[Editor's Commentary: I wanted to repost this Boston Herald article, not because I agree with every point the author makes, but because I think it's very well written and she has used some very clever expressions. My personal favorite is the "Ward Clever Reassurance Scale." I know a lot of our readers will have to Google "Ward Cleaver" to find out who the heck he is, but it will be a pleasant stroll down "memory lane" for some and new information for others.
Just a reminder......for those readers in Missouri, our primary is this coming Tuesday, Aug., 3. Polls are open from 6am to 7pm. Please be sure to vote and bring somebody with you. Vote for the most conservative candidate available, put a clothespin over your nose if necessary. Vote "YES" on PROP C, to protect Missourians from the tender mercies of Obamacare.]
By: Margery Eagan bostonherald.com
So Mitt Romney – the venture capitalist guru who never sweats – leads all Republicans in a new Zogby poll that has him within striking distance of Obama, 45-43.
Can anyone be surprised? The economy’s a mess. We’re basket cases over keeping jobs and homes. Obama’s reduced to courting Whoopi and Barbara Walters today on “The View,” hoping a cozy chat will reassure the wives of independents and/or Tea Party sympathizers who’ve abandoned the president in droves.
Close your eyes. Envision, for a second, the best known GOP contenders: Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul. On the Ward Cleaver Reassurance Scale, none comes anywhere close to impeccable and unflappable Mitt with his crisp Power Point efficiency, his broad shoulders, his Vanilla Cokes, his beatific wife, and all those strapping sons with Talbots wives and Pottery Barn kids.
Does Mitt Romney ever go berserk? No.
He presides like a patient patriarch with that dignified splash of gray around his temples. (How come that gray never advances, you privately wonder).
How come, you may also ask, he seems preternaturally bloodless?
In these troubled times, nobody cares. We’ll overlook a lot: Mitt’s flips. Mitt’s flops. Mitt’s flip-flop-flips. Mitt’s illegal Guatemalan leaf baggers and the poor Irish setter Seamus he once tied to his station wagon’s roof for an eight-hour family trip.
Last time around, GOP “values” voters were supposedly spooked by the Mormon thing. There were unnerving GOP debates over evolution vs. creationism and the CNN questioner who actually asked if candidates believed every word of the Bible.
Today, it’s Mormon, Sch-mormon.
Mitt’s biggest problem: His fellow Republicans will wrap Obama-care around his neck no matter how he tries to wiggle away. And we’ll hear over and over Romney’s infamous quote: “I think the fundamentals of our economy are sound.” Whoops.
Expounding on the wonders of the free market – just months before it stole our 401(k)s – he said this to the New York Times [NYT], among others. When John McCain uttered the exact same words in the summer of 2008, and again after September’s Wall Street meltdown, it all but killed his chances along with, of course, his choice of running mate, Ms. Palin.
Suppose McCain had picked Romney instead. I, for one, am rooting for Mitt to get the GOP nod. What great fun for Massachusetts. And it’ll guarantee no repeat run by Palin, whose hokey-pokey candidacy, Part II, my shattered nerves will not survive.
In chapter 4 of our book, The Blueprint: Obama’s Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency, we make the point that Team Obama would try to pull a fast one when it comes to Obamacare’s individual mandate that everyone reading this blog post needs to buy health insurance, or be subject to a penalty payable to your good friends at the IRS.
We first made this argument in a column we coauthored with Senator Orrin Hatch in the Wall Street Journal back in January. Now this issue has suddenly exploded back into the news.
For months, Team Obama has been saying that the individual mandate is authorized by Congress’ power to regulate interstate commerce found in the Commerce Clause. We explain in the book why that argument is a loser in court, and that the White House would have to pull a bait-and-switch and suddenly argue that the mandate is a tax (violating Obama’s promise not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $250K per year).
Looks like we were right. In their first filing against the multi-state lawsuit challenging Obamacare, Team Obama is now arguing that the individual mandate is… a tax.
If you read chapter 4 of our book, though, after we explain how the mandate is not authorized by the Commerce Clause, we then go on to explain how it is also unconstitutional if it’s a tax.
Evidently worried about this, Team Obama then goes on to argue that if the court doesn’t buy the tax argument either (because the argument is bogus, perhaps?), then it’s still justified under the General Welfare Clause.
Anticipating that, our next section in chapter 4 explains why the mandate is also not authorized by the General Welfare Clause.
We close that section by noting that one thing you’re taught in law school is that the General Welfare Clause doesn’t authorize the federal government to do anything. It is a limitation on federal power, not a source of additional power.
When you cite the General Welfare Clause, you’re grasping at straws. That’s exactly what Team Obama is doing. Their legal argument is desperate, because the Obamacare mandate is unconstitutional.
With Elena Kagan’s confirmation vote for the Supreme Court right around the corner, this issue could not be more timely. We need federal courts that will uphold the Constitution’s limits on federal power. They can start by striking down Obamacare.
On August 3, 2010, the Missouri electorate will vote on Proposition C, the Missouri Health Care Freedom Act (MHCFA). Have no doubt – this is the first shot fired against the power grab known as Obamacare. If successful, if we beat back this overreach of federal power in Missouri, other states will move forward. Should we fail – especially with low voter turnout, the media,the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats will gain a second wind. I can think of few things more disastrous leading into November than giving the Democrats hope.
Josie Wales, a lawyer from Missouri writing at Big Government, calls August 3 “the most important day in America“.” Missouri will be the first state to allow the public at large to voice its opinion on Obamacare. Most of us know that the majority of Americans view Obamacare with disgust; disgust at the process by which it was passed and disgust by the burden it will impose. We’ve been forced to speak through rallies and a diminished Republican party, until now. Now there is an opportunity for the average voter to act upon that disgust.
Why should you care? What does a Missouri proposition have to do with the other 49 states? MHCFA represents the first battle in the war against the bureaucratic, tax-happy nightmare that has saddled Americans over the last century. Just as the Supreme Court gun cases are changing the debate on the Second Amendment back to gun ownershig being a fundamental right, states signalling their refusal to go along with individual and employer mandates will alter the debate on the proper role of the federal government. At issue is a single idea – can the government compel you to purchase a product they design simply because you’re a US citizen?
MHCFA is a call to arms for all freedom loving Americans, but even in our state there is complacency. Polling looks good, so the Republican establishment is taking it easy. They’re crossing their fingers and hoping no last minute barrage of ads derails the proposition, as has been done every time the Left wants something. From direct mail to phone banks to television ads by outside groups, the Left will carpetbomb Missouri in the week before the vote, and conservatives will have no time to react.
So we need your help. Not with money. Not with volunteers. Though both would be nice, what we really need is the collective voice of conservative America.
Support MHCFA.
Supporting MHCFA is as simple as linking to the effort on the internets, posting an article about the effort on your blog, leaving a comment about the effort on a website, and mentioning the effort in any other social medium: Twitter, Facebook, church, work, bars, sporting events, airplanes, bank lines, family dinners….
We need national recognition. Recognition of the effort in Missouri will lend to its success. If we succeed by large margins in Missouri, you can be sure that success will follow in other states across this great nation.
Don’t get me wrong. We’re not sitting idle. Tea Party groups, conservative candidates, and conservative bloggers are out writing and knocking on doors and calling our connections to generate press. But we need the folks at Red State to help.
Please support the MHCFA in whatever method you choose, and visit the website:
If you’re writing about healthcare, link to something on Missouri. If you’re reading about Healthcare in Missouri, link to that story, and leave a comment. If you’re writing about The Healthcare Freedom Act, please send a note to Benjamin at rivercitytea@gmail.com and he will link back. If you’re writing about a healthcare lawsuit in your own state, send him a note and we’ll tie it back into the larger fight.
We need noise on the issue more than anything else. Anyone care to raise their voice?
After months of saying NO to Washington, the Missouri legislature has given voters something to say YES to. The language that will appear on the August 3 primary ballot, Proposition C, will be as below.
Shall the Missouri Statutes be amended to:
Deny the government authority to penalize citizens for refusing to purchase private health insurance or infringe upon the right to offer or accept direct payment for lawful healthcare services?
Modify laws regarding the liquidation of certain domestic insurance companies?
It is estimated this proposal will have no immediate costs or savings to state or local governmental entities. However, because of the uncertain interaction of the proposal with implementation of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, future costs to state governmental entities are unknown.
[Editor's Commentary: Kudos to the Missouri Legislature for having the courage to put Prop C on the MO. Primary Ballot so that it's citizens can finally get a real say in how our health care is managed. I know that "Kit" Bond, our Republican Senator voted against this monstrosity as did all the Republican Senators and Rep. Todd Akin voted No as well. We still feel that this is being shoved down our throats because the federal Government has no Constitutional authority to impose a national health care system on the states. But because of Prop C, Missouri voters will get a chance to join other states, like Arizona with their new law to enforce existing federal law, in opposing the relentless encroachment of state's rights by the leftists in Washington.]
The main ballroom at the St. Louis Ritz-Carlton was filled to capacity with Republican Party activists and St. Louis community leaders last night for the annual “Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award” that was bestowed on Emerson Electric CEO David Farr.
Mr. Farr is an accomplished public speaker and he got several very strong rounds of applause in his speech, but one statement he made provoked the proverbial “pin-drop” silence. Mr. Farr was commenting about the reasons businesses invest in national economies and what causes them to suspend their investments. He was talking about the huge increases in taxes starting in 2011 as the Bush tax cuts expire and also the onerous costs of Obamacare. Here is the statement that caused the silence.
“Right now, there is not a single incentive for a company to invest in America.”
That caused us to look around the table to gauge each other’s reaction. It was grim. Here was the CEO of a $22 billion company with 145,000 employees telling us that he didn’t have a single reason to hire new employees, invest in capital goods or expand his business in any significant way.
What an indictment of the job-killing policies of the current regime. The same dreary litany of higher and higher taxes, more and more regulation, less and less opportunity and the inevitable drift, stagnation and Jimmy Carter-style “malaise.”
Even though that phrase had a sobering effect on the crowd, I don’t want to give the impression that we were anything but fired up. We recognize the seriousness of the situation we find ourselves in, but we also recognize that there is something we can do about it come November. We can, to use an increasingly popular expression….”throw the bums out!”
Brazil’s Bovespa was down 2,000 points late in the day Tuesday. I was fortunate to be able to close out my short position at the data point I originally set before I sold the Index short. This data point is extremely important and Wed. or Thurs’. price action will determine if the two year uptrend line holds or if the Index trades through the support and goes into a downtrend. I will be glued to the screen tommorrow morning and it will be fascinating to see which way the Sao Paulo Exchange heads next.
I’m sorry if this is a bit geeky, but I haven’t had the chance to follow the political news today. As I am sure most of our readers are hoping along with me that tonight’s primary election will be the start of Judgement Day for the craven politicians like turncoat Arlen Spector and others like him who helped to bring us the tender mercies of Obamacare, the non-stimulus stimulus bill, 3 terror attacks on U.S. soil on their watch as well as other abject failures too numerous to mention.
Responding to polls that show a majority of Americans dissatisfied with Obamacare, Congressional Republicans are committed to repealing the bill. This is good: The people are right that Obamacare will increase costs while putting the federal government in charge of medical decisions. But Americans dissatisfied with the Democrats’ federal takeover of health care have reason to doubt whether the Republicans have the political will to provide a real alternative. Their performance in the last 14 years leads to skepticism.
In 1996, Newt Gingrich’s first term as speaker, the House of Representatives passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) by a vote of 421-2, with even Nancy Pelosi on board. The Senate passed it unanimously by 98-0. HIPAA was a triumph of bipartisanship rivaled only by the declaration of war against Japan after Pearl Harbor.
In his signing statement, President Clinton said the measure “will set into motion several key reforms. First, it will eliminate the possibility that individuals can be denied coverage because they have a preexisting medical condition. Second, it will require insurance companies to sell coverage to small employer groups and to individuals who lose group coverage without regard to their health risk status. Finally, it will require insurers to renew the policies they sell to groups and individuals.”
Obviously, if HIPAA had fully solved those problems, health reform would not be where it is today. Years later, leading Republican Rep. Dick Armey concluded that the bill was a mistake, crafted in a legislative panic. “It turned out that HIPAA did little to make insurance more portable, but it did set a dangerous precedent for the federal regulation of health insurance,” said Mr. Armey. The figures back him up.
The reposted article below was sent to Solid Principles by a reader who is very active in Conservative causes. The article ties closely into a theme we have written about in the past. We believe that the Republican Party is the natural home for conservative blacks and Hispanics and that when we are successful in recruiting these two voting blocs into the Party, electoral success will follow.
The Democrat Party has fostered the illusion for the last 40 plus years that they are the champions of minorities when in reality their tax and spend policies (with some Republican help) have come dangerously close to bankrupting this country. IMHO, the Democrat Party has thrown minorities some crumbs from their banquet table. The cycle of dependency and despair has left many members of the black and Hispanic communities with the idea that their only hope is to continue to vote a straight Democrat ticket in the misguided assumption that somehow the future will be better than the past. It won’t. It won’t because their system is designed to institutionalize failure.
We conservatives think we have a better idea. What if we throw the Democrats into the streets this November, repeal Obamacare, drive a stake through the heart of Cap & Tax, secure our southern border, cut taxes, streamline the ham fisted regulations that are stangling businesses and create a pro-growth, pro-business atmosphere that will lead to a rising GDP that benefits ALL AMERICANS, regardles of their skin color or ethnicity.
We’ve tried Obama’s dreary Corporate Fascism for the last 15 months and we see where that leads. Somewhere most Americans don’t want to go to.
So this November, if conservative and center-right Americans of all races join together and vote the anti-free market, anti-business, budget-busting Dems out of office, we can begin the process of repairing the damage that Obama and his Congressional enablers have done to this country.
~~John Cronin~~
Left Insults Black Americans
By: Sharon Sebastian
Black Americans should be outraged. The affront by the liberal-left against American citizens who are black is reaching new heights. The pattern is obvious. When liberal Democrats cannot debate or win a policy argument, they play their last vestige of hope – the race-card. Today, the political stakes are so high for some Democrats that they are willing to divide us as a nation and as a people.
When there is panic in the liberal ranks, like clockwork, the ginning-up of racial dissention soon follows. In an effort to counter a growing national support for the Tea Party, Democrats are slandering patriotic Americans as “racists.” Black Americans should be outraged that once again liberals are portraying them as being an easily agitated “bundle of emotions” without brains enough to see through the left’s political manipulation. For decades, liberals have conveyed the message that American Blacks are driven by emotion, not intelligence and can be flicked on-and-off like a switch just by throwing around the term racist.
Since the Democrats seek to avoid rational thought, some should be offered up. What the liberal-left does not want you to know is that more and more people of color are identifying with the Tea Party movement along with most Americans. The devastating truth for race-baiters is that the Tea Party is against higher taxes for people “of all color,” the Tea Party is against uncontrolled government spending that hurts all American families, and the Tea Party wants to protect and preserve the Constitutional rights and freedoms for all people of all color in this country. That is not racist. That is American. It is the liberal-left that insults our citizens who are black. It is the liberal-agitators who are the racists. One need only look at Detroit for the Progressive’s heartbreak of empty liberal promises.
In the book, Darwin’s Racists – Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, it is revealed that all people are equal as human beings and that modern science today declares that we are all ONE RACE – THE HUMAN RACE. The book reveals that Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution falsely portrays black people as less evolved, sub-par humans in need of oversight. History shows that evolution has long been used as a Marxist-Socialist-Progressive tool by elitist leaders to demean and control what they consider to be the lesser masses. It is the race-baiting and agitating liberals today who portray people of color as functioning on emotion without the mental capacity or intelligence to see through the political manipulation, Today’s elitist liberals would make Darwin’s own elitists, racists, Marxists, Socialists, and eugenicists PROUD.
Progressive Democrats are on a power trip. One that will bring hardship to every family regardless of color. When the American middle class – which is today diverse with people of color – suffers under government constraints and taxation, then our less fortunate will endure the greater pain. Taxation is color-blind. Loss of Constitutional rights and freedoms is color-blind. Socialism, which some blacks are calling the “new slavery,” is color-blind.
All Americans who want to understand the mind-set of the Socialist/Marxist/God-and- Constitution ignoring policies coming out of Washington today – that will crush people of all color – should read Darwin’s Racists – Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. In a show of leadership, I call on Barack Obama to step-up and denounce the heightened race-baiting and agitating by liberal hate-mongerers who are labeling the honest dissent of patriotic citizens as racism. If he does not do so, it will be very telling about this man who is President of the United States of America.
Sharon Sebastian (http://www.DarwinsRacists.com) is an author, writer and contributor for various forms of media including broadcast, print and online websites. Her second book, Darwin’s Racists – Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, addresses the global “evolution vs. creation” debate highlighting both the impact of Social Darwinism on America’s culture today and its influence on current policy coming out of Washington.
Three weeks after Congress passed its new national health care plan, support for repeal of the measure has risen four points to 58%. That includes 50% of U.S. voters who strongly favor repeal.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters nationwide finds 38% still oppose repeal, including 32% who strongly oppose it.
For the previous two weeks following passage of the controversial plan, 54% of voters have favored repeal and 42% have opposed it.
But only 38% of voters think it is even somewhat likely that the health care bill will be repealed. Fifty-one percent (51%) see repeal as unlikely. Those figures include 11% who say it’s very likely to be repealed and 18% who say repeal is not at all likely.
Still, 52% believe the health care plan will be bad for the country. Thirty-nine percent (39%) think it will be good for the country, and one percent (1%) more say it will have no impact. These numbers have changed little since the March 21 House vote to pass the health care bill.
Now that Rasmussen shows that, yes, Americans really do want Obamacare to be repealed, one hopes that Republicans will shelve their pessimism and advance this crucial and winning agenda with confidence. But now is also the time for the GOP to make sure that its slogan is clarifying, rather than obscuring its goal.
Rasmussen shows that Americans support repeal by a whopping 20 percentage points (58 to 38 percent), with 50 percent of Americans “strongly” favoring repeal and less than a third (32 percent) strongly opposing it. Even before the release of this poll, most Republicans — especially such members as Rep. Paul Ryan, Rep. Mike Pence, Sen. Jim DeMint, Rep. Michele Bachmann, Rep. Steve King, and House Minority Leader John Boehner — seemed to be strongly on board with the repeal message. But there has been a surprising amount of confusion in the press corps about the GOP’s actual goal.
Plainly, most Republicans want to repeal Obamacare, and then replace it with real reform. Yet, judging by the reaction in the press, this message is not being captured very well by the slogans that have been advanced. CBS News writes, “Right-wing members of the Republican party continue to push for a full repeal of the Democrats’ new package of health care reforms, even as GOP leaders have blunted their message to one of “repeal and replace.” I doubt that most Republicans who use “repeal and replace” think that they are blunting or watering down the message, but that’s what CBS News thinks.
The Hill writes, “[Rep. Steve] King told The Hill…that he intends to press his leadership to sign on to a call for a full repeal. In the days following the enactment of Obama’s sweeping healthcare reform measure, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) agreed to pursue a ‘repeal and replace’ strategy as lawmakers headed home for the Easter recess. That has frustrated King and other conservatives. ‘Sell the repeal idea. We can debate the replace idea. That’s what I would like to see our leadership do,’ King said.” Again, “repeal and replace” would seem to require repeal, but it doesn’t seem to have come across that way to The Hill. (Rep. Boehner, who’s clearly a conservative, has since removed any doubt about his intentions, emphasizing that “repealing this bill has to be our No. 1 priority.”)
If Republicans’ slogans are causing confusion among prominent reporters, and presumably among many other Americans, it’s important to fine tune the rhetoric to clarify the goal. These appear to be the leading options for describing the GOP’s agenda in response to Obamacare, with one man’s two cents on each:
You may be aware of a story making it’s way around the Net about the Democrat Congressman from Georgia who thinks we need to be careful about stationing too many Marines on the tiny island of Guam, because the distinguished Member of Congress thinks the island may be in danger of “capsizing.”
My God.
Is is any wonder the country is broke and becoming a laughingstock in many capitals across the globe?
The last time I checked, islands are the tops of submerged mountains and are in no danger of capsizing, but what do simple facts mean to some elected officials?
If you can believe that islands can capsize, you probably can believe that spending $2.5 trillion that you don’t have will save money and cut the federal deficit. That kind of thinking, plus skirting the Constitution and passing out bribes in $100 million chunks will eventually get you Obamacare.
I started to embed the YouTube video of Rep. Johnson’s committee’s questioning of a Navy Admiral on this burning question but it was so painful to watch, I could barely get through it and decided to spare everyone the tedium. What these military men and women have to endure.
~~John Cronin~~
Q: How many Marines does it take to capsize the island of Guam?
The correct answer is, “You are asking the wrong question.” The correct question is how many congressmen are stupid enough to think you can capsize an island?
A: So far as we know (praise God!) just one — Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., who in a deadly dull congressional hearing unintentionally livened things up a bit when he told Adm. Robert Williard of his concerns should 5,000 more Marines and their families be based on the island.
After grilling the admiral about the exact dimensions of the island, and cementing the idea that whatever else you can say about Guam, it is not too terribly big, the congressman concluded as follows:
“My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize.”
To his credit as an officer and a gentleman, Willard did not fall out of his chair laughing. Instead, he calmly responded to Rep. Johnson as if he were talking to a completely sane man: “We don’t anticipate that,” he said.
Johnson claimed in a written statement after the fact that his remark was actually “subtle humor,” but I defy anyone to watch the YouTube video of the incident (the punchline comes at about 1 minute, 16 seconds) and perceive even the slightest hint of comedic talent in Rep. Johnson’s impersonation of a congressman.
I am reminded of the H.L. Mencken quote: “Congress consists of one third, more or less, scoundrels; two thirds, more or less, idiots; and three thirds, more or less, poltroons.”
WASHINGTON — Two weeks after President Barack Obama signed the big health care overhaul into law, Americans are struggling to understand how — and when — the sweeping measure will affect them.
Questions reflecting confusion have flooded insurance companies, doctors’ offices, human resources departments and business groups.
“They’re saying, ‘Where do we get the free Obama care, and how do I sign up for that?’ ” said Carrie McLean, a licensed agent for eHealthInsurance.com. The California-based company sells coverage from 185 health insurance carriers in 50 states.
McLean said the call center had been inundated by uninsured consumers who were hoping that the overhaul would translate into instant, affordable coverage. That widespread misconception may have originated in part from distorted rhetoric about the legislation bubbling up from the hyper-partisan debate about it in Washington and some media outlets, such as when opponents denounced it as socialism.
“We tell them it’s not free, that there are going to be things in place that help people who are low-income, but that ultimately most of that is not going to be taking place until 2014,” McLean said.
Adults with pre-existing conditions are frustrated to learn that insurers won’t have to cover them until 2014 (though those under 18 will be protected in late September); then they become both hopeful and confused upon learning that a federal high-risk pool for them will be established in the next few months. “Health insurance is so confusing. You add this on top of it and it makes it even more confusing,” McLean said.
[Commentary.......Congratulations to the Democrat Party. You people now officially OWN this monstrosity. I cannot wait for you incompetent boobs to be thrown into the streets by a furious electorate come November.]
In the lead up to the Health Care Reform vote, we noted the following onthis post
Did the California Blue Dogs Sell Their Vote for Water?
The National Republican Congressional Committee, have issued a statement that heavily implies, this little fishy voted twice by proxy through California Blue Dog Democrats, Dennis Cardoza and Jim Costa.
U.S Dept of the Interior Announces Increased Water Supply Allocations in California
Additional Water Supplies to be Made Available South of Delta 03/16/2010
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced that the Bureau of Reclamation’s 2010 Central Valley Project Water Supply allocations have increased throughout the valley as a result of additional precipitation, improved snowpack, and improved storage at Shasta Reservoir. As forecast by Reclamation on February 26, California is having a near-average water year following three years of drought. Typically, Reclamation would release the March allocation update around March 22nd, but moved up the announcement at the urging of Senators Feinstein and Boxer, and Congressmen Costa and Cardoza.
Reported yesterday
Federal ruling slows delta pumping
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta pumps will be ratcheted back today after a federal judge in Fresno rejected a request to keep them operating temporarily at current levels.
Wednesday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger means that for the next two months, both the federal and state water pumps will move much less water to users, including the Westlands Water District and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
It’s the latest loss for farmers and other water users in the decades-long battle over moving water through the state. That battle continues today when water users and environmentalists square off in Wanger’s court in what promises to be a pivotal case.
The seasonal cutbacks that Wednesday’s ruling allows are part of a controversial management plan for endangered spring-run Chinook salmon and Central Valley steelhead. Authorities say the pumps endanger juvenile fish heading out to the Pacific Ocean.
With everybody focused on ObamaCare, and its new entitlement spending and taxing, the administration has tried to sneak in yet another bailout for housing.
Yet again, Team Obama is rewarding reckless behavior, punishing the 90% of responsible homeowners who are making good on their mortgages, and setting up a greater moral hazard that will surely lead to an expansion of bailout nation.
I’m talking about an add-on to HAMP, the $75 billion Home Affordable Modification Program, which has been a dismal failure. In fact, the entire foreclosure-prevention effort — including forgiveness of mortgage-loan principal — has been a failure.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency reports that nearly 60% of modified mortgages re-default within a year.
And now comes a new brilliant idea that if you live in your main residence, have a mortgage balance of less than $729,750, owe monthly mortgage payments that are not affordable (meaning greater than 31% of income) and demonstrate a financial hardship, the government will subsidize you by offering TARP money to banks and other lenders to reduce your outstanding mortgage balance.
Americans of modest means may soon get a lesson in the power of the IRS.
Is there an IRS agent in your future?
Shortly before Barack Obama signed the health-care bill, Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee created a stir with a report suggesting our new law will lead the Internal Revenue Service to hire as many as 16,500 new agents. The Republicans came up with the figure by extrapolating from the IRS budget, the amount spent on employees, and the $10 billion in new funding that the Congressional Budget Office says the IRS will need to meet its new responsibilities under this legislation.
It’s made for some heated debate. In an entertaining segment on the Fox News Channel last week, host Bill O’Reilly tried to get Rep. Anthony Weiner (D., N.Y.) to admit that the IRS would have to enforce the penalty tax for people who refused both to get the mandated coverage and to pay the penalty. Mr. Weiner accused Mr. O’Reilly of “making stuff up.” The next day, IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman seemed to settle the question in Mr. Weiner’s favor when he testified to Congress that IRS agents are not going to be auditing taxpayers to verify that they’ve obtained acceptable health insurance.
Or did he?
The individual mandate remains one of the murkiest bits of this legislation. During the 2008 primaries, Mr. Obama criticized rival Hillary Clinton for favoring such a mandate. He later changed his mind, for one big reason: There’s no way to afford expensive provisions such as forcing insurance companies to cover people with, say, pre-existing conditions unless millions of healthy people who won’t need insurance are forced to pay into the system. With the mandate, the government gets more healthy people into the risk pool—and with the penalty it gets their money whether they buy coverage or not.
In testimony before a House Ways and Means subcommittee last Thursday, the IRS commissioner deflected questions about the agency’s precise role vis-à-vis health care. Mr. Shulman reassured citizens that this bill does not “fundamentally alter” their relationship with the IRS, and said the IRS would not be snooping into their health records. About the penalties associated with the mandate, he was less clear.
Partly that’s because the law is unclear. The original House bill opened the door for criminal sanctions against Americans who didn’t buy health insurance and pay the penalty. The Senate bill did the same until Sen. John Ensign (R., Nev.) successfully pushed to amend the bill. Even so, the final language begs the question that Mr. Shulman and Mr. Weiner avoided: Who’s going to enforce the mandate, and how?
It’s more than a theoretical proposition. Approximately one in six drivers goes without auto insurance, according to the Insurance Research Council, even though most states require it. As for health coverage, the U.S. Census says that Massachusetts’ has the nation’s lowest rate of uninsured at 5.4%, thanks in part to its own individual mandate. Even so, costs have exploded and fines for not carrying coverage are increasing.
Almost by definition, those hit by the mandate will be either young people starting out, or those working for smaller businesses that do not provide employees with health coverage. Back in November, a report by the Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that nearly half (46%) of the mandate penalties will be paid by Americans under 300% of the poverty line.
Earlier this week, I asked you to join me in calling on Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood to join the 13 other states that have filed suit against Obama-Care. Your efforts have given Mr. Hood pause. He has asked for more time before making an official decision.
While Mr. Hood is reflecting on this matter, now is the time to re-double our efforts. Remember, he is your employee. You pay his salary with your hard-earned tax dollars. We must continue to contact him at work and demand he look out for all Mississippians and join the lawsuit to fight the federal government’s overreach.
Here’s his info:
Jim Hood
Mississippi Attorney General
Phone: 601-359-3680
Fax: 601-359-5025
email: msag05@ago.state.ms.us
He needs to hear from you.
Fight on!
Angela McGlowan
P.S. In case you haven’t seen it, I’ve signed the Repeal It Pledge which means I’m going to fight to get rid of Obamacare and support real health care reforms that don’t grow government.
