Back in 2009, before Obamacare, the United States had a healthcare system that was plagued by excessive government intervention, which led to a third-party-payer crisis and massive inefficiencies. Perversely, the President thought the way to solve these problems was…
Daily Analysis
Warning: Government-Run Healthcare Is Very Hazardous to Your Health
Back in 2010, I guest-hosted Larry Kudlow’s CNBC program for a couple of days. During one of the segments on my last show, I crossed swords with the other host, Simon Hobbs, as we argued whether patients needlessly died because of the government-run healthcare system…
Medicare: Recipients Pay for Hamburger, They Get a Hamburger, but Taxpayers Are Being Charged for a Steak
One of the challenges of good entitlement reform (or even bad entitlement reform) is that recipients think they’ve “earned” benefits. If you tell them that programs such as Medicare are unsustainable and need to be changed, some of them suspect you’re trying to…
A Government Database about our Sex Lives: Gee, What Could Go Wrong?
I’ve shared several videos that make the case against Obamacare. Here’s one narrated by a Dutch woman warning that America shouldn’t repeat the mistakes of European government-run healthcare. Here’s one from Reason TV about how free markets produce lower healthcare…
Is It Time to Feel Sorry for the President and other Obamacare Supporters?
I’ve certainly offered more than my fair share of Obamacare criticism. Since I’m a public finance economist, I’m mostly concerned that the law increases the fiscal burden of government. But I’m also irked that Obamacare will worsen the third-party payer crisis, which…
Is the Left’s New Attack on Self Insurance an Example of Obamacare Sleaze and Corruption or an Example of Why Government-Run Healthcare Doesn’t Work?
I’ve written about how Obamacare is a costly boondoggle. I’ve written how it victimizes children, low-income workers, and retirees. And I’ve explained how it exacerbates the real problem in our healthcare system. I’ve even pointed out that there’s something good in…
A Funny Look at How Obamacare Screws Young People
During the big-spending Bush years, economic and fiscal people inside the Administration often would sympathize with my complaints about bad policy, but say that there was nothing they could do since all the big decisions were being made by the political types in the…
Obamacare: A Get-Rich-Quick Scheme for Washington Insiders
Want to know why – as shown by this map – most of America’s richest counties are part of the metropolitan DC region? Part of the answer is that federal bureaucrats are overpaid. Another part of the answer is that the Washington area is filled with consultants and…
The Arbitrary Diktats of Generalissimo Obama
There’s an old joke that the definition of quandary is when your mother-in-law drives off a cliff in your new car. But since I’m not married, I can’t use that joke. Besides, I’m a policy wonk, so the type of quandary that catches my attention is when the Obama…
The IRS Wants to Be Exempt from Obamacare While also Being in Charge of Making the Rest of Us Comply
There are lots of despicable people in Washington engaged in a lot of unsavory behavior, so it would be very difficult to get agreement if you asked regular people to select the most odious feature of the political class. Many people would probably choose corruption…