Dem. Sen. Conrad: "ObamaCare is a MASSIVE PONZI SCHEME" - QUOTE

[Soul Crusher]

House votes to repeal Obama’s CLASS Act: Part of health care legislation deemed unsustainable
The Washington Times ^ | November 30, 2011 | Paige Winfield Cunningham
Posted on November 30, 2011 9:50:20 PM EST by 2ndDivisionVet

Acting with bipartisan support, a House committee Wednesday voted to repeal the CLASS Act, part of President Obama’s health care law that the administration has said is unsustainable, but also said it didn’t want to see ended entirely.

Three conservative-leaning Democrats - Reps. Mike Ross of Arkansas, Jim Matheson of Utah and John Barrow of Georgia - broke with their party to support the repeal, which passed the committee 33-17.

While some Democrats have argued for restructuring the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act (CLASS) and the White House opposes repealing the program, Republicans insist on scrapping it in its entirety, saying the law would be a long-term drag on the federal budget.

“I believe we have to start over on long-term care reform - an issue that will affect millions of Americans as they or a loved one need care,” said Rep. Fred Upton, Michigan Republican and chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “But first, we must erase a program that we know will not work; a program that was never structured to work, and that we could never afford.”

Long headed for troubled waters, CLASS suffered a blow this fall when Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius declared she couldn’t find a way to make the program pay for itself and suspended it indefinitely.

But even with that acknowledgment, the White House said it still didn’t want to see the program repealed from the books.

On Wednesday, some Democrats in the committee said they wanted to see the program remain but be restructured...

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...

[Soul Crusher]

Repeal the CLASS 'Ponzi scheme'
By: Rep. Charles Boustany
January 17, 2012 10:09 PM EST  


‘Obamacare” appears ready to collapse under its own weight. Look at the CLASS Act, a government-run long-term care program Congress is likely to vote to repeal from the 2010 law.

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) ignored warnings from the Medicare actuary and the American Academy of Actuaries when they added this budget gimmick to the 2010 health law. A bipartisan Senate majority voted to strip CLASS from the law, but Democratic leaders needed CLASS premiums to offset the costs of unrelated parts of “Obamacare.”

Last year, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius suspended CLASS after department attorneys conceded HHS lacked the legal authority to make CLASS appear more actuarially sound. Citing HHS, the Congressional Budget Office added: “The program cannot be operated without mandatory participation so as to ensure its solvency.”

Unfortunately, CLASS could return to haunt us if it isn’t fully repealed before October 2012. Legal experts at the Congressional Research Service warn that a federal judge could force HHS to revive CLASS after this key deadline in the law expires.

As we seek to repeal CLASS, we should confront two myths used to sell this Ponzi scheme.

First, CLASS does not guarantee a daily minimum cash benefit for working disabled Americans with pre-existing conditions. The administration planned to break the law, according to HHS attorneys, by excluding them from coverage, writing new income rules and phasing enrollment because of health status.

HHS also said solvency or legal problems could force the program’s shutdown, at the risk of leaving some working disabled Americans “worse off.”

Second, CLASS is a bad deal for healthy Americans and leaves us unprepared for the aging of the baby-boom generation. Howard Gleckman of the Urban Institute notes the average CLASS premium would run as high as $391 per month, “which far exceeds private market premiums.”

In addition, consumers receive no private contract that guarantees benefits. They must meet a five-year vesting period and forfeit what they contribute into a pay-as-you-go system with no reserve requirements.

Approximately, six out of 10 seniors will likely need some type of long-term care. The number of Americans 85 or older could grow 250 percent by 2040, and this group has the greatest need for long-term care.

As a physician, I treated hundreds of patients who needed long-term care, including ones with Alzheimer’s. More than 13.5 million seniors could have this disease by 2040. Middle-class families remain dangerously unprepared for these costs. Some people will likely spend more than $100,000 on care. The fictional CLASS daily benefit of $50 per day won’t cover this.

I urge my House and Senate colleagues to support this CLASS repeal. We should instead make it easier for disabled Americans to save for future needs, expand access to affordable private long-term care coverage and better educate Americans about the need for retirement planning.

Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.), a physician, is chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight.
 
 
© 2012 POLITICO LLC
 

[Soul Crusher]

Bump for Hugo - another incompetent Obama voter. 

WOLF: Obamacare vital signs starting to fade
Court puts law on the fast track to judgment day
By Dr. Milton R. Wolf
-
The Washington Times
6:11 p.m., Monday, March 7, 2011
________________________ ______________________



Obamacare is living on borrowed time, and even its most ardent supporters are beginning to realize it. That's why they're racing to implement - and entrench - as much of the plan as possible before the laws of economics and the laws of the land and voters catch up. They're like a deadbeat renter starting a remodeling project after being evicted but before the police escort them from the premises in hopes that it gives them squatter's rights. Meanwhile, two unrelated but devastating events have caused the ground to shake beneath the feet of Obamacare supporters.

A major component of Obamacare is "totally unsustainable." Those aren't the words of Rush Limbaugh or Sarah Palin; no, those belong to the Obama administration's own chief cheerleader, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, in testimony before the Senate Finance Committee. The program in question, the CLASS Act or Community Living Assistance Services and Support Act, is a massive long-term elderly care entitlement program that was quietly tucked into Obamacare and never got anywhere near the attention it deserves.

Sen. Kent Conrad, North Dakota Democrat, called the CLASS Act "a Ponzi scheme of the first order, the kind of thing that Bernie Madoff would have been proud of." And then he voted for it. I suspect Bernie Madoff would be proud of Kent Conrad. The White House's sleight of hand goes like this: CLASS Act taxes begin in Year 1 but the benefits don't begin until Year 6, so when 10 years of revenues and five years of expenses were calculated, the Congressional Budget Office declared not only that the CLASS Act paid for itself but, as a result, Obamacare overall would reduce the deficit. However, when 10 years of revenues and expenses are counted - even accepting the White House's rosy scenario projections - the CLASS Act goes billions into the red and Obamacare itself raises rather than reduces the deficit.

Mrs. Sebelius agrees with the Medicare chief actuary that the program "is at a significant risk for failure" with or without the accounting gimmick but - channeling the spirit of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez - she claims the law gives her "administrative flexibility" to bypass Congress and the American voters and rewrite the law to her liking. Such power.

In separate testimony last week, the HHS secretary admitted to double-counting Obamacare's cooked books. The question posed was whether a $500 billion cut in Medicare should be counted toward preserving Medicare or funding the new law. Her own actuary previously acknowledged they must choose one or the other. Mrs. Sebelius' reply? "Both."

Several hundred miles away in Florida, federal Judge Roger Vinson dealt yet another blow to Mr. Obama's health care crown jewel. It was Judge Vinson, of course, who in January declared Obamacare to be unconstitutional. Many from the victorious 26 states that brought the lawsuit have sought to expedite final resolution of the case in the Supreme Court, but the White House has resisted with hopes of delaying their day of reckoning. Instead, the best and the brightest lawyers in the administration opted to request clarification from Judge Vinson regarding his ruling and its effect on implementation. If there's one thing a squatter knows, it's how to stall.

It would be understandable for Judge Vinson to take exception to this tactic since he had already declared quite clearly that "the award of declaratory relief is adequate and separate injunctive relief is not necessary." In other words, once a law is declared unconstitutional, the only option is to stop implementing it.

This week, the White House was smacked with a painful lesson: Be careful what you wish for. Judge Vinson interpreted the administration's request for clarification as a request to stay his own ruling and he granted it - with a big catch. Judge Vinson, saying "the citizens of this country have an interest in having this case resolved as soon as practically possible," has given the White House exactly one week to request that the case be expedited to the appellate court or the Supreme Court or halt Obamacare implementation.

Regrettably, Judge Vinson stopped short of demanding a complete injunction, which not only would have achieved his goal of expediting the case to the Supreme Court but also would have saved taxpayers billions of dollars in the meantime. Still, the administration's bluff has been called.

In case the White House is still unclear, let me offer them the clarification they seek: Get this case to the Supreme Court now and, unless you do, stop spending billions we don't have on an unconstitutional law.

Obamacare may be the crowning achievement of the big-government crowd erecting their ever-expanding entitlement state, but the laws of economics and the laws of the land are racing to see which will take it down first - that is, if the voters don't beat them to it. Even its most ardent supporters call the plan "a Ponzi scheme" and "totally unsustainable" and its date with Supreme Court destiny is about to be fast-tracked.

Obamacare is a skipping stone careening along the water's surface, but the laws of gravity - like the laws of economics and the laws of the land - will always win.

Dr. Milton R. Wolf, a Washington Times columnist, is a board-certified diagnostic radiologist and President Obama's cousin. He blogs at miltonwolf.com.

© Copyright 2011 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission



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