Obamacare Spending Could Spike in Next Few Weeks

Opening of insurance exchanges coincides with spending spike at the end of fiscal year

The convergence of the opening of the Obamacare exchanges and the end of the fiscal year could result in a huge spike in spending on Obamacare from the federal government in the coming weeks.

Spending by federal agencies typically surges at the end of the fiscal year as agencies rush to spend their remaining funds. If they do not spend all their allotted money, the agencies have to return the funds to the Treasury Department, a mechanism referred to as “spend it or lose it.”

“We know that it happens. It is visible, it is apparent,” said Romina Boccia, a federal budget expert at the Heritage Foundation.

Boccia noted that agency spending in the last week of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, is typically five times the weekly average for the rest of the year.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the principal agency tasked with implementing Obamacare, is no exception to this government-wide trend, according to an analysis by Public Notice, a nonprofit that analyzes fiscal and economic matters.

Via: WFB

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[VIDEO] GOP congressman: Global warming is a liberal plot to ‘create global government’

California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher told town hall meeting attendees that global warming is a “total fraud” designed to create a global government to “control all of our lives.”

“Just so you know, global warming is a total fraud and it is being designed by — what you’ve got is you’ve got liberals who get elected at the local level want state government to do the work and let them make the decisions,” Rohrabacher said in front of the Newport Mesa Tea Party last week.

“Then, at the state level, they want the federal government to do it. And at the federal government, they want to create global government to control all of our lives,” Rohrabacher said.

“That’s what the game plan is. It’s step by step by step, more and bigger control over our lives by higher levels of government. And global warming is that strategy in spades.…” he added.

The Nation reports that Rohrabacher prefaced his remarks by saying he wanted to respond to California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer.

Boxer recently said that the “ongoing wildfires in Southern California have been exacerbated by a dry season that is the result of climate change,” according to the Nation.

“Our freedom to make our choices on transportation and everything else? No, that’s gotta be done by a government official who, by the way, probably comes from Nigeria because he’s a UN government official, not a US government official,” Rohrabacher said.

Via: The Daily Caller

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Officials: 6 shot in one hour citywide in Chicago

GUN CONTROL IS WORKING SO WELL HERE!!!

At least seven people were shot across the city Monday night, including six shot within an hour, officials said.

About 6:15 p.m., someone shot a 21-year-old man and a 53-year-old woman in the 1300 block of West Washburn Avenue in the city's University Village neighborhood, Chicago Police Department News Affairs Officer Joshua Purkiss said.

The woman suffered a graze wound to the head and was taken in good condition to the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said. The 21-year-old man was taken in critical condition to John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County, Langford said.

In a separate shooting at 6:12 p.m. in the 1300 block of South Loomis Street, a 23-year-old man was shot and critically wounded, said Langford. The man was also taken in critical condition to Stroger. Police said the shots may have come from a passing vehicle.

About 6:20 p.m. in the West Pullman neighborhood on the Far South Side, a 17-year-old boy apparently accidentally shot himself in the groin and thigh in the 11600 block of South Wentworth Avenue, police said. The teenager was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where his condition had stabilized, Langford said.

At 6:47 p.m., a 13-year-old boy was shot in the foot in the 7500 block of South Ingleside Avenue,  Langford said. The child was taken to University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital in good condition, he said.

Via: Chicago Tribune

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ObamaCare cap on out-of-pocket costs delayed, in latest setback

The Obama administration has quietly delayed another major provision of the federal health care overhaul, pushing off until 2015 a mandatory cap on out-of-pocket costs for individuals. 

The New York Times reported on Tuesday that the administration is giving some insurers a one-year grace period to adhere to the limit, which otherwise would have capped individual costs at $6,350 a year and gone into effect in 2014. The change means some insurers could set higher limits or set no limit at all on out-of-pocket costs during that period. 

The grace period apparently was granted earlier this year, though was buried in reams of regulatory material and was not publicly reported until now. Department of Labor guidelines published in February appear to address the delay. 

The confirmation comes weeks after the administration announced it was delaying a key insurance mandate -- the requirement on mid-sized and large businesses to provide coverage to full-time workers. 

The mandate, and the cap on costs, were both delayed for one year, in a move officials claimed was meant to give businesses more time to prepare. 

According to the Times, the decision to delay the cap on costs was made because many employers said they needed to upgrade their computer systems. The issue was they used different systems to administer both medical coverage and drug coverage, and they were not set up to "aggregate" all the money an individual spends out of pocket. 

Via: Fox News

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ObamaCare's 'navigator' program ripe for disaster

We already know ObamaCare is a poorly conceived law that is unworkable in the real world. We know the law is already driving health care premiums through the roof contrary to what President Obama promised. For instance, in my home state, our largest health insurance provider reported recently that health care premiums could go up by more than 200 percent on some customers, and the average increase could be almost 30 percent according to one study.

We also know that implementation of the law has been a disaster so far. The Obama administration made the decision last month to delay the penalty provisions in the bill on employers for another year. So the boss gets spared, but no such luck for the working stiff.

This action is an acknowledgement from the administration that the law is not ready for primetime. Worse, the delay is going to increase the cost of the already too expensive bill by $12 billion. And there are clearly political motivations behind the delay as moving the tax on employers beyond the 2014 elections removes a burden on Democrats running to defend this terrible piece of legislation.

ObamaCare is just not ready for primetime, and there is something more than a little odd about using taxpayer money for a marketing campaign aimed at taxpayers

The writing is already on the wall -- the entire ObamaCare law needs to be repealed.

But wait, as they say in the infomercials, there’s more! By August 15, the Obama administration is expected to spend $54 million of our tax dollars to hire community organizers to push this law on the American people. The president was once a self-professed community organizer, so perhaps this is his way of “giving back” as they say.

Here is how it is supposed to work.

Via: Fox News

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[VIDEO] N.C. GOVERNOR SIGNS SWEEPING VOTER ID BILL INTO LAW

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (TheBlaze/AP) — North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory has signed into law a fiercely contested initiative making sweeping changes in how and when the state’s voters can cast their ballots.

Hours after Monday’s signing, the American Civil Liberties Union announced it and two other groups had filed a lawsuit challenging the legislation. The Republican-backed measure was opposed since it was proposed.

N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory address the NC GOP convention Saturday, June 8, 2013 in Charlotte, N.C. Credit: AP

There was no bill-signing ceremony. McCrory’s office issued a statement saying he signed the legislation and posted a 95-second message on YouTube giving his reasons.

In the video, he called the measures he signed into law, including voter ID requirements, “common sense.”

“You need photo ID to board an airplane, to cash a check and even to apply for most government benefits,” he said. “Our right to vote deserves similar protection.”

He also said voter ID won’t be required until the 2016 election to give people enough time to acquire identification. McCrory slammed the “scare tactics” being used by the left to argue against voter ID laws.

Watch the video below:

Republicans have said the legislation is meant to prevent voter fraud, which they claim is both rampant and undetected. But voting rights groups and Democrats have suggested the true goal was to suppress voter turnout, especially among blacks, the young, the elderly and the poor.

Via: The Blaze

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FEDERAL JUDGE RULES BLOOMBERG'S NYC 'STOP-AND-FRISK' UNCONSTITUTIONAL

U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin today invalidated Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s "stop-and-frisk" policy as a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment.

As Scheindlin begins the 192-page opinion:

The goals of liberty and safety may be in tension, but they can coexist—indeed the Constitution mandates it…. I emphasize at the outset … that this case is not about the effectiveness of stop and frisk in deterring or combating crime. This Court’s mandate is solely to judge the constitutionality of police behavior, not its effectiveness as a law enforcement tool.

Under this policy, police could randomly stop anyone on the street to ask them what they were doing, and could even physically frisk them. The picture of a person having to stop what they’re doing, put their hands on the wall and spread their legs, and remain motionless as someone with a badge and a gun pats them all over their body, is always something to look at carefully in a free society.

Bloomberg instituted the policy in 2004, according to the Clinton-appointed judge’s opinion. In that year, there were 314,000 random stops. By 2012, it was 686,000 per year. A total of 4.4 million times during this time period, a person was stopped, and subjected to this kind of embarrassing examination, even when police could give no explanation beyond having a hunch.

The Fourth Amendment provides in part: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated...”.

There is no question that these encounters trigger a Fourth Amendment analysis, since any reasonable person would understand that they are not free to ignore the police and brush past them. Supreme Court precedent is equally clear that the Fourth Amendment only allows such a stop if an “officer has reasonable, articulable suspicion that the person has been, is, or is about to be engaged in criminal activity.” The Supreme Court also specifically held that this suspicion cannot be an “unparticularized suspicion or hunch.”

Thus the judge in Floyd v. City of New York held Bloomberg’s policy is unconstitutional. The city is expected to appeal the decision.

Breitbart News legal columnist Ken Klukowski is on faculty at Liberty University School of Law. Follow him on Twitter @kenklukowski.

Via: Breitbart

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McConnell: Don't Open Obamacare Exchanges If Privacy Isn't Protected

Reuters recently reported that security testing for Obamacare is months behind schedule. And MichaelAstrue, former HHS general counsel and Social Security commissioner, has warned in THE WEEKLY STANDARD that "unless delayed and fixed" the Obamacare exchanges will "inflict on the public the most widespread violation of the Privacy Act in our history."

Today, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell sent a letter to a top official at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services asking for the exchanges to be delayed until the government can guarantee that the privacy of Americans will be protected. 

"While I believe we ought to repeal this law and replace it with commonsense  reforms that lower cost, Americans ought to be assured, at an absolute minimum, that their personal and financial data will be safe from data thieves," writes McConnell. "I am asking you to delay opening the exchanges until the Inspector General can guarantee the security of the exchanges."

 You can read the entire letter here:

August 12, 2013

Ms. Marilyn Tavenner 

Administrator

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

7500 Security Boulevard

Baltimore, Maryland 21244-1849

Dear Administrator Tavenner:

Via: Weekly Standard

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Obama Taps a 'Nudge' Czar, She's 27

Unemployed? Underemployed? Working the register at Denny’s when you used to be on the management track? Just been informed you’ll be one of the ObamaCare “29ers” who gets that many hours of work a week, no more, to sidestep penalty costs? Don’t fret. Washington has just brought in a new behavior sheriff. She’s rounding up an encouragement posse to get you to live your life better. She’s 27. Her name is Maya Shankar.

You know how Best Buy can send a Geek Squad to your house to hook up your new gadgets? If a recruitment e-mail sent out by Maya Shankar is any indication, there will soon be a White House Nudge Squad. They’ll be there to hook you up with correct thinking and behavior, but you don’t have to call them and they don’t have to come over. They’re fine with redirecting your brainwaves from their comfy conference rooms in DC.

Shankar is a former violin prodigy who performed with Itzhak Perlman at Juilliard. Inflamed tendons caused her to put down her fiddle, and now the United States is her instrument. So get ready to be played.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Shankar went on to Yale (where she studied cognitive science), Oxford and Stanford.

It would appear that she has never had an actual job unless you count “post-doctoral fellow.”
Shankar is not without accomplishments, though. She is a Rhodes scholar with a killer sense for publicity. She’s been featured on NPR three times and in Glamour and USA Today roundups of the nation’s most promising college students.

In Glamour, in 2006, she said her dream job would be presidential science adviser. So it has come to pass: For her first job, she is now “senior policy advisor at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.”

That’s right. Senior. This person was a senior at Yale as of 2007, but now she gets to tell you how to live your life. Sorry: encourage you to make choices that will make you happier.

Via: Fox Nation

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California Gov. Brown signs transgender-student bill

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a controversial bill into law Monday afternoon allowing the state’s transgender public school students to choose which bathrooms they use and whether they participate in boy or girl sports.

The law would cover the state’s 6.2 million elementary and high school kids in public schools.

Supporters say the law will help cut down on bullying against transgender students, The families of transgender students have been waging local battles with school districts around the country over what restrooms and locker rooms their children can use.

"Now, every transgender student in California will be able to get up in the morning knowing that when they go to school as their authentic self they will have the same fair chance at success as their classmates,” Masen Davis, Executive Director of Transgender Law Center said.

While California is the first state to pass a law of this magnitude, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Washington and Colorado have all adopted policies designed to protect transgendered pupils.

Not everyone is on board.

Opponents of the bill say allowing students of one gender to use facilities intended for the other could invade the other students' privacy.

Via: Fox News

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OBAMACARE: ENROLL AMERICA TARGETS STATES WITH GOP GOVERNORS

Enroll America, the non-profit leading the effort to enroll Americans in ObamaCare health exchanges, isfocusing its resources on 10 states, nine of which have Republican Governors. The only state with a Democrat Governor is Illinois, Obama's home state. All ten states, moreover, are top Democrat targets in 2014. The political landscape of the states targeted may be coincidental, but it is certainly striking. 

The states targeted are: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. 

Eight of these states have gubernatorial elections next year. With the exception of Texas, all of these races are expected to be competitive. Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Texas also have potentially competitive Senate races. The Senate race in North Carolina could determine which party controls the Senate. While Texas is currently a solidly Republican state, it is the target of a broad coalition of progressive groups to turn it "blue" over the coming years. 

The President of Enroll America, Anne Filipic, a veteran of Obama's political campaigns, tried to downplay any political motivations behind the targeting. “This is not a conversation about politics. This is a conversation about what does this mean to you, to your family, to your pocketbook. And there’s such power in that.”

Enroll has already signed-up 3,000 volunteers in the 10 states. It plans to spend tens of millions of dollars in these states through 2014, promoting the benefits of ObamaCare and encouraging people to sign-up for coverage. It is also planning in September to send thousands of volunteers and activists door-to-door in the 10 states, learning about individuals current situation and explaining how ObamaCare can help them. 

In other words, a massive voter contact program in 10 battleground states. 

Earlier this year, an draft application for ObamaCare health coverage sparked controversyby including information about registering to vote. After an outcry from Congress, that information was removed. Such information, however, can surely be recorded by Enroll volunteers. 

On Sunday, Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) said that Democrats would run on ObamaCare in 2014. It may not be in their ads or direct mail, but it will certainly be in their voter files and turnout efforts. 

Via: Breitbart

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[VIDEO] Dem Pollster Pat Caddell on Obama’s Constant “I” Got Bin Laden: “This Man is an Egomaniac”

Here is video of Democratic Pollsters Pat Caddell talking about President Obama’s growing weakness in office, particularly on Foreign Policy. Caddell said he can seem to do nothing more than keep bragging about getting Osama bin Laden, using “I” got Bin Laden instead of giving credit to the SEALs who actually did. Caddell said flatly of Obama – “The man’s an egomaniac.”

Via Johnny Dollar, here’s the longer conversation with Caddell and Doug Schoen:

Via: Fox News

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