CBO Says Obamacare “Savings” Were A Myth

In Most Quarters That’s Called A Lie


By Dell Hill

Get ready for a long list of excuses why this happened, but Democrats who prepared and stuffed Obamacare down our throats, lied when they said the health care monstrosity would save $210 billion dollars.  We knew it was a lie at the time and the Congressional Budget Office proved it today.

Forbes contributor, Avik Roy, a Senior Fellow in health care policy at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, filed this report this morning.

“I have obtained a copy of an email that the Congressional Budget Office just sent to “interested Hill staff,” stating that, “beginning immediately, legislation to repeal the CLASS provisions in current law would be estimated as having no budgetary impact.”  This clears the way for CLASS to be quickly repealed by Congress, because Congress won’t have to find offsetting budget cuts for CLASS’ mythical “savings.”

CLASS, you will recall, is the Obamacare long-term care entitlement that was known by all parties to be a fiscal time bomb, due to a structure that is designed to create an adverse selection death spiral in which only sick people use the program, driving up premiums and making them unaffordable and/or requiring a taxpayer bailout.

This news also has strategic importance for overall repeal of Obamacare.  As I discussed on Friday, the CBO scored the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as reducing the deficit by $210 billion in the years 2012-2021.  $86 billion of these savings comes from CLASS, because the program takes in premiums for five years, before it pays out claims, thereby making the program appear to be “deficit-reducing” in the near term.

As a result of the new CBO score, PPACA’s alleged deficit savings are now $124 billion in the 2012-2021 timeframe, a meaningfully more manageable number, given that the reconciliation process will need to be used to repeal the law under a Republican President.  Even this number is fudgy, as I describe in detail in this post, but the CBO’s view is of significant importance in Congress.”

Read the referenced Email and this entire report from Forbes by clicking right here.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is a politically neutral group with the primary job of scoring proposed legislation to determine it’s cost and overall financial impact.  For instance, when a President tells the world that his proposal “will cost” a certain amount of money, it’s up to CBO to verify that cost.  If the President declared his proposal to be “deficit neutral”, that means it won’t add to the federal deficit.  It’s the CBO’s job to investigate and substantiate that claim.

One of the major problems the CBO has it trying to score legislation that has errors in the data presented.  CBO can’t change those numbers; it has to determine its score based on the information contained in the bill.  It doesn’t take a math wizard to figure out that bad numbers worked into the proposal will skew the CBO results and give the impression that the legislation will do one thing, but the end result will be another.

That’s exactly what’s happened here; just as it was pointed out during the debate concerning Obamacare.  The numbers were fudged by people aware of what it would take to have the CBO show an overall saving, when they knew those savings would never happen.  At the time, there was absolutely nothing the CBO could do...But, with this report, it appears the CBO has struck back - pointing out how simple it would be to repeal Obamacare (with a Republican President, of course), because no loss would be involved, requiring off-setting budget cuts.

The only real question left is:  Did the Democrats lie about their unwanted health care legislation or are they lying now, when they deny their earlier lies?

Gilad Schalit On Verge Of Release

1,027 For 1 Prisoner Swap Slated For Tuesday



By Dell Hill

Would you approve of the United States swapping 1,027 Al Qaeda prisoners - some serving as much as 35 life sentences - for one American soldier?

That’s the question many Israeli citizens are asking as a major prisoner swap, involving
that many Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of Sgt. Gilad Schalit.  The swap is scheduled for Tuesday and we get the basic of this story from the Associated Press.

Sgt. Gilad Schalit

This week's planned Mideast prisoner swap is unleashing deep anguish in Israel and widespread elation in the Palestinian territories, laying bare the chasm of perspective dividing the two sides.

In Israel, the public is aghast at having to release convicted perpetrators of suicide bombings, deadly shootings and grisly kidnappings, although most understand that's what it takes to win freedom for a soldier captured during a routine patrol inside Israel at age 19.

The Palestinians, with equal vehemence, see the returnees as heroes who fought an occupier at a time of violence and argue moral equivalence between their actions and those of Israel's army.

These diverging narratives have been reflected in reactions to the deal, in which Israel will free some 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Sgt. Gilad Schalit, captured by Gaza militants in a cross-border raid in June 2006.

I encourage you to click on this link and read the entire report.  It’s extremely well written and offers considerable, in depth reporting.

Illegal Immigrants Help The Social Security System

Comedy Gold From Barney Frank




By Dell Hill

JJ’s blog children are at it again.  This time around, Shane Hayes and Angel Fleming at Fleming and Hayes blog in Massachusetts, document one of our nation’s greatest thinkers and orators - Representative Barney Frank (D-Ma).

Watch and listen as this outright corrupt Massachusetts politician tells his constituents that illegal immigrants actually HELP the Social Security program.  His logic boggles the mind.



What Barney Frank is actually doing is tipping off illegal immigrants that they shouldn’t contribute to Social Security because they won’t get any money back when it’s time to retire.  

He’s also suggesting that what the government is doing by setting this trap on illegals is all fine, dandy and above board, when in fact the government is taking in the money with no intention of ever paying out, so they’re actually stealing the money - something I suspect the federal courts would frown upon.

“Didn’t the South use the same economic arguments for slavery? Maybe our Founders were onto something with their notion of a legal immigration process as it allows people to become rightful citizens who are welcome to the liberties and freedoms as recognized by our republic in the Constitution…” - Fleming and Hayes

Don't Be Messin' With Texas Ladies

So this guy is running late for a business appointment and he calls in to the home office to leave a message to that effect.  After the beep, he starts recording.  Incredible hilarity ensues.



This audio has been played about a billion times on Texas radio stations.

Don’t Let OWS Distract You

It’s A Perfect Diversion


By Dell Hill

Yes, it’s important to keep abreast of the news, and yes, it’s important that we monitor the Occupy protests very closely.  But it’s even more important that we keep one eye on our own federal government and its various agencies.  What we’re seeing right now is a well-organized and politically orchestrated diversion; an opportunity to take action elsewhere without any public notice.

The Obama administration has become famous for what’s known as “Friday night document dumps”, whereby an agencies actions are released to the public late on Friday night, thereby missing the TV networks evening newscasts and - with skeleton crews on every weekend - if we find out about that action at all, it isn’t until Monday.  Those releases, for the most part, shed negative light on President Barack Obama and his socialist agenda.

We can’t get so caught up with the diversion that we develop tunnel vision and miss what’s going on during the mayhem taking place in the streets.

There used to be one television network we could depend on for keeping track, and appropriately reporting, the slick shenanigans inside the Beltway, but that network has obviously taken a route, tacking to the left and, therefore, failing to report in what they used to call a “Fair and Balanced” protocol.

So, with the lame-stream media to rely on, how does one go about monitoring government activity?

It’s actually much easier now than it was back in the day.  We have the Internet now and with the Internet came web sites, and with the web sites came news-based blogs. Some of them - like the Drudge Report and Breitbart’s Big Government web sites - have scads of new-age reporters on duty day and night, and it’s not uncommon for millions of people to click on their links to get the news.

While Matt Drudge and Andrew Breitbart’s web sites are automatic daily reads for me, I have a short list of blogs directly linked on every page of this blog and I subscribe to every post they publish via the RSS feed on Google “Reader”.  I don’t read every single post, but the “reader” service gives a thumbnail of the post, which allows me to decide if the subject matter is worth my time.  Often stories are duplicated, but I like to read them anyway; it gives me a different perspective and helps me make my own opinions based on a thorough review.

When you have a moment, scan down my list (it’s over there --->) and you’ll see exactly what I see in the RSS reader.  Don’t be shy; click on one and you’ll be transferred immediately to that web site.

This blog doesn’t attempt to keep you up to date on every news event taking place.  I’m a “one-man-band” and try to stay on top of the major stories, but often defer to my larger and better staffed compatriots elsewhere.

This is one of the very best ways you can keep a watchful eye on “big brother” and his merry band of outlaws.

A Totally Different Kind Of Flashmob

A Totally Different Kind Of Flashmob



By Dell Hill

It’s not every day that you’re walking through a train station and a famous orchestra suddenly appears, but that’s exactly what happened here.  BigGeekDaddy provides the intro:

“Copenhagen Phil (Sjællands Symfoniorkester) is one of the oldest professional symphony orchestras ever and they recently gave a surprise performance at the Copenhagen Central Station. They are playing Ravel’s Bolero and the conductor is Jesper Nordin.”

I love the ending.  Watch as the orchestra - instruments and all - seems to melt back into the crowd immediately after the performance.

Facebook Friends - That’s NOT An American Flag

Facebook Friends - That’s NOT An American Flag



By Dell Hill

Many Facebook posters are posting this photo, along with their disgust over the guy walking on “the American Flag”.  This supposedly took place at an OWS protest, but it really doesn’t matter where it happened....it’s not an American flag.

Take a closer look....


That’s NOT an American flag.

An American flag has thirteen horizontal stripes...whatever this is has twelve, including an extremely wide red stripe at the base of the star field.  Someone will suggest that the center of the flag is folded so that the white stripe doesn’t show.  Wrong again.  That would result in 14 stripes.

An American flag has a red stripe at the top and bottom.  Whatever this is has a red stripe at the top and a white stripe at the bottom.

This is what a real American Flag looks like.


I’ve actually seen a few flag haters try to incite a reaction by desecrating something that LOOKS similar, but really isn’t Old Glory.  This is just another example.

As a patriotic American, I love what that flag stands for, but I don’t go berserk every time someone attempts to trigger a negative reaction by desecrating it, and certainly not if their using a fake flag, like the guy in the picture above.  To do so only gets you in more trouble than the clown that’s baiting you.  For me, It’s more fun to wait until they’ve exerted all that energy being an idiot, and then immediately putting up a new flag!

Having said that, my attitude is considerably different if someone comes on to my property with the intent of desecrating my American flag.  I won’t go in to any detail, but suffice to say, they won’t forget the encounter.