Schools keep distance from Obamacare enrollment

When children return to school a few weeks from now, don’t expect to find Obamacare forms stuffed inside their backpacks.

Supporters of the health law see back-to-school season as a natural time for Obamacare outreach, a chance to find young families who could benefit from new health coverage options. But weeks before the school bells start ringing in parts of the country, there’s no concerted effort to reach parents at the schoolhouse door. It’s yet another sign of how the undying controversy could overshadow attempts to get people enrolled.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan told POLITICO this summer that his department has no plans to actively advocate for the health law, only providing help when asked. “No one has asked us,” he added.

(Check out POLITICO's newest tipsheet: Morning Education)

More recently a Department of Education spokesman said federal officials are sending out brochures from the Department of Health and Human Services. They are also working with “state and local partners” on written and online materials, and one aspect they want to stress is that Obamacare’s preventive health benefits would be particularly important to children and families.

But schools at this point aren’t a nationwide focal point of outreach and enrollment. The National PTA isn’t gearing up either. “National PTA does not have any plans to assist in the dissemination of information about the Affordable Care Act,” said spokeswoman Abiah Weaver.

(PHOTOS: 25 unforgettable Obamacare quotes)

And the big sign-up campaign from Enroll America, an organization of Obamacare allies and health law stakeholders, hasn’t focused on schools, at least not as of now.

States or school districts can act on their own; Los Angeles, for instance, is training some high school juniors and seniors how to be Obamacare messengers to their families and communities. But the lack of a national strategy is just one more sign of how hard it is for the administration and its allies to focus on health benefits, not health politics, as Obamacare enrollment nears. And the Republicans have made it clear that they don’t want the schools to go anywhere near the controversial health law.

Via: Politico

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Congress, Experts Question Legality of Obamacare Exchange Subsidies

IRS, Democrats defend administration’s decision to extend subsidies to all exchanges

The Obama administration cannot legally offer federal subsidies to help people buy insurance on federally run health insurance exchanges, legal experts and Congressional Republicans argued Wednesday, potentially threatening the central feature of Obamacare.

Obamacare mandates that each state have a health insurance exchange where people can buy insurance, and the federal government is providing subsidies to help qualifying people buy health insurance on these exchanges.

The law says that the government can provide subsidies for insurance sold on an “Exchange established by the state.” Thirty-four states have refused to set up their own exchanges, leaving the federal government set them instead.

The Obama administration has interpreted the law to allow them to offer subsidies to people buying insurance on exchanges run by the federal government as well as the state governments.

Both legal experts and Republicans on the health care subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee contended that the administration’s implementation of the subsidy provision is beyond the scope of the law and Congress’s intent.

“At issue today is an example of the administration rewriting the law to meet political objectives,” said subcommittee chairman James Lankford (R., Okla.).

Congress originally limited the subsidy only to state-created exchanges to induce the states to set up their own exchanges, argued Jonathan Adler, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University.

Via: WFB

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Malkin Shreds ‘Shakedown Artist’ Sharpton On Hannity: ‘Demagogue’ With ‘Blood On His Hands,’ Hates Whites, Jews

Michelle Malkin joined Sean Hannity on Wednesday night to help him continue piling on MSNBC host Hannity wanted to know when Sharpton’s activism ever benefitted anyone or solved any problems. Al Sharpton for going after people like Hannity in the conservative media over race. Malkin tore Sharpton apart, telling Hannity right off the bat that the MSNBC host has “blood on his hands” and went on a tirade against the “evil” “demagogue” with a history of making offensive remarks.

Malkin told Hannity Sharpton has a long history of “racial divisiveness and hate,” and called him a “shakedown artist who hates cops, who hates whites, [and] who hates Jews.” Hannity declared that if Sharpton wants to keep having this fight with him, he’s going to continue reminding people of the “history of vitriol” Sharpton has spewed.

Hannity ran a montage of his most vitriolic moments, which Malkin described as “chilling.” She also found it striking how so many people, including Republicans, have “kissed the ring of this race charlatan.” She sniped, “He thinks he can lose weight, put pancake makeup on, and all of a sudden he’s respectable.”

Watch the video below, via Fox News:

Via: Mediaite

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The Three Amigos of Racial Discord

Sharpton, Holder, Obama

On Monday, MSNBC host Rev. Al Sharpton and other “civil rights” leaders met with President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder. They were purportedly discussing voting rights, but, in reality, they were discussing how to perpetuate voter fraud.

None of these so called leaders are in favor of voter identification laws, which require individuals to present a picture ID at voting polls. Somehow, mandating voter identification is supposed to be racist and akin to a poll tax that will “disenfranchise” minority voters. Such views are plainly ridiculous as many states have programs to provide free voter identification cards to their citizens. For example, Texas has implemented a plan to distribute free picture ID’s to any interested voter, but that has drawn the ire of Sharpton, Holder and Obama.

The Three Amigos are upset that Texas will require anyone seeking a free voter ID to present verification of their U.S. citizenship and identity. Of course, anyone interested in voter integrity and fair elections would agree that non-citizens should not be allowed to vote. Sadly, Sharpton, Holder and Obama disagree and are not interested in combating fraudulent voting. They want more illegal aliens to vote, which translates into more votes for the Democratic Party.

Via: Canada Free Press

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HHS PLANNED FOR HIGH-LEVEL HIRING SURGE ON DAY OBAMACARE PASSED

Ever see a high pressure sales job on a used car lot? You know, where the salesman with the slicked back hair and the bad cologne tries to stick you with a lemon. His job is to get you off the lot at sticker price before you realize the car has no power steering or air conditioning.

Well that is exactly what we have seen from the very beginning with the president’s healthcare overhaul boondoggle known as Obamacare. (The Obama administration has already given businesses a one-year delay for implementation, conveniently shifting the mess past Election Day 2014, while businesses are moving to hire more part-time workersto avoid the penalties required by the law.)

As Judicial Watch uncovered, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has used every trick in the book to shove Obamacare down our throats. The agency bankrolled a $200 million propaganda campaign to “persuade” the American people that the healthcare monstrosity would be in their best interest; they even trotted out aging television star Andy Griffith for a “public service” campaign. HHS also spent $1.4 million to make “a big guerilla campaign splash” on the Internet through paid advertisements targeting Hispanics, blacks, and women.

And now we learn that HHS was ready--on moment-one after Obamacare passage--to bypass compensation rules to hire a legion of high-priced government employees to push the lemon off the lot.

According to documents we released this week, on the day Obamacare passed, HHS obtained permission from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to cast aside normal hiring procedures in order to hire 1,814 highly-paid, top-level administrators to expedite Obamacare implementation.

According to the documents obtained by Judicial Watch, OPM Director John Berry gave HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Resources Denise Wells extraordinary “direct-hire appointing authority” (DHA) in order to bypass normal channels and, in Berry’s words, “hire quickly in order to execute the President’s directive with respect to implementing health care reform.” In all, HHS was granted permission to utilize what Wells termed the DHA “valuable human capital recruitment tool” to hire 1,814 GS 13–15 employees, including:

• 59 Social Science Analyst/Specialists at the GS-15 level
• 350 Health Insurance Specialists at the GS-15 level
• 55 Administrative and Program Specialists at the GS-15 level
• 235 Program Analysts/Management Analysts at the GS-15 level
• 40 Accountants at the GS 15 level
• 90 Dental Officers at the GS 14 level
• 291 Public Health Advisors/Analysts at the GS-14 level
• 261 Consumer Safety Officers at the GS-13 level
• 92 Grants Management Specialists at the GS-15 level
• 50 Criminal Investigators at the GS-13 level
• 291 Information Technology Specialists at the GS-15 level

According to the Base General Schedule Pay Scale, in 2010, the nearly 2,000 new employees hired to “quickly” implement the Obamacare program would have received a salary between $70,000 and $130,000 per year. More than 1,100 of the new employees would have come in at the GS-15 level, starting at nearly $100,000 annually. The Daily Mail took a look at our documents that the Obama administration sought to spend $159 million a year on these new Obamacare government employees.

But there is more.

Via: Breitbart

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Liberal Activist: ‘Thousands of People Will Die Every Year’ Under Obamacare

(CNSNews.com) – “Thousands of people will die every year” and “costs will continue to go out of control” under Obamacare, says Public Citizen President Robert Weissman.

The only solution is to nationalize health care through a single-payer system, Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Public Citizen argued outside the U.S. Capitol Wednesday.

“Is this realistic after the passage of the Affordable Care Act?” asked Public Citizen President Robert Weissman. “This is what we know is going to happen after the Affordable Care Act is implemented.

“However well it goes, whatever hiccups it has, two things are sure to happen,” he said. “One, millions of people are going to remain uncovered. And the best-case scenario, millions of people will remain uncovered, which means thousands of people will die every year from a lack of health insurance coverage.

“The second thing we know is that the private insurance companies are going to maintain control of our health care system,” Weissman said. “And we know that that means that costs will remain spiraling. Costs will continue to go out of control.”

Via: CNS News

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MSNBC’s Chris Matthews Battles Guest Over Insistence That Sen. Ted Cruz Is A ‘Terrorist’

During his Wednesday broadcast, MSNBC hostChris Matthews reiterated his insistence that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) both looks and acts like former U.S. Sen. Joe McCarthy (R-WI). He added, however, that it was his opinion that Cruz is also a “terrorist.” When a guest argued that Matthews’ assertion was irresponsible, the MSNBC host clarified that Cruz was a “political terrorist” and defended that claim.

“I compared him to McCarthy,” Matthews said of Cruz. “I shouldn’t get into what people look like, but he does — he reminds me so much, when I look at him interrogating a witness on the Hill, he looks like Joe McCarthy.”

“I will say he’s a terrorist,” Matthews added. “What he’s done is say, ‘my goal is demolition.’ Blow up health care. Blow up the continuing resolution. Bring the government to a standstill.”

RELATED: Chris Matthews: Ted Cruz ‘Fits In Tradition’ With Nazi Sympathizer Father Coughlin

Matthews was repudiated by former John McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt who said that it was irresponsible for him to call a sitting U.S. Senator a “terrorist.” Matthews demanded to know “why” that was inappropriate.

“I said political terrorist – that’s what he is,” Matthews insisted.

“I’m not comfortable with the word,” Schmidt replied.

“Okay. Don’t use it,” Matthews shot back. “I’m comfortable with it.”

When Schmidt insisted that Matthews’ statement was irresponsible, the MSNBC host insisted that Schmidt was only being protective of Cruz because he’s a “fellow Republican.”

Matthews concluded his program by insisting that Cruz and other Republicans were “terrorists” who intended to “bring down the American government.” Matthews had previously compared Cruz to Nazi sympathizer Father Coughlin.

Watch the clip below via MSNBC:

Via: Mediaite

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Obama refuses to condemn Democratic sex scandals

DO WHAT I SAY, NOT WHAT I DO. "DEMOCRATS AND LIBERALS"

White House spokesman Jay Carney Wednesday ducked, dodged and dived to escape questions about two top Democrats embroiled in sex scandals.

The simultaneous scandals have been caused by a Democratic candidate for New York mayor, Anthony Weiner, and the Democratic mayor of San Diego, Bob Filner. Their sexting and harassment of women have humiliated many Democrats, including those who have happily spent the last few years charging the GOP with waging a “war on women.”

Obama is flying into the Filner scandal because he has announced an Aug. 7 visit to a U.S. Marine Corps base outside San Diego, Calif.

“The president is traveling to Camp Pendleton which is not in San Diego, which is outside,” Carney said July Wednesday. “I don’t have anything on that.”

“He’s commander in chief. He doesn’t oversee municipalities. … I don’t have any comment on that,” he said.

Filner is facing accusations of sexual harassment from eight women, including city employees.

“He pulled my hand closer to him and he reached over to kiss me,” said Lisa Curtin, a city college administrator, about an episode in 2011 when Filner was a Democratic member of Congress. “I turned my head at that moment and on the side of my face, I got a very wet, saliva-filled kiss including feeling his tongue on my cheek.”

Asked about Weiner, who sent crudely sexual tests to women, Carney also evaded comment.

Via: CNS News

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Poll: Half want more conservative party

Nearly two-thirds of Republicans want their party to change its direction, and more than half say they want the party to become more conservative, according to a new poll.

When asked if Republicans just need to make a stronger case on its positions or whether it needs to reconsider some of those positions, 59 percent of GOP voters surveyed in a new Pew Research Center poll said the party needs to reconsider some policies, while 36 percent said it just needed to make a stronger case. Sixty-seven percent said the party needed to address major problems, as opposed to 30 percent who said needed changes were minor.

How the party should move, though, was more split. Just over half, 54 percent, of Republican voters said the party leaders should move in a more conservative direction, while 40 percent said they should be more moderate.

The poll also showed the tea party is strong among primary voters, making up almost half of the Republican primary electorate. Though just 37 percent of all voters said they agreed with the tea party, that number was 49 percent among likely Republican primary voters. Of those who said they disagreed with the tea party, roughly half were conservative non-tea partiers (29 percent of Republican voters), and roughly half (31 percent of Republican voters) were liberal or moderates.

Of prominent GOP figures, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) was the most popular, with 65 percent viewing him favorably and 15 percent viewing him unfavorably.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was viewed 55 percent favorably to 19 percent unfavorably, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) was favorably viewed 50 percent to 20 percent, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was favorably viewed 47 percent to 30 percent and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was seen 33 percent favorably to 13 percent unfavorably, with 53 percent saying they had no opinion

.

Congressional party leaders House Speaker John Boehner and House Minority Leader Mitch McConnell were toward the bottom of the pack. Boehner was viewed 44 percent favorably to 29 percent unfavorably, and McConnell was favored 36 percent to 24 percent.

Pew surveyed 1,480 adults nationally, including 497 Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters, from July 17-21 for the poll, which has an error margin of plus-minus 3 percentage points overall and 5.1 percentage points for Republican results.

Via: Politico

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MSNBC's Sharpton: GOP 'On a Rampage,' 'Worst Attack' Since 'Jim Crow Era'

On Monday's PoliticsNation, MSNBC host Al Sharpton hyped liberal attacks on changes to voting laws as he declared that "Republicans have gone on a rampage," and singled out a recently passed law in North Carolina as the "worst attack on voting rights since the Jim Crow era."

Referring to the recent Supreme Court ruling against part of the Voting Rights Act, Sharpton complained:

Since that ruling, Republicans have gone on a rampage with states all across the South running wild to restrict voting. That includes North Carolina, where any moment now, the Republican governor is expected to sign into law the worst attack on voting rights since the Jim Crow era. This is outrageous.

After bringing aboard Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver as a guest, the MSNBC host accused Republicans of trying to "tak[e] away our right to vote" as he posed the question:

Are Republicans in these states and other states because they're not just southern states changing these laws, now on notice now that the Obama administration is not going to let them get away with taking away our right to vote?

Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Monday, July 29, PoliticsNation on MSNBC:

AL SHARPTON: Tonight's lead: fighting for voting rights. Today the President of the United States called civil rights leaders to the White House to say, "Are you ready to fight back?" I was there in that meeting, and I saw firsthand how the President is determined to hit back against right-wing efforts to block the vote in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to gut the Voting Rights Act.

Since that ruling, Republicans have gone on a rampage with states all across the South running wild to restrict voting. That includes North Carolina, where any moment now, the Republican governor is expected to sign into law the worst attack on voting rights since the Jim Crow era. This is outrageous. This is exactly the kind of blatant attempt to suppress the vote that the Obama administration has promised to fight against.

(ERIC HOLDER, ATTORNEY GENERAL)

SHARPTON: The President and the Attorney General are calling on all of us to wake up, get up, and get active. This is about the fundamental right of our democracy. Fifty years after the march on Washington, we must not, we will not let them turn back the clock.

In the meeting today, Latino leaders, Asian leaders, African-American leaders, women sat together with the President and the Attorney General not for one segment, but for all Americans' right to vote to be protected. It is something Americans can and must unite around, and it should be bipartisan, because it gives everyone the protection of their voting rights.

Via: Newsbusters

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1%: Average Annual Economic Growth Under Obama

HE'S DOING SUCH A WONDERFUL JOB OF DESTROYING THE ECONOMY!

(CNSNews.com) - In the 21st century, during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the U.S. economy has not shown the ability to grow that it did in the last two decades of the 20th century, according to data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

In fact, real average annual economic growth has been nearly cut in half so far this century compared to the last two decades of the last century; and specifically during President Obama’s time in office it has dropped to an average of just over 1 percent.

In the decade from 1981 to 1990, according to the BEA, average annual growth in real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 3.36 percent. In the decade from 1991 to 2000, average annual growth in real GDP was 3.45 percent. In the twenty years from 1981 to 2000, average annual growth in real GDP was 3.405 percent.

By contrast, in the decade from 2001 to 2010, average annual growth in real GDP was only 1.67 percent, and, so far, in the 21st century (from 2001 through 2012), average annual growth in real GDP has been only 1.775 percent.

During just the years that President Barack Obama has been in office (2009 through 2012), average annual growth in real GDP has been only 1.075 percent.

Via: CNS News

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MSNBC’s James Peterson ‘More Concerned’ With Republican Legislatures Than Ku Klux Klan

Folks in Springfield, MO got an unwelcome surprise over the weekend when the Ku Klux Klan dropped “Neighborhood Watch” flyersattached to rocks on residents’ lawns. The leaflets featured an illustration of a hooded klansman (not sure where Geraldo is on that), and urged residents to call their toll-free “Klanline,” which is presumably also listed in the White Pages. From The Grio:

The flyers were discovered by residents on Sunday morning, who woke up to find the piece of paper in a plastic bag and weighted down by a small rockreports KY3 News.

The flyer, which shows an image of a masked and hooded Klansman, was made in attempt to recruit members of the community to launching a neighborhood watch program.

“Are there troubles in your neighborhood? Contact the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan today!” it says. “You can sleep tonight knowing the Klan is awake!”

One resident, Steven Burchett said he was “furious” when he came across the flyer in his front yard.

MSNBC contributor Dr. James Peterson wasn’t all that impressed, telling Martin Bashir that “I’m less concerned about the KKK, and more concerned about Republican legislatures and other political officials trying to block or impede access to the polls.”

“I’m also concerned about conservative commentators and others who want to talk about cultural depravity as one of the sort of ruling reasons for the decline of a city like Detroit,” he added.

Peterson’s comment is as much a comment on the (fortunately) pathetic state of the Klan as anything else. While still a potent symbol of a terrifying past that continues to reach into our present, organizationally, the Klan is a shell of its former self, fragmented and devoted to a doomed grasp at respectability. They’re about as scary as a rogue book club. As Peterson notes, however, Republicans have, with mixed success, conducted an all-out assault on voting rights that shows no sign of letting up, and commentators have been conducting a dangerous propaganda campaignagainst urban black communities.

Via: Mediaite

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5 Ways Liberalism Destroyed Detroit

"Does anybody think it's OK to have 40-year-old trees growing through the roofs of dilapidated houses?" -- Detroit's Emergency ManagerKevyn Orr

"A few years ago, the nonpartisan Bay Area Center for Voting Research rated Detroit as the most liberal city in America." -- Michael Tanner

Detroit was once one of the world's great cities. It was the 4th largest metropolis in America, jobs were plentiful because of the auto industry, and Motown even kept it on the cutting edge musically.

Unfortunately, from 1962 until the present day, the mayor of Detroit has been a Democrat.

The result?

Detroit's population has dropped from 1.8 million to just over 700,000, the unemployment rate is over 50% if you count the people who've given up on finding jobs, property values have dropped so much you can buy homes in the crime-ridden city for $500, and Detroit has gone bankrupt.

How did Democrats kill one of the most prosperous cities in America? With the same sort of unfettered liberalism that Democrats like Barack Obama, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi want to foist on the rest of the nation.

Via: Townhall

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New EPA chief: Can everybody please “stop talking about environmental regulations killing jobs?”

BOSTON — The new head of the Environmental Protection Agency told an audience at Harvard Law School on Tuesday that cutting carbon pollution will “feed the economic agenda of this country” and vowed to work with industry leaders on shaping policies aimed at curbing global warming.

“Climate change will not be resolved overnight,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told the 310-member audience. “But it will be engaged over the next three years. That I can promise you.”

McCarthy made a full-throated defense of her agency’s right to address greenhouse-gas emissions and other pollutants, saying that air-quality regulations and environmental cleanup efforts have already produced economic benefits in the United States.

“Can we stop talking about environmental regulations killing jobs, please?” she asked, prompting loud applause. “We need to embrace cutting-edge technology as a way to spark business innovation.”

She also made a joke of her strong Boston accent by repeating, “And I said, ‘spaahrk.’ ” McCarthy also joked about the challenge she faced in getting her post, calling her confirmation “the honor of a lifetime.”

“That’s a very good thing, because I swear it took two lifetimes to get confirmed,” she said.

The speech represented a homecoming for McCarthy, a Boston area native, who was introduced by her  27-year-old daughter, Maggie McCarey, a program coordinator at the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources.

McCarthy, a veteran of Republican administrations in Massachusetts and Connecticut, has spent much of the past four years at the EPA shepherding through air regulations, which have come under attack from business groups for helping shut down power plants. Her nomination to succeed former EPA administrator Lisa P. Jackson dragged on for more than four months as several GOP senators used the pick as a way to highlight their problems with President Obama’s environmental agenda.

Via: The Washington Post

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