So- all we know for sure is that 30 Montanans have signed up under the Obamacare exchanges according to the latest news from Lee Newspapers’ Mike Dennison.
In North Dakota, Rob Port’s SayAnythingBlog.com says it appears as though less than 10 North Dakotans have enrolled through Obamacare exchange. (A report last week featured on The Drudge Report put North Dakota’s numbers at 23)
Maybe if Montana and North Dakota team up we can field a group the size of one college football team
No wonder The Wall Street Journal reports that HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is “on the run,” refusing to testify before Congress.
Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), credited with authoring Obamacare, says the bugs will be fixed, according to Bloomberg News:
The “bugs” that have plagued the rollout of U.S. health-insurance exchanges will be fixed by Dec. 15, said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, the lead author of the 2010 health-care law.
As for the tax code:
“Look, it’s hard, because there are a lot of provisions that people like a lot, whether it’s charitable deduction or mortgage or state and local, whatnot,” Baucus said. “But, still, I do believe that we can dramatically simplify the code.”
Baucus said his committee’s work on taxes will proceed on a parallel track with a bipartisan budget conference, which is scheduled to conclude by Dec. 13. The Finance panel could provide numbers to the budget group.
VIDEO:
From Politico Playbook:
DRIVING THE WEEK – “For Obama, a frustrating health care rollout,” by AP White House Correspondent Julie Pace, with Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar : “Last week, President Obama gathered some of his top advisers in the Oval Office to discuss the problem-plagued rollout of his health care legislation. He told his team the administration had to own up to the fact that there were no excuses for not having the health care website ready to operate on Day One. … Administration officials say more than 476,000 health insurance applications have been filed through federal and state exchanges. The figures mark the most detailed measure yet of the problem-plagued rollout of the insurance market place. …. [W]ithout enrollment figures, it’s unclear whether the program is on track to reach the 7 million people projected by the Congressional Budget Office to gain coverage during the six-month sign-up period. …
“Of the 476,000 applications that have been started, just over half have been from the 36 states where the federal government is taking the lead in running the markets. The rest of the applications have come from the 14 states running their own markets, along with … D.C. … An internal memo obtained by AP showed that the administration projected nearly a half million people would enroll for the insurance markets during the first month. Officials say they expect enrollments to be heavier toward the end of the six-month sign up window.”
About that whole settled law thing…
Per the WSJ:
The health law championed by President Barack Obama survived one major legal challenge in last year’s Supreme Court ruling, but it will face fresh legal tests starting this week.
Federal judges in Washington, D.C., and Virginia will consider whether the text of the statute prevents the administration from offering subsidized health insurance to millions of low- and middle-income Americans.
Well, that didn’t take long….
From The Heritage Foundation’s “Morning Bell” on the US already surpassing $17 trillion in debt:
At $17 trillion, this number has passed total U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), the measure of all that is produced in the economy.
Since Obama took office, the national debt has increased from about $10.6 trillion to more than $17 trillion—a 60 percent increase.
How quickly Obama changed his tune when he transitioned from Senator to President. Here’s what he said just a few years ago:The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. (Senator Barack Obama, March 16, 2006)
From Fox News First:
THE EYES OF TEXAS ARE UPON HIM…
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, may have left Washington to a chorus of boos last week, but he found lots of love deep in the heart of Texas. Reuters reports: “Cruz was greeted with an eight-minute standing ovation in an appearance organized by the Texas Federation of Republican Women.” Cruz told CNN on Sunday: “I am not interested in seeing the American people suffer just because my party might benefit politically if they blame the Democrats for the foolish policies that have been imposed.” Cruz would not rule out forcing another government shutdown over the president’s health law.Food fight up next – The first order of business when Congress returns next week: Clashes over a pending agriculture subsidy bill. The Republican House wants to trim food stamp spending to drop deficit spending in the package by $54 billion. The Senate version trims $23 billion. National Journal has more on the fight, expected to be a bargaining point in January’s fiscal cliff.