(WASHINGTON DC) The Obama administration has decided to give extra time to Americans who say that they are unable to enroll in health-care plans through the federal insurance marketplace by the March 31 deadline.
Federal officials confirmed Tuesday evening that all consumers who have begun to apply for coverage on HealthCare.gov, but who do not finish by Monday, will have until about mid-April to ask for an extension.
Under the new rules, people will be able to qualify for an extension by checking a blue box on HealthCare.gov to indicate that they tried to enroll before the deadline. This method will rely on an honor system; the government will not try to determine whether the person is telling the truth.
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(Via Heritage)  President Obama’s health care law made its way back to the Supreme Court of the United States today. In addition to being unsound health care policy by limiting patient choice and increasing costs, it also requires businesses to pay for abortion-inducing drugs. This morning, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties v. Sebelius, two challenges to the Obamacare mandate.

Hobby Lobby is an arts and crafts chain owned by the Green family, who are evangelical Christians, with over 13,000 employees. Hobby Lobby would face potential fines of almost $475 million a year if they fail to comply with this mandate.

Conestoga Wood Specialties is a kitchen cabinet manufacturer run by the Hahns, a Mennonite family, with almost 1,000 employees. It would face financial penalties of about $35 million per year. Along with more than 300 plaintiffs in over 90 lawsuits, the Green and Hahn families believe that complying with the Obamacare mandate would force them to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs.

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Today at the Supreme Court the justices heard the case of Hobby Lobby VS. Obamacare.
Both sides organized public support.   However, the pictures and signs from the left-wing Democrats are, well, actually quite funny. They are always such bitter, angry and unhappy people. They haz sad.

Sign from Planned Parenthood rally attendant. More to come. pic.twitter.com/AY7gxNliZr

— Concerned Women for America LAC (@CWforA) March 25, 2014

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As if we needed further evidence of how stupid the liberal, and liberally minded, media are – look at what happens when reality transmits truth and they find themselves incapable to understand business cycles. 

They just don’t understand how taxes are paid – yet they pontificate ad infinitum about them.   Idiots.  Just idiots.

Small business owners have to file quarterly estimated tax payments – yes, this tax year, 2014 we begin paying the ObamaCare compliance tax for 2015.

(Via Breitbart)  A White House aide set off a stampede of liberal media criticism for Internet news pioneer Matt Drudge over Obamacare – but his critics don’t seem to understand how small businesses pay taxes.
The brouhaha started when Drudge tweeted, “Just paid the Obamacare penalty for not ‘getting covered’… I’M CALLING IT A LIBERTY TAX.”
https://twitter.com/DRUDGE/status/447057404568424448
Jesse Lee, the Director of Progressive Media at Barack Obama’s White House, responded that that was a “Flat lie, no fee for previous year,” adding, “Scary how much influence he once had.”
Lee’s response to Drudge set off a firestorm in the liberal media, with many mainstream media and left-wing reporters countering him on Twitter and in their own articles to claim he does not have to pay Obamacare’s Individual Mandate tax until next year. (more…)

WASHINGTON DC – Treasury Department officials didn’t check to make sure they had the legal authority to delay an Obamacare mandate before issuing guidance that flouted the text of the law, a department official told House investigators.
Treasury Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy Mark Mazur, who announced the employer mandate delay in a blog post, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that he didn’t remember anyone considering the legal basis for the delay.
“Did anyone in the Department of the Treasury inquire into the legal authority for the delays?” Mazur was asked.
“I don’t recall anything along those lines, no,” he replied. He gave a similar answer when asked about the IRS and the Executive Office of the President.  (read more)

Within the insurance industry:  Q1 (Jan-March) cost/expense/enrollment information is collected.  Q2 (April-June) calculations are made to costs (projections) for the following year.  In Q3 (July-Sept) those projections become “premium rates” and are presented to State Insurance regulators for review and notification.   In Q4 (Oct-Dec) the customer (YOU) are notified of the new rate.

What you are seeing now in Q1-2014 are the cost projections, the raw data, being collected and recording an astonishing reality.  And Insurance executives warning that based on current data collection – Q2’s calculations will necessarily skyrocket.

Trying to stop the publicity of this is why Obama DID THIS.  He’s trying to buy time by saying the feds will ramp up payments to insurance carriers – so please don’t tell people their rates are going up.  

WASHINGTON DC – Health industry officials say ObamaCare-related premiums will double in some parts of the country, countering claims recently made by the administration.
The expected rate hikes will be announced in the coming months amid an intense election year, when control of the Senate is up for grabs. The sticker shock would likely bolster the GOP’s prospects in November and hamper ObamaCare insurance enrollment efforts in 2015.
The industry complaints come less than a week after Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sought to downplay concerns about rising premiums in the healthcare sector. She told lawmakers rates would increase in 2015 but grow more slowly than in the past. (more…)

Democrats sunk millions into TV commercials and GOTV efforts for a very well known candidate, Alex Sink.  
The DNC was relying on this win to showcase a possible path forward through the minefield that lay ahead in 2014.   Mrs. Sink was a former candidate for Governor, and still lost in her home congressional district…..  Now the spin begins.
WASHINGTON DC – Republican David Jolly won the special election to fill the House seat left vacant by the death of his former boss, Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.).
With nearly all of the votes counted Tuesday night, Jolly had 48.5 percent of the vote to Alex Sink’s 46.7 percent. Libertarian Lucas Overby had 4.8 percent.

The GOP underperformed tonight in the #FL13 – a district they've held for decades. Here's why: http://t.co/1Yb516372f

— Debbie Wasserman Schultz (@DWStweets) March 12, 2014

Sink lost the 2010 governor’s race to Rick Scott. The Democratic Party sunk extensive ad funding into the congressional battle, and DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) tried to paint the loss as a positive. (more…)

(Via Political Wire)  – A new Public Policy Polling survey in Florida’s 13th congressional district finds Alex Sink (D) leading David Jolly (R) by three points, 48% to 45%.
The district is comprised entirely of Pinellas County – The special election is tomorrow.
CLEARWATER, Fla. –  Special elections rarely attract this much attention. But the race for Florida’s 13th Congressional District is a hot one — with so much at stake in November, what happens here is seen as a possible indicator of how the midterm elections could break.
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Trying desperately to take advantage of a media cycle filled with all things Ukrainian – John Podesta smooth’s White House agenda under the radar…..  What the administration is trying to do is keep an electorate from feeling the consequences of Obamacare and trying to retain power despite it…. 

(Washington Examiner) – The Obama administration announced Wednesday that it would allow insurers to keep until October 2016 health plans that do not meet Obamacare regulations, pushing back another Affordable Care Act deadline well past November’s midterms.

Facing the prospect of another wave of cancellation notices this fall, the administration took even further action to mitigate the blowback from President Obama’s broken promise that all Americans could keep their health care plans under Obamacare.

The Department of Health and Human Services had already given insurers the option of continuing those plans facing cancellation through 2014, and on Wednesday said those policies could remain in effect an additional two years. (more…)

This must be some high falutin’ fancy schmancy restaurant.   I mean $2.49 for a glass of Iced-Tea ?     Forget the Obamacare tax part.    $2.49 for tea ?    That’s nuts.

(VIA CNN)  Several restaurants in a Florida chain are asking customers to help foot the bill for Obamacare.

Diners at eight Gator’s Dockside casual eateries are finding a 1% Affordable Care Act surcharge on their tabs, which comes to 15 cents on a typical $15 lunch tab. Signs on the door and at tables alert diners to the fee, which is also listed separately on the bill.

The Gator Group’s full-time hourly employees won’t actually receive health insurance until December. But the company said it implemented the surcharge now because of the compliance costs it’s facing ahead of the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate kicking in in 2015. (more…)