George Will: ‘Of course I want Obamacare to fail’

Washington Post columnist George Will said he wants Obamacare to fail, pointing the impossibility of controlling 1/6th of the economy with central planning after his co-panelist Juan Williams declared Republicans did not want the law to work.

Williams accused Will and his other co-panelists on this weekend’s “Fox News Sunday” during the show’s online-only “Panel Plus” segment of “schadenfreude” in voicing their reactions to the failure the HealthCare.gov launch.

“[Y]ou know, I just think there is a lot of schadenfreude on the panel this morning,” Williams said. “ And people, ‘Oh yeah, you know, isn’t it terrible — oh my gosh, Obamacare is having trouble.’ Come on, Republicans don’t want this thing to work. That’s the bottom line here. That’s the reality here.”

Later, Will predicted the demise of Obamacare and said he wanted the law to fail for fear of how it will further change Washington, D.C. as the central focus of power in the United States.

“Oh, it will end,” Will said. “Because in fact what they’re trying to do is micromanage 1/6th of the American economy. What we have learned throughout the 20th century is in fact the micromanagement, central planning of complex societies doesn’t work.”

“I want to assure brother Williams that there is no schadenfreude because I’m not even pretending to be sorrowful,” Will continued. “Of course I want Obamacare to fail, because if it doesn’t fail, it will just further entangle American society with a government that is not up to this. For 100 years, Juan, the narratives of progressives from Woodrow Wilson on, is that progress will come if and only if we concentrate more and more power in Washington, more and more Washington power in the executive branch and more executive power in the hands of experts — disinterested experts such as those who designed HealthCare.gov.”

Via: Daily Caller

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World’s anger at Obama policies goes beyond Europe and the NSA Published: October 25, 2013

WASHINGTON — Whether miffed over spying revelations or feeling sold out by U.S. moves in the Middle East, some of the United States’ closest allies are so upset that the Obama administration has gone into damage-control mode to ensure the rifts don’t widen and threaten critical partnerships.

The quarrels differ in their causes and degrees of seriousness. As a whole, however, they pose a new foreign policy headache for an administration whose overseas track record is seen in many quarters at home and abroad as reactive and lacking direction.

In Europe and the Middle East, rifts that once would’ve been quietly smoothed over have exploded into headlines and public remonstrations.

The uproar in Europe over revelations from fugitive former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that the United States spied on as many as 35 government leaders, including Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, has become so great that early Friday 28 European leaders said Merkel and French President Francois Hollande would open negotiations with the United States over a “no-spying agreement.”

Via: McClatchy.com

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Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/10/25/206552/worlds-anger-at-obama-policies.html#storylink=cpy

Rubio: Piecemeal Approach to Immigration the Way to Go

Via: You Tube

Keystone Foes Pledge Sit-Ins If Pipeline Advances

Critics of the Keystone XL pipeline say they’re still optimistic President Barack Obama will block TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s planned $5.3 billion link between the oil sands in Alberta and refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Just to be sure, they’re organizing a nationwide civil-disobedience campaign to keep up the pressure should the U.S. State Department recommend Obama approve the project.

Enlarge image

Activists stage a sit-in and protest against the Keystone XL pipeline outside the U.S. State Department in Washington, on Aug. 12, 2013. Photographer: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Rainforest Action Network, Credo Action and the Other 98% have convinced about 76,000 volunteers to sign a “pledge to resistance.” In doing so, Keystone opponents are joining anti-nuclear activists and others who have used sit-ins and other forms of non-violent protest over the years to bring publicity to a cause.

“We believe that whether or not this pipeline is built is in President Obama’s hands and his alone,” Elijah Zarlin, senior campaign manager for advocacy group Credo Action, said. “We will engage in peaceful and dignified sit-ins if necessary to urge him to reject Keystone XL.”

The push highlights how the fight over Keystone, now in its sixth year, shows no sign of abating as both sides await the release of a final environmental impact statement from the State Department that will estimate Keystone’s impact on greenhouse gas emissions. After that, the agency, which has jurisdiction because Keystone crosses the border, must determine if the pipeline is in the national interest before Obama’s final decision.

Via: Bloomberg

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Woodward: "Secret" Government Under Obama Administration Needs To Be Reviewed

BOB SCHIEFFER: What is so interesting, Bob Woodward, and you know, you and I have seen a lot of these things. 

BOB WOODWARD: Too much.

SCHIEFFER: The first thing that agencies tend to do is try to make sure they can't be blamed for something. And, clearly, that is why the FBI and the CIA did not come clean with the Warren commission, and why maybe they didn't even tell the agents in Dallas what was going on.

WOODWARD: Well, initially, in the Watergate cover-up, part of the argument was, 'Oh, you'll expose convert operations in Mexico,' because they were laundering $89,000 of money that helped finance Watergate. I think there's a theme here in all of this that you have laid out that connects somewhat to what's going on now. And that is the power of this secret world -- CIA, FBI -- particularly in what you've looked at, Phil, the assassination plots against Castro. I mean, it's stunning, and this information really didn't get to the Warren commission. And it's not saying that Castro did it, but that there's all this secrecy and the people at the top or the people investigating the commission does not get the evidence.

We look now at what's going on with all the NSA wiretapping and people saying, 'Well, they didn't know, or they did know.' It clearly is much more extensive than people expected. You connect this with the drone strikes in Pakistan, and Yemen, which is our government conducting regular assassinations by air. You know, what's -- what's going on here? Who is in control of it? And who can find out? You know, I think -- it's in the New York Times this morning that there is a review that Susan Rice, the National Security Adviser for Obama, has done on Mid-East policy. They need to review this secret world and its power in their government because you run into this rats nest of concealment and lies time and time again, then and now.

Via: Real Clear Politics

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Issa: Obama Needs to Fire Officials Over Obamacare Failure

If someone isn't fired over the Obamacare implementation debacle, then President Barack Obama is "missing the point of Management 101," says Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California.

"The president has been poorly served in the implementation of his own signature legislation," Issa said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation." 

Asked specifically if he meant Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius should resign, Issa said that if she can't reorganize and assemble a team to meet Obama's agenda, "she shouldn't be there."

Sebelius said last week in an interview with CNN's Sanjay Gupta that she wasn't aware of the website's problems before it went live on Oct. 1. Issa wants to know why she didn't know.
Sebelius declined to testify last Thursday, citing a scheduling conflict, but is set to testify Wednesday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. 

Using an iceberg analogy, Issa said his committee is looking for "quick answers" to straighten out as much of the "above the water" issues, such as the website glitches.

He also wants to address the 90 percent of the problems below the water. Those include 2,500 counties – 58 percent – that have only one or two companies bidding to provide health insurance.

It's "a question of cost and benefit" to people, Issa said.

Via: Newsmax

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Chat Roulette - Meet Your Friendly Obamacare Navigators

Say what you will about the long wait times, rampant errors, and frozen screens, the human face of Healthcare.gov is committed to serving its constituency.

I’m not talking about Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius or CGI Federal executive Cheryl Campbell. No, I’m talking about Liliana, Summer, Patricia, and Erain — some of the customer service reps who handle Healthcare.gov inquiries.

I spent four hours chatting with these lovely ladies and other faceless navigators on Wednesday to address common concerns about the decidedly user-un-friendly website. I don’t have any concerns, so I made them up. Here’s what I found.

You know that serving us is their top priority because every webchat begins the same way.

[12:59:10 pm]: Welcome! You’re now connected to Health Insurance Marketplace Live Chat.

Thanks for contacting us. My name is Liliana. To protect your privacy, please don’t provide any personal information, like Social Security Number, or any other sensitive medical or personal information.

[1:00:06 pm]: BillyHi Liliana, my name’s Billy, Social Security # 742-59-*****, I have hemorrhoids. 

[1:00:44 pm]: Billy 
You guys really cut to the chase

[1:02:17 pm]: Liliana 
Sir Im gonna ask you to please not put any personal information on this chat please.

She told me to log off the chat to delete my information. I thanked my sage navigator and received a genuine “Your welcome.”

Via: WFB

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Obamacare Heading Into a Death Spiral

It was the most succinct -- and graphic -- analysis yet offered of the political implications of the Obamacare rollout.

"There's no way Democrats can spin this ----," said comedian Jon Stewart. That it was Mr. Stewart who said this is significant, because he has a big following among healthy young people, who must sign up for Obamacare in the millions to keep what so far has been mostly farce from becoming a fiasco.

And he was spot on. Most of the "mainstream" media have treated Democratic spin as news, and -- if it reflected poorly on the Obama administration -- played down or ignored genuine news.

The media shield has protected the president from failures in foreign policy, in which most Americans have little knowledge and less interest, and has limited blowback from scandals which most Americans don't think concern them.

But no amount of spin can cloak reality for Americans whose health insurance policy has been canceled, or whose premiums have doubled. Those who've spent hours fruitlessly trying to access Obamacare websites find it harder to believe the president is on top of things, his administration competent.

Obamacare screwups are too big, too obvious, too close to home for journalists to ignore. Despite the welcome distraction of the government "shutdown" -- whose mostly imaginary consequences could be blamed on Republicans -- more negative stories have been written and broadcast about the Obama administration in the last three weeks than ever before.

And now, with the "shutdown" over, Obamacare's botched rollout is the No. 1 story.

Most media attention has been directed at the "glitches" which cause Obamacare websites to crash under volumes of traffic many blogs handle with ease. They won't be fixed for months, IT experts say. If the sites aren't up and running by the middle of November, it'll be all but impossible to sign up enough people to keep Obamacare from going into a financial "death spiral." But IT problems are the least of Obamacare's troubles.

Via: Real Clear Politics

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#Obamacare watch: How the Democrats threw a pregnant woman off her insurance.

All in the name of “helping” her, of course.

Fullerton resident Jennifer Harris thought she had a great deal, paying $98 a month for an individual plan through Health Net Inc. She got a rude surprise this month when the company said it would cancel her policy at the end of this year. Her current plan does not conform with the new federal rules, which require more generous levels of coverage.

Now Harris, a self-employed lawyer, must shop for replacement insurance. The cheapest plan she has found will cost her $238 a month. She and her husband don’t qualify for federal premium subsidies because they earn too much money, about $80,000 a year combined.

“It doesn’t seem right to make the middle class pay so much more in order to give health insurance to everybody else,” said Harris, who is three months pregnant. “This increase is simply not affordable.”

This is in California, which means that Ms. Harris probably votes Democratic. You know what? It doesn’t matter. It is precisely those people that the Republican party must stand up for, because it is absolutely true that the Democrats have not, and will not. And that’s because those Democrats clearlythink that it be better that any number of pregnant women have their premiums more than doubled, than the Democratic party admit that their leadership made a tragic mistake.

From the top, down. Barack Obama, when you said “If you like your plan, you can keep it” – why didn’t you include the clause “Except for Jennifer Harris, of course”? Too scared?

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Obviously, none of our readers here are so nyeh kulturny as to be indifferent to the troubles of a pregnant woman. In case any of those people wander in, however, let me note this: unharden your hearts. These people are having enough problems with a cruel and indifferent Democratic party; what they need right now is the Open Hand, not the Closed Fist.

Via: Red State

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OBAMACARE: YOUR TAX DOLLARS NOW FUND ABORTION

In the public relations push for his takeover of the American health care system, President Obama promised that those who like their insurance could keep it, premiums would decrease, and no one would lose their doctor. We know now those were all lies told repeatedly and never questioned by a media that is still looking the other way. Another promise Obama made was that ObamaCare would not fund abortions. LifeNews reports that this was also a lie:

The ObamaCare statute specifically requires the issuers of Exchange plans that cover abortion to “collect from each enrollee in the plan” a “separate payment” for the type of abortions for which funding is prohibited under the Hyde Amendment (which is all abortions other than in cases of life of the mother, rape, or incest) and a separate payment for all other services. [42 U.S.C. 18023(b)]. These separate payments are then to be deposited into separate accounts.

During the regulatory process, commenters questioned HHS on how this was to be implemented, and according to HHS, the commenters “recommended that HHS clarify . . . whether [Exchange plan] issuers may satisfy the separate payment provision by providing each enrollee with an itemized bill, and whether an enrollee’s coverage would be terminated for failure to comply with the separate payment provision.” Rather than doing so, HHS merely said that the comments would be taken into consideration in any future guidance. [77 Fed. Reg. 18430 (March 27, 2012)].

Now, despite the clear language of the ObamaCare statute, it appears that the separate check requirement is not going to be enforced by the Obama Administration. Gretchen Borchelt, director of state reproductive health policy at the National Women’s Law Center, told the Huffington Post that “we used to talk about it as being two checks that the consumer would have to write because of the segregation requirements, but that’s not the way it’s being implemented.” (Huffington Post, Sept. 3, 2013).

Likewise, a spokeswoman for Rhode Island’s Exchange told PolitiFact Rhode Island that “the customer is not billed a separate fee.” (Politifact, Oct. 2, 2013. The Rhode Island Exchange will handle the billing, not the plan issuers). As PolitiFact notes, “it turns out to be a hidden fee.”

There is nothing the media is willing to make Obama pay a political price for. Not even repeatedly lying to millions who are about to lose their insurance or forcing people to violate their conscience over the abomination of abortion.

Via: Breitbart

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A black box in your car? Some see a source of tax revenue

The devices would track every mile you drive —possibly including your location — and the government would use the data to draw up a tax bill.

WASHINGTON — As America's road planners struggle to find the cash to mend a crumbling highway system, many are beginning to see a solution in a little black box that fits neatly by the dashboard of your car.

The devices, which track every mile a motorist drives and transmit that information to bureaucrats, are at the center of a controversial attempt in Washington and state planning offices to overhaul the outdated system for funding America's major roads.

The usually dull arena of highway planning has suddenly spawned intense debate and colorful alliances. Libertarianshave joined environmental groups in lobbying to allow government to use the little boxes to keep track of the miles you drive, and possibly where you drive them — then use the information to draw up a tax bill.

PHOTOS: Kelley Blue Book's 10 best 'green' cars

The tea party is aghast. The American Civil Liberties Union is deeply concerned, too, raising a variety of privacy issues.

And while Congress can't agree on whether to proceed, several states are not waiting. They are exploring how, over the next decade, they can move to a system in which drivers pay per mile of road they roll over. Thousands of motorists have already taken the black boxes, some of which have GPS monitoring, for a test drive.

"This really is a must for our nation. It is not a matter of something we might choose to do," said Hasan Ikhrata, executive director of the Southern California Assn. of Governments, which is planning for the state to start tracking miles driven by every California motorist by 2025. "There is going to be a change in how we pay these taxes. The technology is there to do it."

Via: LA Times

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Rush Limbaugh’s Guide To Dodging ObamaCare Tax Penalty

Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh says he’s discovered a sure-fire way to skirt Obamacare’s penalties for failing to obtain health coverage next year – but you’d have to give up a fat tax refund.

The fine for failing to obtain insurance under the so-called “individual mandate,” which starts at $95 or one percent of taxable income next year, will automatically be collected by the IRS from tax refunds. But if you make sure you don’t get a refund, the agency won’t be able to collect the penalty, Limbaugh told listeners.

“[I]f you structure your taxes so that you do not get a refund, you do not have to buy insurance and you do not have to pay a fine ‘cause they can’t collect it from you if you don’t have a refund due — and that is just another nail in the coffin of Obamacare imploding on itself,” Limbaugh said on his show Thursday night, according to a transcript.

Problems have plagued the website for individuals to sign up for coverage since it went live on Oct. 1 , a controversy now consuming Obama administration officials.

(Understanding Obamacare: POLITICO's guide to the Affordable Care Act)

Experts say Limbaugh is correct on one point: The IRS lacks teeth in enforcing the individual mandate. The Affordable Care Act prohibits it from using liens or levies to collect the penalties, tools the agency regularly employs to collect other unpaid taxes. Nor can it criminally prosecute anyone for failing to pay up.

“One would need to make sure that he/she is not due a refund … [T]he point Limbaugh makes about refund filers, while a bit coarse, is true,” said Robert Kerr, senior director of government relations at the National Association of Enrolled Agents.

But the fines can build up, with interest, so ignoring the penalties could come back to haunt negligent taxpayers, some experts said.

Via: Politico

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