Can someone explain to me...

[DoozleDazzle]

When our country is desperate for jobs, why would our President allow a major part of his legacy, Obamacare, to be given to a Canadian company on a NO BID contract? The man who spent a trillion dollars...only to find out there were no shovel ready jobs.

Pres Obama is constantly poo-pooing companies that outsource. There wasn't a company in the US, where we have tons of insurance companies, that could handle the programming? US companies, that we could hold accountable if there was a problem or a security breach. So...we take it to a company in a country that doesn't really have insurance as we know it.

And now we find out that there is a possibility that developers linked to the Belarus government may have implanted malicious software. If they can implant malicious software, they certainly left open back doors where they can steal the info.

I seriously don't understand this. I originally thought that the Republicans were overstating the Canadian company's involvement. I really didn't think that Obama would allow a substantial part of Obamacare to be outsourced for ANY reason.

Someone please explain this to me.

[Former_Member]

DD - you are sooooooo way behind on this scandal! :) This is from October!

The company has had a government contract before the website...they are in the pool of companies the government can pull from.

http://www.factcheck.org/2013/12/michelle-obama-and-cgi-federal/

[DoozleDazzle]

Hi Captain!

Thanks for the link.

I heard about the scandal back in October when the poo (obviously my word for the day) started hitting the fan about how the health care website wasn't going to be ready.

I doubt most Americans give a poo =) if the Canadian company was on some government list. I don't see how Obama could allow for this to be outsourced.

During my insurance career, I worked for 3 insurance companies and NONE of them allowed our computer programming to be outsourced, due to the confidentiality of our records.

On an entirely different note...I was at Walmart this weekend and they had a huge display of 8-Pack GE light bulbs for $3/pkg. I now have to make a choice about expanding my storage closet or getting rid of our washer and dryer.

Have a great day, everyone!

[Former_Member]

I don't want the old bulbs to disappear - I HATE the new ones! I'm already half blind and then to be stuck with crappy bulbs...;(

[DoozleDazzle]

My hubby and I call them darks instead of lights...they are useless.

We have some recessed lights in our bedroom that are 14 feet up in the air. When the new light bulbs came out, I bought them because they were supposed to last 10 years and I hate climbing the big ladder to replace light bulbs. Needless to say, I was cursing a couple of months later when I was replacing all of the bulbs because they had already burnt out.

This is one of the things both sides can agree on...you would think we could get our bulbs back.

[Former_Member]

BULBS!

BULBS!

BULBS!

BULBS!

BULBS!

BULBS!

BULBS!

BULBS!

BULBS!

BULBS!

BULBS!

BULBS!

[DoozleDazzle]

Marching triumphantly with my captain...

BULBS!

BULBS!

BULBS!

[LocoBead]

Now, the MSM is getting in on it. I don't care whether it's layoffs or laziness, this isn't a good thing. I know I've mentioned seeing this happen in the past. If a person can get more "free stuff" by not working, that's what they choose. And, our government is making it so appealing...and who picks up the tab? Why, those who actually work and pay taxes.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-obamacares-job-losses-are-so-scary/

In a preview of the 2014 midterm battle over the Affordable Care Act, political partisans are locking horns after the Congressional Budget Office released new data showing the economy could lose the equivalent of 2 million full-time workers over the next three years and 2.5 million by 2024 thanks to the new law.

To be clear, the report does not say that the economy will generate many fewer jobs over the next decade because of the new health law. The CBO notes that the drop "stems almost entirely from a net decline in the amount of labor that workers choose to supply, rather than from a net drop in businesses' demand for labor." In short, people will work fewer hours.

Republicans used the findings to claim that Obamacare is making things worse for the middle class. Democrats, for their part, focused on a concept called "job lock" and how Obamacare, in the words of Representative Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., "allows Americans to choose to spend more time with their family or pursue their dreams. And that is not a bad thing; it's a good thing."

The deeper problem, the one that isn't being discussed, is how this threatens to deepen an emerging long-term problem of increased social dependency, a diminished workforce, and a lower potential growth rate for the economy. If it continues, it would lead to higher susceptibility to damaging inflation, higher interest rates and a looming fiscal crunch as the cost to service the nation's debt grows.
CBO Director Doug Elmendorf, in testimony to Congress, said that the law "creates a disincentive for people to work relative to what would have been the case in the absence of the act." At the same time, Elmendorf also told lawmakers this week that Obamacare will reduce unemployment.

Already, based on the work of Gluskin Sheff economist David Rosenberg, there is evidence that much of the recent drop in the labor participation rate down to 1970s-levels is being driven by the availability -- and the potential abuse -- of welfare programs that disincentivize work.

In 2013, the economy created 1.4 million jobs, but 2.9 million people dropped out of the workforce. As a result, 92 million Americans are now outside the confines of the job market. That's more than 37 percent of the population, up from less than 33 percent during the dot-com bubble.

According to Rosenberg's calculations, if the labor participation rate had remained constant the unemployment rate would instead now be near 10 percent.

In his words, "we may have an abundance of separate benefits programs that provide for the disenfranchised in a very piecemeal and inefficient manner that are also perhaps abused or overly relied upon by some, which may lead to a distortion of work incentives."

[Former_Member]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2014/02/04/no-cbo-did-not-say-obamacare-will-kil...

And my beloved Jon Stewart for a little comedy with your information :)

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-february-6-2014/terror-on-bulls--t-mountain

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-february-6-2014/the-cbo-report

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-february-6-2014/terror-on-bulls--t-mountain---family-first

[potatopotato]

Yes some people take advantage of the system, but do we throw the baby out with the bathwater, sometimes literally, and deny those who desperately need it?

[potatopotato]

And to the O.P. without knowing the details I would be happy with a Canadian company, they have fantastic health care. But I like how Obama is blamed for it. Nice spin.

[potatopotato]

I thought it was George W. Bush’s Department of Energy that embraced the switchover to CFL bulbs. President George W. Bush signed into law an energy bill that phases out incandescent light bulbs for more energy efficient ones in 2007. As soon as it was mentioned that these bulbs would protect the environment the conservatives were suddenly against them.

[LocoBead]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-out_of_incandescent_light_bulbs

[LocoBead]

Yes, James, Bush did sign it...he didn't write it...the dems did. You related to BO? Just wondering, since you want to blame Bush.

"Clean Energy Act of 2007) is an Act of Congress concerning the energy policy of the United States. As part of the Democratic Party's 100-Hour Plan during the 110th Congress,[2] it was introduced in the United States House of Representatives by Representative Nick Rahall of West Virginia, along with 198 cosponsors. Despite Rahall becoming 1 of only 4 Democrats to oppose the final bill,[3] it passed in the House without amendment in January 2007."

[potatopotato]

It passed 65 to 27.

[LocoBead]

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promoted the Act as a way of lowering energy costs to consumers.[10]"

"In 2011, Republican House members introduced a Better Use of Light Bulbs Act or BULB Act (H.R. 91), which would have repealed Subtitle B of Title III of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.[55] H.R. 2417 failed to pass in the U.S. House.[56]"

"B. Lighting Energy Efficiency[edit]
Requires roughly 25 percent greater efficiency for light bulbs, phased in from 2012 through 2014. This effectively bans the manufacturing and importing of most current incandescent light bulbs, though by 2013 at least one company had introduced a redesigned incandescent bulb for which it claimed 50 percent greater efficiency than conventional incandescents.[18]
Various specialty bulbs, including appliance bulbs, "rough service" bulbs, colored lights, plant lights, and 3-way bulbs, are exempt from these requirements as well as light bulbs currently less than 40 watts or more than 150 watts. This exempts stage lighting and landscape lighting.
Requires roughly 200 percent greater efficiency for light bulbs, or similar energy savings, by 2020."

[DoozleDazzle]

What country forces it's population to buy light bulbs that their own government wouldn't let be made in said country? And then have to give an exemption to have them sold in said country. It's insanity.

Embarrassing, but true. I first heard about the cfl's on Oprah. It was supposed to be an easy way to save energy and go green. And even though at the time they cost quite a bit more, they would last for 10 years. ( I know it's hard for some to wrap their heads around Republicans that don't want dirty air and water.)

I spent a small fortune on the light bulbs.

Fast forward a couple of months when the light bulbs started burning out. I got out the package and reread it to make sure they were supposed to last 10 years. Yep...but I had missed something in the fine print. You can't just throw the bulbs away. You have to wait for the once a year, hazardous waste pick-up.

AND, if you broke one, you should open a window and quarantine the room and turn off the central heating and air conditioning. Then wear a mask and clean up all of the powder and glass and continue to air out the room for an additional 3 hours. Then, make sure to store the contaminated items and glass in an air tight container in a safe place outside.

AND, they were NOT supposed to be used with dimmer switches. We have dimmers all over our house.

AND, they don't do well in cold weather. So they're really not good for the lights at your front door and back porch.

After researching the bulbs, I realized that they had to LIE and say they would last for 10 years so that it would appear that they would use less mercury than the regular light bulbs when you took into account the extra electricity produced by coal run plants.

So now you have to wonder, how much our congress got paid off to write this legislation.

[LocoBead]

I'm sure they bought stock in the companies manufacturing the light bulbs. You know, that old insider trading perk.

[DoozleDazzle]

Yep...or maybe we did it to get a higher lending limit in China.

[Former_Member]

*setting booby traps around my bulb stash*

[ManicManx]

My next door neighbor is upset that her aging parents have a giant stash of incandescent light bulbs in their house. She wants to clean out the house and get rid of them. "Who needs that many light bulbs?"
ME! Fer crying out loud. I tell her how valuable they are and she doesnt believe me.
The knowledge that there is a treasure chest in Florida is driving me crazy.

[DoozleDazzle]

I'd love to take a mini-vaca to Florida...ummmm...do you have the address of the aging parents. I could volunteer to take the light bulbs off there hands...just to be nice. =)

[ManicManx]

Im telling you. If I could get my hands on those.... Every time one of my incandescent bulbs dies, so do I.

[Former_Member]

ROAD TRIP!

[ManicManx]

I found what I thought was a good compact bulb. I put it up the bathroom. It threw off good clean light. I could put on make up and not look like the crazy old lady with a vague idea of where my lips are.
A week later, it is muddy, low and orange.
I hate it.