Tag: Suckers

Once upon a time, the insurer of last resort (yeah Michiganians have had a cant-deny-preexisting insurer for several decades already)was owned by you and I. (since 1939)  As recently as a few years ago, it even carried a balance sheet of about $6,000,000,000.00 including over $3,000,000,000.00 cash reserves. The BCBS board tried to use those reserves in for-profit ventures, (a great way to pass off cash to private partners)  and were stopped by then attorney general Mike Cox. In 2008, Cox kept BCBS of MI in check.

But things are different now. This time no one stepped in to stop the transference of a GREAT BIG PILE OF MONEY away from Michigan citizens. And the great big Obamacare boondoggle helped them do it. Now that they aren't owned by you and I, its time to make some real cash!

"Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan shows a projected savings of tens of millions of dollars next year by terminating 25 individual health plans that were noncompliant with the Affordable Care Act.

Over the past decade, Blue Cross has lost hundreds of millions of dollars in the individual market as Michigan's designated insurer of last resort, a moniker it no longer has under health care reform with all insurers now required to cover people with pre-existing conditions and its conversion earlier this year into a mutual health insurer. "

How clever.

Enjoy the song.

Unloading a rail line between Chicago and Detroit onto the taxpayers of Michigan, the freight concern just eliminated the high cost of maintenance, liability, and dispatching responsibility, and as a bonus probably got paid for it. According to PFA:

"Thanks to $140 million in federal money, the State of Michigan will reportedly soon be the owner of the Norfolk Southern Railroad line connecting Chicago to Detroit. This is all part of the State's plan to have high speed rail connecting the two cities."

Norfolk keeps the rights to freight travel, which is ALWAYS the most lucrative part of a rail operation, and gets US to pay the weight of the rest. AND the lose all the negatives.

Sweet.

Tina Dupont of the Tea Party of West Michigan writes:

"ALERT, ALERT, ALERT!!!!

..

 Michigan Right To Life has been convinced (guess by who)that a state written exchange will keep us from paying for abortions. They are a strong lobbying group in Lansing as you all know and they are, as I write this, working on our House members to get them to vote to use 9.8 Mill (our federal tax dollars) to start the process of writing a state exchange. Also NFIB has started to do likewise.

Please Please Please, this has to go viral. We must pressure MI RTL to stop this madness and call our Michigan House yet again to encourage them to stay the course. Rep Haines has put up a very valiant fight for us and we must buck her up now so that she can hold her stand against this horrible confiscation of such a large chunk of our economy by Obama and his group of thugs!

We know that it will not matter who writes this thing as the feds (HHS) will force us to pay for abortions. HHS has total control and they want this badly.

The exchange will be available in later years if we find we cannot stop this thing. It does not have to be done today, now.

Watch the video.  Then have your state legislator tell Washington to shove this intrusion into state's rights where the thermometer might go.

Don't sit around.  Call now.

Never mind the danger signs of a character not so unlike the woman who wrecked Michigan so bad, it started a trend nationally.  Never mind the irresponsible buy now pay later attitude Democrats generally have when it comes to government.  Just do like the Republican leadership:

"LANSING -- An ambitious proposal by state Senate Democrats to provide free tuition to Michigan high school grads enrolled at state colleges and universities -- with an estimated cost of $1.8 billion a year to start -- earned the respectful attention Wednesday of the Republican majority on the Senate Finance Committee.

But that may be the high-water mark for a plan that aims to significantly increase the percentage of Michiganders with college degrees but doesn't specify where the money to do it will come from."

In an attempt to lure lawmakers into thinking popular opinion is on the side of committing Michigan to a boondoggle project that is the NITC, the administration is now pushing polls that seem to show consensus. At least once "they know the facts." A couple of weeks ago from the Ivory Tower:

"Two-thirds of Michigan voters support Gov. Rick Snyder's plan for a new bridge to Windsor once they understand Canada's role in helping to pay for the span, new poll results showed Monday.

Conducted for the corporate leadership group Business Leaders for Michigan, the poll of 600 likely voters showed that 62% favored building the public bridge and 33% opposed it. "

Folks, I present to you the greatest collection of crony capitalists this side of Wall Street. And they are all in our back yard. In this writer's view, these folks wouldn't understand a free market business model if it hit them on the head with a hard bound copy of Atlas Shrugged. The few Republicans you may find in the overall group are names added to give credibility to the rest and still does not guarantee their business models are not reliant on government handouts, intervention or "collaboration." (Read: taking from us to make their model work)

And these lefty supporting, steal from the taxpayer types want the bridge and are pushing heavily for it.

In the as yet unfinished fight to produce vehicles that are 'green' and have little carbon footprint, our automakers have been encouraged by the administration to produce a slew of not-ready-for-prime-time electric cars that not only cost too much, but go about 40 miles tops, with engines that might be better suited towards kitchen blenders or hand held power tools.  Michigan automakers have really gone to he!! in a hand basket.

I hold nothing against the volt, really.  It serves the purpose of salving eco guilt for some, and might even have a future, but the failed efforts of the government to convince enough buyers through rebates and credits of $7,000.00 are a perfect example of why we do not let government types choose which products are best for us.  The credits failed so miserably, that makers of the Chevy Volt are worried about the expiration of those credits after today.