Saturday, June 28, 2014

Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., June 28 & 29, 2014


Happy Saturday, Folks!

(And Happy Pre-Sunday While I'm At It!)

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8 comments:

William R. Barker said...

* THREE-PARTER... (Part 1 of 3)

http://dailysignal.com/2014/06/24/obamacare-exchanges-disappointing/?utm_source=heritagefoundation&utm_medium=email&utm_term=headline&utm_content=1400628&utm_campaign=saturday

In April, President Obama told the nation that “marketplace” or “exchange” enrollment, at 8 million customers as of March 31, had exceeded expectations and costs were lower than expected.

Many in the news media accepted the selectively released statistics...

* AND SIMPLY PASSED THE LIES ON...

The actual number of ObamaCare enrollees as of March 31 was likely between 6.4 million and 6.8 million, below both the administration’s figure of 8 million and its stated target of 7 million.

That 8 million figure was [deliberately] overstated because it [knowingly] counted people who weren’t actually covered because they hadn’t paid their premiums, which Blue Cross, analysts and the government agree represent a 15% to 20% range.

The administration hasn’t released any enrollment figures in the last two and a half months, and a spokesman from the government’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which helps oversee ObamaCare, said the agency is not likely to issue any updates soon.

Nobody from the White House responded to repeated requests for comment.

A spokesman for CMS said there were no plans to release figures on paid enrollment, even though health policy analyst Robert Laszewski says the administration could provide the number in days or even hours if it wanted to.

* FOLKS... THIS IS HOW THESE PEOPLE ROLL - AND THE MEDIA LARGELY PROVIDE PARTISAN COVER!

Another number falls short as well. The source who supports and helped implement ObamaCare said about 38 million uninsured are eligible for ObamaCare and “all of them should be interested in obtaining it.” Assuming the most positive estimates — that 85% of the 8 million enrollees have paid their premiums and 43% had coverage before — the newly insured would number only about 3.9 million.

By this time, CBO had projected 19 million would have been removed from the ranks of the uninsured, and CMS predicted 26 million.

(*SHRUG*)

* TO BE CONTINUED...

June 28, 2014 at 3:32 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONTINUING... (Part 2 of 3)

Estimates of how many marketplace enrollees were previously uninsured range from about one-third to more than half, depending on the survey and the methods used. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that 43% of those who purchased insurance through the marketplace already had insurance; 57% are newly insured.

* BUT OF THESE 57% WHO ARE NEWLY INSURED... WHAT PERCENTAGE RECEIVE SUBSIDIES FROM AN ALREADY BROKE, DEFICIT-RUNNING FEDERAL GOVERNMENT...?!?!

“The enrollment figures for marketplace coverage will grow over time, assuming that the exchange insurance plans don’t fail as a result of adverse selection,” said the source who supports and helped implement ObamaCare. “But the impact on reducing the uninsured so far is very disappointing.”

Many who were considered uninsurable now have affordable policies. But the Affordable Care Act has shifted the cost burden for those who already had insurance. More policies now have bigger deductibles and cost more. “In general, healthy people are paying more and unhealthy people are paying less,” says a source who supports and helped implement ObamaCare but is disappointed with the results to date, “with those above-average [income] tending to pay more and those below-average [income] tending to pay less.”

* OH... AND HERE'S SOMETHING ELSE...

Many enrollees were gained due to “coverage substitution,” according to health care policy expert Edmund Haislmaier of The Heritage Foundation, which publishes The Daily Signal. Haislmaier, who testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform earlier this month, said this means that people who had insurance then substituted what they had for new coverage with more in the way of subsidy dollars.

“If you’ve got coverage now and a government program offers a replacement with more subsidies, then you’re going to have an incentive to move to that,” Haislmaier explains. “No doubt it helps people by helping them buy something that they already had. … But it isn’t a net increase.”

* BUT WHAT IT IS A NET INCREASE OF IS... DEFICIT SPENDING... GOVERNMENT BORROWING... GOVERNMENT DEBT... TAX DOLLARS GOING TO INTEREST PAYMENTS THAT WOULD OTHERWISE GO TO ACTUAL PROGRAMS...

(*SIGH*)

* TO BE CONTINUED...

June 28, 2014 at 3:33 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 3 of 3)

Meanwhile, some who were forced out of their existing coverage but not eligible for subsidies found themselves having to re-enroll at much higher rates than before, said Laszewski.

“It was not uncommon to see [insurers] increase their [rates] by 35% to bring policies into compliance with ObamaCare,” Laszewski said. “So, they have the same relatively healthy people with perhaps more benefits but for 35% more premium.

That may be good news for the insurance companies but not for the individuals who are forced to pay more than a third more.”

* YEP. CRONY CAPITALISM. THIS IS WHY THE INSURANCE COMPANIES WENT ALONG WITH OBAMACARE!

To date, it’s been the dramatic expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act that has reduced the ranks of the uninsured far more than the exchanges or HealthCare.gov. Medicaid, state-provided health insurance for the poor, is now available to those who earn up to 138% of the federal poverty line.

CMS estimates Medicaid will get 8.6 million new enrollees in 2014, thanks to ObamaCare. Twenty-six states have expanded Medicaid, but if all did, spending by states would increase 26% — or $952 billion — from 2013 to 2022.

Where will the money come from to fund such an expansion?

* NO ONE SEEMS TO CARE...

(*SIGH*)

The federal government is paying 100% of the Medicaid extra benefit cost for the first three years. Then, 10% of the cost will transfer gradually back to the states, which already are under tremendous budget pressure.

“State budgets are horrible. The federal budget is horrible. There’s pressure to reduce anywhere you can — but we’re just expanding,” says the inside source. “How the state and federal budgets will react to this dilemma remains to be seen.”

The White House released a fact sheet in April that credited the Affordable Care Act for the fact that “health care costs are growing at the slowest level on record.”

* FOLKS... WHAT WERE YOU PAYING IN 2008? WHAT ARE YOU PAYING TODAY? WHAT HAPPENED TO THE $2,500 "SAVINGS" WE WERE SUPPOSED TO SEE - MEANING $2,500 LESS IN PREMIUMS THE YEAR AFTER OBAMACARE WAS PASSED AS OPPOSED TO BEFORE OBAMACARE?

(*SPITTING ON THE GROUND*)

June 28, 2014 at 3:33 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2014/june/29/celebrate-independence-day-by-opposing-government-tyranny.aspx

* BY THE ALWAYS HONORABLE RON PAUL

This week Americans will enjoy Independence Day with family cookouts and fireworks.

Flags will be displayed in abundance.

Sadly, however, what should be a celebration of the courage of those who risked so much to oppose tyranny will instead be turned into a celebration of government, not liberty.

(*NOD*)

The mainstream media and opportunistic politicians have turned Independence Day into the opposite of what was intended.

* AMERICA WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE SPARTA, MY FRIENDS... NOR EVEN ROME... NOR EVEN THE BRITISH EMPIRE...

The idea of opposing — by force if necessary — a tyrannical government has been turned into a celebration of tyrannical government itself!

* WHY DID OUR FOREFATHERS REVOLT?! IT WASN'T BECAUSE OF TAXES; IT WAS BECAUSE THEY BELIEVED THEIR RIGHTS WERE BEING ENFRINGED UPON. MY FRIENDS, IF YOU DON'T SEE HOW YOUR RIGHTS ARE BEING ENFRINGED UPON TODAY... EITHER YOU'RE POORLY EDUCATED, OR, YOU DON'T WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE REALITY.

The evidence is all around us.

How would the signers of the Declaration of Independence have viewed, for example, the Obama Administration’s “drone memo,” finally released last week, which claims to justify the president’s killing American citizens without charge, judge, jury, or oversight?

Is this not a tyranny similar to that which our Founders opposed? And was such power concentrated in one branch of government not what inspired the rebellion against the English king in the first place?

The “drone memo,” released after an ACLU freedom of information request, purports to establish the president alone as the arbiter of who is or is not a terrorist subject to execution by the U.S. government.

* ONE MORE TIME...

The “drone memo,” released after an ACLU freedom of information request, purports to establish the president alone as the arbiter of who is or is not a terrorist subject to execution by the U.S. government.

(*SILENCE*)

There is no due process involved, just the determination of the president.

* THERE... IS... NO... DUE... PROCESS... INVOLVED...

Thus far the only American citizens killed by the president are Anwar al-Awlaki and his teenaged son, but the precedent has been established, according to the memo, that the president has the authority to kill Americans he believes are terrorists.

Coincidentally, in addition to the “drone memo” released last week, a broader study of the U.S. use of drones was also released by the Stimson Center. The study, co-chaired by Gen. John Abizaid, former U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) commander, concluded that contrary to claims that drones help prevent wider conflicts by targeting specific individuals, the use of drones “may create a slippery slope leading to continual or wider wars.” In fact, the study concluded, the use of drones overseas is likely counter-productive. “Civilian casualties, even if relatively few, can anger whole communities, increase anti-U.S. sentiment and become a potent recruiting tool for terrorist organizations,” the study found.

* COMMOM SENSE, MY FRIENDS... SIMPLE COMMON SENSE...

Seven years ago I wrote in an Independence Day column: "Only the safe-guards and limitations that are enshrined in a constitutionally-limited republic can prohibit a nation from lurching toward empire...I hope every person who reads or hears this will take the time to go back and read the Declaration of Independence. Only by recapturing the spirit of independence can we ensure our government never resembles the one from which the American States declared their separation."

On Independence Day we should remember the spirit of rebellion against tyranny that inspired our Founding Fathers to set out our experiment in liberty.

* AMERIKA MUST BE DISMANTLED. GOD BLESS AMERICA!

June 29, 2014 at 7:28 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/27/us-usa-immigration-children-idUSKBN0F229L20140627

Some leading members of the U.S. Congress are calling on the Obama administration to consider launching an emergency refugee program for Central American children as one way to address a rapidly escalating humanitarian crisis at the southern border with Mexico.

* HOW'S THIS FOR AN EMERGENCY PROGRAM: CLOSE THE SOUTHERN BOARDER TO ALL BUT AMERICAN CITIZENS!

Tens of thousands of children from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras are showing up illegally, often without any parents or relatives, at the Texas border.

* SO...

* DON'T... LET... THEM... CROSS... INTO... TEXAS...!!!

* SOUNDS PRETTY FUCKING SIMPLE TO ME...!!!

Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, told Reuters on Thursday that establishing refugee application programs in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, where domestic abuse, gang violence and poverty are rampant, is the "key" to defusing the growing U.S. border crisis.

* JOHN MCCAIN IS A SENILE ASSHOLE. HONDURAS, EL SALVADOR, AND GUATEMALA - THE PEOPLE OF THOSE COUNTRIES - MUST SOLVE THEIR OWN PROBLEMS AND FIX THEIR OWN SOCIETIES... THEIR OWN COUNTRIES!

June 29, 2014 at 7:45 PM
William R. Barker said...

* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/in-fairfax-county-kindergarten-classes-school-systems-future-comes-into-focus/2014/06/28/1ced10d2-f25e-11e3-914c-1fbd0614e2d4_story.html

The kindergartners of the Class of 2026, who finished their first year in Fairfax County schools Wednesday, constitute the largest and one of the most ethnically, culturally and socio-economically diverse groups of students the county has seen, a fact that school system administrators say could pose significant challenges in the decade to come. 

Long an enclave of predominantly white, middle-class families with a top-class school system, Fairfax has experienced a dramatic demographic shift in recent years that is nowhere more obvious than in the county’s kindergarten classrooms. The white student population is receding and is being replaced with fast-growing numbers of poor students and children of immigrants for whom English is a second language.

* WE'RE LITERALLY COMMITTING NATIONAL SUICIDE... 

More than one-third of the 13,424 kindergartners in the county this year qualified for free or reduced-price meals...

* NOTHING IS "FREE!" THERE ARE NO "REDUCED PRICE MEALS" FOR THE TAXPAYER!

...and close to 40% of the Class of 2026 requires additional English instruction, among the most ever for a Fairfax kindergarten class.

* GEEZUS...

* FOLKS... THEY ARE FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGING AMERICA! DELIBERATELY SO! THEY'RE TRYING TO DESTROY AMERICA - "OUR" AMERICA. (AND THEY'RE SUCCEEDING!)

The demographic changes in Fairfax are likely to have long-term implications for the school system: Most of this year’s kindergarten class will spend the next 12 years in county schools. Schools officials believe that the challenges that come with a less-affluent and less-prepared population will exacerbate the system’s struggles with a widening achievement gap for minorities and ballooning class sizes.

* IN OTHER WORDS, FOLKS, THIS WILL DESTROY THE FAIRFAX SCHOOL SYSTEM AND INDEED FAIRFAX OVER TIME.

The rising enrollment — the overall student body has surged by more than 22,000 since 2004 — is not sustainable at the current funding level, schools officials said, which could intensify already contentious battles for tax dollars with the county’s Board of Supervisors. School Board member Ted Velkoff (At Large), chairman of its Budget Committee, said the increasing number of immigrant families in Fairfax has affected — and will continue to affect — the school system’s bottom line.

“We are required to educate their children, and we want to. But there is a cost,” Velkoff said. “There is a cost to having these children in the system. . . . And I think the thing that is troubling is that the Fairfax County taxpayer has to take a disproportionate part of this bill.”

* FEDERAL POLICY... LOCAL PAYCHECKS...

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

During the past five years, costs for English language instruction increased by more than $18 million, and elementary school teachers say they spend an increasing amount of their time on remedial education.

* AGAIN... THOSE OF YOU WHO SAY I TAKE IT TOO FAR... ALLOW ME TO ASK: IF ONE'S GOAL WAS TO DESTROY AMERICA... WOULDN'T THE POLICIES I SO OFTEN HIGHLIGHT HERE (INCLUDING WITH THIS NEWSBITE) BE THE "WEAPONS" ONE WOULD USE...?

* TO BE CONTINUED...

June 29, 2014 at 8:11 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

School Superintendent Karen Garza, who fought for budget increases this year and got less than she believes the schools need to maintain their excellence, said she expects these trends to continue.

“There are additional costs associated with these changes that will continue to challenge our budgeting in the years ahead,” Garza said.

* AND YET... SHE THEN CONTINUED...

“We view these demographic shifts and our growing diversity as a strength that we will continue to celebrate.”

* FOLKS! DO THOSE TWO STATEMENTS WHEN TAKEN TOGETHER MESH? DO THEY MAKE ANY SENSE? IS GARZA NOT SAYING, "WE CELEBRATE THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR SCHOOL SYSTEM" WHEN PUSH COMES TO SHOVE?

Like Fairfax, school systems across the region have experienced rapid increases in the number of Hispanic students as well as the number of pupils who qualify for subsidized meals.

* FOLKS... WHAT HAVE HISPANICS DONE FOR... er... "HISPANIC" NATIONS?

(*SNORT*)

* FOLKS... IF HISPANICS RUNNING HISPANIC COUNTRIES EQUALS DYSFUNCTION... HOW IS FLOODING AMERICA WITH HISPANICS GONNA MAKE AMERICA BETTER AS OPPOSED TO WORSE...???

In Montgomery County, more than 35% of students receive free or reduced-priced meals, compared with 22% in 2000. Poor students now account for 68% of the kindergarten class in Prince George’s County, and 3 in 10 kindergartners this year received additional English instruction.

* AVERT YOUR EYES... BUT THIS IS THE FUTURE OBAMA AND THE DEMOCRATS (AND FAR TOO MANY REPUBLICAN POLITICIANS) HAVE IN STORE FOR YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN. EVEN IF DESTROYING AMERICA... OR SIMPLY "HURTING" AMERICA ISN'T THE ACTUAL GOAL... IT'S WHAT'S ACTUALLY THE RESULT IN THE REAL WORLD!

At Springfield’s Lynbrook Elementary, 502 out of the 637 students speak Spanish at home, school records show, and 89% of those Spanish-speaking children were born in the United States.

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

“We’re all ESOL teachers here,” said Principal Mary McNamee, noting that literacy has become central to the school’s curriculum.

* BACKWARDS MARCH - DOUBLE-TIME!

In the school’s front office, the administrative staff primarily speaks Spanish to the students and their families.

* FOLKS... IT GETS WORSE...

Most parents are not literate in their own language, McNamee said.

(*SIGH*)

Kevin Sneed, director of construction and planning for the school system, said the rise in enrollment in recent years has created capacity issues, leading the schools to use more than 990 trailers for extra classroom space. At many schools, supply closets have been transformed into miniature food banks for children who come to school hungry and return home at the end of the day to homes with bare cupboards.

* APPARENTLY ILLEGAL ALIENS ARE UNDER NO LEGAL OBLIGATION TO FEED THEIR CHILDREN... (HOW ELSE TO EXPLAIN WHAT YOU JUST READ?)

* FOLKS... WE ARE SUBSIDIZING DYSFUNCTION! WE ARE SUBSIDIZING CHILD ABUSE!

At Mason Crest Elementary in Annandale, more than half of the 580 students live in poverty, said Assistant Principal Diane Kerr.

Understanding what the children face at home, Mason Crest teachers do not require homework, Kerr said.

(*CLAP...CLAP...CLAP*)

* WHAT A GREAT "SOLUTION," HUH?! "PROFESSIONAL EDUCATORS," HUH?! AGAIN... DYSFUNCTION HEAPED UPON DYSFUNCTION.

June 29, 2014 at 8:11 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.infowars.com/illegals-bankrupting-small-towns-in-border-states/

Small towns and counties in states bordering Mexico are drowning in debt due to the swarm of illegals stealing and destroying property, requiring expensive medical care and needing proper burials, all of which the federal government has largely refused to pay for.

For example, in Brooks Co., Texas, which is 75 miles north of the Mexican border, county judge Raul M. Ramirez told Infowars that autopsies of dead illegal aliens are rapidly draining his county’s resources which were already meager after the oil & gas industry left town.

“It was the loss of oil & gas revenue, compounded with the amount that we spend dealing with autopsies, wear and tear of [county] vehicles, the sheriff’s department, the JPs [Justices of the Peace], the magistrates, death certificates, all the paperwork that’s entailed and getting out to areas that are very, very remote,” he said. “I personally have been taken to pronounce a body [of an illegal immigrant dead] when the sheriff’s officer said ‘oh, there went the transmission’ and we had to call a wrecker to come get us.”

“Thank God for the Border Patrol; they were able to take us to where the immigrant was.”

But that was about the only federal help Brooks Co. has received, even though the Obama administration has admitted that it is responsible for this mass influx of illegals, which has hit over 90,000 since last October and will more than double by this October.

“All [the costs] occurs on the county,” Ramirez stated, adding that his county has received no financial assistance from the federal government. “All these expenses we don’t budget for and the losses we have to pay for.”

Only the State of Texas has stepped in and offered the county $150,000 to help defray the costs, and as we reported on Tuesday, Texas state troopers are also heavily patrolling border highways which are practically absent of Border Patrol activity.

One state trooper told Infowars that the border is now an explosive hotspot of violent crime, which is now rapidly spreading miles inland.

“I just got a report from a couple of days ago from a local rancher that they [illegal immigrants] broke into his ranch and we are getting more and more reports of either [Border Patrol] agents who are being accosted or deputies who are fighting resistance from these individuals,” Ramirez added.

June 29, 2014 at 11:13 PM

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