Thread: The Future of Obamacare

Obamacare Continues To Fail And The Media Continues To Spin

Posted 14 hours ago by Mark Horne

First the spin. From Politico.com, as you would expect.
The Obamacare rollout is changing in front of our eyes — turning from a running joke into one big shoulder shrug.

And that’s good news for the White House, because at this point, even basic competence is good news.

That’s the lesson of the new enrollment numbers the administration released Monday, which showed that more than 3 million people signed up for private health coverage under President Barack Obama’s health care law by the end of January. It’s behind the original expectations, but way ahead of the disaster scenarios that had looked possible during the worst months of the troubled rollout last fall.

Right. Except the low numbers mean it is heading for disaster unless the insurance companies are bailed out as planned by more debt and more taxes. And the situation is worse than the regime media wants to admit. Thus, CNS News reports,
While states are having varying success getting people to sign up, January marked the first time since new health insurance markets opened last fall that a national monthly enrollment target was met.

The administration said Wednesday about 1 million people signed up for private insurance under President Barack Obama's health care law in January, extending a turnaround from early days when a dysfunctional website frustrated consumers.

An Associated Press analysis found that most states are still lagging when it comes to sign-ups under the health care law, and their success in getting those sign-ups could help determine if the White House reaches its unofficial goal of having 7 million signed up by the end of March. Nearly 3.3 million people signed up from Oct. 1 through Feb. 1.

But it is not just the states that are lagging. Despite the Administration’s claim that January’s sign-ups are “extending a turnaround” the numbers are over a half-million lower than December’s numbers—a 29-percent reduction. The Weekly Standard notes,
Yet this underestimates the true extent of enrollment dropoffs. The HHS reporting period for December was four weeks, beginning on 12/1 and ending on 12/28. The reporting period for January was five weeks, beginning on 12/29 and ending on 2/1. This suggests that in December, enrollments averaged 447,000 per week, compared to 229,000 in January, or a 49 percent drop-off in new enrollees.
This would indicate that, as I suspected, interest in Obamacare has peaked.

Read more at http://politicaloutcast.com/2014/02/...H5wO3vrls1L.99

It appears to me that the "Media" is incompetent and needs to be fired..That should be for starters, then we can turn to the politicians and I don't mean vote them out I mean really fire them, walk them right on out'ta there...We need to do what any employer would do FIRE THEM, out'ta there, walk them right on out the front door!!!! They can not do the job we hired them to do, they are not following our orders, after all what part of incompetent needs explaining???? They do not deserve to ever be voted on again the incompetence is tremendous it is all about a job "not well done"!!!!!. They are a pack of thieving hyena's that need to be sent packing!! Then they all need to loose their pension, retirement, and healthcare they do not deserve any of it, bad job performance on top of,stealing lying, cheating, you name it... Of course they can have their Obamacare for themselves and family for life...at their own expense, of course!!

Obamacare lawlessness is all political

By: David Harsanyi
2/14/2014 09:47 AM

Another Obamacare fiasco? Guess what. We’ll rationalize that disaster into something awesome tout de suite. You can’t keep your insurance if you like it? Consider yourself lucky. Obamacare disincentivizes work. Be grateful! The Affordable Care Act will cost three times as much as initial estimates? Spending creates jobs. The exchanges have been a disaster? Stop rooting for the president to fail, for goodness’ sake.

The Treasury Department just announced it will delay a coverage mandate for companies with 50 to 99 employees for a year. And liberals who grouse about the anarchic tendencies of grass-roots conservatives will be prepared to rationalize why this news is not only unavoidable but great for Americans. It always is.

According to the Congressional Research Service, the Obama administration has probably missed half the deadlines of the Affordable Care Act. Now, if all this haphazard implementation were only a matter of improving what are onerous and poorly written facets of Obamacare, that would be one thing. A bad thing, yes. But what makes this free-for-all an especially blatant abuse of power is that the delays are enacted almost exclusively for political reasons.

If some of your deep-pocketed cronies visit the White House, delay the law’s employer mandate. Why not? If the risible Medicare cuts you concoct to sell ACA to voters by keeping the price tag under a trillion dollars become distasteful to voters leading up to an election, just delay the cuts until you have a more advantageous environment. If caps on out-of-pocket insurance costs haven’t panned out as you promised — delay for another year. Small Business Health Options Program? Delay. Employee auto-enrollment? Delay. Pre-existing conditions insurance sign-up? Delay.

The Obama administration is now giving medium-sized employers an extra year — until 2016 — before they must offer health insurance to their full-time workers. This directly contradicts the text of the law. Good for those employers; bad for the rule of law.

Here’s The Washington Post:
“By offering an unexpected grace period to businesses with between 50 and 99 employees, administration officials are hoping to defuse another potential controversy involving the 2010 health-care law, which has become central to Republicans’ campaign to make political gains in this year’s midterm election.”

Here’s The Associated Press:
“Trying to limit election-year damage on health care, the Obama administration Monday granted business groups another delay in a much-criticized requirement that larger firms cover their workers or face fines.”

Notice that even these outlets must admit that the impetus for delay is a political consideration — “limit election-year damage” and “defuse another potential controversy” — not an effort to craft a more useful law. Normally, when policy is as burdensome and ungainly as the Affordable Care Act has been, an honest person might admit that perhaps something isn’t exactly right with the law itself. Not today. A never-ending fount of partisan defensiveness makes it impossible to rethink — much less repeal — any part of Obamacare.

So, question: When was the last time policy was executed as chaotically and with such little regard for the law? I don’t want to sound like a troglodyte, but the president, as head of the executive branch of the federal government, is constitutionally obligated to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,” not implement laws in an expedient manner or in a more prudent manner or even in a way that he believes is more moral or helpful for people struggling to find affordable health care. That is why we write bills down and debate them prior to passage — or at least it used to be.

David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist and the author of the forthcoming book “The People Have Spoken (and They Are Wrong): The Case Against Democracy.”

http://www.humanevents.com/2014/02/1...all-political/

( PoliNation )

It’s Obama’s Lawlessness That Matters, Not His Motivation

Posted on February 15, 2014

Obama tries to make laws say things they don’t.

Check it out:
Everything Obama has done after this law was signed has been to limit its impact because it doesn’t work. It’s devastating. The news on HealthCare.gov and how many people have signed up and how many people have paid. It’s an abject mess and it’s a mess about something that is crucially important to a lot of people. And don’t forget, let’s go back, March 31st, 2008, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, I mentioned this yesterday and a lot of people have cited this. I think it’s not worth much, but it still is interesting. Here’s Obama as a senator, campaigning in 2008.

OBAMA: “I take the Constitution very seriously. The biggest problems that we’re facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all. And that’s what I intend to reverse when I’m president of the United States of America.”

So what do we do with that? Obviously he’s lying through his teeth. Obviously he’s just saying what people wanted to hear back then. He didn’t want Bush to have that kind of power. He’ll be glad to usurp it and take it for himself. But how many members of the Obama cult who voted for him are going to change their mind about him if you play them that sound bite? You know how many? Zero. Zip, zero, nada. None of them. And even if they’re not cult followers, how is this supposed to work?

Obama’s out there violating the Constitution. He’s grabbing power, tyrannical, dictatorial power. He’s eliminating areas of the law that harm him. He adding punitive parts of the law. And then we play a sound bite, hey, wait a minute, he said that he disagreed with this. We play the sound bite for people, and they’re supposed to go, “Oh, wow, you mean he’s lying? Okay. I’m through with Obama.” Is that how it’s supposed to work on? ‘Cause it’s not gonna work that way. Still interesting to play the bite. Don’t misunderstand. But it isn’t gonna change anything.

Obama 2008: Bypassing Congress Unconstitutional; I'll Reverse It



Read more at http://conservativebyte.com/2014/02/...g1GlXHRV7v1.99

“Obamacare, Communism, and Oppression.”

Written on Friday, February 14, 2014 by Rebecca Wilde

We can envision what the accommodations for press and others attending the Olympics in Sochi were supposed to be, grand luxury hotels in a scenic Russian city. That’s what the brochures said. Sure, if the project had been completed, we’d still be having a little first-world laugh at photos of toilets facing folding chairs and of cot-sized beds, but that would be a side note. I have no doubt that many people believed in the vision and that many people worked very hard trying to make it come to be. But the reality fell far short. Maybe one day, the facilities will be finished for tourists to enjoy, but the current guests will have to manage. For now, reporters take photos of exposed wires, yellow water, flooded hallways, and stray cats. That is the reality.

The Affordable Care Act, “Obamacare,” was advertised as legislation that would provide universal healthcare for everyone in America. We were told, over and over, that if we liked our existing insurance and doctor, we could keep our plan and our doctor. No longer would those with previously-diagnosed medical conditions have difficulty finding insurance or be required to pay more than another. No longer would medical professionals be greedy and charge exorbitant fees or do unneeded surgeries or tests. Families would see thousands of dollars of savings on premiums. Those who warned of shortages and rationing, exploding costs, and unnecessary death and morbidity, endured derision and personal attacks.

As the ACA becomes reality, Americans are losing their insurance plans and their doctors and are facing staggering premiums and deductibles under the plans offered on the infamous dysfunctional, non-secure website. Of course, advocates of the ACA never said, “The ACA is a radical departure from the founders’ vision. It means far more than merely losing your insurance plan and doctor. It is designed to destroy and replace the system we have with government-controlled health care that will cost you much in dollars and more in freedom.” There was no warning label attached to the bill, saying, “The government will control you and will be able to reward or punish you with their new power as they do with the powers they have now. The government will control your body and your very life. Consider this carefully, and don’t let it come to be unless you understand it and are really sure you want it. There won’t be any going back.”

Oppressive laws and communist and fascist revolutions are always sold as bold improvements or glorious new eras of progress. The Nazi platform, sold as “change,” was ugly and contained all kinds of disgusting provisions, but it claimed to be based on the “principle of self-determination of all peoples.” It promised Germans ” equal rights and duties” and “a sound middle-class,” with the “possibility of living decently and earning a livelihood.” It demanded religious freedom, better health, better access to education, profit-sharing in industries, and more generous pensions. It called for an end to war profits, “unearned” income, and corruption in parliament.

Communism is an ugly philosophy, but it sounds pretty good to a lot of people. Marxism teaches, “From each, according to his ability, to each according to his need.” Marx advertised a classless society. The Soviets had various constitutions and the Chinese have their own. These mention various “rights” of The People, often including food, education, health care, and jobs. It’s common to find a right to speech, assembly, or worship.

The reality for the citizens of communist and fascist regimes has been brutal. Reformers never tell the people beforehand that in the Brave New World, most will lead lives of desperate poverty and cruel oppression, with no realistic way to improve their lives. Advocates of change won’t tell you that the new government will not value human life. They won’t say how dirty the environment is going to get. No one agitates for change, saying, “Soon, there will be massive shortages, and you will spend each day scraping by, just trying to find food and relying on the black market to survive. You will work day in and day out, but you will remain in hopeless poverty. You will have what government says you can have and live in the space the government says is enough and do the job the government says you’ll do. “ No one will say, “Remember, that means that you will have only the medical care the government decides to provide. You will have a baby only if the government approves. Your disabled child or unauthorized unborn child may be killed at the discretion of government.”

There is never a warning label attached to leaders of these revolutions, saying, “You should understand that our revolution will require terrible horror and carnage. Fear and violence will be necessary to give birth to our new way of life and to maintain the power of an elite class. You may become a statistic. The government may starve you or drag you away in the night and shoot you. “ And there is never a warning label that says, ‘You and your people may be blamed for society’s problems, and your people may be marked for persecution or extermination. Millions may die in purges or in death camps or in government-induced famines. Consider this carefully. You won’t have the freedom to speak out against or change any of this once it is achieved.”

The Sochi hotels were intended to be grand, and they could have been. Unlike statist visions, that vision was not inherently doomed. The rooms were supposed to match the brochures, and presumably, they could have. There are certainly plenty who believe in the ACA and in the statist vision. They believe that we will enjoy good health and pay little for it under the ACA once a few glitches are worked out. There are plenty who believe that communism is going to eliminate class and want one of these days or that some other statist vision will free us from the human condition, no matter what the brutal truth. Too many, in too many countries have believed that and have paid with their freedom and lives. Some understand the most tragic direct costs of statist revolution and want it nevertheless. But too many are content to glance at the front of the glossy brochure and simply assume that they want to go to the beautiful place in the picture.

Read the rest of this Patriot Update article here: http://patriotupdate.com/articles/ob...idPZDzVmDOr.99

February 17, 2014 The poetry of Obamacare

Ethel C. Fenig

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius (D)--or some lackey--tweeted the following heartless Valentine ditty to their seemingly unbeloved victims.

The millions who were dropped from their health plan even though they liked it; the millions who can't keep their doctors even though they liked them; the millions who are now paying heart stopping higher health insurance premiums if they can get insurance at all did not appreciate the government's heartbreaking mockery.

And so they fired back. Below are a sampling of some of the responses--modified to fit a family publication. Have a hearty chuckle.

Feel free to add your own on this Presidents' Day week end; a holiday for many government workers.

Communists are red,
President Barack Hussein Obama (D) is black.
Impeach him--and his hacks--
To get freedom--and our health care--back.

Tom Cruz'n ‏@TinPotDickTator
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
More folk have lost their health care insurance
Than have enrolled under you!

Gateway Pundit readers had their own reactions.

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Obama's a liar
And so are you.
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Obamacare will leave
America black 'n blue

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
5.5+ million have LOST their health plan
and THAT is what's TRUE!

(Yes, that is very true.)

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
The uninsured may get healthcare,
But their health care will be paid for by me and you.

(Oh, how true. Even the cold hearted New York Times was forced to admit:

"About four-fifths of those choosing health plans to date qualified for financial assistance to help pay their premiums, administration officials said.")

Roses are stinky
as they start to rot
I once had insurance
and now I do not.

Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
What's it gonna take
To get rid of you?

As the New York Times further noted,

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said Wednesday that many of "the new enrollees in Obamacare exchange plans are actually folks who were already insured" or eligible for Medicaid.
(snip)
Opinion polls show that people who are uninsured disapprove of the health care law at roughly the same rate as people who have insurance.
Still attired in his black and blood red plaid pajamas and busy drinking his Valentine and Presidents' Day hot chocolate, Pajama Boy thankfully was finally unable to "talk about getting health insurance."

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/...#ixzz2tgO331b7
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February 17, 2014 'Not a Smidgen of Corruption' - 2014 Lie of the Year?

Andrew Thomas
During the Superbowl Sunday interview with Bill O'Reilly, President Obama famously stated that there was "not a smidgen of corruption" in the IRS. It has since been learned in the House Ways and Means Committee investigation of the IRS that the agency did not stop at targeting and harassing conservative groups that applied for 501(c)(4) status. In fact, it was revealed that the IRS targeted existing 501(c)(4) groups, 83% of which happened to be "right-leaning", i.e., conservative.

However, the most damning piece of evidence in the investigation was that of all the groups selected by the IRS for audit, 100% were conservative. As Carol Platt Liebau states in Townhall.com:

That's right -- "somehow," every single 501(c)(4) that the IRS selected to endure the time, expense, distraction and stress of an audit just happened to be conservative.

Hmm...A government that targets, harasses, and suppresses dissent among its own citizens based on their political affiliation through an agency that has the unfettered power to financially destroy and imprison them. I will need to look up the definitions of "corruption" and "smidgen".

PolitiFact's "Lie of the Year" in 2013 was Obama's statement "If you like your health care plan, you can keep it". Perhaps his "not a smidgen of corruption" proclamation will be the lie of 2014.

Andrew Thomas blogs at darkangelpolitics.com

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/...#ixzz2tgQwRzap
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ObamaCare Deals Seniors Another Blow

AMAC fought Obamacare before this law was passed

On January 1, 2014, ObamaCare cut nearly $22 billion from Medicare home health care over four years. That means an estimated 3.5 million poor and ill homebound senior citizens woke up on New Year's Day to discover that ObamaCare had slashed funding for their home health care program.

Last year, Medicare home health services were delivered to approximately 3.5 million Medicare beneficiaries. According to the federal government's own data, these seniors are older, poorer and sicker than the Medicare beneficiary population as whole. Many of these seniors also reside in rural communities, where home health care is especially important because other sources of treatment are often located many miles away.

But wait, there's more: according to the Obama Administration's own statistics, "approximately 40 percent" of all providers of home health services face net losses as a result of this Medicare cut. Put more plainly, 4-in-10 of all the providers on whom homebound seniors depend face the threat of bankruptcy and closure as a result of ObamaCare. That's 5,000 home health care companies and 500,000 jobs wiped out in order to pay for ObamaCare.

Of course, this is merely one example of how ObamaCare is hurting American citizens, affecting American businesses and impacting American jobs. AMAC, the Association of Mature American Citizens, is leading the charge to rescind this reprehensible attack on America's seniors and small businesses. We have always believed that ObamaCare was a destructive and costly monstrosity - and we support a full repeal.

As the fastest growing alternative to groups like AARP, we aim to champion the interests of mature Americans, seniors and prospective retirees. We believe in religious freedom, free enterprise and support common sense solutions to our Nation's largest challenges.

Our nation's economic growth and our citizens' future prosperity should not be threatened from bad policies emanating from Washington DC.

Join the AMAC Army today and spread the word to friends, family and neighbors - help us fight government overreach and unaccountable Federal spending in the nation's Capital with greater strength in numbers!

http://amac.us/


All I can think of right now is Granny is going off the cliff!!! Hmmm all for the good grace of corporations over people, screw Ganny!!! It seems as though Granny is the only one complaining so over the cliff she goes!!! Who is next it sure won't be the illegals will it!!!!!


Published on Mar 20, 2012
President Barack Hussein Obama implements his Democrat Party's Signature Achievement- Obamacare. There's just one little catch, it cuts Senior's Medicare Funding by Half A Trillion Dollars. Sorry, Granny, no more money for that expensive Pacemaker...Geronimo!!!!





Published on Aug 11, 2012
GOP wunderkind Paul Ryan wants to push Granny off the cliff: will you let him?

Presented by the Agenda Project Action Fund.

Check out Granny's website: http://savegranny.org/

*Please note, no senior citizens were harmed in the making of the ad.

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Remember folks AARP was pushing Obamacare as were many others.

HEY, OBAMA: Joe Wilson Was Right, “You Lie!” OBAMACARE Does Cover Illegals in CA

By Clash Daily / 18 February 2014 /

On Monday, Fox News Channel’s The Kelly File took up my article from Friday in which I reported that California’s state Obamacare exchange, Covered California, is recruiting illegal aliens to enroll in the program. I cited the Covered California website, where a page advises, in Spanish: “Fear not if you are undocumented and want to enroll your family in health insurance.” It appeared that Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), of “You lie!” fame, was right about the policy and illegal aliens.
The Cato Institute’s Michael Cannnon told host Megyn Kelly that while Wilson was correct, it was not for the reasons that I cited. Instead, he argued, illegal aliens can take advantage of Obamacare reforms when they buy insurance outside of an Obamacare exchange.
Read more: Breitbart

Read more at http://clashdaily.com/2014/02/hey-ob...sHU19TmElqW.99

Editor's Choice
Obama(S)care: Con artists and criminals in charge

By: Michelle Malkin
2/19/2014 10:16 AM



Question: If Obamacare officials cannot prevent accused embezzlers from infiltrating their offices, how can they protect enrollees from grifters, con artists and thieves in the federal health insurance exchange system?
Here in my home state, a director of Connect for Health Colorado — the state-sponsored Obamacare health insurance exchange — was just put on administrative leave. No, Christa Ann McClure did not go on leave over the chronic problems plaguing the cursed Connect for Health website. She’s on leave because she has been indicted for filching funds from her last employer in Montana.
No, the guardians of Obamacare didn’t smoke her out on their own. McClure ‘fessed up only after the local Billings (Mont.) Gazette newspaper reported on the charges against her. She was indicted by a grand jury on Jan. 16. But her current state government employers did not find out until last week, when McClure finally informed them because the press had published the indictment.
The Keystone Kops of the Colorado health exchange tell us they conducted “thorough” background checks of McClure. They say they “fully vetted” and investigated her references when they hired her last March for her six-figure job helming the state Obamacare office of “partner engagement.” Colorado officials say she was “well-qualified” for the Obamacare job, which involves being a “liaison” with other government agencies.
But mum’s the word on who recommended her, which references they talked to and who in Colorado Democratic circles might have known about her history in Montana.
The 12-page federal indictment is a blood-boiling document outlining government waste, fraud and abuse in the federal affordable housing racket. The feds say McClure siphoned untold amounts of money from the nonprofit group Housing Montana, which received a half-million-dollar federal grant to build homes for poor people.
McClure allegedly was paying herself “significant sums” for bogus “consulting services” while also taking a full-time salary as executive director of the nonprofit. She is accused of raiding the organization’s funds for family expenses, personal travel and a laptop and lying to the IRS to obtain false reimbursements. She further defrauded the government by inflating her unused sick and annual leave hours. The feds say she also bilked Montana homeowners who participated in the federal affordable housing program by charging them for a fake $750 warranty and a $1,000 fee for “leasing tools.”
Here’s another disturbing fact: In a classic dance of the lemons, McClure had bounced around successfully from government-funded job to job until now. The Montana state auditor’s office disclosed last week that McClure had managed three grants worth more than $2 million to implement Obamacare in that state. McClure worked on the project for three years at an annual salary of $98,000. She was “responsible for managing a broad range of contracts and making sure they got delivered on time,” according to The Billings Gazette.
To whom did she deliver them, you ask? State auditors will be trying to find out now. McClure faces trial in June and up to 20 years on each of the eight charges of fraud and embezzlement.
I’d like to be able to tell you that she’ll never work in another Obamacare job again. But take a look at California. Just a few weeks ago, Jillian Kay Melchior reported in National Review that “at least 43 convicted criminals are working as Obamacare navigators in California, including three individuals with records of significant financial crimes.” The crimes include forgery, petty theft, shoplifting, welfare fraud, child abuse and evading an officer.
Only the best to handle your private medical data and sensitive financial information!
And take a look at Oregon’s disastrous Obamacare exchange, Cover Oregon. While overseeing an over-budget and inoperable website subsidized to the tune of nearly $60 million in federal funds, project managers allegedly “initiated the design of dummy web pages to convince the federal government the project was further along than it actually was,” according to KATU-TV in Portland. A former Republican state legislator who served on the information technology oversight committee reported the whistleblowing allegations to the FBI. There is still no estimated completion date for the dysfunctional project, and the woman in charge of implementing the system is now in California, refusing to answer questions about her role.
“We have to pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it,” Nancy Pelosi infamously brayed in 2010. Ever since, Obamacare has revealed its true and horrifying colors: It’s not salvation. It’s a criminal enterprise rooted in ideological fraud.
Michelle Malkin is the author of “Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks and Cronies” (Regnery 2010).

http://www.humanevents.com/2014/02/1...als-in-charge/