Is there anything better than sleeping in...?
How'bout this... sleeping in on a crisp fall morning... cool breeze reaching into your room through the open windows (helped by a fan)... enough sunshine coming in through the partially open blinds to wake you up, but not so much as to force you immediately out of bed...
Oh... and clean sheets! Washed last night!
I tell ya, folks, it takes so little to make me happy. It really does! I'm talking "life," not political, social, or economic drama. (Yes... believe it or not I can indeed compartmentalize.)
Sitting here sipping my first cup of coffee... all is right with the world!
Of course this won't last...
(*SIGH*)
The real world will interrupt.
(*ANOTHER SIGH*)
But until it does... I'm gonna enjoy the morning! Indeed... I'm gonna go into the living room now and watch this week's Sons of Anarchy!
Newsbites...??? Tune in later! As always, the "newsbiting" will be done (and thus found) within the comments page of this posting.
Enjoy your day, my friends!
3 comments:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/18/us-debt-jumps-400-billion-tops-17-trillion-first-t/
U.S. debt jumped a record $328 billion on Thursday, the first day the federal government was able to borrow money under the deal President Obama and Congress sealed this week.
* MAKE YA PROUD, FOLKS? IS THIS YOUR IDEA OF "SUCCESSFUL ECONOMIC MANAGEMENT?"
* FUNNY... IN LINE WITH THE NETWORK NEWS COVERAGE STAND-ALONE POSTED EARLIER, NOTE THAT BEFORE THE "SHUTDOWN" ENDED THERE WAS NO REPORTING ALONG THE LINES OF, "THE MOMENT THIS SHUTDOWN IS "RESOLVED" OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WILL ADD ANOTHER $328 BILLION TO THE NATIONAL DEBT."
The debt now equals $17.075 trillion, according to figures the Treasury Department posted online on Friday.
(*CLAP...CLAP...CLAP*)
The $328 billion increase shattered the previous high of $238 billion set two years ago.
(*CLAP...CLAP...CLAP*)
The giant jump comes because the government was replenishing its stock of “extraordinary measures” — the federal funds it borrowed from over the last five months as it tried to avoid bumping into the debt ceiling. Under the law, that replenishing happens as soon as there is new debt space.
* SO THE FEDS HAVE EZPASS. (ONLY THEY GET TO BORROW TO "PAY" THEIR BILLS... AND LEAVE DEBT REPAYMENT TO FUTURE GENERATIONS.)
* OH... FOLKS... IT GETS WORSE! READ ON...!!!
Usually Congress sets a borrowing limit, or debt ceiling, that caps the total amount the government can be in the red. But under the terms of this week’s deal, Congress set a deadline instead of a dollar cap. That means debt can rise as much as Mr. Obama and Congress want it to, until the Feb. 7 deadline.
* WOW...
* JUST... AMAZING...
* THANK YOU SPEAKER BOEHNER! THANK YOU MINORITY LEADER MCCONNELL! THANK YOU FOR YOUR "BIPARTISAN SUPPORT" THROWN TO OBAMA, PELOSI, AND REID! WHAT COULD GO WRONG...?!?!
* HERE... I'VE JUST GOTTA REITERATE...
Usually Congress sets a borrowing limit, or debt ceiling, that caps the total amount the government can be in the red. But under the terms of this week’s deal, Congress set a deadline instead of a dollar cap. That means debt can rise as much as Mr. Obama and Congress want it to, until the Feb. 7 deadline.
* AIN'T BIPARTISANSHIP GRAND...?!?!
Judging by the rate of increase over the last five months, that could end up meaning Congress just granted Mr. Obama a debt increase of $700 billion or more.
* I BELIEVE THE NUMBER I'VE SEEN BANDIED ABOUT IS $770 BILLION.
Republicans initially sought to attach strings to the debt increase, but surrendered this week...
BOEHNER AND MCCONNELL ARE SCUM.
...instead settling on a bill that reopened the government and included some special earmark projects...
* OH, YES! THEY ACTUALLY ADDED... A*D*D*E*D... EVEN MORE DEFICIT SPENDING TO THE FINAL "COMPROMISE" BILL...!!! (FOLKS... YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS $HIT UP!)
...but didn’t include any spending cuts.
(*SILENCE*)
Democrats insisted that the debt increase be “clean,” meaning without any strings attached.
* "CLEAN" AFTER THEY'D ALREADY INSERTED THE ADDITIONAL PORK... THE ADDITIONAL "SPECIAL EARMARK PROJECTS." (AGAIN, FOLKS... YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS $HIT UP!)
They say the debt increase only allows Mr. Obama to pay for the bills he and Congress already racked up, and that it doesn’t encourage new spending.
* BEYOND THE NEW SPENDING INSERTED INTO THE FINAL BILL...???
(*SNORT*)
* WHAT PATHETIC SHEEP MOST AMERICANS ARE. WE SHOULD BE MARCHING ON WASHINGTON! THESE POLITICIANS SHOULD BE TARRED, FEATHERED, AND RUN OUT OF WASHINGTON ON A RAIL!
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304410204579142141827109638
Insurers say the federal health-care marketplace is generating flawed data that is straining their ability to handle even the trickle of enrollees who have gotten through so far, in a sign that technological problems extend further than the website traffic and software issues already identified.
Emerging errors include duplicate enrollments, spouses reported as children, missing data fields and suspect eligibility determinations, say executives at more than a dozen health plans.
Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Nebraska said it had to hire temporary workers to contact new customers directly to resolve inaccuracies in submissions.
* I CAN SEE THE HUFFPO HEADLINE NOW: "OBAMACARE CREATES NEW JOBS!"
(*SMIRK*)
Medical Mutual of Ohio said one customer had successfully signed up for three of its plans.
(*CLAP...CLAP...CLAP*)
The flaws could do lasting damage to the law if customers are deterred from signing up or mistakenly believe they have obtained coverage.
HHS, which is running all or part of the marketplaces in 36 states, has repeatedly declined to answer specific questions about its handling of the rollout, including specific glitches, enrollment figures, or its plans to fix the problems.
(Health-department officials have pressured insurers to refrain from commenting publicly about the problems, according to executives at four health plans, who asked not to be named.)
The GOP-led House Energy and Commerce Committee announced Thursday night it would hold a hearing next week on the rollout of the law and called on HHS to "voluntarily" make officials available after the secretary's staff said she couldn't come.
* YOU'D THINK THE DEMOCRATS WOULD WANT TO INVESTIGATE AS WELL...
(*SHRUG*)
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
Supporters of the law said they were frustrated by the lack of answers from the administration. "I wish they would explain what the technical problems are and how they intend to fix them," said Timothy Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee University and a longtime defender of the overhaul.
Of 209,000 users who began to register on healthcare.gov on Monday or Tuesday of this week, just over one-quarter finished the process, according to an estimate made by the analytics firm comScore for The Wall Street Journal. In the first week, only 10% did so. ... As more of those users attempted to sign up for plans this week, insurers began noticing problems with enrollment data. For now, they say they are largely able to manually correct the errors. But as enrollment increases...that may not be possible, they worry.
Scott & White Health Plan in Temple, Texas, has received 25 enrollees from the federally run exchange so far. "There are some missing data elements that are requiring a lot of research on our part," said Allan Einboden, the health plan's chief executive. "If we'd received 5,000 and they all had to be worked, that's a lot of extra administrative costs," said Mr. Einboden, who said he expects the problems to be fixed.
After realizing that some applications listed up to three spouses in a single family, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Nebraska, which has about 50 health-law enrollees, had to "stop those enrollments from going through the automated process," said Matt Leonard, the insurer's sales manager. "It takes an automated process and turns it into a manual process," he said.
At Priority Health in Michigan, health-plan staff are calling new customers to confirm each of their "couple of dozen" enrollees accurately picked the plan, said Joan Budden, chief marketing officer, after realizing some had enrolled in multiple health plans, likely owing to user error linked to slow healthcare.gov response times. "Sometimes they pushed the [submit] button three times," Ms. Budden said.
* FOLKS... YA CAN'T MAKE THIS $HIT UP!
* IF OBAMACARE HAS SCREWED UP THE INITIAL SIGN-UP PROCESS SO BADLY... WHAT ABOUT ACTUALLY ADMINISTERING IT ONCE IT'S UP AND RUNNING "PROPERLY?" (OH... AND WE'RE STILL ONLY TALKING INSURANCE; WE'RE NOT EVEN TALKING ABOUT EVENTUAL MEDICAL CARE... MEDICAL TREATMENTS... HOW PATIENTS (AS OPPOSED TO INSURANCE CLIENTS) WILL BE TREATED!
Sioux Falls, S.D.,-based Avera Health Plans has called each of its 21 incoming customers to make sure the data are correct.
* 21. (YES... 21.)
As consumers struggle to navigate healthcare.gov, some health-plan executives worry that only the sickest — those who most expect to need insurance — will persist in seeking coverage. If younger consumers who are on the fence about buying coverage find the process too onerous, insurers may end up with too few healthier members to offset the costs of less-healthy enrollees.
* YA THINK...?!?!
Tara Seidenberg, a 48-year-old paralegal from suburban Houston with multiple sclerosis, says she is likely to put up with all kinds of hurdles to buy coverage. After days of failed attempts to sign up on healthcare.gov, she is taking a break to wait for the glitches to resolve. She takes medications that cost $4,600 a month and her current coverage won't be available next year.
* AND WHY I WONDER WON'T HER CURRENT COVERAGE "BE AVAILABLE" NEXT YEAR...??? (LET ME GUESS - OBAMACARE?)
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