The day’s top political news:
US House Republicans offer financial reforms bill
Republicans in the House of Representatives have introduced their own legislation aimed at reshaping U.S. financial regulation, and embracing some measures similar to Obama administration proposals.
The legislation calls for establishing a Market Stability and Capital Adequacy Board for "monitoring the interactions of various sectors of the financial system, and identifying risks that could endanger the stability and soundness of the system," said a statement from House Republicans.
"We need a new direction in approaching financial regulatory reform," said Representative Spencer Bachus, the top Republican on the House Financial Services Committee.
Obama Third Least Popular President Since World War II
A new USA Today/Gallup poll puts President Obama's approval rating at 55 percent, which ranks him 10th among 12 post-World War II presidents at the same point in the survey. His approval is down from 61 percent in late May.
As he seeks to regain momentum on the health care front, the survey finds that only 44 percent approve of his handling of the issue, with 50 percent disapproving. Also, 59 percent say his proposal would lead to too much government spending, and 52 percent say it would "call for too much expansion of government power."
During his briefing, Robert Gibbs referred the 59 percent approval rating in the Washington Post/ABC poll as a "pretty darn good number for six months in." The poll of 1,006 adults was conducted July 17-19 and had a margin of error of +/- 3 percent.
Reid: No health care vote in Senate until fall
Senate Democratic leaders on Thursday abandoned plans for a vote on health care before Congress' August recess, dealing a blow to President Barack Obama's ambitious timetable to revamp the nation's $2.4 trillion system of medical care.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., delivered the official pronouncement on what had been expected for weeks, saying, "It's better to have a product based on quality and thoughtfulness rather than try to jam something through."
His words were a near-echo of Republicans who have criticized the rush to act on complex legislation that affects every American.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D99KA26G0&show_article=1
Opinion:
Three issues of the day and the facts about them
An old friend emailed me this morning, asking for my take on three current issues. I’ll share with you what I told him:
1. Closing GITMO.
Obama couldn’t resist diving into the Gitmo controversy and rushed from his inaugural to send out an Executive Order demanding Gitmo be closed within a year.
“Not so fast, my friend”. Obama was trying to pay a campaign debt to extreme left wing supporters, and made the closure move without knowing any of the facts regarding Gitmo.
Obama has now had to face a question of what to do with the terrorists held there…and held in plush surrounding far superior to what they faced in Iraq and other homelands.
Keep in mind, these prisoners are Muslims who have sworn to slaughter all who don’t embrace their corrupted version of religion. They are our sworn enemies, yet Obama and other Democrats want to end their imprisonment at Gitmo – they were shocked when normal Americans reacted with anger at thoughts of turning some of these guys loose to live among us here in the states.
The problem that came as a shock to Obama is that these are not acceptable people – not just by us, but by any of our allies either. Obama has worked overtime trying to get Germany, Francs or Great Britain to take some of these terrorists off our hands. With an exception of two or three here and there, the Obama efforts have met with total failure.
His self imposed deadline is fast approaching and Obama has no remote idea of what he can do with the more than 200 terrorists still on hand. His facile idea to simply send them to the “Super Max” prisons fell flat when it was admitted there was no space.
Democrats try defending plans to put the terrorists in US prisons by saying none have escaped – when dealing with terrorists, it only takes one.
Basically, the Gitmo fiasco demonstrates a fact long understood by those who are really paying attention: liberals simply cannot and should not be giving access to decision making when the nation is at war. They don’t understand the process and try to deal with these terrorists as if they were conventional law breakers – they are not. Yet Democrats are giving them access to legal rights that should be reserved for US citizens.
Never in history have the niceties of juris prudence been according POWs. POWs are NOT normal law breakers, yet Democrats accord them access to legal representation and other protections – all at the expense of American taxpayers, of course.
These terrorists are not signers of Geneva accords, or anything like them. In fact, they regularly torture, murder, and even go on camera to behead captured Americans and others. Of course our POWs got no such treatment in WWII, and stories of cruel, brutal, and savage treatment of US POWs by Vietnamese Communists are well known and documented.
Of course, no American suggests terrorists in our custody be treated as our enemies have treated our POWs, but the idea of treating them in any manner derived from the practices and protections of our own system is beyond outrageous.
There is no higher obligation for any government than that of protecting the lives of its own people. Liberals don’t agree. They oppose harsh interrogation and even tapping the phone lines of conspiring terrorists. Liberals don’t understand there is no civil right that supersedes the right to life.
Face it, liberals cannot wage war and should not be allowed to even try. Normal America DOES care about protecting our lives and demands government follow our lead.
2. Nationalized Health Care.
Basically, this debate boils down to a choice between quality care and Obama’s “healthcare on the cheap”. I did a study with Gallup some years ago showing people care more about available quality than they do about cost….leading to creating the theme – “when you or your loved one are seriously ill, only the very best quality care is good enough”. Of course government can never provide quality in anything.
ANY “public option” will be a surrender to nationalized healthcare – socialized medicine. Once the government gets its camel’s nose under the edge of the tent, the entire camel will follow.
Government care will mean inferior care. ALL socialized medicine is inferior in quality. More to the point, is the question of access. Government planning mirrors that of HMOs in which the “good remaining years” are factored into decisions of what procedures are available to a patient. Thus patients who are too old, too infirm, care is likely a waste in terms of a functional future.
Tom Daschle, Obama’s first Health Secretary choice (one who had to resign when it was discovered he cheated on his taxes), has openly proposed cutting off access of care for seniors. He reflects similar feelings voiced some years back by Dick Lamm – former Democrat governor of Colorado. Obama has repeated their call that old people have an obligation to “just die and get out of the way” -- they resent our using resources that could go to younger patients.
Obama, Daschle, et al would put folks such me out to die on ice floes if they were calling the shots and the Gulf of Mexico had ice. Thus, I ask: “just how do you want me to go about the job of “going ahead and dying”?
3. Cap & Trade tax bill.
Cap and Trade is being sold by Democrats as an energy bill. It’s not. Cap and Trade is a Democrat tax bill – one of the largest in history. If passed by the Senate, it will add thousands of dollars in taxes to the lives of ALL Americans. Indirect taxes will take even more as prices will rise substantially on anything using coal or the energy it produces. Expect Cap and Trade to add momentum to the price of gas at the pump – with $5 a gallon being predicted by those in the know.
Environmental companies are circling the Cap and Trade dispute like buzzards over a dead mule. Here in Panama City we see a full saturation scheduled of spots making false claims and misstating the issue in a desperate effort to provide cover for our Blue Dog Democrat. We ambushed him with a spontaneous demonstration in which 300 angry voters ambushed Boyd with signs and cat calls. Boyd had to sheepishly escape out a back door. The story has gotten wide coverage and is helping give other Blue Dogs second thoughts about voting for the Obama healthcare scam.
The Boyd TV spots are heading into their fourth week!!!!!
In the House, Cap and Trade passed by a margin supplied by 8 GOP turncoats, and votes of a much larger number of Blue Dogs. – both groups are getting an ear full from “the folks back home”.
Buddy
The day’s top blogs:
1.
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=333241444242458
Billions To Stimulate Criminality
INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Corruption: A nonprofit group committing a crime conjures up images of terrorist fundraising. But $8.5 billion in taxpayer money may go to specialists in political terror: the tax-exempt scam artists of Acorn.
Did Democrats come to their present dominance of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington thanks in large part to a "syndicate of tax-exempt organizations" that "has coordinated and implemented a nationwide strategy of tax fraud, racketeering, money-laundering and manipulating the American electorate"?
The reams of evidence provided by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee ranking Republican Darrell Issa of California and his GOP colleagues on the panel strongly suggest so.
Their more-than-80-page report charges that the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (Acorn) uses "a complex structure designed to conceal illegal activities" — 361 different entities in 120 cities, 43 states and the District of Columbia, amounting to a "shell game" that "diverts taxpayer and tax-exempt monies into partisan political activities."
The group has over the last 15 years received in excess of $53 million in federal funds. Moreover, as the report warns, "under the Obama administration, Acorn stands to receive a whopping $8.5 billion in available stimulus funds."
(NOTE: Unless things change, American taxpayers will be underwriting political corruption and attempted vote fraud by such groups as Obama’s own ACORN. ACORN is a conspiracy against normal America – one designed to provide liberals a mechanism through which they can control elective politics far into the future.)
Acorn's improprieties, of course, are not news.
As Issa's report notes, a third of the 1.3 million voter registration cards the organization solicited and presented in 2008 ended up being null and void; the group has been investigated for voter registration fraud in places such as Connecticut, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio.
A decade ago, an Acorn operative in Arkansas was arrested for falsification of voter registration forms.
Soon after that, Philadelphia officials discovered hundreds of Acorn's falsified registration forms.
In 2007, the state of Washington filed felony charges against several Acorn employees and supervisors for submitting more than 1,700 fraudulent voter cards.
Just last fall, federal agents raided Acorn's Nevada offices and in May of this year Nevada officials charged the organization and its state personnel with voter fraud. That was soon followed by seven Acorn officials in Pittsburgh being charged with voter fraud.
Acorn has been accused of presenting at least 2,100 fraudulent registration forms in Lake County, Ind.
Superimposed upon these offenses are the alleged embezzlement practices of Dale Rathke, brother of the organization's founder, Wade Rathke, who apparently used a financial management company to "loan" himself over $948,600 in Acorn funds.
For eight years after the incident, Acorn kept him in its employ and failed to notify its board of the money grab. Acorn board members Marcel Reid and Karen Inman were actually kicked off for trying to investigate the Dale Rathke cover-up, and for seeking financial transparency within Acorn.
Inman's response to her removal last fall was to ask: "Why would you want us not to clean up things? Why would you not want to do your own investigation instead of bringing in the sheriff?"
Perhaps because a cleaned-up Acorn would not be able to operate effectively.
Even the left-friendly National Public Radio has reported that the organization's financial sleight of hand "essentially gives them a cloak that prevents people from seeing really how they're spending money that comes, in some cases, from the taxpayers, in other cases, comes from members of their organization who pay dues."
Yet this corrupt outfit has actually been signed up as a national partner with the U.S. Census Bureau to help recruit the nearly 1.5 million workers who will count and classify our 306 million population for 2010.
It's like getting a car thief to manage a parking garage.
As the Capital Research Center's Matthew Vadum has documented, $3 billion from the stimulus package, another billion dollars from HUD, and $4.5 billion in Community Development Block Grants look set to come Acorn's way for a total of $8.5 billion.
The Issa report further charges Acorn with submitting false filings to the IRS and the Labor Department, and violating the Fair Labor Standards Act and the ERISA law.
Amidst all this apparent illegality, the campaigns of President Obama, disgraced ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, are among the beneficiaries of financial contributions from Acorn and its affiliates. "These actions are a clear violation of numerous tax and election laws," the Issa report charges.
Issa called it "outrageous that Acorn will be rewarded for its criminal acts by taxpayer money in the stimulus and is being asked to help with the U.S. census." He says the organization "cannot and should not be trusted with taxpayer dollars."
Don't hold your breath for justice. No doubt Attorney General Eric Holder will soon be too busy hounding former Vice President Dick Cheney — for his forceful effort in waging the global war on terror — to probe the shady outfit that helped elect his boss president.
2.
Republicans Introduce Comprehensive Financial Regulatory Reform Legislation
Measure Restores Market Discipline To Financial System, In Contrast To Administration Proposals To Expand Government Bailouts And Taxpayer Liabilities
WASHINGTON – House Republicans, led by Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Spencer Bachus (AL), today introduced comprehensive legislation to modernize and streamline the regulatory structure of the financial services industry.
The Consumer Protection and Regulatory Enhancement Act provides for the resolution of insolvent non-bank financial institutions — no matter how large or systemically important — through the bankruptcy system. It creates a Market Stability and Capital Adequacy Board that is charged with monitoring the interactions of various sectors of the financial system, and identifying risks that could endanger the stability and soundness of the system. It establishes an Office of Consumer Protection, with enhanced authority, within a consolidated regulatory agency to streamline in one place responsibility for rulemaking and enforcement of Federal consumer protection laws. The legislation also restores the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy mandate by relieving it of current regulatory and supervisory responsibilities. Taxpayer subsidies of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would end, as would Federal regulators’ reliance on use of credit rating agencies.
(NOTE: This means, the Republicans are running directly at Democrat Committee Chairman Barney Frank – Frank has been a staunch defended of Fanny and Freddie Mac – giving them cover claiming they were sound only weeks before they collapsed and plunged the economy into panic.)
The Republican plan presents a clear alternative to the “too big to fail” government policy that many economists and market analysts believe would be institutionalized by the Obama Administration’s regulatory reform agenda. The legislation ends the unprecedented government interventions and use of taxpayer dollars to bail out financial firms and pick winners and losers in the economy. Taxpayers will no longer be asked to pick up the tab for bad bets on Wall Street while some creditors and counterparties of failed firms are made whole. The legislation seeks to restore market discipline so that financial firms will no longer expect the government to rescue them from the consequences of imprudent business decisions.
“We need a new direction in approaching financial regulatory reform,” Ranking Member Bachus said. “The legislation we are introducing today will empower our regulators to better police the financial markets and protect consumers and investors. It is time to get the government out of picking winners and losers and avoid creating a permanent bailout agency. Utilizing an enhanced bankruptcy regime will ensure that the cost are covered by the financial institutions and their creditors, not the taxpayers. Financial institutions should no longer rely on taxpayer assistance.”
“American taxpayers should not be required to bailout companies that made poor business decisions,” Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith said. “The current bankruptcy system is already up to the task of addressing non-bank financial institution failures. These proposed changes will enhance the courts’ ability to transparently deal with big business failures and eliminate the need for government-run regulation by the Administration at the expense of the American taxpayer.”
“Sprawling new agencies and limits on consumer choices won’t restore confidence in the financial marketplace,” said Rep. Judy Biggert, the Ranking Member of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. “What the system needs is a stronger, smarter, more efficient regulatory approach that will empower consumers, protect against fraud, and shut down bad actors. The GOP plan offers all three -- without duplicative and conflicting regulations that drive up costs and hamstring economic recovery.”
“It’s time for the bailout mentality that says some firms are ‘too big to fail’ to be put to bed, and that’s precisely what our bill will do,” said Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, the Ranking Member of the Housing Subcommittee. “It’s not the government’s job to pick winners and losers in the marketplace, just as it’s not the government’s job to dictate to consumers which financial products they can buy and which ones they can’t. Our bill puts transparency at the forefront, emphasizes accountability in the markets and provides regulators with new tools to protect consumers.”
“When it comes to the subject of the fundamental role that GSEs played in causing our current financial crisis, the Obama Administration's regulatory reform proposal is more of a white wash than a white paper,” said Rep. Jeb Hensarling, the Ranking Member of the Financial Institutions Subcommittee. “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were at the epicenter of federal policies that incented, cajoled, and mandated financial institutions to loan money to people to buy homes they could not afford to keep. Whereas the Administration's plan is silent on GSE reform, the Republican alternative acknowledges the current GSE model is irreparably broken and must be altered. Our plan puts the GSEs on the path away from taxpayer reliance so that over a reasonable time period so that we can transition our secondary mortgage market away from government-sanctioned monopolies and back towards free market competition.”
“At the core of our plan is a promise to the American taxpayer: no more bailouts,” said Rep. Scott Garrett, the Ranking Member of the Capital Markets Subcommittee. “It’s time to reject the ‘too big to fail’ logic that has resulted in unprecedented government intrusion into the marketplace and reinstate the free market principles that are the cornerstone of our nation and a healthy financial sector. The Republican leaders of the Financial Services Committee have developed legislation aimed at preserving free market principles while providing significant reform to our antiquated banking regulations.”
“The Republican plan confronts the ‘too big to fail’ mentality head on by putting a stop to taxpayer-funded bailouts,” said Rep. Randy Neugebauer, the Deputy Ranking Member. “Our plan modernizes financial regulation to hold regulators accountable to consumers and allows for market discipline to work, rather than relying on the government to pick winners and losers.”
“Today Republicans cement our plan to restore stability and oversight to the financial sector,” said Rep. Tom Price, the Chairman of the Republican Study Committee. “This plan provides a common sense solution to a complex set of issues. While we work toward ensuring a more stable financial sector, we must preserve the market system to which we owe so much while ensuring taxpayers are never left out to dry again by the failures of others. The package of reforms we introduce today will fundamentally change the relationship between Wall Street and the taxpayer. No longer will we see private profits being backstopped by taxpayer liability. This legislation puts an end to the misguided bailout culture that has encouraged irrational risk taking and cost taxpayers so much. As reform is imperative, I look forward to working positively in a bipartisan spirit to achieve our goals of stability.”
Click here to view a copy of the legislation and here for a section by section summary.
3.
A handy guide to Obama care:
Good News: Abortions and Assisted Suicides will NOT be Rationed!
The Economic Policy Journal points us to Peter Fleckstein, who twittered the contents of the House Socialized Medicine bill. Oh, what a treat your family is in for.
• Page 22: Mandates audits of all employers that self-insure!
• Page 29: Admission: your health care will be rationed!
• Page 30: A government committee will decide what treatments and benefits you get (and, unlike an insurer, there will be no appeals process)
• Page 42: The "Health Choices Commissioner" will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice. None.
• Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services.
• Page 58: Every person will be issued a National ID Healthcard.
• Page 59: The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer.
• Page 65: Taxpayers will subsidize all union retiree and community organizer health plans (read: SEIU, UAW and ACORN)
• Page 72: All private healthcare plans must conform to government rules to participate in a Healthcare Exchange.
• Page 84: All private healthcare plans must participate in the Healthcare Exchange (i.e., total government control of private plans)
• Page 91: Government mandates linguistic infrastructure for services; translation: illegal aliens
• Page 95: The Government will pay ACORN and Americorps to sign up individuals for Government-run Health Care plan.
• Page 102: Those eligible for Medicaid will be automatically enrolled: you have no choice in the matter.
• Page 124: No company can sue the government for price-fixing. No "judicial review" is permitted against the government monopoly. Put simply, private insurers will be crushed.
• Page 127: The AMA sold doctors out: the government will set wages.
• Page 145: An employer MUST auto-enroll employees into the government-run public plan. No alternatives.
• Page 126: Employers MUST pay healthcare bills for part-time employees AND their families.
• Page 149: Any employer with a payroll of $400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays an 8% tax on payroll
• Page 150: Any employer with a payroll of $250K-400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays a 2 to 6% tax on payroll
• Page 167: Any individual who doesnt' have acceptable healthcare (according to the government) will be taxed 2.5% of income.
• Page 170: Any NON-RESIDENT alien is exempt from individual taxes (Americans will pay for them).
• Page 195: Officers and employees of Government Healthcare Bureaucracy will have access to ALL American financial and personal records.
• Page 203: "The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax." Yes, it really says that.
• Page 239: Bill will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Seniors and the poor most affected."
• Page 241: Doctors: no matter what speciality you have, you'll all be paid the same (thanks, AMA!)
• Page 253: Government sets value of doctors' time, their professional judgment, etc.
• Page 265: Government mandates and controls productivity for private healthcare industries.
• Page 268: Government regulates rental and purchase of power-driven wheelchairs.
• Page 272: Cancer patients: welcome to the wonderful world of rationing!
• Page 280: Hospitals will be penalized for what the government deems preventable re-admissions.
• Page 298: Doctors: if you treat a patient during an initial admission that results in a readmission, you will be penalized by the government.
• Page 317: Doctors: you are now prohibited for owning and investing in healthcare companies!
• Page 318: Prohibition on hospital expansion. Hospitals cannot expand without government approval.
• Page 321: Hospital expansion hinges on "community" input: in other words, yet another payoff for ACORN.
• Page 335: Government mandates establishment of outcome-based measures: i.e., rationing.
• Page 341: Government has authority to disqualify Medicare Advantage Plans, HMOs, etc.
• Page 354: Government will restrict enrollment of SPECIAL NEEDS individuals.
• Page 379: More bureaucracy: Telehealth Advisory Committee (healthcare by phone).
• Page 425: More bureaucracy: Advance Care Planning Consult: Senior Citizens, assisted suicide, euthanasia?
• Page 425: Government will instruct and consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney, etc. Mandatory. Appears to lock in estate taxes ahead of time.
• Page 425: Goverment provides approved list of end-of-life resources, guiding you in death.
• Page 427: Government mandates program that orders end-of-life treatment; government dictates how your life ends.
• Page 429: Advance Care Planning Consult will be used to dictate treatment as patient's health deteriorates. This can include an ORDER for end-of-life plans. An ORDER from the GOVERNMENT.
• Page 430: Government will decide what level of treatments you may have at end-of-life.
• Page 469: Community-based Home Medical Services: more payoffs for ACORN.
• Page 472: Payments to Community-based organizations: more payoffs for ACORN.
• Page 489: Government will cover marriage and family therapy. Government intervenes in your marriage.
• Page 494: Government will cover mental health services: defining, creating and rationing those services.
What is it with Democrats? The only medical services that they don't want to ration are abortion and assisted suicide!
Comments