People who buy their own health insurance have been hit lately with premium hikes that far exceed increases in premiums for employer-sponsored coverage, according to a new survey from the
Kaiser Family Foundation.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=10971283
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President Barack Obama on Tuesday will announce new health insurance benefits for consumers, marking the first 90 days since he signed landmark legislation to expand coverage.The consumer safeguards are limited steps that take effect this year. The main
provisions of the legislation, including federal funding to help 32 million now uninsured get coverage, won't come until 2014. The administration worries that escalating premiums will force more people drop their policies before the law is fully implemented.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100621/ap_on_bi_ge/us_obama_health_overhaul
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The AP: The Obama administration's flagship effort to help people in danger of losing their homes is falling flat. More than a third of the 1.24 million borrowers who have enrolled in the $75 billion mortgage modification program have dropped out. That exceeds the number of people who have managed to have their loan payments reduced to help them keep their homes.
Last month alone,155,000 borrowers left the program -- bringing the total to 436,000 who have dropped out since it began in March 2009.
A major reason so many have fallen out of the program is the Obama administration initially pressured banks to sign up borrowers without insisting first on proof of their income. When banks later moved to collect the information, many troubled homeowners were disqualified or dropped out.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Borrowers-exit-troubled-Obama-apf-887634101.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=3&asset=&ccode=
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American Thinker opines: According to Fred Barnes at The Weekly Standard, the Obamis are planning a lame-duck session of Congress, "filled with defeated and retired senators and House members," to pass a VAT (value-added tax). Liberals know that they get a chance to enact progressive legislation only once in a generation. That's when the cycle of politics throws up a liberal majority in Congress, and liberals have the votes to cram down their agenda. http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/06/a_bridge_too_far.html
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Democrats are looking at the possibility of raising taxes on families below the $250,000-a-year threshold promised by President Barack Obama during the election. The majority party on Capitol Hill does not feel bound by that pledge, saying the threshold for tax hikes will depend on several factors, such as the revenue differences between setting the threshold at $200,000 and setting it at $250,000. “You could go lower, too — why not $200,000?” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). “With the debt and deficit we have, you can’t make promises to people. This is a very serious situation.” http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/104919-dems-were-not-bound-by-presidents-tax-vow
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The Heritage Foundation, quoting Congressman King, points out the simplicity of the process [of repealing the healthcare act]: "Republicans just need to sign a repeal bill, bring forth a discharge petition, use the discharge petition as a litmus test against Blue Dog Democrats in the November elections, win back a majority, pass a repeal bill in the new Congress, endure Obama’s inevitable veto of it, shut off the funding for the 2011 and 2012 enactment of Obamacare, and, finally, elect a new president in 2012."
And Bachmann has already given us that bill (H.R. 4903). Former-president Ronald Reagan once spoke of "raising a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors."
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BARNEY FRANK: "I think that the general fear that the ranking member and others think that we're going to over regulate on behalf of consumers is a fantasy unrelated to any experience. The Federal Government has never done that."
[Well there is a first time for everything, and we believe that the current Administration is doing everything in its power to make it so. If he is talking about "a" federal government, and not "our" federal government, perhaps he should study the history of Germany, China, Africa, Venezuela, etc. Is he familiar with Hitler, Mao, and Stalin, among others? On that subject, Chavez has just "nationalized" an American company's 11 oil rigs off "his" coast, for the good of the people, of course.] http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100624/ts_nm/us_venezuela_nationalizations
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From New Zealand comes this: Excerpts from a
special report to the recent 29th National Convention of the
Communist Party USA, by
Joelle Fishman. Joelle Fishman role in the Communist Party's Political Action Commission, which gives her responsibility for organizing Party support for "progressive" Democratic Party candidates at the state, congressional, senate and presidential level. She is also, incidentally, the daughter - in - law of late Soviet spy,
Victor Perlo
Fishman acknowledges that the Communist Party supported
Barack Obama in 2008 - though certainly
not for the first time.
The 2010 elections are at the center of the struggle for working class relief from economic crisis, poverty, inequality and environmental devastation. Why? Because this election will either solidify the progressive breakthrough of 2008, or send the country reeling backward. Barack Obama's election as president was a victory won by an amazing broad alliance of which we were a part. Our contribution focused on building unity, challenging racism and expanding voter participation.
She then quotes party chairman
Sam Webb and goes on to stress the pivotal nature of the 2010 mid - term elections.
This was an extraordinary expression of political independence from the extreme right wing. As Sam's report reminds us, five years ago our major battle was entirely on the defensive under George W. Bush.
http://newzeal.blogspot.com/2010/06/communists-plan-obamademocrat-comeback.html
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UTube and CSpan have covered: Congressman Steve King (R-IA) couldn’t help but mention the lack of a most famous birth certificate during debate on the House Floor. Listen carefully so you don’t miss it during this video.
In extended remarks about how every American baby is born owing US Government Debt, he let this slip: "Little baby with ink on their foot, stamped right there on the birth certificate – there’s one in this country we haven’t seen,’" he said. "But the footprints on those we have seen. Those little babies owe Uncle Sam $44,000."
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[Displaying once again the lack of intelligence of some elected officials:] MILWAUKEE - The Milwaukee County Board spent part of the day debating a measure that would call for the county to boycott doing business with companies in Arizona.
Communities around the nation have passed similar measures in response to a law in Arizona that makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally.
There was an odd moment during the debate when
Supervisor Peggy West stood up and seemed to be confused about her geography. "If this was Texas, which is a state that is directly on the border with Mexico, and they were calling for a measure like this saying that they had a major issue with undocumented people flooding their borders, I would have to look twice at this.
But this is a state that is a ways removed from the border," West said during debate. [Say what?!!]
Her colleague, Joe Rice, quickly corrected her, "I just want to assure my colleague that Arizona does in fact share a border with the country of Mexico.
http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/97093164.html
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It's a great moment. I'm proud to have been here," said a teary-eyed
Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), who as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee led the effort in the Senate. "
No one will know until this is actually in place how it works. But we believe we've done something that has been needed for a long time. It took a crisis to bring us to the point where we could actually get this job done."
As Rahm Emanuel stated: "
Never let a serious
crisis go to waste.
What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things you couldn't do before." Saul Alinsky taught this Administration well - the Rules for Radicals] ... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/25/AR2010062500675_pf.html
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Rabbi Yehuda Levin, spokesman for the alliance, told CNSNews.com on Thursday that "a great deal has been made about the fact that she would be the second Jewish woman on the court, and we want to signal to people across the country that we take no pride in this.”
Levin said most people are happy when "one of their own" is nominated to such a high position. But, he added, "We feel that Elena Kagan turns traditional Judaism on its head--from a concept of a nation of priests and holy people, she is turning it into, ‘Let’s homosexualize every segment of society. And by the way, partial-birth babies have no right to be delivered.’"
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/68444
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Powerline writes: Joe Biden was in Wisconsin, trying to help Russ Feingold salvage his Senate run, and he stopped at a frozen custard stand. When he asked the proprietor how much the custard cost, the proprietor answered, "Nothing, just lower our taxes. Biden, of course, had no response. [Demonstrating once again what classy folks are running America comes this from Real Clear Politics, along with a video]: Joe Biden calls a custard store manager a "smartass" after he asks the Vice President to lower taxes.
[You can't make this stuff up!] http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/06/26/biden_calls_manager_who_told_him_to_lower_taxes_a_smartass.html
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GULFPORT, Miss. — A morning flight over the Mississippi Sound showed long, wide ribbons of orange-colored oil for as far as the eye could see and acres of both heavy and light sheen moving into the Sound between the barrier islands. What was missing was any sign of skimming operations from Horn Island to Pass Christian.
U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor got off the flight angry.
"It’s criminal what’s going on out there," Taylor said minutes later. "This doesn’t have to happen.”
A scientist onboard, Mike Carron with the Northern Gulf Institute, said with this scenario, there will be oil on the beaches of the mainland.
“There’s oil in the Sound and there was no skimming,” Carron said. “No coordinated effort.”
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Reporting from Washington — With the gulf oil spill creating political opportunity, Senate Democrats will begin crafting a sweeping energy bill this week that could include a first-ever, though more modest, cap on global-warming pollution, believing they must act now despite differences within their ranks and political jitters in an election year. Instead of regulating all sources of greenhouse gas emissions as originally proposed, lawmakers are considering placing a carbon cap initially only on utility companies. That idea was once dismissed by environmentalists as too incremental, but now is seen by some as better than no cap at all.
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