Repealing Obamacare
Posted by Michelle Moquin on January 20th, 2011
Good morning!
The big day to repeal Obamacare was yesterday. Democrats got their drive back, while Republicans just kind of wanted to be done with it; not quite relishing their “big moment”. What happened Repugs? Is it ’cause those that didn’t want health care reform in the first place are now deciding that it’s a good thing, and they want it?
Watch it on Maddow:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Readers: I’m up and out of here. Tell me what you will. Blog me.
PEACE OUT.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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January 20th, 2011 at 11:18 am
The Happiness Project
Gretchen Rubin
The Happiness Project
Philosophers, psychologists and self-help gurus all have advice on how we can be happier — but what really works?
Journalist Gretchen Rubin decided to find out. She devoted a year to “test-driving” happiness strategies and gathered feedback from visitors to her popular Web site.
She called her research “The Happiness Project.” Different happiness strategies work for different people, but a few strategies stand out…
Seek novelty and challenge even if you value consistency and comfort. I didn’t expect exploring new challenges to make me happier — familiarity and comfort are very important to me — but I was wrong.
Trying new things is one of the most effective paths to happiness that I have encountered.
The human brain is stimulated by surprise and discovery. Successfully coping with the unfamiliar can provide a high level of happiness.
Repeating what we’ve done many times before can be comfortable, but comfortable is not the same as happy.
Example: Launching and updating a daily blog have brought me great happiness, though initially I feared that I lacked the necessary technical skills.
Challenge yourself to do something that sounds interesting — even if it’s different from anything you’ve done before or it requires skills that you’re not sure you have.
Take a class… try a new hobby… learn a language… or visit a different town or museum every weekend.
Try doing whatever you enjoyed doing at age 10. The person we are in adulthood has more in common with the person we were at age 10 than we realize.
Renowned psychiatrist Carl Jung started playing with building blocks as an adult to recapture the enthusiasm he had felt in his youth.
If fishing made us happy when we were 10, odds are it will make us happy today… if playing the drums made us happy then, it probably still will.
Example: I was given a blank book when I was a child and really enjoyed filling it with clippings, notes, cartoons, anything that interested me.
So as part of my happiness project, I bought myself a scrapbook and started clipping items from magazines and newspapers to paste into it. I was amazed by how much happiness I still could derive from this.
Read memoirs of death and suffering. Paradoxically, sad books can increase our happiness. These books put our own problems in perspective and remind us how fortunate we are.
Examples: I became happier with my own life when I read Gene O’Kelly’s Chasing Daylight, the former CEO’s memoir about learning that he had three months to live…
Stan Mack’s Janet & Me, about the death of the author’s partner… and Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking, about the death of her husband.
It’s not that I’m happy that other people have been unhappy. It’s just a way of appreciating everything that I do have.
Declutter your home. A few minutes of cleaning can substantially improve one’s mood by giving us the sense that we have accomplished something positive.
Cleaning also creates an impression of order that can contribute to serenity. And it helps remove a source of stress — conspicuous clutter is a visual reminder of a responsibility that we have neglected.
Try a brief burst of cleaning the next time you feel overwhelmed or anxious even if you don’t think it will work for you. Even people who are not particularly fastidious discover that this boosts their mood.
Examples: For me, cleaning out a drawer… organizing my medicine cabinet… or just making my bed in the morning provides a real boost to my happiness.
Be appreciative of people’s good traits rather than critical of their bad ones… be thankful for what they do for you, and stop blaming them for what they don’t.
Example: I stopped getting angry at my husband for forgetting to withdraw cash before we went out. Instead, I started taking it upon myself to make sure that we had the necessary cash.
I also made a point to be more appreciative of all the things that my husband does do, such as dealing with the car.
Enjoy today even if there’s still work to do. Many of us assume it’s normal to live with limited happiness until some major milestone is reached — we earn that big promotion, have a family or retire. We tell ourselves, I’ll be happy when I achieve my goals.
Example: As a writer, I imagined how happy I would be when the book I was working on was finally published.
Unfortunately, people who pin their happiness on a distant goal usually spend most or all of their lives less happy than they could be.
Often they set ever more distant goals as the original targets approach… or they discover that the goal that they thought would bring happiness actually brings added stress. Some never reach their goals at all.
I’m much happier now that I remind myself to be happy about making gradual progress toward my goals, even if the goals themselves remain far in the distance.
Personal interviewed Gretchen Rubin, an attorney and former Supreme Court clerk. Based in New York City, Rubin is founder of The Happiness Project, a blog and newsletter, and author of the best-selling book The Happiness Project (Harper), for which she personally tested happiness strategies. http://www.Happiness-Project.com
January 20th, 2011 at 11:21 am
Listening to the males around my home, I’ve come to believe that electing republicans wasn’t as much about repealing Obamacare as it was about repealing the idea that a black man could be elected President of the United States of America.
Kitty
January 20th, 2011 at 12:37 pm
So Michelle, is it true you are going to be at the Gimme Shelter on Sun. Jan. 30th, at 5 PM?
If you are I’m in.
Merv
January 20th, 2011 at 2:03 pm
People can be so stupid. Here in Guam if the republicans repeal Obama’s health care bill, we stand to lose subsidized health care for those who wouldn’t have qualified under the old Medicaid plan.
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The House yesterday voted to repeal Obama’s health care overhaul, sending Republican a step closer to fulfilling a campaign pledge to “repeal and replace” the reform.
According to the Associated Press, the measure passed largely along party lines with 245 to 189 votes. With the passage of H.R. 2, or the Patients Rights Repeal Act, the way is now clear for the second phase of the “repeal and replace” promise Republicans made to the voters last fall, The Associated Press has reported.
The AP also reported that GOP officials said in coming months, congressional committees will suggest changes to the existing legislation. For example, they could call for the removal of a requirement for individuals to purchase coverage and recommend curbs on medical malpractice lawsuits.
The bill will need Senate approval and a presidential signature, the AP has reported.
President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law March 23 last year. It would have expanded the qualifications for Medicaid and allowed those who weren’t qualified to get subsidized health care.
Medicaid currently provides coverage to families and elderly patients not covered by Medicare or other health insurance plans. Additionally, it covers disabled or blind patients with incomes up to 100 percent of the federal poverty line, according to Pacific Daily News files.
By 2014, Medicaid will cover those with incomes up to 133 percent of the poverty line, and extend coverage to individuals and couples without children for the first time. Many of those patients already receive government-subsidized patient care under the Medically Indigent Program, which is paid for exclusively with local funds, according to Pacific Daily News files.
Guam Delegate Madeleine Bordallo yesterday announced the recently passed measure would rescind patient protections and all reform efforts enacted last year.
She noted that if enacted, H.R. 2 would remove the prohibition of insurance companies from dropping individuals who become sick and denying insurance coverage for those with pre-existing conditions.
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I honestly feel this was more about color than a difference with the benefits this bill brings to the people.
It is a shame that for most whites in America color of a person’s skin is more important than any other issue.
Hafa Adai
Anna
January 20th, 2011 at 2:47 pm
Mischa, can I meet you and Merv and all the others at Gimme Shelter? : )hee hee hee – Can you say, roooooad trip?! – ZL
January 20th, 2011 at 8:38 pm
Michelle: Me and my posse will be there. Looking forward to seeing you.
Nell
January 20th, 2011 at 8:41 pm
Leave the hubby at home if he can’t take all the attention you will be getting.
Don’t worry me and the crew will have your back. My sweet stuff Loita says you are off limits to the lowlifes.
Jesus
January 20th, 2011 at 8:45 pm
Michelle
I’m coming in from New York. Can’t wait to see you in person. I’m a fashion designer. I was on “Project Runway.”
I would love to show you some of my Ideas. No worries Doug, I’m gay.
Love
Kris
January 20th, 2011 at 8:47 pm
Zen Lill
Are you really coming. I would be there in a hot minute. No stalking. I just want to meet you and Michelle.
Love your incredible writing. Maybe we can do something together. I am a screen writer for some NBC shows.
Larry
January 20th, 2011 at 8:50 pm
Michelle:
Great opportunity for the both of us. We can talk about the movie rights to your alien chronicles. I will bring my credentials. We have both worked for the same director in the past.
Freda
January 20th, 2011 at 8:52 pm
Zen Lill
Thanks for the new moves. Your Las Vegas crew will be making the trek to SF for the Gimme thing. Everyone is so excited about meeting you and Michelle.
Drinks and whatever will be on us.
LV Chorus Girls
January 20th, 2011 at 8:58 pm
Michelle:
I would hold off on any commitment with respect to the rights concerning your “alien chronicles” until you have discussed it with other interested parties.
I will not be able to make the Gimme event because I am on location. But I will be available after the 18th of February.
Make it known on your blog that you are interested in talking about the movie rights to your blog and we will contact you.
Do yourself a favor and weigh all your options.
Kathleen
January 20th, 2011 at 9:28 pm
Michelle:
I will drive up from LA to see you if you are going to be at the Gimme Charity meet.
The Right is at it heavily trying to scare the multitude into buying what they are selling. Here is the latest.
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Quasimodo and Clark… Tepper’s Fed call… Poor Seagate… House repeals Obamacare… Faber: U.S. dollar no longer valid… Porter’s take on Monsanto
Today, our trading expert, Jeff Clark, is unequivocal:
They say nobody rings a bell at the top of a bull market. But that’s a lie. The truth is… bells are ringing all the time. Yet no one listens. Quasimodo is in the bell tower right now, and he’s doing everything but peeing over the side. No one seems to care.
Jeff says Wall Street lies to you, but the market does not. He says investor sentiment is displaying extreme complacency. Stocks are overbought, and investors are happy as clams.
If you’re a new subscriber to Stansberry’s Investment Advisory, you can find the five End of America special reports we promised on our homepage. Log in and look for “Publications” on the left side of the screen. Click on “Stansberry’s Investment Advisory.” You’ll see a list of options… Choose the fourth option, “End of America.” You will find every report there. Jeff noted recently the volatility index (the “VIX”), sometimes called the “fear gauge,” is making new lows. Investors aren’t scared of stocks falling or interest rates rising… or anything else that’s highly likely to happen soon. When investors get this bullish and complacent, stocks usually wind up lower within months.
In a recent issue of the S&A Short Report, Jeff showed his readers how to make as much as 200% from the current highly bearish setup in the market today. Click here for access to the Short Report.
I’m with Jeff. My two Extreme Value short recommendations are falling, down 2.7% and 4.8% on the day as I write.
But I must ask: Are we at S&A fighting the Fed, one of the all-time great taboos of traders everywhere? Maybe…
On September 24, billionaire hedge-fund manager David Tepper made a bullish call on stocks based on the Fed’s money-printing. Here’s what we wrote in the September 27 Digest:
“What, I’m going to say, ‘No Fed, I disagree with you, I don’t want to be long equities.’” said Tepper. “We’re a bond place, but we changed up to a little bit more equities recently.” Tepper’s reasoning is solid. He said either the economy will naturally improve over the next three months, in which case stocks will perform best… Or the economy won’t do well over the next three months, and the government steps in. In which case, every asset class will rise except bonds.
Tepper has some experience making money from government intervention. Last year, his $7.5 billion fund returned 132%, mostly from betting on financials. You can watch his interview with CNBC here.
His fund, Appaloosa Management, returned more than 21% last year. Tepper says “the biggest opportunities” are still in equities this year, but it will be “harder and not without risk.” After the S&P 500′s 13% rally last year, we’re due for a correction – which we’ve coincidentally seen in the past two days. Or as Tepper says, “When things go up too high, they will go down.”
If Tepper likes credit creation for generating bullish tailwinds, maybe he should go long everything in the world for the next decade. The World Economic Forum says the world will need $100 trillion of new credit to support world economic growth over the next 10 years. If world governments respond to this call for the printing of enough money to buy the U.S.’s inflated economy more than seven times over, I would expect prices to rise. All prices. Everywhere. Every stock, every commodity. Everything… (Except bonds.)
Then, of course, all prices would collapse, and no one would ever trust a government again… hmm… Is it a sign of the times that sheer total insanity has at least some merit?
One stock getting crushed in today’s correction is one of Porter’s favorite shorts, Seagate Technology, down nearly 6% today. The world’s largest hard drive-maker announced second-quarter earnings fell more than 70% to $150 million from $533 million a year earlier. Sales fell 10% to $2.7 billion.
The reason for the underperformance? Hard drives are obsolete. With each iPad, iPhone, and computer without internal hard drives (like the MacBook Air) sold, hard drives become less important. These electronics use solid-state drives, or “flash storage,” which is twice as fast, more compact, lighter, and has a higher storage-to-size ratio than hard drives.
Seagate CEO Steve Luczo said the hard-drive industry has “marginal” excess capacity and faces “muted consumer demand” for PCs. This comment comes one day after rival Western Digital (the second-largest hard drive maker… and another of Porter’s short candidates) said a glut of 6 million to 8 million unused hard drives in the personal computer supply chain could hurt sales of new drives.
How is Luczo handling the situation? He’s apparently starting to realize he has no hope of trying to sell more hard drives. He’s now trying to boost shareholder value by repurchasing stock and instating a quarterly dividend. Given that his entire industry is becoming obsolete, taking cash out of the business and returning it to shareholders is a wise strategy. Too bad it’s several years too late.
I was wondering why my recent health care-oriented stock pick was up today, while the rest of the market was falling. Then, I found a little article on the Business Insurance website dated yesterday that said the U.S. House of Representatives voted 245-189 to repeal Komrade Obama’s health care reform law. Only three Democrats voted for the repeal.
That seemed earth-shattering to me. But then, the article noted, the repeal stands little chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate. Republicans aren’t trying to get Democratic senators to vote for repeal. They’re trying to get them to change the law. For example, they want Democrats to agree to not penalize businesses at a rate of $2,000 per employee for not providing health insurance and not penalize individuals for declining insurance. Republicans are also trying to deny federal agencies the money they’d need to create regulations to implement the new law.
My guess is the health care law will do two things, no matter what compromises are agreed to: It’ll give bigger, more established health care companies a competitive advantage over smaller, newer ones (just like in every other American industry). And it’ll give the government expanded powers to get into your bank accounts, 401(k), and other mainstream financial assets. If you don’t have some amount of assets out of the reach of the banking system’s ubiquitous electronic tentacles, you could be making a big mistake.
Competition is a powerful force in the business world. It’s a powerful force in government, too. And now, the government is getting serious about eliminating the competition. In the biggest one-day takedown of one of its biggest competitors, the government has arrested more than 100 members of the five New York crime families: the Gambinos, Genoveses, Bonnanos, Luccheses, and Colombos.
Apparently unable to hear the words coming out of his own mouth, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III said today, “Some believe organized crime is a thing of the past. Unfortunately, there are still people who extort, intimidate, and victimize innocent Americans.” Takes one to know one.
End of America Watch
Today’s End of America update comes courtesy of the 2011 Barron’s Roundtable. Every year, Barron’s – a Dow Jones investment news service – gathers some of the best minds in the business to discuss their views for the year. This year, the investment pros are cautious. And their views align almost perfectly with our End of America thesis… High inflation, soaring gold, continued money-printing, etc. We’ll run some highlights from the Roundtable in the next several Digests.
We begin with two quotes from Bond Kong Bill Gross, manager of PIMCO, the world’s largest mutual fund; and Marc Faber, noted bear and editor of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report…
Gross: Of course [the economy is] falling apart! You are taking the corporate side. What about the side of Main Street? Of those who are unemployed and can’t find a job?
Faber: … the Fed will keep real interest rates negative as far as the eye can see. Negative real rates amount to expropriation and destroy one function of money: to be a store of value and a unit of account. If you measure the stock market not in dollars but gold, it is down 80% since 1999. I no longer regard the U.S. dollar as a valid unit of account. People shouldn’t value their wealth in dollars because one day, in dollars, everyone will be a billionaire.
To see the End of America video that started it all, click here…
Also, to read an exclusive interview with Porter Stansberry explaining how to protect yourself from the End of America, click here…
While we don’t recommend day trading, it’s working great for one of our new subscribers. Any great trades so far this year? Tell us at feedback@stansberryresearch.com.
New highs: Sprott Resources (SCP.TO).
“Sean you are a very cool/diplomatic. When I see the complaints people have after spending $39 bucks for S&A, I have to scratch my head. I am Very Happy with the new letters that I am subscribed to. Thank you, I appreciate the efforts.
“I am just a beginner, never traded in my life. After receiving your newsletters for one week I decided to start to try day trading on January the 14, 2011. Again I know nothing about stocks. I didn’t even know what a moving average was, selling short. Anything.
“Anyway after 3 trading days, I have had some very good success. Friday, cash out at $650. Tuesday cash out $4,000 and Today cash out $2,000, Tomorrow is a mystery.
“I am Buying and selling the stock in the same day. I am shorting your losers and buying the winners, up and down, weighting them to which way I feel the dow is headed that day. Now, I realize this is a bit of beginners luck, but let me tell you, I can see where this is going, and I like it. Thanks for the inspiration.
“My Questions: 1. Where can I find more short/loser Stocks like phm and Ago, I need more shorts? 2. Where can I find info on the stocks that fall the fastest/most in a correction? 3. Where can I find info on where the indices might be headed the next trading day?
“I see jeff clark Short Report. Are all the gains he is talking about in his report about shorting loser stocks and would the Report provide the information I am looking for above?” – Paid-up subscriber Paul Stary
Ferris comment: While Jeff’s Short Report recommendations aren’t exclusively “shorts,” he has excelled at short calls throughout a decades-long career, primarily as an options trader. Jeff frequently comments on which stocks lead the market up and down, and what to expect for the next day or two. To learn more about the Short Report, you can click here. You can also find short sale recommendations in Stansberry’s Investment Advisory, True Wealth, and Extreme Val ue.
Regards,
Dan Ferris and Sean Goldsmith
Medford, Oregon and Baltimore, Maryland
January 20, 2011
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That “End of America Watch” is a nice touch. The scam artists must be congratulating themselves for that one.
Mike
January 21st, 2011 at 9:42 am
Home Funerals Are More Personal and Less Expensive
Joshua Slocum
Funeral Consumers Alliance
Home funerals are more personal and less expensive than traditional funerals.
Family members wash and dress deceased loved ones for burial, arrange viewing hours, even can build the coffin and conduct the funeral service.
Families must get a death certificate — usually from the doctor in attendance at death or the deceased’s primary care doctor — and a transit permit (from the health department) so that the body can be moved from a hospital to a home, cemetery or crematory.
Some communities, especially those in rural or semirural areas, allow backyard burial.
Families are allowed to handle the body themselves in most states — only Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska and New York require involvement of a funeral director.
Cost savings can be significant — an average funeral costs about $6,000, but a home funeral may cost as little as $250.
Personal interviewed Joshua Slocum, executive director, Funeral Consumers Alliance, South Burlington, Vermont. http://www.funerals.org.
October 10th, 2011 at 12:07 am
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November 17th, 2011 at 4:17 pm
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[...]Michelle Moquin's "A day in the life of…" » Blog Archive » Repealing Obamacare[...]…