The Czar loves getting mail. But the truth is this: the worse things get out there, the more mail he receives. And we are sad to confess, as you have noticed, the Czar has been getting a lot of mail lately. Keep it coming: this site is read by lots of people, some of whom are pretty influential, you know. Your voices need to be heard, and we will help you raise them.

Mark Spahn, yes, he of West Seneca, New York, writes to announce:

President Obama has campaigned for years for a health-insurance regime under which “If you like your current health insurance, you can keep it. Period.”

And yet, behind his back, Nancy Pelosi in the House of Representatives and Harry Reid in the Senate contrived to befuddle him with a 2,000-page law that makes existing health insurance illegal (because “not up to our high standards”). And Pelosi bragged about the deception, saying that you’ll see what we’ve done after this becomes law.

Republican loyalists stood with the President in opposing this move, but they were outvoted.

Following up on that, Island Dweller adds:

Dread and awful Czar, smacker of pates in exasperation, bane of liberals,

I bring you a short knee-slapper from James Carville, from a couple of days ago:

POLITICO
Tal Kopan
11-11-13

Democratic strategist James Carville said Monday in light of President Barack Obama’s declining poll numbers, maybe he should take a page from an infamous Canadian mayor.

“I think the best thing he can do is take a toke on the mayor of Toronto’s crack pipe, because his numbers are about 48,” Carville joked on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” referring to Rob Ford, who has admitted smoking crack.

“I think we can stop putting the nails in the coffin here. We can admit that there’s some real, deep, fundamental problems with this president. But I think we’re throwing the dirt here too soon,” Carville said. “The deficit is dropping as a percentage of GDP faster than any time since World War II. He saved the auto industry. Health care costs are flattening better than any time in the last 20 years. Teenage pregnancy is at an all-time low.”

“Obama’s problem, I think, is he’s a man in politics that doesn’t like politics,” Carville said.

Carville’s damn right, there is something deeply, fundamentally flawed with Dear Leader, and it’s already far too late to worry about throwing dirt. We’re in serious trouble as a nation, folks, and those in charge are clearly in over their heads. I can’t answer for the deficit v. GDP, not enough time to search that out. Saving the auto industry??? They got a temporary reprieve following a lot of compromising from the labor unions that ruined that same industry, at least in part – not to mention the involuntary assistance rendered by JQ Public, who will never see most if not all that bailout money returned. I don’t know what Carville’s talking about re: health care costs, and I don’t think he knows, either – maybe he can ask some of the 52 million who have already lost or are going to lose their health insurance about what medical care is going to cost. I would hazard a guess at least a part of the reported drop in teenage pregnancy – if it is in fact occurring – is due to the availability of aborticide in this country. And, really, right now – what the hell does teenage pregnancy have to do in the short term with the basic survival of this nation that is in grave danger?

About the only thing I can agree with Mr. Carville is that last quote in the article, which I believe accurately sums up at least a part of DL’s worldview.

ID

The problem runs pretty deep. The Czar has every expectation that Barack Obama had little understanding of what the presidency was about, and had no inkling of the massive responsibility that follows with the job. The basically wants to screw around and play golf all day, eat at nice restaurants, and meet celebrities. If he had a sliver of common business sense, he would understand that this comes at a terrible cost.

Yes, we believe that he kind of hopes he would lose the presidency just so he could go back to his quieter life.

Meanwhile, some intriguing notes from our dear operative erc:

Your Czarness:

I forwarded a link to your post to the usual suspects, along with some commentary. You are, of course, correct in your explanation, but you may be amused by some of my comments. One hopes.

I fear that you are pretty much preaching to the choir, but maybe the choir is getting larger.

Several notes:

• Health insurance is not health care. Health insurance is a means of sharing risk in order to pay for health care. Like all forms of insurance, most people will pay more for it than they would for the health care they consume, but a few will pay less. Health insurance is, like gambling, a zero sum game. It does not create any more health care providers or resources, it simply redistributes costs.
• When I was in Uncle Sam’s Green Machine, I did not have health insurance. I had health care. When I was an enlisted man, if I was sick, I declared it at morning roll call, and after everyone was determined to either be present or otherwise accounted for, the order would be given: “Sick, lame and lazy fall out”, after which we could go the the clinic or hospital if sick,and retire to the barracks or dayroom if previously treated and on light duty or bed rest. (We could go to the mess hall for breakfast, first, if we felt up to it.)

  Later, as an officer, I could just call in to my boss and go to the clinic on my own.

  The standard of care was not high and there was a lot of waiting time, but we had health care and, if injured, we would be moved to a fairly decent hospital, where the care was pretty good.

• The Affordable Care Act was a sham from the beginning. It promised the impossible, i.e. that coverage would increase at a reduced cost. Can’t happen: No perpetual motion, water does not flow uphill, gas molecules do not move from a region of low pressure to a region of high pressure, there ain’t no free lunch.

  It is possible for a lunch to be free to a person or group of people, but only if another person or group of people pay for it. It is also possible for a person to win a large sum of money in a casino, but overall the patrons of the casino lose. Their losses fund that casino and they fund the winners as well. The casino has no skin in the game. Like bookies, they just facilitate the transfer of funds from the losers to the winners. (Sound familiar?)

• It is possible that many of the folks who voted for the Affordable Care Act (or, cynically “deemed it passed”), did not understand this basic fact. That is why many of them are Democrats. (Republicans are less likely to share in this fallacy, but they have other bad habits.) Others of them were aware of this principle, but again, cynically, went along in order to preserve the fraud that their party perpetuates: that there is, so, a free lunch.

  I do not know which category our President falls within.

• As an “Old Person”, as legally defined by Mr. Johnson’s Great Society, I am covered by Medicare. I am covered whether I wish it or not. [My better half] will be entered into its rolls two Decembers for now. If she loses her health coverage between now and then, she may decide to go bare for the year or less.

  I have a private physician under Medicare and I have supplemental insurance to cover some of the things that they do not cover. I do not regard healthcare as entertainment, although there are people who do. They abuse the system and, as constituted, there is not much that will stop them. I am content with what I have although I had ittle choice in the system.

• The lack of signups for the ACA policies show that if there WAS a clamor among the public for a sweeping change to the health care insurance system, then the ACA is not it. Be careful what you wish for, you may get it.
• The signups for the ACA will prove to be from mostly among those uninsured with pre-existing conditions or those who were otherwise uninsurable due to economic and or behavioral factors. People tend to act in what they perceive as their best interest. (In which case they may be crazy but they ain’t stupid.) Their perceptions may be at odds with reality, (in which case, they may be both crazy and stupid).
• Our government lies to us. The media lies to us. Many businesses lie to us, (but they, at least, can be held liable if we are damaged by their lies, unlike our government and the media).
• If Obamacare is the answer, it must have been a stupid question.

/ erc

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.