Sebelius Finally Admits Premiums Will Rise as a Result of ObamaCare – Katie Pavlich

Sebelius Finally Admits Premiums Will Rise as a Result of ObamaCare – Katie Pavlich.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is finally admitting that the Affordable Care Act isn’t actually that affordable. Think tanks have been warning for years about the expensive cost of ObamaCare and many have already seen their health insurance premiums rise as a result of its implementation yet, the administration has denied the bill will actually increase costs for consumers until now.

Some people purchasing new insurance policies for themselves this fall could see premiums rise because of requirements in the health-care law, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters Tuesday.

Ms. Sebelius’s remarks come weeks before insurers are expected to begin releasing rates for plans that start on Jan. 1, 2014, when key provisions of the health law kick in. Premiums have been a sensitive subject for the Obama administration, which is counting on elements in the health law designed to increase competition among insurers to keep rates in check. The administration has pointed to subsidies that will be available for many lower-income Americans to help them with the cost of coverage.

The secretary’s remarks are among the first direct statements from federal officials that people who have skimpy health plans right now could face higher premiums for plans that are more generous. She noted that the law requires plans to provide better benefits and treat all customers equally regardless of their medical claims.

“These folks will be moving into a really fully insured product for the first time, and so there may be a higher cost associated with getting into that market,” she said. “But we feel pretty strongly that with subsidies available to a lot of that population that they are really going to see much better benefit for the money that they’re spending.”

Most people who have “skimpy plans” have them because they either a) don’t need a fancy health insurance plan b) can’t afford a health insurance plan. Forcing consumers into plans they don’t need or can’t afford is counter productive. Not to mention, Sebelius argues consumers will see a “much better benefit for the money that they’re spending.” Better benefits? Does she mean better benefits of having fewer doctors?

Most physicians have a pessimistic outlook on the future of medicine, citing eroding autonomy and falling income, a survey of more than 600 doctors found.

Six in 10 physicians (62 percent) said it is likely many of their colleagues will retire earlier than planned in the next 1 to 3 years, a survey from Deloitte Center for Health Solutions found. That perception is uniform across age, gender, and specialty, it said.

Another 55 percent of surveyed doctors believe others will scale back hours because of the way medicine is changing, but the survey didn’t elaborate greatly on how it was changing. Three-quarters think the best and brightest may not consider a career in medicine, although that is an increase from the 2011 survey result of 69 percent.

“Physicians recognize ‘the new normal’ will necessitate major changes in the profession that require them to practice in different settings as part of a larger organization that uses technologies and team-based models for consumer (patient) care,” the survey’s findings stated.

About two-thirds of the survey responders said they believe physicians and hospitals will become more integrated in coming years. In the last 2 years, 31 percent moved into a larger practice, results found. Nearly eight in 10 believe midlevel providers will play a larger role in directing primary care.

Or how about the better benefits of fewer life saving medical devices thanks to the innovation and job killing medical device tax in ObamaCare?

Biomedical or medical device engineering firms are already laying off workers who develop crucial medical products due to the “unforeseen” costs, or in other words, the costs of ObamaCare. Not to mention, the more money these companies pay to the government, the less money they have to invest in research and development.

The Obama administration is no longer trying to lie about ObamaCare, instead they’re simply trying to justify the lies by making everyone feel better about the so-called benefits ObamaCare will offer at a much higher price.

Related articles

• HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius admits Obamacare is raising some peoples insurance rates… (bluegrasspundit.com)

 

The War on Women – Tea Party Nation

The War on Women – Tea Party Nation.

Posted by Judson Phillips

There are actually two wars on women going on right now.  One is a faux war, created by the media.  The other is a very real war.  But since the left launches the second war on women, don’t expect to hear much about it from the drive-by media.

 What is this second war on women that no one is talking about and why should we conservatives be talking about it, regardless of whether we are male or female?

 Joe Salazar is a Colorado Democrat.  Perhaps that is the same thing as saying he is a complete sexist, raging idiot.

 Colorado was considering a bill that would forbid concealed carry permit holders from carrying their weapons on the grounds of colleges and universities.

 Salazar said that women really didn’t need guns to protect themselves if they were afraid.  After all, they might not get raped.   Or they might go off and just start shooting people for no good reason because, well who knows why.

 Women of Colorado rejoice!  Don’t worry your pretty little heads about making decisions about your self-defense because you have sexist pigs like Joe Salazar to make those decisions for you!

 Salazar is not the only idiot in Colorado.  The University of Colorado is like almost every other college and university in the nation.  Liberals control it and of course they don’t like guns.

 So what is a woman supposed to do if she is stalked or threatened by a rapist?  These bright lights think a whistle is a great defense.    Forget bringing a knife to a gunfight, these dim bulbs want you to bring a little piece of plastic to a gunfight.  Is it any wonder why American students at all levels constantly fail when compared to foreign students?

 Our children and young adults are being taught by morons.

 Conservatives learn from not only their mistakes but also other people’s mistakes.  We learned that banning guns in certain areas like college campuses does not make them safer.  It only makes it easier for criminals. 

 If a criminal is going to come on campus to rape a woman do you think he is really going to worry about another law that prohibits him from carrying a gun?  No, he is going to be jumping up, giving Joe Salazar high fives, thanking him for making the campus a target rich zone and an area where he can prey on victims without fear of running into someone who is armed and can fight back.

 Conservatives must fight these stupid laws but we also must realize something else.  Self-defense is our personal responsibility.

 Unfortunately for real Americans, we are facing the increasing reality that the left is stripping our 2nd Amendment rights from us.  Perhaps even worse, the Supreme Court is becoming less than friendly for conservatives.    Cases like District of Columbia v. Heller, which struck down the gun control laws of the District of Columbia.  Heller was a 5-4 decision. 

 After the way Chief Justice John Roberts folded like a cheap black robe, there is no way any of us should feel comfortable that the Supreme Court will protect our 2^nd Amendment Rights.

 The battle for the 2^nd Amendment is a battle we cannot lose.  The 2^nd Amendment is not about personal protection.  It is about preserving liberty and stopping government tyranny.

 If you live in a jurisdiction that has repealed the 2^nd Amendment, you need to think about alternatives for self-defense if you cannot carry a gun.

 Martial arts is one of those alternatives you should think about.  Martial arts has a couple of benefits.  The first is it is physical fitness.     We have to deal with the fact Obamacare is not going to be repealed.  The Republicans have made no serious effort to repeal Obamacare.  They have not even tried an incremental approach to repeal. 

 The best way to fight Obamacare and avoid the death panels that will be there, regardless of what the Obama Regime says, is to be on offense.  So much disease is preventable.  If you smoke, stop smoking.  If you are overweight, change your diet and lose weight.  Get out and exercise.

 What do you do if you cannot carry your gun with you?  Are you just going to be another victim?

 Martial arts, particularly those that started in Asia were started as a response to a population that was disarmed.  If the population could not fight with weapons, they had to find another way to fight back. 

 Today there are a number of very effective martial arts that will teach you how to defend yourself.  You do not have to be a teenager to take these martial arts.  Some of them emphasize the ability to fight back without being in fantastic shape.

 Combat Hapkido is one of them.  Being a small person is actually a benefit in this martial art. 

 We must fight for our rights.  But we have lost too many of those fights.  We have too many low information voters that have put Barack Obama back in office. 

 While we must fight for the best, we must also prepare for the worst.  Unfortunately for America, right now under Obama’s America, we are living in the worst of times.

Related articles

• Colorado Democrat: Women Don’t Need Guns If They ‘Feel Like They’re Going To Be Raped’ (conservativebyte.com)
• Laura Ingraham Responds After Colorado Dem Lawmaker Says Women Use Call Boxes, Whistles to Protect Themselves (foxnewsinsider.com)
• 1100 Special Forces Soldiers Sign Letter Supporting the Second Amendment (mikewb1971.wordpress.com)
• Oppose All Gun Control (lewrockwell.com)
• Obamacare: The epic fail act. – Tea Party Nation (thepoliticalchef.wordpress.com)

 

Obamacare: The epic fail act. – Tea Party Nation

Obamacare: The epic fail act. – Tea Party Nation.

Posted by Judson Phillips

Here is a major shock.

 Even the left is realizing that Obamacare is not going to work.

 Of course, the left does not want Obamacare repealed because Obamacare has never been about insurance or even medical care.  It has always been about power.

 So what do liberals do when they realize they have a problem?  The keep digging the hole deeper.

 From the LA Times:

 As the state moves to expand healthcare coverage to millions of Californians under President Obama‘s healthcare law, it faces a major obstacle: There aren’t enough doctors to treat a crush of newly insured patients.

Some lawmakers want to fill the gap by redefining who can provide healthcare.

They are working on proposals that would allow physician assistants to treat more patients and nurse practitioners to set up independent practices. Pharmacists and optometrists could act as primary care providers, diagnosing and managing some chronic illnesses, such as diabetes and high-blood pressure.

“We’re going to be mandating that every single person in this state have insurance,” said state Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina), chairman of the Senate Health Committee and leader of the effort to expand professional boundaries. “What good is it if they are going to have a health insurance card but no access to doctors?”

Hernandez’s proposed changes, which would dramatically shake up the medical establishment in California, have set off a turf war with physicians that could contribute to the success or failure of the federal Affordable Care Act in California.

Doctors say giving non-physicians more authority and autonomy could jeopardize patient safety. It could also drive up costs, because those workers, who have less medical education and training, tend to order more tests and prescribe more antibiotics, they said.

Isn’t that typically liberal.

 Instead of letting the free market work, Democrats must legislate another failure.

 What happens when we run out of Doctors, nurses and Physician assistants?

In California, I’m sure they will just approve witch doctors to do medical treatment.

Related articles

• The Coming Crisis in Patient Access to Physcians (pjmedia.com)
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Obamacare is All About Death and Taxes – Tea Party Nation

Obamacare is All About Death and Taxes – Tea Party Nation.

By Alan Caruba

Prior to the November elections, I received an email that was chilling. It was about the new Obamacare rules. Before I discuss the Obamacare taxes that are kicking in this year and next, I want to share excerpts from it.

The email was from an individual whose son-in-law has a brother who is a surgeon at Emory Hospital in Atlanta. It is ranked high among American hospitals. This is what he related:

“A group of non-doctors, from ‘our’ country’s Department of Health arrived last week at Emory for a two day session and is on their rounds around the country to make sure every hospital fully understands the new rules (which start in December (after the elections) concerning treating all patients over 70 years of age.”

“This group informed the staff Emory and all the doctors present that they will very soon not be allowed to operate on anyone over 70 (no matter how urgent or life threatening the situation is), without first having it approved by a board of eight doctors. Failure to comply will result in a huge financial burden to the hospital and more than likely the doctor will lose his/her ability to practice medicine anywhere in the country.”

“This board is to be established at every hospital in the country and the board members will only work eight hours a day…the DOH group almost got lynched at this point by the doctors who were present. The point that got the Emory doctors so upset originally was that the “Death Board” will be available only 8 hours during the day. And once their 8 hour shift is up, they may have to wait 16 hours to get in touch with them and another hour or two or three to get a decision and permission to operate.”

This is, however, anecdotal. Despite efforts to confirm whether this is a new, official policy, no confirmation could be found and, it should be noted that there have been numerous efforts to debunk what former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin dubbed “death panels.”

If the report of the visit to Emory Hospital is accurate, fears of death panels are true. If you or a member of your family is over age 70, Obamacare could lead to denied service and even death. According to an article in a December issue of U.S. News and World Report, this process, is also likely to include women seeking mammograms to detect breast cancer and even premature babies and infants in need of preventative treatment for a virus. So every American is now at risk if they have life-threatening health care needs.

If this seems fanciful, consider reports out of the United Kingdom where they have had socialized medicine for decades. There, both the elderly and sick babies are at risk of being abandoned by National Health Service hospitals.

Officially called the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Obamacare will surely migrate into a bureaucratic death sentence for an American healthcare system once deemed the best in the world.

In the course of the “fiscal cliff” negotiations Congress actually repealed a section of the ACA, the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports affecting people who need long-term care. It is likely that as the 2,000-plus pages of ACA are examined in greater detail by Congress, further dismantling will occur. It needs to be entirely repealed, something the House voted for, but which was deep-sixed in the Democrat-controlled Senate, and Obama would surely veto any effort to do so.

Obamacare’s taxes have arrived and they include another investment tax increase for taxpayers with taxable income exceeding $250,000 ($200,000 for singles). There is also another payroll tax increase of 0.9 percent in the hospital insurance portion of the payroll tax. There is a new tax on medical devices of 2.3 percent affecting manufacturers and importers on all their sales. This increase will be passed along to consumers.

There is a reduction in the income tax deduction for individual’s medical expenses and the elimination of the corporate income tax deduction for expenses related to the Medicare Part D subsidy and a limitation of the corporate income tax deduction for compensation that health insurance companies pay to their executives.

These ACA tax increases are in addition to a variety of other deductions that taxpayers have previously been allowed to take; in addition to a death tax increase there was the elimination of full expensing of capital purchases.

The news about Obamacare just keeps getting worse. Actuaries at the management consulting firm Oliver Wyman are predicting that the law’s age rating restrictions could mean a 42 percent hike in premium costs for people aged 21 to 29 when buying individual coverage.

After the Supreme Court ruled that ACA is a tax, the Congressional Budget Office did an update of its scoring of the law and concluded that Obamacare will spend $1.7 trillion over ten years on its coverage expansion provisions alone, including a massive expansion of Medicaid and federal subsidies for the new health insurance exchanges. This translates to federal health spending by 15 percent.

Infants, the young, middle aged and older, all will find their costs for medical care increase or even be denied. There is nothing “affordable” about Obamacare. It is a draconian threat to every American.

© Alan Caruba, 2013

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Letter to Liberals, Socialists and Assorted Idiots

Letter to Liberals, Socialists and Assorted Idiots.

Letter to Liberals, Socialists and Assorted Idiots By Craig Andresen on January 8, 2013 at 6:02 am http://www.thenationalpatriot.com

Dear Liberals, Socialists and Assorted Idiots,

We tried to tell you but YOU told US we were crazy.

You got your 1^st paycheck of 2013 last Friday and many, MANY of you were astonished that it was smaller than it was the Friday before.

Guess what?

Elections have consequences.

YOU voted for what you DIDN’T get in your paychecks…TWICE.

You did and YOU know it.

For the last 4 years, the Emperor has made it very clear that he wanted to stick it to the “rich” and hike THEIR taxes.

WE, as conservatives, TRIED to tell you that HE was lying.

We tried and we tried and every time we told you he was going to hike YOUR taxes, even though YOU are part of the MIDDLE CLASS that the Emperor said MUST NOT be harmed by higher taxes…

YOU told us that WE had NO IDEA what we were talking about.

YOU called US crazy. You called US names.

YOU said WE were lying.

Well, now that you’ve seen your paychecks, what do you think?

77% of ALL Americans, regardless of their class, lower, middle or upper, have had their taxes jacked up.

YOU are among them.

WE were telling YOU the TRUTH.

Remember Obamacare?

Well, THAT’S just PART of your current tax hike.

We told you so.

Your payroll tax went up too, didn’t it?

We told you so.

Just wait until you try to take dividends out of your investments.

Those taxes have also gone up.

We told you so.

Death taxes?

Up.

We told you so.

If you happen to be the son or daughter of a farmer, there’s a pretty good chance that when your parents are gone, so too will be your family farm because you’ll have to sell it to pay the taxes.

That’s okay you say? Because you’ll just take the cash and run you say?

Don’t count on nearly as much as you would have gotten had, God forbid, your parents died LAST year because, Capital Gains taxes are also UP, Up, UP!!!

We told you so. Take another look at your paycheck liberals, socialists and assorted idiots and while you do, realize the guy responsible for your shrinking bottom line just came back from a 6 MILLION DOLLAR Hawaiian Vacation.

He left for vacation without having a deal to hike YOUR taxes yet, had to fly home to finish YOUR tax hike, flew BACK to Hawaii to play more golf and then, flew home again…ALL ON YOUR DIME WHILE YOU WAITED FOR YOUR FIRST…SMALLER…PAYCHECK OF THE YEAR.

We told you too, that were the Emperor allowed to jack up taxes on the “rich” he wouldn’t be done with it there. We TOLD you he would want MORE.

We were correct about that too.

Over the weekend, Pelosi made it clear that YOUR socialist party is not yet done raising taxes.

Where do YOU think they’re going to get that “EXTRA” revenue?

Pelosi says “NOT FROM THE MIDDLE CLASS” but, isn’t THAT what Obama told you too?

Just from the “rich?”

Isn’t THAT what Obama told you???

Just as they “ONLY” raised taxes on the “rich” in the fiscal cliff deal and just like “Obamacare is not a tax,” once again, they’re lying.

You don’t have to believe ME…

BELIEVE your PAYCHECK and then ask yourselves why Pelosi won’t commit to what they want to do next with taxes.

If you DON’T think MORE tax hikes and MORE revenue will come from YOUR paycheck…You ARE a very SPECIAL kind of stupid.

Here’s a clue for you regarding Obamacare…

The bill was 2700 pages long but, since it was passed, before anybody read it, more than 13,000 pages of government regulations have been written FOR Obamacare and they aren’t done yet.

ALL of those regulations are going to end up costing YOU money.

For those of you who say, “it’s okay that my taxes went up, if it helps the country…”

Think again.

For every dollar raised in this new tax deal that you were SO sure wouldn’t affect YOU…YOUR socialist party plans to spend an additional $40.00.

Not one red cent of the extra they took out of YOUR paycheck last Friday or every Friday to come will go toward paying down our annual deficit or our national debt.

Not one red cent.

For those of you who are saying, “Well, at least they got the big evil “rich” guys and corporations too…”

Not so fast.

Yes, those who are very rich got their taxes hiked but guess what? They own many, MANY businesses that YOU rely on every day.

If you buy gas or food, guess who ultimately pays the tax hike that THOSE companies got hit with?

Maybe you or someone you know needs an x-ray or a wheelchair or any one of a million other things called…Medical devices.

Guess who winds up paying the new Medical Device tax?

Let’s look at a pair of socks. Chances are, YOU will need a new pair of socks this year.

For Christmas, I got a package of 6 pairs of Starter Crew Socks. They’re made in the U.S.A I’m happy to say.

Well, NOW…Starter has to pay MORE for healthcare because, I’ll bet, THEY have more than 50 people working for them.

Do you think the owner of Starter is just going to eat that cost? Nope. They will pass it along.

Do you think those socks walk to the stores on their own?

No…There are shipping companies involved. Truckers, handlers, warehouses and all that goes with it. THEIR cost of doing business is going up too and they won’t be eating THEIR increased costs either.

Then, there’s the store that SELLS the socks.

See above.

Sooner or later, you’ll wash your socks. The water will cost more.

See above.

The detergent will cost more.

See above.

The electricity will cost more.

See above.

Got a gas dryer? Go right ahead and champion Matt Damon on fracking and the natural gas will cost more too.

See above.

Sooner or later, you’ll be going down to the river and beating your socks on a rock but…

The government will start regulating that too.

Don’t think so?

Well…We told you BEFORE the election that THOUSANDS of NEW REGULATIONS were in the offing should YOU reelect the Emperor.

Guess what?

We weren’t lying about that either.

So far…SINCE the election…AN AVERAGE OF more than 60 NEW REGULATIONS…PER DAY…OUTSIDE OF OBAMACARE…have been proposed and MANY, MANY of them have been made LAW.

Still don’t believe me?

Go to regulations.gov and count them up.

As I write this…there have been 67 NEW REGULATIONS proposed today as of 12:36pm 1/7/2013…5592 over the last 90 days!!!!

So WHO, exactly is paying for ALL THOSE TAX INCREASES that effect the cost of socks?

YOU are. You and I and everybody who buys socks.

It’s going to be that way for everything you buy. EVERYTHING.

Now how’s your paycheck looking?

We told you and we told you.

YOU didn’t believe US did you?

We also told you, before the election, about rampant inflation but, you chose to dismiss that too.

The Emperor’s Fed Chaiman, Bernake, says he will continue to print and print more and more money.

THAT makes every dollar you have left in your now diminished paycheck worth a little bit less every time he does that.

Is any of this starting to sink in?

You have less money in your paycheck now than you did when you got paid in 2012 and every dollar you have is worth less than it was in 2012.

THAT is what YOU voted FOR when YOU voted for Obama and every socialist democrat running for congress.

The fact is, WE told YOU about MORE than just your taxes before the election.

WE told you about your rights…Free speech…To bear arms…

WE told you about the Constitution.

You probably still don’t believe us regarding those things but…You should.

You see…It’s not just OUR rights, as conservatives, at stake…The same Constitution that protects US against the government also protects YOU and when it’s gone, whittled away bit by bit, YOU won’t be any more protected than will WE.

When socialists tell us what we can and can’t eat, buy, sell, own, do, say, believe in, where to live or see, hear, read, subscribe to, sing or pledge…They aren’t just telling CONSERVATIVES…They’re also telling YOU, socialists, liberals and other assorted idiots.

What?

YOU don’t believe me?

Well…YOU believed the tax hikes were ONLY gonna punish the “rich…”

Didn’t you?

How Not to Run a Nation – Tea Party Nation

How Not to Run a Nation – Tea Party Nation.

By Alan Caruba

The political farce that ended 2012 and began 2013 has surely made the United States a laughingstock among the nations of the world. The sharp divisions between liberals and conservatives in Congress led to desperate last minute negotiations to avoid a “fiscal cliff” that faced the nation’s taxpayers and that still threatens default on our debts. The same battles will be fought again when it comes time to raise the nation’s debt ceiling limit in two months.

This is a Congress that has not passed a budget for three years.

This is no way to run a nation!

By a vote of 89-8 in the early hours of Tuesday, the Democrat-controlled Senate approved a plan to raise taxes on families earning more than $250,000 and to postpone sequester cuts for two months. By mid-afternoon, however, Politico.com reported that “House Republicans are overwhelmingly opposed to the Senate’s bill to avert the fiscal cliff, making it nearly certain that Speaker John Boehner’s chamber will amend the legislation and send it back to the Senate – a potentially serious blow to a package that appeared well on its way to becoming law.”

“House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the No. 2 House Republican, told GOP lawmakers that he was opposed to the legislation in its current form. Republicans are chiefly concerned with the lack of spending cuts in the tax bill.” And that has been the problem since Obama took office, too much spending and too much borrowing to continue spending.

For the year or more the “fiscal cliff” existed Congress chose to do nothing. The frantic negotiations resulted in an agreement to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, something Democrats and the President campaigned against for years.

Having to fight these fiscal battles all over again in two months will only reaffirm that Congress is incapable to arriving at common sense solutions. For the 47% of Americans who pay no taxes, the discussion is a distraction from watching the bowl games and other diversions.

It is useful to review the Heritage Foundation analysis issued prior to the late night vote. Amy Payne spelled it out in a recent commentary, saying “Tax hikes are the centerpiece of the problem” warning that the largest tax increase in American history was scheduled to kick in on January 1.

While the Bush tax cuts remain, solutions are needed to resolve what to do with the payroll tax, the alternative minimum tax patch, and a host of other tax policies that were scheduled to expire at year’s end.

However, twenty tax increases built into Obamacare are scheduled to go into effect. They will generate a trillion dollar increase for the years 2013-2022. Curiously, a tax on medical instruments that covers everything from tongue depressors to MRI machines will make healthcare more expensive for everyone despite the claim that Obamacare would make healthcare more affordable.

As the Heritage Foundation and others have been shouting from the housetops, Obamacare raises the hospital insurance (HI) portion of the payroll tax on wage income over $250,000 from 2.9 percent to 3.8 percent. It then applies that 3.8 percent rate to investment income-capital gains and dividends—for anyone earning above $250,000.

Tax experts like Curtis Dubay, a senior policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation, points out that “this is a massive policy change, since it represents the first time the payroll tax will apply to investment income.” He calls the investment income HI tax “a dangerous step down a slippery, tax-hiking slope”, predicting that “the economy will suffer, because incentives to work and invest will fall. Less work and investment will mean that businesses create fewer jobs and pay their existing workers less than they otherwise would have.”

Dubay refutes President Obama’s claim that his plan for taxing the rich would just be a return to the rates that existed under President Clinton. “That is flat out incorrect,” noting that Obama is ignoring the tax hikes hidden in Obamacare.

Stephen Moore, a member of The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board and a senior economics writer, a regular commentator on CNBC-TV and Fox News, has a new book out, “Who’s the Fairest of the Them All? The Truth About Opportunity, Taxes, and Wealth in America.” ($21.50, Encounter Books). It blessedly brief, but it covers a lot of ground, especially as regards the lies coming out of the White House about the “rich.”

A lot of Americans are oblivious to the fact that the President is operating from an ideology that is the opposite of everything that built the greatest economy the world has ever seen. His views are those of a Socialist or to put it more bluntly, a Communist. He stops short of initiating programs by which the government would nationalize all industries, but Obamacare in effect does that for the health care industry; twenty percent of the nation’s economy.

In his book, Moore defends the free enterprise system as “the on-ramp to economic progress and rising incomes.” Under President Obama, “the ranks of the poor have risen and the progress of the middle class has stalled in the United States in recent years because we have moved so aggressively away from free markets and toward ham-handed government solutions.”

The lies the President told all through his 2008 campaign and the last four years of his first term have all been intended to create class warfare. Moore points out that “Mr. Obama says that in recent decades the middle class has suffered and shrunk. He is dead wrong on this count. In fact, the last thirty years (up until the 2008 recession) have been a boom period for the middle class.”

The proof of that, Moore notes, “By 2011, after Mr. Obama’s first three full years in office, and after nearly two years of radical spending and taxing policies, the median American family incomes declined by almost $4,500 for every household. The poverty rate increased, and so did the number of Americans losing their homes. Yes, Mr. Obama inherited an economic mess, but his policies have done little to stop the decline.”

Throughout 2012, according to Obama, if you earn more than $250,000 you are among the “rich” in America. This is surely a redefining of what we used to consider rich; usually those earning a million or more. As things stand now “Our government,” says Moore, “relies for more than 50 percent of its revenue on the richest three percent.”

The tax rate increase on “the rich” that Obama has been demanding would raise enough revenue to run the nation for about a week. Meanwhile, the U.S. must borrow $4.8 billion every day just to meet its expenses.

Obama’s goals since becoming President can be found in the “Cloward-Piven Strategy” and I recommend you get familiar with it as the nation hurtles toward financial collapse because that is exactly what the strategy is intended to bring about in order to impose a total socialist/communist system on the world’s greatest capitalistic economy.

Among the strategy’s proposals was a “massive drive to recruit the poor onto the welfare rolls” and we have seen this in the expansion of the food stamp program and loosening of requirements for those on welfare to seek employment. The goal of the Cloward-Piven strategy is to ultimately “sabotage and destroy the welfare system in order to ignite a political and financial crisis that would rock the nation; poor people would rise in revolt; only then would ‘the rest of society’ accept their demands.”

That is Obama’s definition of “fairness” and it exists today as half of society, those with jobs or self-employed, are having their income taxed to pay for government programs for those who do not work or cannot find work; an estimated 26 million are unemployed or stopped looking for work. Another 47 million are using food stamps, a program that has greatly expanded during Obama’s first term and which uses television commercials to encourage more people to sign on.

A recent Rasmussen Reports poll noted that 73% of likely voters want government spending cut. They sense the danger of a government grown so large it threatens the economy and, indeed, enforcement of the Constitution’s limits on government.

It has become a cliché to say the problem is government spending, but the problem is government spending.

There are a variety of scenarios regarding the near future and among them is the collapse of the U.S. dollar. Should that occur there would be wide-spread panic and demands that the government “do something.” One massive form of control has already been imposed in the form of Obamacare. When the government can determine who lives or dies, or how much care they can receive, Americans have lost a precious freedom. Other freedoms would be lost.

Obama has found ways to worsen the financial crisis and it has been deliberate. He is not merely “transforming” America, he is destroying it.

© Alan Caruba, 2013

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How’s That Obamacare Waiver Workin’ Out for Ya? – Michelle Malkin – Townhall.com

How’s That Obamacare Waiver Workin’ Out for Ya? – Michelle Malkin – Townhall.com

Exactly two years ago this week, the Obama administration announced it had issued more than 100 waivers en masse to a select group of companies, unions and other health insurance providers seeking relief from the onerous federal health care law. The Obamacare waiver winner’s club now totals 2,000. Where are they now?

Answer: In the same miserable boat as every other unlucky business struggling with the crushing costs and burdens of the mandate.

Among the first and most prominent recipients of the Obamacare waivers for favors were large restaurant chains that provide low-wage, seasonal and part-time workers with low-cost health insurance plans called “mini-med” plans. An estimated 1.7 million workers benefit from such plans. Obamacare forced companies carrying such coverage to raise their minimum limits on coverage to no less than $750,000 annually. Another Obamacare provision forces all employers to spend at least 80 percent to 85 percent of their premium revenue on medical care.

The social justice Democrats’ goal was to dictate insurance provider spending not just on coverage amounts, but also on executive salaries, marketing and other costs. The regulation punished companies with mini-med plans whose high administrative costs were due to frequent worker turnover and relatively low spending on claims — not “greed.” Complying with the provision would have meant tens of thousands of low-income workers would lose their benefits altogether.

Darden Restaurants, the Florida-based parent company of Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Red Lobster and other chains, was a member of the Obamacare waiver early bird special. Their get-out-of-Obamacare card helped spare the company’s health insurance benefits for nearly 34,000 employees. Breathing a sigh of relief that it would allow chains to continue offering all employees access to affordable health insurance, Darden said in a statement in the fall of 2010 that “the waiver allows us to continue to do that as the various phases of the health care law are implemented.”

Fast-forward to 2012. Darden announced last month that it would begin shifting full-time workers to part-time status to save money, cut health costs and circumvent Obamacare’s coverage mandate scheduled for full implementation in 2014. The move would reduce full-time employees’ hours to less than 30 hours a week; part-time workers are exempt from the insurance mandate. McDonald’s, another big Obamacare waiver recipient, is considering the same move.

In fact, a survey of members of the Chain Restaurant Compensation Association (CRCA) conducted last year by Hay Group reported that a whopping 77 percent of “quick serve” restaurant operators said they were considering reducing employee hours to change their status from full-time to part-time. At least one Denny’s restaurant franchise owner in Florida is cutting hours and has openly contemplated an Obamacare surcharge. Jimmy John’s and Papa John’s are also slashing work hours. Applebee’s is mulling a freeze on both hiring and expansion.

“There’s no such thing as a free lunch” is a race-neutral truth. But economically illiterate Obama supporters have now called for boycotts of these businesses and accused them of vengeful “racism” against the president. Instead of sympathy and gratitude for private businesses trying to do right by their workers, customers and shareholders, the corporate-bashers inundated Twitter this week with profanity-laced condemnations of the restaurant service industry. One protester tweeted: “@Applebees Your CEO is a racist piece of (redacted), he not hiring because Obama was elected…U WILL LOSE CUSTOMERS.”

“Red Lobster, Olive Garden (are) using Obama re-election as an excuse to deny employees benefits and living wages,” Jon Marquis fumed.

Twitter user Daphine Walker sent unhinged, ungrammatical messages to Red Lobster and Olive Garden in all-caps: “I WILL NEVER SPEND ANOTHER CENT ON THIS RACIST COMPANY WHO DOESNT GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THEIR EMPLOYEES.”

The CEO of Red Lobster and Olive Garden is black. But no matter. Regardless of the actual facts, economic realities and entirely predictable and inevitable consequences of command-and-control government mandates, it’s always about identity politics for the Obama grievance mob. In good times and bad, the left never grants waivers from the race card.

Michelle Malkin is the author of “Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks and Cronies” (Regnery 2010). Her e-mail address is malkinblog@gmail.com.

COPYRIGHT 2012 CREATORS.COM

WOLF: Obamacare taxes mean Obamacare layoffs – Washington Times

WOLF: Obamacare taxes mean Obamacare layoffs – Washington Times.

800,000 jobs at risk

By Dr. Milton R. Wolf – The Washington Times

America’s race toward the so-called “fiscal cliff” of automatic, massive tax increases is only part of the problem. This Thelma has her Louise — the Obamacare taxes — and hand-in-hand, these two terrors are racing toward Jan. 1.

The only thing worse than President Obama’s broken Obamacare promises are the promises he intends to keep: the tax hikes. Remember when Mr. Obama promised he’d never raise taxes on families earning less than $250,000 a year? He’d prefer you didn’t, but when Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and the Supreme Court put its stamp of approval on Obamacare, Mr. Obama became a court-certified tax-raiser.

Most of the president’s health care takeover won’t begin until 2014, but Democrats just couldn’t wait that long to start taxing you. The “Top Five Worst Obamacare Taxes Coming in 2013,” compiled by Americans for Tax Reform, is worth reviewing.

Obamacare Medical Device Tax. From pacemakers to MRI machines, if your health depends on a medical device, you will pay more. Manufacturers will face difficult decisions to compensate for the 2.3 percent excise tax on gross sales — levied even if a firm is not profitable. Will these firms charge you more, lay off workers or sacrifice research and development? Answer: Yes, yes and yes.

Obamacare “Special Needs Kids Tax.” The newly imposed $2,500 cap on flexible spending accounts is “particularly cruel and onerous” to families of special needs kids whose expenses can be many times that amount.

Obamacare Investment Income Surtax. What do your investments have to do with health care? It doesn’t matter. If it moves, the Democrats will tax it. Capital gains taxes will increase by more than half and dividend taxes will nearly double. A hostile investment climate will starve business of capital and is a recipe for a double-dip recession.

Obamacare “Haircut” for Medical Itemized Deductions. Limiting the amount of medical expense deductions will impact families with sizable medical expenses — chief among them, near-retirees.

Obamacare Medicare Payroll-Tax Hike. An increase in the payroll tax by nearly a third just made you more expensive for your employer to keep around.

Of course, this is just the start. The labyrinth of new Obamacare regulations will kill businesses. The 2,700-page law has already generated tens of thousands of pages of regulations, and it’s growing. Here’s one example: The president’s crackerjack bureaucrats required an impressive 18 pages just to define what a full-time employee is. Businesses will need to hire their own in-house bureaucracies to stay in compliance with the Washington bureaucracies.

It gets worse — much worse. Obamacare imposes a $40,000 fine for daring to hire a 50th employee without providing government-sanctioned health insurance. Small businesses will start to resemble the television show “Survivor” as anyone above the magic number is voted off the island. Think this won’t have an impact? There are already 2.4 times as many businesses in America with 49 employees as those with 50. Good luck.

800,000 Jobs. That’s what Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Elmendorf estimated in 2011 that Obamacare will destroy, and the day of reckoning has begun. In the wake of Mr. Obama’s re-election, companies large and small have already begun announcing layoffs, 45 so far, including (but certainly not limited to): Boeing, Hawker Beechcraft, U.S. Cellular, Husqvarna, Caterpillar, Bristol-Myers and on and on. Expect more — lots more.

Small businesses are especially vulnerable, particularly without the resources for throngs of lobbyists and lawyers. A recurring theme is unfolding: “Elections have consequences,” said one Las Vegas business owner as he explained that the survival of his company demands that he lay off 22 of his 114 employees. The Twitter aggregator website Twitchy.com has compiled distraught business owners facing the new normal. One user tweeted: “I own a small business … as of today. I will be laying off 10 of my 60 employees … Thanks Obamacare.”

These tragic stories are accumulating, and the human toll is devastating despite the administration’s assertions of a recovery. “The private sector is doing fine,” claimed the president earlier this year. This is fine? Mr. Obama came into office promising us change, and now he’s delivering it: 800,000 layoffs and lost jobs during a “recovery” would indeed be some kind of change.

Be sure to thank a Democrat.

Dr. Milton R. Wolf, a Washington Times columnist, is a radiologist and President Obama’s cousin. He blogs at miltonwolf.com.

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Hollywood’s Hysterical “Cancer Screening” Lie for Obama – Michelle Malkin – [page]

Hollywood’s Hysterical “Cancer Screening” Lie for Obama – Michelle Malkin – Townhall.com.

The Hollywood Women for Obama Club wants you to vote with your “lady parts.” I want the women of America to vote with their lady smarts. The latest ad from a trio of Tinsel Town actresses spreads one of the stupidest lies about Mitt Romney this election cycle. Fantasyland needs a fact check.

According to starlets Scarlett Johansson, Eva Longoria and Kerry Washington, the GOP presidential ticket wants to “end” funding for “cancer screenings.” If you and your reproductive organs don’t vote for Obama, the doe-eyed celebrities ominously imply, people will DIE, DIE, DIE!

This scare-mongering falsehood has been repeated endlessly by Planned Parenthood and the Obama campaign itself. An official Obama for America ad released in August accuses Romney’s running mate, Paul Ryan, of backing measures to “allow employers to deny women access to cancer screenings.” It also is being used by demagogic Democrats in key Senate races (in Montana, for example).

This much is true: Romney and Ryan do indeed support ending all federal taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood’s billion-dollar empire. One-third of the budget of the nation’s largest abortion provider, which masquerades as a comprehensive health care provider, comes from government.

But here’s what the famous femmes don’t tell you: Planned Parenthood does not provide women with mammograms. PP’s “women’s health” mantle is a sham. An undercover investigation of 30 Planned Parenthood clinics in 27 different states, conducted by pro-life group Live Action, confirmed that the abortion provider does not perform breast cancer screenings. “We don’t provide those services whatsoever,” a staffer at Planned Parenthood of Arizona admitted. Planned Parenthood’s Comprehensive Health Center clinic in Overland Park, Kan., acknowledged: “We actually don’t have a, um, mammogram machine, at our clinics.”

But don’t just take Live Action’s word for it. In June 2012, the Obama Health and Human Services Department responded to a request for information about how many Planned Parenthood clinics were certified to operate mammogram facilities. “Our search did not find any documents pertinent to your request,” HHS told the Alliance Defense Fund.

Got that? Fraudulent Hollywood harridans and their hero in the White House have been deliberately deceiving women into thinking that eliminating Planned Parenthood subsidies would mean a catastrophic end to affordable cancer screening services. But the abortion provider’s purported “referral services” to outside mammogram facilities are negligible — especially given the widespread availability of free and low-cost breast and cervical cancer screening services across the country supported by both private and public grants.

Wait, that’s not all. In the real world, it’s the Obama administration, not Republicans, who have actively presided over and promoted a drop in cancer screenings for both men and women over the past four years. You can thank Democratic crusaders for health care rationing in the White House. They want all the glory of championing socialized medicine, but cut and run from the consequences at election time.

Under Obamacare, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) will be empowered to determine which health care services are “medically appropriate.” For nearly three decades, the federal panel of primary care physicians and epidemiologists has issued nonbinding guidelines and A-F ratings of recommended medical procedures. But as Forbes columnist Dr. Paul Hsieh explains:

“ObamaCare links insurance coverage of preventive medical services to their USPSTF rating. … (U)nder ObamaCare, Medicare payment decisions will become increasingly controlled by the new Independent Payment Advisory Board, explicitly created to reduce Medicare spending. … To reduce costs, many private insurers will likely drop coverage for “C” and “D” rated services. Hence under ObamaCare, the USPSTF guidelines will likely become the de facto standards for both government and private health insurance coverage.”

And that means dropping coverage for the very services Scar-Jo and her femme friends are accusing the GOP of threatening.

Note: The USPSTF is the same review panel that advised cutting back on routine ovarian cancer screenings last month, recommended fewer prostate cancer screening tests in May 2012, and proposed mammogram restrictions for women over age 50 in 2009.

In fact, the Mayo Clinic reported this summer that mammogram screenings for women in their 40s have declined nearly 6 percent since the Obama panel announced its decision in 2009. “Comparing mammography rates before and after publication of the new guidelines,” the Mayo Clinic wrote, “researchers found that the recommendations were associated with a 5.72 percent decrease in the mammography rate for women ages 40-49. Over a year, nearly 54,000 fewer mammograms were performed in this age group.”

It’s no surprise the Hollywood “cancer screening” horror ad script was written by left-wing actor/director Rob Reiner of “All in the Family” and Archie Bunker fame. These Obama-promoting meatheads and their hysterical handmaidens inhabit a manufactured world impervious to facts and fiscal realities.

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ORIENT: Obamacare set to annihilate private medicine – Washington Times

 

ORIENT: Obamacare set to annihilate private medicine – Washington Times.

Reforms to benefit the favored at the expense of rest

By Dr. Jane M. Orient

National health care reform is not at all like being fitted for a pair of eyeglasses. The eye doctor patiently tries one lens, then another, each time asking, “Is it better, or worse?” If, when you get the final product, you don’t see better, you always have the option of going back to your old prescription or trying again.

Congress, on the other hand, is prescribing radical, universal (one-size-fits-all) changes. It is quite capable of ignoring a deluge of phone calls, or even thousands of people standing in the streets in opposition, as in the drama leading up to passage of Obamacare. The better-or-worse exercise is occurring behind the scenes — with Big Hospitals, Big Pharma, Big Insurance, Big Unions and other big campaign contributors.

After the plan is fully implemented in 2014, there may be no going back — at least, that’s the reformers’ intention. They would like to annihilate private medicine. The Obama administration is feverishly spending money to set up bureaucracies and bribe states into implementing state exchanges and expanding Medicaid, each step creating more special interests that will resist repeal.

Congress never takes a serious look at the results of its massive, non-consensual experiments, not even when it requires a report, as it did with the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act. If there was ever a study to determine how much costs went up, access went down and hassles for patients and doctors multiplied, the results are buried in an archive somewhere. Small physicians’ office labs are gone, and urgent specimens often have to be shipped out of state. Did anything improve? Congress doesn’t know and doesn’t care.

The “outcomes” that will be monitored in Obamacare have nothing to do with improving your child’s treatment or saving your mother’s life. They are all systemwide aggregate measures. How many people got anti-tobacco counseling? How many are enrolled in a plan? Did Ethnic Group A get as many joint replacements as Ethnic Group B? Did expenditures stay within the pre-set bounds? How well did physicians follow the guidelines? Did all the required, formerly confidential patient data get entered into the database?

It is quite likely that some people will benefit. If you hand out the standard eyeglass prescription, some people will see better. The press acolytes of Obamacare will report on them. On those who are running into walls, we will hear not so much.

We’ll hear about the 25-year-olds who get another year on their parents’ insurance, but not about the premium increases paid by all or the children who lose coverage because employers stop offering insurance to all dependents. We’ll hear about the newly insured persons who can go to a “provider” to get a “free” screening. But not about the sick people who get less attention, the increased premiums to pay for the freebies, or the physicians who close their practices owing to the unfunded mandates.

We’ll see reports on what the government forces us to measure, not on the ruins the government ignores. We’ll never see what might have been: the innovation, vitality and efficiency that are the fruits of freedom in medicine. That is why socialism always demands to be universal. It can’t survive if there is competition. Advocates of socialism want us to be fitted with blinders, not better eyeglasses.

National health care reform is like a forced marriage to government — for better or for worse.

For the unfavored, it will be for worse — until death.

Dr. Jane M. Orient practices internal medicine in Tucson, Ariz., and is executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (aapsonline.org).

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