Small Businesses Dropping Healthcare Coverage, Shifting Employees to ObamaCare

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Credit - Getty Images

Credit – Getty Images

For two decades Atlanta restaurant owner Jim Dunn offered a group health plan to his managers and helped pay for it. That ended Dec. 1, after the Affordable Care Act made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.

Health-law subsidies for workers to buy their own coverage combined with years of rising costs in the company plan made dropping the plan an obvious – though not easy – choice.

“I had a lot of regrets going into it,” Dunn, who owns three Italian Oven restaurants in suburban Atlanta, said of his decision. “I don’t think I have as many now — only because I’ve seen the affordability factor for my managers improve.”

Dunn and five managers are now covered under individual plans bought on healthcare.gov. How many other owners make the same decision will help set the future of small-business health insurance. Although the evidence so far is mixed, brokers expect more firms to follow in the next few years.

Companies like Dunn’s — those with fewer than 50 workers — provide medical coverage to roughly 20 million people. Unlike larger employers, they have no obligation under the health law to offer a plan. Now they often have good reason not to.

Read more from this story HERE.

Vermont Drops Plan for Single-Payer Healthcare for All Citing Cost

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Credit - Daily Caller

Credit – Daily Caller

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin is canceling his dream plan to create a single-payer health system in the state, he announced Wednesday.

“I am not going to undermine the hope of achieving critically important health care reforms for this state by pushing prematurely for single payer when it is not the right time for Vermont,” Shumlin said in a statement Wednesday. “In my judgment, now is not the right time to ask our legislature to take the step of passing a financing plan for Green Mountain Care.”

The problem is, of course, how to pay for it. Even while plans were moving forward for a 2017 launch of the single-payer system, to be called Green Mountain Care, Shumlin had held off on releasing a plan for how to pay for the system, waiting until his announcement Wednesday.

Tax hikes required to pay for the system would include a 11.5 percent payroll tax as well as an additional income tax ranging all the way up to 9.5 percent. Shumlin admitted that in the current climate, such a precipitous hike would be disastrous for Vermont’s economy.

“Pushing for single payer health care when the time isn’t right and it might hurt our economy would not be good for Vermont and it would not be good for true health care reform,” Shumlin said. “It could set back for years all of our hard work toward the important goal of universal, publicly-financed health care for all.”

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Texas Plumber's Old Truck Resurfaces in Syria, Mounted with Terrorists' Guns

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Credit - Fox News

Credit – Fox News

A Texas plumber has been receiving threats after a photo emerged of Islamic extremists in Syria firing a high-powered gun from the bed of his old pickup, which still bears his company’s logo on the door.

An extremist group, Ansar al-Deen Front, posted the photo of its fighters aboard the Ford F-250 sometime on Monday. That prompted a flood of calls to Mark Oberholtzer, who owns Mark-1 Plumbing in Texas City, and has nothing to do with Syria’s bloody civil war.

“How it ended up in Syria, I’ll never know,” Oberholtzer told The Galveston Daily News.

Oberholtzer told the paper that he traded in the truck three years ago. The Houston dealership he turned it over to, AutoNation, told KHOU.com that the truck was auctioned and was likely traded from owner to owner over the course of three years.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Has Issued More Executive 'Memoranda' Than Any Previous President

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Credit - AP

Credit – AP

President Obama has issued a form of executive action known as the presidential memorandum more often than any other president in history — using it to take unilateral action even as he has signed fewer executive orders.

When these two forms of directives are taken together, Obama is on track to take more high-level executive actions than any president since Harry Truman battled the “Do Nothing Congress” almost seven decades ago, according to a USA TODAY review of presidential documents.

Obama has issued executive orders to give federal employees the day after Christmas off, to impose economic sanctions and to determine how national secrets are classified. He’s used presidential memoranda to make policy on gun control, immigration and labor regulations. Tuesday, he used a memorandum to declare Bristol Bay, Alaska, off-limits to oil and gas exploration.

Like executive orders, presidential memoranda don’t require action by Congress. They have the same force of law as executive orders and often have consequences just as far-reaching. And some of the most significant actions of the Obama presidency have come not by executive order but by presidential memoranda.

Obama has made prolific use of memoranda despite his own claims that he’s used his executive power less than other presidents. “The truth is, even with all the actions I’ve taken this year, I’m issuing executive orders at the lowest rate in more than 100 years,” Obama said in a speech in Austin last July. “So it’s not clear how it is that Republicans didn’t seem to mind when President Bush took more executive actions than I did.”

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Fed Judge Rules Executive Amnesty Unconstitutional

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Credit - AP

Credit – AP

By Caroline May

A federal district court judge in Pennsylvania ruled Tuesday that portions of President Obama’s executive amnesty are unconstitutional, according to the Washington Post.

Western Pennsylvania District Judge Arthur Schwab concluded in his opinion that Obama’s executive actions go “beyond prosecutorial discretion” and into the realm of legislating.

“President Obama’s unilateral legislative action violates the separation of powers provided for int he United States Constitution as well as the Take Care Clause, and therefore, is unconstitutional,” Schwab wrote in his opinion.

Schwab’s ruling, the Washington Post notes, is the first judicial opinion rendered about President Obama’s executive amnesty.

Read more from this story HERE.
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Federal Judge: Obama Immigration Actions Unconstitutional

By Josh Siegel

A federal judge today ruled that President Obama’s executive actions on immigration are unconstitutional—the first time a court has weighed in since the president’s Nov. 20 announcement.

“President Obama’s unilateral legislative action violates the separation of powers provided for in the Constitution as well as the Take Care Clause, and therefore, is unconstitutional,” wrote U.S. District Court Judge Arthur Schwab, in a 38-page opinion.

Schwab, an appointee of President George W. Bush, issued the ruling in a criminal case that was not a direct challenge to Obama’s moves.

The case involved a once-deported Honduran immigrant, Elionardo Juarez-Escobar, charged in federal court with illegally re-entering the United States after being arrested earlier this year in Pennsylvania for drunk driving.

The court only considered Obama’s immigration policy changes in sentencing Juarez-Escobar to see if he could qualify for deferred deportation under the president’s new enforcement guidelines.

Read more from this story HERE.

Cruz and Lee Say They're Not to Blame for Confirmation of Obama Nominees

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Credit - Daily Signal

Credit – Daily Signal

By Melissa Quinn

As the 113th Congress draws to a close, Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah are facing harsh criticism from colleagues for supposedly opening the door to confirmation of presidential nominees — a claim Lee’s office said is “a complete fabrication.”

Through a series of procedural moves, Lee and Cruz tried to slow passage of the $1.1 trillion government spending bill, which kept the Senate in session through the weekend — a rarity in Washington — instead of returning to address the measure Monday.

The move angered lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. According to The Washington Post, senators were forced to miss events like the Army-Navy football game in Baltimore, Md., and holiday festivities in their home states.

Now, Lee and Cruz stand accused of paving the way for Reid to push through more than two dozen pending presidential nominees.

Lee’s office, however, contends the Senate would have voted on the nominees before the session ended either way.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Ted Cruz Strikes Back: ‘Too Many Republicans Willing to Be Complicit’

by Rob Bluey

In the midst of the debate over a mammoth government spending bill, Republicans and Democrats found something to agree on: their dislike for Sen. Ted Cruz, who forced a rare weekend session for the Senate.

But rather than back down, Cruz opted to call out Washington politicians on Sean Hannity’s radio show Monday.

“Enough is enough,” he told Hannity.

The outspoken Texas Republican joined with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, to force the Senate to take a vote related to funding President Obama’s recent immigration actions. The measure was defeated, 74-22, after Cruz said Republican leaders urged senators to vote against the constitutional point of order. (View the roll call vote.)

“Too many politicians in Washington don’t believe we can stand and fight,” Cruz told Hannity.

He lamented that Republican leaders frequently plead to put off tough fights for another day, as they wanted to do on immigration. Cruz predicted Republicans once again would find an excuse not to act next year as well…

Read more from this story HERE.

White House Still Hasn't Approved Necessary Paperwork for Individual Mandate

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Credit - AP

Credit – AP

Americans have to be prepared for an increased individual mandate tax to hit in just two weeks, but the White House still hasn’t gotten around to approving the Internal Revenue Service paperwork on the requirement…

The IRS’ workload was upped drastically by the individual mandate, which will require Americans to submit a tax form proving they have health insurance or pay a growing fine to the agency. It appears the Obama administration was running behind on the paperwork requirements as well as pretty much everything else.

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With Fuel Prices Plummeting, Why Do Airfares Remain High?

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Credit - Fox News

Credit – Fox News

First time in more than five years, you can actually smile when you fill up, as gas prices fall below $2.80 per gallon.

You aren’t smiling, though, when you go online or call a travel agent to book an airline ticket these days. Prices seem to know only one direction: up. It’s not just the price of the ticket, as consumers get hit with a myriad of fees that know no limit.

If you want to board early you’ll have to pay up. Want a seat that won’t crush your knees and you’ll have to pay up again. How about food? There’s a fee there too.

With airlines earning record profits this year, while their fuel costs are plummeting, you’d think you might actually get a break on your next flight. Think again…

There’s a little bit of hope on the horizon as airfares are forecast to drop in 2015, but don’t get too excited. We are looking at an average drop in fares of 5 percent after some markets have seen their fares go up by 70 percent or more over the past two years.

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Poll: More Americans Hearing Good News About Jobs

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Photo Credit: Tax Credits/flickr

Photo Credit: Tax Credits/flickr

For the first time since the financial crisis began, as many Americans are hearing good news about the job market as bad news, according to a poll released Tuesday.

Twenty-six percent of people surveyed by the Pew Research Center said that they were hearing mostly good news and 25 percent said they were hearing mostly bad news about the nation’s job situation. Forty-five percent said they were hearing a mix of both good and bad news.

It marks the first time that roughly the same number of Americans have said they are hearing good news as bad about jobs since the poll question was introduced in 2009.

The poll comes as the unemployment rate sits at 5.8 percent and gas prices continue to fall. President Obama is touting the economic rebound as a key part of his legacy. Republicans, though, say that millions of Americans have given up looking for jobs and are no longer in the workforce.

See poll results HERE.

Read more HERE.

Wash Post: And the Biggest 'Pinocchios' of the Year Go To…

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Screen Shot 2014-12-16 at 2.30.35 AMIt’s time for our annual round-up of the biggest Pinocchios of the year.

The midterm elections, of course, dominated our coverage of false claims, as an avalanche of negative ads tumbled across televisions screens. Some of those ads, which made it onto our list of the worst campaign ads, have the dubious honor of also appearing on this list.

This year, we are also highlighting the bipartisan failure of politicians in both parties for failing to accurately describe the impact of the Affordable Care Act. Democrats such as President Obama and Republicans such as House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) either inflated or deflated the numbers to a ridiculous extent. (Before anyone asks, Obama’s “if you want to keep your plan” was on last year’s list)…

Obama: “Republicans have filibustered 500 pieces of legislation”

President Obama, a former senator, got quite a few things wrong here. He spoke of legislation that would help the middle class, but he was counting cloture votes that mostly involved judicial and executive branch nominations. Moreover, he counted all the way back to 2007, meaning he even included votes in which he, as senator, voted against ending debate — the very thing he decried in his remarks. At best, he could claim the Republicans had blocked about 50 bills, meaning he was off by a factor of ten.

Read more from this story HERE.