It’s now Day 22 of the Schumer Government Shutdown. I wrote about this recently when it was only Day 10. To learn why this shutdown is entirely due to Senate Minority Leader of the Democrats, Chuck Schumer, see that post called Schumer’s Government Shutdown.

In typical Democratic fashion, they are using scare tactics to frighten the American people. The latest example of this fearmongering is to warn that ObamaCare premiums will double if Republicans don’t cave to their demands.

It is true that ObamaCare subsidies that were increased by the Biden administration during the Covid pandemic are set to expire at the end of this year. The Covid emergency is over and extending these subsidies only adds billions to the already catastrophic deficit. What’s more, many of those who are receiving these subsidies are fraudulently claiming lower income levels than the truth but the Biden administration didn’t care. They literally let millions get away with fraud costing the taxpayers billions.

Therefore, when these temporarily increased subsidies expire it is likely that ObamaCare premiums will go up. But the real question is how much and who will be affected?

Chris Jacobs, founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group, tells The Wall Street Journal that Democrats are falsely claiming premiums will double. The basis for this misinformation is a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, better known as KFF.

Jacobs explains: “On Aug. 6, KFF published an analysis showing “a median proposed premium increase of 18%” for insurers’ exchange plans. But on Sept. 30, several of the same researchers issued a second report with a headline asserting that “premium payments would more than double” if enhanced subsidies expire. What happened? Did premium estimates for 2026 rise sixfold in one month? No. KFF’s second study was misleading. It used cleverly parsed terms—“premium payments” rather than “premiums”—to conflate total premiums with enrollees’ out-of-pocket payments. The two aren’t the same. Focusing on the latter to the exclusion of the former, as the September study did, omits important context.”

Even more surprising is that KFF admits the error. Cynthia Cox, a KFF vice president, confessed to Jacobs that the claim was inaccurate and said, “We do plan to update the graphic to be more precise.” But they didn’t advertise the mistake and edited the graphic without publicly disclosing its error.

KFF’s own work demonstrates that the federal government will still pay the vast majority of most enrollees’ premiums if the enhanced subsidies, first enacted under the Biden administration in 2021, end. Its analysis last July found that in 2024 the enhanced subsidies paid an average of 88% of enrollees’ overall premiums. Without them, the federal government would have paid an average of 78% of enrollees’ premiums last year. KFF hasn’t published a more recent analysis, but other groups have confirmed that federal dollars will continue to pay the lion’s share of most enrollees’ premiums if the enhanced subsidies expire.

Most exchange enrollees will face moderate increases in out-of-pocket costs in dollar terms. KFF estimated that the average enrollee will pay $1,016 more per year, or $84.67 more per month. A separate study from the Urban Institute concluded that households with incomes below 250% of the poverty level—who receive the richest subsidies, and comprise roughly three-quarters of all exchange enrollees—will pay an average of $750 more a year, or $62.50 monthly.

Some will face more-substantial costs if the enhanced subsidies expire. Whereas ObamaCare limited subsidy eligibility to households with incomes below four times the poverty level, the enhanced subsidies eliminated that cap. If the enhanced subsidies expire, the cap would return, and households with incomes just above it could face thousands of dollars in heightened costs. But even here, KFF data show that such households represent a mere 7% of enrollees. The Urban Institute estimated that the uninsured rate among this cohort would rise only modestly, because they “are more likely to pick up coverage from an employer” and “are more willing to pay the full premium.”

Jacobs concludes, “The left’s apocalyptic rhetoric about the expiration of the enhanced subsidies belies that federal taxpayers will still subsidize three-quarters of enrollees’ premium costs.”

The real solution to this problem is radical surgery on ObamaCare to fix the “root causes” of its rising costs. A good start would be eliminating the requirement that all plans must have the same “essential benefits” which means women must pay for premiums that include prostate exams and men must pay for coverage of mammograms. Even most politicians should recognize the absurdity of such insurance coverage.

Some tragedies are predictable; like people who use drugs laced with fentanyl. It’s only a matter of time until they die from fentanyl usage – which is 100 times more powerful than morphine. People who play Russian roulette; it’s inevitable that some time the bullet is going to be in the chamber and you’re going to die.

The latest example of this is drivers who use marijuana. It’s inevitable that someday they’re going to have a traffic accident and they’re going to die. If you’re using marijuana regularly you probably scoff at this suggestion – but statistics don’t lie.

The evidence for this is overwhelming. The Wall Street Journal editorial board was so concerned that they wrote an editorial called More Marijuana Users Are Crash Dummies. That headline ought to get your attention! Here’s what the editors had to say: “How much social and public-health damage will Americans suffer before doing a U-turn on marijuana promotion? A new study finds that more than 40% of drivers who died in car accidents in one U.S. county over the last six years had elevated levels of the drug in their blood.”

Researchers from Wright State University analyzed driver autopsy results from car crashes in Montgomery County, Ohio, between January 2019 and September 2024. More than four in 10 tested positive for pot’s psychoactive ingredient THC, with an average level of 30.7 nanograms. That’s more than six times the level most states use to define impairment.

Breathalyzers won’t detect recent marijuana use, which makes it hard for police to nab people who are driving while high. Today’s marijuana is five times more potent than the weed that Boomers smoked when they were younger, so it takes less to become impaired. Some studies suggest the percentage of THC in today’s marijuana is much higher than that.

Auto fatalities have increased over the last decade even as cars have become safer and alcohol consumption has fallen. Could marijuana be contributing to more reckless driving? It’s a fair question. Nearly a quarter of 18- to 25-year-olds used marijuana in the last month, according to a federal survey. As did 15% of those 26 or older.

The WSJ editors say, “The Ohio study, which is being presented this week at an American College of Surgeons conference, ought to prompt the Trump Administration to slam the brakes on a mooted plan to move marijuana to a less risky level on the federal drug schedule. Such a move would cultivate the spurious belief that marijuana isn’t all that harmful despite reams of evidence to the contrary.”

Marijuana can damage the heart, lungs, immune system and brain. A study this spring in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that marijuana users under age 50 who were free of cardiovascular disease were six times as likely to suffer a heart attack compared to non-users and were at four-fold increased risk of stroke. 

Americans were told that legalizing marijuana would reduce the illegal market, but that hasn’t happened. California officials last month said they destroyed more than 20,000 illegal cannabis plants at operations run by transnational criminal organizations. They also found firearms and hazardous pesticides that contaminate the environment.

Marijuana legalization laws were promoted based on the premise that marijuana usage is safer than alcohol and doesn’t impair driving. Now we know the truth. Both alcohol and marijuana impair driving and neither should be tolerated. Both lead to chronic diseases and often premature death. It’s time to get real about marijuana today. This isn’t your grandfather’s pot!

Author’s note: I have written on the subject of the dangers of marijuana usage in the past. For more information see previous posts Marijuana and Violence and Cannabis and Schizophrenia.

How important is math? The basics in education have always been referred to as the “3 Rs.” Reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic. It doesn’t get more basic than that. Yet, America is failing to achieve these three basic goals.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board tells us that bad news keeps coming from America’s K-12 schools. Last week it was the dismal results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as “America’s Report Card.” The report documents the continued decline of students learning basic math.

Since 2013 NAEP math scores have dropped 11 points for eighth-graders and five points for fourth-graders—and the declines are steepest for the lowest-performing students. Twelfth-grade scores have dropped six points. Thirty-nine percent of eighth-graders and 45% of twelfth-graders scored below “basic” proficiency in 2024. That’s less than half of our students who are learning basic math!

Scores were trending up before 2013, so what explains the slide? Researchers at the Center on Reinventing Public Education cite “lowered expectations, inflated grades, and obscured learning gaps.” In recent years, some states have abolished standardized tests or lowered proficiency standards that help keep schools accountable. Only six states still require high school exit exams, compared to 24 in 2013.

Schools also increasingly make it easier for students to get good grades no matter their performance. Especially after Covid, “schools confronted students’ academic struggles and demotivation by making math easier—exactly the opposite reaction to what students needed,” says the report. The truth comes out on standardized tests, and in college and the workplace where those skills are needed.

Students who struggle with math aren’t served well by being relegated to less rigorous “tracks” in early grades with no option to catch up. The report urges states to prepare all students for Algebra I by eighth grade. Some districts have dropped eighth-grade algebra in the name of equity, another example of low expectations harming students.

In other words, the adults who supervise these students are the real problem. In a misguided effort to shelter poor performing students from embarrassment, they have lowered standards and made excuses for poor learning. Perhaps they are also protecting incompetent teachers due to pressure from teachers unions.

Another problem: ideological differences over how to teach math. “Traditionalists” emphasize “math facts and fluency, and support teaching math procedures directly,” says the report. But “advocates for progressive education worry that too much explicit instruction will stifle students’ curiosity and appetite for deeper math understanding, so they dismiss it”—even though this type of instruction is “essential for struggling students.” States ought to re-examine how they’re teaching math, the way many of them have revived phonics instruction for reading in recent years.

The WSJ editors say, “Adding to the woes is a shortage of math teachers. The number of graduates of teacher preparation-programs qualified to teach math declined 36% from 2013 to 2020, according to the report. K-12 test results are a shout from the rooftops that our schools are failing. If our political class wants the U.S. to decline, they’ll keep pretending there’s no problem.”

It is clear we need a shake-up in our education system and abolishing the Department of Education, as President Trump intends to do, seems like a good first step. That will allow states to take charge of the education of their students and get the federal government out of the equation. Eliminating teachers unions would be a great next step. Teachers unions protect poor teachers and promote the failing status quo. School choice, which allows parents to remove their children from failing schools, is the real key to improving our education system. Competition always produces better products at lower costs.