The government shutdown appears to be ending, but why did it happen in the first place? On October 13, I published a post entitled Schumer’s Government Shutdown. In that post, I stated four reasons for the shutdown:

• Protecting healthcare for illegal immigrants
• Protecting expanding Medicaid eligibility
• Promoting socialized medicine
• Protecting Chuck Schumer’s political future

At this point, it appears all of these objectives will fail. The Democrats were unable to get concessions on any of the above goals and Chuck Schumer’s political future looks grim. But the main talking point that seems to be on the lips of Democrats is their failure to make permanent the ObamaCare subsidies that are slated to expire on December 31.

These subsidies were only supposed to be temporary, enacted to help struggling families cope with the Covid pandemic which is long since over. Although Democrats knew they were temporary, they now insist they be made permanent. This issue will continue to be debated long after the government reopens.

What are the flaws of ObamaCare that continue to require government assistance?

ObamaCare was passed by Congress in 2010 without a single Republican vote. Numerous promises were made by President Obama about how it would lower healthcare insurance costs and preserve choice of physicians. All these promises have been broken. The costs of ObamaCare continue to rise, which is why Democrats want the government to pick up the tab rather than the people. But throwing good money after bad is never a good idea. What is needed is healthcare reform, not more government subsidies.

The first thing wrong with ObamaCare is the requirement that all plans must provide “essential minimum benefits.” In a one-size-fits-all debacle, all ObamaCare premiums must provide things like free mammograms and free prostate exams to everyone. In other words, men are paying for women to have mammograms and women are paying for men to have prostate exams. This unnecessarily raises the cost of everyone’s premiums.

Second, ObamaCare has a feature called “medical-loss ratio” that obliges insurers to spend 80% of premiums on claims, which in practice is a profit cap that has driven industry consolidation. Fewer insurers means less competition which means higher premiums. The rich insurance companies get richer and the poorer ones go out of business.

Third, ObamaCare will not allow you to tailor your insurance plan to your specific needs. If you only want minimal coverage because you’re healthy, you still have to pay for a plan that covers everything. If you only want coverage for a limited time, because you may be covered by another plan, you still have to pay for a full year.

Fourth, ObamaCare encourages Americans to stop working. In a recent social-media post from Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, she complained if Republicans don’t extend the turbocharged subsidies, she warned, “early retirees like Bill & Shelly will see their health insurance premiums increase nearly 300%—from $442 to $1,700.” This is a tacit admission that ObamaCare encourages Americans to stop working. The Biden subsidies turbocharged that incentive by making subsidies larger and available even to those with income above 400% of the poverty line. Do taxpayers – many of whom pay for their own coverage at work – want to underwrite baby boomer early retirement?

The Wall Street Journal editorial board says, “ObamaCare passed 15 years ago, and it’s still a product few deem worth buying unless they’re protected from the cost. The political and media ground have changed in the past 10 years, and an underappreciated question of the shutdown is whether the GOP will re-enter the debate on healthcare—and go on offense on ObamaCare’s failures.”

The Democrats will fight this because they fight everything President Trump does, but also because this is their legacy legislation intended to push the country toward total government control of healthcare – socialized medicine. But just as socialized government leads to loss of freedom, so does socialized medicine. In every country where it has been tried it has led to limited access to healthcare, rationing of healthcare, and complete denial of healthcare to the infirm, elderly, and disabled. That’s not what Americans want or deserve.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously said in 1941 at the beginning of World War II, “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in-nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

This lesson from the dark days of WWII apply well to every endeavor in life. Whether facing an enemy invasion, the treatment of life-threatening disease, or just the challenges of every day living, Churchill’s words are a good reminder when you find yourself losing hope.

The Los Angeles Dodgers might have lost hope in the last days of the recently completed World Series, but they didn’t. It’s doubtful that the words of Churchill were on their minds, but his lesson was embodied by their persistence in the face of mounting odds as they faced the last two games of the series, down three games to two to the Toronto Blue Jays and needing to win two games on the road.

After winning an exhausting, record breaking 18 inning Game Three, the Dodgers lost Games Four and Five and found themselves facing elimination as they returned to Toronto for Game Six. The odds of winning those last two games away were high, but not as high as the hurdle they faced in the bottom of the Ninth inning of Game Six. The Dodgers were winning 3-1, but the Blue Jays put runners on second and third with no outs. A single would tie the game and a home run would win the game and the series for Toronto.

The Dodgers brought in reliever Tyler Glasnow who ended the inning and the game in just three pitches. The first pitch produced a pop-up to the first baseman. Two pitches later a broken-bat blooper to left field looked to be a hit that would tie the game, but left-fielder Kike Hernandez got a good jump on the ball, made the catch and then threw out the runner on second who had expected the ball would fall in for a hit. Game over; Dodgers win and the series goes to Game Seven.

Game Seven produced an even more dramatic ninth inning. With the Blue Jays leading 4-3, and needing only two more outs to win the series, Miguel Rojas of the Dodgers hit a line drive homer to left field to tie the score, his only home run of the series.

But in the bottom of the ninth, the Blue Jays filled the bases with one out, needing only one run to win the game and the series. The situation looked hopeless for Dodgers fans. Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts then made two strategic moves. He brought in ace-pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, even though he had pitched Game Six! He also substituted Andy Pages into center field for defensive purposes.

Yamamoto got Daulton Varsho to hit a sharp grounder to second base and Rojas made the play, throwing off-balance to home plate to just nip the runner who would have brought in the winning run. The next batter, Ernie Clement, had just set a single-postseason record with his 30^th hit earlier in the game. Clement sent a long fly ball to left center that was over the head of left fielder Hernandez, but center fielder Pages leaped high and caught the ball just before it hit the wall, ending the inning. It is likely regular center fielder Tommy Edman would have been too short to reach that fly ball. The Dodgers were still alive.

The game would go on to the 11^th inning when the Dodgers Will Smith hit a home run to take the lead. But Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. led off the bottom of the 11^th with a double and was sacrificed to third. After a walk to Addison Barger, Alejandro Kirk came to the plate with two on and only one out. The Blue Jays would tie the game with a hit and win with a home run. Kirk had been a thorn in the side of the Dodgers the whole series.

But Kirk hit a broken-bat grounder to shortstop Mookie Betts who started a double-play that ended the game and the series, giving the defending champion Dodgers their second World Series championship in a row. Despite a seemingly hopeless situation, the Dodgers had prevailed once again. They Never Give Up!

Author’s Note: For more on this historic Game 7, read Tyler Kepner’s New York Times article Why the Dodgers and Blue Jays just played the greatest Game 7 in World Series history.

The government shutdown continues into its second month, and Democrats would have you believe they’re fighting to keep ObamaCare affordable. But what is the average cost of ObamaCare premiums per month?

A new article published in The Wall Street Journal gives us the answer. The editorial board tells us, “The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) this week released a fact sheet on ObamaCare’s pricing next year, and here’s the most important line: “The average Marketplace premium after tax credits is projected to be $50 per month for the lowest cost plan in 2026 for eligible enrollees.” Nearly 60% of “eligible re-enrollees will have access to a plan in their chosen health plan category at or below $50 after tax credits.”

Fifty dollars a month for healthcare! Many people spend more than that for coffee each month at Starbucks! Makes you wonder if this is a misprint. But the editors go on to say, “You read that right: The majority of enrollees will continue to have a plan at $50 a month or cheaper, even without the extra pandemic-era subsidy that is expiring. That’s a pittance compared to what many Americans shell out if they’re insured through their employer, even accounting for the fact that employer plans tend to be superior in their choices and coverage. Taxpayers on average are “projected to cover 91% of the lowest cost plan premium in 2026 for eligible enrollees” in ObamaCare, CMS reports.”

The expiring ObamaCare payments were sold to help weather a once-a-century health crisis. Next year’s sticker shock is largely concentrated in Americans age 55 and older with incomes above 400% of the poverty line—affluent early retirees who represent a fraction of overall enrollment and aren’t a compelling case for an income transfer that could cost some $450 billion over 10 years.

The WSJ editors say, “Credit to the Trump Administration for elevating these facts and showing that the GOP can do better than merely negotiate the price of an eventual ObamaCare surrender. Even moderate Republicans in Congress who fear the politics of expiring subsidies said recently in a letter that “significant reforms are needed” and that the party shouldn’t deal on the issue until the government reopens. Democrats might need to find a new shutdown strategy.”

Stop and think about the damage done by this government shutdown caused entirely by the Democrats’ refusal to keep the government open. Millions of Americans are going without paychecks for over a month now; airports are experiencing flight delays due to shortages of air traffic controllers and TSA agents, and the military and border patrol agents are working without pay. But Congress isn’t going without pay! All this because Democrats are pushing for effectively free healthcare for nearly everyone. Perhaps the socialist running for mayor in New York City isn’t an outlier but actually the coming trend in the Democratic party.