IS IT TRUE MAY 29, 2017

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 IS IT TRUE that in yesterday CCO blogger Pressanykey made the following post that caught our attention?  …here it is Pressanykey post “I feel like it is past time for the Mayor to come clean about the Lincoln Gardens fiasco. The public deserves to know the names of the players involved in this churning. Give us the names of the people involved in the corporations and limited partnerships and also the names of the financial institutions involved. Also, put a financial figure on what all of this has cost the taxpayers of Evansville. Mr. Zarris seems to have had some run-ins with Indiana enforcement concerning his business dealings in the past, was Mayor Winnecke aware of that”?Today we have the obligatory CYA article by the Evansville Courier&Press, in which there is not enough information given for the public to make an informed decision about what has transpired in these dealings. It would not take any real news agency, worth their salt, long to get to the bottom of what has gone on. The question then is: IS THERE ANY REAL LOCAL NEWS AGENCY OUT THERE?

IS IT TRUE that before the ACA (Obamacare) was passed it was widely publicized that roughly 44 million American citizens did not have health insurance?…the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is the brain trust on the government payroll that has the responsibility for analyzing the costs and efficacy of legislation?…this brain trust known as the CBO analyzed the ACA as written back when it was passed and predicted that 28 million previously uninsured people would gain coverage by 2017?…now that 2017 has arrived, the reality is that only about 10 million people have gained such coverage?…we wonder just how a group of quants could miss a prediction by 18 million people if they have any analytical prowess at all?

 

IS IT TRUE that an interesting contest would have been to pit a dart throwing monkey against the CBO back when the prediction was made to see which one had better analytical skills?…a perfect way to do this would have been to construct a dart board with 44 numbers oriented randomly for the monkey to toss a dart at?…whatever number that the dart hit would have been the monkey’s analysis?…the stark reality is that if the monkey had hit any number lower than 28, it would have tied or beaten the rocket scientists at the CBO?…given the number of possibilities was only 44, it is true that a DART FLINGING MONKEY had a 64% PROBABILITY to BEAT the CBO GENIUSES?…that only leaves the CBO with a 36% chance of beating a monkey based on their performance?…we are somewhat mystified as to how anyone would put any faith at all in the CBO prediction for policies lost due to the AHCA (Trumpcare) in 2026?…we wonder how they can come close in a 10 year projection if they were only 34% accurate on a 4 year projection?…if they keep up that kind of performance over a 10 year period the accuracy expectation will be less than 7%?

Todays “READERS POLL” question is: Do you feel that the City should help the displaced residents of Lincoln Estate?

21 COMMENTS

  1. Fox News: “Here is my question for Trump voters: What do you hear the president saying with his new budget? My guess is that you don’t want to hear that giant sucking sound as he takes your money — dollars from hard working people — to cut taxes for the rich. So tell me, Trump voters, what thrilling message are you getting from a president whose budget reduces funding for programs that benefit you? I refer to cuts to programs to feed children; help student with school loans; and to help seniors and the disabled get to the doctor. Trump’s budget cuts $610 billion from Medicaid. You think that helps you? You think you have extra money to pay that? The Trump budget eliminates farm insurance programs that rural farmers in the Midwest use to stay in business during bad crop years. Trump voters: What happened to Trump’s campaign promise to look out for the little guy instead of the ‘too big to fail’ crowd on Wall Street?”

    Yesterday, the CCO was demanding the government help relocate and pay for the new housing of residents of the Lincoln Estates. Today, the CCO is demanding the government eliminate those programs. Huh?

    • I think the message was don’t believe the CBO or let their analysis guide your outrage because their results have been terrible. Which words called for repeal of ACA? None.

  2. The CBO, created in 1974 by a Democrat controlled Congress, was a good idea, but like all things bureaucratic, it has become notoriously political within itself. It hasn’t had a good record since the early 80’s because of it’s desire to exist. It has consistently overstated or understated financial impact on proposed legislation due to it’s overuse of economists with like opinion. I believe it is nonpartisan, but it has been so wrong on too many large ticket items, it has lost it’s credibility.

  3. A major reason (and the primary reason) that the ACA has not achieved the enrollment levels projected is simple to understand: The GOP has obstructed the ACA from Day 1. The right-wing continues to care more about money, lobbyists, and corporations than people. The ACA proves that right wing partisan “politics over people” is happening, and that means reduced (or no) benefits from the ACA for American citizens

    The right wing has blocked enrollment efforts from the start. Most states opted to let HHS do the exchanges, and this is because of the blockades by GOP folks as Governors. There are currently just 12 fully state-run ACA exchanges. But the reduced enrollment you are complaining about are NOT due to bad policy or bad portions of the ACA, the reduced enrollment is wholly due to the Republican efforts to destroy the ACA,

    On March 23, 2010, the same day the ACA was signed into law, attorneys general from 14 Republican states began challenging the ACA’s individual mandate via the court system. A total of 26 states eventually joined in the lawsuit, which went all the way to the Supreme Court. They lost, but it shows how the GOP and right-wing “politics over people” in Republican states were more interested (as they stated publically numerous times) in fighting everything President Obama wanted to do to improve the lives of Americans by providing health care

    Since the ACA started various States (all controlled by the GOP) have put politics over people, which is shown by the seventeen states where the right-wing controls their Legislature and Governor’s house, where they passed laws that restricted even navigator’s ability to help residents understand and enroll in the new plans. (Judicial system invalidated many of those laws, but ultimately the damage had been done). Before they put a Republican in the Governor’s mansion, Kentucky had the most effective and highest rated ACA exchange in the country. Now that is being dismantled, and Kentuckians are suffering because of it.

    The GOP and right-wing “politics over people” partisans have been leading efforts to invalidate ACA subsidies that assist the poor and middle class with their ACA premiums. The GOP have been a pain in the ass by arguing that subsidies for ACA premium payments could not legally be distributed in states that didn’t establish their own health insurance exchanges. But luckily for Americans who need the ACA the Supreme Court ruled in the government’s favor in 2015, upholding the legality of premium subsidies in every state.

    Indiana, Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, Nebraska, South Carolina, and West Virginia all went one step further by trying to argue that ACA premium assistance should not be available in states that use the federally run exchange.

    So these States (including Indiana) were all partisan hacks who refused to expand Medicaid and set up the ACA healthcare exchanges, then tried to get the legal system to allow them to not allow ACA premium assistance in their States. Basically, they tried to double screw the poor and middle class who needed assistance in payment of the insurance premiums. These attempts ultimately failed in the courts, but they were yet another attempt to undermine the validity of the ACA law

    The ACA’s cost-sharing subsidies are an essential part of making health care accessible for lower-income Americans. For people with incomes up to a certain percent of the poverty level, cost-sharing reductions are automatically added to certain plans, making the coverage much more robust than it would otherwise be.

    The federal government reimburses health insurers for the additional coverage provided by the cost-sharing reductions. But House Republicans (led by then-Speaker John Boehner) tried to use the legal system to challenge the executive branch’s authority to reimburse insurers for cost-sharing reductions. This attack ultimately failed then the Supreme Court threw the case out, but it continued to show how the GOP is more interested in politics over people.

    The ACA passed in 2010, and insurance co-op systems were to be up and running in the fall of 2013, in time for the first open enrollment period. But during 2011 budget negotiations, $2.2 billion was cut from the co-op funding by the GOP. And then during the “fiscal cliff” negotiations at the end of 2012 (lead in part by Ted “Green Eggs and Ham” Cruz) another $1.4 billion in co-op funding was eliminated. Those Republican changes undermined and ultimately killed most of the original 23 co-ops. These are just another example of how the right-wing cares more about politics versus caring about people.

    The ACA had scheduled Medicaid expansion to take effect at the beginning of 2014. But since virtually ALL states controlled by Republicans opted against expansion (despite the fact that the federal government paid the full cost of the expansion for the first three years and nearly all of it after that), the planned expansion to help cover more people was thwarted by the right-wing. Even now there are still 19 states that have refused to help the citizens in that State by expanding Medicaid.

    All of this obviously has a negative impact on people living in poverty, but it’s also deleterious to the individual insurance markets in those states.

    The ACA has been in effect for seven years, and Republican lawmakers have been trying to repeal or defund it for seven years with ZERO success. They have voted almost 100 times to “repeal and replace” and have never ONCE managed to accomplish it. Even in 2017, with the right-wing in control of Congress and the White House, the GOP has STILL not managed to “repeal and replace” the ACA. But the right-wing has proven their “politics over people” mantra and focus and have been unwilling to work together with Democrats to make any significant changes to the ACA to make it work better. Any efforts at bipartisan tweaks to the ACA have been refused by the GOP.

    This is the most egregious and disingenuous effort by the Republican party. President Obama and the Democrats knew that the ACA would likely need adjustments (just like Medicare did when it passed in the early 60’s), but believed that the Republicans would come around when they saw how much good it was doing and help to make the minor adjustments to make it even more successful, which would benefit the American people for decades to come.

    President Obama and Democrats hoped to overcome partisan politics to help those Americans who needed the help with healthcare. But now we know there is no depth that the Republicans will not sink to in order to destroy the ACA. The Republicans continue to chose to sacrifice the lives of their constituents, for the survival of their party.

    If the enrollment figures have not achieved the totals originally calculated for the ACA, the GOP needs to look in the mirror to find the cause and blame for the low enrollment numbers. If States had properly set up the ACA exchanges, expanded Medicaid, and enacted the tax-breaks as envisioned when the ACA was first enacted, the enrollment numbers would have been achieved and/or surpassed.

    The ACA has achieved numerous types of success while still being handcuffed by the right-wing obstructionists in Congress. Millions of Americans have been able to be insured (many of them for the first time ever) due to the ACA. The ACA has provided healthcare for millions of Americans, and the death rate for Americans has fallen due to citizens having health care

    The current White House and Republican Congress have been exposed as corrupt, petty, and more interested in helping millionaires and billionaires then helping the general public that need help.

    DISCLAIMER: I am only alive due to the benefits that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) provides to me. I pay around $750 per month in premiums, but after a career in healthcare and insurance, my cost is due to picking a benefits package the best suits my personal needs. I could have a plan that would be much less, but the lower monthly premium would mean higher out of pocket costs

    • Thank you for a generous supply of regurgitated liberal pap. Unfortunately, those of us reading this cut and paste have to fight regurgitating our breakfast.

      • his post is accurate, it is well presented and explains it well
        you know it, or you would refute it disaffected
        but you are a follower disaffected, when trump changes the new plan to funding insurance finally (and he’s already tweeting he intends to), hell, you’ll follow again and tell us how great that is too

        • Thanks for ruining the Frog Follies for me. Now I’ll view all that I don’t know there as a potential snowflake.

        • 4-H Center Car Show

          Thank you. I do a lot of research before I write an article, and I can prove all the portions I assert in what I wrote

          What bothers the right-wing is that they cannot refute with facts of their own. They love to spew insults like libtard and other names, which just proves how little class or education they have

          Pretty sad

          • You did a fine job there at 10:07 a.m. Michael. Nothing really refutable there, a lot of well vetted factual material brought together into a very lucid one-stop read on the subject.

            Pretty good.

          • disaffected is proud of being dumb he shows up, hollers and whoops
            that’s it
            have you ever been to a trumpist rally? that is what it is
            and for some reason, that’s all he needs to do to get Al Sharpie to like him

          • Just woke up from a well deserved nap to a healthy health care debate.

            And you’re right, what stuck out like Mop Head’s ass and belly is the fact-less rebuttals to you Lockard.

            Matter-of-fact, the deplorable rebuttals wore me out.

            Think I’ll take another nap and dream about the 24,000 Americans whose lives are saved every year because of ObamaCare.

            If ISIS wants to kill Americans, they can hit a home run by finding common cause with whoever wants to insure less Americans.

            Believe me….

          • Oh, but you wouldn’t sink so low as to be insulting because you be classy and edgicated, right, Mikey?

  4. if obamacare was so great the libtards would not have had to lie to pass it…………if obamacare was so great the libtards would not have lost over 1200 seats since this obvious lie passed………if obamacare was so great President Trump would not be our Great President…………..plain and simple this lie called obamacare took money from the working hard middle Americans………….and that my friends is the rest of the story……………

    • Al, what you’re saying is, “Obamacare was marketed as an apple. It was really an onion.”
      What you’re avoiding saying is, “Trumpcare is marketed as an onion. What it really is, is an ‘even the dog is done with it bone.” (The house version is a tax cut for the upper 5%. Fact. You don’t know that, cause you’re dumb, Al.)

      Asking WWF fans like Al Sharpie to understand their Medicaid is being cut by $610 billion after retirement, and their deductible will be $35,000 under Trumpcare….is the single damn reason the premium is low. You’re paying for hot air. But I know. You still don’t get it.

  5. the pilgrims tried the liberal socialism at first………. that everyone gets the same slice of pie………..guess what happened………………human nature took over the deadbeats emerged why work when everybody gets the same slice …………………………. God Bless Our Men And Women That Serve In Our Military………..God Bless America……..God Bless President Trump And His Family…………………………..

  6. Today’s Wall Street Journal
    Monday, May 29, 2017
    MUELLER GETS OFF TO FAST START ON TRUMP-RUSSIA PROBE
    “Trump’s own DOJ Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein named Robert Mueller special counsel on May 17, citing the need to probe the coordination between Russian officials and the Trump campaign. The appointment of Mr. Mueller suggests the investigation is in the early stages, and it could take years to conclude.”
    *****************
    I noticed that too. “…could take years to conclude.”

  7. Great post and comments by PressanyKey. Is it true that Mr. Zarris is also a Baptist Minister??

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