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The C.R. Bard plant in Queensbury is laying off 54 full-time employees, citing lower-than-projected sales. Employees were notified of the layoffs Monday, and the actual reductions will take place over the next few weeks. The layoffs announced Monday are on top of 55 layoffs at the medical device manufacturing plant in July, said Scott Lowry, C.R. Bard vice president and treasurer. “It’s a challenging health-care environment for a lot of reasons,” Lowry said. “We’re right-sizing to meet those changes. We’re not seeing the volumes we had in the past, the volumes we were expecting.” No additional layoffs are planned for...

What a clusterfark. The Hill: ***** "The Obama administration faces major logistical and financial challenges in creating health insurance exchanges for states that have declined to set up their own systems. The exchanges were designed as the centerpiece of President Obama's signature law, and are intended to make buying health insurance comparable to booking a flight or finding a compatible partner on Match.com. Sixteen states - most of them governed by Republicans - have said they will not set up their own systems, forcing the federal government to come up with one instead. Another five states said they want a...

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to examine the constitutionality of the health reform law’s employer requirements and mandatory coverage of contraceptives without a co-pay. The move could open the door for President Barack Obama’s health law to be back in front of the Supreme Court late next year. The Supreme Court responded to a request from Liberty University, one of the groups that sued over the health care law’s individual mandate in 2010. When the court ruled in June that the mandate was constitutional, it dismissed Liberty’s entire lawsuit. Over the summer, the...

A decision by the Supreme Court this morning opens up a potential new avenue of attack against ObamaCare on the grounds of religious liberty — and not just the HHS contraception mandate. The court overturned the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by Liberty University over the health-system overhaul, in a move that was not opposed by the Obama administration in court: The Supreme Court has revived a Christian college’s challenge to President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul, with the acquiescence of the Obama administration.The court on Monday ordered the federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., to consider the claim by Liberty...

Americans know instinctively that when liberals start talking about deficit reduction that’s it’s just a case of the fantods, as Huckleberry Finn would say. And say what you will about old Huck, but he knew a couple of frauds when he saw them.       No matter what liberal “Wonks” like Ezra Klein say about the historically dumb healthcare “reform” known as Obamcare, Americans are uneasy about it. And they should be. The best thing- as Democrat strategist James Carville admitted last year- that could have happened for the Democrats is for the Supreme Court to have tossed out the landmark legislation that bears...

The Hill has an interesting story reporting on Republican governors refusing to set up state exchanges under Obamacare — which could save the states money since they are on the hook for costs in excess of federal grants. That means the feds will have to do it on a state-by-state basis, a daunting task even for this highly bureaucratic administration. Plus, it is perfectly legal under the law to engage in such passive resistance. Some liberals say that approach isn’t conservative because, in effect, it allows the feds to run state health care. (As if they care!) I’m not buying....

Some of the recently issued rules, particularly on community rating (charging the same price to everyone regardless of health status) and limiting the premium difference between older and younger applicants are likely to increase prices for young people – and over half (55%) of the uninsured are under age 35. If prices rise sharply for this group, they’re much less likely to buy coverage, since Obamacare lets them buy insurance for the same price even after they become sick. And if young people pass up coverage, the rates will rise for everyone else in the exchange – and for taxpayers...

Obama faces huge challenge in setting up insurance exchangesBy Elise Viebeck - 11/25/12 02:45 PM ET The Obama administration faces major logistical and financial challenges in creating health insurance exchanges for states that have declined to set up their own systems. The exchanges were designed as the centerpiece of President Obama’s signature law, and are intended to make buying health insurance comparable to booking a flight or finding a compatible partner on Match.com. Sixteen states — most of them governed by Republicans — have said they will not set up their own systems, forcing the federal government to come up...

The good news about the election is that when you are finally able to get in to see your unionized government doctor, the euthanasia shot he gives you will be paid for by some rich atheist that you never met–as authorized by a death panel in a far distant state. Best of all, nobody will have any remorse. Like the Borg from Star Trek, who commit evil without a conscience, our society is rapidly moving to evil without emotions. Texans, the only way to avoid tyranny is secession! Let’s get out now before it’s too late. Secession is no longer...

This is a brief follow-on piece to the original, (Vanity) Demographics Are Not Destiny, or, It's Just How We Roll In that piece I considered the GOP-e's analysis of the 2012 Presidential Election loss as due to unsurmountable demographic shifts in the electorate, and showed that the changes in the electorate were not due solely to demographics, but to changes in the labor market and the attitudes instilled into the historical blue-collar voting bloc (across sexual and racial lines) in an attempt to gain political power. I then showed the financial dangers of such an approach and compared them to...

After the election, a lot of people are excited that they can now get healthcare. Or maybe not quite yet, but by 2014, when ObamaCare is fully implemented. The only problem is that healthcare is not like an Obama phone. The phones are all made by a standard process in a factory, probably in China, and they usually work. You can use them to call a healthcare provider. But you usually get the ’if this is an emergency, hang up and dial 911,’ followed by the phone menu. How will this change with ObamaCare? Doesn’t that give you a right...

It may be unpopular to say so, but it is true: the U.S. is very close to, if not past, the tipping point at which the majority of the people are net beneficiaries of big government — or so they think. People who receive a check from the government may see voting for a smaller government as contrary to their best interest. If they don’t pay taxes, why should they care about a tax increase? Perceptions are, however, deceiving.”Healthcare reform,” as the (Un)Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) is billed, probably shows more clearly than anything else how most Americans, including Romney’s...

Psalm 666: The State Is My Shepherd, I Shall Not Want A Psalm of Obama By Doug Giles 11/25/2012 (To be sung by children, K-12, every morning of their seven-day school week.)* The State is my shepherd, I shall not want. It makes me lie down in federally owned pastures. It leads me beside quiet waters in banned fishing areas. It restores my soul through its control. It guides me in the path of dependency for its namesake. Even though our nation plunges into the valley of the shadow of debt, I will fear no evil, For Barack will be...

Editorial: Obamacare, the ultimate job killerPublished on November 24, 2012 **SNIP** Total: ~6,000+ jobs Of course, the latest is causing quite a stir. Hostess, maker of the ever-love Twinkie, is closing their doors and letting 18,500 employees go. This has hit America’s obese population like a sugar brick. Unfortunately, they have no one to blame but themselves and their votes. While the headlines read that labor negations are to blame, the bigger story is an uncertain economy and new taxation. Part of the increased labor cost is Obamacare, and as a result the union was asked to reduce benefits and/or...

Children with "hereditary defects" such as Down syndrome were among the first victims of the Nazi euthanasia program, which killed those deemed "unworthy of life." From Healthcare to Holocaust The New American 24 November 2012 It all started modestly enough. Hoping to stem the rising tide of socialism in the late 19th century, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck decided to institute a welfare state, the theory being that finding a middle ground between laissez-faire capitalism and full-blown socialism would blunt the popularity of the latter without unduly interfering with the former. Bismarck convinced the Reichstag to create four programs:...

Obama won, Obamacare is the law, and, as my wife says, I will just have to learn to dance to a new song. Now, don’t get me wrong, Obamacare is awful. Forget all the “free stuff” it provides. Children covered on their parents’ plan until 26 years of age? A scam, making young adults — excuse me, children — pay for complete, comprehensive health insurance when all they need and should pay for is major catastrophe insurance. Then there is the “annual ” or “preventative” exam, which according to Obamacare is “free.” You gotta love this stuff. I wish I...

I have been accused of using invectives and exaggeration in describing the current administration, which now has four more years to dismantle our Constitution. How dare I call the EPA a rogue organization? It's director, Lisa Jackson decided to enforce a mandate that oil refiners blend cellulosic ethanol into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. There is one little problem though. It does not yet exist commercially. That is apparently of little concern to Lisa. The EPA fined refiners $6.8 million for not following their edict. They appealed her decision. She thanked them for their concern, but said the decision will...

Medical supply giant Stryker is the latest company to announce job cuts in anticipation of coming costs associated with ObamaCare, even though the man who inherited a fortune from the company's founder is a fan. The company will cut 1,170 jobs, or five percent of its worldwide workforce, despite the fact that the founder's grandson was one of the largest contributors to President Obama’s re-election campaign. Medical tech scion Jon Stryker, whose net worth is currently estimated at $1.2 billion, contributed $2 million to the Priorities USA Action super PAC and has given $66,000 in contributions to Obama and the...

There are already 8 million Americans working part time who want to work full time. It seems likely that number will skyrocket once Obamacare is implemented. An Obamacare supporter is as stupid as the Democrats who passed the legislation in the first place: ******** When my better half told me that her boss was thinking about cutting all full-time employees to part time in order to avoid the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act insurance requirements (for full-time employees), my initial response was, "Surely the federal government wouldn't have allowed such a blatantly obvious way of getting out of the...