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: 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…
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.
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.
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.
Poor Richard's News: UK Independent Councilor: Disabled children should be 'put down'
A local Independent Councilor in Great Britain was recently quoted as saying that disabled children are costly and should be “put down.” And while he later apologized for the outrageous statement, public pressure forced him to resign his post as councilor.
From Life Site News:
Disabled children place too great a burden on the country’s nationalized health care and other services and ought to be “put down” to save money, an independent councillor for Wadebridge East in North Cornwall has said. The comments, made to a member of the Disability Cornwall charity at County Hall in Truro in 2011, have cost Collin Brewer his position. He announced yesterday that he will resign.
At an event organized to help councillors meet and speak with various charities, Brewer approached a stall run by Disability Cornwall. When told about the work of the charity, he responded, “Disabled children cost the council too much money and should be put down.”I could give you a long diatribe filled with righteous indignation regarding this unbelievably offensive statement but I’d rather leave you with this thought:
Morality aside, as I ponder his horrific statement, it is clear to me that his opinion is truly dangerous because, in his country, those responsible for governing are also responsible for the health care of the people and the costs associated with it. In other words, in a free society where every individual has God-given rights, including that of life, these types of atrocities can’t happen (not legally anyway). However, in a place where the government is god, where individual rights come from the state and where health care is distributed per the discretion of bureaucrats, anything is possible. And this man’s vote counts as much as a mother with a boy who has Down syndrome. That, to me, is why his opinion is that much more tragic.
Poor Richard's News: Dunkin' Donuts, the latest company not very happy with Obamacare
Look, nobody is happy with Obamacare. Nobody. The people that say they are, are lying. Because the vast majority of “benefits” haven’t kicked in yet. The few that have are already out of money and are wreaking havoc in the business world. It’s so bad for some that Obama had to issue waivers to more than 1,000 companies just to postpone the law’s disastrous effects. It’s costing waaay more than anyone said it would (even the CBO has admitted it), and the taxes that were implemented years before the actual “benefits” in order to offset the cost of Obamacare so that a majority of lawmakers would vote for it, is crippling our economy. One aspect of the law, however, seems to be even worse for business than even many of the law’s detractors predicted: The 30-hour-a-week work maximum.
From Newsmax:
Dunkin’ Brands — the owner of Dunkin’ Donuts — is working to overturn a major provision of Obamacare.
The company, based in Canton, Ohio, is lobbying the White House to change its definition of full-time work from at least 30 hours a week to 40 or more per week, CEO Nigel Travis told the Financial Times.
The change would leave Dunkin’ and other companies with fewer workers to insure under President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law.
Under the Affordable Care Act, large employers must provide health coverage to all full-time workers and their dependents or face a penalty.
The Obamacare mandate applies to all companies with 50 or more full-time employees.
The penalty for not providing coverage is $2,000 per worker, The Financial Times reports.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the nonpartisan policy group based in Washington, employers would end up paying an average of $4,664 for insurance for a single worker and $11,429 for a family.
Obamacare is terrible for everyone. CEOs, the middle class and the poor will all be worse off because of it.
So while I fully understand why there are congressmen who want the medical device tax repealed, christian companies who want the abortion pill mandate repealed and other companies (Dunkin’ Donuts, Denny’s, Papa John’s, and others) who want the 30-hour-a-week work maximum repealed, it just all seems so fractured. We need to all come to the conclusion that the entire law is horrible and needs to go. Not just parts of it. All of it.
Well, I guess the ObamaCare tyranny has officially begun.
I just noticed something new this year on my 2012 Form W-2:
Box 12b code DD: 4743.96
Instructions: Box 12. DD-Cost of employer-sponsored health coverage. The amount reported with Code DD is not taxable.
Paul Krugman: Bring on the sales taxes and death panels!
Eventually we do have a problem. That the population is getting older, health care costs are rising…there is this question of how we’re going to pay for the programs. The year 2025, the year 2030, something is going to have to give…. …. We’re going to need more revenue…Surely it will require some sort of middle class taxes as well.. We won’t be able to pay for the kind of government the society will want without some increase in taxes… on the middle class, maybe a value added tax…And we’re also going to have to make decisions about health care, doc pay for health care that has no demonstrated medical benefits . So the snarky version…which I shouldn’t even say because it will get me in trouble is death panels and sales taxes is how we do this.
Never Forget: Eugenics In America
American eugenics refers inter alia to compulsory sterilization laws adopted by over 30 states that led to more than 60,000 sterilizations of disabled individuals. Many of these individuals were sterilized because of a disability: they were mentally disabled or ill, or belonged to socially disadvantaged groups living on the margins of society. American eugenic laws and practices implemented in the first decades of the twentieth century influenced the much larger National Socialist compulsory sterilization program, which between 1934 and 1945 led to approximately 350,000 compulsory sterilizations and was a stepping stone to the Holocaust. Even after the details of the Nazi sterilization program (as well as its role as a precursor to the “Euthanasia” murders) became more widely known after World War II (and which the New York Times had reported on extensively and in great detail even before its implementation in 1934), sterilizations in some American states did not stop. Some states continued to sterilize residents into the 1970s.
(via forcedranting)
