Free Republic

Candidates running for election who love to use fear mongering and scare tactics to persuade voters are usually hiding their incompetency. This election cycle is no exception, and it has never been more apparent than when it comes to debating the issue of Medicare. President Barack Obama and the Democrats on Capitol Hill are constantly telling Americans that Republicans want to “End Medicare as we know it.” However, just by saying it does not make it true. Republicans understand that America has a responsibility to its seniors to preserve and protect Medicare and we are committed to our future generations...

COMMENTARY | President Barack Obama began and ended his State of the Union address in January by heaping lavish praise upon the men and women of the military. He used words like "courage, selflessness and teamwork" to describe their ability to bravely accomplish each mission he set for them. The war in Iraq is over. Osama bin Laden is dead. Troops are coming home from Afghanistan. So now -- in a show of thanks -- the president wants to gradually triple their Tricare premiums. Tricare, according to its website, "is the health care program serving Uniformed Service members, retirees and...

UPDATED — Republican House and Senate lawmakers on Wednesday voted to call Gov. Steve Beshear out of bounds for his executive order creating a health exchange — an outgrowth of the U.S. Affordable Care Act. Sen. David Givens, R-Greensburg, offered a motion at the interim legislative health and welfare committee declaring that Beshear does not have the authority to create a new agency — in this case, the Kentucky Health Exchange — by executive order. Instead, the governor by law can only rearrange existing agencies and still must get the legislature’s ultimate approval, Givens said, citing state statute . The...

Governor Steve Beshear said the actions of Republican lawmakers at Wednesday’s interim joint committee on Health and Welfare, “don’t mean anything,” and he will continue to implement the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange. Beshear, who is fresh off an economic development trip to India, said he has the authority to create the exchange through executive order. And he said it was prudent for Kentucky to do so because the Affordable Care Act, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in June, calls for some type of system to match the uninsured with health coverage. If Kentucky’s government didn’t set up...

President Obama spoke via satellite to the AARP "Life@50+" convention last Friday morning and I was foolish enough to turn on my patented BS Detector during the event. Unlike the "fact checkers" employed by the MSM, its special BUNK software was written such that it could recognize White House talking points and separate such input from actual facts. It turns out, however, to have had a fatal design flaw. Although I had successfully tested it on several pathological liars, and even a couple of lawyers, it simply didn't have the capacity to process the volume of BS contained in a...

As you know if you’ve been reading this blog, Obamacare cuts $716 billion from Medicare in order to pay for its $1.9 trillion expansion of coverage to low-income Americans. It’s one of the reasons why seniors are more opposed to the new health law than any other age group. So why is it that the group that purports to speak for seniors, the American Association of Retired Persons, so strongly supports a law that most seniors oppose? According to an explosive new report from Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.), it’s because those very same Medicare cuts will give the AARP...

A notice of our open healthcare enrollment had this statement through it repeatedly: "Increased due to the requirements in the Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act..."

"...The exchange is the "front door" of ObamaCare. It is designed to look like a marketplace, where folks can shop for health insurance from a group of approved insurers. In reality, it is a carefully orchestrated faux market, where people will all buy the same federally approved product, albeit with different-colored wrapping paper..." "...With the requirement of a federal imprimatur for any state-established model, the "threat" of instituting a federally run exchange means simply that should we choose not to set up an exchange, the feds will do for us precisely what they would have required of us -- except...

U.S. health insurance premiums have climbed faster than wages and inflation this year, and look poised to accelerate in 2013, adding to voter concerns about soaring healthcare costs ahead of national elections in November. A study released on Tuesday showed that premiums for employer-sponsored health plans, which cover about 149 million Americans, grew a modest 4 percent to $15,745 in 2012. It was a substantially slower rate of growth than in past years, including 2011, when premiums jumped 9 percent. But the study's authors, at the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust, said higher costs...

There has been numerous headwinds to a housing (and commercial real estate) recovery. One is doggedly slow economic growth. Another is doggedly high unemployment rates. But there is another headwind that is not talked about for housing and real estate in general: taxmageddon or the upcoming single largest tax increase in American history. Simply put, housing consumption will be reduced in Federal taxes increase. But this is occurring just as housing is beginning to stabilize in many parts of the country. Americans for Tax Reform provide a nice summary of the tax tsunami that is about to hit (unless Congress...

Has anyone seen this. I searched for it here on FR but didn't find any info.

"The new system would take 20 percent of the 'best' kidneys or kidneys that have the potential to last the longest, and give them to the 20 percent of patients that could last the longest," Cutler explained. "So, a simple example would be a young donor going into a young patient." And the reverse would be true, too. "Older kidneys would go to older patients," he said. He said the current system of matching donors and recipients is based on how long someone has been waiting, how close the match is, and how likely it is another match could be...

Be sure to read Paul Ryan's speech to the AARP's national convention today --- a clear and forthright elucidation of the case for saving Medicare and the federal budget through market-based reforms and against doubling down on failed central planning and price controls through Obamacare.   As he surely knew he would be, Ryan was met with some opposition (though also some support) in the audience, and boos could be heard at various points --- particularly during his criticisms of Obamacare. That's hardly surprising. The AARP sometimes presents itself as a kind of membership organization consisting of senior citizens,...

Republican vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)was not well received at a gathering held by the American Association of Retired Peoples on Friday. After Ryan said the first step to strengthening Medicare is to repeal President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, the crowd erupted into boos. After promising to repeal “Obamacare,” the crowd jeered. “I had a feeling there would be mixed reactions,” said Ryan amid the chorus of booing. “It weakens Medicare for today’s seniors and puts it at risk for the next generation,” said Ryan to more booing. “You may not have heard this side of the...

CNS News broke the story late last month: At a recent press conference held to discuss the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a., “Obamacare”), a reporter asked former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a critical question: “One of the services that health care plans have to offer free of charge [under the HHS mandate] are sterilizations… do you agree with the federal government mandating—” At this point, Congresswoman Pelosi cut the reporter off and responded, “You know what, I told you before, let’s go to church and talk about our religion. Right here we’re talking about public policy as it...

President Barack Obama is scheduled to speak Friday via satellite to a convention sponsored by AARP. His speech will likely extol the virtues of “Obamacare,” and engage in scare tactics about conservative proposals to make Medicare sustainable. But here are five facts you’re unlikely to hear from the president, or AARP, about how each treats seniors: First, while AARP poses as a disinterested senior advocate, it functions as an insurance conglomerate, with a liberal lobbying arm on the side. AARP depends on profits, royalties and commissions to make up more than 50 percent of its annual revenues. Membership dues from...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 6 million Americans — significantly more than first estimated— will face a tax penalty under President Barack Obama's health overhaul for not getting insurance, congressional analysts said Wednesday. Most would be in the middle class. The new estimate amounts to an inconvenient fact for the administration, a reminder of what critics see as broken promises. The numbers from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office are 50 percent higher than a previous projection by the same office in 2010, shortly after the law passed. The earlier estimate found 4 million people would be affected in 2016, when the...

The good news: More Americans have health insurance. The bad news: It’s because they don’t have jobs. ObamaCare supporters hail the drop in the number of uninsured, announced by the Census Bureau last week, as a sign of the new law’s success. In fact, it’s a sign of continued job-market decline and of how many of us have to depend on government programs for far too long. Nearly 1.4 million more people had health insurance in 2011 than in 2010 — but that includes nearly 800,000 who gained coverage despite not working at all. In short, the rise comes mainly...

So a majority of America hates ObamaCare, but we are to believe from the polls that they want to vote to seal the deal once and for all?? I am NOT buying it! Think about it... GOP candidates need to beat the drums of war against ObamaCare and remind America that ANY hope of killing it rests with the results of this election. This is the LAST chance!!

A Christian-owned chain of hobby shops is facing a bitter backlash after suing the Obama administration over new requirements to provide insured employees with contraceptive and abortion coverage. .....