More Proof Obamacare Is Increasing Coverage, but Not Access to Health Care

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ELDERLY AMERICANS DRUGS MEDICATION SENIORS HEALTHMany of Obamacare’s beneficiaries have already discovered or will eventually discover that there’s a big difference between insurance coverage and access to health care services.

Today, the New York Times highlighted a report by the Department of Health and Human Services that shows access to care in the Medicaid program is very limited.

The study, conducted between July 2013 and October 2013, concludes that more than half of providers could not offer appointments to Medicaid managed care enrollees with 35 percent of providers listed under an erroneous location. Nor were those the only issues, according to the report:

Among the providers who offered appointments, the median wait time was 2 weeks. However, over a quarter had wait times of more than 1 month, and 10 percent had wait times longer than 2 months. Finally, primary care providers were less likely to offer an appointment than specialists; however, specialists tended to have longer wait times.

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Chaplain Punished for Discussing Faith in Suicide Prevention Class

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Photo Credit - AP/Marko Drobnjakovic

Photo Credit – AP/Marko Drobnjakovic

An Army chaplain was punished for discussing matters of faith and quoting from the Bible during a suicide prevention training session with the 5th Ranger Training Battalion — leading to outrage from religious liberty groups and a Georgia congressman.

Chaplain Joseph Lawhorn was issued a Letter of Concern that accused him of advocating for Christianity and “using Christian scripture and solutions” during a Nov. 20th training session held at the University of North Georgia.

“You provided a two-sided handout that listed Army resources on one side and a biblical approach to handling depression on the other side,” Col. David Fivecoat, the commander of the Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade at Ft. Benning, Georgia, wrote in the letter to the chaplain. “This made it impossible for those in attendance to receive the resource information without also receiving the biblical information.”

The Christian chaplain was warned to be “careful to avoid any perception you are advocating one system of beliefs over another.”

However, attorneys for the chaplain, along with religious advocacy groups, say his comments are covered by the “right of conscience clause” that was passed in last year’s National Defense Authorization Act, section 533.

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Predictable CNN: Tea Party Could Destroy GOP

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Screen Shot 2014-12-09 at 11.39.33 PMOn Sunday, CNN’s Inside Politics spent several minutes hyping the supposed headache Tea Partiers could give GOP leadership despite the Republican Party winning their 54th Senate seat following Saturday’s runoff in Louisiana.

During the discussion, Robert Costa of The Washington Post insisted that Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is trying “to govern responsibly and he wants to set the party up for major gains in ’16. And that started in 2014 by pushing back the Tea Party and it starts now by making sure that all the passions and eagerness in the House don’t overtake the party.”

The segment began with host John King arguing that despite the GOP controlling both houses of Congress “gas prices are down. Friday’s job numbers were robust. The president’s executive actions on immigration are stoking the Republican civil war and has promised now to take steps to narrow the trust deficit between law enforcement and African Americans offers a chance to be, well, presidential.”

For the next several minutes, the panel discussed possible legislative deals that Congress and President Obama could make in 2015 before they turned to how the Tea Party will factor into any future negotiations.

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America is Among the Least Racist Countries in the World

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Screen Shot 2014-12-10 at 1.25.17 AMWith all the recent race clang clanging on MSNBC and other cable news networks, now’s probably a good time to remind everyone that America is among the least racist countries in the world.

I know this statement will be shocking news to regular viewers of “PoliticsNation,” but it also has the quality of being true.

From 2010 to 2014, the World Values Survey asked residents in over 50 countries who they would not want as neighbors. Just over 5 percent of respondents in the United States said “people of a difference race.” That’s far more tolerant a response than citizens of most European, African and Asian countries gave. As a comparison, 15 percent of Germans, 41 percent of Indians and 22 percent of Japanese said they wouldn’t want to live next to “people of a different race.”

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Muslim Stabs an Israeli in Brooklyn Synagogue, Saying 'Kill the Jews' (+video)

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Screen Shot 2014-12-10 at 12.56.34 AMA knife-wielding man stabbed an Israeli student in the head inside a Brooklyn synagogue early Tuesday before being fatally shot by police after he refused to drop the knife, authorities said.

The man stormed into the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic world headquarters in Crown Heights at about 1:40 a.m. and attacked Levi Rosenblat, who was studying inside the synagogue, spokesman Motti Seligson said. He said there were other people inside at the time.

According to witnesses, the attacker was heard saying repeatedly “Kill the Jews,” said Chaim Landa, another spokesman for Chabad-Lubavitch. Several other people immediately intervened, he said.

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The Illinois House and Senate Passed a Bill That Could Make Recording Cops Illegal

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Illinois State HouseThe Illinois House and Senate have overwhelmingly passed an amendment that would make it unclear as to when it is legal to record an encounter with a police officer and when it is illegal.

Earlier this year, the Illinois Supreme Court struck down a similar law which made recording conversations with police or anyone else without their permission illegal. The court ruled that the state does not have the constitutional authority to criminalize recording in situations where individuals have no reasonable expectation of privacy.

But the legislature dodged that legal barricade, sending an amendment to Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn’s desk December 4. The legislation would make it a felony to record a “private conversation,” which it defines as “oral communication between two or more persons” in which at least one person has a “reasonable expectation” of privacy.

But since it does not clearly state what a “reasonable expectation” is so that one can know for certain whether or not he or she is breaking the law, opponents worry it will cause people to stop recording police encounters altogether.

The Illinois Policy Institute, an independent research and education organization that focuses on personal freedom and prosperity, opposes it. IPI points out the stiff consequences for breaking the prospective law on its website. Recording conversations with police (which also includes attorneys general, assistant attorneys general, state attorneys, assistant state attorneys and judges) could result in a minimum of two years in prison with a maximum of four years (class 3 felony). Recording a private citizen would carry with it a minimum of one year in prison and a maximum of three years (class 4 felony).

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FDIC Targeted Gun Dealers Under Operation Choke Point

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Photo Credit: AP / Jeff Roberson

Photo Credit: AP / Jeff Roberson

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released a report Monday that said the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation unfairly treated gun dealers and other companies as illegal entities, and convinced banks to stop doing business with them under the Obama administration’s Operation Choke Point.

Choke Point is a program run by the Departments of Justice and Treasury that is ostensibly aimed at making sure illegal businesses don’t have access to the U.S. financial system. But many Republicans have said the Obama administration is using it to create hurdles for companies it doesn’t support, such as gun dealers and payday lenders.

The secretive program is rarely cited by banks as they close down banking services to companies. But many have said they believe they are victims of Choke Point, such as the Oregon gun maker who was told this year it no longer had access to credit card processing services.

The House oversight committee, run by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), has been looking at Operation Choke Point for the last year, and said in its final report that the initiative has prompted banks around the country to end relationships with “high-risk” companies identified by the government. But those companies, which FDIC encouraged banks to abandon, including many legal businesses, such as gun and ammo dealers, coin dealers and others.

Chokepoint

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A Few White Lies: Gruber ADMITS Obama Lied About Obamacare Costs

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

By Patrick Howley.

Infamous Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber told people not to read Obamacare, admitted he never knew how to control costs in the law and said he designed it by “throwing stuff at the wall” in one of his most characteristic public speeches. In between taking personal shots at conservatives, he actually thanked congressional Democrats for voting against their constituents.

As Gruber faces the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Tuesday morning, here are some classic Gruber-ish quotes from a San Francisco podcast appearance in January 2012:

Obama lied about the law and told congressmen to vote against their constituents’ wishes:

“I wish that President Obama could have stood up and said, ‘You know, I don’t know if this bill is going to control costs. It might, it might not. We’re doing our best. But let me tell you what it’s going to do…” (goes on to explain that some people would die without insurance) (49:55)

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Photo Credit: Tea Party Patriots

Photo Credit: Tea Party Patriots

Gruber to face hostile House panel, tea party ‘I’m with Stupid’ T-shirts

By Tom Howell Jr.

A tea party group said its members will greet Jonathan Gruber, the man at the center of Obamacare’s troubled public image, with T-shirts reading “I’m with Stupid” when he shows up to defend himself Tuesday before what’s likely to be a hostile congressional panel.

Republicans call Mr. Gruber, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a key architect of the Affordable Care Act, while Democrats are rushing to put distance between them and their erstwhile star after several rounds of caught-on-tape remarks about the “stupidity of the American voter” and the need to game budget rules to pass Obamacare were made public.

The T-shirts, which were produced by Tea Party Patriots, are another symbol of how controversial Mr. Gruber has become as he prepares to face the House oversight committee.

“With all that’s going on in the Capitol, we didn’t want Mr. Gruber’s curtain call to go unnoticed,” said Jenny Beth Martin, Tea Party Patriots co-founder. “We commemorated his appearance, and in the spirit of the Season, we’d like to offer the Obamacare architect a dozen. He can use them as stocking stuffers for the economically unsophisticated.

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No Thanks Michelle Obama: Seven School Districts Drop Lunch Rules

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Photo Credit: EAG News

Photo Credit: EAG News

You know it’s bad when the school employees admit even they wouldn’t eat the food they’re serving to students.

Wyoming’s Sheridan County District One business manager Jeremy Smith says his district dropped out of the National School Lunch Program “because there were just too many complaints,” according to Wyoming Public Media.

“Universally, it was, ‘We are starving. We are hungry. This isn’t enough food for us.’ But we couldn’t blame them, because I looked at that school lunch and said, ‘I wouldn’t eat it either,’” Smith says.

The district saw a 20 percent spike in sales this school year after it dropped the federal rules championed by First Lady Michelle Obama.

The district increased participation, but increased prices, too, to offer bigger portions to growing students.

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Iran Criticizes US for 'Practice of Racism and Inhumane Behavior'

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Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

There have been two incidents of African Americans being killed by white law enforcement officers of late—Michael Brown in Missouri and Eric Garner in New York. Grand juries in both instances decided not to indict the officers, setting off racial riots across the nation. Apparently Iran has taken note.

The Hill reports:

“The U.S. administration has continuously criticized other countries and made an instrumental use of human rights and adopted double-standard criteria in the last few decades, while it has ignored domestic situation at home,” Iranian spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said, according to the country’s semi-official FARS News Agency.

Afkham went on to challenge the Obama administration and U.S. courts “to comply with their duty and take lawful and just actions in dealing with their citizens and stop the practice of racism and inhumane behavior.”

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