WH: Don't tax Olympians on medals

The White House said Thursday that President Obama still believes American Olympians shouldn’t have to pay income taxes on the medals they win.

“The president believes we should support efforts to ensure that we’re doing everything we can to honor and support our Olympic athletes who have volunteered to represent our nation at the Olympic Games,” White House spokesman Bobby Whithorne told Yahoo News. “We still support this effort.” 

During the 2012 presidential campaign, the White House said those who medaled in the summer games should be exempt from taxes on their winnings.

“If it were to get to his desk, he would support it," White House press secretary Jay Carney said of proposed legislation.

But a bill by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) never moved in the Senate.

"Our tax code is a complicated and burdensome mess that too often punishes success, and the tax imposed on Olympic medal winners is a classic example of this madness," Rubio said in 2012. "Athletes representing our nation overseas in the Olympics shouldn't have to worry about an extra tax bill waiting for them back home."

U.S. athletes are paid cash prizes when they place in Olympic events: $25,000 for a gold, $15,000 for a silver and $10,000 for a bronze.

How much athletes pay back to Uncle Sam will depends largely on what other income they report for the year. But according to an analysis by the anti-tax group Americans for Tax Reform, gold-medal winners in the top tax bracket could see nearly $10,000 of their $25,000 winnings taken by the government. 

Even athletes in the lowest tax bracket could fork over as much as $2,500 on a gold medal prize, $1,500 on a silver and $1,000 for a bronze.

Via: The Hill
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Ben Carson in His Own Words

After five years of President Obama, we want a dynamic conservative candidate who we can believe in to take us to 2016. With names on the horizon like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Bobby Jindal, and Nikki Haley, we have some promising politicians; and another name has risen to the top: Dr. Ben Carson.

Ben Carson is the latest potential presidential candidate to be anointed by conservatives. Less than a year after his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, the 61-year old neurosurgeon, known for his deeply held religious beliefs as well as his determination to live the American Dream, has gained support from many conservative organizations like the Tea Party, right-to-life groups, Americans for Prosperity, Freedom Works, and David Horowitz's Freedom Center .

Carson's post-election entrance onto the national stage at the 2013 Prayer Breakfast gave despondent conservatives new hope. The famous surgeon criticized the President's signature health law and mocked political correctness while the President sat stone faced. Carson's boldness made headlines from MSNBC to far-right alternative blogs.

The decidedly political speech, different from his 1997 Prayer Breakfast address, was a triumph and made him an instant hit with stalwarts on the right. Glenn Beck actually said "I love you" during an interview when Carson told him his favorite person in history was George Washington. Rush Limbaugh thinks Carson "has everybody in the Democrat Party scared to death." Mark Levin and Sarah Palin have lauded Carson on their sites.

Via: American Thinker

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EXCLUSIVE–RUBIO: PREVENT BLANK CHECK BAILOUTS UNDER OBAMACARE

It's become a hallmark of Barack Obama's presidency that mistakes made by policy makers, businesses, and governments at all levels must be paid for by American taxpayers. 

This perverse bailout culture is again evident in ObamaCare, which we now know contains a little-known provision that grants the administration a blank check for a taxpayer-funded bailout of insurance companies when ObamaCare fails.

When President Obama recently announced his unilateral order to allow health insurers to ignore ObamaCare's mandates and regulations and keep offering health plans that people wanted to keep, it exposed another fundamental problem in the law which puts American taxpayers on the hook.

Buried deep within ObamaCare's approximately 1,000 pages was section 1342, which authorized what are known as risk corridors that limit the amount of profit insurers could extract from the program while also limiting their losses. While risk corridors can be structured in budget-neutral ways that protect taxpayers, ObamaCare did no such thing.

After the law was signed, thousands of more pages of regulations, administrative interpretations, and executive actions included further clarity on how this administration would implement this provision.

The day the president announced his temporary "keep your plan fix," he unsurprisingly left this important background detail out of his speech, leaving it to his Department of Health and Human Services to acknowledge in the fine print of a press release: “Though this transitional policy was not anticipated by health insurance issuers when setting rates for 2014, the risk corridor program should help ameliorate unanticipated changes in premium revenue. We intend to explore ways to modify the risk corridor program final rules to provide additional assistance.”

Via: Breitbart

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BEDFORD: One month after the shutdown ended, Lee and Cruz are sitting pretty

It’s Nov. 16, 2013, and the partial government shutdown ended one month ago today.

In those four weeks, and the two prior, everything conservatives said would happen has happened. What’s more, the Democrats’ united stand against them has turned into a retreat — and is primed to become a rout — as they amend Obamacare’s disastrous rollout, President Barack Obama apologizes for his failures, and electorally vulnerable Democrats break ranks and flee.

Hell, even the polls that D.C.’s Republican pundits shrieked, wept and clawed over show the Grand Old Party has bounced back while the Democrats have fallen behind. Because, in the end, real people simply weren’t affected by the shutdown, so they won’t vote on it — a distinction Obamacare does not share.

It’s clear now that the whole shutdown thing could have been avoided if Mr. Obama had been willing to bend on his signature health-care law — something reality has since forced him to do, and something he will likely have to continue to do — instead of accusing the Republicans of being “terrorists” who are holding the country captive.

And rather than crashing, as the president predicted, the private sector survived just fine without government. Obama’s specific prediction — “I mean whatever effect Obamacare might have on the economy is far less than even a few days of government shutdown” — turned out to be precisely wrong. (VIDEO: It’s been two weeks and still no apocalypse, you guys)

Finally, the events of the last month have shown that Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee were correct to make a final stand against the law, and it’s really the president and his policies that are terrorizing the country. (RELATED: How Cruz, Lee and Paul shut down Obama’s agenda)

Because since Obamacare has come into effect, millions have seen their health-care plans cancelled; enrollment numbers have lagged 80 percent behind the White House’s predictions; every facet of the sign-up process has failed to deliver; and some of the very “navigators” who are supposed to make all that easier have been exposed as criminals.

And for the two weeks that preceded this debacle, the story is one of Republicans fighting with everything they had to save the country from what they saw coming.

Via: Daily Caller

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Politicians on both sides of the pew hope Supreme Court case has a prayer

When the Supreme Court this week takes up the issue of prayer before government meetings, both Republicans and Democrats will be looking to a higher power.

According to the Miami Herald, the Obama administration has joined conservative state and federal lawmakers in urging the Supreme Court to allow politicians to say prayers during government meetings.

Among those keeping close tabs on the issue is Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who wants to hear prayers in the Senate before he and his colleagues get down to work.

Rubio is joined by legislators in Texas, too, who also want to say prayers before meetings. And in Arizona, both the House and Senate begin the day with a legislative prayer.

Via: Fox News

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GLOVES OFF: GOP ESTABLISHMENT GOES AFTER TEA PARTY

The National Republican Senate Committee, the GOP campaign arm responsible for Senate elections, has decided to use its political power to block consulting firm Jamestown Associates from receiving political work from GOP candidates or incumbents. 

Jamestown's "sin" is working with the Senate Conservative Fund, an organization that supports conservative candidates for the US Senate. 

NRSC communications staffer Brad Dayspring, a former spokesman for House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), told The New York Times on Friday, “We’re not going to do business with people who profit off of attacking Republicans. Purity for profit is a disease that threatens the Republican Party.”

Jamestown Associates has done work with the Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF), a conservative group largely responsible for the elections of Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Mike Lee (R-UT), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Rand Paul (R-KY), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Pat Toomey (R-PA), and Ron Johnson (R-WI), among others. Former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), who left the U.S. Senate last year to become the president of the Heritage Foundation, founded SCF.

"In a warning shot to outside conservative groups, the National Republican Senatorial Committee this week informed a prominent Republican advertising firm that it would not receive any contracts with the campaign committee because of its work with a group that targets incumbent Senate Republicans," the Times wrote. 

"Even more striking," the Times continued, "a senior official at the committee called individual Republican Senate campaigns and other party organizations this week and urged them not to hire the firm, Jamestown Associates, in an effort to punish them for working for the Senate Conservatives Fund, a group founded by Jim DeMint, then a South Carolina senator, that is trying to unseat Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, and some other incumbents up for re-election next year whom it finds insufficiently conservative."

Via: Breitbart

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Rubio: Piecemeal Approach to Immigration the Way to Go

Via: You Tube

The Democrats' Freak-Out About ObamaCare Has Begun

Frustrated with the disastrous rollout of HealthCare.gov, the Democratic coalition is beginning to crack slightly on the Affordable Care Act.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a frequent critic of the health care law, is preparing to introduce legislation that would delay Obamacare's individual mandate by a year. Other Senate Democrats are going to push for an extension of open enrollment in the exchanges. And House Democrats are openly venting their frustrations.

Manchin appeared on Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" Wednesday night to discuss his plan, and he said there that he'd be open to working with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

"I came here to fix things," Manchin said. "Affordable health care was never meant to be, if you've got insurance now you're going to have to buy insurance that's more costly and not as good. That has to be fixed."

Manchin said he wouldn't attach his name to Rubio's legislation, which would delay the mandate's penalties until six months after the  Government Accountability Office (GAO) certifies that the online exchanges are functional.

Manchin's willingness to look at tweaks to the law is nothing new. He said in September that he would support  a year-long delay in the individual mandate — he just didn't support that being part of negotiations surrounding the federal government shutdown.

In fact, if there were any senator Democrats were worried about breaking off from the caucus during the debates, it was Manchin. He told Bill O'Reilly that he thinks he can get the votes for his plan, but no other Democrats have come out publicly in support.

Via: Fox News

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[VIDEO] DID MSNBC'S CHRIS HAYES USE 'KKK' IMAGE FOR CRUZ, PAUL, RUBIO?

Chris Hayes, host of MSNBC's All In, has a favorite tactic--though not an original one: connecting today's Republicans with the racist Democrats of the old South. In June, he rewrote history bycasting George Wallace as a Republican--an error for which, to his credit, he later apologized. On Wednesday, he appeared to use a more subtle tactic to connect the Tea Party's Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio to the Ku Klux Klan.

In a segment on possible Tea Party contenders for the Republican Party's nomination in the 2016 presidential race, Hayes used a graphic (above) that portrayed Cruz, Paul, and Rubio as kings in a deck of cards--and that, rather conveniently, spelled out the initials "K K K." (Hayes did not say the word "kings" during the segment.)

The use of KKK imagery--historically associated with Democrats, not Republicans--to describe the Tea Party would not be unique to Hayes. Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) recently used a burning cross to provide the "T" in "Tea Party" in a fundraising email. Hayes's "dog whistle" was more clever, but--if intentional--no less offensive.

There is a hazard, of course, in taking offense too quickly at bad jokes, and there is always the possibility that Hayes was unaware of the graphic, or even that the KKK reference was entirely coincidental. However, given Hayes's past record, and the constant obsession of fellow MSNBC anchors with making false accusations of racism against the Tea Party and the Republican Party, Hayes has arguably exhausted the benefit of the doubt. 

Via: Breitbart

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Obama's Credibility Is Melting

Here and abroad, Obama's partners are concluding they cannot trust him.

The collapse of ObamaCare is the tip of the iceberg for the magical Obama presidency.

From the moment he emerged in the public eye with his 2004 speech at the Democratic Convention and through his astonishing defeat of the Clintons in 2008, Barack Obama's calling card has been credibility. He speaks, and enough of the world believes to keep his presidency afloat. Or used to.

All of a sudden, from Washington to Riyadh, Barack Obama's credibility is melting.

Amid the predictable collapse the past week of HealthCare.gov's too-complex technology, not enough notice was given to Sen. Marco Rubio's statement that the chances for success on immigration reform are about dead. Why? Because, said Sen. Rubio, there is "a lack of trust" in the president's commitments.

"This notion that they're going to get in a room and negotiate a deal with the president on immigration," Sen. Rubio said Sunday on Fox News, "is much more difficult to do" after the shutdown negotiations of the past three weeks.

Via: Wall Street Journal

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Rubio pushing bill to delay ObamaCare mandate over website meltdown

The widespread problems with the ObamaCare website are generating a new backlash in Congress, with Sen. Marco Rubio planning to introduce legislation that would delay the health law's individual mandate until the technical failures are addressed. 

The Florida senator discussed the plan Tuesday morning in an interview with Fox News. He said it would be "prudent" to delay the requirement on individuals to buy health insurance -- set to kick in early next year -- until users can consistently access the main website. 

"How are you going to go after people next year ... if the thing you're forcing them to buy isn't available to buy?" he asked, saying the site is "not working." 

Rubio's plan would delay the mandate until the Government Accountability Office certifies the system is "up and running and effectively working for six months, consecutive." 

The plan comes as new reports detail the warning signs that may have been missed before the launch, and the massive undertaking that the tech team hired to fix the site is confronting.

Via: Fox News

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Obama criticizes Cruz, other first-term GOPers for 'being controversial'

President Obama was once a high-profile first-term senator, but he doesn't think the current crop -- including Sens. Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio -- is serving the country well as they seek out controversy.

"I recognize that in today's media age, being controversial, taking controversial positions, rallying the most extreme parts of your base, whether it's left or right, is a lot of times the fastest way to get attention and raise money," he said in an interview with the Associated Press released Saturday. "But it's not good for government."

When Obama got to the Senate, he said, "my attitude was I should just keep a pretty low profile in the Senate and just do the work." While the media did seek him out, "I didn't go around courting the media."

In a particular jab that seemed aimed at Cruz, who is seen as a driving force behind efforts to shutdown the government over Obamacare, the president added: "And I certainly didn't go around trying to shut down the government."

Via: Politco

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Rubio: Only Obama Wants to Shut Down Government

Republicans should do "anything and everything" to prevent the "disaster" of Obamacare, Sen. Marco Rubio tells Newsmax. But he insists it can be done without shutting down the government.

The Florida Republican asserts that President Barack Obama actually wants a government shutdown to achieve a "political win," and the administration is going to fight to the bitter end to defend its healthcare reforms.

Elected in 2010, Rubio is considered a rising star in the Republican Party. He delivered the GOP's response to Obama's State of the Union address in February and has been mentioned as a presidential candidate in 2016. 

His committee assignments include the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

In an exclusive interview Wednesday with Newsmax TV, Rubio discusses efforts to stop Obamacare and the possibility of a government shutdown.

"Every single member of the Republican conference agrees that Obamacare should be stopped, but the disagreement is about the tactic," he says. "I'm not in favor of shutting down the government. The president appears now politically to be in favor of shutting down the government.

"I'm in favor of funding the government at the levels that were agreed to last year in the Budget Control Act and not spending a single penny more of hardworking taxpayer dollars on a disaster, which is Obamacare.

"Actually, the administration has admitted it's a disaster because they've had to delay major portions of it. Labor unions that strongly supported Obamacare are now asking to be exempted from it. 

"So we should be doing anything and everything we can to prevent this law from going into effect, because once it starts to hurt people, it's going to hurt our economy in ways that are very difficult to undo later."

The House will pass a plan to delay and defund Obamacare but to keep the government  open, Speaker John Boehner says.

"That's very positive news," says Rubio. "It's now going to call attention to the fact that we can keep the government open, we can fund the government, but we don't have to shut down the government, and we don't have to fund Obamacare. 

Via: Newsmax

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Rubio accuses Sebelius of ‘misappropriating public funds’ with Obamacare ads

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is railing against what he calls the Obama administration’s “blatant misuse of federal dollars to promote a fundamentally flawed law.”

In a letter sent to Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Tuesday, the Republican lawmaker called on the department to cancel a planned $8.7 million advertising campaign promote President Obama’s health care law using taxpayer dollars.

“This blatant misuse of federal dollars to promote a fundamentally flawed law is extremely concerning, especially considering the extensive unknowns surrounding the coming launch and implementation of Obamacare,” Rubio said.

“Until critical questions can be answered regarding the availability and type of health insurance to be provided by Obamacare, it is unconscionable to spend taxpayer dollars to promote and advertise Obamacare plans that have yet to be finalized,” Rubio added.

According to Rubio’s statement, the ads are being run by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, a federal agency.

“While the Administration should be abandoning this disastrous law, instead it is imprudently and blindly promoting poor policies that will harm Americans and American businesses, and misappropriating public funds in an effort to sell bad ideas to good people,” he said.

Via: Daily Caller

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