There is no doubt that ObamaCare has lived up to the prediction it would be a “train wreck.” This was the assessment of Democratic Senator Max Baucus (D- Montana), then Chairman of Senate Finance Committee, speaking to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebellius on 4/17/13. But Democrats didn’t listen to his warning and implemented the Affordable Care Act in 2014.

Democrats are determined to throw good money after bad by extending temporary government subsidies another three years and eventually making them permanent. Rather than fix the problem they made, they want to use the issue as a cudgel to force Republicans into prolonging the misery lest they be accused of taking away people’s healthcare.

The real solution to a bad policy is to make a good policy. Republicans have been reluctant to take on this task in the wake of their failure during the first Trump administration thanks to rogue Republican Senator John McCain. But the adults in the room have to take leadership at some point and improve or discard this failed healthcare system.

Fortunately, there is some reason for optimism as Republican leadership is now showing interest in improving ObamaCare. This won’t be pretty as Republicans face complete opposition from any Democrats and even a few Republicans. Expect this debate to continue throughout the coming year.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board says, “The GOP bill would make it easier for small businesses to escape the ObamaCare regulatory morass. The bill would expand so-called association health plans that let small employers unite to sponsor group health plans. These plans would reduce premiums by expanding risk pools and give small employers more leverage with insurers. 

The plans wouldn’t have to adhere to many costly ObamaCare rules, though they still couldn’t charge more for workers with pre-existing health conditions. Worker premiums for association plans would likely be lower than for ObamaCare plans. Workers might also see an increase in take-home pay if their employer’s insurance costs fall.”

The Republican bill also seeks to reduce ObamaCare premiums by fixing a distortion caused by the law’s convoluted design. ObamaCare requires insurers to reduce deductibles and co-pays for low-income enrollees in benchmark silver plans. No surprise, insurers have raised premiums for these silver plans to offset the cost of these “cost-sharing” reductions.

Because ObamaCare subsidies are pegged to premiums for silver plans, the cost-sharing mandate has resulted in larger subsidies for all plans. The GOP bill would appropriate funds to insurers to pay for ObamaCare’s required cost-sharing reductions. This would reduce premiums for silver plans and, in turn, taxpayer spending on subsidies. A better solution would be to eliminate the cost-sharing mandate, which can make ObamaCare plans more attractive than employer plans for lower-income enrollees.

The Census Bureau’s annual survey of insurance coverage this year showed that the share of Americans with any coverage hasn’t changed since 2019 despite the larger ObamaCare subsidies. Enrollment in employer plans has declined but government and ObamaCare coverage has increased. This trend is exactly what Democrats want as they seek to eventually have all Americans on government-controlled health insurance. This is socialized medicine by another name.

Some of the increase in ObamaCare enrollment owes to fraud, as the Paragon Health Institute has documented and the Government Accountability Office recently corroborated. Millions of people have under-reported their incomes to qualify for bigger subsidies, while brokers enroll people in plans without their knowledge to earn bigger commissions.

The GOP may not succeed anytime soon in reversing the damage of ObamaCare, but it is important they show the American people which party is really looking out for what’s best for their healthcare.

It’s that time of the year, again. Time to review the books I’ve read this past year. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know I first started making a New Year’s resolution to read at least two books a month in 1998.

Since 1998, I’ve read 1110 books! This discipline of reading more books and watching less television has made me more knowledgeable of the world we live in and given me much more lasting pleasure than another episode of Law and Order.

Here are my top ten books for 2025, not necessarily in order and not necessarily newly published books:

1. Life After Power – Jared Cohen – This recently published book discusses the lives of several presidents after they left office. The author discusses seven presidents – Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Grover Cleveland, William Howard Taft, Herbert Hoover, Jimmy Carter, and George W. Bush. This is an excellent book and you’ll learn much about these men you never knew before.
2. Confronting the Presidents – Bill O’Reilly & Martin Dugard – This team of historians does a great job of giving us brief biographies of all the U.S. presidents. A must read for all history buffs.
3. A Golfer’s Life – Arnold Palmer – This is an old book I got out and read again with much delight. If you’re an Arnold Palmer fan like me, you’ve got to read this autobiographical work by the King of golf.
4. Great Souls – David Aikman – This is another old book I got out and read for the third time! It’s one of the truly great books I’ve ever read. You’ll read about six individuals who Aikman says “changed the twentieth century.” They include Billy Graham, Nelson Mandella, Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and Elie Wiesel. It’s still available on Amazon.
5. The Story of God and Us – Jonathan Murphy – Jonathan Murphy is the new pastor of Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas and the hand-picked successor of Chuck Swindoll to the church he founded. This book is a great review of the bible intended for those unfamiliar with its contents but equally valuable for reading by long-time bible teachers like me.
6. Looking in All the Right Directions – Chuck Swindoll – This small book recently published gives us the last five sermons of Pastor Swindoll focused on the book of II Timothy. The last words of the Apostle Paul are preached by this great preacher in his last words from the pulpit.

7. The Disappeared – C. J. Box – Another great book from this brilliant author of dramatic fiction based on the character of Joe Pickett, game warden in Wyoming. If you’re not a Joe Pickett fan yet, you will be if you read any of Box’s books.
8. Revenge Tour – Mike Lupica (Robert Parker characters) – If you loved Robert Parker’s books, Lupica does a great job of continuing the deceased author’s success. This one is about Sunny Randall; lady detective closely associated with the characters of the infamous Spenser.
9. The Waiting – Michael Connelly – Another great book by one of the best fiction writers of our time. This one is about Rene Ballard; lady detective closely associated with the characters of the very successful Harry Bosch series.
10. Reagan – Max Boot – I hesitate to include this book on the list, but it was recently published and is a biography of one of our greatest presidents. But you won’t get that impression from reading this book. This author clearly never voted for Reagan.

That’s it for this year. I hope you’ll enjoy these books but the most important thing is that you read more books. You’ll be glad you did.

Happy New Year!

You wouldn’t think of calling an arsonist to put out a fire. But that’s essentially what Democrats are telling the public. They set fire on the American healthcare system with their unilateral change of the system to ObamaCare (ACA) in 2010 without a single Republican vote, yet now they want the American people to believe they’re the best ones to fix the problem. They made promises of a cheaper system that would not separate you from your doctor, but now they’re unrepentant when all those promises were broken.

Republicans have been trying to fix the problem ever since, but every time they try their efforts are thwarted by Democrats, and even some of their own. This is healthcare madness!

The problem is Democrats believe in socialized medicine – complete government control of all healthcare – and ObamaCare is their best ticket to achieve that goal. They don’t care that costs are skyrocketing due to the intrinsic problems of ObamaCare. That only gives them more excuses to ramp up government subsidies. They did that under the Biden administration using the Covid pandemic as an excuse for “temporarily increased subsidies.”

But nothing in Washington is ever “temporary.” Now they want these subsidies to become permanent, or at least extended another three years without any changes to the system. That’s what they demanded in the government shutdown that lasted 42 days and that’s still what they are demanding. They’re trying to convince the American people they’re looking out for them, when they’re really just looking out for their socialized medicine agenda and whatever political advantage they can achieve making Republicans look uncompassionate.

Natalie Andrews, writing for The Wall Street Journal, says, “Republicans suffered through a recurring nightmare this week: their inability to replace or at least unwind the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare program.”

For the past decade, President Trump and the party have raged against the 2010 law, only to see legislative attempts to decouple it from the American economy fail. This week was no different, as a Republican proposal to replace ACA subsidies with sending federal funds directly to some households for out-of-pocket healthcare costs failed to advance in the Republican-controlled Senate. Although Republicans hold a slim majority in the Senate, it takes 60 votes to advance legislation.

The focus on health-insurance premiums has moved the political discussion onto one of the few topics on which Democrats have an advantage. Americans’ approval of the ACA edged up to a new high of 57% in December, according to a Gallup poll. An NBC poll in October found that Democrats hold a 23-point advantage among registered voters over Republicans on the party best equipped to deal with healthcare. In other words, these people want the arsonists to put out the fire!

This simply shows the ignorance of the average voter. This was clearly demonstrated in New York City recently when they elected a socialist mayor who made them promises he’ll never be able to keep. Democrats in Congress are doing the same thing with healthcare. They are relying on the ignorance of the electorate when it comes to the evils of socialism, especially as it concerns socialized medicine.

In every socialized medicine system in the world, the people get free healthcare (albeit with greatly increased taxes) which inevitably leads to reduced access to healthcare (long waiting times), rationed healthcare (when it costs too much) and denied healthcare when the government determines the elderly and the disabled don’t merit the expense. The American people don’t want this, but they’ll get exactly that if they give Democrats the political power they want.