Well, gang... you read yesterday's stand-alone...
(*SHRUG*)
Hopefully you read yesterday's newsbites...
(*PURSED LIPS*)
What do you think?
To those of you who are my age or thereabout, have you ever seen anything like the last five years? Is this not above and beyond the usual muck of politics... the lies, the incompetence, the waste, the contempt for the very rule of law?
5 comments:
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-30/insurers-oppose-obamacare-extension-as-danger-to-profits.html
Allowing Americans more time to enroll for health coverage under ObamaCare may raise premiums and cut into profits, insurers are telling members of Congress in a bid to stop such a move.
* WASN'T IT ONLY TWO WEEKS AGO THAT DEMOCRATS WERE SCREAMING "OBAMACARE IS THE LAW, IT CAN'T BE HALTED, IT CAN'T BE DEFUNDED, IT CAN'T BE CHANGED!"
* FOLKS... WEREN'T ALL THE FALSE PROMISES WE WERE GIVEN WHEN OBAMA AND THE DEMS "SOLD US" ON OBAMACARE DEPENDENT UPON ANALYSIS PROVIDED BY "THE NON-PARTISAN CBO" - ANALYSIS DEPENDENT UPON THE LAW AS ACTUALLY WRITTEN AND PASSED?
* FOLKS... IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED... EVER OBAMA "WAIVER" MOVES THE GOAL-POSTS FURTHER AND FURTHER FROM WHERE THEY WERE WHEN "THE DEAL" WAS INKED!
Extending the enrollment period would have a “destabilizing effect on insurance markets,” said Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for the Washington-based lobbyist group American’s Health Insurance Plans.
* WHILE I APPRECIATE THE IRONY OF THE SITUATION... THAT THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY WENT ALONG WITH OBAMACARE PRECISELY BECAUSE OBAMACARE PROMISED A FLOOD OF NEW CUSTOMERS AND THUS SHORT-TERM PROFITS... MY "AMUSEMENT" CEASES AT THE POINT WHERE CONTRACT LAW BECOMES NOTHING MORE THAN A FLIP OF THE COIN ANY DAY OF THE WEEK ORIGINATING IN THE OVAL OFFICE.
* FOLKS... IF OBAMACARE ISN'T WHAT'S BEEN WRITTEN INTO LAW BUT RATHER WHATEVER OBAMA SAYS IT IS ON ANY PARTICULAR DAY...
(*SHRUG*) (*SIGH*)
Allowing younger, healthy Americans to sign up later, as they probably would, means less revenue for insurers counting on those premiums to help defray the cost of sicker customers, threatening industry profits.
* DUH!
* AND AGAIN... THE FORMAL DEFINITION FOR WHAT THE ARTICLE REFERS TO AS "INSURERS COUNTING ON THESE PREMIUMS" USED TO BE CALLED "CONTRACT LAW," OR "THE RULE OF LAW." WHETHER ONE FEELS THEY "DESERVE" IT OR NOT, THE PLAIN TRUTH IS THAT THE INSURANCE COMPANIES ARE BEING SCREWED.
* FOLKS... ASK YOURSELVES... IF THE RICH AND POWERFUL INSURANCE COMPANIES WITH THEIR LEGIONS OF LAWYERS AND LOBBYISTS CAN'T COMPEL OBAMA TO ABIDE BY THE RULE OF LAW... HOW COULD ANY OF US EVER FEEL CONFIDENT THAT THE PROTECTIONS OF LAW APPLY TO US?
“If you can enroll at any point in the year, then you can just wait until you get sick,” Brian Wright, an analyst with Monness Crespi Hardt in New York, said in a telephone interview. “This isn’t the industry crying foul and exaggerating the issue, this is actually one of those issues where there is a well-grounded reason for the concerns.”
* YA THINK...?!?!
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
It’s a message the industry is taking to Congress after Republicans there, along with at least 10 Democrats, have suggested enrollment be extended beyond its current March 31 deadline because of issues with healthcare.gov, the federal health insurance website that’s been plagued by software miscues.
* LISTEN... IT'S A MESS... BUT LEAVING THE INSURANCE COMPANIES STUCK HOLDING THE BAG? NOT FAIR! NOT RIGHT! SUCH ACTION WOULD NEGATE THE WHOLE "CONTRACT" IN MY VIEW. YOU CAN'T SIMPLY REMOVE THE REVENUE GENERATING PORTION OF THE BILL WHILE LEAVING IN PLACE THE CARE MANDATES WHICH ARE A COST FOR THE INSURANCE COMPANIES! THE WHOLE BILL SHOULD BE DISGUARDED. IT CAN'T BE FIXED. IT WAS ALWAYS BUILT UPON LIES AND BRIBES AND WISHFUL THINKING.
Consumers who don’t have coverage through their employers or government health programs are being encouraged to sign up by mid-December for plans that take effect Jan. 1. After March 31, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act imposes penalties on Americans without coverage.
* NO, NO! NOT "PENALTIES!" REMEMBER THE SUPREME COURT RULING... THESE ARE "TAXES," NOT PENALTIES!
(*SIGH*)
* FOLKS... OBVIOUSLY I WAS BEING SARCASTIC UP ABOVE... BUT NOT JUST SARCASTIC. CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS AND THE FOUR "LIBERALS" ON THE SUPREME COURT DELIBERATELY TWISTED THE CONSTITUTION INTO A PRETZEL IN ORDER TO UPHOLD OBAMACARE. THIS IS HOW FAR WE'VE SUNK AS A NATION IN TERMS OF RESPECT FOR THE RULE OF LAW. IN TRUTH IT IS A PENALTY WE'RE TALKING ABOUT. A PENALTY FOR NOT BUYING SOMETHING. IT'S NOT A TAX. IT WAS NEVER A TAX. JUSTICE ROBERTS BETRAYED US ALL.
A later deadline would stretch insurers past the time when by law they must set rates for 2015.
(*SNORT*)
If insurers only have information from sicker, costlier patients in hand by the time they have to start reporting premiums to the federal government, it may force them to boost premium costs for the next year ahead, Zirkelbach said.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
“Extending the open enrollment period could also cause significant uncertainly and instability in 2015 premium rates,” he said in a written statement. “Health plans would have to start submitting premiums to regulators before knowing who is enrolled in their insurance plans.”
Aetna Chief Executive Officer Mark Bertolini said yesterday on a call with analysts that he is concerned the flaws with healthcare.gov will lead to an extension of the enrollment deadline. “We worry about things like extended open enrollment and for how long that goes,” Bertolini said. “We think the level of participation of the full population in the exchanges is important, so the enrollment process on the website is incredibly important to get right because, as individuals try these websites, the younger, healthier people aren’t going to give them more than one shot.”
* FOLKS... THIS IS ALL ON OBAMA... ALL ON THE DEMOCRATS...
http://www.myfoxny.com/story/23824168/nys-comptroller-25-percent-of-real-estate-is-untaxed
When it comes to a certain type of tax, not everyone is paying a share, according to a new report.
The New York State Comptroller's Office took a look at tax-exempt properties in the state and found that more than 25% of the real estate is exempt from all local taxes.
The total value of the exempt properties is $680 billion.
In New York City, about 32% of the total real estate value cannot be taxed.
"In an era of limited resources, the impact of property tax exemptions complicates the financial picture of our local governments," Comptroller DiNapoli said in a said in a statement. "In localities with higher exemptions, taxable property owners are often carrying a much higher burden."
* YA THINK...?!?!
Crain's New York senior real estate reporter Daniel Geiger said it is a crushing burden for those who do pay taxes.
* DUH!
So what is tax exempt?
More than you think.
The study found that 41% is government-owned property...
* OBVIOUSLY THERE'S TOO MUCH GOVERNMENT PROPERTY!
...28% is individual homeowners who qualify for special exemptions...
* OBVIOUSLY TOO MNAY PEOPLE QUALIFY FOR "SPECIAL EXEMPTIONS"...
...14% for non-profit institutions including religious, academic and hospitals.
* PERHAPS IT'S TIME TO RECONSIDER THE WHOLE "NOT FOR PROFIT" TAX DYNAMIC...
(*PURSED LIPS*)
Industrial and commercial properties account for 9%, and agriculture and public housing another 8%.
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/30/deportations-plummet-2013-lowest-2007/?page=all#pagebreak
U.S. authorities deported fewer immigrants in fiscal year 2013 than at any time since President Obama took office...
* I'D LIKE TO SEE THE NUMBERS FROM 1946 ONWARD.
... which suggest Mr. Obama’s non-deportation policies have hindered removals of illegal immigrants.
* NO... KIDDING...
Just 364,700 immigrants were removed in fiscal year 2013, according to internal numbers from U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement that CIS released Wednesday — down 11%from the nearly 410,000 who were deported in 2012.
* AND WHERE DOES THAT NUMBER FROM THAT YEAR FIT IN WITH HISTORIC NORMS?
The administration has testified to Congress that it has enough money to deport 400,000 every year, but Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at CIS, said Mr. Obama and the Homeland Security Department have placed so many illegal immigrants off-limits for deportations that they cannot find enough people to fulfill that quota.
(*SMIRK*)
“The policies that they’ve implemented, especially prosecutorial discretion and the new detainer policy, are dramatically suppressing interior enforcement,” Ms. Vaughan said. “Even though they are finding out about more illegal aliens than ever before, especially more criminal aliens, the ICE agents in the field have been ordered to look the other way.”
* AGAIN...
“Even though they are finding out about more illegal aliens than ever before, especially more criminal aliens, the ICE agents in the field have been ordered to look the other way.”
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
CIS said it obtained the numbers “despite a gag order” that ICE, which is part of the Homeland Security Department, imposed on its employees to keep the figures under wraps until they are finalized.
(*SILENCE*)
ICE spokeswoman Gillian Christensen said the agency has not tried to hide its new priorities, which have led to changes in the demographics of deportations.
“Over the course of this administration, DHS has set clear, common sense priorities to ensure that our finite enforcement resources are focused on public safety, national security, and border security,” she said. “ICE has been vocal about the shift in our immigration enforcement strategy to focus on convicted criminals, public safety and border security and our removal numbers illustrate this.”
* AND AS WITH MOST OF WHAT WE HEAR FROM THE ADMINISTRATION, THIS IS BULLSHIT.
Ms. Vaughan said that ICE agents and officers are encountering more immigrants than even, including those with criminal records, which makes the drop in deportations more surprising. She said there’s a “target-rich environment” but the administration has hamstrung deportations.
* YEP!
The 364,700 deportations are the lowest since fiscal year 2007...
But the CIS report said even the 364,700 figure could be misleadingly high. Ms. Vaughan said more than half of those are immigrants caught at the border but put through ICE deportation proceedings anyway, which helps inflate total deportation figures.
* WHAT A FRIGGIN' SCAM...!
Mr. Obama and his appointees at the Homeland Security Department have issued several policies designed to put illegal immigrants in the interior of the U.S. off-limits from deportations. Probably the most famous of those is called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which applies to so-called “Dreamers,” the young illegal immigrants who were usually brought to the U.S. by their parents and are considered among the most sympathetic cases in the immigration debate. More than 11 months into operation, DACA had granted tentative legal status to 430,236 illegal immigrants.
* WITHOUT CONGRESS HAVE GRANTED SUCH AUTHORITY. THUS... AN ILLEGAL AMNESTY.
But Ms. Vaughan said very few of those were ever in deportation proceedings in the first place, so their exclusion cannot explain the drop in removals.
Ms. Vaughan said that according to her preliminary statistics just 4% of deportations came from Homeland Security Investigations, which is the division responsible for worksite enforcement, anti-smuggling operations and tracking down immigrants who overstay their visas.
The administration says it is trying to focus on those with serious criminal records, but the CIS report challenges that, too.
Through the first 10 months of fiscal year 2013, ICE had removed just 128,441 criminal aliens — down 11%from the same period in 2012.
* FOLKS... THE INMATES ARE RUNNING THE ASYLUM. PERIOD.
Post a Comment