Carolina Politics Online

Meet Mick Mulvaney from Mick Mulvaney on Vimeo.

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Take immigration, for example. S.C. lawmakers have proposed an anti-illegal-immigration bill modeled after a new Arizona law, which national Democrats have roundly criticized. Sheheen said a South Carolina law approved in 2008 is a better law because it sets tougher standards for verifying employee residency and provides local law enforcement the ability to enforce immigration law.

“Ours is frankly tougher,” Sheheen said. “We need to fully implement the law that we passed and that’s not been done.”

The State

I honestly have no idea how our law stacks up against Arizona, but Sheheen is definitely correct about it not being funded nor enforced.  The Republicans passed this two years ago and Governor Sanford signed it and here we are with little of it being enacted.  What’s the point of passing legislation to crackdown on illegal immigration in the state if the legislature isn’t going to allocate funds to carry it out?  Was the state assembly seriously trying to address the issue or was it just window dressing to garner fervor with the voters?

Sheheen was less definitive about his position on the health care reform law, saying he supported parts of the law that prevented insurers from eliminating coverage for those who get sick or denying it to those who have previously had major illnesses. Sheheen also supported extending coverage to dependents until the age of 25.

While on the surface that may sound like a great thing, it’s those two provisions that have already begun driving up health insurance costs for everybody else.  And the extended coverage for “children” up to age 26 is bull.  If you’re dependent on your parents at 26 years old then you’re a total loser.  A 26 year old is not a kid and should be well adapted to taking care of himself.

But independent analysts have said the law will likely increase health care costs, and the S.C. Department of Health and Human Services estimates state costs would increase by $914 million by 2020 — a 4.4 percent increase over what the state would have spent if the new law were not approved.

“I’m seriously concerned about those. I think it’s the governor’s job to voice those concerns to federal officials,” Sheheen said, adding it was unclear to him how the law would affect the growth of Medicaid, the tax-funded health insurance program for low-income residents and the disabled.

“Time will tell how we handle these” questions, he said.

Yeah well, right now we can’t afford it.  Sooner or later Sheheen is going to have to be more clear about where he stands on ObamaCare, more so, where does he stand on the unconstitutional mandate?  This is going to be a huge issue in this fall’s election all across the country and skepticism as to where Sheheen comes down on this issue will hurt his chances.

On abortion, Sheheen, a Roman Catholic, said his position is clear.

“I have always supported life and my voting record has supported that,” he said.

So we know that both he and Haley oppose abortion.  That matters why?  Until Roe v Wade gets overturned, if it ever does, there is nothing Vincent Sheheen nor Nikki Haley can do to stop people from getting abortions in South Carolina so why is this even an issue in this election?

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Yep, you read the headline correctly. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, the state’s premier insurance company, is requesting a premium hike for as much as 30% for some North Carolina residents.

The state’s largest health insurer plans to hit some members with sharp rate increases again next year, blaming changes from the health overhaul and rising medical costs.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina asked state regulators Thursday for permission to increase rates an average of 6.97 percent for its 300,000 individual members in the state. That’s the lowest proposed annual increase since 2007. About 28,000 people would see their rates decrease, including women in their early 20s.

But rates for some children, men and older members will increase 30 percent or more.

The News & Observer

Confused?  Are you asking yourself how this could happen?  I mean, we passed the health care bill.  It was absolutely dire we pass the health care “reform” bill to lower the cost of health insurance in this country, right?  Sure, if you were stupid enough to buy up that crap hook, line, and sinker.

It’s partly because of increasing medical costs and more people using expensive services, but also because the new federal health law is forcing changes such as eliminating annual or lifetime limits on coverage, expanding dependent care for children until age 26 and more, McDonnell said.

“With everything that’s been added, you can’t really expect costs to go down,” he said.

Get outta town!  You mean when we force insurance companies to cover people’s pre-existing conditions and do away with caps and make them cover their 26 year old “children” it’s going to cost the rest of us more, not less?  Like, real math at play here?

The rising rates will likely force more people in North Carolina to cut back on coverage or go without, said Adam Linker, a policy analyst with the N.C. Justice Center’s Health Access Coalition. And some of the additional “safety net” measures of the federal law won’t start until 2014, he added.

Ah, but you can’t go without!  That’ll be illegal!  Remember that whole individual mandate?  If you don’t purchase health insurance coverage the IRS will come knocking at your door.

Folks, the promises made by President Obama and his minions at the Kremlin was nothing but a ruse.  They knew this was going to happen.  They know you can’t throw 30 million people into the system and spend less money.  All of this was orchestrated.  The far left in this country has wanted a single payer universal health care system just like Europe for years and that is exactly the idea.  In passing ObamaCare, the Democrats have created a bureaucratic monster that will make health care so much more painful than it has been that they’re banking on the American people just throwing up their hands and crying to the government to fix “the fix.”  That fix will be single payer.  The government created the problem and they will use a socialist government solution to fix it.

The DNC and this administration knows that ObamaCare will not lower health care costs and that is why they are telling their members who are fighting for their reelections to no longer talk about the cost aspect of the health care bill, but instead use sympathetic, tear jerker stories of Tiny Tim who now, thanks to ObamaCare, can kick away that crutch and walk again.

The presentation’s final page of “Don’ts” counsels against claiming “the law will reduce costs and deficit.”

The presentation advises, instead, sales pitches that play on personal narratives and promises to change the legislation.

“People can be moved from initial skepticism and support for repeal of the law to favorable feelings and resisting repeal,” it says. “Use personal stories — coupled with clear, simple descriptions of how the law benefits people at the individual level — to convey critical benefits of reform.”

The presentation also counsels against the kind of grand claims of change that accompanied the legislation’s passage.

“Keep claims small and credible; don’t overpromise or ‘spin’ what the law delivers,” it says, suggesting supporters say, “The law is not perfect, but it does good things and helps many people. Now we’ll work [to] improve it.”

Politico

A majority of the country still opposes this bill so we have only two roads left to which we can turn.  One, we can rely on the Republicans to take over Congress and then the presidency by 2013 and repeal this disaster, but will they have the testicular fortitude to actually go through with it?  It’s hard to say.  Typically, they’re nothing but a bunch of gutless wonders.  The only other hope is that the Supreme Court strikes it down.  It should be struck down on Constitutional grounds, but their idea of what is and isn’t Constitutional these days is always a craps shoot.  Even if they find the mandate to be unconstitutional, which I think is the most likely result of these lawsuits, it doesn’t mean that the whole legislation will be voided.

Senator Kay Hagan, the lone Democratic Senator of the Carolinas voted for this train wreck, so be sure to call her office and let her know how you feel about it.  You can find the information here.

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Kay Hagan is forced to go off-script and form her own thoughts and opinions. The results are not pretty.

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Griffith also cut an ad for Bev Perdue in the 2008 election and well, look how that’s turned out.

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The Palmetto State is the eighth-laziest in the union, according to a survey released Tuesday by Businessweek.com. We apparently excel at sleeping and hanging around in front of the TV or online and spend a lot less time working than folks in other states. In fact, we rank No. 1 in the amount of television we watch every day. (Three hours and seven minutes, we’re told.)

Business Week’s Website ranked the country’s laziest states, based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and other government statistics. The survey averages the amount of time people who are 15 and older spend on various activities. Southern states made the top three – Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas.

The State

North Carolina came in fourth.

Honestly, I didn’t need a study to know any of this.  All I have to do is go outside and observe all of the cottage cheese behinds stomping and waddling around like a pack of elephants to know that we are right up there front and center in reaching for the obesity crown.

In fact, the top ten states are all southern and I have two theories as to why this is.  One, our summers are very hot and humid and nobody wants to go outside.  Personally, I think that is a lame excuse.  I do my three mile runs even when it’s 100 degrees out, but I can see it as a reason nonetheless.  Second, southern cuisine is sort of lacking in the whole nutritional value thing.  Everything is either fried or barbecued.  Take your pick.  Even the Thanksgiving Day turkey is dropped into the deep fryer.  That all packs on the pounds real quick if you don’t stay active enough to burn it off.

But hey, at least we excel at something.  We’re a fat and lazy state!

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Gee, nobody saw this coming.

The plans, being tested in places like San Diego, New York and Chicago, are likely to appeal especially to small businesses that already provide insurance to their employees, but are concerned about the ever-spiraling cost of coverage.

But large employers, as well, are starting to show some interest, and insurers and consultants expect that, over time, businesses of all sizes will gravitate toward these plans in an effort to cut costs.

The tradeoff, they say, is that more Americans will be asked to pay higher prices for the privilege of choosing or keeping their own doctors if they are outside the new networks. That could come as a surprise to many who remember the repeated assurances from President Obama and other officials that consumers would retain a variety of health-care choices.

The New York Times

Shocking, eh?  No, not that this is happening.  It’s shocking that there were people in this country stupid enough to actually believe the President’s lies about being able to keep their current health coverage and doctor.  As ObamaCare slowly unfolds more people are figuring out just how badly we got bent over by our “representatives” in D.C.  Oh, and let us not forget who it was that brought this on us by voting in favor of ObamaCare.

• G. K. Butterfield (NC-01)
• Bob Etheridge (NC-02)
• David Price (NC-04)
• Mel Watt (NC-12)
• Brad Miller (NC-13)
• Jack Spratt (SC-05)
• Jim Clyburn (SC-06)
• Senator Kay Hagan (NC)

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I love when the establishment loses and that’s one of the benefits that came out of this past Tuesday’s run off election in North Carolina’s 21st State Senate District.  Democratic voters in the 21st told the party establishment to piss off when they overwhelmingly supported political newcomer Dr. Eric Mansfield over former Cumberland County Democratic Party Chairwoman Lula Crenshaw.

Dr. Eric Mansfield captured the Democratic Party’s nomination for the 21st District with a convincing win this week, surprising party officials and defeating a partisan heavyweight.

Mansfield, who is 45, acknowledged that he didn’t know what he was doing when he started knocking on doors in the snow in January. One man whom Mansfield met on Seabrook Road gave him a candid assessment.

“He said, ‘You don’t know the neighborhood, you don’t know politics and you don’t know what you’re doing,’ ” Mansfield said.

The man was right, Mansfield said. He said the Cumberland County Senior Democrats club told him the same thing in January.

He took the message as a personal challenge.

“We had a lot of work to do, and we set out to do it,” he said. “We learned a lot.”

In Tuesday’s primary runoff, he defeated Lula Crenshaw, a former county party chairwoman, 62 percent to 38 percent, according to unofficial results.

In the May primary, he led a five-candidate field that included a former five-term city councilman.

The Fayetteville Observer

Dr. Mansfield is an Ears, Nose, and Throat Specialist with a practice in Fayetteville.  He served honorably in the 82nd Airborne Division of the United State Army and he is an active member in his church and community.  As a doctor he supports greater free market competition in health care, tort reform, and Medicaid cost and fraud controls, in order to bring down medical costs so that heath care services will be more affordable to people in the state.  He also recognizes the need for improvement in the education system and the tax structure for small businesses.  He was endorsed by the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce.

While Mansfield will face a Republican opponent in the general election, the 21st is heavily Democratic and it’s highly unlikely Mansfield will be defeated.  I think he’ll make a great state senator for Cumberland County.

Standing up for what is right from kassaye kassaye on Vimeo.

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HEALTH-CARE MANDATE: Voting 187 for and 230 against, the House on June 15 defeated a GOP bid to use HR 5486 (above) as a vehicle for repealing the new health law’s requirement that individuals who can afford it obtain medical insurance either at work or in a state-run exchange. The purpose of the individual mandate is to hold down everybody’s health costs by establishing the largest possible pool of insured persons. Critics say the mandate is oppressive because those without coverage will face financial penalties. At least 20 states have filed suits challenging the requirement.

The Herald-Journal

The Democrats in Congress continue to sustain the unconstitutional health insurance mandate that President Obama said during his campaign he would never support and criticized both Hillary Clinton and John Edwards for proposing such an idea.  Another one of this long list of lies.  With the exception of Congressmen Mike McIntyre (NC-07) and Heath Shuler (NC-11), every Democrat in both North and South Carolina voted to keep this oppressive and un-American mandate in place.

Every Republican voted against keeping the mandate with the exception of three who were not present to vote:  Henry Brown (SC-01), Gresham Barrett (SC-03), and Bob Inglis (SC-04).  I imagine Barrett and Inglis were too busy trying to save their political asses while Brown, well, he is retiring so maybe he just doesn’t give a damn anymore.

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The S.C. House cut $50 million from its $5 billion spending plan Wednesday — primarily from health care — which Democrats said was punishment for supporting a veto of $20 million in new fees to support the state’s court system.

The cuts limit health care access for low-income children, end a drug program for AIDS patients as well as two programs that help patients purchase prescriptions, limit those on the state-run Medicaid program to three prescriptions a month and eliminate state-funded cancer screenings.

The State

Awe gee, I’m crushed.  You mean the leeches of society will actually have to start being a bit more accountable for themselves like the rest of us paying for their handouts?  Sounds like a wonderful idea to me.  I’m sick and tired of subsidizing everyone else’s irresponsibility when I have worked hard to get where I am.  Where is my freebie?

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Did N.C. actually elect this dunderhead in 2008? Holy crap…

I’m not sure Kay Hagan could articulate a single idea that isn’t spoon fed to her by her Democrat handlers. Is she even capable of an original thought?

This is a simple question, Kay: That bill you just voted for- y’know, the one everyone seems so pissed about? Where in the constitution does it say you can do that? No, I don’t care what Harry Reid says. What does the constitution say?

If you can’t answer, have an original thought for once… and think about resigning.

h/t- NRO

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Attorney General Roy Cooper said Friday that North Carolina will not join 13 other states in challenging the constitutionality of the healthcare overhaul recently passed by Congress.

Cooper said it was unlikely that such a lawsuit would succeed, and that there is plenty of time for Congress to make any changes in the law before the most contested provisions in the new law take effect in 2013, Rob Christensen reports.

“After careful consideration, I have concluded that North Carolina will not join this lawsuit,” Cooper wrote in a letter Gov. Bev Perdue.

The N&O

Cooper undoubtedly wants to spend more time looking into corruption allegations against Tony Rand, Marc Basnight, Bev Perdue, Ruffin Poole, Mike Easley…

Oh. Wait…

Never mind.

Anyways, Republicans can now link an unpopular federal issue to their state campaigns. You’ll be hearing a lot about this between now and November.

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South Carolina Republicans hope they drive up interest in their June primary by adding ballot questions asking voters if they think South Carolina lawmakers should fight President Barack Obama’s health care law and limit state spending.

The ballot questions have no legal weight, and S.C. GOP chairwoman Karen Floyd said they were designed to gauge GOP voters on the issues and to increase interest among voters who might otherwise skip the June 8 primaries.

One question asks whether state lawmakers should fight a law requiring people to buy health insurance while the other asks whether state lawmakers should limit budget growth to income growth or population plus inflation.

The State

Really?  You have to ask?  Duh!  Of course you ought to be pursuing these initiatives, you schmucks.  Do they really think the majority of South Carolinians are going to say, “Are you crazy?  Live within our means?  Only spend what we have?  That’s just insane!”  Oh brother.

The fact that the Republican Party has to ask people their opinion on these issues in order to make a decision shows how flawed their fundamental philosophy is.  Consequently, does anyone honestly believe that they will limit state spending when the biggest pork barrel earmarkers in Columbia are the Republicans’ own  leadership?

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The Legislature socked it to retail customers, smokers, drinkers and big earners with higher taxes last year to help close a budget gap calculated by Democrats at more than $4 billion.

Could hospitals or doctors’ offices be next?

Legislative leaders are returning to Raleigh early to begin adjusting the second year of the state’s two-year budget and they’re intrigued by a hospital or provider tax or fee because it could draw down three times as much extra money in federal matching funds for Medicaid.

It’s one of several options they’ll examine to help close another budget gap starting July 1 that ranging from $700 million to $1.2 billion. Medicaid, the state-federal health care program for the poor, is on track to be $475 million over budget in North Carolina next fiscal year as more — and apparently sicker — patients enroll, legislative staff members told budget-writers last week.

“It’s worth considering,” said Senate Majority Leader Martin Nesbitt, D-Buncombe. “Medicaid is there to serve the people and we’ve gone past the point, in my opinion, of being able to serve people appropriately. We’ve cut to that point.”

Business Week

Dear God, these people are out of their flippin minds!  All we’ve heard from the socialists is how the government has to take over control of the health care industry because the cost of care is getting too expensive and what do the socialists in North Carolina come up with?  Tax people for visiting a hospital!  Really??  Can it get more insane?  Why is cutting services never an option to these people?  To hell with Medicaid.  Cut it!  We’re in a recession!  When a family gets hit with a financial set back they have to tighten their belts and deal with it.  The government shouldn’t be any different.  If revenue is falling then cut back on the freebies!

You always hear the left bitching about the shrinking middle class.  Well, this is exactly why it’s happening!  It’s the middle class that gets tapped to pay for all of this redistributionist garbage.  Your suburban families that are working hard trying to support a family and maybe put a kid or two through college are the ones having to pony up to pay for everyone else who either can’t or won’t support themselves.  When will enough be enough already?

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I’m now taking bets on the following over/under:

How long until we see the first commercial from a Republican candidate promising that, if elected, s/he will force Roy Cooper to sue?

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As expected, the Republican controlled South Carolina Senate passed a 50 cent cigarette tax hike yesterday.  This is a larger increase than the 30 cent tax the Republican controlled South Carolina House passed roughly a month ago.  I told you they are never going to quit pushing for this and I’ve told you that the Republican party is full of shit when it claims it’s for small government and low taxes.  Here is what the Senate bill does.

The legislation calls for it to rise to 57 cents a pack, generating nearly $120 million for Medicaid programs, and $5 million each for efforts to curb smoking and cancer research. But it also sets aside $2.8 million for marketing agriculture products and $3.5 million for rural infrastructure development efforts along I-95, an area known for low income residents and underperforming schools.

”They get their money before a nickel goes to health care,” said Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, who said the bill won’t survive a veto. ”When it becomes a goody bag for some new spending, it’s in trouble. The trimmings doomed it,” the Charleston Republican said.

The New York Times

Now this new funding has always been touted as being needed to prevent smoking among kids and young adults and to help treat smoking related illnesses.  Yet, you can see that this is really just another funding stream to expand the socialist nanny state in South Carolina and to fund pet projects that are completely unrelated to health care.

Governor Sanford is sure to veto this and based on the vote count in the Senate by which the bill passed, 27 – 16, will not be enough to withstand that veto.  That’s assuming that they are even able to reconcile their bill with the House bill first, which was a lower tax increase.

These are the Republicans that voted for the bill.  Among them you will find the usual big government supporters, Socialist Luke Rankin, Socialist Tom Alexander, and of course my own Senator, the Socialist Wes Hayes.

• Tom Alexander (R-Walhalla)
• Paul Campbell (R-Goose Creek)
• Ronnie Cromer (R-Prosperity)
• Mike Fair (R-Greenville)
• Wes Hayes (R-Rock Hill)
• Hugh Leatherman (R-Florence)
• Larry Martin (R-Pickens)
• William O’Dell (R-Ware Shoals)
• Luke Rankin (R-Conway)

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With a few words Wednesday – “I would have to object” – Sen. Richard Burr joined an angry Republican pushback to the nation’s sweeping health overhaul.

Burr used a parliamentary maneuver to derail an Armed Services Committee hearing for which commanders had traveled from South Korea and Hawaii to discuss the Pentagon’s needs for the next year.

It was one of several hearings on issues ranging from homeless veterans to police trainers in Afghanistan that were upturned by Republican tactics to slow the workings of the Senate.

The N&O

 Y’know… I’m pissed too, and I’m certainly going to do everything I can to defeat or overturn this massive turd the Democrats have shoved into my breakfast cereal and told me is just a big chocolate sprinkle. But I’m a piss-ant little blogger; Richard Burr is a U.S. Senator. There’s a time and place and method to protest, and holding up an Armed Services Committee meeting to which many high-ranking officers have traveled is not the way to do it.

Sen. Burr- stay mad, but stay professional.

Rules prohibit committees from meeting two hours after the Senate convenes unless there is unanimous consent, normally a formality.

Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, a Democrat who is the Armed Services Committee’s chairman, said that both he and Sen. John McCain, the committee’s top Republican, wanted to go forward.

The hearing was to allow testimony from three military leaders: Adm. Robert Willard, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii; Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command; and Army Gen. Walter Sharp, commander of the U.S. forces in South Korea.

“They’ve been scheduled a long time,” Levin said. “They have come a long, long distance.”

About lunchtime Wednesday, Burr, who was on the Senate floor for the health care debate, came forward.

“I have no personal objection to continuing,” Burr said. “There is objection on our side of the aisle. Therefore, I would have to object.”

That stopped the hearing.

A Veteran Affairs hearing on homelessness was suddenly shut down at 11 a.m.

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Public Policy Polling did a survey on the Congressional districts of Congressmen Bob Etheridge (D-NC-02) and Heath Shuler (D-NC-11) and have some woeful news for the two gentlemen.  The passage of that bill may indeed end up being their “Waterloo.”

In both Bob Etheridge and Heath Shuler’s districts we asked whether voters would be more or less likely to vote for their representative if they supported the bill, then whether they would be more or less likely to vote for their representative if the bill passed regardless of how their actual representative voted.

In Etheridge’s district 47% of voters said they’d be less likely to vote for him this fall if he supported the bill. And 47% said they’d be less likely to vote for him this fall if the Democrats in Congress passed the bill, regardless of how Etheridge himself voted.

It’s a pretty similar story in Shuler’s district. 51% of voters said they’d be less likely to vote for him this fall if he was a ‘yes’ vote.’ But 46% also said they’d be less likely to vote for Shuler this fall if the bill passed, whether it did so with his support or not.

PPP

Etheridge did vote for the bill; Shuler did not.  According to this survey though, it won’t make much difference for either one of them.  If this is a bellwether, then it appears voters will be holding all Democrats accountable for what their party did Sunday whether they were complicit or not.  If these numbers hold true on November 2nd, Etheridge and Shuler are toast.

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