Obama Care Cartoons

President pushes ObamaCare despite double-digit rate hikes

Stupid Democrats?

Despite rate and deductible increases, President Obama on Thursday defended his namesake health care program and said millions of Americans “now know the financial security of health insurance” because of the Affordable Care Act.
His remarks came as  ObamaCare sticker shock is getting even worse in some parts of the country, as more and more states are approving soaring rate increases for next year- with one Arizona town seeing a 75 percent hike and another in Minnesota seeing a 190 percent increase in deductibles over the course of four years.
“It’s absolutely unaffordable,” Minnesota Republican House Speaker Kurt Daudt told FoxNews.com. “I don’t even consider that health coverage.”
With some families forced to shell out $2,000 a month for insurance that comes with a whopping $13,000 deductible, Daudt said for some the only option is to pull their coverage and pay a fee for not having insurance, which in 2016 came out to $695 per adult and $347.50 per child (up to a maximum of $2085.)
“It’s catastrophic,” Daudt said, adding that he’s talked to Minnesotans who are being forced to financially drop their coverage, pay the fine and save money on the side for medical emergencies.
However Obama, speaking in Miami, maintained “It’s worked,” but admitted the program wasn't perfect. “No law is.”
Obama was in south Florida to trump up support for the ACA before the Nov. 1 start of the enrollment period.
Problems with rising premiums in many parts of the country as well as major insurers calling it quits have left consumers with few or in some cases no choices next year.
The hikes are fueling criticism of the law, though the White House is now openly pushing the possibility of a public option.
The troubles have bolstered arguments of Republicans and added some top Democratic allies to the crowd of critics, including former President Bill Clinton, who called ObamaCare “the craziest thing in the world,” while Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton said it’s “no longer affordable.”
In Arizona, after months of health insurer exits from the Affordable Care Act marketplace, state regulators have approved plans from two companies that will be the only marketplace insurance providers in 2017.
Maricopa County residents' only health care option will be Centene Corp., which said it will sell its “Ambetter” plans at a 74.5 percent increase next year.
The amount people pay will vary on their age, coverage levels and income, which in turn will determine whether an individual qualifies for subsidies that help offset the cost of monthy premiums. Nearly 70 percent of Arizonans with a marketplace plan get subsidized coverage.
Jumps in finalized rates for big health insurance plans around the country illustrate the challenge the Obama administration faces as it seeks to stabilize the president’s landmark health care legislation before he leaves office.
According to a roundup by The Wall Street Journal, market leaders continuing to sell coverage through HealthCare.gov or a state equivalent are seeking premium increases of 30 percent of more in Delaware, Hawaii, Alabama, Mississippi, Kansas and Texas.
In Montana, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Pennsylvania, the approved rate increases for the market leader top 50 percent.
Blue Cross Blue Shield in New Mexico agreed to start selling plans through the online exchanges after pulling out last year. They agreed to return to the state only if they would be allowed to increase rates 93 percent of their 2015 level.

Clinton's debate reference to nuclear response rekindles judgement questions

The beginning of the Clinton email scandal

Hillary Clinton’s latest mishandling of sensitive information may have occurred before an audience of 70 million.
Speaking at the presidential debate Wednesday night, Clinton noted that it takes four minutes from the time the president makes the call to use nuclear weapons to their actual launch. The remark came amid questions about the fitness of Clinton and GOP candidate Donald Trump to hold the nation’s nuclear codes, but critics, including former intelligence operatives, told Fox News that level of detail about nuclear response times is “protected information.”
“The bottom line on nuclear weapons is that when the president gives the order, it must be followed,” Clinton said. “There’s about four minutes between the order being given and the people responsible for launching nuclear weapons to do so.”
"Whether the four minutes is accurate or not, anything having to do with response capability is generally classified," Dan Maguire, a former strategic planner with Africom, and with 46 years combined service, told Fox News. "She has a tendency to use previous access and her position as secretary (of state) to give an appearance of knowledge to show she has the answers, rather than protect the information."
The reference to a four-minute timeline between the order and the launch was seen by former intelligence officers and military operatives as a possible violation of operational security, known as OPSEC.
A former Navy SEAL officer said the statement appears to be a "direct violation of US national security protocols and governing law. Our country has no greater secrets than those that protect our strategic nuclear deterrence capability."

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Clinton, who was investigated by the FBI for a year for “careless” handling of sensitive and even top secret emails on her private server, went on to say that 10 people who have had the responsibility of carrying out such a presidential order are backing her.
A senior official in the Clinton campaign rejected claims the former secretary of state revealed any secret information, and provided Fox News with multiple published reports detailing the response time. In one Bloomberg News article, Bruce Blair, a former Minuteman missile-launch officer and research scholar at Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security, spelled out the step-by-step procedure that follows an order from the president. The procedures include conferring with military and civilian advisers in Washington and around the world including the head of all U.S. strategic nuclear forces at Strategic Command in Omaha.
That meeting can be as deliberative and lengthy as the president wants, but if the decision is prompted by the knowledge that a hostile nation has launched nuclear weapons at the U.S., it could last a matter of seconds, according to Blair.
“About five minutes may elapse from the president’s decision until intercontinental ballistic missiles blast out of their silos, and about fifteen minutes until submarine missiles shoot out of their tubes,” the news article stated. “Once fired, the missiles and their warheads cannot be called back.”
Intelligence experts, including the former Navy SEAL and a former senior intelligence official told Fox News that the mere fact the response time has been reported in academic documents does not authorize government officials who hold a security clearance, or had previous access to classified information, to discuss it publicly.
Clinton’s statement "now validates with specificity something of great sensitivity that has long been speculated by our adversaries and others in the national arena, including academics and think tanks, " the former SEAL officer said.
At a Pentagon press conference with South Korean defense minister Han Min-Koo, Defense Secretary Ash Carter avoided the issue when asked about this by CNN’s Barbara Starr.
"I’m sorry but I’m not gonna answer your first part because it is cast in terms of the ongoing presidential campaign,"  Carter said. "I’ve said repeatedly I’m not going to not answer questions in that context."
Two senior defense officials reached by Fox News highly doubt Clinton was read into any nuclear response plans as secretary of state and think the “four-minute” comment was an estimation on her part, not a classified number she revealed.
"While the excuse has been given that there has been previous 'talk' in the media and in academia regarding the 4 minute response time, it was just that – talk – it was informed speculation or assumption – it was not confirmed or stated by any official U.S. government official or stated as policy," Tony Shaffer, Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Operations at the London Center for Policy Research, told Fox News.
"There is uncertainty  - for a reason – maintained by the Department of Defense- so that adversaries do not know what our capability is or what to expect – that has been blown here by Ms. Clinton," Shaffer added.

Stephen Baldwin doesn't think Alec Baldwin's imitation of Donald Trump is funny

Stephen Baldwin isn’t laughing at his brother Alec Baldwin’s “Saturday Night Live” impressions of Donald Trump.
The youngest Baldwin brother is a Donald Trump supporter, and he thinks his older brother’s skits imitating the GOP presidential nominee aren’t that great, despite their viral success.
“Well he’s got the voice down very well. I think it’s getting a little too nasty right now,” Stephen Baldwin told CBS News following Wednesday’s debate. “What do I think about Alec Baldwin’s impersonation of Donald Trump and ‘SNL’ and everything they’re doing? I don’t want to be a party pooper here, but I don’t think it’s very funny. I don’t think there’s anything funny about this election.”
This season, Alec Baldwin has been teaming up with Kate McKinnon to do skits about Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The skits have contributed to a ratings boost for “SNL” and millions of views online.

The skits have also gotten attention from Trump. The Republican candidate tweeted about the show on Sunday, stating that he was no fan of the “SNL” bits.
“Alec Baldwin portrayal stinks,” he wrote. He also called the show “boring and unfunny.”

Trump jeered over personal attacks against Clinton at charity dinner

Okay for her but wrong for him, double standard?

Republican nominee Donald Trump was jeered by attendees at a New York white-tie charity dinner Thursday night after his speech crossed from roast-style jokes into personal attacks on his opponent, Hillary Clinton.
The first outburst from members of the audience at the annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner came when Trump said that Clinton was "so corrupt she got kicked off the Watergate Commission."
WATCH: TRUMP JOKES ABOUT CLINTON 'PARDON'
The jeers continued when Trump referenced the Clinton campaign emails leaked by Wikileaks and claimed that the former secretary of state was "pretending not to hate Catholics," an apparent reference to 2011 emails from a current Clinton campaign spokeswoman that mocked Catholics and evangelical Christians.
CLINTON: IT TOOK A VILLAGE TO WRITE THESE JOKES

Some members of the audience appeared to be shouting at Timothy Cardinal Dolan, who was sitting between the candidates, and asking him to take the microphone from Trump, who quickly pivoted to remembrances of attending the event with his father.

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Moments earlier, Trump had gotten one of the biggest cheers of the night when he joked about his wife Melania's speech at the Republican National Convention, which was found to have been partially plagiarized from an address by first lady Michelle Obama.
"Michelle Obama gives a speech and everyone loves it," Trump said. "My wife Melania gives the exact same speech and people get on her case and I don't get it. I don't know why."
As Melania Trump rose to acknowledge the applause, her husband remarked, "I'm in trouble when I go home tonight. She didn't know about that one."
Some of Trump's attack lines showed a sense of humor. Clinton was the first one to laugh when Trump joked that she had bumped into him earlier in the night "and she very simply said `Pardon me"' -- an unsubtle reference to the Republican nominee's frequent declarations that his opponent should go to jail.
Clinton, meanwhile, joked that she had taken a break from her "usual nap schedule" to attend and suggested that the audience should be pleased she's not charging her usual fee for speaking in front of potential donors.

But she also got in some digs at Trump, a few of which drew scattered jeers. Clinton said she understood why Trump was leery of teleprompters because they can be difficult to follow and "I'm sure it's even harder when you're translating from the original Russian."
Clinton repeatedly referenced Trump's most controversial moments from the three presidential debates. She joked that if Trump didn't like what she was saying, then he could shout 'wrong."'
She added that she was surprised Trump let her go second because "I didn't think he'd be OK with a peaceful transition of power." And she said Trump "looks at the Statue of Liberty and sees a four. Maybe a `5' if she loses the torch and tablet and changes her hair."
She even took a shot at Trump's running mate, saying that "after listening to your speech, I will also look forward to listening to Mike Pence deny that you ever said it."
The candidates did not greet each other or make eye contact when they entered and took their seats for the event at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, though they did shake hands at the conclusion of the roast.
For his part, Dolan called his seat "the iciest place on the planet," though he later said that he was "very moved" by the candidates' interaction on the dais.
"They were very friendly, very uplifting, very complimentary to one another," he told Fox News outside the event. "The fact that we are together, the fact that they shook hands at the end and said, 'See ya on the campaign trail,' that's not bad."
Clinton and Trump both took some early heat from the night's master of ceremonies, Alfred E. Smith IV, the event namesake's great-grandson. Smith joked that Trump approached Clinton before the event and asked how she was doing, to which Smith responded "I'm fine but now get out of the ladies' dressing room."
Trump laughed at the joke, and again when Smith made another joke about the leaked video which captured Trump using vulgar language, saying while the celebrity businessman was "sitting next to a man in a robe [Cardinal Dolan], but this is not a locker room. Watch your language!"

Smith also teased Clinton, noting that "titans of Wall Street" were in attendance, but told her to restrain herself from seeking donations and to "remember the children."
The Al Smith Dinner, named in honor of the former New York governor and 1928 Democratic presidential nominee, benefits charities supporting needy children in the Archdiocese of New York. Smith IV announced that this year's dinner had raised approximately $6 million.