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After Chief Supreme Court Justice John Roberts voted to uphold the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as “ObamaCare,” many wondered if there could be a yet-unknown reason why the Republican-nominated justice made the unexpected decision.
On the Glenn Beck radio program Tuesday, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) explained why he believes Roberts was intimidated into changing his vote late in the process, as laid out in his new book Why John Roberts Was Wrong About Healthcare.
Read more here.
The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation.
Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.
Her successor, Joseph Grant, is taking the fall for misdeeds at the scandal-plagued unit between 2010 and 2012. During at least part of that time, Grant served as deputy commissioner of the tax-exempt unit.
Grant announced today that he would retire June 3, despite being appointed as commissioner of the tax-exempt office May 8, a week ago.
As the “IRS Inquisition” scandal unfolds, some are pointing out that the government agency is on the verge of not only having purview over your finances, but your health care as well.
Rush Limbaugh has theorized that this is one of the the reasons the administration and traditionally left-leaning members of the media have denounced the scandal so strongly. The IRS must be seen to have made a mistake and been set right, so it can proceed at full strength for the implementation of “Obamacare.”
Stuart Varney appeared on Fox News this morning to discuss just how much the IRS will have control over with the complete implementation of the president’s health care overhaul.
“The IRS will be the policing agent for Obamacare,” Varney said. “You’re going to have to, on your next tax return, you’re going to have to report to the IRS personal health care information…Do you trust the IRS with your personal health care information?”
Host Martha MacCullum continued: “It’s such a dangerous and slippery slope when [their] credibility is brought into question, because they of course know what you make…And now they are supposed to marry that information…with whether you are eligible for a healthcare subsidy. And that raises questions, too, because you’ve got to keep them posted on every change that may lap in our employment picture.”
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When Obamacare’s individual mandate takes effect in 2014, all Americans who file income tax returns must complete an additional IRS tax form.
The new form will require disclosure of a taxpayer’s personal identifying health information in order to determine compliance with the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate.
As confirmed by IRS testimony to the tax-writing House Committee on Ways and Means, “taxpayers will file their tax returns reporting their health insurance coverage, and/or making a payment”.
So why will the Obama IRS require your personal identifying health information?
Simply put, there is no way for the IRS to enforce Obamacare’s individual mandate without such an invasive reporting scheme. Every January, health insurance companies across America will send out tax documents to each insured individual. This tax document—a copy of which will be furnished to the IRS—must contain sufficient information for taxpayers to prove that they purchased qualifying health insurance under Obamacare.
This new tax information document must, at a minimum, contain: the name and health insurance identification number of the taxpayer; the name and tax identification number of the health insurance company; the number of months the taxpayer was covered by this insurance plan; and whether or not the plan was purchased in one of Obamacare’s “exchanges.”
This will involve millions of new tax documents landing in mailboxes across America every January, along with the usual raft of W-2s, 1099s, and 1098s. At tax time, the 140 million families who file a tax return will have to get acquainted with a brand new tax filing form. Six million of these families will end up paying Obamacare’s individual mandate non-compliance tax penalty.
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As we now move into the official Political Aftermath period of the Boston bombing — the period that will determine the long-term legislative fallout of the atrocity — the dynamics of privilege will undoubtedly influence the nation’s collective reaction to the attacks. That’s because privilege tends to determine: 1) which groups are — and are not — collectively denigrated or targeted for the unlawful actions of individuals; and 2) how big and politically game-changing the overall reaction ends up being.
This has been most obvious in the context of recent mass shootings. In those awful episodes, a religious or ethnic minority group lacking such privilege would likely be collectively slandered and/or targeted with surveillance or profiling (or worse) if some of its individuals comprised most of the mass shooters. However, white male privilege means white men are not collectively denigrated/targeted for those shootings — even though most come at the hands of white dudes.
Likewise, in the context of terrorist attacks, such privilege means white non-Islamic terrorists are typically portrayed not as representative of whole groups or ideologies, but as “lone wolf” threats to be dealt with as isolated law enforcement matters. Meanwhile, non-white or developing-world terrorism suspects are often reflexively portrayed as representative of larger conspiracies, ideologies and religions that must be dealt with as systemic threats — the kind potentially requiring everything from law enforcement action to military operations to civil liberties legislation to foreign policy shifts.
Read more crap here.
Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of former White House Chief of Staff and current Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, was interviewed this week on the implementation of Obamacare. Ezekiel, a health-policy adviser at the Office of Management and Budget and a member of the Federal Council on Comparative Effectiveness Research, says the only way to reduce costs is to move to a program that rewards volume over “volume over value and quantity over quality.”
Med-Page Today reported, via Free Republic:
Doctors are the only people who can drive the change in healthcare delivery that’s needed to save the country from a financial crisis, a health policy expert said here.
Ezekiel Emanuel, MD, PhD, chair of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, called physicians the most important group in determining the future of the U.S., because others who have tried to incite health delivery reform have run into a brick wall when doctors weren’t on board.
“I can sit up here and talk all about it. Other experts can talk about it. Only you can put it into practice,” Emanuel said at the opening ceremony here at the annual meeting of the American College of Physicians. “You don’t do, it ain’t gonna happen. It’s that simple.”
Read more here.
Frank Gaffney is one of the few commentators in America today who actually understands the stakes we’re all playing for.
Obamamunism isn’t primarily about economic disaster or centralized government tyranny. Those things, bad as they are, are just means to an end.
The real goal is the destruction of the US military, to the advantage of the combined forces of Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, militant Islam and all their soon to be revealed allies.
The aim isn’t to make America like Europe, it is to make her like Cuba or North Korea – by massive nuclear, EMP, biological, chemical, terrorist, infantry, naval, air and cyber attack if necessary.
America is to be destroyed as a political entity and even physically according to some plans.
Such an attack is inevitable, as soon America’s multiple enemies figure the balance of forces has moved far enough in their favor to guarantee victory.
That tipping point is way closer than most Americans could begin to imagine.
And if America goes, the whole free world goes. That is the bottom line.
Forget fleeing to Costa Rica or New Zealand. Russia, China and Iran will rule any who survive.
Some excerpts from Frank Gaffney at Breitbart’s Big Peace:
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Actor and director Jake McClain has taken on the monumental task of tweeting every single word of the 906-page “Obamacare” health reform law in hopes of drawing attention to the bill’s content, which he argues is detrimental to the nation’s fiscal health.
“Folks … this will probably take a long time to do, but I decided I will read every page, word by word, of Obamacare, and tweet every word,” he tweeted on March 22.
And he’s been on a roll ever since, making it through the first 22 pages of the lengthy legislation in just four days. He tweeted Monday night that he would begin to tweet out the 23rd page on Tuesday morning, and the effort is drawing attention and admiration from many critics of the law.
Read more here.
In 1970, Washington became the first – and remains the only – state in the country to legalize elective abortions by a popular vote.
A generation later, and 40 years removed from the landmark United States Supreme Court Roe v. Wade ruling that extended abortion access nationwide, Washington is once again poised to stand out.
With 21 states having adopted bans or severe restrictions on insurance companies from paying for abortions, Washington is alone in seriously considering legislation mandating the opposite.
The Reproductive Parity Act, as supporters call it, would require insurers in Washington state who cover maternity care – which all insurers must do – to also pay for abortions.
The bill passed the state House earlier this month by a vote of 53-43, though it faces an uncertain future in the Senate. (A similar bill in the New York state Assembly has been introduced each session for over a decade but has never received a public hearing.)
“This is a core value for Washingtonians,” said Melanie Smith, a lobbyist for NARAL Pro-Choice Washington. “We should protect it while we still have it and not leave access to basic health care up to an insurance company.”
Read more here.
Five Guys, the national burger chain, is about to raise burger prices at certain outlets according to Mike Ruffer, an eight-franchise holder in North Carolina. According to Ruffer, he will spend all the profits from at least one of the restaurants in order to pay off the bills on Obamacare. That means more expensive burgers. “Any added costs are going to have to be passed on,” Ruffer reported to the Heritage Foundation. “I’m in a holding pattern [with regard to building new outlets].” Ruffer said that his choices were to do that or to fire a bevy of employees to attempt to clear the limbo bar of Obamacare employment numbers.
Read more here.
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The Dysfunction of Maryland Politics
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