Smothers Brothers Are Crashing Too While 'The Affordable's' Cost Are Rising!

Cronyism at its Obama best!

The 900 million dollar website that doesn’t work was made by a company with a lousy track record and a top executive who’s a pal of the First Lady, Toni Townes-Whitley, Princeton class of ’85, is senior vice president at CGI Federal, which earned the no-bid contract to build the $900 million Obama care enrollment website at Healthcare.gov. George Schindler, the president of the Canadian-based CGI Group, CGI Federal’s parent company, became an Obama 2012 campaign donor after his company gained the Obama care website contract.......Three other companies submitted bids for Obama care, but CGI's bid was the only one considered.   CAN WE GET OUR MONEY BACK?

===
This is indeed sad, no actually it is pathetic: 

http://www.youtube.com/embed/O0azojPPRhw?feature=player_embedded

===
This from a warrior and true patriot friend of mine:
I hope that your upcoming surgical session will ultimately bring you complete relief , and enable you to enjoy the holidays with your family. You will be in my prayers.

The developments on the national and international scene, the many facets of which you so clearly present in your columns , concern me greatly; in particular the "deal" with Iran which places Israel in great danger. I hope that Netanyahu acts without delay: he seems to be the only statesman with any courage or any understanding of the need for military action.  Obama's personal treatment of Netanyahu defies logic or simple rules of courtesy, but to allow Kerry to accede to Iran's wishes is insanity, and is only done to provide an "achievement" that this "Regierung" can point to . 

If someone had told me  20 years ago that such a situation would exist I would have scoffed at them. Now I see that all things are possible when Evil rules, and that is exactly what is in the White House today: the O and his entire coterie are the  personification of Evil, Marxist-Islamic Evil. I do not expect virginal behavior from politicians  but I find the behavior of  this crowd to be totally unacceptable, under any circumstances. Twice a day, I pray for divine  intercession.

Enjoy your holidays with your wonderful grandchildren. May God bless you and your family and restore you to health so that you can continue your much-needed work for freedom.
===
Obama is crashing and so are The Smothers Brothers:  

http://offtheedgehumorpics.blogspot.com/2013/04/smothers-brothers-im-pilot.html#.UqXe7nco5LO

===
Between The Senate and The Saudis Obama is going to have a headache.  (See 1 below.)
===
Hot air balloons rise as does deductibles and the cost of The Affordable! (See 2 below.)

Dick

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Saudis to Obama: We Will Not Tolerate a Nuclear Iran
By Karin McQuillan


Individuals who have even visited Israel, or who observe Judaism, or who carry a Bible are banned from Saudi Arabia.  Yet Saudi Arabia's Israel-hating King Abdullah just flew in an Israeli scientist to have dinner with him, to enjoy some royal hospitality, accept a medal and the $200,000 "Arab Nobel Prize."  It's a not-so-subtle message to President Obama: the unthinkable can happen, so don't assume the Saudis won't join with Israel to bomb Iran.

Obama's new Iran policy moves the Mid-East closer to war over oil and religion -- Sunni Saudis versus Shia Iranians.  There is no more strategic commodity than Gulf oil to the entire world economy.  American national security stakes could not be higher.   Iran's end game, some say more than an attack on Israel, is to seize the Saudi oil fields.  There is a Shiite majority in the oil province that the Saudi Princes fear could be turned by Iran.  The Saudis no longer see the U.S. as an ally in stabilizing the Middle East.  We have become a force for chaos. The UK Telegraph:

Chris Skrebowski, editor of Petroleum Review, said the great unknown is how Saudi Arabia will react to a move deemed treachery in Riyadh... The great question is whether they can live with this deal, or whether it is intolerable," he said.

Mr Skrebowski said the Middle East is a tinder box, in the grip of a Sunni-Shia civil war comparable in ideological ferocity to the clash between Catholics and Protestants in early 17th Century Europe. Saudi Arabia has already shown how far it will go to protect its interests, helping to overthrow Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.

The Saudis are signaling that they will unleash a pre-emptive war in the Middle East in response to Obama's nuclear capitulation to Iran.  These signals are an effort to change Obama's decision to prop up the mullahs and green light their nuclear program.  Can the Saudi threats become real?  It's a wild card our President is willing to play.

The Saudis are allowing leaks on a deal to get nuclear weapons from Pakistan. Larry Bell in Forbes:

Pakistan is rumored to have recently delivered Shaheen mobile ballistic missiles (a version of the U.S. two-stage Pershing I, with a range of more than 450 miles) to Saudi Arabia, minus warheads. Mark Urban, the diplomatic and defense editor of BBC's "Newsnight", told a senior NATO decision maker earlier this year that "Nuclear weapons made in Pakistan on behalf of Saudi Arabia are now sitting ready for delivery."

The Saudis are not so secretly negotiating with the Israelis.  This goes beyond allowing the use of Saudi air space, to active support in a bombing raid on Iran. Bell again:

A diplomatic contact told the London Sunday Times that "The Saudis are furious and are willing to give Israel all the help it needs" to counter the unresolved nuclear threat, noting that their relations with the U.S. had been breached by Obama's overtures to Iran.

This new cooperation represents a major policy realignment given the fact that satellite images show a new Saudi CSS-2 missile base capable of deploying A-bombs with launch rails pointing towards both Iran and Israel. According to the Times, Israel's Mossad intelligence agency and Sunni royal rulers of Saudi Arabia are even developing joint contingency plans for a possible attack on Tehran's nuclear program. 

There is also talk by the Saudis of using oil prices to punish America for Obama's betrayal. 

Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the UK ...Ambassador Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz, who was speaking to the British Times, called the Obama administration's "rush" to embrace Tehran "incomprehensible."

"We are not going to sit idly by and receive a threat there and not think seriously how we can best defend our country and our region," Prince Mohammed, who is Saudi King Abdullah's nephew, said.  "Let's just leave it there, all options are available," he added, referring to possible defense plans made in response to Iran developing its nuclear capability.

The Saudis have collected a long grievance list of things our President has done to destabilize their neighborhood.  Their power rests uneasy, and maintaining it requires constant work.  Our President is the grand saboteur. 

• They are still shocked and enraged that we forced Mubarak out of Egypt and pressured the military to let the Muslim Brotherhood take over. The Saudis helped depose the Brotherhood and fix Obama's mess. It has cost the Saudis upwards of $5 billion dollars in aid to the new transition government.
• The Saudis are angry that we pushed out another ally, Yemen's president Ali Abdullah Saleh, creating turmoil on Saudi Arabia's southern border and a stronghold for al Qaeda.
• We invited violent radicals to our embassy in Bahrain; the Saudis had to dispatch troops to stop the uprising there.

Richard Miniter in Forbes:

Obama's move made no sense to the Saudis. Bahrain is home to some 15,000 American soldiers, sailors and Marines. Why would the U.S. endanger Americans and Arab allies for the sake of militants supported by its most fevered enemy?

The tone with which this question is asked -- a mixture of exasperation, regret and anger -- itself is telling. This is the tone you hear as long-term relationships die.

When Obama breached his own "red line" on chemical weapons in Syria and claimed that he had never drawn any red lines, undercutting Saudi support for the Syrian rebels, America's credibility collapsed. 

In a very public protest, the Saudi king rejected a seat on the U.N. Security Council, which the kingdom's diplomats had spent months lobbying for.  This was a warning shot in diplomatic terms.  Obama ignored it.

With his concessions to Iran's nuclear program, President Obama has betrayed both Israel and Saudi Arabia, our two most important allies in protecting the world's oil supply.  In contrast to President Bush's close cooperation with our Middle East allies, Obama did not consult them on the Iran deal, nor was their safety considered.  One result is certain: our influence in the region is diminished.  Other results, more dire, to follow.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2)On Health Exchanges, Premiums May Be Low, but Other Costs Can Be High

By ROBERT PEAR

 For months, the Obama administration has heralded the low premiums of medical insurance policies on sale in the insurance exchanges created by the new health law. But as consumers dig into the details, they are finding that the deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs are often much higher than what is typical in employer-sponsored health plans.

Until now, it was almost impossible for people using the federal health care website to see the deductible amounts, which consumers pay before coverage kicks in. But federal officials finally relented last week and added a “window shopping” feature that displays data on deductibles.

For policies offered in the federal exchange, as in many states, the annual deductible often tops $5,000 for an individual and $10,000 for a couple.

Insurers devised the new policies on the assumption that consumers would pick a plan based mainly on price, as reflected in the premium. But insurance plans with lower premiums generally have higher deductibles.

In El Paso, Tex., for example, for a husband and wife both age 35, one of the cheapest plans on the federal exchange, offered by Blue Cross and Blue Shield, has a premium less than $300 a month, but the annual deductible is more than $12,000. For a 45-year-old couple seeking insurance on the federal exchange in Saginaw, Mich., a policy with a premium of $515 a month has a deductible of $10,000.

In Santa Cruz, Calif., where the exchange is run by the state, Robert Aaron, a self-employed 56-year-old engineer, said he was looking for a low-cost plan. The best one he could find had a premium of $488 a month. But the annual deductible was $5,000, and that, he said, “sounds really high.”

By contrast, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average deductible in employer-sponsored health plans is $1,135.

“Deductibles for many plans in the insurance exchanges are pretty high,” said Stan Dorn, a health policy expert at the Urban Institute. “These plans are more generous than what’s prevalent in the current individual insurance market, but significantly less generous than most employer-sponsored insurance.”

Caroline F. Pearson, a vice president of Avalere Health, a consulting company that has analyzed hundreds of plans, said: “The premiums are lower than expected, but consumers on the exchange will often face high deductibles and high co-payments for medical services and prescription drugs before they reach the cap on out-of-pocket costs,” $6,350 for an individual and $12,700 for a family.

Those limits provide significant protection, even though those sums are substantial for most consumers. In addition, the federal website, HealthCare.gov, informs people that they may qualify for subsidies to reduce their out-of-pocket costs if their household income is below 250 percent of the federal poverty level, meaning that it is less than $28,725 for an individual or $48,825 for a family of three.

These “cost-sharing reductions” are available for a specific kind of midlevel plan known as a silver plan. People with lower incomes can get more help with out-of-pocket costs, but only if they choose silver plans.

Mr. Dorn said the government had not done much to inform people of these potential savings. “Consumers are giving up cost-sharing reductions of enormous value if they enroll in a bronze plan because it has the lowest premium,” he said.

Plans in the marketplace are separated into four categories — bronze, silver, gold and platinum — indicating the generosity of coverage, or the share of costs paid by insurance for an average enrollee.

Many people buying insurance on the federal and state exchanges are expected to qualify for subsidies. But in the first month, for reasons that are not clear, only 30 percent qualified. The others must pay the full premium and will be subject to the full deductible.

Most people shopping in the exchanges are expected to choose bronze or silver plans, which provide less generous coverage than most employer-sponsored plans.

A study by Jon R. Gabel and colleagues at NORC, a research organization affiliated with the University of Chicago, found that 65 percent of employees in group health plans had higher-value coverage that would be classified as gold or platinum under the Affordable Care Act.

At the same time, most policies in the exchanges are more generous than what people have been buying for themselves in the individual insurance market. Mr. Gabel found that 84 percent of policyholders in the individual market had coverage that was less than or equivalent to the bronze level.

James T. O’Connor, an actuary at Milliman, an employee benefit consulting firm, said: “Larger employers generally have more generous coverage than small employers, and small group plans, on average, are richer than what people can typically buy with their own money in the new health insurance exchanges.”

Mark A. York, a 60-year-old freelance writer in Hailey, Idaho, said he began shopping after he received a letter saying that his current insurance policy would be canceled because it did not meet the requirements of the health care law. In the exchange, he said, he found policies with premiums similar to what he is now paying, $440 a month, but “the deductibles were so high — $4,000 to $6,000 a year — that it defeats the purpose of having insurance.”

Brian H. Snoddy, 35, of Palmyra, Va., said his wife and two children had a policy with a $330 premium and a $2,500 deductible, but it is being canceled. For new plans with comparable coverage on the federal exchange, he said, “the deductibles are way higher, $5,000 or $6,000.”

For visits to a medical specialist, many plans on the federal exchange require co-payments of $50 to $75 or more.

Federal officials often point to premiums as evidence that the health care law has made insurance affordable. “Nearly six in 10 uninsured Americans can pay less than $100 a month for coverage in the health insurance marketplace,” Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, has said.

Higher deductibles are one tool that insurers can use to hold down premiums. Many have also held down premiums on the exchanges by limiting the choices of doctors and hospitals available to consumers in their provider networks.

Kellye Norris, 53, of Dallas said that after trying for more than a month, she completed an application on the federal exchange and enrolled in a Cigna plan with a premium of about $500 a month and no subsidies.

“My deductible is nearly $3,000, which is ridiculously high, in my opinion,” Ms. Norris said. “But as someone with pre-existing conditions, I’m grateful to be able to buy insurance at all.”