Congress apparently didn’t bother to read the bill before voting on it and passing it. I guess it’s just too much trouble.
Do they have any concept of what incompetent boobs they appear to be to we normal people?
Category Archives: Political Commentary
It’s A High Bar
But Paul Krugman may have hurdled it — his dumbest statement yet:
Democrats had a lot of harsh things to say about former President George W. Bush — but you’ll search in vain for anything comparably menacing.
I guess he didn’t get out much. But it doesn’t matter, because…you know…assassination threats and wishes against George Bush weren’t racist. And hateful.
[Saturday morning update]
Paul Krugman always gets the memo.
What a tool.
What’s Wrong With Us?
With the results of the recent Iraqi election coming in, it just occurs to me that seemingly all fledgling democracies follow a parliamentary model. Has anyone copied our system? I know there are places that have “presidents,” but I’m not sure that they’re particularly faithful to our model in anything else, including separation of powers.
The New Kansas-Nebraska Act
Some historical thoughts from Tony Blankley (an immigrant who understands the foundational principles of this country):
…we enter our history’s second stage in the struggle against the abomination of socialism. Just as slavery had been contained in the South, so entitlement socialism has, until this week, been more or less contained in service to only the poor and the elderly — and even those programs (for the elderly) operate on the principle of beneficiaries paying monthly premiums for the benefits they will later get (Medicare/Social Security). Only the poor, under Medicaid, received benefit without premium payment.
But now, just as the Kansas-Nebraska Act broke through the geographic limit to slave states, the Democratic party’s 2010 health-care law has broken the boundary that limited socialism. Now, the chains of socialism are to be clamped onto the able-bodied middle class — not merely retirees who have paid their insurance premiums and the presumed-helpless poor.
Forcing people to pay for others’ welfare is just a new form of slavery. Or, as Hayek wrote, serfdom.
The Satellite Dish
And The Hits Just Keep Coming
Here’s the latest, from AT&T. Bet this will encourage them to hire a lot more people:
AT&T Inc. said it plans to take a non-cash charge of about $1 billion in the first quarter following the passage of the health-care reform bill earlier this week, according to a filing submitted by the company Friday. The telecommunication giant will also evaluate changes to its health care benefits for employees and retirees.
But don’t forget — if you like your plan, you can keep it! As long as the ObamaCare hasn’t wiped it out, of course…
And of course, we can at least count on new jobs for IRS agents.
If You Liked The “Stimulus…”
…you’ll love ObamaCare. Further thoughts here:
In both cases, despite broad public skepticism, the Democrats pushed forward on their bill while the White House intensified its messaging efforts, turning President Obama loose on crowd after friendly crowd in an effort to sell Middle America on a near-trillion-dollar fix whose murky specifics were in flux even as it approached a final vote. Sure enough, in both cases polling found support for the measure slowly creeping up as Congress passed the measure (with virtually no Republican support.) And in the days immediately after each became law, public support even reached scant majorities or pluralities in some places, with many saying that though the bill was imperfect, it sure beat doing nothing at all.
Liberals, covered in the stink of success, are now enjoying that bump. But, as I outline in the piece, if Obamacare’s post-passage public opinion trajectory is anything like that of the stimulus, they shouldn’t get too comfortable. A year out, the popularity of the stimulus falls somewhere between Tiger Woods and John Edwards. — and for similar reasons. The stimulus is widely-perceived to have been a failure because it didn’t keep its promise to stop and reverse job losses. Instead, 49 of 50 states have lost jobs since the stimulus passed.
We’re only a few days out from Obamacare’s passage and already reports are piling in from businesses bracing for tax increases and coverage changes. Wait until it’s been a year.
Maybe they should have read the bill…
Another Blow To The Warm Mongers
Apparently cattle aren’t a greenhouse problem.
Is there anything they’ve gotten right?
[Update a couple minutes later]
You know, the correlation between things that leftists dislike (the beef industry, the energy industry, free markets, personal freedom) and things that we’re told are destroying the planet is positively uncanny. I’m sure it’s just coincidence, though.
Frum Update
Charles Murray dishes the dirt on his departure yesterday, and defends the AEI against what he calls Frum’s false charges.
[Late afternoon update]
Mark Steyn weighs in. With (not unexpectedly) a lot of weight:
So, by David’s own account, AEI should have been happy to go on giving him a hundred grand to do stuff he would have been doing anyway and for which he was already being paid. I mean, The National Post of Canada pays him to write for The National Post of Canada. It’s hard to see why AEI should also chip in. As for his other stated contribution to the cause, I’m not sure that hitherto I’ve ever heard the term “landed” applied to Canadian cabinet ministers. No disrespect – many likable chaps on the team – but I gave a speech last year and “landed” half the Canadian cabinet without even trying, never mind invoicing anyone a six-figure sum for the accomplishment.
I’ve never been that impressed by David Frum. Nothing about this episode has increased my respect.
[Late evening update]
Tunku Varadarajan has more, to confirm Murray’s account.
Good Space Policy News From The Health-Care Debate
It’s looking like there’s a good (or at least better — Tucson is a pretty Democrat place) chance that Gabrielle Giffords could lose her seat:
But AHCCCS officials concluded Thursday that the health care overhaul’s so-called “maintenance of effort” requirements require Arizona to keep its Medicaid program at current levels in order to keep getting federal dollars. They said the state will incur $3.8 billion of added costs for its Medicaid population before increased federal funding starts in 2014.
She’s one of three Arizona Dems who voted for it. It would be nice to not only get rid of her as chair of the subcommittee, so she will stop stacking the deck in hearings, but out of the Congress altogether.