A heartwarming story at the end

What’s new Today 

Story #1 is a look at what is at stake in the Obamacare SCOTUS decision.  #2 shows that although the left likes to think they are non-ideological, they are and Keynes is their prophet.  #3 show another Obama promise that has not held up.  #4 gives us a newsflash.  Mitt Romney is rich!  #5 is a wonderful article by George Will about his Down’s Syndrome son on his 40^th birthday. 

Today’s thoughts

Europe has its highest unemployment rate in 15 years (10.9%).  They have tried to tame their deficits, not by cutting spending but by increasing taxes, the same way Obama wants to.

Have you noticed that Obama inherited everything from George Bush except the intelligence network that found bin Laden? 

If you are worried that Barack Obama will win a second term read Paul Krugman.  He seem apoplectic with worry the Ben Bernanke isn’t doing enough to insure Obama’s reelection.  I guess “it is the economy stupid.”

While BHO was spiking the ball on the anniversary of killing OBL, former President Bush was biking with Wounded Warriors without much fanfare. 

1.   Justice Roberts and the Law

In a 2006 interview with PBS, Roberts discussed the most revolutionary aspect of the American Constitution, which is that it is the law over government and not merely a political document melded at will by political leaders. Chief Justice John Marshall's landmark opinion in Marbury v. Madison, Roberts notes, "says, what is the Constitution? It's law. It's law that the people have established to control this new government."

In this regard, the ObamaCare case is very much about more than just ObamaCare. It is about the extent to which the Constitution is binding as law that controls government, and what the Supreme Court will do to enforce that law on government….

…Roberts' task is to articulate how the Constitution is law that binds -- that governs -- government itself. A judicial traditionalist, Roberts understands the importance of how Supreme Court decisions have helped interpret the Constitution as law when there is ambiguity.

Roberts has also stood firm when laws and judicial precedent have gone too far astray from the Constitution's meaning and purpose. In Wisconsin Right to Life v. Federal Election Commission, he wrote, "Enough is enough," finishing with "as is often the case in this Court's First Amendment opinions, we have gotten this far in the analysis without quoting the Amendment itself: 'Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech.' The Framers' actual words put these cases in proper perspective."

The public record is clear that those responsible for passing ObamaCare sometimes displayed disregard for -- even an unhealthy ignorance of -- the Constitution as law binding government. Some in government now even display a level of disdain or contempt for the rule of law.

The chief justice assuredly sees the many degradations the Constitution is suffering under the Obama administration. The fate of more than ObamaCare is at stake. We'll see if John Roberts will help restore the rule of law over government.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/05/chief_justice_roberts_marbury_moment.html#ixzz1tnpa6Jvl

This is a pretty good summation of what the Obamacare case means.  If it stands, effectively there are no limits on government.  If it falls, the left will go crazy about an activist’s court. 

2.  Obama, the Democrats, Keynes and Reality

It's campaign season, and as usual, Democrats are employing their class struggle rhetoric to position a redistributive government agenda as the only way Americans can be saved from themselves and the greedy capitalists who prey upon them.

Accustomed though we may be, this might seem an odd campaign strategy in light of recent polls showing widespread distrust of, and even contempt for, the federal government. But they have no choice but to keep their talking points emotional rather than substantive, you see. The core economic model of the American left is Keynesianism, which is less a viable economic path than it is an unrealistic pipe dream that stirs the collectivist's blood, much like the notions of world peace and Utopia.

Keynesianism is a model based upon how collectivists think the economy should operate, rather than how it actually operates. As Ron Ross puts it, "Keynesianism is definitely not an evidence-based model of how the economy works. So far as I know, Keynes did no empirical studies." He sets Keynes' research, or lack thereof, against that of Reagan economic adviser Milton Friedman, a staunch advocate of free markets and limited government intervention. "Friedman," Ross says, "was a far more diligent researcher than Keynes. Friedman fit the theory to the data, rather than vice versa."

In short, a pleasant hypothesis -- that a central government can stimulate demand and shorten economic downturns for stabilized prosperity -- supports the Keynesian model. Not facts. That is why you don't hear Democrats touting the Obama administration's past successes. The facts surrounding his economic policy are simply not useful for anything but arguing the same policy's ineffectiveness. …

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/05/keynesianism_and_the_collectivist_dream.html#ixzz1tnrhkgpu

This will come as a shock to Nancy Pelosi who sees unemployment insurance as the best stimulus to the economy.  Now if we could just get everyone to lose their job, “happy days” would be here again. 

3.  Another Obama Promise that turned out to be false

"No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise to the American people," Obama said Monday, addressing the American Medical Association. "If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what." He didn't let up."If you like what you're getting, keep it," Obama said. "Nobody is forcing you to shift."

The President was correct, the government would not force a change, but of course the bill was structured to encourage employers to make a change. Under Obamacare it is cheaper for a company to pay a fine and drop health coverage for employees than to provide them with health care.

A report issued today by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) uses information by 71 of the Fortune 100 companies to show these companies could save $28.6 billion in 2014 by dumping their health coverage and forcing employees into the exchanges. Between 2014 and 2023, dropping health coverage would collectively save these companies $422.4 billion—and that’s after paying the penalty. Unless you are a member of Congress playing with taxpayer dollars, that's a lot of money.

It's simple math, in 2011, the average per-employee cost of providing health insurance to these companies was $5,197 after taxes and is expected to increase to $6,487 in 2014. The employer mandate in Obamacare costs only $2,000 per full-time employee, which means beginning in 2012 these companies save approximately $4,500 per employee by killing their health coverage….

http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/2012/05/proof-another-obamacare-lie-released.html

This is not an unexpected consequence.  This was exactly what the Democrats wanted to happen.  It’s the reason they wrote the law as they did and why Obama lied about it. 

4.  News flash:  The Romneys are Rich!

The fashion house that makes the nearly $1,000 blouse worn by Ann Romney on morning television earlier this week tells ABC News that they had nothing to do with the wardrobe choice, remarking that they’d prefer to stay out of politics.

“We had nothing to do with it,” a rep for designer Reed Krakoff said. “She must have bought it from Saks or Bergdorf’s, we definitely didn’t send it to her.”

“It’s 100 percent a Reed Krakoff shirt, but we 100 percent didn’t send it to her,” the rep added. ”We don’t get involved politically.”

The shirt, an item in the label’s 2012 Spring/Summer collection, retails for $990, and for those shopping, is called the “The Reed Audubon Silk Shirt.”…

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/designer-of-ann-romneys-1k-shirt-its-off-the-rack/

This is what passes for news on ABC.  As you can probably tell this is critical for the voters to know before they go to the polls in NOVEMBER!  In the meantime, what’s happening with the economy?   But to be fair, ABC covers Michelle Obama’s fashions choices religiously, don’t they? 

5.  Jon Will Turns 40

…This era has coincided, not just coincidentally, with the full, garish flowering of the baby boomers’ vast sense of entitlement, which encompasses an entitlement to exemption from nature’s mishaps, and to a perfect baby. So today science enables what the ethos ratifies, the choice of killing children with Down syndrome before birth. That is what happens to 90 percent of those whose parents receive a Down syndrome diagnosis through prenatal testing.

Which is unfortunate, and not just for them. Judging by Jon, the world would be improved by more people with Down syndrome, who are quite nice, as humans go. It is said we are all born brave, trusting and greedy, and remain greedy. People with Down syndrome must remain brave in order to navigate society’s complexities. They have no choice but to be trusting because, with limited understanding, and limited abilities to communicate misunderstanding, they, like Blanche DuBois in “A Streetcar Named Desire,” always depend on the kindness of strangers. Judging by Jon’s experience, they almost always receive it.

Two things that have enhanced Jon’s life are the Washington subway system, which opened in 1976, and the Washington Nationals baseball team, which arrived in 2005. He navigates the subway expertly, riding it to the Nationals ballpark, where he enters the clubhouse a few hours before game time and does a chore or two. The players, who have climbed to the pinnacle of a steep athletic pyramid, know that although hard work got them there, they have extraordinary aptitudes because they are winners of life’s lottery. Major leaguers, all of whom understand what it is to be gifted, have been uniformly and extraordinarily welcoming to Jon, who is not.

Except he is, in a way. He has the gift of serenity, in this sense:

The eldest of four siblings, he has seen two brothers and a sister surpass him in size, and acquire cars and college educations. He, however, with an underdeveloped entitlement mentality, has been equable about life’s sometimes careless allocation of equity. Perhaps this is partly because, given the nature of Down syndrome, neither he nor his parents have any tormenting sense of what might have been. Down syndrome did not alter the trajectory of his life; Jon was Jon from conception on.

This year Jon will spend his birthday where every year he spends 81 spring, summer and autumn days and evenings, at Nationals Park, in his seat behind the home team’s dugout. The Phillies will be in town, and Jon will be wishing them ruination, just another man, beer in hand, among equals in the republic of baseball.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/jon-will-40-years-and-going-with-down-syndrome/2012/05/02/gIQAdGiNxT_story.html

This is a wonderful column speaking of the joys that come from that “unwanted” and “defective” child.  To the troglodytes who condemned and taunted Sarah Palin for her “choice” to not abort her son Trig, all I can say is shame on you.