Is Obama’s One Year “Fix” Unconstitutional?

By William Teach November 14, 2013 – 7:03 pm

I’m gonna make this a quickie, gotta run soon. I’m sure you’ve read/heard about Barry’s Big Obamacare Fix

(WSJ) President Barack Obama said Thursday that insurers will be able to continue health-insurance coverage next year for current policyholders that otherwise would be canceled under the new health-care law.

The change marks a significant policy retreat by the president, one that he hopes will quell an intensifying protest over his faulty promise that Americans can keep their insurance plans under the new law.

This is only for one year. Doesn’t something happen in November next year? I personally think this is a Bad Idea for Obama and Dems, but, they’ve backed themselves into a corner. No one is really going to be able to get their plans back (Washington state has already said “we won’t comply” and insurance companies are saying this in unworkable), and those who haven’t been dropped will be dropped next fall, right in time for the 2014 mid-terms. It would have been better to take the pain now and hope for the best later. This just gives Republicans more talking points and attack points come 2014.

That said, one thing I noted over at Twitchy

Someone correct me of I’m wrong, but the ACA set out certain minimum coverages, but then left the actual details in the hands of the head of HHS. A lot of the cancellations are due to those rules. So it would seem Obama could do this.

So, Obama might actually have the power to do this, or, more correctly, his subordinate, HHS head Kathleen Sebelius. They would just need to change the rules, which they mostly set in the first place.

Today’s PC was all about Obama, and him thinking that he can fix everything with A Speech. He really couldn’t give a shit, excuse my language, if Dems are hurt nor if Americans are hurt. This is All About Obama.

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Oh, Noes, “Climate Change” Is Messing With Rain Distribution

By William Teach November 14, 2013 – 3:43 pm

Obviously, weather patterns never changed before Man invented the fossil fueled combustion engine, and big rains never happened before CO2 crossed the safe threshold of 350ppm. Here’s Joe Romm’s George Soros funded Climate Progress

The redistribution of rainfall predicted by climate change modeling is playing out in real life, a new study by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has found.

The research, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first study to find the signal of climate change in global precipitation shifts across land and sea. According to The Australian, large-scale studies to date have overlooked the 77 percent of global rainfall that occurs over the oceans.

The initial change has resulted in wet areas, such as the tropics, becoming wetter, while drier regions such as deserts have become more arid. The effect is expected to worsen as climate change continues to worsen.

According to the study, greenhouse gasses affect the distribution of precipitation through two mechanisms. Increasing temperatures that are expected to make wet regions wetter and dry regions drier (thermodynamic changes) and changes in atmospheric circulation patterns will push storm tracks and subtropical dry zones toward the poles.

And, of course they Blame Mankind, with the lead author, Kate Marvel, claiming that the changes cannot be explained by natural variability alone, it must be you and your reliance on your fossil fueled vehicle. Cause nature never changed before. The Climate Creationists have spoken.

And, yes, this is a meme, with lots of news articles on the subject over the past 24 hours. If only Warmists would give up their own fossil fueled travel, unplug the fridge, turn off the AC, heat their homes with solar power, and give up the hairspray, Gaia would be saved.

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If All You See…

By William Teach November 14, 2013 – 1:00 pm

…is a toilet that you hope is a low flow one, which would stop Bad Weather, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Watts Up With That?, which deconstructs the Warmist hype on Yolanda.

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Hmm, North Carolina Has Seen 160,000 Insurance Cancellations

By William Teach November 14, 2013 – 10:42 am

Did you know that? I didn’t know that. I live in NC, and have looked for the numbers many times. I guess I missed them, since none of the local news outlets published this news, or made it easily available. I found out in context of how bad things are going for NC Senator Kay Hagan

Hagan hosted a conference call for reporters on Nov. 12 to discuss the problems with the health care law’s rollout, and the Q&A session was so painful that the senator should qualify for trauma coverage under the Affordable Care Act. (snip)

A reporter from the Greensboro News & Record asked why Hagan, like President Obama, had told people that if they liked their health plans they’d be able to keep their health plans.

There was a long pause before Hagan responded, then a deep intake of breath. “You know, Doug,” she responded, “the, um” – here she exhaled and paused again – “the way these, the – the regulations and the law, uh” – pause – “came forward recently, I think people were surprised that the, uh, the – the actual original plans would be, um, would be canceled.”

Another North Carolina reporter asked Hagan what she is telling constituents whose premiums have doubled or whose plans have been canceled.

Deep inhalation. “Well, a lot of people, I, I am encouraging everybody to go on the site, uh, uh, I – look through it, find out what the benefits are,” she began. She also said constituents could call her office, “and we will certainly, uh, do what we can to help those individuals and put them in contact, uh, with the right – with the right person.”

Sounds painful. And that pain will not go away unless O-care starts operating super duper crazy awesome by election time. No one will let her forget the cancellations, nor the huge increase in premium and deductible costs.

News reports about the law in Hagan’s home state have been brutal: businesses cutting workers’ hours, 160,000 people receiving cancellation notices, hardly anybody signing up for the health care exchange.

Those 160K apparently came from Blue Cross Blue Shield, as noted by the NC GOP. Interestingly, BCBS is one of only two carriers participating in the NC Exchange as run by Los Federales. I wonder how many cancellations nationwide correlate to carriers who participate in the Exchanges? But, then, mine does (Aetna), and while I haven’t seen a cancellation, I know it occurred for the company, as we have to pick something entirely new in December during open enrollment.

So: Alabama (87,000), Alaska (5,400), California (279,000), Florida (300,000), Kansas (20,000), Kentucky (280,000), Michigan (140,000), Minnesota (146,000), Montana (20,000), New Jersey (800,000), New York (100,000), Oregon (150,000), Wyoming and (2,600), Pennsylvania (64,000), Washington (266,000), Wisconsin (9,000 – Madison only), District of Columbia (76,000 – Washington D.C. metropolitan area, includes Maryland and Virginia), Colorado (250,000), North Carolina (160,000)

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Strange, Most Super Deadly Cyclones Occurred When CO2 Was At “Safe” Levels

By William Teach November 14, 2013 – 7:52 am

Who would have thought it?

(IBD) The United Nations climate chief blames the Philippines devastation on climate change, ignoring the historical record that 33 of the 35 most devastating storms occurred with CO2 below current levels.

One can appreciate the genuine grief felt by an emotional Naderev “Yeb” Sano as the delegate from a Philippines devastated by Typhoon Haiyan spoke at the start of two-week talks in Warsaw where more than 190 countries will try to lay the groundwork for a new pact to fight global warming.

“We can fix this. We can stop this madness. Right now, right here,” Sano told delegates in Warsaw as he pleaded for action on climate change.

Christiana Figueres, head of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, Blamed Haiyan/Yolanda on “climate change”, going down the same road as so many other Warmists. Depending on which one you listen to, and how they’re responding, they’ll tell us that the storm was caused by “climate change”, or was made worse by “climate change”. They’ll say this is what the new normal will be. But, of course, any big snow storms, cold snaps, early snow, are just storms, and mean nothing…well, then they’ll tell you that cold and snow is caused by “climate change”, so I guess that’s not the best example. Because “climate change” causes everything.

Anyhow

There have been 35 cyclones in the last 800 years that have killed more than 10,000 people. Thirty-three occurred with CO2 below 350 PPM. The deadliest one in 1970 was blamed on global cooling at the time, says Goddard. A chart at the website Real Science shows a pattern of storms unrelated to anything mankind has done.

Here’s that chart (remember, below 350ppm is supposed to be “safe”)

That one comes from Steven Goddard. IBD has a prettier one, but it is small. And before someone goes “eeewwwwww, Steven Goddard, icky skeptic!!!!”, the data comes from Weather Underground. Which probably obtained the data from NOAA or a similar agency.

The deadliest one in 1970 was blamed on global cooling at the time.

Interestingly, a goodly chunk occurred during cool periods. Nice try Warmists, but maybe you should try practicing science, rather than hysteria and soothsaying.

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Surprise: Vulnerable Dems Work To Distance Themselves From “Affordable” Care Act

By William Teach November 14, 2013 – 7:01 am

The same legislation all of them who were in office in 2010 voted for

(The Hill) Vulnerable Democrats are scrambling to find ways to stand apart from the White House on ObamaCare as the rollout of the high-profile law continues to struggle — and threatens their reelections.

A number of red state Democrats in the House and Senate are rushing to embrace legislation to amend ObamaCare, seeking to improve parts of the law that have led to public outrage, and insulate themselves from attacks as they head into election year in 2014.

Ones like Landrieu, Hagan, Begich, Pryor, Barrow, and McIntyre are just a few of the ones freaking out now that the law is going tits up. Of course, it’s going tits up in exactly the manner it was supposed to. This is what Democrats voted for, particularly in terms of giving HHS, and by extension the White House, enormous power and latitude to craft the rules for O-care.

“A lot of members are very concerned,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who has talked to several nervous members from swing districts.

If the White House doesn’t quickly offer an alternate solution, Connolly warned more Democrats would back Rep. Fred Upton’s (R-Mich.) legislation, which would grandfather in all plans that would be canceled by the law’s requirements.

If these Democrats had voted in favor of doing The Right Thing for the American People, and refused to support this horrible legislation, they wouldn’t be in this situation.

Even amid the ObamaCare website calamity, Landrieu said the healthcare law is “worth fighting for.” She added, “It’s important we don’t lose sight of how important this bill is for the American people.”

This highlights one of the issues in politics, with Democrats backing the Party platform to the hilt, rather than doing what is best for the People. This law isn’t the way. And they really shouldn’t expect any help from Team Obama

“We weren’t making grandiose claims. He doesn’t have to run again, I don’t know why he needs to make such grandiose claims. Some of this stuff is just gratuitous rhetoric,” he said.

That’s right, Dems, don’t expect any help for 2014. Obama has his “legacy” to worry about, and he obviously doesn’t care how the ACA negatively affects citizens. The law was based on a lie, and Dems have lied about it ever since. Republicans stated exactly what would happen even before it was passed in the dead of night using bribes, extortion, and parliamentary tricks. And it will only get worse.

BTW, just to be clear, the numbers show a measly 106,000 signed up through the Exchanges, only 27,000 of which were from the federal exchange. Of course, these number do not specify how many actually paid for the plan. They include people who have may have a plan in their shopping cart and gone no further. We do not know how many are young healthies and how many have pre-existing conditions. Even worse, 396,000 people have been approved for Medicaid, so, we’re essentially moving people into true government run health care.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

Read: Surprise: Vulnerable Dems Work To Distance Themselves From “Affordable” Care Act »

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Whoops: Ezra Klein Lets The Cat Out Of The Bag About Keeping Your Plan

By William Teach November 13, 2013 – 6:07 pm

In the context of explaining just why O-care is in much worse trouble than thought, and the Mary Landrieu “keep your plan” legislation, he writes

4. The bill Landrieu is offering could really harm the law. It would mean millions of people who would’ve left the individual insurance market and gone to the exchanges will stay right where they are. Assuming those people skew younger, healthier, and richer — and they do — Obamacare’s premiums will rise. Meanwhile, many people who could’ve gotten better insurance on the exchanges will stay in bad plans that will leave them bankrupt when they get sick.

Essentially, what he’s telling us is that it was always necessary to the “Affordable” Care Act for people, especially young healthies, to lose their health plans and be forced into the Exchange. Otherwise, a huge chunk of this boondoggle, if not the whole thing, collapses.

BTW, House and Senate Dems plan on introducing an “historic” pro-abortion bill which would stop States from passing restrictions.on abortion. Besides the fact that it violates that pesky 10th Amendment, this is Distraction Legislation, an attempt to change the subject from the disaster of O-care.

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Obama’s Green Economy Kills An Estimated 600,000 Bats In 2012

By William Teach November 13, 2013 – 3:26 pm

Funny how “green” energy sources which are supposed to “save the biosphere” keep killing so much life, wouldn’t you say?

(Breitbart (and before any Warmist complains about this being Breitbart, it is actually a UPI story) Wind turbines killed at least 600,000 — and possibly as many as 900,000 — bats in the United States in 2012, researchers say.

Writing in the journal BioScience, the researchers said they used sophisticated statistical techniques to infer the probable number of bat deaths at wind energy facilities from the number of dead bats found at 21 locations.

Bats, which play an important role in the ecosystem as insect-eaters, are killed at wind turbines not only by collisions with moving turbine blades but also by the trauma resulting from sudden changes in air pressure that occur near a fast-moving blade, the study said.

Study author Mark Hayes of the University of Colorado notes that 600,000 is a conservative estimate — the true number could be 50 percent higher than that — and some areas of the country might experience much higher bat fatality rates at wind energy facilities than others.

Why do Warmists, including Obama, hate bats? Why do they hate wildlife?

Read: Obama’s Green Economy Kills An Estimated 600,000 Bats In 2012 »

Posted in Barry Obama, Environment, Global Warming | 8 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach November 13, 2013 – 1:00 pm

…is an evil cat and bottle of hairspray, a double whammy that causes heavy snow to fall cause it gets warm, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Black and Right, who notes that Dems who repeated Obamacare big lie are in trouble.

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Obamacare Ads Go Slutty

By William Teach November 13, 2013 – 9:31 am

Obviously, I’m going to be accused of “slut shaming”. Maybe I should have used the word “skank”, having stolen this from Black and Right

(Yahoo News) From the folks who brought you the “brosurance” campaign that promotes the affordable care act comes a new line of ads aimed at reminding young women the new law will subsidize their birth control.

The online ads were created by two nonprofit groups, the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative and Progress Now, to encourage young people to enroll in the exchanges.

Seriously, it has come to this

Well, at least this isn’t funded by the government. Directly. Progress Now is a typical far left Progressive organization, with big funding from George Soros and other lefties (link opens up document. It’s safe. I opened it myself), along with lots of links to other progressive groups. CCHI is similarly far left.

There are more ads at the Yahoo News link. Which break down women into the category of sluts who need Someone Else to pay for their contraception.

BTW, the ad campaign is called “hoeinsurance”, to go along with “broinsurance”. CCHI removed those references from their website. All the adds are available here.

More: I was about to crosspost this at Right Wing News, then notice that there is a link to Michelle Malkin’s column regarding bro’s and hoe’s.

  • The Lonely Conservative: Hey Girls, Let Obamacare Bring Out Your Inner Hussie!
  • DaTechGuy: Because nothing says “empowering women” more than a Government program aiding them in getting hookups with strange men.
  • The Hayride notes that lots of the ads are rather “boozy”.
  • The First Street Journal links, and notices the failure of leadership and ducking of responsibility by Obama for his signature legislation.
  • Sister Toldjah notices the ad in context of national birth control day. If only all Liberals would always use birth control at all times during their child bearing years. Better yet, they should all get those free sterilizations offered by O-care. “Bros and hoes” both, just to make sure.

Read: Obamacare Ads Go Slutty »

Posted in Healthcare, Liberal World, Unhinged Tools | 6 Comments | Trackback URL
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