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To: i-node who wrote (611335)	5/14/2011 11:30:51 PM
From: bentway	Respond to of 1576290

Huckabee Will Not Run for President 'ALL THE FACTORS SAY GO, BUT MY HEART SAYS NO' By Kate Schwartz, Newser Staff newser.com ( He'd have no chance, and he KNOWS it! ) Posted May 14, 2011 8:07 PM CDT (NEWSER) – Mike Huckabee has officially pulled the trigger—and his presidential aspirations are dead, at least for 2012. Huckabee officially announced that he will not run on his Fox News show tonight. "All the factors say go, but my heart says no," he said. "I know that under the best of circumstances, being president is a job that takes one to the limit of his or her capacity. I can't know or predict the future, but I know for now my answer is clear and firm: I will not seek the Republican nomination for president this year." The decision will allow him to stick with a lucrative career as a television and radio personality rather than enter a race that would be both costly and caustic, reports the AP.

To: i-node who wrote (611335)	5/14/2011 11:32:24 PM
From: bentway	Respond to of 1576290

"There isn't a government agency, other than the military, that couldn't withstand a 25% cut in jobs tomorrow" You've got to be kidding! You could eliminate 25% of general officers, and you'd never even know they were gone!

To: i-node who wrote (611335)	5/15/2011 7:54:23 AM
From: Alighieri	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1576290

Medicare Trust Fund Boosted By Health Care Reform: Report WASHINGTON -- The Medicare trust fund will last eight years longer than it would have without the passage of last year's health care law, the program’s trustees announced Friday in a report. The nonpartisan lead actuary for Medicare, Rick Foster, estimated that without the health care overhaul, the program’s trust fund would have run dry by 2016. With the law in effect, Foster projected, the trust fund will last through 2024. The reform law extended Medicare's solvency in large part by targeting a program called Medicare Advantage, which allowed private insurers to provide Medicare-funded policies that ended up costing significantly more than the government insurance program itself. The cuts to Medicare Advantage were used during the 2010 election to hammer Democrats for taking money from Medicare to pay for other elements of health care reform. But despite the boost from the health care law, the trust fund's overall stability has suffered since last year. As USA Today and other news outlets noted, the 2010 report projected the surplus would last until 2029, five years later than Friday's forecast. “The five year change from the 2010 trustee report was due to a slowdown in the national economy, which resulted in a decline in tax revenues and higher real projected expenditures,” the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said in a statement. “This is not the first time that the HI Trust Fund expiration date has been affected by a decline in anticipated revenues. In 2004, for example, the Trust Fund exhaustion date moved up by 7 years, in large part because payroll tax revenues in 2003 were lower than had been anticipated.” Even with health care reform implemented, however, the fund’s annual expenditures are expected to exceed revenue in 2012 and each following year, as health care costs continue to outpace inflation. U.S. health care costs per capita also greatly exceed those for other industrialized countries, despite poorer health outcomes. Rising health care costs are driven not only by an aging population, but by a lack of competition among insurance companies and a pharmaceutical copyright system that prevents cheaper drugs from entering the market. Health care reform strove to address the former issue by creating state-based exchanges where plans will compete, but only entrenched the latter problem. Advertisement During the health care reform debate, Democrats pushed for a public health insurance option that would reduce premiums by requiring insurers to compete with a public plan. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated it could save nearly $60 billion over 10 years. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius highlighted the boost reform gave to Medicare. “Over the next 75 years, Medicare’s Hospital Insurance costs are projected to be about 25 percent lower due to the new law,” she said in a statement. "And without the historic deficit reduction in the Affordable Care Act, Medicare would have gone bankrupt in 2016 -- only five years from now." Still, 2024 isn’t much further down the road.

To: i-node who wrote (611335)	5/15/2011 10:36:49 AM
From: bentway	Respond to of 1576290

Jon Stewart Will Debate O'Reilly Next Week THEY'LL SPAR OVER RAPPER COMMON ON 'O'REILLY FACTOR' By John Johnson, Newser Staff newser.com Posted May 13, 2011 5:48 PM CDT (NEWSER) – Can't get enough of the Common rapper controversy? You're in luck: Jon Stewart will appear on Bill O'Reilly's Fox show Monday to debate the issue, notes TVNewser. Some conservatives were outraged that the rapper and poet got an invite to perform at the White House, but Stewart and others accused them of twisting his body of work out of context by focusing on a few controversial lyrics. (Click to see one of Stewart's takedowns.) The O'Reilly Factor airs at 8pm EST.

To: i-node who wrote (611335)	5/15/2011 1:39:38 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1576290

> Boehner ignited a firestorm in February when he suggested that certain government jobs aren't worth preserving in any event. There isn't a government agency, other than the military, that couldn't withstand a 25% cut in jobs tomorrow. Not ONE. You know less than little. I wish you would learn some facts before spouting off. Government is fat, bloated, and mostly dysfunctional due to having too many overpaid employees who generally do not know what real work is. Half of the people in government do 90% of the work. The other half are fckoffs. "fat, bloated, and mostly dysfunctional".......an apt description of Republican congressmen. I've dealt extensively with maybe a half dozen agencies of the federal government. And almost without fail they are full of incompetents being carried on the backs of the exceptionally competent.* I have dealt with a half dozen gov't agencies and found them to be as competent as any private sector idiot. Kick their asses out. Shut down the Dept of Education. Shut down CMS and its incompetent parent. Nobody will give two shits. If you want to kick some asses, try starting with your reps in Congress.