Friday, November 8, 2013
David Rockefeller, Walton Family, Charles Schwab Among Billionaires Getting Welfare In Form Of "Farm Subsidies"
Less than a week after the federal government slashed food assistance for low-income families by $5 billion, a Washington D.C.-based research group revealed that 50 of the country's richest people received over $11 million in handouts from the government, that could be labeled "welfare for billionaires."
The "welfare" actually came in the form of "farm subsidies" to the 50 billionaires, most of whom are not even farmers nor have anything personally to do with farming.
While $11.3 million may seem like nothing to the billionaires on the list uncovered by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group, it would be enough to provide food stamp assistance to more than 8,400 people for 10 months. The average monthly benefit for recipients nationwide in 2012 was $133.41.
"Farm programs that benefit billionaires are indefensible and irresponsible," said the research study's author, Alex Rindler. "The information shows that our broken policies propped up the richest few at the expense of taxpayers and struggling families – that's a backwards vision that no one should be proud of."
Many of the billionaires on the list, in addition to the direct government handouts, also received "crop insurance" subsidies from taxpayers. But the government does not disclose the names of insurance subsidy recipients so it's impossible to discover which billionaires got how much insurance money.
The government pays about 62 percent of crop insurance costs.
Among the 50 billionaires on the government dole, in the form of farm subsidies, is David Rockefeller Sr. (pictured), the 98-year old patriarch of the vastly influential Rockefeller clan, former chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank and founder in 1973 of the Trilateral Commission, an elite private group of American, European and Japanese business and political leaders.
Discount stockbroker Charles Schwab, whose $5.1 billion fortune places him 88th on the Forbes 400 list of America's richest individuals, makes the list as well.
Both billionaires received more than half-a-million dollars in taxpayer-funded farm subsidies.
Also on the list of billionaire welfare recipients is current U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker whose family owns the Hyatt Hotel chain, Royal Caribbean Cruise line and other high-profile holdings. The list also includes five other members of the Pritzker family, which is one of America's richest.
Microsoft co-founder and owner of the NFL Seattle Seahawks Paul Allen, whose net worth of over $15 billion makes him the 53rd richest person in the world, received $14,429 in subsidies for barley. Several members of the Walton family, owners of Wal-Mart, also took in subsidies, as did S. Truett Cathy, founder of the fast-food chain Chick-fil-A.
.@carrieunderwood cool to mock obamacare. You're clever, girl. Now mock ted cruz and $27 billion he cost economy
$24 billion.
That's according to an estimate from Standard & Poor's. The financial services company said the shutdown, which ended with a deal late Wednesday night after 16 days, took $24 billion out of the U.S. economy, and reduced projected fourth-quarter GDP growth from 3 percent to 2.4 percent.
Here's a breakdown of some of the economic cost by our calculations:
- About $3.1 billion in lost government services, according to the research firm IHS
- $152 million per day in lost travel spending, according to the U.S. Travel Association
- $76 million per day lost because of National Parks being shut down, according to the National Park Service
- $217 million per day in lost federal and contractor wages in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area alone
Hundreds of thousands of federal workers bore the economic brunt of the shutdown. But small businesses also suffered from frozen government contracts and stalled business loans. Tourism suffered from closed national parks, and military families had to cope without childcare and other services. Federal workers will receive back-pay under the deal, but contractors will probably not get their lost wages. The stall in cash-flow could affect spending during the holiday shopping season.
And with the deal only guaranteeing government funding through Jan. 15, the situation could grow worse. "The short turnaround for politicians to negotiate some sort of lasting deal will likely weigh on consumer confidence, especially among government workers that were furloughed," Standard & Poor's said.
Obama: "I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me,"
President Barack Obama told NBC's Chuck Todd in an interview Thursday that he is personally "sorry" about Americans losing their current health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act.
"I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me," Obama said.
"We've got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them and we are going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this."
Obama's apology comes amid backlash over a broken promise from 2010, when he repeatedly said that under Obamacare, "If you like your plan, you can keep it."
Customers in the individual insurance market are finding that they are at risk of losing coverage from their current policies if they have changed since the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, and don't meet certain minimum requirements of the law.
The rollout of the federal health-care law has also been plagued by a dysfunctional website, HealthCare.gov. The White House says the website will be fixed by the end of November, pushing up close on a Dec. 15 sign-up deadline to receive benefits by the start of 2014.
CBS 60 Minutes Benghazi CBS Is Forced To Issue A Correction To Its Bombshell Report On Benghazi
"60 Minutes" will issue a major correction on its recent bombshell report on the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi.
CBS issued a tersely written statement Thursday night that said the network was looking into whether it was misled by Morgan Jones (a pseudonym), the star source in the recent segment.
The full statement:
60 Minutes has learned of new information that undercuts the account told to us by Morgan Jones of his actions on the night of the attack on the Benghazi compound.
We are currently looking into this serious matter to determine if he misled us, and if so, we will make a correction.
CBS then pulled the original report from its website. On Friday morning, correspondent Lara Logan, who reported the piece, apologized on air on "CBS This Morning."
"The most important thing to every person at '60 Minutes' is the truth, and today the truth is we made a mistake," Logan said. She said that "60 Minutes" will issue a correction this Sunday.
The move follows more than a week of criticism that had piled up on the network amid an investigation into Dylan Davies' (the source's real name) previous claims.
@fixnews Fox Business’ John Stossel ‘upset’ poor people aren’t selling kidneys for $1,200
"Libertarian Fox Business host John Stossel on Thursday said he was outraged that most government services like the military and "organ selling" had not been turned over to private business.
In a segment titled "Time to Privatize," Stossel told the hosts of Fox & Friends that the beauty of privatizing the government was that private companies were easier to fire if they didn't live up to the promise of proving better services at a lower cost.
"There are some things, though, that should remain under the purview of the federal government," host Steve Doocy noted."
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Loyal Obama Supporters, Canceled by Obamacare
"San Francisco architect Lee Hammack says he and his wife, JoEllen Brothers, are "cradle Democrats." They have donated to the liberal group Organizing for America and worked the phone banks a year ago for President Obama's re-election.
Since 1995, Hammack and Brothers have received their health coverage from Kaiser Permanente, where Brothers worked until 2009 as a dietitian and diabetes educator. "We've both been in very good health all of our lives – exercise, don't smoke, drink lightly, healthy weight, no health issues, and so on," Hammack told me.
The couple — Lee, 60, and JoEllen, 59 — have been paying $550 a month for their health coverage — a plan that offers solid coverage, not one of the skimpy plans Obama has criticized. But recently, Kaiser informed them the plan would be canceled at the end of the year because it did not meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act. The couple would need to find another one. The cost would be around double what they pay now, but the benefits would be worse.
"From all of the sob stories I've heard and read, ours is the most extreme," Lee told me in an email last week.
I've been skeptical about media stories featuring those who claimed they would be worse off because their insurance policies were being canceled on account of the ACA. In many cases, it turns out, the consumers could have found cheaper coverage through the new health insurance marketplaces, or their plans weren't very good to begin with. Some didn't know they could qualify for subsidies that would lower their insurance premiums.
So I tried to find flaws in what Hammack told me. I couldn't find any.
- The couple's existing Kaiser plan was a good one.
- Their new options were indeed more expensive, and the benefits didn't seem any better.
- They do not qualify for premium subsidies because they make more than four times the federal poverty level, though Hammack says not by much."
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Oregon's State Exchange May Be Worse Than HealthCare.gov
"As the federal government consumes humble pie over failures in the health insurance exchanges, some states that have set up their own exchanges are also struggling. Oregon has yet to enroll one single person, and it's been reduced to pawing through paper applications to figure out eligibility.
When Cover Oregon opened Oct. 1, executive director Rocky King was excited. He'd been preparing for years. "Day one, we are accepting applications. And staff at the Oregon Health Authority and Cover Oregon are ready to process those applications," he said on opening day.
Back then, King conceded there were still glitches with the , but he said that by mid-to-late October they'd be worked out. Now it's November, and it's clear that a quick fix is not in the cards. So Cover Oregon has turned to old-fashioned paper applications. People can either download one off the website, or have somebody walk them through it.
NPR made a request to visit a call center to see the process but was turned down for security reasons.
Instead, spokeswoman Amy Fauver explained how it is working. "We have on our website right now a place where people who just want to wait, who just want to do it electronically, can give us their e-mail address, and we will e-mail them when the system is fully functional," she said."
insurance co's are issuing cancellation letters but not saying you can get cheaper insurance in the exchanges.
"A special report by Talking Points Memo found specific examples of insurance companies contacting people before the October 1st start date, and trying to lock them in to higher priced plans than they could find on an exchange. The companies warned customers that their plans were being canceled and offered them new, higher-priced plans, but made no mention of healthcare exchanges, or subsidies that people could qualify for under Obamacare. One of the women interviewed by TPM would have had to pay more than $1,000 a month for the new plan offered by her insurance company, and it offered bare minimum coverage with a $6,300 deductible. After logging on to her state's insurance exchange, the Seattle resident found a plan for $80 dollars a month with a $250 dollar deductible. "
Monday, November 4, 2013
@gop House Republicans, meanwhile, are eager to kill Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA)
"In the Senate, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) this morning secured its 60th vote, all but guaranteeing its success against a likely Republican filibuster later today. But if all goes according to plan, what can we expect to see in the GOP-led House?
Speaker John Boehner is not in favor of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act, which seems to be heading toward passage in the Senate."The Speaker believes this legislation will increase frivolous litigation and cost American jobs, especially small business jobs," Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said in an email Monday.
There is, however, no reason to believe this gambit will work. ENDA already has 60 supporters, none of them has said their backing is dependent on expectations of House passage.
Sunday, November 3, 2013
this is so sad: Western black rhino declared extinct
"London (CNN) -- Africa's western black rhino is now officially extinct according the latest review of animals and plants by the world's largest conservation network.
The subspecies of the black rhino -- which is classified as "critically endangered" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species -- was last seen in western Africa in 2006.
The IUCN warns that other rhinos could follow saying Africa's northern white rhino is "teetering on the brink of extinction" while Asia's Javan rhino is "making its last stand" due to continued poaching and lack of conservation.
"In the case of the western black rhino and the northern white rhino the situation could have had very different results if the suggested conservation measures had been implemented," Simon Stuart, chair of the IUCN species survival commission said in a statement.
"These measures must be strengthened now, specifically managing habitats in order to improve performance, preventing other rhinos from fading into extinction," Stuart added.
The IUCN points to conservation efforts which have paid off for the southern white rhino subspecies which have seen populations rise from less than 100 at the end of the 19th century to an estimated wild population of 20,000 today.
Another success can be seen with the Przewalski's Horse which was listed as "extinct in the wild" in 1996 but now, thanks to a captive breeding program, has an estimated population of 300.
The latest update to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species reviews more than 60,000 species, concluding that 25% of mammals on the list are at risk of extinction.
Many plants are also under threat, say the IUCN.
Populations of Chinese fir, a conifer which was once widespread throughout China and Vietnam, is being threatened by the expansion of intensive agriculture according to the IUCN.
A type of yew tree (taxus contorta) found in Asia which is used to produce Taxol (a chemotherapy drug) has been reclassified from "vulnerable" to "endangered" on the IUCN Red List, as has the Coco de Mer -- a palm tree found in the Seychelles islands -- which is at risk from fires and illegal harvesting of its kernels.
Recent studies of 79 tropical plants in the Indian Ocean archipelago revealed that more than three quarters of them were at risk of extinction.
In the oceans, the IUCN reports that five out of eight tuna species are now "threatened" or "near threatened," while 26 recently-discovered amphibians have been added to the Red List including the "blessed poison frog" (classified as vulnerable) while the "summers' poison frog" is endangered.
"This update offers both good and bad news on the status of many species around the world," Jane Smart, director of IUCN's global species program said in a statement.
"We have the knowledge that conservation works if executed in a timely manner, yet, without strong political will in combination with targeted efforts and resources, the wonders of nature and the services it provides can be lost forever."
Friday, November 1, 2013
Did you hear or read that the Affordable Care Act will cause premiums to go up $7,450 for a family of four? Well, it's not true.
"In a mailer to Virginia voters, the conservative Heritage Action calls out President Obama for breaking his promise to save families up to $2,500 in premiums per year under his health care overhaul. But the group makes its own misleading claims about premiums in the process.
- The mailer falsely claims "Obamacare will increase premiums an average of $7,450 for families." That's the increase in national health care spending attributable to the law for every four people over nine years — as 30 million uninsured Americans gain coverage. It's not an average annual premium increase.
- The mailer also wrongly says "Virginians will experience between 3% and 67% in premium increases." The study it cites actually said premium changes would range from a decrease of 19 percent to an increase of 67 percent. And the estimates are only for the individual market, where 5 percent of Virginians buy insurance, and do not account for subsidies that many will receive.
Heritage Action, a 501(c)4 arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, starts off by saying, "Obama and Virginia liberals promised a $2,500 reduction in health care premiums for families." And it goes on to falsely say: "In real dollars, Obamacare will increase premiums an average of $7,450 for families." That figure comes from a Forbes contributor who calculated the per-capita amount of the increase in health care spending over nine years because of the Affordable Care Act and then multiplied it by four.
It's a nine-year figure, compared with Obama's $2,500 one-year figure. Neither of the numbers pertains only to premiums — despite what then-candidate Obama said — and they're both based on a loose definition of "average family."
All of those points are made clear by the Forbes contributor who calculated the $7,450 number."
rest at http://www.factcheck.org/2013/11/fighting-premium-spin-with-more-spin/
