President Obama continued his “Apology Tour” during the Paris UN Climate Conference, by demeaning our nation once again:

Obama sang from the same hymnal on Monday, telling an assembly of world leaders that a future of environmental devastation ‘is one that we have the power to change right here right now but only if we rise to this moment,’ according to a White House press pool report. ‘I’ve come here personally as the leader of the world’s largest economy and the second largest emitter to say that the United States of America … embraces its responsibility to do something about it.

After deriding American productivity and lifestyle choices, he headed out with the other big government elites to a”three-Michelin-starred temple of gastronomie in the Marais neighborhood” for a…working dinner!

Obama enjoys grand cuisine while regular Americans are advised to eat tofu turkey to prevent climate change. The conference will last until December 12th, so there are nearly 2 more weeks of this banality to cover.

I will have to pace myself.

While Obama lives like French royalty, Forbes contributor and noted business expert Simon Constable makes the case that the President’s signature achievement may soon experience a “Marie Antoinette” moment.

Constable notes that the queen’s reputed comment, “Let them eat cake“, is reminiscent of news earlier this month about the so-called Affordable Care Act and the fact that a healthcare insurer may pull out of the ACA exchanges after 2016, citing low enrollment and poor economics.

I’m not against corporations making a profit. Indeed they should because ultimately that’s what creates jobs. What I am against is having laws created in favor of certain types of companies who actually have no obligation to provide the services that the populous must purchase. The optics of any health insurer opting out look astonishing like that “let them eat cake,” moment of the 18th century. For the government to ignore that this is a problem at best looks out of touch. At worst it looks callous.

Indeed!

We have reported about the rapidly escalating costs of health insurance, due to Obamacare requirements, as well as the collapsing state exchanges leaving many Americans uninsured.

Now, one of the architects of Obamacare admits it is not working as advertised:

“Even though I am a liberal, I think we really have to focus on cost control. Affordability is absolutely critical across the board, because if we don’t have affordable plans we are not going to get universal coverage. They are intimately linked,” said Emanuel, brother of former Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, who’s mayor of Chicago. He did acknowledge: “We’ve overplayed the high-deductible plans. People are feeling this is less and less insurance. And just more and more, ‘I’m paying out of my pocket.'”

The more people pay for health insurance, the less disposable income they have for Christmas gifts.

…ShopperTrak reports total sales on Black Friday crashed 10% to $10.4 billion. While blame has been placed on early opening on Thanksgiving, that is false too since spending on that day also plunged 10%. So, the sales news is unequivocally bad – which is hardly surprising given the collapse in consumer confidence.

Zero Hedge’s Tyler Durden also has this graph to summarize this point:

One gift that I will appreciate next holiday season is knowing that Jan. 20, 2017 will be just around the corner, when Obama’s “Apology Tour” will officially come to an end.



