keepthefaith

I truly believe that if you assembled a large crowd made up of 50% republicans and 50% democrats and gave fact based presentations on immigration, entitlement spending, federal budgets, treasury policy, the ACA, and foreign policy - the majority (60% or more) of the crowd would leave thinking that the best solutions to the big issues are mostly ideas supported by conservatives.

Krugman? Please. We've never had an instant 66% increase in the minimum wage so there are no past result to compare. We have nobody in our company making minimum wage but if we were forced to give our lower paid workers a 66% raise I can tell you most would not survive. We'd have to cut our labor expenses and find ways to be more efficient. That would mean employing fewer people and probably replacing a few with others that can perform better. At a 66% increase we would easily find workers who can do a better job than some of the incumbents. How many business would think like this? Probably nearly all faced with the labor cost increase.

Higher expenses equals fewer jobs.

I say we give the healthy and unproductive 5 years of government support and if they can't become self sufficient at that time, we export them to Mexico. Thanks for the laugh.

It's not 50 million. It's more like 200+ million. Obamacare forces changes and imposes additional costs to virtually every health insurance policy that existed. Everyone will pay more except those that paid for coverage independently previously and now will get a subsidy. We didn't need Obamacare to fix pre-existing conditions, coverage limits or to cover "kids" until they are 26. Obamacare makes government bigger and will add to the deficit. As for the previously uninsured, it's no surprise the Democrats simply wanted to fix that that problem by giving away coverage paid for by others or in the case of our federal budget, paid for by nobody.

It has been much easier in recent years not to care.

7 punts and 5 turnovers won't win ya many games.

The electorate IMO is every bit as much the problem as are those that are elected. The poorly informed + those that vote for politicians who promise them special benefits by far out number the rest.

I think the drop in Hispanic support has as much to do with the inaction on immigration as it does the ACA.

Internal email from yesterday between 2 people here discussing employee leaving our coverage and moving to Obamacare Bronze. Read from bottom up. You can't make this stuff up! Well, since it’s bull **** it falls into your area of responsibility. You are the CBO. Yes, and it’s not even straight up bull ****, it’s confusing with bull **** bombs around every corner! This whole thing is total bull **** I sent an email to XXXXX at XXXXX asking if I could drop him online or if there was something else I needed to do. She called me and long story short, he can’t drop our coverage and go on Obamacare and claim a federal subsidy. As long as an employer offers employees coverage they are not eligible for a subsidy, he would have to lie during the application, it is illegal and supposedly the IRS will enforce. You are also not able to drop coverage unless you can prove you have other coverage. XXXXXX is saying that he can’t drop our coverage until the next open enrollment period (next November) or if we as a company decide to drop our group coverage at any time or if there is a special enrollment situation for him like having a baby or divorce. XXXXX's wife can go through Obamacare and get a subsidy since she’s not eligible for coverage through an employer.

Let me offer a bit of support. I did see a post from you a while back that stated you think spending ought to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 19% of GDP. That would make you a fiscal scrooge by recent standards.

Come on. The tax cuts weren't fully phased in until 2003 and even you know that the impact of tax cuts or increases won't change previous year tax receipts.

You can get tangled up in all the numbers and percentages if you like. The government pays it's bills in dollars and not in percentages of GDP.

Frankly Medicare rates for all working Americans (not employers) should rise. The amount people pay into the system should be more similar to what it actually costs to care for old people. The best way for people to be more in tune with what any government program costs is to make sure that those that benefit are footing the bill.

There's always that question of how do you pay for those extra people?

You could be respected around here if you could ever offer any decent support to any statement or argument that you make. Facts or drawing from your own expertise or experience would be a really good start. Giving you the benefit of substantial doubt here.

I don't want to put any more information here on the individual but I think that after he looks at all the numbers he has now, he's going to conclude that the subsidized plan DOES NOT save him any money when he considers all of his expected expenses and it will leave him more exposed to a large expense if there is a serious illness or injury.

Update: Plan this person wants to buy is "bronze". I just explained to him how the deductible and co-insurance (only 60% coverage) works. A cheap plan it is but you're pretty exposed if you need any care. The deductible is high also. He's rethinking this.

I think the law is terrible and agree that it gives employers an incentive to get out of the health insurance business. Stipends come with other expenses as they would be subject to taxation and other costs (FICA, Medicare, Medicaid, Unemployment ins, Workers comp ins, Retirement plan contributions) so employers will weigh all this. I can see a transition over time where employers move from providing insurance to offering a stipend and then to neither.

If your company chose to discontinue a health insurance benefit cold turkey and sent all 6000 of you to buy your own insurance, they would be reducing your compensation substantially. They'd have 6000 pretty unhappy employees if they did that. I doubt many companies will do that unless they are in financial trouble. Pissing off your workforce is never good. Short term you're probably safe. Longer term who knows.

He's in an unusual situation. He buys coverage for his kids through an Illinois program that has been around for years that heavily subsidizes that cost. The state program pays about 80% of the cost. His wife was covered by a plan they bought separately because "family coverage" through us was pretty expensive compared to the cost to buy a plan for her only separately, and he wanted to keep the subsidized plan for the kids. We will go over all the coverage and cost details tomorrow and I'd wager that he's not looking at this apples to apples. As of now he can get three subsidies. One through the state for his kids and one through Obamacare for he and his wife plus whatever stipend we offer if he declines our coverage altogether.

I just had an employee walk into my office and say he wants to discontinue his health insurance because he's eligible for about $250 per month in a subsidy. He'll save money by doing this. Looks like Obamacare is working. He gets part of his premium paid for and he'll keep voting for the guys and gals that provide that for him.

Give the NSA folks credit. They found a way to view porn at work and make it part of their job description.

Thanksgiving is a truly great American holiday. Hope it's terrific for everyone.

I remember a time when telling the truth and being big enough to admit one's own mistakes was common behavior.