Conservative Happenings

Friday, November 1, 2013

Kudlow: Liberal entitlement-state dream is crumbling

May I ask this question? Why is it that Americans don't have the freedom to choose their own health insurance? I just don't get it. Why must the liberal nanny state make decisions for us? We can make them ourselves, thank you very much. It's like choosing a car, buying a home or investing in a stock. We can handle it.

So why must the government tell me and everyone else what we can and cannot buy?

Charles Krauthammer and the Wall Street Journal's Dan Henninger noted in excellent recent columns that this whole Obamacare business represents the greatest-ever expansion of the liberal entitlement-state dream. But I don't want that dream. And you shouldn't either.

Here's what else I don't want: As a 60-something, relatively healthy person, I don't want lactation and maternity services, abortion services, speech therapy, mammograms, fertility treatments or Viagra. I don't want it. So why should I have to tear up my existing health-care plan, and then buy a plan with far more expensive premiums and deductibles, and with services I don't need or want?

Why? Because Team Obama says I have to. And that's not much of a reason. It's not freedom.

Fortunately, NBC News pulled the plug this past week on President Barack Obama's promise that "if you like your own plan, you can keep it." Ditto for keeping your own doctor. The plug was pulled because NBC learned that Team Obama knew—for three years—that stiff new regulations would prevent the grandfathering of existing health-care plans. And not just a few plans. But plans that could affect as many as 15 million individuals.

Via: CNBC

Mother Jones Shocker: 'New Poll Shows Democratic Incumbents in Big Trouble'

Since the government shutdown, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting some media member claiming Republicans are in a lot of trouble heading into next year's midterm elections.

Breaking with the trend rather surprisingly Wednesday was the perilously liberal Mother Jones with a piece titled "New Poll Shows Democratic Incumbents in Big Trouble."

The poll was actually from James Carville and Stan Greenberg's Democracy Corps and was titled "The Revolt Against Washington and the Republican Congress."

Despite Carville and Greenberg's conclusions, author Kevin Drum dug deeper into the specifics to find some contrary nuggets:

In Democratic districts, net incumbent approval has plummeted by 11 points, from +8 approval to +3 disapproval. In Republican districts, incumbent approval has gone down only 4 points. You see the same results when they ask a question about warmth of feeling toward incumbents: It's down 7 points in Republican districts and 9 points in Democratic districts.

This isn't good news for Democrats. It's true that attitudes toward the Republican Party have taken a bigger hit than attitudes toward the Democratic Party, but attitudes toward actual incumbents are exactly the opposite. And in elections, that's what matters.

Wow! A liberal publication taking a Democratic poll and finding bad news for...Democrats?

I don't imagine you'll be hearing THAT on MSNBC any time soon.

Via: Newsbusters

House Democrats Pull Pages From the Rahm Playbook

Democrats have taken a few pages from Rahm Emanuel’s playbook in hopes of boosting their difficult quest to win the House majority in 2014.

The Chicago mayor served as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006, when his party beat long odds to win the majority for the first time in more than a decade. This cycle, Democrats face a similarly tough challenge: picking up seats in 17 districts on a map drawn to give the GOP an advantage.

To accomplish this, DCCC ChairmanSteve Israel has sought to emulate his former mentor with relentless recruitment, an incessant focus on messaging and Emanuel’s aggressive style — minus a few four-letter expletives.

The two Democrats have a lot in common. Former aides note their shared religion, gregarious public personas, all-in approach to wooing candidates and their soundbite-driven quests to drive messaging.

Israel served as one of Emanuel’s recruitment lieutenants in 2006, along with Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who ran the DCCC in 2008 and 2010. Israel and Emanuel met recently in Chicago and speak regularly by phone, the New York Democrat confirmed in a Tuesday interview with CQ Roll Call.

Via: Roll Call

$140,000 in Art Grants Went to Group that Features Vagina Videos

A Los Angeles-based art group that has received $140,500 in taxpayer funding is promoting an obscene video on its website that ends with a man screaming into a vagina.

The Center for Individual Freedomreports that the video is one of six displayed on the homepage of ”L.A. Freewaves.” The National Endowment for the Arts has given the group 10 grants, and most recently paid $50,000 for Freewaves to create “bus art.”

The National Endowment for the Arts did not finance the vagina video.

“When it’s not assaulting the senses of L.A. bus riders, Freewaves uses tax dollars to feature controversial videos such as ‘Between,’ which is currently on the home page of the group’s website,” the Center for Individual Freedom said.

“The clip, which would offend many of the taxpayers who helped to subsidize its creation, shows blurry close-ups of various body parts over a bed of muffled talking and electronic whirs, until it concludes with a man yelling repeatedly into a nude woman’s vagina.”

In a statement to the Washington Free Beacon, cofounder of Freewaves Anne Bray said the video did not receive funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

“This particular video comes from Brazil in 2002 as part of our Latin American Freewaves,” she said. “It was shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (MOCA) one day and in a private gallery for one month. NEA funding was not applicable to either of those events.”

Via: WFB

U.S. Bullies Man over “Department of Homeland Stupidity” Mugs

The feds have threatened to criminally prosecute a novelty store owner who sells products—such as “Department of Homeland Stupidity” coffee mugs—making fun of the U.S. government. Could this be a matter of national security, or that Uncle Sam simply lacks a sense of humor?

To poke fun at the National Security Administration (NSA) the merchant, Dan McCall, sells T-shirts with the agency’s official seal that read: “The NSA: The only part of government that actually listens.” Other parodies say “spying on you since 1952” and “peeping while you’re sleeping.” The designs may seem funny—and possibly represent reality—but to the government it’s no laughing matter. In fact, it’s a serious issue worthy of an investigation and legal action.

The NSA and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) quickly fired off “cease and desist” letters to the website that sold the products, threatening litigation and criminal prosecution if the parody designs weren’t immediately removed. The agencies claim the parody images violate laws against the misuse, mutilation, alteration or impersonation of government seals. The intimidating communication scared the website enough to remove the items, but McCall isn’t going down without a fight.

In a federal complaint filed this week he claims the government is violating his First Amendment right because the special statutes protecting the NSA and DHS seals from misuse can’t properly be applied to forbid parodies. McCall says his images make fair use of the NSA and DHS seals to “identify federal government agencies as the subject of criticism.” Therefore it’s unconstitutional for the government to forbid him from displaying and selling his parodies to “customers who want to display the items to express their own criticism of NSA and DHS,” according to his complaint.

Furthermore, McCall is not mutilating or altering the agency seals, but rather using them in a parodic form that doesn’t create any likelihood of confusion about the source or sponsorship of the material. No reasonable viewer is likely to believe that any of the materials is affiliated with or sponsored by the DHS or the NSA, the complaint says. “Nor were the seals affixed to the items to be sold with any fraudulent intent.”

In short, the merchant claims that the First Amendment protects his use of the NSA and DHS seals to identify truthfully the agencies that he is criticizing. The two agencies at the center of this brouhaha most certainly have bigger fish to fry. So does the Department of Justice (DOJ), the agency that has threatened to prosecute the mug and T-shirt creator.

Via: Judicial Watch

I Like My Plan, and I Want to Keep It

Do you like your health-care plan? Do you think you should be able to keep it? We think you should, too.

From one NR reader:

I just got a cancellation letter yesterday from BCBS. Obama and Jay Carney say that this is a “bad apple” or “sub-standard” insurer. Give me a break! This insurance policy was a perfect fit for my family of five. My new premium for the same coverage is over double with a higher deductible. Mr. Obama is flat out DISHONEST. Please help by not dropping this issue.

Do you stand with this NR reader and all of the others in the same situation? If so, sign the following petition (using the simple form at the top of the column to the right), and show your support for the hundreds of thousands of families who are losing their insurance coverage and having to pay more for a plan under Obamacare. And if you are already a victim of Obamacare, tell us your story, too (using the comment area on the form). Let NR readers know what it’s like — firsthand — to be a victim of this egregious law.

Via: NRO

TSA employee dead, at least 6 injured in LAX shooting; gunman wounded and in custody, officials say

A gunman with an assault rifle opened fire in a crowded terminal at Los Angeles International Airport Friday, killing a TSA employee and injuring at least six before being wounded and taken into custody.

The suspect was identified by federal authorities late Friday as Paul Ciancia, 23, a Los Angeles resident, Fox News reported.

The FBI said it had not interviewed him because he was hospitalized but expected to speak to him as soon as possible.

A note was recovered from a bag he dropped at a security checkpoint. It was described to Fox News as containing threatening language directed at the TSA and anti-government rants.

The shooting incident, which sent passengers in the airport scrambling for cover, disrupted flights nationwide as planes headed for Los Angeles were temporarily grounded.

"I am deeply saddened to inform you that a TSA employee was shot and killed today on duty at Los Angeles International Airport," said TSA administrator John Pistole in a message to employees. "Other TSA employees also were injured in the shooting."

Via: Fox News

CNN Falls To Lowest Primetime In Over A Year; Fox’s Megyn Kelly Returns To Cable News Ratings Top Spot

A busy news day of combative Congressional Obamacare hearings and Presidential speeches didCNN no favors in primetime last night. The Jeff Zucker-run cable network hit its lowest primetime time result among adults 25-54 in over a year Wednesday despite all the cable newers being up double digits over the day before during Health and Human Services Sec. Kathleen Sebelius’ morning testimony. Between 8 PM and 11 PM last night, CNN had a mere 67,000 viewers among the key news demo. That’s the worst its done in the demo since August 10 last year. With the Olympics were on NBC last August, CNN drew just 62,000 among the 25-54s that Friday. Not only was CNN behind rivals Fox News Channel (396,000) and MSNBC (127,000) but also it did worse than sister station HLN (93,000) and CNBC (79,000). The most watched show on CNN last night was Piers Morgan Live at 9 PM which got a soft 83,000 in the demo and 340,000 viewers overall. Overall CNN had 285,000 viewers in primetime last night compared to MSNBC’s 683,000 and FNC’s 2.312 million.

As CNN tanked, FNC’s The Kelly File was back at No. 1 last night for the first time since its October 7 debut week. Building on her O’Reilly Factor lead-in, Megyn Kelly’s 9 PM Fox News Channel show pulled in 445,000 in the adult 25-54 demo Wednesday. Kelly first topped heavyweight Bill O’Reilly on the second night of her show on October 8 with 623,000 in the demo to The Factor’s 578,000. The spread wasn’t so big last night with O’Reilly drawing 433,000 among the 25-54s. Kelly won again with 376,000 to O’Reilly’s 343,000 on October 10 before settling into second place ever since. In total viewers, O’Reilly remained first last night with 2.96 million watching to Kelly’s 2.350 million. Against her time slot rivals however Kelly was the easy winner. In fact, her show had more in the demo than CNN’s Piers Morgan Live had in total viewers. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show was second in the 9 PM slot with 810,000 total viewers and 136,000 among the 25-54s. Now moved from his previous 9 PM slot to 10 PM, FNC’s Hannity lost some of Kelly’s crowd with his demo at 305,000 and total viewers at 1.59 million. Still that was better than CNN AC360 Later (52,000 in the demo and 193,000 total viewers) and MSNBC’s Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell (139,000 in the demo and 679,000 total viewers) put together in both categories.

Via: Deadline Hollywood

Health Consumers Finding Out They Were Sold a Lemon

I was going to write a piece about this silly graph that has been making the rounds, purporting to show that only a few people stand to lose from Obamacare:

But Josh Barro beat me to it:

Unfortunately, except the 80% largely unaffected, these numbers are garbage.

According to Lizza, Gruber marks 14% of the population as clear winners because they are uninsured now but gain access to affordable coverage. That would be about 45 million people as of 2016, when the Affordable Care Act is in full swing.

But according to the Congressional Budget Office,the law will only increase insurance coverage by about 26 million people through 2016, or 8% of the population. That's the group that can be called "clear winners"; 14% is too aggressive an estimate.

Another 30 million people in the U.S. (9%) will still be uninsured in 2016.

Actually, he’s still too kind: A lot of folks with employer-sponsored insurance are also going to see their insurance changed, though not quite as quickly. And not “The benefits will get so much more awesome!” but “The Cadillac tax kicked in and we had to drop most of our plans except for the ones with high deductibles.” A friend who sits on the benefits committees of two organizations says that their experts predict that pretty much all plans will end up being of the “consumer-driven” (read: high-deductible) model once the so-called Cadillac tax kicks in.

Via: Bloomberg

Hagel pushes states on military benefits for same-sex couples

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is dispatching the head of the National Guard to states that have refused to allow same-sex couples serving in the armed forces to apply for military benefits.

Hagel criticized the states are defying Pentagon policy that took effect Sept. 3 by preventing their National Guard units from issuing ID cards necessary to claim the benefits.

"Not only does this violate the states' obligations under federal law, their actions have created hardship and inequality by forcing couples to travel long distances to federal military bases to obtain the ID cards they're entitled to," Hagel said Thursday evening in an address to the Anti-Defamation League in New York.

"This is wrong," Hagel said. "It causes division among the ranks, and it furthers prejudice, which (the Department of Defense) has fought to extinguish."

Hagel said he was dispatching Gen. Frank Grass, chief of the National Guard Bureau, to meet with the adjutants general who run the National Guard outfits in the wayward states.

The Pentagon's move to provide the same benefits to all spouses of military personnel and of some Defense Department civilian employees follows the Supreme Court's June 26 ruling that a ban on gay marriage in the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional.

Via: McClatchy

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/11/01/207222/hagel-pushes-states-on-military.html#storylink=cpy

Flashback: Senate Democrats Killed 'Keep Your Plan' Enforcement Bill in 2010

Uh oh, Mary Landrieu and friends. Your 13th-hour ass-covering maneuver is being exposed as a political sham. How did every Senate Democrat vote back in 2010, when they could have made a difference to protect millions of Americans? CNN fires up the not-so-wayback machine:

Senate Democrats voted unanimously three years ago to support the Obamacare rule that is largely responsible for some of the health insurance cancellation letters that are going out. In September 2010, Senate Republicans brought a resolution to the floor to block implementation of the grandfather rule, warning that it would result in canceled policies and violate President Barack Obama’s promise that people could keep their insurance if they liked it. “The District of Columbia is an island surrounded by reality. Only in the District of Columbia could you get away with telling the people if you like what you have you can keep it, and then pass regulations six months later that do just the opposite and figure that people are going to ignore it. But common sense is eventually going to prevail in this town and common sense is going to have to prevail on this piece of legislation as well,” Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said at the time. “The administration's own regulations prove this is not the case. Under the grandfathering regulation, according to the White House's own economic impact analysis, as many as 69 percent of businesses will lose their grandfathered status by 2013 and be forced to buy government-approved plans,” the Iowa Republican said. On a party line vote, Democrats killed the resolution, which could come back to haunt vulnerable Democrats up for re-election this year. Senate Democrats like Mary Landrieu, Jeanne Shaheen, Mark Pryor, Kay Hagan and Mark Begich – all of whom voted against stopping the rule from going into effect and have since supported delaying parts of Obamacare.

Via: Townhall
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OBAMACARE IS WORKING JUST FINE

The parts of the Affordable Care Act that Obama Democrats really care about are working great. The ability to buy health insurance isn’t very important to them yet. That will become a serious political problem if the individual mandate comes crashing down on people who couldn’t possibly have complied with it, because the exchange system doesn’t work… but frankly, not even that is a fatal problem for the Democrats, unless Republicans are somehow able to build veto-proof congressional majorities out of it.

The name of the game at this point is keeping public outraged tamped down enough to keep Obama in office, and Democrats with enough congressional influence to keep ObamaCare alive. That.’s not a very high bar to clear. That’s why they felt free to lie copiously during the passage of the Affordable Care Act, and the 2012 campaign. There would be a price to pay for making fools of the American people – they get testy when they’re blatantly defrauded – but the Administration doesn’t have to worry about anything like the kind of fraud prosecution that would annihilate a private-sector company that pulled a scam like ObamaCare. As long as the anger can be controlled, the media doesn’t start treating them like Republicans, and the Democrats’ pet constituencies remain safely bought off, there is no existential political crisis yet. 2014 might be rough, but so was 2010, and the same brass ring remains firmly in the grip of the Left.

And just look at all the components of ObamaCare that are working! Most importantly, the machinery designed to wipe out private health insurance plans is humming along at full power. Another hundred thousand policies just went down in New York. (The total will actually be “much higher, because it doesn’t take into account hundreds of thousands covered under small business group policies that are being scrapped or rewritten to conform to the requirements of the Affordable Care Act,” according to the New York Post.)

Via: Human Events

2010: Chuck Grassley accurately predicts mass insurance cancellations under #obamacare.

As I said on Twitter: CNN. CN Freaking N.

Senate Democrats voted unanimously three years ago to support the Obamacare rule that is largely responsible for some of the health insurance cancellation letters that are going out.

In September 2010, Senate Republicans brought a resolution to the floor to block implementation of the grandfather rule, warning that it would result in canceled policies and violate President Barack Obama’s promise that people could keep their insurance if they liked it.

“The District of Columbia is an island surrounded by reality. Only in the District of Columbia could you get away with telling the people if you like what you have you can keep it, and then pass regulations six months later that do just the opposite and figure that people are going to ignore it. But common sense is eventually going to prevail in this town and common sense is going to have to prevail on this piece of legislation as well,” Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said at the time.

“The administration’s own regulations prove this is not the case. Under the grandfathering regulation, according to the White House’s own economic impact analysis, as many as 69 percent of businesses will lose their grandfathered status by 2013 and be forced to buy government-approved plans,” the Iowa Republican said.

(Bolding mine) There’s more. There’s so much, much more – but I can’t excerpt the whole thing. So read it: and start bugging your Senators to do something about it. Even if you have Democratic Senators. Especially if you have Democratic Senators; they pretty much deserve to have an exquisitely bad day, or series of days, over this.

Via: Red State

SURVEY: ONLY 23% NY DOCTORS SAY THEY'LL ACCEPT OBAMACARE PATIENTS

A survey by New York State’s Medical Society found that of 409 doctors queried, only 23 percent say they will accept patients who have enrolled in an ObamaCare health exchange.

The New York Post reported Tuesday that 44 percent of those polled said they will not participate as providers in ObamaCare, while another 33 percent indicated they have yet to decide whether or not to take patients enrolled in the exchanges and become official ObamaCare providers.

“This is so poorly designed that a lot of doctors are afraid to participate,” said Dr. Sam Unterricht, president of the 29,000-member organization. “There’s a lot of resistance. Doctors don’t know what they’re going to get paid.”

Of the doctors who said they are participating in ObamaCare, three out of four of them said they “had to participate” because of existing contractual obligations with an insurer or medical provider, not because they wished to participate.

About 77 percent of those surveyed said they had not been given a fee schedule to show how much they will get paid if they sign up to be an ObamaCare provider.

“ObamaCare wants to start right away, but who see all these new patients???? Not me,”emailed one doctor.

Another doctor sharing an opinion on the survey said, “I plan to retire if this disaster is implemented. This is a train wreck.”

Yet another respondent wrote, “I refuse to participate in the exchange plans! I am completely opposed to this new law."

One physician commented that he will only take cash patients going forward.

“I am seriously considering opting out of all insurance plans including Medicare because of [ObamaCare],” the doctor said.

Several of the physicians remarked that the pressure on insurance carriers to control costs is leading to rationed care, while others worried that lower payments for medical services by insurers would put some of them out of business and force others into retirement.

“ObamaCare is a disaster. I have already seen denial of medication, denial of referrals,” one doctor said.

Another physician wrote, “Can’t imagine any doctors would be willing to work for so little money? All doctors should boycott.”

Via: Breitbart

Obama donor’s firm hired to fix Web mess it created

WASHINGTON — A tech firm linked to a campaign-donor crony of President Obama not only got the job to help build the federal health-insurance Web site — but also is getting paid to fix it.

Anthony Welters, a top campaign bundler for Obama and frequent White House guest, is the executive vice president of UnitedHealth Group, which owns the software company now at the center of the ObamaCare Web-site fiasco.

UnitedHealth Group subsidiary Quality Software Services Inc. (QSSI), which built the data hub for the ObamaCare system, has been named the new general contractor in charge of repairing the glitch-plagued HealthCare.gov.

Welters and his wife, Beatrice, have shoveled piles of cash into Obama’s campaign coffers and apparently reaped the rewards.

Beatrice Welters bundled donations totaling between $200,000 and $500,000 for Obama’s campaign during the 2008 election cycle, according to campaign- finance data compiled by Center for Responsive Politics.

SICK CALL: Obama bundler Anthony Welters’ firm owns the company picked to repair the health Web site.

The couple then became top donors for Obama’s inauguration festivities, kicking in $100,000 out of their own pockets and bundling another $300,000 from friends and business associates, according to the center.

The investments quickly paid off for Beatrice Welters. The Obama administration tapped her in 2009 for the plum job of US ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago, which she held through last November.

Via: New York Post

[VIDEO] MSNBC analyst: ObamaCare will save marriages, or something

Hey. what’s another ridiculous ObamaCare promise on top of all the others that have collapsed? MSNBC analyst Goldie Taylor embodied the magical thinking behind the ACA as cost-saving reform by telling Al Sharpton that the law will make American marriages happier because it will save money, which is the biggest driver of divorces, which means that Democrats are the “party of families.”

Yeah, it doesn’t really get any more coherent than that:

Actually, Andrew Johnson points out, the incentives built into the law promote divorce:

To illustrate, let’s start with the 60-year-old married couple with no children …

If they have identical earnings totaling $65,000, which will usually net down to $50,000 or below after all income and payroll taxes, their Obamacare exchange Silver Plan premium next year with the same earnings will be $16,382, or about one-third of what used to be their take-home pay. (And they call it the “Affordable Care Act”?)

What can this couple do? Well, they could decide to earn a few thousand dollars less, which will negate the five-figure premium hit. Encouraging ordinarily willing workers to put in less effort isn’t good in any economy, but especially not this one. But if either spouse’s earnings are unpredictable or hard to precisely track, they could still “mess up” and get socked with a premium they can’t afford.

The “easiest” solution would be to avoid the “wedding tax” entirely by getting divorced while still living together. … Instead of facing an exorbitant premium increase once their combined earnings hits $62,041 if they were to stay married, each cohabiting adult can earn up to $45,960 before Obamacare’s “tax credit”-free premiums kick in. Their annual after-tax savings at age 60 if they shack up and keep their individual earnings between $31,021 and $45,960 will range from $7,650 to over $11,000. The annual savings will slightly increase every year until Medicare kicks in at age 65. That kind of money can buy a lot of gifts for the grandkids.

Via: Hot Air
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Obamacare: This is Going to Hurt

Ouch! That’s the cry of someone trying to sign up for the Affordable Care Act, usually called Obamacare. obamacare-this-is-going-to-hurt

Health insurance cancellation notices have gone out to millions of Americans. Many cannot get insurance at all. And for many who can, “premium shock” strikes those seeing their health plans canceled and renewed at higher rates.

Insurance industry experts are warning that two-thirds of already insured Americans will see their current insurance dumped into the hospital waste bin.

Obamacare is supposed to take care of people with pre-existing health conditions. But the actual “preexisting health condition” turns out to be already having private insurance. Obamacare means you have to sign up to find out whether that “condition” still exists — or has been canceled.

Another Obamacare bombshell about to drop

Written into the Affordable Care Act is section 105(h), which states every private employer must have 70 percent of its employee population covered on the company-sponsored health plan.

If not, the plan will be deemed discriminatory by the IRS, and the employer will be fined $100 per employee, per day.

But we’re not quite there yet. The Obama administration quietly had the IRS and the Department of Health and Human Services suspend this part of the law until they’ve written the regulations for it. This could happen at any time. The mere fact this explosive rule is sitting in the hands of the IRS and HHS should strike fear into the hearts of businesses and employees across the nation.

Insurance industry experts warn 40 percent of employers will drop health care benefits when the IRS and HHS implement this part of the ACA. Employers have no control over how many employees accept the company health plan. And who knows how drastic or cruel the regulations for this part of the law will be with the IRS and HHS disciplinarians in charge?

Via: California Political Review

Homeland Security workers routinely boost pay with unearned overtime, report says

Federal employees at the Department of Homeland Security call it the “candy bowl,” a pot of overtime money they have long dipped into to pad their pay even if they haven’t earned it, whistleblowers say.

This practice, which can add up to 25 percent to a paycheck, has become so routine over the last generation that it’s often held out as a perk when government managers try to recruit new employees, according to these accounts.

In a report submitted to the White House and Congress on Thursday, the federal Office of Special Counsel (OSC) details what it calls a “profound and entrenched problem” at DHS and a “gross waste of government funds.” Based on the testimony of seven whistleblowers, the OSC concludes that the pervasive misuse of overtime pay in six DHS offices, including four within Customs and Border Protection (CBP), comes to $8.7 million a year.

At issue is Administratively Uncontrollable Overtime, known as AUO, which is meant only to compensate for urgent and unanticipated work like that often undertaken by law enforcement agents.

But Carolyn Lerner, special counsel at the OSC, an investigative and prosecutorial agency, said in an interview that many employees across DHS now consider the overtime pay their due. She said the whistleblowers’ testimony suggests that the department’s bill for these improper payments is running in the tens of millions of dollars a year.

Via: Washington Post

[VIDEO] Just One Dollar Less: Why Washington’s Budget Will Be $150 Billion More in 2014

What would happen if lawmakers took this year’s budget, subtracted $1, and made that the budget for next year? Let Freedom Ring made this video asking policymakers to do just that:

If lawmakers did this, they would need to cut the 2014 budget by nearly $150 billion. That’s right: Federal spending is already projected to rise by nearly $150 billion in fiscal year 2014. So even keeping the budget the same would, essentially, “cut” the budget by nearly twice the amount that sequestration cut in 2013.

According to Let Freedom Ring’s own polling, 80 percent of the public would support such a commitment.

But instead, spending just keeps going up. Only 4 percent of Americans polled favor increased spending, making Congress, with its whopping 9 percent approval rating, twice as popular as a larger budget.

The ongoing budget conference is an important opportunity for lawmakers to agree to reduce spending in the near term, and most importantly, the long term. Discretionary spending is approved annually by Congress and makes up around one-third of all federal spending. Mandatory programs constitute roughly two-thirds of federal spending and are for the most part not included in annual appropriations; they automatically rise to accommodate new beneficiaries and changes in program costs—rising with changes in the cost of living and the cost of health care, for example. So this is where the budget conference should focus.

Via: Foundry

Friday, November 1, 2013

A survey by New York State’s Medical Society found that of 409 doctors queried, only 23 percent say they will accept patients who have enrolled in an ObamaCare health exchange.

Another Obamacare bombshell about to drop

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