e-News 10/31/14

• More Questions Than Answers: ISIS and Ebola
• Focus on a Growing Economy and New Jobs
• Obamacare Premiums Skyrocket for Families, Individuals
• “Now I’ve Heard it All” on health care reform
• Frightening “Progress” for North Korea: Who is sounding the alarm?
• Salute: Rotary of Livingston Foundation
• Salute: Army Civilian of the Year works at Picatinny Arsenal

More Questions Than Answers: Ebola and ISIS

Ebola and the brutal terrorist group ISIS once again dominated the talk around my Congressional District and I continue to be very concerned about how the Administration confronts these issues.

What is our strategy in Iraq and Syria?  The Washington Post ran this revealing editorial “Mr. Obama’s half-hearted fight against ISIS” earlier this week.

On Ebola, I wonder why the Administration’s medical experts cannot come up with a coherent plan to further protect the American people from exposure to infected travelers entering our country from the African “hot zone” or from our southern border, for that matter.  The CDC isurging healthcare workers back from West Africa, with the highest risk for carrying Ebola, to isolate themselves voluntarily, while our military isrequiring 21-day quarantines for our troops returning from Liberia, even though they are not supposed to be in contact with Ebola!   

Focus on a Growing Economy and New Jobs

With October coming to a close, members of the House and Senate will return to Washington in a few weeks.  Hopefully, the Senate will decide it’s finally time to act as the House passes jobs bills in the coming “lame duck” session of Congress!

In the last year and a half, the House has passed more than 40 bills aimed at boosting the economy, creating jobs and easing the financial pain that is affecting working families all over New Jersey.

Where are these bills now? They all are stuck in the Senate where Majority Leader Harry Reid won’t even bring them up for debate!

Now, these bills are not thousands of pages long, nor are they partisan attempts to foist massive new programs on the American people.

No, these are common-sense jobs bills, many of them bipartisan, aimed at strengthening small businesses, allowing working families to keep more of their wages, and helping our seniors and veterans.

Even though the President and the Senate have not been willing to work with the House, we will continue to develop and pass meaningful legislation when we reconvene the Appropriations Committee in November.

Obamacare Premiums Skyrocket for Families, Individuals

Remember the assertion by the President that Obamacare would lowerhealth insurance premiums for the “typical” family and it would happen by 2013? 

Well, it’s 2014 and we now know the truth.  As a Forbes article cites, new health research shows that non-group premiums (those policies families and individuals have to buy on their own instead of getting one from their employer) in 44 states have increased by an average of 24.4 percent versus what was expected prior to enactment of Obamacare.

Read the article here.

And now a brand new problem for people obtaining health insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchanges: they can't find a doctor who will take them as patients.  Get the details from the Tuesday edition ofUSA Today.  

From The “Now I’ve Heard it All” Department

The millions of health insurance cancellations caused by Obamacare do not mean people are “losing insurance,” according to a top Health and Human Services official — they just mean people are being “invited” to join an Obamacare exchange.

From HHS Regional Director Joanne Grossi:

“So, I just want to remind you that you weren’t losing insurance, you were just losing that insurance plan and were now being invited to go into the health insurance marketplace.”

Frightening “Progress” for the North Koreans: Who is Sounding the Alarm?

The New York Times recently published a disturbing story about North Korea’s capability to “marry” a nuclear weapon with a ballistic missile.  Read this frightening article here.

Recommended Reading: Pick up a copy of the November/December edition of the VFW Magazine, turn to page 26 and read “Fallujah: Battle for the City of Mosques.”  It’s a great read about how courageous U.S. Marines routed a force of 3,000 terrorists ten years ago.

Salute: To the honorees at the Rotary Club of Livingston Foundation 4th Annual Community Service Awards: Community Service Awards go to Livingston First Aid Squad and the Livingston Fire Department.  New Jersey Citizenship Awardee is Tim McLoone. 

Salute: Margaret "Missy" Nulk, a logistics manager with the U.S. Army ARDEC at Picatinny Arsenal, has been named the 2014 Association of the U.S. Army, First Region, Department of the Army Civilian of the Year.  Congratulations Missy!