Is Obamacare really a good idea? Who knows?

There’s not one single individual person in America, the world or this quadrant of the Galaxy who understands the Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act. Barack Obama doesn’t understand it, nor does anybody in his administration, nor does anybody in Congress, academia or the media. There are some people who will tell you that they understand it, but such people are either lying to you or to themselves. Now this may strike you as a provocative statement, barfed out by an Obama opponent (me) who’s just trying to get a rise out of the President’s adorers. But it isn’t. I’m stating no more than the truth.

The original ACA legislation ran to 2,800 pages and most members of Congress—both those who supported and those who opposed it—didn’t read the whole thing. What was the point? As then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi explained, the only way to find out what was in the bill was to pass it. So congressional Democrats did pass it—but even so we’re none the wiser. How could that be?

By the end of 2013, the regulations required to implement Obamacare already ran to more than 10,000 small-print pages. Think about that. Is it plausible—is it even possible—that somewhere in the bowels of the federal bureaucracy there exists an oracle who understands how those 2,800 pages of legislation and 10,000+ pages of regulations work together to protect patients and make healthcare more affordable? Of course not. Even before the first regulation was promulgated, the length and complexity of the ACA was such that no one really understood how it would work in practice. Practically from day one the Obama Administration found itself issuing waivers, making exceptions and reinterpreting legislative language in a desperate attempt to keep the whole thing from collapsing under the weight of its own complications. Policy wonks tend to be contemptuous of the Law of Unintended Consequences. But their very desire to nail everything down, to cover all the bases, to address every possible situation, drives them to pile complications upon elaborations upon contingencies. And it is in this tangled labyrinth of wonkiness that the Law of Unintended Consequences does it most destructive work.

In 2009, uberwonk Ezra Klein, then with the Washington Post, opined that it was “silly” for members of Congress to read the ACA before passing it. They could never understand it, he sniffed, and neither could the public. The implication was, of course, that Ezra Klein, with his deep understanding of the legislative process and deep-dyed wonkiness did understand it. Therefore America: Don’t worry! Be happy!

But of course we can see now that Ezra Klein and his tribe no more understand Obamacare than they do particle physics. Neither do I. And neither do you. We’ll all just have to live with Obamacare to find out how it works—or doesn’t work. Now I ask you, is this any way to reform American healthcare?

Posted by tmg110 at 10:44 AM EDT

Updated: Sunday, 3 August 2014 10:14 AM EDT

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Whatever you think of the Gaza crisis, it’s hard to summon up much sympathy for the bone-headed US Secretary of State, John Kerry. His misbegotten push for a two-state peace deal between the Palestinians and Israel set the table for the current conflict. And his frenetic attempts to broker a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel have had the ludicrous effect of making the US appear more supportive of Hamas than many Arab countries—this despite the fact that the US government classifies Hamas as a terrorist organization.

Kerry painted himself into this corner after Israel accepted and Hamas rejected an Egyptian ceasefire proposal. Egypt’s new military-dominated government is no great friend of the Gaza terror group, which it regards as a close cousin of the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. So when Hamas brushed off Cairo’s proposed ceasefire, the Egyptians opted to sit back and let the fighting rage. After all, Israel in Gaza was dealing a heavy blow to Islamism, that amalgam of religious fundamentalism and quasi-fascist political ideology that Egypt and most of the other conservative Arab states view with fear and revulsion. So if Hamas was unwilling to take the deal that Cairo had put together, then Hamas—and the Palestinian residents in Gaza—would just have to take the consequences.

Well, that didn’t suit John Kerry, and he immediately turned to two of Hamas’ backers, Turkey and Qatar, who were more than happy to craft a ceasefire plan that met all the demands of Hamas but was certain to be rejected by Israel. And so it was, to the accompaniment of a barrage of criticism from the Israeli press and government officials. For while Kerry was wheeling and dealing, the IDF in Gaza was uncovering evidence of Hamas plans for a large-scale terrorist incursion into Israel via a system of tunnels whose scope and sophistication came as a severe shock to the Israeli government and public. The discovery of the tunnel system hardened Israel’s determination to finish the fight in Gaza, stripping Hamas of its military capabilities once and for all. Yet here was the United States Secretary of State, the chief diplomatic representative of Israel’s close ally, pushing hard for a Hamas-friendly ceasefire!

It was an embarrassing moment for the US government, as the tone of subsequent statements in support of the Secretary so clearly showed. Various officials fumed about the unkind things that had been said about Kerry in Israel, whining that “allies and partners” don’t treat one another in such a mean and hurtful manner. All of a sudden it seemed that the Gaza crisis was all about John Kerry's hurt feelings! Apparently his ham-handed incompetence is accompanied by an overweening sense of self-regard and the thin skin of a beleaguered adolescent—not exactly the ideal personality type for a diplomat. Come to think of it, though, a guy like that is really the perfect secretary of state for the jumped-up president of the senior class for whom he works.

Posted by tmg110 at 8:51 AM EDT

Updated: Thursday, 31 July 2014 12:25 PM EDT

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Now that the presidency of Barack Obama can be seen to have failed, the question becomes urgent: Why did Americans elect him in the first place? Specifically why did so many people on the progressive side of the political spectrum allow themselves to be taken in by his soaring but rather low-calorie 2008 campaign rhetoric? You know the kind of thing: “We are the change we’ve been waiting for,” etc. How is it that the best and brightest among the self-described reality-based party failed to discern what was obvious from the start to a rube like Rush Limbaugh?

If you get in the Wayback Machine and return to 2008-09, you’ll find many embarrassingly craven examples of Obama worship, and not just from his starry-eyed campaign claque. There’s the example of New York Times columnist David Brooks, who gushed over his first meeting with The One: “I remember distinctly an image of—we were sitting on his couches, and I was looking at his pant leg and his perfectly creased pant and I’m thinking, a) he’s going to be president and b) he’ll be a very good president.” There’s the truly weird example of CNN anchor/reporter Foreman, who started writing letters to Obama during President’s first term. He wrote one every day and the final tally was 1,460 letters totaling more than half a million words. From Tinseltown, we got this from Susan Sarandon: “He is a community organizer like Jesus was. And now, we're a community and he can organize us.” And from overseas a December 2009 editorial in the Danish newspaper Politiken agreed with Ms. Sarandon. Because, you know, Barry too evolved from humble origins into a defender of the weak and vulnerable, albeit without the annoying religious b.s.

What was going on? What the hell was going on?

One explanation frequently advanced for the outpouring of intemperate Obama worship was the candidate’s race. And this was true as far as it went. But Obama wasn’t just black. He was something more: the Acceptable Black Man for whom white progressives had long been waiting.

Sure, other blacks have run for president, the Rev. Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton among them. But how could white progressives in the media, in academia or in the Democratic Party take such candidacies seriously? It wasn’t just that Jackson and Sharpton were seen as special pleaders, overly identified with one group of Americans. No, what really disbarred them from serious consideration in the minds of progressive establishment types was simple snobbery. With their flashy suits, histrionic rhetoric and camera-hogging habits Jackson and Sharpton seemed, well, tacky. Over the top. Lacking in class.

Then came Barack H. Obama.

Here was a black candidate with the qualities for which white liberals had been pining. Obama is a thoroughly atypical African American. He was born in Hawaii. He has lived in Indonesia. His father is a Kenyan and his mother is white. Himself aware that these anomalies set him apart, Obama made a conscious effort as a young man to connect with the African American mainstream, a quest that led him into the flock of the Rev. Jeremiah White. But his education and upbringing nevertheless fashioned him into a person with whom white progressives could easily identify. Disregarding his skin color, Obama is one of them. Their education, ideas, beliefs, opinions and habits of thought are his as well. He speaks their language. He makes them feel comfortable. He is the Acceptable Black Man.

It’s easy to understand why black Americans thrilled to Obama’s candidacy and election. Simply on the basis of his skin color, they identified with him. What could be more natural? But whether Obama has ever truly identified with them is a doubtful question. As president, he has paid no particular attention to the many problems of black America. On the other hand, he has been most solicitous of the desires of the progressive establishment. Ideologically he resembles Elizabeth Warren, not Jessie Jackson.

White progressives saw this in Barack Obama and it explains their worshipful attitude toward him in the salad days of his political career. That he was black was exciting and convenient—but that he seemed truly one of them clinched the deal. Their relationship with him, a form of self-love, has been one of the most amusing episodes in American political history.

Posted by tmg110 at 9:34 AM EDT

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Rep. Jan Schakowsky, Democrat of Illinios, is really, really concerned about income inequality. To that end she has taken up “the minimum wage challenge,” pledging to spend a week or two eating what the downtrodden proles of America eat. No doubt in an effort to maximize our terror and pity, she released the Spartan menu on which she intends to subsist. Some excerpts: 

Breakfast: English muffin, one egg

Lunch: Chicken salad sandwich

Dinner: Pasta with tomato sauce, salad

Wow! This stands in sharp contrast to what I suppose her usual daily menu must list: 

Breakfast: Eggs Benedict, glass of Madeira

Lunch: Dover sole poached in white wine, fresh green beans, half-bottle of white Burgundy

Dinner: Lobster cocktail, Porterhouse steak, sauté potatoes, Caesar salad, bottle of Bordeaux, cheesecake, glass of Port

It’s almost as if these clueless congressional elitists are another species, only distantly related to us good old Homo Sapiens. Duh, Jan. Just duh…

Posted by tmg110 at 4:13 PM EDT

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The calculation was obvious enough: the Hamas leadership thought that (a) high civilian casualties in Gaza would inflame international opinion against Israel, (b) that the continuing rocket barrage would demoralize the Israeli government and (c) that Israel would be thus be forced to accept a ceasefire on terms more or less dictated by Hamas. And when a rocket landed near the Tel Aviv airport, triggering a wave of flight cancellations by foreign air carriers, the Hamas leadership traded high fives, believing that they’d scored a propaganda coup.

This calculation is beginning to look more and more like a miscalculation, due mainly to the position of the Egyptian government.

US Secretary of State John Kerry got a chilly reception in Egypt today when he arrived there bearing proposals for a ceasefire. The new Egyptian regime, which came to power in a military coup that booted the Muslim Brotherhood, regards Hamas with dislike and suspicion. Having been rebuffed by Hamas in his earlier effort to broker a ceasefire, it seems that President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has decided to let the battle run its course.

As for the Israel, the suspension of air travel is likely to have an effect precisely the opposite of that which Hamas apparently expects. The Israeli government now confronts the necessity, imperative for both security and political reasons, to eliminate once and for all the Gaza terrorist enclave. This means not only the total destruction of the terrorist infrastructure but the root-and-branch suppression of Hamas.

Bottom line: John Kerry is going to find that his ceasefire proposals are as unwelcome in Israel as they proved to be in Egypt.

Posted by tmg110 at 12:45 PM EDT

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The Israeli government thought that a limited military incursion into the Gaza Strip would persuade Hamas to stop firing rockets into the Jewish state. This may turn out to have been a miscalculation.

Hamas has no interest in minimizing Palestinian casualties. From its perspective, the higher the body count the better. This is why its leaders have rebuffed all calls for a ceasefire: The think they're winning in the court of world public opinion, and that the Israelis will be forced to throw up the sponge. So where does Israel go from here?

One thing is clear: It's impossible for Israel to withdaw its troops from Gaza with no assurance that a period of peace and quiet will ensue. Logic suggests that the only course now is to continue the fight until Hamas has been uprooted from Gaza and destroyed. As long as this Jew-hating terrorist organization remains a factor in the calculus of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, there can be no peace. Its elimination and replacement by Fatah as Gaza's governing authority seems the only way to go.

Needless to say, Barack Obama and John Kerry will do all in their power to prevent Israel from following any such course of action. But will the Israeli government, faced with such a dangerous and implacable enemy, pay heed to the admonitions of the US gogernment? We shall see…

Posted by tmg110 at 9:05 AM EDT

Updated: Wednesday, 23 July 2014 12:14 PM EDT

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The way I see it, the Obama Administration's fabled Russian reset button jump-started the process that culminated in the launch of a missile that downed a civilian airliner, killing nearly 300 people. Funny how these things work out…right, Hillary…?

Posted by tmg110 at 1:45 PM EDT

Updated: Friday, 18 July 2014 1:50 PM EDT

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There was a time, I suppose, when such adjectives as “monstrous,” “wicked,” “atrocious,” ghoulish,” etc. could not have been fairly applied to Democrats or to the progressive Left generally. Wrong—frequently. Dishonest—not infrequently. Stupid—ditto. Unsavory and reprehensible—sure. But not evil. No, not that.

But somewhere along the line of their long march through history the Dems and the larger Left passed a milestone. And there they left their souls. I know this because Senator Richard Blumenthal, with the support of a majority of his Democratic Senate colleagues has introduced a bill they call the Women’s Health Protection Act. Conservative commentator David French has suggested that it should be called the Kermit Gosnell Enabling Act, and I can see why.

Blumenthal’s bill would effectively bar states from exercising any regulatory oversight of abortion clinics. In other words it would foster and legalize the environment in which Kermit Gosnell of Philadelphia, no serving time for murder, when about his bloody work. Senate Democrats propose to protect women’s health by erasing such basic state regulations as the requirement that abortions be carried out by licensed physicians. Current state laws that ban the horrific procedure known as partial-birth abortion would be summarily overturned. The bill would also legalize sex-selection abortions—well, why go on, because if it ever became law, Blumenthal’s bill would create an anything-goes abortion economy—precisely the kind of environment in which a monster like Gosnell thrived. As the editors of National Review note:

The Gosnell gore-fest was a direct consequence of the elevation of abortion to divine office: Neither the local authorities in Democrat-dominated Philadelphia nor the Democrat-dominated statewide bureaucracies in Pennsylvania were much inclined to exercise basic oversight of abortion clinics. Even after a woman died under Dr. Gosnell’s knife, there was little interest in investigating his practice: It took allegations of illegal prescription-drug use and the piqued interest of the DEA to put Gosnell on the radar.

Senator Richard Blumenthal wants to establish that standard for the whole country, which is monstrous, wicked, atrocious, ghoulish and more. The Democratic Party has reduced itself to this and it's an ugly thing to contemplate.

Posted by tmg110 at 1:28 PM EDT

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Progressives can’t live without hysteria. Unless they’re in a three-foot hover about something, their ideological commitment appears suspect in their own eyes. Amerika is a racist, sexist, homophobic, imperialist, quasi-fascist state, after all—what’s not to be hysterical about?

Just now the supposed epidemic of rape and sexual assault on college campuses is producing progressive hysteria, with feminists leading the charge. But this isn’t sexual assault as normal people understand the term. No, this is the ideological criminalization of behavior arising from the very sexual culture that progressives have championed. The typical campus “sexual assault” has three components: binge drinking, hooking up, and morning-after remorse. A female student gets blind drunk. She allows a male student—possibly a friend, possibly a stranger—to cajole or pressure her into having sex. The next morning, the female student, feeling used and guilty, decides that she was raped.

The problem for campus officialdom in cases of this kind is that there’s usually no physical evidence of sexual assault: It’s her word against his. Now feminists will tell you that women never lie about sexual assault. But of course they sometimes do. To be fair, however, most young women on campus who raise charges of sexual assault believe what they’re saying. In a small minority of cases actual rape of sexual assault has occurred. But mostly the charge arises from the humiliation and remorse that young women feel after they succumb, with the aid of copious amounts of alcohol, to the hook-up culture. This explains why actual criminal charges are so rarely filed in cased of this kind. Most are adjudicated by campus officialdom, which finds itself under extreme pressure from campus feminists to run the proceedings like one of Stalin’s purge trials. The young woman’s charge is to be accepted without question; the young man’s guilt is to be assumed in the absence of evidence or even in the presence of evidence to the contrary.

I’ve said before that progressivism has evolved into a variant of totalitarianism. The bogus epidemic of sexual assault on campus, manufactured by progressives and exploited by them with contempt for the most elementary precepts of justice, is living proof of that.

Posted by tmg110 at 8:12 AM EDT

Updated: Tuesday, 15 July 2014 12:46 PM EDT

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Give me an afternoon at the summit
Of summer. Give me the long light of June
That frets the verdant crowns of these old oaks
With evening gold. Give me a glass of wine,
Cold to my touch and bright upon my tongue
With the herbs and acids of the good earth.
Give me these blessings. Return them to me
Year by year. Let me be happy in them.
Let me not mourn the failure of the sun.

The winter solstice, miser of the light,
Cannot sustain the empire of the night.

Posted by tmg110 at 11:15 AM EDT

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