unemployment

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News/Politics 3-2-15

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. A new Trey Gowdy bill would dismantle Obama’s amnesty plan.

From RightWingNews “Named after Michael Davis, Jr., a sheriff’s deputy in California who was killed in the line of duty last year by an illegal immigrant, Gowdy’s bill would also provide a work-around for state and local governments to reinforce federal immigration laws while also implementing an annual review of the executive branch’s use of prosecutorial discretion in immigration cases.

“If we are serious about finding a long term solution to our immigration system, we must address interior enforcement,” Gowdy, the Republican chairman of the Immigration and Border Security Subcommittee, said in a statement announcing the measure.

“This bill, which is one part of the Committee’s step-by-step process to address our broken immigration system, will ensure we do not repeat the mistakes of the past and help us earn back the trust of the American public,” he added.

If enacted, the bill would completely dismantle what Gowdy describes as Obama’s “unilateral, constitutional actions on immigration” by cutting off any and all funds to the initiative. It would also strip Obama and all future presidents of any power to unilaterally shut down immigration enforcement by allowing state and local governments the authorization to enforce federal immigration laws.”

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2. Rand Paul is proposing tax cuts for all.

From WashingtonExaminer  “Sen. Rand Paul promised a crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday that he will soon “propose the largest tax cut in American history.”

“I propose we cut everyone’s taxes, from the richest to the poorest,” Paul said.

Paul’s senior adviser Doug Stafford did not have further details to offer on Paul’s tax-cut proposal, but said it would be ready in “a few weeks.”

As Paul gears up to run for president, with plans to make his candidacy official in early April, he has had no problem attracting support from libertarians, who showed up Friday as usual to cheer Paul at CPAC.”

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3. The Inspector General of the IRS has confirmed a criminal investigation into the lost/destroyed, but not really, Lerner emails.

From TheWashingtonTimes  “The IRS’s inspector general confirmed Thursday it is conducting a criminal investigation into how Lois G. Lerner’s emails disappeared, saying it took only two weeks for investigators to find hundreds of tapes the agency’s chief had told Congress were irretrievably destroyed.

Investigators have already scoured 744 backup tapes and gleaned 32,774 unique emails, but just two weeks ago they found an additional 424 tapes that could contain even more Lerner emails, Deputy Inspector General Timothy P. Camus told the House Oversight Committee in a rare late-night hearing meant to look into the status of the investigation.

“There is potential criminal activity,” Mr. Camus said.”

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4. Debbie Wasserman Schultz thinks the Helms Amendment is being misapplied, which is exactly what you would expect from a politician funded in large part by the abortion industry.

From CNSNews  “Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) urged Secretary of State John Kerry this week to look into what she says is the misapplication of 42-year-old legislation that bans U.S. foreign aid from being spent on abortions.

“There has been, not on the part of the administration, but an issue surrounding the misinterpretation of the Helms Amendment that prohibits the use of funds ‘for the performance of abortion as a method of family planning,’” she told Kerry during a House Appropriations’ subcommittee hearing on Wednesday.

“But it’s been incorrectly implemented, essentially to become a total ban on funding for abortion.”

The Florida Democrat said she hated “to use the term ‘nuance,’ but there’s a difference between prohibiting abortion entirely and prohibiting its use as a method of family planning.””

Of course Kerry has promised to look into it.

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5. I guess the irony of having foreigners process unemployment claims is lost on the people who run California. I guess we have to add this to the list of jobs Americans won’t do?

From ABCNews10  “It’s nearly 8 p.m., and inside a state office building two dozen computer experts design and troubleshoot a system that will take and process millions of unemployment claims each year.

It’s a $200 million Employment Development Department project, but with the exception of two managers, everyone inside the office is from outside of the U.S. They are employed by Deloitte, a major U.S. IT company hired by the state to create and manage its Unemployment Insurance Modernization project. The mostly Indian nationals are allowed to work here under a visa program called H-1B.

Tech companies like Microsoft, Intel, Google and Facebook say they need hundreds of thousands of foreign workers to fill jobs here because American colleges can’t crank out computer science grads fast enough. In 2013, the industry lobbied Congress on the issue to the tune of almost $14 million.

Those companies, who need workers with highly specialized knowledge like computer expertise, are awarded the visas through a lottery process. It’s allowed under the Immigration and Nationality Act and administered by the U.S. Department of Labor. The visas can be valid as long as six years.”

“The program is going unfettered, unchecked, without bounds, and it’s all in the interest of profit,” Computer Database Administrator Chris Brown said. He said was displaced by one of the special visa workers in 1996, and he has been following the issue for the past 18 years.”

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6. Some Democrats might be skipping Bibi’s speech, but the tickets are still a hot item.

From RollCall  “Plenty of outsiders — from lobbyists to constituents — are eager to see Netanyahu speak; an aide for Speaker John A. Boehner told CQ Roll Call that at least 350 requests are being fielded by the Ohio Republican’s office.

“I don’t expect many empty seats on the floor,” the aide said. “This is a big draw.”

But the fact that many Jewish, progressive and African-American Democrats are protesting the speech has set off something of a frenzy for extra tickets (each member gets at least one to give to a constituent or other guest).

A House Democratic aide said the lawmaker she works for has fielded multiple calls from colleagues asking whether the member is attending and, if not, if that ticket is available.”

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News/Politics 2-4-15

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. There’s a reason they call him “Dirty Harry.” But he isn’t the only dirty one here.

From ABCNews  “Officials overseeing a federal program that offers an immigration short-cut to wealthy foreign investors have ignored pointed warnings from federal agents and approved visas for some immigrants suspected of having committed fraud, money laundering, and even one applicant with alleged ties to a child porn website, an ABC News investigation has found. The shortcomings prompted concerns within the Department of Homeland Security that the boutique immigration program would be exploited by terrorists, according to internal documents obtained by ABC News.

“It is shocking,” said Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican. “Particularly when you have F.B.I. and other law enforcement agencies that are saying national security could be compromised or is being compromised — that’s enough for us to be concerned.”

Five different Homeland Security whistleblowers spoke with ABC News about a range of cases where visas were approved despite numerous red flags. They said objections were often ignored because the immigration program is so popular within the Obama Administration and with members of Congress from both parties. Known as the EB-5 visa program, foreigners who are willing to invest $500,000 in an American business can jump to the front of the line and obtain legal status to live in the U.S. for two years. If the investment is shown to create at least 10 jobs, the investors can receive a “Green Card” — permanent residency.”

“In 2013, then-Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe was accused by political opponents of trying to prod federal officials to approve visas for investors in an electric vehicle start-up venture he ran. He denied that he sought undue influence. In 2014, questions about an EB-5 investment scheme in South Dakota became grist for political ads targeting then-U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rounds, who was attacked for his role in oversight of investment projects while he was governor. Rounds called the attacks political and “inaccurate” and “defamatory.”

Questions about the SLS Hotel project in Las Vegas first gained attention when an article in The Washington Times revealed that Homeland Security expedited the processing of investor visas after Nevada Sen. Harry Reid (D) and his staff began prodding the department to move faster. Reid aides said their push to eliminate longstanding bureaucratic hurdles with the program and was aimed at creating local jobs.”

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2. Anybody shocked? These folks deserve better.

From TheWashingtonExaminer  “President Obama’s 2016 budget blueprint proposes rolling back a program that gives veterans the right to receive faster care outside of the long waitlists at the troubled Veterans Affairs medical system.

Obama signed the Veterans Choice Program into law in August following months of partisan wrangling on Capitol Hill that finally led to a compromise measure to overhaul the agency. The Veterans Choice Program was a key GOP provision in the deal.

Authored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the measure provides “choice” cards to veterans that can be used to obtain medical care at designated facilities outside of the VA system.

But Obama announced Monday he’ll send a legislative proposal to Congress that would allow the VA to raid the program’s funding, now set at $10 billion.”

“Democrats have pushed for additional money for the VA to pay for new hospitals and more doctors, but Republicans contend that waste and mismanagement are the primary problems facing the VA, and the Choice Program gives vets a chance to escape the dysfunction by allowing them to receive outside medical care.

Veterans groups were angered by the move to divert funding from the program, noting that Obama had touted the legislation to reform the VA in the months leading up to the November election and did not express opposition to the choice cards.”

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3. The legacy of debt interest.

From TheWallStJournal  “The U.S. has come a long way since the days of trillion-dollar deficits, just a few years ago. The White House projects 2016 will have the smallest budget deficit in eight years. Yet the budgetary impact of the debt that’s been accumulated–$18 trillion in total, $13 trillion of that owed to the public–will reassert itself.

Currently, the government’s interest costs are around $200 billion a year, a sum that’s low due to the era of low interest rates. Forecasters at the White House and Congressional Budget Office believe interest rates will gradually rise, and when that happens, the interest costs of the U.S. government are set to soar, from just over $200 billion to nearly $800 billion a year by decade’s end.”

“By 2021, the government will be spending more on interest than on all national defense. according to White House forecasts. And one year later, interest costs will exceed nondefense discretionary spending–essentially every other domestic and international government program funded annually through congressional appropriations. (The largest part of the budget is, and will remain, the mandatory spending programs of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Mandatory spending is over $2 trillion and is set to double to $4 trillion by 2025.)”

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4. Manufacturing is down for the fourth month in a row.

From HotAir  “For the fifth straight month, US manufacturing sector has slowed, according to the Department of Commerce. Overall orders for manufacturing dropped 3.4% in December, led by a steep drop in transportation. Even without that, orders fell by 2.3%, and the overall decline in November was adjusted downward to 1.7%:

New orders for manufactured goods in December, down five consecutive months, decreased $16.4 billion or 3.4 percent to $471.5 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today. This followed a 1.7 percent November decrease. Excluding transportation, new orders decreased 2.3 percent. Shipments, down four of the last five months, decreased $5.3 billion or 1.1 percent to $488.2 billion. This followed a 1.0 percent November decrease. Unfilled orders, down following ten consecutive monthly increases, decreased $9.4 billion or 0.8 percent to $1,166.9 billion. This followed a 0.2 percent November increase. The unfilled orders-to-shipments ratio was 6.69, down from 6.81 in November. Inventories, down following eighteen consecutive monthly increases, decreased $2.0 billion or 0.3 percent to $653.9 billion. This followed a slight November increase. The inventories-to-shipments ratio was 1.34, up from 1.33 in November.

Durable goods dropped as well, by 3.3%:

New orders for manufactured durable goods in December, down four of the last five months, decreased $8.0 billion or 3.3 percent to $230.6 billion, revised from the previously published 3.4 percent decrease. This followed a 2.2 percent November decrease. Transportation equipment, also down four of the last five months, led the decrease, $6.7 billion or 9.1 percent to $66.8 billion. New orders for manufactured nondurable goods decreased $8.5 billion or 3.4 percent to $240.8 billion.”

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5. The Big Lie: 5.6% unemployment.

From Gallup  “Here’s something that many Americans — including some of the smartest and most educated among us — don’t know: The official unemployment rate, as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor, is extremely misleading.

Right now, we’re hearing much celebrating from the media, the White House and Wall Street about how unemployment is “down” to 5.6%. The cheerleading for this number is deafening. The media loves a comeback story, the White House wants to score political points and Wall Street would like you to stay in the market.

None of them will tell you this: If you, a family member or anyone is unemployed and has subsequently given up on finding a job — if you are so hopelessly out of work that you’ve stopped looking over the past four weeks — the Department of Labor doesn’t count you as unemployed. That’s right. While you are as unemployed as one can possibly be, and tragically may never find work again, you are not counted in the figure we see relentlessly in the news — currently 5.6%. Right now, as many as 30 million Americans are either out of work or severely underemployed. Trust me, the vast majority of them aren’t throwing parties to toast “falling” unemployment.”

“There’s no other way to say this. The official unemployment rate, which cruelly overlooks the suffering of the long-term and often permanently unemployed as well as the depressingly underemployed, amounts to a Big Lie.”

“Gallup defines a good job as 30+ hours per week for an organization that provides a regular paycheck. Right now, the U.S. is delivering at a staggeringly low rate of 44%, which is the number of full-time jobs as a percent of the adult population, 18 years and older. We need that to be 50% and a bare minimum of 10 million new, good jobs to replenish America’s middle class.”

They’ve been fudging things for years. But it’s nice to see others finally catching on to it.

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6. And since we’re on the subject of big lies…..

From TheWashingtonTimes  “The chairman of a special House committee created to investigate the 2012 Benghazi tragedy on Monday instructed his staff to review secretly recorded tapes and intelligence reports that detail Hillary Rodham Clinton’s role in advocating and executing the war in Libya, opening the door for a possible expansion of his probe.

Rep. Trey Gowdy’s decision to seek a review of the materials, first highlighted in a series of Washington Times stories last week, carries consequences for the 2016 election in which Mrs. Clinton is expected to seek the presidency. It could also move the committee to examine the strained relationship between the State Department and Pentagon, which sharply disagreed over the 2011 war in Libya and the response to the terrorist attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi a year later.

The Times reported last week that U.S. intelligence did not support Mrs. Clinton’s story of an impending genocide in Libya that she used to sell the war against Moammar Gadhafi’s regime. The newspaper also unveiled secretly recorded tapes from Libya that showed that the Pentagon and Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich so distrusted her stewardship of the war that they opened their own diplomatic channels with the Gadhafi regime.

The tapes included candid conversations and allegations that Mrs. Clinton took the U.S. to war on false pretenses and was not listening to the advice of military commanders or career intelligence officers.”

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by

News/Politics 10-6-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. How Ebola spread out of control.

From TheWashingtonPost  “Frieden, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), knew it was no simple matter to properly carry away a body loaded with Ebola virus. It takes four people wearing protective suits, one at each corner of the body bag. On that grim day near the end of August, in a makeshift Ebola ward in Monrovia, Liberia, burial teams already had lugged 60 victims to a truck for the trip to the crematorium.

Frieden had seen plenty of death over the years, but this was far worse than he expected, a plague on a medieval scale. “A scene out of Dante,” he called it.

Shaken, he flew back to the United States on Aug. 31 and immediately briefed President Obama by phone. The window to act was closing, he told the president in the 15-minute call.

That conversation, nearly six months after the World Health Organization (WHO) learned of an Ebola outbreak in West Africa, was part of a mounting realization among world leaders that the battle against the virus was being lost. As of early September, with more than 1,800 confirmed Ebola deaths in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, there was still no coordinated global response. Alarmed U.S. officials realized they would need to call in the military.

 Obama eventually ordered 3,000 military personnel to West Africa; about 200 had arrived by the beginning of this month. They will be joined by health workers from countries such as Britain, China and Cuba. Canada and Japan are sending protective gear and mobile laboratories. Nonprofit organizations such as the Gates Foundation also are contributing. But it’s not at all clear that this belated muscular response will be enough to quell the epidemic before it takes tens of thousands of lives.”

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2. The Dallas hospital is blaming a flaw in the new electronic medical records for errors involving patient zero.

From CNSNews  “When a sick Liberian man walked into Texas Presbyterian Hospital last month, “Protocols were followed by both the physician and the nurses,” the hospital said in a statement released Thursday night.

The man told a nurse he had come from West Africa, where an Ebola epidemic is raging.

“However, we have identified a flaw in the way the physician and nursing portions of our electronic health records (EHR) interacted in this specific case.”

The hospital said its electronic health records include “separate physician and nursing workflows.” The hospital said the Liberian man’s travel history was located in the nurses’ portion of the EHR, but — “As designed, the travel history would not automatically appear in the physician’s standard workflow.”

“As result of this discovery, Texas Health Dallas has relocated the travel history documentation to a portion of the EHR that is part of both workflows. It also has been modified to specifically reference Ebola-endemic regions in Africa.”

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3. Yes please!

From TheWashingtonTimes  “Attorney General Eric Holder should be held in contempt of court for refusing to release “Fast and Furious” documents in line with a judge’s order — and even given jail time if necessary, lawmakers said.

Members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee requested U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson to fine Mr. Holder if he doesn’t comply with her own order issued back in August — the one where she said he couldn’t claim executive privilege to keep private certain documents related to the federal gun-running program, “Operation Fast and Furious,” Politico reported.

Mr. Holder was supposed to turn over the documents by Oct. 1. The attorney general has not — but instead, announced his resignation from office.

Lawyers for the lawmakers say the time has come when the judge should consider imposing fines on Mr. Holder, or even throwing him in jail.

“Should the Court determine that the Attorney General has violated that Order, the Court should impose on the Attorney General an appropriate penalty to coerce his compliance with the August 20 Order, including an escalating daily monetary fine against Eric H. Holder Jr., to be paid by Mr. Holder out of his personal assets, converting to incarceration if the payment of daily monetary fines does not produce compliance within a reasonable period of time,” House Counsel Kerry Kircher and other lawyers wrote in the filing, Politico reported.”

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4. Kick ineligible illegal immigrants off the exchange, get sued for violating their supposed rights. Don’t worry, I’m sure the DoJ has a settlement plan already in the pipeline.

From TheDailyCaller  “Two immigration groups have filed legal complaints against the Obama administration for kicking over one hundred thousand Obamacare customers off their insurance plans without sending notices in their native language, Modern Healthcare reports.

The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) and Philadelphia’s Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition (SEAMACC) have both filed complaints with Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights. The groups believe the Obama administration’s move to end the health plans of customers who failed to prove their legal immigration or citizenship status violate customers’ rights as immigrants.

The Obama administration terminated 115,000 customers’ Obamacare exchange health insurance on September 30, after customers failed to submit required documentation to prove their legal status in the U.S. 

The administration said it first reached out to each customer between eight and ten times through mail, phone and e-mail in an attempt to get them to update their documents on HealthCare.gov before finally kicking them off their plans.”

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5. The real war on women.

From CNSNews  “A record 55,553,000 women 16 years and older did not participate in the labor force in September, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This means that 55,553,000 women in the United States did not have a job and did not actively seek one in the past four weeks.

The number of women not in the labor force increased from 55,345,000 in August to 55,553,000 in September, an increase of 208,000.

The participation rate for women also dipped in September to 56.7 percent; it has not been this low since September of 1988 when it was 56.6 percent. This means that only 56.7 percent of women participated in the labor force by either having a job during the month or actively seeking one.”

But thanks to the Obama admin’s fuzzy math, the unemployment rate for women dropped anyway.

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6. Some good news.

From MSN  “Nearly two-thirds of the abortion clinics remaining in Texas must close immediately after a federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the state may enforce a law that requires those facilities to be built to the same standards as hospitals.

That law — part of an omnibus bill with several measures that chip away at women’s access to abortion — was struck down in late August as unconstitutional by an Austin federal judge, who put it on hold while the state appeals.

But on Thursday, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans tossed out U.S. District Court Judge Lee Yeakel’s August injunction, which allowed the estimated 20 abortion clinics in Texas to continue operating during the appeals process. Without that injunction, only seven clinics will be left.

In its ruling, the 5th Circuit said the “central” question it considered was “whether the state has shown a likelihood of success” in fighting Yeakel’s ruling “regarding whether the ambulatory surgical center provision is unconstitutional. We conclude that it has.”

The Center for Reproductive Rights, which sued the state on behalf of a coalition of abortion clinics, said that Thursday’s decision will force nearly 1 million Texas women of reproductive age to drive a minimum of 300 miles round trip “to access their constitutional right to an abortion.”

Oh, the horror…. 🙄

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by

News/Politics 7-7-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. Did ObamaCare make matters worse at the VA and contribute to the backlog in processing VA claims? Sure sounds like it.

From TruthRevolt   “A Veterans Affairs whistleblower from Atlanta will testify before Congress next Tuesday about widespread destruction of applications, retaliation against whistleblowers, and people being shifted from processing VA applications last summer to working on Obamacare enrollment.

Scott Davis is a program specialist at the VA’s national Health Eligibility Center in DeKalb County, Georgia. His story was published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this past Sunday and appeared on the Neil Cavuto program on Fox News Wednesday.  As opposed to previous whistleblower reports, which focus VA hospitals and getting to see doctors, Davis’ revelations are about the processing of applications by VA offices.  

Davis told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that health benefit applications for more than 10,000 veterans may have been improperly purged from the Health Eligibility Center’s national data system. He began filing complaints in January 2014, revealing that managers were focused more on meeting goals linked to the Affordable Care Act to meet their bonus targets than processing VA applications.

We don’t discuss veterans. We do not work for veterans. That is something that I learned after working there. Our customer is the VA central office, the White House and the Congress. The veterans are not our priority. So whatever the initiatives are or the big ticket items, that is what we focus on.”

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2. And as always, the Obama admin has retaliated against the whistleblower. That’s easier than fixing the problems they’re pointing out.

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3. Don’t you just love bi-partisan acts by Congress? It’s so nice when the parties both agree……

to quietly change the rules for reporting freebies they receive from lobbyists. 🙄

From IJReview  “A member of Congress used to have to specifically report the details if they traveled on someone else’s dime. As of last week, that rule was lifted with no public announcement. National Journal reports:

The move, made behind closed doors and without a public announcement by the House Ethics Committee, reverses more than three decades of precedent. Gifts of free travel to lawmakers have appeared on the yearly financial form dating back its creation in the late 1970s, after the Watergate scandal. National Journal uncovered the deleted disclosure requirement when analyzing the most recent batch of yearly filings.

For a group of officials that considers an adjustment to their burrito order worthy of a press release and a television appearance, that this change was made literally behind closed doors tells us everything we need to know about it. Members of both parties reached across the aisle and kept their mouths shut about it.

These trips still must be reported to the Office of the Clerk and disclosed there, but the decades-old requirement for individual members to also disclose their particular activities on their annual financial forms is now gone.”

They still report it, but now it’s in an area where no one would look. Now that’s transparency.

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4. The Obama EPA continues to expand it’s illegal power grabs. Control the water, you control the people. Just ask California.

Also From TheIJReview  “The Environmental Protection Agency is planning to expand its jurisdiction over the nation’s waterways under the Clean Water Act to include ditches, small streams, ponds, and other purely local waterways.

Nearly 204,000 comments have been received since the rule was proposed on April 21, 2014, mostly from Americans opposed to it. Ten U.S. senators also sent a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy expressing their concerns about the proposed rule changes.

Among the examples of potential overreach the senators cite are attempts by environmentalists to ban fireworks at Lake Tahoe along the border of California and Nevada. The senators fear the expanded EPA jurisdiction could led to similar lawsuits in other places.”

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5. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before….

Less people working, plus a lowering unemployment number, equals fuzzy math. Again.

From CNSNews  “The number of Americans 16 and older who did not participate in the labor force climbed to a record high of 92,120,000 in June, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

This means that there were 92,120,000 Americans 16 and older who not only did not have a job, but did not actively seek one in the last four weeks.

That is up 111,000 from the 92,009,000 Americans who were not participating in the labor force in April.”

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by

News/Politics 2-6-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. The hits from the CBO just keep on comin’.

From TheWeeklyStandard  “Remember back when the Democrats tried to sell Obamacare to a skeptical citizenry as health care “reform” that would cost “only” $848 billion—far less than a trillion—over a decade?  Indeed, that was the alleged 10-year gross cost of Obamacare’s coverage provisions, according to the Congressional Budget Office (see Table 3), when Harry Reid, Mark Pryor, Kay Hagan, Mary Landrieu, Al Franken, Mark Udall, Jeanne Shaheen, Mark Begich, Mark Warner, and the rest of the Democrats rammed President Obama’s signature legislation through the Senate on Christmas Eve without a single Republican vote.  That 12-digit price-tag was widely cited by the New York Times and other sympathetic outlets, who treated it as gospel, even as conservatives observed that it was clearly a sham number.

 Well, now the CBO is out with a new report on Obamacare’s costs, and—sure enough—its 10-year price-tag now eclipses $2 trillion.  To be more exact, the CBO now projects (see Table B-1) that the 10-year gross cost of Obamacare’s coverage provisions will be a cool $2,004,000,000,000.00.

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2. What?!

Shockingly it appears that giving people free stuff creates a disincentive for people to work.

Huh. That’s not what the President says.

From CNSNews  “The subsidies that help low-income people buy expensive health  insurance are a ‘disincentive for people to work,” Douglas Elmendorf,  director of the Congressional Budget Office, told Congress on Wednesday.

“What  the Affordable Care Act does, is to provide subsidies focused on lower-  and lower-middle-income people to buy health insurance. And in order to  encourage a sufficient number of people to buy an expensive product  like health  insurance, the subsidies are fairly large in dollar terms.  Those subsidies are then withdrawn over time — withdrawn from people as  their income rises.

“And by providing heavily subsidized health  insurance to people with very low income, and then withdrawing those  subsidies as income rises, the (Affordable Care) Act creates a  disincentive for people to work, relative to what would have been the  case in the absence of that Act,” Elmendorf told the House Budget  Committee.

He added that the subsidies “make those lower-income people better off…but they do have less of an incentive to work.”

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3. Meanwhile enrollees are continuing to hit snags at the doctor’s office.

From TheLATimes  “A month into the most sweeping changes to healthcare in half a century, people are having trouble finding doctors at all, getting faulty information on which ones are covered and receiving little help from insurers swamped by new business.

Experts have warned for months that the logjam was inevitable. But the extent of the problems is taking by surprise many patients — and even doctors — as frustrations mount.”

“To hold down premiums under the healthcare law, major insurers have sharply cut the number of doctors and hospitals available to patients in the state’s new health insurance market.

Now those limited options are becoming clearer, and California officials say they are receiving more consumer complaints about access to medical providers. State lawmakers are also moving swiftly to ease some of the problems that have arisen.”

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4. Another unhappy customer.

From TheNYPost  “ObamaCare was supposed to help me. That’s all I could think as I sat in the House of Representatives last Tuesday night as the guest of my congresswoman, only a few hundred feet away from President Obama as he gave his State of the Union address. Four years ago, I’d have been there cheering for ObamaCare’s passage. But the real ObamaCare has made my life a nightmare.”

“My plan was canceled last fall. According to the regulators behind ObamaCare, it was a subpar plan that should no longer be sold to consumers. Another 16,000 Tennesseans on the same plan were similarly dumped. Many, like me, liked their plans and wanted to keep them.

This wasn’t my insurer’s fault at all. CoverTN actually fought for me to keep my health care. After I received my cancellation notice, the folks at CoverTN requested that the federal government give them a waiver, which would let them grandfather my plan into ObamaCare. Their request was rejected.”

“For me, the impact of ObamaCare is a health plan that is both unaffordable and uncaring. For a law named “The Affordable Care Act,” this is both backward and perverse.”

$6,000 more a year, less benefits, less choices, and she lost her doctor. Also note that the “evil” insurance company went to bat for her to keep her lower priced plan, yet it was the govt that denied her.

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5. Just a reminder to voters in states with Democrat Senators up for re-election. It’s time to make them pay at the polls. Vote them out.

From RollCall  “Every vulnerable Senate Democrat up for re-election in 2014 voted with President Barack Obama at least 90 percent of the time in 2013, according to CQ Roll Call’s latest vote studies, released Monday.

Arkansas Democrat Mark Pryor broke with the president most often, opposing him in 10 percent of all 2013 votes where the administration stated a preferred outcome. Sens. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, Mary Landrieu, D-La. and Kay Hagan, D-N.C., voted for Obama’s position 97, 97, and 96 percent of the time, respectively. Of those four, only Begich serves with a Republican who has bucked the GOP to back Obama with any frequency. (See our Jan. 21 story.)

Support for Obama’s initiatives from incumbent Democrats who are favored but not safe was just as high if not higher than from vulnerable members: Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Mark Warner of Virginia supported the president in 99 and 97 percent of votes.

On the flip side, Republican senators who are wary of primary challengers from the right opposed Obama so often that the president’s support from GOP senators in 2013 — 40 percent — was the lowest of his five years in office. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., opposed Obama 67 percent of the time. Sens. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., Thad Cochran, R-Miss., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, opposed the Obama position on 66, 50, 48 and 66 percent of votes respectively.”

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6. The President and his minions tried to keep their harassment of Tea Party groups hidden from the public.

From CNSNews  “Mich.). In a hearing on the IRS-Tea Party scandal on Wednesday, Chairman Camp questioned IRS Commissioner John Koskinen about the Treasury Department apparently crafting rules to limit the ability of conservative and Tea Party groups to get 501(c)4 exemptions to engage in public debate.”

“In his questioning of Koskinen, Camp also noted that e-mails showed that IRS officials in Cinncinati, Ohio first started flagging Tea Party applications in February 2010 because of “media attention” and apparently not because there was any confusion over the application rules for a 501(c)3 or (c)4 group.

In an e-mail from Feb. 25, 2010 from Cincinnati IRS official Jack Koester to his boss, Screening Group Manager John Shafer, Koester says, “John, Here is the case number for the ‘Tea Party’ application for 501c(4) exemption that we discussed this morning. Recent media attaention to this type of organization indicates to me that this is a ‘high profile case’.”  Then part of the e-mail is blacked out, redacted.”

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7. The CBO is also warning that the plummeting workforce participation rate will have an adverse effect on the economy for a long time. This is Obama’s economic legacy. Like the rest, a failure of leadership.

From TheWashingtonExaminer  “When Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf appeared before the House Budget Committee on Wednesday, there were plenty of lawmakers, Republican and Democrat, who wanted to make points about Obamacare. Republicans stressed the CBO’s finding that Obamacare will create such a sharp disincentive to work that Americans will stop working to the tune of 2.5 million full-time jobs. Democrats tried to cast doubt on the number or, alternately, to suggest that Americans leaving the work force because they no longer need a job to secure health coverage would be a good thing.

The points had been pretty much exhausted by the time Republican Rep. Diane Black got her turn to address Elmendorf. Her question was straightforward: “What effect [will] the reduced labor force participation have on the economy?”

“Elmendorf’s answer was simple, short, and devastating. “It is the central factor in slowing economic growth,” he said. “After we get out of this current downturn, but later in this decade and beyond, the principal reason why we think the economic growth will be less than it was for most of my lifetime will be a slower rate of growth by the labor force.”

He used it for political gain to fraudulently lower his unemployment numbers, but the economy will suffer long term because of it.

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by

News/Politics 1-11-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

Open thread. Feel free to share with the group. 🙂

1. The families of Benghazi victims and others have sent a letter to Speaker Boehner. The letter calls him out for his lack of effort and possible involvement in hiding what really happened in Benghazi. The letter pulls no punches.

From JudicialWatch  “Dear Speaker Boehner,

We write to express our grave concern over the failure of your House of Representatives to extract the truth from the Obama administration concerning the attack on our diplomatic and intelligence facilities in Benghazi, Libya; and, the brutal deaths of Ambassador Christopher Stevens, U.S. Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith, and security officers Ty Woods and Glen Doherty.

To date, five (5) different committees of the House have conducted separate hearings, uncovering information in a piecemeal fashion lacking professional investigators.  The five committees’ efforts are disjointed and uncoordinated.  The Obama administration has benefited from that dysfunctional process to hide the truth.  Hardly any Obama administration witnesses have testified – publicly or privately.  You have resisted repeated calls for the creation of a select investigative committee with subpoena authority. It appears that you are satisfied to allow that state of investigative incoherence and ambiguity to continue.  The last public hearing by any of the five committees was held in September – four (4) months ago.  The families of the dead who fought valiantly to protect the mission and their families, the survivors, and the American people deserve better from you and your Members of Congress. They deserve the absolute truth from their government. Your failure to get the truth and hold public officials accountable increases the possibility of other repeat attacks and additional failures to defend Americans abroad.

On Sunday, December 29, 2013, the New York Times published a story concerning the Benghazi attacks that directly contradicts the sworn testimony of witnesses who appeared before various committees.  Besides the obvious New York Times editorial and political objectives of inoculating Hillary Clinton and her 2016 presidential campaign from further criticism of her failures as Secretary of State, the story contradicts objective truth and established facts in a way that confuses the public.  Your inaction and failure to lead on the Benghazi investigation directly contributes to the repetition of lies; a lack of accountability from responsible government officials; and the political advancement of persons who seek to continue to “fundamentally transform” the Constitution and our country.  The New York Times recent publication proves the Benghazi story is not “going away.”

Your oversight of the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation has been without any meaningful effect or result.  Not a single terrorist in this well-planned and executed military attack by radical Islamists has been apprehended.  Ahmed Abu Khattala, a ringleader of the attack, granted long interviews to reporters in Benghazi cafes, while the Obama administration – and you – have done nothing.  Nearly 16 months after the terrorist attack, the American public has no accountability and no plan of action from House leadership. The public is subjected to undisputed disinformation from a White House who calls the terror attack a “phony scandal.”  While the White House repeats false and misleading information, you continue to ignore claims, documented by Rep. Frank Wolf, of intelligence officers being intimidated with multiple, punitive polygraph examinations and harassing non-disclosure agreement demands.  If Benghazi is “phony” why are intelligence officers being threatened not to speak and subjected to polygraph exams? Why do you stand by passively?

Some analysts believe your inaction and passivity towards getting to the truth concerning Benghazi is because you were briefed on the intelligence and special operations activities in Libya as a member of the “Super 8.”   You may possess “guilty knowledge.”  We recall how then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi developed a form of “amnesia” concerning a documented briefing she received on so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” – later termed “torture” for political purposes.  Are you in the same position as your predecessor?  Are you dodging a legitimate, thorough, coordinated investigation of Benghazi because it will damage your political position as Speaker?”

You can click any of the above text to read the rest. This is signed by numerous Generals, Admirals, Colonels, Captains and others.

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2. The Obama admin has finally gotten around to maybe actually holding someone responsible. But I wouldn’t hold my breath.

From TheWeeklyStandard  “The State Department today publicly announced a $10 million reward “for information leading to the arrest or conviction of any individual responsible for the September 11, 2012 Benghazi attacks.” The announcement for the reward is posted on rewardsforjustice.net.”

“Because of “security issues” the offer of the $10 million reward had not been officially announced until today.”

More like delayed by lies and CYA from Obama and Hillary.

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3. The unemployment rate has dropped again. Fuzzy Math, as always.

From TheFederalist   “According to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released this morning, the U.S. economy last month added 74,000 new payroll jobs, while the unemployment rate fell to 6.7 percent from 7.0 percent. Good news, right? Not really.

Yes, the unemployment rate has fallen significantly from its high of 10 percent in October of 2009. But it turns out the unemployment rate has been falling for a pretty depressing reason: people dropping out of the labor force. Last month, 347,000 workers dropped out, effectively sending the message that it wasn’t even worth looking for work anymore.”

“In June of 2009, the labor force participation rate was 65.7 percent (by way of comparison, the average over the last decade is 65.1 percent, while the peak was 66.5 percent in June of 2003). Since the end of the recession, that number has nose-dived. At the end of last month, it hit 62.8 percent — on par with what the U.S. experienced in the late 1970′s (although at the time, the number was on the upswing).”

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4. And we have another ObamaCare success story. 🙄

Firemen getting their hours cut, and communities having to fork out more taxpayer dollars because of it.

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by

News/Politics 11-20-13

What’s interesting out there today?

1. First up today, we know the Obama admin’s BLS numbers have been fuzzy as all get-up. Now we find they’ve put some fur on the Census numbers too. This is especially troubling considering the Census Bureau is all about staying apolitical and not allowing outside influences.

From TheNYPost  “In the home stretch of the 2012 presidential campaign, from August to September, the unemployment rate fell sharply — raising eyebrows from Wall Street to Washington.

The decline — from 8.1 percent in August to 7.8 percent in September — might not have been all it seemed. The numbers, according to a reliable source, were manipulated.”

“Just two years before the presidential election, the Census Bureau had caught an employee fabricating data that went into the unemployment report, which is one of the most closely watched measures of the economy.”

“The Census employee caught faking the results is Julius Buckmon, according to confidential Census documents obtained by The Post. Buckmon told me in an interview this past weekend that he was told to make up information by higher-ups at Census.”

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2. Yesterday I mentioned folks not being able to pay for their new insurance plans from the govt. website. Turns out, that part’s not built yet. And won’t be until January, after the first payment is due. 🙄

You can watch the video testimony at the link.

From HotAir  “Skip to 3:15 for the key bit. We’re 50 days removed from launch and Chao’s spent hours upon hours testifying about the website before Congress over the last few weeks. And somehow only now are we hearing about this.”

“Two things as you watch. First, note that Chao’s talking about the entire online exchange apparatus here, not the front end of Healthcare.gov where people sign up. The front end is in place and being repaired, he says. It’s the back end that … hasn’t completely been built yet. Second, it sounds initially like he says 60-70 percent of that back end is missing, but then he appears to correct that in the last minute or so. I’ll be conservative and assume it’s the later number that’s accurate. Regardless: How does the enrollment process work if the payment system hasn’t been finished yet? Remember, even if you’re one of the chosen few who managed to complete the sign-up process, your coverage doesn’t take effect on January 1 unless you make your first premium payment by December 15. You could make that payment directly to the insurer, bypassing the federal website entirely, but some segment of people won’t do that, whether because of absent-mindedness or their understandable assumption that payment should be made through the same site they used to enroll — i.e. Healthcare.gov.

It’s not just enrollees and insurers who are having trouble with payment either:”

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3. The President’s “fix” is going to cost insurers, which translates into higher costs for policyholders.

From Politico  “President Barack Obama had some bad news for the insurance company CEOs who met him at the White House: His “fix” might cost them.

Obama asked the CEOs to reinstate millions of Americans’ health insurance plans that were canceled because they fell short of coverage requirements under the law, according to two executives who attended the session Friday.

The president offered the execs some sweeteners, but admitted they won’t necessarily add up to enough to cover the full brunt of added costs that the changes to the insurance market could create.”

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4. Then we have the new lie, which is being used to provide cover for the old lie.

From NationalReview  “Obama’s ‘5 Percent’ Con Job        

It’s a 100 percent lie, according to the White House’s own figures”

“But that’s not the half of it. Obama’s claim that unwelcome cancellations are confined to the individual-insurance market is another brazen lie. In the weekend column, I link to the excellent work of Powerline’s John Hinderaker, who has demonstrated that, for over three years, the Obama administration’s internal estimates have shown that most Americans who are covered by “employer plans” will also lose their coverage under Obamacare. Mind you, 156 million Americans get health coverage through their jobs.

John cites the Federal Register, dated June 17, 2010, beginning at page 34,552 (Vol. 75, No. 116). It includes a chart that outlines the Obama administration’s projections. The chart indicates that somewhere between 39 and 69 percent of employer plans would lose their “grandfather” protection by 2013. In fact, for small-business employers, the high-end estimate is a staggering 80 percent (and even on the low end, it’s just a shade under half — 49 percent).”

Meet the new lie, worse than the old lie.

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5. It turns out college age women aren’t impressed with being portrayed as promiscuous tramps who can’t control themselves in ObamaCare ads using sex to sell their product. Via MRC-TV.

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6. Pass the popcorn, it looks like Democrats are about to enter the open revolt stage.

From TheHill  “The administration is risking rebellion from some Democrats in Congress if it fails to deliver on its promise to fix HealthCare.gov by the Nov. 30 deadline set by President Obama.”

“If the president’s team fails to deliver, Democrats will embrace legislation extending the law’s enrollment period or forcing insurance companies to continue offering plans that do not meet ObamaCare’s standards, according to Democratic aides.”

“A second Democratic aide said the party’s incumbents in the chamber facing reelection next year will begin to panic if the Department of Health and Human Services misses another important deadline set by the president.

“If the website is not up, the administration and 2014ers are going to start freaking out even more,” said the aide.”

If the rats are jumping ship, it’s sinking fast. 🙂

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7. Once again, the Hyde Amendment is just one more law this administration ignores. And don’t insult our intelligence by saying this won’t fund abortion. It will, and they know it.

From LifeSiteNews  “A Planned Parenthood facility in Texas has reopened its doors, thanks to federal taxpayer dollars it has received from the Obama administration.”

“The facility – which is named after the Rev. Bruce Galloway – gives women referrals for surgical abortions, offers chemical abortions by administering the “morning-after pill,” and performs “LGBT services.”

“The Mission office closed after Texas Governor Rick Perry passed a law forbidding abortion providers from receiving state planning funds. After the Obama administration threatened to withhold all federal money, Governor Perry established an entirely state-funded family planning system whose network is free of abortion providers.

But tn March, the Obama administration did an end-run around that law by directly providing $13 million to the Women’s Health and Family Planning Association of Texas (WHFPT), a coalition including Planned Parenthood.”

So they held a party to celebrate the ability to continue killing the unborn. Disgusting.

As is the President for ignoring federal law and celebrating with them, all on the taxpayer dime.

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8. And last one today…… FINALLY! 🙂

From YahooNews  “British comedy veterans Monty Python are set to reunite for a new show in their first major collaboration in 30 years, member Terry Jones revealed on Tuesday.

“I’m quite excited about it. I hope it makes us a lot of money. I hope to be able to pay off my mortgage!”

The BBC reported that the new collaboration — the first major project since the 1983 film “Monty Python’s The Meaning Of Life” — would come in the form of a theatre show.”

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by

News/Politics 11-9-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

Looks like we’re about to make a deal with the devil.

From TheTelegraph/UK  “America has proposed a short-term nuclear agreement with Iran  at a meeting in Geneva which would allow Tehran to continue enriching   uranium at low levels, according to an aide briefed on the talks. 

The goal is to freeze Iran’s nuclear programme for perhaps six months in order   to create a breathing space for a comprehensive agreement to be negotiated.”

“Mr Kerry will go to Geneva “in an effort to help narrow differences in   negotiations”, said a senior State Department official. 

But Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, warned on Thursday that   any deal which failed to stop Iran from enriching uranium would be a   “mistake of historic proportions”.”

And don’t think for a minute that this will stop Israel from doing what they think is necessary to protect themselves.

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Here’s something to keep in mind as the ObamaCare fiasco rolls on. Don’t forget, this is the home state of a certain community organizer turned politician. I imagine ObamaCare will operate in the same way when it comes to reigning in fraud.

From HotAir  “Remember Medicaid?  You know, the massive, costly federal healthcare program for America’s indigent?  Within the last few months, it’s been (a) exposed as an empirical failure by the most comprehensive study ever done, and (b) expanded hugely by Obamacare, natch.  Here’s how Medicaid is working in the Land of Lincoln.

The early findings of an ongoing review of the Illinois Medicaid program revealed that half the people enrolled weren’t even eligible. The state insisted it’s not that bad but Medicaid is on the federal government’s own list of programs at high risk of waste and abuse. Now, a review of the Illinois Medicaid program confirms massive waste and fraud. A review was ordered more than a year ago– because of concerns about waste and abuse. So far, the state says reviewers have examined roughly 712-thousand people enrolled in Medicaid, and found that 357-thousand, or about half of them shouldn’t have received benefits. After further review, the state decided that the percentage of people who didn’t qualify was actually about one out of four.

Not to fear, taxpayer-fleecing fraudsters, Big Labor has heroically filed a lawsuit to block the state from using private workers to purge ineligible recipients from the Medicaid rolls.  This thing may be tied up in court for awhile:”

I imagine they won’t be real concerned with making sure those getting subsidies deserve them either, and that the Medicaid fraud will grow nationwide as a result.

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Democrats are about to introduce more job-killing legislation. And everyone will pay higher prices across the board if they’re successful. Hopefully it’s DOA in the House.

From TheWashingtonExaminer  “Senate Democrats, hoping to move beyond the disastrous rollout of the new health care law, plan to pivot to legislation that would increase the federal minimum wage by nearly $3, to over $10 an hour.

Democratic lawmakers met privately Thursday to discuss proposals, including one by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, which would raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, a nearly 40 percent increase. It would also would tie wage levels to inflation.”

“Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., called the proposed minimum wage increase “long overdue, an important economic issue and a message to working families struggling paycheck to paycheck that we can help.”

They’ll be struggling even more when they lose their job because of this.

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Louisiana is about to crack down on folks who took advantage of the EBT system shutdown last month.

From HotAir  “Last month, a malfunction in the EBT system used by Louisiana and 16 other states led to a “no-limit” food run on several a whole lot of stores in Louisiana, with over 12,000 transactions made during the malfunction being declined for lack of funds . Those who abused the system in places like the Walmart in Many, Louisiana, which chose to not enforce the emergency $50 per account limit that was supposed to be enforced during the malfunction, thought they were in the clear after Walmart and local police decided not to pursue charges:

The Many Police Department posted this week on its Facebook page: “Apparently after reviewing surveillance tapes and interviewing witnesses, Wal-Mart has no evidence of any theft, nor any other criminal activity during the October 12th disturbance at the store. With this information, the Many Police Department has closed the investigation at this time.”

They were wrong:

The Louisiana governor’s office said Wednesday night that it would strip food stamp benefits from anyone who took advantage of an EBT card malfunction that in some cases caused an all-out shopping frenzy in some stores across the state, The Advocate reported.”

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The unemployment rate has ticked back up to 7.3%. Mostly it’s fuzzy math. Once again, another nearly million Americans dropped out of the labor force last month.

From ZeroHedge  “First, the labor force participation rate, which plunged from 63.2% to 62.8% – the lowest since 1978!

But more importantly, the number of people not in the labor force exploded by nearly 1 million, or 932,000 to be exact, in just the month of October, to a record 91.5 million Americans! This was the third highest monthly increase in people falling out of the labor force in US history. “

Carteresque no?

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And this one demonstrates the fuzzy math at play here. Last month much was made about an unexpected increase of 691,000 full-time jobs. But this month we learn that 621,000 full-time jobs were lost. BLS numbers have become a useless joke.

Also from ZeroHedge  “So much for the surge in 691,000 full-time jobs in September. One short month later, indicating just what a farce the BLS’s sampling process is, while the algo frenzy-inducing establishment survey showed a gain of 204,000 workers, the household survey had some other ideas. True, the headline household survey number rose by an almost identical 213,000 workers, however it is when trying to foot that number into the actual components, when one gets a headache. Because according to the same survey, a whopping 623,000 full-time workers (supposedly government) lost their jobs in October, nearly offsetting the entire 691,000 gain the month before which it turns out was purely for Obamacare (now hopelessly damaged) optics.”

And part-time jobs showed a loss as well.

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by

News/Politics 10-24-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

Looks like the White House will finally admit a delay in the individual mandate is necessary.

From MarketWatch  “The Obama administration will delay enforcement of the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance mandate, extending how long Americans may go uninsured before facing a penalty under the law, MarketWatch has learned.

The health care law requires most people to have health insurance by Jan. 1, 2014 or face a penalty, but the Administration may postpone when those penalties will go into effect. The law allows for “short coverage gaps” of up to three months before imposing the penalty, which is $95 or 1% of an individual’s income (whichever is greater) next year. Under the current rules, someone would have to be covered by March 31, an official with the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed, which is the final day that people will be able to purchase health insurance on the public exchanges, or marketplaces, created by the ACA.”

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Maybe a four year delay is in order?

From Forbes  “For people who have been following the story closely, it’s been clear for months that Obamacare’s exchanges were not ready to go live on October 1, and that their implementation needed to be delayed. The Obama administration insisted otherwise, claiming that everything was hunky-dory, and that reports to the contrary were simply the work of partisan saboteurs. But earlier this week, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius admitted the truth. “We didn’t have enough testing…for a very complicated project,” she conceded to the Wall Street Journal. The exchanges needed five years of construction and one year of testing, and instead had only “two years [of construction] and almost no testing.” That leaves us with an obvious question: Why, then, did Sebelius insist on rolling out the exchanges four years ahead of time?”

“The answer may be that she was under direct instructions from the White House. According to a letter sent to White House officials by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, CGI Federal—one of the key contractors involved in the project—said that officials with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the government agency tasked with running the exchanges, “constantly mentioned the ‘White House’ when discussing matters with CGI. For example, CGI officials told Committee staff that the ability to shop for health insurance without registering for an account—a central design feature of the health insurance exchange—was removed ‘in late August or early September.’”

It’s time to drag her in front of Congress, with a subpoena if necessary.

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Who are the ObamaCare Navigators, and how much are we paying for them?

From WeaselZippers  “1. Millions and millions of dollars It is important to understand that all the navigators listed are not just helping steer people through the Obamacare maze out of the goodness of their hearts. Each group/person listed has been awarded a grant (translate: tax payer dollars) to “navigate” people through the process.

For example, the Community Action Network of Nebraska (CAN) which has a few chapters amongst the listings, was awarded a grant for $562, 457.

There are 454 listings other than CAN.”

“There are also multiple “community action” groups, many of which sound like ACORN reborn. Amongst those, there is Seedco. Seedco has a “seedy” past. Seedco was under investigation by both NY State and the Federal government for fraud for falsely reporting jobs they supposedly had obtained for workers pursuant to a grant. The U.S. Attorney brought a civil fraud charge against them and they paid $1.725 million in a settlement in December 2012. Despite this, President Obama gave them a multi-million dollar contract for Obamacare. Or should I say, we paid the settlement at least in some measure, since they received more tax dollars for training for Obamacare. “As a result of these and other operational changes, we strongly believe that Seedco has the experience, integrity and commitment to carry out this work,” a Seedco statement said when queried about their involvement in Obamacare.”

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The Army keeps saying this isn’t official policy and these are “rogue” instructors doing this, and yet it keeps happening.

From FoxNews  “Soldiers attending a pre-deployment briefing at Fort Hood say they were told that evangelical Christians and members of the Tea Party were a threat to the nation and that any soldier donating to those groups would be subjected to punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

A soldier who attended the Oct. 17th briefing told me the counter-intelligence agent in charge of the meeting spent nearly a half hour discussing how evangelical Christians and groups like the American Family Association were “tearing the country apart.”

““The American public should be outraged that the U.S. Army is teaching our troops that evangelical Christians and Tea Party members are enemies of America, and that they can be punished for supporting or participating in those groups,” said Berry, a former Marine Corps JAG officer.”

“And while a large portion of the briefing dealt with the threat evangelicals and the Tea Party pose to the nation, barely a word was said about Islamic extremism, the soldier said.”

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Maybe that has something to do with this.

From TheBlaze  “Nine senior commanding generals have been fired by the Obama administration this year, leading to speculation by active and retired members of the military that a purge of its commanders is underway.

Retired generals and current senior commanders that have spoken with TheBlaze say the administration is not only purging the military of commanders they don’t agree with, but is striking fear in the hearts of those still serving.

The timing comes as the five branches of the U.S. armed forces are reducing staff due to budget cuts, and as U.S. troops are expected to withdraw from Afghanistan next year.

“I think they’re using the opportunity of the shrinkage of the military to get rid of people that don’t agree with them or not tow the party line. Remember, as (former White House chief of staff) Rahm Emanuel said, never waste a crisis,” a senior retired general told TheBlaze on the condition of anonymity because he still provide services to the government and fears possible retribution.”

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Next up, the Unemployment Rate is down, the number of Americans not in the workforce is up, and fuzzy math rules the day.

From CNSNews  “The number of Americans who are 16 years or older and  who have decided not to participate in the nation’s labor force has  climbed to a record 90,609,000  in September, according to data released  today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The BLS counts a person as participating in the labor force if they  are 16 years or older and either have a job or have actively sought a  job in the last four weeks. A person is not participating in the labor  force if they are 16 or older and have not sought a job in the last four  weeks.

In from July to August, according to BLS, Americans not participating  in the labor force climbed from 89,957,000 to 90,473,000, pushing past  90,000,000 for the first time, with a one month increase of 516,000.”

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And because of the above, you get this as one of the results as well.

Also From CNSNews  “In the fourth quarter of 2011, 49.2 percent of Americans received benefits from one or more government programs, according to data released Tuesday by the Census  Bureau.

In total, the Census Bureau estimated, 151,014,000 Americans out of a  population then estimated to be 306,804,000 received benefits from one  or more government programs during the last three months of 2011. Those 151,014,000 beneficiaries equaled 49.2 percent of the population.

This included 82,457,000 people–or 26.9 percent of the population–who lived in households in which one or more people received Medicaid benefits.”

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And the cost for all this continues to rise. But remember, we don’t have a spending problem. 🙄

From TheWeeklyStandard  “New research from the Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee shows that over the last 5 years, the U.S. has spent about $3.7 trillion on welfare.”

“We have just concluded the 5th fiscal year since President Obama took office. During those five years, the federal government has spent a total $3.7 trillion on approximately 80 different means-tested poverty and welfare programs. The common feature of means-tested assistance programs is that they are graduated based on a person’s income and, in contrast to programs like Social Security or Medicare, they are a free benefit and not paid into by the recipient,” says the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee.

“The enormous sum spent on means-tested assistance is nearly five times greater than the combined amount spent on NASA, education, and all federal transportation projects over that time. ($3.7 trillion is not even the entire amount spent on federal poverty support, as states contribute more than $200 billion each year to this federal nexus—primarily in the form of free low-income health care.)”

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And this should scare everyone, but especially the youngsters who will be left holding the bag.

From ZeroHedge  “Did you know that the U.S. national debt has increased by more than a trillion dollars in just over 12 months?  On September 30th, 2012 the U.S. national debt was sitting at $16,066,241,407,385.89.  Today, it is up to $17,075,590,107,963.57.  These numbers come directly from official U.S. government websites and can easily be verified.  For a long time the national debt was stuck at just less than 16.7 trillion dollars because of the debt ceiling fight, but now that the debt ceiling crisis has been delayed for a few months the national debt is soaring once again.  In fact, just one day after the deal in Congress was reached, the U.S. national debt rose by an astounding 328 billion dollars.  In the blink of an eye we shattered the 17 trillion dollar mark with no end in sight.  We are stealing about $100,000,000 from our children and our grandchildren every single hour of every single day. This goes on 24 hours a day, month after month, year after year without any interruption.

Over the past five years, the U.S. government has been on the greatest debt binge in history.  Unfortunately, most Americans don’t realize just how bad things have gotten because the true budget deficit numbers are not reported on the news. The following is where the U.S. national debt has been on September 30th during the five years previous to this one…

09/30/2012: $16,066,241,407,385.89

09/30/2011: $14,790,340,328,557.15

09/30/2010: $13,561,623,030,891.79

09/30/2009: $ 11,909,829,003,511.75

09/30/2008: $10,024,724,896,912.49″

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