Free Republic

Labor leaders who have spent months lobbying unsuccessfully for special protections under the Affordable Care Act warned this week that the White House’s continued refusal to help is dampening union support for Democratic candidates in this year’s midterm elections. Leaders of two major unions, including the first to endorse Obama in 2008, said they have been betrayed by an administration that wooed their support for the 2009 legislation with promises to later address the peculiar needs of union-negotiated insurance plans that cover millions of workers. Their complaints reflect a broad sense of disappointment among many labor leaders, who say the...

The number of Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWDs) receiving food stamps zoomed from 1.7 million to 3.9 million between Fiscal Year 2007 and Fiscal Year 2010. In that same period, food stamp recipients in total grew from 26 million to nearly 40 million. Spending on food stamps now totals somewhere around $80 billion, twice what the number was in Fiscal Year 2008. Presently, the work waivers foisted on the states by Obama allow ABAWDs to receive food stamps indefinitely--without working or preparing for work.

Ever heard of a federal law 42 USC § 18115: Freedom Not to Participate in Federal Health Insurance Programs? I haven’t either.But thanks to FOTM reader Joseph, now we all do!This is how Cornell University Law School’s website describes 42 USC § 18115: No individual, company, business, nonprofit entity, or health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage shall be required to participate in any Federal health insurance program created under this Act(or any amendments made by this Act), or in any Federal health insurance program expanded by this Act (or any such amendments), and there shall be no penalty or fine imposed upon any such...

This past year will be remembered for many things, but let 2013 be hailed mainly for this: It was the year that the genius of George Orwell's "Animal Farm" became clear in America. Efforts to centralize control in the name of "fairness" have led to a society that is ever more at the mercy of a federal power—one that decides who does and does not succeed. The winners are favored special interests, political cronies and wealthy lobbyists. The losers are everyone else.

LINK ONLY PER POSTING RULES: http://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/editorial-obamacare-burdens-wallop-nevadans

Sen. David Vitter wants to put the klieg lights on any member of Congress who decides that certain staff members are not “official,” a maneuver that would exempt the employee from entering a health exchange tied to Obamacare as mandated by the 2010 law. Mr. Vitter, Louisiana Republican, filed the Show Your Exemption Act on Thursday to force lawmakers to reveal how they designate each of their staffers. Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, wrote an amendment to the Affordable Care Act that placed members of Congress and their staffs in the state-based insurance markets, or exchanges, set up by the...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. Insurance enrollment helpers are encouraging Native Americans to sign up for coverage under the nation's new health care law. Native Americans are exempt from the Affordable Care Act's requirement that people carry insurance. But ``navigators'' tasked with helping people get insurance say the new law will give Native Americans better access to X-rays, mammograms, prescription drugs and trips to specialists not covered under Indian Health Service.

The professoriate, as seen through the eyes of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), thinks that Obamacare is wildly popular despite GOP efforts to make it unpopular. “Likewise, it seems not to have been enough that the Far Right extremists in the House have voted forty-one times to repeal the ACA [Affordable Care Act),” Martin Kich writes on the Academe blog maintained by the AAUP. “In addition, they have publicly campaigned to convince GOP-dominated states to decline to establish insurance exchanges and to convince young Americans to refuse to sign up for the insurance coverage newly available through such...

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog Here are 72 reasons why hypocrite politicians and unions that support Obamacare want exemptions for themselves By Dan from Squirrel HillPosted on September 24, 2013. Updated on September 30, 2013.As the author of this blog post, I place it into the public domain. Anyone may freely copy it in any part or in its entirely, without asking my permission, and without paying any money. I do ask you please cite a link to http://danfromsquirrelhill.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/obamacare-59/I ask you to please show this list to as many people as possible. Sunshine really is the best disinfectant. I can’t stop...

You cannot listen to news about Obamacare without hearing about waivers. Obamacare waivers not only evidence a poorly conceived law, but the very need for a waiver transfers power to a bureaucracy where the individual, organization, or firm with the best lobbyists wins. What you may not know is that there are actually several types of waivers. You cannot listen to news about Obamacare without hearing about waivers. Obamacare waivers not only evidence a poorly conceived law, but the very need for a waiver transfers power to a bureaucracy where the individual, organization, or firm with the best lobbyists wins....

(Reuters) - The Obama administration will delay online Obamacare enrollment for small businesses in federally operated healthcare exchanges until November 1, marking a one-month delay in the roll-out, an administration official said on Thursday. . . .

As close observers of history and human nature, James Madison and the other Founders of the U.S. Constitution knew that the equal and unbiased application of the law to all people, especially elected officials, is essential to freedom and justice and one of the primary safeguards from authoritarianism and oppression by a ruling class. And so, referring to the members of Congress, James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 57: "[T]hey can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as on the great mass of the society." Today, elected officials need...

A leading labor union boss delivered an impassioned rebuke of Obamacare at the AFL-CIO convention Thursday, telling attendees, "we'll be damned if we're going to lose our health insurance because of unintended consequences in the law!" Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA) President Terry O'Sullivan said, "if the Affordable Care Act is not fixed, and it destroys the health and welfare funds that we have all fought for and stand for, then I believe it needs to be repealed. We don't want it repealed. We want it fixed, fixed, fixed." O'Sullivan added: "We can't have the unintended consequences for the proud...

The Senate’s “Gang of Eight” has released a new version of the immigration bill that contains 999 references to waivers, exemptions and political discretion. The revised 867-page bill contains multiple changes from the first 844-page version, released April 18, but Democrats have not announced any delay to the committee review of the complex bill that begins next week. The bill includes roughly 1.14 waivers or exemptions per page. By comparison, the 2,409-page Obamacare law includes 0.78 waivers and exemptions per page. The Obamacare law contains 1,882 mentions of “unless,” “notwithstanding,” “except,” “exempt,” “waivers,” “discretion” and “may.” “Waiver” is mentioned 209...

Two weeks ago, I pointed out Section 1555, one of the major chinks in PPACA's armor according to an attorney at the Goldwater Institute. Section 1555 is in the law under "Subtitle G - Miscellaneous Provisions." Since bringing this up, I've heard from some who believe that this section is limited solely to those who sell ("issue") health insurance. Here again is Section 1555: "No individual, company, business, nonprofit entity, or health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage shall be required to participate in any Federal health insurance program created under this Act (or any amendments made...

Exactly two years ago this week, the Obama administration announced it had issued more than 100 waivers en masse to a select group of companies, unions and other health insurance providers seeking relief from the onerous federal health care law. The Obamacare waiver winner's club now totals 2,000. Where are they now? Answer: In the same miserable boat as every other unlucky business struggling with the crushing costs and burdens of the mandate. Among the first and most prominent recipients of the Obamacare waivers for favors were large restaurant chains that provide low-wage, seasonal and part-time workers with low-cost health...

Elizabeth Warren obtained federal fee waivers despite high 6-figure income and 8-figure net worthDid not pay her “fair share,” obtained PACER fee waivers in at least 50 federal districts 2005-2012 Posted by William A. Jacobson Sunday, October 14, 2012 at 5:30pm **SNIP** Warren falsely and without any legitimate legal basis claimed to be Cherokee for employment purposes. Warren also chintzed by failing to register for the Massachusetts Bar despite an active practice of law in Cambridge since the mid-1990s, thereby evading Bar registration dues. Howie Carr has a great column today about Warren’s class warfare phoniness. Add another example to...

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) provides means-based cash assistance to families, but requires that states ensure a certain percentage of recipients are working or looking for a job, also known as workfare requirements. Robert Rector points out in his recent backgrounder for the Heritage Foundation that, according to Health and Human Services 2011 data, 41.6% of households on TANF are exempt from federal work requirements. 31.6% percent of adults on TANF were idle and only 14.3% of these adult recipients met the federal activity standard, or workfare requirements, according to Rector. The same HHS Department issued a directive this...

The Obama administration circumvented federal law in announcing it would waive the work requirements in welfare, a GAO review found, saying that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) should have submitted the new policy to Congress for review. At issue is whether the policy falls under the purview of the Congressional Review Act (CRA) that requires all administrative changes of policy or regulation be submitted to Congress for review and possible disapproval. ... HHS must formally submit the letter to Congress and the Comptroller General before it can legally issue the waivers to the requirement that a certain...

Emigrant Bank was recently identified to receive a waiver that would allow the bank to opt out of rigorous Dodd-Frank requirements. These of course are the same new rules and regulations that Barack deems essential to the nation. Yet when the bank’s owner, Howard Milstein, who is a close friend and was a bundler for President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, protested that the new rules would seriously crimp operations of his bank, the Obama Administration worked with members of congress to grant him a waiver from the new rules. Other financial institutions and banks have consistently and vehemently argued that...