The Patriot Post Digest 3-16-2016

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The Patriot Post Digest 3-16-2016
From The Federalist Patriot
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Is the ObamaCare Death Spiral Underway?16

A recent Kaiser Family Foundation analysis bodes tremendously ill for ObamaCare. But before we provide the prognosis, let’s take stock of where we are. Currently there are an estimated 12.7 million Americans getting health insurance through ObamaCare, which is a relatively slight increase from 11.7 million in early 2015. However, as Kaiser cautions17, “Actual enrollment will end up somewhat lower than this because some people will not pay their premiums or will have their coverage terminated due to inconsistencies on their applications, and there is typically additional attrition as the year progresses (e.g., as some enrollees get jobs with health benefits).”

This explains why the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services last week reported that as of “December 31, 2015, about 8.8 million consumers had effectuated Health Insurance Marketplace coverage,” which The Hill notes18 is “3.5 percent below the administration’s target” of 9.1 million and “a drop of almost 25 percent compared to the 11.7 million people who were signed up at the beginning of 2015.” There’s no question that participation is bad, but even the government’s “target” rate is deceiving. Why? Because paltry enrollment since ObamaCare’s inception has forced the feds to set the bar much lower. And moving the goal posts is what this administration does best.

Consider the magnitude of Congressional Budget Office revisions. A year ago the CBO expected around 21 million Americans to be enrolled in 2016. But by January19 the CBO made a mammoth change, calling for only 13 million. And if the Kaiser Family Foundation is correct, that’s not too far from what will probably be the total number of consumers for the foreseeable future. Kaiser says “the 12.7 million signups so far represent 46% of the ‘potential market’ for the marketplaces,” and an extrapolation of current trends suggests an “‘effectuated’ enrollment total of 14.7 million,” or what it describes as “a reasonable estimate of a ceiling on what marketplace enrollment could grow to over the next several years, assuming current levels of premium subsidies and outreach.”

Kaiser concludes, “Judging by the experience of the top performing states, there is considerable room for enrollment growth over the next several years. However, even if all states signed people up at the rate of the top 10 states, enrollment would still fall well short of projections by CBO, suggesting that those forecasts may have been unrealistic.” The reality is that government programs never live up to the hype — and numbers don’t lie. As John Adams once said, “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” The fact is, it was the authors of ObamaCare who had egregiously unrealistic expectations.

MORE ORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE

Enough With Obama’s Lectures20
The Lesson of Breitbart21
Did Carson and Trump Make a ‘Great Deal’?22
Clinton Lackeys to Be Questioned Over Email Use23
Another Climate Scientist Indicted for Financial Fraud24
Republican Lawmakers Respond to Flint Water Crisis25
Oil Industry Faces Economic and Regulatory Woes26

TOP HEADLINES

Obama Nominates Anti-Gun Merrick Garland for Supreme Court27
37% of GOP Voters Would Mull Third Party Over Trump vs. Clinton28
American Student Gets 15 Years of Hard Labor in N. Korea29

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report30

OPINION IN BRIEF

Jeff Jacoby: “Early-voting laws were promoted as democratic and efficient; make voting easier, advocates argued, and voter turnout will rise. They were wrong: The data suggest that early-voting options decrease turnout. … But the real downside to early voting, especially in a volatile primary campaign like this year’s Republican presidential competition, is that voters come to the ballot without having equal access to relevant information. … Campaigns relish early-voting laws because it enables them to ‘bank’ votes — early voters who have second thoughts are stuck, even if Election Day is still days or weeks away. And it stands to reason that at least some voters do have second thoughts: In Louisiana’s primary this month, Trump overwhelmingly carried early voters, but narrowly lost to Cruz among voters who waited until Election Day. The whole point of having staggered primaries is to allow later voters to take account of new developments and fresh information, yet that’s exactly the benefit that early voting undercuts. The transformation of Election Day into Election Month has proved one of our less successful democratic experiments. Voting works better when we do it together — not when each of us decides that we don’t feel like waiting any longer.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “The framers of the constitution knew human nature as well as we do. They too had lived in dangerous days; they too knew the suffocating influence of orthodoxy and standardized thought. They weighed the compulsions for restrained speech and thought against the abuses of liberty. They chose liberty.” —Justice William O. Douglas (1898-1980)

Upright: “Any normal race would be over. But this is not a normal election. We’ve gone from a race where the political wing of the conservative movement is at stake, to a contest where America finds itself teetering on the edge of political violence not seen since 1968. In such circumstances, patriots simply do not give up, and they especially don’t give up while there are still glimmers of hope. … Stand now. No matter the odds. There is no other choice.” —David French

Wait — weren’t you the one who threatened to go third party? “But just let me tell you, a third party guarantees — not 90% or 99%, [but] 100%— that Democrats will win. Probably Hillary.” —Donald Trump

“Ferguson. Baltimore. Chicago. Everywhere Leftist protesters occupy the streets, those whose opinions are deemed insufficiently progressive are abused, mocked, ridiculed, brutalized and physically menaced. This lawlessness is rapidly becoming the norm; the Obama administration, as well as leading media and cultural figures, need to decry that normalization and act strongly against these thugs now —before the American public square is transformed beyond recognition, and ceases to be an arena for free discourse. Although this violence and brutalization of political opponents is a new phenomenon in American politics, it has a historical antecedent: the Nazi Brownshirts.” —Robert Spencer

Non Compos Mentis: “I don’t know where [Bernie Sanders] was when I was trying to get health care in ‘93 and '94.” —Hillary Clinton (Flashback: “I’m grateful for the leadership that many people are giving to this great reform effort, and I’m grateful that Congressman Sanders would join us today from Vermont.” —Clinton, 1993)

Enough with the lectures20: “It’s worth asking ourselves what each of us may have done to contribute to this vicious atmosphere in our politics. … And while some may be more to blame than others for the current climate, all of us are responsible for reversing it, for it is a cycle that is not an accurate reflection of America. And it has to stop.” —Barack Obama

Late-night humor: “This weekend was Daylight Saving Time and we all lost an hour of our lives. Plus, I watched the Democratic debate so I actually lost three hours of my life.” —James Corden

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis!
Managing Editor Nate Jackson

Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way in defense of Liberty, and for their families.