Free Republic

As we all are painfully aware, the Affordable Care Act (aka, Obamacare) had a disastrous launch. Not to mention $940 million to CGI for a non-working website. Obamacare is so complex that it is likely unworkable … and unpopular once everyone gets a load of how their insurance premiums and deductibles have risen. obamacarecontractors Who in their right mind would design such a disaster? An overly complex mess that is unworkable. obamacare_chart_LGa The government, of course, and their cronies and apparatchiks. Like it or not, it is the insertion of government into the system that causes the problem. Just like...

Senior Navy civilians investigated in alleged scheme to defraud military for $1.6 million Federal authorities are investigating three senior Navy intelligence officials as part of a probe into an alleged contracting scheme that charged the military $1.6 million for homemade firearm silencers that cost only $8,000 to manufacture, court records show. The three civilian officials, who oversee highly classified programs, arranged for a hot-rod auto mechanic in California to build a specially ordered batch of unmarked and untraceable rifle silencers and sell them to the Navy at more than 200 times what they cost to manufacture, according to court...

The Obama administration has been accused of cronyism after it was revealed the First Lady's Princeton classmate is a top executive at the company contracted to build the beleaguered Obamacare enrollment website. Toni Townes-Whitley is senior vice president at CGI Federal, the U.S. arm of a Canadian company, which won the no-bid contract for the problem-plagued website. Townes-Whitley, from the Princeton class of ’85, and Michelle Obama are members of the Association of Black Princeton Alumni, according to The Daily Caller.

America is suffering from an epic case of Armageddon fatigue. Budget showdown, government shutdown, debt ceiling debacle—the stakes are real but the establishment seems to feed off the chaos they create as a means to foment fear and outrage and translate it into campaign donations for themselves. Look closely and you’ll see that something seismic is going on under the surface of the manufactured chaos in D.C. Washington has morphed into an extortion racket, a place where members of the permanent political class threaten to inflict legislative and regulatory pain to extract campaign donations that they can then siphon into...

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said that President Obama is “frustrated” by snags in the Obamacare rollout. But how about American citizens who either are having trouble enrolling in Obamacare or are suffering from the shock of rising healthcare insurance premiums AND the size of their deductibles? The anecdotal stories of “sticker shock” are legion (for example, here is a story from New Jersey). And physicians in New York are howling as well. Of course, there are many winners in the Obamacare rollout. Some households will receive added benefits and healthcare benefits that they previously didn’t have. But the biggest winners...

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said that President Obama is “frustrated” by snags in the Obamacare rollout. But how about American citizens who either are having trouble enrolling in Obamacare or are suffering from the shock of rising healthcare insurance premiums AND the size of their deductibles? The anecdotal stories of “sticker shock” are legion (for example, here is a story from New Jersey). And physicians in New York are howling as well. Of course, there are many winners in the Obamacare rollout. Some households will receive added benefits and healthcare benefits that they previously didn’t have. But the biggest winners...

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said that President Obama is “frustrated” by snags in the Obamacare rollout. But how about American citizens who either are having trouble enrolling in Obamacare or are suffering from the shock of rising healthcare insurance premiums AND the size of their deductibles? The anecdotal stories of “sticker shock” are legion (for example, here is a story from New Jersey). And physicians in New York are howling as well. Of course, there are many winners in the Obamacare rollout. Some households will received added benefits. But the biggest winners are … government cronies and contractors. Here is...

The House Oversight Committee wants to find out why the Park Service behaved so bizarrely. ... Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, a former prosecutor, almost drove National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis into incoherence with his relentless questioning. Gowdy wanted to know why Jarvis had allowed “pot-smoking” Occupy Wall Street protesters to camp overnight illegally in Washington’s McPherson Square park for 100 days, yet put up barricades to keep veterans out of war memorials on the first day of the shutdown. By not issuing a single citation to the Occupy campers, Gowdy argued, the Park Service was treating them...

The shortcomings of ObamaCare continue to seep into the light, putting the lie to virtually every claim made by Barack Hussein about his namesake “healthcare” scheme. But one part of the law remains as much a mystery now as when it was written. Section 1555 of the Affordable Care Act is quite short. It reads: “No individual, company, business, nonprofit entity, or health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage shall be required to participate in any Federal health insurance program created under this Act (or any amendments made by this Act), or in any Federal health insurance...

Recently, I wrote about “Stealth Socialism” in the US. That is a termed coined by Florida Democrat Alan Grayson. It refers to the Federal government takeover of the healthcare industry (Obamacare), the Treasury market (Fed manipulation), bailouts (GM, Chrysler, banks, etc), etc., etc. Remember, the architects of Obamacare, the Center for American Progress, estimate that Obamacare will create 4 million new jobs over the next ten years. And then there is another Stealth Socialism boondoggle for government cronies: green energy! First, the Obama Administration declared war on coal powered plants and is shutting down even more … even though the...

Carrick Mollenkamp had an interesting piece today called “Special Report: Pimco shook hands with the Fed – and made a killing.” In short, the fund-management firm, led by co-founder Bill Gross, started buying tens of billions of dollars in mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by federally sponsored agencies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In the third quarter of 2011 alone, Pimco’s flagship Total Return Fund, the world’s largest mutual fund, doubled its holdings of these securities to $80 billion, according to a Reuters review of trading and other data. While Pimco was building its hoard, the Fed, in a surprise move...

Taxpayers are constantly told that film incentives are supposed to be a “temporary” subsidy to “plant and grow” an industry. But as Milton Friedman once observed, “Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.” In North Carolina, the legislature has cut the state incentive program, once among the most generous in the nation, down to zero starting in 2014. While debating the budget, the Motion Picture Association of America, sent a letter to the state that read: “[W]ithout an extension of the production incentive program, North Carolina will no longer be considered for major feature films.” The MPAA represents...

In 2003, the Hyundai Tech Center in Superior Township was approved for up to $22.2 million in state incentives with the claim 400 jobs would be created. Two years later, Hyundai Tech Center officials announced they were going to expand the facility and add 600 more jobs; the state offered $32.6 million more in incentives. However, only 124 jobs have come to fruition, according to company officials, far short of the projected 1,000 that were touted in the two deals with the Michigan Economic Development Corp. Yet, despite only a fraction of the projected jobs becoming a reality at the...

Paul Krugman has an interesting piece in the New York Times entitled “Years of Tragic Waste.” I thought for a brief second that Krugman was going to mention the reckless waste by the Obama Administration on green energy initiatives like GM’s VOLT, Solyndra or Fisker. Or high speed rail fantasies. But no. Krugman is whining that Congress and the Administration didn’t waste even MORE money! Take the recent example of VPG. From AP: The Energy Department conceded Friday that the federal government will lose $42 million on a loan to a shuttered Michigan van manufacturer — part of the same...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A woman who embezzled $320,000 from a California state agency was later hired by the state's High-Speed Rail Authority — and she says nobody asked about her background. The Sacramento Bee (http://bit.ly/141r1Z6 ) says Carey Moore spent two years in prison after pleading no contest to grand theft in 2007. Prosecutors say she embezzled from the Department of Child Support Services. In 2011, Moore was hired by the High-Speed Rail Authority. Her job included making travel plans for officials. Her state job application didn't ask whether she'd been convicted of a crime and Moore says nobody...

The Federal Reserves zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) and quantitative easing has clearly had an effect on the market. The stock market to be more specific. spxfedfundstraget Manhattan dwellers with budgets that would buy mansions in most of America are discovering it’s tough to find even a two-bedroom apartment in New York as the inventory of homes shrinks. The number of available units for less than $3 million — those generally considered nonluxury — has plunged by the most on record, creating a shortage that’s unlikely to be alleviated any time soon as developers focus on ultra high-end condos that...

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog Here are 239 examples of Barack Obama’s lying, lawbreaking, corruption, cronyism, etc. In the 2008 United States election, I wrote in Ron Paul for President. In the 2012 election, I voted for Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson. Those who are of a more leftist persuasion than myself might want to consider voting for the Green Party in future elections. Some of the things on this list are major events that should scare the daylights out of any true liberal who cares about civil liberties.Other things on this list are medium things that some Obama supporters may...

Loopholes in California and Colorado laws designed to keep criminals from hunting down cops and other public employees are being used by local officials and their extended family as a way to avoid paying thousands of dollars in traffic and parking fines. In Colorado, special license plates issued to 100 state lawmakers and representatives not only shield them from radar tickets for speeding, but also prevent collection notices on past-due parking tickets. That’s because the legislative plates in Colorado aren’t entered into the Division of Motor Vehicles database. If someone with a special license plate blows through the speed limit...

More than a thousand conservative lawmakers and business executives are gathering this week for conference that could shape a new wave of Republican legislation in state capitols pushing for deeper tax cuts, limits on union powers and a private-sector makeover for government Medicaid programs. Attendees at the American Legislative Exchange Council were countered Thursday by a roughly equal number of protesters upset by the close ties between big businesses and lawmakers. … The conservative organization’s 40th annual meeting comes as it is experiencing increased influence due to a growth in Republican-led legislatures and enhanced opposition from liberal-leaning groups that have...

House Republicans are facing heavy pressure from both sides of the immigration debate as they return to their home districts for August recess with no clear indication as to how they’ll vote on the issue. The decision to pass comprehensive immigration reform has essentially been in the hands of the Republican-controlled House since the Democrat-led Senate passed such a bill in June. House Republicans were under pressure before they even left their Capitol Hill offices to start the five-week recess, which is traditionally dedicated to face-to-face talks with hometown voters. The American Federation of Government Employees sent a letter...