Dem senator under fire for pressuring agency to change insurance cancellation stats

Democratic Colorado Sen. Mark Udall is under fire following reports that his staff pressured the Colorado Division of Insurance to walk back its claims that 250,000 people in the state had their health insurance canceled due to ObamaCare. 
"It's downright shameful that Sen. Udall would attempt to intimidate state employees to give him political cover," Colorado GOP Chairman Ryan Call told FOX31 in Denver.
The allegations surfaced Thursday after the news site Complete Colorado published emails between Udall's office and the Colorado insurance agency last November. At the time, controversy was heating up over the hundreds of thousands of insurance cancellation notices going out -- the cancellations undercut President Obama's campaign-trail assertions that those who like their health plans can keep them.
Udall's staff challenged the Colorado agency for saying there had been 249,000 cancellations.
"Sen. Udall says our numbers were wrong. They are not wrong," one insurance department official wrote, according to a Nov. 14 email. "Cancellation notices affected 249,199 people. They want to trash our numbers. I'm holding strong while we get more details. Many have already done early renewals. Regardless, they received cancellation notices."
The dispute apparently was over the fact that many of those receiving cancellation notices were also being offered renewals.
"We reached out to the Dept. of Insurance because 250,000 cancellations was radically different than the number we were hearing from the insurance industry," Udall spokesman Mike Saccone told FOX31 Denver. "In fact, 96 percent of Coloradans who received 'cancellation letters' were offered an opportunity to renew their current coverage. To the average Coloradan, that is not a cancellation."
Udall's office wanted that clarification to be made.
But the tone of the emails drew accusations of intimidation.
One email showed the same insurance agency official telling colleagues she got a "very hostile phone call" from Udall's deputy chief of staff.
Another email showed a Udall staffer telling the division "we need to move on this ASAP -- or we'll be forced to challenge the 249K number ourselves."
Brook Hougesen, a spokeswoman with the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in a statement that Udall "authorized his staff to pressure and intimidate state officials to manipulate health care cancellation statistics resulting from ObamaCare."
Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., also wrote a letter on Thursday to state Insurance Commissioner Marguerite Salazar pressing for details about their insurance cancellation calculations.
Salazar told the Denver Post there was no "ongoing pattern of intimidation" with Udall's office.
Udall also told the Denver Post it was "really important to correct the record."

Chris Christie

Unemployment benefits extension hits snag in Senate

WASHINGTON –  Senate Democrats’ plan to extend long-term jobless benefits has hit political turbulence after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pushed a reworked version but blocked Republicans from offering any changes.
The dispute threatened to stall the legislation, just days after it narrowly cleared a Senate hurdle.
“Indiana voters didn’t send me here to be told just to sit down and forget it,” said Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., complaining Republicans had been sidelined.
The original version of the bill was a three-month, $6 billion extension that was not paid for. Republicans objected, and Reid came back with a 10-month extension that was paid for.
But he then moved to block Republicans from offering amendments, going so far as to accuse Republicans of “continually denigrating our economy, our president and frankly, I believe, our country.”
Coats, who had earlier in the week helped advance the bill, expressed anger he hadn’t been consulted about changes in the legislation. By Thursday evening, most of the Republicans who had been on board with the plan earlier in the week signaled they’d be pulling their support.
The now-expired law provided a maximum 47 weeks of payments after an unemployed worker had used up state-funded benefits generally capped at 26 weeks.
The re-worked legislation reduces the 47 weeks to a maximum of 31 weeks, based on a sliding scale that dates to the expired program. Reducing the number of weeks would save about $8 billion, a Senate source told Fox News.
The first tier of additional benefits would be six weeks, and be generally available to all who have used up their state’s eligibility.
An additional six weeks would be available in states where unemployment is 6 percent or higher; an additional nine weeks in states with a joblessness rate of 7 percent or higher; and 10 or more weeks in states where unemployment is 9 percent or more.
The cost, which Republicans had issue with, would be offset in part by extending a previously-approved reduction in Medicare payments to providers. It would also be paid for by extending the sequester cuts to mandatory spending by another year, which would save around $17 billion.
Additional funding would come from limiting or eliminating the ability of people on Social Security disability from also receiving unemployment benefits, which the Senate source told Fox would save another $1 billion.
Senators from the two states — Democrat Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Dean Heller, a Republican from Nevada — were central to the talks, and the White House was also being kept informed.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters that administration officials have indicated they would be satisfied with a deal that won the backing of Senate Democrats.
Another Senate vote is tentatively scheduled for next week.
Any legislation that clears the Senate would also have to pass the House, where Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has said he is only willing to consider an extension of the expired program that is fully paid for.
Calls to Boehner’s office Thursday by FoxNews.com were not immediately returned.

San Francisco environmentalist group wants global warming warning on gas pumps

Bailey comment: " Ever notice that our idiot politicians all across America use California as their role models".
First cigarettes, now gas pumps.
A group of San Francisco environmentalists want to remind drivers that refilling their cars with gas is leading to global warming by slapping a sticker on gas pumps similar to those you find on a carton of cigarettes, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.
"The goal isn't to take transportation away from people and say, 'You're a bad person,'" Jamie Brooks, a member of the Bay Area chapter of 350.org, told the paper. "The goal is to create a signal saying, 'You need to change your behavior.'"
350.org is a group that seeks to build a global grassroots movement to "solve the climate crisis," according to its webpage, and the group made clear that the warning label fight is solely an initiative by the Bay Area branch.
The label's design is straightforward. It has white on black writing, topped off with "Warning" in bold on an orange background. The text reads, "The state of California has determined that global warming caused by greenhouse gases poses a serious threat to the economic well-being, public health, natural resources and the environment of California."
The Bay Area group is pitching the idea to local government. Gas station owners and oil companies would likely fight a ruling in favor of the warning labels.