Any Information Which Companies Might Be Fracking This Winter? -- October 1, 2015; Dems Walking Back ObamaCare -- Fiscal Times

A reader asked if anyone knew which companies would be fracking through the winter? I certainly don't know. If anyone has any information, feel free to commend (anonymously, is fine) and/or by e-mail (my e-mail is at the blog.

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Speaking of Fracking

A reader writes:

Just thought I would let you know Abraxas will be fracking three wells this upcoming week, most likely Tuesday or Wednesday. They are pulling all adjacent wells right now for frack protection. All three had failed liner hangers that prohibited the completion earlier last month.

The reader did not provide any more details. But possibly,

• 29779, SI/NC, Abraxas, Sten-Rav 1H, North Fork,
• 29780, SI/NC, Abraxas, Ravin 8H, North Fork,
• 29990, SI/NC, Abraxas, Stenehjem 5H, North Fork,

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TrainWreck

Fiscal Times is reporting:

After five years, two midterm disasters, and a rollout that reminded Americans why they fell out of love with big government in the 1970s, reality has finally begun to dawn on some Democrats about Obamacare. With open enrollment about to start and a third straight round of premium spikes about to hit voters’ pockets, the Democrats’ leading presidential candidate has offered a “major break” with the Obama administration on its signature domestic policy achievement.

Hillary Clinton will speak out against the so-called Cadillac tax on high-coverage health care plans, as early as this week, according to The New York Times. The politics on this are complicated, and not entirely focused on health care; in fact, this has more to do with the health of Clinton’s struggling and scandal-plagued campaign. Even so, the Cadillac tax on high-coverage plans is a key to Obamacare, both fiscally and philosophically, and Clinton’s coming attack on it shows just how much of an albatross the entire system has become for her party.

The nature of this strategic decision becomes plain from Maggie Haberman’s report. Clinton reached out to Randi Weingarten to inform her of this decision. Weingarten is president of the American Federation of Teachers and an important player in the labor movement. Unions have long opposed the Cadillac tax, having spent decades demanding top-notch coverage for their members. The tax applies a 40 percent fee on benefits above a certain level, potentially costing labor unions hundreds of millions of dollars that they would rather spend elsewhere – say, on Democratic presidential and Congressional campaigns.

Why make this particular sop to Big Labor now? Clinton recently announced her opposition to the Keystone XL Pipeline, a project backed by unions in anticipation of the skilled labor required to build it. Clinton needed to take that position to defend her left flank from Bernie Sanders, whose opposition to Keystone has been consistent and vocal. That forced Clinton to placate labor leaders by pushing back on Obamacare, which until now Democrats have defended in its entirety – even from unions.

Union opposition arose during the drafting of the Affordable Care Act, with unions demanding either the removal of the Cadillac tax or an exemption from it, but the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress resisted. In part, the decision to oppose the unions came from the desperate political need to produce a Congressional Budget Office review that would show Obamacare as deficit-neutral in its first decade. Under the static tax analysis of Democrats, the Cadillac tax was expected to raise $32 billion in that first decade.

This is a huge trainwreck. Not only are they going to keep (and probably expand) the benefits, the Dems are cutting the ways to finance ObamaCare. Watch for demands for the middle class to pony up for money to support ObamaCare.