Photo, left: Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the USSR, as it moves through Byelorussia. See Hour 2, Block B, Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus, on Ukrainian PM Arseny Yatsenyuk blames Soviet Union for invading Russia  ...
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Co-host: Larry Kudlow, CNBC senior advisor; & Cumulus Media radio
Hour One
Tuesday  13 January  2015 / Hour 1, Block A: Scott W. Atlas, Hoover, Wall Street Journal, in re:  Eisenhower set up highway fees to pay for interstate highways, only. Costs for museums, bullet trains, bicycle paths, and the like – let the states pay for it. If you remove all this detritus, the highway trust fund is pretty much in balance.  Endorse public-private partnerships ("Three P) if needed to cover costs of roads. 
GALLUP: More Americans say economy is getting better. Confidence at highest level since 2008 @GallupNews #ThanksObama pic.twitter.com/Qf64S10q0g  ACA: shift toward people being insured directly , which doctors don't accept much, and the exchanges are a sham in that they cover only very narrow provider networks and removing  (hostel?) care.   Because of the very low reimbursement rates, decent doctors won't accept Medicaid and even Medicare; they’re walking out.  Over half right now.  The more people are on govt programs, the higher the cost per person in the private sector – so fewer people can afford adequate medical insurance.  Medicaid has worse outcomes even compared to those with no insurance: uninsured people still get medical care, whereas Medicaid ties doctors's hands.  Better for poor people: give them the money to buy good insurance.  More than 20% of primary care doctors accept no new Medicare patients, and that number is expanding rapidly, having tripled from three years ago.    Declining: Medicare,  Medicaid and specialist physicians – Medicare not only doesn’t pay satisfactorily, but doesn't even cover actual costs.
Tuesday  13 January  2015 / Hour 1, Block B: Scott W. Atlas, Hoover, Wall Street Journal, in re:  Even Dr Howard Dean says that the IPAB sounds like a rationing body: a govt-apptd board of 15 people having unprecedented authority whose mission is to reduce payments to doctors, and their unilateral recommendations must be accepted by HHS.  A truly dangerous board of political appointees with no accountability, no oversight.  Obamacare has created fewer choices and less competition – decreased the number of choices from 117 to 41 exchanges; in 16states, people have a choice of 3 or fewer; and these cover a very narrow range of providers.  Need to get rid of the punitive tax on medical devices.  Let states set up their own systems, incl joint systems with other states.  Most people do not want to pay for massage therapy, in vitro fertilization, etc. 
Tuesday  13 January  2015 / Hour 1, Block C: Phil Izzo, WSJ lead editor, Real Time Economics blog, in re: Wages. Growth. Taxes.   Hiring Booms, but Wages Lag.  The U.S. concluded its best year of job growth in 15 years as the unemployment rate fell to a postrecession low last month, signs of strength that mask continued challenges of stagnant wages and a stubbornly high number of Americans still on the sidelines.  Fed Likely to Remain Patient on Rates.    Economists React | Wage Gains Tepid.    . . .  US economy has in fact got better, although there's still a way to go.    . .  . Eligibility requirements for disability benefits have been greatly expanded, with the result that we're paying too many people not to work. . . .  Market concerned about collapse, in Russia, for example  Oil plunges of the 1980s and 1990s were associated with a very strong dollar and a strong economy.  The Detroit auto show: Ford rolled out a $200K muscle car – because of the price of gasoline (smile). 
Tuesday  13 January  2015 / Hour 1, Block D: Steven Haber, author, Fragile by Design*,  & Stanford and Hoover, in re: "Let them eat credit" – Reserve Board of India.  The Dracula here is the housing bubble and what created it: another massive credit bubble. And it’s being created again by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac right now.  Charlie [Calomiris] and I were surprised at how quickly the   . . . Fannie and Freddie held two-thirds of the subprime loans, yet rewriting history was immediate:  Mel Watt decides that people an buy mortgages with only a 3% down payment and that it’ll reduce the cost of insuring mortgages for FHA loans. On top of other recent steps that gut the parts of Dodd-Frank that were a thin firewall vs another mortgage crisis meltdown.  The GSE Act set this in motion right before the election G H Bush lost to Bill Clinton.  Continued by G W Bush. GOP has been as much in bed with these disastrous policies – unaffordable mortgages – as have he Democrats. The persons whom this most damages are poor people! Poor people being told to take a large chunk of their uncertain income, pile it into a speculative gamble, an illiquid asset, because the politicians won’t be here when the payments come due. Equivalent of telling someone to buy a lottery ticket with a very low probability of success.   Some time in the next Administration this will blow up.  See:  Redistributive Credit Policies Won't Fix Inequality, by Charles Calomiris, Stephen Haber, via e21, Economic Policies for the 21st Century
* designated by Bloomberg Businessweek and the Financial Times as a "must read."
 
Hour Two
Tuesday  13 January  2015 / Hour 2, Block A:  Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus; author: Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War, & The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag after Stalin; in re: U.S. Troops Resuming Atlantic Resolve Training in Eastern Europe DoD News, Defense Media Activity - U.S. Army troops resumed Operation Atlantic Resolve land-forces training of allied and partner forces this week as 7  . . .   (1 of 4)
Tuesday  13 January  2015 / Hour 2, Block B: Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus, in re: Ukrainian PM Arseny Yatsenyuk blames Soviet Union for invading ...
Arseny Yatsenyuk, when visiting Germany, [said] the current "Russian aggression in Ukraine is an attack on the . . . "    Beyond normal comprehension that an official could misrepresent the fact of Hitler's having invaded the Soviet Union . . .   Even for a neo-Nazi was unbelievably stupid. In germany, there are laws forbidding misrepresenting the history of World War II.   . .  Everyone knows that Poroshenko is "Washington's man."   (2 of 4)
Tuesday  13 January  2015 / Hour 2, Block C: Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus, in re:    (3 of 4)
Tuesday  13 January  2015 / Hour 2, Block D: Stephen F. Cohen, NYU & Princeton professor Emeritus, in re:    (4 of 4)
 
Hour Three
Tuesday  13 January  2015 / Hour 3, Block A:   Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, RealClearPolitics, & Pirates fan, in re: A young boy wearing a red polka-dot tie, his crisp blue shirt escaping his belted trousers from constant activity, found his way to the House chamber's microphone amid the excitement, chaos and noise of the opening day of the 114th Congress. The room was filled with excited new faces about to perform their first duty as members of Congress — to vote for speaker of the House.
    Old hands and the deans of state delegations, despite their longevity, were caught up in the day's excitement, too. One representative donned a ceremonial wreath; Texas Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee sparkled in a cream-colored ensemble, and Pennsylvania Republican Mike Kelly held court for several young grandchildren dutifully lined up beside him. The boy at the microphone performed a playful make-believe speech, raising his hands and gripping the mic several times, while looking left and right to see if anyone caught his performance.  [more]
Tuesday  13 January  2015 / Hour 3, Block B: John Schwartz, NYT, in re: West Virginia Revisits Science Standards  Members of the West Virginia Board of Education will take up the teaching of climate science after accusations that the curriculum had been revamped to appease the state’s fossil fuel industry.
Tuesday  13 January  2015 / Hour 3, Block C:   Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re: Dragon arrives at ISS  Dragon has berthed successfully at ISS, much earlier than originally planned.  Photos of SpaceX’s floating landing barge  The landing barge on which the first stage of the Falcon 9 attempted to land has returned to port.  Photos of the barge show signs of blast and burn damage to cargo containers and possible wreckage from the rocket covered by tarps on the platform’s deck. The rest of the vessel appeared undamaged.  These photos do not show as much wreckage as I would have expected, though my expectations here aren’t based on much knowledge. I would have thought that the first stage remains would have been more substantial.
Tuesday  13 January  2015 / Hour 3, Block D:  Francis Rose, Federal News Radio, in re: Miller Bill Would Give VA Secretary Complete Authority to Recoup Bonuses from Failed Employees    Chairman Miller introduced legislation yesterday that would give the Department of Veterans Affairs secretary the authority to recoup for cause bonuses paid to VA employees.
In scandal after scandal at one VA facility after another across the country, VA executives who presided over mismanagement and negligence are often more likely to have received a bonus than any sort of punishment. VA paid more than $380,000 in cash bonuses to top executives at 38 hospitals that are under investigation for falsifying wait times for medical care. 
          The legislation is also intended to eliminate confusion among VA officials who have made contradictory statements about the department’s authority to recoup bonuses. After introducing the legislation, Miller released the following statement:
         “Ideally, VA employees and executives who collected bonuses under false pretenses should be subject to prosecution when warranted, but at a minimum their bonuses should be paid back in full. I urge my colleagues to support this bill so the VA secretary will have another tool to instill some much-needed accountability throughout the department.” – Rep. Jeff Miller, Chairman, House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
 
Hour Four
Tuesday  13 January  2015 / Hour 4, Block A: The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression (Graphic Edition)   by Chuck Dixon, Amity Shlaes and Paul Rivoche (1 of 4)
Tuesday  13 January  2015 / Hour 4, Block B: The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression (Graphic Edition)   by Chuck Dixon, Amity Shlaes and Paul Rivoche (2 of 4)
Tuesday  13 January  2015 / Hour 4, Block C: The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression (Graphic Edition)   by Chuck Dixon, Amity Shlaes and Paul Rivoche (3 of 4)
Tuesday  13 January  2015 / Hour 4, Block D: The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression (Graphic Edition)   by Chuck Dixon, Amity Shlaes and Paul Rivoche (4 of 4)
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