On the cost to you of Obamacare (UPDATED)

UPDATE: Obamacare premiums to rise at record pace   ... "The bad news? It's certain that premiums for Obamacare plans are going up - and they're rising at a record pace."

http://terrellaftermath.com/

 

Here's how much health plan premiums spiked over the last four years of Obamacare's rollout    "The average increases for the present quarter are in excess of 11% in the small group market and 12% in the individual market, where consumers purchase coverage directly from health plans. Some states show increases 10 to 50 times that amount. The analysts conclude that the “increases are largely due to changes under the ACA.” So how do these increases, for the health plans renewing this quarter, compare to rate increases experienced during other quarterly periods over the last four years?

 

Varney & Co.: Health-care premiums rising 11% for individuals  
"Grace-Marie [Turner] joins Stuart Varney on Fox Business to discuss a recent survey that showed big increases in health insurance premiums." Video.

 

Forty Changes to Obamacare...So Far

The Galen Institute 

... "This list was originally published HERE on Galen.org and has been published on National Review Online. It was updated to 29 changes on December 10, 2013."

December 13, 2013 UPDATE: 30 changes (PCIP extension)
December 19, 2013 UPDATE: 31 changes (Hardship waiver)
January 14, 2014 UPDATE: 32 changes (Union reinsurance fee exemption)
January 14, 2014 UPDATE: (PCIP extended again)
January 21, 2014 UPDATE: 33 changes (Equal employer coverage delay)
February 3, 2014 UPDATE: 34 changes (Subsidies may flow through federal exchanges) (List is now ordered chronologically)
February 10, 2014 UPDATE: 35 changes (Second employer mandate delay)
March 5, 2014 UPDATE: 36 changes (Subsidies extended outside of exchanges)
March 5, 2014 UPDATE: 37 changes (Consumers can keep non-compliant plans until 2017)
March 26, 2014 UPDATE: 38 changes (Sign-up deadline delayed)
April 7, 2014 UPDATE: 39 changes (Small group deductible cap eliminated-passed by Congress and signed into law)
April 8, 2014 UPDATE: 40 changes (Cuts to Medicare Advantage in 2015 canceled)
Full article

The Warthog, a soldier’s best friend; Obama, not so much

Paul Mirengoff   "Why is President Bush so much more popular than President Obama among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans? That’s an easy one. Bush was the president of let’s roll. Obama is the president of let’s retreat.
Iraq and Afghanistan veterans subscribed to the motto that America’s colors “don’t run.” Under Obama, however, they have.

"There must also be a sense that Bush had a closer personal connection than Obama with those who put their lives on the line for our country. Bush made a special point of comforting the families of soldiers who died fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition to frequent visits to Walter Reed Hospital and to families of the fallen, he sent personal letters to the families of every one of the more than 4,000 troops who died in the two wars, an enormous personal effort that consumed hours of his time and escaped public notice.

"Obama, of course, sends letters of condolence to families of the fallen. But controversy has surrounded them. " ...

A-10 Fairchild Warthog!

How NBC words this story: "Former KKK Leader Suspected in Kansas Jewish Center Attacks: Sources"

NBC News  "The person of interest in custody for the killing of three people at two Jewish centers in Kansas is a Missouri man and former Ku Klux Klan leader with a history of antisemitism and racism, law enforcement officials said.".....
More below the video; keep reading because my main point is at the bottom.
 Kansas City Star video:

And in the last paragraph - at the bottom- NBC admits the shooter was a Democrat candidate for governor:
..."The person of interest in custody for the killing of three people at two Jewish centers in Kansas is a Missouri man and former Ku Klux Klan leader with a history of anti-Semitism(sp) and racism, law enforcement officials said.

"He even unsuccessfully ran in the Democratic primary for North Carolina governor in 1984 and as a Republican for a state Senate seat in 1987, the SPLC said."

Sharyl Attkisson Tells Fox: Book Will Focus on Obama's 'Aggressive' Use of 'Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment'

Newsbusters  "Recently departed CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson appeared with Howard Kurtz on Fox's Media Buzz on Sunday. Kurtz said her forthcoming book is titled “Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama’s Washington.” Kurtz asked her to define those forces.

" 'I think any journalist who has been covering Washington for a few years would agree… that there is pressure coming to bear on journalists for just doing their job in ways that have never come to bear before.' " ...
 

"Kurtz asked how Attkisson feels about the charge of liberal bias leading to soft coverage of Obama. “The press in general seems to be very shy about challenging this administration, as if it’s making some sort of political statement, rather than just doing our job as watchdogs,” Attkisson said."

Gone But Not Forgiven

Hope n' Change

Obama's proposed replacement for Sebelius is Office of Management and Budget director Sylvia Matthews Burwell, who has no experience or expertise in Human Health Services whatsoever, but has a long history of sycophantic service to the Democrat party - demonstrated mostly by cooking the budget books, stonewalling Congress, and issuing the orders to barricade the WWII Veterans Memorial (and other open air national monuments) during the preposterous "government shutdown.' "

Illiberal Liberalism; The left’s disdain for ordinary Americans has deep historical roots.

Bruce S. Thornton  "During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama let slip his disdain for the middle-class when he explained his lack of traction among such voters. “It’s not surprising then,” Obama said, “that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” More recently, U.S. Senate candidate Bruce Braley mocked his opponent incumbent Chuck Grassley as “a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school.” The liberal disdain for ordinary Americans has been around for a long time. Beneath the populist rhetoric and concern for the middle class that lace the campaign speeches of most liberal politicians, there lurks a palpable disgust, and often contempt, for the denizens of “flyover country,” that land of God, guns, religion, and traditional beliefs." ... Full article
 

From the grooveyard of old favorites: Quote Of the Day from The Los Angeles Times:

Alan Berkelhammer     Posted on March 11, 2012      

 

“ 'Frankly, I don’t know what it is about California, but we seem to have a strange urge to elect really obnoxious women to high office. I’m not bragging, you understand, but no other state, including Maine, even comes close. When it comes to sending left-wing dingbats to Washington, we’re Number One. There’s no getting around the fact that the last time anyone saw the likes of Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, Maxine Waters, and Nancy Pelosi, they were stirring a cauldron when the curtain went up on ‘Macbeth’. The four of them are like jackasses who happen to possess the gift of blab. You don’t know if you should condemn them for their stupidity or simply marvel at their ability to form words.' ” – Columnist Burt Prelutsky, Los Angeles Times

 

Hat tip to Robert Hope, Sacramento, CA

Israel blames Kerry as peace talks hopes fade

The Times of Israel

 

... "Earlier this week, Kerry appeared to focus primary blame for the collapse of the talks on Israel, for having failed to release a scheduled fourth and final group of security prisoners at the end of March ...

 

"But an unnamed senior Israeli official, quoted by Channel 2 on Friday night, asserted that it was Kerry who was to blame for the breakdown. “He’s responsible for the crisis,” the official reportedly said. This was because Kerry inaccurately told Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that Israel would be willing to release Israeli Arabs in the fourth group of prisoners, when Israel had not agreed to do so. There was also a difference between the sides about how many prisoners would go free. The secretary had months to try to resolve the discrepancies but failed to do so, the report said." ...

israelnationalnews.

George Will: The Obama Administration’s Constant Claims of Racism Are Becoming a Joke

Breitbart   "On "Fox News Sunday," Washington Post columnist George Will criticized Attorney General Eric Holder who claim racism is behind his political adversaries' attacks:

“ 'Liberalism has a kind of Tourette Syndrome these days," Will said. "It's constantly saying the words racism and racist. There’s an old saying, 'If you have the law on your side, argue the law. If you have the facts on your side, argue the facts. If you have neither, pound the table.' This is pounding the table. There’s a kind of intellectual poverty now. Liberalism hasn’t had a new idea since the 1960s, except Obamacare, and the country doesn’t like it."

" 'Foreign policy is a shambles from Russia to Iran to Syria to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," he added. "And, the recovery is unprecedentedly bad. So, what do you do? You say anyone who criticizes us is a racist. It’s become a joke among young people. You go to a campus where this kind of political correctness reigns and some young person says, ‘It looks like it’s going to rain.’ And, the person next to him looks and says, ‘You’re a racist.’ It’s so inappropriate. The constant invocation of this that it is becoming a national mirth.' "

Posted by Scott Adams at US Tea Party Political Activists National Assembly where he adds:

“Liberalism has a kind of Tourette Syndrome these days," Will said. "It's constantly saying the words racism and racist. There’s an old saying, 'If you have the law on your side, argue the law. If you have the facts on your side, argue the facts. If you have neither, pound the table.' This is pounding the table. There’s a kind of intellectual poverty now. Liberalism hasn’t had a new idea since the 1960s, except Obamacare, and the country doesn’t like it."
"I consider it a badge of honor when a Liberal calls me a racist!!!"

The Roots of CAIR’s Intimidation Campaign; Brandeis sides with a spawn of Hamas over a champion of women’s rights.

Andrew C. McCarthy

      

 

... "President Bill Clinton was confronted by the murder and depraved mutilation of American soldiers in Somalia. A few weeks later, on February 26, jihadists bombed the World Trade Center. The public was angry and appeasing Islamists would have to wait.

"Yasser Arafat, however, sensed opportunity. The terrorist intifada launched at the end of 1987 had been a successful gambit for the Palestine Liberation Organization chief. Within a year, even as the body count mounted, the weak-kneed “international community” was granting the PLO the right to participate (though not to vote) in U.N. General Assembly sessions. And when Arafat made the usual show of “renouncing” terrorism — even as he was orchestrating terrorist attacks in conjunction with Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other Islamist factions — the United States recognized him as the Palestinians’ legitimate leader, just as the Europeans had done. Arafat blundered in 1991, throwing in his lot with Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War, and that seemed to bury him with the Bush 41 administration. But Clinton’s election was a new lease on life."...

Why do Jay Carney and Claire Shipman decorate their house with Soviet propaganda posters?

American Thinker  "The moral blindness of the American Ruling Class is on display.  The Washingtonian Magazine, a glossy lifestyle and politics rag, has published a fawning profile of D.C. power couple Jay Carney and Claire Shipman that was a bit more revealing than intended.  At the top of the piece was a photo of mom Claire with her son and daughter, flipping a fried egg in their beautiful kitchen/great room."

... "Well, how about those Soviet propaganda posters in the background?  The Week noticed, and highlighted them, and Drudge put the story up."