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Obama Reveals How A Future GOP President Can Gut ObamaCare

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606x404-2efe36e30370e6ba74d76342f78fc799I owe Mitt Romney an apology. During the 2012 Republican presidential primary season, I repeatedly criticized Romney — and personally challenged him during his editorial board meeting with the Washington Examiner — for promising that if elected, on day one of his presidency, he would grant Obamacare waivers to all 50 states.

As I reported, under the text of the law, the ability to offer waivers to states was subject to many restrictions and wouldn’t even be an option until 2017, four years after his hypothetical swearing in.

Though I still believe I was right about what the statute said, as it turns out, I was being old-fashioned by taking the letter of the law so literally.

Having watched President Obama and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius over the past several months unilaterally alter or outright ignore major portions of the law, I now believe that a future Republican president would have greater latitude to gut Obamacare than I once thought possible.

The changes instituted by the Obama administration in response to implementation snags have ranged from perfectly legal areas of administrative discretion stemming from the vast regulatory powers granted to the HHS secretary under Obamacare, to more creative interpretations of that discretion, to Obama simply choosing to ignore parts of the law that became inconvenient.

Read more from this story HERE.

Patriot Act Author: Obama’s Intel Czar Should Be Prosecuted

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Photo Credit:: Greg Nash

Photo Credit:: Greg Nash

Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr., the original author of the Patriot Act, says Director of National Intelligence James Clapper should be prosecuted for lying to Congress.

“Lying to Congress is a federal offense, and Clapper ought to be fired and prosecuted for it,” the Wisconsin Republican said in an interview with The Hill.

He said the Justice Department should prosecute Clapper for giving false testimony during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in March.

During that hearing, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asked Clapper whether the National Security Agency (NSA) collects data on millions of Americans. Clapper insisted that the NSA does not — or at least does “not wittingly” — collect information on Americans in bulk.

After documents leaked by Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA collects records on virtually all U.S. phone calls, Clapper apologized for the misleading comment.

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What Obama Got Right and What He Got Wrong on Economic Mobility

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

When it comes to economic mobility, the President often starts out by making some statements that Republicans and Democrats have always agreed on, such as:

While we don’t promise equal outcomes, we have strived to deliver equal opportunity—the idea that success doesn’t depend on being born into wealth or privilege, it depends on effort and merit.

The idea that a child may never be able to escape that poverty because she lacks a decent education or health care, or a community that views her future as their own, that should offend all of us and it should compel us to action.

But then he spoils it. The President’s speech at the Center for American Progress on Wednesday linked policy prescriptions for increasing economic mobility to reducing income differences in America—as though the opportunity problems facing inner-city kids are somehow because Warren Buffett has a lot of money. But not only do the facts show no link between income inequality and a lack of mobility; focusing on inequality actually distracts from the true causes of low economic mobility.

The President identified several social factors that are essential to upward mobility. “Disparities in education, mental health, obesity, absent fathers, isolation from church, isolation from community groups—these gaps are now as much about growing up rich or poor as they are about anything else.” He’s right about these things. But income redistribution will not fix these.

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Barack Obama’s Dictatorial Tendencies

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Barack_Obama_addresses_joint_session_of_Congress_2009-02-24Dear Friend of Liberty,

Earlier this week, Senator Ted Cruz explained remarks made by his father comparing Barack Obama to Fidel Castro and agreed with him that Barack Obama disregards the law, like in “dictatorial societies.” I completely concur with this assessment.

Cruz’s father, Rafael, fled Cuba in search of freedom in the United States following Castro’s rise to power in the late 1950s.

Ted Cruz, while granting there are vast differences between the United States and Cuba, said, “But the point my father was making, he was focusing on a sentence that President Obama used in the last two State of the Union addresses where he said, ‘If Congress doesn’t act, I will.’”

Cruz offered ObamaCare as exhibit A in his case of the President changing numerous provisions of the law, without congressional authorization.

These unilateral acts are in no way limited to the healthcare law. The President’s infamous pronouncement to act with or without Congress was made in regards to climate change, which he did through EPA regulation. He has also failed to enforce immigration law and mandatory sentencing minimums for federal crimes.

The list of abuses goes on. He unilaterally chose not to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act; he made recess appointments when Congress was not in recess; his Administration has stonewalled congressional investigations into Fast and Furious, Benghazi, the NSA and the IRS. This President feels that somehow he is above the law and does not have to answer to the people.

You know where I stand; I’m not “Johnny come lately” to this fight!

You don’t have to wonder whether I’ll fight for your Constitutional Liberties. You don’t have to wonder whether I’ll speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves. You know I will.

Our country is at peril, and there is little time to turn it around. It’s time to take a bold stand for the country we love and fight for its future.

When I am elected to the United States Senate, I pledge to confront this lawless administration. You can count on it!

I cannot do this alone; but together we can make a difference.

Thanks for your generosity and support.

In the fight,

Joe

Obama Denies IRS Ever Targeted Pro-Life Groups (+video)

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Photo Credit: Life News

Photo Credit: Life News

In an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on Thursday, President Barack Obama dismissed the notion that the IRS ever targeted pro-life groups or conservatives. The IRS scandal flared this summer as pro-life groups learned they had been targeted and seen their applications for nonprofit status delayed.

The IRS has been found to be targeting pro-life and conservative groups because of their positions and, this summer, a tape was released showing a disturbing phone call the Internal Revenue Service placed to a non-profit organization telling it to keep its Christian faith and views on abortion to itself.

Read more from this story HERE.

Steyn: The Post-Work Economy

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pic_giant_120613_SM_The-Post-Work-EconomyOne consequence of the botched launch of Obamacare is that it has, judging from his plummeting numbers with “Millennials,” diminished Barack Obama’s cool. It’s not merely that the website isn’t state-of-the-art but that the art it’s flailing to be state of is that of the mid-20th-century social program. The emperor has hipster garb, but underneath he’s just another Commissar Squaresville.

So, health care being an irredeemable downer for the foreseeable future, this week the president pivoted (as they say) to “economic inequality,” which will be, he assures us, his principal focus for the rest of his term. And what’s his big idea for this new priority? Stand well back: He wants to increase the minimum wage! Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos of Amazon (a non-government website) is musing about delivering his products to customers across the country (and the planet) within hours by using drones.

Drones! If there’s one thing Obama can do, it’s drones. He’s renowned across Yemen and Waziristan as the Domino’s of drones. If he’d thought to have your health-insurance-cancellation notices dropped by drone, Obamacare might have been a viable business model. Yet, even in Obama’s sole area of expertise and dominant market share, the private sector is already outpacing him.

Who has a greater grasp of the economic contours of the day after tomorrow — Bezos or Obama? My colleague Jonah Goldberg notes that the day before the president’s speech on “inequality,” Applebee’s announced that it was introducing computer “menu tablets” to its restaurants. Automated supermarket checkout, 3D printing, driverless vehicles . . . what has the “minimum wage” to do with any of that? To get your minimum wage increased, you first have to have a minimum-wage job.

In my book (which I shall forbear to plug, but is available at Amazon, and with which Jeff Bezos will be happy to drone your aunt this holiday season), I write: Once upon a time, millions of Americans worked on farms. Then, as agriculture declined, they moved into the factories. When manufacturing was outsourced, they settled into low-paying service jobs or better-paying cubicle jobs — so-called “professional services” often deriving from the ever swelling accounting and legal administration that now attends almost any activity in America. What comes next? Or, more to the point, what if there is no “next”?

Read more from this story HERE.

Ted Cruz: Obama Disregards the Law Like in ‘Dictatorial Societies’ (+video)

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U.S. Senator Cruz speaks during the fifth annual Washington Ideas Forum at the Newseum in WashingtonBy Patrick Howley

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said that President Barack Obama disregards the law and behaves like the leader of “dictatorial societies.”

The conservative senator, who proudly calls himself a “Wacko Bird” to poke fun at establishment Republican criticisms of him, appeared on Fusion TV’s “America with Jorge Ramos” to accuse the president of outright law-breaking — on his own health-care law.

“One of the most disturbing aspects of the Obama presidency is the willingness of this president to disregard the law, to ignore the law,” Cruz said.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Ted Rafael Caroline Cruz By Tal Kopan

Sen. Ted Cruz said while there are some differences between President Barack Obama and former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, Obama is displaying “dictatorial” tendencies as president.

During an interview by Jorge Ramos on Fusion, the Texas Republican was asked about comments his father has made comparing Obama to Castro and whether the analogy was “fair” and if he’d like to draw a distinction between the two.

“Obviously, there are enormous differences; the United States is not imprisoning and torturing political dissidents,” Cruz said on Wednesday. “But the point my father was making, he was focusing on a sentence that President Obama used in the last two State of the Union addresses where he said, ‘If Congress doesn’t act, I will.’”

Cruz said the line shows how the Obama administration has displayed “disturbing” tendencies similar to a dictatorship.

Read more from this story HERE.

Cruz’s Dad, Son Destined by God

Obama Claims Health Care Problems don’t Reflect on his Management Style (+video)

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Photo Credit: APPresident Barack Obama said Thursday that problems with the Obamacare rollout don’t mean he needs to change his White House management style.

Instead, the health care mess is indicative of broader problems with the federal bureaucracy that he hasn’t been able to solve, Obama told Chris Matthews during an MSNBC interview.

“The challenge, I think, that we have going forward is not so much my personal management style or particular issues around White House organization,” Obama said. “It actually has to do with what I referred to earlier, which is we have these big agencies, some of which are outdated, some of which are not designed properly.”

Obama said “it was obvious that we needed additional controls in place” before Affordable Care Act enrollment began Oct. 1. Yet he said none of those controls center around the structure and style of his White House.

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Liberal Legal Expert Testifies to Congress: Obama Has Become Danger to Constitution (+videos)

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Photo Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesA noted liberal Georgetown University law professor who represented members of Congress in a lawsuit over the Libyan war, represented workers at the secret Area 51 military base and served as counsel on national security cases says Barack Obama is a danger to the U.S. Constitution.

The comments from Jonathan Turley came during a House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday.

Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., asked him: “Professor Turley, the Constitution, the system of separated powers is not simply about stopping one branch of government from usurping another. It’s about protecting the liberty of Americans from the dangers of concentrated government power. How does the president’s unilateral modification of act[s] of Congress affect both the balance of power between the political branches and the liberty interests of the American people?”

Turley replied: “Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The danger is quite severe. The problem with what the president is doing is that he’s not simply posing a danger to the constitutional system. He’s becoming the very danger the Constitution was designed to avoid. That is the concentration of power.”

Turley explained that the “Newtonian orbit that the three branches exist in is a delicate one but it is designed to prevent this type of concentration.”


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Obama: “We’re Not Repealing it as Long as I’m President”

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Photo Credit: The Hill President Obama declared Tuesday that ObamaCare “is working” and that “we’re not going back,” as the White House looked to reboot its efforts to sell Americans on the president’s signature healthcare law.

Obama said that “poor execution” of the rollout of HealthCare.gov had “clouded” the benefits of the bill but said he would not allow technical glitches to undermine a program that was providing financial security for many Americans.

“If I’ve got to fight another three years to make sure this law works, that’s what we’ll do,” Obama said.

“We’re not repealing it as long as I’m president,” he added. “I want everybody to be clear about that. We’ll make it work.”

The president, flanked by supporters who had benefited from aspects of the law, vacillated between a defense of his much-criticized program and a sales pitch intended to highlight some of ObamaCare’s benefits for ordinary families.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Video: Um, No, Obama Hasn’t Signed Up For ObamaCare Yet, but… He will, eventually…