My step-sister-in-law in Texas sent me an email that boils down the 10,535 pages of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) , which some people call Obamacare, into four sentences:
1. In order to insure the uninsured, we first have to uninsure the insured.
2. Next, we require the newly uninsured to be re-insured.
3. To re-insure the newly uninsured, they are required to pay extra charges to be re-insured.
4. The extra charges are required so that the original insured, who became uninsured, and then became re-insured, can pay enough extra so that the original uninsured can be insured, which will be free of charge to them.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is called “redistribution of wealth” or its more common name, SOCIALISM.
Depending on your point of view, this is either a very good thing or a very bad thing.
I am suddenly reminded of something I heard President Lyndon B. Johnson say way back in nineteen-sixty-something: “We’re going to take from the haves and give to the have-nots who need it so much.”
Again, depending on your point of view, this is either a very good thing or a very bad thing.
Time may march on, but some things never change.
Showing posts with label Obamacare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obamacare. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
News Flash: The IRS and President Obama are not your friends
It’s true.
You probably already suspected that the IRS (Internal Revenue Service, the tax collecting arm of the federal government) is not your friend.
Well, neither is President Obama’s healthcare plan, famously dubbed Obamacare by its detractors (real name: The Affordable Care Act).
The Affordable Care Act. HA! And again I say, HA!
Here is a link to a very interesting article at cnsnews.com by Matt Cover.
I hope you were sitting down.
The gist of the article, for those of you who didn’t read it, is that in a final regulation issued this past Wednesday, the Internal Revenus Service (IRS) assumes that the cheapest health insurance plan for a family of four in 2016 will cost $20,000 for the year.
Yes, you read that right.
There will be four tiers of coverage possible under the Affordable Care Act -- Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Bronze is the lowest level.
The figure $20,000 represents the annual premium for Bronze-level coverage.
But wait (as they say in infomercials). You don’t have to buy the coverage. You can choose instead to pay the “penalty” for not having coverage.
The “penalty” for a family of four will be $2,400 payable as part of your income tax for the year.
Yet President Obama continues to insist that he does not want to raise taxes on anyone except the very rich (you know, those nasty millionaires and billionaires whose success just has to have been at your expense). He wouldn’t raise taxes on you.
Not little old you. He’s protecting you, just as he always has done and always will do, is now and ever shall be, world without end, Amen.
Balderdash, poppycock, and other expressions of outright disbelief.
To help illustrate the new rules, the IRS has presented examples of different situations families might find themselves in. In the examples, the IRS assumes that families of five who are not insured would need to pay an average of $20,000 per year to purchase a Bronze plan in 2016.
Using the conditions laid out in the regulations, the IRS calculates that a family earning $120,000 per year that did not buy insurance would need to pay a “penalty” (a word the IRS still uses despite the Supreme Court ruling that it is in fact a “tax”) of $2,400 in 2016.
For those wondering how clear the IRS’s clarifications of this new “penalty” rule are, here is one of the actual examples the IRS gives:
“Example 3. Family without minimum essential coverage.
“(i) In 2016, Taxpayers H and J are married and file a joint return. H and J have three children: K, age 21, L, age 15, and M, age 10. No member of the family has minimum essential coverage for any month in 2016. H and J’s household income is $120,000. H and J’s applicable filing threshold is $24,000. The annual national average bronze plan premium for a family of 5 (2 adults, 3 children) is $20,000.
“(ii) For each month in 2016, under paragraphs (b)(2)(ii) and (b)(2)(iii) of this section, the applicable dollar amount is $2,780 (($695 x 3 adults) + (($695/2) x 2 children)). Under paragraph (b)(2)(i) of this section, the flat dollar amount is $2,085 (the lesser of $2,780 and $2,085 ($695 x 3)). Under paragraph (b)(3) of this section, the excess income amount is $2,400 (($120,000 - $24,000) x 0.025). Therefore, under paragraph (b)(1) of this section, the monthly penalty amount is $200 (the greater of $173.75 ($2,085/12) or $200 ($2,400/12)).
“(iii) The sum of the monthly penalty amounts is $2,400 ($200 x 12). The sum of the monthly national average bronze plan premiums is $20,000 ($20,000/12 x 12). Therefore, under paragraph (a) of this section, the shared responsibility payment imposed on H and J for 2016 is $2,400 (the lesser of $2,400 or $20,000).”
On a side note, I’m glad the IRS cleared up the fact that they arrived at their figure of $20,000 by dividing $20,000 by 12 and then multiplying by 12. I don’t think I could have lived another second without knowing that information.
The last I heard, H and J were considering taking K, L, and M and moving to the Cayman Islands.
Until you decide to read my poems, you will continue getting posts like this one.
You probably already suspected that the IRS (Internal Revenue Service, the tax collecting arm of the federal government) is not your friend.
Well, neither is President Obama’s healthcare plan, famously dubbed Obamacare by its detractors (real name: The Affordable Care Act).
The Affordable Care Act. HA! And again I say, HA!
Here is a link to a very interesting article at cnsnews.com by Matt Cover.
I hope you were sitting down.
The gist of the article, for those of you who didn’t read it, is that in a final regulation issued this past Wednesday, the Internal Revenus Service (IRS) assumes that the cheapest health insurance plan for a family of four in 2016 will cost $20,000 for the year.
Yes, you read that right.
There will be four tiers of coverage possible under the Affordable Care Act -- Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Bronze is the lowest level.
The figure $20,000 represents the annual premium for Bronze-level coverage.
But wait (as they say in infomercials). You don’t have to buy the coverage. You can choose instead to pay the “penalty” for not having coverage.
The “penalty” for a family of four will be $2,400 payable as part of your income tax for the year.
Yet President Obama continues to insist that he does not want to raise taxes on anyone except the very rich (you know, those nasty millionaires and billionaires whose success just has to have been at your expense). He wouldn’t raise taxes on you.
Not little old you. He’s protecting you, just as he always has done and always will do, is now and ever shall be, world without end, Amen.
Balderdash, poppycock, and other expressions of outright disbelief.
To help illustrate the new rules, the IRS has presented examples of different situations families might find themselves in. In the examples, the IRS assumes that families of five who are not insured would need to pay an average of $20,000 per year to purchase a Bronze plan in 2016.
Using the conditions laid out in the regulations, the IRS calculates that a family earning $120,000 per year that did not buy insurance would need to pay a “penalty” (a word the IRS still uses despite the Supreme Court ruling that it is in fact a “tax”) of $2,400 in 2016.
For those wondering how clear the IRS’s clarifications of this new “penalty” rule are, here is one of the actual examples the IRS gives:
“Example 3. Family without minimum essential coverage.
“(i) In 2016, Taxpayers H and J are married and file a joint return. H and J have three children: K, age 21, L, age 15, and M, age 10. No member of the family has minimum essential coverage for any month in 2016. H and J’s household income is $120,000. H and J’s applicable filing threshold is $24,000. The annual national average bronze plan premium for a family of 5 (2 adults, 3 children) is $20,000.
“(ii) For each month in 2016, under paragraphs (b)(2)(ii) and (b)(2)(iii) of this section, the applicable dollar amount is $2,780 (($695 x 3 adults) + (($695/2) x 2 children)). Under paragraph (b)(2)(i) of this section, the flat dollar amount is $2,085 (the lesser of $2,780 and $2,085 ($695 x 3)). Under paragraph (b)(3) of this section, the excess income amount is $2,400 (($120,000 - $24,000) x 0.025). Therefore, under paragraph (b)(1) of this section, the monthly penalty amount is $200 (the greater of $173.75 ($2,085/12) or $200 ($2,400/12)).
“(iii) The sum of the monthly penalty amounts is $2,400 ($200 x 12). The sum of the monthly national average bronze plan premiums is $20,000 ($20,000/12 x 12). Therefore, under paragraph (a) of this section, the shared responsibility payment imposed on H and J for 2016 is $2,400 (the lesser of $2,400 or $20,000).”
On a side note, I’m glad the IRS cleared up the fact that they arrived at their figure of $20,000 by dividing $20,000 by 12 and then multiplying by 12. I don’t think I could have lived another second without knowing that information.
The last I heard, H and J were considering taking K, L, and M and moving to the Cayman Islands.
Until you decide to read my poems, you will continue getting posts like this one.
Friday, June 29, 2012
So near and yet so far.
Blogger’s overview page says this blog has 995 posts, but the page that lists all of the individual posts says there are 994 posts. One of those numbers is true, I suppose, but I don’t know which one, and I am not going to count all the posts personally to find out. I do know, however, that both of them can’t be true.
If one of you would like to undertake that task and report back to me no later than Tuesday, you will not have to take the final examination.
That thingy over there on the right says this blog has 97 followers. At one point the number had reached 98, but it slipped back to 96, and now says 97. At least one of the followers is shown twice, though, so maybe 96 is the correct number. Maybe even 95.
Not quite 1000 posts. Not quite 100 followers.
So near and yet so far.
I am reminded of the opening lyrics of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s song “Is A Puzzlement” from the musical The King and I:
When I was a boy
World was better spot
What was so was so
What was not was not
Now I am a man
World have changed a lot
Some things nearly so
Others nearly not
Does it matter whether I have 96 or 97 followers?
No.
Does it matter whether I ever reach 1000 posts?
No.
Does it matter that President Obama insisted in his interview with George Stephanopoulous that the individual mandate portion of his healthcare legislation was not a tax and now Chief Justice John Roberts, writing the majority decision in the case U.S. Department of Health and Human Services v. Florida, says the mandate is a tax?
Yes.
It matters a great deal.
So near and yet so far.
Just like November.
If one of you would like to undertake that task and report back to me no later than Tuesday, you will not have to take the final examination.
That thingy over there on the right says this blog has 97 followers. At one point the number had reached 98, but it slipped back to 96, and now says 97. At least one of the followers is shown twice, though, so maybe 96 is the correct number. Maybe even 95.
Not quite 1000 posts. Not quite 100 followers.
So near and yet so far.
I am reminded of the opening lyrics of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s song “Is A Puzzlement” from the musical The King and I:
When I was a boy
World was better spot
What was so was so
What was not was not
Now I am a man
World have changed a lot
Some things nearly so
Others nearly not
Does it matter whether I have 96 or 97 followers?
No.
Does it matter whether I ever reach 1000 posts?
No.
Does it matter that President Obama insisted in his interview with George Stephanopoulous that the individual mandate portion of his healthcare legislation was not a tax and now Chief Justice John Roberts, writing the majority decision in the case U.S. Department of Health and Human Services v. Florida, says the mandate is a tax?
Yes.
It matters a great deal.
So near and yet so far.
Just like November.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Thank God we still have freedom of speech.
There’s a minor -- well, maybe not so minor -- brouhaha going on in the U.S. right now involving President Barack Obama’s comments the other day about the Supreme Court’s current deliberating over the constitutionality of the 2009 healthcare law that is derisively termed “Obamacare.”
If you’re in another country you may not be aware of it, but here in what Mexicans insist on calling EE UU we are transfixed.
Rush Limbaugh (a radio talk-show host) had a lot to say about it on his program yesterday. Here is the transcript.
The breaks in the transcript are the spots at which commercial advertisements by the sponsors of the radio program were inserted.
Many people think the President overstepped the bounds when he referred to the nine justices of the Supreme Court as “an unelected group of people.”
For those who don't know, the U.S. Constitution specifies three equal branches of government: the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial.
Long may they wave.
If you’re in another country you may not be aware of it, but here in what Mexicans insist on calling EE UU we are transfixed.
Rush Limbaugh (a radio talk-show host) had a lot to say about it on his program yesterday. Here is the transcript.
The breaks in the transcript are the spots at which commercial advertisements by the sponsors of the radio program were inserted.
Many people think the President overstepped the bounds when he referred to the nine justices of the Supreme Court as “an unelected group of people.”
For those who don't know, the U.S. Constitution specifies three equal branches of government: the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial.
Long may they wave.
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