Paul Ryan (R-WI), Chairman of the House Budget Committee, will release his budget blueprint today in what will surely be one of the most important policy developments in Washington this year. If as expected Senate Democrats fail yet again to advance a budget for the government, then the Ryan Budget and the President’s Budget released a few weeks ago will present the leading alternatives for how the federal government would dig out of its present fiscal mess. And if the Ryan budget is anything like last year’s effort, the differences …
Congress recognizes more each day that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known widely as the Obamacare statute, interferes unconstitutionally with the liberty of Americans. From the Obamacare individual mandate to buy health insurance that awaits the action of the Supreme Court, to the Obamacare mandate that many religious hospitals, charities, and schools abandon the tenets of their faiths and include in their group health insurance for employees coverage of abortion-inducing drugs, contraception, and sterilization, Obamacare assaults the Constitution and American freedom. Fortunately, Members of Congress and the American …
President Obama talked the talk but then blatantly refused to walk the walk on the freedom of religious institutions from the Obamacare statute’s mandate for group health insurance coverage of abortion-inducing drugs, contraceptives, and sterilization. The Obama Administration continues to trample on religious liberty by issuing rules that require many religious hospitals, charities, and schools to abandon the tenets of their faiths and comply with that mandate. Many voices came together in objection to the interim final regulations of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Treasury …
The Obama Administration’s mandate under the Obamacare statute that many religious employers provide health care coverage for contraception, abortifacients, and human sterilization tramples upon their constitutionally guaranteed free exercise of religion. Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced the Administration policy. Many faiths have united in opposition to the Obama Administration attack on religious liberty. On January 20, 2012, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said that “To force American citizens to choose between violating their consciences and forgoing their healthcare is …
The people of the United States ordained a Constitution of limited government. As time passes, the people have more of the “government” and less of the “limited.” Americans must work at maintaining their freedoms. Defense of the constitutional freedom of association involved in choosing roommates to share housing illustrates the effort required. Government has attempted to regulate our ability to choose a roommate, but efforts to resist that intrusion pay off in preserved liberty. Tricia Rowe, a 31-year-old single woman who owned a three bedroom, single-family house, wanted a roommate. …
The Obama Administration’s mandate under the Obamacare statute that many religious employers provide health care coverage for contraception, abortifacients, and sterilization tramples upon their free exercise of religion. The Obama Administration should immediately exempt such religious employers from the contraception mandate. The Administration’s trampling upon religious liberty with the contraception mandate illustrates yet again the need to repeal the Obamacare statute. What the Obamacare Statute Says Section 2713 of the Public Health Service Act, enacted by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148) (the “Obamacare” statute), provides …
President Obama thinks he merely stretched his powers under the Constitution in making so-called recess appointments for three members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III and counsel Todd Gaziano made clear in their Washington Post editorial of January 6, 2012, that the President violated the Constitution with the purported appointments. The President takes an oath before God to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Most Presidents, before they …
On Friday, December 9, 2011, Representative Dave Camp (R-MI), with several cosponsors, introduced H.R. 3630, the “Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2011.” The 369-page bill consists of six titles, main elements of which are discussed below. Title I of the bill gets the government out of the way of a pipeline project so the private sector can create some jobs. The bill provides a mechanism for prompt approval of the Keystone XL pipeline project, to allow oil to flow from Alberta, Canada to U.S. gulf coast …
The congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, called the Supercommittee, announced today that it has failed to meet its statutory duty to recommend deficit reduction to Congress. But the overspending problem is still here. Congress does not get to quit on the American people or stall for more time. Congress must still act to get federal spending under control, in a thoughtful, intelligent manner that meets the needs of the American people. Mindless across-the-board cuts to government spending — especially cuts that gut the nation’s defenses when America already …
Seventy-two Members of the U.S. House of Representatives, including Representatives Patrick McHenry (R-NC) and Jim Jordan (R-OH), have joined 33 U.S. Senators in standing tall against continued overspending, overborrowing and overtaxing. In a letter today to the congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, known as the Supercommittee, the 72 Representatives hit the nail on the head: “It is evident that America has a fiscal crisis because Washington spends too much, not because it taxes too little.” Their letter made clear what will happen if the Supercommittee leads Congress to …
