In Heated Senate Hearing Kerry Portrayed as ‘Naïve,’ ‘Fleeced’ by the Iranians

(CNSNews.com) – U.S. senators opposed to the Iran nuclear agreement told Secretary of State John Kerry Thursday he had been “fleeced” and “bamboozled” by the Iranians.

Several said that while Iran was once isolated as an international “pariah” now the administration asserts that should Congress reject the deal, then it is the U.S. that will be the pariah.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), author of the legislation that provides for congressional review of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), set the tone in his opening remarks.

“From my perspective, Mr. Secretary, I’m sorry, not unlike a hotel guest who leaves only with a hotel bathrobe on his back, I believe you’ve been fleeced,” he told Kerry. “In the process of being fleeced, what you’ve really done here is you have turned Iran from being a pariah to now Congress being a pariah.”

Corker was referring to a recent spate of administration warnings that if Congress votes to reject the JCPOA, that will leave the U.S. internationally isolated, and could lead to war.

Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) said the administration’s “mantra” has changed from “no deal is better than a bad deal” to “you have to accept this or else it’s war.”

“We have gone from the position where we started, when we had Iran isolated, and they were viewed on the world stage as pariah,” he said. “If we don’t go along with this, we’re told, the other negotiators are going to go along with this, and the United States will be isolated on this issue, and we will be the pariah on the international stage.”

“All I can say is after reviewing this, even in a cursory fashion, anyone who believes this is a good deal really joins the ranks of the most naïve people on the face of the Earth,” Risch told Kerry.

Kerry pushed back, quoting from media articles quoting former Israeli Shin Bet intelligence agent chief Ami Ayalon as calling the JCPOA a useful measure to curb the Iranian threat.

“I don’t think he’s naïve,” declared Kerry, who appeared together with Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew.

(The Times of Israel reported that Ayalon’s evaluation “runs counter to near unanimous criticism of the deal among mainstream Israeli officials, who fear it will fail to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.” It noted that Ayalon later become a lawmaker in the opposition Labor Party, whose current leader opposes the Iran deal.)

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) defended Kerry. If the U.S. had been “fleeced,” she said, then so too had other countries – “almost everybody in the world.”

She listed other countries involved in the negotiations – or members of the U.N. Security Council which on Monday passed a resolution endorsing the JCPOA – asking Kerry each time whether those countries supported the deal. They had, he replied.

“If you were bamboozled,” Boxer told Kerry, “the world has been bamboozled – that’s ridiculous. And it’s unfair and it’s wrong.”

“You can disagree, for sure, with aspects of this agreement,” she chided her colleagues. “but I think we need to stay away from that kind of rhetoric.”

Via: CNS News

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Subpoena threat issued for ObamaCare files

House Republicans are threatening to subpoena documents related to an ObamaCare program at the center of their lawsuit against President Obama.

The Republican chairmen of the Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce committees on Wednesday released a letter to the administration reiterating a request made in February for documents related to the program. 

Reps. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Fred Upton (R-Mich.) set a deadline of July 21 for a response. If the administration does not provide the documents by then, a subpoena will be considered, they said.

“If HHS fails to produce the documents and information, the committees will have no choice but to consider the use of the compulsory process to obtain them,” the letter states.

Ryan and Upton first asked for the documents in February. The letter reiterating the request was sent to Health Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew.

House Republicans argue that the administration is unconstitutionally spending money on an ObamaCare program despite Congress declining to appropriate money for it. That allegation is at the center of House Republicans’ lawsuit, which is being heard by a federal court in the case House v. Burwell

The funds in question are for “cost-sharing reductions” that help insurers lower out-of-pocket costs for low-income people.

House Republicans are seeking documents related to the administration’s decision to make payments through the program despite the absence of an appropriation. 

In court filings, the administration has laid out the case that it did not need an appropriation for the funds because they are mandatory spending not subject to the appropriations process. 

Republicans counter the administration requested an appropriation for the program in 2013, which was turned down. But the administration says it later realized the request was unnecessary because it had the funds through mandatory spending. 

Obama administration officials also say Congress never took action to block the funds and even passed a bill, the No Subsidies Without Verification Act, that was predicated on the idea that the funds were available.

“Thus, although the House seeks to focus on the Administration’s initial budget request for FY2014, the end result of the budget process for that year confirms a shared understanding that these payments could be made,” the administration wrote in a court filing last week.

The administration has asked that the lawsuit be dismissed, saying Congress does not have legal standing to sue the president.

But Judge Rosemary Collyer leveled tough questions at the Department of Justice lawyer during arguments on the question in May.

Via: The Hill

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Treasury says woman will be picked for $10 bill

WASHINGTON (AP) — Alexander Hamilton, who has been featured on the $10 bill since 1929, is making way for a woman.

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew is to officially announce Thursday that a redesign of the $10 will feature the first woman on the nation's paper money in more than a century. The plan is to decide which woman sometime this summer.

The bill will have new security features to make it harder to counterfeit and will be unveiled in 2020, the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. The date it will be put into circulation will be announced later.

Lew is asking the public for suggestions on who should be chosen for the bill, as well as what symbols of democracy it should feature. Ideas can be submitted by visiting thenew10.treasury.gov website.

Various groups have been campaigning to get a woman honored on the nation's paper currency, which has been an all-male domain for more than a century. The last woman featured on U.S. paper money was Martha Washington, who was on a dollar silver certificate from 1891 to 1896. The only other woman ever featured on U.S. paper money was Pocahontas, from 1865 to 1869. Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea are on dollar coins.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire, who is sponsoring legislation to put a woman on the $20 bill, praised Lew for moving forward with a decision to use the $10 bill, which is the next denomination of currency scheduled to be redesigned.

"While it may not be the twenty dollar bill, make no mistake, this is a historic announcement," Shaheen said in a statement. "Young girls across this country will soon be able to see an inspiring woman on the ten dollar bill."

A grass roots group, Women on 20s, had been pushing to get a woman's portrait on the $20, which currently features Andrew Jackson. They had conducted an online poll that gathered over 600,000 votes. African-American abolitionist Harriett Tubman was the top choice in that poll.

Lew said that Hamilton, the nation's first Treasury secretary, would still be honored in some way. He said one possibility being considered would keep Hamilton's portrait on some of the redesigned $10 bills. Lew said no final decision had been made yet.

Via: CNS News

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