THE FOUNDATION
"One single object ... [will merit] the endless gratitude of the society: that of restraining the judges from usurping legislation." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to Edward Livingston, 1825TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS
Women's Median Income Declines
According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the last recession ended in June 2009. (You can stop laughing now.) Barack Obama has spent the last five years waging class, race and sex warfare, with the latest push being to dupe women voters with his phony "war on women." Yet the real war on women is being waged by his economic policies. Since Obama was elected, the median income of women is down more than 4% in constant dollars. Furthermore, the highest median income for women 15 and older was $23,169 in 2007. We can't remember who was president then, but it wasn't Obama.Comment | Share
The Plan: Dump Those Plans
Another ObamaCare insurance policy casualty may be what's known as fixed benefit or indemnity insurance. People who hold these policies receive a fixed sum of money when they use health care services, and because they're not tied to a network, these policyholders can visit any doctor they like. And they're less expensive than the typical insurance policy. Yet new regulations sprouting from ObamaCare would make these plans illegal because they don't offer the required benefits of the law. That means -- you guessed it -- another wave of cancellations of plans that people like. There are hundreds of thousands of people on these policies, and enrollment in them has increased thanks to ObamaCare's spiking premium costs. The poor will be hardest hit.Comment | Share
1.5B More Hours of Paperwork
One-and-a-half billion hours of burdensome paperwork has been added by the regulatory state since 2010, according to an analysis by American Action Forum, which pegs the additional economic cost at $43.8 billion. The report finds, "In 2010, the nation's total paperwork burden was 8.8 billion hours; today, it's more than 10.3 billion hours, an increase of 1.5 billion hours, despite the attempt at regulatory reform. For perspective, it would take 786,000 individuals working full-time to complete the new paperwork added since 2010." Recall that Obama tasked agencies with reducing this workload via executive order, though the results have evidently gone backward like the rest of his agenda. Two EPA proposals alone are estimated to cost $12.3 billion, wiping out the $10 billion purportedly "saved" in other areas.Comment | Share
Hillary Expresses 'Regret' Again
Hillary Clinton addressed her biggest failure in a speech this week, saying that the attack in Benghazi that left four Americans dead, including the ambassador, was "very, very painful" and "certainly the biggest regret that I have as secretary of state." It wasn't the first time she's said so. Perhaps she needs a "regret" button. You might ask, "What difference, at this point, does it make?" Well, as her likely presidential bid in 2016 approaches, more and more people are beginning to ask the question: What has she actually achieved? Frankly, not much besides having married a future U.S. president and doggedly standing by her despicable man. Yes, she's served in the Senate and as secretary of state, but again, with what accomplishments? Benghazi is likely to loom large, and expressing vague "regret" isn't going to cut it.Comment | Share
Constitution Ban at School
Last year a California college student was prohibited from distributing Constitution booklets outside a student center -- on Constitution Day, ironically -- because the student was outside the school's "free speech zone." Now two University of Hawaii at Hilo students are suing the school for violating their First Amendment rights. During a literature event, a school administrator allegedly ordered Merritt Burch, president of the school's Young Americans for Liberty, and another member to stop leaving their booth to give away pocket Constitutions, despite the fact other groups were meandering to distribute their own content. The school then warned that any protest should be held on the school's one-third acre "free speech zone." According to one administrator, "This isn't really the '60s anymore. ... [P]eople can't really protest like that anymore." Last we checked, the Constitution still protects individuals in public places from censorship. School officials should try reading it.Comment | Share
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RIGHT ANALYSIS
A Precursor of Things to Come?
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Is it any wonder, then, that a VA hospital in the Phoenix area is attracting unwelcome attention for a scandal involving a "secret waiting list," the topic of a recent CNN investigation? The way it worked was relatively simple: Veterans seeking treatment would receive a hard copy of their appointment information, but that information wasn't being saved to the VA's computerized system -- no record of the appointment would be there, so no red flag would come up once a certain time period had passed. To outsiders and to higher-ups within the system, it appeared the Phoenix VA hospital was making significant inroads on providing timely appointments to those seeking treatment. In fact, many of those managing the hospital, including director Sharon Helman, received bonuses for their good work.
But for those veterans on the wrong side of the "secret waiting list" -- a number ranging as high as 1,600 patients -- the wait time was months, years, or in the case of one veteran documented in the CNN report, forever. Thomas Breen, 71, was one of at least 40 on this "secret waiting list" who died before follow-up treatment was given. Because he wasn't seen within the prescribed time frame, the Phoenix facility did what bureaucrats do best: cover their rear ends by not leaving a paper trail. The weeks stretched into two months, with Breen finally securing an appointment slated for 10 weeks after his initial complaint -- but a week after he succumbed to his affliction. Yet the wait even extends to the VA's internal investigation itself, which is scheduled to begin next week, months after the CNN investigation began.
It's worth asking whether this is the direction American health care will go for everyone, as the line between the government-provided VA health system and the private market for the rest of us begins to blur thanks to ObamaCare. Wait times are a common complaint in nations that have already gone down the road to socialized medicine, and doing whatever is needed to cover your behind is standard operating procedure for any government bureaucracy. Sadly, the two paths converged in Phoenix and hundreds of those who faithfully served our country have been betrayed by their government. Leftists mocked Sarah Palin for her "death panels" portrayal of ObamaCare, but it's not a laughing matter.
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Choose Your Mascot Carefully
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Read the rest of the story here.
For more, visit Right Analysis.
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TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS
- Charles Krauthammer: Finally Getting It Right on Affirmative Action
- Linda Chavez: A Not-So-Wise Latina Justice
- Mona Charen: What Race Preferences Hide
- Jonah Goldberg: There's No Plan B for Obama's Foreign Policy
- Ken Blackwell: Getting Housing Finance Reform Right
OPINION IN BRIEF
American political leader, orator Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899): "I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample under foot."Columnist Mona Charen: "Admissions officers at selective schools pretend they are offering opportunity to 'underserved' minorities, but in reality, they are simply lowering standards for already-privileged students with the preferred skin tone. Ninety-two percent of blacks at elite colleges are from the top half of the income distribution. A study a decade ago at Harvard Law School found that only a third of students had four African-American grandparents. Another third were from interracial families. The rest were children of recent immigrants from Africa or the West Indies. Should mixed-race students get half a preference? Should their scores be 50 percent higher than students with two black parents? These are the kinds of absurdities our current system presents. ... The shame of the nation is that poor children continue to be so trapped in terrible schools. That is the disgrace that race counters cloak."
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Columnist Jonah Goldberg: "I think we all know what Barack Obama's foreign policy strategy coming into office was. Step 1: Be Barack Obama (and not George W. Bush). Step 2: ???? Step 3: World peace! ... The whole world -- at least the parts of it that Obama listens to -- was telling him that replacing George W. Bush with Barack Obama was just the ticket for what ailed the planet. The fervor was all so detached from facts on the ground that the Nobel Committee even gave Obama a Peace Prize for the stuff they were sure he was going to do, eventually. (One clue that Obama's cult of personality didn't actually translate into tangible results on the world stage should have been his failure to win the 2016 Olympics for his hometown of Chicago, despite being the first president to personally lobby for it.) The problem, of course, is that Obama never had a Plan B."
Comedian Argus Hamilton: "Obama traveled to Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines this week to celebrate the economic successes of America's allies in Asia. That's the way it works. If President Obama wants to celebrate an economic success, he actually has to leave the country."
Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team
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.
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