Cartoon Claims Obamacare Means Men Will Get STDs From Women Who Can Now Afford Birth Control

The Huffington Post  |  By Paige Lavender

 

A cartoon is claiming men can thank Obamacare for getting sexually transmitted diseases from "women who now get free birth control."
The cartoon depicts an angry man next to a woman holding a pack of birth control pills, both with sores on their mouths. Under the words "thanks Obamacare!" are the hashtags #gotbrokencondom, #gotherpes, #gotpregnant and #gotchildsupport.
The cartoon was done by A.F. Branco, whose work is published at a website called Comically Incorrect.
The cartoon is a parody of an ad for Obamacare from DoYouGotInsurance.com called "Let's Get Physical," showing characters named "Susie" and "Nate" described as "hot to trot." In the ad, Susie gives a thumbs up while holding a pack of birth control pills.
See the cartoon below:

UPDATE -- 12:26 p.m.: Branco gave the following statement on the cartoon to HuffPost:

I'm not against birth control or nor do I feel that it is any of my business what people do sexually. However, I do feel that contraceptives are inexpensive and accessible enough that I shouldn't have to pay for them through my taxes. I also feel that my government shouldn't be promoting promiscuous sex as though condoms are the answer to all STDs and promiscuous behavior.

This post has been updated with a version of the cartoon sent to HuffPost by Branco.

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Rick Perry Is Quietly Encouraging Texans to Sign Up for Obamacare

Rick Perry Is Quietly Encouraging Texans to Sign Up for Obamacare 

Published October 23, 2013 - 3:30pm

Katie Singh
Burnt Orange Report

Governor Rick Perry has always been one of the Affordable Care Act's most vocal opponents. He's called it a "monstrosity," a "stomach punch to the economy," and a "felony." But that hasn't stopped him from telling Texans to sign up for health coverage from the law.

That's right — Rick Perry's administration is encouraging Texans to enroll in the ACA's health insurance exchanges.

As the Texas Tribune reported last week, Texas will soon be shutting down its high-risk insurance pool for residents with pre-existing conditions, pushing them to seek coverage in the federal insurance marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act. According to the Tribune, "the state has deemed the high-risk pool obsolete, as the Affordable Care Act prohibits insurance companies participating in the federal marketplace...from denying coverage to Texans with pre-existing conditions." Governor Perry signed the bill abolishing the high-risk pool into law in June, and it will be shut down by the end of the year.

This is just the latest in a series of hypocritical moves by Governor Perry regarding the Affordable Care Act. Though he's called the law a "criminal act," Perry certainly has no problem accepting money from it. As we reported last month, Perry has accepted over $100 million in ACA grants, and was asking for even more to help expand a state program providing insurance to those with disabilities.

Perry's actions make it utterly impossible to take his position on the ACA seriously. The crux of his argument against the Affordable Care Act has been that it's better for states to control health policy than the federal government. But by accepting ACA grant money, and now by encouraging high-risk patients to enroll in insurance exchanges, Perry's actions have totally undermined his words. In accepting these parts of the ACA, he's essentially acknowledged that federal grants will enhance the state's existing health programs, and that the health exchanges will provide better coverage for people with pre-existing conditions than what the state has now.

Perry's actions confirm what policy experts have known since the law was passed — it's a step forward for Texans. Stacey Pogue of the Center for Public Policy Priorities told the Texas Tribune she "think[s] that people are going to have many more options and many better options in the marketplace than they do in the health pool today."

Texans in the high-risk pool currently pay twice the market rate for health coverage, but they will be able to find much cheaper options in the health insurance exchanges. The ACA's tax subsidies will also make coverage more affordable. In addition, the insurance plans available in the exchanges will expand the level of care people with pre-existing conditions can receive, "as they must cover 'essential health benefits,' some of which, such as maternity care, aren't [currently] covered in the pool."

So, the next time you hear Rick Perry call the Affordable Care Act an "attack on freedom" or some other hyperbole, remember that even he doesn't really think that. Perry's presidential ambitions mean he'll never admit it, but he's repeatedly accepted parts of the Affordable Care Act as good for Texas. In doing so, he's not only recognized that federal assistance can strengthen state programs, but he's also proven himself to be a Texas-sized hypocrite.

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Twelve Times Scott Walker Was Terrible

Twelve Times Scott Walker Was Terrible

Oh, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, how are you terrible? Let us count the ways….  

posted on October 23, 2013 at 6:33pm EDT

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BuzzFeed User

This post was created by a user and has not been vetted or endorsed by BuzzFeed's editorial staff. BuzzFeed Community is a place where anyone can post awesome lists and creations." Learn more or post your buzz!

1. When he signed the mandatory ultrasound bill into law

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Walker signed into law a bill that will require “women seeking abortions to undergo an ultrasound and ban doctors who lack admitting privileges at nearby hospitals from performing the procedures.” Essentially, it would make it harder for a woman seeking a safe, legal abortion to get one. His law could force clinics to close and is being challenged by reproductive health advocates.

2. When he repealed the law that made it easier for victims of wage discrimination to press charges

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So basically, if you’re one of the women in Wisconsin who earns $0.75 for every dollar that your male colleagues make and you want to do something about losing that $4,000 every year, Scott Walker has made it more difficult. THANKS.

3. When he eliminated collective bargaining rights for all of Wisconsin’s public employees

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Scott Walker is no friend of unions. In 2011, he signed into law a bill that abolished collective bargaining rights for 175,000 public union employees in Wisconsin, leading to an attempt to recall him.

4. When he specifically targeted women workers while sticking it to unions

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As we mentioned, in 2011, when Scott Walker was stripping unions of their right to collective bargaining, he did exempt some groups: firefighter, police and state trooper unions. The majority of Wisconsin public workers are actually women, (teachers, nurses, child care workers, home health care workers, etc.) but the exempted groups were overwhelmingly male.

5. When he banned abortion coverage for policies in the ACA’s new health insurance exchange

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This is just another example of Scott Walker’s extreme, anti-woman agenda.

6. When he ruined Wisconsin sex education

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Scott Walker signed legislation that required teachers in schools that offered sex education to “stress abstinence as the only sure way to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.” The legislation also declared that sex ed teachers were not required to address contraception. So that’s helpful.

7. When he eliminated all state funding for family planning services

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In 2011, Scott Walker proposed a budget that would have eliminated all state funding for family planning services for low-income residents, putting 50 clinics in jeopardy. 52,000 women in Wisconsin who received contraceptive care from those clinics would have to find alternative means.

8. When he forced 92,000 people off their health insurance and cost the state $119 million

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Scott Walker could have accepted federal money under the Affordable Care Act that would have expanded BadgerCare Plus insurance, which covers adults with children under 19 in households with incomes up to 200% of the federal poverty threshold, or $47,100 for a family of four. Instead, he rejected the money, kicked 92,000 people off their health insurance and forced them to buy a more expensive plan.

9. When he led Wisconsin to below-average job growth rates

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The Republican Party says they’re about jobs jobs jobs - except when Scott Walker runs things and the state ranks 34th in job growth. And consider this: Walker’s #1 campaign promise was to add 250,000 private-sector jobs by the end of his term. At last count, nearly three years later, he’s only about 25% there.

10. When he signed an unconstitutional voter ID law

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This law would require poll workers to immediately begin asking voters to show state-issued IDs before they vote - even though voters wouldn’t be required to show them until the next year. Yeah, we’re not sure either - but basically, Walker wanted to make it harder for people to vote.

11. When he was BFFs with the Koch Brothers

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The Koch Brothers are long-time Scott Walker supporters. With a $43,000 donation, their PAC was the second highest donor to Walker’s 2010 campaign. They also gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association, which streamed spending into Wisconsin on behalf of Walker. Ew.

12. When he wanted to pay teachers less

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Not only did Scott Walker nix the collective bargaining rights of Wisconsin teachers, but he capped future pay raises. Under Walker’s administrative rule change, he changed the pay schedule for experienced teachers. Some teachers could lose as much as 30% of their current salary under Walker’s targeted attacks.

So, in short, Scott Walker is the worst.

Luckily, EMILY’s List has endorsed Mary Burke for governor of Wisconsin

Mary Burke is an insightful problem solver who has worked in the private, government, and nonprofit sectors to grow Wisconsin’s economy and increase educational opportunities. Mary has an impressive commitment to economic justice and improving the lives of children and working families. Her intense and selfless commitment to her community will make for a striking contrast with Governor Scott Walker’s extremist agenda. Mary’s been quietly changing the world for the better for years - by breaking barriers herself and by making opportunities for others to get ahead.

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This post was created by a user and has not been vetted or endorsed by BuzzFeed's editorial staff. BuzzFeed Community is a place where anyone can post awesome lists and creations. Learn more or post your buzz!

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10 Tips For a Libertarian Thanksgiving

Ben Cohen on November 26, 2013

The Daily Banter

Thanksgiving is a tradition that Americans from every walk of life can enjoy. It is a time when friends and family get together and give thanks for what they have. However, the tradition has some rather worrying elements to it that could teach Americans socialistic concepts like sharing and selflessness. To counter the troubling Europeanization of a distinctly American tradition, here is a 10-step guide to having a Libertarian Thanksgiving:
1. Buy your Turkey from Butterball – America’s biggest Turkey farm. It stands to reason that Butterball must be the best turkey producer because it has beaten all the competition and makes $1.5 billion in revenue a year. Sure they may pump their turkeys full of antibiotics and have a horrific record on animal cruelty, but who cares? The turkey is cheap, and it lines the pockets of corporations so it’s a win-win situation for the die hard capitalist.
2. Outsource the cooking. It is almost certainly cheaper to have your Thanksgiving dinner prepared in India and Fed-Exed.
3. Charge family members for leftovers. In fact, they’re not actually leftovers, they’re ‘opportunity costs’. All the turkey they didn’t eat could have been resold at above market rates given turkeys are in heavy demand at Thanksgiving. It is only fair that you are compensated by your family for this loss of earning.
4. No turkey giveaways. Poor people are poor for a reason, and giving them free turkeys will just encourage them to remain poor.

5. The strongest family members eat first. They are bigger and stronger and it stands to reason that they are more deserving of food than the young and elderly. 
6. Make sure you are carrying a concealed weapon at the dinner table. You may have a closet Communist in the family and you need to always be prepared. 
7. Get a sponsor for your dinner. This might mean making family members and guests wear branded t-shirts or drinking Pepsi rather than Coke. You should never pass up an opportunity to monetize family occasions. 
8. Boycott Canada’s celebration of Thanksgiving. They have universal health care coverage. 
9. Challenge the White House’s pardoning of one turkey. This is the government telling Americans which turkeys they can and cannot eat and is a slippery slope towards socialism. 
10. No holding hands during grace. We are not all in this together. It’s every American for themselves.

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Local News Station Busts Darrell Issa for Silencing Supporters During ACA Investigation

Local News Station Busts Darrell Issa for Silencing Supporters During ACA Investigation

By: Sarah Jones
Tuesday, November, 26th, 2013

The mainstream media might be letting the public down, but some local media outlets are still diligently reporting the news instead of chasing after Beltway Cool Kids with a GOP playbook in their front pocket.
Melissa Hankins at Charlotte, North Carolina’s WBTV 3 reported that Darrell Issa’s ObamaCare “hearings” in Gastonia called “Obamacare Implementation: Sticker Shock of Increased Premiums for Health Care Coverage” weren’t exactly unbiased.
In fact, people who had positive things to say about the ACA were not only told they couldn’t speak, but they were told that if they spoke “out of turn” they’d have to leave.

 Watch here:

WBTV 3 News, Weather, Sports, and Traffic for Charlotte, NC

 

The meeting got off to a contentious start on Friday, with people complaining that they won’t get a chance to be heard. People were told they would be removed from the meeting if they spoke out of turn. Residents were angry because Issa picked the five witnesses that we will hear from, all residents of North Carolina.

The piece goes on to list several supporters of the ACA whom Issa refused to let speak.
Allison Ward, who says the ACA offers her insurance she can afford for the first time ever, wanted to be heard. If she had been chosen to “testify” (is it really a hearing if it’s all staged? Not so much), she would have said, “My president has said I hear you, I’m going to help you and frankly the way I see it is that other people are getting in the way.”
You can see why Issa wouldn’t let Ms. Ward speak.
Another Charlotte resident wanted to speak about how no one would give her insurance because she was diagnosed with MS. Dana Wilson said the ACA changed the fact that no one would insure her. Ms. Wilson thinks if it’s a real hearing, then all sides should be heard. “I think if it’s a true hearing than all sides should be heard and they don’t want to hear us,” she told WBTV 3.
The reported explained that the area has seen some of the highest increases in premiums in the country, and that’s why Issa was there. Fair enough. But that’s no reason not to hear from supporters of the law.
Issa claims that no Democrats picked any witnesses and that is how he justifies not using supporters of the law. But see, that’s an admission that Issa is not trying to get at the truth, as he claims he is. He’s got a show to put on, and he can only use haters in this script. It’s called propaganda, and it’s following the GOP playbook exactly. The main messages of the GOP attack ACA playbook are: “Because of Obamacare, I Lost My Insurance”, “Obamacare Increases Health Care Costs” and “The Exchanges May Not Be Secure, Putting Personal Information at Risk”. ”
Good old Issa is up to his usual tricks, where he only lets the people who he knows will say what he needs them to say in front of the cameras, and then he blames Democrats when he’s busted Issa got busted doing this on Benghazi as well. Issa refused to let the experts on the Benghazi attacks speak in front of the cameras, and then blamed the White House for not inviting them:

While the rest of the media is reporting that the co-chairmen of the independent review on the Benghazi attacks, Ambassador Thomas Pickering and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen, have finally agreed to testify, in truth Pickering was not invited by Darell Issa (R-CA) to testify at the televised hearing. When called out on his lies on national TV, Issa finally tried to blame the White House for not inviting Pickering.

Darrell Issa wants you to believe that he is wasting all of this money just to get the truth, but the truth involves refusing to let anyone with a dissenting point of view be heard. It’s just like the founders envisioned…
Only not.
h/t Diane Sweet at Crooks and Liars

Local News Station Busts Darrell Issa for Silencing Supporters During ACA Investigation was written by Sarah Jones for PoliticusUSA.

© PoliticusUSA, Tue, Nov 26th, 2013 — All Rights Reserve

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Ted Cruz Quite Possibly Just Made His Most Ridiculous Statement — Ever

November 26, 2013

By Allen Clifton


It’s no secret that I absolutely cannot stand Texas Senator Ted Cruz.  I still go back and forth between him and Sarah Palin when trying to figure out who I loathe more.  Currently the edge goes to Cruz simply because he’s actually a senator, whereas Sarah Palin is nothing more than a failed vice presidential candidate and the Alaska governor who quit before her first term was up.
That being said, it’s not difficult at all to find ample quotes from Ted Cruz that are completely absurd.
But while there are plenty of quotes proving Ted Cruz is an idiot, the context of his recent comments about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid using the “nuclear option” to change the rules of the Senate might just be his most ridiculous ever.
During an exchange with Bloomberg News’ Al Hunt, Hunt asked Cruz about the change in the rules made by Senator Reid:

Hunt: Will it complicate passing budgets or debt ceilings or anything?
Cruz: Of course it will. I mean, it will poison the atmosphere of the Senate.

Yes, that’s Ted Cruz accusing Harry Reid and Democrats of poisoning the atmosphere of the Senate.  The guy who many within his own party can’t stand.  The man who staged a fake 21-hour filibuster where he tried to compare “Obamacare” to Darth Vader and misconstrued the meaning of Green Eggs and Ham on the Senate floor.  The same Senator who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to force a government shutdown, knowing that it stood absolutely zero chance at accomplishing his ridiculous “goal.”
The same Senator Cruz who, in his very brief time in the United States Senate, has done absolutely nothing except use his position as senator to set himself up for a 2016 presidential bid – at the cost of the taxpayers, of course.
Ted Cruz epitomizes “poison” in the Senate.  It’s clear to anyone with any kind of common sense that Cruz only ran for the Senate because he had presidential ambitions for 2016 and needed a way to get his name known to voters.  And since his election he’s taken up the strategy that the only thing he’ll do is pander to the tea party, hoping that if he builds enough support with far-right Republicans, he’ll set himself up to claim the GOP nomination in 2016.
But like I said, you don’t have to believe me – many within his own party can’t even stand him.  Look at how quickly many leading Republicans emphatically denounced the idea of shutting down the government again once another vote on the budget will have to be held in a couple of months.
So while what he said wasn’t the most asinine thing he’s ever said, the context behind what he expressed might just be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard him say.
Of all people, for Ted Cruz to accuse anyone of introducing poisonous behavior in the Senate could be a definition for hypocrisy.  And while this just might rank at the top of my list for ridiculous comments from the Texas senator, I’m sure it won’t be long before he says something else outrageous to trump its stupidity.

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Elisabeth Hasselbeck Knows Who Is ‘Smart,’ And That Is Young People Who Don’t Buy Insurance Because They Will Never Get Sick

Elisabeth Hasselbeck Knows Who Is ‘Smart,’ And That Is Young People Who Don’t Buy Insurance Because They Will Never Get Sick 

 by Rebecca Schoenkopf


Founding Mensa member and Fox & Friends cohost Elisabeth Hasselbeck knows genius when she sees it. Where has Elisabeth Hasselbeck seen genius today? In “young invincibles” refusing to buy insurance!

     “You know who is playing it smart?” Hasselbeck began. “Young invincibles. The young set out there who are not buying into Obamacare because they’re seeing situations like this and saying, ‘I’m not going to be the one responsible for paying for everybody else. That’s not what was sold to me.’ So they’re not signing up. Government’s freaking out because they need the young people to pay for Obamacare.”

We have never heard that particular formulation before, but who are we to question what is “smart” and what is “the opposite of that.”

But why does Hasselbeck want young people to be “smart” and not buy insurance? Oh, the usual reasons: young healthy people would have to pay for old sick people, by being alive, at the same time, in the same nation. (This is sort of like how people who buy Wonkette T-shirts are subsidizing people who buy Smoking Joe cups, because it does not cost anywhere near $7.99 to ship a T-shirt, and it costs way way more than $7.99 to ship a cup! We call it “socialism.” We also call it “we don’t know how to charge different amounts for shipping depending on which product you buy so we sort of tried to charge a happy medium EVEN THOUGH WAY MORE OF YOU buy cups than buy T-shirts.” We also also call it “if you buy a T-shirt AND a cup, you are getting a hell of a deal on shipping, so you should probably do that.”)

But yes, young people, definitely don’t buy insurance because someone, somewhere, might be helped by it if you do. Also, don’t buy anything, because did you know when you buy something you are helping to pay somebody’s salary? What a ripoff, right? Who do they think you are, Richard Branson? Why is it up to you to help pay salaries for all these “takers” doing the job selling you the thing you needed?

Also, it is definitely not like you are ever going to break your leg while snowboarding or whatever the cool “EXTREEEEME” sport is now, you will be fine, you are “invincible.” Also, stop paying your rent, because why is it up to you to make your landlord rich, and you are “invincible” and will never be evicted and if you do “sleeping rough” is very groovy and hep.

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5 reasons why the American people can't stand the Republican party 

Robert SobelOrlando Liberal Examiner

February 28, 2013

 

The Republican party often has people scratching their heads and it's not just "liberals" who are doing it. With The Republican party splitting into multiple factions, the once proud political party has been thrown into disarray Here are five reasons why the American people can't stand the Grand Old Party.
1. Bush wastes money and American lives-
After the United States was attacked on September 11, 2001, everyone throughout the country felt a variety of emotions. Some were upset, others scared or just plain angry. There isn't a right or wrong answer in how people felt because what happened was so horrific. It's natural to want revenge and that is how George W. Bush and the Republican party were able to get the country into a huge mess while lining their own pockets. Preying on the fear that came with the attacks on 9/11, the Bush administration decided to wage war, but with the wrong country. With his father, George H.W Bush, unable to capture Saddam Hussein in the early 1990s, George W. Bush wanted to finish the job that his father couldn't.
Knowing that Iraq was run by an evil dictator, had plenty of oil and could be a goldmine for companies to rebuild, Bush used the fear that overcame the United States to wage war with a country that had nothing to do with the attacks on that September day. Saddam Hussein was captured less than a year into the invasion of Iraq, but nearly a decade later the United States was still there.
The reason given to the American people for the invasion was that Iraq possessed "weapons of mass destruction," but later Americans were told that Iraq didn't have these weapons and that the United States had received "bad intelligence." Many believe that there were never any weapons in Iraq and that it was an excuse to invade the country. Many companies, such as Dick Cheney's Halliburton, made billions rebuilding in Iraq while others ran off to the bank as well. According to a 2007 report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the war in Iraq would cost $1.9 trillion dollars, or about $6,300 for each U.S citizen. Mix that with the thousands of courageous soldiers who lost their lives or became injured and you have a mess that every American should be mad about.
2. GOP Depression-
Today's economic climate is a scary one. Though the unemployment rate has dropped to 7.9%, there is still only one job opening for every four Americans looking for work. As Ronald Reagan dropped the top tax rate from 70% to 28% during his eight years in office and deregulated big business and the financial sector, the United States was placed on a path of economic destruction. President Clinton stabilized the economy enough that he was able to hand a surplus to George W. Bush in 2001, but all the reckless actions by Wall Street drove the United States to the brink until a taxpayer bailout of the banks was needed in 2008. They say history repeats itself and that is true in this case.
When the economy took a hard down turn in the 1980s and in 2008, if was because the same economic policies were repeated that caused the Stock Market to crash in 1929. The Great Depression was caused by deregulation and bad tax policies, put in place by three consecutive Republican presidents. Starting with Warren Harding in 1921, through Calvin Coolidge and then Herbert Hoover, the United States fell into an economic depression. It took President Franklin D. Roosevelt, his New Deal and World War 2 to help get the United States back on track. Roosevelt had to deal with Republican opposition in congress and a new war, but after years in office, was able to get the job done.
3. Medicare Part D-
Republicans today seem to hate anything that the government does until they need it. Conservatives scream about programs like Social Security and unemployment benefits, but once they enter retirement or lose their jobs, they're quick to hold on to government assistance. Republicans want to privatize programs like Social Security and Medicare by taking them out of the government and putting them into greedy hands on Wall Street. While conservatives are opposed to these programs now, you don't need to go back too far to find Republicans supporting parts of programs like Medicare.
George Bush signed into law the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (Medicare Part D) which went into effect on January 1, 2006. The program was supposed to subsidize the costs of prescription drugs for those who receive Medicare, but it was never paid for. In the long run, Medicare Part D raised prices, cost taxpayers billions of dollars and while the cost of Medicare Part D has been projected to be less than originally thought, much of the declining cost is due to President Obama's new health care law that was passed in 2010.
4. Sexual Morality?-
The Republican party pounds their chest as the voice of morality, clutching their Bible, fighting back against the LGBT community and abortion and love to bring up that President Clinton cheated on his wife. If people make certain claims, they should learn to look in the mirror first. Former Republican Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich has been married three times and has a dark history of infidelity. While Gingrich was one of the leading voices against President Clinton in the 1990s, he was actually cheating on his own wife. In fact, while his wife was in remission with cancer, Gingrich served her divorce papers.
The list of Republicans who have engaged in sexual affairs is endless. Former Republican mayor of Waterbury, Connecticut, Philip Giordano, is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing two underage girls. Republican congressman and anti-gay activist, Robert Bauman was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar while Republican legislator, Richard Gardner, admitted to molesting his two daughters. This doesn't mean that Democrats haven't done anything like this in the past, they have, but there's an old saying - "those who live in glass houses, shouldn't throw stones."
5. Unions aren't the problem!-
Just the word "union" seems to have a negative connotation these days. Conservatives point their finger at unions for every fiscal issue that the country has closing their eyes to the fact that unions are fighting for the middle class. Whether you're a member of a union of not, you must understand what a union is there for. Unions are a collective voice for workers to make sure that their rights are protected. These rights are not limited to, but include safe working conditions, fair pay, health care and other benefits. As executive pay has risen to an all-time high, wages for workers remain stagnant and are at an all-time low. Unions are put together to make sure that those at the top don't hold back the average middle class worker, but Republicans have tried to destroy the voice of the middle class for decades.
From the time Ronald Reagan fired the Air Traffic Controllers on August 5, 1981 to Republicans trying to push for "right-to-work" laws across the country, the voice of the middle class is starting to become silent. Republicans claim union workers are "lazy" and "greedy," but that is not the case. Are there workers who take advantage of the benefits of being in a union? Of course there are, every system has issues, but the majority are grateful and work hard. If Republicans want to truly be patriotic they should start supporting the middle class, not just the wealthy.

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Just How Stupid, Mean and Spiteful is the Evangelical-Controlled GOP/Tea Party South? Here’s How Stupid

November 22, 2013 By Frank Schaeffer

“What we could see, 10 years from now, is a Mason-Dixon line of health care… And [the GOP South] is doing it out of spite. Elsewhere, the expansion of Medicaid, the health care program for the poor, has been one of the few success stories of Obamacare… One side (with exceptions for conservative Midwest and mountain states) would be the insured North, a place where health care coverage was affordable and available to most people…
“On the other side would be the uninsured South, where health care for the poor would amount to treating charity cases in hospital emergency rooms. The South, already the poorest region in the country, with all the attendant problems, would acquire another distinction — a place where, if you were sick and earned just enough money that you didn’t qualify for traditional Medicare, you might face the current system’s version of a death panel.”  By TIMOTHY EGAN ( The South’s New Lost Cause, NY Times)

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Fox News host: Obamacare ‘touches so many people’s lives’ unlike ‘Katrina or the Iraq war’

Fox News host: Obamacare ‘touches so many people’s lives’ unlike ‘Katrina or the Iraq war’ (via Raw Story )

Fox News host Martha MacCallum on Monday suggested that President Barack Obama’s health care law was even worse than devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina or the Iraq War because it “touches so many people’s lives.” In a segment on America…

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John Cornyn, Texas Senator, Says Iran Deal Is Obamacare Distraction

By Benjamin Hart Posted: 11/23/2013 11:51 pm EST  |  Updated: 11/25/2013 12:19 pm EST 

It was predictable that GOP hawks like Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) wouldn't love the historic deal the Obama administration reached with Iran on Saturday night.
But Texas Senator John Cornyn had a unique, if completely bizarre, take on the agreement:
 

Amazing what WH will do to distract attention from O-care
— JohnCornyn (@JohnCornyn) November 24, 2013

 Among the many politicians and journalists to counter Cornyn's wacky assertion was David Plouffe, Senior Advisor to President Obama:

No, a real distraction would be war. Like Iraq. RT@JohnCornyn: Amazing what WH will do to distract attention from O-care”
— David Plouffe (@davidplouffe) November 24, 2013

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Fact-checking the Sunday Nov. 24 shows

By Aaron Sharockman
Published on Sunday, November 24th, 2013 at 11:07 a.m.

Related rulings:

The Affordable Care Act alters the "sensible doctor-patient-relationship-centered health care program ... we see today."

Sarah Palin, Sunday, November 24th, 2013.
Ruling: False | Details

"Harry Reid was against (the nuclear option) before he was for it. Mitch McConnell was for it before he was against it. President Obama was against it before he was for it."

Matthew Dowd, Sunday, November 24th, 2013.
Ruling: True | Details

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On "Fox News Sunday," former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said: "There will be fewer people being covered under a sensible doctor-patient relationship centered health care program under Obamacare than what we see today."

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin returned to the Sunday news show circuit to pitch a new book and talk about the health care law with Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace.
In a taped interview, Wallace asked Palin about the issues of the moment -- the problems surrounding the rollout of the health care law and the decision by Senate Democrats to stop the ability of Republicans to filibuster judicial and presidential appointments.
On health care, Palin said she didn’t believe Congressional Budget Office projections, which show approximately 30 million uninsured Americans will receive health care as a result of the Affordable Care Act.
"I am one to question those numbers that 30 million more people will receive health care coverage under Obamacare. ... I don't believe a doggone thing coming out of Washington D.C. anymore," she said.
Moments later, Palin said: "There will be fewer people being covered under a sensible doctor-patient-relationship-centered health care program under Obamacare than what we see today. I guarantee you that."
PunditFact zeroed in on the idea that the health care alters the "sensible doctor-patient-relationship-centered health care program ... we see today."
That claim rates False.
There are reports that insurance companies are shrinking their networks, including excluding certain hospitals from coverage. This is particularly the case for insurance plans sold on the new state and federal marketplaces created by Obamacare. That means some people could be forced to switch doctors.
One insurance company, Anthem, told the Washington Post that it "still covers 74 percent of all primary-care providers and 78 percent of specialists," and that smaller networks would drive down the cost of their plans.
Some of this maneuvering was going on for years, and a trend already taking place in the industry may have just been accelerated by the law. In the spring of 2011, the Los Angeles Times reported on insurance companies in California offering a narrower list of providers to thousands of customers.
That’s a far cry from Palin’s actual words, however, which suggest a government intervention in the doctor-patient relationship. The health care law leaves the currently doctor-patient relationship in place.
Other pundits focused on the decision of Democrats to invoke the so-called "nuclear option." On ABC’s This Week, former George W. Bush adviser Matthew Dowd suggested it’s difficult for anyone to claim the political high ground.
"There's a virus going around Washington, D.C., and it's a virus of hypocrisy," Dowd said. "Harry Reid was against this before he was for it. Mitch McConnell was for it before he was against it. President Obama was against it before he was for it."
Dowd has history correct.
Back in 2005, a Republican was in the White House, Republicans controlled the Senate, and Democrats were being criticized for blocking judicial nominations.
McConnell, then the majority whip, said he supported using the nuclear option. Back then, Reid and Obama said they opposed the rule change.
"The American people want less partisanship in this town, but everyone in this chamber knows that if the majority chooses to end the filibuster, if they choose to change the rules and put an end to democratic debate, then the fighting, the bitterness, and the gridlock will only get worse," Obama said in 2005.
Last week, Obama said something quite different.
"I support the step a majority of senators today took to change the way that Washington is doing business -- more specifically, the way the Senate does business," Obama said.
Dowd’s claim rates True.
Steve Contorno and Julie Kliegman contributed to this report. Aaron Sharockman is the editor of PunditFact.com. Note to readers: PunditFact and PolitiFact will be off next Sunday Dec. 1, 2013. We'll return to live fact-checking the Sunday news shows Dec. 8. 

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Leaked: The Republican Obamacare Sabotage ‘Playbook’

Leaked: The Republican Obamacare Sabotage ‘Playbook’

posted by Dylan Hock November 23, 2013 

CNN recently obtained a copy of a House Republican strategy memo released late last month titled, “Because of Obamacare… I lost my insurance.” Referred to as the Republican Obamacare “playbook”, the memo contains samples for everything from talking points, social media, op-eds, videos… you name it, including a “fact” sheet for Republican lawmakers fighting the Affordable Care Act.

First reported by Roll Call, a GOP source responsible for providing the strategy memo to CNN stated that it would be updated as of Thursday.
“The administration now has a serious competence problem.  Healthcare.gov is so much more than a website.  The website should have been the easy part,” a portion of the playbook reads.  The conservative angle present in even that small section should come as no surprise.  Republicans have been quite clear and vocal about their disdain for the Affordable Care Act.
The playbook was drafted by the office of House Republican Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers amid a Republican fairytale regarding the stumbled roll-out of the Affordable Care Act.  President Obama noted at a Wall Street Journal event last Tuesday, speaking to some of America’s top CEO’s, “One of the problems we’ve had is one side of Capitol Hill is invested in failure.”
White House spokesperson Eric Schultz echoed President Obama, stating that the Republican “18 page playbook of partisan attacks is 18 pages longer than their health care plan.”  He went on to say, “There’s not a single word devoted to helping constituents enroll or offering an alternative idea to help Americans gain access to quality, affordable care.”
Democrats plan to continue supporting the Affordable Care Act a spokesperson for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi affirmed.
“While Republicans continue to fixate on sabotaging health reform and root for failure, House Democrats will continue to stand tall in support of the Affordable Care Act, work to strengthen the health reform law as implementation continues, and ensure that millions of uninsured Americans get coverage,” Drew Hammill stated.
Blind party politics is nothing new, but the Republican Obamacare “playbook” demonstrates the new depths of cynicism and partisanship of Republican efforts to sway the American perspective and dialogue.
Be sure to watch for similar Republican practices on every other important issue.  You can bet nothing is done without a playbook at the ready.
CNN reports on GOP playbook for Obamacare sabotage:

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BUSTED! Proof John Boehner Faked Obamacare Sign-Up Problems

BUSTED! Proof John Boehner Faked Obamacare Sign-Up Problems 

Posted by: Richard Rowe
November 24, 2013

Obamacare is a FAILURE!! Obamacare is a FAILURE!! Kneel before Koch!Oh, the right-wing fantasy machine is a powerful beast, capable of moving mountains (of stupid). And that machine burns loads of high octane furl in the form of bias, ignorance and (preferably) outright lies. John Boehner knows the good stuff when he sees it…unfortunately for him, we all saw him coming, too. On November 21st, Boehner managed to set down his glass of Koch-niac long enough to post “My Attempt to Sign Up For Health Care” on his (government sponsored) blog, Speaker.gov. Here he is, not posing for a picture while extremely hung over:


(Please note, no red lights on the phone.) The Speaker of the Keystone XL wrote:

“Earlier this afternoon, I sat down to try and enroll in the DC exchange under the president’s health care law. Like many Americans, my experience was pretty frustrating. After putting in my personal information, I received an error message. I was able to work past that, but when I went to actually sign up for coverage, I got this “internal server error” screen. Despite multiple attempts, I was unable to get past that point and sign up for a health plan. We’ve got a call into the help desk. Guess I’ll just have to keep trying…

Updated (5:35 pm ET:) Kept at it, and called the DC Health Link help line. They called back a few hours later, and after re-starting the process on the website two more times, I just heard from DC Health Link that I have been successfully enrolled.”

Oh, those liberal BASTARDS. If the Speaker of the House himself can’t get through, what chance do the rest of us have? Obama has failed…all hail Overlord Charles Koch!

Oh, wait…what do you mean “this call is being recorded for quality assurance?“

Indeed, this little stunt backfired big time on the Speaker…”Boehned” him, if you will. Scott MacFarlane, an NBC affiliate reporter broke the news on Twitter:

“Scott MacFarlane @MacFarlaneNews: DC health exchange spokesman says Speaker Boehner office kept DC representative on hold 35 minutes, “lots of patriotic hold music,” hung up.”

What? John Boehner is a lying sack of crap deliberately misleading the public in a blatant attempt to push his own agenda?
Say it isn’t so.

(If you look closely in the reflection on the back of Boehner’s computer monitor, you can see Charles Koch standing by the painting. Actually, you can’t, because Kochs don’t cast a reflection…but he’s definitely there. You can tell by that vacant ‘I will obey’ look in Boehner’s eyes.)
h/t: Politicus USA

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In rural Kentucky, health-care debate takes back seat as the long-uninsured line up

View Photo Gallery — A look at life in Breathitt County, Ky.: Hard hit by the loss of coal mining jobs, residents of this mostly rural Kentucky county sign up for health-care insurance at state-run exchanges under the Affordable Care Act.

By Stephanie McCrummen, Published: November 23 E-mail the writer

| in BREATHITT COUNTY, Ky. — On the campaign trail, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was still blasting the new health-care law as unsalvageable. At the White House, President Obama was still apologizing for the botched federal Web site.
But in a state where the rollout has gone smoothly, and in a county that is one of the poorest and unhealthiest in the country, Courtney Lively has been busy signing people up: cashiers from the IGA grocery, clerks from the dollar store, workers from the lock factory, call-center agents, laid-off coal miners, KFC cooks, Chinese green-card holders in town to teach Appalachian students.

Graphic

Although enrollment numbers for insurance exchanges set up in states by the federal government won't be available for several weeks, states operating their own health-care insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act, and the District of Columbia, have started to release enrollment data.

Now it was the beginning of another day, and a man Lively would list as Client 375 sat across from her in her office at a health clinic next to a Hardee’s.
“So, is that Breathitt County?” she asked Woodrow Wilson Noble as she tapped his information into a laptop Thursday morning.
“Yeah, we live on this side of the hill,” said Noble, whose family farm had gone under, who lived on food stamps and what his mother could spare, and who was about to hear whether he would have health insurance for the first time in his 60-year-old life.
This is how things are going in Kentucky: As conservatives argued that the new health-care law will wreck the economy, as liberals argued it will save billions, as many Americans raged at losing old health plans and some analysts warned that a disproportionate influx of the sick and the poor could wreck the new health-care model, Lively was telling Noble something he did not expect to hear.
“All right,” she said. “We’ve got you eligible for Medicaid.”
Places such as Breathitt County, in the Appalachian foothills of eastern Kentucky, are driving the state’s relatively high enrollment figures, which are helping to drive national enrollment figures as the federal health exchange has floundered. In a state where 15 percent of the population, about 640,000 people, are uninsured, 56,422 have signed up for new health-care coverage, with 45,622 of them enrolled in Medicaid and the rest in private health plans, according to figures released by the governor’s office Friday.
If the health-care law is having a troubled rollout across the country, Kentucky — and Breathitt County in particular — shows what can happen in a place where things are working as the law’s supporters envisioned.
One reason is that the state set up its own health-insurance exchange, sidestepping the troubled federal one. Also, Gov. Steve Beshear (D) is the only Southern governor to sign on to expanded eligibility parameters for Medicaid, the federal health-insurance program for the poor. The less technical reasons involve what Lively told Noble next.
“Okay, Woodrow, now you get to shop a little bit,” she said, explaining options he’d never had before.
“If you go to the doctor, all you’re going to pay is $1,” she began. “If you’re in the hospital for an extended period, you should only be billed $5. . . . If you get medicine, generics are $1 and brand is $4. . . . You can go to the dentist once a month — exams, X-rays and cleanings are covered. . . . Now for your teeth, the plan does take care of having them pulled and does take care of fillings, but not bridges, because that’s considered cosmetic.”
 Now, Lively explained, Noble simply had to choose among several Medicaid health-care plans. “So basically it’s whatever insurance company you go with — the effective date is January 1st,” she said, waiting for him to pick.
“My mom gets that WellCare, and she don’t pay nothing,” Noble said finally. “I’ll take that WellCare plan. My mommy got that, and it’s good.”

Graphic

Although enrollment numbers for insurance exchanges set up in states by the federal government won't be available for several weeks, states operating their own health-care insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act, and the District of Columbia, have started to release enrollment data.

“WellCare it is,” Lively said, typing in his decision as Noble considered Jan. 1.
“I got some warts on me I got to take off, some moles,” he said. “I might have that colonoscopy done. My mom had colon cancer twice. I never had money to do it.” He said he was told it could cost at least $2,000.
“I got this pain in my left shoulder,” he said, lifting his arm and rotating it. “Might be arthritis, I guess. I don’t know.”
Lively handed Noble some papers confirming his enrollment.
“Okay, you’re good to go — you tell your brother to come see me,” she said, and the next client walked in.
Lively grew up in the county and works for Juniper Health, which has a federal contract to enroll people in the state health-care exchange and runs the Breathitt County health clinic on Highway 15, a four-lane that branches off into narrow roads that wind through hills dotted with skinny trees and trailers.
Asked to describe Breathitt, Lively paused for a moment. “Poor,” she said. “Just poor.”
The per-capita income in Breathitt is about $15,000, and the rates of diabetes, hypertension and other health problems earned this part of Kentucky the nickname “Coronary Valley.”
Lively, who has been signing people up since the exchanges opened in early October, said one woman cried when she was told she qualified for Medicaid under the new law. She said people have been “pouring in” to her office, an unused exam room in the back of the clinic, where her set-up includes a table, a two-drawer filing cabinet, manila folders, a planner to track her schedule, a notebook to track her numbers and a laptop that connects to the state health-insurance exchange, Kynect.
Clinic doctors often send patients without insurance her way after their visits, but most come by word of mouth. Lively has signed up fathers who then sent their sons, and mothers who sent aunts. She signed up one Subway sandwich shop worker, and soon what seemed like the whole staff showed up.
Although she once had to dispel a rumor that enrolling involved planting a microchip in your arm, and though she avoids calling the new law “Obamacare” in a red state, most people need little persuading.
“All right,” she said to her next client, a 52-year-old disabled master electrician who said his mother, two brothers and two sisters all died from lung cancer. He had been ignoring a spot on his lung discovered during a visit to the emergency room after he had broken his ribs several years ago.
He also vaguely recalled being told at the time he had something called “wedging of the spine.”
“What do I need here?” said Jeff Fletcher, who was being sued for those medical bills. “Proof of income?”
“Yep,” Lively said, and Fletcher pulled out documents showing that he and his wife live on about $500 a month in food stamps and her disability check.
“You smoke?” Lively asked, going through a few routine questions.

Graphic

Although enrollment numbers for insurance exchanges set up in states by the federal government won't be available for several weeks, states operating their own health-care insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act, and the District of Columbia, have started to release enrollment data.

“Right- and left-handed,” he quipped as she typed.
“All right,” Lively said after a while. “You are covered.”
“I’m covered?” Fletcher said. He slapped the table. He clapped twice.
“Woo-hoo! I can go to the doctor now?” he asked Lively. “I’m serious. I need to go.”
Client 377 sat in the chair next. Ruth Strong, a 45-year-old woman with red, streaklike marks on her right arm, shoulder and neck from an untreated allergy attack, chatted with Lively about their kids. Strong was saying she wanted both her boys to go to college.
“Now, how much did you say it was going to cost to add you on?” asked Lively, who had talked to Strong before about signing on to the health-insurance plan of her husband, who worked for the school district. “Four hundred dollars?”
“Yes,” Strong said, looking at the floor and smiling. “I guess I’ve been without it for 15 years and will go without it one more if it costs too much.”
Lively entered Strong’s information. Her household income was too high for Medicaid, but she qualified for a subsidy of $228 a month and could choose from plans with a monthly cost ranging from $115 to $300, Lively said.
“It’s still high,” said Strong, who had not had a checkup in nine years.
Lively handed her a description of the health plans to take home and study, and then it was time for lunch, which Lively ate in the office between returning calls:
“Brenda, this is Courtney Lively calling you back.”
“You want to set up an appointment?”
“I will be here 8 to 4 tomorrow.”
Soon, Ronald Hudson walked in.
“Okay,” Lively began. “What Hudsons are you kin to?”
“R.T., Uncle Lenny . . .” said Hudson, a skinny 35-year-old who worked as an assistant director at the senior center and had just been released from the hospital after a blood-sugar spike.
He’d never had insurance before and said his hospital bills were up to $23,000 at this point.
“Good night,” Lively said, tapping in his information.
Kids: five. Salary: about $14,000 before taxes.
“You’re going to qualify for a medical card,” she told Hudson.
“Well, thank God,” Hudson said, laughing. “I believe I’m going to be a Democrat.”
Lively printed out his papers.
“RONALD’s Health Care Coverage Options,” one of them read.
“Oh, man,” Hudson said.
Donna Robinson had already enrolled, and now she arrived for her 2 p.m. with her son Gary Gross, 36, a skinny man with spiky copper hair, worn-out jeans and a thin tank top.
“Now,” Lively began. “Any income?”
“Naw,” Gross said.
“You smoke?”
“Yeah,” Gross said, adding that he did quit drinking. “It’s hard to quit, I tell you. I got cirrhosis already. I’m only a two on the scale of four, not too bad.”
“That’s already bad,” his mother said.
“Okay,” Lively said after a while. “You’re covered for a medical card.”
She went through his options.
“Now, I have problems with my teeth,” Gross said. “I need to get all of them pulled.”
“It does cover that,” Lively said.
“Oh, that’s great!” Gross said, sitting up straighter.
“Now it doesn’t cover dentures,” Lively said as she typed.
“I think that should be covered,” his mother said. “Try to eat an apple without teeth.”
“I love meat,” Gross said.
Lively gave him the papers confirming his enrollment.
“Easy as that,” she said.
“Wow,” Gross said, looking at them. “Thank you.”
In was late afternoon, and Mary Stamper, 36, arrived with four of her 11 children and a stack of well-worn, laminated Social Security cards. She sat down.
“I don’t see how you do it 11 times, girlfriend,” Lively said as the children bounced around the room. “Okay, what’s Mark’s birthday?”
It took an hour to enter in all her kids’ information and tally the household income from food stamps and a disability check drawn by her husband, a county maintenance worker.
Stamper said that she had Medicaid once when she was pregnant with one of her first children but that otherwise the part-time jobs she had held at the check-cashing place and as a nurse’s aide never came with it.
Lively typed her information in, and then something unusual happened: The system seemed to crash. She called the help line for the state health-care exchange and was told it was just being updated.
“I can tell you you’re getting a medical card,” she told Stamper, knowing what would happen when the system came back. “You’re going to get approved — I have no doubt about that. . . . You want WellCare?”
“Yeah,” Stamper said.
She stood up and stretched her back, which had been bothering her.
“I’m relieved,” she said. “I’ve been worried.”
Stamper and her kids left. It was the end of a long day, and Lively took a moment to look over her schedule for Friday. She had three appointments written in her planner and six calls to return.
“I’m nonstop,” she said.

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Michele Bachmann: ‘If God Wanted Everyone To Have Insurance, Why Did He Invent Miracles?’

Michele Bachmann: ‘If God Wanted Everyone To Have Insurance, Why Did He Invent Miracles?’

Posted on November 20, 2013 By WG Healthcare, Politics

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Michele Bachmann, after complaining to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that her insurance had been cancelled because of Obamacare, was asked later in the day about the people who have been uninsured and would now have insurance because of the Affordable Care Act. She was much less sympathetic toward them.
“It’s obvious that God put two types of people in this world,” said Bachmann. “There are hardworking Americans like myself, who have never taken a dime of taxpayer money and there are the people who should just hold their hands out to God.”
“If God wanted everyone to have health insurance, he wouldn’t have made those wonderful things called, ‘miracles,’” Bachmann continued. “He gave me the good fortune to have health insurance, for now, but even I’ll be losing it, thanks to Obamacare.”
When informed that the majority of the uninsured are working people and self-employed people, Bachmann said, “that’s terrific, but if they were truly hardworking, like I am, they would have insurance. But I don’t judge. That’s up to God and he told me that he’s going to get to work performing miracles for the luckiest of those people. You never know. Maybe He’ll heal a wart. Maybe  He will heal a poor person’s dandruff. Maybe He will even cure some cancer.”
When asked if perhaps it was God’s will that she would be losing insurance, Bachmann replied, “no, that’s Obamacare. It’s all Obamacare. He’s the anti-christ, you know. Oh, wait, I wasn’t supposed to say that out loud.”
“Anyway,” Bachmann continued, “God has granted me my miracles for my life. He gave me my Marcus and you’d better believe he left his share of broken hearts before I managed to snag him.”

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House Speaker John Boehner successfully enrolled in Obamacare

November 21, 2013

By Anomaly

Congratulations House Speaker John Boehner for successfully enrolling in the Affordable Care Act; Aka: Obamacare.
It was about an hour after Boehner’s office said he couldn’t sign up for Obamacare coverage on the District of Columbia’s exchange, that his office said, he had officially enrolled.








Boehner’s office wrote, “Kept at it, and called the DC Health Link help line. They called back a few hours later, and after restarting the process on the website two more times, I just heard from DC Health Link that I have been successfully enrolled.”
Politico reports:

 Responding to Boehner’s earlier failed attempts to sign up for coverage, the District’s exchange — known as DC Health Link — said it recently identified some system errors after enrollment.
“We recently discovered the fact that after enrollment, some users have been receiving a random error message,” DC Health Link communications director Richard Sorian wrote in an email. “Despite the message, these individuals have been enrolled. Our call center has been able to quickly resolve these matters. We are working on a system-wide update that will eliminate this soon. Users will be able to verify their enrollment in their secure, online account.”
Boehner’s office on Thursday afternoon said he originally received an error screen when he tried to sign up for coverage. “Guess I’ll just have to keep trying…” his office wrote at the time.

I plan to enroll too, but I’m not a ‘shop on Black Friday’ kind of person. I’ve been waiting for things to settle down. After I enroll, it will be like Boehner and I are BFFs. Isn’t that exciting?
Stuff not covered: How long did it take to enroll for coverage by an insurance company before Obamacare?

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