Chic | Rockin' On The Right Side

Anyone who listens to the leftist mainstream media must think that America is in crisis – a desperate and mean place rife with racism, cruelty, poverty and hate. It’s no accident. The Democrat playbook for all of my adult life has been the same: create a crisis, try to scare the hell out of everybody, and then promise to save us. Never mind that there is a new crisis every day, and they never actually solve any of them!

It’s such a false picture of life in the USA. Here are some recent vignettes observed by my family:

I was in WalMart yesterday, and no I did not “smell” the Trump supporters. But I did see a senior shopper cheerfully pushing two carts from the parking lot into the cart corral at the store entrance. As I grabbed my cart I told her, “I’ll bet you are a conservative Republican.” After a stunned pause, she said, “Why yes, I am! How did you know?” “Simple,” I replied. “See those carts left in the middle of the lot and hanging off the curbs? They were left there by Democrats. We conservatives not only clean up after ourselves, we take care of the Democrats too.” We shared a laugh.
Our community is growing like crazy and there are new homes popping up all over. One is under construction next door to my home. This morning my wife noticed a construction worker’s Mercedes convertible parked on the edge of our lawn, which is no problem, but she wanted to warn him that our automatic sprinkler would go on and she didn’t want him to get caught with his top down. They had a nice conversation, and she couldn’t help but notice how happy the craftsman, an African-American brick mason, was. “I just love my work,” he said. “And man, have I been busy!” They agreed that the economy is smoking hot, and my wife, ever the promoter, said, “Trump is doing great, isn’t he?” The brick mason flashed a huge grin. “He sure is!”
Speaking of WalMart, after the tax reform bill was passed, we asked several employees about their jobs. They got raises and bonuses and are thrilled about it. Same story at Lowe’s and Home Depot. My men’s bible study group used to pray for church members who were unemployed. Not any more – there aren’t any.
The Charlotte Observer printed an editorial this week decrying the requirement for voter IDs. An African-American woman replied the next day, saying, “I am so tired of being told that because I am black I am too stupid to be able to get an ID card.” She speaks for all minority citizens. And the Democrats wonder why they are rapidly losing their minority base. A steady diet of condescension is not a great way to win supporters.
My stepmother called to wish my wife a happy birthday and as always, the conversation turned to politics. My stepmom remarked how much she hates Trump. My wife asked her what she thinks of the tax cuts. “Oh, well, that’s a good thing.” And she asked if reducing all the regulations was helping the economy. “Yes,” stepmom said, “that’s working really well.” And my wife asked if Montana was enjoying all the jobs returning because the EPA attacks against oil and coal and mining and agriculture have been shut down. “Oh that’s been really great,” stepmom agreed. We’re still not sure she gets it, but we’ll keep working on her.

So next time a frantic Democrat tells you how evil and mean and racist and bigoted and homophobic America is – how the conservatives want dirty water and foul air and starving children and abused women – just look around at all the happy faces. And vow to keep moving ahead, not back.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Good times, these are the good times
Leave your cares behind, these are the good times
Good times, these are the good times
Our new state of mind, these are the good times

Good Times – Nile Rodgers and Chic

If this song doesn’t make you happy, I can’t help ya!

photo courtesy of Gaebler.com Have you wondered why the big health insurance companies have not put up a fight against the federal government takeover of their industry? By outward appearance it would seem that Obama, Reid and Pelosi are hell-bent on putting the health insurance guys out of business. Shouldn’t they be screaming bloody murder?

The ObamaCare concept is, at best, a house of cards. I contend it is a predictable “train wreck,” certain to happen. It is based on the premise that healthy young people will suddenly trip over themselves running to buy insurance plans that they don’t want, don’t need, don’t understand, and can’t afford, in order to subsidize coverage for the sick and elderly. The further assumption is that fear of a tiny tax penalty some time in the distant future will scare the youngsters into compliance today – kids who, if they report taxes at all, just hand their W2s to H&R Block once a year, and then turn right back to their Facebook pages.

Early indications are that the young are staying away from ObamaCare in droves. Many older citizens who had individual insurance have lost or dropped their policies. Most transactions on the ObamaCare exchanges are actually signups for free Medicaid, not affordable insurance. And since it didn’t occur to the ObamaCare planners to release hospitals from the requirement to provide emergency care to anybody who shows up at the door, guess what? The “poor” are still going to the ER, largely because they don’t know any better.

The demographic assumptions that established the viability of ObamaCare have already been blown to smithereens.

It would appear ObamaCare is pushing the insurance companies (and self-insured employers) toward financial armageddon. They are now loaded with mandates and reporting requirements, forced to assume high-risk clients and pre-existing conditions, faced with the loss of profitable group insurance policies and struggling to react to minute-by-minute rule changes well after the game started. Why haven’t the insurance guys complained?

Now we know. The whole thing was a setup.

ObamaCare stack The CBO had already projected that the federal government will pass $1 trillion of taxpayer funds through to the insurance companies. But Wait! Now we learn that buried deep in the 20,000+ pages of the ObamaCare regulations are two little gems that the administration didn’t want to see the light of day: Section 1341, the “reinsurance fund” and Section 1342, the “risk-corridor provision”.

The reinsurance fund provides the insurance companies a stop-loss at $45,000 on big claims. 80% of any claims above that amount are covered by (you guessed it) the taxpayers. The risk-corridor provision even further insulates the insurance companies from losses (up to 80%) due to changes in the demographics of ObamaCare enrollees (see above).

Thanks to Charles Krauthamer and Senator Marco Rubio these boondoggles have been revealed (don’t wait for an expose’ on MSNBC) and a push to repeal the provisions is gathering steam.

Krauthamer: First order of business for the returning Congress: The No Bailout for Insurance Companies Act of 2014. Make it one line long: “Sections 1341 and 1342 of the Affordable Care Act are hereby repealed.” End of bill. End of bailout. End of story.

Not surprisingly, the health insurance executives are freaking out.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

All that pressure got you down
Has your head been spinning all around?
Ah, freak out! (Le freak, c’est chic)
Freak out! (Le freak, c’est chic)
Freak out!

Le Freak – Chic – 1977

The gals are still lookin’ mighty freakin’ good in this 2004 Chic concert footage: