This and That...

[Ross]

42 USC § 18115
Freedom Not to Participate in Federal Health Insurance Programs

Current through Pub. L. 113-36. (See Public Laws for the current Congress.)

No individual, company, business, nonprofit entity, or health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage shall be required to participate in any Federal health insurance program created under this Act (or any amendments made by this Act), or in any Federal health insurance program expanded by this Act (or any such amendments), and there shall be no penalty or fine imposed upon any such issuer for choosing not to participate in such programs.

LII has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references LII.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/18115

[Warph]

Gumball Math – Putting the Immigration Debate into Perspective

Posted By Mike "Mish" Shedlock on Jan 9, 2014

Recently I received a link from a friend that puts the immigration debate into perspective. The video is from 2010 but seems timeless.  I had not seen it before.

I like the "gumball" analogy. However, I have never heard anyone say "US immigration is the key to solving world poverty". So right off the bat I am wondering if Roy Beck is attacking a straw man that does not exist.

Then again, I have heard people say that we need immigration and a higher birthrate to grow the economy. We don't.

Beck helps put a bit of perspective on things. But he fails to discuss why we have masses of illegal immigrants.

The problem is not immigration, per se. The problem is the "free lunch society" of Medicaid, disability, schools, foods stamps, etc., etc., that makes it desirable for masses of people to want to come to the US for handouts.

Beck does point out that some of the best and brightest want to come here. OK. But, isn't that a good thing for us?

Yet, if it's good for us, then it must be bad for someone else (something that Beck clearly implies). Mathematically it is impossible for every country to have net "good" immigration.

And here we are, with no coherent immigration policy to protect US taxpayers from "gumball math". Every state seems to have its own policies, with California being particularly lax.

[Warph]

Ray Stevens - God Save Arizona

[Ross]

Weird!

The United States of Shame (CHART)

Posted on January 24, 2011 by Jeff Wysaski

Whether it's a fat population, high rate of STDs or excessive tax rate, it turns out that every state ranks dead last in at least one unsavory category. Check out the map (click image to enlarge) to see what your state is the worst at, then review additional stats and references after the jump.

Rationale and statistics:

Most stats taken from http://www.americashealthrankings.org/ and http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/rankings.html (unless otherwise noted)

1. Alabama: highest rate of stroke (3.8 percent) (tied with Oklahoma)

2. Alaska: highest suicide rate (23.6 suicides per 100,000 people in 2004)

3. Arizona: highest rate of alcoholism

4. Arkansas: worst average credit score (636)

See the rest of the list at: http://www.pleated-jeans.com/2011/01/24/the-united-states-of-shame-chart/

[Ross]

Millionaires' Club: For First Time, Most Lawmakers are Worth $1 Million-Plus

by Communications on January 9, 2014

For the first time in history, most members of Congress are millionaires, according to a new analysis of personal financial disclosure data by the Center for Responsive Politics.



Of 534 current members of Congress, at least 268 had an average net worth of $1 million or more in 2012, according to disclosures filed last year by all members of Congress and candidates. The median net worth for the 530 current lawmakers who were in Congress as of the May filing deadline was $1,008,767 -- an increase from last year when it was $966,000. In addition, at least one of the members elected since then, Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), is a millionaire, according to forms she filed as a candidate. (There is currently one vacancy in Congress.)

Last year only 257 members, or about 48 percent of lawmakers, had a median net worth of at least $1 million.



Members of Congress have long been far wealthier than the typical American, but the fact that now a majority of members -- albeit just a hair over 50 percent -- are millionaires represents a watershed moment at a time when lawmakers are debating issues like unemployment benefits, food stamps and the minimum wage, which affect people with far fewer resources, as well as considering an overhaul of the tax code.

"Despite the fact that polls show how dissatisfied Americans are with Congress overall, there's been no change in our appetite to elect affluent politicians to represent our concerns in Washington, said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center. "Of course, it's undeniable that in our electoral system, candidates need access to wealth to run financially viable campaigns, and the most successful fundraisers are politicians who swim in those circles to begin with."





Breaking the numbers down further, congressional Democrats had a median net worth of $1.04 million, while congressional Republicans had a median net worth of almost exactly $1 million. In both cases, the figures are up from last year, when the numbers were $990,000 and $907,000, respectively.




The median net worth for all House members was $896,000 -- that's up from $856,000 in 2011 -- with House Democrats (median net worth: $929,000) holding an edge over House Republicans (median net worth: $884,000). The median net worth for both House Republicans and Democrats was higher than in 2011.




Similarly, the median net worth for all senators increased to $2.7 million from $2.5 million, but in that body it was the Republicans who were better-off. Senate Democrats reported a median net worth of $1.7 million (a decline from 2011's $2.4 million), compared to Senate Republicans, at $2.9 million (an increase from $2.5 million).


Senate Democrats were the only group reporting a drop in their median net worth from the prior year -- a decline that is at least partly because of the loss of two extremely well-off Senate Democrats from the list: now-Secretary of State John Kerry, who had been the wealthiest senator with a 2011 average net worth of $248 million, and Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) who had an average net worth of $87.5 million before his death last year.

Explore the 113th Congress' personal wealth and investments at OpenSecrets.org.

See the rest of the article at: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2014/01/millionaires-club-for-first-time-most-lawmakers-are-worth-1-million-plus.html?utm_source=CRP+Mail+List&utm_campaign=c4ee622519-PFD_press_email_1_9_20141_9_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9df8578d78-c4ee622519-207044657

Another interesting link: http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/

[Ross]

Millionaires Make Up The Majority Of Congress: Here's Why That Hurts Us

WASHINGTON -- Millionaires occupy the majority of seats in Congress for the first time since ethics laws mandated personal financial disclosures, according to a new Center for Responsive Politics report.

Out of 534 members of Congress -- there was one vacant seat -- 268 have an average net worth of more than $1 million.

Because senators and representatives are required to report their personal finances only within ranges (such as $100,001 to $250,000), the Center for Responsive Politics calculated net worth as an average of the highest and lowest possible total.

"Despite the fact that polls show how dissatisfied Americans are with Congress overall, there's been no change in our appetite to elect affluent politicians to represent our concerns in Washington," Sheila Krumholz, the center's executive director, said in a statement.

It's true that Congress has long been filled with the wealthy, but this millionaire milestone comes as the country faces a growing income inequality gap not seen since the Gilded Age. In the past few decades, and particularly during and after the Great Recession, the super rich have seen their incomes and net worth climb as both the poor and middle classes have seen stagnation or regression.

The over-representation of the rich in Congress may influence whose interests legislators are really protecting as they seek to address questions of inequality and need, according to J. Mijin Cha, a senior policy analyst at the liberal think tank Demos.

"This coming out now when you see Congress refusing to extend unemployment insurance is so telling," Cha said.

A growing body of research around the views of the affluent and how those views dominate U.S. politics has revealed that the wealthy have different economic policy priorities than the poor and middle class, and those priorities receive far more attention in the government than the priorities of other economic classes.

The rest of the story at: Millionaires Make Up The Majority Of Congress: Here's Why That Hurts Us

[Warph]

OBUMA, America's

AMERICA'S "GAY" PRESIDENT

THE AMERICAN DREAM

[/u]

[Warph]

Spectacular NASA Image Captures "Hand Of God"

(Amazing... Also, one of my favorite Universe imageS came from Cassini, behind Saturn from the Sun)

Via NASA:
The NASA astronomers who captured this "Hand OfGod" incredible image of an exploding star nearly 17,000 light-years away have nicknamed it "The Hand of God." NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) mission described the phenomenon, known as a pulsar wind nebula, in a statement on their website:

It's powered by the leftover, dense core of a star that blew up in a supernova explosion. The stellar corpse, called PSR B1509-58, or B1509 for short, is a pulsar: it rapidly spins around, seven times per second, firing out a particle wind into the material around it — material that was ejected in the star's explosion. These particles are interacting with magnetic fields around the material, causing it to glow with X-rays. The result is a cloud that, in previous images, looked like an open hand. The pulsar itself can't be seen in this picture, but is located near the bright white spot.

One of the big mysteries of this object is whether the pulsar particles are interacting with the material in a specific way to make it look like a hand, or if the material is in fact shaped like a hand.

The image was captured using the NuSTAR telescope, which was launched in June 2012 to "perform deep observations of the extragalactic sky."

[Warph]

WH Opposes Obamacare Transparency As "Administratively Burdensome"

(Why should the Obuma regime have to pay attention to the laws that it imposes on everyone else?)

Via Hot Air:

I don't have my Yiddish-English dictionary available, but this has to be the best example of chutzpah yet. The White House announced its opposition to bills under consideration in the House that would require HHS to start reporting weekly on their incompetent rollout of ObamaCare and especially the data integrity of the exchange. The reason? It's just too burdensome, the White House explains (via JWF and Instapundit):

The Obama administration stopped short Thursday of threatening to veto House bills to require officials to tell people if their personal data has been compromised through ObamaCare, and to require weekly reports on the health law's implementation.

The White House said in two Statements of Administration Policy that it opposed both bills, one of which is set for a Friday vote in the House [ed. - the House bill passed, with 67 Democrats defecting from Obama and making a true bipartisan statement against the lack of transparency and security with Obamacare].

Weekly reporting requirements on both enrollments and the operation of the HealthCare.gov website would require "unfunded, unprecedented, and unnecessary reporting requirements" on the health insurance exchanges, it said in one statement.

"It would require the reporting of data on a weekly basis that is generally being provided on a monthly basis," the White House wrote. "Few major indicators — from job growth to Medicare Advantage enrollment to private shareholder reports — are provided more frequently than monthly; this bill would hold the Marketplaces and State Medicaid programs to unprecedented standards."

[Warph]

MSNBC Race Baiter Al Sharpton Accuses GOP of "Demonizing" Single Mothers

(Says the Racist Nigga-Clown of MS/NBC who has a made a career out of demonizing white people)

Via Newsbusters:

SHARPTON: Single moms don't deserve to be demonized. And if the GOP is serious about fixing poverty, they need to change their rhetoric and get their facts straight. Joining me now is Congresswoman Donna Edwards, Democrat of Maryland. Thanks for coming on the show tonight

Read More At:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2014/01/10/msnbcs-sharpton-accuses-gop-demonizing-single-mothers