In weak economy, working-age people emerge as new face of food stamps

 
A SLOW ECONOMIC RECOVERY, high unemployment and stagnant wages are contributing factors as working-age people, for the first time, now make up a majority in U.S. households that rely on food stamps — suggesting that government spending on the $80 billion program may not subside significantly soon.

Pro-life activists march in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO –  Many thousands of anti-abortion protesters from across California marched through downtown San Francisco on Saturday, calling for restrictions on a medical procedure that was legalized more than 40 years ago.
A massive and diverse crowd of protesters rallied in front of City Hall before marching down Market Street to Justin Herman Plaza for the 10th annual "Walk for Life West Coast." They chanted "Pro Life" and carried signs that read "Defend Life" and "Women deserve better than abortion."
On Wednesday, thousands of abortion protesters participated in the annual Walk for Life rally in Washington, D.C. to mark the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized the procedure.
San Francisco police did not immediately provide an official crowd estimate, but at one point marchers stretched across more than a mile of Market Street, the liberal city's main thoroughfare.
High school senior Nancy Castellanos came to San Francisco on one of six buses of worshippers from St. Peter's Catholic Church in Dixon, about 70 miles away. She believes the laws need to change to make it harder to get an abortion.
"I am 100 percent, completely against abortion," Castellanos, 17, said. "If you don't want the child, there's always adoption."
John Paine, 52, arrived with people from his church group in Visalia in California's Central Valley, after making a 3 1/2-hour drive to San Francisco on Saturday.
"I'm ashamed that my country sanctions the killing of the most defenseless of its citizens," Paine said. "Human life in all its stages is sacred and should be protected."
A small group of pro-abortion rights activists protested the march on Market Street, holding signs that read "Abortion on demand and without apology."
Anna Wilson, 20, a commercial artist who lives in San Francisco, said she participated in the Walk for Life march two years ago, but said she's since changed her stance on abortion.
"I realized I was looking at it in a real childish way," Wilson said. "I'm not pro-abortion. Nobody's pro-abortion. But I am pro-choice. I think that women should have every single choice available to them, as much as men do."
Supervisor David Campos introduced a resolution last week opposing the dozens of "Abortion Hurts Women" banners that organizers hung from street lamps on Market Street. The resolution says "the prominent display of false anti-abortion statements on public property on Market Street misrepresents the City's support for reproductive health, rights and justice."
Over the last several decades, anti-abortion groups have focused on placing relatively small restrictions on abortion, especially in conservative states with Republican-dominated legislatures. But lawmakers in those states are under increasing pressure from activists to take stronger action to limit abortion.
But California, which has a Democratic governor and Legislature, expanded abortion access last year with a measure that allows nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and physician assistants to perform a type of early abortion.

Politico Ignores Bio-Gate, Declares Wendy Davis 'Most Judged Woman In America'

Friday, Breitbart News reported that Politico has thus far published only three stories on Texas gubernatorial candidate and Democrat rising star Wendy Davis being caught fabricating her life story as a single teenage mother who put herself through school. The fact that Politico has shown almost no interest in the Davis scandal did not stop the left-wing outlet from running a lead piece Saturday that declares Davis "The Most Judged Woman In America."

Judged where, exactly? Certainly not on the pages of Politico or the mainstream news media.
Moreover, the piece is written by Liza Mundy, who identifies herself as the program director at the New America Foundation. What Politico does not disclose, though, is that the New America Foundation is a left-wing organization -- left-wing enough to attract the son of George Soros to its board. Politico is obsessed with every move anyone with the last name Koch makes, but not so much when it comes to a Soros-affiliated writer at their own site.
Let's give credit to Politico, though. Propaganda-wise it is a master-stoke for the left-wing outlet to almost completely ignore the Davis scandal and then lead with an article that paints her as a martyr to something that never happened.
As always, it is important to remember that although it is a left-wing outlet, Politico disguises itself as objective. But objective outlets do not devote 50-plus stories to a stupid comment and 3 to someone fabricating for a year the narrative that helped make them a star.

No, Mr. Obama, we don’t dislike you because you’re black

America, we have an egotistical, delusional president. He has convinced himself that he is disliked by many Americans because he is black. 
In a lengthy interview with New Yorker magazine editor David Remnick the president tells him, "There’s no doubt that there’s some folks who just really dislike me because they don’t like the idea of a black president. Now, the flip side of it is there are some black folks and maybe some white folks who really like me and give me the benefit of the doubt precisely because I’m a black president."
President Obama’s approval rating has fallen badly in the national polls. His ratings are historically low. The second lowest in modern history at this point of a presidency. Lower than Bush. Lower than everyone but Richard Nixon.

I don’t dislike Obama. I dislike his beliefs and his policies.

Here come the excuses. Obama desperately wants to believe it’s all because he’s black. Because if he didn’t have that excuse, it would have to be based on his performance.
When Obama blames "some folks" for not liking him because he's black, he refers to conservatives and white Americans. I’m an unapologetic member of both groups.
It’s an interesting excuse.
If we disliked him for the color of his skin, that would excuse his failed performance as president. How convenient. That would excuse everything he’s done to damage or destroy American exceptionalism, capitalism, and the U.S. economy.
If this was about race, it would excuse his dismantling of the economy. It would excuse the 92 million working-age Americans not in the workforce.
It would excuse all-time record lows for workforce participation. It would excuse tens of thousands, and in some cases, hundreds of thousands of Americans dropping out of the workforce every month.
It would excuse the fact that only crummy, crappy, low-wage part-time jobs are being created because of Obama’s policies.
If this was about race, it would excuse Obama taking the formerly greatest health care system in the world and plunging it into crisis and confusion.
It would distract us from seeing his failed ObamaCare web site that cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
Or his blatant lies about keeping our health insurance if we like it. Or his lies about the middle class not being taxed to pay for 30 million new patients.
Or his lies about the quality of care remaining the same, even though we’ve added 30 million new patients, with no new doctors.
Or his lies about prices going down, while our rates are going through the roof, and his own IRS predicts health insurance will cost the average family a staggering $20,000 per year by 2016.
If this was about race, it would excuse his lies about wanting to create jobs for middle class Americans while he’s made conscious decisions to hire foreign companies (who rely on cheap foreign labor) to build and fix the defective ObamaCare website.
If this was about race, it would excuse his never ending spending and debt.
Or the damage he’s done to middle class Americans -- the doubling of gas prices, the all-time record highs for electricity, the jobs he’s destroyed by not approving oil drilling, or fracking, or the Keystone Pipeline.
Or using the EPA to try to put coal industry completely out of business.
It would excuse his using the power of the IRS to persecute Tea Party groups and conservative critics (like me), while allowing the IRS to hand out fraudulent tax refunds to illegal immigrants claiming fake dependents not even living in the United States.
It would excuse four dead American heroes in Benghazi, a refusal to send help while they were fighting for their lives, and a blatant cover-up before the election.
But putting all that aside, let me point out a few inconsistencies in Obama’s allegation against conservatives:
First, I don’t dislike Obama. I dislike his beliefs and his policies.
Second, last I checked Obama is not just “black.” He’s half white, born by a white mother, raised by white grandparents.
Third, I’ve been consistent my entire life. I’ve been a true blue conservative patriot since age 3, when I handed out campaign literature for Barry Goldwater, in my father’s arms. I judge people by their political beliefs and policies, not the color of their skin.
At the age of 11, I despised the policies of ultra-leftist Presidential candidate George McGovern. His beliefs and policies were almost identical to Obama’s today. Did I hate white Midwestern men?
In 1980, as a student at Columbia University, I despised the policies of President Jimmy Carter, whose policies were almost identical to Obama’s today. Did I hate white Southern men?
Today, I despise the policies of ultra-leftist politicians like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Do I therefore hate white Mormons and Italians?
Lastly, I can think of many Jewish Democrats whose policies I despise. The first one that comes to mind is Debbie Wasserman Schultz, whose statements often make me physically ill. Does that mean I hate Jews? That’s pretty funny, because I’m Jewish.
In each case a Republican conservative like me despises the political beliefs and policies of people I believe now, or believed back then, to be extreme, radical, socialist, economically ignorant, and damaging to America and capitalism.
No, Mr. Obama, we don’t dislike you because you’re black. But we do despise your policies, your lies, and your destruction of the greatest country, economy and middle class in world history.

3 Million People Have Now Enrolled in ObamaCare

ObamaCare hit 3-million enrollees on Friday — still short of the number the administration had hoped for by the end of December — but reached only by including enrollees who have not yet made their first payment.

The insurance industry traditionally considers someone enrolled when they pay their first month’s premium.

Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services reported 24% of the 2.2 million enrollees through Dec. 28 were between ages 18 and 34.  The Affordable Care Act’s survival depends on younger, and presumably more healthy, enrollees to sign up for care to keep insurance pools balanced.

Under the ACA, every individual in the country has to have insurance by April 1 -- the end of open enrollment period -- or they will face a  $95 fine, or 1% of their annual income for failing to comply.
“We are encouraged that millions of people have been enrolled in Marketplace or Medicaid coverage since October 1, and will work to give millions more Americans the peace of mind that comes with health security in the months ahead,” Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Marilyn Tavenner said in a release.
Devon Herrick, senior analyst at the National Center for Policy Analysis, says the report continues to leave out two key statistics:  premium payments and demographics.
“We knew and assumed that as we got closer to the first of the year, more people would go online, especially as the administration ironed out the bugs in the exchange software and website,” Herrick says. “It does make sense that as they can, more people will go online.”
But fears of adverse selection, which is when older and sicker people making up the majority of enrollees, remains.
“The administration seems to be quietly worried about that as well,” he says. “Hopefully the late enrollees are younger people.”

ObamaCare death debt? States can seize assets to recoup Medicaid costs

Tom Gialanella, 56, was shocked to find out he qualified for Medicaid under ObamaCare. The Bothell, Wash., resident had been able to retire early years ago, owns his home outright in a pricey Seattle suburb and is living off his investments.
He wanted no part of the government's so-called free health care. "It's supposed to be a safety net program. It's not supposed to be for someone who has assets who can pay the bill," he said.
And after reading the fine print, Gialanella had another reason to flee Medicaid -- the potential death debt.
Though many may not realize it, states are allowed to recover the cost of health care after someone's death by seizing their assets. It applies to Medicaid recipients who are between the ages of 55 and 64. The law has been in place since 1993, when Congress realized states were going broke over rising Medicaid expenses.
But under ObamaCare, Medicaid eligibility has expanded dramatically along with the promise that the federal government will pick up the cost of the higher tab -- at least for the first few years, after which states will be on the hook for a portion of the increase.
Millions more are entering the system, perhaps without knowing that their assets could be at risk. 
However, just like Gialanella, others are opting out.
A Washington state couple in their early 60's actually got married recently so their combined income would keep them out of Medicaid and allow them to purchase a plan on the health exchange. Filing as individuals, their incomes had been low enough that they qualified for Medicaid.
They married primarily because Sophia Prins owns a home and wants to will it to her children without any worry that the government will attach a lien for the cost of her medical care. Prins doesn't think it's fair to go after the assets of people who get government assistance through Medicaid, but not those getting taxpayer subsidies through the exchange plans.
The story prompted Washington's Democratic governor, Jay Inslee, to issue an emergency rule change. It says the state may only recover the cost of nursing home care provided to Medicaid recipients in that 55-64 age group. That's the minimum allowable under the 1993 law.
"We have this population that we want to make sure they have access to health care," said state Medicaid Director MaryAnne Lindeblad. "We want them to get in so they can get the kinds of services that keep them healthy."
Oregon followed suit. But the 23 other states that expanded Medicaid under ObamaCare have not changed their estate recovery policies. A lot of money is at stake.
In 2004, California collected $44.6 million through estate recovery. It's a number that is certain to rise dramatically. MediCal officials tell Fox News they expect 1 million-2 million additional enrollees by 2015.
Minnesota, a much smaller state than California, managed to collect $25 million in 2004. It, too, is keeping its estate recovery policy in place.
Critics see a money grab.
"I think that people are maybe in for a shock when they find out their heirs are going to be paying for their care, because they got into a system under false pretenses," said Dr. Jane Orient of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a group opposed to the Affordable Care Act. 
The estate recovery law is so under the radar right now that interest groups like the AARP are still studying how it will play out under ObamaCare for seniors. 

Internal Revenue Code (IRS)

The Internal Revenue Code is the body of law that codifies all federal tax laws, including income, estate, gift, excise, alcohol, tobacco, and employment taxes. These laws constitute title 26 of the U.S. Code (26 U.S.C.A. § 1 et seq. [1986]) and are implemented by the Internal Revenue Service through its Treasury Regulations and Revenue Rulings.
Congress made major statutory changes to title 26 in 1939, 1954, and 1986. Because of the extensive revisions made in the tax reform act of 1986, title 26 is now known as the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (Pub. L. No. 99-514, § 2, 100 Stat. 2095 [Oct. 22, 1986]).
Subtitle A of the Code contains five chapters on income taxes. The chapters cover normal income taxes and surtaxes, taxes on self-employment income, withholding of taxes on nonresident Aliens and foreign corporations, taxes on transfers to avoid Income Tax, and consolidated returns.
Subtitle B deals with Estate and Gift Taxes. The rules and regulations concerning the taxation of probate estates and gifts are very complicated. This subtitle contains chapters on taxing generation-skipping transfers and rules on special valuation of property.
Subtitle C contains the law of employment taxes. It consists of chapters on general provisions relating to employment taxes and other sections dealing with federal insurance contributions, railroad retirement taxes, and federal unemployment taxes.
Subtitle D covers miscellaneous excise taxes. Its fifteen chapters cover a variety of issues, including retail excise taxes, manufacturers' excise taxes, taxes on wagering, environmental taxes, public charities, private foundations, Pension plans, and certain group health plans.
Subtitle E covers alcohol, tobacco, and other excise taxes. Chapter 53 deals with machine guns, destructive devices, and certain other firearms.
Subtitle F contains provisions on procedure and administration. Under this subtitle are twenty chapters that deal with every step of the taxation process, from the setting of filing dates and the collection of penalties for late filing, to criminal offenses and judicial proceedings. The rules for administrative proceedings under the Code are addressed in the appendix to title 26.
Subtitle G addresses the organization of the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. Subtitle H contains the rules for the financing of presidential election campaigns. Subtitle I contains the Trust Fund Code.
The Internal Revenue Code has grown steadily since the 1930s. The complexity of its provisions, most of which are written in technical language, has required law and accounting firms to develop specialists in the various areas of taxation.

Health care system so flawed it could bankrupt insurance companies

Administration fears part of health care system so flawed it could bankrupt insurance companies

While the administration publicly expresses full confidence in its health care law, privately it fears one part of the system is so flawed it could bankrupt insurance companies and cripple ObamaCare itself.
"Week after week, month after month," says John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis, "the Obama administration kept telling us everything's working fine, there's no problem and then they turn on a dime and fire their contractor."
To justify a no-bid contract with Accenture after firing CGI as the lead contractor, the administration released documents from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services that offered a rare glimpse of its worst fears, saying the problems with the website puts "the entire health insurance industry at risk" ... "potentially leading to their default and disrupting continued services and coverage to consumers."
Then it went even further, saying if the problems were not fixed by mid-March, "they will result in financial harm to the government."
It even added that without the fixes "the entire health care reform program is jeopardized."
In spite of the "urgent" need officials cited to keep the system from collapsing, the White House spokesman said he knew nothing about it.
“I didn't see the article I'm not aware of those statements,” Jay Carney said.
The dangers were known in early December, but later, shortly before CGI was fired, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius gave Fox News an upbeat account.
“I’m thrilled that we’re going to have millions of people for the first time that have health security,” she said.
Shortly after the website went live,one official told Congress a critical part of the system – what is known as the “back end” -- had not even been built yet.
Doug Holtz-Eakin, former head of the Congressional Budget Office, says "the back end -- that information is supposed to be transmitted to an insurance company, the insurance company knows who you are, they know what policy you've picked."
But the back end still hasn't been built, so insurers are dealing with massive confusion, missing information on who's signed up and what subsidies they get.
Sebelius insisted once again Wednesday it would all come together and insurance companies will get their money.
"I mean we will get them paid,” she said. “There is no question about that, so we are on track."
For now, though, officials concede they're relying on estimates from the insurers.
"Here's who we think we have, and here's the subsidy we think they're owed," explains Jim Capretta of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. "Please send us a check from the treasury," he says chuckling. "The honor system again."
"There's no way to effectively match policies and people," says Holtz-Eakin.
"And on top of that, you can't match policies, people, to the federal subsidies and that's a big problem in terms of just the mechanics of making payments."
The administration emphasizes that fixing the site by mid-March is urgent. Otherwise the system could descend into chaos and threaten the future of ObamaCare.
Meanwhile, a new Quinnipiac poll gives the president poor grades for his management of health care, with 59 percent disapproving while 36 percent approve.