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Vaya Con Dios, Rush: Congress Passes Fix in Health Care

The departure of Rush Limbaugh for Costa Rica is now imminent with the passage of the second health care legislation — the so-called fixes of the original bill. Limbaugh threatened earlier that if Congress dared to pass the legislation he would leave for Costa Rica, here. It was an offer that Congress could simply not pass up.

In his prior radio interview, Limbaugh stated to a listener: “I don’t know. I’ll just tell you this, if this passes and it’s five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented — I am leaving the country. I’ll go to Costa Rica.”

Here are the flights this weekend from Florida near his beach home from Expedia:

12:00 pm Depart Miami (MIA)
Arrive San Jose (SJO) 4:55 pm Sat 27-Mar
Duration: 6hr 55mn
American Airlines American Airlines 2189

10:35 am Depart Miami (MIA)
Arrive San Jose (SJO) 4:55 pm Sat 27-Mar
Duration: 8hr 20mn
American Airlines American Airlines 993
LACSA LACSA 692
Connect in Panama City (Tocumen Intl.)

3:10 pm Depart Miami (MIA)
Arrive San Jose (SJO) 4:00 pm Sat 27-Mar
Duration: 2hr 50mn
American Airlines American Airlines 1051
Nonstop flight

As a further assistance to speed his departure, here is all the Spanish he will need on his new Spanish radio program in San Jose, Costa Rica:

Tea bag – bolsita para hacer té

Socialism – socialismo

Conservative – conservador

Free Market – mercado libre

OxyContin – OxyContin

133 thoughts on “Vaya Con Dios, Rush: Congress Passes Fix in Health Care”

  1. Bdaman,

    I would also point out that a ‘$1 billion non-cash cost’ is not the same a losing $1 billion. It strikes me as an accounting trick (a way to reduce earnings by $1 billion to reduce taxes).

  2. bdaman,

    Some of us Sean Connery fans might take offense to the tenor of your statement about the “Chicago Way”, too.

  4. Bdaman,
    If the companies are telling the truth and there are legitimate business reasons to make their “interesting” claims concerning the health care reform, then they have nothing to fear in meeting with Rep. Waxman. Rep. Waxman will be sure to get to the bottom of their respective companies’ stances. By the way, people from the Chicago area might take offense to the tenor of your statement about the “Chicago Way”.

  8. Here’s a good lesson to follow this post

    45% Of Doctors Would Consider Quitting If Congress Passes Health Care Overhaul.

    http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=506199

    Rise in NHS managers outstrips doctors and nurses
    The number of managers in the NHS has risen at double the rate of doctors and nurses under Labour, official figures have disclosed.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7520408/Rise-in-NHS-managers-outstrips-doctors-and-nurses.html

  10. Now this is funny

    One of the more controversial elements of ObamaCare is the mandate for most individuals to purchase insurance beginning in 2014. There is really no precedent for a federal mandate of this scale requiring individuals to purchase a product or service. So not surprisingly a number of state Attorney Generals have indicated they will be filing suit questioning the constitutionality of this provision.

    Of course the individual mandate is also very risky from a political standpoint, as the Democrats who orchestrated the passage of this bill are mandating not only that the young and healthy obtain insurance, but also that even their most fervent liberal constituents must purchase this coverage from the “evil”, private insurance industry.

    Republicans for their part have focused on the fact that this mandate will be enforced via threat of a financial penalty (or tax), with the added assumption that it is the dreaded IRS which will be enforcing this. And sure enough, it’s already been reported that the IRS anticipates hiring possibly in excess of 15,000 additional personnel to deal with the collection of the individual mandate, and other tax related provisions within the bill.

    However, it turns out that the Democrats who crafted this bill significantly – and I mean significantly – hamstrung the ability of the IRS or any other federal agency to enforce or collect on this mandate. Here is what the federal Joint Committee on Taxation had to say about this issue in a report released earlier this week:

    Individuals who fail to maintain minimum essential coverage in 2016 are subject to a penalty equal to the greater of: (1) 2.5 percent of household income in excess of the taxpayer’s household income for the taxable year over the threshold amount of income required for income tax return filing for that taxpayer under section 6012(a)(1);67 or (2) $695 per uninsured adult in the household. The fee for an uninsured individual under age 18 is one-half of the adult fee for an adult. The total household penalty may not exceed 300 percent of the per adult penalty ($2,085). The total annual household payment may not exceed the national average annual premium for bronze level health plan offered through the Exchange that year for the household size…

    The penalty applies to any period the individual does not maintain minimum essential coverage and is determined monthly. The penalty is assessed through the Code and accounted for as an additional amount of Federal tax owed.

    Here’s the relevant part

    However, it is not subject to the enforcement provisions of subtitle F of the Code. The use of liens and seizures otherwise authorized for collection of taxes does not apply to the collection of this penalty. Non-compliance with the personal responsibility requirement to have health coverage is not subject to criminal or civil penalties under the Code and interest does not accrue for failure to pay such assessments in a timely manner.

    According to a footnote in the report, “subtitle F of the Code” is the portion of the tax code which grants the IRS the authority to assess and collect taxes. In other words, as the law is written the federal government has no legal authority to enforce this mandate, nor will it have any recourse to collect any penalties that go unpaid!

    http://www.jct.gov/publications.html?func=startdown&id=3673

    http://biggovernment.com/mrichmond/2010/03/26/joint-committee-on-taxation-confirms-that-obamacare-does-not-enforce-individual-mandate/

  11. Beware the ‘jobs killer’
    Companies threaten to quit state over new tax on medical devices

    http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view/20100325beware_the_jobs_killer_companies_threaten_to_quit_state_over_new_tax_on_medical_devices/srvc=home&position=0

    Adire warning from Bay State medical-device companies that a new sales tax in the federal health-care law could force their plants – and thousands of jobs – out of the country has rattled Gov. Deval Patrick, a staunch backer of the law and pal President Obama.

    “This bill is a jobs killer,” said Ernie Whiton, chief financial officer of Chelmsford’s Zoll Medical Corp., which employs about 650 people in Massachusetts. Many of those employees work in Zoll’s local manufacturing facility making heart defibrillators.

    “We could be forced to (move) manufacturing overseas if we can’t pass along these costs to our customers,” said Whiton.

    The threat – echoed by others in the critical Massachusetts industry – had the governor vowing to intervene to block the sales tax impact.

  12. Bdaman,

    Dude, beating up on Lions fans is not cool – it’s bad enough that we have the misfortune of being Lions fans… 🙁

    Duh said:

    “In reality, isn’t Intrade just an illegal gambling institution where people bet on the outcome of elections?”

    No, Intrade is a legal gambling institution where people bet on the outcome of just about anything. The odds generated by Intrade tell you exactly the same thing as the odds generated by a bookie for a sporting event (except that Intrade probably takes its cut off the top rather than adjusting the odds to cover it) namely, which side are people putting their money on. At the very least, it provides an answer to the question “What are the odds of the Democrats winning the White House in 2012?” which is something that no poll can do a week before the election, let alone a year and a half. If you want to learn more about it, I suggest that you become a regular reader of fivethirtyeight.com – Nate Silver is always very clear about when he is giving his opinions (he’s a liberal) and when he is talking about statistics (where he is the guy who called the popular vote in the 2008 election to within 0.1%). He frequently mentions Intrade and what it means and his statistically analysis is unbiased and second to none.

    Byron,

    Thanks for helping explain Intrade to Duh. I’d mention that before the 2008 election someone was putting a lot of money on McCain (presumably in an attempt to raise McCain’s odds on Intrade in the hopes of giving the appearance of a positive trend) but he wouldn’t understand so he’d just claim that it was evidence of whatever point he thinks that he is making, so I probably shouldn’t say anything…

    rafflaw,

    Me? Sarcastic? I don’t think so… 😉

  13. Bloomberg
    AT&T to Book $1 Billion Cost on Health-Care Reform (Update3)
    March 26, 2010, 4:37 PM EDT

    AT&T Inc. will book $1 billion in first-quarter costs related to the health-care law signed this week by President Barack Obama, the most of any U.S. company so far.

    A change in the tax treatment of Medicare subsidies triggered the non-cash expense, and the company will consider changes to the benefits it offers current and retired workers, Dallas-based AT&T said today in a regulatory filing.

    AT&T, the biggest U.S. phone company, joins Caterpillar Inc., AK Steel Holding Corp. and 3M Co. in recording non-cash expenses against earnings as a result of the law. Health-care costs may shave as much as $14 billion from U.S. corporate profits, according to an estimate by benefits consulting firm Towers Watson. AT&T employed about 281,000 people as of the end of January.

    http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-26/at-t-to-take-1-billion-charge-on-health-care-reform-update1-.html

  15. We’re still waiting for Hannity to live up to his promise to be water boarded. I wouldn’t expect much more honesty or courage from Rush than from Hannity.
    ‘Course some of us have been waiting 40+ years for Dubhya to fly his fighter jet over North Vietnam, too.

    Republicans as a group are whimps and bullies and more than a little sadistic.

  16. Slats,
    I am a bit late responding, but I like your sarcasm! Bdaman, it is interesting that you didn’t include any link or citation for the companies who are allegedly crying that they will be losing money from the health care reform bill. Why would they be losing so much money when most of the taxes don’t kick in for 3 or 4 years? Me think they doth protest too much!

  18. Typically people bet to make money not lose money.

    And the majority typically lose money.

  19. Duh does it tell you the number of democrats vs republicans who placed the bets.

  20. People that love a sports team dont necessarily bet on their team every game.

    Detroit Lions

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