Tag Archives: Barack Obama

News

US poverty rate rises record amount under Obama’s leadership

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Story here from the NY Daily News. (H/T Wes Widner)

Excerpt:

The U.S. poverty rate has skyrocketed by a record amount under the Obama administration, with one out of seven Americans considered poor last year, according to a report Saturday.

The disturbing trend is an estimate of 2009 census data set for release on Thursday, The Associated Press reported.

Underscoring the depth of the recession, a projected 45 million people – or about 15% of the population – were poor last year. In 2008, 13.2% of the country lived in poverty.

The estimated 1.8 percentage-point increase in 2009 is the largest year-to-year uptick since the U.S. started calculating poverty figures in 1959. The previous high came during the 1980 national energy crisis, when the rate soared 1.3 percentage points to 13%.

More from Fox News.  (H/T Dad)

Excerpt:

Demographers also are confident the report will show:

  • Child poverty increased from 19 percent to more than 20 percent.
  • Blacks and Latinos were disproportionately hit, based on their higher rates of unemployment.
  • Metropolitan areas that posted the largest gains in poverty included Modesto, Calif.; Detroit; Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla.; Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

Numbers don’t lie – he’s the worst President ever.

News

Is Planned Parenthood overbilling state and local governments?

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Here’s the story on Fox News.

Excerpt:

Two former Planned Parenthood employees-turned-whistleblowers have made stunning allegations regarding the abortion provider’s accounting practices.  In a case now pending in federal court P. Victor Gonzalez alleges that he saw millions in fraudulent overbilling to state and federal governments when he worked as Chief Financial Officer for Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles.

Gonzalez alleges that after he reported the problems internally he was fired.  While Gonzalez was still working for PPLA the state of California launched audits of various Planned Parenthood affiliates, and uncovered more than $5.2 million in overbilling at a single affiliate based in San Diego.  Gonzalez claims that Planned Parenthood lobbyists intervened to stop other audits that were still pending statewide.

In his court filings, Gonzalez has outlined several transactions he alleges show illegal activity.  For example, in one year Gonzalez says PPLA paid $225,695.65 for Ortho Tri-Cyclen birth control pills, yet billed the government $918,084 – for a profit of $692,388.35.

[…]Planned Parenthood tried to have the Gonzalez whistleblower case dismissed on a technicality, but the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently denied that motion.  Walter Weber, who represents Gonzalez, says it could take years to actually get the case to trial.  Weber asserts that the issues outlined by Gonzalez are so wide-spread that they are akin to “ACORN-like corruption” – and that federal agencies, like the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, should consider de-funding Planned Parenthood of any government money.

[…]The most recent figures available show that the Planned Parenthood Federal of America and its affiliates received $349.6 million dollars in government grants and contracts for fiscal year 2008.

Government audits of Planned Parenthood affiliates in New Jersey and Washington state have uncovered similar billing discrepancies.  In addition, a second California whistleblower claim alleging improper ties between Planned Parenthood and its political arm has reportedly launched an investigation by the criminal division of the Internal Revenue Service, according to the New York Times.

ACORN, Planned Parenthood and teacher unions are three of the Democrats’ biggest special interest groups.

News

Health care premiums will increase due to Obamacare

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Story in the Wall Street Journal. (H/T Hot Air)

Excerpt:

Health insurers say they plan to raise premiums for some Americans as a direct result of the health overhaul in coming weeks, complicating Democrats’ efforts to trumpet their signature achievement before the midterm elections.

Aetna Inc., some BlueCross BlueShield plans and other smaller carriers have asked for premium increases of between 1% and 9% to pay for extra benefits required under the law, according to filings with state regulators.

These and other insurers say Congress’s landmark refashioning of U.S. health coverage, which passed in March after a brutal fight, is causing them to pass on more costs to consumers than Democrats predicted.

The rate increases largely apply to policies for individuals and small businesses and don’t include people covered by a big employer or Medicare.

[…]Many carriers also are seeking additional rate increases that they say they need to cover rising medical costs. As a result, some consumers could face total premium increases of more than 20%.

[…]In addition to pledging that the law would restrain increases in Americans’ insurance premiums, Democrats front-loaded the legislation with early provisions they hoped would boost public support. Those include letting children stay on their parents’ insurance policies until age 26, eliminating co-payments for preventive care and barring insurers from denying policies to children with pre-existing conditions, plus the elimination of the coverage caps.

Weeks before the election, insurance companies began telling state regulators it is those very provisions that are forcing them to increase their rates.

Aetna, one of the nation’s largest health insurers, said the extra benefits forced it to seek rate increases for new individual plans of 5.4% to 7.4% in California and 5.5% to 6.8% in Nevada after Sept. 23. Similar steps are planned across the country, according to Aetna.

Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon said the cost of providing additional benefits under the health law will account on average for 3.4 percentage points of a 17.1% premium rise for a small-employer health plan. It asked regulators last month to approve the increase.

In Wisconsin and North Carolina, Celtic Insurance Co. says half of the 18% increase it is seeking comes from complying with health-law mandates.

When you require insurance companies to force all of their customers to pay for new mandatory coverages and you remove limits on payouts, it makes the premiums go up! Obviously – somebody has to pay for the happy-talk eventually.