Political & Elections

Mom is really good. A full 5 of 5 on the activities of daily living. She tires easily. My sister wants to drug her. My sister is the one insisting on hospice-for last 2 years. She comes in couple of times a month and creates havoc. Last week she cooking some pancakes, walks outside out of hearing and yelling range for a cig and phone call. It was truly fortunate I hadn't left the house. 

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/16500240-post24.html

Coolweather> I happened 3 times in my career. I jumped ship in the first time. I was offered bonus for staying in the second time but I quitted after 1 year because the merged company did not do well. The third time happened 2 years ago. I am OK now but cannot predict the future more than a year. A lot of duplicate functional departments are eliminated. Plus there are strategy conflicts among the top guys. If something happens I will do contract work. I can buy health insurance now and I may make more with contract work.

Our good Republican President Theodore Roosevelt despised trusts and monopolies and had them broken up which theoretically created competition which encouraged invention and jobs. BUT twenty years later, our good Democrat President Franklin Roosevelt, encouraged consolidation for efficiency and invention, especially prior to and during the war years.    

I, good Independent, think that ObamaCare will spur innovation and break us from the tyranny of big business for the freedom of capitalism.  We are going to see some distortions but we got to live thru them. 

Obamacare doesn't allocate for new hires at the IRS, lp?

Could have sworn it did but if that's what sequestration did for the tax cheat I can't say it's all bad.

I saw that the penalty was collectable only under the right conditions a while back. If true, it wouldn't be that hard to avoid but I'd think anyone with any real cash that tried it should expect regular audit attention.

How many new IRS agents have been hired? A million?

 "if we can get  the eligible to insure and the undocumented residents insured, Everybody can enjoy lower rates. USA is going to get a very big surprise when we go off ObamaCare and go back to the old/new plans."

Pretty big if...saw a segment on CNN which talked about how low income folks are not used to paying ANY amount for insurance, and how what we might consider a low monthly amount is an amount they are not used to budgeting and will therefore pass on.

I was a VISTA volunteer out of college. Taught and learned first thing that when one is really poor, there is a living day-to-day mindset.  Budgeting just doesn't happen in the chaos of many of poor folks' lives. It's not just twenty something's that don't plan for the future.

also saw on Drudge that the IRS can withhold money from refunds for the penalty "tax," but can't go after it any other way. How will this work with those at income levels who don't pay taxes? How do they intend to collect the penalty fee? are they really going to put people in jail who don't pay the fee?  Anybody know?

Did see that Medicaid sign-ups are surging. Unintended consequence, or not?

 

TutuTaxi wrote:

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Sadly, by the time folks who aren’t entitled to a subsidy on the ObamaCare exchanges figure out they can get better coverage for a lower price on the private market, they will have needlessly exposed a great deal of their financial and health information on the healthcare.gov website. 

-- Edited by TutuTaxi on Thursday 24th of October 2013 09:55:33 AM

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 Not in Ore. Rates the same, and cheaper for ALL applicants. At the minimum, the rates will Not increase for 2014. I would not be surprised to see employee group rate exceed that of the public rates.  

I am going to save 2014, 18%, -$105/mn (Silver 65/35, $2500 deductible) when compared to the 2013 insurance pooled rate of $567/mn, (80/20, $2500 deductible) But what is really important is that now I have the full range of choices in coverage and deductibles where before I only had a choice of two deductibles. 

For people who are paying privately, this will be a pocketbook issue. Pay a lower price in either the private market/obamacare or pay a higher price in our current restricted system. In Oregon, nearly 20% is uninsured, so if we can get  the eligible to insure and the undocumented residents insured, Everybody can enjoy lower rates. USA is going to get a very big surprise when we go off ObamaCare and go back to the old/new plans.  

"How many IRS agents will be hired?"

None, IRS is a budgeted agency and under the sequesterization program. Secondly, if additional agents are necessary, they will be contracted, just like our National Security and "protection forces." Thirdly, HRBlock trained people will flock to be a contractor because HRB barely pays their reps anything above minimum and then just on a commissioned basis. The real money with HRB is the Refund Anticipation Loan, which is just a high fee, high interest, low risk program for HRB. Other tax prep companies have similar programs. At the time I sat in the tax school, the senior reps who reviewed understaff work got a commission on their review numbers too-Multilevel, or as many would say a Scam/pyramid. 

-- Edited by longprime on Thursday 24th of October 2013 04:13:59 PM

Sadly, by the time folks who aren’t entitled to a subsidy on the ObamaCare exchanges figure out they can get better coverage for a lower price on the private market, they will have needlessly exposed a great deal of their financial and health information on the healthcare.gov website. 

-- Edited by TutuTaxi on Thursday 24th of October 2013 09:55:33 AM

I have heard similar stories about IT security. . 

 

 

Yep, sounds like you've got it down, lp.

in other news...Calmom is now giving out the 800 number for O-Care? Non-political, of course.

In still other news, seems "goober" is the latest anti-GOP epithet, as in, "Cruz is the uber goober."  

-- Edited by hope on Wednesday 23rd of October 2013 07:50:06 PM

McCain's popularity/relevance has always seemed to be how often he'd throw a good chunk of the republican electorate under the bus - do that moderate thing when the chips were down - and (speaking only for myself) I can't believe there are that many people dim enough to claim the country is in a better place than it was before he perfected the routine.

And since all subjects eventually show up in the same conversation, I don't see that blaming Cruz for the shut-down (selective stretch that it is) is going to do any harm to either him or the party in general. Well, maybe with people who can't remember that it was tied to Obamacare implementation.

On a high note, the grand unveiling is going so well that I predict Gallup will add a couple of poll questions soon:

"Who do you trust more to eff up your healthcare, share every aspect of your life with every government agency that thinks to request the data, etc. --- democrats or republicans?"

"Who do you trust more to show you and, every other citizen, a third-world web experience...... democrats or republicans?"

-- Edited by catahoula on Wednesday 23rd of October 2013 07:18:37 AM

http://www.urbanbaby.com/topics/55171046 (AnnCoulter_TedCruz)

McCain again in 2016.

The Stupid Party is stupid. The JackAss Party at least has their **** together. 

Lot's of luck with electing that moderate republican -- the RNC could slide Mother Theresa through the primaries and, by the time Nov. 1 rolled around, she'd have been outed as an old Baader-Meinhof leader.

I don't recall the polling that showed evangelicals lost Romney the election but I can't remember a lot of things these days. That the same people who've pushed people like McCain and Bob Dole out as winning material also thought putting aside the Obamacare issue to run Romney was a great idea, has convinced me they're too dumb to count much higher than their fingers.

I'd do dearly wish McCain would... just take a damn nap and forget to show up.

I think Romney would have been among the best Presidents ever given his intellect, managerial experience, and leadership ability. Cruz is too extreme for me. He may be popular with the far right but he does not have a chance of winning the presidency. He accomplished nothing by shutting down the government. The federal employees got paid for doing nothing without even a fight from the Republicans.

I have no idea who I will support in 2016. At one time, I might have said that Hillary Clinton was the lesser of the Democratic evils, but that day passed on 9/11/2012, with Benghazi. 

i liked Romney for the same reasons that Busdriver did. 

McCain has blown ittime and again, and he should really just defect to the Dems. 

I like Rand Paul. So far. 

"You know, I guess you could have called me a RINO, since I was pro-Romney from the start."

I'm still pro-Romney. I think he is actually quite moderate, but his big appeal is that I think he actually is a good man. Not a self promoter like 99.9% of them, but someone who actually is trying to accomplish things.

"And now I'm sick to death of the moderates. McCain, Jeb, Christie, Joe Scarborough, Peter King, all of them---just GO AWAY. Stand for something or SHUT UP. I mute them all."

I can't stand most of them (don't know much about Jeb), but not because they're moderate, but because they are full of themselves and power.

"I like listening to Cruz. I like listening to any Republican who isn't out there falling all over themselves trying to be hip and cool and loved by the progressive media."

I don't like him much, but I know little about him. He may not care about the media, but he seems to be pretty concerned about merely himself. I think his entire crusade was about enhancing himself as a true conservative, not accomplishing anything.

"Hmm..I have to wonder if there are others out there like me...."

Maybe not exactly like you, but perhaps those with the same level of irritation and disgust. I can't think of anyone that I don't want to mute right now.

You know, I guess you could have called me a RINO, since I was pro-Romney from the start. 

And now I'm sick to death of the moderates. McCain, Jeb, Christie, Joe Scarborough, Peter King, all of them---just GO AWAY. Stand for something or SHUT UP.  I mute them all.

I like listening to Cruz. I like listening to any Republican who isn't out there falling all over themselves trying to be hip and cool and loved by the progressive media. Of which there seem to be none left. RINO candidates lost the last two elections.

Hmm..I have to wonder if there are others out there like me....

But the Cruz shut-down is... well...  over, LP, and it's all: "line up for your DMV proctologist' for the next month or two. That's assuming you're a Twenty-something that feels like waiting around your keyboard for an incoherent drunk to appear and show you a good time.

Hey, remind me again about how smart the people are:

That passed this.

That had until after an election or two to get it ready.

That snuggle with the electronic wizards of the world, the ones so willing they'll roll over to provide everyone's personal data to them.

That wish they were still booting people of federal property so the country wasn't focusing on this triumphant victory lap.

 

Call us the Stupid Party all you want, but...

the GOP wanted a year long delay of Obamacare individual mandate, right?

the Dems said no way. 

Government shutdown for a couple if weeks. Little negotiation from the top. 

The federal government knew the rollout of website would be rocky...

what would it have hurt to delay rollout? it would have seemed to the citizens of this country that our elected leaders were compromising and saved face for ACA. 

Instead we get, "if you don't like it, go win some elections"  from our President. 

Henceforth, I am referring to the Dems as the Jackass Party, who would rather take their ball and go home than play well with others. 

 

A disaster that will last until Nov 5, 2015.  The Stupid Party put themselves intentionally between the rock and the hard place. The more the Stupid Party fights the implementation, the more people will sign up. This is no win position for them. 

Thinking about this last night-got me to sleep. 

I am eligible for ACA. I have looked at the options which seem to be expanding ever since I made the "show 10 per page" change. I pretty much know what I want, the tax credit, but not the insurance company. I have till Dec 15. 

People and families who will be first time insured, the process can be intimating. So what's the hurry? Why "commit" to apply when you have until Dec 15, and there is a significant possibility Teddy Cruz will defund ObamaCare and the Stupid Party will try to reduce ObamaCare effectiveness. 

I am guessing that most of us kinda know what will be final income will be on Dec 31. We have a pretty good idea of our deductibles and unearned income. Preliminary 2013 tax forms are already out and can be had for free or for the cost of 1 BigMac Meal Deal. By Dec 31, I will have 75% of my tax form filled, and by Feb 1, I will have all the 1099's. Yet by Ap 13, 2014, I still haven't filed the 1040. I am just like Congress, a procrastinator. 

Started to post a link about how peachy keen the roll out's been so far but I couldn't make up my mind as to which ACA cheerleader deserved the space.

Ron Fournier and Ezra Klein are having kittens, Sebellius looks to have been taken in by WitSec, Pelosi took enough of her meds that she actually said something half-way sane, but.... how to choose?

That the government only gets anything done, at all, is because they've got unlimited resources isn't really rocket science. Keeping that in mind, why did anyone expect anything but a Soviet style experience?

If we need to buy, we will not be using the exchange.  Too tricky with self employment income issues. 

OC is about as Republican as you can get. Copied from State of Mass, who got it from the Heritage Foundation and further modified by insurance, medical, drug, and states. The problem with the Stupid Party is that ACA didn't come from one of their own. How many years does the Stupid Party tolerate the Deniers and Birthers and God, Motherhood, and Apple Pie? 

Oh, btw, I heard something about the Private Health Exchange, so decided to investigate plans given by the Plan I expect to take from OC. So the Silver, plan is a little cheaper than the Silver on OC and the Bronzes are considerably less expensive than what I could get on OC. ???????  I will need to investigate the coverage and deductibles so don't get expectation up. You too may want to investigate a private plan and compare to OC's Exchange.