US Health Care Tab Hits $3.2 Trillion; Fastest Growth in 8 Years

The nation's health care tab grew at the fastest rate in eight years in 2015, driven by the coverage expansion in President Barack Obama's law and by costly prescription drugs, the government said Friday.
The growth of 5.8 percent in 2015 boosted total health care spending to $3.2 trillion. That's an average of $9,990 per person, although the vast share of that money is spent caring for the sickest patients.
Health spending grew about 2 percentage points faster than the overall economy in 2015, said the report from nonpartisan economic experts at the Department of Health and Human Services. That's a problem because it makes it harder for government programs, employers, and individuals to afford the level of health care that Americans are used to having.

The report was disappointing news for the outgoing Obama administration, which had enjoyed a long stretch of historically low increases in health care spending, and had sought to credit its 2010 health care overhaul for taming costs. It's a reality check for President-elect Donald Trump, who did not focus much on health care during his campaign and implied that problems could be easily fixed.
America has struggled for decades to balance health care cost, access, and quality. Obama's law made significant strides to expand access, and the report found nearly 91 percent of U.S. residents now have coverage. But the problem of costs has re-emerged. That's partly because people with health insurance use more medical care than the uninsured, who tend to postpone going to the doctor. Some of the newly insured turned out to be sicker than those who were already covered.

http://www.newsmax.com/US/health-care-spending-hits/2016/12/04/id/762070/ 

A Problem Like Keith Ellison

And the more serious question of the Muslim Brotherhood Keith Ellison (or Keith E. Hakim, or Keith X. Ellison, or Keith Muhammad, etc.) is campaigning for office. Not for the safe House seat he holds, but for the leadership of the Democratic party, a job until recently held by the hilariously incompetent and boundlessly vapid Debbie Wasserman Schultz (who was forced to resign — “resign” here meaning “transfer formally to the Clinton campaign” — when she was exposed conniving to stack the presidential primary elections against Senator Bernie Sanders (S., Portlandia)), who was temporarily replaced by Donna Brazile, who was exposed leaking debate questions to the Clinton campaign, a violation of trust for which she remains adamantly impenitent. Republicans should take a minute to simply enjoy all this before getting on to the serious business at hand. If they cannot have Debbie Wasserman Schultz organizing opposition to them, former Farrakhan fanboy Keith Ellison of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party is a great second choice.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/442739/keith-ellison-islamic-radical

Will Obama pardon Clinton and cement his legacy?

President Barack Obama cares deeply about his legacy.
So will he dare pardon Hillary Clinton?
Before there's any more talk of carving out a chunk of Mt. Rushmore for him, or more talk of statues or temples in his name, there is that Hillary Clinton pardon issue.
Would Obama give his former secretary of state a preemptory get-out-of-jail card before he leaves office and turns the White House over to Donald Trump?
 And if he does pardon Clinton, what of all the promises he and his operatives made to the nation, that he would "transcend" the cynical, broken politics of the past?
You'd see that phrase, or others just like it, echoed by hopium-smoking pundits of the left, by Democratic Party operatives posing as analysts on TV and even woven into the narrative of supposedly neutral news stories. There was great faith invested in such talk, predicated on the belief that the slogan would become fact. And the old cynicism would be gone.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kass/ct-president-obama-clinton-kass-1204-20161202-column.html 

Congress Gives FBI Power to Hack Computers of Millions of Americans

Congress just failed to block a change to a federal rule of criminal procedure granting the FBI power to hack into the personal computers of millions of Americans without obtaining a constitutionally sound warrant as required by the Fourth Amendment.

On November 30, a last-ditch effort by a bipartisan quartet of senators to stall the rule change that cleared the FBI’s access to personal computers failed in committee, thus the new language is in effect as of December 1.

Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Christopher Coons (D-Del.), and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) co-sponsored S. 3485, the Stalling Damaging Hacking Act of 2016 in a now abortive attempt to prevent the federal law enforcement agency from gaining immense and intrusive access to the personal computers of citizens of the United States.

“This rule change would give the government unprecedented authority to hack into Americans’ personal devices. This was an alarming proposition before the election,” Wyden said in a statement e-mailed to BuzzFeed News. “Today, Congress needs to think long and hard about whether to hand this power to [FBI Director] James Comey and the administration of someone who openly said he wants the power to hack his political opponents the same way Russia does.”

http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/24767-congress-gives-fbi-power-to-hack-computers-of-millions-of-americans

Trump’s Win is a Warning: Europe Urgently Needs a New Deal

President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s policies allowed the United States to avoid the perils of right-wing populism that plunged Europe into war in the 1930s — Europe should learn from his example

It is like a cruel remake: First came globalization with its ensuing golden years; then the crash followed resulting in the crisis of confidence and unbridled popular rage —until eventually, almost everywhere, right-wing Pied Pipers emerged to challenge for power. This happened in the 1920s and ’30s following the great financial crisis, and the pattern appears to be repeating itself today: First came the “party years”, then the crash — however, with one distinctive difference since Election Tuesday: Unlike the European crises of 80 years ago, this time even the USA has been seized with a frightful political shock.

Given these developments, the following question comes to mind: What had the Americans done better in the past — in particular what had former President Franklin D. Roosevelt done better in a comparable historical situation? Elucidating this question could help us understand what went wrong this time. More importantly, it could help us to recognize what the Europeans should hasten to learn without delay, before a similar disaster unfolds (again!) on their continent.

Perhaps better sooner than later, Europe needs a New Deal on the scale employed by Roosevelt to counteract crises, enraged citizens, and fears of an economic crash. A bit of stability masochism and pension cosmetics à la Schäuble, Nahles and Merkel will hardly suffice to stop the rising demagogues.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/12/trumps-win-is-a-warning-europe-urgently-needs-a-new-deal.html

The Unpopular Truth About The Popular Vote

Have you heard the news that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote? Unless you live under a rock you likely have stumbled across a barista or aspiring novelist mumbling something about how the Electoral College is unfair and undemocratic and how electors should follow “the will of the people” and vote for Hillary on Dec. 19. Because “democracy!” or something.

If we lived in a democracy, they’d have a point. Thankfully, we do not.

What too many of these uneducated and unshowered drum circlers don’t know, or don’t care to know, is the popular vote is a meaningless unit of measure. The Electoral College exists, and it is how we determine who is president. We are a union of states, hence the name United States of America, not singular blob on a map. Candidates must appeal to a broad swath of the nation with differing and sometimes conflicting interests. It’s a brilliant system.

Donald Trump didn’t campaign in California because there was no point in campaigning in California. Unless Los Angeles and San Francisco fell into the ocean, the state wasn’t in play. This left a lot of potential Republican voters deciding to skip the lines on Election Day. Same goes for New York.

http://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2016/12/04/the-unpopular-truth-about-the-popular-vote-n2254534

Fidel Castro and His MSM Sycophants

Forbes estimated Fidel Castro’s wealth at $900 million while the country he ruled with an iron fist, 11.39 million people, lived in poverty and dignified squalor under his boot. The deceased “El Comandante” Castro left behind a huge fortune, a private island called Caya Piedra, mansions, a marina with his private yacht called Aquarama, bank accounts, an alleged gold mine, and thousands of worthless Marxist speeches.

Celebrity guests who have enjoyed Castro’s lavish hospitality on the island of Caya Piedra included the Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the French underwater explorer, Jacques Cousteau. Nothing but the best for western elitist visitors, they were never taken to the slums where Cubans were forced to live, playing dominoes and making beautiful music to soothe their trapped bodies and souls.

Why God would keep such an evil man alive to the ripe old age of 90 is a mystery. The longer he lived, the more people he tortured and kept chained to his utopian idea of how God’s free people should live.

Castro enslaved and oppressed his people for 59 years while giving them speeches about the wonders of Marxism and the evils of capitalism. He tortured and killed an estimated 15,000 of his own citizens who dared to object to his proletariat hell.

The lucky ones escaped to Miami and made a good life for themselves, others drowned at sea in ingenious and desperate makeshift vessels, trying to flee this Marxist paradise that kept them in chains spiritually, economically, ideologically, and physically.

After decades of brainwashing, Castro created a perfect police state of fear and terror, run by his henchmen, loyal to his failed ideology that rewarded only the top elites running this beautiful island. Evidence that this man was insane surfaced early in 1959 when he appeared in pajamas on black and white American television in his first public appearance in an interview with Edward R. Morrow.

http://canadafreepress.com/article/fidel-castro-and-his-msm-sycophants