Pun Salad

Matthew Hennessey tries to inspire my (lame) inner Alan Jay Lerner with his headline at Free Expression: Trump Will Abstain From Trade With Spain. (WSJ gifted link)

Furthermore:

Well, I've never been to Spain, but I kinda like the music. (There are also rumors about the mental stability of their females.)

Also of note:

• At least she didn't lie about her lies about her lies. Jacob Sullum detects only one level of meta-dishonesty: In Senate testimony on DHS shootings, Kristi Noem lies about her lies.

  After Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees fatally shot Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti on January 24, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem claimed he was "brandishing" a gun and "attacked those officers." She also said Pretti "committed an act of domestic terrorism."

  None of that was true, as bystander video immediately showed. But when given the opportunity to correct the record during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, Noem instead lied about what she had said. Her obfuscation and dishonesty provoked angry rebukes not only from the Democrats on the committee but also from Sen. Thom Tillis (R–N.C.), who reiterated his recommendation that she resign.

  Senator TIllis was also disturbed by less recent history:

  “Secretary, I read your book last week, and honestly, some of the parts of it impressed me, but some of it distresses me,” he said.

  “You talk about killing a dog that was 14 months old. I train dogs, all right, and you are a farmer, you should know better. You should know that if you’re going out to a hunting lodge and you’re putting pheasants out and you’re putting dogs out, you don’t take a puppy out there. A 14-month-old dog is basically a teenager in dog years. You decided to kill that dog because you had not invested the appropriate time in training. And then you have the audacity to go into a book and say it’s a leadership lesson about tough choices,” he said.

  Shoulda been a red flag back in her confirmation hearings.

• Not only a dishonest puppy-killer, but also corrupt. Tag-teaming against Kristi at Reason is Autumn Billings: DHS Spent $220 Million on Ads Featuring Kristi Noem. Both Parties Grilled Her About It in the Senate.

  During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem was grilled by Republicans and Democrats alike over $220 million in taxpayer-funded contracts for an advertising campaign that prominently features the secretary herself. The no-bid contracts circumvented the normal competitive process and were secretly awarded to a company with close ties to Noem and her political operations.

  Republican Sen. John Kennedy from Louisiana pushed the secretary during the hearing on the fiscal responsibility and wisdom of spending taxpayer money on the ads that greatly enhanced Noem's name recognition, such as this one obtained by ProPublica featuring her on horseback at Mount Rushmore. Noem testified that the campaign is meant to tell undocumented immigrants to leave the country or face deportation and was signed off on by President Donald Trump. But Kennedy said it was hard for him to believe that Trump or those at the Office of Management and Budget would have agreed to this kind of campaign.

  And for your viewing pleasure (because you paid for it, sucker):

  It was not revealed if she shot the horse after the ad was made.

• For the 145th time. Veronique de Rugy explains: Why Health Care Is So Expensive in America, and What to Do About It.

  America's health care system consistently ranks as the most expensive in the developed world. It's not, as some politicians claim, expensive because markets have failed. It's expensive because the market has been repeatedly blocked from succeeding. Until we're honest about that, any potential reforms will only address symptoms while ignoring the disease.

  The health care market is hindered in many ways, but the core structural problem is simple: The person receiving care is almost never the person actually paying for it. Roughly 90 cents of every dollar is covered by a third party — an insurer or the government.

  Getting rid of the notorious tax exemption for employer-provided health insurance would be ideal, but Vero realizes that's a political non-starter. So she recommends Health Savings Accounts, under control of the consumer.