Saturday Night Live Mocks Obamacare in Hilarious Skit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKz6Xy2yCes
Worse Is the New Normal
Mid-20th-century assumptions of generational progress no longer obtain.
By Mark SteynA few years ago, after the publication of my book America Alone, an exasperated reader wrote to advise me to lighten up, on the grounds that “we’re rich enough to be stupid.” That’s to say, Western democracies and their citizens are the wealthiest societies ever known, and no matter how much of our energies are wasted on pointless hyper-regulation for the business class and multigenerational welfare for the dependency class and Transgender and Colonialism Studies for our glittering youth, we can afford it, and the central fact of our wealth will ensure that our fortunes do not change. Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, we have been less rich, and our stupidity ought in theory to be less affordable. Instead, it’s been supersized. To take only the most obvious example, President Obama has added six-and-a-half trillion bucks to the national debt, and has nothing to show for it. As Churchill would say, had his bust not been bounced from the Oval Office, never in the field of human spending has so much been owed by so many for so little.
The West’s rivals do not think like this. China is now the second-biggest economy on the planet, but it has immense structural problems: As I’ve been saying for years, it will get old before it gets rich. Thanks to its grotesque “one-child” policy, it has the most male-heavy demographic cohort in history — no chicks and millions of guys who can’t get any action, which is not normally a recipe for social stability. Despite being extremely large, the country is resource-poor. But you can’t say it’s not thinking outside the box. The Daily Telegraph in London reported this week that the Chinese have just signed a deal to lease five percent of Ukraine (or an area about the size of Belgium) to grow crops and raise pigs on. And I’d doubt it will stop with post-Soviet republics on the Euro-fringe: It’s not impossible to imagine China buying, say, the Greek islands. Beijing thinks the half-millennium blip of Euro-American dominance is coming to an end and the world is returning to its natural state of Chinese preeminence. The West assumes it can endure as a kind of upscale boutique unaffected by the changes beyond. Like, say, the frozen-yogurt shop at the Westgate mall in Nairobi — until last weekend.
China’s Ukraine deal may sound kinda wacky, but the People’s Republic consumes about 20 percent of the world’s food yet has (thanks to rapid industrialization) only 9 percent of its farmland. As Big Government solutions go, renting 5 percent of a sovereign nation to use as your vegetable garden and pig farm is a comparatively straightforward answer to the problem at hand. By contrast, try explaining American “health” “care” “reform” to the Chinese: You could rent the entire Ukraine for about 3 percent of the cost of Obamacare, and what does it solve? My colleague Michelle Malkin revealed this week that her family has now joined the massed ranks of Obamacare victims: Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield sent her a “Dear John” letter explaining why they’d be seeing less of each other. “To meet the requirements of the new laws, your current plan can no longer be continued beyond your 2014 renewal date.”
Beyond the president’s characteristically breezy lie that “if you like your health-care plan, you will be able to keep your health-care plan” is the sheer nuttiness of what’s happening. For years, Europeans and “progressive” Americans have raged at the immorality of the U.S. medical system: All those millions with no health coverage! But Michelle Malkin had coverage and suddenly, under what Obama calls “universal health care,” she doesn’t. The CBO’s most recent calculations estimate that in 2023, a decade after the implementation of Obamacare, there will still be over 30 million people uninsured — or about the population of Canada. That doesn’t sound terribly “universal,” and I would bet it’s something of a low-ball figure: As many employers are discovering, one of the simplest ways “to meet the requirements of the new laws” and still stay just about solvent is to shift your workers from family plans to individual plans, and tell their spouses and children to go look elsewhere. Does it achieve its other goal of “containing costs,” already higher than anywhere else? No. Avik Roy reports in Forbes that Obamacare will increase individual-market premiums by 62 percent for women, 99 percent for men. In America, “insuring” against disaster now costs more than you’d pay in most countries for disaster.
No one has ever before attempted to devise a uniform health system for 300 million people — for the very good reason that it probably can’t be done. Britain’s National Health Service serves a population less than a fifth the size of America’s and is the third-largest employer on the planet after the Indian National Railways and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the last of which is now largely funded by American taxpayers through interest payment on federal debt. A single-payer U.S. system would be bigger than Britain’s NHS, India’s railways, and China’s army combined, at least in its bureaucracy. So, as in banking and housing and college tuition and so many other areas of endeavor, Washington is engaging in a kind of under-the-counter nationalization, in which the husk of a nominally private industry is conscripted to enforce government rules — and ruthlessly so, as Michelle Malkin and many others have discovered.
Obama’s pointless, traceless super-spending is now (as they used to say after 9/11) “the new normal.” Nancy Pelosi assured the nation last weekend that everything that can be cut has been cut and there are no more cuts to be made. And the disturbing thing is that, as a matter of practical politics, she may well be right. Many people still take my correspondent’s view: If you have old money well managed, you can afford to be stupid — or afford the government’s stupidity on your behalf. If you’re a social-activist celebrity getting $20 million per movie, you can afford the government’s stupidity. If you’re a tenured professor or a unionized bureaucrat whose benefits were chiseled in stone two generations ago, you can afford it. If you’ve got a wind farm and you’re living large on government “green energy” investments, you can afford it. If you’ve got the contract for signing up Obamaphone recipients, you can afford it.
But out there beyond the islands of privilege most Americans don’t have the same comfortably padded margin for error, and they’re hunkering down. Obamacare is something new in American life: the creation of a massive bureaucracy charged with downsizing you — to a world of fewer doctors, higher premiums, lousier care, more debt, fewer jobs, smaller houses, smaller cars, smaller, fewer, less; a world where worse is the new normal. Would Americans, hitherto the most buoyant and expansive of people, really consent to live such shrunken lives? If so, mid-20th-century America and its assumptions of generational progress will be as lost to us as the Great Ziggurat of Ur was to 19th-century Mesopotamian date farmers.
George Orwell, after attending a meeting of impoverished but passive miners, remarked sadly that “there is no turbulence left in England.” The Democrats, and much of the Republican establishment, have made a bet that there is no turbulence left in America, and the citizenry will stand mute before Obamacare’s wrecking ball. Unless they’re willing to accept a worse life for their children and grandchildren, middle-class Americans need to prove them wrong.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/359778/worse-new-normal-mark-steyn
Obama and Thugs Pulled Off the Heist of the Century
By Wayne Allyn Root
It is increasingly clear that the 2012
elections, both presidential and senate, were stolen by Obama, the
Democratic Party, the IRS, and government employee unions. It’s right
out of a mob movie like “The Godfather.”
The Obama Crime Family could give the
mob lessons. Don Obama plays for keeps. The Don gets what he wants and
when he found himself in danger of losing his power and control, Obama
went to his enforcers – the IRS.
In a story reminiscent of the mob
fixing union elections, the IRS enforcers conspired to destroy Don
Obama’s main competition – the Tea Parties and other conservative
fundraising groups.
Lois Lerner was only one of many IRS
big shots in DC who gave orders to IRS offices across the U.S. to “kill”
the Tea Parties and other conservative groups. Their goal – steal the
election. As if only days ago, the “fall gal” retired from the IRS. We can only guess what kind of massive payoff she received from Obama’s donors.
The 2010 elections were the biggest
embarrassment suffered by a U.S. President in modern history. The power,
energy and passion of the Tea Party won the GOP an amazing 63 House
seats, six Senate seats, six Governorships, and 680 seats in state
legislatures. It was an historic landslide. Obama’s entire agenda was
threatened.
Yet, the mainstream media expects us to
believe that only two years later (2012) that Tea Party energy and
passion was gone…overnight. Or, perhaps they changed back to fans of
Obama and the Democratic Party. What a fairytale.
The real story is that the Obama
administration ordered the IRS to delay, distract, hound, harass, and
intimidate Tea Party groups across the U.S. Without IRS attacks and
interference, Tea Parties would have had the same influence and momentum
as 2010 – when their raging energy and passion led to a shocking
landslide defeat for Obama and his allies.
There is no need to question or debate any longer. We now have emails from IRS officials stating exactly that – the Tea Parties had to be stopped if Democrats wanted to win the election.
And, conservative donations had to be stalled if Democrats wanted to retain control of the U.S. Senate.
Instead of massive Tea Party rallies
and record-setting fundraising for conservative candidates, Tea Party
groups were busy being distracted, hounded, harassed, and intimidated by
the IRS. They were busy being asked about the names of their members,
names of their speakers, content of their Facebook posts, and even the content of their prayers.
Conservative media personalities (like
yours truly) were attacked with IRS audits, as were Pro-Life,
Pro-Israel, and Pro-Constitution groups. The tax-deductible status of
Tea Party groups was purposely stalled so they could not raise money for
the 2012 election.
What the biased liberal mainstream
media refuses to do is connect the dots. None have the courage to state
that “the fix” was in. That a fraud perpetrated by government employees
handed control of the United States of America to Obama, a politician
who supports government employees and their unions.
What did the IRS get out of this? The
answer is pure bribery. Republicans, and especially Tea Parties, believe
in limited government, smaller budgets, fewer government employees, and
cutting bloated salaries, obscene pensions, and early retirement for
government employees. Another Tea Party landslide would have threatened
the power of government employee unions. Many government employees would
have been laid off.
Does anyone believe it a coincidence that Obama met with IRS union boss Colleen Kelley
at the White House the day before the targeting of Tea Parties by the
IRS began? If you do, I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.
Barack Obama was fraudulently
re-elected. Our country was hijacked by government employees protecting
their cushy lifetime jobs, bloated salaries, obscene pensions, and
powerful unions.
Think I’m wrong? Evidently IRS officials don’t. Several of them have been busy hiring famous and expensive law firms to defend themselves.
Where are they getting the money? Is
Obama arranging for big Democratic donors like George Soros, or union
political funds, to pay their legal bills? Is Obama scared to death of
what these IRS bosses will say under oath? Could their testimony end his
Presidency and destroy his legacy?
In the end it’s clear to anyone who
hasn’t been brainwashed by government schools or bribed by government
checks that the 2012 election was fraudulently stolen by Barack Obama
What did Obama, Democrats, and the IRS gain?
1. The right to continue to loot the
treasury with bailouts, stimulus, corporate welfare, and government
contracts to his friends, donors, loyal media lackeys, and corrupt union
bosses.
2. The right to continue to
redistribute income from the business owners (who vote Republican) to
Obama’s voters (the poor, unions, and government employees).
3. The ability to save Obamacare and
unionize 15 million healthcare workers – thereby raising $15 billion in
union dues to elect Democrats. And of course to overwhelm middle class
families with $20,000 annual health insurance bills they can’t pay,
thereby addicting them to government handouts.
4. The IRS itself gains tremendously.
They are now in charge of policing Obamacare – a huge, new bureaucracy.
It also adds thousands of new IRS agents, thereby greatly enriching the
IRS union.
5. The opportunity to pass immigration amnesty, thereby producing 10 to 20 million new loyal Democratic voters.
6. The opportunity to bankrupt business
owners and permanently weaken the private sector, thereby drying up
donations for conservative candidates and causes.
7. The opportunity to weaken American influence internationally (see Egypt, Libya, Syria).
Obama’s re-election also means he may
serve long enough to appoint one or two more Supreme Court justices,
whose radical leftist views will ensure America is permanently
transformed to a big government socialist nation.
This wasn’t just any theft, folks. It
was a trillion dollar theft. The Obama Crime Family (so far) has gotten
away with the greatest and most daring act of fraud in world history.
They stole the election.
http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/obama-and-thugs-pulled-off-the-heist-of-the-century/
ObamaCare and the “let it burn” theory of socialist collapse
By John HaywardWriting at the Wall Street Journal, Daniel Henninger has some advice for ObamaCare opponents: just let it burn until it collapses, taking the entire rotted edifice of socialism with it.
As its Oct. 1 implementation date arrives, ObamaCare is the biggest bet that American liberalism has made in 80 years on its foundational beliefs. This thing called “ObamaCare” carries on its back all the justifications, hopes and dreams of the entitlement state. The chance is at hand to let its political underpinnings collapse, perhaps permanently.
If ObamaCare fails, or seriously falters, the entitlement state will suffer a historic loss of credibility with the American people. It will finally be vulnerable to challenge and fundamental change. But no mere congressional vote can achieve that. Only the American people can kill ObamaCare.Well, sure, but is it really conservative or Republican “leadership” to let the American people suffer for years, until they finally rise up and demand reform? ”Let it burn” is not easy advice to give to people trapped at the heart of a raging fire.
Also, one of the points I think opponents of Ted Cruz and his filibuster are missing is that quiet, or even somewhat grumpy, acquiescence today fuels charges of hypocrisy during tomorrow’s political battles. It matters that Republicans can stand up in 2014 or 2016 and invite the public to remember how hard they fought to stop ObamaCare when they had a chance. It’s not their fault that they didn’t have the Senate votes to succeed. I wonder if politicians and pundits sometimes forget how strongly such reasonable arguments resonate with average people, who understandably tend to remember only the largest and most dramatic gestures after a few years have passed.
Henninger goes on to offer some examples of the teetering entrenched social programs he thinks are ripe for a fall. But, by his own admission, we’ve known these programs were insolvent for decades. The “let it burn” strategy hasn’t gotten us anywhere yet. How long are we supposed to let the ObamaCare fire burn before we reap some political dividends… especially when we know the inevitable collapse will be worse with every passing year?
Would anyone like to join me in the political graveyard and see if we can locate the remains of a dead-and-gone program that was allowed to collapse? I’m having a hard time thinking of a significant example, at least at the federal level. Part of the problem with leaving a government power grab to rot for a few years is that the moral argument against it decomposes as well. People wonder: “If it’s such a repellent horror, why did you Constitution-loving defenders of liberty agree to go along with it?”
Going back at least to the Breaux-Thomas Medicare Commission in 1999, endless learned bodies have warned that the U.S. entitlement scheme of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is financially unsupportable. Of Medicare, Rep. Bill Thomas said at the time, “One of the biggest problems is that the government tries to administer 10,000 prices in 3,000 counties, and it gets it wrong most of the time.” But change never comes.
Medicaid is the worst medicine in the United States. It grinds on. Doctors in droves are withdrawing from Medicare. No matter. It all lives on.
An established political idea is like a vampire. Facts, opinions, votes, garlic: Nothing can make it die.
But there is one thing that can kill an established political idea. It will die if the public that embraced it abandons it.
Six months ago, that didn’t seem likely. Now it does.Does it? The public hated ObamaCare all through the 2012 election, but Obama still got re-elected. One reason for this was Mitt Romney’s poor job of rallying dislike for ObamaCare into effective action, a task clearly made more difficult by his resume. Henninger is asking us to wait for the public to abandon a ship they never really boarded. They’ve been clubbed into submission with despair and shanghaied aboard. Their despotic President thunders that it’s the irrevocable “law of the land” – if taken seriously, he’s saying it’s the first law in American history that can never be changed or repealed, a formal writ of execution for the old notion of representative self-government. We could get rid of the laws that enabled slavery, but we can never be free of ObamaCare. The President’s minions are telling the public that anyone who resists this law is no better than a terrorist with a bomb strapped to his chest. (That’s from White House Senior Adviser Dan Pfeiffer, if you’re having trouble keeping your loathsome Obama Administration toads straight.)
The “let it burn” attitude only deepens public despair. By Henninger’s own analysis, the public has come to accept Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security as inevitable facts of life, no matter how poorly they perform. Even people who know they’re headed for insolvency accept them. This is due, in part, to years of social engineering perpetrated by such programs, along with other fiscally irresponsible socialist crusades, such as the “War On Poverty.” People don’t even seriously think about alternatives to New Deal and Great Society programs. The ObamaCare commissars will work very hard to ensure that alternatives to it will become unthinkable as well. They’ve already done a pretty good job of that, haven’t they?
Citing social programs that have endured despite decades of mounting criticism – not to mention doomsday fiscal projections from the agencies that actually run them - is not a convincing argument for applying “let it burn” tactics to ObamaCare. Maybe it will prove to be a bridge too far for the entitlement state… or maybe it will be folded into the same protective shroud of despairing rhetoric and brute socialist politics as the rest of the system, held together in unison until the whole thing blows up in ten or fifteen years, at which point I still would not be sanguine about the odds of a previously accommodating conservative movement leading America out of the ruins. Look at the end-stage socialist basket cases of the world. Do you see a lot of Thomas Jefferson types rising to lead them?
The Left is very good at turning its failures into arguments for even more power; that’s the M.O. of “progressive” philosophy in a nutshell. Liberty taken is never returned; the State never grows less powerful. Instead, it uses its power to stigmatize scapegoats for its disasters. And it’s always got foot soldiers, because even the worst government policies have their captive dependents and ardent supporters.
Henninger dismisses the odds of ObamaCare failure leading to single-payer socialized medicine as “not bloody likely if the aghast U.S. public has any say.” I wouldn’t count on their having anything to say about it. A population reshaped by a decade of dependency on ObamaCare – with people well into the previously independent middle class hooked on welfare subsidies, delivered via tax credits – is going to produce a sizable, energetic bloc of voters who will be very receptive to the “evil Republicans want to take your health care away and kill you” argument. A small, focused, bought-and-paid-for strike force of voters can defeat a larger, unhappy population, especially if the media is lecturing the unhappy that their discontent is immoral.
Henninger’s concluding suggestions are excellent ideas, right up until the last sentence:
Republicans and conservatives, instead of tilting at the defunding windmill, should be working now to present the American people with the policy ideas that will emerge inevitably when ObamaCare’s declines. The system of private insurance exchanges being adopted by the likes of Walgreens suggests a parallel alternative to ObamaCare may be happening already.
If Republicans feel they must “do something” now, they could get behind Sen. David Vitter’s measure to force Congress to enter the burning ObamaCare castle along with the rest of the American people. Come 2017, they can repeal the ruins.
The discrediting of the entitlement state begins next Tuesday. Let it happen.Hasn’t the long, dreary history of the entitlement state demonstrated that its discrediting is not something that will just “happen?” I’m all in favor of a full-spectrum assault that highlights ObamaCare as an example of the corrupt dead-end socialist philosophy Henninger criticizes. But I think we have to launch that assault now, not only because I would spare my countrymen the agony I see coming in the next decade, but because I’m not convinced the terrain is going to become much more favorable for conservative and libertarian reform, during the collapsing window of time in which America still has the strength to change course. There were doubtless early opponents of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid who wanted to let them burn for a few years, too.
Update: One other point Mr. Henninger raised that I’d like to address: “ObamaCare’s Achilles’ heel is technology. The software glitches are going to drive people insane.”
Yes, they are, and all of these software problems are inexcusable. I’ve got a computer background myself, and the notion that these infrastructure issues were not discussed in depth before the Affordable Care Act got rammed through Congress is absurd and pathetic. Nobody involved in crafting the Peoples’ Glorious Health Care Exchanges realized, until just a few months ago, that the computer systems containing the necessary data were incompatible? This is the kind of foolishness that puts private-sector operations out of business. But of course, the government never goes out of business – it just hypnotizes the public with some more dishonest speeches, raises taxes, prints money, and keeps rolling.
But the ObamaCare computer problems will eventually be hammered out. Every data processing problem can be solved eventually, given enough time and money. The “let it burn” approach gives them time; tax serfs and deficit unicorns will be squeezed until enough money falls out. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the urgent need to fix the train-wreck ObamaCare exchanges was soon cited as an argument against tax and spending cuts, or in favor of tax increases. ”How can you evil Republicans even think about taking away the money our Sainted Middle Class needs to complete work on infrastructure for the Affordable Care Act?”
Once the fires have been extinguished with a blanket of money, all that remains is persuading people to forget about how horrible ObamaCare Launch Day was. This has been done successfully with numerous glitchy computer hardware and software launches in the past. I can see Obama or his successor chuckling about it in a few years – “we all remember how many challenges there were at the beginning, but now that the Affordable Care Act system is fully up and running, how can Republicans ask us to discard all the hard work we’ve done? How can they expect us to throw away these accomplishments?”
http://www.humanevents.com/2013/09/27/obamacare-and-the-let-it-burn-theory-of-socialist-collapse/
Here Is a List of Over 300 Employers Who Have Reportedly Cut Hours to Avoid Obamacare Tax
A list of over 300 employers who have allegedly cut their employees’ hours to avoid a tax associated with President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law was published this week by a prominent investors website.
Investors.com released the list of 313 employers on Wednesday.
“In the interest of an informed debate,
we’ve compiled a list of job actions with strong proof that ObamaCare’s
employer mandate is behind cuts to work hours or staffing levels,” said
Investors.com.
“As of Sept. 25, our ObamaCare
scorecard included 313 employers. Here’s our latest analysis, focusing
on cuts to adjunct hours at nearly 200 college campuses,” it added.
The list includes the operator of the
nation’s largest movie theater chain, Regal Entertainment Group, popular
fast-food chain Five Guys Burgers and multiple counties and
universities.
Users can click on the employer list to see supporting records and see more information
.
On Friday, the Senate passed a continuing resolution bill which blocked an effort to strip money from Obamacare.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/09/28/here-is-a-list-of-over-300-employers-who-have-reportedly-cut-hours-to-avoid-obamacare-tax/
Lindsey Graham called a liar after tweet saying he voted to defund Obamacare
On Friday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., issued a tweet touting his vote to defund Obamacare, but a number of people took him to task, Twitchy said, calling the embattled Republican a liar. While Graham did vote with other Republicans to defund Obamacare, he joined a number of Senate Republicans in voting for cloture -- a key vote that allowed Majority Leader Harry Reid to put funding for the massive law back into the continuing resolution."I proudly voted to #DefundObamacare and am proud every Senate GOPer united in support of the House-passed #DefundObamacare provision," Graham tweeted.
"With Dems in control of Senate we needed Dems to join with the American people who want Obamacare stopped in its tracks," he added some time later.
But those tweets didn't sit well with quite a few people.
"[S]top lying.....we all know what you did," one person said.
"Enough with your lame excuses. You failed the American people," another person said in response.
Twitchy called Graham's messages "unbelievable."
"Do you really think you can get away with that, Senator?" the Twitchy staff asked. "Do you really think we’re that stupid?"
"[Y]ou are counting on conservatives to be stupid," one person tweeted. "We are not. That only works for Obama supporters."
"Don't treat us like we're stupid. We weren't looking for another symbolic vote," another person added.
Another Twitter user called Graham's statement a "bald faced lie" and said the Senator was engaging in tactics used by Democrats.
Twitchy captured a number of tweets calling Graham a liar, taking him to task for refusing to vote against cloture -- the vote that really mattered in the battle to defund Obamacare.
After the vote, conservative groups like Freedomworks and Americans for a Limited Government took the 26 Republicans to task, saying their action gave Reid the green light to restore funding.
Friday's vote is certain to hurt Graham, who is considered to be the least popular GOP incumbent in the state of South Carolina.
A Clemson University poll recently found that only 31 percent of the state's GOP primary voters intend to vote for Graham.
“This is the lowest ‘re-elect regardless’ figure I have seen for any incumbent in 20-odd years of polling except for one other lower figure,” said Clemson political science professor Dave Woodard.
As of now, Graham -- the subject of a Tea Party resolution calling for his ouster -- faces challenges from three other Republicans: Nancy Mace, State Senator Lee Bright and Richard Cash.
http://www.examiner.com/article/lindsey-graham-called-a-liar-after-tweet-saying-he-voted-to-defund-obamacare
Obamacare’s Failures Are Causing Democrats To Become Unhinged
While the media has been fixated on Republican infighting over how to deal with Obamacare, it has completely ignored the panic-induced irrational rhetoric coming from Democrats on the same subject.No, they aren’t openly forming circular firing squads like Republicans do – progressives put their agenda above ego and public disagreement. But they are worried because, while Obamacare was built to fail, it wasn’t expected to fail so early. That failure puts at risk the progressive dream of single-payer health care in the United States.
We are moving past the “cost estimate” stage of Obamacare into reality of what Obamacare will mean to Americans’ pockets. As the state exchanges get ready to go live on Tuesday, the Department of Health and Human Services released the cost of insurance premiums for individuals in some states, and the numbers aren’t good.
Sure, progressive “journalists,” such as New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait, took a thesaurus to White House press releases and published rewritten end zone dances, featuring lines like, “I grant that glitches and setbacks have occurred, mostly but not entirely because of fanatical Republican sabotage effort.”
While Chait was claiming premium “savings” and declaring, “I have yet to see a single conservative grapple with the positive developments,” serious analysts such as the Manhattan Institute’s Avik Roy brought some honesty to the table. He writes, “HHS compared what the Congressional Budget Office projected rates might look like—in 2016—to its own findings. Neither of those numbers tells you the stat that really matters: how much rates will go up next year, under Obamacare, relative to this year, prior to the law taking effect.”
In fact, Roy found that comparing apples to apples and not apples to Subarus, “Obamacare will increase underlying insurance rates for younger men by an average of 97 to 99 percent, and for younger women by an average of 55 to 62 percent.”
When the comparison is an honest one it is not much of a “positive development.”
This fact has progressives worried. Obamacare was designed to fail, but it was designed to fail eventually, not quickly. Progressives, with the help of the media, would blame a failure a few years from now on the “free market.” But failure from the start will force the blame fall where is squarely belongs – on government control.
How, you may ask, could an exchange set up, governed and subsidized by a government bureaucracy be called a “free market”? It’s already happened.
When Walgreens announced it planned to drop the insurance it has been providing employees because of Obamacare, none other than the Washington Post hailed it as a great development for them. Those 160,000 employees would not be able to keep the plan they had if they liked it, as the president repeatedly promised. Instead, they would be “joining a growing list of large employers seeking to control costs by having employees shop for coverage in a private marketplace.” (emphasis added)
Of course, there’s nothing “private” about it. But that lie is out there, with the credibility of none other than the Washington Post behind it. Which was the point. People who don’t pay attention will now be exposed to it, and it will spread.
Developments of this sort are now commonplace. The list of companies dropping coverage or cutting hours to avoid Obamacare’s costs now number more than 300 and is growing every day.
With this growing pressure and increasing public realization of the failures of Obamacare, its proponents are getting desperate. The plan is in motion. The law is in place. No matter how much spin they put on it, this lemon seems ready to collapse at the starting line. This is leading to some unhinged behavior.
This week Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., called opponents of Obamacare “anarchists” for working within the normal functions of government to defund it. The president’s senior advisor, Dan Pfeiffer, said the White House is “not for negotiating with people with a bomb strapped to their chest.” Ironically, he said this Thursday, the day before the president announced he’d spoken to the president of Iran, and while he is in the midst of negotiating with Syria over chemical weapons. No to talking with Republicans, yes to Iran and Syria.
Were the President a beer spokesman he might say, 'I don’t always associate with terrorists, but when I do, I prefer they be real terrorists and have been responsible for murdering Americans.' It’s appropriate, I suppose, because he is the “worst president in the world.”
The president himself is engaging in an ever-growing rhetorical meltdown. In his continued effort to sell Obamacare to the public, he’s been giving speeches about its virtues. Part of his rhetorical repertoire is the claim that “there's no serious evidence that the law … is holding back economic growth." The absurdity of this lie can be explained only by desperation or, as he has claimed in the cases of Fast & Furious and the IRS targeting of his political opponents, the president simply hasn’t read or seen any media stories about all the layoffs and cuts in hours.
As more of the train derails the rhetoric will become more desperate.
That’s why a one-year delay, the strategy being discussed now by Republicans, shouldn’t be pursued. A delay gives Obamacare time, and time is life. That’s why the president has delayed as many of the most egregious parts of the law. The further away from launch it collapses the more likely their plan to blame the private market is to work. Republicans should be doing what they can to speed up the inevitable collapse and suing to force the administration to have Obamacare implemented as it is written, as they wrote and passed it. After all, as they’ve been constantly reminding everyone, “It’s the law,” not “mostly the law.”
What Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, did this week was invaluable in that it forced the problems the government created to the top of the consciousness of the American public (though the media is trying to undo that damage). But the collective attention span of the American people is short. In a year or two it will be forgotten. The best chance to destroy Obamacare is to get out of its way and let nature take its course.
http://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2013/09/29/obamacares-failures-are-causing-democrats-to-become-unhinged-n1712375/page/full
President Obama: The Tale of Two Calls
President Obama made news with two phone calls this week.On one of the calls he pledged fervent cooperation--even though he foresees difficult negotiations ahead.
On the other, Obama warned the person on the other end the line that he could expect nothing but the back of his hand.
On the first call, he admitted that "while there will surely be important obstacles to moving forward... [he] believe[d] the two parties could reach a comprehensive solution." (Comprehensive, mind you. Not partial, not segmented, but over-arching, all encompassing, and addressing the most important items to both sides. Hence, comprehensive.)
On the second call, Obama phoned to specifically announce that he would NOT be negotiating. (In essence, indicating that no matter what the other party offered, he was going to purposefully NOT listen, NOT engage, and NOT capitulate on even small items.)
On the first call, President Obama admitted that he directed executive cabinet level secretaries to "continue pursuing the diplomatic effort." In doing so, he indicated that he felt constructive discussions had been held in recent days with the partners involved in the matters they were reviewing.
On the second he explicitly said that the "full faith and credit of the United States should not and will not be subject to negotiation."
On the first call he expressed the realization that the person he was negotiating with represented a party that has, under most people's view, been untrustworthy.
On the second he blatantly chose to work against someone he had worked with in the past to achieve actual compromise.
On the first call he bragged about the engagement of allies and mediators, even the inclusion of others with a stake in the outcome of the issues being discussed. He touted how each of those additional parties were fruitfully contributing and participating.
On the second call his primary ally also served as an enforcer to instruct others to not engage, so that they could keep their "powder dry" in order to have the maximum leverage to punish the other side.
On the first call, the President himself bragged about the fact that his call had taken place. He took credit for the good that might come from it, and felt no remorse for reversing an American policy held since 1979 to make it happen.
On the second call, the President allowed the media to run the story, and he hoped for headlines that would cut the kneecaps off of the person on the other end of the line.
On the first call he concluded by hoping verbally for great success in achieving something for the good of the people of the world.
On the second he made it clear that he could care less how his response to the issue they were negotiating would impact the average American.
On the first call, it is safe to assume that the boldness of the desire to discuss and negotiate was born out of political opportunism.
On the second call it is reasonable to assume that the truly greater good for the citizens of the nation he serves was greatly subverted for the purposeful, intentional, and proactive attempt to fulfill a philosophical agenda. (As opposed to the truly greater good for America.)
On the first call the communication was achieved--in all likelihood--because of a sense of weakness sniffed out by the person on the other end of the line.
On the second call the bellicose, unrelenting, express demand of his own way is likely compensating for that very weakness that all parties see so easily.
On the first call the possibility of genuine good coming from the items discussed, if looked at fairly by those who study such, is overly ideal, and some would even call it "pie in the sky" optimism.
On the second call the genuine need of the average American family, and every person affected by the American economy my be impacted. Most likely to the negative.
On the first call there was genuinely no respect expressed by the party he was supposedly negotiating with.
On the second he had the chance to live up to one of his most oft-repeated promises that he would rise above politics and do what was best for "We The People."
On the first call he hoped against hope to begin a process of ultimate resolution towards a hopeful development, towards a hopeful future.
On the second call he shut down any hope of resolution on something that may adversely impact millions of Americans financially.
On the first call he made extraordinary overtures to the leader of an enemy of the United States--a nation that has sponsored terrorism, and is siding with those who are anti-American in their DNA.
On the second call he continued his behavior of extraordinary rudeness to a fellow American, who like him is tasked with service to this nation through the leading of the legislative body that best represents "We The People."
And this is what happened when the President of the United States called President Rouhani of the Islamic Nation of Iran, and followed it up with a call to the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
To which all we can do is shake our heads in disbelief, as did the men on the other ends of those phone calls.
http://townhall.com/columnists/kevinmccullough/2013/09/29/president-obama-the-tale-of-two-calls-n1712379/page/full
Obama Declares November National Muslim Appreciation Month
President Barack Obama held a press conference to announce that he is declaring the month of November ‘National Muslim Appreciation Month’.“The Muslim community deserves our full acceptance and respect,” Obama told reporters. “We have killed millions of Muslims overseas since the September 11th attacks. They are not all bad. In fact most of them are good. So from now on, November will be a month to celebrate the Muslim community, the Sunnah and the Quran.”
Khaled Matei who is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood‘s Freedom and Justice Party told CNN he is pleased with Obama and his actions. “I spoke with President Obama by telephone yesterday and personally thanked him for what he is doing for the Muslim community,” Matei said. “This is definitely a step in the right direction I explained to him. Praise Allah.”
Obama informed reporters about his future plans for helping Muslims around the world. “I will be working with Congress in making it easier for Muslims to earn a Green Card and achieve American citizenship,” Obama said. “Currently as it stands, obtaining a Visa or Green Card for a Muslim is very difficult. There are too many background checks in place and I plan to fix that.” Obama continued, “Muslims are hardworking people who are just looking to live the American Dream like the rest of us. Mr. Matei of the Muslim Brotherhood assured me they want to come to this country to help us, not harm us.”
Obama finished the press conference by explaining to reporters how happy he is with America. “Folks, there is no way we could have had a ‘National Muslim Appreciation Month’ 20 years ago. That really says a lot about the growth and progress of this great country.”
‘National Muslim Appreciation Month’ begins November 1st and will end at midnight on November 30th. For any questions or comments please contact the 24-hour National Muslim Appreciation Hotline at (785) 273-0325.
http://gopthedailydose.com/2013/09/27/obama-declares-november-national-muslim-appreciation-month/
Homeland Security Documents Found in Target Parking Lot
After a raid on a lumber business near Richmond, Virginia, an anonymous passerby found the Homeland Security staging documents in the parking lot of a Target store.On Thursday Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations executed search warrants at the Lumber Liquidator' s Virginia headquarters in Toano. Another business location for the hardwood-flooring retailer in suburban Richmond was also searched. At the time, a spokesman for the feds declined to say whether the warrant was related to a particular person or for the company as a whole. Lumber Liquidators has 305 stores in North America.
In a statement, the company said it was cooperating to provide information and documentation to "answer questions relating to the importation of certain products."
On Friday, September 27, NBC 12, a local affiliate, reported it had inside information [See video] on the reason for the raid:
NBC12 uncovered information that says the reason for this raid is that protected wood was being illegally imported. The investigation reveals that the wood species is part of the habitat of the highly endangered Siberian tiger.
The wood originates in Russia and is processed in China, but according to information on the documents, government agents suspect the it was declared as coming from other countries. That would be a violation of the "Lacey Act," which combats trafficking of "illegal" wildlife, fish and plants.
But that's not all NBC 12 uncovered. The station's anonymous source known as "Eric" explained how he discovered documents pertaining to the plan.
He says he found Homeland Security's Operation Plan in the parking lot of the Target on West Broad Street. Those documents do say that was supposed to be the staging area in Henrico. Agents also raided the headquarters in Toano.
The main objective of the plan: to collect emails and documents that could prove the company is importing illegal wood from Russia. Eric says somebody should not have been so careless and people have the right to transparency. The papers also have the names and cell phone numbers of the agents involved.
I think it just points to government insecurity really...I think the people have the right to know what the government is doing.
The Target store is located near Lumber Liquidators in Henrico County. 'Eric' says he has not planned to do anything with the documents while Homeland Security has refused to comment "on the lost file."
School Video: I Pledge to Serve Obama
A Wisconsin school district is apologizing after middle school students were shown a video that featured Hollywood celebrities pledging to be a servant to President Obama.“I pledge to be a servant to our president,” Demi Moore said in the “I Pledge,” video shown Wednesday at Hudson Middle School.
The video was part of a number of Peace One Day activities, an international event to build peace awareness. The students were also invited to make their own pledges after viewing the video.
But there was a big problem – the video conveyed the idea that Americans should serve the presidency instead of our elected officials serving the citizens, Fox9 News in Minneapolis reported.
“I pledge to be of service to Barack Obama,” Red Hot Chili Peppers singer Anthony Kiedis said.
Those statements led the middle school and the Hudson School District to issue apologies.
“We apologize for any part of the video that was offensive to students, their families and staff,” Principal Dan Koch said in a prepared statement. “We respect the Office of the President of the United States but like all of our other elected officials – that office serves each of us as well.”
The principal also made an announcement to students explaining why the video was inappropriate.
Local residents expressed their outrage over the video on social networking websites.
“That is the creepiest and scariest video I have ever seen,” one reader wrote. “They ruined a good message by making it left wing.”
Superintendent Mary Bowen-Eggebraaten said the video will not be used in the district again. “Unfortunately, the video also had a political slant,” she said. “The district is non-partisan and does not endorse the political messages found in this video.”
While the school district said showing the video was a mistake, they said the purpose of the event was to raise student awareness and encourage involvement “in taking positive action in their schools and communities.”
“We hope that the use of the video does not overshadow the value of the positive message of this event for our middle school students,” the superintendent said.
http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/school-video-i-pledge-to-serve-obama.html
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