This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden

  • Another Runaway Roaring Down the ObamaCare Tunnel

    If the Obama administration thinks it has its hands full trying to create an effective system for enrolling participants, as the saying goes, “They ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.” Anyone with experience in the health care market can tell you that a far bigger problem than program enrollment or even delivery of services is billing and collections.

    This ongoing train wreck of an introduction to the enrollment program has had many of us wondering how in the world these clowns will ever be able to handle the much more difficult issue of paying for it. Even the Washington Post can see the pending problems as outlined in an article by the former boss of the Massachusetts forerunner of Obama’s program.

    Jon Kingsdale, who ran the Bay State operation from 2006 to 2010, correctly shows just how those billing and premium payment problems are going to be hugely difficult for ObamaCare. Many of the very people whom ObamaCare was designed to insure are the very poor, and those folks share a common cultural trait that is going to guarantee that difficulty: they don’t use banks, and most can’t get credit cards. Since virtually all health insurance billing and premium collection are done either by bank check or electronic transfer through a bank checking or credit card account, an administrative cost-saver for insurers, how are these folks going to make their payments? According to this report by Jackson Hewitt Tax Services, the number of these “unbanked Americans” is just under 50 million and that:

    More than one in four uninsured Americans eligible for the new premium assistance tax credits under the ACA does not have a checking account. Among the uninsured, non-elderly population with household incomes in the tax credit eligible range, 27 percent are effectively “unbanked.”

    The Jackson Hewitt report says the problem can be easily fixed simply by the government forcing insurers to accept debit card payments. But they fail to note that this will require setting up another federal program akin to EBT, and doing it very quickly — within weeks, in fact. Good luck with that.

    At WaPo, linking to the JH report, Kingsdale notes even more problems:

    Enrollees are not covered until their first month’s premium is received. In the individual insurance market, premium billing and collection is difficult to track. Folks frequently pay late or in weekly installments, or send too little or even too much. And when they stop paying, they often do not notify the insurer; the company must determine whether it is an intentional termination, an oversight, or a lost or late payment. Unlike most of today’s 15 million direct enrollees, who pay premiums on their own, an estimated 27 percent of those who will be eligible for tax credits under the ACA do not have checking accounts. So they must use cash, money orders or prepaid debit cards to pay their share of monthly premiums.

    Remember, enrollees remain uninsured until their first month’s premium is received. And until the exchanges begin to collect premiums, their operations remain underfunded — a bit of a Catch-22.

    This has all the appearance of a runaway locomotive roaring down ObamaCare’s tunnel of troubles, headed smack into the caboose of the already derailed Enrollment Express.

    You have to shake your head in wonder that ObamaCare’s promoters failed to anticipate and address this payment train wreck. It has to make you wonder just how well these liberal elites really understand the poor folks they profess to stand up for.

    Crossposted at American Thinker

  • Israel rejects Kerry-Iran deal

    John Kerry stopped by Israel yesterday on his way to Switzerland to negotiate with Iran over their nuclear program, the program that most of the world believes will result in yet another nuclear-armed nation in the unstable Middle East. Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, says that Israel “utterly rejects” the plan that Kerry will offer Iran, according to the Associated Press;

    “I understand the Iranians are walking around very satisfied in Geneva as well they should because they got everything and paid nothing,” Netanyahu told reporters.

    “They wanted relief of sanctions after years of grueling sanctions, they got that. They paid nothing because they are not reducing in any way their nuclear enrichment capability. So Iran got the deal of the century and the international community got a bad deal,” Netanyahu said.

    “This is a very bad deal and Israel utterly rejects it. Israel is not obliged by this agreement and Israel will do everything it needs to do to defend itself and defend the security of its people,” he said.

    Well, really, what did everyone expect from this administration, especially with Kerry running our diplomacy? I expect that after giving Iran everything it wants, we’ll see a bunch of back-clapping in the White House because they got Iran to show up at negotiations, and that’s all that really counts, isn’t it? The Obama and Bush Administrations have been hoping that Israel will take direct action against Iran to stop their nuclear weapon development and this might the thing that pushes them over the edge.

  • Tricare to Obamacare

    Remember back in 2009, the Obama Administration tried to force service-connected injured veterans to buy insurance that would reimburse Tricare? The only thing that stopped the cockeyed plan in 2009 was the Veterans’ Service Organizations who, led by Dave Rehbein, the national commander of the American Legion, marched into the Oval Office and laid down the law to Obama and his staff (speaking figuratively). They quickly backed off. But just for a few years, apparently. According to Bill Gertz at the Washington Beacon, reports what I’ve been saying for years – Obama and his Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel are trashing Tricare so veterans will be forced in Obamacare;

    The proposed increases in health care payments by service members, which must be approved by Congress, are part of the Pentagon’s $487 billion cut in spending. It seeks to save $1.8 billion from the Tricare medical system in the fiscal 2013 budget, and $12.9 billion by 2017.

    Many in Congress are opposing the proposed changes, which would require the passage of new legislation before being put in place.

    “We shouldn’t ask our military to pay our bills when we aren’t willing to impose a similar hardship on the rest of the population,” Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and a Republican from California, said in a statement to the Washington Free Beacon. “We can’t keep asking those who have given so much to give that much more.”

    Administration officials told Congress that one goal of the increased fees is to force military retirees to reduce their involvement in Tricare and eventually opt out of the program in favor of alternatives established by the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.

    Yeah, but we’re not balancing the budget on the backs of veterans – I remember when Obama made that promise to the American Legion Convention. But there it is. So who is marching into the Oval Office this time? Anyone?

  • Déjà vu all over again at the Pentagon

    The Stars & Stripes reports that the Pentagon has forgotten all of the lessons that they should have learned after every war of the twentieth century. They think they can cut troops and buy more technology to replace those boots that should be on the ground in the next war;

    In a speech at a Washington security forum sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Hagel signaled that one of the hard questions facing military leaders at a time of plummeting military spending — whether to retain a hefty active-duty military with older equipment and technology, or cut troop numbers and focus on modernization — has largely been answered.

    The future of the U.S. military won’t be one in which large numbers of troops grow accustomed to garrison life on major bases, he told the audience.

    Instead, to prepare for a chaotic and “historically unpredictable” future global security environment, the military must focus future spending on beefing up advanced capabilities like cyberwar, special operations, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, Hagel said.

    It’s the same policy that the Defense Department touted after WWI, WWII, Vietnam and the Gulf War and each time there was a price to paid for trying to save money by not investing in the troops and depending on technology. The price was paid in blood at Kasserine Pass and in the Pusan Perimeter. In Iraq and Afghanistan, troops transitioned under fire from the “Meals on Wheels” missions of the 90s to actual combat operations. Nothing replaces Joe Snuffy defending the ground he stands on with his battle rifle firmly held and pointed at the enemy.

    In another Stars & Stripes article, “the experts” are drawing down the pool of youngsters from which they can recruit future soldiers by slashing benefits;

    In testimony Tuesday, David Chu, former undersecretary for defense personnel, told the panel that studies have repeatedly shown that younger troops prefer bigger pay raises now to costly pension promises later. Changing those benefits could save the department billions annually.

    But he also acknowledged that’s a difficult sell.

    “Just mentioning retirement has poisoned the discussion,” he said. “Even the (troops) who likely won’t reach the 20-year retirement are worried that we’re breaking faith with them, that we’re breaking promises.”

    David Chu has been trying to slash troops’ pay and benefits since he served in the Pentagon under the Bush Administration, so I’m not surprised that he’s on a panel that plans on hacking up pay and benefits for a more receptive administration that thinks that recruiting will remain constant while they slash compensation.

    I predict that troops will soon be training with 2x4s for rifles and jeeps with “Tank” signs hanging off the sides like they did before World War II. I remember driving down Sicily Drop Zone at Fort Bragg, jumping off the back of duece-and-a-halfs to practice assembly on the drop zone because there was no money for aircraft during the Carter years.

    Still, Commission Chairman Alphonso Maldon Jr. told members Tuesday that he’s confident they can spark an important rethinking of how to better compensate troops while reigning in personnel costs.

    “We have to get this right,” he said. “We may not have another chance like this.”

    Translation: We might not get another administration willing to screw national security to the wall.

  • Obama Treads on Tradition

    In yet another example of the spiteful pettiness of the woefully inept and totally inadequate commander-in-chief that low information voters have so unfortunately saddled upon our military, Navy SEALs and other naval warriors serving in combat are being ordered to remove the authorized Navy Jack from their battledress uniforms. That information comes from former SEAL and author, Carl Higbie, writing over at Daily Caller. According to Higbie, many of his colleagues have contacted him complaining of orders from their higher-ups to remove the traditional patch because it is controversial and associated with radical groups.

    That a symbol birthed in the same revolution that birthed this country,steeped in two hundred years of naval tradition and flown on the bows of American naval vessels worldwide, can be seen as controversial and radical is just another indication of how hypersensitive and intolerant the Democrat Left is of any expression of political thought not strictly in accordance with their very narrow views. You see, the radical groups that the Obama administration is so concerned about are the various manifestations of the Tea Party movement, many of which display the Gadsden Flag as a symbol of their determination to preserve the constitutional foundations of this nation.

    Gee, virtually all the Tea Party events I’ve witnessed usually display far greater numbers of this symbol than the Gadsden Flag. When do you suppose Obama’s no-balls, butt-bussingbrass in the Pentagon will get around to banning itswearing on the uniform and other forms of military display? Folks, we have to face the fact that an administration that will employ the IRS to enforce its political will certainly has no compunction about reshaping our nation’s military into an instrument to reflect and impose that same will.

    Crossposted at American Thinker

  • Nobel peace prize-winning president: I’m really good at killing people

    Yeah, I know this is fairly old news, but I thought I’d get it on record. According to CBS News DC, in the book “Double Down: Game Change 2012” by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, the president reportedly bragged to aides that he is “really good at killing people” referring to the administration’s drone strategy in the Middle East.

    President Bush caught a load of crap for telling the terrorists to “bring it on” after a series of threats, but he never bragged about killing people.

    The White House had not officially commented on the alleged remarks, but senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer dismissed a series of reports from the book, including one that showed Obama campaign officials deciding whether to replace Vice President Joe Biden with Hillary Clinton.

    “The president is always frustrated about leaks,” Pfeiffer said on ABC’s “This Week.” “I haven’t talked to him about this book. I haven’t read it. He hasn’t read it. But he hates leaks.”

    And, oh, by the way, he ain’t killing nobody. It’s being done at his discretion, but he’s not the one doing it, no matter how much the little Walter Mitty turd wants everyone to think he’s doing it. It’s the people making ten percent of his salary that are doing it, the ones who are lining up for treatment at the VA, the ones who are killing themselves – the ones who are lucky enough to survive Obama’s rules of engagement.

  • Two “military personnel” awarded medals for Benghazi

    In the Washington Times today, Rowan Scarborough reveals that two special forces operators volunteered to make the 400 mile journey to Benghazi from Tripoli to help rescue folks at the consulate on September 11th, 2012, despite Obama Administration claims that there were no forces in the vicinity who could arrive in a timely manner to defend the consulate;

    For months, administration officials have claimed no special operations forces were dispatched from outside Libya to Benghazi during the Sept. 11, 2012, al Qaeda terrorist attacks on the U.S. diplomatic mission and CIA annex because none was within range.

    But sources directly familiar with the attack tell The Washington Times that a unit of eight special operators — mostly Delta Force and Green Beret members — were in Tripoli the night of the attack, on a counterterrorism mission that involved capturing weapons and wanted terrorists from the streets and helping train Libyan forces.

    When word of the Benghazi attack surfaced, two members of that military unit volunteered to be dispatched along with five private security contractors on a hastily arranged flight from Tripoli to rescue Americans in danger, the sources said, speaking only on the condition of anonymity because the special operations forces’ existence inside Libya was secret.

    The two special operations forces arrived in time to engage in the final, ferocious firefight between the terrorists and Americans holed up in the CIA annex near the ill-fated diplomatic mission in Benghazi, the sources added.

    At the time of the al Qaeda attacks, the military was setting up a terrorist-hunting unit in Tripoli that included U.S. Special Operations Command’s super-secret Delta Force and Green Berets, the sources say.

    Gregory Hicks, who was deputy chief of station in Tripoli, sent the reinforcements in conjunction with the CIA. On a night when Mr. Panetta decided he did not have enough information to commit troops, Mr. Hicks decided he did.

    It looks like the administration’s whole story is falling apart. Must be one of those non-scandals.

  • Foreign policy is hard

    I remember in the early half of the last decade, we heard the screaming from the Left that President Bush had spent our foreign policy capital with the Iraq War – that no one respected us anymore. We were perceived as bullies on the world stage. The I heard during the 2008 campaign that a president Obama would fix all of that – they even nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize before the inauguration because everyone on that side of the political spectrum had great expectations of the new, young President. So here we are five years later and how’s that all working out for us? From the Associated Press;

    President Barack Obama has defended America’s surveillance dragnet to leaders of Russia, Mexico, Brazil, France and Germany, but the international anger over the disclosures shows no signs of abating in the short run.

    Longer term, the revelations by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden about NSA tactics that allegedly include tapping the cellphones of as many as 35 world leaders threaten to undermine U.S. foreign policy in a range of areas.

    […]

    “The magnitude of the eavesdropping is what shocked us,” former French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in a radio interview. “Let’s be honest, we eavesdrop too. Everyone is listening to everyone else. But we don’t have the same means as the United States, which makes us jealous.”

    “The magnitude” hasn’t been fully exposed yet. Just today, someone has released the bombshell that the NSA recorded 50 million phone calls in Spain. I’m sure there’s some really interesting shit in that. Why would they even do something like that? I spent 7 days in Spain once and I was bored most of the time – the whole country seemed more interested in taking their siesta than anything else – well, except partying.

    You all know how I feel about little Eddie Snowden, but this isn’t his fault – it’s the fault of the people who thought this was a good idea. The AP article goes on to lament how this makes John Kerry’s job harder, this administration is reaping what they sowed. They’ve been half-assing every policy this country ever had. If Bush squandered our foreign policy capital with Iraq, then what about Obama squandering the foreign policy capital with which he came into office? The world was his oyster, he was everyone’s huckleberry, and look how far we’ve fallen in just five short years. We’re the world’s punchline. We can record 50 million phone calls in one month in Spain, but we can’t launch a website.