Fire Departments Voice Concern Over Role of Volunteers Under ObamaCare

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Photo Credit: BARLETTA.HOUSE.GOV

Photo Credit: BARLETTA.HOUSE.GOV

Fire departments and other emergency squads say they are still waiting to learn from the IRS whether they will have to pay for volunteers’ medical insurance under ObamaCare and that having to cover such costs would really hurt many small-budget operations.

President Obama’s signature health-care law requires businesses with more than 50 full-time employees to provide health insurance for them. However, whether the IRS considers volunteers full-time employees remains unclear, in part because some receive a stipend or other financial incentives.

“At this point, it’s pretty much wait and see,” Michael Berg, president of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad in Virginia, told The Daily Progress. “We’re an all-volunteer organization. …. There’s a lot of speculation.”

Volunteer groups around the country — which operate in more rural areas and rely largely on fundraisers and donations to buy fire trucks and other rescue equipment — have gotten some bipartisan help from Capitol Hill.

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat, and Pennsylvania Rep. Lou Barletta, a Republican, have sponsored legislation to exempt volunteer fire, medical and rescue personnel from full-time status.

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New York Times *Finally* Tells its Readers: Obamacare is Awful for the Middle Class

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Photo Credit: Adam Jeffery

Photo Credit: Adam Jeffery

The New York Times is starting to get a bit nervous about this health care law thing.

Ginger Chapman and her husband, Doug, are sitting on the health care cliff. The cheapest insurance plan they can find through the new federal marketplace in New Hampshire will cost their family of four about $1,000 a month, 12 percent of their annual income of around $100,000 and more than they have ever paid before.

Even more striking, for the Chapmans, is this fact: If they made just a few thousand dollars less a year — below $94,200 — their costs would be cut in half, because a family like theirs could qualify for federal subsidies.

So much so that they’re now gingerly starting to tell their readers what you and I already know: “While the act clearly[*] benefits those at the low end of the income scale — and rich people can continue to afford even the most generous plans — people like the Chapmans are caught in the uncomfortable middle: not poor enough for help, but not rich enough to be indifferent to cost.” I welcome this sudden decision by the New York Times to join us here in Reality Non-Unicorn, and hope that they enjoy their visit. Indeed, the Old Grey Lady is more than welcome to settle here permanently.

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Warren Buffett Reaps Crony Capitalist Billions from Gov Bank Bailouts

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Photo Credit: FrontPageMag

Photo Credit: FrontPageMag

Let’s start this with a great quote from Obama’s 2nd favorite billionaire backer after George Soros.

“In terms of simple profitability, an average investor could have done just as well investing in the stock market if they bought during the panic period,” Buffett told the Journal on Saturday. “You make your best buys when people are overwhelmingly fearful.”

Of course the ordinary investor didn’t have the comfort of knowing that the Federal government would use taxpayer money to insure his deals.

As he admitted on CNBC at the time, “If I didn’t think the government was going to act, I wouldn’t be doing anything this week.”

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CBO Shows Top 40% Pay More than 100% of Taxes

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Photo Credit: Human Events

Photo Credit: Human Events

This article originally appeared on heartland.org.

The Congressional Budget Office has published a study, The Distribution of Household Income and Federal Taxes, 2010, which shows that the top 40 percent of income earners paid 106.2 percent of total federal income taxes, while the bottom 40 percent paid -9.1 percent. This isn’t the study’s headline, so you have to dig a bit to get that information, but look at Table 3 on page 13 of the study to find that information.

The Table shows that the top 20 percent of income earners paid 92.9 percent of total income taxes in 2010 (the latest year available), and the next-highest 20 percent paid 13.3 percent of total income taxes, so the top 40 percent paid 106.2 percent.

Refundable Credits = Negative Tax Liability

Because of refundable tax credits like the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit, the bottom 20 percent got more money refunded to them than they paid in taxes, so they paid -6.2 percent of total taxes. The next-lowest 20 percent paid -2.9 percent, so the bottom 40 percent paid -9.1 percent of total income taxes. More than 9 percent of total income tax payments go toward paying out money directly to people who get more back than they paid in.

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Federal Judge: Right to Same-Sex Marriage Is ‘Deeply Rooted in Nation’s History and Implicit in The Concept of Ordered Liberty’

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Judge Robert J. Shelby, whom President Barack Obama appointed to the U.S. District Court in Utah last year, issued an opinion on Friday declaring that a right to same-sex marriage is “deeply rooted in the nation’s history and implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.”

Shelby was confirmed to the federal bench by a voice vote of the Senate on Sept. 21, 2012. There was no debate over his nomination, and no senator objected to his confirmation.

He has now issued an opinion that could fundamentally alter American law and culture.

“The State’s second argument is that the Plaintiffs are really seeking a new right, not access to an existing right,” Shelby wrote in an opinion issued on the afternoon of the Friday before Christmas.

“To establish a new fundamental right, the court must determine that the right is ‘deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition’ and ‘implicit in the concept of ordered liberty,’ such that ‘neither liberty nor justice would exist if [it] were sacrificed,” he said.

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Oil Industry Starts Push to End Ban on Exports of Crude Oil

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Photo Credit: Thinkstock

Photo Credit: Thinkstock

The oil and gas industry is seizing on recent comments by Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz to push for an end to the United States’ 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports.

The American Petroleum Institute says the U.S. energy boom has made the ban irrelevant, citing Energy Information Administration projections this week that domestic oil production would hit a near-record 9.5 million barrels per day by 2016.

“It is undeniable that the American energy revolution has rendered our energy export policies obsolete,” said Erik Milito, API’s upstream director.

The comments come after Moniz suggested that the U.S. should “relook” at the ban, which was imposed in response to the 1970s Arab oil embargo, which caused worldwide shortages.

“There are lots of issues in the energy space that deserve some new analysis and examination in the context of what is now an energy world that is no longer like the 1970s,” Moniz said at the Platts Global Energy Outlook Forum in New York.

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Federal Judge Deals Another Blow to ObamaCare Contraceptive Mandate

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

A federal judge granted an injunction this weekend that prevents the government from enforcing the ObamaCare mandate requiring religious groups across the country to provide insurance that includes access to the morning-after pill and other contraceptives.

The preliminary injunction, issued in an Oklahoma City federal court, is based on a class-action lawsuit filed in October by 187 ministries.

The court order Friday came just days before ObamaCare coverage begins January 1, which could have resulted in the ministries facing thousands of dollars a day in tax penalties.

The groups provide employees with health benefits through GuideStone Financial Resources, the health benefits arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.

“This is an overwhelming victory for GuideStone and the nearly 200 plaintiffs in this class-action lawsuit,” said Adele Keim, a lawyer for GuideStone and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty — a non-profit, public-interest law firm that helped represent the ministries in the case.

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Senate Invokes New Filibuster Restrictions to Confirm IRS Chief

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The Senate voted Friday to confirm President Obama’s pick to head the beleaguered Internal Revenue Service, which has been under intense congressional scrutiny over its treatment of Tea Party groups seeking tax exempt status.

John Koskinen was confirmed in a 59-36 vote, below the 60-vote approval threshold that would have been required before Senate Democrats changed the chamber’s rules to prevent Republicans from continuing to block presidential nominees.

Obama immediately praised the confirmation, but Republicans mostly opposed it, in part because they are angry over the rules change and want a greater say in deciding who will next head the troubled tax agency.

In May, a Treasury Inspector General report found that the IRS had issued a “Be on the lookout” order for groups seeking tax exempt status with names that signaled a conservative bent, like “Tea Party” or “Patriot.”

Many of the Tea Party groups that applied for tax exempt status had their applications delayed ahead of the 2012 presidential election, prompting some to suspect the targeting was politically motivated.

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How the Fed’s Pullback of Stimulus Could Affect You

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Photo Credit: Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty

Photo Credit: Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty

Consumers will likely pay more for home loans. Savers may earn a few more dollars on CDs and Treasurys. Banks could profit. Investors may get squeezed.

The Federal Reserve’s move Wednesday to slow its stimulus will ripple through the global economy. But exactly how it will affect people and businesses depends on who you are.

The drop in the Fed’s monthly bond purchases from $85 billion to $75 billion is expected to lead to higher long-term borrowing rates. Which means loan rates could tick up, though no one knows by how much.

The move could also weigh on stock markets from the United States to Asia, even though the early response from investors was surprisingly positive.

Just keep in mind: The impact of the Fed’s action is hard to predict. It will be blunted by these factors…

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ObamaCare May Make Finding Treatment Harder for Mentally Ill

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Photo Credit: REUTERS

Photo Credit: REUTERS

To the outside world, it came across as mood swings and anger. But Regina Cullison would later be told by psychiatrists she struggled with depression and anxiety—and that she needed help. And that is where her trouble began and ended.

According to her mother, there were few psychiatrists in the county who took private insurance. When Ms. Cullison lost her job as a dentist’s assistant, and with it her insurance, she switched to a nonprofit facility. Doctors came and went, and none stayed long enough to establish a regular pattern of treatment.

After two years, Ms. Cullison abandoned her search for professional help and tried marijuana. Her mother, Carolyn Cullison, who is the director of a mental-health peer support group, said that helped push away the demons. But in May, while living together, the pair argued. Ms. Cullison apologized, retreated to a bedroom and shot herself. She was 26.

As hard as it might be to acknowledge having a mental-health illness, finding professional help can be even harder.

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