For people buying their own health insurance, the cost of coverage in Colorado is going up. Reported by Denver Post 14 hours ago.

The New York Times Magazine posted a poll asking its readers whether they would kill baby Hitler, prompting Marsha Blackburn to launch an investigation into what Planned Parenthood would do with baby Hitler. Paul Ryan spent a lot of time in a deer blind thinking about the speakership, which is an interesting term for the Capitol Hill Club. And Lincoln Chafee dropped out of the Democratic presidential primary, though he is still on the short list to be Hillary’s Secretary of Dartmouth Reunions. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Friday, October 23, 2015:

*BEING A CRAPPY BOSS IS NOT A CRIME* - Evan Perez: "The Justice Department notified members of Congress on Friday that it is closing its two-year investigation into whether the IRS improperly targeted tea party and other conservative groups. There will be no charges against former IRS official Lois Lerner or anyone else at the agency, the Justice Department said in a letter. The probe found 'substantial evidence of mismanagement, poor judgment and institutional inertia leading to the belief by many tax-exempt applicants that the IRS targeted them based on their political viewpoints. *But poor management is not a crime*.' 'We found no evidence that any IRS official acted based on political, discriminatory, corrupt, or other inappropriate motives that would support a criminal prosecution,' Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik said in the letter." [CNN]

*DEMS STICK WITH COMMITTEE THEY SAY IS POINTLESS* - Jen Bendery: "House Democrats will remain on the GOP's Benghazi committee, even though they think it's sham, a senior Democratic aide told The Huffington Post. 'During a meeting with Leader Pelosi, Democratic Members of the Select Committee on Benghazi made the decision to remain as participants of the panel for now,' said the aide. There had been talk of Democrats ditching the panel in protest of what they say is chairman Trey Gowdy's goal: to tank Hillary Clinton's poll numbers in the 2016 presidential race. ...Democrats' decision to stay on the committee to push back on Republicans' efforts comes a day after the panel grilled Clinton for 11 hours and produced little new information. *Gowdy himself couldn't point to anything new that he learned from her testimony*. So far, the committee has cost more than $4.5 million and hasn't turned up much. There have been seven previous investigations into the 2012 incident and none found any wrongdoing by Clinton." [HuffPost]

*GOP LAUNCHES SHINY NEW PLANNED PARENTHOOD PANEL* - Stephanie Condon: "House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, on Friday announced the eight Republicans who will sit on a special committee to investigate 'the grisly practices of big abortion providers," according to a statement from his office. 'Recent videos exposing the abortion-for-baby parts business have shocked the nation, and demanded action,' Boehner said in a statement...Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, who has been a leader in the House GOP on abortion issues, will be at the helm of the committee. It also includes three other women (there are just 23 Republican women in the House): Reps. Diane Black of Tennessee (a licensed registered nurse), Vicki Hartzler of Missouri and Mia Love of Utah. The panel also includes two medical doctors, Reps. Andy Harris of Maryland (who was an anesthesiologist) and Larry Buschon of Indiana (who was a cardiothoracic surgeon). The final two members are Reps. Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania and Sean Duffy of Wisconsin. All are members of the House Energy Committee." [CBS News]

*ROMNEY EITHER COMPLIMENTS OBAMACARE OR DISSES DEAD FRIEND* - Tucked inside a story about the death of Staples founder Thomas Stemberg, Mitt said this, via the Boston Globe's Taryn Luna: "Romney also credited Mr. Stemberg with persuading him to push for health care reform in Massachusetts when he was governor. Romney said that shortly after he was elected, Mr. Stemberg asked him why he ran for governor. Romney said he told him that he wanted to help people, and Mr. Stemberg replied that if he really wanted to help, he should give everyone access to health care, which Romney said he hadn’t really considered before. *'Without Tom pushing it, I don’t think we would have had Romneycare,' Romney said. 'Without Romneycare, I don’t think we would have Obamacare. So, without Tom a lot of people wouldn’t have health insurance.'*" [Boston Globe]

*Romney attempts to clarify his remarks on on Facebook*: "Getting people health insurance is a good thing, and that’s what Tom Stemberg fought for. I oppose Obamacare and believe it has failed. It drove up premiums, took insurance away from people who were promised otherwise, and usurped state programs. As I said in the campaign, I'd repeal it and replace it with state-crafted plans."

*AFSCME BLESSES HILLARY* - Amanda Terkel: "Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Friday picked up the endorsement of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a union with more than 1.6 million members. AFSCME President Lee Saunders said the union went through a six-month process to determine which candidate members wanted to support, and ultimately found that nearly two-thirds of the union's members planned to back Clinton in the primary. 'Members want a candidate who will make it easier instead of harder to join together in strong unions and stand together for wages and benefits that can sustain our families,' Saunders said in a statement. 'What we also heard was AFSCME members want the candidate who will be the most effective champion for working families, and who will be able to deliver a victory in this critically important election. AFSCME members believe that candidate is Hillary Clinton.'" [HuffPost]

@aseitzwald: Just in: Brian Schweitzer endorses Martin O'Malley.

*BUSH GRACIOUSLY WELCOMING STAFFERS TO WORK FOR FREE* - Michael C. Bender and Mark Halperin: "The [Jeb Bush] campaign is parting ways with some consultants and downsizing its staff at their Miami headquarters in moves that will save more than $1 million per month and cut payroll by 40 percent this week, according to Bush campaign officials who requested anonymity to speak about internal changes. The campaign is also cutting back 45 percent of its budget, except for dollars earmarked for TV advertising and spending for voter contacts, such as phone calls and mailers. ...Some senior level staff and consultants will continue to work with the campaign on a volunteer basis, while other junior level consultants, primary in finance but including other areas, will be let go, the officials said. ...*One Bush adviser told Bloomberg Politics in an interview Friday morning that the team was 'unapologetic' about the changes, saying the moves were from a “position of strength.'*" [Bloomberg Politics]

*WALDRON WEEPER* - Travis Waldron and Erick Fernandez report on high school football deaths: "Hardly a week has passed since the beginning of the 2015 high school football season without the tragic news that a young player has died. Six have died already this fall. Tyrell Cameron broke his neck on a punt return. Roddrick Williams collapsed at practice. Ben Hamm and Kenny Bui both died from head trauma, and Evan Murray suffered a lacerated spleen. The latest to die, Cam’ron Matthews, told teammates he felt dizzy, then suffered a seizure. These stories have drawn horror and headlines, but they are not out of the ordinary. In fact, 2015 is on track to meet the usual numbers of high school football-related deaths: There were 11 in 2014, and 18 in 2013. *More than 100 kids have died from high school football-related injuries in the last decade*, according to data from the University of North Carolina’s National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research." [HuffPost]

*PAUL RYAN SLACKS ON KILLING DEER TO PONDER SPEAKERSHIP* - Thanks a lot, Freedom Caucus. Joe Perticone and Benny Johnson: "Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) came to his decision to jump in the race for Speaker of the House while sitting inside his isolated deer blind, according to Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas). In an interview with IJ.com, Farenthold spoke about Ryan’s closed-door meeting with the House Republican Study Committee: '*Ryan told the Committee that he had finally reached the decision to run for Speaker up in his deer stand, by himself*. That’s also where he came up with the conditions under which he would run.' ...Farenthold added that the decision-making process had a poor effect on Ryan’s marksmanship: '*[Ryan] told us that he was making so many notes and writing so many ideas down that a deer could have walked right by him and he would not have noticed. The whole process really made the hunt unproductive*.' When asked about the deer blind, Ryan Spokesperson Brendan Buck confirmed that “[Ryan] spent a lot of time up there thinking about it.'" [IJ Review]

Does somebody keep forwarding you this newsletter? Get your own copy. It's free! Sign up here. Send tips/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to huffposthill@huffingtonpost.com. Follow us on Twitter - @HuffPostHill

*DEFAULT IN OUR STARS* - Michael McAuliff: "With just days before the United States hits the danger zone for defaulting on its debt, Democrats made a fresh plea to the Republican-led Congress Friday to raise the borrowing cap. The nation's debt ceiling -- which caps the amount of money the Treasury Department can borrow to pay the nation's bills -- stands at $18.1 trillion. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew warned last spring that the country hit that number then, and that he was resorting to "extraordinary measures" to keep meeting America's obligations. But he now estimates that the Treasury's ability to pay the bills will end on Nov. 3, when the United States will only have about $30 billion on hand -- and Uncle Sam's daily expenditures often hit $60 billion. ... Republican leaders in both chambers of Congress say they want to raise the limit to avoid such economic damage. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said this week that he was waiting on the House to act, and House leaders decided to back away from plans they had been considering to get the deed done Friday. *This led Democrats to send a letter to Republicans Friday saying please, please just raise the cap -- we will back you.*" [HuffPost]

*HUFFPOST HAIRCUTS*: Max Rosenthal (h/t Paige Lavender), Eliot Nelson (h/t Eliot Nelson)

*A BIG LOSS FOR THE CENTIMETER* - Feel the O'Malley-mentum! John Wagner and David Weigel: "Democratic presidential hopeful Lincoln Chafee announced Friday that he is withdrawing from the race, ending a bid that had failed to gain any traction. ... Chafee bowed out with a plea for 'an end to the endless wars and the beginning of a new era for the United States and humanity.' ...Chafee was polling at less than 1 percent in recent national polls and averaging less than 1 percent in recent polls from Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two nominating states, according to Real Clear Politics. ... *Coverage of his campaign announcement in June was dominated by his embrace of the metric system -- 'it doesn’t take long before 34 degrees is hot' -- and Chafee never seemed to get on track after that*. He was largely a bystander in the first Democratic debate this month in Las Vegas, and through September, he had raised only $44,506 for his candidacy." [Washington Post]

@JohnDePetroshow: Breaking: sources at Daves market say chafee was overheard in frozen food aisle yesterday, on his cell, saying he was suspending campaign

*PAUL RYAN'S OFFICE OFFERS LEAVE, BUT EVERYONE ELSE IS SCREWED* - And they really don't want to answer questions about it, report Laura Barron-Lopez and Dana Liebelson: "Asked four times about his paid family leave policy for staff in the hallways of the House as he darted back and forth from the chamber floor to his Ways and Means Committee office, Ryan did not respond. To be fair, Ryan also did not utter a single response to the questions lobbed at him by various other reporters. He simply said, 'I’m not a hall interview guy, you guys know that.' *Ryan’s press secretary later responded to the question, confirming that Ryan’s office “does have a paid family leave policy in place.'* When pressed on the details of the maternity and paternity leave aspects of the policy, Ryan’s spokesman said that it was against office policy to comment on the details of the office manual. ... '*Mr. Ryan is supportive of paid family and medical leave -- he offers it to his staff -- but believes the decision is best left to the employer, not the government*,' Ryan’s spokesman said in an email." [HuffPost]

Watch Rep. Adam Schiff sing "Meet the Mets" on the House floor, wearing a Mets tie, after losing a bet with Rep. Steve Israel.

*MONEY PUT WHERE MOUTH IS* - Foley: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton pledged Thursday to ban the use of private prison companies if elected president, and in the meantime will stop accepting campaign contributions from those corporations and the lobbyists who work for them. All previous donations will be given to charity, the former secretary of state's campaign said. '*Hillary Clinton has said we must end the era of mass incarceration, and as president, she will end private prisons and private immigrant detention centers*,' campaign spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa said in a statement Thursday night. ...Lobbying firms that work for two major private prison giants, GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America, gave $133,246 to the Ready for Hillary PAC, according to Vice. Those companies operate a number of criminal and immigrant detention facilities, some of which have been plagued by allegations of abuse and poor treatment of detainees." [HuffPost]

These Kickstarters are out-raising presidential candidates.

*NJ SENATE SAYS 'NAH' TO CHRISTIE GUN VETO* - Katie Reilly: "The New Jersey Senate voted to override Governor Chris Christie's veto of a gun control bill on Thursday, marking the first time either chamber of the legislature has overturned one of his vetoes since he took office in 2010. Christie, who is running for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, rejected the bill in August after it passed unanimously in both the state Senate and General Assembly. ...The 80-member General Assembly, whose next voting session is scheduled for Dec. 3, would need to override the veto with 54 votes for the bill to become law. Democrats hold 48 seats. ... *The New Jersey bill goes further than previous state legislation by requiring notification of local law enforcement prior to expunging the mental health records of people who want to purchase firearms*. ...'I cannot endorse a continued path of patchwork proposals and fragmented statutes that add further confusion to an already cumbersome area of law,' Christie wrote in his conditional veto. In a statement on Friday, *Christie said he would support a more comprehensive solution that includes access to mental health treatment*." [Reuters]

*BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR* - Iraqis love Lionel Richie.

*ALLEGED FRAUDSTER RESIGNS* - Russell Contreras: "New Mexico Secretary of State Dianna Duran has resigned from office amid a fraud investigation that alleges she siphoned off thousands of dollars from her election account and withdrew the money at casinos around the state. Duran attorney Erlinda Johnson and Gov. Susana Martinez spokesman Chris Sanchez said Duran's resignation was effective immediately. Duran submitted her resignation last night, Johnson said in an email to The Associated Press. ...Duran has pleaded not guilty to charges alleging she misused campaign donations by funneling some $13,000 into personal accounts and filed false campaign finance reports with her own office. *The secretary of state's office is responsible for enforcing New Mexico's elections and campaign finance laws*." [AP]

*COMFORT FOOD*

- Some guy made album covers for the presidential candidates, and they're awesome

- The winners of the 2015 microbe art competition

- Meet Bacon, the cat who gives zero shits

- Real owl and fake owl dance to "The Monster Mash"

- This deer got a jack-o-lantern stuck on its head

*TWITTERAMA*

@pourmecoffee: Don't listen to Adele's new song and read about Lincoln Chafee dropping out at the same time. Too much. Let your heart heal.

‏@aedwardslevy: We'll know it's serious when he changes "Jeb!" to "Jeb."

@anthonyweiner: Hard to figure where the Chafee support will go. That lady changes her mind a lot.

@NYTmag: We asked @nytmag readers: If you could go back and kill Hitler as a baby, would you do it? (What's your response?)

*Got something to add? Send tips/quotes/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to Eliot Nelson (eliot@huffingtonpost.com) or Arthur Delaney (arthur@huffingtonpost.com). Follow us on Twitter @HuffPostHill (twitter.com/HuffPostHill). Sign up here: http://huff.to/an2k2e*

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 13 hours ago.

Individual health-insurance policy rates are rising almost 10 percent on average next year in Colorado as insurers adjust to the expense of providing coverage is to Coloradans who bought health coverage for the first time in 2014. An analysis by the Colorado Division of Insurance released on Friday found that premiums for all lines on average are rising 7 percent for the 2016 policy period. But there is a big gap between the price of small-group insurance, which is going up an average of 3.2 percent,… Reported by bizjournals 14 hours ago.

Consumers who want to search which doctors that plans cover won't have that new tool available yet.

 
 
 
 
 
 
  Reported by USATODAY.com 11 hours ago.

Washington D.C., Oct 23, 2015 / 04:12 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Amid continuing controversy over fetal tissue harvesting at abortion clinics, the U.S. House of Representatives voted Friday to defund Planned Parenthood and to reroute funding to community health centers.

“Women have the most to gain from congressional action to reroute these tax dollars to community and rural health centers, which provide comprehensive health care services to women, but do not abort the lives of unborn children and harvest their body parts,” the pro-life political action committee the Susan B. Anthony List said Oct. 23.

The bill also guts key parts of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, including the repeal of the law’s individual health insurance mandate and the employer health insurance mandate. This ultimately drew the opposition of Democratic pro-lifers.

"We fully support reallocating Planned Parenthood’s Title X funding to the 13,000 community health centers and rural health care clinics,” said Kristen Day, president of Democrats for Life of America.

However, she objected that linking the defunding of Planned Parenthood to gutting the health care law “will cost votes and defeat the bipartisan effort to prevent federal funds from going to the largest abortion provider in the nation.”

The Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015 passed the House Friday on a party line vote, 240-189. Only one Democrat, Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, voted for it.

The act is a budget reconciliation bill that temporarily blocks any mandatory funding of abortion providers while the House continues to investigate Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. The bill would also block any Medicaid dollars from going to Planned Parenthood affiliates.

Planned Parenthood receives over $500 million in public funds per year. Most of this funding comes through Medicaid payments and funds from Title X, a federal health program for low-income Americans.

The House bill also invests $235 million into community health centers, touted by pro-life advocates as a women’s health care alternative to Planned Parenthood. For example, many federally qualified health centers offer mammograms that Planned Parenthood clinics do not.

These health centers do not perfrom abortions.

There are around 9,000 federally qualified health centers in the U.S. that serve almost 23 million patients yearly, according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research arm of the Susan B. Anthony List. There are also 4,000 rural health centers across the country.

Planned Parenthood has become embroiled in controversy after the release of a series of undercover investigative video reports by the citizen journalist group Center for Medical Progress. They showed Planned Parenthood’s involvement in the offering of fetal body parts of aborted babies to harvesters for compensation.

The series of videos showed Planned Parenthood doctors in California, Colorado, and Texas discussing how clinics partnered with different tissue harvesters.

Those producing the videos claimed the transactions were illegal under laws that allow only a “reasonable” compensation to cover operational expenses incurred in fetal tissue harvesting.

Planned Parenthood has denied that it broke any laws and accepted illegal compensation. The organization has announced that it would no longer accept any compensation for fetal tissue from harvesters.

Kristen Day said that support for Planned Parenthood funding declines “once people know the truth, that Planned Parenthood will continue to harvest body parts from aborted babies.”

In a Reuters poll released in August, support for federal funding of Planned Parenthood fell 20 percentage points after poll respondents heard a description of the videos.

About 54 percent of respondents initially supported federal funding of Planned Parenthood. According to the Reuters poll, after respondents heard about the videos only 34 percent said federal funding should continue. Another 39 percent backed an end to government funding.

Chuck Donovan, president of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, argued that even if Planned Parenthood clinics close because of lack of funding, the federal health centers will easily handle an influx of their clients.

At present, federally qualified health centers serve almost 23 million people per year, while Planned Parenthood serves under three million, Donovan said. If the organization lost its federal money and a proportional number of clinics had to close, the federal health centers could still easily handle the influx of women patients, he continued.

Also on Friday, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced the members of a special panel to investigate Planned Parenthood. Two House committees have already launched separate investigations into the organization but have not concluded that it took part in illegal activity.

The Select Investigative Panel includes Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Joe Pitts (R-Pa.), Diane Black (R-Tenn.), Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.), Sean Duffy (R-Wisc.), Andy Harris (R-Md.), Vicki Hartzler (R-Mo.), and Mia Love (R-Utah).

Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser praised the panel, saying it includes “all-star” pro-life members.

“This select panel is an encouraging restart to an investigative process that is long overdue,” she said. “We are encouraged to see such passionate and articulate pro-life women and men – including doctors and a nurse – lead the charge to expose the abortion industry’s exploitative practices.” Reported by CNA 12 hours ago.

Get Covered Illinois, amid a sharp reduction in federal funding, has only enough money this year to pay for about 150 counselors who help consumers buy health insurance through the federal Affordable Care Act.

That's down from about 400 enrollment specialists the organization funded last year,... Reported by ChicagoTribune 12 hours ago.

Submitted by Eric Zuesse,

*The contrast between Hillary Clinton’s stated positions and her actual record, is stark.*

The record shows that she actually supports international trade treaties that allow the participating countries to allow international corporations to murder labor union organizers to keep wages down. Her financial backers include many of the controlling stockholders in corporations that shift jobs overseas to lower-wage nations so as to boost their stock-profits and executive compensation (those executives are paid largely by stock options in the companies they run — the more the stock rises, the bigger their pay); and portions of those takes by the top executives and other top owners of international corporations end up in the political campaign chests of conservative U.S. politicians such as of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and virtually all Republicans — i.e., of corrupt or otherwise conservative politicians. But this article will deal only with Hillary Clinton.

She also supports international trade treaties — such as Obama’s proposed TPP with Pacific countries and TTIP with Atlantic countries — that will cripple participating countries’ ability to regulate the safety of products, such as drugs, food-contamination, water-contamination, auto-safety, the environment, etc. However, her campaign rhetoric lies disfavoring such treaties, even more blatantly than Barack Obama’s rhetoric against NAFTA did, when he was running against her, in 2008.

*THE TRADE DEALS*

On National Public Radio’s Morning Edition, on Thursday October 22nd, David Axelrod, who is one of President Obama’s chief advisors inside the White House, explained Hillary's switch, from verbally supporting, to verbally opposing, President Obama’s proposed trade deals. The interviewer noted that, "Hillary Clinton had previously spoken in favor of the Pacific trade deal [TPP], then once the details were out she said she was against it.” Axelrod asserted, to explain what happened: "I actually think her switch of positions on trade was as much a response to Biden as it was to Sanders. She knew that the Vice President was very much tied to the President’s policy and would have to be, and she wanted to head him off at the pass particularly with organized labor.” That separation of herself from Obama’s proposed trade deals effectively killed Biden’s opportunity to win the support of labor union leaders who don’t believe that a self-declared “socialist” such as Bernie Sanders is even electable in the United States. Biden had been hoping to wedge into the Democratic primaries as being the “centrist” Democrat who could pull lots of supporters away from both Clinton and Sanders.

The reason why organized labor is opposed to Obama’s trade deals is that (as will be shown) the deals would allow all participating countries to allow international corporations to hire hitmen to murder labor union organizers so as to keep wages down. U.S. workers would then be competing internationally against workers whose rights to participate in labor unions are merely nominal, not authentic. *That, in turn, would accelerate the shrinkage of labor unions in the United States; and this would even further benefit the big campaign-contributors.* (Obama and Clinton actually support this, though it reduces the labor-union base of the Democratic Party. The electorate are split between a ‘liberal’ party that wants unions to be weak, versus a conservative party that wants them to be dead.)

*President Obama’s Trade Representative, his longtime personal friend Michael Froman, organized and largely wrote Obama's proposed trade treaties: TPP, TTIP, and TISA.* Froman told the AFL-CIO and U.S. Senators that when countries such as Colombia systematically murder labor-union organizers, it’s no violation of workers’ rights — nothing that’s of any concern to the U.S. regarding this country's international trade policies or the enforcement of them. On April 22nd, Huffington Post, one of the few U.S. news media to report honestly on these treaties, bannered "AFL-CIO's Trumka: USTR Told Us Murder Isn't A Violation,” and reported that, "Defenders of the White House push for sweeping trade deals argue they include tough enforcement of labor standards. But a top union leader scoffed at such claims Tuesday, revealing that [Obama] administration officials have said privately that they don’t consider even the killings of labor organizers to be violations of those pacts.”

*In other words: This is and will be the low level of the playing-field that U.S. workers will be competing against in TPP etc., just as it is already, in the far-smaller existing NAFTA (which Hillary had helped to pass in Congress). *"Trumka said that even after the Obama administration crafted an agreement to tighten labor protections four years ago, some 105 labor organizers have been killed, and more than 1,300 have been threatened with death.” The Obama Administration is ignoring the tightened regulations that it itself managed to get nominally implemented on paper. "Pressed for details about Trumka’s assertion that murder doesn’t count as a violation of labor rules, Thea Lee, the AFL-CIO deputy chief of staff, told HuffPost that USTR officials said in at least two meetings where she was present that killing and brutalizing organizers would not be considered interfering with labor rights under the terms of the trade measures.” Furthermore: “'We documented five or six murders of Guatemalan trade unionists that the government had failed to effectively investigate or prosecute,' Lee said. 'The USTR told us that the murders of trade unionists or violence against trade unionists was not a violation of the labor chapter.’” That U.S. Trade Representative, Michael Froman, is the same person Obama has negotiating with foreign governments, and with international corporations, both Obama's TPP, and his TTIP.

*Any country in TPP, TTIP, or TISA, that introduces worker-protection regulations which are beyond this abysmally low level, will then be fined by corporate panels, and those fines will become income to the companies whose ‘rights’ (such as to murder labor-organizers) have been violated, under the terms of the given treaty: TPP, TTIP, and TISA.*

And that’s just one example of the type of sovereignty (in this instance over workers’ rights) that is being, essentially, ceded to panels controlled by international corporations, under these 'trade’ deals. They’re actually about a lot more than just tariffs etc.; they’re about sovereignty — switching sovereignty to international corporations.

*As the UN’s top official on such matters has said, TTP & TTIP will produce "a dystopian future in which corporations and not democratically elected governments call the shots."*

Here was Hillary Clinton’s past record on NAFTA, her own husband’s trade deal, which was almost as bad as are the ones that Obama is now trying to pass — and Obama’s will cover vastly more nations:



During the 2008 Presidential campaign, an Obama flyer that Hillary was complaining about, quoted Newsday’s characterization of Hillary’s NAFTA view in 2006: “Clinton thinks NAFTA has been a boon to the economy.” Hillary was claiming that this was a lie. Many in the press blindly supported her accusation against Obama here, because “a boon” was Newsday’s phrase, not hers. However, it was she, and not Obama, who was actually lying: Her 2003 Living History (p. 182) really did brag about her husband’s having passed NAFTA, and she said there: “Creating a free trade zone in North America — the largest free trade zone in the world — would expand U.S. exports, create jobs and ensure that our country was reaping the benefits, not the burdens, of globalization.” This was one of, supposedly, her proudest achievements, which were (p. 231) “Bill’s successes on the budget, the Brady bill and NAFTA.” But Hillary was now demanding that Obama apologise for his flyer’s having said: “Only Barack Obama fought NAFTA and other bad trade deals.”



*If you want to get insight into the reality of both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton*, just click here and examine that 8 February 2008 flyer from the Barack Obama for President campaign, during Obama’s Democratic Party Presidential primaries phase, when both candidates were deceiving Democrats, but only Hillary Clinton was provably and clearly lying  to them. Here are the details:



Obama’s flyer said: “Of the two candidates in the race, only Barack Obama has been a consistent opponent of NAFTA and other bad trade deals. [Chicago Tribune, 2/29/04]” But, actually, back in 2004, Obama had had nothing to do with NAFTA, except campaign-rhetoric against it in his campaign at that time, to become the Democratic nominee to win the open U.S. Senate seat for Illinois, and his main opponent at that time was Daniel Hynes, the son of a former Mayor Daley machine Democratic Ward Committeeman, Thomas Hynes. This was mere rhetoric from candidate Obama.



*As for Hillary’s record on NAFTA, it was (unlike Obama’s) more  than merely rhetorical, and both her rhetoric and her actions had actually supported NAFTA, before NAFTA became so unpopular among Democrats that she had to become merely rhetorically against it. *On 20 March 2008, the day after Hillary finally released her schedule during her White House years, The Nation’s John Nichols blogged “Clinton Lie Kills Her Credibility on Trade Policy,” and he said: “Now that we know from the 11,000 pages of Clinton White House documents released this week that [the] former First Lady was an ardent advocate for NAFTA; ... now that we know she was in the thick of the maneuvering to block the efforts of labor, farm, environmental and human rights groups to get a better agreement; ... now that we know from official records of her time as First Lady that Clinton was the featured speaker at a closed-door session where 120 women opinion leaders were hectored to pressure their congressional representatives to approve NAFTA; now that we know from ABC News reporting on the session that ‘her remarks were totally pro-NAFTA’ and that ‘there was no equivocation for her support for NAFTA at the time’; ... what should we make of Clinton’s campaign claim that she was never comfortable with the militant free-trade agenda that has cost the United States hundreds of thousands of union jobs?”

On 24 March 2008, ABC’s Jennifer Parker, headlined a blogpost “From the Fact Check Desk: The Clinton Campaign Misrepresents Clinton NAFTA Meeting,” and she reported: *“I have now talked to three former Clinton Administration officials whom I trust who tell me that then-First Lady Hillary Clinton opposed the idea of introducing NAFTA before health care, but expressed no reservations in public or private about the substance of NAFTA. Yet the Clinton campaign continues to propagate this myth that she fought NAFTA.”* Hillary continued this lie about herself, even after it had been repeatedly and soundly exposed to be a lie. Her behavior in this regard was reminiscent of George W. Bush’s statements on WMD in Iraq, and on many other issues.

*OTHER ISSUES*

*Hillary Clinton favored the coup that overthrew the progressive democratically elected President of Honduras on 28 June 2009.* And she favored the coup that overthrew the democratically elected (but like all of Ukraine’s Presidents) corrupt President of Ukraine in February 2014. And she favors fracking. (And see more of that here.) And she favors the Keystone XL pipeline. (And see more of that here.) (And here.) And she condemns proposals for a single-payer health-insurance system such as in Canada, and European countries, or else via universal access to Medicare, and she vigorously supports healthcare-as-a-privilege that’s based on ability-to-pay. But her rhetoric, especially after the challenge from Bernie Sanders, is opposite her actions and her long public record on those and many other key issues.

*The only issues where her record has been progressive in her actions, and not merely in her words, are ones where the beneficiaries are ethnic, gender, racial, or other label-groups among the general public, whose votes are crucial in order to be able to compete at all  in Democratic Party primaries — plus, of course, gun-control. *However, she has done nothing to oppose the interests of her major campaign donors, no matter how contrary they are to those label-groups.  (A more recent version of that, is my "Hillary Veers Left, to Head Off Sanders.” And a link there will bring you directly to today’s campaign-finance results.) Those support-groups can intelligently rely upon her to favor their positions on their specific issues, in practice, and not merely in words. In turn, those liberal actions by her will antagonize Republicans, so that her Presidency, if she wins, will be very much like Obama’s has been, no matter how far to the right she (like Obama himself) actually rules. The “center” will just keep moving farther to the right (no matter whether the American public keep moving toward the left). The same trends that have been clear ever since George W. Bush came into office will continue, in the same directions. Hillary’s husband started some of these trends himself, such as when he introduced NAFTA and when he ended FDR’s Glass-Steagall Act and deregulated derivatives.

*CONCLUSION*

For a candidate such as Hillary Clinton, a rational voter will ignore her merely-stated positions, and will instead examine, and rely solely upon, her actual record. *There are a few successful politicians who are honest with the public, and not merely with donors; but, unfortunately, she isn’t one of them*. Consequently, all of the pundits’ talk about such things as “Bernie moving her to the left” is only about her pretense, not at all about her reality. Her reality is what will be in the Oval Office, if she wins.

*Reality is only what a politician does  in office, not about mere rhetoric. *Even when rhetoric is great, such as it was with Abraham Lincoln, it has relied upon honesty in order to be able to be so. *Lying rhetoric tends simply to be forgotten by historians.* It shouldn’t be, even if this requires us to remember some very bad rhetoric. Lies can be very important, no matter how bad the rhetoric might happen to be.* History should deal with what’s important. So should voters.*

*  *  *

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of  They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of  CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.

  Reported by Zero Hedge 11 hours ago.

Consumers will see a raft of improvements to the federal website for obtaining health insurance, government officials said Friday. Reported by Wall Street Journal 9 hours ago.

Three California churches have filed a complaint against the state over a recently implemented health insurance provision mandating the coverage of elective abortions. Reported by Christian Post 21 hours ago.

This story was published in June 2015 and is being republished today on the 75th anniversary of the 40-hour workweek going into effect.

WASHINGTON -- Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) thinks Americans may have forgotten about the 40-hour week.

"A hundred years ago workers took to the streets" to fight for 40 hours, Sanders told The Huffington Post. "And a hundred years have come and gone, we’ve seen an explosion in technology, we’ve seen an explosion in productivity, we have a great global economy, and what do you have? The vast majority of people are working longer hours for lower wages."

American workers with full-time jobs work an average of 42.7 hours per week, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Including part-timers in the calculation puts the average American workweek at 39 hours.
 
Sanders said he wants to appropriate the term "family values" from Republicans, who have historically used it to talk about social issues, and use it to promote legislation mandating paid vacation, paid sick days and paid parental leave for U.S. workers. Just 11 percent of workers had access to paid leave to care for newborns in 2012, according to the BLS.

"What the Republicans talk about when they speak of family values is to deny a woman the right to control her own body, to deny a woman the right to get contraceptives, opposition to gay rights and gay marriage," Sanders said. "I don’t think those are family values."

Last week Sanders introduced a bill that would require employers to give at least 10 paid vacation days annually to any employees who have worked at the company for at least a year.

"What our legislation says -- and we think this is absolutely a family value -- is that a mom and a dad should have the right to at least a couple of weeks off of paid vacation so they can spend quality time with their kids," Sanders said.

Republicans control Congress, and they aren't keen on shortening work hours. They have complained bitterly, for instance, that President Barack Obama's health care law undermines the 40-hour week. The Congressional Budget Office reported in 2014 that the Affordable Care Act could result in some Americans choosing to work less because they could get health insurance without being tied to a full-time job.

American workers did indeed fight and die for shorter hours, which for a long time was the foremost demand of the labor movement. The shorter hours movement culminated in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, a federal law that established the minimum wage and requires employers to give workers extra pay when they work more than 40 hours per week. The effectiveness of the law has eroded, however, because the law only protects salaried workers earning less than $23,660 per year.

"What that means if you were a quote-unquote supervisor at McDonald’s, making $25,000 a year, $28,000 a year, and you are supervising some other people flipping hamburgers and you’re working 50 or 60 hours a week, you do not get overtime," Sanders said.

Sanders and other Democrats have asked Obama to consider raising the salary threshold so it covers more workers, something the White House is currently considering. Sanders wants to see the threshold set at $57,000.

"That means everybody making under that would get time and a half when they work more than 40 hours a week," he said. "Very important step forward."

*Listen to HuffPost's interview with Sanders on the "So, That Happened" podcast below:*EmbedContent(562b8cd6e4b0aac0b8fd1864,,Embed,html,Some({}))To listen to this podcast later, download our show on iTunes. While you're there, please subscribe, rate and review our show. You can check out other HuffPost Podcasts here.

*Also on HuffPost:*CollectionContent(562b8cd6e4b0aac0b8fd1866,55a7e324e4b0c5f0322c9456,Collection,Slideshow)

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 21 hours ago.

With your help, we've taken on employee injustice at the Marriott Corporation and customer injustice at Wells Fargo. And won. Let's take on Florida next.


 
Republicans in Florida blocked its state exchange, so citizens without health care need to use the federal exchange at healthcare.gov -- and enrollment begins on *November 1st*.

Don't let your friends or relatives in Florida forget -- encourage them to make even a cursory attempt at finding out if it's a viable option for them.

Millions of Floridians still don't have health insurance. And a study by Families USA estimates than 290,000 American adults have died prematurely since 1995, the last time a health-care overhaul was debated. Florida's 24,400 premature deaths were the third highest, trailing only California (38,400) and Texas (32,200).

Even those who don't die directly from the lack of health coverage are, well, often unhealthier than those who do. And that can lead to a lower quality of life. When's the last time anybody enjoyed having bronchitis and missed a week of work because they couldn't afford treatment?

There are some good people in the Democratic Party trying to change this dynamic and make 2015 a record year for ACA sign-ups in their state. So tweet this, write to your friends, share it on Facebook or your blog, or forward this video.

The short video/PSA and YouTube page has all the info they need to contact a* non-profit organization* that will help them navigate and decide if and ACA plan is right for their life.
***

From Orlando Weekly:*
*

R.I.P. Charlene Dill
Follow Lester & Charlie on Facebook, Twitter or visit their blog

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 14 hours ago.

Q: What changes can I expect from my employer's health insurance plan during open enrollment for 2016?

A: The National Business Group on Health recently came out with its annual survey of large employers, which offers the first glimpse of the changes employees are likely to see in their health... Reported by ChicagoTribune 6 hours ago.

Quote Selection Insurance Services, Inc has opened four more walk-in “Obamacare” Enrollment Centers specializing in Covered California enrollments. Open Enrollment runs from November 1, 2015 to January 31, 2016.

Santa Ana, CA (PRWEB) October 25, 2015

Three of the new centers are located in Orange County, with one center situated in Signal Hill to serve the Long Beach community:

13458 Harbor Blvd
Garden Grove, CA 92843

721 E. Imperial Hwy., Suite B
Brea, CA 92821

16532 Beach Blvd.
Huntington Beach, CA 92647

643 E. Willow St., Suite A
Signal Hill, CA 90755

Quote Selection invites anyone who needs help enrolling to contact the centers directly at (800) 650-0922 to explore the various options at no cost. Language support is available in English, Vietnamese, Thai and Cambodian.

George Balteria, CEO of Quote Selection Insurance Services states, "Anyone can go to the Covered California website on their own and spend hours trying to learn and figure everything out. It's another to use a licensed professional who has done this hundreds of times in a face-to-face environment, someone who can truly help people decide which options meet their needs, budget and lifestyle. In addition, it is a huge benefit to have someone available at an office who can assist with future questions or concerns.”

Certified personnel at the Enrollment Centers are fully committed to providing individuals enrolling in Covered California a painless, easy, and fun experience.

About Quote Selection
Quote Selection Insurance Services, Inc is a business-to-consumer insurance agency that delivers various insurance products to individuals, families and small businesses. Quote Selection's integrated suite of services facilitates a comprehensive search and review of leading insurance companies.

Quote Selection Insurance Services, Inc is not owned by any insurance company, therefore they provide objective information to consumers and small business owners to help them make informed decisions about their insurance needs. Reported by PRWeb 5 hours ago.

These three shifts in the health insurance landscape will help determine winners and losers in health insurance. Reported by Motley Fool 18 hours ago.

It’s the end of October, which means Halloween is fast approaching. Then, once the calendar flips to November, we jump headlong into the holiday season. It’s a time of celebration, travel, and gift-giving, but, in recent years, something else was added to the mix, and it fills people with dread. It’s not more visits from in-laws (although, luckily, mine are fabulous!). It’s open enrollment for health insurance. Since the Affordable Care Act went into effect, millions of Americans have been Reported by FXstreet.com 13 hours ago.

Washington state’s uninsured rate has dropped 40 percent since the provisions of the Affordable Care Act took effect, boosting coverage to about 91 percent of residents. But reaching those who still lack health insurance remains a big job, officials say. Reported by Seattle Times 11 hours ago.

After two years of missing the mark on enrollment projections, Minnesota's health insurance exchange is heading into its third chapter armed with an unusual weapon: high insurance rates. Reported by TwinCities.com 9 hours ago.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Seven in 10 emergency physicians responding to a new poll are seeing patients with health insurance who have delayed seeking medical care because of high out-of-pocket expenses, high deductibles or high co-insurance. The poll... Reported by PR Newswire 8 hours ago.

Dr. Stephen Epstein has seen it first-hand: patients with dwindling health insurance benefits forgo some of their care, only to end up in worse shape in his ER. “What we’re finding is patients are cutting back on necessary care,” said Epstein, who is a spokesperson for the American College of Emergency Physicians and an emergency physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. “They are delaying things like they can’t afford their medications and don’t take their blood pressure medications,… Reported by bizjournals 8 hours ago.

Before Congress left for its Columbus Day recess, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) introduced the Health Insurance Rate Review Act of 2015 in the House and Senate. Reported by Mondaq 3 hours ago.