Obamacare Refunds

Trump starts mailing $500 Obamacare refund checks to nearly 1 million Americans

The Trump administration has begun sending $500 refund checks to nearly one million Americans overcharged on Obamacare, returning surplus HealthCare.gov fees the White House says Biden officials stockpiled.

The U.S. Treasury has started issuing the one-time payments, paired with a personal letter from President Donald Trump, to more than 950,000 people in the 30 states that rely on the federal HealthCare.gov exchange.

Fox News Digital reported that the refunds go to Americans who bought coverage on the federal platform and did not receive taxpayer premium subsidies. An administration official said the money comes from surplus user fees charged to fund the exchange’s operations.

Those fees built up under the prior administration. Trump’s letter frames the surplus as money that never should have sat in government hands.

Read President Trump's letter

Family-run Grocers in NYC want fairness

Why Family-Run Grocers Are Suing New York Over City-Run Stores

A coalition of small-business owners is suing for antitrust violations and predatory pricing after the city promised to provide food staples for 30 percent off.

Josefina Aguirre grew up among the piñatas hanging from the ceiling of Little Mexico Meat Market, the store her parents opened in New York City’s El Barrio in 1997, three years after her father crossed the border from Mexico at 17.

She has a bachelor’s degree in business management, a qualification her parents, Oscar and Guadalupe Aguirre, insisted on. But she came back to work at the store anyway—to the same three coolers of fresh cheese and cilantro, the same shelves of jalapeños and tomatillos, and the same customers who still bring in their mail so she can read it to them in English.

The store has survived the opening of a Costco nearby. It survived COVID-19, barely. Her father caught the virus and died before he ever got to enjoy the retirement he had worked 28 years for.

Now, Aguirre and her sisters, who run the shop together, are bracing for what they see as the biggest threat yet: a city-subsidized grocery store that can sell a $10 steak for $7, because, unlike them, it doesn’t have to turn a profit.

“We’re not scared of competition,” Aguirre told The Epoch Times on Aug. 29 from behind the counter in Spanish Harlem. “We just want fair competition.”

Read about it...

Rahm Emanuel on Obamacare

Rahm Emanuel Just Admitted Obamacare Was Built On One Massive Lie

Democrats spent 15 years defending Obamacare as the solution to America's health care crisis. They blamed Republicans, blamed doctors, blamed everyone except themselves when costs exploded.

But Rahm Emanuel just admitted Obamacare was built on one massive lie. Former Chicago Mayor and Barack Obama's White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel showed up on CNN to discuss President Trump's record on health care.

Emanuel told CNN host Dana Bash that health care has risen to the top of the political agenda heading into the 2026 midterms after Trump's historic government shutdown victory.

When she pushed Emanuel on whether Obamacare itself needs reform, he dropped a confession that sent shockwaves through the Democrat establishment.

"No. No, what you have to do is reform the health insurance companies," Emanuel stated. Wait. Reform the insurance companies? The same insurance companies Democrats spent 15 years protecting while blaming Republicans for Obamacare's failures?

The architect of Obama's signature legislative achievement just admitted the problem isn't the law Democrats rammed through Congress in 2010. It's the insurance companies they subsidized with hundreds of billions in taxpayer dollars.

Read more about it...

Pay to Play now with the Media?

Democrats Attempt To Subsidize Journalists In New Tax Plan

The new $2.9 trillion tax plan coming from the Democrats seems to include one odd clause, a large tax credit for local news journalists.

The proposal from the Ways and Means Committee includes a “Payroll Credit for Compensation of Local News Journalists.” As reported by Editor and Publisher, which is an industry publication about journalism, the newly planned tax credit “will provide local newsrooms the opportunity to receive a five-year tax credit of up to $25,000 per journalist in the first year and up to $15,000 in the subsequent four years.”

As stated in the proposal, any local newspaper will be eligible to get the tax credit if it “serves the needs of a regional or local community” and “employs no more than 750 employees.”

Read about it... and the 5 year tax credit Democrats are proposing to the local media. Coincidentally, it would go through another Biden presidency should he be reelected. Politics all starts at the local level, so this is cunning legislation.

USPS and the Chinese

China’s Evil Postal Policy Allows Them to Kill Every Mom and Pop Shop in America

President Trump is right, again!

Food Stamps

See Full report

"Enrollment in benefits increased by 70 percent from the year former President Barack Obama took office in 2008 to 2013 and can be attributed to the Obama Administrations effort to allow those with high incomes to receive benefits.

Obama signed an $8.7 billion food stamp cut into law as a way to placate House Republicans in early 2014 after they pushed for deeper cuts to the program throughout 2013. At the federal level, lawmakers are working on legislation to take food stamp work requirements nationwide and reinstate time limits on how long recipients can receive benefits." [Liberty Writers]

In case you're wondering ab out illegals:  Programs that serve undocumented immigrants include school meal programs, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), Head Start, and various in-kind emergency services. Undocumented immigrants are also eligible for Emergency Medicaid. This program typically covers acute medical situations including childbirth but not longer-term treatment for chronic conditions, even if they are life-threatening. The services provided vary by state. Emergency Medicaid is estimated to cost about $2 billion per year 
Econo fact

It pays to know President Trump

After years of haggling, the federal government has agreed to give Florida $1.5 billion to cover the state’s Low Income Pool, a massive uptick from the original amount proposed under former President Barack Obama.

The number is nearly a billion dollars more than what the Obama Administration gave to Florida for the LIP, which supports healthcare providers that give uncompensated care to under-insured or uninsured patients.

This is just another thing that will piss off liberals.

Read about it...

The Welfare State of Affairs

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A record number of people are now on food stamps, social security disability, and long term unemployment assistance. Full time jobs are drying up faster than private sector health insurance plans, and the underemployment rate continues to climb. 

Read more... on the Incompetent Socialist, Barack Obama.

A woman approached me at the Home Depot parking lot--she had been renting a house with her two kids and, according to her, it was set ablaze by the Haitian landlords. I forget where she said this happened but it was somewhere south of here.  She is on Medicaid, food stamps, housing subsidies, you name it and she needed money. She has had a hard life, she says.

Whether her story is true or not, there are millions of people needing help in this country, the most prosperous country on Earth and she has become another panhandler. We all ask how did this happen--why do we have so much poverty in America?

As someone said an I don't remember where I read it, Ever so often they (the government) toss a scapegoat or an invisible monster to take blame for this societal and economic downward spiral of our American nation. Will it get harder? Probably. Is there hope? Hopefully. Since the end of the generation has brought prosperity in the '50's and social equality in the '60's down, down we go. I hope the next generation of kids wake up from their Xboxes, computers, cell phones and the rest of their mind-sucking gadgets and diversions and see that all is not well. Previous generations have failed you, don't follow in their footsteps........................Lunch is over back to the salt mines, good luck kid.
PS take IT in college, no one cares about anything else.

Of course you can see what Information Technology did to the Obamacare website. Another massive failure that has caused millions to lose their medical insurance and people forced to keep hitting the reset button.  What's next?

"Why should I work?"

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Woman on welfare and gaming the system making over $1,300 a month says, "Taxpayers are fools."

A Thief by any other name...

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We keep hearing sob story after sob story as to why 47 million people need hand-outs. Many do, no question about it and the government bends over backwards for those who are needy. But now it's some Walmart worker who stole lottery tickets that she says was to pay off  her student loan. We believe that one just like we believe her reason why she committed theft and sympathize that she was given a loan for higher education, got it, and then decided to default to let the taxpayers pick up her tab. Current rates on student loans for undergraduates are at 3.86%.

BankRate says--The federal government currently offers four basic types of repayment plans.

Current repayment plans:

• The standard plan lets students pay the same fixed amount each month ($50 per month minimum).
• An extended plan stretches payments across 12 years to 25 years (available only for borrowers with loans totaling more than $30,000).
• A graduated plan requires lower payments in the first few years, and then the payments are increased every two years until the loan term is up.
• An income-contingent plan assigns payment amounts based on a percentage of the graduate's annual income (anywhere from 4 percent to 25 percent).

Currently, the poverty level for a single person is about $11,000 according to BankRate. So at 150 percent, the income floor is about $16,000. "That would mean that payments would be 15 percent of any income over $16,000." So, if this Walmart worker earns $16,000 or less per year, she will have no payments until she starts earning more.

Isn't education supposed to make you smarter?

Read about it.

Like an Ostrich with its head in the sand

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No one in Lake Worth will ever talk about the truth, the cold hard reasons why our city has literally fallen apart and has become slum ridden and full of blight, breeding crime. They all want to be "politically correct" and of course, most of the voting base is Liberal. All these "do gooders" want illegals to become citizens. They cite the Statute of Liberty. Others blame our poor state on a handful of anarchists that they say brought down the town but they don't look to themselves. It's easier to blame the other guy. Instead, they get out on weekends and have neighborhood clean-ups believing they are really helping our city as the root problem gets worse.

On today's front page of the Post is an article on food stamps being cut in Florida and they talk about a farm worker from El Salvador with a baby on her hip applying for food stamps at the Farmworker Coordinating Council, 1313 Central Terrace, Lake Worth, FL 33460.

Of course this illegal would not be eligible for government assistance unless that baby was born here. And that's another thing these agencies probably tell them--Fornicate, have a kid and you are then In like Flynn--it won't matter if you crossed our borders illegally. That law must change.

With offices in Lake Worth and Belle Glade, the council says it promotes self-sufficiency through various programs. Ms. Ramirez gets $367 a month in food stamps (not to mention all the other government assistance she gets) that might be reduced by $35 a month for a family of four and the SNAP program serves 48 million people costing $75 billion a year.

The Farmworker Coordinating Council is in Lake Worth AND Belle Glade helping illegal immigrants while the American citizen supports and subsidizes entire families with average incomes of $14,000 a year! The city commission constantly brings up the fact that we are second to Belle Glade in poverty...they seem shocked by that statistic. And they wonder why this city stays poor?

Orlando Seeks Federal Grant

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Another total, freaking waste of tax dollars...as our national debt climbs...It's the exact same mindset here in Lake Worth--if we don't apply for the money someone else will get it.

Read here...

La Joya Village (the Jewel) approved by Lake Worth

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For some background on the La Joya property said in an earlier blog: Pugh, the original owner, gets $643,500 for the land from the CRA; the CRA sells it to La Joya Villages for $1; the CRA paid for the demolition even before it owned the property; the CRA paid for the option for quite some time at $14,000 a month in order to control the outcome; if there is a  Realtor involved, he gets his money; the CRA gets to spend government money; the developer lines his pockets; poor people can rent and live on the railroad tracks and traffic will be a nightmare at that intersection. And the CRA gets any tax money from the project, not the city.

La Joya Villages is a 55 unit apartment complex that will be located at southeast corner of 6th Avenue S. and S. “F” Street. The project is a venture between La Joya Villages and the City of Lake Worth Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA).  Last night when it came to the discussion and eventual passing of the La Joya Village (everyone there knew there would be no burps), Vice Mayor Scott Maxwell recused himself from the discussion and the vote and left the chambers. Scott Maxwell is the 2nd vice President of the League of Cities and the League appointed him to the Community Land Trust Board.

The Community Land Trust of Palm Beach County, Inc. (CLT of PBC) is a countywide housing non-profit organization created for the purpose of  providing permanently affordable housing opportunities for residents of Palm Beach County.  

The CLT of PBC acquires land and makes it available in perpetuity for affordable housing.  The CLT separates ownership of the land from ownership of the housing unit.  The housing units are sold to income eligible households at an affordable price.  The land is made available to homeowners through a 99 year land lease.

So?  With the above explanation on the CLT, did Maxwell really have to recuse himself using the CLT as the reason?

The interesting part of the presentation was when La Joya Villages gave all sorts of kudos to Director Joan Olivia and the CRA for all their work in making this project an acceptable one to the Planning & Zoning board who approved unanimously as well as to the city commission. All they had to do was spend and turn over government money. Now we will have 55 more rentals in a sea of 60% rentals in Lake Worth with these located on the railroad tracks costing poor renters, who will probably get government subsidies, over $700/$1,000 a month. No wonder this country is broke...trickle down economics.

The Big "Fool"

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Red and Green highlights depict poverty over 23.3%

with green being the highest

It just seems that there is the big "fool" going on...pulling the wool over the Feds eyes as well as the citizens of Lake Worth. We have to prove poverty and prove need in order to even apply to have an Enterprise Zone so that we can attract businesses to build or relocate into our city so that they can get free stuff.

The City has been diligent in attempting to prove its case to the Feds by including residential neighborhoods. If these neighborhoods become enterprise zones, it could very possibly affect residential property values down the road and not in a positive way. Can you even imagine someone saying, "Dear, how would you like to move and invest in a residential property in Lake Worth...but by the way, the city's a poverty zone--everyone is poorer than dirt."

The City should insist that enterprise zones include the commercial Dixie Highway corridor, the Park of Commerce and any needy commercial/industrial sections in our city instead of using the residential neighborhoods to prove its case.

Habitat for Humanity homes to be built in Lake Worth

Volunteers are in town to help with Habitat for Humanity and building 10 homes in Lake Worth before February 11. With less than two weeks remaining, the CRA and its partners in the Neighborhood Stabilization Program will work hard to meet the Feb. 11 deadline or be subject to losing the remainder of the Grant. Several months ago, Mike McManaman with the CRA said, “I don’t expect us to lose one dollar.”

"Owners of the Habitat homes in Lake Worth buy them with zero-interest loans and are paying about $475 a month for the new homes, including taxes and insurance — less than they would pay to rent a home or apartment in most cases."

Read more...

Urban Lofts, the CRA affordable housing project in Lake Worth

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Changing the look of the neighborhood
Notice the small set-back
Comparison of an Urban Loft townhouse
 to a single family house next door

Oh no, it's the Urban Lofts again, built on a hope and a dream of affordable housing for artists.

There are some in the neighborhood who actually believe that the Urban Lofts will lift their neighborhood. Only time will tell as we have had a lot of failed condo and townhouse projects throughout the county and especially here in Lake Worth.

On Monday night at 6pm there is a special meeting at 6pm to discuss the final approval of the Urban Lofts project and the requested Utility easement.

During utility coordination, the contractor realized that the design of the building, with the 2nd floor overhang in the rear of each unit, created a need for an additional easement that allowed for the location of electric meters within this overhang area of each lot. After coordinating with the utility providers, ORB 25648 PG 1503 was recorded to allow for these service locations within the individual lots. This easement is referenced on the plat.

The CRA is requesting final approval of the plats: Corner of Lucerne Avenue and North F Street and the west side of North F Street between Lake Avenue and Lucerne Avenue; the project is inclusive of the following parcels:

38-43-44-21-15-010-0210 1202 Lucerne Avenue
38-43-44-21-15-010-0230 -Vacant-
38-43-44-21-15-010-0250 -Vacant-
38-43-44-21-15-010-0270 1214 Lucerne Avenue
38-43-44-21-15-010-0290 1218 Lucerne Avenue
38-43-44-21-15-505-0060 1205 Lucerne Avenue
38-43-44-21-15-505-0070 11 North F Stree
38-43-44-21-15-505-0090 1202 Lake Avenue
38-43-44-21-15-505-0100 1204 Lake Avenue

And as there are winners and losers, this time the developer can't lose. He will get his $4.5 to $5 million from the NSP2 government grant paid by loans from China, and the CRA will be selling the twelve, 3,000 square foot townhouses to those artists whose credit score is 550 or better and not making more than 120 percent of the area median income for Palm Beach County of $73,080 for a family of two in a neighborhood already filled with families of the working poor. CRA Director, Joan Oliva, says that the price on these 3,000 s.f. units with garage will range from $90,000 to $110,00.

I have to wonder how these eventual new townhouse owners will afford the electric bill as these units will be 3 times larger than the average house in Lake Worth. I also wonder if in a few years the City of Lake Worth will, once again, be a loser with another uninhabited townhouse project sitting in an old section of our city. Hopefully by then, the economy will be in better shape and the city will be on its way as a destination, not only for arts but for our beach that is in its final stages of re-development. That is the gamble but it is, after all, someone else's money.

It didn't matter about jobs or taxes; it was the Free Stuff

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America, the land of the free and where we bail out companies with taxpayer money and convicted felons get elected to public office.

Convicted eight times for felonies and endorsed by his pastor Mark Holloway at Peace and Goodwill Missionary Baptist Church in Detroit, as well as a large variety of unions, Brian Banks was elected on Tuesday to represent his district in Detroit.

“He is an educator, law graduate, community leader and visionary. Brian Banks has risen to prominence in spiritual, community and academic arenas – against the odds,” his site says. He has a big ego and a gift of persuasion just like our President. Read more...at CBS Detroit.

In Michigan, it all boiled down to the auto industry, convicted felons or not and all those people receiving public assistance in a city with probably the highest unemployment in America who were afraid that Romney would actually create jobs. President Barack Obama was the winner of the 16 electoral votes there — the state that benefited the most from the auto industry bailout with Ohio next with 18 electoral votes.

Mitt Romney's position was that "these companies need to go through a managed bankruptcy, and in that process they can get government help and government guarantees, but they need to go through bankruptcy to get rid of excess cost and the debt burden that they'd built up." The average middle-class voter did not understand this--they only understood their fear of the word "bankruptcy," losing jobs or being removed from welfare roles. Obama quipped, "If we had taken your advice, Gov. Romney, about our auto industry, we'd be buying cars from China instead of selling cars to China." His political line stuck with the auto industry workers and Michigan in general. Obama was "one of them."

According to Forbes:

"Chrysler: repaid $9.2 billion, fulfilling its debt obligations to the U.S. and Canadian governments, and is now owned by Italian automaker Fiat (58.5%) and a health care trust for UAW retirees (41.5%). Overall, taxpayers lost $1.3 billion on the Chrysler bailout. In full recovery mode, Chrysler is currently the fastest-growing car maker in the world.

GM: repaid $23.1 billion of the $49.5 billion it got from the U.S. Treasury, including all of its outstanding loans. But Treasury still owns 500 million shares, or 32%, of GM stock. To recoup its full investment, GM stock needs to hit $52.80 per share. It’s currently trading around $21. GM also received a $106 million matching grant to build a battery factory in Brownstown, MI, where it is assembling battery packs for the Chevrolet Volt plug-in car using cells imported from Korea.

Battery-maker A123 Systems, desperate for money, fell into the hands of a Chinese auto supplier. Another, Ener1, went bankrupt and is now owned by a Russian business tycoon."

Go to Forbes and read who still owes the government. Obama, even if he completely understood Romney's position never would have admitted it--this was political opportunism and instead he used it to his advantage and placated to the workers and the Unions and a convicted felon gets elected in Detroit, one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation. The felon will show them the way just like Obama will.

When companies get handouts, individuals expect the same. Misguided government programs can and have thwarted economic recovery from implementing high taxes on businesses struggling to survive. The result in the 1930's was widespread unemployment for the entire decade.

It was that fear of being cut off from receiving "free stuff" and the false fear that Romney didn't care or understand the average citizen that re-elected Obama. In the end, it didn't matter about jobs or taxes; all that mattered was their belief that Obama would take care of them.

Big Bad Corn

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Being a corn lover, but rarely buying it because of the expense, these facts intrigued me. The graphic was developed and sent to me by Sarah Wenger at LearnStuff.com.