Since late last year there’s been a precipitous drop in the nation’s number of uninsured citizens, now the last since before the financial crisis of 2008. The number now stands at 13.4%. And that national number masks huge disparities between states which either embraced or tried to sabotage the ACA in their states. See the chart.
As you know, Cliven Bundy ended his role in the mainstream of American politics with his running disquisitions on “the Negro.” But the greater folly of Bundy-ism and its more mainstream penumbra is that these avatars of anti-government self-sufficiency are living in the part of America that lives in what can best be called a bubble of big-government socialism. Bundy’s ranch and, truth be told, huge swaths of the American far-west could never have been settled or kept running without massive on-going federal subsidy since the mid-19th century until today. Who do you think cleared the Indians? Built the dams and roads? Who do we think ran the phone lines for handfulls of people whose business could never merit the investment in true market terms? It’s almost funny when you look at the big picture. Jonathan Earle explains in this must read piece.
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A few days ago I was talking to one of our DC reporters about how to find the narrative thread in the politics of this moment. We basically knew there would be no legislation in 2013, though there was enough possibility to pretend. But this year we don’t have to pretend. Nothing is happening on Capitol Hill besides possible investigations. But that’s not the main thing that makes it hard to grasp the thread of the political moment.
So Fox News will now only broadcast briefings if the subject is Benghazi. Watch.
Interesting discussion thread that just opened up in The Hive (sub req): Where does all this disdain for the poor come from?
TPM Reader CS thinks I’m too pessimistic about how long the current political impasse will last. To be clear, I was not buying into that prediction. But the arguments for it were better than I thought or considered and it’s a very different ten to twenty year outlook than has seemed credible to me. That said, CS …
I have to admit I was somewhat taken aback by your (in my mind) pessimistic political prognosis in your posting “How long? Maybe very long“. This is a topic that you are much more on top of than I, but I just can’t envision the continuing Presidential/Congressional stalemate that you’re predicting.
Las Vegas PD: Don’t have sex before marriage or you could lose a limb in a meth lab explosion.
In case you missed it, a great piece on why the world of Cliven Bundy couldn’t exist without big government spending verging on quasi-socialism.
GOP Lawmaker who compared Obamacare sign-ups to Jews being shipped to Auschwitz says, You’re totally missing my point.