Saturday, January 31, 2015

ISIS BEHEADS JAPANESE HOSTAGE KENJI GOTO


◼ link - Gateway Pundit





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Poll: Scott Walker and Rand Paul up in Iowa,
Jeb Bush and Chris Christie lag

◼ The survey conducted for Bloomberg Politics and the Des Moines Register showed Walker at 15 percent among Republican caucus-goers, Paul at 14 percent, and Mike Huckabee, the 2008 victor in Iowa, at 10 percent. - Politico

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson was the first choice of 9 percent of respondents.

Other big-name contenders fared poorly: Bush was the first choice of just 8 percent of Republican voters, while Cruz registered at 5 percent and Christie at 4 percent. Rick Santorum, who narrowly won the caucuses in 2012, notched 4 percent, and Marco Rubio and Rick Perry each garnered 3 percent.

Mitt Romney, who announced the day after the poll ended that he wouldn’t run again in 2016, was the top choice of 13 percent of respondents....

The poll, conducted a year out from the caucuses, shows that two establishment-favored favorites, Bush and Christie, have their work cut out to win over Republicans in the first-in-the-nation voting state. Bush’s ratings were just above water, with 46 percent of respondents saying they view him favorably and 43 percent unfavorably. But the former Florida governor’s unfavorable numbers have risen by 15 percentage points since the last Bloomberg-Register poll in October.

Christie’s unfavorability rating is even worse at 54 percent, up 9 percentage points from October. The New Jersey governor gets positive marks from just over one-in-three caucus voters.

Walker, meanwhile, has catapulted to the head of the field, with a commanding 60 percent of respondents giving him positive marks (up from 49 percent in October) and 12 percent offering a negative take (essentially unchanged from three months ago). The Wisconsin governor, one of the few contenders whose appeal spans the establishment and social conservative wings of the party, gave a well-received speech to Iowa conservatives last weekend.... KEEP READING



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Steamy sexts of CBS's Steve Kroft revealed as it's claimed married anchor told his mistress to dress less like Beyonce and more like Laura Bush in public to keep their addair under wraps

◼ The mistress of married 60 minutes correspondent Steven Kroft sent him raunchy selfies while he demanded she dress low key in a bid to keep their illicit affair secret. - WILLS ROBINSON and LYDIA WARREN/Daily Mail
A source told the New York Post's Page Six Kroft was 'really paranoid about right-wing zealots' finding out about their three-year illicit affair and threatening his career at CBS.

They also said: 'He was unwilling to be seen publicly with [Goines] because she’s black — because they’d be more noticeable.'
◼ ‘Don’t dress like Beyoncé': The sexts of Steve Kroft - NY Post
The Manhattan mistress of married “60 Minutes’’ newsman Steve Kroft sent him sexy lingerie photos during their affair, but he insisted she dress low-key — like “Laura Bush” — with him in public to keep things hush-hush, according to newly revealed texts.
◼ Well, it’s not as if anything will happen since this guy is one of the major Obama suck-ups in the media. If he was even perceived to be conservative his career would be finished. - JWF

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Joe Biden says the Obama years "have been really, really hard for this country"



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OBAMACARE TAX MESS: WHITE HOUSE TO OFFER MORE EXEMPTIONS

◼ White House Seeks to Limit Health Law’s Tax Troubles - New York Times

Obama administration officials and other supporters of the Affordable Care Act say they worry that the tax-filing season will generate new anger as uninsured consumers learn that they must pay tax penalties and as many people struggle with complex forms needed to justify tax credits they received in 2014 to pay for health insurance.

The White House has already granted some exemptions and is considering more to avoid a political firestorm....

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One of the most tiresome things about the first six years of President Obama’s tenure was his fake bipartisanship.

◼ Obama Drops the Pretense of Bipartisanship - Daily Signal

He often offered to work with the opposition, provided it was reasonable. But since to him only his own ideas are reasonable, the offer was meaningless.

His pretense was popular because it appealed to our love of bipartisanship: Americans like the idea that reasonable people can agree on the solutions to the contentious moral issues at the heart of politics. We’re a nation of problem solvers, and for the most part it’s served us well....

What the president did last week was to offer a clear choice, without the rhetoric of phony bipartisanship. His party has suffered unprecedented losses. He came out punching with proposals designed not to pass, but to control the agenda and trip up conservatives.

That’s a good thing. For while the American people say they want bipartisanship, standing by your principles isn’t the sign of a broken system. It’s the sign of a genuinely competitive system that works — for all Americans.
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For Republicans, a 2016 Tie Is a Win



◼ GOP virtually guaranteed to hold edge in event of deadlocked Electoral College - Sabato's Crystal Ball

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, elected to a third term earlier this month, often notes that the presidential cycle is harder for his party than midterms because the electorate is more diverse and Democratic. “For us to win a presidential election, we have to be just about perfect, and the Democrats have to be good,” he told Kyle Cheney of Politico....

While the Democrat needs 270 electoral votes to win the presidency — a majority of the 538 available — the Republican only needs a 269-269 tie to win.

That’s because, in the event of a tie, the newly elected House will pick the president. Each state gets a single vote, so the party that controls a state’s House delegation will almost certainly cast its state’s vote for its candidate. (The Senate would select the vice president, and every senator gets a vote.)

Republicans dominate the states’ individual U.S. House delegations, and there’s no reason to suspect they will lose this advantage in 2016.

The GOP holds a majority of the House seats in 33 states, while Democrats only have a majority in 14....
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Friday, January 30, 2015

At retreat, Dem staffers escort reporters to restroom



◼ Reporters are being escorted to and from the restroom and lobby and are being barred from entering the hotel outside of scheduled events, even if they've been invited by a member of Congress. - Dylan Byers/Politico

Reporters covering the House Democrats' retreat in Philadelphia this week are having a much different experience than when they’re on their home turf on Capitol Hill....

“It was a police state. It was absurd how heavy handed the capitol police and Democratic staff were in trying to control everywhere the press went,” New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters said in an interview.

Peters said at one point he was also barred from entering the hotel where the retreat was taking place, despite the fact he had an invitation to eat breakfast with a member of Congress.

“I was an invited guest into this hotel, into the restaurant of the hotel. The staff from the Democratic caucus refused to let me into the hotel, and the Capitol Police told me to leave, even after the congressman went to them and said 'no, he is my invited guest,'" Peters said.

Peters said he was told by a staffer they were being escorted to prevent them from talking to members of Congress....

The incident is reminiscent of the Clinton Global Initiative conference in September, where reporters were being escorted by staff right up to the bathroom stall.









◼ Discussion at Ace Of Spades (language warning, not for the faint of heart)
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BIG MAN ON CAMPUS

◼ Meet Barack Obama, nonstop college campaigner. - Peter Hannaford/American Spectator 1.23.15

Expecting it to be another campaign speech, I sent this to several friends ahead of Tuesday’s State of the Union address:

Recipe for Watching Obama’s State of the Union Speech Tonight:
1—Build and light a fire in the fireplace
2—Put some Mozart on the stereo
3—Pour a highball or a glass of wine
4—Open a good book
5—Enjoy
We spent a pleasant evening and, as it turned out, President Obama ran true to form.

After six years we know that the only thing he enjoys doing and at which he is good is making campaign speeches. When he gets restless dealing with issues that require statesmanship, he goes on a campaign swing, getting friendly audiences to smile and laugh at his jibes at Republicans, whom he despises.

This time he was off the next morning for Idaho and a speech to college students; then on to Kansas for another college audience. One would think he was running for student body president on both campuses. He was relaxed, enjoying self-congratulation and taunting Republicans to “bring me their ideas” so that he presumably he can “work” with them. His idea of negotiation and compromise meant, as usual, the other side adopting his position.

All this on-campus verve was going on while terrorism threats increased, Yemen was in turmoil, Iran continued to stall and ISIS was no closer to defeat than five months ago.

In his SOTU campaign speech he said he would not be on the ballot again and got a hand for it. His riposte was, “and I won twice.” True, but over the course of his six years in office, his party has lost both houses of Congress, governorships, and state legislatures.

He moved from that to the centerpiece of his agenda, which amounted to the dawn of an old era: income and wealth redistribution. This plays to the belief of the left wing of the Democratic Party that economics is always a zero-sum game. That is, if one person does well, someone else must do poorly. His answer: more taxes on success, coupled with more government spending. This was accompanied by his new pet, free tuition to community colleges.

His purpose in hammering away on these was not that he expects them to be passed, but to embarrass the Republican Congress ahead of the 2016 election. Apparently, he is convinced his agenda will be popular with the public. Shortly after the election he demonstrated his new-found gift of mind-reading when he said he’d “heard” the approximately 60 percent of Americans who didn’t go to the polls in November. From this mind-reading he has conjured his current agenda.

The American public, however, does not agree, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. It gave respondents a list of issues and asked “whether you think it should be an absolute priority for the Obama administration and THIS year’s Congress; or is something that can be delayed until next year; or something you think the Obama administration and Congress should not pursue.”

A strong majority said the “now” priority issues are creating jobs, defeating ISIS, cutting the federal deficit, securing the southern border and dealing with Iran’s nuclear threat.

About “reducing income inequality,” a majority said it should be put off or not pursued. The same was true of “increasing the minimum wage” and passing legislation to create “a pathway to citizenship” for illegal aliens.

When it comes to climate change, nearly twice as many said it should be delayed or not pursued as those who gave it high priority.

Of the fifth issue, closing the Guantanamo Bay prison, 72 percent said to delay or not pursue it. Only 24 percent thought it should be a priority.

Elections have consequences. Like King Canute in days of yore, Barack Obama cannot command the waves to go backward and expect them to follow his command. He should stick to entertaining college students.
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Peter Hannaford was closely associated with the late President Reagan for a number of years. He is a member of the board of the Committee on the Present Danger. His latest book is ◼ “Presidential Retreats.”
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Capitol Update Friday, January 30, 2015


President's Message

I am looking forward to seeing many of you at our exciting 2015 CFRW Winter Board of Directors Meeting/Conference in Modesto this weekend. We will have informative speakers sharing information we need to know on important issues. We have workshops on Growing our Clubs, Protocol and What You Need to Know About Bylaws to fine tune your skills!

We are thrilled that we will have a presentation from the Independence Fund and present one of the volunteers with a check for our first All Terrain Track Chair for a Wounded Veteran. Joseph Brocato will talk to us about Women in Defense of Liberty, Tom Del Beccaro will talk to us about his new book, we will learn more about new tax rules for 2015 from Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and so much more!

The candidates running for CRP office will be speaking to us and the members of the Board of Directors have the opportunity to vote on Saturday afternoon for who we want to endorse for CRP office for 2015/2016. You don’t want to miss our dynamic banquet speaker, John Sullivan, Writer, Director and Producer. Mr. Sullivan co-wrote and co-directed the hit movies 2016 Obama’s America and America. You will also be able to buy signed DVDs of America !

We will award the contest winners for Newsletter, Voter Registration, and Membership. We will also hear some ideas from clubs that were successful this past year by thinking outside the box!. We lost too many members last year. Just imagine…what if there wasn’t a Federation? Who would help our candidates win, who would run the victory offices,who would encourage more Republican women to run for office????

Our #1 priority for 2015 is to increase our membership by 10%. We can do that and must do that because the 2016 election is just around the corner. We must take back the White House in 2016! We need to stay energized and motivated, work hard and build our army of Republican Women so we can lay the foundation for success in 2016 .

See you in Modesto when we will start to lay the ground work for Taking Back America!
God Bless America!
Thank you for all you do,
Roseann
Working Together To Make A Difference
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Hidden Gas Tax

Noticing lower gas prices? Across the country gas is well below $2 dollars. But here in California, thanks to the California Air Resources Board (CARB), gas remains anywhere from 32 to 47 cents higher. CARB introduced a hidden gas tax that came into effect this month that expands the state's cap-and-trade program to include transportation fuels. CARB has carte blanche in creating and implementing regulations here in California, because AB 32, or the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, has given them that power. So hidden "fees" or taxes and regulations have become the norm. Republicans in the Legislature are trying to stop this massive government overreach and protect Californians from costly trips to the pump. SB 5 (Vidak, R) and its companion bill in the Assembly, AB 23 (Patterson, R), seek to reverse the effects of this hidden gas tax by exempting transportation fuels- gasoline, diesel, and natural gas- from the cap-and-trade program. We hope that a bi-partisan effort can be made to achieve this end.
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Prison Populations and Your Safety

The state is patting itself on the back because California's prison population has reached the court ordered level a year ahead of schedule. But what does this really mean? Because of Props 36 and 47 and the Governor's realignment plan, AB 109, thousands of felons have been released since 2012. Back into your communities. The state has 34 adult prisons, with a current population of 113,463, which is at the court ordered 137.5% capacity. But has this made Californians any safer? Communities all over the state are seeing an increase in crime, in large part because of the Governor's realignment plan, which the Department of Corrections estimates 25,000 inmates have otherwise gone free. Couple that with Props 36 (2012) and Props 47 (2014) that have redefined felonies and allowed prisoners to petition for early release, which have allowed just over 4,000 more felons to be released. While the state may be complying with the courts, they leave our communities at risk. There must be a better "plan".

Join Us!

As many of you know, the California Federation of Republican Women are on Facebook and Twitter! We want you to "Like" and "Follow" us, and invite your friends! Facebook and Twitter are easy ways to stay connected and informed about what is going on in Sacramento and D.C.! You can find us at ◼ >www.facebook.com/theCFRW and ◼ www.twitter.com/CFRWadvocate!
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Mitt Romney Will Not Run in 2016







◼ My mistakes about 2016 presidential race - Michael Barone/Human Events

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According to the CBO, Obama's amnesty will cost taxpayers $8.8 billion. How does he plan to pay for it?

◼ White House To Put DHS At Center Of Budget Fight - Conn Carroll/Townhall

President Obama will officially unveil his 2016 budget at the Department of Homeland Security Monday, making the funding of the agency the centerpiece of his administrations immediate fiscal priorities....

Unlike the rest of the federal government which has been fully funded through the end of September, funding for DHS is set to expire at the end of February. Republicans chose a shorter funding term for the departments as part of an effort to push back against Obama's November executive action on immigration which could grant up to 4 million illegal immigrants temporary amnesty over the next two years.

A Congressional Budget Office letter released Thursday estimated that 1.5 million illegal immigrants will take advantage of Obama's amnesty program through 2017. That same document also estimated that illegal immigrants granted amnesty by Obama will pay just $5.2 billion in income taxes through 2025, while consuming more than $10.2 billion in tax credits. Factoring in other spending programs, CBO estimates that Obama's amnesty programs will cost taxpayers $8.8 billion on net through 2025.

The letter also notes that amnestied immigrants will pay $17 billion in Social Security payroll taxes through 2025, but they will receive far more in Social Security payments when they retire then what they paid into the system. The White House previously acknowledged in December that illegal immigrants amnestied by Obama would be eligible for Social Security benefits.

(Josh) Earnest did not say if Obama's budget would identify how the administration planned to pay for the increased spending caused by his amnesty programs.
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THREE TAKEAWAYS FROM PRESIDENT OBAMA’S DECISION TO SCRAP TAXING 529 PLANS

◼ President Obama’s decision to drop his plan to tax the earnings of college savings plans known as 529s was a jaw-dropper for many reasons. Rarely, if ever, does a president offer up a detailed proposal in the State of the Union—the best annual opportunity for the White House to introduce and gain support for policy proposals—and then completely back away from it in less than a week. What on earth do we take away from this startling bit of politics? Here are our thoughts: - College Republicans (CRNC)

  1. This is amateur hour in the White House.
  2. Liberals are scraping the bottom of the barrel in search of revenue to fund their ideas.
  3. The president’s struggle offers a lesson in how difficult comprehensive tax reform will be.


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Sacramento's Natomas Pacific Pathways Prep High School holds 'hijab day' for student



◼ Promotion says Muslims would help girls exhibit 'modesty' - WND

...The “citizen’s note” to the principal, which prompted the student’s diatribe, called the promotion of Islamic law, or Shariah, “outrageous.”

“It’s outrageous primarily because it brought religion into a public school in a way that directly conflicts with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits school-sponsored prayer and religious indoctrination. Encouraging girls and women to wear hijabs for ‘modesty’ is clearly an example of religious indoctrination. Can you imagine the public outrage if a Jewish student requested ‘Yarmulke Day’ and all men and boys at the school were urged to wear a head covering of the type that Jewish men and boys wear?”

The citizen also noted that the Muslim Students Association “is considered by many national security experts to be tied to the Muslim Brotherhood.”

“In other words, tied to terrorism.”

A report by BizPacReview raised the question: Does separation of church and state only apply to some religions?”

The school did not respond to WND’s request for comment.

At the D.C. Clothesline blog, Islam expert and anti-Shariah campaigner Pamela Geller said: “When I was young, I remember the feminists and the leftists were all ‘burning bras’ during the left’s war on America. It was symbolic of the fight for women’s rights. So instead of a ‘hijab day’ at a California public school, why don’t they ‘burn burkas’ to stand in solidarity with women forced to wear the Islamic garb of shame and oppression?”

◼ “Disparition” by Yemeni photographer Bushra Almutawakel, illustrating how women could vanish into darkness and invisibility, step by step, under fundamentalist pressure and the full niqab. - Global Voices



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The Final Solution: a Nuclear Iran



◼ Anti-Semitism is on the rise in Europe, and in the Middle East a new Holocaust looms. - Charles Krauthammer/National Review

...The rise of European anti-Semitism is in reality just a return to the norm. For a millennium, virulent Jew-hatred — persecution, expulsions, massacres — was the norm in Europe until the shame of the Holocaust created a temporary anomaly wherein anti-Semitism became socially unacceptable....

European anti-Semitism is not a Jewish problem, however. It’s a European problem, a stain, a disease of which Europe is congenitally unable to rid itself....

The threat to the Jewish future lies not in Europe but in the Muslim Middle East, today the heart of global anti-Semitism, a veritable factory of anti-Jewish literature, films, blood libels, and calls for violence — indeed for another genocide.
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The Iranian bomb is a national-security issue, an alliance issue, and a regional Middle East issue. But it is also a uniquely Jewish issue because of Israel’s situation as the only state on earth overtly threatened with extinction, facing a potential nuclear power overtly threatening that extinction.

On the 70th anniversary of Auschwitz, mourning dead Jews is easy. And, forgive me, cheap. Want to truly honor the dead? Show solidarity with the living — Israel and its 6 million Jews. Make “never again” more than an empty phrase. It took Nazi Germany seven years to kill 6 million Jews. It would take a nuclear Iran one day.



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MEASLES OUTBREAK

◼ Many have speculated, but now a top federal health official is confirming that the outbreak of measles traced to several Disney theme parks was likely caused by a foreign visitor or an American who had recently returned from a trip outside the country.

...n 2000, the Centers for Disease Control had thought that measles were eliminated in the US, but starting in 2008, cases began to climb. In 2014, the number of cases exploded to over 600, more than all reported cases between 2009 and 2013. The CDC also reported that cases reached a 20-year high in 2014.

The CDC determined that the number of cases grew in the US due to an influx of foreign immigrants.

There is no treatment for measles once it is contracted. Patients should stay hydrated as they ride the illness out. Authorities say the only prevention is widespread vaccination.
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Cruz Calls for Investigation Into State Dept.-Funded Nonprofit Group assisting a campaign that is attempting to defeat Netanyahu

◼ Nick Muzin, deputy chief of staff for Cruz, said the senator was “very disturbed by the reports that the State Department has funded an organization that’s playing a direct role in trying to defeat Benjamin Netanyahu.” - Washington Free Beacon

The OneVoice Movement, a U.S.-based nonprofit group that is partnering with the V15 effort to oust Netanyahu in Israel’s March elections, received two grants from the State Department in the past year, the Washington Free Beacon reported on Tuesday.

Cruz and Rep. Lee Zeldin (R., N.Y.) sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry calling on the State Department inspector general to investigate whether OneVoice has used any of the grant money to support its partnership with V15, and whether its actions violate its 501(c)(3) nonprofit status.

“We write to express strong concerns over the recent media reports that a U.S. taxpayer funded 501(c)(3) non-profit organization called OneVoice is actively working with a campaign operation called V15 or ‘Victory 2015’ in an effort to influence the outcome of the elections in Israel on March 17, 2015,” wrote Cruz and Zeldin.

◼ White House ratchets up criticism of Netanyahu... - Bill Kristol/Weekly Standard
◼ Inside HQ of 'Obama army' opposing Netanyahu - WND
OneVoice is reportedly sponsored by scores of nonprofits and received two grants in the past year from the U.S. State Department.

The State Department is also listed as a partner of OneVoice on the group’s website.
◼ The Obama Administration’s actions towards Israel become more intolerable each day, carrying with their insults deeply damaging national security implications for our country. - Breitbart



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The Shameless Hackery of Harry Reid

◼ ...even Huffington Post correspondents are laughing at Democrats' preposterous faux umbrage. - Guy Benson/Townhall

The man's an established liar, a bizarre obsessive, a remorseless slanderer -- but you already knew that. He's also, unsurprisingly, an exquisite hack. Ever since voters demoted Prince Harry in November, his views on various Senate protocols and precedents have undergone a remarkable and dramatic evolution. He who grinningly nuked filibuster rules in 2013 has suddenly mustered strange new respect for the practice:



Reid's more egregious shamelessness comes in the form of his recent attacks on Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whom he accuses of strong-arming the legislative process by limiting amendment votes on the Keystone Pipeline bill:



This is rich. Richer, in fact, than Reid himself has become during his tenure as a supposed "public servant." The minority leader hopes Americans will forget that until very recently, he held McConnell's title. For the full duration of calendar year 2014, Harry Reid permitted precisely 15 amendment votes* on all legislation taken up by the United States Senate. Total. Prior to Reid's tweet above, the new Republican-controlled Senate had already surpassed that number in one week, and had held 24 votes on amendments to the Keystone bill alone. Democrats (who've been praising the more functional system under McConnell) have taken to griping that the Republican majority is betraying its pledge to respect an "open amendment process" by trying to place some limits on endless offerings.... KEEP READING
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Thursday, January 29, 2015

The Senate has passed a bill to clear construction of the Keystone XL pipeline that would transport oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

The vote was 62-36. Nine Democrats joined with Republicans to support the bill despite President Barack Obama's promise to veto it..

◼ Senate approves Keystone pipeline bill, in face of White House veto threat - FOX

And asked Thursday about the vote, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest reiterated that Obama would veto.

It remains unclear whether majority Republicans could round up additional support to override. Since they took over the Senate in January, Republicans have made approving the Keystone pipeline their top priority on the heels of big wins in the November elections.

The Senate vote capped weeks of debate that was often messy and on one occasion had the Senate in session into the early morning. Dozens of additions to the bill were considered, but only a handful, such as getting the Senate on the record that climate change is not a hoax, made it into the measure.

"The past few weeks have been a whirlwind. But the Keystone jobs debate has been important for the Senate and for our country," McConnell said. "The Keystone infrastructure project has been studied endlessly, from almost every possible angle, and the same general conclusion keeps becoming clear: Build it."

The bill authorizes construction of the 1,179-mile pipeline, which would carry oil primarily from Canada's tar sands to Nebraska, where it would connect with existing pipeline to Gulf Coast refineries.
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SACRAMENTO OFFICIALS WERE NOT TOLD ABOUT SUSPECTED EBOLA CASE

◼ Sacramento City officials say they were not informed that there is a potential Ebola victim in their mist and that the fatal virus might have reached California’s capital city. - Breitbart California
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Sharyl Attkisson Testifies: If You Cross The Obama Administration, You Will Be Attacked and Punished

◼ Investigative reporter and author of Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama's Washington Sharyl Attkisson testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday as part of attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch's confirmation hearing. - Katie Pavlich/Townhall

During her testimony, Attkisson detailed government intimidation she has endured under the Obama administration, particularly through the Department of Justice, for pursuing investigative stories unfavorable to the administration. Attkisson has been an investigative reporter for decades and has pursued stories of government corruption, waste, fraud and abuse in both political parties.

"The job of getting at the truth has never been more difficult. Facets of federal government have isolated themselves from the public they serve. They covet and withhold public information that we as citizens own. They bully and threaten access of journalists who do their jobs, news organizations that publish stories they don't like and whistleblowers who dare to tell the truth," Attkisson said. "When I reported on factual contradictions in the Administration's accounts regarding Fast and Furious, pushback included a frenzied campaign with White House officials trying to chill the reporting by calling and emailing my superiors and colleagues, using surrogate bloggers to advance false claims, one White House official got so mad he angrily cussed me out. The Justice Department used its authority with building security to handpick reports allowed to attend a Fast and Furious briefing, refusing to clear me into the public Justice Department building."

"Let me emphasize that my reporting was factually indisputable, government officials weren't angry because I was doing my job poorly, they were panicked because I was doing my job well," she added.

◼ Attkisson: Reporters treated like 'enemies of the state' under Obama - The Hill

"If you cross this administration with perfectly accurate reporting they don’t like, you will be attacked and punished,” Attkisson said. "You and your sources may be subjected to the kind of a surveillance devised for enemies of the state."

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CBO still refuses to score Obamacare, ignores 15 tax hikes in healthcare law

◼ The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) this week released their annual Budget and Economic Outlook which sets the budget baselines and estimates for the whole year.

Buried in Appendix B of the report is CBO's attempt to provide an updated score of Obamacare. But that's not what they did. They only scored the "coverage provisions" of the law, ignoring some fifteen tax increases which are also a part of Obamacare and its cost to taxpayers.

Here's what the report says about its half score:
"Those estimates address only the insurance coverage provisions of the ACA and do not reflect all of the act’s budgetary effects. Because the provisions of the ACA that relate to health insurance coverage established entirely new programs or components of programs and because those provisions have mostly just begun to be implemented,CBO and JCT have produced separate estimates of the effects of the provisions as part of the baseline process. By contrast, because the provisions of the ACA that do not relate directly to health insurance coverage generally modified existing federal programs (such as Medicare) or made various changes to the tax code, determining what would have happened since the enactment of the ACA had the law not been in effect is becoming increasingly difficult. The incremental budgetary effects of those noncoverage provisions are embedded in CBO’s baseline projections for those programs and tax revenues, respectively, but they cannot all be separately identified using the agency’s normal procedures. As a result, CBO does not produce estimates of the budgetary effects of the ACA as a whole as part of the baseline process."
This is just another version of "we can't score it anymore" that CBO Director Doug Elmendorf (and his Gruber-gate methodology on Obamacare) has become known for.

List of tax hikes ignored in the CBO half-score of Obamacare
-3.8 percent surtax on investment income
-Hike in top Medicare payroll tax rate to 3.8 percent
-Medicine cabinet tax
-Additional surtax on health savings account (HSA) distributions
-Cap on flexible spending accounts (FSAs)
-Medical device tax
-High medical bills tax
-Tanning tax
-Tax on employer retiree drug coverage in Medicare
-Charitable hospital tax
-Pharmaceutical manufacturers tax
-Health insurance tax
-Tax on executive compensation in the health sector
-"Black liquor" tax hike
-Codification of "economic substance doctrine"




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O's legacy will be the Iranian bomb.

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FCC raises threshold for high-speed internet as service providers cry foul

◼ New benchmark means 55 million Americans currently lack broadband access after chairman derides internet companies’ advertisement claims - The Guardian

...The definition of broadband is set to be raised from 4 megabits per second (Mbps) to 25Mbps for downloads and 1Mbps to 3Mbps for uploads.

With that speed as the benchmark, significantly fewer Americans have access to high-speed broadband. Under the previous definition, 19 million Americans were without access; the new definition means that 55 million Americans – 17% of the population – now do not have access to high-speed broadband, according to the FCC’s 2015 Broadband Progress Report, which is in the final editing process but was cited at the hearing....
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PAT CADDELL, FMR. DEMOCRATIC POLLSTER: "I Have Never Seen A President Occupying Himself In His Own Fantasy World"



◼ link - Real Clear Politics

The problem is with the word "is. Remember that? Most of these lawyers (presidents who have been attorneys) have never been in the real world but they're trying to develop things that I believe justify what is unjustifiable. To serve a president who I think is himself a lawyer, and as I said, occupying his own kind of fantasy world. And what scares me -- it bothers me, is because you've had guests on earlier, every one of them explaining why this is a mistake.

We have four-star generals and admirals saying why this is a mistake and I'm waiting for someone, particularly the Iranian things coming up -- as a Democrat I want someone, I don't care if it's Bill Clinton, I don't care if it's [Senator] Bob Menendez, somebody needs to go to the White House and tell the president what time of day it is.
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No time for Netanyahu...But he made time for this



No time for Netanyahu...
No time for the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz
No time for Paris Anti-terrorism Unity March...
No time for Major General Harold Greene's funeral, the first general killed in a combat zone since Vietnam...
No time for a phone call to the Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on behalf of Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi...
No time for his National Security Team meeting when Russia invaded Crimea...
No time for half of his Daily Intelligence Briefings...
No time for President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness because, as Jay Carney said, "The President was too busy to meet the panel" for all of 2012 (BTW, he did manage to play golf 10 times and attend 103 fundraisers for six of those 12 months)....
No time for basic courses in fundamental economics or constitutional law... Obviously...

But he made time for this...
◼ Michael P. Ramirez Editorial Cartoons



◼ ZoNation: Glozell And Obama Interview - ALFONZO RACHEL/ZoNation

Am I disappointed with the president that He’s got time for Glozell, but not Netanyahu, yup, but I also see how Obama is able gain favor and power from the people despite how bad for the office he is.
Read more at http://alfonzorachel.com/2233/zonation-glozell-obama-interview#OmHELc1MExL82RWp.99
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The simple math of the upcoming 2016 election is that 10 – 20 Republicans will have a very hard time beating one Democrat.

◼ Will A Crowded Presidential Primary Field Endanger Republicans In 2016? - Tom Del Beccaro/Forbes h/t: DW

Republicans everywhere need to start thinking about that now or possibly face Hillary Clinton in the White House in January of 2017.

...At this early stage, Hillary Clinton has a commanding lead over potential rivals. If the Democrats avoid a long, drawn out nomination fight, Hillary will be able to amass a gigantic war chest of money. She also will be able to hoard political capital as well by helping Democrats around the country and avoiding having to take hard stances – as she has refused to do in the Keystone pipeline debate.

Republicans, if they keep up their current pace, will have none of those benefits.

How many Republicans are running for president? It is really hard to know – but we know it will be a lot – perhaps as many as twenty.

Even if it was half that amount, Republicans could be headed for a repeat of 2008 and 2012 – if not worse. In 2008, seven Republicans ran for the nomination – four more tested the waters. The process left the party badly divided. John McCain, the eventual nominee, lost four of the first six primaries. Of the first 32 primaries, McCain only got above 50% twice and on Super Tuesday, the day the race was “decided,” the Republican presidential nominee garnered just 1% of the vote in West Virginia – a state he skipped for lack of resources.

Four years later, eleven Republicans ran for their party’s nomination. After a bruising primary season, featuring 22 debates, Mitt Romney emerged as the wounded nominee. Romney’s popular vote total barely exceeded McCain even though Obama got almost 4 million less votes than in 2008.

A crowded Republican field in 2016 could reproduce the same affects.

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The Loretta Lynch Confirmation Hearings



◼ ...Senator Ted Cruz (R – Tex) ...had plenty of questions, many related to the performance of the current Attorney General and how her approach might differ, if at all.

With regard to the limits of executive power, Sen. Cruz asked, “Let me ask about your understanding of prosecutorial discretion. Would it allow a subsequent president… to state that there are other laws that the administration will not enforce – labor laws, environmental laws – would it allow a president to say every existing federal labor law shall heretofore not apply to the state of Texas because I am using my prosecutorial discretion to refuse to enforce those laws? In your judgment, would that be constitutional?”

Nominee Lynch responded, “Again, I would have to know what legal basis was being proposed for that.”

Sen. Cruz continued, “I find it remarkable that you are unable to answer that question. I can answer it straightforward. It would be patently unconstitutional for any subsequent president to refuse to enforce the tax laws, or the labor laws, or the immigration laws for the very same reason that President Obama’s actions refusing to enforce immigration laws are unconstitutional. And it is discouraging that a nominee who hopes to serve as attorney general will not give a straightforward answer to that question.”



Lee questions Loretta Lynch on Prosecutorial Discretion, Operation Chokepoint, and Asset Forfeiture





◼ Attorney General Nominee Loretta Lynch: ‘Tough On Crime’ Means Tough On Blacks - Daily Caller
◼ Mark Levin: Loretta Lynch completely disqualified herself today - The Right Scoop

Mark Levin opened his show on the Loretta Lynch nomination hearing... saying that she completely disqualified herself based on her answers to several questions, but especially one where she claimed illegals have as much right to work here as American citizens.







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Israeli Coed Explains Exactly What's Going on in Israel/Gaza


Post by The Jewish Standard.
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Wednesday, January 28, 2015

STEVEN CROWDER INTERVIEWS ISLAMO-NAZI IMAM CHOUDARY



◼ This week Steven Crowder interviewed the Islamo-Nazi Anjem Choudary. - The Right Scoop

CROWDER: “Who carries out Shariah in the world most closely to your beliefs? Which country?”
CHOUDARY: “Well I don’t think any of them do quite frankly but I believe that what is the project in Syria and Iraq and places in Moli, Somalia, etc are doing quite well....
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Marco Rubio is emerging as the party favorite and it's not hard to see why.

◼ The writing is on the wall: The GOP will be an interventionist party in 2016 - NOAH ROTHMAN/HotAir

...He is a freshman senator, a career legislator, and not especially friendly to libertarian priorities like reforming the National Security Agency’s surveillance practices. He is positioning himself as the aggressive foreign policy candidate. The donor class is betting that, by 2016, Americans will have soured on Obama’s laissez-faire approach to great power politics and his incessant meddling in minor, low-stakes conflicts around the world. They seem to think voters will be attracted to a candidate who will not allow conflicts like the Syrian civil war to metastasize and conflagrate into a global crisis. At least, they don’t want to cede that ground entirely to Hillary Clinton who will also run as an interventionist improving on the Obama model.

For libertarian purists, the lamentable verdict on American retrenchment is in: It has been attempted, and it has failed. It’s time to go back to basics.







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Courage. Michelle Obama navigates limits on women in Saudi Arabia

◼ For first lady Michelle Obama, just a few hours in Saudi Arabia were enough to illustrate the stark limitations under which Saudi women live. - AP

Joining President Barack Obama for a condolence visit after the death of the King Abdullah, Mrs. Obama stepped off of Air Force One wearing long pants and a long, brightly colored jacket — but no headscarf.

Under the kingdom's strict dress code for women, Saudi females are required to wear a headscarf and loose, black robes in public. Most women in Saudi Arabia cover their hair and face with a veil known as the niqab....

Saudi Arabia imposes many restrictions on women on the strict interpretation of Islamic Shariah (shah-REE'-yuh) law known as Wahhabism. Genders are strictly segregated. Women are banned from driving, although there have been campaigns in recent years to lift that ban. Guardianship laws also require women to get permission from a male relative to travel, get married, enroll in higher education or undergo certain surgical procedures.







◼ Good for her: Michelle Obama passes on headscarf during trip to Saudi Arabia - HotAir
On Twitter, Saudis used a hashtag that translates to “#Michelle_Obama_Immodest” or “#Michelle_Obama_NotVeiled” to chastise the first lady for being disrespectful to Saudi traditions.
Saudi Arabia has a strict dress code for women, who are instructed to wear black robes and head coverings at all times in public, though visitors to the country are not required to abide by the dress code.
The headscarf is a less restrictive version of the veil but, per Ayaan Hirsi Ali, they’re both badges of inferiority:
“The veil deliberately marks women as private and restricted property, nonpersons. The veil sets women apart from men and apart from the world; it restrains them, confines them, grooms them for docility. A mind can be cramped just as a body may be, and a Muslim veil blinkers both your vision and your destiny. It is the mark of a kind of apartheid, not the domination of a race but of a sex.”
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Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Chairman Gowdy Questions State Department and CIA at Benghazi Select Committee Hearing



◼ In related news: “Smoking Gun” Benghazi Documents Reveal What State Department Officials Knew All Along…
Read more at http://www.westernjournalism.com/smoking-gun-benghazi-documents-reveal-state-department-officials-knew-along/#VvuKF5xoApLfBHu1.99 - Western Journalism

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton stated that the DSCC “clearly knew in real time that a full-fledged terrorist attack was taking place on September 11 at the U.S. compound in Benghazi, and the American people deserve to be told the truth.”



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Obama Backs Campaign to Defeat Netanyahu in Israeli Elections

◼ Caroline Glick picked up on one article the Israeli left-wing paper Ha’aretz didn’t bother translating into English that details Obama’s involvement in the upcoming Israeli elections. A summary of the article is provided by IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis): - SUSAN L.M. GOLDBERG/PJMedia
Haaretz reporter Roi Arad revealed in an article in the Hebrew edition today [January 26] that the foreign funded organization, “One Voice”, is bankrolling the V-2015 campaign to defeat Binyamin Netanyahu’s national camp in the March 2015 Knesset Elections.

One indication of the generous financing is that it has now flown in a team of five American campaign experts (including Jeremy Bird, the Obama campaign’s national field director) who will run the campaign out of offices taking up the ground floor of a Tel Aviv office building.

V-2015 is careful not to support a specific party – rather “just not Bibi”. As such, the foreign funds pouring into the campaign are not subject to Israel’s campaign finance laws.
◼ Foreign Funding Bankrolls Anti-Netanyahu Campaign – Flies in 5-Man Obama Team - IMRA

◼ Team Bam is going after Bibi - Obama’s Top Election Aide Now Working To Defeat Netanyahu - Neil Munro/Daily Caller

...There’s little or no chance that Bird would work against Netanyahu if Obama didn’t want Netanyahu defeated in the March election.

◼ OBAMA CAMPAIGN TEAM ARRIVES IN ISRAEL TO DEFEAT NETANYAHU IN MARCH ELECTIONS - Breitbart

Just days after the Obama White House accused House Speaker John Boehner of “breaking protocol” by inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress, a team of up to five Obama campaign operatives has reportedly arrived in Israel to lead a campaign to defeat the Israeli Prime Minister in upcoming national elections scheduled for March 17.

The anti-Netanyahu, left wing Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports a group called “One Voice,” reportedly funded by American donors, is paying for the Obama campaign team. That group is reportedly being led by Obama’s 2012 field director Jeremy Bird.

◼ Obama Admin Fuming Mad: Netanyahu Will ‘Pay a Price’ for Accepting Congress’ Invitation to Speak - TPNN
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“Know also that we will cut off your head in the White House, and transform America into a Muslim Province.”

◼ ISIS fighter in new beheading video

ISIS threatens Obama, Japanese and Jordanian hostages in new online messages - new, grisly beheading video from ISIS includes a direct threat against President Obama and is one of at least three new warnings from the terror organization, including pledges to kill Jordanian and Japanese hostages if a hostage held by Jordan is not freed.

In a new online video discovered by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) on Tuesday, three Islamic State fighters stand behind a kneeling Kurdish fighter as one of the extremists launches into a diatribe against the U.S. and other Western nations.

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Time-Lapse Captures Blizzard's Bluster in NYC



◼ Blizzard '15 NBC





DRUDGE HEADLINES:
HISTORIC
SNOW JOB...
Meteorologist apologizes...
Weather Service to 'evaluate modeling'...
Residents Lash Out...
'TRAVEL BAN' NEW NORM...
LIVE: TIMES SQUARE CAM...
6,000+ flights canceled...
Grocery stores cleaned out...
CHRISTIE: Be Home By 9...
Mayor Thanks Sharpton for 'Climate Change' Work...
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Meet the New Victorians



◼ By almost any standard of behavior, Millennials are more virtuous than the previous generation. - Michael Barone/National Review

Public policymakers and political pundits tend to focus on problems — understandably, because if things are going right they aren’t thought to need attention. Yet positive developments can teach us things as well, when, for reasons not necessarily clear, great masses of people start to behave more constructively.

One such trend is the better behavior of the young Americans of today compared to those 25 years ago. Almost no one anticipated it, the exception being William Strauss and Neil Howe in their 1991 book, Generations, who named Americans born after 1981 the Millennial generation and predicted that “the tiny boys and girls now playing with Lego blocks” — and those then still unborn — would become “the nation’s next great Civic generation.”

◼ Good news: Youth today are demonstrating a decidedly virtuous cycle. - Human Events

Public policymakers and political pundits tend to focus on problems — understandably, because if things are going right they aren’t thought to need attention. Yet positive developments can teach us things as well, when, for reasons not necessarily clear, great masses of people start to behave more constructively.
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For a lot of progressives, government surveillance of citizens without a warrant is only a problem when Republicans are in charge.



◼ The President Who Boasts of His Love for Privacy Is Monitoring Your Car - Jim Geraghty/National Review

What Obama said in the State of the Union address:
As Americans, we cherish our civil liberties — and we need to uphold that commitment if we want maximum cooperation from other countries and industry in our fight against terrorist networks. So while some have moved on from the debates over our surveillance programs, I haven’t. As promised, our intelligence agencies have worked hard, with the recommendations of privacy advocates, to increase transparency and build more safeguards against potential abuse. And next month, we’ll issue a report on how we’re keeping our promise to keep our country safe while strengthening privacy.
You knew he was full of it, you just didn’t know how much. This morning we learn:
The Justice Department has been building a national database to track in real time the movement of vehicles around the U.S., a secret domestic intelligence-gathering program that scans and stores hundreds of millions of records about motorists, according to current and former officials and government documents.
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Foreign Firm Funding U.S. Green Groups Tied to State-Owned Russian Oil Company

◼ Executives at a Bermudan firm funneling money to U.S. environmentalists run investment funds with Russian tycoons - Lachlan Markay /Washington Free Beacon

A shadowy Bermudan company that has funneled tens of millions of dollars to anti-fracking environmentalist groups in the United States is run by executives with deep ties to Russian oil interests and offshore money laundering schemes involving members of President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.

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Report: Bergdahl to Be Charged With Desertion, WH ‘Battling Behind Scenes’ to Stop Charges

◼ Video: Army has charged Bergdahl with desertion, but … Update: NBC confirms charges - HotAir

Last night, retired Lt. Col. Tony Schaffer told Bill O’Reilly that the Army has charged Bergdahl with desertion, but that the White House — and specifically Ben Rhodes, the national-security adviser/speechwriter to Barack Obama — has pressured the Pentagon to delay the release of that news (via Jeff Dunetz):



◼ The White House just wants to make the situation to go away. - Washington Free Beacon











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A Huge Void in Our Hearts


◼ FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE - Rush

Ladies and gentlemen, indulge me for just a few minutes here. We all here at the EIB Network are experiencing a huge void in all of our hearts here today because of a death, one of our staff members, the very first staff member to join me 27 years ago in New York. Christopher Carson, "Kit," my trusted chief of staff, aide-de-camp, passed away today at 8 a.m. at his home in New Jersey after what really was a four-year battle, really valiant, never-seen-anything-like-it battle with essentially brain cancer. He thought that it was beaten back two years ago, but it came back again last fall with a vengeance....

I remember I flew up for the wedding, and I landed there. The car is taking me, and Snerdley is walking to the venue. I asked him, "What, did you come from the train station or something?" So I stopped, and Snerdley got in the car. We drove to the wedding, and Kit just couldn't believe it. Honestly, this was so sentimentally the truth. He could not believe that he had actually convinced this woman to marry him -- and he never stopped looking at her that way. It was really special. It was a fairytale. Exactly like a fairytale. When the preacher made it official and pronounced them man and wife, he turned to the audience and started jumping up and down doing fist pumps and started shouting, "Yeah! Yeah! Did you hear? She said, 'Yes!'" or something. it was just ... I don't know.

He loved life so much, and it was cut short.
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The lure of something for nothing grows as morality crumbles


◼ Obama’s Free Stuff Army - Robert Knight/Washington Times

Since someone has to pay for these expensive, new entitlements to the Free Stuff Army, Mr. Obama has proposed yet another “tax the rich” scheme that, if enacted (which is unlikely) would eventually plunder working-class families. To liberals, that’s what tax “reform” is all about.

◼ The plunder of society’s moral capital. - Discussion at Lucianne

Fresh from offering “free” health care, “free” phones and “free” food to the masses, he’s upped the bribery to “free” community college tuition and “free” child care.
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Monday, January 26, 2015

Obamacare program costs $50,000 in taxpayer money for every American who gets health insurance, says bombshell budget report

◼ Stunning figure comes from Congressional Budget Office report that revised cost estimates for the next 10 years - Daily Mail

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"A case with major implications for the future of Obamacare"

◼ Here comes the next Obamacare showdown - Philip Klein/Washington Examiner @philipklein

If the U.S. Supreme Court rules in June that health insurance subsidies for millions of Americans are illegal, Republicans better not be caught flat-footed, because President Obama will be ready to pounce, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told the Washington Examiner in an interview.

“As the president said to me in the White House [earlier this month], he said, ‘There are five million people [who receive subsidies through the federal exchange] — and I know who they are.’ He spoke like a community organizer who was going to try to use those people that he has actually caused significant damage to by not applying the law,” Barrasso said from his senate office.

The Wyoming senator has of late been something of a Paul Revere of the Republican Senate majority, shouting, “King vs. Burwell is coming! King vs. Burwell is coming!”

...If justices invalidate the IRS rule, then it would mean that millions of Americans in up to 37 states that did not set up their own exchanges would lose their insurance subsidies and be exposed to the full sticker price of Obamacare plans. On the flip side, taxpayers could stand to save hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidy money that would no longer have to be paid out.

A ruling would also have broader ramifications for the healthcare law. For instance, Obamacare’s fines against employers that do not offer health insurance coverage are triggered when a worker claims government subsidies to purchase insurance on an exchange — but in states where workers can no longer legally receive those subsidies, then there are no fines. The employer mandate, thus, is effectively dead in those states.
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