Cost Of Repealing Obamacare

   On Tuesday, the CBO ( Congressional Budget Office ) provide a letter with an estimate of how much it will cost to repeal the Affordable Care Act, to House Speaker John Boehner, not that he will pay any attention to it.

    The CBO found “ "the direct spending and revenue effects of enacting that legislation would cause a net increase in federal budget deficits of $109 billion over the 2013-2022 period."

The primary reason for the deficit increase, the report showed, was the repeal of several tax increases within the health care law. While the repeal bill would reduce direct federal spending by $890 billion over that period, it would also slash more than $1 trillion in new taxes.     Yahoo News

   So in essence, Boehner and his band of merry men, being the deficit hawks trying to cut government spending, will add to that spending/deficit.

In a separate analysis, the CBO also measured the impact of the June Supreme Court ruling that struck down parts of the health care law but left core provisions intact, and found that it would save $84 billion because of reduced Medicaid spending.

The CBO estimated in 2011 that the health care law would reduce the federal deficit by $210 billion over 10 years because of the law's revenue increases.

   Once again, the Republicans prove that they do not care about cutting spending unless it happens to programs which affect the middle class and the poor.

  If by some chance Romney makes it into the White House, you can bet your asses that those deficits will no longer matter.

Technorati Tags: CBO,Congressional Budget Office,Obamacare,ACA,Republican Party,The Deficit,Politics,Current Events

 

Friday Funnies:Mitt Romney: He B Stupid In Britain Edition

  

The dynamic dimwit is in London doing what he does best, embarrassing himself while he does the same to America with his ignorant remarks about the Olympics.

"It's hard to know just how well [the 2012 London Olympics] will turn out. There are a few things that were disconcerting. The stories about the private security firm not having enough people, the supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials, that obviously is not something which is encouraging."  NBC chat with Brian Williams.

   The British press had a few things to say to Romney:

"Mitt Romney is perhaps the only politician who could start a trip that was supposed to be a charm offensive by being utterly devoid of charm and mildly offensive," The Telegraph posted an op-ed.

British Prime Minister David Cameron fired back:

"We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world. Of course it's easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere," Cameron said, referring to the 2002 Winter Olympics Romney ran in Salt Lake Ciy, Utah

And London's Mayor also taunted Romney during an Olympic torch ceremony in Hype Park:

"I hear there's a guy called Mitt Romney who wants to know whether we're ready. Are we ready?"

Romney was also widely mocked on Twitter:

"We have not been at war with Britain since 1812. Well done, Mitt!" Andy Borowitz Tweeted.

Jay Leno: "Congresswoman Michele Bachmann wants an investigation as to whether Islamists have infiltrated the highest levels of the federal government. You know what's really frightening? After listening to Michele Bachmann, you realize idiots have infiltrated the highest levels of the federal government." –Jay Leno

"Mitt Romney's search for a vice president continues As you know, one of Mitt Romney's problems is that he's never hired an American for a job before, so this is new."

"The apartment that President Obama used to live in when he was a college student in New York is now up for rent for $2,400 a month. Coincidentally, Obama was only there for one four-year term."
"A new study published by The British Medical Journal found that inactivity can kill you. I mean, these are the kind of findings that just scare the hell out of Congress."

Conan O'Brien: "The poverty rate is now at its highest since the 1960s. It's gotten so bad that Mitt Romney's butler let his butler go."

Jimmy Fallon: "Mitt Romney will travel to London where he will attend the Olympics opening ceremony . Of course it's going ot be weird when they're announcing all the countries, and he's like 'Got a bank account there, got one there, two bank accounts there."

 

Technorati Tags: Mitt Romney,London,Michele Bachmann,Barack Obama,Republicans,Current Events,Late Night Talk,Jay Leno

Will Rush Limbaugh Be Done In By His Vulture Capitalist Hero’s?

   The pill-popper has already lost a boatload of advertisers, and that is still continuing. It looks as if his hero’s are beginning to ransack Clear Channel, which is the parent company of conservative blabbers syndicator, Premiere Networks.

Richard Myers on Tue Jul 24, 2012      Original

Rush Limbaugh has lost countless millions in advertising revenues for his syndicator and other radio networks, and the drip-drip-drip continues: Wal-mart's "Sam's Club" has just pulled advertising, and eBay has also joined the exodus. These follow closely on UPS abandoning Rush. Yet the greatest long term damage is likely to come from the exit of hundreds of small companies that do not make the news. In spite of the media largely losing interest in the Limbaugh boycott story, the StopRush effort is continuing to grow. For example, a new video featuring Rush Limbaugh's incessant attacks on working people and unions and a recent Daily Kos diary that made the front page brought in hundreds of new activists.

No one knows how many total advertisers (national and local, large and small) have dropped, but estimates I've heard put the number well above seven hundred. Radio stations have been forced to seek new sponsors for Limbaugh, and also for other radio talk show hosts impacted by collateral damage from the boycott.

Rush Limbaugh's response to the social media firestorm has largely been ineffective. Rush appears to have given up on Twitter, and the only two posts in the past six weeks on his "Rush Babes For America" Facebook page simply linked to his thoughts on a popular erotic tome -- which one might have thought a hot topic for the Rush Babes. Unfortunately for Rush, the absence of new content over the last six weeks has resulted in a drop-off in interest, as indicated by the dramatically lower number of Rush Babe responses.

A few months ago Mark Frauenfelder predicted a "perfect storm" for right wing talk radio: listener demographics, technological change, and the advertiser backlash all have been taking a toll. But another threat to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, et al, looms on the horizon, and comes from a very different direction: vulture capital. None other than Mitt Romney's Bain Capital owns Clear Channel, which is the parent of the conservative talkers' syndicator, Premiere Networks. Clear Channel recently downsized, simultaneous with Bain Capital squeezing the company through a forced 2.2 billion dollar dividend. (This is one of the mechanisms by which Mitt Romney and friends have amassed their fortunes -- sucking cash out of troubled corporations, subsequently allowing some of them to go bankrupt.) Clear Channel was already 19.2 billion dollars in debt, and is facing a shareholder lawsuit related to loans between different Clear Channel entities that were used to cover the huge payout. In spite of crushing debt, Clear Channel is "splashing the cash" in "an attempt to rebrand itself as a hip digital music giant." Meanwhile, some are downgrading Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, the Clear Channel billboard entity, and recommending investment in their competition.

Essentially, the corporate structure is Bain Capital on top, pulling strings through Clear Channel Media Holdings, which is the parent to the other Clear Channel entities. Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings was tapped for a loan to finance the dividend, and this has enraged its shareholders. Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings isn't Clear Channel, but the two sibling companies are closely related, with nearly ninety percent overlap according to one source. Therefore, one might expect the health of one corporate subdivision to reflect the health of the other. Since the dividend payout to Bain Capital in March, the stock price for Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings has dropped by two thirds.

More privately held Clear Channel's valuation is not so easy to determine. Even so, what is the future of a company deep in debt that is "splashing the cash", and what might the impact be on conservative shock jocks? Obviously, Rush Limbaugh is extremely useful to the conservative cause, and is likely to survive (even while bleeding advertisers) through the next election, and possibly for many months beyond. (It took 20 months to force Glen Beck off of Fox News.) But Clear Channel has payments of "$2.8 billion due in 2014 and $12.2 billion due in 2016." The question becomes, will Clear Channel succumb to vulture greed the way so many other companies have?

StopRush is obviously damaging to Rush, but what irony that the very cutthroat capitalism Rush Limbaugh so strenuously champions may pound the last few nails into the coffin of conservative talk radio, at least as presently constituted. (If you're on Facebook, join the StopRush cause here.)

Technorati Tags: Mitt Romney,Bain Capital,Clear Channel,Rush Limbaugh,Vulture Capitalist,Current Events

Where is Obama’s Promised Minimum-Wage Hike?

By Ralph Nader on Tuesday, July 24, 2012 by Reuters via CommonDreams

During the 2008 campaign, presidential candidate Barack Obama made a pledge to raise the minimum wage to $9.50 per hour by 2011. Promises like this one inspired a generation of young voters, excited long-neglected progressive voters and gave hope to millions of his supporters across the country.

President Obama ran a campaign of soaring rhetoric and uplifting ideas. Amidst two unpopular wars, a rapidly deteriorating financial crisis and the wildly unpopular presidency of George W. Bush, Americans were desperate for a change. He was viewed as a “transformational” candidate, a president who would turn the page on the stagnant politics of Washington.

It is now four years later, and there has been no increase to the minimum wage. There has been no congressional vote, much less a whisper from the White House on the minimum wage.

President Obama understood the importance of this issue in 2008. The merits of raising the minimum wage haven’t changed since then, but his political courage has. The inflation-adjusted value of the minimum wage has been in decline since the 1960s, losing over 30 percent of its value and leaving hard-working Americans struggling to get by from paycheck to paycheck. At the same time, the cost of living has continued to rise steadily, further eroding the value of a minimum wage. Had the minimum wage kept pace with inflation since 1968, today it would be at $10.57 per hour, instead of the current federal minimum wage of $7.25.

Studies show that the minimum wage could help jump-start the economy and increase consumer spending. A 2011 study by the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank found that for every dollar increase to the hourly pay of a minimum wage worker, the result is $2,800 in new consumer spending from that worker’s household over the year. And a 2009 study from the Economic Policy Institute estimated that simply by raising the minimum wage to $9.50 per hour, $60 billion in additional spending would be added to the economy over a two-year period.

Opponents of raising the minimum wage claim that it would increase unemployment. In fact, most studies not funded by front groups show that raising the minimum wage has no or little impact on unemployment. Also, small business has already received 17 tax breaks during the Obama presidency.

The Barack Obama of the 2008 campaign would have stood up against these distortions. Instead, President Barack Obama’s absence of leadership on this issue is shameful. Four separate pieces of legislation have been introduced in the current Congress to raise the minimum wage, by Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. (Illinois, 2nd District), Representative Al Green (Texas, 9th), Representative Rosa DeLauro (Connecticut, 3rd), and Senator Tom Harkin (Iowa). The Democratic leadership in Congress and the White House has ignored these bills.

If President Obama is deliberately remaining silent on raising the minimum wage because of a political calculation, it is a calculation based on fuzzy math. A recent poll by John Zogby shows that 70 percent of likely voters support raising the minimum wage. Poll after poll has confirmed that result. On top of its popularity, raising the minimum wage could help turn the economy around, and it is an issue that speaks directly to the 30 million workers stranded between the $7.25 and $10 span of wages.

And why not? The U.S. has the lowest minimum wage by far among large Western industrialized countries.

Poorer voters have notoriously low voter turnout rates. They represent a voter bloc that, because of this fact, is usually written off by political consultants and strategists. But has anyone ever stopped to ask why it is that they don’t vote? Could it be that they don’t feel as though the typical slate of politicians and candidates speaks to the issues they care about? They may not have the money to make campaign contributions, but to write them off so easily in a close election is foolish. With a growing number of individuals below the poverty line, even a slight increase in voter turnout from one election year to the next could make a difference.

In 10 swing states – Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia – more than 6.5 million voting-age individuals are below the federal poverty line. What was President Obama’s combined margin of victory in those 10 states in 2008? Less than 2 million votes. Florida has a total of nearly 1.8 million potential voters below the poverty line. There are 246,000 workers in Florida being paid at or below the minimum wage. What was President Obama’s margin of victory in Florida in 2008? Slightly more than 204,000 votes. Similarly, North Carolina has nearly 1 million potential voters who are below the poverty line. Among North Carolina’s hourly workers, 140,000 are paid at or below the minimum wage. President Obama’s margin of victory in North Carolina in 2008? Less than 14,000 votes.

Both Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney, until he waffled earlier this year, have been clearly on the record as backing a minimum wage that keeps up with inflation. What other issue is as popular with voters, speaks directly to such a large bloc of deserving Americans, could benefit the economy, and – simply put – is the right thing to do?

                                © 2012 Reuters

                            www.commondreams.org

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama,Federal Minimum Wage,The Economy,Politics,Current Events