The RNC has published four more of the “I’m Obamacare” ads today and you can watch them below. I think #2 is my favorite:
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Beware of Falling Gas Prices: Ritholtz Chart
The American Automobile Association reports that the average price of a gallon of regular gas is $3.19. (The U.S. Energy Information Administration has regular gas at about $3.26).
Wisconsin Gov. Walker reveals violence, death threats in upcoming autobiography
Protesters angry with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's effort to break Big Labor’s financial hold on the state in 2011 at one point blocked his exit from a manufacturing plant, then surrounded his police cruiser while “beating on the windows and rocking the vehicle.”
The episode is one of several violent threats that the Republican governor and his family have faced, and which are detailed in his upcoming book “Unintimidated: A Governor’s Story and a Nation’s Challenge." The book, excerpts of which were obtained Tuesday by FoxNews.com, describes what was going on behind the scenes during his campaign to end costly collective bargaining agreements for most of Wisconsin’s unionized public employees.
The 2011 episode at the manufacturing plant happened about one month into his first term, after his government required unionized workers to contribute more toward their health-care and retirement benefits.
The bold mandate was part of his larger Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill that passed later that year to help reduce a projected $3.6 billion budget deficit.
Dianne Feinstein joins push to keep health plans
It’s not just red-state Democrats who want to take aggressive steps to mend controversial provisions in Obamacare.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that she will co-sponsor a bill by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) to require insurance companies to continue offering their existing health care plans — a way to make good on President Barack Obama’s promise that consumers can keep their current coverage if they like it.
“This bill provides a simple fix to a complex problem,” Feinstein said in a statement Tuesday, calling Landrieu’s proposal a “commonsense fix” and urged Congress to pass it “quickly.”
But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has no plans to bring Obamacare delay bills to the floor, and most Senate Democrats appear to be waiting until the end of the month — the date by which the administration has promised to fix the problematic health care website — to demand major delays to the law’s implementation.
Feinstein’s support is more evidence that an increasing number of congressional Democrats are getting uneasy about last month’s bungled rollout of the health care law – Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement.
In her statement, Feinstein said she has gotten 30,842 calls, e-mails and letters from her constituents on the issue. One man from Rancho Mirago, Calif., told Feinstein that he is being forced to spend more than $400 extra to pay for coverage through Obamacare that essentially mirrors his existing plan.
McDermott: Obamacare Outrage Part of Plot ‘All Fabricated to Destroy the Safety Net’
A member of the House Progressive Caucus blamed insurance companies for canceled plans and rate hikes as they try to comply with new Obamacare regulations.
Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) hailed Obamacare as “the furthest that we’ve gotten in developing a social safety net for Americans.”
“We have unemployment insurance. We have Social Security, we have welfare programs of people who don’t have money, and now, we’re going to get a healthcare system for everybody, we’ve had one for senior citizens and for children. And the Republican establishment, the Tea Party people are bound and determined to drive us back. And they are starting with healthcare and they’re trying Social Security and they’re trying on Medicare, they simply do not want Americans to have a safety net of security,” he continued on MSNBC.
“They want them to have always to be anxious so they’ll be glad to work and keep working for minimum wage jobs and they will never have to pay many pension or anything else. That’s the whole goal of this operation. Obamacare is just one piece of it; it’s the most prominent piece of it.”
McDermott charged that “people can’t tell the difference during Fox News and the insurance companies.”
“They’re both telling lies about what’s happening. The president did not take health insurance away from them, said you could keep it if the insurance companies kept the program the same, but the insurance companies want to make more money. So they cancel the policies, raise the prices, give a few whistles and bells, and say this is what we now have. It is all fabricated to destroy the safety net,” he said.
Still, he conceded that “one of the problems here is that the insurance companies have not only had to upgrade the bad policies but they have canceled the good policies they had in the individual market and they left a lot of people in the individual market in worse sort of shape than they were before.”
Via: PJ Media
Continue Reading....
Calif. Insurance Commissioner: More Than 1M Californians Having Insurance Cancelled Due To ACA
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CBS Sacramento/AP)— Health insurer Anthem Blue Cross of California has agreed to a two-month extension of about 104,000 individual policies after failing to give the required 90-day cancellation notice, state Insurance
Commissioner Dave Jones announced Tuesday.
The policies had been set to expire on Dec. 31 but will be extended until Feb. 28 for those who choose to re-enroll. Notices informing customers of the extension will be sent out this week, Anthem said.
Jones said the company notified the Department of Insurance that it failed to give enough notice because of a computer glitch and voluntarily offered to extend the policies.
Anthem spokesman Darrel Ng said a subset of individual customers was “inadvertently omitted from the original mailing” notifying them that their policies were being terminated. He declined to say how many Anthem customers were being notified their policies were ending.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Leno: Kathleen Sebelius Responsible for ‘X Factor’ Voting Glitch
BY:
A few nights ago The X Factor experienced some technical difficulties with it’s voting system. Jay Leno decided this was the perfect opportunity to mock Kathleen Sebelius and her apology for Obamacare’s terrible rollout.
Scarborough to The View: Republicans ‘Too Obsessed’ with ‘Hating Obama’
With his new book The Right Path
to promote, there was Joe Scarborough acting as guest co-host on The View Tuesday morning. And the MSNBC host had plenty to say about the current state of his Republican Party, including the belief that the GOP is “too obsessed” with “hating on” President Barack Obama.
to promote, there was Joe Scarborough acting as guest co-host on The View Tuesday morning. And the MSNBC host had plenty to say about the current state of his Republican Party, including the belief that the GOP is “too obsessed” with “hating on” President Barack Obama.
Scarborough began by laying out the premise of his book, in which he says the GOP needs a new Ronald Reagan-esque figure to lead the party into the future. He said the real problem is that “we’ve been conducting ideological witch hunts in our party. If you don’t agree with everybody on 100% of the issues, somehow you’re out.”
Much of the discussion surrounded New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who many view as a possible frontrunner for the 2016 presidential nomination. “The fact is, people that would judge Chris Christie because he hugged Barack Obama, first of all, they’re too obsessed on hating Barack Obama,” Scarborough said. He recounted that, as much he disliked former President Bill Clinton, when the president came to his district after a hurricane, he didn’t hesitate to hug him. “So Chris Christie hugged Barack Obama, get over it!” he said.
As for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Scarborough said he “has the same problem Sarah Palin has. About twice as many people have an unfavorable opinion as a favorable opinion. we have to figure out how to flip that around.”
Scarborough also surprised the hosts when he said he could see himself voting for a Democrat for president. “I mean, if we keep going in this direction, you know, I would,” he said. “I haven’t had to actually try that theory out yet, and hopefully our party will turn things around.”
Finally, Scarborough weighed in on the Affordable Care Act, saying, “I’m not going to endorse Obamacare right here.” But, he added, “If you don’t like Obamacare, then guess what? Let’s actually win elections and we’re only going to win elections if we come up to an alternative to Obamacare.”
How Obama is soaking the young
B
oosted by starry-eyed young Americans who embraced his "hope and change" message, Barack Obama ascended to the presidency in 2008 — and was re-elected in 2012. This might have made the idealistic young people who clung to his lofty rhetoric feel good — and maybe Obama really did advance their progressive social agenda. But from an economic standpoint, their support was highly ironic. They have been largely rewarded with high unemployment rates — and long-term policies that transfer wealth from the young to the old.
Consider, for instance, the Affordable Care Act. It is not exactly a win for the young and healthy.
Contingencies, the magazine of the actuarial profession, recently looked at how the Affordable Care Act would affect various age cohorts. According to their study, premiums for younger, healthier individuals may well spike by more than 40 percent.
A little-known provision in the law, called the Adjusted Community Rating, all but guaranteed it would turn out this way.
Here is an oversimplified — but fair — illustration of what this provision means: Let's say a 64-year-old man pays $800 a month for health insurance, and his 27-year-old neighbor pays $100. Collectively, an insurance company gets $900 to insure them both.
But according to the Affordable Care Act, health insurance premiums must fall within a ratio of 3:1 for adults. So assuming the insurance company still seeks to collect $900 a month to cover both neighbors, the older man would now pay just $675, while his younger neighbor would be charged $225.
The ACA’s Mission Creep - Look to Vermont and Washington, D.C., for early warning signs.
Let’s assume that the problems of hastily assembled and inadequately tested software will be solved. Then assume further that the recently relabeled “marketplaces” without market prices will eventually work to redistribute tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to several million currently uninsured Americans searching for coverage. What, then, are the exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) intended to become after their rocky first year or two?
AN EARLY PREVIEW
The state-administered exchanges in Vermont and the District of Columbia provide an early preview. Each intends to become, within its jurisdiction, the “sole” destination for health-insurance purchases in the individual- and small-group-insurance markets.
The state-administered exchanges in Vermont and the District of Columbia provide an early preview. Each intends to become, within its jurisdiction, the “sole” destination for health-insurance purchases in the individual- and small-group-insurance markets.
In April 2013, the D.C. city council voted to require any insurance carrier offering individual health-benefits plans on or after January 1, 2014, to offer them solely through the District’s American Health Benefits Exchange. It approved a similar requirement for any plans offered to small groups (50 or fewer employees) not already offering health insurance to their employees as of December 31, 2013. It delayed this requirement for one year for small-group health plans with “ACA-qualified” coverage that is already offered or renewed as of December 31, 2013. The latter insurance could be issued or renewed during calendar year 2014 through non-exchange distribution channels. But beginning January 1, 2015, all small-group health plans must be offered and issued or renewed solely through the District’s exchange. And in 2016, the D.C. government will expand the definition of small-group insurance to businesses with up to 100 employees.
Via: NRO
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New World Trade Center recognized as tallest building in US
An expert committee of architects has announced that New York’s new World Trade Center is the tallest building in the United States at a height of 1,776 feet, surpassing Chicago's Willis Tower.
The Height Committee of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat announced its decision Tuesday morning at press conferences in New York City and Chicago.
The committee is recognized as the final arbiter of building heights around the world. It had been weighing whether a design change meant the needle atop 1 World Trade Center is part of the actual building or merely the equivalent of a broadcast antenna.
The committee announced Tuesday that the needle was a spire, and therefore, a part of the actual building. Twenty-five members of the group met in Chicago on Nov. 8 to debate the height of the building.
“To us it’s not very fuzzy it all,” said Timothy Johnson, chairman of the council.
Johnson said as the members came out of a room after they agreed that 1 World Trade Center is America’s tallest building, they realized they “had [made] a little part of history in this decision.”
Carney hints at Obamacare changes to offset plan cancellations
White House spokesman Jay Carney ducked questions about former President Bill Clinton’s dramatic call for President Barack Obama to let people keep their current insurance, but said Obama is considering regulatory help for people whose insurance has been canceled.
for people whose insurance has been canceled.
In a Tuesday interview, Clinton said people should be allowed to keep their current insurance programs past January, principally because Obama promised they could keep their insurance.
programs past January, principally because Obama promised they could keep their insurance.
“The president has asked his team to look at ways to address that problem,” Carney said, when asked about Clinton’s comments.
At least three million Americans’ individually-purchased insurance has been canceled by Obamacare.
“We haven’t announced one way or the other. … For details of what is under consideration, we haven’t announced any potential fixes,” Carney said. He declined to provide further details, “until [Obama] has chosen which option to pursue.”
fixes,” Carney said. He declined to provide further details, “until [Obama] has chosen which option to pursue.”
However, he suggested that Obama could let people sign up early for 2014 insurance under pre-Obamacare rules, and that state regulators have some leeway to delay federal mandates.
He also said that federal regulators have the legal authority to allow some people to keep buying pre-Obamacare insurance, and that Obama wants to reduce the cost of buying Obamacare-compliant insurance.
However, Obama’s suggestion that he would change the rules creates new problems for his Obamacare network.
Via: Daily Caller.Continue Reading.....
Americans’ Participation in Labor Force Hits 35-Year Low
(CNSNews.com) The percentage of American civilians 16 or older who have a job or are actively seeking one dropped to a 35-year low in October, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In September, the labor force participation rate was 63.2 percent, but in October it dropped to 62.8 percent—the lowest it has been since February 1978, when Jimmy Carter was president.
The labor force, according to BLS, is that part of the civilian noninstitutional population that either has a job or has actively sought one in the last four weeks. The civilian noninstitutional population consists of people 16 or older, who are not on active-duty in the military or in an institution.
At no time during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton or George W. Bush, did such a small percentage of the civilian non-institutional population either hold a job or at least actively seek one.
Continue Reading.....
Obama Approval Sinks Into The 30's
(Quinnipiac University)
November 12, 2013 - Obama Job Approval Drops To Lowest Point Ever, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Health Care Act Won't Improve Health Care, Voters Say:
American voters disapprove 54 - 39 percent of the job President Barack Obama is doing, his lowest approval rating in any Quinnipiac University national poll since he became president, as even women disapprove 51 - 40 percent, according to a national poll released today.
Today's results compare to a slight 49 - 45 percent disapproval October 1. President Obama's lowest score before today was a 55 - 41 percent disapproval in an October 6, 2011 survey by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University.
Today, disapproval is 58 - 37 percent among men, 91 - 6 percent among Republicans and 63 - 30 percent among independent voters. Democrats approve 79 - 14 percent. White voters disapprove 62 - 32 percent while black voters approve 75 - 15 percent and Hispanic voters disapprove by a slim 47 - 41 percent margin.
Voters in every income and age group disapprove of the job Obama is doing, with the biggest disapproval, 59 - 36 percent, among voters over 65 years old.
For the first time today, American voters say 52 - 44 percent that Obama is not honest and trustworthy. His previous lowest marks on honesty were May 30, when 49 percent of voters said he was honest and 47 percent said he wasn't.
White House doesn't say whether Todd Park will testify Wednesday
White House press secretary Jay Carney called the Republican-issued subpoena of Chief Technology Officer Todd Park an “unnecessary step,” declining to say whether the central figure in the construction of healthcare.gov would testify before lawmakers on Wednesday.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee, has demanded that Park discuss the botched rollout of the federal health care website with lawmakers during a hearing Wednesday.
Just a day away from the House Oversight hearing, Carney said it was “not a matter of if, but when” Park would testify. Obama’s top spokesman said the administration would respond to the request but did not telegraph whether it would be honored.
Before taking his current job, Park was tasked with developing the Obamacare website for the Department of Health and Human Services. Even in his new post, his biggest job is now fixing that same website.
If you like the campaign, you can keep it: Obama promises 2014 elex blitz for Dems
After offering an apology for the failed rollout of his signature health care reform law, President Obama in recent days has “pivoted” yet again — this time into full-blown campaign mode, blasting Republicans and reiterating his wish list of agenda items that can be achieved only if his party reclaims full control on Capitol Hill.
Over the past week, the president has spoken at Democratic Party fundraisers in Dallas and Miami, and used a Friday speech in New Orleans to bash the Republican Party and lay out an ambitious second-term agenda that includes immigration reform, infrastructure investment and free trade agreements.
trade agreements.
His underlying strategy, analysts say, is twofold.
First, the White House is eager to turn attention away from Obamacare, which continues to garner nothing but negative publicity from website glitches at HealthCare.gov, reports of Americans being booted off their insurance plans and other problems.
and other problems.
Second, and perhaps more important, is the president’s resurrection of a message to voters — along with wealthy donors and party foot soldiers — that he needs Democrats in full control on Capitol Hill to accomplish anything substantive during his final years in office.
Continue Reading.....
U.S. Gives Illegal Aliens $29 Mil in Rx Meds
As if it weren’t bad enough that American taxpayers annually dole out huge sums to educate, incarcerate and medically treat illegal immigrants, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) spent tens of millions of dollars to give them free prescription drugs.
In all, CMS, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), blew $29 million to cover Medicare Part D prescription drugs for 4,139 “unlawfully present” individuals that did not qualify for the benefit, according to an HHS Inspector General report. This occurred during a two-year period between 2009 and 2011, according to the agency watchdog.
If you think that’s bad, earlier this year CMS paid $91.6 million to health care providers to cover 2,600 ineligible illegal aliens. A 1996 law specifically prohibits illegal immigrants from getting federal healthcare benefits such as Medicare and Medicaid yet it continues to occur, despite audits exposing the violations. How? Because CMS doesn’t have policies and procedures that could enable it to detect such “improper payments,” according to an HHS Inspector General report released in January.
That means Americans will likely continue paying exorbitant amounts to provide illegal aliens with services banned by federal law. The prescription scandal involves Medicare Part D, a voluntary program that requires qualified beneficiaries to enroll in the federally approved prescription drug plan by completing paperwork.
Supposedly CMS uses information from the Social Security Administration to verify eligibility, but the new audit reveals this: “CMS did not have a policy addressing payments for unlawfully present beneficiaries under Medicare Part D that was equivalent to the existing policy that covers payments for these beneficiaries under Parts A and B.” That means the agency doesn’t have “internal controls to identify and disenroll unlawfully present beneficiaries.”
In a nutshell, it appears that the Health Department’s watchdog is essentially saying that there’s nothing the feds can do about this. The lost money cannot be recovered and the inspector general simply suggests the obvious; to “develop and implement controls to ensure that Medicare does not pay for prescription drugs for unlawfully present beneficiaries.”
Via: Judicial Watch
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Dem poll: Kay Hagan lead vanishes
Incumbent Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) is near the top of national Republicans’ target list for 2014 — and a new poll shows her lead over her potential GOP challengers has all but evaporated.
Against state House Speaker Thom Tillis, Hagan leads by only 2 points, 44 percent to 42 percent, according to the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling. She leads Rev. Mark Harris by 2 points as well, 43 percent to 41 percent, and nurse Heather Grant by 3 points, 43 percent to 40 percent.
Hagan trails physician Greg Brannon, the Rand Paul-endorsed candidate in the race, by 1 point: he leads 44 percent to 43 percent.
That’s a huge difference from PPP’s September poll, which gave Hagan leads of anywhere from 12 to 17 points against all possible GOP challengers.
Hagan’s approval ratings are underwater in the poll: 49 percent of those surveyed disapprove of the job she’s doing, compared with 44 percent who approve.
The poll also suggests she could be suffering from the implementation of Obamacare: 69 percent of those surveyed said the law’s rollout has been unsuccessful so far, compared with 25 percent who say it’s been a success.
In the four-way GOP primary, Tillis leads the pack with 20 percent. He’s followed by Harris at 14 percent, Brannon at 11 percent and Grant at 8 percent. Just under half of GOP voters are undecided.
The poll surveyed 701 North Carolina voters from Nov. 8 to Nov. 11. The margin of error is +/- 3.7 percent for the general election questions and +/- 4.4 percent for the GOP primary questions.
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