DEMOCRATS SAY EVERYTHING FOR FREE: HEALTHCARE, COLLEGE, AND REPARATIONS!

Free Beacon: Democrat Plans Revealed

“If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free.” P.J. O'Rourke

What could go wrong with this plan? Of course, what the Democrats leave out is someone will have to pay for it.

Are we really facing a massive blue wave or not?  I am not being cocky, there is a lot of motivation on the left and it is entirely possible they will take the House in the 2018 midterms.

Assuming the Dems to take the House in 2018 (and the two years of madness that will follow), running on that platform above does not seem like a political winner for Democrats. Do Democrats really think reparations are winner for them?  It seems like a hell of a plan to get Trump re-elected.

Instapundit: Civil War on the Left 

Andrew McCabe IG criminal referral is bad news for Clinton, Comey, and Mueller. Appearing on @TuckerCarlson with guest host @MarkSteynOnline next hour. @FoxNews @JudicialWatch @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/PfLHc4wOix

— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) April 19, 2018

AoSHQ/J.J. Sefton: Morning Report 04-20-18

Twitchy: Hmmmm

Republicans need to suck it up: Repeal Obamacare

I am the "rip the bandaid off" personality. With Obamacare, there are no great solutions, just less bad ones. The least bad is usually the simplest and most direct. I say repeal Obamacare and let the insurance markets recover.

Politically that will be tough but not impossible to pull that off (pardon the pun). Ted Cruz and Mike Pence may be working behind the scenes to avoid a filibuster.

Republicans will still have a challenge getting even fifty votes. If they have to to cobble a deal (with Collins, Murkowski and others willing to break), perhaps offer a fix for vulnerable people for two years to curtail the cries that Republicans are killing children and the poor (the risk with that is there will always be a push to extend it indefinitely).  

The alternative is just wait (which is hardly risk free). If we do that, at least allow consumers and insurers to provide real insurance (without preexisting conditions covered) which could truly be affordable. With the health savings accounts, consumers could pay for immediate health services they need out of pocket (and with pretax dollars) and have catastrophic insurance (just in case something bad happens).

Rush Limbaugh: The Limbaugh Health Care Plan. Rush is right: It is not just Obamacare, it is fifty years of federal meddling with healthcare and insurance that got us in this mess. But you have to start somewhere.

EBL: Losing the House Over Obamacare Repeal: Who's Right?, If you can't repeal Obamacare, go around it, GOP Obamacare Replacement: I would prefer repeal and just repeal...

Instapundit: Wait or use the Reid option, PJ Media: Why do consumers need government approved insurance coverage? (which goes back to my suggestion of going around Obamacare), Voters will reward republicans if they do what they promised

Rush Limbaugh: Why does repealing Obamacare look like implementing Obamacare, Trust in Trump, and CBO Fake News

Powerline: Tom Cotton reject the parliamentarian dodge, The press is hurting Trump (Trump did not win by appeasing the press did he...), is the CBO right that the GOP replacement plan is unstable?

Hot Air: Being Populist, Tom Cotton: Come on, there's no 3 step process to this...

Heat Street: Tom Cotton: Life after Ryan (new conservative heartthrob)

DaTechGuy: Ryan Care: No good, just bad and ugly

Wombat: Megan McArdle: Obamacare Isn’t Going To Fix Itself

Losing The House over Obamacare, Who's Right: Cotton or Ryan?...or perhaps Ted Cruz?

Tom Cotton or Paul Ryan?

This is actually a pretty easy answer: since Republicans got elected, in large part, in saying they would repeal Obamacare. Republicans should do what they said they would do: Repeal Obamacare. Sorry Paul, your replacement plan is worse than just letting Obamacare die on its own.  

Letting it die it hardly without risk (and there will be a lot of people hurt in the process) and there will be turmoil for years. The advantage in finishing it off is you at least allow insurance markets to recover. So if you are going to repeal,  how do you do it? You have nominal Republicans like McCain and Collins who can't be trusted. You have to either throw out the filibuster or get around it. 

EBL: Perhaps that dinner was more successful than we thought...

But here is the intriguing part: That wily Ted Cruz has a plan for doing so. Not in grandstanding like Ted used to do, but  instead working behind the scenes and engaging Vice President Pence?

Here's your chance Ted, show us how smart you really are...

Hey Paul Ryan, don't pull a Boehner...

EBL: If you can't repeal Obamacare, go around it, GOP Obamacare Replacement: I would prefer repeal and just repeal...

Instapundit: Wait or use the Reid option, Voters will reward republicans if they do what they promised

Regular Right Guy: Paul Ryan and Obamacare-Lite

Hot Air: Tom Cotton and repealing Obamacare

American Thinker: Gutting Obamacare

Don Surber : Stifle it, Meatheads!

Daily Caller: GOP Singlepayer?

Wombat: Megan McArdle: Best Health Care Plan For Republicans? Wait

If there are insufficient votes to repeal Obamacare, why not authorize insurers to give other coverage instead?

GOPe wring their hands and claim they do not have the votes to repeal Obamacare. That may be true, but only because there is not the will by certain GOPe politicians to face the voters if they do repeal Obamacare.

Powerline: Speaker Ryan vastly over states his case

Yes there are nuggets of good ideas in the GOPe proposal (like health savings accounts, getting rid of the mandate, Medicaid reform, etc). Sometimes there are kernels of corn in poop. It is still poop (and you know what you don't do with poop, pick it up and play with it).

Conservative groups hate it. The GOP is negotiating its own surrender. You are forcing everyone not insured through work to get on these idiotic overpriced exchanges. Politically it is also a bad idea: You want to really upset voters? Pass this POS healthcare plan.

So why not do something else:  Congress can authorize insurers to offer policies they had on the market before Obamacare. Catastrophic plans that only kicked in after a high deductible, but would then offer decent coverage in the event you had a serious condition like heart disease or cancer. They were reasonably affordable plans before all the tinkering and regulations of Obamacare--now they don't exist at all. Make them legal again.

That is what insurance is about, protecting you when there is a catastrophic loss.  Trying to craft insurance as some prepaid medical treatment plan (or worse) as a way to pay for those who can't afford insurance is never going to pencil out. It will always be wildly bureaucratic and inefficient.

So if you are reasonably healthy and looking for affordable coverage for you and your family, you can go get it.  Allow people to purchase plans across state lines.

As far as Obamacare, let it die on its own.  Obamacare will collapse under its own weight (you do not have to mercy kill it). If you want to then spend tax dollars to help those with no coverage, we can then address that issue.

EBL: I would prefer repeal and just repeal and Guess who's coming to dinner?

Instapundit: Stop screwing around and just blow through the filibuster, Obamacare Repeal, Disaster? No?, Obamacare Jr. Stinks

Rush Limbaugh: Republicans stuck on the same old 60 vote excuse issue and McConnell drives a stake through the heart of two of Trump's issues

Wombat: Louder With Crowder: Reasons To Vote for Democrats Is Amazon Best-Seller, Filled With Empty Pages and Dustbury: GOPCare

Guess Who's Coming To Dinner? President Trump and Lyin' Ted Breaking Bread at the White House...

Daily Caller: Ted Cruz to Dine With President Trump at White House

Powerline: Is GOP Heathcare Bill A Disaster? No (I got to disagree with this, mostly it is)

Don Surber: Obamacare Repeal Rocks (the repeal rocks, I don't like the replace part)

EBL: GOP Obamacare Replacement: I would prefer repeal and just repeal...

I do not buy the GOP will face a slaughter if they just repeal Obamacare. I think they will face a slaughter if they mess with Obamacare and replace it with something slightly less bad. While I recognize the challenges of getting enough Senators on board, overcoming a filibuster, etc., if there is a will there is a way when the GOP holds the White House, Senate and House.  

GOP, don't screw this up.  

Instapundit: GOP you are terrible and Obamacare, Jr. stinks, Tom Cotton advice, If you can't do the first well, go with Plan B, This is looking like a debacle, WELL, THAT’S AN ACCOMPLISHMENT OF SORTS: Megan McArdle: The Republican Plan Is Even Worse Than ObamaCare.

Hot Air: Ted Cruz: Without changes the GOP healthcare bill is DOA

Weasel Zippers: Olbermann's going to have a stroke if this keeps up!

DRUDGE REPORT: Daily Mail: Trump Bowling Party?

Victory Girls: The GOP healthcare plan sucks bigly

The Right Scoop: Tom Cotton says: Start over...

Wombat: Mostly violent bedtime stories

Breitbart: Tom Cotton: Start Over

Twitchy: Olbermann Freak Out

GOP Obamacare Replacement: I would prefer repeal and just repeal....

Heavy: GOP unveils Obamacare Replacement

My first spoken reaction to Paul Ryan's proposed House Bill was not family friendly. We do not want Obamacare-lite, most of us want Obamacare gone. How do you make this work with making insurers cover preexisting conditions without higher premiums?  If you know anything about insurance (and math), you know this makes affordable coverage very difficult (Powerline addresses what insurance is supposed to be). Someone is going to pay for the unhealthy and that burden falls mostly on the young. Since they know preexisting conditions are covered in the future, they will opt out.

But there are some unfortunate realities here. Unlike Democrats, Republicans do not march in lock step. There are more than enough Republicans willing to jump ship to kill any Obamacare repeal only bill in the Senate. The only way to reverse this is to hope enough voters will rise up in these states to get these Senators to change their minds. Perhaps that is possible.

But Don Surber makes the case that there is more here to like than dislike. Actually he is really into it. Hmmm. 

I'm still pretty skeptical, but let's see how this shakes out.

Instapundit: Why is Cory Gardner trying to save Obamacare?,  Do you want to lose your majority, because this is how you lose your majority (you think Trump has it bad now, wait till that happens), Washington Examiner: The GOPe is negotiating its own surrender, Repeal and Replace Obamacare

The sinking feeling that the whole #ObamaGate kerfuffle is a vast head fake so that the @GOP can run #ObamaCare #Lite through & pass it.

— IGotOverMachoGrande (@smitty_one_each) March 7, 2017

'Midterms come fast, GOP': Dana Loesch slams House Republican rollout of Obamacare 2.0 https://t.co/tGB4debPta

— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) March 7, 2017

AoSHQ: Repeal and Replace?

The Week: Wants Failure?

Doug Ross: Replace worse?

HotAir: GOP Healthcare DOA?

Regular Right Guy: Ryan and Obamacarelite

Powerline: The good part: reforming Medicare

AoSHQ: Healthcare for Dummies and What a POS

Heat Street: Paul Ryan's self inflicted Health Care Disaster

Rush Limbaugh: Does anyone know what insurance is anymore?

Victory Girls: The Good and the Bad (unfortunately too much bad)

Fox News: Let's first repeal Obamacare and then discuss how to replace it

Breitbart: Pence pushes Paul Ryan's Healthcare Reform Bill and Conservatives push back

Wombat: Power Line: Are Republicans Blowing It On Health Care? , American Thinker: Obama’s Rasputin Moves Into The Bunker, and Weasel Zippers: Secret Service Agent Says Obamagate Will Blow Open This Week, also, Trump Busts Planned Parenthood Narrative With Funding Offer

I agree with @MikeLeeforUtah. Do you? #RepealAndReplace https://t.co/oFygBy8Tu0

— Ali (@ali) March 8, 2017

Rush Limbaugh: Swords drawn on Obamacare Repeal

Wombat: Megan McArdle: The Republican Plan – Even Worse Than Obamacare and American Power: Tough Resistance To GOP’s #Obamacare Overhaul

Why the Trump Administration emphasis on family leave assistance?

Instapundit: LA Times: Hmmmm: Is it all about long term demographics?

As a fiscal conservative, I am profoundly skeptical about expanding entitlements, but I recognize the need for more Americans to have more kids. And not single parents (which we encourage and subsidize secondarily through programs like WIC), but married couples raising bigger families. Is that what this Trump push is about?  

Maybe, although I think the explanation is more simple that that. Trump proposing this it freaks out Democrats because Trump is seeking to steel issues from them that they pander to to gain votes. But the trouble with pandering for votes with entitlements is where does it stop?  

EBL: Iraqi Asylum Seekers Are Into Education...

TOM: Don't Cry For Me Argentina

My how times change...

The U.S. Government paid out over two trillion dollars in benefits (alone) last year.

Total revenue in 2013 was 2.8 trillion, but the U.S. government had a deficit of $ 680 billion last year.

The deficits have gone down some, but not enough. These type of deficits are not sustainable. If interest rates go up, the debt service will end up eating a giant bite out of this and will throw everything into chaos.

Giving every baby a $1,000...

I am not for expanding state entitlements, but as this one goes (in general concept) it is not a bad idea.  And I would be into adding another $1,000 into a medical expense account.

I would propose this be funded from earned income credits.  That instead of giving cash, they go into accounts like this and pay out on retirement.  

Disability and Chronic Unemployment: Are they the new welfare?

Disability in the United States has been growing faster than it supposedly should.  I say supposedly because things government did were supposed to curtail disability (such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, advances in medicine, less physically demanding jobs, etc.).  But this entitlement program is expanding, and it has been doing so for decades, mostly to accommodate older workers who can't readily find good paying jobs (or any jobs) any more.  Jonah Goldberg asked earlier this week if disability is the new welfare?  Right now disability payments and costs dwarf the food stamp program and welfare combined.

And if you think this is just the right wing talking, NPR's This American Life noted the trends in its story, Unfit for Work, about the new trends in disability.  And Ira Glass and This American Life caught a lot of flack from the left over it.  Ira Glass and This American Life are standing by the story.

While the on going recession/lack luster growth over the past eight years is certainly not helping, disability has been growing steadily over the past 30 years (basically since Gingrich and Clinton reformed welfare).  And while I agree with Jonah a bit more scrutiny on actual disability factors is warranted, this letter from a disability lawyer to Jonah suggests disability is hiding (and mitigating) more endemic problems on where our economy and work force are going?  As that lawyer's letter to Goldberg notes, disability is essentially early retirement for the poor.  This is not a situation that is easily fixed politically.  There are a lot of voters getting these benefits, both from the left and the right of the political spectrum.  And since states pay for the bulk of welfare, but the federal government pays for disabilities, the emphasis by local government is to support disabilities expending.

We keep hearing how workers are dropping out of unemployment.  But dependency is not something that should be encouraged.  Disability helps encourage that.  And it is not as simple as calling it a scam or fraud: For a lot of these workers they lose their jobs, they are older and their health is naturally deteriorating (and often their past jobs are a contributing factor to the health conditions they have), they lose health care, their health gets worse, and before you know it even if they were marginally disabled before, they are actually disabled over time.  It is a vicious cycle that is encouraged by perverse incentives in the current system.

John Boehner is annoying, useless, and really needs to go...

Apparently there are enough votes to get rid of Boehner.  And there are big battles left to fight.  But with Paul Ryan's disappointing vote, Ryan is no longer a candidate to replace him.

Update:
Protein Wisdom:  Why even have a GOP?
EBL: The New GOP Mascot
Blogmocracy:  Screwed!
Ace/Krauthammer:  GOP = Surrender Monkeys
Red State:  Silver Linings?  Not too much...
Right Scoop:  Erik Erickson makes pitch that Boehner is better than Cantor (I am not sure about that, but Cantor is not to be trusted either)
Shark Tank:  Weepy Boehner capitulates.
Weasel Zippers:  Boehner either resigns or is forced out tomorrow?  

Are you a "half full" or "half empty" sort of person?

Ross Douthat:  The fundamental problem with Obama's war on the rich...

Is a Democratic Party that shies away from raising taxes on the $250,000-a-year earner (or the $399,999-a-year earner, for that matter) in 2013 — when those increases are happeningly automatically! — really going to find it easier to raise taxes on families making $110,000 in 2017 or 2021? Color me skeptical: The lesson of these negotiations seems to be that Democrats are still skittish about anything that ever-so-remotely resembles a middle class tax increase, let alone the much larger tax increases (which would eventually have to hit people making well below $100,000 as well) that their philosophy of government ultimately demands. 

Agreeing that the New Year’s bargain bodes ill for the liberal vision of government doesn’t require believing that Paul Ryan’s vision of government is poised to triumph instead. Here I agree with Scheiber: Because Social Security and Medicare are so popular, the right-wing path to fiscal sustainability does sometimes have an air of fantasy about it. It’s just that on the evidence of what the Obama White House and Senate Democrats have been willing to concede this week, the left-wing path to solvency looks pretty implausible right now as well.

Can you choose both?   Here is Instapundit's proposal:

That’s the problem with that whole war on the rich. Obama’s enemies are the small-business Kulaks, who vote Republican, but he can’t go after them without hurting the nobles who support Democrats financially.
I’d push 5% per year cuts in federal spending across the board — no “flexible freeze” BS — and do it each year until the deficit was under control. I think this would sell fairly well politically, too. Nobody believes that any federal department couldn’t cut costs 5% without impacting performance.

Then again Legal Insurrection is definitely leaning half empty...  I liked the comment that Hookers put up more resistance than the GOP did.   Well of course, hookers demand payment first.

Update:
John Boehner is annoying and needs to go.  

From an Instapundit reader: Good advice going forward...

READER MARK WILSON WRITES: “Whenever a Republican mentions the ‘Bush tax cuts,’ they should also talk about going back to the ‘Clinton tax rates.’ If we go over the fiscal cliff, make sure people know what they are experiencing are the Clinton tax rates. It’ not too early to start thinking about 2016, when another Clinton may be running for office.”

Posted at 8:23 am by Glenn Reynolds    

Karl Rove Explains What The 2012 Election Teaches The GOP...

The Architect

This is what Karl Rove just said the WSJ.  Here is the real lesson:  Don't Listen to Karl Rove.

I don't normally tout the NYT, but ouch.

Okay, that is an over statement.  Karl Rove was not the only one who blew the Election 2012 prediction.  Hell, I wanted to believe too (and convinced myself it was true).  But Karl Rove was flat out wrong.

We need to remember Karl Rove is often wrong.  Rove was especially wrong in talking W into that Medicare prescription drug expansion back in the day.  Rove is wrong, the prescription drug plan was not a good idea--it was an unfunded increase of entitlement obligations intended to buy votes in Florida.  Guess what, it is not helping us either politically or as a matter of policy.  That is an issue every conservative needs to remember.

That said, at least Rove is admitting he was wrong this time and is saying it is time to look at objective evidence to figure out what went wrong.  Karl points out that he did not take a salary or even expenses from Crossroads.  While commendable, Crossroads did not perform as planned.  I do not trust Karl (alone) to do it, we do need to look objectively at what went wrong.  Update:  How to prevent another ORCA

Take it with a grain of salt.  Or a fifty pound bag.

Update:
Federalism is not the same as federalize!
Rodan at the Blogmocracy says conservative money may be better spent on this...
Prior EBL Post:  What happens to loser GOP consultants? 

Yes Democrat Ron Wyden helped build Paul Ryan's Medicare Fix

Ron Wyden is protesting being linked with Paul Ryan...yet here is Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) in 2011, touting his bi partisan plan for Medicare he developed with Paul Ryan.

Professor Jacobson at Legal Insurrection notes that Democrats are panicking since their planned lies about Ryan are being frustrated by one of their own being involved with Ryan's proposals.

Lies?  The truth is the Democrats are gutting Medicare for the benefit of Obamacare.  Charles Krauthammer and NRO note that Democrats are scrambling to define Paul Ryan in a negative light.  The Democrats want to win this election.  Barack Obama's policies and results cannot be run on, they have failed.  So the only way to win is to lie about Romney and Ryan.   Which reminds me of this...

While we wait for Mitt's vice president pick later this morning: Mark Steyn warns us all to wake up!

Mark is pretty critical of Mitt Romney's languor, and rightly so.  There does not seem much of a sense of urgency.  I am not suggesting Mitt Romney be in a panic, like McCain was in 2008.  But four years of Obama policies have made things far worse than they were then.  We are at a crisis moment and pretending that is not true will not make the crisis go away.

Which is why I hope it is Paul Ryan tomorrow.  Ryan is serious about spending and entitlement issues. He knows we have a spending problem.

And the Ryan budget is hardly radical, it is the minimum solution to the crisis we are facing.  A quick google of Ryan Budget will show several pages of Democrat attacks on it.  Those attacks are specious.

If I were to use a move analogy, we are just before midnight on the Poseidon and the tsunami is coming:

And while Mitt is rather Milquetoast, Ryan is more of a Gene Hackman.  He has a plausible plan and is trying to implement it.  And Barack Obama is like those idiots arguing to stay put or head to the bow.  

"Right now, Obama is watching video of Paul Ryan dismantling Tim Geithner, while Joe Biden asks for help assembling his Happy Meal toy."
— Brent Shoemaker (@OklahomaBuff) August 11, 2012

AUGUST 11, 2012

IOWAHAWK: “Paul Ryan represent Obama’s most horrifying nightmare: math.”

Related: Paul Ryan needs to use @iowahawkblog’s line: “You know what will end Medicaid as we know it? Medicaid as we know it.”

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 10:19 am

Twitchy notes the Wee Man is back (the comments and replies are comedy gold):

I've debated Paul Ryan. He won't help Romney.
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) August 11, 2012

The economy is really soarin? The reality we cannot ignore...

Weeeeeeeeee!

Foreign exchange going lower in Greece...
Stepping down on the gas not the breaks
Commodity prices plunge...
Facebook falling...

Gravity is our biggest enemy...

Temples are collapsing around us...
The barometer is dropping...
The economy is sinking...
Facebook plunges...

h/t:  A Train Wreck in Maxwell (on the car shot).  

Karl Rove: Voters need reasons to like Mitt Romney...

The Architect

It is articles like this that make me think Crack Emcee and Jeff Goldstein are absolutely right about telling the GOP to do something to itself...   And this is not criticism of their position,  CE and JG are generally right (it is a rational decision to declare a pox on both houses...).  The problem is not reasons to like Mitt Romney, but all the reasons why conservatives do not like him.  I have no idea how Mitt Romney will be as President (other than I believe he will be better than Barack Obama--but that is not saying a lot).  But a conservative champion I am almost certain he will not be.  And the GOP is a leprous entity that has betrayed conservatives and conservative ideals at every turn.  Talking about Karl Rove, here is just one example...

But here are two reasons to vote for Mitt Romney this fall:

1) Even if we get control of the Senate this cycle and keep the House, neither will have a veto proof majority.  So we need a President who can sign bills generated by Congress (to reverse some of the damage done by the Democrats and Barack Obama).  That was Grover Norquist's position at CPAC (any of the GOP candidates if elected will at least do that).

2) Judicial appointments.

But any long term success depends on voting conservative down ticket, from local elections, to state, to Congress.

Update:

• Althouse posted this video today:  How about a little game theory...
• Gag:  Rob Portman for veep (the constant leaks makes you think the deal is done...)
• Kristol:  Romney wins by staying above the fray?  How about Romney winning by being a principled conservative?   Sorry Bill, looks like Romney is going with Portman (a Bush-Rovian, what could go wrong?), not Ryan.  The last two updates makes me swing closer to where CE and JG are.  I feel dirty...I need a shower.
• The Other McCain:  Jeff Goldstein is not ready to don saffron robes and chant Hare-Mitt-Nu...
• Mitch and Rob make the pitch for being Mitt's date to the prom (they want to be pop-u-lar!).  
• The Blogmocracy and Victor Davis Hanson on why Mitt has a decent chance of winning.  Problem is that items 3 and 4 have been undercut by Mitt calling Barack Obama a nice guy.  Michelle Malkin is of course right.  
• This "Wayne" dude just managed to push me over to the PW/CM position.  

Titanic: The rescue of the survivors...

The rescue of the survivors...

Related Posts:

El Polo Real (the place for Titanic Posts)

The Conservatory (Joy McCann has a very good post)

DaTechGuy comments on Joy's post and notes the theme of cowardice...

We still have not learned the lesson of hubris.  The current debt crisis an iceberg to the economy (and essentially the collision has already taken place and we are sinking although we may not fully grasp the implications of what is going to happen).  The Paul Ryan budget plan is hardly a radical cure but a minimum set of actions.  Think of that as our Carpathia.

Update:
A lot of people do not realize the Titanic is real.  Even more do not grasp the impact our budget deficits will have on our futures.  I would suggest moving to the life boats...

Why we are so screwed: The U.S. Economy and Medical Entitlements...

This is the U.S. Economy

This is the iceberg

• Debt is the issue facing us...
• Medicare is unsustainable in its current form.  
• Medicare reforms are not being adopted...meaning if they are adopted later the fiscal shock and impact of those changes will only be worse.  
• The Bush-Rove Medicare Prescription Drug Expansion is not as bad ask originally projected, but it is still running 60 billion dollars a year (and that will only go up as more baby boomers go into retirement).  
• The Obama Administration budget is not addressing the underlying problems.
• A memo shows the Obama administration knew in 2008 how bad the economy was and continued on the current path anyway.
• Where are the jobs?
• We got nothing from the stimulus other than debt.
• Obamacare is making all of this far worse. 
• Geithner admits the Dems have no solutions...

I am waiting for the GOP candidates to lay out why the Paul Ryan budget is necessary.  They seem afraid to say it.  I doubt the collision can be avoided, but I would like to think of these budget reforms as the Carpathia.  The Ryan budget is not a radical solution, it is a minimal solution.  Things truly are that bad.