Cavuto Finds a Skunk and Crap Not Carp! What The Hell, All packed and Had The Time!

What the hell.  I am all packed and had the time.






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Iran keeps developing defensive and offensive weaponry.(See 1 below.)
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Rogers could be right but the timing is uncertain and if the economy is strong that would help to mitigate matters. But liquidity is the underlying nourishment on which all markets feed. (See 2 below.)
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A law professor's perspective. (See 3 below)
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Cavuto defends Fox and finds a skunk! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDdmtJCEWPA

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Tom Price is a doctor and Ga. Congressman. He is soft spoken, knows the health care issues and has proposed legislation that could be the basis of a rational solution so when you hear Republicans do nothing but carp that is crap!.  (See 4 below.)

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The Phillips story.  (See 4 below.) and Soros versus Fox. (See 4a below.)

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Problems just beginning. (See 5 below.)

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Dick
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1) Iranian drones equipped with bombs, rockets

A senior Iranian commander says the drones of the Islamic Revolution Guards
Corps (IRGC) have been equipped with bombs and fully-guided missiles.
Commenting on Iran’s drone capabilities, IRGC Commander Major General
Mohammad Ali Jafari told reporters on Thursday that the latest achievement
by the Iranian Armed Forces is the development of a drone with flight
endurance of 30 hours whose range can be increased with high-speed engines.
“Recently, we have also gained the capability of mounting [on drones] bombs
and guided rockets which have pinpoint accuracy,” he added.

He said Iran’s missile power is part of the country’s deterrence capability.
“Today, one of the deterrence factors against enemy is our different types
of defense capabilities, especially the missile might,” he said.

He said Iran’s missiles can be launched from across the country, stressing
that the enemy cannot stop the missile “even with thousands of bombs.”
In recent years, Iran has made great achievements in its defense sector and
has attained self-sufficiency in producing essential military equipment and
systems.
The Islamic Republic has so far built different types of drones, including
Ra’ad (Thunder), Karrar, Shahed (Witness) 129 and Yasir.

Tehran has repeatedly assured other nations that its military might poses no
threat to other countries as the Islamic Republic’s defense doctrine is
entirely based on deterrence.
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2)Jim Rogers: When 'Sea of Liquidity' Dries Up, Look Out

By Dan Weil

Financial markets are afloat on an "artificial sea of liquidity" thanks to central bank easing, but eventually the sea will dry up and the result won't be pretty, says star investor Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings. 

Policymakers "everywhere are under no constraint," Rogers told New York Markets Live online radio. Central banks can print as much as they want; the governments spend as much as they want. So there's no reason this can't go on for a while, because any corrections due to tapering will probably be temporary." 

If markets correct in reaction to a Federal Reserve tapering of its quantitative easing, as Rogers expects, the Fed will simply restart its easing, he says. 

But, "eventually, the market's going to say we say we're not going to take this garbage anymore, this is absurd," he asserts. "It's going to be a disaster. I don't see the bureaucrats coming to their senses, so it's going to be the markets, and it's going to mean a lot of unpleasant times."

Social unrest already has broken out in some countries, he says, "and it's going to get a lot worse."
  
"This is a lot of fun for those participating," Rogers said in reference to this year's stock-market advance. "But the overall situation is getting worse and worse. We're all going to have to live with the consequences of printing money."

The country has faced economic slowdowns every four to six years throughout its history, Rogers points out. "In 2008 it got worse, because the debt was so much higher. Look out the window. You can probably see the debt rising. It's like the beanstalk," he said.

That means the next recession in about 20014 or 2015 will be worse, Rogers says. "Be careful. Be worried. Be prepared."

Would the U.S. government be able to use some of the 8,133 metric tons of gold reserves it reports to defend the dollar?

"I don't know that it's there," Rogers said. "I have no reason to assume it's not, except that there's not been a proper audit of America's gold in decades, if ever."

But even if that is all there, "it's not nearly enough to back the dollar, because we're the largest debtor nation in history," he said.

Another expert who sees bad things ahead for the U.S. economy is Societe Generale Strategist Albert Edwards. "No one expects a recession is around the corner, but in my experience, they never ever do," he wrote last month in a commentary obtained by CNBC.

The key indicator signaling a U.S. recession is the flattening of U.S. productivity growth, Edwards says. Non-farm business productivity was unchanged in the third quarter from a year earlier.

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3)  Obamacare Should Remind Us We Are Not 'Subjects,' We Are People

Laura Hollis is a professor at the University of Notre Dame

  

The unveiling of the dictatorial debacle that is Obamacare absolutely flabbergasts me. It is stunning on so many levels, but the most shocking aspect of it for me is watching millions of free Americans stand idly by while this man, his minions in Congress and his cheerleaders in the press systematically dismantle our Constitution, steal our money, and crush our freedoms.

The President, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid (with no small help from Justice John Roberts) take away our health care, and we allow it. They take away our insurance, and we allow it. They take away our doctors, and we allow it. They charge us thousands of dollars more a year, and we allow it. They make legal products illegal, and we allow it. They cripple our businesses, and we allow it.They announce by fiat that we must ignore our most deeply held beliefs – and we allow it.

Where is your spine, America ?

Yes, I know people are complaining. I read the news on the internet. I read blogs. I have a Twitter feed. So what? People in the Soviet Union complained. People in Cuba complain. People in China complain (quietly). Complaining isn't the same thing as doing anything about it. In fact, much of the complaining that we hear sounds like resignation: Wow. This sucks. Oh well, this is the way things are. Too bad.

Perhaps you need reminding of a few important facts. Here goes:

1. The President is not a king. Barack Obama does not behave like a President, an elected official, someone who realizes that he works for us. He behaves like a king, a dictator – someone who believes that his own pronouncements have the force of law, and who thinks he can dispense with the law's enforcement when he deigns to do so. And those of us who object? How dare we? Racists!

And while he moves steadily "forward" with his plans to "fundamentally transform" the greatest country in human history, he distracts people with cheap, meaningless trivialities, like "free birth control pills"! (In fact, let's face it: this administration's odd obsession with sex in general - Birth control! Abortion! Sterilization! Gay guys who play basketball! -- is just plain weird. Since when did the leader of the free world care so much about how people have sex, who they have it with, and what meds they use when they have it? Does he have nothing more important to concern himself with?)

2. It isn't just a failed software program; it is a failed philosophy. People are marveling that Healthcare.gov was such a spectacular failure. Well, if one is only interested in it as a product launch, I've explained some of the reasons for that here. But the larger point is that it isn't a software failure, or even a product failure; it is a philosophy failure.

I have said this before: Obama is not a centrist; he is a central planner. And this – all of it: the disastrous computer program, the hundreds of millions of dollars wasted, the lies, the manipulation of public opinion, the theft of the public's money and property, and freedom (read insurance, and premiums, and doctors) -- IS what central planning looks like.

The central premise of central planning is that a handful of wunderkinds with your best interests at heart (yeah, right) know better than you what's good for you. The failure of such a premise and the misery it causes have been clear from the dawn of humanity. Kings and congressmen, dictators and Dear Leaders, potentates, princes and presidents can all fall prey to the same imperial impulses: "we know what is good the 'the people.'
And they are always wrong.

There is a reason that the only times communism has really been tried have been after wars, revolutions, or coups d'état. You have to have complete chaos for people to be willing to accept the garbage that centralized planning produces. Take the Soviet Union , for example. After two wars, famine, and the collapse of the Romanov dynasty, why wouldn't people wait in line for hours to buy size 10 shoes? Or settle for the gray matter that passed for meat in the grocery stores?

But communism's watered-down cousin, socialism, isn't much better. Ask the Venezuelans who cannot get toilet paper. Toilet paper. ¡Viva la Revolución!

Contrary to what so many who believe in a "living Constitution" say, the Founding Fathers absolutely understood this. That is why the Constitution was set up to limit government power. (Memo to the President: the drafters of the Constitution deliberately didn't say "what government had to do on your behalf.") They understood that that was the path to folly, fear, and famine.)

3. Obama is deceitful. Just as the collapse of the computer program should not surprise anyone, neither should we be shocked that the President lied about his healthcare plan. Have any of you been paying attention over the past few years? Obama has made no secret of his motivations or his methods. The philosophies which inspire him espouse deceit and other vicious tactics. (Don't take my word for it: read Saul Alinsky.) Obama infamously told reporter Richard Wolffe, "You know, I actually believe my own bullshit." He has refused to be forthcoming about his past (where are his academic records?). His own pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, told author Ed Klein, that Obama said to him, "You know what your problem is? You have to tell the truth."

Did Obama lie when he said dozens of times, "If you like you plan, you can keep it. Period!"? Of course he did. That's what he does.

4. The media is responsible. And had the media been doing their jobs, we would have known a lot of this much, much earlier.

The press is charged with the sacred responsibility of protecting the people from the excesses of government. Our press has been complicit, incompetent, or corrupt. Had they vetted this man in 2008, as they would have a Republican candidate, we would have known far more about him than we do, even now. Had they pressed for more details about Obamacare, Congress' feet would have been held to the fire. Had they done their jobs about Eric Holder, Fast and Furious, Benghazi, the IRS scandal, NSA spying - or any of the other myriad betrayals of the public trust that this administration has committed, Obama would likely have lost his 2012 reelection campaign. (A fact that even The Washington Post has tacitly acknowledged. Well done, fellas! Happy now?)

Instead, they turned a blind eye, even when they knew he was lying, abusing power, disregarding the limits of the Constitution. It was only when he began to spy on them, and when the lies were so blatant that the lowest of low-information voters could figure it out that they realized they had to report on it. (Even in the face of blatant, deliberate and repeated lies,The New York Times has the audacity to tell us that the President "misspoke.") They have betrayed us, abandoned us, and deceived us.

5. Ted Cruz was right. So was Sarah Palin. The computer program is a disaster. The insurance exchanges are a disaster. What's left? The healthcare system itself. And this, of necessity, will be a disaster, too.

Millions of people have lost their individual insurance plans. In 2015, millions more will lose their employer-provided coverage (a fact which the Obama administration also knew, and admitted elsewhere).

The exorbitant additional costs that Obamacare has foisted on unsuspecting Americans are all part of a plan of wealth confiscation and redistribution. That is bad enough. But it will not end there.

When the numbers of people into the system and the corresponding demand for care vastly exceed the cost projections (and they will, make no mistake), then the rationing will start. Not only choice at that point, but quality and care itself will go down the tubes. And then will come the decisions made by the Independent Payment Advisory Board about what care will be covered (read "paid for") and what will not.

That's just a death panel, put politely. In fact, progressives are already greasing the wheels for acceptance of that miserable reality as well. They're spreading the lie that it will be about the ability of the dying to refuse unwanted or unhelpful care. Don't fall for that one, either. It will be about the deaths that inevitably result from decisions made by people other than the patients, their families, and their physicians. (Perhaps it's helpful to think of their assurances this way: "If you like your end-of-life care, you can keep your end-of-life-care.")

6. We are not SUBJECTS. (or, Nice Try, the Tea Party Isn't Going Away). We have tolerated these incursions into our lives and livelihoods too long already. There is no end to the insatiable demand "progressives" have to remake us in their image. Today it is our insurance, our businesses, our doctors, our health care. Tomorrow some new crusade will be announced that enables them to take over other aspects of our formerly free lives.

I will say it again: WE ARE NOT SUBJECTS. Not only is the Tea Party right on the fiscal issues, but it appears that they are more relevant than ever. We fought a war once to prove we did not want to be the subjects of a king, and the Boston Tea Party was just a taste of the larger conflict to come. If some people missed that lesson in history class, we can give them a refresher.

The 2014 elections are a good place to start. Call your representative, your senator, your candidate and tell them: "We are not subjects. You work for us. And if the word "REPEAL" isn't front and center in your campaign, we won't vote for you. Period."

Laura Hollis is an attorney and teaches entrepreneurship and business law at the University of Notre Dame . She resides in Indiana with her husband and two children.

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4) Tom Price: GOP Has Solution Ready After Obamacare's Collapses

By John Gizzi

Republicans need to be ready with a positive alternative following the inevitable "collapse" of Obamacare, GOP Rep. Tom Price tells Newsmax.

And support is growing for healthcare legislation that empowers consumers, the five-term congressman from Georgia adds.

"The Affordable Care Act is going to collapse soon and real people are going to be hurt," Price, a past chairman of the House Study Committee and himself a physician, said. "So we have to be ready with a positive solution. We have one in the Empowering Patients First Act."

Following up on an in-depth article he wrote for National Review earlier this month, Price spelled out the details of the legislation in meetings of conservatives on Capitol Hill last week.

Price said that a new analysis by Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, concluded the act will produce $2.34 trillion in savings over a ten-year period and will reduce premium increases compared to Obamacare.

Emphasizing that the measure, formally H.R. 2300, is not the official Republican alternative to Obamacare, Price nonetheless pointed out that the legislation has so far been co-sponsored by more than 50 of his fellow House Republicans. 

Price said the measure contains several of the concepts that Republicans tried to make to Obamacare during the debate leading up to its passage on a party line vote in 2010.

For example, Empowering Patients permits the purchase of insurance across state lines — a practice that is currently illegal and which Democrats successfully kept out of the Affordable Care Act. 

As Price noted, "when companies compete across state lines, consumers have more choices for coverage and competition will drive down costs."

Tort reform was another Republican-crafted concept that was repeatedly struck down during the committee process before House members voted on Obamacare three years ago. Price and other physicians in Congress warned at the time that the growth of a litigious society has resulted in one-in-14 physicians facing at least one malpractice suit a year. 

Lawsuit abuse reforms are included in H.R. 2300 and, as Price said, "the need for defensive medicine, which squanders hundreds of billions of dollars every year and is passed on to the patients, is reduced. That means lower medical bills.

The Republican measure permits individuals to keep their health insurance policy regardless of whether they move or change their jobs. 

While Obamacare increases the number of Americans in government programs such as Medicaid, Empowering Patients in sharp contrast extends deductibility and different forms of tax credits to make private-sector plans more affordable.

"So, under this plan, Americans will have the financial wherewithal to purchase the kind of coverage they need, not what the government forces them to buy," Price said.

Price also referred to the case before the Supreme Court launched by the Oklahoma-based Hobby Lobby, challenging Obamacare's requirement that private healthcare plans provide contraceptives for employees, even if it is contrary to their religious beliefs.

Under the Empowering Patients Act, "religious liberty is protected and conscientious objection is safeguarded," said Price.

Support for H.R. 2300 is growing among House Republicans, Price told Newsmax. However, he added, "many Democratic colleagues have expressed strong support for different parts of the bill, but no Democratic House member has yet signed on as a co-sponsor. We hope this will change in the weeks ahead."

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4)

FOR THOSE OF US WHO HAVE SEEN THE MOVIE , "CAPTAIN PHILLIPS",  THIS WILL MAKE YOUR BLOOD BOIL --  FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE,  GO !!!  IT'S EXCELLENT AND TOM HANKS DESERVES AN ACADEMY AWARD , THUMBS DOWN !

THE ITEM BELOW REALLY CLARIFIES THINGS WE SAW IN THE MOVIE --   SHOWS WHAT A TOTAL LACK OF BACKBONE THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION DISPLAYS EACH AND EVERY DAY !!!    

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H... is a Navy Blue and Gold Officer for the Naval Academy and father of the highest ranked graduate at the USNA in 2000.

He flew missions over the former Soviet  Union with Francis Gary Powers, taught at the Judge Advocates college and briefed President Kennedy as an intelligence officer.

The best is that he is my friend and a man I trust. Did I forget that he is an author and a retired Military Judge.

J.. O....

                                    

                                   

BY SOMEONE WHO WAS THERE AND WRITTEN SHORTLY AFTER THE EVENT     

                                               

                                               

All of us want to raise our glass the highest this week to the Navy SEALs who popped those three Somali pirates.  And I'm sure you want to hear the real story of what happened.   Especially because there is a revoltingly opportunistic and cowardly side to it.  Guess which side Zero(aka: our president) is on.

Why, for example, did it take SEAL Team Six (aka DEVGRU, Navy Special Warfare Development Group, the Navy's equivalent of Delta Force) over 36 hours to get to the scene?

Because Zero refused to authorize the SEAL deployment for those 36 hours, during which the OSC - the on scene commander, Cmdr. Frank Castellano of the USS Bainbridge - repeatedly requested them.

Once the SEALs arrived - parachuting from a C-17 into the ocean near the ship - Zero then imposed Rules of Engagement (ROE) specifying the SEALs could not do anything unless the life of the hostage, Captain Richard Phillips, was in "imminent" danger.

Thus, when Capt. Phillips attempted to escape by jumping off the lifeboat into the ocean, the SEAL snipers had all four pirates (one later surrendered) sighted in and could have taken them out then and there - but they could not fire due to Zero's ROE restrictions.

When the SEALs approached the lifeboat in a RIB (rigid-hull inflatable boat) carrying supplies for Capt. Phillips and the pirates, the pirates fired upon them.  Not only was no fire returned due to the ROE, but as the pirates were shooting at the RIB, SEAL snipers on the Bainbridge had them all dialed in.  No triggers were pulled due to the ROE.

Two specific rescue plans were developed by Cmdr. Castellano and the SEAL teams.  Zero personally refused to authorize them.

After the second refusal and days of dithering, Cmdr. Castellano decided he had the Operational Area and OSC authority to "solely determine risk to hostage" and did not require any further approval of the president.

Four hours later, the White House is informed that three pirates are dead and Capt. Phillips has been rescued unharmed.  A WH press release is immediately issued, giving credit to the president for his "daring and decisive" behavior that resulted in such success.

Zero has absolutely no military knowledge or experience whatsoever.  He demanded decisional control over the entire hostage drama to the last detail.  All actions required his personal approval.  He dithered like a coward while the world laughed at our warships flummoxed by four illiterate teenagers with AKs in a lifeboat.

Only when the Navy Commander decided to ignore his Pantywaist-in Chief and take action and responsibility himself, were the incredible skills of the SEALs put into play.

That Zero could cynically and opportunistically claim that his "bold" "calm" "tough" leadership was responsible should remind everyone that not a single action, not a single word of this man can be trusted.  He is bereft of honesty and moral character.  That's why he's Zero.

We raise a glass full of pride and gratitude to Navy Commander Frank Castellano, the Navy SEALs for their incredible competence, and our military as we also recognize Zero for what he is, or more appropriately, for what he’s not.

4a)

Fox News Neutralized, Soros-Backed Group Declares Victory

By Sandy Fitzgerald

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The liberal media-watchdog group backed by billionaire George Soros says its "war" on Fox News is over, claiming it has neutralized the right-leaning network and no longer sees it as a threat.

"It's not just that it's over, but it was very successful," Media Matters Executive Vice President Angelo Carusone bragged late this week to The Huffington Post.

"To a large extent, we won," he said.

This week Media Matters gave the Huffington Post a look at its internal strategic plan for the next three years.

Fox, which became the single focus of the activist group founded by bestselling author and journalist David Brock, has made key changes in programming that makes it no longer a worry to the left and the Obama administration. 

Media Matters also argues that Fox is not as influential as it once was because of the Internet and social media.

But while Fox News didn't offer comment about the Media Matters so-called truce, polls show the highly rated network remains on top when it comes to viewer trust.

A recent poll showed Fox News to be the most-trusted source of information on Obamacare, with a 19 percent ranking that put the network ahead of President Barack Obama, other major news networks, and even members of respondents' families.

Despite its overall ratings success, the network has made key programming changes in the wake of last year's Republican electoral loss as audience numbers dipped.

And some of Fox's more controversial personalities, such as Glenn Beck, have left while the network's leading conservative, Sean Hannity, was demoted with a time slot change from his prime 9 p.m. perch to his current 10 p.m.

Megyn Kelly has taken over Hannity's slot and seen ratings grow. But she prides herself on her middle-of-the-road political take, telling NBC's Jay Leno recently that she not a "conservative operative."

“I’m a straight news anchor, I’m not one of the opinion hosts at Fox,” Kelly said

Kelly joins nighttime anchors such as Shepard Smith and Greta Van Susteren who tack left with Bill O'Reilly positioning himself as an independent.

Since the election, other key conservative contributors such as Bill Kristol, Newt Gingrich and Dick Morris did not have their contracts renewed.

Some conservative commentators are not happy about Fox's new direction.

In September, popular syndicated radio host Mark Levin took aim at the network saying it had become establishment "Republican media" whose hosts have been "preaching accommodation, and surrender and moderation as conservatism.”

Since President Obama took office, Fox had been under unrelenting attacks from the White House. At one point the Obama administration considered banning Fox from the White House press corps.

Other press reports have indicated that the parent company of Fox, News Corp., has sought to cool the network's political temperature as it faces an ongoing Justice Department probe that it violated the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) when its U.K. subsidiaries bribed police officials to get stories for its tabloid newspapers. The FCPA law prohibits U.S. companies from bribing foreign officials for purposes of influence and commerce.

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5)  ObamaCare's Troubles Are Only Beginning

Be prepared for eligibility, payment and information protection debacles—and longer waits for care.

By MICHAEL J. BOSKIN

The White House is claiming that the Healthcare.gov website is mostly fixed, that the millions of Americans whose health plans were canceled thanks to government rules may be able to keep them for another year, and that in any event these people will get better plans through ObamaCare exchanges. Whatever the truth of these assertions, those who expect better days ahead for the Affordable Care Act are in for a rude awakening. The shocks—economic and political—will get much worse next year and beyond. Here's why:

The "sticker shock" that many buyers of new, ACA-compliant health plans have experienced—with premiums 30% higher, or more, than their previous coverage—has only begun. The costs borne by individuals will be even more obvious next year as more people start having to pay higher deductibles and copays.

If, as many predict, too few healthy young people sign up for insurance that is overpriced in order to subsidize older, sicker people, the insurance market will unravel in a "death spiral" of ever-higher premiums and fewer signups. The government, through taxpayer-funded "risk corridors," is on the hook for billions of dollars of potential insurance-company losses. This will be about as politically popular as bank bailouts.

The "I can't keep my doctor" shock will also hit more and more people in coming months. To keep prices to consumers as low as possible—given cost pressures generated by the government's rules, controls and coverage mandates—insurance companies in many cases are offering plans that have very restrictive networks, with lower-cost providers that exclude some of the best physicians and hospitals.

Next year, millions must choose among unfamiliar physicians and hospitals, or paying more for preferred providers who are not part of their insurance network. Some health outcomes will deteriorate from a less familiar doctor-patient relationship.

More IT failures are likely. People looking for health plans on ObamaCare exchanges may be able to fill out their applications with more ease. But the far more complex back-office side of the website—where the information in their application is checked against government databases to determine the premium subsidies and prices they will be charged, and where the applications are forwarded to insurance companies—is still under construction. Be prepared for eligibility, coverage gap, billing, claims, insurer payment and patient information-protection debacles.

The next shock will come when the scores of millions outside the individual market—people who are covered by employers, in union plans, or on Medicare and Medicaid—experience the downsides of ObamaCare. There will be longer waits for hospital visits, doctors' appointments and specialist treatment, as more people crowd fewer providers.

Those with means can respond to the government-driven waiting lines by making side payments to providers or seeking care through doctors who do not participate in insurance plans. But this will be difficult for most people.

Next, the Congressional Budget Office's estimated 25% expansion of Medicaid under ObamaCare will exert pressure on state Medicaid spending (although the pressure will be delayed for a few years by federal subsidies). This pressure on state budgets means less money on education and transportation, and higher state taxes.

The "Cadillac tax" on health plans to help pay for ObamaCare starts four years from this Jan. 1. It will fall heavily on unions whose plans are expensive due to generous health benefits.

In the nearer term, a political iceberg looms next year. Insurance companies usually submit proposed pricing to regulators in the summer, and the open enrollment period begins in the fall for plans starting Jan. 1. Businesses of all sizes that currently provide health care will have to offer ObamaCare's expensive, mandated benefits, or drop their plans and—except the smallest firms—pay a fine. Tens of millions of Americans with employer-provided health plans risk paying more for less, and losing their policies and doctors to more restrictive networks. The administration is desperately trying to delay employer-plan problems beyond the 2014 election to avoid this shock.

Meanwhile, ObamaCare will lead to more part-time workers in some industries, as hours are cut back to conform to arbitrary definitions in the law of what constitutes full-time employment. Many small businesses will be cautious about hiring more than 50 full-time employees, which would subject them to the law's employer insurance mandate.

On the supply side, medicine will become a far less attractive career for talented young people. More doctors will restrict practice or retire early rather than accept lower incomes and work conditions they did not anticipate. Already, many practices are closed to Medicaid recipients, some also to Medicare. The pace of innovation in drugs, medical devices and delivery is expected to slow significantly, as higher taxes and even rationing set in.

The repeated assertions by the law's supporters that nobody but the rich would be worse off was based on a beyond-implausible claim that one could expand by millions the number of people with health insurance, lower health-care costs without rationing, and improve quality. The reality is that any squeezing of insurance-company profits, or reduction in uncompensated emergency-room care amounts to a tiny fraction of the trillions of dollars extracted from those people overpaying for insurance, or redistributed from taxpayers.

The Affordable Care Act's disastrous debut sent the president's approval ratings into a tailspin and congressional Democrats in competitive districts fleeing for cover. If the law's continuing unpopularity enables Republicans to regain the Senate in 2014, the president will be forced to veto repeated attempts to repeal the law or to negotiate major changes.

The risk of a complete repeal if a Republican takes the White House in 2016 will put enormous pressure on Democratic candidates—and on Republicans—to articulate a compelling alternative to the cost and coverage problems that beset health care. A good start would be sliding-scale subsidies to help people buy a low-cost catastrophic plan, purchasable across state lines, equalized tax treatment of those buying insurance on their own with those on employer plans, and expanded high-risk pools.

— Mr. Boskin, an economics professor at Stanford University and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George H.W. Bush.

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