Posts Tagged
‘ObamaCare’
by ilene - October 22nd, 2010 1:20 am
Courtesy of Mish
The public is still angered over Obamacare so much so that Dems Find Careers Threatened by Obamacare Votes
Seven months ago, Speaker Nancy Pelosi spent a busy week rounding up votes to pass the Senate version of the Democrats’ health care legislation.
It wasn’t easy. She had to get Democrats who had voted no in November to switch to yes in March. And she had to get Democrats who had refused to vote for the bill in November without an anti-abortion amendment to vote for a bill in March that lacked that language.
What about the districts of the House Democrats who cast the key votes that made Obamacare law? So how are they doing?
Take Betsy Markey of Colorado 4, who in 2008 beat a Republican who seemed fixated on the same-sex marriage issue. Markey cast a late-in-the-roll-call no in November, then publicly switched to yes in the week before the March 21 roll call. She’s currently trailing Republican Cory Gardiner by an average of 44 to 39 percent in three polls.
Consider John Boccieri of Ohio 16, who switched from no to yes in a TV press conference in which he said the bill would do great things for his constituents. Boccieri’s district was represented by Republicans for 58 years until he was elected in 2008. It looks like it will be again next year. In three polls, Republican Jim Renacci leads Boccieri by an average of 46 percent to 36 percent.
Then there is Suzanne Kosmas, a longtime real estate agent who beat a Republican with an ethics issue in 2008. She announced her switch from no to yes late in the week before the roll call. She’s now running behind Republican Sandy Adams by an average of 47 percent to 40 percent in three recent polls.
To put these numbers in perspective, it’s highly unusual for an incumbent House member to trail a challenger in any poll or to run significantly below 50 percent. But these three Democrats are running 5 to 10 points behind Republican challengers, and none tops 40 percent.
The article notes that Bart Stupak of Michigan 1 opposed the original bill over an abortion clause along with 5 others known as the "Stupak Five".
Bart switched his vote when…
Tags: bailouts, Democrats, Nancy Pelosi, ObamaCare, Politics, Republican, Stimulus, U.S. Elections
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by ilene - October 21st, 2010 9:14 pm
Courtesy of Jr. Deputy Accountant
To hear Obama tell it, Obamacare is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Sure he wishes he’d been more transparent about the impact of health care legislation from the gate but the important thing is that he’s doing it now, right?
CNN:
Asked about the negative perception that many Americans have about signature legislation of his first two years in office, Obama said opponents of reform fought hard against it and he could have done more to sell it.
On such a complicated issue as health care reform, Obama said, the administration knew opponents would offer distortions in opposing the bill.
With provisions of the reform bill starting to take effect, people now can see the benefits for themselves and therefore understand it better, he said.
His government must continue "beating the drum and clarifying what’s in the bill," he said, noting that negative advertisements that lack specifics can influence public opinion.
Negative advertisements huh?
Guess what, my dear OMG-in-Chief, people now can see the benefits for themselves and therefore understand it better, people like corporate CFOs who now have to change their rules and put aside whole stockpiles of cash to deal with this crap.
See Qualcomm slashes health care benefits in response to ObamaCare law via WC Varones or Citing health care law, Boeing pares employee plan via AP for more on the subject. AT&T, Verizon, Caterpillar, John Deere, McDonalds and 3M have all come out saying they may or have slashed health care as a direct response to Obama’s fantastic, ground-breaking health care legislation. Does that clarify what’s in the bill enough for you?
Don’t forget to buy all the OTC meds you can now before new FSA rules kick in.
The economics of Obamacare speak for themselves, OMG can find something else to be transparent about while we have a nice long chat with the actual impact.
Tags: FSA rules, Health Care, health care benefits, health care reform bill, Obama, ObamaCare, OTC medications, public companies
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by ilene - March 27th, 2010 1:59 pm
Courtesy of Jr. Deputy Accountant
Some of us obviously need a refresher in Econ 101 (Ben Bernanke, OMGObama if he ever actually took it, Nancy Pelosi, etc etc) but it’s all good; Obamacare is here to teach us that there is no "something for nothing". Pelosi should probably listen to the lesson twice.
Reuters:
AT&T Inc (T.N) said on Friday it would record a $1 billion non-cash charge for the current quarter related to the new U.S. health care reform law, as lawmakers called on the company and three other large employers to testify about expected cost hikes.
AT&T’s charge appeared to be the largest in a series of charges announced by U.S. companies this week.
A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee said on Friday it will call on the chief executives of AT&T, Caterpillar (CAT.N), Verizon (VZ.N) and Deere (DE.N) to testify on April 21 about how the reform might adversely affect their ability to provide health insurance.
"The new law is designed to expand coverage and bring down costs, so your assertions are a matter of concern," the subcommittee said in the letters.
AT&T, whose annual revenue is expected to be $124.1 billion this year, said the charge is the result of a provision in the law related to the tax treatment of Medicare subsidies.
And where, exactly, are companies supposed to come up with the difference? Public company accounting – in case you are not aware, I’ll save you the filthy GAAP details – is not like government (fund) accounting. While the Obama administration may have the advantage of a conveniently-located printing press in town at Bernanke’s place and fund accounting on its side, public companies actually have to make balance sheets balance and put something aside or borrow to comply with this awesome new health reform plan.
Way to encourage economic growth, Washington.
Money that could have easily gone into infrastructure, technology, inventory, human capital, or R&D ends up going to Washington (as if the printing press and fund accounting weren’t pay day enough in DC. Here’s a hint: there is never enough) to be redistributed. Partially to the IRS to pay all these new "auditors".
See where we’ve gone wrong yet?
And hey! All you asshat iPhone users can also blame Obamacare for the ever-crappier network you’ll be on as AT&T will, naturally, have to take $1 billion from somewhere else.
Tags: AT&T, healthcare reform, ObamaCare
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by ilene - March 4th, 2010 8:01 pm
Is this what they teach in PR school? – Ilene
Courtesy of Joe Weisenthal at Clusterstock
For his latest healthcare announcement, Barack Obama is posing in front of a row of white-coated doctors.
He uses that imagery because people respect doctors, and presume them to be non-partisan. They just want a solution. It helps that they’re dressed in white, because we associate whiteness with angels and other holy beings.
But look, doctors have their own biases too. They have self interested viewpoints — like opposition to a greater use of nurses, technicians, and devices who might cut into their profit margins. And beyond that, it’s just not true that doctors will necessarily be founts of wisdom about policy or economics. In many cases, it’s likely they haven’t spent any time thinking about macro issues.
Obama wouldn’t announce financial reform in front of a line of approving bankers (or insurance executives). Well he looks just as absurd being surrounded by doctors.
*****
Op-Toons Review, similarly unimpressed:
Photo by Optoon’s Review
See also: Op-Toons Review’s Fallout 3 "ObamaCare" Expansion Pack Features a Post-"Nuclear Option" World Filled with Mutants Created by Government-Run Health Care
Tags: health care reform, Health Insurance, ObamaCare, Politics
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by ilene - January 20th, 2010 12:03 pm
Courtesy of Mish
In the most liberal of liberal states, and in a complete repudiation of both backroom deals and Obamacare, Scott Brown pulled off the most stunning senate race upset in history. If you were for Brown, pour a cup of tea and celebrate. If not, cry in your tea.
Brown’s victory was not so much a vote for Brown, but a vote out of anger, anger of backroom deals, anger over jobs, anger over wars, anger over special deals for politicians and unions, anger over banks, and most importantly, anger because "Yes We Can" morphed into "Business As Usual, Only Worse".
Backroom Bargaining Give Unions, Politicians Sweetheart Deal
For a president who promised "no backroom deals" he unmistakably delivered "backroom deals".
Please consider the Wall Street Journal article Labor’s $60 Billion Payoff.
Democrats seem impervious to embarrassment as they buy votes for ObamaCare, but their latest move makes even Nebraska’s Ben Nelson look cheap: The 87% of Americans who don’t belong to a union will now foot the bill for a $60 billion giveaway to those who do.
Emerging from their backrooms [Mish note: Obama invited union leaders to the Whitehouse for a private session], Democrats have agreed to extend a special exemption from the Cadillac tax to any health plan that is part of a collective-bargaining agreement, plus state and local workers, many of whom are unionized. Everyone else with a higher-end plan will start to be taxed in 2013, but union members will get a free pass until 2018.
Ponder that one for a moment. Two workers who are identical in every respect—wages, job, health plan—will be treated differently by the tax system, based solely on union membership.
Politicians Exempt Themselves
Not that the deal not only exempted unions, politicians gave themselves special favors.
Without a doubt, Brown sent a message to Obama specifically and Democrats in general that the public is fed up. Indeed, this special election shows Obama’s message is as out of place as a bullfrog on the lead microphone at an opera.
Nonetheless, rest assured the music will fall on deaf ears unless you act.
Act Now!
Call your congressional representative Wednesday morning. Tell them Massachusetts is fed up and you are too. Tell them, you are fed up with…
Tags: Democrats, Obama, ObamaCare, private workers, public workers, Scott Brown, unions
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by ilene - January 7th, 2010 6:37 pm
The disappointment with Obama is reaching new heights. He ran for office making certain representations to the American people; and he proceeds to ignore his own pre-election promises, as if they were meaningless. Here’s a video showing the eight times Obama said health care negotiations would be televised on C-SPAN. Below is an assessment by Timothy D. Naegele (the interview here) of Obama’s performance thus far. - Ilene
Via Breitbart
By Timothy D. Naegele[1]
Just days after announcing the surge of 30,000 more U.S. troops in his Afghan war, Barack Obama was in Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize that was announced shortly after he became president—before he had done anything. Next, he was in Copenhagen accepting a deal without any teeth to address “global warming,” in the midst of a blizzard that dumped snow on the Danish capital, suggesting to most people that the issue is a “hoax.”
Straddling his back-to-back trips to Europe, he was in Washington, D.C.—where he was met by a blizzard on his return from Denmark—pushing for the enactment of ObamaCare that Americans oppose[2]. The legislation is so reckless that it had to be rammed through the U.S. Senate on a partisan vote. Also, the Democrats’ leadership hid the exact nature of the health care bill from senators, who surely had a right to know what they were voting for.
Then the president jetted off to spend the holidays in Hawaii[3], having irresponsibly saddled the people with ObamaCare—after the legislation clears a joint Senate-House conference committee and he signs some version of it into law—which is reprehensible, certainly with respect to its impact on Medicare patients[4]. His recent travels alone create a carbon footprint globally that boggles the mind, especially when so many Americans are suffering from an economic meltdown that shows few real signs of abating. Indeed, 49 States have lost jobs since his so-called “Stimulus Package” was enacted.[5]
His popularity poll numbers have been plummeting[6], but he is seemingly oblivious to the will of the people and determined to remake the United States and the world in his own image. Never mind that his life was shaped by years growing up in Hawaii and Indonesia, he
…
Tags: Afghan war, Global warming, Guantanamo Bay, lies, Obama, ObamaCare, poll numbers, pre-election, Promise for televised healthcare negotiations, stimulus package
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW.