Krauthammer: Stop the Bailout — Now

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Photo Credit: Human Events

Photo Credit: Human Events

First order of business for the returning Congress: The No Bailout for Insurance Companies Act of 2014.

Make it one line long: “Sections 1341 and 1342 of the Affordable Care Act are hereby repealed.”

End of bill. End of bailout. End of story.

Why do we need it? On Dec. 18, thechairman of the Council of Economic Advisers was asked what was the administration’s Plan B if, because of adverse selection (enrolling too few young and healthies), the insurance companies face financial difficulty. Jason Furman wouldn’t bite. “There’s a Plan A,” he replied. Enroll the young.

But of course there’s a Plan B. It’s a government bailout.

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Supreme Court Puts Gay Marriage on Hold in Utah

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The Supreme Court on Monday put gay marriage on hold in Utah, giving the state time to appeal a federal judge’s ruling against Utah’s same-sex marriage ban.

The court issued a brief order Monday blocking any new same-sex unions in the state. The ruling comes after a Dec. 20 ruling by U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage violates gay and lesbian couples’ constitutional rights.

The decision, in one of the country’s most conservative states, touched off a flurry of court filings as some jurisdictions started issuing marriage licenses.

More than 900 gay and lesbian couples have married since the Dec. 20 ruling.

The high court order will remain in effect until the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decides whether to uphold Shelby’s ruling.

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Report: Former Aide to Top General is Now Homeless

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Photo Credit: NY Daily News

Photo Credit: NY Daily News

A former top aide to retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal is homeless, according to a report.

Robert Freniere, who at the peak of his storied military career worked as a special assistant to McChrystal as vice director of operations of the Joint Staff, is living out of a van in the Philadelphia suburbs after hitting a sustained run of bad luck following his retirement from the Air Force in 2006, Philly.com reported.

Throughout his 30 years in the military, Freniere, 59, worked his way to the rank of colonel and earned three graduate degrees. But despite his varied accomplishments, he couldn’t even find work as a janitor.

“Well, I’ve tried that,” Freniere told Philly.com about being turned down for even the most low-level custodial jobs.

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China Refutes Report It Will Centralize Military Command

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

China denied on Tuesday a state media report that said its military will establish a joint operational command structure for its forces to improve coordination between different parts of the defense system.

The English-language China Daily newspaper reported last week that the government would implement a joint command system “in due course” and it had already launched pilot programs to that effect.

“With regards to this, the Defence Ministry has clarified that the relevant report is groundless,” the ministry said in a statement on its website.

The People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party, and its sister tabloid, the Global Times, carried the denials on Monday, citing unidentified ministry sources. The ministry posted the People’s Daily report on its website on Tuesday.

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Dennis Rodman Claims Kim Jong-un is Trying to Change North Korea ‘in a Great Way’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Kim Kwang Hyon

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Kim Kwang Hyon

Former American basketball star Dennis Rodman, who arrived in Pyongyang Monday on his fourth visit to the reclusive Stalinist state, said North Korea was “not bad,” and that Kim Jong-un “is actually trying to change this country in a great way.”

Rodman, who has met with Kim – purportedly a basketball fan – on two of his previous three visits, is leading a team of former NBA players who will play an exhibition game on Wednesday, Kim’s 31st birthday.

Speaking to reporters after flying in from Beijing, Rodman said the team members wanted to come to North Korea to help “open the doors.”

“Most people that come here they say, hey North Korea. It’s not – it’s not bad, you know. The marshal [Kim Jong-un] is actually trying to change this country in a great way.”

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Liz Cheney Drops US Senate Bid

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Photo Credit: DonkeyHotey

Photo Credit: DonkeyHotey

Liz Cheney, daughter of former vice president Dick Cheney, has quit a US Senate race, citing family health issues.

Cheney, 47, had been staging a primary campaign to represent the Republican Party in November Senate elections in the western state of Wyoming, challenging long-time Republican Senator Mike Enzi.

‘Serious health issues have recently arisen in our family, and under the circumstances, I have decided to discontinue my campaign,’ she said in a statement on Monday, without elaborating on the health concerns.

‘My children and their futures were the motivation for our campaign and their health and well being will always be my overriding priority.’

The campaign had prompted a public spat within the Cheney family after Liz Cheney spoke out against gay marriage, drawing outrage from her lesbian sister Mary and her wife.

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Family Demanding Answers after Police Fatally Shoot Mentally Ill NC Teenager (+video)

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Photo Credit: NBC

Photo Credit: NBC

North Carolina prosecutors promised Monday to get to the truth — “wherever the truth leads”— in the death of a mentally ill teenager whose family claims police shot him in cold blood over the weekend.

Keith Vidal, 18, of Boiling Springs Lakes, was shot and killed Sunday afternoon, authorities said.

At least three law enforcement agencies responded after the family called for help just after noon, saying Vidal was in the midst of a schizophrenic episode.

Vidal was declared dead of a gunshot wound at a hospital.

Jerry Dove, chief of the Southport police, one of the responding agencies, said at a news conference that Detective Byron Vassey, a nine-year veteran of the department, had been placed on administrative leave. He wouldn’t say whether Vassey was believed to be the officer who fired the shot.

Vidal’s family showed up at the news conference — to which they said they weren’t invited — carrying placards, demanding justice and insisting that their son posed no threat when he was shot.

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Dems Believe Income Inequality To Be Winning Issue In November

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Democrats aren’t wasting any time tackling an issue they are convinced will help them this election year: income inequality.

One of the Senate’s first votes upon returning to Washington from its holiday break Monday will be on a bill reviving emergency unemployment benefits that lapsed at the end of 2013.

The vote marks the first concrete step by Democrats toward a populist economic platform ahead of the November elections. The inequality campaign will intensify later in the year with a push in the Senate to raise the federal minimum wage that will be synced with President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech, which is expected to dig heavily into the issue of economic disparity.

The focus on income inequality builds on the economic themes Obama successfully harnessed to beat Mitt Romney in 2012. Democrats believe they can win again by spotlighting the growing divides between the rich and poor and daring Republicans to oppose legislation aimed at benefiting low-income Americans.

“Our Republican colleagues should take note. Certainly we’re going to build on the progress we’ve made to reduce the deficit, but it is no longer the most important issue that we face,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in laying out Senate Democrats’ agenda for the coming year. “Issues like job creation, minimum wage and unemployment insurance are going to weigh on the minds of voters far more than Obamacare by the time the 2014 elections roll around.”

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Hill Democrats, Republicans Set 2014 Agendas with Midterm Elections in Mind

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Congressional Democrats and Republicans sharpened their political knives Sunday as lawmakers return to Washington this week to begin executing legislative agendas designed to help their respective parties in the November elections.

The first major battle will likely be over restoring long-term unemployment benefits, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scheduled to hold a preliminary vote Monday on the issue.

“The first thing we want to get done is extend unemployment benefits,” he told Fox News on Sunday.

The benefits were not included in a two-year budget deal Congress reached before adjourning for winter break, but not before House Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, made clear the money will not be restored unless offset but other spending cuts.

The White House is also applying pressure on congressional Republicans, issuing a statement on New Year’s Day that said President Obama supports the bipartisan Senate bill to reinstate benefits for the 1.3 million Americans who lost the insurance in the new budget deal.

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SCF Invests Big in Mitch McConnell’s Challenger

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The Senate Conservatives Fund has invested nearly $1 million in the candidacy of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s GOP primary opponent, the group said Friday morning.

SCF spent about $535,000 promoting the candidacy of Matt Bevin in Kentucky and passed along another $450,000 to the tea party candidate, nearly half of the group’s candidate investment last year. Bevin will need all the help he can get in taking on McConnell, who had nearly $10 million on hand as of October.

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