Another delay on #obamacare ‘exchanges;’ difficulties getting products to markets?

The Obama administration has delayed a step crucial to the launch of the new healthcare law, the signing of final agreements with insurance plans to be sold on federal health insurance exchanges starting October 1.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) notified insurance companies on Tuesday that it would not sign final agreements with the plans between September 5 and 9, as originally anticipated, but would wait until mid-September instead, according to insurance industry sources.

Nevertheless, Joanne Peters, a spokeswoman for HHS, said the department remains “on track to open” the marketplaces on time on October 1.

Welllll… yes, and no. Let us be honest, here: On October 1, 2013, something will be up and running. That something will undoubtedly be called “federal health insurance exchanges” and “marketplaces” by the Obama administration. And the administration will certainly act as if whatever is up and running at that point was what the administration intended, all along. Why, I even expect that the administration will make the claim that the ‘exchanges’ exceeded expectations; and if the administration does that, rest assured that at least some members of the Media will duly pass on that report without comment or clarification. These are all things that we know.

However: anyone who is going to be in need of health insurance (and doesn’t feel like just paying the modest penalty tax) would be well-advised to go ahead with acquiring it on their own, instead of waiting for the Obama administration to get its act together. It will be some time before this administration puts up anything truly functional. Assuming that it ever does, of course…

Via: Red State

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Obama Promises Mayors Unilateral Action On Guns

Excerpted from Washington Times – Stymied by Congress in his gun control efforts, President Obama told a group of big-city mayors Tuesday that he would take more executive actions to reduce gun violence.

The closed-door meeting at the White House included Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who discussed “strategies to reduce youth violence,” the White House said in a statement.

Mr. Obama “vowed to continue doing everything in his power to combat gun violence through executive action and to press Congress to pass common-sense reforms like expanding the background check system and cracking down on gun trafficking,” the White House said in a statement.

The administration failed in an effort this spring to get the Senate to approve expanded background checks on gun purchases, a legislative response to the Sandy Hook school massacre last December in Connecticut.

Among those attending the session were Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, N.J., a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate; Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter; Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent Gray; New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu; Mayor Jean Quan of Oakland, Calif.; Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Mayor Sly James of Kansas City, Mo.; Mayor Molly Ward of Hampton, Va., and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.

One local official notably not on the list was Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the president’s former chief of staff, whose city has been especially plagued by gun violence involving youths.

The White House said Mr. Obama told the group that government isn’t the only answer to lowering gun violence.

Via: Pat Dollard

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Nation’s only black Senator not invited to speak at March on Washington

Noticeably absent from the speaker line-up at the Let Freedom Ring event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington today: the nation’s only black Senator, Tim Scott.

Scott, a Republican Representative appointed by S.C. Governor Nikki Haley earlier this year to fill former Sen. Jim DeMint’s seat in the U.S. Senate after he retired, was not invited to participate in the historic event, a spokesperson for the Senator confirmed to Red Alert Politics in an email.

African-American leaders who did receive an invitation to speak at included Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) – who participated in the original March – Martin Luther King III, MSNBC host Al Sharpton and movie stars Jamie Foxx, Oprah Winfrey and Forest Whitaker.

Via: Red Alert Politics

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COLLEGE PROF. CLAIMS OBAMA GROUP TRIED TO USE HER TO ‘RECRUIT’ STUDENTS

Organizing for Action, the political nonprofit that grew out of the Obama presidential campaigns, sought to use at least one college professor to recruit students for publicly advocating on behalf of President Barack Obama’s policies, one instructor claimed on Twitter.

Andrea C. Hatcher, a political science professor at Sewane: The University of the South, made the claim Tuesday.

“Been contacted by ‪@OFA to ‘recruit’ students for them. Let me be clear : I don’t shill for any interest group or party,” Hatcher said on Twitter, as reported by conservative site Twitchy.

Been contacted by @OFA to "recruit" students for them. Let me be clear : I don't shill for any interest group or party.

August 27, 2013 2:16pm via Twitter for iPadReplyRetweetFavorite

@Prof_Hatcher

Andrea Hatcher

Her tweet prompted responses such as, “The best poli sci profs are the ones whose personal stances you’re unsure of. I was blessed to have two great ones,” and “Really ‪@BarackObama Leave our kids alone!!!: RT: ‪@Prof_Hatcher Been contacted by ‪@OFA to ‘recruit students for them’ amazingly she refused.”

Organizing for Action did not respond to phone and email requests for comment from TheBlaze about Hatcher’s claim Wednesday.

Hatcher, who received her Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University, wrote the 2010 book “U.S. Senate: Balancing Constraints. The website for Sewannee, a private Tennessee college, says her book “is the first comprehensive study of the office of U.S. Senate majority leader.”

She teaches courses on the presidency, legislative process, constitutional law, religion and politics in the U.S., and an introduction to American government, according to Sewanee, and is also the faculty adviser for Sewanee’s delegation to the Tennessee Intercollegiate State Legislature.

Via: The Blaze

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[VIDEO] MD GOVERNOR: LIVES OF 'PEOPLE OF COLOR' VALUED LESS THAN WHITES

On Wednesday, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, a Democrat who will likely run for president in 2016, said the lives of "people of color" are valued less than those of whites in America. 

Speaking on the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington, O'Malley said there is "too much apathy" in America "when the lives of people of color are too often valued less than the lives of white people."

He called for a variety of actions that included "abolishing the death penalty," helping immigrants, and raising the minimum wage. 

Via: Breitbart

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SMILE! YOU’VE GOT SOCIALIZED HEALTHCARE!

Obamacare Navigators are being told to smile as they sell President Obama’s failed healthcare law to the public.  That’s according to a 217 page manual, the Health Insurance Marketplace Navigator Standard Operating Procedures Manual, released by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Monday.  Will their pitch sound something like this?

We’re going to strangle you with regulations, smother you in bureaucracy, make it next to impossible for you to find full-time work, and intrude in the some of the most intimate decisions you’ll make in your life… But we’re smiling, so you should be happy about all of this!

Perhaps not.  But sadly, none of this is a joke.  The administration states:

Section 2.2.1 Smile –Maintain a Positive Demeanor

This is the most simple and most powerful tip for consumer assistance (and most interpersonal interactions). Smile. Smiles are contagious; usually when you smile at somebody they will smile back at you. Do not pretend to smile, or produce a false smile; these are easy to spot and send the wrong messages. Relax, gain eye-contact, and smile naturally. This will help consumers to feel at ease and welcomed. You will come across as friendly and approachable, setting the scene for positive interaction.

If you are talking to somebody on the telephone, you can still smile; your voice sounds different when you smile and are happy. Consumers are more likely to want to talk to a cheerful person with an enthusiastic personality and by smiling while you talk you can help to project this.

Section 2.2.6 tells the Navigators to “Be Memorable – For the Right Reasons.”

Try to make consumers’ experiences positive ones that they will remember and share with others.

Section 2.2.7 tells the Navigators to be thankful:

Kindness and gratitude can improve the quality of any relationship.

#Creepy.

Via: HeritageAction

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Obama Calls for Economic Equality in America Changed by King

ANOTHER WAY OF SAYING "REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH"

President Obama, speaking from the same Washington stage where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a defining speech of the civil rights movement, said that even as the nation has been transformed, work remains in countering growing economic disparities.

“To secure the gains this country has made requires constant vigilance, not complacency,” said Obama, appearing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, where 50 years ago today King called on Americans to make good on the country’s founding promise of equality for all.

Speaking shortly after bells rang across the U.S. in commemoration of the start of King’s 1963 speech, Obama’s remarks served as the culmination of a week-long remembrance of a peaceful “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” that helped galvanize the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

King, Obama said, had done more than advance the cause of civil rights for black Americans -- he changed America.

“Because they kept marching, America changed,” Obama said of those who marched on Washington 50 years ago. “‘What King was describing was the dream of every American,’’ he said, ‘‘the chance through honest toil to advance one’s station in life.’’

Obama, 52, the nation’s first black president, has worked throughout his campaigns and government service to transcend issues of race. Yet this address centered on a problem still confronting a nation riven with economic disparities.

Via: Newsmax

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GOP Congressman to Boehner: Call House Back Now to Deal With Syria

(CNSNews.com) - Rep. Scott Rigell (R.-Va.)--who served six years in the Marine Corps Reserves, sits on the House Armed Services Committee, and represents the congressional district with the largest concentration of military personnel of any in the nation--said today he is calling on House Speaker John Boehner to call the House back into session to prevent President Barack Obama from usurping Congress’s constitutional authority to authorize—or not authorize—the use of military force in Syria.

“He should be calling the House back right now,” Rigell said of Boehner. “I will be clear on this.”

"I do have a call scheduled with one of our senior leaders this afternoon and I will be making that case," said Rigell. "I think we're at this point, and I regret that we're at this point. But that is where we are."

Rigell sent a letter to President Obama today—co-signed by a bipartisan group of “over 100” House members--reminding the president that it is “clearly delineated” in the Constitution that the president must seek congressional authorization before using military force unless the use of force is needed to protect the United States from an attack.

“While the Founders wisely gave the Office of the President the authority to act in emergencies, they foresaw the need to ensure public debate—and the active engagement of Congress—prior to committing U.S. military assets,” Rigell wrote. “Engaging our military in Syria when no direct threat to the United States exists and without prior congressional authorization would violate the separation of powers that is clearly delineated in the Constitution.”

Via: CNS News

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