Author Archives: Doug Badger

Can President Obama See The World As It Is?

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President Obama this week urged graduating West Point cadets to "see the world as it is." But does he see it all that clearly? [Credit: NY Daily News]

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma this week urged grad­u­at­ing West Point cadets to “see the world as it is.” But how clear­ly does he see it? [Cred­it: NY Dai­ly News]

Pres­i­dent Obama’s mas­tery of the obvi­ous was on dis­play this week dur­ing his lengthy address at West Point.

“Iso­la­tion­ism,” he declared, “is not an option.” There’s a bold state­ment.  But that’s “not to say that every prob­lem has a mil­i­tary solu­tion.”  Has any­one ever said that?  “War rarely con­forms to slo­gans.”  Rarely?  “U.S. mil­i­tary action can­not be the only — or even pri­ma­ry — com­po­nent of our lead­er­ship in every instance.”  Has that ever been sug­gest­ed?  “Amer­i­ca should nev­er ask per­mis­sion to pro­tect our peo­ple, our home­land, or our way of life.” That’s a relief.  “The most direct threat to Amer­i­ca at home and abroad remains ter­ror­ism.”  Real­ly.  But “a strat­e­gy that involves invad­ing every coun­try that har­bors ter­ror­ist net­works is naïve and unsus­tain­able.” That would require an awful lot of inva­sions.  “We must uphold stan­dards that reflect our val­ues.”  Uphold­ing stan­dards that don’t reflect our val­ues would seem wrong.  “We should not expect change to hap­pen overnight.”

Change, nev­er­the­less, is occur­ring – but not the sort of change the Pres­i­dent has been advo­cat­ing. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Ukraine And The Echoes of Ravenna

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Ravenna's magnificent mosaics were realized during a time of upheaval that echoes today in Ukraine.

Raven­na’s mag­nif­i­cent mosaics were real­ized dur­ing a time of upheaval that echoes today in Ukraine.

There is some­thing odd about how the ancient mosaicist of Raven­na’s church of San Vitale tells the sto­ry of Moses receiv­ing the Ten Com­mand­ments.  When God presents him with the law, Moses turns away.  His gaze is fixed on the mosa­ic below, in which God pre­vents Abra­ham from sac­ri­fic­ing his son Isaac, instruct­ing him to offer a ram instead, thus ful­fill­ing the patriarch’s expec­ta­tion that God him­self would pro­vide an aton­ing sacrifice.

San Vitale’s mosaics are sixth cen­tu­ry mas­ter­pieces of light and col­or.  They con­vey the Chris­t­ian gospel with inef­fa­ble elo­quence.  They also express polit­i­cal aspi­ra­tions, long-for­got­ten visions of what Europe might be.  Their dis­ap­point­ments rever­ber­ate today in the streets of Kiev, Odessa and Donet­sk. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Why Europe Hasn’t Joined Our Ukraine Crusade

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It typically costs $100 to fill a 12-gallon tank in Italy today. The country imports much of its oil from Russia. Which is why its government is reluctant to sign on to President Obama's anti-Putin campaign. [Credit: NWA online]

It typ­i­cal­ly costs $100 to fill a 12-gal­lon tank in Italy today. The coun­try imports much of its oil from Rus­sia. Which is why its gov­ern­ment is reluc­tant to sign on to Pres­i­dent Oba­ma’s anti-Putin cam­paign. [Cred­it: NWA online]

A gal­lon of unlead­ed gas costs near­ly $9 here in Todi, a tran­quil Ital­ian town whose roots stretch back mil­len­nia to pre-Etr­uscan times.  Diesel is a bit cheap­er at $8.50 per gal­lon, mean­ing that it costs $100 to fill a 12-gal­lon tank.

Which may help explain why Pres­i­dent Obama’s cru­sade to impose sys­tem­at­ic eco­nom­ic sanc­tions on Rus­sia has so far fiz­zled.  Euro­peans are unwill­ing to pay the costs that dis­rup­tions in trade with Rus­sia would impose on them.

One can hard­ly blame them. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Elizabeth Warren’s Anti-Progressivism

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Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) preaches progressivism but is her student loan proposal anti-progressive? [Credit: NPR]

Eliz­a­beth War­ren (D‑MA) preach­es pro­gres­sivism but is her stu­dent loan pro­pos­al anti-pro­gres­sive? [Cred­it: NPR]

“This coun­try should not be run for the biggest cor­po­ra­tions and largest finan­cial insti­tu­tions.” Sen­a­tor Eliz­a­beth War­ren (D‑MA)

To judge from Warren’s record so far, she would be pre­fer that the coun­try be run for the ben­e­fit of its biggest uni­ver­si­ties. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

What the President Can Learn From Ukraine

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Ukrainian army personnel dispatched to reclaim a city from pro-Russian forces decided instead to defect to the Russian side. [Credit: AFP/Getty]

Ukrain­ian army per­son­nel dis­patched to reclaim a city from pro-Russ­ian forces report­ed­ly defect­ed to the pro-Russ­ian side. Last night’s ten­ta­tive agree­ment will put an inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tion — includ­ing Russ­ian, Amer­i­can and Euro­pean mon­i­tors — at the lead in return­ing the cities to Kiev’s con­trol. [Cred­it: AFP/Getty]

Ear­li­er this week, four armored troop car­ri­ers head­ed toward the east­ern Ukraine city of Slo­vian­sk, which had been occu­pied by pro-Russ­ian forces.  The para­troop­ers from Ukraine’s 25th brigade were dis­patched by the gov­ern­ment in Kiev to spear­head its “anti-ter­ror­ist” offen­sive, designed to reclaim the city for the cen­tral gov­ern­ment.  But after talk­ing with the demon­stra­tors who met them out­side the city, the troops report­ed­ly defect­ed to the pro-Russ­ian side, replaced the Ukraine flag with a Russ­ian one, and drove their vehi­cle into Lenin Square.

Short­ly after Rus­sia invad­ed Crimea, Sec­re­tary of State John Ker­ry said, “The peo­ple of Ukraine will not sit still for this.  They know how to fight.”

Evi­dent­ly not. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Was Speaker Boehner Right About Obamacare?

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House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) was heavily criticized for saying last month that Obamacare cancelations had outnumered enrollments. Now a new study touted by the Administration shows that he had a point. [Credit: Politico]

House Speak­er John Boehn­er (R‑OH) was heav­i­ly crit­i­cized for say­ing last month that Oba­macare can­ce­la­tions had out­nu­mered enroll­ments. Now a new study tout­ed by the Admin­is­tra­tion shows that he had a point. [Cred­it: Politico]

“When you look at the 6 mil­lion Amer­i­cans who have lost their poli­cies and some — they claim 4.2 mil­lion peo­ple who have signed up — I don’t know how many have actu­al­ly paid for it — that would indi­cate to me a net loss of peo­ple with health insur­ance.”  House Speak­er John Boehn­er (R‑OH)

Boehner’s state­ment last month that few­er peo­ple had gained cov­er­age through health exchanges than had lost their insur­ance due to can­ce­la­tions required by the health care law was met with wide­spread deri­sion. The state­ment earned him 4 Pinoc­chios from the Wash­ing­ton Post’s Fact-Checker.

But a new sur­vey released by the RAND Cor­po­ra­tion at least par­tial­ly vin­di­cates the Speaker’s claim. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The Next Ukraine Crisis

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Pro-Russian Crimeans celebrate referendum results. Putin won this round of the Ukraine crisis. How should the West prepare for the next one? [Credit: China Daily]

Pro-Russ­ian Crimeans cel­e­brate ref­er­en­dum results. Putin won this round of the Ukraine cri­sis. How should the West pre­pare for the next one? [Cred­it: Chi­na Daily]

Pres­i­dent Oba­ma and his Admin­is­tra­tion have been pro­claim­ing for weeks that the Rus­sians would suf­fer if they didn’t with­draw from Crimea.

They haven’t with­drawn.  They’re not suf­fer­ing.  Now what?

Vladimir Putin seems once again to have pre­vailed, annex­ing Crimea with­out mil­i­tary or eco­nom­ic reprisals of con­se­quence.  Our government’s veiled threats of mil­i­tary action and explic­it warn­ings of deep eco­nom­ic pain have thus far proven emp­ty, though both the US and Europe are expect­ed to add to the list of Rus­sians on whom it will impose trav­el and finan­cial restric­tions. The cri­sis may soon wind down, but we can expect anoth­er in a few months when new elec­tions are to be held and bills come due for a Kiev gov­ern­ment on the edge of bank­rupt­cy.  The Admin­is­tra­tion should han­dle this next cri­sis differently.

Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Ukraine Economic Woes Could Hold Key To Peace

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Uniformed troops believed to be Russian stand guard outside a Ukrainian military base in Crimea. Is there a peaceful resolution to this crisis? [Credit: Business Insider]

Uni­formed troops believed to be Russ­ian stand guard out­side a Ukrain­ian mil­i­tary base in Crimea. Is there a peace­ful res­o­lu­tion to this cri­sis? [Cred­it: Busi­ness Insider]

Ukraine’s inter­im gov­ern­ment, whose part the Admin­is­tra­tion has tak­en in the Crimea cri­sis, includes a promi­nent polit­i­cal leader who has in the past urged his coun­try­men to fight the “Mus­covite-Jew­ish mafia” and called on his gov­ern­ment to halt the “crim­i­nal activ­i­ties” of “orga­nized Jewry.”

The author of this calum­ny, Oleh Tyah­ny­bok, is a leader of Ukraine’s Svo­bo­da (“free­dom”) par­ty, who in Decem­ber 2012 was named Per­son of the Year by read­ers of the coun­try’s lead­ing news mag­a­zine, Kor­re­spon­dent.

Such are the com­plex­i­ties that lurk not far beneath the sur­face in the ongo­ing cri­sis over Russia’s incur­sion into Crimea. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Today’s Obamacare Enrollment Figures Quick Analysis

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The Oba­ma Admin­is­tra­tion this after­noon announced that more than 4.2 mil­lion peo­ple had select­ed plans sold through health insur­ance exchanges.  The fig­ure includes data on exchange enroll­ment from Octo­ber 1 of last year through March 1.

I’ve post­ed a com­pre­hen­sive analy­sis of exchange and Med­ic­aid enroll­ment through Feb­ru­ary 1.  Here are some updates on major trends, as of today’s announcement:

  • Month­ly enroll­ment fell for the sec­ond straight month.  HHS today announced that 942,800 select­ed plans dur­ing the month of Feb­ru­ary, down from 1.15 mil­lion in Jan­u­ary and 1.79 mil­lion in
    Decem­ber.  HHS expects enroll­ment to accel­er­ate again this month, giv­en the March 31 end of open sea­son, but enroll­ment so far this year has lagged Decem­ber 2013 levels.
  • The age dis­tri­b­u­tion of those who select­ed a plan did not improve in Feb­ru­ary.  Peo­ple aged 18–34 con­tin­ue to com­prise just 25 per­cent of enrollees, while those 45 and old­er com­prise 53 per­cent.  This makes it like­ly that even a surge of young, healthy enrollees in March will not cre­ate a favor­able risk pool for insur­ers sell­ing through the exchanges.
  • Most peo­ple who com­plet­ed the enroll­ment process and were deter­mined eli­gi­ble to select a plan chose not to.  Of 8.75 mil­lion eli­gi­ble to enroll, just over 4.2 mil­lion select­ed a plan.  That rate is some­what improved over the fig­ures report­ed last month.
  • 83 per­cent of peo­ple who have select­ed a plan are receiv­ing sub­si­dized cov­er­age.  Of the 5.25 mil­lion peo­ple who com­plet­ed the appli­ca­tion process and were deter­mined qual­i­fied for sub­si­dies, 3.47 mil­lion select­ed a plan, a take­up rate of 66 percent.
  • Peo­ple who don’t qual­i­fy for sub­si­dies con­tin­ued to shun enroll­ment. Of 3.5 mil­lion peo­ple who were eli­gi­ble to enroll in plans but who did not qual­i­fy for sub­si­dies, only 690,000 select­ed a plan, a take­up rate of just under 20 per­cent.  Even with rel­a­tive­ly low pre­mi­ums, few peo­ple appear will­ing to pay full price for exchange-based coverage.
  • The new data do not esti­mate how many of the 4.2 mil­lion who have so far select­ed a plan have paid their first mon­th’s pre­mi­um. Those that have not done so remain uninsured.
  • Nor does the gov­ern­ment know how many who select­ed a plan pre­vi­ous­ly lacked cov­er­age.  A McK­in­sey sur­vey recent­ly found that only 27 per­cent of enrollees were pre­vi­ous­ly unin­sured and, of those, just 53 per­cent had paid their first pre­mi­um.  Apply­ing those pro­por­tions to the 4.2 mil­lion fig­ure sug­gests that around 600,000 peo­ple are new­ly insured in plans sold through exchanges.  That fig­ure, of course, is not pre­cise and rep­re­sents an esti­mate based on sur­vey data.

Obamacare By The Numbers: Medicaid

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Obamacare supporters are greatly inflating estimates of the number of previously uninsured people that have gained coverage because of the new law. Here's sensible look at the numbers. [Credit: CNN/Money]

Oba­macare sup­port­ers are great­ly inflat­ing esti­mates of the num­ber of pre­vi­ous­ly unin­sured peo­ple that have gained cov­er­age because of the new law. Here’s sen­si­ble look at the num­bers. [Cred­it: CNN/Money]

Near­ly 13 mil­lion Amer­i­cans now have health insur­ance thanks to Oba­macare. Tell Repub­li­cans to stop vot­ing to take their cov­er­age away. – Demo­c­ra­t­ic Leg­isla­tive Cam­paign Com­mit­tee peti­tion drive

Hyper­bole over how many peo­ple have pre­sum­ably gained health cov­er­age as the result of Oba­macare won’t sub­side any­time soon. At its cur­rent pace, we seem des­tined to reach the point where the num­ber of peo­ple who are alleged to have gained cov­er­age because of Oba­macare sur­pass­es the num­ber that lacked cov­er­age in the first place. Con­tin­ue read­ing →