only to meet needs that competitive markets cannot or do not meet.

More

When does the failure to answer a phone call in 8 seconds cost the company receiving the call $190 million? When the caller is a spy working for the agency that runs Medicare and the receiving entity is a private insurance company. More.

A rare bipartisan agreement in Congress would create a larger child tax credit for parents and extend some key business tax breaks in the 2017 (Trump) tax reform bill that have expired. Democrats are said to favor the former and Republicans the latter.

Opinions on the accord are all over the map, with pros and cons – both on the right and the left. I give it two cheers. If it were funded by reducing means-tested welfare spending, I would give it a third cheer.

More at Forbes