Happy Halloween! Obama-scare "The Healthcare Mash"

A very accurate and appropriate video describing Obamascare this Halloween....

Rep. DeSantis & Senator Johnson Introduce "If You Like It You Can Keep It Act"

From National Review --  

Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Representative Ron DeSantis of Florida have introduced the text of the ‘If You Like It You Can Keep It Act,’ designed to enable Americans who currently hold health-care plans to maintain them past January 1, when most of the Affordable Care Act’s new mandates kick in. In order to do so, it makes every plan people hold through December 31, 2013, a “grandfathered” plan, exempt from the new mandates. The original bill does have “grandfathered plans,” but that is restricted to plans that existed on the day the law was passed, March 23, 2010, and which haven’t had “material changes” to their structure. Unfortunately, as the January 1 deadline for the individual mandate approaches, millions of Americans have found out their plans have been cancelled — and insurance companies are rightly arguing that this is because their grandfather status can’t be maintained because of other issues come January 1.

DeSantis says that the House version of the bill already has the support of more than 30 members of the lower chamber. And at least the concept of Senator Johnson’s bill has already won a supporter across the aisle, Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu, who vowed today to introduce legislation to help people keep their health-care plans, claiming that she wanted plans to be preserved when she voted in favor of the president’s omnibus health-care law.

Representative DeSantis said in a statement today that “it is clear” the president’s promise about Americans’ keeping their health plans “was a reckless deception designed to facilitate the law’s passage against the will of the people.” Indeed, there was more than a little subterfuge involved: Technically the law as passed would protect plans that were in existence starting in 2010, but the Obama administration issued regulations that restricted how these grandfathered plans could change while still maintaining their exempt status — including restrictions on the way the financial structure of the plans could be changed that will make them essentially impossible to sustain.

Ironically, plans aren’t allowed to significantly increase various forms of cost-sharing, like co-pays and deductibles, despite the cost increases heaped on by other aspects of the ACA from which they’re not exempt, meaning that people will be dumped onto the exchanges — where they’ll likely face much more taxing cost-sharing measures. Under Landrieu’s and DeSantis’s plan, if people like their existing plans enough to pay slightly higher co-pays or deductibles, they can keep them.

The Balanced-Budget Amendment is Fool's Gold

From Renewed Reason Blog --

There is a renewed movement by many so-called conservatives for a balanced- budget amendment. The amendment supposedly would force our politicians to get our $17 trillion debt under control. We have been through this rodeo show before. The amendment is just a political farce for politicians who really don’t want to reduce the size of government.

The amendment will never reduce the size of our national debt. More importantly, the amendment will never reduce the size of government.

First, the amendment would never be enforceable. Isn’t the Senate already suppose to pass a budget and how many years did that take? Is the GOP going to file a case with the Supreme Court when the Democrats refuse to sign off on the supposedly balanced budget? Will the Supreme Court’s police squad force the Democrats to pass the budget? Will the Supreme Court even issue a decision in time?

Second, a balanced budget is just an illusion in Washington. Both parties regularly cushion their projections of revenue and hide the costs of government programs. In fact, the GOP House just passed an alleged balanced budget that increases spending by 3%! Magical. A balanced budget is a campaign tactic for courting voters who don’t think pass step one. As Murray Rothbard wisely noted,

As we all should know by this time, economists and politicians are experts at submitting glittering projected future budgets that have only the foggiest relation to the actual reality of the future year. It will be duck soup for Congress to estimate a future balance; not so easy, however, to actually balance it.

The only solution to limiting the amount of federal debt and, more importantly, the size of government is to get rid of its means to do both, the Federal Reserve. Without the Fed and its ability to print money out of thin air, the government could not increase in size but for increasing taxes on its consenting citizens or borrowing savings from a willing private sector.

At a minimum, the Fed’s ability to purchase treasuries must be eliminated. We always talk about the size of debt we owe to China. The size of China’s debt ownership doesn’t compare to the nearly $2 trillion in treasuries owned by the Fed. The Fed’s ability to purchase treasuries allows the government to grow its debt with little short-term consequences. Absent the Fed’s ability to purchase treasuries, interest rates would rise as the government borrowed more savings out of the economy. The government would be forced to pay its bills. The government debt simply could not grow to $17 trillion absent the artificially low interest rates maintained by the Fed.

The balance budget amendment is fool’s gold. If the politician boasts of supporting such an amendment but doesn’t talk about eliminating the Fed or its ability to purchase treasuries, the politician is just playing with you. Don’t be fooled.

Obama Acknowledges Tea Party was Right: Issues Another Delay

October 28, 2013

For Immediate Release

Contact: Marianne Gasiecki

State Co-coordinator (OH) - Tea Party Patriots

mansfieldteaparty@gmail.com

Obama Acknowledges Tea Party was Right

President Issues Another Delay

During the recent Continuing Resolution fiasco, the Democrats and media, along with GOP elitists, joined the chorus hurling insults at Senators Cruz and Lee. Citizens of the Tea Party movement were described as wacko, out of touch, idiots, unintelligent ideologues, frauds and several other colorful terms, regarding their attempt to delay the implementation of the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). 

During this debate, President Obama dismissed warnings from his own Administration that the roll out of Obamacare will be a "train wreck". President Obama ignored the calls for a common sense delay of the Affordable Care Act - an effort to prevent millions of Americans who are not exempt, from being negatively impacted by its forced implementation. President Obama, the Democrats, media and Republican elite, instead spent their time labeling citizens of the Tea Party movement as extremists, accusing them of trying to blackmail the country. President Obama even allowed the government to "shut down".

Even in the face of these attacks, the citizens of the Tea Party movement stood their ground, calling for what is best for the American people. "Our requests were simple common sense - as 'all men are created equal', please do not fund and/or force Obamacare on American citizens that were not privileged enough to get the exemptions and waivers received by big labor, big business and Congressional staffers", said Ralph King, Tea Party Patriots State co-coordinator from Ohio.

"In putting their partisan agenda first, and acting like playground bullies, President Obama and the Democrats rebuffed all common sense requests made by the Tea party" said Marianne Gasiecki, fellow Tea Party Patriots State co-coordinator from Ohio. "While it is nice that the President and the Democrats are now acknowledging that the Tea Party was correct, from the beginning they should have been concerned with doing the right thing for the American people instead of stomping their feet like spoiled children, shutting down our national monuments and parks, and creating fear over a supposed government "shutdown".

The concerns recently expressed by the Democrats regarding the systemic failures of the Obamacare website, and President Obama now issuing yet another delay, prove that the initial calls to defund and delay were correct. Even with the affirmation of the Tea Party's stance, the citizens of the Tea Party movement take no solace in being proven right. We would rather have had President Obama and the Democrats initially do what was right for the citizens of this country, instead of putting on a show of petulant party politics that caused the government to slow down.

- ## -

Captain America:The Winter Soldier in Cleveland

Captain America:The Winter Soldier - due out next year - did some location filming in Cleveland. Here's a trailer including Cleveland footage. (If your browser has trouble with the video embed, click here for the YouTube video.)

Check out (or stop) at 
:58-59
1:0
1:09-1
1:42
1:44-48
1:58

Good fun.

# # #

Common Core indoctrination plans, er, "lesson plans"

Efforts continue in Ohio to repeal Common Core "standards" in our schools. Here is an excerpt from a Townhall report on some of the reasons it's on our "to do" list:

Michael Schaus | Oct 28, 2013 - Aside from the obvious objections to allowing the creators of Healthcare.gov [to] get more involved in the education of America’s youth, a new reason to resist the creepily altruistic “Common Core” curriculum has surfaced. New Common Core teaching materials instruct second graders that land owners are intrinsically evil, that business owners are inherently greedy, and Saul Alinsky radicals are the saviors of the everyman. (Besides – and I know this should seem pretty obvious – do you really want the architects of a 17 trillion dollar debt teaching our kids things like basic math?) 

According to Fox news, a textbook company contracted to produce materials under Common Core State Standards is trying to teach students as young as second grade about economic fairness by praising unions, protests and labor leader Cesar Chavez, according to an education watchdog group.

. . . 

In addition to reading a glowing biography of the Marxist labor leader, students will be asked to evaluate the “scales of fairness” between wealthy landowners, and lowly [non-union] workers. 

“Fairness and equality exist when the scales are balanced,” teachers are prompted to instruct the students. They are then supposed to ask the students whether both sides, as presented in the plan, are equal, providing a correct answer of “no” in the teachers’ guide.

. . .Economic theories, wealth creation, John Smith’s concept of private property, market forces, and Chavez’s radicalism aside. . . There is still a pretty big question regarding why second graders would need to wrap their young brains around the concept of labor unions and so called “scales of fairness.” Quite frankly, putting any organized bureaucratic government agency in charge of disseminating such information to young children is chilling. And given the government’s tendency to view wealth creators merely as untapped tax-revenue sources, it’s unlikely that such lesson plans would be presented without anti-capitalistic bias. 

Once again the common core standards illustrate a decidedly creepy intrusion of politics into education from the highest levels. While education has been largely consumed by leftist philosophies for some time, the danger of Common Core is that this absorption of political activism in the classroom will now be pushed from the Federal level. 

. . . A painfully intense infringement on local control will await any districts that decide to adopt the Fed’s centrally planned concept of “education”. 

. . .

The rest of the article is here. 

Neutralize the Tea Party? But how do you control Sen. Ted Cruz?

The National Journal describes itself as “the most credible and influential publication in Washington” and “fiercely honest and scrupulously non-partisan.” Hmmm.

In an article entitled “Inside the Messy but Moneyed Republican Plan to Neutralize the Tea Party” [emphasis added], subtitled “The business-friendly GOP establishment is putting its cash to work in skirmishes across the country that might reshape the 2014 elections,” one reads phrases such as    

• wrecked the Republican brand
• ultraconservative ideologues
• [plan to run] attack ads against tea-party candidates for Congress
• the public's growing distaste for the [Tea Party] movement
• [Cruz, the] ringleader of the shutdown

No bias here, no polarizing turns-of-the-phrase, just move along. Former Ohio representative Steve LaTourette doesn’t much like Tea Party Patriots, either:

"Hopefully we'll go into eight to 10 races and beat the snot out of them."

Very nicely put. But here’s the crux of the matter:

“But how do you control Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, the Republican ringleader of the shutdown, who may not count enough friends on Capitol Hill to rename a post office but whose real power comes from outside Washington?” 

“Whose real power comes from outside Washington?” We’ll work for more of that!

Here’s more of Beth Reinhard’s Oct-24 article (h/t Gateway Pundit).

# # #

Michelle Obama - The First Lady of Crony Capitalism

Ignoring calls from within his own Administration that the implementation of Obamacare itself would be a train wreck, in mirroring his Presidency, the www.healthcare.gov website to sign up for Obamacare is turning out to be an abject failure as it appears this bullet train of a bust is having a hard time even leaving the Station.

Now with growing calls of concern over the website failures from the Democrats, and only after President Obama forced the government into a shut down to get his way, our petulant President is calling in the "best & brightest" to save the day!

But not before he allowed the First Lady of Crony Capitalism -- Michelle Obama - to allow her friends to feed at the federal trough....

From The Daily Caller --

First Lady Michelle Obama’s Princeton classmate is a top executive at the company that earned the contract to build the failed Obamacare website.

Toni Townes-Whitley, Princeton class of ’85, is senior vice president at CGI Federal, which earned the no-bid contract to build the $678 million Obamacare enrollment website at Healthcare.gov. CGI Federal is the U.S. arm of a Canadian company.

Townes-Whitley and her Princeton classmate Michelle Obama are both members of the Association of Black Princeton Alumni.

Toni Townes ’85 is a onetime policy analyst with the General Accounting Office and previously served in the Peace Corps in Gabon, West Africa. Her decision to return to work, as an African-American woman, after six years of raising kids was applauded by a Princeton alumni publication in 1998.

George Schindler, the president for U.S. and Canada of the Canadian-based CGI Group, CGI Federal’s parent company, became an Obama 2012 campaign donor after his company gained the Obamacare website contract.

As reported by the Washington Examiner in early October, the Department of Health and Human Services reviewed only CGI’s bid for the Obamacare account. CGI was one of 16 companies qualified under the Bush administration to provide certain tech services to the federal government. A senior vice president for the company testified this week before The House Committee on Energy and Commerce that four companies submitted bids, but did not name those companies or explain why only CGI’s bid was considered.

The Obamacare Meltdown

From A Line of Sight --

Amidst talks at the end of September about a government shutdown, the Obama Administration promised that the Affordable Care Act exchange websites would launch, as scheduled, on October 1st. The exchanges are the law's online marketplaces intended to enable consumers to sign up for the health insurance offered and regulated under the law.

In June of this year, critics of ObamaCare voiced their concerns that the exchange websites would not be ready by the October 1st deadline. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius dismissed those concerns, saying:

We have the next couple of months laid out with a very busy and engaged schedule to make sure that we're ready for the marketplace launch on Oct. 1, with open enrollment... It's a huge undertaking across the country, and I'm confident we're on track to get it done.

Despite Secretary Sebelius' confidence, the much-anticipated website's launch was nothing short of a disaster. Within hours of its launch, the site was unavailable in many states, with error messages asking people to check back in a few hours. Site visitors across the country complained they were unable to create accounts, set up passwords, or fill out the necessary web-forms. During an on-air demonstration in early October, MSNBC reporters attempted to sign up for ObamaCare, but gave up when it became clear the website was not functioning.

According to Millward Brown Digital, out of 3.72 million people who attempted to register in the first week, only 36,000 people were able to successfully complete enrollment.

The cost of the exchange website was originally expected to be $94 million, but in true big-government fashion, has ballooned to $292 million. Perhaps more shocking, it was revealed in mid-October that the websites were built using 10-year old technology. So, thanks to the expert planning of the Department of Health and Human Services, taxpayers have to pay nearly $300 million for glitch-prone, outdated technology.

Technical glitches aside, the real ObamaCare meltdown is with the law itself.

Even before full implementation, the law, like the website, is already crashing and burning. The law has failed to live up to any of the promises that Democrats made in 2009 and 2010.

One of the most glaring broken promises is that ObamaCare was a "jobs bill." Then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi famously said in 2010 the health care bill would create 4 million jobs. Not only have those 4 million jobs failed to materialize, but now millions of Americans are witnessing the destruction of their 40-hour workweek or seeing their jobs disappear altogether. The law imposes higher fines for employers with 50 or more full-time employees, thus incentivizing businesses to scale back their hiring or move operations overseas.

When recently pressed about the destruction of the 40-hour workweek, Nancy Pelosi responded that the end of the 40-hour workweek is "a liberation" for the American people because they are now free to pursue their passions. Her "let them eat cake" elitism displays the profound disconnect between Washington, DC and the real world where Americans are struggling under ObamaCare.

Democrats also promised that ObamaCare would provide "universal" health insurance. In reality, even when fully implemented, the Congressional Budget Office expects approximately 30 million people will remain uninsured. That's a far cry from universal coverage.

Then there are the more serious broken promises, such as the ubiquitous promise that people would not lose their insurance. President Obama and Senate Democrats repeatedly made that claim when the bill was being debated in 2009. Just as many ObamaCare critics predicted three years ago, millions of Americans are now losing their insurance, either because their companies are dropping the plans and opting for the government-run exchanges, or because the plans are not "ObamaCare compliant" and the insurance companies are discontinuing them.

President Obama also promised early on that his signature health care law would reduce families' health insurance premiums by up to $2,500 per year. Many individuals who have managed to complete the exchange application have been shocked to learn that their premiums in the exchange would go up, in some cases as much as 300%. Those who are most affected, of course, are the younger, healthier people who will be forced to pay higher premiums to cover the costs of the chronically ill and older people.

It is no exaggeration to say that the exchanges are critical to the law's success. Without the exchanges, ObamaCare collapses.

The federal government, which was unable to build a functioning website – with three years and 300 million dollars – is the same government Americans are supposed to believe will be able to manage all aspects of their health care, from the insurance marketplace to setting prices for medical services.

Unlike the exchange website portals, which can be tweaked and improved, ObamaCare itself is an unmitigated disaster. The law is already wreaking havoc on America's economy, increasing health insurance prices, cancelling existing health insurance plans, and eroding Americans' job security.

Missed deadlines, blown budgets, and a failure to deliver. That describes more than the exchange websites; it is also true of the entire health care law's implementation. While the IT experts in DC scramble to get rid of the website's many bugs, serious reformers should recommit themselves to repealing this law before it does irreparable damage to the economy and health care industry.

------

Shonda Werry is a policy analyst and researcher in Washington, DC. She is a contributing editor to A Line of Sight.

Obama's TV Pitch on Obamacare: Overwhelming Questions, No Answers

From former Congressman Ernest Istook via Washington Times -- 

WASHINGTON, October 22, 2013 — President Obama flunked as a TV pitchman and as President Monday. Everyone understood why that lady fainted.

“Operators are standing by to take your Obamacare calls.” But they weren’t.

Let’s face it. Carrier pigeons, the Pony Express and snail mail (with real snails) are all faster than the Obamacare website. No wonder President Obama urged everyone to bypass it.

President Obama should have been serious and contrite about a major problem. Instead, Obama joked that now the website will be fixed…because he’d told people that the problem made him mad.

His personal feelings are not our measuring stick. Only three weeks ago, he was boasting that Obamacare was ready to rock and condemning those who proposed delay.

Monday we heard a gimmicky speech and a sales pitch for a product that doesn’t work. Not just a website that doesn’t work and an 800 number that didn’t work either, but a product that doesn’t work. Millions of insurance cancellation letters and premium increase letters are testimony that the product itself doesn’t work.

There is a reason why all the other TV pitchmen give demonstations. Ginsu knives. Sham-Wow. Snuggies. Vegomatic.

Poor Barack Obama didn’t dare show his product onscreen. Imagine Ron Popeil or Billy Mays telling their audience what Obama did, “That product is working. It’s really good. And it turns out there’s a massive demand for it.”

But no proof. No demonstration. No numbers. Nothing about 99% premium increases or doubled deductibles and high co-pays. Not even the number of customers.

McDonald’s once kept a running tally on their signs, starting at 5 billion served and updated until they surpassed 100 billion. Now it’s just “billions and billions served.” 

Obama will only tell us the traffic count, not the customer count: “So far, the national website, HealthCare.gov, has been visited nearly 20 million times.”

That’s probably a million people each trying twenty times to create an account. Iowa just proclaimed its first successful Obamacare customer. Edward Voss said it took him over 100 tries. In the Rose Garden, Obama was introduced by Janice Baker, Delaware’s first Obamacare enrollee. It took her seven hours and she had to bypass the website.

They should make a children’s book about people who somehow signed up for Obamacare. You could tell the kids, “See, there’s Waldo. But can you find the Obamacare enrollee?”

The White House keeps us confused about more than just numbers. What’s the difference between enroll, apply, sign up, register, and purchase when it comes to Obamacare? Is the process anything like signing up at Costco? Obama and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius must think this is words with friends because they keep us guessing about each term. But they won’t answer questions.

For Obamacare, you have to create an account, be approved, submit financial data and find out whether you’ll get a taxpayer subsidy, all before you’re allowed to shop for a plan. Then you might put one in the cart to come back and buy later.

Keep it simple. Will they at least tell us the number of buyers? We might as well ask the launch codes for our nuclear arsenal.

The White House team play other tricks, too. For example:

• Blending state numbers with federal numbers. That lets them pretend the Obamacare exchanges are anything other than a bust.

• Pretending the only problems are computer glitches. Obamacare is inherently complex, costly and confusing. Just wait until we find out they’ve mis-allocated billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies. The website is not the real problem; it’s only a symptom. Obamacare itself is the problem.

• Claiming low premiums are the same as affordability. Or that a subsidized premium is a low premium. Premiums are only part of out-of-pocket costs under both individual and group policies, and both types are hit by Obamacare. Higher deductibles and higher co-pays are causing sticker shock, too; it’s not just the premiums. And Obama cherry picks abnormally-low examples to cite.

From the Rose Garden, Obama told us he would not sugarcoat the problem, then he proceeded to do just that. But one of the insiders who saw Obamacare put together, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini, told an interviewer it could take three years to fix the programming.

This cannot go on. When President Obama told us, “Nobody’s more frustrated than I am,” hands shot up in living rooms all across America. He has a lot of competition for that claim.

Obama has put himself in a corner by making Obamacare the driver of the federal budget, the symbol of government activism, and his sword against Republicans. Even on small things, he seems incapable of admitting his mistakes. But on something this enormous? So he continues to bluster in his usual way.

We are not talking about a $19.99 Vegomatic here; we’re talking about one-sixth of the American economy. But according to Obama, the problem has only progressed from a glitch to a kink. What’s next? A wrinkle?

The selective and slanted information being spooned out by the Administration is propaganda; but the information they’re concealing is now into the realm of coverup.

More on the Tea Party Patriots battle plan: Patriot frogs

From Darin Jonescu at The American Thinker:

When Frogs Jump

. . . Progressives expose their true nature when their slowly heated pot is categorically rejected by the frogs. The mirage of "politics as usual," bipartisanship, and collegiality lasts only as long as men acquiesce in their own enslavement. Of course, a little public disagreement here and there is good for progressive optics, as it perpetuates the comforting illusion of open debate. But what if that little disagreement turns into an all-out refusal to go gently into that good night?

This, as I've explained before, is the plausible path to conservative victory before the final collapse. Make no mistake about it: this is not a happy or short road, nor one embarked upon lightly. Dispensing with "politics as usual" means exactly what it says, and more. It means initiating and sustaining a strategy -- more than that, a life -- of continual resistance and provocation, i.e., of living as free men and women under authoritarian rule. And when progressives are provoked into extreme frustration, their rage knows no bounds. No bounds. For, mainstream mythology aside, we are not talking about a civil political faction here; we are talking about the ancient tyrannical impulse that, in its peculiar modern manifestation, has concealed itself in the garb of "democratic" civility, with horrific success. Strip off that finery and witness the old bloody thuggery of ages past. These people will not stand for serious, sustained opposition. They will crush it, by any means necessary. 

And this may be the secret to their undoing, in the long run. To provoke them, through practical resistance and theoretical debunking, into doing and saying what they have spent a century pretending they would never do or say, is to expose their true nature for all to see. That nature has always been visible to eyes that examined the situation with enough philosophical and historical perspective to recognize power lust when they see it; but it is never fully understood by the broader, less informed public. If they can be forced to see it, the game will change decisively.

I am not predicting miracles, or even a high probability of success. There is probably no hope for the limp majority of modern man, which, being the product of generations of government education and mass media desensitization, will meekly plop itself into any vessel provided by the ruling class, and smile stupidly as the lid is closed. But there may be a substantial minority -- many more than are fully engaged now -- who will be shocked out of their detachment when they see what their leaders are really capable of doing.

This was the primary value of Ted Cruz's senate stand on ObamaCare, and the error of those who criticized his move as "unrealistic." (How has political "realism" been serving American conservatives lately? -- and by lately I mean the past century.) By helping to instigate another mass frog leap from within the pot, Cruz dragged his critics, the apologists for unlimited power, a little further into the cold light of day -- and that was just within his own party.

The government shutdown was precipitated largely by Cruz's last-ditch effort to defund ObamaCare, in tandem with an overwhelming outcry from voters facing the first ugly realities of life under socialized medicine, which combined to force the House of Representatives into acting principled for a moment. Within minutes, however, the call to defund was transformed by the GOP leadership into the rhetoric of "delay," and within a day, ObamaCare was essentially off the table, as the Boehner House transformed the shutdown into a debate over the debt ceiling. The whole episode was a microcosm of the way progressives of the "right" have sought to silence genuine advocates of liberty for more than a century (never forget that the first viable progressive party in the U.S. was led by a Republican, Theodore Roosevelt): pretend you represent their cause and will act as their spokesmen; mouth the right words while quietly compromising all the underlying principles; and finally change the subject entirely, all the while whimpering that you did the best you could under the circumstances. In sum: "Just relax in the warm water, dear frogs; we'll take it from here." 

In the Senate, the sound of Republican pot lids slamming shut was even louder. From John McCain's shameful assault on Cruz's integrity to Mitch McConnell's capitulation masquerading as a "deal," the effort to marginalize and smear the tiny band of Senate patriots was one of the most overt attacks on constitutional conservatives the GOP establishment has ever attempted. And things are going to get uglier, as the gods of the simmering status quo, fronted by Karl Rove -- the "Architect" whose latest project is to design an impenetrable fortress to protect the GOP leadership -- have announced their nationwide plan to cut the Tea Party movement off at the knees, an effort far more comprehensive than anything attempted by Obama's IRS goon squad. 

From McConnell's overt cynicism, to Boehner's sleight of hand in dropping ObamaCare from the agenda, to George Will's smearing of the Tea Party as a faction that doesn't understand or respect the institutions of government, the Republican establishment has announced its intentions and motivations as rarely before: they will not resist the fundamental transformation of the United States into the Democratic People's Republic of America. They believe they can thrive within that transformed nation, and that is their chief concern.

Read the rest here. 

On yesterday evening’s tele-town hall conference call with Sen. Ted Cruz, among others, Tea Party Patriots were invited to post their real life stories about how Obamacare is affecting them and their families at MakeDCListen.org, which is now morphed into Jobs Growth Org., with the page for Obamacare horror stories here. Post yours!

# # #

The Wall Street Journal blasts Gov. Kasich

The Wall Street Journal blasts Gov. Kasich’s end-run around the legislature to expand Medicaid in Ohio

Believe it or not, there are still a few disciples with faith in an ObamaCare higher power, and one of them happens to run Ohio. Governor John Kasich is so fervent a believer that he is even abusing his executive power to join the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion.

Not to be sacrilegious, but the Republican used to know better. Now Mr. Kasich seems to view signing up for this part of ObamaCare as an act of Christian charity and has literally all but claimed that God told him to do so.

The problem is that his evangelizing failed to convert the Ohio legislature, which is run by Republicans who understand the brutal budget and regulatory realities of participating in new Medicaid. So Mr. Kasich simply decided to cut out Ohio's elected representatives and expand Medicaid by himself.

This week he appealed to an obscure seven-member state panel called the Controlling Board, which oversees certain state capital expenditures and can receive or make grants. Because the feds are paying for 100% of new enrollees for the next three years, Mr. Kasich asked the panel to approve $2.56 billion in federal funding, and then he'll lift eligibility levels via executive fiat.

It's a gambit worthy of President Obama, who also asserts unilateral powers to suspend laws that displease him and bypass Congress. The Controlling Board, which Mr. Kasich and his allies in the GOP leadership stacked with pro-expansion appointees, approved the request 5-2 on Monday.

Mr. Kasich's action is all the more flagrant considering the state legislature did not merely refuse to appropriate or authorize spending the federal money. The GOP majority passed a budget with specific language prohibiting the Governor from expanding Medicaid without its consent. Mr. Kasich used a line-item veto to remove that provision, but he's still violating the spirit of the law.

. . .

Thirty-nine House Republicans signed a formal protest and some of them are threatening to sue, and well they should. They argue that circumventing the legislature subverts the Ohio constitution's separation of powers and exceeds the statutory legal authorities of the Controlling Board, which is supposed to "take no action which does not carry out the legislative intent of the General Assembly."

Ohio is now the 25th state to buckle under pressure from Washington and the hospital lobby to join new Medicaid. His behavior doesn't speak well for Mr. Kasich's governing judgment as he prepares to run for a higher office in 2016. . . . [emphasis added]

# # #

The Definitive Guide to How Obamacare is Destroying American Lives

Edvard Munch's 'The Scream'

The Matt Walsh blog asked readers for their real life stories describing how they are affected personally by Obamacare. His website was overwhelmed with responses. Below is part of his introductory overview; then click on the link here and scroll down to read some real life horror stories.

The Definitive Guide to How Obamacare is Destroying American Lives

Every time some Statist nincompoop extols the virtues of Obamacare; every time they insist that the “Affordable Care Act” has done nothing but “help” low and middle income families; every time they babble incoherently about how Obamacare isn’t “perfect” but it’s still “better” than what we had before — show them this. Challenge them to read what is happening out there. This isn’t abstract. It isn’t academic. It isn’t a matter of ideology. It isn’t even an issue of constitutionality (although it’s that, also). This is about people. People with kids, and bills, and health problems. This is about people who can no longer afford their health coverage, their mortgages, their lifesaving medication. This is about doctors and nurses leaving medicine behind, driven away by destructive bureaucratic interference. This is about moms and dads losing their jobs so that their employers can compensate for the financial burden of Obamacare. This is about people without insurance because of Obamacare, now being fined for not having insurance because of Obamacare. This is about business owners driven to the edge of bankruptcy. This is real. We heard a lot of fantasies about what Obamacare was “supposed” to accomplish, now it’s time to talk about what it’s actually doing. 

So when they say you are “heartless” for opposing Obamacare, show them why it’s heartless to support it.

The real life stories that Walsh is collecting are heart-rending, infuriating .. and just beginning. 

Ohio Controlling Board approves $2.5 billion Medicaid expansion

From The Plain Dealer report: 

Medicaid expansion OK

marks a long-awaited victory for supporters, grounds for a fight among critics

[Oct 21, 2013] COLUMBUS, Ohio — Depending on who you talk to, Monday’s vote by the Ohio Controlling Board to approve $2.5 billion for Medicaid expansion was either a landmark victory for thousands in need of health care or an unconstitutional and unaffordable ballooning of big government. 

Either way, the fight over whether Ohio should accept billions of federal dollars to extend health care to low-income residents is likely to continue, either in court or at the polls. 

The 5-2 Controlling Board vote marked a culmination of a months-long push, led by Gov. John Kasich, to have the state accept the first chunk of an estimated $13 billion offered to it for Medicaid expansion under President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. 

When GOP lawmakers resisted taking the funding, Kasich instead turned to the little-known board to appropriate the money – at least, until legislators draw up a new state budget in two years. By accepting the money, 275,000 additional Ohioans will be eligible for Medicaid benefits starting Jan. 1, 2014, according to administration estimates. Currently 2.35 million people -- or about one out of every five Ohioans – are enrolled in Medicaid. 

Crucial support for expansion came from the business community, including traditionally GOP-friendly groups such as the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. 

Hospitals also aggressively pushed for the measure, worried that, among other things, that without Medicaid expansion, they would be left on the hook as federal aid for uninsured patients is decreased. 

. . .However, critics said following the vote that passing expansion was hardly a mutual decision. At least one opponent is preparing to fight the expansion in court, while others vowed to make the issue a political liability for Kasich. 

Maurice Thompson, executive director of the conservative 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, said his group hopes to quickly file a legal challenge with the Ohio Supreme Court, perhaps within 24 hours of the Controlling Board vote. 

The suit will contend that the Controlling Board overstepped its authority by not adhering to the intent of the legislature, as required by Ohio law, Thompson said. He said he hadn’t yet nailed down who his plaintiffs would be in the case. 

Ralph King, state co-coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots for Ohio, said tea party voters will also remember Monday’s vote when next year’s gubernatorial election comes around. 

Kasich, he said, is “rolling the dice” that he’ll win over enough Democrats and independents to both re-elect him in 2014. 

“It’s going to be huge. They thought people stayed at home for Mitt Romney…” King said, in reference to the failed 2012 GOP presidential nominee’s lackluster support among his party base. 

In addition, he said, tea party groups around the country would fight "kicking and screaming" to destroy any dream Kasich might have about one day winning the presidency. 

“If we have any say-so, maybe -- if there’s no shutdown at the time -- he’ll be lucky if he could be a tourist down at the White House,” King said. 

Ohio House Speaker Bill Batchelder, a Medina Republican who's opposed expansion, said the Controlling Board vote wasn't about favoring or opposing the federal health-care law. 

"Existing law gives the director of Medicaid the ability to set Medicaid eligibility levels without legislative involvement," the speaker said in a statement. "This has already been done by Governor Kasich's administration, and today's meeting of the Controlling Board is to ensure the solvency of the state's Medicaid program."

Read the rest here.  Tea Party Patriots' phone calls to Columbus were ignored by Gov. Kasich and his cronies. Thanks to all who dialed and dialed. 

Conservative Groups Unite to Stop GOP Push for Weak Immigration Laws

Seeing there are GOP leaders like, Speaker Boehner, Rep Eric Cantor, Rep. Paul Ryan, and Senator Rubio, along with some so-called conservative groups like the Koch Brothers (AFP) and National Federation of Republican Women, that are actually joining with the Democrats in pushing for weaker immigration laws, many Tea Party, liberty and conservative grassroots groups are gearing up for the soon to come fight over illegal immigration.

From The Daily Caller --

Tea party groups and small-government activists are applying grassroots pressure to stop the House from approving the Senate immigration bill, which would triple immigration to roughly 33 million people over 10 years.

An Oct. 17 letter from more than 100 conservative leaders and tea party activists to the Republican Speaker of the House, Rep. John Boehner, says the Senate bill is so flawed that it would create a “disaster” for Americans, even if it is merged with a perfect House immigration bill.

“We ask you to make a public commitment that the House of Representatives will not conference any House immigration bill with any version of the Senate immigration, or engage in any informal negotiations to do so,” reads the one-page letter, which is accompanied by three pages of signatures from conservatives, tea party leaders and immigration reform groups.

“In the absence of such a commitment, we, and the millions of Americans our organizations represent, will have no choice but to oppose all efforts to bring any immigration legislation before the House of Representatives,” the letter concludes.

The signers include Jenny Beth Martin of the Tea Party Patriots, Mike Needham from Heritage Action, and Phyllis Schlafly from the Eagle Forum. The immigration groups who signed the letter include NumbersUSA and the Federation for American Immigration Reform. (Read More....)

To read the letter click here.

The groups from Ohio signing onto this letter are as follows;

Cleveland Tea Party Patriots - Co-Founder Ralph King
Grassroots Rally Team of Ohio - Coordinator Arzella Melnyk
Greater Buckeye Lake Patriots - Coordinator Chuck Nichols
Knox County 9-12 Project - Coordinator Robert Lloyd
Mansfield Tea Party - Coordinator Marianne Gasiecki
Medina Tea Party Patriots - Co-Founder Amy Brighton
New American Patriots - Blogger Diane Greenwood
Totally Engaged Americans - Organizer Kirsten Hill
Zainesville Patriots - Coordinator Kay Clymer

Why Trust any Budget Deal after 2011's $2.1 Trillion Debt Hike Ripoff?

From former Congressman Ernest Istook via Washington Times -- 

WASHINGTON—October 18, 201 – This is Obama’s Nirvana!

The new budget deal passed by the government this week breaks an enormous promise to the public, destroys long-time safeguards over spending, and grants the President almost total control over the full faith and credit of the United States.

It breaches the trillion-dollar promises to control spending made only two years ago.

Why should anybody trust today’s promises when those 2011 promises had such a short shelf life? The issues and threats were the same as they were this year, namely prospects of a government shutdown and of defaulting on the federal debt.

Agreement came sooner that time, as President Obama and Congress raised the debt ceiling by $2.1 trillion. They also promised to match the increase dollar-for-dollar by reducing spending by $2.1 trillion.

This week’s budget deal becomes the means to dissolve that spending restraint. President Obama and Democrats are openly pushing and succeeding they say in ending the limits from the 2011 agreement. And too few Republicans are resisting.

Those spending cuts, known as the sequester, were already gimmicky.

In the first place, while the $2.1 trillion was borrowed and spent right away, the spending reductions were to be spread out over 10 years. That’s not a genuine one-to-one; it’s one-to-ten.

In the second place, the sequester was not spending cuts as everyday people define them. It’s actually spending increases, but at a lower rate than was planned. It’s like only driving 20 mph over the speed limit rather than 30 mph over.

There’s even a third place: The sequester was back-loaded. It presumed that elected officials of the future would be more disciplined at controlling spending than today’s politicians. The first year of the 10-year sequester plan—last year—didn’t produce 10% of the savings, namely $210-billion. Instead, it produced only $85-billion in “savings,” which is only 4%.

Even though the sequester concept originated with his White House, President Obama now routinely denounces it, as do most Democrats. Republicans are mixed in their approach to the sequester, although House leaders have mostly come to embrace it as the only thing that helps hold spending in check even though it doesn’t reduce spending.

Once they cashed in and spent that $2.1 trillion increase in debt, President Obama and a host of Senators and Congressmen developed amnesia. They got what they wanted so now they don’t even remember promising any fiscal restraint. They spent the money and want no part of the discipline.

We can expect a repeat performance once they spend this year’s increase in the debt limit. All promises of future restraint will evaporate. That’s why it’s so dangerous to give Obama expanded authority to borrow money without needing approval from Congress. Checks and balance require that Congress must have the ability to negotiate and extract concessions as a condition to that approval. But they won’t have it under the new plan.

National debt has risen more than $6 trillion so far during Barack Obama’s Presidency, even before he gets unchecked borrowing power.

This 2013 agreement allows unlimited borrowing for the next few months. That will include money for the Treasury Department to pay back the money it’s taken out of federal retirement funds since May—probably over $250 billion—because it couldn’t go out and borrow it.

Obama gets his wish of not having to negotiate conditions in order to borrow. The historic safeguard requires Congress to approve a credit limit in advance. The new protocol lets a President borrow unless Congress passes legislation to disapprove. Simply by vetoing that legislation, a President can borrow whatever he wants unless two-thirds of Congress then votes to stop him.

These details are only now coming to light. The details of the 2011 agreement have been known, but amazingly there’s been little public talk about whether it would be thrown overboard. That’s because a great many politicians want to escape any tough decisions of holding the line on spending.

Only in Washington, DC can a $2 trillion promise be treated as something that’s easy to ignore.

There were 269 House members who voted for that $2.1 trillion package in 2011: 174 Republicans and 95 Democrats. In the Senate it received 74 votes: 45 Democrats and 28 Republicans. Most of them are still in Congress. And of course President Obama is still around.

We should ask them, press them and demand of them that they keep their commitments. They already got the money and they already spent the $2.1 trillion. Why should we trust them with any more borrowed money? Especially since it’s borrowed from our children!

Political promises evaporate quickly. It’s borrow and spend now—or tax and spend now—and we promise to make spending cuts starting tomorrow. That tomorrow never comes, but the tomorrow when the bills arrive will get here eventually.