One of the most unsavory remnants of the Obama era is known as the “private mandate,” a requirement that every citizen purchase health care insurance from a private corporation, or face a severe penalty. This requirement led to a new bureaucracy that tracked every American to make sure we had insurance. It was suffocating and onerous – the health insurance industry (“Americas Health Insurance Providers,” or AHIP for short) bullying us into buying their crappy products, using Obama as a sock puppet.
The Affordable Care Act, ACA, or “Obamacare” (as if) was challenged in court on this basis, and was spared by a 2012 ruling that said that the penalty is a tax, and Congress has the power to tax. I do not know if this was an unintended consequence, or if the people around Trump are really that clever, but in late 2017 as part of a broad tax bill, Congress eliminated the penalty. The Fifth Circuit recently held that 2017 act constitutional, and here is the catch: The “attributes that saved the [ACA] statute because it could be read as a tax no longer exist.” The writing on the wall says Obamacare is dead! Long live Obamacare!
Continue reading “Is Obamacare dead? Hurray! Long live Obamacare!”
I did some research into the 
Dear little Greta Thunberg being Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” is testament to the bankruptcy of our news media, left with only a false front of supposed credibility in place of any honor or diligence. It’s like Barack Obama or Al Gore being given Nobel Peace prizes (I suppose Greta is in line for this too) for either doing nothing or for lying to the public … it shows us just how corrupt our major institutions are. If there is a prize to be had for honor and integrity, it is Diogenes and his lantern in search of an honest man. He is still searching.
Piece of Mindful 