Posted on 01/06/2016 8:04:56 AM PST by SeekAndFind
HOUSE SPEAKER Paul Ryan and other Republican congressional leaders are being pilloried by GOP activists for pushing through a $1.15 trillion spending bill laden with pork and a bewildering array of tax credits (including one for plug-in motorcycles). This junks up an already mind-numbingly complex tax code even more. "This is what we get from a Republican-controlled Congress?" they angrily ask.
Alas, with Barack Obama still in the White House, a divided GOP in the House (which gave Democrats bargaining leverage, since their votes were needed for passage) and the specter of a government shutdown if no bill was passed (a fight the GOP wouldn't win in the court of public opinion, given the fact that Congress is far more unpopular than the President), an ugly piece of legislation was unavoidable.
However, there are three gems in this legislative garbage dump.
One has been widely covered: Removing the four-decades-old ban on oil exports, a relic from an era when it was thought we were running out of the stuff because the price was going up so much. The rapid rise in petroleum prices wasn't a result of the Arab oil embargo-imposed because we supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War -- or of a looming oil shortage. It was a result of the weak dollar. We saw the same phenomenon in the early 2000s, when a weak greenback sent the price of oil from around $25 a barrel to over $100. Repealing this prohibition will help our beleaguered producers land new markets.
The second gem concerns the horrors of ObamaCare. The ban on subsidies for insurance companies that lose money on policies sold on the ObamaCare exchanges has been extended.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Three strokes of lipstick on the pig doesn’t change the pig.
A fourth gem, the 2 year moratorium on the Medical Device Excise tax. Big savings for my company.
Sorry the country had to pay such a high price for these gems.
Oh man, that makes it all okay then!
/s
I saw Ryan, interesting how he offers no opinion on Syrian refugees, vague on southern border.
It’s like three candy sprinkles on a manure sundae!
shoveling thru crap to find the pony
When I go to the link: Hi again. Looks like you’re still using an ad blocker. Please turn it off in order to continue into Forbes’ ad-light experience.
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Forbes just started this mess up in the last couple of weeks. I am not turning off my ad blocker. Too bad ... because I used to read a lot of stories at Forbes.
So very glad “the ban on subsidies for insurance companies that lose money on policies sold on the ObamaCare exchanges has been extended”. This is VERY damaging to Obamacare & saves the taxpayers billions in bailouts. No crocodile tears from me as the insurance companies, who sold their figurative souls to the devil, lose their shirts on Obamacare. Obamacare is collapsing from within (the business model absolutely does not work) & this will only hasten it.
The second gem concerns the horrors of ObamaCare. The ban on subsidies for insurance companies that lose money on policies sold on the ObamaCare exchanges has been extended. The start date for the Cadillac tax on “overly rich†health insurance plans has been postponed until 2020, and the medical device tax has been suspended for two years. These are a nice start to dismantling this monstrosity and replacing it with a system under which patients are truly in charge, not third-party payers–government, employers and insurers.
Big whoop. Big oil can export in return for big labor and the well-connected/unionized/public employees getting to keep their superior health insurance plans while the rest of us suffer with ObaMaoCare.
Sounds like a real big vote getter.
Ryan either needs to get rid of that damn beard or wear a turban.
dang! You posted my exact thought first!
“Three strokes of lipstick on the pig doesn’t change the pig.”
Steve and his pals save a few bucks. He doesn’t live in the same world the rest of us have been FORCED to live in. You nailed it!
bkmrk
Unfortunately the only way to get rid of Obamacare is to allow the suffering under it to increase as it goes into effect as designed. It’s the boil the frog analogy - increase the temperature too fast and the frog starts to hurt, hops out and escapes. Increase it slowly and by the time the frog realizes it’s about to die it’s too late to escape.
Adding band aid fixes to Obamacare slows down the pain and makes it harder to generate the support necessary to get rid of it. So Forbes is right here: the Obamacare provisions are a major long-term strategic win.
Question is, are they worth the shorter term tactical losses?
“conservative” leverage was accomplished only for the benefit of the oil companies and the country clubbers and they can’t figure out why we are angry. Treachery and duplicity will be repaid!
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