Crillz Posted September 14, 2010 Posted September 14, 2010 A year or two back, and probably more recent even (I didn't bother searching), some on here were kicking around the costs of health insurance. Anyway, figured I give an update... For 31 year old, non-smoker, $2,500 deductible, catastrophic insurance I was paying $92/ month last year. Got a nice little letter in the mail stating that the rates were going up. This year the premium is $127/ month for the same coverage (unless that is ammended by the insurer). Quote
billcoe Posted September 15, 2010 Posted September 15, 2010 Well, Obama said the new health care law would not up anyone's rates. AS is commonly discussed, they are going up 20-30% right now allegedly by about every insurer, and the insurers are laying it directly on the new regulations...hmmm, it appears that we were lied too. Hard to believe a politician would do that. -anyway- I thought that the process to achieve the end result was poorly done, but truth be told, I never did read the bill. I thought that they should have done a process more like the base closures. Let the experts do the work, then lay it out to the politicians with a take it or leave it vote. Instead, every special interest got to massage it to achieve there goals, and John Q public, outside looking in, often gets hosed in the end with that kind of process. Quote
Mal_Con Posted September 15, 2010 Posted September 15, 2010 Problem was every ® was against it no matter what the bill contained. So any Senator who wanted publicity, $$ or a special interest (antiabortion) could be a holdout and get major concessions. Obama made the mistake of thinking the opposition would be reasonable. Quote
Nitrox Posted September 15, 2010 Posted September 15, 2010 Obama made the mistake of thinking the opposition would be reasonable. No Republican votes were needed. Quote
tvashtarkatena Posted September 15, 2010 Posted September 15, 2010 Obama made the mistake of thinking the opposition would be reasonable. No Republican votes were needed. Obama made the mistake of thinking the opposition would be needed. The opposition made the mistake of proving him wrong. Quote
Fairweather Posted September 15, 2010 Posted September 15, 2010 Don't worry, the Dems are about to lose their first procedural move in the courts, and after November we'll be back to the gridlock we need. Quote
Nitrox Posted September 15, 2010 Posted September 15, 2010 Obama made the mistake of thinking the opposition would be reasonable. No Republican votes were needed. Obama made the mistake of thinking the opposition would be needed. The opposition made the mistake of proving him wrong. As opposed to what, going along with something that they didn't want? Can't say the same for Democrats who openly took payoffs in exchange for a yay. The VA suit isn't going so hot for Obama-care, probably going to blow up in Obama's face even worse. Quote
tvashtarkatena Posted September 15, 2010 Posted September 15, 2010 just a wee bit premature, considering that the trial hasn't even started. Quote
prole Posted September 15, 2010 Posted September 15, 2010 ...back to the gridlock we need. Is that what you call it? Harper’s Index, Jan. 2009 Number of news stories from 1998 to Election Day 2000 containing “George W. Bush” and “aura of inevitability”: 206 Amount for which Bush successfully sued Enterprise Rent-A-Car in 1999: $2,500 Year in which a political candidate first sued Palm Beach County over problems with hanging chads: 1984 Total amount the Bush campaign paid Enron and Halliburton for use of corporate jets during the 2000 recount: $15,400 Percentage of Bush’s first 189 appointees who also served in his father’s administration: 42 Minimum number of Bush appointees who have regulated industries they used to represent as lobbyists: 98 Years before becoming energy secretary that Spencer Abraham cosponsored a bill to abolish the Department of Energy: 2 Number of Chevron oil tankers named after Condoleezza Rice, at the time she became foreign policy adviser: 1 Date on which the GAO sued Dick Cheney to force the release of documents related to current U.S. energy policy: 2/22/02 Number of other officials the GAO has sued over access to federal records: 0 Months before September 11, 2001, that Cheney’s Energy Task Force investigated Iraq’s oil resources: 6 Hours after the 9/11 attacks that an Alaska congressman speculated they may have been committed by “eco-terrorists”: 9 Date on which the first contract for a book about September 11 was signed: 9/13/01 Number of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and North African men detained in the U.S. in the eight weeks after 9/11: 1,182 Number of them ever charged with a terrorism-related crime: 0 Number charged with an immigration violation: 762 Days since the federal government first placed the nation under an “elevated terror alert” that the level has been relaxed: 0 Minimum number of calls the FBI received in fall 2001 from Utah residents claiming to have seen Osama bin Laden: 20 Number of box cutters taken from U.S. airline passengers since January 2002: 105,075 Percentage of Americans in 2006 who believed that U.S. Muslims should have to carry special I.D.: 39 Chances an American in 2002 believed the government should regulate comedy routines that make light of terrorism: 2 in 5 Rank of Mom, Dad, and Rudolph Giuliani among those whom 2002 college graduates said they most wished to emulate: 1, 2, 3 Number of members of the rock band Anthrax who said they hoarded Cipro so as to avoid an “ironic death”: 1 Estimated total calories members of Congress burned giving Bush’s 2002 State of the Union standing ovations: 22,000 Percentage of the amendments in the Bill of Rights that are violated by the USA PATRIOT Act, according to the ACLU: 50 Minimum number of laws that Bush signing statements have exempted his administration from following: 1,069 Estimated number of U.S. intelligence reports on Iraq that were based on information from a single defector: 100 Number of times the defector had ever been interviewed by U.S. intelligence agents: 0 Date on which Bush said of Osama bin Laden, “I truly am not that concerned about him”: 3/13/02 Days after the U.S. invaded Iraq that Sony trademarked “Shock & Awe” for video games: 1 Days later that the company gave up the trademark, citing “regrettable bad judgment”: 25 Number of books by Henry Kissinger found in Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz’s mansion: 2 Number by then–New York Times reporter Judith Miller: 1 Factor by which an Iraqi in 2006 was more likely to die than in the last year of the Saddam regime: 3.6 Factor by which the cause of death was more likely to be violence: 120 Chance that an Iraqi has fled his or her home since the beginning of the war: 1 in 6 Portion of Baghdad residents in 2007 who had a family member or friend wounded or killed since 2003: 3/4 Percentage of U.S. veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have filed for disability with the VA: 35 Chance that an Iraq war veteran who has served two or more tours now has post-traumatic stress disorder: 1 in 4 Number of all U.S. war veterans who have been denied Veterans Administration health care since 2003: 452,677 Number of eligibility restrictions for admission into the Army that have been loosened since 2003: 9 Percentage change from 2004 to 2007 in the number of Army recruits admitted despite having been charged with a felony: +295 Date on which the White House announced it had stopped looking for WMDs in Iraq: 1/12/05 Years since his acquittal that O. J. Simpson has said he is still looking for his wife’s “real killers”: 13 Minimum number of close-up photographs of Bush’s hands owned by his current chief of staff, Josh Bolten: 4 Number of vehicles in the motorcade that transports Bush to his regular bike ride in Maryland: 6 Estimated total miles he has ridden his bike as president: 5,400 Portion of his presidency he has spent at or en route to vacation spots: 1/3 Minimum number of times that Frederick Douglass was beaten in what is now Donald Rumsfeld’s vacation home: 25 Estimated number of juveniles whom the United States has detained as enemy combatants since 2002: 2,500 Minimum number of detainees who were tortured to death in U.S. custody: 8 Minimum number of extraordinary renditions that the United States has made since 2006: 200 Date on which USA Today added Guantánamo to its weather map: 1/3/05 Number of incidents of torture on prime-time network TV shows from 2002 to 2007: 897 Number on shows during the previous seven years: 110 Percentage change since 2000 in U.S. emigration to Canada: +79 Number of the thirty-eight Iraq war veterans who have run for Congress who were Democrats: 21 Percentage of Republicans in 2005 who said they would vote for Bush over George Washington: 62 Seconds it took a Maryland consultant in 2004 to pick a Diebold voting machine’s lock and remove its memory card: 10 Number of states John Kerry would have won in 2004 if votes by poor Americans were the only ones counted: 40 Number if votes by rich Americans were the only ones counted: 4 Portion of all U.S. income gains during the Bush Administration that have gone to the top 1 percent of earners: 3/4 Increase since 2000 in the number of Americans living at less than half the federal poverty level: 3,500,000 Percentage change since 2001 in the average amount U.S. workers spend on out-of-pocket medical expenses: +172 Estimated percentage by which Social Security benefits would have declined if Bush’s privatization plan had passed: –15 Percentage change since 2002 in the number of U.S. teens using illegal drugs: –9 Percentage change in the number of adults in their fifties doing so: +121 Number of times FDA officials met with consumer and patient groups as they revised drug-review policy in 2006: 5 Number of times they met with industry representatives: 113 Amount the Justice Department spent in 2001 installing curtains to cover two seminude statues of Justice: $8,650 Number of Republican officials who have been investigated by the Justice Department since 2001: 196 Number of Democratic officials who have been: 890 Number of White House officials in 2006 and 2007 authorized to discuss pending criminal cases with the DOJ: 711 Number of Clinton officials ever authorized to do so: 4 Years since a White House official as senior as I. Lewis Libby had been indicted while in office: 130 Number of U.S. cities and towns that have passed resolutions calling for the impeachment of President Bush: 92 Percentage change since 2001 in U.S. government spending on paper shredding: +466 Percentage of EPA scientists who say they have experienced political interference with their work since 2002: 60 Change since 2001 in the percentage of Americans who believe humans are causing climate change: –4 Number of total additions made to the U.S. endangered-species list under Bush: 61 Average number made yearly under Clinton: 65 Minimum number of pheasant hunts Dick Cheney has gone on since he shot a hunting companion in 2006: 5 Days after Hurricane Katrina hit that Cheney’s office ordered an electric company to restore power to two oil pipelines: 1 Days after the hurricane that the White House authorized sending federal troops into New Orleans: 4 Portion of the $3.3 billion in federal Hurricane Katrina relief spent by Mississippi that has benefited poor residents: 1/4 Percentage change in the number of Louisiana and Mississippi newborns named Katrina in the year after the storm: +153 Rank of Nevaeh, “heaven” spelled backward, among the fastest growing names given to American newborns since 2000: 1 Months, beginning in 2001, that the federal government’s online condom fact sheet disappeared from its website : 17 Minimum amount that religious groups received in congressional earmarks from 2003 to 2006: $209,000,000 Amount such groups received during the previous fourteen years: $107,000,000 Percentage change from 2003 to 2007 in the amount of money invested in U.S. faith-based mutual funds: +88 Average annualized percentage return during that time in the Christian and Muslim funds, respectively: +11, +15 Number of feet the Ground Zero pit has been built up since the site was fully cleared in 2002: 30 Number of 980-foot-plus “Super Tall” towers built in the Arab world in the seven years since 9/11: 4 Year by which the third and final phase of the 2003 “road map” to a Palestinian state was to have been reached: 2005 Estimated number of the twenty-five provisions of the first phase that have yet to be completed: 12 Number of times in 2007 that U.S. media called General David Petraeus “King David”: 14 Percentage change during the first ten months of the Iraq war “surge” in the number of Iraqis detained in U.S.-run prisons: +63 Percentage change in the number of Iraqis aged nine to seventeen detained: +285 Ratio of the entire U.S. federal budget in 1957, adjusted for inflation, to the amount spent so far on the Iraq war: 1:1 Estimated amount Bush-era policies will cost the U.S. in new debt and accrued obligations: $10,350,000,000,000 (see page 31) Percentage change in U.S. discretionary spending during Bush’s presidency: +31 Percentage change during Reagan’s and Clinton’s, respectively: +16, +0.3 Ratio in 1999 of the number of U.S. federal employees to the number of private employees on government contracts: 15:6 Ratio in 2006: 14:15 Total value of U.S. government contracts in 2000 that were awarded without competitive bidding: $73,000,000,000 Total in 2007: $146,000,000,000 Number of the five directors of the No Child Left Behind reading program with financial ties to a curriculum they developed: 4 Amount by which the federal government has underfunded its estimated cost to implement NCLB: $71,000,000,000 Minimum number of copies sold, since it was released in 2006, of Flipping Houses for Dummies: 45,000 Chance that the buyer of a U.S. home in 2006 now has “negative equity,” i.e., the debt on the home exceeds its value: 1 in 5 Estimated value of Henry Paulson’s Goldman Sachs stock when he became Treasury Secretary and sold it: $575,000,000 Estimated value of that stock today: $238,000,000 Salary in 2006 of the White House’s newly created Director for Lessons Learned: $106,641 Minimum number of Bush-related books published since 2001: 606 Number of words in the first sentence of Bill Clinton’s memoir and in that of George W. Bush’s, respectively: 49, 5 Minimum number of nicknames Bush has given to associates during his presidency: 75 Number of associates with the last name Jackson he has dubbed “Action Jackson”: 2 Number of press conferences at which Bush has referred to a question as a “trick”: 14 Number of times he has declared an event or outcome not to be “acceptable”: 149 Rank of Bush among U.S. presidents with the highest disapproval rating: 1 Average percentage of Americans who approved of the job Bush was doing during his second term: 37 Percentage of Russians today who approve of the direction their country took under Stalin: 37 Quote
olyclimber Posted September 15, 2010 Posted September 15, 2010 Don't worry, the Dems are about to lose their first procedural move in the courts, and after November we'll be back to the gridlock we need. http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100915/el_yblog_upshot/tea-party-victory-endangers-gops-goal-of-retaking-the-senate Quote
tvashtarkatena Posted September 15, 2010 Posted September 15, 2010 Sarah Palin on a Burger King diet. But she'll win in Biden's district without RNC support, no problem. Quote
JosephH Posted September 15, 2010 Posted September 15, 2010 Yes, the fact that she is in the [political] picture at all tells you there are a lot of republican voters who are dumb as stumps and being jerked off. Quote
prole Posted September 15, 2010 Posted September 15, 2010 More conservative-style "liberty" coming at 'cha! Let freedumb reign. Quote
olyclimber Posted September 15, 2010 Posted September 15, 2010 http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/09/15/5114893-first-thoughts-the-purge-inside-the-gop This is no longer George W. Bush’s Republican Party, or even Ronald Reagan’s (at least the Reagan who raised taxes and agreed to amnesty for illegal immigrants). It’s a Republican Party that’s being led by Palin, DeMint, Beck, Hannity, and Limbaugh. Quote
olyclimber Posted September 15, 2010 Posted September 15, 2010 Its an interesting response to losing to a party of the opposing side of the political spectrum: instead of moving towards the center, moving further right. Perhaps I am interpreting this wrong, but this seems counter to how democracies are supposed to function...that is, if they actually expect to win office (and not just a primary). I guess it all depends on who shows up at the polls in november. Quote
prole Posted September 15, 2010 Posted September 15, 2010 (edited) http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/09/15/5114893-first-thoughts-the-purge-inside-the-gop This is no longer George W. Bush’s Republican Party, or even Ronald Reagan’s (at least the Reagan who raised taxes and agreed to amnesty for illegal immigrants). It’s a Republican Party that’s being led by Palin, DeMint, Beck, Hannity, and Limbaugh. I'm not sure that economic elites are very worried about this movement as long as it's tied to free market fundamentalism, the funding sources suggest it's likely to remain that way. The small minority of principled liberals (in the classic sense) in the GOP might be crapping their pants but them's the breaks when you tether yourself to socially conservative whackjobs in order to ram through an economic program that victimizes them. Boo-hoo. Edited September 15, 2010 by prole Quote
billcoe Posted September 15, 2010 Posted September 15, 2010 "Soylent green" - it will all work out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green Quote
ivan Posted September 15, 2010 Posted September 15, 2010 "Soylent green" - it will all work out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green pretty certain wheat thins are soylent green - don't give a shit what's in 'em 'cuz they sure are tasty Quote
Fairweather Posted September 15, 2010 Posted September 15, 2010 FWIW, I masturbated while I watched that video. Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.