Articles and More!: Looming

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Saturday, March 1, 2014

Many Still Unaware of Looming Obamacare Enrollment Deadline

The clock is ticking as the Obama administration nears the March 31 deadline for people to sign up in private insurance plans through Obamacare, with officials hoping for a final rush to bolster the exchanges.

Initially, the administration had hoped to enroll 7 million people in plans, but those numbers remain about 3 million behind the target goal, mainly because of the botched rollout of the Healthcare.gov website, reports The Hill.

But a poll released this week threw cold water on that expectation by revealing the public’s ignorance about when they need to gain health coverage or pay a fine.

Three in four uninsured patients are not aware of the March 31 deadline, the Kaiser Family
Foundation found in its latest monthly Health Tracking Poll.

“Deadlines are something that Americans react to, whether it’s filing or taxes or other responsibilities in society,” Tad Devine, a Democratic strategist and adviser to John Kerry’s 2004 run for president, told The Hill. “Highlighting that date can be a really positive tool. Just making people aware of the deadline is likely to motivate them to join the system.”

House Republicans are voting next week to eliminate the individual mandate penalty for this year, a rule that says people who do not have insurance by the deadline will either be fined $ 95 or one percent of their income.

But Democrats say voters want to see Obamacare fixed and improved, not repealed, said a memo from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and the Kaiser poll found 56 percent of the respondents believe Obamacare should remain the law.

Groups like Enroll America and health insurance companies are also spreading the word about the looming deadline,

In addition, the Obama administration on Friday said some people will be able to receive federal subsidies for health insurance bought in the private market and not through the Obamacare exchanges, reports The New York Times.

Technical problems with the federal exchange site had prevented some customers from using the online service to find insurance and subsidies, federal officials said.

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, a Democrat, asked the federal government to allow the tax credits, and several other states that have their own exchanges, including Maryland, Hawaii, and Massachusetts, have also experienced difficulties.

“We recognize that some states have experienced difficulties in processing automated eligibility determinations and enrollments,” said Aaron K. Albright, a spokesman for the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “We released guidance providing options to marketplaces to ensure eligible consumers have access to financial assistance.”

The new policy will apply to people who were not able to buy insurance through the exchanges because of technical issues, and ended up signing up for private insurance through the marketplace to make sure they were covered before the deadline.

The subsidies will be paid retroactively, and Republican Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Pitts, who chairs the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health said the Obama administration is “ignoring the law” with the new policy change.

But Sara Rosenbaum, a professor of health law and policy at George Washington University, said the Obama administration is avoiding a legal liability by allowing the subsidies.

“People could have gone to court to obtain benefits denied without due process of law, because of a breakdown in government eligibility systems, and a judge would probably have ordered retroactive relief,” Rosenbaum said. “The federal government is voluntarily providing equitable relief that a court would have given.”

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden and others spent last week pushing Obamacare, including Michelle Obama’s appearance on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last week, reports Politico.

In addition, Obama and others have been appearing on national radio talk shows and more to make their push as the deadline gets nearer.

“Folks only have about five weeks left,” Obama said on the Russ Parr Morning Show. “Don’t believe all the misinformation that’s out there because that is all politics and that is all directed toward me coming from the other side. Check for yourself whether this makes sense.”

The first lady has been using her appearances to push young people to apply for insurance.

“In addition to our old folks who don’t want to go to the doctor, young people think they’re invincible,” she said this past week. “The fact of the matter is the young lady who is still wearing the heels in the snow, who is going to slip and crack her behind on a patch of ice, is going to need insurance.”

Related Stories:

Biden: ‘We May Not Get to 7 Million’ by Obamacare Deadline

Report: Half of Obamacare ‘Enrollees’ Still Owe Their Premiums

Newsmax – Newsfront

Many Still Unaware of Looming Obamacare Enrollment Deadline

Monday, October 21, 2013

The Looming Threat of Hyperinflation Approaches – Diversify Now

James Rawles of Survival Blog is someone that I have long trusted and admired. He has been a stable voice in the wilderness as the US rockets towards an impending financial catastrophe brought on by Progressive Marxists on both sides of the political aisle. He is famous for telling people to ‘hold’ and not run for cover – until now. America had better listen… a modern day Cassandra is telling you: The Time Has Come To Fully Diversify: Retreating From Banks And From The Dollar Itself.

This has been a long time coming. Our debt now is sooo massive, there is no way to avoid hyperinflation. Once interest rates inevitably rise, the deal is done. In an effort to share Rawles’ sage advice, I am cross-posting here what he shared this morning:

The recent political crisis over the delayed raising of the U.S. debt ceiling was just a precursor of a much larger crisis that will occur when interest rates inevitably rise. Once they do rise, it will become impossible for the Federal government to service its debt without massive monetization and concomitant mass inflation. There may also be some draconian stopgap measures such as levies on bank accounts (a.k.a. “bail ins”), nationalization of private pension funds, nationalization or forced common stock purchases for IRA and 401(k) plans, currency controls, bank holidays, bank withdrawal limits, currency recalls, limited access to safe deposit boxes, IRA and 401(k) withdrawals limits, and perhaps even another ban on privately held gold bullion.

For the past seven years I have urged my readers to diversify their investments out of U.S. Dollars and into tangibles. I am now repeating that with an even greater sense of urgency. It is high time to deliberately draw down you bank accounts and stop rolling over your CDs. I now urge my readers to gradually withdraw as much cash as you can, leaving only as much in your checking accounts as you need to pay your monthly expenses and to make your tax payments.

Beware of CTRs

If you have more than $ 10,000 in your account and you attempt withdraw it all at once, then by law your bank teller will fill out a Currency Transaction Report (CTR). These reports are available to the IRS and other government agencies. To avoid this, you need to gradually withdraw your cash, in unequal amounts, over a period of weeks or months. If you have a lot of cash to move, then one viable approach is to write checks to open bank accounts in other banking institutions, and then deliberately draw down those new accounts with numerous small cash withdrawals.(Less than $ 7,000 each.) According to Wikipedia, CTRs include “an optional checkbox at the top if the bank employee believes the transaction to be suspicious or fraudulent, commonly called a SAR, or Suspicious Activity Report.” If your bankers suspects that you are “structuring” withdrawals, then they will feel obliged to file a SAR.

What to do with the cash you withdraw:

1.) Get your beans, bullets and Band-Aids squared away. This should be your highest priority. Don’t consider “investing” in anything else until you get your key preparations established.

2.) Keep some greenback cash “mattress money” in small bills. If possible, keep enough cash for a couple of months worth of expenses. Again, keep it very well hidden at home, or bury it in waterproof containers.

3.) Only after accomplishing Steps 1 and 2, buy some physical silver. In the U.S., pre-1965 dimes, and quarters are the best choice. Keep your silver very well hidden at home, or bury it in waterproof containers. Make sure that you let a couple of trusted relatives know exactly where it is hidden, in case you might come to harm.

4.) Invest in some common caliber ammunition. Here is your shopping list, in a nutshell: Rifle: .30-06, .308 Win., 5.56 NATO, 5.45×39, 7.62×39, .30-30, and .22 LR. Pistol: .45 ACP, 9mm, .40 S&W., .357. 38 Special. Shotgun: 12 Gauge, 2-3/4″ length. (Buy a good mix of buckshot, slug and birdshot shotshells, with an emphasis on buckshot.)

5.) Invest in some good quality battle rifles, handguns, and full capacity magazines.

6.) Buy productive farm or ranch land (with good pasture and hay ground) that is in a viable retreat region.

7.) Invest in your education. That is the ultimate form of portable wealth. A second stream of income may become important in the coming years, so getting an education in a practical trade would be wise.

8.) If you have substantial liquid wealth (more than $ 500,000), then start shuttling some of it offshore. But because of the coming currency fluctuations, I recommend that the majority of that be stored offshore in physical precious metals. If you don’t already have a deeply trusted relationship with a family in your offshore host country (you should!), then you will have to trust a bank deposit box in your offshore host country.

9.) Buy a few books of “Forever” postage stamps. These may become useful for barter, as they will hold their value against inflation better than cash.

10.) Invest in a depression-proof business that is portable. (See the blog article links in my reply to these letters.)

11.) Build your personal reference library.

12.) If you are elderly, then invest in preparedness for your children and grandchildren. In the depths of the Second Great Depression, you won’t be able to count on the government to help you. But you can count on your close relatives.

What NOT to do with the cash you withdraw:

1.) Unless you are a multimillionaire, don’t buy large quantities of gold or gemstones. Not only is gold too compact a form of wealth for practical barter, but it is also far more likely to be confiscated than silver.

2.) Don’t build up your Bitcoin wallet balance above 15 BTC. Because Bitcoins are a synthetic currency and Internet-based, they are subject the whims of larcenous politicians. Bitcoin transactions can be tracked, because nearly every Bitcoin transaction has a corresponding e-mail trail. (And anyone who thinks that their e-mails are all “safely encrypted” is fooling themselves.)

3.) Don’t buy urban or suburban real estate.

4.) Don’t buy a second home in a “resort” area. As I’ve mentioned before in SurvivalBlog, resort areas will be targeted by looters in times of social chaos.

5.) Don’t invest in fine art, vintage wines, rare postage stamps, classic cars, or collectibles. Those will sell for just pennies on the dollar in the Depression. (If you want any of those, then wait for the opportunity to “buy low.”)

6.) Other than some home security webcams, a starlight scope, and a Dakota Alert passive IR intrusion detection system, don’t waste your money on electronic gadgets.

7.) Don’t invest in foreign currencies. There are no more “safe” currencies!

8.) Don’t invest in foreign stocks. Tangibles will trump, worldwide.

9.) Don’t over-prepare or over-invest in one area, at the expense of others. (For example, buying all guns and no storage food, or vice versa.) Balanced preparedness is the key!

Bottom line: The time for hesitation has passed. If you leave your liquid assets in a bank or in a savings and loan, then you are now a sitting duck.

- JWR

You can call me a survivalist, you can call me a nut… I’ll take Jim’s advice any day, any where, any time. The looming threat of hyperinflation approaches; you better diversify now just in case. Better safe than sorry or dead.

Trevor Loudon’s New Zeal Blog

Commentary from Experts around the web…

The Looming Threat of Hyperinflation Approaches – Diversify Now

Monday, October 14, 2013

Default looming, Day 14 of shutdown, no solution

Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., walks to his office after arriving on Capitol Hill on Monday, Oct. 14, 2013 in Washington. The federal government remains partially shut down and faces a first-ever default between Oct. 17 and the end of the month. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ken., walks to his office after arriving on Capitol Hill on Monday, Oct. 14, 2013 in Washington. The federal government remains partially shut down and faces a first-ever default between Oct. 17 and the end of the month. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, waves at a rally at the World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013. Leaders in the U.S. Senate have taken the helm in the search for a deal to end the partial government shutdown and avert a federal default. The rally was organized to protest the closure of the Memorial, subsequent to the shutdown, and lack of access to it by World War II veterans, who traveled there on Honor Flight visits. To Lee’s right is tea party activists and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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WASHINGTON (AP) â€” With rising anxiety in the markets at home and abroad, Congress and the White House moved perilously closer to a default Monday with much of the government closed and Senate Democratic and Republican leaders still at odds in negotiations to end the crises.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., spoke by phone Sunday but failed to agree on a deal to raise the nation’s borrowing authority above the $ 16.7 trillion debt limit or reopen the government. Congress is racing the clock with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew warning that the U.S. will quickly exhaust its ability to pay the bills on Thursday.

Separately, a bipartisan group led by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, met for two hours Monday morning on a possible solution to the impasse.

“We’re making very good progress, but there’s still many details to be worked out,” Collins said before joining her GOP colleagues at a meeting with McConnell. “We don’t have a finished, agreed-upon product yet but I think we had an excellent meeting. And we’ll get together later today.”

There was no certainty that the growing anxiety among financial leaders around the world would provide the necessary jolt to Senate leaders, who represent the last, best chance for a resolution after talks between President Barack Obama and House Republican leaders collapsed.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said Monday that investors are growing increasingly “skittish” about the possibility of default. The bond markets were closed for Columbus Day, and by mid-morning the stock market was down modestly, with both the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor’s 500 index losing less than 1 percent. Trading in Asia was muted, with markets in Tokyo and Hong Kong closed for holidays.

The shutdown has furloughed 350,000 federal workers, impeded various government services, put continued operations of the federal courts in doubt and stopped the IRS from processing tax refunds. Some parks and monuments remain closed, drawing a protest at the National World War II Memorial on Sunday that included tea party-backed lawmakers who had unsuccessfully demanded defunding of Obama’s 3-year-old health care law in exchange for keeping the government open.

Economists see greater financial danger from an historical default. Christine Lagarde, the International Monetary Fund’s managing director, spoke fearfully about the disruption and uncertainty, warning on Sunday of a “risk of tipping, yet again, into recession” after the fitful recovery from 2008.

Reid and McConnell â€” five-term senators hardened by budget disputes and years of negotiations â€” are at an impasse over the automatic, across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration and whether to undo or change them as part of a budget deal. Republicans want to keep the spending at the deficit-cutting level of the 2011 budget law while Democrats are pressing for a higher amount.

“I’m optimistic about the prospects for a positive conclusion to the issues before this country today,” Reid said as the Senate wrapped up a rare Sunday session.

McConnell insisted a solution was readily available as he embraced the proposal from a bipartisan group of 12 senators, led by Collins and Manchin, that would re-open the government and fund it at current levels for six months while raising the debt limit through Jan. 31.

It also would give agencies greater flexibility in dealing with the automatic budget cuts, delay the medical device tax for two years and establish income verification for individuals receiving subsidies to buy health insurance.

“It’s time for Democrat leaders to take ‘yes’ for an answer,” McConnell said in a statement.

“This haven’t put us on suicide watch yet,” Manchin joked Monday morning, “but they’re concerned about us.”

He said, “The leaders have to come together” and decide what time frame a stopgap spending bill would cover and how much it would cost.

Tennessee’s Sen. Bob Corker, a Republican, said the leaders of both parties need to be “getting on the same page.”

Politically, Republicans are reeling, bearing a substantial amount of the blame for the government shutdown and stalemate.

“We’re in a free-fall as Republicans, but Democrats are not far behind,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., in warning Democrats about seizing on the GOP’s bruised brand as leverage to win more concessions.

McConnell and Republicans want to continue current spending at $ 986.7 billion and leave untouched the new round of cuts on Jan. 15 that would reduce the amount to $ 967 billion. Democrats want to figure out a way to undo the reductions, plus a long-term extension of the debt limit increase and a short-term spending bill to reopen the government.

“Republicans want to do it with entitlement cuts,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “Democrats want to do it with a mix of mandatory cuts, some entitlements and revenues. And so how do you overcome that dilemma? We’re not going to overcome it in the next day or two.”

He suggested keeping the government running through mid-January.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, told reporters the two sides are roughly $ 70 billion apart, the difference between the $ 1.058 trillion Senate budget amount and the $ 988 billion envisioned by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis.

“We haven’t picked a number, but clearly we need to negotiate between those two,” Durbin said.

Republicans dismiss the latest request as Reid moving the goalposts in negotiations as they were getting closer to resolving the stalemate that has paralyzed Washington. They also argue that it is disingenuous for Democrats to resist any changes in the 3-year-old health care law while trying to undo the 2011 budget law that put the cuts on track.

Graham and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said they would not support any deal that upends the spending limits imposed by the 2011 law, and predicted that their Senate GOP colleagues would oppose it as well.

Unclear was whether any Senate deal would pass the Republican-controlled House by Thursday, though Senate Democrats were hoping momentum and an imminent default would pressure House lawmakers.

Graham appeared on ABC’s “This Week,” Corker was interviewed on “Fox News Sunday,” Schumer spoke on CBS’ “Face the Nation” and Lagarde was on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Corker was interviewed on NBC’s “Today” show Monday and Manchin appeared on Fox News Channel and MSNBC.

Associated Press

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Default looming, Day 14 of shutdown, no solution

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada takes the elevator after a rare Senate session on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013. Senate Republicans and Democrats hit an impasse Sunday over spending in their last-ditch struggle to avoid an economy-jarring default in just four days and end a partial government shutdown that’s entering its third week. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

People walk around the World War II Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial, seen in the background, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013 in Washington. The WWII memorial has been closed due to the government shutdown. Access barriers to the memorial site were moved aside by protesters. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., speaks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013. Senate Republicans and Democrats hit an impasse Sunday over spending in their last-ditch struggle to avoid an economy-jarring default in just four days and end a partial government shutdown that enters its third week. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Tea Party Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks at a rally at the World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013, as leaders in the U.S. Senate have taken the helm in the search for a deal to end the partial government shutdown and avert a federal default. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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WASHINGTON (AP) â€” The United States moved perilously closer to an economy-rattling default and a partial government shutdown entered its 14th day as Senate Democratic and Republican leaders remained at odds over spending in their last-ditch negotiations to end the crises facing the nation.

But there was no certainty that the growing anxiety among financial leaders around the world would provide the necessary jolt to Senate leaders, who represent the last, best chance for a resolution after talks between President Barack Obama and House Republican leaders collapsed.

“I’m optimistic about the prospects for a positive conclusion to the issues before this country today,” Reid said as the Senate wrapped up a rare Sunday session.

McConnell insisted a solution was readily available as he embraced the proposal from a bipartisan group of 12 senators, led by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Manchin, that would re-open the government and fund it at current levels for six months while raising the debt limit through Jan. 31.