Detroit To Dump Retiree Health Costs On ObamaCare

Barack Obama Phone SC Detroit To Dump Retiree Health Costs On ObamaCare

The federal government isn’t among the creditors Detroit has turned to for mercy, but U.S. taxpayers will bear a large share of the cost of its restructuring.

High on emergency manager Kevyn Orr’s to-do list: slash health care outlays for thousands of early retirees by shifting them to ObamaCare.

Detroit spent $177 million on health benefits for 19,000 retirees last year but figures it can cut that to $28 million-$40 million a year.

Part of the savings would come from paring supplemental coverage for retirees age 65 and older, most of whom already get Medicare.

But the federal government will pick up much of the slack for early retirees through age 64, who will be eligible for subsidized coverage as long as household income is less than 400% of the poverty level.

Read More at investors.com . By Jed Graham.

ObamaCare Already Cutting Workers Hours

Hours cut to avoid insurance coverage

It’s Time To Impeach Obama

The time for words is over. Action must be taken. Obama has no regard for the American people. Obama has no regard for the rule of law. Obama has no regard for the Constitution.

Obama shoved socialized healthcare down the throat of America, a program that is driving up the cost of health insurance and is projected to cost almost two trillion dollars—just in the first decade! If the massive debt amassed from Obama’s trillion dollar Stimulus and multi-trillion dollar bank bailouts don’t bankrupt this country, ObamaCare surely will.

Obama has continually tried to disarm the American people, attempting to nullify the Second Amendment through a phony “assault weapons” ban, not to mention trying to sidestep Congress by planning to sign the United Nations Small Arms Treaty. This so-called “treaty” will put UN regulations above the Constitution.

Obama shipped guns to Mexican drug cartels in the Fast and Furious program in order to blame the increase in drug cartel violence on American gun dealers—specifically to limit our Second Amendment rights. Included in the thousands of guns shipped to Mexican drug cartels are the weapons used to murder Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and ICE agent Jaime Zapata. Obama is in the strictest sense of the term an accessory to murder.

Obama has targeted his enemies with the IRS—the Tea Party, pro-life Groups, any group or person that opposes his radical leftist policies.

Obama has targeted the press, including Fox News and the Associated Press. As we learned yesterday, CBS News’ Sharyl Attkisson’s work and home computer was hacked. Someone was “scrubbing” data—that is, stealing files—from her computer at the exact time that she was exposing Obama’s Benghazi cover-up. That it was an Obama operative is a forgone conclusion.

Obama has taken the Patriot Act to an unimaginable, Orwellian level. The NSA under a program we know now called PRISM is spying on every single American, ingesting literally everything that is communicated electronically: phone calls, email, text,  Facebook posts, Skype, travel records—even credit card transactions and banking records!

The time for words is over. Action must be taken. Barack Hussein Obama should be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors—now—today.

Why Do They Spy On Us And Not The Terrorists?

Obama Big Brother SC Why Do They Spy on Us and Not The Terrorists?

In less than a week since it became public, the Obama administration’s NSA spying scandal has progressed far beyond the accumulation of Verizon’s phone records.

We now know that the NSA and its friends at Eric Holder’s Department of Justice are also utilizing Google (GOOG), Facebook (FB), Yahoo! (YHOO), and almost every other large tech firm to spy on us.

Of all the recent scandals, the NSA spying scandal is particularly frightening. Between our phone records, emails, text messages, and our whereabouts – which are provided courtesy of our cellphones – the government has admitted to knowing all our secrets.

Now, the justification for granting the regime this unconstitutional spying power is based on the idea that the snooping makes us safer. But does it really make us more secure? Ben Franklin said that “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Broadly speaking, Americans agree that politicos are slippery folk. So why would we trust them with such untold power? The record shows that, up to now, Obama and his team aren’t worthy of unlimited access to our most personal and intimate information.

Our Fears Are Justified

Based on their statements and actions, America’s leaders believe that we‘re all potential threats to the Federal government. And now Obama is learning that trust (or a lack of trust) is a two-way street.

You see, everything comes down to trust. And the American people have lost theirs in this administration. Following the string of recent scandals, it’s impossible to ignore that there’s a distinct pattern of abuse of power in Obama’s administration. Let’s face it…

  • It’s abuse of power when the IRS and other federal agencies are used to target political opponents.
  • It’s abuse of power when the DOJ is digging into the phone records of journalists.
  • It’s abuse of power when Kathleen Sebelius shakes down the same insurance companies that she regulates to pay for Obamacare.
  • It’s abuse of power when the government blames a YouTube video for what happened at the Benghazi compound.
  • It’s abuse of power to order the summary execution of an American citizen without a trial via drone strike… even if the execution takes place in Yemen, or some other far-off land.

So here’s the bottom line… why would we trust the Obama administration to not abuse the NSA’s spying powers, too?

The Sad Truth

All this spying on innocent Americans didn’t collar the Tsarnaev brothers ahead of the Boston Marathon bombing. And it’s clear they made abundant use of smartphones and the internet. Heck, we even had a warning from Russian security officials that the older Tsarnaev brother was a threat, and we couldn’t catch them.

The spying on innocent Americans didn’t collar Major Nidal Hasan before he massacred soldiers at Fort Hood, and he regularly surfed to jihadi websites.

Instead of focusing on the real problem characters, the Obama administration wants to know who you and I talk to. As Senator Dianne Feinstein, who was supposed to be providing congressional oversight, stated this last week, the authorities need this information in case someone might become a terrorist in the future.

But only the most compliant of citizen sheep would believe that Obama and his team won’t abuse this spying power.

Let’s hope that Congress will have the fortitude to put this frightening episode of domestic spying in the history books and make clear that the government only has the power to collect data on suspects of a crime.

 

This article originally appeared at CapitolHillDaily and is reprinted here with permission.

Photo credit: waif69 (Creative Commons)

What’s Behind Sebelius’ Callous View Of Life And Death?

Sebelius SC Whats Behind Sebelius Callous View Of Life And Death?

When I was growing up, liberals were people like Hubert Humphrey and Ed Muskie and George McGovern.

You might have disagreed with their politics; but you never doubted their sincerity, their patriotism, or their humanity.

Based on her act this past week, I’m not sure I can even call Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius a liberal in the classical meaning of the word.  How the group that says it is all worried about human beings, life, and the quality thereof can claim her as one of their own is a mystery to me.

Last week, the news media brought a story to our attention. Ten year old Sarah Murnaghan from Newtown Square, Pennsylvania needs a new lung.  She has Cystic Fibrosis and a very short time left to live absent a lung transplant.

If she was 12 years old, she would be on the list for an adult lung.  Her doctors say she could handle that adult lung.

But the rules enforced by Sebelius say that a 10 year old only gets a pediatric lung.  And those aren’t available often. Frankly, kids don’t die with lungs intact as often as adults do.

So, Sarah’s parents made a simple request.  Waive the rule, and put her on the adult list.

Nope, says Ms. Sebelius.  Not gonna do it.  Wouldn’t be prudent. Kids die all the time.

Frankly, she sounded like a bad Dana Carvey imitation.

This is a nation that both went to the moon and had its first heart transplant within a one-year period.  This is a nation in which we are constantly reminded by the so-called heirs to the Humphrey-Muskie-McGovern legacy that we owe it to the least of us to take care of them.

What is this bitch thinking?

She was straightened out almost immediately by a Philadelphia Federal Judge who ordered her to put Sarah on the adult list.

Perhaps it’s all that supporting of abortion that makes life so meaningless to clowns like Sebelius.  Or, perhaps, she’s just the kind of person who genuinely doesn’t care.

In Sebelius’ case, the pro-abortion crowd got her elected as Governor in Kansas, and she had a close relationship with the infamous George Tiller (a.k.a. “Tiller the baby killer”) before he was shot to death in 2009. (John Kennedy was assassinated.  This gangster was shot, to paraphrase Chris Rock.)

So it should be clear to most right thinking people that Sebelius clearly has the ability to look at a child and shrug off the possibility that she might die unless Sebelius took a particular action that she didn’t, for inexplicable reasons, want to take.  We would note, after all, that as Governor of Kansas, she repeatedly defended Tiller’s illegal late term abortions, thus condemning many children to death.

Still, we need to ask exactly what this nation is becoming when a cabinet secretary is perfectly willing to stand by and watch a 10 year old girl die because she’s not 12.  Just think about the death panels this woman will be in charge of at HHS when Obamacare goes into effect.

Forgetting about her defense of George Tiller’s late term abortions, if Sebelius can watch a 10 year old girl die because she’s not 12, what might she say about your chemotherapy when you are 70?

Put her together with the IRS, and you get what the so-called liberals have made our government into.

Barack Obama, Eric Holder, and Kathleen Sebelius appear to be representative of what liberalism has become.

And that faint sound you hear is Hubert Humphrey turning over in his grave.

DC Lawmakers Afraid They Might Be Subject To Their Own Legislation

Harry Reid 4 SC DC Lawmakers afraid they might be subject to their own legislation

Few fair-minded Americans would argue that the tenants of Capitol Hill should suffer the slings and arrows that complicate the lives of mere commoners.  After all, seeing to the 24/7 needs of the underclasses is burden enough for anyone.

But thanks to an amendment to the Affordable Care Act, members of the political ruling class and their congressional staff will soon join the little people in suffering the financial distress promised in a 2,700 page law read and understood by very few within the beltway. And the DC elite do not like it one bit.

Before ObamaCare was rammed through the Senate via reconciliation, Senator Charles Grassley made certain that members of Congress and their staff would have to obtain health insurance by enrolling in ObamaCare exchanges just like everyone else. After all, “…if Congress was going to impose Obamacare upon the country, it should have to experience what it is imposing firsthand.” Grassley’s 2009 amendment originally called for ALL federal employees to obtain healthcare insurance via an exchange. But federal employee unions, so fervent in their support of ObamaCare legislation, wanted no part of actually participating in the finished product. Democrats naturally permitted their largest donors to quietly bow out.

But the law’s legislative champions could NOT publicly extricate themselves from Senator Grassley’s carefully laid trap. So here we are, nearly 4 years later; and for months, lawmakers have been working to gingerly rescind that portion of the ACA that would put their premiums on a par with those to be experienced by the common clay.

At least that was the plan until a couple of months ago, when a Harry Reid spokesman ostensibly put the issue to rest with:

There are not now, have never been, nor will there ever be any discussions about exempting members of Congress or Congressional staff from Affordable Care Act provisions that apply to any employees of any other public or private employer offering health care…

It seems Republicans had publicized the efforts of their repeal-minded friends from across the aisle, and news of the scheme was NOT received kindly by the American public.

Well, DC lawmakers are simply not used to having to play an honest game. As a result, “dozens of lawmakers and aides are so afraid that their health insurance premiums will skyrocket next year thanks to Obamacare that they are thinking about retiring early or just quitting.”

Of course, the loss of inside-the-beltway talent is far more serious than the consequences of average people quitting average jobs. In its standard role of shill for the political elite, Politico reports:

If the issue isn’t resolved, and massive numbers of lawmakers and aides bolt, many on Capitol Hill fear it could lead to a brain drain just as Congress tackles a slew of weighty issues — like fights over the Tax Code and immigration reform.

A brain drain! Oh my. Lions and tigers and bears, as far as the eye can see.

Perhaps Democrats weren’t so smart after all with their demands that ObamaCare be passed in order to find out what was in it. But don’t be surprised to find that some one, some entity, some bureaucracy outside the immediate purview of Congress should ride the rescue of our mistreated lawmakers. After all, if they have to live like commoners, why run for the job?

Photo Credit: Talk Radio News Service (Creative Commons)

Obamacare In Flames?

Americans amd government officials fear costs…

Unprecedented Corruption: Destroying Ourselves

Chicago White House Unprecedented corruption: destroying ourselves

Americans are seeing levels of corruption in government like never before.  The truths being revealed almost daily highlight a central issue: the importance of integrity in leadership.

Leadership sets the tone and the example.

We’ve been down this road before.  Richard Nixon actively engaged criminality, creating a crisis and destroying confidence in leadership, leading to his resignation.  Bill Clinton’s behavior encouraged staff to behave likewise resulting in criminality, a credibility crisis, and impeachment.

The present state of affairs makes Nixon and Clinton look like amateurs, continuing the shame of seeing executive leadership demonstrate criminal and immoral behavior, leaving youth to conclude that nothing of value matters anymore.

One scandal after another in recent weeks makes this administration look like an international crime syndicate.  Americans should keep in mind that Harry Truman was right in saying that the buck stops at his desk.  Ultimately, the President is responsible, as Obama has stated himself over and over.

The latest outrage involves allegations of criminality in the State Department.  Once again, illegality has apparently been fairly widespread; and when honest government investigators attempted to do their jobs, they were waved off and told to stand down.

This revelation is reminiscent of scandals involving the Secret Service not long ago.  It is another example of government engaging in illegality, covering it up, and then turning on whistleblowers trying to do the right thing.  That spells “police state.”

Working back through time to review this massively deteriorating situation:

>NSA leaks reveal unprecedented domestic surveillance some say far exceeds the original intent of the Patriot Act.  Feds are in bed with 50 communications companies to collect data on citizens.  Creeping fascism.  The Director of National Intelligence is accused of lying under oath.

>The IRS is intentionally harassing conservative groups, infringing constitutional rights, engaging in illegality, and persecuting average citizens with the inappropriate use of FBI and ATF investigators to suppress opposition voices.

>DOJ investigates journalists (Rosen at Fox and hundreds of editors and reporters at the Associated Press.) The Attorney General is now accused of perjury.

>Serial scandals and controversies over the years at DOJ leave the Attorney General looking like a criminal co-conspirator: Black Panthers cut loose after being convicted of felonies, Fast & Furious gun running resulting in hundreds of deaths, subsequent stonewalling of congressional investigators, bungling the Boston Massacre investigation, to name a few.  Whistleblowers again are targeted for persecution and sanction.

>Immigration officials are forced to sue the Administration, alleging that Obama purposefully prevented them from doing their jobs in enforcing standing law.

>EPA officials run roughshod over companies and individuals, installing policies and procedures to enact provisions of global warming mitigation rejected by Congress.

>The EPA releases personal data on 80,000 farmers and livestock operations to environmentalist groups, thus targeting farm families.

>Scandal surrounds Benghazi; leadership is lying to the public, covering up, and attempting to distract attention.

>Another scandal involves the deaths of SEALS in Afghanistan: irregularities, illegalities, lies, and cover up.

>Obama’s Sec. of Health and Human Services illegally asks companies she will regulate to contribute funds to help forward the implementation of ObamaCare.

>Various federal agencies sponsor conferences, wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on frivolous events (GSA, IRS, Veterans Affairs for example.)

>Scandals involve fraud and waste throughout the Stimulus spending debacle; green subsidies end in company bankruptcies over and over.

>Obama wages war in Libya without congressional authorization.

>Lies and media manipulation in the wake of Sequestration put public safety at risk.

>Obama makes illegal recess appointments and other moves to circumvent the Constitution and Congress, most notably the effort to install the Dream Act by executive order to achieve immigration reform without legislative action.

This criminal Administration has lost credibility.  The people do not trust Obama.  He never had integrity; and finally, the people have concluded he is unfit to lead.

Heartbreaking reality: the words of Lincoln are coming true . . .

“If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”

Character and morality matter, after all.

 

Photo credit: terrellaftermath

 

 

 

 

Obamacare Waiting Room

%7B972d12b1 96ea 4dcf 8713 db04362c0bb1%7D Obamacare Waiting Room

©2013 Rick McKee, The Augusta Chronicle

Fate Of ObamaCare Hangs In Balance

Obamacare Why Start Over SC Fate of ObamaCare hangs in balance

The future of Barack Obama’s namesake effort to exercise the power of life and death over the American people will depend upon the outcome of 2 under-reported lawsuits, one filed in Washington DC and the other in Oklahoma City.

“This is huge,writes George Mason University law professor Michael Greve. “If successful…[either] case will bring Obamacare’s Exchange engine to a screeching halt…In short, this is for all the marbles.”

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) provides tax credits and subsidies for the purchase of health insurance through exchanges that are run by “a governmental agency or nonprofit entity that is established by a state.” To date, however, 33 states have refused to build an ObamaCare exchange so necessary to the functioning of the law. And although the ACA made a provision for recalcitrant governors and state legislators by permitting the federal government to build exchanges within their borders, it did NOT allow for federally run exchanges to provide the subsidies and tax credits without which healthcare plans would be unaffordable for the majority of businesses and individuals. “Section 1311 of ObamaCare allows tax credits to certain people in state-run exchanges, Section 1321 – the section regulating federally run exchanges – does not.”

In May of last year, Barack Obama’s Internal Revenue Service decided to unilaterally change the language of the ACA and override the will of Congress by ruling that the Service will have the authority to provide subsidies to ObamaCare participants from federally run exchanges.  In short, the IRS rewrote the law and rescued the president’s legislation by giving itself permission to spend an estimated $800 billion taxpayer dollars over the next 10 years—dollars which were NOT authorized by Congress to be spent.

Incredibly, defenders of this IRS overreach have claimed that Congress’ decision that only states may provide subsidies is simply a “…minor drafting error that courts will and should overlook.” But many are not buying into such a pathetic and insulting argument. Last year, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt filed suit in federal court (Pruitt v Sebelius.) And a group of individuals and small businesses have sued in the DC District Court (Halbig v Sebelius.) Both actions challenge the right of the IRS to alter the intent of the law, thwart the will of Congress, and spend billions of tax dollars by ignoring the clear language of the Affordable Care Act.

The Democrat authors of ObamaCare fully believed that state politicians would be forced into building ObamaCare exchanges lest they be accused of withholding quality healthcare from the members of  recognized victim groups around the nation. As a result, the left thought it unnecessary to provide government the authority at the federal level to offer tax credits and subsidies or to penalize and fine ObamaCare scofflaws. These powers were given exclusively to the states. And elected officials in 33 of those states will have played a major role in ending the current ObamaCare menace IF an honest judge can be found on the federal bench.

It seems to always come down to that, doesn’t it!

Photo credit: terrellaftermath