Tag: regulation

Hobby Lobby appears willing to face fines rather than bow to the Obamacare contraceptive mandate.

11:12 pm

Hobby Lobby has decided to face millions in fines rather than bow to the Obamacare contraceptive mandate.

They will continue to provide their employees healthcare, but will refuse to include any payments for contraceptives as now required by Obamacare. For standing by their beliefs and doing this, it is very possible this company could end up going bankrupt, thereby putting 13,000 employees out of work. Not only will they lose the healthcare plans that Obama promised they could keep, they won’t even have jobs!

Thank you Obama for giving us Obamacare. And thank you the American voters who have decided to allow this disaster of a law to go forward. Sadly, the worst is yet to come.

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A zoning board and the LAPD have shut down a thirty-year-old successful burger stand, apparently because they think it attracts crime.

10:05 pm

We’re here to help you: A zoning board and the LAPD have shut down a thirty-year-old successful burger stand, apparently because they think it attracts crime.

Watch the video at the link. The result of this brain-dead action will be an abandoned building in an abandoned neighborhood. Good going, California!

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Why state regulation is better than federal regulation

11:09 am

In response to my condemnation of the insane requirement by Obamacare that restaurants and take-out pizza delivery services publicly post on their menus the calorie count for every item, including a calorie count for each of the literally thousands of topping variations for pizzas, regular reader Patrick Ritchie asked me, “What level of super market labeling would you support?”

I replied, “I think the federal government has no business requiring any labeling at all. This is a state matter, pure and simple, both for practical and Constitutional reasons.”

He responded, “Which practical reasons? I’m genuinely curious. What makes a state regulation inherently better than a federal one?”

My response to this last question was quite long, and after reading it Patrick suggested I elevate the comment into a full headlined post. I have decided to do so. Here is what I wrote, edited slightly for clarity:
» Read more

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The requirement in Obamacare that restaurants list calories on their menus will cost billions.

11:29 am

Finding out what’s in it: The requirement in Obamacare that restaurants list calories on their menus will cost billions.

President Obama’s own Office of Management and Budget listed the menu display imposition as the third most burdensome statutory requirement enacted that year, forcing retail outlets to expend 14,536,183 work hours every year just to keep Uncle Sam happy. Instead of applying the menu rule just to restaurants, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decided on its own initiative to sweep certain convenience stores and pizza delivery storefronts under the calorie-count requirements. FDA bureaucrats are even micromanaging compliance, down to determining the sizes of fonts that can be used on menu signs.

This regulation does nothing to lower the cost of healthcare, and in fact increases costs in more ways than can be counted. Moreover, it is less than useless in improving the public’s health.

However, it does do a lot for federal bureaucrats, giving them more power over businesses and our lives. Hooray!

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When you go for your annual physical — free under Obamace — the doctor cannot treat you for, or even answer questions about, any new ailments.

6:29 pm

Finding out what’s in it: When you go for your annual physical — free under Obamace — the doctor cannot treat you for, or even answer questions about, any new ailments.

We are obligated by law to code specifically for the reason of the visit. An annual exam is one specific code; you can not mix this with another code, say, for rectal bleeding. This annual visit covers the exam and “discussion about the status of previously diagnosed stable conditions.” That’s the exact wording under that code — insurance will not cover any new ailment under that code. If you are here for that annual exam, you will not be covered if you want to discuss any new ailment or unstable condition. I cannot bait and switch to another code — that’s illegal. We, the physicians, are audited all the time and can lose our license for insurance fraud.

You, the patient, will then have to make a decision. Do you want your “free” yearly exam, or do you want to pay for a visit which is coded for a particular, new problem? You can have my “free” exam if you only discuss what Obamacare wants me to discuss.

In other words, this so-called “free annual physical” is a fraud. In fact, in order for it to be free, both the doctor and the patient have to purposely ignore any new problems that might have come up since the last physical. Or the doctor has to cheat and do work for which he will not be paid.

None of this should be surprising. You allow the government to stick its hands into everything you do, those hands are going to go places you never expected or would have permitted. Just ask anyone who has had to go through airport security.

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A Pennsylvania college has cut the work hours of all instructors to avoid the costs of Obamacare.

8:03 pm

It ain’t just restaurants: A Pennsylvania college has cut the work hours of all instructors to avoid the costs of Obamacare.

And we’ve only just begun. Under Obamacare the costs for employing anyone full time will be so high that soon most companies will realize they have no choice but to make as many of their staff part-timers as possible.

However, it is this quote, from one of the instructors who almost certainly voted for Obama, that makes me want to scream.

It’s kind of a double whammy for us because we are facing a legal requirement [under the new law] to get health care and if the college is reducing our hours, we don’t have the money to pay for it.

You’re a damn college professor and you didn’t have the brains to figure this out before the election?

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Obamacare is still vulnerable.

11:19 pm

Amen! Obamacare is still vulnerable.

One way or the other, this monstrosity is going to crash. Better that we keep fighting to kill it now rather then wait for it to do endless harm and then fail. And since a majority of state governors are Republican, they shouldn’t back down but keep up the fight. Moreover, despite Romney’s loss the election was still close and Obamacare remains deeply unpopular. There is plenty of support for killing it. The Republicans should not back down.

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A new survey of 13,575 physicians had found that doctors are fleeing the field.

6:45 pm

Finding out what’s in it: A new survey of 13,575 physicians had found that doctors are fleeing the field.

The survey also found that over the next one to three years, more than 50 percent of physicians will cut back on patients seen, work part-time, switch to concierge medicine, retire, or take other steps likely to reduce patient access.

But don’t worry, “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period.” Not!

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To avoid the cost of Obamacare, companies are reducing their full time stuff and switching as many employees to part-time as possible.

9:18 am

Finding out what’s in it: To avoid the cost of Obamacare, companies are reducing their full time staff and switching as many employees to part-time as possible.

It is very simple. The regulatory cost of Obamacare is so high companies are doing anything they can to avoid it. It is for this reason that they stopped hiring almost the instant the law was passed, and are now scrambling to find other ways to survive outside its influence.

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The Obama administration had declared that a company whose sole business is to publish Bibles is not religious enough for an exemption to the HHS contraceptive mandate.

9:22 am

The Obama administration had declared that a company whose sole business is to publish Bibles is not religious enough for an exemption to the HHS contraceptive mandate.

The company has of course gone to court. The mandate itself is odious and unconstitutional. It is not the business of the federal government to decide who is religious and who is not. Nor is it that government’s business to force behavior on anyone that they do not believe.

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According to a poll of small business owners, more than 60% will either drop their employee healthcare plans or make their employees pay far higher fees when Obamacare goes into effect in 2014

4:27 pm

Repeal it! According to a poll of small business owners, more than 60% will either drop their employee healthcare plans or make their employees pay far higher fees when Obamacare goes into effect in 2014.

The worst part of this story however is this:

Pollster Bill McInturff noted that the combination of a bad economy, greater regulations and increased economic uncertainty have forced 24 percent of the firms polled to lay off workers, 23 percent to tap their own savings to stay open and 11 percent to kill health coverage for workers. “The climate in Washington is a concern to them,” said McInturff. Dan Danner, president of NFIB added: “Why would I invest in this environment?”

Those polled were so down on President Obama and Congress that many said they wouldn’t start a business today. Asked if they would start a new business, 55 percent said no. Among the reasons they cited were high taxes, health care costs, regulations and an uncertain economy.

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A Texas school district has banned the use of religious signs at football games, even if created entirely and freely by the students.

10:26 am

A Texas school district has banned the use of religious signs at football games, even if the signs were created entirely and freely by the students.

[According to Kevin Weldon, the district’s superintendent], legal counsel recommended that religious activities not be carried out, even if the are being organized and implemented by students. “Per the advice of TASB Legal, please do not allow any student groups to display any religious signs or messages at school-sponsored events,” the superintendent wrote in a letter to parents who are involved in organizing extracurricular activities.

So, according to the legal counsel for this school district, freedom of religion and speech is outlawed at any government event. What a crock.

The good news is that the students are refusing to back down, and intend to display even more signs at future events.

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The cost of regulations is 80 times higher than OMB’s estimate, according to the estimates of each individual government agency.

10:09 am

We’re more doomed than we know: The cost of government regulation is actually 80 times higher than OMB’s estimate, according to the estimates made by each individual government agency.

“While OMB officially reports amounts of only up to $88.6 billion in 2010 dollars,” said Crews, “the non-tax cost of government intervention in the economy, without performing a sweeping survey, appears to total up to $1.806 trillion annually.”

The $1.8 trillion number comes from looking at the estimates made by each agency and then adding them up.

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Obamacare: a program in disarray.

3:51 pm

Obamacare: a program in disarray.

The critical regulations outlining what the Obamacare insurance benefit will look like was supposed to be out more than six months ago. Now it looks like this regulation won’t be dropped until after the election.

The author then describes each component of the law that is failing in one way or the other. I especially like this paragaph:

The crown jewel of Obamacare’s effort to contain healthcare costs, the creation of Accountable Care Organizations, is so unwieldy that major provider groups have said they won’t participate. The idea is to consolidate doctors, turning them into employees of large systems, and then pay these systems lump sums of money to take care of groups of patients. A letter from 10 major medical groups that previously ran similar programs said, “it would be difficult, if not impossible” to accept the financial design created by Obamacare. In another rebuke, an umbrella group representing premier medical organizations said 90 percent of its members wouldn’t partake.

None of this is a surprise to those who opposed this turkey of a law. We were right to oppose it, and we are right to want it repealed.

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