Free Republic

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff attacked Gov. Rick Perry's decision to reject federal matching funds to expand Medicaid eligibility Tuesday, saying it would put more pressure on the county's public hospital system and strained budgets. He said the University Health System, which runs the county's public hospitals, might explore teaming with other public hospital systems in the state to access the federal money and expand healthcare coverage locally. “The Legislature will have some final say in it. They may come up with a different solution, so we have some time to figure it out.” Wolff said. “It's important to put...

--snip-- Unfortunately, the tax policies in the president’s signature health-care law ignore this advice. The Supreme Court’s decision last week does not change the fact that the scandalous new tax on life-saving medical devices (of all of the new taxes tucked into the law) had received the most prominent attention prior to the Supreme Court’s ruling, most notably when the House recently voted to repeal it.) As we continue to review last week’s sweeping decision and its consequences for the American people, it is worth taking stock of Obamacare, perhaps now better named “Obamatax,” starting with a less-well-known $87 billion...

President Obama on Monday reiterated his push to extend the Bush Tax cuts for the middle class but not the 2% of U.S. households making more than $250,000. But millions of middle class Americans are at risk of higher taxes if no action is taken before Jan. 1, notes Josh Brown, vice president of Fusion Analytics and author of The Reformed Broker blog. Specifically, Brown is concerned about the sharp rise in taxes on dividends and capital gains that will occur as part of the so-called fiscal cliff -- or "taxmageddon" if you prefer. If Congress fails to act, the...

Many Republican activists have voiced concern over the Romney campaign’s rhetorical stumbles since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld President Obama’s health care law. However, voters still overwhelmingly believe the likely GOP nominee’s claim that he will repeal the law if elected. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 80% of Likely U.S. Voters nationwide think it’s likely the health care law will be repealed if Romney is elected president and Republicans win control of Congress. Just 15% see it as unlikely. The figures include 52% who believe a GOP sweep would make repeal Very Likely. (To see survey...

Big Government: Like King George III, ObamaCare has erected a multitude of new offices and sent hither swarms of IRS agents and regulators to harass our people and eat out their substance. A second revolution is needed. We paraphrase these words from the Declaration of Independence as a reminder of what spawned this country's independence — an oppressive governance that would give rise to the original Tea Party in Boston — and as a reminder of President Reagan's dictum that the demise of the liberty we fought for and cherish is never more than a generation away. The price of...

Now that conservatives and libertarians are beginning to recover from the injuries they sustained by banging their heads against walls, desks, and other hard objects on June 28, perhaps it's a good time to introduce a ray of hope that might have seemed absurdly Pollyannaish during the dark hours immediately following the Supreme Court's surreal Obamacare ruling. Although the voters can put an end to the madness on November 6, the states don't need to wait until Election Day to take aim at a point of vulnerability that remains in place despite the Court's latest caprice. They can refuse to...

From the diseased mind of HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius: (Emphasis added where appropriate. Snarky comments from me are in [brackets].) *** "Every American deserves to have a clean, safe and healthy environment. Today, we understand better than ever before that our health is not only dependent on what happens in the doctor’s office but is determined by the air we breathe, the water we drink and the communities we call home. Over the past two years, the Administration and our agency have taken unprecedented steps to ensure strong protection from environmental and health hazards for all Americans. There’s nothing more...

Come 2014, you'll have to pay a tax if you're uninsured -- but how exactly it's going to work is still getting sorted out. The IRS isn't sure how many people they'll have to hire, or how much implementation will end up costing:

The monthly payroll jobs report, due out on Friday, has emerged as the Super Bowl of economic data — a hype-ridden event that attracts the attention of a very large audience. Thursday brought the pre-game show, in the form of three employment-related data points. [Snip] After months of nauseating weakness, is something going on in the labor market? It's quite possible, although my guest on The Daily Ticker, Larry Kudlow, host of the Kudlow Report on CNBC, is less sanguine. "If we get more jobs, count me thrilled and happy," he said. "If you had a 300,000 number on ADP...

Six minutes of truth. CLICK on picture

Of course that is the headline. A look at the facts which generated this headline are somewhat telling. First this is an unscientific poll generated by sending an email to 9,500 physician leaders who are members of the American College of Physician Executives (ACPE).Second,the inquiry drew only 617 responses. Third, 377 said they supported JR and the Supreme's ruling. An honest appraisal of the results would indicate that there should be at least four categories of positions, approve, disapprove, unsure and no opinion. The no opinions have it, 8883 to 388 to 191 to 35. So 94% of these people...

Dear Friend, In this video commentary, I discuss how Obama broke his fundamental campaign pledge not to raise taxes on anyone making under $200K. This is a key November issue. Tune in!

My first thread on Free Republic I asked if Mitt Romney would balance the budget, and the consensus was that he would not. That we should expect more of the same. So for this next one, I will ask more stuff which is important to me a fiscal free market conservative: Will Mitt Romney expand the role, size, and cost of government? I’m asking these questions about the deficit, and size of government because I don’t understand what the difference is so far between Obama and Romney, and not sure what the point is in replacing Obama with Romney if...

Stryker Corp. is preparing to lay off area workers as it winds down the local operations it acquired from Gaymar Industries. Stryker has filed a notice with the state Department of Labor that it will lay off 11 area employees starting Sept. 21. ... Stryker has put the Orchard Park location up for sale for $3.9 million, through Pyramid Brokerage's Buffalo office. Stryker said it was closing the Gaymar operations in the Buffalo Niagara region and relocating its production lines as part of a broader strategy to cut the size of its workforce and reduce its annual pretax operating costs...

President Obama, in his drive for a national healthcare overhaul, strove to provide a new guarantee that all Americans, no matter where they lived, would have basic protection against sickness and disease, ending decades of variations among states. ..... < snip > Under the court's ruling, states will be free to decide not to cover all their poor residents through their Medicaid programs.That may mean liberal states that have embraced the healthcare law such as California, Massachusetts and Maryland will in 2014 effectively offer all their residents health coverage, a key goal of the law Obama signed two years ago....

The Obama campaign has seized on remarks made by Romney adviser Eric "Etch-A-Sketch" Fehrnstrom this morning on MSNBC, to the effect that the individual mandate in Obamacare (and Romneycare) is not a tax. Fehrnstrom allowed Chuck Todd to push him off message--and re-ignited the fears that conservatives have long had about Romney's will and ability to fight. In response, conservatives--who had just coalesced around opposition to what many now call "Obamatax": Mitt, start fighting, or give up and let someone else do it. Fehrnstrom's point--in defense of Romneycare--was that the Supreme Court was wrong to uphold Obamacare under the taxing...

Mitch McConnell’s appearance today on Fox News Sunday was remarkably revealing — it showed as clearly as you could want that the Supreme Court decision is finally forcing Republicans to declare what, exactly, they would replace Obamacare with if they realize their goal of repealing it entirely. Pressed by Chris Wallace to say what he would do to insure the 30 million people who will get insurance under Obamacare, McConnell at first dodged the question, instead launching into a litany of complaints about the law. He repeated the debunked claim that it would cut $500 billion from Medicare. Asked the...

Voter support for President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul rose after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld it, but most people still oppose the law, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll on Sunday. The online survey showed increased backing from Republicans and, crucially, the political independents whose support will be essential to winning the Nov. 6 presidential election. Meanwhile, Republican leaders in Congress are banking on the fact that voters will have the final word on healthcare in the November elections, and the GOP is betting that the law's unpopularity will be enough to drive Democrats from power. The White House's response? Bring...

You would have thought that Chief Justice John Roberts had shouted "fire" in a crowded theater. In upholding Obamacare, he set off a headlong race for the exits by the same lobbying groups -- believe it or not -- that had cut deals with the administration to create the legislation. Back then, the lobbyists were telling each other: If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu. Now the bodies are piling up in the doorway as those who pandered to the president trample over each other in their haste to get out of the blazing or crumbling structure...

Whats shall we lable the new mandate? ObamaTax? ObamaCare Tax?