Death of the individual mandate.
Susan had a decision to make.
She could buy healthcare for her and her husband or not.
It was a difficult decision because both options would hurt them financially.
She calculated that she would have to spend more than $12,000, including premiums of nearly $500 a month and a $6,850 deductible, to get anything beyond preventive benefits from the cheapest exchange plan available to her through the Affordable Care Act.
That was a great deal more than paying the $1500 penalty.
So, Susan decided to take a chance and not buy healthcare. Instead, she would pay for her family’s doctor’s visits out of pocket and if something catastrophic were to happen, she said: “I feel like it’s better just to die.”
It may be a little dramatic, but Susan’s situation is not unique. In 2016, 6.5 million Americans, in order to comply with the individual mandate in Obamacare, decided to just pay the penalty instead of buying healthcare.
The individual mandate has been an unconstitutional nightmare since it was signed into law.
But today there is hope that we can forget this whole mandate fever dream for good.
The Senate Republicans have added the repeal of the individual mandate to their tax reform plan.
It’s definitely a step in the right direction.
Stopping unconstitutional laws and not starting them is a good rule of thumb for this administration.
Roy Moore Update
How many more hits can Roy Moore absorb before he drops out of his Senate race?
Last night, the RNC withdrew its financial support of Moore’s campaign.
Also, yesterday Paul Ryan called for Moore to withdraw from the race and Mitch McConnell said if elected, Moore will face an immediate Ethics Committee investigation – yes, the Senate actually has one of those.
Moore tweeted that “the fight has just begun” and that McConnell’s days as Senate majority leader are numbered. He used the catchy hashtag “DitchMitch.”
Moore’s wife, Kayla, has been using Facebook to try to defend her man. She shared a story yesterday claiming the “Olde Hickory Restaurant,” where one of the alleged sexual assaults by Roy took place, did not exist. A few minutes of research in an old-fashioned establishment called the town library, however, confirmed that the restaurant did in fact exist.
Mrs. Moore also shared a letter signed by 53 pastors urging people to vote for Roy. The letter praises Moore for things like “his immovable convictions for Biblical principles.” That’s good, right? Yeah, except that letter was written in August. And Mrs. Moore’s re-post left out the date, implying that this endorsement is current. So far, three pastors have said they’d like their names removed from the letter.
Despite this circus, Moore still leads his Democratic opponent, Doug Jones, by 6 points.
The fact that Moore is still ahead tells us exactly what’s wrong with our politics. And it’s not that Moore is guilty, yet still in the race because we don’t know that he’s guilty for a fact. I believe these women’s stories, but we don’t know for certain he actually did those things. Our problem is a total lack of consistency – on the Left and the Right. Listen to what Jake Tapper said about this on CNN…
Thank you! Finally. Was it that hard for someone on the Left to admit this? In the 1990s, Bill Clinton’s accusers described events that had happened within the previous 10-20 years. Roy Moore’s accusers are talking about things that happened 40 years ago. Why then, have the Moore allegations received nearly instant acceptance, even though the allegations are twice as old? Again, I find the Moore accusers believable. But we must be consistent on both sides of the aisle. If we don’t, we are lying, and we lose all credibility.
Is this the end of Robert Mugabe?
This is not a military takeover. I repeat, this is not a military takeover.
That was what Zimbabwe Defense Forces announced yesterday when their military vehicles and more than 100 troops crowded the capital and at least three explosions were set off.
Mugabe’ army explained that they were, “only targeting criminals around Mugabe who are committing crimes that are causing social and economic suffering in the country in order to bring them to justice.”
Sure…sounds a lot like a military takeover to me.
The turmoil within Mugabe’s army comes after the 93-year-old dictator fired his deputy and longtime ally last week, who had the military’s support.
That deputy was next in line to run the country in the event of Mugabe’s death when he was swiftly dismissed and the ancient dictator appointed his wife Grace to that role instead.
That move is usually a big no-no within unstable dictatorships. That’s like “Dictator 101.” You can’t willy-nilly appoint your wife to the next highest position at the last minute and screw over your friends and not expect repercussions.
For 37 years, Mugabe has ruled supreme without a whisper of a military coup. But it looks like that is about to change, finally.
Maybe this will be a good thing. I have to imagine anyone overthrowing Mugabe will do a better job for Zimbabwe. But I could be wrong.
A spokesman for the Zimbabwe Defense Forces announced that "As soon as we accomplish our mission we expect the situation to return to normalcy.”
The problem is, the people of Zimbabwe have never known normalcy. And whatever the Zimbabwe Defense Force’s idea of normal is—it’s nowhere close to the normal we know.