'Cupboard is bare'? Despite claims, feds find $100M to give Detroit

Published September 27, 2013

FoxNews.com

Sept. 26, 2013: A young man walks in front of a row of abandoned houses in Detroit.AP

DETROIT –  The Obama administration has found $100 million to send to struggling Detroit, despite recurring claims that the government cannot afford to make any more spending cuts.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi claimed just last weekend that "there's no more cuts to make." Pelosi made the comments in response to Republicans demanding additional cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling.
"The cupboard is bare," she told CNN.
Apparently not completely bare.
Gene Sperling, chief economic adviser to President Obama, told the Associated Press the administration scrounged through the federal budget and found untapped money that "either had not flowed or had not gotten out or not directed to the top priorities."
That money is now being sent to Detroit.
Considering the Motor City is at least $18 billion in debt, it will take a far larger infusion of cash or historic deals with bond holders, insurance companies and other creditors to correct the problem.
But the $100 million infusion is a step toward greater federal involvement.
Sperling and three other top Obama aides -- U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan -- were meeting Friday with state and local officials. The meeting was to include Gov. Rick Snyder, state-appointed emergency manager Kevyn Orr, Mayor Dave Bing and community and business leaders.
The federal money being directed Detroit's way by the U.S. government will be augmented by millions of dollars more in resources from foundations and Detroit businesses
The Obama administration repeatedly had signaled it would not offer a massive federal bailout like the one credited with helping rescue Chrysler and General Motors.
"There is not going to be a bailout," Democratic U.S. Sen. Carl Levin told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "We have enough problems with the federal deficit. We need to be creative and look at existing programs. There are still some funds there."
The funding announced by Sperling will include $65 million in Community Development Block Grants for blight eradication, $25 million in a public-private collaboration for commercial building demolition and nearly $11 million in funds to ensure working families can live in safe neighborhoods.
Holder will announce $3 million that, in part, will be used to hire new police officers. About $25 million also will be expedited to Detroit to hire about 140 firefighters and buy new gear.
"It wasn't enough to try and free the resources," Sperling said. "We had to make sure they are well-used and targeted."
In addition, Orr, the city's emergency manager, has told the city's two municipal retirement systems he wants to freeze Detroit's pension plans and move to a 401(k)-style system.
The gathering Friday follows a series of meetings with the White House to plot ways to pull Detroit from a fiscal pit that this summer made it the largest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy protection.
Detroit has had a poor record in making sure grant money is used properly and even spent at all.
In 2011, Mayor Dave Bing fired the director of the city's Human Services Department after an internal investigation revealed $200,000 intended for poor residents was spent on office furniture for staff members.
The following year, his office had to scramble to use about $20 million in grants that had been left sitting for demolitions of thousands of vacant houses. The city's Police Department also allowed a $400,000 grant to lapse for a new armored vehicle.
The grant troubles have rankled Orr, the emergency manager Gov. Rick Snyder appointed to lead the city out of its financial mess.
Orr has said Detroit is so poor that it can't afford to lose out on any resources. In July, he made Detroit the largest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy protection.
Grants only can pay for things the city otherwise couldn't afford. Several businesses even pitched in $8 million earlier this year to help pay for a new fleet of emergency vehicles, including 23 EMS units and 100 police cars, to boost public safety and reduce response times.
Police Chief James Craig said Thursday that he was in Washington a few weeks ago in search of federal resources for his department.

President Obama lied to us -- he told America some real whoppers about ObamaCare

President Obama lied to us.
It wasn’t a white lie. It wasn’t a fib. It wasn’t a half truth. It was a bold-faced lie.
“No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise,” President Obama told the American Medical Association in 2009. “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what.”
That statement turned out to be a lie. Period.
On Thursday I asked my Facebook community if they had faced hardships as a result of ObamaCare.
The response was overwhelming. I received nearly 1,000 replies – from small business owners, nurses, doctors, electricians, stay-at-home moms, and military personnel. Every single person said they had been adversely affected by President Obama’s signature legislation.

President Obama also promised us that we would be able to keep our doctor. Another lie.

So let’s break down the president’s lies.
Thursday he told an audience in Largo, Maryland that the Affordable Care Act had not hurt jobs.
“There's no widespread evidence that the Affordable Care Act is hurting jobs,” he said.
Investor’s Business Daily reports that as a direct result of ObamaCare, more than 300 companies have either eliminated jobs or reduced full time jobs to part time jobs. Hospitals across the country are firing staff and reducing work hours.
Janet Blanck owns Country Blossom Florist, a small shop in Gilbert, Ariz. She tells me that as a result of ObamaCare she’s had to lay off three employees.
At one time, she employed eight people. Those who were not let go now work part-time because of rising insurance costs.
“Obama is killing us,” she told me. “It breaks my heart to have to do this. I have to protect what I have built and this is the only way that I know of to get around this law and still stay in business.”
President Obama also promised us that we would be able to keep our doctor. Another lie.
Several hundred of you, like Joel Keefauver, wrote to tell me that your doctors were either shuttering their practices or shedding patients.
“Under the forthcoming Affordable Care Act and new healthcare regulations, I will no longer be able to provide the quality of healthcare you have come to expect and that I believe is proper,” the doctor wrote in a letter to Keefauver. “The increased cost imposed by complying with these new laws, along with decreasing reimbursements, creates a financial burden that is unsustainable for my solo practice.”
DiDi Henry’s elderly mother recently moved from Alabama to Louisiana. She has been unable to find a doctor willing to take Medicare patients.
“Several doctors told her that they just aren’t taking Medicare patients because of ObamaCare,” she told me.
The president also told us ObamaCare would make health insurance affordable? Another whopper.
Business owner Sheila Frey tells me her insurance rates have increased by 46 percent. Her small family-run company is paying $2,000 a month for coverage.
And remember how President Obama promised rebate checks to defray the cost of buying insurance coverage? Well, Shelia tells me her rebate check was a meager $127. You do the math.
Tammy Boisvert told me she had to find a new pediatrician.
“My family doctor of 20 years couldn’t take my newborn due to this insurance mess,” she wrote. “With a family of six all seen by this one doctor, I suddenly had to search for a new pediatrician.”
President Obama promised we could keep our current health care plan. Another lie.
Michelle Cox, of Asheville, N.C. wrote to me about a letter she received Thursday from her insurance company.
“ACA requires is to make significant changes to our health benefits plan designs,” the letter read. “We cannot renew your existing plan in 2014.”
Alissa Delamar is in the same boat -- searching for insurance after her company canceled its group plan.
“I’m stressed so much financially now I can’t fathom any more debt,” she wrote. “It leaves you hopeless.”
Catherine Schneider and her husband own Blue Sky Trucking in Montgomery, Minn. They were just informed that their insurance policy would be canceled in December.
“It’s too expensive,” she said. “The Affordable Care Act is disrupting our business and it has the potential to destroy our family.”
Allison deNijis’s family policy was also canceled.
“I thought Obama said we could keep our insurance?” she asked. “I thought he said our cost would decline? Not true! Epic fail!”
Her family was offered a new policy that now includes a nearly $1,000 monthly premium and $5,000 in individual deductibles.
“I am seriously considering just paying the fine and putting the differential amount in a personal savings account,” she told me. “Why should I pay over $13,000 in premiums?”
By the time ObamaCare is fully implemented, I suspect most Americans will be begging for death panels – to put us out of our misery.

Despite gov't assurances, some could see insurance costs soar under ObamaCare

While the administration maintains that ObamaCare will make health insurance more affordable for Americans, experts say that won’t be the case across the board – and some people could see their rates soar.
On Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius released an overview of premiums and plan choices, saying “For millions of Americans, these new options will finally make health insurance work within their budgets.”
The administration also said premiums would generally be lower than what congressional budget experts had estimated during debate on the legislation.
But former Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Holtz-Eakin said Thursday, “unfortunately you can go all through that HHS report and not be able to answer the most important question: will my insurance rates go up in 2014?"
"They cherry picked the data in order to highlight the fact that people of low income will benefit under the law," adds Avik Roy of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a New York-based think tank. "But people of middle income will not. And they didn’t really talk about that."
The new law requires the addition of what it calls essential benefits -- a list of things that must be covered and which make insurance more expensive than it is now.
"This report is intended to send the message, 'hey everybody wins, this is a great thing, please show up,"says Holtz-Eakin.
"That's not the reality. The reality is much messier. There's going to be some people who do better. There are going to be a lot of people who do much, much worse."
The Manhattan Institute analyzed rates around the country and found that for people of medium income, costs will soar -- up by as much as 99 percent for men, and up about 55 percent for women.
"Even if the average American gets some subsidy, a partial subsidy," says Roy, who authored the study,"that partial subsidy won't be enough to overcome the dramatic increase in the cost of insurance, the underlying cost of insurance ObamaCare imposes on the market."
But insurance premiums are only one part of the puzzle. Most plans also have very high deductibles.
"Do you have a large deductible?" asks Holtz-Eakin. "How much do you have to pay before the insurance starts picking up the cost?"
Analysts expect deductibles to be in the $5,000 to $6,000 range for the lowest level of coverage, the bronze plan.
Dan Mendelson, CEO and founder at Avalere Health in Washington,says,"So, if you're in a bronze plan, the premiums are going to be relatively low, you know, as HHS said, in some cases people won't pay premiums at all.
“But there are going to be very high out of pocket costs and deductibles in some cases are going to be over $5,500."
That means a person with a plan at that level might only pay $100 dollars a month in premiums, as the administration has said.
But depending on medical events, the deductible could add almost $500 dollars a month more, without even counting the co-pays

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