Say, how are all those government subsidies in health care and higher-ed working out?

For you drones out there: that's a rhetorical question. Turns out that college tuition and health care costs have skyrocketed, thanks to the bloated, unconstitutional federal leviathan that ruins everything it tries to control.

Can any of you liberals tell me when central planning has worked, by the way? That's also a rhetorical question, drones.

When President Obama announced changes to rules on repaying college student loans, he said his goal was to ease the financial burden of getting a degree... But if the history of college financial aid (and other government attempts to protect consumers from costs) is any guide, Obama's plan will likely backfire.

Over the past three decades, financial aid has rocketed up 438% after inflation...

"By providing aid and subsidized loans, the government is trying to protect students, but the effect is perverse," said Jane Shaw, president of the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in Raleigh, N.C. "They increase demand and enable colleges to hike tuitions virtually without restraint..."

...The same phenomenon has occurred in health care, where government for decades has worked to shield consumers from direct costs, fueling health care cost inflation by encouraging demand and giving doctors and hospitals greater license to raise prices.

Today, the government pays directly for over 44% of care, according to data compiled by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services... Consumers now pay just 12% of the nation's health care tab out of pocket vs. nearly half in 1960, fueling much of the nation's health care inflationary spiral.

2012 truly represents the final fork in the road for the American Republic.