Massachusetts, the Model for Obamacare, has Highest Health Costs in the United States

/5 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Thinkstock

Photo Credit: Thinkstock

On Oct. 30, as President Obama was under fire for the botched rollout of his signature health care law, he visited Boston’s Faneuil Hall. It was in that hall in 2006 that then-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, with a smiling Ted Kennedy by his side, signed a sweeping health care overhaul into law that would eventually become the model for Obamacare.

As with Obamacare, the Massachusetts program (also known as Romneycare), expanded Medicaid, mandated that individuals purchase government-approved coverage, and provided subsidies to individuals to purchase government-designed insurance plans on a government-run exchange.

In his October remarks, Obama used the Massachusetts experience to argue that Obamacare could work, despite what the naysayers claimed.

Read more from this story HERE.

Republicans Appear to Hold Edge in Senate Races, as Party Fortunes Ebb and Flow

/5 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: REUTERS

Photo Credit: REUTERS

Republicans appear to hold a slight edge in the battle next year to control the Senate. But the wild swings in the political fortunes for both parties in the closing months of 2013 made clear the situation could drastically change.

“The playing field is currently tilted toward Republicans,” Jennifer Duffy, of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, observes in her recent forecast, with several moderate Democrats in serious danger of losing re-election.

Such a scenario seemed hard to imagine in late summer when Tea Party-backed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz barnstormed the country to rally support for the essentially impossible task of “defunding” ObamaCare.

However, Republicans’ standing among voters appeared to take an even bigger turn for the worse when Cruz returned to Capitol Hill and led the party’s most conservative wing in a failed effort to shut down the government unless Congress defunded President Obama’s signature health care law.

“There’s a belief that getting the [Senate] majority in 2014 is possible and we don’t want to go down roads that make it harder,” South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said at the time, adding the Cruz-led tactic was “a bridge too far.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Ordinance Challenged for Targeting Pro-Lifers

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

A team of pro-life advocates who like to try to intervene when women head for an abortion business in West Palm Beach say they unfairly are being targeted by police because officers enforce a noise ordinance only against them.

Not passersby. Not Wendy’s. Not a Pollo Tropical restaurant. And not the abortion business itself.

On appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, Susan Pine and Marilyn Blackburn are asking that a noise ordinance be struck down, or otherwise changed to make it constitutional.

Right now, Pine and Blackburn, who offer to help women facing crisis pregnancies outside the city’s Presidential Women’s Center abortion business, say the city’s enforcement of an ordinance is selective.

According to officials with Liberty Counsel, which is representing the women, the city ordinance “bans all ‘shouting’ and amplified sound within 100 feet of the [abortionists’] property line, regardless of the volume or whether the sound causes any disturbance.”

Read more from this story HERE.

American Legion Outraged Over VA Christmas Censorship

/6 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL/ BOB BREIDENBACH

Photo Credit: THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL/ BOB BREIDENBACH

The national commander of the American Legion is demanding answers from the Veterans Administration after hospitals in three states placed restrictions on Christian volunteers, including a group of schoolchildren who were told they could only perform Christmas carols from a government-approved list.

“Every Christmas, every religious holiday, Christians are more and more often targeted for censorship and restriction at VA facilities,” American Legion National Commander Daniel Dellinger said. “Veterans in these hospitals fought to protect such freedoms.”

In Iowa City, American Legion members were told they could not hand out presents to veterans if the wrapping paper said Merry Christmas.

In Augusta, Ga., the VA told a group of students from a Christian school that they could not sing religious-themed Christmas carols. Instead, the students were presented with a list of government-approved, secular songs.

And in Dallas, the VA hospital refused to allow children to distribute Christmas cards to patients because the cards included phrases like “Merry Christmas” and “God Bless You.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Local Courts Reviving ‘Debtors’ Prison’ for Overdue Fines, Fees

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: REUTERS

Photo Credit: REUTERS

As if out of a Charles Dickens novel, people struggling to pay overdue fines and fees associated with court costs for even the simplest traffic infractions are being thrown in jail across the United States.

Critics are calling the practice the new “debtors’ prison” — referring to the jails that flourished in the U.S. and Western Europe over 150 years ago. Before the time of bankruptcy laws and social safety nets, poor folks and ruined business owners were locked up until their debts were paid off.

Reforms eventually outlawed the practice. But groups like the Brennan Center for Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union say it’s been reborn in local courts which may not be aware it’s against the law to send indigent people to jail over unpaid fines and fees — or they just haven’t been called on it until now.

Advocates are trying to convince courts that aside from the legal questions surrounding the practice, it is disproportionately jailing poor people and doesn’t even boost government revenues — in fact, governments lose money in the process.

“It’s a waste of taxpayer resources, and it undermines the integrity of the justice system,” Carl Takei, staff attorney for the ACLU’s National Prison Project, told FoxNews.com.

Read more from this story HERE.

‘Duck Dynasty’ to Resume Filming with Phil Robertson

/8 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

By Fox News.

The A&E Network announced Friday it would resume filming “Duck Dynasty” with Phil Robertson and the rest of his family next spring in a reversal of its decision last week to suspend him for comments he made about homosexuality.

In an exclusive statement to FoxNews.com, the family said it was “excited to keep making a quality tv show for our dedicated fans, who have showed us wonderful support. We will continue to represent our faith and values in the most positive way through Duck Dynasty and our many projects that we are currently working on.

” The outpouring of support and prayer has encouraged and emboldened us greatly.”

Robertson had been indefinitely suspended by the network on Dec. 18 for remarks he made in an interview with GQ Magazine.

The removal of the 67-year-old family patriarch triggered support from gay rights organizations but objections from many fans of the show, including such political figures as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Read more from this story HERE.

______________________________________________________________________________

Photo Credit: Facebook

Photo Credit: Facebook

Petition in Support of Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson Gets Over 250,000 Signatures

By Michael Gryboski.

An online petition started in support of “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson after he was suspended for expressing anti-gay views has garnered more than a quarter of a million signatures.

Found at the website “Faith Driven Consumer,” the petition directed against A&E for suspending Robertson has past 252,000 names as of Friday morning.

“I am asking your network to immediately reinstate Mr. Robertson to ‘Duck Dynasty,’ and to formally apologize to him, his family, and the millions of viewers who tune in every week, stand by him, and share his worldview,” reads the petition in part.

“While the LGBT community may be offended by his opposing viewpoint, your rash, discriminatory, and unfair treatment toward Mr. Robertson – a recognized symbol of the faith community – is a slap in the face to Faith Driven Consumers and everyday Americans alike.”

Earlier this month, the publication GQ posted online an interview with Robertson scheduled to be published in January.

Read more from this story HERE.

Long-Term Jobless Facing New Year Without Aid

/7 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Tax Credits/flickr

Photo Credit: Tax Credits/flickr

Over a million out-of-work Americans will be ringing in the new year with a lot more uncertainty about the future.

Jobless benefits are slated to expire this weekend for 1.3 million people who receive the long-term federal aid payments that kick in after state insurance payments run out. The emergency benefits, which were instituted during the 2008 recession, allowed many individuals to receive benefits for up to 99 weeks while seeking work. While the program has been extended 11 times, lawmakers failed to reach a year-end agreement to maintain it.

The lapse means more than just fewer presents under the tree for unemployed people like Nancy Connelly-Cumming, a single mother who lives in Newbury Park, Calif.

She’s been looking for work since losing her job at a nonprofit group in September 2012. “Absolutely, I couldn’t have survived this long without an unemployment benefit,” she told NBC News. “That was definitely what kept me going.”

Connelly-Cumming said she’s been applying for minimum-wage jobs and that she fears losing her home if she stops receiving her aid. “I don’t want my children to know,” she said. “They’re 16 and 14 and they’re pretty aware of what’s going on but I don’t want them to come to the realization that we might not have this home in a couple of months. I don’t want them to know that. They don’t have to worry. That’s my job.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Fox News Poll: Clinton, Christie on Top in 2016 Preference Test

/14 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

Is it WAY too early to talk about the 2016 presidential primaries? Yes. Are we going to do it anyway? Yes!

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — at the moment — are the top picks among party faithful to receive their respective party’s presidential nomination.

That’s according to a Fox News national poll released Thursday.

Clinton is miles ahead of the other possible Democratic candidates tested. The new poll finds she leads the pack with 68 percent support among Democrats. Vice President Joe Biden is a distant second with 12 percent. No other candidate garners double-digit support.

Next is Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren at seven percent and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo at four percent. Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick each register one percent support.

Read more from this story HERE.

John H. Cochrane on How America Should Have, and Still Could, Reform Health Care (+video)

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: University of Chicago

Photo Credit: University of Chicago

If you only read one column about how to fix health care in America, make it this one.

I had never heard of John H. Cochrane before I read this piece this morning in the Wall Street Journal. That was my loss. He is a professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution, and he has a clear sense that even most Republicans miss about what was really wrong with health care pre-ObamaCare, and why ObamaCare was not the right solution at all.

Better, Cochrane has a game plan for what to do once ObamaCare has collapsed:

Only deregulation can unleash competition. And only disruptive competition, where new businesses drive out old ones, will bring efficiency, lower costs and innovation.

Health insurance should be individual, portable across jobs, states and providers; lifelong and guaranteed-renewable, meaning you have the right to continue with no unexpected increase in premiums if you get sick. Insurance should protect wealth against large, unforeseen, necessary expenses, rather than be a wildly inefficient payment plan for routine expenses.

Read more from this story HERE.

Why China is Stepping Up its Presence in Detroit Auto Industry

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Rebecca Cook/Reuters

Photo Credit: Rebecca Cook/Reuters

While the US automotive industry continues to rebound after its near collapse from the financial crisis few years back, China is quietly expanding its presence in the Detroit-based market. Encouraged by the low price of real estate and the high level of advanced engineering talent, dozens of Chinese auto companies and suppliers are opening plants and offices in and around the Motor City, where they hope to one day sell cars to US buyers.

So far, the emphasis has been on the supply chain, but automotive experts and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) hope that continued investment in the area will lead to much more, and they envision Chinese companies playing a big role in helping the city flourish after it emerges from its Chapter 9 bankruptcy restructuring, which got under way this year.

“They [the Chinese firms] want to be more global over time, so they need to look at North America. And if they’re looking at North America, this is the place to come,” Governor Snyder told reporters earlier this year.

Snyder is opening the door wide to China. In September he made his third economic development trip there in three years to court investors in all sectors, but mostly automotive. To date, he said, Chinese companies have invested about $1 billion in his state, 95 percent of which is related to the auto industry. Michigan companies exported 22 percent more goods and materials to China in 2012 than in the previous year. Although not all of the activity from China is auto-related, Snyder says he expects to see more Chinese involvement in the auto sector.

“Detroit is the value place in the United States, in Michigan, and potentially the world in terms of a great value opportunity,” Snyder said. “Come in and invest now, because there’s going to be a great upside.”

Read more from this story HERE.