COMMENTS ON NEWS
Fox reports: “MSNBC’s Jen Psaki turns church school shooting into attack on prayer, Trump’s DC crime crackdown”
Psaki intoned the long-used rhetoric that “prayer is not enough.” She thinks (wrongly) that more legislation is needed. In my experience (50 years of watching politics), it is clear that legislation is not enough either. There have been at least 17 Federal laws which added restrictions to the purchase or possession of guns. Neither prayer nor legislation can remove evil from this world. If one takes away guns, there are still murderers. In this last year people have used cars, knives, poisons, explosives, and even water to kill. Are we going to legislate use of water, for goodness sake?
It is time to face reality. People kill. If we want to reduce murders we should take some people off our streets, namely those who murder. But in many cities we release murderers without bail the day after arrest. That’s stupid. We will need more legislation and more prayer and get more of what we have gotten.
TIME reports: “Why Obamacare Is About to Get a Lot More Expensive”
One tax benefit is going to sunset soon. If you are buying your policy via the ACA Marketplace your premiums may rise by double-digits for next year. (You’re saying, “What’s new!”)
If your policy sees such a rise, I recommend you review your options. You are not required to have an ACA-type policy. “But,” you say, “I need insurance.” Yes, you should have something which will cover your expenses in case of a major medical event. However, you should be aware that there are non-insurances by collectives which will cover major medical expenses for HALF the cost of an ACA policy. For far less you can have a plan which won’t cover doctor visits, labs, or prescriptions, but will cover hospitalization because of an accident or illness. They will pay for cancer treatments, surgeries, and ER visits, too, and you will get insurance-type discounts on your other expenses. You will save thousands in premiums which you can use to pay for doctors, labs, and prescriptions.
I went a different route when ACA was passed and the insurance plan Obama said I could keep … was cancelled (true). My premium was slated to more than double for less coverage (true). On average, after I enrolled in a non-insurance which covered major medical and paid for my own small medical, I still kept $6,000 in my own pocket compared to an ACA plan (true). Who couldn’t use an extra $500 a month!!!
You don’t have to suck it up when your premium costs rise. Explore your options. It worked for me and others. (Understand that there are rules and restrictions, but they are few and easy to understand if you take the time to READ them.)
SMITHSONIAN reports: “Researchers Develop a ‘Superfood’ for Honeybees to Fight the Drastic Decline of Their Colonies”
They falsely claim honeybees are declining. A government study of honeybees over the last 30 years shows that the number of colonies HAS NOT DECLINED. As a result of earlier “the sky is falling” reports changes were made. The pesticides blamed for honeybee “decline” were restricted (they could not be used while crops were flowering, for example). However, NOW these false stories blame OTHER pesticides, which have been in common usage long prior to the first reports of decline. What is the agenda? They want all manufactured pesticides eliminated and they are using “honeybee decline” as a means to that end.
Want some proof? There are at least 4 different strains of honeybees in the USA. One of them, the Africanized Honeybee, is actually expanding at a rapid rate. It is now found hundreds of miles further north than it was 20 years ago. Other proof? Government records of domesticated colonies shows that the number of beekeeper colonies has actually GROWN in the last 30 years. Studies of wild colonies is difficult to record because they often move. Over time, however, even this number has been relatively stable.
Some individual colonies have died out. There are many things which can kill bees besides pesticide. First, if the queen dies before another is ready that colony will die out (one queen per colony). Second, bee mites can kill them. Third, there are several bee diseases. In this era where there are movable colonies rented to farmers; if a “trailer colony” becomes infected by a local disease they can spread that disease beyond the normal infection area. They sometimes move trailer hives hundreds of miles between “jobs.”
CBS NEWS reports: “Billionaires pay a lower tax rate than the rest of America’s taxpayers, new study finds”
It is an old, and false, accusation. When a billionaire earns a WAGE his wage taxes are always higher than the rest of America’s wage earners. But even more, since nearly 40% of American wage earners do not pay any income tax, billionaires always pay a higher tax rate on wages than the lowest 40%. The real story comes out half way through the article: “But because capital gains — the profits earned from selling stocks, bonds, real estate and other assets —and business income are taxed at a lower rate than the top rate for income that people earn through their jobs, the richest Americans reap a massive tax break.”
Ah! The “reduced” tax rate is because the authors of the study did not account from where the income of those billionaires came. First, which CBS NEWS did not mention, Social Security and Medicare taxes are only imposed on the first $176,100 of wages. $176,100 or less in wages is taxed 7.65% on ALL the earnings. But someone earning above that pays tax only on the first $176,100. (Some view this as a tax break. But it isn’t. They also don’t receive any benefits on the amounts they earned over $176,100.) Second, which CBS admits, billionaires receive the SAME benefit as anyone else when it comes to capital gains and business income. (Most retirees pay the same rate as billionaires on capital gains.) Billionaires, though may have a greater percentage of their incomes from these sources. Third, when it comes to income tax rates on wages (as defined by the IRS) billionaires pay a higher rate.
CBS is retelling old fake news. As soon as your wages surpass $176k you, too, can experience the SAME tax “breaks” as billionaires on payroll taxes. As soon as your income is mostly the result of business or capital gains, you can experience the SAME “tax breaks” as billionaires. The tax code doesn’t favor billionaires any more than you.
Copyright 2025 Donald Whelpley
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Obamacare is so expensive because it covers things traditional health insurance seldom covered. For example, if you want lip, chest, lower body, or any other kind of elective treatments, Obamacare coverage pays for it. By the way, it covers things that “universal insurance” doesn’t in Canada or Europe. So, if costs are going to be contained we have to make Obamacare SENSIBLE. That includes 50/50 co-insurance for elective procedures. We’ve been duped!