Thursday, March 30, 2017

School Choice Gives More Bang for Less Bucks

Your Beertown-based Peasant doesn't like to brag ---
oh, yes he does, when it's about something that puts
the Left's nose out of joint! Milwaukee's landmark
voucher program is not just the talk of my town,
but is on the minds and tongues of much of the country.
Liberal politicians and activists adamantly opposed to
school choice contend that vouchers and charter schools
deprive traditional public schools of money, but the fact
is that these charter, or choice schools, typically spend
less money per student. Moreover, a recent study
conducted by WILL (Wisconsin Institute for Law and
Liberty), a nonprofit organization that advocates for
educational reform and limited government, discovered
that students participating in Milwaukee's voucher
program will provide the city, state, and children
nearly half a billion dollars in economic benefits through
2035 thanks to more students graduating and less
of them getting arrested and sentenced to prison or
juvenile hall.

Basing their study on data from a crime and graduation
study by Corey DeAngelis and Patrick Wolf at the
University of Arkansas, WILL's study finds that through
2035 Wisconsin will receive a $473 million benefit from
higher graduation rates by school choice students.
More and better education makes for higher incomes for
the students when they are ready to begin their careers,
more tax revenue for Wisconsin's treasury, and a less
likely need for welfare, food stamps, or other payments
from government social programs. No wonder so many
Democrats and left-wing activists are chewing their
fingernails down to their knuckles! In addition, the
resultant greater economic opportunity also takes away
the urge for young adults to turn to lives of crime, which
WILL's study estimates will save Wisconsin $1.7 million
from decreasing misdemeanors and $24 million from
waning felonies over the same time period.

If the lefties were really concerned about the plight of the
inner city children trapped in the deteriorating public
school system's inept and ineffective schools and their
futures, given their propensity to spend our tax monies like
drunks in a bar on social programs which only promote
dependency rather than independence and economic
opportunity you would think that they would jump at the
chance to support school choice. But then, their intransigence
speaks volumes about their agenda and their true priorities.


MEM

Thursday, March 23, 2017

The Peasant Regroups

Friends, I need a bit of time off in order to take care
of some personal business as well as to have some
down time so I can refresh myself and be back with
you in good repair.

Meanwhile, enjoy this fine online publication:

Blabber Buzz     blabber.buzz/       

Don't worry; the site has a goofy name but it is
a wonderful conservative news site that delivers
the very latest in controversial political, entertainment,
and lifestyle news. Your favorite Peasant has been
enjoying this website for quite a while, and I think you
will too!

See you all shortly!


MEM

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Obamacare Continues to Slide Into Oblivion

When given the chance, many Americans will dodge and
have dodged ObamaCare's rules and limits. And who can
blame them.

The Affordable Health Care Act's mandates and regulations
are a big driver of higher health care costs. Happily, there are
health care plans that are not in compliance with the ACA's
rules that are very persistent. These rules were, of course,
created for two bad purposes: to make our nation's health
care industry serve politically progressive political goals,
and to squelch and minimize opposition from people who,
through this legislation, lost the health coverage that they
were quite satisfied with.

ObamaCare then "grandfathered" plans that existed before
March 23, 2010, when the legislation became law, making
this alternate coverage still legal as long as these insurers
made no major changes, such as decreasing benefits for
the policyholders. Then, in 2013, other plans in force that
year also were granted a regulatory commutation, so when
people were scheduled to be booted off of their non-Obama-
Care plans the regime waved through renewals. An extension
allowed these "grandmothered" plans to remain until 2017.

These plans are not required to comply with ObamaCare's
lofty "essential benefits" coverage floor, and are not required
to obey tight price controls which limit how much premiums
can differ based on pre-existing medical conditions. So, four
years into this health coverage program, over 8 million people
are still in these "grandfathered" and "grandmothered" plans.
Most of these plans are non-ObamaCare compliant, with
a majority of thus insured reporting satisfaction with their
plans, as opposed to those satisfied with their ACA plans.

So what we have here are a great many people opting out of
ObamaCare when given the chance. President Trump and the
GOP Congress should, with alacrity, deregulate this mess en
route to full repeal, ensuring Americans will retain the right
to upgrade to more generous benefits, while the ACA-banned
cheaper plans will have their ban lifted. These measures would
be wonderful first steps along the path to restoring a market-
based health care system, the likes of which we Americans
once enjoyed and was the envy of the world.


MEM


Thursday, March 2, 2017

Some People Can't Handle Democracy

Since the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as our
45th president and the installment of our still-
Republican Congress, the lefties have gone beyond
ballistic in their response to it all. Starting with
Inauguration Day they, in the parlance of their
hippie forebearers, "let it all hang out", man.
Your angered yet amused Peasant has some of the
gory details:

On Friday, January 20, what began as a morning of
peaceful protests along with coordinated disruptions
of the inauguration ceremony had degenerated into
street violence. At least three people were taken to
the hospital, two of them DC police, with injuries.
Black-clad self-proclaimed "antifascist" protesters
destroyed bus stops and smashed storefront windows,
including those of a Starbucks coffeehouse (didn't these
geniuses know that Starbucks was founded and is owned
by Howard Schultz, a fellow lefty?), as well as those of a
limousine and several police squad cars, along with
pelting the police with rocks. Some of them even showed
up at the ceremony itself and the inaugural ball, attempting
to block entrances to the events to keep Trump supporters
out. And these people claim to be the champions of
democracy, pluralism, and tolerance.

Similar protests took place in some other major U.S. cities
as well, including Seattle, Portland, Dallas, Chicago and
New York. There were, however, protests --- including
parades --- which were in fact peaceful throughout, but
very, very bizarre. One such rally had a pop star, Madonna
(yes, she's still around), swear at her and her fellow
protesters' detractors, spewing "F*** YOU!" repeatedly
at them. Actress Ashley Judd, I think she was at the same
rally, ranted about President Trump in connection with her
"bloody sheets" (a remark regarding her menstruation; no,
really! She meant EXACTLY that!) and that Trump's election
is somehow rape (honestly, you CAN'T make this stuff up!).
I could say more, but I want to be respectful of those of you,
my wonderful readers, whose stomachs may be rather delicate,
and those readers who may be youngsters. Oh, and there were
radical feminists marching in a parade wearing (no blarney!)
caps on their heads resembling vaginas (!), and some others were
wearing (wait for it!) vagina costumes (!!). Yes, these "ladies"
were dressed up as their own sex organs! Rush Limbaugh hit
the bull's eye when he said on his show, and he has said this many
times, that the Left is at their wackiest when they are out of
power. Judging from what has transpired around the country
with this bunch, I'd say that Rush's assessment of them is
spot on!

The left-wing festivities included many of the usual suspects in
attendance: the Black Lives Matter crowd; the "Greenies"; the
hard-core Marxists, be they in a political group or not;  radical
gender-rights groups who, among other things, advocate for
there to be no longer two gender-designated restrooms, as
they discriminate against transsexuals and ... you get the idea.
And a headache to boot. Your exasperated Peasant could use
a few aspirin tablets about now!

So as to save you, my hearty readers, further shock, disbelief,
nausea, and various pains in the head and the abdominal area,
I shall now close this post with a few parting thoughts:
The lefties, who have been lurching more and more leftward,
are now on a land rocket ride to even farther-left territory,
and their main organ the Democrat Party has moved along just
a wee bit behind them. In fact, some Democrat members of
Congress have publicly praised the protesters in Washington
and in the other aforementioned cities. In recent years, every time
the Democrats lose an election, be it at the state level or national,
now including the most recent presidential election, they
actually believe that the overriding reason they lost was that they
didn't go far enough to the left. Never mind the fact that We the
People have, in each of these elections, made our preference
clear for the politics and governance of constitutionally limited
government rather than those of an all-encompassing statist regimen.
But hey, let the Dems and their pals keep moving along their
chosen path to political Palookaville; for that is where they will
eventually end up if they fail to learn the lessons of their failed
campaigns, the most important one being that we don't want
totalitarianism to any degree, in any form. Personally, I don't
think that the Left is smart enough to figure this out.


MEM