Saturday, February 29, 2020

The Sinister Sanders Child-Care Plan

The Sinister Sanders Child-Care PlanBernie Sanders announced a “universal child care” proposal at the end of his wide-ranging 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper. The plan would guarantee “every child in America free full-day, full-week, high-quality child care from infancy through age three,” and the campaign estimates that it would cost taxpayers 1.5 trillion dollars over ten years. But aside from being prohibitively expensive and distressingly vague, the plan looks an awful lot like social engineering.Start with the price tag. After failing to explain how he would pay for his expansive agenda — “I can't rattle off to you every nickel and every dime,” Sanders told Anderson Cooper in a disastrous moment of candor — the Sanders campaign released a partial list of pay-fors the day after the interview, laying out the cost of the senator’s major proposals alongside the tax hikes a Sanders administration would pursue to finance its domestic agenda. The campaign pegged the child-care proposal at a $150 billion annual price tag, more expensive than current federal outlays on unemployment insurance and the SNAP program combined.Add the child-care initiative to the bevy of programs Sanders has already promised to enact as president, and the fiscal feasibility of a child-care proposal grows more uncertain.The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget released their analysis of Sanders’s universal child-care plan yesterday, and raised concerns that the Sanders campaign was overestimating federal receipts from its proposed “tax on extreme wealth”:> Based on the work of economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, the Sanders campaign estimates this wealth tax would raise $4.35 trillion. This would be enough to finance Senator Sanders's $1.5 trillion universal child care and pre-K plan, his $2.5 trillion housing plan, and $350 billion of his Medicare for All plan (note that our analysis previously assumed he would dedicate $800 billion, not $350 billion, to Medicare for All).> > In our assessment, however, Senators Sanders’s wealth tax is likely to raise significantly less than advertised due to high levels of tax avoidance and the erosion of taxable wealth over time. We believe the wealth tax is likely to raise roughly $3.3 trillion. Assuming the proceeds are distributed evenly, that would leave the universal child care and pre-K plan nearly $400 billion short.As a point of reference, that $400 billion shortfall is larger than the sum total currently allotted to all federal welfare programs combined.While Sanders’s innumeracy was perhaps to be expected, the senator’s defense of the child-care plan on the merits was surprising. For a candidate with well-documented disdain for corporate America, it was strange to see how much of Sanders’s child-care proposal was concerned with the “career outcomes” of “mothers” who — heaven forfend — make “career sacrifices in order to care for their children.” The Sanders campaign presents female labor participation growth as one of the central selling points for its child-care scheme: “Mothers,” the campaign proclaims, “are 40 percent more likely than fathers to report a negative impact on their career outcomes due to child care considerations,” making the institution of a government-funded child-care scheme a “moral responsibility.” The campaign presents the welfare of the children whose stay-at-home parents enter the workforce as an ancillary concern.The Sanders campaign hardly seemed to consider — or, worse, seemed to have considered and proceeded to ignore — the possibility that those mothers making “career sacrifices” might want to raise their own children. As a 2015 Gallup poll found, 56 percent of mothers with children under the age of 18 said they would rather remain at home than enter the workforce, if given the choice. Instead, the socialist appears eager to incentivize more mothers to join the workforce, whereupon they will be presumably “exploited” by the “greedy” corporations the senator has spent a lifetime deriding.Most alarming is the power the senator’s plan vests in the federal government to insert itself into the child-rearing process. Sanders proposes a one-size-fits-all, government-funded child-care model, with no provision for those parents who wish to remain at home. If the Sanders campaign were simply concerned about the costs associated with raising children — both in the home and at a day-care center — it could have proposed a subsidy that also conferred benefits to stay-at-home parents or to relatives providing child care. But the social-engineering component of the plan is unmistakable, as Sanders would essentially create a scheme to augment the “career outcomes” of mothers who might otherwise raise their children at home, thereby boosting enrollment in government-funded child-care centers. Of course, all of those child-care centers will be subject to “quality standards” concocted in Washington.The implications of Sanders’s child-care agenda are clear enough. Right in the heart of the proposal, the Sanders campaign acknowledges that “ages 0 through 4 are the most important years of human life intellectually and emotionally.” Parents ought to be the ones to impart their values to their children in such a formative window, not a Sanders-administration functionary.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2wb8vSM

Idaho targets transgender people, birth certificate changes

Idaho targets transgender people, birth certificate changesIdaho lawmakers moved forward Thursday with legislation banning transgender people from changing the sex listed on their birth certificates despite a federal court ruling declaring such a ban unconstitutional. Ohio and Tennessee are the only other states in the country where transgender people cannot change their birth certificates, according to a law firm that has challenged the practice in court. In Idaho, this is another effort by the conservative state to target the population as Republicans in the House a day earlier advanced legislation to keep transgender women from competition.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/398dUsa

Central Park Five's Kevin Richardson slams Bloomberg campaign

Central Park Five's Kevin Richardson slams Bloomberg campaignKevin Richardson, a member of the Central Park Five, has hit out at Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s presidential run and his blocking of a multimillion-dollar settlement over the group’s wrongful persecution.Mr Richardson, one of the five teenagers wrongfully convicted for the shocking assault of Trishia Meili in 1989, was reported to have criticised Mr Bloomberg at an event outside his campaign office in Manhattan.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3cjCXdJ

Court won't let Trump pardon void guilty verdict against Arpaio



from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2vkC8AM

Used to giving orders, Kansas abortion foes can't cut a deal

Used to giving orders, Kansas abortion foes can't cut a dealAbortion opponents who've become used to giving orders to Kansas lawmakers on the exact wording of new restrictions are stymied now that they face compromising to get a proposed anti-abortion amendment to the state constitution on the ballot. After falling short in a House vote three weeks ago, abortion opponents have pressured a dozen members who voted no, moderate Republicans and Democrats who are Catholic or who represent relatively conservative or heavily Catholic districts. Kansans for Life, the state's most influential anti-abortion group and a GOP power-broker, has for years told lawmakers what proposals to pursue and has watched them approve the group's language and echo its talking points.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/32F1IwD

Mexico Has Two Coronavirus Cases, Health Officials Say

Mexico Has Two Coronavirus Cases, Health Officials Say(Bloomberg) -- A 35-year-old man was confirmed as the first coronavirus case in Mexico, the country’s deputy health minister said on Friday. A second case was verified by a state health official.The first patient has a mild case and has been put in quarantine along with family members in the country’s Institute of Epidemiological Diagnosis and Reference for further testing, deputy health minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said at the National Palace.The man is a resident of Mexico City who took a trip to Italy in February. The case is Mexico’s first, and the second known instance in Latin America after Brazil confirmed a case on Wednesday.“We have the capacity to deal with the situation,” President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said at his morning press conference.The man traveled to Bergamo, Italy, for a conference, where he had direct contact with an infected Italian national who normally lives in Malaysia.The second case, in the northern border state of Sinaloa, is a 41-year-old man who also traveled to Italy, said Efren Encinas Torres, the state’s health minister in an interview on Radio Formula. That patient is in isolation, as is a colleague he traveled with, who has not presented any symptoms.Local health officials sent details to the national agency for confirmation.“We see the state laboratory’s confirmation as valid, but nevertheless we will verify it in our own laboratory,” Lopez-Gatell said.Separately, Lopez-Gatell said that a cruise ship that had been stopped in Cozumel on suspicion of possible infection had no cases aboard and that passengers would be allowed to disembark.Worldwide, more than 83,000 cases have been confirmed and deaths from the virus have topped 2,800 people. On Friday, Iran, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and the U.K. all reported new infections. Nigeria confirmed the first infection south of the Sahara desert.The Mexican peso fell 0.7% to end the day at 19.6437 per dollar, its weakest close since October 2019. Mexico’s benchmark Mexbol stock index plunged 2.6% after the coronavirus news.(Adds details about second case in lead and sixth paragraph. A previous version added case details, worldwide numbers and stock move.)To contact the reporters on this story: Justin Villamil in Mexico City at jvillamil18@bloomberg.net;Lorena Rios in Mexico City at lriost@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Carolina Wilson at cwilson166@bloomberg.net, Nacha Cattan, Dale QuinnFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2TruzjZ

Why is Iran's reported mortality rate for coronavirus higher than in other countries?

Why is Iran's reported mortality rate for coronavirus higher than in other countries?Iran has now suspended parliament indefinitely due to the outbreak. Secretary of State Pompeo says the U.S. has offered to help Iran respond to the virus.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/3c6yyLf

A man convicted for killing his high school girlfriend was freed by decades-old DNA evidence. Now he's on a mission to find the real killer.

A man convicted for killing his high school girlfriend was freed by decades-old DNA evidence. Now he's on a mission to find the real killer.Leah Freeman's shoes were the only clue police had in her murder — and the only evidence that her high school boyfriend Nick McGuffin wasn't her killer.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2w9592y

The Strange Tale of How British Commandos Attacked Hitler's Fish Oil Production

The Strange Tale of How British Commandos Attacked Hitler's Fish Oil ProductionMore important than you know.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2w9OlbH

Mike Huckabee goes on bizarre rant about Trump 'sucking' coronavirus out of Americans' lungs

Mike Huckabee goes on bizarre rant about Trump 'sucking' coronavirus out of Americans' lungsIn Donald Trump’s America, very few national figures are as loyal to the president as Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas and father of the former White House press secretary.And, as criticism has mounted regarding Mr Trump’s reaction to the deadly coronavirus, Mr Huckabee got a chance to display that obedience once again — and took the bait, hook line and sinker, by delivering a bizarre defence of the man.




from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/39abrNV

Police: Student joyrides on ATV damage LSU field

A 19-year-old LSU student is accused of breaking into the football stadium on two different nights and both times taking a Kawasaki MULE ATV parked inside and driving it on the field, causing thousands of dollars in damage.

from www.espn.com - TOP https://ift.tt/2TnP15g

Canadian National Railway starts calling back employees laid off during rail blockade

Canadian National Railway Co has started calling back many of the 450 workers it laid off earlier this month in eastern Canada, when blockades crippled operations on strategic rail lines, according to a company email sent to customers on Friday.


from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2vhVO8G

Exclusive: U.S. postpones summit with ASEAN leaders amid coronavirus fears - sources

The United States has decided to postpone a meeting with leaders of Southeast Asian countries it had planned to host on March 14 due to worries about the coronavirus outbreak, two U.S. officials familiar with the matter said on Friday.


from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2I1tn1k

Honeywell sees surge in demand for face masks in North America, China

Industrial conglomerate Honeywell International Inc said on Friday it was seeing a surge in demand for its protective face masks in North America, Europe, India and China, following the coronavirus outbreak.


from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2TaVUbb

Biotechnology trade group taps former Biogen CEO as its coronavirus czar

The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), the biotechnology industry's largest trade association, told Reuters on Friday that former Biogen Inc CEO George Scangos would coordinate its response to the global coronavirus outbreak.


from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2I3WoJP

Congo military intelligence chief dies of heart attack, wife says

Congo's military intelligence chief died on Friday after suffering a heart attack, his wife said, following media reports that an investigation had been opened into allegations that he tried to destabilize the country.


from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2POyN4j

Polanski wins best director at Cesar awards, several actresses leave in protest

Roman Polanski, who faces accusations of rape, won France's Cesar Award for best directing for his film "An Officer and a Spy" on Friday, prompting several actresses to walk out of the ceremony in protest.


from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2uIQPgW

U.S. to push production of protective gear for coronavirus; new case confirmed in California

The United States will invoke a federal defense law to boost production of masks, gloves, gowns and other items to protect against the new coronavirus, the Trump administration said, as a new case was confirmed in California on Friday.


from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/32zEQPj

Slovaks poised to oust ruling Smer party in election clouded by graft

Voters look poised to oust the center-left Smer party that has dominated Slovakia's political landscape for more than a decade in a national election on Saturday overshadowed by anger over high-level graft.


from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2weMp1A

Trump willing to meet leaders of Russia, China, Britain, France on arms control

U.S. President Donald Trump is willing to hold a summit with the leaders of Russia, China, Britain and France - the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - to discuss arms control, a senior administration official said on Friday.


from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2ToRADZ

Guinea delays disputed referendum that could extend veteran Conde's rule

Guinea's President Alpha Conde has delayed Sunday's constitutional referendum and legislative polls for two weeks because of concerns raised by international observers about the electoral roll, he told state television late on Friday.


from Reuters: World News https://ift.tt/2I1PqFh

Trump urges Afghans to seize opportunity for peace

A deal will be signed with the Taliban on Saturday as the US prepares to exit Afghanistan.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2vtA5ur

Latvia railway: Why I love living in an old train station

Milda Romanova's home is an old rail station, and at 88 she still loves all things trains.

from BBC News - World https://ift.tt/2VvjX6j

HTML

Biden’s popularity rating falls, but the pandemic is a bright spot.

By BY NATE COHN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3GeVYx5

Popular Posts