What They Said: Mark Begich and 26 Other Democrat Senators Who Promised You Could Keep Your Healthcare Plan

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APPresident Obama has taken a lot of heat for promising that if Americans liked the health coverage that they had before Obamacare, they would be able to keep it under the new law. But the president wasn’t the only Democrat in Washington who made that false promise. Many, many other Democratic officeholders said the same thing.

In fact, the keep-your-coverage pledge was key to some Democrats’ decision to support the Affordable Care Act. For example, when the bill was being debated, New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen said, “[A] requirement that I have for supporting a bill is that if you have health coverage that you like you should be able to keep that.” For many Democrats, the keep-your-coverage pledge was not a throwaway line; it was a fundamental part of their case for Obamacare.

How many Democrats made the promise? There’s no comprehensive list of all of them, but Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office has compiled a list of 27 Democratic senators who pledged that Americans could keep their coverage under Obamacare. The list includes the entire Democratic leadership in the Senate as well as Democrats facing tough re-election races in 2014, like Mary Landrieu, Mark Begich, and Kay Hagan. Here is that list, compiled by McConnell’s office:

SEN. HARRY REID (D-Nev.): “In fact, one of our core principles is that if you like the health care you have, you can keep it.” (Sen. Reid, Congressional Record, S.8642, 8/3/09)…

SEN. MARK BEGICH (D-Alaska): “If you got a doctor now, you got a medical professional you want, you get to keep that. If you have an insurance program or a health care policy you want of ideas, make sure you keep it. That you can keep who you want.” (Sen. Begich, Townhall Event, 7/27/09)

Read more from this story HERE.

Krauthammer: Democrats Are Now Panicked About ObamaCare (+video)

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: John Shinkle/POLITICO By Fox News Insider.

Liberals Are Worried About the ‘Train wreck’- Krauthammer on The Kelly File

On Friday, Democrats joined their Republican colleagues in the House to pass a measure that would restore health insurance policies canceled by ObamaCare. Charles Krauthammer believes the Democratic support is a sign that the party is panicked about the law.

Tonight on The Kelly File, he explained why there’s a lot at stake for the left. “Obama’s an extremely ideologically ambitious president.”

Read more from this story HERE

_____________________________________________________________________________
Krauthammer on Krauthammer

By Hadas Gold and Dylan Byers — Politico

Charles Krauthammer was surprised when President Barack Obama invited him to the White House last month.

Since Obama took office, the columnist and Fox News contributor has been among the most forceful critics of the president’s policies. Krauthammer’s long been widely read among conservatives, but has recently raised his prominence with unrelenting and searing attacks on the president’s health care plan, proclaiming earlier this month that the “unraveling” of Obamacare, the administration, and the Democratic Senate majority could amount to nothing less than “the collapse of American liberalism.”

With Obama’s approval rating at an all-time low, and the Republican establishment at odds with the conservative base, Krauthammer had become more than “critic in chief.” Blending high-mindedness with strong conservative values, he has commanded respect on both the extreme and moderate sides of the spectrum, becoming the closest thing the factionalized GOP could have to a spokesperson, a de facto opposition leader for the thinking right.

But on that October day when a small group of conservative writers gathered for an off-the-record session with Obama, Krauthammer checked his criticism at the gates to the White House.

Read more from this story HERE.

8 Reasons The Republican Party Has A Bright Future

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Townhall Losing to Barack Obama in 2012 shook the confidence of many Republicans and it’s easy to understand why. After all, if you lose to the worst President in history, what does that say about you? Combine that with the frustrations so many conservatives have with the GOP and it’s easy to write off the Republican Party. However, it’s often darkest before the dawn and many people are missing the fact that the GOP is well positioned to thrive over the next couple of decades.

1) We have the most potent grassroots movement in politics: The GOP has the Tea Party Movement, while the Democrats HAD the Occupy Movement. The Tea Party Movement is about small government, cutting spending, and sticking to the Constitution. The Occupy Movement was about demanding free stuff and avoiding taking baths for weeks at a time. The greatest moment for the Tea Party was the GOP’s incredible success in the 2010 elections. The greatest moment for the Occupy Movement was when the occupiers were protesting Wall Street and a bunch of traders dumped hundreds of McDonald’s job applications on them out of a window. The Tea Party Movement is still alive and kicking. The Occupy crowd eventually gave it up when the rich liberals stopped sending the protesters free food and they ran out of open space to poop in the city parks.

2) 2010 was the GOP’s best year since 1948: It’s funny to hear, “The Republican Party can’t win anymore,” when the GOP had its best year since 1948 less than three years ago. In the 2010 election, the GOP added 6 Senate seats, 63 House seats, and 680 seats in state legislatures around the country. Does that sound like a party that can’t win any more? Does that sound like a party that’s dying?

Read more from this story HERE.

AG Holder Asks for Appeal in Fast and Furious Case Holding him in Contempt

/6 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APAttorney General Eric Holder wants to appeal a recent judge’s ruling that allows the House to continue with its contempt case, related to Holder’s refusal to turn over documents concerning the Justice Department’s failed Operation Fast and Furious gun-tracking program.

Holder made the request Friday night to U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson, asking that the Justice Department be allowed to put the case in front of a federal appeals court before Jackson makes any final decisions.

In September, Jackson rejected the Obama administration’s request to have the case dismissed.

The GOP-led House voted last year to put Holder in contempt of court after President Obama invoked executive privilege and Holder refused to turn over the documents.

Fast and Furious was a 2006-2011 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operation in which the agency allowed hundreds of guns to be sold to Mexican drug traffickers in hopes the weapons would lead them to cartel leaders.

Read more from this story HERE.

Healthcare.gov in Violation of FTC?

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: National Review Prosecute HealthCare.gov?

Conservatives often argue that the federal government should function more like a private business. Obamacare supporters should be grateful it does not, because otherwise HealthCare.gov would almost certainly run afoul of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), as well as of the recently established Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Orson Swindle, who served as an FTC commissioner from 1997 to 2005, says there are a number of practices that, if HealthCare.gov were a private entity, would result in its being “taken to the shed and horsewhipped” by government regulators.

President Obama’s oft-repeated falsehood, “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan” — something the administration knew was untrue — would almost certainly be a textbook case of deceptive advertising, punishable under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, which prohibits “unfair or deceptive acts or practice in or affecting commerce.” This includes a “representation, omission or practice that is likely to mislead the consumer,” such that the consumer would be “likely to have chosen differently but for the deception.”

Other examples of potentially deceptive practices include the apparently deliberate decision to withhold information from HealthCare.gov visitors as to the actual prices of the policies offered via the exchanges. In fact, users aren’t told how much those policies will cost until after they have created an account, which requires giving a slew of personal and financial information.

Read more from this story HERE.

CIA Personnel Asked to Sign Additional Non-Disclosure Form After Benghazi Attack

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Fox News At least five CIA personnel, including government contractors, were asked to sign a second non-disclosure agreement after the Benghazi terrorist attack, Fox News has learned.

While the three-page NDA, obtained by Fox News, does not contain specific references to the 2012 attack which killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, it does contain standard language that unauthorized disclosures could lead to “temporary loss of pay or termination” and “in some circumstances, constitute a criminal offense.”

Sources not authorized to speak on the record, given the sensitivity of this week’s closed-door testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, said the five CIA personnel did not feel pressure to sign the document. But they felt the request for a second non-disclosure agreement after the terrorist attack was odd and not standard practice because their original NDA’s were still in effect, and only some in the group were undergoing contract modifications that might require a new NDA.

Read more from this story HERE.

Hometown Paper that Endorsed Obama Calls for Repeal

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Breitbart Barack Obama’s hometown newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, endorsed the president twice for president. Friday, the same Chicago Tribune called for ObamaCare to be immediately repealed before it can do any more damage:

Stop digging. Start over.

As Friday dawns, here’s what a health insurance crisis looks like to many millions of Americans: Barely six weeks shy of 2014, they do not know whether they will have medical coverage Jan. 1. Or which hospitals and doctors they might patronize. Or what they may pay to protect themselves and their families against the chance of medical and financial catastrophe. How much, that is, they may pay in order to satisfy the Democratic politicians and federal bureaucrats who are worsening a metastasizing health coverage fiasco. …

Read more from this story HERE.

Pentagon and CIA Fighting State Dept. Plan to Allow Russian Space Agency to Build GPS Stations on U.S. Soil

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Pedro Ladeira/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesIn the view of America’s spy services, the next potential threat from Russia may not come from a nefarious cyberweapon or secrets gleaned from the files of Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor now in Moscow.

Instead, this menace may come in the form of a seemingly innocuous dome-topped antenna perched atop an electronics-packed building surrounded by a security fence somewhere in the United States.

In recent months, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon have been quietly waging a campaign to stop the State Department from allowing Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, to build about half a dozen of these structures, known as monitor stations, on United States soil, several American officials said.

They fear that these structures could help Russia spy on the United States and improve the precision of Russian weaponry, the officials said. These monitor stations, the Russians contend, would significantly improve the accuracy and reliability of Moscow’s version of the Global Positioning System, the American satellite network that steers guided missiles to their targets and thirsty smartphone users to the nearest Starbucks.

“They don’t want to be reliant on the American system and believe that their systems, like GPS, will spawn other industries and applications,” said a former senior official in the State Department’s Office of Space and Advanced Technology. “They feel as though they are losing a technological edge to us in an important market. Look at everything GPS has done on things like your phone and the movement of planes and ships.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Food Stamp Opportunists Who Raided Walmart During EBT Glitch to be Cut Off from Program

/10 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Natural News The ruthless hordes of food stamp recipients that went wild last month during a major glitch in the Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) program could end up getting cut off from the program forever, claim new reports. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal recently announced that everyone who participated in fraud in his state by raiding stores and going on out-of-control shopping sprees will soon receive letters notifying them of either a temporary or permanent loss of benefits.

As you may recall, a number of Walmart stores and other retailers throughout Louisiana were ransacked back in October when the federal EBT database suddenly went offline, registering the equivalent of unlimited balances on people’s cards. Enticed by the prospect of having no spending limits, thousands of EBT cardholders who discovered the glitch early decided to take full advantage of it, ransacking stores and filling up their carts with the most expensive food products they could find.

Many of these looters made off with the stolen goods in their carts, as checkers at some stores rang them up even though the system was down, trusting that they had enough credit on their EBT cards to cover the costs. But now that officials have had the chance to go back and review these purchases, there is clear evidence that many of the looters were simply there to steal as much as possible.

“More than 12,000 people were sent an insufficient funds notice when the problem with the EBT cards was fixed on October 12,” writes William Bigelow for Breitbart.com. “[T]hose who transgressed may lose their EBT cards for a year.”

The glitch was not limited to just Louisiana, as at least 17 states reportedly had problems with their EBT card systems during the same time. But Louisiana is among the first to actually hold its offending EBT cardholders accountable for both fraud and attempted fraud, even indicating that it plans to cut some people’s benefits off for good.

Read more from this story HERE.

Thousands of Doctors Dropped by Insurer After Obamacare Funding Cuts

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: WNDBy Newsmax Wires.

United Health Group has dropped thousands of doctors from its networks in recent weeks, leaving many elderly patients unsure whether they need to switch plans to continue seeing their doctors, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

The insurer said in October that underfunding of Medicare Advantage plans for the elderly could not be fully offset by the company’s other healthcare business.

The company also reported spending more healthcare premiums on medical claims in the third quarter, due mainly to government cuts to payments for Medicare Advantage services.

“Medicare Advantage, an alternative to traditional Medicare, combines hospital and doctor coverage and often includes prescription drugs and perks like gym memberships,” the Journal explained. “Enrollment has more than doubled since 2004 to 13 million in 2012, which represents about 27 percent of Americans on Medicare.

“The federal government pays private insurers a per-capita fee to manage the benefits. The rate is currently about 12 percent more than the average Medicare patient spends annually. The Obama administration plans to cut those extra payments to insurers by about $150 billion over the next 10 years to help pay” for the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.

Read more from this story HERE.

_____________________________________________________________

Why the Obamacare Insurance Delay Isn’t Legal

By John Yoo.

I agree with Adam below that President Obama does not have the legal authority for his health care decision yesterday, though the issue is not easy to resolve. The legal complexity might allow the White House to get away with another lawless act—as it has with the delay of the employer mandate, the waiving of welfare work rules, the free pass for marijuana users, and the non-enforcement of immigration laws.

The President announced on Thursday that, for the next year, anyone can keep the health plans that they held before the passage of Obamacare. Obamacare requires all individual to purchase health care. The problem is that the Administration, acting pursuant to the Affordable Care Act, has the authority to define what qualifies as health insurance. The Obama administration notoriously defined acceptable health care policies to only include those that met minimum requirements, including prenatal care (even for men). Pre-existing health care plans will be lost, because most of them do not meet these criteria.

Initially, Obama’s decision might seem to rely on the safe ground of the delegated authority under the ACA to define insurance policies. Obama could just order HHS to alter its regulation so that any and all insurance policies could meet the insurance mandate.

The problem with Obama’s suspension, as I understand it, is that any regulation must undergo what is known as “notice-and-comment” under the Administrative Procedure Act. All regulations—issued pursuant to authority delegated to the executive branch by Congress—must first be publicly proposed, and then wait for a period of time for the public to make comments. Then the agency must issue the regulation with reasoned explanations for its policy choices. Changes to existing regulations usually must undergo the same process.

Obama’s decision yesterday, however, apparently is not to forego “notice-and-comment” rulemaking. If the President wants to snuff out the raging political fires engulfing his Administration, his one-year delay has to have immediate effect. Obama cannot wait around for the normal procedures required by the Administrative Procedure Act.

Read more from this story HERE.