The Contradiction-in-Chief

President Obama is now back tracking saying you can keep your health plan. Well that’s nice, but just how do you do that after you received your cancellation notice?

Echoing his friend Frank “Monkey Court” Pallone‘s talking points, Obama also says most people won’t want to, anyway, and that anyone who’s had an individual policy canceled to look at what’s available at HealthCare.gov before they look to reinstate their old policy.

This guy is a walking book of contradictions!

Roughly 85% of Americans have insurance. Out of a population of approximately 317 million, about 11 million people have policies on the individual market.

Out of that 11 million, at least 4.2 million Americans have been sent cancellation notices by their insurers. People who were kicked off of a plan they liked and could afford are now facing higher premiums and deductibles.


Insurance companies and commissioners across the country now face the daunting task of deciding how they are going to handle already-cancelled health-care policies under the President’s new administrative ‘fix’ for the Affordable Care Act.

By reinstating cancelled policies, these insurance companies will need to issue coverage that doesn’t meet Affordable Care Act standards.

And it’s not so easy for an insurance company to reinstate a policy; insurance companies need to plan premiums and budget for expenses far in advance of issuing a policy.

Changing the rules after health plans have already met the requirements of the new law could destabilize the market and result in even higher premiums for consumers. Our central plannes overlook the fact that premiums have already been set for next year based on an assumption that consumers will be transitioning to the new marketplace.

Each state has  regulations of its own with which a plan needs to comply before it can be offered, including New Jersey. Many of those canceled plans no longer meet state regulations; even ones that do comply would need to be approved by the responsible state agency and with less than two months to go in the calendar year, it won’t happen.

It’s almost the New Year and a quick fix for this mess won’t be that swift. The insurance companies better have all hands on deck to prepare for this administration’s 2014 mid-term, because if this so-called temporary fix doesn’t work, God knows what our walking, talking, Contradiction-in-Chief will try next to save his congressional allies’ skins.

The Unemployed States of America

President Barack Obama has achieved the dubious distinction of being a sitting president with the highest unemployment rate ever,

We take him at his word that he loves the poor (we know this because he has created so many of them).

Humor aside, the only things booming in this country under Obamanomics are poverty and health insurance premium rates.

The history behind this sad pass is pretty clear…


Save Jersey has tracked the building unemployment and underemployment disaster for years now. We’ve never seen anything like it in U.S. History.

President Ronald Reagan suffered a severe recession starting in 1981, but all the job losses of that recession were recovered after 28 months. Reagan’s recovery was fueled by traditional pro-growth policies.

Under Obama, by April, 2013, a full 64 months after the prior jobs peak or almost 5½ years later, we still had not recovered all of the recession’s job losses.

By contrast, during the Reagan recovery, 64 months after the recession started, the raw number of jobs grew to a level 9.5% higher than where it stood before the recession started representing an increase of about 10 million more jobs.

In April, 2013, jobs in the Obama recovery were still about 2% below where they were when the recession started, about 2 ½ million less, or a shortfall of about 10 million jobs.

Even former president Jimmy Carter produced 4 times as much economic growth during his one term as Obama did during his entire first term . . . yikes! It’s pretty bad when a peanut farmer from Georgia is “happier than a pig on an acorn” having been surpassed for the title of worst president in our lifetime. But that’s where we’re at today, folks.

Legislative “Shared Sacrifice”

Each member of Congress “earns” 3.4 times more than the average American worker.

Congress also receives the equivalent of $14,000 in paid time off… assuming they only take half of the time off as the average federal employee. Taxpayers contribute about $6,000 to each Member of Congress’s health and life insurance and another $9,000 to the employer’s share of Social Security and Medicare taxes.

How much work did they do for it? Congress was in session just 126 days this year. They worked just two days in the month of August.

Congressional members average $3,346 per week, and their compensation including benefits totals around $285,000 per year. Unlike state and local government employees, who generally must contribute around 6 percent of their pay to defined benefit pensions, Members of Congress contribute only 1.3 percent of their salaries.

Members of Congress receive contributions toward retirement benefits equal to around 47 percent of their annual salaries, or about $82,000.

The number of laws passed by Congress last year was fewer than at any point since 1947.

Again, the current 2013 Congressional calendar consists of only 126 days. This left members of Congress with 239 “vacation days” to… perhaps… tour our great nation? Or mull over the idea of running for even higher office, or maybe visit a natural disaster or two to get some camera time. We know they weren’t visiting national parks because they closed them down.

Politicians like to say we should increase the retirement age to 70, as people are living longer.
If they actually worked, they might realize 66 is sufficient for most of the work force, as our legislative body works on average 2.3 days per week.

The “average” federal employee salary is $78,500. The median household income for most in the United States today is $50,875.

Federal workers receive health insurance, retirement health benefits, a pension plan with inflation protection, and a retirement savings plan with a government match. They typically receive generous holiday and vacation schedules, flexible work hours, training options, incentive awards, generous disability benefits, and union protections.

Taxpayers could save $39 million a year if members of Congress decreased their salary to $100,000 per year (still nearly twice as large as the average American worker’s salary of $50,875).

Our legislative leaders say they feel our pain; so exactly what is this “shared sacrifice” the people keep hearing about?

Elections Need to Matter Before the #Shutdown

It is a shame that we the people of the United States of America, the greatest country in the world, has legislators on both sides of the aisle (and let’s not forget about our president, too) who seem unable to reach an agreement and find a way to ease the pain that many Americans are feeling due to these antics.
They’ll continue to feel them for many months and possibly years to come.
While our government shuts down, federal legislators will continue to collect a substantial salary along with their many perks, millions of Americans are out of work and lacking benefits. Many folks who are still trying to recover from the recession or a natural disaster will now have to suffer even longer as government assistance remains hold.

This is not a game of cards where one can bluff and see who has the better hand with no regard to the repercussions that will be inflicted upon the American public. The lives of individuals and families are something the government seems to want to gamble with in order to prove who holds the winning hand between them.
Our economy was recovering, however anemically, even with the lower paying jobs that were being created. The housing market seemed like it was stabilizing, too, but these gains may all disappear and we may find ourselves back in another hole. The dollar becomes weaker every day the federal government is closed, the yen and euro become stronger, and the markets drop faster than a rock without a parachute. If we lose our current credit rating, the dollar will be worth nothing and it will take years to recover… if at all.
Congress is hardly the only problem. We have a president who is already planning a trip to Asia, probably bringing his kin along for the taxpayer-financed ride, all at an astronomical cost while our military is looking for food as the commissaries are empty, having to go elsewhere and paying upwards of 30% or more to feed their families on or off base.
It seems the priorities of our elected officials are their egos, something that they view as more important than the constituents whom they’re supposed to represent. It is a shame that as much as the American people are getting a bad hand in this shutdown poker game, they will nevertheless elect the same bunch of bureaucrats that engendered this predicament.
Unless we, as voters, clean house to show the world how tired we’ve become of the two major parties’ antics, the games will continue and we will continue on a course destined to negatively redefine our futures and, in the process, permanently changing the face of America.

The Sequester’s True Cost

“Instead of reducing our deficits with a scalpel to get rid of programs we don’t need but keep vital investments that we do – you know, this same group has kept in place this meat cleaver called the sequester that is just slashing all kinds of important investments in education and research and our military.”  ~  President Barack Obama blaming Republican’s for the sequester

When the sequester began, our President flew to 32 destinations aboard Air Force One, and only seven of the 32 destinations were directly related to politics.

It’s a pattern worth revising as politicians debate a government shutdown.

The flight from Andrews Air Force Base to Chattanooga, TN and back cost taxpayers $449,375 just so Obama could give a speech blaming the Republicans for it.

A flight Obama took on March 15th to give a speech on energy policy and again on May 29th for a Democratic party fundraiser cost $254,526 for a one way, one hour and twenty-five minute-long. A two-hour flight from Andrews Air Force Base to Miami on March 29th to give a speech on the topic of infrastructure was $359,500.

The government shutdown and the amount of money saved by canceling public tours of the White House was less than the cost of one of Obama’s vacations.

The Obama administration blamed the halting of the White House tours on the spending reductions mandated by sequestration and saved about $74,000 per week or close to $2 million over the year.

What you haven’t likely heard is the fact that those savings were roughly half the cost of Obama’s Christmas vacation to Hawaii last year. Documented by the ‘Hawaii Reporter,’ it was estimated the total cost of that trip was “at least $4 million,” the true cost could be nearly five times that. It does not include the cost of flying advance teams out to Hawaii and the separate Michelle flights she took in 2010 and 2011, with Obama catching up later. Estimates of the total cost for the four Hawaii vacations the Obama’s have taken during Christmastime 2009-2012 cost taxpayers in excess of $20 million.

Obama had returned from Hawaii to complete a deal on the Fiscal Cliff and then jetted back to Honolulu, adding an additional $3.24 million to the tab, bringing the cost of the 2012-1013 vacation to well over $7 million.

In 2011, Obama spent eleven days at a $50,000-per-week beachfront rental property with the cost of that trip to taxpayers reaching into the “millions.”

Obama’s golf outing with Tiger Woods cost the taxpayers “over a million dollars,” enough money to save 341 federal workers from a furlough.

The sequestration forced the Secret Service to cut $84 million from its budget.

The Obama’s African tour was estimated to have cost $100 million . . . $100 million that would fund 1,351 weeks or 26 years of White House tours.

During the months of the sequester, Obama took 10 flights aboard Air Force One during June, the most of any month. He took four trips in the months of March, April and August and five trips in the months of May and July. Travel that included trips through the Middle East, Central America, Europe and Africa.

A study by the National Taxpayers Union concluded “[w]ith four trips abroad over 18 days through the first six months of 2013, Obama is on pace to set the record for the most travel in a fifth year in office, if that precedent continues, he will be among the most-traveled U.S. chief executives in history by the time he leaves office.”

Millions of hardworking Americans are looking for jobs, struggling to pay their mortgages and make ends meet, all while Obama claims to care about the middle class as they continue to foot the bill.

A Weiner Across the Board

by Joe Sinagra
As Anthony Weiner’s self-induced trials and tribulations continue to consume media attention, we’re already starting to see something which we should’ve expected: attempts to make it seem as if Weiner isn’t a weener outside of his regrettable sexting habit.

In reality, Weiner’s congressional record shows him to be a legislator who liked calling press conferences and introducing bills but rarely followed through and achieved results for his constituents. He often succeeded only in acting like a embarrassing fool.

The only bill he wrote and sponsored that did become law involved reducing cigarette sales-tax evasion, a move which happened to benefit a major donor and family friend who worked as a cigarette distributor. And on a personal level…?

A few examples from NY Mag and the Gothamist:

- In 2005, he became so irritated with a staff member that he allegedly threw a salad against the wall, then left the room as the dressing slowly dripped, leaving a stain.

- In the midst of an argument with an aide, Mr. Weiner reportedly threw his BlackBerry against a wall, and then had the gall to blame the aide for the broken phone.

- Weiner once had aides call air-traffic control in an attempt to have his plane moved up in the departure order.

Many Democrats have been reported as saying his unwillingness to be a team player affected his ability to be an effective congressman. Even those who worked alongside him believed him to be a lawmaker with little patience for crafting legislation and possessing a single-minded focus on generating attention so he could run for mayor of New York.

Talk about role models, hell . . . if the liberals saw nothing wrong with Ted Kennedy leaving a woman underwater while going home to sleep and remain in the Senate for 46 years, Weiner could be a shoo in.

The media even says he is a ‘stand up’ guy. Not by any objective criteria of which I'm aware,

A Profitable Failure for Someone

Let’s see now,

The federal government hires a Canadian contractor for hundreds of millions of dollars to design the Healthcare.gov web page. CGI Federal secured a contract worth a total of $93.7 million, with a base value at $55.7 million. The company reportedly has been paid nearly $200 million to date, with the potential value of the contract reaching $292 million.

The multi-million dollar site crashes the first day out; now Obama hires the ‘best and brightest’ techies to fix what should have been fixed from the beginning. Where were the best and the brightest when they were building it?

Then Obama blames the crash on an overload because so many people were signing up.

My question: how do we, the taxpayers, get our money back, and how much are we presently paying the ‘best and brightest’ techies to fix the fiasco, and again, why weren’t they hired in the first place?

Which lobbyist got paid to get CGI the contract? Follow the money…

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has got some ‘splainin’ to do Lucy.

The New Citizen Bill

by Joe Sinagra

The current bill before the House of Representatives is not an immigration bill, Save Jerseyans. Let’s call it what it is . . . a ‘Citizenship Bill.’
Roughly 5.5 million illegals came to America via legal work or vacation visas and overstayed their welcome. That makes them illegal, a form of backdoor fraud. If this bill is passed in the House, it would bring in 33 million immigrants over the next 10 years; anyone who is not a citizen and granted amnesty without earning citizenship should lose their right to sponsorship.
There are about 40 million immigrants living in the United States. A little less than 28 percent, or 10.5 million, have crossed the border illegally and are violating U.S. law. Illegals are 3.5% of the US population . . . 28 percent of all immigrants is here illegally.
Of the 11.7 million Mexican immigrants that live in the United States, about 5.85 million are here illegally. There is no shortage of workers; it is about what companies are willing to pay to get the job done.

Teenagers and minorities are already struggling to find work and with 22.5 million Americans out of work, the passing of this bill will only enforce low wages. Unemployment and non-work is already significant among less-educated Americans. The low-education level of many immigrants not only means that they compete with less-educated American citizens, but it is the primary reason so many immigrants live in or near poverty, lack health insurance and use the welfare system. It’s also another reason wages and benefits have generally stagnated or declined in recent years.
Contrary to what the media leads us to believe with the mantra that “immigrants’ only do jobs Americans don’t want” the overwhelming majority of low-wage jobs are done by less-educated native-born Americans, not immigrants.
Illegal aliens are largely poor and uneducated, draining the welfare and public education systems. Immigrant use of social services might not be a problem if they generally paid more in taxes than native-born Americans. However the median income of immigrant households is 21 percent lower than that of native households, and immigrant households are 36 percent larger on average.

Immigrants tend to pay less in taxes than natives, but tend to use more in services. Not to say that immigrants do not pay taxes; even illegal immigrants pay some taxes. However, it is a fiscal drain as more goes out in the form of benefits than what actually comes in.
Illegal low-skilled immigrants paid less in taxes than they took in benefits, leaving the US with a shortfall over $2 trillion.
Many illegals do not carry health insurance. About 62 percent of illegals, or about 6.5 million, lack health insurance.
Illegals bank-wired over $15 billion outside the U.S. through Wal-Mart alone. Legalizing 12 million uneducated low earning workers will cost an additional $48.6 billion in healthcare from 2014-2019.
Illegals break immigration and employment laws and often involved in ID theft to get a Social Security number.
Illegal aliens file Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN) reporting multiple children as dependents and get additional Child Tax Credits for children “back home,” fraud which is currently over $4 billion.
This will have an effect on all of America, including but not limited to the less-educated, public schools, health care providers and taxpayers who will definitely feel the long term consequences. They always do every time Washington puts political expediency ahead of common sense and  justice.

Billary . . . The Possibility of a Pathological Liar in Chief

by Joe Sinagra

The former U.S. Secretary of State, senator and first lady said her background gives her a "unique vantage point" to bring to the White House as if the world is waiting for her revelation, if she makes her decision around the beginning of 2015 . . .

At 27 she was fired from the committee staff after Watergate for being a liar, unethical, dishonest, conspiring to violate the Constitution, the rules of the House, the rules of the committee and the rules of confidentiality.  She was part of several who engaged in a seemingly unbelievable scheme to deny Richard Nixon his right to counsel during the investigation. Because of her actions she was booted to the curb without a letter of recommendation.

In the nine months before William Clinton became governor, Hillary said she made $100,000 on a $1000 investment in highly speculative cattle futures just from reading the Wall Street Journal. Eventually, in an April 1994 press conference she admitted that a longtime Clinton friend executed 30 of her 32 trades. Hillary denied knowing of “any favorable treatment” by longtime Clinton broker friend James Blair.

In that same press conference Hillary was asked why her chief of staff, Maggie Williams, removed documents from the office of Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster after his suicide. Hillary said, “I don’t know that she did remove any documents.”  Three months later it was reported that Hillary had instructed Williams to remove the Foster documents to the White House residence.

In 1995 Hillary was one of 11 Rose Firm lawyers who did work for the Resolution Trust Corp. an Arkansas real estate development known as Castle Grande, sponsored by James McDougal and Seth Ward.

Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan was a troubled thrift lead by McDougal, and threw legal business towards Hillary’s way as a favor to Bill. McDougal along with his wife Susan, were the Clintons’ partners in their Whitewater real estate investment.

A 1996 Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. report said that she had drafted documents that Castle Grande used to “deceive federal bank examiners.” And Hubbell and McDougal went to prison for fraud. It turned out that more than 30 of her 60 hours of legal work for Madison Guaranty involved Castle Grande. Hillary lied to federal investigators about her knowledge about Castle Grande, stating she had known the project under a different name.

President Clinton invited Monica Lewinsky to the Oval Office for 10 oral-sex sessions.  Hillary suggested on the “Today” show that her husband’s Lewinsky affair was a lie concocted by “this vast right-wing conspiracy.”

About her account of her flight into Bosnia she said “I remember landing under sniper fire, there was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.” Reporters who accompanied her stated that there wasn’t any sniper fire. Her account was ridiculed by ABC News as “like a scene from Saving Private Ryan”.

As to the events of 9/11 Hillary stated that Chelsea had gone on “what she thought was going to be a great jog. She was going to go down to Battery Park; she was going to go around the towers. She went to get a cup of coffee and, and, that’s when the plane hit.”

But contradictory to Hillary's account Chelsea Clinton told a magazine that she was in an apartment 12 blocks away when the first plane hit.

During a stop in Nepal 1995, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters she had been named after the famed mountain climber Sir Edmund Hillary. How her name was inspired by the man who conquered Everest was beyond anyone’s guess and a bit of a tall tale as Sir Edmund Hillary didn’t become world-famous until six years after Hillary Rodham was born.

Hillary Clinton lied about her role in the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act. Her campaign web site lays claim that her record included “helping to pass the Family and Medical Leave Act.”

However, the bill was pushed in Congress for years and passed twice, only to be vetoed by former President George H.W. Bush. Congress passed it a third time when Bill Clinton took office, signing it into law on Feb. 5, 1993, almost two weeks after he became president.

Hillary Clinton’s own released White House schedules make no mention of any meetings on the bill.

Let’s not forget Hillary’s version of the uninsured woman in Ohio who died after childbirth . . .   The woman died two weeks after her baby boy was stillborn. Hospital administrators said the woman was under the care of an obstetrics practice affiliated with the hospital, that she was never refused treatment and that she was insured.

Whatever your position is on any of the other prospective candidates, anyone of the others would be better than having two Clintons in the White House.

Hillary spoke hypothetically about her possible presidential bid; I suppose she needs time to think about coming up with the potential possibility of four years of lies.

When NJ Governor Chris Christie was asked about Hillary’s comment about having a 'unique vantage point' his comment was a simple “Good for her.”  If she wins it will be “Bad for us.”

If you’re unhappy with the current administration’s definition of a transparent administration, how transparent would a compulsive pathological liar be as commander in chief?