The final medical loss ratio (MLR) regulations will likely create a vacuum for affordable coverage that cannot be filled by Bronze plans under the state insurance exchanges. If the “essential benefits” and “actuarial value” requirements are equally as discriminatory, there will be no affordable options available and the cost of subsidies will skyrocket. As a result, millions of Americans that have policies today that could have qualified as Bronze plans will be forced to change their coverage or drop coverage because they can no longer afford it.

Ramthun’s paper is here.

My last RedState post, which is on this exact subject, is here.

Roy has outlined how you can help, by commenting on the HHS rule — but you must comment by the January 6, 2012 deadline!

The result of the new rule will mean one thing: no bronze plans, at all, in the ObamaCare exchanges. (Bronze plans are the low cost plan that ObamaCare envisioned in their exchanges.)

The future of the exchanges is clear — it will be populated with expensive plans for the less healthy. The healthy will simply go without insurance or find it outside the exchanges — at least until they become sick.

The government bureaucrat’s “management” of the market is management by bias. This bias has resulted in the bureaucrats rejecting out-of-hand, simple fixes for simple problems with the medical loss ratio rule.

For example, the health savings account qualified health plan, and other health plans with healthy deductibles, cannot meet the the MLR limits set by the rule. Not because HSA qualified plans are inherently incapable of meeting the MRL limits, but because the rules of how MLR is computed discriminates against HSAs and other health plans with higher deductibles.

How does the MLR rule discriminate against bronze plans and HSAs? Here’s how: any payment for a health care service below the deductible by an individual or family does not count in the weird and bizarre world of the government bureaucrats MLR. Payments for health care services by insurers do count, but not payments by individuals.

To repeat, just so everyone is clear: If an insurer pays for a health care service for their insured, the MLR rule counts that in their MLR rule. But if an individual pays for a health care service to meet their deductible, the MLR rule does not count that expenditure.

Only five percent of those with an HSA qualified health plan in a year have any claims paid by their insurance. Therefore, it is a mathematical impossibility for HSAs to meet the MLR limits when the new HHS rule allows only five percent of HSA payments for health care services to count towards their MLR limit.

But the bureaucrats at HHS simply don’t care or they think they know better — or both.

They were told in person, in writing, by Congress and repeatedly by others.

The result will be no bronze plans in the exchanges, should the Supremes not make the law null and void.

This is what happens when bureaucrats meddle and interfere. Fairness is ignored. Common sense goes out the window. Welcome to the irrational world of government run health care.

Without a low cost option, more people will go without insurance (mandate or not) and the average cost of a health plan in the exchanges will skyrocket. Obviously, then, fewer people will be able to afford it and subsidies will have to grow to help finance the increased cost.

And guess what? The the one-size-fits-all bureaucrats will be firmly in charge of a yet another massive health care cost spike — with no HSAs or bronze plans to meet the crying need for low cost health plans.

But self-insured or ERISA plans are exempt from the MLR regulation. So, large employers whose employees have an HSA can keep them, for now. Or, at least until large employers start dumping their employees off their health insurance rolls to save paying for health insurance, since the tiny penalty for not providing health insurance is cheaper per employee, than purchasing health insurance.

HSAs will survive in a world where large employers don’t dump their employees into the ObamaCare exchanges. In the fully insured market, since HSAs cannot make the MLR limits rigged against them by HHS, insurers will have to “borrow” MLR credits from their other plans that don’t have the MLR rules rigged against them. This will provide HSAs some relief, but this will cap the number of HSAs allowed to exist outside the ObamaCare exchanges.

The word on the street is that HHS believes it can craft an essential benefits rule that may mitigate the rigged MLR regulation that strangles HSAs and other Bronze plans – not to help HSAs – but to allow non-HSA high deductible health plans to exist in the ObamaCare exchange. This more bureaucrat hubris – the Soviet-like urge to control — in action. They are wrong about manipulating the yet-to-be-published essential benefits rule to allow some Bronze plans. It’s not mathematically possible with their rigged MLR regulation. But, here’s a newsflash: the bureaucrats aren’t listening.

Furthermore, they are so afraid, they will not allow those with courage to make the right choice for them.

Cowardliness is rampant in the West and epidemic in the Western financial elite.

Cowardliness is the driving force behind the elites inability to stop doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

In order to continue be cowardly, the West creates bigger and bigger bailouts — for nation states that cannot stop giving money and services away because it is somehow moral to bankrupt everyone in the name of giving a class of people what others make and create.

The planned International Monetary Fund $800 billion bailout of Spain and Italy is the latest cowardly act of the Western financial elite. It is another prime example of cowards who take the easy path out every time. A key part of the groupthink-gone-wild–is that the repeated failure of the repeated bailouts of Greece is actively ignored.

Printing Euros, printing dollars, piling more debt on old debt and debasing Western currency will not change the strategic nature of the debt crisis — is the only solution they ever try. All the while, the foundations of the strategic debt crisis — Western spending on social services like health care, retirement payments — are left unchanged in any meaningful sense.

Each time there is a bailout the cries and shouting of cuts in spending are proclaimed loudly and dutifully printed and carried on television by the international media elite, all the while, money is printed or borrowed and handed over.

Oh, and no real cuts never, ever happen. Remember the “debt ceiling” debate? Guess how much spending the U.S. cut in 2012? You will never, ever guess. The Congressional Budget Office announced the cuts in 2012 — a whopping $1 billion.

The cowards in the West refuse to recognize that they have reached the end of efficacy of the model of taking from those who make money, and borrowing from those who have money, to give it to those who cannot make money or borrow it.

This cowardliness combined with the elite’s ability to actively refuse to face reality will allow the rise of China and Islam as economic powers that will overtake the West.

China has tried to tell the West it is on a suicide-by-debt path, to no avail.

Islam will soon have a new, hard currency based on oil.

Meanwhile, the elite of the financial West do not even know what the term “fiscal gap” means, let alone that the U.S. fiscal gap, at its last counting, was minus $211 trillion U.S. dollars.

The cowards want to do more of the same failing — except bigger. It is like rampping up production on wiggets that lose money. The more you make and sell at a loss, the more money you lose.

The coward-in-chief is Obama. He kicked off the super-debt, super-spendathon with the stimulus and ObamaCare — which he forced on his hapless fellow Democrats and caused 83 freshmen GOP U.S. House members to be elected. Paul Krugman is the cowards “intellectual” leader. And Western Europe is continually lectured by the U.S. and it’s cowardly financial elite leaders, to just print more money to “solve” their problems.

The cowards think that if they just give the Western economy more time or “breathing room” to grow their way out of debt, all will be well. But the policy of borrowing money and taking money from those who earn it or have it to give to those who don’t have it or cannot make it, is stopping economic growth.

Those who have it or make it cannot service the massive nation-state debt and pay for all the services and wealth transfer mechanisms the elite continue to put place (and refuse to cut) to provide cash and services. This is the heart of the matter.

The cowards cannot stop giving other people’s money away, because to do so is immoral, they think. Obama’s cry that ObamaCare is the “right thing to do” is a perfect example. And the fact that ObamaCare was the key issue that killed any real cuts in entitlement spending for the super committee, is another log on the fire that is burning down the economic stability and growth of the West.

If Congress does not stop the cowards from using U.S. money to bailout Spain and Italy through the International Monetary Fund then the West will have themselves to blame for the rise of Islam and China.

But who really cares about the strategic economic posture of West? The Federal Reserve or the International Monetary Fund or the U.S. Treasury and it’s leaders, which keeps urging Europe to print money?

Each of those institutions want to do more of what has failed — and each believe that debt of nations is the route to power over those nations, power to those institutions who offer debt, which will have power over those who take the debt. (A quick reading of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, would help the ignorant understand, maybe.)

Meanwhile, Joe-six-pack is forced to endure and muddle through an economy that does not grow, with a chronic, Europe-like unemployment rate, and a currency that is being debased by electronically creating trillions of it, right out of thin air.

This is moral, according to the cowards.

It is certain economic suicide — with blinders on — and the active and willful refusal to recognize the fiscal gap, is exhibit E in the ignorance of the elite to suppress basic facts which may, perhaps, possibly, if-the-planets-align, stop them from acting cowardly.

And, God do I hate cowards. They are destroying our country and the Western world one bailout, one massive social program like ObamaCare, and one fiscal crisis summit at a time.

In an effort to force Senate Republicans to capitulate and confirm ethically challenged former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to head a new regulation producing agency known as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Stephanie Cutter embraced Occupy Wall Street as the political reason Republicans should end their opposition to Cordray.

“The sentiments that lots of people who are out there as part of ‘Occupy Wall Street’ have — not just on Wall Street but on Main Streets across the country — those sentiments are shared by lots of Americans,” she said. “Having Richard Cordray in place obviously would help them.”

There you have it. Not only do we need a CFPB, according to the White House, we need a CFPB in order to help the Occupy Wall Street radicals burning cars, destroying property and defecating on police cars, or the man who died of a gunshot, (not to mention the sexual assaults) or the tuberculosis at the squatter camp Occupy Atlanta.

First, it is critical to remember that Cordray is no “consumer” advocate. He is a crony-capitalist. His cronies were the securities litigators seeking windfall payouts from their lawsuits. Of course, hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to the Ohio Democrat Party had nothing to do with the fact that Cordray deputized these firms to sue pension funds on behalf of the state.

Second, with the economy tanking, the last thing we need is another agency of government churning new federal regulations. But hey, the Democrats can continue to blame the banks for their inability to grow the economy.

Even though more regulation is exactly what the economy does not need, it is exactly what the CFPB is preparing to do.

At a recent congressional hearing, Raj Date, the interim head of the CFPB, released an 802-page report preparing the Bureau for a rash of regulations that will hinder the market.

This is the part where the regulation by consensus between the regulated and the regulators becomes regulation by force by bureaucrats who do not have the best interest of the industry (jobs and profits) at heart, but have empowerment of their position at heart and the general urge to disallow innovation and efficiency.

But the CFPB is one of the main agencies that pay their employees more than the $225,000 limit allowed by law. (They asked their pals, the regulators for waivers, and got them.) You see, the law is for you, but not for the government regulators.

Third, created as a government agency segregated from traditional oversight and congressional checks and balances, when the Bureau decides to regulate the economy, there is little anyone can do about it. If you are targeted, don’t turn to your congressman for help.

Why? The CFPB is funded without a single appropriation by Congress, the will of the people does not come into play, at all. The single source of funds for the CFPB is the Federal Reserve – who answers to no one, other than the Federal Reserve. (This single source funding will also further degrade the political position of the Federal Reserve; since the CFPB will become yet another issue act as a force to put legislative reform of the Federal Reserve on the table. Poor decisions, or politically motivated decisions by the CFPB, will feed the cries for we-really-need-to-pass-a-law to reform the Fed.)

Strangely, the White House is correct. Confirmation of Richard Cordray to head the CFPB will empower the Occupy Wall Street movement with a government agency modeled after its image – and it is exactly why Republicans should never allow Cordray to be confirmed in the U.S. Senate.

So, this morning, were the lead stories on television that Nancy Pelosi, whose belittling and famous “Are you serious? Are you serious?” response to being asked about the challenge to the ObamaCare individual mandate, was the perfect illustration of her radical and out-of-touch mental state — and that she is as out of touch as former President Bush was when he expressed amazement at grocery store price scanners?

Uh, no. (The media’s obsession with the Penn State sex scandal can be explained by the fact they think it will hurt Herman Cain.)

Meanwhile, the voters in the ultimate Presidential election swing state just handed the repeal ObamaCare team a massive victory right before the Supremes take up the case, and if it made the news, it was way down the list.

It is so clear that the media are following Obama’s lead (shocking, I know) to simply not talk about ObamaCare.

The mainstream media, who were the handmaidens of the passage of ObamaCare — which turns out is the political equivalent of forcing the Dems to drink Jonestown Kool-Aid — now want to ignore the political results of their incessant, constant, nauseating ObamaCare cheer-leading.

Classic.

When, oh when, will the Dems finally attempt to negotiate an end to the non-stop political pain and suffering being inflicted on them by ObamaCare?

Never. After all “the One” still insists that ObamaCare was the right thing to do — and the cowardly Dems are too scared or too blinded by their statist ideology to even understand that standing up and repealing or gutting ObamaCare is their only alternative to the constant and never-ending grinding down of their public support.

Can they really still think that ObamaCare will get more popular now that it has passed when just the opposite has happened?

They are falsely persuaded by radically out-of-touch leaders and staff, whose reaction to this analysis is “Are you serious? Are your serious?”

In short, they are truly delusional on health care politics. They refuse, still, to accept reality — just like their leader, Nancy Pelosi.

The Dems are too blinded by their robotic and slavish kowtowing to Pelosi and “the One” to ever understand that they need to untie the millstone that is around their neck.

Maybe, after 26 states pass the Ohio ballot initiative, the Dems will understand.

Don’t count on it. Twenty-six states are suing the Feds over ObamaCare and the Dems refuse to budge.

After all, the media refuse to report it, so the Dems don’t even understand what is happening to them.

I used to worry that the Dems would actually listen to posts like this, giving them a road map to end their ObamaCare pain, and comfort myself that the country would be better off, even if the Dems would be too, without ObamaCare.

No worries though, the Dems never, ever listen. Not to Charlie Cook, Stanley Greenberg or even to Howard Fineman who now describes ObamaCare as “the One’s” biggest political mistake.

The Dems arrogance, pride and ideological hidebound mental state on health care will always get in the way of basic common sense, even their own political survival.

They are addicted to their own self-destructive ObamaCare political behavior.

After all, these are the same people who made Pelosi their leader — after ObamaCare passed and 83 Republican Freshmen were elected.

Yawn. Yawn again.

When the royalty of Europe spent to much, the result was, “Quick — tax the subjects!” This has been the preferred mode in dealing with bailing out those who lent to Greece.

But now the lenders are now finding out it was the gypsy Madame Zorba who wrote their fictional economic projections. The crystal ball was, uh, wrong.

A Greek bailout is now political anthrax, even in socialist Europe. Especially in Germany. Europe can’t tax the citizens more to keep Greece alive for another few quarters. So, bailouts have lost their potency. (Shockingly, the addict keeps demanding more and more of the drug.)

So, what to do, what to do?

Since taxing the citizens is out — the world’s financial elite have decided on something completely different.

Print dollars. Print pounds. Print Euros. (Er, now it’s type in the numbers into a computer — printing is so passe.)

To borrow a line from Donald Trump, “What the hell could possibly go wrong?“

Just look at “the One,” our President.

His arrogance is destructive and blinding to his own eyes, and those closest to him. Listening to “the One” is like listening to the patronizing and condescending tones of scientists explaining nothing can travel faster than light.

Except now, 160 scientists from 11 countries can’t figure out how a particle from the CERN supercollider in Europe arrived — and the experiment was repeated for three years, fifteen thousand times — faster than the speed of light at an underground lab in Gran Sasso, Italy.

But scientists are such black-and-white dogmatics — since we don’t understand how it can be, it therefore is not.

Such is the arrogance of man.

As I have written before on RedState, in my view, those who do not believe in intelligent alien life are like those who believed the world was flat.

And most of those who believed the world was flat never took the time to understand or look at the evidence that the world was not flat. They simply accepted it was so, because they were told.

So now, a “universal truth” of science has been shown, in fact, to be wrong.

Just imagine all the vibrating-in-place of those who are not mentally prepared for the truth that intelligent alien life does exist.

People wonder where is the video evidence of intelligent alien life.

What makes you assume that just because video evidence exists, anyone will look at it?

Look now, or not.

Isn’t it just more comfortable believing the faster than the speed of light is impossible? After all, it has been a “universal constant” that all of human physics has been built on.

Similarly, isn’t it much more comfortable believing humans are the only intelligent beings in the universe, so much more comfortable that that clear video evidence — such as linked to above — is not even watched?

Oh yeah, the arrogant human never listens.

But they do get upset. And scare easily.

This problem has zero impact on our current President — as Peretz writes in the New Republic — “the arrogance that is so characteristic of his behavior in matters he knows little about (which is a lot of matters),” or, alternatively, “the One” always knows best.

President Obama was elected as a candidate that could transcend the politics of the usual, and great hope was placed in him by the majority of the American people — hope that was promptly shredded by his own actions.

The President immediately settled on two courses of actions that has bled him dry of any political capital: a trillion dollar stimulus and ObamaCare.

The stimulus has not lowered the unemployment rate, has not turned the economy around, has swollen the roles of government workers and has pumped unearned government money into his own widely touted “green economy,” that the market would not touch with a twenty-foot pole. (It also paid for $16 muffins at the Justice Department.)

Solyndra — and the next company similarly favored that fails — will keep the promises of the “green economy” well tattered and discredited in the eyes of the public.

The fact the President abandoned cap and tax after it passed the U.S House, was a function of the time and the political capital that ObamaCare consumed, not any political calculation on the part of the White House. But even talking about cap and tax and passing it in the U.S. House hurt the Dems up for re-election in 2010 — just ask former Dem Rep. Boucher of VA.

ObamaCare, the President’s obsession, is the gift that keeps on giving to the Republicans — a fact the Republicans and others repeatedly tried to warn the Democrats and the President about — but the Democrats simply did not listen or believe that ObamaCare could be, or would be, the sucking chest wound it has been since the fall of 2009. (In political years, that’s a decade of political pain for the Dems.) Even liberals like Howard Fineman finally concluded this month that ObamaCare was the President’s biggest political miscalculation. Shocking it took Fineman this long to figure that out, isn’t it?

Simply put, the 83 new Freshmen GOP House members from the 2010 elections are evidence of the shock and awe that ObamaCare’s politics visited on the Dems.

The debt ceiling fight resulted in S&P (along with many others) lowering the U.S. credit rating, which came as no surprise to most, but the White House reacted as if in shock, especially strange since the U.S. debt has exploded by $4 Trillion in the 32 months Obama has been President. The voters, already concerned about debt, became more concerned.

But despite promises of cutting spending, a month after the debt limit fight, Obama went back to do what he always does — spend money. His half a trillion dollar “jobs” plan is half of the full trillion dollar plan Rep. Maxine Waters wanted. Obama pulled his half-Maxine out of the hat, and the global markets dropped like a stone.

In an effort to then seem like he was listening to the cries for lower spending, Obama announced a massive tax increase that he insisted was a plan to cut spending, despite that fact that for every one dollar that he promised would be cut (really, some time in the future) he wants $3 in tax increases.

It’s not a spending cut plan, it’s a tax hike plan — prompting the moderate Ross Douthat to write in the New York Times “the President will be running in 2012 as former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.” In that case, the President might as well be infecting the Dems up in 2012 with the black plague.

Here is a handy chart showing just how big and repeatedly “the One” has, by his own hand, failed politically. This chart is especially startling given the fact that Obama claims to be a better political director than his political director:

Obama-Initiatives.

For those wondering what in the heck the Japanese Divine Wind is, click here.

Markets are disciplined. The Federal Reserve magic money machine is not. When the market decided the three French banks were over-extended in Greece, and loaning them money was a risk not worth taking, the Fed and other central banks stepped in, with fresh, new magic money, to take risks the market was not willing to take.

The French, meanwhile, were protesting that they did what all the global finance geniuses wanted them to do, loan give the Greeks money.

But the fiscal mirage of Greek economic growth with draconian cuts, and accurate financials all came crashing down when the Greek financials and estimates of growth turned out to be written by Madam Zorba, the gypsy fortune-teller.

Then the market really puckered up, with no love cash for the French.

And all the banks that were in too deep in the blue end of the Mediterranean cajoled, begged, yelled and otherwise described the end of planet earth as they knew it, if the Federal Reserve did not magically and electronically — tout de suite — create some money out of thin air and send it over, now.

To make magic money, the Federal Reserve calls the CFO of the French bank it’s attempting to save, and asks the CFO to open up the special access compartment in their banking software that allows new money to be typed into their reserves. The Fed tells them how much to type in, and presto, any given amount, say 60 billion in U.S. dollars is created by a phone call and a keyboard.

But it’s a little more creative than just typing in the money — sometimes the bank is asked to buy Treasury bills through an approved third party dealer, at the next auction of U.S. Treasuries, using the magic money they just created.

The bank then uses the newly created “money” to buy the U.S. T-bills in the amount of the money the Federal Reserve said they could type into their balance sheet. The bank sends the just-typed-in “money” to the Federal Reserve, and the Federal Reserve sends newly printed bonds.

The U.S. Treasury then can spend that new money on “the One’s” failed stimulus and the job-killing ObamaCare, for example.

When the Federal Reserve decides to give Madame Zorba a real run for her creativity, the Fed announces it’s going to “buy” those T-Bills back and simply types the amount of the bonds into their computer, creating more cash, sends the magic-money to the French, (who now have cash to lend outright, instead of using the bonds as an asset, to lend money). The French then send the T-bills back to the Fed.

Great trick (it has many variations).

The price of the magic money is that the U.S. dollar loses its value — 20 percent of late. Plus, as an added disincentive, since more money is chasing the same goods, inflation rises.

Essentially, the average American pays the price for the Federal Reserve’s money printing by devalued currency and inflation, so does any other nation who holds U.S. dollars. Everyone with greenbacks loses.

But this is to save the world, remember? Who could be against giving Madame Zorba and the Greeks more cash, or the French, right?

Eventually Americans will get the joke being played on them by people who insist they and they alone know best, and that there should be no oversight of their privilege to type in money.

They are on a mission from God. They really think they are saving the world.

The fact that Congress and “the One” can’t stop spending has convinced many T-bill buyers the U.S. dollar value is not coming back – see the recent S&P downgrade.

To wit, after the massive battle over the “debt ceiling,” politicians bowed uttering solemn chants with blood oaths to cutting spending.

That lasted until August ended, just one month.

Then “the One” when on international television and did his half-Maxine. (Maxine Waters asked “the One” to spend a trillion dollars on jobs — so “the One” went with roughly half that — thus, the half-Maxine.)

Meanwhile, Bloomberg publishes a piece (prior to the half-Maxine) attempting to point out that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has this neat calculation called the “fiscal gap.” It’s a tool to determine just how upside down the U.S. government is — the CBO runs all known revenues and all known payments out over decades.

The U.S. fiscal gap is negative $211 trillion.

The Chinese, and the rest of the world are beginning to clue in, including Joe-six-pack, who are painfully becoming aware that every time the Fed creates hundreds of billions via their keyboard, the value of the dollar drops.

So, looking to park their earnings in something that maintains its value better than the currencies of countries that spend too much, won’t stop spending, or like “the One” simply will not stop spending, the Chinese recently announced they were going to put their earnings into Western companies, land, factories — real stuff — not Western currencies.

When Italy asked for a bailout, er loan from the Chinese two days ago, the Chinese said if you let us join the World Trade Organization, if you cut your spending — we will give you money, not for bonds or debt, but only if you let us own nice big slices of your best Italian companies. As of this writing, the Italians are quietly mumbling in their lattes. (Can you see the U.S. future?)

Thus, the Fed magic money combined with the trillion dollar President and his half-Maxine will similarly force those with savings to dump their dollars into something else — soon. (Do you remember when commercials to buy gold were only on at 1 AM, but now are playing in prime time? Oh, that.)

Meanwhile, the stock market goes up whenever the Fed goes on a hundreds of billions in newly typed in dollar creation high — to save the Greeks and the French.

Then the market goes down, since drug addicts need higher and higher amounts, more often because drug addicts build up a resistance. Ultimately, every addict crashes, but first comes the erratic behavior — lots of violent ups and downs. Sound familiar?

Interestingly, the Federal Reserve has two mandates: keep the U.S. dollar strong and unemployment low.

The FAIL by the Fed on both points has already hurt it politically.

The who-us?-we’re-just-over-here-creating-hundreds-of-billions-in-typed-in-dollars — will not fly for much longer.

The French and everyone else have already lost 60% of what they loaned to the Greeks. The market is pricing Greek debt at 40 cents on the dollar — so our printed cash is really just bailing out the French for their losses.

Once the American public finds out — the political blow-back for the Fed could permanently maim it.

What will happen to the Fed will make Governor Perry and Rep. Paul seem moderate.

Now, Gov. Romney can hide his head in the see of freshly printed T-Bills, but it will not help. Since the Fed can’t and will not stop — the force of markets and nature will stop the Fed. It has already started. The unemployment, inflation increases and dollar devaluation are sure signs. (Politically, see, for the first time ever, a consensus that their is serious concern about the Fed and an unraveling of any consensus about its mission. A very far cry from it being untouchable.)

During record debts, record spending, record unemployment, record losses in the housing market, the U.S. is debasing its currency by magically creating money to bail out foreigners who lent to the Greeks? Yes. And it will not go over well with the voters. Every single federal elected official understands the word bailout — and getting pinned with it publicly is the political equivalent of the mutant bird flu from the movie Contagion.

Let’s see, can you imagine the words bailout, the Fed and the French in a 30 second TV commercial this election cycle?

There is just one other thing. How do you sell bonds when the buyer knows your currency will be worth less in the future and the seller does not allow a higher interest rate to provide a return that exceeds the devaluation?

Perhaps, you use magic money — give it to the buyer so that interest rates can remain flat?

Are we all Madame Zorba now?

At what point does the American public start acting as if their own currency and loans are all fiction, since they are learning from the masters, and what will that mean for these financial geniuses who are destroying our country, in the name of saving it, one keystroke at a time?

It’s a half a trillion dollar stimulus bill, which raises taxes on Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).

Here is an analysis of the bill on RedState.

If you make north of a household income of “x” there is a new type of tax increase for you and yours.

Any tax deduction you take, for your home mortgage, for your health insurance, or for your Health Savings Account, are all subject to being limited.

It’s a universal tax break limitation on all tax breaks for those “the One” defines as wealthy.

It’s a tax. A tax to pay for a “jobs” bill that won’t produce jobs, just like the trillion dollars “the One” spent with no increase in jobs.

For the few Americans actually buying homes, taxing their ability to do so will further tank the housing market, which will have a greater negative impact on jobs than anything in the fundamentally flawed bill — which presupposes Washington can interfere in the market some more, and create jobs.

Furthermore, the trend we have been seeing, that ObamaCare will increase the cost of health insurance and health care is built upon again. What else can increase health care costs more than taxing the lowest cost health care option on the market, a Health Savings Account?

It is more of the same by “the One,” and his attempts to injure, hobble and maim HSAs.

You will find the tax in Title IV, Section 4:

Subtitle A – 28 Percent Limitation on Certain Deductions and Exclusions

Section 401 – 28 Percent Limitation on Certain Deductions And Exclusions. This section would limit the value of all itemized deductions and certain other tax expenditures for high-income taxpayers by limiting the tax value of otherwise allowable deductions and exclusions to 28 percent. No taxpayer with adjusted gross income under $250,000 for married couples filing jointly (or $200,000 for single taxpayers) would be subject to this limitation. The limitation would affect itemized deductions and certain other tax expenditures that would otherwise reduce taxable income in the 36 or 39.6 percent tax brackets. A similar limitation also would apply under the alternative minimum tax. This section would be effective for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2013.

For those who have an HSA and don’t want it taxed, call or write your Senator and your Congressman and let them know — this provision is unacceptable!

Cross posted at the HSA Coalition.

When French banks can’t borrow overnight funds on the open market, because they have contracted Greek contagion, and world-wide, banks are just saying No — where are the French to turn? The Greeks have their cash, and the French can’t get it back.

The Federal Reserve’s latest attempts at “stabilization,” which means, they print money, debase our currency, which in turn forces the global market to convert their US dollars into something that holds its value, oh, say, things like oil, gas, rice, corn — gold, is about to go another round. This time it’s Europe that gets Federal Reserve funds created via keystroke, not Wall Street.

“The One” is on board, and is now saying that the American recovery is dependent on the EuroZone.

You don’t like it? Tough. The Federal Reserve can do what ever the heck it wants, to paraphrase Sarah Palin.

Now that the Greeks have handed over wholesale fiction masquerading as financial reports, or that old oxymoron, the Greek “balance sheet,” to the global financial community, how does bailing out the Greeks have any credibility, whatsoever?

Here is how: the U.S. Treasury Secretary is on a plane to Poland to strong arm more countries to pour money down the Greek black hole.

How many times has the world heard this problem has been solved — by giving the Greeks more money?

I don’t know about you, but that is exactly how my bank works — Dude, I blew all the cash you gave me — can I have some more?

And that’s exactly what they do, these great financial wizards of the global marketplace, just fork over more cash.

That doesn’t work for you? Really? It works just great for the Greeks, and now the French are about to get in on the fun.

The collective political elite choked on their Diet Cokes and Starbuck’s when Gov. Perry called Social Security a Ponzi scheme — you know, where you pay in more money than you get back because someone spent it on something else — well, similarly, the global financial elite are simply aghast that anyone would question their wisdom of giving cash first to the Greeks, and now to others, like the French, who gave money to the Greeks — all because the Greeks can’t pay it back. The U.S. Supreme Court found that Americans have no right to Social Security funds, similarly, those who loaned the Greeks cash, have no guarantee of being paid back — regardless of what Secretary of Treasury says to those gathered in Poland.

What is at stake is the credibility of everyone involved in bailing out the Greeks, and now bailing out those (fill in the blank ________) who loaned the Greeks money.

In fact, the financial elite is just like the Greeks, they will say anything to get their hands on more freshly created U.S. currency, and because they all know each other, and hey, it’s all in the family.

The average American loses by having to use more devalued dollars to buy less, but who cares?

The real question is, do they know what is at stake? Their credibility, first and foremost. Second, when TIME magazine publishes a piece titled, “It’s Time to Admit the Euro Failed,” the global elite may end up critically injuring the Euro because they refuse to stop bailing out the Greeks. (It’s a bailout because the Greeks can’t and won’t pay it back.)

I’ll say it. The failed stimulus, ObamaCare’s impact on the economy, and the fact that nothing has improved in the job market — including the continuing failure of the Greek bailout — has all conspired to raise great skepticism among the public about the global financial elite. Especially when it comes to printing money and handing it over to foreigners.

This is the part where the Federal Reserve is truly facing that moment, you know, do you cut the blue wire or the red wire to defuse the bomb — or set it off?

If the Federal Reserve has any regard for its future or its current mission, then they will run from bailing out French banks too overloaded with Greek debt to get overnight funds from the open market, or any other process by which freshly created U.S. funds are handed over to the French who made loans to the Greeks. The same goes for the Irish, Italians, Spanish and Germans.

The problem is that the Federal Reserve can’t help themselves, they really think they are saving the world. They don’t understand that the Greeks can’t be saved with more money. It is not possible. They have borrowed too much — and as the recently discovered fictional balance sheets show, those who said so from the beginning were correct all along.

As one wag has observed:

When your Debt/GDP is running at 152%, and likely to hit 160-170% next year, there really is little hope in paying back that debt. With Greek bonds trading around 40 cents on the dollar, the markets attribute little hope in receiving their money back either.

But didn’t the propeller-heads all say, we must bailout the Greeks, don’t you know what is at stake?

The bailout-fellow-travellers are about to be in a world of political hurt.

What the Federal Reserve is doing is blowing up the foundation of the political consensus around what the Federal Reserve should do — and they are doing it by bailing out foreigners.

Once the public finds out, the really serious discussion will follow, and it goes something like this: everyone was having fun until Daddy took the T-Bird away.

A new virus enters the human population, a mutated version of the bird flu, and the film chronicles how Americans, governments and others in the world, including China, muddle through.

“Muddle through” is a phrase used to describe the human condition during the greatest pandemic, caused by the 1918 “Spanish flu,” which, as it turns out, wasn’t in fact Spanish.

The Great Influenza by John M. Barry is a highly readable book I recommend for all who are interested in the actual events that occurred during the last great lethal pandemic to hit humans.

But I digress, a little. Contagion is a movie that shows great restraint and subtly, both in it’s containment of the story to a few key lives facing the treat, while giving the audience, in bite-sized cuts, the ability to understand what will happen during the next pandemic.

Specifically, Contagion has appeal because it gently but clearly shows the limits of the State.

For those not wanting to become forced by circumstances to act in survival mode, as you find out the hard way the limits of the ability of the State to aid you, start preparing to be independent of the State.

Interestingly, in the film, no one is remotely prepared, just like in real life. For example, most Americans have less than three day’s food on hand.

Those who are not prepared often prey upon those who are, go without, or end up taking. Obviously, it is in these times, money loses its value.

But the film is light on the dark side of a pandemic, and interestingly, the most political part of the film is told through the eyes of those in the government who actually know what is happening, as they discover it or experience it.

The investigation or the mystery of what has happened is a fascinating ride, as well as the exercise by the State of its powers to attempt to shut down those whose views diverge from the party line and the State’s applications of sanctions against those part of the State who attempt to help their loved ones by telling them what they know — or bloggers who write about what they think is happening, or has happened.

The film is partly billed as a pandemic in the age of the internet, and one consistent sub plot is the fate, actions and reactions of the government and of society to a population on a desperate hunt for information not forthcoming from the government. It also plays with the morality of making money off of saving lives, and adds greyness pronouncements of crusading in the name of the truth.

While the film proclaims loudly that panic and the collapse of society will kill more than the virus, it does not paint the picture of that assertion — it merely insists on it.

In the “Spanish flu” pandemic, it is pretty clear what killed the most, it was the virus. The second greatest killer was the State’s urge to censor information, which caused many millions to die.

However, the clear warning in the film is simple: those who are not prepared, or do not have the sense or ability to discern the course of events, or to prepare “just in case” — you can see yourself in this film, and what you may find yourself faced with contemplating with having to do, just to muddle through. Not surprisingly, survival favors the prepared. (Although, in pandemics, the lucky gene pool factor ranks high.)

The simple utility of Contagion (while being entertaining) is it’s ability to walk you through being what to expect, not just in a pandemic type crisis, but in any society-wide crisis that puts the normal assumptions and day-to-day goods and services off the rails.

Basically, if there is a credible pollster, Obama has hit that pollster’s all time low, including Gallup, Quinnipiac, CNN, and the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Meanwhile, Gov. Rick Perry leads the GOP field by double digits in the following polls: NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, Gallup, Quinnipiac and CNN.

The fact that the mainstream media (MSM) has begun reporting that “the One” is in real trouble, is directly related to the fact that Governor Perry began to focus their blindingly bias ways on the fact that there is an alternative the MSM could not paint as a idiot or a nutcase (although they tried).

Even Maureen Dowd, in this Sunday’s NYT, mockingly wrote: “The One is dancing on the edge of one term.”

This leads us to the second key point: finally, the MSM is saying what you have been reading here for years: “the One’s” biggest political mistake was ObamaCare. Shocking, but Howard Fineman of the Huffington Post and David Ignatius of the Washington Post both said this over the weekend. Chris Matthews, interviewing Fineman, responded “Wow. Smart statement.”

It is exactly like cats barking.

Too bad these mainstream media leaders came to this decision too late, much, much too late.

And it points to the fundamental arrogance of liberals. They never listen, at least to Americans with legitimate concern’s about “the One’s” policies — so much so that their failure to listen on any number of points may cost ObamaCare its life in the Supreme Court.

But the MSM love to listen and fawn and bow down to “the One.”

“The One” says he is a better political director than his political director, and the liberal mainstream media believe him.

But Americans are no longer believing in “the One.” They no longer believe the economic disaster is President Bush’s fault.

The Trillion dollar President — who spends a trillion on ObamaCare and a trillion in a failed stimulus that just stimulated more government jobs — and urged the Federal Reserve to print, print, and print some more, now finds that his arrogance about his policies is misplaced.

Obvious since the last election, “the One’s” signature policies are both political and policy failures.

That is really hard to pull off, if you are the sitting President.

Political FAIL: “the One’s” policies lost the Dems control of the U.S. House and brought a record 83 GOP freshmen to Congress, not to mention ObamaCare or his total FAIL on the economy.

The fact that the left has taken this long to realize the King has no clothes is beyond idiotic — they are biased, stupid, arrogant people who refuse to listen — and now, when they can no longer keep up the fiction that the King has any clothes, they state the obvious, and their pals call them smart for calling ObamaCare a political blunder. Really?

On energy, the half a billion dollars dumped into the so-called green job super star, Solyndra, is another example of the arrogance and total stupidity of the White House, and “the One” in particular.

Americans have never believed that government will save them, and after going four trillion dollars in debt with no visible improvement in the economy (unless you work for the Federal government as a bureaucrat) clearly show the arrogance of the left, and “the One”.

But, wait, Governor Perry is leading the real change that is coming.

First, it is historically accurate.

Second, the power of the film is undeniable, even though it has subtitles and the majority of its dialogue is in either French or Arabic.

Third, it details the simple life of Trappist Monks who wrestled with the intimate questions of the purpose of their life, death, their beliefs, and service to others — all while living an agrarian life of service to poor Muslims, in a village in Algeria.

There is one scene which captures the entire story and scope of the film, all without a single line of dialogue. During that scene, the music of Tchaikovsky perfectly captures the entire scope of the film, both in it’s entirety up until that point, and of what was to come. While the Monks drank wine at dinner, the music spoke.

This is a must see movie for those inspired by courage and the imperfections of humanity.

If I could, I’d make every high school history class show this film.

Hats off, in particular, to both Michael Lonsdale and Lambert Wilson, whose performances were excellent, textured and true.

Look for Gods of Men on Netflix or you can find it now on Comcast on Demand.

You should watch it — it’s well worth the time.

But, wait — silence, even from the White House, who took the ignition of Deep Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico as an opportunity to shut down off-shore drilling in the U.S. — jobs lost be damned.

Why isn’t the White House carping about earthquakes and nuclear power?

How about because the nuclear generating power station shut down, just like it was supposed to, during the quake?

Perhaps it is time to point this out: the 5.9 earthquake happened right next to the North Anna Power Station in Louisa County, Va., an American nuclear power plant which was 10 miles away from the epicenter, and everything worked just as it was supposed to, no trouble at all.

No leaks. No problems, nada.

In fact, 13 American nuclear power plants were shaken by the recent quake, and there was no damage to any of the nuclear systems at any of the power plants.

So chalk one up for the nuclear design teams, whose reactors just took a 5.9 quake in stride.

But the folks at Beyond Nuclear could not keep their mouth shut: “Once again, Mother Nature is warning us that nuclear power is the most brittle of electrical power systems,” said Paul Gunter, director of reactor oversight for the Washington group Beyond Nuclear.

Really Gunter? Oh, and Democrat Rep. Markey couldn’t resist either, his safety Nazi in full bloom, calling for “stronger earthquake safety” after the recent east coast quake.

Everything worked perfectly, but he wants more safety.

It does not include the Balanced Budget Amendment, just passed by the U.S. House last week, but promises another vote on what is sure to be a weaker version of the one that already passed the House.

It relegates the Ryan budget to the dust bin of history by creating a super-moderate committee that will force, by Christmas of this year, immediate tax hikes and future promises of small cuts, on the nation.

It’s “cap” on spending in 2012 is a whopping $6 billion, that’s less than the $10 billion the U.S. government spends each day.

It promises cuts that will happen over the course of 10 years, mostly in the out years. (The check is in the mail.)

The plan will increase our debt, by the next election, not decrease it.

The plan will not forestall a credit rating downgrade.

It’s pathetic and should be voted down.

By my count, Freedom Works, Heritage Action, Americans for Prosperity, Club for Growth, National Taxpayers Union, among others, are opposed to the Speaker’s plan, and tea partiers are burning up the phone lines in opposition to the Reid plan, the McConnell plan, the Boehner plan and the-never-put-on-paper Obama plan.

Of course, there is one more thing, the Boehner plan and the Reid plan contain very similar cuts in the out years — something to think about when considering just how much Republicans want to actually cut spending.

Oh, for a glimpse of the future debt of the U.S. if a debt hike fails to pass, check out the second graph from Slate.

The Dem trap is simple, wait out and refuse any real cuts, and then use Wall Street and the Federal Reserve and others to force Congress into granting new debt immediately, with promises of cuts in ten years.

The new deal sounds like the same old formula, it will change nothing. This is not serious reform.

No cuts ever stick — USG deficit spending always increases — especially now with the super spending catalyst of ObamaCare — that the Dems refused to amend or change.

With the debt limit gun to their heads and screaming that the GOP is behaving irresponsibility, the Dems refuse serious cuts — you know “automatic” cuts to entitlements or a balanced budget amendment.

With their new found debt limit in hand, under this new deal, they will rejoice and spend, spend, spend and never cut because they can borrow, borrow, borrow.

Here is a newsflash: no one believes the Dems or the Rs will cut — and an immediate debt limit increase coupled with “we promise to cut, really, we promise” just like every other debt limit increase, is not believable or credible.

Trust us, it’s different this time, uh, no.

In order for it to be different this time, the GOP has to do something really different.

How did we get from no taxes, cuts, and a balanced budget to serious cuts off the table, no balanced budget amendment — with an immediate debt limit increase now?

We win on no new taxes? Isn’t that where we were before, why 83 Frosh House members were elected?

How is this reform — because Republicans are not voting for a tax increase?

But are raising the debt limit immediately?

And only the usual, never make it into law, scored by CBO later as pitiful cuts, making Republicans calls of cutting spending look silly and idiotic and worse, seriously undermining GOP credibility are played up by the media.

Under these conditions the responsible thing to do is stop the spending by not voting for any immediate debt limit without serious “automatic” cuts to entitlements or a balanced budget amendment — which, of course, the Dems refuse to do.

The only way to force the Dems to accept a balanced budget amendment or any serious cuts that will bring us into balance, is to vote against an immediate increase in the debt limit.

Stopping their access to the cash is the only thing they understand — once that happens, serious cutting will start, not the let’s-pretend-and-promise, check-in-the-mail, business as usual stuff.

Somehow, the GOP expects Americans to believe “we will cut future spending without a balanced budget amendment” when they say it, but to disbelieve it when the Dems say it.

Really?

The financial markets may want the stability of a debt limit increase, but the economy will hate the new debt, and it will not react well to new debt now, with promises, promises, promises of “serious” cuts and “reform” later.

Ironically, Greece, the cradle of early democracy, may or may not, be the proximate cause of the collapse of the leading Western currency: the Euro.

For those Americans who don’t get it, the dollar is worth a whole lot less than one Euro and the dollar is likely to stay at the bottom for many, many years. Even with the Greek crisis, the Euro is the currency of value, for the rest of the planet.

The even more world-view-rocking-news is that the U.S. financial balance sheet is worse than the Greeks.

So the cradle of democracy and its over-watcher, the U.S., are economic basket cases because the elected politicians can’t do a single and simple thing: stop spending.

If anyone believes that any of the $4 Trillion in so-called cuts that the GOP will trade with The One, the Spender-in-Chief, the Trillion Dollar President will actually happen — please, keep smoking whatever you are smoking.

To the happily naive, the Spender in Chief will double cross the GOP with the Fed printing presses, and just by-pass Congress.

That’s just for starters, because Congress itself, with the Dems running the Senate — simply will refuse to carry out the $4 Trillion in so-called, alleged, to-be-announced-but-never-happen, promises-from-a-drunk-spender-to-stop.

The One hates cutting government spending, and has lied about cutting spending since the day he announced he was running for President.

Meanwhile, there are so many different ways The One can, has already and will double cross the GOP on spending – and he will take advantage of every single one and keep spending.

(If you get the sense that I believe the U.S. House in GOP control may be able to stop The One from any new idiotic trillion dollar spending, but not actually cut anything in any way that really matters, good for you, you’re right. The GOP will not stop the debt limit increase, which will, in turn, not force serious cuts in order to keep paying our debts, and not default. The SOP of the elite is simple: more debt now, for promises of cuts later. Promises that are never kept.)

Don’t believe any $4 Trillion in cuts — it is ALWAYS wrong, and never before has their been any Trillion dollar cut actually put into law and then actually carried out any U.S. government — and certainly any promised trillion dollar cuts will not be carried out by the Trillion dollar President, by The One, with the Dems running the Senate.

But, as usual, the big picture escapes the cries of SPEND and PRINT money from Wall Street, the lame stream media and the elite in general: did you hear the good news, if we bail out Greece again, the Western monetary system will not melt down?

So, let’s all sing bailout, bailout, oh, save us by bailing out the Greeks!

And now, because The One has pledged U.S. tax dollars to bailout the Greeks, well, the entire Western financial system is saved — stocks are up — except that the Brits are bailing on the bailout, and have been, for months, pulling cash out of the Greek mess, by the tens of billions of pounds (it takes $1.61 to buy one pound).

And threats of a Greek collapse will still happen, until the bailouts finally stop, then the Greeks will do what the U.S. has been doing since The One became President, print their own currency to pay for all their irrational spending and debts.

Yes, the fate of the Western financial system has come down to kicking the Greek collapse down the road another four months, in hopes that the economy will improve by then to help prevent another bailout because the Greeks cannot, or will not, pay their debts.

Meanwhile, the Muslim nations rise, drunk on cash and oil prices that create massive transfers of wealth so great that the citizens of the Gulf countries wonder where all the Porches and really nice cars are when they visit the U.S. — all while they marvel and snicker at the pathetic value of the dollar.

All of this is our fault, by the way.

For refusing to stop ObamaCare and its pernicious impact on spending, for not reining in any health care spending in Medicare or Medicaid by any real, significant level – ever, and for refusing with steadfast consistency to achieve our own, real, 100 percent energy independence from the Middle East.

Brazil has done what we cannot and will not, gain total independence from the Middle East on oil. They can tell the Middle East to go pound sand, we will not because we cannot.

Finally, it is the U.S. fault for printing our money into its current devalued status.

Here is what the Financial Times wrote about the Greek bailout — notice the value of the dollar versus the Euro — “eurozone finance ministers prepared to seek agreement among themselves on the structure of a new €120bn ($172bn) bail-out for the beleaguered country.”

If you do the math, it takes about $1.45 to buy one Euro.

So, in short, oil and gold are the leading value storing devices, the two primary Western currencies that were the main value storing devices on this planet are now in big trouble, and the U.S. dollar is a pathetic $1.45 per Euro.

In short, the Muslim world, financed through oil, is on the rise.

The U.S. is on the decline, and shows absolutely no ability to accomplish anything serious to change what is causing the decline – absolutely nothing at all.

We had time to cut our spending, and we did not.

We had time to become energy independent, and we did not.

Meanwhile, we elected a President who steadfastly refuses to do both, so in the contorted system we have, the Fed prints money to pay for the government no investor will continue to loan us money to pay for — all while we refuse to enact into law any real spending cuts.

It is a recipe the failure of democracy writ large – on a global basis.

But the left refuses to see they are the handmaidens of super-spending, energy dependence, and money printing (a la Krugman) which is the end of the West, as we have known it.

Meanwhile, the U.S. can’t cut spending to save itself, but will commit to new spending, er, debt, to save the Euro and the Greeks, one more time.

And there will be many Americans truly shocked when the Muslim world flexes its population and economic muscles, and makes the U.S. swallow hard.

Oh, wait, that already happened – Pakistan protected the man who killed 3,000 Americans, and we continue to write them billions in checks – for us having the privilege of being bent over — and having the Pakistanis who helped us, arrested.

This is what the new world entails, all because we can not stop spending beyond our means on health care, cannot pass laws to make us energy independent, and refuse to stop printing money to pay for the fact we cannot, ever, stop spending in any way that actually matters.

My friend and colleague, who insisted I take his name out of this post, made it up.

From now on, any lewd tweet accidentally sent to the tweet universe, should be henceforth known as a twiener (sounded out, it’s tweener).

A Goggle search for the term “twiener” turns up no results found, so, seems this is the first time its on the web.

(Note to the RedState blogging police, I have knowingly violated the 100 word minimum on blog posts.)