Jay "Clear As Mud" Carney ..... Obamacare Enrollment Numbers

On Monday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, when asked about how successful the push to signup for Obamacare had been, said:

"Let me see – I – let me see what facts and figures I have. … I'm glad you asked that question, because I want to be clear about it. When it comes to enrollment data – you know, I want to clear this up – we will release data on regular monthly intervals. What I can confirm right now is that people are signing up through federal exchanges, but we're not going to be – you know, we're – this is a(n) aggregation process, and we're not going to release data on an hourly or daily or weekly basis. … This is – these are – these are – this is large volume. There's no question that there's large volume. And we're – and these are rough estimates about the volume. One of the reasons why we've been able to – or why we've provided the information about the volume is because – that it is the principal reason why we've had slowdowns and other issues that we've had to try to resolve to make the consumer experience better.”

To the contrary, informed speculation is that the numbers presently are embarrassingly small and the Obama administration is trying to buy time hoping to: 1) cleanup the malfunctioning software which they believe is hurting the enrollment process 2) give time for more applicants to actually pay for the insurance which is the point at which they can be counted as "enrollments", and 3) have the number of enrollments reach a sufficient mass as to not further discourage other uncommitted individuals from participating because of the influence of the disclosure of low numbers.

As to the apparent lack of hard data, knowledgeable software experts say the Federal government "knows" precisely how many enrollments there are at any point in time.

A better "consumer experience" ? 

Against the backdrop of thoroughly reported delays and unavailability for access to online enrollment, in January 2013 the Dept. of Health and Human services predicted that after a brief application process of only 9.53 minutes per applicant, 2 million individuals would sign up this year and 3 million next; coincidentally, their estimates provide for the same number of enrollments, respectively, for 2015 and 2016 as well.

Unfortunately from the data that is available, what also seems to be another unanticipated event by the Federal government is that less than 1% of the online applications are usable for the purposes of obtaining any health insurance coverage whatsoever. Anyone surprised so far ?

Additionally, Obamacare's effectiveness is predicated upon achieving at least 3 million signups of HEALTHY individuals purchasing inflated premiums for insurance benefits and features that will not be used by them in order to provide Obamacare health benefits for all of the UNHEALTHY and SICK individuals who WILL make insurance claims. 

“This only works, for example, if young people show up… We gotta have them in the pools because otherwise all these projected low costs can not be held if older people with preexisting conditions are disproportionately represented in any given state. You gotta have everybody lined up.” -Bill Clinton 9/13

Can you say .... ?   PONZI scheme !

Nancy Pelosi, The Cupboard is bare …. A liar, a shirker, or delusional ?

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says that while deficit reduction is a worthy goal, there are very few spending cuts, if any, left to negotiate with Republicans in exchange for raising the Federal debt ceiling. 

Which, Senate Democrats want to increase by another trillion dollars in spending !

"The cupboard is bare," the California Democrat said in an interview aired Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." "There's no more cuts to make."

"We all want to reduce the deficit," she added referring to the Republican position.
 
"Put everything on the table, review it, but you cannot have any more cuts just for the sake of cuts. Right now you’re taking trophies."

Should we believe Pelosi is telling the truth ?

After all, as minority leader of the House of Representatives, the body which authorizes all Federal government spending, she’s certainly in a position to know the truth.

And the Congress perennially investigates waste, corruption and theft of taxpayer revenues in Federal spending.

Did something happen this year we all missed – that the Federal Government suddenly became efficient and no longer squanders tax dollars – and only Pelosi knows about it ?

I think most people would agree that strains belief and common sense and the government reporting that becomes public.

So Pelosi’s either lying as part of her political posturing on this issue or if she “doesn’t know the truth” then she’s either not doing her job in Congress or she doesn’t really care to know the truth because she believes the Federal government isn’t wasteful enough to begin with. None of which serve America well.

So which is it Pelosi are you a liar, a shirker or delusional ?

And how does your answer square with these 2013 government reports :

From the Office of the Inspector General, which reports on government waste at least twice a year –

The Conservation Research Program pays millions annually to farmers who don't farm parts of their land. But the USDA miscalculated the soil rental rate, wasting $114.5 million that could have been put to better use. 

An estimated $208 million worth of single-family direct housing loans went to borrowers who had no history of stable and dependable income, poor credit, or were unexpected to be able to make their payments.

Up to $118 million could have been saved through better oversight of the Department of Labor's troubled Jobs Corps.

Because of an error in calculating performance standards, the Employment and Training Administration failed to track down $148 million in overpaid government checks.

More than $138 million of federal grant spending by the Philadelphia School District was either not allowed or unjustified.

The Department of Education sent $42.4 million to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, despite the fact that the school is ineligible to receive any federal funding.

The Small Business Administration underwrites loans but has been ineffective in identifying when lenders are clearly negligent. Improved reviews could save $43 million over two years.

The National Disaster Loan Resolution Center failed to transfer delinquent disaster loans to the Treasury Department in a timely manner, and incurred $171.1 million in questionable costs as a result.

The Department of Veterans Affairs does not effectively identify instances in which it doesn't have to pay for care. A report in 2011 found that, as a result, the VA could overspend by an estimated $760 million over five years.

The VA will award an estimated $2.5 billion worth of contracts intended for veteran-owned small businesses to ineligible businesses from 2011 to 2015.

Due to lax cost-controls, the Army wasted $335.9 million on a contract to maintain Stryker vehicles.

More than $437 million worth of costs at Los Alamos National Laboratory were deemed questionable over a two-year period.

The FAA could have saved $157 million by simply restructuring contracts on its multi-billion dollar program to upgrade Air Traffic Control hardware.

One-fifth of the Department of Transportation's Recovery Act contracts were awarded with only one or two bids. The average price difference between contracts with one or two bids and those with three bids is at least $179 million.

More than $75 million that could be put to better use if the Pentagon invested in reducing the risk of unauthorized access.

An audit of the JLENS missile defense airship found that $2.47 billion in funding for the program could have been put to better use.

The Department of Health and Human Services could save $2.7 billion annually by reexamining how much Medicaid and Medicare should pay for wholesale prescription drugs. 

The government could save $1.2 billion by investing more resources in finding Medicare overpayments. A second $1.2 billion could be saved if Congress passed legislation to allow adjustments in Medicare laboratory fees.

The DHHS Inspector General also recommended an additional $2.9 billion could be saved on Medicare and Medicaid through other cost-saving measures.

The US builds a $750 million luxury embassy in Baghdad.

One of EPA’s employees has been convicted of stealing approximately 1 million taxpayer dollars claiming to be working for the CIA while he was vacationing instead.

The Federal government, in preparation for a shutdown, has declared to the OMB that 800,000  or 38 % of all 2.1 million Federal employees are NOT essential to running the government.

The total identified by mid 2013 (not including non-essential payrolls and benefits) ?  Give or take a hundred million,  just about $16 Billion dollars in actual or potential waste !

And most of these spending costs have not been corrected yet because of “structural deficiencies” in the programs – government speak for “since we already get a boatload of money in from taxpayer revenue we’re just too busy, especially if we have to spend political capital to do it, to worry about plugging up any leaks”.

A bare cupboard ? Yeah, right !

Pelosi, Obama and Harry Reid have all postured and promoted more tax increases to enable further government spending as the principal solution to our deficit woes– each in turn saying that wealthy Americans, as they define them, can afford to pay just a “little” more.

And I ask in return for what – increased value, increased services – from the Federal government ?

Being part of the middle class, if I had any excess money to begin with I’d be spending it on MY family to help provide for their future because I sure as shit don’t see giving it away to the likes of Pelosi, Obama, and Harry Reid or their colleagues, both Republican and Democrat for any more of the same wasteful and corrupt horseshit they’ve perpetrated so far.

How long must we endure the deceit of politicians, especially these three – how long must we tolerate their abuse of privilege – and, how long must we fund their enrichment at our expense as taxpayers ?

If the faucet isn’t going to be turned off, shouldn’t at least the washer be changed and soon ?