Obamacare

Leave it to eighteen term Democrat Congressman Pete Stark to pretty much encapsulate what's wrong with the federal government.  That being that we have too many members of Congress such as himself who don't recognize constitutional limits on the power of Congress.

In the following video Stark is confronted by a constituent who proceeds to take him to school on the Constitution and the fact that it does indeed limit Congress to specific delegated powers, leaving others to the state governments or to the people.

For his part, Stark was faced with a pretty hostile crowd and does a poor job defending his position.

Of course, this was the same member of Congress who caught flack for telling a constituent at a previous town hall meeting that he wouldn't even bother to urinate on them, (yes, really), so maybe he was just trying to be low key.  Regardless, his statements underscore just how far beyond recognition liberals have misconstrued and perverted our Constitution.

All during the debate over ObamaCare, virtually everyone in the pro-life community told pretty much everyone who would listen - as well as those who refused to listen - that the new health care reform law would result in federal tax dollars somehow being used to fund abortion.

Of course Obama and virtually all Democrats poo-poohed the notion.

Well, now we know...

The Obama Administration will give Pennsylvania $160 million to set up a new "high-risk" insurance program under a provision of the federal health care legislation enacted in March.

It has quietly approved a plan submitted by an appointee of pro-abortion Governor Edward Rendell under which the new program will cover any abortion that is legal in Pennsylvania.

The high-risk pool program is one of the new programs created by the sweeping health care legislation, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, President Obama signed into law on March 23. The law authorizes $5 billion in federal funds for the program, which will cover as many as 400,000 people when it is implemented nationwide. ...

As you'll remember, all through the debate over the bill the White House and Democrats in Congress opposed strict language that would forbid any tax dollars being used fund abortion.

And now we know why.

***  read more »

Months after the worst piece of legislation in American history -- and the most costly piece of legislation estimated to cost upwards of $2.5 trillion -- was passed, the massive effort to repeal Obamacare is growing. Polls show that this highly unpopular piece of socialism is still opposed by the American people as much as it was during the year-long debate and votes in the Democrat-controlled Congress.

A solid majority of Americans want Obamacare repealed. Even the selfish corporations, which gave the final impetus to passing Obamacare by supporting it, are now realizing what a terrible pact with the devil they made to cut out special exemptions for themselves. They are dropping health care plans, increasing health care costs to their employees, and writing off huge expenses due to the imposition of Obamacare on their companies, etc.  read more »

As the weeks and months have passed since ObamaCare was signed into law, Nancy Pelosi's comment that "we have to pass it so we can find out what's in it" comment makes her out to be more of a prophet every day.  The devil truly is in the details, as they say.

The latest surprise is the fact that about one million low-income Americans could lose their health insurance coverage by September because some of its provisions will make it illegal (or at least impossible) to offer some limited benefits plans to the public.  (via Politico)

Part of the health care overhaul due to kick in this
September could strip more than 1 million people of their insurance coverage, violating a key goal of President Barack Obama’s reforms.

Under the provision, insurance companies will no longer be able to apply broad annual caps on the amount of money they pay out on health policies. Employer groups say the ban could essentially wipe out a niche insurance market that many part-time workers and retail and restaurant employees have come to rely on.  read more »

It's beginning to seem like one could write a book (or at least fill a number of pages comparable to the length of the original bill) with reports of how ObamaCare doesn't do what Democrats said it would, how it does do what opponents said it would, and how it's going to result in other consequences that weren't predicted (which, itself, was predicted).  Got it?

Well, here's the latest:

The true cost of ObamaCare (the details they left out)

Remember how a big part of Obama and the Democrats sales job for their health care bill was that it would save money?  Well, guess what...  They were wrong.  Of course pretty much everyone who took a realistic look at their plan said the same thing, but that didn't stop them from marching forward.  Well a few days ago the Director of the Congressional Budget Office took to his blog and posted the following:

The central challenge is straightforward and stark: The rising costs of health care will put tremendous pressure on the federal budget during the next few decades and beyond.  read more »

While Democrats in Washington have been busy putting greater government controls on health care in America, (and putting taxpayers on the hook for more health care related expenses), our neighbors to the north are taking a hard look at the costs associated with their government funded system.

Why?  Because the population is aging, and reality is beginning to set in concerning the government's financial ability to keep delivering on the commitment of "free health care".  Their government run system currently eats up about 40% of provincial budgets each year...and rising.  In Ontario alone, that figure is projected to be 70% in a little over a decade.

(Via Reuters)

Ontario, Canada's most populous province, kicked off a fierce battle
with drug companies and pharmacies when it said earlier this year it
would halve generic drug prices and eliminate "incentive fees" to
generic drug manufacturers.  read more »

As everyone knows by now in the aftermath of the "loud" debate over ObamaCare, the feds will be working to implement this massive (expensive) new program over the next several years, but it will take time. 

Of course, many people and politicians are looking for ways to stop and/or overturn the program via legal and political means.  "Legal", in the sense of the budding lawsuits that are being filed to challege various aspects of the program, not the least of which is the fact that it forces individual Americans to buy a commercial product for the first time in American history.  And "political" in the sense of introducing legislation to re-write and/or repeal the bill entirely - which of course will rely on having majorities in Congress that are so inclined, which will have to wait until after the coming November elections.

But this overlooks the individual state governments, which do have some options themselves that could be used to resist ObamaCare, not the least of which because they are called on to play such a large role in the program.  read more »

In what is becoming almost a daily occurrence, yet another previously unknown (to the public) provision has been found in Obama's new health care law.  In this case, it has to do with new reporting requirements for business...and LOTS more paperwork.

Via Cato:

Most people know about the individual mandate in the new health care bill, but the bill contained another mandate that could be far more costly.

A few wording changes to the tax code's section 6041 regarding 1099 reporting were slipped into the 2000-page health legislation. The changes will force millions of businesses to issue hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of additional IRS Form 1099s every year. It appears to be a costly, anti-business nightmare.

Under current law, businesses are required to issue 1099s in a limited set of situations, such as when paying outside consultants. The health care bill includes a vast expansion in this information reporting requirement in an attempt to raise revenue for an increasingly rapacious Congress...

So how does it change the 1099 requirements?  Get this:  read more »

In the course of the debate over ObamaCare many administration officials and members of the Democrat leadership did their best to twist the arms of fellow Democrats in Congress in order to wrangle a majority and pass the bill.  Part of their argument in their efforts to convince those Democrats was that, once the bill became law, it would become more popular than it was at the time because, they said, Republicans and Fox News were just being temporarily successful in demonizing the bill.  Better days were ahead.

So how's that working out?  Well, according to the latest poll - not to mention one conducted by James Carville - not too good.

The most recent Democracy Corps poll, (done by James Carville and Stan Greenberg) shows NO BOUNCE whatsoever for Obama in the wake of the health care bill becoming law.  Part of their analysis states:  read more »

There's more news from the "We need to pass it so you'll know what's in it" file.  In this case, it's more to do with the consequences of ObamaCare, as determined in a report by Obama's own Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The report was compiled by the actuaries for Medicare and Medicaid.  The findings project that the costs of health care would go up by almost $400 billion by the end of the decade, 14 million Americans would lose their employer based insurance (thus INCREASING the number of people without insurance, which would move millions more Americans onto Medicaid), and that approximately four million Americans would be hit with the insurance tax penalty that the law would create.

These are all things that the supporters of ObamaCare said would NOT happen.  In fact, they campaigned on the rationale that it would reduce health care costs, costs less money to the government, and provide insurance coverage to more people.

The report was given to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (AND the White House) about a week BEFORE the passage of ObamaCare.  And, of course, Sebelius was all over television and in the media supporting passage of the bill by denying that the type of things would happen that her department's own report said would happen.  read more »