[VIDEO] Her Health Plan Was Canceled, New Options Are Double the Cost

An Illinois woman, Betsy Tadder, is one of the 1.5 million (and counting) Americans whose insurance plan was canceled because of Obamacare.

Right now, she pays $454 a month for a health insurance plan she likes. But once she’s officially loses her coverage, she’s offered options that are “unaffordable,” she told Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.”

Under the new policy, the cheapest option costs at least $871 a month, and includes benefits she doesn’t need, like pediatric dentistry and maternity coverage.

Now Tadder is trying to figure out what’s next. She said she thinks her family will be without health insurance by the end of this year.

Watch her full interview below.

Via: The Foundry

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(BREAKING) Identity Theft Russian Roulette: Healthcare.gov Refers Users to Uncertified Navigators and Assisters

Obamacare includes a requirement that all marketplaces prepare “Navigators,” “In-Person Assisters,” or “Certified Application Counselors.” These organizations and individuals are supposed to be trained to help Americans – should they desire assistance with the process – apply for and purchase insurance plans through the Obamacare marketplaces.

However — and inexplicably, as the cause of this situation is not being made available to the public — people seeking assistance will be presented with search results from a database that includes individuals and organizations which are simply not certified to help.

Citizens of the 34 states that chose not to create their own exchange (and thus must use the federal Healthcare.gov website) can search for application assistance at LocalHelp.Healthcare.gov. On this page, users are prompted to enter their location. Users then will receive search results comprising the entities available to assist in the users’ respective areas.

See below for a screen shot of this service in action — I entered “Illinois”, and I then received 558 search results consisting of Illinois’ navigator/assister/counselor contact information.

Via: PJ Media

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ILLINOIS SENATE PRES.: $100 BILLION UNFUNDED PENSION LIABILITY NOT 'CRISIS'

In a Sunday morning interview with WGN Radio, Illinois’ Senate President John Cullerton said the state’s staggering $100 billion unfunded pension liability is not a “crisis.”

“People really misunderstand the nature of this whole problem; quite frankly, I don’t think you can use the word 'crisis' at the state level,” Cullerton said.

Cullerton described necessary reforms to state-funded pension obligations as a “tough, complicated issue because you are taking something away from somebody, and that’s not an easy thing to do.” However, when it comes to lightening the burden on Illinois taxpayers, and what the state takes away from them to fund state pensions, Cullerton is not so sympathetic.

“Its not that the pension system is bankrupt,” he added. “It’s not that we owe a hundred billion dollars to somebody right now. Its just that folks don’t want to put as much money in to pensions right now, or they want to spend it on something else, or they’d rather have their taxes lowered.”

Although the state’s personal income tax rate is scheduled to fall from five percent to 3.75 percent, and the corporate rate is supposed to drop to 5.25 percent from seven percent in 2015 after a temporary increase was put in place in 2011, Cullerton estimated the loss of revenue at about $5.38 billion and suggested the rate decrease should only be one quarter of one percent:

These pension [proposals] we've talked about will save annually anywhere from $750 million to $1.5 billion. So you're still going to have real huge cuts that we'll have to make if we don't raise that income tax higher than what they're scheduled to go down to.

But the pension reform then is about tax reduction--not about the solvency of the pension fund or about diverting money to spend more money for education.

Despite the state’s unfunded liabilities, Cullerton insisted, “We have a balanced budget in Illinois. We are not spending more money than we are taking in.”

The American Legislative Exchange Council’s Rich States Poor States ranks Illinois at 48 out of 50 states for economic outlook and 47 out of 50 in economic performance. 

Via: Breitbart

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[Video] Surprises tucked in Senate bill

The legislation released by the Senate late Wednesday to reopen the government contains several surprises. 

The bill includes extra funds to fix flooded roads in Colorado, a $3 million appropriation for a civil liberties oversight board and a one-time payment to the widow of Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who died over the summer.

It also includes an increase in authorization for spending on construction on the lower Ohio River in Illinois and Kentucky. The bill increases it to $2.918 billion.

The Senate Conservatives Fund quickly called that language the "Kentucky Kickback," and said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) secured that as the price of his support for the bill. Taxpayers for Common Sense says the bill would increase total authorized spending by $1.2 billion.

Senate staffers were still scrambling to piece the bill together for votes in the House and Senate Wednesday night. Lawmakers hope to get it to President Obama’s desk before Thursday’s deadline for raising the debt ceiling.

A draft of the bill began circulating in the early evening, and a final version was released by Senate Democratic staff just before 6 p.m.

Via: The Hill

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‘Navigators’ raise identity theft risk

Growing concerns about identity theft and fraud have led the Illinois Department of Insurance to issue a public warning, just as the new health insurance exchanges enter their implementation phase.

Concern focuses on those charged with assisting Illinoisans with enrollment to the new health insurance exchanges, the so-called “navigators.”

Navigators will “educate consumers about the health insurance Marketplace, answer health coverage-related questions, and facilitate consumers’ selection of affordable health coverage through the Marketplace,” according to the navigator training manual.

This will give navigators access to individuals’ personally identifiable information: the information necessary for identity theft.

The Illinois Department of Insurance warns people about giving their personal information through “unsolicited telephone calls of any kind,” as well as to people pretending to be navigators.

“We have been made aware that scams are possible,” said Kimberly Parker, a Department of Insurance spokesperson. “If someone is at your door, err on the side of caution.”

Some steps have been taken to help citizens discern real navigators from frauds. Real navigators will carry licenses provided by the Illinois Department of Insurance. Their names can also be found on an online directory.

However, to find the online directory citizens first have to find the Department of Insurance website, assuming they have Internet access at all.

Other steps are self-contradictory. Although the warning says citizens should “look for government seals, logos or web addresses to make sure the information comes from a trusted source,” it also warns about “entities that have sound-alike government or company names.”

Via: My Journal Courier

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SCOTUS To Hear Case Of Parents Caring For Their Disabled Children At Home Being Ordered To Pay Fees To Unions

PARENTS SAY "NO" TO QUINN'S UNIONIZATION

Illinois Review just learned that the home health care workers' vote was tallied and those families caring for disabled family members sent the Governor a loud rejection of his plot to unionize private families. The vote was as follows:

• SEIU rec'd 293 votes
• AFSCME rec'd 220 votes
• NO UNION rec'd 1018 votes

That means the families have wholly rejected Governor Quinn's Executive Order 09-15. For those who are convinced grassroots organizing and networking are irrelevant in public policy, please take note of what these families did on their own, with little, if any help, from the mainstream media. On Thursday, October 2, Americans for Prosperity-Illinois held an open conference call to give listeners a heads up on this story.  The families themselves, including mother extraordinaire Pam Harris, were persistent and unwielding in their effort to get the word out among those affected and the Illinois public as a whole.

Take this victory for these families as a taste of what liberty-loving folks can do if they get organized.  SEIU/ACORN and Governor Quinn were put on notice.  Illinois taxpayers are fed up with their antics.  If you agree that this is the shot over the bow to the bullies, sign AFP's "Say No to ACORN" petition.  Let's push back even further.

Via: Illinois Review

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WATCHDOGS: Tally in Illinois grant-fraud probe so far: 13 charged, $16M embezzled

From the city that brought us Barack Obama.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Springfield has been busy the past few years investigating a variety of fraud schemes involving state grants. Thirteen people have been charged so far, six who have pleaded guilty.

Two of them have ties to President Barack Obama. One is the daughter of his controversial former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Another was chief of staff to Obama’s longtime friend Eric E. Whitaker when Whitaker was Illinois’ public health chief.

In all, prosecutors are alleging a total of $16 million in fraud involving state health or commerce department grants and contracts.

Here’s a brief look at each of the criminal cases that have been filed, which prosecutors built with help from the Chicago offices of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Internal Revenue Service, as well as from the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office’s inspector general:

Defendants: Margaret A. Davis and Tonja Cook, of the Chicago chapter of the National Black Nurses Association

Via: Chicago Sun-Times

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New Illinois gun law requires owners to report missing firearms

Gun owners in Illinois will be required to report missing firearms under a new law signed by Gov. Pat Quinn.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Quinn said the law will make it easier to recover stolen weapons and help ensure that only responsible people buy firearms. The legislation includes a mandatory background check by gun owners of potential buyers of firearms.

The measure passed both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly.

"It's going to help our law enforcement," said Quinn, a Democrat. "It's going to help all of us be safe."

Quinn signed the legislation last Sunday at a South Side Park near when an off-duty Chicago police officer was killed with an illegal firearm in 2010, the paper reported.

Beginning immediately, gun owners whose weapons are lost or stolen will have 72 hours to notify police. And, according to the Tribune, beginning Jan. 1 individual gun owners will have to contact the state police before selling a firearm or prior to a transfer of ownership to ensure that the buyer is permitted to own a gun.

Via: Fox News

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Shootings up 49% in November in Gun-Free Zone of Chicago

Thelma Smith was visiting her mother's South Side home Friday night to talk about a birthday party in memory of her son, Samuel Clay, 25, who was shot and killed in April.

After several shots rang out on the next block, Smith rushed over and discovered to her horror that another son, William Lee Martin, 30, had been slain.

The father of six became the latest sad statistic as a violent November came to an end. Shootings jumped to 192 for the month, up 49 percent from 129 a year earlier, according to Police Department records.

That meant shootings were up more than 11 percent in the first 11 months of 2012 compared with a year earlier. Through October, shootings had risen about 81/2 percent.

And four fatal shootings on Friday alone pushed the homicide total for the month to 38, just above 37 in November 2011. For the first 11 months of 2012, homicides have risen to 480, a 21 percent increase from 398 a year earlier. If trends continue, Chicago will likely exceed 500 homicides for the first time since 2008.

The violence has earned Chicago unflattering national attention since the first three months of the year, when homicides skyrocketed amid unseasonably warm weather. The rate of increase has eased since then.

Robert Tracy, chief of the department's crime-control strategies, noted that the same trend has occurred with shootings after spiking by 40 percent in the early part of the year. He credited the department's use of "gang audits" — in which specialized units share gang intelligence with beat officers — and other strategies with helping bring that percentage down.

"I think we've done a very good job with that," Tracy said. "(But) any murder or any shooting is unacceptable."

As for the sharp rise in shootings in November, criminologists said that could merely be part of the random ebb and flow of crime statistics. Still, the increase is worth noting, said Arthur Lurigio, a professor of criminal justice and psychology at Loyola University Chicago.

"Last year's total was markedly low, so we would expect an uptick this year simply because statistics fluctuate in the direction in which they have more room to move," he said. "However, this is a substantial increase from one year to the next."

Via: Chicago Trbiune

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ROMNEY CLOSES IN MINNESOTA

The last time Minnesota cast its electoral votes for a Republican running for President was 1972. Even Ronald Reagan failed to win the state in both back-to-back landslide elections. It has elected Republicans to the occasional state-wide office, but for President, it is a deep indigo blue. Except, perhaps, this year. A new poll released this morning by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune finds the race essentially tied. Obama holds a slim 3-point lead but, at 47% support, is below the critical 50% threshold. 

To be fair, Minnesota wasn't really part of Obama's firewall for his reelection hopes. It was more of a redoubt. It was state, like California or Illinois, which would absolutely support Obama's reelection. That we are even discussing the possible vote in MN, just a little over a week before the election, is a flashing sign of the troubles plaguing Obama's campaign. 

Last month, the newspaper's poll showed Obama with an 8-point lead. But that 5-point drop in support isn't the worst news for Obama in the poll. The number of voters identifying themselves as Republican has surged. In last month's poll, Democrats had a 13-point edge in the sample, 41-28. Today's poll, however, only gives them a 5-point edge, 38-33. An 8-point swing in one month is extraordinary. 

In 2008, the overall electorate had a Democrat advantage of 4 points, so Republicans still have some room to grow here. Especially considering Obama's collapse in certain voter sub-groups. In 2008, Obama won independents by 17 points. Today, he leads by 6. He won men by 3 points; today he trails by 13. He won women by 16; today, in spite of a singular focus on what Democrats consider women's issues, his support is slightly lower at 14 points.  

Via: Breitbart

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OBAMA COLLAPSE IN ILLINOIS: TIED IN DISTRICT HE WON BY 23 POINTS IN '08

Back in August, a poll showed Obama with just a 12-point lead over Romney in Cook County, Illinois. While he posted a huge lead in the city of Chicago, the poll found him actually losing to Romney in suburban Cook County. It was a shock that I set aside as an outlier. 

A new poll of Illinois' 10th Congressional District, which includes parts of Cook County, however, suggests the August poll might not be such an aberration. The poll, from WeAskAmerica, finds Obama with just a 2 point lead over Romney, 47-45 in the suburban district. Obama won the district in 2008 by 23 points. 

I know the district well. It is affluent, with high levels of education, and very socially liberal. Voters there take pride in being politically "moderate" and wear the label as a badge of honor. Since the 1980s, the district has been represented by a Republican in Congress, but not by anyone who could be mistaken for a conservative. Al Gore and John Kerry both carried the district comfortably in 2000 and 2004. And, in 2008, Obama won over 61% of the vote in the district. 

Last year, during redistricting, the Democrats in Illinois made the district even more Democrat, looking to unseat freshman GOP Congressman Bob Dold. In this poll, Dold leads his opponent by 2 points, 47-45. It should be noted that this poll was conducted before last night's debate, so the surprising results don't reflect Obama's lackluster performance in Denver. 

Obama's performance in this district in 2008 was emblematic of the appeal he had then to moderates and independents. No Democrat had ever come close to posting the kind of vote he got here. It was also an enormous source of campaign donations for his election. Being essentially tied with Romney, and under the 50% threshold, shows the greatly diminished appeal he has to independents.

"For Mr. Obama to be in a statistical tie in an area that he won by around 20 points in 2008 truly reveals the failure of his Presidency," said Illinois-based political consultant Paul Miller. "The economy is undoubtedly the key factor, but in suburbs with a large Jewish population, his treatment of Israel is also taking its toll."

There is a sizable Jewish vote in the district. It could account for the rising dissatisfaction with Obama here. Also a factor could be the lack of leadership from Illinois' Democrat legislative leaders, who dominate state government and are quickly bankrupting the state. The state's debt level has exploded and recent massive tax hikes have done nothing to plug the state's gaping budget deficits. 

I should note that the sample in the poll is evenly split between GOP and Dem voters. That may be a bit generous to the GOP, but even this can't explain the collapse in Obama's numbers here. A drop of more than 20 points one month out from the election is damning for Obama. Of course, the poll also deliberately oversampled women. They make up around 65% of the poll's universe. Given the purported advantage Obama has with women voters, his margin in this poll should be considerably higher. 

Miller continued: "Unfortunately for the GOP, they wrote off Illinois before the campaign season began. Considering that President Obama may under-perform by a large percentage, and that his numbers in Cook County are not nearly as strong as they were four years ago, Illinois could have been in play. It may not be too late to make Illinois purple."

Given the state of the GOP in Illinois, I'm not certain Romney could have made Illinois competitive this year. Certainly, Obama continues to have the edge in his adopted home state. But, among the base of some of his core supporters, the thrill is clearly gone. 

Via: Breitbart

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Obama Moving Gitmo Terrorists into Illinois?

AP File

Lawmakers claim administration opening door to Gitmo transfer with Illinois prison buy

The Obama administration plans to buy an Illinois prison that at one point was considered for housing Guantanamo prisoners, in a move Republican lawmakers claimed would open the door for ultimately carrying out that plan.

Administration officials, though, denied that they were looking for a new home for Guantanamo inmates. They insisted the decision to buy Thomson Correctional Center, an under-used state prison 150 miles west of Chicago, was a move to alleviate overcrowding and create jobs in the process.

"This is about public safety and 50 percent overcrowding in high-security prisons," one Justice Department official said.
Officials insisted Guantanamo detainees would not be coming to Illinois.

But Virginia Republican Rep. Frank Wolf, among the lawmakers who opposed the federal purchase of the prison, claimed Tuesday that the Obama administration could still carry out its plan -- perhaps by moving prisoners from another federal prison to Thomson, and then using that prison to house Guantanamo detainees.

"The president says his goal is to shut down Guantanamo Bay and move the prisoners here," Wolf told Fox News, accusing the administration of circumventing Congress. "This gives him a great opportunity to do it, particularly right after the election."

Wolf chairs a key House subcommittee overseeing the sale. He was referring to Obama's pledge immediately after taking office that he would shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison camp -- a pledge that stands as one of the president's most glaring unfulfilled promises to his base.

The move to transfer prisoners stateside, though, was met with a fierce backlash among some lawmakers who worried it would pose a security risk.

The Obama administration and Federal Bureau of Prisons is now going ahead with the $165 million purchase of the Illinois prison, though strictly as a move to ease overcrowding, they say. The move was first announced by Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin and Gov. Pat Quinn.

Via: Fox News

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DeMint joins national effort to keep feds from bailing out state pension systems

Illinois Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn is getting hit with a nationwide backlash over his suggestion that the federal government bail out the state employees’ pension program

.

Critics have in the past several days pounced on the suggestion, made last year when Quinn, in announcing the state’s fiscal 2012, said part of Illinois' long-term effort to reduce the estimate $167 billion in under-funded liabilities would be to seek “a federal guarantee of the debt.”

Among those leading the charge is Republican Sen. Jim DeMint. The South Carolina senator has joined the Illinois Policy Institute’s national “No Pension Bailout” campaign -- an effort to stop Congress from attempting to rescue failing state and municipal pension plans.

“Our greatest concern is states will assume they can run their pension systems into bankruptcy and then turn to the federal government for bailout,” DeMint said Thursday.

He also suggested the problem is the result of state legislators trying for decades to win over voters through pension promises based “on accounting methods that would put any business in jail.”

The conservative policy group estimates the total amount of under-funded pension liabilities in states is at least $2.5 trillion, with Illinois leading the nation.

The basic plan floated by Quinn would be for the federal government to rescue the pension program through buying the state’s bonds, which critics say are too financially risky to attract investors.  

Quinn said after announcing the budget that seeking the federal guarantee was only a precaution, then later called the related wording a “drafting error,” according the non-partisan Citizens Against Government Waste, which nevertheless gave the governor its September 2012 “Porker of the Month” award.

Via: Fox News

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President Obama: Redistributionist in Chief and ACORN's president

The truth is still the greatest threat to Obama and the greatest hope for the American dream.

It's incredible, but true, that a redistributionist ACORN guy could be elected President of a center-right nation like the United States.

It's true because the truth about Obama and his socialist views and ACORN connections was not generally known and the liberal media establishment wanted it that way.

Audio (www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFSY2dnTSZQ)of Obama:

"...I definitely welcome ACORN's input. You don't have to ask me about that. I'm going to call you even if you didn't ask me.

"When I ran Project Vote, voter registration drive in Illinois, you know, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it. Once I was elected, there wasn't a campaign that ACORN worked on down in Springfield that I wasn't right there with you. Since I've been in the United States Senate, I've been always a partner with ACORN as well. I've been fighting with ACORN, alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career."

It should not be a shock that Obama lied about his redistributionist views. He previously lied about his involvement with the ACORN political party in Illinois, known as the New Party. See www.wnd.com/2012/06/obama-member-of-acorns-3rd-party/, where it is reported that "[t]he socialist-leaning New Party had such a close relationship with the controversial group ACORN that at one point the two shared an office address, fax lines and email addresses" and the New Party "sought to elect members to public office with the aim of moving the Democratic Party far leftward to ultimately form a new political party with a socialist agenda."

As an Illimois state senator in 1998, Barack Obama told an audience at Loyola University in Chicago the truth: He actually believes in redistribution.

A video is available at http://hotair.com/archives/2012/09/19/video-rnc-jumps-on-obamas-redistribution-quote/.

But President Obama, running for reelection, rejecting the charge that his economic plan amounts to a redistribution of wealth.

During a "60 Minutes" interview by Steve Kroft last December, President Obama claimed that his real goal is to rebuild a strong middle-class America, not to redistribute wealth.

"What's happened to the bargain?" Obama said in an interview with CBS correspondent Steve Kroft. "What happened to the American deal that says, you know, we are focused on building a strong middle class?

Kroft specifically asked Obama about his mention of "income inequality" in a recent speech. "People will say this is socialist Obama," said Kroft. "And he's come out of the closet," Kroft added.

Obama rejected that as nonsense and insisted that income inequality has nothing to do with socialism. "Everybody's concerned about inequality," Obama said. "What's happened to the bargain? What's happened to the American deal that says, you know, we are focused on building a strong middle class?"

Video is available at http://hotair.com/archives/2012/09/19/video-rnc-jumps-on-obamas-redistribution-quote/.

To be elected in 2008, Obama blatantly lied about his relationship with ACORN.

If the truth had been generally known, Obama would have lost.

The truth is still the greatest threat to Obama and the greatest hope for the American dream.

Via: Renew America