Check Out Your State's Insurance-Premium Hikes! (SPOILER ALERT: They're Probably a Lot)
Freedom Partners, one of those allegedly-nefarious pro-freedom, pro-free-market groups, did the math on health-insurance premiums in each state. You've heard Obama's promise so many times by now, you can sing it: he would "cut the cost of a typical family's premium by up to $2,500 a year!" Of course, he hasn't. If Obama had run around the country in 2008, pledging, "I will raise the typical family's premium by $4,865 by 2015!" would he still have won? Democrats complain about Republicans calling the law "Obamacare" instead of "the Affordable Care Act." Because the law made health insurance more expensive for the average family, calling it "the Affordable Care Act" is acquiescing to a lie. This morning Freedom Partners is releasing a 2016 Obamacare Premium Increase Tracker which shows the average health-care-premium increases in each state on the individual marketplace this year. Premiums on the individual marketplace increased in . . . 49 out of 50 states. You're in luck, Mississippi! You're down two-tenths of one percent! They note that in most states, costs went up by double-digits; 17 states will see premium increases of 20 percent of more. Sorry, Alaskans; you rank among the worst with a 39 percent increase. Freedom Partners senior policy adviser Nathan Nascimento summarized: "'You can keep your plan' turned out not to be true, and it turns out that the 'Obamacare will make health care affordable' promise is no different. Our data are conclusive: the Affordable Care Act has driven up costs across the board, with people in 49 states seeing premium increases on the individual market this year. President Obama has chosen to look the other way, but the millions of Americans being crushed by the costs of Obamacare don't have the same luxury." Will President Obama say much about Obamacare in his State of the Union Address? Just take a victory lap? Just mention the reduction in the number of uninsured -- heavily driven by the expansion of Medicaid -- and not bother to say anything about whether people are satisfied with what they're getting from their newly legally-mandated purchase of insurance? The State of Our Union Is Bored with Predictable State of the Union Addresses Tuesday is the State of the Union Address. I know, I know, you can gleefully respond that you're not going to watch it. I wish I didn't have to watch it, but you never know when Joe Wilson might blurt something out, or Joe Biden might start making faces behind the president, or somebody might yell out that Paul Ryan's beard is a sign he's converted to Islam, and he shaved it to maintain his cover for ISIS . . . I know this will stun you, but brace yourselves: Tuesday night President Obama is going to talk about himself a lot. The White House says President Barack Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night will be non-traditional. What that means: Obama will be talking about himself, not asking Congress for a long list of items he knows he'll never get. "How is this night different from all other nights?" Remember when Obama began his presidency talking about bipartisanship? Remember when this guy was on the cover of Newsweek in December 2004, before he even took office in the Senate, touting him as "a rising star who wants to get beyond blue vs. red" and who, upon beating Alan Keyes in a heavily Democratic state, somehow represented "Purple" America? Now he's the guy who can't find a single proposal in the GOP platform that he finds acceptable, and who believes that the congressional leaders of his era are so uniquely unreasonable and stubborn that he's entitled to make wholesale changes in national law through executive orders, executive actions, and regulations. The Long-Cursed Response to the State of the Union Address South Carolina governor Nikki Haley will give the Republican response to the State of the Union Address. This would ordinarily be a great honor for a star in the GOP, except for the old Gypsy curse that was put on the position of responding to the address. You don't believe me? 1989: House Speaker Jim Wright gives the response; he resigns later in the year in an ethics scandal. 1996: Bob Dole gives the response, and later that year, loses the presidential race. 1998: Trent Lott gives the response; by 2002, he resigns as Senate Majority leader after controversial comments about Strom Thurmond. 2002: Dick Gephardt gives the response; in 2004, he runs for president and flames out in Iowa. 2004: Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle gives the response . . . and loses his reelection bid that year. 2007: Newly elected Senator Jim Webb gives the response . . . eventually grows to hate the Senate, and chooses to not run for reelection. 2008: Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius goes on to become Health and Human Services Secretary and promptly unveils Healthcare.gov to the world, lets President Obama stand before the country and tout a non-functioning web site. 2009: Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. People still give him grief about sounding like Kenneth from 30 Rock. 2010: Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell -- convicted on corruption charges in 2014. 2011: Paul Ryan -- obviously, there's a lot more chapters left in the book of Ryan's career, but 2012 didn't go as he hoped. 2013: Marco Rubio -- the infamous water-bottle incident. I found some some lesser-known examples of this as well. In 1986 Governor Eugene Gatling gave the response to President Reagan; his reelection bid was impeded by the infamous "unresolved election" of that year. In 1999, Senator David Palmer of Maryland gave the address, and he was later assassinated by a vast conspiracy. In 2000, Senator Robert Kelly gave the response, and later that year, he was turned into a giant mutant jellyfish. In 2012, Congressman Nicholas Brody gave the response, and within one year, he was executed in Iran. The response to the State of the Union Address has turned into a political Aztec human-sacrifice altar, where rising stars of the party are given 15 minutes in the national spotlight, trying to offer a good, brief speech, just moments after the president has enjoyed watching members of his party respond like teenage girls to Elvis at the end of every sentence. In light of all this, it's surprising anyone is willing to give the response. Mark Your Calendars . . . Thursday is the next Republican Presidential Debate, held in Charleston, South Carolina, airing on Fox Business Channel. I wonder if the moderators will open with, "Mr. Trump, is Ted Cruz legally eligible to be president?" and let the fireworks ensue. I keep hearing that Trump is an asset to our cause because of his unparalleled ability to change the terms of debate and direct it -- and in circumstances like the murder of Kate Steinle, the benefits of Trump are clear. When he can single-handedly manufacture a "birther" controversy for Ted Cruz, it doesn't seem so clear. ADDENDA: On the pop-culture podcast this week, the first of the new year, Mickey and I look at the NFL playoffs and the stress that comes with watching your team play in elimination games; the long-awaited discussion of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, that hugely controversial Netflix series Making a Murderer, pop culture and events in the coming year, and MTV's surprising shift away from reality TV to big-budget swords-and-sorcery epics. | 
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