Stimulus, Obamacare, & The New Republic

May 2013 Reason Magazine Preview with Matt Welch and Kennedy

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Stimulus, Obamacare, & The New Republic

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Reason TV's Kennedy joined Reason's Matt Welch to find out what's in the new edition of the nation's only magazine of "Free Minds and Free Markets." The May 2013 issue is on newsstands now (go here to subscribe for just $14.97 a year).

The cover story, "Down the Drain," delves into the high cost and small returns of the $833 billion stimulus.  In "How Government Killed the Medical Profession," Dr. Jeffrey A. Singer explains how increasing government intervention is harming patient care and pushing doctors to go Galt.  In "The Death of Contrarianism," Welch argues that the new New Republic is returning to its Progressive roots. 

A year's subscription to the print edition of Reason costs $14.97 (the discount grows with multi-year subscriptions). Subscribers get the mag weeks before any of the material shows up online.

About 3:25 minutes long. Produced ans shot by Meredith Bragg.

Scroll below for downloadable versions and sign up at Reason TV's YouTube channel to receive automatic notification when new material goes live.

Comments

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

The senate passed its first budget in four years. In related news, I should probably get my oil changed.

[Sevo]

I'll bet the budget has to do with stealing 'way more money than they do now.
How are my psychic abilities?

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

How should I know? I'm trying to read less fantasy.

[JWatts]

Pretty much spot on.

"The Senate plan, in contrast, includes $100 billion in upfront infrastructure spending to stimulate the economy and calls for special fast-track rules to overhaul the tax code and raise $975 billion over 10 years through legislation that could not be filibustered."

So it raises taxes $100 billion a year.

[Virginian]

Look, that's only an extra 300 dollars or so for every man, woman, and child. What the fuck could you filthy peasants possibly need a couple extra Benjamins for?

DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH PRICES HAVE GONE UP IN THE CONGRESSIONAL CAFETERIA?!!!??!

[sloopyinca]

I have a question: why is there a Congressional cafeteria?*

*Notice in the article they say the "restaurants on the House side of Congress", which leads me to believe there are separate restaurants there for Congressional and Senate staffers.

Oh well, if we learned anything from Katniss it's that the people in the Capitol live better than those of us in the Districts.

[Cdr Lytton]

leads me to believe there are separate restaurants there for Congressional and Senate staffers

Yes, there are.

http://go.compass-usa.com/senate/content/home.asp

You can't expect to get Senate Bean Soup from the House.

[JohnD]

Spot on!

[Allison H. Compton]

my classmate's mother makes $68 hourly on the laptop. She has been without work for six months but last month her check was $14024 just working on the laptop for a few hours. Go to this web site and read more... http://tiny.cc/free-lance2

[Allison H. Compton]

my classmate's mother makes $68 hourly on the laptop. She has been without work for six months but last month her check was $14024 just working on the laptop for a few hours. Go to this web site and read more... http://tiny.cc/free-lance2

[Eduard van Haalen]

Whoever's lap she on top of, he must be really rich.

[JohnD]

Please don't encourage these idiots

[Fist of Etiquette]

Double post. Embarrassing.

[sloopyinca]

Maybe spambot really wanted to get her point across.

[?J?? de ?guila]

Internet sex is very profitable. What a slut you are, Allison.

[sloopyinca]

Georgetown losing put quite the dent in several brackets of the Reason H&R Superdrone. Here are the top 10 and ties:

1 Kaptious Bracket 24 - - - - Kansas St. 24 76
1 Damn That Bitch is Fine-Stein 24 - - - - Indiana 24 108
1 Flounder 24 - - - - Indiana 24 99
1 Knutsack Knows KNCAA 24 - - - - Miami (FL) 24 108
5 Ermahgerd Ternahmernt 23 - - - - Louisville 23 104
5 LBCheeseburgers 23 - - - - Ohio St. 23 98
5 Counterfly's Bracket of DOOOOM 23 - - - - Duke 23 103
5 Abraham10 23 - - - - Indiana 23 102
5 F1 is more fun 23 - - - - Louisville 23 98
5 If I Win Monocles for Everyone 23 - - - - Miami (FL) 23 102
5 C. Anacreon's House of Pain 23 - - - - Michigan St. 23 99

The last two numbers are their # of correct picks so far and their highest possible total. So as you can see, there are some names on here that will be dropping quickly because their winner (Kristen, I'm looking at you) got beat already.

I'll do a more detailed analysis in the next little while, but I've got eggs in the incubator that are hatching still, so I've got little time.

[heller]

Florida will win it all.

[sloopyinca]

I say Minnesota gives them all they want. Butif they do win that, their road gets easy fast. Kansas isn't playing all that well.

I'd have to say the winner of the scUM-VCU game is now the odds-on favorite to come out of the East Region.

[sloopyinca]

-er, South Region.

[heller]

You should rank according to highest possible total.

[sloopyinca]

You'd be tie for 5th in one bracket if I did. Your other bracket would be down near the bottom with one of mine.

Face it: everybody's bracket is blown to pieces. The next two days will separate the wheat from the chaff.

[Virginian]

1215 tip off. Fuck Michigan, and fuck whoever decided they should have a home game. The fix is in.

Go Rams! Wreak Havoc!

[sloopyinca]

You should go to the Bottom and watch the game at McCormacks. I know the knucklehead that owns that place.

Or go to Bottom Billiards and get stabbed.

[Virginian]

I will be at work. Because I get one day off a week.

[sloopyinca]

I figured the RIC would shut down today. I know it did a couple of years ago.

[Virginian]

Man, it was so much fun. I know all the bars are packed already, and I know all the bar owners were on their knees last night praying for a deep run, because it's basically a doubling of their business. So many bandwagon fans coming out and spending money.

The victory over Kansas in 2011 was by far the best sports bar moment I've ever had. Although the moment that really kicked off the Rams recent success was in 2007. Eric Maynor threw up a shot from just behind the free throw line and beat Duke in the final seconds of the game.

So if the Rams win today, then the next game will be even better. But conversely, if they lose today, going out after work will probably kind of suck because there wil be a bunch of bandwagon fans throwing up fake butthurt.

[heller]

Why do I always let Notre Dame through the first round? Every year they lose in the first round, and every year I forget that they do.

[Fate]

In every damn thread...

[Archduke Pantsfan]

How will you be spending Human Achievement Hour tonight?

[sloopyinca]

Hopefully by making another human. Or practicing at it really well, at the least.

[Suthenboy]

Successfully manufacturing a tricycle motor is always a worthwhile achivement.

[sloopyinca]

I'm working on a design for a scooter that has a cooler and grill. The cooler will be the seat, and the grill will be behind it on telescopic legs (to keep the center of gravity low). It will have a small 4-5HP motor set to run on LP gas, which will also fuel the grill.

I figure all I need is an engineer to help in fabrication/final design and we could get them into manufacture. I would set a price point at around $1,000 with overhead/unit somewhere around $300 after initial manufacture. They'd sell well for campers, people who take their motorcycles to the desert and NASCAR fans at races.

[sloopyinca]

Monocle Motors: a Division of Monocle Foods.

[Sevo]

"On March 23, some people will be sitting in the dark to express their "vote" for action on global climate change."
Maybe they could just sit in the dark forever.

[Virginian]

So, I have a shitload of books I want to get rid of, because I have them in ebook form. I'm keeping some because they're nice, but getting rid of a lot of others. I want to get some cash out of it, but I also don't really want to spend an age and a half on it.

Is eBay the best way to do it? Craigslist? Old fashioned yardsale? Door to door?

[sloopyinca]

What kind of books are they?

I'd go to Chop Suey in Carytown and try to sell them...especially any out-of-the-mainstream ones. You'll lose your entire margin of eBay. Craigslist means you have a bunch of wierdo strangers coming to met you and you get calls at all hours. Yardsales invite the police. Door to Door...who are you, Beaver Cleaver?

[Virginian]

Half of them are history/philosophy/economics/military history. The other half are genre fiction, mostly thrillers or mysteries, with a decent amount of SF...but most of the SF is in very well loved condition.

Chop Suey is a good idea. I've never done business with them though. I don't care so much about theoretical losses from eBay sales, because the cash is much more appealing to me then a shelf of books that I read on my Kindle now.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Yardsales invite the police?

[sloopyinca]

Yard Sales, Garage Sales, Lemonade Stands...they're like fucking magnets for the boys in blue because people are always parking illegally and slowing traffic.

I've never had a yard sale where the cops didn't show up and start getting on people to move their cars or ask me if I have a peddler's permit or start looking through what I'm selling with a skeptical eye.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Peddler's permit?

Damn, you need to find a way to get out of that fucking state. I don't know how you can put up with it? 🙁

We just built a house outside of town, but last year we were living in a little community where everyone has their yardsale on the same day and then has a block-party type thingy afterwords. None of which required a permit.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Oh, and I didn't see a cop all day.

[sloopyinca]

I've had one garage sale since I moved to California. And that one was when I lived on a private road in town. The cops couldn't come in and say shit...but the HOA was required to get a person directing traffic on and off of the city-owned street onto the private drive.

No, I ran up against that while living in Georgia and Virginia. Both places were in town in rather busy areas. The Peddler's Permit request was actually in Richmond, VA by the way...(out in the West End near Three Chopt and Patterson for Virginian's reference).

[Virginian]

Well that's Henrico for you. In my experience, the Henrico cops are more gun friendly, but a lot more chickenshit about every thing else cops are assholes about.

I live in the city, so of course the one time I had to call the cops to report a stolen gun, the Richmond cops came out and made me very uncomfortable due to their being four or five of them to fill out a simple report. Of course they also asked to search the car, which I refused. Then they became more dickish, and finally left.

[Banjos]

I would unload them at a used book store. You won't get as much money for them, but it would be done and over with.

[SIV]

It all depends on what you have.

[Archduke Pantsfan]

Double check all your books.
I have a friend who recently found he had a rare first edition of The Sword of Shanara worth over $1k that he picked up used for $4

[Cheradenine Zakalwe]

Christ, he's the one who overpaid.

[SIV]

The 1st is a paperback original, no?
Where is there a recorded sale at $1k or anything close to that?

[sloopyinca]

He must have gotten the value screwed up converting American dollars to the Canadian (metric) ones. Another reason why the metric system is inferior.*

*See the "Judge resigns" thread from last night

[Archduke Pantsfan]

1 Canadian Dollar equals

0.98 US Dollar

[sloopyinca]

So they use the same conversion for quarts to liters then?

[Gene]

A quick search yielded a bookseller in Australia with a first edition for 1100+ US$.

[Killazontherun]

Is that the large soft back format edition? I had that one.

[JWatts]

Yeah, I had the large paper back edition too, which probably means those were all second edition prints.

[sloopyinca]

I have a signed, first edition of "Inside The Third Reich" signed and in mint condition, but it looks like it's not worth that much. Oh well.

[sloopyinca]

Ooh, I found it on eBay for a grand. Maybe I'm wrong.

[sloopyinca]

Awwww. That was in German. Mine's in English, probably making it less rare.

[sloopyinca]

Ooh I had forgotten about Fountain Books down in the Slip. I think they still buy books.

[Cdr Lytton]

I dumped a bunch to Goodwill for the same reason. No cash but the deduction value on the lot was enough to make up for the lack of hassle. Nice to get the space freed up quickly too.

For onesie twosies, I've sold books back to Amazon. They have to be ones that Amazon wanted, usually newer titles or current editions of texts. Again, the lower sale price (amazon credit really) was made up by the ease.

I used to sell my unwanted ones back to used bookstores but since I moved to ebooks, I'm spending far far less on physical copies. The ones that I do spring for are ones that I want to hold onto for a while.

[sloopyinca]

You'll lose your entire margin on eBay.

Shipping and cheap books don't go well together.

[Virginian]

Not even with the flat rate box?

[sloopyinca]

That'll run you $5.80 for the shipping. You won't see much more than that on most of the books, and will likely see less on a lot of them, especially if they're worn. Then think of the time taking pics of each book, writing the listings and rating the condition. That's gonna eat up some serious hours. Then you ave to deal with assholes emailing n questions about the listings. And once they sell, you will invariably get a bunch of complainers about the actual condition vs the rated condition.

It's just not worth the headache. Take them to a bookstore and be done with it.

[Virginian]

What about for nicer books? Like, I have a mint copy of Shelby Foote's Civil War I got at a discount book store. So I paid like 25 for all three volumes, but I figure I could get sixty or seventy five for it in total. Also some nicer leather bound older books. Nothing of real collector's value, but I don't want to dump them on consignment or whatever.

What sucks is that the book store over near Target that bought and sold genre paperbacks went out of business.

[sloopyinca]

Well of course you should sell the nicer ones on eBay. I was talking run of the mill stuff that are worth $1-5 a book, which is unfortunately where most used fiction that aren't first editions falls. Non-fiction is tricky, IMO, because there are often niches for them that one may not know about. If you can find a specialty online bookstore for the types of nonfiction you have, I'd go there and discuss selling all of them to their site or consigning them if they have their own eBay-run auction site.

[Virginian]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03......html?_r=0

That guy they just cleared of the murder in NYC a few years ago? Just had a massive heart attack.

[sloopyinca]

Why does the NYT arbitrarily select stories for commenting? I wanted to see how their idiotic readership reacted to this, but for some reason they don't have a comments page for the story.

That's the least user-friendly news website in the country.

[Killazontherun]

NYT Headline: Obama Has Lost Advantage Over G.O.P. on Economy

For four stinking years he had an advantage in his area of extra special ignorance. That does not say anything good about the world we live except Bush sucked and people tended to notice. Beyond that, nothing.

[John Galt]

It's the belief of many that the Democratic Party and the GOP are leading us to the same End only by slightly different routes.

[christacampbell147]

until I looked at the check four $5877, I did not believe that...my... brother woz actualy erning money in there spare time at there labtop.. there dads buddy had bean doing this for only about six months and just repayed the loans on their cottage and bought a new Mazda. we looked here, http://www.fly38.com

[John Galt]

Your brother the Woz. He's an Apple man, right?

[John Galt]

Our Stimulus funds all went to law enforcement, thinning contracts for the migrant workers, and two new jet boats for the Corps of Engineers. Yay!

[Killazontherun]

Those flatfooters don't militarize themselves. Locals tend to notice when their property taxes get raised to buy tanks.

[Killazontherun]

And other toys for the play soldier SWAT like rifles with the sitings set in reverse.

Their thinking must be that so long as the police are made to appear scary looking with armored vest, science fiction movie inspired helmets and fierce looking weapons the proles will stay in line.

[John Galt]

Maybe they should hire a thousand new deputies to offset the 15 plus percent unemployment around these parts.

[sloopyinca]

Please request to have that comment deleted immediately. I don't want them getting any bright ideas.

[John Galt]

Actually, folks around here would rather their LEOs are only seen when requested.

Where's that delete button?

[sloopyinca]

Michigan is pole-axing VCU. I did not see that coming.

Will it be another day of upsets? Methinks it will be.

[John Galt]

About the only thing to miss after throwing the TVs in the trash bin is sports. *sigh*

[An0nB0t]

Happily tv-less for going on seven years here.

And I don't know about these things called "sports," but mlb.com gives me all the baseball I can handle for a reasonable price. There are even relatively easy ways to circumvent the silly blackout rules.

[sloopyinca]

The "strong" Mountain West Conference's last team is about to exit the tournament.

So much for ESPN or CBS talking heads knowing shit about anything.

[edcoast]

Yeah, Belmont . . pah.

[SumpTump]

OK wow, that seems to make a lot of sense man.

http://www.Anon-Today.tk

[Chadwick]

my friend's ex-wife makes $77 every hour on the laptop. She has been unemployed for 9 months but last month her paycheck was $21403 just working on the laptop for a few hours. Read more on this site http://www.wow92.com

[strassnerjordan]

before I looked at the receipt ov $8413, I didn't believe ...that...my sister woz like actualie taking home money parttime from there new laptop.. there friends cousin haz done this for only 8 months and as of now paid for the loans on there house and got a new Ford. this is where I went, http://www.fly38.com

[margaretsusen]

my friend's mother makes $65/hour on the computer. She has been out of a job for eight months but last month her pay was $15949 just working on the computer for a few hours. Go to this web site and read more http://googlejobs.com.qr.net/kgzE

[aaliyahjuhan]

Tristan. I just agree... Alexander`s blurb is nice, last week I bought themselves a Porsche 911 sincee geting a check for $8987 thiss month and more than ten-grand last month. with-out any question its the most comfortable job I have ever had. I began this 5 months ago and almost straight away began to bring home minimum $81.. p/h. I went to this site,
http://jump30.com