Did you know? Obamacare, also known as the ACA will reduce the federal budget even more than the CBO initially reported. Also, more people will be covered than initially thought. Also, the Republicans are dead set on repealing the whole thing.
In 2010, it estimated that Obamacare’s costs to the federal budget between 2014 and 2019 would hit $759 billion. That figure has steadily declined with each revision. The new figures project “a net cost of $36 billion for 2014, $5 billion less than the previous projection for the year; and $1,383 billion for the 2015–2024 period.” That last figures is “$104 billion less than the previous projection.”
It also projected an increase to the number of people gaining coverage under Obamacare — though a modest one. Compared to its February estimates, the CBO now assumes that 7 million more people will gain coverage under the Obamacare exchanges. In total, it projects that “12 million more nonelderly people will have health insurance in 2014 than would have had it in the absence of the ACA” — an increase that appears to be independent of the spike in Obamacare enrollments at the end of March.
Earlier I reported that Lamar Odom was being targeted by the Knicks before the season ended. My speculation was to lighten the load for Carmelo Anthony considering his injured shoulder.
This morning I have learned that the deal will not be a 10 day deal like I had originally thought. Looks like Lamar will be a part of next year’s Knick team.
Something very interesting went down on the Fox News network on Sunday. It appeared the Fox people are beginning to come to their senses – as impossible as that may seem – and they are beginning to question the authenticity of their Republican man made IRS controversy.
On Sunday’s program, Chris Wallace interviewed Republican Representative Charles Boustany and based on his questions, I would concluded that the IRS nonsense has reached the point of Fox skepticism, even for the nonsense-pushers themselves.
WALLACE: Congressman, let me interrupt you, too, if i may. Because a lot of people … including some Republicans, some of your colleagues say that your committee and the House Oversight Committee have blown this because of the fact that you should have given Lois Lerner immunity. I mean, let’s face it — nobody really cares what Lois Lerner did, the question is did she get it from higher ups or just the decision by a mid level bureaucrat in the IRS? Why not give her immunity a year ago under subject, of penalty of perjury and say were you given direction by anybody above you?
BOUSTANY: Well, that is a debatable point. And it’s worthy of discussion. But the fact is we’re still being obstructed by the IRS. We’ve now gone through two — we have two confirmed IRS Commissioners and two acting commissioners and we have still not gotten all the documents that we need to conclude this investigation. The fact is I want to follow the facts, on this, from the ground up starting with the Cincinnati office. we’ve had good interviews.
WALLACE: You’ve had a year, sir. You’ve had a year.
When Fox News becomes tired of your BS, perhaps it is time to give it up.
Watch the clip below to see Wallace grill Representative Boustany.
You’d think that people were dying because they signed up for health insurance. You’d think that people were going broke because they had to leave behind their old policies that didn’t cover needed expenses and treatments. You’d think that the opponents of the Affordable Care Act would come up with a specific, viable alternative that they could run on this November.
Oh, the horror. None of this is happening.
I will say for the final time that the website rollout was terrible and horrible, but it’s now time to move beyond that because over 7 million people now have health insurance and the numbers keep going up. Citizens living in the most prosperous country in the world will not have to worry about medical costs bankrupting them or forcing them to lose their houses or their livelihoods. People can now make decisions based on their own life choices, rather than having to stay at a dead-end job because of the benefits.
Oh, the horror?
The real horror is being perpetrated by the states that refuse to take free federal money to expand Medicaid and cover even more people. These states are led by governors and legislatures that are acting on ideology rather than common sense. They have convinced themselves that president Obama wishes to enslave their citizens through federal programs, making them dependent on the government for their happiness. It’s irrational and will eventually lead to defeat for the politicians that are erecting the legal roadblocks to health care.
The history of the United States has moved inexorably in one direction, and that’s towards equality, access and enhanced civil rights. The Affordable Care Act will survive and thrive because it enables citizens to live better lives. In the end, it is truly American.
James Carville has some words of wisdom, not necessarily for the Republicans or the Republican party, but for anyone with some sense who is willing to listen.
According to Carville who appeared on a Sunday roundtable on This Week With George Stephanopoulos, Carville said if the Republicans lose the presidential election in 2016, they might as well pack it up and go home… forever!
“Trust me,” Carville said, “the party knows, and I use this word advisedly, that if it loses the 2016 presidential election, the Republican Party as we know it today will be extinct.”
“We heard that in 2008, too,” said Republican apologist Laura Ingraham, who was also on the panel with Carville.
“This will be the sixth out of seven elections in which they’ve lost the popular vote,” Carville replied. “The Republicans want to win this. That will be the biggest issue in January 2016: how can we beat Hillary Clinton?”
The end of the Republican party is enough reason to vote Democratic in 2016!
They came armed with their shotguns and pistols, and whatever other pieces of weaponry these right wingnuts have. They descended on the ‘Bundy Ranch’ as its being called in social media – lands that in fact, belongs to the federal government.
Their mission? To help the cattleman Cliven Bundy defy a court order to vacate the lands owned by the government.
Back in 1998, Cliven Bundy, a cattle herder from Navada was ordered by the courts to remove his livestock from federal land known as the Bunkerville Allotmen. Bundy was also ordered to pay $200 a day per cattle if he did not follow the court order. Bundy refused to and continued his grazing activities.
Then in October 2013, fifteen years later, another order from the court was given. This time, Bundy had 45 days to comply. He again refused, in fact, Bundy expanded his grazing activities to include other federally owned lands. A third court order was issued pointing to this fact.
According to the third order;
“Bundy’s cattle have moved beyond the boundaries of the Bunkerville Allotment and are now trespassing on a broad swath of additional federal land (the “New Trespass Lands”), including public lands within the Gold Butte area that are administered by the BLM, and National Park System land within the Overton Arm and Gold Butte areas of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.”
After 15 years and multiple court orders demanding Cliven Bundy vacate federal lands, Rangers – under the authority of the court and armed with stun guns – began rounding up and removing the livestock.
Last Saturday, 352 cattle were impounded and that was when all he’ll broke loose!
They came out of the woodsheds. Armed right-winged Republican nuts, lovers and defenders of the constitution, came determined to help Bundy defy a constitutionally protected court order.
“We provide armed response,” said Jim Lordy, who belongs to the militia group called Operation Mutual Aid. He continued, “[w]e need guns to protect ourselves from the tyrannical government!”
Other militias like The Oath Keepers also promised to send support to the lawbreaking cattle herder.
Bundy, emboldened by this “win” is however taking things a step further. He wants the Rangers rounding up the cattle to disarm. And furthermore, he is demanding that they leave their weapons with him. He gave them 1 hr to comply.
No, assault charges were not filed against the woman who threw a shoe at Hillary Clinton this week in Las Vegas. In fact, she was released today.
Alison Michelle Ernst, 36, who was booked at the Clark County Jail, has been freed after receiving a misdemeanor disorderly conduct summons.
Ernst could face up to a year in the county lockup if she is convicted of violating a county ordinance during the Thursday incident at the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino.
She is accused of bypassing security and walking quickly toward a rope line about six rows from the front of a conference audience. Police say she reached into a purse, removed the shoe and threw it overhand toward the stage…
Authorities said Ernst wasn’t a credentialed conference attendee and wasn’t supposed to have been in the ballroom, which had more than 1,000 people.
This is good news. People are now able to afford and purchase their very own private health care, thanks to Obamacare, and because of this, free clinics are finally shutting down.
Said Stacey Bowser RN, Director of one of these clinics.
“Because people are qualifying for insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, our free medical clinic will not be needed anymore. We’ve gone from seeing around 300 people a month on a regular basis, but as people were enrolling in Obamacare, the numbers we were seeing have dropped. We were down to 80 people that came through the medical clinic in February, all the way down to three people at the medical clinic in March. Our services won’t be needed anymore, and this will conclude our mission.”
Free clinics were started to help people get some sort of health care. And there are many testimonials online from thankful Americans, some owing their lives to people like Stacey Bowser. Obamacare however, is putting these Americans in control of their of their own health, some for the first time, and that’s always a good thing.
Family Values… Republican style. As long as the woman looses her job, then all is well in the universe and the show will go on.
Vance McAllister, the married Republican congressman who was caught kissing a married woman – married to another man that is – is trying to put the incident behind him and seems to be looking forward to the next election.
Meanwhile, the woman he was kissing lost her job and probably her marriage.
Nothing to see here, except a VanceForCongress lawn sign!
That was how Rachel maddow started her segment about the resignation of HHS Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius. Maddow went on saying that the administration finally got some good news about Obamacare since the website debacle back in October, and she found it strange that they decided to accept Sebelius’ resignation now.
Accepting the resignation Maddow said, turned the story of the successful Obamacare enrollment figures into “a story instead about firing people.”
“Kathleen Sebelius has to go? Why now? Because the administration can’t resist stepping on its own tail and turning the first good news cycle they have had about Obamacare since it passed into a story instead about firing people for Obamacare’s failures?”
Maddow concluded by comparing the administration’s acceptance of Sebelius’ resignation to a team that began the season playing badly, then eventually winning the championship and in the middle of their celebration, they fire their coach.
So now conservatives can feel good that their president – George Bush – is not the only American leader to have a shoe thrown at his head. On Thursday in Las Vegas, Hillary Clinton suffered the same fate.
(AP) — A woman was taken into federal custody Thursday after throwing a shoe at Hillary Clinton as the former Secretary of State began a Las Vegas convention keynote speech.
The incident happened moments after Clinton took the stage before an Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries meeting at the Mandalay Bay resort.
Clinton ducked, and she did not appear to be hit by the object. She then joked about it.
“Is that somebody throwing something at me? Is that part of Cirque de Soleil?” Clinton quipped.
Many in the audience of more than 1,000 people in a large ballroom laughed and applauded as Clinton resumed her speech.
“My goodness, I didn’t know that solid waste management was so controversial,” Clinton said. “Thank goodness she didn’t play softball like I did.”
Brian Spellacy, U.S. Secret Service supervisory special agent in Las Vegas, said the woman was being questioned and would face criminal charges. Spellacy declined to identify the woman, and he said it wasn’t immediately clear what the charges would be.
A black and orange shoe was recovered from the stage, Spellacy said.
Republicans should be happy. For months, since the original failed launch of the Obamacare website, Republicans have called for heads to roll… preferably, the head of the Health and Human Services – Kathleen Sebelius. Well today, Republicans got their wish as Sebelius turned in her resignation to the Obama administration.
Sylvia Burwell, who leads the White House Office of Management and Budget, will be nominated to take her place, according to multiple White House sources.
Sibelius was not expected to remain in the Obama administration through the end of the president’s second term – with reports that she had been discussing her future for months with the President.
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