FEC Approves Bitcoin Political Power

The US Federal Exchange Commission (FEC) has decided that political campaigns and political action committees (PAC) may now accept and invest in bitcoin. The cyrpto currency may be accepted as a in-kind donation per this draft advisory document.

The specific ruling is worded as:

The Commission concludes that bitcoins are “money or anything of value” within the meaning of the Act and that MYL may accept contributions as it proposes pursuant to the identification, deposit, and valuation procedures

The Hill had previously reported a delay in the decision on 4/23/2014,

The commission delayed a formal vote on a petition to be able to accept up to $100 worth of the money, but commissioners seemed optimistic that they could draft a compromise to allow a limited amount of contributions in the virtual currency.

The commission had split when a conservative group, Conservative Action Fund PAC, proposed a similar proposal in November. In April, Make Your Laws PAC sought to accept bitcoins as contributions, as well as purchase, sell and trade them.

Make Your Laws PAC describes itself as non-partisan and registered in September 2012. MYL introduces its role as a technology company in politics:

Make Your Laws makes this intuitive process of trust even easier through some clever use of technology. Of course, users can always proxy to people they know and trust personally — their friends, family, and other influential figures in their lives. But often, users will want to know what experts and organizations are more dedicated to their issues.

First, based on how an individual responds to examples of controversial proposals, we can recommend to the user a number of public proxies who share their views and can be trusted to better track the issues on a given topic.

Second, as part of the discussion process, users will find that they end up agreeing or disagreeing with people that they might not have otherwise had contact with — people who, through the organic process of social interaction, become influential through their words. Make Your Laws makes it easy to add these people to one's list of advisors.

Finally, when there are differences of opinions between proxies, Make Your Laws can ask the user questions that will help to determine what advisors might better serve their needs, and better represent their views overall.

The draft advisory states that bitcoins may be accepted, purchased on exchanges and held as investments, but seems to state that employees cannot be paid in bitcoins and the currency must be converted to fiat before making purchases due to reporting requirements:

MYL proposes to accept bitcoins only through an online form on which each bitcoin contributor, regardless of the proposed contribution amount, will have to provide his or her name, physical address, occupation, and
employer.
...
MYL proposes to accept only $100 worth of bitcoin per contributor per election (as identified using the practices just described)
...
The Commission concludes that the requestor may accept bitcoin contributions as proposed in its Advisory Opinion Request and supplemental filings subject to valuation and reporting procedures similar to those that the Commission has previously recognized in analogous circumstances. The Commission further concludes that the requestor may purchase bitcoins with funds from its campaign depository for investment purposes but may not make disbursements using those purchased bitcoins

Other sources: CoinDesk

Does the BofA "Math Error" Affect Bank Accounts?

Bank of America had to suspend its stock buyback program and cancel planned dividend payments due to a "math error." The error reduces the amount of high quality capital owned by the bank by about $4 billion. It does not directly affect bank accounts. However, the stock has pulled down the price of financial stocks across the board as investors and consumers worry about a banking system that can't keep count of money.

Reuters, "The Federal Reserve ordered Bank of America to suspend and resubmit its 2014 capital plans within 30 days. Its shares fell 4.7 percent at midday."

CNN Money, "The second largest U.S. bank by assets said the error was caused by an "incorrect adjustment" related to bad debts the bank assumed when it acquired Merrill Lynch in 2009. It means the bank doesn't have as much high-quality capital on hand as everyone thought.

It's the latest in a series of regulatory and legal setbacks for the bank's shareholders after it acquired mortgage lender Countrywide and Merrill Lynch during the financial crisis."

If you are worried about your bank accounts, there is a new open source solution to banking called Bitcoin. It includes a public ledger called the blockchain. Thousands of dedicated users run independent processing of the transactions, and no centralized errors like this can occur. Each transaction is independently and repeatedly "confirmed." 

The money called bitcoin is designed for modern life on the internet and is encrypted with SHA256 encryption. This encryption is so powerful, some say it would take all the power of all the suns in the galaxy and billions of years to crack.

Some benefits of bitcoin vs tribal fiat money include:

• Bankers and Governments hate it, as it takes away their control of money.
• You do not give up account information to pay for things, eliminating credit card fraud.
• There is essentially no transaction fee, or you can choose to pay a small fee to speed up your transaction. This eliminates bank fees like wire transfer fees.
• There are no "bank" fees to hold bitcion.
• You can hold your own bitcoins in an encrypted wallet, eliminating the need for banks.
• Bitcoins are transferred like an email. You send and forget over a secure network protocol.
• Eliminates currency exchange costs or risk. Essentially, you could go on a world vacation and never have to worry about the local currency.
• There is no limit to the amount you can hold. Unlike cash which must be declared in amounts over $10,000 in the USA. 
• It was designed for the internet age and doesn't require "credit card protection" because it is already secured by powerful encryption.
• You can send the money anywhere in the world, to anyone, anytime you like for free.
• Unlike fiat "bills" a bitcoin can be subdivided endlessly below the decimal point. 
• etc...

Some drawbacks of bitcoin:

• Bankers and Governments hate it, as it takes away their control of money.
• It is not available at every store for every transaction yet. (see Gyft.com to use it at major retailers.)
• Access to bitcoin is currently restricted. Getting ahold of bitcoins is relatively difficult. (See Coinbase.com and localbitcoins.com) 
• The currency has value based on exchanges which are heavily infiltrated by governments and institutions determined to stop it or manipulate it. Bitcoin is the battleground of financial freedom.  
• There is a limited quantity. When people die, or lose their passphrase(*), the bitcoins in their encrypted wallet could be lost, diminishing the supply.
• The media is biased against it.  You will probably be demonized at some point for not using "dollars" or whichever tribal fiat currency you currently use.
• Technical weaknesses. Because everything created by man is flawed, bitcoin has been battle tested by real life users and hackers. It has come out on top, but someday it may need to be updated, like all software.

* Passphrases: you should no longer use passwords. Use entire sentences or phrases with punctuation and numbers. Passwords, especially under 9 characters, are not secure. The formula for passphrase difficulty is (number of possible characters)^(number of characters used in password).  For example, a four digit pin number has only 10^4 difficulty or 10,000 combinations.

Bitcoin Up 37.7% in Two Days

You may have seen some news reporting a "crisis in bitcoin", but that is very far from the truth.

At its lowest point, bitcoin was worth $430 (02/24/2014 @ 11:30 PM PST). One dollar was worth 1/430th of a bitcoin (.00232557 BTC).  At the time of writing this post, 12:25 AM PST 02/26/2014, the dollar had fallen to 1/592nd of a bitcoin (.001689189 BTC). Bitcoin gained $162 or 37.7 percent.

BitcoinWisdom.com graph:

Why Did The Price of Bitcoin Fall?

The price of bitcoin was driven down due to problems at one of many exchanges. Exchanges are like stock markets where you can exchange bitcoins for other coins or fiat money like dollars. ObamaCare consultants might have been used on this Japanese based exchange called GOX (Magic the Gathering Online Exchange). The exchange either overpaid people due to bad programming, was bought off by a government entity or stole peoples bitcoins. Whatever the case, the people responsible are now in hiding. There is no "problem" with bitcoin as a technology or as a investment.

Another exchange BTC-e released this statement in regard to the GOX problem.

We confirm the Bitcoin system operation and its exciting prospects, and MtGox bankruptcy has not been caused by any underlying technical problems of Bitcoin. Bitcoin international peer-to-peer network and cryptocurrency are independent of actions of a single market participant. Bitcoin protocol continues to function exactly as it should. The cryptocurrency maintains its stability and the network will continue to develop and exist as long as required by its users.

People who used the problem exchange were put at risk and sold their coins cheap to "get into a court recognized currency" in order to file suit. This strategy came out of nowhere and was promoted as "legal advice." For all I know, it was a scheme to incite panic selling.  Bitcoin is obviously an asset and theft of valuables is not delineated specifically by various courts to my knowledge. Maybe you know better.

How Did Bitcoin Recover So Quickly?

During the panic sell, other investors, who were not at risk, purchased bitcoins ... and ... hopefully.... you acquired some at the discount. If you put $100 into bitcoin at that time, that investment would now be worth $137.67 minus about .2% in fees. Of course this does not represent a full return to value, but it a base of recovery.

By the time you read this, the price of bitcoin will probably over $600. So, if you are wondering if you missed the big opportunity, let me comfort you with some timely advice....

When to Buy Bitcoin

We released an entire post regarding this subject, but to summarize. buy on market dips:

• over 800, normal market price
• under 800, consider buying
• under 700, strongly consider buying
• under 600, if you don't buy, there had better be a good reason
• under 500, if it is at all possible, buy!

The current situation represents a major opportunity for new users to get into bitcoin

Why Might Bitcoin Continue to Gain Value?

Good question. There are many reasons people believe in bitcoin.

Political Risk Associated with Fiat Currency

The US government represents the world's reserve currency. Due to an agreement known as Bretton-Woods, this has been the case since 1944. At the time, the US dollar was tied to gold, so other currencies tied to the dollar via Bretton-Woods were also considered fractional reserve notes based on gold. In 1971, the United States untied from gold and became a fiat currency. It effectively dragged the worlds currencies with it.

Since that time, the dollar's reserve currency status has been based on faith in the American government and people. Recent events have concentrated power in the US's executive branch of government, which essentially changes that system. 

The tea party, occupy wall street and other movements have arisen due to a lack of faith in America's new political system. Concentrated power increases the likelihood of bad decisions being made and carried out. For instance, ObamaCare was sold as if it would save American $1 trillion over 10 years, but recent CBO estimates reveal a cost of $2 trillion over that same period.

Bad decisions, like ObamaCare will continue to be made because neither Congress nor the Supreme Court have the power to stop them. Concentrated power's effective replacement of Separation of Powers in the American government is a fundamental economic threat to the world economy. This is a fiscal and political policy crisis.

The alternatives are precious metals, which can be confiscated, and bitcoin which is easily transported and encrypted.

The Federal Reserve (Fed) Lack of QE Exit Strategy

Monetary policy has been a stalwart of America's economic stability. Recently the Fed as reduced interest rates to zero in an attempt to spur the economy. Specifically, they hope a "wealth effect" will spur people into feeling "richer" because stock and home prices are artificially inflated through the massive printing of money known as Quantitative Easing (QE). The Fed is printing around $75 billion per month.

The problem with this approach is that there is no known exit strategy. Every time the Fed moves to increase interest rates, the stock market collapses and home sales plummet. Confidence in this system is extremely low. 

Step back and look at the combined monetary policy crisis, the fiscal policy crisis and the political crisis in America. Europe, China, Russia and South America are conceptual alternatives, but they do not inspire the confidence of the U.S. when it is governed faithfully according to the U.S. Constitution.

Technological Superiority 

Bitcoin is technically better. It is fundamentally more secure. It incorporates the Blockchain, which is like an accounting system. There is no credit card account information to be stolen when bitcoin is used.  It is expandable and can be updated. It is easy and inexpensive to buy good and services across national boundaries without converting currencies... (no currency risk). The "wire transfer" fees or transaction fees are extremely small or free. Bitcoin transfers in minutes instead of days like bank money transfers. 

There are simply too many advantages to list. It is the next evolution of money. 

Consider Major retailers. Walmart would save billions in currency exchange fees, wire transfer fees, accounting costs and possible fraud loss by switching to bitcoin.  Target would not have been liable for all the stolen credit card information in 2013. 

Decentralization of Money

Many of us believe money is too important to be left in the hands of government. Government is generally incompetent due to competing goals. Trusting in government seldom proves to be wise and for the first time we have an real alternative. 

Math vs Military

The US Dollar, and fiat currency generally, is backed by military and police power. Bitcoin is backed by math, computer geeks and some very bad men (like Chuck Norris). America's military is strong, but math is stronger.  Recent events surrounding GOX might be an opportunity to judge which justice is more effective.

Other reasons

Everyone has their own ultimate reason to move to a secure, internet-compatible currency. This is a little like listing why people use email instead of snail mail.. Instead of trying to list everything, lets leave this area open and add to it based on comments. Let us know your reason below.

Alternative Coins (Alt Coins)

The big question is whether bitcoin is the ultimate winner in the arena of crypto currencies. LiteCoin, DogeCoin, UltraCoin, Vertcoin, NameCoin, or another may someday prove to be even better than bitcoin. 

These coins can be quickly converted between bitcoin. So, this may lead to a situation like the precious metals market. Bitcoin may be a store of wealth, while another coin might be the day-to-day alternative. They will coexist just as they do currently on multiple exchanges.

Bitcoin Trading Ten Commandments

Lets keep this short. Here are the Ten Commandments to make money trading in Bitcoin. Detailed explanations follow where needed.

1. Do not follow trollbox advice
2. Buy low, sell high OR sell high, buy back low
3. Know your break even number
4. Never let a Whale (big trader) buy cheaper than you, stack up on their position if necessary.
5. Look up and down the orders list and find the big orders
6. Cut loses or cost average when you make a bad trade, but let profits run
7. Be patient and do not be mastered by market sentiment
8. Buy when the market is selling, sell when the market is buying
9. Read the chart first
10. Do not trade to fiat

Where do you trade Bitcoin? You trade on one of the Bitcoin exchanges, but start small and work your way up to larger trades. Here are the "how to" details...

1. Do not follow trollbox advice

A trollbox is a little chat window commonly implemented by Bitcoin exchanges. It is full of people trying to manipulate new users into bad trades. Some people use it to discuss actual issues about the market, but you should never blindly follow advice given in the trollbox, and never click a short url link.

Instead, take the time to read the news or google the trollbox information that catches your eye.

2. Buy low, sell high OR Sell high, buy back low

There is no difference between buying low then selling high and selling high and then buying back low. You should do what puts you in a position for a follow up trade. For example, you can BL-SH and consider that the beginning of a SH-BL.

3. Know your break even number

You should use excel or something to track break even numbers.  Transaction costs are greater than they appear, .2% is actually 0.4004% for a full trade.  I wont bore you with the math...

**update* I should bore you with the math**
Break even is [Buy Price] * [trade fee on buy] * [trade fee on sale]

Long (buy low then sell higher): [Price] * [1 + fee] * [1 + fee]   i.e.  1 * 1.002 *1.002 = 1.004004
Short (sell high then buy back lower): [Price] * [1 - fee] * [1 - fee] i.e. 1 * 0.998 * 0.998 = 0.996004

Also, consider that some big traders get "VIP" transaction fees, normally about .15% or .05% lower than everyone else. this translates to more than .1% lower selling prices on each trade.

4. Never let a Whale (big trader) buy cheaper than you, stack up on their position if necessary

This is a tough one. If you allow a whale to buy 1,000,000 coins at .00001 less than your trade they will be able to sell at a profit lower than you. This might lock you out of completing your trade and leave you at a loss or completely out of the market.

Big players will sometimes place huge buy and sell orders simultaneously with less than .2% price difference. Small traders that place orders in between become trapped after one leg of their trade. You are forced to buy or sell from the whale or simply wait indefinitely to complete trades.

The counter tactic is to place a buy order on top of the whale. If 1000 coins are traded at a price, the goal is to reduce the amount of coins purchased by the whale and stop the whale from making both legs of their trade. Wait until they pull the trap and then sell your coins.

This is an important tactic because governments, banks and other players who are protecting establishment power use their massive resources to undermine crypto currencies. As a trader, you need to be prepared to fight these powers. You are the underdog, so be prepared to fight all who rob and plunder.

5. Look up and down the order list and find the big orders

It is very informative. You can learn what the big players are preparing to do in the market.

6. Cut loses or cost average when you make a bad trade, but let profits run

This is one that is pretty hard to follow. It seems easier to buy and then set a reasonable sell price or vice versa. However, this is where big profit can be found if you are patient, precise, confident and follow the other commandments.

7. Be patient and do not be mastered by market sentiment

Do not fall prey to the whims of the moment. Panic buying and panic selling are a traders worst enemies. Often, it is even harder to wait for the top or bottom of the market. It is better to wait longer, a lot longer than your emotions lead you, unless you have a specific reason.

Some traders add that you should not trade during low volume because the market is easier to manipulate.Sometimes a small, well timed order can fool the automated trading programs (bots) into buying and selling at the wrong time.  This is done by manipulating technical indicators across threshold values.

8. Buy when the market is selling, sell when the market is buying

Position yourself so that panic traders are selling to you cheap and buying from you at a premium.

9. Read the chart first

Compare other exchanges (BTC-E,Huobi, Bitstamp,BTC-e,Crypto-trade, etc), KDJ indicators (or other indicators) and multiple timeframes while developing trading strategy. Review this chart to understand what this stuff means.

10. Do not trade to fiat

Use alternative coins during downturns as safe harbor and to trade for more Bitcoins. Many alternative coins lag, lead or are not very reliant on the price of Bitcoin. Learning these alternative markets turns crashes into buying opportunities.

*update* expanded per comments request.

While charts show that alt coins like Litecoin (LTC) follow the price trends generally of Bitcoin (BTC), there is often a lag in the price change or at times they lead the price change. The scale of the change can also be very different. This affects ratios which are the basis of a many alt coin markets. (i.e. LTC/BTC)

Some of this is due to the fact that there are always new alt coins coming to market. Sentiment players try to jump on down turns in bitcoin to find people willing to trade bitcoin for the latest shiny coin. At other times, an alt coin may crash and money might rush into a safer alt coin or back into bitcoin.  There are markets for many alt coins based purely upon Bitcoin and Litecoin.  You may find a XYZ/BTC or XYZ/LTC on exchanges (where XYZ is a generic alt coin symbol).

Another reason that trading to alt coins is preferable to trading to fiat is to avoid missing large market upswings. Alt coins may lag or have a different scope, but when prices jump up, you aren't left behind.

*Notes and special thanks to the traders who reviewed this article:

KingCoin
encerr

This was written to give crypto traders a leg up on the big players and market sentiment players.

When To Buy Bitcoin

Recently Overstock, Tiger Direct and many other online retailers have begun accepting the secure internet money known as Bitcoin (BTC or #). Bitcoin cannot be hacked like credit cards because you pay directly with encrypted money instead of entrusting others with credit card account information. It is more like using cash instead of a credit card which limits your vulnerability.

Merchants love Bitcoin for many reasons. There are less transaction fees involved with Bitcoin and unlike insecure credit cards, Bitcoin was designed for use on the internet. That means retailers like Walmart can use Bitcoin securely to purchase goods from anywhere in the world without wire fees and without exchange rate risk.

So, when should you purchase Bitcoin?

The answer is a couple days after a major retailer begins accepting purchases via Bitcoin.

The reason for this is controversial, but allow me to explain.  When a merchant accepts BTC for the first time, they have to get those sales into their accounting system as dollars, so they sell their new coins. Eventually, the merchant will stop selling all their coins as they work out how to use the new currency to their own advantage in international purchases.  In the short term, however, all the purchases against a new retail merchant are effectively a massive dump of coins on the BTC exchanges (aka stock market).

This massive dump of BTC onto the exchange is not met immediately with new demand for BTC because the merchants customers probably do not know how or where to buy BTC. It takes a few days for their accounts to be set up and the US Government and China make it as hard as possible to buy Bitcoin. (They have to protect their printing press money power against a currency backed by math and nerds and they are scared.)

In the next few days or maybe weeks new users begin to buy Bitcoins to shop securely online at the new merchant and the price rises. Here is the market movement as TigerDirect began accepting Bitcoin. Tiger Direct has a lot of users who own Bitcoin because they sell Advanced Micro Device (AMD) based computer hardware used to "mine" Bitcoins.

Other retailers have less BTC wealthy users, and speculation sometimes drives the price up, for instance Google China might sell ads in Bitcoin, but that would not drive large purchases via Bitcoin. Amazon is another example of a merchant who would temporarily drive BTC prices down after adoption. Walmart would be a difficult call.

Overstock.com reportedly had $130,000 in Bitcoin sales on their first day accepting the currency. So, you can imagine that even a fraction of that volume would push down Bitcoin prices as coin holders are replaced with a massive coin seller.

To wrap up, anytime Bitcoin dips below $800 per coin, it is a bargain. Bank of America released a report estimating the value of a Bitcoin at $1300. These bargains can be found immediately after a large adoption by a merchant who appeals to online consumers. Go get your account ready and jump in on the next big dip. Maybe $750 will buy you $1300 worth of "stuff" and that is a good deal!

Get Bit, The Bitcoin Market

There is a debate in the financial world as to the value of digital (or crypto) currencies. Bank of America recently stated they "could become a major means of payment for e-commerce and may emerge as a serious competitor to traditional money-transfer providers" and assigned a fair value of $1300 per bitcoin. On the other side, critics argue, "It’s a complete joke.  Even a crappy currency has government taxing ability behind it, or some sort of a standing army or something like that." My opinion is that crypto currencies are a revolutionary idea that provides an alternative to fiat currencies (dollars) and precious metals.

The two major online currencies are Bitcoin and LiteCoin. Neither are backed by governments, but instead are generated by deciphering encrypted keys. Each "coin block" found makes the next more difficult to find through increasingly difficult encryption. The code that generates this currency is completely open source which ensures there are no back doors or cheating. Solving these encrypted codes is known as "mining." The coins mined are then traded for goods and services or other currencies. The coins have value for the same reason the US dollar or other currencies have value. People assign them value.

What are the mayor differences between fiat currencies like dollars and crypto currencies?

• There are no governments involved to inflate and manipulate the value of crytpo currencies. 
• Most crypto currencies have an absolute limit in quantity, so they can't be printed. 
• There is an equal opportunity to find or "mine" for crypto currencies with free software.
• Very few transaction fees, no wire fees and quick transactions. 
• The exchange of coins is a completely free market with major players (like coinbase) helping users move money between fiat currencies and crypto currencies.
• You can save your crypto currencies in a file with backups and encryption known as a "wallet" instead of a bank.

Bitcoin Exchange

The value of crypto currencies is mostly determined on exchanges, like other currency exchanges. There are dozens of crypto currencies, some are created as college projects and others by enthusiasts. Most can be exchanged for bitcoins, the dominant player. For instance, the video game Second Life uses Lindon Dollars to transact within the game. An exchange called Virwox allows the purchase of Lindon Dollars and the exchange between bitcoins and Lindons. This is one of the more expensive ways to purchase Bitcoin due to the number of transaction fees.

Where as most crypto currencies have little value, Bitcoin is essentially the gold of cryptos. Litecoin is the silver of crypto currency. You can see this relationship in the markets, with Litecoin slightly above the value of silver and Bitcoin slightly below the value of gold. It is a safe bet that many people are diversifying away from precious metals into cryptos due to recent market manipulation by central banks.

The exchanges are mostly completely free markets with little or no regulation or manipulation by governments. As such people have begun to speculate in the markets as an alternative to stocks or slow moving precious metals. The result is an explosion of wealth creation for both bitcoins and litecoins.

Litecoin Exchange

If you read candlestick charts and indicators, there may be a place for you in the exchanges. If you don't, you can "mine" for crypto currencies like a old-timey gold prospector. You could also buy crytpo currencies while they are cheap as Christmas presents for family members who are always on their smartphone.

As a Christmas present, there is a growing number of markets and apps that accept bitcoin and litecoin. SpendBitcoins and UseLiteCoin are incomplete lists of places where the digital currency is accepted. You will mostly find tech related goods and services.

Right now the risk of holding bitcoin as a currency is about the same as holding currency from Cuba or Zimbabwe based on the market cap of $11,023,236,650. As you can see in the above charts, that market cap is rising fast. As of writing this article, one bitcoin is $840 and a litecoin is $30.50. This is definitely something to look into for yourself.

(Click on some of my article's logos to buy tshirts and spread the word.)

Notes

Basic Information

• Add bitcoin payments instantly to almost any webpage
• How the Bitcoin Protocol actually works
• List of Bitcoin Exchanges
• Get a Bitcoin Wallet (free)
• HOW TO BUY BITCOIN, LITECOIN, AND DOGECOIN

Government vs We The People

• Reuters: U.S. Treasury cautions Bitcoin businesses on legal duties
• China Bans Financial Companies From Bitcoin Transactions

You Can Keep Your Plan Until 2014 Election Period.

If you hate politics, this latest speech by President Obama isn't going to help the situation. Due to the problems with the ObamaCare disaster, he has unilaterally decided that you can keep your insurance plan until the 2014 election.  It is a brazen political move that shows a complete lack of compassion.

"Already, people who have plans that predate the affordable care act can keep those plan if they haven’t changed. That was already in the law. That is what is called a "Grandfather clause" and it was included in the law.

Today, we are going to extend that principal both to people whose plans HAVE changed since the law took effect and to people who bought plans since the law took effect.

So, State Insurance Commissioners still have the power to decide what plans can and can’t be sold in their states, but the bottom line is issuers can extend current plans that would otherwise be cancelled into 2014 and Americans who's plans have been cancelled can choose to re-enroll in the same 'kind of' plan.

We are also requiring insurers to extend current plans to inform their customers about two things. One, what protections these renewed plans don’t include. Number Two, that the marketplace offers new options with better coverage and tax credits that MIGHT help you bring down the cost."

There is nothing that makes previously cancelled plans available at the previous price. Surprisingly, they did not promise additional subsidies to lower cost of new plans by using the federal treasury as a political weapon. This is president Obama's 20th "administrative" change to the law and it doesn't improve the situation for anyone.

The president added, in response to questions, some very headline grabbing statements.

"I think it is legitimate for them to expect me to have to win back some credibility on this healthcare law in particular and on a whole range of these issues in general. Thats on me. We fumbled the rollout of this healthcare law."

"There is a whole bunch of stuff we did well.." (he then listed several items that were implemented by private insurance companies)

"We are also discovering that insurance is complicated to buy."

"Another mistake we made was underestimating the difficulties of people purchasing insurance online and shopping for a lot of options, with a lot of cost and benefits and plans. Uhh, and somehow expecting that would be very smooth and then they've also got to try to apply for tax credits on the website."

"Part of what we are realizing is that there is a certain portion of people who are going to need more help and more hand holding in the application process. "

The grandfather clause we put in place is almost like we said to folks you have to buy a new car, even if you can't afford it right now.

What we did was we chose a path that was the least disruptive to try to FINALLY make sure that health care is treated like it is in every other advanced country. [They lied to force us into socialized medicine.]

This is what happens when one party rams complex laws upon the American people without reading the law. Doo Doo Economics and our allies at the San Diego Local Order of Bloggers have warned everyone about ObamaCare for years. These warnings were met with venom and hate by progressive. They threw human feces at my home.  Now, that the shutdown and the tea party have been proven correct, Americans are met with a brazen political move designed to influence elections instead of doing what is best for America.

With all this failure and breakage of the health insurance system due to ObamaCare, the president now promises that we won't get "dragged back into a broken system." The federal government is breaking our legs and giving us crutches then expecting us to be thankful.

ObamaCare needs to be repealed. The law isn't a trainwreck, it is a jumbo jet crashing into a skyscraper.