Policy wonk: CBO Score Actually Better Than Expected
The Congressional Budget Office estimate that 24 million fewer people will have health insurance by 2026 under the GOP replacement bill is overstated but unsurprising, says Avik Roy at Forbes: CBO’s original projections of how many would enroll in ObamaCare was also “wildly off.” What is surprising about CBO’s scoring “is the ways in which it makes the GOP bill look better than expected, and how it points to how the bill can be improved.” The real issue is “whether or not plans are affordable,” not whether “a weak fine riddled with loopholes and exceptions” — the individual mandate — “can force people to buy coverage.” And as the CBO notes, “the bill would cut taxes by $1.2 trillion and spending by $880 billion, for a net deficit reduction of $337 billion.”
Conservative: Is Losing Health Insurance So Bad?
Democrats and the news media are describing the CBO estimate as “cruel” and “bleak.” But Liz Sheld at PJ Media argues that “this standard of ‘universal coverage’ is as artificial as the government’s bloated healthcare costs.” With premium rates skyrocketing, “if an individual or family has to fork out tens of thousands of dollars before seeing healthcare benefits, what’s the point? Why not save that money and when services are needed, pay directly to the care providers?” That’s why “we are seeing a rise in concierge medicine, internet-based medicine and free-market surgery centers.” So perhaps “people wouldn’t ‘lose’ their health insurance but rather would choose to opt out of the artificial system created by the government because it doesn’t serve their economic interest.”
Foreign desk: Recalling Russia’s Great Calamity of 1917
Wednesday marks the 100th anniversary of Tsar Nicholas II’s abdication, notes Max Boot at Commentary, “ending 300 years of Romanov rule of Russia and setting the stage, later that year, for the Bolshevik takeover” — which sent Russia “hurtling on the trajectory toward the Stalinist terror and mass famine, World War II and the Cold War.” Now Vladimir Putin “seems to be plotting to reassemble the Russian Empire the Bolsheviks temporarily tore down,” even as he lives “in constant dread of an uprising such as those that have occurred in neighboring Georgia and Ukraine.” Ironically, the tsar’s overthrow initially led “to a brief flowering of constitutional rule, with political and press freedom allowed for the first time in Russian history.” If only, says Boot, “Russia had had [just] one revolution, rather than two, in 1917.”
From the right: GOP Should Look to Wisconsin
Marc Thiessen in The Washington Post laments that the GOP, “with unified Republican government for the first time in a decade,” isn’t “busy enacting a bold reform agenda” because it’s “wracked by internal divisions on key issues from health care to taxes.” Democrats are vowing disruption and stonewalling, so “if Republicans can’t work out their differences, nothing will get done.” Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker faced a similar situation, he notes, yet “managed to unite his party and overcome Democratic obstruction.” The result: “His legislation passed, and voters rewarded him at the polls.” Walker says Republicans can’t be cautious now: “Members of Congress don’t get more courageous with time.” And “the worst possible outcome will be for Republicans to break their word and do nothing.”
Critic: Schools Won’t Let Us Raise Successful Boys
Most of us “spend hours each day sitting at work” and “science says it’s killing us,” notes Bill Murphy Jr. at Inc. Yet “what do we force our kids to do each day at school? Sit still for six or eight hours.” That’s especially hurtful for boys, who are “naturally rambunctious.” One survey found that “the less ‘moderate to vigorous physical activity’ the boys had each day, the harder it was for them to develop good reading skills.” But “the results didn’t apply to girls,” who are “better able to set aside that disappointment and concentrate.” So “until schools figure out how to incorporate lots of movement and play into their schedules, it will be up to parents to compensate.”
— Compiled by Eric Fettmann