Free Republic

With medical marijuana bills advancing at the Minnesota Capitol, both supporters and critics have been invoking the phrase "Wild West" when debating the merits of legislation. Without more scientific evidence about risks and benefits, the prospect of legalized medical marijuana "would be kind of like the Wild West of medicine," argued Sen. Carla Nelson, R-Rochester, during a hearing in April. In a Senate committee last week, Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, used the metaphor in a different way -- arguing that desperate patients currently face a Wild West situation of buying marijuana on the street, without knowing what they're getting. "Or...

by Nick Sorrentino"Much has been made recently of the rich gaming the system for their own benefit. Of a new “guilded age.” Socialist economist Thomas Piketty’s new book has been getting rave reviews from all over the establishment because it makes the case that very powerful people with nearly bottomless bank accounts have gamed the system and that government induced redistribution is in order. And indeed the rich have gamed the system for their benefit, but as Matthew Continetti points out, the game the super rich want to play for the most part is not one of free markets and...

Democrats reluctant to embrace President Barack Obama's much-maligned health care overhaul in this year's congressional elections may be having second thoughts now that enrollment in the program is higher than expected and cost estimates are lower. "I think Democrats have the ability to steal the health care issue back from Republicans," health care industry consultant Bob Laszewski said. "The Democratic Party can become the party of fixing Obamacare." The Congressional Budget Office said the new law will cost taxpayers $100 billion less than previously estimated. Republicans already were pushing their luck by vowing to "repeal and replace" the health care...

Healthcare.gov, the troubled website set up to help Americans choose and enroll in a health care policy, crashed early Monday morning, on the final day to begin the process to apply for health insurance. According to a CNBC story, the website crashed around 3:20 a.m. (ET) Monday. It was  still down as of 7:40 a.m.Monday is the deadline to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act -- commonly called Obamacare -- before facing a fine.According to the White House, more than 6 million people have signed up since the enrollment period began on Oct. 1. According to...

21-year-old Dallas Miller received an awkward email from her friend. The White Creek, Tennessee resident was told that her face was showing up in advertisements on Backpage.com for prostitution. As WKRN ABC News 2 reports, there are some problems with this: 1) Dallas isn’t a prostitute. 2) She never gave her permission to have her pictures used in ads for prostitution, because, as I just mentioned, she isn’t a prostitute. Dallas’ pictures show up in an ad that, in part, reads, “best time of your life 100% guaranteed satisfaction [phone number redacted] OUTCALL ONLY – 21.” Ms. Miller told WKRN,...

We have encountered many physicians and friends who don’t recall or recognize just how many interesting coincidences had to fall into place for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to pass both houses of Congress and gain President Obama’s signature (March 23, 2010). This post serves as an informational overview – a reminder – as to how it all happened and is not meant in any way to be a judgment on the process – however convoluted – or on the final product.

March 26, 2014 10:44 AM Read the Complete List of Obamacare Delays By Alec Torres The Obama administration will announce its tenth Obamacare delay later today, this time extending the March 31 enrollment deadline for people who say they’ve been unable to enroll in health plans in the federal marketplace by the deadline. The extension applies to the federal exchange operating in three dozen states and is expected to last for two or three weeks. Can’t remember what all the delays have been? Politico provided a helpful history of Obamacare delays from most to least recent: March 25: Final enrollment...

The Obama administration has decided to give extra time to Americans who say that they are unable to enroll in health-care plans through the federal insurance marketplace by the March 31 deadline. Federal officials confirmed Tuesday evening that all consumers who have begun to apply for coverage on HealthCare.gov, but who do not finish by Monday, will have until about mid-April to ask for an extension. Under the new rules, people will be able to qualify for an extension by checking a blue box on HealthCare.gov to indicate that they tried to enroll before the deadline. This method will rely...

For Democrats Obamacare is the train wreck that keeps getting worse. For Republicans, it’s the gift that keeps on giving. Obamacare premiums are expected to nearly double later this year. Keep in mind premiums already rose 50-400% compared to the old “junk” policies people had and liked before Obamacare. A massive price increase latter this year will more or less collapse Obamacare. We might know more about Obamacare enrollment in the next few weeks, though while the administration claims 5 million have signed up they claim not to know how many have paid. If you haven’t paid, you aren’t covered....

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, you remember -- and I've got the audio sound bites here to refresh your memory. Barack Obama lied, it's been calculated, roughly 25 times over three years. "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health plan, you can keep your health plan. Obamacare is not gonna affect you! You like your doctor, you like your plan, you keep it." I will maintain to you that Barack Obama would not have been reelected had he not made that lie. If people had known they weren't gonna be able...

On Friday, Pres. Obama mocked Republicans who complain about his use of executive actions to "fix" Obamacare without involving Congress. **SNIP** "The reason they don't do it, of course, is that we already took the best ideas that are out there about bringing down costs and covering more people. Yes, there have been some disruptions. Yes, we lost that first month out of the gate. And we've worked hard to fix problems that have come up without any cooperation from them; in fact, they've complained when we fix them. They say, how dare you fix the things we were complaining...

Ezekiel Emanuel, one of the architects behind Obamacare, is now claiming that “insurance companies as we know them are about to die.” Critics of President Barack Obama’s signature health care law have long alleged that one of the real goals of law was to put private insurance companies out of business.

Liberals are winning wild praise for their candor in admitting problems with Obamacare. It shows you the level of honesty people have come to expect of our liberal friends. Now, liberals are applauded for not lying through their teeth about something. What are they supposed to say? This Obamacare website is fantastic! And really, haven't you already read all the magazines in your current doctor's office anyway? The New York Times has described Obama's repeated claim that you could keep your insurance plan and keep your doctor under Obamacare as a mere slip of the tongue: "Mr. Obama clearly misspoke...

Barack Obama: You can call it ‘Obamacare’ By: Jose DelReal February 17, 2014 09:38 AM EST It may not be polling well, but President Barack Obama isn’t too worried about the Affordable Care Act’s nickname, Obamacare, or the health care law’s impact on his legacy. “I like it. I don’t mind,” the president told former NBA star Charles Barkley in an interview that aired Sunday about the term Obamacare. “And I tell you, five years from now, when everybody’s saying, ‘Man, I’m sure glad we got health care,’ there are going to be a whole bunch of people who don’t...

Barack Obama’s infamous 21 words about keeping our health insurance and doctors were more than just remarkable political lies that ended his public credibility. They’ve become insidious corrupters of the entire political and journalistic infrastructure that echoed the lies and that’s left struggling to prop up the president and itself. Consider the assorted contortions and embarrassment of, respectively, a Colorado U.S. Senator, a Michigan U.S. Representative, a Colorado regulator, and journalists ranging from a Denver web pundit to the New York Times. Sen. Mark Udall, facing reelection this year, was nailed on tape echoing the Big Lie. He’s not...

“We’ve got to take ownership that we messed up,” former White House adviser Lanny Davis told Megyn Kelly last night, “and Nancy Pelosi should say that — we messed up.” Bill Clinton’s former aide and counsel in the impeachment fight joked at the beginning of this clip that he’d hoped for a fun segment with Kelly, but that Pelosi’s refusal to take responsibility for the consequences of the bill she shoved down the throats of Americans “is painful.” Was it ever: “Nancy Pelosi should say that — we messed up…We have to take ownership,” Davis said, indicating that admitting fault...

This appearance by Nancy Pelosi on The Daily Show starts to run off the rails almost immediately. Jon Stewart starts off by asking Pelosi about why people talk about politics rather than policy, to which Pelosi answers by … complaining about Republicans. Stewart doesn’t take the bait, though, and starts pressing Pelosi for answers as to why big-government politicians can’t produce competent government — and gets stunned by her admission that she can’t explain why ObamaCare failed: CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO The Daily Show Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook Stewart said that Democrats...

Cancer-stricken Sen. Tom Coburn revealed Tuesday that his health insurance under Obamacare doesn’t cover his oncologist, but said he still is receiving excellent care. “I’m doing well from a health standpoint, got great docs,” Coburn said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Tuesday when asked about his health. “Fortunately — even though my new coverage won’t cover my specialist — I’m going to have great care and I have a great prognosis.” The Oklahoma Republican’s spokesman confirmed to POLITICO that since the senator enrolled in his health insurance plan under Obamacare, his coverage has been reduced and he lost coverage for...

David Remnick of The New Yorker showed up on PBS’s Charlie Rose Monday night to discuss his long, mostly sympathetic profile of Barack Obama from the January 27 issue of the magazine. Near the end of the interview, Rose focused in on the president’s reported desire to be “big.” The host wondered, “[W]hat's his definition of 'big,' and does he believe in his deep recesses of his own mind that the chance of that has slipped away?” Remnick replied that no, Obama does not think his chance of being “big” has slipped away. The editor then rattled off a laundry...

Saying that life is hard is kind of like saying the sun is hot, water is wet, or noting that politicians lie a lot. It's so obvious that anyone who's paying attention already knows that it's true. That being said, life's even harder when you're working under false assumptions that have been drilled into you by your teachers, college professors, Hollywood, and politicians in D.C. Much of what liberalism drums into the young skulls full of mush simply isn't true and millions of lives have been ruined by people finding it out the hard way. The good news is that...