Build Back Better? Fix Medicaid First - WSJ Opinion

“It is no coincidence,” the FGA says, “that the two states with the highest publicly available improper payment rates have expanded Medicaid under ObamaCare.” Since that expansion, the national rate of bad payments has “nearly quadrupled.”

The bigger the program, the greater the waste.

Here’s an idea: Before Congress spends billions of dollars on tomorrow’s Great Society, it should deal with the fact that Medicaid cannot account for more than $1 out of every $5 it spends.

Why the Sustainable Investment Craze Is Flawed - WSJ

The financial industry has spotted an opportunity to make money by helping people feel good about themselves. Despite claims to the contrary, these investments don’t do much to make the world a better place.

The entire article could’ve ended after this opening paragraph.

ESG is about making investors feel good, effecting no change, and enriching the fund companies.

Sadly, selling off assets or shares by itself does nothing to save the planet, because someone else bought them. Just as much oil and coal is dug up and burned as before, under different ownership.

Facts not highlighted in ESG fund marketing.

Someone has to take a loss somewhere if fossil fuels are going to be left in the ground rather than extracted and sold. ESG investors’ hope is that the losses will fall on other people. The problem is that less environmentally-minded investors buying those shares, oil wells or power plants are absolutely not going to shut them down unless they stop being profitable.

Maggie the Cow

I get my best ideas when I’m walking.

San Francisco Store Clerk Confused As Shopper Actually Tries To Pay For Merchandise - The Babylon Bee

“We get lots of looters, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a paying customer. No one taught me how to use the register.”

Germany Blocks NATO Ally From Transferring Weapons to Ukraine - WSJ

Germany is blocking North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally Estonia from giving military support to Ukraine by refusing to issue permits for German-origin weapons to be exported to Kyiv as it braces for a potential Russian invasion.

Germany really wants to date Russia.

U.S. Suspends 44 Flights to China Operated by Chinese Airlines - WSJ

China’s border controls have been among the toughest in the world throughout the pandemic.

Except for that one time when they let the virus escape.

A New Biden Answer for Unfulfilled Promises - WSJ Opinion

You know, I was — I did a couple-hour press conference the other day, and I got asked the question I used to get asked: “Well, you promised.” No, I proposed.

That’s why they call them Campaign Proposals! Like that one time I told Charlemagne tha God that I would cancel $10,000 of student loans immediately. That was just a proposal.

More Starbucks Baristas Across the U.S. Are Looking to Unionize - WSJ

In less than three months, the effort by Starbucks Workers United, the union that has backed the Buffalo campaign, has led union election petitions to be filed with the NLRB in Chicago, Boston, Cleveland, Seattle and other cities, agency filings show.

I’d like to form a union to protect honest, hard-working Americans from terrible Starbucks coffee.

Nation’s largest abortion protest could be last under Roe - ABC News

The March for Life, for decades an annual protest against abortion

Congratulations to the Associated Press! They’ve just heard about this obscure gathering that’s apparently been taking place on the same day every year for five decades and decided it warrants some coverage.

Wedding Feast Of The Lamb To Be Catered By Chick-fil-A - The Babylon Bee

“It’s a little hard to plan for because we haven’t been told the exact day or hour of the event, but we’ll be ready and waiting.” “As long as it’s not on a Sunday,” they added.

Where should I send my RSVP?

TIAA Offers Annuity Product for Corporate 401(k) Retirement Plans - WSJ

American workers who crave steady retirement paychecks in the absence of old-fashioned pension plans are getting more alternatives as another money manager launches an annuity offering for corporate 401(k) retirement-savings programs.

And they will pay through the nose for the privilege. How this meets a fiduciary standard is beyond me.

Called the TIAA Secure Income Account

By which, of course, they mean TIAA’s plan to secure steady corporate income streams via market-leading high fees.

TIAA has paid more than $500 billion to millions of educators and nonprofit employees since its founding in 1918, said Colbert Narcisse, TIAA’s chief product and business development officer.

“Please don’t look at how much TIAA made in fees on those payouts,” Narcisse added, one assumes.

Shockingly, the intrepid reporter for this piece forgot to mention the investment performance or expense ratio on this fabulous product!

I was looking through the _On This Day_ feature in Day One this morning, and came across this entry from nine years ago.

For many months I have wanted to start a blog. I was not sure on which topic I could speak with authority, to the point where I would add value to the marketplace. I decided, after much thought, that there is a void on information about living as an authentically Catholic husband and what marriage really is. So, I started. I took the first step. I am going to call my blog “Catholic Husband.”

Nearly nine years and 856 posts later, this simple paragraph brings a smile to my face. _Catholic Husband_ will celebration 10 year next March. I think that deserves something special.

Havana Syndrome Unlikely Caused by Russia, Other U.S Foes, CIA Says - WSJ

“We are pursuing this complex issue with analytic rigor, sound tradecraft, and compassion and have dedicated intensive resources to this challenge,” CIA Director William Burns

I love to hear when the offensive capability organizations of the United States government are using compassion.

Pig Kidneys Transplanted Into Brain-Dead Man as Patients Face Organ Shortages - WSJ

The experimental surgery, which proceeded after discussions with ethicists and after Mr. Parsons’s family consented to the experiment, is part of a decadeslong effort to ease the chronic shortage of donor organs by allowing critically ill patients to receive pig organs rather than human ones.

I have profound doubt that this was indeed an ethically valid decision.

Earlier this month doctors at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore performed the first transplantation of a genetically modified pig heart into a living human after receiving authorization from the FDA.

Here’s the key distinction between these similar cases. The Maryland heart transplant was done in an effort to save the patient’s life. They remain hospitalized, but alive.

The Alabama kidney transplant was performed on a patient who will not survive his injuries. His life was only sustained so that this experimental transplant could be performed, not because it created an avenue of possible recovery.

They said they stopped the experiment when mechanical support was no longer sufficient to maintain Mr. Parsons’s physiological processes.

Translation: life-support was only withdrawn when his body was no longer useful to the experiment, far past the point of a dignity-affirming natural death.

10 Surefire Ways To Get Out Of Wearing A Mask When Someone Tells You To - The Babylon Bee

Put on your “Trump Won” mask - They’ll instantly regret their decision to make you wear one. 4D chess!

Oops! Schumer Gives Passionate Speech Defending Filibuster After Accidentally Printing His Speech From Two Years Ago - The Babylon Bee

According to sources, his aide had accidentally printed out “passionate filibuster speech 2020.docx” instead of “passionate filibuster speech 2022.docx”, putting the Senator in a very awkward situation. 

Very common mistake.

Sanders Says He Is Open to Supporting Primary Challenges to Sinema, Manchin - WSJ

He said it was “up to the people in those states.”

And if there’s one thing we all know about West Virginians, it’s that they love when out-of-state multimillionaire socialist elites come to town and tell them what to do.

I just finished the Final Draft of the first issue of my new magazine. I’m so excited to publish this in the Spring.

Wow! What a start to the day.

Schumer Hits Trouble After Earlier Wins in 50-50 Senate - WSJ

At the start of the year, Mr. Schumer set a goal of trying to pass the voting bill by Martin Luther King Jr. Day—Monday, Jan. 17—and then pivoting to changing the filibuster. That deadline later slipped due in part to a forecast winter storm.

And he would’ve gotten away with it if it wasn’t for that meddling climate!

Democrats’ proposal includes making Election Day a national holiday and expansive new mail-in voting requirements, among other changes they say are needed to protect access to the polls

This disjointed logic is a red flag. If there’s three weeks of mandatory early voting and no excuse mail ballots, why do we need a holiday for Election Day?

It’s like the child care subsidies. Free money for families to send their kids to daycare, money to increase daycare worker wages, and money to expand daycare facilities. Two of these are going to always push against the third.

When the logic is broken, there’s more to the story.

Some Lawmakers Push to Ban Stock Trading by Colleagues - WSJ

Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Jon Ossoff of Georgia introduced legislation that would prohibit all members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children from trading individual stocks and would require them to place their stock portfolios into a blind trust.

I think the bigger story is that all of these smart people still buy single stocks.