Americans

Unions outpace corporations in super PAC spending

By Justin Hegy
09/13/2013
Labor unions are losing influence, popularity and the fight over labor policy in many states. To soften their fall, unions have dramatically increased political spending. A study from the Center for Public Integrity shows labor unions have notably increased political spending nationally in the first half of 2013. During the six-month period, unions contributed $10 million to...

ObamaCare redefines ‘large business’

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
09/12/2013
The American people are about to receive yet another ObamaCare trick in the coming weeks. While many small businesses thought they would be safe from the costliest provisions of the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, commonly referred to as ObamaCare, some of the nation’s small employers are finding out that they may be counted as “large employers”...

Outsourcing ObamaCare

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
09/09/2013
A recent editorial in the Chicago Tribune criticized the state Department of Insurance for not publicly releasing health insurance premium rates for the health care exchange. The exchange is a central feature of ObamaCare in which individuals and small businesses will begin buying private insurance coverage Oct. 1. With rates expected to go up dramatically, it’s no...

Illinois Medicaid officials under fire for no-bid ObamaCare contracts

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
09/04/2013
Illinois Medicaid officials are under fire for awarding no-bid ObamaCare contracts for tracking, storing and processing electronic files for individuals’ most-sensitive personal health and financial information. Circumventing a competitive bidding process is disturbing, but it is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to privacy concerns under ObamaCare. The bigger concern is how ObamaCare might...

Big Labor may get ObamaCare subsidies intended for the uninsured

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
08/30/2013
The media is swirling with rumors that the Obama administration is considering subsidizing health premiums for Big Labor members who already have insurance – using funds intended for uninsured, low-income Americans. If true, this will be yet another example of the Obama administration giving preferential treatment to special interests while subjugating individual Americans to the high costs and destructive effects of...

Another day, another ObamaCare implementation delay

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
08/15/2013
The New York Times recently revealed yet another ObamaCare implementation delay. “In another setback for President Obama’s health care initiative, the administration has delayed until 2015 a significant consumer protection in the law that limits how much people may have to spend on their own health care. “The limit on out-of-pocket costs, including deductibles and co-payments, was...

Nearly 22 million Americans remain unemployed or underemployed.

08/02/2013
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced today that the national unemployment rate dropped to 7.4 percent in July from 7.6 percent in June. The number of unemployed persons dropped by 263,000 to 11.5 million. Over the course of the year, unemployment and the unemployment rate are down by 1.2 million and 0.8 percentage points,...

Federal government announces one-year delay of ObamaCare’s employer mandate

07/03/2013
by Naomi Lopez-Bauman If ObamaCare weren’t already enough of a train wreck, the irony of the U.S. Treasury Department blog post announcing the delay of  the ObamaCare employer mandate – titled Continuing to Implement the ACA in a Careful, Thoughtful Manner – would be hysterical. The employer mandate is a provision of ObamaCare that requires employers with 50...

National unemployment rises to 7.6 percent in May

06/07/2013
by Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced today that the national unemployment rate rose in May to 7.6 percent from 7.5 percent one month earlier. Non-farm private payrolls rose by 175,000. The payroll growth, which has averaged 172,000 over the past 12 months, continues to be significantly below the range needed...