Free Republic

“Thnx Mr. President!” That’s what former MSNBC anchor Dylan Ratigan had to say to President Obama in a tweet earlier today. He was saying it sarcastically. You know, like when you say “thanks a lot!” to someone who bumps into you in the hallway, causing you to spill your coffee all over your clothes. But Mr. Ratigan experienced something far worse than a coffee spill. His health insurance premiums are skyrocketing thanks to the hilariously named Affordable Care Act. What happened? Well, for starters, Ratigan had catastrophic health insurance coverage. That means that he sees himself as pretty healthy and...

Joni Ernst, a Republican Senate candidate in Iowa, was made in the Sarah Palin mold — her first TV ad focused on her experience castrating hogs. Perhaps high off the buzz and Palin endorsement that that ad generated, Ernst just released another TV spot that is beyond parody. The 30-second spot, titled "Shot," features Ernst at the shooting range, "unloading" on Obamacare. The narrator's lines sound like a Palin speech run through the shredder. As Ernst rides into the frame on a Harley, we hear, "Conservative Joni Ernst: Mom, Farm Girl, and a Lieutenant Colonel who carries more than just...

The latest USA Today/Pew survey shows Obamacare polling as poorly as it ever has: Views of ACA Little Changed. As other recent national polls have shown, including the April health care tracking survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the recent surge in signups for the new health care exchanges has had little impact on public opinion about the Affordable Care Act. In fact, the share disapproving of the law (55%) is as high as it ever has been in the four-year history of the law. Just 41% approve of the 2010 health care law.

Leaders of both parties in Tennessee are condemning a blog post by a state senator likening the federal health care law to the deportation of Jews to concentration camps in the 1940s. Republican Sen. Stacey Campfield of Knoxville said on his blog that Democrats boasting of about the number of people who have signed for coverage as required by the federal health care law is like “Germans bragging about the number of mandatory sign-ups for ‘train rides’ for Jews in the 40s.” …

On May 8th, oral arguments will take place in the D.C. Circuit Court Of Appeals concerning the unconstitutional manner in which the Affordable Care Act was assembled and placed before congress for passage. According to the Origination Clause in Article 1 of the Constitution, “All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.” In 2009, the House passed a bill concerning proposed tax credits for members of the military who were first time home buyers. The Senate took that Bill, removed ALL of the...

I thought Mika was going to cry as she presented the bad news in this new poll that basically shows that people are fed up with Democrats:

Little was sacred when President Barack Obama tossed out playful but pointed jokes Saturday night—not even his own health care plan. “We rolled out healthcare.gov. That could have gone better,” Obama said in remarks at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. “In 2008 my slogan was ‘Yes we can.’ In 2013 my slogan was ‘Control-alt-delete.’” On the plus side, the president said, “they did turn the launch of healthcare.gov into one of the year’s biggest movies.” On a screen flashed the poster for “Frozen.” …

A local mother is battling for her life with an unknown bone disease, and making matters worse, her insurance has just been ripped from under her. Aubry Domeikis is spending every moment trying to make memories with her 5-year-old son, not knowing if she will live to see tomorrow. "He said he was scared to be alone with me because what if he woke up and I was dead?" Domeikis told Action News tearfully. "It's terrifying, I'm scared." Domeikis needs a life-saving blood infusion every single day while her doctors try to figure out if the bone infection that's wracking...

Two years ago, when the Supreme Court declared Obamacare's penalty to be a tax, it doomed the healthcare reform act as an "unconstitutional violation of the origination clause," columnist George Will says. This Thursday, the Washington, D.C., Court of Appeals, the nation's second-most important court, will hear arguments on whether the Affordable Care Act adheres to the Constitution's "origination clause," which declare that "all bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other bills," Will writes in his column in The Washington Post Saturday. Will points...

From the American Meteorological SocietyA risk management framework improves health systems’ resilience to high-impact weatherWASHINGTON — April 29, 2014 – According to a new study by the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Policy Program, a risk management framework can improve the resilience of healthcare facilities and services to high-impact weather such as tornadoes and hurricanes. The report is based on a recent AMS Policy Program workshop, A Prescription for the 21st Century: Improving Resilience to High-Impact Weather for Healthcare Facilities and Services, held in Washington, DC in October 2013.The purpose of the study was to explore methods for improving the resilience...

More data is backing Democratic arguments that ObamaCare enrollment figures exceeded expectations last month. The latest numbers from the Urban Institute find the late rush of enrollees put sign-ups well over its original projections. The nonpartisan research institute says while only 61 percent of projected ObamaCare enrollment was met by March 1, the numbers rocketed to 115 percent by April 19. However, it cautions the final numbers will likely change depending on several factors.

White House press secretary Jay Carney attempted to cast doubt on a House Energy and Commerce Committee report showing only 67 percent of Obamacare enrollees have paid their premiums Thursday in the White House press conference. Carney called the report overly selective and unlikely to be representative of the entire insurance market. However when asked if he had a sense of how many people will ultimately pay their premiums, Carney admitted he did not know but doubted the 67 percent figure because of anecdotal figures he has seen out of the insurance industry. “I’m not a numbers cruncher,” he said.

A new French book that decries income inequality has become such the rage among the U.S. left that it is sparking debate on a smoldering political issue: That Hillary Clinton isn't liberal enough to win the Democratic nomination in 2016. Thomas Piketty's “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” uses a mountain of historical data to show that income inequality, a subject President Obama has seized on, will grow without government intervention. One idea is to devote up to three-quarters of income to taxes. Progressives, many of whom are eyeing Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren or even Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders leading up...

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog Here are 283 reasons why hypocrite politicians and unions that support Obamacare want exemptions for themselves By Dan from Squirrel HillPosted on September 24, 2013. Updated on May 2, 2014.As the author of this blog post, I place it into the public domain. Anyone may freely copy it in any part or in its entirely, without asking my permission, and without paying any money. I do ask you please cite a link to http://danfromsquirrelhill.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/obamacare-59/I ask you to please show this list to as many people as possible. Sunshine really is the best disinfectant. I can’t stop...

Physician-entrepreneurs Drs. Keith Smith and Steven Lantier of the private Surgery Center of Oklahoma are proving that the free market can deliver top-quality healthcare at a fraction of the cost of ObamaCare and our current government-corporate cartel model. Surgery Center of Oklahoma Leads the Way in Healthcare The New American 02 May 2014 The Surgery Center of Oklahoma may be the beacon of hope that millions of Americans have been searching for in the overwhelming darkness and seemingly unsolvable problems of our present healthcare crisis. For 17 years, the surgeons at this private, state-of-the-art facility have been performing surgeries for...

RICHMOND — Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is considering expanding health coverage for the poor without the approval of the state legislature, a move that would muscle his top priority past Republican opponents but also throw his young administration into a partisan firestorm and uncertain legal territory. McAuliffe and his top advisers have consulted lawyers, health-care experts and legislators on how to bypass the GOP-dominated House of Delegates, according to three people familiar with the discussions. A fourth, who like the others spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal private strategy, said the office of...

Eleanor Holmes Norton is the Democrats’ non-voting congressional observer from the District of Columbia. You may remember her as the genius who claimed that people didn’t know they had to sign up for ObamaCare because evil Republicans had convinced everyone it had been repealed. Well, Democrats, congratulations. Your brain trust is at it again. This is a woman you actually elected and she’s dropped another nugget of wisdom in your laps. An incensed Ms. Eleanor Norton wants everyone to know that the Iraq war was “perhaps the most catastrophic war of the 20th century.” Here’s the clip:

In a long-winded speech on Wednesday at Georgetown University, former president Bill Clinton criticized the “political press” who, he says, are so often blinded by a “storyline” that they ignore reality, especially when it comes to Obamacare. “One of the problems is, if a policymaker is a political leader and is covered primarily by the political press, there is a craving that borders on addictive to have a storyline,” said Clinton. “And then, once people settle on the storyline, there is a craving that borders on blindness, to shoehorn every fact, every development, everything that happens into the storyline, even...

It’s the genocide few talk about, but taking a cue from her uncle, Dr. Alveda King is bravely speaking out about it, spreading her message far and wide. Her warning: black people are murdering themselves. The shocking statistics surrounding the rate of abortion among African Americans was one of the highlights of a speech King gave earlier this week at the University of Missouri.

Claire Culwell knows what it’s like to be a survivor. At the age of 13, her mother learned she was pregnant and decided to have an abortion, though she didn’t know she was pregnant with twins. After she had an abortion of Claire’s brother, she returned to the abortion clinic after realizing she still had a growing and developing baby inside of her. Told she was too late to have a second abortion, she gave birth to Claire, who struggled on life support as she dealt with a myriad of medical issues following her birth. Despite the obstacles she has...