U.S. Postal Service reports $2.2 billion loss

The post office reports a 2.2 BILLION dollar loss in ONE QUARTER! Holy crap! You almost have be trying to fail to have a loss like that in only three months.

You realize that this is a government agency and that that we, the taxpayers, will be covering that loss. Holy crap! This has got to be the most mismanaged mess on the planet. Isn't there anyone keeping an eye on the budget? Shouldn't people be getting laid off to cut expenses? Oh, wait, these are all union people. The union will allow the entire organization to fall of a cliff before they make concessions.

When you think about supporting obamacare, keep the post office in mind. It is being run by the same government that brought you crappy service and a 2.2 BILLION dollar loss...

By Ben Rooney - CNNMoney

The U.S. Postal Service continues to hemorrhage money, with a loss of $2.2 billion in the most recent quarter.

The national mail service said Tuesday that it expects to have a cash shortfall and reach its statutory borrowing limit by the time its fiscal year ends in September. That means the agency could be forced to default on some of its payments to the federal government.

Patrick Donahoe, the Postmaster General, said the service is still seeking changes to federal laws that would allow it to change its business model and potentially save enough money to avoid a default.

"The Postal Service may return to financial stability only through significant changes to the laws that limit flexibility and impose undue financial burdens," Donahoe said in a statement.

At issue is a 2006 law requiring the service to pay between $5.4 and $5.8 billion into its prepaid retiree health benefits each year. In addition, the agency is seeking Congressional approval to eliminate Saturday mail service.

The postal service has estimated that moving to five day service could save $3.1 billion. But the Postal Regulatory Commission, which oversees the agency, issued an advisory in March that put the savings at a much more modest $1.7 billion.

While the Postal Service is not strictly a government agency, it is not exactly a private business either.

My Cousin Barack Obama and Our ObamaCare Family Feud

Milton Wolf is a badass. Go check out his blog if you get a chance.

It got to suck for obama to be dissed by his own family, but sometimes that's what you get. Especially when you have a complete disregard for the law, the Constitution and the will of the American People. obamacare is a disaster for our Country. It is going to destroy the best medical system in the world and replace it with a european style socialized system that will rely on rationing and second rate care.

Don't believe me? Read the words of an actual Doctor and obama's cousin...

By Milton R. Wolf M.D. - FoxNews

When Barack Obama and I first met he had already become president and was furiously erecting the government-controlled health care system that bears his name and I had already begun a very public crusade to save America from it. Fate would never reunite our mothers who grew up together as young girls, cousins and friends, after they were separated decades ago, but now their sons bridged a divide in our family that was created by decisions not our own. It’s not often that a president’s most vocal critic comes from his own family, but I believe the inviolable oath I took to my patients demands that I oppose ObamaCare.

Today, ObamaCare is on the ropes—in the courts, and in terms of public opinion. While the Supreme Court denied Virginia’s petition to hear its ObamaCare lawsuit on an expedited basis earlier this month, this case will soon be heard by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In a more high-profile case, Judge Roger Vinson ruled the individual mandate unconstitutional. This lawsuit, which was filed by more than half the states in the union and led by Florida, will be heard in the U.S. appeals court in Atlanta in June. And in poll after poll, it has become clear that more than one year after ObamaCare’s passage, the American people strongly reject it. The fundamental flaw at the core of ObamaCare is the mistaken belief that the government can spend your dollars more effectively than you can. This tragically pessimistic belief views all Americans with suspicion as either incompetent or unrighteous but either way in need of big-government control.

Sadly missing from the national health care debate was an honest discussion of the origins of our health care system’s shortcomings. Let me be clear, while we certainly have problems, America still has the finest heath care system in the world. That patients flee their government-run systems -- like Great Britain’s and Canada’s -- and flock to America for our medical miracles should be an obvious clue to not recreate their failures; obvious to everyone, that is, except ObamaCare supporters.

While the Constitution does not give the federal government the authority to interfere with our health care, the big-government types have been at work for decades and have, by any fair assessment, wreaked havoc. The first health care waiver was granted in 1929 when the American Medical Association successfully lobbied that Blue Cross be exempt from certain regulations and taxes. Thus began the era of crony health care where Big Government’s friends were more equal than the rest of us.

In the following decades, Republicans’ and Democrats’ health care intrusions fueled increasing costs which priced more and more Americans out of the market. Many of the problems we face today are a direct result of those bad laws. The 1942 wage controls (and later tax laws), for example, forced the devastating marriage of health insurance to employment. Ask anyone denied employment or trapped in a bad job because of a medical condition how well that’s working out for them. Meanwhile state insurance monopolies create artificial barriers to insurance portability, increase costs dramatically and are responsible for 1 out of 4 uninsured Americans. The list goes on and on and the big-government type’s solution to these bad laws is always the same: more laws!

To call ObamaCare a doubling down on these government failures is a probably a betrayal of basic math skills -- it’s more like a quadrupling down. ObamaCare mandates that every free citizen purchase state-sanctioned insurance while it increases taxes (on everything from tampons and tanning salons to gold and the sale of your home); it increases spending even more; it turns health insurance companies into public utilities; it eliminates proven free-market reforms and it sets in place the mechanism for health care rationing. What’s more, ObamaCare has been ruled unconstitutional.

The unkeepable promises of ObamaCare are, as we say in medicine, too numerous to count, and are already collapsing. You can keep your current doctor and your current insurance. No tax increases. No rationing. Reduce the deficit. Four million new jobs created -- “400,000 almost immediately.” Public hearings. These are the pathetic peddlings of false hope.

Read the rest at the link above...

Congressional Inquiry Reveals ObamaCare's Billion Dollar Give Away to AARP

If you are an aarp member or are considering membership, be sure to give this a read.

Before you send in your dues, consider that the biggest interestof the aarp is the aarp. From everything I have read over the last couple of years, the aarp doesn't give a damn about Seniors. They do care quite a bit about the huge salaries that the executives get. They care about obamacare, since they fought so hard to get it passed, at the expense of those they claim to care about.

Do your research with this organization. Find out where you really stand before you send them any money.

by Lee Habeeb - Guns & Patriots

Forget the Cornhusker Kickback. Thanks to a House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee Investigation, we finally know why AARP worked so hard to get ObamaCare passed. Congressman Charles Boustany (R-La), a real life MD, released the findings of a nearly year-long investigation that revealed how AARP stands to make nearly $1 billion over the next 10 years if ObamaCare remains in affect.

“As one of the country’s most well-known non-profits, many of America’s seniors trust AARP to represent their interests,” Boustany said in an appearance on Salem Radio Network’s The Mike Gallagher show. “But in light of AARP’s dependence on its income from insurance products, there is good reason to question whether AARP is primarily looking out for seniors or just its own bottom line.”

“This should be called The Great Senior Swindle,” Gallagher told Boustany. “Conservatives who are members of AARP should quit immediately. And those who are not members should not join.”

AARP’s revenue in 2009 was a stunning $1.4 billion, with over $700 million of that revenue coming from the royalties they receive from the licensing of insurance products.

Worse, the investigation revealed that ObamaCare will cause 7 million seniors to lose their Medicare Advantage plans, resulting in a migration to Medigap plans.

“AARP is the nation’s biggest Medigap plan provider, the report revealed, “and AARP will gain between $55 and $166 million in 2014 alone as a result of new Medigap enrollees thanks to ObamaCare, which AARP strongly endorsed.”

AARP’s financial gain from ObamaCare could exceed $1 billion during the next 10 years,

“That’s 1 billion reasons why AARP supported ObamaCare,” explained Dan Weber, President of AMAC, a conservative alternative to AARP. “AARP took the deal Rahm Emanuel and President Obama offered them, and left seniors holding the bag.”

Fireworks on Capitol Hill

There were some real fireworks when AARP’s President, A. Barry Rand, testified on Capitol Hill. Congressman Tom Price (R-Ga), another real life doctor, and Congressman Wally Herger (R-Ca) exposed the sheer duplicity of AARP.

“It is troubling that the AARP – that supposedly exists to advocate on behalf of seniors – would fight for a health care law that cuts Medicare by over $500 billion and limits insurance coverage choices for seniors,” said Price. “The report reminds the American people of all of ObamaCare’s sweetheart deals. Health reform should always be about putting patients first and not be built for any group’s political or financial advantage.”

The hearing revealed some other surprises. It turns out that AARP makes big money from the interest it charges while premiums sit in AARP coffers for undetermined amounts of time. AARP collected and processed over 6.8 billion in insurance premiums in 2009 alone, and AARP’s President, after a relentless grilling by Congressmen Herger, revealed that interest on those premiums were as much as $60 million a year, thus making AARP a bank, as well as an insurance company.

In addition, the hearing revealed the staggering salaries of AARP executives, some of which topped out at over $1.6 million, and even more lucrative benefit and pension packages.

In some very tough exchanges, AARP was accused by multiple members of the panel for not cooperating with members of Congress during the nearly year long investigation.

Congressman Herger was particularly angered by AARP’s foot dragging, and expressed alarm that AARP was still considered a non-profit, when so much of the operation acts like a for profit.

“The facts show AARP no longer operates like a seniors’ advocacy organization; instead it more closely resembles a for-profit insurance company. In 2009, AARP raised 46% of its revenue from royalty payments, versus just 17% from membership dues. While questions have indeed been raised in the past about AARP’s reliance on royalties, the amount of these payments has nearly tripled just over the past decade.

AMAC President Dan Weber was not surpised by the investigation, or anything he heard at the hearings. “The fact is that AARP has been misleading its members for a very long time, especially its conservative members, and they need to know that they can get insurance elsewhere – and at competitive rates - where their values won’t be sold.”

“AARP spends millions to create the impression that they are the only game in town for seniors when it comes to their insurance needs,” explained Lee Habeeb, a content and policy producer for some of radio’s biggest shows, including Mike Gallagher’s, Bill Bennett’s and Michael Medved’s. “The good news is, conservative seniors are no longer hostages to AARP, and can join a group like AMAC.”

Budget Panel: obama Deficit Plan Saves Less Than Advertised

If anyone actually believes that this "obama" plan will do anything positive for this County they should think about obamacare. Just like obamacare, you can bet there is a bunch of hidden shit that will wind up costing us billions and cut into the savings. It will probably require hiring thouands of new government employees to implement and somehow it will give huge amounts of money to unions and other of obama's cronies.

Never trust this man, ever. He is a liar. He lies when it is easier to tell the truth. It is a compulsion.

And don't forget there is always an agenda. His desire to turn us into a third world country out weighs any sense of sanity. He is a liar and should not be trusted...

From FoxNews

A leading panel of budget experts estimated Thursday that President obama's latest spending plan does not save as much money as the White House initially claimed and is about $1.5 trillion more expensive than the Republican plan.

Since he delivered a major fiscal policy address last week, obama and other officials have touted that the White House plan would cut $4 trillion over 12 years. Using that figure, they've claimed it's very similar to a House Republican plan which supposedly would cut $4.4 trillion over 10 years.

But given that most budget outlines use a 10-year window, as required by law, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget tried to offer an apples-to-apples comparison -- and determined obama's proposal would actually cut deficits by $2.5 trillion over the next decade. It credited the president for "moving the ball forward," but said that based on Congressional Budget Office assumptions, the plan doesn't do enough to tackle the debt crisis.

"It appears unlikely that the policies proposed in the president's framework would be sufficient to reduce debt to a manageable level," they wrote.

In response, the White House claimed that using the 10-year window, the president's budget plan would cut $2.9 trillion, not $2.5 trillion. And officials continued to stand by the claim that it cuts $4 trillion over 12 years. A White House aide suggested the president's plan would save more than the committee claims in part because of a "failsafe" provision that would trigger additional spending cuts if debt reduction goals are not met.

Read the rest at the link above...

Top Missouri Dem Endorses Suit Against Health Care Mandate

If koster thinks this is going to save his scrawny neck in 2012, he needs to think again. Maybe if he would have signed on to or endorsed the Lt. Governor's (Peter Kinder) lawsuit, I would have had some respect. He didn't. When the Lt. Governor announced his lawsuit, I wrote koster and asked him why it wasn't him filing it. I never got a response. I wasn't counting on one to begin with. democrats don't give a damn about the people they are supposed to represent.

This article also mentions that we passed a ballot measure in Missouri against obamacare. koster had nothing to do with that. Don't be confused by the wording.

It's pretty obvious he is only getting involved now because he can see the writing on the wall. obamacare is even more unpopular now that it was in the beginning and all those who have backed it have done so at their political peril. I won't vote for koster, and I'll do whatever I can to make sure every one else votes for his opponent.

From FoxNews

After sitting for months on the sidelines, Missouri's Democratic attorney general has thrown his support behind a landmark multi-state lawsuit challenging the federal health care overhaul.

Chris Koster -- the top attorney in the state which last year passed the first-in-the-nation ballot measure against the law -- on Monday filed what's known as a friend-of-the-court brief in the case before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. The action involved a bit of hedging. In filing the brief, he did not formally join the other 26 states in the suit. He also expressed support for the health care law's goal of expanding health coverage and argued that most of the language should be upheld.

But Koster said the so-called individual mandate requiring most Americans to buy health insurance runs afoul of the Constitution, as well as his state's referendum, and should be cleaved from the law.

The mandate, he said, "would imbue Congress with police powers rejected by the Founding Fathers and never before permitted by the Supreme Court."

Koster, as other critics of the requirement have argued, said the administration's reliance on the Commerce Clause regulating economic activity is not valid. With the mandate, he said the U.S. government is trying to regulate an individual's decision not to purchase a product -- in this case, health insurance. In other words, the administration is trying to regulate economic inactivity.

"Within the health care arena, the power to penalize one's decision not to purchase health insurance is indistinguishable from granting Congress the power to penalize individuals for not obtaining an annual check-up or prostate exam, for not vaccinating one's children, or for not maintaining a specific body-mass," Koster wrote.

Missouri's Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, a Republican who has led the charge against the health care law in his state, applauded Koster for his legal argument.

But he needled the attorney general for waiting so long to make it, and for endorsing the high-profile suit led by Florida as opposed to one he filed in Missouri.

Read the rest at the link above...

Budget Deal Targets Pieces of Health Care Law

Ok, maybe I was a little hard on Boehner yesterday. Anything that helps defund or repeal obamacare is a good thing. I still think Boehner compromised when he didn't have to, but the deal he got was better than the past couple of continuing resolutions...

The Wall Street Journal

The budget deal reached Friday would affect two initiatives contained in last year's health-care law that were bitterly opposed by businesses, killing one outright and slashing funding for the other.

The agreement would eliminate a provision of the health-care law enabling low-income workers to opt out of employer-offered health insurance and shop for more affordable coverage on insurance exchanges to be created in 2014, according to congressional aides and business groups.

Under the provision, employers would have had to help pay for the insurance purchased on the exchange. Ending the program would save the government $4 billion over 10 years, but it wouldn't result in any immediate spending cuts because it isn't set to begin for three years.

Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden sponsored the provision, calling it "Free Choice." A spokesman for Mr. Wyden, Jennifer Hoelzer, said Saturday that "both parties claim to support choice and competition in health care, but their closed-door decision to kill off Free Choice makes it pretty clear that their real goal is to keep health care in the hands of special interests."

Spokespeople for the Business Roundtable and the National Association of Manufacturers, organizations that opposed the measure, couldn't be reached for comment. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which also opposed the measure, declined to comment.

The budget bill will also cut $2.2 billion in funding from a program that would encourage the development of health-care cooperatives-not-for-profit entities that would compete with private, for-profit health-insurance companies.

Read the rest at the link above...

Congress makes first major dent in health care law

obama is worried about people being less enthusiastic about joining his obamacare mess? I don't know that it is possible for people to be less enthusiastic. In case he hasn't noticed, people and companies are lining up to get waivers to get out of signing up. Especially the organizations that helped him force this on us, like unions.

This 1099 repeal is a good start on getting rid of the entire batch of bad, horrible, economy killing legislation...

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times

Congress on Tuesday passed the first major changes to last year’s health care law, undoing both a burdensome paperwork requirement for small businesses and rewriting part of the way the health exchange subsidies are paid for.

The changes are complex and don’t affect the fundamental operations of the health law, but Republicans said they are symbolic nonetheless because they mark the first repeals of significant provisions from Democrats’ signature legislative achievement under President obama.

The bill passed the Senate on Tuesday with strong bipartisan support, 87-12, and goes to Mr. obama, who will face a big test over whether to sign it. He has said he wants to repeal the paperwork requirement, but the administration has objected to rewriting the way subsidies in the exchange are funded, arguing it may make people less enthusiastic about joining.

After the bill passed, White House press secretary jay carney said Mr. obama is “open to working with Republicans and democrats to improve the health reform law, and we are pleased Congress has acted to correct a flaw that placed an unnecessary bookkeeping burden on small businesses.”

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, Utah Republican, called the bill “a down payment on total repeal of the onerous health care law.”

The measure has become known as the “1099 repeal” because it would relieve businesses of having to file 1099 tax forms for any person or company to which they pay at least $600 in a year.

Read the rest at the link above...

The ObamaCare Bailouts

Every week or two we find out some new, nasty little easter egg in obamacare. obama and the thugs writing this legislation were very thorough in making sure every single supporter got their fair share of our tax dollars. I didn't think anything about obamacare could piss me off more than what I already was. I was wrong. With each new revelation about how we are being screwed I get even more mad.

It's no wonder they rushed this through in the middle of the night. Had the public been given an opportunity to fully understand to what extent our own government was willing to put it to us, there might have been some tar and feathers involved. For as nasty as I know the obama administration is, some of these things shock me. I didn't know that was possible.

I just can't get over how insulting it all is. They absolutely take us all for fools...

by John Hayward - Human Events


Hidden treasures for public unions and well-connected corporations.

Back when ObamaCare was being shoved down America’s throat, Nancy Pelosi assured us we needed to pass it to “find out what’s in it.” The House Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired by Republican Fred Upton of Michigan, just found something else that was hidden in it: “a $5 billion bailout fund for state governments, Fortune 500 companies, and Hollywood unions that is rapidly going bankrupt after doling out half a billion dollars much more quickly than anticipated.”

That five billion in funding, by the way, is roughly the same as the amount allocated to the high-risk pool for people with pre-existing conditions – ostensibly the major reason we detonated ObamaCare and destroyed the American health insurance system. It’s going to end up costing taxpayers a lot more than $5 billion, because “so far, fewer than 5 percent of the organizations ‘approved’ to participate in the program have received funds.”

The bailout fund is formally known as the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program. It’s a federal subsidy to “employers and unions that provide health coverage to early retirees.” According to the committee’s analysis, “The ERRP reimburses the employer 80 percent of the actual cost of an early retiree’s health expenses between $15,000 and $90,000,” based on “qualified claims beginning on or after June 1, 2010.”

The Energy and Commerce report notes that “Like many provisions and accounting gimmicks in the health care law, it has largely escaped public scrutiny because of the sheer volume of programs and spending crammed into the law without scrutiny or Congressional oversight.” In other words, nobody has really paid much attention to where the money went.

Naturally, a lot of that crazy unsupervised money ended up in the hands of public unions. Over one third of the $535 million spent in 2010 went to five public union benefit and pension plans, in California, New Jersey, Georgia, Kentucky, and Texas. 56% of all funds distributed in 2010 went to government organizations. Over five thousand entities have been approved for EERP bailouts, and 47% of them are government organizations.

Read the rest at the link above...

AARP Tax Exemption Report at Center of Contentious Capitol Hill Hearing

You know, way back in November 2009, I wrote a brief post on the aarp and their support of obamacare. Their main goal in this was to kill Medicare Advantage, a good selling product that was in direct competition with one they were selling. Their product, or the product they were/are pimping was more expensive and provided less coverage.

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't it against the law for a church to pimp a political candidate? If I'm not mistaken, they can lose their tax exempt status over such actions. It would seem that the backing of a political aganda or candidate should result in the loss of tax exempt status for any 501c4 organization. The Republicans should pursue this fully.

I have told the aarp my point of view on this and several other issues on more than one occasion. It's funny, I never hear back from them. I'm willing to bet though, that when I near retirement age they will want to talk to me. Fat chance...

By Doug McKelway - FoxNews

A Republican-authored report on alleged financial irregularities within AARP has met with deep resistance among Democratic lawmakers and AARP senior executives.

The report, entitled "Behind the Veil: The AARP America Doesn't Know," alleges that the AARP violated its tax exempt status by, in effect, selling health insurance policies and by actively lobbying for the massive health care law passed by Congress and signed by President Obama last year.

Both those activities, Republicans say, violate the spirit of 501c4 tax-exempt organizations, which are supposed to "promote the common good and social welfare of a community of people."

Confronted with the report during an oversight hearing Friday held by the House Ways and Means Committee, senior AARP managers recoiled at its accusations.

"We do not sell insurance," Barry Rand, chief executive officer of AARP told the committee. He described AARP's insurance related revenues as "royalties."

In such an arrangement, AARP receives a fee from private insurers in exchange for tweaking their policies, accepting an AARP "brand" and selling those polices to AARP members.

In 2009, AARP revenues from such royalties amounted to two and a half times the amount the association received from member dues.

Read the rest at the link above...

Wisconsin Judge Orders 'No Further Implementation' of Budget Law

The judge ordered "no further implementation", just about the same thing the judge ruled about obamacare. Hmmm, the obama administration decided to ignore the judge and continue forcing obamacare on us anyway. At least in the Wisconsin case, the law in question will actually be of benefit to the State and the non-public union citizens. And actually, the public union members still won't have to contribute as much to their health care and retirement as their non-union counterparts, so they still come out pretty good too.

Unfortunantly for our entire Country, the further implementation of obamacare will affect all of us in a negative way...

By Mike Tobin - FoxNews

A Wisconsin judge on Tuesday ordered "no further implementation" of the Gov. Scott Walker's budget repair bill that limits collective bargaining rights.

Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi said that her earlier restraining order saying the law shouldn't be enacted had either been ignored or misinterpreted.

Sumi stopped short of saying the law was not already in effect. She said she will take more testimony on that issue.

The Legislative Reference Bureau posted the law on a legislative website Friday, leading Walker's administration to declare the law was in effect.

Sumi revised her original March temporary restraining order blocking the secretary of state from publishing the law, which is typically the last step before it becomes effective.

Sumi's ruling delivers a setback to Walker and his administration while Democrats rejoiced.

Earlier Tuesday, debate raged from Wisconsin state Supreme Court justices to law professors, on whether Walker is law and is in effect.

It states the obvious to say Wisconsin is now a big convoluted, partisan mess, but it is. Here is the skinny on what is happening: Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, who is a Democrat, and Assembly Minority Leader Pete Barca, also a Democrat, filed a court challenge to the budget relief bill. The challenge argues that Wisconsin Republicans violated the open meetings laws but since that has not entered into the argument, set that aside for the moment.

As the open meetings suit was pending, Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi issued a temporary restraining order that prevented Secretary of State Ken LaFollete from publishing the law, now known as Act 10. Publication of the law is the last step to putting a bill into effect, and Democrats argue that the law is not in effect until LaFollete issues the publication.

However, another outlet can publish the law: the Legislative Review Board. That is exactly what it did last Friday, leaving Wisconsin Republicans to argue that the law is in effect. The Department of Administration has even begun implementing the part of the law where deductions for health care and pensions are made from the paychecks of state employees.

Sumi ordered a hearing Tuesday morning to decide if LaFollete should be enjoined from publication until the open meetings case is decided. But if the law is already in effect, the injunction is moot. So the focus of the hearing was changed to answer the question of whether the law is in effect.

Read the rest at the link above...

Has John Boehner forgotten why he is in washington?

I have to tell you, with each passing day, my faith in John Boehner fades. He is much too willing to compromise in situations where he has no need to. And what that boils down to, is Boehner doing exactly what the democrats want him to do. I'll hand to to the democrats, they are very devious. They use the tools they have at their disposal better than the Republicans do.

For instance, everyone knows the democrats have the media in their pocket. If the Republicans appear unwilling to budge on an issue, the media is alerted and the Republicans are front page news as being obstructionists or the party of "no".

Right now we need some "no". No to obamacare, no to more spending, no to anything that isn't pointing our Country back to the right path. We have been on the road the democrats have laid out for us and we have seen that it ends in the destruction of our values and our Country.

Boehner needs to man up. He needs to refuse to budge on the debt ceiling and the continuing resolutions until the senate agrees to repeal obamacare or to reduce spending by a significant amount. These two billon dollar cuts are worthless. We accrue more interest in the time they spend arguing than the actual reduction.

Boehner has options. He has tools. He needs to remember why we put him in his current position. We put him there to be our voice. The person to stand up for the American citizens who are against obamacare and against the out of control spending. But in my opinion, the most important job John Boehner has is to end the corrupt, business as usual way washington operates. Chicago politics are an embarrasment to our Country, it is an even bigger embarrassment when it is brought to the National level...

Obama Tells GOP: Nice Try on Health Care Records

The Republicans didn't really think it would be that easy did they? When you are dealing with obama and his gang of thugs, it' not like you are dealing with  common criminals. No way, these are hard core professional criminals. They have had many years of practice in the most corrupt political climate on the planet, Chicago.

I hate to say it, but the Republicans are going to have to play as dirty as obama does. But the downside is, they don't have near the practice.

One of these days, obama is going to get caught and his house of cards will come tumbling down. There is no telling what will be revealed when that happens. When your entire life is a lie, at some point you mess up. I can't wait for that day to come...

Associated Press

President Obama once promised that negotiations over his health care overhaul would be carried out openly, in front of TV cameras and microphones. Tell that to the White House now.

Republican congressional investigators got the brush-off this past week after pressing for details of meetings between White House officials and interest groups, including drug companies and hospitals that provided critical backing for Obama's health insurance expansion.

Complying with the records request from the House Energy and Commerce Committee "would constitute a vast and expensive undertaking" and could "implicate longstanding executive branch confidentiality interests," White House lawyer Robert Bauer wrote the committee. Translation: Nice try.

It's one more roadblock for Republicans who tapped into widespread anxiety about the scope and costs of the new health care law to regain control of the House in last fall's elections.

So far, they've been unable to repeal the landmark legislation they dismiss as "Obamacare." GOP efforts to deny administration agencies the money to carry out the law are running into unintended consequences, not to mention the sheer difficulty of tracking those dollars. Now it looks like oversight isn't going to be easy either.

"We are both concerned and disappointed by your response," the committee chairman, Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., wrote back to Bauer. "The American public deserves the information we have requested. The secret meetings conducted by (White House officials) are a perfect example of why transparency in government is so important."

Upton urged the White House to carefully reconsider, but it's uncertain he'll ever get what he wants. Even if the standoff dramatically escalates to a congressional subpoena, history shows that presidents usually succeed in keeping records away from snooping eyes.

President George W. Bush's administration beat back efforts to reveal the dealings between Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force and industry. President Bill Clinton's administration successfully resisted demands for records of its failed push to remake the health care system, which was overseen by then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The request for records from Obama's health care reform office is broad. The committee asked for a list of every meeting, briefing or telephone call regarding changes to the health care system, as well as notes or summaries of those encounters. It wants a list of every employee of the now-disbanded health reform office, including their salaries. Committee investigators are also seeking any written communications, whether by letter or e-mail, with outside groups.

White House visitor records released at the request of The Associated Press in late 2009 show that Obama's top aides met frequently with lobbyists and health care industry leaders during the marathon congressional debate over health care overhaul.

The list included George Halvorson, chairman and CEO of Kaiser Health Plans; Scott Serota, president and CEO of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association; Kenneth Kies, a Washington lobbyist representing Blue Cross/Blue Shield, among other clients; Billy Tauzin, then head of PhRMA, the drug industry lobby; Richard Umbdenstock, chief of the American Hospital Association; and numerous others.

Nearly every health industry group has complaints about aspects of the final legislation. But they're also working to carry out its provisions, even as challenges to the law's constitutionality advance in federal court. Some sectors got significant concessions from the administration.

The pharmaceutical industry and hospitals agreed early on to tens of billions in savings to help finance new coverage for the uninsured. When an amendment to allow importation of low-cost prescription drugs came up in the Senate, the administration worked successfully to defeat it, although Obama had supported the idea as a presidential candidate. Hospitals won a reprieve of several years from cuts proposed by a new Medicare cost control board.

The White House sent the Energy and Commerce Committee some 100 pages of records that have already been made public, including visitor logs and press releases. That may be all they get for a long time.

Am I too hard on claire mccaskill?

Sometimes I wonder if I am being too hard on claire mccaskill. Well, to be honest, I wondered that once. But then I remembered that she voted for tarp, the stimulus and obamacare.

Watch this video, and then remember that mccaskill voted for obamacare anyway.

The vast majority of the citizens of Missouri asked, begged and pleaded with her not to vote for obamacare. She did it anyway. She cares more about kissing the ass of obama than about the people of the State she represents...

One more video that shows the extent of mccaskill's support of obamacare...

Battle Grows Over Obama Administration's Health Care Law Accounting

Senator Grassley called this "intellectual dishonesty", I'll agree with the dishonesty part, but there is no "intellectual" to this administration. And actually, I can't even agree with the dishonesty part. It is an outright lie. These thugs are trying to play mind games, bait and switch, a very very expensive shell game...

They are counting on the fact that we haven't paid attention for many years and that we won't start now. Well, surprise you bunch of lying criminals! We are paying attention. Any attempt at deflection at this point will only work on your mind numb liberal cohorts.

Those of us that have been shocked awake by your socialist agenda will never go to sleep again...

By Eve Zibel - FoxNews

It was only a few minutes in the making but comments last week by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Capitol Hill have set off a firestorm of criticism around President Obama’s health care law and how the law, when it’s finally implemented, will have “double counted” on Medicare -- and, therefore, does not have the savings once predicted by the White House.

“The Affordable Care Act adds 12 years to the Medicare trust fund, according to every actuary, and the $500 billion represents a slowdown in the growth rate of Medicare over 10 years from what was projected at 8 percent to a growth rate,” Sebelius said during questioning by Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill.

But, as Shimkus pushed the issue, asking for Sebelius to explain if the president was using the $500 billion to save Medicare or fund health care reform, Sebelius added one word – “both.” And that word has made many more nervous than ever about the health care law, as they say it sounds like double counting, or using money from one program to count into another, which does not equal savings.

As previously reported by Fox News, more than half the total financing for the health care reform legislation comes from the $500 billion in cuts to the entitlement program. But since the White House began its health care sell, critics have said the president is misleading Americans, because the “cuts” actually are set aside to pay for other programs.

“Quite frankly I would say that it's intellectually dishonest. You can’t have it both ways, cut and then spend someplace else and say that you're preserving Medicare,” Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said earlier this year when the double counting was first reported by Fox News.

Go read the rest at the link above...

Number of healthcare reform law waivers climbs above 1,000

obama's buddies and supporters are making out like bandits in this deal. They fight for obamacare, campaign for it, pour money into the democratic party in support of it... and then get to opt out?

WTF? Why is it good enough for the rest of us, but for them? Or for the congress critters who forced this shit on us?

We are headed for a revolt in this Country, folks. This "let them eat cake" style of leadership has about run it's course. obama and his gang of thugs need to be shown that we are not subjects to be ruled...

By Jason Millman - The Hill

The number of temporary healthcare reform waivers granted by the Obama administration to organizations climbed to more than 1,000, according to new numbers disclosed by the Department of Health and Human Services.

HHS posted 126 new waivers on Friday, bringing the total to 1,040 organizations that have been granted a one-year exemption from a new coverage requirement included in the healthcare reform law enacted almost a year ago. Waivers have become a hot-button issue for Republicans, eager to expose any vulnerabilities in the reform law.

In order to avoid disruption in the insurance market, the healthcare overhaul gives HHS the power to grant waivers to firms that cannot meet new annual coverage limits in 2011. The waivers have typically been granted to so-called "mini-med" plans that offer limited annual coverage — as low as $2,000 — that would fall short of meeting the new annual coverage floor of $750,000 in 2011.

"We don't want to take away people's health insurance before they have some realistic other choices,” HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in an interview with The Hill earlier this year.

Republican lawmakers have seized on the waivers as proof that the law they want to see repealed is flawed, and they have accused the administration of giving them waivers as gifts to union allies. The administration has rejected both claims as Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee have asked HHS for in-depth details about every waiver decision and request.

Read the rest at the link above...

Romney Slams President Obama's Health Care Law

I agree with Romney a some of this. obamacare is bad, horrible policy. It's bad for America and American families. And I agree obama will be a one term president.

I don't agree that he will be a one term president strictly because of obamacare though. The list of reasons for obama serving a single term is a long one. Sure, obamacare is on that list, but it's not the whole list. Every single thing on obamas radical agenda is on the list. The messed up economy, the refusal to allow drilling on American soil and in American waters. Bowing to foreign dictators and despots. Skyhigh unemployment. Very poor foreign policy. Refusing to support our allies. Dude, I could go on and on, but you get the picture. Add your favorite reason in the comments if you want...

Associated Press

BARTLETT, N.H. -- Call it an attempt to address an obvious political vulnerability.

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Saturday derided President Barack Obama's health care law -- modeled in some ways after one the ex-governor signed in Massachusetts -- as a misguided and egregious effort to seize more power for Washington.

"Obamacare is bad law, bad policy, and it is bad for America's families," Romney declared. "And that's the reason why President Obama will be a one-term president." He vowed to repeal it if he were ever in a position to do so, and drew hearty cheers from his Republican Party audience.

Then, raising the Massachusetts law, Romney argued that the solution for the unique problems of one state isn't the right prescription for the nation as a whole, and he acknowledged: "Our experiment wasn't perfect -- some things worked, some didn't, and some things I'd change."

"One thing I would never do is to usurp the constitutional power of states with a one-size-fits-all federal takeover," Romney said, again earning applause. "The federal government isn't the answer for running health care any more than it's the answer for running Amtrak or the post office."

Go read the rest at the link above...

Post Office is going belly up...

By September 30th of this year, the post office will be broke. They are scheduled to pay the federal government $5.5 BILLION in advance for medical costs for future retirees and another $1.3 BILLION for workers comp in November. They won't have the money though, they are broke.

And this is the same government that we are supposed to trust with our health care?

Our government does not have a clue about running a business. If you need even further proof than the post office, just look at their inability to manage the budget. I know it is a big ass budget, but damn, we are paying thousands of people to keep an eye on that stuff.

The post office is a symptom of a much larger disease. This is only the beginning. Stock up on ammo folks, it will be the currency of the future...

Obama Was Against Forcing Americans to Buy Health Insurance Before He Was For It

This speaks for itself and doesn't even require any smartass comments from me...

Be sure to watch the video.

By Eric Scheiner- CNSNews

While on the campaign trail, President Barack Obama consistently voiced that he was strongly opposed to forcing the uninsured to purchase health insurance.

Currently, his administration is taking to federal court 27 states that are challenging the constitutionality of the federal government forcing people to buy health insurance.

As a candidate for president he argued against the individual mandate, using it as a focal point to separate his health care plan from opponent Hillary Clinton’s health care proposal.

 

“Senator Clinton has a different approach. She believes that we have to force people who don’t have health insurance to buy it. Otherwise there will be a lot of people who don’t get it. “ Obama said during a January 31st 2008 debate on CNN. “I don’t see those folks, and I think it is important for us to recognize that if in fact you’re going to mandate the purchase of insurance and it’s not affordable then there’s going to have to be some enforcement mechanism that the government uses and they may charge people who already don’t have health care fines, or have to take it out of their paychecks and that I don’t think is helping those without health insurance, that is a genuine difference. “

U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson, who ruled Obamacare unconstitutional this week, noted a statement that Obama had made in a February 5th, 2008 interview with CNN. In his ruling Vinson wrote, “I note that in 2008, then-Senator Obama supported a health care reform proposal that did not include an individual mandate because he was at that time strongly opposed to the idea, stating that ‘if a mandate was the solution, we can try that to solve homelessness by mandating everybody to buy a house.’”

In a February 26, 2008 MSNBC Democratic debate Obama criticized the concept of a mandate again. “If, as we’ve heard tonight, we still don’t know how Senator Clinton intends to enforce a mandate and if we don’t know the level of subsidies that she’s going to provide, then you could have a situation which were seeing right now in the state of Massachusetts, where people are being fined for not having purchased health care - but choose to accept the fine because they still can’t afford it even with the subsidies and they are then worse off. They then have no health care and are paying a fine above and beyond that. That is a genuine difference between myself and Senator Clinton,” Obama said.