Doctors Are 'Treating Obamacare Like the Plague,' Refusing to Participate

Independent Journal Review | October 31, 2013

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Doctors Are 'Treating Obamacare Like the Plague,' Refusing to Participate




Emily Hulsey
On October 30, 2013
http://IJReview.com


With the implementation of the individual mandate for health insurance just a few months away, many doctors have decided that they will not be accepting patientswho sign up through the Obamacare exchanges.

A survey by the New York State Medical Society revealed that 44 percent of doctors are not participating in Obamacare, 23 percent will accept Obamacare customers and 33 percent are not sure.



Out of those few doctors who are participating, three out of four are doing it because they “had to participate” due to contractual obligations with an insurance or medical provider.

The survey also invited the doctors to leave anonymous comments about the Affordable Care Act and the exchanges in particular. Here is what they had to say:
“I plan to retire if this disaster is implemented. This is a train wreck.”
“I am seriously considering opting out of all insurance plans including Medicare because of [ObamaCare].”
“OBAMACARE is a disaster. I have already seen denial of medication, denial of referrals.”
“Any doctor who accepts the exchange is just a bad businessman/woman. Pays terrible.”
“I get screwed from insurance companies already. I refuse to get screwed any longer.”
“This is a joke. We are flying blind.”

Many who commented expressed concern over how much they would get paid if they participated in Obamacare. Nearly four out of five doctors surveyed said they had not yet received a fee chart listing how much the government would pay them for their services.

Those who had seen a fee chart assessed that the government plans to pay doctors much less than insurance companies currently do, and many stated that if they accepted Obamacare-subsidized patients, they wouldn’t be able to make a profit and keep their practices running.

In addition to not signing up to accept Obamacare-subsidized patients, many are not talking about it, either. In fact, nearly half of Americans who see a doctor regularly say that they haven’t heard anything from them about the broader implications of the Affordable Care Act.

Doctors are experiencing an overreaching fear unlike anything the medical field has ever seen before. They are (understandably) fearful for their jobs, their livelihoods and their patients, and they don’t know what to do.

With this news, patients, particularly those who have lost their current coverage and are looking for alternatives, may want to think twice about signing up through the Obamacare exchanges. With such a low number of doctors accepting Obama-care subsidized patients, each doctor who does participate will have a lot more patients to deal with. The wait will be longer and the visits will be shorter. Those who can’t afford private insurance will, as a result, receive lower quality care. In what world is that a good thing?

Copyright © 2013 - IJReview.com. All rights reserved.
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Your share of the national debt is now $1.1 million

Your share of the national debt is now $1.1 million



Merrill Matthews, Rare Contributor

Posted on October 29, 2013 12:05 pm




Each U.S. taxpayer now has a federal-debt liability of $1.1 million, and rising.

Remember that when President Obama boasts that the federal deficit—the shortfall between annual revenues and spending—is declining. Of course, the primary reason for the decline is the sequester, which was his idea but now adamantly opposes.

The public tends to focus on the total national debt, which just passed the $17 trillion mark—up from $10.6 trillion when President Obama took office. But that figure pales in comparison to the federal government’s long term unfunded liabilities—money the government is obligated to pay over and above the revenues it is estimated to receive.

According to the U.S. Debt Clock, total long term unfunded liabilities are at $126 trillion, a $1.1 million liability for each U.S. taxpayer.

The main driver of that astronomical number is two of our major entitlement programs: Social Security and Medicare.

The Debt Clock says Social Security is looking at $16.6 trillion in unfunded liabilities, while Medicare faces $87.6 trillion. And Medicare’s prescription drug benefit, which passed in 2003, adds another $22 trillion.

The Debt Clock’s Medicare unfunded liability is twice the current government projection—$43 trillion—because Democrats used Obamacare to try and deceive the public. Prior to passage the government’s estimate was similar to the Debt Clock’s.

That difference is because Obamacare requires the Medicare trustees, who annually report on the program’s financial condition, to assume that Medicare will significantly cut reimbursements to doctors and hospitals in the future.

Medicare’s chief actuary, the now-retired Richard Foster, didn’t believe a word of it and published a separate “memorandum” to shine a light on the Democrats’ financial foolery.

“The Trustees Report is necessarily based on current law; … however, the projections shown in the report are clearly unrealistic … The purpose of this memorandum is to present a set of Medicare projections under hypothetical alternatives to those provisions to help illustrate and quantify the potential magnitude of the cost understatement under current law,” Foster’s memorandum states.

In Obama-land, disclosures like that— unlike lying to Congress or bungling theObamacare rollout—can lead to retirement in a hurry.

The health law requires the trustees to assume a steady decline in hospital reimbursement rates for Medicare to about 39 percent of what private insurance would pay in 2086. And reimbursements for physicians serving Medicare patients “would eventually fall to 26 percent of private health insurance levels.”

The chief actuary didn’t think many doctors would see Medicare patients if they were taking a 75 percent cut to do so—and he’s right.

So keep a close eye on members of Congress as they get together soon to consider budget changes, including entitlement reform. Democrats have proven they are willing to cook the books to make it look like they are spending less—so they can spend much, much more.
Related articles
Medicare chief apologizes for ‘Obamacare’ woes (rare.us)
How the shutdown made spending cuts less likely (rare.us)

Merrill Matthews is a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation, a research-based, public policy think tank in Dallas, Texas. Follow him on Twitter@MerrillMatthews



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ChiKentFedSoc @ChiKentFedSoc


Hope you're all enjoying your $1,100,000 share of the federal debt!... fb.me/IIl84zAm
Robert Howard @rlh


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Jim Needham @councilor408


How about if we "cap & trade" the national debt to the #DNC in exchange for someone who 'knows what's going on'... fb.me/6vz6qQMmm
Jeff King @jeffking1976


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judy morris @judymorris3


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Alex Scipio @inthisdimension


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Matthew Donovan @mtdono


#yikes "long term unfunded liabilities are at $126 trillion, a $1.1 million liability for *each* U.S. taxpayer" ow.ly/qiYuF
WarpedChild @WarpedChild


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andrew sheets @andrewbsheets


rare.us/story/your-sha… fb.me/10byM9JMD
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Peter A. Howley @pahowley


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ChiKentFedSoc @ChiKentFedSoc


Hope you're all enjoying your $1,100,000 share of the federal debt!... fb.me/IIl84zAm
Robert Howard @rlh


Let. That. Sink. In. RT @Rare: Your share of the national debt is now $1.1 million bit.ly/16jdWJA
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Pinkification: how breast cancer awareness got commodified for profit

Pinkification: how breast cancer awareness got commodified for profit

What began as a social movement serving urgent health needs for women has been hollowed out by cynical marketeering




SE Smith for This Ain't Livin', part of the Guardian Comment Network
theguardian.com, Wednesday 3 October 2012 16.00 EDT
Jump to comments (70)

The Susan G Komen/KFC Buckets for the Cure partnership, which Breast Cancer Action described as 'feeding people carcinogenic grilled chicken that raises the risk of … breast cancer'. Photograph: www.ecouterre.com


The breast cancer awareness industry has become a multibillion dollarjuggernaut spanning multiple continents, flooding them with a sea of pink ribbons and tie-in products intended to entice socially aware consumers. Buy enough pink things, and you, too, will conquer cancer; the next level of awareness is always a step away, and with it will come some magical development in breast cancer research. Breast cancer has become a product, not just a disease.

It's a far cry from the early origins of the movement, when women fought hard to even get people to acknowledge that breast cancer existed, let alone talk about it. Breast cancer was a deeply taboo subject that wasn't fit for polite society, and it needed the ferocious efforts of feminists, and other activists, to catapult it into the public consciousness and fight for research, along with funding for treatment and patient support.

In conversations about the direction the "awareness" movement has taken, it's important to examine its early roots, and the things people did to make society more conscious and force a discussion. The gradual commodification of breast cancer reflected a failure of the movement, in that it wasn't able to adapt quickly enough to fight the commercialisation of breast cancer awareness. Now, groups like Breast Cancer Action are having to fight cancer on two fronts: battling for patients, as well as fighting the rise of pinkification.

The group points out that many of the products tied to breast cancer awareness are themselves linked with cancer, or are produced by firms with a terrible record on environmental pollution and other activities known to contribute to high cancer rates. In the course of trying to make a difference, a monster was created instead.

Activists who fought to take breast cancer mainstream obviously didn't do so with the end goal of pink yoghurt lids in every grocery store. Their goal was to increase funding for research, treatment and support for a disease that went largely undiscussed; one that women were told to be ashamed of, a condition that was so horrifyingly embarrassing that patients had to conceal it by any means possible. They wanted to create a world where cancer rates were lower and patients got the care they needed. They also wanted a world where patients didn't need to hide the fact that they were sick.

They wanted to create a world where the words "breast cancer" weren't stigmata. And the original pink ribbon campaign didn't start as a canny branding move to rake in profits for major corporations, but rather as a symbol of solidarity. Survivors wore the ribbons as open marks of their survival, to identify themselves not just to other survivors, but to society in general. A signal that they were alive, not going anywhere and determined to talk about the disease they'd experienced.

But slowly, the pink ribbon came to mean something else. Rather than being a symbol of survival and strength, it became more generally a symbol of support, and then it was appropriated by firms that wanted to slap pink ribbons on their products for more profits. The Komen campaign realised it had a goldmine on its hands and it startedaggressively protecting the pink ribbon brand. As the organization grew in size and power, it became harder and harder for activists to fight the commodification it promoted and the unhealthy business relationships it had with firms that wanted to exploit the ribbon, along with survivors and activists interested in directly addressing breast cancer.

The path of the pink ribbon, and breast cancer awareness in general, reflects a larger problem experienced by social movements. It seems that every time they develop a tool of solidarity and something to use as they work in a coalition to address a specific social issue, that tool is handily repurposed for profits – and before anyone can move to take it back, it's too late. Social movements in general can be excruciatingly slow to adapt to changing circumstances, just as the breast cancer awareness movement was.

A movement that started with powerful intentions became commercial,gender-essentialist and repugnant in many of its mainstream incarnations, even as smaller campaigns and voices actively agitated against its framing. Those who oppose the use of sexism and gender essentialism in breast cancer campaigns are cast as opponents of action on breast cancer. In a strange twist, the people demanding that major breast cancer awareness campaigners be accountable first and foremost to patients are told they don't care about breast cancer patients.

When patients are saying they don't want to be reduced to their anatomy with cutesy slogans like "save the ta-tas", and that they're enraged by pink ribbon branding of products known to be cancerous, they're told the cause is more important than their feelings. When people at higher risk for breast cancer express concerns about the failure of outreach campaigns to reach them or acknowledge their experiences, we're told we aren't standing in solidarity with the movement and should be silent in the name of the greater good.

The willful obstinacy when it comes to denying the voices of people who want to see the movement return to purer roots is, of course, one part pure capitalism. Big firms have learned that breast cancer is a profit-generation tool, and they aren't willing to give it up. It's also one part insistence on neglecting the diversity of voices in the community. Just as mainstream feminism has failed many people simply by refusing to listen to them, the mainstream breast cancer movement has failed many people by pretending their concerns don't exist.

Adaptation is a tough skill, but it's critical for social movements. It's also not impossible. Look, for example, at the way the black community has shifted organising strategies and priorities in response to changing social circumstances, with flexible leadership and members interested in addressing shifting needs. Contrast that with the white-led mainstream breast cancer awareness movement and its determined ignorance on social issues that affect the people it claims to advocate for.

© 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.

Obama Admin. Knew Millions Could Not Keep Their Health Insurance

AP
Obama Admin. Knew Millions Could Not Keep Their Health Insurance


By: NBC News Investigators

President Obama repeatedly assured Americans that after the Affordable Care Act became law, people who liked their health insurance would be able to keep it. But millions of Americans are getting or are about to get cancellation letters for their health insurance under Obamacare, say experts, and the Obama administration has known that for at least three years.

Four sources deeply involved in the Affordable Care Act tell NBC NEWS that 50 to 75 percent of the 14 million consumers who buy their insurance individually can expect to receive a “cancellation” letter or the equivalent over the next year because their existing policies don’t meet the standards mandated by the new health care law. One expert predicts that number could reach as high as 80 percent. And all say that many of those forced to buy pricier new policies will experience “sticker shock.”

None of this should come as a shock to the Obama administration. The law states that policies in effect as of March 23, 2010 will be “grandfathered,” meaning consumers can keep those policies even though they don’t meet requirements of the new health care law. But the Department of Health and Human Services then wrote regulations that narrowed that provision, by saying that if any part of a policy was significantly changed since that date -- the deductible, co-pay, or benefits, for example -- the policy would not be grandfathered.
Buried in Obamacare regulations from July 2010 is an estimate that because of normal turnover in the individual insurance market, “40 to 67 percent” of customers will not be able to keep their policy. And because many policies will have been changed since the key date, “the percentage of individual market policies losing grandfather status in a given year exceeds the 40 to 67 percent range.”

That means the administration knew that more than 40 to 67 percent of those in the individual market would not be able to keep their plans, even if they liked them.
Yet President Obama, who had promised in 2009, “if you like your health plan, you will be able to keep your health plan,” was still saying in 2012, “If [you] already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance.”
“This says that when they made the promise, they knew half the people in this market outright couldn’t keep what they had and then they wrote the rules so that others couldn’t make it either,” said Robert Laszewski, of Health Policy and Strategy Associates, a consultant who works for health industry firms. Laszewski estimates that 80 percent of those in the individual market will not be able to keep their current policies and will have to buy insurance that meets requirements of the new law, which generally requires a richer package of benefits than most policies today.

The White House does not dispute that many in the individual market will lose their current coverage, but argues they will be offered better coverage in its place, and that many will get tax subsidies that would offset any increased costs. “One of the main goals of the law is to ensure that people have insurance they can rely on – that doesn’t discriminate or charge more based on pre-existing conditions. The consumers who are getting notices are in plans that do not provide all these protections – but in the vast majority of cases, those same insurers will automatically shift their enrollees to a plan that provides new consumer protections and, for nearly half of individual market enrollees, discounts through premium tax credits,” said White House spokesperson Jessica Santillo.


Read the full story at NBC News Investigations→

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Tietrack37 minutes ago




Tales from the Train Wreck: Obama will play dumb as usual and say he heard it on the News.
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HittietheHittite1 hour ago




How can Nancy Pelosi feel so confident she will be re-elected after this hits the fan?
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nolefan31 hour ago




@HittietheHittite I guess the majority of people in Californication are just that dumb.

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cuckooroller1 hour ago






@HittietheHittite

Are you kidding! She represents the congressional district of Gomorrah, smack dab in the middle of dingbat country, downtown San Francisco. Her constituents walk around in broad daylight stark naked, with their jewels flopping about, fornicating in the bushes.



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HittietheHittite1 hour ago




If you like your healthcare plan you can keep it for a cost, a higher cost for premiums, and deductibles. If you decide to pay for services separately, you will be taxed for having better healthcare than the government sanctioned death panels available to the American public. I'm wondering what the young people think now.
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nolefan31 hour ago




@HittietheHittite After so many years of public school indoctrination by liberal teachers, it's a wonder they can think at all.

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5466ron1 hour ago




I'm sure he'd say that the end justifies the means, like any good Commie.
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HittietheHittite1 hour ago




The whole purpose of allowing HHS to write all the policies that literally changed this law by 17,000 pages from the original 2,500 law the president signed in 2010, was to corral Americans into Single Payer Healthcare without legislation from Congress.
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pwjtex1 hour ago




Not to worry! Obama will say it was not his fault, it's the fault of the insurance companies! How dare they change their policy offerings just to comply with ObamaCare mandates!
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HittietheHittite1 hour ago




Feeling Nudged from behind yet?
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docozzy1 hour ago




I find it fascinating that NBCNews has removed this story from their website
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JinOH1 hour ago






Uh, duh? This guy has always been a pathetic fraud, but he gives stuff away. Duh again.




This country is screwed.




Just watch how fast this news disappears.




The evil has landed.



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kixelsyd1 hour ago




Repeal. Impeach. Hang.
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carld1 hour ago




So, in 2009 he said if you like your insurance you can keep it. Of course if they don't "significantly modify the policy after July 2010 then the policy was grandfathered in. Sounds like to me at the time he said that, no one had to lose their insurance.
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airplayer49 minutes ago






@carld

was there a freeze on premium increases too back in 2009? kind of hard to grasp the concept of insuring 30 to 40 million more people and have the cost, to do so, go down by 2500 dollars.


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45ACP_22 hours ago




The absence of any trolls gives great credence to this story. I guess they can't find anything to deflect to.

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hopeandshame1 hour ago




@45ACP_2 I noticed that too. Trolls always run their mouths until there is a story that's indefensible.
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airplayer2 hours ago




of course the obama administration knew about this. you know how I knew that many people would NOT be able to keep their own insurance plan or doctor, if they liked what they had? because obama said they WOULD.
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hojosprengeler2 hours ago




It's amazing that some people are just now finding out that this was a lie from the beginning. Weren't we told 3.5 years ago that this was going to happen? It's not news to me.
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BruceHood2 hours ago




nbc has pulled the story or they have the same people running their website as obama care

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presidentcamelturd2 hours ago




@BruceHood Yeah I noticed that. I envision Chrissy Tingles in the server rooms pulling wires out like mad trying to cover for his crush.

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BruceHood2 hours ago




well, well, the nbc website that broke this story is down...imagine that. I have been had by blue cross in ca. They kept bumping my premiums until they told me that the coverage was no longer available and I had to change so I did and now I know why....based on the information in this story I will also be canceled.....You know they should pass a law that would force the obama administration to post a warning any time the pres speaks informing them that there is a 98% chance they are being lied too......kind of like the warning on a pack of cigs

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Thunder2262 hours ago




@BruceHood more like a 100% chance he will lie
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nolefan31 hour ago




@BruceHood He's going to prove more of a danger to humans than cigarettes ever were.

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dixiebel2 hours ago




Wake up, people. Obama doesn't care about you. He only cares about his agenda-- the fundamental transformation of America.
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nolefan31 hour ago




@dixiebel The only one he cares about is HIMSELF.

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lifeisnotfair2 hours ago




Odumbo has a new mantra! "You can't keep your money, even if you like it, even if you earned it"
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lifeisnotfair2 hours ago




The trolls and libs have to go thru a traumatic like divorce with odumbo. They are all at the Denial Stage. And you know what levels people will go to to support their fantasy.
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BruceHood2 hours ago




shazam
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uzijohn2 hours ago






More expensive than claimed, more than people want to spend, huge deductibles,

over-intrusive by design and demonstrated on launch to be run by incompetents.




Perhaps Vladimir Putin will send his condolences, after all, if anyone has suffered from

foolish ideas, pushed on them by idealistic dreamers, it's the Russian people...


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steveinwaco2 hours ago




Dear liberals, this little man you put in the Whitehouse doesn't care about you or your family...you are just props and set pieces for his comedy of errors. When this abortion of a presidency is finally over, all us conservatives will go into the grief counseling business and help you through the tough times ahead. Hurry and get on whatever hand-out programs you can qualify for. They may become very scarce sooner than you think.
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mcveigh2 hours ago






@steveinwaco

To paraphase Bon Jovi...you gave abortion, a bad name.....



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JJinNV2 hours ago




Seldom S is paid by think progressive

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mcveigh2 hours ago






@JJinNV

Kochs bad

Soros good.



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JJinNV2 hours ago




@mcveigh @JJinNV reverse that

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fresnojoe2 hours ago






Praying~!

God Save Our Children



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Seldom_S2 hours ago






@fresnojoe

A lot of good that will do.


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mcveigh2 hours ago






@fresnojoe

Too late. Check out two terms for Obama and the comments of his voters, ie, trolls.

The only hope is to begin by taking back the school boards. Bush the idiot didn't abolish the Dept of Education when he had the chance, so America's job is made harder



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push2 hours ago




Benghazi, impeach obama now. get moochelle and the girls out of our white house.
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Seldom_S2 hours ago






@push

What in the world do you have against Michelle and the girls?


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truetexan18352 hours ago




@Seldom_S @push They run with the pack.
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presidentcamelturd2 hours ago




@Seldom_S @push A wookie and a couple of ewoks shouldn't live in the White House. Furminators aren't in the budget and that furniture is expensive.

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mcveigh2 hours ago






Seldom asks another participant what the GOP's solution is to a nation of takers; that calling worthless slugs 'takers' is not the route to electoral victory.




The GOP convention featured several speakers who spoke about their admiration of America, and how hard work could lead to individual success.

The takers were not watching or were not interested in hard work. Unless Seldom has another explanation for why Obama won.......



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Seldom_S2 hours ago






@mcveigh

And the admitted racist is back.


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obamas fault2 hours ago




You never left did you?
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Seldom_S2 hours ago






@obamas fault

No, which is why it's obviously not me.

Your logic doesn't even hold up.


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obamas fault2 hours ago




I wasn't the one that admitted I was a r a c i s t...You did!!
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obamas fault2 hours ago




You confused?...Most obama voters are....
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truetexan18352 hours ago




@Seldom_S @mcveigh Pulling the old race card AGAIN.
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obamas fault2 hours ago




LOL...obama care k i c k e d 300,000 fl or id a people off insurance.....Hey Fl o rid a....You got what you voted for...A L O S E R and his policies
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