I have written in the past about cowards, and that in general, I cannot stand them. None of my colleagues I work with are cowards. I refuse to work with them. When the going gets tough, they bolt and head for the tall grass. It is simply better to never, ever be in a position [...]

Roy Ramthun on the proposed-final regulation on Medical Loss Ratio, and how it will impact HSAs and other Bronze Plans in the exchanges: The final medical loss ratio (MLR) regulations will likely create a vacuum for affordable coverage that cannot be filled by Bronze plans under the state insurance exchanges. If the “essential benefits” and [...]

From Senator DeMint’s piece in the WSJ: “Greece’s economy reached its tipping point and was bailed out when government debt topped 137% of its gross domestic product. Despite all the measures that have been taken to aid it, Greece’s debt-to-GDP-ratio is even higher now, at 160%. Ireland was bailed out at 74% of GDP and [...]

Politico: “He worked longer than anybody else, he read more than anybody else, he talked to more people than anybody else. So he would absorb all this information,” Meyer said “And when he got new information that he thought was relevant, he was willing to pivot on his strategy. And there’s no doubt that would [...]

The urge of government health care bureaucrats to impose their will on the market, regardless of warnings and repeated petitioning for redress for relief, overpowered petitions in the latest medical loss ratio (MLR) rule by HHS. The result of the new rule will mean one thing: no bronze plans, at all, in the ObamaCare exchanges. [...]

Cowards have no business making hard choices. They are psychologically, physiologically and spiritually deficient, and cannot (are incapable) of making the right choice. They are not built for it — because they are cowards. Furthermore, they are so afraid, they will not allow those with courage to make the right choice for them. Cowardliness is [...]

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

From the liberal Politico: Then there’s Ohio. Democratic officials told POLITICO that Obama’s relentless push to pass health care reform alienated independents, the critical swing voters in a quintessential swing state, and anything that reminds voters of the issue is bad news for the president. That fact was hammered home last week when an otherwise [...]

Nice job on Letterman, Governor.

AN ACTUAL CRAIG’S LIST PERSONALS AD — the factual nature of this post is unclear, but, really — who cares? To the Guy Who Tried to Mug Me in Downtown Savannah night before last. Date: 2010-09-27, 1:43 a.m. E.S.T. I was the guy wearing the black Burberry jacket that you demanded that I hand over, [...]

So, this morning, were the lead stories on television that Nancy Pelosi, whose belittling and famous “Are you serious? Are you serious?” response to being asked about the challenge to the ObamaCare individual mandate, was the perfect illustration of her radical and out-of-touch mental state — and that she is as out of touch as [...]

Under the leadership of then Speaker Pelosi, the Democrats refused to listen to anyone — Republicans, Independents or Democrats — who opposed ObamaCare. They actively ignored, attacked, belittled and discredited any source of opposition to ObamaCare. Pelosi herself dismissed the constitutional question about the ObamaCare mandate as if she was discussing the possibility of sun [...]

“And are there going to be some hard decisions? You better believe it. But let me tell you something. You look at my record in Texas. The establishment doesn’t like me. The corporate tax lawyers in Washington D.C., they hate me the way, you know, the devil hates holy water. They do not want to [...]

For those trained in political science and its practical applications, watching Senator Durbin (D-IL) puppet-master the entire banking industry from pillar to post is unbelievably frustrating. By pillar to post, I mean “tied to the post to be whipped and then put in the pillory for public amusement.” Senator Durbin, the Assistant Majority Leader in [...]

Wait, there is yet another “Greek financial crisis” story out of Europe. Yawn. Yawn again. When the royalty of Europe spent to much, the result was, “Quick — tax the subjects!” This has been the preferred mode in dealing with bailing out those who lent to Greece. But now the lenders are now finding out [...]

Found here, on Talking Points Memo.

Colin Hanna sent this email out yesterday, and I thought it was worth sharing: After battling with cancer for seven years, Apple founder Steve Jobs left this earth on Wednesday at the youthful age of 56. Looking back at his life, it is clear that Jobs left nothing on the table, pushing the limits of [...]

The arrogance of man knows no bounds. Just look at “the One,” our President. His arrogance is destructive and blinding to his own eyes, and those closest to him. Listening to “the One” is like listening to the patronizing and condescending tones of scientists explaining nothing can travel faster than light. Except now, 160 scientists [...]

The Senate Republican Policy Committee recently sent out an email documenting how ObamaCare raised health insurance premiums — and it included the following paragraph: Still No Clarity for HSAs: The IOM report is silent on whether or not health savings accounts and other related policies should automatically qualify as minimum coverage, or whether the various [...]

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No one can sum it up better than Trump: “Let me get this straight . . . We’re going to be “gifted” with a health care plan we are forced to purchase and fined if we don’t, Which purportedly covers at least ten million more people, without adding a single new doctor, but provides for [...]

Groupthink is alive and well, and living inside the White House: “Presidents are cut off from reality when they don’t have some trusted adviser willing to save them from their own worst instincts,” said Mark Rozell, public policy professor at George Mason University. In Rozell’s opinion, Obama “has this tendency to claim that he is [...]

The sight of “the One” lecturing the Congressional Black Caucus in his normal, patronizing and condescending tone was not only historic, it signified that it’s not just the Jews that “the One” is having trouble with — it’s the bedrock of his political base that is off-the-Obama-reservation. Now, Obama is losing the Europeans too — [...]

Here is the full photo.

Certainly, most Presidents have been tempted to do what ever it is they want, and most do not, because they listen to those around them and find out they do not know as much as they thought they knew. This problem has zero impact on our current President — as Peretz writes in the New [...]

As whispers became shrill rumors of a Greek default last week, it became clear that the Federal Reserve was going to “inject liquidity” into the French banks that could not find overnight funds on the open market. Markets are disciplined. The Federal Reserve magic money machine is not. When the market decided the three French [...]

It’s amazing what happens when the White House actually produces a bill, you know, with the proposal in legislative language. It’s a half a trillion dollar stimulus bill, which raises taxes on Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). Here is a Section by Section Analysis of the bill. If you make north of a household income of [...]

If the Republicans win this seat, it’s like Obama issuing a statement that he’s for repealing ObamaCare. If the Dems can’t hold this seat, it’s like the law of gravity being repealed. We will see what happens. But if the Dems lose this — after “the One” made his great jobs speech, well, don’t count [...]

Well, get ready for the next crash — and the Federal Reserve to start cranking up the printing presses — or, rather, creating tens and hundreds of billions via their computer keyboard. Why print dollars? It’s expensive and time consuming, besides, typing is faster — you can create tens of billions in seconds. When French [...]

I have waited a very long time for a President to speak about the actions of the passengers of United Flight 93 in these terms. What great speech, Mr. President!

As Perry solidified his lead for the GOP nomination, the opposite has happened to “the One,” who, in short, has become obviously and glaringly undone — in a way that has been so dramatic that even the main stream media cannot ignore it, downplay it or talk around it. Basically, if there is a credible [...]

From, “All Talk, No Walk,” in the Weekly Standard, by Fred Barnes, at this url: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/all-talk-no-walk_577603.html “There is no economic justification for insisting on a debt limit increase that brings us through the next election,” McConnell said yesterday. “It’s not the beginning of a fiscal year. It’s not the beginning of a calendar year. Based [...]

Now that the Speaker’s plan is going to be voted on tomorrow, and it is in writing, we have this handy comparison chart between the cut, cap and balance plan and the Boehner Debt and Tax Hike plan, I thought we should review what the debt hike and tax hike plan does: It does not [...]

Comparing Cut, Cap and Balance with the Boehner Tax and Debt Hike Plan

Speaker’s Debt Hike Plan

Heritage Action opposes the Boehner and Reid plans, and will include any votes on either as key votes in our scorecard. The Heritage Action letter is below: July 26, 2011 Dear Congressman, Earlier this summer, Heritage Action for America announced we would be a “no” on a deal to raise the debt limit “unless a [...]

Now that the plan is going to be voted on tomorrow, and it is in writing, here are some thoughts. It guts the Balanced Budget Amendment. It’s “cap” on spending in 2012 is a whopping $6 billion in promised cuts. This means (obviously) the bulk of the “cap” and “cuts” come in the next Congress. [...]

It is irrational to expect different results from promising cuts in the future and raising the debt limit immediately. The Dem trap is simple, wait out and refuse any real cuts, and then use Wall Street and the Federal Reserve and others to force Congress into granting new debt immediately, with promises of cuts in [...]

The deal that The One is offering is to increase the debt limit by $2.4 Trillion, increase taxes by $1 Trillion (on top of the ObamaCare taxes) in return for promises to cut trillions from government spending. The Debt Limit becomes law immediately. The taxes become law immediately. The spending cuts never, ever become law [...]

News that Google Health died last week should come as little surprise. After all, the company is built upon a blatant disregard for protecting the privacy rights of their users. Google’s plan was to get into the business of storing people’s health records and private medical information. In two words the project could be described [...]

The warnings made to Jewish donors and Jewish voters from the center-right about electing The One fell on deaf ears in 2008. Comedians like Sarah Silverman made a mini career of trying to get grandma and grandpa to back The One, and the media hyped it to the moon (just like the obedient little lap [...]

To the Democrats and the media, getting the GOP in the room and forcing tax increases on the GOP is their main goal — they really could care less about our debt or our deficit. To the Dems, any fight about debt is the wrong battle, the wrong battle field and the wrong message. They [...]

My link to an article in a blog button has disappeared, so it you want to read this, copy this address into your browser’s address bar: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/06/24/why_rick_perry_would_be_a_formidable_candidate_or_not_110350.html “This year, Obama is in grave danger of failing the first test. Barring some major turnaround, he’ll probably be running for re-election with sub-50 percent approval ratings, with [...]

From an alert Senate staffer, on fiscal over-watch: In May the Medicare Trustees released their 2011 report showing Medicare has a total 75-year unfunded liability of $24.4 trillion under current law. Note the word: unfunded. A new memo from the Actuary’s office, estimates the true cost of Medicare’s total 75-year unfunded liability, based on the [...]

It is unclear how much clearer things need to get before the elite get it: the strategic correlation of forces is steadily and regularly eroding the position of the West vis-à-vis the Muslim world. Ironically, Greece, the cradle of early democracy, may or may not, be the proximate cause of the collapse of the leading [...]

AHIP has released the latest update of its annual census of the market for health savings accounts (HSAs). As of January 2011, more than 11.4 million Americans were covered by HSA-eligible high deductible health plans (HDHPs), an increase of more than 14 percent from the prior year. A copy of the 2011 Census is attached. [...]

At least something good has come out of the Rep. Wiener scandal, a new word. My friend and colleague, who insisted I take his name out of this post, made it up. From now on, any lewd tweet accidentally sent to the tweet universe, should be henceforth known as a twiener (sounded out, it’s tweener). [...]

“The reality is that Obamacare and Romneycare are almost exactly the same,” Giuliani said in North Conway. “It’s not very helpful trying to distinguish them. I would think the best way to handle it is to say, it was a terrible mistake and if I could do it over again, I wouldn’t do it.”

From the Australian: “Although the compound where bin Laden hid for five years was large, the three wives were all cooped up in the same house. The older two lived on the second floor and the youngest one on the top. Their husband alternated between them. Pakistani officials who have been debriefing the women portray [...]

Wait, is the sky falling? But it is supposed to — the U.S. has hit the debt ceiling without raising the debt limit, and the world has not ended.

So, if every bank loaned money to someone or some corporate entity who or which kept increasing their borrowing so they could add more debt and use the new debt to pay existing debt, then that bank would go bankrupt. In fact, every bank on the planet would have stopped lending long ago. But the [...]

Note to the universe: do you really think the Supreme Court will act like there is a severability clause in ObamaCare, when one does not exist? It’s not like the Supremes spend their dawns poring over statutes, line by line, or anything at all like that. So, President Clinton thought he might mention it. And [...]

Really? Well, watch the Judge interview Tom Woods.

This is real simple: The One and Senate Democrats refuse to ever cut spending in a meaningful way. As a result, paltry cuts are well-reported but never actually occur. The GOP, in control of only the U.S. House, will not precipitate a crisis by refusing to raise the debt ceiling. The White House will call [...]

This is the part where the U.S. debt crisis could, maybe, perhaps, possibly get real. If Congress refuses to raise the debt ceiling, so the tax-borrow-and-spend-some-more cycle in D.C. can not continue without change, then Congress and the White House would have to do something real about the debt ceiling. Without the crisis of not [...]

This just in, Estonia — the former Soviet communist captive state — has a better financial rating than the United States. Here is the U.S. strategic financial situation — a complete joke. While the public tries to sort out if CBO was right and the great budget deal only cut $350 million or $38 billion, [...]

The One’s steadfast refusal to cut spending and his tax raising proposals are not the only thing that is driving the spiraling in of the U.S. economy and the value of the U.S. dollar. No, The One is the trillion dollar President, the spender-in-Chief, and anyone who believes for a second he cares about the [...]

The article that this graph is taken from is here. This is what happens when the United States government cannot stop spending (the recent budget deal notwithstanding) and the Fed prints money to compensate.

To read the grim story of America’s inability to stop spending more than they take in, and the consequences of the lack of political will to get to zero deficits and reduce our debt levels, click here.

As long as the Dems control the White House, there will never be any serious reform of the U.S. fiscal house. The One is ignoring the fiscal crisis in the U.S. and just keeps spending, first on his failed stimulus, and then on ObamaCare. He is not cutting, he is spending — rapidly. Meanwhile, the [...]

Harden’s insights below are truly brilliant: “The past few weeks have betrayed a number of startling truths about the way Obama views the world. Here are 10 of them: 1. Obama prefers to follow Europeans rather than lead them. 2. Obama’s failure to consult Congress further illustrates that much of his campaign rhetoric about President [...]

Similarities of events (patterns) warrant a re-examination of the consequences. For example, when liberalization of energy production options in the United States produces a renaissance in nuclear power generation approvals as a viable energy power generation strategy, and The One actually approves off shore drilling, it seemed that the U.S. was on its way to [...]

Here are three of a the bunch, found here: When the Federal Reserve cites statistics to claim that there is not much evidence of inflation, we need to keep in mind that the statistics they rely on exclude food and energy prices. The cost of living is no sweat if you can do without electricity [...]

To date, The One has not stopped the U.S. economic decline. By all recent measures, none of The One’s policies to-borrow-and-print-money-and tax-and-spend-it-on-the-government has worked. While Japan is experiencing a slow march towards an uncertain fallout outcome, and it begins to call its debts due from the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve announced the very corrosive [...]

The earthquake, tsunami, volcano and nuclear blasts at four reactors, along with a possible meltdown means many things, but the thing it means the most is that Japan needs cash. And when you need cash, the first thing you do is look to those who owe you money. Uncle Sam owes Japan. And Japan needs [...]

The quote below is from the Judge’s ruling, taken from this post, which I also urge you to read: “So to “clarify” my order and judgment: The individual mandate was declared unconstitutional. Because that “essential” provision was unseverable from the rest of the Act, the entire legislation was void. This declaratory judgment was expected to [...]

I highly recommend you read this article: “What’s worse, the CLASS Act is a ticking entitlement time bomb. Every expert who has looked at it — see here — reaches the same conclusion: It’s a poorly designed and ill-advised program that will suffer from severe adverse selection. Because it is voluntary, it will attract mainly [...]

The HSA Coalition has decided to give out it’s first Great American Award. While members of the Coalition were considered for this award, the criteria for winning this $1,000 cash prize is to achieve a legislative victory (trying does not count) — and in doing so, show great perseverance, foresight (being the first to identify [...]