Obamacare: Congress may investigate healthcare waivers
Yesterday we learned that the Obama regime has now issued over 700 healthcare reform law waivers which exempt certain big businesses and labor unions from the healthcare law. With all of these exemptions being granted before the law has even gone into full effect one has to wonder how good this healthcare law is in the first place, what happened to equal protection under the law, and is there anything suspicious going on between the federal government and which companies and organizations are being granted the exemptions?
Today we have this news story which shows that I am not alone in my thinking that there could be something not quite on the level with regards to who is being granted these waivers–Congress is set to open up an investigation into the federal government’s usage of these waivers.
Siting Barack Obama’s broken promise to not let the influence of special interest groups infiltrate his White House, Charles Grassley had the following to say about the 700 (and growing) waivers that the Obama regime has already issued: Read more…
Obamacare: 733 companies have now been granted healthcare waivers
I thought it was bad enough when 222 companies and organizations applied for and were granted healthcare reform law waivers but the latest count is in and a staggering 733 companies and organizations have been granted healthcare reform waivers.
Here is a slightly tweaked version of a previous post about the 222 companies receiving healthcare reform waivers:
There are 733 companies which were granted the healthcare waivers, who knows how many waivers were asked for and denied. Small companies and individuals who cannot afford either to purchase healthcare coverage or acquire the services of a lawyer to threaten to fight the government if they are not granted a waiver are the ones who are going to be left holding the bag here while large corporations and unions are exempted from the law, and this is reform?
Couple this news with the fact that the SEIU will be dropping healthcare coverage for children, while also having been granted healthcare waivers, the AARP and Boeing cutting benefits, and doctors dropping Medicaid–all of which I have written about in the past–we are beginning to see exactly how bad this law is. Perhaps if lawmakers had taken the time to read the bill they might have had an inkling about the negative effects of the bill we are just now beginning to see, but Nancy Pelosi said the bill must be passed so that they could see what was in it, so the bill was passed and we are just now beginning to see how bad this law is. This is just the beginning, it isn’t going to get any better once more regulations begin to be implemented.
Whatever happened to equal protection under the law?
10 states may push nullification legislation, how does this relate to the separation of church and state?
There are now ten states–Idaho, Alabama, Kansas, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Oregon, Nebraska, Texas and Wyoming–which have introduced or plan to introduce nullification legislation in an attempt to take the fight against Obamacare to the next level.
Nullification simply means that a state can invoke its tenth amendment rights and nullify any federal law that particular state doesn’t agree with. Most people feel that this is an idea that will ultimately fail in the courts and I happen to agree. (Any chance of state nullification died with the Civil War in my opinion.)
But that does not mean that this should not be tried because we must keep the Obamacare fight in the forefront and be proactive by attacking Obamacare from all angles. But I thought that for this post I would look at this issue from another angle.
What does the issue of nullification and the “wall of separation” between church and state have in common? The words of Thomas Jefferson.
Three SEIU locals to receive healthcare waivers
And the hits just keep on coming:
As if it weren’t bad enough that 222 multi-million dollar organizations were receiving waivers (and on a side note, 45 of those organizations were labor unions which naturally would have been Barack Obama supporters) that would exempt them from the healthcare reform law, and as if it wasn’t bad enough that a New York local of the SEIU decided to drop its children’s healthcare coverage siting Obamacare as the reason, now comes word that three SEIU locals have been granted waivers to exempt them from the healthcare reform law.
HHS gave a waiver to Local 25 SEIU in Chicago with 31,000 enrollees on Oct. 1, 2010; to Local 1199 SEIU Greater New York Benefit Fund with 4,544 enrollees on Oct. 10, 2010; and to the SEIU Local 1 Cleveland Welfare Fund with 520 enrollees on Nov. 15, 2010.
One of those locals just happens to be from Barack Obama’s hometown. I am sure that is just a coincidence, just as it is a coincidence that the Obama supporting SEIU donated $27 million to Barack Obama’s campaign, and while in another coincidence 45 Obama supporting labor unions are getting these waivers also.
Meanwhile, while multi-million dollar organizations with the lobbyists and the resources to fight a lengthy court battle receive healthcare waivers, those that cannot afford to buy healthcare coverage–and who cannot afford the lawyers to fight this in court–will be forced to pay a penalty, which they probably also cannot afford, because they didn’t have enough money to meet the government’s demand that they buy healthcare insurance. How is this fair to anyone?
The more that we hear about the healthcare reform law, the worse it is. Big businesses and unions get all of the waivers while average Americans who are just struggling to make ends meet are getting the shaft.
House Republican to target funding to the United Nations
Having already introduced legislation which would trim $2.5 trillion in federal spending, Republicans in the House are showing that they are serious about reigning in the out of control spending because they are not stopping there.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen–Chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee–has stated that she is going to be looking into the U.N. Human Rights Council and the waste of taxpayers dollars,” associated with it; she is prepared to cut funding to this program if necessary.
I’d like to make sure that we once and for all kill all U.S. funding for that beast,” she said last month. “Because I don’t think that it advances U.S. interests, I don’t think that that’s a pro-democracy group, it’s a rogue’s gallery, pariah states, they belong there because they don’t want to be sanctioned
Those are strong words coming from the Republican representative from Florida but it sure is nice to see someone with some influence stand up against this organization and hold the United Nations accountable for all of the spending they do with our money. (And all this time I thought America was the pariah, right Senator Kerry?)
The United Nations is an anti-America, anti-freemarket, anti-capitalist, spread the money around socialist organization who would like nothing better than to see the standard of living in the United States brought down to the level of a third world country if we let them. And I say it is far past time for the United States to start cutting back on the amount of money we send their way on a yearly basis.
Rocky Mountain High
As regular readers here know, earlier this year I flew to St. Joseph Missouri for the company I work for to do a field installation. And as I wrote about back then, this was my first flight because I have always had a fear of flying. At that time I had had enough time to prepare myself for the flight so that when the time came I was prepared for the flight and for the two week trip, but the one thing I was not able to prepare myself for, no matter how much I tried, was the fact that I was going to be away from my family for two weeks.
Duty calls me once again to the road, this time to Boulder Colorado. I will be leaving early tomorrow morning to fly out once again to do a field installation, leaving my family behind. This time it is for only one week, I will be coming home on Friday, so my family won’t be apart nearly as long as we were the last time. But that doesn’t make it any easier to leave my loved ones behind.
I love and will miss you all.
The job that I am to perform has to be done in four days, so depending on how quickly it goes there may not be much room for blogging at night if I am forced to put in long hours on the job. I still intend to post about any important issues which may arise, but I just don’t know how much time I will have over the next week.
If I don’t see you in the blogosphere next week, I will see you all shortly. Please take care everyone and know that I am still fighting the fight even if I am not able to write about it.
After leading New Hampshire Republicans to historic wins in the 2010 midterm elections the head of the New Hampshire GOP, John H Sununu–the former governor, not to be confused with his son, the former senator from New Hampshire–announced that he would not be seeking re-election.
Today the New Hampshire Republicans voted for their new leader and the winner was Jack Kimball by a vote of 222-199. Jack Kimball ran for governor in last year’s election but was defeated in the primary by John Stephen. Mr. Kimball was a relatively unknown businessman who came out of nowhere and had a surprising showing in the Republican primary before losing to John Stephen.
Jack Kimball founded the Granite State Patriots Liberty PAC before there was a Tea Party and was a favorite son of the Tea Party in New Hampshire. He often speaks about smaller government, personal liberties and responsibilities, and constitutional government. This is part of what he had to say after learning of his victory tonight:
You all know that we are in a war, and we are going to win it. We are going to pull ourselves back from the brink, we’re going to go after the Democrats the entire time
Apparently Jack Kimball didn’t get the word that war references during a political campaign were now taboo, and that is a good thing in and of itself. Today the Tea Party in New Hampshire showed the nation that the Tea Party is no longer a movement which can be scorned and ridiculed. We are a real movement and as of today we are in control of the Republican party here in New Hampshire.
This is great news for the Tea Party in general and New Hampshire specifically; if Jack Kimball has half of the success his predecessor did New Hampshire will be in good hands for years to come.
Good luck Jack, you are going to need it because we all know that the rhetoric is going to be turned up heading into the 2012 elections. We know you will be up to the task!
Barack Obama to sign an Executive Order that will allow military tribunals at GITMO
One of the very first moves that Barack Obama made as president was to sign an Executive Order to close down GITMO; part of this Executive Order banned future military tribunals held at GITMO. But a funny thing happened on the way to shuttering the windows at GITMO–reality set in, GITMO remains open and will remain open, and the Obama regime has been unable to decide what to do with these high profile detainees who he has been holding indefinitely without a trial for these two years.
But according to this article Barack Obama has finally decided what to do with these terrorists who are being held at GITMO–he will sign an Executive Order reinstating military tribunals for these detainees. This is very interesting indeed because for years Barack Obama and his ilk told the American people that both GITMO and military tribunals hurt the image of the United States abroad and that both the detention center and the military trials had to be terminated in order for America to regain her standing in the world, as well as stopping what the Obama regime has called a powerful recruiting tool for al-Qaeda.
I guess it turns out that the only people being recruited by the whole GITMO issue were voters who were tired of George Bush who rallied to Barack Obama under the banner of improving our image through the closing of GITMO. The Democrats used the issue of GITMO to gain support from the far left, and rally the anti-war left to the polls and it worked like a charm, but we now know that GITMO is not going to close and it never was. GITMO was a tool of the Democrat party–pure and simple.
So add yet another issue to the list of issues in which Barack Obama has done a 180 degree turn (or a flip-flop if you will) since the campaign ended and he became president. He is leaning that it is much harder when you actually have to govern than it is sitting back and criticizing the one who is governing. He has learned–as Dick Cheney said–that George W Bush was right about more than he was ever willing to admit. In fact, he still won’t admit it, but his actions on issues such as GITMO show us that he knows in his heart that President Bush was right all along.
Arizona group begins the process to recall Sheriff Dupnik
According to this article there is an anti-illegal immigration group which is now beginning to start the process to recall Sheriff Dupnik after his despicable press conference in the aftermath of the Arizona shooting. You remember Sheriff Dupnik; he is the Sheriff who ignited the fire against Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, conservative talk radio, and the blogoshere by blaming all of the above for the shooting instead of blaming the murderer. He did this by giving an inflammatory opinion in which he called Arizona the “mecca for prejudice and bigotry” while he was supposed to be briefing the press on the known FACTS of the Arizona shooting.
“I haven’t been a fan of Dupnik’s for a long time, but this really was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Tom Rompel, co-owner of Black Weapons Armory in Tucson. “He’s law enforcement. We expect ‘the facts, ma’am,’ not his opinion. He leans far left, always has, and frankly, people have had enough”
That is the crux of this issue; he was supposed to be stating the facts not his personal opinion. By expressing his opinion during the press conference, Sheriff Dupnik was irresponsible and unprofessional and for this he MUST face punishment. But not everyone feels this way, as can be seen on a Facebook page which supports Sheriff Dupnik:
He is not afraid to call the bullies out on their part in this mess. Civility without hate speech is our mission
“Civility without hate speech” is what this group claims is their mission and yet they support the man who called the residents of Arizona a bunch of prejudiced bigots who are responsible for the shooting. This is not hate speech? This is civility? Sheriff Dupnik engaged in an activity unbecoming of the office he holds and for that he needs to be accountable.
Sheriff Dupnik indicted a whole group of people simple because he did not agree with the politics of the people he libeled; this man is supposed to stand for justice yet he went in front of the nation and accused certain people of creating a climate of hate which led to the shooting and he did this without any proof whatsoever. He should have kept his opinions to himself, doubly so now that it has become apparent that Jared Loughner had no connection to conservative talk radio or the blogoshere and simply was a lunatic who didn’t even listen to talk radio.
Sheriff Dupnik should do the honorable thing and resign his position because he is not able to discern between facts and reality and when you are a law enforcement official this can have deadly results–but if he is unwilling to do so, perhaps the residents of Pima County will do it for him.
New Hampshire Senate passes a bill which would force the Attorney General to challenge the constitutionality of Obamacare
There is a very interesting battle brewing here in New Hampshire between the newly elected Republican state legislature and the Democrat Attorney General over his decision not to join half of the other states in the Union challenging the constitutionality of the healthcare reform bill.
The Republican led state legislature wants New Hampshire to join the lawsuit with 27 other states, and as I mentioned above–New Hampshire’s Attorney General, Michael Delaney, is unwilling to do so; because of this the state Senate has just passed a bill which would require the Attorney General to join the lawsuit by a 19-3 vote.
Michael Delaney has stated that his bill is blatantly unconstitutional on its face and is chiding the Republicans on fact that he feels it is strange that the Republicans–who won victories last November by promising to return to constitutional legislating–would make it their first priority to do something that violates the state constitution on one of their very first legislative priorities. Read more…
America's Watchtower 