Mark Steyn: American Twilight

This weekend, I am thousands of miles from home in a remote and isolated part of the world with erratic communications and lack of basic services. No, not Washington, D.C. Things aren’t that primitive, thank God. I’m in a rude Highland croft way up a far Scottish brae, enjoying the simple life by choice, rather than because the capital region of the global superpower is incapable of turning the lights back on within a week.

Which is by way of saying that news from the imperial metropolis has reached me in fits and starts. The other morning it was the intriguing tidbit that Chief Justice John Roberts had written both the majority opinion in the Obamacare decision and the dissent. He is literally his own worst enemy. He’s apparently the Mike Myers of the Supreme Court, able to play both Austin Powers and Dr. Evil, although it has to be said that he seems rather more at home as the bumbling swinger. If I understand correctly, the chief justice wrote the dissent back when it was the 5–4 majority opinion, and then, after switching sides, wrote the new majority opinion, and the four guys left holding the old majority opinion decided to leave it as is, presumably as a way of not so subtly underlining their total contempt for their squishy chief. Fascinating stuff, I’m sure...

America is seizing up before our eyes, and the action necessary to reverse the sclerosis is stymied at every turn by rapacious unions, government micro-regulators, dependency-spreading social engineers, and crony capitalists who know how to weave their way through the bureaucracy...

Do you honestly think that Americans will cut poor people off completely?

It’s not now nor has it ever been a matter of cutting poor people off completely. It may not even be a matter of cutting them off at all. Obviously, we’ve got to figure out what “poor” is and how to verify it case by case. Maybe it becomes a state issue. And it won’t be “Americans” who do the cutting but a Congress and executive branch designated by the voters to solve the problem. Simplistic? I don’t think so. So far, even the idealistic freshman House members have failed to make the case for responsible governing—especially where healthcare’s concerned. Insofar as returning to corporate healthcare plans, sure, fine. But we can also change the law—force competition among ALL carriers (like life, house, car insurance), cap damages, penalize both plaintiff and his counsel for wanton suits (not necessarily loser-pay all but perhaps loser & counsel pay all or something equally prohibitive for ambulance-chasers); automatic, graduated penalties up to and including loss of license & disbarment for fraud (including waste & duplication) by caregivers, hospitals, insurance carriers, drug- and health-equipment manufacturers AND THEIR counsels and accountants; encourage health professionals (docs, hospitals, clinics, drug-mfrs., etc.) in cooperation with state agencies and/or private charities to devise payment schedules (& price-lists) for uninsured, often emergency, patients. Little if any of this needs federal cash or supervision.

As VGH noted, the state of California can’t afford to arrest and convict felons, yet the criminals in charge of the legislature and their insane Moonbeam are passing the bullet train bill from nowhere to nowhere:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2904097/posts

You Decide: Obama’s Really Cool Train vs. Keystone’s Real Cool Jobs
Townhall.com ^ | July 8, 2012 | Mark Baisley

Posted on Sunday, July 08, 2012 7:19:12 AM by Kaslin

Four California Democratic State Senators joined twelve Republican State Senators last Friday in voting against funding for a new high speed train and rail line. But that only brought the opposition vote to 43% in the lopsided Democratic California Senate.

California continues to set new records in accumulated debt for a single state, now in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Only the State of New York is able to top California and only in one area; debt per citizen.

There is one good argument for the California State Senate to have passed the bill approving $4.7 billion in spending. It obligates the other 49 states to send $3.2 billion of their money in matching federal funds for the project. The Obama Administration committed that level of funding in 2009 primarily from his economic stimulus project.

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