Category Archives: Government

Stuff you may or may not know about your local, state, and federal government

Fixing Healthcare

The solution is easy!

President Trump just needs to say that he has come to realize that Obamacare is the best solution to the healthcare crisis and he wants the Senate to scrap any plans to repeal and replace.

The “resistance” will instantly adopt the Senates’s plan to repeal and replace because they will not support anything that President Trump says he wants to do.

Done deal.

It’s Just A Fee, Not A Tax…

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti committed $100 MILLION to help the homeless back in 2105. Later he corrected himself and committed $138 MILLION.  As a good politician, he made the commitment of city funds without actually having a budget to do so. It’s great to be able to spend other people’s money, even before you steal it from them.

A significant portion of the funding is to come from “Linkage Fees“.

I’m not a financial wizard, hence I needed to look up what a “linkage fee” is. What Los Angeles City is implementing is “linking” a $5 per square foot “fee” on commercial development and a $12 per square foot “fee” on residential development to get the funds. The “fees” would be collected before a building permit would be issued.

You can read the FAQ on the “linkage fee” HERE

I always like how the politicians write these things up. It’s a “fee” not a “tax”. If they said, “we are implementing a new tax on construction”, I bet that there would be a lot more upset people. Quietly implementing a new “fee structure” to a program that is already “fee” based goes by mostly unnoticed. That’s why pols get paid the big bucks!

Just to put things in perspective, according to homeadvisor.com, the average cost of new residential construction for a 2000 square foot house, which by the way would be subject to the “fee”, is $150 per square foot.  The “linkage fee” is basically an 8% new construction TAX.

Hey it’s only $24,000 that you are giving to Consigliere Garcetti when you kiss his ring.

Besides, that’s just walking around money for the Hellywierd elite.

A Simple Question

Why is it that the “weatherman” (okay you PC police, weather-non-gender-specific-person) often times can’t predict the weather for the next day, and people just laugh and say “you know they are quite often wrong“.  However when they predict flooding, polar bears starving, mass extinction, island countries disappearing underwater, millions of people dying, droughts, floods, and cats sleeping with dogs 100 YEARS IN THE FUTURE, many if not most people declare that as an UNDENIABLY ACCURATE FACT?

How about we try what Dr. Michael Crichton suggested and have the “climate experts” commit to a 10-year prediction and let’s see how good the computer models are before we continue on the path of economic self flagellation.