The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program, known as CLASS, a pet program of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D- Massachusetts), was to have been sponsored by the federal government but maintained as a voluntary plan to which healthy, younger, working Americans would contribute in the event they became disabled later on in life. Participants would have paid a monthly premium that ranged widely between $235-$3000, depending on income, during their employment years, and then collected a daily cash benefit of at least $50 if they became disabled.

The tragic flaw in the plan is that unless large numbers of healthy people are willing to sign up for the program during their working years, the cost of the program would become prohibitive due to the needs of the disabled who would benefit from the plan. Unlike the purchase of long term care insurance in the private sector, CLASS did not offer lower premiums to healthier participants. Thus, the program attracted those who were already disabled in some way, yet able to work to some extent, and who anticipated the need for long term care in the future. Without healthy subscribers paying into the system, these individuals would not likely be able to afford the steep premiums.

Not surprisingly, if the program had survived, it would have ultimately been “too big to fail” and required a tax bailout. Congressional Republicans intend to repeal CLASS, which, according to the Heritage Foundation was “poorly designed, and actuaries criticized it as being unsustainable well before the passage of Obamacare.”

Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, who had argued for some time that the flaw in the program could be fixed, announced on Friday that the plan could not, in fact, be saved–a situation that was met by significant protest on the part of liberal seniors’ lobby, AARP, and union leaders. Supporters of CLASS wrote a letter to President Obama, urging him to use his “authority,” provided to him under his signature legislation, to “make necessary changes to the design of CLASS to make it work. We fully expect the administration to go forward and use that authority in implementing the law.”

It is almost incredible that the Obama administration entertained the notion that CLASS would actually work. In fact, it is questionable whether the White House ever expected it to survive or if it just threw the program into Obamacare as a bone to its base, never intending to make it viable. In essence, CLASS was really an entitlement within an entitlement, another entire Social Security program built into a government health insurance plan.

Of course, when AARP and the unions wrote the president, asking him to use his “authority” to make CLASS work, we can be assured that what they were urging is for the program to become mandatory rather than voluntary.

All of Obamacare must be repealed, but the fact that its authors now admit CLASS is unsustainable is a major victory for taxpayers and freedom lovers alike.

For instance, in the following commercial: Chevy isn’t just building cars anymore, it’s “investing” in windmills, and planting trees.

This is the kind of business model that you get when Leftists take over. Before 2008, GM just tried to make cars that people would buy, for a little more money than they cost to build. Now, they have to plant a forest.

It’s for reasons like this that General Motors is never expected to fully pay back the bailout money. According to the Congressional Oversight Panel, Taxpayers will lose about 19 billion dollars on the General Motors bailout.

That’s a lot of green. You can’t really blame General Motors. When you have an extra 19 billion to play with, why not plant windmills and trees? It seems like the corporate suites, are working on a bigger Buzz than the one they hired to do the voice-over. A more rational voice might ask about the forest that had to be cut down to print all that money.

The biggest problem is that America is broke. We don’t have enough cash to pay for daily operations, much less for the Chevrolet National Park. So who’s going to pay for it all? General Motors gives us a clue at about 45 seconds into the ad:

“Because a true conservationist knows that the world is not given to us by our fathers and mothers, it is borrowed from our children.”

A strange world indeed, where car salesmen tell the truth.

Troubled US mortgage firm Freddie Mac reported Monday a second quarter net loss of six billion dollars and sought another 1.8 billion dollars from the Treasury to contain the red ink.

The government-backed company said its strategies to boost business and “sustainable homeownership” were taking hold but cited high unemployment posing “very real challenges” for the already embattled housing market.

Freddie Mac suffered a 6.009 billion dollar net loss attributable to common stockholders in the April-June period from a loss of 7.980 billion dollars in the first quarter and 840 million dollars in the year ago period.

“We recognize that high unemployment and other factors still pose very real challenges for the housing market,” said Freddie Mac chief executive Charles Haldeman.

“With that in mind, we continue to focus on the quality of the new business we are adding to our book to be responsible stewards of taxpayer funds as we support the nation’s housing market.”

Freddie Mac and its twin state-backed mortgage firm Fannie Mae have been riddled with massive losses from loans they acquired during a home mortgage meltdown that plunged the US into a brutal recession in December 2007.

Fannie Mae said last week it lost 3.1 billion dollars in its second quarter, and needed 1.5 billion dollars from the US Treasury to wipe out its deficit as of the end of June.

Freddie has sought more than 60 billion dollars in federal aid so far while Fannie’s bill has ballooned to more than 85 billion dollars.

Read the whole thing here.

This week, leaders of the European Union will be meeting to consider aid for Greece. But instead of using their own money to bail out Greece, it’s more likely the EU will adopt Germany’s proposal to use money from the International Monetary Fund. That way U.S. taxpayers – not just the European Union – will be on the hook for an international bailout.

U.S. tax dollars already pay for 17% of the IMF’s liquidity. And any bailout by the IMF would have to be approved by the U.S. government. According to the IMF’s rules, major decisions require an 85% supermajority. And the U.S. is the only country with the power to block a supermajority on its own.

Therefore, President Obama has the power to either approve or reject a bailout of Greece. So far, he has been quiet. But instead of waiting while storms gather, the President should be vocal that U.S. taxpayers will not bail out Greece. The European Union may be tempted to pass the buck to the U.S. by requesting IMF “help.” If the Presidents tells them ahead of time that such “help” will not be forthcoming, he will make it more likely that the E.U. will meet its responsibilities.

One note however: While Greece has been fiscally irresponsible, America hasn’t been much better. Greece’s national debt equals 113% of its GDP. By comparison, America’s national debt equals 64% of GDP, although it’s expected to grow to almost 100% in the next 10 years. Do we want to become like Greece? And if we do, who will bail out America? Let’s hope that’s a question we never know the answer to.

In the meantime, let’s be clear: If President Obama is considering bailing out Greece, American taxpayers need to send him a message. And our message is: “Just Say No.”

Winery receives federal stimulus grant

Musicians more effective communicating in noisy environments than non-musicians, according to findings of a National Science Foundation study

Only 20 percent of Americans hold positive view of government

Research company receives millions of dollars of congressional earmarks and has nothing to show for it

Federal program touted as a model for using local law enforcement to help control U.S. borders is handing out $165 million, but with little tracking of how the money is spent, no clear objective and no benchmarks for success

The Federal Housing Administration may be next government agency to seek a taxpayer bailout