The Patriot Post Digest 6-28-2017

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The Patriot Post Digest 6-28-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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Mid-Day Digest

Jun. 28, 2017

IN TODAY’S EDITION

Justice Ginsburg has shown her partisan colors. GOPers demand her recusal.
A new study shows just how bad an overly high minimum wage can be.
Senate Republicans face down the CBO’s analysis of ObamaCare repeal.
Daily Features: Top Headlines, Cartoons, Columnists and Short Cuts.

THE FOUNDATION

“Without justice being freely, fully, and impartially administered, neither our persons, nor our rights, nor our property, can be protected.” —Joseph Story (1833)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Republicans to Ginsburg: Recuse Yourself on Trump Case1

Fifty-eight House Republicans signed a letter2 calling for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to recuse herself from hearing and ruling3 on Donald Trump’s travel ban executive order, a case otherwise known as the International Refugee Assistance Project v. Trump, due to her anti-Trump remarks made prior to the election. The letter sent to Ginsburg states, “You are bound by law to recuse yourself from participation in this case. There is no doubt your impartiality can be reasonably questioned; indeed, it would be unreasonable not to question your impartiality.”

Recall that prior to the election Ginsburg created no small amount of controversy by publicly expressing her personal contempt for then-Candidate Trump. “He is a faker,” she said. “He has no consistency about him. He says whatever comes into his head at the moment. He really has an ego.” At the time, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) called Ginsburg’s comment “totally inappropriate,” adding, “It raises a level of skepticism that the American people have from time to time about just how objective the Supreme Court is, whether they’re over there to call balls and strikes, or weigh in on one side or another.”

Ginsburg’s decision to weigh in on the political race was considered so problematic that it even had the Leftmedia calling foul. In defending Trump’s objection, The New York Times declared, “Washington is more than partisan enough without the spectacle of a Supreme Court justice flinging herself into the mosh pit.” And the Washington Post’s editorial board expressed its own criticism of Ginsburg, writing, “Politicization, real or perceived, undermines public faith in the impartiality of the courts.” The Post’s board justified its criticism by noting the Code of Conduct for U.S. judges which states, “judges should not … publicly endorse or oppose a candidate for public office.”

If Ginsburg seeks to regain any semblance of dignity; if she truly values the ideal of a Supreme Court justice being one who makes judgments without partiality; if she takes seriously the U.S. judges’ Code of Conduct, then she must recuse herself immediately from hearing this case. Or better yet, she should retire.

Surprise! Seattle’s Minimum Wage Charade Is Making People Poorer4

As the old expression states, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. In 2014, Seattle decided to lead the way “forward” in the attempt to impose the leftist utopian dream of creating a “livable” minimum wage for all. Largely ignoring sound warnings from seasoned economists, Seattle pressed on with its crusade, passing a progressive increase to the minimum wage with the goal of eventually reaching $15 per hour by 2017 and 2019 respectively for large and small businesses. So has Seattle been able to defy all conventional economic wisdom and raise a greater number of individuals out of poverty with its mandatory minimum wage hike?

A recently released study5 from the University of Washington appears to be throwing a well-deserved bucket of cold water on Seattle’s pipe dream. Researchers found that low-income workers saw their overall pay decrease, as companies either cut hours or cut the number of employees. The report states, “The lost income associated with the hours reductions exceeds the gain [in hourly rates]. The average low-wage employee was paid $1,897 per month. The reduction in hours cost the average employee $179 per month, while the wage increase would recoup only $54 of this loss, leaving a net loss of $125 per month (6.6%), which is sizable for a low-wage worker.”

Seattle is the first city to pass the mandatory $15 minimum wage, but certainly not the last as the cities of Los Angeles, New York, DC and Boston have passed similar legislation. Hopefully, Seattle acts as the canary in the coal mine, warning other municipalities away from a disastrous policy. As America Rising Squared spokesman Jeremy Adler states, “This important study ought to be a big wake-up call that the ‘Fight for $15’ minimum wage effort is actually hurting those they say they want to help — reducing incomes and eliminating economic opportunities for low-income Americans who need them most.”

Unfortunately, too many Democrats have so invested themselves in the belief that it is the role of government to provide for people’s needs that even studies like this, which clearly demonstrate the ill effects of leftist economic policy, will not promote a change of direction or ideology. As a result, the unemployment lines in leftist controlled cities like Seattle will only grow longer.

Top Headlines6

McConnell postpones Senate health care vote after Republican objections. (The Washington Times7)

19th ObamaCare co-op folds, leaving only four operating in 2018. (The Washington Free Beacon8.)

Washington Post publishes fake gun facts. (America’s First Freedom9)

California gun store files class action suit against PayPal for anti-gun policies. (The Truth About Guns10)

Sarah Palin sues NY Times over editorial11 tying her to Giffords shooting. (Fox News12)

Leftist tolerance: Ten Commandments monument at Arkansas Capitol toppled, shattered one day after installation. (Arkansas Online13)

EPA moves to repeal Obama’s waterway overreach rule. (The Hill14)

Virginia man jailed for registering dead individuals to vote for Democrats in 2016. (The Washington Free Beacon15)

Obamas under fire from the left for never ending, ultra-luxury vacations. (Fox News16)

Illinois doctors now being forced to catalogue “benefits” of abortion, give referrals for the procedure. (The Daily Wire17)

Policy: Harsh lessons from Seattle’s $15 minimum wage mandate. (American Enterprise Institute18.)

Policy: The GOP is right: Medicaid needs fundamental reform. (National Review19)

Hump Day Humor: Robert Mueller begins 13th day undercover as White House janitor. (The Onion20)

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report21.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Senate GOP Health Bill Triggers Typical Leftist Hysteria22

By Louis DeBroux

Senate Republicans released their version23 of the ObamaCare repeal-and-replace bill last week, and of course, before anyone had time to read it, Democrats and their Leftmedia attack dogs ran to the nearest microphone, hysterically declaring millions would lose health insurance24 and literally left to die because of the bill. It was all so predictable.

Democrats pointed to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) scoring of the bill, which claimed 22 million Americans would lose coverage if the Senate bill was passed. This is a ridiculous claim for two reasons.

First, “losing” is not the same thing as “choosing.” While the headlines blare that 22 million will “lose coverage,” the fine print of the CBO report tells a different story25: “CBO and JCT estimate that, in 2018, 15 million more people would be uninsured under this legislation than under current law — primarily because the penalty for not having insurance would be eliminated.”

Get that? Without the penalty from the individual mandate, millions would choose not to buy coverage. In that way ObamaCare is much like membership in a labor union. Democrats shout from the rooftops how wonderful it is, but when the people are given a choice, they overwhelmingly reject it.

Second, the CBO has a long and inglorious history of being wrong. Not just a little wrong either, but more off target than a one-eyed, near-sighted drunkard trying to shoot a Coke can off a tree stump from 50-yards with a snub-nosed .38 revolver.

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The Patriot Post Digest 6-28-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
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As The Wall Street Journal pointed out26 in March regarding the CBO’s previous flawed ObamaCare projections, “In February 2013, CBO predicted that ObamaCare enrollment in the individual market would be 13 million in 2015, 24 million in 2016 and 26 million in 2017. The actual enrollment for those years was, respectively, 11 million, 12 million and 10 million. As recently as March 2016, CBO was projecting an enrollment boom of 15 million for this year.” Enrollment in 2016 was just over 10 million.

Less than three years after it went into effect, the CBO’s ObamaCare cost projections doubled27, from $900 billion to $1.8 trillion, despite the fact that premiums, deductibles and co-pays were skyrocketing. ObamaCare left tens of millions of Americans without coverage, and tens of millions more with an insurance card saying they had coverage with their doctors no longer willing to take them.

Regardless, the claim that anyone in America will die without insurance is an unmitigated lie28. President Ronald Reagan signed The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) into law in 1986, requiring hospitals to treat anyone and everyone who comes into the Emergency Room, regardless of insurance status or ability to pay.

America has the best health care system in the world. What is a disaster is how we pay for it, and it is a disaster precisely because of government meddling in the market, creating problems, and then devising “solutions” that create more problems than they solve.

The problem is rooted in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s decision during World War II to institute a wage freeze. Unable to attract top talent with higher wages, businesses looked for other forms of incentives, leading many businesses to pay employees’ health insurance in lieu of higher wages. By the time the war ended, this compensation tool had taken root, and never ended.

This created a market distortion, with the recipient of the service no longer paying for the service, and therefore not seeking lower prices. Compounding the problem is decades of government regulations and mandates that further distorted the market, squeezing doctors and hospitals from both ends.

On the one side, government mandated hundreds of treatments and services included in all policies, then layered on tens of thousands of pages of regulations that health care providers are required to comply with or face financial penalties and even jail time. On the other side, government became the 800-lb gorilla, accounting for half of all health care spending while steadily reducing reimbursement rates for providers, making it extremely difficult just to break even. This is a huge reason why more and more doctors decide to no longer treat Medicare or Medicaid patients.

ObamaCare is a socialist, government-run health care system, and it’s failing as miserably as all such systems do.

The GOP health care bills, though at least trending in the right direction, try too hard to split the baby. The key to successful health care reform is controlling costs, and this is best achieved by reintroducing free market reforms.

Insurance is about spreading and mitigating risk. It is about covering unforeseen and unlikely events. What we have today is a health payment system, not a health insurance system. Forcing health insurers to cover anything and everything means it is no longer insurance. It would be like requiring auto insurers to cover not just collisions, but oil changes, new tires, wiper blades, and basic maintenance and repairs, and expecting rates not to skyrocket.

While the GOP offering is far better than ObamaCare, it can’t stop there. Republicans need to push for a true free market in health care, where insurers and providers compete for our business. Only then will we see both a rapid drop in price and a rapid increase in quality of care.

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

Camille Paglia: A Lefty’s Advice for the Left29 — Such a logical and objective approach to controversial subjects is rare from left-leaning folk, but is certainly welcome.
Tennis and the Science Deniers30 — A former male tennis star calls a woman the “best female player ever.” Leftist outrage ensues.
Bradley Manning’s Twisted Pride31 — Traitor Bradley Manning is celebrated in New York’s “Gay Pride” Parade on Sunday. Disgraceful.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

Ed Feulner: The High Cost of Waiting to Drain the Swamp32
Ben Shapiro: But Reality Isn’t Fair33
Jonah Goldberg: Rhetoric Boils Over in Health Care Debate34
Walter Williams: Were Confederate Generals Traitors?35

For more, visit Right Opinion36.

OPINION IN BRIEF

Ben Shapiro: “In 2014, I debated Seattle City Council member and avowed socialist Kshama Sawant. Sawant was one of the chief proponents of a city ordinance that would create a $15 minimum wage. … In our debate, I asked Sawant directly whether she would support a $1,000 minimum wage. She deflected the question, of course. She deflected the question because reality would not allow for a $1,000 minimum wage. Were the government to mandate such an idiocy, every business in the Seattle area would immediately cut back employment, and all of those seeking minimum wage jobs would end up losing their income. As it turns out, it didn’t take a $1,000 minimum wage to destroy the income for minimum wage workers. Thirteen dollars was plenty. According to a paper from The National Bureau of Economic Research, ‘the minimum wage ordinance lowered low-wage employees’ earnings by an average of $125 per months in 2016.‘ All of this was foreseeable, given the fact that businesses compete with one another to lower cost and thus operate with slim profit margins. That means businesses have two choices when government forcibly raises labor costs: increase prices and thereby lower demand, or cut back on the work force. Businesses opted to do the latter in order to stay competitive. Reality is unpleasant. Perhaps that’s why so few politicians seem willing to face up to it.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “The people of the various provinces are strictly forbidden to have in their possession any swords, bows, spears, firearms, or other types of arms. The possession of these elements makes difficult the collection of taxes and dues, and tends to permit uprising.” —Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598.) (It’s almost as if the Founders’ knew their history…)

For the record: “[ObamaCare] offers ‘access’ by threatening and forcing people to buy insurance. This is tantamount to celebrating an increase in military recruitment after passing a draft.” —David Harsanyi

Non Compos Mentis: “I’ve read the Republican ‘health care’ bill. This is blood money. They’re paying for tax cuts with American lives.” —Elizabeth Warren

Braying Jenny: “Forget death panels. If Republicans pass this bill, they’re the death party.” —Hillary “Abortion on Demand” Clinton

Alpha Jackass: “Mitch McConnell is a terrorist. [Donald Trump] is a terrorist. This bill terrorizes people and sentences poor people to death.” —filmmaker Josh Fox

A rare voice of reason: “The DNC wanted the message to be, ‘The ACA is working fine,’ and don’t talk about the warts. I said I can’t do that because it’s failing my constituents in a lot of ways.” —Dem Rep. Tim Walz

Irony alert: “There are facts here that should be alarming to us as a country that falls short of facts that would establish a basis for impeachment or for prosecution.” —Sally Yates, the acting attorney general who lost her job for defying Rule of Law

Wishful thinking: “Our trustworthiness today is the same as it was a year ago, before people in high offices started questioning it. We know that through our own brand research. Just because somebody says you are not trustworthy, that doesn’t mean it is so.” —CNN president Jeff Zucker

And last… “Politicians like to defend some law on the grounds that ‘if it saves just one life, it’s worth it.’ But by that logic we should make the speed limit 5 mph. That would surely save lives. Are you a murderer if you oppose such a move?” —Jonah Goldberg

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.