by Jack
Dear Barry, today is a notable day for several reasons: It’s your birthday (Happy Birthday) and today also marks the beginning of WWI. WWI devastated most of Europe and you’ve manged to devastate most of America. And on that note, we (your disgruntled subjects) have but one question: Where’s that 2500 bucks we’re supposed to save with your Obamacare, huh Barry? Our premiums went up and our access went down, nice going! Now Florida is hiking their ACA premiums 18%, and CA, already among the highest, is headed up another 4.2% 2015! Looks like another hit on the middle class and another broken promise. I’m scratching off presidential candidate promise #116 as I write, you sure are racking em up!
So pardon us if we don’t celebrate with you today, because most of us prefer to wait until you’re out of office… then Katie bar the door, it’s going to look like Bastille Day, the 4th of July and May Day in Russia, all rolled into one!
Happy freakin birthday Barry, like WWI, we’ll never forget you.
Obama was definitely wrong to tout the ridiculous $2,500 number during the 2008 campaign, before the plan that became Obamacare was even close to fully formed.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/promise/521/cut-cost-typical-familys-health-insurance-premium-/
But the growth in premium costs has been much smaller than anticipated, and some of that is at least partially due to the ACA.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/04/14/lower-premiums-yes-really-drive-down-obamacares-expected-costs-cbo-says/
It should also be noted that total healthcare spending in the U.S. is growing at the slowest rate since the government started keeping track in 1960.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/09/fact-check-is-obamacare-slowing-growth-of-health-costs/
Whether the slow growth in overall healthcare spending is due partly to the ACA or not is still up in the air, but for now it seems that at least the Doomsday predictions Republicans who claimed the law would dramatically raise costs have not come true.
I understand the President whined a bit because the media wasn’t showing proper obeisance in wishing him a happy birthday. Instead they were demanding answers (about time) on global affairs, the economy, etc.
I’ll add my disappointment and frustration to the flavor of your birthday wishes, Jack. I sure wish we could be genuinely happy in wishing our President a happy birthday. It’s a bit insulting that he applauded himself over the economy recently when he should be apologizing and turning to policy that would deliver better than 2% growth and extremely low work participation rate participation rate:
Participation for women is down and at the same time more women work whose spouses are not working. Black men and teens are not doing well at all in the jobs market.
Well. Happy something or other…
Love those executive orders:
“… providing for the apprehension, detention, or conditional release of individuals…”
http://www.cdc.gov/sars/quarantine/exec-2004-04-03.html
“…section 1 of Executive Order 13295 shall be further amended by replacing subsection (b) with the following:”
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/07/31/executive-order-revised-list-quarantinable-communicable-diseases
Slightly off-topic, but:
“House panel: No administration wrongdoing in Benghazi attack
Carolyn Lochhead
Published 3:53 pm, Friday, August 1, 2014
(08-01) 11:42 PDT WASHINGTON — The House Intelligence Committee, led by Republicans, has concluded that there was no deliberate wrongdoing by the Obama administration in the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, said Rep. Mike Thompson of St. Helena, the second-ranking Democrat on the committee.
The panel voted Thursday to declassify the report, the result of two years of investigation by the committee. U.S. intelligence agencies will have to approve making the report public.
Thompson said the report “confirms that no one was deliberately misled, no military assets were withheld and no stand-down order (to U.S. forces) was given.”
That conflicts with accusations of administration wrongdoing voiced by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista (San Diego County), whose House Government Oversight and Reform Committee has held hearings on the Benghazi attack.
Stevens, who grew up in Piedmont, and the other Americans died when Libyans attacked the consulate on Sept. 11, 2012. Among the Intelligence Committee’s findings, according to Thompson:
— Intelligence agencies were “warned about an increased threat environment, but did not have specific tactical warning of an attack before it happened.”
— “A mixed group of individuals, including those associated with al Qaeda, (Moammar) Khadafy loyalists and other Libyan militias, participated in the attack.”
— “There was no ‘stand-down order’ given to American personnel attempting to offer assistance that evening, no illegal activity or illegal arms transfers occurring by U.S. personnel in Benghazi, and no American was left behind.”
— The administration’s process for developing “talking points” was “flawed, but the talking points reflected the conflicting intelligence assessments in the days immediately following the crisis.”
Those talking points included assertions that those who attacked the compound were angered by an obscure anti-Muhammad video posted to YouTube in the U.S. There is disagreement to this day about whether that was the case.”
http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/House-panel-No-administration-wrongdoing-in-5663509.php#src=fb
Don’t worry, I’m sure we just need ten more investigations before the truth about how Obama’s Benghazi cover-up is exposed!
RHT-you would make an excellent investigative journalist.
Chris let’s hope that we can do even better in the coming years to reduce the overhead in our medical insurance so we can pass the savings on to the patients. It’s still not affordable for my daughter, she makes too much and too little, caught in that donut hole.
‘Another winner’! MAD Magazine busts Obama on his birthday [Photoshop] – (scroll down)
http://twitchy.com/2014/08/04/another-winner-mad-magazine-busts-obama-on-his-birthday-photoshop/
Post…. Privatizing the healthcare industry… and without the regulation of their profit margin through ACA which is now 20% or so….than fed law states the shareholders are the #1 responsibility of healthcare corporations… conflict of interest..
why do drug companies make so many bogus drugs and hold out on releasing cures? Profit!
Can not have it both ways
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/wbush-subjects.html
Today is the anniversary of Nixon resigning…
Watergate was not just a break in
Why did we pardon him? The west wing was running a criminal org.
All Presidents regardless of Party Pardon the last President…. Obama has told the DOJ to give the Bush Admin Immunity from war crime prosecutions….
The CIA spying on the Senate who is suppose to be the oversight of the CIA? Big Big Deal
Party Politics is a waste of time…the criminals are running the gov, they will choose the Presidential candidates in the end not the people
Several points on the healthcare law need to be made:
Thousands and thousands of Americans that got a waiver on insurance they receive from their employers have not yet gotten the shock associated with Obamacare. That will come in November.
Doctors are refusing to see patients who got insurance through the Obamacare exchanges because they are not being paid enough.
Medical device companies are merging with foreign owned companies to avoid the insane tax and regulations put on them under the ACA.
Tech problems continue to be unresolved.
Medicaid expansion remains a problem in some states with at least one lawsuit likely headed to the Supreme court.
Most of the people that signed up are chronically ill and not enough that are healthy are signing up. If this continues the insurance companies will not survive or insurance will be unattainable.
There is a growing shortage of qualified doctors. Enrollment in medical school is down. Nobody wants to risk all of the years of training, and the expense, to become a poorly paid and highly regulated ward (of the state) doctor.
The law is not fully in effect; the damage to the industry won’t be known until this administration is long gone. The damage to the people is already evident and will get worse.
July 2, 2014 at NewsBusters:
Read further at the link to see the ways the various networks and newspapers avoided reporting 2.6 million unresolved enrollment errors.
No wonder doctors are opting out!
“Thousands and thousands of Americans that got a waiver on insurance they receive from their employers have not yet gotten the shock associated with Obamacare. That will come in November.”
[citation needed]
“Doctors are refusing to see patients who got insurance through the Obamacare exchanges because they are not being paid enough.”
[citation needed]
“Medical device companies are merging with foreign owned companies to avoid the insane tax and regulations put on them under the ACA.”
[citation needed]
“Medicaid expansion remains a problem in some states”
[due to Republican obstructionism]
“Most of the people that signed up are chronically ill and not enough that are healthy are signing up.”
[citation needed]
“the Health and Human Services Department’s Inspector General found Tuesday that 2.6 million unresolved problems in the applications of those seeking health care on the federal marketplace (used in 36 states).”
The vast majority of those problems have been resolved as of two days after the article you cited was published.
http://www.stevegrady.net/blog/2014/07/errors-in-healthcare-enrollment-eligibility/
Chris you should do your own homework. However, to help you get started I decided to find the evidence on the first three. It was actually pretty easy too. These stories popped up…
First citation: http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterubel/2013/08/20/attention-medicaid-patients-the-doctor-wont-be-seeing-you/
Second citation: http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2013/09/14/obamacares-medical-device-excise-tax-early-evidence-suggests-significant-harm/
Third citation: http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottgottlieb/2014/06/25/young-obamacare-enrollees-more-likely-to-have-serious-health-problems/
Any chance that Post Scripts will do a story about the House Report on Benghazi? After all, it seems that this site is eager to post any update about Benghazi, no matter how trivial. The House Report is a big deal, being that it comes from a Republican-led commission, and it pretty much came to the same conclusions as the Senate Report. Is that not newsworthy? If not, why not?
Jack, the first article is irrelevant, because the ACA actually INCREASES Medicaid payments to doctors! Blaming the law for “Doctors…refusing to see patients who got insurance through the Obamacare exchanges because they are not being paid enough,” as Tina did, makes no sense.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/21/obamacare-is-about-to-give-medicaid-docs-a-73-percent-raise/
The second article is interesting, and I am willing to acknowledge that the tax on medical device manufacturers was probably a bad idea.
The third article is also interesting, but somewhat obvious; of course people on the exchanges would be more likely to have health problems than people signing up for private plans–they’re poorer, and that correlates directly with poorer health. I don’t see this as a huge problem for the law or the sustainability of the exchanges, though. People are still signing up, and it makes sense that those with serious health problems would sign up first.
Another example of liberal hypocrisy. With student tuition skyrocketing they’re hiring guys like this to teach economics at Berkeley. It is no wonder why our college grads do not understand the concept of a balanced budget, be it personal or national.
Robert Reich Sticks It To Poor People With $242,613 Salary For Teaching ONE CLASS This Semester:
“Robert Reich, who served as U.S. secretary of labor for four years under Bill Clinton, is currently a public policy professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
The ultra-progressive economist — inasmuch as a mere law school graduate can be an economist — raked in an impressive income of $242,613 from the taxpayer-funded school in 2013, according to EAGnews.org.
For that sweet salary of $20,217 per month, Reich is slated to teach exactly one course this fall.
He will teach a more normal course load of four courses during the spring 2014 semester, notes EAGnews.
Reich, who served on the economic advisory board of then-President-elect Barack Obama in 2008, has a lengthy history of criticizing rich people.
The front page of Reich’s Fecebook page is currently festooned in all-capital letters with an appropriate motto: “INEQUALITY FOR ALL.”
The phrase relates to a 2013 documentary film of the same name starring the lavishly-paid professor. The flick examines income equality, the recent financial crisis and the failed Occupy movement.”
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/08/06/robert-reich-makes-242613-salary-for-teaching-one-class-this-semester/#ixzz39dTQgphN
Love hearing another former Democrat is running for Congress as a Republican. I hope he wins.
Ex-NFL Linebacker Garry Cobb To Blacks: ‘Democrats Destroyed Our Communities, I Want To Put An End To It’:
http://www.ironicsurrealism.com/2014/08/07/ex-nfl-linebacker-garry-cobb-to-blacks-democrats-destroyed-our-communities-i-want-to-put-an-end-to-it/
Obama music video.
http://www.ijreview.com/2014/08/165883-barack-singing-im-fancy-iggy/