Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Poll: 12 percent say ObamaCare signup is going well

Only 12 percent of people in the United States think the signup process for ObamaCare is going well, according to a new poll.

Forty-nine percent, on the other hand, say the signup for the healthcare law’s new insurance exchanges is not going well, according to a CBS News poll released Tuesday. 

The insurance exchanges, which launched Oct. 1, have taken a hit in recent weeks. Their website’s technical problems have overwhelmed peoples’ impression of the rollout. 

Overall views of the new program haven’t changed, though, since its unveiling in the beginning of October: 51 percent disapprove of the law, and 43 percent approve. 

The poll also touched on the aftermath of the government shutdown and debt debate that ended last Thursday. 

Republicans and Democrats in Congress both received low job approval ratings, but the GOP has suffered the most.  Eighteen percent of the public approves of Republicans’ jobs while 31 percent approve of Democrats’ performance.

The Tea Party, which made waves in the 2010 midterm elections, has also hit record lows in recent weeks. Only 14 percent in this latest poll hold a favorable view of the movement. 

Last week, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the party has “peaked.” 

Sixty percent of people don’t think the Tea Party reflects the views of most Americans. Two of the likely GOP candidates for president in 2016 are members: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). 

Only 11 percent of people are optimistic about Congress’s ability to deal with future issues affecting the country, the poll says. 

A number of House and Senate members from both sides of the aisle have been appointed to conference committees to negotiate a long-term deal on budget and debt limit issues over the next few months. 

Via: The Hill


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Michigan Dem John Conyers, Jr., Slams Government Shutdown Over “Small & Modest” Obamacare Law

One of the Architects of the Meltdown of Detroit as we know it!!

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) calls Obamacare a “very small and modest bill,” even though he previously said he failed to see the point in reading it "if it's a thousand pages" and required lawyers to decipher it.

During an Oct. 17 appearance on “Democracy Now!” Conyers criticized lawmakers who had partially shut down the government in the fight against Obamacare, expressing concern about what might happen when a single-payer system is proposed.

“It's just unimaginable the actions they would turn to, to get their way on a very small and modest bill – Obamacare. We’re talking about universal health care for everybody – single payer, that’s what the new direction is,” Conyers said.

[VIDEO] Man Spends 4.5 Hours on Obamacare Hotline But Still Can't Sign Up

Yesterday in the Rose Garden, President Obama touted the Obamacare hotline and recommended people call to sign up for Obamacare. "[T]he point is the call centers are available," Obama said, sounding as though he were in the middle of an infomercial. "You can talk to somebody directly and they can walk you through the application process."
The president of the United States would add, "Once you get on the phone with a trained representative, it usually takes about 25 minutes for an individual to apply for coverage, about 45 minutes for a family. Once you apply for coverage, you will be contacted by email or postal mail about your coverage status."
But ABC News found a man who has spent 4.5 hours on the Obamacare hotline -- and he still hasn't been able to sign up for Obamacare.
Yesterday alone, that man spent 1.5 hours on the phone trying to sign up. But continued to have no luck.
ABC says he's tried using the website -- for 5 hours -- and even live chatted with Obamacare representative -- for something like 3 hours. But nothing seems to be working for the man.

[CARTOON] Obamacare Salesman

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Via: California Political Review

Morgan to Carney: Obamacare Glitches Are Frustrating for Your Supporters, ‘Like Me and Others’

BY: 
Piers Morgan bluntly told White House Press Secretary Jay Carney that theObamacare glitches are frustrating for “your supporters, like me and others” Monday on CNN.
Morgan unabashedly acknowledged he supports the “ethos” of state sponsored healthcare and considers himself an advocate for Obamacare.
However the CNN host pressed Jay Carney on the technical problems healthcare.gov is experiencing, asking the White House spokesman at what point the president’s patience with the habitual failures by his subordinates in administering the website will prompt personnel changes.
Carney, as he has done all day, dodged the question and replied the president is trying to fix the website and is not focused on “making heads roll”:
PIERS MORGAN: I agree with you. You haven’t got to persuade me. My position though is this: It is frustrating for your supporters like me and others, I don’t agree with all of Obamacare, but I broadly agree with the ethos behind it. I come from a country where everybody gets free healthcare if they want it. I totally subscribe to the ethos of what you are doing. There has to be a point, a limit, hasn’t there, to the president’s patience on his flagship program. The one many believe may be his great legacy. If the system designed to facilitate it continues to fail, someone has got to be accountable, if it is not him, who’s it going to be?
JAY CARNEY: The accountability he’s looking for is the accountability of making sure everybody who has expertise in this matter is focused on fixing it, not focused on making heads roll. That’s not the time right now to focus on that. The time is to get these problems fixed make sure the system is working most efficiently for the American people. That’s what his focus is on right now. Not on, pointing fingers of blame but making sure it works. [...]

Rubio pushing bill to delay ObamaCare mandate over website meltdown

The widespread problems with the ObamaCare website are generating a new backlash in Congress, with Sen. Marco Rubio planning to introduce legislation that would delay the health law's individual mandate until the technical failures are addressed. 
The Florida senator discussed the plan Tuesday morning in an interview with Fox News. He said it would be "prudent" to delay the requirement on individuals to buy health insurance -- set to kick in early next year -- until users can consistently access the main website. 
"How are you going to go after people next year ... if the thing you're forcing them to buy isn't available to buy?" he asked, saying the site is "not working." 
Rubio's plan would delay the mandate until the Government Accountability Office certifies the system is "up and running and effectively working for six months, consecutive." 
The plan comes as new reports detail the warning signs that may have been missed before the launch, and the massive undertaking that the tech team hired to fix the site is confronting.

The Democratic Disasters to Come

The defunding wars are over. The accusations are fading. We are back to reality. Of course, America’s long-term prospects, at least in comparison with other countries’ futures — whether in terms of demography, military power, food-production, constitutional stability, energy sources, or higher education — are bright.
But short term, we are walking over landmines that threaten to blow up the normal way of doing business, and pose far more harm for Democrats than for Republicans.
Zero Interest
The real story about the debt is that by the end of Obama’s eight years, he will have matched the borrowing of all previous presidents combined.  Yet incredibly, the present huge sum of $17 trillion in debt is serviced at the same cost that we paid over 15 years ago. Such free use of money without raging inflation is almost historically unprecedented — and it won’t last.
Indeed, we are paying today about the same amount in aggregate annual interest payments, in non-inflation-adjusted dollars no less, as in 1997 — even though the 2012 figure of $17 trillion in debt is about three times larger than it was a decade-and-a-half ago. That anomaly is possible only because today’s interest rate of about 2.2% is only a third of what it was back then.
If interest ever returned to 1997 levels, at say 6.6%, we’d be paying over a trillion dollars a year in debt service. In crude terms, the winners of this Ponzi scheme are the very wealthy connected to Wall Street, which is flooded with foreign and domestic capital. It need not do much of anything more than outperform a pathetic 1% return on savings accounts.
The poor benefit from the vast increase in federal spending and exemption from federal income taxes. In contrast, the middle class still pays high interest on its student loans, credit card, and, to a lesser extent, car debt, receives almost no interest on its meager savings accounts, and is not so ready, after 2008, to dabble in real estate and the stock market.
In some sense, holders of U.S. Treasury debt and passbook savers are giving up hundreds of billions of dollars in interest returns (cf. the difference, say, between 1% and a more normal 5%) to subsidize the redistributive policies of the federal government.
The lack of interest, or de facto negative interest, keeps the near-retired working and hampers job prospects of the young; discourages thrift, savings and investment; and plays an underappreciated role in the slow economic recovery. The Democrats must deal with the contradiction of needing zero interest rates to service their recent extra $6 trillion in debt, and higher interest to encourage savings, investment, and job growth.

Feds Paid Prisoners $1 million in Disability Payments

Wikimedia CommonsThe Social Security Administration (SSA) gave more than $1 million in improper disability benefits to 440 prisoners, according to the inspector general.
The Inspector General for the SSA (IG) based its report on a sample of 100 beneficiaries, and found that one-fourth had improperly received disability while they were incarcerated.
“SSA issued improper DI benefit payments to beneficiaries for periods they were in correctional institutions,” the report said. “Of the 100 sample cases we reviewed, SSA appropriately took action to suspend DI benefit payments for 75 beneficiaries who had periods of conviction and incarceration, but overpaid DI benefits to the remaining 25 sample beneficiaries.”
“Based on this sample, we estimate SSA overpaid about $1 million to 440 beneficiaries,” the IG said.
Roughly 317 prisoners received $879,000 in disability insurance, and 123 more were paid $143,000 despite the SSA having suspended their benefits. A total of $1,022,000 erroneous payments were made.
One man was able to collect $22,056 in disability benefits while he was imprisoned in Staten Island, N.Y. from February 2009 to November 2010. Overall, the 440 prisoners received an average of $2,322 in payments.

Furious Judge Jeanine Pirro Nukes Kathleen Sebelius

FOX NEWS INSIDER -  Judge Jeanine Pirro tackled the ObamaCare website catastrophe and why the Obama administration will not confirm how many people signed up for health care so far. Check out her Opening Statement from last night’s Justice in the video above and transcript below:

It's a system that's supposed to be used by everybody, so that ObamaCare can be bought by anybody. But so far, the health care website has worked for practically nobody. Welcome to the Land of Oz!

And now, we find out the people who are supposed to guide us through the ObamaCare maze and enter our private data - Social Security numbers, date of birth and personal identifiable information - the ObamaCare "navigators,” don't even go through basic background or fingerprint checks.

But it gets better, ladies and gentlemen. If those navigators have a prior conviction, it will not disqualify them, anyway.  An outstanding warrant?  No problem! In the midst of bankruptcy? No problem!
Now, forget the obvious privacy issues. Has anyone in Washington ever heard of identity theft?
But then again, why would we be shocked to learn there's no screening by these Washington bozos?
You remember Edward Snowden, the NSA leaker, and the Navy Yard shooter. They obviously weren't properly screened.

So why is it that the a key part of the president's signature legislation - for which Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius had more than three years to prepare - can't even get the website off the ground. 

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