Small businesses can now cut every expense but labor.

Every day, I become more and more convinced that we are being governed by idiots, and that Barack Obama is their king. 

As anyone who has ever run a 5-employee coffee bar knows that businesses have an income and businesses have expenses. 

Expenses are coffee, cups, cleaning supplies, cash register tape, stir sticks, flavor for shots, milk, chocolate and, yes, employee labor. 

Income is income.  It could be dollars, or it could be javelins, Coca-Colas, gasoline, eggs, butter, ammunition or anything else you would swap for a double-espresso.   It's what people swap for your coffee, cups, cleaning supplies, cash register tape, stir sticks, flavor for shots, milk, chocolate and, yes, employee labor.

Let's pretend that you have a chain of coffee bars, and you have 100 employees.  If so, you're going to be hit with Obamacare costs.  But if you have 99 employees, you can avoid that expense for another year. 

Any sane human will find a way to avoid that expense.  All sane humans will avoid that expense, if at all possible. 

If the costs of cups goes up, they will try to find a cheaper cup.  Ditto for coffee or cash register tape.

So if expenses go up to the point where costs have to be cut (whether it is in cups, labor or chocolate), how will Obama's Mouth-Breathers protect their reputations? 

They will make it illegal to reduce the number of employees.  I swear to God, they're going to make you swear to them that you didn't cut payroll to avoid paying the Obamacare shakedown tax. 

 Consider what administration officials announcing the new exemption for medium-sized employers had to say about firms that might fire workers to get under the threshold and avoid hugely expensive new requirements of the law. Obama officials made clear in a press briefing that firms would not be allowed to lay off workers to get into the preferred class of those businesses with 50 to 99 employees. How will the feds know what employers were thinking when hiring and firing? Simple. Firms will be required to certify to the IRS – under penalty of perjury – that ObamaCare was not a motivating factor in their staffing decisions. To avoid ObamaCare costs you must swear that you are not trying to avoid ObamaCare costs. You can duck the law, but only if you promise not to say so.

If you've ever run anything and tried to make a profit by doing so, you know that this is lunacy.  Labor is the same as cups, coffee, or chocolate. 
If you aren't making money, you have to cut where you can.  Anywhere you can. 

Godalmighty, I'm ready for the Rodham Administration to take over. 

Carnival Of The Libertarians - Resurrected

I'm the proprietor of the "Carnival Of The Libertarians" franchise. 

I tried to keep it going for a year or so, but got so much non-Libertarian blogspam that I gave up on the project. 

Here's an attempted resurrection of Carnival Of The Libertarians.  If this gets any significant traffic, every few weeks I'll repost what I think are the best liberty-minded blogs, articles, essays and rants. 

*************

Brian Micklethewaite of Samizdata has an excellent idea about how to ensure that our governments have read the constitution. 

Guess who is the nation's largest drug smuggler?  The DEA.  

An investigation conducted in Mexico found the American government allowed that country’s largest drug cartel, Sinaloa, to operate without fear of persecution. That groups is estimated to be responsible for 80 percent of the cocaine coming into the country through Chicago. In exchange, the leaders of Sinaloa provided the DEA information on rival gangs.

 "But in a Libertarian society, who would decide which cartel gets to be the favorite?"

The Verge has a great piece on the irony of one Nobel Peace Prize winner hunting down another Nobel Peace Price nominee. 

If you've ever wondered about the ratio of legitimate constitutional legislation vs. bureaucratic "guidance" that you can be fined or jailed for not following, just go here. 

If you are a Libertarian, you are probably tired of hearing about the greatness of Sweden's healthcare system.  Well, Sweden's healthcare system is now moving toward what the U.S. system just abandoned, while the U.S. is moving towards what Sweden has given up on trying to make work.  Or something.

The main problem is naturally due to the central planning of health care, whether or not it is planned by regional “competing” governments. While access and quality are guaranteed by national law, Swedes usually have to line up for care. As noted above, wait times may be days or weeks for appointments with GPs while several (or many, and increasing) hours for ER care, but the real problem is apparent in specialist care such as surgery where wait times are not uncommonly several months, or even years.

Reason Magazine displays Hillary Clinton's abysmal ignorance on The Drug Trade, The Drug War, and therefore, just about everything else. 

Holy Nullification, Batman !!!  The New Hampshire Legislature is considering a bill that would mandate that juries be instructed that they could vote to acquit if they disagreed with a law. 

What's the difference in a Statist and a Libertarian?  Just 30 days of reading. 

I love me some NFL, and I look forward to the day when I can legally bet on some NFL.  But according to Reason Magazine, no city should ever do anything to attract the NFL. 

Sports stadiums not only appear to be a bad deal for tax payers, but having a franchise could also hurt loyal fans by making it difficult to watch their hometown team play thanks to the expansion of sports broadcasts and the complexities of NFL blackout rules. 

“If you have a team in Los Angeles and it doesn’t sell out, they can blackout the game in Los Angeles which means you often lose games…and as a fan there’s no payback in that,” says Daniel Durbin, Director of the University of Southern California’s Institute of Sports Media and Society. 

Though local boosters like LaBonge may continue to dream of having the NFL in the city, it’s becoming increasingly clear that not having a team may be the best deal for tax payers and fans alike. 

Go here and you'll learn that our government has spent $3,000 per American (i.e. $6,000 per taxpayer) to rebuild Afghanistan.  The article doesn't mention how much we spent to tear it down prior to the rebuilding. 

Here's something else on the NFL Cronyism Trifecta - tax exemptions on earnings, free stadiums, and to put some icing on the cake, the city and state provide them with free security guards. 

My father used to tell me that "even a blind hog can find an acorn every now and then".  That bit of wisdom even applies to Paul Krugman, the New York Times Obama apologist.  Go here to see him actually get something right. 

Colbert nails it on U.S. foreign policy. 

A professional drug warrior goes batshit crazy over the mere idea that he might no longer be paid to interfere in the lives of other people. 

Here's Barack Obama's best debate performance.  Ever.  He's debating some dude named Barack Obama. 

Finally (and yes, this is bait for an Instalanche) here's Glenn Reynolds comparing marijuana legalization and the dismal failure of Obamacare. 

That's all, folks !!






 

Why ObamaCare is different from Obama's other thefts

There was little or no major outrage over Cash For Clunkers. 
There was some outrage over The Porkulus Package, but not much.
Nobody gave a damn about Solyndra, or LightSquared, or the Detroit giveaways. 

But now that Obamacare has hit the mailboxes, Obama's popularity is taking a nose-dive, his congress-critters are deserting him, and he has to keep doing executive action fixes to the thing.  People are pissed!

Why?  All of these programs gave to the wealthy at the expense of the middle (and the not-so-middle).  What makes Obamacare different? 

You have to go all the way back to Fred Bastiat to understand what's different this time....

In the economic sphere an act, a habit, an institution, a law produces not only one effect, but a series of effects. Of these effects, the first alone is immediate; it appears simultaneously with its cause; it is seen. The other effects emerge only subsequently; they are not seen; we are fortunate if we foresee them.

That's from "Things Seen And Unseen". 

Everybody saw the new cars from the Cash For Clunkers program.  Everybody saw the factory down the street get new overhead doors with their Porkulus check.  Everybody read the Green Energy bullshit about how Solyndra and Lightsquared would one day bottle all known fairy farts and successfully power our homes. 

Nobody got a bill for the cars that were destroyed. 
Nobody got a bill for the pork. 
Nobody got a bill for the Crony Capitalist green boondoggles. 

Our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will have to pay for that stuff, and they can't vote yet.

Obamacare is different. 

The bill is in the mail, mofo's, IF you are lucky enough to still have insurance.  There ain't a free lunch.  Almost all insurance has gone up, and the fools who advocated for this disaster are, in many cases, the ones who are also having to pay for it.  Pass the Kleenex. 

Of Obama/Pelosi/Reid had stuck to traditional methods and put it on your baby's bar tab (or simply printed it), Obama would still be flying high. 

Hope this explains things. 

You're welcome. 
 

This too shall pass

I came down with the flu a few days ago, and haven't felt like writing much.  Or reading.  Or breathing. 

Friday afternoon, I took a pass on my regular doctor, and went to CareNow - one of those Doc In A Box places. 

In and out with a steroid shot and a prescription for some antibiotics.  The visit goes against my deductible, plus a $15.00 copay on my pills.  Altogether, about $212.00 dollars. 

I have no point to make.  Just putting it down here for future reference. 

In the year of our Lord 2013, someone could see a doctor, get a shot, and get a round of antibiotics for $212.00. 

This too, shall pass. 

 

By this standard, I've spent 3 million dollars at Amazon.com

I like to go to Amazon, EBay, and other sites and fill my shopping cart with things that would be great to own. 
I rarely pull the trigger on a purchase. 
I have a somewhat addictive personality and if I ever start bringing stuff into the house from the intertubes I'll go broke.  Quickly. 

It looks like Obamacare shoppers do the same thing.  They make it through the website hurdles and find a policy that, if purchased, will keep them from being fined by the IRS.  They put it in their online shopping cart. 

And then they go to Amazon, Ebay, Craigslist, and Big Mama's House O' Midget Lesbian Porn and do the same thing without ever finalizing any sales. 

Here's Allahpundit:

 Obamacare administrators are counting people who've browsed the website and placed a plan in their virtual shopping cart -- but who never finished the process by checking out -- as "enrolled." That's a bogus metric. 

So what percentage of people have actually paid money to a real live Obama partner in this scam insurance company?

“There is also a lot of worrying going on over people making payments,” industry consultant Robert Laszewski wrote in an email. “One client reports only 15% have paid so far. It is still too early to know for sure what this means but we should expect some enrollment slippage come the payment due date.” Another consultant Kip Piper, agreed. “So far I’m hearing from health plans that around 5% and 10% of consumers who have made it through the data transfer gauntlet have paid first month’s premium and therefore truly enrolled,” he wrote me. “It naturally varies by insurer and will hopefully increase as we get close to end of December and documents flow in the mail,” added Piper, a former official at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “But overall I’m hearing it’s a small portion so far. And that, of course, is a fraction of an already comparatively small number of people who have made it through setting up an account, getting verified, subsidy eligibility determined, plan selected, complete and correct data transferred to the insurer, and insurer set out the confirmation with invoice for consumer’s share of the first month’s premium.”

Let's assume that getting an account set up and throwing a plan into your online shopping cart has been easy.  (It hasn't.) 
Let's assume that effectively transferring your choice and your money (safely) to the corporate cronies insurance companies will be the hard part.  (It is.) 

Since the website has been a disaster, unfortunate people are going to be showing up at hospitals with nothing but a website I.D. number. The insurance companies will have no record of them.  The patient will say "Hey, I paid.  I signed up."  Some will be lying, of course.  Sometimes the insurance companies will lie. 

But this thing is so screwed up, it's going to take decades, and squadrons of lawyers, and billions of dollars to sort it out. 

This man could f*** up a two-car funeral.  (If you are in Britain, please translate that to mean "this man couldn't organize a piss-up in a brewery".) 

 

Why ObamaCare is doomed

Now that things are becoming clearer....

Don't get distracted by the problems with Obama's Facebook Page Healthcare website.  Here is why Obamacare is doomed.  I've been preaching this same sermon for about two years.  Hit the Healthcare and Obamacare links to your right for more rants repeating the same tiresome thing, some longer, some shorter. 

Insurance guards you against the bad thing that hasn't happened yet.  If you pay a set amount of money to an insurance company every month or every quarter, they will make good your losses should the bad thing happen.  (Your house burns, you get a rare disease, or you wreck you car.)

We would never expect an insurance company to insure, and then pay for, a house that has already burned, or a car that has already been wrecked.  If that car that Paul Walker recently died it wasn't insured, no one is going to insure it now that it has been wadded into a heap of aluminum and burned.  But because the American Electorate has the collective intelligence of a pack of lemmings, we now expect insurance companies to blindly pay for a lifetime of medical treatment for anyone with one month's premiums in hand. 

If a homeowner's insurance company can't take a pass on someone whose home has already burned, they are no longer in the insurance business.  They are overseeing a wealth transfer. 

Obamacare declares that insurance companies can't turn away anyone with a pre-existing condition.  You can sign up for insurance in the freakin' ambulance. 

Therefore, insurance is now unnecessary.  No 25-year-old is going to sign up for it with his own money.  The fine costs less than a tenth of most insurance.   

I repeat....  Insurance is now unnecessary.  The kids aren't going to buy it.   

Second, things are more expensive when they are scarce, and they're less expensive when they are common.  Obamacare creates 16,000 new IRS agents, but no new doctors, nurses, or pill-producers. 

This is going to be a disaster of Biblical proportions. 

Hide and watch. 

 

Since Chinese loans are paying for ObamaCare anyway....

I have a good friend who is working deep, deep in the bowels of the Obamacare website.  What he describes isn't pretty.  The project is so segmented that no one knows where responsibilities begin and end, and there appears to have been little or no coordination of the big picture. 

We ridicule him constantly, of course. 

I got this message from him a few days ago:

So I have a new story to share as part of the continuing saga of building out the Affordable Care Act (sic). 

So, I am on call this week and received a phone call for assistance at 9:00 p.m. 

It was weird because we were working with our west coast subsidiary called (deleted company name). They had a lot of people with heavy accents that I have never met before on the phone.

So I am discussing this with my Senior Director this morning.

(Big Computer Outfit), our parent company has outsourced the programming of the application development of the ACA to Chinese contractors.

So....we have outsourced the framework and database access that holds PHI (Personal Health Information) of all Americans to China.

Yes we can!

This prompted another buddy of mine to respond as follows:

So another country has access to our most intimate healthcare information while the FDA has ordered 23 and Me to halt sales of genetic testing kits to individuals who want to know about their own genetic make-up.  Chinese officials can know I got the crabs in 2009 but I can't find out if my own body is genetically predisposed to getting prostate cancer.  Sounds reasonable. 

 

I really don't know what else to say.  Hell, the Chinese are the ones paying for our government spending orgy anyway, so we're kinda obligated to give them the user names and passwords, right? 

An Alternative To Obamacare

When Libertarians criticize and ridicule Obamacare, they often get slammed for not providing an alternative, or for not caring about the poor, or for not having a plan at all. 

For a moment, please disregard the obvious reality of human action creating a spontaneous order, and the like.  Let's assume that someone has to write down a plan for the benefit of the Secular Theists out there. 

Here's a plan....

Designate a three-square-mile area south of Fort Worth TX as a "Free Market Healthcare Zone".  (Back in the early 80's, China designated four cities as "Free Trade Zones" as an alternative to having citizens starve to death.  These zones were wildly successful, led to the present success of the Chinese economy and standard of living, and everyone is still scrambling to get in.) 

In this Free Market Healthcare Zone, there would be no government regulations, only those regulations agreed to by the caregivers themselves (doctors, nurses, hospitals and pharmaceutical providers), and their customers.  Since the American insurance industry now has more government regulations than a nuclear waste dump, let's make this three-square mile area an Insurance Free Zone also. 

If you walk into a doctor's office or hospital in the Free Market Healthcare Zone, the first thing they'll ask you to do is sign a waiver promising not to sue if things go badly.  (These agreements are currently illegal, BTW.)  Yes, there is a sacred belief in the Libertarian mindset that if someone does you harm, you are entitled to compensation.  But there is another, equally sacred belief about honoring contracts.  Please hang with me for a few more paragraphs....

The second thing you'll do is see a nurse.  I've never known a nurse who didn't believe she could do 90% of what an M.D. can do.  If the nurse thinks you need some penicillin, she'll sell you some penicillin.  Or give you a morphine shot.  Or give you five stitches.  It's up to the nurse.  She might even call in a doctor.  After giving you whatever treatment she thinks you need, you'll walk up to a desk and write a check for the full cost of the visit. 

You might want to go only to a doctor who has been to a traditional medical school, one who will  have a little diploma on the wall stating that he's graduated, and has Rick Perry's permission to be a doctor in Texas.  Or you might be content to go to a doctor who has only been to DeVry.  Your choice.  Your life, your rules.   

But what if someone, or some institution, consistently provides bad service with poor outcomes?  How would the FW TX FMHZ possibly deal with that problem?  It would be done in the same way that we deal with bad grocery stores, bad mechanics, Betamax cassettes, Yugos and failed TV sitcoms.  People would stop purchasing those services. 

Things you will not have to pay for:  1) the involvement of a doctor, unless necessary, and 2) keeping the doctor and nurses safe from lawyers, and 3) a trip to the pharmacist, and 4) insurance overhead, and 5) Barack Obama's fantasies and delusions of being relevant to your health and well-being. 

I have a good friend who is a Marine medic.  If I get cut by a piece of rusty sheet metal, I can get him to give me a tetanus shot and five stitches, as long as we're in the lawyer-free, insurance-free, regulation-free Obama-free Fort Worth, Texas, Free Market Healthcare Zone.  It's none of Barack Obama's business.  Or Rick Perry's.  Or the law firm of Screwem Goode and Harte's. 

The same rules apply if I want to consult with some other dude who doesn't know much about stitches, but he's watched all of the YouTube videos.  I belong to me, you belong to you, and it really is none of your business. 

At this point, no one in the United States can tell you what it costs to treat a broken arm.  It depends on your insurance.  Chances are, no one in the U.S. with a broken arm has personally paid for the treatment in the last ten years.  The check was written by an insurance company or by the government, or the care was provided for, at no charge, by a hospital that can't legally turn anyone away.  Prices will never, ever drop as long as the user isn't negotiating the payment for the service. 

Would this Free Market Healthcare Zone concept cut America's healthcare expenses in half if every city had one?  Yes. 

Would one day in the hospital go back to a level where it equaled about two day's pay?  I bet it would.

Would it force the American Medical Association to start training more doctors?  Yes.  (BTW, things are more expensive when they are scarce, and the AMA creates an artificial scarcity by only releasing so many doctors into the market every year.) 

Would the level of innovation in these Free Market Zones possibly triple that of the current system?  Let's see... Risk wouldn't be punished, regulations wouldn't get in the way, and creativity would actually be rewarded.  I believe that's a yes.  There might even find a cure for cancer in that environment.   

Would more poor people be able to afford healthcare?  You betcha. 

Would more and more doctors and nurses be able to go back to treating indigent patients at no charge?  I bet they would. 

This would be so beautiful, and IMHO, so easy.  Give up the right to sue.  Stop worrying about whether the doctor or nurse has a certification from Rick Perry.  Get the insurance bureaucracy out of the way. 

We could do it next year, but we're just too compassionate to give up the trial lawyers, the insurance execs, and the Department Of Health And Human Services.....

Matthew McConaughey is starring in a new movie that'll be released in December called "Dallas Buyers Club", about a guy with AIDS who battled the bureaucracy to create something of his own very similar to a Fort Worth Free Market Healthcare Zone.  All of it illegal, of course.  Can't wait to see it. 


 

Own it, Democrats. Own it.

From Pro Publica:

San Francisco architect Lee Hammack says he and his wife, JoEllen Brothers, are “cradle Democrats.” They have donated to the liberal group Organizing for America and worked the phone banks a year ago for President Obama’s re-election.

Since 1995, Hammack and Brothers have received their health coverage from Kaiser Permanente, where Brothers worked until 2009 as a dietitian and diabetes educator. “We’ve both been in very good health all of our lives – exercise, don’t smoke, drink lightly, healthy weight, no health issues, and so on,” Hammack told me.

 The couple — Lee, 60, and JoEllen, 59 — have been paying $550 a month for their health coverage — a plan that offers solid coverage, not one of the skimpy plans Obama has criticized. But recently, Kaiser informed them the plan would be canceled at the end of the year because it did not meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act. The couple would need to find another one. The cost would be around double what they pay now, but the benefits would be worse.

 

“From all of the sob stories I’ve heard and read, ours is the most extreme,” Lee told me in an email last week.

Hammack and Brothers apparently didn't know that a healthcare scheme concocted by a president with no medical, business, insurance or reality experience, then finger-f***ed by a Congress selling freebies for votes, and then implemented by contractors with nothing on their resumes but political connections....  Well, they just thought the idea would somehow work. 

Hammack recalled his reaction when he and his wife received a letters from Kaiser in September informing him their coverage was being canceled. “I work downstairs and my wife had a clear look of shock on her face,” he said. “Our first reaction was clearly there’s got to be some mistake. This was before the exchanges opened up. We quickly calmed down. We were confident that this would all be straightened out. But it wasn’t.”

Sweet, sweet little rabbits.  Let me explain the world to you.  If you hand over control of your life to other people, they're not going to concern themselves with what you need.  Their concern will be for 1) the needs of themselves and their families, 2) the needs of their supporters, and finally 3) your needs.  It's always been that way.  You can look it up. 

I asked Hammack to send me details of his current plan. It carried a $4,000 deductible per person, a $40 copay for doctor visits, a $150 emergency room visit fee and 30 percent coinsurance for hospital stays after the deductible. The out-of-pocket maximum was $5,600.

This plan was ending, Kaiser’s letters told them, because it did not meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act. “Everything is taken care of,” the letters said. “There’s nothing you need to do.”

The letters said the couple would be enrolled in new Kaiser plans that would cost nearly $1,300 a month for the two of them (more than $15,000 a year).

And for that higher amount, what would they get? A higher deductible ($4,500), a higher out-of-pocket maximum ($6,350), higher hospital costs (40 percent of the cost) and possibly higher costs for doctor visits and drugs.

This couple's old plan was what they wanted. 
Barack Obama knows what they really need. 

Here's some Rolling Stones. 

You can't always get what you want.  But if you vote for Obama, you'll get what you need.



 

Canada has a lottery to determine who gets to see the local doctor

Here's some good stuff about Canada's healthcare system, and I can't believe that Republicans didn't make more of it during the ObamaCare enactment tragedy of several years ago. 

All of the "civilized" nations have universal healthcare, right? 

It seems that Canada has a doctor shortage.  Canada's healthcare system is run by the government. 

To quote the great Milton Friedman,  "If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there'd be a shortage of sand."  That probably applies on both sides of the U.S. northern border. 

There are places in Canada that have a freakin' lottery to determine who gets to have a family doctor. 

There are places in Canada that have a freakin' lottery to determine who gets to have a family doctor.

There are places in Canada that have a freakin' lottery to determine who gets to have a family doctor.

There are places in Canada that have a freakin' lottery to determine who gets to have a family doctor.

Ok, that's out of my system.  Why a lottery?

As of 2007, there were 12,000 Canadian docs practicing in the USA. 

In 2006, 1 in 9 Canadian-educated physicians practised in the United States. If physicians who were born in the United States are excluded, this number is reduced to 1 in 12. This accounts for just over half of the net loss of physicians from the Canadian-trained physician workforce. Collectively, this is equivalent to having 2 average-sized Canadian medical schools dedicated to producing physicians for the United States. Canada is the second largest source of immigrant physicians to the United States, second only to India.

People go where they can get a better return for their labor.  Doctors do it, I do it, and you do it. 

No one smart enough to get through medical school wants to be at the mercy of some charismatic, photogenic idiot who managed to get elected by claiming that a doctor's time and labor is a basic human right. 

So Canada now has a doctor shortage, especially in rural areas.  So do they turn healthcare over to the free market? 

No.  That wouldn't be "fair". 

Do they open more medical schools and train more doctors?  Do they allow nurses to handle more of the medical treatment load (which every nurse I've ever known claims that she could do....)? 

No.  That would be giving up central control. 

Canada has a lottery to see who gets a family doctor. 



Within 20 years, the USA will have a lottery system for family doctors. 

Enjoy the decline! 

George Will Vs. Juan Williams

Here's George Will wiping the floor with Juan Williams, eating his lunch, drinking his milkshake, and then letting Williams escape with the last word. 

Will starts by explaining why all rational people want to see ObamaCare defeated.  That's easy. 

Then Williams start in on Social Security, arguing that it's now incredibly popular, and that ObamaCare will soon achieve the same level of popularity.  AND WILL LETS HIM GET AWAY WITH IT!!!

All you have to do, George, is stand on the table, bang your shoe on the rafters, and say "JUAN, YOU OVERPAID IDIOT, SOCIAL SECURITY IS BROKE!!  THERE IS NO MONEY LEFT IN THE FUND!!!  ENRON WAS POPULAR!  LEHMAN BROTHERS WAS POPULAR!!  WHO GIVES A SHIT ABOUT POPULAR!!  THE WHITED SEPULCHRE WILL NEVER, EVER COLLECT WHAT HE PUT INTO THE FUND!  IT'S F***ING BROKE!! BROKE AS THE TEN COMMANDMENTS!!!" 

(God, I feel better now.)

Watch the whole thing.  It's only two minutes. 

 

A warning about user privacy on ObamaCare

I saw this on Denny's site:

 

Just wait til they're shuttling you between Doctors and Specialists !

The latest Catch-22 buried within Barack Obama's wretched Healthcare plan. 

Folks, this bunch hasn't been involved a single Dr. visit yet.  That's when it'll get really interesting. 

(For readers in the U.K. and China, Barack Obama's Healthcare.gov website has more timeouts than a 6-year-old's basketball game.  They've put in a stopgap 1-800 "no charge" telephone service until the website is running.) 

Hope.  Change. 

 

Schadenfreude - Fun Quotes On A Miserable Failure

Here are a few of Politico's best quotes on the ObamaCare website.  Go here for the complete collection.  (And BTW, I love the "snipping tool" for photos that comes with the Windows 7 package.)

And here's my favorite, and I don't know where I found it. 
They no longer have the "countdown to deadline" feature on the site, do they?  LOL. 

 

Best cartoons, memes, and quotes of the debt ceiling/shutdown/ObamaCare Performance Art week

Busy, busy, busy this morning.  So here's some funny stuff.  The first pic is the worst name for a tax service you'll ever see! 

 

Another Failure For Fascism

Every now and then one is assured that yes, there is a God, and yes, she distributes Justice. 
One such moment occurred yesterday at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh. 

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius showed up with about 20 government techno-munchkins to give a seminar on the total freakin' awesomeness of ObamaCare and its website. 

Sebelius and Steelers (Pittsburgh's pro football team) Chairman Dan Rooney were at an enrollment and education event on Thursday at Heinz Field to promote Healthcare.gov, but people who showed up encountered problems in signing up for coverage on the website.

Unable to handle heavy online traffic and riddled with technical glitches, the website has been a source of criticism of the Obama administration and the new Affordable Care Act since its start on Oct. 1.

Sebelius, who is making similar trips to cities across the country to spread the word about the website, told the audience of about 100 people that Healthcare.gov was “open for business.”

“Believe me, we had some early glitches,” said Sebelius, who was introduced by Rooney, a backer of the law. “But it's getting better every day.”

At the back of the room, it was a different story. About 20 people armed with laptops and certified by the government to sign up people for coverage were meeting with uninsured people, answering questions and fruitlessly trying to access the website.

LaKesha Lowry, 41, came to the event to find out about her health insurance options. But the North Side resident said she was not able to access the site, even with the help of a certified application counselor.

“It said, ‘Try again later,' ” Lowry said.

I'm sure there are folks who don't understand why Libertarians rejoice at the total miserable failure of ObamaCare. 
Let me put it this way.  We rejoiced when the Berlin Wall fell.  Many of us were downright giddy when Pol Pot was arrested.  I intend to host a Tarrant County Libertarian Meetup/Party on the night of Fidel Castro's funeral. 
People who forcibly intervene in the lives and choices of adults do more harm than good.  When they fail, society benefits.  It really is that simple. 

I was hoping I could post Sibelius's travel and seminar schedule here, but can't find it online due to the government shutdown.  (Which brings up the following question:  Why is this twit still flying around the countryside promoting failed websites if the government is supposed to be shut down?) 

And I was hoping to find a funny photoshop of Sibelius to close this post.  I failed.  I did find these incredible ObamaCare postage stamps from the staff and readers of The People's Cube. 

  Isn't it strange how they've removed the countdown widget from the website error message? 

We're in the best of hands. 

Non-Essential Government Workers Of The World, UNITE

Non-Essential Government Workers Of The World, UNITE!!  For without you, nothing wouldn't get done.  Or something. 

Looks like Dan McCall over at Liberty Maniacs has been busy.  He always draws the best stuff. 

But to expand on his point.... Can someone explain why we have ANY non-essential government programs or employees when we are 17 trillion dollars in debt?

 

ObamaCare in two charts

Here's your first chart, explaining how much your premiums will likely rise.  It was put together by the Society of Actuaries.  (You can go here to read what the sent to the Wall Street Journal editors about our upcoming healthcare debacle.  Good stuff.) 

Here's the 2nd chart, explaining WHY your premiums are likely to rise.  It was put together by some Republican Congressman's staff.  And I bet they had a great time doing it. 

I hope these help.  Don't get sick. 

Happy Labor Day, from the organizations that brought you ObamaCare

"In what is being reported as a surprise move, the 40,000 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) announced that they have formally ended their association with the AFL-CIO, one of the nation's largest private sector unions. The Longshoremen citied Obamacare and immigration reform as two important causes of their disaffiliation."

Go here to read the whole thing.  It just never seems to work out well when you want to make other people spend their money on what other people think would be good for other people, does it?  It is enough to make you think that some of those guys don't really have your best interests at heart. 

 

ObamaCare Isn't Twerking !!

Here's something from the great Michael Ramirez, making reference to the recent unpleasantness of Miley Cyrus at the Music Video Awards presentation: