In a recent reflection, I noted a number of instances of what is fairly clearly corruption on the part of this Administration. (I was actually adding to a list of instances first given by the Washington Examiner columnist Tim Carrey).
But — such is my declining memory in my declining years — I missed a particularly egregious example of Obama’s Chicago School of Economics (which is definitely not to be confused with the Chicago School of Friedman and his co-workers).
The signature bill for which Obama will be remembered (or cursed) is his healthcare act, the eponymous Obamacare. One of the provisions of this monstrosity is the requirement that all healthcare plans must raise their annual limits to at least $750,000. (In 2012, that minimum allowable limit rises to $1.25 million; it then rises to $2 million in 2013.) Naturally, this requirement forces companies whose employee insurance has lower limits to raise them and thus pay higher premiums, or to cancel their employee health plans. The only way not to obey it is to go hat in hand to the Department of Health and Human Services — run by the Obama regime, remember — and get a waiver, which the HHS Department will grant or deny, as it sees fit.
The number of these waivers has been rising rapidly, with well over 700 companies and unions now having obtained them. And, behold! An amazing pattern is emerging about who gets the coveted waivers: disproportionately, they seem to be going to the regime’s supporters.
To be precise, as David Freddoso documents, 40% of the workers affected are in union plans. (In fact, of the 14.6 million unionized workers in this country, nearly a million are now conveniently exempt from the provisions.) But do I have to add that these unions are all huge donors to Democratic campaign coffers in general and Obama’s coffers in particular?
And I’m willing to bet that of the companies that got exemptions, a large percentage have also contributed to Democratic political campaigns.
That’s Obama’s Chicago School of Economics, or what I call neo-socialism. The regime doesn’t actually own all major businesses, but it controls them tightly and exacts tribute from them. More succinctly, it’s “play for pay, the Chicago way”!
