I. ADVENT

If you don't like the weather around the Great Lakes, wait.  Early November again featured above normal temperatures and not much rain.  A few lakeside communities got hit with serious snow in the first of the Weather Channel's named storms.  That bought a few counties respite from the drought, but inland it was more of the same.  After Thanksgiving came the second named storm, complete with serious snow.  The neighbors who bling out their houses mostly got their outdoor lights up ahead of the snow.

There will be pictures of the illuminations in the snow for your viewing pleasure during the Festive Season.

YES, WE ARE A CREEDAL NATION.

That has long been the Cold Spring Shops position.  "Give these kids an America to buy into, and an America that buys into these kids, and we'll be OK."  Pajamas Media contributor Jamie K. Wilson would like to restrict that a bit.  "An American is a person who belongs to the historic political, cultural, and moral community formed by the United States — a community joined not by ancestry alone but by entering, adopting, and upholding its constitutional order, its laws, its common language, its civic story, and its ethic of self-rule, ordered liberty, and mutual responsibility."  I suppose my youth in Milwaukee where one could still find storefronts and sometimes libraries labelled in German, Polish, and Spanish makes me less inclined to be restrictive about language, and I've tended to view cultural and moral communities as emergent and evolving: do we still want to observe Sundays in the way of the Puritan rather than of the German?

THE FIRST THANKSGIVING DINNER WAS POTLUCK.

That might be one way to help the host or hostess spend less on preparation.  The past few years, the price of the traditional dinner has become a political football to go with the televised football viewed through a food coma, dimly.

It is difficult to take this presidency seriously any more.  Seriously, though, "dial back Thanksgiving" or "live more like Europeans" is consistent with what we experience elsewhere, such as putting up with less dependable electricity even if the solar and wind capacity isn't yet on line, or putting up with higher fuel prices to induce substitution to electric cars not yet safely available at scale.

The current president is often difficult to take seriously either, and the tradition of playing political football with the price of the traditional dinner goes on.

The 40th annual American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) Thanksgiving dinner survey found that a traditional dinner for ten people this holiday is going to run around $55.18, which is down five percent from the previous year. That counts for the price of items like turkey and cranberries going down, while the price of sweet potatoes and whipping cream went up.

Predictably, Trump-favorable outlets such as Red State are spiking the football.  "So, enjoy your upcoming Thanksgiving dinner - and enjoy walking away from it, stuffed with turkey, feeling that tryptophan-induced food coma coming on, and with a few extra coins jingling in your pocket."

EDUCATION SO INCLUSIVE NOBODY LEARNS ANYTHING.

I'm reusing an old post title and revisiting an old argument.  "I encourage readers to focus on two words: fifth grade. Perhaps, in suggesting that the state universities send the high schools a bill for each credit hour of remedial arithmetic and writing their students racked up, I was not being bold enough."

Conditions have not gotten any better in sixteen years.  Recently, collegians having trouble with 7+2 = x+6, which can be posed as a first grade arithmetic problem by replacing "solve for x" with "fill in the box" came to our attention.  Dear reader, even the house organ for business as usual in higher education was troubled.  "A ‘Steep Decline’ in Students’ Academic Preparation at UC-San Diego Struck a Nerve."

HOW BASKETBALL FORTUNES CHANGE.

Seven years ago, the feel-good story of the men's basketball tournament was Loyola of Chicago, returning to basketball relevance after many years in the wilderness.

This season?  Neither the inspiration of playing for the memory of their long-time chaplain, Sister Jean, who crossed the final summit either this year, nor the home-court advantage assisted by Chicago traffic, could keep the Northern Illinois team from sending the Ramblers to their fifth loss.

NIU (3-3) made 14 three-pointers, one off the school record, while shooting 41.2 percent (14-of-34) from beyond the arc.

"It was awesome," said NIU head coach Rashon Burno. "We had a little be of adversity with the traffic on the way here, we got here with 60 minutes to spare, but it started in the preparation. We had quality practices. Obviously, Dylan (Ducommun) 24 (points), six (assists) and zero (turnovers) … We have to fight, we have to play with pride, and we have to execute and I thought we did that for 40 minutes tonight."

Loyola (1-5) led 13-8 before Hassan 'Tre' Washington (Providence, R.I./Prise Academy) knocked in a triple and Ducommun added two from beyond the long line to put the Huskies in front, 17-13.

Mr Burno is on the final year of his contract, with a team restocked through the transfer portal, and playing in the Mid-American for the final year before moving to the Horizon League.

SCRATCHBUILDING AT TWELVE INCHES TO THE FOOT.

Great Britain is observing the bicentennial of the railways, and how better to celebrate than to roll out a stable of steam locomotives all built in the 21^st century?

That lineup entertained visitors at Bluebell Railway as the summer tourist season wound down.  Left to right, Southern Region Atlantic 32424 Beachy Head, built 1911, extensive restorations completed in August 2024; Northeastern Region Pacific 60163 Tornado, numbered one higher than any of the original Peppercorn Pacifics, completed in 2008; Great Western or Western Region 4-6-0 6880 Betton Grange, numbered one higher than any of the original Granges, assembled out of Swindon standard parts and first steamed in April 2024; Great Western or Western Region 4-6-0 2999 Lady of Legend, numbered one higher than any of the original Saints or Courts, reverse-kitbashed out of 4973 Maindy Hall (another of the Hall series, 5972 Olton Hall, stars as Hogwarts Castle in the movies, to the annoyance of Great Western enthusiasts) and in steam from 2020.  The whistle on Lady of Legend is off 2910 Lady of Shalott.

There's something about a steamer, even one without cowcatcher, bell, or Mars light, that continues to entertain children of all ages, including seventyish children.  Yes, the British have a few of their unusual diesels still operating in preservation, as do we Stateside, and yes, a pair of Alco PA-1 passenger cab units might be returning to excursion service, and we're still awaiting the Mark Twain Zephyr.  But a scratch build of a Baldwin Centipede or a Fairbanks-Morse Erie-Built seems unlikely.

IT'S THE PRETTY PIG PROBLEM.

Paul McDonnold of The Daily Economy dips into the world of socialist social media to discover that the interest in socialism ... has nothing to do with Robert Owen or Karl Marx or Frank Zeidler.

An older video offered a slideshow on basic socialism narrated by the DSA’s national co-chair, Megan Romer. It was candid, enlightening, and reasonably upbeat. My first light-bulb moment came when Romer explained how becoming a socialist is not typically an involved intellectual process.

“Most people become socialist because of one issue,” Romer said. “They usually become socialists because of something they specifically got mad about in the news. That is the primary thing that makes people become a socialist.”

What's that wisecrack about if you're still socialist at forty you have no brain?  But if you're angered by something in the news, it's easier to take the good things for granted and attribute all the ills to The System.  "Since the status quo seemed to be performing poorly, especially for the young, why not try socialism?"

Of late, particularly among the young, the pig-sty in which they live appears particularly messy, and Old Major's imagined pig-sty wins by default.  Venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who might have billions of reasons to keep the existing order pretty much as it is, suggests it's not so much "socialism" as "not-capitalism" or "not-neoliberalism" that is looking better, if only by default.

The first step is to talk about the problems, even if you don’t know what to do about them. There’s been a failure of, let’s say, the center left-center right establishment to even talk about them.

I don’t know if I would say that young people are pro-socialist. I would say they are less pro-capitalist than they used to be. If capitalism is seen as an unfair racket of one sort or another, you’ll be much less pro capitalism. So in some relative sense, they’re more socialist, even though I think it’s more just: Capitalism doesn’t work for me. Or, this thing called capitalism is just an excuse for people ripping you off.

The interview explores a lot of territory, including the potential challenge for genuine socialists that most of the leadership comes from the remnant of the Silents and the older cohort of the Baby Boomers, the ones that never dabbled with being yuppies, and some sobering thoughts about whether it is better that some voters stay home.  Material for another day.

PRUSSIAN PROPRIETY, RHENISH REVELRY.

Karneval has been under way since Armistice Day, with Milwaukee's German community getting things started during German Fest.  But why the coincidence with Armistice Day?

It started with Napoleon.  From 1801 to 1813, part of the Rhineland was under French administration, and French propaganda bragged on their "Egalität, Legalität, Fraternität," which probably applied to Rhinelanders as much as "Diversity, Equity, Inclusion" applies to Normals.  So, like Normals rephrasing the acronym as "Didn't Earn It," the Rhinelanders made an acronym, "ELF," which they did not put on a shelf ... in German, it's "eleven."

But it was when the Prussians reclaimed the Rhineland on their way to fail to assist Napoleon at Waterloo, that Karneval emerged as that Rhenish rebuke to Prussian propriety.  Masquerade was a proper way to send up the rulers, so why not send up the Pickelhaube set from ... 11 November until Aschermittwoch, with an intermezzo for the Festive Season?  Recall, the illuminated Christmas tree is a German creation.

The main events of late winter commence with Weiberfastnacht, the Thursday preceding Aschermittwoch.

Find yourself a Karneval event, even if it calls itself Fasching or Mardi Gras, and enjoy.

THE INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS DELUSION.

Two hundred years ago, the Erie Canal opened for business from Albany to Buffalo.  In his tribute to the canal, Pajamas Media contributor Rick Moran notes that once upon a time presidents looked to the Federal Constitution for the specific authority to spend money.

DeWitt Clinton tried to get financing from Congress for his project, which Thomas Jefferson called "madness." However, President James Madison believed that using federal dollars for a state project was unconstitutional and refused to sign the bill authorizing congressional funds.

America's longest canal up to that point was 27 miles. Clinton was proposing the construction of a canal 13 times larger, much of it through wilderness, using Irish immigrant labor and, most astonishingly, without any trained engineers.

The original engineers were largely self-taught locals who designed and constructed the canal despite having never seen one before.

It got built, and although the original course has in places been filled in and elsewhere bypassed by subsequent expansions to create the New York Barge Canal, historic bits of it remain for your entertainment or edification.

TEMPER, TEMPER.

Red State's Ward Clark tells a sea story from the M*A*S*H* era.  It involves Wisconsin, BB-64, confirming that throwing long bombs was a Wisconsin thing long before Bart Starr and Brett Favre.

"Big Wisky," as her crew called her, served through the rest of World War 2 with little incident; she was assigned to the 5th Fleet and took part in the pre-invasion bombardment of Japan before the war ended.

After the war, Big Wisky was briefly mothballed, then reactivated for the Korean War, to go do what she did best - toss one-ton projectiles at bad guys. Her mere presence off the North Korea coast made the communist country feel maladjusted, and when the Americans started solving their problems with a suitable application of high explosives, they began to truly worry. Wisconsin even had the distinction of having fired on a stalled North Korean troop train, thus achieving the status of being the only American battleship to sink a train.Then came March 15th, 1952. The USS Wisconsin, on that day, was operating as usual off the Korean coast, tossing explosive Volkswagens at the communists. But on that day, a North Korean artillery battery tried to defy the great American ship and shot back. A single 155mm shell struck the Big Wisky, striking the gun shield of one of the starboard twin 40mm anti-aircraft gun mounts, causing minor damage and injuring three sailors.

The counter-battery guys were pretty good.

That North Korean battery pushed the "Fool Around" button, and in due course was removed in a classically American "Find Out" reply. You have to love as well the dry terminology in the ship's official history: "...blasted that battery to oblivion." Indeed, nine one-ton shells, nine tons of Attitude Adjustment, aimed at one sorry little North Korea artillery battery. They probably could have engaged the battery with their secondary guns, which were 5/38 dual-purpose guns, capable of outranging and engaging the North Korean guns. But we are Americans; go big, or go home.

There's a meme for that.

Apocryphal response or not from the escort, that's the American way.  That is all.

YES, THAT CHEAP LABOR SUBSIDY IS REAL.

In two published papers, Eliakim Katz and I analyzed immigration amnesties as a way of screening the pool of illegal immigrants by subjecting them to exploitation in the underground economy and confronting a positive but not certain prospect of an amnesty, in order to induce favorable self-selection, meaning it wouldn't pay to sneak into a rich country in the hopes of going on welfare later.

Yes, that sounds cynical, and yes, we did get some grief for characterizing the underground economy as a sort of apprenticeship.  Other scholars subsequently expanded on our work.

We show that an amnesty is more desirable the bigger is the gain to aggregate income induced by granting legalized workers access to all the available employment opportunities. On the contrary, a more redistributive welfare state makes an amnesty less desirable, as low-skilled legalizedforeign workers will gain access to benefits. We also find that the introduction of a legalization program can only be optimal if there is a positive shock affecting the income received by the natives. In this case, the legalization allows the government to mitigate the adverse effects of an excessively restrictive policy implemented in the first period.

That paper offers the following elaboration on our work.

Karlson and Katz (2003) consider instead the role of amnesties as a tool for governments to induce immigrants to self–select based on ability. Similarly to our model, they also consider migrants that differ in their skill level. In particular, they emphasize that a legalization will offer skilled workers better labor market opportunities. As a result, the latter might be enticed to migrate even as illegals, in the hope that an ex–post legalization will improve their income opportunities. Differently from us, in Karlson and Katz’s (2003) model and in their companion paper (Karlson and Katz 2010), legal immigration is not explicitly considered together with illegal immigration.

The authors continue in an academic vein, and it looks like light bedtime reading.  But not tonight.  Rather, I'm in the mood to thank loudmouth leftist Jill Filipovic for simultaneously validating our cheap labor argument and demonstrating the folly of minimum wage laws.

If you would like to pay $30 for a pint of strawberries, $700 for someone to clean your one-bedroom apartment, and $100,000 for a new roof on your normal-sized house, then deporting all undocumented people is a policy you should support. https://t.co/l3m7JyCzfP

— Jill Filipovic (@JillFilipovic) November 18, 2025

Twitchy's Brett T. compiled a few of the more pungent ripostes.  "Are Americans that spoiled by cheap, illegal alien labor?"  Hie thee hence, and judge for yourself.

DOWNSIZING TOOK AWAY MY BEAR CLAW FIX.

Insta Pundit contributor Stephen "Vodka Pundit" Green links to "Panera lost diners by cutting portions and staff. It’s reversing course to win them back."  It's the same old story, downsizing is a false economy.  Market tests have steep grading curves.

When Panera Bread began shrinking its sandwiches and skimping on salads, it started shedding customers.

Now, to win them back, the chain plans to reinvest in the business and undo many of those same cost-cutting measures, it said Tuesday.

Once the No. 1 fast-casual brand in the U.S., Panera has dipped to No. 3.

It hasn't been a good year or two for the "fast casual" sector more generally.  That might be evidence of precarity among the middle classes, reverting to McDonald's, or of upward mobility, going for casual dining with service.

THE MONEY MUST COME FROM SOMEWHERE.

Or, as we would crack wise, years ago, "When politicians promise you pie in the sky, they're going to do it with your dough."

My post title comes from a recent essay by John "Grumpy Economist" Cochrane, notionally writing about price controls, and elaborate rationalizations of their use: in reality, he's reminding all and sundry of the fundamentals of political economy and taxation.

A rent control is the same as a tax on landlords used to subsidize the rents of current tenants. You may picture a giant corporation, but many landlords are sympathetic individuals who worked hard and saved and use the apartment to fund their retirement. Corporations are owned by the 401(k) plans of sympathetic workers too. But economists should know better than to tug on your heartstrings for who should get resources forcibly taken from who else. If you ask “what’s the optimal way to tax people in general in order to lower housing costs for a politically attractive group (current tenants)” the screaming answer is not “let’s tax the people who currently own the buildings.” Sure, “tax the rich.” If you want to go down this route, it’s a lot more efficient to tax all the rich. If you ask “what’s the optimal way to help families who just got stuck with higher rents,” the screaming answers is “send them a check, but then let them move to the apartment that best fits their needs.”

A rent control only makes rental “affordable” for the lucky recipient. It does not make rental housing more “affordable” for society as a whole. It does not increase the number of people who have housing. Indeed it reduces that number. It just changes who gets it. It does not even make housing more “affordable” on average. For those who want it must now pay with time, and inconvenience, or pay by foregoing the great opportunities that moving to the city provided.

The biggest losers of rent control are the young, the mobile, the ambitious, immigrants, and people without a lot of cash. If you want to move from Fresno to take a job in San Francisco and move up, and you don’t have millions lying around to buy, you need rentals. Rent control means they are not available. Income inequality, opportunity, equity, all get worse.

There is no blob of “government” money, or “policy” that can make something affordable for one without making something else less affordable for another.

The extension to other attempts to make things "affordable" is straightforward.  "It doesn't matter what account the federal money comes from: whether you call it Medicaid or it comes out of some assigned risk pool among the insurance exchanges, where policy holders might get a premium subsidy, ultimately the money is extracted from taxpayers, borrowed on the bond market, and printed."  In that long passage, Professor Cochrane is reminding people that everything has an opportunity cost.  Without proper technique, there is no economic content.

GOOD HELP, HARD TO FIND?

Little Caesars opens first self-service restaurant in Rockford.  There's a video clip at the link.  "Restaurant" appears to be a misnomer, as there are no tables to eat in.  A Horn and Hardart has more charm.

Little Caesars photograph retrieved from WIFR.

What have I been telling you for over twenty years, dear reader, about the "slovenly, poorly trained people" who might not get the order right, who have no clue how to handle change, who can't manage a "we are sorry and hope to do better next time?"  Is it any accident that the first of these outlets is in Rockford?  "Perhaps the mayor would like to have more Rockfordians equipped to finish college, that is, to not be among the inefficiently many people in institutions pretending to offer higher education. That, however, is a call for stronger common schools, or perhaps stronger commitment to the Habits of Effective People among Rockfordians."  Rockford's schools, and its television stations, emphasize high school sports to the exclusion of almost everything else, including the etiolation, etiolation of pizza, pizza.

The restaurant at 3134 11th Street removes the traditional walk-up counter. Customers can place an order on the Little Caesars app or website, go to the restaurant and grab their items from the mobile order pickup zone.

Another option for customers is the new Hot-N-Ready self-service station inside the restaurant. Guests can select and scan items, then pay for their order without going through a cashier.

“It’s really intuitive, and the self-checkout is very similar to what you might see in a convenience store or at the airport. So, it makes it very easy, and who doesn’t want a hot fresh pizza really quickly,” said Trish Heusel, Vice President of Innovation at Little Caesars.

Hot, fresh, and to order suggests there might be someone, or has the kitchen side been automated as well?  I wonder, this being on Rockford's South Eleventh Street, how much security is on duty.  And people buying from this automat don't have to pay the incompetence tax.

Managers say the new design keeps today’s customers in mind, with an experience focused on speed and convenience.

“You can get in and out of the store in less than 20 seconds,” said Heusel.

Little Caesars got its start in Detroit.  I wonder if the innovation will be available south of Eight Mile.

THE WIVES AND THE SONS AND THE DAUGHTERS.

Survivors and descendants of Edmund Fitzgerald's last crew assisted in the fiftieth anniversary reciting of the names and tolling of the ship's bell at Detroit's Old Mariners Church.

The final ringing was for all the other mariners lost on the Lakes.

Should you wish to expand that to all the other mariners lost, or, in the language of the Submarine Service, those on eternal patrol, do so.

THE COMMUNIST WING, RUFFLING CORPORATIST FEATHERS?

Pass the popcorn!  "It’s time to replace Chuck Schumer as Senate minority leader and do it without delay."

Why?

1.  "Schumer inspires no one."  I don't know, every time he goes to the well of the Senate with that nasal voice and those Mr Whipple glasses, the Militant Normals are inspired to squeeze all the Charmin, or, better yet, to mock him on social media.
   
2.  "He doesn’t get modern communication."  Social media followers don't necessarily translate into influence: for all the followers Crazy Bernie or Squeaky or Fauxahontas have, they're still in the opposition, and still giving the Militant Normals material.
   
3.  "He’s an old-looking, old-talking, and old-thinking 74, staring down, with faltering energy."  As opposed to the gesticulating Crazy Bernie or the faux-hood Jasmine Crockett?
4.  "He’s turned his back on the future."  In Common Dreams world, the "future" is the Next Big Thing for the communist wing of that party.  Which continues in its delusion that somehow the Donks lost the presidency and the Senate by not being communist enough.
5.  "Schumer is isolated from critical feedback."  In Common Dreams world, that has nothing to do with the shilling for All Things Democrat that make the palace guard media so annoying.
6.  "Schumer lacks the strategic and tactical skills to meet the unprecedented challenges of the moment."  It's probably hard to herd corporatist and communist cats, and it's unprecedented for the past forty days that the slim Republican majority didn't fracture despite all the scolding from the usual suspects.  The minority leader in the House wasn't able to peel off sufficient Republican votes to stop the latest budget resolution, which includes a few regular order appropriations, from passing and being signed.
7.  "Schumer is also fundamentally compromised on critical issues."

Which boiled down to being insufficiently on board with the so-called progressives and their intersectional fantasies.

What's amusing is that three years ago, while the Jarrett regency still enjoyed majorities in both houses of Congress, Mr Whipple was already playing his dilatory games.  "The youngest gerontocrat, New York senator Chuck Schumer, who has been putting the country through hell, the better to stave off a primary challenge from the communist wing of his party, recently joined the brain-fart brigade in a recent speech where neither he nor his wordsmith recalled who Thurgood Marshall was."

In these continuing spats between the communist and corporatist Democrats, who differ on how punitive the taxation of productive people or how meddlesome the administrative state should be, there is a real opportunity for Trumpian populists to win over skeptical voters, perhaps by working on simplifying citizenship for legal residents, introducing trade-tested betterments and price discovery in medicine, and continuing to thin out the Federal Register.

WELCOME BACK TO THE HORIZON LEAGUE.

Northern Illinois University have swapped out head coaches and almost all the players of their perennially inconsistent women's basketball team.  This year they will attempt to sail fully loaded for Cleveland in the Mid-American Conference.  Horizon League member Wisconsin-Milwaukee played a nonconference game.  "Huskies' Late Charge Falls Short In 76-65 Loss To Milwaukee."

THIS MAY NOT BE THE FLEX THE DONKS THINK IT IS.

Read Jeffrey Epstein’s newly released emails about Trump.

Here's the photo, dated to February 2000, immediately below the headline.

Davidoff Studios photograph retrieved from PBS.

Our President seems quite capable of meeting up with younger women without any help from Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislane Maxwell.

WHAT WOULD IRAN EVER DO WITHOUT EXPERTS?

These experts are part of that country's Hydrohijab Industrial Complex, and boy howdy have they failed to please Allah.

As Iran’s water crisis worsens and the regime fails to manage its water resources, a member of the Assembly of Experts claimed that the regime’s desired form of mandatory hijab not being observed in the streets is the cause of Iran’s water crisis, drought, and reduced rainfall.

On Sunday, November 9, Mohsen Araki said: “Drought, water crisis, and reduced rainfall are signs of God’s warning to awaken us from negligence and inattentiveness toward Him.”

He added: “The Islamic Revolution is built on the blood of martyrs, and it is not right that our streets become a parade ground for open sin, unveiled women, and public immorality.”

The Assembly of Experts member continued: “These behaviors have consequences, and a society known for its faith and Shiism must be sensitive toward such deviations.”

It is easy to snicker at such pronouncements, and yet, substitute "mandatory bicycle not being ridden" or "a cruising strip for muscle cars, toxic masculinity, and parking."  Surely Gaia will punish you!

Keep reading the essay, though, and note what the "independent experts" fail to mention.

Independent experts in water and environmental issues have emphasized that Iran’s drought results from a combination of the water mafia’s influence, climatic trends, and decades of structural mismanagement—including the expansion of water-intensive and subsidy-driven agriculture, overexploitation of groundwater, and lack of sustainable consumption models in industries and cities.

According to them, reducing this multilayered crisis to the issue of hijab not only lacks any scientific basis but also hinders the political will necessary to reform water policies and hold responsible institutions accountable.

The mullahs are asking their flocks to pray for rain, but presumably no African or North American natives will be brought in to do their rain dances.  It's probably haram to say "If you can trade it, you can allocate it efficiently."

Pajamas Media's Rick Moran also documents Iran's water troubles: the mullahs "ran through '1,000 years’ worth of groundwater reserves in just three decades.'"  Lest we get too full of ourselves, bear in mind that aquifer depletion is a reality in the High Plains, flood irrigation of golf courses may still be the practice in Phoenix, and California treats dams as affronts to Gaia.

WHAT WOULD WE EVER DO WITHOUT EXPERTS?

Obamacare could collapse under Trump’s new plan, policy experts say.  Fine.  It's neither patient protection nor affordable care.  After politicians have tried everything else, will they try something that works?  A month ago, the editorial board of New York's Post wanted to put Obamacare out of its misery.  Forget Obamacare subsidies — it’s time to mend or END the whole thing.  "Obamacare was a calamity from the start: It raised taxes, destroyed the old (imperfect, but functional) private insurance market and slapped all kinds of requirements on insurers, spiking costs." That can has been kicked to the end of the road.

What’s left is an extremely pricey, Rube Goldberg system that provides, as health-policy expert Michael F. Cannon puts it, “junk coverage.”

Without the Obamacare law, he notes, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that most people could obtain better coverage at lower premiums. (And Congress could look to cover those left out with some targeted assistance.)

Democrats would rather keep burning money than admit their huge mistake.

They insist the law left more Americans with health coverage, but that’s largely due to the Affordable Care Act’s (hugely expensive) expansion of Medicaid.

Today, Medicaid, once a safety net for the poorest of the poor, covers one in every five Americans.

The ACA’s “temporary” federal subsidies to states to expand it were originally also set to expire — but Dems have kept those going, too.

Maybe Congress could extend these subsidies one more year to keep Obamacare on life-support, but Republicans — and Democrats — absolutely need to find structural fixes (if not a complete repeal) to boost choices for the public and access to better coverage and health networks, and to lower costs.

That means addressing key ACA provisions — on essential benefits, subsidies, preexisting and expensive illnesses, the medical loss ratio, community rating, etc. — that drive costs through the roof and limit choice.

"Expanded Medicaid" means more patients looking for care from practitioners and pharmacists who have not yet opted out of Medicaid reimbursement rates, which is one more time bomb waiting to explode.