What passes for "reporting" in the 25-y-o 'minds' at the Washington Post....
...The impact of cancellations in the small-group market is expected to be
less dramatic than in the individual market, partly because a higher
percentage of small-business policies provide more generous benefits.
Still, the changes being made by the insurance industry are leaving some
small-business owners confused and disillusioned about the law —
whether it is directly to blame for the changes or not....
"Changes being made"? Really? Forty percent premium increases and 'here's the bennie schedule, take it or leave it'? Those are "changes", alright.
The 'reporter' here transcribes, slobbering fluids all over the keyboard, what The Regime dictates (between heavy sighs...)
...But many are related only indirectly to the law; insurers are trying
to move customers to new plans designed to offset the financial and
administrative risks associated with the health-care overhaul. As part of that, they are consolidating their plan offerings to maximize profits and streamline how they manage them....
"Indirectly"? Insurers who are forced to LOSE money due to ObozoCare (that's a direct relationship) are scrambling to regain black ink before they go BK. Nothing "indirect" about that at all.
It's The Plan.
HT: AOSHQ
Monday, January 13, 2014
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Inane Name-Calling v. The Actual Problem
Jay Nordlinger in NRO:
...Lately, I have been more and more impatient with 100-percenters — people who have to agree with someone 100 percent in order to consider him any good. There is very little room for 100-percentism in politics. In other spheres of life, maybe, but not this one.
Occasionally, I will quote someone favorably in my column. And someone will e-mail me, “Yeah, but do you recall what he said on September 8, 1999? Traitor!” That word could refer to me or the fellow I had originally quoted.
Sometimes it seems that no one is ever good enough for us: not 41, not Dole, not 43, not anybody. In the summer of 2012, people said that Mitt Romney would be a sell-out commie squish if he picked anyone but Paul Ryan as his running mate. If he picked Rob Portman or Tim Pawlenty or Kelly Ayotte, that would be proof positive of his sell-out commie squishdom. He picked the sainted Ryan — so “Mittens” got a reprieve for a while.....
Well, Jay, lately I've been disappointed with people who are inane name-callers. Usually, they are (R) Party establishment figures just drooling for more power. Or--if they are editorialists--a nice speech-writing job or sub-Cabinet level position in a sprawling, stultifying, Federal Agency with excellent retirement bennies.
Let's look back.......ooohhhh......really, really far back, (maybe into your infancy years, Jay), to 1988. Did 41 get any votes? Maybe that's a hard question for you, Jay, so let's get a little closer in time, say 2004. Was 43 re-elected? Did McPain get votes a few years later? (Take a few minutes to Google the answer, Jay.)
See, Jay, the "100 percenters" that you yap about don't exist. They vote for turkeys like 43, McPain, and Dole. They vote for them, even if the vote is really against outright Marxists like Obozo or Fascists like Gore. They vote for them even though these candidates are by and large married to their own power-madness and dream only of getting their butts into the Oval Office's big chair so they or their minions--like Christie and his--can destroy their enemies, "public good" be damned. Or--just as bad--so they can impose their own view of "the public good" on the tattered remains of this country as was the case with 41, 43, and Romney.
Let's contrast with this from Domenech:
In the year since President Barack Obama’s re-election, a handful of advocates for compassionate conservatism have re-emerged to push back against limited government conservatives with the same agenda they’ve been peddling for nearly 15 years. Built around a message of governance in favor of the public good, they have chided the Tea Party and its limited government allies for ignoring the plight of the poor, heartlessly pursuing libertarian ends, and adopting a view of government’s proper role which is unrealistic and ahistorical.
... they fail to recognize the inherent weakness of their message, which confuses a political slogan with a coherent philosophy of governance and would allow for sweeping expansions of the state.
Yes, Jay, the not-really-"100 percenters" vote for incoherent, inarticulate, largely un-principled oafs who could not spell "subsidiarity" nor be able to distill that principle of governance from the Bill of Rights, when in reality, the entire Bill of Rights is a paean to that very principle.
(And Jay: Ryan actually 'gets' subsidiarity. It remains to be seen if he will work toward implementing it.)
...Lately, I have been more and more impatient with 100-percenters — people who have to agree with someone 100 percent in order to consider him any good. There is very little room for 100-percentism in politics. In other spheres of life, maybe, but not this one.
Occasionally, I will quote someone favorably in my column. And someone will e-mail me, “Yeah, but do you recall what he said on September 8, 1999? Traitor!” That word could refer to me or the fellow I had originally quoted.
Sometimes it seems that no one is ever good enough for us: not 41, not Dole, not 43, not anybody. In the summer of 2012, people said that Mitt Romney would be a sell-out commie squish if he picked anyone but Paul Ryan as his running mate. If he picked Rob Portman or Tim Pawlenty or Kelly Ayotte, that would be proof positive of his sell-out commie squishdom. He picked the sainted Ryan — so “Mittens” got a reprieve for a while.....
Well, Jay, lately I've been disappointed with people who are inane name-callers. Usually, they are (R) Party establishment figures just drooling for more power. Or--if they are editorialists--a nice speech-writing job or sub-Cabinet level position in a sprawling, stultifying, Federal Agency with excellent retirement bennies.
Let's look back.......ooohhhh......really, really far back, (maybe into your infancy years, Jay), to 1988. Did 41 get any votes? Maybe that's a hard question for you, Jay, so let's get a little closer in time, say 2004. Was 43 re-elected? Did McPain get votes a few years later? (Take a few minutes to Google the answer, Jay.)
See, Jay, the "100 percenters" that you yap about don't exist. They vote for turkeys like 43, McPain, and Dole. They vote for them, even if the vote is really against outright Marxists like Obozo or Fascists like Gore. They vote for them even though these candidates are by and large married to their own power-madness and dream only of getting their butts into the Oval Office's big chair so they or their minions--like Christie and his--can destroy their enemies, "public good" be damned. Or--just as bad--so they can impose their own view of "the public good" on the tattered remains of this country as was the case with 41, 43, and Romney.
Let's contrast with this from Domenech:
In the year since President Barack Obama’s re-election, a handful of advocates for compassionate conservatism have re-emerged to push back against limited government conservatives with the same agenda they’ve been peddling for nearly 15 years. Built around a message of governance in favor of the public good, they have chided the Tea Party and its limited government allies for ignoring the plight of the poor, heartlessly pursuing libertarian ends, and adopting a view of government’s proper role which is unrealistic and ahistorical.
... they fail to recognize the inherent weakness of their message, which confuses a political slogan with a coherent philosophy of governance and would allow for sweeping expansions of the state.
Yes, Jay, the not-really-"100 percenters" vote for incoherent, inarticulate, largely un-principled oafs who could not spell "subsidiarity" nor be able to distill that principle of governance from the Bill of Rights, when in reality, the entire Bill of Rights is a paean to that very principle.
(And Jay: Ryan actually 'gets' subsidiarity. It remains to be seen if he will work toward implementing it.)
ObozoCare: Better, But Really Worse
Some reassurance from an insurance industry strategic consultant:
....HealthCare.Gov on the front-end is in pretty good shape. It’s where it should’ve been at launch. The back-end is still highly problematic. Clearly the administration put its emphasis on the consumer side. Insurers are still seeing errors in probably 5 percent of the files coming through. That’s compounded by the issue of all the people enrolling in the last few weeks. That’s a huge surge that would create customer-service problems in the best of circumstances, So I think it’ll take until about the end of January till everyone is straightened out and where they should be....
Well, sorta, kinda, maybe, if all you're looking at is the operational issues. But there are other matters.
Such as, umnnnhhhh, underwriting issues.
...There’s a big misconception that this is about young people. That’s baloney. It’s about healthy people. A healthy 20-year-old might only pay a $100 premium. You want healthy 40 and 50-year-olds. The big problem right now is really total enrollment. We only have about 10 percent of the uninsured in here. Insurers think you need more like 70 percent of a pool of people to sign up....
If they don't sign up, the insurance lobby covered its ass with Gummint money, of course.
But the real problem? The one that'll last beyond 2014?
...If an entrepreneur had crafted Obamacare he would’ve gone to a middle class family. A family of four make $54,000 a year has to pay $400 in premiums net of subsidy and for that the standard silver plan has an average deductible around $2,500 and a narrow network. They’re going to pay almost $5,000 for that?
So the entrepreneur would say I’ve got $5,000 in premium and all this deductible, what do they want for that? And they probably would’ve said we want office visits and lab tests because the kids need to go in occasionally and then we want catastrophic care. The problem with Obamacare is it’s product driven and not market driven. They didn’t ask the customer what they wanted. And I think that’s the fundamental problem with Obamacare. It meets the needs of very poor people because you’re giving them health insurance for free. But it doesn’t really meet the needs of healthy people and middle-class people....
Yah. But hey, Obozo prefers to dictate. Who needs the assent of the peons?
....HealthCare.Gov on the front-end is in pretty good shape. It’s where it should’ve been at launch. The back-end is still highly problematic. Clearly the administration put its emphasis on the consumer side. Insurers are still seeing errors in probably 5 percent of the files coming through. That’s compounded by the issue of all the people enrolling in the last few weeks. That’s a huge surge that would create customer-service problems in the best of circumstances, So I think it’ll take until about the end of January till everyone is straightened out and where they should be....
Well, sorta, kinda, maybe, if all you're looking at is the operational issues. But there are other matters.
Such as, umnnnhhhh, underwriting issues.
...There’s a big misconception that this is about young people. That’s baloney. It’s about healthy people. A healthy 20-year-old might only pay a $100 premium. You want healthy 40 and 50-year-olds. The big problem right now is really total enrollment. We only have about 10 percent of the uninsured in here. Insurers think you need more like 70 percent of a pool of people to sign up....
If they don't sign up, the insurance lobby covered its ass with Gummint money, of course.
But the real problem? The one that'll last beyond 2014?
...If an entrepreneur had crafted Obamacare he would’ve gone to a middle class family. A family of four make $54,000 a year has to pay $400 in premiums net of subsidy and for that the standard silver plan has an average deductible around $2,500 and a narrow network. They’re going to pay almost $5,000 for that?
So the entrepreneur would say I’ve got $5,000 in premium and all this deductible, what do they want for that? And they probably would’ve said we want office visits and lab tests because the kids need to go in occasionally and then we want catastrophic care. The problem with Obamacare is it’s product driven and not market driven. They didn’t ask the customer what they wanted. And I think that’s the fundamental problem with Obamacare. It meets the needs of very poor people because you’re giving them health insurance for free. But it doesn’t really meet the needs of healthy people and middle-class people....
Yah. But hey, Obozo prefers to dictate. Who needs the assent of the peons?
Tax-Funded by Sen. Fitzgerald
Remember that Sen. Fitzgerald forces Wisconsin taxpayers to provide abortions.
...because to some Pubbies, getting re-elected is far more important than principles.
HT: Moonbattery
...because to some Pubbies, getting re-elected is far more important than principles.
HT: Moonbattery
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Moore & Kind Oppose ObozoCare Security
So when your ID gets ripped off, or your neighbor gets your ObozoCare mail, who d'ya sue?
Not ObozoCare, according to Gwen Moore and Ron Kind. Just eat the s*&^ sandwich.
Ron Kind wants to be a "moderate" Democrat. To them, ID theft is no big deal, I guess.
Not ObozoCare, according to Gwen Moore and Ron Kind. Just eat the s*&^ sandwich.
Ron Kind wants to be a "moderate" Democrat. To them, ID theft is no big deal, I guess.
Friday, January 10, 2014
Titanic? or Edmund Fitzgerald?
As you know, the difference between the two was simple: the Titanic took quite some time to sink. The Edmund Fitzgerald hit bottom in only a few minutes.
So which one is ObozoCare? Or is it "Neither. This IS The Plan, Sucka!"
Four separate items:
1) This week, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson (R.) filed a lawsuit aimed at preventing members of Congress, and their staffers, from receiving subsidized health insurance through Obamacare’s exchanges
2) “The House passed a bill Friday that requires the federal government to notify consumers within two days if their personal data has been breached on online-based insurance markets tied to the new health care law.”
3) Insurance companies are still trying to sort out cases of so-called health insurance orphans, customers for whom the government has a record that they enrolled, but the insurer does not
4) Health insurer Humana Inc said on Thursday that it projected its enrollment mix in private plans through the exchanges created by President Barack Obama’s healthcare law will be, “more adverse than previously expected.”
5) ....none of these provisions will fully offset health plan losses….. Now we’ll have some hard numbers, courtesy of Humana. The company announced in an 8-K late Thursday that it expects its Medicare revenue to be substantially higher in 2014. But any revenue gains from this additional business will be fully offset by its bad experience in Obamacare. As a result, its earnings will remain flat for the year...
(All quoted at AEI Ideas)
So which one is ObozoCare? Or is it "Neither. This IS The Plan, Sucka!"
Four separate items:
1) This week, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson (R.) filed a lawsuit aimed at preventing members of Congress, and their staffers, from receiving subsidized health insurance through Obamacare’s exchanges
2) “The House passed a bill Friday that requires the federal government to notify consumers within two days if their personal data has been breached on online-based insurance markets tied to the new health care law.”
3) Insurance companies are still trying to sort out cases of so-called health insurance orphans, customers for whom the government has a record that they enrolled, but the insurer does not
4) Health insurer Humana Inc said on Thursday that it projected its enrollment mix in private plans through the exchanges created by President Barack Obama’s healthcare law will be, “more adverse than previously expected.”
5) ....none of these provisions will fully offset health plan losses….. Now we’ll have some hard numbers, courtesy of Humana. The company announced in an 8-K late Thursday that it expects its Medicare revenue to be substantially higher in 2014. But any revenue gains from this additional business will be fully offset by its bad experience in Obamacare. As a result, its earnings will remain flat for the year...
(All quoted at AEI Ideas)
Have You Driven a Ford Lately? Yah. We Know
This makes Chris Christie's crap seem like patty-cake.
By the way, GM uses the same devices. Just like Chrysler.
Feel good now?
By the way, GM uses the same devices. Just like Chrysler.
Feel good now?
Tuesday, January 07, 2014
40 Million Guns in Two Years
Interesting numbers in a nation of 310 million.
The total number of background checks conducted for gun sales last year add up to 21,093,273, beating the previous 2012 record of 19,592,303 by 1,500,970.
That's ~40 million guns in 2 years. Add another 16.5 million from 2011 and that .......unpleasant rebellion stuff.......is not all that far-fetched.
We are grateful to President Obama for his success in stimulating the gun industry, too!!
The total number of background checks conducted for gun sales last year add up to 21,093,273, beating the previous 2012 record of 19,592,303 by 1,500,970.
That's ~40 million guns in 2 years. Add another 16.5 million from 2011 and that .......unpleasant rebellion stuff.......is not all that far-fetched.
We are grateful to President Obama for his success in stimulating the gun industry, too!!
"SQUIRREL!!" (R) Politics
The guy's heart may be in the right place. But he should re-examine the fundamentals.
Proposed sales tax holidays on school supplies and certain appliances could deliver increased tax revenue, says Sen. Rick Gudex.
"People who are inclined to go out and buy items on that particular weekend may be inclined to buy other things that are taxable," the Fond du Lac Republican told "UpFront with Mike Gousha," produced in partnership with WisPolitics.com .
...Under Gudex's proposal, the first weekend in August would see a suspension of taxes on school-related supplies, including computers and apparel.
During a November tax holiday, purchases of energy efficient appliances and winterization materials would be tax-free.
"...we are seeing excess sales tax revenue," said Gudex. "When we start to see that kind of revenue come in, we start to think of ways we can help people in the state of Wisconsin."
"Tax holidays" are the "SQUIRREL!!" for politicians. "Look, over there!! We spend way too much money, but you can save 5% of 2% of your budget here!! One-Time-Only!! This Weekend!!"
If you really want to "help," Senator, cut State spending by about 15%. Then cut both income AND sales taxes.
Barnum may be right, of course. But you can't fool everybody, Senator.
Proposed sales tax holidays on school supplies and certain appliances could deliver increased tax revenue, says Sen. Rick Gudex.
"People who are inclined to go out and buy items on that particular weekend may be inclined to buy other things that are taxable," the Fond du Lac Republican told "UpFront with Mike Gousha," produced in partnership with WisPolitics.com .
...Under Gudex's proposal, the first weekend in August would see a suspension of taxes on school-related supplies, including computers and apparel.
During a November tax holiday, purchases of energy efficient appliances and winterization materials would be tax-free.
"...we are seeing excess sales tax revenue," said Gudex. "When we start to see that kind of revenue come in, we start to think of ways we can help people in the state of Wisconsin."
"Tax holidays" are the "SQUIRREL!!" for politicians. "Look, over there!! We spend way too much money, but you can save 5% of 2% of your budget here!! One-Time-Only!! This Weekend!!"
If you really want to "help," Senator, cut State spending by about 15%. Then cut both income AND sales taxes.
Barnum may be right, of course. But you can't fool everybody, Senator.
Sunday, January 05, 2014
Senselessbrenner Goes All-DC-All-The-Time
We've mentioned a few times that Jim Senselessbrenner is way past his sell-by date (which was around 2000.) He wrote the legislation which authorized NSA's privacy intrusions--and now claims that it was "misinterpreted." He has never taken a meaningful vote against ObozoCare, and has always had his nose rammed safely up the behind of 'Suntan John' Boehner on critical issues.
His utter inutility to actual Conservatives is demonstrated once again as he defends breaking "the law of the land" as written in ObozoCare:
Senator Johnson’s lawsuit is an unfortunate political stunt. I am committed to repealing Obamacare, but the employer contribution he’s attacking is nothing more than a standard benefit that most private and all federal employees receive – including the President.
Here's a suggestion, Jimbo: pay for your aides' insurance out of your own Kotex-lined pockets. Not ours.
His utter inutility to actual Conservatives is demonstrated once again as he defends breaking "the law of the land" as written in ObozoCare:
Senator Johnson’s lawsuit is an unfortunate political stunt. I am committed to repealing Obamacare, but the employer contribution he’s attacking is nothing more than a standard benefit that most private and all federal employees receive – including the President.
Here's a suggestion, Jimbo: pay for your aides' insurance out of your own Kotex-lined pockets. Not ours.
Who Said It?
This week's mystery quotes:
“The basic effect of an increase in the minimum wage … would be to intensify the cruel competition among the poor for scarce jobs....Minimum wage legislation has no place in a strategy to eliminate poverty.”
Here's another clue. Same source:
"There’s a virtual consensus among economists that the minimum wage is an idea whose time has passed,” ... “Raise the legal minimum price of labor above the productivity of the least skilled workers and few will be hired,” ....“The idea of using a minimum wage to overcome poverty is old, honorable — and fundamentally flawed. It’s time to put this hoary debate behind us, and find a better way to improve the lives of people who work very hard for very little.”
Koch Bros? Scott Walker? Ron Reagan? Barry Goldwater? Cruella deVille? Sykes? Marquis deSade?
Nah. Go to this link. It's delicious.
“The basic effect of an increase in the minimum wage … would be to intensify the cruel competition among the poor for scarce jobs....Minimum wage legislation has no place in a strategy to eliminate poverty.”
Here's another clue. Same source:
"There’s a virtual consensus among economists that the minimum wage is an idea whose time has passed,” ... “Raise the legal minimum price of labor above the productivity of the least skilled workers and few will be hired,” ....“The idea of using a minimum wage to overcome poverty is old, honorable — and fundamentally flawed. It’s time to put this hoary debate behind us, and find a better way to improve the lives of people who work very hard for very little.”
Koch Bros? Scott Walker? Ron Reagan? Barry Goldwater? Cruella deVille? Sykes? Marquis deSade?
Nah. Go to this link. It's delicious.
Saturday, January 04, 2014
Who Cares About "Past Performance"? Not Sebelius!
Six hundred million dollars into a rathole.
Reported by POGO:
Specifically, what CMS contracting officials overlooked and/or downplayed was that more than 100 of CGI’s employees came from Virginia-based IT company American Management Systems (AMS), which CGI acquired in 2004. According to the Post, AMS had mishandled at least 20 government IT projects, including one particularly well-publicized fiasco involving the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board’s $36 million overhaul of its recordkeeping system.
AMS’s questionable past performance on government contracts should have set off alarms in 2007, when CMS awarded CGI and 15 other companies an umbrella contract allowing them to bid on future CMS projects. In fact, a former CMS official told the Post that AMS’s track record “could well have knocked [CGI Federal] out of the competition, and probably should have.”
...the admission from those former CMS officials that the government shirks its regulatory duty to screen contractors really surprised us. The government should not have such a blasé attitude regarding the past performance of contractors to which it entrusts billions of dollars for projects and programs that are literally a matter of life and death. We hope the epic embarrassment of the HealthCare.gov rollout—and its troubling backstory—will do for federal contracting what the Edward Snowden revelations are doing for federal surveillance programs: spark a vigorous public debate and get the ball rolling on long-term fixes.
Don't hold your breath. DC is irretrievably broken.
Reported by POGO:
Specifically, what CMS contracting officials overlooked and/or downplayed was that more than 100 of CGI’s employees came from Virginia-based IT company American Management Systems (AMS), which CGI acquired in 2004. According to the Post, AMS had mishandled at least 20 government IT projects, including one particularly well-publicized fiasco involving the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board’s $36 million overhaul of its recordkeeping system.
AMS’s questionable past performance on government contracts should have set off alarms in 2007, when CMS awarded CGI and 15 other companies an umbrella contract allowing them to bid on future CMS projects. In fact, a former CMS official told the Post that AMS’s track record “could well have knocked [CGI Federal] out of the competition, and probably should have.”
...the admission from those former CMS officials that the government shirks its regulatory duty to screen contractors really surprised us. The government should not have such a blasé attitude regarding the past performance of contractors to which it entrusts billions of dollars for projects and programs that are literally a matter of life and death. We hope the epic embarrassment of the HealthCare.gov rollout—and its troubling backstory—will do for federal contracting what the Edward Snowden revelations are doing for federal surveillance programs: spark a vigorous public debate and get the ball rolling on long-term fixes.
Don't hold your breath. DC is irretrievably broken.
Fitzgerald: Gutless Wonder Running for Governor
Oh, yes, he IS running for Governor; he expects Walker to bail out for the '16 Presidential.
Meantime, he's just being a gutless wonder.
On New Year’s Eve, Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, the Republican leader of the state Senate, suggested that he would abort two pro-life bills in the 2014 session. One bill deals with mandated contraception coverage in health insurance plans, the other bans sex-selective abortions....
When Dale Schultz backs a bill--and Fitzgerald won't bring it up--you know little Fitzie has no balls.
Fitzie: it takes balls to be Governor, too. It seems that you're not qualified.
Meantime, he's just being a gutless wonder.
On New Year’s Eve, Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, the Republican leader of the state Senate, suggested that he would abort two pro-life bills in the 2014 session. One bill deals with mandated contraception coverage in health insurance plans, the other bans sex-selective abortions....
When Dale Schultz backs a bill--and Fitzgerald won't bring it up--you know little Fitzie has no balls.
Fitzie: it takes balls to be Governor, too. It seems that you're not qualified.
Friday, January 03, 2014
The Six Hundred Million Dollar Stupids
The taxpayer shipped over $600 million to the morons who wrote these programs.
There’s another quirk in the Obama administration’s new health insurance system: It lacks a way for consumers to quickly and easily update their coverage for the birth of a baby and other common life changes.
"Common life changes" such as what?
It can’t deal with marriages, or divorces, or deaths in the family, or income changes, or moving to new houses, according to Yahoo’s Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar. In fact, it looks like the new system just assumes that everything will remain static from the enrollment period until … eternity.
Perhaps the contractor (and HHS stone-heads) who designed and wrote this should experience a "common life change" like permanent unemployment with no pension.
Oh, yah--tbey will be allowed to sign up for ObozoCare.
There’s another quirk in the Obama administration’s new health insurance system: It lacks a way for consumers to quickly and easily update their coverage for the birth of a baby and other common life changes.
"Common life changes" such as what?
It can’t deal with marriages, or divorces, or deaths in the family, or income changes, or moving to new houses, according to Yahoo’s Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar. In fact, it looks like the new system just assumes that everything will remain static from the enrollment period until … eternity.
Perhaps the contractor (and HHS stone-heads) who designed and wrote this should experience a "common life change" like permanent unemployment with no pension.
Oh, yah--tbey will be allowed to sign up for ObozoCare.
Thursday, January 02, 2014
You Can Keep Your Hospital? Maybe
Seems like Obozo's no-bid Medicare contractor is another FAIL.
$3 million short, no payroll money.......pretty soon, no hospital!
$3 million short, no payroll money.......pretty soon, no hospital!
GE: "We Bring Our Profits to Light!!"
You've known for a long time that what GE wants, GE gets--usually by writing regulations that Congress passes for it. See, e.g., the company's self-written "zero tax" IRS regs.
And yes, with Fred "Lightbulb" Upton--an (R) assclown from Michigan--GE and a few co-conspirators managed to increase your cost of living while bringing more profit to light! Yes, GWBush signed the bill. He, too, was an assclown in a lot of ways.
...The 2007 Energy Bill, a stew of regulations and subsidies, set mandatory efficiency standards for most light bulbs. Any bulbs that couldn't produce a given brightness at the specified energy input would be illegal. That meant the 25-cent bulbs most Americans used in nearly every socket of their home would be outlawed.
People often assume green regulations like this represent the triumph of environmental activists trying to save the plant. That’s rarely the case, and it wasn't here. Light bulb manufacturers whole-heartedly supported the efficiency standards. General Electric, Sylvania and Philips — the three companies that dominated the bulb industry — all backed the 2007 rule, while opposing proposals to explicitly outlaw incandescent technology (thus leaving the door open for high-efficiency incandescents)....
One could use the term "corrupt" to describe thievery-by-legislation. But "extortion" is more accurate.
And yes, with Fred "Lightbulb" Upton--an (R) assclown from Michigan--GE and a few co-conspirators managed to increase your cost of living while bringing more profit to light! Yes, GWBush signed the bill. He, too, was an assclown in a lot of ways.
...The 2007 Energy Bill, a stew of regulations and subsidies, set mandatory efficiency standards for most light bulbs. Any bulbs that couldn't produce a given brightness at the specified energy input would be illegal. That meant the 25-cent bulbs most Americans used in nearly every socket of their home would be outlawed.
People often assume green regulations like this represent the triumph of environmental activists trying to save the plant. That’s rarely the case, and it wasn't here. Light bulb manufacturers whole-heartedly supported the efficiency standards. General Electric, Sylvania and Philips — the three companies that dominated the bulb industry — all backed the 2007 rule, while opposing proposals to explicitly outlaw incandescent technology (thus leaving the door open for high-efficiency incandescents)....
One could use the term "corrupt" to describe thievery-by-legislation. But "extortion" is more accurate.
Trainwreck ObozoCare, Day One
The Leviathan begins to fall down the staircase.
My wife just returned from Kroger, and she had a freaky tale to tell: she attempted to have a prescription filled at the Kroger pharmacy, but our MedCo rejected payment. They were informed that Kroger was no longer a provider. All of the pharmacy employees looked spooked out of their wits. The head pharmacist was trembling. It has been going on like this all day. They admitted that Medicare was doing the same thing, and for odd reasons such as the absence or presence of middle initials, or Ln versus Lane in the address. Other insurers reported systems down and network problems. --quoted at American Thinker
Got popcorn??
My wife just returned from Kroger, and she had a freaky tale to tell: she attempted to have a prescription filled at the Kroger pharmacy, but our MedCo rejected payment. They were informed that Kroger was no longer a provider. All of the pharmacy employees looked spooked out of their wits. The head pharmacist was trembling. It has been going on like this all day. They admitted that Medicare was doing the same thing, and for odd reasons such as the absence or presence of middle initials, or Ln versus Lane in the address. Other insurers reported systems down and network problems. --quoted at American Thinker
Got popcorn??
John Roberts, Hero of Conservatism?
Well, here's a different take on Roberts' ObozoCare decision.
....When the Supreme Court ruling came down, a shocked conservative historian, Paul Rahe, cited as a cause the PR pressure that President Barack Obama had been exerting on the Court in the fevered weeks leading up to the decision. It was "an act of judicial cowardice," he fumed. But then he added, "There is, I am confident, more to it than this."
What that "more" consists of has been growing more apparent by the day -- with the ongoing and painfully obvious parade of disasters, and the accelerated emergence of government by decree....
That text follows this quote:
The Pyrrhic victory Democrats secured for themselves [when President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law] may prove not to have been a victory at all but rather an ever-roiling, ongoing, and recurring act of political and ideological self-destruction. --Tevi Troy, Commentary
IOW, Roberts decided to let Obozo/Pelosi/Reid have their way, which will result in the demolition of the Democrat Party.
Huh.
....When the Supreme Court ruling came down, a shocked conservative historian, Paul Rahe, cited as a cause the PR pressure that President Barack Obama had been exerting on the Court in the fevered weeks leading up to the decision. It was "an act of judicial cowardice," he fumed. But then he added, "There is, I am confident, more to it than this."
What that "more" consists of has been growing more apparent by the day -- with the ongoing and painfully obvious parade of disasters, and the accelerated emergence of government by decree....
That text follows this quote:
The Pyrrhic victory Democrats secured for themselves [when President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law] may prove not to have been a victory at all but rather an ever-roiling, ongoing, and recurring act of political and ideological self-destruction. --Tevi Troy, Commentary
IOW, Roberts decided to let Obozo/Pelosi/Reid have their way, which will result in the demolition of the Democrat Party.
Huh.
Wednesday, January 01, 2014
Two More Bullets into ObozoCare
Pretty soon, it'll just be a fetid corpse. It's fetid now. Corpse-ification to follow shortly.
Here's the first:
The Obama administration was temporarily blocked by a U.S. Supreme Court justice from forcing an order of Catholic nuns to comply with a federal requirement to provide free contraceptive coverage for employees.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s two-sentence order will last at least until Jan. 3, the deadline she gave the administration to respond to a bid by the Denver and Baltimore chapters of the Little Sisters of the Poor...
and here's the second:
...A federal appeals court issued a similar ruling yesterday in a separate case. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, in a 2-1 ruling, granted a request by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington and the Catholic University of America among other plaintiffs for an order barring the federal government from imposing the contraceptive services requirement...
If that doesn't effect death, then there may be other means, IYKWIMAITYD
HT: Gateway
Here's the first:
The Obama administration was temporarily blocked by a U.S. Supreme Court justice from forcing an order of Catholic nuns to comply with a federal requirement to provide free contraceptive coverage for employees.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s two-sentence order will last at least until Jan. 3, the deadline she gave the administration to respond to a bid by the Denver and Baltimore chapters of the Little Sisters of the Poor...
and here's the second:
...A federal appeals court issued a similar ruling yesterday in a separate case. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, in a 2-1 ruling, granted a request by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington and the Catholic University of America among other plaintiffs for an order barring the federal government from imposing the contraceptive services requirement...
If that doesn't effect death, then there may be other means, IYKWIMAITYD
HT: Gateway
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