A Modest (And Potentially Bipartisan) Obamacare Proposal

Here are three changes Congress should make to Obamacare: 1) no cancellations; 2) no bailouts; 3) no tax on the uninsured. [Credit: thinkquest.org]

Here are three changes Con­gress should make to Oba­macare: 1) no can­cel­la­tions; 2) no bailouts; 3) no tax on the unin­sured. [Cred­it: thinkquest.org]

Here’s a crazy idea: Repub­li­cans and at least some Democ­rats say they sup­port mak­ing changes to Oba­macare; why doesn’t Con­gress give vot­ers a pleas­ant sur­prise and change it?

These changes would be polit­i­cal­ly pop­u­lar, rel­a­tive­ly mod­est and enjoy at least some bipar­ti­san sup­port. Although the pre­vail­ing polit­i­cal cli­mate makes it hard for law­mak­ers to do any­thing of sub­stance, mak­ing the health care law more friend­ly to con­sumers and less accom­mo­dat­ing to cor­po­rate inter­ests would appeal to vot­ers across the spec­trum. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

The Cuccinelli Era Is Over

Ken Cuccinelli fell short last night in his bid to become Governor of Virginia.  Is the GOP mature enough to accept defeat and find a new way forward? [Credit: Huffington Post]

Ken Cuc­cinel­li fell short last night in his bid to become Gov­er­nor of Vir­ginia. Is the GOP mature enough to accept defeat and find a new way for­ward? [Cred­it: Huff­in­g­ton Post]

Chris Christie and Ter­ry McAu­li­ffe were both sup­posed to win big in their guber­na­to­r­i­al bids. Christie did; McAu­li­ffe didn’t. And that presents Con­gres­sion­al Repub­li­cans with a gen­uine oppor­tu­ni­ty to make crit­i­cal changes to the President’s health care law. If they don’t squan­der it. Con­tin­ue read­ing →

Blaming Insurers: Why Valerie Jarrett is Wrong

Valerie Jarrett last night blamed insurers for cancelling policies. But it was the Administration itself that broke the President's promise to let people keep the coverage they like. (Credit: justpiper.com)

Valerie Jar­rett last night blamed insur­ers for can­celling poli­cies. But it was the Admin­is­tra­tion itself that broke the Pres­i­den­t’s promise to let peo­ple keep the cov­er­age they like. (Cred­it: justpiper.com)

Valerie Jar­rett last night sent the fol­low­ing tweet: “FACT: Noth­ing in #Oba­macare forces peo­ple out of their health plans. No change is required unless insur­ance com­pa­nies change exist­ing plans.”

Jarrett’s tweet sig­nals that the White House is now blam­ing insur­ers for can­celling cov­er­age for hun­dreds of thou­sands — and per­haps mil­lions — of Amer­i­cans. This is utter­ly men­da­cious. The text of Oba­macare, as Jar­rett sug­gests, explic­it­ly gives peo­ple the right to keep their exist­ing cov­er­age. But in an inex­plic­a­ble action, the Admin­is­tra­tion in 2010 issued a reg­u­la­tion that stripped peo­ple of that right and made it ille­gal for many insur­ers to renew cov­er­age for next year. Con­tin­ue read­ing →