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Why Obama, Democrats and Apple CEO are Hypocrites About Indiana Religious Freedom Law
Posted by: | CommentsApr. 8, 2015
Wayne is the author of the newly released national bestseller: “The Murder of the Middle Class”. Wayne Allyn Root is a former Libertarian Vice Presidential nominee, successful
The Religious Freedom and Restoration Act in Indiana has been the biggest news in America for a week now.
This is all a joke, a distraction from what’s really being done to America by Barack Obama and his Marxist cabal of America-haters. Or haven’t you noticed an Iranian nuclear deal that allows Iran to gain nuclear weapons…or a new crisis of illegals at the border…debt escalating out of control…40 straight months with over 46 million Americans on food stamps…GDP growth of zero now projected for the first quarter…and a disastrous jobs report.
First let’s “out” the opponents of this law. Let me start by saying I’m a true fiscal conservative but when it comes to social and bedroom issues, I’m a Libertarian. I believe in live and let live. I want government out of my bedroom and boardroom. The government shouldn’t be regulating marriage, only churches should marry people.
And if a gay couple wanted a wedding cake from me, you know what I’d say? “How big?” But, that’s just me. I’m a capitalist, I’m happy to sell my products to everyone. That’s the American way.
But if someone asks me to violate my personal values, morals, or religious beliefs, or if I just don’t like what they are asking me to do, as a business owner of course I have a right to opt out. I’m not hurting them, or stopping them. That’s called free will. That’s called free speech, protected by the Constitution.
The radical gay agenda is infringing on our rights as Americans…as Christians…as business owners. And, it’s going to backfire.
The proof is the small town Indiana pizzeria that told a reporter they would refuse to make pizzas for a gay wedding. How silly. Weddings aren’t catered by pizzerias in the first place. But instantly they were inundated with death threats and even a local coach asking others on Twitter to join her in burning down the pizzeria. The family that owns the pizzeria closed its doors and ran for their own safety.
Then something interesting happened. Americans supported them….to the tune of over $842,000, donated by strangers on an online funding site. This pizzeria owner won the lottery. He should thank God for the radical gay agenda.
But back to the hypocrisy and fraud. First, the Indiana bill is a copy of a federal law signed by Democrat President Bill Clinton in 1993.
Isn’t Bill Clinton a friend of gays? Aren’t gay activists supporting Hillary Clinton for president? Yet not one gay activist blamed the Clintons.
This is just like the radical feminist activists who loved Bill Clinton and never said a word as he used his position of power to have sex with a young intern.
Isn’t that the very definition of sexual harassment? If it was a Republican president the same radical feminists would have screamed for resignation. But when Bill Clinton was the perpetrator, not a peep from the feminists. HYPOCRITES.
Then there’s Obama. What a hypocrite. Iran doesn’t discriminate against gays… they murder them. They throw them off roofs after torturing them. It’s barbaric. Yet Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry are doing business with Iran. Why are they willing to sit at the table with these gay killers?
And let’s not forget that Obama himself supported the same law and its implementation in Illinois when he was a sort-of-senator there and it certainly was not a problem then. Although he had alterior motives and that is he did it to protect Muslims not Christians but non-the-less he supported the exact same law in 2007 in Illinois. (Added)
And, if gay rights are really so important to Obama, why isn’t THE RIGHT TO NOT BE MURDERED FOR BEING GAY not part of the Iranian nuclear negotiation? HYPOCRITES.
Mahmoud Asgari, 16, left, and Ayaz Marhoni were hanged in Iran on sodomy charges in 2005. (AP)
Then there’s Apple CEO Tim Cook. He’s was all “fired up” by Indiana’s new law. Yet Apple makes billions selling its products in Russia, where gays have no rights; and, in Muslim countries like Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia where gays are murdered for their sexual preference; and in China where no one has any civil or human rights.
Why doesn’t Apple stop selling iPhones and iPads in those countries? Why doesn’t Apple close its Moscow store immediately? HYPOCRITES.
And then there’s the “pandora’s box” liberal gay activists just opened up:
- Should a Muslim baker be forced by government to bake a cake for a gay wedding?
- Should a Muslim butcher be forced by government to sell pork?
- Should a gay baker be forced by government to bake a cake with anti-gay profanity on top?
- Should a gay photographer be forced by government to photograph a rally where religious speakers are telling gays to go hell?
- Should a Jewish owner of a security company in Skokie, Illinois be forced by government to provide security for a Nazi rally?
- Should a church-going Christian mother be forced by government to cater an awards gala at a porn convention?
- Should a church-going Christian mother who owns a print shop be forced by government to make banners for Spring Break that say, “SHOW ME YOUR BREASTS!”
- Should an Obama-loving liberal business owner be forced by government to rent the stage at his event center for a Tea Party rally?
- Should a black baker be forced by government to bake a cake with racist profanity and a black man in a noose for a KKK birthday party?
Where does it end? This is insanity. Government has no right to take away our rights of free will, free speech and free association. But, if you’re going to force Christian business owners to do things they don’t choose to do, then it goes both ways. The law has to be fairly applied to everyone… or it’s clearly discrimination and a violation of our civil rights.
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. I have a feeling liberals and gay rights activists are going to be very sorry they opened this door.
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TheBlaze contributor channel supports an open discourse on a range of views. The opinions expressed in this channel are solely those of each individual author.
The original article can be found: HERE
A LITTLE SKIN IN THE GAME
Posted by: | CommentsA LITTLE SKIN IN THE GAME
Barry Small
01/23/2015
I have come to the conclusion that the reason America is the divided crumbling society that it has become is because we have “NO SKIN IN THE GAME”. More to the point, there are too many people with too much voice making decisions that affect the whole nation that have never had any skin in the game.
Before I go any further, I want to make something clear; I was never in the military, I went to private school and grew up in middle class middle America. I am neither Republican nor democrat. I consider myself a believer in the Constitution; as it was written, by very wise men that fully understood the temptation of power, money and influence.
If you had asked me about what I am about to say a year ago you would have gotten a very different answer than I am going to write today. But in the words of James Carney “the president’s position has evolved.” Good enough for him; good enough for me.
I believe we need a return to the draft. Yes, I know that it comes with some constitutional issues, so maybe this isn’t as much about a true return to the draft, but more about making a point. I think that mandatory military service would bring change to America…and that is what America said it wanted correct…change.
What spurred this thought was the incredible stupidity of the remarks coming out of Hollywood and the progressive left about the movie American Sniper. Too be fair, there were some leftist progressives that did call out their brothers for their ignorance… kudo’s to them. This is where my clarification that I never served in the military becomes important. Some will say that it is hypocritical to call for a draft when I was unwilling to serve when I was of military age.
They are absolutely correct. I was unwilling to serve, but not for some political or moral reason. I saw first-hand how the patriot veterans of Vietnam were treated when they returned home. I lived in Saigon for two years as a pre-teen and saw all the war I wanted to see. I got just a glimpse of what our soldiers saw every day and then the treatment they got when they returned and I didn’t want to be a part of it.
Many years later, and with much more experience and wisdom, I feel a bit of guilt for living the American dream on the backs of those men and women while having no real skin in the game. This is a good point to say thank you to every person that dedicated their life to the military and too protecting all the freedoms and opportunities that I get to take advantage of.
It was the poison that came out of Seth Rogen and Michael Moore that made me wonder how we got to the point where those that protect us have become the enemy. What happened between WWII and today that we don’t appreciate the sacrifices made by those that serve? How did we get to the point where patriots are villains?
As I thought about it I realized that Seth Rogen and Michael Moore are nothing more than today’s Jane Fonda’s. They are the current issue of draft dodgers and bra burners. They are today’s hypocrites raised on a silver spoon and given a platform to spew their garbage from the safety of their gated homes protected by security. They are the today’s shitbag traitors that have made their living on the backs of those that sacrificed and served to protect their right to be stupid.
That is what I mean by “no skin in the game.” If Seth Rogen had served in Afghanistan or in Chris Kyle’s shoes, I doubt he would have run that sewer pipe he calls a mouth the way he did. Seth Rogen is the poster child for raised with a silver spoon in his mouth. Michael Moore on the other hand is just a pig at the trough.
No doubt someone will say that I have no idea what their background was like and they are right. But I know this from having lived and travelled all over the world; virtually every one of us that grew up in America grew up with a silver spoon compared to the majority of the world. Not one of us that didn’t serve has the right to call out any patriot that did.
That is why I think the draft would be a good thing. I believe that the difference between today and yesteryear is that there are too many of us that never had to invest or sacrifice anything important to live the American Dream. We don’t have skin in the game.
Think about the difference a draft would make. If everyone had to do two/four years of military service when they turned eighteen or graduated from high school, the “you owe me everything you worked for” crowd would disappear.
If you had to be up at the butt crack of dawn marching, we wouldn’t have the obesity problem we have today. Instead of sitting on your ass playing video games in your parent’s basement you would be learning responsibility, respect and a whole lot about what freedom is worth.
Instead of kids camping in a city parks marching in the streets, shooting heroin and raping each other, they would be marching and camping in the mountains, learning the value of hard work, discipline and team work. They would discover that with a little effort they don’t need the government to support them and that there is a sense of pride in self-reliance that you don’t get from living on government crack. I doubt many would feel the need to demand their share of what I work for because they would be working themselves.
I believe we wouldn’t have the “racial” problems we allegedly have today because in the military everyone is a grunt and everyone learns that they all have to depend on each other equally to succeed. It has been the one place where to a much higher degree than anywhere else, racial integration is successful. That most certainly would carry over into society as people moved back into civilian life.
Military service should be a prerequisite to citizenship if you are of military age. If you want the benefits of being an American citizen you should have to earn it. I don’t think that if that was the case, those that earned it would look too favorably on those that get amnesty/citizenship by entering the country illegally. Having a little skin in the game would certainly change the value and perspective of being what being an American is worth.
Here is the big one; if you aren’t willing to serve, don’t serve honorably and don’t have a DD214 that says you did your time honorably you should not be eligible to hold any public or government office. This should include any government job from janitor in the public library to public university professor to POTUS. I’m pretty sure there wouldn’t be too many Ward Churchill’s brainwashing our youth if they had the silver spoon extracted from that rectum known as their mouth and had to put a little skin in the game.
Jesse and Big Al wouldn’t have the audience they do because their constituency would evaporate with knowledge, skills and a sense of self-reliance as opposed to the victim message they are fed. No longer would they accept the montage that they are victims of society when they are weaned off the victim diet and realize that their own people have been the ones using them for political gain. Self-reliance and a sense of equality on all sides would go a long way toward getting people and keeping people out of the welfare/poverty death spiral.
There would be very little tolerance for the hate speech and anti-Americanism preached by the likes of Jeremiah Wright, the radical Islamic emams, or self-proclaimed socialists like Bernie Sanders and Kshama Sawant in Seattle.
Lastly I think that those elected to public office would have a better understanding of their responsibility to the people. I think they would look at the people’s money quite a bit differently than they do today and I think they would have a better understanding of how valuable the constitution and our rights really are.
Having a little skin in the game changes one’s perspective; it gives value to the things we take for granted. Freedom isn’t and shouldn’t be free, it should be earned. Nothing you get for free is worth any more than that. That is why welfare and socialism don’t work. When you don’t have to earn it, there is no respect for it or yourself.
Jane Fonda, Seth Rogen and the Michael Moore’s of the world have no right to trash talk anyone. We continue to allow the Saul Alinsky’s and Wade Churchill’s to pollute our kids and incite hate. Our silence toward these anti Americans speaks volumes about how much we really value the gift of being an American.
Freedom shouldn’t be free; every one of us should have some skin in the game. It is far too easy to eat from our American silver spoon and complain while someone like Chris Kyle is doing our share of the sacrificing for us.
A draft will never happen again not because of constitutional issues, but because politicians don’t want a population that values their rights. People with pride and values wouldn’t put up with their incredible irresponsibility and ignorance. The progressives most certainly would never go for it because they need “victims” to maintain their class warfare and racial message. Conservatives would never allow it because self-reliance is empowering and they cannot have an empowered citizenry threatening their hold on power.
If we want to right this ship, we need to have some skin in the game. We can’t afford to continue allowing people that haven’t bought and paid for their ticket to have a say in where we are going. That includes people like me that have lived the good life with very few sacrifices. I was lucky; my father earned his freedom and taught me to value it. I saw and experienced places in the world that didn’t have what we have. But that isn’t the same as sacrificing for it.
My “position today has evolved” and I better realize that I owe my success to patriots like Chris Kyle; he paid for my freedom with his life. I don’t deserve it; he was way more a man than I was. I had the same opportunity he did; he answered the call and I didn’t.
Seth and Mikey don’t deserve it either, and CPO Kyle certainly doesn’t deserve the vile hate they spewed about him. Traitors like Fonda, Alinsky and Wright don’t deserve the gift that has cost the blood of thousands of patriots.
What is the difference between WWII and today? Patriots came home as the heroes that they were. They had skin in the game, walked with an air of self-reliance that was born in blood. They didn’t need or want to be reliant on anyone else; they understood the value of earning everything they got including their freedom. They had skin in the game and they earned the right to every freedom the constitution guarantees. It’s about time the rest of us man up, pull the silver spoon out of our collective asses and do something to earn what Chris Kyle died to give us.
Rest in Peace CPO Kyle, and thank you for your sacrifice.
Exposed: How the VA red-flags “disruptive” vets
Posted by: | CommentsBy Michelle Malkin • June 25, 2014 01:31 AM
Exposed: How the VA red-flags “disruptive” vets by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate Copyright 2014
Imagine how much better off America’s veterans would be if the federal government spent more time delivering actual care and less time compiling tyrannical lists. The death-inducing secret waiting lists for patients are just the tip of the iceberg.
Did you know, for example, that the VA keeps a database on “disgruntled” and “disruptive” vets that results in arbitrarily restricted care?
Disabled Air Force veteran and veterans advocate/attorney Benjamin Krause has been raising questions about the system for months and warning his peers. Under the VA policy on “patient record flags” (PRFs), federal bureaucrats can classify vets as “threats” based on assessments of their “difficult,” “annoying” and “non-compliant” behavior.
The VA manual says the flags “are used to alert Veterans Health Administration medical staff and employees of patients whose behavior and characteristics may pose a threat either to their safety, the safety of other patients, or compromise the delivery of quality health care.”
That last phrase is priceless. Untold numbers of vets are dead, and legions more have languished because of the VA’s failure to deliver “quality health care.” The Office of Special Counsel just confirmed to President Obama this week that vets across the country were exposed to contaminated drinking water, dirty surgical tools, untrained doctors and neglectful nurses — and that whistleblowers were retaliated against or ignored.
Read Full STUNNING Story here: Exposed: How the VA Red-Flags Disruptive Vets
No worries here….Nothing to See….Just move on!!
AGAIN: Another example of just how truly ignorant the voters are and putting the truly ignorant into office. (blind leading the blind I guess)
May 29, 2014 / by Jason Howerton
Despite the fact that many of her Democratic colleagues are calling for heads to roll over the Veterans Affairs scandal, Rep. Corrine Brown (D-Fla.) says the VA system in Florida is doing just fine.
During a Wednesday House hearing on the VA scandal, Brown said she did some “reconnaissance” and discovered there is not “one complaint” about the facilities in her state. It didn’t take long for her opponents to pounce.
Here she is in all her glory ignorance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id7fE4_jInQ
Full Story: The brilliant Rep. Corrine Brown (D-FL)
Obama’s ‘Voter ID’ Scam is Busted!
Posted by: | CommentsObama’s ‘Voter ID’ Scam is Busted!
By Wayne Allyn Root (The Blaze.com)
February 25, 2014
Source:
Obama’s ‘Voter ID’ Scam is Busted! | TheBlaze.com
Folks, we are being scammed. Democrats are winning elections through what appears to be massive voter fraud.
There is a saying, “He with the gold rules.” Well, whoever wins elections has the gold. The winner has the power to change everything – so they rule. It doesn’t matter if the win was by a small margin, or if the win was by committing fraud. Winning is everything.
Many citizens may not realize most national elections are won by a sliver of votes in only a few, key battleground states. Change the vote totals by a small bit in a few states and Mitt Romney is the president: Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Iowa, Pennsylvania.
Why did Obama and Democrats win by just a sliver in those few battleground states? In 2012 it was a powerful one-two punch, both of which I believe were out and out voter fraud.
First, Obama used the IRS as his personal mafia thug enforcers to persecute, intimidate and destroy his political opposition – ranging from Tea Parties, to conservative fundraising organizations, to top GOP donors, to high-profile outspoken critics in the media (like myself).
This widespread Obama-IRS conspiracy killed enthusiasm and intensity, dampened energy, silenced free speech and prevented fundraising through an IRS witch-hunt. This changed the outcome of the 2012 election and Obama should be impeached for it.
If you think impeachment can’t happen, study Ukraine. One day the president is mocking protestors and sending police to kill them. The next day he is abandoning his palace, impeached by Congress, and the military is hugging the citizens in the streets. It all changes quickly.
But still, I believe the IRS scandal is the smaller problem. Impeach Obama and no president will use the IRS for political purposes ever again. Problem solved.
The more widespread problem involves Voter Identification – or the lack of it. Without Voter ID, Democrat voters across this country could be voting four times, five times, 10 times each. There is no way to prevent it and the facts indicate that is exactly what happened.
FILE – In this Sept. 26, 2012 file photo People pass the signs telling of the requirement for voters to show an acceptable photo ID to vote as they head into the the Penndot Drivers License Center in Butler, Pa. Some political momentum could be on the line in a judge s forthcoming ruling on Pennsylvania’s tough new voter identification law. Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson is expected to rule Tuesday. That s just five weeks before voters decide whether to re-elect President Barack Obama, a Democrat, or replace him with Mitt Romney, a Republican.Credit: AP
Take Philadelphia as just one example. There were voting precincts in Philly where the combined vote was Obama over Romney by about 30,000 to 0. In those precincts GOP poll watchers were forcibly removed for several hours, until judges ordered them back in. During those hours were the ballot boxes stuffed? Did Democrat voters vote 10 times each? As absurd as 30,000 to 0 is (it’s just statistically impossible), maybe the right vote total was 6,000 to 0.
If I’m wrong, why did the wolves want the chicken coup left unguarded?
Democrats hate Voter ID. It’s one of their biggest issues. But that’s ridiculous. Voter ID is a no-brainer. You need an ID to do most anything: cash a check, buy cigarettes or alcohol, get food stamps, or get any government benefits. You even need ID to get into government buildings!
So why are Democrats so intense and passionate about such a minor issue? Me thinks thou protesteth too much. This is a much bigger issue than meets the naked eye. Democrats are losing their minds over Voter ID because they know they can’t win elections without fraud.
Obama and his socialist cabal are making “a mountain out of a molehill” because this is their edge. This is how they win elections when their policies are a failure; when they’ve ruined the economy; when they’ve spent the country into bankruptcy; when they’ve killed millions of jobs. Voter ID is their secret weapon. They stuff the ballot box. They cheat.
Voter apathy, combined with voter fraud, threaten to undermine the democratic process. Photo Credit: David McNews/Getty Images
I dare Democrats to prove me wrong. But of course they can’t, because without Voter ID, there is no way to prove voters are voting multiple times, in different precincts, using false names, or the names of dead voters, or the names of voters who have moved, or using illegal immigrants to illegally vote across this country.
But there is proof positive Voter ID is a scam. The Obama-Democratic Party argument against Voter ID because:
A) It’s racist…
B) It’s meant to stop people from voting…
C) It’s too big a burden for poor and minority voters to obtain ID.
I just returned from two doctor visits for a checkup and a follow-up test. These were my first doctor visits since Obamacare took effect. Guess what both medical offices asked me for before any doctor could see me, or any medical test could be done?
Official government-issued photo ID.
You cannot see a doctor, or receive your free Obamacare without ID to prove it’s really you. A health insurance card won’t do the trick, simply because the medical office needs to prove you are in fact the person whose name is on the insurance card.
I questioned the nurses at both offices. They verified no one can collect their “free” Obamacare services from any doctor without showing ID. And since everyone is now required to have health insurance (or is given free insurance), the government is requiring that EVERYONE have a photo ID.
Does that make Obama and the Democrats racists? No, what it makes them is hypocrites who are in total fear of fair elections that they know they have no chance of winning – no chance, that is, unless they cheat. Don’t look now but Obamacare just opened the door for Voter ID.
This is where the younger generation screams, “BUSTED!”
Let’s take the hypocrisy a step further. Every single Democrat voter must be lining up to get their photo ID so they can get their free Obamacare. So the argument that poor and minority Democrat voters don’t have ID, or shouldn’t be “burdened” to get it, is out the window.
I think this is where the younger generation screams, “DOUBLE BUSTED.”
That leaves only one possible reason to oppose Photo ID for voters…the ability to cheat! The whole Voter ID scam is dead in the water- just like the Obama economy. The argument against Voter ID is killed- just like jobs in this Obama economy. And anyone who tries to argue “most voters don’t have ID” is a liar- just like the president who said, “If you like your insurance, you can keep it.”
Obama you are BUSTED.
Wayne’s latest book is: “The Ultimate Obama Survival Guide: How to Survive, Thrive, and Prosper During Obamageddon.”
Wayne’s latest book is: The Ultimate Obama Survival Guide: How to Survive, Thrive, and Prosper During Obamageddon. It hit #1 in bookstores, and is currently the 6th bestselling political hardcover in America for the past year. Wayne Allyn Root is a former Libertarian Vice Presidential nominee, successful entrepreneur, small business defender, business speaker, Capital Evangelist, and media personality- appearing on over 5000 interviews in the past 5 years. Wayne’s web site: ROOTforAmerica.com.
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TheBlaze contributor channel supports an open discourse on a range of views. The opinions expressed in this channel are solely those of each individual author.
An Obamacare Report Card
Posted by: | CommentsThe Weekly Standard
An Obamacare Report Card
The grades are bad so far—and likely to get worse
Christopher J. Conover
February 17, 2014, Vol. 19, No. 22
Perhaps the most unpleasant aspect of my otherwise quite enjoyable job as a college professor has been the requirement to assign grades to students. Given that we’re now about halfway through implementation of the Affordable Care Act—which even President Obama is happy to call “Obamacare”—it seems appropriate to assign midterm grades. These are not intended as a forecast of the final grade; moreover, implementation of Obamacare is the responsibility of many thousands of individuals, not just one. Nevertheless, as President Truman’s legendary Oval Office desk sign reminds us, “The buck stops here” when it comes to presidential leadership. So whether President Obama likes it or not, the public and historians are likely to base their assessment of his performance on how well his “signature piece of domestic legislation” is implemented.
First the Grading Standard:
Promises vs. Performance
Both as a candidate and as president, Barack Obama has made at least 80 promises related to health care. For purposes of grading, I have focused on the 8 most consequential.
Promise #1: Universal Coverage. Candidate Obama promised on June 23, 2007: “I will sign a universal health care bill into law by the end of my first term as president that will cover every American.” The latest CBO projections last May show that as of the end of 2013, Obamacare will have reduced the number of nonelderly uninsured by less than 4 percent. This figure excludes 11 million unauthorized immigrants (51 percent of whom are uninsured). Even when Obamacare is fully implemented in 2017, it will cover only 92 percent of the nonelderly population who are not unauthorized immigrants (nearly everyone age 65 and above is already covered by Medicare), and 84.7 percent of that group already had coverage in March 2009, a full year before Obamacare was signed into law. Even if we concede that other countries relying on an individual mandate have failed to drive their uninsured rates below 1 percent (Switzerland) or 1.5 percent (Netherlands), Obamacare will close only 53 percent of the gap that existed when President Obama was sworn into office. Grade: F.
Promise #2: No New Taxes on the Middle Class. Candidate Obama promised on September 12, 2008: “I can make a firm pledge under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.” Using official estimates from the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation, the House Ways and Means Committee projects that Obamacare will increase federal revenues by $1.058 trillion between 2013 and 2022. Only 30 percent of this total will be raised from taxes that exclusively target taxpayers earning over $200,000 (singles) or $250,000 (married). The remaining 70 percent will be borne by households at all other income levels. Tax Policy Center figures show that such households do not account for more than half of all federal taxes. So even if we generously assume such households will bear a similar share of the myriad levies to be imposed on health insurers, medical device manufacturers, and drug manufacturers—levies which will be passed onto consumers—that still leaves at least 35 percent to be borne by families at or below middle-class incomes.
And these figures do not include the hundreds of billions of dollars in new revenue that will have to be collected by states to pay for their share of Obamacare-induced growth in Medicaid. Nor do they include the impact of “taxation by regulation”—i.e., the tens of billions of dollars in higher premiums that young Americans are being forced to pay under Obamacare’s modified community rating rules in order to subsidize predominantly higher-income people who happen to be older. In short, President Obama’s promise at best was 65 percent true and more likely 50 percent or less true. Grade: F.
Promise #3: Annual Premium Savings of $2,500. Candidate Obama promised on June 5, 2008: “We’ll lower premiums by up to $2,500 for a typical family per year. . . . We’ll do it by the end of my first term.” This promise was reiterated at least 14 times, most recently in a campaign speech on July 16, 2012. An adviser who helped calculate the original figure is on record as saying that the claim that premiums would decline by $2,500 per family was a “misstatement”; what was originally intended was that total health spending would decline by this amount. So let us give the president the benefit of the doubt by (a) reframing his promise as a prediction about health spending rather than premiums and (b) allowing Obamacare a full 12 years to achieve the promise instead of taking candidate Obama’s rash claim “by the end of my first term” literally. Even by that relaxed standard, all the available evidence makes this claim provably false. The latest report from the Medicare actuaries shows that in its first dozen years, Obamacare will boost health spending by “roughly $621 billion“—or an average of $7,579 for a family of four—above the amount Americans would have spent without this misguided law. When even the fact-checker at the Washington Post
awards Three Pinocchios to a claim and PolitiFact deems it a Promise Broken, it seems reasonable to label it a failure. Grade: F.
Promise #4: Bend the Cost Curve. On December 15, 2009, after meeting with Senate Democrats, President Obama asserted that the Senate bill (which passed nine days later) “will finally reduce the costs of health care.” While conceding that health spending would go up in the first 10 years as a result of the expansion of coverage, PolitiFact scored this statement as Half True on grounds that the plan would “bend the cost curve” (a term of art championed by former OMB director Peter Orszag and used repeatedly by the president in explaining his goals for the proposed plan). That is, in the final year of the 10-year projection used by the Medicare actuaries to score the plan, the rate of growth in health spending under the Senate bill (essentially the version signed into law) would be slightly lower (6.9 percent) than under the status quo (7.2 percent). Unfortunately, the Medicare actuaries, along with the Medicare trustees, CBO, and Government Accountability Office, also have questioned whether the deep cuts in Medicare—which are central to any estimated reductions in the long-term rate of health spending growth—are either wise or politically sustainable in light of their potentially devastating effects on access to care (more on that shortly). Under a more realistic “alternative fiscal scenario” (which the independent, nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget argues “is probably a lot closer to where we are going” than the baseline scenario used by CBO), Medicare spending by 2085 will absorb 9.8 percent of GDP rather than only 6.5 percent of GDP under the less realistic current law projection that was used by CBO to conclude that Obamacare would reduce the deficit. Since this was a long-term promise that may yet bear fruit (however improbable that is given what we know), it is fairest to award the Grade: Incomplete.
Promise #5: No Increase in the Deficit. On September 9, 2009, President Obama promised: “I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits.” While the CBO scored the plan as reducing the deficit in its first 10 years, Rep. Paul Ryan eloquently and decisively revealed the “gimmicks and smoke-and-mirrors” underlying that assessment (which counted 10 years of revenue but only 6 years of spending, for instance). Medicare public trustee Charles Blahous went even further in documenting that some of the conventional assumptions used in CBO’s analysis contravene actual law. A far more accurate assessment using more realistic assumptions was made by former CBO director Douglas Holtz-Eakin and the research analyst Michael Ramlet, who concluded that “the new reform law will raise the deficit by more than $500 billion during the first 10 years and by nearly $1.5 trillion in the following decade.” Similarly, using a more realistic fiscal scenario than the one CBO was forced to use to score Obamacare originally, the Government Accountability Office has shown that ACA has put us on a path to add $6.2 trillion (2011 dollars) to the deficit over the next 75 years. Grade: F.
Promise #6: You Can Keep Your Plan If You Like It. On June 15, 2009, President Obama promised: “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.” This promise in various forms was made three dozen times. As of December 11, 2013, some 6 million Americans had lost their coverage as a result of the cancellation of nongroup policies that did not meet Obamacare coverage standards. The RAND Corporation projects that of 17.7 million who would have had nongroup coverage in 2016 absent Obamacare, only 0.2 million will retain that coverage. Likewise, but for the one-year delay of the employer mandate, many would have seen their employer-based plans canceled. Estimates of how many will lose their employer-based coverage because their employer drops it are all over the map, ranging from 11 million (CBO), to 14 million (Medicare actuary), to 17.2 million (Lewin Group), to as high as 35 million (American Action Forum).
And because Obamacare will slash payments to Medicare Advantage plans, the Medicare actuary has calculated that once these cutbacks are fully phased in by 2017, about half of Medicare Advantage plan members (7.4 million) will lose their Part C coverage and be forced back into the wasteful and inefficient Medicare fee-for-service system. Regrettably, a disproportionate number of those losing Medicare Advantage plans are low-income seniors who had discovered it was much less expensive to join a Part C plan than pay premiums for regular Medicare coverage. In short, leaving aside the tens of millions who will pay higher premiums for “enhanced” coverage they may not want or need, the number who see their plans canceled whether they like them or not can also be measured in tens of millions. There is no need to calculate the exact number to arrive at a grade since PolitiFact declared this promise the Lie of the Year for 2013. Grade: F.
Promise #7: If You Like Your Doctor, You Can Keep Your Doctor. On June 15, 2009, President Obama promised: “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period.” As the Washington Post recently reported, “Many small businesses are also discovering that the new plans have more restrictions on access to specific doctors, hospitals and prescription drugs.” Because the law requires those in the individual and small group markets to purchase coverage that is more comprehensive than some buy today, the principal remaining strategy for holding down premium increases is to narrow the provider networks offered. It is difficult to say how many of the nearly 6 million who have lost their nongroup coverage have been unable to find a plan that lets them keep their doctor. The same can be said of the tens of millions who may eventually lose their employer-based coverage and the 7.4 million affected by the Medicare Part C cutbacks. Worth noting is that as of mid-January, 4.5 million have signed up for Medicaid (and CBO projects that when fully implemented in 2015, Medicaid will cover a total of 12 million newly eligible). But RAND simulations indicate that 27 percent of newly Medicaid-eligible people will be individuals losing employer-based coverage, and another 5 percent will have given up nongroup coverage. Since one third of doctors are currently unwilling to see new Medicaid patients, at least some unknown fraction of newly Medicaid-eligible people will lose their doctors. Grade: F.
Promise #8: I’m Not Going to Touch Medicare. On July 29, 2009, the president asserted at a town hall meeting: “Medicare is a government program. But don’t worry: I’m not going to touch it.” Yet when the chief actuary for Medicare scored the law less than a month after its passage, he found that it would cut Medicare by $575 billion in its first 10 years. In four consecutive annual reports, the Medicare actuary reported that if these steep cuts in provider payment rates were actually implemented, 15 percent of hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and home health agencies would be operating in the red by 2019. Likewise, Obamacare eventually would drive Medicare payment rates to physicians to less than half the levels paid by Medicaid, which most experts agree would push providers to abandon Medicare in droves. Even though Medicare Advantage plans are 9 percent less expensive when fairly compared with regular fee-for-service Medicare, Obamacare will also slash payments to such plans by $145 billion in its first 10 years. The Medicare actuary projects these cutbacks will result in a 50 percent reduction in Medicare Advantage plan membership by 2017. Grade: F.
Midterm Grade, Promises vs. Performance: F. This student has a persistent tendency to make outlandish promises that too often have turned out to be the opposite of what the student predicted. Not one of these promises was inherently implausible when uttered, but the prospect of achieving even one of them by the final grading period seems vanishingly remote. This student would do well to consider abandoning this project in favor of starting over with a new approach.
The story continues with….
- Peer Comparisons
- Third Grading Standard: Outcomes
- Net Assessment and Outlook (i.e. Final Thoughts)
Read the entire report here: The Weekly Standard – The Obamacare Report Card
Obama’s SS strikes again
(Only this time it’s the NSA and Spying)
By: Greg Small (February 27, 2014)
Although this is not an article of Obama’s abuse of the IRS (SS) but it defiantly falls right in that same category.
Each and every day we are losing our individual liberties, freedoms, privacy, and your ability to pursue happiness. I want to remind you that the Presidents number one responsibility according to our constitution is to protect and Defend THE Constitution NOT protect and defend our boarders although that is also one of his failures and responsibilities. Protecting and defending our Constitution, individual liberties, freedoms, privacy, and your ability to pursue happiness is his first and foremost responsibility however he is actually doing everything but that!
It has been long suspected that the government has been engaging in cyber media warfare, social media warfare, mainstream media warfare particularly against Fox News, OR warfare against opponents in one form or another such as the NSA or IRS, and all out general warfare against the American population. Now we know that every aspect into your right to free speech is being undermined and destroyed every single day by the criminals in the White House, Obama’s administration, and Congress as they do nothing but sit on the sidelines with a “we don’t care attitude”.
Those of you in the category of “useful idiots” (and yes you know who you are even though you deny it) just don’t seem to get it. For the life of me cannot figure out why other than it goes back to what I have always said: Self Imposed Ignorance. What you can’t seem to figure out is that what you think is so wonderful now will (and always has) turned out very bad in the chapters of history. These are the exact same tactics Hitler and the Nazi’s employed. Someone want to remind me of how that worked out – never mind I already know as I learn from history as I am not a useful idiot.
Again I ask the Useful Idiots: When will you wake up?
Let’s look at two reports and articles that show exactly what I am referring to. The first article is the lead-in from Glenn Beck and the second is the entire report in detail out of Great Britain by Glenn Greewald – the former Guardian reporter who worked to publish the material exposed by Edward Snowden.
It is my humble opinion that each and every American should read and understand what is happening and what is coming soon = Loss of Liberty’s!
It’s true: Government agents are infiltrating online communities
http://www.glennbeck.com/2014/02/26/its-true-government-agents-are-infiltrating-online-communities/
How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation/
Excerpt from Glenn Greenwald:
One of the many pressing stories that remains to be told from the Snowden archive is how western intelligence agencies are attempting to manipulate and control online discourse with extreme tactics of deception and reputation-destruction. It’s time to tell a chunk of that story, complete with the relevant documents.
Over the last several weeks, I worked with NBC News to publish a series of articles about “dirty trick” tactics used by GCHQ’s previously secret unit, JTRIG (Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group). These were based on four classified GCHQ documents presented to the NSA and the other three partners in the English-speaking “Five Eyes” alliance. Today, we at the Intercept are publishing another new JTRIG document, in full, entitled “The Art of Deception: Training for Online Covert Operations.”
By publishing these stories one by one, our NBC reporting highlighted some of the key, discrete revelations: the monitoring of YouTube and Blogger, the targeting of Anonymous with the very same DDoS attacks they accuse “hacktivists” of using, the use of “honey traps” (luring people into compromising situations using sex) and destructive viruses. But, here, I want to focus and elaborate on the overarching point revealed by all of these documents: namely, that these agencies are attempting to control, infiltrate, manipulate, and warp online discourse, and in doing so, are compromising the integrity of the internet itself.
Among the core self-identified purposes of JTRIG are two tactics: (1) to inject all sorts of false material onto the internet in order to destroy the reputation of its targets; and (2) to use social sciences and other techniques to manipulate online discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers desirable. To see how extremist these programs are, just consider the tactics they boast of using to achieve those ends: “false flag operations” (posting material to the internet and falsely attributing it to someone else), fake victim blog posts (pretending to be a victim of the individual whose reputation they want to destroy), and posting “negative information” on various forums. Here is one illustrative list of tactics from the latest GCHQ document we’re publishing today:
Again; I encourage you to follow the links provided above and read the entire story.