Missouri Taking the Mandate to a Vote

Time takes notice as the first state takes the Healthcare mandate head on:

Opponents of Prop C — those who support the insurance mandate — have been frustrated by the lack of a vigorous campaign to defeat it. Apart from a mass mailing by the Missouri Hospital Association, no organized effort existed until a few weeks ago when three 19-year-olds started a Facebook campaign. “I’ve had to spend about $500 out of my own pocket making signs,” lamented Caleb-Michael Files, the Subway sandwich-shop manager and full-time college student who launched the Facebook effort. He wonders why Missouri is spending money on a referendum likely to stir up an expensive court case. “The law is the law,” he says. Missouri lieutenant governor Peter Kinder is one of several state officials across the country who have already filed suit challenging the federal law. (Another of those, Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli, gained a small victory in his fight against the law on Monday, when a federal judge ruled that the state does indeed have standing to bring the suit.)

Prop C is a gimme for the GOP base. In polls, Republicans strongly oppose Obamacare — and Tuesday’s primaries are far more interesting on the GOP side, practically guaranteeing a turnout heavily skewed against health care reform. Republicans barely need to raise more money to get out the vote.

Here’s the actual text of the proposition together with real-time polling results.  This is more of a political message, denying the government of Missouri the power to penalize citizens for failing to buy health insurance, but that’ll be irrelevant if/when a federal court decides that the mandate in Healthcare is constitutional.  In my opinion, the commerce clause doesn't hold for an individual choosing not to become active in the market.  The clause only covers voluntary activity and shouldn't punish you for opting not to participate. 
 
We'll know by morning the exact percentages on Prop C.

Update:  With all districts reported in the Amendment passes at 71.1%

Chart of the Day

The Joint Economic Committee went through the trouble of depicting the infinite number of bureaucracies and agencies as a result of Healthcare Reform:

No one can figure out exactly how many new agencies ObamaCare will spawn once it comes into effect. In fact, the Congressional Research Office can’t figure it out either. The language of the bill leaves open the possibility of an infinite string of new agencies and bureaucracies. (From Politico):

Don’t bother trying to count up the number of agencies, boards and commissions created under the new health care law. Estimating the number is “impossible,” a recent Congressional Research Service report says, and a true count “unknowable.”

The reasons for the uncertainty are many, according to CRS’s Curtis W. Copeland, the author of the report “New Entities Created Pursuant to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.”
The provisions of the law that create the new entities vary dramatically in specificity.
The law says a lot about some of them and a little about many, and merely mentions a few. Some have been authorized without any instructions on who is to appoint whom, when that might happen and who will pay.
Those agencies created without specific appointment or appropriations procedures will have to wait indefinitely for staff and funding before they can function, according to Copeland’s report.

Like Nancy Pelosi once argued, the CRS report says that we can’t know what’s in ObamaCare until the government rolls it out.

That should be a big, big problem. Congress just authorized a self-perpetuating bureaucracy, one that can expand on its own and make determinations far outside of the boundaries Democrats promised during the Healthcare reform debate. It is equally true that the claims made on the cost of administering Healthcare reform had no real basis in fact. Who could possibly guess how much this would cost if we have no idea on how big it's going to get?

Oh, from what I understand, the graphic shows only a chunk of the bureaucracy....

PETE STARK: Why you NEED to know who you're voting for

Democrat Pete Stark of San Fransico in a townhall meeting....I can't believe we have elected officials who have no knowledge of the Constitution, of the laws they voted for, or the danger they pose to their constituents. Become active voters and arm yourselves with knowledge before choosing your candidate.

Juicy Parts: 3:24, 4:13, 5:20, 6:58. DO BETTER PEOPLE!!

Economic Info for the Month of June

From the NAR: Pending Home Sales ease in Post Tax Credit Market:

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator, declined 2.6 percent to 75.7 based on contracts signed in June from an upwardly revised level of 77.7 in May [revised from 77.6], and is 18.6 percent below June 2009 when it was 93.0. The data reflects contracts and not closings, which normally occur with a lag time of one or two months.

Manufacturing fell 1.2%, which followed a 1.8% decrease in May. New orders, shipments, and unfilled orders all fell, while inventories rose. From the Commerce Department:

New orders for manufactured goods in June, down two consecutive months, decreased $5.1 billion or 1.2 percent to $406.4 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today. This followed a 1.8 percent May decrease. Excluding transportation, new orders decreased 1.1 percent. Shipments, also down two consecutive months, decreased $3.5 billion or 0.8 percent to $411.2 billion. This followed a 1.8 percent May decrease. Unfilled orders, down slightly following two consecutive monthly increases, decreased $0.3 billion to $802.8 billion. This followed a 0.3 percent May increase. The unfilled orders-to-shipments ratio was 5.60, down from 5.61 in May. Inventories, down two consecutive months, decreased $0.5 billion or 0.1 percent to $520.0 billion. This followed a 0.4 percent May decrease. The inventories-to-shipments ratio was unchanged at 1.26.

Private sector wages fell, while overall wages remained stagnant:

Personal income increased $3.0 billion, or less than 0.1 percent, and disposable personal income (DPI) increased $5.1 billion, or less than 0.1 percent, in June, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) decreased $2.9 billion, or less than 0.1 percent. In May, personal income increased $40.5 billion, or 0.3 percent, DPI increased $36.9 billion, or 0.3 percent, and PCE increased $8.6 billion, or 0.1 percent, based on revised estimates.

Real disposable income increased 0.2 percent in June, compared with an increase of 0.4 percent in May. Real PCE increased 0.1 percent, compared with an increase of 0.2 percent.

Things were worse for the private sector:
 
Private wage and salary disbursements decreased $5.2 billion in June, in contrast to an increase of $19.2 billion in May. Goods-producing industries’ payrolls decreased $8.9 billion, in contrast to an increase of $10.4 billion; manufacturing payrolls decreased $6.0 billion, in contrast to an increase of $7.8 billion. Services-producing industries’ payrolls increased $3.7 billion, compared with an increase of $8.8 billion. Government wage and salary disbursements decreased $0.6 billion, in contrast to an increase of $7.0 billion. The decline in the number of temporary workers for Census 2010 subtracted $3.4 billion at an annual rate from federal civilian payrolls in June; the hiring of additional temporary workers had added $5.7 billion at an annual rate in May. …

Proprietors’ income decreased $4.4 billion in June, in contrast to an increase of $2.2 billion in May.

This follows on the last unemployment report from June (July’s report is due on Friday), which showed a gain of 83,000 private-sector jobs — not enough to keep up with population growth — while 225,000 temporary Census workers lost their jobs. More of the latter were shed in July, which means that the numbers will probably look poor on Friday anyway. However, the drop in private-sector compensation belies the idea that the jobs market expanded in any meaningful way in June. And that means bad news for the government as well:
 
Personal current taxes decreased $2.0 billion in June, in contrast to an increase of $3.6 billion in May. Disposable personal income (DPI) — personal income less personal current taxes — increased $5.1 billion, or less than 0.1 percent, in June, compared with an increase of $36.9 billion, or 0.3 percent, in May.
 
By almost all measures, the economy has slowed considerably from what was already an anemic pace. Moreover, wage earners are losing ground. Small wonder, then, that demand and consumption have stalled and started to decline.