Happy Birthday ObamaCare - We Still Hate You!

Today ObamaCare is one year old. Just like the day it was spawned by Pelosi and Reid, America still hates it.

CNN: (CNN) – One year after President Barack Obama signed the health care reform bill into law, a new national poll indicates that attitudes toward the plan have not budged.

According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Wednesday, on the one year anniversary of the signing of the law, a majority continue to oppose the measure, but some of the opposition is from Americans who think the law is not liberal enough.

Thirty-seven percent of Americans support the measure, with 59 percent opposed. That's basically unchanged from last March, when 39 percent supported the law and 59 percent opposed the measure.[...]

There are two ways to look at the poll's overall numbers. One is that 59 percent oppose the law. The second is that if you add the 13 percent who oppose the law because it's not liberal enough to the 37 percent that support the law, you come up with 50 percent of the American people who disagree with the Republican leadership on the issue. The GOP gained control of the House and many state houses and legislatures in the November election on the basis, many experts said, of their strong opposition to what they said was "government controlled health care."

CNN's silly mental gymnastics trying to show that if ObamaCare was more liberal, more people would like it is a real stretch. While 13% said they hate the bill because it is not liberal enough, there is no guarantee that the 37% who support it now would continue to support a more liberal version. Nice try CNN, but no smoke.

It should come as no surprise that people still hate ObamaCare. The more time that goes by, the more nasty crap we find in the bill. Just recently we learned about the hidden $105 billion in bill. Nasty surprises like this will make sure ObamaCare is never popular.

Via: Memeorandum
Via: CNN
Via: Big Government

Oopsie! Kathleen Sebelius admits to double counting in ObamaCare

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was corned today by Republican Rep. John Shimkus of Illinois at the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee.  Shimkus pressed Sebelius hard on the double counting of the $500 billion in cuts from Medicare and Sebelius spilled the beans.

The Daily Caller: In her first appearance before the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee since the health-care law passed, Kathleen Sebelius responded to a line of questioning by Republican Rep. John Shimkus of Illinois about whether $500 billion in Medicare cuts were used to sustain the program or pay for the law.

“There is an issue here on the budget because your own actuary has said you can’t double-count,” said Shimkus. “You can’t count — they’re attacking Medicare on the CR when their bill, your law, cut $500 billion from Medicare.”

He continued: “Then you’re also using the same $500 billion to what? Say your funding health care. Your own actuary says you can’t do both. […] What’s the $500 billion in cuts for? Preserving Medicare or funding the health-care law?
Sebelius’ reply? “Both.”

What pisses me off about this is that we knew the Democrats were cooking the book before ObamaCare passed. We knew about the bogus assumption the Democrats fed the CBO. We knew about how Democrats passed the Doc Fix separately and we certainly knew about the double counting.  Had the media pressed Obama and the Democrats as hard as Rep. Shimkus pressed Sebelius, America would not be $500 billion more in the whole.  Instead our media went right along with the gag that ObamaCare would lower the deficit.


I wish Shimkus had a few more minutes to ask Sebelius exactly where in the hell America is suppose to get the extra $500 billion the Democrats tried to hide?


Should America end up flat on her back busted broke, we should not vent all of our wrath at the Democrats' reckless spending.  We should make sure to give some of that wrath to the Democrats' media lapdogs too.


Via: Memorandum
Via: The Daily Caller

Kiss of death? Paul Ryan - RomneyCare not that dissimilar to ObamaCare

In conservative circles when it comes to health care and the economy, Paul Ryan has gravitas. I may even go out on a limb and say he has more gravitas in these matters than Mitt Romney.

So when Paul Ryan says:

[...] “It’s not that dissimilar to Obamacare, and you probably know I’m not a big fan of Obamacare. I just don’t think the mandates work … all the regulation they’ve put on it.”

“I haven't studied in depth the status of it," he continued, "but I think it’s beginning to death spiral. They’re beginning to have to look at rationing decisions. I don’t think this health care system works. That’s why I’m a believer in a consumer-based medicine, in consumer-based patient-centered reforms health care reforms.”

It really is the kiss of death for Mitt Romney's hopes of getting past his RomneyCare problem.

Romney's defense of RomneyCare based on "states rights" really is an excuse to cover up a bad decision. If Romney was truly following conservative principles, he would have rejected ideas of RomneyCare for the same reasons as Ryan.

Ryan also gives some insights into what he is looking for in a president in 2012 and his own 2012 asperations. You can read about them at The Weekly Standard.

Via: Memeorandum
Via: The Weekly Standard

IRS: Buy health insurance or lose your tax refund

The Daily Caller: Individuals who don’t purchase health insurance may lose their tax refunds according to IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. After acknowledging the recently passed health-care bill limits the agency’s options for enforcing the individual mandate, Shulman told reporters that the most likely way to penalize individuals that don’t comply is by reducing or confiscating their tax refunds.

Speaking at the National Press Club on Monday, Shulman downplayed the IRS’s role in enforcing the recent overhaul of the health insurance industry by claiming the agency would not aggressively target individuals who don’t purchase coverage. He noted that the health-care bill expressly forbids the agency from freezing bank accounts, seizing assets or pursuing criminal charges, but when pressed said the IRS would most likely use tax refund offsets to penalize those that don’t comply with the mandate. The IRS uses refund offsets to collect from individuals that owe the federal government a delinquent debt.

“These are not the kinds of things we send agents out about,” Shulman said. “These are things where you get a letter from us. Congress was very careful to make sure there was nothing too punitive in this bill.” [...]

We all knew something like this would have to be the case. What better way to collect the penalty than to hold on to refunds?  When I read this article, I was immediately reminded of a debate Bill O’Reilly had with Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY).  Wiener tried his best not to say that the IRS would be the enforcer of the individual mandate. I wonder if Weiner would like to have another go at that answer?

  

Right now the IRS is saying that they are not aggressively going after people who fail to buy insurance. However, as the cost of ObamaCare explodes (the bogus assumptions given to the CBO makes this a certainty) who is to say the IRS won’t be given a freer hand get the much needed dollars to keep this insane program going.

Let’s just hope these state lawsuits are successful, because a nasty can of worms will be open once the IRS gets involved.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: The Daily Caller