Medicare Premiums to Increase for 15 Million

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An old federal policy could cause more than 10 million Americans to get a higher Medicare bill next year.

A small provision in Medicare’s policy will lead to 15 million Americans facing more than 50 percent increases in their monthly premiums next year. A new bipartisan bill in the Senate would fix the problem, but its passage and how it would be funded is in the dark.

The federal government will release 2016 premiums for Medicare Part B in the next few weeks, but an increase appears to be imminent.

That’s because another entitlement program, Social Security, won’t dole out a cost-of-living-adjustment for recipients next year. It is the third time in the past 40 years that seniors won’t get an adjustment, according to an August report from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston University . . .

The decision has a huge impact on Medicare. Federal law includes a “hold-harmless” provision that limits a Medicare premium increase to the increase in an individual’s Social Security benefit, the report said. That means that if Social Security benefits are not raised, neither are Medicare premiums. (Read more from “Medicare Premiums to Increase for 15 Million” HERE)

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This Is What Donald Trump Says Should’ve Happened to Bowe Bergdahl

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By Associated Press. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said Thursday that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl should have been executed for leaving his post in Afghanistan.

“We’re tired of Sgt. Bergdahl, who’s a traitor, a no-good traitor, who should have been executed,” Trump said to cheers at a rowdy rally inside a packed Las Vegas theater at the casino-hotel Treasure Island . . .

It was practically an aside in a litany of complaints at the end of a more than hourlong, free-wheeling speech that included a large dose of media-bashing and a claim that he was behind Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s decision to drop out of the race for House speaker. (Read more from “This Is What Donald Trump Says Should’ve Happened to Bowe Bergdahl” HERE)

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Democrats Troll Donald Trump With ‘America Is Already Great’ Hat

By Denver Nicks. Donald Trump is famous for a few things. There’s real estate, of course, and his reality television shows. There’s his headline-factory personality. There’s the hair. And now there’s the red hat and the slogan, “Make America Great Again.”

How can the Democrats complete with all that? They can’t have his real estate empire or his TV show, not his made-for-prime-time personality and certainly not his hair (it’s unlikely science will ever fully unlock its secrets). But what they can have is a hat of their own.

The Democratic National Committee Friday unveiled a new baseball cap for sale on its website ($28) with the slogan “America is Already Great.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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John Boehner Says He’s Staying – At Least For Now

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By Stephen Dinan. House Speaker John A. Boehner said Thursday he’ll stay in Congress until there’s a replacement speaker — raising the possibility he could stay on beyond the end-of-October retirement date he’d set for himself.

Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, his top lieutenant and the man expected to succeed him, withdrew from the race in a surprise move, sending House Republicans into disarray.

Mr. Boehner canceled the elections that had been scheduled for Thursday afternoon to choose the next speaker, and afterward issued a statement saying he’s not going anywhere — for now.

“As I have said previously, I will serve as speaker until the House votes to elect a new speaker,” he said. “We will announce the date for this election at a later date, and I’m confident we will elect a new speaker in the coming weeks.”

He had set an Oct. 29 date for an election in the whole House, which would have chosen his replacement and ushered him into retirement. That could still happen, but with the House scheduled to be on vacation next week and a major hearing with former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton slated for the week after, it’s unclear whether such a deadline is likely. (Read more from “John Boehner Says He’ll Stay Until Replacement Is Chosen” HERE)

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GOP Civil War Rages as McCarthy Falls

By David Lightman. Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s startling decision to pull out of the race for speaker of the House of Representatives was the latest vivid illustration of how today’s Republican Party is bitterly divided between hardcore conservatives and pragmatists.

And there’s little hope of healing anytime soon.

The Republican civil war has been escalating for years, particularly since the dawn of the tea party movement six years ago.

It’s intensified this summer and fall, thanks to a presidential race featuring three Washington outsiders leading most Republican polls. It’s obvious daily at the Capitol, where Republicans may control both chambers, but they struggle to get much done as they bicker among themselves.

McCarthy, the House majority leader, was the clear favorite to succeed Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who plans to step down at the end of the month. But the California congressman was hardly a consensus choice. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Wikileaks Release of TPP Deal Text Stokes ‘Freedom of Expression’ Fears

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Wikileaks has released what it claims is the full intellectual property chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the controversial agreement between 12 countries that was signed off on Monday.

TPP was negotiated in secret and details have yet to be published. But critics including Democrat presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, unions and privacy activists have lined up to attack what they have seen of it. Wikileaks’ latest disclosures are unlikely to reassure them.

One chapter appears to give the signatory countries (referred to as “parties”) greater power to stop embarrassing information going public. The treaty would give signatories the ability to curtail legal proceedings if the theft of information is “detrimental to a party’s economic interests, international relations, or national defense or national security” – in other words, presumably, if a trial would cause the information to spread.

A drafter’s note says that every participating country’s individual laws about whistleblowing would still apply.

“The text of the TPP’s intellectual property chapter confirms advocates warnings that this deal poses a grave threat to global freedom of expression and basic access to things like medicine and information,” said Evan Greer, campaign director of internet activist group Fight for the Future. “But the sad part is that no one should be surprised by this. It should have been obvious to anyone observing the process, where appointed government bureaucrats and monopolistic companies were given more access to the text than elected officials and journalists, that this would be the result.” (Read more from “Wikileaks Release of TPP Deal Text Stokes ‘Freedom of Expression’ Fears” HERE)

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Federal Workers Earn 78% More Than Private Sector Employees

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Are we allowed to talk about the “income inequality” gap between employees of the federal government and the private sector? Because it’s huge, it’s been huge for a long time, and it’s and getting worse.

According to a study of data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, conducted by the Cato Institute, compensation for federal workers is 78% higher on average than compensation for private sector employees.

“Federal civilian workers had an average wage of $84,153 in 2014, compared to an average in the private sector of $56,350,” according to the Cato review. “The federal advantage in overall compensation (wages plus benefits) is even greater. Federal compensation averaged $119,934 in 2014, which was 78 percent higher than the private-sector average of $67,246.”

To put this in perspective, the federal government has “the fourth highest paid workers in the United States, after utilities, mining, and the management of companies.” The government pays better than information services, the financial sector, the insurance industry, and scientific industries. Federal compensation is more than double what the education industry receives, and over three times what retail workers make.

This would seem problematic in light of left-wing class warfare rhetoric. Compensation for the education industry is supposed to be the veritable benchmark of fairness. We are constantly told it’s outrageous that various professions are paid more than teachers. How, then, can statists justify federal workers making over twice what the education industry pays? (Read more from “Federal Workers Earn 78% More Than Private Sector Employees” HERE)

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GOP Presidential Hopeful Carson Discusses Constitution and Same-Sex Marriage

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That’s the basic message behind “A More Perfect Union,” a book that author Ben Carson hopes will tell his reader, as the subtitle puts it, “what we the people can do to reclaim our constitutional liberties.”

Carson admits up front he’s no constitutional scholar. His expertise and most of his fame come from being a pediatric neurosurgeon, although his conservative political views have propelled him to the forefront of the GOP presidential race. But while surgery is complicated, Carson views the supreme law of the land as sublimely simple.

“That’s the wonderful thing about the Constitution, it’s written in a way that people can understand,” Carson said in a phone interview with the Herald. “There are those who want you to think it’s so complex you can’t understand it, but if you read it, it’s written at an eighth-grade level” . . .

Carson is adamantly opposed to the Supreme Court’s June decision legalizing same-sex marriage across the country, ruling that the equitable application of marriage law is a question of “equal protection of the laws” under the Fourteenth Amendment. But the doctor says the people’s vote in states that had banned recognition of gay marriage shouldn’t be ignored by federal courts.

“The reason we address civil issues at the state and local level is because it’s a question of lifestyle,” and local officials will be more in tune with locals’ views on such sensitive issues than federal ones. “They can decide what’s most compatible with their belief system, and someone else shouldn’t impose their will on them.” (Read more from “GOP Presidential Hopeful Carson Discusses Constitution” HERE)

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Sex Ed? L.A. Suspends Use of Schools for Film Sets After Discovering Porn Shoot

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The Los Angeles Unified School District has suspended commercial filming on its campuses after local media revealed that film shoots – including one of a pornographic film – disrupted classrooms and damaged school property.

L.A. schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines authorized the district’s inspector general to examine filming activities after it was discovered that the porn shoot took place at the historic Hamilton High back in 2011.

“It is important that we ensure teaching and learning are not disrupted, and that all filming activity is appropriate for our schools,” Cortines said in a statement released Thursday to the Los Angeles Times. “As an organization responsible for educating students, it is essential that we hold ourselves and our schools to a high standard.”

A local television station reported that permits and district records indicate that producers of the 2012 release, “Revenge of the Petites,” paid cash to film on Hamilton’s campus on two consecutive Saturdays in October 2011 and also filmed a car wash scene featuring public nudity in the school’s parking lot.

District officials told local NBC4 news that the pornographic filmmakers misled them, and that district officials would never have approved a shoot if they had known the real nature of the movie. (Read more from “Sex Ed? L.A. Suspends Use of Schools for Film Sets After Discovering Porn Shoot” HERE)

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Obama’s Mysterious Trip to San Diego

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President Obama is on the West coast, making appearances in Oregon, Los Angeles and San Francisco. He is expected to arrive in San Diego Saturday night.

President Obama is scheduled to spend Saturday and Sunday in San Diego, but the reason for the visit remains a bit of a mystery.

The White House has confirmed Air Force One will land around 8 p.m., at Miramar on Saturday with President Obama on board.

There are no planned public appearances while he is in San Diego, but rumor has it, he will be staying in the Rancho Santa Fe area.

On Friday, it appeared to be business as usual at the Rancho Valencia Hotel and Spa, where President Obama is rumored to be staying during his San Diego visit. (Read more from “Obama’s Mysterious Trip to San Diego” HERE)

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Obama’s Justice Department Set to Free 6,000 Prisoners, Largest One-Time Release in History

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The Justice Department is set to release about 6,000 inmates early from prison — the largest one-time release of federal prisoners — in an effort to reduce overcrowding and provide relief to drug offenders who received harsh sentences over the past three decades, according to U.S. officials.

The inmates from federal prisons nationwide will be set free by the department’s Bureau of Prisons between Oct. 30 and Nov. 2. About two-thirds of them will go to halfway houses and home confinement before being put on supervised release. About one-third are foreign citizens who will be quickly deported, officials said.

The early releases follow action by the U.S. Sentencing Commission — an independent agency that sets sentencing policies for federal crimes — that reduced the potential punishment for future drug offenders last year and then made that change retroactive.

The commission’s action is separate from an effort by President Obama to grant clemency to certain nonviolent drug offenders, an initiative that has resulted in the early release of 89 inmates.

The panel estimated that its change in sentencing guidelines eventually could result in 46,000 of the nation’s approximately 100,000 drug offenders in federal prison qualifying for early release. The 6,000 figure, which has not been reported previously, is the first tranche in that process. (Read more from “Justice Department Set to Free 6,000 Prisoners, Largest One-Time Release” HERE)

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Here’s How Much Cruz Has Raised for His Presidential Bid

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Ted Cruz raised $12.2 million in the past three months for his Republican presidential bid, about twice what competitor Marco Rubio collected in the same time period.

The new numbers are being circulated by the campaigns ahead of a deadline next week to report fundraising to federal regulators. The quarterly figures mark a practical and symbolic measure of strength for all presidential candidates, but they don’t tell the whole story.

Cruz and Rubio both topped Rand Paul, whose presidential campaign said it had pulled in $2.5 million through the end of September. Several candidates struggled to raise money over the summer months, with celebrity real estate mogul Donald Trump commanding attention in what remains a 15-candidate fight for the nomination. (Read more from “Here’s How Much Cruz Has Raised for His Presidential Bid” HERE)

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