Illinois New Pension Plan Reform Flawed? Or Just Better Than No Action to Control This Monster?

Almost 365,000 Americans have “enrolled” in the ObamaCare exchanges, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

That number is far below the Obama administration’s impending goal of enrolling 3 million people by the end of December and 7 million by the end of March. But the true number of people who have actually purchased insurance through the ObamaCare exchanges is even smaller. Instead of reporting on actual enrollments, the administration is, instead, reporting on the number of people who have put a health plan in their checkout cart, but haven’t actually checked out.

The distinction is important. As anyone who has ever shopped online knows, putting something in an online shopping cart is not the same thing as actually buying it.

The Obama administration was aiming to enroll 3 million Americans – defined as “obtaining coverage” – by the end of the year. According to the administration, there are just more than 365,000 people who put a plan in their cart through the end of November. Even if every single one of these applicants actually purchased a policy, the Obama administration would have hit only 20 percent of its first month’s goal.

In Illinois, only 7,000 people had enrolled in ObamaCare exchanges through the end of November. Federal officials hope to enroll more than 100,000 by year’s end and about 237,000 Illinoisans by the end of March.

At the current pace, it would take Illinois more than a decade to reach its 2014 target.

This low level, whether attributed to website obstacles or lack of demand, is a cause for alarm for two reasons. First, if these enrollment trends continue, the exchange will almost certainly face an insurance death spiral, where older and sicker patients are far more motivated to enroll, driving up prices further.

Second, the number of people losing their health insurance coverage in the individual and small group markets as a result of ObamaCare could leave the state with a higher uninsured rate.

Courtesty of the Illinois  Policy Institute.  Merle

The Obama administration feels seemingly few constraints in its marketing claims: If you like your health insurance, you can keep it; Enrolling in ObamaCare will be a lot like shopping for flights on Travelocity; and, now, look at how many people have enrolled (or may enroll at some future date) in ObamaCare!

ObamaCare was touted as an effort to dramatically expand health insurance coverage. It is, instead, a costly and damaging scheme for the entire health care system and the nation. The numbers show what many of us already knew: Americans aren’t “buying” it.

Naomi Lopez Bauman | Director of Health Policy

Naomi Lopez Bauman

Twitter Updates

More Teacher Perks Deserved?

These statistics are from the Illinois Policy Institute.  Merle

The pensions that government workers receive in Illinois are often based upon more years of service than these employees actually worked. That’s because, among many other perks, government workers can apply unused sick days to their pensionable service credit.

In the Teachers’ Retirement System, or TRS, Illinois’ largest state pension fund, a 55 year-old teacher who worked 33 years can use two years of banked sick days to bump up her retirement benefits to a 35-year pension.

In TRS, this perk maxes out at 340 unused sick days, or two years of service credit. And it’s extremely popular among TRS members. Consider the following statistics:

• There are more than 98,000 current TRS retirees
• The average regular service credit among TRS retirees is more than 24 years
• The average total creditable service among TRS retirees is more than 27 years
• Nearly 87,000 TRS retirees used at least some banked sick leave toward their service credit
• Of the TRS employees with sick leave service, the average sick leave service credit is one year
• More than 54,000 TRS retirees used at least one year of sick leave toward service credit
• More than 8,000 TRS retirees used two years of sick leave toward service credit

Supporters of the pension legislation passed by the Illinois General Assembly and signed by Gov. Quinn last week tout the fact that the bill gets rid of this type of pension abuse. But the truth is this perk is still available to current government workers and retirees.

That’s because Senate Bill 1 only addresses the sick day pension abuse for new hires, which means any potential savings will likely not be experienced for deca

Peggy Noonan - Declarations

And life's lessons. Excerpts from "Next Year Stay Home, America" by Ms. Noonan, WSJ, Nov. 30.  A time in her life when she worked as a waitress:  People will tell you their life stories over coffee. There's something personal, even intimate, in serving people food, and regulars would come in at 6 or 7 a.m. and in time you'd find you were appointments in each other lives. Including long haul truckers who hadn't talked to anyone in hours.

I learned from them what a TSA agent told me many years later; "Everyone's carrying the same things." I had asked the agent what she'd learned about people from years of opening people's bags and seeing what was inside. She meant her answer literally: Everybody's carrying the same change of clothes, the same toiletries. But at the moment she said it we both understood that she was speaking metaphorically too: Everyone's carrying the same burdens, the same woes one way or another. We have more in common than we know. (Or ever will know. Some are just more publicized, my comment)

Quoting Ms. Noonan again: "People deserve a day off if what they do is nonessential. Selling a toy, a jacket, etc. is nonessential.

Black Friday--that creepy sales bacchanal in which the lost, the lonely, the stupid and the compulsive line up before midnite Friday (or sooner) to crash through the doors, trampling children and frightening clerks (or worse) along the way--is bad enough, enough of a blight on the holiday."

Interesting and true.

Pilfered From the Personal Liberty Digest

Funeral Disservice

December 12, 2013 by Ben Crystal 

UPI

Nelson Mandela's memorial service was held at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg.

No matter what your opinion of Nelson Mandela, you can’t argue that he was super-duper famous. His funeral was the biggest-ticket event of year. Nearly 100 heads of state jostled with truly important people such as Bono and Oprah Winfrey for face time at the former South African president’s memorial service and celebrity gala. If a man’s measure can be taken by his funeral, then Mandela leaves the world with a gaping hole in its A-list photo ops that not even Jay-Z can fill.

President Barack Obama attended. It’s difficult to tell if he knew much about Mandela beyond some study packet provided by his minions; he spent much of his time snapping jocular “selfies” and generally having a grand old time. He did deliver a speech that touched on his usual themes of blaming wealthy people (other than he and his cronies, of course) for the plight of the poor and disenfranchised (other than the people of Detroit and Washington, D.C.). During his turn on the main stage, Obama also exhorted the assembled thusly: “Around the world today, men and women are still imprisoned for their political beliefs, and are still persecuted for what they look like, or how they worship, or who they love.” The irony of a President expressing such magnanimous concerns while illegally snooping on and/or using the Internal Revenue Service and Environmental Protection Agency to harass Americans who don’t share his politics was predictably lost on the cheering crowd and the fawning media.

Obama also made time to shake hands with murderous Cuban tyrant Raul Castro, another unfortunate moment which Obama’s cheering section — an increasingly hard bunch to find within American borders — thought worthy of praise instead of deserving of scorn. At least Senator Ted Cruz was there to represent the Americans who actually oppose tyranny; he pointedly walked out on Castro’s own oration.

Not all the proceedings were marked by the usual preening. The E! Network didn’t have some washed-up comedienne stationed out front of the venue, asking the attendees about their wardrobe choices. In at least two instances, the festivities took a decidedly less festive tone. Boos and catcalls met the introduction of current South African President Jacob Zuma, who appears to be almost as unpopular in South Africa as Obama has become in the United States. Another round of boos reportedly rained down on former U.S. President George W. Bush when his face popped up on the Jumbotron. Apparently, the boobirds are unaware that Bush’s Global Health Initiative has probably done more to combat illness and suffering in Africa than any other entity on the planet — all without so much as a decent write-up in People magazine.

The global celebrity set wasn’t alone in bathing in the adulation. The cheering section came alive for Palestinian martinet Mahmoud Abbas and Mandela’s ex-wife, Winnie. Abbas is an Islamofascist who has built his career on the corpses of Israelis and Palestinians alike. Winnie Mandela is a convicted criminal. She’s a monstrous coattails passenger whose entourage of thugs and killers (known to the unfortunate residents of Soweto as the “Mandela United Football Club”) was notable for its use of “necklacing,” a particularly brutal method of execution involving tires, gasoline and a total lack of even basic humanity on the part of the perpetrator.

Nelson Mandela’s own legacy is, and will remain, a topic of significant debate. For the purposes of this column, however, his legacy is entirely immaterial — mostly because he’s dead. Let’s suspend disbelief for a moment and presume that Mandela was an outright saint. I hardly think a hero who believed in freedom and justice for everyone — regardless of race — would be all that pleased to see his admirers cheering those who have done the least for his people, while jeering those who have done the most.

–Ben Crystal

Filed Under: Conservative Politics, Hot Topics, Outside the Asylum

Dangers of Deification of Mandela and Many Others, Including at Least One In Peoria

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Nelson Mandela and the Dangers of Deification

December 12, 2013 - 4:31 AM

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The death of iconic South African leader Nelson Mandela prompted torrents of gushing praise from world leaders and media this week. Mandela was widely depicted as a near-flawless human being. BBC presenter Evan Davis said Mandela ranked near Jesus in the "pantheon of virtue"; Bono said Mandela was "stubborn 'til the end for all the right reasons, it felt like he very nearly outstared his maker."

But the truth about Mandela is somewhat more shaded. He will be remembered for his magnificent legacy of racial unification in the aftermath of his release from prison in 1990. Mandela's critics worried, not unreasonably, that the committed leader of the African National Congress could lead a race war in revenge for the horrors of apartheid. Instead, Mandela took the leadership of his country with an open hand, and in the process, set a global example of forgiveness on both a personal and national stage.

But Mandela was also a terrorist leader associated with the Communist Party during his early career. His ANC was responsible for violence and murder against both military and civilian targets. During his prison term, his wife Winnie became famous for allegedly using "necklaces" — oil-soaked tires set aflame and placed around the heads of opponents. (They later divorced.)

He remained close with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro ("Long live the Cuban revolution. Long live comrade Fidel Castro"), personally supported Libyan thug Moammar Gadhafi ("It is our duty to give support to the brother leader"), sold tanks to the Syrians and backed the terrorist Palestinian regime of Yasser Arafat ("There are many similarities between our struggle and that of the PLO"). Mandela said: "If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America. They don't care for human beings."

Mandela's administration was remarkable in its attempt to solidify the country instead of dividing it along racial lines. But it also infamously ignored the threat of HIV/AIDS and did little or nothing about the explosion of murder and rape in the country. South Africa remains one of the developed world's most dangerous countries, with 65,000 rapes a year. Select surveys show one in three women saying she had been raped in the past year, and one in four men saying he had participated in a rape. Racial murder remains incredibly high. Mandela's ANC has run the country since 1994.

So, how do we remember Mandela? The world will remember him for the good he did rather than the evil he embraced. That's appropriate and praiseworthy; his living legacy to the world will be his support for racial reconciliation rather than the violence of his youth or the incompetence of his administration and successors.

But the media's deification of Mandela means that millions around the world will lump in Mandela's bad with his good. Instead of separating Mandela's racial record from his support for communistic regimes, the media celebrate him as a sort of bridge between the Castros of the world and the West. Even more problematic is that President Barack Obama, who warmly shook the hand of Raul Castro at Mandela's funeral, does, too.

This is the problem with our "good person" versus "evil person" view of history. Most of us, in our daily lives, say that someone is "good" when we mean that he is more likely than not to take a good action; we say that someone is "evil" when he is more likely than not to embrace the evil position.

But in the Vaseline-covered lens of the media camera, every "good" person becomes a perfect person. The truth is more nuanced: Mandela did some incredible things, and he did some terrible things. The overall analysis of his life will weigh his largest and most important choice as the heaviest, as it should. But that should not mean that all of his sins become virtues, just as for his detractors, all of his virtues should not become sins.

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Houston vs. Chicago - Weapon Control

 

Not so surprising figures to me.  Merle

 

A Tale of Two Cities

Chicago, IL Houston, TX Population 2.7 million 2.15 million Median HH Income $38,600 $37,000 % African-American 38.9% 24% % Hispanic 29.9% 44% % Asian 5.5% 6% % Non-Hispanic White 28.7% 26%    Pretty similar until you compare the following:   Chicago, IL Houston, TX Concealed Carry gun law no yes   # of Gun Stores 0 184 - Dedicated gun stores plus 1500 - legal places to buy guns- Walmart, K-mart, sporting goods, etc. Homicides, 2012 1,806 207 Homicides per 100K 38.4 9.6 Avg. January high temperature  (F) 31 63   Liberal conclusion of Chicago Mayor: Cold weather causes murder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Hearty Handshake Was Bad Enough, But.......

the joyful expression on our leaders face was as one Marxist greets another. A long while back I blogged that Obama had a larger goal than just president of the U,S.A. and that ambition is to someday to be leader of a one world government.

What lurks in the minds of the presidential twosome leaks out now and then.

Hm.

Baby Boomers - Not All Work at Goldman Sachs

Stolen from the WSJ: World peace is probably too much to ask for. But it is hard to assemble those huge conscripted armies that used to fight wars. We'll all have a letter from our doctor about our deep-seated psychiatric problems and drug use. (Drug use growing despite a trillion or so spent recently to eradicate drugs and now illegal prescriptions. If there ever was a monumental failure by the blue-noses and governmental bodies using your tax dollars in the futility, it could be the failed efforts to prevent a growing drug use. Practically everywhere.)  (my comment)

Besides, war is about power. Baby boomers aren't power hungry. Power comes with that kicker, responsibility. We're greedy for love, happiness, experience, sensation, thrills, praise, fame, adulation, inner peace (I have inner peace and my wife, a baby boomer, now that she stopped over boozing it up day and night, is finding some inner peace also) and as it turns out, money. Health and fitness too. But we're not greedy for power. Observe the baby boomers who have climbed to its ascendancy in Washington. The best and the brightest? They're over at Goldman Sachs.

Gee whiz. I though 545 were capably running our government. Oh, I forgot, they are in South Africa on a junket honoring ex-Communist; Nelson Mandela. Partially kidding. Of course he spent 27 or so years in jail for protesting inequalities. Today, if you protest these things Mandela did you would just plain disapear.

Hmmm.

Mandela's Promise Unfilled For Many

Excerpts from today's USA Today by Marisol Bello: Alexandra, (Alex) South Africa is where most houses still have no electricity, clean water and the residents still use outhouses. Little change from what Mandela described in his autobiography. Two miles away lies Sandton, swanky homes, gated apartment complexes, the South African Stock Exchange and an Aston Martin dealership.

The disparity between abject poverty and great wealth evident in (Alex) and Sandton is representative of a growing income inequality since the end of apartheid The World Bank says the rich poor gap is among the world's worst.

Alex was a special place for Mandela, but it is one of the poorest and roughest areas of Johannesburg. Here, where people go jobless and no one goes out after dark, (Sounds like a growing part of Peoria, Il., my comment) Mandala's promise has fallen short.

Now that Mandela is dead, residents have little faith the government will help improve their lives. (Mandela's major message was 'self-reliance and hard work'). "Those guys in government respected him," says one resident of Alex. "Now, they will do what they like, and they will cripple us." He continues that the only work he can find pays equivalent of $7.50 US a day. "You can't feed a family on that," he says. "This is painful. South Africa is painful to live here". (Compare with the "poverty stricken" USA where hamburger flippers, waiters and waitress and cashiers who can't compute without a machine, are demanding a minimum wage of $15 an hour or $120 for an 8 hour day, my comments) He sees the opulence in Sandton and wonders, "How can you build such things as Sandton and people in Alex are still living in these conditions?" "Alex is in the middle of the good life, he says. "We are surrounded by food, but we can't eat."

Hope Schock and his tax-payer paid delegation has "time" to visit Alexandria. Plus Obama and his "massive" delegation  or delegations takes the time to visit Alex also.

No, I'm not turning into a Socialist but those who teach kids that all of us are "born equal" and have the "same opportunity", are full of crap.

Mandela Visitations

Sending even Aaron Schock? How many Democrats are going? I ask because if Mandela lived in the U.S.A., he would have been a Democrat. Why not send half of Congress to pay respects? All on the taxpayer dole and part of the trip is a sight-seeing vacation?

No wonder this country is broke. Sure, Mandela did many good things for black people. And his work did some good worldwide. But did his works do enough for today's black youths?

Hope Schock stayed around to pay his personal respects to Flossie Adams. Now there was a great man. Sorry to see Bill pass on. He was one of the people who worked for the JS that I could hold in high regard.

Budget Cuts Proposed by Republican Paul Ryan

Sent to me by a friend. The question at the end goes to both
Democrats and Republicans.  Merle

No wonder we're broke.  Absolutely Jaw Dropping

PAUL RYAN'S PROPOSED BUDGET  CUTS

A List of Republican Budget  Cuts

Notice S.S. and the military are NOT on  this list .

These are all the programs that the new  Republican House has proposed cutting.

Read to the  end.

* Corporation for Public Broadcasting Subsidy -- $445 million annual  savings.

* Save America 's Treasures Program -- $25 million annual  savings.

* International Fund for Ireland -- $17 million annual  savings.

* Legal Services Corporation -- $420 million annual  savings.

* National Endowment for the Arts -- $167.5 million  annual savings.

* National Endowment for the Humanities --  $167.5 million annual savings.

* Hope VI Program -- $250 million  annual savings.

* Amtrak Subsidies -- $1.565 billion annual  savings.

* Eliminate duplicating education programs -- H.R. 2274  (in last Congress), authored by Rep. McKeon ,  eliminates 68 at a savings of $1.3 billion annually.

* U.S.  Trade Development Agency -- $55 million annual savings.

*  Woodrow Wilson Center Subsidy -- $20 million annual savings.

*  Cut in half funding for congressional printing and binding -- $47 million annual  savings.

* John C. Stennis Center  Subsidy -- $430,000 annual savings.

* Community Development Fund  -- $4.5 billion annual savings.

* Heritage Area Grants and  Statutory Aid -- $24 million annual savings.

* Cut Federal  Travel Budget in Half -- $7.5 billion annual savings

* Trim  Federal Vehicle Budget by 20% -- $600 million annual savings.

*  Essential Air Service -- $150 million annual savings.

*  Technology Innovation Program -- $70 million annual  savings.

*Manufacturing Extension Partnership  ( MEP ) Program -- $125 million annual  savings..

* Department of Energy Grants to States for  Weatherization -- $530 million annual savings.

* Beach  Replenishment -- $95 million annual savings.

* New Starts  Transit -- $2 billion annual savings.

* Exchange Programs for Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians,  and Their Historical Trading Partners in Massachusetts -- $9 million annual  savings

* Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants -- $2.5 billion annual  savings.

* Title X Family Planning -- $318 million annual  savings.

* Appalachian Regional Commission -- $76 million annual  savings.

* Economic Development Administration -- $293 million  annual savings.

* Programs under the National and Community  Services Act -- $1.15 billion annual savings.

* Applied Research  at Department of Energy -- $1.27 billion annual savings.

*  Freedom CAR and Fuel Partnership -- $200 million annual  savings..

* Energy Star Program -- $52 million annual  savings.

* Economic Assistance  to Egypt -- $250 million annually .

* U.S. Agency for International Development -- $1.39 billion  annual savings.

* General Assistance to District of  Columbia -- $210 million annual savings.

* Subsidy for  Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority -- $150 million annual  savings.

* Presidential Campaign  Fund -- $775 million savings over ten years .

* No funding  for federal office space acquisition -- $864 million annual  savings.

* End prohibitions on  competitive sourcing of government services.

* Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act -- More than $1 billion  annually .

* IRS Direct Deposit: Require the IRS to  deposit fees for some services it offers (such as processing payment plans for  taxpayers) to the Treasury, instead of allowing it to remain as part of its  budget -- $1.8 billion savings over ten years.

* Require collection of unpaid taxes by federal  employees -- $1 billion total savings. WHAT'S THIS  ABOUT?

*  Prohibit taxpayer funded union activities by federal employees -- $1.2 billion  savings over ten years .

* Sell excess federal properties  the government does not make use of -- $15 billion total  savings.

* Eliminate death  gratuity for Members of Congress. WHAT???

* Eliminate Mohair Subsidies  -- $1 million annual savings.

* Eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- $12.5 million annual savings. WELL ISN'T THAT SPECIAL

* Eliminate Market Access  Program -- $200 million annual savings.

* USDA Sugar  Program -- $14 million annual savings.

* Subsidy to Organization  for Economic Co-operation and Development ( OECD ) --  $93 million annual savings.

* Eliminate the National Organic  Certification Cost-Share Program -- $56.2 million annual  savings.

* Eliminate fund for Obamacare administrative costs -- $900 million  savings.

* Ready to Learn TV Program -- $27 million  savings..

* HUD Ph.D. Program.

* Deficit  Reduction Check-Off Act.

* TOTAL SAVINGS: $2.5 Trillion over Ten  Years

My question is, what is  all this doing in the budget in the first place ?

Maybe this is why the Democrats are  attacking Paul Ryan.

Please Send to everyone you  know..

 

"An elective despotism was not the  government we fought for," - Thomas  Jefferson

Museum Referendum (PRM) - Two Vocal Councilmen

Eric Turner vocally opposed any opposition to the downtown museum. So did Jim Montelongo. Montelongo also wanted the city to buy the water company along with Beth Akeson and Chuck Weaver. The other 8 members recognized the public wish. Turner should have been removed by a term limit law which is BADLY needed. Montelongo was re-elected because of no real opponent. Weaver may have lost some of his  popularity to eventually succeed Ardis as Mayor.

And loudmouth Randall Emert did GET 30 possible actual votes in his run to be on the City Council although he did not demand a recount. Ha, ha.

Weaver comes from old money and and an old name which is a huge help at election time in Peoria. Akeson, well, Akeson is Akeson and will be up for election again.

The pro-museum folks thought we opponents didn't know 'nuthin'. Board made Richerson the "scapegoat" and whatever happened to the woman who ran the Lakeview Museum?

And the guy from Cat who so strongly supported the museum but couldn't answer a simple question about 'why no IMAX in the PRM' after an IMAX was promised by everybody that was anybody or thought they were,  is retiring from Cat. Fact was the IMAX people recognized a failure because they had the EXPERIENCE.

Hmm.