Federal agents arrested a Massachusetts man in New York for allegedly using Twitter to solicit the murder of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced Thursday morning that federal agents arrested Brandon Ziobrowski, 33, of Cambridge, at 7:15 a.m. for tweeting a threat saying he “would give $500 to anyone who kills an ICE agent.”
“I am broke, but I will scrounge and literally give $500 to anyone who kills an ice agent. @me seriously who else can pledge get it on this let’s make it work,” Ziobrowski allegedly tweeted July 2, according to NBC News.
Twitter later suspended his account at the request of law enforcement officials.
The suspect allegedly began posting threatening messages against politicians and law enforcement long before his alleged July tweet. He wrote in one tweet that he desired to “slit” Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) throat and began tweeting messages encouraging violence against members of law enforcement, according to the indictment.
The indictment also stated that he threatened ICE over Twitter in March.
Ziobrowski is accused of using interstate and foreign commerce to transmit a threat to injure another person, a charge that carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. He is expected to appear in Brooklyn federal court on Thursday for his initial hearing.
When Trump took office with a promise to bring growth up to three percent, many said it could be done. Claims by President Trump and his economic team that they could boost growth to 3 percent were derired as fanciful, unrealistic, or deceptive.
But the most recent Wall Street Journal poll of economists reveals that the average estimate for growth in 2018 has reached 3 percent, up from 2.9 percent last month and up from 2.4 percent a year ago.
“The average forecast predicts by the middle of next year the unemployment rate will drop to 3.6%. If the forecast is realized, it would be the lowest unemployment rate in nearly 50 years,” the Wall Street Journalreports.
That would leave a lot of economic prognosticators with egg on their faces. To take just a few examples:
“The problem for the Trumpians is that we’ve had eight years of recovery,” Lee Branstetter, a professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University, told Business Insider in February of 2017. “Now unemployment is well below 5%, and there’s just not a lot of slack in the US labor market. … It’s essentially mathematically impossible to get the growth they’re talking about.”
“Making up the difference from 2% to more than 3% looks like a pipe dream,” L.A. Times business columnist Michael Hiltzik wrote.
Marc Goldwein, the policy director of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, told Planet Money that even if “you took the unemployment rate down to zero, you’d not even be close to 3 percent growth.”
Five Thirty Eight described 3 percent annual growth as “pure fantasy” and reported that “most economists see 3 percent as so unrealistic.”
“Economists are raising their growth expectations for this year and next, but don’t expect 3% growth during President Trump’s first term, according to a Philadelphia Fed survey published Monday,” Marketwatch reported.
“Sorry, Mr. Trump, but the only way to get to 3% growth is to hire more Mexicans,” columnist Rex Nutting wrote.
“Assuming 3% growth is, to put it generously, wishful thinking. Worse, it is deeply misleading–and potentially dangerous,” Simon Johnson declared.
Many of those who doubted Trump could achieve 3 percent growth now doubt the growth can be sustained. In fact, many economists who thought the U.S. would grow much slower in 2018 than it has been now project a slowdown in 2019 and 2020, with some even saying we risk a recession.
The Trump administration has even out-performed its own expectations. The first Trump budget projected that the economy would ramp up to 3 percent by 2021. So hitting 3 percent in 2018 would mean the Trump administration’s error was underestimating the near-term growth potential.
Still, it appears the Trump administration was closer to the mark than its critics. Faced with a barrage of skeptical questions from reporters when he announced the Trump 2018 budget, OMB direct Mick Mulvaney said reporters were wrong to insist the administration’s projections were overly-optimistic.
“That assumes a pessimism about America, about the economy, about its people, about its culture that we’re simply refusing to accept,” Mulvaney said. “We believe that we can get to 3 percent growth.”
And now so do the economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal.
A group of anonymous right-wing street artists multiplied President Donald Trump’s Walk of Fame star on Hollywood Blvd. following the destruction of his real one — and they now have a warning for “Resistors”.
Keep taking down the @realDonaldTrump star, and we will further spread Trump Derangement Syndrome by installing a never ending stream of stars. pic.twitter.com/6s0Y3YIkY5
The artists, who describe themselves as a “rogue right-wing street outfit” that is “100% pro-individualism and meritocracy and 100% anti-identity politics” used 30 vinyl laminated Donald Trump stars to fill in blank squares along the path.
Working under the name The Faction, the anonymous artists are now issuing a “warning” to resistors about their “baby-tantrum tactics.”
The full statement provided to The Gateway Pundit by the artists reads as follows:
In Donald Trump’s “The Art of the Deal” the President instructs that if someone fucks you over, you have to fuck them back twice as hard. Because we Russian bots are learning machines, though, we may have taken it to the extreme. Rip up the President’s Walk Of Fame star or try to have it removed – like you’re the Mayor of West Hollywood or something — and thirty more will pop up.
“Strike me down and I will become more powerful than you could ever imagine” Trump tapped into his typewriter when he wrote Star Wars. We are seeing his prophetic words play out as we speak. Or did you SpaceForce deniers think that movie was fiction? When are you going to realize that you’ve sided with the Empire?
Keep it up, “Resistors”. We’re going to ride your baby-tantrum tactics all the way to victory in 2020 and beyond. Keep it up, “Resistors”. And your bathroom will be tiled with Trump Stars by the time he boards Marine One on January 20, 2025.
The idiots pick-axing Trump’s star on the Walk of Fame are the same as the Whining Acostas and High-Pitch Stelters of the fake media. They don’t understand that the Real Trump has infected America with winning fever, and like his star has infected the Walk of Fame — literally massing around and isolating cancerous stars like Blubbering Rob Reiner and Crying Jimmy Kimmel — the fever is spreading.
The artists also provided TGP with additional photos of the art.
It is rumored that Milo Yiannopolous funded the stars, but neither camp would confirm or deny the speculation. The speculation continued to gain steam after the controversial author and journalist posted a photo of the stars to his Instagram — vowing to make more.
Though they are extremely durable, it seems that they have already been peeled off as local businesses were worried about another maniac coming by with a pick ax.
A polling worker wrongly prevented a man from voting in Missouri because he was wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat, according to the Kansas City Star, and the man was escorted from the premises by police.
The man in the MAGA hat reportedly became “upset” and “combative” when the worker asked him to take the hat off, leading to his removal.
“There was an incident at the polling place in Northland Cathedral on Oak in Kansas City, [Missouri],” one witness wrote on Twitter. “A slightly inebriated, belligerent man wearing a red hat was asked to remove his political hat and refused and started [filming] the voters. When told to stop, he argued with officials.”
Why didn’t they let him vote?
The polling worker was incorrectly applying a state law that bans the wearing of political apparel pertaining to a specific candidate or issue on the ballot within 25 feet of a polling location.
The man knew something wasn’t right, so after being kicked out of the polling place he called the Secretary of State’s office to get confirmation that he had not broken the law.
Because the hat, which bears President Donald Trump’s infamous 2016 campaign slogan, had nothing to do with anything on the Missouri ballot, he should have been allowed to cast his vote, said Tiffany Ellison, the Democratic director of the Clay County Election Board.
“The determination of the county election official is lad out clearly in state law,” said Maura Browning, communications director for the Secretary of State’s office.
What was the resolution?
Once aware of the situation, the Clay County Election Board contacted the man to let him know he could return to the polling place where he would be allowed to vote.
Apparently, he didn’t harbor any hard feelings. Ellison said the man apologized for his earlier behavior, and thanked the representative of the election board who he spoke to.
Far left Vox.com website joined Nancy Pelosi and defended the little darlings of MS-13 this week.
After all, they’re only killing American kids and chopping them up into pieces.
President Trump’s Justice Department says there are about 10,000 MS-13 members in the U.S., the same number as 10 years ago.
Nearly 40 percent of all murders in Suffolk County, New York between January 2016 and June 2017 were tied to MS-13.
A former Ohio State University wrestler and UFC champion has changed his story about Rep. Jim Jordan’s (R-Ohio) knowledge of alleged sexual abuse by a former team doctor during his tenure, according to Fox News.
The wrestler, Mark Coleman, issued a statement through the public relations company retained by Jordan, denying that he ever said Jordan knew of the abuse.
“At no time did I ever say or have any direct knowledge that Jim Jordan knew of Dr. Richard Strauss’s inappropriate behavior,” Coleman said in the statement. “I have nothing but respect for Jim Jordan as I have known him for more than 30 years and know him to be of impeccable character.”
What did he say before?
Coleman’s statement might not have raised eyebrows had it not been for his previous comments on this issue.
Just last month, Coleman told The Wall Street Journal that there was “no way” Jordan didn’t know what was going on.
“There’s no way unless he’s got dementia or something that he’s got no recollection of what was going on at Ohio State,” Coleman said in that report. “I have nothing but respect for the man, I love this man, but he knew as far as I’m concerned.”
Coleman said he was responding due to “comments attributed to him that were not accurate or misconstrued by media outlets.”
What’s going on here?
The sudden change in tone from Coleman brings to mind a report from last week, in which it was revealed that former Ohio State head coach Russ Hellickson was reaching out to some former wrestlers and asking them to issue statements clarifying or correcting their stance on Jordan.
In texts to former wrestler Dunyasha Yetts, Hellickson suggested Yetts issue a statement “that tells your story and corrects what you feel bad about. I can put you in contact with someone who would release it.”
It’s unknown whether Hellickson reached out to Coleman, who was also a former assistant coach at Ohio State.
Jordan, who is making a run at replacing Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) as Speaker of the House, has denied from the beginning that he had any knowledge that Strauss was abusing athletes.
Henry Olsen, author of “The Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism,” said Republicans’ political fortunes depend on the GOP’s alignment with President Donald Trump and the America First agenda. He offered his remarks in a Wednesday interview with Breitbart Senior Editors-at-Large Rebecca Mansour and Joel Pollak on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight.
Olsen began by explaining what he described as “Romney-Clinton” and “Obama-Trump” voters.
“What’s going on in American politics is that there are a lot of educated, upper class people who used to be Republican who really can’t stand what the president is doing,” said Olsen. “[They have been] moving to the Democrats in the last two years. There are people who voted for Mitt Romney in 2012, but voted for Hillary Clinton to keep Donald Trump from winning. They’re the Romney-Clinton voters.”
“In Ohio-12, [Romney-Clinton voters] are the people in the upper income wealthy suburbs in Franklin and Delaware County,” assessed Olsen.
LISTEN:
“The Obama-Trump voter is the opposite,” continued Olsen. “This is the blue-collar, working class person who feels left out and abandoned by the establishments of both major parties, and they heard Donald Trump speak and said, ‘Finally, someone is listening to and caring about us.’”
Olsen described Wednesday’s special election in Ohio’s 12th District as illustrative of a broader political realignment across the nation prompted by Trump.
“[Obama-Trump voters] left the Democrat Party to go vote for Trump,” stated Olsen. “They were the dominant feature in … the rural small-town areas of the district. This is a perfect microcosm of the two forces that are switching parties and screwing everything up as far as what the analysts are thinking about.”
Olsen added, “The Democrats made a much bigger sale with the Romney-Clinton voter than the Republicans have made with the Obama-Trump voter. We saw that on display last night. There’s very high turnout in the formerly Republican areas — now more Democrat-leaning areas — of Franklin and Delaware County, and there was low turnout in the Obama-Trump area. … The turnout disparity was huge.”
Olsen tied Republicans’ political fortunes to their embrace — or rejection — of Trump and the president’s political priorities.
“Making the sale with the Obama-Trump voter is really crucial to GOP hopes in November,” Olsen said. “If [Romney-Clinton voters] were Republicans, Mitt Romney would be in the middle of his second term. What the Republican Party needs to get a hold of is, there’s no path to a majority without winning these voters over, and that means actually starting to listen and caring about what they think about.”
“[Obama-Trump voters] are worried about a culture that seems to disrespect ordinary working people,” explained Olsen. “They’re worried about an economy that seems to care more about making foreigners well-to-do than American citizens. They’re worried about a foreign policy that often seems to care more about helping our allies than helping Americans.”
Olsen cast Troy Balderson’s (R-OH) Tuesday victory in Ohio’s 12th District’s special election as partly dependent on Trump’s support. “I think Trump pushed Balderson over time line. I think that was the difference between losing by one point and winning by one point,” he claimed.
Olsen described Balderson’s courtship of Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) as a futile attempt to appeal to “Romney-Clinton voters.”
“Ohio-12 shows, that for at least this cycle, the Romney-Clinton voters lost,” gauged Olsen. “That person is so upset that you can trot out every type of Republican establishment figure or trope imaginable, and they will still vote for the Democrat because they want Trump out. So if you want to win, you’ve got to embrace the guy who’s winner [and] the ideas and issues that he brought to the table, and that means listening to Donald Trump.”
Olsen added, “If what you’re going to do is basically treat the president as an interloper who is welcome only so long as he acts like Mitt Romney, you shouldn’t expect to get the voters who made him president and made the Senate majority possible, and that’s just short-sighted and dumb.”
Olsen argued in a Monday-published New York Times op-ed that partisan political successes — or failures — will be determined by the parties’ abilities to navigate America’s changing political landscape. “It’s the voters who sit between the two parties, not the party bases, who will choose which party wins,” he wrote.
Olsen examined voting behavior in Ohio’s 12th District as it related to income. “The white vote did not shift a lot by income in 2012, but it was a leading indicator in 2016,” he said. “The places [where] people earning above $80,000 per year shifted heavily towards Clinton, and the richer they were the more they shifted; and the places below $80,000 per shifted to Trump, and the poorer they were the more they shifted.”
Olsen assessed “Romney-Clinton voters,” saying, “[They want] people who look, talk, and act like them; the show pony that’s well-groomed, and Donald Trump is not. … The people who went and split for Clinton are noticeably closer to the Democrats on questions like immigration and trade and the president’s original proposed Muslim ban.”
Olsen added, “The people who really cares about immigration and trade and multiculturalism were so offended by the president’s policy that they went all the way over, and those are the people who you’re just not going to get. When it comes right down it, they are closer to the Democrat Party than they are the center of the Republican Party.”
Olsen described Trump as expanding the Republican Party’s appeal to a cohort of voters who previously felt alienated from the GOP.
“Trump has brought that group that’s felt kicked out of the Republican party back into it, and that is driving the Republican establishment crazy,” remarked Olsen. “Reagan said in 1977 that if you’re going to make the new Republican Party the workers’ party, you actually have to have room at the party table for the cop on the beat, the factory worker, and the farmer; and the Republican old establishment didn’t want that, and [Romney-Clinton voters] still don’t want that.”
Olsen said America’s commentariat and political establishment do not understand Trump’s appeal.
“They misunderstand what Trump ran on,” claimed Olsen. “They think Trump ran on anger. I think a lot of them believe that Trump won because of a veiled racial appeal, and I think if you talk to the Trump voters, what attracted them was somebody who is going to fight, somebody who is going to put Americans first, and somebody who is going to make everybody a part of America rather than a divisive some-against-some dog fight. … It was coming out of a spirit of patriotism.”
Breitbart News Tonight broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 9 p.m. to midnight Eastern (6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Pacific).
Left-wing Islamic activist Linda Sarsour reportedly has ties to the father of the man arrested for allegedly training children to carry out school shootings on a New Mexico compound.
Police arrested Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 39, last week for allegedly holding a series of weapons training sessions on a Taos, New Mexico, compound where authorities say they found 11 children living in squalor.
Investigators say the decomposed remains of a boy had also been found on the compound. Wahhaj’s father, Imam Siraj Wahhaj, announced Thursday that the decomposed remains of the child found at the compound were of his three-year-old grandson, Abdul-ghani Wahhaj, who went missing in Jonesboro, Georgia, in December.
Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who presides over a Brooklyn, New York, mosque, is said to be an “unindicted co-conspirator” of the 1993 World Trade Center bombings and a prominent leader of the Muslim Alliance in North America. Authorities believed he was connected to the bombings, but prosecutors never filed charges against him.
But the younger Wahhaj is not the only person who had ties to Imam Wahhaj.
Linda Sarsour, a prominent Democratic activist who helped organize the Women’s March on Washington, called Imam Wahhaj a “mentor” at an Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) conference in 2017:
My favorite person in this room, that’s mutual, is Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who has been a mentor, and motivator and encourager of mine, someone who has taught me to speak truth to power and not worry about the consequences, someone who has taught me we are on this earth to please Allah, and only Allah, that we are not here to please any man or women on this Earth, so I’m grateful to you, Imam Siraj … I’m grateful to you Imam Siraj, God bless you and protect you for a long time because we need you now more than ever.
Sarsour has also showered praise upon Imam Wahhaj in a series of tweets:
“Islam has made me love people.” ~ Imam Siraj #RIS2016
Sarsour has not only praised Imam Wahhaj for helping shape her views about Islam, but she has also shared a stage with him at several conferences held by ISNA and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) — both organizations with ties to the global Muslim Brotherhood.
But as investigators continue to uncover more information about the training compound, a spokesperson for Imam Wahhaj’s Brooklyn mosque, Masjid at Taqwa, dismissed the authorities’ claims as nothing but fake news.
A spokesperson for Imam Wahhaj’s Brooklyn mosque claimed in a Facebook video Thursday that the media and authorities are promoting “false narratives” by trying to link international terrorism allegations to what he calls a domestic event.
“They’re not bringing up accurate events — they’re bringing up false narratives,” spokesman Ali Abdul-Karim Judan said. “Look how this case has turned from a domestic situation, and now they’re trying to create an atmosphere where his son is involved with an extremist radical group.”
Court filings in the case of Muslim extremist Siraj Wahhaj and four accomplices, arrested Friday at a squalid New Mexico compound where 11 starving children were being trained to attack schools with firearms, reveal the rescued children have identified the remains of a child recovered from the site as the body of Wahhaj’s three-year-old son Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj.
Siraj Wahhaj is wanted in Georgia for kidnapping his son late last year. According to the boy’s mother, Wahhaj intended to perform a Muslim prayer ritual that would cure the Abdul-Ghani’s severe neurological condition.
CNNreported on Thursday that at least two of the rescued children have identified the remains of the child discovered at the compound are those of Abdul-Ghani, who died there and was buried by defendant Lucas Allen Morton, who is married to Siraj Wahhaj’s sister Sabhanah.
New York imam Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, also said on Thursday he was informed by other family members that the remains discovered in New Mexico were those of his grandson Abdul-Ghani.
The day the remains were discovered would have been Abdul-Ghani’s fourth birthday.
Both the elder Siraj Wahhaj and Abdul-Ghani’s mother Hakima Ramzi, the latter speaking through her lawyer, said they had no knowledge of the training for school shootings given to the children at the compound.
“I am feeling a lot of emotions in so many ways. We want to find out what happened,” the elder Siraj Wahhaj said at a press conference on Thursday.
CNN’s reporting offers conflicting stories from New Mexico police and imam Sirraj Wahhaj about how the horror at the compound was discovered. The police said they received a message from someone inside the compound, while Wahhaj told reporters one of his daughters who was living at the compound sent a message about starvation to a third party and asked for supplies. The elder Wahhaj said he contacted the authorities when he was made aware of this message and triggered the raid.
“To me, obviously something happened – mental disorder, or something. This doesn’t seem like them,” the imam said of his son and two daughters who were involved in the compound.
The Associated Press reported on Thursday that the FBI had the compound in Taos, New Mexico under surveillance for the past several months, but did not share information with the local sheriff, leaving him unaware that a wanted fugitive was present at the site:
The group arrived in the desert area in December, according to neighbors. Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe said the FBI had put the place under surveillance in recent months that included photographs of the compound and interviews.
He said the images were shared with the mother of Abdul-ghani, but she did not spot her son, and the photographs never indicated the father was at the compound, leaving the sheriff without the information he needed to obtain a search warrant.
The Washington Post quoted Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe saying the FBI “did not feel there was probable cause to search the property.” The detail that federal investigators were sharing photos with Abdul-ghani’s mother suggests they were investigating his kidnapping, which makes it seem odd that they could find no probable cause to conduct a search.
Perhaps Sirraj Wahhaj was able to conceal his presence with remarkable efficacy. CNN’s report on Thursday suggests Morten was the primary contact with neighbors in New Mexico:
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a neighbor of the compound told CNN about exchanging texts with Morten in recent months.
The texts, which CNN is unable to verify independently, appear to show Morten asking for supplies, and asserting that, under “God’s orders” he could drive only from dusk until dawn.
“Good morning Big guy! Can i give u some gas cans and cash could uy hook me up. … Please and thanks in advance,” reads one of texts to the neighbor, sent on April 26.
“Hey Bud I got $50 towards gas or whatever so my wife can ride along with your wife to get some groceries,” reads another, sent on the same day.
A man named Tyler Anderson who lived near the compound said he helped the group install solar panels soon after they arrived at the end of 2017. “We just figured they were doing what we were doing, getting a piece of land and getting off the grid,” he said.
The identities of the 11 children rescued from the compound have not been revealed, but the Washington Post offered some clues by recounting an “unfolding family drama” on Facebook in December and January:
Facebook posts and public messages dating to December revealed an unfolding family drama, and relatives’ growing concern that Abdul-Ghani and the other children who had disappeared could be in trouble. In January, a Facebook account of Naeemah Rashid, who said she is the imam’s daughter-in-law, posted a picture of other children around the missing poster for Abdul-Ghani.
“I wanted to take the time now to make sure we also focus on praying for the other children as well, because of their parents making these choices it’s going to affect these children as well,” she wrote. “AND AGAIN THE FATHER (SIRAJ IBN) AND SON (ABDUL GHANI) WAS THE ONLY ONES REPORTED AS MISSING TO THE POLICE, BUT THEY ARE LIKELY TO BE TRAVELING TOGETHER WITH ALL IN THE PICTURE BELOW.”
Subhannah maintained her Facebook page, but left no clues and blocked her relatives, shortly after posting a January rebuttal to the cry for help that had appeared on her father’s page.
“Deception and lies!” she wrote. “Be careful what you believe. And be careful who you believe. The truth will come to light. Don’t worry everyone. I am safe and well.”
The compound was located on property owned by a couple named Tanya and Jason Badger, who said they were unaware of its presence until they investigated and encountered Siraj Wahhaj and an unidentified little boy. Wahhaj and his accomplices apparently built their compound on the Badger’s land by mistake, having purchased an adjacent piece of property for their purpose.
The Badgers said they attempted to work out a land swap but Wahhaj was unable to come up with the funds necessary to complete it. The couple said they informed Wahhaj and his group they were squatters and asked them to leave, but the group refused. The Badgers eventually notified the sheriff’s department and filed an eviction notice, which was dismissed from court for unclear reasons.
This detail makes it even more curious that the FBI had the property under surveillance but took no action, given that Siraj Wahhaj was the primary suspect in the abduction of his son and the Badgers had contact with law enforcement after discovering he was there. In fact, the Badgers said they believe they spotted little Abdul-Ghani at the compound in January and February and notified the authorities in both New Mexico and Georgia accordingly.
Forensics experts said it could take several weeks to definitively identify the remains of the child recovered from the compound.
Deductibles continue to rise under Obamacare, according to a study released this week.
Average health insurance deductibles and the number of Americans with high-deductible health insurance plans continue to rise under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
High-deductible plans require Americans to pay more out of pocket for their medical expenses, including medical expenses and hospital procedures.
In 2006, 11.4 percent of private sector employees had a high-deductible plan compared to 2016. Now, 46.5 percent of Americans have a high-deductible plan. Roughly half of the workers with a high-deductible plan get an employer contribution to a health savings account (HSA) or a health reimbursement arrangement (HRA).
Small businesses tend to offer high deductibles more often than larger corporations. At the smallest companies, about two-thirds of workers did not have the option of a plan without a high deductible and did not receive an employer contribution from an HSA or HRA.
Premiums have continued to rise under Obamacare, as well.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) released a report in July sh0wing that average Obamacare monthly premiums increased by 27 percent in 2018, which was even higher than 2017’s 21 percent rate hike. In May 2017, a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) report found that average health insurance premiums doubled since 2013.
Meanwhile, roughly 30 million Americans continue to go without health insurance. In 2012, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicted that Obamacare exchange enrollment would increase by nine million by 2016. In reality, only 400,000 Americans signed up on the Obamacare exchange, which is 96 percent lower than the CBO’s estimate of Obamacare exchange growth.
To combat the increasing costs of health care under Obamacare, the Donald Trump administration released a rule in August that expanded short-term, limited-duration health insurance plans. Short-term plans may cost approximately a third of the cost of an Obamacare plan.
The average monthly premium for a short-term plan in the fourth quarter of 2016 was $124 per month, while an unsubsidized Obamacare plan costs $393 per month. Trump also released a rule that expanded Association Health Plans (AHPs), which would allow businesses and associations to band together and offer Americans more affordable health insurance options compared to Obamacare.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) lauded the expansion of AHPs and short-term health insurance in October as the “biggest free-market health care reform in a generation.”
