Free Republic

In an effort to push back against criticism of its health care reform plans, the Obama administration is sending one of the many former journalists in its employ onto the digital airwaves of Youtube to attack Matt Drudge and other critics for spreading "disinformation" and "lies." Since "we can't keep track of all of them here at the White House," health reform Communications Director Linda Douglass says, "we're asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov." Reason.tv's Dan Hayes is nothing if...

Mitt Romney: "I'm for keeping the Bush tax cuts in place and holding down the tax rates. I want to lower our federal tax rates. So across a wide array of issues, I think conservatives in my party will see that I'm a rock solid conservative. Look, you pointed it out a moment ago. Last time around John McCain and Rudy Giuliani were running, I was the conservative choice. Mike Huckabee and I. We were the two guys that were on the conservative side. I have the same views today I had back then."

The Supreme Court, or so we are told, follows the election returns. Perhaps, but it shouldn’t anticipate them — or, for that matter, rule with the campaign calendar in mind. The proper legal course — and, as it happens, by far the best thing for the country — is for the court to decide on the constitutionality of the health-care law by next summer, despite the fact that the opinion would come down in the heat of President Obama’s reelection campaign. ----- Or — and here is where things get interesting — a future president “might not enforce the individual...

The Obama administration cut a major planned benefit from the 2010 health-care law on Friday, announcing that a program to offer Americans insurance for long-term care was simply unworkable. Although the program had been dogged from the start by doubts about its feasibility, its elimination marks the first time the administration has backed away from a key piece of President Obama’s signature legislative achievement. Republican critics of the law immediately said the decision proved that the legislation is unsound and unsustainable. Every major GOP presidential candidate has pledged to work to repeal it.

** Page 50/section 152: The bill will provide insurance to all non-U.S. Residents, even if they are here illegally. ** Page 58 and 59: The government will have real-time access to an individual's bank account and will have the authority to make electronic fund transfers from those accounts. ** Page 65/section 164: The plan will be subsidized (by the government) for all union members, union retirees and for community organizations ** Page 203/line 14-15: The tax imposed under this section will not be treated as a tax. ** Page 241 and 253: Doctors will all be paid the same regardless...

There has been no shortage of court cases regarding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. Before today, four courts, including the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, examined the health reform law and found it constitutional. Today, a different court ruled against the Affordable Care Act’s individual responsibility provision. We strongly disagree with this decision and we are confident it will not stand. The individual responsibility provision – the main part of the law at issue in these cases – is constitutional. Those who claim this provision exceeds Congress’ power to regulate interstate commerce are incorrect. Individuals who choose to...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — An Illinois judge on Tuesday put Catholic Charities back in the business of finding foster and adoptive homes for children, reinstating — at least temporarily — contracts that were halted when the not-for-profit agency refused to recognize the state's new civil unions law. The Sangamon County Circuit Court ruling applies to contracts between the agency and the Department of Children and Family Services. The decree is temporary until the matter can be decided after an August hearing. DCFS ended its decades-long relationship with the agency last month because Catholic Charities refused to recognize Illinois' new civil...

The Obama Administration is handing out waivers far and wide for its health-care bill, but behind the scenes the bureaucracy is grinding ahead writing new regulations. The latest example is the rule for Accountable Care Organizations that are supposed to be the crown jewel of cost-saving reform. One problem: The draft rule is so awful that even the models for it say they won't participate. *** The theory for ACOs, as they're known, is that hospitals, primary-care doctors and specialists will work more efficiently in teams, like at the Mayo Clinic and other top U.S. hospitals. ACOs are meant to...

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says patient outcomes in the United States are like those in “a developing country” – and that they’ll stay that way if the health care reform law is repealed. “The delivery system changes are what will affect underlying costs, and that impacts everybody,” Sebelius said Thursday. “We pay 2 1/2 times what anybody else pays in the world, and our care outcomes look like we're in a developing country.” The United States actually ranks well above developing countries on multiple health indicators, coming in right above the European Union on infant

WASHINGTON, March 16, 2011 – On Jan. 25, Egyptians began protesting against the government of then-President Hosni Mubarak. By Feb. 1, the U.S. State Department had ordered the departure of all nonemergency U.S. government personnel and their families from Egypt. After many Americans evacuated Egypt, their pets were left behind, but Army Capt. Eric Coulson helped to set up an impromptu pet kennel to care of the animals. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. But not all "members" of the families departed. The four-legged ones stayed behind. "A lot of people had pets that they really didn't have...

Before he was alleged to have become a spy for Saddam Hussein's regime, Muthanna Al-Hanooti's charity work and political activism provided him with access to the highest echelons of government. Newsletters collected by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, some published now for the first time, show Al-Hanooti photographed with dignitaries ranging from First Lady Hillary Clinton in 1996 and Vice President Al Gore along with significant members of Congress. That may explain why Iraqi intelligence agents had confidence that Al-Hanooti would be able to persuade Congress to lift economic sanctions against Iraq. A federal indictment unsealed Wednesday accuses him of...

The Wall Street Journal has published a new op-ed that argues against the prevailing theory that the U.S health care system pre-Affordable Care Act involved a lot of cost-shifting. Essentially, regular citizens had to pay more for their health care to cover the cost of caring for the uninsured and broke. ObamaCare was supposed to fix this problem via the individual mandate. Writers John F. Cogan, R. Glenn Hubbard, and Daniel Kessler (all university professors) argue that this idea, the foundation that ObamaCare is built on, is fundamentally wrong. “Our review of the research has found that there is no...

VANITY: I tried doing a search to find the list of the 1,000+ companies/unions/etc. that have been granted waivers from the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act." Needless to say, it is not a featured link on the HHS.gov website. I'm sure there are some great Freeper sleuths who know where we should be able to find this -- Google and Bing don't seem to want to help. Maybe HHS doesn't want people to know who is being granted waivers... Maybe HHS doesn't want people asking the question. I think it should be a FAQ on the HHS website because...

<p>House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and defenders of the health care reform law unearthed an unexpected and temporary ally Monday night: Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC).</p> <p>Politics makes strange bedfellows. But few bunking arrangements are stranger than this.</p> <p>To be clear, there aren't many in Congress who have more antipathy for the health care law than Foxx. In fact, at a meeting of the House Rules Committee Monday night, Foxx could barely hide her contempt for the health law.</p>

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday night, just hours before the president's State of the Union address, began the legislative process of forcing the House-passed health care repeal bill to the Senate floor for a vote. Typically, only the leaders in the chamber use this procedure, which gets around committee action. It's a way for members to bring a bill before the Senate without the support of the Majority Leader. McConnell's Democratic counterpart, Harry Reid of Nevada, has vowed that no such repeal vote will occur,

During the stormy debate over his healthcare plan, President Barack Obama promised his program would not "pull the plug on grandma," and Congress dropped plans for death panels and "end of life" counseling that would encourage aged patients from partaking in costly medical procedures. Opponents of Obama's plan, including former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, dubbed such efforts as "death panels" that would encourage euthanasia. But on Dec. 3, the Obama administration seemingly flouted the will of Congress by issuing a new Medicare regulation detailing "voluntary advance care planning" that is to be included during patients' annual checkups. The regulation aimed...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Opponents of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul law are a cheering a federal court ruling that one of its core provisions is unconstitutional. They may not realize that Obama has a fallback option that also could do the job. Even if the Supreme Court ultimately agrees that government cannot require individuals to carry health coverage, the Obama administration could borrow a strategy that Medicare has used for decades to compel consumers to join new insurance groups. Medicare’s coverage for doctor visits is voluntary and carries a separate premium, yet more than nine in 10 older people...

AT issue is section 1501 of this act, commonly known as the "minimum essential coverage provision"

One of the largest union-administered health-insurance funds in New York is dropping coverage for the children of more than 30,000 low-wage home attendants, union officials said. The union blamed financial problems it said were caused by the state’s health department and new national health-insurance requirements. The fund is administered by 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union. Union officials said the state compelled the fund to start buying coverage from a third party, which increased premiums by 60%. State health officials denied forcing the union fund to make the switch, saying the fund had...

Is Donald Berwick, the controversial new head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, standing by the Obama administration’s double counting of savings in the new health care law? At a Senate hearing this morning, he declined to engage with official criticism of the administration's claim that the the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act extends the Medicare Trust Fund. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius has been pushing the line that the PPACA extends Medicare’s solvency for a while, despite pushback from both the Congressional Budget Office and Medicare's chief actuary, Richard Foster. And now Berwick...