Free Republic

Former White House adviser David Axelrod said Friday that more changes to Obamacare will be coming as the program is implemented, and that’s how it should be. Axelrod was asked on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” whether in the wake of delays and changes to Obamacare there would be more tweaking moving forward. “I have to believe that’s going to be the case,” Axelrod said. “Any time you implement something like this, it’s new and there’s no doubt that it’s complicated, there will be changes along — there should be changes along the way.” Axelrod said the president will fix Obamacare as...

On Thursday, CNN senior reporter John King said that the Obama Administration’s most recent delay of a key Obamacare provision that was supposed to limit consumers’ out-of-pocket expenses on deductibles and co-pays could prove seismic come the 2014 midterm elections. “This one particularly though could have a huge political impact,” said CNN reporter John King. “Because as you mention, hidden in bureaucratic language, the end result is that when these changes kick in, the Administration promised for most Americans your costs would go down. Now it is saying, at least in the short term, your costs could be higher than...

WASHINGTON — Just seven weeks before the new state insurance marketplaces are set to open under the Affordable Care Act, it’s unclear whether the long-anticipated October rollout will be a smooth operation or the "train wreck" that some have predicted. Systems testing for the marketplaces is months behind schedule, according to recent government reports. So are funding and training for navigators, the outreach and enrollment workers who’ll help people choose marketplace health plans. In a final bit of down-to-the-wire drama, the data hub, which routes information from the marketplaces to various federal databases, might not get its final stamp of...

The Chevy Volt madness continued this week with General Motors announcing that consumers will see a $5,000 decrease in the price of President Obama's favorite green wonder-car. Sales of the Volt have been dismal, with most consumers refusing to be as smitten with the car as the President and the few enthusiastic green ideologues who seemed to believe that spending approximately $20,000 more for a car (over a gas-powered rival) that can save them about $3 a day in gas makes sense. What seems to go unrecognized is the fact that the price cut comes at the expense of GM...

When Daniel Wilson learned earlier this year that the state of California wants to bulldoze his family's pear orchard to build a giant Sacramento River water diversion, he and his brother were making a major new investment in the crop. Located near the town of Hood, in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the orchard has grown Bartlett pears for 50 years as the foundation of the family farm. But Bartletts are not as marketable as they once were. So the brothers were grafting thousands of trees to grow new pear varieties – Bosc and River Maid Red – to ensure viable...

there's no reason to believe the Honolulu's rail project will do anything to improve traffic congestion. In fact, it's likely to divert resources from more-affordable solutions. "The one thing about these projects [is that] they are very inviting politically," says former Hawaii Gov. Ben Cayetano. Along with Cliff Slater of Honolulutraffic.com and University of Hawaii's Roth, Cayetano has filed a federal lawsuit against the rail project that's held up construction. They claim the city misled the public about the total cost of the project and didn't deliver fully on a required review of alternative solutions to a rail line. Panos...

Briggs & Stratton Co. has never liked ethanol because it can make a mess of things at the worst possible time -- like when you need to cut the grass and your lawn mower spits, sputters and just won't start. Often, water in the gasoline is the culprit, according to Briggs, the world's largest manufacturer of small gasoline engines. And the company says the biofuel additive ethanol, which is contained in most of the gasoline people buy today, can attract moisture out of the air like steel sticks to a magnet. Moisture in gasoline is a big problem for boats,...

Today, The Sunday Telegraph reveals how many ''green jobs’’ the wind-power industry really generates in exchange for its generous subsidies. The figures show that for 12 months until February 2013, a little over £1.2  billion was paid out to wind farms through a consumer subsidy financed by a supplement on electricity bills. During that period, the industry employed just 12,000 people, which means that each wind-farm job cost consumers £100,000 – an astonishing figure. Regarding costs, the £1.2 billion figure is merely a starting point. According to the Renewable Energy Foundation, the subsidy is likely to rise to £6  billion by...

It's called the Affordable Care Act, but President Barack Obama's health care law may turn out to be unaffordable for many low-wage workers, including employees at big chain restaurants, retail stores and hotels. That might seem strange since the law requires medium-sized and large employers to offer "affordable" coverage or face fines. But what's reasonable? Because of a wrinkle in the law, companies can meet their legal obligations by offering policies that would be too expensive for many low-wage workers. For the employee, it's like a mirage — attractive but out of reach. he company can get off the hook,...

Sen. Diane Feinstein’s husband Richard Blum won a construction contract for California’s high-speed rail project, reports the California Political Review. Author Laer Pearce says Perini-Zachary-Parsons, a construction group partially owned by Blum’s investment firm, Blum Capital, and their investors, bagged the nearly billion dollar contract:

It is time to close both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—the government-sponsored mortgage giants. Both entities distort the country’s housing finance market by issuing mortgage-backed securities with subsidized government guarantees that the mortgages will be repaid. If guarantees are necessary, they should be priced and issued by the private sector, not by the state. Financial institutions expert David C. John details specific steps to achieve this shutdown carefully and methodically without further upsetting the delicate housing market—and without making the situation worse.

Setting up insurance exchanges — the centerpiece of President Obama's healthcare reform law — is costing the Health and Human Services Department a whole lot more than it originally expected. According to budget documents released Wednesday, the department expects to spend $4.4 billion on exchange grants to the states by the end of this year — double its estimates a year ago. The HHS is also asking Congress for another $1.5 billion to set up a federal exchange in 26 states. The department has cobbled together money from other programs to get started, but officials said they need another $800...

Former 'Superintendent Of The Year' Could Go To Prison For 45 Years Rebecca Baird-RembaApril 2, 2013, 6:13 PM Dr. Beverly Hall arrives for her last school board meeting in 2011. Thirty-five Atlanta educators were indicted last week for allegedly participating in a cheating conspiracy involving one of America's most storied school superintendents. Retired Atlanta schools chief Beverly Hall was named "National Superintendent of the Year" in 2009 and had previously headed troubled school districts in New York and Newark. She was credited with rescuing the struggling Atlanta school system and helping it meet testing standards set by the Bush-era No...

The Joint Strike Fighter Lightning II aircraft will be based at RAF Marham, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has confirmed, securing the future of the station. But other stations will be affected in a "rationalisation" of the defence estate, ministers have said. The fighter aircraft, which has continued to hit recent headlines due to design issues, is to be the most advanced jet ever delivered to the armed forces, the Ministry of Defence said. RAF Marham will now receive additional investment and infrastructure so that it can become the main operating base for the aircraft which will also operate from the...

When Solyndra went bankrupt and cost taxpayers up to $530 million, the Obama administration's green energy loan program was subjected to congressional hearings and became an election-year issue. Now, another solar panel company may be headed for a similar fate. SoloPower, which makes thin-film solar panels at a new plant in Portland, Ore., opened Sept. 27 with an upbeat ribbon-cutting ceremony. Local and state politicians gushed about the company eventually operating four production lines and creating 450 well-paid green jobs. Just a few months later, those predictions, and SoloPower's future, are on shaky ground. The first production line was never...

(CNSNews.com) - The federally chartered Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) has approved a $28.6 million direct loan to a high-tech wind power company in the Central American country of Honduras. The loan will enable 200 workers in six U.S. states to assemble 12 high-tech wind turbines for export. The cost of those jobs works out to $143,000 per job created.

Whether a high-speed rail system ever gets built in the United States is still up in the air, but if it is, artist and activist Alfred Twu has figured out exactly where those speedy rail lines should go. Twu started working on this map in 2009, when President Obama's plan to build high-speed rail was unveiled. "There were many such maps being made by various designers," says Twu, but since then he's updated the map with labels and put it on Facebook, and it struck a chord. It's gone viral. "With the huge response it's generated, I created a petition...

(Watch Dog) – The federal government’s dream of a renewable energy empire hinges on a scrubby outpost here, where scientists and executives doggedly explore a new frontier. If you live outside Colorado, you probably haven’t heard of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory – NREL for short. It’s the place where solar panels, windmills and corn are deemed the energy source of the future and companies who support such endeavors are courted. It’s also the place where highly paid staff decide how to spend hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars. And the public pays those decision-makers well: NREL’s top executive, Dr....

Minnesota should have a mandate for using solar energy similar to the one it has for using renewable wind energy, say backers of a pair of bills to be filed Thursday in the State Legislature. The bills would require the state's utilities to produce 10 percent of electricity from solar energy by 2030. A solar standard would raise present utility rates by 1 percent per year, starting with the first year, and be borne by ratepayers, its backers said in a news conference at the State Capitol Wednesday, Feb. 20. But legislators sponsoring the Solar Energy Jobs Act emphasized it...

With record numbers of college graduates underemployed in jobs that don’t actually require degrees, economists are joking that even aspiring janitors may soon have to get master’s degrees to compete for jobs. A study released Monday by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity found that 37 percent of employed graduates didn’t need to attend college at all to successfully perform their current jobs. The study was co-authored by Dr. Richard Vedder, an economics professor at Ohio University and director of CCAP; Jonathan Robe, a CCAP researcher; and Christopher Denhart, an economics student at the university. “Just as a bachelor’s...