Obamacare: The worst is yet to come.
Obamacare: The worst is yet to come.
Thank god the Democrats are standing up for this law!
Tag: policy
A campaign ad that says it bluntly: “You lied.”
A campaign ad that says it bluntly: “You lied.”
It is… remarkable, the way that the Democrats were so bald-faced in that lie. It’s like they thought that the rules simply didn’t apply to them, or something. Apparently, the plan was to simply bull on through and expect nobody to call them on the fact that their entire policy position was based on things that everybody knew just weren’t so.
The Democrats must be called on these lies, strongly and often.
Paul Ryan says House Republicans are going to demand something in exchange for raising the debt ceiling again in February.
We shall see: Paul Ryan says House Republicans are going to demand something in exchange for raising the debt ceiling again in February.
Though I’m glad he’s saying this, forgive me if I am skeptical. The Republican leadership in the House has proven itself weak and willing to back down all too often. For example, they have allowed the lie that they alone caused the government shutdown to become accepted as truth, merely by acting as if it were true. The result: they were unwilling to demand any concessions in the just completed budget negotiations, even though they had a strong hand and could have easily obtained concessions, especially on Obamacare.
Then there’s this: Ten quotes that explain why conservatives do not trust the Republican Party.
His conclusion is most pertinent:
Incidentally, the solution to all of this is not to leave the Republican Party. To the contrary, it’s to treat the Republican Party like a puppy that’s having difficulty with house training. When Republicans do the right thing, praise them, support them and do what you can to help them out. When they do the wrong thing, rub their noses in it. Attack Republicans who betray their principles relentlessly, primary them at every opportunity and take over the Republican Party so we can shove the politicians who won’t listen to us to the side. While we will never be able to build an entire party full of men like Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and Rand Paul, we can make it miserable enough for bad actors that the go-along-to-get-along Republicans will conclude it’s better to work with us than face primaries and incessant attacks from their own side in the new media. Most people don’t realize it, but we have already started moving the Republican Party to the Right and the time will come when Republicans are just as afraid of their base as Democrats are of Planned Parenthood and the unions. It’s not going to happen overnight, but if we keep going after Republicans who sell us out, even the ones that are as hostile as John McCain, Peter King and Lindsey Graham will eventually have to get on board if they want to keep their jobs.
As deadlines loom and the problems with the Obamacare website continue, the Obama administration has issued a number of illegal extensions to the law.
The law is such an inconvenient thing: As deadlines loom and the problems with the Obamacare website continue, the Obama administration has issued a number of illegal extensions to the law.
I hate the law, as any reader of this website knows. However, the law is the law. Obama and his bureaucratic minions don’t have the legal right to rewrite it at their pleasure, just because it doesn’t work. And they are discovering this, as increasingly insurance companies and state insurance boards are telling them that their so-called changes are invalid and cannot be obeyed.
It appears a growing number of Congressmen also agree: A resolution in the House demands Obama be brought to court for not faithfully executing the law.
A survey of 400 chief financial officers finds that nearly half plan to cut back on employment because of Obamacare.
A survey of 400 chief financial officers finds that nearly half plan to cut back on employment because of Obamacare.
And there’s also this:
Besides altering the makeup of their workforces, companies said they also plan to change the health benefit packages offered to employees. “Two-thirds of companies will change health benefits in response to ACA,” reads the Fuqua/CFO Magazine report summary. Forty-four percent of CFOs said they are considering reducing health benefits for employees. Thirty-eight percent said that employees and retirees may be forced to contribute more to their health plans.
“The inadequacies of the ACA website have grabbed a lot of attention, even though many of those issues have been or can be fixed,” said John Graham, Duke Fuqua School of Business finance professor and director of the survey, in a press release. “Our survey points to a more detrimental and potentially long-lasting problem. An unintended consequence of the Affordable Care Act will be a reduction in full-time employment growth in the United States,” the study says. [emphasis mine]
So, tell me again why the Republicans in Congress should not challenge the Democrats over Obamacare?
A man arrested in Colorado City for legally open carrying his pistol has won $23K in a lawsuit against the city.
Pushback: A man arrested in Colorado City for legally open carrying his pistol has won $23K in a lawsuit against the city.
We need more people suing for these kinds of illegal actions by the police.
The Connecticut Obamacare website gave the wrong information for every single insurance plan it offered, and it took a month to fix the problem.
Good enough for the government: The Connecticut Obamacare website gave the wrong information for every single insurance plan it offered, and it took a month to fix the problem.
This example tells you how egregious the error was:
John Javaruski, a 62-year-old retired actuary from Farmington, said he received a letter dated Nov. 1 after he signed up for an Anthem plan with a $2,000 out-of-pocket maximum and zero deductible. According to the revised schedule of benefits attached to the letter, Javaruski’s plan jumped to $6,250 out of pocket and a $3,000 deductible.
Any private company that did this bad a job would go out of business very quickly. This is the government however, which means they stay in charge and you are required “to embrace the suck.”
The Washington state Obamacare website is down, but it still has been able to mistakenly take money from people’s bank accounts.
Good enough for government: The Washington state Obamacare website is down, but it still has been able to mistakenly take money from people’s bank accounts.
“Please pray for me… I am losing my insurance.”
“Please pray for me… I am losing my insurance.”
And then there’s this: A man with a critically ill son gives up on healthcare.gov “after nearly three months, three failed applications, and ‘maybe 50 or 100’ calls to exchange’s hotline.”
Yup, this sums it up nicely.
Yup, this sums it up nicely.
House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan has now accomplished the astonishing task of pushing House Republicans substantially to the left of the Senate GOP. His budget deal, announced Tuesday night, was achieved by shutting conservative Senate Republicans out of negotiations, by resorting to the old trick of spending now while claiming savings later, by ignoring a symbolically important budgetary red line, and by treating as Democratic “concessions” things to which even Democratic budgeteers already had agreed.
The chess equivalent of Ryan’s deal would be trading a castle for a mere pawn. No wonder conservatives are feeling rooked.
The absurdity of this deal is highlighted especially by the ongoing disaster of Obamacare. The Republicans have a very strong negotiating hand right now. They could have actually demanded a repeal of Obamacare in budget talks and thus pushed the Democrats into a corner for which there really is no escape. What would the Democrats do, shut the government down again so that more people could lose their health insurance?
Instead, Ryan behaved as if the Democrats have a Royal Flush and he only had a pair of twos. The stupid party strikes again!
Trying to hide the disaster that is Obamacare.
Trying to hide the disaster that is Obamacare.
Most of Washington seems to have bought the White House claim that the 36 federal exchanges are finally working, and glory, glory, hallelujah. But if that’s really true, then what explains the ongoing secrecy and evasion?
On Wednesday the Health and Human Services Department continued its Victorian-era strip tease and allowed a glimpse into the Affordable Care Act’s “enrollment” for November. Out of respect for a free press, reporters ought to boycott these releases because they’re so selective that they reveal little about real enrollment.
Then there’s this:
In other nondisclosure news, the House Oversight Committee turned up letters Wednesday showing that [the Obama administration] ordered the private contractors partly responsible for the Healthcare.gov fiasco not to cooperate with congressional investigations or hand over documents.
Meanwhile, Obamacare has so far resulted in more than 4 million people having lost their health insurance, a number that includes those whom the Obama administration claim have at least selected an Obamacare plan.
As the writer above said, glory, glory, hallelujah!
The Ryan budget deal includes a provision that limits the ability of the Senate minority to block tax increases.
The stupid party: The Ryan budget deal includes a provision that limits the ability of the Senate minority to block tax increases.
The bill includes language from the Senate Democrats’ budget that voids senators’ ability to raise a budget “point of order” against replacing the sequester cuts with tax increases. The process is quite complicated, but in practice it grants Harry Reid the authority to send tax increases to the House with a bare majority, rather than the 60-vote threshold that would be required under a point of order.
In other words, another example of a Republican getting hosed in negotiations.
Though I have read several conservative reports about this deal that outline some of its positive benefits, on the whole it appears to be another defeat for the right.