Tag Archives: political parties

An Implication of Obamacare

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…that’s little talked about.  It follows, though, Obamacare’s segmentation of “insurance” coverage into high-payers—the young, who are poor—and the low-payers—the elderly, who are well established—and into metal groups differentiated solely by what per centage of costs will be covered after deductibles have been consumed for the year.

The implication is this, a buried one-liner in a Wall Street Journal article:

…the health law bars insurers from taking medical history into account when setting prices.

Imagine that.  Underwriters, when designing an “insurance” policy intended to transfer health-related risk, aren’t allowed to incorporate questions of health into their risk assessments.

Hmm….

Democrats are Terrified of Democracy

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Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, NV) destroyed the Senate filibuster.  Breaking Senate Rules to do so (it takes a two-thirds majority to change the rules), the Senate Democrats voted to eliminate the filibuster for Executive Branch and non-Supreme Court judicial nominees.  The rule these Democrats violated?  Rule XXII, which says in pertinent part [emphasis added]

…if that question [to suspend debate] shall be decided in the affirmative by three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn — except on a measure or motion to amend the Senate rules, in which case the necessary affirmative vote shall be two-thirds of the Senators present and voting — then said measure, motion, or other matter pending before the Senate, or the unfinished business, shall be the unfinished business to the exclusion of all other business until disposed of.

Of course, this is just the first step.  These Democrats now will move quickly to the despotism of one-party rule.

Reid’s rationale?  The Republicans had “unprecedentedly” filibustered President Barack Obama’s appellate court nominees.

Never mind that it was Reid’s Party of Jim Crow that invented the process and label of Borking judicial nominees with their shameful assault on the character of Judge Robert Bork when President Ronald Reagan nominated him to the Supreme Court.  Not satisfied with simply blocking his confirmation, this Party chose to smear his character.

Recall, further, that this Party of Jim Crow also attempted, not merely to block confirmation, but to destroy with blatantly racist smears President George Bush the Elder’s nominee to the Supreme Court, Justice Clarence Thomas, an American of black heritage.

These Democrats, with this vote, have said to the minority party, “You refused repeatedly to do what your Betters instructed you to do; you kept objecting.  Now we’ve cut out your voice.  Sit down, and shut up.”

Remember this in the upcoming primaries and the fall election cycle.

Negligence

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An Obama-administration official announced that the portion of the Healthcare.gov system that would allow users to pay insurance companies with marketplace subsidies will not be available for another two months.

And yet ObamaMart was rolled out 7 weeks ago, knowing this small component wasn’t ready.

A couple of possible outcomes: an insuree might show up at the doctor’s office—or hospital—and discover he owes full freight, even though he’d “successfully” signed up, subsidies and all.  Alternatively, an insuree might show up at the doctor’s office—or hospital—and discover he’s not covered at all, yet, even though he’d “successfully” signed up.

Indeed, Henry Chao, CMS’ Deputy Chief Information Officer, has already testified in front of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Commerce that as much as 40% of the technical systems supporting ObamaMart aren’t even built.  That sample of missing parts includes security, in addition to this matter of payment.

Holy cats.

Some Lies of Obamacare

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It seems, now, that President Barack Obama’s administration knew of the potential for the ObamaMart failure as early as last March (but, no, not Obama himself; he only hears about things from the newspapers, not from anyone in his employ).  Then, apparently, they promptly lied about that potential ‘way back then.

Key administration officials at the White House and Department of Health and Human Services received briefings this past spring from McKinsey & Co, a private consulting firm that reviewed more than 200 documents and conducted interviews with HHS staff to identify potential problems before the Oct 1 rollout.

…including insufficient testing and evolving requirements. The report also warned that the program relied too heavily on outside contractors.

And

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Medicare Chief Marilyn Tavenner, and Gary Cohen, a Medicare and Medicaid oversight official, attended a briefing on the firm’s analysis on April 4[.]

Then

Sebelius testified at an oversight committee hearing two weeks after being briefed on the McKinsey report that the implementation of ObamaCare was on track[.]

The seeming lie nature of Sebelius’ testimony—certainly, problems identified in March could have been addressed by Rollout Date—is indicated by the fact that when Healthcare.gov ObamaMart launched, those problems, or problems very like those identified by McKinsey, remained in place, unresolved.

Whose Politics?

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, NV) and Chuck Schumer (D, NY) have their knickers in a twist because Senate Republicans successfully blocked the accession to the DC Circuit Court of President Barack Obama’s nominee, Cornelia Pillard.  These two, and their…colleagues…are upset over what they claim are Republican political blocks.

No, guys.  Obama is making nakedly political nominations.  He should stop playing politics with the nation’s courts.

Additionally, as part of their panty-wadding, Reid and Schumer are threatening, again, to do away with the filibuster altogether:

Republicans are inching closer and closer to that line.  I’d hope they’ll turn back[.]

Senate Democrats can’t do this under Senate rules and the current party split in the Senate, though, except by trotting out Vice President Joe Biden to make a dishonestly tendentious parliamentary ruling on what the Senate’s rules actually say.

The politics don’t get any more naked than that.