Conservatives Pushing Boehner, Cantor To Defund ObamaCare In Continuing Resolution

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Photo Credit: breitbartConservative House Republicans are circulating a letter calling on House Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to defund Obamacare in the upcoming continuing resolution that funds the government. Oklahoma Republican Rep. Jim Bridenstine, a freshman, and Kansas Republican Rep. Tim Huelskamp are leading the charge.

“The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (‘ObamaCare’) remains broadly unpopular across America,” the letter to Boehner and Cantor reads. “More and more Americans are now feeling its impact–from job losses and part-time downgrades, to insurance policy changes and violations of religious liberties, to state budget strains from Medicaid expansions. And Americans don’t like these impacts. Most Americans still believe that healthcare should be controlled by patients and doctors, not by the government.”

In the letter, the conservatives note that while they plan to “re-start efforts to repeal ObamaCare in its entirety this year, next year and until we are successful,” that “in the meantime, there is more we can do in Congress.”

The upcoming continuing resolution, which funds the government, is one such place. House Republicans have the power, should they choose to use it, to shut down Obamacare through the appropriations process–the power of the purse laid out in the United States Constitution.

It is unclear if Boehner and Cantor will defund Obamacare this time around. Over the past couple years, they have passed continuing resolutions that actually fund Obamacare. Spokespeople for both Boehner and Cantor have not returned requests for comment from Breitbart News on this matter.

Read more from this story HERE.

Scientists Say Baby Born With HIV Apparently Cured

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Photo Credit: APA baby born with the virus that causes AIDS appears to have been cured, scientists announced Sunday, describing the case of a child from Mississippi who’s now 2½ and has been off medication for about a year with no signs of infection.

There’s no guarantee the child will remain healthy, although sophisticated testing uncovered just traces of the virus’ genetic material still lingering. If so, it would mark only the world’s second reported cure.

Specialists say Sunday’s announcement, at a major AIDS meeting in Atlanta, offers promising clues for efforts to eliminate HIV infection in children, especially in AIDS-plagued African countries where too many babies are born with the virus.

“You could call this about as close to a cure, if not a cure, that we’ve seen,” Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health, who is familiar with the findings, told The Associated Press.

A doctor gave this baby faster and stronger treatment than is usual, starting a three-drug infusion within 30 hours of birth. That was before tests confirmed the infant was infected and not just at risk from a mother whose HIV wasn’t diagnosed until she was in labor. “I just felt like this baby was at higher-than-normal risk, and deserved our best shot,” Dr. Hannah Gay, a pediatric HIV specialist at the University of Mississippi, said in an interview.

Read more from this story HERE.

No, Obama Has Not Offered A Plan On Entitlements

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Photo Credit: Mark WilsonDuring a Friday news conference, a reporter asked President Obama whether he had any responsibility for the onset of the automatic spending cuts that he has warned will be devastating for the nation. “The problem that we have is a long-term problem in terms of our health care costs and programs like Medicare,” Obama said in his response. “And what I’ve said very specifically, very detailed is that I’m prepared to take on the problem where it exists — on entitlements — and do some things that my own party really doesn’t like — if it’s part of a broader package of sensible deficit reduction.”

Obama is correct that entitlements in general and health care programs in particular are the biggest source of the nation’s long-term fiscal problems. But it’s a complete falsehood that he’s offered detailed and specific plans to do something about it.

At various times during his presidency, Obama has vowed to tackle the nation’s entitlement programs. It’s true that his health care law did cut projected Medicare spending by about $700 billion over a decade. But those projected savings, along with tax increases, were used to offset $1.7 trillion in new health care spending under Obamacare rather than go toward debt reduction. In other words, they don’t fix any of the program’s structural fiscal problems.

Since Republicans took over Congress in 2011, Obama has consistently said he’d be willing to address entitlements if Republicans agreed to raise taxes — but he’s either spoken vaguely about this willingness or offered proposals that represent minor tweaks to the programs rather than fundamental changes that would put them on a sustainable financial trajectory. For instance, during the “fiscal cliff” debate, Obama floated the idea of changing the measure of inflation used to calculate Social Security benefits — a move that the Congressional Budget Office estimated would save $127 billion over a decade.

Read more from this story HERE.

College Shuts Down Student Bible Study

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Photo Credit: Town Hall Officials at a Florida college ordered a group of students to shut down a Bible study they were holding in the privacy of a dorm room – because it violated the rules.

The incident occurred at Rollins College in the midst of a campus battle over whether religious groups that require their leaders to follow specific religious beliefs are violating the school’s non-discrimination policies.

Four students affiliated with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship were holding an informal Bible study in the common area of a dorm suite. Midway through the study, a resident hall assistant entered the room and asked the student leading the study to step outside.

“He was told they were no longer allowed inside the dorm – even with the express consent of the students to do Bible studies,” said Greg Jao, InterVarsity’s national field director. “They said it was because InterVarsity was no longer a registered student group on campus.”

The well-known Christian ministry was de-recognized as an official campus organization after they refused to comply with the college’s non-discrimination policy.

Read more from this story HERE.

Report May Ease Path for New Pipeline

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Photo Credit: Larry W. SmithThe State Department issued a revised environmental impact statement for the 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline on Friday that makes no recommendation about whether the project should be built but presents no conclusive environmental reason it should not be.

The 2,000-page document also makes no statement on whether the pipeline is in the United States’ economic and energy interests, a determination to be made later this year by President Obama.

But it will certainly add a new element to the already robust climate change and energy debate around the $7 billion proposed project. The new report does not make any policy recommendations, but its conclusion that the environmental and climate change impacts are manageable could provide Mr. Obama political cover if he decides to approve the pipeline.

Although the study will help guide the president’s decision, it does not make the politics any easier. Environmental advocates and landowners along the route have mounted spirited protests against the project, including a large demonstration in Washington last month. They say they view Keystone as a test of Mr. Obama’s seriousness about addressing global warming.

The president faces equally strong pressure from industry, the Canadian government, most Republicans and some Democrats in Congress, local officials and union leaders, who say the project will create thousands of jobs and provide a secure source of oil that will replace crude from Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and other potentially hostile suppliers.

Read more from this story HERE.

Beretta Exec Likens Gun Ban to Book Ban

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Photo Credit: APBeretta USA, one of the nation’s largest firearms manufacturers, compared a Maryland gun-control bill to a book ban Friday and warned it may consider leaving the state if the legislation passes.

Beretta general counsel Jeffrey Reh said Maryland Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley’s Firearm Safety Act of 2013 is “tantamount to a legislative effort to ban certain books” during testimony before the Maryland House Judiciary Committee.

“That might seem like a provocative statement but the parallels are apt,” Reh said, according to testimony obtained by the Free Beacon. “The possession and use of firearms and printed materials are both protected by the Constitution. Both rights come from the only legislation in U.S. history that was voted on and approved directly by the citizens of our country.”

“One might suggest that books do not kill and that the current legislation is sought for beneficial reasons,” Reh continued. “In fact, the misuse of books—say, the Bible or the Koran—have led to tragedy, and efforts to ban certain books—for example, Huckleberry Finn—have also come from allegedly ‘beneficial’ intent.”

The Maryland Senate passed O’Malley’s contentious bill late Thursday night. The bill moved Friday to the House of Delegates where thousands of supporters and opponents flooded the Capitol to watch events unfold.

Read more from this story HERE.

DePaul Punishes Student Who Exposed Vandals Of Memorial For Aborted Babies

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Photo Credit: Daily Caller Back in January, on the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, a group of 13 students destroyed a makeshift memorial for aborted babies on the main campus of DePaul University. The display — 500 pink and blue flags — was set up by DePaul’s chapter of Young Americans for Freedom. (RELATED: Abortion display destroyed on campus)

Senior Kristopher Del Campo, who chairs the DePaul YAF chapter, contacted public safety officials after pro-abortion thugs tore the flags from the ground and threw them in trash cans around campus.

About a week later, as The Daily Caller reported, Kevin Connolly, an investigator for DePaul’s public safety department, produced a brief report listing the names of 13 students who flatly admitted to wrecking the display. The reports said the vandals “had seen anti-abortion posters around campus earlier in the day that they found offensive.” (RELATED: Students admit vandalizing display)

DePaul’s assistant dean of students, Domonic Rollins, provided Del Campo a copy of the report. The national website for Young Americans for Freedom then published it online.

Take a wild guess which student the nation’s largest Catholic school has now singled out for punishment.

Read more from this story HERE.

Teachers Outnumbered In Schools By Administrators, Support Staff In Many States, Study Shows

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Photo Credit: APEach day, students in 21 states will see more librarians, bus drivers, coaches and cafeteria workers than teachers, according to a new study that examined school hiring patterns over the past two decades.

The report, released Thursday by the Friedman Foundation For Educational Choice, found that Virginia, Ohio, Oregon, Maine, Indiana and a number of states- and the District of Columbia- employ more non-classroom personnel than teachers, some by a wide margin.

Virginia came in at the top of the list, with 60,737 more non-teaching staff than instructors, according to the study. Ohio was No. 2, with a disparity of 19,040.

“Taxpayers should be outraged [that] public schools hired so many non-teaching personnel with such little academic improvement among students to show for it,” said Robert Enlow, president and CEO of the foundation, which was founded by the late Nobel laureate Milton Friedman and is among the most vocal proponents of school choice.

“This money could have been better invested in areas that have proved to benefit children,” Mr. Enlow added. But the study’s findings surely will be challenged. Critics have taken aim at previous Friedman Foundation reports, including last fall’s “School Staffing Surge,” which showed that states’ and school districts’ hiring rates have far outpaced the growth of student populations.

Read more from this story HERE.

New Bills Would Halt Health Law’s Employer Mandate

/0 Comments/in , , /by

photo credit: 401(k)2013House and Senate bills introduced Thursday would kill a key provision of President Obama’s healthcare law — the mandate that most employers must offer health benefits to workers.

The legislation was introduced by prominent Republicans, who called the requirement a “job killer.”

“The employer mandate is a drag on our economy, forcing too many of our nation’s job creators to stop hiring and grow their businesses in order to comply with this onerous provision in president’s health law,” Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah) said in a statement.

“Instead of letting the federal government dictate how employers should allocate resources, let’s repeal this job-killing mandate and let businesses get back in the business of hiring,” Hatch said.

The employer mandate requires that companies of 50 or more workers provide health insurance or pay fines if more than 30 employees receive government assistance to buy coverage. The health offerings must be affordable, and they must include a variety of “essential health benefits.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Harvard Crimson To Conservatives: Don’t Apply To Harvard

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Photo Credit: Joseph BarillariThe Harvard Crimson published an editorial urging conservatives not to apply to Harvard if they intend to criticize the university down the line for political points.

The editorial, titled “Warning: Do Not Enroll,” denigrates famous conservatives who graduated from Harvard and later sharply — and perhaps hypocritically — complained about the university’s liberal ideology, including former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, and Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly.

“If we could have spoken to these three men, we would have told them never to come to Cambridge,” wrote the staff of the Crimson. “We at The Crimson urge anyone who plans on one day scoring political points by maligning Harvard to neither apply, enroll, nor graduate from this fine institution.”

All three of the figures mentioned in the editorial have frequently and publicly criticized the political environment at Harvard. Cruz recently commented that during his time on campus, some members of the faculty were “Marxists who believed in … overthrowing the United States government.”

Read more from this story HERE.