newsletter

From CNN: This week, as we mark the 13th anniversary of horrific attacks on our home soil, Americans should have no illusions about the terrorists who have repeatedly declared their intent to strike America again.We know the threat of the vicious terrorist organization known as ISIS has concerned the intelligence community for more than a year. And the group's atrocities have been well-documented since it began attacking northern Iraq, and it is deeply concerning that it has taken President...

Item of the DayHealth Care Policy and Marketplace Review: The Next Chapter of Obamacare The 2015 rate increases have been largely modest. Does that prove Obamacare is sustainable? No. You might recall that on this blog months ago my 2015 rate increase prediction was for increases of 9.9%. You might also recall my reason for predicting such a modest increase. With almost no valid claims data yet and the "3Rs" Obamacare reinsurance program [aka the insurer bailout] insurers have little if any...

It’s back to school time and last week as I dropped my daughter Caroline off at her first day of first grade, I remembered the excitement that a new school year brings.I wanted to give a message to our students: seize the opportunities that come with each academic year. Whether you’re starting kindergarten or finishing college, it’s an opportunity: an opportunity to work hard, attain new skills, and discover talents.While some of you may not enjoy those multiplication tables,...

From The Texas Tribune: We should welcome a debate over how to secure our borders and reform the legal immigration system. That’s not a debate, however, that President Obama and his supporters are willing to have.Instead, they are devoted to amnesty — and they’re holding the safety and security of our nation hostage to get it.Although polling shows that 68 percent of Americans disapprove of Obama’s immigration policies, the president and his allies remain committed to an...

Investors Business Daily: ObamaCare Enrollment Is Shrinking, Top Insurers Say [it is too early to say with certainty, but it is at least plausible that actual Obamacare enrollments have fallen recently] ObamaCare exchange statistics should clear up any doubt as to why the Obama Administration has been tight-lipped about enrollment since celebrating 8 million sign-ups in mid-April. The nation's third-largest health insurer [Aetna] had 720,000 people sign up for exchange coverage as of May 20, a...

From The Washington Times: If you want to judge a nation, look at how it treats its most vulnerable civilians. Hospitals are a good place to start.Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in Gaza, is housed in a converted British army barracks. Some 126 miles north is Israel’s Ziv Medical Center in Zefat.Hamas, which controls Gaza, is using the civilian population as human shields. The terrorist group has placed its missiles in schools and mosques and, even more deplorably, burrowed its command...

Heritage Foundation: New Obamacare Enrollment Data: Employer-Based Coverage Declines New data show that the number of people who have private health insurance increased by just over 520,000 in the six months between October 1, 2013, and March 31, 2014. That was because almost all the gains in individual coverage through the Obamacare exchanges were offset by reduced enrollment in employer-sponsored group coverage. During the same period, Medicaid enrollment increased by about 5 million,...

From USA Today: To most Americans, the words "Export-Import Bank" don't mean very much. The DC insiders, cozy with international corporate interests putting taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies, want to keep it that way, too.The Export-Import Bank is big businesses' big-government bank backed by U.S. taxpayers. It sends huge amounts of assistance to foreign corporations, buyers, and companies that are hostile to our economic and security interests, but can...

Weekly Standard: Emails Show Cozy Government-Insurer Alliance, Expectation of Bailout White House communications director Tara McGuiness and Chris Jennings, Obama’s deputy assistant for health policy, “traded talking points with numerous insurance company CEOs.”  According to the report, “Ms. McGuiness and Mr. Jennings collaborated closely with Florida Blue Cross and Blue Shield CEO Patrick Geraghty.  After a CBS Evening News appearance on October 11, 2013, Ms....

The Transom: THE LAW IS WHAT WE SAY IT IS One of the underrated aspects of the current debate over Obamacare’s subsidies triggered by the Halbig decision is that we are dealing with an argument about a piece of legislation which was never intended to become law in its existing form. Scott Brown's election to the Senate completely disrupted the process, preventing conferencing on the bill and leaving Democrats with the option of an up or down vote to ram through this stillborn piece of...

The Transom: YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT JONATHAN GRUBER SAID [About the Halbig case, specifically the law's distribution of tax credits to only state-based exchanges] …[Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber] was on MSNBC just the other day [and said] “Chris, it is unambiguous this is a typo. Literally every single person involved in the crafting of this law has said that it`s a typo, that they had no intention of excluding the federal states. And why would they? Look, the law says...

Washington Examiner: When Obamacare loses in court, insurance companies lose, too Obama's Internal Revenue Service, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, had been illegally transferring money from taxpayers to insurers by pretending the Affordable Care Act said something it didn't say. …it’s misleading to describe the tax credits as simply subsidies to the insurance customers. They’re really subsidies to the insurance companies. Obamacare tax credits amount to a check from...

The Wall Street Journal: Reining in ObamaCare – and the President Halbig v. Burwell is about determining whether the president, like an autocrat, can levy taxes on his own Because the ruling forces the Obama administration to implement the Affordable Care Act as written, consumers in 36 states would face the full cost of its overpriced health insurance. According to one brief filed in the case, overall premiums in those states would be double what they are under the administration's...

Washington Post: D.C. Circuit strikes down tax credits in federal exchanges This morning the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit released its much awaited opinion in Halbig v. Burwell.  In a 2-1 opinion, the Court held that the Internal Revenue Service regulation authorizing tax credits in federal exchanges was invalid.   Judge Griffith, writing for the court, concluded, “the ACA unambiguously restricts the section 36B subsidy to insurance purchased on Exchanges...