Mickey Kaus points out something I’ve been talking about for some time—the metrics for the success of the PPACA are pretty darned slippery:
Wonkblog, 10/25 –â€The White House figured that if they got 7 million people to sign up for the exchanges in the first year, about 2.7 million needed to be young.â€
Wonkblog, 11/26- The total numbers don’t matter. 7 million, 4 million, whatever. It’s the mix of young vs. old that’s “crucial.â€
Wonkblog, 12/17–The mix don’t matter either! What’s an extra 2.5% premium increase in 2015 among friends? …
Wonkblog 12/29–Two dozen people and a dog. All we need is two dozen people and a dog.
It’s the idea of the PPACA that counts. Its advocates don’t seem to care much about the execution or effects.
Oh, I don’t know. Rappers and pro-Obamacare Momma-thon’s are in vogue now. So we got that goin’ for us.
Seriously, anyone NOT want to avert their eyes to these pathetic exhortations by the most powerful man in the world?
Seriously, anyone NOT want to avert their eyes to these pathetic exhortations by the most powerful man in the world?
_I_ don’t, but I have highly developed senses of both the absurd and Schadenfreude. And a mean streak, can’t forget that.
Here’s a fun opinion piece with a bit of reporting in it, too. I must confess I didn’t know about asset seizure provisions in Medicaid. And that comes with consequences now that people are being legally forced to take on Medicaid. Thank you George W. Bush, for giving us John Roberts.
The story behind the opinion piece can be read here. Officials in Washington state are scrambling to change the rules to protect people from some of the seizure rules, but that doesn’t mean that (a) other states will pass such rules, or (b) that the rules can’t be changed back in Washington (or anywhere else that changes the rules). And the big thing is that many people getting dumped into Medicaid won’t know what they’re up against.
Calling this a clusterfuck is an insult to Mongolian Hordes everywhere. (And everywhen.)
From the second article I linked:
I’d ask if anyone even read the goddamned law before they passed it, much less understood it, but that’s so infamous an example of proud legislative incompetence that there’s no point. It’s just time to embrace the suck, as that bitch said recently, because even they know they can’t do their goddamned jobs with even a hint of competence.
The perverse structure and requirements of Medicaid are the reason so many middle income and upper middle income Americans die paupers. The smart ones anyway.
So why do some publicly support a Keynesian/social progressive government, after which they apply every gimmick in the world to circumvent the fiscal side-effects created by the governing body they helped get elected?
Hollywood is a prime example of such subterranean hypocrisy. Most A-List celebrities fund-raise for liberal politicians and policies extolling raising taxes on the rich, redistributing money to the poor — and then quietly slink out of town and country to make films in order to escape taxation, themselves. The same goes for liberal business moguls and tech giants grandstanding monetary polices strangling the little guy, while they stash wealth in tax shelters and/or overseas accounts. Even the PPACA’s method of implementation exempts the very people who were the strongest proponents of the bill — unions, Friends of Obama, Congress and their staff — as individuals and small business are stranded to fully comply with the law, it’s deadlines and mandates.
On today’s Instapundit site — a full replay of a short comment regarding Obamacare:
….but, everything is getting better, or at least according to dems reporting on the course, nature of the PPACA roll-out, sign-ups, and acceptance by the people of this supposedly “better-than-nothing” law.
There’s lots of snark aimed at the very insufficiently thought-out PPACA these days. But, it remains the law of the land, with only 14 changes made by Obama — all without any congressional input! Sometimes too much hubris breaks down into sheer folly.
Me, I am not thrilled with the idea that the One, Obama, the Messiah, will destroy Health Insurance As We Knew It for the sake of Two Dozen People and a Dog…
“The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?â€
The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.â€
Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?â€
“If I find forty-five there,†he said, “I will not destroy it.â€
Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?â€
He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.â€
Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?â€
He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.â€
Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?â€
He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.â€
Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?â€
He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.â€
When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.
…and we know how this ended. It didn’t work:
the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah […] Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land.
Sigh…