Obamacare Could Increase Number of Food Stamp Recipients

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Photo Credit: AP By Tarini Parti.

Republicans have another reason to hate Obamacare: It could grow the number of people on food stamps.

The Obama administration has ordered a study to determine whether the Affordable Care Act, by increasing the number of people eligible for Medicaid, will also increase the number of people enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program based on how states enroll people.

The outcome of the study could show an increase of 3 percent to 5 percent in food stamp recipients in some states from people who were already eligible for SNAP benefits but had not enrolled in the program — which could translate to millions or even billions more in federal spending, Greg Mills, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute who is conducting the study, told POLITICO.

“So in percentage terms, it’s not going to be very large, but we’re talking about a very large program,” said Mills, who is investigating the effects of the health care law on SNAP on behalf of the Department of Agriculture’s Food Nutrition Service, the agency that monitors food stamps.

“It would have a substantial financial effect.”

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ObamaCare price hikes hit ‘red states’ hardest

By Maxim Lott.

Experiencing sticker-shock at the price of insurance on ObamaCare exchanges?

That’s more likely if you live in a “red state” that didn’t vote for Obama, according to price data compiled by the Heritage Foundation. In red states, premiums for 27-year-olds rose an average of 78% on ObamaCare exchanges, whereas in “blue states” that voted for Obama, premiums rose a smaller 50%.

Senate critics of ObamaCare say the difference is one way in which the bill is unfair.

“It’s unfair, outrageous and unacceptable,” Senator John Barrasso, R-Wyo., who is also an orthopedic surgeon, said in a statement to FoxNews.com.

“After discovering that the President broke his promise that Americans can definitely keep their coverage, many red state Americans are now finding out that their rates will soar under ObamaCare. This… proves once again that the President’s health care law picks winners and losers across the country,” he added.

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Apple Publishes Report Revealing US Govt Info Requests Exceed All Other Countries Combined

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Photo Credit: Aly Song /ReutersApple has published its first report revealing the number and type of requests for information about users and devices from governments around the world, showing the US dominating the requests.

The report (pdf), published on the company’s website on Tuesday, complained about US restrictions on what it could reveal and promised customers that Apple did its best to protect personal data.

“We have no interest in amassing personal information about our customers,” the company said. “We protect personal conversations by providing end-to-end encryption over iMessage and FaceTime. We do not store location data, Maps searches, or Siri requests in any identifiable form.”

Of 31 countries listed, the US outweighed all other governments combined in seeking information about more than 2,000 accounts, followed by Britain with 141, Spain with 104 and Germany with 93. Canada, China and Norway each made six requests.

Apple complained that US restrictions prevented it from disclosing the precise number of national security orders and number of accounts affected by such orders. Figures for the US were given within ranges of 1,000. It said: “We strongly oppose this gag order, and Apple has made the case for relief from these restrictions in meetings and discussions with the White House, the US attorney general, congressional leaders and the courts.”

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Obama’s Approval Rating Drops Into the 30s

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Photo Credit: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty ImagesBy Mark Silva.

President Barack Obama is near matching his all-time low in job approval in the Gallup Poll.

The 39 percent approval rating reported by Gallup today — an average of surveys conducted Saturday through Monday — is close to the 38-percent low the president scored in August and again October of 2011.

His disapproval rating has climbed to 53 percent, his highest disapproval since Oct. 10-12, 2001.

The decline — his approval rating stood at 53 percent in mid-August — comes in the midst of the problems the administration is having with the rollout of the Obamacare health insurance exchanges.

The partial shutdown of the government that ran 16 days obscured the initial problems that Healthcare.gov was having enrolling people in the exchanges that opened Oct. 1.

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Photo Credit: APObama’s Approval Rating Has Dipped Into Dangerously Low Territory

By Brett Logiurato.

President Barack Obama’s approval rating has dipped a point to 39%, according to the latest Gallup daily tracking poll — dangerous waters for a president still in the first year of his second term.

The 39% mark is a point lower in Gallup’s three-day rolling average. Obama’s disapproval held steady at 53%.

It’s Obama’s worst approval rating in Gallup’s daily tracking poll since the Oct.17-19, 2011, average, which came right after a bruising fight for both Democrats and Republicans over raising the nation’s debt ceiling.

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Bill de Blasio Wins in New York, Ushering in New Era of Liberal Governance

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Photo Credit: Washington PostBill de Blasio overwhelmingly was elected mayor here Tuesday, becoming the first Democrat to lead New York in 20 years and ushering in an era of activist liberal governance in the nation’s largest city.

In early returns Tuesday night, de Blasio was soundly defeating Republican Joe Lhota, a protégé of former mayor Rudy Giuliani.

De Blasio campaigned on a mantle of progressive change following Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s 12 years in office, highlighting what he saw as “a tale of two cities.” The moneyed Manhattan elite have had their mayor, he argued, and now the 46 percent of New Yorkers living at or near the poverty level need one of their own.

De Blasio’s administration will be a laboratory of sorts for modern progressivism — testing whether an anti-establishment activist can effectively manage a sprawling municipal government and lessen growing inequality between the rich and poor.

“Tackling inequality isn’t easy. It never has been, and it never will be,” de Blasio said in a victory speech at the YMCA gymnasium in his Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope. “The challenges we face have been decades in the making, and the problems we set out to address will not be solved overnight. But make no mistake: The people of this city have chosen a progressive path. And tonight we set forth on it — together, as one city.”

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Illinois Passes Same-Sex Marriage Law; Obama ‘So Proud’

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Photo Credit: APPresident Obama is “so proud” that lawmakers in his home state of Illinois have voted to legalize same-sex marriage, he said Tuesday night.

“I applaud the men and women of the Illinois General Assembly, a body in which I was proud to serve, for voting to legalize marriage equality in my home state,” Obama said in a statement released after the state House and Senate voted earlier in the day. The White House had previously said that Obama would have supported the measure if he were still in the legislature.

Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat, has said that he will sign the bill, making Illinois the 15th state to legalize same-sex marriage.

“As president, I have always believed that gay and lesbian Americans should be treated fairly and equally under the law. Over time, I also came to believe that same-sex couples should be able to get married like anyone else,” Obama added. “So tonight, Michelle and I are overjoyed for all the committed couples in Illinois whose love will now be as legal as ours — and for their friends and family who have long wanted nothing more than to see their loved ones treated fairly and equally under the law.”

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Toronto Mayor Admits Smoking Crack in a “Drunken Stupor” but Refuses to Resign

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Photo Credit: Nathan Denette/APHours after dropping a bombshell admission that he had smoked crack cocaine in a “drunken stupor” during his time in office, the mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford, made his second startling announcement of the day on Tuesday: that he would not be stepping down.

At a press conference shortly after he told reporters he had smoked crack as recently as a year ago, Ford apologised to the people of Toronto for embarrassing them.

“With today’s announcement, I know I have embarrassed everyone in this city, and I will be forever sorry,” Ford said at a press conference. “There’s only one person to blame for this and that is myself.”

Allegations over his drug use have swirled around Ford for months amid reports of a video that allegedly showed him smoking crack. He had previously denied such a video existed, but last week, Toronto police said they had recovered a recording which appeared to show him puffing on a crack pipe.

Appearing in front of reporters who had been waiting outside his office for two hours following his earlier admission over his cocaine use, Ford gave a short speech in which he apologised several times. He said admitting what he described as “my mistake” was the most difficult and embarrassing thing he has ever done, but that doing it gave him a huge sense of relief.

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Football Game Crowd Boos at Mention of Barack Obama

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Photo Credit: UPI/Bill GreenblattIt happened again. Three months after a rodeo clown mocked the president at the Missouri State Fair, fans at a Missouri-Tennessee football game Sunday booed when Barack Obama’s name was mentioned during a halftime ceremony.

New members of the Missouri National Guard were being sworn in, said Chad Moller, spokesman for University of Missouri-Columbia athletics.

But during part of the oath that reads “I will obey the order of the president of the United States” members of the crowd could be heard booing, according to the Missourian.

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Feds Spent $29 Million on Prescription Drugs for 4,139 Individuals “Unlawfully Present” In U.S.

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Photo Credit: APThe Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) spent almost $29 million to cover Medicare Part D prescription drugs for 4,139 individuals “unlawfully present” in the U.S. and thus ineligible to receive federal health care benefits, according to an audit by Daniel Levinson, inspector general of the Department of Health & Human Services. (See Medicare prescription drugs.pdf)

CMS “inappropriately accepted 279,056 PDE [prescription drug event] records with unallowable gross drug costs totaling $28,990,718” between 2009 and 2011, Levinson reported. Total federal expenditures under Medicare Part D during that same two-year time period came to $227 billion.

Medicare Parts A and B cover hospitalization, skilled nursing care, doctor visits, and other medical services and supplies. The IG previously reported in January that CMS had also paid $91.6 million to health care providers to cover 2,600 ineligible illegal aliens.

The unallowable payments were made by CMS despite the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, which prohibits illegal aliens from receiving federal health care benefits, and CMS’ own 2003 memo warning: “Make no payments for Medicare services furnished to an alien beneficiary who is not lawfully present in the United States.”

Medicare Part D is a voluntary program that requires individuals who are entitled to benefits under Part A or enrolled in Part B to opt in by filling out a form to enroll in a federally approved prescription drug plan that has a contract with CMS. Enrollee premiums cover about a quarter of the overall cost, with Medicare picking up the rest.

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Student Loan Debt Owed to Federal Government Up 463% Under Obama

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Photo Credit: Ali Meyer/CNSNews.comSince President Barack Obama took office in 2009, the amount of outstanding federal student loan debt owed to the government has skyrocketed, increasing by 463 percent. The balance owed currently stands at $674,580,000,000.00 compared to $119,803,000,000.00, where it stood in January 2009, according to the Financial Management Service’s latest monthly treasury statement.

Direct federal student loan spending began to rise rapidly in fiscal year 2010, when the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act – one of the two laws that make up Obamacare — gave the federal government complete control over federal loans for education, the Direct Student Loan (DL) program. This aspect of HCERA became effective July 1, 2010, when the amount of outstanding loans stood at $178,806,000,000. Since then, the balance has increased by 277 percent.

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The Military ‘Purge Surge’ Continues – Another General Fired, Nine So Far This Year

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Photo Credit: WND After multiple top generals described to WND what they regard as a full-scale “purge” of the U.S. military by the Obama administration, the commander of U.S. Army Garrison Japan was summarily relieved of duty and his civilian deputy reassigned, pending a “misconduct” investigation.

Nine generals and flag officers have been relieved of duty under Obama just this year – widely viewed as an extraordinary number – and several sources put the total number of senior officers purged during the five years of the Obama administration as close to 200.

In response, prominent retired generals – ranging from Army Maj. Gen. Paul E. Vallely, a Fox News senior military analyst, to Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, a founder of the Army’s elite Delta Force, to Medal of Honor recipient Maj. Gen. Patrick Henry Brady – have all gone on the record with WND, characterizing Obama’s actions as nothing less than an all-out attack on America’s armed forces.

According to U.S. Army Japan, Col. Eric Tilley was suspended from his job by Maj. Gen. James C. Boozer Sr., commander of U.S. Army Japan and I Corps (Forward) for a “lack of confidence” based on the results of an inquiry.

A spokesman for U.S. Army Japan, Maj. Kevin Toner, would not elaborate on what prompted a “lack of confidence,” saying it would be “inappropriate to make public the allegations because the investigation did not lead to findings of criminal misconduct.”

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