A billion is a thousand millions. A trillion is a thousand billions.

For the previous 11 months in fiscal year 2013 (October 2012 through August 2013) The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) spent $1.036 trillion dollars.

[A trillion is a thousand billions].

This is the third consecutive year where CMS spent over $1 trillion. 2010 2011 2012
That is more spent on one program (CMS), inside one agency (HHS), than the entire budget of the entire government when Medicare and Medicaid were enacted into law in 1965.

Major outlays by CMS in the first eleven months of fiscal 2013, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement for August, included $244.083 billion in grants to states for Medicaid, $251.265 billion in benefit payments out of the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, $230.241 billion in benefit payments from the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund, and $61.452 billion in benefits for the Medicare Prescription Drug program.

Other than the obvious non-sustainability – why does this matter?
Today the White House sends out the following “tweet” bragging about Oregon.   Oregon had around 600,000 people uninsured. (more…)

As you watch this discussion segment on CNN imagine how the tone of the coverage would be broadcast if George W. Bush was in the White House.

.
Whenever you see the words “threats” and “directly from the White House” in one sentence or phrase, you can be intellectually confident President Obama’s Chief of Staff, Denis “The Fixer” McDonough, is the source of the pressure.
McDonough has a reputation around D.C. – as a rabid mind-fixer in his mission to ‘set the record straight’ with democratic politicians and mainstream media types, who dare veer off the political reservation.
It’s rather humorous in a way to see a glorified political functionary like McDonough act the part of a seasoned and experienced political heavyweight.

CONTEXT FIRST – Tomorrow HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is set to testify before congress.   For those of you who are unfamiliar with how congressional hearings work there is a rule of bi-partisan discovery where Dem’s must share information to be used during the hearing with Republicans, and vice-versa.
This is done so that no-one is caught off guard with anything that takes place in the hearings.   It’s somewhat of a ruse (under the excuse of professional courtesy) that few people know about.  Congressional hearings are investigative only to the extent the questions being asked are not known by the opposing party.  However, each knows what documents and evidence the other has walking in.
Why is that pertinent?   Simply because when you see the media do these pre-hearing exclusive/confidential document stories you know the source of the leaked intel is the party seeking to diminish the impact.  It’s just how they roll.    The Dem’s gave this CGI report to CNN so that CNN could write up a story and remove the *shock value* in advance of the hearing.
Washington (CNN) – The Obama administration was given stark warnings just one month before that the federal healthcare site was not ready to go live, according to a confidential report obtained by CNN.
The caution, from the main contractor CGI, warned of a number of open risks and issues for the HealthCare.gov web site even as company executives were testifying publicly that the project had achieved key milestones. (more…)

Yesterday NBC published an article outlining why the Obama Administration cannot feign ignorance as millions of Americans have their health insurance policies cancelled due to Obamacare.
What NBC stated is what hundreds of thousands of people already know – Obamacare is forcing millions of Americans to lose their insurance, pay much higher premiums, get higher deductibles, and in general get less coverage for more money.
The White House and Valerie Jarrett went into immediate attack mode to proclaim the premise as false.   They each claimed nothing President Obama or the HHS did created a situation where private insurance polices were/are cancelled.

FACT: Nothing in #Obamacare forces people out of their health plans. No change is required unless insurance companies change existing plans.

— Valerie Jarrett (@vj44) October 29, 2013

So NBC, carrying water for the administration, took down their article and replaced it with another one with a paragraph removed.    But various blogs, including us, caught them.   Backlash ensued.   They were busted – so they replaced the replacement and reinstated the original.
But the key aspect is inside the paragraph they removed and the *risk* to the White House which is evident within it.  Here’s what they took out, then put back in when caught: (more…)

Pinch me. Chris Matthews goes a little off the water-carrying range in this discussion around Benghazi? It actually appears that Chris Matthews is either a.) embarrassed by CBS’s Lara Logan, who actually did a direct 60 minutes segment, or, b.) struggling to reconcile that Hillary’s “at this point what difference does it make” comment is pure obfuscation not grounded in fact.

Could it be that Chris Matthews actually does recognize, albeit 13 months after the fact, that President Obama and Hillary Clinton chose to let Americans be slaughtered in Benghazi ?
Could the truth of this be comprehensible to Obama/Hillary defender Matthews?
Nah, me neither.
The White House will call him and yank his leash back shortly.

Whoopsie – Yesterday evening we shared an NBC Investigative article with an excerpt and link.  The article outlined how Obama knew all along millions of Americans would lose their health insurance coverage despite his election year claim “if you like your insurance you can keep it”.
However, just after midnight 10/29 NBC took down the original article and replaced it with THIS ONE creating a broken link.    If you compare the two you’ll note NBC took out the following paragraph:

…”None of this should come as a shock to the Obama administration. The law states that policies in effect as of March 23, 2010 will be “grandfathered,” meaning consumers can keep those policies even though they don’t meet requirements of the new health care law. But the Department of Health and Human Services then wrote regulations that narrowed that provision, by saying that if any part of a policy was significantly changed since that date — the deductible, co-pay, or benefits, for example — the policy would not be grandfathered”….

NBC did *not* note their edit – they just deleted the original article and added another albeit modified one in it’s place.    You might wonder what took place between the original NBC post, and new, well, less confrontational one.
That is, you might wonder, until you note the date and time of the following tweet:

FACT: Nothing in #Obamacare forces people out of their health plans. No change is required unless insurance companies change existing plans.

— Valerie Jarrett (@vj44) October 29, 2013

Nuf said.
Just Pravda doing what Pravda does best.   Supporting The Regime !
UPDATE: Weaselzippers picked up on the NBC ruse also.

FACT: Nothing in #Obamacare forces people out of their health plans. No change is required unless insurance companies change existing plans.

— Valerie Jarrett (@vj44) October 29, 2013

FACT:  Insurance companies have to change existing plans to meet the mandatory requirements of Obamacare.
(more…)

UPDATE:  Just after midnight 10/29 NBC took down the original article noted below and replaced it with THIS ONE creating a broken link.    They took out the following paragraph:

…”None of this should come as a shock to the Obama administration. The law states that policies in effect as of March 23, 2010 will be “grandfathered,” meaning consumers can keep those policies even though they don’t meet requirements of the new health care law. But the Department of Health and Human Services then wrote regulations that narrowed that provision, by saying that if any part of a policy was significantly changed since that date — the deductible, co-pay, or benefits, for example — the policy would not be grandfathered”….

NBC did not note their edit – they just deleted the original article and added another in it’s place.    Typical considering what we anticipated below.
———————– original post below —————————————
The latest estimate is around 16,000,000 Americans will lose their current insurance. Each will have to pay significantly more for the Obamacare product, most with much higher deductibles. As Congressman Waxman admitted last week, this was part of the design all along.
Now NBC is reporting that President Obama knew this – AS he was saying it would not happen – Meaning, he intentionally lied.
However, as you read the NBC “exclusive”, ask yourself what’s the angle? Because NBC WOULD NEVER, NEVER, publish anything that would hurt this administration p.e.r.i.o.d. So what are they setting up?
(NBC Reports) President Obama repeatedly assured Americans that after the Affordable Care Act became law, people who liked their health insurance would be able to keep it. But millions of Americans are getting or are about to get cancellation letters for their health insurance under Obamacare, say experts, and the Obama administration has known that for at least three years.
Four sources deeply involved in the Affordable Care Act tell NBC NEWS that 50 to 75 percent of the 14 million consumers who buy their insurance individually can expect to receive a “cancellation” letter or the equivalent over the next year because their existing policies don’t meet the standards mandated by the new health care law. One expert predicts that number could reach as high as 80 percent. And all say that many of those forced to buy pricier new policies will experience “sticker shock.” (more…)

According to the White House and concentric circles of presidential protection, *cough*, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Senator Harry Reid, Spokesperson Jay Carney, Advisor Valerie Jarrett and advisor Denis McDonough, Dear Leader did not know the NSA was spying on German President Angela Merkel….

If you google “President Obama Did Not Know”… you get 153,000,000+ examples.  If you shorten the phrase to “Obama Did Not Know”…. you get 808,000,000 active hits. 

He didn’t know:

•About Angela Merkels’ phone being tapped – He didn’t know.
•About military death benefits being cancelled during the government shutdown – He didn’t know.
•About the economic crisis 08′-11′ – He didn’t know how bad it was. (more…)