You may all relax. Congress has gotten their reprieve from the paradoxically named Affordable Healthcare Act:
The problem was rooted in the original text of the Affordable Care Act. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) inserted a provision which said members of Congress and their aides must be covered by plans “created” by the law or “offered through an exchange.” Until now, OPM had not said if the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program could contribute premium payments toward plans on the exchange. If payments stopped, lawmakers and aides would have faced thousands of dollars in additional premium payments each year. Under the old system, the government contributed nearly 75 percent of premium payments.
Obama’s involvement in solving this impasse was unusual, to say the least. But it came after serious griping from both sides of the aisle about the potential of a “brain drain.” The fear, as told by sources in both parties, was that aides would head for more lucrative jobs, spooked by the potential for spiking health premiums.
Meanwhile, over at the IRS:
The head of the agency tasked with enforcing ObamaCare said Thursday that he’d rather not get his own health insurance from the system created by the health care overhaul.
“I would prefer to stay with the current policy that I’m pleased with rather than go through a change if I don’t need to go through that change,” said acting IRS chief Danny Werfel, during a House Ways and Means Committee hearing.
Well now that’s odd.
Meanwhile, in Georgia:
GEORGIANS WHO will be forced to buy health insurance under Obamacare later this year should be prepared to dig deeply into their wallets — then hold on for dear life.
That’s because of heart attack-inducing sticker shock.
The premiums for the five health insurers that will be offering policies in Georgia’s federally run insurance exchange are “massive,” according to Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens.
“Insurance companies in Georgia have filed rate plans increasing health insurance rates up to 198 percent for some individuals,” Mr. Hudgens wrote in a July 29 letter to Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the president’s point person on Obamacare.
I couldn’t afford a 198 percent increase of anything. Then there’s the question of work hours:
Admittedly, it takes a little detective work, but if we systematically review the available empirical evidence in an even-handed fashion, the conclusion seems inescapable: Obamacare is accelerating a disturbing trend towards “a nation of part-timers.” This is not good news for America.
None of that looks good, does it? Hyper-partisan Sen. Richard Shelby calls it all a failure:
“I find it deeply troubling that perhaps the best thing President Obama has done for American business during his time in office is to provide a brief reprieve from his own signature achievement,” Shelby said during the 17-minute speech.
“I welcome any relief from ObamaCare for anyone. But why should such relief not apply to individuals and families as well? If the administration hasn’t gotten its act together by now, what leads us to believe that it ever will?”
In other unhappy news The Cleveland Plain Dealer cut a third of their staff. Gannett canned more than 200 across their company this week, with more expected next week. They’ve cut more than 40 percent of their employees in the last eight years.
Senators? They’re not sure what or who journalists are just now. There’s going to be a lot to that story in the near future.
Happier news, then. Google killed their RSS reader, to the chagrin of pretty much everyone who used it. And that unfortunate death has actually opened up the RSS market. Why? There is a demand. Google didn’t see it, or didn’t need it, but there are people who use RSS, may it always thrive.
Digital media use will outpace television consumption this year, according to eMarketer. I am vaguely listening to the television in the background as I type this. Also, my phone is frequently distracting me. So, yeah.
Remembering Skylab, the first space station was an Alabama idea:
NASA is pausing today to remember Skylab, the orbiting 1970s laboratory that paved the way for the International Space Station. The laboratory, built from a Saturn V rocket third stage, was conceived in Huntsville and saved by quick-thinking engineers and brave astronauts after things went very wrong on launch day 40 years ago.
You can see some photographs from the mission here. Everything was from the 1970s.
Finally, Quan Bray is one of those young men you can’t help but to cheer for:
Bray has rarely talked about his mother’s death since arriving at Auburn, granting only a single interview to Columbus-based TV station WLTZ in his two seasons with the Tigers.
“For me to talk about it with y’all right now is really crazy,” Bray told reporters during Auburn’s reporting day Thursday. “I don’t mind talking about it now. Talking about it relieves me a lot.”
Back on July 3, 2011, Bray was out of town in Atlanta and missed a call from his mother while sleeping, only to call back and get no answer. When he got back to LaGrange, he told the TV station last February, he went to his grandmother’s house and saw his mom’s car in the middle of the road.
Bray did not go into the rest of the details during Thursday’s interview, but the Georgia courts have pieced together what happened.
On that day, Jeffrey Jones – Quan’s father – sent a string of threatening text messages to Tonya Bray, then chased her as she drove down Ragland Street in LaGrange and shot her several times.
That young man basically lost both parents in the same moment and all he’s done is excel in school, help raise his younger brother and become a leader of others. Tough kid and he deserves some success.
