Another lawsuit has been filed against the president’s health care takeover strategy – this time by a Florida company complaining that Barack Obama had no authority to simply go in and change the law once it had been approved by Congress and signed.
It was last July, according to reports, that Obama simply announced he was changing the law, which had scheduled a requirement for employers to provide adequate and affordable health insurance starting Jan. 1, 2014, or pay huge fines.
Obama, responding to complaints from businesses, simply changed the effective date of that requirement to Jan. 1, 2015, strategically after the 2014 elections.
Obamacare already has been the subject of dozens of lawsuits, and the U.S. Supreme Court last year ruled that it is a tax, and therefore constitutional, even thought he Obama administration had argued it wasn’t a tax.
There is another case now heading toward the U.S. Supreme Court, too, that could end up with critical sections being determined to be illegal.
The government shutdown has forced spy agencies to furlough 70 percent of their civilian employees, according to a senior intelligence official.
The furloughed employees include both support staff and intelligence analysts, according to the official.
Furloughs are being ordered across the federal government Tuesday as officials decide which employees are “essential” and should stay on the job despite the failure of Congress to approve a funding measure.
A spokesman for the director of national intelligence warned the shutdown would hamper the ability of the United States to track threats to national security.
“The Intelligence Community’s ability to identify threats and provide information for a broad set of national security decisions will be diminished for the duration,” Shawn Turner, a spokesman for Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, said in a statement.
The moribund U.S. economy and the bleak jobs picture have collided to produce the highest college loan default rate in 18 years, according to data released Monday by the Department of Education.
“Some colleges are simply masking default problems until the federal government stops watching,” said The Institute for College Access and Success vice president Pauline Abernathy. “These kinds of deceptive tactics protect colleges while putting students and taxpayers at even greater risk after the school is off the hook.”
Student loan default rates have risen for the sixth year; 14.7 percent of federal student loan cohorts had defaulted on their loans within three years. The year prior, the three-year default rate was 13.4 percent. Between October 1, 2010 and September 30, 2011, more than 475,000 college students—an average 10 percent—defaulted on their loans.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-10-02 00:01:012013-10-02 00:01:01College Loan Defaults Hit 18-Year High
The U.S. government began a partial shutdown Tuesday for the first time in 17 years, potentially putting up to 1 million workers on unpaid leave, closing national parks and stalling medical research projects.
Federal agencies were directed to cut back services after lawmakers could not break a political stalemate that sparked new questions about the ability of a deeply divided Congress to perform its most basic functions.
“Unfortunately, we do not have a clear indication that Congress will act in time for the president to sign a continuing resolution before the end of the day tomorrow, October 1, 2013. Therefore, agencies should now execute plans for an orderly shutdown due to the absence of appropriations,” wrote OMB director Sylvia M. Burwell in a memorandum circulated at 11:45 Eastern time.
The federal government was shut down twice in 1995-96, when Bill Clinton was president and Newt Gingrich was the Speaker of the House, but has not closed since then.
Burwell, as President Barack Obama did repeatedly Monday, urged Congress to pass short-term legislation that would extend the funding for the remainder of the fiscal year and “restore the operation of critical public services and programs that will be impacted by a lapse in appropriations.”
Government agencies were directed to “execute plans for an orderly shutdown” late Monday as Congress failed to pass a funding bill that would prevent the disruption of some government services.
The Office of Management and Budget, tasked with administering the shutdown, urged Congress “to restore the operation of critical public services and programs” impacted by the failure of the House and Senate to reach an agreement on how to continue funding the government by 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.
While the most essential government services will basically continue business as usual, the lack of funding for many others will be a minor headache for some Americans, and a serious concern for others.
In remarks Monday, President Barack Obama said children, seniors, and women would be “hamstrung” if the government were to shut down.
“The shutdown will have a very real impact on real people right away,” he said.
Government shutdown: Get up to speed in 20 questions
By Holly Yan.
Let’s start with the obvious question: What happens now that a shutdown is in place?
Republicans and Democrats could not agree on a spending plan for the fiscal year beginning Tuesday as they wrangled over Obamacare, leaving federal coffers short.
Here’s a quick Q&A to get you caught up on what happened on Monday and what to expect going forward.
1. Why did the government shut down?
Congress has one key duty in the Constitution — pass spending bills that fund the government. If it doesn’t, most functions of government — from funding agencies to paying out small business loans and processing passport requests — grinds to a halt. Key services, like Social Security, air traffic control and military pay continue to be funded. Oh, Congress gets paid, too.
Immigration overhaul legislation has been dormant in the House for months, but a few Republicans are working behind the scenes to advance it at a time the Capitol is immersed in a partisan brawl over government spending and President Barack Obama’s health care law.
The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, has been discussing possible legal status for the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. He’s also been working with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a fellow Virginia Republican, on a bill offering citizenship to immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children.
Reps. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, and Ted Poe, R-Texas, are working on a plan to create a visa program allowing more lower-skilled workers into the country.
Goodlatte and the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, hold out hopes for floor action by late October on a series of immigration bills that already have passed their committees.
“I would think that would be the next agenda item in the queue after we’re done with this mess,” McCaul said this past week, referring to bitter divisions over the health law, the level of government spending and the growing federal debt.
In a press release issued Monday evening Senator Ted Cruz vowed to donate his salary to charity for each day Majority Leader Harry Reid forces the government to shut down.
“Harry Reid should not force a government shutdown. I hope that Reid stops refusing to negotiate and works with the House to avoid a government shutdown, and, at the same time, prevent the enormous harms that Obamacare is inflicting on the American people.
“If, however, Harry Reid forces a government shutdown, I intend to donate my salary to charity for each day the government is shut down. Elected leaders should not be treated better than the American people, which is precisely why hardworking Americans deserve the same Obamacare exception that President Obama has already granted Members of Congress.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-10-01 01:13:152013-10-01 01:13:15Cruz to Donate Salary to Charity if Harry Reid Forces Government Shutdown
Twenty-five percent of uninsured Americans say they will pay a fine rather than purchase health insurance in 2014, according to a newly released Gallup Poll.
Another 65 percent said they are more likely to purchase health insurance than pay a fine. Under Obamacare, people may sign up for insurance on one of the new exchanges; or they may get coverage through their employer, from Medicaid or Medicare, or by purchasing a plan outside the exchanges.
When Gallup asked uninsured people if they would turn to the new exchanges, 36 percent said no, they do not plan to get health insurance through a state or federal health insurance exchange in 2014. Forty-eight percent of the uninsured said yes, they would buy insurance on one of the exchanges; and 17 percent either hadn’t decided or had no opinion.
According to Gallup, the low level of familiarity with the exchanges may explain why less than half of the uninsured said they will get health insurance for 2014 specifically through a state or federal health insurance exchange.
The Affordable Care Act requires most Americans to buy health insurance by Jan. 1, 2014, or pay a fine. People who don’t get insurance through their employer may purchase it on one of the new health care exchanges — some run by the states, and others run by the federal government.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-10-01 01:10:252013-10-01 01:10:25Gallup: At Least 25% of Uninsured Americans Say They Will Stay That Way
Even as President Obama and his administration are making a last minute push to encourage enrollment in Obamacare, a quiet change was made on the Healthcare.gov website regarding those who will still not be able to afford coverage after the program kicks in. From at least June 26, 2013 to as recently as September 15, under the topic, “Where can I get free or low-cost care in my community?” the following statement appeared: “If you can’t afford any health plan, you can get free or low-cost health and dental care at a nearby community health center.” Here is how the page in question appeared:
Photo Credit: Weekly Standard
However, sometime between September 16 and September 23, the reference to “free” care was dropped. The title of the topic was changed as well, and now reads: “Where can I get low-cost care in my community?” Here is how the page currently appears:
Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., said last Thursday that the Environmental Protection Agency’s latest proposal to reduce carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants is “ill-conceived and illogical.”
Rahall, who wrote a blistering op-ed for Coal Valley News, reiterated the point that the EPA’s new regulations would essentially ban new coal plants and further the “war on coal” meme.
“It is just the latest salvo in the EPA’s war on coal, a war I have unwaveringly soldiered against, and I will work tirelessly to prevent such an ill-conceived and illogical plan from moving forward,” Rahall said.
Rahall noted that the EPA’s “wrong-headed policy” would increase energy bills, reduce energy reliability and cost jobs. He then blamed the EPA for
“This callous, ideologically driven EPA continues to be numb to the economic pain that its reckless regulations cause,” Rahall said.
A Sept. 30 report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found that the IRS may have violated taxpayer rights by improperly withholding or not adequately searching for and providing information responsive to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
TIGTA also found that “sensitive taxpayer information was inadvertently disclosed in response to nine (16.4 percent) of the FOIA/Privacy Act and four (7.4 percent) of the I.R.C. § 6103 information requests reviewed.”
“TIGTA reviewed a statistically valid sample of 55 FOIA/Privacy Act information requests from a population of 3,415 FOIA/Privacy Act requests and found nine (16.4 percent) in which taxpayer rights may have been violated because the IRS improperly withheld or failed to adequately search for and provide information to requestors,” the report, titled Fiscal Year 2013 Statutory Review of Compliance with the Freedom of Information Act, said.
The IRS hired 21 new disclosure specialists in Fiscal Year 2012 and 24 new specialists in 2011, TIGTA said.
“The influx of new employees may be a contributing factor to the increased instances of taxpayer information being either erroneously withheld or not provided in error,” TIGTA said.
