ObamaCare Casualty List Grows

President Personally Performs First ObamaCare  Euthanization...The Onion

• With the news today that the House voted to defund ObamaCare {The Affordable Care Act} and to fund the government through mid-December, I had to ask myself how many Americans know of the mass layoffs already attributed to ObamaCare.  Just this week, Cleveland Clinic announced layoffs and cited ObamaCare. Many Americans are already familiar with many of the problems associated with the law, but do they know about the number of casualties.  There are just too many of them to list here(with hospitals alone, it's well into the several hundreds).  Recall Pres. Obama said we will be able to keep our doctors. What he didn't say was that many doctors will either be leaving their professions or be laid off themselves. While lay offs have been more common during this recession, most  cited ObamaCare as the reason for budget cuts and layoffs.
• Gallup recently found that 41% of small businesses froze hiring due to ObamaCare and 19% have laid off employees. They surveyed 603 small firms.
• A survey by the Chamber of Commerce last July found that 74% of small business owners will either lay off employees or cut their hours. 1,300 small business executives were surveyed.
• Since the start of May 2013, hospital groups announced plans to lay off 6,000 employees. When hours are cut, it will likely impact 9000 workers.  75 hospital groups in 33 states were surveyed. Investors.com
• Medical device companies have been forced to lay off thousands because of the 2.3% excise tax imposed by ObamaCare. Stryker has already laid off over 1,000 of its workers.
• CNN recently reported that doctors in private practice are looking for a way out. Many doctors are stating that it's just not financially feasible to stay in practice.
• Two weeks ago labor leader Jimmy Hoffa, an early supporter of ObamaCare, declared ObamaCare will "destroy the foundation of the 40-hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class." (Karma can be a bitch Jimmy).
• Even retired federal workers don't want any part of ObamaCare. A survey of 2,500 federal employees and retirees found only 2.9% want to become part of the new health exchanges (going into effect this October). FedSmith.com
• Billionaire Warren Buffett, also an early supporter of ObamaCare, came out last week and said, "What we have now {in ObamaCare} is untenable over time."
• With so many hospitals cutting back on staff and an inevitable shortage of physicians, I suspect waits for medical care will resemble lines in the Post Office and the VA.
• Many polls still report that ObamaCare is unpopular.
• The results in the House today show that they are supporting the will of most of the American people. The question now is will the Senate do the same?

Note: Since I wrote this post, it was announced that 300,000 people will lose their health plans in Florida (Kaiser Health News) and over 100,000 will lose their insurance in N.J. (Newark Star Ledger)

Note: the number of those who have lost health insurance now surpasses several million. Obamacare web site keeps breaking down. Also, NBC reported Obama administration knew millions would lose their health insurance 3 years ago.

Obamanomics Remains The Biggest Threat To Our Economy

The economy is just one speech away from recovery...The Onion

• Last August, I wrote a piece entitled, "The Big Myth: The Economic Recovery."  While there has been some tepid improvement in the economy (housing, construction + part-time employment), much of what I wrote last August about the dismal economy remains. In fact, in some areas, it's getting worse.
• For example, this week the Census reported 13.6% of Americans now rely on food stamps. That's up from 11.9% in 2010 and 8.6% in 2008. That's significant.
• The Census also reported the mean household income fell by 4.4% since 2009. To put that in dollar terms, it amounts to a loss of almost $2,500. In addition, as The Wall Street Journal reported several months ago, the people most damaged by Obamanomics were those who voted for Obama. Single women (with or without children) saw their incomes fall by about 7% ($2,300 in dollar terms). African-American households watched their incomes fall by about 11% ($4,000 in dollar terms). Hispanics couldn't dodge Obamanomics either. Their incomes fell by 4.5% or $2,000 in dollar terms.
• As the WSJ also pointed out, these numbers are a stunning reversal from previous years. Census data from 1881-2008 reported the biggest income gains were among black women at 81%, white women at 67%, black men at 31% and white males at 8%.

Falsehoods Wrapped In Fallacies: Usual Media + Progessive Political Class Response To Mass Shootings

Never Underestimate The Stupidity Of Idiots...Unknown Author

• The reaction to mass shootings is very predictable. After the incident, the most reasonable among us ask that we pray for the victims. But, as soon as the condolences are over, the media, the political class and citizens start peeling off into their ideological universes.
• The progressives start demanding more gun control while completely neglecting the responsibility rests with the shooter. Conservatives---rightly---place themselves under the umbrella of the Constitution and the Second Amendment. On the other hand, the media---largely progressives themselves---can't wait to assign blame to conservatives.
• We've witnessed this pattern over and over again. After the shooting in Colorado, Brian Ross of ABC News, immediately went on the air and speculated the shooter was a member of the Tea Party. CNN's Piers Morgan, as he always does, proved himself to be an idiot. In this recent case, he still has not retracted his claim the shooter at the Naval Base used an AR-15 after the story was proven to be bogus. The media couldn't wait to find a conservative or Tea Party connection to the shooting of Rep. Giffords in Tuscon in January of 2011. After the Ft. Hood shooting we saw the media raising the "crazed vet" myth. In fact, in that shooting, they withheld the fact that Hassan was an Islamists fanatic even though they already knew he was. In that case, we later found out how political correctness in the Pentagon might have been directly responsible for Hassan's murder spree (they knew prior to the shooting of his Islamist predisposition as did the FBI). All of these incidents also show how the media tries to assign motive without having all the facts.
• And with the Navy Yard shooting, we are again witnessing a rush to judgement to advance a political agenda---as always focusing on limiting our Constitutional right to bear arms by coming up with all kinds of excuses why Alexis murdered 12 innocent Americans.
• Just as disturbing, pundit after pundit reported the false claim that mass shootings have become more common. According to James Fox, professor of Criminology at Northeastern University, mass murders occur less often than we think. He points out correctly, in the 1980's, there was a period of post office shootings, hence the term arose "going postal." In the 1990's, there was a barrage of school shootings prompting many in the media to declare the nation was facing a new epidemic. This week, in the LA Times, David Horsey actually wrote, "Mass shootings have become as constant as the weather."
• It's becoming more clear that there were major systemic breakdowns in the Navy Yard shooting from the obvious mental health warning signs exhibited by Alexis to his criminal background to perhaps a breakdown in security at the Navy Yard.

• One fact is again certain: another mass shooting took place in a "gun free zone" in a city that has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation. It took place on a military base that requires security clearances. Yet, this shooter was still able to murder 12 people.

Obama: A Bully Domestically; Spineless, Weak + Aimless Internationally

I've lost some weight. I'm on the new Obama diet. Every day I let Vladimir Putin eat my lunch...Leno

Note: Since this was posted, we know what Putin just did this week.

• Before I begin my piece for this posting, I feel compelled to report on the most recent developments regarding ObamaCare. With the news surrounding Syria and the Navy Yard incident, you might not be aware of these developments. Warren Buffett, who had been an early advocate of ObamaCare, no longer supports the law. He actually called for scraping the law saying, "What we have now is untenable over time." In addition to Buffett, several unions---including the AFL-CIO---learned that ObamaCare will be highly disruptive to their membership's health plans. They too were early supporters. More recently, almost every poll shows the law is exceedingly unpopular with the public. Just yesterday, USA Today's poll reported the public is not sold on ObamaCare.  You can also get more information about ObamaCare on my June 20, 2013 posting, "ObamaCare Sticker Shock."

• The Obama administration is taking some well deserved heat for the president's speech on the economy yesterday while Navy Yard was still an active shooting scene.  In fact, even Congress closed shop early as well as many schools in the immediate area. But if that wasn't enough, the president's speech was hyper-partisan {he said some Republicans are actually "decent."}. To put it more bluntly, the nation witnessed the president of the United States giving a parochial speech as 12 government workers were murdered in his own backyard.
• This behavior supports my earlier claims that this president is a bully when it comes to domestic policy and his political opponents but spineless, weak and aimless when it comes to his foreign policy as evidenced recently with Syria.
• Recall he bullied the Supreme Court on national television during a State of the Union speech. He bullied Arizona regarding their immigration laws. His administration bullied the Catholic Church and he even bullied the press. These are just a few of many examples.  Yet, when it comes to standing up to thugs like Russia's Putin, he folds like a cheap umbrella (refer to several of my previous posts in the last week).
• Perhaps the Obama administration's feckless foreign policy was best described in political cartoon showing J.F.Kerry responding to a reporter: "The deal relies on Russia which has been arming Syria to stop arming Syria...And on trusting Assad to provide an inventory of his chemical weapons...Which he has always insisted do not exist...What could possibly go wrong?"

Postscript: Since this was posted, we've seen the same approach toward dealing with ISIS. And now Iran.

Summing Up Obama + Kerry's Syria Plan: Assad Remains In Power + Gets Away With Murder

Plans are being discussed for a reality show based on the White House. It's called "Lame Duck Dynasty." Leno

• In the run up to our responding to Syria's use of chemical weapons, we heard Pres. Obama draw a "red line." We repeatedly heard statements from the White House that "Assad must go." Just last August, the Obama administration vowed to punish Assad for his use of chemical weapons. We also heard from the likes of Pelosi and others in the political class that a response was warranted because hundreds of children were killed by the chemical gas attacks (they didn't say anything in the last two years about the thousands of children killed by conventional weapons). Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Putin appeared to save Obama from his own rhetoric. 
• Last week, we finally got a deal with Syria regarding their chemical weapons. In short, the agreement requires that Syria list all of the chemical weapons they currently possess. By November of this year, all chemical weapons sites are to be inspected and to be eliminated sometime in 2014. The policy of "Assad must go" appears to have been abandoned and leadership in this process is now being led by Russia. As Amir Taheri wrote in the NY Post today, "In the blink of an eye, Obama has shrunk into second fiddle to Putin."
• When you read this agreement closely (what has been released to date), Assad remains in power. He also gets to keep his chemical weapons for a year. This makes sense for Russia since they support Assad and want him to remain in power.  In addition, nothing was agreed upon regarding Assad's continued murdering of his own people and the millions of refugees created by this crisis. For that matter, nothing was said about the Syrian rebels---many if whom are affiliated with terrorist organizations and are also murdering innocent people---especially Christians.
• So what are WE left with?  We've signaled to the rest of the global thugs out there---like Iran---they should have no fear in continuing to develop their nuclear program. The global, murdering thugs like al-Qaeda now can be more comfortable in their safe havens.
• Taheri also pointed out that Russia, Iran and China are evolving into a "Eurasian NATO" while the US-led NATO is paralyzed by the Obama administration's foreign policy. In other words, we just might be witnessing a global strategic retreat by the United States. With that comes the perception of weakness and further loss of credibility by the U.S. in the eyes of the world, a world composed of many, many evil nations and terror groups.

Economic Domestic News You Might Have Missed:

The AP is reporting today that the employment gap between the rich and poor is nearly matching the rates during the Great Depression. So where are you Occupy Wall Street?