Bye Bye Boehner

[JustOneWay]

Maybe Ohio bought that, but apparently Boehmer himself didn't see it just that way.

Not really. Boehner wanted to stop Obama as bad as the next republican, only he was not willing to get as dirty as others are.

I am not going to give Boehner a pass simply he was not as hateful as other republicans have been towards the Obama administration. Boehner sued the administration and threatened otherlawsuits. He also took sides with other world leaders over his own President. These actions are unforgivable, IMO.

 

[amanuensis63]

Peddle that lie to someone unfamiliar with coal mining in Kentucky.

Nice! I studied some Kentucky coals when I was doing my PhD in coal chemistry.

Job losses here are 100% due to regulation

Probably because a lot of KY coals are high sulfur which means acid rain for lots of different places. I feel for the good folks of Eastern KY but sadly we already fought the war on acid rain and real science won out.

My home town in Illinois was sitting near the largest underground coal mine in the Western Hemisphere. A powerplant right across the road was able to get lower sulfur coal in from Wyoming than it was to get the high sulfur stuff right across the road.

Conservatives need to remember that everything of value has a cost. There is no free lunch. Even if a Conservative really wants the market to be controlled by the government to allow for an artificially lower cost which doesn't take into account the full cost of using that material, it is best not to construct one's energy policy on that form of socialism.

, not competition. I'm glad you're doing well under this socialist. Millions of Americans are suffering.

One must adapt. Take me for instance. I spent 11 years getting a BS, MS and PhD in geochemistry. But because the free market meant that oil and coal industries have massive boom and bust cycles I had to adapt and use my chemistry background to work.

If only someone like YOU had been there to champion the socialist propping up of a given unsustainable market when I stepped out college!

But because I actually have a doctoral level understanding of the chemistry of organic fossil fuels I'm actually kind of glad I'm not in that field anymore. It would be hard championing something I knew was being used to our detriment.

 

[smaneck]

How did our grandfathers survive?

A lot of them didn't survive very long. Our life expectancy is about twenty years longer than that of our grandparents.

The entirety of Obamacare was based on a lie. The real number of people who wanted insurance and couldn't get it was more like 3 million.

Where in the world did you get that figure from? About 48 million people were uninsured in this country and of that figure only about 18 million could have afforded health insurance if they wanted it. That means 30 million could not. Since Obamacare 17 million people who were previously uninsured are now covered. There would be a lot more if certain states, including my own, had not refused to extend Medicaid. I don't know what planet you live on, but half the people I knew could not afford health insurance that would cover their medical conditions. One of them was my own son. I bought health insurance for him, but it wouldn't cover his pre-existing condition, a condition which if left untreated would have made it impossible for him to be productive member of society. Now he has health coverage, a good job, a new wife and owns two houses. And what he pays in taxes more than makes up for subsidy he got under Obamacare (which he no longer needs since his employer now pays his health insurance.) None of this could have happened without Obamacare. As a landlord I see one tenant after another whose credit scores were ruined by unpaid medical bills, bills they can't hope to pay at their near minimum wage jobs.

 

[KWCrazy]

Earlier you decried the Single Payer system as "socialist", and you think Obamacare a "lie" (even though it is largely a Conservative Republican concept),

There's nothing conservative about socialized medicine.
We proposed actually cutting costs with:
Portability,
Increased competition by letting people buy across state lines,
Torte reform,
Encouragement of major medical plans,
Health care savings accounts, which encourage good health practices.
Nothing in Obamacare addressed costs, other than adding government bureaucracy.

Or do we say "The Almighty Market will determine this for us!" and then watch some people die in the streets?

More examples of a failed education system. You apparently don't understand how the free market works.

The individual mandate was an idea that the

Heritage Foundation came up with in 1994.

Yes, it was offered as an alternative to Hillarycare.

Obamacare was a direct, national enactment of Romneycare.

Which was instituted by the STATE, not the federal government. See the enumerated powers.

If you want to decry "socialism" you will HAVE to like Obamacare. You guys on the Right invented it.

Nope. You guys did.

Remember that in poll after poll after poll prior to the passage of the ACA up to 85% of Americans wanted

all the reforms promised by the ACA so long as it didn't carry the name "Obamacare".

What was promised never happened. Americans wanted to save $2,500 per year, but that was a lie. Insurance costs went up. Americans wanted to keep their plans but that was a lie. They wanted to keep their doctors and that was a lie. Obummer and his cronies lied repeatedly about what Obamacare would do for them. That's why the American people are disgusted with them now.

Eliminate lifetime caps on coverage?

Didn't happen. There are committees that will decide who deserves what level of care. If you're 80 and need a hip transplant you better go buy a good wheelchair.

Allow children to remain on parent's coverages longer?

They have to, because they can't find jobs of their own.
When I was younger, a person was considered an adult at 18. Now it's 21 or older. Welcome to the nanny state.

Control spiraling costs?

Not a single word of Obamacare was wasted on controlling costs. It was all about taking over a large portion of the nation's economy.

Ensure more people had coverage?

Yippee!! I didn't see the right to health insurance in the Bill of Rights. Did you?

If you understood how insurance worked you might understand how one can ask an insurance company to increase coverage and control costs.

Apparently I do and you don't. Insurance is a financial product whereby costs are divided over a large group so that the loss to any individual is not so steep. If I have a thousand people and the costs are $10,000, then the cost of the medical expense is $10 per thousand. So to make a profit the carrier charges $12 per thousand. Of the thousand people in any given premium period, more people will pay in than will receive benefits so that for many premiums are paid in and no benefit is received. That's how it works. Insurance companies are for-profit businesses which at one point owned 60% of the real estate in the US. The insurance lobby is arguably the strongest in the US. Getting people like you convinced that you HAVE TO do business with them is the greatest con job they ever pulled off. They'll be laughing at you for decades... all the way to the bank... which they own

 

[KWCrazy]

It was Beohner's job to represent the people of Ohio in the House of Representatives.

As a representative, yes, but he ALSO had a job as speaker of the House. I never said he was a bad rep for Ohio. That's up to them. I said he was a disaster as a speaker.

 

[KWCrazy]

Probably because a lot of KY coals are high sulfur which means acid rain for lots of different places.

High sulfur coal can be used in the production of energy. It simply requires different processing that low sulfur coal. It's more costly in the short term, but high sulfur coal is more readily available and less costly to use in the long run.

Conservatives need to remember that everything of value has a cost.

That's our mantra.

But because I actually have a doctoral level understanding of the chemistry of organic fossil fuels I'm actually kind of glad I'm not in that field anymore. It would be hard championing something I knew was being used to our detriment.

Too bad, because with the fracking in North Dakota, slant drilling in the arctic and the oil discoveries in Texas you could be wealthy.

 

[amanuensis63]

High sulfur coal can be used in the production of energy. It simply requires different processing that low sulfur coal.

It requires scrubbers put on the powerplants. That's a serious investment and if a low sulfur alternative is available the cost often comes out less than retrofitting the plant.

It's more costly in the short term, but high sulfur coal is more readily available and less costly to use in the long run.

What you mean is it is "more readily available" in your area. Not everywhere. Again, if you want to run a socialist program that props up particular markets when they no longer are as inexpensive as others, then fine! Just don't call it conservative and don't call it "free market".

Too bad, because with the fracking in North Dakota, slant drilling in the arctic and the oil discoveries in Texas you could be wealthy.

Fracking in ND is economically unsustainable and is going away as oil prices drop. It's a worse boom and bust mentality than normal oil drilling.

Drilling in the Arctic is wonderful if there is no additional cost or danger. But, well, you know Conservatives like to ignore potential costs that don't benefit their analyses. It's like when Acid Rain was being "debated". The Reagan administration forced the National Academies to take S. Fred Singer ("Doubt Monger for Hire") to be on the panel but then no one was willing to put up with his variant of "science" and when he wrote his own addendum he did a wonderful economic calculation as to why it would be bad to deal with acid rain by the simple expedient of assuming nature had no real value.

It was brilliant! And if Conservatives really need to decree the world to have no value in order to maintain their ecological rape policy then I guess we're doomed. Or those of us with actual science backgrounds can stand up to the misinformation and try to protect our home.

 

[amanuensis63]

There's nothing conservative about socialized medicine.

SIngle Payer isn't socialized medicine! Where on earth did you get that idea? You should really learn the topic more.

Apparently I do and you don't. Insurance is a financial product whereby costs are divided over a large group so that the loss to any individual is not so steep.

So how do YOU propose telling an insurance company that they must bias their risk pool and lower costs?

Oh, wait, you just explained it! You have to increase the risk pool. You CANNOT force the insurance companies to eliminate their risk controls (such as "preexisting conditions" and "lifetime caps" unless you allow them to wildly increase premiums which will drive out the "healthier" subscribers and bias the risk pool to more and more unhealthy subscribers.

That's why your conservative buddies in the Heritage Foundation suggested the individual mandate.

The insurance lobby is arguably the strongest in the US. Getting people like you convinced that you HAVE TO do business with them is the greatest con job they ever pulled off. They'll be laughing at you for decades... all the way to the bank... which they own

Well, to be fair, I am for Single Payer which eliminates the insurance company...but because you don't know what Single Payer is you think it's socialized medicine! That's laughable!

Funny how poorly thought out Conservative ideas are. But, hey, you guys insist on marketbased reforms. This is what you get.

Go ahead and see if torte reform makes a big dent. Or portability.

 

[smaneck]

What has been the net effect? During this administration, the proportion of the working-age population that has a job has fallen to the lowest level in decades.

Sorry, but your editorial is long on assertions and short on the facts. What has fallen in the work participation rate, not the proportion of working-age population with a job. You previously cited the erroneous figure of 90 million unemployed as though your grandmother or your toddler would go out and get a job if only Obama had no ruined the economy. As I stated earlier, the labor participation rate would have gone down in any case because of the number of baby boomers reaching retirement age. This was predicted long before Obama came into office. Did the recession (which if you will recall, Obama did not cause) speed up the process? Yes, there are a number of people I know personally who were forced into a retirement when the recession hit. But I should add these were all marginal employees whose health issues were impacting their performance. There were others who opted for early retirement because Obamacare made it possible for them to retire without having to wait until Medicare kicks. It is likely I will join that number in the next three or four years.

New estimates derived from the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey by Sentier Research indicate that the real (inflation-adjusted) median annual household income in America has fallen by 4.4 percent during the "recovery," after having fallen by 1.8 during the recession. During the recession, the median American household income fell by $1,002 (from $55,480 to $54,478).

And you think this has something to do with Obama's policies? Last I heard it was the right to opposed raising wages.

Is the problem that the Democrats are too stupid to differentiate between legal immigration and illegal immigration, or do they just not care about US immigration laws? Seriously, people sneaking across our border is not immigration.

Hmmm. Seems like you are the one unable to distinguish between legal and illegal immigration given the fact you just defined the latter out of existence. You are aware that the Obama administration has deported more illegal immigrants than any president in history?

Some did. My boss lost a million dollars. That's lost as in gone forever, not a paper loss.

Most of my loses were in my mutual funds, and yes those were paper losses because you don't lose in the stock market until you take your money out. I didn't.

Bunk! What's killing small business is 85 pages per day of new regulation, Obamacare, increased energy costs due to a deliberate attack on cheaper forms of energy, forced compliance with EPA regulations which go in force before the technology to make them work is proven and a welfare system that takes away the incentive to work.

An argument which might makes sense were it not for the fact that many more small businesses are being created each day than are going out of business.

What small business needs is a productive work force. Welfare spending in America exceeds the median income by 20%.

Where in the world did you get that figure from? Small businesses would have no problem whatsoever finding a productive work force if they are willing to pay a living wage.

No problem then! Let's continue to use our natural resources while search for affordable alternative forms of energy.

Maybe you haven't noticed we are using our natural resources? Have you noticed the price of gas lately? Just because we aren't the jobs moved from Kentucky to the Dakotas does not mean we aren't using our natural resources. Right now they are losing jobs in the Dakotas as well, not because of government regulations but because the price of oil collapsed. Free market systems at work! But go ahead, blame it on Obama.

News flash. The earth has been in a cooling cycle for the last 17 years.

Uh, no. The rate of global warming has decreased since 1998 to about half of what it was previously, but it hasn't cooled.

Not a single global warming model has ever worked. It's just more anti-capitalism drivel. It ranks up there with the population bomb and other fairy tales sold to the gullible by the dishonest.

You do realize that the notion of a population bomb was first articulated by Thomas Malthus in the 19th century in order to promote capitalism and prevent the emergence of social welfare legislation?

Clean is relative. Most coal plants aren't built in the middle of residential areas.
Coal is a natural product, often found just below the surface which is why strip mining is so effective. When you talk about contaminates going into the soil, where do you think the coal was in the first place???

I'm not talking about coal mines so much as I'm talking about the fact its use is so polluting. And given how plentiful natural gas is and how cheap oil is right now, why would we revert to coal?

According to Speaker Boehner, coal is responsible for more than 760,000 American jobs

You realize that oil and natural gas create nearly ten million jobs? In Texas alone nearly 600,000 new jobs were created in the oil industry since the recession. Again, why revert to something less effective, more dirty and which creates fewer jobs? And by the way, your article is two years old, written well before the price of oil crashed and burned. Coal just wouldn't make any sense right now.

Peddle that lie to someone unfamiliar with coal mining in Kentucky. Job losses here are 100% due to regulation, not competition. I'm glad you're doing well under this socialist. Millions of Americans are suffering.

Yes, states like Kentucky and West Virginia are hurting. North Dakota, Oklahoma and Texas, on the other hand were booming due to the oil industry until recently. Jobs move. That's the way capitalism works. You can blame Obama all you want, but he is not the one who closed those mines, much as he might have wanted to. And by the way, Obama is not sidestepping Congress, he is simply allowing the EPA to do its job, something the previous administration prevented. There is already sufficient legislation to allow them to do this.

 

[smaneck]

Not really. Boehner wanted to stop Obama as bad as the next republican, only he was not willing to get as dirty as others are.

More importantly, he wasn't willing to see government become paralyzed in order to do this. He deserves some credit for this.

Boehner sued the administration and threatened other law suits.

IMO that was his way of taking a stand without actually doing anything.

He also took sides with other world leaders over his own President. These actions are unforgivable, IMO.

I would agree with you about this last one.

 

[HonestTruth]

Might not be as crazy as you think,

One of the CEO at fox was on George Bush Senior's staff to help him get elected,
and are supporting Jeb Bush.

Destroying Trump helps Jeb Bush.

but does that make them 'liberal'???

 

[AceHero]

To be fair, if the GOP wants to do anything to correct this, they have to win the election in '16.

Not likely. The GOP will likely loose in 2016 for the same reason they lost in 2008 and 2012. The demographics are against them. Younger voters and minorities vote Democrat, and the Millennium generation is huge. And guess what? It is not predominantly white. The reason the Republicans control the House is 1) Congressional districts have been gerrymandered to insure Republican control 2) Young people and minorities are notoriously bad at voting in the bi-elections.

Voter ID laws are another thing that Republicans are trying to utilize rather than trying the figure out how to get people to vote for them.

The coal industry has been decimated because the fool on the hill thinks low cost energy could raise the earth's temperature 1 degree in the next 200 years;

More like eight degrees, but not to worry. We will be out of fossil fuels long before 200 years. However it takes only 2 degrees Celsius to make the earth warmer than we have ever known it as human beings. And we will probably hit that by 2050. When it comes to coal, there is no such thing as clean coal energy. But it is really only in places like Appalachia where the coal industry was badly hit, but not because of Obama's policies. The free-market system destroyed the coal industry there. Renewables and natural gas drove the price of coal down to the point where it no longer made sense to mine in Kentucky. Mining operations shifted to places like Wyoming where it was cheaper. That will remain the case no matter who is president.

You'd think conservatives who hold the free market in such high regard would understand that.

Do you know anyone who is better of under Obama? I don't.

I am.

As am I. To have my health insurance premium absolutely plummet while I'm looking for work has been wonderful.

iObama!

This thread is about Boehner.

IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT OBAMA! Didn't you get the memo? Obama = All Evil. If Obama came out tomorrow and said he like puppies the GOP would line up to demonize puppies.

In their eyes, puppies would all of a sudden become downright anti-Christian. Obama Derangement Syndrome really knows no bounds.

 

[AceHero]

The free-market system destroyed the coal industry there. Renewables and natural gas drove the price of coal down to the point where it no longer made sense to mine in Kentucky.

Peddle that lie to someone unfamiliar with coal mining in Kentucky. Job losses here are 100% due to regulation, not competition.

Coal production in Kentucky peaked in 1990.

http://energy.ky.gov/Coal Facts Library/Kentucky Coal Facts - 15th Edition (2015).pdf

There's a chart showing how production has dropped steeply since 1990 on page 8. On page 9, you'll note how coal employment has been in rapid decline since 1980, and that peak was considerably lower from its biggest employment peak—between 1945 and 1950.

I'm glad you're doing well under this socialist. Millions of Americans are suffering.

Still waiting for my socialist president.

 

[smaneck]

Voter ID laws are another thing that Republicans are trying to utilize rather than trying the figure out how to get people to vote for them.

Yeah, I know but that backfired against them in the last election. When African-Americans realized they were endangered of being disenfranchised again they turned out to vote in droves. But young people who don't even remember the Civil Rights Movement and who found Obama was not everything they hoped for, weren't as determined not to let this happen.

If the Dems are smart they will make sure there will propositions legalizing marijuana in as many states as possible. That will insure young people get to the polls regardless of whether those propositions pass.

You'd think conservatives who hold the free market in such high regard would understand that.

Capitalism has never been known for its foresightedness.

As am I. To have my health insurance premium absolutely plummet while I'm looking for work has been wonderful.

Unfortunately here in Mississippi if your income plummets too far you can't get Obamacare or Medicare. The only people eligible for Medicaid are the elderly, the disabled or children. And oh yeah, adults can get it too if their poor and get knocked up.

 

[smaneck]

There's a chart showing how production has dropped steeply since 1990 on page 8. On page 9, you'll note how coal employment has been in rapid decline since 1980, and that peak was considerably lower from its biggest employment peak—between 1945 and 1950.

I seem to remember Bob Dylan singing songs about the closing of coal mines back in the 60's.

 

[RDKirk]

Unfortunately here in Mississippi if your income plummets too far you can't get Obamacare or Medicare. The only people eligible for Medicaid are the elderly, the disabled or children. And oh yeah, adults can get it too if their poor and get knocked up.

That's because of Mississippi law, not Obamacare. Talk to your state legislators about that.

 

[RDKirk]

Do you know anyone who is better of under Obama? I don't.

My daughter would be one, 28 years old working for a small company that does not provide health care benefits.

Also, this young woman. I first met her when she was only nine years old and her head was still shaved from her third brain surgery. She has a brain tumor that cannot be completely removed. Every three years or so she requires another surgery to cut back the tumor.

The fact that there is something in her brain constantly threatening to kill her has not kept her from living a full life. Since being graduated from college, she's been working as a missionary in South America, returning to the US as necessary for her operations and checkups.

Of course, because she has a known need for periodic brain surgery (as far as known, for the rest of her life), medical insurance companies would not have touched her prior to Obamacare. Obamacare kept her on her parents' policy until she was 26, and now continues to provide coverage so that she can continue to work for the Lord in South America.

 

[smaneck]

That's because of Mississippi law, not Obamacare. Talk to your state legislators about that.

It is because Mississippi refused to expand Medicaid despite the fact that the federal government provided for it.
I blame our governor.

 

[Short Timer]

Who were all told that they need Boehner to stop Obama...

An old widow woman house burned to the ground, she lost everything, Some in Congress wanted to pass a bill authorizing some "Financial assistance",

Davy Crockett took the floor and ask "Where in the Constitution does it allow the Congress to take the people's hard earned tax money and just give it away"????

Congress had no choice but to agree with him, and took up an "offering" from among the Reps and gave the woman the financial assistance she needed.

 

[DaisyDay]

An old widow woman house burned to the ground, she lost everything, Some in Congress wanted to pass a bill authorizing some "Financial assistance",

Davy Crockett took the floor and ask "Where in the Constitution does it allow the Congress to take the people's hard earned tax money and just give it away"????

Congress had no choice but to agree with him, and took up an "offering" from among the Reps and gave the woman the financial assistance she needed.

And George Washington chopped down his father's cherry tree...