Affordable Care Act - Bend Over and Grab Your Ass

So now the Affordable Care Act is upon us, and America better wake up.  The one thing about liberal academic planners, they don't realize that all of their grandiose ideas NEVER translate to reality.  These folks, with their heads in the clouds, are going to leave the rest of us bent over, holding our ass.  Slowly, unfortunately too slowly, people are beginning to realize the economic debacle we are facing and the potential collapse of our health care system.

Several large companies have already announced termination of employee health care benefits, the latest being Universal Studios in Florida which has informed its part time employees they are on their own after January 1.  The current "mini" plan which offered a reasonable price to part time employees is no longer legal under the ACA, leaving these folks to the whims of the "exchanges".  They will either buy health insurance with after tax dollars at very expensive rates...much more than the $18.00/week they are currently paying, or simply not buy the insurance and pay the penalty.

Practically, this only effects 500 of Universal's employees, the rest of the part timers being on their parents' health care plan or simply opting out.  Of course, there is no guarantee their parents will be able to keep their health insurance as a ripple effect spreads across the nation. 

Company after company is reevaluating their health care plans in light of the Obamacare debacle.  Some companies stand to save millions upon millions of dollars by paying penalties instead of providing health care.  Health care benefits will likely always be there for their key employees, but a second tier will develop for which the company will only pay  for the employee and not the family.  The third tier will be most of the rest of us...the grunts...for which no employee health care will be available.

The net result of the Affordable Care Act, initially peddled to the public as a means to cover the uninsured, will be a rapid rise in the number of uninsured....until they get sick in which case they go buy the insurance when they need it, and cancel it when they don't, driving the costs for the rest of the system through the roof.

Some people say this was designed to fail on purpose.  It was set up to force a systemic collapse and drive America to a single payer system.  If that happens,  a separate insurance system for the upper middle class and the wealthy will  develop either here in the United States or off shore, leaving the rest of us, as I said above, bent over holding our ass.

Congress is well aware of the problems and is beginning to realize what they have wrought. 

1)            Universal long term care plans were scrapped as soon as they began due to major projected cost overruns.

2)            The medical device tax is currently being re-examined because it is already driving American device manufacturers offshore.

3)            The "exchanges" supposed to be available this October are based on the development of a non-existent computer hardware and software system which has yet to be built or tested.  Health and Human Services, the Major Domo handling this fiasco, has thus far been uncooperative with Congress as it tries to determine how things are coming along.  Don't hold your breath!!!!!

4)            A majority of states have decided not to incur the costs of setting up state exchanges opting out forcing the cost and burden on the Feds.  The Feds weren't expecting that and now has a non-easily solved logistical problem.

The result of Barack Obama's pie in the sky health care plan will be larger numbers of uninsured, skyrocketing health care costs, declining income to the middle class, a tanked economy, and a health care system, once the envy of the world, totally destroyed.

You see, Obama forgot one thing.  You can write whatever you want on paper.  The devil is in the details.   As in all utopian plans...the road to hell is paved with good intentions.     

Here Comes the Inflation

One of the hallmarks of the Obama administration is peeing on your leg and telling you it’s raining. His view of the truth is Orwellian. He will tell you it is sunny and 76 degrees outside, but look out the window and you see snow and cold. What is frustrating with this guy is the media says amen to the lie…and an already ill informed American public is left confused and becomes compliant. This strategy, betting on an uninformed and compliant public, is a tried and true method of the radical left. There is nothing new here.

My wife asked when I thought the public would wake up. She answered her own question and said when the public can’t afford their cell phones anymore. Obama apparently knows this…and a government watch dog agency has just released reports which says 42% of those who received Obamaphones are not qualified to receive them at all. What was a program in the Reagan years to make sure everyone had a land line in case of emergencies has turned into a major government boondoggle that the rest of us pay for in our phone bills, cellular and otherwise.  The Obama administration is actually paying people to go out and look for folks to give cell phones to. 

One of the biggest Obama lies is there is no inflation. It allows the Federal Reserve to keep printing money to support whatever the hell Obama is trying to do. The Keynesians are running amok among us…everywhere!!! They achieve this by cherry picking what items are used in calculating inflation rates and rigging the assigned weights. But now they have a problem. The non-inflation is becoming so bad, and so pervasive, that it will be more and more difficult to hide.

The most visible sign is the 30 cent jump in the cost of a gallon of gas this past week. There are many reasons for this jump…but it is a jump nonetheless. Menu prices in restaurants are skyrocketing. The new menu in restaurants like Applebee’s and Bob Evans are up at least dollar an item. Soda and coffee prices have reached the point where I have stopped ordering them. Other restaurants shuffle the food. I was at an Italian restaurant in Cleveland last week that charged $18.00 for a plate of pasta…no meat. The new normal is a $9.00/measured pour for what is basically house wine. You can buy the entire bottle at the grocery store for $9.00….and that’s here in Youngstown.

Food prices in the grocery store are scary. I got a notice from Armstrong my cable bill is going up. You will see health insurance costs double if not more in the next 18 months….a continuing trend since the passage of Obamacare. Although your natural gas bill will remain stable…your electric bill is starting to climb. Have you tried to buy shoes lately…for that matter any clothing lately? At least in men’s shirts, some of the prices have almost doubled. Hotel rooms in major cities are through the roof, no pun intended. Housing is beginning to recover, but not by much; and for most people loans are still hard to come by. Apartment rentals, on the other hand, have been rising steadily the past few years and are now reaching eye opening figures.  Automobile prices also rising, and quickly. 

All of which brings us full circle to the comment my wife made about people being able to afford their cell phones. For the first time, cell phones sales actually declined last year. Maybe it’s a function of a maturing market. After all, even the smart phones reach a level of just how much more new they can do. But it may also be a function that Americans are finally reaching the point that finances are causing them to cry “uncle.” When you are paying $4.00 for a package of Dream Whip, how can you afford the latest $200.00 cellular gizmo?

And the inflation is just beginning.

Bye Bye Barack

Second presidential terms are notoriously unsuccessful. Barack Obama’s will be one for the record books. After the election, most pundits stated that full lame duck status would not begin for another two years. They were wrong. Obama’s presidency moved into lame duck status first slowly after the election, but accelerated rapidly after the Newtown shootings. In a very short period of time he has become not only ineffective, but worse for him…irrelevant.

There are many reasons for what appears to be a descent into oblivion, but at the top of the list is the 2014 elections in which a third of the Senate is up for grabs. Included are five or more key swing states that are solidly red states but by political quirks have Democratic senators, and they are vulnerable. The House is safely Republican for the next ten years. It would take very little for the Senate to swing Republican. Some pundits are predicting an even split, but other conservative Dems will temper any further radical left movement.

He has also lost favor with the uber left. Code Pink is picketing his proxies, the flash point being his drone policies. Obama is a left wing ideologue who believes the ends always justify the means. In the case of terrorists, he doesn’t want to torture them in Guantanamo, so he has decided to kill them. His spokespeople say they are not opposed to capturing the bad guys, but in fact they have only captured one while killing mucho. Ironically the drone policy is popular in the polls, but his left wing base led by Oliver Stone is unimpressed, and they are not afraid to say so. 

His foreign policy is a mess, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to hide. Bin Laden’s capture was a blow to Al Qaeda, but not mortal…not even close. Terrorism is spreading across the northern tier of Africa, Obama's neutered drones notwithstanding. Leading from behind works for awhile, but sooner or later while leading from behind, you get left behind. The world is becoming a more dangerous place by the day. Folks are finally starting to figure it out.  At least some of the press is asking the right questions.

The truth about Obamacare is finally reaching the public. It has been and continues to be a slow process, but folks are beginning to realize the devastation it will have on the economy and individual lives. There is more than a good chance the entire scheme will collapse under its own weight before it is even implemented. But those running for Senate aren’t stupid and they can read the CBO projected figures that 8-9 million Americans will lose their health care. The economy is contracting….and it will get worse.  With Obama on the way out, they will desert him like rats leaving a sinking ship. He said that you could keep the health care insurance you had.  He lied.  People are beginning to know it.

He has lost the gun debate. Never let a crisis go to waste, but half the population of the country still believes in the Constitution. It doesn’t help that none of Obama’s proposals would have done anything to stop the Newtown massacre. Bruce Willis articulated that point yesterday when he said he doesn’t know how to legislate insanity. Liberal claptrap just doesn't cut it this time.  One local school district has implemented a multi-layered protection program which can become the model for the rest of the nation.  It is a common sense proposal, starting with a police car parked in the parking lot, then a security guard, then a small number of administration and teachers having access to arms in case of an emergency.  This will work. 

Immigration reform has been usurped by an alliance of Democratic and Republican senators led by Marco Rubio. Senator Rubio is fresh, articulate and Hispanic. He is successfully building bridges in the Congress looking for common ground to get things done. In a word, he is leading. And it is refreshing!!! While a bias press continually touts the death of the Republican Party, Rubio belies the stories. He is making Obama look like yesterday’s news and the piker that he is.

The nation faces tough times ahead with Obama still in the White House, but maybe now there may be some reason to smile again. I know I am...at least a little bit.