Saturday, September 28, 2013

House Republican Spending Plan to Include Obamacare Delay

House Republicans on Saturday pushed the government to the edge of a partial shutdown next week, insisting that President Barack Obama's health care law be delayed a year in defiance of White House and the Democratic-controlled Senate. 
They rejected a Senate bill passed Friday that would keep the government operating another 45 days and make no changes to the health law. Instead, House Republicans prepared to pass their own version Saturday and throw the issue back to the Senate, which is not scheduled to return until Monday afternoon, 10 hours before the shutdown deadline.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has insisted the Senate would not pass a bill that alters the law. The White House has said Obama would veto such a bill.

But in an exclusive interview with Newsmax, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell insisted that Republicans weren't fighting a lost cause to defund Obamacare as part of legislation to prevent the federal government from shutting down next week.

"I don't think it was a waste of time," the Kentucky Republican said. "The American people do fully understand that still, not a single Republican in the House or Senate favors this awful new law — and if they will send us enough additional new members to get rid of it, we will."
In addition to delaying final implementation of the Affordable Care Act for a year, the House bill would repeal a tax on medical devices that helps pay for the law, said Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif.
The measure would provide the government with operating funds until Dec. 15; the Senate's version lasted until only Nov. 15.
Dealing with the possibility the Senate would reject the bill, the House also planned to pass a companion measure Sunday directing that U.S. military troops be paid on time despite any partial shutdown.
Obama, in his weekly radio and Internet address, accused House Republicans of being more concerned "with appeasing an extreme faction of their party than working to pass a budget."
Before news of the new plan emerged, lawmakers took to the House floor and mixed name-calling with cries for compromise.
"I've got a titanium backbone. Let 'em blame, let 'em talk, it's fine," said Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., about Democratic claims that the GOP would be at fault if the government must close.
She said the GOP wanted to keep the government open, but also wanted to reduce its size and "delay, defund, repeal and replace Obamacare," as the health law is known.
The Senate's 54-44 vote Friday was strictly along party lines in favor of the bill, which would prevent a shutdown of nonessential government services.
That followed a 79-19 vote to cut off a filibuster by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, that exposed a rift among Republicans eager to prevent a shutdown and those, like Cruz, who seem willing to risk one over the health overhaul.
All 52 Democrats, two independents and 25 of 44 Republicans voted in favor. That included McConnell, R-Ky., and most of the GOP leadership.
Cruz was trying to rally House conservatives to continue the battle over heath care. He was urging them to reject efforts by Boehner and other GOP leaders to offer scaled-back assaults on the law such as repealing the tax on medical devices as the House response.
Some conservatives were taking their cues from Cruz rather than party leaders such as Boehner hoping to avoid a shutdown. Closing down the government could weaken Republicans heading into an even more important battle later in October over allowing the government to borrow more money.
If lawmakers miss the deadline, hundreds of thousands of nonessential federal workers would have to stay home on Tuesday.
Critical services such patrolling the borders, inspecting meat and controlling air traffic would continue. Social Security benefits would be sent and the Medicare and Medicaid health care programs for the elderly and poor would continue to pay doctors and hospitals.
The new health insurance exchanges would open Tuesday, a development that's lent urgency to the drive to use a normally routine stopgap spending bill to gut implementation of the law.

Barack Hussein Obama II

Read more at http://www.conservapedia.com/Barack_Hussein_Obama#Obama.27s_Medical_Administrator
Barack Hussein Obama II (b. August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii) is the 44th President of the United States. Through heavy use of early voting by the Democrat political machine, Obama was elected president in 2008 with 365 electoral votes and 53% of the popular vote. In 2012 he was elected to a second term with 332 electoral votes and 51% of the popular vote. Promoted heavily by liberals, as demonstrated by his unjustified receipt of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, Obama won the presidency despite a short and unremarkable political career by outspending his opponent, John McCain, by hundreds of millions of dollars in 2008[2], and spending more than a billion dollars from special interests to attain reelection in 2012.[3]
The liberal claptrap that helped elect Obama as president seems silly today. It was claimed, for example, that Obama has millions of followers on Twitter, when allegedly some 70% of them are fake.[4] And although the lamestream media promoted Obama as a great orator, in fact he relies almost entirely on teleprompters for his speeches and press conferences, and at one point even had teleprompters set up for him in a middle school classroom in order to speak to the media.
Obama is pro-abortion. During his campaigns Obama said that he intended to "spread the wealth around" and has been portrayed as saying that entrepreneurs and employers deserve no credit for building their businesses.[5] On March 1, 2013 Obama issued executive orders to implement his sequester of budget cuts which[6] has been widely criticized for destroying jobs in what was an anemic and fragile recovery.[7]
Former Democrat Presidential candidate Joe Lieberman endorsed Obama's opponent in 2008 and has declined to endorse Obama for the 2012 presidential election.[8]
Following the 2011 debt ceiling standoff between Obama and House Republicans,[9] the United States Government's credit rating was, for the first time in its history, downgraded from AAA to AA+, and poverty[10] increased markedly. By and large his programs, said to combat the recession, unemployment, slow growth, and deficits, have failed[11] leaving the the country saddled with a $16 trillion national debt and climbing.[12] One of his most well known tactics is blaming someone else, such as George W. Bush, for all his failures instead of taking responsibility. Also on the domestic front, Obama passed an expensive health care bill in 2010 with no national concensus or bipartisan support and 34 Democrats dissenting. Recently, the Congressional Budget Office wrote an open letter to John Boehner, the Speaker of the House, outlining the effects of repealing Obamacare and explaining why net loss of over 100 billion dollars would occur from the repeal. [10]
Americans deaths in Afghanistan have more than doubled under Obama's leadership compared with the preceding eight years of George Bush, according to the Congressional Research Service [13] Against his own Defense Secretary's advice, Obama attacked Libya - a possible violation of the War Powers Act. After he he took credit for the killing of September 11th mastermind terrorist Osama bin Laden, the U.S. State Department warned of increased risk to the lives and safety of Americans.[14] Bin Laden's successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri confirmed the Benghazi Attack which killed four State Department employees, was motivated by revenge.[15] Bin Laden's killing, however had negligible impact on Obama's approval ratings.[16]
Obama's bizarre gaffes are frequent and embarrassing, but typically unreported by the liberal media. Many hardworking American businessmen took offense to a 2012 campaign speech about the economy where he says "You didn't build that." Obama offended Poland by referring to the Nazi death camps there as "Polish death camps." Later Obama apologized.[17] Even the New York Times was critical of Obama's incessant boasting about the killing of bin Laden.[18]

If You Don’t Like ObamaCare, Can You Quit?

By G. Keith Smith, MD - http://SurgeryCenterOK.com

At a physician’s roundtable years ago, I asked Senator Orrin Hatch why I couldn’t punch out of Social Security, happy to leave all that I had paid “into the system” on the table. Why couldn’t anyone, I asked, willing to leave behind all they had paid in, be allowed to walk away from these entitlements, as long as they were willing to forgo a future claim to these “benefits?”

He wouldn’t answer me. The answer is obvious, though, isn’t it? Without the current “contributions” of the young (and yes, draws on the credit line of the unborn), the current beneficiaries would discover that these programs were bankrupt.

Virtually all of the legislators that brought us Medicare are dead and gone now. All of the legislators who brought us Social Security are dead and gone. This is no coincidence, for these men realized that it was politically much more popular to give away government goodies paid for by the young and unborn than to tax the very same people who were to “benefit” from their “ideas” and “programs.”

Dead now, these criminal politicians have largely escaped the harsh judgment they deserve for buying votes with property that would belong to future generations. Currency depreciation (“inflation”—the current political class’s favorite way to rob the young for the benefit of their current constituents) has the same effect on future generations.

This is the essence of a Ponzi scheme. That is a fraudulent investment scheme that pays investors not out of profits but out of money paid in by later investors.

If you think about it, all government programs are Ponzi schemes. It is becoming increasingly clear that the same can be said about the [Un]Affordable Care Act. I call it the UCA, instead of the ACA.

UCA can’t let young people out for the same reason that Social Security can’t. Young workers aren’t paying or saving for their own benefits, but for older, sicker people.

UCA rules force insurers to charge them more than they actually cost to help offset the higher cost of insuring older and sicker people. If the young don’t sign up, premiums for everyone in the insurance pool will dramatically increase, as will the cost to the government.

People generally don’t volunteer to be overcharged so that strangers can be undercharged. Hence the individual mandate, and tax penalties.

Young adults are beginning to see the reality as the UCA takes shape, and understand how they wind up losing from every angle. Hence the $600 million advertising campaign and multimillion dollar Navigator program to steer people into the program as quickly as possible. UCA promoters know how hard it is to take away an entitlement once people are trapped in it.

The idea is to entice people with subsidies so they won’t notice how outrageous the premiums are. When enough are lured away from private insurance—the “crowding out” effect shown so well with the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)—private insurance will collapse. Like Medicare beneficiaries now, all Americans will be without options for major medical insurance.

The success of the UCA hinges on the successful fleecing of the young people. This is the same immoral basis for Medicare and Social Security, “programs” that are still alive because participation in these Ponzi schemes is involuntary. With Bernie Madoff, at least people could take their lumps, having learned their lesson and move on. They didn’t have to continue to give him money after they learned what he was up to.

I am optimistic that today’s young people will reject the shackles that many of their elders have embraced.





G. Keith Smith, MD is a board certified anesthesiologist in private practice since 1990. In 1997, he co-founded The Surgery Center of Oklahoma, an outpatient surgery center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, owned by 40 of the top physicians and surgeons in central Oklahoma. Dr. Smith serves as the medical director, CEO and managing partner while maintaining an active anesthesia practice.

In 2009, Dr. Smith launched a website displaying all-inclusive pricing for various surgical procedures, a move that has gained him and the facility, national and even international attention. Many Canadians and uninsured Americans have been treated at his facility, taking advantage of the low and transparent pricing available.

Operation of this free market medical practice, arguably the only one of its kind in the U.S., has gained the endorsement of policymakers and legislators nationally. More and more self-funded insurance plans are taking advantage of Dr. Smith’s pricing model, resulting in significant savings to their employee health plans. His hope is for as many facilities as possible to adopt a transparent pricing model, a move he believes will lower costs for all and improve quality of care

Cruz

Political Cartoons by Henry Payne

What Now? Budget bill heads to House after Senate restores ObamaCare $$

Bailey Comment: Do all of us Americans a huge favor and let the government shutdown. The majority of  us are sick and tire of the politicians in Washington who instead of being employed by us actually believe themselves to be the Masters of the America.               House Republican leaders heading into a rare weekend session struggled with a tough choice after Senate Democrats succeeded in passing a "clean" budget bill which, contrary to GOP wishes, restores funding for ObamaCare.
The Senate, capping a dramatic week on Capitol Hill, approved the bill on Friday, after Democrats stripped a Republican-backed provision to defund the health law. The final vote was 54-44.
The House is expected to take up the legislation starting on Saturday, and the bill is seen by some lawmakers as a sort of legislative hot potato. If the two chambers cannot agree on a final bill by midnight on Monday, then the government will shut down. Neither side wants to be left holding the bill if that happens.
House Speaker John Boehner could, theoretically, just call up the Senate-passed bill and rely on mostly Democrats to pass it. But House Republicans are under heavy pressure, now, from fellow conservatives to stand by their demand that ObamaCare be defunded, or least delayed.
A group of 62 conservative Republican lawmakers emerged late Friday with a proposed amendment to the spending bill that would delay the entire health care law for a year. Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ga., said he plans to introduce the amendment when the House considers the funding bill.
"This approach was developed over several meetings with House Republicans, with a goal of keeping our conference unified, as we continue working to keep the government open and protect our constituents from the harmful effects of ObamaCare,” Graves said in a statement.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who staged an unsuccessful effort to stall the bill in the Senate, predicted the House would restore anti-ObamaCare provisions -- and urged Senate Republicans to unite with them. "Today, far too many Republicans joined Harry Reid in giving the Democrats the ability to fund ObamaCare," he said.
Boehner signaled he will not accept the Senate-passed bill in its current form. If the bill is altered in any way, it will have to return to the Senate for yet another vote.
"The House will take action that reflects the fundamental fact that Americans don't want a government shutdown and they don't want the train wreck that is ObamaCare," spokesman Brendan Buck said in a statement.
But President Obama, during remarks at the White House, warned Republicans not to go down that road.
"(Undoing ObamaCare is) not gonna happen," Obama said. "House Republicans will have to decide whether to join the Senate and keep the government open, or shut it down because they can't get their way. ... This grandstanding has real effects on real people."
Obama also warned Republicans to back down on threats to tie an increase in the debt ceiling to other demands, claiming a U.S. default would cause an "economic shutdown."
Should Republicans stand by their anti-ObamaCare demands, Democrats have launched an aggressive campaign to pre-emptively blame them for a government shutdown. During a post-vote press conference, Senate Democrats displayed a countdown clock to the "Republican government shutdown."
"I don't know of anyone who wants to shut down the government. The only thing we want to shut down is ObamaCare," Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said.
Amid the fighting, federal agencies are warning about the impact of the looming shutdown. The Pentagon warned Friday that as many as 400,000 civilian workers could be furloughed. Military personnel are not subject to furlough and would continue to work, for the time being, without pay.
Democrats used the doomsday scenarios to pressure Republicans into backing down.
"We've passed the only bill that can avert a government shutdown Monday night. I've said this on the floor -- I say it again: This is it," Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said.
Earlier Friday, Reid narrowly won approval to restore funding for ObamaCare. The 54-44 vote fell along party lines.
That was after the Senate voted 79-19 on the initial version of the bill, which in its original form would keep the government open while defunding ObamaCare. Several Republicans joined Democrats in voting "yes" on that vote, ignoring appeals by Cruz and other conservatives to stall the bill.
The first roll call had put Republicans in a difficult position, and prompted a very-public spate of infighting. Tea Party-aligned Republicans like Cruz, who staged a 21-hour anti-ObamaCare speech on the Senate floor this week, argued that Republicans should stop this bill in its tracks. Though the bill technically defunded ObamaCare -- which Cruz and his colleagues wanted -- they argued that since Reid would restore the funding, they should vote "no."
A number of Republicans rejected this logic.
"I don't understand how I can otherwise vote on a matter that I want to see passed," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said. (Click to see the vote breakdown.)
Though the test vote put Senate Republicans in a tricky spot, the bigger question is what House Republicans will do next.
If Republicans stand by their demand that ObamaCare be defunded, delayed or otherwise undermined, then the two chambers could easily be at an impasse by midnight on Monday.
Tempers and rhetoric were heated on Friday as Democrats accused their Republican colleagues of playing with legislative fire.
"We are at one of the most dangerous points in our history right now -- every bit as dangerous as the break-up of the Union before the Civil War," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.
But Republicans are treating their push to defund ObamaCare with urgency, in part because a key part of the law is set to go into effect next week.
"ObamaCare is the biggest job killer in the country," Cruz said.

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