ANN COULTER: A CUNNING LINGUIST and RACIST FOX CONTRIBUTER
Ann Coulter was born in New York City, and grew up in Connecticut. So far so good but there was rebel in her makeup and rapidly after attending Cornell where she helped found The Cornell Review in 1984 she developed the attitude she has today described as “Rush Limbaugh in a skirt".
She is very attractive, visually correct, stunning, nicely put together in a tall model like package, “ Stacked’ as in street language, and the kind of woman any man would lust for till she opens her mouth and here we go. Then she becomes a wisecracking smart-ass broad with no restraint just a lot of comments and noise.
Ann Coulter has said on the occasion, "She enjoys stirring the pot". Hopefully, one-day people will appreciate her, wake up, and find her stirring the pot from the inside, while the oil is reaching the boiling point. I got the propane.
She is no dummy and received her law degree from the University of Michigan. She worked for Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-MI), where she helped write legislation to speed up the deportation of aliens convicted of felonies. (Thats one I can live with)
One of her most memorable moments came on September 12, 2001, a day after the 911 attack on the twin towers, Coulter wrote, “We should invade Muslim countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.” Unfortunately the pot she stirred fired her, The National Review dropped her column over this.
She also refers to Muslims as Rag heads, Jihad monkeys, Tent merchants, and Camel jockeys.” When confronted about such epithets, Coulter will often erroneously claim that she was being “funny.” About as funny as yelling “fire in a high rise”.
One of her books, “Slander” spent 20 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. The most infamous quote from it is Coulter’s description of Today host Katie Couric as “the affable Eva Braun of morning television.” When Coulter promoted the book on Today, Couric introduced her as a “right-wing tele-bimbo.”
Her most recent writing experience is a collection of insults and very stimulating ones at that similar to the one Dr. Joseph Goebbels published called “One liners For Those Working at the Crematorium”. It is her nastiest and most provocative work prompting many to elect her as “the face that deserves a fist, winner of the year”.
She indirectly referred to Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards as a “faggot.” Not new to that type of insult, she had called Al Gore a “total fag.” On March 5, 2007, she appeared on Hannity and Colmes faked liberal vs. Conservative slam down, Hannity always wins, and she explained that “faggot isn’t offensive to gays, it has nothing to do with gays. It’s a schoolyard taunt meaning “wuss.”
KARL ROVE - MASTERMINDS OF MYTH
NOTE: This fellow represents part of the propaganda division of the Republican party and surprisingly other than paychecks, and frequent appearances on FOX news (the distribution hub for propaganda) or their own affiliates they share something more importantly on their resumes. A lack of education and failure in college, no degrees, which proves good scriptures and handlers can make anyone shine for a while.
College dropout Karl Rove just like Hannity, Limbaugh, Glen Bech and the other talking heads with fake credentials, the Con-us-supremos, all “ Mingled mit Mitt” Romney and thought they had it in the bag.
Well, Karl Rove got a surprise. The money he snaked out of the Koch brothers, Adelson and others presumably would spell doom for the Democrats. It didn’t, over 100 million dollars, that could of fed a lot of people, including Koch and Adelson employees went south, toilet wise.
They simply did not believe that young voters and minorities would turn out the way they did in 2008 believing they were disenchanted with President Obama. But Obama’s get-out-the-vote operation was amazingly simple and effective and Romney’s get out the vote was dismal.
President Obama's ground game relied on "an extraordinarily sophisticated database packed with names of millions of undecided voters and potential supporters.” Secretive documents…. read on. We will disclose the secret database used by the Obama election committee. Simply put...Karl F*cked Up big time.
Karl Rove, ten years ago was President George W. Bush's right-hand man and one of the most powerful political figures in America. In a cartoon I drew one day, I had two devils, with Cheney on the left shoulder and Rove on the right it’s a miracle the United States even exists today.
Rove’s diminished standing, his PAC Crossroads was widely criticized for not producing more victories in 2012 despite spending some $300 million. The group had dismal 16.7 percent success rate in the last election, according to OpenSecrets. And then there’s this bizarre embodiment of Rove's slipping grasp: While providing live election night analysis for Fox News, he refused to concede that Ohio had gone for Obama and that, as a result, Romney had lost the race.
The true mastermind of the Bush Administration. Saving grace, not amazing, how sweet the sound. Karl Christian Rove was born on Christmas day. This must have provided him with some form of divine protection.
To have accomplished what he has in such a short period of time with so little education proves you don’t have to be a winner on “So you think you’re smarter than a fifth grader’, to succeed. Based on who he worked with, he graduated Magna Cum Loudmouth. In both education and his resume, the facts are clear. He made it through the ranks by tagging onto another Not-too Full-bright Scholar.
He was the former Deputy Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush. In addition, a Republican political/campaign consultant, a Fox News political "anal-istst" and contributor. And a collector of current federal inditement’s and investigations. Clean is not a word around Karl Rove. I recommended twin electric chairs for Cheney and Rove under the treason act.
Rather than just executive clemency, most of the truth about things he orchestrated will be obscured by "executive privilege". Think if it as having a “Get Out of Jail Do Pass Go Card. Thats because if you follow the trail by Rove it leads higher up and that would be an embarrassment. Rove is only 58 years old and was born in Denver, CO.
In high school, Rove excelled in nerdism and debate. Then he attended the University of Utah, Briefly, very briefly. Like two semesters or so. He also became a Utah Republican Party intern. After only two years, Rove dumped college and joined the National College Republican organization, elected to and as executive director.
It was a rocky and tenuous relationship. Rove disrupted the College Republicans summer convention so badly that, at its conclusion, no one was even sure who had won. The Washington Post published an article claiming that Rove had advised College Republicans to go through opponents' garbage as a legitimate political tool. Normally, this would disqualify someone running for an elected position, but this is Teflon Karl Rove and even Gotti would be envious.
The Republican National Committee was chaired by George H.W. Bush. Rove was appointed College Republican Chairman. In fact, H.W. was so impressed with Rove that he made him one of his special assistants. George always admired those who read past children’s books. When 911 occurred George was reading children’s books. Karl never would complete his degree putting him in place with Limbaugh, Bech, Hannity and other self proclaimed leaders and semi-spoke-persons for radical thinking and spinology. Lies and spins do not require degrees.
On several occasions and investigations, Rove has found himself in quick sand at the White house. Rove was, caught having policy meetings with the heads of corporations he owned stock in. Karl Rove had his hand in every major scandal over the 7 years he was in the White House.
His name was mentioned in the Valerie Plame leak, that got dumped on Libby BUT Rove had to settle for later confirming classified information. He was held in contempt of Congress for failing to testify over the firing of U.S. attorneys.
He got away with it, again George Bush covered his ass to avoid further embarrassment to the White House and thus helped avoid a federal indictment. Err, does this make George Bush just as guilty?
In the fall of 2007 Rove resigned from the White House. Book selling makes more money than working and by that time the administration was finally admitting economically we were in the outhouse. OK, the shit-house is more accurate.
GLENN BECK - FORMER MASTERMINDS OF MYTH
NOTE: These fellows represent part of the propaganda division of the Republican party and surprisingly other than paychecks, and frequent appearances on FOX news (the distribution hub for propaganda) or their own affiliates they share something more importantly on their resumes. A lack of education, failed in college, dropped out, which proves good scriptures and handlers can make anyone shine for a while.
College failure Glenn Beck is dangerous, argues Media Matters’ Eric Boehlert in The Huffington Post. Since 2009, the Fox News "host" used his bully pulpit to foment fears of a "nefarious cabal" of progressive organizations that are supposedly "determined to destroy democracy in America."
Earlier this month, Beck's rabble-rousing rhetoric led Byron Williams, a "government-hating, gun-toting nut," to stock a pickup truck with guns and ammo, and set off on a crusade to "open fire" at the offices of the Tides Foundation, a California non-profit. Fortunately, Williams was pulled over by the state police en route.
Arson is like Beck, he provides the fuel and all it takes is a match, a believer and bad happens. Congresswoman Gabrielle Dee "Gabby" Giffords was wounded by a head shot and six died. We knew it would happen, we just didn't know where.
New to the scene, and in bed with FOX VIEWS, NOT NEWS, with supposed recent freedom from drug and alcohol abuse, Glen Beck is infatuated with, himself first, and then draws parallels with the Nazi's. Let me clarify, I don’t believe he is a NAZI sympathizer.
He is however a NAZI glorifier. He just uses them a lot because they infuriate people barely misleading his point missing the jack boots and garish uniforms. He goes into these fits and sessions where even Goebbels would be proud.
He is on a fast track and already has earned a paltry 32 million dollars this year doing his thing. It’s easy to try to explain him, obviously those drugs he took had long time retention and today he’s nuttier than ever. But there are those who “ Relish nut cases as we say because they are from the same pickle". They hear what they want to hear, blame the other guy and they are fulfilled. For some the rhetoric is the same and it is like a fix. Which leads us to his stash of garbage lovers, the Tea Pot Party. At the last TEA PARTY facade 2 of 5 placards were spelled wrong or had bad conventions complete with racial overtones and something you would expect at a KKK convention.
He constantly makes reference to the Nazi's, 142 times last year on his shows. He compares them to the current administration. This really does little, unless you got a lot of extra white bedsheets and traffic cones with eyeholes cut out. But they do hurt those who don't need to be reminded of what those bastards did. I grew up knowing much of my elders had tattoos on their arms.
9-11 Victims - Beck’s quote was “ his is horrible to say, and I wonder if I’m alone in this,” Beck said on his radio program that day, “ You know it took me about a year to start hating the 9/11 victims’ families? I don't hate all of them. I hate probably about 10 of them. But when I see a 9-11 victim family on television, or whatever, I'm just like, 'Oh, shut up!' I'm so sick of them because they're always complaining. And we did our best for them."
2003 - “Every night I get down on my knees and pray that Dennis Kucinich will burst into flames.”
2005 - "I'm thinking about killing Michael Moore, and I'm wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it."
2005 - "When I see a 9/11 victim family on television, or whatever, I'm just like, 'Oh shut up' I'm so sick of them because they're always complaining."
2005 - “The only Katrina victims we’re seeing on television are the scumbags.”
2006 - “Let me tell you something, there ain’t nothing better than looking at a hot, naked chick.”
2006, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the first Muslim U.S. congressman, appeared on Glenn Beck. Beck told him, “I have been nervous about this interview with you because what I feel like saying is, “Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.” The incident earned Beck a spot on the alternative weekly Buffalo Beast ’s list of 2006’s most loathsome people. The paper wrote, “It’s like someone found a manic, doom-prophesying hobo in a sandwich board, shaved him, shot him full of Zoloft and gave him a show.” That’s sums him up. But wait there is more.
One of the media blogs described Beck as one who likes to "scrawl wild conspiracy theories on a chalkboard." In the "Overton Window', which is an old storyline as you will see, “socialist forces” are plotting to overthrow America. How do we define "socialist forces". I thought we solved that one in "Red Dawn". Oh, these are "political socialist forces". Not recruited, but elected.
NEW YORK TIMES PROFILE
According to a new profile, Beck is terrified that one of his listeners will "do something stupid." Just weeks after Glenn Beck’s enormous 8/28 rally in Washington, D.C, the New York Times has published an 8,000-word profile of the Fox News host. Writer Mark Leibovich followed Beck around for several weeks, speaking to his fans and detractors, and interviewing him several times. Chris Good at The Atlantic, is “Mark is key to understanding what Beck is all about.”
Many people at Fox News are embarrassed by Beck. Even though Beck is was Fox News’ biggest name, his relations with the network became frayed. A precipitous fall in his show's ratings, and a boycott by 296 former advertisers haven't helped.
When on the air Beck invoked Hitler roughly 9 times a month . Beck’s rhetoric is full of “ Nazi, Hitler, and Holocaust comparisons". A forthcoming book by Washington Post writer Dana Milbank that has discovered “ In the first 14 months of Beck’s Fox News show, Beck and his guests mentioned fascism 172 times, Nazis 134 times, Hitler 115 times, the Holocaust 58 times, and Joseph Goebbels eight times."
He often wears a bulletproof vest, and wants to install a 6-foot barrier around his Connecticut estate. “ He is fragile, on the edge," concludes Leibovich. “ My opinion is the possibility of all those drugs.
In the latest attempt to make more money and power than Rush Limbaugh, Fox News Anal-ist Glen Beck once again is making a strong push to convert the world to his level of thinking. Only he will be doing the thinking and you will be privileged to attend these sacred offerings by paying the paltry sum of 75 or so dollars per year for Beck’s chalkboard scribbling, and reading suggestions. Eventually it failed.
Glenn Beck and the Fox News Channel parted company. Beck of course says he is leaving for other ventures, Fox has been quiet and the media quick to seek truth (something he knows little about) and came with different scenarios and reasoning for Herr Beck to leave. When the scumbags of Journalism not known for truth dump you, you have a problem.
Some believe it's his mouth, probably the main cause for him leaving. His statements were getting him in trouble, and critics appealed to advertisers to boycott his show last summer after he said President Barack Obama had "a deep-seated hatred for white people."
More than 400 Fox advertisers told the company they did not want their commercials on Beck show.
Ratings - Beck was a like a fireworks display, after the last ones go off, nothing is left but a stink in the air. January 2009, he doubled the ratings on his show. After folks got to know him they dropped off the cliff like the 1932 Lemming Convention in Oslo. "To his admirers, Glenn Beck has been a voice crying in the wilderness, a prophet who warns us that we have been wandering in darkness too long. To detractors, he is a clown and a buffoon, at best, a dangerous demagogue, at worst."
OX NEWS asked him to leave and he has started his own radio and TV enterprise. When you are too crazy for FOX , you really have to be interned in an asylum somewhere.
Glenn Beck, the Glenn Beck recently confessed to Fox News’ on The Kelly File that he "played a role, unfortunately, in helping tear the country apart.” It takes a great amount of chutzpah to admit basically you were ( are, still is, currently) a schmuck. He is his own worst critic about a time when healing was needed and not the antics of a pot luck former druggie ripping this country apart. Maybe he is admitting what he did before the entire world through the media sees him for what he was to lessen the rhetoric.
And Beck became a lost name when Donald the Dork TRUMP came a long...
RUSH LIMBAUGH - MASTERMIND OF MYTH
This fellow represents part of the propaganda division of the Republican party and surprisingly other than paychecks, and frequent appearances on FOX news (the distribution hub for propaganda) or their own affiliates they share something more importantly on their resumes. A lack of education, a first year college dropout and druggie, which proves good scriptures and handlers can make anyone shine for a while.
College dropout and Draft Dodger Rush Limbaugh big, powerful and Titular head of the Conservative Block of Ditto-heads, is a fifty-million dollar a year (peak) Self Proclaimed “Spiritual Leader of Intellectual Conservatism Anchored in Social Science”. We just acronym the bullshit into call him SLIC-ASS.
It’s a love-hate relationship, some love him, and the others got him pegged. Daily bantering and misleading snippets with a really healthy dose of self-adornment is the trademark of his radio show and commentary. Truth most of the time is secondary. Self adoration and personal accreditation is primary. He is a wonderful spokesperson for himself. If he were to interview Donald Trump the transmitters at the station would burn up from all the negative static.
He like Glenn Beck is a recovering drug addict. In 2003, Limbaugh was illegally obtaining oxycodone and generics. See the pattern with these guys, dumped from college and drugs. Then in 2006, DEA agents at Palm Beach International Airport stopped him.
While on probation for drug use, he was found to have with someone else’s prescription Viagra. That’s a no-no since he didn’t have the other guy’s libido with him.
No answers just complaints and little if any of the other side of the story. Truth has one side. Untruth has no sides. It has been said, “Limbaugh’s facts are almost never challenged on his programs”.
A hostile caller hardly ever gets through the screeners on his radio show. No one in the history of national radio has had such a political platform. Limbaugh’s chronic inaccuracy, and his lack of accountability, wouldn't be such a problem if people accepted him as an entertainer, like others with rhetorical themes.
Like many who did not graduate College, or finish two semesters, he rarely mentions education, as he is self-taught. There are few books on earning a Degree of Distortion. He ousted himself in 1970 from Southeast Missouri State. Reportedly flunked out of what was essentially a community college. But there are the “ditto heads” and other “wanna-bees” who think he is really educated and take Limbaugh seriously.
VETTED: Limbaugh began his career in radio as a teenager in 1967 in his hometown of Cape Girardeau, using the name Rusty Sharpe. Limbaugh graduated from Cape Girardeau, Missouri Central High School, in 1969. Because of his parents' desire to see him attend college, he enrolled in Southeast Missouri State University but left the school after two semesters and one summer. According to his mother, “ He flunked everything”, and "He just didn't seem interested in anything except radio.
In spite of rumors, Rush Limbaugh III is not a prominent attorney. Nor is he an attorney period, nor is he a graduate, nor a sophomore for that matter. FADING FAST.
STATEMENTS AND MOCKERY
• Rush’s most arrogant despicable moment came when he mocked actor/stem cell advocate Michael J. Fox and said the actor was faking the tremors that are a symptom of his Parkinson’s disease. It was at that point, some gave him the nickname, "BIG FAT PR*CK". So he went on a diet and lost some weight, so they dropped the FAT part.
• Another charming moment came when he suggested on-air that African-Americans make inferior NFL quarterbacks.
• Not to be outdone he called possible veterans who were opposed to the Iraq War “phony soldiers.” And claims, he was mis-quoted and meant those who never served pretending to have served. That debate never found redemption.
• He never served his country. In fact when the nation had a military draft for the Vietnam excursion, police action, commie crackdown, or call it just war, he avoided service by having his physician certify his medical unfitness due to an “ Inoperable Pilonidal Cyst" and "a football knee injury from high school." Hmm. That meant he couldn’t sit on his ass and couldn’t run from combat.
• He played one year of varsity football in high school, and his coach, when interviewed said later, he remembered no injuries to Limbaugh. You can't when you are on the bench. Too bad. As far as a cyst on his ass, you will have to check that out yourself under draft dodging 101 rules and gain permission to see his ass just like he wanted to see Obamas Birth Certificate. It’s not pretty, I'll take the certificate route anytime.
THE PEW REPORT
"Roughly one out of six people tune in to hear Limbaugh at least sometimes (16 percent), roughly half as many people who listen to NPR as often," Pew says. That doesn't contradict Nielsen — Limbaugh is only on for a few hours each day, and the 11.3 percent number represents how much time people spend listening to each format; if a third of people listen to NPR sometimes, Americans spend more time with the radio tuned in to country music.
But collectively this mess of numbers tells us one thing pretty clearly: When people listen to the radio, what they're most likely listening to is country music, NPR, or Rush Limbaugh. Only Adolf and Dr. Goebbels had a better following.
The Conservative Radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh, is being dropped from the Indianapolis radio station, WIBC, after 22 years. WIBC parent Emmis Communications notified Los Angeles-based syndicator Premiere Networks that it would not extend its deal with Rush Limbaug. Losing Limbaugh could open up the station to more advertising opportunities. "There are some, primarily, national advertisers that refuse to air commercials during Limbaugh’s show," Morgan explained.
2012. That year, Rush’s big mouth and hate sputum called an unknown college student Sandra Fluke a ‘ Slut’ and ‘ Prostitute’ while she advocated for insurance-paid birth control at a congressional hearing. Once Limbaugh’s rant hit social media and went viral, huge sponsors like Ford, GM, McDonald’s, Subway, Carbonite…began to pull their ads immediately after seeing the public’s outrage. The student now an attorney also ran for office.
SIDENOTE - Sandra Kay Fluke born April 17, 1981 is an American attorney and women’s rights activist. She first came to public attention when, in February 2012, Republican members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee refused to allow her to testify to that committee on the importance of requiring insurance plans to cover birth control during a discussion on whether medical insurance should have a contraception mandate.
She later spoke to only Democratic representatives. Fluke supported President Barack Obama's re-election campaign in 2012 and was a featured speaker at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. She ran for the California State Senate seat of Ted Lieu, who vacated the seat to run for the Congressional seat being vacated by Henry Waxman, but lost to fellow Democrat Ben Allen.
In 2003, Fluke graduated from Cornell University College of Human Ecology with double major in Policy Analysis and Management and Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies. In April 2012, Sandra became engaged and married to Adam Mutterperl, they live in West Hollywood.
SEAN HANNITY - MASTERMINDS OF MYTH- SUPREME LIAR
This fellow represents part of the propaganda division of the Republican party and surprisingly other than paychecks, and frequent appearances on FOX news (the distribution hub for propaganda) they share something more importantly on their resumes. A lack of education, college dropout, failed college, Jesus user, which proves good scriptures and handlers can make anyone shine for a while.
College dropout Sean Hannity attended St. Pius X Preparatory Seminary HS, and successfully managed to drop out, possibly was asked to drop out, or was successfully dumped by NYU. Even after he told them how great he really was!
They weren’t buying it even after he disclosed he was a good friend of Glenn Beck. (We compared that to Hitler calling Mussolini, a brother from another mother)
He tells everybody how great he is, I guess they really were not impressed. Years of Catholic upbringing and he really missed the boat. His ship pulled out of port leaving Honesty, Truth, Integrity standing on the dock. Since then he shelled and sank the dock.
Thus to stir his intellectual prowess he became a bartender and construction worker. Now we have credentials, after all mixing it up with concrete is the same as mixing it up in the political arena. You take dirt, add water and voila!
His short career nursing drunks and bashed fingers strengthened his political views. Enough to take the father of religious influence, the late Jerry Falwell eventually awarded him an honorary degree from Liberty University in 2005. Thats like Hitler giving Mussolini “The Iron Cross”.
For free no less, the rest of us have to pay $89.95 for this Honorary Degree printed on fine paper like Charmin. The Catholic Church wasn't too cool of him being a spokesperson, so the Baptists picked him up. Buy the books and get the divinity degree! What a challenge especially if they make you read them. Liberty University the bastion of good Baptists now becomes a joke.
He made his broadcasting debut on in 1989 at KCSB-FM, Santa Barbara. His mantra was so hateful towards gays and lesbians that management canceled it. He was fired for gay bashing. That did not stop him. Self-indulgent he placed ads in radio industry trade papers referring to himself as “the most talked about college radio host in America.” Alabama radio station WVNN hired him as an afternoon talk show host. The south shall rise again, pointy hats, white sheets and all.
Hannity finally reached the top of the cranial–rectal dyslexic talk show afternoon drive. The Sean Hannity Show began preaching to his fellow great Americans on over 500 stations nationwide. A self proclaimed "Great American". Just ask, he’ll tell you how he is a great American.
Day after day his select panel of the same old, same old, same old, FOX rejects, adding their spin. If you took his everyday panel, guests and Carl Rove and gagged them, no one would notice the difference from the previous days show, because it’s the same old show day after day.
Few liberals, and moderates, if they are smart, will not try to debate him on his show, he just like Beck and O'Reilly have a habit of beating up people who appear and they get cutoff, insulted, barraged with falsehoods and all designed to make this moron look good by attacking the guest and his viewpoint.
Conservative Cal Thomas and liberal Bob Beckel, in their book Common Ground, describe Hannity as a leader of the pack among broadcasting political polarizers, which following James Q. Wilson they define as those who have "an intense commitment to a candidate, a culture, or an ideology that sets people in one group definitively apart from people in another, rival group." I thought they were talking about Dr. Goebbels and his gang of Nazi writers.
UPDATE by renowned writer Eric Stern.
I happened to turn on the Hannity show on Fox News last Friday evening. “Average Americans are feeling the pain of Obamacare and the healthcare overhaul train wreck,” Hannity announced, “and six of them are here tonight to tell us their stories.”
Three married couples were neatly arranged in his studio, the wives seated and the men standing behind them, like game show contestants. As Hannity called on each of them, the guests recounted their “Obamacare” horror stories: canceled policies, premium hikes, restrictions on the freedom to see a doctor of their choice, financial burdens upon their small businesses and so on.
“These are the stories that the media refuses to cover,” Hannity interjected. But none of it smelled right to me. Nothing these folks were saying jibed with the basic facts of the Affordable Care Act as I understand them. I understand them fairly well; I have worked as a senior adviser to a governor and helped him deal with the new federal rules.
I decided to hit the pavement. I tracked down Hannity’s guests, one by one, and did my own telephone interviews with them.
PAUL COX - First I spoke with Paul Cox of Leicester, N.C. He and his wife Michelle had lamented to Hannity that because of Obamacare, they can’t grow their construction business and they have kept their employees below a certain number of hours, so that they are part-timers.
Obamacare has no effect on businesses with 49 employees or less. But in our brief conversation on the phone, Paul revealed that he has only four employees. Why the cutback on his workforce? “Well,” he said, “I haven’t been forced to do so, it’s just that I’ve chosen to do so. I have to deal with increased costs.” What costs? And how, I asked him, is any of it due to Obamacare? There was a long pause, after which he said he’d call me back. He never did.
There is only one Obamacare requirement that applies to a company of this size: workers must be notified of the existence of the “healthcare.gov” website, the insurance exchange. That’s all.
ALLISON DENIJS - Next I called Allison Denijs. She’d told Hannity that she pays over $13,000 a year in premiums. Like the other guests, she said she had recently gotten a letter from Blue Cross saying that her policy was being terminated and a new, ACA-compliant policy would take its place. She says this shows that Obama lied when he promised Americans that we could keep our existing policies.
Allison’s husband left his job a few years ago, one with benefits at a big company, to start his own business. Since then they’ve been buying insurance on the open market, and are now paying around $1,100 a month for a policy with a $2,500 deductible per family member, with hefty annual premium hikes.
One of their two children is not covered under the policy. She has a preexisting condition that would require purchasing additional coverage for $600 a month, which would bring the family’s grand total to around $20,000 a year.
I asked Allison if she’d shopped on the exchange, to see what a plan might cost under the new law. She said she hadn’t done so because she’d heard the website was not working. Would she try it out when it’s up and running? Perhaps, she said. She told me she has long opposed Obamacare, and that the president should have focused on tort reform as a solution to bringing down the price of healthcare.
I tried an experiment and shopped on the exchange for Allison and Kurt. Assuming they don’t smoke and have a household income too high to be eligible for subsidies, I found that they would be able to get a plan for around $7,600, which would include coverage for their uninsured daughter. This would be about a 60 percent reduction from what they would have to pay on the pre-Obamacare market.
Allison also told me that the letter she received from Blue Cross said that in addition to the policy change for ACA compliance, in the new policy her physician network size might be reduced. That’s something insurance companies do to save money, with or without Obamacare on the horizon, just as they raise premiums with or without Obamacare coming.
If Allison’s choice of doctor was denied her through Obamacare then, yes, she could have a claim that Obamacare has hurt her. But she’d also have thousands of dollars in her pocket that she didn’t have before.
ROBBIE ROBISON - Finally, I called Robbie and Tina Robison from Franklin, Tenn. Robbie is self-employed as a Christian youth motivational speaker. (You can see his workhere.) On Hannity, the couple said that they, too, were recently notified that their Blue Cross policy would be expiring for lack of ACA compliance.
They told Hannity that the replacement plans Blue Cross was offering would come with a rate increase of 50 percent or even 75 percent, and that the new offerings would contain all sorts of benefits they don’t need, like maternity care, pediatric care, prenatal care and so forth. Their kids are grown and moved out, so why should they be forced to pay extra for a health plan with superfluous features?
When I spoke to Robbie, he said he and Tina have been paying a little over $800 a month for their plan, about $10,000 a year. And the ACA-compliant policy that will cost 50-75 percent more? They said this information was related to them by their insurance agent.
Had they shopped on the exchange yet, I asked? No, Tina said, nor would they. They oppose Obamacare and want nothing to do with it. Fair enough, but they should know that I found a plan for them for, at most, $3,700 a year, 63 percent less than their current bill. It might cover things that they don’t need, but so does every insurance policy.