Lyin' Ryan Lies Through "Safe" Town Hall Meeting

Lyin' Paul Ryan, Squeaker of the House, has a severe aversion to town hall meetings. He avoids them like the plague, not having had one in nearly 700 days. If you ask him why, he won't admit that he doesn't have the leadership or social skills to not mock a 71 year old man being dragged out, slammed to the ground and arrested as he did six years ago.

No, instead he'll blame it on meetings getting out of control on professional protesters being shipped in from out of state to turn his meetings into "screamfests." No, seriously, that's his excuse.

Now that he's facing a real challenger, Randy Bryce, who has left him and his dark money masters so rattled that they're already spending a small fortune on radio ads, he finds himself forced into once again meeting with his constituents. But instead of having to deal with the general public, he holds "safe" town halls at select sites, like certain companies or even telephonic town halls, so that they can keep the commoners from confronting him with reality.

Now those are even going sour for the poor little snowflake.

Lyin' Ryan had one of his snowflake-friendly town halls last week at a company called Banker Wire, in Mukwonago, Wisconsin. He thought he'd be safe because the owner would makie sure the employees toe the line.

But it didn't work out that way. Instead, even the people that used to support him are turning the heat up on him and calling him out on his lies:

But the politician from Janesville also faced some frustration from workers, including fellow Republicans. Keith Ketzler, 62, thanked Ryan and Republicans for doing some "good things," but questioned the GOP's inability to agree on major issues, such as health care.

"I think for eight horrible years, I heard, 'We don't have control of the House. We don't have control of the Senate. We don't have the presidency,' " Ketzler said. "Well, I tell you what. You're in there now, and all I see is infighting. It's very dysfunctional. I don't see plans for anything."

Ryan answered, "So, the House is the functional body of Congress. I say that tongue-in-cheek, jokingly."

Ryan added, "Believe me, I understand your frustration."

He went on to indirectly blame Mitch McConnell for his failures.

Ryan got so desperate after being faced with this truth that he took to doing what he does so naturally, lying to constituents' faces, as Tommy Christopher at IJR reports:

RYAN: You get health care here at Banker, right? Yeah, so one thing. Let me just clear up, a lot of people get a little confused about this, Obamacare is not employer-sponsored health care, meaning Obamacare is for [...] it affects Medicaid low-income health care for people who don't get health care through their jobs and the people who buy their own health insurance. It doesn't tell you how employer-sponsored health care works, effectively, so it's a health care program for people who buy their own health insurance, not employer-sponsored health insurance.

This is a despicable lie on several levels, the first being that Obamacare's key patient protections do apply to employer-based health insurance, from the ban on annual and lifetime caps to the essential health benefits, to the prohibition on discriminating against pre-existing conditions, and everything in between. And many of those protections depend on provisions, like the individual and employer mandates, which make it possible to cover pre-existing conditions, for example.

Those are the direct effects of Obamacare on employer-based health insurance, but in addition to those, the CBO has also concluded that among the tens of millions who would lose health insurance under the Republican repeal plan are 4 million people with employer-based health insurance, like the man Ryan lied to.

But the most blatant - and funniest - of the lies he told that day was this doozy:

Ryan also faced questions about why Republicans struggled to get their message out.

"We don't control the media but what we do do is try to get our message out," Ryan said.

Yeah, with Faux News, squawk radio and the rest of the corporate media, they just can't get their message out, the poor darlings.

By the way, Tom Nielson, the now 76 year old gentleman that was physically and verbally abused at Ryan's town hall meeting in the video, was at Randy Bryce's campaign kick off rally last month and gave him a donation. Could you do the same so that we can repeal and replace the compulsive liar Ryan?

Paul Ryan Wants To Kill Me

  

By Jeff Simpson

Janesvilles own Paul Ryan (R - Wall St.), recently took over the role of Speaker of the House of Representatives, promised a new tone of civility within his party.

Imagine my surprise, when I read this story today:

U.S.  House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan called on Wednesday for an end to Obamacare’s financial protections for people with serious medical conditions, saying these consumers should be placed in state high-risk pools.
In election-year remarks that could shed light on an expected Republican health care alternative, Ryan said existing federal policy that prevents insurers from charging sick people higher rates for health coverage has raised costs for healthy consumers while undermining choice and competition.
The rule, a cornerstone of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, has been praised by patient advocates for providing access to medical care for people who previously could not afford private health insurance. The Affordable Care Act also bars insurers from excluding coverage for pre-existing conditions.
“Less than 10 percent of people under 65 are what we call people with pre-existing conditions, who are really kind of uninsurable,” Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, told a student audience at Georgetown University.

I have never been shy about sharing my journey fighting Cancer publicly.   It is a club I would rather not be in but, as Mr. Ryan speaks so much about choice, it is a choice I(and millions of others) did not have.

While Mr. Ryan speaks of "ONLY 10 percent", which is approximately 27,481,309 million Americans that he is referring to.    A mass shooting is defined by four or more people being shot or killed, I hate to think what the needless death of 27.5 million Americans would be called.

Before I get accused of histrionics and hyperbole, I understand that allowing insurance companies to drop us "who are really kind of uninsurable," will not immediately kill all of us.   It will immediately kill some of us, and eventually kill a vast majority of us.   

I know personally, without the quality health insurance I have, I would have died a horrible painful death by now.   There isn't a health savings account south of Janna Ryan's family Oklahoma oil money,that could even come close to putting a dent in the bills my medical issues have racked up.  

Now Mr. Ryan, who is third in line from the Presidency of the United States, has decided it would be best if insurance companies would not have to cover me for a reasonable rate.   
Let's take cancer for instance :  

Cancer is a leading cause of death around the world and its incidence continues to rise. Each year 12.7 million people discover they have cancer and 7.6 million people die from the disease. However, evidence shows that 30 - 40 percent of these deaths can be prevented, and one-third can be cured through early diagnosis and treatment.     That translates to 340,000 cases of cancer a year in the US alone that can be stopped or cured with early diagnosis and treatment.   

The only possible way to get early diagnosis and treatment is to have affordable health care and see your doctor regularly.    Without health insurance or with a ridiculously high deductible, people will not go to the doctor and get treated.  Nikolas Kristof of the New York Times gave us an incredible inside look of just this very instance that happened to a good friend of his.  It is a tough but very important read.

But wait there is more!    If an insurance company is allowed to drop you after a diagnosis, then you are stuck during the hardest time in your life(trust me it takes quite some time for the (you have cancer) news to truly sink in) calling around and pricing private insurance plans for the uninsurable.  
One thing for me, and I am sure most others, is consistency in care.   When you change or price insurance companies, you have to keep your doctors in mind.   My case is so incredibly complicated, I have at one time or another, spent time with 8 different groups of surgical specialists.  Can you imagine half way through treatment/diagnosis having to switch to another hospital and finding a whole new group of 8 different teams and get them up to speed while hoping that the insurance company I picked was not also planning on dropping me.

The stress on not just me, but my family, and wife and children was unbearable to begin with.   When a family member gets an illness the whole family and friends get it also.   Does Mr. Ryan also plan on allowing the insurance companies to drop my wife and kids also because I am expensive?   If that is the case, the 27.5 million Americans starts to increase exponentially.    

We know from experience and hindsight that many patients can not wait for treatment because of no insurance, shopping insurance companies or denial of services by the insurance company you have.

People have literally died because of this 

Many people on both sides of the aisle, realize that Obamacare is not perfect.   They realize that there are many different tweaks that need to be done to help insure all Americans.   Almost all people realize that the one good thing we can agree on is that insurance companies can no longer drop people who get sick and actually have to use their insurance.

That is all but the most extreme of us.  Paul Ryan is one of those people who are too extreme.  

Are we a nation that wants people who are unfortunate enough to get a debilitating disease to die off quickly to cull the herd?  Or are we a people that understands that "All (wo)Men Are Created Equal" and no diagnosis should be a death penalty?

I have been told many times that we have the government we deserve.   Let us come to common ground and understand that I do not deserve to die because I happened to have cancer.   I do not deserve to die a painful death early because I can no longer afford high risk insurance.

No one in Wisconsin deserves to have Paul Ryan represent them

It is time we retire Paul Ryan from Congress, for the sake of 27.5 million of your friends and neighbors and family members!

ACA - The Good, The Stupid and the Smackdown!

By Jeff Simpson

The Affordable Care Act, ie..Obamacare has obviously been all over the news and recently we had the pleasure of seeing the extreme's  

First the Stupid:  

Local fiction writer and unexplainable Journal Sentinel Columnist and Bradley Foundation gopher Christian Schneider took a shot at the Democrats and Obamacare(and miserably failed). 

 Given that the language of modern progressivism is hopelessly rooted in the past, it's no surprise Democrats exhumed this calcified nugget of wisdom last week. In response to a Congressional Budget Office report that estimated Obamacare could effectively reduce the number of American workers by 2.5 million over the next decade, Democrats immediately began explaining how much better off workers will be when they are freed from the suffocating shackles of employment.

Then in response to his silly red-baiting and spewing of excrement, our friend Jay Bullock laid the smackdown on Schneider.  

 Lacking even a trace of self-awareness, early in his op-ed Schneider writes that "the language of modern progressivism is hopelessly rooted in the past," and then he proceeds to red-bait contemporary Democrats in a way that would make the 1950s jealous. Within a few dozen words, Schneider moves easily from Nancy Pelosi to genocide ("The collectivism of agriculture in Russia in the early 1900s led to the murder and starvation of tens of millions of peasants") as if the first thing Nancy Pelosi will do if the Democrats take back the House this fall is organize the death squads.

While its always fun, and yet too easy, to make Schneider look like a fool, the reality of it is, the CBO did NOT say that the ACA will cost 2.5 million Americans their jobs at all!   As Dean Baker puts it:

The CBO assessment was that because people could now get access to health insurance through the exchanges rather than having to get insurance through their jobs, many people might decide not to work or to work fewer hours. This voluntary reduction in work hours is one of the goals of Obamacare, it is not an unforeseen consequence.
There are millions of people who struggle at their jobs with serious health conditions in the hope of reaching age 65 when they can qualify for Medicare. The exchanges will make it possible for many of these people to get insurance at prices they can afford, since insurers are not allowed to discriminate based on pre-existing conditions. As a result, some of these older workers will opt to either retire or to possible work fewer hours at a job that doesn't provide insurance. Giving people this option was one of the main goals of health care reform.
Similarly, there are many workers with young children who would like to be able to either take time off from work to spend with their kids, or alternatively to work at a job part-time. However they may not have this option if their only way to afford insurance is by working at a full-time job. As a result of the ACA these people will work fewer hours.
This also was also one of the goals of Obamacare. Advocates of health care reform thought it would be good if the parents of young children had the opportunity to work less to be with their kids, if that is what they choose to do.
When CBO did its analysis and said that Obamacare would lead to some reduction in work hours, it was saying the ACA would have its intended effect. It was freeing people from health care related job-lock. This is a feature, not a bug.

It really is too bad for all of WI, that Christian Schneider is allowed column space!





Photo from Christianschneiderblog! 

AFP-WI Hearts ACA

By Jeff Simpson

H/T to the Americans For Prosperity - Wisconsin facebook page for showing the rest of us just how popular the Affordable Care Act is amongst the people of Wisconsin. 


They posted this picture this morning to prove their point:  




 See the websites crashed because by 7:00 AM there were more than a million visitors to the websites and they crashed.   

the point that the system crash truly makes is that there are millions of people in the US starving for healthcare and the affordable care act could not come quick enough!  

Thanks to President Obama for standing firm, and thanks to Americans for Prosperity for showing us how wildly popular Obamacare is! 

Wisconsin Cuts Most People Off Of Medicaid

Well, Scott Walker finally gets to be number one at something - being his own death panel:

Wisconsin would cut more people from Medicaid than any other state as part of a plan advanced by Republican Gov. Scott Walker, according to an independent analysis of data by Kaiser Health News.

About 92,000 Wisconsin citizens, including 87,000 parents and caretaker relatives, and 5,000 childless adults with incomes above the federal poverty level, would lose the Medicaid coverage they previously had as a result of a waiver. Those people would be sent to the online insurance marketplace.

At the same time, the state is planning to add 100,000 Wisconsin childless adults with incomes below the poverty level to Medicaid.

Wisconsin is one of only four states that will reduce their Medicaid eligibility, according to the report. The other three, and the number of people who will lose coverage, will include: Maine, 35,000; Vermont, 19,000 and Rhode Island, 6,700.  Kaiser Health News collected enrollment data from the four states. The changes they plan still need federal approval, which is expected.

Millions of adults nationwide will gain Medicaid coverage next year under the Affordable Care Act.

However, Walker rejected millions in federal funding to expand Medicaid for three years in the state, according to the State Legislature's nonpartisan Fiscal Bureau.

Obviously, it's because he cares too much.

And to think, Walker actually believes that cutting more people off of Medicaid than all the other states combined will get him to the White House.

Or maybe he is just trying to outdo Michele Bachmann for the most psychotic of them all.

The Walker Agenda Is Still Working! Part CLXVIII

Scott Walker's War on Wisconsin continues, this time with a twofer:

Caught between President Barack Obama's health care law and Gov. Scott Walker's resistance to it, Wisconsin employers could pay up to $36 million more in federal taxes next year, a new study has found.

Walker last month rejected expanding the state's BadgerCare Plus health care program to the full limits called for and funded under the federal health care law. The federal government is supposed to pay the largest share of expanded coverage through 2020, but Walker has said he's not convinced it will be able to sustain its part of the deal - in which case the costs could fall back to the state.

However, a national study by Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. estimates that Walker's decision could leave Wisconsin employers with federal penalties of between $24.1 million and $36.1 million a year.

The governor has proposed allowing extremely poor adults without dependent children to enroll in BadgerCare, while shifting those with somewhat higher incomes into a subsidized insurance marketplace, scheduled to debut in 2014 under the federal health law. Essentially anyone below 100% of the federal poverty level - $11,490 a year for a single adult - would end up in BadgerCare; those with incomes above 100% would go into the federally subsidized marketplace, a larger group than foreseen under the federal law.

Putting these additional people into the exchanges, instead of covering them in BadgerCare, means they might face additional costs, in the form of premiums, deductibles or other costs. And if they have a job, their employers might have to pay more as well.

Employers with the equivalent of 50 or more full-time workers would pay a tax of between $2,000 and $3,000 per employee for anyone who receives a taxpayer subsidy to be covered under the federal health exchange. In Wisconsin, that would work out to just over 12,000 people, Jackson Hewitt estimated.

"Any projections of the 'net' costs of Medicaid expansions should reflect the very real costs of such liabilities to employers," the report from the firm said.

What a guy!

It should be noted that by dropping the standard to the level of poverty, he will also make health care unaffordable for a lot of disabled people (especially veterans), elderly and the working poor. At least we know what part of Affordable Healthcare Act Walker doesn't understand.

And as a bonus to screwing over all these people, Walker still manages to make the state even more business unfriendly, which will lead to even more job losses.

All of this brings me back to one thing that's been bothering me a lot lately.

I wonder if all those people who voted for Walker in the recall election because they were tired of recalls or were opposed to them in general are happy now.

Oops! He Did It Again!

A couple of weeks ago, Jeff pointed out Paul Ryan's hypocrisy regarding stimulus funding. Ryan has been railing about how the stimulus funds were so eeeeeeeeeevvvvvuuuuullll! Except, of course, when he wants some of the money for his earmark causes.

Damn those meddling kids!

Now we learn that the second verse is the same as the first. Just substitute Affordable Heathcare Act for stimulus funds.*

Yup, while Ryan has been preaching of the sins of Obamacare, he's been asking for some of that funding he just hates:

Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan is barnstorming the country, promising to repeal every provision of the Affordable Care Act if the Romney-Ryan ticket is elected. But a letter he wrote to the Obama administration may undermine this message.

On December 10, 2010, Ryan penned a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services to recommend a grant application for the Kenosha Community Health Center, Inc to develop a new facility in Racine, Wisconsin, an area within Ryan’s district. “The proposed new facility, the Belle City Neighborhood Health Center, will serve both the preventative and comprehensive primary healthcare needs of thousands of new patients of all ages who are currently without healthcare.

You can see the actual letter at the link.

And when confronted with this new discovery of another example of Ryan's hypocrisy, the Romney campaign came to his defense with a bald faced lie:

Brendan Buck, a spokesperson for the Mitt Romney campaign, responded to this story by claiming that this "grant program was created by President Bush, not Obamacare. This... type of misinformation is what you get from gotcha reporting on liberal blogs." Ryan's letter directly requests money from the HRSA-11-017 New Access Points program announced in August of 2010. This New Access Points grant program that Ryan requested money from is funded fully by the Affordable Care Act, a fact made clear on multiple government websites

.
Now be honest, when you read Team Romney's response, your first thought was the old Scooby Doo cartoons with the bad guys shaking their fists and saying "I'd've gotten away with it too if it weren't for you meddling kids!", wasn't it?

Rob Zerban, who is challenging Ryan in his other race, the one for his congressional seat, had this to say about the new revelation:

"In his own words, Paul Ryan acknowledges that there are people of this district in desperate need of quality, preventative health care and treatment. Yet he continues to promote policies that would deny life-saving care - placing partisan politics over the needs of Wisconsin's middle class families. That's wrong. From his radical budget that ends traditional Medicare, to his support for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and Big Oil, Paul Ryan has failed to provide the middle class with opportunity, health care, and a fair tax system."

Speaking of that race, has Ryan even bothered to make any appearances in his home district since getting the nod to be Romney's running mate? Will he be willing to debate Zerban or does he think that the people in his district are happy with the status quo of having no jobs and no health insurance?

Seems rather elitist, doesn't it?

* Someone remind me to write a comparison between Ryan and Scott Walker. I'm starting to wonder who is the bigger weasel.

We Are Having the Wrong Debate

After the horrific events in Aurora, CO as a time to talk about gun control. While I do think we need to have that conversation, the NRA has such a stronghold on our political system that we all know nothing will change and no politician will have the courage to even put reasonable controls on assault weapons.  Even if Senator Ron Johnson thinks that people in Wisconsin hunt with 100 round clips and assault weapons(no one ever accused the Sen RoJo of being intelligent).  

 The debate I think we should be having that might actually change something, in the wake of this tragedy, is healthcare!  

One of the victims of the Aurora tragedy is Caleb Medley.   Mr. Medley who is currently unemployed, was shot in the eye during the assault. 

Caleb Medley was shot in the eye in the Aurora movie theater shooting and remains in the intensive care unit in an induced coma. Medley sustained the terrible injuries only days before his wife Katie was due to give birth to a baby boy they plan to name Hugo. She now joins him in the same hospital — just one floor away — where she was set to be induced.

But even if Caleb makes a full recovery and meets his son, what happened late Friday evening at the movie theater could ruin the young family’s finances. Caleb doesn’t have health insurance, and his medical bills could amount to $2 million, according to his family.

 Caleb’s life will be forever altered by this unexpected and horrific event, a constant fear of many uninsured Americans. The Affordable Care Act — much of which will not be fully implemented until 2014 — extends health insurance to millions of uninsured Americans like Caleb.

So what should happen to Caleb??  His life is forever changed, through NO fault of his own, and now he is $2,000,000 in the hole(and with a new baby, who is another victim in this).  While the republicans are putting all of their eggs in the repeal Obamacare basket, which would help people like Caleb, they also have no alternative to replace it. 

I would love to see the republicans explain EXACTLY what should happen to Caleb and how their policies would help him.  NOT dance around the topic.  Can Paul Ryan (R-Wall St.) look into a camera(because he sure knows how to find a camera) and explain exactly how the policies he advocates for would help Caleb and his new family?  Or does he NOT care about helping people like Caleb and his newborn?   We know the audience at a republican debate let it be known that they think Caleb made his choice to have no healthcare so he should pay that price now.   Is that how the republican politicians think also? 

The democrats are not perfect on this either.  Why is Obamacre not coming into full effect until 2014?  What would they say and what have they done to help someone like Caleb? 

Since our current batch of republican politicians have brought us this coffee can health care system, its time to put out that coffee can.  

You can help Caleb Medley by donating here and joining his facebook page here!

You can also help by calling your elected representative and demanding answers!   It's time for them to stop playing games with people's lives and help the Caleb's of our great country!  

Thar They Blow (It)!

From the talented Stuart Carlson:

The Return Of Weasel Speak

A couple of years ago, when Scott Walker was running for governor, he got an editorial about why he was against the stimulus funding put in the Wall Street Journal.  As is my wont, I wrote a dissertation on why Walker was full of it.

Now that Walker is unofficially preparing to run for the 2016 race for President of the United States, he now got another misleading piece, this time attacking the Affordable Care Act, into the Washington Post.

But instead of writing another dissertation on why he's again lying, I'll just link to the press release from Robert Craig of Citizens Action of Wisconsin, who did the yeoman's work on it.

The Real Reason Behind The Opposition To The Affordable Care Act

The real reason behind the fight against the Affordable Care Act is not whether it's a tax or not. The real reason has nothing to do with the Commerce Law. It also has nothing to do with the imaginary death panels or other fabrications they have come up with.

The real reason the teahadists and corporate puppets are against ACA is pure, unadulterated, old-fashioned greed:

Profits for the 10 largest U.S. insurance companies jumped 250% between 2000 and 2009 while millions of Americans have lost coverage, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The report found that the five biggest insurance companies -- WellPoint (WLP), Cigna (CI), UnitedHealth Group (UNH), Aetna (AET) and Humana (HUM) -- saw their profits increase 56% in 2009, a year in which 2.7 million people lost their private coverage.What's more, the report found that the companies combined earned a total of $12.2 billion last year. And lest we forget, on the executive compensation, CEOs of the top five received $24 million on average in 2008, the report said.

Given the timing of the release of the report, was the document an effort by the Obama Administration to increase pressure on the insurance industry as it looks to gain the public's support for health-care reform? It's clear that health insurance companies don't seem to have a lot of friends these days.

That's not just revenue, that is profit. That is what they have gained after taxes (not that they pay any), after paying their workers, and other the other costs.

And that was from two years ago. Their profit margins are probably very much higher now.

And these are the "corporate people" who are buying our lawmakers to increase their power and their profits even more.

H/T The Motley Cow

Scott Walker: Healthcare Reform Desperado

Even with the original mass explosion of Republican heads that followed Thursday's SCOTUS ruling allowing the Affordable Care Act to proceed, the hilarity continues.

Scott Walker, the Desperado of Healthcare Reform, says that he won't follow the law and start phasing it in before the mid-November deadline.

That shouldn't really surprise anyone though.

First of all, this grandstanding will allow him to continue to seek out the national attention he craves, such as his appearance on "Face the Nation" on Sunday morning, while he inexplicably thinks he could someday be President of the United States.  (He must be thinking that Kochs et alia will buy it for him if he is a good boy and destroys Wisconsin.)


Secondly, Walker has shown on more than one occasion that he has no qualms about breaking the law, with Walkergate being the crown jewel of an example.  (Yes, yes, the indictments are coming. Please remain patient.)

Thirdly, the Republicans don't want people to see the effects of the Affordable Care Act.  If the people were to see that they are actually still get quality health care and save money to boot, well, that wouldn't bode well for Romney or any of the other Republican candidates running on all levels.

Even Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said that Walker needed to obey the law, although he did backpedal like the coward he is when the radio squawkers barked at him.

My guess - Walker will let the feds do the heavy lifting and do the work he's supposed to do.  Then he'll have something to mewl about until it starts working, and then he'll take credit for it.  Yes, he's done it before, such as with the Milwaukee County Board who had to force him to take the stimulus funding and then tried to take credit for the work it created and the good things done with it.

PS: For a bonus, here is a piece of unbelievable irony:

“The court was wrong,” said state Sen. Leah Vukmir, R-Wauwatosa. “We are left with virtually no limit on federal power. I believe this is a victory for the authoritarian state.”

You Mad, Bro?

For one of the more extreme reactions to the ruling allowing everyone to have Affordable Healthcare, one has to go no further than our own Polk County GOP:

C'mon, people. Allowing poor people to get affordable health care insurance isn't the end of the world.

Or is that Republicans really hate it when people get more rights instead of less?