Washington's Wake

Posts Tagged ‘Health Care’

So, Peter Orszag, HRH The Sun Kings economics guesser in chief tells us we must rein in the spending.

President Barack Obama’s top budget adviser, Peter Orszag, said on Tuesday that the U.S. government must significantly alter its policies in order to tackle a growing mountain of debt.

Dear Peter,

I know where you can cut at least a trillion dollars in new spending over the next 10 years.

Love,
The American People

PS, If you need some more ideas where to cut spending, I’ve got a lot of them. Not that you’d listen to me…

And we have yet another democrat that hasn’t read the bill. Either that or she’s lying through her teeth. I know, what’s the difference.

She actually says the passed health care bill does not require you to purchase health insurance. So, either she’s lying through her teeth directly to her constituents or she’s utterly clueless. I’m not sure which is worse. She literally says you don’t have to purchase health insurance even though the law is quite clear that not only do you have to purchase insurance, they will sick the IRS on you if you don’t. I don’t know about anyone else, but this is a clear case that this person does not deserve reelection.

Can I just say that phrase, speaks out, is one of those phrases that every “reporter” and news reader should be forced to never ever use. It is one of the most obnoxious and overused phrases. But I digress…

You knew it was only a matter of time before the IRS was going to say something. Now we have some sort of semi-official response to the most Rube Goldberg like legislation this country has ever seen.

Speaking at the National Press Club on Monday, Shulman downplayed the IRS’s role in enforcing the recent overhaul of the health insurance industry by claiming the agency would not aggressively target individuals who don’t purchase coverage. He noted that the health-care bill expressly forbids the agency from freezing bank accounts, seizing assets or pursuing criminal charges, but when pressed said the IRS would most likely use tax refund offsets to penalize those that don’t comply with the mandate. The IRS uses refund offsets to collect from individuals that owe the federal government a delinquent debt.

“These are not the kinds of things we send agents out about,” Shulman said. “These are things where you get a letter from us. Congress was very careful to make sure there was nothing too punitive in this bill.”

Oh man does the IRS have a sense of humor.

And they lie.

While they may say that publicly, I believe Megan McArdle hits the nail right on the head with her theory of what the IRS will actually do.

If the IRS can reorder the priority of the tax dollars they take from you, then they can simply put any funds towards the mandate first. That way, if you attempt to go without insurance and then pay the IRS everything except the mandate penalty, you’ll end up with a tax liability the exact size of the mandate penalty . . . for which they can now garnish your wages, put tax liens on your house, and otherwise do all the nasty stuff that they are authorized to do under Subtitle F.

That’s about what I would expect. You will not be able to evade this tax. They may say now that it’s not a high priority or they won’t do this, but once the billions don’t show up, you know the IRS enforcement will start to ratchet up.

So this story probably would be funnier if it hadn’t already happened.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid mistakenly called out “no” Thursday when asked for his vote on the health care reconciliation bill, setting the chamber howling with laughter.

Reid voted the wrong way when the clerk called for his vote, realized his error and quickly changed his vote to “yes.”

Ha ha… the fate of the country is in this buffoons hands and he doesn’t even know how to vote. Oh yeah, a real laugher.

The sad thing is that he did this back in December when the Senate voted on their original bill.

Reid, who spent months persuading fellow senators to vote “yes” on President Obama’s top domestic priority, made the same mistake December 24 when voting on the original health care bill.

His office said Reid made the gaffe because he was so focused on getting health care passed.

So how does the buffoon in charge of the Senate do this twice on the same subject? I’m thinking either that’s his subconscious speaking or he’s a complete and utter buffoon who shouldn’t be in charge of the Senate. Sure once is kinda funny, but twice, then you’re just incompetent. Is there anyone competent left in DC?

I’m pretty sure this isn’t the endorsement that HRH The Sun King was looking to get.

Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro on Thursday declared passage of American health care reform “a miracle” and a major victory for Obama’s presidency, but couldn’t help chide the United States for taking so long to enact what communist Cuba achieved decades ago.

Somehow I see this endorsement showing up in a few political ads this fall.

I’m sure there’s no coincidence that this is the first bond sale since Obamacare passed but it is an interesting data point.

WEAK DEMAND: Interest rates climbed in the bond market Thursday after a government debt auction drew tepid demand. Auctions Tuesday and Wednesday also saw lower demand.

NOT THAT INTERESTED: The auction of $32 billion in seven-year notes saw demand fall from the past two months. That means the government could have to start offering higher interest rates to attract buyers.

The thing to remember is that this has happened before. And demand picked up.

But..

If the only way demand picks up is by raising the rates paid, here comes stagflation.

Cato has a blog post showing the spending at the dept of Health & Human services.

When describing spending growth in federal programs, I often need to use words like “soaring” and “explosive.” But growth in federal health spending is almost beyond superlatives to describe it, and it will increase even faster as a result of President Obama’s new health legislation.

I see that since the federal government has already done such a bang up job on controlling their health care spending, I can’t wait to see how well they control that going forward with the massive expansion in people jumping onto the enrolled. And this chart is well before all the baby boomers start going off into retirement.

What could go wrong?

This is a great speech. It’s a barn burner. They should be like this more often. It would really show some life and what they really stand for as a party.

No really, what’s the difference…

Both parties should be doing this all the time. They all should have to defend their pieces of silver that I am paying for. Not just on this vote. After reading Instapundit talk about some congressional hack getting a NASA Administrators job for his yes vote on health care, it’s nice to see someone will hopefully put them to the fire for selling their vote.