Jeff Jacoby writes about Obamacare blowback. People are beginning to realize that they were sold a bill of goods. You cannot keep your health insurance, or your doctor. You will not see your medical insurance costs go down. Instead, as is already becoming apparent, costs will continue to rise, insurance companies will start getting out of particular areas of the business that are made less profitable (or unprofitable) by the new law, and people will lose their insurance as a result. Until we realize that our health insurance system is a product of a series of historical accidents, and was not designed for the social and economic conditions of the 21st century, we will not begin to get a handle on the problem. Want to solve the problem? Recognize that health care is a service provided by people to other people, and the people providing the service need to get paid for their labor and their expertise. The people getting the service should pay for it directly as much as is possible. Everyone above a certain income level should be responsible for paying for routine medical care out-of-pocket, and should be required to carry catastrophic health insurance (within a very wide range of plans) that they purchase directly. People below a certain income level can be covered by a government plan for routine expenses as well as catastrophic care, unless we are willing as a society to simply rely on charity to care for their needs.

Brian McGrory says teachers need a lesson. I say this...teachers have a tough job, and oftentimes they are left holding the bag for the failures of parents, administrators and politicians. But the root of the problem is that we are trapped in a state-run system that worked well during the first 50 or 60 years of the 20th century but is no longer a workable system for the 21st century. Want to solve the problem? Sever the link between school and state. Provide state-funded schools to serve people of limited means, but allow everyone else to pay for the education of their children directly, in whatever manner works for them. This is how we do it at the university level, and we have the best system of higher education in the world.

Fred Barnes writes about the four causes that will lead to a Democratic disaster next month.

Still, it is the bleak economic conditions, especially the fact that there does not seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel, that is driving the current political train down the track leading to electoral debacle for the Democrats. If things do not improve much in the next two years, President Obama may face his Jimmy Carter moment in 2012.