What’s interesting in the news today?
1. Make it so.
From FoxNews “Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert said Sunday that he will challenge House Speaker John Boehner for his post when Congress returns this week to Washington.
Gohmert, among the House Republican caucus’ most conservative members, made the announcement on “Fox & Friends,” saying he decided to run after Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., said Saturday that he would challenge Boehner for the chamber’s top post.
“We have heard from a lot of Republicans that said, ‘I would vote for somebody besides speaker Boehner.’ But nobody will put their name out there,” Gohmert said. “That changed yesterday with Ted Yoho.””
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2. Challenging the myth that Republicans are the party of the rich.
From TownHall “Not only do Democratic billionaires spend more on campaigns then Republicans do, as Katie Pavlich noted yesterday, but Democrats also represent the nation’s richest congressional districts, while Republicans represent the middle class.
According to 2012 U.S. Census data, Democrats represent seven of the nation’s ten richest congressional districts including, California 18 (median household income $100,917), California 17 (median household income $100,652), Virginia 11 (median household income $98,815), New York 3 (median household income $96,626), Virginia 8 (median household income $92,918), California 33 (median household income $92,111), and Maryland 8 (median household income).
Meanwhile, Democrats also represent nine of the nation’s ten poorest congressional districts, including New York 15 (median household income $23,314), Mississippi 2 (median household income $29,981), Michigan 13 (median household income $30,273), Alabama 7 (median household income $31,080), Florida 5 (median household income $31,116), Ohio 11 (median household income $31,331), Arizona 7 (median household income $32,259), North Carolina 1 (median household income $32,488) , and California 34 (median household income $32,714).
And not only is the Democratic Party sharply divided between those that represent rich and poor congressional districts, but income inequality within Democratic congressional districts is far greater than it is within Republican ones. Of the top ten congressional districts with the highest levels of income inequality, Democrats represent nine of them.”
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3. So taxpayers will be helping to foot the bill for 87% of new ObamaCare enrollees.
From TheDailyMail “About seven out of every eight Obamacare insurance customers who enrolled between November 15 and mid-December are poor enough to qualify for taxpayer-funded subsidies designed to lower their monthly premiums.
The Department of Health and Human Services reported that number Tuesday, saying it’s up from 80 per cent a year ago.
Americans who participate in government-brokered medical insurance can get subsidies from the federal treasury if their households earn less than four times the government’s official ‘poverty’ level.
That situation describes 64 per cent of all U.S. residents, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. But far more are qualifying, suggesting that the Obamacare subscriber base is dramatically tilted toward low-income earners.
And as poor Americans depend inreasingly on handouts to manage their monthly health insurance bills, the U.S. Supreme Court could be months away from invalidating the entire subsidy system that supports the 34 states that chose not to run their own Obamacare marketplaces.”
Let’s hope so.
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4. The discovery phase should be fun to watch.
From TheWashingtonExaminer “Investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson, whose coverage of the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, has earned her both high praise and harsh criticism, has launched a lawsuit against the Department of Justice, demanding access to FBI documents that involve her personally.
The now-senior independent contributor to the Daily Signal, a conservative online news outlet based at the Heritage Foundation, alleges that during her final months as a correspondent for CBS News, her personal and work computers were hacked as she continued to produce often unfavorable reports on the Obama administration.
“I am hoping to get information that sheds light on a number of problems I’ve been dealing with,” Attkisson told the Washington Examiner’s media desk Friday evening. “One of the items the FBI is withholding is information surrounding a case they opened on my computer intrusions, which lists me as the victim.”
“Yet they never told me they opened the case, never interviewed me, and won’t produce material relevant to the case or the case file. The case has to progress through court and, historically, the government drags it out (at taxpayer expense). So it’s unclear when, if ever, we might receive the documents to which we are entitled,” she said.”
Yet another of the Obama admin’s “investigations” that don’t really investigate.
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5. Extortion by another name is still extortion.
From TheNYPost “Want to influence a casino bid? Polish your corporate image? Not be labeled a racist?
Then you need to pay Al Sharpton.
For more than a decade, corporations have shelled out thousands of dollars in donations and consulting fees to Sharpton’s National Action Network. What they get in return is the reverend’s supposed sway in the black community or, more often, his silence.”
“Al Sharpton has enriched himself and NAN for years by threatening companies with bad publicity if they didn’t come to terms with him. Put simply, Sharpton specializes in shakedowns,” said Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal & Policy Center, a Virginia-based watchdog group that has produced a book on Sharpton.”
“Once Sharpton’s on board, he plays the race card all the way through,” said a source who has worked with the Harlem preacher. “He just keeps asking for more and more money.””
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Wandering Views 
#4. I started reading Stonewalled, but got too involved with the Christmas happenings and haven’t gone back to it for several weeks.
It’s an interesting book.
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I’ll have to get Stonewalled. Here’s the initial Powerline take on it:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/01/notes-on-stonewalled-part-1.php
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Some unintended results of Obamacare (though not entirely its fault) according to a USA Today article summed up in a power line blog post:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/01/obamacare-and-the-deterioration-of-private-health-insurance.php
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” …It seems that ‘poor, long-uninsured patients are getting Medicaid through Obamacare and finally coming to [doctors] for care, but middle-class workers are increasingly staying away.’
“They are staying away because, according to (reporters) Ungar and O’Donnell, ‘coverage [under employer provided health insurance plans] long considered the gold standard of health insurance now often requires workers to pay so much out-of-pocket that many feel they must skip doctor visits, put off medical procedures, avoid filling prescriptions and ration pills — much as the uninsured have done.’ …
” … Obamacare provides a strong incentive for employers to pare down generous plans so they don’t have to pay a ‘Cadillac tax’ on high-cost coverage in 2018.
“On the other hand, even before Obamacare was enacted, some employers had begun paring down their plans due to steeply rising health care costs and corporate belt-tightening induced by the recession. … ”
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In other words, it’s a mess — and fixing it won’t be easy, but Republican candidates should be busy trying to come up with some ideas. Medical care simply won’t be affordable for many of those (us) in the working, middle class.
We’re definitely paying more out of pocket for our employer-sponsored insurance plans where I work, it goes up every year — both in monthly premiums and in deductibles & co-pays. For those who have family members on their plans, it’s been a real financial hit. I’m grateful we still have employer plans, but they’re certainly no longer all that ‘affordable’ for many.
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#2. These stats indicate a rural urban divide more than an income divide. Democrats tend to win urban districts and Republicans rural districts. Urban areas tend to have higher incomes simply due to increased cost of living, this also results in higher income inequality. Without accounting for cost of living and purchasing power, income stats are meaningless.
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