Memo to Mark Quick, Harvey Roseff, and others

Conservative columnist Michelle Malkin writes a dead-on column today that takes aim at all those people who believe that the blessings of civilization -- things like roads and bridges that don't end up killing you or your family members -- are birthrights instead of things we have to pay for.  Malkin writes:

"News flash, kids: Things aren’t free. Things cost money. And 'free' things provided to you by the government cost other people’s money."

Malkin is using this general principle of conservatism, something every Republican should understand, to make a point about ObamaCare, and a larger point about the behavior of some of our country's younger voters.  Drawing a bead on what she calls one of "the most politically popular provisions of the Orwellian-titled Affordable Care Act" she continues:

"...the so-called 'slacker mandate.' It’s the requirement that employer-based health plans cover employees’ children until they turn 26 years old.

That’s right: Twenty-freaking-six.

Is it any wonder why we have a nation of dependent drool-stained crybabies on college campuses who are still bawling about the election results one week later?

...Who pays for this unfunded government mandate? As usual, it’s responsible working people who bear the burden.

Earlier this year, the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the No Slacker Left Behind provision resulted in wage reductions of about $1,200 a year for workers with employer-based insurance coverage — whether or not they had adult children on their plans. In effect, childless working people are subsidizing workers with adult children who would rather stay on their parents than get their own.

Moreover, according to company surveys and other economic analysis, the slacker mandate has resulted in overall increased health care costs of between 1 and 3 percent. The nonpartisan American Health Policy Institute reported one firm’s estimate of millennial coverage mandate costs at a whopping $69 million over 10 years.

...The Obama White House will brag that the slacker mandate has resulted in increased coverage for an estimated 3 million people. As usual with Obamacare numbers, it’s Common Core, book-cooked math. Health care analyst Avik Roy took a closer look and found that the inflated figure came from counting '(1) young adults on Medicaid and other government programs, for whom the under-26 mandate doesn’t apply; and (2) people who gained coverage due to the quasi-recovery from the Great Recession.'

To add insult to injury, another NBER study found that roughly 5 percent of people younger than 26 dropped out of the workforce after the provision was implemented. They used their spare time to increase their socialization, sleeping, physical fitness and personal pursuit of 'meaningfulness.'

Then there are the hidden costs of the millennial mandate: the cultural consequences. All this 'free' stuff, detached from those actually paying the bills, reduces the incentives for 20-somethings to grow up and seek independent lives and livelihoods. Why bother? The societal sanctions have been eroded.

Now, the nation is suffering the consequences of decades of that collective coddling. Precious snowflakes can’t handle rejection at the ballot box or responsibilities in the marketplace. Appropriately enough, the new virtue signals of tantrum-throwing young leftists stirring up trouble are safety pins — to show 'solidarity' with groups supposedly endangered by Donald Trump.

Safety pins are also handy — for holding up the government-manufactured diapers in which too many overgrown dependents are swaddled."

You can read Michelle Malkin's full column here:

http://www.gopusa.com/?p=17241?omhide=true

Michelle Malkin is a senior editor at Conservative Review.  For more articles and videos from Michelle, visit ConservativeReview.com.  Her email address is malkinblog@gmail.com.