Friday, June 30, 2017
If you're a big fan of John Locke, you're not a conservative
Read What is Conservatism? to understand why.
The servile Kim Strassel has no fight in her, thinks the Senate healthcare bill simply comes down to pre-existing conditions
From the story here, where Strassel counsels bowing to federal mandates, which means bowing to the left-wing extremist who bankrupted America:
Republicans lost this argument nearly a decade ago, when Mr. Obama won. More than 90% of Senate Republicans understand this.
Which is another way of saying that protections for pre-existing conditions are here to stay, and conservatives face a choice. They can work with their colleagues to minimize the costs of the mandates (there are innovative ways to do this) and build in different free-market reforms to lower premiums. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the current Senate bill will reduce premiums by about 30%, and the GOP can and should build on this.
Yes, the simple solution is always to bow, to submit, whether to the king, or to Allah.
Real Americans don't settle for easy.
Thursday, June 29, 2017
Obama expanded Medicaid on the backs of taxpayers who also buy health insurance, making them pay twice
Betsy McCaughey, here:
Who's picking up the tab for this vast Medicaid expansion? You. Worse, you pay twice -- once as a taxpayer, and then again as an insurance consumer. Families with private insurance pay $1,500 to $2,000 or more in added premiums yearly already to keep Medicaid afloat. The more Medicaid expands, the higher their premiums will go. That's because Medicaid shortchanges hospitals and doctors, paying less than the actual cost of care. They make up for it by shifting the costs onto privately insured patients. Ouch.
Wednesday, June 28, 2017
For some unknown reason The American Conservative decided to remind us today about the crack-up of Bruce Bartlett
They reran his 2012 piece detailing his several intellectual crises, in which the libertarian finally gave up and became the liberal, although he denies it.
Nostalgia on the editors part, no doubt, for wound-licking in defeat.
Obama October 2016: The idea the election is rigged "happens to be based on no facts"
Imagine that. No facts! Even though his intelligence community says there are facts! So sure was he that Hillary would win.
Here (the provided transcript occasionally fails to represent exactly what Obama actually said):
"I have never seen in my lifetime or in modern political history, any presidential candidate trying to discredit the elections and the election process before votes have even taken place. It is unprecedented. It happens to be based on no fact. Every expert regardless of political party... who has ever examined these issues in a serious way will tell you that instances of significant voter fraud are not to be found. Keep in mind elections are run by state and local officials."
Just words, no doubt.
Labels:
Barack Obama,
Donald Trump 2017,
Hillary 2017,
just words,
vote fraud
Laugh of the Day 2.0: Obama said no serious person would suggest you could rig America's elections
Except for Trump, after which Hillary took the bait, as did the DNC, and then the Obama intelligence community and the entire establishment media, all blaming Russia for interfering and causing Hillary to lose in the process.
Here, in the Rose Garden three weeks before Election 2016:
Obama echoed those sentiments Tuesday, saying there's "no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America's elections." ... "It doesn't really show the kind of leadership and toughness that you'd want out of a president. You start whining before the game's even over? If whenever things are going badly for you and you lose you start blaming somebody else? Then you don't have what it takes to be in this job," Obama said.
You said it, buddy.
How to reform Medicaid before Obamacare is even repealed and save $48.3 billion: Kick out all the illegal aliens
We don't need no stinkin' Medicaid |
That's 6.12 million illegals receiving Medicaid out of 70 million total receiving Medicaid in 2015.
Medicaid outlays in 2015 came to $552 billion, or $7,886 each.
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Monday, June 26, 2017
Supreme Court to hear Trump travel ban case in October, lifts injunctions giving Trump a big victory
From the story here, nineteen lines in:
The action by the court is a victory for President Trump in the biggest legal controversy of his presidency so far.
Sunday, June 25, 2017
There's no way Republicans will take away Medicaid from 25 million people, 11 million or whatever
Just a fact, not a statement of approval.
Saturday, June 24, 2017
If Trump wants to win on Obamacare, he should propose a Medicaid tax in exchange for repeal
If Trump wants to win on Obamacare, he should propose a Medicaid tax in exchange for repeal of Obamacare's individual and corporate mandates instead of the stinker bill now being proposed by the Republicans in the Senate.
That way those of us who can obtain real insurance like we did before will obtain it again but at a cheaper cost than now, and those who can't will still have Medicaid, but funded by dead certain payrolls instead of the hodge podge of state and federal funding now.
Because of Obamacare, those who have insurance are subsidizing at enormous expense to themselves those who have become covered since 2009 under the plan, mostly under Medicaid. Medicaid alone has swelled by 25 million people thanks to Obamacare. It's a massive income redistribution scheme from those who have insurance to those who don't, which is manifestly unfair. There are easily 48 million people in this country making less than $15,000 a year who have no skin in this game yet qualify for Medicaid.
The answer, short of returning to the status quo ante where millions are kicked off of Medicaid, is to make more people pay their fair share. This means taxing every dollar of compensation with a Medicaid tax, just like we do with Medicare. The burden should be born by everyone, including those now receiving Medicaid.
Currently we have about 55.5 million enrolled in Medicare, supported by a 1.45% payroll tax. It isn't enough support, but there it is.
Medicaid on the other hand has exploded under Obamacare to coverage of 75 million, but state budgets, like individuals' budgets under Obamacare's outrageously expensive health insurance, are breaking badly under the burden. 33 will fall short of revenue targets in the current fiscal year.
The proportional Medicaid payroll tax rate implied by 75 million program participants is at least 1.95%.
This is Trump's opportunity to put Medicaid on a sounder footing.
Republicans won't like this plan because it involves a new tax, even though many people are already paying this tax to one degree or another depending on their tax obligation in their state of residence. The revenues, insufficient as they are, are already collected at the state level, but variably.
So it's not really a new tax. It's a new collector.
Democrats ought to love this idea, for the obvious reason. It codifies the nation's "obligation" to the poor's healthcare in the form of a tax, just as Medicare codifies the nation's obligation to the elderly's healthcare. With it they can claim Obamacare is still the law of the land in some form.
Pelosi and the House Democrats are well positioned to deliver this in the form of a bill to send to the more evenly divided Senate because Paul Ryan and a coalition of 75 or so liberal Republicans could get it over the goal line, just like they did so many times before in league with the Democrats, making an end run around the House conservatives.
The Senate would go for the bill because it is simply more liberal all around. Democrats there would vote for this, along with liberal Republicans.
Trump needs to get this done and off the table.
We've been arguing about it now in earnest for 8 years already and are just plain sick of it.
Enough already!
Repeal Obamacare root and branch, and institute a Medicaid tax.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)