Atlantic article totally soft-peddles how Obamacare's architects made millions vulnerable to estate recovery under Medicaid

The only reason Obamacare can be called successful reasonably is that it threw millions onto Medicaid, except that what is spent on you in life for your healthcare under Medicaid ends up coming out of what's left of what you owned after you die, if anything, including from the sale of your house, and even from the sale of granny's hand-me-down quilts.

America's first black president, Bill Clinton, signed estate recovery into law, and the second one then sold that bill of goods to millions of America's uninsured poor. He just bought himself a $15 million mansion to celebrate. 

Medicaid’s Dark Secret:

For many participants, the program that provides health care to millions of low-income Americans isn’t free. It’s a loan. And the government expects to be repaid. ...

One lawyer in Tennessee recalled a case in which a woman went to her late mother’s Medicaid auction to buy back quilts that had been passed down for generations. ...

One of the few times estate recovery has made headlines was earlier this decade, during the rollout of the Obama administration’s Medicaid expansion. As more Americans considered Medicaid as a health-insurance option, more came across the fine print. At least three states passed legislation to scale back their recovery policies after public outcry.

Gasoline consumers continue to pay bubble-levels, $2.571/gal on average under 2.5 years of Trump, as oil company profits soar

https://www.wsj.com/articles/big-oil-companies-finished-2018-strong-despite-plunge-in-oil-prices-11549031069

How all of Afghanistan should have looked the day after 911, but didn't because we no longer have the stomach for real war

Jeffrey Snider explains the decline in bond yields to The Wall Street Journal's Andy Kessler, tells a clueless Fed what must be done

The Fed Can’t See Its Own Shadow 

Its asset purchases are squeezing nonbank lending and sinking long-term bond rates. ...

Shortages of long bonds—good collateral—are causing “relentless” demand and therefore lower yields. That’s why German long bonds have negative interest rates: not because losing money is a great investment, but because negative interest is the cost of doing business to get “pristine collateral” to use in repos.

This is how the global credit system—what Mr. Snider labels the Eurodollar market—now works. The Fed has become the lender of last resort for the global market, including banks and shadow banks. It’s about time its governors figure that out.

So what should they do? Encourage the Treasury to issue more of the long bonds the market is demanding: 30- or even 100-year. Feed the beast. Then stop quantitative easing: It doesn’t work and soaks up collateral. Next, stop paying interest on reserves. Maybe even create a nontradable “Treasury-R” to act as reserve currency elsewhere, freeing up more bonds. If history repeats, there are about 90 days until China repos roll over again.

God I miss the '50s

Republican beats Democrat in North Carolina 9 special by 50.74% to 48.66%, 2.08 points

The New York Times: It's some airplanes did something day

Thank you . . . wish I could say we've got your back

Ilhan Omar: It's somebody did something day

So-called conservative Drudge never misses a chance to mock the Cult of the Virgin Mary and Catholic superstition

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Peak Trump administration delusion: "Labor market hotter now than during any time in our history"

Median U.S. Household Income Showed No Growth in 2018:

The Trump administration pointed to the poverty decline as evidence that its economic agenda is helping the neediest Americans. “Employment is the best way out of poverty, and President Trump’s policies have made the labor market hotter now than during any time in our history,” said Tomas Philipson, acting chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

You don't say

More feminism is a mental disorder: We want equal pay AND economically attractive men to marry

.

.

Podshare: The Soviet future of housing

Comrade Kaprugina to Yuri: "There was living space for thirteen families in this one house." 

Yuri: "Yes. Yes, this is a better arrangement, comrades . . . more just."

Planned Parenthood thinks it looks pretty good for 100, too bad none of the millions of children it has murdered will

Biden: We are leaving Afghanistan in 2014. Period. ...

Science has shown that instances of cursing and swearing spike suddenly after failure, but Beto O'Rourke is a science denier

Feminism is a mental disorder: Democrat Congressman's wife upset Obamacare covers her husband's pregnancy but not their marriage counseling

Which they're going to need a lot more of.

Unaffordable No Health Care Act: Health insurance premium increases pre-Obamacare 10%, post-Obamacare 60%

Yes, It Was The 'Affordable' Care Act That Increased Premiums:

It turns out that across the board, for all ages and family sizes, for HMO, PPO, and POS plans, premium increases averaged about 60 percent from 2013, the last year before ACA reforms took effect, to 2017. In same length of time preceding that, all groups experienced premium increases of less than 10 percent, and most age groups actually experienced premium decreases, on average.

John Simon Bercow quits as UK Commons Speaker after 10 years in the job

Johnson suspends UK Parliament after latest Brexit defeat:

Commons Speaker John Bercow expressed his displeasure at Parliament’s suspension, saying “this is not a standard or normal prorogation.”

“It’s one of the longest for decades and it represents an act of executive fiat,” he said. ...

Bercow, whose control of business in the House of Commons has made him a central player in the Brexit drama, announced he would step down after a decade in the job.

The colorful speaker, famous for his loud ties and even louder cries of “Order!” during raucous debates, told lawmakers he will quit the same day Britain is due to leave the EU, Oct. 31.

Throughout the three years since Britain voted to leave the EU, Bercow has angered the Conservative government by repeatedly allowing lawmakers to seize control of Parliament’s agenda to steer the course of Brexit.

He said he was simply fulfilling his role of being the “backbenchers’ backstop” and letting Parliament have its say.

“Throughout my time as speaker, I have sought to increase the relative authority of this legislature, for which I will make absolutely no apology,” he said.