Austin Knudsen, lawyer of the high plains

When the Missoulian asked Montana State House Speaker Austin Knudsen (R–Culbertson) where Medicaid expansion would fit in the 2015 legislative agenda, he replied that “able-bodied people should be able to go out and get a job.” That remark suggested a striking ignorance of not only what health insurance is for, but also who would benefit from fulfilling the federal mandate to expand Medicaid in Montana. There are lots of ways to make too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to buy private insurance, and most of them involve working full time. When Knudsen answers “get a job” to the Medicaid expansion question, he forces voters to decide whether he is ignorant or just believes they are. We consider that question in this week’s column in the Missoula Independent. Be sure to read the first comment, which notes that plenty of people without jobs make too much from disability to qualify for Medicaid, too. We’ll be back tomorrow with Friday links!

Not representative of the plane I will fly on today—my plane has peanut butter on it.

Because the holidays are about not doing any work but also not relaxing, I am flying again today. There is no Combat! blog, except the sad remnant glowing before you now. Isn’t life hard? No—our lives are definitely not hard. If you don’t believe me, check out this narrative of a 14 year-old boy who turned himself in to police at a Sunni mosque while wearing an ISIS suicide vest. It’s been a couple weeks now, and Iraqi intelligence officials have not returned him to his parents. Instead they’re “interrogating” him—a process that includes making him reenact his surrender for television. This kid is totally effed, but he saved lives. What did you do today? I showed my mom how to use Spotify and ate a bunch of cookies. Later I will fly through the air and complain about it. How sweet it is, decadent cycle of western modernism. How sweet it is.

Can’t even tell it’s been shopped.

Merry Kristmas, Kombat! kids. The holiday is over, but sloth persists. There is no Combat! blog today, because I need to re-metabolize insulin and do a little paying work. Fortunately, the rest of the internet continues apace. If you’d like to become enraged, the New York Times is hosting a Room For Debate on whether it’s smart for millennials to delay adulthood. Nearly all the respondents acknowledge that young people aren’t getting married and buying houses because the job market is terrible and real estate prices are absurdly high, but they go on to suggest that a generation is opting out of adulthood anyway. While we’re characterizing whole generations, I’m going to say that it’s a very Baby Boomer thing to be born into the best economy in American history, wreck it, and then damn your children for not wanting to own homes and work high-paying jobs. Those of you who like your broad statements a little more quantitative are encouraged to consider the four charts the defined the economy in 2014, including the alarming convergence in assets of the wealthiest .1% of Americans and the “bottom” 90%. Can you believe that 90% of this country opted out of getting rich? Neither can I.