House Passes Bill to Repeal Obamacare: http://weare1776.org/4164/entitlement/u-s-house-of-representatives-passes-nullify-obamacare-bill-229-195/
I don’t think it will pass the Senate and if it does. It wont have the votes to bypass Obama’s veto.
Poor Richard's News: Thursday Night News Dump - because there's just too much news today!
We usually try to stay on top of as much news as possible but with three major White House scandals going on, it’s a little hard to keep up with everything. Here are some of the stories that we wish we had the time to cover today.
- Obama says no special prosecutor needed to investigate IRS scandal…because we’re supposed to trust his administration to bring the IRS to justice.
- Meanwhile, Eric Holder says there’s no special council needed to investigate Benghazi…because the job the Obama administration is doing there is just dandy!
- Speaking of Benghazi, the 100 pages of emails the White House released yesterday…those were out of 25,000 pages of unreleased documents related to the terror attack.
- The auditors who “investigated” Benghazi are refusing to meet with Congress.
- Oh, and that AP phone records tap scandal…Obama refused to apologize for that today.
- The Washington Post believes that the phone records tap was actually retribution for the AP stealing their thunder about a foiled terrorist plot Obama wanted to make a big deal of.
- Press Secretary Jay Carney said today that there are no White House scandals. They simply don’t exist.
- Aside for the IRS’s current woes, there’s also a class action lawsuit claiming the IRS illegally confiscated 60 million health records without a warrant.
- There are more heads rolling at the IRS…well, just a guy whose only been working there for 8 days.
- Meanwhile, Obama named a member of his White House to temporarily head of the IRS. That fills me wish such confidence!
- Dzhokhar Tsarnaev apparently wrote a confession on the inside of the boat essentially confirming that his actions were a part of a Muslim jihad against America. How will the media spin this one?
- Obama’s illegal recess appointments have been smacked down in Federal court for a second time.
- The House of Representatives passed a measure to repeal Obamacare…for the 37th time. Harry Reid won’t even bring it to the Senate floor for consideration.
Last (and possibly least), President Obama today apparently severely breeched Marine uniform protocol by ordering two Marines to hold umbrellas over his head.
IRS Official in Charge During Tea Party Targeting Now Runs Health Care Office
The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation. Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today. Her successor, Joseph Grant, is taking the fall for misdeeds…This is looking worse by the day.
Poor Richard's News: LA TIMES: Obamacare causing part-time workers to lose pay
You know it’s bad when you’ve lost the LA Times, usually big apologists for the Obama administration.
from LA Times:
Many part-timers are facing a double whammy from President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
The law requires large employers offering health insurance to include part-time employees working 30 hours a week or more. But rather than provide healthcare to more workers, a growing number of employers are cutting back employee hours instead.
The result: Not only will these workers earn less money, but they’ll also miss out on health insurance at work.
Consider the city of Long Beach. It is limiting most of its 1,600 part-time employees to fewer than 27 hours a week, on average. City officials say that without cutting payroll hours, new health benefits would cost up to $2 million more next year, and that extra expense would trigger layoffs and cutbacks in city services.
How ironic…Obamacare is dealing a “double whammy” to the very people it was supposed to help. You know, I hate to say, “I told you so!” but…
News to Me: Obama Breeds Rebellion Among The States
13 May 2013
The resistance to Obamacare is writing a new chapter in U.S. history. It may well become the most unpopular law since Prohibition became an Amendment to the Constitution in 1919. By 1933, another Amendment repealed it.Obamacare passed by a straight Democratic party vote on Christmas Eve in 2009. No Republican voted for it and, as one poll recently revealed, a third of Americans are still unaware it is the law of the land. A divided Supreme Court gave it a pass, calling it a tax, but it is a profoundly unconstitutional law insofar as the federal government may not pass a law that requires Americans to purchase something and to fine them if they do not. It is also playing havoc with the economy, delaying recovery as it deters hiring and encourages firing.Nonetheless, a number of states have gone on record seeking to nullify its enforcement and some are doing the same as regards gun control.
Arizona became famous when it passed its own immigration law in response to the federal government’s failure to protect its border with Mexico. The proposed “Gang of Eight” immigration law is facing stiff opposition for its various provisions, most of which do not address the central issue of security on the southern border.
How out of touch is the President? He went to Mexico and blamed the violence arising from its drug cartels on America, saying “Most of the guns used here to commit violence came from America.” He made no mention of the scandalous “Fast and Furious” scheme in which the ATF actually ran guns into Mexico, claiming they would track them. It took an executive order to throw a blanket of silence over it and a compliant media to ignore that scandal.
It is, however, Obamacare that poses the greatest threat to the nation, intruding on the patient-doctor relationship, robbing billions from Medicare to pay for it, requiring states to fund more Medicaid when many are strapped to meet other needs, and putting 16% of the nation’s economy under federal control.
A total of twenty-seven states have filed suit against Obamacare. Two federal judges have upheld its individual mandate to purchase health insurance and two others have ruled that it is unconstitutional.
John Stossel - Train Wreck Ahead
Most Americans — even those who are legislators — know very little about the details of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, so-called Obamacare. Next year, when it goes into effect, we will learn the hard way.
Poor Richard's News: South Carolina House passes bill to criminalize Obamacare
In a bold move, the South Carolina house of representatives has voted overwhelmingly (65-39) to criminalize the implementation of Obamacare. This act, appropriately named the “Freedom of Health Care Protection Act”, is apparently broadly written to include a nullification of any attempt by the federal government to take control of South Carolina’s health insurance industry or force South Carolinians to purchase health insurance.
From the AP (via CBS Charlotte):
The South Carolina House approved a bill Wednesday criminalizing the implementation of President Obama’s health care law in the state.
The Republican-controlled House voted 65-39 on the Freedom of Health Care Protection Act.
The act renders “null and void certain unconstitutional laws enacted by the Congress of the United States taking control over the health insurance industry and mandating that individuals purchase health insurance under threat of penalty.”
“This kind of victory occurs when the grassroots across the State come together and coalesce,” Chris Lawton, spokesman for the Greenville Tea Party, told The Greenville Post. “I could not be prouder.”
The bill declares “Obamacare” unconstitutional – despite the Supreme Court ruling last year that the Affordable Health Care Act was constitutional — and that there will be criminal penalties for enforcing the law.
Gov. Nikki Haley earlier this year said that the state will not implement the nation’s health care law.
This is federalism in action, folks. It’s why our founders wrote the 10th amendment. It is, in fact, the entire point of states.
If states can’t choose to exempt themselves from an overreaching oppressive federal law, then why do we have states? What’s the point?
This act will most certainly go the Supreme Court but if I were Nikki Haley, I would ignore any decision that didn’t uphold it. South Carolina is autonomous. Its people have the right do whatever they please. Individual states are not ruled from Washington D.C. and it’s high time that we recognized that truth again. Just because there are 5 supreme court justices who either lack the ability to reason or the ability to read, is no reason that the people of South Carolina should be oppressed.
Maybe this will inspire other states to join in the fight against Obamacare. If we are to have a bright future as a nation, Obamacare must go.
Ophthalmologists walk out of Obamacare talk at national medical meeting
http://twitchy.com/2013/04/21/ophthalmologists-walk-out-of-obamacare-talk-at-national-medical-meeting/#.UXRPVNXJ39U.twitterThe future of medicine. Glad to know doctors are taking a stand. Don’t let bureaucrats decide what’s best for healthcare. Kthx.
Concierge medicine is looking more and more promising. Where government leaves off, the market will handle it. It always has.
News to Me: OBAMA'S INSATIABLE APPETITE FOR MORE GOVERNMENT
By Attorney Jonathan Emord
Author of “The Rise of Tyranny” and
“Global Censorship of Health Information” and
“Restore The Republic”
March 25, 2013
The national debt will soon rise to $17 trillion with no end in sight. By 2016 as Obama leaves office, the national debt will be $23 trillion. By 2050 entitlement spending will consume the entire annual receipts of the federal government, leaving nothing for discretionary spending. Along the way, bit by bit, the federal government will falter, incapable of meeting its commitments to seniors and the indigent. Dysfunctional government will increasingly become non-functional government. The weight of the federal government, now the greatest government parasite in world history, will become so great that its private sector host will collapse in fits and starts, incapable of shouldering the combined tax and regulatory burden the federal government expects it to tolerate. Will federal authorities become so prideful and arrogant that they will follow the example of Cypress and confiscate private bank holdings? Perhaps.
The force of excessive taxation and regulation will one way or another forge even greater disparities between the rich and poor as small and medium sized businesses disappear incapable of surmounting the regulatory barriers to entry and affording the taxes imposed by, among other monstrosities, Obamacare. By any sane interpretation, those elements define a present and expanding fiscal crisis, yet for Obama, if he can just manage to avoid the brunt of catastrophe before he leaves in 2016, he is content to let the forces that lead to ruination to continue unabated. Unless his own ox is gored, Obama cares little if everyone else’s is.
In his now famous “Good Morning America” interview with George Stephanopoulos, the President pronounced confidently (as is his way with everything): “We don’t have an immediate crisis in terms of debt … In fact, for the next 10 years, it’s gonna be in a sustainable place.” Those few words speak volumes. Just how much debt must the nation amass before this President considers it a crisis? Apparently $16.7 trillion leaves him unmoved. Why would any responsible person with authority to make a difference wish to do nothing until the game is up and the United States dissolves into a sea of insurmountable red ink? Although by sheer magnitude federal spending commitments are fast approaching a level of debt that forces down America’s credit rating even further, fails to keep pace with the financial and medical needs of our aging population, and leads providers of federal services to start abandoning Medicare and Medicaid, this President is content to let the consequences flow, waiting until the impending disaster is felt by nearly all Americans before doing anything at all, let alone doing something extraordinary.
In short, because of the massive amount of debt being amassed, of stifling regulation being promulgated, and of new federal and state taxes hitting an overtaxed market, the squeeze is now on and will worsen into the foreseeable future. Rather than lead and define a path toward fiscal stability and economic revival through actual cuts in federal spending and elimination of barriers to market entry, this President refuses to budge, making clear in his “Good Morning America” interview that he would rather wait until the inevitable happens than do anything now, apparently electing to dig out from under a collapsing economy and government (something that is a Herculean challenge beyond him and perhaps beyond any future President) rather than avoid the calamity through major reforms today.
Surely this refusal to lead is not the product of a feeble mind. Obama is intelligent. His every move is calculated in advance. His principal problem is his love of the welfare state and state sovereignty and his disdain for the constitutional ideal of a limited federal republic and individual sovereignty. He fundamentally distrusts the American people and believes he knows better what is in their interest than they do themselves. He will not accept any change in the movement toward bureaucratization of everything (i.e., federal power over every aspect of our lives), and he expects the market to sustain him in that quest. He would rather raise taxes; ensnare more American business in a net of expanding federal regulation whereby federal bureaucrats decide the course for all private enterprise; and continue to expand entitlements, than do anything to save the nation from economic ruin even if that means ignoring business failures, higher unemployment levels, and fewer net gains in tax receipts.
In short, he would rather court disaster than avoid it, if courting disaster means that he can remain the leader of an all-encompassing, ever expanding welfare state. He would rather allow Obamacare to take hold, despite its extraordinary cost and tax effects even if those costs and tax effects mean maintenance of levels of the uninsured equal to the numbers that begat the argument for Obamacare in the first place and even if those costs and tax effects mean higher levels of unemployment, less quality care, and more suffering.
n short, just as Obama is a person with no shortage of love for himself, he is also a person who believes that the nation needs to reflect the image he considers ideal rather than an image that hundreds of millions of Americans acting independently define as ideal. A friend of energetic government, so long as he dictates the direction of that energy, Obama is more like an arrogant dictator than a humble servant of the people. All of his decisions lead to more centralized power in the hands of the executive, i.e., in his own hands. For Obama, the United States truly is his country, not ours.
Poor Richard's News: Great News! Lawmakers considering giving themselves Obamacare exemption
Isn’t this just like the government? Now that Obamacare is starting to show itself for just how terrible it is, the Politico is reporting that lawmakers want out. No, not to get everyone out. They just want to be exempt from it, themselves.
From Politico:
Congressional leaders in both parties are engaged in high-level, confidential talks about exempting lawmakers and Capitol Hill aides from the insurance exchanges they are mandated to join as part of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, sources in both parties said.
The talks — which involve Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the Obama administration and other top lawmakers — are extraordinarily sensitive, with both sides acutely aware of the potential for political fallout from giving carve-outs from the hugely controversial law to 535 lawmakers and thousands of their aides. Discussions have stretched out for months, sources said.
A source close to the talks says: “Everyone has to hold hands on this and jump, or nothing is going to get done.”
Yet if Capitol Hill leaders move forward with the plan, they risk being dubbed hypocrites by their political rivals and the American public. By removing themselves from a key Obamacare component, lawmakers and aides would be held to a different standard than the people who put them in office.
This is truly unbelievable. The Republicans I understand. To their credit, no Republican voted for this miserable legislation (although I wish they’d try a little harder to repeal it). But Democrats? You voted for it! If it was such a great law, why would you want to be exempt? And if it’s not such a great law, why did you vote for it? The only rational explanation of this is that this law was never about helping anyone. It was about power. It was about government control. Those on the right have been ridiculed for leveling that accusation. But if lawmakers go through with this, I defy anyone to come up with a different explanation.
This law must be repealed.
Poor Richard's News: Surprise! Cost of Obamacare exchanges doubles initial projections
Lies and broken promises: that is the legacy of Obama’s “signature achievement” as President. Healthcare costs are skyrocketing, premiums are going up, and the American people are being taxed into oblivion.
Now, it seems that the “cost-saving” healthcare exchanges aren’t really going to do all that much saving. Obama’s budget proposal indicates that the exchanges will cost double what was initially estimated.
from Bloomberg:
The $1.3 trillion U.S. health-care system overhaul is getting more expensive and will initially accomplish less than intended.
Costs for a network of health-insurance exchanges, a core part of the Affordable Care Act, have swelled to $4.4 billion for fiscal 2012 and 2013 combined, and will reach $5.7 billion in 2014, according to the budget President Barack Obama yesterday sent to Congress. That spending would be more than double initial projections, even though less than half the 50 U.S. states are participating.
The unanticipated spending is a consequence of an ambitious timetable dictated by Congress and a complex new way of offering people medical coverage, say analysts, lobbyists and administration officials. Combine that with a majority of Republican governors declining to cooperate with a Democratic president and U.S. regulators are left grasping to get the 2010 health law up and running by a Jan. 1, 2014, deadline.
Let me take a moment to remind everyone that when this article says “an ambitious timetable dictated by Congress,” it’s not talking about the current Republican-led House. It’s referring to 2009’s Democrat controlled House that passed the bill in the first place.
Clearly, Obama and his Democrat allies have bitten off more than they can chew, and depending on how you view things, it could mean a significant defeat for Obama’s signature law. On the other hand, if you’re in the Cloward and Piven crowd (of which Obama is), the inevitable collapse of the massive welfare state might be exactly what you have in mind.
Obama gives us a preview of his next endeavor: government-run dental insurance.
Poor Richard's News: Obamacare chaos: insurance exchanges delayed until 2015 because systems aren't ready
Last week we reported that Obama administration officials were scrambling to make sure the Obamacare health insurance exchanges are not “a third world experience.” A week later, it appears things may be even worse than that as the exchanges won’t even be implemented at all for another year.
from Fox News:
Parts of ObamaCare are starting to fray, even before full implementation.
The Obama administration now says a special system of exchanges designed to make it easier for small businesses to provide insurance will be delayed an entire year — to 2015.
“Lots of small businesses struggle with providing insurance for their workers so this was supposed to facilitate it and make it easier for small business to do this,” said Jim Capretta of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. “It was a huge portion of the sale job. When they passed the law in 2010 there were many senators and members of Congress who were saying ‘I am doing this because it’s going to help small businesses.’”
The exchanges were designed to give workers a range of choices supported by dollars from their employers. But now they will have only one choice until 2015, which could mean they can’t shop for insurance that includes their current providers. Capretta said the administration is “way” behind schedule.
Now we have a situation in which skyrocketing premiums are forcing many out of health insurance altogether, leaving millions uninsured; and the mechanism by which Obamacare was to supposedly provide less expensive coverage won’t even be available. To make matters worse, starting next year, individuals and businesses will be penalized on their taxes for not having or providing health insurance.
Obamacare is shaping up to be the disaster that we said it would be from the start.
Poor Richard's News: Congressional Report: Obamacare could raise premiums more than 200%
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know what a cataclysmic disaster Obamacare will be. And of all the problems associated with it, perhaps the worst will be the increase—not decrease—in the cost of health care and health insurance. With over 20,000 pages of regulations (so far), how could premiums not rise?
From Newsmax:
An exhaustive study by three congressional committees delivers startling news about the dire effects of Obamacare: President Barack Obama’s signature legislation could increase health insurance premiums by over 200 percent and render insurance coverage unaffordable for millions of Americans.
Broadly, the new report declares that Obamacare “breaks its core promise” to make healthcare coverage affordable.
The report, “The Price of Obamacare’s Broken Promises,” was prepared by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Majority Staff; Senate Committee on Finance, Minority Staff; and Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Minority Staff.
Here’s a copy of the report: “The Price of Obamacare’s Broken Promises” (PDF)
Here’s a chart from the report that lists the estimated increase in insurance premiums by state:
Repeat this to yourself: Obamacare raises the cost of health care, not lowers it.
