Disruption

And the widening gyre may be dissipating, finally.

Recall that a Federal judge in the 5th Appellate district ruled rump Obamacare unconstitutional because the tax imposed on not having health insurance was rescinded and the law had no severability clause—making the law itself an unconstitutional demand that private citizens buy something they did not want.

An outcome of this is feared by the NLMSM and Progressive-Democrats to be

particular disruption within the industry as no replacement system would be put in place.

It’s certainly true that there will be disruption—but no greater than the disruption from the imposition of Obamacare in the first place, which entailed the Federal government seizing control of the health care provision and health care coverage industries—a full sixth of our economy—and throwing millions of Americans off the health insurance plans they had and wanted to keep by making those plans illegal.

The disruption will be considerably less than the current plans of Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidates, whose aim is to make illegal all hints of private health insurance and to seize the rest of those two industries through “Medicare for all” plans, forcing Americans to participate in—and to pay for—yet more programs that they don’t want.

Indeed, both Obamacare and the current Progressive-Democrats’ plans have nothing to do with insurance, health or otherwise; they were and are nothing but Government mandated and privately funded—lately proposed taxpayer funded—welfare programs overlain like a new room on a settler’s prairie house on the existing ramshackle house of welfare programs.

The disruption will be short-lived, too.  The “no replacement system put in place” is only technically true: the Federal government isn’t mandating a particular system (whether by design or by Republican fecklessness).  The resulting newly unfettered health free market will very quickly fill that niche.  The freed-up industries will rapidly produce plans that fit the customers’ needs and wants for their personal health care and true health insurance plans.

The new insurance plans will be based off the plans extant prior to the Obamacare debacle, and then they’ll be tailored to current customer wishes rather than Government one-size-fits-all coverages.  No longer will Americans be required to pay for coverages they don’t need or don’t want, no longer will young and healthy Americans who don’t need or want coverage be required to pay for any sort of it, no longer will grown, adult human beings be treated like children barred from making their own risk-related decisions concerning their own health and the specific insurance coverages they want.

Explorations

Illinois is verging on bankruptcy, and Progressive-Democratic Governor JB Pritzker and his henchmen running this Progressive-Democrat-run State want a State constitutional amendment to raise taxes preferentially on the rich—a progressive tax.

Illinois faces a $3.2 billion budget deficit next fiscal year, unfunded pension liabilities estimated from $133 billion to $250 billion, and the worst credit rating of any US state. It has roughly $8 billion in bills outstanding.

They insist that the good citizens of Illinois—and especially the not-so-good rich ones—should pay for this failure to perform, rather than that failure be made good through reallocation of currently collected revenues.  The technical term for that is “spending cuts.”

Here’s Deputy Governor Dan Hynes (D):

You have wide acceptance that Illinois needs new revenue.  If the voters disagree with us in 2020, then we’ll have to explore other revenues.

The first statement is a dubious claim, at best.  The second shows how economically illiterate is Hynes and his Progressive-Democratic Party. He—and they—can’t even conceive of the other side of that coin: that what Illinois needs is less spending.  That what they should be exploring is spending cuts.

Cowards

The Senate voted on the Green New Deal, but the proposal, first offered in the House (and yet to be voted on there), failed a cloture vote to let it come to the floor for discussion, debate, and subsequent vote up or down.

The Senate on Tuesday failed to advance the Green New Deal, the ambitious plan to combat climate change proposed by Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, after what Democrats said was a politically-motivated show vote.
The measure, which needed 60 votes to clear a procedural hurdle, failed in a 0-57 vote, with 43 Democrats voting present.

Those 43 Progressive-Democrat Senators without the courage to vote their convictions included Senator Ed Markey (D, MA), the proposal’s Senate cosponsor, along with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D, NY) in the House.  Apparently, the Senate cosponsor isn’t serious about his own proposal.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D, NY) demonstrated the fundamental failure of the Progressive-Democratic Party with this rationalization:

[W]e are finally talking about the issue, and that is great….

Well, no, the Senate is not finally talking about the issue; 43 Progressive-Democrat Senators hid under their desks during the vote and called “Present,” deliberately blocking the Senate’s opportunity to talk about the issue.

Senators Joe Manchin (D, WV), Doug Jones (D, AL), Kyrsten Sinema (D, AZ), and Angus King (I, ME) were the only Progressive-Democrats with the moral courage to vote for cloture, to vote to allow the Green New Deal to be talked about on the floor of the Senate, in full view of Senators’ constituents.

Running Away

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D, NY) is terrified of the upcoming Senate vote on her New Green Deal proposal that she has laid before the House.  She has her fear on display in this tweet of hers:

The GOP’s whole game of wasting votes in Congress to target others “on the record”, for leg [legislation] they have no intent to pass, is a disgrace.  Stop wasting the American peoples’ time + learn to govern. Our jobs aren’t for campaigning, & that’s exactly what these bluff-votes are for.

Apparently, Progressive-Democrats’ jobs aren’t for actually voting on the proposals they make.  It seems that Progressive-Democrat proposals aren’t actually serious policy ideas; they’re just virtue signaling.

There’s this, too, from some number of Progressive-Democratic Senators:

Some Democrats said they plan to vote “present” on the resolution to signal their opposition to what they call a “sham” vote….

These guys, if they follow through with just kicking back with their feet up on their Senate desks, will be doing more than just cowering away from being on the record in the man-caused climate debate. They’ll be betraying their constituents who hired them and sent them to the Senate to do more substantive things than just being…present.

Is that why, maybe, that Progressive-Democrat are so terrified of folks actually going on the record on Ocasio-Cortez’ “climate” proposal? Is that why, maybe, that climatistas, including other Progressive-Democrats, are so terrified of differing opinions on the state and trend of our climate—terrified to the extent that they’re trying to make disagreeing with them on climate a crime?

Because they might be found to be who they really are?

Risks

Or, perhaps, threats.

Take careful note of this tweet from Matthew Brennan.  Not only does this system know who Brennan is without any input from him (this time).  It knows where he is and where he’s going.

Imagine that identification and tracking ability in the hands of Government.  The government in the tweet is the PRC’s, but that’s not the only government spreading surveillance systems around the nation like butter on warm toast.

 

H/t to ralf.