There's nothing new under the sun, but
there are lots of old things
we don't know.
Ambrose Bierce
Obama's Comedy Show Promo To Push Young People Enrollment For ObamaCare
ObamaCare is in trouble. No, I'm not referring to the botched rollout and a desperation plea to high tech cronies in Silicon Valley; once again, the "progressives" don't get it. Even an inexperienced teenage boy realizes first impressions are important. The point is, you've had 4 years to plan for a rollout. The same "geniuses" who argue the importance of preventive medicine wait until they have a botched rollout before their 9-1-1 to the Geek Squad...It is a singular moment of gross government incompetence; I mean, they couldn't even successfully simulate what insurance shopping portals have been doing for years. They knew, going into the rollout, that opponents would be pouncing on any problems with a vastly unpopular law.
But the real issue is the economic one. Just one example: Illinois Policy Institute points out that with little over 2 weeks for enrollment without being hit by a mandate penalty, enrollments are some 40% shy of target, with emphasis on (more profitable) young adults. (IPI also points out a number of reported enrollments are dubious, some not going beyond putting a policy in a cart without a purchase commitment; others are failing to pay their premiums.) There was never a doubt that people who getting insurance below its true cost won't look a gift horse in a month. But what combination of subsidies and transferred costs (from older/sicker groups) are involved, young people aren't all that anxious to pay not only their true costs but transferred costs of politically favored groups.
Hence, Barack Obama's ludicrous decision to appear on an Internet comedy show popular among young adults. I (and I have a humor section which quite often features Barry) didn't find the shots at Obama's expense as funny (e.g., making reference to building his Presidential Library in Kenya, being the last black President, special envoy to North Korea Dennis Rodman, comparing the website rollout to an infamous botched Microsoft product rollout, etc.) What's worse is that they had to halt recording because Obama was laughing at his own jokes again... I think this sort of garbage trivializes the Office of the Presidency. But when you have the President having to do a promo for youth enrollment on an Internet talk show, you know ObamaCare is in deep trouble.
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| Via Dollar Vigilante |
A few posts back, I pointed out that most of the federal government budget was not based on common goods and services, but individual benefits. IBD has written an excellent post on this topic (HT Carpe Diem). Some choice quotes:
- This year, 70% of all the money the federal government spends will be in the form of direct payments to individuals, an all-time high.
- The government has become primarily a massive money-transfer machine, taking $2.6 trillion from some and handing it back out to others. These government transfers now account for 15% of GDP, another all-time high.
- Despite Obama's frequent pledges to reduce income inequality, the share of direct payments going toward "income security" has dropped from 25% in 2009 to 20% in 2014. An IBD analysis found that the richest 1% of Americans, in fact, receive roughly $10 billion each year in federal checks.
- Overall federal health spending in 2019 will be nearly twice as high as it was in 2008, and will account for 30% of all federal outlays (up from 25% in 2008).
- The Congressional Budget Office figures that, by 2038, Medicare and Social Security alone will eat up 42% of the budget.
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| Courtest of the Original Artist Via Illinois Policy Institute |
(Judge Napolitano). Obama Nominee For Surgeon General Says Banning Guns Is Part Of Medicine
Maybe when he's performing surgery, in his operating room....
(Drudge Report). Feinstein: CIA searched Intelligence Committee computers
Say it ain't so, Joe.... Biden...
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Bob Gorrell and Townhall |
The Pretenders, "I'll Stand By You"
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