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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (165526)	3/10/2014 10:11:33 AM
From: locogringo	1 Recommendation Recommended By FJB Respond to of 224729

Politico: Ted Cruz 'Crushed' Gridiron Speech, Even Impressed Democrats Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) wowed the beltway elite and even Democrats during Saturday's annual Gridiron event, showing why the Ivy Leaguer has confounded and been vilified by many with whom he shares the same intellectual pedigree. The annual D.C. roast is hosted by the exclusive Gridiron Club, which is composed of D.C.'s mainstream and "elite" journalists. Cruz has degrees from Princeton and Harvard, which those in the permanent political class covet, and he can do their social rituals better than they can. Yet Cruz refuses to be co-opted by them politically, instead choosing to be a staunch conservative who represents the grassroots that sent him to Washington to fight against both political and media establishments. Politico's Mike Allen said that Cruz, "crushed his speech – even Dems said he knocked it out of the park." In an appearance with Secretary of State John Kerry and Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist, the Florida gubernatorial candidate who wants to be loved by the permanent political class, Cruz called himself the "anti-Crist" in what could be the perfect description of Cruz's brand of politics. He also made fun of his filibuster and tense relationship with the GOP leadership: And when Leader McConnell wants something, who am I to say no?… Twenty-one hours and 19 minutes [in the filibuster] – hearing nothing but my favorite sound. We’re talking Biden territory. And so typical of how this town works, they cut me off just as I was coming to my point. By the way, does anyone know the record for the longest speech ever at this dinner? I looked it up, and in the late 1800s, New York Senator Chauncey DePew enthralled his audience until well past midnight. So LOOSEN UP THOSE WHITE TIES, settle back, and what do you say we make Gridiron history? [Applause] ...[I]n front of conservative and tea-party audiences, I am hailed as the anti-Obama. But tonight, I’m the anti-Crist. He also said his relations with McCain have greatly improved because "This week… he’s only once demanded a public apology from me. As wackobirds go, that’s pretty good." He also poked fun at his having been born in Canada, mocked Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and compared his Cuban dad to Sen. Marco Rubio's (R-FL), who was also from Cuba: Canadians are so polite, mild-mannered, modest, unassuming, open-minded. Thank God my family fled that oppressive influence before it could change me. I might add that Canadians are also extremely efficient. No red tape at all in handling my application to renounce citizenship. They had that thing approved before I even sent it in. The simple truth is that for a very brief time my family lived on the plains of Calgary. That does not make me a Canadian. Although Elizabeth Warren says that it does make me an Algonquin Indian. Of course, my family is Cuban… At first, when he got here, my dad washed dishes for 50 cents an hour. He was so low on the totem pole where he worked that even Marco Rubio's father bossed him around. Cruz also blasted Obama's executive orders and his disregard for the law: "We are still a nation of laws. You just have to check with Barack Obama every day to see what they are."

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (165526)	3/10/2014 10:13:36 AM
From: locogringo	2 Recommendations Recommended By FJB TideGlider Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224729

Uninsured: Obamacare Is Unaffordable The premiums are too high. A new survey confirms that the “Affordable Care Act” has failed to achieve one of its most important goals — making health coverage accessible to the uninsured. As the Washington Post reports, “Just one in 10 uninsured people who qualify for private health plans through the new marketplace have signed up for one.” Why so few? According to the survey, which was released last Thursday by McKinsey & Company, the most common reason cited by uninsured respondents was lack of affordability. Out of five possible reasons for failing to enroll, most chose, “I could not afford to pay the premium.” The irony of this is mindboggling. For years, the advocates of Obamacare characterized the uninsured problem as a human tragedy that bankrupted millions and killed tens of thousands. The latter claim was injected into the health reform debate by a notoriously disingenuous study whose authors claimed that lack of health coverage caused the untimely demise 45,000 Americans per year. This “research” was debunked by various health policy experts, but that didn’t stop Democrats from quoting it in Congress to show that Republican opposition to Obamacare was tantamount to genocide. In fact, as recently as December of last year, the President was still peddling this whopper in an attempt to convince an increasingly skeptical electorate that his rapidly disintegrating health care “reform” program had made America a better place: “We believe we’re a better country than a country where… every year, tens of thousands of Americans died because they didn’t have health care.” If Obama actually believes the lack of insurance kills this many people, it’s a little difficult to see how he can maintain that Obamacare has “fundamentally transformed” the United States into a healthier and happier place. The answer, of course, is that actual facts have little to do with the claims the President makes for Obamacare. It’s pretty obvious, for example, that the 4 million sign-up figure touted by his administration is fiction. The McKinsey survey makes it clear that the actual number is less than 500,000. The reality is that Obama’s health care bureaucrats aren’t bothering to track how many uninsured are obtaining coverage via Obamacare. When asked for that figure, the government official charged with implementing the program said, “That’s not a data point that we are really collecting in any systematic way.” That’s right. The plight of the uninsured was a major selling point for the passage of Obamacare, and the law’s advocates claimed the lack of insurance was killing more people annually than automobile accidents. The Grim Reaper was mowing down uninsured Americans in their thousands, yet no one has bothered to ascertain if the President’s “signature domestic achievement” has reduced the carnage? There are only two possible interpretations of this revelation: (1) The Obama administration is incompetent beyond our scariest nightmares or (2) the uninsured problem was always a hoax. The latter is the obvious explanation. Obamacare’s advocates claimed that there were 47 million uninsured Americans. As far back as 2008, Sally Pipes explained in the Washington Times why that was a bogus figure: “The [Census] Bureau counts anyone who went without health insurance during any part of the previous year as ‘uninsured.’” Anyone without coverage for a single day was counted in the 47 million. Pipes went on to point out that this figure included 10 million illegal immigrants, 14 million people already eligible for government assistance, and about 10 million making more than $75,000 annually. In other words, the actual number of Americans who were involuntarily uninsured was, at worst, somewhere around 13 million. And it is a myth that these people were ever denied care. This is why HHS isn’t keeping up with the number of uninsured who are signing up through the exchanges. The plight of the uninsured was a phony issue. A genuine issue, on the other hand, was increasing insurance premiums. And, perversely, the authors of Obamacare never addressed the underlying causes of this problem. In fact, the ironically named Affordable Care Act actually exacerbated the cost problem. Obamacare nationalized a variety of ill-conceived ideas that had been shown to drive up premiums at the state level. The worst of these were minimum essential coverage and the guaranteed issue requirement. “Minimum essential coverage” is a euphemism for benefit mandates. Five years ago, I explained in this space why such mandates have driven up premiums everywhere they have been imposed. Obama has decided to delay the implementation of this provision until after the upcoming midterms, but this was done after the health insurance carriers had calculated rates based on the requirement. Thus, the high premiums cited by uninsured participants in the McKinsey survey are consistent with what they can expect when the minimum coverage provision becomes more politically convenient. Exacerbating the premium hikes caused by that provision is Obamacare’s requirement that insurers cover all comers. As far back as October of 2009, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) produced a report indicating that “a weak individual coverage requirement, coupled with a strong guaranteed issue requirement and no pre-existing limits” would assure dramatic increases in premiums. Predictably, the White House and the legacy media denounced the report and vilified PwC. Nonetheless, these components of Obamacare are having precisely the effect on premiums that PwC predicted. So, however many uninsured individuals there are out there, they have less incentive to buy coverage than ever. To remain uninsured costs them virtually nothing and they can get insurance with no questions asked if they need it. So, the only surprising thing about the McKinsey survey is that it surprised anyone.