By Alexander Wayne; Bloomberg Business ~ Feb 05, 2015

(Bloomberg) — Congress should split the agency that runs Obamacare and Medicare from the Department of Health and Human Services to keep the White House from having too much influence over its operation, Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch said.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which administers the health programs for the elderly and poor, is too big, said Hatch, a Utah Republican. The agency consumes about 85 percent of the health department’s $1 trillion budget.

By David Steele; Android Headlines ~ Feb 05, 2015

AT&T are the highest ranking full-service North American cell ‘phone provider when it comes to customer services, according to the latest J.D. Power study, which was released today. The survey ran from July to December 2014 and around 6,499 US wireless customers participated. The J.D. Power survey asks customers to numerically grade their carrier and is based on a combination of their experience and perception of the brand, devices, signal and similar. It’s important to note the caveat here that “your experience may vary,” because cell ‘phones could very legitimately be called “personal ‘phones,” as we all use them differently from one another.

By Nick Thornton; BenefitsPro ~ Feb 04, 2015

An appeals court in New Orleans heard arguments Wednesday in Lee v. Verizon, a class-action challenging the communications company’s pension-transfer agreement with Prudential Insurance Co.

The suit claims that Verizon’s de-risking agreement with Prudential, which transferred about $7.5 billion in the company’s pension obligations, accounting for a quarter of all its pension liabilities, was a breach of fiduciary standards under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

“This case is being closely monitored by corporate pension sponsors, pension fund managers, the annuity insurance industry and ERISA legal professionals throughout the nation,” Curtis L. Kennedy, the attorney representing the plaintiffs, said. “Indeed the case will develop ERISA law that will have repercussions on retiree pensioners throughout the nation.”

By Peter Morici; Newsmax ~ Feb 02, 2015

Posturing as champion of needed public investments and fairness, President Barack Obama wants new taxes on the overseas earnings of American businesses. That would kill jobs and punish retired Americans.

Although special deals permit some corporations to pay low taxes, most pay a heavy burden. The estimated effective U.S. corporate tax rate is about 27 percent, and well above the 20 percent imposed by other industrialized countries.

By Kelsey Snell, Kim Dixon & Brian Faler; Politico ~ Feb 02, 2015

President Barack Obama’s latest budget is his most populist ever, seeking big tax hikes to pay for ambitious new spending on education and infrastructure in a dare to Republicans to find common ground.

Here are the biggest and boldest among his tax proposals. All estimates are for revenue raised or spent over 10 years.

1. BUFFETT TAX: Reprising billionaire Warren Buffett’s gripe that he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary — because ordinary income is taxed at higher rates than capital gains — the White House wants millionaires to pay a minimum tax rate of 30 percent. The contrast between taxes on wages and investment was highlighted during the 2012 campaign, when Mitt Romney’s relatively low tax rate became an albatross for the Republican candidate. Would raise $35 billion.

By Dylan Scott; Talking Points Memo ~ Feb 02, 2015

President Barack Obama signaled in his fiscal year 2016 budget released Monday that he was ready for the fight over Social Security that congressional Republicans made clear last month they wanted

Obama’s budget included the transfer of tax revenue from the program’s retirement fund to the disability fund, which would otherwise start being unable to pay full benefits in late 2016. House Republicans passed a rule in January that would block the transfer — known as reallocation — unless Social Security’s overall solvency was improved.

By Alexander Wayne; Bloomberg ~ Feb 02, 2015

WASHINGTON, DC – APR 4: (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama said the government should negotiate lower prices for expensive new medicines such as Gilead Sciences Inc.’s hepatitis C treatment Harvoni, breaking a detente with the drug industry on the issue.

Spending under Medicare’s drug benefit, known as Part D, will grow 30 percent in 2016 to $98 billion, about four times the rate from a year before, according to Obama’s budget proposal released Monday. That’s driven in part by new medicines like Harvoni, which can cost $1,000 a day.

By Jonathan Weisman; The New York Times ~ Feb 01, 2015

WASHINGTON — President Obama will propose a 10-year budget on Monday that stabilizes the federal deficit but does not seek balance, instead focusing on policies to address income inequality as he adds nearly $6 trillion to the debt.

The budget — $4 trillion for the 2016 fiscal year — would hit corporations that park profits overseas, raise taxes on the richest of the rich and increase the incomes of the middle class through new spending and tax credits. Mr. Obama will challenge the newly elected Republican Congress to answer his emphasis on wage stagnation, according to congressional aides briefed on the details.

By Mike Stobbe; The Associated Press ~ Feb 01, 2015

NEW YORK (AP) — Some new evidence this is a particularly bad flu season: Flu-related hospitalizations of the elderly are the highest since the government started tracking that statistic nine years ago.

About 198 out of every 100,000 people 65 and older have been hospitalized with flu-related illness this flu season. That’s roughly 86,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

CDC officials released the new flu season numbers on Friday.