Bombshell: Federal Judge Suddenly Green-Lights Lawsuit that Could Stop Obamacare in its Tracks

/30 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Corbis A federal judge on Tuesday refused to dismiss a case that could fatally cripple the Obamacare health insurance law.

The Affordable Care Act forbids the federal government from enforcing the law in any state that opted out of setting up its own health care exchange, according to a group of small businesses whose lawsuit got a key hearing Monday in federal court.

The Obama administration, according to their lawsuit, has ignored that language in the law, enforcing all of its provisions even in states where the federal government is operating the insurance marketplaces on the error-plagued Healthcare.gov website.

Thirty-six states chose not to set up their exchanges, a move that effectively froze Washington, D.C. out of the authority to pay subsidies and other pot-sweeteners to convince citizens in those states to buy medical insurance.

But the IRS overstepped its authority by paying subsidies in those states anyway, say the businesses and their lawyers.

Read more from this story HERE.

Ex-Apple CEO Sculley: Rollout Reflects Broken Government

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: gtsantos/flickrFormer Apple CEO John Sculley says it would be great if the Obamacare rollout fiasco led to a realization that the private sector works better than government. But he isn’t holding his breath.

“I think this huge belly-flop of the president’s most important program is really a great lesson for all of us of just how broken government is,” Sculley said Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto.”

The White House tried initially comparing what it termed “glitches” in the HealthCare.gov website to issues with Apple products that it quickly fixes. That explanation has been panned by mainstream media outlets and even liberal supporters of the Affordable Care Act as it’s become clear the government knew about the problems even before the site was launched.

Government thinks about special interests, not about customers, Sculley told Cavuto. When he worked for Apple, the rule was to start with “clear thinking,” then constantly simplify, he said.

Read more from this story HERE.

The Tea-Party Plan to Delay/Defund Obamacare Was Not Only More Realistic, It Was More Compassionate

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APOne of the more irritating aspects of the recent government-shutdown unpleasantness has been the “I told you so” lamentations of the defund/delay plan’s critics — as if they had anything approaching a workable alternative. I highly recommend Andrew McCarthy’s weekend column. It’s a devastating takedown of the notion that Obamacare repeal is just a multi-election Republican winning spree away. Even if we were able to achieve a Republican perfect storm, sweeping the Senate in 2014 then taking the White House in 2016, does anyone foresee a filibuster-proof Republican senate majority? Isn’t the best-case outcome of that strategy a tweaking of the law not unlike, say, welfare reforms in the 1990s — positive changes that still leave intact a trillion-dollar-per-year, failed entitlement superstructure?

As Mr. McCarthy notes, the tea-party plan was a Hail Mary pass, but those sometimes work. I will note, however, that unlike in every football game I’ve ever watched, in this case members of the offense actually joined the defense in batting down the pass.

Not only did the tea-party plan have a chance, it was far less cynical and far more compassionate than the Republican alternative. The Republican alternative to the tea-party plan boils down to this: Let the people suffer (also called ”let Obamacare implode”), then they’ll come to us, we’ll win a bunch of elections over several cycles, then we’ll make it better.

Read more from this story HERE.

Thousands Of Consumers Get Insurance Cancellation Notices Due To Health Law Changes

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: kaiserhealthnews.orgHealth plans are sending hundreds of thousands of cancellation letters to people who buy their own coverage, frustrating some consumers who want to keep what they have and forcing others to buy more costly policies.

The main reason insurers offer is that the policies fall short of what the Affordable Care Act requires starting Jan. 1. Most are ending policies sold after the law passed in March 2010. At least a few are cancelling plans sold to people with pre-existing medical conditions.

By all accounts, the new policies will offer consumers better coverage, in some cases, for comparable cost — especially after the inclusion of federal subsidies for those who qualify. The law requires policies sold in the individual market to cover 10 “essential” benefits, such as prescription drugs, mental health treatment and maternity care. In addition, insurers cannot reject people with medical problems or charge them higher prices. The policies must also cap consumers’ annual expenses at levels lower than many plans sold before the new rules.

But the cancellation notices, which began arriving in August, have shocked many consumers in light of President Barack Obama’s promise that people could keep their plans if they liked them.

“I don’t feel like I need to change, but I have to,” said Jeff Learned, a television editor in Los Angeles, who must find a new plan for his teenage daughter, who has a health condition that has required multiple surgeries.

Read more from this story HERE.

Sen. David Vitter Calls on DOJ to Investigate Armed EPA Raid in Alaska

/7 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APSen. David Vitter (R., La.) called on the Justice Department (DOJ) Tuesday to investigate an armed raid by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) agents on an Alaskan gold mine that occurred earlier this year.

Vitter, in a letter sent Tuesday to Attorney General Eric Holder, requested the Justice Department investigate the EPA raid, which occurred at a gold mine in Chicken, Alaska earlier this year as part of an investigation into violations of the Clean Water Act.

“The EPA’s use of unnecessary armed intimidation tactics against Alaska miners this summer was extreme, especially to investigate potential Clean Water Act violations from what are essentially a handful of small business owners,” said Vitter, the ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “At the very least, EPA owes Congress and the American people a thorough explanation, but since they have refused to publicly explain their raid, I hope DOJ will investigate EPA’s excessive actions.”

Vitter and Sen. John Barrasso (R., Wyo.) sent a letter in September calling on EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to explain the circumstances of the inspection, which rankled Alaskan politicians and residents already distrustful of the nation’s top environmental enforcer.

“According to several news outlets, EPA agents needlessly intimidated miners last month near Chicken while investigating supposed Clean Water Act (CWA) violations, going so far as to wear full body armor and carry guns in confronting the surprised miners,” the senators said.

Read more from this story HERE.

HHS Chief: President Didn’t Know of Obamacare Website Woes Beforehand (+video)

/9 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: WEBN-TVPresident Barack Obama didn’t know of problems with the Affordable Care Act’s website — despite insurance companies’ complaints and the site’s crashing during a test run — until after its now well-documented abysmal launch, the nation’s health chief told CNN on Tuesday.

In an exclusive interview with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta asked when the President first learned about the considerable issues with the Obamacare website. Sebelius responded that it was in “the first couple of days” after the site went live October 1.

“But not before that?” Gupta followed up.

To which Sebelius replied, “No, sir.”

Sebelius admitted that there is concern in her department and the White House over the technical debacle surrounding the website rollout, saying “no one could be more frustrated than I am and the president.” The site was supposed to make it simple for people to search and sign-up for new health care policies starting on October 1, but instead it’s been clunky and, at times, inoperable.

Read more from this story HERE.

Jon Stewart Savages Obamacare Website Fiasco (+video)

/4 Comments/in , /by

It’s not a stretch to say that “The Daily Show” could become one of the Obama administration’s worst nightmares on Obamacare. Four in every 10 of its viewers are younger than 30 — exactly the type of people who need to sign up for the Affordable Care Act to make it work.

On Monday night, two weeks after he sparred with Human and Health Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in an interview on the show, Jon Stewart went hard again after the rollout of the law…

“Yes, apparently the HealthCare.gov website has 99 problems, but a glitch is all of them,” Stewart said.

Stewart seemed baffled by how some of the website’s most basic functions — even the calculator — won’t work. He also dismissed how Democrats “are trying to spin this turd,” like when Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Sunday that the glitches are a good sign of the strong demand.

Read more from this story HERE.

Dem. Rep Alan Grayson Uses Burning Cross to Spell ‘Tea Party’

/6 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APFlorida Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson’s campaign sent out a fundraising email likening the tea party to the Ku Klux Klan, complete with an image of a burning cross.

The email, which went out to supporters yesterday, shows a burning cross — complete with images of two KKK-like figures in the background — used as the “T” in “tea party.” When users click on the image, they’re taken to a fundraising landing page for Grayson’s campaign.

Photo Credit: Dave Levinthal (Twitter)

The text of the email is an excerpt from an interview Grayson did with the Rev. Al Sharpton, in which he draws the tea party-KKK comparison.

“At this point, the tea party is no more popular than the Klan,” Grayson says in the interview.

The email praises Grayson’s bluntness and urges supporters to donate to his campaign.

Read more from this story HERE.

Women in Labor Force Matches 24-Year Low

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: APCNSNews.com reported Tuesday that the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ newly released data indicates American women participated in the nation’s labor force in September at a rate that matched the lowest level in 24 years.

Meanwhile, the number of women actually holding jobs decreased by 154,000 from August to September.

The actual unemployment rate for women dropped from 6.8 percent to 6.7 percent, due to the fact that the decline in the number of females in the labor force was greater than the number of females actually holding jobs. These statistics are based on the definition of what it means to be a “participant in the labor force.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Charlie Daniels: Where Did It All Go Wrong?

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: API am seriously concerned with the place our nation is right now and even more seriously concerned about where it is headed.

It seems that part of the people care about what’s happening, part don’t care and a large part doesn’t know and don’t want to know.

Any thinking person who loves their children and grandchildren has to stop and consider the disaster this generation is passing on to them. I say this generation, knowing that preceding generations had a lot to do with our plight, but we as the generation in charge when the tipping point came, are the last generation that had a chance to do anything about it before the international train wreck happens and it seems that we, at least a majority of us, have chosen to keep our heads under the cover hoping the monsters will be gone when we come up for air.

Of course that’s not going to happen and as much as it goes against the eternal optimist in me to say it, I fear… no, I’m convinced that the United States of America will shortly find our collective testicles in a pair of vise grips and our feet bogged down in knee deep mud.

Our current economic policies are just impossible to sustain and as the debt explodes, the dollar decreases in value, the entitlement rolls grow and America is encouraged to become more and more dependent on a monolithic central government, we will never pull out of our self induced nose dive before our fiscal plane crashes to the ground.

Read more from this story HERE.