Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
Proverbs 27:6
Florida v HHS: ObamaCare Unconstitutional: Thumbs UP!
I have no doubt the progressives will paint this decision as merely evening the score at 2 Dem judges, yes--2 GOP judges, no. There are probably another dozen or more related district court cases in process. All of these have to go to the appellate courts before they see their way to the Supreme Court, although it's possible (but unlikely) that the Supreme Court would directly hear the appeal. This case is highly significant, though, because 25 other states had joined the lawsuit, and Judge Roger Vinson goes beyond Virginia v Sebelius, where Judge Henry Hudson threw out the individual mandate but kept the rest of the law intact.
Judge Vinson ruled that not only did the individual mandate constitute a slippery-slope overreach of "necessary and proper" Congressional authority and interstate commerce regulation, but Congressional dumping of new Medicaid funding obligations on the states was improper, and since the Democrats "forgot" to put in a standard severability clause (in my opinion, forcing the judges to rule all-or-nothing--an earlier version of the bill had the severability clause), there is no sustainable business model given the need for the system to subsidize premiums for poorer people and/or high-risk policy holders from day one and the mandate is needed for purposes of funding other people's health care.
I have previously pointed out the morally bankrupt part of the Democratic Party Health Care Law: you have progressive politicians promising "free" medical care and other goodies, which do nothing to control costs: physicals and medical tests, for example, are not free; the guarantee of health insurance, regardless of health condition, means people don't have to buy "real" insurance and hence can wait until a chronic health problem surfaces and then socialize their expenses, which unconscionably raises costs for "good faith" policyholders. You have to have reforms in place which, among other things, motivate overweight people (like myself) to lose weight, instead of knowing Big Sis is going to cover our costs whether or not we get to a healthy weight.
Think in terms of an auto insurance policy; everyone knows you can dramatically cut the costs of auto insurance by assuming responsibility for a limited amount, say, a $1000 deductible. People with a history of accidents should have to pay more. There should be, at minimum, a waiting period for coverage and/or higher premiums for an existing health problem. I've repeatedly pointed out that Clinton rejected Dole's offer for catastrophic insurance. If the government was to reinsure health care insurers, e.g., for lifetime caps for chronically ill individuals, you would find more vendors willing to take on higher risk patients. Let me also point out that gold-plated coverages for unions and business executives are unfairly being subsidized at the expense of lower-income and/or individual policyholders. Say, for instance, that a union member, at a 25% tax rate, has a $20,000 policy tax-free. This means the government is doing without $5000 in taxes and is giving that policyholder a 25% discount. (The question Paul Ryan (D-WI) and others worry about is that without a tax benefit to the employer, their portion of the costs go up and may drop coverage. There are a number of ways to respond: for example, large employers may have the scale to attract better pricing and/or lower administrative costs, and one could limit tax exemptions on relevant plans.)
Egyptian Protesters Should Not Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth
You would think that Egyptians and others would have learned from the American voters' mistake in 2008 putting an idealistic, inspirational orator with a thin resume in the White House.
It's fairly easy to understand why Mohamed ElBaradai, an experienced, widely respected diplomat and a 2005 Nobel Peace Prize winner (for his efforts on promoting peaceful versus military use of nuclear materials), has galvanized the Egyptian opposition. It's fairly easy to scapegoat President Mubarak for any and all problems over the past 3 decades. (Anyone thinking I'm trying to be an apologist for the Mubarak regime here did not read yesterday's post.) It's tougher to be constructive; in fact, Obama makes a point out of that in defending pushing-on-a-string ObamaCare, but he disingenuously pretends to be open-minded, while throwing the opposition a trivial bone he feels he doesn't need. That's not legitimate negotiation; it's sort of like saying 'I'll let you rearrange the items on the plate so it's a more attractive presentation, but I'm not letting you in the kitchen'. But going back to ElBaradai, keep in mind that he hasn't been living in Egypt for the past few years; he's a carpetbagger.
President Mubarak for years has resisted naming a vice president. He finally did so. But the protesters are saying, 'too little, too late' and to a certain extent, VP Omar Suleiman has been given the kiss of death. (I'll never forget when a co-founder of the company I was working for, and my boss, resigned to join a company considered a potential rival. The company's CEO and other co-founder was furious, and there was talk of a lawsuit. Phil spent his last few days shuttered in his office. On leaving, he recommended that I be named his replacement (he couldn't recruit me to his new employer because of the legal agreement). That was a kiss of death as far as my chances; there was also a wild, totally unfounded rumor going around that I was management's stooge out to fire the mainframe personnel and replace them with young college graduates, and the result was that a few key mainframe personnel threatened to resign if I was named to replace Phil. Of course, one of those people, who I barely knew and had never interacted with, ended up leaving shortly after an incompetent supervisor was named to the position and I transitioned elsewhere. That's how I became SBC's (now AT&T) corporate DBA for the duration of our 1-year contract with them before deregulation.)
So I'm empathetic with VP Suleiman, and here's a key news item that is not getting enough coverage in place of more sensationalized aspects of the civil unrest:
Mubarak's newly appointed vice president, longtime intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, announced Monday that he had begun discussing reform with opposition parties. Speaking on the state television network, Suleiman said a reform package should be drawn up "expeditiously." "The other parties will also have a role to play, which will lead to real political reform," Suleiman said.The point is if Suleiman is doing that, it's a strong indication that Mubarak is de facto transitioning out of power; the only question is when, not if, he leaves the Presidency. Suleiman seems to have the support of the powerful, popular, respected military, and he is negotiating what Mubarak hasn't attempted for years.
In the interim, the Nobel laureate, the experienced diplomat, has brashly dictated to the Obama Administration effectively, "You're either with us or against us. Get with the program or you won't have a voice in the future of Egypt." Now, of course, there is always political posturing, and no doubt ElBaradai is herding wildcats (e.g., leftists, the Muslim Brotherhood, etc.) He needs to be careful, because he might find himself marginalized by coalition groups more interested in transitioning from one inflexible, autocratic regime to an Islamic autocratic regime.
I would urge the Egyptians to show some patience here and not have unrealistic expectations: you are not going to fix all of Egypt's problems simply by exiling the Mubarak government. Whether or not Suleiman runs for president later this year, I'm more interested in the Egyptians reforming their constitutional democracy than continuing the chaos over the past week.
Sports Moment
The faithful reader to this blog knows I'll occasionally devote a segment to sports achievements (I'm particularly partial to major league baseball). When I attended OLLU, the small traditional Catholic women's college had only recently turned coed and didn't participate in intercollegiate sports. I had a segment several weeks back featuring a video on a major fire in early May 2008 at the main hall on campus. OLLU has a men's basketball team that plays in the Red River Athletic Conference of NAIA Division I. This video shows the improbable ending moments of the January 22 game against #1-ranked LSU-Shreveport. (Obviously the student game announcer needs to come out of his shell and tell us what he really thinks...)
Political Humor
President Hu Jingtao said in a speech yesterday that China has to do more to improve human rights. Too bad he's not in a position to do something about it. - Jay Leno
[That's what President Jingtao said just before sending in his check to the ACLU.]
An original:
- Reportedly Julian Assante has dressed in drag as an old woman and driven an old red car in and out of traffic, occasionally pulling off the road, leery of being tailed by CIA operatives. Of course, he didn't realize the colleague he was speaking to under the cone of silence was a double spy, the dirty old man feeling him up was an agent checking for weapons, he didn't notice there was a GPS tracking device under his car, and the CIA viewed his driving from Google Earth.
Musical Interlude: One-Hit Wonders/Instrumentals
Exorcist Theme (Tubular Bells) Cast out that progressive devil!
