Free Republic

UPS dumped a load of coal in Christmas stockings across America on Wednesday, blaming bad weather and high volume for failing to deliver packages in time for the holiday. "The volume of air packages in our system exceeded the capacity in our network as demand was much greater than the forecast," UPS spokeswoman Natalie Godwin said Tuesday in a statement. "As a result a small percentage of packages was delayed and will not be delivered today, Tuesday, Christmas Eve." Godwin said the company expects a majority of the packages to be delivered on the day after Christmas. It is unclear...

Americans remain unhappy with the health care law: Majorities say they wish it had never passed, would vote to repeal it if they could, and think implementation should be delayed until the kinks are worked out. At the same time, a shrinking majority believes the law will survive. That’s according to a year-end Fox News poll released Wednesday. **SNIP** Those favoring a delay also now include a majority of Democrats: 54 percent support delaying implementation. That’s up 10 points from 44 percent last month.

WASHINGTON - President Obama will allow insurance companies to continue offering individual health plans that do not meet the standards of the Affordable Care Act through next year, according to a Democratic source on Capitol Hill familiar with the plans. The plan, which the president will announce Thursday morning, is intended to placate millions of consumers who have received cancellation notices from insurers in recent weeks. Obama had repeatedly promised that consumers would be able to keep plans that they liked. The president was under intense pressure from Democrats on Capitol Hill to find a fix. House Democrats have increasingly...

See: Rubio Seeks Obama's Support for Delay of Individual Mandate "Sen. Marco Rubio is urging President Barack Obama to support his bill that would delay Obamacare’s individual mandate until six months after the program’s malfunctioning website is working normally." What I would like to ask Senator Rubio is: Under what provision of our Constitution is Congress authorized to impose a fine upon a citizen who exercises a fundamental right to purchase health insurance to meet their personal medical and health care needs and refuses “federally approved” health insurance? Does the Senator from the great State of Florida disagree with what...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House will host a meeting of aides to Senate committee leaders on Thursday seeking to persuade lawmakers to hold off on a package of tough new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, a senior Senate aide said. The White House will press for another delay on a sanctions bill that had been expected to come to a vote in the Senate Banking Committee last month, but was held back after appeals from President Barack Obama's administration to let negotiations on Iran's nuclear program get under way. The aide said Republicans would resist further delay,...

**SNIP** Theoretically, someone who chooses to be uninsured owes the government money, but the government is prohibited by the ACA from trying to collect it. What kind of a debt is it that can’t be collected? **SNIP** As I understand it, the only way the IRS can possibly collect the penalty is by withholding your tax refund. No problem: if you arrange your taxes so that you don’t overpay, the penalty can never be collected from you. Which is to say that there is no penalty for failing to comply with the Obamacare “mandate.” Many commentators have pointed this out,...

Amid mounting criticism, the White House said Wednesday that it plans to soften the deadline for when Americans are required to purchase health insurance. The date by when Americans would be penalized for not having signed up for health insurance could be “slid” back by as much as six weeks, administration officials told NBC News. But it was not immediately clear Wednesday whether the adjustment to a cornerstone of the Affordable Care Act would need to be approved by Congress or could be done by the Department of Health and Human Services administratively. As the law stands now, individuals are...

Shaheen posted an open letter to President Obama Tuesday urging him to extend the enrollment period for Americans to sign up for health care under the Affordable Care Act. Dear Mr. President: The Affordable Care Act has already positively impacted the lives of millions of Americans and once fully implemented, this law has great promise. However, I am concerned about the problems that people are experiencing with the Affordable Care Act’s website, healthcare.gov. As website glitches persist, we are losing valuable time to educate and enroll people in insurance plans. I also fear that people that have tried, and failed,...

".....DeLay began by admitting Republicans “did lose” the fight over the budget and the debt ceiling. Echoing the words of House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), he said, “They put up a good fight. O appreciate everyone that voted against the deal yesterday and stood up and fought. Unfortunately, they didn’t have enough votes to carry out the fight and win.” When Baldwin brought up Republicans’ crumbling approval ratings, Delay accused her of pushing a “media narrative” with those numbers. “I have no narrative, sir,” she responded. “I’m just right in the middle, just asking the question.” “I’m not attacking you,...

According to Special Report, a cadre of Quislings in the House are planning a revolt against not only the conservative majority, but the leadership as well. No doubt led by Peter King who recently insinuated he was not going to continue playing 'Cruz' game', this group will vote with the rats to block our next volley to the senate, the hardest one yet for them to reject. We cannot allow this. If you are a Freeper and think your rep might be involved in this treachery, melt the phone lines and fill the inboxes. No insurrection can be afforded at...

The House of Representatives early on Sunday brought the federal government closer to a shutdown as it voted to delay President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare law for a year as part of an emergency spending bill. By a mostly partisan vote of 231-192, the Republican-controlled House approved the "Obamacare" amendment, despite a veto threat from the White House. It also voted 248-174 to repeal a medical device tax that aims to help fund healthcare programs under the 2010 law. And in a sign that lawmakers might be resigned to a government shutdown beginning Tuesday, the House unanimously approved a bill...

Headline at Drudge Report "DELAY OBAMACARE A YEAR OR WE WILL SHUT IT DOWN - BOEHNER MAKES MOVE"

(Reuters) - The U.S. government on Thursday announced new delays in rolling out President Barack Obama's healthcare reform, saying small business and Spanish-language health insurance enrollment services would not begin on Oct. 1 as planned. The postponements amount to a few weeks out of a months-long enrollment period aimed at signing up millions of uninsured Americans for health benefits. But they add to expectations of a slow start to the landmark social program which remains under attack by Republican leaders and faces formidable technical hurdles for states and the federal government. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)...

As has been the case elsewhere around the country, the Obamacare exchange in Washington, D.C. will not be ready on October 1st. DC Health Link, the Obamacare exchange in the nation’s capital, announced Wednesday that the online exchange will not be able to make new Medicaid eligibility determinations. It will also not be calculating tax credits for private insurance “due to a high error rate discovered through extensive systems testing.” According to DC Health Link’s announcement, people seeking those services will be able to create an online account through the exchange, however their initial eligibility will be determined “off-line by...

The Obama administration has delayed yet another piece of the health care overhaul, pushing back online enrollment for small business owners on the new federal health insurance exchange, a Department of Health and Human Services source tells The Washington Post. On the federal exchange, which is scheduled to launch on Tuesday, small business owners will not be able to purchase coverage online until Nov. 1. Instead, for the first month, they will have to mail or fax their information to government officials to enroll on the federal exchange, which will serve individuals and business owners in the 34 states that...

The man they called “the Hammer,” who used Democrats as anvils, got a little satisfaction Thursday. An appeals court in Texas reversed the money-laundering conviction of Tom DeLay and told him to go and sin no more. Time and events move quickly in the modern media, and a new crime of the century arrives with the noise of every news cycle. The final acquittal of Tom DeLay, who was once the Republican majority leader in the House, is but a footnote to the news. He was once the most feared man on Capitol Hill, merciless in pursuit, and like all...

It is a scandal that there has been and will be no serious jail time in the matter of former Republican majority leader Tom DeLay — Ronnie Earle, the hyperpartisan Democratic prosecutor whose risible case against DeLay has just been finally thrown out by the Third District Texas Court of Appeals, richly deserves to be measured for an all-orange wardrobe. After eleven years, the matter of Mr. DeLay’s fund-raising in the 2002 election cycle has been finally put to rest, with Mr. Earle’s case having been vivisected by Justice Melissa Goodwin, who in her quietly scathing opinion did not bother...

A Texas Court of Appeals in Austin has overturned the conviction of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, attorney Brian Wice told KVUE sister station KHOU 11 News.

We, the undersigned, call on Congress to pass and the President to sign into law a one-year timeout on the President's health reform bill. Some people want the health care law repealed, some want it fixed or expanded, and some want it implemented just as it was written. But all of us agree that the law is not ready for prime time. Already there have been politically selective waivers, exemptions, and delays of parts of this law; in fact, half of the legal deadlines have not been met. Unions are being forced to seek waivers or face changing their current...