Health-Insurance Exchanges Are Falling Behind Schedule

Government officials have missed several deadlines in setting up new health-insurance exchanges for small businesses and consumers—a key part of the federal health overhaul—and there is a risk they won't be ready to open on time in October, Congress's watchdog arm said.

The Government Accountability Office said federal and state health officials still have major work to complete, offering its most cautious comments to date about the Obama administration's ability to bring the centerpiece of its signature law to fruition.

"Whether [the government's] contingency planning will assure the timely and smooth implementation of the exchanges by October 2013 cannot yet ...

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Behind Every GOP Governor Cooperating With Obamacare Is An Industry Lobby Profiting From Obamacare

Another GOP governor has pledged to go ahead with Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, and once again, industry was standing right there with him. AP reports on West Virginia:

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia will expand Medicaid as called for by the federal health care overhaul, through a plan unveiled Thursday by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin that would extend coverage to an estimated 91,500 uninsured low-income residents….

U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., joined Tomblin for Thursday’s announcement at Charleston’s St. Francis Hospital along with chief executives of several hospital systems. Expanding Medicaid is expected to help the state’s hospitals, which face a scheduled in federal reimbursement payments, by providing coverage to thousands of residents now treated at hospitals without compensation as charity care. The financial analysis cites studies estimating the annual savings to hospitals at $20 million to $30 million.

The same thing is happening in Ohio and Missouri. In Idaho, the GOP governor and legislature decided to build an Obamacare exchange thanks to industry pressure.

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Climate Silence Lives: White House Insists Mayors’ Discussion Of Climate Change Occur ‘Behind Closed Doors’

The White House continues its fatally counterproductive strategy of promoting climate silence.

Reuters reports this remarkable story:

The White House asked that a discussion about climate change at the mayors’ meeting on Thursday take place behind closed doors, frustrating some participants, even as hot button topics from immigration to gun control got public airings.

“This should be discussed openly,” said Jim Brainard, the Republican mayor of Carmel, Indiana, who co-chaired the climate panel.

White House liaison for climate change Heather Zichal led the discussion, but declined to comment on why the meeting was closed.

While one academic political scientist seems to think Obama’s climate silence is not significant, real-world politicians know the President is the only person who can single-handedly change the media coverage and public conversation — and the national agenda:

“We are looking for leadership from the president in detailing to the American people the magnitude of this issue,” [Seattle Mayor Michael] McGinn said after the meeting with about two dozen peers….

“There is a lot of call for the president to use his ‘bully pulpit’ and explain the consequences here,” said Brainard.

Hear! Hear! Or, rather, Speak! Speak! and Act! Act!

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Poll: Half believe 'country's best years are behind us'

A Gallup poll released Wednesday showed that entering the new year, half of all Americans believe the country's best years are in the past. Republicans are particularly discouraged, with nearly three-quarters saying that America's peak came before 2013.

The survey found that while 50 percent say the country's best years have passed by, 47 percent believe that greater times are to come. There is a stark partisan divide, however: While just under seven in 10 Democrats agree that "the country's best years are ahead of us," 74 percent of Republicans say they have already elapsed. Independents are also pessimistic about the future, although less so — 55 percent say the country's best years have passed, while 43 percent say they are still ahead.

Those surveyed were also split on their predictions for 2013's economic outlook. Just one-third of respondents said 2013 would be a year of economic prosperity, while 65 percent said they expected economic difficulty. But at the same time, more than half — 53 percent — predicted a year of full or increasing employment. Just 42 percent said the economy would lose jobs in 2013.

Americans also believe that prices would rise at a reasonable rate in the coming year, with 57 percent agreeing with such a prediction. Of those surveyed, 42 percent said prices would rise at a higher-than-normal rate.

"The 65 percent of Americans who predict 2013 will be a year of economic difficulty is one of the more negative responses to this question since Gallup first asked it in 1965," said Gallup's Frank Newport in a statement.

Americans surveyed before Tuesday's "fiscal cliff" deal also accurately predicted that taxes would rise in 2013, with 82 percent saying it was more likely they would rise than fall. A broad majority — 85 percent — also predicted the federal budget would not be balanced in 2013.

Americans also took a pessimistic look at American power, with three-quarters predicting a year of international discord and 57 percent saying the United States' global influence would wane. Those surveyed also see increasing violence at home, with 68 percent predicting a rise in crime rates.

"About two-thirds of Americans believe 2013 will be a year of rising crime rates, a more negative prediction than in either 1999 or 1998," Newport said. "Americans' views about crime this year were possibly affected by the tragic school shooting on Dec. 14 in Newtown, Conn., the day on which the current poll began."

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