Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Obama Doesn't Just Want to Take Your Health Insurance Away - He Wants Your Job Too!

I see that the president is out promoting an increase in the minimum wage.
Barack Obama will repeat his call for an increase in the minimum wage to close an ever-growing inequality gap in a speech delivered in one of the poorest corners of the nation's capital.
I thought that Peggy Noonan was right when she said, yesterday, "... the administration is full of young people who’ve seen the movie but not read the book."

But, maybe, they haven't even see the movie.  At least they haven't seen this one!

Sunday, December 1, 2013

A Bipartisan Fix for ObamaCare: Chick-fil-A or Five Guys Burgers and Fries?

When I started into today's New York Times article on fixing Healthcare.gov I noted the length (7 on-line pages!) and was expecting one of those old-time, encyclopedic articles like one of many on the Challenger explosion

It was pretty light on facts but heavy on politics and emotion.  While revealing nothing the techies among us haven't been buzzing about for weeks, it did have these gems:
  • ... the moved satisfied most Democrats. Only 39 voted with Republicans to alter the health law, far fewer than the White House had feared.
  • “Just attack us,” Mr. Biden said, according to one person present. “Blame us.”
  • Now it was about a broken promise. But for Mr. Obama, the mounting criticism was more than political. It felt personal.  
  • That morning, an aide to the secretary woke up and burst into tears. “We are taking arrows every day,” she said.
Well, I just can't go on any more.  Read the whole damn thing.

But if you just want evidence that the effort to make the fix is apolitical - or maybe even bipartisan - just skip to page six for this description of the command and control structure - emphasis added:
The war room — a command center known internally as the Exchange Operation Center, or X.O.C. — takes up the fourth floor of a nondescript office building that sits next to a shopping mall, close enough for frequent food runs to Chick-fil-A or Five Guys Burgers and Fries.
Yes, it is once again OK to mention Chick-fil-A in Washington and New York.  (Chicago, probably not so much.)  So let's get re-write on the case and make that "Chick-fil-A or and Five Guys Burgers and Fries."

Update:
Yeah, I know I'm not the only one fascinated by the Chick-fil-A reference.