Conservative Happenings

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

EDITORIAL: Obama’s bucket of worms

More agents coming to plunder the privacy of everyone

Obamacare is the gift that just keeps on giving — to its growing chorus of critics. President Obama blames the Republicans for trying to “gum up the works,” but the “gum in the works” is the Juicy Fruit peeled on the morning after from his own bedpost.

The president understands just how dreadfully complicated his health care plan is; he always has. He thought his golden tongue would carry the day. The White House is adding another layer of bureaucracy to make the impossible work. The latest are the “navigators,” government agents to help everyone through the maze of paperwork before an aspirin is dispensed.

Now 13 state attorneys general have written to Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the Health and Human Services, who will be in charge of the navigators, asking her to pay more attention to privacy issues. (Why give the NSA more snooping duties?)

Pam Bondi, the attorney general of Florida, notes that Mrs. Sebelius is so hard up for navigators that she’s taking people off the streets, dispensing with background checks and even fingerprints, and turning them loose to poke through the intimate details of a taxpayer’s life.

“And it’s more than navigators,” Ms. Bondi says. “It’s people to assist the navigators. These navigators will have the consumers’ most personal and private information — tax-return information, Social Security information. And our biggest fear, of course, is identity theft. What if [navigators] have been convicted of committing identity theft or grand theft? [Such a recruit] could potentially still become a navigator.”

These are legitimate concerns, and you don’t have to be a Republican, a conservative, a churl or a racist — the usual suspects in Obamaland — to ask questions about the botch that the bunglers and bumblers at the White House are making of everything they touch. Mr. Obama.

Via: Washington Times

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Study: Massachusetts welfare pays better than entry-level jobS

Massachusetts pays its welfare recipients what would amount an pre-tax wage of more than $24 an hour, and ranks third in the nation in terms of dollars doled out per welfare collector, according to a new study released by the Cato Institute.

The libertarian think tank based in Washington D.C., estimates the total value of the state’s “typical” welfare package — which can include cash, food, housing and medical assistance — if it were taxable income, at $50,540, more than most entry-level wages. The report said that creates an incentive to remain on government assistance.

“Still, it is undeniable that for many recipients – especially long-term dependents – welfare pays more than the type of entry-level job that a typical welfare recipient can expect to find,” the study says. “As long as this is true, many recipients are likely to choose welfare over work.”

The Bay State gave $42,515 worth of welfare to the “typical recipient” in 2013, only behind Washington D.C., at $43,099 and Hawaii at $49,175, the study says, adding that the pre-tax value of a total Massachusetts benefits package if it were an earned salary would be $50,540.

A spokesman for the state’s Department of Transitional Assistance could not immediately be reached for comment.

Via: Boston Herald

Field Poll shows continued support for health care overhaul in California

WELCOME TO THE LAND OF THE PERMANENT WELFARE STATE

A majority of California voters remain unflinching in their support of the federal health care overhaul, though nearly half of the electorate predicts it won't affect them much, according to a new Field Poll.

Forty-six percent of California voters – a plurality – say they do not expect to be much better or worse off when the law is fully enacted, according to the poll. Of those who do expect their families to be affected, 23 percent predict they'll fare better, 26 percent worse.

The poll, sponsored by the nonprofit California Wellness Foundation, comes as the state prepares to implement major changes under the law next year, including a requirement that nearly all Americans carry health insurance or pay a penalty.

Public opinion about the law has remained virtually unchanged since its enactment in 2010 and is reflective of California's heavily Democratic tilt: Registered voters support the law 53 percent to 38 percent, with large majorities of Democrats and liberal voters in favor and large majorities of Republicans and conservative voters opposed.

Via: Sacramento Bee