Yet Another Obama Lie

Of course, some folks called it out at the time for the lie it was.

Under the legislation signed by President Obama in March, most Americans will have to maintain “minimum essential coverage” starting in 2014. Many people will be eligible for federal subsidies to help them pay premiums.

In a brief defending the law, the Justice Department says the requirement for people to carry insurance or pay the penalty is “a valid exercise” of Congress’s power to impose taxes.

Congress can use its taxing power “even for purposes that would exceed its powers under other provisions” of the Constitution, the department said. For more than a century, it added, the Supreme Court has held that Congress can tax activities that it could not reach by using its power to regulate commerce.

While Congress was working on the health care legislation, Mr. Obama refused to accept the argument that a mandate to buy insurance, enforced by financial penalties, was equivalent to a tax.

“For us to say that you’ve got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase,” the president said last September, in a spirited exchange with George Stephanopoulos on the ABC News program “This Week.”

When Mr. Stephanopoulos said the penalty appeared to fit the dictionary definition of a tax, Mr. Obama replied, “I absolutely reject that notion.”

When it comes to health care, it may well end up being that Obama lied and people died.

BS Remover

Pool May be Upgraded Instead of Closed

Good grief.

Although the pool is in very good condition considering it is in excess of 30 years old, Ross said, many of the technologies in use for lighting and heating are out-dated and not as energy efficient as those presently available.

   “We looked at energy efficient projects that would enhance the operating costs,” Ross said. “ We’ve secured $40,000 worth of grants already and we are waiting to pull the trigger.”

   The total cost of the pool projects, which include the installation of solar panels to supplement gas water heating, lighting upgrades to more efficient fluorescent fixtures and the replacement of the air handling unit, is estimated at about $300,000.

   The district would save about $13,000 a year in the cost of heating the pool, Ross said, bringing the total cost of annual operation to $72,000.

[...]

Closing the pool was one of several reductions proposed last fall when administrators learned state aid would be $2 million less than anticipated. The trend is expected to continue.

   “If the board decides to move forward, we will be removing (the pool) from the future reductions list,” Herdrich said.

By any stretch of the imagination, a pool is a “nice to have,” particularly in a town with two YMCAs and the Regner pond.  And yet even now they are considering sinking another $260,000 into upgrading the pool and spending $72,000 per year on it for every year thereafter. 

Tell you what… when the district administration starts acting like there’s a funding crisis, then I’ll start believing them.  As long as they keep throwing stuff like this on the agenda, I’m lead to believe that they are overfunded.