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That's because the law requires health plans to cover individuals, such as adult children, that they did not cover in the past; it bars health plans from putting lifetime and annual dollar limits on benefits; and it requires plans to provide preventive care services -- including contraceptives in a few months' time -- at no out-of-pocket cost to the enrollee, Edward Fensholt told the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions.

The Congressional Budget Office in a new report: When [the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act] was being considered, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that it would increase budget deficits by $787 billion between fiscal years 2009 and 2019. CBO now estimates that the total impact over the 2009–2019 period will amount to about $831 billion. By CBO’s estimate, close to half of that impact occurred in fiscal year 2010, and more than 90 percent of ARRA’s budgetary impact

Vulnerable Senate Dems don't rule out voting against Obama cost-control boardBy Julian Pecquet - 03/17/12 03:00 PM ET Several Senate Democrats up for reelection tell The Hill they haven't ruled out bucking President Obama by voting to repeal the health law's cost-control board. The House is expected to repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board next week, putting pressure on the Senate to follow suit. While the bill has broad bipartisan support in the House, no Senate Democrats have so far signed onto repeal legislation despite coming under increasing pressure to do so. "We're looking at it, let's put it that...

Via Philip Klein. The original 10-year price tag, the one that made it "safe" (but not really safe) for Democrats to drop this fiscal atomic bomb, was $940 billion. What happened, you ask? Well, see for yourself:Remember, they gamed this thing so that it wouldn’t take effect until 2014, which means that the cost of the first four years of implementation was essentially zero. That $940 billion figure really represented just six years of cost, not 10, but it was politically invaluable to Democratic messaging in letting them tout the bill as costing less than a trillion dollars. Now that...

San Francisco, California – Proposed U.S. fuel economy rules will mean that seven million Americans will not be able to afford to buy a new car or truck in 2025, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA). NADA director Forrest McConnell, a Honda and Acura dealer in Montgomery, Alabama, said that proposed fuel economy rules by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will create a US$3,200 increase in vehicle prices over those in 2010, and will limit the ability of many consumers to buy the vehicles they want or need. Testifying at an EPA hearing regarding the rules, McConnell said...

The Navy has estimated a worst-case cost overrun of as much as $1.1 billion for the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford, the service's most expensive warship. The carrier is being built in Newport News by Huntington Ingalls Industries under a cost-plus, incentive-fee contract in which the Navy pays for most of the overruns. Even so, the service's efforts to control expenses may put the company's $579.2 million profit at risk, according to the Navy.

As tuition costs skyrocket and graduates walk away saddled with ever-rising amounts of debt, American colleges now face a choice: Remain a part of the problem, or begin contributing to a solution. The average cost to attend a public university shot up 8.3 percent this year, while private institutions raised their prices 4.3 percent. Over the past decade, tuition rates have risen 72 percent, and universities are now taking more heat than ever from government officials, education specialists and middle-class families, all of whom think the higher-education sector hasn’t done enough to reverse the trend. If the current trajectory continues,...

Analyst: 'This might be the most government-supported car since the Trabant' (Editor’s note: This article has been updated with a reaction from a General Motor's official.) Each Chevy Volt sold thus far may have as much as $250,000 in state and federal dollars in incentives behind it – a total of $3 billion altogether, according to an analysis by James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

scooter ratings...looking for something showing cost per mile to own/operate various scooters (50-125cc) IIRC, MCN (Motorcycle Consumer News) had/has something like this for cycles,but none for scooters that I could recall.

Spanish voters on Sunday are expected to dismiss the Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and usher in the conservative People's Party (PP) and its leader, Mariano Rajoy. Mr. Zapatero’s Socialist party (PSOE), which has been in power for eight years, has borne the brunt of public blame for Spain’s increasingly perilous economic situation, which has tainted the party’s leadership candidate, Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba. Meanwhile, Mr. Rajoy has been coasting toward an expected landslide victory without saying much about how he plans to reverse Spain’s economic course... The situation is bleak for the eurozone’s fourth-largest...

Voters approved the project in 2003, to replace a freeway damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Back then, the cost was $647 million. Today, the price tag is $1.6 billion, with the lion's share of the funding still to come from the federal government. In July, San Francisco's Civil Grand Jury concluded the project was poorly designed, won't meet projected ridership levels, and, as the scathing title of its report says, costs "too much money for too little benefit." At about $1 billion per mile, the Central Subway has become a driving force in Tuesday's mayoral election.

The productivity of U.S. businesses climbed 3.1% in the third quarter...Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected productivity to increase by 3.7% in the third quarter... ...real output, grew at an annual rate of 3.8%...Hours worked, however, rose a much smaller 0.6%, according to Labor Department data released Thursday. As a result, unit-labor costs fell 2.4%...

When first proposed to taxpayers in 2008, the high-speed rail project in California that would eventually link Los Angeles and San Francisco had a projected cost of $33.6 billion and a delivery date of twelve years. By May of this year, after the Obama administration tossed in $3.5 billion in stimulus money to get the project started, the cost estimate ballooned to $43 billion, the most expensive public-works project in American history. But that now looks like a bargain in contrast to the latest estimate for the bullet train, as reported by the Mercury News: Faster than a speeding bullet...

Employees may not realize it, but they are getting more expensive. It isn't that their paychecks have suddenly started bulging. It's that other employment costs—like health and retirement benefits—continue to rise. Benefit costs in the private sector were up 4% year-on-year in the second quarter, more than double the 1.7% increase in wages and salaries. On Friday, the Labor Department's employment-cost index for the third quarter is likely to show this trend continuing. The trouble is, this means employers are paying more for workers without actually paying their workers more. Higher benefit costs eat into profits without directly raising a...

UND officials have estimated the cost of retiring the Fighting Sioux nickname and logo at nearly $750,000, not counting the cost of changes that may occur at the privately-held Ralph Engelstad Arena. University President Robert Kelley sent the estimates last week to a budget analyst and auditor with the North Dakota Legislative Council, in response to a request made by Rep. Mike Schatz, R-New England. Schatz, who has declared that he will not support an attempt in next month's special legislative session to clear the way for retirement of the name and logo, said he asked for the cost information...

Minnesota ranks as the fifth least affordable state for prekindergarten child care, after New York, Montana, Massachusetts and Wisconsin. Minnesota is among the most expensive for child care partly because the industry is highly regulated by the state, according to Ann McCully, executive director of Minnesota Child Care. For example, Minnesota requires a lower ratio of staff to children than other states, which requires centers to spend more money on personnel. McCully said it can be difficult for centers to make a profit or simply break even.

The cost of health insurance for many Americans this year climbed more sharply than in previous years, outstripping any growth in workers’ wages and adding more uncertainty about the pace of rising medical costs. A new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit research group that tracks employer-sponsored health insurance on a yearly basis, shows that the average annual premium for family coverage through an employer reached $15,073 in 2011, an increase of 9 percent over the previous year. “The open question is whether that’s a one-time spike or the start of a period of higher increases,” said Drew...

Mitt Romney has tried to accomplish two tasks in his debate performances — defend his health-care overhaul in Massachusetts known as MassCare but often called RomneyCare, and tout his record as a governor whose policies fostered job creation in the state. A new study by a conservative think tank at Suffolk University will complicate both strategies. According to the Boston Herald, the study shows that MassCare cost the state more than 18,000 jobs since its enactment: The Bay State’s controversial 2006 universal health-care plan — also known as “Romneycare” — has cost Massachusetts more than 18,000 jobs, according to an...

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Texas Gov. Rick Perry has asked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for nearly $350 million to cover the costs incurred detaining illegal immigrants in state prisons and county jails. In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Perry criticized the federal government hasn't been doing enough to secure the border with Mexico, thereby allowing illegal immigrants to enter the U.S. and use taxpayer-funded resources, including prisons and jails. It's a claim the Republican governor has made many times before. The letter was dated Aug. 10, three days before Perry formally announced he is running...

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry has asked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to reimburse the state $350 million to cover costs of imprisoning illegal immigrants. In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the top-tier Republican presidential candidate blamed the federal government for not securing the border with Mexico, allowing illegal immigrants to cross over and use taxpayer-funded resources.

osts for holding the recall election for state Sen. Sheila Harsdorf's 10th Senate District seat totaled at least $113,500 for the five counties in her district, according to county clerks. The total cost of the recall is even higher, given that the reported figure counts only the cost to the counties and not the amount each municipality with a polling location spent during Tuesday's recall election and the July 12 primary. Harsdorf, R-River Falls, retained her seat Tuesday by defeating Ellsworth schoolteacher Shelly Moore, a River Falls Democrat, tallying 58 percent of the vote compared with 42 percent for Moore....

Sacramento, Calif. (AP) -- The estimated cost of California's high-speed rail project is rising by billions of dollars. Environmental impact studies released Tuesday and obtained in advance by The Associated Press put the cost of building the initial segment at anywhere from $10 billion to $13.9 billion. That's sharply higher than the $7.1 billion estimate from 2009 for the Merced-to-Bakersfield section. Rail board executives say the higher costs include more elevated tracks in the Central Valley and more specific data about property values. Construction is scheduled to start next year. ...

Ten Republican Senators have signed on to a letter asking FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of the FCC's network neutrality rules. The 10, which includes Kay Bailey Hutchison (Tex.), the ranking member on the Senate Commerce Committee that oversees the FCC, were putting their collective muscle behind a second request by Sen. Dean Heller, who says the FCC did not respond to a July 12 letter following President Barack Obama's executive order asking independent agencies to "join executive agencies in reducing regulations that place unnecessary burdens on American businesses and the American people," as the senators...

Back in April I wrote about a person near and dear to me — yes, my husband — who needed two new crowns for $3,442. I published his experience in a post, Is Your Dentist Ripping You Off? Dentists howled in protest at the provocative headline, though most agreed with the content of the story.

A new report out of Brown University estimates that the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq--together with the counterinsurgency efforts in Pakistan--will, all told, cost $4 trillion and leave 225,000 dead, both civilians and soldiers. The Congressional Budget Office, meanwhile, has assessed the federal price tag for the wars at $1.8 trillion through 2021. The report says that is a gross underestimate, predicting that the government has already paid $2.3 trillion to $2.7 trillion. Perhaps the most sobering conclusion of the researchers is that it's unclear whether the human and economic costs are worth it. Saddam Hussein and Osama bin...

When President Barack Obama cited cost as a reason to bring troops home from Afghanistan, he referred to a $1 trillion price tag for America's wars. Staggering as it is, that figure grossly underestimates the total cost of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan to the U.S. Treasury and ignores more imposing costs yet to come, according to a study released Wednesday. The final bill will reach at least $3.7 trillion and could be as high as $4.4 trillion, according to the research project "Costs of War" by Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies. In the 10 years since...

The CBO has a problem with the Office of Management and Budget’s calculation on the cost of the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac bailouts, and it’s no small calculation error. OMB has calculated the costs of the bailout at $130 billion, a number repeated on occasion by the Obama administration. By the CBO’s calculation, the cost of the bailouts reaches $317 billion, more than twice the White House estimate: In a report delivered to the House Budget Committee on June 2, the CBO said a “fair value” accounting of guaranteeing the two defunct mortgage companies – known as Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs)...

Have you noticed that the economy is slowing down once again? The data of late has been pretty unequivocal on that front. In the last few weeks, we've seen monthly reports from Fed regional banks that show local economic growth stalling. Industrial production for April was flat. The housing market is in a double dip, despite the fact that mortgage rates are at bargain basement levels. Weekly jobless claims have bounced back up. And while the top-line number of April's unemployment report showed somewhat good news, though it also revealed clear signs that wages are not keeping pace with inflation,...

The controversy has been stirring Denmark for some days. “The economists behind the report on the cost of immigration oppose the government,” writes Information, accusing the government and its majority of exploiting the economists’ work for political ends. Drawn up at the government’s request, their report is now being used by the Danish People’s Party — the far-right party supporting the Liberal-Conservative majority in parliament — and the integration minister to call for further restrictions on immigration. Denmark is already applying the most restrictive immigration laws in Europe. The conservative daily Jyllands-Posten revealed this report on April 28 under the...

E.J. Dionne seems perfectly comfortable with the fact that he doesn’t understand economics—as long as the Washington Post continues to allow him to interpret economic events in a manner that comports with his political predispositions. Dionne sees GM’s recent good fortune as evidence of the propriety of government “step[ping] in when the market fails.” Dionne, like others before him, stands slack-jawed, in awe, ready and willing to buy the Brooklyn Bridge, donning narrow blinders and viewing just a narrow sliver of the world, oblivious to the fact that related events are transpiring in the other 359 degrees that surround him....

There’s something sad about a man so carelessly revealing himself as entirely inadequate to the moment. Government spending is an existential threat to the United States. Whether or not anyone at the White House knows this, the viziers decided to shove the sultan out on stage with a pitifully unserious speech retreating to all his lamest tropes – the usual whiny, petty and unpresidential partisan snippiness, and the ponderous demolition of straw men even he barely bothered to pretend he believed in: Politicians are often eager to feed the impression that solving the problem is just a matter of eliminating...

No deficit in dollars to finance Libya war Roger Simon Last Modified: Apr 22, 2011 02:15AM What is all this crazy talk about the United States government spending too much money and running up huge bills it cannot pay? Why all this shrieking and hair-pulling on Capitol Hill over deficit reduction and increasing the debt limit? Talk about a tempest in a tea bag. The United States is rolling in dough. We have so much of it, in fact, that we are dropping it on foreign countries. In the form of bombs and missiles. We are so rich, we are...

Senator Bernie Sanders added a new victim to the long list in his most recent column -- college students. Sanders complained that the Republican budget proposal would reduce the average Pell higher education grant by 17 percent at a time when the cost of a college education is "soaring." Having just sent the last of my three children off to college, I cannot argue with Sanders’ description of college tuition costs -- they are, indeed, soaring. Statistics confirm personal observation as, according to the Measuring Up 2008 report by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, tuition and...

Family doctors are being prevented from prescribing drugs for conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and osteoporosis as NHS managers attempt to make drastic budget cuts, an investigation has found. Primary care trusts are adding more medicines to their so-called "red lists" which means they can only be prescribed by a hospital consultant and not a GP. The measure is designed to save money by restricting access to drugs that are often among the more expensive. It also means that many patients find it more difficult to obtain the most effective drugs free on the NHS, even though they have

One week after an international military coalition intervened in Libya, the cost to U.S. taxpayers has reached at least $600 million, according figures provided by the Pentagon. U.S. ships and submarines in the Mediterranean have unleashed at least 191 Tomahawk cruise missiles from their arsenals to the tune of $268.8 million, the Pentagon said. U.S. warplanes have dropped 455 precision guided bombs, costing tens of thousands of dollars each. A downed Air Force F-15E fighter jet will cost more than $60 million to replace.

This shows how pitifully small the GOP's cuts in the $1.5 trillion deficit are. The Hill: U.S. military operations in Libya could wipe out a significant chunk of the budget cuts won by congressional Republicans in recent weeks, defense analysts say. GOP leaders have trumpeted enacted spending reductions that amount to more than $285 million per day since the beginning of March. But defense analysts say the Pentagon could be burning through more than $100 million per day in Libya, putting those budget savings at risk. In separate briefings on Monday, the Defense Department and the White House said they...

New calculations applied to a U.S. Senate report reveal the Environmental Protection Agency's plan to combat global warming through regulation of greenhouse gases would theoretically take over $700 trillion, seven times the world's gross production, to drop the earth's temperature only 1 degree Celsius. The report released last year by Sen. James Ihnofe, R-Okla., then-ranking minority member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, quotes the EPA's own stats and experts to break down the numbers, including one researcher who called the Obama administration's plan "absurd." Citing a study by the EPA's Dr. Linda M. Chappell and various...

Guess what? Dollar bills are made of cotton The record run-up in cotton prices is making it more expensive to make T-shirts, socks and -- get this -- even dollar bills. By Parija Kavilanz, senior writerMarch 8, 2011: 9:26 AM ET NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Sure, packs of T-shirts and socks are getting expensive because of skyrocketing cotton prices. Guess what else is made of cotton? The dollar bill in your wallet. In 2010, the cost of making one note jumped 50% from what it cost the government in 2008. The government produced 6.4 billion new currency notes last year....

The White House said Monday that officials are still considering whether to tap into the strategic oil reserve but stressed that any decision would not be based solely on the price of gas. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said other factors, like whether there's a "major disruption in the flow of oil," will have to be considered. "It's an option we are considering. But there are a number of factors that go into it, and it is not price-based alone," Carney said. "I wouldn't look to a price threshold."

President Obama dumped a real dilly on Congress for Valentine’s Day. That being a $3.73 trillion dollar budget that actually increases the deficit in 2012, but which attacks the problem with tax increases later on. Tax increases? During a recession? Obama’s proposal confirms that the president remains stuck in the quagmire of a “learning curve” gone amuck. It also proves that his short-term memory is wonky as well. Does the date November 2, 2010 mean anything to you, Sir? What about the word “shellacking” ? Ring any bells?

Today the 112th U.S. House of Representatives will engage in the most important vote of it young term. It will speak for and vote for the majority of the American people. That is something that the 111th Congress failed to do. The consequences of that failure resulted in the expulsion of Democrats who controlled the House and awarded control of the House to Republicans. The Democrat Partisan president Barry Hussein Soetoro warns the new Republican led House not to listen to the people but forego voting to repeal the court ruled unconstitutional law that he and Democrats made law. However...

In fighting against Obamacare repeal this week, Democrats portray their health care law as a money saver, claiming Republicans would add to the deficit by abolishing the legislation. But in their franker moments, the bill's authors admit that "reform" could be something of a time bomb that will cause exploding health care costs down the line. One top Senate aide plainly stated last summer, "This is a coverage bill, not a cost reduction bill." The time-bomb nature of Obamacare was presaged by Mitt Romney's health care bill in Massachusetts, which also expanded health insurance coverage by mandating that all individuals...

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released its annual National Health Expenditure Accounts report Wednesday. The report contains "the official estimates of total health care spending in the United States." In 2009, health care spending in the U.S. totaled $2.486 trillion, up 4% versus 2008. That equates to 17.6% of our nation's Gross Domestic Product and $8,086 per person. Federal, state and local governments disbursed nearly 44%, or $1.083 trillion, of all health care dollars spent while the amount paid directly by businesses and households was 21% and 28%, respectively. In light of this data, liberals fussing about...

Anyone who has been out holiday shopping knows there are some great deals on clothing. “I’m amazed at the sales right now,” one enthusiastic shopper said. However, experts say once the holidays are over, so are the deals. The problem is the price of cotton. Bad weather last year in India, Pakistan and China destroyed thousands of acres of cotton fields which slashed the global cotton supply. “Cotton is up 70 percent in the last year, which is phenomenal,” explained Babson College Professor Peter Cohan. Cotton is a staple in the fashion industry. Think about it, jeans, T-shirts and many...

EXCERPTS President Obama and his family are enjoying a delightful Christmas vacation with friends and family in the chief executive's home state of Hawaii. Nobody questions a president's right or need to take take away from the White House, but an investigation by Hawaii Reporter has turned up some eye-opening information about the costs and other aspects of the Obama get-away. Just consider these estimates on part of the costs of the latest Obama Hawaii trip: * Mrs. Obama’s early flight to Hawaii: $63,000 (White House Dossier) * Obama’s round trip flight to Hawaii: $1 million (GAO estimates) * Housing...

Public Pension Cost Cover-Up? The Union Effort to Kill TransparencyThe usual (and not so usual) suspects don't want you to know how much your grandchildren owe. Posted by LaborUnionReport Sunday, December 19th at 2:30PM EST If you’re going to be required to pay for something, common sense would say that you should have the right to know how much it costs, right? After all, no one likes surprises — especially if those surprises cost trillions and you, your children and your children’s children are likely going to have to pay for it for decades to come. Yet, there are those...

British statistician and esteemed academic Claus Moser once said, "education costs money, but then so does ignorance." The principle remains the same today, while the cost of education has increased dramatically in recent years, the value of a degree has decreased. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 1978 the average cost of tuition, room and board at a four-year institution was $9,211, adjusted to 2008 dollars. By 2009 that cost had increased to $19,323, more than doubling the cost in 30 years. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the College Board, from 1978 to 2008...

British statistician and esteemed academic Claus Moser once said, "education costs money, but then so does ignorance." The principle remains the same today, while the cost of education has increased dramatically in recent years, the value of a degree has decreased. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 1978 the average cost of tuition, room and board at a four-year institution was $9,211, adjusted to 2008 dollars. By 2009 that cost had increased to $19,323, more than doubling the cost in 30 years. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the College Board, from 1978 to 2008...

The cost of maintaining a checking account rose to an all-time high this year, with much of the increase coming from the fees assessed to maintain both interest and non-interest-bearing accounts rising 40 percent. Other cost increases included a 5 percent increase from last year in ATM fees, to an all-time high of $2.33, while the average fee for using an out-of-network ATM was $1.41, rising almost 7 percent, according to a survey released Monday by Bankrate.com. Other fees that rose this year included a 3 percent increase in overdraft fees, to a record high of $30.47

Grab your wallet! Federal regulators warn that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the quasi-government (not Wall Street) mortgage entities are going to cost lots more taxpayer dollars to fix. (snip) This will not help Barney Frank in his tight race with Sean Bielat. Frank was a staunch defender of Fannie and Freddie (his boyfriend-at-the-time -- the one after the gay escort ring head, and before the harasser of Bielat -- was an executive at Fannie). There is a real chance for Bielat to beat the veteran Frank.