M2RB: Bachman Turner Overdrive
I met a devil Progman
He took my breath away
He said, I've had it comin' to me
But I said I didn't see it that way
I think that ObamaLovin' is a coven
And, he took what he could get, mmh
Oooh, oooh he looked at me with big evil eyes
And said,
You ain't seen nothin' yet
L-l-l-lady, you just ain't seen n-n-nothin' yet
Here's something that you never gonna forget
L-l-l-lady, you just ain't seen n-n-nothin' yet
And said,
Here's something that your never gonna forget, baby
Baby, baby, baby you ain't seen n-n-nothin' yet
You ain't been around
You ain't seen nothin' yet
That's what he told me
He said, "You need some indoctrination"
I know we ain't seen nothin' yet
I know we ain't seen nothin' yet
Baby, baby, baby you ain't seen n-n-nothin' yet
You ain't been around
You ain't seen nothin' yet
That's what he told me
He said, "You need some indoctrination"
I know we ain't seen nothin' yet
I know we ain't seen nothin' yet
By John Merline
The Health and Human Services Department earlier this year exposed
just how vast the government's data collection efforts will be on
millions of Americans as a result of ObamaCare.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., asked HHS to provide "a complete list of
agencies that will interact with the Federal Data Services Hub." The Hub
is a central feature of ObamaCare, since it will be used by the new
insurance exchanges to determine eligibility for benefits, exemptions
from the federal mandate, and how much to grant in federal insurance
subsidies.
In response, the HHS said
the ObamaCare data hub will "interact" with seven other federal
agencies: Social Security Administration, the IRS, the Department of
Homeland Security, the Veterans Administration, Office of Personnel
Management, the Department of Defense and — believe it or not — the
Peace Corps. Plus the Hub will plug into state Medicaid databases.
And what sort of data will be "routed through" the Hub? Social
Security numbers, income, family size, citizenship and immigration
status, incarceration status, and enrollment status in other health
plans, according to the HHS.
"The federal government is planning to quietly enact what could be
the largest consolidation of personal data in the history of the
republic," noted Stephen Parente, a University of Minnesota finance professor.
Not to worry, says the Obama administration. "The hub will not store
consumer information, but will securely transmit data between state and
federal systems to verify consumer application information," it claimed
in an online fact sheet.
But a regulatory notice filed by the administration in February tells a different story.
That filing
describes a new "system of records" that will store names, birth dates,
Social Security numbers, taxpayer status, gender, ethnicity, email
addresses, telephone numbers on the millions of people expected to apply
for coverage at the ObamaCare exchanges, as well as "tax return
information from the IRS, income information from the Social Security
Administration, and financial information from other third-party
sources."
They will also store data from businesses buying coverage through an
exchange, including a "list of qualified employees and their tax ID
numbers," and keep it all on file for 10 years.
In addition, the filing says the federal government can disclose this
information "without the consent of the individual" to a wide range of
people, including "agency contractors, consultants, or grantees" who
"need to have access to the records" to help run ObamaCare, as well as
law enforcement officials to "investigate potential fraud."
Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., complained
that just months before ObamaCare officially starts, the Obama
administration still hasn't answered "even the most basic questions
about the Data Hub," such as who will have access to what information,
or what training and clearances will be required.
Beyond these concerns is the government's rather sorry record in protecting confidential information.
Late last year, for example, a hacker was able to gain access to a
South Carolina database that contained Social Security numbers and bank
account data on 3.6 million people.
A Government Accountability Office report
found that weaknesses in IRS security systems "continue to jeopardize
the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the financial and
sensitive taxpayer information."
A separate inspector general audit found that the IRS inadvertently disclosed information on thousands of taxpayers between 2009 and 2010. In 2011, the Social Security Administration accidentally released names, birth dates and Social Security numbers of tens of thousands of Americans.
If these government agencies can't protect data kept on their own
servers, how much more vulnerable will these databases be when they're
constantly getting tapped by the ObamaCare Data Hub?
In any case, creating even richer and more comprehensive databases on
Americans will create a powerful incentive to abuse them among those
looking to score political points by revealing private information or
criminals who want to steal identities.
A recent CNN poll found that 62% of Americans say "government is so
large and powerful that it threatens the rights and freedoms of ordinary
Americans."
What will the public think once ObamaCare and its vast data machine is in full force?
http://tinyurl.com/pjz9ksp
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