The maturity of these people are amazing. On Friday, while much of the nation was fixated on what was happening in Boston, Donald Trump used the occasion to send an inappropriate, childish and partisan tweet. But what exactly should we expect from an immature, partisan Republican? Exactly what Trump did.
What was happening in Boston on Friday was serious business. People lost their lives in the unfortunate events that began on Monday and by Friday, an entire city was locked indoors. FBI and local police was on a manhunt for someone they thought had bombs strapped to his body. Getting this person off the streets while minimizing the potential threat to the public was obviously a top priority.
But Trump, in his infinite wisdom or lack thereof, saw the perfect opportunity to attack – of all things – the President’s Affordable Health Care Program, better known as ObamaCare.
Said Trump…
Is the Boston killer eligible for Obama Care to bring him back to health?
Given what we’ve come to know about Donald Trump in recent months, I guess we should be happy that Trump only attacked ObamaCare and not use the opportunity where the FBI a fugitive to demand Obama’s birth certificate.
Republicans are in the midst of a vast re-branding effort. They have looked at the results of the 2008 and 2012 elections and have decided that the American people are correct – their policies are as popular as trickle down economics, and Americans are not buying those policies anymore.
The obvious next move for Republicans would be to dump the failed policies of yesterday and adopt policies that a majority of the American people want. What people want is health care; and after President Obama signed the affordable healthcare law in his first term, the American people voted overwhelmingly for him in 2012 guaranteeing him a second term.
But Republicans, in their infinite wisdom, are promising the American people that their cherished healthcare will be repealed. It is that stubbornness and their failure to accept the will of the people that is setting the foundation for more lost elections in the future.
I’m not complaining.
The LA Times reports on how Latinos, one of the fastest growing minority group, is responding to Republicans talk of health care repeal.
As Republican leaders try to woo Latino voters with a new openness to legal status for the nation’s illegal immigrants, the party remains at odds with America’s fastest-growing ethnic community on another key issue: healthcare.
Latinos, who have the lowest rates of health coverage in the country, are among the strongest backers of President Obama’s health care law. In a recent national poll, supporters outnumbered detractors by more than 2 to 1. Surveys show that Latinos overwhelmingly see guaranteeing health care as a core government responsibility.
Yet congressional Republicans continue to make repeal of the 2010 Affordable Care Act a top agenda item and have renewed calls for deep cuts in health programs such as Medicaid which are very popular with Latinos.
“Obamacare is a colossal mistake for our country,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said recently in a speech on the Senate floor. “It needs to be pulled out by its roots.”
So ObamaCare was passed by the United States Senate, it was approved by the House of Representatives, it was signed into law by the President of The United States, and the case was adjudicated by The United States Supreme Court. All three branches of government approved of the law.
ObamaCare is now being implemented throughout the land. But Republicans in Congress are still wagering their fruitless battle lying to their followers by promising to repeal it.
Earlier in the week, Paul Ryan wrote a budget calling for the repeal of ObamaCare. His budget will be expected to perform a mystifying leap of faith, because while it calls for the repeal of ObamaCare, Ryan’s budget can only be balanced using funds that ObamaCare is saving the nation.
And now Mitch McConnell, using his CPAC speech, McConnell is promising to repeal ObamaCare.
Md. — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is vowing to repeal President Barack Obama’s sweeping health care law.
McConnell spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference next to a tower of 20,000 pages of health care rules and regulations. He calls it a “monument to liberalism” and says Republicans will not back down from the fight.
McConnell faces re-election next year. He says Republicans need to rebound from election losses last year and, quote, “punch back.” He says Democrats haven’t had a new idea, quote, “since the days of the Studebaker.”
He compares the possibility of Democrats nominating Hillary Rodham Clinton or Joe Biden for president in 2016 to, quote, a “rerun of ‘The Golden Girls.'”
After 34 tries at Repeal, Republican voters are still being fooled into thinking that the 35th time will be the charm. And the sad part of all this is, these unfortunate voters who apparently depend only on Fox for news, continue believing the empty rhetoric from their leaders.
With a plate full of crises already looming in President Obama’s second term – North Korea’s nuclear threats, the Drone Program, domestic gun control and continued GOP obstructions on every front – the latest battle is an oldie and not a goodie. It appears Obamacare has resurfaced with a great wave of ‘pomp and circumstance’.
Over this past weekend, many Republicans have begun their 35th war on ObamaCare, threatening to destroy the very fabric of its existence in the name of Debt Reduction. Now, the wiz kid of the previous election, Vice Presidential Candidate Rep. Paul Ryan has devised a plan (Again) to eliminate ObamaCare and reduce the debt in the same swing. After the fiscal cliff fiasco, Ryan said, “We’re not going to re-fight the past because we know that’s behind us,” but he doesn’t apply that logic to ObamaCare, which he and his fellow Republicans do want to relitigate… again!
Fighting to repeal ObamaCare was “never a doubt” in Republican minds, he said Tuesday.
This is completely ironic, mind you, because if you recall, Obamacare was patterned after the Mitt Romney health care plan he formulated in Massachusetts while he was governor. Also, if you recall, then Vice Presidential candidate Ryan, also formed his own plan. (Do you follow me?) When asked by a reporter what he thought of the Paul’s plan, Romney said, “I’m the one running for president. We’ll go by my plan.”
It appears that Rep. Ryan has no one holding him back now, so here is the brand new same old same old Paul Ryan Plan… again, Part 2.
It’s a 10-year fiscal plan that takes aim at repealing ObamaCare’s 2010 health care overhaul in which Paul projects savings of $4.63 trillion over 10 years, yielding a surplus of $7 billion by fiscal 2023. “Our opponents will shout austerity, but let’s put this in perspective,” Ryan wrote in an op-ed posted to The Wall Street Journal’s website Monday night. “On our current path, we’ll spend $46 trillion over the next 10 years. Under our proposal, we’ll spend $41 trillion. On the current path, spending will increase by 5 percent each year. Under our proposal, it will increase by 3.4 percent.”
But who benefits from this plan and who will be hurt by it?
As always, tax cuts for the wealthiest and the poor will see programs slashed, if not cut completely. The budget would take its heaviest toll on entitlements that support the poor, including Medicaid and food stamps, while holding Social Security harmless. Why the poor and middle class are always targeted by Republican programs has been a mystery to millions of Americans especially when the wealthy seem to not be phased by any loophole they can squirm through.
Do they understand that taking away any program from those that are in need only demoralizes that individual, that family, that community? And does the super rich Congressional Republicans really believe that Americans truly want to live on Food Stamps and Unemployment Benefits? Or have a Medicare program that doesn’t work for them?
Here’s the final analysis Rep. Ryan. During the 2012 election, America did not support your “plan” of action. They came out in record numbers and voted for the President’s approach in November. As a matter of fact, a new McClatchy-Marist poll of registered voters shows that, generally, voters, by 53 to 37 percent, prefer to reduce the deficits by mostly cutting government programs and services rather than mostly by raising taxes..
The White House chimed in on the Ryan plan stating,
“By choosing not to ask for a single dime of deficit reduction from closing tax loopholes for the wealthy and well-connected, this budget identifies deep cuts to investments like education and research – investments critical to creating jobs and growing the middle class. And to save money, this budget would turn Medicare into a voucher program–undercutting the guaranteed benefits that seniors have earned and forcing them to pay thousands more out of their own pockets. We’ve tried this top-down approach before. The President still believes it is the wrong course for America.”
It’s an attempt to make himself and his party look ‘busy,’ the same old, tired attack on Obamacare – a healthcare program that at last count, had the support of 9-GOP Governors over the past 3 weeks. Rep. Ryan and a group within the rank and file Republicans have decided to give it another go. But all of this is just another attempt to tarnish the legacy of President Obama.
Congressional Republicans have not backed the President’s plans or his direction for this country unless they felt cornered. And this is just an addendum or a harbinger of the Republicans wish for the future. Posturing for the 2014 elections? Digging in for the 2016 White House? Yes and Yes. But make no mistake about it, with Americans polling in high numbers that the wealthiest should take on more of the tax burden than the poor, Rep. Ryan and his GOP surrogates have an uphill fight or if you prefer, going up stream, up a creek without a paddle.
Still Out of Touch with America. The good thing is, the longer they stay out of touch with America, the longer they’ll stay Out of the White House. In that case, Stay the Course.
For large retail and restaurant chains, the big unknown in the year ahead is how much more they’ll pay for health coverage. Employers with 50 or more workers who put in 30 hours a week will be required to provide health care coverage or pay a fine, under the Affordable Care Act, also called the ACA or Obamacare.
That lower full-time threshold is one of the big issues business groups are trying to negotiate with the Obama administration as the rules are being finalized. Large chains like Dunkin’ Donuts parent firm Dunkin’ Brands argue that full-time status should remain based on the traditional 40-hour work week.
“We believe that the definition of a full-time employee, and the number of hours a full-time employee works each week, should be consistent with existing Federal and State laws, and we have communicated this to the Administration,” explained a Dunkin’ Brands spokesperson in a written statement.
At upscale grocer Whole Foods, workers who put in 30 hours a week already get full health benefits. Still, John Mackey, co-founder and co-CEO of the grocery chain, said the company may still be forced to reconsider its full-time staffing levels, because the proposed rules include more expensive benefit requirements.
“Say we’re paying $3,200 a year for insurance for somebody, and the new regulations cost us $5,000 to insure somebody. If they work fewer hours, we just saved $5,000 per person” because there is no mandate to provide coverage for part-time workers, he explained.
Savings on prescription drugs related to the Affordable Care Act have reached $5.1 billion, according to a Dec. 3 news release from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The Department notes that more than 5.8 million people with Medicare have benefited from the assistance offered to bridge the prescription coverage gap known as the donut hole, with savings reaching $5.1 billion.
For 2013, the new health care law provides Medicare beneficiaries who are in the donut hole with greater savings, with discounts increasing to 53% and 21% of the cost of brand name and generic drugs, respectively. Savings on Medicare coverage of prescription drugs will increase gradually until 2020 to close the donut hole. Almost 2.8 million individuals saved an average of $677 on prescription drugs in the first 10 months of 2012. In addition, for about 23.4 million people with original Medicare, one or more preventive services were received at no cost during the same period, and 2.5 million received an Annual Wellness Visit.
According to the Department’s news release, “because of the health care law, people with Medicare can be healthier with free access (no deductible or co-pay) to many preventive services. Before 2011, people with Medicare had to pay part of the cost for many preventive services. Cost is no longer a barrier for seniors who want to stay healthy and treat problems early. In 2011, an estimated 32.5 million people with original Medicare or Medicare Advantage received one or more free preventive benefits.”
If there are more uninsured, then more people will use the emergency rooms as their primary care, then more Americans with insurance will be asked to pay more on their policies to cover these emergency room visits by the uninsured, then insurance companies will make more profit from the increase in premiums, then Romney’s plan to put more money in the pockets of the rich will be complete.
The analysis by the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based health care research foundation, found that under Romney’s health care plan, the uninsured population would soar to 72 million by 2022 — 12 million higher than if nothing had been done at all.
By contrast, if President Barack Obama’s health care law is fully implemented — including complete state participation in the now voluntary Medicaid expansion — the number of uninsured people would drop from 47.9 million in 2011 to about 27.1 million people in 2022, the report estimated.
The Commonwealth Fund produces studies that often cast the national health care law in a favorable light, and spotlight the shortcomings of the American health care system compared to other countries.
Mitt Romney is running a breakneck speed trying to distance himself from the healthcare law he signed into effect as governor in Massachusetts. Why is he running? Because Massachusetts healthcare is a very successful program that laid the foundation for President Obama’s Affordable Health Care, also called ObamaCare. He’s also running away because, among other things, RomneyCare contains the dreaded mandate that Republicans suddenly despise.
Some may think it is purely politics that Democrats would praise RomneyCare as the foundation for ObamaCare. After all, the more Democrats could tie Romney to ObamaCare, the more explaining Romney would have to do. But thanks to BuzzFeed and this newly uncovered video, it seems that Democrats are genuinely appreciative of RomneyCare… at least one Democrat name Barack Obama.
In 2006, then Senator Barack Obama lauded praise on Romney’s healthcare law, saying that his fellow Democrats should take a page from RomneyCare;
“Everybody has to buy in and then the government helps out those who can’t afford it. Those kinds of bold initiatives, I think, the Democrats have to put forward. If, in fact, we can credibly claim that we can run the country and not simply criticize from the sidelines.”
Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan was loudly and repeatedly booed by members of the AARP on Friday after he pledged to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care reform law.
“The first step to a stronger Medicare is to repeal Obamacare,” Ryan said, pausing as the audience in New Orleans booed and shouted, “No!”
“I had a feeling there would be mixed reaction,” the candidate said, but the booing continued. “It weakens Medicare for today’s seniors and puts it at risk for the next generation.”
That, too, was met with audible groans and jeers.
“It funnels $716 billion out of Medicare to pay for a new entitlement that we didn’t even ask for,” Ryan insisted.
“No!” people shouted.
Although Ryan seemed to be unfazed by the heckling, his explanations and assurances never convinced the AARP audience, who continued booing him throughout the remainder of his speech.
A number of Republican proposals to repeal the 2010 health reform law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), include the elimination of the law’s Medicare provisions. This Data Note reviews the impact of repealing those provisions for Medicare beneficiaries and program spending.
If the ACA was repealed, Medicare spending would increase by an additional $716 billion over 10 years, Medicare’s hospital trust fund would be projected to be insolvent beginning four years from now, in 2016, eight years earlier than current projections, and many beneficiaries could see increases in premiums and costs for other services.
The President used this weeks address to talk about the critical need to strengthen and preserve Medicare for our seniors and future generations.
Through the President’s Affordable Care Act, nearly 5.4 million seniors have already saved an average of more than $700 on prescription drugs, preventive care services like mammograms are free without co-pay, and the President’s plan extends the life of Medicare by almost a decade by cracking down on waste, fraud, and overpayments.
Republicans in Congress have put forward a very different plan that turns Medicare into a voucher program—under one plan forcing seniors to pay an extra $6,400 out of their own pocket for care-and effectively ends Medicare as we know it. The President believes that our seniors deserve better and will work with anyone to keep improving the current system to give our seniors the security and peace of mind they have earned.
President Obama is finally beginning to own the word “Obamacare and he is ripping the word straight out of the clutching hands of Republicans, who have used it as a divisive measure ever since the President proposed his Affordable Healthcare Plan back in 2009.
Until recently, any mention of the word “Obamacare” conjured up memories of town-hall brawls and misspelt Teaparty signs accusing the President of being a “communist socialist” who is setting up death panels and placing the government between you and your doctor. But as Americans realized that Republicans were intentionally lying about the law and its benefits, they too are referring to the word as a term of endearment.
And so is the President.
Yesterday at his most recent campaign stop in Colorado, Mr. Obama was heard saying; “The Affordable Care Act — also known as Obamacare,” as the audience applauded at the University of Denver. “I actually like the name,” he added. “Because I do care — that’s why we fought so hard to make it happen.”
Although the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of ObamaCare, Congressional Republicans are on a mission to repeal the bill. They have already held 33 failed attempts to void Mr. Obama’s healthcare law and the Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, has sided with his base and is promising to repeal the law if he becomes president… although he passed the same law in Massachusetts as governor.
And as more benefits for the American people continue to materialized, Republicans will come to terms with the fact that repealing the law will be equivalent to political suicide.
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