Thursday, January 9, 2014

Obama: Bloated Social Welfare Programs Are What Makes America A “Great Country”…



President Obama on Wednesday marked the 50th anniversary of former President Lyndon Baines Johnson's "war on poverty" address by arguing government programs on education, healthcare and jobs have had a positive impact on the nation.
"These endeavors didn’t just make us a better country. They reaffirmed that we are a great country," Obama said in a statement. "They lived up to our best hopes as a people who value the dignity and potential of every human being."
Obama credited programs like Social Security, Medicare and the Earned Income Tax Credit with lifting millions of people from poverty and preventing millions more from experiencing economic distress.
But the president also declared that the nation's work to provide a safety net is "far from over," and called on lawmakers to "redouble" efforts on the economy through an expansion of entitlement programs, government initiatives and raising the minimum wage.
"For all that has changed in the 50 years since President Johnson dedicated us to this economic and moral mission, one constant of our character has not: we are one nation and one people, and we rise or fall together," Obama said.
The anniversary of Johnson's speech dovetails with a renewed emphasis from the White House on the president's economic agenda ahead of this month's State of the Union address.
On Tuesday, the president pleaded with Congress to pass legislation that would restore emergency unemployment benefits to 1.3 million people during a speech at the White House. The measure, aided partially after the president personally lobbied swing Republicans in a series of phone calls, passed a crucial test vote in the Senate on Tuesday, although a steep climb remains for final passage.
The White House also announced Wednesday that the president would designate five "Promise Zones" — persistently impoverished communities that the government would help through tax incentives, housing assistance and education grants.
Via: The Hill

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Wednesday, January 8, 2014

[CARTOON] Jerry Brown’s “Balanced Budget”

Where's the Media Outrage? Virginia Democrat Compares Republicans to Violent Rapists

In an outrageous ad aired on the local Washington D.C. NBC affiliate WRC-4, Virginia Democratic state senate candidate Jennifer Wexton – running to replace newly elected Virginia attorney general Mark Herring – made a shocking comparison between violent rapists that she once tried as a prosecutor to "Tea Party Republicans" in the Virginia legislature. [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

After describing women being assaulted and "traumatized again by facing the criminal in court," Wexton made this declaration: "...as a prosecutor I put violent offenders in prison. In the Virginia Senate, I'll fight just as hard against Tea Party Republicans who would take away a woman's health care and her right to choose, even in cases of rape and incest."When will the media seize on this ad and bemoan the lack of civility in politics? Something they delight in doing when conservatives are the offenders.

In fact, when NBC political director Chuck Todd was recently confronted with Democrats' abortion fearmongering during the 2013 Virginia governor's race, he excused the party's increasingly over-the-top rhetoric: "What campaigns aren't about scaring some voters?"

It appears that Ms. Wexton took that to heart.
Here is a transcript of Wexton's campaign ad:
A woman assaulted at night by the reservoir. Another by an intruder who forced his way in through her bedroom window. And for so many, traumatized again by facing the criminal in court.

I'm Jennifer Wexton and as a prosecutor I put violent offenders in prison. In the Virginia Senate, I'll fight just as hard against Tea Party Republicans who would take away a woman's health care and her right to choose, even in cases of rape and incest. On election day, help me stand up for her.
Via: Newsbusters

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Millionaire Obama: I Hate Income Inequality

 Back from his $4 million Hawaii vacation, President Barack Obama seems poised to sound the populist trumpet in an effort to turn the page on 2013’s disastrous Obamacare rollout.
Many pundits are speculating that Obama, seeing the popularity of liberal populists like New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio, will use the current debate over unemployment insurance to engage in more divisive rhetoric:
The Obama administration has set the stage for a push that could rekindle cries of class warfare -- calling for renewed long-term unemployment benefits, a minimum wage increase and a campaign against what Democrats call "income inequality."
Ahead of his multi-week, holiday vacation in Hawaii, President Obama pushed Congress to move forward on extending federal unemployment benefits that weren't included in the budget deal Senate Democrats and House Republicans struck to fund the federal government for the next two years. The White House has scheduled an East Room event on Tuesday in which the president will appear with people who lost that insurance.
On Tuesday, that's precisely what Obama did, trotting out unemployed people to push for another boost to unemployment benefits, and citing income inequality as the rationale.
One potential challenge for the President’s prospective populist push is his own family’s affluence. Despite the President’s public lowering of his own salary, the Obamas' tax returns show a family whose incomes would routinely place them in the highest bracket, with lucrative income streams outside of the White House. Last year, however, the Obama family paid an effective tax rate of only 18 percent.

Health Care Law 31% Expect Health Care To Improve Under New Law

Voters continue to give their own health care high marks but remain critical of the overall health care system in this country. For the first time in nearly a year, however, fewer than 50% expect the health care system to get worse under Obamacare.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 34% of Likely U.S. Voters consider the U.S. health care system to be good or excellent. Nearly as many (31%) rate the system as poor. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Positive views of the overall health care system have ranged from 32% to 43% in regular surveys since November 2012, while the system has earned poor marks from 19% to 31% in the same period.

But 81% rate the quality of the health care they personally receive as good or excellent, while just five percent (5%) view that care as poor. That’s consistent with surveying for well over a year.

Thirty-one percent (31%) of voters now think the U.S. health care system is likely to get better under the new national health care law, the highest level of optimism to date. Forty-eight (48%) believe it’s more likely to get worse, but that’s down eight points from 56% a month ago and the least pessimistic finding since February of last year. Thirteen percent (13%) think the health care system will stay about the same.

Last week, though, for the second month in a row, 51% of voters said they expect the quality of health care to worsen under the new law. Most voters also still dislike Obamacare and expect it to increase health care costs.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.Voters continue to give their own health care high marks but remain critical of the overall health care system in this country. For the first time in nearly a year, however, fewer than 50% expect the health care system to get worse under Obamacare.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 34% of Likely U.S. Voters consider the U.S. health care system to be good or excellent. Nearly as many (31%) rate the system as poor. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Positive views of the overall health care system have ranged from 32% to 43% in regular surveys since November 2012, while the system has earned poor marks from 19% to 31% in the same period.

But 81% rate the quality of the health care they personally receive as good or excellent, while just five percent (5%) view that care as poor. That’s consistent with surveying for well over a year.

Thirty-one percent (31%) of voters now think the U.S. health care system is likely to get better under the new national health care law, the highest level of optimism to date. Forty-eight (48%) believe it’s more likely to get worse, but that’s down eight points from 56% a month ago and the least pessimistic finding since February of last year. Thirteen percent (13%) think the health care system will stay about the same.

Last week, though, for the second month in a row, 51% of voters said they expect the quality of health care to worsen under the new law. Most voters also still dislike Obamacare and expect it to increase health care costs.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on January 4, 2014 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on January 4, 2014 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.



Study: Walmart Health Plans Better than Obamacare


 Walmart is offering better and cheaper healthcare insurance coverage for its more than one million employees than plans competing under Obamacare, the Washington Examiner reports.

A comparison by the newspaper found that Walmart's plans are more affordable and provide better access to doctors and hospitals than the plans offered under the Affordable Care Act.

The Examiner asked health policy experts and independent insurance agents affiliated with the National Association of Health Underwriters to study the plans to see which, if any, were better.

Walmart has two plans from Blue Cross Blue Shield — one called the Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) and another it calls HRA High, which cost employees more but have lower deductibles. Individuals can receive coverage for as little as $40 a month while a family plan costs about $160 a month. 

The Walmart plans, which are offered to 1.1 million enrolled employees, differ from Obamacare in that age and gender do not affect premium rates and there are no income eligibility requirements. 

A Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) analysis found that unsubsidized Obamacare enrollees will face monthly premiums five to nine times higher than Walmart premiums.

According to the JAMA report, the monthly unsubsidized Obamacare premium for married 60-year-old non-smokers can cost $1,365 compared to Walmart's premium of just $134 for the same couple. The report also said an unsubsidized premium under Obamacare for a 30-year-old single smoker would cost $428 a month, compared to $70 monthly for Walmart employees.

The Times said researchers also found that Walmart staff can use eight of the nation's leading hospitals for heart and back surgery, including the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic, which the department store chain calls "Centers of Excellence."

Walmart employees can also get free hip and knee replacements at four other hospitals nationwide. But none of these hospitals are included in most of the plans obtained through Obamacare's exchanges.

Robert Slayton, an independent Chicago insurance agent and former president of the Illinois State Association of Health Underwriters, noted that the number of doctors and hospitals available in Chicago under Obamacare is very limited when compared to Walmart's plans.

“You will notice there are 9,837 doctors [under Obamacare]. But the larger [Walmart] network is 24,904 doctors. Huge, huge difference,” he said.

The healthcare plans offered by the company have been attacked by unions and other groups for providing "substandard" benefits. But Gail Wilensky, who was in charge of President George W. Bush's Health Care Financing Administration, said, “It’s a lot better program than people, I think, might assume without looking, just because Walmart has gotten such a bad reputation by some of the labor groups and other groups for its general activities.” 


Via: Gold Is Money
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These two wind turbines will take four centuries to pay for themselves

These two wind turbines will take four centuries to pay for themselves
One British town is in the renewable energy game for the long run — literally. The town bought two wind turbines that will take more than four centuries to pay for themselves.
The BBC reports that the two wind turbines installed in the English town of Rushcliffe will not likely produce any financial benefits for the town. Rushcliffe spent nearly $50,000 in 2004 installing the wind turbines at a county park, which doesn’t actually get much wind.
“Due to higher than anticipated maintenance costs and relatively low generation rates, it is unlikely the council will make a financial saving within the anticipated lifespan of the turbine,” said the Rushcliffe Borough Council.
The wind turbines’ poor location and mechanical problems mean that it only produced 477 kilowatt hours in 2012 and 2013. Last year, the turbine only generated about $121 worth of power, meaning that it would take 405 years for them to pay for themselves.
The Rushcliffe council, however, contended that the “meter wasn’t operating properly” and that the two turbines usually produce 3,478 kilowatt hours annually — which would still mean a 55-year payback period.
This information was obtained by the UK Telegraph as part of an in-depth investigation on how the towns all across the United Kingdom are spending millions of dollars on wind turbines that are faulty and don’t generate enough revenue to pay for themselves.
“Some turbines generate so little energy they would take hundreds of years to repay their original value,” Telegraph reported. “Experts argue that the failure of some wind turbines to recoup their value shows how small wind turbines are a poor way to generate renewable energy.”
Only three out of a handful of the towns that responded to the Telegraph’s inquiries had wind turbines with payback periods under ten years.
Via: Daily Caller

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Brit Hume's AWESOME Takedown of Obama: The Jobless Benefits Push Is an Admission of Your Own Failure

Hume: Jobless benefits push an admission of WH 'failure'?
Fox Senior Political analyst Brit Hume sounds off on the political implications of jobless benefits extension fight

======================================================================

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Senior political analyst, Brit Hume, has some thoughts tonight on the political and practical fallout from the fight over the jobless benefits. Good evening, Brit.
BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hello, Bret. The administration's appeal for a further extension of unemployment benefits may succeed in putting Congressional Republicans in a tight spot if they resist. In that sense, it may be a shrewd political move, yet embedded in it is an extraordinary acknowledgment of failure by the president and his party.
We're now four and a half years into an economic recovery that Democrats keep telling us is getting better all the time, yet, the job market remains so weak, the jobless rate so high that the president considers it an emergency. Indeed, that is the official name of these extended benefits, emergency unemployment compensation. Normally, unemployment payments run out after 26 weeks, but that was extended five years ago to 99 weeks and has been repeatedly extended since.
Now though, it's running out for an estimated 1.3 million people. No one is arguing that these benefits should go on forever, and the White House notes it is only asking for another three more months at a cost of about $6 billion. So, will that be the end of it? Will the emergency at last be over? All Obama advisor, Gene Sperling, would say today is that three months would provide time to discuss what to do for the rest of the year.
Upon taking office, the president and the party set two big goals. One was to revive the economy, the other to reform health care. The Obamacare mess tells us where we are on one, the call for further unemployment payments tells us where we are on the other -- Bret.
BAIER: Well, the White House denies this, but what about this as a political tool and what are the prospects of jobless benefits getting through this Congress?
HUME: Well, if the administration and the Democrats are willing to find some offsets -- another spending to cover the cost of these extended unemployment benefits, my guess is it sells through. If they don't, Republicans at least have a talking point to counter the administration's argument that they once again typical Republicans are being hard-hearted and not showing sufficient compassion to downtrodden and those who are out of work.
I still think the issue has some mileage for the president and his party, particularly, if the Republicans resist, but I don't think it overcomes the other issues that I mentioned earlier.
BAIER: Okay, Brit, thank you.
HUME: You bet.

[CARTOON] Global Warming Irony

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Tuesday, January 7, 2014

2014: Obamacare Puts Down Roots for the Long Haul

Reagan Entitlements-capitol
Yes, Obamacare has raised premiums, caused people to lose their health coverage, raised taxes, and more. But on January 1, Obamacare started digging in for the long haul: putting down the deep roots of entitlement programs.
Entitlements—like the big three of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—are the biggest causes of America’s spending and debt crisis. And Obamacare creates a new entitlement program while expanding another.
The creation of a new entitlement: Taxpayer-funded subsidies for millions of Americans
Obamacare created insurance exchanges to sell and subsidize government-approved health care plans. Most of those who attain coverage through the exchanges will have their costs partially subsidized by federal taxpayers.
By 2023, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that 24 million people will obtain coverage in the exchanges, 19 million of whom are expected to receive subsidies. CBO estimates that together, the subsidies will cost taxpayers nearly $1.1 trillion from 2014-2023.
Who can get a subsidy?
  • Those earning between 100 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level ($11,490 to $45,960 for individuals and $23,550 to $94,200 for a family of four in 2013) will be eligible for premium subsidies that are applied on a sliding scale, with the lowest income receiving the highest premium subsidy.
  • Those who purchase a silver plan in the exchange and earn between 100 percent and 250 percent of the federal poverty level are eligible for cost-sharing subsidies to help offset their out-of-pocket costs, in addition to the premium subsidy.

New record: Feds issued 56 regs for every new law, 3,659 in 2013

red tape
The Obama administration made up for the lack of laws passed in Congress last year, issuing a whopping 3,659 rules regulations, crushing claims that Washington isn't doing anything.
Only 65 public laws were signed by President Obama in 2013, meaning that his government issued an average of 56 new regulations for every one, a record high ratio, according to the annual analysis by the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
The surge in regulations has led critics to charge that Congress is now a bystander to federal regulatory agencies
Said CEI’s Wayne Crews, who provided Secrets with his new analysis, “The deterioration of the Constitution’s separation of, and balance of, powers means that regulators and bureaucrats now make most laws. Congress is so 1789, after all. The executive branch increasingly imposes its will: President Obama and his administration repeatedly say they are not going to wait for Congress, so brace yourselves.”
Crews' chart, which he titles the “Unconstitutionality Index,” shows that in four of Obama's five years as president, his ratio of regulations to new laws has been higher than any of former President George W. Bush.
It also shows that Congress hit a 10-year low in passing laws in 2013. But the number of new regulations to support those laws was about average.

OBAMACARE TRANSPARENCY BILL SET FOR FRIDAY VOTE

Growing questions about President Barack Obama and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius's mismanagement of the unpopularObamacare program have prompted a House vote this Friday on a pivotal bill that would provide greater transparency by requiring weekly HHS reports on the status of HealthCare.gov.

The Exchange Information Disclosure Act (H.R. 3362) would require Sebelius to regularly report the number of paying Obamacare enrollees, Healthcare.gov metrics, Medicaid enrollments, and basic demographic data to monitor Obamacare's problems and viability. Senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee Rep. Lee Terry(R-NE) authored the bill.
"This is about practicality, not politics," said Terry. "The American people have a right to know what's happening with their health care coverage."
Committee vice chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) agrees. "It's well past time the administration be transparent and upfront with the American people." 
Friday's vote on the measure comes as management experts, government watchdog groups, and members of Congress raise serious questions about Obamacare's calamitous implementation. Politico reported last week that several management experts blasted Obama and Sebelius for their lack of executive management and oversight during the three-and-a-half years leading up to Obamacare's disastrous unveiling. 
"No one asked you to write code or be a technical expert," Kellogg School of Management professor Daniel Diermeier told Politico, "but the expectation is you can set up a process. Companies do it every day." 
A Government Accountability Institute (GAI) report featured by Politico made headlines when it revealed that the official White House calendar and the Politico presidential calendar record a single one-on-one meeting between Obama and Sebelius in the over three-and-a-half years leading up to the Oct. 1 Obamacare launch.

White House Defends Joe Biden Against Book By Former Defense Secretary

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration defended Vice President Joe Biden Tuesday after former Obama Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrote that the vice president “has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”
The quote comes from an upcoming memoir by Gates, who also served as defense secretary under George W. Bush, the president who nominated him to replace Donald Rumsfeld, and worked in many other administrations. Excerpts from the book in The New York Times and Washington Post paint a picture of Gates as frustrated by Obama administration control over the national security space.
In a statement by National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden Tuesday, the Obama administration pushed back on the excerpts and defended Biden.
“The president disagrees with Secretary Gates’ assessment — from his leadership on the Balkans in the Senate, to his efforts to end the war in Iraq, Joe Biden has been one of the leading statesmen of his time, and has helped advance America’s leadership in the world,” she said. “President Obama relies on his good counsel every day.”
Read the full statement:

“The president deeply appreciates Bob Gates’ service as secretary of defense, and his lifetime of service to our country. Deliberations over our policy on Afghanistan have been widely reported on over the years, and it is well known that the President has been committed to achieving the mission of disrupting, dismantling and defeating al Qaeda, while also ensuring that we have a clear plan for winding down the war, which will end this year. As has always been the case, the president welcomes differences of view among his national security team, which broaden his options and enhance our policies. The president wishes Secretary Gates well as he recovers from his recent injury, and discusses his book.”

“The president disagrees with Secretary Gates’ assessment – from his leadership on the Balkans in the Senate, to his efforts to end the war in Iraq, Joe Biden has been one of the leading statesmen of his time, and has helped advance America’s leadership in the world. President Obama relies on his good counsel every day.”
Via: Buzz Feed:

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Friday, January 3, 2014

Bill DeBlasio, Clintons Make Political Marriage Official

featured-imgNew York City’s newest mayor, Bill de Blasio, was sworn into office in the first moments of the new year with the blessing of some very important friends seated in the front row: Bill and Hillary Clinton.

The former president and the Democrats’ greatest hope to run for president in 2016 have a long history with de Blasio. And they’ve drawn upon that history to help pave the way for New York City’s first Democratic, and most progressive, mayor in more than 20 years.

Bill Clinton further cemented the relationship with a symbolic swearing-in ceremony of de Blasio today.

“I strongly endorse Bill de Blasio’s core campaign commitment that we have to have a city of shared opportunities shared prosperity shared responsibilities,” Clinton said today moments before leading de Blasio in his oath of office. “This inequality problem bedevils the entire country.”

The Clinton-de Blasio connection goes way back.

De Blasio served in Clinton’s administration in 1997 as the highest-ranking New York and New Jersey official in the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

One prominent Clinton hand, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Harold Ickes, has played a crucial advisory role in the de Blasio campaign, also helping to corral the donors in the Clinton orbit that de Blasio needed to win the general election after he rocketed from relative obscurity to front-runner in the final days of the Democratic primary last year.

It was also Ickes who helped place de Blasio in the high-profile role of manager of Hillary Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign, though the post did not make him an instant insider in the famously cloistered Clinton inner circle.

Nevertheless, that connection has paid dividends.

[CARTOON] America, meet Obamacare! You’ll love him!


Thursday, January 2, 2014

Access to Health Care May Increase ER Visits, Study Suggests

Supporters of President Obama’s health care law had predicted that expanding insurance coverage for the poor would reduce costly emergency room visits as people sought care from primary care doctors. But a rigorous new study conducted in Oregon has flipped that assumption on its head, finding that the newly insured actually went to the emergency room more often.

The study, published in the journal Science, compared thousands of low-income people in the Portland area who were randomly selected in a 2008 lottery to get Medicaid coverage with people who entered the lottery but remained uninsured. Those who gained coverage made 40 percent more visits to the emergency room than their uninsured counterparts. The pattern was so strong that it held true across most demographic groups, times of day, and types of visits, including for conditions that were treatable in primary care settings.
The finding casts doubt on the hope that expanded insurance coverage will help rein in rising emergency room costs just as more than two million people are gaining coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
Instead, the study suggests that the surge in the numbers of insured people may put even greater pressure on emergency rooms and increase costs. Nearly 30 million uninsured Americans could gain coverage under the law, about half of them through Medicaid. The first policies took effect on Wednesday.
“I suspect that the finding will be surprising to many in the policy debate,” said Katherine Baicker, an economist at Harvard University’s School of Public Health and one of the authors of the study.
Via: NYT
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