Photo by Scotlenger, some rights reserved

The U.S. Supreme Court held 3 days of oral arguments about the multi-state lawsuit challenging the health care law. On March 26, 27 and 28 the Court Justices sat for a combined six hours to ascertain the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The case is officially referred to as Florida v. Department of Health & Human Services. Anti-Injunction Act On the first day, the Supreme Court heard one-and-a-half hours of oral arguments on the jurisdictional issue of whether the federal Anti-Injunction Act is applicable towards Affordable Care Act and if so, does the Court have jurisdiction. The Anti-Injunction Act prohibits the Courts from striking down tax laws before they take affect. Both the Administration and opposition counsel specified that this law does not constitute a tax, so the court took the unusual step of appointing an authorized to argue for the implementation of the Anti-Injunction Act Individual Mandate The individual mandate part of the law goes into effect on January 1, 2014. it mandates that nearly all Americans to obtain medical care insurance or pay a fine. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard two hours of oral argument on the mandate. Severability On the last day of oral argument, the Court considered if the rest of the health care law can stand in the event the individual mandate provision is found unconstitutional, known as severability. Adversaries of the law contend that if the mandate is stricken, the complete Health Care law ought to be struck down. While the government says that if the requirement is recognized as unconstitutional, only two major provisions of the law must fall, but the rest of the law can stand. Medicaid The last question before the Court was if the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of the Medicaid program violates the Constitution. Twenty-six states challenged the decision within the Affordable Care Act to expand Medicaid coverage; an expansion that the states claim will break their budgets. The states argue that federal Medicaid funding they rely on will be taken away if the states won’t accept this portion of the law. Defenders of the Medicaid expansion provision argued that states can determine whether they choose to participate in Medicaid on the terms detailed in the act. Background Before the Supreme Court oral arguments on March 26, 27 and 28, three different circuit courts listened to oral argument on the new health care law. In May 2011, the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia heard two cases on the health care law. In Liberty University v. Geithner, the Court decided 2-1 that the individuals in the case were not able to challenge the law until after the law is put into effect. And Virginia v. Sebelius, the court dismissed the case on the rationale that the only plaintiff in the case, the Commonwealth of Virginia, had no legal right to bring a lawsuit because the individual mandate impacts only individuals. The first appellate court with a decision on the law was the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio in Thomas More Law Center v. Obama. The Court determined 2-1 to reject the Center’s argument that the individual mandate can never be constitutional, an argument known as a “facial challenge.” within the opinion by Judge Jeffrey Sutton, a conservative judge who clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia, the court held that it’s constitutional to have the need for all Americans to buy medical care insurance coverage. The next to listen to a challenge to the health care law was the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. That Court reached the exact opposite conclusion from the Sixth Circuit in the case brought by Florida together with a group of twenty-five other states, along with the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). The Court sided with the challengers that the individual mandate is unconstitutional. Nonetheless, the court also held that even if the individual mandate was unconstitutional, the rest of the health care law could still go into effect, a legal concept known as “severability.” The 26 States in the court action before the Supreme Court are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Want More Business? Send Out Better Emails!

Have you heard of email marketing, but you do not know what it entails? You are not alone. Many people are not really familiar email marketing. That is about to change for you. In the following article, you will be given methods to assist you in effectively using email marketing to your advantage.

Learn what domain authentication is and then set it up. You want internet service providers to know that the messages you are sending are in fact coming from you. This seriously diminishes the chances you have of getting blocked and blacklisted, or your emails getting eaten up by spam filters at the server level.

Build your mailing list one person at a time. Start by asking your largest customers to sign up and recommend you to their friends. Word of mouth is the best form of recommendation and you will gain much more business this way as well as have a larger, targeted email list to market your products to.

While online promotion is essential, don’t overlook the opportunity to promote your mailing list offline. To build both new subscribers and potential clients, look for any opportunity possible to get the word out. Some great opportunities to build your business can be found at networking events, trade shows, conferences and local gatherings.

Strategically plan when your emails will go out. People do not like getting emails at inconvenient times, especially if it’s something that they have to act on quickly. Be considerate by making your offers convenient and easy for people to take advantage of, and you will have more sales than you otherwise would.

Use professional looking fonts for email marketing success. Though you may be feeling the need to unleash your creativity all over your email campaign, try to refrain when it comes to your choice of fonts. Choose one of the most common fonts, that will assure proper display on the various devices that will be used to view your email.

Let your subscribers have the option of sharing your email message through their social media profiles. When your messages have the buttons for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, especially intriguing content can get secondary distribution by your readers to prospects you do not currently have direct access to. Nothing is cheaper or more authentic than word of mouth advertising.

Include a link at the bottom of any marketing emails that allows people to unsubscribe easily. If someone does not want to receive your messages, providing a simple way for them to unsubscribe is preferable to ending up in their spam folder. It will also help to protect your reputation as a business that respects its customers.

All email marketers would be wise to set up domain authentication. This will assure your ISP that any email you send out is in fact from you, resulting in an increased likelihood that your email will be delivered. You don’t want to put time and effort into creating a wonderful email only to see it never reach its intended destination.

Solicit a response from your readers. Ask for feedback or reader opinion in your message, or ask a thought provoking question and ask for responses. Not only will this keep your customers engaged, it will give you valuable information on what they like or dislike, and help you learn what their preferences are.

It is extremely important to find the right balance with regards to how frequently you send out emails when you’re dealing with email marketing. If you send too many, you’ll earn yourself a one-way trip to the spam folder or worse, have people unsubscribe. Just, a few, on the other hand, might cause people to forget about your business altogether.

Email is a great marketing tool, but it is not an arena where the hard sell is appreciated. Never pressure your subscribers into buying. Put sales pitches at the tail end of your emails, especially if your readers signed up with expectations of informative content. Consider email as a tool to cultivate interest, not instant sales.

One important tip that all email marketers could use is to keep their format fresh. Using the same template for prolonged periods of time is a sure way to get your readers to stop subscribing to your emails. Be sure and change up the style and format of your emails every once and awhile.

In terms of overall strategy, try to focus your email efforts on bringing together the perfect customer with the perfect product. Do not be afraid to specialize and customize, even it takes more effort. Build up information on your subscribers and narrow down what you offer them. Your goal is to present them with an offer they will find irresistible.

Study the CAN-SPAM act, and learn how to be compliant with it. Familiarizing yourself with key requirements listed within the act can keep you out of trouble and leave open doors for your messages to pass through. Handle any requests for opting out within ten days, and do not ever write a misleading subject line.

A big part of every good email marketing campaign is respect for your subscribers. One way you can demonstrate that respect is by making it as easy as possible for them to unsubscribe. You should, ideally, include an “unsubscribe” link with every message you send out. Losing a subscriber is a shame, but annoying one before they leave is downright dangerous!

Tell a story with your email marketing campaign. You must think about how to grab the readers’ attention. How better to grab their attention than to tell a story that involves success in your business niche. This gets them intrigued, and it gives you an opportunity to get new customers.

In conclusion, you probably came to this article because you were curious about email marketing and what it entails. Now that you have read the above information, you are on your way to becoming an email marketing expert. You may find that this technique really helps your business or product.

WASHINGTON—In this week’s address, President Obama spoke from Indonesia and told the American people that during his trip to the Asia Pacific, he has made progress opening up markets to support thousands of American jobs and keep us on track to double American exports by 2014.  The President’s trip underscores his belief that our businesses will always be successful competing around the world and that he will continue to do everything possible to create jobs for the American people.

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
Bali, Indonesia
Saturday, November 19, 2011

Today, I’m speaking to you from Indonesia as I finish up my trip to the Asia Pacific – the region where we do most of our trade and sell most of our exports.  And over the past week, the progress we’ve made in opening markets and boosting exports here will help create more jobs and more growth in the United States.

Here in Indonesia, I was proud to join leaders from some of our nation’s top companies as they announced trade deals that will support nearly 130,000 American jobs and potentially increase U.S. exports by up to $39 billion.  Boeing, for example, will sell more than 200 planes to Indonesia that are built with parts from suppliers in more than 40 states.  And a deal to export GE engines will support jobs at plants in Ohio and North Carolina.

These agreements will help us reach my goal of doubling American exports by 2014 – a goal we’re on pace to meet.  And they’re powerful examples of how we can rebuild an economy that’s focused on what our country has always done best – making and selling products all over the world that are stamped with three proud words:  “Made In America.”

This is important, because over the last decade, we became a country that relied too much on what we bought and consumed.  We racked up a lot of debt, but we didn’t create many jobs at all.

If we want an economy that’s built to last and built to compete, we have to change that.  We have to restore America’s manufacturing might, which is what helped us build the largest middle-class in history.  That’s why we chose to pull the auto industry back from the brink, saving hundreds of thousands of jobs in the process.  And that’s why we’re investing in the next generation of high-tech, American manufacturing.

But building an economy that lasts isn’t just about making things – it’s about opening new markets for people to buy them.  After all, 95% of the world’s consumers live outside our borders.  And as the fastest-growing region in the world, no market is more important to our economic future than the Asia Pacific – a region where our exports already support five million American jobs.

This is why we recently signed a landmark trade agreement with South Korea that will support tens of thousands of American jobs.  And it’s why I traveled here this week.  In Hawaii, I hosted leaders from across the Asia Pacific, and we agreed to make it easier for American companies to do business overseas.  I also worked with President Medvedev of Russia to pursue trade that would increase exports and jobs for American manufacturers and farmers.  And working with other leaders, we made progress toward our most ambitious trade agreement yet – a partnership with Pacific nations that holds the potential for more exports and more jobs in a region of nearly three billion consumers.

We may be going through tough times, but as I’ve said time and time again, the United States still has the world’s most dynamic economy, the finest universities, the most innovative companies, and the hardest-working people on Earth.  We can compete against anybody – and we can win.  As President, I intend to make sure that happens by doing everything I can to give American workers and businesses the chance to succeed.