{"id":23877,"date":"2013-10-14T11:08:38","date_gmt":"2013-10-14T19:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teensleuth.com\/blog\/?p=23877"},"modified":"2013-10-14T11:09:01","modified_gmt":"2013-10-14T19:09:01","slug":"actual-elected-official-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/blog\/?p=23877","title":{"rendered":"Actual Elected Official."},"content":{"rendered":"

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Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Greg Zoeller slid into the Indiana’s 42nd Attorney General office at the same time ACORN stole the election for Obama \u00a0– November, 2008. He was reelected to a second term in 2012. Prior to being elected Attorney General, he was the\u00a0Assistant to braintrust Dan Quayle in the White House. He and his family\u00a0are members of Christ the King Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

Zoeller is best known for\u00a0advocating the mandatory drug testing<\/span><\/a> of all pregnant women in Indiana. When that was met with predictable outrage, he backpedaled, trying to discredit the people who raised the flags on this reprehensible program.\u00a0Why do these shit-for-brains think they can gaslight entire populations when there is a transcript and an audio recording, and we can hear with our own ears exactly what they said? The hubris of thinking that could work!<\/p>\n

Zoeller filed briefs in support of gay marriage bans and authored an\u00a0amicus brief, also known as a friend-of-the-court brief, urging the nine justices not only to explicitly permit prayer at government meetings but also to set a new, definitive standard allowing most religious activities in the public square.<\/p>\n

This week Greg Zoeller\u00a0found something even more wasteful to do as AG than that guy who harassed gas stations and 7-11s after 9\/11 (albeit PR gold if you’re building wingnut support to run for Indiana governor). He\u00a0filed a lawsuit against the IRS challenging its authority to fund Obamacare\u2019s insurance subsidies for individuals and enacting penalties against public employers that don\u2019t meet the health law\u2019s minimum worker coverage requirement. If successful, the challenge would prevent Americans from receiving the government assistance that makes Obamacare\u2019s insurance marketplace plans affordable in the first place.<\/p>\n

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The argument is based on a technical ambiguity in the law that state-level GOP officials and\u00a0congressional Republicans have been seizing on in an attempt to undermine the ACA\u2019s consumer assistance. The IRS has issued regulations saying that the law permits and intends the agency to extend subsidies to Americans in all 50 states.\u00a0Zoeller argues that Congress would have to pass separate legislation in order for Americans to qualify for tax credits in the states that haven\u2019t set up an Obamacare marketplace.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that many citizens lack health insurance is an issue for policymakers, and my office takes no position regarding the congressional debate over funding the ACA. I never complain when private plaintiffs file lawsuits to challenge the state authority that my office defends; but now our role is reversed and Indiana has initiated this lawsuit asking the court whether the IRS has exceeded its federal taxing authority over state governments, This respectful challenge is an appropriate role for the Office of the Attorney General to vigorously assert the ability of the State and its political subdivisions to manage their workforces in our American system of federalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

I will give him points for using the “ACA” rather than Obamacare and for using the word “respectfully”, he seems downright genteel.<\/p>\n

If the stupid lawsuit is successful, it would amount to a massive premium hike for Americans who are required to procure insurance coverage under the health law \u2014 and could fundamentally cripple Obamacare\u2019s goal of extending affordable health coverage to the uninsured. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that over 85 percent of individuals who sign up through the marketplaces this year will qualify for subsidies to help them afford their new plans. Those subsidies can end up reducing the top-line cost of health coverage\u00a0by as much as the full premium amount, depending on an individual\u2019s yearly income.\u00a0After all, if you can’t make the people who elected you suffer needlessly, who can you make suffer needlessly?<\/p>\n

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With great mustache, comes great responsibility. Look at that pic, you expect THAT GUY to just sit on his hands and let things happen?<\/p>\n

Other GOP-led states have taken alternative tactics to undermine reform, such as\u00a0refusing to implement the law\u2019s basic consumer protections such as its ban on insurers denying coverage to Americans with pre-existing medical conditions. And many Red States are successfully\u00a0denying coverage to poor Americans by refusing to expand Medicaid under the health law.\u00a0Following this line of logic, the IRS will announce that residents of Indiana will now be required to pay income tax on the value of their employer paid health benefits.<\/p>\n

Helping people is complicated and expensive! Spending boatloads of money on lawyers to make hair-splitting cases and argue them before the Supreme Court to reverse plans that help people, however — that shit just about pays for itself! And\u00a0remember, you can’t really vilify the money spent on emergency room care if you go around preventing illness. What kind of benefit would Insurance companies and Big Pharma see in that case? Get your priorities straight, people.<\/p>\n

Indiana, another failed state.\u00a0What with their Voting to\u00a0block Medicaid fund<\/span>s<\/a> from being used at Planned Parenthood clinics (the federal government blocked Indiana’s action because it is\u00a0against the law<\/em>), their\u00a0Firefighters getting tased in the face<\/span><\/a>,<\/span> their book burning governors <\/span><\/a>and their racist state reps\u00a0(Todd Rokita,\u00a0speaking at a Republican event, and encouraged Republicans to reach out to African Americans. He mentioned 90 percent of African Americans vote Democratic, after which he asked:<\/p>\n

“How can that be? Ninety to ten. Who’s the master and who’s the slave in that relationship? How can that be healthy?”)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And Indiana’s Attorney General, Greg Zoeller, just another “Christian” acting in ways that are antithetical to the teachings of Christ.\u00a0For the rest of us, pull up your boot straps, fellas, and stop playing the victim. Only Christians can do that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller Greg Zoeller slid into the Indiana’s 42nd Attorney General office at the same time ACORN stole the election for Obama \u00a0– November, 2008. He was reelected to a second term in 2012. Prior to being elected Attorney General, he was the\u00a0Assistant to braintrust Dan Quayle in the White House. He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1423,1424,1425],"class_list":["post-23877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-greg-zoeller","tag-greg-zoeller-idiot","tag-greg-zoeller-moron"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23877"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23905,"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23877\/revisions\/23905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teensleuth.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}