Eliminate the Highway Trust Fund and Empower the States

Saturday's Tribune had a commentary courtesy of the Washington Post, No road work ahead, that states:

The federal Highway Trust Fund is set to run out of money this summer. Without a fix, federally backed transportation projects all over the country — not just highways — would be in danger of severe disruption or cancellation.

Yes, the Highway Trust Fund is running out of money - soon.  The Highway Trust Fund was funded exclusively through our federal gas taxes, user fees, until 2008 when Congress began transferring monies from the General Fund to cover deficits in the Highway Trust Fund. This allowed spending to continue (with borrowed dollars) and basically kick the systemic problems of the Highway Trust Fund deficit spending down the road.  

How did we get here? CATO Institute provides a Dept. of Transportation Timeline of Growth from 1787 - 2009. 

The federal gas tax was implemented in 1956 under President Eisenhower to fund roads, highways and bridges and to specifically build out our Interstate system.  Gas taxes are a "user fee" paid for by those who use our roads. The federal gas tax today, which has been in place since 1993, is 18.4 cents per gallon for gas and 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel. The tax was originally set to expire in 1972 but instead has been extended ever since and it's scope greatly expanded well beyond the Interstate system and roads. 

In 1983 Congress created the Mass Transit account within the Highway Trust Fund. This act began the diversion of our road user fees, federal gas taxes, to mass transit. This enabled greater expanded siphoning of our federal gas taxes to rail and bus transit, ferry boats, bike paths, sidewalks and recreational trails.  Today our federal gas taxes are expanded beyond even those activities and includes air quality mitigation, historic resources, environmental goals and other ancillary purposes.

Today HTF allocations fund much more than just highways 

At the same time the scope for the use of our federal gas taxes was being greatly expanded, vehicles continued to become more fuel efficient and vehicles fueled by other types of energy began to be introduced:  hybrids, electric, natural gas, etc.  As CAFE standards increase fuel efficiency and the public uses more non-gasoline powered vehicles, the funding problem gets worse. The circular logic of heavily subsidizing mass transit and other ancillary activities through dwindling vehicle user fees eventually becomes unsustainable and reality hits.  

Have you heard of earmarks?  The first earmarks EVER, which began the use and abuse of earmarks, was in the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1982. That bill included 10 earmarks for funding transportation projects in certain Congressional districts. Ironically, that same year, 1982, then President Reagan proposed ending the federal gas tax and federal highway funding. Congress refused to support Reagan's proposal because apparently they did not want to give up their power and control over this huge pot of tax dollars. The House Transportation Committee, who oversees the Highway Trust Fund, is the largest committee in the House. That's a lot of power, influence and control.

President Reagan vetoed a transportation bill in 1987 because it had too many earmarks - 151.  Earmarks continued to grow and grow as Congress continued earmarking pork barrel projects for their home districts. Transportation funding became the poster child for earmark pork projects.  The last long term 5 year Transportation bill passed by Congress in 2005 had a record breaking 6,371 earmarks in it.  This pork laden bill brought public outrage with the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" earmark for Alaska. The "Bridge to Nowhere" earmark became a national symbol of Congressional porkmania wasteful spending.

Earmarks were banned in 2010 when the Republicans took control of the House.  But the Fed system is such a mess we now have "orphaned earmarks" according to this USA Today article in 2011:

During the past 20 years, orphan earmarks reduced the amount of money that states would have received in federal highway funding by about $7.5 billion, USA TODAY found. That's $7.5 billion that states could have used to replace obsolete bridges, repair aging roads and bring jobs to rural areas.

It's 3 years later in 2014 and Rep. James Lankford (R-OK) introduced a bill last month, HR4715, and we're not making this up, called the Orphan Earmarks Act, "to rescind and remove idle earmarks for Department of Transportation (DOT) projects, some of which were approved more than 20 years ago." 

Lankford’s bill would void earmarked funds in DOT accounts with 90 percent or more of the original dollar amount left unobligated after ten fiscal years. The bill also requires DOT to submit a report each year detailing which projects were funded through earmarked dollars and which funds remain available for funding at the end of the fiscal year. Additionally, it provides flexibility to DOT to ensure projects slated to begin in the immediate future can still take place.

Isn't that the least we could do in this funding crisis?  Clean up the orphaned earmark funds!

The rubber is hitting the road with our current Highway Trust Fund situation. According to this CBO testimony on the Status of the Highway Trust Fund presented to Congress last July:

• The current status of the Highway Trust Fund is unsustainable.  Starting in fiscal year 2015, the trust fund will have insufficient resources to meet all of its obligations, resulting in steadily accumulating shortfalls.

• Since 2008, the Congress has avoided such shortfalls by transferring $41 BILLION from the General Fund of the Treasury to the Highway Trust Fund.  The Congress has enacted an additional transfer of $12.6 BILLION that is to be included in 2014.  If lawmakers choose to continue authorizing such transfers, they would have to transfer an additional $15 BILLION and increasing amounts in subsequent years to prevent future shortfalls, if spending was maintained at the 2013 level, as adjusted for inflation.

• Lawmakers could also address the projected annual shortfalls by substantially reducing spending for transportation surface programs, by boosting revenues, or by adopting some combination of the two approaches.  Bringing the trust fund into balance in 2015 would require entirely eliminating the authority in that year to obligate funds (projected to be about $51 BILLION), raising the taxes on motor fuels by about 10 cents per gallon, or undertaking some combination of those approaches.

CBO HTF projected shortfalls

This is not a pretty picture as we must maintain our existing infrastructure and our gas tax revenue is declining.  So what do we do?  Doing nothing will only create a bigger mess to dig out from. The easiest thing to do is keep spending and continue bailing out the Highway Trust Fund with General Funds. That truly shoots user fees and user pays out the door. We could raise the tax. According to The Hill, a bill has been submitted to almost double our federal gas tax and it's been endorsed by the US Chamber of Commerce:

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) is introducing legislation that would nearly double the 18.4-cents-per-gallon federal gas tax that is traditionally used to pay for federal transportation projects.

Blumenauer's bill would increase the gas tax by 15 cents, matching a proposal that was included in the 2011 Simpson-Bowles budget reform recommendations.

The legislation would result in drivers paying an extra 33.4 cents per gallon on their purchases, in addition to state taxes.

The Oregon lawmaker is scheduled to appear with representatives from the AFL-CIO's Transportation Trades Department, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Labors International Union of North America, the American Society of Civil Engineers, Reconnecting America and the American Public Transportation Association.

Blumenauer's bill would also index the federal gas tax to an inflation index. Indexing the gas tax would conveniently enable it to go up, up and up without having to hold future Congressional reps accountable. The organizations Blumenauer was appearing with to tout this bill looks like the typical organizations who support tax increases because it will benefit "them".

Even Senator Barbara Boxer who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee said at a legislative briefing in February, "I don't see support for raising the gas tax".  She's right.  A Gallop poll taken last year found two-thirds of Americans opposed a gas tax hike even it went toward infrastructure improvements.  

A big problem today is that taxpayers do not trust how the federal government is spending our current gas tax dollars so why should we give them more to waste or spend on pet projects. Taxpayers are wiser today as we witness our exploding federal debt approach $18 TRILLION. That is unsustainable.

But we have a transportation funding problem so is there a better solution? Yes! There are bills in the House and Senate that would do what President Reagan wanted to do in 1982 - kill the federal gas tax.  In an article, Death to the Gas Tax at Reason.com these bills (HR 3486 and S1702) would "kill the gas tax and remove Washington from transportation policy":

Last November, Graves introduced the Transportation Empowerment Act, which was cosponsored through Senate legislation by Republican Mike Lee. By drastically reducing the tax, it would enable states to manage their own transportation policies, improving a process that has become massively inefficient under federal oversight. 

“It's rather silly,” Graves told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, that “taxpayers pay taxes at the pump that go to the federal government, [which] then tells our state how it must spend the money,” even though it doesn't “give you all the money you submitted.”

Graves' bill would reduce the tax over five years to 3.7 cents/gallon, which could produce around $7 billion, and that money would be sent to states through block grants with few regulatory strings attached. States could then make up the difference by raising their own gas taxes.

The Transportation Empowerment Act (TEA) would empower states to pursue their own unique transportation solutions because the states know better what their transportation needs are. The TEA bill would help reduce duplicity, overhead, costly federal strings and regulations and a costly federal bureaucracy. TEA would help stop the current perversion to pursue the most expensive transportation solutions because federal tax dollars are somehow "free".  Reason states:

...Federal Highway Administration that largely duplicates the responsibilities of state DOTs. Every federally-funded transportation project, for example, is subject to Davis-Bacon laws that mandate the payment of local prevailing wages. An executive order from President Obama in 2009 requires federal projects of over $25 million to use Project Labor Agreements, which discourage open bidding in favor of unionized collective bargaining.

Other regulations require redundant environmental reviews and over-demanding construction standards. Former FHWA head Robert Farris has estimated that, altogether, federal regulations increase project costs by 30 percent.

Federal oversight also encourages construction of projects that make little economic sense. Before the ban in 2010, large chunks of gas tax revenue went for earmarks. Although Republicans have extended the earmark ban, there's no guarantee that it will be safe if Democrats reoccupy the House.

...infrastructure becomes most pragmatic when funded by those who actually use it. This is in contrast, writes Nicole Gelinas in City Journal, to the impression of “free money” that localities get when receiving federal grants from taxpayers nationwide.

There is no "free" lunch or "free" money. Due to the chaotic financial mess the Feds have made in DC, the states are not waiting for DC. The states are figuring out themselves how to pay for their own infrastructure needs. Transportation expert Ken Orski was on a recent panel hosted by the Heritage Foundation at a Capital Hill briefing for Congressional staff regarding the Highway bill and posted some of his remarks at the Heartland Institute.

...individual states, far from standing idly by, are responding to the fiscal uncertainties in Washington by stepping up and augmenting their transportation budgets. 

...governors, state legislatures and local governments are taking aggressive steps to make themselves fiscally more independent. They are increasing fuel taxes, passing local bond referenda, financing costly construction projects with long-term credit, and entering into investment partnerships with the private sector.

As for the states, greater fiscal independence will help them gain a substantially enhanced role in transportation and more freedom and flexibility to manage their transportation programs on their own terms and free of burdensome federal oversight.

From porkbarrel spending to expanding the Highway Trust Fund's scope way beyond its ability to pay to orphaned earmarks that sit idle in the Dept. of Transportation coffers, the Feds have turned the Highway Trust Fund into a big funding mess. Congress cannot fix it. The way out is the TEA bills. Let's get the Feds out of the way, stop sending our gas tax dollars to be siphoned through the DC waste filter and empower the states to be responsible for their own transportation policies and funding. 

Florida has always been a federal gas tax donor state sending DC far more than what they doled back to us. Where was the outrage from our elected officials about this, at any level of government, especially as Florida's population was growing exponentially? We heard from some of them loudly when President Obama wanted to "throw" federal debt dollars at Florida for a costly High Speed Rail between Orlando and Tampa.  We certainly did not hear that kind of response and outrage that Florida, a leading tourist destination of the world, should be keeping our own gas tax dollars to improve our roads.  Have you ever been to West Virginia to see the huge highways former Senator Byrd built with our road money?

Gas Tax Donor States

Transportation policy should promote mobility and not be based on politics. The closer our transportation solutions get to "user pays" the better. That is the fairest way to pay. 

Transit needs its own funding source, including riders paying a more market priced fare, so vehicle user fees are not subsidizing transit. Our gas taxes should be used as originally implemented - to pay for our roads, highway and bridges. Even doing that, over time those dollars will dwindle and new funding sources must be found. States are the innovative incubators where reform occurs first and as previously stated, are already taking a lead in how to fund their own transportation projects.

We know the TEA bill is a long shot as too many in Congress do not want to give up their influence and control over large buckets of our tax dollars.  

We are in an election year.  Get your Congressional candidates to agree to sign on and support the Transportation Empowerment Act. 

At some point common sense must prevail.

Tribune Tiptoes around Obamacare lies

We've seen the Tribune Obamacare Op-Ed lamenting here, here, and here. The Tampa Tribune lamenting of ObamaCare continues with their Op-Ed today:  
Obamacare: a state of chaos.  Or perhaps we'll say it's "sort of" lamenting because their article starts out with this statement about Obama's "press conference fix out of thin air" announced Thursday:

President Barack Obama’s temporary fix to his health care law doesn’t really fix much at all. In fact, it will certainly lead to more chaos and may very well result in higher premiums for all consumers.

But ends with this:

Obamacare has at its core a noble premise: affordable and good health care for all Americans.  

Once the full rollout has occurred next year, and the full consequences are known, the public will have a better sense of where fixes are needed, or whether the entire law needs to be jettisoned. After that, Congress can act accordingly.

Does the Tribune do a 180 from the beginning to the end of their Op-Ed? Earth to Tribune - you can not have it both ways. Does the Tribune believe Obama can unilaterally make all these changes to laws he signed?

How about some historical and common sense perspective regarding Obamacare?

First of all ObamaCare was rammed thru on a totally partisan basis through a corrupt process of back room bribes and special procedural maneuvering. As Jonah Goldberg points out in his recent article in National Review Online, 

"Dems have only themselves to blame for Obamacare quagmire. 

Moreover, even though the legislation may go by the moniker “Obamacare,” the fact is the president didn’t write the law. Congress did, specifically congressional Democrats, with virtually no Republican input."

The Tribune needs to stop the masquerade for who is to blame for the Obamacare train wreck, chaos and mess. There's only one party responsible - the only party that voted for it - the Democrats. 

Since 2009, the Democrat mantra has been that "if you like your healthcare plan, you can keep your healthcare plan" as Goldberg points out:

Senate majority leader Harry Reid insisted that the Affordable Care Act “means making sure you can keep your family’s doctor or keep your health care plan, if you like it.” His number two, Senate majority whip Dick Durbin, said, “We are going to put in any legislation considered by the House and Senate the protection that you, as an individual, keep the health insurance you have, if that is what you want.” Senator Patty Murray, the chair of the Senate Budget Committee, said it too: “If you like what you have today, that will be what you have when this legislation is passed.” Democratic senators Chuck Schumer, Max Baucus, Jeanne Shaheen, Jay Rockefeller, Bob Casey, and many, many other Democrats spouted the same talking points. 

Heck, Nancy Pelosi’s website still says that under Obamacare you can “Keep your doctor, and your current plan, if you like them.”

This Washington Examiner article tells us:

In fact, the keep-your-coverage pledge was key to some Democrats' decision to support the Affordable Care Act.

For many Democrats, the keep-your-coverage pledge was not a throwaway line; it was a fundamental part of their case for Obamacare.

The article continues with this list of "you can keep your healthcare" quotes from 27 Democrats.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's office has compiled a list of 27 Democratic senators who pledged that Americans could keep their coverage under Obamacare. The list includes the entire Democratic leadership in the Senate as well as Democrats facing tough re-election races in 2014, like Mary Landrieu, Mark Begich, and Kay Hagan.

And our own Senator Nelson repeated the same mantra as he sent out letters like I received in November  2012 stating:  "Let's be clear, if you have health insurance now, you can keep it."

Letter from Senator Nelson on Obamacare

Republican Senator Enzi proposed a resolution in September 2010 to block the HHS narrow grandfather rule causing the cancellation chaos.  Every single Democrat, including Senator Nelson, voted against legislative fixing this issue they knew about in 2010. 

In addition, Eric Cantor brought up the same issue at Obama's "infamous" February 2010  Healthcare Summit at Blair House.  Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Nelson all knew back in 2010 their mantra was not true but they kept repeating it.  Senator Nelson kept sending letters out like above and Pelosi continues the false mantra on her website - as if they believe that simply stating it and having the media repeat it for them - it's true and Americans will believe it. 

Senator Nelson, who has been MIA on the Obamacare issues for months, addresses this issue through a Press Release Thursday:

“Congress enacted health care reform to help uninsured Americans get coverage, and it was not intended to take away from folks policies they're happy with,” Nelson said.

We could not find a public comment from Representative Kathy Castor.  She's been MIA on Obamacare publicly since her August 6, 2009 Healthcare Townhall, where this video caught Castor stacking the audience deck with her Obamacare and Union supporters who came in through the back door before the doors were opened to the general public.

And then Castor proceeds to blame insurance companies, one of the most regulated industries in our country, and says Obamacare will bring healthcare security to all. We've seen how that has worked out with 5 million Americans who have gotten cancellation notices, more on the way and hundreds of thousands of workers hours reduced to part time.

I was at Castor's town hall standing near the front of the line to get in and the door was blocked by a union thug. When the doors finally opened for the public and I quickly got in,  almost all the seats were already taken and I had to stand against the wall. Apparently, the intent of Castor's Healthcare town hall was to be a RAH RAH event with her supporters.

So there you have it.  Nelson was AGAINST codifying the law so you could actually keep your insurance BEFORE he was FOR an Obama unilateral squishy fix created out of thin air that creates more chaos. We assume Castor could care less about making a statement.

While we appreciate the Tribune's recent laments, where were they in 2009 and 2010 when Republicans and conservatives were predicting this Obamacare mess? Sorry but noble premises resulting in bad policies that hurt Americans is wrong.

The Democrat's failed attempt to take over 1/6 of our complex economy, our entire healthcare system, was always opposed by a majority of Americans and Floridians.  Common sense says if you want to fix a problem - first do no harm.  If you want to fix a problem affecting 10-15% of Americans, you don't harm the other 85-90%.  The media refused to tell the truth and allowed the lies and fraud to perpetuate.  

Eventually reality bites and bites good and hard. Obamacare was passed on deception, fraud and lies and a ponzi scheme requiring the young and healthy to buy overpriced health plans they don't want or need. This particular mantra is just the beginning and tip of the iceberg. Not only were Americans told they could keep their current plan, we were told we could keep our doctors, households would save $2500 a year and Obamacare will bring DOWN our healthcare costs and premiums. Instead what we are seeing are the majority of Americans signing up for Obamacare are going on Medicaid, very few signing up in the exchanges, Americans with existing plans getting cancellation notices, sticker shock on premiums, deductibles and co-pays and Americans not being able to keep their doctors.  According to this Reuters article

UnitedHealth Group dropped thousands of doctors from its networks in recent weeks, leaving many elderly patients unsure whether they need to switch plans to continue seeing their doctors, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Obamacare guts Medicare Advantage and Medicare to pay for Obamacare.  The beginning of the chaos has just begun. We would not have been in the mess if the media had done their job, told the truth and challenged the lies. 

The time for lamenting and masquerading who is responsible for Obamacare by the Tribune is over.  Obamacare cannot be fixed because it was built on a foundation of fraud. Instead of lamenting, theTribune should be screaming to end the chaos and repeal and replace ObamaCare with common sense, incremental solutions targeted at the 10-15% who were unable to buy insurance.

The Tribune must hold Nelson and Castor accountable. What are they afraid of?
The Truth!

Guest Post: Destructive path chosen by Obama, Democrats

Ken Roberts, an Eye reader from Apollo Beach, provides a guest post today.  His article was published on the Tampa Tribune's editorial page yesterday as the Letter of the Day and if you missed it, please read.

Destructive path chosen by Obama, Democrats

The thing about the shutdown that angers me the most is the truth. The truth is that this debt-ceiling method of negotiating a budget and spending limits is the process preferred by the president and his party. It was selected by the president and his party very early on in his first administration.

The time-tested and legal way to negotiate a budget is for the Senate and the House to each pass a budget, then negotiate to produce one budget from the two offered, and then send that to the president. The Senate, run by Harry Reid and dominated by Democrats, has refused to do this, and until this year refused to produce a budget for more than four years. This leaves the House only one remedy, and that is to use its constitutional power of the purse to withhold funds and try to force negotiation.

Each time the House tries this, the president and the Democrats, reinforced by the media, call them unreasonable and complain that threatening to shut down the government is irresponsible. But we must remember, the House is acting at the behest of constituents who see the danger in continuing to print money and spend more than we take in, with disastrous long-term consequences for our country and every American — indeed, for the world.

Many congressmen were specifically elected in 2012 to work as hard as they could to reduce spending and get our budget balanced. Each time, however, the press spouts the party line of the president and points fingers at the Republicans. They completely ignore the facts that Reid and the president have chosen this path by their refusal to follow the law and reach a budget agreement the way presidents and governments did for decades before them.

If the president and the Democratic leadership really wanted to negotiate — if they were really interested in working together and reaching compromise that involves all the people — they would use the legislative process designed to do that. But they force us all to live with their choice so they can have everything they want — without having to compromise.

Ken Roberts

Apollo Beach 

Tribune short-circuits ObamaCare history

Here at the Eye we have previously written about the ObamaCare train wreck, including Where in the World is Senator Nelson on ObamaCare now and other Eye posts here and here.  We continue to wonder why our local media refuses to interview or question those who voted for the predicted ObamaCare mess, including Senator Nelson.  

Today's Tampa Tribune includes their own editorial Obama short-circuits his own health plan 

The continuing troubles with the Affordable Care Act’s enrollment website rest squarely on President Obama’s shoulders.

If the problems persist, Obama needs to extend the enrollment period beyond the March 31 deadline, or exempt people from the penalties associated with failing to have insurance. After all, big businesses were granted an extension when they complained about a lack of time to prepare for a reporting requirement in the new law.

Therefore, we must assume that the Tribune believes that Obama and the Executive branch can arbitrarily and unilaterally pick and choose what parts of a law the President signs to enforce and when. On what basis, do they believe the President has that power? What precedent does that set? Will the Tribune support that same position in the future if there is a Republican President with the Democrats having a majority of one or both houses of Congress?  

We agree there needs to be a delay of the individual mandate.  In fact, in July, as ABC news reported:  House Votes to Delay Employer and Individual Mandates by One Year

The House of Representatives voted this evening not only to delay the employer mandate by one year, but also to delay implementation of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate by one year as well.
“This is about basic fairness,” House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said during a news conference Wednesday. “If the president believes that the employer mandate is too much for the employer community, how about basic fairness for American families and individuals?”

These votes passed with Democrat support in the House. Nowhere in the Tribune Op-Ed states this fact that the House went thru the proper legislative process to pass two bills to delay both the employer and individual mandates. The House sent these bills over to the Senate.  Senate majority leader Harry Reid refused to address them or acknowledge them. Senator Reid did not want to force Senate Democrats, especially those vulnerable Democrats up for re-election in 2014, to have to vote on bills that would provide fairness to all Americans regarding ObamaCare.  

As far we know, the Tribune never even asked Senator Nelson for his opinion regarding these two bills passed by the House. 

Yet, the Tribune continues to report on Senator Nelson's request to delay raising federal flood insurance rates and refuses to report that it was Senator Nelson who voted FOR the Biggert-Waters bill last year raising the rates while Senator Rubio voted AGAINST the bill last year.  Senator Nelson's request for a do-over for his flub vote last year is almost comical as the Tribune regurgitates from an email Nelson sends to the Associated Press: 

"My legislation to fix this is being blocked right now by partisan politics and those who continue to oppose the existing health care law," Nelson wrote in an email to The Associated Press.

The truth and facts about ObamaCare is that a majority of Floridians always opposed ObamaCare. We knew back in 2009-2010 that the government trying to take over 1/6 of our economy would be a disaster. Yet Senator Nelson voted for it anyway, against the position of his constituents. Accountability for the ObamaCare train wreck starts with who rammed it thru a totally partisan corrupt process of back room deals, and special legislative maneuvering procedures that enabled a "tax" and spending bill that originated in the Senate to get passed when the House Constitutionally owns the purse strings. 

One of the reasons for the website complexity is because this Administration insisted that those looking to enroll would NEVER see the actual cost and price tag of the policies offered - how transparent is that? Oh wait  - we keep being told Obama Claims Administration Most Transparent in History so it must be true.....

The website, which we now know was not thoroughly tested, requires personal financial information be input to determine the subsidy first and then provides the subsidized premium. The Democrats and Senator Nelson put their faith banking on enough Americans  becoming dependent on the unsustainable Obamacare subsidy entitlements and there will be no turning back. Remember the subsidy is NOT free, someone else is paying for it. Again, accountability begins with who starts and creates the mess. There's only one party that passed ObamaCare in 2010 who is responsible for the train wreck they created -  the Democrats and that includes Senator Nelson. 

Requires superhuman mastery to work 

The Tribune implies these technical "glitches" implementing ObamaCare is somehow "new" news.  Where have they been?  We'll help them out going back three years to 2010.

In practice, they will likely prove difficult to design and implement, and may ultimately undermine the country’s quality of care

Verifying eligibility for these subsidies means developing a rapid-response welfare apparatus that has the ability to instantly create detailed, accurate applicant profiles. Fast, accurate income verification presents a particularly serious difficulty.

technical concerns haven't garned the same level of attention as, say, they Supreme Court challenge to the law, but they've been around for a while, and they're fairly serious

The CEO of Aetna, meanwhile, told CNBC that testing of the system has been done on the fly, and that health insurers—who are connected directly to the exchange systems—didn’t get the code to connect their systems until a month before the exchanges opened.

The Tribune continues their ObamaCare lamenting today with an Op-Ed by Michael Gerson Obamacare is in bad need of a doctor.  While Gerson admits 

Obamacare is a multiyear, multifaceted fiasco.

Gerson also states, as if fearful:

And it could become an intellectual crisis for modern liberalism.

And ends his column

So maybe the problem is not Obama or Sebelius but rather a government program that requires superhuman technocratic mastery.

Taking over 1/6 of our economy does take superhuman mastery which proves the government  cannot successfully do it. The majority of Americans who have always opposed ObamaCare knew this.  A government that tries to control our entire healthcare system in the name of "helping" the 10-15% of Americans who were uninsured requires hurting the 85-90% of those who were already insured. Does Senator Nelson believe this is good? Is this what Senator Nelson wants?

We understand bills are to be initiated in the House (again) and the Senate to delay the individual mandate. It is now being reported that 300,000 Floridians are getting notified by Florida Blue they are losing their existing health policies. So much for Floridians getting to keep their existing healthcare coverage.

Will Senator Nelson support delaying the individual mandate now?  And will anyone in the local media bother to ask him?

What we have here is a teachable moment but the Tribune has a lot to learn.

Can Nelson handle the Truth about ObamaCare?

We have all been wondering Where in the world is Senator Bill Nelson on ObamaCare Now?   We've heard crickets from him as issues swirl all around it's implementation. Apparently our local media isn't curious either but we know you are.

Well, in November 2012, Senator Nelson sent out this letter that stated

Let's be clear:  If you have health insurance now, you can keep it. 

Members of Congress did not exempt themselves from any part of this law. 

Senator Nelson response re: ObamaCare

Fast forward to 2013 and today.  

We have watched Obama unilaterally and unconstitutionally decide what parts, and when, of the ObamaCare law Obama signed he will enforce. We have watched as special interests and special groups, as well as Congress, carved out their own ObamaCare exemptions.  We have watched as UPS dropped 15,000 spouses from their employer healthcare.  We have watched as employees of Walgreens and other companies, as well as retirees of IBM, will no longer have the healthcare plans they currently have, but will be moved into healthcare exchanges.  We have watched company after company after company reduce employee hours to part time 29 hours a week to avoid the pain of ObamaCare.  We have watched as our economy is now turning into the ObamaCare economy of part time workers.  Even the unions are mad as they see ObamaCare is destructive to their own self-interests and what Americans have always understood as a normal full time job - the 40 hour work week.  We now know Nelson's statement in 2012 that those who currently have health insurance can keep it with ObamaCare is absolutely false.  What does Senator Nelson say to those who are losing the health insurance they currently have?  Does he care?

And yes the political elites in Congress and their staff did get their own exemption as Senator David Vitter explains 

“As you have no doubt read, President Obama recently issued a special rule for Congress only. Under it, Congress and congressional staff get a special subsidy to purchase health insurance on the Obamacare Exchange unavailable to every other American at similar income levels,” he said. “That special subsidy is worth approximately $11,000 per family."

and Vitter graphically exposes.

ObamaCare exemption for Congress

A majority of Floridians have always opposed ObamaCare. In fact, a greater percentage oppose it today since we now know what's in it than when the totally partisan ObamaCare bill passed in 2010 (thru a corrupt process of back room deals). But where is Senator Nelson now?  He's Missing In Action on ObamaCare!

Recently Nelson aide Lisa Marshall in Nelson's Orlando office adamantly said Nelson believes "Everything is ready for October 1".  Really?  Is ObamaCare even ready for Prime Time?  Americans are worried about the security and privacy issues with the ObamaCare implementation and this Weekly Standard article confirms our worries.

An ObamaCare exchange employee in Minnesota accidentally sent out an email containing 2400 American's Social Security numbers.

“Users of the exchange will need to provide sensitive information, including Social Security numbers, that will be sent to a federal hub to verify such things as citizenship and household income…. 

“All states and the federal government, which also is setting up exchanges for some states, are scurrying to get the complex system running in less than three weeks. 

“‘The people who believe in this are so driven that there’s a subcontext of “Just let us do our job and get as many people signed up as possible, and we’ll pick up the debris later,”’ said Steve Parente, a University of Minnesota finance professor who specializes in health IT issues. 

“Parente testified on Capitol Hill earlier this week, urging caution in pushing the federal hub online before it has been thoroughly tested.The Star Tribune reports that the recipient of the mishandled privacy data was applying to become an Obamacare “navigator."

And get this - there's no validation in place for eligibility for the subsidies so we're all on the honor system....really....no waste, no fraud there I'm sure. 

So what is going to happen in Florida to health insurance premiums?  According to this AP article

Florida's insurance officials are predicting that health insurance rates will rise 5 to 20 percent for small businesses and 30 to 40 percenin the individual market through the state's new exchange.  

Wait, Hold on....Obama promised us that Americans would save families $2500 a year.   But Forbes wrote this today:

the experts working for Medicare’s actuary have (yet again[1]) reported that in its first 10 years, Obamacare will boost health spending by “roughly $621 billion” above the amounts Americans would have spent without this misguided law.

Between 2014 and 2022, the increase in national health spending (which the Medicare actuaries specifically attribute to the law) amounts to $7,450 per family of 4.

ObamaCare cost per family

In addition, the Cleveland Clinic, the very model that Obama touted in 2009, is cutting it's budget by $300 million due to ObamaCare - that means thousands of jobs lost too. What does Senator Nelson say to those losing their jobs, about company layoffs or companies not hiring simply because of ObamaCare?  Does he care? 

We speculate Senator Nelson and the Democrats are quietly sitting on the side lines anxiously waiting for the taxpayer subsidies to start flowing, hopeful that once they flow they will never stop.  Senator Nelson is being allowed to sit quietly because the media refuses to confront him about the ObamaCare train wreck he helped create. But with $17 Trillion of direct debt, our other entitlements Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security approaching life support, health insurance premiums going up, do you think the ObamaCare subsidies are even sustainable?  

But lo and behold federal flood insurance rates are going up just like health care premiums.  Federal flood insurance affects about 2% or 2 million Floridians while ObamaCare affects all 20 million of us in Florida. And guess who wants to delay any increase in federal flood insurance rates?

None other than Senator Bill Nelson.  Now the Tribune did catch up with Nelson to report on his position on flood insurance rates.  

But where in the world is Senator Nelson on ObamaCare now?  Don't you think it's about time our local media asked him?  Nelson's constituents want to know.  

Or is Nelson getting a "free media pass" on ObamaCare?

It's Decision Time on ObamaCare - DeMint and Heritage Comes to Tampa

Former Senator Jim DeMint is a soft spoken Southern gentleman but when he speaks you listen intently....I first met the Senator right before the 9/12/2009 Taxpayer March on DC – you know that march where over a million Americans attended but the mainstream refused to report about. A group of us from Florida were walking the halls of Congress the day before the march and lo and behold Senator DeMint was in his office. He invited us all in to chat and get a picture with him.  Senator DeMint then proceeded to tell us how Proud he was to stand with us. We, of course, were grateful and thanked him for his unrelenting work and efforts to stop ObamaCare back then.

So we looked forward to the Heritage Action event last week where Senator DeMint, now Chairman of Heritage Foundation, spoke to a packed house of over 700. The Eye was there and the room was energized with all who spoke. 

We were fortunate to attend the Press Conference prior to the event with Senator DeMint, Michael Needham, CEO of Heritage Action and Chris Jacobs, Heritage healthcare policy analyst.  

We found it curious those in the media who are “so interested” in Senator Rubio's position supporting defunding ObamaCare.  But the same media is "never interested" in asking Senator Nelson, who voted for ObamaCare in 2010, what he thinks about it now.  Why does the Senator who voted for the train wreck get a pass?  We won't hold our breath wondering. A couple key points we will emphasize came at the end of the Press Conference as DeMint basically said 

A government shutdown is a misnomer - it is a slowdown, essential services continue to get funded but the damage from a slowdown is so much less than the damage from implementing this bill. 

And remember Don't Blink!

We were able to get a couple of interviews before the event.  And while I am still getting the hang of this interview stuff, Tim Curtis, Chairman of the Tampa912, gave us his insights.

So ObamaCare is not ready for primetime, waivers and exemptions have been given to certain groups, including Congress and not to others, like you and me.  It appears to be an IT nightmare that includes issues with securing the personal data being entered, the inability to verify eligibility and so many missed deadlines.  With Tampa practically an epicenter for identity fraud, we have to wonder how comfortable you would feel entering your tax and personal information into the ObamaCare system?  As Tim tells us, there are free market solutions that will fix this mess but we first must get rid of ObamaCare.  

We then caught up with the Florida Regional Coordinator for Heritage Action, Karen Jaroch, who helped plan this event. She explains the purpose of the event and has a great message  for how ObamaCare can be defunded while the rest of the government continues to be funded.

The purpose of this Heritage Action event? As Karen said, we are in the August recess when our Congressional Representatives and Senators should be home holding Townhall meetings to hear from their constituents.  Unfortunately too many of them no longer hold any Townhalls so this event offered an alternative opportunity to be heard.  

The main event included comments from Senator DeMint and Heritage Action CEO Michael Needham and a Q & A with both of them answering questions selected from the audience. A true joy at the end was Rafael Cruz, Senator Ted Cruz's father, who escaped Cuba and came to America. Rafael personally knows what it is to have his freedoms and liberties immediately taken away.  But he says in the United States those liberties and freedoms are slowly being eroded away like a frog in a pot on the stove, with the heat slowly increasing until unwittingly boiled dead.

As Senator DeMint said

It's decision time.  Since when did Americans not fight for what they believe in because they were afraid they would lose?

And Michael Needman added this when questioned about the Obama and the Democrats successful social media strategies.

We don't just have a tech problem.  We need to have a soul, we need to lead, we need to inspire. Take responsibility within your sphere of influence - on social media, going door to door, talking to friends and talking over the dinner table.

From the soft spoken Southern gentleman DeMint to the energetic fervor of Rafael Cruz, there was a buzz and sense of urgency ignited in the room. We were reminded that We the People do have the power but that we must exercise it. The clock is ticking on ObamaCare and we were told the urgency is now for empowered Americans to lead and take the following action.  

Contact your Congressional Representative and request they sign Rep. Meadows letter to Defund ObamaCare. 

Sign the Don't Fund It Petition and let's get at least a million signatures.

We hope you enjoy our videos of this event, will stop back and watch them again from time to time and that you will share them with others "within your sphere of influence".