Digest

Friday, April 16, 2010

The Foundation

"On every unauthoritative exercise of power by the legislature must the people rise in rebellion or their silence be construed into a surrender of that power to them? If so, how many rebellions should we have had already?" --Thomas Jefferson

Government & Politics

Health Care Surprise!

"We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it." Those were the famous last words of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi before ramming ObamaCare through the lower chamber in March. The California Democrat surely knew how foreboding her words were.

So what are some of the unfortunate provisions rearing their ugly heads, now that Democrats have succeeded in taking over one-sixth of the economy?

For starters, a loophole in the law enables insurance companies to -- gasp -- raise their premiums. "Although Democrats promised greater consumer protection, the overhaul does not give the federal government broad regulatory power to prevent increases," reports the Los Angeles Times. "It is a very big loophole in health reform," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). According to the Times, "Feinstein and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) are pushing legislation to expand federal and state authority to prevent insurance companies from boosting rates excessively." Of course, "excessively" is relative in an industry that averages between 3 and 4 percent profit, and in which most premium increases are driven by the cost increases in medical care caused by government intervention.

Meanwhile, The Hill reports, "Taxpayers earning less than $200,000 a year will pay roughly $3.9 billion more in taxes -- in 2019 alone -- due to healthcare reform, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress's official scorekeeper. The new law raises $15.2 billion over 10 years by limiting the medical expense deduction, a provision widely used by taxpayers who either have a serious illness or are older." So much for the pledge not to raise taxes, by not even one dime, on that very group.

The New York Times, however, blows the lid off the most amusing provision:

In a new report, the Congressional Research Service says the law may have significant unintended consequences for the "personal health insurance coverage" of senators, representatives and their staff members.

For example, it says, the law may "remove members of Congress and Congressional staff" from their current coverage, in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, before any alternatives are available.

The confusion raises the inevitable question: If they did not know exactly what they were doing to themselves, did lawmakers who wrote and passed the bill fully grasp the details of how it would influence the lives of other Americans?

Let's see them fix it for themselves while leaving the lives of other Americans permanently altered for the worse.

As for the medical side of the equation, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the existing doctor shortage in the United States will be exacerbated by ObamaCare. This could lead to -- surprise -- decreased access to medical care and possibly sub par care in the near future.

Of the 954,000 physicians in the United States today, only 352,908 are primary care physicians. Yet doctors falling under the primary care umbrella -- general practitioners, pediatricians, family doctors and internists -- will be in the greatest demand under ObamaCare. The nation will need another 45,000 primary care physicians by 2020, so medical schools are attempting to lure their students to this field. ObamaCare supposedly encourages this as well, adding a 10 percent Medicare pay increase for those in that field. Even with this incentive, however, primary care is still not as lucrative as other specialties. Since a medical degree carries a six-figure price tag, it's no surprise that young doctors want to enter fields that will free them of their debt more quickly.

Furthermore, ObamaCare squeezes doctor-owned hospitals out of existence by either denying them Medicare/Medicaid funding or forcing them to seek approval from the Department of Health and Human Services, a.k.a. Big Brother. The reason: they cater to high-income patients. Heaven forbid.

Of course, all these things come as little surprise to those of us not wearing Commie-red tinted glasses.

From the 'Non Compos Mentis' File

There is no rest for the weary or, apparently, for progressives who continually need to prove their relevance. MoveOn.org, after a short celebration of the passage of ObamaCare, recently sent an email asking their constituents to fund their new effort: a campaign to stop Republicans from repealing it. They promise to "educate the people" on the benefits of health care "reform."

The funny thing is, they're championing a bill that a few short months ago they were asking Sen. Bernie Sanders (S-VT) to block as a "massive giveaway to insurance companies." None of the provisions with which they took issue were changed in the final bill, so MoveOn had to rely on the fact that people wouldn't know the difference. And they were right -- they have already raised $183,000. Can we call those donating the money ignorant for not knowing what's in the bill? Sure. But it's hard to ask more of citizens than we ask of our own Congress.

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Editor's Note

In Wednesday's Editorial Exegesis, The Washington Times referenced the site of anti-Tea Party activists planning to crash the Tea Parties with racist, misspelled, or other ridiculous signs. However, the Times referenced the incorrect site. It should have been CrashtheTeaParty.org and it has been corrected on our Web site. We regret any confusion.

Meanwhile, Bob Owens of Pajamas Media has some hilarious pics of some party crashers who didn't really understand the assignment.

This Week's 'Braying Jackass' Award

"You would think they'd be saying thank you." --Barack Obama on the Tea Party protesters

News From the Swamp: Stupak Skips Re-Election Bid

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), the man who sold out his supposed pro-life values to help push ObamaCare to passage, announced that he will not seek re-election this year. Just as well, because he likely would have lost as his popularity has taken a serious dive.

He claimed that he could support the bill even when it included mandates for taxpayer-funded abortions, because Barack Obama promised to sign an executive order rescinding that portion of the legislation. As we have previously noted, however, the executive order has no teeth, in part because it simply repeats the bill's own language, and leftists will get their way with regard to abortion funding regardless. Still, Stupak thought that flimsy excuse would stick. He added that Speaker Nancy Pelosi would have had enough votes to pass the measure without his vote anyway, so it made no difference (part of this had to do with other "pro-life" Democrats undermining his coalition). But if the vote total was already there, then why not vote with your conscience, Rep. Stupak? Perhaps it's because you don't have one.

In fact, Stupak bragged, "I just made the Tea Party people spend a lot of money that wasn't necessary on all these ads they had to use against me so they can't use it on somebody else. I'll take credit in sucking their treasury dry." What a guy.

Judicial Benchmarks: Stevens to Retire

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens announced that he would retire at the end of the current term. This gives Barack Obama a second crucial Supreme Court vacancy to fill with a leftist judge, and a third vacancy, that of the frail Ruth Bader Ginsburg, might not be far behind. Stevens, the Court's fourth longest serving justice ever, was nominated by President Gerald Ford in 1975, and he's been drifting ideologically leftward ever since. His long term of service has certainly done its share of damage to the Constitution. Stevens has been a consistent advocate for racial quotas, he's been at the forefront of the movement to strip America of its power to handle terrorist detainees as military combatants, and his fingerprints are all over the 2005 decision Kelo v. City of New London. If you don't recall, that was the travesty that expanded the power of eminent domain so that government can now seize private property and just give it to other private entities for development in the name of generating tax revenues.

Now, the media are busy speculating about whom Barack Obama will pick to replace Stevens. The White House claims there are 10 candidates waiting in the wings, but the names that keep floating to the surface include Solicitor General Elena Kagan, U.S. Appeals Court judges Merrick Garland and Diane Wood, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. All are quite liberal, which should come as no surprise at all, but Garland is the one name considered least unacceptable to Republicans. Anyone deemed too much of an activist, such as Wood, for instance, would bring what Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) called "a whale of a fight" during the confirmation hearings.

The schedule of the nomination, hearings and final vote will closely resemble that which put the "wise Latina," Sonia Sotomayor, on the High Court last year. The White House hopes to have a final vote before the August recess. Whoever is nominated will surely be a figurehead for midterm election fundraising on both sides. Conservatives should use the opportunity to further define Obama's attempts to reshape the judiciary with its lasting damage to the country because of activist judges' disdain for the Constitution and individual rights. We need only look at Justice Stevens' career for proof.

Andy Stern to Leave SEIU

Service Employees International Union President Andrew Stern announced his resignation recently, but the reason for the sudden, unexpected move remains open to speculation. Under Stern's leadership, SEIU rose to become the second largest public-sector union in the U.S., with 1.9 million members. The SEIU spent $60 million to help elect Barack Obama, and Stern is the most frequent visitor to the White House. Obama has readily returned the favor with billions of dollars to states to help prevent rolling back government union wages and trillions of dollars in health care spending that will subsidize unionized insurance companies. Certainly, things couldn't be better for Stern.

However, the SEIU's shift in focus from union organizing to government lobbying and campaigning has come at a cost. After the 2008 election, the union owed $156 million, a 30 percent increase over the previous year. Its pensions are noticeably and severely underfunded. Yet, government unions face no competition, and they have become quite effective at squeezing taxpayers for high salaries and perks about which lowly private citizens can only dream.

We do not yet know the real reason for Stern's departure, but he will still exercise influence over the White House as a member of Obama's deficit commission. This means that he will be at the forefront of pushing more taxes on private citizens in order to maintain the inexcusably high government payroll he helped to create.

A Polish tragedy

Ninety-six of Poland's leading government officials, including its president and first lady, perished in a plane crash in Russia last weekend. The bodies of President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria Kaczynska have been recovered; both lie in state at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, with a joint funeral slated for Sunday at the Wawel Cathedral in Krakow.

Ironically, the Polish delegation was arriving in Russia for a ceremony to commemorate the KGB's roundup and slaughter of thousands of Polish Army officers and other leaders during World War II at the nearby Katyn Forest. The irony of the plane wreck wasn't lost on many Poles, with former president Aleksander Kwasniewski calling Katyn "a damned place," adding that the crash "sends shivers down my spine." Another bitter twist: the plane was a two-decades old Tupolev of Soviet design, a relic of Poland's days under Russia's rule.

Thus far, the investigation into the crash points to pilot error as the cause. Despite repeated advisories to land at another airport, the Polish crew opted to make the attempt in heavy fog at the airport in Smolensk rather than divert to Moscow or Minsk. Perhaps the lingering distrust between the two nations played a factor; had the plane been diverted, the ceremony would only have been delayed.

Regardless, once again a proud people mourn a great loss.

National Security

Nuclear Summit Yields Predictably Little Result

Oops, he did it again -- bowing to Chinese President Hu Jintao

"Because of the steps we've taken," Barack Obama triumphantly announced this week, "the American people will be safer and the world will be more secure." The steps he refers to are those agreed upon measures that resulted from the 47-nation nuclear confab in Washington, the largest summit in the U.S. since 1945. Primarily, Agence France-Presse reports, the nations present agreed to "a four-year deadline on securing vulnerable nuclear materials from terrorists."

Way down at the bottom of the story, however, AFP notes that "all the steps are voluntary and the plan for accomplishing the four-year plan remains sketchy." Hmm, "the plan for accomplishing the ... plan." What, again, was all that bluster about the world being safer?

The administration's policy is based on the absurd notion that, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton put it, we now "think we will ultimately be safer if we can introduce the idea that the United States is willing to enter into arms treaties with Russia to reduce our respective nuclear arsenals." Such a stance "will perhaps deter others from acquiring nuclear weapons." Instead of speaking softly and carrying a big stick, the administration prefers to speak loudly (and often) and forget the stick. Of course, Obama may be trying to live up to the Nobel Peace Prize that fell into his lap last year.

On the contrary, as Investor's Business Daily notes, "What has saved the world from nuclear war is the possession of nuclear weapons by the U.S."

Meanwhile, our Bower-in-Chief pressed for more sanctions to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Like that'll work. The overhauled Nuclear Posture Review did away with traditional ambiguity regarding our use of nuclear weapons, but the Iranians formally complained to the UN that Obama had issued a veiled threat to Iran in the process. We can almost hear the world's smallest violin...

This Week's 'Alpha Jackass' Award

"I think the work that we've done in recent days around nuclear security and nuclear disarmament are intrinsically good. So many of the challenges that we face internationally can't be solved by one nation alone. It is a vital national security interest of the United States to reduce these conflicts because, whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out one way or another, we get pulled into them, and that ends up costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure." --Barack Obama (emphasis added)

Obama appears to be among those who don't like it. President Reagan, call your office.

Immigration Front: Mexican IEDs

The tools of the jihadi war are inching ever closer to our own border, although not yet via jihadi hands. In a major offensive in Mexico on March 30, more than 50 Mexican drug cartel members attacked the Mexican military in the cities of Matamoros and Reynosa, located across the border from Brownsville, Texas. Eighteen people were killed. Mexican soldiers seized rifles, hand grenades, and, most worrisome, eight Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), which have been used to such deadly effect by Iraqi and Afghan jihadis. The IEDs allegedly used mining grade explosives and were similar to the cruder IEDs seen in Iraq. This incident comes on the heels of one in February in which the Mexican military disabled an IED in Oaxaca, and another last month in which an IED blew up in Nuevo Leon.

While so far the IEDs have been restricted to the Mexican drug wars, it wouldn't be surprising for them to start appearing within the United States, either smuggled over the border or built by homegrown terrorists. If the drug lords wanted to send the U.S. a message or felt they could obtain some advantage by causing havoc on our southern border, IEDs might just do the trick. And if jihadi sleeper cells within the U.S. used IEDs in crowded shopping malls, airline terminals or sports complexes, they could cause enormous damage to an already weakened U.S. economy, to say nothing of the people maimed and killed. Here's hoping the U.S. Intelligence community has a sharp eye on the border. We wonder when leftists in Congress will seek to pass a law banning Texas and Arizona gun shops from selling IEDs, since those retailers are blamed for all other violence in Mexico.

In other immigration news, The Wall Street Journal reports, "Arizona lawmakers on Tuesday passed one of the toughest pieces of immigration-enforcement legislation in the country, which would make it a violation of state law to be in the U.S. without proper documentation. It would also grant police the power to stop and verify the immigration status of anyone they suspect of being illegal."

Profiles of Valor: U.S. Marine Cpl. Matthew Bradford

Marine Cpl. Matthew Bradford just re-enlisted in the Corps, but he is no ordinary Marine -- he became the first blind double amputee in Corps history to re-enlist. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer tells his story:

Bradford, who grew up in Winchester, Ky., and Dinwiddie, Va., had made up his mind that he was going to deploy as many times as the Marines wanted him to when he was hurt a few months into his first tour of Iraq.

A rifleman, he was on patrol in Al Anbar province and trying to help clear an area of roadside bombs when one of them exploded right under him the afternoon of Jan. 18, 2007.

Bradford lost his eyesight, and he had a fractured right hand and fragmentation wounds to the lower abdominal area. But what he said he hated the most was losing his legs. He required amputations below the knee on the right leg and above the knee on the left.

Now that he has re-enlisted, Bradford will leave Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio to work with other wounded Marines at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. The only regret he says he has is that he won't be able to return to combat duty in Iraq. Semper Fi!

Business & Economy

Income Redistribution: Beware the VAT

Like vows of transparency and bipartisanship, another Obama campaign promise is biting the dust -- this time, the pledge that he won't raise taxes on those earning below $200,000. With a (conservatively) projected $10 trillion budget deficit looming over the next 10 years -- courtesy of $45 trillion in federal spending, representing a 70 percent hike over the previous 10 years -- White House adviser and former Fed Chair Paul Volcker has named the value-added tax (VAT) as the drug of choice to fuel Washington's spending addiction, absurdly claiming that the VAT isn't "as toxic an idea" as it once was. Not toxic to whom, one might ask.

Unlike the Fair Tax, which would replace the income tax and apply only at the final point of purchase, the VAT is a consumption tax that taxes every stage of production and exists alongside the income tax. As such, the VAT would raise taxes for all Americans, even those in the lower and middle classes that Obama and the Democrats claim that they will shield from taxes. Despite this, Volcker parroted the liberal philosophy, "If at the end of the day we need to raise taxes, we should raise taxes."

Aside from hitting the poor and middle class, according to the Cato Institute's Daniel Mitchell, "[R]eal-world evidence shows that VATs are strongly linked with both higher overall tax burdens and more government spending." Clearly, neither of these rates a negative in Obama's America.

Obama and Biden File Their Taxes

Barack Obama and Joe Biden each released their 2009 tax returns Thursday. But how did they do at spreading their wealth around? Read more here.

Not Only Do They Vote, They Get Tax Refunds

Last week, undercover IRS agents busted 26 New York-area tax preparers for a slew of criminal acts, including claiming refunds in the name of dead taxpayers, inflating business deductions, and identity theft. While many would laugh off this story as one bunch of criminals putting another bunch of criminals in their place, the $95 million scam occurred over eight years and places the tax preparers in front of a federal judge, who can sentence them to hefty fines and years in prison.

However, this also highlights the problems and potential for fraud with our ever-changing tax code. While these preparers were charged with fraud, it's worth mentioning as well that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the titular head of the agency arresting them, is also a tax scofflaw.

Perhaps, though, this is a harbinger of things to come. With new IRS agents being needed to enforce tax law changes in the ObamaCare bill and the lurking prospect of a value-added tax that would put any number of manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers on the hook for additional tax collection, busting tax cheats may become such a humdrum occurrence that stories detailing them may fall off the front pages of your newspaper. Indeed, they may become buried inside with the obituaries.

Regulatory Commissars: Mass. Model for the Nation

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is campaigning for re-election, and his plan apparently includes playing fast and loose with the health care of people in his state. Patrick, a Democrat, has rejected 90 percent of the premium increases proposed by the state's insurance companies, leading to an actual shutdown of the Massachusetts small group market. So now, while Massachusetts "universal" health care has theoretically made insurance available for everyone in the state, it has in actuality denied coverage to hundreds of thousands of citizens and small businesses. And this is only the beginning.

The case was rushed to a Boston Court, which mandated that, pending a final decision, the insurance companies must continue selling premiums at the old rate. And no one -- not Patrick, nor even Obama and Pelosi -- can claim surprise. Massachusetts has been a health care cautionary tale ever since former Republican Gov. Mitt Romney signed universal health care into law there in 2006.

Both Patrick and Obama, when pushing for government-controlled health care, cited the alleged greed of insurance companies, yet the major companies injured by Patrick's tactics are in fact not-for-profit. Three of them -- Blue Cross Blue Shield, Tufts Health Plan and Fallon Community Health -- all declared operating losses in 2009. Now there's a distinct possibility that they won't be able to pay for their coming liabilities.

Culture & Policy

Faith and Family: Court Rules on National Day of Prayer

U.S. District Judge Barbara B. Crabb ruled Thursday that the National Day of Prayer is "unconstitutional." At least that's according to her interpretation of the "living constitution." The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) challenged the constitutionality of a 1988 law that gives authority to the president to designate the first Thursday in May as National Day of Prayer. This is what happens when you're dealing with people who actually think the First Amendment says "freedom from religion instead of freedom of religion.

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) has promised to appeal to the Seventh Circuit, though it's possible the case will reach the U.S. Supreme Court. Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the ACLJ, said, "[W]e're confident the Supreme Court will hear the case and ultimately determine that such proclamations and observances like the National Day of Prayer not only reflect our nation's rich history, but are indeed consistent with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment."

Knock, Knock: Criminal Census Workers

To most people, the policy of not hiring criminals for certain jobs simply makes sense. To the ill-named Center for Constitutional Rights (CRC), it's reason for a lawsuit. As blogger Michelle Malkin notes, the CRC has sued the U.S. Census Bureau, claiming that the bureau's practice of excluding criminals from employment "directly undermines the Census Bureau's self-avowed commitment to hiring temporary workers from within historically undercounted communities, such as low-income people of color and immigrants." According to the CRC, because "African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans are subject to exceedingly disproportionate rates of contact with the criminal justice system," not hiring those with criminal records amounts to racial discrimination.

It doesn't stop there, either. The CRC is calling for anyone denied employment based on a past criminal record to come forward and fuel the CRC's case. According to Nick Kimball, a spokesman for the Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau, "Americans must be confident that if they don't mail back their forms and a census taker must come to their door, we've taken steps to ensure their safety." Apparently, however, the CRC believes the supposed employment entitlement "rights" of criminals supersede the safety of law-abiding Americans.

Around the Nation: Nebraska Abortion Laws

Nebraska has enacted a new law that bars abortion at and after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The legislature cited evidence that babies in utero can feel pain at 20 weeks. Most such laws are based on viability outside the womb, which occurs at 22 to 24 weeks. The state also enacted another new law that requires women to be screened for mental health issues or other risk factors prior to an abortion.

LeRoy Carhart, a late-term abortionist in Nebraska, appears to be the primary target of the legislation barring abortions after 20 weeks. Carhart was a friend of George Tiller, another late-term abortionist who was murdered in Kansas last year. If the law ends up before the U.S. Supreme Court, however, the Supremes would have to overturn Planned Parenthood v. Casey to uphold it. The Casey decision held that abortions are protected up to the point of viability.

To Keep and Bear Arms

Vern Grant, a 75-year-old Army veteran with Parkinson's Disease and diabetes, was recently attacked by a burglar in Carnation, Washington. After smashing the windows of a handicap van and rummaging through the victim's medicines, the intruder approached the back door of Grant's home where he broke the glass and entered. Vern's brother Ernie described the scene: "The guy was screaming crazy things and he was berserk. He threatened to kill [Vern]. He threw pills all over. He was ripping cabinets open..."

The intruder nearly killed Vern after hitting him in the head. However, Vern was able to fire his gun, striking the suspect. Despite being handicapped, Vern miraculously made it to his neighbor's house, where he sought help.

The suspect was airlifted to a hospital with treatable injuries, and Vern was released from the hospital after his head wounds were treated. As if suffering through such an attack weren't enough, Grant's wife had died just two weeks prior.

And Last...

Erskine Bowles, erstwhile chief of staff for Bill Clinton, is heading Barack Obama's 18-member, bipartisan debt-reduction commission, and is therefore in search of answers to that multi-trillion dollar question. The problem is big, of course, with the national debt expected to equal the size of the entire economy by 2020. Interest alone on the debt would be $900 billion.

But have no fear; the commission is working on serious solutions. Word in the gaming world is that Bowles has contacted Microsoft about a new video game concept to help. He envisions a game "that would enable anyone with a computer to take a stab at balancing the budget." So scratch that serious solutions part. We don't think Tea Party protesters are spending their valuable time demanding that the federal budget be balanced in a virtual world instead of the real one. Of course, if we don't arrive at a fiscally sane solution soon, it'll really be Game Over.