The View from Right Field

Marco Rubio Wants to Prohibit the Use of SNAP Money to Buy Pop and Dessert

Senator Marco Rubio (R, Fla.) wrote an Op-ed in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, “No More Subsidies for Junk Food,” proposing a ban on the use of SNAP monies, i.e., food stamps, to buy soda (called “pop” where I’m from) and prepared desserts.¹  Senator Rubio claims this would promote healthier diets, reduce “food deserts” in low-income neighborhoods by encouraging stores to carry healthy foods, and reduce long-run medical expenses, a veritable policy three-for-one.

Of course, all this is assuming his idea would work.  But if SNAP funds can’t be used for pop and desserts, people could easily use SNAP money for other things and save their cash for what they really want.  Or they could buy SNAP-approved products and then trade them for pop and desserts.  They could even sell their excess SNAP money for cash, at a discount, of course, so they could buy the banned items.

Bank Bailouts: Once Is Precedent; Twice Is Tradition

If “once is precedent, twice is tradition,” then bank bailouts are now tradition – though they might have already been tradition if the 1980s bailout of the savings and loan industry constituted bank bailout number one.  In any case, we are definitely now in “tradition” territory when it comes to bank bailouts.  I know Joe Biden said what was done over the weekend was not a bailout, but President Biden says lots of things.  It may be true that the stockholders of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank will not be bailed out, but:

• Any depositor who deposited more than $250,000 in SVB or Signature will be covered for their whole deposit, not just the first $250,000.  That’s a bailout.
• Anybody who owns stock in a bank whose stock might have tanked or might have even gone belly up but for the government’s actions over the weekend in bailing out depositors at SVB and Signature, is getting a bailout, too.

Queen Elizabeth II, RIP – and Duty

There will be articles about Queen Elizabeth II everywhere and by just about everybody.  I just had one comment about her; the thing that was, to me, most impressive about her: Her sense of duty and her performance of it. 

Queen Elizabeth II was born into a family and, upon the abdication of her uncle, into a job she never chose.  She didn’t ask to become queen.  She didn’t run for election to become queen.  It was just her duty because of who she was.  And she did not complain.  She just did her duty – and she did a magnificent job of it.

Any of us would be proud if, after we pass away, we are deemed to have done the duties in our lives even one-tenth as well as she did hers in her life.

Overturning Roe v. Wade – And a Call for the Great Middle of America to Take the Issue Back

In September of 2018, I wrote a post about Roe v. Wade and the possibility that it might be overturned.  (It was the time of the confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh.)  At that time, I said this:

“What people don’t understand in the debate over a woman’s right to choose is that we are not evenly divided between those who support a woman’s right to choose and those who oppose abortion.  Actually, views on abortion are divided among four groups: (i) those who oppose a woman’s right to choose under virtually any circumstances; (ii) those who want abortion available virtually without restriction; (iii) those who would allow it in some situations; and (iv) those who allow it in many circumstances. 

Do Kirkland & Ellis and the Biden Administration Have the Solution to Crime?

With Roe v. Wade getting overturned today, this post is probably a day late and a dollar short.  But here it is anyway:

Paul Clement and Erin Murphy, who won the case in the Supreme Court against New York state’s relatively strict handgun law,  New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, have announced that they are leaving the law firm they were at, Kirkland & Ellis.  According to them, Kirkland & Ellis told them that the firm would no longer take firearms cases and that they needed to stop representing clients such as the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association or leave the firm.  Not surprisingly, Clement and Murphy are leaving K&E.¹  In any case, the lesson is clear: K&E doesn’t want to provide legal representation to unpopular clients – or at least certain unpopular clients.

If You Want People to Follow Covid Rules, They Need to Make Sense

I don’t know what is going to happen with Covid.  I don’t think anybody, at least anybody who is being honest, does.  Among the problems (out of many) of the last two years has been the false certainty of so many people.  There has not been enough humility and honest uncertainty.

In that regard, let me just complain about one rule that, while it made sense when it was adopted, doesn’t make sense any more but stays in place because nobody seems to think about it.

Where Do We Get Our Purposes From? Business, Government – Or Ourselves

The following letter to the editor, which appears in the Financial Times on May 16, 2022, relates to a column by Brooke Masters in the FT of May 12, 2022, entitled “Profits not purpose still dominate at Volkswagen”:

Brooke Masters notes that Herbert Diess, Volkswagen chief executive, has called for a quick end to the Russian war against Ukraine (not that he calls it that), in order to “get back to trying to open up the world again”.  As Ms. Masters says, “[p]rofit not purpose is his priority”.

We Don’t Just Need New Leaders in Washington. We Need a New Generation of Leaders.

Back in November, I wrote a post I titled “Other Countries Can Get Competent Leaders. Why Can’t We?”  I wrote after listening to an interview with Sir John Key, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, on “Walking the path to the next global financial crisis.”  His comments were on point and he explained things so well, I was depressed looking at our president and his predecessor.

Then on Wednesday, I watched an interview with Kaja Kallas, the Prime Minister of Estonia:

Covid Vaccine Mandates: Let’s Not Do More Harm Than the Good We Can Actually Achieve

When the Covid vaccines first came out, I got my shots as soon as I could.  When the booster was authorized, I was there.  If a fourth shot is approved, as Israel is doing, I’ll be in line right away. 

Still, I’m beginning to worry the continuing efforts to force people to get vaccinated are not helpful.  I understand the logic of the mandates, and I wish everybody would get their shots.  But clearly, there is some group of people isn’t going to. 

President Biden: Just Because I Disagree With You Doesn’t Mean I Am on Jefferson Davis’s Side.

In a speech in Atlanta on Tuesday, Joe Biden said, in urging the passage of various election law bills in the Senate: “Do you want to be the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?" 

I have news for President Biden.  Just because I don’t agree with him on those bills, doesn’t mean I am on Jefferson Davis’s side.  When I was taking American history classes in high school in the mid-1960s, my heroes were Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant.  When I toured Tennessee in 1977, I went to the Shiloh and Chattanooga battlefields.  In Virginia in 1997, I went to the Wilderness and Appomattox.  When I returned to Virginia in 2002, I was appalled that streets and roads were still named after Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee.  When other people were telling me how noble Robert E. Lee was, I saw a man who had abandoned his country and committed treason.