Obamacare 2014 – More Losers Than Winners

Covered California’ the state’s Obamacare exchange, has racked up one accomplishment.  Thanks to its policies, there are more uninsured Californians in January 2014 then there were one year ago.

According to media reports, some 430,000 people signed up for health insurance through Covered California during the three month sign up period to be covered January 1.  But over the past year, 1,087,169 Californians in the individual market had their plans canceled due to Obamacare’s new rules.

Nationwide, some 5 million people lost their health insurance.  When President Obama felt the heat, he saw the light and asked the states and insurers to extend the cancelled plans for another year.  California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones had already pressed insurers to extend these plans and immediately endorsed the one-year extension.

These 1.1 million people are mostly healthy and had limited coverage catastrophic plans that they liked.  But for Covered California’s actuarial schemes to work, these people must be forced into the exchange.  So exhibiting the empathy of Stalinist five year planners, Covered California denied the extension.  As a result, came January 1 these people had no coverage.

But even if you assume that all 430,000 enrollees in the new exchange come from this pool (probably an inaccurate assumption), that still leaves 670,000 Californians with cancelled plans.  Some probably found new plans through the private market, but how many simply are doing without insurance because they cannot find or cannot afford another plan?

President Obama received the Politifact “Lie of the Year” award for “If you like your plan, you can keep it.”  But there is an even bigger lie that has been spread by the Administration and its liberal supporters, and that is that there are no losers in Obamacare, only winners.  In fact, there are more losers so far in California than winners, and there is every reason to expect this disparity to grow in 2014.

That’s because Obamacare is essentially a huge redistribution of wealth between income levels and between generations, and in that there are always winners and losers

Via: California Political Review

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[CARTOON] Climate vs Weather

Via: California Political Review

Obama: Bloated Social Welfare Programs Are What Makes America A “Great Country”…

President Obama on Wednesday marked the 50th anniversary of former President Lyndon Baines Johnson's "war on poverty" address by arguing government programs on education, healthcare and jobs have had a positive impact on the nation.

"These endeavors didn’t just make us a better country. They reaffirmed that we are a great country," Obama said in a statement. "They lived up to our best hopes as a people who value the dignity and potential of every human being."

Obama credited programs like Social Security, Medicare and the Earned Income Tax Credit with lifting millions of people from poverty and preventing millions more from experiencing economic distress.

But the president also declared that the nation's work to provide a safety net is "far from over," and called on lawmakers to "redouble" efforts on the economy through an expansion of entitlement programs, government initiatives and raising the minimum wage.

"For all that has changed in the 50 years since President Johnson dedicated us to this economic and moral mission, one constant of our character has not: we are one nation and one people, and we rise or fall together," Obama said.

The anniversary of Johnson's speech dovetails with a renewed emphasis from the White House on the president's economic agenda ahead of this month's State of the Union address.

On Tuesday, the president pleaded with Congress to pass legislation that would restore emergency unemployment benefits to 1.3 million people during a speech at the White House. The measure, aided partially after the president personally lobbied swing Republicans in a series of phone calls, passed a crucial test vote in the Senate on Tuesday, although a steep climb remains for final passage.

The White House also announced Wednesday that the president would designate five "Promise Zones" — persistently impoverished communities that the government would help through tax incentives, housing assistance and education grants.

Via: The Hill

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[CARTOON] Jerry Brown’s “Balanced Budget”

Via: California Political Review

Where's the Media Outrage? Virginia Democrat Compares Republicans to Violent Rapists

In an outrageous ad aired on the local Washington D.C. NBC affiliate WRC-4, Virginia Democratic state senate candidate Jennifer Wexton – running to replace newly elected Virginia attorney general Mark Herring – made a shocking comparison between violent rapists that she once tried as a prosecutor to "Tea Party Republicans" in the Virginia legislature. [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

After describing women being assaulted and "traumatized again by facing the criminal in court," Wexton made this declaration: "...as a prosecutor I put violent offenders in prison. In the Virginia Senate, I'll fight just as hard against Tea Party Republicans who would take away a woman's health care and her right to choose, even in cases of rape and incest."When will the media seize on this ad and bemoan the lack of civility in politics? Something they delight in doing when conservatives are the offenders.

In fact, when NBC political director Chuck Todd was recently confronted with Democrats' abortion fearmongering during the 2013 Virginia governor's race, he excused the party's increasingly over-the-top rhetoric: "What campaigns aren't about scaring some voters?"

It appears that Ms. Wexton took that to heart.

Here is a transcript of Wexton's campaign ad:

A woman assaulted at night by the reservoir. Another by an intruder who forced his way in through her bedroom window. And for so many, traumatized again by facing the criminal in court.

I'm Jennifer Wexton and as a prosecutor I put violent offenders in prison. In the Virginia Senate, I'll fight just as hard against Tea Party Republicans who would take away a woman's health care and her right to choose, even in cases of rape and incest. On election day, help me stand up for her.

Via: Newsbusters

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Millionaire Obama: I Hate Income Inequality

 Back from his $4 million Hawaii vacation, President Barack Obama seems poised to sound the populist trumpet in an effort to turn the page on 2013’s disastrous Obamacare rollout.

Many pundits are speculating that Obama, seeing the popularity of liberal populists like New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio, will use the current debate over unemployment insurance to engage in more divisive rhetoric:

The Obama administration has set the stage for a push that could rekindle cries of class warfare -- calling for renewed long-term unemployment benefits, a minimum wage increase and a campaign against what Democrats call "income inequality."

Ahead of his multi-week, holiday vacation in Hawaii, President Obama pushed Congress to move forward on extending federal unemployment benefits that weren't included in the budget deal Senate Democrats and House Republicans struck to fund the federal government for the next two years. The White House has scheduled an East Room event on Tuesday in which the president will appear with people who lost that insurance.

On Tuesday, that's precisely what Obama did, trotting out unemployed people to push for another boost to unemployment benefits, and citing income inequality as the rationale.

One potential challenge for the President’s prospective populist push is his own family’s affluence. Despite the President’s public lowering of his own salary, the Obamas' tax returns show a family whose incomes would routinely place them in the highest bracket, with lucrative income streams outside of the White House. Last year, however, the Obama family paid an effective tax rate of only 18 percent.

Via: Truth Revolt

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Health Care Law 31% Expect Health Care To Improve Under New Law

Voters continue to give their own health care high marks but remain critical of the overall health care system in this country. For the first time in nearly a year, however, fewer than 50% expect the health care system to get worse under Obamacare.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 34% of Likely U.S. Voters consider the U.S. health care system to be good or excellent. Nearly as many (31%) rate the system as poor. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Positive views of the overall health care system have ranged from 32% to 43% in regular surveys since November 2012, while the system has earned poor marks from 19% to 31% in the same period.

But 81% rate the quality of the health care they personally receive as good or excellent, while just five percent (5%) view that care as poor. That’s consistent with surveying for well over a year.

Thirty-one percent (31%) of voters now think the U.S. health care system is likely to get better under the new national health care law, the highest level of optimism to date. Forty-eight (48%) believe it’s more likely to get worse, but that’s down eight points from 56% a month ago and the least pessimistic finding since February of last year. Thirteen percent (13%) think the health care system will stay about the same.

Last week, though, for the second month in a row, 51% of voters said they expect the quality of health care to worsen under the new law. Most voters also still dislike Obamacare and expect it to increase health care costs.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.Voters continue to give their own health care high marks but remain critical of the overall health care system in this country. For the first time in nearly a year, however, fewer than 50% expect the health care system to get worse under Obamacare.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 34% of Likely U.S. Voters consider the U.S. health care system to be good or excellent. Nearly as many (31%) rate the system as poor. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Positive views of the overall health care system have ranged from 32% to 43% in regular surveys since November 2012, while the system has earned poor marks from 19% to 31% in the same period.

But 81% rate the quality of the health care they personally receive as good or excellent, while just five percent (5%) view that care as poor. That’s consistent with surveying for well over a year.

Thirty-one percent (31%) of voters now think the U.S. health care system is likely to get better under the new national health care law, the highest level of optimism to date. Forty-eight (48%) believe it’s more likely to get worse, but that’s down eight points from 56% a month ago and the least pessimistic finding since February of last year. Thirteen percent (13%) think the health care system will stay about the same.

Last week, though, for the second month in a row, 51% of voters said they expect the quality of health care to worsen under the new law. Most voters also still dislike Obamacare and expect it to increase health care costs.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on January 4, 2014 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on January 4, 2014 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Via: RASMUSSEN REPORT

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Study: Walmart Health Plans Better than Obamacare

 Walmart is offering better and cheaper healthcare insurance coverage for its more than one million employees than plans competing under Obamacare, the Washington Examiner reports.

A comparison by the newspaper found that Walmart's plans are more affordable and provide better access to doctors and hospitals than the plans offered under the Affordable Care Act.

The Examiner asked health policy experts and independent insurance agents affiliated with the National Association of Health Underwriters to study the plans to see which, if any, were better.

Walmart has two plans from Blue Cross Blue Shield — one called the Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) and another it calls HRA High, which cost employees more but have lower deductibles. Individuals can receive coverage for as little as $40 a month while a family plan costs about $160 a month. 

The Walmart plans, which are offered to 1.1 million enrolled employees, differ from Obamacare in that age and gender do not affect premium rates and there are no income eligibility requirements. 

A Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) analysis found that unsubsidized Obamacare enrollees will face monthly premiums five to nine times higher than Walmart premiums.

According to the JAMA report, the monthly unsubsidized Obamacare premium for married 60-year-old non-smokers can cost $1,365 compared to Walmart's premium of just $134 for the same couple. The report also said an unsubsidized premium under Obamacare for a 30-year-old single smoker would cost $428 a month, compared to $70 monthly for Walmart employees.

The Times said researchers also found that Walmart staff can use eight of the nation's leading hospitals for heart and back surgery, including the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic, which the department store chain calls "Centers of Excellence."

Walmart employees can also get free hip and knee replacements at four other hospitals nationwide. But none of these hospitals are included in most of the plans obtained through Obamacare's exchanges.

Robert Slayton, an independent Chicago insurance agent and former president of the Illinois State Association of Health Underwriters, noted that the number of doctors and hospitals available in Chicago under Obamacare is very limited when compared to Walmart's plans.

“You will notice there are 9,837 doctors [under Obamacare]. But the larger [Walmart] network is 24,904 doctors. Huge, huge difference,” he said.

The healthcare plans offered by the company have been attacked by unions and other groups for providing "substandard" benefits. But Gail Wilensky, who was in charge of President George W. Bush's Health Care Financing Administration, said, “It’s a lot better program than people, I think, might assume without looking, just because Walmart has gotten such a bad reputation by some of the labor groups and other groups for its general activities.” 

Via: Gold Is Money
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These two wind turbines will take four centuries to pay for themselves

One British town is in the renewable energy game for the long run — literally. The town bought two wind turbines that will take more than four centuries to pay for themselves.

The BBC reports that the two wind turbines installed in the English town of Rushcliffe will not likely produce any financial benefits for the town. Rushcliffe spent nearly $50,000 in 2004 installing the wind turbines at a county park, which doesn’t actually get much wind.

“Due to higher than anticipated maintenance costs and relatively low generation rates, it is unlikely the council will make a financial saving within the anticipated lifespan of the turbine,” said the Rushcliffe Borough Council.

The wind turbines’ poor location and mechanical problems mean that it only produced 477 kilowatt hours in 2012 and 2013. Last year, the turbine only generated about $121 worth of power, meaning that it would take 405 years for them to pay for themselves.

The Rushcliffe council, however, contended that the “meter wasn’t operating properly” and that the two turbines usually produce 3,478 kilowatt hours annually — which would still mean a 55-year payback period.

This information was obtained by the UK Telegraph as part of an in-depth investigation on how the towns all across the United Kingdom are spending millions of dollars on wind turbines that are faulty and don’t generate enough revenue to pay for themselves.

“Some turbines generate so little energy they would take hundreds of years to repay their original value,” Telegraph reported. “Experts argue that the failure of some wind turbines to recoup their value shows how small wind turbines are a poor way to generate renewable energy.”

Only three out of a handful of the towns that responded to the Telegraph’s inquiries had wind turbines with payback periods under ten years.

Via: Daily Caller

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Brit Hume's AWESOME Takedown of Obama: The Jobless Benefits Push Is an Admission of Your Own Failure

Hume: Jobless benefits push an admission of WH 'failure'?

Fox Senior Political analyst Brit Hume sounds off on the political implications of jobless benefits extension fight

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BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Senior political analyst, Brit Hume, has some thoughts tonight on the political and practical fallout from the fight over the jobless benefits. Good evening, Brit.

BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hello, Bret. The administration's appeal for a further extension of unemployment benefits may succeed in putting Congressional Republicans in a tight spot if they resist. In that sense, it may be a shrewd political move, yet embedded in it is an extraordinary acknowledgment of failure by the president and his party.

We're now four and a half years into an economic recovery that Democrats keep telling us is getting better all the time, yet, the job market remains so weak, the jobless rate so high that the president considers it an emergency. Indeed, that is the official name of these extended benefits, emergency unemployment compensation. Normally, unemployment payments run out after 26 weeks, but that was extended five years ago to 99 weeks and has been repeatedly extended since.

Now though, it's running out for an estimated 1.3 million people. No one is arguing that these benefits should go on forever, and the White House notes it is only asking for another three more months at a cost of about $6 billion. So, will that be the end of it? Will the emergency at last be over? All Obama advisor, Gene Sperling, would say today is that three months would provide time to discuss what to do for the rest of the year.

Upon taking office, the president and the party set two big goals. One was to revive the economy, the other to reform health care. The Obamacare mess tells us where we are on one, the call for further unemployment payments tells us where we are on the other -- Bret.

BAIER: Well, the White House denies this, but what about this as a political tool and what are the prospects of jobless benefits getting through this Congress?

HUME: Well, if the administration and the Democrats are willing to find some offsets -- another spending to cover the cost of these extended unemployment benefits, my guess is it sells through. If they don't, Republicans at least have a talking point to counter the administration's argument that they once again typical Republicans are being hard-hearted and not showing sufficient compassion to downtrodden and those who are out of work.

I still think the issue has some mileage for the president and his party, particularly, if the Republicans resist, but I don't think it overcomes the other issues that I mentioned earlier.

BAIER: Okay, Brit, thank you.

HUME: You bet.

Via: Fox News

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[CARTOON] Global Warming Irony

Via: California Political Review

2014: Obamacare Puts Down Roots for the Long Haul

Yes, Obamacare has raised premiums, caused people to lose their health coverage, raised taxes, and more. But on January 1, Obamacare started digging in for the long haul: putting down the deep roots of entitlement programs.

Entitlements—like the big three of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—are the biggest causes of America’s spending and debt crisis. And Obamacare creates a new entitlement program while expanding another.

The creation of a new entitlement: Taxpayer-funded subsidies for millions of Americans

Obamacare created insurance exchanges to sell and subsidize government-approved health care plans. Most of those who attain coverage through the exchanges will have their costs partially subsidized by federal taxpayers.

By 2023, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that 24 million people will obtain coverage in the exchanges, 19 million of whom are expected to receive subsidies. CBO estimates that together, the subsidies will cost taxpayers nearly $1.1 trillion from 2014-2023.

Who can get a subsidy?

• Those earning between 100 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level ($11,490 to $45,960 for individuals and $23,550 to $94,200 for a family of four in 2013) will be eligible for premium subsidies that are applied on a sliding scale, with the lowest income receiving the highest premium subsidy.
• Those who purchase a silver plan in the exchange and earn between 100 percent and 250 percent of the federal poverty level are eligible for cost-sharing subsidies to help offset their out-of-pocket costs, in addition to the premium subsidy.

Via: The Foundry

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New record: Feds issued 56 regs for every new law, 3,659 in 2013

The Obama administration made up for the lack of laws passed in Congress last year, issuing a whopping 3,659 rules regulations, crushing claims that Washington isn't doing anything.

Only 65 public laws were signed by President Obama in 2013, meaning that his government issued an average of 56 new regulations for every one, a record high ratio, according to the annual analysis by the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

The surge in regulations has led critics to charge that Congress is now a bystander to federal regulatory agencies

Said CEI’s Wayne Crews, who provided Secrets with his new analysis, “The deterioration of the Constitution’s separation of, and balance of, powers means that regulators and bureaucrats now make most laws. Congress is so 1789, after all. The executive branch increasingly imposes its will: President Obama and his administration repeatedly say they are not going to wait for Congress, so brace yourselves.”

Crews' chart, which he titles the “Unconstitutionality Index,” shows that in four of Obama's five years as president, his ratio of regulations to new laws has been higher than any of former President George W. Bush.

It also shows that Congress hit a 10-year low in passing laws in 2013. But the number of new regulations to support those laws was about average.

Via: Washington Examiner

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