Free Republic

They’re nervous. “We are becoming increasingly concerned about momentum that is quickly building among some leading conservatives for elimination of the risk corridor and reinsurance programs,” [Blue Cross Blue Shield Association CEO Scott] Serota wrote…“Their efforts, along with growing support for repealing the risk corridor and reinsurance programs, could combine to create a perfect storm to, at a minimum, dissuade the Administration from modifying risk corridor program rules to provide increased funding in light of the recent ‘transitional policy’ allowing insurers to offer consumers the option to renew their 2013 health plans for 2014,” Serota wrote.In attached talking points, seemingly...

Krauthammer: Insurance Companies Ruined By ObamaCare Will Need a Bailout Next Year By Noel Sheppard Created 12/22/2013 - 12:00pm Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer made a dire prediction Sunday. Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Krauthammer said that all the exemptions the President has given to ObamaCare will ruin insurance companies thereby necessitating the White House to ask for a huge government bailout of these companies next year that Republicans in Congress should prevent (video follows with transcript and commentary): CHRIS WALLACE, HOST: I want to go back to this point that George was talking about, because the President in his news...

I am sick to death of these so-call Black “intellectuals” spending so much time criticizing President Obama – not because I don’t feel that EVERY politician’s feet should be held to the fire, I do, but because most of the nonsense they’re spewing is pure, unmitigated, ignorance. And what makes it worse is it’s either purposeful ignorance, or ignorance due to a lazy-mindedness that could be corrected with less than ten minutes of objective research. The irony is, people like Tavis Smiley, Cornel West, the entire GOP, and a lot of other uninformed haters are severely criticizing the President, while...

Should higher-education be subsidized? Friedman: 'You have a case in which you are imposing taxes on relatively low-income people to confer very large benefits on upper-income people...' Brooks: 'I think as soon as you start offering people economic incentives to get educated -or to use the education that they get for economic means- in other words when you put a price-tag on knowledge, I think that you're gonna be... Friedman: 'What are you talking about? You mean to say that the graduates of colleges and universities don't use their capacities in a direction influenced by the money they can earn...?...

Obamacare's federal website is a mess, creating massive obstacles to enrollment in the law's health insurance exchange plans. Those taking President Obama's advice to apply by phone or by mail will fare little better, as their information must still be fed through the same glitchy computer system that is holding up everyone else. The website isn't the only problem, as things are only slightly better in the states that run their own websites. In Kentucky, less than 20 percent of the newly insured (or 4,832) have actually purchased plans – the rest will enter the taxpayer-funded Medicaid program. In Maryland,...

The short version? Obamacare contains a partial bailout for insurers with losses greater than 3 percent in any of the first three years...

when it comes to public employee benefits and the damage they wreak on local governments, scoundrels have another refuge: blaming racism for concerns about lavish, unaffordable benefits and broken governments. ”Public-sector workers are disproportionately black. In 2011, about 19 percent of black workers were employed by the government, compared with 14 percent of whites and 10 percent of Hispanics. The upshot is pretty clear: Reducing the value of public pensions and other benefits wouldn’t just hurt blacks disproportionately; it would do so at a time when other economic trends have already hurt them more than most. So the question isn’t...

Link only.

A new national poll from Quinnipiac University shows that a majority Democrats believe the federal government should bail out Detroit, but an even larger majority of Americans oppose such a move. Fifty-one percent of Democrats support Washington providing federal assistance to Detroit, which last month became the largest American city ever to seek bankruptcy protection. Not surprisingly, there is a strong partisan divide on the question of a federal bailout for the Motor City. Seventy-three percent of Republicans oppose a bailout, while only 18 percent support the idea. Independents are nearly of the same mind as Republicans on the issue:...

Detroit could be looking to ObamaCare for a bailout as city leaders try to cut back on retiree health costs as they enter bankruptcy proceedings. The New York Times reported Monday that the city is proposing a plan aimed at reducing its $5.7 billion in outstanding retiree health costs. In short, they want to take those retirees too young to qualify for Medicare and send them into the ObamaCare insurance markets -- which are scheduled to launch next year. Doing so would ease the burden on the Detroit coffers by taking them off city coverage. But it would inevitably increase...

Before I tell you of all the new developments at government motors, I’d like to inform you of the true cost of the GM bailout. The “official” tally is ten billion, but the actual total cost to taxpayers is over 50 billion dollars. GM has a market cap (Net worth) of 28 billion. The paybacks we received from GM are the true, but kind. Read this for the true costs.

Making The Most Of Borrowed Time (Central Banks Have Had Enough?)Jaime Caruana, General Manager of the BIS on the occasion of the Bank’s Annual General Meeting in Basel on 23 June 2013Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Since the beginning of the financial crisis almost six years ago, central banks and fiscal authorities have supported the global economy with unprecedented measures. Policy rates have been kept near zero in the largest advanced economies. Central bank balance sheets have doubled from $10 trillion to more than $20 trillion. And fiscal authorities almost everywhere have been piling up debt, which has risen by...

Two members of Congress are asking if the Treasury Department disproportionately targeted more Republican or conservative owned auto dealerships during the government-lead restructuring of General Motors in 2009. Breitbart.com reported today that Mike Kelly (R-PA) and Jim Renacci (R-OH) released a letter asking Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to release documents regarding the process and methodology that determined which GM dealerships were closed.

While hindsight may always be 20/20, foresight should be pretty clear in many instances as well. The Fisker failure was one of these times. Many saw the folly in spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to support the green debacle. In fact, the Associated Press has reported that even the Obama Administration had warning of the Fisker loan risks back in April of 2010 when the Energy Department began emailing their concerns. Congress will be holding hearings starting today to address the scandalous waste of taxpayer money on Fisker. Reuters states one of the goals of the hearing, "'The...

I can just imagine Jay Leno taking to the streets in order to ask the average American citizen, “What do you think about Cyprus?” More than likely, the answer would be, “I really prefer oak or maple for my flooring, I never really thought about cypress.”  Jay would reply with, “No, the country Cyprus.  The IMF, EU, and ECB, the “troika,” just put a tax on bank accounts.  Well, no.  Actually, they just stole a portion and froze the rest of the money in spite of the increased guarantees.”  The average American would then respond, “There’s a country named Cyprus? ...

Good morning and welcome back to the land of anarchy where contracts and guarantees don’t mean anything anymore. Over the weekend, as I’m sure you’ve already heard, Cyprus and the EU and the IMF (and the U.S. Treasury which is part of the official decision-making body at the IMF) all decided that it was in society’s best interests to confiscate the money in people’s checking and savings accounts. Not all of it, at least not yet.But as there’s a ton of confusion and misdirection about what this latest round of theft of private capital and descent into anarchy really is,...

In 2010, Michigan had an annual unemployment rate of 12.5 percent. Then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm told lawmakers to expect a $1.58 billion deficit in the following year and to expect a $263 per pupil cut for K-12 education. Yet, the state played a part in allowing one of the most lucrative companies in the world to post a record $4.8 billion in profits by handing it nearly $40 million in film tax credits. That was the year Disney made the movie, "Oz: The Great and Powerful," and received $39.7 million of the $75.2 million the state of Michigan handed out to...

In other words, inside the Beltway, if the dollar numbers associated with shenanigans are big enough, they don’t call it a “crime,” they simply call it “policy.” That is, past a certain point, the money amounts are so huge that the whole system is implicated in the corruption. And nobody in DC wants to see that, lest the taxpayers out in flyover country start to wonder if there’s something systemically wrong with Washington. And so, through the power of spin, and with the complicity of the MSM, massively awful actions--the bank bailouts being the most spectacular example--are declared to be...

Many speak; but not nearly enough listening. More must 'wake up' and damn the bonds of political correctness - restore 'critical mind' - so that America can recover it's original-intent purpose. Lt.Gen. Jerry Boykin; 'Special Forces'; Green Beret. . .taught at Hampden-Sydney; now Exec.Vice President/Family Rersearch Council - 'owns' his credentials; and so, has both credibility and authority. A video link to share. Lt.Gen.Boykin: marxist insurgency link Further hand/in/hand verification: http://www.wnd.com/2013/02/why

FORMER GOLDMAN BANKER: I Miss The Great Recession Already Michael, Bankers AnonymousJanuary 24, 2013 I’m just going to come out and say it, ok? I miss the Great Recession already. I miss it for two reasons: first as an investor and second as a human. The Investment Side of the Great Recession As an investor, the Great Recession represented the good times, now past.[1] Recessions – or at least their financial unfolding via changes in asset prices – cause not only wealth destruction, but also wealth creation. For investors[2] in particular, a recession is often necessary in order to deploy...