The feds may not have provided an estimate of the cost of operating an exchange, but several other experts have. The results are eye-popping. According to Maryland’s Joint Committee on Health Benefit Exchange Financing, administrative costs alone will run the state an astounding $201 per person in 2015.
The auditing firm KPMG recently found that Ohio can expect to spend $63 million to set up its exchange and another $43 million each year to run it.
That’s not to mention the many logistical challenges inherent in serving the 9 million Americans expected to take part in the exchanges in 2014. States will need to provide customer service call centers, “navigators” to encourage enrollment, and elaborate information technology systems to coordinate data among the state, federal, and private groups involved in selling coverage.
Even if the feds and the states manage to surpass these hurdles, the new marketplaces are unlikely to fulfill one of their top promises — lowering premiums.
Read the whole thing. Thank Heaven that Georgia passed on this monstrosity.
Orignally, I was going to post something about the impending contempt vote against Holder along the line of “The Giant Game of Chicken,” or something. Then Twitter blew up this morning when Crook1 Eric Holder asked Crook2 President Obama to exercise Executive Privilege over #FastandFurious.
UPDATE: Point of order – Why would Obama use Executive Privilege if he supposedly, according to Holder’s testimony, never saw any documents related to #FastandFurious? Hmmm… Either Obama lied or Holder perjured himself. Per Issa: The contempt motion will be moving forward…
UPDATE II:Twitchy has a long and entertaining feed on #FastandFurious.
How did this happen without any media coverage? Where’s Congress? Who is looking out for the American Election Process? Which bureaucratic agencies allowed our election process to sold to a foreign country? National Voter ID needed now more than ever, since there is a foreign company counting Americans votes.
No wonder Obama whispered to President Dmitri Medvedev that the election was in the bag and his DOJ seems so unconcerned about rampant voter fraud. Covert cheating worked so well last time, that he’s not even trying to hide the deception this time around.
When will America wake up and realize that not only is the fox wreaked havoc in the hen house, but he’s in the big house as well?
First off, if you received a spam email from me, mucho apologios. My account was hacked, and the entire planet was notified in the wee hours of Saturday. Again, my humblest apologies for my inability to keep the weaseally trolls at bay.
Secondly, this post was saved as draft last night, when I left for Thai Food Tuesday with Princess Hornist. When I returned home, the power was out on the entire street. An obvious conspiracy by SkyNet to keep you from all my bloggy goodness!
Now, to the dilemma before me. Next Tuesday is the Georgia Presidential Primary. I have narrowed my choices to two candidates: stinky Gingrich and equally stinky Santorum. While Buzz Brockway (a fellow contributor at Peach Pundit) supports Rick Santorum and Buzz’s opinion is greatly respected here at the praxuem, I still get a queasy feeling in my gut about the guy. Of course, any consideration of Newt requires an extra-large clothespin and a healthy dose of Lysol spray. I could yammer on about issue-this and issue-that all day long, but the matter festers to a point past who is electable – to who can beat the Romney machine and ultimately the Obama Death Star. (Or is it whom? I’m sure Divine Empress Editor Joy will get me on this one.) Politics certainly make for strange bedfellows. Getting past the Romney machine may be the kicker, but once accomplished – of the two (and PAY ATTENTION HERE) which candidate would cave and hand over their delegates to Romney in the face of defeat? Santorum would definitely wither away under the gaze of The Victor, obediently transferring his delegates all the while groveling for a Cabinet post. Newt, I’m not so sure. At least he would make it all the way to Mount Doom, if only to have Gollum bite his finger off. Decisions. Decisions.
(And yes, I know I mixed my fantasy metaphors there. Longtime readers know I do that all the time. Put your light saber away or I will win this argument handily with a Vulcan nerve pinch.)
Obama’s smoke and mirrors on energy policy. It is all in the pretty picture.
Paula Deen says she’s going to start making lighter versions of her dishes. That’s a little like Ron Paul saying he’s going to start putting tax increases in his bills. It’s a little suspect.
Paula Deen has made a fortune off her rich recipes, as has the Food Network. So, what’s really at play here?
Deen, of course, has been under fire ever since revealing last month she has Type 2 diabetes.
Food activists decried the revelation. After all, how dare she keep mum about it for three years and continue making fattening foods!
What she cooks, eats, and what medical problems she has are no one else’s business. But, try telling that to the food police who think others’ food choices are their business.
Neither Deen nor the Food Network should bow to outside pressure for healthier fare. It’s a slippery slope toward food tyranny. What’s next, government regulation of the Food Network? Big Brother is already trying to tell us what we can and can’t eat, why not tell the Food Network what to do?
Now pass me that Krispy Kreme Cheeseburger, or I’ll Vulcan nerve pinch you again.
First time home buyers or those who refinance with a Freddie/Fannie loan – whether or not you voted for HopeNChange, you get to pay for it. That paltry little refund in your payroll check is being funded by a new mortgage fee.
…they’re paying for the two-month tax cut with what has turned into a brand new fee on home buyers.
The new fee is a minimum of one-tenth of 1 percent on Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-backed loans, and is likely to go much higher.
It will be imposed for the next 10 years on most mortgages and refinancings and it lasts for the life of the loan.
For every $200,000, it amounts to an extra $15 dollars a month.
It’s bad news for Patty Anderson, who’s buying a home in Virginia.
Anderson will save a couple hundred dollars from having her payroll tax cut extended but her mortgage broker told her the new fee would cost her almost $9,500.
“I was absolutely startled that it would add up to that much,” she said.
The $35.7 billion collected in fees won’t go into the Social Security fund to replace the lost payroll tax. It goes to the general treasury where Congress can spend it however they please.
Bill Burnett, Anderson’s broker and president of the Virginia Association of Mortgage Brokers, said you won’t see Congress’ new charge in the paperwork, but it’s there.
“It’s actually built into this [interest] rate. You would never see the fee as a cost to you,” he said.
Burnett said the fee will affect a “very large number” of homeowners.
“Your pocketbook is being raided in order to pay for a tax policy issue decided at the last minute by probably people who didn’t understand fully what they were legislating on.”
Yet another gimmick that will stifle economic recovery. But wait, who says Obama and his cronies want the American economy to recover? A true recovery would make it harder to implement the change they all long for…
…busily scrubbing any mention of God from the public square. This is a very interesting bit of information about the MLK Memorial in DC:
The words “God,” “Jesus” and “Lord” — ever-present in King’s speeches and sermons — are carved nowhere in the stones of the memorial dedicated in his name.
I don’t know about you, but 2011 was not a stellar year here at the little praxeum. So I’m not mourning the passing of this sad, disappointing year; neither am I looking at 2012 with hysterical dread like some.
(On a personal note: Dear MIL come home from hospital yesterday. Heartfelt thanks for the many prayers and words of encouragement during her illness. We spent the first few hours of her freedom celebrating the wonderful non-hospital food at OK Cafe. Also, if Piedmont would kindly forward the address of the manufacturer of the concrete hospital beds they use, I would like to, ahem, write them a letter.)
I had planned some sprucing up around the blog over the holidays, but since the black hole of hospitalling ate our Christmas whole, well, it just didn’t happen. Maybe by spring break. Charlie would not call that a SMART goal. Heh.
I have no resolutions. I have no predictions, except for maybe one. 2012 is going to be one helluva roller-coaster ride. I don’t even know where to begin.
SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act, H.R. 3261) will consume our entire bandwidth, if Obama doesn’t just kill the switch altogether. More here, here, and here. The OPEN Act is a more workable alternative, but here’s two bucks saying you’ll never hear about it through the state run media. In typical fashion, our overlords are trying to push this through while the general public is distracted by the holidays.
If only the GOP would stop bickering and focus on Obama’s multitude of failures, at least the presidential portion of this election would be a breeze. Across the pond, Obama is being compared to Hoover and considered a cog in the general decline of world stability. In fact, many historians are comparing the the last decade or so to the 1930′s. I did that back in 2006. I wish more than two people read this blog. Just think if I could use my Jedi prowess up in DC! Smitty thinks that technology enables us humans to see potential outcomes, and that some of us, at least, have learned our history lessons:
The big question for 2012 is whether technology can prevent a repeat of a collapse into fascism, as in 1932, and a vast war. I’ll boldly predict that technology drives the problem the other way. People communicate enough to realize that the social welfare state is the biggest clay-footed idol since Nebuchadnezzar. The tricky question is how you maneuver out from under the idol before it topples and crushes you, i.e. what is the transition plan toward liberty.
My only caveat for The Smittster is while people are able to communicate instantaneously these days, how many will be able to break free from the indoctrination from years of indentured servitude to the entitlement gods to see the true dangers that lay ahead? Liberty is never free, regardless of what that lobbyist just whispered in your ear.
To me, besides being first out of the chute, Iowa is no longer relevant. It is just another manufactured media opportunity to manipulate opinions in an election cycle. Another frenzoid moment, compliments of a decayed system.
Europe is dying, rotting from the soul outward. We can still stop this in America. Our forefathers shed both blood and treasure to fight the corruption of tyrants and reclaim the freedom bestowed by our Creator. Now we get to do it in our own backyards.
There’s much more, but it’s time for football and after this past week, we deserve some time to kick back and enjoy the final days of our favorite sport.
Really, folks, I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.
In anticipation of a deflated holiday retail season due to the sucky economy and the fact that unemployment has reached Great Depression levels, the Obama Administration announced yesterday a new tax on the sales of fresh Christmas trees. Really.
Acting Administrator Shipman had the temerity to say the 15-cent mandatory Christmas tree fee “is not a tax nor does it yield revenue for the Federal government” (76 CFR 69102). The Federal government mandates that the Christmas tree sellers pay the 15-cents per tree, whether they want to or not. The Federal government directs that the revenue generated by the 15-cent fee goes to the Board appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out the Christmas tree program established by the Secretary of Agriculture. Mr. President, that’s a new 15-cent tax to pay for a Federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees.
Well, gollygeeBeav, I didn’t know that Christmas trees needed Image Enhancing Government Overreach. And BTW, it’s a tax. You can call it a “fee” until you’re red and green in the face; it’s a tax.
The article also makes no mention of cute little Hanukkah bushes, dreary atheist stick and coal displays, public education “Winter Holiday” generic botanical objects decorated with non-offensive/hand-made/non-fat broccoli chains adorned with profiles of Che Guevara, or Hezbollah semi-automatic gun trees complete with twinkling IED stars and grenade ornaments. Surely these splinter celebration groups will react in outrage at being left out of what is sure to be this season’s must-attend tradition. Mom and pop tree farms should brace themselves for an influx of #occupyObamaMas squatters who will ruin their property and chase away any remaining potential Christmas tree shoppers due to their squawky bullhorn chants and outstanding hygiene habits.
In other news, Gov. Scott Walker made Wisconsin atheist’s heads explode by referring to that tall evergreen thing to be installed in the Capitol rotunda tree as a… Christmas tree… (gasp)… in a press release.
Stupidity, indeed.
UPDATE: Well, now the administration has backed off their plan. Is that all it takes, really? A cacophony (albeit minor, but exquisitely snarky) from “conservative media outlets” puts the President’s gears in reverse? Hey, I thought I was just another little blog. But, ahem, let me flex my muscles a bit. You. Obama. GET OFF MY LAWN.
Well, after a week of non-planned-mental-absence, nothing much has changed. While I gather what is left of my thoughts, amuse yourself with the following:
Michelle Malkin has an excellent piece on the media’s treatment of conservatives, especially when it comes to which photos are published with their hit pieces articles.
“Crazy Eyes” actually was a nickname of mine, way back in college, when I was young, carefree and well, popular with the boys. It was bestowed by a stoner Grad Assistant, who would always show up to Redcoat rehearsals in dark sunglasses and that silly smirk everyone in my generation understands. He’d follow me around until Teske would start yelling from the tower. Secretly I was always flattered, in that awkward collegiate way that you feel when some drunk falls on you on Clayton Street, proclaims that you are the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen, then throws up on your shoes. Ahhh, Athens. Contact lenses the color of swimming pools helped. Alas, Lasik has restored my vision, and the eyes are icy blue now, not a shade that would have felt right at home on Miami Vice (the real one, stupid). I miss those comments.
This weekend I will be attending the RedState gathering in Charleston, SC. Where something magical may happen. What does one wear, exactly, to such a momentous event?
I wish Fred Thompson would be there. Fred gets the prize for best quote on Obama’s devotion to righting the ship of America on his watch:
The S & P downgrades our debt, and now Obama’s out golfing again.
That’s our president – always working on getting lower scores.
Now admit, just for a second you thought, “Where would we be if Fred was in the Oval Office?” Admit it.
The President, in FMJ re-election mode, just jumped ahead of the pack and used Grandma for a human shield against the meany GOP that want to save this country. If he can’t win the budget battle on his own, then hey, let’s scare the pants off every senior in America. He thinks it’s a win-win – he thwarts the evil GOP and ensures the senior vote in 2012. Hrumph. Too bad the people who actually understand economic policy say he’s wrong. His lying is beginning to border on the pathological. He’s becoming as easy to read as the schoolyard bully. And equally as prickly with the press. Every other President had to answer unscripted questions. I wonder at what point he will have played more golf than every other President… combined.
In unannounced candidate news, God must like Chris Christie, because if you bad-mouth him you might be struck by lightning and if you show any interest at all in 19th century American history, well, you just might be a bigot and a racist, subject to scorn and ridicule and certainly not fit for The Oval Office.
Heh. So does that mean, since I wore a hoop-skirt and gave tours of an antebellum home in my historically significant little home town during my youth, visited sutler camps and reenactments, gave living history demonstrations and sang songs around a campfire with a Union man in shackles playing guitar while my baby-girl (in the most adorable miniature Zouave jacket ever) slept in the bunk behind me, I can never aspire to higher office? Ever?
“Those who are unaware of history are destined to repeat it.” – George Santayana
The government didn’t shutdown after all. Dems blinked, but only nanoseconds before the GOP did. And we get to do all this again in September, when Congress has to pass a budget for 2012. What fun. Can’t wait.
After a shaky start, the Braves won their home opener against the Phillies. In a sweet ‘passing the torch’ moment before the game, former skipper Bobby Cox threw out the first pitch to Fredi Gonzalez, the new coach. Boy, does he have some big shoes to fill.
Elizabeth Scalia, The Anchoress, sent a belated bloggibirthday shout-out to yours truly. For newer readers, I claim Elizabeth as my Blog Mother, since her blog inspired me to start my own. Just do a search here, you’ll see.
I won’t even mention the sock. See, I don’t have a problem.
And finally, the last business day before the project I’ve worked on for over two years goes “live” came and went with little fanfare. By the end of next week, I may have most of my life back.
"The issue is now clear. It is between light and darkness and everyone must choose his side." G.K. Chesterton
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke
"Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." Winston Churchill
"The women of this country learned long ago, those without swords can still die upon them. I fear neither death nor pain." Eowyn, LOTR
The Force, Southern Style. Here we discuss politics, families, bad manners, food and the vanishing South of childhood memories. Anything is fair game, but keep it clean, please.
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