Tag: Obamacare

Obama and Obamacare: Obama Tries to Close Pandora’s Box

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

obamababyYesterday morning, the 44th President of the United States of America, Barack Hussein Obama, appeared before the American People in a hastily-called Press Conference, is a desperate attempt to undo the disastrous effects of his Signature Legislation, the Affordable Care Act.

Here are excerpts from his prepared statement, courtesy whitehouse.gov:

Already, people who have plans that predate the Affordable Care Act can keep those plans if they haven’t changed. That was already in the law. That’s what’s called a grandfather clause. It was included in the law. Today, we’re going to extend that principle both to people whose plans have changed since the law took effect, and to people who bought plans since the law took effect.

“The bottom line, President Obama said, is that “insurers can extend current plans that would otherwise be canceled into 2014, and Americans whose plans have been canceled can choose to re-enroll in the same kind of plan.”

“So we’re going to do everything we can to help the Americans who’ve received these cancellation notices,” President Obama said. “But there are also 40 million Americans who don’t have health insurance. And I am not going to walk away from 40 million people who have the chance to get health insurance for the first time.”

It took 100 years for us to even get to the point where we could start talking about and implementing a law to make sure everybody has got health insurance. And my pledge to the American people is, is that we’re going to solve the problems that are there, we’re going to get it right, and the Affordable Care Act is going to work for the American people.

Shortly after this Dog & Pony Show was over, the reality of Obama’s promises started to be questioned.

TheBlaze.com is among a lot of others who immediately asked the question…

Does Obama Have Legal Authority to Alter Obamacare, Laws Passed by Congress?

President Barack Obama pauses while speaking about his signature health care law, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013, in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington. Bowing to pressure, President Barack Obama intends to permit continued sale of individual insurance plans that have been canceled because they failed to meet coverage standards under the health care law, officials said Thursday. (AP/Charles Dharapak)

“The short answer is no,” David Corbin, a professor of politics at King’s College in New York, told TheBlaze.

“However, the way he’s been operating on this bill is that he can make alterations as he goes along,” Corbin said. “And so far, he’s been allowed to get away with it.”

“All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States…”

Share:

Historically, the executive branch has not been allowed to alter laws passed by Congress, he said, adding that there is a constitutional argument to be made.

Corbin cited section one, article one of the U.S. Constitution: “‘All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.’”

“The president certainly has some regulatory and prosecutorial discretion in how he executes the law, but he has no legislative power,” Corbin said. “If his actions in this case (waiver, extensions, etc.) amount to him becoming a lawmaker rather than a law executor, they are unconstitutional.”

Though the Constitution is clear that “all legislative powers” belong to Congress, Corbin said it sometimes comes down to how those in power choose to “interpret” the law.

“I’m not sure he will be able to get away with it in this case because I think people are going to understand that if you are going to remove the law of any legal standing by having the enforcement mechanisms or the penalties stripped out, then what is the law?” the professor added.

Appearing on MSNBC on Thursday, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean reportedly questioned if Obama really has the “legal authority to do this” when discussing the proposed change to the law, Fox News’ Bret Baier tweeted.

During a briefing before the presidential press conference, officials reportedly told members of the press that the White House does have the authority to delay enforcement for a year.

“HHS will be using its enforcement discretion to allow for this transition,” the official said, according to the Washington Times. “Enforcement discretion can be used generally in transitions, as well as a bridge towards legislation. This is something that has been used, for example, with the deferred action for childhood arrivals policy, pending immigration reform.”

Here’s Obama’s other problem: What if the State Insurance Commissioners refuse to co-operate?

Like Washington’s State Insurance Commissioner, Mike Kreidler, for example?

Within two hours of President Obama’s news conference announcing the proposed administrative fix for Americans upset by their policy cancellations, Kreidler issued a statement rejecting the proposal.

“I understand that many people are upset by the notices they have recently received from their health plans and they may not need the new benefits [in the Affordable Care Act] today,” he said. “But I have serious concerns about how President Obama’s proposal would be implemented and more significantly, its potential impact on the overall stability of our health insurance market.”

“I do not believe his proposal is a good deal for the state of Washington,” Kreidler’s statement continued. “We will not be allowing insurance companies to extend their policies.”

Kreidler said his office estimated that 290,000 people in Washington will need to buy new coverage for 2014 and that at least half of them will qualify for a premium subsidy if they purchase a plan through the state’s online insurance exchange, Washington Healthplanfinder.

“I encourage anyone who is shopping for new health plans — whether you’ve been uninsured or have received a cancellation notice from your insurer — to look at all of your options,” he said.

I was reading accounts of Obama’s Press Conference at work yesterday. What they revealed was a flailing swimmer who should have stayed in the Kiddie Pool…a discombobulated President, rambling in such a desperate fashion, that it appeared that he was looking for something…anything…to save his Signature Legislature and the hopes of the Democratic Party in both 2014 and 2016.

The problem for Obama and the Dems is: they own this fiasco. Not a single Republican voted for Obamacare in the middle of that dark night.

Hopefully, the Vichy Republicans will not pull defeat from the jaws of victory by proposing their own version of Obamacare, as Senator Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, alluded to yesterday.

If your opponent is digging himself into a hole…stand back and let him finish.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obama and Obamacare: The Worst is Yet to Come

On By kingsjesterIn Politics5 Comments

obamacaremoeIf you surf the Internet over to the “Healthcare Overview Page” of whitehouse.gov. , you will find the following promises concerning the Affordable care Act, unaffectionately known as Obamacare:

For those Americans who already have health insurance, the only changes you will see under the law are new benefits, better protections from insurance company abuses, and more value for every dollar you spend on health care. If you like your plan you can keep it and you don’t have to change a thing due to the health care law. The President addressed concerns from Americans who have received letters of policy cancellations or changes from their insurance companies in an interview with NBC News, watch the video or read a transcript.

For the uninsured or those who don’t get their coverage through work, a key component of the Affordable Care Act will take effect on October 1, when the new Health Insurance Marketplace open[s] for business, allowing millions of Americans to comparison shop for a variety of quality, affordable plans that best meet their health care needs.

…The law helps you by bringing down health care costs and making sure your health care dollars are spent wisely. Insurance companies will now be accountable to their customers for how they are spending premium dollars, and how much they are raising rates. Plus, the new law will help lower costs through new tax credits and new marketplaces where insurers will have to compete for your business.

As Americans found out a long time ago, all of President Barack Hussein Obama’s promises have expiration dates.

In the past, he and his Administration have been able to spin and obfuscate these broken promises to their advantage.

NOT THIS TIME.

Not even the Obama Administration can hide the disastrous roll-out of Obama’s Signature Legislation, Obamacare.

At 2:30 p.m. Central Yesterday, the official numbers were released via conference call by Secretary of Health and Human Services, Nurse Ratched, err…I mean Kathleen Sibelius.

That’s okay, Madame Secretary. If I were you, I wouldn’t show my face in public, either. This Administration needs a scapegoat to throw under the bus and you appear to be the next on the list.

According to Sebelius, 106, 185 Amercans successfully selected Obamacare through the exchanges. However you have to remember that number includes those Americans who simple chjose a plan and put it in their “cart” on the website, but never actually bought a plan.

Of that number, only 26,794 came through HealthCare.gov, the federal exchange site that serves 36 states. 79,391 came from state websites.

As bad as this news is, things are going to get much, much worse. Rush Limbaugh explains…

…right now, that’s the only thing affected is individual policies. Nevertheless, even though that limited number of people is affected, that limited number of people is causing all of this havoc. The other shoe to drop in 2014 is when this I same thing starts happening to people who get their health care at work. We’re not talking about employer-provided coverage here yet. That shoe doesn’t drop until next year. Right now, it’s just the individual insurance market that’s being affected by the exchanges.

It’s just the individuals who are unable to keep the plan they like. Wait until everybody who’s insured by their boss begins to lose their plan! That happens in January of next year. Then all hell is gonna break loose because then we’re talking about the vast majority of the people in this country. Admittedly, folks, the individual insurance market is not the major part of it. I mean, how many of you…? Let me just ask you the question. How many of you have a health insurance policy, or had, that you went out and bought yourself?

Show of hands. Let me see. Probably two out of 10 people. The vast majority of people get their health insurance at work, and none of this impacted them. They haven’t lost their plans yet. They haven’t had their plans taken away from ’em. Their premiums and all that stuff hasn’t gone up yet. That doesn’t happen in the employer-provided market until January. Now, wait until 80% of people with health insurance start being impacted by Obamacare, and it’s gonna make what’s happening now look like Romper Room.

See, if you get your insurance at work as an employee benefit, none of what’s being discussed here really has impacted you yet. About the only way it has is maybe you’ve been converted to part time. You may have lost your health insurance at work because your company can’t stay in business with the new rules. But for those of you who still get health insurance at work — and there’s one exception, talked about it yesterday. If your company is self-insured none of this is gonna matter to you until they get around to fixing it so that you do get hurt by it.

Right now the self-insured market is not impacted by any of this. There aren’t any rules or restrictions in the self-insured market. And again, the self-insured market is when your boss, your company, just pays for your health care directly, without an insurance policy. They set aside the same amount of money to insure everybody that works there. An employee goes to the doctor, has to get an operation, the company pays the hospital directly, the doctor directly, not an insurance company. That’s called self-insure. And Obamacare doesn’t touch them. Republicans got a carve-out for that. Now the Democrats are trying to fix that.

So the only way that you who have your insurance through your boss will not be impacted in January is if your company self-insures, and I don’t know how many it is.

…Most people are insured at work. Wait ’til they start losing their policies. Wait ’til they lose their plans that they like. We’re talking tons and tons of people. That’s the other shoe to drop in 2014. Nobody’s brought it up yet. I just want you to have a heads-up.

5 million Americans have lost their health insurance policies already as a result of Obamacare. 5 million.  

Before another American is hurt by this disastrous attempt at socializing America’s Healthcare System, it needs to end…now.  Senator Ted Cruz has been right, all along.

Repeal Obamacare now….before more Americans suffer.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obama and Obamacare: Americans are Hurting. To Whom Can We Turn?

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

americaneagleflagTo say that America is facing a pivotal moment in history is an understatement. Obamacare is wiping out Americans’ health insurance coverage all over the country, causing despair and discouragement.

Add an American President, who seems to care more about supporting our enemies and improving his golf game, than protecting and serving the country he is supposed to be leading, and you see a country in the middle of a National Crisis.

Yesterday, in an interview with CBN’s Chief Poltical Correspondent, David Brody,  to promote he new Christmas Book, “Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas,” the following discussion took place,

David Brody: “Look, you don’t pull any punches, what a shock. In this book, when it comes to Jesus, you talk about him, you talk about God, Jesus, right there and you talk about how that name that if it wasn’t called Christmas, if it wasn’t about Jesus, then it may be a whole different story, but that name seems to offend and I’m curious about your views on that.”

Sarah Palin: “That’s a great point that you’re bringing up because that’s exactly the point. People who would be offended that we celebrate the Prince of Peace because it is called Christmas, it’s because the name Christ is in the title that they would be offended. So that tells you this war on Christmas is really the tip of the spear when it comes to a greater battle that’s brewing and that battle that’s brewing is those who would want to take God out of our society, out of our culture which will lead to ruin as history has proven. Any country, any government society that has kicked God out of the public square completely, it leads to ruin. Why would we go down that path when we know what would happen?”

So far, most of the ads, on television, Internet, Radio, and print, which I have seen, refuse to refer to the day on which we celebrate the birth of the Savior as “Christmas”. Instead, they refer to the time using the nebulous words, “The Holidays”.

Frankly, this ignorance in the name of Political Correctness is just a symptom of our rapidly-decaying American Culture, which has accelerated even greater in the last 5 years, under President Barack Hussein Obama.

This has been the most Christian-stifling Administration in the History of America.

As I have written in previous posts, the entire military is under the advisement of leaders who are following the advice of Mikey Weinstein, Founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an Atheist Organization. Weinstein’s mission is to remove God from our military.

Obama seeks the elimination of Christianity from the military and, eventually, from our daily lives, as well. Obama favors another religion over the Faith of Our Fathers.

Now, I know some of you will claim that he is just being sensitive to other religions. However, Jewish Americans have worked and served side by side with Christian Americans since the birth of our nation. They are respectful of our faith, as we are respectful of theirs.

What is it about Christianity that this Administration is so opposed to?

The American clergyman and author, Phillip Brooks, once said:

Christianity helps us face the music even when we don’t like the tune.

And, without America’s Moral Compass of Christianity in the way, Obama has free reign to “radically change” the “shining city on a hill”.

I’m sure that you have seen, or heard of, by now, the “Bro-surance” and “Ho-surance” commercials designed to lure healthy young Americans into buying Health Insurance through the Obamacare Exchanges.

The commercials portray young Americans as Hedonists, on a par with Sandra Fluke. You remember that chick…the 30 year old professional student, who insisted that we have to pay her $3,000 each month for her birth control.

Here’s an aspirin, precious. Place it between your knees and squeeze tightly.

But I digress…

Staying on the subject of Obamacare, what sort of “Christian” President (as he has claimed to be) would lie to the American People 29 times that “if you want your health insurance, you can keep your health insurance” and “if you want your doctor, you can keep your doctor”?

Additionally, what sort of “Christian” President would treat our sworn enemies, Muslim Extremists, better than he treats our greatest ally, the home of God’s Chosen People, Israel?

During my soon-to-be 55 years, I have noticed that our country’s culture tends to model itself after the character of the man sitting in the Oval Office at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

If you have a leader who loves God and Country, Americans tend to follow his example, becoming more conscious of their role is shaping this nation, by working hard, and taking pride in providing for their families, through personal responsibility, perseverance, and faith in the God of Our Fathers.

However, if you have an American President who embraces the teachings of Marx and Alinsky, and who seems to be more enamored by the Muslim Call to Prayer, “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset”, than he is “Rock of Ages” or  “Amazing Grace” (old or new version), then you will have Americans following what their President believes in, causing a crack in the fabric of American Society and Culture.

That is where we stand today. As Americans continue to lose their health insurance, and the realization of their betrayal by their fallen messiah sets in, there will be a lot of misled, hurting Americans, seeking some sort of assurance that their lives are still worth-living and that they will “get by”.

Last week, as he has done all his adult life, America’s Pastor, the Reverend Billy Graham, celebrating his 95th birthday, provided the answer. He advised Americans to RETURN TO THE CROSS.

As a kid in high school, my English Literature teacher, Mr. Rainey, had us all memorize famous speeches, and stand and deliver them in class. I picked the famous Call to Arms by American Founding Father and Christian, Patrick Henry:

Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here, idle? I know not what course others may take, but as for me, GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!

This American Patriot also said,

Being a Christian… is a character which I prize far above all this world has or can boast.

The Bible… is a book worth more than all the other books that were ever printed.

Righteousness alone can exalt America as a nation. Whoever thou art, remember this; and in thy sphere practice virtue thyself, and encourage it in others.

The great pillars of all government and of social life [are] virtue, morality, and religion. This is the armor, my friend, and this alone, that renders us invincible.

Raise your eyes to the hills, Americans, from which cometh our help.

For greater is He who is in us…than he who is in the world.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Reviewing the Obamacare Roll-out Like a “Real World” Product Launch

On By kingsjesterIn Politics5 Comments

obamadoctorA few days ago, a Liberal young lady responded to one of my Blogs about the disastrous roll-out of Obamacare, posted on Ted Cruz’s Facebook Page, by saying that I knew nothing about the “Business World” and that “bad stuff” happening during Product Launches “all the time”.

As a VP of Marketing , I had a good chuckle at that, and informed the young lady that in the “Real World”, Product Launches are well-planned and well-executed, because if they fail, people lose their jobs.

On August 26, 2013, Forbes.com published an article titled “Five Steps to a Seamless Product Launch”. Let’s look at their suggestions and see how the President’s Signature Legislation stacks up.

      1. Expect bad things to happen. No matter how unsexy they are, every business needs contingency plans. Don’t think that what happened to others won’t happen to you. For example, will you be cycling millions through a payment processor over a 7-day period? Put multiple processors in place and rotate them to avoid slowdowns.

Well….The “smartest guy in the room” made no contingency plans. After all, he’s The Lightbringer. He had Top Men working on Obamacare. Top. Men. His latest “contingency plan” involves suggesting that Americans go to the insurance companies’ websites to find out about Obamacare…a self-defeating plan if I’ve ever seen one.            

So, Obama was forced to make ‘contingency plans on the fly, looking like a Junior Executive in an important meeting with his Board of Directors after the laptop that help his ground-breaking proposal crashed.

2. Bring on extra staff. A big product launch is no time to run lean and mean. Let full-time and temp staff know they’ll be working around the clock, and compensate them well. The large influx of business will create customer service and technical issues you don’t normally experience, and you’ll need people to handle them. A new customer’s first impression is usually a permanent one.

Obama brought on extra staff…and paid them well…with our money. However, Forbes was referring to competent business professionals, not a failed IT Company out of Canada, who donated to Obama’s re-                             election. Nor were they suggesting hiring felons to as “Obamacare Navigators”, manning the Customer Service Lines

Obamacare’s “first customer” was America. and the customer’s impression is that it stinks on ice.

3.  Improve your reputation. When buzz is generated, people will research your product and business. Make sure what they see is very good. Have existing customers or staff write blog posts and create videos to enhance your search results. Promote these on your website to generate more revenue during your launch.

The disastrous roll-out of Obamacare has ruined whatever was left of Obama’s reputation. Unfortunately for the CEO, it’s has to write bolog posts about this”product” when it has been impossible to acquire it. And,                as far as promoting Obamacare on healthcare.gov…the website would actually have to work to do that.

  4. Set expectations. Launches are hectic; let the people in your life know you’ll be largely unavailable. Eliminate other major obligations during this time.

Last weekend Obama played his 150th round of golf as President of the United States. Evidently, it was a major obligation.

5. Schedule weekly check-in meetings. About three months pre-launch, my team meets every single week for up to two hours to stay on schedule. This discipline reduces procrastination and the need to urgently handle miscommunicated responsibilities.

On March 22, 2013, Avik Roy, writing for Forbes.com, said,

Obamacare’s reorganization of the U.S. health care system is slated to go on-line on January 1, 2014. That’s when the law’s key provisions go into effect: its individual mandate; its rules requiring higher premiums for young people; and its expansion of insurance coverage through Medicaid and the law’s subsidized private insurance exchanges. Increasingly, officials in the Obama administration are worried that the rollout of the exchanges will be chaotic, given the law’s complexity and unrealistic deadlines. “We are under 200 days from open enrollment” on the exchanges, noted Henry Chao, deputy chief information officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, at a recent conference. “I’m pretty nervous—I don’t know about you.”

I would say that knowing that a “Product Launch” was going to go South, 9 months ahead of time, and doing nothing about it was a serious case of procrastination, wouldn’t you?

Plus, it’s not like this was a Product Launch of a new spatula or something, this “Product Launch” involves Health Insurance Decisions, affecting Americans’ lives.

As I mentioned earlier, the success of a Product Launch is measured by its results.

So, what are the results of the Obamacare “Product Launch” so far?

Reuters.com reports that

States with functioning exchanges have signed up 49,100 people compared with the 1.4 million people expected to be enrolled for 2014, according to the report by healthcare research and consultancy firm Avalere Health.

With enrollment in the federal HealthCare.gov website serving 36 states stalled by technical failures, the weak sign-ups for functioning insurance exchanges could be due to the administration’s difficulty to promote the program as a success, Avalere said.

The government is due to release national enrollment figures for the month of October this week. Open enrollment ends March 31, 2014.

Eventually, a report on the success of a Product Launch is published. When results are less that what was expected, corporations will usually “massage the numbers” to make a disastrous roll-out look better.

Of course, Obama has the power of the Federal Government behind him, so, these numbers won’t just be massaged….they’ll be expanded.

According to The Washington Post,

The fight over how to define the new health law’s success is coming down to one question: Who counts as an Obamacare enrollee?

Health insurance plans only count subscribers as enrolled in a health plan once they’ve submited a payment. That is when the carrier sends out a member card and begins paying doctor bills.

When the Obama administration releases health law enrollment figures later this week, though, it will use a more expansive definition. It will count people who have purchased a plan as well as those who have a plan sitting in their online shopping cart but have not yet paid.

“In the data that will be released this week, ‘enrollment’ will measure people who have filled out an application and selected a qualified health plan in the marketplace,” said an administration official, who requested anonymity to frankly describe the methodology.

Just as Obama lied that “if you like your health plan, you’ll be able to keep your health plan”, and if “you like your doctor, you’ll be able to keep your doctor”, no less than 29 times, he and his Administration are about to lie about the results of the Obamacare Roll-out, in a desperate attempt to make chicken soup out of chicken you-know-what.

To quote the great actor Claude Rains, in his unforgettable role as Captain Renault, in the classic movie “Casablanca”,

I am shocked…shocked.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obamacare: Inception, Perception, and Rejection

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

obamacaremoeAs I posted yesterday, President Barack Hussein Obama came on NBC Nightly News on Thursday night, to “apologize” to the America People, concerning his Signature Legislation, Obamacare.

Through a convoluted parsing of words, the petulant President ducked, dodged,. dipped, dived, and dodged ( to borrow the words of Rip Torn as Patches O’Houlihan in the movie “Dodgeball: An Underdog’s Story”) his way through the interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd, until, when the interview was over, Americans realized that he was not actually apologizing for the disastrous Roll-out of Obamacare…he was actually apologizing that we caught him at his duplicity.

The implementation of a State-Run Healthcare System has been a major goal of the Democrats, Liberals, Progressives, Communists, Socialists, Marxists, Alinsky-ites, for decades now.

Call them what you will…I think they stink on ice. But, I digress…

To the Wayback Machine, Sherman! (That’s a reference to the “Rocky & Bullwinkle Show”, for you 20 year olds)

After Bill “Bubba” Clinton and Hillary “Cankles” Clinton ascended to the presidency in 1993, they immediately started to work on putting together a Plan for National Healthcare Reform, whether the American People actually thought we needed it, or not.

Sound Familiar?

First, Bill appointed Hil as the chair of the task force devising the plan. you see, Bubba had campaigned heavily on health care in the 1992 U.S. presidential election. After the task force was created in January 1993, The way it conducted business came under scrutiny by Congress and the public, alike.   Like Obama’s promise concerning Obamacare, the Clinton Task Force’s goal was to come up with a comprehensive plan to provide universal health care for all Americans, which was to be a cornerstone of the administration’s first-term agenda.

In September of 1993, Clinton went before Congress and delivered a major healthcare speech, introduced Congress and the Nation to his and his little flower’s (Hillary, not Jennifer) Grand Scheme.

The core element of the proposed plan was an enforced mandate for employers to provide health insurance coverage to all of their employees through competitive but closely regulated health maintenance organizations.

Again…sound familiar, boys and girls?

Just like the Obamacare debacle, anybody with any sense whatsoever, including, but not limited to,  Conservatives, Libertarians, and the Healthcare and the Health Insurance Industries, rose up against the Clintons’ plan.

The Health Insurance Industry even came out with a highly effective television ad, a “Harry and Louise” ad”, designed to rally public support against the plan. Democrats,in an attempt to protect their phony-boloney jobs, started distancing themselves from the Clintons, and instead of uniting behind the First Couple’s National Healthcare Proposal, started presenting a number of competing plans of their own.

Bill and Hil’s Grand Scheme ultimately withered away amid the barrage of fire from the American Public and even further cemented the public’s perception of Ms. Rodham Clinton as the power-hungry shrew of a wife, behind her easy-going, people person husband, “good ol’ Bubba”.

The Clintons’ Grand Scheme was declared dead by Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell in September of 1994.

Our next stop during our journey through the inception of Obamacare, involves Former 2012 Republican Presidential Candidate Willard “Mitt” Romney.

Back in 2006, Romney signed a massive health-insurance overhaul into law as Governor of Massachusetts. “Romneycare” was packed with subsidies, exchanges, and mandates to extend coverage to the uninsured. Four years later, it became the model for the national nightmare known as Obamacare.

 

So, what is the truth concerning Romneycare?  Well, according to this article, posted on wsj (Wall Street Journal).com on January 21st, 2010:

 

Using the Census Bureau’s current population survey, University of Kentucky economist Aaron Yelowitz and Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute studied RomneyCare between 2005 and 2008—that is, two years on either side of its passage. The share of uninsured residents did fall to 5.4% in 2008 from 9.8% in 2005 (though the authors argue this reduction is overstated).

But Messrs. Yelowitz and Cannon show that most of the new coverage was concentrated among people earning under 300% of the federal poverty level, or about $66,000 for a family of four. Those happen to be the same people who qualify for subsidies in the heavily regulated insurance “connector,” the prototype for the “exchanges” that Democrats were contemplating before Mr. [Senator-Elect Scott] Brown so rudely interrupted.

Coverage for adults in this group increased by 14.2 percentage points—which merely proves that “universal” coverage isn’t much of a problem if health care is cheap for consumers. But another way of thinking about it is that the subsidies amount to a taxpayer-funded insurance discount. The same increase in coverage might be achievable if health care were less expensive. But rather than deregulate and reform the private market to lower costs, Mr. Romney and Democrats defaulted to the same public transfer payments that define ObamaCare.

What is the definition of stupidity, boys and girls?  

In August of 2009, during his Weekly Address, Obama said,

…while reform is obviously essential for the 46 million Americans who don’t have health insurance, it will also provide more stability and security to the hundreds of millions who do. Right now, we have a system that works well for the insurance industry, but that doesn’t always work well for you. What we need, and what we will have when we pass health insurance reform, are consumer protections to make sure that those who have insurance are treated fairly and that insurance companies are held accountable.

So, aided by a Democrat-controlled House and Senate, Obamacare was foisted upon the unwitting and unwilling American Public, on dark and foreboding night.

Which brings us to “This Present Darkness” (taken from the title of a Christian novel by Frank E. Peretti, which illumines the war American Christians fight everyday with “princes and principalities”. Sadly appropriate.)

According to McClatchyDC.com, 52 million Americans will lose their Health Insurance Coverage because of Obamacare. For you 20-something year old Libs, that’s 52 with six zeros behind it.

These are American lives I am talking about. Not imaginary statistics.

On top of that revelation, it also came out yesterday that only 22% of uninsured Americans have visited the Obamacare Exchanges. In other words, and I’ll type s-l-o-w-l-y for any Liberals who may be reading this, 78% of the Americans whom Obama and the Democrats cited as the reason for the Federal Government to ruin the finest Healthcare System in the World, do not want it. Period.

Okay. so, if, as has been determined, Obama and The Democrat Braintrust knew from the start that millions of Americans would lose their Health Insurance, what is the purpose of Obamacare, and why did the President of the United States and his minions in his Administration, Congress, and the Media lie, over and over again, about how positively perfect and wonderfully wonderful Obamacare would be?

Two words, one hyphen: Single Payer.

The Democrats have always, desperately, wanted Uncle Sugar to run Americans Healthcare Industry, just like the old Soviet Union, and present-day Communist China. They want to be in charge of our lives from cradle to grave, making life or death decisions for American Families. Stories are already coming out concerning Americans with Terminal Cancer, who are losing their Health Insurance coverage. Do you believe that Obamacare will help them? it won’t if they can not afford it, or get through the Government Bureaucracy in time for life-saving medical treatment. And, even if they do receive treatment in time, Obamacare cuts off paying for the treatment of Cancer at the age of 76.

So sorry. Here’s the book. here’s the phone. See ya later. You’re on your own.

For all of the Petulant President’s platitudes, Obamacare has about as much to do with “duty and Humanity” as the classic Three Stooges short.

Calling Dr. Howard…Dr. Fine…Dr. Howard…

And, unlike that movie short, featuring “The Boys”, there is nothing funny about Obamacare, at all.

In fact, it’s a National Tragedy.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

 

 

 

 

Obama: “I’m Sorry.” America: “We Know.”

On By kingsjesterIn Politics6 Comments

obamamyworkLast night, NBC News aired an exclusive interview, which Chuck Todd conducted with President Barack Hussein Obama, in the White House. During the course of the interview, the President “apologized” to the millions of Americans who have lost and will lose their Health Insurance Coverage because of the monster he himself created…Obamacare.

I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me.

We’ve got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them and we are going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this.

Thanks, Scooter. That helps a lot. Not.

Researchers have found that Obama Promised the American people no less than 29 times that,

…if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.

For example, on Saturday, August 8, 2009, during his Weekly Address, Obama said,

As we draw close to finalizing – and passing – real health insurance reform, the defenders of the status quo and political point-scorers in Washington are growing fiercer in their opposition. In recent days and weeks, some have been using misleading information to defeat what they know is the best chance of reform we have ever had. That is why it is important, especially now, as Senators and Representatives head home and meet with their constituents, for you, the American people, to have all the facts.

So, let me explain what reform will mean for you. And let me start by dispelling the outlandish rumors that reform will promote euthanasia, cut Medicaid, or bring about a government takeover of health care. That’s simply not true. This isn’t about putting government in charge of your health insurance; it’s about putting you in charge of your health insurance. Under the reforms we seek, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.

And while reform is obviously essential for the 46 million Americans who don’t have health insurance, it will also provide more stability and security to the hundreds of millions who do. Right now, we have a system that works well for the insurance industry, but that doesn’t always work well for you. What we need, and what we will have when we pass health insurance reform, are consumer protections to make sure that those who have insurance are treated fairly and that insurance companies are held accountable.

On Monday of this week, Obama, speaking at an Organizing for America Campaign Event, said,

Now, if you have or had one of these plans before the Affordable Care Act came into law and you really liked that plan, what we said was you can keep it if it hasn’t changed since the law passed. So we wrote into the Affordable Care Act, you’re grandfathered in on that plan. But if the insurance company changes it, then what we’re saying is they’ve got to change it to a higher standard. They’ve got to make it better, they’ve got to improve the quality of the plan they are selling. That’s part of the promise that we made too. That’s why we went out of our way to make sure that the law allowed for grandfathering.

If we had allowed these old plans to be downgraded, or sold to new enrollees once the law had already passed, then we would have broken an even more important promise — making sure Americans gain access to health care that doesn’t leave them one illness away from financial ruin. The bottom line is that we are making the insurance market better for everybody and that’s the right thing to do.

Obama’s promises all have an expiration date: the moment they are spoken…or written…like the following Policy Statement, posted shortly after Obama was inaugurated in January of 2009, on  whitehouse .gov:

“Transparency and Open Government”

Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies

SUBJECT: Transparency and Open Government

My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.

Government should be transparent. Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing. Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset. My Administration will take appropriate action, consistent with law and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use. Executive departments and agencies should harness new technologies to put information about their operations and decisions online and readily available to the public. Executive departments and agencies should also solicit public feedback to identify information of greatest use to the public.

The 44th President of the United States is a serial liar. There is no doubt about it. His entire political career has been based on lies, from the days, as a former classmate has now stated, he attempted to pass himself off as a foreign student in a Hawaiian High School and ,quite possibly, while continuing to claim a foreign birth, all the way through college in order to obtain scholarships and privileges.

But, the lies did not end there. They were just getting started. During his days as a Community Organizer, he used his contacts through his “Social Justice Networking”, like Father Pfleger, the activist priest, and a former American Muslim named Jeremiah Wright, to build up his “street cred”, while networking among the Rich Liberal Movers and Shakers of Chicago.

As he entered the political arena, it was obvious to those watching that he was being grooming, from the moment he kicked off his political campaign in the living room of Bomber Bill Ayers, whom he now refers to as “a guy from the neighborhood”.

The lessons in political shenanigans. which he learned in the backrooms of Chicago, have served him well over the years.  His ability as a Snake Oil Saleman brought him all the way to the White House.

What he did not count on, is the Americans who elected him, and to whom he promised all the free stuff to, actually expect results, because they actually took him at his word.

And, when he promised the American people 29 times that 

…if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan

…a good number of Americans trusted Obama. Because, after all, he is the President of the United States, and, is always supposed to act in our nation’s best interests, and not his own.

With all of the scandals during his time in office, such as the IRS Scandal, Benghazigate, and now, the Obamacare Disaster, Barack Hussein Obama has decisively proven what a lot of Americans said from the get-go:  He is in over his head and is not to be trusted.

President Barack Hussein Obama, has most assuredly proven the old axiom that, after all is said and done,

A man is only as good as his word.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obama and Obamacare: A Con Man Pulling A Con Job. Lies have Consequences.

On By kingsjesterIn Politics5 Comments

Obama-Shrinks-2Once upon a time, America’s Legendary Showman, P.T. Barnum, was reported to have said,

There is a sucker born every minute.

It was this philosophy that led the 44th President of the United States of America and his slavish minions in a Democrat-controlled Congress to pass the Affordable Care Act in the middle of one cold dark night, against the wishes of the American people.

After a disastrous launch, Obama is now attempting to escape from a suffocating spider’s web of his own  design.

Obama, speaking at an Organizing for America Campaign Event, yesterday, said,

Now, if you have or had one of these plans before the Affordable Care Act came into law and you really liked that plan, what we said was you can keep it if it hasn’t changed since the law passed. So we wrote into the Affordable Care Act, you’re grandfathered in on that plan. But if the insurance company changes it, then what we’re saying is they’ve got to change it to a higher standard. They’ve got to make it better, they’ve got to improve the quality of the plan they are selling. That’s part of the promise that we made too. That’s why we went out of our way to make sure that the law allowed for grandfathering.

If we had allowed these old plans to be downgraded, or sold to new enrollees once the law had already passed, then we would have broken an even more important promise — making sure Americans gain access to health care that doesn’t leave them one illness away from financial ruin. The bottom line is that we are making the insurance market better for everybody and that’s the right thing to do.

On Saturday, August 8, 2009, during his Weekly Address, “The Smartest Guy in the Room” said,

As we draw close to finalizing – and passing – real health insurance reform, the defenders of the status quo and political point-scorers in Washington are growing fiercer in their opposition. In recent days and weeks, some have been using misleading information to defeat what they know is the best chance of reform we have ever had. That is why it is important, especially now, as Senators and Representatives head home and meet with their constituents, for you, the American people, to have all the facts.

So, let me explain what reform will mean for you. And let me start by dispelling the outlandish rumors that reform will promote euthanasia, cut Medicaid, or bring about a government takeover of health care. That’s simply not true. This isn’t about putting government in charge of your health insurance; it’s about putting you in charge of your health insurance. Under the reforms we seek, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.

And while reform is obviously essential for the 46 million Americans who don’t have health insurance, it will also provide more stability and security to the hundreds of millions who do. Right now, we have a system that works well for the insurance industry, but that doesn’t always work well for you. What we need, and what we will have when we pass health insurance reform, are consumer protections to make sure that those who have insurance are treated fairly and that insurance companies are held accountable.

So, the President of the United States of America, lied. And now, he is lying, in a desperate, but futile attempt to cover up that lie.

The fact that Obama only lies when his lips are moving, is not a revelation.

The problem is the irrefutable fact that lies have consequences. And, in the case of Obamacare, the consequences apply to American lives.

In a Sunday Op Ed for The Wall Street Journal, Edie Littlefield Sundy, who is suffering from Stage 4 Gallbladder Cancer, wrote the following,

Everyone now is clamoring about Affordable Care Act winners and losers. I am one of the losers.

My grievance is not political; all my energies are directed to enjoying life and staying alive, and I have no time for politics. For almost seven years I have fought and survived stage-4 gallbladder cancer, with a five-year survival rate of less than 2% after diagnosis. I am a determined fighter and extremely lucky. But this luck may have just run out: My affordable, lifesaving medical insurance policy has been canceled effective Dec. 31.

My choice is to get coverage through the government health exchange and lose access to my cancer doctors, or pay much more for insurance outside the exchange (the quotes average 40% to 50% more) for the privilege of starting over with an unfamiliar insurance company and impaired benefits.

Countless hours searching for non-exchange plans have uncovered nothing that compares well with my existing coverage. But the greatest source of frustration is Covered California, the state’s Affordable Care Act health-insurance exchange and, by some reports, one of the best such exchanges in the country. After four weeks of researching plans on the website, talking directly to government exchange counselors, insurance companies and medical providers, my insurance broker and I are as confused as ever. Time is running out and we still don’t have a clue how to best proceed.

Two things have been essential in my fight to survive stage-4 cancer. The first are doctors and health teams in California and Texas: at the medical center of the University of California, San Diego, and its Moores Cancer Center; Stanford University’s Cancer Institute; and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

The second element essential to my fight is a United Healthcare PPO (preferred provider organization) health-insurance policy.

Since March 2007 United Healthcare has paid $1.2 million to help keep me alive, and it has never once questioned any treatment or procedure recommended by my medical team. The company pays a fair price to the doctors and hospitals, on time, and is responsive to the emergency treatment requirements of late-stage cancer. Its caring people in the claims office have been readily available to talk to me and my providers.

But in January, United Healthcare sent me a letter announcing that they were pulling out of the individual California market. The company suggested I look to Covered California starting in October.

You would think it would be simple to find a health-exchange plan that allows me, living in San Diego, to continue to see my primary oncologist at Stanford University and my primary care doctors at the University of California, San Diego. Not so. UCSD has agreed to accept only one Covered California plan—a very restrictive Anthem EPO Plan. EPO stands for exclusive provider organization, which means the plan has a small network of doctors and facilities and no out-of-network coverage (as in a preferred-provider organization plan) except for emergencies. Stanford accepts an Anthem PPO plan but it is not available for purchase in San Diego (only Anthem HMO and EPO plans are available in San Diego).

So if I go with a health-exchange plan, I must choose between Stanford and UCSD. Stanford has kept me alive—but UCSD has provided emergency and local treatment support during wretched periods of this disease, and it is where my primary-care doctors are.

Before the Affordable Care Act, health-insurance policies could not be sold across state lines; now policies sold on the Affordable Care Act exchanges may not be offered across county lines.

What happened to the president’s promise, “You can keep your health plan”? Or to the promise that “You can keep your doctor”? Thanks to the law, I have been forced to give up a world-class health plan. The exchange would force me to give up a world-class physician.

For a cancer patient, medical coverage is a matter of life and death. Take away people’s ability to control their medical-coverage choices and they may die. I guess that’s a highly effective way to control medical costs. Perhaps that’s the point.

The experts are now predicting that 129 million Americans will lose their private Health Insurance Coverage to the ill-conceived National Catastrophe, known as Obamacare.

These Americans will not have the option of “shopping around”. With 68% of private policies expected to be eliminated, and the Obamacare Policies themselves un-affordable, average Americans will be in a no-win situation..

Oh, by the way, if you are over 76, and you get Cancer…pick out your ice floe…because Obama’s “perfect” “Affordable” Care Act is neither…and, you will be denied life-saving coverage under Obamacare.

It was a Con Job from the get-go. Lies told freely, with no conscience or thought of the consequences…the pain and suffering Obamacare would be bringing to American Lives.

Never forget this moment, Americans. It is a time when the United States President is revealing himself to be everything that Conservative Bloggers, like myself, warned you that he was and would be.

God protect us.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obama and Obamacare: As Transparent as Mud

On By kingsjesterIn Politics10 Comments

Obamacare ambulanceAs every American knows by now, the Affordable Care Act, un-affectionately known as “Obamacare”, is President Barack Hussein Obama’s Signature Legislation. He campaigned for this legislation before and after he ascended to the office of the Presidency.

As we have been discovering together, the implementation of this legislation has been a Signature Failure for Obama and his Administration. A failure which they and their minions in the Main Stream Media have been desperately trying to cover up by any means necessary, including omission of fact, distraction (Oh, look…Amnesty!), and good old-fashion prevarication.

All of these underhanded strategies, currently practiced ad infinitum by Obama and his Administration, are in direct opposition to the following Policy Statement, posted shortly after Obama was inaugurated in January of 2009, on  whitehouse .gov:

“Transparency and Open Government”

Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies

SUBJECT: Transparency and Open Government

My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.

Government should be transparent. Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing. Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset. My Administration will take appropriate action, consistent with law and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use. Executive departments and agencies should harness new technologies to put information about their operations and decisions online and readily available to the public. Executive departments and agencies should also solicit public feedback to identify information of greatest use to the public.

Government should be participatory. Public engagement enhances the Government’s effectiveness and improves the quality of its decisions. Knowledge is widely dispersed in society, and public officials benefit from having access to that dispersed knowledge. Executive departments and agencies should offer Americans increased opportunities to participate in policymaking and to provide their Government with the benefits of their collective expertise and information. Executive departments and agencies should also solicit public input on how we can increase and improve opportunities for public participation in Government.

Government should be collaborative. Collaboration actively engages Americans in the work of their Government. Executive departments and agencies should use innovative tools, methods, and systems to cooperate among themselves, across all levels of Government, and with nonprofit organizations, businesses, and individuals in the private sector. Executive departments and agencies should solicit public feedback to assess and improve their level of collaboration and to identify new opportunities for cooperation.

I direct the Chief Technology Officer, in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Administrator of General Services, to coordinate the development by appropriate executive departments and agencies, within 120 days, of recommendations for an Open Government Directive, to be issued by the Director of OMB, that instructs executive departments and agencies to take specific actions implementing the principles set forth in this memorandum. The independent agencies should comply with the Open Government Directive.

This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by a party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

This memorandum shall be published in the Federal Register.

BARACK OBAMA

You’ve come a long way, Scooter.

Regarding the launch of Obamacare and its website, Healthcare.gov, you were desperately hoping that the Main Stream Media and your lackeys in the Democrat Party would provide enough cover, in conjunction with your own strategies, which I alluded to earlier, to keep Low Information Voters confused long enough to get your State-run Healthcare System up and running in perpetuity.

The best-laid plans of mice and men oft-times go awry.

What you didn’t count on were your allies in the Media turning on you like a pack of ravenous hyenas.

I never thought that I would be quoting this particular source breaking a story like this about Obama, but, CBS News reports that…

For 31 days now, the Obama administration has been telling us that Americans by the millions are visiting the new health insurance website, despite all its problems.

But no one in the administration has been willing to tell us how many policies have been purchased, and this may be the reason: CBS News has learned enrollments got off to an incredibly slow start.

Early enrollment figures are contained in notes from twice-a-day “war room” meetings convened within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services after the website failed on Oct. 1. They were turned over in response to a document request from the House Oversight Committee.

The website launched on a Tuesday. Publicly, the government said there were 4.7 million unique visits in the first 24 hours. But at a meeting Wednesday morning, the war room notes say “six enrollments have occurred so far.”

They were with BlueCross BlueShield North Carolina and Kansas City, CareSource and Healthcare Service Corporation.

By Wednesday afternoon, enrollments were up to “approximately 100.” By the end of Wednesday, the notes reflect “248 enrollments” nationwide.

The health care exchanges need to average 39,000 enrollees a day to meet the goal of seven million by March 1. The war room notes give a glimpse into some of the reasons customers had problems:

“Direct enrollment (signing up directly on an insurer’s website) is not working for any issuers.”

“Experian” credit reporting agency is “creating confusion with credit check information.”

“Issuer phone numbers are not appearing correctly on the Pay Now page.”

The notes leave no doubt that some enrollment figures, which the administration has chosen to keep secret, are available.

The population of the United States of America in the Year of our Lord 2013, numbers 313,900,000.

I just tried to figure out what percentage of 313,900,000, 248 enrollees would be. 

The readout of my calculator said,

R U KIDDING ME?

This fiasco, known as Obamacare, needs to be called off, right now. Obama has embarrassed himself and this nation.

And, he needs to answer for his lies  in an Impeachment hearing.

 

This has gone on long enough.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obama Told Me, “You Better Shop Around”!

On By kingsjesterIn Politics6 Comments

marie-antoinette-obamaYesterday, while speaking at an event in Boston, President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) attempted to correct the lie which he has been telling the American Public over and over again, since he first campaigned for the Presidency: the lie concerning Americans with privately-held Health Insurance Polices being able to keep them with the advent of Obamacare…

Now, if you had one of these substandard plans before the Affordable Care Act became law, and you really like that plan, you were able to keep it. That’s what I said when I was running for office. That was part of the promise we made. But ever since the law was passed, if insurers decided to downgrade or cancel the substandard plans, what we said under the law is that you have got to replace them with quality, comprehensive coverage because that, too, was a central premise of the Affordable Care Act from the very beginning…

So if you’re getting one of these letters [canceling your insurance policy], just shop around in the new marketplace. That’s what it’s for…

For the fewer than 5% of Americans who buy insurance on your own, you will be getting a better deal. So anyone peddling the motion that insurers are canceling people’s plan without mentioning that almost all the insurers are encouraging people to join better plans with the same carrier and stronger benefits and stronger protections, while others will be able to get better plans with new carriers through the marketplace, and then many will get new help to pay for these better plans and make them actually cheaper–if you leave that stuff out, you’re being grossly misleading, to say the least.

Yeah…about that “new marketplace”, Scooter. It’s kind of hard to “shop around” when the cotton-pickin’ website keeps crashing.

While your hench-woman, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius, was on the stand at yesterday’s Congressional Hearing, the darn thing crashed again, leading to what Sean Hannity called “an unfortunate screen shot”, with Healthcare.gov’s Technical Problems page on the left of the screen and Sibelius on the right.

“Glitch-plagued” does not even begin to describe the castastrophe-filled abyss that is healthcare.gov.

The National Republican Congressional Committee has published some horror stories that will send chills down you spine on this Halloween…

1. “Three weeks”

Jennie Johnson from Missouri City, Texas, has been trying for “three weeks” to access HealthCare.gov. She eventually decided to take President Obama’s advice and check out her insurance options by phone, but only got a few steps in before being told she had to return to the broken website.

2. “Every day for three consecutive weeks”

David Harrison from Tennessee has attempted to enroll into ObamaCare every day for three consecutive weeks. Not only is he being forced to jump through the glitches to enroll in a health care plan, but some of the plans he is eligible for are more expensive than he was hoping for.

3. “Two weeks”

Elizabeth Cohen, a reporter for CNN, writes that for two weeks straight she tried to access HealthCare.gov, only to be greeted by error messages. Cohen even tried logging on at 3 am on Sunday morning, only to be told by the site that the system was down.

4. “Three weeks”

Patricia from North Carolina has been “trying for three weeks to see what ObamaCare offers without success.” Her current health plan has been cancelled thanks to ObamaCare, and yet she has not been able to sign on to browse a potential replacement.

5. “23 days later”

Mary Noble, an editor at Politix.com, wrote that “for the last 23 days I’ve tried and abjectly failed to create an account on Healthcare.gov.”

So, with Americans suffering under under his Signature Socialist Legislation, which was rammed down our throats, an American President would be humble and apologetic about the situation, instead of attempting to pass the buck, while admonishing American Citizens to “shop around”.

But, not our Manchurian President.

Americans do not matter to him. His Marx/Alinsky – inspired Political Ideology, which, in turn, fuels his plan to “fundamentally change” the Shining City of the Hill” into just another Third-World Barrio, takes precedence over the health and well-being of American citizens, whom he has sworn to protect and defend from enemies, foreign and domestic.

In the 44th President’s case, it’s hardly a priority to protect a citizenry whom you have nothing in common with.

And, apparently, other Americans are starting to realize what Conservatives have known all along: Obama is for Obama.

A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey shows that a mere 42 percent of Americans approve of Obama’s job performance, down five points from a poll conducted in early October. The president’s disapproval rating stands at 51 percent, tying an all-time high for Obama.

In all, 41 percent of respondents say they have a less favorable opinion of the president since the 16 day government shutdown, compared to 21 percent who say they have a more favorable view since the shutdown.

The realization of the  freedom-destroying effects of the Marxist Healthcare Law, put into place by the empty suit who occupies Our House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, is definitely having an effect on “The Lightbringer’s” popularity numbers. Light bulbs are coming on in the craniums of even those Low Information Voters, who supported Obama for the last 5 years, as they begin to understand what average Americans here in the Heartland have known all along, concerning their “fallen messiah.”.

All hat. No cattle

During the Congressional hearing yesterday morning, Secretary Sibelius was overheard whining into an open mic,

Don’t do this to me.

That’s what average Americans have been saying for 5 years, Madame Secretary.

And, all we have to say to you and the Low Information Voters who are awakening to the duplicity of the Manchurian President they elected,is

Welcome to the “party”, pal!

Until He Comes,

KJ

Sibelius, Shenanigans, and CGI

On By kingsjesterIn Politics2 Comments

SibeliusAs Kathleen Sibelius prepares to testify at today’s Congressional Hearing, word has gotten out that she plans to blame the horrible roll-out of the President’s Signature Legislation, Obamacare, on CGI Federal, the Canadian Firm who designed the horrendous technical disaster of a website, known as Healthcare.gov.

I was going to advise the clueless Secretary of HHS to tread lightly, but I changed my mind:

Let it all hang out, Kathy-Baby.

As I reported back on October 19th, the awarding of a no-bid contract to CGI Federal was the result of political shenanigans.

Allow me to introduce you to Mr. George Schindler…

Mr. George D. Schindler has been the President of United States and Canada at CGI Group Inc. since January 2013 and served as the President U.S. Operations since October 2011. As a member of CGI’s Management Committee, Mr. Schindler also participates in the development and execution of CGI’s global strategy. Mr. Schindler served as the President of Stanley, Inc. since August 2010. Mr. Schindler served as the President of CGI Federal Inc. from 2006 to October 1, 2011, where he led CGI’s business with the Civilian, Defense, and Intelligence Sectors of the U.S. government. Under his leadership, CGI Federal was named the 2010 Greater Washington U.S. Government Contractor of the Year (greater than $300 million) by the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, PSC and Washington Technology. CGI was also named one of the “9 Hot Companies to Watch” by Federal Computer Week.

In August 2012, Schindler donated $1,000 to Obama’s Re-Election Campaign,according to opensecrets.org. However, by then, his company had already secured the contract to build the website.

That donation was made at the very same time that a bunch of business leaders, including Schindler, met with the president at the White House, to talk about “insourcing”, a pleasant little term which the Administration made up to describe their pleading with American Corporations not to move their assets out of the country to get away from all the taxes that the same Obama Administration was penalizing them with.

Informationweek.com reported at the time that…

“You’ve heard of outsourcing. Well, these companies are insourcing,” the president said. “That’s exactly the kind of commitment to country that we need–especially right now, when we’re in a make-or-break moment for the middle class and those aspiring to get to the middle class here in the United States.”

Obama added: “When a lot of folks are still looking for work, now is the time for us to step on the gas.” And while he gave a nod to what he said were the “the bottom line” benefits of sourcing domestically, Obama asserted “a moral case” for insourcing.

Great sound bites, especially in a political season where attention is focused on 99 percenters, Occupy protesters, and general class warfare. But here’s the reality: There’s no broad trend toward insourcing, but there is a recognition that the pressure to cut costs over the past decade led many companies to push the envelope on offshoring a bit too far, and that it’s time for some rebalancing.

…CGI Group is a midsize tech services company based in Quebec, with offices in more than 40 U.S. locations as well as centers in Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Mumbai, India. CGI employs roughly 10,000 workers in the U.S. and 20,000 elsewhere.

Of late, the company has been opening development centers in small U.S. towns such as Belton, Texas, Lebanon, Va., and Troy, Ala. CGI U.S. president George Schindler, who attended Obama’s insourcing summit, told me that such locales are becoming more cost competitive with India and offer a pool of untapped IT talent that can add some geographic balance to CGI’s workforce.

“These are areas that have been harder hit by the downturn than others, but they offer a set of dynamics that are working in our favor,” Schindler told me following his visit to the White House. “They offer a great cost of living, they are motivated from a local government perspective, and there’s partnerships with community colleges that can train people in the skills we need. It makes an attractive cost case, whereas the opposite is happening in some other parts of the world.”

As for creating jobs in the U.S., Schindler says it’s great to be able to contribute to local communities. “But it’s business first–the economics have to be there,” he says.

Since I reported on the president’s connection to CGI Federal, it has come out that the First Lady, not-so-affectionately known to average Americans as “Mooch”, has ties to CGI Federal, as well.

Fox News reports that

Toni Townes-Whitley, a senior vice president at CGI Federal, is also a Princeton University classmate of first lady Michelle Obama — and a political donor.

Mike Caddell, a spokesman for Princeton University, confirmed to FoxNews.com that Townes-Whitley went to the school and graduated in 1985. According to a Princeton alumni publication in 1998, Townes-Whitley also volunteered for the Peace Corps and was stationed in West Africa. She raised six children before returning to work.

Both Townes-Whitley and Michelle Obama are members of the Association of Black Princeton Alumni.

According to Federal Election Commission Records, Townes-Whitley gave $500 in 2011 and 2012 to Obama’s reelection campaign, and another $1,000 to the Obama Victory Fund.

Shenanigans aside, what was CGI’s reputation before Obama hired them?

According to a website, out of Fairfax County, VA,fairfaxunderground.com…

Canadian provincial health officials last year fired the parent company of CGI Federal, the prime contractor for the problem-plagued Obamacare health exchange websites, the Washington Examiner has learned.

CGI Federal’s parent company, Montreal-based CGI Group, was officially terminated in September 2012 by a Ontario government health agency after the firm missed three years of deadlines and failed to deliver the province’s flagship online medical registry.

The online registry was supposed to be up and running by June 2011.

The CMS officials refused to say if federal officials knew of its parent company’s IT failure in Canada when awarding the six contracts.

It wasn’t just those contracts. As mentioned earlier, Obama dumped huge amounts of money on CGI.

CGI Federal is a subsidiary of Montreal-based CGI Group. With offices in Fairfax, Va., the subsidiary has been a darling of the Obama administration, which since 2009 has bestowed it with $1.4 billion in federal contracts, according to USAspending.gov.

HHS is by far the single largest federal contractor of CGI, showering it with $645 million in contracts. The Defense Department pays the Canadian company $254 million, the EPA $58 million and the Justice Department $36 million.

In comparison, in 2008, under President George W. Bush, CGI contracts totaled only $16.5 million for all federal departments and agencies.

The interesting question is why Obama dumped 1.4 billion in taxpayer money on a company this incompetent and ignored all the warnings.

It’s one more thing that ought to be investigated.

Well, heck, there is no time like the present, for a good investigation.

So, today, I hope Secretary Sibelius throws the entire Administration under the bus. 

She would be well-advised to land the first punch.  Heck, she might as well walk into the hearings wearing a baseball cap with the word “SCAPEGOAT” written across the front of it.

Because, it any heads are going to roll of the failure of Obamacare, her’s will be the first to hit the floor.

Certainly, you don’t believe that “the smartest guy in the room” is going to accept any responsibility for this Legislative Train Wreck, do you?

Being Obama means never having to say you’re sorry.

Until He Comes,

KJ