Our Weak Federal Government

From a Post story today comes another reminder of why I firmly believe our Federal government is weak. The story is about the problems states face in implementing the health care law.  Lots of people in 50 states plus the territories have to do lots of different things.  That's because HHS won't deal directly with health care providers or the public, all the dealing is done via the medium of the states and their departments. 

I say "they won't deal directly" but that's only partially true.  Go to healthcare.gov and you'll find explanations of the new rules.  But, and it's an important but, prominent in the upper left of the page is a box: "Pick Your State", because the stuff which really matters is dependent on the decisions made by governors and state legislatures, and implemented, or not, by the state healthcare bureaucracy.

By compare, in a bureaucracy like FSA, the federal bureaucracy is dealing directly with farmers, through the medium of county offices.  Granted, that simple statement hides a bunch of complexity, but if you're going to have fast and efficient implementation of decisions, that's the way you go.  As a nation, however, we think it's better to waste time and money in favor of giving more power to state and local levels.  We feel that will improve the quality of the decisions being implemented.  

Over at the NYTimes Tom Friedman has a column on the differences between China and the U.S., noting they're able to build impressive things in a short time, while we take years and years to do things, like build at Ground Zero.  Or India, another democracy, which is having problems building the infrastructure for the Commonwealth Games, as compared to China's preparations for the Olympics. 

A Funny Site? Not for a Farmer

For some reason, Professor Soltan at University Diaries thinks this is a funny site, at least that's my inference.

The Cotton Wife Is in the Money Now

I love her pictures, even though they load slow......ly. Her husband is picking cotton now, and this shows the process. (Just an aside: compare what's shown with historical photos of people, usually black, in the fields picking cotton.) I observe that the price of cotton is now up, close to $1, which is about a historical high, the result of bad floods in China which is the biggest producer.  That's a change from the years and years when the price was in the $.55-.60 neighborhood, so we can assume that the Cotton Wife and her cute redheaded kids (usually featured in her photos) will enjoy a good Christmas.

Symptoms of Growing Old

When you and your wife go from sharing a pitcher of beer, to drinking a beer each and splitting a third, to skipping the third.

When you go from drinking a pot of coffee of leaded  to a partial pot, to a partial pot that's half decaf, half the good stuff.

When you go from Starbucks vente bold to Starbucks half and half.

Who Says Educational Standards Have Gone to Hell?

At Tufts, Dan Drezner is teaching Thucydides.  He has an interesting post, including a long quote from the historian, from which I'll excerpt two sentences:

"Reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice; moderation was held to be a cloak for unmanliness; ability to see all sides of a question, inaptness to act on any."

Tea Party Candidate: Country Was Better Off Under Democrat

From a story on the Republican candidate for Senate in Alaska, who received farm program payments in Kansas during part of the 1990's:

"DeSoto [Miller's spokesman] said that it was standard practice for farmers to receive the subsidies in Kansas and that the nation was in a much better financial situation at the time that Miller received the funds.

“This was back in the 90’s, the situation the country was in was far different than now,” he said."

In all fairness to Miller, DeSoto is right.  Miller bought a quarter section while he was in the Army and must have leased it on shares to the farm operator, thereby qualifying for payments (probably deficiency payments). The operator would have enrolled the farm, although Miller would have had to sign the contract to receive the payments.  

And of course DeSoto is absolutely right, the country was in much better shape under Clinton than it was under Bush.



As for the other story linked to, on Mudflats, (saying Miller got payments on some Alaska land, which the spokesman denied), that story links to the Environmental Working Group's farm subsidy database. Even in Alaska there may be multiple Joe Millers.   There's a discrepancy; the spokesman says Miller owned Alaska land since 1999, but the EWG data shows payments since 1995, some barley direct and DFC payments (which might or might not mean barley was being grown in those years), some marketing loan payments (which would require barley to be grown) and some agricultural conservation program (long term agreement) payments.  If the Joe Miller in the EWG is the same as the candidate and he bought the land in 1999, he possibly would have gotten an obligation under the ACP LTA when he bought, although a new owner might have the opportunity to terminate an agreement.

Innovation and Bureaucraccy in the USAF

Tom Ricks has an interesting post and comments on the issue of whether remote-controlled drone aircraft need to be piloted by officers, or by enlisted men. As someone who likes innovation, usually, and retains a prejudice against officers from my draftee days, I lean towards answering "Yes".  Some commenters however offer some real-life experiences showing we're still low in the learning curve in dealing with drones.

KKR Is Small Business?

From Political Animal:

Under the Republican definition of "small business," the GOP is fighting to protect companies like Wall Street buyout firm Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts, "which recently reported more than $54 billion in assets managed by 14 offices around the world." PricewaterhouseCoopers, a massive international auditing firm, qualifies for the label, too. So does Tribune Corp., which owns the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and the Baltimore Sun.

Using Technology in Agriculture

I suggested a while back the use of cellphone cameras to document damage to crops because of natural disaster.  Here's an instance where UC-Davis has developed a smartphone app to link the GPS location to the digitized soils map.  I'm not sure how extensively this would be used: soils don't change that often so once you know the soil type present at a location, you don't need it again.  It is an example of some people keeping up with the times.

Professor Henderson's Lament

Bunch of posts relating to Professor Henderson, who discusses his finances and the possible expiration of the Bush tax cut for families with over $250,000 income. DeLong  Marginal Revolution

It's not clear what his income actually is.  Maybe $250,000+, maybe $450,000, maybe something in between.

What is clear is that he makes more any federal government employee with the possible exception of the President.  General Petraeus, for example, has a base salary of around $177,000.

[Updated: Yglesias has a post with more links to the discussion.]