Skip to content

Category Archives: Government BS

LAZY CAKES & DIETARY PATERNALISM

In a Human Events column about the never-ending government quest to micromanage every aspect of our lives, Dr. Paul Hsieh and Michelle Minton discuss the paternalism at the heart of some proposed FDA rules for dietary supplements:
We’ve all heard parents say that to their children at the grocery store checkout line countless times. While it may […]

Posted 14 September 2011 † Catron § FDA BS ‡ Comments (0)

VIDEO: MILTON FRIEDMAN ON THE PERILS OF GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT IN HEALTH CARE

This brilliant man explained more than three decades ago why government involvement in medicine always results in lower quality care and more restricted access. He uses Britain’s government-run system, which is (I’ll remind you again) the favorite health care system of Obama’s Medicare czar Donald Berwick, as an example of what inevitably happens when a government bureaucracy gets […]

Posted 23 August 2011 † Catron § Berwick BS § Economics BS § NHS BS ‡ Comments (0)

SHOCKER: GOVT PROBABLY UNDERESTIMATING REAL COST OF MEDICARE BY $6 TRILLION

I know this will be hard to believe of those paragons of fiscal precision inside the Beltway, but it appears that official estimates of Medicare’s unfunded liability are too low:
Medicare’s long-term liabilities already are among the biggest drivers of future federal budget deficits. But the burden on taxpayers may be $6 trillion larger than official estimates.
Surely […]

Posted 18 August 2011 † Catron § Bankruptcy BS § Cost BS § Medicare BS ‡ Comments (0)

HSIEH ON THE DOWNGRADE: DEMS DECIDE TO SHOOT THE MESSENGER

Paul Hsieh has, in his latest contribution to Pajamas Media, found the perfect metaphor for the creepy reaction of the Democrats to the downgrade caused by their irresponsible policies:
Suppose you saw your doctor for a persistent headache. After performing a full battery of tests, he told you that your MRI scan showed a malignant brain tumor. Would you (1) […]

Posted 10 August 2011 † Catron § Bankruptcy BS § Democrat BS § Economics BS § Political BS ‡ Comments (0)

OBAMACARE COMMISSARS WILL TAKE OVER INSURANCE OVERSIGHT IN 10 STATES

Another day, another power grab by Obama’s apparatchiks. This time, they have decided that the hilariously titled Affordable Care Act empowers them to take over a function normally carried out by state regulators:
The Obama administration will soon take over the review of health insurance rates in 10 states where it says state officials do not adequately regulate premiums […]

Posted 26 July 2011 † Catron § Bureaucratic BS § Constitutional BS § Obamacare BS ‡ Comments (0)

MEDICARE, AT 45, HAS A MID-LIFE CRISIS

Medicare officially went into effect on July 1, 1966. And, as Avik Roy points out, it is the perfect case study in why government cost estimates for any entitlement program should be ignored by all sane voters:
When Medicare was enacted, the staff of the House Ways and Means Committee projected that its cost would grow from under […]

Posted 02 July 2011 † Catron § Cost BS § Dumb BS § Medicare BS ‡ Comments (0)

OBAMACARE’S SECRET SHOPPERS

Another day, another intimidation tactic. This time the “most transparent administration in history” will deploy government snoops who will call the doctor’s office and pretend to be patients:
Obama administration officials are recruiting a team of ‘mystery shoppers’ to pose as patients, call doctors’ offices and request appointments to see how difficult it is for people to get […]

Posted 27 June 2011 † Catron § Obamacare BS § Physician BS ‡ Comments (0)

HSIEH: DUDE, WHERE’S MY FREEDOM?

In his latest column for Pajamas Media, Paul Hsieh drives home the point that the battle over government-run health care is as much about individual liberty as it is about medicine:
Benjamin Franklin once warned Americans that ‘they who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.’ Yet in the seemingly unrelated […]

Posted 12 June 2011 † Catron § ACO BS § Obamacare BS § Romneycare BS § Universal BS ‡ Comments (5)

DOJ LAWYER WHO DEFENDED OBAMACARE LAST WEDNESDAY IN 11TH CIRCUIT RESIGNS

As I noted in my my recent American Spectator column, the government lawyer who defended ObamaCare before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals last week was Neal Katyal. Katyal has been acting U.S. Solicitor General since Elena Kagan, the former Solicitor General, was elevated to the U.S. Supreme Court. But he was passed over for the permanent […]

Posted 11 June 2011 † Catron § Constitutional BS § Kagan BS § Mandate BS § Obamacare BS ‡ Comments (0)

OBAMA DOJ TELLS SCOTUS THAT MEDICAID PATIENTS LACK LEGAL RIGHT TO SUE GOVT

One of the ways ObamaCare will “cover” the uninsured is by herding about 18 million people onto Medicaid. But the health care “reform” law doesn’t provide enough money to the states to pay for all these new enrollees. So, the states will increasingly have to cut provider payment rates.
This means that most of the “newly […]

Posted 01 June 2011 † Catron § Constitutional BS § Medicaid BS § Rationing BS ‡ Comments (1)