<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/0inaaZWmcpo?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Party Time! Obama Jets Off To Hawaii For Vacation… Looking forward to long walks on the beach with . . . Reggie Love.
Jesus Christ... this is the most depressing thread on the internet. By all means, keep posting. It's good stuff, just depressing.
CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo Opens A Can Of Whoop-Ass On Dem Sen. Ben Cardin Over Democrats Refusal To Put Spending Cuts, Entitlement Reform on Table In Fiscal Cliff Talks… <iframe src="http://videos.mediaite.com/embed/player/?content=56JWR41JX1QXW0X2&layout=&content_type=content_item&playlist_cid=&media_type=video&read_more=1&widget_type_cid=svp" width="420" height="421" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" allowtransparency="true"></iframe> Definitely a must-watch video. Note at the end how the NYSE floor traders break out in applause after she concludes the interview. Via Mediaite: . . . At this point, Bartiromo began shaking her head and laughing as Cardin insisted that the Democrats have long been ready to move forward with a deal. Unconvinced and clearly agitated, Bartiromo pointed at the screen and directly confronted Cardin about whether he’d be willing to consider tax code reform as a means to obtaining new revenue. The senator’s response essentially boiled down to “No,” and so Bartiromo went off on him again: “You’re talking about $1.2 trillion in revenue, but you’re not prepared to put anything on the table. People are not stupid!” Cardin then replied that “the easiest way to get the revenues is to [raise taxes on] the highest income brackets,” Bartiromo had enough and ended the conversation: “That’s all you want to do. That’s it. It’s your way or the highway. Raise the rates on the rich. No other way. Your way or the highway. That’s it. That’s where we are. Thank you, Senator.”
Doug Ross I WONDER WHY THEY WAITED UNTIL AFTER THE ELECTION? EPA Cranks Out Third Job-Killing Regulation in a Week Merry Christmas, Tiny Tim: the EPA has issued yet another devastating regulation. The Boiler MACT rule will hit American companies with a double whammy: it will kill jobs and spike the prices of almost every good and service. Oh, and there’s an added bonus: it will make U.S. companies even lesscompetitive internationally. The National Association of Manufacturers is calling out the Obama administration. The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) President and CEO Jay Timmons issued this statement on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) final Boiler MACT regulation: “For the second straight week, the EPA has finalized another costly and crippling regulation at a time when our economy is on the brink.Boiler MACT will not create jobs, and studies indicate it could cost manufacturers as much as $14 billion. Manufacturers are understandably growing more pessimistic about the direction of the economy. The end-of-year regulatory assault on businesses, combined with the uncertainty of the fiscal cliff, makes for one of the worst business environments in living memory. …this regulation remains far from being realistic. Currently, it is 20 percent more expensive to manufacture in the United States compared to our major trading partners, and Boiler MACT will only drive that differential higher…
:roll: “EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson resigns” Home - by Cardigan - December 28, 2012 - 22:00 America/New_York - 5 Comments Protein Wisdom What they tell you: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson says she’s stepping down after nearly four years on the job. Jackson announced her departure in a statement Thursday. She gave no particular reason for leaving but said she was ready for new challenges, time with her family and new opportunities to make a difference. Jackson’s tenure was marked by high-profile brawls with industry and congressional Republicans over such issues a global warming pollution, the Keystone XL oil pipeline and new controls on coal-fired plants. She says she’s leaving the agency, in her words, “confident the ship is sailing in the right direction.” Jackson is expected to leave after the State of the Union address in late January. … and what they don’t: [...] the timing was no accident. She claims to have told President Obama shortly after his re-election she planned to leave in early 2013, but her announcement went public just days after the Justice Department agreed – as a result of a lawsuit filed by CEI – to begin producing 12,000 emails from her “Richard Windsor” alias account. The emails relate to the war on coal Jackson was orchestrating on behalf of President Obama outside the appropriate democratic process.
Medical Excise Tax for Free Healthcare Home - by illustr8r - January 2, 2013 - 21:15 America/New_York - 18 Comments from The Blacksphere on Facebook and Twitter OK…. Here comes some of those Obama care taxes on Jan 1, 2013. Soon every purchase you make, there will more taxes. On 103.98 I was charged 8.58 for Texas state taxes. And then Obama care medical tax another 2.39. So the more you spend , the more goes to the “so called free Obama care”.
Seems to have been a glitch in Cabela's software. http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/medicaldevice.asp It's not on everything but still...
Fun Fact Of The Day: Workers Making $30K Will Take A Bigger Hit On Their Pay Than Those Earning $500K Under New Fiscal Deal… A whole lot of people are about to find out they’re one of the evil “rich” people Obama has been railing against. Via Daily Mail: Middle-class workers will take a bigger hit to their income proportionately than those earning between $200,000 and $500,000 under the new fiscal cliff deal, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. Earners in the latter group will pay an average 1.3 percent more – or an additional $2,711 – in taxes this year, while workers making between $30,000 and $200,000 will see their paychecks shrink by as much as 1.7 percent – or up to $1,784 – the D.C.-based think tank reported. Overall, nearly 80 percent of households will pay more money to the federal government as a result of the fiscal cliff deal. ‘The economy needs a stimulus, but under the agreement, taxes will go up in 2013 relative to 2012 – not only on high-income households, as widely discussed, but also on every working man and woman in the country, via the end of the payroll tax cut,’ said William G. Gale, co-director of the Tax Policy Center. ‘For most households, the payroll tax takes a far bigger bite than the income tax does, and the payroll tax cut therefore – as [the Congressional Budget Office] and others have shown – was a more effective stimulus than income tax cuts were, because the payroll tax cuts hit lower in the income distribution and hence were more likely to be spent,’ he added.
Health Insurers Raise Some Rates By Double Digits But…but.. “Affordable Care Act”? Even the NY Times is reporting on the failures of Obamacare. Via NY Times: Health insurance companies across the country are seeking and winning double-digit increases in premiums for some customers, even though one of the biggest objectives of the Obama administration’s healthcare law was to stem the rapid rise in insurance costs for consumers. Particularly vulnerable to the high rates are small businesses and people who do not have employer-provided insurance and must buy it on their own. In California, Aetna is proposing rate increases of as much as 22 percent, Anthem Blue Cross 26 percent and Blue Shield of California 20 percent for some of those policy holders, according to the insurers’ filings with the state for 2013. These rate requests are all the more striking after a 39 percent rise sought by Anthem Blue Cross in 2010 helped give impetus to the law, known as the Affordable Care Act, which was passed the same year and will not be fully in effect until 2014. In other states, like Florida and Ohio, insurers have been able to raise rates by at least 20 percent for some policy holders. The rate increases can amount to several hundred dollars a month. The proposed increases compare with about 4 percent for families with employer-based policies.
No more babies in Pennsylvania... http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/16/southwestern-pa-hospital-to-stop-baby-deliveries/
Tom, Here is where our present and past "Wall Street free market" style healthcare has led us: http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-life-expectancy-lowest-among-industrialized-countries/5318672 This is a downward trend for us and amongst our youth healthcare measuring sticks are even worse because of the lack of quality healthcare insurance for many. Hell my wife is an RN and with her insurance ( mine at work is horrible ) I am having to pay $4500.00 out of pocket for cataract surgery on my eyes. I don't have a spare 4500.00 sitting around but I am doing it anyway because....welll...... my eyes are pretty damned important. The owner of my company's wife just told me their healthcare doesn't cover any of her cataract surgery for her two eyes..... so over $9,000.00 will come out of their pocket. That's the owner and the sales maanger for the company...... So what do the poor people do? Sometimes I think you guys here on Skybox ( and on Fox News ) just don't have a clue what's out there in the real world that is facing the great majority of Americans today. It's a very tough and economically debilitatiing environment and instead of championing some real measures of relief all any of you can say is "Obama has it wrong.....blah blah blah...." just give it back to the old school......etc etc... Well....the old school has our nation's healthcare system in a state of crisis..... a perpetual state of FUBAR.
The most telling part of that socialist report was this stat Note that the leading causes do not list unavailability of health care. We have probably the best highway system in the world and I'm willing to bet our population per capita drives more than any other country. Therefore we have more people dying in car accidents. The other two causes can be attributed to city high crime neighborhoods where, as in Chicago, drugs and drug related violence account for most of the violent deaths on a yearly basis. They don't have ghettos like the South Bronx, Chicago's south side and Watts in the countries that we are compared with. They also don't have millions of illegals in their populations. The fact is that those that have insurance support those that don't. By law everyone has to be treated by hospital ERs even if they don't have any money. So how do the hospitals make up for the "free" medical care that they have to provide? Why they charge higher rates than necessary for those that can afford it. In other words, the haves are supporting the have nots. I can't believe that you think it's unfair that you have to pay so much. You can't expect the working poor to be absorbing the cost of health care. Your getting soaked just like the folks you resent. You just don't see it.
With a reduced.... and stagnant income since 2008.....the Great Recession......I am like most Americans and worse than some because of my age......I am totally screwed the higher normal essential healthcare rises. Yes.... I am getting soaked and it has become progressively worse since Jan. 2001..... :wink:
Yes, and I met that state of FUBAR Tuesday, January 8. Being a Shepherd rather than a sheep, my head is usually on a swivel. My wife being a manager in the Seton Healthcare network, I fully comply with their demands that I not take my firearm in the hospital with me. I walked into Brackenridge Medical Center where I do weekly therapy from my hand surgery. When I got off the elevator on the second floor, I noticed someone asleep face down on a couch in the hallway. This being totally out of place and out of the norm, I called Cindy to get security there. My first thought was that this was an employee that should be walked off the property for sleeping on the job. This guy hears my call, jumps up off the couch, and started yelling at me saying: "What I'm doing is none of your business. I'm homeless and have spent over $12,000 in this hospital (brace on his right arm)." My expression never changed while I looked him in the eye telling security where I was located over the phone. I told him that if he was homeless, I'm sure that I helped pay that $12,000 and he should consider getting out of my face. "Obama paid this for me. You had nothing to do with it!" About that time, security was seen trotting down the corridor and this idiot turns and runs the other way. This is the mental attitude of the takers in this world and there are more takers now than givers. I later found out that this was the third time that he had confronted patients but it was the first time that the patients had not backed down. Dave, those that can't take care of their own medical expenses can be seen in any emergency room. As long as they pay a few dollars each month, the hospitals can't touch them. They can't refuse service no matter how much someone owes the hospital. That is the biggest reason for high insurance and healthcare costs to we who do pay. Nobody is turned away so not being able to afford insurance is not the end of the world that you make it out to be. Cataracts, though a life changing condition, are not a life threatening condition. I would be surprised to see that covered under obamacare especially since cataracts do not cause pregnancy. Although, cataracts in a younger lady could cause unwanted pregnancy from an UGLY guy!
A few dollars is one thing......I am paying thousands to correct an eye condition that threatens my ability to drive a car safely and read what I have to read at work. This was essential and cost me big time......and we have insurance that we pay hundreds of dollars per month for. Health care expense for the average American family is out of control and as a nation we still lag behind other western nations in good health and life expectancy.
take the blindfold off Dave. Instead of bitching about the high cost of healthcare, understand why it is high and campaign against it. Until you and I quit having to pay for millions of people that can't or won't work, nothing is going to get better.