Consumers to Face New Limits on Private Short-Term Health Insurance - WSJ

Under a proposed rule, the administration aims to limit short-term health plans to three months, or four months if consumers opt to extend them

Isn’t it wonderful when government bureaucrats, who rail in court filings about big corporations limiting “consumer choice,” who never have to worry about facing a job loss, a gap between jobs, or the spiraling cost of healthcare on their mega Cadillac plans, decide that they know what’s best for your family’s healthcare coverage?

Some consumers seek out temporary plans because they are generally less expensive than ACA plans, offer flexible coverage periods such as 30 days or three years, and can be obtained any time of the year rather than just during the once-a-year ACA open-enrollment period.

Huh, that’s weird. These plans are offering options that consumers actually want, and are willing to pay for without making their neighbors subsidize them via tax credits.

Short-term plans could provide coverage with fewer benefits at premiums 54% lower than ACA-compliant plans

They found this one weird trick online to save you money: they don’t charge male subscribers for maternity care.

This younger, healthier demographic is considered important for restraining premiums that could rise if mostly older or sicker people enroll in coverage.

Social Security worked out so well that we decided to bring that successful business model to health insurance!

The Biden administration plans to limit short-term health policies that are typically less comprehensive than Affordable Care Act plans, in part because of concerns the products undercut the Obama-era health law.

This isn’t about you, your family, your economic freedom, or your budget. It’s about them protecting their vanity project.

Everyone Wants Interest on Their Deposits. That’s Bad for Main Street Banks. - WSJ

The Fed’s hikes and the failures of a trio of midsize banks are prompting once-loyal customers to pull their money out of checking accounts that pay no interest.

Low interest checking accounts are the credit card of deposit accounts. The bank will pay you 0.1% on your deposits, then turn around and loan you money for a car at 6%.

And customers don’t like that… go figure.

Sparklers 🇺🇸

What the Supreme Court’s Rejection of Student-Loan Forgiveness Means for You - WSJ

Millions of Americans will have to prepare to repay the entire balance of their student debt now that the Supreme Court has overturned President Biden’s loan-forgiveness plan.

Weird, that’s what it said on their Master Promissory Notes.

Report Blames Top Biden Officials for Failures During Afghanistan Exit - WSJ

U.S. Embassy staff in Kabul were so concerned in the months leading to the pullout that they sent a rare classified dissent cable warning that the Taliban’s advance was coming sooner than the administration had anticipated and correctly predicted that Afghanistan’s military would be unable to stop it, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Supreme Court Strikes Down Biden’s Student-Loan Forgiveness Plan - WSJ

As a presidential candidate in 2020, Biden said he would pursue legislation to erase $10,000 in student debt per borrower. Once in office, however, he confronted a gridlocked Congress where neither Democratic efforts to cancel student debt nor Republican bills to prohibit loan forgiveness survived.

It’s been a three year con. He didn’t get it through Congress when they had unified control, even though they passed plenty of profligate spending, this plan failed, and the new one will, too. Both chamber of Congress this year passed legislation rebuking the forgiveness… which required Democratic votes!

Let it go.

Why does every website have auto play videos now? I just want to read.

They got your vote twice, and all you got was a lousy student loan payment.

🤡🤡🤡

Harvard To Get Around Affirmative Action Ban By Asking You Whether You Prefer BBQ, Ranch, Or Soy Sauce - Babylon Bee

Admissions faculty at Harvard was devastated today upon hearing the news that they could no longer use racial discrimination to turn their school into a diverse rainbow of beautiful mediocrity.

“But, look, 13 million jobs, again, when you think about how Americans feel better about their personal finances, that is important. When you think about wages are going up, when you think about the really good paying, millions of good-paying jobs, union jobs that his policies are going to create, all the things are really incredibly important. So the president’s going to continue to speak to that. And that’s what we believe we’re going…that is our, you know, our priority to do,” Jean-Pierre responded.

When did grammar become so unfashionable in the communications field?

The Espionage Act’s Ugly, Un-American History - WSJ Opinion

The U.S. must prosecute spies and protect national secrets, but the Espionage Act isn’t necessary to do so. More than a dozen more-specific federal statutes criminalize spying, hacking and misuse of government records. These statutes require criminal intent. Most of them expressly apply only to “employees and officers” of the U.S., so they couldn’t be used to target journalists or former presidents.

Pretty good take. Really highlights the bifurcation of justice over the past three decades.

EV Startup Lordstown, Once an Ohio Town’s Savior, Files for Bankruptcy - WSJ

Lordstown once said it would produce hundreds of thousands of vehicles in the former GM plant in Lordstown, Ohio, but so far it has made only a handful of trucks. The company’s market capitalization has fallen to $47.49 million as of Monday, from a peak of about $5 billion in February 2021.

This plant used to be a big waypoint on my travels between home and points north. Unbelievable how many financial advantages this company had, and they still blew it.

Ultimately, it seems like the cost of swimming against the current trying to bring a product to market that few can afford, and even fewer want.

A sense of trepidation overcomes me when I first open my inbox in the morning.

📥

Hunter Biden’s ‘Fair’ Tax Share - WSJ Opinion

The IRS team recommended that Hunter be prosecuted on felony charges of tax evasion for 2014 and false tax filings and a misdemeanor charge for 2015 of failure to pay tax. Yet because the U.S. Attorney waited so long to make a prosecutorial decision, the six-year statute of limitations expired. Hunter thus won’t pay taxes on more than $400,000 in unreported income for these years.

Nice tax break there.

Also notable are Hunter’s filings in 2018 and 2019, for which the IRS team also recommended felony charges of tax evasion and false returns. The second whistleblower testified that Hunter underreported his income for 2018 by anywhere from $267,000 to $500,000—depending on how conservatively the IRS counted.

So, in a period of 5 years, he underreported between $667,000 to $900,000 in income. And that’s a misdemeanor?

Toyota’s ‘Prone-to-Tears President’ Taps the Brakes on EVs - WSJ

Toyoda’s perception of himself as facing off with disparaging elites mirrors how he talks today about the auto world’s transition to electric vehicles. In December, Toyoda said he was standing up for a “silent majority” in the auto industry that questions whether it is right to make EVs the sole option for car buyers.

This realistic pragmatism is the same spirit that makes Toyota vehicles so reliable. Do well, stretch your engineering, but never fly too close to the sun.

Why You Shouldn’t Always Tell Your Bank How Much You Make - WSJ

A higher credit limit is generally good for your credit score, since you will be using a smaller share of your available credit, he said. (That might not be ideal if you think a higher limit will tempt you to overspend.) Updating your income could lead to other perks, such as qualifying you for an upgraded card or a home-equity line of credit.

Cool perks, bro.

Four hours of internet outage can either be a complete disaster or rocket fuel for productivity. 🚀

U.S. Offers India Drones, Jet Engines to Lure It From Russia - WSJ

“Ultimately, the question of where politics and the question of democratic institutions go in India is going to be determined within India by Indians,” Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters ahead of the visit. “It’s not going to be determined by the United States.”

Not exactly the “Saudi Approach.”

Tongues Of Fire Come To Rest On Biden And Fetterman As They Speak In Unknown Languages | Babylon Bee

At publishing time, the nation’s foremost theologians were still hard at work searching for anyone with the spiritual gift of interpretation to translate what Biden and Fetterman said.