Year: 2012

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Politics the supreme court

Breaking News: There Is No Individual Mandate In The Health Care Law

The Supreme Court is about to deliver their decision on whether President Obama’s Health Care Law, also called ObamaCare, is Constitutional. Republicans have accused Democrats and the President of forcing Americans to purchase a product through what they said was an “individual mandate.” This mandate they claimed, was unconstitutional and they fought the law through the lower courts all the way to the Supreme Court.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court will deliver its decision. But will the Health Care Law be invalidated by the Supreme Court if an individual mandate does not exist?

Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC’s The Last Word explains;

Categories
Politics

Mitt Romney Thinks Explaining Outsourcing/Off-Shoring Makes Everything Okay

Apparently, there is a difference between “off-shoring” and “outsourcing” jobs, and Mitt Romney thinks knowing the difference makes everything all right – especially if you are a victim of having your job outsourced or off-shored.

Mitt Romney was recently referred to as a “pioneer” in sending American jobs overseas. His advisors tried to ease any anxiety Americans may have felt hearing about Romney’s early resume by explaining the difference. But something tells me that explanation didn’t go over too well.

The President spoke to an audience at one of his campaign stops and mentioned the Romney outsourcing/off-shoring episode.

Categories
health care law Healthcare

Bill Clinton Explains The Dangers of Ending ObamaCare

Former President Bill Clinton spoke at a recent fundraiser earlier this week and warned of the dangers this country faced if the Supreme Court rules against President Obama’s Health Care Law. Given his special abilities to explain complex matters to a two-year old, Mr. Clinton broke it down like this”

If the Supreme Court decides to invalidate the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act, there will be consequences, Clinton said, which he claims aren’t being reported, and which he spelled out:

• Changing the health-care delivery system has already produced two years in a row of 4 percent inflation in health-care costs. This is the first time in 50 years that health-care costs have gone up so little. Killing the Affordable Care Act would let inflation loose again.

• Some 2.6 million people ages 21 to 26, who now have insurance coverage for the first time because they can be carried under their parents’ policy, would lose it.

• $1.3 billion dollars in insurance refunds have already been paid to businesses and individuals because now the law says 85 percent of your premium has to go to health care and not to profits and promotion. (California hasn’t reported yet, but will likely increase that figure to more than $1.5 billion.) Refunds would shrink.

• If Republicans succeed in persuading the Supreme Court to repeal the individual mandate, somewhere between 12 million and 16 million Americans will be unable to get health insurance because of preexisting conditions.

The Daily Beast also reports that “Clinton predicted that if the law is declared unconstitutional, Republicans will suffer a backlash when millions of Americans calculate what they have lost. Before the Affordable Care Act passed, two thirds of all the applications for bankruptcy were because of health-care emergencies, a consequence likely to return if health care inflation again rises precipitously.”

“Before Mitt Romney as governor signed the individual mandate, Massachusetts had the highest health-care costs in America. Today, that state is seventh, because inflation in health-care costs in that state have been much lower than in the country as a whole. Why? The mandate prevents insurance companies from shifting their promotional costs to consumers, Clinton said.”

The Supreme Court will issue its decision on Health Care on Thursday.

Categories
Mitt Romney Politics

Poll Shows Mormons Excited About Mitt Romney’s Lies… sorry… Candidacy

Most Mormons in Utah believe that Mitt Romney’s rise to become the likely GOP presidential nominee is a good thing for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But many do not trust the media to cover the church fairly, according to a new poll released Monday (June 25).

The study, conducted by Key Research and Brigham Young University’s Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, is believed to be the first to gauge Mormons’ reaction to Romney’s barrier-breaking achievement. He is the first Mormon to clinch the presidential nomination of a major U.S. political party.

More than eight in 10 Utah Mormons said they are “very excited” or “somewhat excited” about Romney’s feat. Nearly as many (77 percent) said his nomination is a good thing for the LDS church; just 2 percent told pollsters it was a negative development.

Utah Mormons do not differ in many respects from Mormons in other states, according to studies conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Categories
Politics Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin Is Bringing Back The “Death Panels” Lie

The attention grabbing Sarah Palin is at it again. And this time, she has decided to bring back one of the many lies she created. A lie that was debunked by fact-checkers and even won the lie of the year award the year Palin invented it.

Sarah Palin is bringing back the Death Panels lie.

Palin took to her Facebook page and wrote;

“Though I was called a liar for calling it like it is, many of these accusers finally saw that Obamacare did in fact create a panel of faceless bureaucrats who have the power to make life and death decisions about health care funding.”

What do you expect. For a moment if felt like the rest of the world had moved on and left Sarah Palin behind. But it was too good to be true. Unable to find a reputable news channel (Fox is not news, and Fox is not reputable) that will give her the time of day, Palin has decided to resurrect an issue that was put to rest almost three years ago. With the Supreme Court expected to deliver its decision on Health Care this Thursday, Palin chose this time to blabb her nonsense with the expectation that her name would once again be mentioned.

I’ll say it one more time…Sarah Palin. There! I hope you’re happy. Now please go away!

Categories
Politics

Once an Obama Critic, Former New York Mayor Wants Obama Re-Elected

Ed Koch, the mercurial former New York mayor and Jewish community figure who was helpful to George W. Bush in places like Florida in the 2004 presidential race, sees “change” by President Obama, who he was slow to support, on the subject of Israel.

“Going to foreign affairs and Israel in particular, where I am very concerned that I think Israel is in great danger, where I thought the president was not giving enough attention,” Koch told WABC radio’s Aaron Klein. “He’s changed. And I believe I had something to do with the change.”

He added, “I think Obama has done a terrific job in the last six months in support of Israel. And I want to praise him and I want to reelect him.”

Categories
Politics taxes

America – Used, Abused and Abandoned By The Wealthy

If America was a woman, right about now she will have every right to feel used, unwanted and abused. A new report is projecting that wealthy Americans – those who received the most financial benefits from the tax laws and tax loopholes that allowed them to become wealthy – these people are projected to abandon America at a record pace this year.

Startling new data from Uncle Sam show that defections by Americans are expected to double this year, largely to avoid any stiff tax bills resulting from the proposed 55 percent hike on the rich — as well as the likely expiration on Dec. 31 of the Bush era tax cuts.

As many as 8,000 US citizens are projected by immigration officials to renounce in 2012, or about 154 a week, versus 3,805 in 2011, or about 73 per week.

“High-net-worth individuals are making decisions that having a US passport just isn’t worth the cost anymore,” said Jim Duggan, a lawyer at Duggan Bertsch, which specializes in protecting assets of the wealthy.

“They’re able to do what they do from any place in the world, and they’re choosing to do it from places with much lower tax rates,” he said.

If this is not a slap in the face of a nation that, in many cases, made these people rich, then I don’t know what is.

Categories
Mitt Romney Politics

After A Romney Takeover, Fired Employee Admits Feeling Like He Built His Own Coffin

Priorities USA, a SuperPAC supporting President Obama produced the following ad that features a former employee of a company Romney bought when he was head of Bain Capital. The employee is referred to as “former” because of course, Mitt Romney fired all the employees after the purchase was made.

Watch and listen below as the former employee details the circumstances surrounding his termination.

Categories
Healthcare ObamaCare

Thanks to ObamaCare, Americans Will Receive Over $1.1 Billion in Rebate Checks This Summer

Thanks to ObamaCare, 12.8 millions of Americans will receive a rebate check in the mail this summer. The check is because of a provision in President Obama’s Health Care Law called the 80/20 rule. It requires insurance providers to spend 80% of premiums on providing health care to policy holders with the remaining 20% going to administrative costs. Any remaining balance must be returned to consumers instead of going to CEO’s bonus checks.

The total rebate of $1.1 billion is scheduled to go out this summer. An average of $151 will be sent to qualifying policy holders with other Americans receiving up to $800 checks depending on the type of policy, the state they live in and other factors. According to HealthCare.gov, Americans will be rewarded in one of the following ways;

  • a rebate check in the mail
  • a lump-sum reimbursement to the same account that was used to pay the premium if it was paid by credit card or debit card
  • a direct reduction in their future premiums
  • their employer providing one of the above rebate methods, or applying the rebate in a manner that benefits its employees.

ObamaCare, also called The Affordable Health Care Law is presently being debated in The Supreme Court. A Congressional Republican push to paint the law as unconstitutional will be decided by the Supreme Court in a few more days. If the Republicans succeed and the Court determines the law violates the Constitution, insurance companies may chose to pay their CEO’s with the rebate checks instead, just like they did before the law went into effect.

Just another example of Congressional Republicans, working for Corporations instead of the American people.

Categories
Health Care Politics

More Americans To Suffer If Supreme Court Repeal Health Care

Thanks Republicans!!!

Sarah Lewis is fed up with American health care: “I’ve completely removed myself from the system,” she said. “I don’t want to be a patient anymore.”

Lewis, a 55-year-old single mother of two daughters, has been through the wringer. It started with a diagnosis of anal cancer in September 2010. Then came the denials from her insurance company, the fights with the insurer, the hospitals and the doctors over money, and the debt collectors chasing at least $20,000 that she owes. Not to mention the grueling chemotherapy and radiation therapy that, so far, have saved her life. She ultimately gave up on health insurance this year.

“I’m hoping that I don’t get sick again or anything happens because I’m trying to stay out of the system because the system failed me,” said Lewis, who lives in Dover, N.H., and was self-employed as an book indexer but has not worked since she got sick.

The system will likely fail Americans like Lewis again and again, if the Supreme Court overturns President Barack Obama’s health care reform law next week. Without its rules that will prohibit health insurance companies from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions starting in 2014, Lewis and others who are sick or have suffered serious illnesses in the past can be shut out of the health insurance market. As many as 122 million working-age Americans have pre-existing conditions that could get them rejected by health insurance companies, according to a Government Accountability Office analysis issued in March.

[More]

Categories
Barack Obama Politics

If You Can’t Stand The Heat…

Do you remember the pundits and knobheads who, only a few short months ago, compared Barack Obama to LeBron James? Their major point was that both of them were overhyped, overpriced, underperforming, middling losers who were somehow primed to disappoint their fans and constituents. These know-nothings were sure that neither man would ever rise to greatness.

Look how that turned out.

I can understand disagreeing with a politician over issues or policy or implementation and not liking an athlete because of his style, team or relations with the public. But the comparison of these two obviously talented men moves beyond these fair points and veers off into, well, what? Jealousy? Contempt? Disdain? Outright hatred? Where’s the respect for what they’ve accomplished? Obama’s rivals give some grudging admission that he’s a political force, but then dismiss him as a guy with a pretty voice. LeBron’s detractors focus on his subpar performance in last year’s NBA finals without regard to his place as the game’s number one attraction and performer (on both ends of the court).

It’s disturbing, and now that LeBron has forever earned his place in NBA history and Obama his obvious place in the political realm, it’s time to expose the naysayers as the bad losers they are. Clearly they underestimate these two exceptional men who are at the pinnacle of their fields. It’s true that Obama might lose, but I’m not going to bet against him. He has more skill than Mitt Romney and right now we’re in the equivalent of the early playoffs in the presidential race. In September, you’ll see a different Obama; confident and pugnacious against an opponent who’s never played in the big leagues before. That’s a mismatch.

Wanna talk smack? Visitwww.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and on Twitter @rigrundfest

Categories
Mitt Romney Politics

Romney To Republican Governors – Downplay Job Gains In Your State. It Helps Me Win

Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign asked Florida Governor Rick Scott to tone down his statements heralding improvements in the state’s economy because they clash with the presumptive Republican nominee’s message that the nation is suffering under President Barack Obama, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Scott, a Republican, was asked to say that the state’s jobless rate could improve faster under a Romney presidency, according to the people, who asked not to be named.

What’s unfolding in Florida highlights a dilemma for the Romney campaign: how to allow Republican governors to take credit for economic improvements in their states while faulting Obama’s stewardship of the national economy. Republican governors in Ohio, Virginia, Michigan and Wisconsin also have highlighted improving economies.

Scott should follow the advice of the Romney campaign and it won’t undermine his own message, said Mac Stipanovich, a political strategist and lobbyist in Florida.

“This is one of those situations where you could have it both ways and there’s enough truth in it that it would resonate,” Stipanovich said. “It would be better if everybody was singing from the same hymnal.”

[Bloomberg]

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