Truth & Consequences in Government

Dick Baynton
Dick Baynton

Politics is an occupation where some candidates lie to get into office, lie to stay in office and truth is often revealed when they leave office. Confirmation of this is the sentencing of former Governor McDonnell (R-VA) who recently received two years of subsidized room and board complete with fitness facilities and library in an adult care facility. His wife will also spend one year as a ‘ward of the state’ where she can while away her time with other female miscreants who have been victims of bad judgment and an accumulation of flawed decisions.

Recently, John Kitzhaber (D-OR), a doctor of medicine and longest serving governor in the state of Oregon, stepped down as the state’s chief executive. It seems that some financial entanglement with a fiancé was to blame for his resignation; definitely not his fault. Born in 1947, Dr. Kitzhaber married Rosemary in 1971 on a probationary basis until 1974. His next exploit into sacred union with Sharon lasted from 1995 to 2003 and produced a son (Logan). His third try at a joint venture was with Cylvia, founder and operator of an environmental consulting firm. Although they became engaged in August of 2014, no date for marriage has been mentioned.” One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them.” – Thomas Sowell

A low-key government release on Friday, February 20th was that 800,000 people had been sent incorrect tax statements regarding their 2014 healthcare insurance coverage. Shrugging off the problem, Josh Earnest, White House Press Secretary, mentioned the small percentage of mistakes. The comments must have been reassuring to those among the 800,000 who received the wrong information.

Another announcement was that the sign up period for insurance plans will be arbitrarily extended to the end of April although the law closed enrollment as of Sunday February 20. The extension will allow more to sign up and will minimize tax penalties for those who failed to enroll in time.  In addition, because of the way premium subsidies were calculated, some received more credits than allowed while others received less than allowed. These glitches will be resolved by hiring more government employees so  taxpayers can pay for these added employees while also picking up the tab on the subsidies of others (also known as asset redistribution).

Additional words of wisdom from Thomas Sowell come to mind: “It is amazing that people who think we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, and medication somehow think that we can afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, medication and a government bureaucracy to administer it.”

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case of King vs. Burwell on Wednesday, March 4. While Republicans hope the court finds that government has exceeded its legal authority in making changes to the provisions of the ACA, Democrats are equally certain that the President did not overstep his legal bounds. Numerous changes and exceptions have been made to the original phrasing of the infamous healthcare law by executive memos and even blogs but the Supreme Court is expected to sort it all out by June. In addition to making arbitrary changes to the healthcare law, the President has also ordered state and federal agencies to violate certain provisions of immigration rules and statutes.

Casey Mulligan, an economics professor at the University of Chicago and author of the E-Book entitled “Side Effects: The Economic Consequences of the Health Reform” has said, “In further expanding the frontiers of redistribution, the ACA reduces the benefits for employment for both employers and employees.” Mulligan closes his WSJ op-ed with the following remark, “The Affordable Care Act is weakening the economy. And for the large number of families and individuals who continue to pay for their own health care, health care is now less affordable.”

Our President has become ruler, our legislative branch has become bewildered, constituents have become inconsequential and our destiny is in the opaque haze of corruption, uncertainty and apathy. That’s reality.

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