Tag: cost
U.S. Inflation Tame Despite Food Price Rises

U.S. Inflation Tame Despite Food Price Rises

Washington (AFP) — Consumer prices in the United States rose a bare 0.1 percent in July despite strong gains in food costs, the Labor Department reported Tuesday.

The slowdown in consumer inflation after three months of faster gains left the year-on-year consumer price index (CPI) up 2.0 percent, a level the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy makers have regarded as non-threatening.

Food prices were up 0.4 percent in the month, continuing a high pace of increases since February which are hitting American shoppers in the wallet. Food costs were 2.5 percent higher than a year ago.

But offsetting that has been a fall in energy prices, with gasoline prices now 0.8 percent down from a year ago.

Less energy and food, both more volatile components of the index, CPI was up 0.1 percent for the month and 1.9 percent over 12 months.

AFP Photo/Frederic J. Brown

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Obamacare Cost Forecast Is Reduced 7 Percent By U.S. Fiscal Watchdog

Obamacare Cost Forecast Is Reduced 7 Percent By U.S. Fiscal Watchdog

By Michael A. Memoli, Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Lower-than-expected health insurance premiums under Obamacare will help cut the long-term cost of the program 7 percent over the next decade, according to the latest report from the Congressional Budget Office.

The government’s reduction of $104 billion in subsidies for those premiums was the main factor that led the nonpartisan fiscal watchdog to cut its projection of the nation’s federal deficit by nearly $300 billion through 2024.

According to the CBO report, released Monday, the average annual premium for the new health care exchanges’ midlevel Silver plan — used as a benchmark — is expected to be $4,400 by 2016. That would be 15 percent lower than the office’s estimate before President Barack Obama’s signature health law was passed four years ago.

The cost was cheaper because the benefits offered, including doctor choice and coverage, were narrower than the CBO initially expected, though it predicted benefits and premiums would rise in future years.

Because health plans are expected to cost less, federal subsidies offered this year to low-income individuals also will decrease — as much as $300 per enrollee from a previous estimate.

Those subsidies account for more than $1 trillion of the nearly $1.4 trillion cost of the Affordable Care Act over the next decade.

The White House said the CBO revisions show that the health law is achieving one of its primary goals by limiting the growth of health care spending.

“This is historic progress and shows how the Affordable Care Act is working as it was supposed to by helping more Americans get coverage, while making historic progress in slowing health care cost growth and improving our nation’s fiscal outlook by lowering deficits,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters.

But independent analysts noted that the CBO continues to project that overall deficits will begin to grow again after their recent declines, requiring difficult choices in the future on taxes and entitlements to address the growing national debt.

The CBO continues to project that six million individuals will buy health insurance through the exchanges this year, despite the administration’s recent announcement that 7.5 million have enrolled in plans. The White House said the discrepancy results from a technical calculation CBO makes for individuals enrolled for only a portion of the year.

The CBO expects the number of enrollees to quadruple by 2016 before leveling off at 25 million over the rest of the next decade. An additional 13 million will have health coverage through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program than would have had coverage without the Affordable Care Act, it said.

The latest projections are likely to become part of the debate in this year’s midterm elections, which have largely centered on the state of Obamacare during its most crucial phase since passage in 2010.

Republican leaders had no immediate response. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement that “despite the savings the Affordable Care Act is realizing for middle-class families and for our nation, Republicans continue their desperate fixation with its repeal.”

Looking at the broader budget outlook, the CBO revised its projected federal budget deficit for this year to $492 billion, which is $22 billion less than it had forecast two months ago.

The cumulative $7.6 trillion in deficit spending over the next 10 years is $286 billion less than it had forecast two months ago, a revision the CBO bases largely on the lower projections for Obamacare subsidies.

The deficit is expected to shrink next year to $469 billion, the sixth consecutive annual decline when compared with the overall economy. But it is projected to grow again in 2016 to $536 billion and potentially eclipse the $1 trillion mark again by 2023, in part, because of the expansion of health care spending.

The United States will spend $5.8 trillion on interest costs alone on the national debt over the next decade.

“Policymakers should be using this period of relative calm to make real progress on our long-term fiscal challenges,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

LeDawna’s Pics via Flickr

The Death Penalty and The Costs of an Obsession

WASHINGTON — The unseemly love affair of some American politicians with the death penalty is bad for justice and bad for our country’s standing in the world. It inflicts a wholly unnecessary moral stain on a nation that rightly preaches the rule of law to everyone else.

Even more remarkable is the indifference that five justices of the Supreme Court have shown to such considerations.

And then there is Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, who insisted upon pushing ahead with the execution of Humberto Leal, a Mexican national convicted of the rape and killing of a teenager. Even former President George W. Bush — who presided over 152 executions as Perry’s predecessor — had qualms about the case. Bush hasn’t gone soft. He’s legitimately worried about the costs of the United States thumbing its nose at the government of Mexico and the world.

President Obama, the International Court of Justice and the Mexican government all wanted a stay of execution. But Perry’s press secretary was unapologetic. “Texas,” said Katherine Cesinger, “is not bound by a foreign court’s ruling.”

Imagine if an American life was at stake and a press secretary said that Iran — or Russia or Saudi Arabia or China — did not feel “bound by a foreign court’s ruling.”

Let’s be clear: This case involved a brutal crime, and Leal himself seemed to confess his guilt just before he died. “I take full blame for everything,” he said. “I am sorry for what I did.”

The Associated Press’ summary of the charges against Leal makes plain the sheer evil of the crime. It involved “the 1994 murder of 16-year-old Adria Sauceda, whose brutalized nude body was found hours after he left a San Antonio street party with her. She was bludgeoned with a chunk of asphalt.”

No one disputes that Leal deserved to be punished. And while I am strongly opposed to the death penalty, I would stipulate that if a state chooses to have one, this is the sort of crime for which it was intended.

But the episode dramatizes the way in which these inevitably politicized death penalty cases — Perry is mulling a Republican presidential candidacy — seem to harden us and rob us of our reason.

The International Court of Justice ruled that 51 Mexican-born inmates nationwide, including Leal, were entitled to new hearings in American courts to determine if their consular rights were violated. President Bush accepted the decision, but the Supreme Court overruled him in 2005.

So Sen. Pat Leahy, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has been pushing — so far unsuccessfully — to change American law to comply with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. He argues that “thousands of Americans are detained abroad while they study, travel, work, and serve in the military” and need access to consular officials who can “monitor their treatment, help them obtain legal assistance, and connect them to family back home.”

The Vienna Convention, which the United States agreed to, protects such rights, Leahy noted when he reintroduced his bill last month. “But it only functions effectively if every country meets its obligations under the treaty — including the United States.”

The four more liberal justices on the Supreme Court thought that little would be lost by delaying the execution. Writing for the dissenters, Justice Stephen Breyer sensibly argued that “it is difficult to see how the state’s interest in the immediate execution of an individual convicted of capital murder 16 years ago can outweigh the considerations that support additional delay, perhaps only until the end of the summer.”

But the five-justice conservative majority let the execution go forward on Thursday. They dismissed the president’s worries about the impact of the execution abroad as “free-ranging assertions of foreign policy consequences” that were “unaccompanied by a persuasive legal claim.” It’s disconcerting that a majority of our Supreme Court seems positively impatient just to get on with these executions.

Those who oppose the death penalty or think it’s imposed too frequently find ourselves interceding in cases involving truly terrible crimes that deserve severe punishment. But this is not about absolving criminals. It’s about our nation’s core values and how the rest of the world sees us. In this instance, it’s also about protecting the rights of Americans overseas.

When it comes to capital punishment, can’t we find it in ourselves as a nation to let our reason check our passions, even when those passions are entirely understandable?

E.J. Dionne’s email address is ejdionne(at)washpost.com.

(c) 2011, Washington Post Writers Group

The Costs of Shutting Down

What happens to the state economy when the government shuts down? Minnesotans are finding out. The state government cut off most nonessential services on July 1, and unless Minnesota Republicans and Democrats overcome their recent budget impasse, the state economy will continue to suffer severe losses, some obvious and others more subtle.

22,000 state workers lost their jobs when the government shut down last week. That’s $23M in lost wages—and lost purchasing power.

Many working parents who rely on state-funded childcare programs are finding themselves out of luck. Economists project the cutoff in funding for childcare will force workers to take more days off and decrease employee productivity.

Haven’t paid your taxes? You may be in luck, as Minnesota’s Tax Compliance Office is closed during the shutdown. The state isn’t collecting its average of $52M a month from delinquent taxpayers.

Minnesota is losing an estimated $1.25M in revenue from the state lottery every day. It’s also losing $1M a month in visitors fees as long as state parks remain closed.

As the legislature refuses to close budget holes for school districts, local governments must find the money elsewhere—in some cases, through steep increases in property taxes.

Fitch’s has downgraded Minnesota’s credit rating, raising doubts about the state’s willingness and ability to pay its bills. That means higher interest rates on state bonds, likely to cost taxpayers untold amounts even after the shutdown ends.

With their liquor licenses set to expire, many Minnesota restaurants—which rely heavily on profits from the bar—are considering closing their doors altogether. And it’s a bad beat for workers, too: If you were out of a job for the foreseeable future, wouldn’t you want a drink?

Robert Petito contributed to this report.