As U.S. Struggles with Health Reform, the Amish Go their Own Way

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Reuters/Jonathan BachmanThe debate over U.S. healthcare reform that has gripped the nation and led to a government shutdown is of small concern in rural Pennsylvania’s Amish country for a very simple reason.

Along with eschewing cars and many other modern technologies, the descendants of 18th-Century German immigrants who practice the Amish and Old Order Mennonite religions, have effectively opted out of Obamacare, along with most federal safety net programs.

A little-known provision of the law with its roots in a 1950s battle over Social Security exempts these communities from the individual mandate, an element of the Affordable Care Act that requires most Americans to purchase health insurance in some form.

But it is not the idea of health insurance the Amish reject – the close-knit communities essentially insure themselves.

“We have our own health care,” said a retired Amish carpenter, who like other Amish interviewed for this story, asked that his name not be used because of a traditional aversion to publicity and bringing attention to oneself.

Read more from this story HERE.

Mike Lee: He and Ted Cruz Faced ‘Demeaning’ and ‘All-Out Attack’ from GOP Colleagues (+video)

/14 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Gage SkidmoreSenate Republicans furiously attacked Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Utah Sen. Mike Lee behind closed doors and leaked details of an off-record meeting to the media to harm the two senators, according to Lee.

Lee divulged some of the details of a closed-door meeting on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show on Friday, since he said much of it had been leaked to the media by his own colleagues.

“[N]ormally, I don’t comment at all on closed-door meetings between Republican senators,” Lee said. “It’s a pretty strict rule we follow. But one exception I’ll make is circumstances like this, where contents of the meeting were leaked deliberately by several of my colleagues and leaked in a very one-sided way. I’m happy to tell you about it here.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Top Dem: Shutdown ‘May Widen our Path’ to Re-Taking House

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: DonkeyHoteyBy Alexandra Jaffe.

House Democrats believe the shutdown will help them put the lower chamber in play this cycle.

Democratic candidates running against vulnerable Republicans have wasted no time in hammering the incumbents as key actors in what they’re characterizing as a Tea Party-led shutdown that’s hurting Americans.

Many of those Republicans, in a signal they’re concerned about the possible political ramifications, are calling for an end to the stalemate — like Reps. Scott Rigell (R-Va.), Pat Meehan (R-Pa.) and Jon Runyan (R-N.J.), all of whom are facing reelection in difficult districts and all of whom called this week for the passage of a clean CR to end the shutdown.

Multiple polls, too, have shown Americans are placing the blame for the shutdown on Republicans.

Democrats need to pick up 17 seats to win back the House, a tall order under any circumstances, and even taller in an off-year when the party holding the White House typically loses seats.

Read more from this story HERE.

____________________________________________________

Photo Credit: © Images.com/CorbisThe Shutdown Is a Sideshow. Debt Is the Threat

By Niall Ferguson.

In the words of a veteran investor, watching the U.S. bond market today is like sitting in a packed theater and smelling smoke. You look around for signs of other nervous sniffers. But everyone else seems oblivious.

Yes, the federal government shut down this week. Yes, we are just two weeks away from the point when the Treasury secretary says he will run out of cash if the debt ceiling isn’t raised. Yes, bond king Bill Gross has been on TV warning that a default by the government would be “catastrophic.” Yet the yield on a 10-year Treasury note has fallen slightly over the past month (though short-term T-bill rates ticked up this week).

Part of the reason people aren’t rushing for the exits is that the comedy they are watching is so horribly fascinating. In his vain attempt to stop the Senate striking out the defunding of ObamaCare from the last version of the continuing resolution, freshman Sen. Ted Cruz managed to quote Doctor Seuss while re-enacting a scene from the classic movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

Meanwhile, President Obama has become the Hamlet of the West Wing: One minute he’s for bombing Syria, the next he’s not; one minute Larry Summers will succeed Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve, the next he won’t; one minute the president is jetting off to Asia, the next he’s not. To be in charge, or not to be in charge: that is indeed the question.

According to conventional wisdom, the key to what is going on is a Republican Party increasingly at the mercy of the tea party. I agree that it was politically inept to seek to block ObamaCare by these means. This is not the way to win back the White House and Senate. But responsibility also lies with the president, who has consistently failed to understand that a key function of the head of the executive branch is to twist the arms of legislators on both sides. It was not the tea party that shot down Mr. Summers’s nomination as Fed chairman; it was Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the new face of the American left.

Read more from this story HERE.

Democrats say House Vote for Back Pay Shows GOP Wants Government to Stay Closed

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: REUTERSThe Republican-led House passed a bill Saturday to give thousands of furloughed federal workers back pay when the government reopens, but Democrats promptly characterized it as a signal the GOP doesn’t want the partial shutdown to end.

“Now we’re saying to federal employees: We’re going to pay you when this is all over with,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said minutes after the 407-to-0 House vote. “But right now, you just stay home … watch TV, play chess, whatever you’re going to do, because we won’t let you work.”

The Senate is expected to OK it as well but adjourned Saturday without a vote. The Democrat-controlled chamber will not scheduled a vote until at least Monday afternoon, when members return to Washington.

The back-and-forth comes on the fifth day of the partial government shutdown and marks the second straight weekend that members of Congress are on Capitol Hill trying to agree on a spending bill to end the saga.

At the same time, House Democrats extended Reid’s talking point while also adding that both sides have agreed to spending levels for a temporary funding bill to end the partial shutdown, so House Republicans should drop their effort to defund or delay ObamaCare and vote this weekend to fully re-open the government.

Read more from this story HERE.

Peter Schiff Warns of U.S. Depression (+video)

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Gage SkidmoreAmerican investment broker, businessman, author and financial commentator Peter Schiff warns us that we are in worse shape now economically than we were just before the 2008 financial crisis, which we still have yet to recover from.

“I think the U.S. has been in a depression or a recession for the entirety of the Obama presidency,” Schiff said. “I think there’s going to be a depression, but I don’t think it’s going to be global.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama to Public: Don’t Give Up On Health Sign-Ups

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Washington Examiner Defending the shaky rollout of his health care law, President Barack Obama said frustrated Americans “definitely shouldn’t give up” on the problem-plagued program now at the heart of his dispute with Republicans over reopening the federal government.

Obama said public interest far exceeded the government’s expectations, causing technology glitches that thwarted millions of Americans when trying to use government-run health care websites.

“Folks are working around the clock and have been systematically reducing the wait times,” he said.

The federal gateway website was taken down for repairs over the weekend, again hindering people from signing up for insurance.

Obama, in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, also disclosed that U.S. intelligence agencies believe Iran continues to be a year or more away from having the capability to make a nuclear weapon. That assessment is at odds with Israel, which contends Tehran is on a faster course toward a bomb.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Uses American Tales of Shutdown Woe to Pressure GOP on Spending Bill

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP/Charles DharapakBy Ben Wolfgang.

With the federal shutdown headed toward its second week, President Obama on Saturday continued to pressure House Republicans to immediately pass a “clean” spending bill to get Washington back up and running.

In his weekly radio and internet address, the president read two letters he received from “Americans dealing with those real-world consequences” of the shutdown.

Mr. Obama, who was forced to cancel a trip to Asia and has seen other legislative priorities grind to a halt as Capitol Hill remains deadlocked, read the story of an Alabama woman who says her Head Start agency had to close its doors on Tuesday.

He also cited a North Dakota family in danger of losing its federal home loan as a result of the government closure.

Reciting such tales is Mr. Obama’s latest strategy to prod Congress to action.

Read more from this story HERE.

__________________________________________________________

Obama, the Sultan of Sob Stories

By Jeannie DeAngelis.

In order to advance his agenda, Barack Obama has become the sultan of sob stories. For every unpopular policy he endeavors to impose, the president has busloads of individuals to fit every occasion.

Take for instance the president’s enthusiastic desire to curtail Second Amendment rights. To address that issue, he has mentioned and put on display shooting survivor and former Arizona congresswoman Gabby “deserves a vote” Giffords many times.

Mr. Obama has spoken at prayer memorials, exploited the grieving families of the Sandy Hook victims, and given seats of honor at the State of the Union speech to slain Chicago teen Hadiya Pendleton’s parents, Cleo and Nat. The president has read letters from terrified albeit amazingly articulate schoolchildren convinced that without drastic gun control measures they’ll be gunned down in school, and even went so far as to assume symbolic parenthood of shooting victim Trayvon Martin.

For immigration reform, we now know all about DREAM actors, those fresh-faced illegal immigrants that any American would be proud to see marry their son or daughter. In addition, we’ve heard stories about innocent Latinos just trying to buy ice cream cones for their children being harassed for their “papers” by mean xenophobes in Arizona.

Read more from this story HERE.

Issa: Benghazi Attack Result of Hillary Clinton’s Reckless, Ill-Advised ‘War on Terror’ Policies (+video)

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Chris MaddaloniResponsibility for the September 11 Benghazi assault and the deaths of four U.S. citizens — including Libyan ambassador Chris Stevens — lies personally at the feet of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa.

“The investigation really is now not about what we know, but about how we can prevent abuse of security before the fact, how we respond during the fact, and how we hold people accountable after the fact for deliberate misinformation — if you want to be kind — [and] outright lies, if not,” said Issa, who serves as head of the Oversight and Government reform committee.

Read more from this story HERE.

Birth Rate Poses Looming Economic Cloud

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: bradbrundageChina’s got a shortage of workers, impacting its economy, because of the nation’s years-long limit of one child per family and Russia’s Vladimir Putin fears his nation may lose influence and power as a result of the declining population.

Now the forecast is out that the U.S. economy could come under stress in the future – because of a lack of babies.

Jonathan V. Last, author of “What to Expect When No One’s Expecting: America’s Coming Demographic Disaster,” believes the U.S. is in for a rocky ride in the next few years – demographically.

“We’ve seen a decline in fertility going back to the foundation of this country,” said Last. “The only interruption we had was the Baby Boom.

“This uninterrupted fertility decline has stabilized in recent years, but only because we had a massive influx of Mexican immigrants propping us up. We look much like Eastern Europe without them,” said Last.

Read more from this story HERE.

U.S. Raids in Libya and Somalia Strike Terror Targets

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: New York Times By David D. Kirkpatrick, Nicholas Kulish and Eric Schmitt.

American commandos carried out raids on Saturday in two far-flung African countries in a powerful flex of military muscle aimed at capturing fugitive terrorist suspects. American troops assisted by F.B.I. and C.I.A. agents seized a suspected leader of Al Qaeda on the streets of Tripoli, Libya, while Navy SEALs raided the seaside villa of a militant leader in a predawn firefight on the coast of Somalia.

In Tripoli, American forces captured a Libyan militant who had been indicted in 2000 for his role in the 1998 bombings of the United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The militant, born Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai and known by his nom de guerre, Abu Anas el-Liby, had a $5 million bounty on his head; his capture at dawn ended a 15-year manhunt.

In Somalia, the Navy SEAL team emerged before sunrise from the Indian Ocean and exchanged gunfire with militants at the home of a senior leader of the Shabab, the Somali militant group. The raid was planned more than a week ago, officials said, after a massacre by the Shabab at a Nairobi shopping mall that killed more than 60 people two weeks ago.

The SEAL team was forced to withdraw before it could confirm that it had killed the Shabab leader, a senior American security official said. Officials declined to identify the target.

Officials said the timing of the two raids was coincidental. But occurring on the same day, they underscored the rise of northern Africa as a haven for international terrorists. Libya has collapsed into the control of a patchwork of militias since the ouster of the Qaddafi government in 2011. Somalia, the birthplace of the Shabab, has lacked an effective central government for more than two decades.

Read more from this story HERE.

___________________________________________________________

Photo Credit: Fox NewsUS military forces conduct 2 major terror raids, seize Al Qaeda leader behind 1998 embassy bombings

The Pentagon confirmed Saturday night that U.S. special forces had captured an Al Qaeda terrorist wanted in connection with the 1998 bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The secret operation occurred in Tripoli, Libya, where an elite team of Special Operators swooped in and captured alive Abu Anas Al Liby.

Pentagon spokesman George Little said in a statement that Abu Anas Al Liby “is currently lawfully detained by the U.S. military in a secure location outside of Libya.” Sources told Fox News that he will be read his rights by an elite FBI unit that was sent out for that purpose. US officials say that the Justice Department plans to prosecute him in a U.S. court.

Al Liby is on the FBI’s most-wanted list with a $5 million bounty on his head. He was indicted by a federal court in the Southern District of New York, for his alleged role in the bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, on August 7, 1998, that killed more than 220 people.

Read more from this story HERE.