Florida Judge Strikes Down Obamacare

President expected to become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.

"The Sun may have to brace for charges that it 'rose' this morning."

They really do think you're stupid. No; really. They do.

An editorial in the New York Times last week began:

A government-sponsored study has found that annual CT scans could reduce the mortality rate from lung cancer in very heavy smokers and former smokers by 20 percent. Its leaders suggest that many thousands of lives could be saved annually.

This seems like good news. The Times wisely notes that such screening would be expensive:

This will not be cheap. Initial scans might cost a couple of hundred dollars apiece and are not currently covered by Medicare or private insurance. Follow-up screening and procedures will be more expensive. All told, the costs could reach billions of dollars a year.

But the conclusion reached by the editorial seems to us more than a little bit odd (emphasis added):

Government and private insurers that try to limit their coverage of CT scans based on the experts’ judgments — as they should — will need to brace for charges that they are attempting to “ration” health care.

That is, access to such screening should be rationed, and those responsible for the rationing should prepare themselves for "charges" that they're rationing health care.

No "death panels," of course, just the Government or private insurers deciding whether they'll provide you with access to a procedure that might save your life.

Please move along; nothing to see here.

Government Medicine: We've Already Seen the Future

"God Help You, You're on Dialysis," in this month's The Atlantic magazine:

In October 1972, after a month of deliberation, Congress launched the nation’s most ambitious experiment in universal health care: a change to the Social Security Act that granted comprehensive coverage under Medicare to virtually anyone diagnosed with kidney failure, regardless of age or income.

It was a supremely hopeful moment. Although the technology to keep kidney patients alive through dialysis had arrived, it was still unattainable for all but a lucky few. At one hospital, a death panel—or “God committee” in the parlance of the time—was deciding who got it and who didn’t. The new program would help about 11,000 Americans for starters, and for a modest initial price tag of $135 million, would cover not only their dialysis and transplants, but all of their medical needs. Some consider it the closest that the United States has come to socialized medicine.

Now, almost four decades later, a program once envisioned as a model for a national health-care system has evolved into a hulking monster.

Wherein We Once Again Did Not Get the Memo

Politico reports:

With health reform’s popularity steadily slipping, top administration officials turned to faith-based groups that supported the law to do their part explaining it. On an hour-long conference call Tuesday, they outlined the Patients’ Bill of Rights and asked faith-based and community groups to get the word out on the new provisions. “I wanted to have this call because we have a big day coming up, the six-month anniversary of health reform’s passage,” President Obama told leaders on the conference call, hosted through Health and Human Services’ Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Obama later added that, “The debate in Washington is over, the Affordable Care Act is now law. ...I think all of you can be really important validators and trusted resources for friends and neighbors, to help explain what’s now available to them.” Joshua DuBois, head of the White House’s Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, got even more specific: “Get the word out there, get information out there. Make use of the resources described on this call: the website, door hangers, one pagers and so forth. We’ve got work to do.”

Faith-based; get information out; important validators; trusted resources.

Here we thought religion and politics don't mix; that there's a "wall" between church and state; that we shouldn't let anyone impose theocracy on us. Yet here the President urges "people of faith" to take his political position, dip it in a tasty coating of religion, and feed their sheep.

We'll have to check our IN box again.

Evil Bastards Refuse to Insure Burning House!!

Stones refuse to give blood, apples insist on falling from trees, death remains certain.

This is simply too dumb to merit comment.  OF COURSE health insurers will stop writing individual policies for a group if they're required to write such policies for applicants with pre-existing conditions.  That wouldn't, after all, be insurance.  Insurance requires the pooling of risk, with premiums based on the actuarially determined amount necessary to cover the actual claims of those in the pool.  The proper premium for a pool consisting entirely of burning houses is 100% of the insured value.

Any other arrangement involves taking money from one person and giving it to another because it's been decided that he needs it more.  Personally, I think I need my neighbor's truck much more than he needs it.

When I do that, it's called Grand Theft-Auto.  When the Government does it, it's called Health Care Reform.

Da, Tovarich Commissar!

The People just don't know what's good for them.  We sympathize with the frustration of those called to improve our lot: the best, the brightest, would guide the ignorant proles to a land of milk and honey.  The People, of course, cannot be expected to understand, which is why they must be led by their betters.

Red Star Tractor Factory Number 3 has been built according to scientific Socialist principles.  Its operations are conducted in accordance with scientific Socialism.  This is not theory or ideology, this is science, and thus Red Star Tractor Factory Number 3 will necessarily produce flawless tractors.  If the tractors are instead defective, there are only two possibilities: counter-revolutionary saboteurs, or ignorance of the Workers.  A purge will deal with the first, and reeducation will address the second.  This is, after all, not religion or politics, but science: proper inputs will yield predictable outputs.

Which brings us to Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services.  It's been five months now since the dawning of the new age brought on by the passage of health care "reform." Yet, inexplicably, polls find an enormous number of Americans remain opposed, some even calling for its repeal. How can this be? It's really quite simple, comrades:

"Unfortunately, there still is a great deal of confusion about what is in [the reform law] and what isn't," Sebelius told ABC News Radio in an interview Monday.

With several vulnerable House Democrats touting their votes against the bill, and Republicans running on repeal, Sebelius said "misinformation given on a 24/7 basis" has led to the enduring opposition nearly six months after the lengthy debate ended in Congress.

"So, we have a lot of reeducation to do," Sebelius said.

What could be more clear? Ignorance of the proletariat brought about by counter-revolutionary saboteurs has resulted in confusion and wrong-thinking by The People.

We shall begin with reeducation, comrades, but purges remain an option.

Secretary Sebelius is a very silly woman, of course, who apparently spent her school days networking rather than paying attention in her World History classes.  But what gives us pause is not her ignorant use of a word made ominous by the 20th Century,  but a state of mind that has no room for the possibility that opposition could be the result of anything save ignorance.

What About the Unicorns and Puppies?

Well, THAT'S Mature

If you're not following this, then congratulations on having a real life.

But if you are following this, you know that having passed the Senate health care bill, now signed into law by the President (in the company of Joe "This is a big fucking deal" Biden), the House sent a raft of amendments to the Senate. These "fixes" are all part of the creaky complicated deal that secured passage in the House.

Senate rules permit the offering of amendments, while Senate Democrats must pass the precise bill sent from the House -- every jot and tittle. Democrats must vote down each and every such amendment, no matter what it says. So the Republicans have decided that if they can't stop the bill from passing (and they can't) they might as well have some fun, and embarrass their Democrat colleagues while they're at it.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okl.), for example, will introduce an amendment titled "No Erectile Dysfunction Drugs To Sex Offenders," to prohibit convicted child molesters, rapists, and sex offenders from getting erectile dysfunction medication from their health care providers. But the Democrats must vote "no," thus generating tasty political ads in the Fall. Other possibilities come easily to mind. How about "Elder Care Protection" mandating that necessary health care not be withdrawn from citizens over age 70 based solely on age?

(Very Nearly) LIVE! From Capitol Hill

Via the Divine Professor Althouse, where you'll find more.

You Know They Think You're Stupid, Right?

As it turns out, the President's latest poster-girl for health care, Natoma Canfield, is actually being treated at the Cleveland Clinic, and seems in no danger of losing her home.

Our favorite remains Representative Louise Slaughter:

It's our favorite because ObamaCare includes no dental coverage.

We Can See The Future

2010: "Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams is set to undergo heart surgery this week in the United States."

2050: "Chairman of New England Democratic Republic is set to undergo heart surgery this week in the Texas Confederation of States."

Time to Clean Your Guns

Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security, expresses her surprise at the "determination" of the nutjobs who want you dead, and was shocked!  Shocked! at the never-before-seen tactic of a lone agent making an individual attack.  I'm NOT making this up:

In related news, the President has finally settled on his nominee to be Secretary of Your Mother's Health Care.

How's That Working Out?

The Country's in the Very Best of Hands

The world's greatest deliberative body: witnesses believe alcohol may have been a factor.

All Government, No Health Care

Mark Steyn:

Looking at the millions of Americans it leaves uninsured, and the millions it leaves with worse treatment and reduced access, and the millions it makes pay significantly more for their current health care, one can only marvel at Harry Reid’s genius: government health care turns out to be all government and no health care. Adding up the zillions of new taxes and bureaucracies and regulations it imposes on the citizenry, one might almost think that was the only point of the exercise.

That’s why I believe America’s belated embrace of government health care is going to be far more expensive and disastrous than the Euro-Canadian models. Whatever one’s philosophical objection to the Canadian health system, it is, broadly, fair: Unless you’re a cabinet minister or a bigtime hockey player, you’ll enjoy the same equality of crappiness and universal lack of access that everybody else does. But, even before it’s up-and-running, Pelosi-Reid-Obamacare is an impenetrable thicket of contradictory boondoggles, shameless payoffs, and arbitrary shakedowns.

NOW He Tells Us!

"It is important though to recognize if we keep on adding to the debt, even in the midst of this recovery, that at some point, people could lose confidence in the U.S. economy in a way that could actually lead to a double-dip recession."

Do as I Say, or Go to Jail -- Seems Fair to Me

Workin' For the Man Every Night & Day

The Tax Foundation computes the income tax rates necessary to close the deficit:

Via TaxProf Blog.

From the Ministry of Truth

This just in: BARF.

Legislative History

Senator Thomas Carper (D.-Del.) is a member of the Senate Finance Committee.