The Daily Caller's Neil Munro reports:

Senate Republican staffers continue to look though the 2010 health care reform law to see what's in it, and their latest discovery is a massive $17 trillion funding gap.
...

The $17 trillion in extra promises was revealed by an analysis of the law's long-term requirements. The additional obligations, when combined with existing Medicare and Medicaid funding shortfalls, leave taxpayers on the hook for an extra $82 trillion in health care obligations over the next 75 years.

The federal government has an additional $17 trillion unfunded gap in other obligations, including Social Security, bringing the total shortfall to $99 trillion.

March 31 ...

In 1492 King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain issued an edict, called the Alhambra Decree, expelling Jews who were unwilling to convert to Christianity. In 1596 philosopher, scientist, and mathematician Rene Descartes was born in La Haye, France. In 1823 Civil War diarist Mary Chestnut was born in Stateburg, SC. In 1831 Quebec and Montreal were incorporated as cities. In 1880 Wabash, IN, became the first town in the world to be illuminated by electrical lighting. In 1889 French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel unfurled the French flag from atop the Eiffel Tower, in a ceremony marking its completion. In 1943 the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! opened on Broadway. In 1945 the Tennessee Williams play The Glass Menagerie opened on Broadway. In 1949 Newfoundland became Canada's tenth province. In 1966 the Soviet Union launched Luna 10, which became the first spacecraft to enter a lunar orbit. In 1968 President Johnson stunned the country by announcing he would not seek another term in office. In 2000 the UN Security Council decided to let Iraq spend more money to repair its oil industry, an investment intended to boost the amount of food and medicine Baghdad could buy through the UN humanitarian program known as the Oil-For-Food program. In 2004 four American civilian contractors were killed in Fallujah, Iraq; frenzied crowds dragged the burned, mutilated bodies and strung two of them from a bridge. Also on this day, Air America, intended as a liberal voice in network talk radio, made its debut on five stations. In 2005 Terri Schiavo, 41, died at a hospice in Pinellas Park, FL, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed in a wrenching right-to-die dispute that engulfed the entire country.

Forbes magazine contributor Peter Ferrara:

The Washington Post proclaimed editorially on March 21, "There is no credible path to deficit reduction without a combination off spending cuts and revenue increases." They insisted that this "is the fundamental failure of the budget blueprint released Tuesday by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan."

But this criticism is factually wrong as a matter of simple mathematics. Under CBO's score of the Ryan budget, federal revenues virtually double over the next 10 years from $2.444 trillion today to $4.601 trillion by 2022. That is one whopping revenue increase, roughly $2.2 trillion, which is more than the entire GDP of almost every other country in the world.
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The Washington Post so badly misled its readers about the effects of Ryan's proposed budget not because it is stupid, but because it was not being completely honest in criticizing Ryan's budget for failing to raise revenues. What it really believes and means to say in its editorial is not that the budget cannot be balanced without increasing revenues, but that it cannot be balanced without a combination of spending cuts and increased taxes, meaning increased rates, since Ryan's budget would produce sharp increases in revenues even under CBO's troglodyte static scoring.

But history and logic prove the Post quite wrong on that point. The dominant effect on the deficit comes from the economy, not tax policy. If the economy is booming, creating surging revenues, then the deficit declines sharply. If the economy is weak, resulting in lagging revenues, then the deficit grows, even in the face of tax increases.

However, Ferrara has some criticism for Ryan's plan, which echoes Stanford economics professor John B. Taylor's criticism of Fed policy:

The one true shortcoming of the Ryan budget is that it proposes nothing about reform of the Fed and monetary policy. While federal budgets never address this, that does not mean that Ryan's budget proposals cannot.

I raise this because restrained monetary policy providing for a stable, strong dollar without inflation is so central to creating booming economic growth. That can be achieved through legislation requiring the Fed to follow a "price rule" for monetary policy, which means the Fed would conduct its monetary policies to maintain stable market prices for gold and other key commodities.

With a stable dollar investors know that their returns will not be depreciated by a falling dollar, inflation, or the repeated recessionary cycles created by discretionary, "Bernanke standard" style monetary policies. As a result, investment would pour into our economy, from at home and abroad, promoting still further booming economic growth, which would produce still further booming revenues.

Ryan should include such a provision in all future budgets, helping to tutor everyone about the central importance of sound monetary policy to economic growth and prosperity. In the meantime, it would be desirable if he would lead House Republicans to pass such legislation this year, and promote it to the Senate.

Read the whole piece.

March 30 ...

In 1822 Florida became a United States territory. In 1842 Dr. Crawford W. Long of Jefferson, GA, first used ether as an anesthetic during a minor operation. In 1853 painter Vincent van Gogh was born in Zundert, The Netherlands. In 1855 about 5,000 "Border Ruffians" from western Missouri invaded the territory of Kansas and forced the election of a pro-slavery legislature. It was the first election in Kansas. In 1856 the Treaty of Paris (1856) was signed, ending the Crimean War. In 1867 US Secretary of State William H. Seward reached agreement with Russia to purchase the territory of Alaska for $7.2 million, a deal roundly ridiculed as "Seward's Folly." In 1870 the 15th amendment to the Constitution, giving black men the right to vote, was declared in effect; also on that day, Texas was readmitted to the Union. In 1909 the Queensboro bridge in New York opened, linking Manhattan and Queens. It was the first double-decker bridge. In 1945 guitarist Eric Clapton was born in Ripley, England. In 1946 the Allies seized 1,000 Nazis attempting to revive the Nazi party in Frankfurt. In 1970 Secretariat, perhaps the greatest racehorse of all-time, was born at Meadow Farm in Doswell, VA. In 1981 President Reagan was shot and seriously injured outside a Washington, DC hotel by John W. Hinckley Jr.; also wounded were White House press secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy, and District of Columbia police officer Thomas Delehanty. In 1986 actor James Cagney died at his farm in Stanfordville, NY, at age 86. In 1987 Vincent van Gogh's painting, "Irises," was sold for an at-that-time record of about $54 million at Sotheby's. In 2002 the Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother of England, died in her sleep at Royal Lodge, Windsor, outside London; she was 101 years old. In 2004 British-born American journalist and broadcaster Alistair Cooke died in New York City at age 95.

Stanford professor of economics and Hoover Institute senior fellow John B. Taylor notes, "A century of experience shows that rules lead to prosperity and discretion leads to trouble."

Taylor further writes:

Thanks to careful empirical research by Milton Friedman, Anna Schwartz and Allan Meltzer, we have plenty of evidence that rules-based monetary policies work and unpredictable discretionary policies don't. Now is the time to act on that evidence.
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Unfortunately the Fed has returned to its discretionary, unpredictable ways, and the results are not good. Starting in 2003-05, it held interest rates too low for too long and thereby encouraged excessive risk-taking and the housing boom. It then overshot the needed increase in interest rates, which worsened the bust. Now, with inflation and the economy picking up, the Fed is again veering into "too low for too long" territory. Policy indicators suggest the need for higher interest rates, while the Fed signals a zero rate through 2014.
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History shows that reform of the Federal Reserve Act is also needed to incentivize rules-based policy and prevent a return to excessive discretion. The Sound Dollar Act of 2012, a subject of hearings at the Joint Economic Committee this week, has a number of useful provisions. It removes the confusing dual mandate of "maximum employment" and "stable prices," which was put into the Federal Reserve Act during the interventionist wave of the 1970s. Instead it gives the Federal Reserve a single goal of "long-run price stability."
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The term "long-run" clarifies that the goal does not require the Fed to overreact to the short-run ups and downs in inflation. The single goal wouldn't stop the Fed from providing liquidity when money markets freeze up, or serving as lender of last resort to banks during a panic, or reducing the interest rate in a recession.

Read the whole piece.

Rand Simberg:

Having seen the transcripts of Tuesday's hearing before the Supreme Court of the United States, I can only conclude that such a concept -- testing their arguments against those of their political opponents -- not only never occurred to the solicitor general or his defenders in the media, but that the very notion that their arguments had any flaws never crossed their minds.
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The White House could have avoided, or at least mitigated, this disaster by hiring the smartest opponents of the law to come in and do a moot court exercise against them, in order to prepare their advocate in advance. But, whether due to arrogance, incompetence, or both, it did not.

This week's events at the Supreme Court should be a torpedo below the waterline to the credibility of those who have been telling us about the Constitution, and those who determine the constitutionality of the swill that is generated in Congress. A media organization that wanted to survive the coming tsunami of fact-checking from those in the know, who with social media are increasingly becoming more known, might want to hire a "red team" to give them the bitter truths they need to survive.

But because both they, and the administration that they protect, remain cocooned, it may take another few hits.

March 29 ...

In 1638 Swedish colonists settled in present-day Delaware. In 1790 10th president of the United States John Tyler was born in Charles City County, VA. In 1847 victorious forces led by Gen. Winfield Scott occupied the Mexican city of Vera Cruz after defenders capitulated. In 1867 the British Parliament passed the North America Act to create the Dominion of Canada; also on this day baseball Hall of Famer Cy Young was born in Gilemore, OH. In 1932 Jack Benny made his radio debut on the Ed Sullivan Show. In 1943 World War II meat, butter, and cheese rationing began. In 1951 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. (They were executed in June 1953.) In 1962 Jack Paar hosted NBC's Tonight show for the final time. In 1971 Army Lt. William L. Calley Jr. was convicted of murdering at least 22 Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai massacre. (Calley ended up spending three years under house arrest.) In 1973 the last United States combat troops left South Vietnam, ending America's direct military involvement in the Vietnam War. In 1974 the US space probe Mariner 10 became the first spacecraft to reach the planet Mercury. It had been launched on November 3, 1973. Also on this day, eight Ohio National Guardsmen were indicted on charges stemming from the shooting deaths of four students at Kent State University. (The guardsmen were later acquitted.) In 1979 the Committee on Assassinations Report issued by the Democratic Party-controlled US House of Representatives stated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was the result of a conspiracy. In 1992 in reference to his experimentation with marijuana, Democratic presidential front-runner Bill Clinton said, "I didn't inhale and I didn't try it again." It was a stupid answer to a stupid question. In 1999 the Dow Jones industrial average closed above the 10,000 mark for the first time. In 2004 Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia became members of NATO.

Here is the link to Wednesday morning's US Supreme Court arguments, in both audio and written transcript form.

Update: Here is the link to Wednesday afternoon's US Supreme Court arguments, in both audio and written transcript form.

The College Fix's Elaina Plott reports: (emphasis added)

Steven Landsburg, the professor who was denounced by his university for criticizing Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke, stuck to his position in an exclusive interview with The College Fix.

"Everyone deserves respect, but some people are not interested in discussing their ideas, or possibly examining a different side," said Landsburg, a bestselling author and professor of economics at the University of Rochester. "Fluke clearly has no desire to do this."
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"Free speech isn't the issue here," he said. "Nobody, myself included, tried to stifle her speech."

In fact, if anyone had stifled speech, it was the student protesters.

"I'm very disappointed in the growing trend of students and others unwilling to engage in meaningful discussion," he said.
...

Unsurprisingly, Landsburg was less than enthusiastic about Fluke running for political office -- a possibility raised by Fluke during a panel discussion last week.

"She's not interested in ideas and the motivations behind them," said Landsburg. "But I guess that's fitting, because those kinds of people end up in politics anyway."

Read the whole article.

March 28 ...

In 1834 the US Senate voted to censure President Jackson for the removal of federal deposits from the Bank of the United States. In 1854 Britain and France entered the Crimean War by declaring war on Russia. In 1864 a group of Copperheads attacked Federal soldiers in Charleston, IL. Five were killed and twenty were wounded. In 1890 jazz bandleader Paul Whiteman was born in Denver, CO. In 1898 the Supreme Court ruled that a child born in the United States to Chinese immigrants was a US citizen. In 1909 writer Nelson Algren was born in Detroit, MI. In 1929 writer Frederick Exley was born in Watertown, NY. In 1930 the names of the Turkish cities of Constantinople and Angora were changed to Istanbul and Ankara. In 1939 the Spanish Civil War ended as Madrid fell to the forces of Francisco Franco. In 1941 novelist and critic Virginia Woolf died in Lewes, England. In 1943 composer Sergei Rachmaninoff died in Beverly Hills, CA. In 1953 athlete Jim Thorpe died in Lomita, CA. In 1969 34th President of the US Dwight D. Eisenhower died in Washington at age 78. In 1979 America's worst commercial nuclear accident occurred inside the Unit Two reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Middletown, PA. In 1996 Congress passed the line-item veto, giving the president the power to cut government spending by scrapping specific programs (it was signed into law by President Bill Clinton, who used it over 80 times, but later was ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court in 1998).

Here is the link to Tuesday's US Supreme Court arguments, in both audio and written transcript form.

From a Wall Street Journal editorial:

It's hard to believe now, but Jerry Brown once ran for President as a reformer who favored a flat tax with a 13% top federal rate. That was 1992. Nowadays in his second stint as Governor, he's running to give California alone a higher top income-tax rate.

The incredible shifting Governor recently agreed to adjust his November ballot initiative to include an even higher top tax rate. Previously he favored an increase to 12.3% from 10.3% today. But the government-unions that live off tax revenues had threatened to sponsor their own ballot measure raising the top rate even higher.

The Governor feared that divided support might doom both. So he and the unions agreed to back only one initiative with a top rate of 13.3%. The measure would also raise the state sales tax by a quarter of a percentage point to 7.5%, or more than 9% including the sales tax in some cities. Oh, and instead of lasting five years, the income-tax increase would last for seven.

All of this is said to be necessary to balance a $9.2 billion budget deficit.

So what else is new?

... the tax increase is simply about the political power to deliver money to the interests that live off government. Mr. Brown's budget raises spending in 2013 by 7% and by roughly 5% on average over the next four years. Every dollar of higher taxes is accompanied by roughly a dollar increase in spending. If the revenues don't materialize as promised from this tax increase, they'll raise taxes again -- and again, and . . . .

California voters will have to decide whether to ratify this welfare-state redistribution one more time, or finally force the state to confront the limits of tax and spend politics.

March 27 ...

In 1513 Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sighted Florida. In 1625 Charles I ascended the English throne upon the death of James I. In 1794 President Washington and Congress authorized creation of the US Navy. In 1836 the Mexican army massacred about 400 Texan rebels at Goliad, TX, under the order of Santa Anna. In 1958 Nikita Khrushchev became Soviet premier in addition to First Secretary of the Communist Party. In 1964 114 people were killed when Alaska was hit with a powerful earthquake. In 1968 Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man to orbit the earth, died in a plane crash. In 1977 582 people were killed when a KLM Boeing 747, attempting to take off, crashed into a Pan Am 747 on the Canary Island of Tenerife. In 2004 NASA successfully launched an unpiloted X-43A jet that hit Mach 7 (about 5,000 mph).

Here is the link to today's US Supreme Court arguments, in both audio and written transcript form.

From Reason.tv: