class warfare

Justice Roberts Bought the Lie

Justice Roberts got ObamaCare wrong: ObamaCare was written as a fine because had it been written as a tax, it would not have passed. The American people bought this garbage legislation and SCOTUS gave it a stamp of approval.

President Obama wasn’t lying to conservatives, but rather liberals to get the Affordable Care Act passes. At least we know which group of people the Democrat party believes to be stupid, as no conservative believed the lies.

Chief Justice Roberts interpreted the law as written (a fine) to mean a tax. In Mr. Gruber’s words, “this bill was written in a tortured way to make sure the CBO did not score the mandate as taxes. If the CBO scored the mandate as taxes, the bill dies.” Words have meaning, especially in laws and legal proceedings. Justice Roberts bought the lie.

SCOTUS has the opportunity to get it right when the ACA comes before them again soon. We’ll understand if the letter of the law matters or if just the intent of the law is acceptable, no matter how fuzzy or deceitful the language . If intent is good enough, then our system of government is finished.

It’s just — you can’t do it — politically. You just literally cannot do it. OK, transparent financing. Let’s start with transparent financing – transparent spending. I mean, the, this bill was written in a tortured way to make sure the CBO did not score the mandate as taxes. If the CBO scored the mandate as taxes, the bill dies. Okay. So its written to do that. In terms of, in terms of risk-rated subsidies, if you get a law which said healthy people are going to pay in — you made it explicit that healthy people pay in and sick people get money — it would not have passed. Okay. Just like the lack of — people — transparent — lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. And basically, you know, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical to get the thing to pass. And, you know, it’s the second best argument, look, I wish Mark was right and we could make it all transparent, but I rather have this law than not. So its kind of like his reporter story, you know, yeah, there’s things I wish I could change, but rather have this law than not.

We should congratulate Mr. Gruber for his honesty.

Holder, Obama Decry Use of Pigeons

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Are Barack Hussein Obama II and Eric Himpton Holder terrified of pigeons?

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder promised Congress a thorough investigation into whether high-frequency trading violates laws against insider trading. Holder said he is responding to concerns being raised about whether the practice creates an uneven playing field for investors.

Of course using high-speed communications creates an “uneven playing field.” That’s the point.

Speed has always been an advantage in trading. Runners, telegraphs, fiber-optics, microwaves and lasers — anything to gain an advantage has been utilized. (Read Christopher Steiner’s excellent book Automate This: How Algorithms Came to Rule the World).

For example: in 1815, the combined forces of Britain and Prussia defeated Napoleon’s army at the Battle of Waterloo. But even before the dust had settled on the battlefield, a carrier pigeon belonging to the House of Rothschild was on its way across the Channel to London. Nathan Rothschild, informed ahead of other traders that the country was not to be over-run by the French, consequently made a killing by buying British government bonds.

Financial markets have moved beyond carrier pigeons. Even though New York and Chicago are 700 miles apart, fiber-optic cables transmit data between the two cities in about seven milliseconds. In high-speed trading, that is a long time.

Between March and July 2009, a couple of entrepreneurs spent $300 million building a straighter, shorter fiber-optic link connecting the two financial centers, reducing the time taken to send data by about three milliseconds.

That ultra-fast connection was built by Jim Barksdale, the founder of the company that would later become Netscape, and Dan Spivey. This nearly straight fiber-optic link between Chicago and New York City shaves three milliseconds off the previously fastest connection between these two cities… and cost $300,000,000. Barksdale financed the line almost entirely with his personal funds. It is said that his company, Spread Network, now charges 8 to 10 times more for use of his cable than competitors, about $3 million per year, per user.

There are more players in the high-speed, high-frequency trading spaces than Spread Networks. But all of these types of companies are run by individuals that put a great deal of wealth at risk to make more wealth. Class envy, class warfare are the mainstay of the modern Democrat party.

Make no mistake, this Holder is not investigating “unfair advantages.” This is about the Democrats and Barack Obama using the Justice Department to once again create the impression that the GOP is protecting the wealthy while hurting the “little guy.”

As Bloomberg reports:

“…Democrats in Congress are renewing a push to levy fees on high-frequency trading in an effort to generate hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue, or tax the practice out of existence. he measure isn’t likely to move forward in the House, where no member of the Republican majority has signed on as a co-sponsor.”

It is pure political posturing.

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