Oct
12
2025

But Please Make It "Defensible"

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Michael F. Cannon outlines the Only Defensible Obamacare Deal. (archive.today link)

At a time when Republicans should be building on President Trump’s greatest first-term health care victory, some are trying to give Democrats everything they want on Obamacare for nothing in return. That weak approach would protect Democrats from accountability for Obamacare’s junk coverage and outrageous premiums.

Democrats are continuing to block a deal to end the government “shutdown.” They say they won’t vote to pay federal workers — my wife is still working, without pay — unless Republicans extend the temporary Obamacare subsidies that Congress created during the Covid-19 pandemic. Those subsidies should have expired with every other emergency measure, yet Democrats kept them through this year.

Indeed, so what do you propose, Mike?

Here’s a crazy thought: if government regulations are making your health insurance too expensive or limiting your choice of treatments or providers, those regulations should be optional. You should have the right to choose better, more affordable health insurance.

Republicans should give consumers that freedom by building on President Trump’s biggest first-term health care victory, which freed consumers from the pain of Obamacare.

In 1996, a Republican Congress and President Clinton exempted so-called short-term health insurance from all federal health insurance regulations. A Democratic Congress and President Obama likewise exempted those plans from Obamacare. In 2018, the Trump administration removed unnecessary restrictions on those plans, freeing them to offer greater consumer protections than any past administration.

The CBO found that Trump’s changes enabled most Obamacare enrollees to obtain comprehensive coverage at premiums as much as 60 percent below the lowest-price Obamacare plans — and often with “lower deductibles or wider provider networks.” Imagine: people not needing subsidies to get quality health insurance.

Well, there's more at the link. Michael decries the insanity of subsidizing Obamacare for people earning up to $600K/year, but if (temporarily) extending that giveaway is the price to pay for allowing people to choose better, cheaper plans, he says: go for it.

I am doubtful (however) that Dems will not relentlessly demagogue any such proposal, they'll find plenty of support in the media, and we'll wind up where we are.

But it's nice to imagine a better scenario, and it just might work.

Also of note:

  • In the wilds of Hollywood, Florida… Dave Barry suffers Pants Anxiety at that town's Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. After mentioning "Hotel Shower Control Anxiety", Dave gets to the real problem.

    Everything went smoothly until, having changed into our evening attire, we were walking to the casino theater. That was when, out of the blue, Michelle said four words to me — four words that I was utterly unprepared for; four words that, if you consider yourself to be a happily married man, you never want to hear your wife say.

    The words were: “Are those new pants?”

    Of course — you veteran married men know this — the reason she was asking if they were new pants was NOT that she wanted to know if they were new pants. She definitely knew that they were new pants. What she was actually asking me, translated from Wifespeak, was: “What the hell are those pants?”

    So I said, “Is there something wrong with these pants?”

    And, after a brief pause, she said, “No, they’re fine.” Which of course meant “Yes, there is something wrong with those pants.”

    So I said, “What’s wrong with these pants?”

    And she said, “They look like sweatpants.”

    Dave's mistake was to shell out $128 (MSRP) for a pair of Vuori's Meta Pant Classic Fit pants. And (sorry, Dave) they really do have that sweatpants look.

    On the bright side, though, his post now makes his entire trip to Hollywood a business expense, and therefore deductible. And the pants too.