What’s interesting in the news today?
1. Stop, Drop, and Roll Barry!
Someone please grab the President and roll him around. His pants are on fire again.
From CNSNews “President Obama promised that under his health care plan, “no federal dollars will be used to fund abortion,” but that’s just another broken promise, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office, which indicates that public funding of abortion is happening on a large scale.
“This confirms what we have long suspected,” Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Penn.) said in a conference call with reporters on Monday.
Pitts and other Republicans asked the GAO to find out which taxpayer-subsidized plans in the Obamacare exchanges fund abortion and if consumers know about that coverage.
The report concluded that in 2014, more than a thousand federally subsidized Obamacare policies paid for abortion on demand, sometimes unbeknownst to policyholders. And in five states, every plan offered on the exchanges included abortion on demand, giving consumers no alternative, as required by law.”
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2. Who didn’t see this coming…..
Also from CNSNews “The cost of the Obamacare subsidy that the U.S. Treasury will pay on behalf of people who earn under 400 percent of the federal poverty level and who buy a government-approved health-care plan on a government-run health-insurance exchange will increase by approximately 8-fold in its first ten years of operation, according to the latest budget estimate from the Congressional Budget Office.
Medicaid spending will double in the first ten years of full implementation of Obamacare, according to the CBO estimates.”
“In fiscal 2013, the year before the health insurance exchanges opened, the federal government spent $265 billion on Medicaid, according to CBO. This year, fiscal 2014, the first year that the exchanges will be in operation, the federal government will spend $305 billion on Medicaid. By 2023, the tenth year that the Obamacare exchanges will be in operation, Medicaid will cost the federal government $539 billion—more than double the $265 billion it cost in 2013.
By 2024, the last year in the CBO estimates, Medicaid spending will climb to $570 billion.”
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3. Epic Fail
From TheDailySignal “Today, the U.S. Census Bureau will release its annual report on poverty. This report is noteworthy because this year marks the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson’s launch of the War on Poverty. Liberals claim that the War on Poverty has failed because we didn’t spend enough money. Their answer is just to spend more. But the facts show otherwise.
Since its beginning, U.S. taxpayers have spent $22 trillion on Johnson’s War on Poverty (in constant 2012 dollars). Adjusting for inflation, that’s three times more than was spent on all military wars since the American Revolution.
The federal government currently runs more than 80 means-tested welfare programs. These programs provide cash, food, housing and medical care to low-income Americans. Federal and state spending on these programs last year was $943 billion. (These figures do not include Social Security, Medicare, or Unemployment Insurance.)
Over 100 million people, about one third of the U.S. population, received aid from at least one welfare program at an average cost of $9,000 per recipient in 2013. If converted into cash, current means-tested spending is five times the amount needed to eliminate all poverty in the U.S.”
Government isn’t the solution, it’s the problem.
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4. The press leaving out relevant info? Not shocking.
From NewsBusters “Legal battles against state governor’s with higher political aspirations keep cropping up. But looking deeper into attacks on Republican governors from Texas, Wisconsin and Louisiana reveals George Soros’ checkbook was behind it all – but the news media aren’t about to point that out.
The group that first filed an indictment charge against Texas Gov. Rick Perry was funded by Soros, the liberal billionaire, but the trail of his money didn’t end there. Both the recall election for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and an even less successful recall attempt for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal were rooted in Soros-funded groups. Between them, these three potential Republican presidential candidates were targeted by groups receiving more than $6.3 million from Soros.
The media should be reporting on this connection, but so far they have completely ignored it. None of the broadcast news coverage of Walker’s recall election or Perry’s indictment on ABC, CBS or NBC have mentioned Soros. Attempts to recall Jindal weren’t mentioned by the networks, although left-wing outlets like The Huffington Post tried to promote them.”
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5. A respiratory illness hitting children has now been detected in 12 states and officials expect that number to grow. Where do you suppose the source of this latest “rare” outbreak came from?
From MSNNews “A serious respiratory illness sickening U.S. children has spread to 12 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday, as it predicted that more states will report cases in coming weeks.
The growing list of states with confirmed cases now includes Alabama, Colorado, , Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, New York, and , the CDC said.
Known as enterovirus D68, the somewhat rare virus can cause symptoms ranging from mild fevers to difficulty breathing and wheezing severe enough to require hospitalization.
Since mid-August, the CDC has received reports of 130 people with confirmed cases of the virus. There is no vaccine, and infants, children and teenagers have the greatest risk of infection. So far, there have been no reported deaths from the illness, which could be fatal in serious cases.”
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Wandering Views 
And there’s a “climate change” conference coming up next week …
From the guys at powerline:
“We noted here last week that a UN ‘Leaders Climate Summit’ is getting under way in New York next week, but that no world leaders are showing up. Obama, however, is planning to turn up, though that does not falsify our conclusion that no world leaders are showing up. (Anyone want to bet there will be a fundraising event on the itinerary somewhere? The golf game is a given.) …”
🙂
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/09/spencer-on-the-case-its-not-about-the-climate.php
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Don’t blame the NFL…
http://americanthinker.com/2014/09/dont_blame_the_nfl.html
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Re – #5: Well, the World article on the enterovirus mentioned it had been first detected in the 1960s – so it has been around for a while. Most viruses have peak and inactive times – for no fully understood reason. For example, Ebola has been around for decades, but before this outbreak, the total number of deaths worldwide had only been 2,200: http://www.worldmag.com/2014/09/waging_war_on_ebola. Researchers now know the area where the current outbreak started, in rural Guinea, and have even identified its first victim, a toddler. How that toddler came in contact with the virus is a matter of conjecture and why this all happened now is a matter that will never be fully understood: http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2014/09/16/the-science-behind-ebola-why-its-such-a-difficult-disease-to-trace/. So it is with this enterovirus – and speculation about its origins on the part of people without medical or scientific training would be irresponsible.
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For once, Pat Buchanan is being coy. He wants Scotland to secede for the same reason I do. The vote is tomorrow.
http://townhall.com/columnists/patbuchanan/2014/09/16/what-would-braveheart-do-n1892117
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Re- Scottish separation: As a descendant from several Scottish lines, I feel free to speak my mind. I know all about separatist movements, having witnessed the wordy turmoil in Canada during the narrowly unsuccessful referendum for Quebec sovereignty in 1995. I was barely a preteen at the time, but I remember clearly what my father said, “If they separate, they will simply become a banana republic, dependent on Canada for economic and military support.”
What on earth do the Scottish separatists think to gain for themselves? Scotland, unlike Ireland or even Quebec, was not conquered by England; they became a part of Great Britain when their monarch, James V, became James I of England, after the death of his cousin Elizabeth I and, despite the Bonnie Prince Charlie episode (he would have been a disastrous monarch, as he was a drunkard), the countries have remained joined together under a common monarch.
As an independent country, Scotland would become responsible for all that is now provided for by the U.K., like national security, international relations and trade. My thought is, that with the economic crisis and the austerity measures in place, the separatists think they could finance things better on their own. As I recall, in 1995, the Canadian government by the Liberals were facing similar needs for spending cuts [eventually, the deficit was reduced and the vast majority of Quebecois have no interest in separation now]. The idea of it being motivated by economic troubles makes me think of the old line, off some movie, “When the ship starts sinking, the rats leave first.”
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Sure Phos,
The outbreaks of this “rare” disease and others, in numerous states at once, is just a coincidence. Never mind that thousands received no screening, or minimal, before being released into the population, in clear violation of border and CDC rules. Our wide open southern border clearly has nothing to do with it. 🙄
http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/09/the_invasion_of_enterovirus_evd68.html
And I cannot vouch for the author’s medical and scientific credentials, or those of Drs or anyone else quoted.
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The Real – the article you linked is full of unreasoning malice, saying the physicians who do not make the immigrant connection should be fired and speculating that the children in ICU are children of people who voted for Obama. Moreover, it completely failed to establish any connection between the immigrants and the enterovirus – it was pure speculation, with anger at the experts for not agreeing with them (the quote from the New York doctor said nothing about enterovirus, and one wonders how someone in New York can possibly know more than officials at the southern border).
Canada is also having an outbreak of the enterovirus – should we blame Americans who cross our borders? Incidentally, we are also experiencing outbreaks of measles – an increasing phenomenon, as more parents refuse to have their children vaccinated. The enterovirus is found in every corner of the inhabited world – it is already in the U.S. and Canada – and something in its genetic makeup has triggered an outbreak. That is all. Thankfully, it is nowhere near as serious as Ebola – no one has died. Those with asthma and severe allergies are at increased risk, as we always are. I have been treated for serious lung infections so many times that when I hear a warning about another respiratory virus, I don’t even blink. Getting sick is part of being alive.
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I never put much credence in the predictions of Nostradamus, but when years ago, it was during WWII, I saw a clip about him in a movie theater. He predicted, in that clip, that England would be great from Elizabeth to Elizabeth.
Strange?
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Roscuro, Pat Buchanan and I couldn’t care less about Scotland. We are only interested in seeing a secessionist movement succeed. We understand that such things can be contagious.
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4. I seriously doubt the average welfare receipent received $9000. Instead the average welfare receipent cost $9000 including administration. With 80 different programs, administrative cost must be insane. Simplication is needed. I suggest less means testing and oversight and just give the poor the money.
Awhile back I was involved in a parent group for children with rare diseases. Meeting in buffalo I used to listen to american parents speak of a plethora of programs some means tested to financially assist parents. I had two programs; universal health care and a disabilities program. No means testing.
About 15 years ago there was a hue and cry in Ontario about welfare fraud. The conservative govt hired an American firm which specialized on finding fraud. The firm was more expensive than the fraud. Just give the poor the money its cheaper that way.
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Part of the Scottish motivation is they tend to vote to the left but the English arr more conservative even within the labour party. They’re hoping to avoid austerity and to rebuild the welfare state.
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152 years ago today was the single bloodiest day in American history. It was the finest hour for the Texas Brigade.
https://notevenpast.org/texans-antietam-150-years-ago-today/
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Our community (and a few others) tried to secede from the city of LA about 15 years ago. It failed.
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