Obamacare
December 13, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Last month, I noted that even though Obamacare survived Supreme Court review and the presidential election, it is not a done deal. Why? Because the law is heavily dependent on state implementation, and some states might not do the federal government’s bidding. Specifically, they might not set up state health-insurance exchanges, which are a central component of Obamacare. Today comes word that, on the eve of a federal deadline for
»
December 11, 2012 — John Hinderaker
Byron York reports that 16 Democratic Senators–all of whom voted for Obamacare!–have written a letter to Harry Reid, asking that one of Obamacare’s funding mechanisms, a 2.3% tax on medical devices, be delayed or repealed: Echoing arguments made by Republicans against Obamacare, the Democratic senators say the levy will cost jobs — in a statement Monday, Sen. Al Franken called it a “job-killing tax” — and also impair American competitiveness
»
December 11, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Jeffrey Anderson at the Weekly Standard reports on an Obamacare related scandal at Kathleen Seblius’ Department of HHS. According to Anderson’s source, HHS will use a subsidiary of a private health care company to build and police the insurance exchanges at the heart of Obamacare. And that private health care company will be competing for business in these very exchanges. Moreover, the person who ran the government entity that awarded
»
December 4, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Behind its subscriber wall, the Wall Street Journal quotes Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels speaking to a conference of the William F. Buckley Jr. Program at Yale University on November 30: Over the next few years and maybe just months, the debts we have accumulated and that this presidency has doubled will begin to assert themselves. We must hope and work to see that an easily imaginable panic and economic ruin
»
December 1, 2012 — Scott Johnson
The late Andrew Breitbart founded Big Government, Big Hollywood, and Big Journalism. Andrew doggedly pursued the story behind the allegations of Reps. Andre Carson, John Lewis, Emanuel Cleaver and James Clyburn that Tea Party protesters abused black congressmen with racial epithets while demonstrating against Obamacare on Capitol Hill on March 20, 2010. The story was reported as fact by news organizations including Fox News and McClatchy News, but Breitbart called
»
November 19, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Obamacare dodged two bullets this year. First, it survived Supreme Court review when Chief Justice Roberts found a way to uphold its constitutionality. Second, it survived the election which saw Obama defeat a candidate who promised to undermine Obamacare care and support its repeal. Does this mean that Obamacare is a done deal? Not according to Yuval Levin and James Capretta. They note that the law is heavily dependent on
»
October 22, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Obamacare is a monumental house of horrors. Open a door and find another monster. Robert Samuelson opens the door on the law’s distinction between full-time and part-time workers. You think Obamacare might have something to do with suppressing the growth of full-time employment? Consider Samuelson’s observations. And for the most part the law hasn’t even kicked in yet. The Democrats thoughtfully scheduled full implementation of the law to come, of
»
October 20, 2012 — Scott Johnson
It is a very strange fact: the signal accomplishment of Barack Obama’s past four years in office is Obamacare, yet it remains unpopular and mostly out of sight in the campaign. Candy Crowley did not seen fit to call on any undecided Democratic voter at the Hofstra University debate who wanted to raise Obamacare as an issue. Nevertheless, President Obama injected it in response to the question posed by Katherine
»
October 12, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Joe Biden got away with a number of whoppers last night, one of them on the enormities committed against religious institutions by Obamacare. Today the Catholic Bishops have issued a statement putting the lie to Biden’s whopper: Last night, the following statement was made during the Vice Presidential debate regarding the decision of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to force virtually all employers to include sterilization
»
October 2, 2012 — John Hinderaker
That’s the theme of this new Romney ad, which went live on television today. One of the Obama campaign’s big lies is that Romney will raise taxes on the middle class–to “pay for” tax cuts to billionaires, of course. Unfortunately, some people are ill-informed enough to believe this. So the new Romney ad points out that it is Barack Obama who already has raised taxes on middle-income Americans, while Romney
»
September 18, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
During the Democratic Convention, the Dems made a strong push to reverse perceptions of Obamacare. Speaker after speaker extolled its virtues, while “ordinary folk” testified to ways in which it helps their families. It seemed to me that the Dems weren’t just doing this to rally the base. I thought they also wanted to “relitigate” (to use a favorite Obamaism) the issue. If so, the Democrats do not appear to
»
August 30, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Paul Ryan’s speech at the Republican National Convention did not disappoint. John posted the text and Paul celebrated the speech as “optimal and then some.” I believe that’s slightly beyond a superlative, and I concur. The speech ran some 36 minutes. It was full of highlights and merits viewing in its entirety. Let’s go to the tape. Ryan’s indictment of Obama is profound. Among the bill of particulars is
»
August 22, 2012 — John Hinderaker
One of the high points of Mitt Romney’s primary campaign was when he answered a Democratic voter who said: “So you’re all for like, ‘yay, freedom,’ and all this stuff. And ‘yay, like pursuit of happiness.’ You know what would make me happy? Free birth control.” Romney’s answer, which we posted in video form here, included: “You want free stuff? Vote for the other guy.” The new Romney ad that
»
August 16, 2012 — Scott Johnson
In the Sherlock Holmes story “Silver Blaze,” the clue to the solution of the case is the dog that didn’t bark. The story teaches a lesson in the virtues of seeing the obvious. Was Orwell a fan of the Sherlock Holmes stories? He captured the same thought in the admonition, “to see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle…” “The dog that didn’t bark” has become
»
August 5, 2012 — Scott Johnson
We’ve been following the issues raised by the Obamacare regulation requiring employer-provided health insurance plans to provide “preventive services” including abortifacients, contraception, and sterilization. John McCormack notes that the mandate took effect last Wednesday, and triggered the filing of a lawsuit by Wheaton College. David Catron notes that one federal judge has enjoined enforcement of the “preventive services” mandate against Hercules Industries in a lawsuit pending in federal court in
»
July 25, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
The Congressional Budget Office has re-scored Obamacare in light of the Supreme Court’s decision. The CBO finds that the decision’s impact is fairly minimal — about 3 million fewer Americans insured in ten years, and about $84 billion less in spending over the next ten years (out of a total of about $1.7 trillion in spending on the law’s coverage provisions) than would otherwise have happened. Yuval Levin is not
»
July 11, 2012 — John Hinderaker
The House voted 244-185 this afternoon to repeal Obamacare. No surprise there; the only suspense related to how many Democrats would vote with the Republicans for repeal. In the event, there were five: Mike Ross, D-Ark.; Dan Boren, D-Okla.; Mike McIntyre, D-N.C.; Larry Kissell, D-N.C.; and Jim Matheson, D-Utah. McIntyre and Kissell announced some time ago that they would vote for repeal, and Kissell, at least, has said that he
»
