Leaders in the House and Senate have a plan to pass President Barack Obama’s sweeping health care plan by Thanksgiving without any significant participation by the American public. CNS News has confirmed the details in our September 22nd titled “Passing a Shell of A Bill: Congress’ Secret Plan to Ram Through Health Care Reform.” Nicholas Ballasy reports “a senior aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told CNSNews.com that it is ‘likely’ that Reid will use H.R. 1586—a bill passed by the House in March to impose a 90-percent …
There are cries on the left that General McChrystal violated article 2 of the Constitution when he publicly and candidly responded to questions about the military advice he has offered to the president of the United States. The problem may be that the general’s accusers may be reading a different constitution. They certainly can’t be reading the US Constitution. Under the US constitution, and the oath that military officers swear, they are obligated to obey the lawful orders of their superiors. You would have to twist reality into a different …
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0Tgl-elpxg[/youtube] President Obama speaks glowingly of ‘inextricable links’ between the world’s countries, forgetting sometimes, however, which links are truly inextricable: America’s alliance with Europe. Commenting last week on this alliance during a visit to Heritage, former Spanish President José Maria Aznar said: It’s necessary in my view to bring forth this Atlantic Alliance, this Atlantic link, and to avoid confusion between the allies in the future. The confusion Mr. Aznar refers to is in particular the result of the Obama administration’s weak stances on Iran and Venezuela.
If you are up to date on your PC lingo, you already know that Columbus Day is imperialist and racist and that we should all be celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day instead. Now the left has come up with a new PC name for felons too. Next Tuesday, the Justice Roundtable is hosting Legislative Breakfast and Luncheon Briefings for House and Senate staff. Among the featured speakers at both events is Lawrence Garrison who was convicted of convicted of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and crack cocaine and sentenced to 188 months …
Food or health care? For many of the poorest working families, that may no longer be an option should Senator Max Baucus’ health care bill become law. Through an individual mandate enforced by tax punishments, all adult Americans will be required either to purchase a health care plan or pay a fine. While only a nuisance for more affluent families, this has the potential to injure low-wage workers by decreasing real wages, increasing layoffs and reducing job opportunities. Should the poorest American workers be responsible to fund health care form? …
According to exit polls, Americans who voted last November 4th described themselves as 34% conservative, 44% moderate and only 22% liberal. One third of new voters were independents — and about two-thirds of them voted for President Barack Obama. How did President Obama win over so many moderates and independents? By explicitly renouncing his party’s tax and spend past. Specifically, Obama promised to “cut taxes for 95% of workers and their families” and enact “a net spending cut” for the federal government. Not only has President Obama failed to keep …
Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined a growing liberal chorus calling for a massive tax hike through the implementation of a value added tax (VAT). A VAT is similar to a national sales tax. Businesses would pay it at each stage of the production process and consumers at the cash register. European countries have had VATs for years. As we pointed out earlier this year, Congress should not pass a VAT to pay for a government takeover of the health care system or expand the size of government. If it does so, …
Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY) has proposed a novel way to strengthen the House Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) rule. PAYGO – which requires that all legislation expanding entitlements or cutting taxes be fully offset – has been exposed an ineffective gimmick. PAYGO exempts discretionary spending increases (which comprise 40 percent of the budget) as well as the automatic 6 to 8 percent annual baseline increases in entitlement spending. PAYGO merely says that if Congress wants to grow total entitlement spending faster than the baseline rate, they must raise taxes accordingly. Or, if they …
Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the senior Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee, today urged Congress to establish an independent “red team” of outside experts to examine recent revelations about Iran’s nuclear program and review the conclusions of a controversial 2007 National Intelligence Estimate issued by the U.S. intelligence community, which assessed that Iran suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003. Hoekstra warned that: “New revelations about Iran’s nuclear weapons program are presenting our elected leaders and our intelligence agencies with a crisis of confidence – a crisis that would not …
Should the federal government regulate what blogger’s blog? Yes, said the Federal Trade Commission yesterday — at least when it comes to product endorsements. At issue were the FTC’s guidelines concerning the use of endorsements in advertising. These guidelines, among other things, require paid endorsers of products to disclose their relationships with advertisers. The goal is a good one, to prevent deception and fraud. In practice, the lines are hard to draw — what exactly is an endorsement? What constitutes payment? It gets even harder in today’s world of user-generated …
