October, 2014 Part 4, the Unfolding Disaster That is Obama Care: Lower Quality, Higer Costs, Broken Promises, Bad Operations, And More

Over the past few years, but especially over the past fourteen months, we have had to devote more and more posts each month to the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care. This legislation, without a doubt, is the worst piece of legislation ever passed, likely passed by the most inept and useless set of Washington politicians that this country has ever had to endure. The disasters from this law include at least the following downsides:

• It has and will continue to increase the national debt.
• It will leave tens of millions of Americans still uninsured ten years from now.
• It has restricted overall economic growth.
• It raised taxes on all Americans in dozens of ways.
• It has reduced the job growth rate in this country.
• It has turned many full time workers into part time workers or into unemployed workers.
• It has generally increased the cost of health insurance, both premiums and deductibles, over what was available in the insurance market before it was passed.
• The Constitution was violated any number of times when the Obama administration unilaterally and illegally changed components of the law without the permission of Congress or the American people.
• The American people were lied to over and over, directly by the President and Democrats in Congress, on the negative ramifications of the law.
• It has caused millions of American to lose access to the current insurance policies they had.
• It has caused millions of Americans to lose access to their preferred doctors, preferred hospitals, and in many cases, current medicine treatments.
• It has likely increased the volume of people visiting hospital emergency rooms.
• It has caused thousands of doctors to retire early or change professions in order to not deal with the bureaucracy and idiocy of the law.
• It has exposed the inability of the Federal government and various state governments to develop, launch, and operate any kind of successful program.
• It has exposed millions of Americans’ personal financial information to identity thieves.
• It never addressed, and thus, never resolved, the root causes of our escalating health care costs in this country.

I am sure that I omitted some of the negative ramifications of the legislation but you get the idea. To review past discussions of past disasters from Obama Care, enter "the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care" in the search box above. To see what disasters have popped up over just the past month or so, read on:

1) Robert Moffit, writing for the Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal, did a nice job recently summarizing the disasters that came out of the Obama Care legislation in the first year of its existence. These shortcomings. learnings, and failures included the following realities:

• Despite a three year lead time and probably about a billion dollars spent, the Federal government could still not deliver a workable website for Obama Care polices on time and on budget.
• The only worse performance was a number of states that NEVER got their Obama Care websites up and working despite millions and millions of dollars spent.
• While the average annual deductible for employer-based coverage was a little over $1,000 in 2014, the Obama Care health insurance policies sold through the Obama Care exchanges had average deductibles nationwide that usually topped $2,000.
• These higher deductibles occurred, along with higher premiums of Obama Care policies, despite the fact that the President promised promise the typical family insurance cost would go down by $2,500 annually.
• Statistics for the individual insurance policy market show that the average annual premiums for single and family coverage rose in a large majority of state and federal health-insurance exchanges all around the country. 
• In eleven states, premiums for twenty-seven-year-olds more than doubled in 2014 vs. 2013.
• In thirteen states, premiums for fifty-year-olds increased more than 50%. 
• The Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) estimated in early 2014, that 65% of small companies would experience health insurance premium rate increases, while only 35% were expected to have reductions. 
• CMS estimated that 11 million Americans employed by these small companies would experience premium rate increases, while only 6 million would see reductions. 
• A national study by the Heritage Foundation found that between 2013 and 2014, the number of insurers offering coverage in the individual insurance markets in all fifty states declined nationwide by 29%. 
• The Obama Care systems were so poorly developed that we really do not know how many American actually got insurance via the legislation, a disgrace from an operations and taxpayer perspective. Or in the words of the Congressional Budget office: “The number of people who will have coverage through the exchanges in 2014 will not be known precisely until after the year has ended.” One year after introduction and we still have no idea what really happened. Disgraceful.
• In order for Obama Care financials to work, the number of younger Americans obtaining Obama care policies needed to be in the 40% range. However, using the best sketchy data available, it seems that the actual percentage of younger, healthier people getting policies via the legislation is closer to only 28%, as announced by the White House on April 17, 2014.

Higher prices and costs, bad operations and planning, bad mix of customers, bad, bad, bad.

2) The overall purpose of Obama Care should have been to reduce the ever escalating cost of health care in this country. One year into the program, it does not look like it is working, at least yet, according to an October 13, 2014 Associated Press article:

• The article found that one in four privately insured adults in this country say they doubt they could pay for a major unexpected illness or injury, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 
• The survey found the biggest financial worries were among people with high-deductible plans that require patients to pay a big chunk of their medical bills each year before insurance kicks in, a primary driver of both employer provided insurance and Obama Care policies.
• Edward Frank of Reynoldsville, Pennsylvania, said he bought an insurance  plan with a $6,000 deductible last year through the Obama Care national exchange but still ended up paying $4,000 out of pocket for a shoulder condition: "Unless you get desperately ill and in the hospital for weeks, it's going to cost you more to have this plan and pay the premiums than to pay the bill just outright. The deductibles are so high, you don't get much of anything out of it [his Obama Care policy]." 
• The poll found that 19% of all privately insured adults did not go to the doctor when they were sick or injured, because of costs while those with high-deductible plans, the figure was 29%.
• Seventeen percent of privately insured adults skipped a recommended test or treatment but 23% among of those with high-deductible plans skipped them.
• Eighteen percent of all adults went without a physical exam or other preventive care while 24% among those with high-deductible plans.
• Many of those polled claimed they made financial trade-offs to pay medical bills with 33% of all adults saying they cut back on entertainment, 18% saying they used up all or most of their saving, and 19% said they dropped down their contributions for retirement savings.
• Those with high deductible plans made even deeper cuts to other expenses.

Regardless of whether or not you have an Obama Care policy or not, it appears that the law had not had the intended effect after one year of reducing household health care expenses as promised by the law’s supporters since according to this poll, health care expenses are still causing a lot of hardship for a lot of Americans with no end in sight.

3) The midterm elections are on November 4, 2014 but the Obama Care exchange websites will not have the new 2015 insurance premium costs loaded for consumer review until November 15, 2014. Could it be that the cost increases for Obama Care policies for 2015 are going to be so high as to negatively influence election decisions? Or is it just a coincidence that the open period for enrollment in 2014 is a month later than it was in 2013? 

Given the track record of this administration for honesty and integrity, I know where I fall relative to this answer but I will let you decide for yourself: political maneuvering or coincidence?

4) David Hogberg, writing for Amy Ridenour’s National blog, is one of the foremost experts on the inner workings of Obama Care. He recently published some additional fun, but not funny facts, on Obama Care:

- We have discussed the reality many times that even though you may now have health insurance via Obama Care, it does not mean you have quality health insurance via Obama Care. Mr. Hogberg cites a recent study the Avalere organization did for the American Heart Association:

• The study looked at the doctors available through three lower cost silver plans on the Obama Care exchanges in 10 metropolitan areas.  
• Avalere analyzed whether the silver plans covered the top 10 physicians in a metropolitan area in three specialties: cardiologists, neurologists, and diagnostic radiologists. 
• A physician was included in the list of 10 if he was one of the 10 highest in terms of Medicare payments, with the assumption that higher Medicare payments was a surrogate for being in demand in his specialty field. 
• The study found that in many metro areas, Obama Care customers had access to few, if any, of the top ten doctors in that specialty and that metro area.
• In Atlanta, Chicago, and Los Angeles, for example, there was zero access to the top ten cardiologists.

You have insurance but you do not have quality health care.

- Mr. Hogberg also cited a recent LA Times article that reported that: 

• The “state’s largest health insurers are sticking with their often-criticized narrow networks of doctors, and in some cases they are cutting the number of physicians even more, according to a Times analysis of company data.” 
• California insurer HealthNet is terminating one of its Obama Care Preferred Provider Network plans and “switching to a plan with 54% fewer doctors and no out-of-network coverage, state data show.”
• Despite the reduced network, "premiums for that new stripped-down policy are going up as much as 9% compared with pricing for the PPO….HealthNet said its cutbacks were necessary to avoid even steeper rate hikes.”

That will do it for today, more of the same: higher costs, lower quality, less choice, more stress, failed objectives, broken promises. And more of the same tomorrow.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

September, 2014 Part 5 The Unfolding Disaster That Is Obama Care - Enrollees Continue to Drop Out And Still A Drag On The Economy

Over the past few years, but especially over the past thirteen months, we have had to devote more and more posts each month to the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care. This legislation, without a doubt, is the worst piece of legislation ever passed, likely passed by the most inept and useless set of Washington politicians that this country has ever had to endure. The disasters from this law include at least the following downsides:

• It has and will continue to increase the national debt.
• It will leave tens of millions of Americans still uninsured ten years from now.
• It has restricted overall economic growth.
• It raised taxes on all Americans in dozens of ways.
• It has reduced the job growth rate in this country.
• It has turned many full time workers into part time workers.
• It has generally increase the cost of health insurance, both premiums and deductibles, over what was available in the insurance market before it was passed.
• The Constitution was violated any number of times when the Obama administration unilaterally and illegally changed components of the law without the permission of Congress or the American people.
• The American people were lied to over and over, directly by the President and Democrats in Congress, on the ramifications of the law.
• It has caused millions of American to lose access to the current insurance policies they had.
• It has caused millions of Americans to lose access to their preferred doctors, preferred hospitals, and in many cases, current medicine treatments.
• It has likely increased the volume of people visiting hospital emergency rooms.
• It has caused thousands of doctors to retire early or change professions in order to not deal with the bureaucracy and idiocy of the law.
• It has exposed the inability of the Federal government and various state governments to develop, launch, and operate a successful program.
• It has exposed millions of Americans’ personal financial information to identity thieves.
• It never addressed, and thus, never resolved, the root causes of our escalating health care costs in this country.

I am sure that I omitted some of the negative ramifications of the legislation but you get the idea. To review past discussions of past disasters from Obama Care, enter ”the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care” in the search box above.

Let’s see what disasters we can find today.

1) Last month, we did a thorough analysis that showed that the Obama Care effort did not incrementally deliver health care insurance to 8 million Americans as the administration claimed. In reality, depending on what assumptions you use, at best only 800,000 to 1.8 million Americans incrementally got private health insurance as a result of the billions of dollars spent on Obama Care. Those numbers, analysis assumptions, and calculations can be accessed for review at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2014/08/august-2014-unfolding-disaster-that-is.html

A recent blog post on Amy Ridenour's National Blog, written by David Hogberg, also took a look at how 8 million Obama Care signups is really not 8 million signups. His analysis goes as follows:

• Mr. Hogberg quotes reporting by The Hill that government figures show that enrollment has already dropped to 7.3 million, down from the announced 8.0 million.
• The main reason for this large 9% drop already is that the lower number reflects the fact that 700,000 or so people never followed through to pay for their Obama Care policy and thus, they never acquired Obama Care insurance. 
• Mr. Hogberg is skeptical that the 7.3 million number is legitimate since he cites the reality that last month, writer Jed Graham of Investor’s Business Daily reported that Aetna, the “nation’s third-largest health insurer had 720,000 people sign up for exchange coverage as of May 20, a spokesman confirmed to IBD. At the end of June, it had fewer than 600,000 paying customers.” 
• That would mean that 17% of the drop in the total number Obama care enrollees came from just a single company, Aetna, 120,000 (Aetna’s lost Obama Care customers) divided by 700,000 = 17%.
• Thus, it is highly likely that the 700,000 number drop is too optimistic since if Aetna lost 120,000 customers (almost 17% of all of its Obama care enrollees), than what did the hundreds of other insurance companies lose including health insurance giants like UnitedHealthcare. Cigna, and others, both large and small?
• And this 700,000 drop does not include the 115,000 or more enrollees that are going to lose their insurance coverage since they never should have received it in the first place, per a previous post.

What a mess. The 8 million number was in all likelihood the high water point for Obama Care enrollees. If the number was still at that level, you can be sure that the Obama administration would be bragging about it to support Democrats running for election in November. The fact that they are not bragging is a great indication that there is nothing to brag about and that that 8 million number has dropped like a rock over just the past few months.

2) Allen B. West used to be a Florida Congressman, he lost his reelection bid in 2012 and since then has been an active speaker and commentator on all things political, including Obama Care. A recent online post by him cited the feelings and pessimism of a number of people in the health care industry relative to the negative ramifications of Obama care:

• Health economist John Goodman recently stated that three Federal Reserve Banks, in Philadelphia, New York and Atlanta, have surveyed the businesses in their Fed area and roughly one fifth of the employers are saying they cut back on employment: “Roughly one fifth are saying they’re moving from full time to part time. More than one in ten are saying they’re doing more outsourcing – all this because of the new health care reform.”
• Goodman has gone on to say: “And so we see this everywhere that people are restricted, they’re pushed below 30 hours, they count as part time and when they’re part time, the employer doesn’t have to provide health insurance. Even among full-time workers, their take home pay is going to go down because one thing that almost all the employers are doing in response to Obamacare is raising the deductibles, raising the co-payments and making the employee pay more of the premium.”
• Doug Holtz-Eakin, former Director of the Congressional Budget Office, recently stated: “For the smaller employers — those that have between 20 and 49 employees — you get a negative impact on jobs, you get a negative impact on wages in those jobs. What this means for small business as a whole is over $22 billion of earnings gone for their workers and 350,000 jobs.”
• Merrill Matthews of the Institute for Policy Innovation: “You have a kind of a natural cliff there, that keeping your employees under that magic number relieves employers of the mandate to provide insurance. The 30-hour cutoff is how the administration determines whether you’re full time or part time."
• Tevi Troy of the American Health Policy Institute: “Yes we are going to see increased cost to employers who are trying to provide health care for their employees, but employers don’t just take that lying down.”

So here you have the expert opinions of an economist who specializes in health care, a former government executive, a think tank executive, and an industry spokesperson who all come to the same conclusions: Obama Care is killing small businesses ability to grow, hire, and expand which is a primary driver of the nation’s anemic economic growth since the last recession.

As with the enrollment numbers above, if Obama Care was growing the economy or at least not stifling it, I am sure the Obama administration would be shouting at the top of their lungs that the legislation has been good for the economy as we approach the November elections. Their silence on the regarding the economy and Obama Care speaks volumes in this political season.

That will do it for today. Only two disasters but they are significant. More proof that the original Obama Care numbers were highly inflated relative to reality and the continuing reality, according to the economic numbers and subject matter experts in the field, the legislation is killing small business growth and overall economic growth.

More disasters to follow for the next few days.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

July, 2014, I Am A Global Warming Doubter and A Believer In Science - Part 5

Today is the final post in our update to a continuing theme in this blog, “I am a global warming doubter and a believer in science.” The justification for this series was the fact that I just got fed up being yelled at and called a whole slew of not nice names by people like Al Gore simply because I choose to look at the entire spectrum of global warming, and its rebranded them of climate change, rather than the rantings and ravings of people like Gore that look only at the science that supports their viewpoint and not at all science, both pro and con.

We could have devoted more than five days to the update, that is how fast and furious rebuttals and new research are coming along to prove that it is entirely possible and rational to be a global warming doubter and a believer in science. We will cover those trends in a future update but it is time to move on. I think we have made our point this week and again today that it is indeed Al Gore who is on the wrong side of science and reality.

Rather than try to have an adult conversation, people like Al Gore have caused us doubters racists, homophobes, science illiterates, etc. We maintain that if you look at ALL of the climate science, you will see the fallacy and emptiness of Gore-like viewpoints and rantings. To do anything else would not be scientific, it would be scientific heresy.

To view the dozens of posts we have done in the past where we quote famous and credible scientists, cite credible and independent reports, and use logic to show that the global warming scare and climate change mania is probably just that, scare tactics and mania, put the following phrase, “I am a global warming doubter” in the search box above to get a complete list of previous related posts. If you are an Al Gore fan, a dare you to read all of the science put forth in these posts before you commence with the name calling again.

Let’s see what new science evidence has come about since our last update to the theme, I am a global warming doubter and a believer in science.”

1) The following research findings were published by the CATO Institute on May 29, 2014 in a piece written by Paul Knappenberger and Patrick Michaels. Another scientific paper has just been published that again finds no correlation between Arctic sea ice loss and extreme cold and wintery conditions across the U.S., something the Obama administration vainly tried to link together last winter during the coldest winter in recent memory in the country.

Colorado State climate researcher Elizabeth Barnes found that natural variability accounted for the polar votex, claiming it was impossible to make the correlation or find any data that linked human-caused global warming and the colder than normal weather. signal even if one were to exist in the vortex data (which there is no proof of). According to the CATO report, shortly after Ms. Barnes‘s findings, a group of prominent climate scientists wrote a letter to a prominent journal stating that drawing the type of connection that the White House was trying to do “was not scientifically advisable.”

In addition, more science and research backed up the conclusion that there was not human affecting behavior relative to the polar vortex. The additional research came from Thomas Ballinger of Kent State University/ His research team found that:

• The magnitude of the 2014 “polar vortex” was really not that unusual from a historical perspective. 
• His team, found that relative to vortex behavior across North America since 1948, that the 2014 polar vortex excursion into the country ranked only 6th in southerly extent and 7th in total area. In other words, other polar vortexes had existed in the 66 years, a half dozen of which were worse than the vortex of 2013-2014.
• The researchers claimed that their work “revealed that the spatial features of the January 2014 [polar vortex over the U.S.] were not extreme relative to certain 1948-2013 Januaries.”
• They also could not find a link between human manmade global warming/climate change, the northern ice cap, and the polar vortex, despite the Obama administration’s implying that a link existed.

More lies from this administration or just bad science from this administration? You choose but understand relative to other, credible scientists, the Obama administration is probably wrong again when it comes to asserting the reality of the climate.

2) Judith Curry is a professor and the chairwoman of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology, certainly someone with scientific credentials and credibility when it comes to the climate. She recently was interviewed in Australia by the website, Quadrant Online, to discuss her contrarian view that mankind is not causing global warming or extensive climate change. 

This view has gotten her on the bad side of those that want desperately to make that linkage with Scientific American branding her as “a heretic” who has “turned on her colleagues.” Probably her claim that doing science by consensus is not science has also not endeared her to those that claim global warming and climate change are the direct result of mankind’s activities.

Highlights/quotes of her interview include: 

• I am mystified as to why President Obama and John Kerry are making such strong (and indefensible) statements about climate change. Particularly with regards to extreme weather events, their case is very weak. Especially at this time, given that much of the rest of the world is pulling back against commitments to reduce emissions and combat climate change.
• Regarding the hiatus in warming [i.e. the Earth‘s temperature stopped rising about 19 years ago], I would say that this has not been adequately explained to the public, the IPCC certainly gave the issue short shrift. 
• The hiatus is serving to highlight the importance of natural climate variability. If the hiatus continues a few more years, climate model results will seriously be called into question.
• Basically, none [evidence that the missing heat from the past 19 years has gone deep into the oceans]. Observations below 2 km in the ocean are exceedingly rare, and it is only since 2005 that we have substantial coverage below 700 metres.
• The result of this simplified framing of a wicked problem is that we lack the kinds of information to more broadly understand climate change and societal vulnerability.
• The first place to start is to abandon the consensus-seeking approach to climate science that has been implemented by the IPCC. Scientists do not need to be consensual to be authoritative. Authority rests in the credibility of the arguments, which must include explicit reflection on uncertainties, ambiguities and areas of ignorance and more openness for dissent. The role of scientists should not be to develop political will to act by hiding or simplifying the uncertainties, either explicitly or implicitly, behind a negotiated consensus.
• One of the unfortunate consequences of the focus on anthropogenic forcing of climate is that solar effects on climate have been largely neglected. I think that solar effects, combined with the large scale ocean-circulation regimes, presage continued stagnation in global temperatures for the next two decades.
• The academic community has a lot invested in the case for anthropogenic climate change – substantial government funding, prestige, and political influence.
• The establishment scientists who support the IPCC consensus do not debate sceptics, for two reasons. They do not wish to lend legitimacy to the sceptics and the sceptical positions. Secondly, the few public debates that have been held did not go well for the establishment scientists – formal, oral debate is not a format for which most scientists have experience.

A rational scientists looking at ALL of the data and research, I.e. using the traditional scientific method of research not the global warming consensus method of scientific research.

3) One of the biggest and probably more effective arguments put forward by global warming advocates is that the polar bears are becoming extinct because of the melting of the northern ice cap. Who could not get excited about saving the cute polar bears?

But apparently this is another global warming reality that is only a myth. New reports have reported that the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG) has recently admitted to experienced zoologist and polar bear specialist Susan Crockford that the estimate they gace for the dwindling total number of polar bars in the Arctic was “simply a qualified guess given to satisfy public demand.”

Ms. Crockford is involved has been critical of official polar bear population estimates because of her research findings and her claim that the IUCN failed to include five large subpopulations of polar bears. Because of the uncertainty of the populations in these areas, PBSG did not include them in their official, shrinking population estimate, which may account for the shrinking population estimates.

How is this science when you just ignore data and reality and publish findings that are not true? Unfortunately, the false numbers become the perceived reality and that results in government and other actions that may not be necessary and may indeed be dangerous to all involved.

PBSG has for years said that global polar bear populations were between 20,000 and 25,000, but these estimates are likely much lower than how many polar bears are actually living in the world.

“Based on previous PBSG estimates and other research reports, it appears there are probably at least another 6,000 or so bears living in these regions and perhaps as many as 9,000 (or more) that are not included in any PBSG ‘global population estimate,’” Crockford wrote on her blog.

4) If you really want to look at reality, and real science and real data, may we suggest that you visit the following article from the Independent Journal Review:

http://www.ijreview.com/2014/05/139936-25-images-prove-climate-changes-whether-man-anything/

This article has compiled 25 graphs, charts, and other images, from credible government and other sources, that prove you are likely right to be a global warming doubter and believer in science. A sample of these charts include the following:

5) And finally, I could go back and review everything we discussed this week. How the earth’s temperature stopped rising 19 years ago, proving just about every climate forecasting model to be wrong. We could review how politicians have used bogus data, made up data to prove their political point or angle with very little reality or science to back it up. We could remind you that anything the U.S. does to change its carbon habits will be futile unless the rest of the world, especially China, and India do the same.

We could do that summary but probably not as well as it was done by Amy Ridenour, writing for the National Center for public Policy Research blog in June, 2014:  

Top Ten Reasons Washington Should Not Impose New Global Warming Laws or Regulations

Top ten reasons why Washington should not inflict major new laws or regulations to combat global warming:

1. The world isn't warming. Scientists measuring surface temperatures and atmospheric temperatures using satellites - including scientists who believe in the global warming theory -- say the Earth hasn't warmed since the Clinton Administration.

2. Anti-global warming laws hurt people. All the major legislative and regulatory proposals to combat global warming kill jobs and disproportionately hurt lower income people and minorities.

3. The U.S. already leads the world in CO2 reduction and is a great role model. U.S. energy-related CO2 emissions fell 12.6 percent between 2005 and 2012, thanks to technology and conservation. Worldwide, CO2 emissions increased by 17.7 percent during the same period. Those who want the U.S. to set a good example should wake up and realize: we already are!

4. Global warming climate models don't work. Since 1979, over 96 percent of models predicted more future warming than took place. The models, run backward, also fail to predict past temperatures. Our climate system is extremely complex, and even the world's most knowledgeable scientists don't yet understand it.

5. Claims that 97 percent of scientists endorse the global warming theory are propaganda. To get to 97 percent, activists include every scientist who believes the Earth has warmed even a little, and that humans have paid even a small part, but activists use the 97 percent figure as if it represents only scientists who believe warming is catastrophically dangerous and overwhelmingly human-caused. Since even "skeptic" scientists believe the Earth has warmed somewhat since the 1800s, when the Little Ice Age ended, and almost everyone believes humans have played at least a small role in warming by building cities and using energy, that means skeptic scientists are included in the 97 percent figure, which then is used as "evidence" that skeptic scientists are wrong.

6. The IPCC is a political, not scientific, body. The IPCC is a United Nations agency that scientists have quit in protest after governments re-wrote their work to fit an agenda. One Harvard professor recently said the IPCC's "summary for policymakers" should be called the "summary BY policymakers" because the policymakers actually write it for themselves. One IPCC meeting he attended had two scientists and 45-50 government officials at work on the summary document.

7. Global warming believers change their predictions. As their temperature predictions have not come true, activists have desperately started blaming global warming for hurricanes, tornadoes and even cold weather. But climate has natural variations, hurricanes and tornadoes have not increased, and snow and colder winters don't prove global warming. When Al Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for his preaching and movie-making about global warming, he claimed in his acceptance speech that the Arctic would be ice-free by now. It isn't even close.

8. Current sea ice levels prove nothing. While arctic sea ice levels are below average, Antarctic sea ice levels are above average, as are global sea ice levels.

9. Environmental groups give counterproductive advice. While claiming global warming is a crisis, major environmental groups paradoxically oppose the major energy sources that can reduce our CO2 emissions, such as nuclear power, hydropower and fracking, and seek laws to limit them.

10. Politicians are unreliable leaders. After the Clinton-Gore Administration signed the Kyoto global warming treaty, it never presented it to the Senate for ratification. After the Democrat-led House of Representatives passed a "cap-and-trade" bill to fight global warming in 2009, the Senate, led by global warming-believing Democrats, never even voted on it. These politicians claim global warming is a crisis, but they don't act as if they believe it themselves.

Nice summary job, a summary that proves it is entirely possible, rational, and credible to be a global warming doubter and a believer in science. If President Obama did not have such a closed mind on the issue, the country might be able to have an adult, open discussion on the whole issue of climate and reality. However, that is another thing that is doubtful, an open mind from this President.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Part 6, Freedom and Liberty Guest Speaker Week: Our Anemic Economic Situation

Today’s guest writer is David W. Almasi who was in turn a guest writer on the Amy Ridenour's National Center Blog. He writes about the latest jobs number report from the Federal government but goes into more detail in a very understandable way. While some in the Obama administration may try to paint a good picture of the economy in this country, the numbers as detailed by Mr. Almasi paint a starkly different picture.

Job creation is anemic and the unemployment rate is still horrible, particularly the U-6 rate that is a true measure of how Americans are struggling in the job market. His analysis also points out that those people that most need some economic hope are not getting it from the economic policies of this administration and Washington in general.

So, rather than me pulling together the latest economic trends and statistics, I turn that task over to Mr. Almasi and the Amy Ridenour’s National Center blog.

***************************************

Project 21's Green on New Jobless Numbers, Economy At Large

by David W. Almasi
Jul 5, 2013 at 8:55 AM

As he does every month, Project 21 member Derryck Green reflects on the new unemployment figures that were released this morning as well as other factors indicating the economic health of our nation in the Obama era:

Unemployment is still well above seven percent. The recession ended long ago, but Americans are still hurting. Considering the politics of President Obama, however, should we really be surprised?

Remember when Obama was caught on an open microphone in early 2012 passing word to Vladimir Putin that he expected to have “more flexibility” after his re-election? He’s certainly made good on that assertion, and now openly exhibits progressive extremism.

The American economy is showing it’s not so flexible. In fact, it seems as if it’s about to break. For June, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, the general unemployment rate stayed the same at 7.6 percent. But the more explicit “U-6” measurement of total unemployment — including those who can’t find work, can’t find enough work and gave up looking for work — skyrocketed to an abysmally high 14.3 percent.

And it’s not like he’s rewarding his friends. Among those with the worst unemployment news are his key constituencies. Teenagers (read: new voters) are unemployed at an extremely high rate of 20.4 percent (and black teenagers unemployed to the degree of 43.6 percent. Hispanic (read: new voters) unemployment is 9.1 percent. And black unemployment (read: taken-for-granted voters) is 13.7 percent.

While not documented as a unemployment demographic, one Obama constituency seemingly doing well is the same-sex marriage community. They recently got a huge influx of federal benefits due to the Supreme Court’s invalidating the Defense of Marriage Act and overturning the will of California voters to define marriage as strictly a man-woman affair.

The Obama Administration’s steadfast support for homosexual rights over other special interests has rankled at least a few of his supporters. For instance, Cornel West recently complained to his friend Tavis Smiley on Smiley’s radio show that: “The irony in the age of Obama in which black folks found themselves pushed to the back [of the bus, and] our gay bothers and lesbian sisters more and more pushed to the center.”

Beyond special interest jealousy in counting out their spoils, all Americans are losing under the policies of the Obama Administration. Despite a brief dip in unemployment close to Election Day 2012 (and how suspicious is that?), economic misery is getting worse. With more than three-quarters of Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck, the circumstances bode ill for the future of the republic.

Take the example of ObamaCare — the crown jewel of Obama’s presidency. So far, it’s led to higher premiums, higher taxes, layoffs, cut hours and rationing. Exposing the foolhardiness of passing ObamaCare before finding out what was in it, the Obama Administration recently postponed enforcement of the employer mandate until 2015 (again, conveniently past an upcoming election).

This is the second major ObamaCare delay — the first being the delay of health insurance “exchanges” for small businesses. These exchanges, as pointed out by the National Center for Public Policy Research’s David Hogberg in his analysis of California’s exchange, are poised to enter a “death spiral” as healthy young people logically eschew costly health coverage in favor of the tax penalty. This lack of young and healthy participation will force older participants to pay more and make the exchanges even more unattractive to the young. Hence, the death spiral.

Already, Vermont and the District of Columbia have such low expectations for their exchanges succeeding that they mandated all business with less than 50 employees to participate in their exchanges. This is a direct contradiction to Obama’s promise that a person can keep their doctor. If a doctor is not in the exchange, they cannot serve a patient who is in the exchange.

Not to dwell on health care, electricity prices in May were the highest for any May ever. What is Obama doing about it? He announced executive actions in June that would further regulate the coal industry toward extinction, raise energy efficiency standards that will make products less safe and more expensive and doubled (or is it tripled or quadrupled?) down on the alternative energy boondoggles that brought shame to his first term.

Despite assurances from other Obama Administration officials after the speech that there is no “war on coal,” White House advisor Daniel Schrag told the New York Times “a war on coal is exactly what’s needed.”

So, unless you’re a healthy, engaged (or married) homosexual union member working for an alternative energy company, there are some tough years ahead.

******************************************

So much for hope and change, hope that things would be better than under Bush and change that would give EVERYONE better economic opportunities. But these stark unemployment numbers are only part of the dismal economy:

• The national debt is still rocketing up towards $17 TRILLION.
• Gasoline prices are almost double what they were when Obama took office, a pre cursor to what it appears he is causing electricity prices to do.
• 47 million Americans are receiving food assistance, either a damnation of his economic policies or the fraud that is going on in the food assistance program or both.
• His failed economic policies and programs have caused the Fed to print and circulate up to $83 billion a month in false wealth that is making large investment banks, and their bankers, richer but is doing nothing for the economy except setting the stage for mass inflation at some point in the future.

A failure on so many levels as Mr. Almasi and the country’s economic statistics prove out.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w