Let the Obamacare body count begin

There can be little doubt that by applying the logic of the left, the Obamacare body count can commence soon. David Henderson laid out the basics, rebuking lefty Matt Iglesias:

In comparing Bush on Hurricane Katrina and Obama on ObamaCare, Matt Yglesias writes:

The administration and the Democratic Party writ large had very high aspirations for the Affordable Care Act, viewing it as a legacy-defining major pillar of the American welfare state that would massively improve the lives of millions of people. If they can't make the basic infrastructure work, none of that will happen and it'll be a huge failing. But even in the worst case, they're not going to get anyone killed. That's a big difference.
Excuse me? In the worst case, where they don't get the infrastructure working and so millions of people will lose health insurance, they're not going to get anyone killed? How could that be? Surely some of the millions who lose health insurance will die without it. Maybe not many. But not "anyone?" Hard to believe.

On the same day, I noted:

It is already certain that on January 1^st, 2014, people with sick and injured family members will be showing up in emergency rooms and told that they have no health insurance coverage. Bankruptcy, lack of treatment, and eventually, fatalities will result. Obama lied and people died. The slogan writes itself.

Via: American Thinker

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STARNES: You Won't Believe How Obama Is Celebrating Christmas

Most of us mark the Christmas season by celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. President Obama, on the other hand, will be marking the Christmas season by celebrating ObamaCare.

“This holiday season, talk to your loved ones about health insurance,” reads one graphic.

“The best way to spread holiday cheer, is by talking about heath care at this time of year,” another states.

Check out these images that were posted on President Obama’s Facebook and Twitter pages:

Via: Fox Insider

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Kanye West says he’s ‘past’ Obama, feels used by president

Rapper Kanye West is done with President Obama.

Mr. West, in a radio interview Monday morning, said he feels used by Mr. Obama and he’s not going to think about the president anymore.

“I’m not gonna mention him no more, I’m past that,” Mr. West said of the president on Philadelphia station Hot 107.9. “That’s out my thoughts. That’s lowering my priority of thinking at this point.”

The rift is probably not causing the president to lose any sleep. Mr. Obama has referred to Mr. West at least twice publicly as a “jackass,” including once in 2009 after the rapper interrupted Taylor Swift on stage as she received an MTV Video Music Award.

When radio hosts Shamara and Laiya asked Mr. West if he would ever “break bread” with the president, the rapper suggested that Mr. Obama had used him as a foil for political purposes.

“Oh, you talking about how he use to come and visit me and my mama and tell me he’s about to run for president?” Mr. West replied. “I just think that we’re pop icons, and the president likes to use that type of thing just to be down. People was fine with me being everyone’s punching bag for about five years — ‘This is the person we love to hate, so if you want to distract people from everything that’s going on … just say you hate Kanye and there’s going be 30 other people who say they hate Kanye.’ That was kind of my position in culture and he kind of used that too — ‘Oh, he’s a jackass’ — because that’s how the world felt.

Via: Washington Post

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Dem Rep. Nick Rahall Admits Obama Lacks Legal Authority For His Obamacare “Fix”…

Not like it would stop the Imperial President.

Via: Weasel Zippers

2 Ex-White House Aides: Administration Needs to HHS Leadership

A change in leadership at key agencies is called for as a result of the problem-plagued rollout of Obamacare, former White House Press Secretary Roberts Gibbs said Monday.

Specifically, Gibbs suggested changes at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, but he did not identify who should be fired or moved out. 

But a change in leadership positions at the agencies, he insisted, would help win back trust in an administration still dealing with the fallout from the disastrous launch of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare program. 

"One of the things to, sort of, instill confidence in leadership, after the rollout, is to make some sort of change in those that were responsible for the rollout. I don't think there is any doubt that, in order to give people confidence, they've got to make changes, particularly over at HHS and CMS," Gibbs said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," where he appears as a contributing commentator.

Via: Newsmax
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Undermining His Legacy

States Are Critical Of Obama’s Political ObamaCare “Fix”

LAST WEEK, FACING MOUNTING CRITICISM, OBAMA PROPOSED A WIDELY PANNED FIX FOR OBAMACARE

Last Week, Obama Unveiled A So-Called Fix For People Losing Their Health Plans Due To ObamaCare – The Plan Was “Widely Panned.” “President Barack Obama’s announcement of a proposed fix to people losing their health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act was widely panned by the editorial boards of the nation’s biggest newspapers, with even the usually supportive New York Times saying it raises ‘troubling questions.’” (Tal Kopan, “Editorial Pages Pan President Obama’s Plan,” Politico, 11/15/13)

USA Today Editorial: “The President’s Plan Is Less A Solution Than It Is A Punt.” “But political necessity doesn’t guarantee good policy, and the president’s plan is less a solution than it is a punt. Obama announced that the administration would allow canceled plans to be renewed for at least a year, which will probably ease the complaints of more than 4 million people in the individual market who’ve received cancellation notices since the ObamaCare online marketplaces opened on Oct. 1. But there will be a dangerous rebound effect.” (Editorial, “Obama Prescribes Ugly Fix For ObamaCare,” USA Today , 11/15/13)

• USA Today Editorial: “The Other Big Problem With Obama’s Plan Is That A Lot Of People Still Might Not Be Able To Keep Policies They Like. Insurers Don’t Have To Renew The Expiring Policies, And State Insurance Commissions Don’t Have To Approve Them.” (Editorial, “Obama Prescribes Ugly Fix For ObamaCare,” USA Today , 11/15/13)

Obama’s One-Year Extension Undermines The “Central Goal Of The Law.” “But it also invited unintended consequences, showing how easily the law’s complicated framework can start to come loose. (Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, “Obama Struggles To Save His Cherished Health Law,” The Associated Press , 11/16/13)

Insurance Commissioners Are Warning That The Fix Will Fracture The Insurance Market And Increase Premiums. “State insurance commissioners warned that the president’s solution would undermine a central goal of the law, the creation of one big insurance pool in each state for people who don’t have access to coverage on their jobs. Fracturing that market could lead to higher future premiums for people buying coverage through the law’s new insurance exchanges, which offer government-subsidized private insurance.” (Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, “Obama Struggles To Save His Cherished Health Law,”The Associated Press , 11/16/13)

Via: GOP.com

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Tax Increases Really Hurt Growth and Jobs

Some lawmakers, led by Senate Budget Committee chair Patty Murray (D–WA), are seeking to raise taxes in the budget conference to replace the modest spending reductions referred to as sequestration. They say that spending cuts hurt growth and jobs.

If they are truly concerned about the economy and Americans’ opportunities, their approach is misguided for a number of reasons.

Based on new research by Heritage economist Salim Furth, PhD, here are just three reasons why replacing sequestration spending cuts with tax increases is a really bad idea:

1. Tax increases hurt economic growth and jobs. At a recent Heritage symposium on European austerity, three economists from Harvard University, the International Monetary Fund, and the American Enterprise Institute all acknowledged that tax increases can cause deep and immediate economic losses. Had the $85 billion in sequestration spending reductions in 2013 been replaced with tax increases, the estimated costs for the economy range from $57 billion in output and 320,000 jobs to $240 billion in output and 1.3 million jobs. That would have been a sizable loss for a still struggling economy.
2. Replacing tax increases with spending cuts is better for economic growth and jobs. The payroll, Obamacare, and fiscal cliff tax increases add up to more than $3 trillion over the next decade. In contrast, the sequestration spending cuts would reduce spending over that same period by a little over $1 trillion. According to Furth’s analysis for 2013, had Congress implemented more spending cuts instead of raising taxes, “the economy would have generated from $130 billion to $520 billion more in [gross domestic product] by the end of 2014 and added between 700,000 and 2.9 million jobs.” The long-run benefits from cutting bloated government spending are even greater, as the resources no longer squandered by bureaucrats are put to work much more efficiently by private individuals and businesses.

Via: The Foundry

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[VIDEO] Obamacare Causing Sticker Shock For North Carolinians

BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff
November 18, 2013 8:53 am

Cancelled policies, soaring premiums, and website glitches are just a few of the many problems Obamacare has saddled on North Carolinians.

Tony Hyatt, owner of a landscaping business in North Carolina, says he is suffering from “sticker shock.” Hyatt and his wife’s premium has tripled from $311 a month to $963 a month.

The letter Hyatt received from his insurance company notifying him of his new policy rate also said his deductible will be increasing by $1000. Hyatt told WSOC that he was “super surprised” upon notification. He expected that his premium would increase, but not to such a high rate.

Hyatt is worried, saying “I really am concerned that the way things are going, that the quality of healthcare will go down.”

Rep. Richard Hudson (R-8th District) echoed Hyatt’s concerns: “This is a 1950s style, one size fits all, the government tells you what you can have system and it doesn’t work. We need a personalized, individual system.”

Via: WFB

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US stocks resume rise with Dow clearing 16,000; S&P 500 above 1,800

U.S. stocks gained on Monday, with the S&P 500 and Dow industrials at or near record highs, as Wall Street weighed a measure of builder sentiment coming in below expectations against the potential implications for the Federal Reserve's monetary policy.

Underlying gains that took the Dow above 16,000 for the first time and the S&P 500 above 1,800 is ongoing optimistic about stimulus from the Fed. "The market is very Fed oriented," said Paul Nolte, managing director at Dearborn Partners.

	Name	Price		Change	%Change
DJIA	Dow Jones Industrial Average	16002.12		40.42	0.25%
S&P 500	S&P 500 Index	1798.12		-0.06	0%
NASDAQ	Nasdaq Composite Index	3982.08		-3.89	-0.10%

Benchmark indices initially trimmed their rise after the release of the National Association of Home Builders/Well Fargo Housing Market Index, which found home builder confidence to be flat this month from a downwardly revised level of 54 the prior month.

"Every question gets answered with what does this mean to the Fed? The builders confidence falling below forecasts means the Fed is going to stay in the market," said Nolte, downplaying the survey's impact.

After clearing 16,000 for the first time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose to an intraday record of 16,030.28. Boeing led blue-chip companies on the rise, after the plane maker received more than 250 orders for its revamped 777 jet at an airshow in Dubai.

The S&P 500 also surpassed a psychological hurdle, rising above 1,800 for the first time, with industrials and financials pacing sector gains and utilities and consumer staples the worst performing of its 10 industry groups. It set an intraday record of 1,802.37.

Via: CNBC

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Eight More Nightmare Scenarios for ObamaCare

They’re mostly worst-case scenarios, and an Obamacare recovery in the next few months could still prevent some of the biggest ones from ever happening. But health care experts are taking all of them a lot more seriously now — because at this point, why wouldn’t they?

A complete list of possibilities could be overwhelming, but here are the main ones to watch:

‘Death spiral’

This was always the worst of the worst-case scenarios: Only sick people enroll in the Obamacare health insurance plans, healthy people stay away, and everyone’s premiums rise out of control because there are no healthy people to cover the sick people’s costs.

That’s the dreaded “death spiral,” and it has been a possibility all along. But it was only a remote one — because health care experts have counted on the attraction of Obamacare’s subsidies, along with the threat of fines from the individual mandate, to lure enough healthy customers to prevent a meltdown.

The cost of the cancellations fix

There’s another problem, and it has nothing to do with the website. Insurers and actuaries say the Obama administration’s solution to the canceled policies mess could backfire — because by telling insurers they can extend people’s individual coverage, they might cause the insurance prices to rise anyway.

That’s because the mix of healthy and sick people in the new Obamacare plans would be disrupted. In the worst-case scenario, it would be the healthy people that renew their old, pre-Obamacare insurance, and only the sick people would switch to the new plans — because they’d want the new coverage that accepts anyone with pre-existing conditions.

Via: Fox News

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[CARTOON] Obamacare Turkey

Via: California Political Review

Obama admin. not prosecuting wind farms for bird deaths

The Obama administration is giving wind power producers a pass by not going after them for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of federally protected birds and bats.

But the feds have gone after fossil fuel and other companies that have killed these animals.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service currently has 18 open investigations into bird and bat deaths due to wind power operations, according to a service spokeswoman, with 14 of these cases involving the death of at least one golden eagle — which are federally protected under three different laws. Seven of these cases have been referred to the U.S. Justice Department for “potential prosecution.”

A spokesman with the Justice Department, however, told The Daily Caller News Foundation that there “have been no prosecutions to date under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and/or the Bald and Gold Eagle Protection Act related to the deaths of migratory birds, including eagles, at wind facilities.”

The Obama administration’s support for wind energy development and inaction against wind producers that allegedly break these laws has sparked the ire of House Republicans. Earlier this month, Republicans on the Committee on Natural Resources sent letters to the administration slamming them for not providing documentation related to bird deaths from wind farms.

“[Justice Department’s] lack of a timely response is unacceptable and frustrates Congress’s ability to conduct oversight of this important matter,” reads one letter sent to the Justice Department.

One of the most contentious energy issues of the 2012 campaign was the Wind Production Tax Credit, or wind PTC, which paid wind power producers for the electricity they generated from harnessing the wind.

Obama supported the tax credit to bolster support in states like Iowa where the wind energy industry has a huge presence. Nineteen non-energy firms — including Yahoo!, Starbucks and Sprint — also sent a letter to Congress urging them to extend the tax credit.

Via: Daily Caller

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Van Jones Blames Obamacare Problems on Media, Richard Nixon, Heritage Foundation, and GOP

Perhaps the Obamacare apologists are running out of people to blame for the failed Obamacare rollout and the President's "you can keep your insurance, period" lie.

During the panel discussion on Sunday's State of the Union with Candy Crowley, Van Jones blamed the launch issues first on the mainstream media misinformation, then on a long list of usual and not-so-usual suspects, including former President Richard Nixon, the Heritage Foundation, and the tried and trite, Republican Party.

Of course, Jones left one conspicuous name off his increasingly desperate list...

Fellow panelist and CNN Commentator Ross Douthat asked Jones if there will be a moment where the left-wing of the party demands a presidential candidate "who will push not to fix Obamacare which was always a compromise, but for single payer."  That's when Jones launched into his shameless blame gaming:

It's conceivable, but I think we're a long way from there. What it's going to come down to is, does the media get tired of pretending that Obamacare is just a website that didn't work and these cancelation notices? If the media were going to be fair, here's what they would do: For every one story about a cancelation notice, there would be three stories about people benefiting from Obamacare right now. Even with the website broken, every woman across American is benefiting because they can't be discriminated against. Even with the website broken, you have every kid under the age of 26 being benefited. We don't tell stories of successes right now. Maybe we get bored with this. We only talk about the downside. The minute that Democrats get it together to promote the incredible successes --

Douthat interrupted Jones by jokingly asking if he was going to run against Hillary Clinton as champion of single-payer in 2016. Jones replied by cramming more villains into his blame list:

I'm for single-payer. Part of the problem is we gave up on single-payer without a fight. Now it looks like this moderate Romneycare thing is a left-wing plot, when in fact this Romneycare thing that Obama is putting in place came from Richard Nixon, the Heritage Foundation, and the Republicans.

Via: True Revolt
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Obama-contra Column: Obamacare isn’t Katrina. It’s Iran-contra

Reagan's televised address apologizing for the Iran-contra scandal and Obama apologizing for the Obamacare rollout / AP

BY: Matthew Continetti
November 15, 2013 4:59 am

Of all the analogies being drawn between the calamitous rollout of Obamacare and other government muck-ups throughout history, one deserves a closer look. What’s happening to Obamacare right now isn’t this president’s Iraq war, or his Hurricane Katrina, or his Lewinsky moment. It’s his Iran-contra scandal: a complicated and controversial policy dispute that involves deception, a hostile Congress, and the bludgeoning of presidential credibility. Iran-contra marked the end of the Reagan Revolution, and it’s not hard to see how the implementation of Obamacare might mark the end of the Obama Revolution as well. A boy can dream.

The analogy rests on the following similarity between presidents Reagan and Obama: For much of their time in office, the two men were more popular than their policies, and enjoyed higher personal approval than job approval. Ronald Reagan was always more popular than tax and spending cuts, and Barack Obama has been more popular than Obamacare and the stimulus. Reagan was hard to dislike. Obama is too, or so I’ve been told.

The news in 1986 that the Reagan administration had violated the arms embargo against Iran and traded weapons for hostages, with the proceeds of the weapons sales going to the anti-Sandinista insurgency in Nicaragua, threw the White House into disarray. The subsequent investigations into what exactly happened distracted Reagan and his team and damaged the president’s reputation. It’s hard to recall, especially as Reagan himself was never fully implicated in the scandal, but his approval ratings fell to a second-term low of 47 percent in the Gallup poll and his personal favorability fell as well.

Via: WFB

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