NAPOLITANO: Congress’ unconscionable silence at president’s power grabs--Obama becomes imperial president without Republican resistance

Washington Times, by Judge Andrew P. Napolitano, February 19, 2014

The political philosopher Edmund Burke once remarked that all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good folks to do nothing.

A glaring example of the impending triumph of a constitutional evil that could be stopped by folks who have been largely silent is the tyranny coming from the White House. The folks who can stop this and are doing nothing about it are our elected representatives in Congress.

The Constitution is the supreme law of the land. It established the three branches of government, and it delegated “all legislative powers” to Congress.

American law rarely uses the word “all.” Yet the Framers chose that word precisely to confine the writing of law to Congress and to prevent a president from altering federal law by the selective manner of law enforcement and thereby effectively rewriting it.

The Framers sought to guard against the same evils by compelling the president to swear at the commencement of his terms in office that he will “faithfully” enforce the laws.

Read more!  

Why I Submitted a Comment Objecting to the IRS Proposed Rule Targeting 501(c)(4) Groups

By Loren Heal, FreedomWorks, February 5, 2014

The Internal Revenue Service is attempting to change the standards for tax exempt status for 501(c)(4) groups. Rather than sticking to enforcing the will of Congress, the IRS, with the full blessing of the political operation in the White House, wants to ensure they won't have to harass conservative and tea party groups about their tax exempt status applications, because those groups won't even bother to apply. They need to hear from America.

Following its targeting of tea party and conservative groups in the runup to the 2012 election, the IRS now wants to codify into regulatory law the organization's illegal and tyrannical behavior. The rules are meant not just to stifle free speech, which would be bad enough, but to favor progressive groups over conservative and libertarian ones.

After initially calling the IRS targeting "outrageous," President Obama shifted to calling it a "phony scandal."  The White House and its allies in Congress have worked hard in favor of the new targeting. 

READ MORE.

Tea Party Legislative Update, January 26, 2014

House/Senate Action: Weeks of 1/13/14-1/26/14

The House will be in session Monday through Wednesday of next week.
The Senate will be in session Monday through Thursday of next week.

CALENDAR NOTES:

The President’s State of the Union Address will take place Tuesday evening at 9 PM. The House Republican retreat in Cambridge, Maryland will begin place the following day.

House Republican Conference Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington – the
highest-ranking Republican woman in the Congress – will deliver the official Republican response to the President’s State of the Union address.

As he did last year, Sen. Rand Paul will offer his own response, via YouTube and other social media channels. And Sen. Mike Lee will offer a Tea Party response, sponsored by Tea Party Express.

Note: In recent weeks, we've heard a lot about the content of the President’s address, with much speculation indicating that he would again focus on income inequality. But in the last few days, the White House has been leaking information suggesting that because polling by outside allies shows that “income inequality” leads too many people to think he’s really talking about income redistribution (which he is), the language has been tweaked, and instead he’ll talk about “expanding ladders of opportunity,” which is language right out of the old Jack Kemp/Ronald Reagan playbook.

REVIEW:

The House took up and passed H.R. 3362, the “Exchange Information and Disclosure Act,” requiring the Administration to provide regularly weekly updates on the status of the ObamaCare rollout. The measure passed by a vote of 259-154, with 33 Democrats joining 226 Republicans in support.

As we predicted two weeks ago, Senate Republicans – including the six who voted to proceed to consideration of the extension of emergency unemployment benefits – held firm in insisting that the $6.4 billion measure be paid for realistically. (You may recall, Majority Leader Harry Reid had offered to “pay for” the me asure by extending the Sequester for two more years – a joke of a “pay for” that the Senate GOP immediately rejected.) So far, there’s been no further movement.

DEBT CEILING:

As per the October agreement that reopened the federal government, the debt ceiling was suspended until February 7. That’s less than two weeks from now.

In the past, the Treasury has employed what it calls “extraordinary measures” to continue paying federal bills beyond the reaching of the national debt limit. In some cases, this ability has extended for literally months, and early projections this time around indicated that Treasury would be able to use these cash-management gimmicks to buy time through late spring – possibly as late as May or even early June. But February is typically a heavy deficit-spending month, as tax refunds are sent out by the Treasury, so Treasury Secretary Jack Lew sent a letter to the Hill last Wednesday informing Congress that Treasury’s ability to use these “extraordinary measures” to continue paying federals bills will run out by the end of February, and, therefore, Congress must take action early next month.  Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell – no doubt influenced by the fact that he faces a competitive
primary challenge from his right in his reelection campaign – appeared on FOX News Sunday this morning to reiterate his insistence that any debt ceiling increase also include policy riders.

Meanwhile, House Republicans – led by Speaker Boehner – are on the same page, and continue to search for consensus in the House GOP Conference as to what those policy riders might be. Among the possibilities: repealing the “risk corridor” provisions in ObamaCare, to ensure that taxpayers are not stuck with the bill for a massive bailout of health insurance companies; approval of the Keystone XL pipeline; and repealing the medical device tax in ObamaCare.

BUDGET:

The White House announced on Thursday that it would release the President’s budget proposal on March 4, roughly a month later than the February 9 deadline required under law. It attributed the delay to the December budget deal. News reports indicate his budget will propose higher taxes on wealthy Americans, and more spending on infrastructure and early education programs.

Meanwhile, there’s been some talk on Capitol Hill that Republicans in the House may decide not to propose and consider a budget for FY2015 at all. Near as I can tell, it’s coming from operatives at the National Republican Congressional Committee and associated consultants, who seem to think that taking votes on a GOP budget is unnecessary (since the budget deal concluded in December includes top-line spending guidelines for FY2015 already), so why risk giving Democrats campaign fodder?

Nevertheless, top House Republicans – including Speaker Boehner and Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan – indicate that they plan to move a budget, as the law requires.

OBAMACARE:

Week before last, a study by McKinsey & Co. revealed that the ObamaCare exchanges had made little progress in actually extending insurance to those who had previously been uninsured. In fact, according to the study, of the roughly 2.2 million people who had signed up for insurance on the federal and state exchanges through the end of December, only 11 percent had been previously uninsured. Those who failed to use the exchanges to enroll cited two big reasons – the high cost of insurance premiums (cited by 52%), and the difficulty of navigating the web sites (cited by 30%).

That same week, Gary Cohen, the director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight at HHS, testified before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations that the back end of Healthcare.gov is still under construction, and he refused to pin down an estimated completion date. The “back end” is the automated system that sends payments to insurance companies after someone enrolls on one of the exchange web sites. Without this information, the insurance companies literally have no idea who’s enrolled, and who gets a subsidy. They’re flying blind.

Documents released by HHS last week show just how serious a problem this is – to justify firing CGI Federal (the main contractor on Healthcare.gov) and awarding the contract on a sole-source basis to Accenture, HHS revealed that they believe this problem puts “the entire health insurance industry at risk” … “potentially leading to their default and disrupting continued services and coverage to consumers.” Then the memo went even further, saying that if the problem isn’t fixed by mid-March, “they will result in financial harm to the government,” and went on to add that without the necessary fixes, “the entire health care reform program is jeopardized.”

Also that same week, Speaker Boehner announced that House Republicans would offer – and possibly vote on – a replacement for ObamaCare. That promises to be one of the main topics of conversation at the House Retreat that begins Wednesday.

Support for an alternative comes, generally, from the conservatives in the House GOP Conference, who want an issue agenda to run on, not just something to run against. And, as virtually always happens, the GOP consultant class, whose thinking generally runs along the lines of, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” opposes them. These consultants see a continued bad economy and a continued disastrous rollout for ObamaCare as their tickets to victory in the 2014 midterm elections, and they seek to minimize opportunities for the Democrats to turn things around.

IMMIGRATION:

As we discussed in our call two weeks ago, House Republican leaders have begun quietly circulating a set of principles on immigration reform that includes a proposal to offer legal status to illegal immigrants. Their thinking is simple – no one believes you can round up and deport 11 million illegal immigrants, so we’ve got to find a way to create a legal status for them short of citizenship.

We expect the one-page document will be released at the House GOP Retreat later this week.
The new principles will envision a legal process by which illegal immigrants can admit guilt and pay fines and any back taxes, and then gain the right to live and work in the U.S. and travel abroad. It will insist that no legalization provisions take effect until border security and other enforcement measures are in place, sources familiar with the draft said.

Unlike under the Senate bill, they will not automatically qualify for citizenship – what critics call a
"special path." But legislation being crafted by Republican lawmakers, apparently with the support of House leaders, would let newly legalized immigrants apply for legal permanent residence, also known as a green card, using the pathways available to anyone else. And here’s the problem for us – once someone has a green card, he or she is eligible to apply for citizenship.

Some House conservatives are planning to introduce their own alternative immigration proposal, which will focus on enforcement of current laws and providing economic assistance to unemployed citizens before providing legal status to illegal immigrants. The alternatives being circulated properly take note of the fact that the White House- and Senate-approved legislation isn’t problematic just because it creates an amnesty for the illegal immigrants who are already here, but it drastically increases the number of foreign unskilled guest workers who could be imported, which would depress wages across the board.

On Thursday, 15 of these conservative House Republicans met with Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama to discuss ways to block the House GOP Leadership’s efforts.

As a reminder, Tea Party Patriots put our own principles for immigration reform last summer. They can be found by clicking on this link.  Stay tuned as this plays out.

Obamacare pre-existing conditions deadline delayed

The Washington Examiner, BY BRIAN HUGHES, JANUARY 15, 2014 

The White House delayed another Obamacare deadline late Tuesday, pushing back by more than a month when those with pre-existing conditions must enroll in new health plans.

The administration had already delayed the Pre-Existing Conditions Insurance Plan (PCIP), which was designed to help those with serious medical conditions transition to Obamacare coverage.

Department of Health and Human Services officials, though, said they needed more time to make sure those patients received insurance coverage, pushing the expected Jan. 31 deadline back to March 15.

Read more.

White House delayed enacting rules ahead of 2012 election to avoid controversy

The White House systematically delayed enacting a series of rules on the environment, worker safety and health care to prevent them from becoming points of contention before the 2012 election, according to documents and interviews with current and former administration officials.

Some agency officials were instructed to hold off submitting proposals to the White House for up to a year to ensure that they would not be issued before voters went to the polls, the current and former officials said.

The delays meant that rules were postponed or never issued. The stalled regulations included crucial elements of the Affordable Care Act, what bodies of water deserved federal protection, pollution controls for industrial boilers and limits on dangerous silica exposure in the workplace.

 

The Obama administration has repeatedly said that any delays until after the electionwere coincidental and that such decisions were made without regard to politics. But seven current and former administration officials told The Washington Post that the motives behind many of the delays were clearly political, as Obama’s top aides focused on avoiding controversy before his reelection.

 

CONTINUED:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-delayed-enacting-rules-ahead-of-2012-election-to-avoid-controversy/2013/12/14/7885a494-561a-11e3-ba82-16ed03681809_story.html

Michelle Malkin: Culture of corruption: The Dems’ dangerous DHS pick

The “S” in President Obama’s DHS doesn’t stand for “security.” It stands for “sleaze.” 

In the wake of Dirty Harry Reid’s sabotage of the filibuster, Democrats have rammed through the Senate nomination of a shady Chicago crony associated with dangerous Clinton corruption and at least two visas-for-sale schemes.

The White House wants Alejandro Mayorkas to helm the No. 2 position at the Department of Homeland Security. It speaks volumes about this ethics-challenged administration that the most qualified person it could find for this important post is a government DHS hack currently under investigation by other DHS hacks. More on that in a moment.

On Tuesday, Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee advanced Mayorkas’ nomination to the Senate floor by a 9-0 vote. All Republicans voted “present” in protest. Thanks to Reid’s nuclear option on the filibuster, Obama’s party water-carriers in the Senate only need a simple majority. The appointment (scheduled for a Wednesday vote) is all but assured.

What qualifies Mayorkas to serve as DHS deputy secretary? Well, there’s his prodigious fundraising in 2008 as an Obama bundler, of course. There’s his dutiful pro-open borders record in his current job as director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. And once again, the operational motto of the Beltway prevails: Screw up, foul up, move up.

Read the entire article here:  http://michellemalkin.com/2013/12/13/culture-of-corruption-the-dems-dangerous-dhs-pick/

TWO REPORTS NOW SAY THE OBAMA ADMIN HAS SECRETLY BEEN EXCHANGING MESSAGES WITH HEZBOLLAH

The Blaze

11/28/13

Two Kuwaiti newspapers have reported that U.S. officials have been holding indirect secret talks with the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah over the past year, using Britain as a mediator.

Al-Rai on Wednesday quoted senior British government sources who said while British diplomats are engaging in direct talks with Hezbollah leaders over issues including the fight against Al Qaeda and other Middle East challenges, they are conveying information to the U.S.

The talks “are aimed at keeping tabs on the changes in the region and the world, and prepare for the upcoming return of Iran to the international community,” diplomatic sources in Washington told the Kuwaiti paper, according to the Jerusalem Post.

CONTINUED:  http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/11/28/two-reports-now-say-the-obama-admin-has-been-exchanging-messages-with-hezbollah/

Why Obama Won’t Negotiate

It’s no secret that I believe this is the most evil (and yes, I do mean “evil”) administration in the history of the United States.  Unless you live without the benefit of any news sources, you should have heard by now that the man presently occupying the White House is refusing to negotiate with Congress.  Some have commented that he is behaving childishly, some say he is an incompetent leader, and others have commented that he is playing some kind of high stakes chess game.  I believe all of these observations are incorrect.

Since his election in 2008, this man has done everything within his power to destroy this country– and he has lied with a straight face as he looked directly into the cameras without so much as a flinch, which is evil in-and-of-itself. He has tried to disarm us in every possible way – including sending firearms to Mexican drug lords.  He has fought the Keystone Pipeline for no discernible reason and kept us dependent on foreign oil, continually enriching those who hate us. He has closed deep water drilling wherever possible on the grounds of environmental protection but he sent $2 billion to Brazil for offshore drilling. He has used the tragedy of the children of Sandy Hook to infringe upon our right to bear arms – although he had voted while a senator in Illinois to have babies born alive after botched abortions to be discarded like trash. He forced healthcare upon us under the protest of the American people – knowing full well that it would escalate our financial woes. He has opened our borders without any concern about what it is doing to our economy or if it is allowing terrorists entre in the process. He has attempted to common gear our education system with untested standards that glorify Islam and dumb down  our children by offering money to the states while knowing it will cost the states exponentially more than they are being funded.  He has fanned the flames of racial division. He has consistently backed Islamic uprisings in countries where the Muslim Brotherhood is strong.  He is directly responsible for the deaths of our ambassador and 3 brave heroes for giving the order for help to stand down – while he continued on to a fundraising event. He has tried to destroy our farming industry with his Rural Council that would have made farming in this country unfeasible. He has closed our military commissaries to inflict harm on our real patriots but kept the White House kitchen fully staffed. He has slashed military spending while sending 16 F-16 fighter jets to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt at a cost of over $1 billion. And he has gone as far as to try to close privately held parks, which have nothing to do with the treasury.  Keep in mind, these are only the things I can think of off the top of my head.

CONTINUE READING:  http://mychal-massie.com/premium/why-obama-wont-negotiate/

Common Core Teachers Taught to Praise Wrong Answers Like ’3 x 4 was 11’

Apparently, under the new Common-Core standards, correct answers don’t really matter. At least that’s according to a “curriculum coordinator” in Chicago named Amanda August. “Even if [a student] said, ’3 x 4 was 11,’ if they were able to explain their reasoning and explain how they came up with their answer really in, umm, words and oral explanation, and they showed it in the picture but they just got the final number wrong, we’re really more focused on the how,” said the common core supporter and typical liberal, Amanda. Off course this reasoning explains quite a bit regarding our nation’s 16 trillion dollar debt, and Nancy Pelosi’s assertion that Obamacare was a “deficit reducer.” When you consider that our finest economic leaders in the Federal Reserve, and the White House, think spending more money will result in fewer deficits, teaching that 3 x 4 = 11 (if you explain it well) isn’t really much of a stretch.

http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/michaelschaus/2013/08/19/common-core-will-instruct-teachers-to-praise-wrong-answers-n1667595?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

Regulation nation: Obama expands the regulatory state - The Hill's RegWatch

President Obama has overseen a dramatic expansion of the regulatory state that will outlast his time in the White House.

The reach of the executive branch has advanced steadily on his watch, further solidifying the power of bureaucrats who churn out regulations that touch nearly every aspect of American life and business.

Experts debate whether federal rulemaking has accelerated under Obama, but few dispute that Washington — for better or worse — is reaching deeper than ever before into the workings of society.

“It would be difficult for anyone to pretend that this isn’t a high water mark in terms of regulation,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office who now heads the American Action Forum.

Obama famously signaled his intent to use the machinery of government to further his policy goals after the 2010 elections, declaring: “Where Congress won’t act, I will.” 

Since then, the administration has pressed ahead unilaterally on several fronts, including immigration, gun control, cyber security and sentencing guidelines for drug offenses.

Meanwhile, new federal rules are accumulating faster than outdated ones are removed, resulting in a steady increase in the number of federal mandates.
 
Data collected by researchers at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center shows that the Code of Federal Regulations, where all rules and regulations are detailed, has ballooned from 71,224 pages in 1975 to 174,545 pages last year.
 
“All incentives are to regulate more,” said Susan Dudley, the director of George Washington University’s Regulatory Studies Center.
 
The fight over executive power is increasingly pitting the three branches of government against each other, with Congress and the judiciary struggling to assert power over officials with broad discretion to issue rules.
 
While Republican lawmakers have scored victories in the messaging battle over regulations, they say proponents of a more activist government are winning the war.

“We sit back and watch this erosion and watch, really, an executive branch that has, I think, arrogant powers of overseeing things,” Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) told The Hill.

Taken separately, the public tends to support individual regulations. 
 
A Gallup poll earlier this year found that 82 percent of Americans either believe the government is doing the right amount or needs to do more to protect the environment, while two-thirds say they would support stricter standards for food sold in public schools.
 
But critics, including industry groups and congressional Republicans, charge that the cumulative affect of the mounting red tape is crushing businesses. 
 
“All the kinds of things we say we want: an expanding economy, more opportunity, more jobs — all of them are stifled by the regulatory oppression that’s occurred,” said Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.). 


Obama has responded to business’s concerns with a regulatory “look-back” aimed at scrapping old rules on the books. Howard Shelanski, the administration’s regulatory chief, told Congress last month that the effort had turned up hundreds of regulatory reform proposals, just a few of which could save up to $10 billion.
 
But the process of getting rid of regulations is easier said than done, experts say.

CONTINUED:  Regulation nation: Obama expands the regulatory state - The Hill's RegWatch

GUESS WHO’S GETTING THE PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM--DISGUSTING!

The Blaze
August 8, 203

Former President Bill Clinton, media mogul Oprah Winfrey, first female astronaut Sally Ride and women’s rights activist Gloria Steinem are among the 16 people who will receive the 2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the White House announced Thursday.

President Barack Obama will bestow the nation’s highest civilian honor on Oprah Winfrey, former President Bill Clinton and others in a White House ceremony later this year. (AP file photo)

The Presidential medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honor presented by the president and will be awarded at a White House ceremony later this year. No date was given.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of an executive order signed by President John F. Kennedy establishing the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

“The Presidential Medal of Freedom goes to men and women who have dedicated their own lives to enriching ours,” President Barack Obama said in a statement. “This year’s honorees have been blessed with extraordinary talent, but what sets them apart is their gift for sharing that talent with the world. It will be my honor to present them with a token of our nation’s gratitude.”

Here’s the full list of names released by the White House:

Government:

Bill Clinton

President Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States. Before taking office, he served as Governor and Attorney General of the State of Arkansas. Following his second term, President Clinton established the Clinton Foundation to improve global health, strengthen economies, promote health and wellness, and protect the environment.  He also formed the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund with President George W. Bush in 2010.

CONTINUED:  http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/08/08/guess-whos-getting-the-presidential-medal-of-freedom/

WHITE HOUSE PUNTS ON WHETHER CIA EMPLOYEES ARE EXPERIENCING RETALIATION FOR TALKING ABOUT BENGHAZI

The White House on Thursday deferred questions about whether the CIA is cracking down on employees in order to prevent leaks about last year’s terror attacks in Benghazi.

White House press secretary Jay Carney punted on whether CIA employees are experience retaliation for discussing the Benghazi attacks. (Getty Images)

CNN reported last week that the CIA has been regularly polygraphing employees to find out if they were talking to Congress about the Sept. 11, 2011 assault that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

Fox News’ Ed Henry asked whether Carney could assure Americans that was not the case.

“I don’t have any information on the CIA, individuals, or operations around the world,” Carney responded.

Clearly prepared for the question, Carney then read a statement previously released by the CIA in response to CNN’s report, claiming to have worked closely with Congress and being unaware of any intimidation.

“The CIA has worked closely with oversight committees to provide them with an extraordinary amount of information related to the event on U.S. facilities in Benghazi,” Carney said.

CONTINUED: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/08/08/white-house-punts-on-whether-cia-employees-are-experiencing-retaliation-for-talking-about-benghazi/

Tea party asks its grass roots to help kill health care law - Washington Times

TAKE ACTION FOLKS, PLEASE!

Tea party Republicans are girding for a fight with the White House — and members of their own party — over how to block President Obama’s health care law, saying Congress must not miss the chance to use this year’s funding bills to try to starve Obamacare to death.  Speaking at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative nonprofit in Washington, freshman Sen. Ted Cruz called on “hundreds of thousands” or even millions of grass-roots critics of the Affordable Care Act to sign petitions and call their representatives on Capitol Hill before the spending debate in September.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/31/tea-party-asks-its-grass-roots-to-help-kill-health/#ixzz2accm0tj0