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Mark Caserta: Democrats continue to stand on Obamacare lies

12 May

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Mark Caserta: Free State Patriot editor

May, 12, 2017

 

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In March 2010, President Barack Hussein Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law. Following its passage, Obama boldly declared to all Americans, “We did not fear our future, we shaped it.”

In retrospect, that may have been the only true statement Obama would ever make about his failing signature health care bill. He certainly didn’t fear what it would do to our country, and he and his liberal accomplices certainly controlled its shape.

It’s obvious Democrats didn’t have a clue what was in the bill or what impact it would have on nearly 20 percent of our nation’s economy. It was, after all, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who said, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,” when she spoke to the National Association of Counties in March 2010.

But controlling a nation’s health care system would be the ultimate mechanism of oversight over its people. And Obama and the Democrats were willing to say anything to make it happen.

To date, I’ve never fielded a serious rebuttal from any liberal regarding the bald-faced lies the Obama administration leveraged in throwing this political curve ball right past the American people. Yet, as old health care wounds are being reopened, it’s time to revisit the true “genesis” of this disastrous initiative.

“If you like your health care plan, you can keep it,” became the battle cry for the Obama administration as they traversed the nation selling their snake oil and liniment. It was such an egregious lie that PolitiFact dubbed it the “Lie of the Year” in 2013.

When one ponders the exorbitant number of lies politicians bestow upon Americans in a single year, this recognition illuminates the magnitude of the falsehood.

“If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor,” was another liberal lie designed to mislead trusting Americans into believing the Democrats were planning on providing Americans viable health care options.

Imagine misleading a senior citizen into believing they couldn’t possibly lose a doctor with whom they had established a longtime relationship. But that’s exactly what Obama and his minions did to pass Obamacare – without a single Republican vote.

And the empty promise that premiums, on average, would decline by $2,500 per year under Obamacare was laughable. The exact opposite has happened.

And the most incredible part of this tragedy is that liberal Democrats act as if none of this chicanery ever transpired! Do they really believe Americans are that stupid?

Thank goodness, the House of Representatives voted last week to dismantle the pillars of Obamacare and begin the process of replacing this broken health care system. The bill is on its way to the Senate, where its conservative components will be debated and strengthened.

Rest assured, Republicans will compromise on a finished product and the edicts of Obamacare will be reduced to a Democrat eulogy depicting the death of Obamacare.

So, when liberal Democrats attempt to “frighten” you about GOP health care, remember how they lied to you before.

And how they continue to stand by those lies.

Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.

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Mark Caserta: Obamacare repeal and replace simply delayed

1 Apr

 

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Mark Caserta:  Free State Patriot editor

Mar 31, 2017

 

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Last week’s charade in the House of Representatives confirmed the level of ineptitude on Capitol Hill. For the GOP to have had eight years to reach consensus on a viable healthcare alternative to Obamacare and to be so unprepared is embarrassing.

But “let not your heart be troubled.” Obamacare will eventually be eliminated and replaced with a sustainable healthcare bill that will be affordable for all Americans.

However, what we saw legislatively last week was exactly what we “didn’t” see during the Obama administration – legitimate legislative debate on the content of a proposed healthcare initiative.

Remember, in 2010, when former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke at a legislative conference and said, “We have to pass the bill,” speaking of the Affordable Care Act, “so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.”

Well, it turns out the intended lack of transparency shrouded the multitude of liberal lies about Obama’s signature healthcare law and facilitated its passage.

The GOP establishment, while debilitatingly dimwitted along the way, debated, argued and disagreed on provisions of the American Healthcare Act and ultimately couldn’t agree on the initial piece of legislation. I’m truly encouraged that true conservatives ultimately blocked a potentially flawed bill.

Finally, Americans receive some representation.

But that’s not what you’ll hear from liberal Democrats or the mainstream media. And frankly, the Democrat’s lack of genuine concern for the uninsured is very telling. Obamacare is in a death spiral and liberals seemingly couldn’t care less what happens to the average American, as long as they “win one for Obama.”

So, here’s what we can expect moving forward.

Successfully rewriting one-fifth of the economy will take time, but I assure you the House will eventually have the votes needed to pass a viable healthcare bill, probably in 2017. They don’t want to be unemployed the next election cycle. Subsequently, it will move on to the Senate, where it could be further amended.

But Republican Senators lack the 60 votes needed to pass any sort of healthcare legislation, no matter how good it is. They must resort to a process known as “reconciliation,” which requires only a majority vote and negates a Democrat filibuster. This is the legislative procedure Democrats used to pass portions of Obamacare.

An additional hurdle the GOP must clear is the “Byrd Rule,” named after our beloved Robert C. Byrd. As part of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, the Byrd Rule states that reconciliation can only be used on legislation that impacts the federal deficit.

Now, clearly this is budgetary in nature, but if it rises to the level of debate in the Senate that I expect, the presiding officer of the Senate, the vice president of the United States, has the final word on what’s permissible on reconciliation and what’s not.

So, despite liberal Democrats presenting this as an Obamacare victory, it necessarily delayed the inevitable.

As part of making America great again, Donald Trump will ensure every American has access to affordable healthcare.

Just as he promised.

Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.

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Doug Smith: The Loyal Opposition?

27 Mar

doug-for-fsp

Doug Smith: Author, historian and political, historical and social editor for Free State Patriot.

 

March 27, 2017

 

That is what the party out of power is supposed to be. However, that is not what the current Democrat party will be, ever. But more on that later. The Dems and the Left will only oppose Trump in the most vicious, “un” Democratic way possible.

The Loyal Opposition from come from within the President’s own party. The Freedom Caucus. The Heritage Foundation.

Me.

So, here goes. No, Mr. President, the Freedom Caucus was not to blame for the failure of the Ryan Health Care bill to get the required votes. But they did help, and for that, kudos to them.

The Democrats, as you should know (you are not stupid, but impulsive in the extreme, and for God’s sake give your phone to Reince Preibus and enough with the 2 am tweets!) will never support anything you say or do. You never were going to get any vote to touch a hair on the head of Obamacare, or Planned Parenthood from the Left side of the aisle. Well, maybe Joe Manchin, but he is fighting for survival in a WV that is getting redder every day. And he doesn’t want to come back to Morgantown and practice law.

But I think you already knew all this, and so did Paul Ryan.

Not everything is the art of the deal. There is also the value of rigorous honesty.

Paul Ryan seems, from one perspective, to be angling for the GOP to repeat a hat trick they have done successfully over and over. We need more!

Give us the House, and we will repeal Obamacare.  So, the get the House. Then, to avoid a government shutdown caused by Obama and Reid, but blamed in the press on the GOP (have you figured this out yet? EVERYTHING is going to be the fault of you and the GOP. Get used to it, and just do the right, and smart, thing.)  the GOP House caved on funding, where they did have power, then voted for a “clean bill” to repeal, and sent it to the Senate, where they did not have power, to die.

Lather, rinse, repeat. Give us the Senate.

We did.

Same routine.

Give us the White House.

We did, well, sort of. You are not what the GOP had in mind, and it is somewhat amusing to find them in this state.

But as we got closer over the last 6 years to giving the GOP everything relating to power in DC, a curious rot has set in. We need to repeal it, root and branch, thundered Mitch McConnell. We need to fix the parts that are broken, whimpered Jeb Bush, with all the passion of an artichoke.

Huh?

We need to repeal and replace it, as we have been promising the American people, sang the GOP in DC, in 216-part harmony. Wait a minute, now, just wait one doggone minute. What is this, trying for a soft landing.

It just doesn’t work like that. You sign a contract, or make a promise, and then as it gets close to time to deliver, you start to change the words, and alter the terms.  You start to wax eloquent about the terms of the deal that only you are party to, and how you feel obligated to keep that promise.

And you know what?  The folks who were promised a Mercedes, and now hear about the Prius you say you promised them, are going to feel betrayed, and suspicious. We are also going to wonder, if you didn’t keep the first promise, why would we expect you to keep the second one when the going gets tough?

We need to fix the parts that are broken? Yes. And it is all broken. As any big government takeover of a business necessarily will become. The bigger, the worse, and quicker it will break.

One argument is the phased repeal: keep Obamacare in place for a while so Secretary Price can reverse the many discretionary rules and changes of Secretary Sibelius.

Anyone see the problems there? Anyone? Beuhler?

Ok, first, if that is what the GOP, or you, Mr. President, want to do, Secretary Price is in office right now. He can busily spend his day reversing every move that Kathleen Sibelius took to try and prop up Obamacare, including eliminating the Cornhusker Kickback, and have it done right now. He has a staff. They can pull up every move she made and right a simple change: this is eliminated, and Tom Price can sign it.

Secondly, and one of the major flaws of Obamacare: what the Secretary giveth the Secretary, or a future one, can take. The law is so nebulous the Secretary of HHS can do whatever they want at any time. Forever. Uncertainty is deadly for a business. And this provision inserts it into the entire industry.

So, use the power you inherited now (after all, if you don’t, why would we think you will after the next bill is passed?)  and do it.

Secondly, it has not been that long since we had an administration and Congress force feed us a bill in record time, without giving a clear picture of what was in it. Pelosi s famous “We have to pass the bill, to see what’s in the bill. “You did, we have, and we don’t like it. Furthermore, we don’t want bills passed like that again.
A lesson for you from Obama, one which he did not learn: POTUS is not a king, and must often persuade and negotiate, rather than rule, bully, and bluster.

You and Ryan have told us this is the best you get. Ignore the previous promises, just be grateful we are giving you something. We are at a crisis, and if you don’t pass it right now (this sounds so very much like 2009 all over again) the seas will rise, buildings will crumble, and you will be stuck with Obamacare till it crashes and burns, and we will blame it on the Democrats, and any of you, our own folks, who did not go along.

But that is not going to work this time. The common sense, conservative core of the Republican voting base has been lied to by our leadership far too many times to let it happen again without consequences. You, Mr. President, are one of those consequences, and the reasons Jeb or Marco are not planning the Easter Egg hunt.

Ryan is playing by the old boy rules. He is trying to craft a bill which would pass the old Senate rules. But of course, Harry Reid blew up long standing convention, so all bets are off in that august body.  And if anything, his first bill should be WAY over to the other side, leaving room to negotiate back to the center. You never make a deal by starting out with all you want and saying That’s it, no negotiating.

Have you ever read “The Art of the Deal, “by Donald Trump?

If the GOP passes, and you sign, a bill which leaves most of Obamacare intact and just paints the walls in a house on fire, the folks who voted for you, and them, will feel, correctly, that they have been betrayed.

The Democrats were and are never going to support anything you do. The loyal opposition is not going to chant your name and give you a rubber stamp. We are going to support you when you are right (well done with Gorsuch and extreme vetting, nice start with the EPA) and when you are wrong, let you know.

The last real journalist I can remember speaking the truth to power when it came to POTUS was Sam Donaldson. He did a nice job of keeping Carter and Reagan’s feet to the fire.  I can still hear him now.

Hold On, Mr. President.

That is the title of HIS book. It might be good reading for you, Mr. President. At 2 am. Instead of tweeting.

As I’m sure you have discovered, you are sitting in the hottest seat around.  There are some of us around who will loyally support you, but still hold your feet to the fire when your misstep and try to urge you back on the right path.

I expect you will make missteps. You are human, after all.  Smart humans learn from their mistakes and don’t repeat them. That is my hope for you.

So, to summarize, here, from the loyal opposition, Hold On, Mr. President.

That is not what we sent you there to do. Take a breath. Have a steak, well done, with ketchup, and try again.

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Mark Caserta: Democrats’ chickens have come home to roost

13 Jan

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Mark Caserta: Free State Patriot editor

  • 1.13.2017

Like it or not, President Obama’s signature healthcare plan is living on borrowed time.

Obamacare will be repealed and replaced by the Trump administration, honorable members of the GOP and possibly as many as 10 Senatorial members of the Democrat Party up for re-election in 2018.

Expectedly, progressive pundits are already “building a wall” around any such Republican initiative. Some have unofficially labeled any GOP plan as “Trumpcare,” even though the official Republican plan isn’t yet on the table.

I’ve even heard House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and others attempt to pervert Trump’s campaign phrase, “Make America great again” into “Make America sick again.”

Liberals are so creative.

Frankly, the name “Obamacare” had nothing to do with the healthcare plan’s implosion. President Obama actually became quite fond of the moniker and often said so during his presidency. I believe he envisioned the name enshrined in his presidential legacy.

And so, it will, but more like an eulogy than a legacy.

Obamacare failed because it was a poorly planned initiative based on an unsustainable foundation of political deceit of the American people. And it’s preparing to go down as one of the single largest, most embarrassing failures of any presidential administration.

And remember, Democrats alone are to blame for this “repeal and replace” mandate voters have given President-elect Trump and the GOP-led 115th Congress. While the 2016 presidential election was clearly a referendum on Obama’s multiple failed policies, his healthcare plan was right at the top of the list for consideration.

And as far as “making America sick again,” Americans couldn’t be any sicker than they are now of the deception and economic foolhardiness the Obama administration employed in attempting to fundamentally change our country to align with the president’s apparent rancorous view of the United States.

For perspective, let’s “metamorphically” go where no liberal has gone before and reminisce how Democrats passed Obamacare.

During Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, he repeatedly (eight times per a 2010 New York Post column by Clemente Lisi) promised that health care negotiations “will be on C-SPAN” and “the public will be part of the conversation and will see the choices being made.”

Never happened.

In March 2010, then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said of the Affordable Care Act, “But we have to pass the bill, so you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of controversy.”

 Voters surely paid for this sort of dereliction of duty.

In 2013, Obama gave us the “PolitiFact ‘Lie of the Year'” when he made his healthcare promise to Americans, “If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it.”

And maybe the “crme de la crme” denoting the progressive path of prevarication enabling passage of Obamacare happened when, in 2014, the so-called “architect” of the federal healthcare law said the “lack of transparency” and the “stupidity of the American voter” helped Congress approve Obamacare.

The disregard Democrats have shown for the American people is flabbergasting!

Allow me to borrow a familiar idiom.

“Democrat’s chickens have come home to roost.”

Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.

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Doug Smith: Obama, “Elections have consequences.” Now, it’s up to the GOP to provide one for Obamacare!

27 Nov

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Doug Smith:  Author, historian, patriot and lead contributor to FSP.

 

What a chuckle!

Have you listened to the pundits, press, Democrats, and most especially Obama offering sage advice to Trump and the (GOP majority) Congress on how tough it might be to repeal Obamacare?  And what a political price they might pay for doing so? And how they cannot just repeal it, they MUST have a viable replacement.

Well, just for fun, while I am busy laughing at the pundits, press, Democrats, and Obama, all of whom were so wrong about all of 2016 s politics, let’s examine those claims.

 

  1. In 2008, the Democrat Majority Congress pushed bills through without any input from the GOP at all. When it came down to it, and even with their majorities, the death of Ted Kennedy left the final vote to overcome a filibuster, Massachusetts, (Massachusetts!) elected Scott Brown, a Republican to succeed a Kennedy in Mass., solely on his promise to be the vote that killed Obamacare.
  2. When it became obvious the majority of Americans did not want the bill passed after that loss, the Democrats resorted to a fast one: approving a Senate version not yet reconciled with the House, and therefore not constitutionally sound, as all bills involving spending must originate in the House. No matter, in order to get something the Senate had voted for, Harry Reid took a non-related bill, and cut and pasted the entire text of the bill into it, even though that had never been approved by both houses, and sent it to Obama.  Obama, desperate to pass anything, signed it.
  3. Think the loss of the “Kennedy” seat was bad? Since the passage of Obamacare, the Democrats have lost 13 Senate seats (and control of the Senate), 69 House seats (and control of the House) 12 Governors, 900 state legislative seats (leaving them with only 5 states under Democrat control.) Indeed, in my own state of WV, we have a GOP controlled legislature for the 1st time in 80 years, and in my neighboring state of KY, the GOP controls all three for the first time since Harding (R) was President.
  4. Obamacare, despite some who are fans because they benefitted from it, has remained overwhelmingly the most unpopular law in US history; never enjoying majority support. Most Democrats refuse to run for office on its merits, and Republicans do well running on a promise to repeal it. (More on that below.)
  5. Obamacare mandates by law that everyone sign up, but cannot even yet, after 6 years, meet its enrollment goals.
  6. Has broken promise after promise, keep your Doctor, keep your plan, lower your premiums,
  7. Obamacare has cost jobs and hurt business competitiveness in the most anemic “recovery” in US history. Medical device manufacturers were hit with an extra tax just to help pay for it, which cost jobs. Employers who saw the trip points which would make them participate avoided expansion and did not hire people they otherwise would have.  Many saw their jobs become part time because the alternative to 39 hour employees was to go broke and have no employees.
  8. Now, as to the Grand Old Party, after 6 years of promise after promise to “repeal it, root and branch, “followed time after time by caving when they had the leverage, the passing “sure to be vetoed” bills which were rendered meaningless, and without risk, they saw the result in 2015 in the person of Donald Trump. (Ted Cruz could be included in that revolt against the status quo and the lies and broken promises of the GOP leadership with respect to Obama, but Trump won, so he makes the point)

 

So, let me see. The political cost of supporting Obama and Obamacare has been a decimated Democrat party, reduced to a powerlessness not seen since the Roaring Twenties.

The political cost of waffling on fighting Obamacare has been the Tea Party, anti-establishment insurrection within the GOP.  Ask John Boehner and Eric Cantor if that mattered.

The cost to Donald Trump of opposing Obama s agenda, including Obamacare, which he promised to repeal, was being elected President.

All things considered, if I am President Trump and the GOP, I must say, along with Brer Rabbit, “Throw me in that briar patch!”

Repeal it! On day one, and pay the cost. The record of the last 6 years suggests that “price” will be veto proof majorities in both houses of Congress in 2019.

As for the ridiculous claim that because the Democrats unilaterally, and against the will of the electorate, forced through Obamacare, it is incumbent on the GOP to come up with an alternative plan before they can repeal it, nonsense!

As Dr. Ben Carson noted “”Everything that these programs were supposed to fix has gotten worse,”.  If a vandal breaks your window, you don’t have to get a replacement window before you patch the hole with plastic or plywood or whatever you have at hand.

The Dems and Obama were in such a hurry to achieve their decades long dream of controlling healthcare that they rammed the most flawed bill in history through to law. There may have been gaps in the greatest healthcare system in the world in 2008, and improvements that could be made. But the Premier of Newfoundland, Canada, (with socialized medicine) did not fly to Cuba (with socialized medicine that Obama touts as an example) to get heart surgery.

As Premier Danny Williams said ““I did not sign away my right to get the best possible health care for myself when I entered politics.”  So, he flew to Mt. Sinai in Miami, to be treated on his own dime, by an American cardiac surgeon.

Well, he said a mouthful, didn’t he?

Obama and crew broke it, big time. We don’t have to go back and fix what was wrong then before we clean up the mess that they made.

Repeal the turkey.

Then take an unrushed, and less secretive and coerced look at what improvements can be made. Then watch things get better as markets take over; employment improves, and work on fixing what is broken, not scrapping everything in a system 90% excellent in a vain quest for that final 10%.

But, just as it was rammed down our throats, forget the filibuster, unless you have Joe Manchin and a bevy of Dems who are not anxious to be the next to fall on the Obama/Clinton sword.

They rammed it through on budget reconciliation, with a simple majority, and told us to like it, it was law. They told us we would like it once we knew what was in it.

They were wrong. We know it. And we don’t like it. It has been a huge budget buster.

So, reconcile it out of existence, and tell them to learn to like it.

Or tell them elections have consequences, we won, deal with it.

 

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Mark Caserta: Obama’s health care plan is falling apart

5 Sep

Americans have been bamboozled!

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Mark Caserta: Free State Patriot Editor

  • Sep 2, 2016

President Obama’s signature healthcare law is collapsing beneath its own weight.

Major insurers across the country are saying the law has been too great of a financial drain on them and coverages promised by Obamacare are simply unsustainable.

An April column by Peter Sullivan in “The Hill” reports the nation’s largest health insurer, UnitedHealth, recently announced it will be pulling out in all but a “handful” of states in 2017 because of financial losses under Obamacare.

An NPR “Health News” column this month by Alison Kodjak announced that in 2017 the insurance giant Aetna will “stop selling health insurance through most of the exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act because the company is losing money.”

A July “Politico” column by Sarah Karlin-Smith reported the huge insurance provider Humana will “stop marketing Obamacare exchange plans in several states next year and will exit many off-exchange individual markets as well.”

Obamacare isn’t working.

And this is only the beginning. Reportedly, other insurers such as Blue Cross Blue Shield are contemplating pulling back some of their Obamacare plans.

The news isn’t much better for folks with coverage in the remaining markets.

A June Associated Press health release on NBC News online disclosed that millions of people will “face the sting” of rising premiums next year, with no government subsidies.

According to the release, Blue Cross Blue Shield would be seeking an average premium increase of nearly 60 percent for 2017 in some markets! Available data show the premium increases could easily hit the double-digit mark for many Americans.

Simply put, Americans have been bamboozled.

Many recall Barack Obama’s famous 2013 Politifact “Lie of the Year”: “If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it.”

And then there was Obama’s 2007 campaign promise that he would sign a universal healthcare bill into law that will “cover every American and cut the cost of a typical family’s premium by up to $2,500 a year.”

And possibly the “creme de la creme” came in 2013 when the “architect” of Obamacare, Jonathan Gruber, said that a “lack of transparency” and the “stupidity of the American voter” helped Congress approve Obamacare.

In a clip of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor appearing on a panel to discuss how the bill earned enough votes to pass, Gruber revealed the plan.

“Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage,” Gruber said. “And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical for the thing to pass.”

Gruber went on to say the law was “written in a tortured way” to avoid a bad score from the Congressional Budget Office.

So to partially quote Obama’s longtime pastor and friend, Jeremiah Wright, the president’s “chickens are coming home to roost.”

Obamacare has missed the mark in healthcare coverage. It’s also cost jobs and marred a large portion of our economy. Yet liberals like Hillary Clinton still support it.

The November election is our last chance to repeal Obamacare.

And then work toward a real healthcare solution.

 

Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.

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Mark Caserta: Consider impact of Obamacare when voting

7 May

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Mark Caserta: Free State Patriot Editor

  • May 6, 2016

As many of us are busy “revving our mental motors” to pick the most qualified 2016 presidential candidate, it’s time to revisit the impact of the largest form of socialist redistribution ever to be thrust upon the American people, as well as who supports keeping it.

 

Let’s begin with broken promises of Obamacare.

 

Remember when Barack Obama repeatedly told Americans, “If you like your healthcare plan, you’ll be able to keep your healthcare plan – period”?

In what Politifact called “The Lie of the Year,” Obama began perpetrating this canard upon the American people as early as 2009 to facilitate passage of his signature healthcare law. Millions of Americans have since lost their policies and have been forced to purchase another plan at an increased cost.

 

But for liberals, the end justifies the means.

 

During the 2008 campaign and healthcare reform debate in 2009, Obama repeatedly promised that under his administration, the typical American family would see their health insurance premiums decrease by up to $2,500 per year.

 

The reality is most Americans will see their premiums increase. According to multiple sources, including CNN Money, Obamacare premiums will increase an average of 7.5 percent for the benchmark silver insurance plan next year in the 37 states using the federal exchange, based on Department of Health and Human Services estimations.

 

Also during his 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama told Americans of his proposed healthcare plan, “I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”

 

Isn’t it amazing Obama’s lies don’t matter to liberals?

 

As the Supreme Court ultimately ruled, the Obamacare Individual mandate is in itself a “tax” requiring individual workers to purchase health insurance even if they don’t want it! This mandate is critical for Obamacare’s viability as it must “take” from younger, healthier enrollees and “give” to clients with higher rates of claims.

 

But Obamacare’s impact is far-reaching.

 

The 40-hour work week is rapidly disappearing as businesses re-tool, re-staff and reschedule to stay under the Obamacare radar.

 

As part of the employer mandate, beginning in 2015, employers with 50 or more “full-time equivalent” employees were required to provide health insurance coverage for employees averaging 30 hours per week over the course of a month.

 

This job-killing mandate has discouraged employers from hiring above the 50-employee level and from scheduling employees 30 hours. As a result, employers are forced to demand more production from existing staff while many retail and service employees are having to work a second or third job simply to survive.

Remarkably, the government touts these as “jobs created” in their progressive world of Obamanomics.

 

But the thousands of families trying to make ends meet know the difference.

 

Now, Hillary Clinton wants to expand Obamacare if she’s elected president.

 

How will furthering this health debacle impact our nation long term?

 

I suggest you consider that question when you go to the polls.

Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.

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Mark Caserta: Budget deal outlines repeal of Obamacare

7 May

This isn’t a settled deal…if the GOP keeps their promise.

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Mark Caserta:  Editor, Free State Patriot

May. 07, 2015 @ 12:01 AM
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For the first time since 2009, both chambers of Congress have reached an agreement on a combined budget, setting the stage for financially curbing critical components of President Obama’s liberal agenda – including Obamacare.

Last week a budget proposal was agreed upon which would boost military spending while outlining a path to end deficits over the coming decade by cutting some $5 trillion in spending. And, to the chagrin of many Democrats, the budget does not include any additional taxes on the American people.

Additionally, this budget resolution would unlock a procedural tool that Republicans say they will use to send the White House a repeal of Obamacare. The process known as “reconciliation” allows legislation to pass Congress with a simple majority. Some may recall in 2009, Democrats wrote into its budget rules that they could use the reconciliation maneuver to pass the president’s healthcare reform bill. At that time, many warned this could come back to bite Democrats should they lose power in Congress, so it only seems poetic justice that the process be used to begin the repealing and replacing of Obamacare.

Yes, President Obama still wields the veto pen, but the case for moving forward on Obamacare’s repeal is still very straightforward. Nearly every poll shows that most Americans dislike the law and want more freedom in their health insurance choices. A recent Rasmussen Poll shows that 54 percent of likely U.S. voters view the national health care law unfavorably while 37 percent have a “very” unfavorable opinion of it.

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For many voters, ridding our country of this healthcare abomination will be a litmus test for a presidential candidate. Astute voters realize the GOP does not yet have a veto-proof majority in Congress. Forcing a presidential veto of a bill repealing Obamacare will force every 2016 presidential candidate to respond as to whether they would have signed or vetoed a similar bill.

Politically speaking, the process of drafting and passing the reconciliation measure through both chambers will serve as an effective trial run, and affirm the GOP-controlled Congress’s commitment to sending a bill repealing Obamacare to the president’s desk in 2017. This will ensure that every insurance company or industry with a vested interest in the Affordable Care Act realize the law remains very unsettled rendering them less likely to make changes permanently embedding the job-killing law into our lives.

The leveraging of reconciliation also will prompt the GOP to offer a viable healthcare alternative which no doubt will impact the pending Supreme Court’s ruling on whether to strike down subsidies received by millions of Americans who purchased health insurance through a federally run exchange. Such a decision would dramatically increase the cost for many potential 2016 voters and further fan the flames of discontent.

Five years into this healthcare debacle, Americans are still learning of its adverse impact on their lives. And frankly, it’s a huge reason we have a GOP majority in Congress.

Republicans must pass this budget and follow through with their pledge to the American people to repeal and replace Obamacare.

Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.

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Mark Caserta: Tax storm brewing over Obamacare

5 Feb

And it’s heading our direction…

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An FSP editorial

Feb. 05, 2015 @ 12:01 AM

The 2015 tax filing season will predictably leave a very sour taste in the mouths of millions of unsuspecting taxpayers.

The New York Times reported over the weekend that Obama administration officials are scrambling to avoid a “political firestorm” resulting from the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act. Largely due to the opaque nature of the Obamacare rollout, many people still seem not to realize the individual mandate of the ACA forces everyone to purchase a government approved health care plan, even if you don’t want it, or be fined by the IRS.

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The penalties, approaching 1 percent of income for some households, are supposed to be paid with income taxes due April 15. Additionally, many people with subsidized coverage purchased through the new public insurance exchanges will need to repay some of the subsidies because they received more than they were entitled. Most people reportedly chose to have their subsidies paid in advance, based on projected income for 2014. If their actual income proves to be higher, due to a raise or a new job, they will be entitled to a smaller subsidy and must repay the difference.

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“If the advanced premium tax credit amount is too high, the taxpayer could have an unwelcome surprise and owe money,” said Nina E. Olson, the national taxpayer advocate at the Internal Revenue Service.

It seems that many people awarded insurance subsidies for 2014 didn’t realize the amount would be reviewed and recalculated at tax time in 2015. Go figure.

An estimated six million taxpayers will have to pay a fine this year because they chose “not” to obtain healthcare coverage in 2014. So understandably, the expectation for taxpayer questions is very high. But with budget cuts within the IRS, available support may be scarce.

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“The IRS is unlikely to answer even half the telephone calls it receives,” Olson added. “Taxpayers who manage to get through are expected to wait on hold for 30 minutes on average and considerably longer at peak times.”

Hardest hit in this healthcare horror are young healthy adults in their 20s or 30s who are being asked to shoulder the brunt of the costs to effectively subsidize the healthcare of older Americans. Those opting to remain uninsured will be subject to a penalty for each month they lacked coverage.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, roughly one million low-income Americans will pay a fine under Obamacare. So as with many young adults, not only will they not have healthcare, Barack Obama will still require them to shoulder some financial responsibility through a levied fine.

So, what do we have to show for this traumatization of nearly 20 percent of our economy? Based on the experts’ numbers, about 22 percent fewer Americans are now uninsured, at an estimated cost per person of around $50,000, based on a recent 10-year cost estimate by the CBO.

Yes, the Obama administration has certainly demonstrated some “shrewd” business tactics.

Regardless, many taxpayers are in for a rude awakening very soon. And this storm is still brewing.

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Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.

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Obamacare program costs $50,000 in taxpayer money for every American who gets health insurance, says bombshell budget report

26 Jan

It would have been cheaper just to purchase healthcare for those who didn’t have it…

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See the facts:

  • Stunning figure comes from Congressional Budget Office report that revised cost estimates for the next 10 years
  • Government will spend $1.993 TRILLION over a decade and take in $643 BILLION in new taxes, penalties and fees related to Obamacare
  • The $1.35 trillion net cost will result in ‘between 24 million and 27 million’ fewer Americans being uninsured – a $50,000 price tag per person at best
  • The law will still leave ‘between 29 million and 31 million’ nonelderly Americans without medical insurance
  • Numbers assume Obamacare insurance exchange enrollment will double between now and 2025 

obamacare 3 years later

It will cost the federal government – taxpayers, that is – $50,000 for every person who gets health insurance under the Obamacare law, the Congressional Budget Office revealed on Monday.

The number comes from figures buried in a 15-page section of the nonpartisan organization’s new ten-year budget outlook.

The best-case scenario described by the CBO would result in ‘between 24 million and 27 million’ fewer Americans being uninsured in 2025, compared to the year before the Affordable Care Act took effect.

Pulling that off will cost Uncle Sam about $1.35 trillion – or $50,000 per head.

THE $2 TRILLION DOLLAR MAN: President Barack Obama was in India on Monday when the Congressional Budget Office reported the federal government’s gross costs for a decade of Obamacare will be $1.993 trillion

PROMISES: Obama pledged in 2009 during a speech before a joint session of Congress that his health insurance proposal would cost $900 billion over ten years – a far cry short of current numbers

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The numbers are daunting: It will take $1.993 trillion, a number that looks like $1,993,000,000,000, to provide insurance subsidies to poor and middle-class Americans, and to pay for a massive expansion of Medicaid and CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) costs.

Offsetting that massive outlay will be $643 billion in new taxes, penalties and fees related to the Obamacare law.

That revenue includes quickly escalating penalties – or ‘taxes,’ as the U.S. Supreme Court described them – on people who resist Washington’s command to buy medical insurance.

It also includes income from a controversial medical device tax, which some Republicans predict will be eliminated in the next two years.

If they’re right, Obamacare’s per-person cost would be even higher.

OBAMA AT PRESS BRIEFING

President Barack Obama pledged to members of Congress in 2009, as his signature insurance overhaul law was being hotly debated, that ‘the plan I’m proposing will cost around $900 billion over 10 years.’

It would be a significant discount if the White House could return to that number today.

Obama in ’09: Obamacare won’t add one dime to deficit

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PRICEY: The federal government will spend $50,000 for each person recruited to buy insurance or neroll in free Medicaid through the Obamacare exchanges

In that same speech, Obama claimed that there were ‘more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage.’

$900 billion spent on those people would equate to no more than $30,000 each – less than two-thirds of what the CBO now says the program will cost when the dust settles.

The CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation, a group of members from both houses of Congress, prepared Monday’s report on the overall direction of the federal budget.

They estimated that ‘the net costs of the coverage provisions of the ACA [Affordable Care Act] will rise sharply as the effects of the act phase in from 2015 through 2017.’

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Those costs will ‘rise steadily through 2022′ before leveling off for three years, the groups’ economists determined. But even at that point, the Obamacare program will cost the governemnt ‘about $145 billion’ each year.

That number doesn’t include the insurance premiums and out-of-pocket health care costs paid by Americans – only the government’s role in implementing the law and paying for its guarantees.

And the law will still leave ‘between 29 million and 31 million’ nonelderly Americans without medical insurance, says the CBO.

CBO January 2015 Outlook on Obamacare uploaded by DailyMail.com

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