Welcome to Thunderdome

“Let’s declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty and raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour,” the president said to applause in his 2013 address.

But the president is reviving the issue as he tries to focus again on the economy. Obama, who does not have the power to unilaterally raise the minimum wage for private sector workers...

TheCatt wrote:I would rather increase minimum wage than have more taxes.

The heads of 18 environmental groups went public recently with a complaint they have privately pressed the White House on for months: Obama's support of expanded oil and gas production doesn't make sense for a president who wants to reduce global warming pollution.

Those 22,000 appeals were submitted through the mail, since the computer and phone systems for filing appeals have yet to launch. The appeals were transferred to a computer system at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), but the program to process those appeals does not yet exist, unnamed sources told the Post.

The White House pushed back against the Republican attacks, citing the report’s finding that the law will have no effect on the total demand for worker hours.

By providing insurance that’s not tied to a job, it “allows Americans to choose to spend more time with their family or pursue their dreams. And that is not a bad thing; it is a good thing,” he said.

And Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., said “The fact that Americans won’t be tied to a job they don’t want or need solely because it is the only way for them to get affordable health care is a feature of Obamacare, not a bug.”

“I’m sorry to say that it appears Senate Republicans appear poised to filibuster this important legislation a second time, despite the fact that we have compromised on every one of their demands,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
...
But Reid has not agreed to Republican demands for an open, unlimited amendment process on the legislation. And since Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have been unable to strike a deal on considering a finite list of amendments to the bill, Reid has choked off the consideration of alterations to the legislation, rankling GOP senators who want consideration of their unemployment ideas on the full Senate floor.

Leisher wrote:Watch a company tell its employees about how their health care is changing due to Obamacare.

Article w/videos

For now, nearly five million people ages 18 to 64 get no financial help to buy coverage because of the gap, according to estimates by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Many of those people are clustered in the South, living in states where income limits for Medicaid coverage have historically been among the lowest in the U.S.