Debt

[james2012]

Deal could endanger health care law - Jennifer Haberkorn - POLITICO.com

Ah, the government - full of wise men with our best interests at heart. Or full of sh*t - BOTH sides, not just one. Here is one unintended consequence for you liberals out there of the debt deal:

The debt ceiling agreement could jeopardize millions of dollars, and perhaps billions, in initiatives from President Barack Obama’s health care reform law if the super committee can’t come up with required spending cuts.

Many of the pots of money in the law — one of the Democrats’ most prized pieces of legislation — could get trimmed by the debt deal’s sequestration, or triggered cuts. The funds for prevention programs and community health centers, grants to help states set up insurance exchanges and co-ops, and money to help states review insurance rates could be slashed across the board if the panel can’t find enough cuts this fall.

Funding for the temporary high-risk pools for pre-existing conditions could be sliced, too, as well as grants to improve maternal and child health. And as previously reported by POLITICO, the law’s cost-sharing subsidies — which are supposed to help low-income people pay their out-of-pocket expenses — could face the ax, too.

The prospect of reductions to the health law’s programs — which would undermine the law’s attempts to expand access and improve health quality — could provide an added incentive to Democrats to avoid the triggered cuts. The reductions will happen if the new committee can’t find at least $1.2 trillion in savings over the next 10 years.

“There are at least 15 provisions of the Obama health care law that will find themselves subject to this trigger if the committee is not able to come up with other cuts,” said Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.). “When I look at these, I think it gives a huge incentive to the Democrats to find cuts. What would be triggered if we can’t find other cuts would cut right into the Obama health care law.”

Senate Republican leadership aides identified the potential funding cuts shortly after the law passed and are talking with the Congressional Budget Office to determine what parts of the law would be subject to sequestration.

The fact that the programs are vulnerable at all means Obama and congressional Democrats did not succeed in their attempts to shield the health reform law from the debt-deal trigger.

Obama had resisted efforts by congressional Republicans to make the law’s individual mandate a part of the trigger during earlier debt-limit negotiations. But while the final deal doesn’t directly target the health care law, the cuts to specific programs could still happen because of the way the law is written.

The debt ceiling law exempts several programs for the poor and those with low incomes, as defined by the 2010 Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act, called PAYGO. That law exempts Medicaid, Social Security and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, among other programs.

But it doesn’t protect the health law’s provisions because the definitions became law a month before the health law was passed.

“If you’re not on the list, you wouldn’t be protected,” said Edwin Park, vice president for health policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The Office of Management and Budget confirmed to POLITICO that some of the health law’s funding could be subject to cuts.

Park said he believes PAYGO would have included at least some of the health law, had it been written after the legislation passed. “I certainly think people would argue many of the elements target low-income people,” Park told POLITICO.

Some parts of the law are likely to be protected. The tax credits to help the low and middle class pay their health insurance premiums — a separate program from the cost-sharing subsidies — would most likely be preserved under previous definitions of refundable income tax credits, according to congressional aides and other budget experts.

If it wanted to change the definitions, Congress would have to pass a new law defining what constitutes a low-income program. But House Republicans are unlikely to let any new definition pass if it exempted the law’s funding.

It’s unclear exactly how much money is at stake until Congress votes on an agreement. But Congress controls about $115 billion over 10 years to cover the cost of the agencies implementing the law, as well as funding programs and grants within it, according to CBO.

The amount of the triggered cuts would depend on how close the super committee is able to come to the $1.2 trillion savings target. The panel could find all of it, avoiding the sequestration. Or it could find just some of it, leaving the triggered cuts to make up the difference.

Senate Republican aides said they’ve been in discussions with CBO to get a list of what pieces of the health law would be subject to the trigger. The aides said the CBO has not made any determinations. The agency, as well as OMB, would have to determine where the law draws the lines if the sequestration is enacted.

The cuts would take place between 2013 and 2021. During that time, the Prevention and Public Health Fund is expected to pay out $16.75 billion. There is more than $5 billion available for community health centers between 2013 and 2015. And the co-ops fund has $3.8 billion available, though some of the funding could be paid out prior to the sequestration.

Democrats have strongly resisted efforts to slice any or all funding from the law, especially the public health fund, arguing that it is one of the strongest tools toward building a healthier nation.

But the health law’s funding could be slashed even if the committee is able to avoid the triggered cuts. The committee can pull funding from almost any piece of the law. Its expansive funding was already tapped last year to help stop a nearly 30 percent cut in payments to Medicare doctors.

The law requires the super committee of 12 lawmakers to report legislation by Thanksgiving. The plan would have to pass the full Congress by Dec. 23.

So a group of 12 holds the future of this country in its hands. Does anybody else see the problem with this, or is it just us right-wing nuts who don't like our lives controlled by 12 DC elites?

 

[james2012]

U.S. Debt Reaches 100 Percent of Country's GDP - FoxNews.com

Some nitwit here told me to quit comparing us to Greece. Well, guess who is eating crow now? Look what Obama has done to this country.

Here's Greece: News Headlines

Sustainable? Hell no. And someday some folks on here are going to figure this out the hard way, just like the Greeks are doing, and kicking themselves for supporting Obama, the Marxist in Chief.

 

[Reinheart]

This is the simple answer to everything...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A95_HE1qeO4&feature=related]?George Green - New World Order Plan?‏ - YouTube[/ame]

 

[jasthace]

Im sick of hearing you americans blaming each other ,fucking repulicans, democrates, liberials blablabla....
The American economy is claimed to be the biggest and strongest in the world.... but also has a massive Debt... why .. who is syphoning all the money into there own pockets , not paying appropriate taxes and getting the big government contracts and filling their pockets with your $$.
These are never the questions I hear you asking each other.
I only here the same bullshit echoing and pointing fingers at a political party.
Obama inherited a wreck , with bold tyres , worn rings and a lot of rust.Now he is expected to win the Nascar .

 

[james2012]

Im sick of hearing you americans blaming each other ,fucking repulicans, democrates, liberials blablabla....
The American economy is claimed to be the biggest and strongest in the world.... but also has a massive Debt... why .. who is syphoning all the money into there own pockets , not paying appropriate taxes and getting the big government contracts and filling their pockets with your $$.
These are never the questions I hear you asking each other.
I only here the same bullshit echoing and pointing fingers at a political party.
Obama inherited a wreck , with bold tyres , worn rings and a lot of rust.Now he is expected to win the Nascar .

The mind is a terrible thing to waste: The National Debt has increased over $2 trillion since President Obama took office.

The debt now stands at $12.6 trillion. On the day Mr. Obama took office it was $10.6 trillion.

President George W. Bush still holds the record for the most debt run up on his watch: $4.9 trillion. But it took him over four years to rack up the first two trillion dollars in debt. It has taken Mr. Obama 421 days.

He admitted that the stimulus failed and there is no such thing as a shovel ready job. The stock market crash yesterday tied Jimmy Carter for the worse losing streak. What an awesome achievement. And the real job numbers: NOTHING LIKE YOU THINK: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...mated-117-000-in-july-jobless-rate-9-1-.html:

The jobless rate declined as 193,000 people left the labor force and the number of unemployed dropped by 156,000. The share of the eligible population holding a job declined to 58.1 percent, the lowest since July 1983.

It's crybaby navel gazers such as you that get idiots like Obama elected. Your lack of intelligence and understanding of basic economic theory is what is killing this country. So keep whining. It won't help you in the long run, but if it makes you feel better....

Obama is a failure. He is losing his base, the independents, and most of the country. Even his own guys are starting to see the reality. And this blame Bush thing only works for so long. Apparently you did not get the liberal talking points memo - every time he blames Bush his ratings go down. Your 2.5 years in Obambi, the buck stops with you now. Grow up.

In my job I often inherit crap and have to fix it. If I don't do it and fall back on the but, but, but...the other guy screwed up, I inherited it, I get fired.

Well in 2012 Obambi is going to get fired. The data is all there: Stephens: The Obama Downgrade, Alphabetically - WSJ.com

Snapshots from President Obama's efforts to improve America's standing in the world, 923 days into his administration:

A is for the Arab world, and our standing in it: This year, Zogby International found that 5% of Egyptians had a favorable view of the U.S. In 2008, when George W. Bush was president, it was 9%.

B is for the federal budget deficit, which is estimated to come in at around 11% of GDP in 2011, up from about 3% in 2008.

C is for China's military budget. For 2012, Beijing plans to increase spending on defense by 12.7%. The Obama administration, by contrast, proposed Pentagon cuts in April averaging out to $40 billion per year over the next decade, and Congress may soon cut a lot more.

D is for—what else—the federal debt, which grew to $14.3 trillion this month from $10.7 trillion at the end of 2008. D is also for the dollar, which has lost almost half its value against gold since Aug. 2008.

E is for energy. The average retail price of a gallon of gas hovered near the $1.80 mark when Mr. Obama was inaugurated. It has since more than doubled. E is also for ethanol, the non-wonder fuel the U.S. continues to subsidize to the tune of $5 billion a year.

F is for free trade. Bill Clinton signed Nafta in 1994, which facilitates $1.6 trillion in the trade of goods and services between the U.S., Mexico and Canada. George W. Bush midwifed more than a dozen FTAs, from Australia to Singapore to Morocco to Bahrain. Number of FTA's signed by the current president: zero.

G is for Guantanamo, which remains open, and for Gadhafi, who remains in power, and for Greece, which offers a vision of America's future if we don't reform our entitlement state.

H is for Hillary Clinton, who—I can't believe I'm writing this—would have made a better president than Mr. Obama.

I is for Israel, a Middle Eastern country the president claims to support even as he routinely disses its prime minister, seeks to shrink its borders and—why not?—divide its capital.

J is for jobs. In November 2008, president-elect Obama promised he would create 2.5 million jobs by 2011. By October 2010 the economy had shed 3.3 million jobs.

K is for Karzai, Hamid, Afghanistan's feckless leader. Still, the Obama administration probably did itself no favors by publicly dumping on the man, leading him to seek new best friends in Tehran.

L is for Laden, Osama bin. The president's greatest triumph, which will forever put him one notch—if only one notch—above Jimmy Carter.

M is for Mexico, a country that manages 5.4% unemployment and 4.2% annual growth even as it fights a war against the drug cartels.

N is for NATO, once a pillar of Western security, which Mr. Obama is in the process of destroying through his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan and his refusal to give NATO the push it needs to win in Libya.

O is for ObamaCare, which goes far to explain B, D, J as well as the Greek part of G.

P is for Pyongyang, whose ruler the administration is once again attempting to engage in the six-party talks. This is after the Kim regime welcomed Mr. Obama's plea for a nuclear-free world by testing a nuclear bomb, torpedoing a South Korean ship, shelling a South Korean village, and unveiling a state-of-the-art uranium enrichment facility.

Q is for QE2, the most disastrous experiment in monetary policy since Fed Chairman William Miller's low-interest rate policy crashed the dollar in 1978.

R is for the reset with Russia, the principal result of which is an arms-control treaty that brings us to parity in strategic nuclear weapons, leaves us behind in the tactical category, and ill-equips us for the challenge of a proliferating world.

S is for shovel-ready. Enough said.

T is for taxes, which Mr. Obama would like to see raised for "millionaires and billionaires"—curiously defined as people making $200K and up.

U is for Iran's uranium enrichment. When Mr. Obama came to office promising to extend his hand to the mullahs, Iran had enriched 1,000 kilos of uranium. Today they have produced more than 4,000 kilos.

V is for Venezuela, a country whose extensive subterranean links to Iran the administration has consistently downplayed.

W is for the Dubya, whose presidency now looks like a model of spending restraint.

X is for Liu Xiaobo, an example of what a deserving winner of the Nobel Peace Prize looks like. X is also for Xanax, likely to be remembered as the drug of choice of the Obama years.

Y is for Yes, We Can! Unfortunately, it's also for Yemen.

Z is for zero, which is the likelihood that one of the current GOP hopefuls will defeat Mr. Obama in 2012.

The Z is no longer a given as Obambi's approval numbers are abysmal (40%) and his own team is admitting it's an uphill battle. With the CEO of Home Depot whipping up business owners to dump money into the GOP, Obama's money advantage just disappeared as well.

So forgive me if I yawn at your typical liberal excuse "blame Bush" response that has no data to back it up. Sorry, but you lose.

Next.

 

[james2012]

Carney: "The White House Doesn't Create Jobs" | RealClearPolitics

But, er, ah, ummm, I thought Obama saved or created 2 million jobs!

Of course, the slip by Carney, who probably was taken to the woodshed or maybe not - he could have been told to say this by an incompetent strategist, is actually true. It is not Obama or Congress that creates jobs, it is entrepreneurs. The only thing Obambi and the Congress can do is kill jobs through excessive regulation and taxation (number 1 is Obambi's strong point and he would just love to do number 2 but is finding it a bit hard).

An amazing thing happened when Reagan lowered the Carter tax rates from 70% to the mid 30s. Revenue after four years actually grew! Wow, imagine that. Of course, anybody who understands the most basic of high school economics knows why. Let the people keep their money and they will spend it. Which creates jobs. Which drives up collected taxes. Which drives up revenue. Now if only DC could figure out a way to stop spending it all. With the GOP you have novice crack addicts not quite addicted enough to really spend like crazy. With Obama and the liberals you have full fledged crack addicts spending like drunken sailors with one caveat: drunken sailors spend their own money.

 

[james2012]

Wow, with those awesome job numbers today why is the DOW down 59 points? Should we not be jumping up into the double digits by now. No. As I explain in my post above, the institutional investors know how the game is rigged by the government. They know that almost 4 in 10 eligible job holders don't have a job. So when the markets opened slightly up from day traders and run of the mill investors buying into the hype, the institutional investors were the major drivers who bought in the before the slight bump, dumped it and made a killing.

I'll be looking today for another bargain opportunity that I can buy then dump, but it may now happen: Bottoms rarely look like Thursday’s rout - Mark Hulbert - MarketWatch

So even if you think that we’re just suffering a mere correction within an ongoing bull market, you still should be prepared for lower prices in coming sessions.

That at least is the conclusion that emerged from my analysis of past bear market bottoms. The days on which those bear markets actually registered their final lows typically were rather uneventful — nothing like what we saw on Thursday.

Consider March 9, 2009, the day of the closing low of the 2007-2009 bear market, arguably the worst one since the Great Depression. Even though there were many days during that bear market that witnessed panic selling, the day of the final low experienced a drop of just 79.89 points.

It was more than three months earlier than then that the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -0.79% experienced a panic-induced decline that was as bad as Thursday’s. That day was Nov. 20, 2008, the day when — not coincidentally — the CBOE’s Volatility Index VIX +2.37% spiked to its all-time closing high near 81.

Many traders made the same mistake then that I fear that is being made today: Thinking that panic selling signals a low. They were three-and-a-half months early.

Or consider the Crash of 1987, which is the grandaddy of selling panics in U.S. stock market history. On that day, Oct. 19, the Dow dropped 22.6%. And even though the Dow bounced back impressively over the two trading sessions following that Crash — gaining 5.9% on Oct. 20 and another 10.1% on Oct. 21 — the stock market’s post-Crash low wasn’t registered until Dec. 4, more than six weeks later.

Chances are that the final low of the decline we’re experiencing will not be recognized as such until well after the fact. It’s most unlikely that, on that day itself, so many traders will be doing what they did on Thursday — falling over themselves announcing that the bottom has been seen.

An old Wall Street saying has it that they don’t “ring a bell” at market bottoms. It would appear that this saying contains a lot of wisdom.

I'll just have to wait and see.

 

[james2012]

A little humor as Obama continues his assault on the middle class and his wanton destruction of America. He won't win of course, but I digress:

?E-Trade Baby Loses Everything.?‏ - YouTube

Etrade baby loses everything. Yep, I almost pi$$ed my pants over this one.

 

[james2012]

Wow, DOW is down 250 points. I guess the media spin on the job numbers is falling of deaf ears. Obama, the gig is up. Nobody is buying your BS anymore - at least most of us are not.

 

[james2012]

What's up next week:

MONDAY: Employment trends index
TUESDAY: NFIB small biz optimism index, productivity and costs, 3-yr note auction, FOMC mtg announcement; Earnings from Disney
WEDNESDAY: Weekly mortgage apps, wholesale trade, oil inventories, 10-yr note auction, treasury budget; Earnings from Macy's, Cisco
THURSDAY: International trade, jobless claims, 30-yr bond auction, money supply; Earnings from Kohl's, Nordstrom, Nvidia
FRIDAY: Retail sales, consumer sentiment, business inventories; Earnings from JCPenney

Stay tuned here for the real interpretation of the data and not the media spin.

 

[james2012]

I see debt people. On The Job Hunt: Small Businesses Across the Country Say, 'We're Not Hiring' - FoxNews.com

Guess what? These are the "rich" that make more than $200,000/yr that Obama wants to tax. Guess what will happen? Layoffs and small businesses closing. Thanks Obama!

Looks like the European central banks bought bonds to stave of collapse of Spain and Italy. The market is up. Wonder how long that will last?

 

[james2012]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...76490194186182566.html?mod=djemBestOfTheWeb_h

Wow, best piece ever that truly kicks in the door and smashes to pieces the cult of Obama.

 

[james2012]

Can you say Downgrade?

News Headlines

 

[GirlyMan]

Im sick of hearing you americans blaming each other ,fucking repulicans, democrates, liberials blablabla....
The American economy is claimed to be the biggest and strongest in the world.... but also has a massive Debt... why .. who is syphoning all the money into there own pockets , not paying appropriate taxes and getting the big government contracts and filling their pockets with your $$.
These are never the questions I hear you asking each other.
I only here the same bullshit echoing and pointing fingers at a political party.
Obama inherited a wreck , with bold tyres , worn rings and a lot of rust.Now he is expected to win the Nascar .

The mind is a terrible thing to waste: ..... [whole bunch of tea party jibba jabba] .... Sorry, but you lose.

Next.

Yup. It's official now. You're an asshole.

 

[james2012]

Yup. It's official now. You're an asshole.

No, just a prophet with no patience for stupidity. And guess what just happened. Yep, we've been downgraded with a negative outlook, which means we could be downgraded again in 1-1.5 years to AA (which is Spain's current rating). Thanks Obambi. For nothing.

At least this will make it damn near impossible for a QE3 stimulus. The Treasury just ran out of options. Thank God for that. No more government spending to push us deeper into a hole.

 

[GirlyMan]

No, just a prophet with no patience for stupidity. And guess what just happened. Yep, we've been downgraded with a negative outlook, which means we could be downgraded again in 1-1.5 years to AA (which is Spain's current rating). Thanks Obambi. For nothing.

At least this will make it damn near impossible for a QE3 stimulus. The Treasury just ran out of options. Thank God for that. No more government spending to push us deeper into a hole.

It farts again. We were downgraded teatard (to AA+ not AA idiot) because they don't see us as having the option of raising revenues. Thanks to you fuckin' teaturds. Very patriotic of you asshole.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDC8pmfmYc4]?How The Bush Tax Cuts Blew Up The Deficit And Debt?‏ - YouTube[/ame]

 

[jasthace]

^^ Can you show one{a graph} on how the war contracts and arms manufacturing blew up Bushes and all his buddies pockets as well .

 

[GirlyMan]

^^ Can you show one{a graph} on how the war contracts and arms manufacturing blew up Bushes and all his buddies pockets as well .

I work for the DOD. I see every day the way those assholes in the private sector military industrial complex ripoff the American taxpayer. You don't need to look any further than the Future Combat Systems program. A $20,000,000,000 taxpayer bailout to Boeing and others for what? A shitload of nothing. It is both astonishing and despicable. I'm by no means rich but I got no problem with paying more taxes to help out the elderly and the poor and downtrodden. Why? Because I'm not a fucking asshole.

 

[james2012]

I work for the DOD. I see every day the way those assholes in the private sector military industrial complex ripoff the American taxpayer. You don't need to look any further than the Future Combat Systems program. A $20,000,000,000 taxpayer bailout to Boeing and others for what? A shitload of nothing. It is both astonishing and despicable. I'm by no means rich but I got no problem with paying more taxes to help out the elderly and the poor and downtrodden. Why? Because I'm not a fucking asshole.

It's the debt dummy. And by the way, oops forgot the +, but it does not matter and S&P said in 6-18 months is WILL be AA. And here is something to chew on:

The Weekly Standard: Obama Vs. Bush On Debt : NPR

And if you think raising taxes on those evil corporate jet owners is going to put a dent in the current deficit I want what your smoking. And go ahead and support a tax increase on small business owners during a double dip. Your economic genius will show then as the very people you think you are helping get hurt. You want to help the elderly? Get rid of the redistributionist ahole in the White House whose policies have put us here. Unfunded liabilities now in the 10's of trillions and if you add in the useless ObamaCare, which looks more like a crap sandwich every single day, you can bring that up to 100 trillion. Yep, you sure are helping grandma and the current generation and those to come. Real f*cking useful.

You THINK you are helping. You are actually hurting. Under Obama we lost of AAA credit rating. That is his legacy. And his ego to make the movie about Seal Team Six outed the group and just got them killed in Afghanistan.

And I have yet to hear him say a single thing on TV, or address the nation before Monday's markets open. No leadership and nothing but the scapegoater-in-chief who still has guys like you have tingles up their legs every single time the half-wit speaks.

I'm not fooled. You go ahead and continue to be. He is the child-president. Who spilled the milk Johnny?

I don't know.

Why did you hit your brother?

He started it?

Why did you screw up the economy Obambi?

It's Bush's fault. And, and, and, sniffle, Japan, and ummm, evil Tea Party people, and Europe.

He said he was going to redistribute wealth and he did just that you bozo. On steroids. As Europe collapses because of these same policies, no-nothings keep whistling past the graveyard here in the U.S.

It's the debt dummy. Debt. Debt. Debt. And Obama has increased the debt at a rate that would shock George Bush. Only it's not 20 billion drops in the bucket like you sorry example, - it's trillions of dollars going nowhere and doing nothing. Nothing. Get it yet. After all this money is spent, the metric is - what has been accomplished to improve the economy? I'll let you answer that one - come on, it's not that hard. Consider it a homework assignment.

Keep whistling.