(article via DougRoss)  International Franchise Association held a convention in Washington this week where most of the Radio Shack, Dunkin Donuts, Curves and other franchisers were grumbling about new federal regulations, especially the impact of Obamacare.

…he pulled out his powerpoint showing how funding Obamacare will cut his–and likely their–profits in half overnight. With simple math the small business folks understood, he spelled out that their only choice is to slash employee hours so they aren’t eligible for company-paid health care or stop offering insurance and pay the $2,000 per employee fine.

Barr has 23 stores with 421 employees, 109 of whom are full-time. Of those, he provides 30 with health insurance. Barr said he pays 81 percent of their Blue Cross Blue Shield policy, or $4,073 of $5,028 for individuals, more for families, for a total bill of $129,000 a year. Employees pay $995. (more…)

….. and even that fawning media narrative is not going to be near enough to help them continue the farce.   The Bloom Is Off The Ruse – The Electorate Is Awake, and the Democrats are circling the drain; with or without making up their mind on “God” and “Jerusalem”.

But to afford the benefit of the doubt to a reader who just clicked into the discussion, here is a general punditry example essentially reflective of the echo-chambering, yet irrelevant, media:

Yeah, I know this (video) is after day #1, but blah, blah, blah, the same water-carrying conversation happened last with the swooning just directed at “Bubba The Savior”. Whatever. Really, his BS is not worth my typing effort to deconstruct. Besides, someone else already did it.

I really do believe that people can see through this farce now.

The reality is there is no Hope and definitely NO CHANGE. Except for the TV ratings which reflect the exact sentiment being described right here. (more…)

Traditionally speaking Republicans are insufferably inept at messaging; the messaging on the Ryan Budget is a great example of their ineptitude.

President Obama takes $716 Billion out of the Medicare Program via expenditures and reimbursements to medical providers.   This is a factual consequence of “Obamacare”.  It is not disputed.   While the argument they should face, and be held to account for, is about “impact”, the factual reality of the shift of the money stands as a consequence of Obamacare and the Romney/Ryan team is correct to hold President Obama accountable for it.

However, the counter point from the Obama campaign is to continually point out that in Paul Ryan’s budget proposal he also maintained these same $716 billion reductions.  Subsequently they frame the Ryan budget as hypocritical.    This is where Republicans suck. (more…)

Well, at least this week….

Death By Socialism – A 22 year old who died from dehydration whilst in hospital was so desperate for a drink of water he phoned the police from his bed for help, an inquest has been told.
UK Telegraph – Kane Gorny’s mum Rita Cronin told an inquest into her son’s death that when the police turned up at St George’s Hospital, Tooting, they were turned away by doctors and she was repeatedly ignored by staff when she begged for help for her son.

WASHINGTON – With the Supreme Court giving President Obama’s new health care law a green light, federal and state officials are turning to implementation of the law — a lengthy and massive undertaking still in its early stages, but already costing money and expanding the government.

The Health and Human Services Department “was given a billion dollars implementation money,” Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg of Montana said. “That money is gone already on additional bureaucrats and IT programs, computerization for the implementation.” (more…)

A Court source tells Salon the chief justice wrote the majority opinion and much of the dissent in the Obamacare case….
(Salon) This past weekend CBS News’ Jan Crawford reported that Chief Justice John Roberts switched his vote in regard to upholding the bulk of the Affordable Care Act. Crawford reports that Roberts voted with the rest of the court’s conservatives to strike down the individual mandate, but in the course of drafting his opinion changed his mind, and ended up siding with the court’s four liberals to uphold almost all of the law.

Roberts arrives in Malta

In response, according to Crawford’s story, the four conservatives then independently crafted a highly unusual joint dissent. If so, this would represent a powerful symbolic gesture: Joint Supreme Court opinions are rare. Normally a justice authors an individual opinion, which other justices may choose to join. Jointly authored opinions are reserved for momentous statements of principle, such as in Cooper v. Aaron, when all nine justices jointly authored an opinion declaring that the court’s anti-segregation decisions were binding on state governments that disagreed with the court’s constitutional interpretations. (more…)

The term “Honest Democrat” is quickly becoming an oxymoron. Elizabeth Warren NOW tries to rewrite history and claim she was never in favor of a single-payer Healthcare System.   Insufferable…..

Here’s ONE

Democrats have perpetrated the biggest tax fraud on the American people ever.   First, to get the law passed they insisted the funding was NOT a tax.   Then they argued before the court it was a tax.  After the Supreme Court agreed and called it a tax, now Democrats try to say it is NOT a tax again…. 

Jack Lew, the Obama White House Chief of Staff, was trying to persuade Chris Wallace on FOX News Sunday that Obamacare was not a tax. But it didn’t work out so well for Lew when Wallace played audio of the Obama lawyer arguing that Obamacare was a tax in front of the Supreme Court. Lew was speechless after being caught in his lie. (more…)

Many people continuing to absorb the recent SCOTUS Healthcare ObamaNation… A few questions pass through my own personal mind:  
FIRST – If the healthcare insurance “mandate” is an allowable, albeit unavoidable, taxation passed on citizens regardless of their economic inactivity then what happens to all those “waivers” granted?   A non-congressional federal department, in this case HHS, cannot lawfully “waiver” taxation?
SECOND – If the first dime of healthcare coverage is now considered taxation, because the first moment of non-engagement in activity is considered taxable, then all healthcare premium expenditures are taxes and therefore automatically deducted from taxable income right?   I mean the only way to collect the taxation is through employment activity, ie. income, and if income expenditures on healthcare coverage are now considered taxes, then they should be deductible from income from the first dime.  No?
(Economist)  AS PETER SUDERMAN of Reason put it, “Some coup”. The individual mandate passes constitutional muster after all. Crisis of legitimacy averted! Akhil Reed Amar’s life has not been a fraud!
However, according to the majority decision by John Roberts, the Supreme Court’s conservative chief justice, the mandate cannot be justified on commerce-clause grounds. Indeed, Mr Roberts wholly affirms the argument that the commerce clause cannot regulate economic inactivity. From the syllabus of the decision: (more…)