Category Archives: Politics

Media, Obamacare, Politics

Dems Join Ranks Of Terrorists, Hostage Takers

All of a week after several weeks of calling House and Senate Republicans hostage takers and terrorists for wanting to save Americans from the terribly flawed Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, six senate Democrats (up for re-election) are strapping on their bomb vests and calling for delay and/or repairing as KKK_democratswell. And oh yeah, they’re racists too. The only reason they don’t want it to go into effect is because Obama is Black.

It is instructive to note the emphasis that the media puts on this move. It’s not about the poor people who won’t have insurance, it’s about how it will affect the Democrats politically.

As Democrats began to fret about the political consequences ahead of the 2014 midterm elections, the administration late Wednesday said it was granting what amounts to a six-week filing extension. The March 31 deadline for having insurance became the new deadline for applying for it.

You will recall that the bills that the House proposed a few weeks ago to end the government shutdown were defeated for a lack of six Democrat senators who stood with their party instead of the American people. Today, they’re claiming to be defending the American people.

Link: Democrats Want ‘Obamacare’ Deadlines Moved Back

 

Economy, Obamacare, Politics

Obamacare Fines, For Poor People Only

Hearken back to how the unaffordable Affordable Care Act was promoted with the mandate attached. It was called a “fine” or “penalty” all the way up to the point it went to the Supreme Court. Then, the description of the mandate changed from a penalty to a “tax” you will pay if you did not buy an insurance policy that the obamacare_going_to_hurtgovernment approves of.

That the government does not approve the policies of hundreds of thousands of insured people is the reason insurance companies are notifying their customers that their policy does not meet the “minimum requirements” as proscribed by Obamacare and is being cancelled as of the end of the year. (Barack Obama, “If you like your policy, you can keep your policy.”) Oh never mind.

Which brings me to the mandate, the penalty. The alternative revenue stream that is supposed to make the government exchange insurance policies “affordable.”

Aside from people finding out how expensive their government exchange insurance policy with high deductibles will be, presuming the healthcare.gov website gets fixed, the details of how the penalty is collected is where the program breaks down. Long story short, if you pay taxes already and don’t get a tax refund, and choose not to buy health insurance, you’re home free. If however, you are like many low income people who revel in receiving a tax refund (which is actually you paying more taxes than you owe), and choose not to buy the expensive health insurance, the government will deduct your penalty from your refund. You’ll pay your fair share. (Obama’s words) So where does this end up? Right where Obama intended it to end up. He will try to take Obamacare to its final destination, a single payer system where the private sector health insurance industry becomes extinct and the whole country is on Medicare.

Regardless whether you believe that a single payer system is the goal, that Obamacare is the pathway to a single payer system (like Obama himself has said), you better believe that not only does the mandate have no teeth, but it punishes low income workers while giving everyone else a pass on paying the so-called mandated penalty.

The Joint Tax Committee prepared a summary of Obamacare that includes this discussion of the mandate:

The penalty applies to any period the individual does not maintain minimum essential coverage and is determined monthly. The penalty is assessed through the Code and accounted for as an additional amount of Federal tax owed. However, it is not subject to the enforcement provisions of subtitle F of the Code. The use of liens and seizures otherwise authorized for collection of taxes does not apply to the collection of this penalty. Non-compliance with the personal responsibility requirement to have health coverage is not subject to criminal or civil penalties under the Code and interest does not accrue for failure to pay such assessments in a timely manner.

As I understand it, the only way the IRS can possibly collect the penalty is by withholding your tax refund. No problem: if you arrange your taxes so that you don’t overpay, the penalty can never be collected from you. Some observers who should know better continue to tell young people they should pay the penalty and forgo expensive insurance. No: young people, if they want to follow their self-interest, should forgo expensive insurance and NOT pay the penalty, because it can never be collected from them.

Since Obamacare is, by all accounts, “settled law,” it will be interesting to see the wailing from Democrats to change it when the people who look to them for sustenance find out that the government is dipping into their tax refund while taking nothing from those rich people.

The beauty of this train wreck is that Republicans have nothing, zip, zero, nada, to do with it. They didn’t write it, they didn’t amend it, and they didn’t vote for it. But they do have an alternative that does not increase the debt, will actually work to decrease premiums, doesn’t involve raising taxes or imposing fines on poor people, has no death panels, and, doesn’t put the government between you and your doctor. It’s called H.R. 2300, the Empowering Patients First Act of 2013.

Link: DELAY THE MANDATE? WHAT MANDATE?

Media, Politics

Alias Tweet, Fired! Alias Email, That’s Cool

A White House national security staffer gets fired for making unflattering tweets under an alias.

But not former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, DOJ Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer during Operation Fast and Furious, and recently confirmed Labor Secretary Tom Perez during his time as a DOJ Civil Rights Attorney, or the IRS’ Lois Lerner for using private and alias email accounts for conducting government business out of reach of the FOIA. That’s different. What?

What’s different about this is that this lawless administration has one overriding principle. The end justifies the means. But this principle is not unique to the administration. In all fairness, it is a belief shared by most Liberals, Progressives, and the media.

Skirting the law or lying to the folks just doesn’t matter and the media will circle the wagon by not reporting it for what it is. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your plan. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. You’ll save $2,500 a year on your policy. This will be the most open and transparent administration. The ACA will actually decrease the debt, or I won’t sign it. The list goes on but, you get the idea.

Link: White House Aide Fired Over Twitter Account

Media, Obamacare, Politics

HEALTHCARE.GOV Website Developer Was Fired By Canada

“Oh no”, says Barack. Those pesky bloggers are at it again. In other words, doing the job that the lamestream media just won’t do.

Did you know . . . The Canadian government fired the parent company of CGI Federal, CGI Group, Inc, the prime contractor for the problem-plagued Obamacare health exchange websites, last year for poor performance.

The Canadian firm that was paid $634 million dollars without a bidding process, to build the Obamacare website and other computing services, was fired by Canada for failing to meet three years of deadlines as the developer of Canada’s online medical registry.

Let that sink in for a moment. Now ponder why the Obama administration would give Serge Godin, among Canada’s richest 100 citizens, and his wife, the owners of CGI Group, Inc. over a half billion of taxpayer dollars to a Canadian company that was fired for failing to do the job that Obama expects them to do?

According to Open Secrets, CGI Federal alone has contributed $1,020,000 from 2008 to 2013 to the DNC.

So let the investigations begin. Beginning with this question, is Serge Godin a big-time Obama campaign bundler? And let’s include Nina Freeman in this too, an employee of his, who is involved in distributing the money. And while we’re at it, we better subpoena Toni Townes-Whitley. (see update below)

Link: Canadian officials fired IT firm behind troubled Obamacare website

Update 10/22/2013, and needing no further setup. Well, except for the fact that once the news breaks, the lamestream media plays catch-up . . . Report: Healthcare website failed test ahead of rollout 

Update 10/28/2013, the lobbying donations don’t even tell the complete story as to why CGI Federal might get a no bid and open contract. Come to find out that a Princeton University classmate of First Lady Michelle Obama, Toni Townes-Whitley, lives in the neighborhood (Fairfax Station, Va) and is a Senior Vice President at CGI Federal. I can hear the Church Lady now, “Isn’t that special?”

2016 Election, Economy, Politics

Kerry Bowers, The Only Presidential Candidate With A Plan You Can See

Can anyone count the number of times or the number of years that you’ve heard people running for the office of the President of the United States say how they’re going to cut out the government waste and “reform government?”

One thing I can tell you with confidence is that there is only one candidate that says that AND shows you where the cuts and reforms will occur.

See and hear Mr. Kerry Bowers, candidate for President in the 2016 general election present his plan for government reform. In this video, Mr. Bowers takes off on Nancy Pelosi’s comments on CNN Sept. 23, 2013, where in discussing the national debt, she declared “there’s no more cuts to make.”

See Kerry Bowers’ plan to reform government HERE, item by item.

Link: Restore America’s Blessings, Kerry Bowers for President

Politics, Whiners

President Obama And Dictators Dispise Free Speech

Dictators and Communists like Hugo Chavez, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, don’t like freedom of speech. Some even control the media exclusively. Where obama_constitution_negative_libertiesprivate news and commentary are outlawed. That the man who is supposed to embrace, protect, and defend the Constitution and ALL of its amendments will publicly tell Americans what kind of media and speech they should not use is troubling on so many levels.

“Now that the government has reopened and this threat to our economy is removed, all of us need to stop focusing on the lobbyists, and the bloggers, and the talking heads on radio and the professional activists who profit from conflict, and focus on what the majority of Americans sent us here to do, and that’s grow this economy, create good jobs, strengthen the middle class, educate our kids, lay the foundation for broad-based prosperity and get our fiscal house in order for the long haul.”

Aside from pure desperation that he can’t, and doesn’t, control the flow of information about his administration, the “Saul Alinsky” in him is showing. Did anyone think he was referring to Media Matters, Huffington Post, Rachel Maddow, Mike Malloy, Mike Papantonio, or the Center for American Progress?

If there ever was an example of someone being un-American, our President of all people, is head and shoulders above all others.

Link: President Obama helpfully warns Americans to stop listening to talk radio and reading blogs

Economy, Politics

Shutdown, Debt, What The Rest Of The World Thinks

  • Fears remain about another possible shutdown – and, even worse, a possible default – early next year.
  • Experts and foreign officials warned that Washington’s credibility had been damaged – a point President Barack Obama echoed.
  • The short-term nature of the deal makes many uneasy.
  • International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde said the shaky American economy needs more stable long-term solutions.
  • “In three months’ time, this could be back again,” said Chakraborty. “If this kind of pushing it back happens several times, then this comfort that the markets had over the last 20 days that a deal will be reached, that comfort may now be dead.”
  • The congressional cliffhanger might dent longer-term confidence in American government debt, a cornerstone of global credit markets, prompting creditors to demand higher interest.
  • Xenia Dormandy, director of the Americas program at London’s Chatham House, said the U.S. image had suffered a double blow, with both its economic and political credentials called into question. “There is a sense that the U.S. as a reliable ally is not necessarily the case anymore,” she said, warning that both American allies and adversaries have reached this conclusion.
  • In Brazil, a large holder of U.S. debt, there was certainly relief, but also concerns that it’s just a temporary fix and more turbulence is ahead. Finance Minister Guido Mantega said the U.S. must come to a lasting answer to the “temporary solution” that was found. He added that as long as the threat of another shutdown exists, there will be “a sensation of insecurity, distrust and therefore damage to business in general.”

Link: World welcomes US budget deal but fears remain

2014 Election, 2016 Election, Economy, Obamacare, Politics

Barack “The Crisis” Obama Is At It Again

Andy Rooney mode ON: Have you ever wondered why President Obama habitually decries crisis-driven management right after he does it? Andy Rooney mode OFF:

In an April 6, 2013 weekly address to the nation, the President talked about his plan to create jobs and reduce the deficit. Didn’t mention the debt, AT ALL. His plan obama_houdiniwas increasing taxes and building roads and bridges. He said then . . .

While it’s not my ideal plan to further reduce the deficit, it’s a compromise I’m willing to accept in order to move beyond a cycle of short-term, crisis-driven decision-making, and focus on growing our economy and our middle class for the long run. {emphasis added}

Today, over six months later, and two months after a five week vacation for Congress, and one day after a grandstanding government shutdown he imposed was lifted, Barack “The Crisis” Obama goes before the mic again, ostensibly removing himself of all responsibility and says “The American people are completely fed up with Washington.” (Not just fed up. I’d include Fed up, capital F)  He says . . .

“I understand we will not suddenly agree on everything now that the cloud of crisis has passed. Democrats and Republicans are far apart on a lot of issues,” Obama said. “And sometimes we’ll be just too far apart to forge an agreement. But that should not hold back our efforts in areas where we do agree.”

Shouldn’t hold back “our efforts” where we agree? You mean like opening National Parks, funding the military and veterans, funding funeral benefits for fallen soldiers? Those areas of agreement? Virtually funding everything except Obamacare? It was those areas that prompted him to not agree just to keep the crisis going.

The mid-terms and general election can’t come soon enough.

China, Economy, Politics

Debt Markets React, Dollar Slides

Part and parcel of artificially fueling the global economy by printing money and buying our own debt (which would be illegal if you tried it) is the effect it has on the shrinking_dollardollar and interest rates when the party is over. Getting our own economy and the global economy back to market realities will cause interest rates to rise to a “normal” rate. It will also have a negative, albeit temporary effect on the stock market and your 401K. When interest rates rise, mortgages and other financed purchases, like your car and credit card purchases, will cost more. As the value of the dollar falls, everything you buy will cost more. This is the bad tasting medicine referred to in the previous post. Contrary to the Obama administration’s belief, shouldering future generations with our debt is not an option.

  • Relief rally short-lived as concerns over consequences dominate
  • Dollar index down 0.6 percent, euro and yen gain
  • European shares retreat from highs, Wall Street to weaken
  • Gold hits one-week high, oil slides

Facing the reality of another can-kicking session in Congress early next year, the Chinese credit agency Dagong downgraded the U.S. sovereign rating to A- from A with a negative outlook, driving further dollar losses. That’s just the beginning. Hold on to your wallet. If we’re ever going to get things back to normal again, it won’t be easy, but it isn’t an impossible task. The healing process must begin. The result being an economy that begins to grow on its own momentum, increasing the value of the dollar, and pegging interest rates at a true market-driven level.

Link: GLOBAL MARKETS-Dollar slides as relief at U.S. debt deal fades

2014 Election, 2016 Election, Economy, Obamacare, Politics

America Is Sick, And The Doctor Is Out

So what did the House of Representatives hope to accomplish by what was thought to be a futile attempt to defund Obamacare, aka a government shutdown?  How was that strategy supposed to help the Republican party?hope_and_chang_making_america_sick

Common questions over the government shutdown, arguably, imposed by President Obama. Given that the House passed bills to keep everything, but Obamacare, running.

The strategy was doing what they were elected to do, exercising their Constitutional responsibility of holding the purse strings of the federal government. It’s no more complicated than that. It wasn’t meant for the good of the party. But rather, the good of the country which, is being buried in debt at a rate unprecedented and with no end in sight.

It had less to do with politics than fighting the good fight which, was better than not fighting at all. Today, it is clear they did not prevail. Turned out to be a “lost the battle, not the war,” kind of thing.

kick_can_to_greeceWhat amazes me is how Congress still allows for increasing the debt limit. Something candidate Obama called irresponsible and un-patriotic. The words LIMIT and CEILING have no meaning anymore. Even without Obamacare, we are headed for default if drastic reforms are not made. Increasing the debt limits will only allow, and lead to, increasing the national debt.

The politics of it all is that Congress is playing Russian Roulette with a fully loaded revolver. There’s NO budget proposal by the majority that reduces deficits towards a balancing point, let alone paying down the debt. By definition, a budget that includes deficit spending, includes borrowing. And borrowing adds to our debt. (I know. Slim chance that the low-information crowd will have read this far. But just in case.)

Check this link at the CBO. There are two scenarios, Bad, and Worse.http://www.cbo.gov/publication/42905 It says that no budget now or in the future will be without deficit spending. The only variable is will we go over the cliff at 100 miles per hour or 50 miles per hour.

First thing to do is to scrap the ‘baseline budgeting’ game, and make budgets like you and I have to. Then start reforms from there. THAT, won’t be popular with anyone. But when you’re sick, the medicine you need to get well tastes bad. The so-called ‘leaders’ in Washington should be preparing us for recognizing the illness, and prescribing the medicine. Instead, they’re kicking the can down the road.

America needs the right kind of doctor to save America. And President Obama isn’t the one. If one does not rise to the call, the 2014 and 2016 elections is where we’ll find one.