obamacare

Once again, the fate of the Affordable Care Act is before the courts. The health law has traveled all the way to the Supreme Court (twice!) and is highly likely to make another visit. On that path, the law made a stop Tuesday before ...

Recently, we explained why U.S. Appeals Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh is probably the best person President Donald Trump could have picked for the upcoming Supreme Court opening.

We noted his outstanding record as a lawyer and appellate judge and reviewed his glowing recommendations from legal scholars and colleagues. He’s a good and decent man with outstanding credentials and judicial temperament.

his is the second column based on the Controller’s Annual Report for fiscal year 2017 (FY17). Here we disclose where the state spends its money.

Total state spending for FY17 was $12.29 billion: $11.033 billion (90 percent) from regular state accounts, including pass-through federal funds; $1.211 billion (ten percent) from tuition, fees, contracts, grants and other service charges by higher education; and $46 million in two other areas. The total was 74 percent higher than in FY06, or 17 percent more in real per-person terms.

We have just issued the Controller’s Annual Report (CAR) for fiscal year 2017 (FY17). Here we provide an overview of it. Future columns will discuss individual sections.

The CAR provides Nevada citizens, officials and others a summary of key facts, data, analysis and issues about the state’s fiscal condition and challenges. The Controller has a statutory charge to recommend plans for: support of public credit; promoting frugality and economy; better management of the state’s fiscal affairs; and better understanding of them.

As Oprah ponders a run for the Presidency as a Democrat, she might pause and reflect on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. today honoring a great Republican. Dr. King chose to be a registered Republican because he knew, as does anyone who knows civil rights history, that the Democrats were the party of; slavery, the KKK, Jim Crow, and builders of Confederate war memorial monuments honoring slave owners.

In 2013, Nevada expanded Medicaid eligibility, a move promoted by the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA or ObamaCare) to improve health care to people allegedly then under-served by our health care systems.

In return, the federal government fully funded Nevada’s increased costs through 2016. However, the federal reimbursements slowly decline beginning this year. With the over-spending problems faced by the federal government, there is serious question whether reimbursements will continue after 2020, and if so at what level.

Congress sure has some confusing rules. If you filed separate returns, but were married for the year(s) involved, you might consider filing and Amended Return form 1040X to change to filing a joint income tax return.

Missouri-based health insurance provider Centene will expand coverage on Nevada's Obamacare exchange next year, averting Nevada's rural healthcare 'crisis,' Governor Brian Sandoval announced at a press conference in Silver Springs Tuesday morning.

Arizona’s United States Senator John McCain has been a difficult Republican for libertarian limited-government conservatives like us to embrace. Often, we stand opposite him on important issues of the day. He is too lacking in overarching principle for our taste. James has called on him to retire and actually sided with his Republican primary opponents in 2010 and 2016.
Yet, today we are sad.

Our socialist healthcare system is predictably out of control with rising costs, lowered services and inevitable bankruptcy for our nation. To solve the artificially created shortages of affordable health care we need to repeal Obamacare (hopefully before it kills too many people) and then we need to restore market incentives to lower the cost of health care using the following ten steps:

I: Eliminate Taxes and deregulate American health care.

II: Increase grants and loans to create more health care doctors and workers.

Nevada Sen. Dean Heller and several of his Republican colleagues set aside their lingering concerns with legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act and voted Tuesday afternoon to allow debate on the bill to proceed.

Did you know that not too long ago people did not require medical insurance? Less than fifty years ago people paid cash or used credit for medical care which was true for most of the history of our nation. Indeed, medical care was once so accessible and affordable that most people did not need insurance to pay their medical bills. Then, medical Doctors and Insurance companies began to lobby government to 'regulate' (i.e. monopolize) health care to 'improve' it.

Americans Declaration of Medical Freedoms

For six years, most Republicans campaigning for federal office pledged to repeal ObamaCare. According to national polls, a majority of Americans have consistently opposed ObamaCare even when they otherwise approved of Barack Obama as president.

United States Sen. Dean Heller and U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei were the featured guest speakers at Wednesday's monthly Soup's On luncheon series sponsored by the Carson City Chamber of Commerce.

Their presence attracted a sold-out crowd inside the banquet room at the Gold Dust West Casino, 2171 East William Street in Carson City, as well as dozens of protesters outside of the facility.

We are humanists and, so, optimists.

Against us in the political sphere stand environmentalists and other anti-humanists. These folks see not progress, but threat, in seemingly everything done by man.

We see man as being born into an uncertain and challenging world. In a state of nature, earthquakes, tornadoes and other disasters combine with infections and shortages of food, shelter and other basic resources to threaten man's very survival. But over centuries, humans have applied their intelligence to shape the world around them.

As Barack Obama’s second Presidential term winds down, what can one say about his signature domestic initiative, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare or ACA)?

Passed in 2010 by a Democrat Congress without a single Republican vote, it promised to improve health care, cut costs and assure everyone is protected by insurance. Also, numerous times, unequivocally on the public record, Obama assured us: If you like your health insurance, you can keep it; if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.

None of those goals and assurances was realized. All failed.

The Treasury Department recently told of the efforts to curtail tax evasion. Some proposed regulations would use the recent release of the “Panama Papers” to audit the high-profile individuals and overseas tax havens largely used to hide cash and avoid taxes.

Obama's third term as President

The Culinary union, which has been lobbying for an end to the so-called Cadillac tax in Obamacare, began a Spanish-language radio ad today targeting the Democratic presidential candiodates in advance of next week's debate.
It mentions a Republican (Dean Heller) friendly to the cause and takes a pret...

Anybody out there dabbling in the stock market? Do you own any qualified dividend producing stock? Here are some thoughts on how to maximize your tax savings.

First, you need to know the "rules" of the game. Basically if your tax bracket is no higher than 15 percent then any income earned on Capital Gains and/or Qualified Dividends is taxed at ZERO percent until such income pushes you into the 25 percent tax bracket.

Unless changes are made to the state employee benefits plan, officials say the plan is going to be hit with a huge federal tax burden — a burden that’s going to double every year.The so-called Cadillac Tax is a provis...

Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nv., says the “Cadillac Tax” contained in the Affordable Care Act is not only ugly and extremely unpopular but won’t generate anywhere near the money it’s supposed to.That tax hits the s...

Unless changes are made to the state employee benefits plan, officials say the plan is going to be hit with a huge federal tax burden — a burden that’s going to double every year.The so-called Cadillac Tax is a provis...

Days before the Supreme Court could strip it of a central component, there is still no “plan B” for Obamacare. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell warned the Obama administration will be unable to cover the millions of Americans who could lose their medical insurance if the Suprem...

Of course you need to consider the financial aspects of living in retirement. But thinking about when to retire is also important. First there is being emotionally ready. For some folks, their work provides a sense of fulfillment.

Our Congress is broken. It's dysfunctional. It's confused. It's Illogical. I know. "It is all the other Senators and Congressmen and women's fault, not mine." WRONG! Well folks, all I can say is check their voting record, not what they say in speeches. It doesn't matter if Congress is dominated by Democrats or Republicans. Here are some examples of their stupidity.

Errors from Nevada’s roll-out of the Affordable Care Act continue to make life difficult for consumers now trying to file taxes....

Several Republican governors likely to run for president have secured hundreds millions of dollars under Obamacare while working to dismantle the healthcare law, according to a Reuters review of federal spending records....

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a new challenge to President Barack Obama’s healthcare law that took aim at a bureaucratic board labeled by some Republicans as a “death panel” because it was designed to cut Medicare costs....