Eric Cantor Resigns As House Majority Leader | Obamacare Problems Roll On ...
FBI opens criminal probe of VA after scandal ~ The Washington Times
Today In Washington. D.C. - June 11, 2014
The Senate reconvened at 9:15 AM today and resumed consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 2432, Democrats’ partisan student loan bill that raises taxes.
At 10 AM, Democrats failed to get the 60 votes needed to take up the bill by a vote of 56-38, allowing the Senate instead to move to a bipartisan bill that will begin addressing some of the serious problems uncovered in the VA.
At 4 PM, the Senate will take up H.R. 3230, and the bill text will be substituted with the text of S. 2450, the McCain-Sanders veterans bill. The Senate will vote on a motion to waive a Budget Act point of order against the bill. If the point of order is waived, senators will then vote on passage of H.R. 3230, as amended.
Yesterday, Democrats continued to use the precedent they set when they used the nuclear option to break Senate rules and allow cloture to be invoked on nominations with fewer than 60 votes. Using that precedent, cloture was invoked on the nominations of Lael Brainard and Jerome Powell to be Fed board members and on the nomination of Stanley Fischer to be the Vice Chairman of the Fed. Also yesterday, the Senate confirmed 3 district judge nominees.
The House reconvened at 10 AM today and recessed until Noon.
Rep Eric Cantor (R-VA) announced that he will resign as House majority leader effective July 31. This will give Speaker Boehner time to schedule election. Several Republican leadership positions may be in play with Cantor's resignation. Some are even calling for a change in Speaker of the House but it is doubtful that the Speaker will step down. Yesterday Canto lost his reelection bid when he was defeated in his House District Republican primary by Tea Party Republican David Brat, an economics professor who won with nearly 56% of the vote to Cantor’s 44% which was by more than 7,000 votes.
While the Cantor - Brat Virginia election caught the attention of the media last night another race in Arkansas with similar overtones was important. Arkansas House Republican Majority Leader John Burris was defeated in a run off race for the Arkansas Senate by TEA Party conservative backed Scott Flippo, a small business owner. As there were no other political parties vying for this senate seat, the winner became the next State Senator from the district.
The driving issue was the Private Option (aka, an Obamacare approved option) which passed with the support of House Republican Leadership, including Rep. Burris as chief spokesperson.
This race aligned numerous other elected State officials into definite camps. Those supporting Burris and the "private option." And those who felt sold out by the Republican leadership of the Arkansas legislature. Numerous conservatives including Republican Senators and Representatives traveled from their districts to support for Scott Flippo and to speak to with the voters of Senate District 17 which covers three counties. They all had served with Rep. Burris in Little Rock and were opposed the Private Option. In addition, TEA Parties from across the state traveled to Senate District 17 and helped to get out the vote. As a result, small business owner Scott Flippo defeated 51% to 49% incumbent Rep. John Burris.
The House will consider the following bills today:
H.R. 4800 — "Making appropriations for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2015, and for other purposes."
Yesterday the passed the following bills:
H.R. 4745 (229-192) — "Making appropriations for the Departments of Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2015, and for other purposes."
H.R. 4810 (426-0) — "To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to enter into contracts for the provision of hospital care and medical services at non-Department of Veterans Affairs facilities for Department of Veterans Affairs patients with extended waiting times for appointments at Department facilities, and for other purposes."
Though Obamacare hasn’t dominated the news recently, its continued failures and deficiencies aren't going unnoticed.
On Sunday, the Louisville Courier-Journal wrote, “It wasn't supposed to work this way, but since the Affordable Care Act took effect in January, Norton Hospital has seen its packed emergency room become even more crowded, with about 100 more patients a month. That 12 percent spike in the number of patients — many of whom aren't actually facing true emergencies — is spurring the Louisville hospital to convert a waiting room into more exam rooms. ‘We're seeing patients who probably should be seen at our (immediate-care centers),’ said Lewis Perkins, the hospital's vice president of patient care and chief nursing officer. ‘And we're seeing this across the system.’ That's just the opposite of what many people expected under Obamacare, particularly because one of the goals of health reform was to reduce pressure on emergency rooms by expanding Medicaid and giving poor people better access to primary care. Instead, many hospitals in Kentucky and across the nation are seeing a surge of those newly insured Medicaid patients walking into emergency rooms. Nationally, nearly half of ER doctors responding to a recent poll by the American College of Emergency Physicians said they've seen more visits since Jan. 1, and nearly nine in 10 expect those visits to rise in the next three years. . . . ‘It's a perfect storm here,’ said Dr. Ryan Stanton of Lexington, president of the Kentucky chapter of the ER physician group. ‘We've given people an ATM card in a town with no ATMs.’ . . .
“A January study in the journal Science found that getting covered under Oregon's 2008 expansion of a Medicaid program for uninsured adults increased ER use by 0.41 visits per person, or 40 percent relative to visits among a control group. All sorts of visits went up — those for serious problems, as well as ‘for conditions that may be most readily treatable in primary-care settings.’ Enter Obamacare, which in Kentucky added 330,615 people to the Medicaid rolls by expanding the program to cover residents earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level — $15,856 for an individual in 2013. State officials said newly signed-up recipients are reflected in the number of overall Medicaid patients seen in ERs in March, which is up 9 percent compared with the same month last year. Claims data from Passport Health Plan, a Louisville-based Medicaid managed-care organization, separates out the newly insured, and suggests they are slightly more likely to use emergency rooms than traditional Medicaid patients.”
So here we have yet another central promise of Obamacare shown to be incorrect. Democrats claimed the law would reduce emergency room visits, which can be expensive and drive health care costs up.
Meanwhile, the law continues to reduce choices among health insurance plans. According to The Wall Street Journal, “Small employers in 18 states will offer only one health plan to workers when the Affordable Care Act's small-business exchanges open this fall, federal officials said Tuesday. The 2010 law called for new online insurance marketplaces, which were supposed to open last year, for small businesses to pick group plans to cover workers. But those exchanges were delayed a year, and federal officials say they will lack some functions when they open in November. The federal health law also called for employees at small businesses to be able to choose from a range of plans on the exchanges. Federal regulators said they were allowing states to restrict employees to the plan designated by their employer to avoid the risk of premium increases. Some state insurance commissioners had worried that letting employees choose from a range of plans could lead to some products ending up with a small number of workers who then incur big medical bills. Commissioners feared insurers would raise prices to guard against that prospect. Regulators said Tuesday they approved 18 states' requests to limit the choice to one employer-designated plan. The regulators said state insurance commissioners had shown that allowing employees to choose from a range of plans could cause health insurers to charge more.”
And of course, it wouldn’t be an Obamacare project without being plagued by technical problems. The WSJ notes, “The launch of small-business exchanges initially was delayed because of the federal government's technical problems implementing it. The Obama administration has told insurers the small-business exchanges are set to launch on Nov. 15, with pilot testing in October, but that they initially will be missing some functions for technical reasons, including the option for employers to contribute different amounts for part- and full-time employees.”
As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said last week, “Obamacare has already inflicted tremendous pain on the lives of countless Middle Class Americans, including many thousands in my own state. It’s increasing costs for families all across the country – despite endless promises to the contrary. It’s reduced access to the doctors and hospitals my constituents relied on – despite endless promises to the contrary. And it’s caused Kentuckians to lose the plans they liked and wanted to keep – despite endless promises to the contrary. . . . How can any Administration official possibly repair all the broken Obamacare promises? The question answers itself: they can’t. . . . The problem is the law itself. . . . [W]e need to focus on repealing and replacing this law, not trying to do the impossible by pretending we can make it work.”
Tags: Obamacare problems, Eric Cantor, primary loss, House Leadership, Arkansas, State Senate Race, Scott Flippo, Tea party, conservatives To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Today In Washington. D.C. - June 11, 2014The Senate reconvened at 9:15 AM today and resumed consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 2432, Democrats’ partisan student loan bill that raises taxes.
At 10 AM, Democrats failed to get the 60 votes needed to take up the bill by a vote of 56-38, allowing the Senate instead to move to a bipartisan bill that will begin addressing some of the serious problems uncovered in the VA.
At 4 PM, the Senate will take up H.R. 3230, and the bill text will be substituted with the text of S. 2450, the McCain-Sanders veterans bill. The Senate will vote on a motion to waive a Budget Act point of order against the bill. If the point of order is waived, senators will then vote on passage of H.R. 3230, as amended.
Yesterday, Democrats continued to use the precedent they set when they used the nuclear option to break Senate rules and allow cloture to be invoked on nominations with fewer than 60 votes. Using that precedent, cloture was invoked on the nominations of Lael Brainard and Jerome Powell to be Fed board members and on the nomination of Stanley Fischer to be the Vice Chairman of the Fed. Also yesterday, the Senate confirmed 3 district judge nominees.
The House reconvened at 10 AM today and recessed until Noon.
While the Cantor - Brat Virginia election caught the attention of the media last night another race in Arkansas with similar overtones was important. Arkansas House Republican Majority Leader John Burris was defeated in a run off race for the Arkansas Senate by TEA Party conservative backed Scott Flippo, a small business owner. As there were no other political parties vying for this senate seat, the winner became the next State Senator from the district.
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| Scott Flippo Wins Now AR Senator Elect |
This race aligned numerous other elected State officials into definite camps. Those supporting Burris and the "private option." And those who felt sold out by the Republican leadership of the Arkansas legislature. Numerous conservatives including Republican Senators and Representatives traveled from their districts to support for Scott Flippo and to speak to with the voters of Senate District 17 which covers three counties. They all had served with Rep. Burris in Little Rock and were opposed the Private Option. In addition, TEA Parties from across the state traveled to Senate District 17 and helped to get out the vote. As a result, small business owner Scott Flippo defeated 51% to 49% incumbent Rep. John Burris.
The House will consider the following bills today:
H.R. 4800 — "Making appropriations for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2015, and for other purposes."
Yesterday the passed the following bills:
H.R. 4745 (229-192) — "Making appropriations for the Departments of Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2015, and for other purposes."
H.R. 4810 (426-0) — "To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to enter into contracts for the provision of hospital care and medical services at non-Department of Veterans Affairs facilities for Department of Veterans Affairs patients with extended waiting times for appointments at Department facilities, and for other purposes."
Though Obamacare hasn’t dominated the news recently, its continued failures and deficiencies aren't going unnoticed.
On Sunday, the Louisville Courier-Journal wrote, “It wasn't supposed to work this way, but since the Affordable Care Act took effect in January, Norton Hospital has seen its packed emergency room become even more crowded, with about 100 more patients a month. That 12 percent spike in the number of patients — many of whom aren't actually facing true emergencies — is spurring the Louisville hospital to convert a waiting room into more exam rooms. ‘We're seeing patients who probably should be seen at our (immediate-care centers),’ said Lewis Perkins, the hospital's vice president of patient care and chief nursing officer. ‘And we're seeing this across the system.’ That's just the opposite of what many people expected under Obamacare, particularly because one of the goals of health reform was to reduce pressure on emergency rooms by expanding Medicaid and giving poor people better access to primary care. Instead, many hospitals in Kentucky and across the nation are seeing a surge of those newly insured Medicaid patients walking into emergency rooms. Nationally, nearly half of ER doctors responding to a recent poll by the American College of Emergency Physicians said they've seen more visits since Jan. 1, and nearly nine in 10 expect those visits to rise in the next three years. . . . ‘It's a perfect storm here,’ said Dr. Ryan Stanton of Lexington, president of the Kentucky chapter of the ER physician group. ‘We've given people an ATM card in a town with no ATMs.’ . . .
“A January study in the journal Science found that getting covered under Oregon's 2008 expansion of a Medicaid program for uninsured adults increased ER use by 0.41 visits per person, or 40 percent relative to visits among a control group. All sorts of visits went up — those for serious problems, as well as ‘for conditions that may be most readily treatable in primary-care settings.’ Enter Obamacare, which in Kentucky added 330,615 people to the Medicaid rolls by expanding the program to cover residents earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level — $15,856 for an individual in 2013. State officials said newly signed-up recipients are reflected in the number of overall Medicaid patients seen in ERs in March, which is up 9 percent compared with the same month last year. Claims data from Passport Health Plan, a Louisville-based Medicaid managed-care organization, separates out the newly insured, and suggests they are slightly more likely to use emergency rooms than traditional Medicaid patients.”
So here we have yet another central promise of Obamacare shown to be incorrect. Democrats claimed the law would reduce emergency room visits, which can be expensive and drive health care costs up.
Meanwhile, the law continues to reduce choices among health insurance plans. According to The Wall Street Journal, “Small employers in 18 states will offer only one health plan to workers when the Affordable Care Act's small-business exchanges open this fall, federal officials said Tuesday. The 2010 law called for new online insurance marketplaces, which were supposed to open last year, for small businesses to pick group plans to cover workers. But those exchanges were delayed a year, and federal officials say they will lack some functions when they open in November. The federal health law also called for employees at small businesses to be able to choose from a range of plans on the exchanges. Federal regulators said they were allowing states to restrict employees to the plan designated by their employer to avoid the risk of premium increases. Some state insurance commissioners had worried that letting employees choose from a range of plans could lead to some products ending up with a small number of workers who then incur big medical bills. Commissioners feared insurers would raise prices to guard against that prospect. Regulators said Tuesday they approved 18 states' requests to limit the choice to one employer-designated plan. The regulators said state insurance commissioners had shown that allowing employees to choose from a range of plans could cause health insurers to charge more.”
And of course, it wouldn’t be an Obamacare project without being plagued by technical problems. The WSJ notes, “The launch of small-business exchanges initially was delayed because of the federal government's technical problems implementing it. The Obama administration has told insurers the small-business exchanges are set to launch on Nov. 15, with pilot testing in October, but that they initially will be missing some functions for technical reasons, including the option for employers to contribute different amounts for part- and full-time employees.”
As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said last week, “Obamacare has already inflicted tremendous pain on the lives of countless Middle Class Americans, including many thousands in my own state. It’s increasing costs for families all across the country – despite endless promises to the contrary. It’s reduced access to the doctors and hospitals my constituents relied on – despite endless promises to the contrary. And it’s caused Kentuckians to lose the plans they liked and wanted to keep – despite endless promises to the contrary. . . . How can any Administration official possibly repair all the broken Obamacare promises? The question answers itself: they can’t. . . . The problem is the law itself. . . . [W]e need to focus on repealing and replacing this law, not trying to do the impossible by pretending we can make it work.”
Tags: Obamacare problems, Eric Cantor, primary loss, House Leadership, Arkansas, State Senate Race, Scott Flippo, Tea party, conservatives To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Posted by Bill Smith at 1:48 PM - Post Link
2 Comments:
Eric Cantor FORGOT to serve the people that elected him!
Sometimes one issue is foundational to all issues. And I believe that an overreaching, cumbersome, unaffordable government might be that one issue. I may not be fat, but I'm singing like a lark that the establishment was moved.
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