Insight

Justice William O. Douglas (1898 - 1980): “Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.”

Alpha Jackass

Barack Obama: “[W]e’re not repealing [ObamaCare] as long as I’m president and I want everybody to be clear about that. … Do not let the initial problems with the website discourage you because it’s working better now and it’s just going to keep on working better over time. … And we’ve learned not to make wild promises about how perfectly smooth it’s going to be all the time.”

Braying Jackass

ObamaCare architect Ezekiel Emanuel: “If you want to pay more for an insurance company that covers your doctor, you can do that. …No one guaranteed you that your premium wouldn’t increase. Premiums have been going up. … [I]f you want to [keep your doctor], you can pay for it. … As a matter of fact, choice is something we all understand and we all understand that for more choice, more benefits, you have to pay more.”

Econ 101: Last we checked, a truly competitive marketplace drives prices down, not up.

From the ‘Non Compos Mentis’ File

Rep. Matt Cartwright: “There’s so many people out there with what I call phony insurance policies, and the fact that they’re going to lose those policies, sooner or later, I think is a good thing. Because what we’re up to here is we are strengthening the health care system in this country.”

Village Idiots

Former Penn. Gov. Ed Rendell: “[T]he sad part for the Republicans is that it’s only going to get worse for them. … As time goes on, as the kinks are totally smoothed out of the [Healthcare.gov] system, people are going to find that this bill – the 31 million who never had health care are going to find that it’s like manna from heaven.”

Former State Sec. Colin Powell: “I think universal health care is one of the things we should really be focused on, and I hope that will happen. Whether it’s Obamacare, or son of Obamacare, I don’t care. As long as we get it done.”

Dezinformatsia

ABC’s Barbara Walters: “[M]ost presidents swear on a Bible before taking office, even though we have the separation between church and state. You see it again and again. … We talk about the separation between church and state and almost every president ends up saying so help me God. … The basic tenet in America is the separation. And it’s very important.”

Belly Laugh of the Week

Barack Obama: “I’m holding every cabinet member accountable.”

Demo-gogues

Rep. Keith Ellison: “We in Congress will try to raise the minimum wage. We got opponents on the other side of the aisle who say that there shouldn’t be no minimum wage. So, we are in difficulty fighting these guys. But, we know, at the executive level, an executive order can change the situation. We demand it, right now. Mr. President, sign the executive order.”

The BIG Lie

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi: “Economists agree that unemployment benefits remain one of the best ways to grow the economy in a very immediate way.”

Short Cuts

Columnist Mark Steyn: “[Last] week the president pivoted (as they say) to ‘economic inequality,’ which will be, he assures us, his principal focus for the rest of his term. And what’s his big idea for this new priority? Stand well back: He wants to increase the minimum wage! Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos of Amazon (a non-government website) is musing about delivering his products to customers across the country (and the planet) within hours by using drones. Drones! If there’s one thing Obama can do, it’s drones. He’s renowned across Yemen and Waziristan as the Domino’s of drones. If he’d thought to have your health-insurance-cancellation notices dropped by drone, Obamacare might have been a viable business model. Yet, even in Obama’s sole area of expertise and dominant market share, the private sector is already outpacing him.”