Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Visits to Obamacare Site Plummet

APObamacare’s newly launched website lost nearly 88 percent of visitors in its first two weeks of operation.
The numerous glitches on HealthCare.gov prevented many users from applying for health insurance under Obamacare, theWashington Post reported.
Out of the 9.47 million unique visitors to the website in the first week, only one million were able to register for an account. Meanwhile, 271,000 successfully logged into their accounts, 196,000 began enrollment, but only 36,000– less than one percent of visitors– were able to fully enroll.
The Post reported:
In a blog post, Millward Brown Digital Vice President Matthew Pace, who called the first week’s performance “atrocious,” noted that the numbers could change dramatically once the federal government improves how the Web site functions.
“The fact that millions of Americans not only visited the exchanges but also took what actions they could to register and enroll suggests that demand indeed exists for new healthcare options,” Pace wrote.” As the site improves and more consumers are able to compare their coverage options, they’ll decide with their wallets how truly affordable Obamacare turns out to be.”
At the moment, Americans’ interest in logging on has dropped sharply from the time of the launch. In an interview, Pace compared the initial number of users to the kind of traffic Target.com experiences, noting that about 0.9 percent of all online users logged onto HealthCare.gov during the first week. As of Oct. 13 that reach had declined to 0.1 percent, he said. Last week, he estimated, the site attracted 4.1 million visitors, or less than half of what it garnered during its first week.
Via: WFB

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[VIDEO] McConnell-Reid Deal Includes $3 Billion Earmark for Kentucky Project



Credit File photo
U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.,
proposal to end the government shutdown and avoid default orchestrated by Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic Leader Harry Reid includes a nearly $3 billion earmark for a Kentucky project.
Language in a draft of the McConnell-Reid deal (see page 13, section 123) provided to WFPL News shows a provision that increases funding for the massive Olmsted Dam Lock in Paducah, Ky., from $775 million to nearly $2.9 billion.
The dam is considered an important project for the state and region in regards to water traffic along the Ohio River.
As The Courier-Journal's James Bruggers reported in 2011, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said they needed about $2.1 billion for the locks due to "stop and go funding."
Asked about the additional funding in the proposal, McConnell spokesman Robert Steurer directed all questions to lawmakers who worked on the bill directly.
"Senators (Diane) Feinstein and (Lamar) Alexander, the chair and ranking member of the energy and water subcommittee, worked on the issue and can help you," he says.
Since 2009, McConnell has been an outspoken supporter of the project, and has been working on getting its funding for some time.
Watch:
Still, conservative critics of the proposal argue it is nothing more than a "kickback" for McConnell in an age where Tea Parties have eschewed earmarks.

Senate Debt Deal Weakens Congress on Debt Ceiling

Capitol Hill talk regarding the Senate deal apparently includes a provision that would take away the Congress’ power to increase the debt ceiling. According to Politico, it looks like the buzz appears to be true.:

The plan includes a proposal offered by McConnell in the 2011 debt ceiling crisis that allows Congress to disapprove of the debt ceiling increase, which means lawmakers will formally vote on whether to reject a debt ceiling increase until Feb. 7. Obama can veto that legislation if it passes. If Congress fails as expected to gather a two-thirds majority to override the veto, the debt ceiling would be raised.
National Journal reported last week:
Whether it's four weeks from now or in one year, there'd be even less reason to put faith in a last-minute deal next time the U.S. is up against the debt limit.

There's only one foolproof way to avoid a future crisis: Fundamentally change the way the debt ceiling works.

This approach isn't all that radical. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., proposed a reform in January that would change the debt-ceiling mechanism so that Congress would vote to disapprove of an increase, as opposed to approving one. Such a change would limit debt-ceiling negotiations to a veto-proof majority, while still leaving Congress with some power.

The most interesting part of this proposal? It was originally floated in 2011 by Republican leader Sen. Mitch McConnell. The potential for a bipartisan deal here that fixes the debt-limit problem is real. Sen. Boxer continues to advocate for the change. Right now though, Harry Reid's office says the senator is not considering any disapproval mechanism. But that could change as this process moves on.

Via: Breitbart

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BREAKING: It’s Over …

Hume: Tea Party pushed budget stand-off because GOP 'utterly failed' to restrain bloated gov't

Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume explained on "Special Report With Bret Baier" Monday night why Tea Party Republicans originally started their confrontation with Democrats over the bid to defund ObamaCare. 
He argued that they're taking an unconventional approach, because the mainstream GOP has "utterly failed" to stop the growth of government. 
Hume said: 
"Veteran political observers on both the left and right are still trying to figure out what the House Tea Party caucus and its Senate pied piper Ted Cruz were thinking when they insisted on using the threat of a government shutdown to defund ObamaCare. 
"It was a hopeless strategy that has not only failed in its stated goal, but helped send the Republican Party to its lowest favorability ratings ever. 
"In conventional terms, it seems inexplicable, but Senator Cruz and his adherents do not view things in conventional terms. They look back over the past half-century, including the supposedly golden era of Ronald Reagan, and see the uninterrupted forward march of the American left. Entitlement spending never stopped growing. The regulatory state continued to expand. The national debt grew and grew and finally in the Obama years, exploded. They see an American population becoming unrecognizable from the free and self-reliant people they thought they knew. And they see the Republican Party as having utterly failed to stop the drift toward an unfree nation supervised by an overweening and bloated bureaucracy. They are not interested in Republican policies that merely slow the growth of this leviathan. They want to stop it and reverse it. And they want to show their supporters they'll try anything to bring that about. 
"And if some of those things turn out to be reckless and doomed, well so be it."

Obamacare website shows improvement, new problems emerge

A man looks over the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Obamacare) signup page on the HealthCare.gov website in New York in this October 2, 2013 photo illustration. REUTERS/Mike Segar
(Reuters) - The Obama administration has made headway against an online bottleneck that jammed enrollment for the president's healthcare reform, but new technical problems greeted users on Monday, showing how difficult it will be to get consumers registered in time for insurance coverage to start January 1.
Three weeks after the launch of new health insurance plans under Obamacare, users were able to create accounts for themselves and begin the process of enrolling through the Healthcare.gov insurance marketplace, according to people aiding the sign-up effort.
But further into the process, error messages and other difficulties were apparent, leading to fresh frustrations for health insurers and nonprofit groups who want to help millions of uninsured Americans sign up for benefits as promised under President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law.
"We have seen progress every day," said Nasim Zahran of Miami's Borinquen Medical Health Care Centers, where hundreds of people are waiting to enroll in coverage.
"Today was the first day that we got all the way to the last screen. But then an error screen popped up saying the site would be down for 72 hours," Zahran said.
Healthcare.gov saw 14.6 million unique visits in its first 10 days, a larger-than-expected public response that raised hopes Obamacare would meet with strong enough demand in its first year.
But the site's limited ability to enroll consumers is becoming an increasing focus of Obamacare's Republican foes, who say the government was not ready to implement the law and should have delayed it.

Experts say the administration has until mid-November to iron out the problems or risk jeopardizing its goal of signing up 7 million people in the first year of the Obamacare marketplaces. The number includes 2.7 million healthy young adults whose participation will help offset the higher cost of insuring sicker and older beneficiaries.

Schultz Challenges Hannity to Debate: ‘Let’s See If I’m the Knucklehead You Think I Am’

Could there be an Ed Schultz vs. Sean Hannity debate in our future? This week, MSNBC’s Schultz challenged Fox’s Hannity to an on-air showdown over comments he made about “treasonous” John Boehner’s efforts to keep the government shutdown in order to take away Americans’ health care.
Schultz played a clip from Hannity during his “Trenders” segment Monday in which the Fox host said, “Eddie Schultz is back… and he’s frothing at the mouth about treasonous John Boehner.” Hannity added on his show, “I wonder what Williams and Brokaw and Lauer think of this knucklehead,” name-dropping some of Schultz’s NBC News colleagues.
At the end of his piece, Schultz submitted his challenge to Hannity. “Sean, wherever you want to debate, you name the place, the time,” he said. “Come on. give me a chance, Sean. Let’s see if I’m the knucklehead that you think I am. Let’s have a debate, Hannity. Certainly you’re punching up, in my opinion.
Watch video below, via MSNBC:
Via: Mediaite.com
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Graham: 'Greed, Lust' at Heart of Political Chaos

Evangelist Franklin Graham says greed, lust, and wickedness are at the heart of Washington's woes.
In an exclusive interview with CBN News, the leader of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association says America is in crisis because we've taken God out of the picture.
"Our government is in trouble; our country is in trouble," Franklin warned. "We are in moral decay; we are in economic decay."
"Our politicians don't know right from wrong," he continued. "And our politicians come to this city and they fight one another and it's the greed in their hearts, the lust that's in their hearts and they make all these rules and laws that affect the rest of us."
***For more of Franklin Graham's interview, visit Beltway Buzz.
"And the government spends and spends and spends, and they don't have the money to pay for it. But the politicians are trying to use that money to buy votes in favor for themselves. It is so greedy and so wicked and so wrong," he charged.
According to Graham, this is what happens when God is removed from government and the nation's schools.
"Isn't it interesting," he noted, "that in Washington, here we are in this crisis we find ourselves in (and) nobody is saying 'Hey, time out. Let's get on our knees and let's call on the name of Almighty God and let's ask Him for help. Let's ask Him to bring us together and find a way out of this mess we're in.'"
"Nobody -- the president, the Senate, the Congress -- nobody is saying, 'Let's call on the name of Almighty God.' Why? Because we've taken God out of our government. We don't want Him," Graham concluded.

Obamatude Ahead


It will be foolish to rush into a debt ceiling deal that fails to curb spending.
Polls show the nation growing impatient. The public wants Washington politicians to get a deal done now to raise the debt ceiling and open the government. Rushing is a mistake. The urgency of the debt ceiling is exaggerated, while the drastic consequences of a deal that fails to curb spending are being ignored.
Here are three reasons not to rush a settlement:
1. The U.S. will not default on its debt this week or anytime soon.
On October 7, Moody’s rating agency circulated a memo on Capitol Hill explaining that “there is no direct connection between the debt limit (actually the exhaustion of the Treasury’s extraordinary measures to raise funds) and a default.” First of all, “there are no interest payments until the end of the month…. Thus, a Treasury based default is not technically possible until that date.”
What’s more, “the government is very likely to prioritize interest payments,” meaning servicing the debt before paying other bills.
Backing up Moody’s analysis, Fitch rating service called default “a low risk.”
Yet Rep. Peter T. King, Republican of New York, said “We’re now backed into a corner. We have to do this by Thursday. We have to make it work, but it’s not going to be perfect.” 
No one expects perfection in politics, but Republicans should be fighting to keep the “savings” they gained in 2011, in exchange for agreeing to the largest debt ceiling hike in history.

Voting Irregularities Reported in Booker Lonegan U.S. Senate Race

Soopermexican
The Lonegan campaign is reporting that they’re hearing from voters in Conservative districts of New Jersey that voting locations are closing down, opening late, and that voters who weren’t sent a “write-in” ballot 

HURT: No need for lectures from a debt-saddled president

President Barack Obama talks about the the budget and the partial government shutdown, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013, in the Brady Press Room of the White House in Washington. The president said he told House Speaker John Boehner he's willing to negotiate with Republicans on their priorities, but not under the threat of "economic chaos."  (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)In the seven years since President Obama voted as a U.S. senator not to raise the federal debt ceiling any higher, he and his government cronies have piled up $7 trillion in crazy new spending that even our grandchildren have little hope of ever paying off.

We citizens signed no document assuming responsibility for this unthinkable spending binge. We never co-signed any trillion-dollar loans.

Yet as reckless and inexcusable as this crowd’s behavior has been, we never missed a payment. We just keep on paying the bills and these people just keep on racking up crazy debt.

Anyone caught failing or refusing to continue paying the bills — no matter how strongly they object to them — has been fined, kicked out of their homes, imprisoned or worse.

Still, Mr. Obama and his government cronies have gone flat broke, yet again, using our credit. And like drug-addled little punks, they have come home — stinking and drunk in the night — and are now pounding on the windows demanding one more loan. They are at the height of their drug-fueled binge and they’ve just got to keep it rolling.

Seven years ago, when then-Sen. Barack Obama objected to raising the debt ceiling, he said that merely bumping up against the debt ceiling was “a sign of leadership failure.”

“It is a sign that the U.S. government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our government’s reckless fiscal policies,” he intoned, senatorially.

Via: Washington Times

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Vulnerable New York Republican Raises $550K

Republican Rep. Tom Reed raised more than half a million dollars in his bid for a second term representing New York’s 23rd District.
He raised $550,000 and had $910,000 at the end of the quarter, according to a national GOP source.
Reed is a top Democratic target in 2014. Tompkins County Legislator Martha Robertson is all but certain to be his Democratic challenger, and she’s a highly regarded recruit at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
The race is rated Leans Republican by Rothenberg Political Report/Roll Call.

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