President Trump Gives Congress An Incentive to Repeal and Replace ObamaCare

White House Press Secretary released the following statement on 12 October 2017:

"Based on guidance from the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services has concluded that there is no appropriation for cost-sharing reduction payments to insurance companies under Obamacare. In light of this analysis, the Government cannot lawfully make the cost-sharing reduction payments. The United States House of Representatives sued the previous administration in Federal court for making these payments without such an appropriation, and the court agreed that the payments were not lawful. The bailout of insurance companies through these unlawful payments is yet another example of how the previous administration abused taxpayer dollars and skirted the law to prop up a broken system. Congress needs to repeal and replace the disastrous Obamacare law and provide real relief to the American people."

Some are saying this is a clear sign of President Trump's intent to expedite the demise of ObamaCare. Still the decision is not surprising as some providers have already increased their rates in anticipation of this order based upon a court rulings last year. Some background:

May 2016 the U.S. House of Representatives prevailed in its case against the Department of Health And Human Services when the court ruled the Obama administration had been improperly subsidizing ObamaCare with cost-sharing reduction payments.

So far during the first year of President Trump's first term, Congress has failed to deliver on its campaign promises and President Trump's oft stated intention to Repeal and Replace ObamaCare. The statement above is most likely a move by President Trump' to incentivise Congress to do their job as cancellation of further the cost-sharing reduction payments will most likely expedite the inevitable self-implosion and failure of ObamaCare.

Okay before you castigate President Trump or the GOP for following the law, you must remember a few background facts.

• First, America became mired in the swamp known as ObamaCare because Obama and the Democrats schemed and maneuvered to dubiously enact ObamaCare into being almost entirely, except for a single Republican vote, along party lines.
• Second, Obama and the Democrats lied en masse about the benefits of ObamaCare with numerous if you like your doctor, healthcare plan lies.
• Third, the most likely purpose Obama and his deep state minions had in making the unlawful cost-sharing reduction payments to insurance companies is because the payments had the effect subsidizing insurance company losses which in turn kept premiums artificially depressed thereby increasing public acceptance of his dubious legislation and failing presidency.
• Fourth, Obama mis-appropriated funds from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to make the unlawful cost-sharing reduction payments to insurance companies.

The only thing Trump has done is follow the law.

Nota Bene: It is quite possible that there are numerous crimes implicated in this Obama Administration fiasco, to wit:

The Antideficiency Act prohibits federal employees from:

• making or authorizing an expenditure from, or creating or authorizing an obligation under, any appropriation or fund in excess of the amount available in the appropriation or fund unless authorized by law. 31 U.S.C. § 1341(a)(1)(A).
• involving the government in any obligation to pay money before funds have been appropriated for that purpose, unless otherwise allowed by law. 31 U.S.C. § 1341(a)(1)(B).
• accepting voluntary services for the United States, or employing personal services not authorized by law, except in cases of emergency involving the safety of human life or the protection of property. 31 U.S.C. § 1342.
• making obligations or expenditures in excess of an apportionment or reapportionment, or in excess of the amount permitted by agency regulations. 31 U.S.C. § 1517(a).

Federal employees who violate the Antideficiency Act are subject to two types of sanctions: administrative and penal. Employees may be subject to appropriate administrative discipline including, when circumstances warrant, suspension from duty without pay or removal from office. In addition, employees may also be subject to fines, imprisonment, or both.

The Truth about the ObamaCare Grandfather Clause

According to a Department of Justice brief filed in the court case Priests for Life, et al. v. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, et al. the purpose of the grandfather clause in ObamaCare is:

• In fact, the effect of grandfathering is not really a permanent “exemption,” but rather, over the long term, a transition in the marketplace with respect to several provisions of the ACA, including the preventive services coverage provision.
• Even under the grandfathering provision, it is projected that more group health plans will transition to the requirements under the regulations as time goes on. Defendants have estimated that a majority of group health plans will have lost their grandfather status by the end 2013.

Barry Soetoro never intended to allow people to keep their insurance plans, he always intended that everyone transition from their current plan to ObamaCare! Barry lied each and every time he emphatically uttered those lines about keeping our healthcare plans and doctors. Period!

All the media has to do is report the story. Report the facts that are smacking them in the face if they only pay attention!

All the people have to do is pay attention to the facts slapping their faces each and every day.

It is time slap Barry in face a bit for the lies. It is time to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the high crimes and misdemeanors of Barry Soetoro!

Who Is Responsible for ObamaCare

ObamaCare, a short history.

• On November 7, 2009 the House passed the Affordable Health Care for America Act
• The Senate started work on H.R. 3590 which was completely different from the House bill, it would be passed and become the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act or ObamaCare
• December 24, 2009 the Senate passes ObamaCare along party lines, not one GOP member voted or supported the offensive bill
• June 2009, during the President’s Weekly address Barry Soetoro said: “If you like the plan you have, you can keep it. If you like the doctor you have, you can keep your doctor, too. The only change you’ll see are falling costs as our reforms take hold."
• Barry made the same promise many times thereafter
• Democrats did everything they could to prevent Republicans from modifying the law in any manner what so ever
• Because the House and Senate bills were different and because all revenue bills must be initiated in the House Rep Nancy Pelosi disingenuously amends a completely separate bill passed by the House prior to the Senate’s version of ObamaCare called the “Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act of 2009” and offers it for amendment
• The house passed the amended version of the previous billed which now matched the Senate version of ObamaCare on March 21, 2010 along strict party lines, not one Republican voted in favor of the misguided law
• Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, a lifelong Democrat, appointed by Barry Soetoro as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), oversaw every aspect, development and promulgation of the regulations implementing ObamaCare
• HHS invented ObamaCare waivers for political friends who were happy with their current healthcare insurance policies and did not want to be covered by ObamaCare
• HHS issued over 1,500 waivers to Democratic cronies and unions
• HHS even issued a waiver for Congress who was expressly directed under the law to participate in ObamaCare exchanges
• According to lifelong Democrat and elitist doctor Ezekiel Emanuel, the ObamaCare “grandfather clause” primary purpose was to transition people from private policies to ObamaCare Exchange policies
• In June 2009 HHS published its prediction’s that as many as 70% of all private policies that would be canceled due to ObamaCare policy requirements and the grandfather clause
• in 2010, again solidly along party lines, Democrats rebuffed Republican attempts to modify the "grandfather clause" to reduce the number of policies that would be cancelled
• October 1, 2013, despite knowing that the ObamaCare website was hugely inadequate, extremely fragile and woefully unsecure, Barack Obama gleefully announced the opening of Healthcare.gov, the ObamaCare exchange enrollment website
• October 1 through 16, 2013, the GOP, lead in large part by Senators Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Mike Lee shutdown the federal government when they objected to passing the 2014 continuing resolution and blindly increasing the debt ceiling
• During the shutdown the House GOP passed several Continuing Resolutions (CDs) which tried to defunObamaCare, Barack Obama, Barry Soetoro, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Mike Leed all and portions of ObamaCare including revoking the HHS waiver for Congress
• Senator Dirty Harry Reid never let any of the CRs come to a vote in the Senate
• After the shutdown ended Barry admitted that only 6 people were able to enroll on October 1st, far short of the thousands needed to support ObamaCare

It is clear to me that the Democrats completely and totally own ObamaCare. Why are they now blaming Republicans for its manifest failure?

ObamaCare Solution

It should be increasing clear to all paying attention, the website fiasco, the premium increases, the deductible increases, the privacy invasion, the security breaches, the tax increases, the cancellations, and all of the government lies speak to one clear and simple fact: ObamaCare is not the panacea Democrats pretended it was when they enacted the legislation without Republican support and to mediocre, ambivalent and skeptical public support!

The Patient Protection Affordable Care Act started in a cloud of Democratic deception, grotesquely came into focus in contrast to the fraudulent and disingenuous reassurances of Barack Obama and liberal Democrates and now can only be decribed a misguided and disingenuous grab for glory by Democrats that will destroy America. Therefore the only reasonable solution is a full and complete repeal!

The solution for all of America's insurance needs is to remove all state insurance monopolies and establish a free market with some general regulations, but far fewer controls than are now in place, wherein all healthcare insurance providers, including Medicaid and Medicare, may compete across state lines. Let market systems work to the advantage of health care consumers to their natural effect, reasonable prices and reasonable services!

Government regulatory schemes should be in place to protect the unwitting and naïve Americans and to establish policy standards such as coverage for adult children and some reasonable pre-existing condition controls and recommended policy coverages against which all policies can be evaluated and consumed.

As President Clinton has complained over and over again the US pays almost twice what the rest of the world pays for healthcare. With that budget appropriately applied, we should be able to afford insurance for all Americans without the blossoming ObamaCare government bureaucracy and privacy intrusions we are now suffering.

Did Barack Obama Mis-speak or Did He Lie?

One of the fundamental tenants of legal construction is to give words their plain, every day, ordinary meaning. I take note of this because Barry Soetoro, aka Barack Obama is a lawyer and he was an adjunct Constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago. UC must have been pretty hard up to hire an affirmative action beneficiary Harvard schooled lawyer rather than someone who earned it with their intelligence rather than the color of their skin, but I digress.

It is important to take note of this because the plain, every day and ordinary meaning of Barry's statements to the American Medical Association:

• That means no matter how we reform healthcare, we will keep these promises to the American people.
• If you like your doctor, you'll be able to keep your doctor. Period.
• If you like your healthcare plan, you'll be able to keep your healthcare plan. Period.
• No one will take that away.
• No matter what.

do not need parsing, do not need interpretation and definitely do not need explanation. Each of the statements are simple, straight forward and declaratives, evincing a complete thought. They stand alone and when taken together provide a complete explanation and exclude the possibility of intended or implied caveats. Either Barry meant what he said or he did not.

That Barry meant what he said is important because the statements were specifically uttered to induce people to think positively about ObamaCare. The statements were expressly made to calm people's concerns about what would happen to them once Barry’s vaunted, signature program ObamaCare was enacted and started impacting people's lives. And Barry made the statements in some form over and over again to show what a swell guy he was and why people should vote and re-elect him.

Barry made the statements knowingly and with aforethought intention to motivate people to act in a specific way. And now Barry wants to walk them back. Wants to take them back. Wants to explain them in a more favorable light to his needs, definitely not America’s understanding.

To me, and I suspect most people, the statements are powerful. And if they were used in the context mentioned, which I believe they were, there is only one conclusion supported by these facts.

Known liberal leaning Politifact.org said it is a little late for Barry to be changing what he said and awarded Barry its most critical “Pants on Fire” rating for trying to walk these statements back.

Ardent Barry supporter and socialist leaning Washington Post Fact Checker awarded Barry its highest non-truthful rating of 4 Pinocchios for trying to change what everyone clearly understood.

For me, it is much simpler. Barry lied. Period.

Facts Are Stubborn Things

In support of Congress passing the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act or ObamaCare as the panacea to America's healthcare woes President Barack Hussein Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a host of liberal Democrats ridiculed and chastised critics saying “facts are stubborn things” as they spread their own misinformation about the law, including these gems:

• If you like your doctor you will be able to keep your doctor. Period.
• If you like your healthcare plan, you will be able to keep your healthcare plan. Period.
• Premiums will be reduced by $2,500.
• The cost around $900 Billion over 10 years.
• ObamaCare will reduce the debt by $4 Trillion.
• ObamaCare will not cover illegal aliens.
• ObamaCare will not include abortions on-demand
• Conservatives have not offered an alternative.

The Washington Post, arguably one of the most liberal newspapers and ardent Obama supporters, recently reviewed the first to statements and awarded four Pinocchios, the highest possible, effectively saying the statements were outright lies. The remaining statements were never supportable and are simply not true. That they entered and remain in the public's ObamaCare consciousness represents a failure of America's news outlets to investigate and report the truth.

All of which ignores the fundamental healthcare problem identified and championed by President Bill Clinton until he was silenced by Obama, America's exorbitant and growing spending on healthcare! The graph below was reported by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), in 2011, the most recent year in which most of the countries reported data on healthcare spending as a percentage of GDP.

• The U.S. spent 17.7% of its GDP on health care
• None of the other countries reported spending higher than 11.9%
• The US GDP for 2011 was $14.4 Trillion
• Therefore America spent $2.6 Trillion on healthcare that year
• The Congressional Budget Office reports the cost of ObamaCare is $1.8 Trillion over 10 years
• Spread evenly the cost for ObamaCare is $180 Billion a year.
• Therefore, ObamaCare will increase annual spending on healthcare by 7%.
• Which will in turn increase annual spending as a percentage of GDP to 18.9%

These expenditures are all the more amazing when you consider that America’s GDP is far and away greater than most other nations as shown in the graph below of the worlds top 10 GDPs!

America's spending on healthcare is dramatically disproportional to other countries and ObamaCare is not helping!

While the president was misleading America and enslaving future generations with socialistic policies that have never worked and in complete contradiction to Obama's lie that conservatives were not offering a solution the Cato Institute offered the following bright light: Yes, Mr. President: A Free Market Can Fix Health Care.

Obama was right about one thing, facts are stubborn things. America never should have enacted ObamaCare and had Barack Obama and his supporting cast of deceivers not lied about the benefits of ObamaCare so utterly and pervasively America would be far better off than we are now.

Happy Halloween!

Cost of ObamaCare

Far too many people, mostly liberals, are believing the deceptions President Obama and his supporting cast of prevaricators have been putting forth about the benefits of ObamaCare. The evidence is clear and convincing that ObamaCare is not beneficial and in fact it is harming America. And because the media is down playing ObamaCare negatives the true believer liberals can ignore the truth! And the truth is as follows.

• UPS has announced it would no longer cover spouses who can obtain coverage through their own employers New York Times, 8/21/2013
• Twenty percent of nearly 600 large employers in a survey completed this year charged a spouse surcharge in 2013. An additional thirteen plan to do it next year Huffington Post, 9/11/2013
• Trader Joe's tells employees that they will no longer offer healthcare for employees working less than 30 hours per week. Offers those employees $500 to help find coverage. In California, where Trader Joe is incorporated, the monthly premium for a 27 year-old is $215 Huffington Post, 9/11/2013
• 351 employers reduced workers hours below the 30 hour per week threshold so that they would not be liable to include them in their health care coverage pool Investor Business Daily, 10/18/2013
• One of the major cost drivers of ObamaCare is the HHS mandated coverage which has caused prices to rise in all but five states Heritage.org, 10/16/2013
• ObamaCare hates competition and has replaced many low income state alternatives as is the case of a young lady in Michigan whose local $75 a monthly premium jumped to $319 a month plus a $6,000 deductible Campus Reform, 10/9/2013
• The Cleveland Clinic sited by the President as a model for healthcare has announced $300 million cuts, including layoffs and early retirement buyouts and the closing of a 144-bed skilled nursing facility cited ObamaCare as the reason U.S. News and World Report, 9/18/2013
• The 4th Amendment against unreasonable searches and seizures says the government cannot arbitrarily enter your home, meanwhile ObamaCare includes Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program FreedomOutpost.com, 10/2/2013 reviews the language and finds very disturbing language suggesting that smoking parents may be subjected to home visits that they cannot refuse
• All of your personal data can be used for law enforcement and audit activities under ObamaCare Weekly Standard, 10/8/2013
• Now that we are learning what in ObamaCare instead of liking what we are finding as Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Democrats are becoming increasingly concerned that ObamaCare's cost cutting board will harm people on Medicare as Gov. Sarah Palin warned when she called them Death Panels The Hill, 8/8/2013
• President ignores the law and unconstitutionally delays the employer mandate for a year Forbes, 8/5/2013 exacerbating the social divide he has been fomenting
• Contrary to the President's promise that if people like their plan they can keep their plan, 300,000 Floridians, 160,000 Californians and probably millions more across the country will lose their existing healthcare insurance plans because they do not meet the ObamaCare minimum requirements NBC News, 10/18/2013

Within the first couple of years of its passage, unions and companies aware enough to do so, scrambled for waivers. The last report I found from HotAir.com, 7/16/2011 says the number of waivers issued was approaching the 1,500 mark. If ObamaCare was going to be so good, how come so many said no they don't want any part in it?

Now that the exchanges are open, the President and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius say they don't know how many have signed up. NPR quoted the president was targeting 500,000 sign-up by October 31. According to Kantar US Insights who was finally able to review ObamaCare data only about 36,000 people were able to successfully enroll in the first 5 days The Hill, 10/16/2013! At that rate, far fewer will enroll than the president predicted. And that is worrisome since ObamaCare needs widespread acceptance and enrollment from the young and healthy to cover the cost of the older and infirmed.

And the actual costs? The table below tells an expensive story.

Is it any wonder why enrollment is so sad?