Posted on 06/26/2015 9:43:41 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Greg Sargent warns Democrats not to get complacent about Obamacare:
House Republicans are still forging ahead with a separate lawsuit against Obama over the law (though it may not be resolved for years). Conservatives like Ted Cruz are still calling for holding spending bills hostage to roll back the ACA. GOP presidential hopefuls Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Bobby Jindal, and Cruz are all pledging to keep up the fight to repeal Obamacare — “every single word,” as Cruz puts it.
....Democrats should take continued GOP opposition to Obamacare very seriously. It has serious real-world consequences. As long as states hold out against the Medicaid expansion, it could slow the law’s efforts to realize its goal of expanding coverage. One thing this means is that Democrats should redouble their efforts to regain electoral ground on the level of the states, where future decisions about the Medicaid expansion will be made.
When Obama won the 2012 election, I figured Obamacare was finally safe. Except....there was still the Supreme Court. But they mostly upheld Obamacare, and once again I thought it was finally safe. Whew. Still, Republicans kept fighting. And things were still dicey as long as Obamacare was still vaporware. Then it finally went into effect in 2014, and disastrous rollout or not, I figured that was it. Once it's actually helping millions of people, it's safe. But wait! Then there was another Supreme Court case. But that dropped this week, and Obamacare was once again upheld.
So now Obamacare is finally safe, right? You'd think so, wouldn't you? But Republicans are obsessed with Obamacare like no other law that's been passed in decades. It's kind of scary, the same way it was scary watching the unhinged Captain Ahab stumping around the Pequod. So no, Obamacare is still not safe. Not unless Democrats win at least the White House, and maybe both the White House and the Senate, in 2016. At that point, Republicans will finally have to give up. They'd have no plausible path to repeal, and by 2020 the law would have been in place for seven years; it would be covering upwards of 25 million people; and the health care industry would be so plugged into Obamacare's rules that it would literally take years to extricate them if the law was repealed.
It sounds bizarre—not least of all to me, who badly underestimated how long Republicans could stay maniacally fixated on Obamacare—but it won't truly be safe until and unless Democrats win in 2016. I sure hope Democrats figure this out. If you want to know what we're up against, use Kevin's Quick Zeitgeist Test. Type "Obamacare" into Google and then go to image view. Here's the URL:
https://www.google.com/search?lr=&cr=&safe=images&gws_rd=ssl&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&q=obamacare&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=-HSNVfnbNMLFggSu7YbIAw
Now do a quick count of pro vs. anti Obamacare images in, say, the top 50 results. Not counting neutral photos, I put it at about 10:1 for the haters. These guys aren't giving up. Those of who support Obamacare had better show a similar level of passion for keeping it around.
Fear Mongering. He is NOT the one they hate and fear most, but the least.
They keep insisting because that is who they want the nominee to be. They will convince many that he is the most conservative, thus - in theory - get him nominated.
IOW, in their minds, Cruz is the least conservative of the bunch, so he is the one they fear monger with.
Yes, it’s all so clear to me now. LOL
Actually, I don’t think so. I think it will be the collapse of the economy that will kill it.
Probably us with it as well.
I don't have the intestinal fortitude to read their $h!t. I would have a coronary if I read this crap all the time. Let someone else read it and tell me where to point the armaments.
But wait, I thought there was 40 million uninsured Obamacare was supposed to be saving. By 2020 we'll only be up to (maybe, but not likely) 25 million?!!?
And it will be replaced with single payer.
Our local newspaper keeps telling Republicans they need to stop trying to repeal and help make the law better. First off, the democrats wrote this terrible law and they own it.
Second, republicans haven’t tried to repeal Obamacare. Boehner and McConnel have funded Obamacare, and everything else Obama wants, anyway.
No, I don’t think anything that makes any sense whatsoever has any chance of happening now. We are going to be deluged with insanity and anyone who points out the insanity will be called racist, hater, kook, redneck, etc, etc.
That IS reality.
They can call it whatever they want. It’s still looting and reality doesn’t tolerate it for long.
I’d call it socialism- ‘redistributing’ (stealing) earnings
IRS Watchdog: $67 Million Missing from One of The Obamacare Slush Funds
ATR ^ | 9/25/13 | John Kartch / FT Posted by Libloather
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The IRS is unable to account for $67 million spent from a slush fund established for Obamacare implementation, according to a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) report released today.
The “Health Insurance Reform Implementation Fund” (HIRIF) was tucked into Obamacare in order to give the IRS money to enforce the tax provisions of the healthcare law. The fund, totaling some $1 billion of taxpayer money, was used to roll out enforcement mechanisms for the approximately 50 tax provisions of Obamacare.
According to the report: “Specifically, the IRS did not account for or attempt to quantify approximately $67 million [from the slush fund] of indirect ACA costs incurred for Fiscal Years 2010 through 2012.” The report also found several other abuses of taxpayer funds, including.....(Excerpt) Read more at atr.org ...
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O/Care passed by an historic Democrat party-line vote w/ a massive, multi-billion-dollar slush fund that was deliberately kept hidden from us "stupid taxpayers" by self-serving Grubercrats.
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Egged on by Pelosi, Democrats slavishly voted for Obamacare by an historic straignt-party line vote.
BACKSTORY In the fall of 2009, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was trying to get the necessary 60 Dimocrat votes to pass the Affordable Care Act. He needed every Dim on board, which gave waffling senators a great deal of leverage. In Landrieu's case, she connivingly saw that selling her aye vote could get her maybe $200 million federal dollars. Obama complied. Reid chalked up another vote for Obamacare----not the measly $200 million but $4.3 billon was attached to the Obamacare bill earmarked for Landrieu.
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How $4.3 billion to Landrieu was calculatedly attached to the Obamacare bill, and how Obama and Reid (cough) "failed to catch and fix it," is yet another indictment of the Obamacare atrocity.
The $4.3 billion handoff to Landrieu should be investigated as an indication of how EVERY Democrat came to vote for Obamacare....and how tax dollars were laundered to get lock-stepping Democrats' votes.
FBI TIPS PAGE https://tips.fbi.gov
Cont below
The Untraceable $8 Billion ObamaCare PR Budget---truly govt fraud at its finest.
O/Care is a huge money-laundering operation---everybody got a cut. From F/L Michelle and her pal who made zillions botching the rollout web site using a phony company---all the way to Obama admin insiders...Jonathan Gruber, and of, course, salivating Dumbocrats.
Not one Democrat told Americans about Obamacare's Section 4002---which mandates an $8B untraceable fund to "promote" Obamacare (apparently b/c Boobamba had so little confidence in his signature legislation).
THE PAYOFF--WHO GOT THE MONEY? In 2010 Taxpayers are extorted $500 million, in 2011, $750 million, 2012, $1 billion, 2013, $1.25 billion, 2014, $1.5 billion, and, in 2015 and on, $2 billion
<><> Where is all that money going?
<><> Was cashing-in the incentive in getting the thing passed?
The sound of West Wing wire-transfers to states and to offshore banks is almost palpable.
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REFERENCE--ACA SEC. 4002. PREVENTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH FUND.
(a) PURPOSE. It is the purpose of this section of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) to establish a Prevention and Public Health Fund (referred to in this section as the ‘‘Fund’’), to be administered through the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Secretary, to provide for expanded and sustained national investment in prevention and public health programs to improve health and help restrain the rate of growth in private and public sector health care costs.
(b) FUNDING.—There are hereby authorized to be appropriated, and appropriated, to the Fund, out of any monies in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated—
(1) for fiscal year 2010, $500,000,000;
(2) for fiscal year 2011, $750,000,000;
(3) for fiscal year 2012, $1,000,000,000;
(4) for fiscal year 2013, $1,250,000,000;
(5) for fiscal year 2014, $1,500,000,000; and
(6) for fiscal year 2015, and each fiscal year thereafter, $2,000,000,000.
(c) USE OF FUND.—The Secretary shall transfer amounts in the Fund to accounts within the Department of Health and Human Services to increase funding, over the fiscal year 2008 level, for programs authorized by the Public Health Service Act, for prevention, wellness, and public health activities including prevention research and health screenings, such as the Community Transformation grant program, the Education and Outreach Campaign for Preventive Benefits, and immunization programs.
(d) TRANSFER AUTHORITY.—The Committee on Appropriations of the Senate and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of may provide for the transfer of funds in the Fund to eligible activities under this section, subject to subsection (c).
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WHERE IS THE MONEY?
FBI TIPS PAGE https://tips.fbi.gov
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