Headlines

Manafort's surrender shows Mueller investigation's overwhelming force

Florence lumbers inland, leaving 7 dead, communities flooded

Six gay candidates running in Connecticut -- as Republicans ...

Hillary, Obama associates in Mueller's crosshairs?

Pompeo, Kerry clash in remarkable standoff over Iran

Facebook's stealth attempt to one-up Amazon: shipping a product before you think of buying it

121,965,000 Americans on govt health insurance ...

Ronan Farrow reports Kavanaugh accuser refuses to come forward, no witnesses

Sexual assault claim leaves Kavanaugh nomination in limbo

Take my Trump Tower apartment instead of my money, Manafort tells Mueller

Feinstein under fire from the Left for Kavanaugh letter handling ...

Don Jr., Kim Guilfoyle pair up on campaign trip in Ohio

Death Spiral

"You really don't have health insurance if you can't afford to use it."

On TV this morning there was a representative from Tennessee (who is also a doctor) commenting on the overhaul of Obamacare. He sat me up when he related that 60-70% of hospital bills in his state were not getting paid because the deductibles on the insurance plans under Obamacare are so high that they force patients to pay these bills out-of-pocket ... for which they have not the money. In other words, even though an additional 5 or 6 million people may have gotten insurance under Obamacare (an equal number falling under expanded-Medicaid, paid for by the rest of us), these people -- along will millions more who lost what was called by Obama "bad apple" insurance and have had to purchase these high-deductible, high-premium, high-co-pay policies -- cannot use this insurance for the reasons stated above.

Now you understand why hospitals are under such financial distress, why emergency rooms have not been emptied as promised, and why Obamacare is so unpopular (except for those being subsidized under expanded Medicaid). I don't care what phony polls may say. There are still enough people receiving health insurance under their businesses or under Medicaid/Medicare that the system has not yet completely collapsed. But Obamacare is in a death spiral because it is a jackass ... a race horse designed by a committee of bureaucrats who don't believe in free markets ... and who colluded with the insurance and drug companies with the notion that they knew better than Adam Smith. Well they didn't ... and they left a pile of steaming bleep for the Republicans.

Can Obamacare be fixed by Ryan/Trump? I am inclined to agree with Rand Paul ... let's euthanize this jackass and design a transition back to the free market ... and, in the process, save our hospitals. In the meantime make the insurance and drug companies compete for our money instead of colluding with the politicians.

Today’s Thought

“if you like your health insurance, you can keep your health insurance.”

 "[We] underscore the need for urgent action to combat the threats from climate change, protect American citizens and communities today, and build a sustainable future for our kids and grandkids."

A government which, in times of peace, lies to its people for its own profit… is not a government … it is a tyranny. -- A Blogger

Job Lock

Can Democrats get any nuttier … or more insidious?  As a way of diminishing the impact of the damaging report of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on the consequences of Obamacare for future American unemployment (2.5 million full-time-equivalent job losses by 2024 … see: NY Post Story), the Democrats and their pals in the main-street media have once again hidden behind semantics.  They have tried turning a sow’s ear into a silk purse with the term “job lock” – the requirement that people need to work in order to get health insurance.

In other words, CBO has it right, but instead of these virtual job losses being bad ... they are good because it reduces job lock … see: Huffington Post Article.  Big Brother has saved these 2.5 million full-time-equivalent people from the horrors of working.  This is another perfect example of the Obama administration’s Orwellian newspeak (see "More Newspeak" Blog Entry).

I still remember another poignant example of this kind of liberal semantic mind-bending.  Once on a visit to the textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts, some left-wing wing-nut classified (on a poster) all the farm girls … who had escaped the drudgery of rural life for this exciting new work opportunity … as “wage slaves.”  So, in other words, the industrial revolution became, with the twist of a phrase, the equivalent of forced labor on Southern plantations … really now!?