|
Insider Report from Newsmax.com
Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Obamacare Will Cost States $118 Billion
2. Bill O’Reilly: GOP Will Win Senate in 2012
3. Rep. Allen West: End UK’s Michael Savage Ban
4. Muslim Brotherhood Strips Bylaws From Website
5. Slain Border Agent Fired Beanbags at Bandits
6. We Heard: TSA, Oprah Winfrey
1. Obamacare Will Cost States $118
Billion
The healthcare reform bill passed last year will cost states at least
an additional $118.04 billion through 2023 due to their increased
Medicaid costs, according to a new congressional report.
That’s nearly double the Congressional Budget Office’s recent estimate
of $60 billion through 2021.
“The enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in
March 2010 was the largest expansion of [Medicaid] since its inception
more than 45 years ago,” according to a statement from the House Energy
and Commerce Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, which jointly
produced the report.
“Half of those obtaining healthcare coverage under the new law will get
it through Medicaid. The committee report provides a state-by-state
analysis of the financial impact the new healthcare law will have on
states and demonstrates the unsustainable fiscal burden this new law
will foist upon taxpayers.”
The joint congressional report “is the first to provide a comprehensive
overview of state government estimates regarding the cost of the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to state Medicaid programs,”
the report states.
Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance
Committee, said: “Governors of both political parties were clear when
Congress was debating the $2.6 trillion health law that they could not
afford a massive expansion in Medicaid. Washington didn’t listen and
plowed forward instead by putting 16 million Americans onto the
Medicaid rolls to keep the federal price tag down.
“With this report, we see the true cost to states, who are already
facing a collective $175 billion budget shortfall, of this
unsustainable expansion.”
The report’s state-by-state breakdown shows that California will spend
at least another $19.4 billion on Medicaid, and Texas will be forced to
spend another $27 billion — more than the program’s entire annual
budget today.
Obamacare will cost Florida taxpayers $12.9 billion through 2023.
Louisiana will have to pay an additional $7 billion; New York, 2.8
billion; and Virginia, $2.2 billion.
Even a less populated state, Iowa, will have to take on 100,000 new
Medicaid enrollees, and spend an added $250 million.
2. Bill O’Reilly: GOP Will Win Senate
in 2012
Bill O’Reilly delivered a lecture at his alma mater, Chaminade High
School, on Thursday night and predicted that the 2012 presidential race
will be close — but Republicans will take control of the Senate.
At Chaminade — a Catholic preparatory school for young men in Mineola,
Long Island — the Fox News Channel host said the White House race will
come down to a choice on the GOP side between a “hard liner” like Sarah
Palin or a moderate who “has to stand for something,” the Mineola Patch
reported. “It will be interesting who breaks out.”
The main topic of O’Reilly’s address was secularism versus
Judeo-Christian tradition in the media. Some highlights of the lecture
and the Q&A session that followed:
• O’Reilly’s hero is baseball’s Hall of Fame outfielder Willie Mays.
• In the morning O’Reilly reads The New York Times, Wall Street
Journal, and New York Post, but not the liberal Newsday — and writes
most of his show during the ride from his home on Long Island into
Manhattan.
• O’Reilly said President Barack Obama is not malevolent, and those
polled like him, but he has some Americans “scared.”
• Asked who tops his most-wanted interview list, O’Reilly named Pope
Benedict XVI and Bill Clinton, who won’t come in for an interview
although wife Hillary has had the “guts” to speak with him.
• The odds that O’Reilly would find the success he has achieved are
about 50 million to 1, O’Reilly said, adding that is one of the reasons
he believes in God.
• When one questioner asked if O’Reilly could introduce him to Fox News
chief Roger Ailes so he could become a TV host, O’Reilly quipped: “Be
careful what you wish for.”
3. Rep. Allen West: End UK’s Michael
Savage Ban
Freshman Rep. Allen West has written a letter to Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton urging her to review Britain’s travel ban against
conservative talk radio host Michael Savage.
In May 2009, then-British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said Savage was
on a list of 16 persons banned from entry into the country because the
government feared their views might incite violence.
Smith said in a statement that Savage is “considered to be engaging in
unacceptable behavior by seeking to provoke others to serious criminal
acts and fostering hatred which might lead to intercommunity violence.”
West, a Florida Republican, said in his letter that Savage was put on
Britain’s list with “ruthless criminals” and asserted that there is no
basis for the British government’s action.
“For a nation who believes in freedom of speech and press, I have a
hard time understanding why such a high level government department
would release this statement when there has not been one incident
recorded in the United States regarding Dr. Savage instigating
violence, let alone serious criminal acts,” West wrote.
Others on the British list include former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard
Stephen Donald Black and Hamas leader Yunis Al-Astal.
Savage states on his website that Smith included his name along with
“Russian skinheads imprisoned for murdering 10 immigrants and a Hamas
terrorist who executed two Jewish parents and bashed in the head of
their 4-year-old daughter.”
He goes on to say: “Contrary to the accusations of the former home
secretary, Savage has never advocated violence and repeatedly has
called for the lawful enforcement of America’s borders, language and
culture.”
Savage asks supporters to sign a petition addressed to the U.S.
Congress calling for “the removal of Britain’s ban on Michael Savage.”
Savage’s show is heard on about 400 stations and has an estimated 8
million listeners a week, according to his syndicator, the Talk Radio
Network.
His book “Banned in Britain” chronicles his battle over the UK
prohibition.
4. Muslim Brotherhood Strips Bylaws
From Website
The Muslim Brotherhood removed its bylaws from its English-language
website just days after longtime Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak was
driven from office.
The Brotherhood, which has been banned in Egypt, appears eager to
promote a more moderate image and downplay its past history of Islamic
extremism in hopes of gaining a spot on the ballot in future Egyptian
elections.
“The bylaws have long been a source of discussion and debate on the
Internet because of the group’s stated intention to create an Islamic
state, uniting Muslims around the world,” observes Steven Emerson,
executive director of The Investigative Project on Terrorism.
“It’s not clear why the bylaws disappeared, but the timing is highly
suspicious. With a genuine opportunity to appear on an Egyptian ballot,
they have vanished from public view within days of President Hosni
Mubarak’s ouster.”
Tellingly, the bylaws remain posted on the Brotherhood’s
Arabic-language site, Emerson notes.
The vanished bylaws cited “the need to work on establishing the Islamic
State,” and sought “the sincere support for a global cooperation in
accordance with the provisions of the Islamic shariah.”
They also stressed the “need to inform the masses, Muslim and
non-Muslims, of Islamic teachings.”
Emerson writes: “Now, it seems, the Brotherhood sees its written bylaws
as something they don’t want to be read by the English-speaking world.”
As for claims the Brotherhood is moderating its positions, Emerson
discloses that as recently as September, the organization’s General
Guide Mohammed Badie said Muslims are duty-bound to make the Koran the
law of Egypt.
And another senior member of the Brotherhood, Kamal Helbawy, said a
week ago that Egypt needs “innocent, honest and brave leaders like”
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV in February, former Assistant
Defense Secretary Richard Perle warned: “The Muslim Brotherhood is
potentially a very serious problem, since it is committed to the global
expansion of an extreme approach to Islam, which is strict shariah law.
“I know a lot of people take a different view now, but they’re not
looking at what the Muslim Brotherhood has done from its inception and
they’re not listening to what the Muslim Brotherhood is saying in
Arabic. They’re listening to what’s being said in English and that’s a
very different story.”
5. Slain Border Agent Fired Beanbags
at Bandits
Border Patrol agents followed instructions and shot non-lethal beanbags
at illegal aliens in Arizona before the illegals fired back with real
bullets and killed an agent, newly released documents reveal.
A team of agents confronted the illegals — who were armed with AK-47s
and suspected of robbing drug runners and illegal immigrants — on the
night of Dec. 14 in remote Peck Canyon.
FBI search warrant requests filed in a Tucson court and viewed by the
Arizona Daily Star disclosed: “When the suspected aliens did not drop
their weapons, two Border Patrol agents deployed ‘less than lethal’
beanbags at the suspected aliens. At this time, at least one of the
suspected aliens fired at the Border Patrol agents. Two Border Patrol
agents returned fire, one with his long gun and one with his pistol.
“Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was shot with one bullet and died
shortly after. One of the suspected illegal aliens, later identified as
Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, was also shot.”
Brian Terry’s brother Kent said the other agents at the shooting site
told him they were instructed to use the non-lethal beanbags first — a
policy that doesn’t make sense, he told the Daily Star.
“You go up against a bandit crew that is carrying AKs, and you walk out
there with guns loaded with beanbags,” he said. “I don’t get it.
“These guys are professionals. They should be able to use their
judgment.”
The search warrants were requested to examine fingerprints and a hair
sample from Osorio-Arellanes, who remains in custody.
The Daily Star reported its disclosures on Thursday, a day after
authorities said a man beheaded in a suburban Phoenix apartment was
killed for stealing drugs from a Mexican cartel.
6. We Heard: TSA, Oprah Winfrey
THAT the owner of a restaurant near the Seattle-Tacoma Airport in
Washington is protesting the Transportation Security Administration’s
intrusive pat-down procedures and body scanners by declaring the café a
“No-Eat Zone” for TSA employees.
“We have posted signs on our doors basically saying that they aren’t
allowed to come into our business,” one restaurant worker told a
reporter.
“My boss flies quite a bit and he has an amazing ability to remember
faces. If he sees a TSA agent come in we turn our backs and completely
ignore them, and tell them to leave.”
THAT Oprah Winfrey’s new television channel OWN is floundering in the
ratings two months after its launch.
Ratings are 10 percent lower than for the cable channel it replaced,
Discovery Health, The Telegraph reported.
OWN reaches 70 million homes across the country, but it is being
watched by only 135,000 people at any one time.
Read it with links at Newsmax Insider
|
|
|
|
