Provide proof of this claim, please.

ed3891 - it kinda big news everywhere else but around here.

They even covered it on MSNBC.

20% for Pelosi. Guess she found out what was in it, and the libbies in SF of all places no like-y.

Again, proof? Links?

Here you go ed, just as I suspected, Faux Noise stikes again!

They'll toss anything out there to gin up their base!

Of the 204 new Obamacare waivers President Barack Obama's administration approved in April, 38 are for fancy eateries, hip nightclubs and decadent hotels in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's Northern California district.

That's in addition to the 27 new waivers for health care or drug companies and the 31 new union waivers Obama's Department of Health and Human Services approved.

Pelosi's district secured almost 20 percent of the latest issuance of waivers nationwide, and the companies that won them didn't have much in common with companies throughout the rest of the country that have received Obamacare waivers.

Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/nancy-pelosi/2011/05/17/pelosi-caught-hand-obamacare-waiver-cookie-jar#ixzz1MdJzGN2L

Interesting there are NO names of these establishments or sources to back up the BS?

Then again, would we expect anything less out of the 'Fair & Balanced' crowd? LMAO!

Spanky-

Stick to the topic

You cannot criticize the President since no occupant of the Oval Office has been to be able to broker the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. So you create deflections.

I believe the President Obama would love too ; but does Israel?

ed3891 - Here you go.

Twenty Percent of New Healthcare Waivers Are In Nancy Pelosi’s District

By E.D. KAIN

The Daily Caller reports:

Of the 204 new Obamacare waivers President Barack Obama’s administration approved in April, 38 are for fancy eateries, hip nightclubs and decadent hotels in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s Northern California district.

That’s in addition to the 27 new waivers for health care or drug companies and the 31 new union waivers Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services approved.

Pelosi’s district secured almost 20 percent of the latest issuance of waivers nationwide, and the companies that won them didn’t have much in common with companies throughout the rest of the country that have received Obamacare waivers.

Other common waiver recipients were labor union chapters, large corporations, financial firms and local governments. But Pelosi’s district’s waivers are the first major examples of luxurious, gourmet restaurants and hotels getting a year-long pass from Obamacare.

This is another good example of how government makes a mess of things when it attempts to create a complicated system of vouchers, subsidies, penalties and waivers. At some point it’s hard to know where the carrot stops and the stick begins. The problems with our maddeningly complex (and expensive) healthcare system are bad enough. Introducing an even more byzantine system of exceptions and special favors on top is only going to make matters worse.

A simple public option for healthcare – Medicaid for all, for instance, plus private insurance on top of basic coverage – makes far more sense than a system that hands out waivers to the politically well-connected, or grants tax breaks for employer-provided benefits.

This is one reason I keep beating the free-markets-plus-public-option drum. Keep it simple and work to expand access as much as possible. If we want to keep costs down in a sector with high levels of consumption and opaque prices we need to increase supply and make prices more transparent. So free up markets and provide simple public options for those who cannot afford healthcare on their own.

This Richard Epstein piece on ‘government by waiver’ is also worth a read. To me, the real issue is a lack of consistency and stable rules. Government-by-waiver cedes far too much control to special interests, and opens the door to serious regulatory capture. Inevitably, it is those among us with the least political power who will pay the highest price for these exceptions to the rule.

Feisty -

Boboquivari’s restaurant in Pelosi’s district in San Francisco got a waiver from Obamacare. Boboquivari’s advertises $59 porterhouse steaks, $39 filet mignons and $35 crab dinners.

Then, there’s Café des Amis, which describes its eating experience as “a timeless Parisian style brasserie” which is “located on one of San Francisco’s premier shopping and strolling.

Boboquivari's restaurant in Pelosi's district in San Francisco got a waiver from Obamacare. Boboquivari's advertises $59 porterhouse steaks, $39 filet mignons and $35 crab dinners.

Then, there's Café des Amis, which describes its eating experience as "a timeless Parisian style brasserie" which is "located on one of San Francisco's premier shopping and strolling

Do you have some credible proof of that besides the right wing mouth piece the Daily Caller?

BTW: Copying & pasting word for word from a website without giving credit to the source is called plagiarism!

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CDsQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdailycaller.com%2F2011%2F05%2F17%2Fnearly-20-percent-of-new-obamacare-waivers-are-gourmet-restaurants-nightclubs-fancy-hotels-in-nancy-pelosi%25E2%2580%2599s-district%2F&ei=CrXSTYCHNcTkiALQy63HCg&usg=AFQjCNFA9-UvbMDTMP3dil9fTc1SwscCsA

Thank you, thetotas. That is extremely damning and has only served to heighten my already-excessive dislike of HCR to a greater level.

I find your position on the issue rather attractive and I'll be sure to go look up and read over the Epstein piece you mentioned. Like you, I've long felt one of the greatest problems with American governance is the total and complete lack of consistency in the application of rules.

Feisty: Much as I appreciate you handing me the link and article as well, I can't say that I'm inclined to not believe the report for want of specifically mentioning the names of these establishments.

I do, however, understand the hestitation to believe the report considering it's source, but the same can be said for any article from virtually any news outlet - especially when personal bias is taken into consideration.

That said, if someone could provide a list of the names and address of these establishments (or demonstrate, credibly, that the article is a fabrication!) I'm sure it would nip this issue in the bud.

@ed - I've provided the link to the entire article. You be the judge on it's credibility....

@thetotals - Oh and if you read the entire article, nowhere in it did anyone CONFIRM the allegations!

You're scaring me if, this is what passes for 'news' with you!

rick, texas

Nearly 20 percent of new Obamacare waivers are gourmet restaurants, nightclubs, fancy hotels in Nancy Pelosi’s district.

...............................................

A lot of companies offer inexpensive health plans to their workers -- often called mini-meds -- that provide limited benefits, high deductibles and annual dollar caps, with some caps as low as thousands of dollars. It's not much in the way of coverage, but it's better than nothing.

The problem is that the reform law required health plans to raise these annual dollar caps to at least $750,000 this year, apparently not realizing that this would have the effect of forcing hundreds of companies to drop benefits for millions of workers.

The White House admits that this reform could "cause mini-med premiums to rise by more than 200 percent, forcing employers to drop coverage."

But it tried to downplay the issue, saying there's been lots of "confusion" about it. The waivers, it says, are just for one year, and only exempt these companies from this one specific part of the new law. And in any case, the whole issue will be moot, the administration says, once the insurance exchanges start up in 2014.

Of course, the cap gets raised again to $1.25 million this September, and then $2 million in September 2012, before it's removed altogether in 2014. So if anything, more companies are likely to push for waivers over the next two years.

A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee plans to hold hearings on this today -- trying to figure out just how many waiver applications were submitted, how many were denied and what criteria the administration used to grant them.

The White House should provide those answers.

But the whole issue raises a more troubling question about the health care reform law that needs to be addressed.

This lifetime limit reform was supposed to be one of the easy fixes to health care. That's why it went in force almost immediately. But without the waivers, this change would have pushed more than 2 million people off insurance rolls this year.

So the question is, if health reformers bungled this simple fix so badly, what other unpleasant surprises await as the far more complicated elements of health reform start to kick in?

Feisty, Give me a break. Credible proof? You mean like Media Matters.

Yeah credible proof...

@thetotals - Oh and if you read the entire article, nowhere in it did anyone CONFIRM the allegations!

Well hijacking the topic to pursue propaganda about the ACA and its implementation may be entertaining, but dealing with the subject at hand is what these boards are supposed to do.

I'm going to discuss the aid to Jordan in a moment, but I would like to mention something about San Francisco restaurants. The city is one of the most expensive places in the world. The Bay Area "poverty level" income for a family of four is almost $50,000 a year. The price of a steak as mentioned above, in what is actually not a luxury restaurant but a very good one, is about the same as the better steakhouses in Tampa, Florida charge - adjusted for location. The equivalent, in Tampa, is between $17 and $22 for a good New York strip.

I buy my New York strip steaks six to a box, frozen, at WalMart for under $10, by the way - and then I can have them JUST the way I like 'em rather than doing remote combat with some uppity chef.

As for the waivers, I'm gald someone chimed in with a bit of an explanation of the matter - and there's even more complex background that the propagandists always conveniently ignore.

Now - Jordan. The President has made a very clever decision. That country is in a pivotal location, civil unrest between native Jordanians, refugees from around the Middle East and long-resident Palestinian refugees have been a problem for years, and economic development is vital to provide a sense of hope for the future in the kingdom's population. Here, the United States is taking a relatively low-cost, proactive step to support a key Arab ally, promote progressive development and peace, and by extension display to Jordan's neighbors things they will admire and wish to have for themselves.

Another diplomatic coup for our President, Barack bama!

BTW: Copying & pasting word for word from a website without giving credit to the source is called plagiarism!

Coming from you of all people.

Coming from you of all people.

Yeah... coming from me of all people!

I dare you to find where I've posted a comment without giving proper credit to the source, because, guess WHAT?

You WON'T!

So, you were saying?

Quick....to Factcheck.org:

We’ve received several questions about whether businesses have been able to opt out of the new health care law. The companies haven’t been granted permission to ignore the entire law, as the Facebook post quoted by our reader might suggest — but many have been given one-year waivers to delay compliance with a key insurance mandate that was put into place this fall. The White House says it instituted the waiver process to enable those companies to continue to provide limited-benefits plans — cheap, bare-bones policies called mini-med plans — until the law is fully implemented in 2014.

http://www.factcheck.org/2010/12/health-care-law-waivers/

Thank you, Amy. :)

I never got health insurance in any of the restaurants I worked at in Maine. Kudos to the California eateries in Pelosi's district who got waivers so they could continue to provide some health insurance.

The rightwingers who slammed HCR1 on this, as usual, missed the important point.

By E.D. KAIN

The Daily Caller reports:

This is where I got the article and the name of the writer. Look at my original post before you jump the gun.

Oh... now I get it!

Can you point out for us in this post of yours, where you referenced the name of the writer?

Cause I can't seem to locate it...

thetotas

Feisty -

Boboquivari’s restaurant in Pelosi’s district in San Francisco got a waiver from Obamacare. Boboquivari’s advertises $59 porterhouse steaks, $39 filet mignons and $35 crab dinners.

Then, there’s Café des Amis, which describes its eating experience as “a timeless Parisian style brasserie” which is “located on one of San Francisco’s premier shopping and strolling.

#1.7 - Tue May 17, 2011 1:00 PM CDT

You either intentionally attempted to mislead readers or you made a simple mistake!

I'll leave it up to you to decide which one it was...

Amy B. Portland, ME..

Re your post.

Only partially true. I posted a fairly long and boring response you may find interesting.

Amy, there are a number of unusual and interesting things about San Francisco folk don't know. For example, the city-cum-county owns and operate a very, very good assisted living facility that is for use only by long-term residents of San Francisco. Deal is, they paid taxes to set up and endow its operation, so they get a very reasonably-priced place to go.

Many of the restaurants in town actually do offer modest health insurance plans, as well as partially-matching contributions in 401K plans, and even some reasonable vacation and sick time benefits. The city has a "living wage" law that sets minimum wages well above the Federal and state standards. These regulations are not what makes San Francisco so expensive - it's a huge, burgeoning population, limited housing stocks, and many other features.

Gad, what I'd give to be able to go back and live again aboard my boat in San Francisco Bay! Maybe after I retire ....

Good work thetotas!

Thanks for passing the article inforamtion along. I'll have to take a look at it.

Don't suppose it'll be on MSNBS, do you?

Feisty and Bev - I know you are incapable of admitting it, but the health care law is a POS, hence the need for all the waivers.

It's ok dears, I would never expect nor want you to have to put down your Obama pom poms, even for on minute.

Bev. not sure what you are asking about middle east peace, but all I do know is it will never happen. The Arabs want the Jewsdead. Tough to compromise with that position. Bev - I don't suppose you know the number of rockets the arabs lob into Israel everyday? Religion of Peace, eh?

As for Jordan - it is simply ridiculous for Obama, or any other president to give money we do not have and have to borrow from China to anyone. It was neat when we could do it, but those days are gone.

I just think it is hilarious that FR has posted nothing about the fact we hit the debt ceiling. We did it - maxed the credit clean out to the hilt. $14 plus trillion, and no end to deficits in sight.

So since they don't want to discuss the actual issues - say an article about all the waivers and the reports that 20% are in Pelosi's district would be nice - we'll just discuss what we want. Good point Rick.

Ira Lapin, they could use you over at Factcheck.org.

John A. San Francisco sounds heavenly.

Spanky-

To your point.

Earlier on, I posted an extensive (but boring) explanation of waivers and their economic effect on businesses. Surprisingly, no one cares or they don't understand the problem these waivers have and will cause. Instead the discussion degenerated into an Obama sucks...no he doesn't discussion. Same posts...different day.

Oh well, I did try.

Nancy got HCR waivers just for her district.

Harry got them for his entire state!!

Source: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/may/16/nevada-secures-partial-waiver-federal-health-care-/

Ira, you are too good, and appear to care about objectivity too much to last very long.

Dude, you got two options:

1. continue to patiently explain and have your head explode; or

2. have fun with it and realize that most have their minds made up and franlkly are incapable of understanding the subtle issues or the big picture.

Consider your audience here myman. I often talk of experience and things like income and employment situation. Your back ground colors your understanding.

For example awhile back Feisty was making fun about Boehner's [I know, shocking, right] comment on the difficulty of multi-party negotiations. He said "you have no deal until you have a deal." Well of course to Feistys that was the stupidest thing she ever heard. My point at the time was - I bet Feisty has never engaged in a multi-party negotiation. Of course Amy thought I was making fun.

But the fact is, and having done many multi-party negotiations, there is no deal until there is a deal - they fall apart all the time. Like I said earlier Feisty [a convenient straw man] knows not of taxes, employment issues from the employer's perspective, or the kilowatt cost of solar v. coal produced energy.

So good luck Ira. Me, I like to short cut it somethimes and talk in a language that they understand. It's mindless bamter or real work. This is a nice break.

Spanky..

Today...I had to clean my brains off the ceiling.

Well look what I found?

WASHINGTON -- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) played no role in the process by which health care waivers were granted to a number of businesses in her district, according to the company that actually requested the waivers on behalf of its clients.

Flex-Plan Services, a third-party benefits administrator based in Bellevue, Wash., made the formal applications for waivers from President Barack Obama's health care law, said it founder, Hilarie Aitken.

"I don’t tend to vote Democratic, but I feel bad for Nancy Pelosi," Aitken told HuffPost. "She’s really being thrown under the bus here. It has nothing to do with her at all. This was just a political power play. The way that they are shaping this -- that the minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, [is behind] all these waivers being granted, and how could she do this -- it’s all slanted and wrong".

The admission deals a blow to the accusations made Tuesday morning by the Daily Caller: It claimed Democratic lawmakers were effectively exempting businesses in their districts from the more onerous requirements of the presidential health care law. This was based on the fact that, of the 204 waiver requests that were approved in April, 38 were for restaurants, nightclubs or hotels in Pelosi's district.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/17/nancy-pelosi-health-care-waivers_n_863252.html

I stand by my original observation that the Daily Caller is a right wing RAG!

And she posts a POS from HuffingtonPoo! LOL!!!

God that is funny! You go girl! Just how often do you visit Obama in the Oval Office? Hope he doesn't keep you waiting too long. The space under those desks isn't very big.

Vote Dem Out,

At least her research, failed as it is, kept her from posting her rants all day.

Oh I don't pay attention to those racist rants of hers. Her and Bev from
Chicago are a real tripped up set of (insert names here) . Both are nothing but paid Obama/Soros losers who can't handle a real day job (along with the night- jobs they perform) and have nothing better to do than to post their liberal crap against those who oppose them or their leader B-HO.

Boy, won't they be pissed when he's kicked to the curb in 2012 and their checks stop coming.

You gotta give the red-head a break. For her, this is all there is. Get hammered at the Dew-Drop-Inn, and go home to a bunch of smelly cats. This is life in Illinois??

ha ha. Yes, us armchair diplomats work sooo hard :)

Nooooo @!$%#. :)

So, if I understand this new article, we are borrowing money from the Chinese, giving it to Arab Jordan, and taxing the US taxpayers to repay a funding to the ragheads.

Outstanding fiscal endorsement Obama. Now what will the Jordanians do, purchase more missles to fire into Israel? Say, isn't Jordan one of the oil cartel members? Why the need for funds, they should provide to us from their oil revenues.

"safecracker"

So, if I understand this new article, we are borrowing money from the Chinese, giving it to Arab Jordan, and taxing the US taxpayers to repay a funding to the ragheads.

Then, no, you don't understand the article at all. The financial aid is from OPEC.

Now what will the Jordanians do, purchase more missles to fire into Israel?

Jordan has had a formal peace treaty and normalized relations with Israel since 1994 and they became the second Arab nation to recognize Israel. You might want to do some research on the history of Israeli-Arab conflicts...King Hussein of Jordan learned his lesson from the "Six-Day War" and stayed out of the 'Yom Kippur War" in 1973.

Perhaps you should also read the speech that King Hussein gave at the funeral of Yitzhak Rabin...

en.wikisource.org/wiki/Hussein_of_Jordan%27s_Speech_at_Rabin%27s_Funeral

Say, isn't Jordan one of the oil cartel members?

No, Jordan is not a member of OPEC and never has been as they have no oil production capabilities.

King Abdullah of Jordan is a VERY intelligent man...western education at Oxford and Georgetown...and he is very committed to his country's future. He has opened his country to the internet and freer exchange of information and their first nuclear power plant is scheduled to go online in 2015.

...and, like it or not, if you need to get a message to a nation like Iran, you send that message through Jordan.

Thank you. I stand corrected.

Is anyone surprised that Obama is giving our money, that we have to borrow, to his Muslim buddies??

Edward, go back and read the article.

Hey, we bought a bust of President Gerald Ford. (And Boehner promptly 'baptized' it with tears).

Tears of the clown, DBO......lol

As an aside, does anyone remember that SNL skit where they're practicing a broadcast for Gerald Ford's death in the event he's eaten by wolves? :p

patHuntingtonNY..

He said..

"I'm pleased to announce that we have mobilized several hundreds of millions of dollars through OPEC and that will leverage ultimately about a billion dollars for economic development inside of Jordan," Obama said. "In addition, because of the huge spike in commodity prices throughout the world, we are going [to] be providing 50,000 metric tons of wheat to Jordan."

The money was through OPEC not us and the rest in surplus wheat.

What's your point?

How do you 'mobilize several hundreds of millions of dollars'......

.....those dollars are made for walking?.....walking away from the USA

chilled..

It's OPEC...OPEC! Hundreds of millions is not even a full days oil production.

Agree Ira, but since we're the biggest consumer..

Maybe some of those millions of dollars can mobilize and create lower gas prices right here.

Guess that's too simplistic.......gotta give a rebate to Jordan!

chilled..

..gotta give a rebate to Jordan!..

.....................................................

It's not a rebate...and how does this OPEC "bailout" help reduce oil prices. These are the folks that produce the oil. They set the price. With respect to Jordan...a little background.

Jordan's economy is among the smallest in the Middle East, with insufficient supplies of water, oil, and other natural resources, underlying the government's heavy reliance on foreign assistance. Other economic challenges for the government include chronic high rates of poverty, unemployment, inflation, and a large budget deficit. The budget deficit is likely to remain high, at 5-6% of GDP, and Amman likely will continue to depend heavily on foreign assistance to finance the deficit in 2011. Jordan's financial sector has been relatively isolated from the international financial crisis because of its limited exposure to overseas capital markets.

Yes, IRA, Jordan is a part of OPEC.......so why do they need a 'rebate' on the stuff that they export.......oh, wait, I know.....just 'cause!

We're the major consumer.......we need the 'rebate'.....'mobiize those hundreds of millions of dollars'!

Make it a buy one, get one free! ..however one is measured.....tanker for tanker, or whatever!

Last time....we are giving them grain NOT money.

Considering the recent rise in food prices in the United States...

Aren't there citizens here who would appreciate the grain earmarked for Jordan?

And...grain has value.

Considerable value on the commodity markets.

At more than $7.50/bushel, what is the cash value of 50,000 metric tons of wheat?

Anyone?

It's the same as money.

Mixed Bag..

We have metric tons of bushel rotting in silos that we throw away every year.

Better idea...if it has so much value, lets sell off the excess and reduce the budget deficit...

Yeah...it's ridiculous as it reads.

Questions, MB: What's our total output of grain vs. the amount granted to Jordan? What's the total consumption in the US?

I think we get it Ira but it is a distinction without a difference. The wheat has a value. A big value.

Ira, thank you. For trying to explain this. But some people are not going to listen. They have already picked the two or three words they want and are making up their own story.

Again, thanks. For trying.

Spanky-..

There's a huge difference. The grain goes to feed hungry people. Alternative, let it rot and throw it away. I value human life over the cost of rotting grain.

We have metric tons of bushel rotting in silos that we throw away every year.

www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/16/usa-grains-wheat-idUSN1629685820110516

Wheat prices are at an all time high. There are food shortages around the world. Please explain to me why you think the grain will lie rotting in a silo?

BTW Bushels and tons are both units of measurement

Ah, but apparently only the chosen few people. So who gets to decide Ira?

Mexico, South America and Africa as a whole could use it also.

Heck we could use it. Been to the grocery store lately?

Alan, NJ and Spanky..

First, grain production vs consumption in this country produces an excess that is stored in reserve similar to strategic reserves for oil. Additionally, the US government, through the USDA holds other reserves for humanitarian aid.

The USDA's s stockpile contains about 124 million bushels of wheat in a special government trust dedicated to international humanitarian aid. The special food program, which also holds $117 million in cash.

Grain is distributed all over the world to needy nations and not just Jordan.

Sad to think Mike needs the help when you consider how much he made during his career...oh, it isn't THAT Jordan...never mind...

We will gladly sell our grain at market prices to any country. We will gladly take the proceeds from that sale and pay down our bloated National debt. That would be resposible leadership.

"He is no president or even an American citizen,..."

"...Leon and Hillery Clinton had to make the decision..."

Ya on a roll, there Rangewolf. Keep 'em coming, would you? We need the humor. Kinda grim around here these days, what with all the GOOD talent dropping out of the 2012 race and all.....

There's still hope, DBO. I understand Trump's hairpiece qualifies as a unique life-form; it may yet decide to campaign independent of the man himself.

*whew!*

Do I need to quote you the lyrics to Space Oddity?

There...do you feel better?

"He never gave the go ahead on the mission to get Bin Laden..."

Neat. So YOU were there, then and know something none of the rest of us know. Hey- is that Hillary as dumpy as she looks on camera? How about Biden- was his shirt collar at least clean and neatly pressed? WHat did they serve you guys for snacks that time of day? Are you gonna take that last half a hit of acid, or are you going to share??

I think Rangewood IS the lyrics to Space Oddity!

DBO, It's Bob Gates not Microsoft's Bill Gates

Plus we weren't sure what to do with our surplus of money. This should really help the deficit.

You can do both if you use the right chemicals.

Well, for crimminy sake, Ira- don't ask US. Ask "Rangewolf'- he knows all about these deals.....

I'm sure they can make it back with the Billions Obama will give them. Also how much did the Chinese give them for the stealth helicopter parts???

It is odd that I posted that on yesterdays article attacking Gringrich....