newsletter

Wall Street Journal: Republicans Challenge Administration's Authority Republicans are pointing to statements by a top Treasury Department official as evidence that the Obama administration overstepped its authority in delaying the health-care law's requirement that employers offer coverage or pay a penalty. Mark Mazur, assistant Treasury secretary for tax policy, said in a January interview with staff from the GOP-led House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that he wasn't aware of any...

Washington Examiner: Health insurance premiums up 39% to 56% under Obamacare, reach $2,604 a month in California According to a cost report from eHealthInsurance, a nationwide online private insurance exchange, families are paying an average of $663 a month and singles $274 a month, far more than before Obamacare kicked in. What's more, to save money, most buyers are choosing the lowest level of coverage, the so-called "bronze" plans. "Premiums are increasing primarily because of the new...

From Foreign Policy: Vladimir Putin running rampant in Ukraine showcases how the Obama administration's abdication of global leadership is making the world a more dangerous place. Instead of providing clarity to our nation and our allies, the Obama administration offers tortured semantics. "Kinetic action" glamorizes the failed policy of leading from behind in Libya. A "spontaneous protest" explains the coordinated al Qaeda attack on American officials in Benghazi. The interim agreement over...

The IRS is currently considering new rules to limit the free speech of the very same groups it illegally targeted. In short, the Obama Administration is trying to do through regulatory fiat what it was unable to legally do before: limit the First Amendment rights of Americans. The IRS was required to accept and publish comments from the public -- and over 140,000 of you did. The public commenting period may have ended, but you can still make your voice heard. Spread the word about this proposed...

The Arkansas Project: REPORT: Medicaid Enrollment To Surpass Private Employment In Arkansas Medicaid currently consumes 22% of our state budget (a total of $4.45 billion) Under expansion, by the year 2022, Medicaid will consume 31% of our budget Arkansas’s budget grew by 65% over the past ten years, excluding Medicaid Even without expansion, Arkansans will need an additional $15.9 billion in revenue in 10 years to meet budget demands, if current spending trends continue. Medicaid has...

Ron Fournier, National Journal: Why I'm Getting Sick of Defending Obamacare Incompetence, politics, and delays frustrate advocates of health care reform It's getting difficult and slinking toward impossible to defend the Affordable Care Act. The latest blow to Democratic candidates, liberal activists, and naïve columnists like me came Monday from the White House, which announced yet another delay in the Obamacare implementation. Not coincidentally, the delays punt implementation beyond...

Washington Post: Administration will allow people to switch health-care plans to a limited degree The Obama administration has quietly reworked rules and computer code for HealthCare.gov to try to stem an outpouring of discontent by some Americans who have discovered that the health plans they bought do not include their old doctors or allow them to add new babies or spouses.Under changes that have not been disclosed to the public, the government will temporarily allow consumers who have gotten...

Washington Times: Obamacare will push 2 million workers out of labor market: CBO [in 2011 CBO projected that the labor force would have 800,000 fewer workers by 2021] Obamacare will push the equivalent of about 2 million workers out of the labor market by 2017 as employees decide either to work fewer hours or drop out altogether, according to the latest estimates Tuesday from the Congressional Budget Office. “CBO estimates that the ACA will reduce the total number of hours worked, on net,...

Washington Post: Healthcare.gov can't handle appeals of enrollment errors Roughly 22,000 Americans have filed appeals with the government to try to get mistakes corrected, according to internal government data obtained by The Washington Post. They contend that the computer system for the new federal online marketplace charged them too much for health insurance, steered them into the wrong insurance program or denied them coverage entirely. For now, the appeals are sitting, untouched, inside a...

From The Wall Street Journal: Of all the troubling aspects of the Obama presidency, none is more dangerous than the president's persistent pattern of lawlessness, his willingness to disregard the written law and instead enforce his own policies via executive fiat. On Monday, Mr. Obama acted unilaterally to raise the minimum wage paid by federal contracts, the first of many executive actions the White House promised would be a theme of his State of the Union address Tuesday night. The president's...