The following essay is a guest post from Island Dweller. We remind our readers that you are welcome to submit your thoughts either as an email or as a complete essay.

A certain well-known radio talk show host this afternoon brought up some interesting—and ominous—news just prior to the end of their program. It is economic news, yet it pertains to the floundering ACA.

• Economic data indicate Americans who will be affected by this legislation—meaning most of us—are beginning to severely curtail the spending of their disposable income because they suspect—rightly, as it turns out—that formerly disposable income will now have to be channeled toward paying for health care premiums under the ACA. This means spending on those nice-to-have but not entirely necessary items Wal-Mart and other stores have for sale is going to fall, and do so precipitously.
• Chinese production of goods being shipped to the US for sale is falling, and doing so rapidly. This brings up the spectre of economic unrest in Communist China caused almost completely by a faltering US economy, a significant contributing factor to which will be reduced consumer spending due to the ACA.
• Major American retailers are not only beginning Christmas sales earlier, but are severely cutting prices on a number of formerly big-ticket items in a desperate bid to separate customers from those dollars that are in many cases already earmarked for Obamacare premiums. One could lay this partially to a late Thanksgiving this year; however, the price cuts on these big-ticket items—32 inch wide-screen TVs at Wal- Mart for $99, for example—indicate almost a level of desperation rather than eagerness on the part of the retailer. If pressed directly, the retailer may cite an attempt to draw customers with this gimmick—but if pressed harder, I think it’s even money they sense what is going to happen to them after January 1, 2014 when J. Q. Public has to start paying through the nose for health care due to the ACA, and the retailers are caught with all that unsold stock on the shelves and in the warehouse they will owe taxes on—and they’re trying to move it now before they’re stuck with it.

The fallout effect is beginning to be glaringly obvious, and it seems to be spreading across international borders. Another unintended consequence of this poorly thought-out monstrosity.

Something else popped into this tired-out crock earlier today, and I’ve been whirling it around in there all day before it hit me—we all have heard the ridiculous little saying, something like “Bush lied, people died.” When pressed to articulate what was meant by this phrase, those uttering it either could not do so, or spouted liberal talking points that had obviously been memorized.

I propose our own little saying—”Obama lied, millions denied.” Unlike the previous saying, this one is easily articulated and explained, and is factual, not an opinion.

Island Dweller

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.