McConnell Silent on Defunding Obamacare in CR, Says Senate GOP ‘United’ Against Obamacare

(CNSNews.com) – Although his office would not say whether Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is advising his GOP colleagues to oppose a plan by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) to defund Obamacare through a must-pass continuing resolution funding measure, the Senate Minority Leader’s office did say that his party is “united” in getting rid of the unpopular health care law.

“Republicans are 100 percent united in their support for repeal of Obamacare, and the Leader is a co-sponsor of a bill to defund it and a bill to repeal it,” Don Stewart, communications director for McConnell, told CNSNews.com in an email.

However, Stewart would not say whether McConnell opposes Sen. Lee’s plan or if news reports that McConnell is actively working against Lee are true.

The continuing resolution, or CR, is legislation to fund the government for a certain period in the new fiscal year, which starts on Oct. 1. It is must-pass legislation, meaning Congress and the president must come to an agreement on how much to spend and for how long by Sept. 30 or the government would shut down for lack of congressionally authorized funding.

Via: CNS News

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Progress in North Carolina

New clean-election standards and a law protecting unborn children have Democrats’ heads spinning. 

Democrats are terribly upset with Republicans in North Carolina: Having won the state house, the state senate, and the governorship, along with nine of thirteen U.S. House seats in the last election, Republicans in Raleigh are acting like they run the place.

The Republicans’ most controversial piece of legislation is a new voter-identification law, which Democrats are treating as the Second Coming of Jim Crow. Such is the low bar for controversy in the early 21st century: The new law simply requires that voters present a state-issued photo ID such as a driver’s license or the similar ID that the state issues to non-drivers. Other forms of identification not subject to the same documentation and security standards — such as student IDs and work IDs — are not acceptable under the new law. It is really something to watch the Democrats treat a trip to the DMV as an unbearable burden: Under Democratic initiatives, everything from a trip to the doctor’s office to opening a business requires or will require running a bureaucratic gauntlet indistinguishable from a trip to the DMV. Such trips are therefore properly regarded as educational: There is nothing that quite so perfectly attunes one’s senses to the ineptitude and hostility of a Democrat-dominated bureaucracy as a visit to the driver’s-license counter. Little wonder the Democrats object.

The absence of state-issued identification is not a bar to voting only — it marginalizes people from much of modern life, restricting their ability to travel or access financial services. If there are really that many in North Carolina who cannot get a state-issued ID, then the solution is to help them to do so.

Via: National Review Online

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Sharpton Fires Back At O’Reilly: Since When Are You The ‘Expert On What African-Americans Want?’

MSNBC’s Al Sharpton took Bill O’Reilly’s recent comments about race head-on Friday evening, after the Fox anchor singled him out last night for being “in business with people who put out entertainment harmful to children.” Sharpton called it “ridiculous” that O’Reilly is somehow the “expert on what the vast majority of African-Americans want.”

“In the time since George Zimmerman’s acquittal,” Sharpton declared, “some right-wingers have gone into overdrive to push the most negative stereotypes of the African-American community for their own gain.” He lumped O’Reilly in with Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity as the “unholy triumvirate of right-wing reaction” that has “been desperate not to have a real conversation about the injustices of the justice system.”

Sharpton mocked O’Reilly and others for their sudden concern about gang violence in Chicago, something he said “many of us in African-American community” have been talking about for months. “Better late than never, I guess.” On O’Reilly’s focus on the breakdown of the African-American family, Sharpton asked, “Is Bill O’Reilly saying George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin because Trayvon was born out of wedlock, even though he wasn’t? That’s ridiculous, right?”

“All of this is an effort to avoid addressing the urgent topic that something is fundamentally flawed with our justice system if laws like Stand Your Ground allow a kid to be gunned down,” Sharpton continued. “But Rush, Hannity, O’Reilly don’t want to talk about that.”

Sarcastically calling O’Reilly the “expert on the vast majority of what African-Americans want,” Sharpton said, “we need a real conversation about justice in this country, not the same old right-wing divide and conquer garbage. Bill O’Reilly, the Willie Horton stuff has got to go.”

Watch video below, via MSNBC:

Via: Mediaite

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Green Jobs: Surely You’re Joking, Mr. President

In his speech at Knox College, President Obama laid out his plan for the Detroitification of America: higher taxes, higher spending, increased minimum wages, more mandates, and rerouting the path of upward mobility through tried-and-failed social programs.

He blames unfettered markets for taking America away from the halcyon days of the 1950s and 1960s, ignoring the phenomenal growth of taxes, spending, and regulation since then. His promise for more of the same makes you wonder if his teleprompter has been inverting his charts and tables.

However, in his depressing litany, he provided some comic relief by repeating the old green jobs joke that more expensive energy creates jobs. The punch line has been provided (repeatedly) by his own Administration’s Department of Labor. In a series of green jobs reports—which was mercifully ended by sequestration after only two reports—the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) published tables that provide mirth beyond measure in the form of comical comparisons.

We have discussed those reports here, here, and here. A couple of points from those analyses illustrate the inanity of the reports’ conclusions:

• The BLS found 33 times as many green jobs in the septic tank and portable toilet servicing industry as in solar electricity utilities.
• The BLS determined that there were more green jobs collecting trash (not processing but simply collecting) than in either architectural services or engineering services

Via: The Foundry

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Catholic Hospital Association Continues to Provide Cover for ObamaCare's Abortion Funding

At the height of the contentious debate that surrounded health care reform in 2010, negotiations nearly ground to a halt due objections made by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) over abortion funding provisions in the legislation.  The USCCB, which is considered quite liberal in the American sense of the word on the issues of health care and health insurance, refused to give its blessing to what would become ObamaCare due to the legislation's funding for elective abortions.

At the time, ObamaCare appeared doomed.  Many Democrats stated that they could not support a health care bill which didn't include expanded abortion funding, while other pro-life Democrats (such as then-Rep. Bart Stupak and his "Stupak Dozen") refused to cede any ground and stood with the USCCB.  

Just when it appeared that this controversy would end the Democrats' latest attempt at "health care reform," the Catholic Hospital Association (CHA) intervened in an attempt to end the standoff.  As described by Slate shortly after ObamaCare became law:

In the run-up to passage of the health care bill, representatives of the nearly 60,000 U.S. nuns signed a letter in support of the health care bill, contra the bishops, because, they wrote, supporting better health care is "the real pro-life stance." From there, the dominoes toppled fast-Bart Stupak, the Catholic pro-life Democrat who'd refused to vote in favor of the bill because of the abortion question, initially dismissed the nuns' letter but then backed down and settled for an executive order on abortion of questionable import and scope. And the bill passed.

Via: The American Thinker

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