No dissent will be allowed in the Obama regime. You will agree or be silent. If you point out anything that Obama wants hidden, you will be dealt with, regardless of the truth behind the statements.
As you will note in the comments from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), they statements in Humana’s email “might” be against regulations. Instead of getting a ruling, they put a stop to them immediately.
Let’s also ignore that Senator Bill Nelson(D-FL) wants to stop the cuts to Medicare Advantage too. I guess Obama will have to make him shut up as well.
Dissent is the highest form of shut your mouth or else.
The Humana mailer focused squarely on the Medicare Advantage program.
"While these programs need to be made more efficient, if the proposed funding cut levels become law, millions of seniors and disabled individuals could lose many of the important benefits and services that make Medicare Advantage health plans so valuable," it said.
It urged seniors to sign up with Humana for regular updates on the health care legislation, and encouraged them to contact their lawmakers in Washington.
In a warning letter to Humana, HHS said the government is concerned that the mailer "is misleading and confusing" partly because the company’s lobbying campaign could be mistaken for an official communication about Medicare benefits.
HHS ordered the company to immediately halt any such mailings, and remove any related materials from its Web site. In the letter, the government also said it may take other action against Humana.
Humana received a cease and desist letter from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which administers both programs.
CMS is concerned that, among other things, this information is misleading and confusing to beneficiaries, represents information to beneficiaries as official communications about the Medicare Advantage program, and is potentially contrary to federal regulations and guidance for the MA and Part D programs and other federal law, including HIPAA. As we continue our research into this issue, we are instructing you to end immediately all such mailings to beneficiaries and to remove any related materials directed to Medicare enrollees from your website.
As is pointed out at the EconLog link, CMS says the wording of the materials is only "potentially contrary" to regulations yet they are ordering it removed before any finding it is actually against any rules.
Obama Administration Threatens Health Insurance Company For Deviating From Approved Thoughts
This is why racism still exists. People like this enforce and perpetuate it.
I am so sick of these people who automatically assume any numeric difference is racist and the white people are at fault. If minorities are getting punished more it couldn’t be because they are doing wrong more, could it? It couldn’t be that they are raised to think the world owes them, could it? No, of course not. It must be the white man’s fault.
And if a white person is treated worse than a black man? Well, then it’s “Reverse-Discrimination” as if discrimination only goes one way.
This is racism, people. Treating any group differently because of the color of their skin is racism. This is discrimination, none of this “reverse-discrimination” crap.
I am sure Eric Holder and his racial preference-mongers (not to mention the “social justice” purveyors at Obama’s Department of Education) approve:
Tucson schools create race-based system of discipline
by Doug MacEachern – Sept. 19, 2009 08:22 PM
The Arizona Republic
…The board is calling for a two-tiered form of student discipline. One for Black and Hispanic students; one for everyone else.
With the goal of creating a “restorative school culture and climate” that conveys a “sense of belonging to all students,” the board is insisting that its schools reduce its suspensions and/or expulsions of minority students to the point that the data reflect “no ethnic/racial disparities.”
From the section of the 52-page plan titled “Restorative School Culture and Climate,” subhead, “Discipline”:
“School data that show disparities in suspension/expulsion rates will be examined in detail for root causes. Special attention will be dedicated to data regarding African-American and Hispanic students.”
The board approved creating an “Equity Team” that will oversee the plan to ensure “a commitment to social justice for all students.”
The happy-face edu-speak notwithstanding, what the Tucson Unified School District board of governors has approved this summer is a race-based system of
discipline.
Offenses by students will be judged, and penalties meted out, depending on the student’s hue.
Michelle Malkin » Race-based discipline in Tucson schools
What’s the problem Bertha? Why not go to Congress and explain how honest you guys are?
ACORN’s top officer on Sunday dodged repeated calls to come before Congress and testify about the embattled group’s finances and ties to other organizations.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, had pressed chief organizer Bertha Lewis to prove her commitment to reforming the community activist group by showing more transparency.
"The bottom line is there’s no transparency in ACORN," Issa said on "FOX News Sunday."
The pressure comes in the wake of controversy over a series of hidden-camera videotapes showing the organization’s employees offering advice to undercover filmmakers posing as a pimp and prostitute. ACORN has pledged to investigate its offices and workers.
"Internally, let’s have some reform," Lewis said. "It’s indefensible what I saw (in the tapes)."
But she refused to answer Issa’s request to come before his committee.
ACORN Chief Dodges Congressman’s Call to Come Before Congress – Political News – FOXNews.com
And now we have Obama creating propaganda organizations to help push his agenda. I guess that pesky Hatch Act doesn’t apply to Dems, right?
The White House has tried to campaign hard for its health-care overhaul, but now allegations have arisen that the Obama administration abused its power by pushing the National Endowment for the Arts into campaigning for it as well. Andrew Breitbart’s Big Hollywood publishes today the transcript of a conference call hosted by the NEA in which they push grant recipients to speak out on behalf of Obama’s top domestic-policy agenda item. If true, the White House may have substantiated one of the arguments conservatives use for the abolition of the NEA as well as abused its power — and they have the audio to prove it
Hot Air » Blog Archive » Did Obama use the NEA to stump for ObamaCare?
OUCH! Politico and ABC (yes, ABC) got him good here.
Does anyone else notice how often that reality gets in the way of Obama?
Stephanopoulos cited Merriam Webster’s Dictionary definition. "Tax — ‘a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes.’"
"George, the fact that you looked up Merriam’s Dictionary, the definition of tax increase, indicates to me that you’re stretching a little bit right now," said the president. "Otherwise, you wouldn’t have gone to the dictionary to check on the definition….I absolutely reject that notion" that it’s a tax increase.
Hmmm.
Well maybe someone should tell that to the author of the bill.
Because, as Politico’s Chris Frates points out, it’s all right there on page 29 of the bill: "Excise Tax. The consequence for not maintaining insurance would be an excise tax."
To be more specific, if a taxpayer‘s modified adjusted gross income is between 100-300 percent of the federal poverty level, "the excise tax for failing to obtain coverage for an individual in a taxpayer unit (either as a taxpayer or an individual claimed as a dependent) is $750 per year. However, the maximum penalty for the taxpayer unit is $1,500."
If a taxpayer‘s modified adjusted gross income is above 300 percent of federal poverty level "the penalty for failing to obtain coverage for an individual in a taxpayer unit (either as a taxpayer or as an individual claimed as a dependent) is $950 year" — with a maximum penalty of $3,800.
"Exemptions from the excise tax will be made for individuals where the full premium of the lowest cost option available to them (net of subsidies and employer contribution, if any) exceeds ten percent" of their adjusted gross income.
So…it’s not a tax?
President Obama Offers a Taxing Definition – Political Punch
This is the day after we hear that Obama wants to cripple our nuclear stockpiles and refuses to listen to the generals he put in place.
Here’s a comforting thought-
China announced this week that its military arsenal is now comparable with the West.
The AP reported:
China’s military now possesses most of the sophisticated weapon systems found in the arsenals of developed Western nations, the country’s defense minister said in comments published Monday.
Many of China’s systems, including the J-10 fighter jet, latest-generation tanks, navy destroyers, and cruise and intercontinental ballistic missiles, match or are close to matching the capabilities of those in the West, Liang Guanglie said in a rare interview posted on the ministry’s Web site.
"This is an extraordinary achievements that speaks to the level of our military’s modernization and the huge change in our country’s technological strength," Liang said.
Gateway Pundit: China Says Its Military Arsenal Now Comparable With West
Early this month, I posted about about Germany’s “Cash for Clunkers” program which is now causing the worst auto collapse in their history.
We modeled our “Cash for Clunkers” program after their failure. Not a good idea, but what do you expect from Dems?
Well, now we are reaping the rewards of this auto welfare. The worst sales in 28 years.
When Congress gave away $3 billion for buyers to trade in their “clunkers” and buy new cars in August, lawmakers thrilled as buyers swamped showrooms to take advantage of the big discounts. “Cash for clunkers has captured the public’s attention . . . (it) has the possibility to truly jumpstart our economy,” said Rep. Candice Miller (R., Mich.). Other, more sober analysts, warned that the clunkers program was only stealing from future sales.
September sales are in, and sobriety can take a bow.
Edmunds.com reports that “September’s light-vehicle sales rate will fall to 8.8 million units . . . the lowest rate in nearly 28 years, tying the worst demand on record. After the cash-for-clunkers program boosted August sales to their first year-over-year increase since October 2007, demand has plunged. In at least the last 33 years, the U.S. seasonally adjusted annual rate has only dropped as low as 8.8 million units once — in December 1981 — with records stretching back to January 1976.”
Huh. By paying people to replace their cars with new ones—but only if they do it in a one-month window—the government exhausted the demand for new cars in the future. Democrats, who claimed that this would "jump-started the auto industry" are idiots. The few economists on board with this broken window fallacy are downright evil.
Auto Sales Collapse to Levels Not Seen for Almost Thirty Years
