December 7, 2012

If Obamacare SAVED $1.5 Billion Last Year, Think What A SINGLE PAYER System Would Have

The Huffington Post article titled “Obamacare Health Insurance Rules Saved Customers $1.5 Billion Last Year: Study” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/05/obamacare-health-insurance-rules_n_2247380.html should leave everyone scratching their heads. Obamacare ensures that at least 80% of premiums for individual policies and 85% of premiums for group policies are used for medical care. As stated, the bill has so far saved $1.5 billion simply by commanding a behavior by insurance companies. They wasted (stole) less of citizen’s premiums. They became more efficient. What is the purpose of medical insurance? To be more specific, what should be the purpose of medical insurance? The answer is simple. It is for citizens to pool a few dollars together to build a large amount, so that the unknown few who will get sick at any given time can get medical care they can afford without being bankrupted.



America is a capitalist country. Capitalism as tool can be used to efficiently allocate resources throughout a real free market. All resources, however, are not equal. The efficient allocation of resources in healthcare can have very inhumane consequences. In fact humaneness demands that as a society there must be exceptions. Does society invest in researching diseases that affect a very few, or build parks for the pleasure of thousands? For profit insurance companies are one of the largest inefficiencies and evils within the healthcare system. Having a multitude of insurance companies require several CEOs, several Presidents, several different advertising campaigns, several computer systems, several accounting systems, etc. Doctors are bogged down with several different forms from a myriad health insurance companies. Each company must make a profit to ensure dividends for its shareholders. In order to do so health insurance companies must deny coverage, rescind coverage, or minimize coverage. What is evil within this scheme is that health insurance companies must bastardize the health insurance pool by insuring only healthy people to maximize profits by minimizing the potentially sick.



Profit has its place. Innovation sometimes comes sometimes from those who love innovating, but mostly from humans’ innate greed. It is for this reason that there must be a balance between profit in the development of drugs, hospital operations & design, medical procedures, etc., as well as public investments where the market fails or would fail. Collecting premiums and dispersing payments require no innovation that is not already used in the market. As such, private health insurance is nothing more than a skimming wealth transfer engine, a transfer from the masses to the wealthy few.



Single Payer Healthcare was never really placed on the table. The voting population was not yet educated its realities & efficiencies. In fact, much was spent to successfully misinform the citizenry on the simplicity and successes of single payer implementations in many countries around the world. http://egbertowillies.com/2012/07/27/healthcare-america-best-money-can-buy-taiwan-best-everyone-can-afford-merge-them/ The left did a very poor job in presenting the counter argument. For those disillusioned with Obamacare because it did not go far enough, do not despair. The reason the Right is fighting it as hard as they are is because the writing is on the wall. While a public option would have lowered costs much more, the writing of universal healthcare into law as well as regulations that force insurance companies to do more for their customers will eventually price private insurance companies out of the healthcare markets, which will morph America’s healthcare system into a Single Payer System.





http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/12/06/if-obamacare-saved-1-5-billion-last-year-think-what-a-single-payer-system-would-have-op-ed/

December 6, 2012

Rep. Cole BREAKS With GOP: Middle-Class TAX CUTS ‘A Victory For Common Sense’

Breaking with his party, Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) said Thursday that he supports a bill that extends tax cuts for the middle class.





The Democrat-led Senate has already passed the tax break extension. But House Republicans, led by House Speaker John Boehner (OH), have said they will not pass any extension of the tax cuts that does not include the wealthiest Americans. Boehner has argued that raising taxes on top earners would hurt job growth.


Cole floated the idea of passing the middle-class tax cut extension weeks ago, but refused to say whether he expected Boehner to back the move. He said he supported the House Speaker regardless.











http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/12/06/rep-cole-breaks-with-gop-middle-class-tax-cuts-a-victory-for-common-sense/

December 6, 2012

DeMint Jokes About Forcing Boehner Out

Keep fanning the 'Dump Boehner' flames......

Outgoing Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) joked Thursday that he would be interested in ousting House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), during an appearance on Rush Limbaugh's radio show. DeMint appeared on the show shortly after announcing his retirement from the Senate in order to run the Heritage Foundation. Ed Feulner, the current president of Heritage, was also on the show.






http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/demint-jokes-about-ousting-boehner-audio?ref=fpb

December 6, 2012

Generating Revenue: The ROBIN HOOD TAX

Polls have shown that the vast majority of Americans believe that the rich should pay their fair share of taxes. However, the Republicans seem intent on driving the economy over the fiscal cliff on that sticking point. They keep insisting that taxing the richest one percent is going to act as a disincentive. There is one problem with that thinking. It doesn’t pan out in real life. As Warren Buffet has explained in an op-ed piece in the New York Times, the ultra rich don’t decide on whether to invest based on the tax rate, but instead they do it based on whether or not something is a good investment. It’s a case of logic – get a return of less one percent in a savings account, maybe two percent on a CD, or get double digit returns on an investment. When you have that much money it’s not about losing a small amount to taxes but, instead, losing a large amount that could have been made in an investment.



This is all well and good, but Buffett’s suggestion requires changes in the tax code for money that’s already been pocketed. It’s a lengthy and complicated mess, and frankly no one wants to untie all the knots that is our tax system. The problem with tinkering with the tax system is that there are numerous loopholes, loads of options for creative accounting, and it doesn’t even touch those off shore accounts. There is one work-around to all of this. It’s called the Robin Hood tax. The Robin Hood tax works around all those problems. Instead of getting money after it’s pocketed, it gets the money up front. It’s generic name is the “financial transaction tax.” Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) has introduced the bill as the Inclusive Prosperity Act or H.R. 6411. This bill essentially charges a fraction of a percent on each financial transaction. It does this while the transaction is taking place and not after the profits have been made. Stock transactions would be taxed at .5% per transaction, and bonds and trade swaps would each see a .01% transaction fee.



So how much revenue does this type of tax or fee actually generate when the amount being taxed is so small? The sheer volume of trades that happen via computer algorithms will generate the vast majority of the revenue. It won’t even matter to the small time investor as the volume of their trades will result in pennies in fees. It will target those investors who buy and sell thousands in a single day. The fact is, those high stakes investors don’t care about losing a few dollars here and there. After all, they can make or lose millions in a day, and not lose their entire life savings.



So how much could a tax like this generate? According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, the minimum amount would be a little over $176 billion. This total assumes that the tax would discourage 50% of the volume that the 2008 market saw. This scenario assumes that higher taxes do discourage investment, but since we know savvy investors make investment decisions based on whether or not it’s a good investment, that number would certainly be higher. So assuming that investors continue to think the way the always have, this fee could generate nearly $354 billion. That’s a tidy sum, for sure. So let’s go with the Robin Hood approach. It makes sense, it’s works around loopholes, fancy accounting, and offshore bank accounts. And it generates lots of revenue.




THE ROBIN HOOD TAX:









http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/12/06/generating-revenue-the-robin-hood-tax/

December 6, 2012

ReTHUG Rep. Virginia Foxx CHEWS OUT STAFFER for Riding On Members-Only Elevator

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) chewed out a House staffer after catching her riding on a “members only” elevator, according to an ITK tipster who was on the scene. But Foxx’s office is calling our lookout's description of events in the elevator an "exaggeration."


Our spy hit the “members” button on the elevator after waiting (and waiting) for a lift on Tuesday. Elevators were slow that day because furniture was being moved around the Longworth House Office Building. When the members-only elevator arrived, our tipster and a female House staffer stepped in. The elevator went up a single floor before the doors opened and Foxx walked in with an aide.
The lawmaker, who was recently elected to a House GOP leadership post, asked for whom the pair worked. Then she turned to the female staffer, who had no clue she was on board what was soon to be the elevator ride of doom.



Foxx said to the staffer, “This is a ‘members-only’ elevator; can you read?” She then demanded the staffer’s name before the elevator stopped after going just one more floor up. “Get out here,” Foxx supposedly commanded. Before our insider and the berated staffer exited, the politician exclaimed, “What does this sign say? It says, ‘Members of Congress only.’ ” But that wasn’t it. The innocent staffer attempted to point out that the sign next to it stated, “during votes,” which is when, our tipster says, Foxx started yelling, “Members only!” as she pointed to signs. “I’m just making sure we are hiring people who know how to read,” the lawmaker said.



Foxx’s press secretary, Ericka Perryman, noted it must be a slow news day, telling us in an email, “This is silly. But it is interesting to see what great lengths of exaggeration some disrespectful junior staffers will go to just to read about themselves in the paper.” We wanted to get to the bottom of this elevator etiquette snafu. House Administration Committee Deputy Staff Director Salley Wood tells us both Foxx and the anonymous staffer are right … sort of. “There are elevators that are designated for ‘members only’ during vote series as well as elevators that are designated for ‘members only’ at all times,” says Wood. While not knowing on which elevator the alleged incident took place, Wood says signage should notify riders which elevator banks are usable and when.



Whatever the case, our ITK mole seemed flabbergasted by the elevator episode, saying of Foxx, “Seriously?!? I have never seen a member do that.”

December 6, 2012

LOL!- Ed Asner Offers To ‘PISS ON’ Fox News Producer To Demonstrate Trickle-Down Economics

Emmy Award-winning The Mary Tyler Show actor Ed Asner recently asked a Fox News producer if he could “piss on” him after he was confronted about a California Federation of Teachers video that showed cartoon rich people urinating on poor people.

Fox News host Sean Hannity and other conservative pundits first began attacking Asner on Tuesday after the animated ad that he narrated appeared on the federation’s website to explain how rich people used tax evasion, tax loopholes and tax cuts to become even richer.

On Wednesday, Hannity announced that he had sent an ambush producer out to confront the “left-wing Hollywood actor” outside his job at a New York City theater over the “disgusting hit piece.”

“I don’t remember a thing I said on it or a word I said on it,” Asner told the producer. “But I agreed to do it for California teachers. I approve this message.”

“There’s a part of it where talking about things trickling down and they have like rich people peeing on poor people,” the producer explained.










http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/12/06/ed-asner-offers-piss-on-fox-news-producer-to-demonstrate-trickle-down-economics/

December 6, 2012

COULTER CAVES! - We LOST The Election.

MORON vs. MORON ....

December 6, 2012

Breaking: Sen.DEMINT Will RESIGN FROM SENATE To Lead The Heritage Foundation

South Carolina U.S. Senator Jim DeMint will replace Ed Feulner as president of the Heritage Foundation. Mr. DeMint will leave his post as South Carolina's junior senator in early January to take control of the Washington think tank, which has an annual budget of about $80 million.

Sen. DeMint's departure means that South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, a Republican, will name a successor, who will have to run in a special election in 2014. In that year, both Mr. DeMint's replacement and Sen. Lindsey Graham will be running for reelection in South Carolina.

Mr. DeMint was reelected to a second term in 2010. The 61-year-old senator had announced earlier that he would not seek a third term.

Mr. Feulner, who is 71 and planned to step down, is to be named chancellor of Heritage, a new position, and will continue in a part-time capacity as chairman of the foundation's Asian Studies Center.



http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323501404578161613763222762.html

December 6, 2012

TOP CONSERVATIVE BLOG: Fire John Boehner

RedState, the top conservative blog run by Republican activist Erick Erickson, ramped up its criticism of House Speaker John Boehner today, with a blog post that calls for Republican House members to take radical measures to strip Boehner of his speakership.

Here's the headline that was leading the site this afternoon:






At issue is Boehner's decision to strip three conservative members of their positions on the House Budget and Banking Committees, as well as his initial fiscal cliff offer, which proposes raising revenue by $800 billion. The Speaker's actions this week were a one-two punch for movement conservatives, sparking a major outcry from the GOP's conservative base, which was already reeling from the party's election losses. RedState has taken the lead in criticizing the Republican leadership. In the post today, conservative activist Ned Ryun, the founder of American Majority, calls for Republicans to take drastic steps to oust Boehner.

http://www.businessinsider.com/fire-boehner-redstate-republicans-2012-12

December 6, 2012

MOB Gathering At #FIREBOEHNER

https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23fireboehner