Russian vassal = bad for Beijing, green handouts for the rich and other commentary
Foreign desk: Russian Vassal = Bad for Beijing
“Russia’s transformation into China’s vassal” is “harmful to Beijing’s interests,” argues Alexander J. Motyl at The Hill. First, “Putin’s increasingly precarious political condition does nothing to help Xi.” And “Putin’s Russia is a loose cannon” — “an unreliable junior partner with a penchant for getting into needless trouble” that might “get China embroiled in armed conflicts.” Plus, “Putin’s genocidal war against Ukraine could undermine the Russian Federation’s stability and possibly even bring about its disintegration,” a massive problem given China’s “lengthy border with Russia.” Which suggests Xi may “sacrifice” Putin “when realpolitik requires an about-face later.” “China has many choices” and an “alliance with Russia may be least desirable and most temporary.”
Culture critic: Behind Parents’ Pessimism
“One major cause for the pessimism about kids is schools,” explains Issues & Insights’ Terry Jones as polls show soaring doubts the next generation will be better off. “Education spending has risen sharply, but not kids’ test scores.” Many say “the heavy hand of teachers’ unions has for years made meaningful changes in schools nearly impossible,” while “the COVID lockdowns, embraced by the unions,” produced “a lost generation of education-deprived students and dropouts.” Plus, “universities also have been taken over by a generation of woke scholars and administrators who see their mission as to propagandize students, not to teach them.” So: “A generation increasingly unprepared for the unpredictable challenges that lie ahead is also among the most heavily indebted to emerge from higher education,” with outstanding debt of “about $29,000 per student — and climbing.”
Libertarian: Green Handouts for the Rich?
Learning that he was ineligible for Inflation Reduction Act green subsidies to help pay for a $2,500 electric-panel upgrade, Reason’s Mike Riggs wondered “why so many other homeowners are eligible.” Turns out “we could have received up to $600 for the main panel job if we had an energy-efficient water heater installed in conjunction with it. We would have been eligible for a 30 percent main-panel credit if we also installed solar panels,” which “come with their own 30 percent tax credit.” But “the average solar adopter” earned “about $110k/year in 2021, compared to a U.S. median of about $63k/year for all households,” per the Energy Department — and the solar investment boosts home value. “It seems perverse for the government to help well-off people pay for investments that make them richer.”
Eye on NY: Kat’s Cuo-Redux Health Payola
“The governor has changed” but not the policy, notes the Empire Center’s Bill Hammond: Like then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2021, Gov. Hochul’s pushing to force “health insurers to pay hospital claims without verifying in advance that the treatment was medically necessary.” The Greater New York Hospital Association, an “influential group behind Cuomo’s proposal” gave him “more than $1 million”; now GNYHA has handed Hochul an “eye-catching” $940,000. “In each case, the cash flowed to the state Democratic Party’s ‘housekeeping’ account, which operates under a notorious loophole in the state’s campaign finance laws.” The policy’s likely to “further drive up the state’s health premiums,” already “among the highest in the U.S.” “When it comes to hospital policy,” Hochul’s “falling into an all-too-familiar pattern.”
Bailout beat: State & Local Gov’ts Next?
“State and local governments could be the next sinking ships that Washington gets called on to rescue,” fumes The Wall Street Journal’s Allysia Finley. A decade-plus “of near-zero rates” let them “borrow cheaply,” while “the Fed’s quantitative easing inflated asset values and prompted pension funds chasing high returns to pile into riskier higher-yielding investments.” Notably, “a report by the research shop Equable estimated that the 228 largest public retirement systems were running a $1.4 trillion unfunded liability at the end of last June.” Expect “a cascade of bailouts by some combination of U.S. taxpayers, the Fed and municipal bond investors. Democratic-run states and big cities are simply too politically important for the Biden administration to let fail.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
