The Boston Globe (Mass.), Nov. 14:
Paris was still counting its dead Friday night, after terrorists launched a wave of brutal attacks in the French capital. The nature of the targets – the killers struck a soccer game, a concert, and a restaurant – suggested an effort to attack not just French civilians, but French civilization: The terrorists turned their Kalashnikovs on the je ne sais quoi that makes life enjoyable, and that makes Paris Paris.
It’s difficult to imagine the nihilism, and contempt for humanity, that could motivate such coldblooded rage. Investigations into the crimes are just beginning, but it appears the coordinated attacks were carried out by Islamic extremists. It is the second major attack in France this year, after the killings of journalists at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
World leaders said all the right things Friday night, as the death toll ticked higher; more than 100 were killed. “Those who think that they can terrorize the people of France or the values that they stand for are wrong,” said President Obama. “We will do whatever we can to help,” said British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Of course, it should go without saying that the United States will stand with France, and aid in the investigation of the attacks. It should also go without saying that jumping to conclusions would be a mistake. In the fog of war or terrorist attacks, many initial reports turn out to be wrong.
But failing to face up to reality would also be a mistake. The reality is that whatever the particulars may turn out to be in this case, countries across the world face a serious threat from young, radicalized Muslim men. Boston experienced that threat firsthand in the Marathon bombings in 2013, which were orchestrated by a pair of Chechen brothers. Those threats demand a strong law enforcement response, but they also require leaders, religious figures, and society at large to directly confront the twisted ideology that justifies indiscriminate murder for political ends and, in doing so, slights the value of all human life.
Indeed, France is one of the birthplaces of modern notions of human rights. On both sides of the Atlantic, there’s a tendency to express those ideals in vague, lofty terms (liberty, equality, fraternity). But what they boil down to is the right to go out to dinner on a Friday night, to listen to the artists of your choosing, to live one’s life free from force. In Paris Friday night, those rights were violated in gruesome fashion. France, the United States, and the rest of the world, must rise to their defense.
The Caledonian Record (Vt.), Nov. 14:
The goals were good – get more Americans access to affordable, quality health insurance and reduce the growth in U.S. health care spending. The outcome… surprise… has not been so good.
President Obama and fellow Democrats rammed through Obamacare with the aforementioned promises. The bill was so cumbersome and confusing the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, notoriously exclaimed, “We have to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it.’ Obama uttered lies that would have made Clintons blush: “We’ll lower premiums by up to $2,500 a year for the average family.” Or the classic, “If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor.”
Republican proposals on how to curtail the cost of health care were discarded outright because the Democrats controlled the House, Senate, and the White House. GOP ideas included allowing Americans, especially in small states with aging populations like Vermont and New Hampshire, to purchase policies across state lines from larger, younger states, thus having access to lower premiums. Tort reform, which would get rid of frivolous lawsuits that drive up the cost of health care, was another idea that Obama said he would seriously look at. He didn’t.
Obamacare features Democrat DNA exclusively and the blue party is paying a heavy toll for it. Americans still find Obamacare a bad piece of legislation and have shown their disgust at the polls. Across the country Democrats have been thrown out of office and decimated at the state and federal level. While Obama continues to smile for the cameras and tell anyone who will listen that his signature piece of legislation is a success, it isn’t working and is crumbling under its own weight.
Rich Lowry, from the National Review, writes: “Enrollment is falling short. The Obama administration projects that it will have roughly 10 million people on the state and federal exchanges by the end of next year, a staggering climb-down from prior expectations. The Congressional Budget Office had predicted that there would be roughly 20 million enrollees. If the administration is to be believed, enrollment will only increase about another million next year from its current 9 million and only sign up about a quarter of the eligible uninsured.”
And the cost that Obama had promised would be curtailed? That hasn’t happened either. Lowry explains, “Premiums are rising. Not everywhere, but steeply in some states. Indiana is down 12 percent, but Minnesota is up 50 percent. Health care expert Robert Laszewski points out that it’s the insurers with the highest enrollment and therefore the best information about actual enrollees that have tended to request the biggest increases – a sign that they don’t like what they’re seeing in their data.”
What is most troublesome is those who qualify for heavy subsidies have signed up, but those who do not, including young healthy singles, have decided against enrolling. Without these people Obamacare does not work, plain and simple.
We hope the presidential candidates will discuss in detail how they choose to repair or replace what Vice-President Joe Biden famously uttered at the time of its signing, “a big f***ing deal.” We’d refer to it as a big “bleeping” disaster.
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