Free Republic

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), a thorn in the side of President Trump for much of the last four years, has reportedly been asked by Joe Biden to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. “He is currently discussing the nomination with his family and is expected to accept the appointment,” The Buffalo Chronicle reported Saturday. “Biden advisors expect that Romney — a former management consultant by training and a former CEO of Bain Capital — will be tasked with making the national healthcare system more affordable without legislation that modifies the Affordable Care Act,” the Chronicle reported. “It’s unclear...

Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that President Donald Trump had “relativity relaxed relationship with the truth.” Anchor Jake Tapper said, “Does it concern you at all that President Trump and his team are out there saying that he won and lying about the integrity of the election with wild allegations?” Romney said, “You’re not going to change the nature of President Trump in these last days, apparently, of his presidency. He is who he is and he has a relativity relaxed relationship with the truth so he is going to keep on fighting...

WASHINGTON — Hoping to avoid another political uproar over the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration is trying to persuade states to cut back big rate increases requested by many health insurance companies for 2016. In calling for aggressive regulation of rates, federal officials are setting up a potential clash with insurers. Some carriers said they paid out more in claims than they collected in premiums last year, so they lost money on policies sold in the new public marketplaces. After finding that new customers were sicker than expected, some health plans have sought increases of 10 percent to 40...

President Obama will tout his healthcare law Tuesday to a Catholic group that has consistently supported the law despite deep divides over its birth control requirement. In a speech to the Catholic Health Association — which represents hundreds of hospitals and nursing homes across the U.S. — the president will talk about the law's major tenets and make his case that it has improved health plans for virtually everyone, in addition to expanding coverage to millions. The address comes just days before the Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling that could halt the healthcare law's insurance subsidies to...

After months on life support, the Hawaii Obamacare exchange will shutter operations due to the site being economically unsustainable. The state sought more cash from the federal government - after spending more than $200 million - but when that option fell through, Hawaii had little choice but to close it down. Fox News:The once-highly praised Hawaii Health Connector has been “unable to generate sufficient revenues to sustain operations,” Gov. David Ige’s office said in a statement. The federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) informed the exchange last week that federal funds were no longer available to support long-term...

WASHINGTON — About 800,000 taxpayers who enrolled in insurance policies through HealthCare.gov received erroneous tax information from the government, and were urged on Friday to hold off on filing tax returns until the error could be corrected. ... Democratic lawmakers pressed hard for the Obama administration to open a “special enrollment period” around tax filing season for Americans who only then realize they face penalties for failing to purchase health insurance last year. Andrew M. Slavitt, the No. 2 official at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the period would last from March 15 to April 30.

If you’re looking for a state with a reliable Leftward tilt, you’d be hard pressed to do better than Vermont. After all, this is the place which has repeatedly elected Bernie Sanders – a man who considers the Democrat Party too conservative for his tastes – to statewide office since 1991. So in terms of socialist experimental laboratories, this is the spot where you’d want to launch progressive initiatives and take them for a test spin. That was the plan for Governor Peter Shumlin, who had promised his constituents that they would soon be enjoying the first in the...

The Food and Drug Administration is going to try its hand at shaming consumers into making healthier choices when they go out to eat. Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, the FDA announced a controversial and expansive rule that will require certain establishments with 20 or more locations -- including chain restaurants, grocery and convenience stores, and movie theaters -- to post calorie information on their menus and menu boards. A separate rule was also issued requiring operators of 20 or more vending machines to post calorie information. Section 4205 of the Affordable Care Act, a provision included in the law...

The Associated Press is not known as being normally critical of Barack Obama therefore it was quite surprising that their fact check found the President's speech last Thursday taking unilateral action to halt deportations of illegals to be chock full of Gruber. Here is a list of the Gruberisms the AP found in Obama's speech: OBAMA: "It does not grant citizenship, or the right to stay here permanently, or offer the same benefits that citizens receive - only Congress can do that. All we're saying is we're not going to deport you." THE FACTS: He's saying, and doing, more than...

"Professor, do you really think the American voters are stupid?" "What about the Obamacare, is that just a hoax on the American people?" Hannity sent a camera crew to MIT today to talk to Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber about his controversial comments.

The survey of 1,000 Likely U.S. Voters was conducted on November 12-13, 2014 by Rasmussen Reports: The U.S. Supreme Court has chosen to hear another legal challenge to the new national health care law, and nearly half of voters think it might be a good idea to put the brakes on Obamacare until all the court cases opposing it are through. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that a plurality (47%) of Likely U.S. Voters thinks implementation of Obamacare should be put on hold until all legal challenges are exhausted. Forty percent (40%) disagree, but 13% are not...

I propose an addition to the OFFICIAL FREE REPUBLIC LEXICON. Gruber, grubering and grubered are so much more suited than the "old school" lie, lieing and lied. Who knows, these great and expressive terms might, with a little shove, catch hold in the national lexicon.

The denizens of DUMMIELAND really have their knickers in a knot, their favorite economist's big mouth has done them in! Just a couple of juicy morsels here, this DU thread has a lot of potential!