Almost 40 of the 204 waivers that the White House issued to President Barack Obama’s healthcare law last month went to high-end restaurants, nightclubs, and hotels in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s Northern California district, The Daily Caller reports. The waivers granted in Pelosi’s district have little in common with those doled out in the rest of the country, where such passes often have gone to labor union chapters, large corporations, financial firms, and local governments.
One restaurant receiving a waiver is Boboquivari’s in San Francisco, which advertises $59 porterhouse steaks, $39 filet mignons, and $35 crab dinners. Another is Café des Amis, which bills itself as “a timeless Parisian style brasserie . . . located on one of San Francisco’s premier shopping and strolling boulevards, Union Street,” according to the restaurant’s website.
The White House has raised plenty of eyebrows for granting 1,700-plus waivers to its own healthcare reform law.
I’m shocked. Favors are being given to Pelosi’s contributors ? I’m losing faith in the fairness of all of this.
“We have to pass the bill before we will see who we can pay off with waivers.”
Caption should be:
Hey, look a taxpayer!
Quick! Someone see if he has any money left.
Question: if more than 50% of the population request waivers, would that effectively repeal Obamacare?
Doesn’t this tell the few who think Obamacare is a good thing that something MUST be VERY, VERY wrong with it?
Ask yourself, what does Pelosi know that we don’t??
Somebody please explain who grants the waiver…edos a Senator or Representative have the power to grant one? Or does it come from some minor staff member in the White House?
This screams for a Congressional investigation….
#6, I’m sure Issa will drop his political witch hunts and get right on it.
Sadly this is just one aspect of Obama Administration Fascist economy: Boeing, Oil, auto industry, GE, ethanol,… list is too long. If you want to be PC call it Crony Capitalism but honestly this Administration behaves as Fascist Dictatorship.
Mitt Romney gets credit for his Massachusetts health care law requiring people to buy medical insurance or pay a tax penalty.
Naturally, he gets baddaboys for being a also a hypocritical liar about this and sheep pandering piece of shit.
#6 – I think it’s Kathleen Sebelius:
http://www.hhs.gov/secretary/
Or, more likely, some junior staffer who works in HHS, and then Sebelius just rubber-stamps it.
Under Obamacare rules, the authority to issue waivers is specifically granted to HHS and they are allowed to devise any rules & regulations they see fit, and can choose to give waivers for any reason.
So far they’ve been consistent: they’ve given waivers to any organization that supports Obama.
Here’s an idea: if the Republicans manage to scape up a candidate that can actually beat Obama (or even get elected in 2016) then the first executive order could be to grant Obamacare waivers to everyone.
#9. Dullass- this article is about Romney, really? What a hypocritical asshole and pandering piece of shit.
This has already been debunked http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/05/pelosi-district-health-care-waivers
So the companies that run the Restaurants for the Rich ($59 porterhouse steaks, $39 filet mignons, and $35 crab dinners) can’t afford Obamacare, how are the other companies going to handle it.
#12. A denial in email to MotherJones from Pelosi’s staff is a debunking.
Uh OK.
#12 Strange that anyone would reference a Motherjones article. I thought their loons were driven out of business years ago.
The twisted logic in the article tries to shift the responsibility by saying that Flex Plan Services submitted the names of the companies in Pelosi’s district, so therefore she can’t be blamed.
Further on is the ultimate Obamacare killer comment: “waivers are essentially a stop-gap measure designed to keep employers from dropping health care benefits all together”
#15 Because the Daily Caller and NewsMax are paragons of objectivity, right? Mojo is certainly not the only outlet running stories counter to the GOP narrative.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/17/nancy-pelosi-health-care-waivers_n_863252.html
Gosh the truth hurts!
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….
In actuality, Aitken explained, the high percentage of waivers is the byproduct of local law rubbing against the new national legislation. In April 2008, San Francisco passed an ordinance requiring employers to spend a minimum amount per hour on health care for their employees who work in the city. In response, a number of eateries chose to set up Health Reimbursement Arrangements, which are essentially pools of funds set aside by employers to reimburse medical expenses paid by employees.
HRAs are serviced by a third-party administrator or plan service provider. They are also subject to the annual limit provision in the national health care law, which is set at $750,000 in 2011 before it is eliminated fully in 2014.
Like many self-insurance policies and union organizations, employers using HRAs have been applying for a waiver from this provision, arguing that application of the requirements would “completely eliminate the benefit” of setting up the HRA in the first place, Flex-Plan Services said. When they do so, they turn not to lawmakers like Pelosi or to the employers themselves, but to third-party administers like Aitken’s company. (And, as she hinted, political donations by Flex-Plan have leaned Republican, according to data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics.)
Yeah right, it’s just a “coincidence”…20% out of the entire country.
Gullible fool.
#18…20% of last month’s total. Very misleading headline.
# 17 Mr Ed said, “She’s really being thrown under the bus here. It has nothing to do with her at all.”
Can you say “spin”? It doesn’t really matter if she went to Sebelius and said do this for me. HHS knows what district the request comes from and Pelosi is still a powerful member of Congress. How many waivers did Reid get for Nevada?
# 10 chuck said, “they are allowed to devise any rules & regulations they see fit, and can choose to give waivers for any reason” Well you can’t say we weren’t warned: “We gotta pass this bill to find out what’s in it!”
If this weren’t so sad, it would be good for a real belly laugh. Clowns. All of ’em.
So people are going to lose health care or jobs unless waivers are granted. The name of the game is to grant waivers to prevent headlines of job losses until after Obama is reelected.
I’m a little confused here, so forgive me. But why on earth would these restaurants be given waivers? This Health care nonsense is killing me. The fees keep going up and up, and while I believe everyone should be provided health care, how can we pay a reasonable amount instead of $100’s every month?
#23–Jewelry Shill==I am reminded of Al Pacino’s famous scene: “I’m out of order? You are ALL out of order!!!!”
Yes, imagine the law providing waivers for businesses that already had a pre-existing healthcare plan not having to change it for a few years during a transition period.
Oh, the humanity. Why not instead focus your attention on the millions of employers that offer no healthcare at all and now must do so? Thats balancing a more egregious issue affecting MILLIONS against what 33-40 business that already took action?
Single Payer—Healthcare is not a For Profit Activity—-Yay!!!!
I wonder how much the steak and crab when up on the menu when the city told them they had to spend $X/mth on employee healthcare.
Government is the problem. It is a reflection of our society which is sick as hell.
Nevada and New Hampshire have gotten waivers. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that these are two swing states that Obama can’t risk losing.
On top of which we have 26 states formally part of a lawsuit against the law.
Another politician that is a disgrace to her country. Her sheeple will yell loud and long that Nancy is “our” gal, and is concerned for our/your safety and well being.
Of course she isn’t as good at it (screwing your ass to the wall) as good old dick, but who would want to see her be a good old dick?
A reporter for the Cover MY ASS Gazette asked the Senator,”Senator can you explain your hypocrisy with waivers for your favored constituents?”.
Nancy Pelosi said,” What? … oh … uh .. Do as I say, not as I do, yeah – thats it! My mother always said when I was a child … uh … please remember the children everyone! … no wait , uh… yes, yes that is the saying”.
Smiling sweetly from the podium she gathers her composure and exits the room with an air of appalled aplomb at being asked such a question.
“President Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), headed by Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, has now granted Obamacare waivers to the entire states of Nevada and New Hampshire.”
Ok, so 2 states down, only 48 to go (or 55 if you ask Obama).
Funny thing — didn’t Harry Reid vote for Obamacare? So why would he want waivers for his home state?
I opt for opt in waivers.
Unless I’m missing something the health care bill seems to have been designed as a wonderful way to get campaign contributions. Money changes hands/promises of jobs for somebody/a low interest loan/etc. and you get a waver.
If you think it isn’t being used for that purpose then you are suggesting a change in the way the government’s power of enforcement is being used.