"Health-insurance premiums have been rising — and consumers will experience another series of price shocks later this year when some see their premiums skyrocket thanks to the Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare. ... 

"States won't experience equal increases in their premiums under ObamaCare. Ironically, citizens in states that have acted responsibly over the years by adhering to standard actuarial principles and limiting the (often politically motivated) mandates will see the biggest increases, because their premiums have typically been the lowest. ... 

"[...] Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, Wyoming and Virginia will likely see the largest increases — somewhere between 65% and 100%. Another 18 states, including Texas and Michigan, could see their rates rise between 35% and 65%."

"President Barack Obama is trying an end run around the NRA — rallying groups as varied as churches, medical organizations, retailers and the Rotary Club to build support for new gun regulations. 

"It’s an unusual strategy but one the Obama administration has used before: projecting strength on an issue by trying to create the perception that the White House is riding a wave of momentum from the American people. It was the theme of Obama’s two presidential campaigns and was central to his campaign-style road show to tout his fiscal cliff priorities in December. 

"Participants in Vice President Joe Biden’s meetings have said the White House is seeking to mount an aggressive effort to back the gun-control push, which is likely to formally commence next week after Biden delivers his recommendations to the president."

"Because 82 percent of American earners pay more in payroll taxes than income taxes, no politically conceivable or economically feasible middle-class tax rate can fund the entitlement state. And America’s political culture rules out funding it with new consumption or energy taxes. By rescuing almost everyone from the restoration of Clinton-era rates, liberals abandoned any pretense of paying for their program of ever-expanding entitlements. Instead, they made trillion-dollar deficits their program."

"...New York Times columnist Roger Cohen writes that the 'chief' reason Hagel should be confirmed is that doing so 'will provoke a serious debate on what constitutes real friendship toward Israel.' Even if you agree with Cohen’s barmy views of geopolitical 'friendship,' Hagel’s got real problems if this is the best case for his nomination. 
 
"The Defense Department faces imminent cuts, Chinese and Russian nationalism are ascendant, the Middle East is becoming even more destabilized and theocratic, and we’re still at war in Afghanistan, but Hagel’s chief qualification is that he’ll be a great conversation starter? Wow. 
 
"The coming nomination fight will undoubtedly focus on the strength of the case against Hagel. But the real indictment of Obama’s pick is the weakness of the case for Hagel — and the pettiness of the pick in the first place."

"We're quickly approaching the point that we have little to lose with a government shutdown, because if we don't cut spending and reform entitlements very soon, we'll run out of this Monopoly money, and the government will go broke. 

"Please let us finally have this debate in public -- a debate the liberal media will be forced to cover because it will happen in the context of a threatened government shutdown. Holding my breath."

"[T]he tax burden will rise more for someone making $30,000 a year (1.7 percent) than it does for someone earning $500,000 annually (1.3 percent). 

"A whole new wave of Obama supporters still don't even know: They'll get their first 2013 paychecks on the 15th of the month. So when you're shooting the breeze in the lunchroom with your grumbling co-workers on the 16th, just ask them, 'Who'd you vote for in November?' When they say Mr. Obama, just tell them: 'Well, you got what you voted for. You did know he was going to raise taxes, right?'    
 
"The looks on their faces will be priceless."

"Serious men don't taunt. And they don't farm the job of negotiating out to the vice president because no one can get anything done with the president. Some Republican said, 'He couldn't negotiate his way out of a paper bag.' But — isn't this clear by now? — not negotiating is his way of negotiating. And it kind of worked. So expect more. 

"Mr. Obama's supporters always give him an out by saying, 'But the president can't work with them, they made it clear from the beginning their agenda was to do him in.' That's true enough. But it's true with every American president now — the other side is always trying to do him in, or at least the other side's big mouths are always braying they'll take him down. They tried to capsize Bill Clinton, they tried to do in Reagan, they called him an amiable dunce and vowed to defeat his wicked ideology.  

"We live in a polarized age. We have for a while. One of the odd things about the Obama White House is that they are traumatized by the normal."

"The president barred significant spending cuts in the stopgap bill, further alienating Republicans and worsening the poisonous political climate in Washington as he begins his second term. 

"This is a bigger problem than Mr. Obama may imagine. The most important issues — the debt ceiling, entitlement reform, tax reform, government spending, the $110 billion sequester — now must be dealt with in an atmosphere that is hardly conducive to bipartisanship and compromise. 

"The essence of bipartisan deals is win-win: Both sides are satisfied, even if not elated. Mr. Obama's approach is that he alone gets to win. The approach worked, more or less, on the fiscal-cliff deal, but it won't produce the larger bipartisan agreements that Mr. Obama now needs. And he'll miss the opportunities that other presidents seized, to their own benefit and the country's."

"This deal is projected to yield $620 billion in revenue over a decade — increasing projected federal revenue by about 1.7% over that time. And that’s about it. The Democrats have made the Bush tax rates permanent for 98 percent of the public, which Republicans couldn’t even do when they controlled both houses of Congress and the presidency. ... 

"If even under the conditions of the past month — with a very liberal president just re-elected, Republicans in disarray, public opinion on taxes seemingly friendlier to them than it has been in decades, and higher tax rates automatically taking effect — the Democrats can’t get more than a tiny pittance of revenue and no chips to use later, then their basic approach to fiscal issues just won’t work. The idea that they will raise rates again in the Obama years when they don’t have all these factors working in their favor is a fantasy. ...

"The fiscal trajectory of our welfare state is not sustainable, no matter how much taxes go up. That is the truth at the heart of our budget crisis. The fiscal-cliff debate ignored that truth from start to finish, and so has achieved nothing worthwhile for anyone. The Republicans know why they got nothing out of this: The expiration of the tax rates meant they could only contain their losses here. But what about the Democrats? Now they have gotten their tax increase, and what has it gained them but the prospect of an even slower economy? What’s their game plan?"

Very Best Wishes for a Most Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Filled with Seasonal Cheer!