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A panel of judges has ruled that subsidies are no longer legal. For millions of Americans, this means they will immediately be slapped with charges up to $800 a month for what many are paying under a hundred…
They will drop their insurance out of necessity, or will be dropped for non-payment.
Republicans are celebrating this…
When the law was written in 2010 it was assumed that all states would do their own exchanges. In states that are doing their own exchanges, there will be no change. That is what the law says and as Republicans say: the law is law….
But for states like Delaware which rightly decided that the Federal exchange would be cheaper for its citizens because of the larger pool, that line in the law was never changed…. It says “state exchanges”… (Remember the law is alleged to be some 15,000 pages long, and is still, believe it or not, something I have not yet read….)
But in one line the word “state” is indeed there and that, according to this particular court, means that it is illegal for the federal exchanges to be subsidized… I have looked, and at this early moment just hours after the decision, there is no confirmation (just estimates) on how many insured that will affect…..
But to all you who were insured in the Federal exchange? Guess what? You got no Obama care….
Map courtesy of Kaiser
To hear the far extremist right saying “ha, ha, ha, suffer bitches” you can go here or here…
Now…
On this same day, another Federal court in the same city, decided this was indeed legal. There were two cases before two different conservative courts, and we got two opposite decisions. It now goes up the next step and will probably hit the Supreme Court. Which should mean that IF insurance companies are willing, the Obamacare program can continue as is until struck down… But as we saw with Obamacare last November, when it comes to making money, private insurance companies are ruthless and lack heart…
Second… to fix this, all we need is a bill put forth, worded like this…. A bill: To amend the ACA Healthcare law by removing the word “state” and inserting “all or any”…..
That will happen in the Senate, but will never happen in the House…. Which is why, in whatever state you read this, you must get Democrats into your Congressional seat… IF you succeed, or if ENOUGH of you succeed, your insurance can and will continue… You will continue to be insured.
Remember it is just one stupid word so don’t be bulldozed by smart-assed Republicans gloating over the “rule of law” .,… (They don’t honor rule of law when it applies to one of their favored corporations….) It can easily be changed… but it must require people sympathetic to Obamacare for it to get passed….. Only Democrats can guarantee you your insurance will continue… Only Democrats.
You must, must make your vote count this November; you must make your friends, neighbors, church goers go to the polls in your behalf; unfriend them if necessary, bitches….. Your entire future depends on this one vote… Seriously, you could be dead next year thanks to your … Republican friends….
We hail our fallen heroes. Hopefully many of you stirred some dull roots with spring rain today:… memories, both a blessing and a curse.
But for whom did they die?
Did they die for….
Top 5 Contributors, 2009 – 2014, Campaign Cmte and Leadership PAC Contributor Total Indivs PACs
AstraZeneca PLC $71,550 $36,550 $35,000
JPMorgan Chase & Co $58,200 $33,200 $25,000
Ashland Inc $55,420 $25,700 $29,720
Blue Cross/Blue Shield $46,000 $6,000 $40,000
Bank of America $40,440 $3,940 $36,500
Those were Tom Carper’s top 5 contibutors……
Or did they die for….
Top 5 Contributors, 2009 – 2014, Campaign Cmte and Leadership PAC Contributor Total Indivs PACs
Young, Conaway et al $121,300 $121,300 $0
Skadden, Arps et al $92,600 $87,600 $5,000
Grant & Eisenhofer $70,049 $70,049 $0
Comcast Corp $69,200 $44,200 $25,000
Morris, Nichols et al $57,550 $57,550 $0
Those were Chris Coons’ top 5 contributors……
Or did they die for…....
Top 5 Contributors, 2013 – 2014, Campaign Cmte and Leadership PAC Contributor Total Indivs PACs
Investment Co Institute $12,500 $8,140 $2,500
Skadden, Arps et al $10,640 $8,140 $2,500
National Multi Housing Council $10,500 $0 $10,500
Bank of America $10,250 $750 $9,500
AstraZeneca PLC $10,198 $250 $9,948
These are John Carney’s top contributors……
Our state relative to nationally, is actually on the good end of campaign contribution spectrum. Nothing here, is really out of line. You should see some in other states…
But let us isolate by industry…..
For John Carney….
Top 5 Industries, 2013 – 2014, Campaign Cmte and Leadership PAC Industry Total Indivs PACs
Insurance $96,520 $2,820 $93,700
Securities & Investment $93,000 $1,500 $91,500
Lawyers/Law Firms $59,110 $45,610 $13,500
Commercial Banks $49,000 $1,250 $47,750
Finance/Credit Companies $43,250 $5,250 $38,000
For Chris Coons…….
Top 5 Industries, 2009 – 2014, Campaign Cmt Industry Total Indivs PACs
Lawyers/Law Firms $1,495,387 $1,341,519 $153,868
Leadership PACs $512,900 $0 $512,900
Lobbyists $345,302 $325,472 $19,830
Securities & Investment $296,800 $235,300 $61,500
TV/Movies/Music $228,157 $163,800 $64,357
For Tom Carper……..
Top 5 Industries, 2009 – 2014, Campaign Cmte Industry Total Indivs PACs
Insurance $371,710 $94,470 $277,240
Securities & Investment $320,340 $125,840 $194,500
Lawyers/Law Firms $294,382 $170,761 $123,621
Lobbyists $214,262 $207,042 $7,220
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products $207,710 $50,300 $157,410
And now, in what I believe is the first time ever…. here is the combination giving you an idea of who influences our 3 man delegation… Compiled by adding together all three’s industry totals listed above and then ranking them top down…..
Lawyers/Law Firms …………….. $1,848,879
Securities & Investment ……………. $710,140
Insurance…..,,,,,,,,,……………. , …… $668,257
Leadership PACs ………………………. $675,400
Lobbyists ………………………………,…$568,779
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products $486,108
Commercial Banks …………………….$435,240
TV/Movies/Music……………………….$292,067
Finance/Credit Companies………….$208,865
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And that is who owns our delegation…. Just seeing the visual makes it clear why some of the anti-people votes cast by this delegation, … are ever cast at all…. No, contrary to how we exclaim… They are not insane. They are practical….
It will get worse with McCutcheon passed…
Already the amount of dark money as shown by tallies done by the Center for Responsive Politics show that nondisclosing groups have already reported spending more than three times as much as they had at this point in the 2012 elections — a presidential cycle when higher spending would be expected.”
Did you get that? The unprecedented spending done in 2012, a contested presidential year, as of now been tripled over the same point of time back in 2012…….. . And it is both sides. In the past dark money was 80% Conservative, 20% Liberal. Today (2014), it is 60% Conservative; 40% Liberal… Spending by liberal nondisclosing groups is more than four times higher than it was at this point in 2012, while their conservative counterparts have tripled their previous spending level……
Which means, no tv watching this summer… and social media will become a real turn-off…. Both mean that most of America will tune out this election… Thank you, Supreme Court….. What were you smoking?
And if most of America tunes out this election, it again begs the moral and serious question…. for whom did they die? Certainly not us.
Actual conversation:;;;;
So hey, did you hear that HB 167 passed? How do you feel?
HB 167? What da f*** is that?
House Bill 167, it bans the box… Isn’t that great?
Well, then, what are the going to do with all the homeless then?
Actual conversation over April Cookout:
“So do you think the NSA was using the exploit in Heartbleed over the past two years?”
“Did they deny it yet?”
“Why yes, they just did…”
“Well, that confirms it.. They were.”
America has always had it’s fringe. There has always been a backlash against populist presidents. There were those who hated William Jennings Bryan (almost President). Go figure. There were those who predicted the end of America with the election of Andrew Jackson… Yeah, we know the kind.
But in the past, what a hillbilly thought back in some holler, stayed in some holler. There was no manpower capable of driving down from New York, asking around the hamlet, finding him, driving back to New York with a hillbilly in the back seat, then putting his picture and words on the Hearst’s front page…
Yet today, with social media, we can do exactly that… Lack of manpower is no deterrent…. Therefore in today’s world where common sense would dictate that bashing the president was better for any opposing cause than not bashing the president,… we fully expect it to continue…
However, we must remember that if no one wanted to search out that back-in-the-holler hillbilly, we wouldn’t be hearing his words.
So who is the money, funding this apparatus and why are they so intent on bashing this president…..
It could be for policies like this…..
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Current Law
Under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, non-U.S. persons generally are subject to a tax of 30 percent on dividends paid on U.S. equities.
No one pays that tax anymore. Because of this…
The Loophole
Currently, many non-U.S. investors, including foreign hedge funds, enter into swaps or other derivative contracts that pay dividend equivalents, instead of directly holding the dividend-paying equities on which they are based. These foreign investors are therefore able to avoid the U.S. tax on a dividend by receiving instead a dividend equivalent, which is not currently subject to U.S. tax.
Treasury’s Action to End Tax-Avoiding Financial Gimmicks
Treasury’s proposed regulations under section 871(m) would align the taxation of dividend equivalents with the taxation of dividends from sources within the United States when the underlying security that generates the dividend equivalent is a U.S. equity. Put simply, when finalized, the new rules will eliminate the incentive for non-U.S. persons to use financial products like swap transactions, forwards and futures to escape U.S. tax obligations.
Currently all the gains received by foreign investors in our national stock market that as boomed 20% since higher taxes kicked in last January,… are tax free…. but only if you are a foreign. If you are American you pay the full price….
None of this gets translated down to normal Americans holding mutual funds. But it is very relevant to those foreign interests with huge assets in American banks and markets. For as much as one day’s profits, they could spend the entire budget of every election in the United States….
Their money is why those, in any way connected to the financial world, are into bashing Obama….
Doesn’t it makes sense for you and me and all other domestic stock owners to pay the same tax as do foreign investors, and not an infinite amount more?
Courtesy of Wikipedia.
After all the bluster dies down, Historians will revisit this era and come to this conclusion.
In order not to tax the top 1% an additional $85 billion dollars, the 99% was made to suffer for it….
Cost = $85 billion.
Let us compare that to wealth, not income, to see how that $85 billion stacks up….
The current household wealth of the United States is listed between $64 and $65 trillion dollars…. We are going to draw the line at at the top 20% and bottom 80% of the population.
The top 20% owns 89.9% of the nation’s wealth. The bottom 80% owns 11.1%…. In dollars that stacks up as follows:
- Top 20% owns $58 Trillion in net worth.
- Bottom 80% has $ 7 Trillion of net worth.
Ok. now we have the dollar figures. Let us break down the population. Since we are dealing with government services we must assume that affects everyone, so we are going to use the 315 million population figure for our calculations.
- Top 20% of population equals 63 million people.
- Bottom 80% of population equals 252 million people.
So now let us see how that works out per person. For both income levels we are going to divide the total wealth by the total persons and get the total wealth per person…
- 58 Trillion divided by 63 million people gives a per person average of…$841,269 per citizen.
- 7 Trillion divided by 252 million people gives a per person average of … $27,777 dollars per citizen.
Ok so here is what historians will find. If we tax the existing revenue for the $85 billion difference it will only hit the top group of 20%… If we sequester or cut out of our national budget, it will only hit those in the bottom 80%…
To see what the average hit will cost, we will take the $85 billion and divide it among the number of people in that income range. Then later we will apply that to their wealth and see who has the greater and who has the less percentage…
- $85 Billion sequestered spread over 63 million 20%’ers comes to $1349 each.
- $85 Billion sequestered out of the 252 million 80%ers comes to a tiny…. $337 each…
So here is the fun part.
- That $1349 is this percent of $841,269… 0.16% of one percent.
- That $337 is this percent of $27,777…. 1.2 percent…
Each person in the bottom 80% is paying roughly 8 times more of a burden to their wealth than paid by those in the top 20%……. When our economy fails and historians look back and say, didn’t anyone crunch the numbers? Well, yes? Someone did..
And if fairness is truly an America virtue, then once we know that a 8 to 1 ratio exists, it become easy to figure out how to divide the costs equally… (8x +1x = $85B) then we should have a tax hike of $75 billion and sequester or cut of $10 billion to give every America an equal percentage bite out of their wealth….
Courtesy of Bloomberg
Bloomberg published a report showing how a Federal subsidy of 0.8th of one percent, costs the US Treasury $83 billion dollars a year.
Ironically we are arguing about how to fill almost that exact amount with sequestration. $83 billion; either by taxes or cuts.
But what Bloomberg points out, by deducting the subsidies from the reported profits of the top five banks, that without the subsidies, there would be no profits.
The bonuses being paid to all top bank executives, are our money that we are subsidizing. The dividend payouts being received by every stockholder, is a give-you-something-free right from the US Treasury….
So, how does it make you feel, Mr. Middle Class, to have bankers flaunting $43 million paychecks, fleeced out of taxing you, while you pay $3.00 for every automatic teller transaction….
Oh, I’m sure you don’t mind. These banks are too big to fail… They bankrolled almost the entire Republican Party, and now, as long as Boehner runs the House, they are completely protected and can keep living off your subsidies…. You know what? They probably won’t even say thank you… Because in their eyes, their bonuses? They built that…..
Republicans, so devious … you gotta love them.
Occupy Delaware has been whittled down to a tiny group.
But today, just as the 12:00 beginning of the rally began, the sun burst through the dreary day, and the sky turned blue…. It was the best omen of the day.
If you saw them, you would have said…” this is it?” The vast encampment is now whittled down to three camping tents and the mess tent… Spencer Square is now ready for spring.
Later around 4:00 the group tried to block 10th and Market. 6 people stood in the intersection, one carrying an American flag, as traffic weaved around them. A crowd at the bus stops off Rodney Square, stopped to watch. Within 10 minutes two police cruisers pulled up and the demonstration dispersed peacefully.
Seeing videos of this action made me realize when you have a demonstration without the fear-factor of large amounts of people, it looks silly. I would equate this demonstration with say, seeing a flash mob show up in the Opera House and do the dougie… Interesting. Weird, a little bit confusing. These words come to mind how one feels….
The message which is very important. …. we’re getting eaten by corporate piranha.. little bite by little bite and they are taking our flesh fast and furious is being blocked by the emotional pull back of “eww these people are weird….”
Now I want to make it clear. These people are not weird. In fact they remind me of the everyday continental soldier who gave up everything they had, only to walk in snow with bare feet. Now these people are not 9/12 patriots; these people are real patriots. (The 9/12 patriots act like the Royalists; supporting the powerful status quo.)….
Their idea is good. It just got sprung too fast… A general strike needs to be called… on a day far advanced that we can adequately plan for it…..
I think loving symbolism as I do, it should be the day after labor day… In fact, laborers should take that Tuesday off stretching out the holiday weekend by one more day…. 9/5 Tuesday should be our general strike.
We are striking so the 1 percent knows the 99% is capable of….. No work, no school, and all citizens should no go in on that day….. The ones who do go in, should be beaten up…. (just kidding, lol)….
But that is something that could take off. Hell, even if I didn’t care about Occupy or corporate greed, I’d support the strike just so I could spend another day at the beach….
They didn’t know they were saying it. But if you take the numbers given, 50 million daily users… Total of 1 billion registered….
50 million divided by 7 billion (earth’s population) means 0.7% of the worlds population used MegaUpLoad on a daily basis. This population total includes those with no computer access, such as the rural Chinese, Indonesian peasants, and unknown Indians in the Amazon Rain Forest….
7 out of every 1000 people on this planet who used MegaUpLoad on a daily basis, is a rather large number if you think of it…
Estimates from major servers put around 500 million the number of computers on this planet… that means there were twice more users signed up at MegaUpLoad than there are computers active on the planet. 50 million daily users means one in ten computers on the planet, were involved with the server MegaUpLoad…..
Federal Prosecutors have said they are done with the data they needed. They have turned over the property rights of the items on the servers to those servers contracted to MegaUpLoad to store the information. Since MegaUpLoad’s assets are frozen, the servers will begin deleting the information on Groundhog Day, February 2nd.
Within that deletion will be 0.00002% of those files that may be pirated. Also deleted, will be files by small businesses, job related data people stored at work, digital family pictures stored for safe keeping…
You see, when you have a server with free storage, a lot of people who access the Internet only through the means of a shared computer, … have a need for it.
If piracy is such a “huge” issue, then one would think more than 10 people or 0.00002% of its users, would be arrested… Those 10 who have charges filed against them, and who no doubt will be found innocent when given the chance to a trial before an impartial jury…., aren’t really much of a threat at all.
The 99.99998% of the rest of its users, who are about to have their life’s history erased , deserve to be a little miffed..
Unfortunately, to completely put this into proper perspective … out of the 100% of those who crashed the world’s economy back in 2008…. the heads of Goldman-Sachs, J.P. Morgan, AIG, Bank of America, and other players on Wall Street … 0% have been arrested and charged…
Apparently, destroying the world’s pension funds, bankrupting whole countries, dissolving entire banking empires, all on false information which you knew beforehand to be untrue, is far less a crime than not paying .89 cents for a song you got off of YouTube for free….
The world is a little topsy-turvey, don’t you think?
It comes under the heading of GImmicks:
Shopping for the holidays, you pick up an item, scan it with your phone, and BOOM, you can see how much it would save you had you shopped on line… at… Amazon.com…
Great service. The customer has a need for information. It is provided conveniently. The customer can make a decision on the spot.
Gone are the days of writing down prices, walking through 8 stores, then returning to the one with the lowest… It is all in the palm of you hand…
Ahhh, but is it fair for those retailers trying to stay open another year, by capitalizing on the surge of holiday book sales?
Are small businesses who lack the gigantic resources required, put at a competitive disadvantage? Is it morally correct, to allow corporate espionage on a scale that could wipe out all small business competitors in one Christmas season.
Somewhere in Amazon.com, is a listing of every price in every bookstore, as well as a guide as to which books are popular. And no one gets employed to go out looking for that information.
On one hand, businesses have the right to innovation. they have the right to compete, they have the right to outsmart the competition. That is how society moves forward. The weak fail. The strong survive.
But on the other hand, like an endangered species, little bits of Americana, of life as it used to be, those pieces of the good side of life, do not return the next season; it gets worse year after year….
On one hand prices are low now, meaning other things can be bought with the savings.
On the other hand, as we saw with Standard Oil at the beginning of the last century, monopolies do raise prices to levels a lot higher than they would be if they had competition….
It is quite similar to the Wal*mart takeover of America. For one, I love Wal*mart. It is how I find out what’s new. But my folk’s small town, died the day Wal*mart opened its doors onto the Interstate exit. Understandably. You saved $20 dollars buying the same assortment of items………. back when they first opened that is. Now, with Main Street closed up, the prices are about where they were in the small shops the day before it opened…. All we did was move spending our money downtown, to spending it 3 miles out of town. Whereas the local businesses used to give back both in taxes and in donations…. the corporate giant now sends our money overseas….
Do small businesses have to take this onslaught. “The law has long been clear that stores do not invite the public in for all purposes. A retailer is not expected to serve as a warming station for the homeless or a site for band practice. So it’s worth wondering whether it’s lawful for Amazon to encourage people to enter a store for the purpose of gathering pricing information for Amazon and buying from the Internet giant, rather than the retailer.”
And so, the issue actually moves from economic, to political.. Sort of like the “Buy America” campaign in the 80’s. It involves conceding the economic war; establishing a new front in the form the political war. It becomes a moral issue, and not a price-point one. Do you like small bookstores? Do you like seeing a business open? Do you like establishing a solid tax base for your community? Do you like the option of your son or daughter being hired by someone you personally have known for years….. when they come home for Christmas breatk? If so, then support your local bookstore, and don’t buy on line at Amazon.com….
That may work for those politically motivated, which if the past presidential election can serve as a guide, applies to only 61% of us… The rest of us need to save that $20….
If there is any wisdom that comes from watching this past decade unfold, it is this: you have to treat corporations like children; you can’t let them have the upper hand… Historians know this. Teddy Roosevelt proved it during the dawn of the 1900’s. You HAVE to break up corporations so they become SO worried about other’s moving in on their territory, they don’t have time for mischief. You give them time (with no supervision), they’ll make mischief. Just like one’s kids.
So the answer lies not in boycotts. The answer lies not in public shame. The answer lies not in micromanaging colossal giants…
After thinking about it for a very long time, it appears the only answer is to eliminate them, by breaking them up so they have to compete against themselves.
The laws are already on the books to do it.
kavips 
