Facing fire, Boehner insists his Obamacare expansion vote was really a repeal vote

Good luck with that.

House Speaker John Boehner’s job has gotten substantially harder with the success of Obamacare enrollments and the reality that the law is here to stay. He’s got one side—business interests—wanting his help in making changes to the law that will help them and the other—Matt Drudge and the tea party—insisting that he do nothing other than repeal. It’s not working out so well.

Last week, in an unusual voice vote without debate, the House passed their “doc fix,” the must-pass legislation to make sure physicians didn’t face a 24 percent cut in reimbursements in treating Medicare patients. Tucked quietly into that bill was a provision business organizations had been pushing for that would expand coverage options for small businesses by a eliminating cap on deductibles for small group policies offered inside the law’s health care exchanges. That would allow the businesses to offer high-deductible, cheaper policies for people who also have health savings accounts. That would count, for many, as an improvement in the law. Including Matt Drudge, who had a screaming headline Monday morning: “Republicans Expand Obamacare?”

Boehner is now falling all over himself trying to insist that this isn’t an expansion, but actually a repeal.

Please read below the fold for more on this story.

Daily Kos

Facing fire, Boehner insists his Obamacare expansion vote was really a repeal vote

Pakistani community must tackle grooming gangs, justice minister insists

The exploitation lasted for five years and only ended when the girls became brave enough to report their abusers to police.

But there is growing concern that wider issue is being brushed under the carpet because the authorities are fearful of being accused of racism.

Mr Green said: “It’s not sadly the first example we have had of organised serious exploitation and abuse involving Pakistani heritage men grooming and abusing white girls

“I hope that what happens is that any last vestiges of political correctness that say, ‘there are some cultural issues to address here’ disappear, because this is criminality, pure and simple.

“It goes without saying that every world religion condemns the exploitation and abuse of children and just as there are huge challenges to the social care system and the police, there are clearly challenges for community leaders to make it absolutely clear that this is 100 per cent unacceptable in any circumstances.”

“I am encouraged that I have heard voices saying that over the last couple of days but I think that has got to be the starting point, that this must not be a cultural issue, this is just criminality and it applies to everyone.”

Mr Green said the new Home Office task force would be aimed at helping those vulnerable to sexual exploitation by building in support across the criminal justice system.

He explained: “This will mean their voices are heard earlier and listened to more carefully. It will build more support into the system and improve systems for identifying those at risk.

“But our prime responsibility is, of course, stopping abuse before it starts. The group will be working to target the organised crime groups that perpetrate the sort of systematic abuse we saw in Oxford.”

He said the group would also look at how social media is used by gangs to groom and abuse the vulnerable.

Mr Green said while it was important to recognise exploitation and sexual abuse was a problem common to all parts of society denying the issue existed in the Pakistani community for cultural reasons was completely wrong.

He said: “It is the case that most cases of child abuse actually involve the white British middle aged men, we have seen terrible examples of Jimmy Savile and others, but it does seem from the evidence that we have seen so far, a particular problem of this organised, systematic year after year grooming and abusing.

“There is clearly more than one example of this within the Pakistani origin community so that itself is a specific problem and everyone particularly the community leaders need to recognise that as a problem we need to address.”

Crime News – UK Crime News

Pakistani community must tackle grooming gangs, justice minister insists