Repeal this monster.

Via Weekly Standard:

Minnesota Public Radio reports, “A loophole in the federal health care overhaul would allow many employers to game the system by dumping their sicker employees [into] public health insurance exchanges, according to two University of Minnesota law professors.” Such “targeted dumping” of sicker employees would cause Obamacare’s taxpayer-subsidized exchanges to cost more — potentially far more — than the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has projected. [...]

In their study, published in the Virginia Law Review, authors Amy Monahan and Daniel Schwarcz write,

“[T]here is a substantial prospect that ACA [Obamacare] will lead some, and perhaps many, employers to implement a targeted dumping strategy designed to induce low-risk employees to retain ESI [employer-sponsored insurance] but incentivize high-risk employees to voluntarily opt out of ESI and instead purchase insurance through the exchanges that ACA establishes to organize individual insurance markets. Although ACA and other federal laws prohibit employers from excluding high-risk employees from ESI, these laws do little to prevent employers from designing their plans and benefits to incentivize high-risk employees to voluntarily seek coverage elsewhere. If successful, such a targeted dumping strategy would allow employers and low-risk employees to avoid the costs associated with providing coverage to high-risk employees. . . .”

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Obama feels your pain, he’s offering 50% off on swag with his name on it. See, he is a man of the people.

(Daily Mail) — One in five Americans lost a sizeable amount of their disposable income during the recession, leaving them financially vulnerable and without many options.

The number of Americans considered ‘economically insecure’ reached a new high during the period from 2008 to 2010 which spanned what is now called the Great Recession.

This news comes just as businesses hope to increase profits amid holiday sales and Christmas shopping, but half of the U.S. population is now worried that they won’t be able to buy the presents on their list because of their financial situation.

Deemed economically insecure by the Economic Security Index, 20 per cent of the county have considerably less spending money now as compared to previous years.

By comparison, only 14.3 per cent of the country’s population was in the same position in 1986.

The report, compiled by Yale professor Jacob Hacker’s Index team, evaluates census data and looks at a family’s income, savings, and medical bills when determining who is considered economically insecure.

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Oh yeah, he actually said that.

Via Politico

Not only are the security forces not helping the Christians, they are taking part in the attacks.

BARKIN LADI, Nigeria, November 28 (CDN) — Fulani Muslim herdsmen along with Muslim soldiers have killed at least 45 ethnic Berom Christians in Plateau state in the past week, Christians in this northern-central Nigerian town said.

Smaller attacks beginning on Nov. 20, reportedly over allegations by Fulani Muslims of cattle theft, preceded an attack on a Barkin Ladi church on Nov. 23 that killed four Christians, and an assault the next day left 35 Christians dead in Barkin Ladi and nearby Kwok village, according to area Christian leaders.

Church attendance was decimated yesterday as thousands of Christians have left the area.

“Christians are fleeing the town because we have no guns to fight back,” said one woman in a group of six Christians trying to leave Barkin Ladi. “Muslims have guns, and they have their soldiers fighting for them, so we have no choice but to leave town.”

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Well, he is a douchebag.

More NLRB shadiness.

(CNS News) — The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is set to vote Wednesday on a package of controversial changes to the rules governing union elections while the Board still has a Democratic majority.

Designed to ease the process of unionizing a workplace, the changes come as Democratic member Craig Becker’s recess appointment expires at the end of the year.

The NLRB’s lone Republican, Brian Hayes, said the two Democrats on the Board are “committed” to changing the rules before Becker is forced to leave at the end of the current congressional session. “Indeed, I was advised of this fact by the Board’s Chairman,” Hayes wrote in a November 18 letter to House Education and Workforce Committee chairman Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.).

Currently, only three people — two Democrats and one Republican — serve on the five-member NLRB because President Obama has not found nominees who would be approved by Senate Republicans.

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Chalk up another victory for the Islamic Winter.

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — The leader of an Islamist party that has never before participated in Morocco’s governments was chosen by the king as the country’s new head of government on Tuesday.

The Justice and Development Party won the most votes Friday in a national election prompted by the pro-democracy demonstrations that swept this North African kingdom of 32 million earlier this year as part of the regionwide Arab Spring.

King Mohammed VI received Abdelilah Benkirane, the secretary general of the Justice and Development Party, in the mountain town of Midelt on Tuesday and named him head of government with the task of forming a governing coalition.

It would have been unthinkable just a year ago for a member of the opposition PJD to lead the government, but the Arab Spring movement forced the king to reform Morocco’s constitution and hold early elections.

Under the amended constitution, the prime minister is now a more powerful “head of government” and he must come from the party that won the most votes in the election. The PJD took 107 seats out of the 395 in Parliament, almost twice as many as the second-place finisher.

She’s smarter than you.

Via Vanity Fair:

Johansson, who has been active in campaigning for various Democratic political leaders, including Barack Obama, tells Biskind that nearly one term later “we’re all guilty of being idealistic, I and everyone who voted for him.” But in response to being asked if she would work for him again, she says, “It would be irresponsible not to.”

HT: Other McCain

It’s that time of the year again.

(AP) — Rhode Island’s governor is defending his decision to call the 17-foot blue spruce recently erected in the Statehouse a “holiday” tree rather than a “Christmas” tree.

Gov. Lincoln Chafee says the term “holiday” tree is in keeping with Rhode Island’s founding as a haven for religious tolerance where government and religion were kept separate.

In a statement issued Tuesday, the independent governor encouraged individuals upset with his decision to focus their energy on volunteering, such as feeding the poor.

In January, lawmakers passed a resolution declaring the annual Statehouse tree to be a “Christmas tree.” Republican Rep. Doreen Costa, the resolution’s sponsor, says Chafee is disrespecting the Legislature and takes political correctness too far.

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Everyone knows those waivers are set aside for unions and Dem supporters only.

(The Hill) — The Obama administration on Monday rejected two states’ requests for waivers from the healthcare reform law.

The decision could rekindle the controversy over the waiver process, as the two states that were turned down, Indiana and Louisiana, have Republican governors. GOP leaders at the state level have been extremely critical of the healthcare law and the requirements that it imposes on states.

The Department of Health and Human Services said Indiana and Louisiana do not need an adjustment from the health law’s medical loss ratio. That provision requires insurers to spend at least 80 percent of premiums on medical care or offer rebates to their customers starting next year.

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Love it.

(US News) — President Obama’s slow ride down Gallup’s daily presidential job approval index has finally passed below Jimmy Carter, earning Obama the worst job approval rating of any president at this stage of his term in modern political history.

Since March, Obama’s job approval rating has hovered above Carter’s, considered among the 20th century’s worst presidents, but today Obama’s punctured Carter’s dismal job approval line. On their comparison chart, Gallup put Obama’s job approval rating at 43 percent compared to Carter’s 51 percent.

Back in 1979, Carter was far below Obama until the Iran hostage crisis, eerily being duplicated in Tehran today with Iranian protesters storming the British embassy. The early days of the crisis helped Carter’s ratings, though his failure to win the release of captured Americans, coupled with a bad economy, led to his defeat by Ronald Reagan in 1980.

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Pakistani protestors shout slogans as they burn a portrait of US President Barack Obama with a US flag during a demonstration in Peshawar on November 29, 2011, held to protest a NATO strike on Pakistan troops. Pakistan decided to boycott a key international conference on Afghanistan next month, ramping up its protest over lethal cross-border NATO air strikes that have plunged US ties into deep crisis. (AFP PHOTO/HASHAM AHMED)

Is that a picture of Obama holding a dog?

At which point we can stick a fork in Romney.

Via Ballot Box:

Newt Gingrich stands to benefit if Herman Cain were to withdraw or lose support in the Republican presidential race, according to a Public Policy Poll released on Tuesday.

Gingrich has a much better favorability rating with Cain supporters than does Mitt Romney. Seventy-three percent of Cain supporters view Gingrich favorably, while only 33 percent have a favorable view of Romney.

Gingrich is also the consensus second choice among Cain voters, with 37 percent saying Gingrich would be their back-up to Cain, compared to 14 percent for Michele Bachmann, 13 percent for Romney, and 12 percent for Perry.

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