Important headlines for January 3rd:
Bottom Line: These are stories you don't want to miss and my hot takes on them...
Police shot fewer people in 2017 in Miami-Dade, bucking national uptick - Miami Herald
Excerpt: In 2017, law enforcement officers from six different agencies in Miami-Dade County shot 15 people, continuing a recent downward trend that law enforcement experts credit to improved police training and tactics. The public, particularly in communities traumatized by gun violence, also have become hyperaware of minimizing confrontations after a string of controversial police shootings of unarmed black men that triggered nationwide protests.
Last year’s numbers — obtained from the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office and police records — fell 17 percent from the 18 people shot in 2016 and dropped 29 percent from 21 shot in 2015. The decline also comes in the face of a national trendline that ticked upward.
Hot Take: On one hand great. If we had a reduction in police involved shootings that generally is a positive indication that there may have be fewer occasions for which there was a need along with any policy related changes. On the other hand, there's seemingly a lack of perspective about the potential need for force being used. It's real easy for people, especially in the media, to sit back protected by free speech and the those who go to work every day putting themselves at risk for our safety, to express a critical tone. From the characterization of "gun violence", I've still yet to find a situation in which a gun jumps up and starts shooting at people, to the assertion that implies that officers had previously been too reckless. Again, that's easy for critics in media along with alleged experts who aren't in the field to suggest. I wonder if they'd feel differently if they were tasked with keeping the public safe. While we did have an incident in the Kinsey shooting last May in North Miami - Miami-Dade didn't have any that have been prosecuted that I'm aware of. What's not mentioned is that 128 officers died in the line of duty last year. Nine died while on duty in Florida, the second highest total of any state in the country. While that was thankfully down 10% from the prior year, it was still one of the deadliest years on record for police officers. One concern that I've discussed with leaders in local law enforcement is that some police officers may be reluctant to use needed force for fear of retribution. The media needs to stop politicizing policing. It's potentially dangerous for everyone except criminals.
Good Riddance to a Terrible Idea: The Individual Mandate Richmond Times-Dispatch
Excerpt: Critics of tax reform were so busy having a meltdown over the notion of letting people keep their own money that they almost neglected to have a meltdown over letting people make their own decisions. So, it’s worth pausing for a moment to reflect on one of the tax bill’s most salutary elements: repeal of the individual mandate, which extended the already sweeping authority of the federal government to an even greater degree.
Obamacare’s supporters have long insisted the Affordable Care Act simply could not work without the mandate: Without it, people would not buy insurance until they got sick, leading to skyrocketing premiums — which would induce more people to drop insurance until they got sick, until the whole system collapsed in a death spiral. Then Obamacare would implode.
Well. After Congress passed tax cuts shortly before Christmas, President Trump said: “In this bill, not only do we have massive tax cuts and tax reform, we have essentially repealed Obamacare.” Not so fast, the president’s foes insisted:
Nearly 20 million people already pay the tax penalty or receive an exemption from the mandate. While adding a few more million to that number might tip the system beyond the point of recovery, that outcome is far from clear. Either way, the mandate is horrible public policy, as even Barack Obama once recognized. “If a mandate was the solution, we could try that to solve homelessness by mandating everybody buy a house,” he said in 2008.
Hot Take: The "Affordable Care Act" wasn't just the greatest fraud perpetrated on Americans in modern American history (the average cost for healthcare is greater than 90% more expensive today compared to eight years ago when it was passed into law) - it was the largest tax increase in American history! The most instructive point about how and why the ACA's individual mandate could be repealed in a tax reform law is because it was a tax! If the Obama administration would have said that healthcare would cost you 90% more in eight years and those who didn't pay 90% more for health insurance would pay a tax enforceable by the IRS - how many takers do you think there would have been? That's why any argument about the individual mandate is DOA. If you want to have an honest conversation about what the ACA really was and is (a giveaway to health insurance and drug companies at your expense), it's a losing argument.
The Need for Trusted Journalism Is as Great as Ever A.G. Sulzberger, New York Times
Hot Take: Agreed! Are you ready to try it out and take it for a spin?
Until tomorrow...