What happened to all of the doom and gloom economic threads?

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Report: White House Has Known For Months That Obamacare Implementation Wouldn’t Work…

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Shocker.

Via National Journal:


If you’ve been reading all the Obamacare stories lately, you might get the impression that the administration has just realized it will not be able to implement the massive health reform as designed.

It has known for months.

As far back as March, a top IT official at the Department of Health and Human Services said the department’s current ambition for the law’s new online insurance marketplaces was that they not be “a Third-World experience.” Several provisions had already been abandoned in an effort to simplify the administration’s task and maximize the chances that the new systems would be ready to go live in October, when customers are supposed to start signing up for insurance.

In April, several consultants focusing on the new online marketplaces, known as exchanges, told National Journal that the idealized, seamless user experience initially envisioned under the Affordable Care Act was no longer possible, as the administration axed non-essential provisions that were too complex to implement in time. (Read the story for some examples and commentary.) That focus has intensified lately, as officials announced that they would not be requiring employers to cover their workers next year or states to verify residents’ incomes before signing them up for insurance.

“There’s been a focusing in not on: ‘What is the full ACA vision?’ but: ‘What are the pieces we have to get running by October 1?” said Cindy Gillespie, senior managing director at McKenna Long and Aldridge, who is working with states and health plans.

To get a sense of what the Obama administration is up against, take a look at this chart [seen above -ed.], provided by Dan Schuyler at Leavitt Partners, a consultancy helping states build exchanges. (Bear in mind, this chart is supposed to simplify and explain.)
 
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Being There


By Michael Walsh


Bleat of the day comes from the Hill:


Supporters and critics of President Obama are looking for leadership on many pressing issues from the White House, but many believe they are not getting it.

On Monday, Obama held a Cabinet meeting and spoke about his effort to modernize government databases.
He avoided public remarks on several matters seen as more pressing, such as turmoil in Egypt and the wider Middle East, faltering efforts to reform immigration in the U.S. and the rocky implementation of ObamaCare. Instead the president spoke to a small group of reporters about his efforts to improve databases and make government more efficient.
“We’re working to make huge swaths of your government more transparent and more accountable than ever before,” Obama said at the White House.

Even to the most loyal Obama supporters, the move seemed irrelevant, even odd.

’Tis a puzzlement, as the King of Siam said to Anna, although on closer inspection, perhaps not really. When the presidency is an entry-level position for a man with a resume as thin as Barack Obama’s, “leadership” in the conventional sense is just about the last thing you’d expect from him. Comparisons to Chance the Gardener from Being There have been made since the beginning of the Obama presidency, and one can easily imagine him saying something like, “As long as the roots are not severed, all is well. And all will be well in the garden.” To which the media nods it head and replies, “Hmm.” In fact, it pretty much happens on a daily basis.

But here we are. In an unknown Illinois state senator, an emissary from the Daley Machine in Chicago, liberals — okay, David Axelrod — saw in Obama (as he himself noted in one of his autobiographies) what they wanted to see, and that was the second coming of Woodrow Wilson, FDR, and LBJ, plus “social justice” payback. I take Charles Kesler’s point in his astute analysis of the Obama phenomenon, I Am the Change, that presidental “leadership” is largely a concept created by the Progressives to effect change faster than the slowpoke Constitution otherwise would have allowed, and is not necessarily to be cheered:


Wilson was the first to celebrated “leadership” as an essential part of American democracy. Alongside the living constitution, leadership was the second element he contributed to the politicalo definition of America’s new liberalism. It’s had a booming career.

Obama’s notion of “leadership,” though, is nothing like Wilson’s or Roosevelt’s or Johnson’s. In one sense, it’s less dangerous, in that he simply lacks the tools to force Congress to his will. (The successful passage of Obamacare was due not to him but to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.) In another, however, it’s more dangerous since, in a reverse of Reagan, Obama speaks directly to the media over the heads of Congress and the American people, and is thus protected and served by the alternative view of reality they dish out daily to their readers and viewers. And in this world, Obama is the perpetual outsider, heroically running against the very change he is supposed to represent, an eternal candidate for a future office yet unthought of. With no previous executive or leadership experience, he dances with what brung him to the pinnacle of political power: his ability to stand before an audience and make them feel good about themselves. Presidential historian Michael Beschloss famously burbled that Obama was “probably the smartest guy ever to become president.” But that assessment says more about Beschloss than it does Obama.

The bleat goes on:


Republicans said the administration appeared rudderless, while Democrats said Obama needed to be more proactive instead of reactive.

“If I were to guess, I would venture to say that some people would like to see him speak up on these issues a little more than he’s doing,” said a former administration official. “I think some people want to see more, not less, of him.”

Tony Fratto, who served as White House deputy press secretary under former President George W. Bush, defended the Obama administration’s approach in handling the database announcement.

Fratto said any administration bears the responsibility of running the government.

“It’s the world’s biggest operation and things like databases and technology are huge and confounding,” Fratto said.

Still, he acknowledged: “In this environment, it does feel like a non-sequitur with what’s going on in this world.”

But that’s reality in the post-presidential presidency. Fast and Furious, Benghazi, the IRS, the NSA, the Foggy Bottom mess, Egypt, and the looming disaster of Obamacare are yesterday’s news. Today, we’re talking about modernizing government databases . . .

Wait a minute — what?
 
Train Wreck: Obamacare Runs Out Of Money Before It Launches…




And things will only get worse.

Via Fox News:


The cost of subsidies for those seeking government aid through ObamaCare has increased dramatically, critics say – even before a single dollar has been collected.

Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah wrote a letter to the administration asking why the president is already requesting 107 percent more than three years ago to pay for subsidies.

“They low-balled everything, and they knew they were not asking for enough money to actually do this,” John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis said. ”And so now they are coming along saying: ‘Oh, we’ve just discovered we don’t have enough money’. They should’ve known that from day one.”

“I don’t think most of America will be shocked that a government project is coming in over budget,” Jim Capretta of the American Enterprise Institute said. “It’s the typical story and so yeah it’s probably happening in this case as well.”

The remarks followed by days the administration’s announcement it was easing requirements on those seeking government aid through ObamaCare, making it easier to apply for subsidies.
 
Another Obamacare ‘Glitch’


By Katherine Connell





The AP reports today on the latest bump in Obamacare’s rollout:


The Obama administration — in yet another health care overhaul delay — has quietly notified insurers that a computer system glitch will limit penalties that the law says the companies may charge smokers. A fix will take at least a year to put in place.

The “glitch” is the result of conflicting provisions in the law. Insurers are prohibited from charging older customers more than three times what they charge their youngest customers, since the law depends on making young, healthy people subsidize the cost of care for their elders. But the law also allows smokers to be charged a penalty up to 50 percent of their premiums. The problem is that when you put the two together, it doesn’t always add up.

As HHS puts it in guidance for the insurance industry issued on June 28:


Because of a system limitation . . . the system currently cannot process a premium for a 65-year-old smoker that is . . . more than three times the premium of a 21-year-old smoker.”

Most insurers hadn’t planned to impose the penalty on young smokers because their habit doesn’t have much effect on the cost of their health care, which is far from the case for old smokers. Now, the insurance companies will have to impose equal penalties on both groups so as not to break the “no more than three times” rule. They might impose the maximum penalty on both young and old smokers, in which case young people will see a spike in premiums, or they might keep them low on both. The administration, for obvious reasons, is recommending the latter course, but, as the AP notes, “it’s unclear what insurance companies will do.”

The two experts they spoke to disagreed about the likely outcome: “Levitt said he suspects insurers would keep the penalties low to sign up more young people. Laszweski said he thought they would do the opposite.”
 
every day

more fuckups

Twist in U.S. Health Law May Create Two-Tiered Medicaid
By Samuel Adams - Jul 8, 2013 4:00 PM ET


Colonoscopies, diabetes screenings and other preventative services mandated by the U.S. health law may be offered only to new Medicaid program enrollees next year, leaving existing patients with second-tier care, a study found.

Excluding people already in the Medicaid program for the poor may penalize a population more prone to chronic conditions, researchers from George Washington University said in an article published today in the journal Health Affairs. The 2010 Affordable Care Act guaranteed preventative screenings to almost all who enroll in the expanded version of Medicaid and states were given the option of whether to offer those services to people already in the program.

While the law provides some money to avoid such disparity, the federal incentives may be insufficient to change the minds of governors and legislators. Some states, including Virginia, Utah, Montana and Vermont, have decided it’s not worth the financial burden, said Sara Wilensky, a faculty member at George Washington University’s Department of Health Policy.

“Certainly a lot of poor people are going to be left out from these preventive services,” Wilensky, the lead author of the report, said in a telephone interview.

Most private and public insurance plans are required to offer the services that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force gives either an A or B rating, indicating they are likely to provide at least a moderate benefit to the patient. Such services include cancer screenings, HIV testing, obesity counseling and tests related to cholesterol and blood pressure.

Supreme Court
“If these services are so crucial to good health that coverage of them is required for so many others, why were people who are currently on Medicaid left off of health reform’s prevention bandwagon?” the researchers asked.

About 25 million Americans are projected to gain insurance under the health-care law, including 13 million through the state-federal Medicaid program for the poor. The Medicaid expansion called for every state to expand eligibility to people making as much as 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $32,500 for a family of four this year.

The Supreme Court ruled last year that requiring the states to expand their Medicaid programs was unconstitutional. Since then, most Republican governors have balked at the expansion, citing costs to their states despite the federal government’s plans to cover 100 percent of the tab for the first three years and at least 90 percent in the years following.

As of July 1, 21 states have said they won’t expand Medicaid and 6 others are still debating what to do, according to data tracked by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit group research based in Menlo Park, California.

Among the states that are expanding Medicaid, the researchers couldn’t definitively say how many would end up with a separate standard of preventive services for new enrollees versus existing beneficiaries.
 
Poll: Only 12% Support Implementing Obamacare’s Individual Mandate…




To put this in perspective, even Congress has a higher approval rating (16%).

Via The Hill:


A new survey finds only 12 percent support implementing ObamaCare’s individual mandate, which fines consumers who don’t acquire health insurance, in 2014 as prescribed by law.

Forty-one percent said consumers shouldn’t have to pay a penalty if they don’t have insurance, according to the poll from HealthPocket, a consumer resource on health insurance.

A plurality, 47 percent, said they were not sure if the fines should take effect as scheduled.

The poll’s findings follow the Obama administration’s recent announcement that it will not require larger businesses to offer healthcare coverage until 2015, delaying a key provision in the president’s signature domestic legislation.

As of now, individuals will still be required to carry health insurance starting next year or pay a fine.
 
SEE?

more

QUESTOR!


House Dems Put The Moon In Moonbat, New Bill Seeks To Establish National Park On The Moon…




C’mon, you’re making it way too easy for us.

Via The Hill:


Two House Democrats have proposed legislation that would establish a national historical park on the surface of the moon to mark where the Apollo missions landed between 1969 and 1972.

The bill from Reps. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) and Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) would create the Apollo Lunar Landing Sites National Historical Park. The park would be comprised of all artifacts left on the surface of the moon from the Apollo 11 through 17 missions.

The bill says these sites need to be protected because of the anticipated increase in commercial moon landings in the future.

“As commercial enterprises and foreign nations acquire the ability to land on the Moon, it is necessary to protect the Apollo lunar landing sites for posterity,” according to the text of the Apollo Lunar Landing Legacy Act, H.R. 2617.
 
Study: Obama’s Flood Of New Regulations To Cost More Than $130 Billion To Implement…




Via The Hill:


The Obama administration’s newly detailed rule-making agenda for the coming year would cost in excess of $130 billion to implement, according to a conservative-leaning group that tracks regulations.

The American Action Forum (AAF) review follows the administration’s belated release last week of its spring Unified Agenda, a document that is traditionally issued twice annually and contains updates for hundreds of rules in the pipelines at federal agencies.

Again this year, the administration plans to pump out many new rules in financial and healthcare sectors in accordance with the landmark Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law and Affordable Care Act (ACA).

President Obama has also directed the Environmental Protection Agency to tackle the effects of climate change by curbing emissions from new and existing power plants, among other measures.

AAF looked at 40 major planned rules, and calculated a corresponding $133 billion price tag, the group said.
 
YOU WOULD BE SCREAMING

RACISM!


What if Romney suspended Obamacare?









By Phil Kerpen

What if Mitt Romney had won the election, and proceeded to disregard sections of Obamacare in precisely the manner President Obama is presently doing? It would go something like this:

WASHINGTON – The Romney administration faces a political and legal crisis as blowback from its controversial decision to unilaterally suspend central elements of the Affordable Care Act continues to intensify.

Under pressure from large corporations, the Treasury Department quietly announced the provisions of the law requiring employers to provide health insurance coverage will not be enforced. The law contains no language granting Treasury discretion for such a move and has a clear effective date of January 1, 2014. Nonetheless, Treasury official Mark Mazur announced in a blog post that penalties for employers who fail to meet the law’s requirements will simply not be enforced in 2014.

“President Romney is openly defying the laws of the United States that he swore an oath to faithfully execute,” said the leader of an umbrella liberal interest group that was formed to promote the Affordable Care Act. “Arbitrarily letting employers off the hook for providing health care is not just illegal, but it’s deadly for Americans who are counting that coverage.”

That umbrella advocacy group, several major national labor unions, and 14 smaller advocacy groups filed a lawsuit last week in the D.C. Circuit seeking an emergency injunction forcing the Romney administration to enforce the law. The groups are also staging a 24-7 protest in Lafayette Square across from the White House under a large banner reading: “Romney Is Not Above the Law.” A significant number of protesters are calling for the president's impeachment over the issue.

Refusing to back down, the Romney administration made a move to suspend enforcement of other major requirements of the law late last week, this time the verification requirements intended to ensure that only qualified individuals receive affordability tax credits for the purchase of insurance plans on the new Affordable Care Act health insurance exchanges. Eligibility will instead be on “the honor system.”

Supporters of the Affordable Care Act objected that the move would benefit large insurance companies at the expense of vulnerable individuals the law was intended to help. “These tax credits are paid directly to the giant insurance companies, but if they are later determined to be erroneous then individuals are on the hook to pay back thousands of dollars to the IRS,” said a liberal interest group leader. “Without verification procedures, the biggest corporations are reaping billions in subsidies but the regular Americans this law was supposed to help can be pushed into bankruptcy.”

Democrats in Congress accuse President Romney of breaking the law. “The Affordable Care Act is the law of the land, whether Mr. Romney likes it or not,” said the House Democratic leader. “We are confident that the courts will find the president’s lawless decision to let the largest employers off the hook for paying even a portion of the health care costs for their workers to be illegal.”

The White House has rejected calls for the president to personally address the issue in a news conference, insisting that its decision to disregard major elements of the law is simply implementing it “in a careful, thoughtful manner.”
 
the last 3 people supporting ObamaCare

DickDaily

CowardCurry

and

UD


LawnJockey isn't a person



Oh My: Major Obamacare Backer Dick Durbin Flips, Admits Obamacare Needs To Be “Changed”…




Once you’ve lost Dick Durbin…


(CHICAGO) — In a surprise move, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin is saying it’s time to change President Obama’s signature achievement: Obamacare.

Deadlines for not one but now two important pieces of Obamacare have been delayed a year. So when Durbin, the number two Democrat in the Senate, was asked if he’s alarmed, he said it’s time to “change and improve” Obamacare.

“What we need to have is a better definition of a full-time worker and how many will be affected by it,” Durbin said. “And the health insurance policy itself, the provisions that are included in it.”

Durbin is calling on Republicans to help change and improve Obamacare but many of them want to repeal it first and start over.

This is a major change in position for Durbin, who had supported Obamacare in the past. He even went so far as to say in 2011 that the administration should enforce the health care law back then federal judge Roger Vinson ruled it was unconstitutional.
 
the last 3 people supporting ObamaCare

DickDaily

CowardCurry

and

UD


LawnJockey isn't a person



Oh My: Major Obamacare Backer Dick Durbin Flips, Admits Obamacare Needs To Be “Changed”…




Once you’ve lost Dick Durbin…


(CHICAGO) — In a surprise move, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin is saying it’s time to change President Obama’s signature achievement: Obamacare.

Deadlines for not one but now two important pieces of Obamacare have been delayed a year. So when Durbin, the number two Democrat in the Senate, was asked if he’s alarmed, he said it’s time to “change and improve” Obamacare.

“What we need to have is a better definition of a full-time worker and how many will be affected by it,” Durbin said. “And the health insurance policy itself, the provisions that are included in it.”

Durbin is calling on Republicans to help change and improve Obamacare but many of them want to repeal it first and start over.

This is a major change in position for Durbin, who had supported Obamacare in the past. He even went so far as to say in 2011 that the administration should enforce the health care law back then federal judge Roger Vinson ruled it was unconstitutional.

CowardCurry will set him straight
 
I agree with Dick. PT/FT shouldn't be all-or-nothing but a sliding scale.

Also we should just have Medicare for everyone.

are you saying that the NUMBERS for FOOD STAMPS are NOW counted different then before and THAT IS why its so high?
 
face it

its a FUCKUP

and should be scrapped

but it wont be

cause NO ONE HAS TEH GUTS TO DO IT
 
are you saying that the NUMBERS for FOOD STAMPS are NOW counted different then before and THAT IS why its so high?


According to the CBO, the number of people on food stamps has risen primarily because people who actually work are now qualifying for them.
 
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