What’s New

The Congressional Budget Office is now estimating that 10.9 million people will lose health insurance coverage because of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. In all the press coverage and editorializing about these changes two facts are being ignored: (1) people who lose their coverage are almost certain to be healthy,  and not in need of  medical care, and (2) if people who drop their coverage get sick, they can easily re-enroll and get Medicaid to pay their medical bills retrospectively. More.

The Democratic Party is having an identity crisis. John Goodman’s theory: The crisis arises because the way most Democrats talk about and think about their party is completely different from how the party actually functions. In a democracy politicians have an incentive to take from Peter and give to Paul whenever the Pauls can deliver more political support than the Peters. Of course, this is true for Republicans as well. But for Democrats that is their raison d’être. More

The Declaration of Independence was made possible because of two changes: A change in the way people thought and a change in the way they earned a living. With the Enlightenment came the idea that individuals are independent moral entities who should deal with each other on the basis of reason, persuasion and voluntary exchange. With the emergence of a market economy, the way individuals could do the most good for the most other people is by pursuing their own self-interest in the marketplace. More

Phil Gramm and Donald J. Boudreaux savagely dismantle myths about our economic history—myths that are routinely taught in high schools and colleges across the country. Included: The birth of capitalism in England and in America and the progressive era. More

What most people think they know about the past is often wrong. Capitalism and greed did not cause the Great Depression of the 1930s. Nor did they cause the Great Recession of 2007–2009. These events were caused by bad government. Those are some of the well documented conclusions of a new book. More

Given the disastrous 20^th century experiences with Zohran Mamdani’s ideas in Russia, China, North Korea and Cuba, how could anyone in the 21st century seriously consider them?  Answer: Anyone who has taken a course in Econ 101 (even using Paul Krugman’s textbook) won’t take them seriously. More

If the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) can stop our Social Security system from sending checks to dead people, that would be a plus. Yet a far more important task is to stop the system from overpaying people who are very much alive. Last year the Social Security Administration admitted it had identified 2 million beneficiaries who have been overpaid and sent them “clawback” letters, demanding the government’s money back. Some of these claims go back several decades, and they can amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars. More

Industry experts believe that the House reconciliation bill would result in 20 million more Americans having a Health Savings Account. Among the changes, Bronze and catastrophic plans sold in the (Obamacare) exchanges would automatically qualify for HSAs. And people could use their HSA to pay the monthly premium of a direct primary care doctor of their choosing – providing 24/7 primary care.

However, John Goodman says that for the same CBO score, the Senate could make the bill much better. More.

In his latest commentary at Forbes, John Goodman explains a huge, missed opportunity by House Republicans.

They should have focused on why Medicaid does such a poor job of meeting the needs of the enrollees. Then, they should have explored ways of making Medicaid better and reducing spending at the same time. This would have been a very positive message to voters.

Let’s hope this turns around in the Senate. More.