Congress Wants Answers After NOAA Official Creates New, Higher Paying Job For Himself

Earlier this month, it came to light that a top official at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration created a new contract position with the same responsibilities as his previous position, took that new job and got a $43,200 raise in the process.

Now, the Senate wants answers.

Senator John Thune, chairman of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, sent a letter to NOAA Administrator Kathryn D. Sullivan demanding to know how something like this could happen.

“The fact that senior agency officials approved this unseemly arrangement, which clearly warranted closer scrutiny, appears to be indicative of a potential agency-wide problem,” Thune wrote. “In order to maintain the integrity of the agency, NOAA’s officials must avoid conflicts of interest and adhere to and enforce federal hiring and contracting rules.”

According to a report released by the Department of Commerce Office of the Inspector General, P. Donald Jiron, the deputy chief financial officer for the National Weather Service, an agency within NOAA, helped to write the job description and set the salary for his own post-retirement consulting job, and then returned to the office the day after retiring to perform the exact same job.

On top of that, Jiron demanded a $50,000 housing allowance even though he wasn’t eligible for the housing benefit. The housing allowance was meant for senior government officials on temporary assignments at NOAA headquarters, not for outside contractors.

The OIG report found that Jiron’s consulting gig was in violation of federal acquisition regulations and Jiron may have violated federal criminal law, though prosecutors declined to pursue charges.

The inspector general also said Jiron pressured and bribed other NWS officials to hire his daughter as a contractor.

“We conclude that senior official’s actions in attempting to influence the NWS staff were improper, and some of those actions may have implicated 18 U.S.C. § 201, the criminal statute prohibiting bribery of public officials,” the report said.

Among other things, Thune asked NOAA to provide data about contractors pay compared to federal employees with similar job responsibilities, the most common jobs filled by contractors in the agency and details about the process involved in drafting a job description.

The agency has until June 26 to provide the information.

Via: The Daily Caller

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[VIDEO] Here We Go: 'End of Discussion' Invades...MSNBC

MSNBC's Morning Joe welcomed Mary Katharine and me on-set today for a lengthy conversation about our new book, End of Discussion. Given our -- shall we say -- less than glowing assessment of the network in the book, we weren't quite sure how we'd be received. Judge for yourself, but we thought the panel agreed with our central thesis and were quite welcoming and gracious:


Scarborough was clearly on board, and Willie Geist thoroughly endorsed our premise as it pertains to the prevailing winds in academia. Mika, unsurprisingly, was the most skeptical segment participant, challenging us on whether the Right contributes to America's toxic Outrage Industry culture, as well. As we noted, it was a fair question, and one we anticipated. She seemed fairly satisfied with our answer. I'll leave you with another programming note: MKH and I will be guest-hosting the nationally-syndicated Hugh Hewitt radio show this evening from 6-9 pm ET. We hope you'll tune in! 

Via: Townhall

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Dolezal Sued Black College for Anti-White Discrimination

JUNE 15--The NAACP official who today resigned in the face of evidence that she masqueraded as black once sued Howard University for denying her teaching posts and a scholarship because she was a white woman, The Smoking Gun has learned.

Rachel Dolezal, 37, who headed the NAACP’s Spokane, Washington chapter, sued Howard for discrimination in 2002, the year she graduated from the historically black college with a Master of Fine Arts degree.

Dolezal, then known as Rachel Moore, named the university and Professor Alfred Smith as defendants in a lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C.’s Superior Court. During the pendency of the civil case, Smith was chairman of Howard’s Department of Art.

According to a Court of Appeals opinion, Dolezal's lawsuit “claimed discrimination based on race, pregnancy, family responsibilities and gender.” She alleged that Smith and other school officials improperly blocked her appointment to a teaching assistant post, rejected her application for a post-graduate instructorship, and denied her scholarship aid while she was a student.

The court opinion also noted that Dolezal claimed that the university’s decision to remove some of her artworks from a February 2001 student exhibition was“motivated by a discriminatory purpose to favor African-American students over”her.

As detailed in the court opinion, Dolezal’s lawsuit contended that Howard was “permeated with discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, and insult.”

Judge Zoe Bush dismissed Dolezal’s complaint in February 2004, 18 months after the lawsuit was filed and Dolezal was deposed on several occasions. Bush found no evidence that Dolezal was discriminated on the basis of race or other factors. The D.C. Court of Appeals subsequently affirmed Bush’s decision.

Via: The Smoking Gun

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Taxpayers Billed $128,781 for Michelle Obama to See Cultural Sites in Venice

First lady traveling to London, Italy to cook with children, see Prince Harry

Hotel costs for First Lady Michelle Obama to see cultural sites in Venice during the last leg of her trip overseas is costing taxpayers $128,781.

The First Lady left for London and Italy on Monday for her “Let Girls Learn” initiative and anti-obesity campaign Let’s Move. During the trip she will cook with children, visit U.S. service members stationed in Italy, and visit Prince Harry.

“From London, the First Lady will travel to Milan,” according to the White House press office. “As part of her Let’s Move! initiative, the First Lady will lead a Presidential Delegation to the Milan Expo 2015, representing our steadfast commitment to a healthier nation.”

The delegation is entitled “American Food 2.0: United to Feed the Planet.”

“Mrs. Obama and the Delegation will also participate in a cooking activity with children,” the press office said. “In addition to visiting the U.S. Pavilion, the First Lady will meet with Prime Minister Renzi, and tour the Italian Pavilion with Ms. Landini, the Prime Minister’s wife.”

“From there, the First Lady will travel to Vicenza, Italy,” they said. “As part of the Joining Forces initiative, Mrs. Obama will visit members of the military and their families stationed at U.S. Army Garrison Vicenza.”

“The First Lady looks forward to personally thanking the service members and their families and reminding them that their sacrifices have not gone unnoticed by the American people,” the press office said.

“The First Lady will also visit cultural sites in Venice before returning to Washington, D.C.,” the statement concluded.

Via: WFB

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Days After Relaunch, Hillary Campaign’s Press Relations Already Hits New Low

Just two days into Hillary Clinton‘s re-relaunched presidential run, the campaign has already dealt a self-inflicted wound to its precarious relationship with the press.

Rather than send fifty reporters from fifty news outlets to a given event, press organizations typically set up “pools” of reporters who take turns attending events and filing pool reports of what happened. But on Monday, the designated print pool reporter, The Daily Mail’s David Martosko, was denied access to all pooled campaign events.

The campaign’s denial comes after weeks of negative, tabloidish coverage from the conservative UK-based outlet. Most recently, Martosko critiqued many of his fellow reporters’ coverage of Saturday’s re-re-relaunch, tweeting, “It’s truly astonishing how many journalists at the @Hillaryclinton speech today reported exactly, and only, what the campaign wanted them to.”

The Daily Mail is a conservative-leaning tabloid. Everyone knows that. Everyone in the press pool knows that, especially the reporters Martosko not-so-subtly swiped on Saturday. If Martosko had filed an overtly biased, false, or substandard pool report, he would faced the ire of the dozen or so other political reporters who strongly rely on his reporting.

But instead, the Clinton campaign made Martosko the victim. They screwed over not just the conservative journalist, but a dozen other reporters as well. A campaign plagued by allegations that it is inaccessible to press fed into that narrative by overtly denying access to a reporter that other print outlets were more than happy to send as their representative. And as Politico’s Dylan Byers points out, the denial of access comes one day after the pool “threw a fit” when Clinton staffers kept them away from a conversation Hillary had with everyday Iowans.

Clinton ought to have taken a note from President Barack Obama‘s “War on Fox” back in 2009. Traditional and liberal news outlets were more than happy to keep mum as Obama and his staff openly questioned the legitimacy of Fox News and issued a general no-interview policy. But when the administration tried to exclude their reporters from pool events, the other networks defended Fox News and told the administration they had gone too far.

It’s basically a given that the Clinton campaign will receive negative coverage from conservative-leaning outlets. On the other side of the aisle, Republican politicians have long understood that they’ll never get a fair shake from many/most national outlets. But only Hillary and her thin-skinned staffers treat such negative coverage as utterly unacceptable and worthy of retaliation.

By and large, national outlets are more than happy to ignore when conservative outlets are snubbed or the victims of unfair retaliation (just ask the Washington Free Beacon). But Hillary inconvenienced “respectable” outlets– the very same outlets her re-re-re-relaunch hoped to sway– earning negative coverage from the like of liberal outlets like The Guardian. And if 2008 proved anything, it’s that those are precisely the outlets that make or break Democratic campaigns.

Via: Mediaite

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121 CRIMINAL IMMIGRANTS FACING DEPORTATION CHARGED WITH MURDER IN U.S. FOLLOWING RELEASE FROM CUSTODY

More than 120 convicted criminals who were supposed to be deported from the U.S. after they were released from custody between 2010-2014 face murder charges, new Immigration and Customs Enforcement data show.

“Between FY 2010 and FY 2014, there were 121 unique criminal aliens who had an active case at the time of release and were subsequently charged with homicide-related offenses. Of these 121 individuals who were bonded out, 33 were released on a bond set by [The Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review] and 24 were released pursuant to the Supreme Court decision in Zadvydas v. Davis,” ICE revealed in a newly released letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

According to Grassley and National Interest Subcommittee Chairman 

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)

80%

, the news is “disturbing.”

In a letter dated Friday to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Secretary of State John Kerry, and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, Grassley and Sessions point out that the murders are the shocking tip of the iceberg.

“This disturbing fact follows ICE’s admission that, of the 36,007 criminal aliens it released from ICE custody in FY 2013, 1,000 have been re-convicted of additional crimes in the short time since their release,” Grassley and Sessions wrote.

“I am writing to ask whether the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the State Department, and the Justice Department are fully leveraging existing tools and resources to prevent these dangerous outcomes,” they add.

Via: Breitbart

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New Obamacare survey shows users love it, but can they keep it?

As the U.S. Supreme Court deliberates on a case that may very well undermine a central plank of Obamacare, the vast majority of people who have gained health coverage under the controversial program are happy with it, a new survey finds.

A total of 86 percent of people who are newly insured through private Obamacare health plans or Medicaid are very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with their coverage, according to the Commonwealth Fund report. (Tweet this)

That report, issued last week, also reveals that almost 7 out of every 10 adults who are newly insured through either Obamacare private plans or Medicaid have actually used it to get health care.

And more than 60 percent of those said they would have been unable to get or pay for that treatment without that new coverage, according to the survey.

They really, really like it

"The Affordable Care Act's coverage expansions have been in place for nearly 18 months, and indications are that the newly insured are pleased with their coverage and are using it to get needed health care," said Dr. David Blumenthal, president of the Commonwealth Fund.

Yet the findings come as many of the newly insured are at risk of losing their health plans because of a pending Supreme Court case that could lead to federal financial aid for Obamacare insurance premiums being barred in 34 states.

Via: CNBC

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Media bias or media stupidity?

In recent years a lot of attention has been placed on media bias. Those on the right of the political spectrum are always pointing out the left wing bias of the mainstream media such as the New York Times, CNN and no one’s favourite, MSNBC.

Those on the left deny such bias because they are incapable of seeing it. To them, left wing views are not biased but merely the truth. Divergent views are wrong and those who accuse the media of a progressive bias are morons who simply do not understand what the truth is.

If last week is any indication, there is a more serious problem with the media than just the run-of-the-mill bias; it is the absolute stupidity of some of those who appear on major networks.

Diane Rehm

NPR’s Diane Rehm was interviewing Sen. Bernie Sanders who is seeking the Democrat nomination for president. Rehm didn’t ask but stated as a fact that Sanders, who is Jewish, is both a citizen of the United States and Israel.

Sanders responded he is not an Israeli citizen and has never lived in that country although he has visited there. According to Rehm, she has a “list” that clearly shows Sanders as well as other Jews are citizens of Israel.

The “list” Rehm spoke of was provided by an anti-Semitic group. It is nothing more than a Jew-hating conspiracy that every Jewish person is automatically a citizen of Israel and therefore should not hold elective office, especially the presidency, because they have divided loyalties.

Via: Canada Free Press

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NY prison break fiasco may take down Governor Cuomo

NY prison break fiasco may take down Governor Cuomo

Thomas Lifson

Law enforcement is starting to get egg on its face in upstate New York, and the long knives are being unsheathed. The scion of one of the Democratic Party's second-tier (just below the Kennedys and Clintons) dynasties has a bulls-eye on his back.

For nine days, the nation has focused on the hunt for the two scary murderers who escaped the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York. Front and center has been New York governor Andrew Cuomo, lauding the forces mobilized to recapture them, and confidently predicting their apprehension. Yet the escapees remain at large, though the terrified local community has decided to reopen local schools, albeit with an "enhanced law enforcement presence."

If Richard Matt and David Sweat avoid capture, it is Cuomo who will bear the political consequences, and he is starting to admit that they may have made a clean getaway.

"The truth is that is the nature of the business," Cuomo said. "You follow up every tip, you follow up every lead. You are as conscientious as you can be on every lead because you never know which one is going to be the one."

"We don't know if they're still in the area or if they are in Mexico by now, right? Enough time has transpired," he said. "But we're following up every lead the best we can."

Those long knives have a big target. Frederick Dicker, the very plugged in New York State politics correspondent of the New York Post, reports:

The massive manhunt for two escaped murderers from the Dannemora prison has been hampered by State Police secrecy, inter-agency rivalries, and the disrupting involvement of Gov. Cuomo on the first day of the breakout, law-enforcement sources have told The Post.

Cuomo's surprise arrival at a still-unfolding escape scene a week ago Saturday generated considerable national publicity for the governor, but distracted investigators at a time when the full facts of the escape were not yet known, the sources said.

"Cuomo actually disrupted the early search efforts when he arrived at the 'command center' on Saturday and refused to enter the room until everyone was removed except state employees,'' said a longtime law-enforcement figure who has regular contact with many involved in the search effort.

"Cuomo's aides came in and threw out the US marshal, the sheriff [David Favro, like Cuomo a Democrat] and others who were there to help coordinate the search effort.

"And they did it without even saying 'Thanks for your help,' or such, just, 'Get out so his highness can enter.'

"The State Police are trying to make sure that they're the ones to catch these guys, that they get all the credit, and as a result, they're not making full use of the assets that are available to them,'' the source continued.

I strongly suspect that Cuomo saw the prison break as an opportunity to distract from the political corruption investigationthat threatens his future:

Paralysis and "paranoia'' brought on by US Attorney Preet Bharara's ongoing corruption probe have come to define Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his administration with just seven days to go in the legislative session, a worried Cuomo ally and others have told The Post.

"Something is wrong. The place is paralyzed and the governor is not right. He seems frantic at times. He's not acting the way he normally did,'' said the ally, a prominent Cuomo political backer and longtime associate who has contact with the governor's administration on a near-daily basis.

"Cuomo is paranoid, his staff is paranoid and nobody can make a decision on key issues, like the [about-to-expire housing construction subsidy] 421-a program and other big outstanding issues.

"Hardly anything is getting done, Cuomo has gone into seclusion, you can't get to him, you don't know what he's thinking,'' the ally, who described himself as a "friend'' and "admirer'' of Cuomo, continued.

He probably figured that, like most prison escapees, Matt and Sweat would be recaptured quickly, and he could bask in the glow as a tough law-and-order governor, a take-charge guy who got results. Except he didn't.

When you step on other people on the way up, you don't have a lot friends on the way down. The drama of Andrew Cuomo's trajectory could get quite interesting.

Most Americans Expect a Long, Hot Summer of Racial Unrest. Moynihan Would Not Be Surprised.

It’s hard to get 96 percent of people to agree on anything, but last month’s Wall Street Journal/NBC poll found that 96 percent of those surveyed believe we are in for a summer of racial unrest. In the wake of Ferguson and Baltimore, it’s time for some reflection on how we got here.

This year marks two significant anniversaries. In August 1965, the Watts riots broke out in Los Angeles, leading to 34 deaths and $300 million in property damage. Coming after the passage of well-intentioned Great Society welfare programs, the riots made clear that government spending wasn’t going to solve all the problems of urban America. 

Indeed, another 50th anniversary we mark this year is that of a seminal work that helped explain why government would be no panacea: Assistant Secretary of Labor Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s “The Negro Family: A Call for National Action.” Published in 1965 and known as “the Moynihan Report,” it burst many bubbles of liberal thinking. 

RELATED: Poverty, Despair, and Big Government After analyzing reams of relevant social-science research, Moynihan concluded that the decline of the two-parent family was fueling the growth of poverty and unemployment, and leading to rising crime rates in black neighborhoods and schools without discipline. 

“At the heart of the deterioration of the fabric of Negro society is the deterioration of the Negro family. It is the fundamental source of the weakness of the Negro community at the present time,” Moynihan argued. Families that consisted solely of single female parents weakened the role of black men as authority figures in the lives of children. Moynihan also warned: “The steady expansion of welfare programs, as of public assistance programs in general, can be taken as a measure of the steady disintegration of the Negro family structure over the past generation in the United States.”

Via: National Review

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Campaign Finance Champ Feingold’s PAC Has Given 5 Percent of Its Income To Candidates, Political Parties

Longtime campaign finance reform proponent and former Sen. Russ Feingold (D., Wis.) founded a political action committee that has given just 5 percent of its income to federal candidates and political parties, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

Feingold, who is challenging Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) in 2016 to win back his old seat, founded Progressives United PAC in 2011. It has spent more than $7.1 million, but nearly half of the proceeds have gone to “raising more money for itself.” Feingold, a top aide and eight former staffers have also received a sizable amount:

A top GOP official said it was incredible that Feingold’s fund spent so little helping candidates and so much aiding his personal associates. Feingold is taking on Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican, in 2016 to try to win back his old U.S. Senate seat.

“Time and again, Feingold arrogantly says one thing and does another,” said Joe Fadness, executive director of the state Republican Party, suggesting the Wisconsin Democrat’s reform rhetoric doesn’t match his political actions.

Via: WFB

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[VIDEO] Jake Tapper Almost ‘Had an Aneurysm’ Trying to Get Answer from Clinton Spox

Former MSNBC host Karen Finney is the Hillary Clinton campaign’s head spokesperson, and she can get a cable news anchor or two rather frustrated with her ability to dodge questions. It got so bad that new State of the Union host Jake Tapper said she nearly snapped his brain when he questioned her on the controversial trade vote in the House last week.

“I had Karen Finney on the show yesterday, and I thought I was going to have an aneurysm trying to get a position from her,” Tapper said.

Clinton is caught between the White House and the Democrats’ liberal flank on President Barack Obama’s massive trade negotiations. Last week House Democrats rejected a trade proposal that threatens Obama’s fast-track authority on trade, potentially imperiling the deal. Where Clinton stands on the issue is, even after her remarks Sunday afternoon, fairly vague.

“Clearly she knows what she thinks about this trade legislation,” Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward said. “If she were president, she’d do it one way or the other. Tell us now!”

Reporters have grown increasingly blunt in their expressions of unhappiness over the Clinton campaign’s reticence with the press, with Tapper’s colleague Wolf Blitzer even taken to trolling them on-air.

Via: Mediaite

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Baltimore Cop, Activist Slams O’Malley’s Civil Rights Record

Democratic presidential hopeful Martin O’Malley’s credibility is coming under attack from an unexpected source, a long-time friend and African-American civil rights advocate in the Baltimore Police Department.

Sgt. Louis H. Hopson, who has worked at the Baltimore Police Department for 35 years and is a board member of the Vanguard Justice Society, an influential association of Baltimore African-American police officers, charges that O’Malley didn’t know what to do about race relations when he was the city’s mayor from 1999 to 2007. O’Malley was then elected Maryland governor twice.

Hopson blames many of Baltimore’s current racial problems on O’Malley and says many in the city’s African-American community fear an O’Malley presidency.

Hopson made Baltimore civil rights history in 2004 when O’Malley was mayor and trouble was brewing within the police department. White supervisors were accused of improperly sanctioning African-American police officers.

Hopson became the lead plaintiff in a landmark lawsuit, “Hopson v. The Mayor.” The city awarded $2.5 million in 2009 to more than a dozen African-American police officers and required an independent monitor to oversee the department’s disciplinary practices.

“Here’s his problem,” Hopson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Martin doesn’t know what to do when it comes to the race issue. And like a lot of people, they will just ignore it and hope it goes away,” he said.

“Martin exposed corruption, but he didn’t do anything about it when he became mayor,” Hopson charges. “That’s where the animosity began with African-American officers and African-Americans in the city. Martin O’Malley is not a finisher. We wouldn’t be in the position we’re in today had Martin done something about this.”

Hopson’s comments could spell trouble for O’Malley, who is positioning himself as the more progressive alternative to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential Democratic race.

Via: Daily Caller

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IRS using absurd excuse to avoid turning over newly discovered Lois Lerner emails

The IRS is using a laughable excuse to stonewall the disclosure of 6,400 emails from Lois Lerner that were “forensically recovered.”  Remember these names: Geoffrey J. Klimas and Stephanie Sasarak. They are lawyers working for the Department of Justice who are representing the IRS, and they have just insulted the intelligence of the Washington, DC District Court and the American people by telling the Court that, as Patrick Howley writes in the Daily Caller:

…the IRS received new Lerner emails from the Treasury Department’s inspector general (TIGTA) but can’t fork over the emails to Judicial Watch, a nonprofit group suing to get the emails. Why? Because the IRS is busy making sure that none of the emails are duplicates  – you know, so as not to waste anyone’s time.
However, the inspector general already made sure that none of the emails were duplicates, so the IRS’ latest excuse falls flat.

Klimas and Sasarak admit in their court filing:

“Prior to providing the Service with the approximately 6,400 forensically-recovered emails, TIGTA identified and removed emails which appear to be duplicates of those which the Service has already produced to the Congressional Committees or were duplicates of other recovered emails.”

So there is absolutely no reason to delay disclosure of the emails. But the lawyers make up an insulting excuse – that they have to check for duplication with Lerner emails they don’t yet have:

 “The Service expects to begin processing and reviewing the recovered emails immediately following its review and production of Lerner communications which were not forensically recovered. At this time, the Service is unable to estimate when it will finish processing and reviewing the forensically-recovered emails.”

There must be some seriously incriminating material in these emails if DoJ attorneys are willing to beclown themselves by offering nonsense arguments to prevent their disclosure.  Lois Lerner took the Fifth Amendment for a reason. Most federal judges do not enjoy being mocked this way. But, it is possible to use nonsense arguments and filings to delay, and the goal clearly is to get past the 2016 election and hope that the public memory fades.

It might work.

Via: American Thinker

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DES MOINES — Hillary Clinton, facing criticism from rivals for her silence on a stalled international trade agreement, spoke out Sunday during a campaign stop in Iowa, urging President Barack Obama to collaborate with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and craft a deal more palatable to Democrats.

“The president should listen to and work with his allies in Congress starting with Nancy Pelosi, who have expressed their concerns about the impact that a weak agreement would have on our workers to make sure we get the best strongest deal possible,” she said. “And if we don’t get it, there should be no deal.”

It wasn’t quite a judgment of the trade deal overall, but it was her most specific assessment of the policy debate so far, and it came on the heels of an embarrassing defeat for the White House, which saw Democrats largely abandon its push for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Clinton said a final deal must protect American jobs, raise American workers’ wages and protect American national security interests

“The president actually has this amazing opportunity now,” the Democratic presidential candidate said. “Let’s take the lemons and turn it into lemonade.”

Via: Politico

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GOP Staffers At Clinton Speech Forced To Turn Their Shirts Inside Out

twitter

By Andrew Husband, Mediaite

While Hillary Clinton‘s campaign staffers were busily preparing to live-tweet the presidential hopeful’s speech at Roosevelt Island today, another group was sitting just outside the event — local GOP staffers.

.@Raffiwilliams and fellow RNC staffers got into the event with their "Stop Hillary" shirts pic.twitter.com/d61NtSc6iQ

— Colin Campbell (@BKcolin) June 13, 2015

At Clinton rally staff tried to kick me out for wearing a #StopHillary shirt

— Raffi Williams (@Raffiwilliams) June 13, 2015

UPDATE: RNC negotiated to be let back in by turning Stop Hillary shirts inside out, which is kind of great. pic.twitter.com/4dUzu1BpHM

— Adrian Carrasquillo (@Carrasquillo) June 13, 2015

Via: Fox News

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Nearly One-Third of Californians Dependent on Medi-Cal

With Medicaid eligibility expanded nationwide under the Affordable Care Act, Medi-Cal enrollees have discovered that care in California is not keeping up with increased demand.

“Today, more than 12 million Californians, nearly one-third of the state’s total population, are enrolled in the government’s health insurance plan for low-income, disabled and disadvantaged residents,” U-T San Diego reported.

Wrangling reimbursements

The sharply increased burden has driven stark divides into statewide politics. The dispute has centered around reimbursement rates, which have fallen low enough to discourage many doctors from accepting Medi-Cal.

Even for those who do, low caps on Medi-Cal patients have become the norm. “According to the California Medical Association, Medi-Cal pays an average of $41.48 for an office visit, less than half the $102.45 that Medicare pays for the same service,” according to U-T San Diego.

Part of the problem traced back to 2011, when the state Legislature, deep in the red, passed Assembly Bill 97 — a bill cutting Medi-Cal reimbursements by 10 percent. As the San Jose Mercury News reported, a court injunction forestalled the cut until this fiscal year, but did not prevent it from staying in effect each year after that. In opposing the cut, Medi-Cal providers have beenjoined by the California Hospital Association and representatives in California’s rural counties, where doctors accepting Medi-Cal can be especially difficult to find without traveling long distances.

Gov. Brown’s administration has anticipated that the reimbursement cut will yield a first-year savings of over $214 million. But as state coffers have swelled with a big taxation windfall, Sacramento Democrats have pushed Brown to take a more liberal approach to budgeting.

For now, with the state deadline for budgeting looming, the governor’s office has refused to budge. Finance Department spokesman H.D. Palmer told the Mercury News that more specifics are needed on how reimbursement increases will expand access to care before the old rates are restored. Meanwhile, finance officials “have pointed out that the $91.3 billion Medi-Cal budget for 2015-16 is almost $10 billion more than the current fiscal year. More than half of the cost comes from the federal government, but the state increased its contribution from the general fund by $700 million for the next fiscal year, up to $18.2 billion."

Via: California Political Review

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ObamaTrade returns on Tuesday – Call Congress 202 224-3121 tell them Vote NO!

The House of Representatives will vote on Obamatrade – again! – on Tuesday. Call 202 224-3121 – tell Congress to vote NO!

John Boehner and Barack Obama are pushing H.R. 1314, that will give Obama the power he needs to enact Obamatrade, the secretive TransPacific Partnership.

In addition, H.R. 1314 will also raise taxes on small businesses to fund a wasteful welfare program for union members.

Tell your congressman to vote No on H.R. 1314 when it comes before Congress this week.

A vote for H.R. 1314 is a vote for Obamatrade and a tax hike on small business. 

Via: ObamaTrade.com

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