Unsecured Hillary Emails, Hackers Worry Senate Homeland Security Chairman

Federal officials and Hillary Clinton’s lawyers may not be the only ones with copies of the former secretary of state’s official emails, according to Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson.

Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, told FBI Director James Comey in an August 17 letter that he is “deeply concerned by recent reports that classified information in Secretary Clinton’s email may exist outside of the federal government’s possession.”

The homeland committee chairman wants Comey to explain “whether additional unsecured copies of classified information currently exists.”

Johnson also said he is worried that hackers, foreign governments or other unauthorized persons may have hacked Clinton’s emails. He asked Comey for answers by Aug. 31.

Via: Daily Caller

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Campaign Finance Champ Feingold’s PAC Has Given 5 Percent of Its Income To Candidates, Political Parties

Longtime campaign finance reform proponent and former Sen. Russ Feingold (D., Wis.) founded a political action committee that has given just 5 percent of its income to federal candidates and political parties, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

Feingold, who is challenging Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) in 2016 to win back his old seat, founded Progressives United PAC in 2011. It has spent more than $7.1 million, but nearly half of the proceeds have gone to “raising more money for itself.” Feingold, a top aide and eight former staffers have also received a sizable amount:

A top GOP official said it was incredible that Feingold’s fund spent so little helping candidates and so much aiding his personal associates. Feingold is taking on Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican, in 2016 to try to win back his old U.S. Senate seat.

“Time and again, Feingold arrogantly says one thing and does another,” said Joe Fadness, executive director of the state Republican Party, suggesting the Wisconsin Democrat’s reform rhetoric doesn’t match his political actions.

Via: WFB

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We’re Paying More Than Ever for Government to Regulate Us

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., claims Americans are suffering from Stockholm syndrome, a condition in which hostages begin to have misplaced positive feelings toward their captors. The captors in this case are the federal regulators who impose some 2,400 new regulations each year, and the senator suggests Americans are not sufficiently wary of their resulting ill effects.

According to a recent report by economists Susan Dudley and Melinda Warren, the cost to taxpayers of writing and enforcing all this red tape is expected to top $62 billion in 2015, about 4.3 percent above 2014 levels. On top of this, the president has asked for a further increase of 5.3 percent for regulatory agencies in 2016. Since 2000, the budgets for these agencies have increased more than 75 percent. This is in addition to the broader economic costs of red tape.

The joint report finds total staff levels within regulatory agencies has increased almost every year since 2001 and now tops 280,000.

“Regulators Budget,” published by the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center and the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy at Washington University in St. Louis, has tracked the total staffing and spending of federal regulatory agencies since 1977. The growth in spending on regulatory agencies is consistent with the growing level of new major regulations reported by The Heritage Foundationand the Government Accountability Office.

As the graph below demonstrates, as annual regulatory outlays grew between 2001 and 2014, the number of new major rules—those expected to cost $100 million or more—also tended to increase. Other guides for tracking regulation—the number of pages in the Federal Register and agency estimates of the cost of regulations—also have grown along with the regulatory outlays and the number of new major regulations during the past two administrations.

All signs point to more expensive regulations in the future, with more rules to be written. Growth is generally a goal of companies in the private sector, but federal regulators also aim to grow their power and influence over the private sector. Unlike growth in private-sector companies, which leads to the development of innovative products or services and the creation of new jobs, the growth of regulatory agencies often leads only to more red tape.

Via: The Daily Signal

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Senate GOP Backing Plan to Extend Obamacare Subsidies

In preparation for a decision by the Supreme Court to strike down Obamacare subsidies, a number of Senate Republicans are backing a plan that would temporarily restore them for current enrollees.

According to Politico, 31 senators have signed onto a bill authored by Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ron Johnson that would extend the subsidies through September 2017 but, at the same time, repeal Obamacare's individual and employer mandates and insurance coverage requirements. 

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"In that moment of what could be political chaos, we're offering such a reasonable proposal that solves a mess," Johnson said, according to Politico. "It fixes a mess caused by a sloppily written law, unlawfully implemented. All we're asking for is a little bit of freedom back, which would be, I think, pretty popular."

The measure has the backing of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the rest of the GOP leadership, as well as a number of lawmakers who are facing tough re-elections.

But Johnson's plan is unlikely to gain support from the White House or Senate Democrats. 

The president has already been clear that he will not support legislation that would undermine the main tenets of Obamacare. 

And Republican colleagues in the House are also unlikely to sign on, Politico said.

"If you're voting for an extension, you're essentially voting for the continuation of Obamacare — that's a real problem," said Republican Study Committee Chairman Bill Flores, according to Politico.

Via: Newsmax

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Sens. Rockefeller and Johnson Battle over Whether Obamacare Opposition Is Racist

Two U.S. senators, a Republican and a Democrat, got into it on Thursday over whether opposition to Obamacare has to do with the color of the president’s skin. Democrat Jay Rockefeller strongly suggested it was, and Republican Ron Johnson fired back by scolding Rockefeller for his “very offensive” comments.

Rockefeller said plenty of people have already “made up their mind” that they don’t want Obamacare to work “because they don’t like the president, maybe he’s the wrong color.” He asserted that he’s personally “seen a lot of that, and I know a lot of that to be true.”

Johnson jumped in to blast Rockefeller’s “regrettable” decision to “play the race card.” He said, “I found it very offensive that you’d basically imply that I’m a racist because I opposed this health care law. That is outrageous.”

Via: Mediaite

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Senator Proposes Law: 'If You Like Your Health Plan, You Can Keep It Act'

Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin will propose a new law next week called: "If You Like Your Health Plan, You Can Keep It Act."

“One of the most important promises made by President Obama and Democrat congressional leadership to promote the Affordable Care Act was that Americans who were satisfied with their health plans could keep them.  That promise has been broken.  More than a million Americans have been notified that the plans they like with the coverage they have chosen have been canceled.  Millions more Americans will have the plans of their choice canceled in months to come,” says Senator Johnson in a statement.

"Americans want the freedom to choose their own plans and want to be in control of their own health care.  They don’t want Obamacare destroying what they have and what they like.  They don’t want their personal choices regarding their health plans and their families’ health plans canceled by Obamacare.

"The ‘If You Like Your Health Plan, You Can Keep It Act’ will amend the law to make Obamacare live up to the promises of the politicians who sold the plan to the American public.  I will file the bill in the coming week and hope to garner support from fellow Senators of both parties who truly want to make sure President Obama honors his promise that every American has the freedom to keep his or her own health care plan."

For more on the need for a bill like this one, read James C. Capretta's piece in the most recent issue of the magazine.

Via: The Weekly Standard

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House Dem: ‘I will not be donating or forgoing my salary’

Dem Rep. Gwen Moore: I’m Standing With Furloughed Government Workers By Collecting My $174K Salary During Shutdown…

Wisconsin Democrat Rep. Gwen Moore has vowed that she will not give up her $174,000 congressional salary during the government shutdown.

A large number of members from the Wisconsin delegation who have either refused to draw their federal salary or who have pledged to donate their salary to charity: U.S. Senators Ron Johnson (R) and Tammy Baldwin (D) as well as Congressional Representatives Ron Kind (D-WI-03), Reid Ribble (R-WI-08)  Tom Petri (R-WI-06), Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI-05),  Sean Duffy (R-WI-07) and Paul Ryan (R-WI-01).

However, Moore is standing firm — and collecting a paycheck.

Approximately 800,000 federal government employees have either been forced into furlough leave or are working without pay.” she said in a statement obtained by TMJ4. ”Federal government employees who rely on their paychecks to feed their families deserve a salary. That’s why I am coming to work every day and keeping both my district office in Milwaukee and my Washington, D.C. offices open and fully operational. I am speaking, voting and working diligently to help my constituents through the shutdown and speak on their behalf in Washington to reopen the government. I will not be donating or forgoing my salary.”

Quite how a congresswoman drawing a salary of $174,000 can be construed as standing with “federal government employees” who “rely on their paychecks to feed their families” is unclear. However, the Wisconsin Congressman is no stranger to mysterious statements.

Moore is the mother of Sowande A. Omokunde. According to the Wall Street Journal: “Moore’s son was among five Democratic presidential campaign operatives in Milwaukee charged with slashing the tires of vehicles rented by Republicans to take voters to the polls. She railed against the case, calling it revenge for her election, but her son pleaded no contest at the end of his trial in January 2006.”

That case was marked by the fact that Omokunde was in fact fingered for the crime by Opel Simmons. a Virginia Democratic operative, who told prosecutors that he saw the defendants wearing “Mission Impossible type gear” on their way to enact “Operation Elephant Takeover.”

Via: Daily Caller

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Ron Johnson May Sue Over Obamacare Ruling for Congressional Staff

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said Thursday he is laying groundwork for a court challenge to an Office of Personnel Management decision that will permit congressional staffers to continue receiving employer contributions for their health care.

The OPM’s August ruling was intended to remedy a drafting error in the 2010 health care law that would require all Congressional staffers to pay for the full cost of their insurance without employer contributions.

Johnson, who last week filed a formal comment to OPM urging the agency reconsider its rule, said he and his staff did so in order to create a legal case against the administration.

“I really do believe that it was the pretty clear intent of the people who voted for Obamacare that members of Congress and their staffs should not be able to maintain their … insurance through the Federal Employee Health Benefits plan, and they also made it pretty clear through multiple votes that they didn’t think the federal government ought to make contributions into the exchanges where they had to get it,” Johnson said.

“I can’t tell you how OPM’s really going to conduct themselves … but you know, I did put in a comment into OPM, and the purpose behind that is I don’t think they’re going to follow… my advice, but I just wanted to make sure I certainly did everything I could do … through the normal channels so that I could then do a court challenge,” Johnson continued. “That helped me create standing.”

Currently, the Senate is stalled over an amendment from Republican David Vitter of Louisiana that would reverse the OPM rule. Vitter is trying to get the amendment voted on in conjunction with an energy efficiency bill.

When Johnson announced on Sept. 10 that he and several of his staffers had filed a comment to OPM, he said in a statement: “My intent is to make sure President Obama is not allowed to exceed his legal authority in implementing this law, and that members of Congress and their staffs are not shielded from the harmful effects of this law that every other American will experience.”

Via: Roll Call

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SEBELIUS HAS “NO IDEA” WHAT’S IN OBAMACARE AND WHAT IT WILL COST

On Wednesday March 7, 2012 HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius went before the Appropriations Subcommittee at a hearing on the new health care program.  Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) was questioning Sebelius on a number of issues and at times appeared confused by the questions that were being asked.  Johnson challenged Sibelius over claims that the new health care law will reduce the deficit over the next ten years.  Her response to a number of questions was that she had “no idea” what Johnson was talking about. 

Listening to this testimony by someone of her supposed intellect would make a grown man cry. It did not exactly exude an air of confidence and if this is the best that we can expect from a top official within the Obama Administration we are monumentally screwed.