Year: 2013

The founts of wisdom on the Affordable Care Act spent the past year anguishing over whether “young invincibles” — young adults with low medical costs and no health coverage — would buy policies under the act. If young adults instead chose to pay the $95 fine, experts predicted, Obamacare would falter. Since the Oct. 1 […]

So far Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s peace ruse is still bearing some fruit. President Obama was eager to talk with him at the United Nations — only to be reportedly rebuffed, until Obama managed to phone him for the first conversation between heads of state of the two countries since the Iranian storming of the […]

As his battle with the Republicans focuses more on the debt limit and less on Obamacare, the president has invented a new vocabulary to suit his political needs. “Seeking to raise the debt limit” is out. “Preventing an economic shutdown” is in. Debt is never mentioned. The word is “obligations.” This is not an effort […]

A national network reporter, during an interview about about the government shutdown, actually told me: “Democrats believe government should do some: things. Republicans don’t believe government should be doing anything.” Where had we heard that characterization of the GOP? “‘Anarchist’? Why in the world wouldn’t I use the term anarchy?” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, […]

It’s the 40th anniversary of Erica Jong’s “Fear of Flying,” which some have described as a breakthrough book for women and for modern feminism. Reduced to its common (and I do mean common) denominator, the book, which was written in the appropriately named “Me” Decade of the ’70s, encourages women to behave like promiscuous men, […]

Back in 1987, a young demagogue named Al Sharpton leapt onto the national scene, accusing a New York assistant district attorney, Steven Pagones, of raping a 15-year-old girl, Tawana Brawley. Actually, Sharpton claimed that Pagones had raped Brawley, anally raped Brawley and then scrawled the initials “KKK” on Brawley’s torso in feces. “We stated openly […]

Could this be the end of Monument Syndrome? Across the country, ordinary Americans are rising up in revolt against the old Washington tactic of closing public parks and memorials during selective government “shutdowns” to score political points. Tax-paying tourists are tossing off the orange traffic cones and “Barrycades.” Enough is enough. The movement started with […]

Government wants you to play a role in the “shutdown” of the federal government. Your role is to panic. Republicans and Democrats both assume that shutting some government is a terrible thing. The press concurs. “Shutdown threatens fragile economy,” warns Politico. “Federal workers turn to prayer,” laments The Washington Post. If the public starts noticing […]

Trade-offs apply to our economic lives, as well as our political lives. That means getting more of one thing requires giving up something else. Let’s look at some examples. Black congressmen and black public officials in general, including Barack Obama, always side with teachers unions in their opposition to educational vouchers, tuition tax credits, charter […]

Why didn’t anyone else think of it? Scott Pruitt, the Attorney General of Oklahoma, acting on the research of Jonathan H. Adler and Michael F. Cannon published in the Case Western Reserve School of Law Journal, has brought a new lawsuit, on behalf of the state, against Obamacare. Unlike the suit brought by 26 state […]

Negotiating with Republicans has never been in Obama’s playbook. Three days after his inauguration in 2009, President Barack Obama silenced Republican lawmakers who voiced concerned about the enormity of spending in his stimulus bill by uttering two brash words, “I won.” That was his governing philosophy, as he rammed through the American Reinvestment and Recovery. […]

PARIS — Over a year ago, I sent my fingerprints for a standard foreign background check to the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C., along with a money order. Both promptly disappeared, never to be seen again. A personal survey of those around me suggested that this was standard operating procedure — which is why […]

For all the acrimony in Washington over Obamacare, there’s an intriguing consensus around one issue: the ratchet effect. Neither side uses the term, but both the right and left treat it as an article of faith. The term was coined by the libertarian economist Robert Higgs. In his book “Crisis and Leviathan,” Higgs describes how […]