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Happy Birthday, Obamacare!

You know it doesn’t make much sense
There ought to be a law against
Anyone who takes offense
At a day in your celebration.

Awright: the lyrics get smarmy as Stevie Wonder’s song continues. But it’s a sensational arrangement that brings back fond memories of many a happy disco night. (More in that vein? Here, from German TV at the time. Mature immature audiences only.) So far as quoted, moreover, the lyrics fit the occasion: if ever we are to celebrate March 23 (Obamacare Day), they’ll have to make us. Call it the Individual Celebration Mandate.

On the occasion of this birthday (Obamacare’s third), The Wall Street Journal reports that health insurers warn of very major premium increases come 2014, when the law’s coverage mandates kick in. The Washington Post has a fine story on small employers in my home town (Alexandria, VA) who have no earthly idea as to what the law will mean for them, except that it might wipe out their entire profits. In other news, the U.S. Senate has voted—with the support of the likes of Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) to repeal a tax on medical device firms. Said tax was one of multiple make-believe means to ensure that the Affordable Care Act would—in the President oft-repeated words—add “not one dime” to the deficit.

The actual number of dimes is something in the order of 62 trillion. AEI’s Chris Conover, who knows this stuff like nobody else, has the explanation and the chilling numbers. Must read.

Uncork the champagne, and then something harder. I Wanna Be Sedated.