Obama: Dead in the Water...is it true?

[WBU ALUM]

VIDEO
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/ ... tment.html

The Unions were warned about what ObamaCare would do. There were incentives in the bill for employers to reduce the number of their employees under 50. Full time employees are going to lose hours to get them under the 30-hour threshold. It is also going to cause Unions to lose members -- and dues -- which is their greatest concern.

[WBU ALUM]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/17/healt ... 50.html?hp

And then there is this little nugget. According to the article, only 17,000 New Yorkers buy insurance on their own.

The new premium rates do not affect a majority of New Yorkers, who receive insurance through their employers.

In addition, one state is 2% of America. It's also a state that has many more health insurance carriers than most states, which creates more competition.

[udonmarc]

In addition, one state is 2% of America. It's also a state that has many more health insurance carriers than most states, which creates more competition.

Sure, if you go by the number of states. But use any meaningful and relevant statistic, and, of course, New York is much more significant than 2%.

[KHONDAHM]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/17/healt ... 50.html?hp

And then there is this little nugget. According to the article, only 17,000 New Yorkers buy insurance on their own.

The new premium rates do not affect a majority of New Yorkers, who receive insurance through their employers.

In addition, one state is 2% of America. It's also a state that has many more health insurance carriers than most states, which creates more competition.

Someone tell me I'm not alone observing the utter ignorance of...um...the obvious:

The reason there are only 17,000 is BECAUSE the cost has been too high. Now, it is half that which means there will be MORE people who can take advantage of insuring themselves and families...duh.

[gudtymchuk]

Detroit files largest municipal bankruptcy case in U.S. history

Looks like Obamanomics ain't working in Detroit.

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2013 ... |FRONTPAGE

This is also very interesting: Flashback: Obama boasted in 2012: ‘We refused to let Detroit go bankrupt’

http://washingtonexaminer.com/flashback ... le/2533249

On October 13, 2012, President Obama boasted to Americans in his weekly address that he refused to “let Detroit go bankrupt.”

“[W]e refused to throw in the towel and do nothing,” Obama said. “We refused to let Detroit go bankrupt, I bet on American workers, and American ingenuity and three years later that bet is paying off in a big way.”

Of course Obama was referring to the auto industry – alluding to Mitt Romney’s unfortunate New York Times op-ed headline from 2008.

With the news of Detroit filing for bankruptcy today, his line takes on new meaning.

[KHONDAHM]

Detroit, like many parts of Michigan, was taken over by Republicans by a law passed by Republicans which placed a sole authoritarian in complete control of all aspects of local government. It's elected officials stripped of their powers. It's citizens robbed of their votes.

VIDEO
March 26, 2013
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/rachel-maddow-show/51327081

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AifLIs7L7SA

This sole Republican "ruler" put the city into Bankruptcy.

[WBU ALUM]

In addition, one state is 2% of America. It's also a state that has many more health insurance carriers than most states, which creates more competition.

Sure, if you go by the number of states. But use any meaningful and relevant statistic, and, of course, New York is much more significant than 2%.

Yeah, but a paltry 17,000 citizens for a state that size just as soon be zero. Add the fact that this is Obama's signature legislation, and most of what was promised has been found to be a LIE for most Americans.

[WBU ALUM]

Bad news about ObamaCare has been spreading all over America for quite awhile. More and more comes out every day. Back in March, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius finally admitted that the increasingly widespread phenomenon of rising premiums is, in fact, at least partially due to ObamaCare, and from coast to coast, that whole “affordable” promise is indeed looking worse and worse.

The New York Times’ came out with a big story about how the great Affordable Care Act is helping to dramatically lower health insurance premiums for New Yorkers (*See earlier link), but it was based on Cuomo's numbers:

State insurance regulators say they have approved rates for 2014 that are at least 50 percent lower on average than those currently available in New York. Beginning in October, individuals in New York City who now pay $1,000 a month or more for coverage will be able to shop for health insurance for as little as $308 monthly. With federal subsidies, the cost will be even lower. …

“Health insurance has suddenly become affordable in New York,” said Elisabeth Benjamin, vice president for health initiatives with the Community Service Society of New York. “It’s not bargain-basement prices, but we’re going from Bergdorf’s to Filene’s here.”

“The extraordinary decline in New York’s insurance rates for individual consumers demonstrates the profound promise of the Affordable Care Act,” she added.

That all sounds fantastic, except that the state of New York already has a huge bureaucratic, and heavily regulated health care system and has been running some of the highest individual market premiums in the country for about twenty years. It’s gotten so bad, there really isn’t much room for their premium prices to go anywhere but down at this point, and the NYT definitely misrepresented ObamaCare’s impact.

Avik Roy wrote this in Forbes:

Democrats' New Argument: It's A Good Thing That Obamacare Doubles Individual Health Insurance Premiums
http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapotheca ... -premiums/

The other approach is to do what Obamacare does: to impose an individual mandate that dragoons the healthy into subsidizing the sick, and to subsidize the cost of the inflated health premiums for some low-income individuals, so at least they can afford coverage. …

As a result, Obamacare does have the effect of lowering premiums in New York, to a weighted average of $301 a month: a 39 percent decrease from 2013 rates, and a 16 percent decrease from 2010 rates. …

It’s always better to see rates go down rather than up, but you have to remember the context. New York’s rates will still be three times higher than those found in California before Obamacare. And the Times inflated the impact of the ACA, implying that average premiums in New York City exceed $1,000 today vs. $308 under Obamacare; by our analysis, using a fairer comparison, the five-borough average for affordable coverage was $695, with a much lower average upstate.

It was a good try, though. All these ObamaCare supporters need to hunt high and low for some much-needed little victories.

[papaguido]

Yes I can see the resemblance

[LilRed]

I love this kinda bad news, WBU...

OBAMACARE.jpg (45.66 KiB) Viewed 2392 times

ATB

[WBU ALUM]

I love this kinda bad news, WBU...

Still not reading or choosing to ignore, I see.

And ... you gotta come with more than a cute little Facebook graphic. You still got nothing.

In the meantime, more lies revealed by the Washington Post and the AP.

President Obama’s claim that Americans saved $3.4 billion in health-care premiums
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fac ... s_politics


AP Fact Check: Truth About Obama’s Health Insurance Rebate Claims
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/07/ ... te-claims/

Obama was on solid ground in saying “millions of Americans” got rebate checks last year, but the number was not close to 13 million as he implied.

Of the 12.8 million rebates announced last year, health policy experts estimated 3 million would go directly to the insured. The government didn’t know how many.

Nearly two-thirds of the 12.8 million were only entitled to pro-rated and decidedly modest rebates, because they were covered by employers that pay most of their premiums. Workers typically pay about 20 percent of the premium for single coverage, 30 percent for a family plan. Employers pay the rest. …

Altogether, this year’s rebates are worth $500 million, down from $1.1 billion returned last year.

Why is it so much darn work to convince Americans that this law is as amazing as they say it is? And to think that this AMAZING health care plan doesn't even cover the President or the Congress who passed it. The lies and hypocrisy are dripping from this law.

[WBU ALUM]

Yes I can see the resemblance

Yes, Obama has been so many different people since he became president. During the course of his presidency, Obama has been Lincoln, FDR, Ronald Reagan, John Kennedy ... and now he thinks he could have been Trayvon Martin. Obama is like none of them -- except for the admitted recreational drug use a la the deceased Mr. Martin.

Good comparison, PG.

[Quanteen]

It's not really surprising that Obama might identify with a dope-smoking, violent, wannabe thug who makes wrong decisions at every turn and winds up biting off more than he can chew.

I can clearly see the similarities. I wonder if Barry supped the Perple Drank, too?

[WBU ALUM]

Yes, another long nail in the coffin of ObamaCare. The revelations come out almost daily now.

Remember that wonderful speech by Barack Trayvon Marton Obama that assured Americans that ObamaCare was working so well? Yes, many of his Ozombie friends repeat his fact-less talking points. Obama said he was going to plow right through the naysayers. Well, he better start hitching up the mule because he's going to have to plow through Anthem Blue Cross of California.

Anthem Blue Cross shuns insurance market for small businesses
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-a ... 1280.story

Health insurance giant Anthem Blue Cross is spurning California's new insurance market for small businesses, a potential setback in the state's rollout of the federal healthcare law.

Anthem, a unit of WellPoint Inc., is California's largest insurer for small employers. The company's surprising move raised concerns about the state's ability to offer competitive rates and attract businesses to its new Covered California exchange that opens Jan. 1.

"If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away, no matter what." - Barack Obama, 2009

The federal Affordable Care Act left it up to health insurers to decide whether they wanted to sell in these government-run marketplaces.

Friday's disclosure made Anthem the first big insurer in California to publicly pass on the small-business pool. Some other big names, such as UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Aetna Inc., have already opted out of California's larger exchange for individual consumers.

Let's review:

"If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away, no matter what." - Barack Obama, 2009

"If you’ve got a doctor that you like, you will be able to keep your doctor."

But Obama's Department of Health and Human Services made a change to that on their webs site. In the Q&A portion of the site, this is the answer to the question, "Can I keep my own doctor?":

Depending on the plan you choose in the Marketplace, you may be able to keep your current doctor. Different plans have different networks and providers Most health insurance plans offered in the Marketplace have networks of hospitals, doctors, specialists, pharmacies, and other health care providers. Networks include health care providers that the plan contracts with to take care of the plan’s members. Depending on the type of policy you buy, care may be covered only when you get it from a network provider. When comparing plans in the Marketplace, you will see a link to a list of providers in each plan’s network. If staying with your current doctors is important to you, check to see if they are included before choosing a plan.

It's just another promise with an expiration date. The dude is a liar. A serial liar. He's another one who probably didn't even read the damn bill and didn't know what was in it.

If staying with your current doctor was important to you, you needed to vote for someone else in 2012. But you didn't, so you're going to lose your doctor. If you have/want insurance with a provider who has BAILED OUT of the ObamaCare train wreck -- and there are many, you are up the Poo Poo Creek.

[TJ]

You would think after spending $100 million dollars of taxpayer money on a recent trip to Africa would be enough for one summer. But it’s not. The Obama family have already booked their next getaway to Martha’s Vineyard. They will reportedly be staying in a $7.6 million dollar mansion the week of August 10th.

You would hope that every day the Marxist puppet is out of town it there is some incremental delay in the destruction of the U.S. nation. IMO the U.S. republic is past the tipping point and has transformed into a soft-totalltarian democracy.

[papaguido]

=D>

[WBU ALUM]

It's not getting better for most Americans. Not by a long shot.

Unemployment rates rise in 28 US states in June
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/ ... 8-16-06-16

Obama's Labor Department announced that unemployment rates are increasing in most states. Only 11 saw their unemployment rates fall and another 11 were unchanged. Math? 39 states are the same or worse.

States that saw their unemployment rates rise include: Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Nevada, Missouri, Michigan, New Mexico, Virginia, Ohio, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont.

(Gee, someone posted not that long ago that everything was just fine in Connecticut. )

Massachusetts saw the largest increase: from 6.6 percent to 7.0 percent.

According to the report, rates increased because people who had left the workforce started looking for work again. California added 30,200 jobs in June, which was the most of any state (but there are taxes there out the whazzoo and the state is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy ... again), and Tennessee lost 16,500 jobs, the most of any state.

Nevada's 9.6 percent unemployment rate was the highest in the nation while North Dakota's 3.1 percent was the lowest, according to the report.

===================

Construction Languishing in the Obama Economy
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government ... ma-Economy

We are now in the fourth or fifth consecutive "recovery summer," and a sustainable level of growth for the American economy is as elusive today as it was during the prior recovery summers. There are many reasons why the economy is not growing as it should after the theoretical end of the Great Recession, and for many small entrepreneurs, this recession has yet to end.

In the 35+ years that I have worked in the architectural profession, including 23 years as a firm partner, I have experienced several recessions including the late seventies to early eighties, early nineties, post-9/11, and post-2007. The Great Recession has been deeper and longer-lasting for many reasons, particularly the housing bubble and subsequent bank failures, which have resulted in a systematic tightening of available capital, which is the “fuel” required to grow an economy.

When the Obama administration began assembling the initial Stimulus plan, many hoped that the funding would in fact stimulate the economy in a way that would help small businesses and entrepreneurs recover from the recession. As we now know, the Stimulus funded a shopping list of “gimmes” for well-connected cronies, campaign finance bundlers, and politically-connected hacks resulting in some unfortunately spectacular failures—particularly in “green” initiatives such as solar energy (Solyndra), windmills, energy retrofits, and high speed rail.

Among other promises, the Stimulus was to create thousands of new “green jobs”; this never happened. Small businesses and entrepreneurs got the short end and, in fact, many of them are no longer in business. Some are struggling to stay in business by not taking a salary in an effort to keep the doors open. Architecture has been particularly hard hit in the last five years. There are fewer architects in the profession now than there were in the late 1990s, and by some estimates, at least 20% of the architectural staff nationwide has been unemployed for some time in the past five years; most have been underemployed.

Architecture is part of the development and construction industry, which is the largest employer in the United States. This industry sector includes a variety of professions and skilled trades including architecture, engineering, materials manufacturing, construction management, and general contracting. While some materials are manufactured overseas (steel and gypsum wall board in China, for example) a vast majority of materials manufacturing and the labor force in development and construction is distributed locally throughout the United States. The downstream effect on the national economy is considerable; for every job position in the architectural field, there are 10 jobs created in building construction or building materials manufacturing.

Some economists believe that a nation’s economy is similar to a complex ecological system characterized by thousands if not millions of transactions, large and small, that occur on a daily basis. Most of these transactions for goods or services are between consumers and small entrepreneurs or between entrepreneurs. These transactions provide an economic livelihood for families and communities throughout the country. The transactions also fund future investments that allow businesses to grow over time benefitting not only entrepreneurs, but their employees, customers and clients as well.

Most entrepreneurial activity, particularly in development and construction requires some level of access to capital. One of the reasons that this sector of the economy is slow to recover is the difficulty in raising capital. One of the long-term consequences of the Dodd-Frank law is the cost of compliance with these regulations will be prohibitive to small local banks that traditionally funded development and construction projects in their respective communities. With the full implementation of Dodd-Frank, small community banks will either close or merge with larger regional banks. This will only make the ability to finance development and construction more difficult in smaller cities and communities.

Most non-farm jobs require a building to house the work being done, whether it is in manufacturing or services. When the economy truly recovers, there will be a demand for renovation or new construction of non-residential buildings. A true economic recovery will occur when the development and construction industry returns to a sustainable level of growth. This will be the indicator that the broader economy is recovering as well.

So Obama's ideas are actually causing small, hometown banks to close or merge with the big banks "too big to fail." Have you noticed that with all the ranting and hand-wringing that there was no law proposed to prevent banks from getting "too big to fail" again? I would be against such legislation because I believe in free enterprise, but the Liberal Utopians claimed that was the big problem. Now their policies are creating more.

[LilRed]

Obama Still Ruining Our Economy! — US Has Massive Budget Surplus In June

Interesting article from James Schlarmann

That goddamned socialist Kenyan is at again! As if over three years of positive jobs growth, more than doubling the Dow, and saving an economy that was tanking into oblivion and shedding almost a million jobs a month weren’t enough, now he’s gone and given this country a gigantic budget surplus in June! Is there anything this man won’t do to ruin our economy? Next thing you know, he’ll be creating tons of new jobs in green energy, or signing a huge comprehensive immigration bill that will add trillions to our economy over ten years. Well, actually he can’t do either of those last parts because thank God the Republicans are in town to stop his aggressive agenda of ruining America’s economy through jobs growth and gargantuan budget surpluses.

Apparently the sneaky jerk knew when he helped orchestrate the end of the Bush Tax Cuts on the wealthy of our nation (The Job Creators and Protectors of All Things Freedom) that it would increase our tax revenues. And apparently the B-Hole-in-Chief also had figured out that despite the rhetoric from true, American patriots like Ted Cruz, Paul Ryan and that other white guy in a suit, he had slashed quite a bit of government spending already. So those two things, slashed government spending and higher tax revenues resulted in the highest budget surplus in June in our nation’s history.

The economy grew by $287 billion, up over ten percent from this time last year. This of course is terrible for the country’s Republicans who have been working tirelessly to keep our country’s economy safe from the growth and stability of President Maobama. This evidence of economic growth is of course the worst news possible for Americans. Sure, creating more and more new jobs every month means that more and more people will get back to work. Sure, those people going back to work will inject gobs and gobs of money back into our economy. Sure, housing prices are jumping back up again. But this is all terrible news for America! Because it’s a Democrat overseeing all these things, and that might actually give people the impression that Democrats being charge is good for the economy! We cannot have that can we?

Think about it! The last time we raised taxes and had huge surpluses you know who was in charge? President Clinton, that’s who. Do we really want America to look like it did in the 90′s, when the tech boom was fueling our economy at its fastest peace-time rate ever? Do we really want our unemployment rate to be back down at around 4%? Do we really want emerging green technologies to be like the Internet e-business boom of that time? Are we really prepared to give over to the Clintonomics of Obama’s White House and sit idly by as the country’s economy improves despite how hard the forces of good, righteous, red, white and blue American apple pie ideals work to obstruct his senseless agenda of economic recovery?

Democratic economic policies clearly don’t work, at least not when it comes to doing what America was created to do — serve our corporate overlords and the extremely wealthy. Obviously all the liberals in the world missed the last part of Washington’s first inaugural address when he intoned, “Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave; but not without telling you all that the whole reason we fought for independence from Great Britain was because they just weren’t going to suck the dick of Corporate America quite well enough, and yeah, that’s what we’re all about. And in conclusion; MONEY MONEY MONEY!” Why do you think we put his face on his favorite thing in the world, money?

Thank God for all of us who hate economic prosperity and a growing middle class that we have austerity-obsessed Republicans in power who can make sure that Obama’s regime of crony cronyism with his cronies goes down hard. I am sure, positive beyond all doubt that one of the fifteen hundred windmills scandals that Chairman and High-Inquisitor Darrell Issa is currently hunting down will turn up the evidence we need to finally get rid of this a-hole! It’s a fool-proof plan, actually.

There’s nothing Americans have loved more in the past than a completely useless Congress. So they’ll jump for joy when they take their “do nothingness” to the next level and hyper-focus on bringing down the current administration, right? Whether it’s a salacious blowjob, or a made up story about Obama watching Ambassador Stevens die on his iPad while he played Angry Birds, there will be something that will be enough for Issa to drum up impeachment charges, and then, then we’ll see just how much of this growth and recovery Americans really want.

- See more at: http://www.politicalgarbagechute.com/ob ... ewKmy.dpuf

I reckon President Obama is laughing at those silly Republicans.

Eat the Rich!

ATB

[parrot]

It's all about the economy......"Brighter US economic outlook boosts hiring
22 July 2013 - Companies are increasingly confident the economy will grow at a modest pace over the next year and are hiring more, according to a survey of business economists. Nearly one-third of the economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics said their companies added jobs in the April-June quarter, according to a report released Monday. That's the highest percentage in nearly two years. And 39 per cent expect their firms will hire more in the next six months. That's near the two-year high of 40 per cent reached in the January-March quarter."

[jackspratt]

It's all about the economy......"Brighter US economic outlook boosts hiring
22 July 2013 - Companies are increasingly confident the economy will grow at a modest pace over the next year and are hiring more, according to a survey of business economists. Nearly one-third of the economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics said their companies added jobs in the April-June quarter, according to a report released Monday. That's the highest percentage in nearly two years. And 39 per cent expect their firms will hire more in the next six months. That's near the two-year high of 40 per cent reached in the January-March quarter."

Eh!

That's not what they are saying on breitbart.com

You must be mistaken.