The Daily Gouge, Tuesday, October 1st, 2013

On September 30, 2013, in Uncategorized, by magoo1310

It’s Tuesday, October 1st, 2013…and here’s The Gouge!

It a slight break with tradition, we lead off the month with another classic bit of political satire from the great Michael Ramirez…

…highlighting the fact Dims need mandatory training in the accurate identification of friend and foe:

Then again, given the The Obamao’s core beliefs, from his perspective…

…he’s got it right.

Next up, the WSJ reports on the latest example of the President looking for…

…or more precisely, looking out for the union label! With commercials like that, is it any wonder union membership is down?!?

Speaking of union entities headed South, the WSJ offers the details of…

Obama’s Detroit Bailout

The White House finds $320 million to reward city mismanagement.

Unless, of course, it becomes politically expedient; say…once the unions start calling for the repeal of the Unaffordable Care Act!

The White House announced on Friday a $320 million bailout, er, aid package for the bankrupt city of Detroit because of “exceptional” circumstances. But to adapt President Obama, every broke city believes in its own exceptionalism, and now others will want a financial infusion too.

The federal funds, which were cobbled together from programs including TARP and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, are supposedly intended to encourage private investment. The aid includes $150 million to remove blight and spur redevelopment; $30 million for public safety and to hire 150 firefighters; and $140 million to improve transportation. (All of which will be spent in the least effective, pro-union manner possible!) The Administration is also offering its technical expertise to help overhaul the city’s dysfunctional computer systems. Let’s hope those aren’t the same guys who designed the ObamaCare exchanges.

Foundations such as Kresge, Ford, Knight and Skillman have already poured more than $70 million this year into initiatives to rebuild Detroit. Kresge alone has committed $35 million for the city’s new street-car system and $150 million over five years to implement the Detroit Future City plan to revive downtrodden neighborhoods. Two weeks ago, NCB Capital Impact and Kresge announced a $30.25 million fund to support development along the street-car line.

Guess the $80 billion (yes, that’s “billion”…with a “b”!) sunk into GM and Chrysler just wasn’t enough!

Businesses have also chipped in. The Downtown Detroit Partnership, which includes Penske Automotive, Quicken Loans, Ford, GM and Chrysler, is donating 100 new police cars and 23 ambulances. All of this private philanthropy preceded the Obama Administration’s pledged assistance.

Emergency manager Kevyn Orr has welcomed the Obama Administration’s assistance while insisting that the cash infusion will not affect his plans to restructure the city in bankruptcy. That’s nice of him to say, but federal cash is never free. Grants from the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development Departments will require the city to pay prevailing union wages, which will jack up costs.

Mr. Orr’s bankruptcy plan includes re-investing $1.25 billion in city services over 10 years by reducing debt service and pension costs. About $50 million in debt savings this year are earmarked for blight removal. These plans are crucial to getting the city back on a sustainable path that matches revenue. But with the arrival of federal aid, the unions will argue the city no longer needs to cut pensions. That may have even been part of the White House calculation. (Like we said!)

White House spokesman Jay Carney had previously said there would be no bailout. But according to National Economic Council director Gene Sperling, who flew to Detroit to announce the gift, Detroit’s bankruptcy was “an exceptional thing happening during the Obama administration” and merited an exceptional federal response. However, Detroit’s problems—debt, crime, failing schools and public-union dominance—are endemic to urban America.

Congressman Jerry McNerney (D., Cal.) sent the White House a letter on Friday asking why “comparable assistance” was not offered to the San Joaquin Valley city of Stockton, which declared bankruptcy in 2012 and suffers from many of the same problems as Detroit. “This is not a time for favoritism,” he wrote.

The Administration’s back-door bailout of Detroit is pure political favoritism. It reinforces the belief among government unions that some cities are too-big-to-fail and rewards politicians who obstruct reform. Maybe if Illinois’s politicians let their state and city pension deficits get worse, the White House will come to their rescue too.

The Obamao’s complete reversal of his earlier position also highlights the hypocrisy and deliberate misrepresentation inherent in Nancy Pelosi’s recent claim…

”The cupboard is bare. There’s no more cuts to make,” Pelosi gibbered. ”It’s really important that people understand that. We all want to reduce the deficit.”

Evidently, some more than most; guess this was $350M Nancy just overlooked!

Since we’re on the subject of hypocrisy and deliberate misrepresentation, they’re the subject of our next item:

Holder DoJ to sue No. Carolina Over Voter ID Law

Submitted for your perusal, two real-time, factual experiences which belie Progressive’s claims to the contrary. We went over to the Howard County office complex Monday morning to pick up a building permit; needed to sign in and show our driver’s license (i.e., PHOTO ID!!!) before we could proceed to the counter. On the way home, we stopped at the post office to mail a letter; had to show our driver’s license (i.e., PHOTO ID!!!) again before they would accept our MasterCard for a $1.32 charge. What?!? Negroes in North Carolina aren’t ever required to produce a valid photo ID other than at the polls?!?

Seriously…tell us again why showing a valid photo ID prior to exercising the greatest privilege this country can bestow upon its citizens constitutes an undue burden?!?

Next up, contrary to anything you’ll hear from either the Left of their shills in the MSM, FOX News lists…

Ten states where Obamacare wipes out existing health care plans

President Barack Obama famously promised, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.” He later got even more specific. “If you are among the hundreds of millions of Americans who already have health insurance through your job, or Medicare, or Medicaid, or the VA, nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have,” Obama said.

But as Obamacare’s rollout approaches, we have learned this is not true. Here are the ten states where consumers may like their health care plans, but they won’t be able to keep them.

1) California: 58,000 will lose their plans under Obamacare. The first bomb dropped in California with a mass exodus from the most populated state’s Obamacare exchange. Aetna, the country’s largest insurer, left first in July and was closely followed by UnitedHealth. Anthem Blue Cross pulled out of California’s Obamacare exchange for small businesses as well. Fifty-four percent of Californians expect to lose their coverage, according to an August poll.

2) Missouri: Patients of the state’s largest hospital system — which spans 13 hospitals including the St. Louis Children’s Hospital — will not be covered by the largest insurer on Obamacare exchanges, Anthem BlueCross BlueShield. Anthem covers 79,000 patients in Missouri who may seek subsidies on Obamacare exchanges, but won’t be able to see any doctors in the BJC HealthCare system.

3) Connecticut: Aetna, the third largest insurer in the nation, won’t offer insurance on the Obamacare exchange in its own home state, where it was founded in 1850. The reason? “We believe the modification to the rates filed by Aetna will not allow us to collect enough premiums to cover the cost of the plans and meet the service expectations of our customers,” said Aetna spokesman Susan Millerick.

4) Maryland: 13,000 individuals covered by Aetna and its recently-purchased Coventry Health Care won’t be able to keep their insurance plans if they want Obamacare subsidies on the exchanges. Aetna and Coventry canceled plans to offer insurance in the exchange when state officials wouldn’t allow them to charge premiums high enough to cover costs.

5) South Carolina: 28,000 people were insured by Medical Mutual of Ohio, SC’s second-largest insurance company, until it decided to leave the state entirely in July due to Obamacare’s “vast and quite complex” new regulations. Company spokesman Ed Byers said Medical Mutual’s patients would be switched over to United Healthcare plans instead.

6) New York: Aetna pulled out of New York’s exchange in late August in an effort to keep their plans “financially viable,” said Aetna spokeswoman Cynthia Michener.

7) New Jersey: 1.1 million Aetna customers are at risk in New Jersey, where the leading insurer also won’t be a part of the exchange. Just 2,600 patients purchase individual plans with the company, but any looking to take advantage of subsidies on the exchange for unaffordable employer-based insurance won’t be able to do with Aetna.

8) Iowa: Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Iowa’s largest health insurer, decided not to offer plans in the Obamacare exchange. It sells 86 percent of Iowa’s individual health insurance plans.

9) Wisconsin: Two of the three largest insurers in the state won’t offer plans on the exchange. United Healthcare and Humana patients will have to get a new health insurer to buy insurance on Obamacare exchanges.

10) Georgia: Just five insurers are participating in Georgia’s Obamacare exchange. Medical Mutual of Ohio left Georgia and Indiana as well as South Carolina, due to Obamacare regulations. Aetna, along with Coventry, also decided against participating in the George health exchange.

As we noted, we’re not only living in one them, ours is one of the plans the Unaffordable Care Act killed. Which makes this, as Michelle Malkin noted yesterday, personal, NOT business!

In a related item, Americans for Tax Reform notes how bad the implementation of the Unaffordable Care Act’s likely to be:

Navigators Warned: Don’t Leave Tax Returns on the Fax Machine

“Do not leave documents that contain PII [Personally Identifiable Information] or tax return information on printers and fax machines.”

As Obamacare enrollment begins, the Department of Health and Human Services has a helpful tip for the program’s so-called Navigators: “Do not leave documents that contain PII [Personally Identifiable Information] or tax return information on printers and fax machines.”

The warning is contained in Section 2.4.3 of the 207-page Health Insurance Marketplace Navigator Standard Operating Procedures Manual. The same section asks navigators to “double-check” the fax number before faxing Obamacare enrollee’s tax returns:

“When faxing PII or tax return information, double-check that the recipient’s fax number is correct and that someone is able to pick up the faxed information immediately.”

Because the key components of Obamacare will be enforced by the IRS, navigators will have access to highly sensitive identifying information. The Navigator manual describes Personally Identifiable Information as follows:

Identifying information such as consumers’ names, addresses, or SSNs
Information about consumers’ incomes, personal finances, debts, deductions and exemptions
Any action taken by the IRS against consumers, such as investigations or penalties
Any private written agreements (such as a pricing agreement) with the IRS and any background information about these agreements
Relevant information, even if not found on the return (e.g., expenses)

Additional excerpts from the Navigator Manual:

No fake smiles: “Do not pretend to smile, or produce a false smile; these are easy to spot and send the wrong messages.” – Section 2.2.1
Listen: “By not listening you can become very frustrating to consumers.” – Section 2.2.3
Apologize: “Apologizing when things go wrong demonstrates that you care about consumers and their experiences.” – Section 2.2.4
“Be Memorable – For the Right Reasons.” – Section 2.2.6

Where are they getting these prompts; from The Obamao’s teleprompter?!?

And in today’s Money Quote, the WSJ offers this excerpt “from a Sept. 22 letter written by Jason Morgan, a doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, complaining to his supervisor about the school-mandated diversity training for teaching assistants”:

“At the end of yesterday’s diversity “re-education,” we were told that our next session would include a presentation on “Trans Students.” At that coming session, according to the handout we were given, we will learn how to let students ‘choose their own pronouns’, how to correct other students who mistakenly use the wrong pronouns, and how to ask people which pronouns they prefer (“I use the pronouns he/him/his. I want to make sure I address you correctly. What pronouns do you use?”). Also on the agenda for next week are “important trans struggles, as well as those of the intersexed and other gender-variant communities,” “stand[ing] up to the rules of gender,” and a very helpful glossary of related terms and acronyms, to wit: “Trans”: for those who “identify along the gender-variant spectrum,” and “Genderqueer”: “for those who consider their gender outside the binary gender system”. I hasten to reiterate that I am quoting from diversity handouts; I am not making any of this up.

Please allow me to be quite frank. My job, which I love, is to teach students Japanese history. This week, for example, I have been busy explaining the intricacies of the Genpei War (1180-1185), during which time Japan underwent a transition from an earlier, imperial-rule system under regents and cloistered emperors to a medieval, feudal system run by warriors and estate managers. It is an honor and a great joy to teach students the history of Japan. I take my job very seriously, and I look forward to coming to work each day.

It is most certainly not my job, though, to cheer along anyone, student or otherwise, in their psychological confusion.“

In other words, identifying the idiocy inherent in any PC initiative!

On the Lighter Side…