Tech President reports on a pretty savvy and interesting use of technology by the White House this week.
Not surprisingly, soon after Obama signed the health care bill into law, people began searching online for details about the new laws, many specifically searching with the phrase, “What’s in the Health Care Bill?” Also not surprisingly, that search turned up lots of news stories and other analysis, and plenty of loud criticism. What’s a wired White House to do?
And so, the White House swooped into action. At about 4:30 in the afternoon, a post went up on the White House blog titled the exact same phrase as that top Google search term — “What’s in the Health Care Bill?”
A simple move, perhaps, but also rather brilliant. The White House’s blog post drove WhiteHouse.gov to the top of Google search results. Same with Yahoo.
Smart. A very cheap, very fast way to get your spin to the top of the pile. And while the cable news cacophony will come and go in a matter of hours or days, their Google rank will last a lot longer.
I don’t know why SLOG is celebrating…most of its core audience is going to be decimated by the funding for this bill. First of all, all the rich kids living off trust funds are going to lose big time…second, all the slackers working crap jobs are going to have to come up with an extra $200 a month for health care or go to jail.
Check this out:
“Medicare Tax on Investment Income
The Reconciliation Act added a new IRC § 1411 that imposes a tax on individuals equal to 3.8% of the lesser of the individual’s net investment income for the year or the amount the individual’s modified adjusted gross income exceeds a threshold amount. For estates and trusts, the tax equals 3.8% of the lesser of undistributed net investment income or adjusted gross income over the dollar amount at which the highest trust and estate tax bracket begins.
For married individuals filing a joint return and surviving spouses, the threshold amount is $250,000; for married taxpayers filing separately, it is $125,000; and for other individuals it is $200,000.
Net investment income is defined as income from interest, dividends, annuities, royalties and rents, other than such income derived in the ordinary course of a trade or business (however, income from passive activities and from a trade or business of trading in financial instruments or commodities is included in the definition of net investment income).
This provision applies to tax years beginning after Dec. 31, 2012.”
http://www.journalofaccountancy.com
/Web
/20102740.htm
@1, Soy un perdedor, I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me?
@1 Ummm . . . fuck you!
First of all: brilliant move by the white house!
Second of all: it’s about time someone with a “D” by their name got busy telling people what the fuck’s actually in the bill . . . this bill should have sold itself to the people but these fucked up Dems don’t seem ‘get’ how much they fuck themselves up by abandoning all PR and talking points to the R’s and the P’s (the Palin Party) . . . Alan Grayson (FL) and Ron Wyden (OR) are the only ones who talked the truth of the bill for chrissakes!
If they were smart the Democratic Party would immediately hire their own astroturf group to go on tour and just simply educate people about what’s actually in the billl – especially in red states, especially in tea-bagger country. Hell I might even start giving money to the Democratic Party again just to help fund a tour like that . . .
oh yea, @ 1: so funny! I guess someone has to worry about the slackers making over $125k gross or net or whatever . . .
@1
What BS
No one is going to go to jail for not having health insurance.
And if you’re too poor to afford health insurance the government will help you purchase health insurance, just like WA’s Basic Health Plan.
As for trust fund kids, I don’t give a fuck about them. If they have the money they need to be paying for health insurance.
@1 is just going to go from post to post claiming a pending SS style enforcement of HCR from the President. Unregistered of course, because in the end, he can’t actually stand by his words.
After screaming “READ THE BILL”, it becomes clear that none of the entitlement whores in the GOP actually, you know, read the bill.
@1 – I’m confused here. Your claim is that “slackers working crap jobs” are going to be paying $200 a month? Your own post contradicts that claim.
Your own post says “3.8% … (of) the amount the individual’s modified adjusted gross income exceeds a threshold amount”
And “the threshold amount … for other individuals it is $200,000.”
So, to be paying $200 a month, that “slacker” would have to be making $263,157.89 a year. Because 3.8% of $63,157.89 works out to $2400 a year or $200 a month.
Nice work if you can get it. Why don’t you move along to throwing your body in front of the next universal good already? This tantrum is stale.
Oh – and PS? The “penalty” for not having health insurance isn’t going to jail. If you don’t have health insurance, you are not eligible for a tax credit on your annual filing.
No jail, no camps, no black helicopters.
Christ on a (publicly-funded) crutch this argument is stupid.
@7, Don’t you know? All the lazy people are sitting on top of sky high piles of cash supplied by the guv’mint or mommy and daddy.
Just did a google search: the WH page is #4 in the rankings. #1 is a post from last summer that seems pretty anti-reform (or anti whatever bill was floating around then).
Smart.
Very Smart.
Way to get your spin to the top of the heap.
Spin is very important.
Now if Obama can just find a very cheap, very fast way to actually PAY for all this health care his credulous slacker supporters are drooling over…
(@1 has the gist of it- once Slog finds out how much the ‘plan’ is actually going to cost them personally look for some disappointed disgruntled little liberals…)
@11: It hurts to lose, doesn’t it? I hope having a good cry makes you feel better.