'Once when I was lost, I saw a policeman, and asked him to help me find my parents. I said to him, "Do you think we'll ever find them?" He said, "I don't know kid. There's so many places they can hide."
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Humor Is Good Medicine For Us In the Trenches - Rodney Dangerfield
What is needed around here is some humor given the living nightmare that is our government. Rodney Dangerfield at his best -
'Once when I was lost, I saw a policeman, and asked him to help me find my parents. I said to him, "Do you think we'll ever find them?" He said, "I don't know kid. There's so many places they can hide."
'Once when I was lost, I saw a policeman, and asked him to help me find my parents. I said to him, "Do you think we'll ever find them?" He said, "I don't know kid. There's so many places they can hide."
Yard Work At It's Best : What Next?
To anyone that believes they are the champions of the hedge clippers has to take a back seat to who ever did this.
The Clinton's War On the Truth : The Truth? What's That?
What is the truth and what and how it applies to the Clintons?
Having Hillary send out Baba to campaign for her is an open invitation to understand that such an action tells us yet another story abut who Bill is and his connection to Hillary as his wife and his sexual criminal actions against dozens of women. Hillary, over the years, rose to the occasion attacked Bill's victims. destroying their lives with vicious character assassinations. Hillary and Bill are a team.
History is funny thing. No matter how hard one tries to lie about it, it's still history. It doesn't go away. Well, maybe for those with corrupted DNA, reality is something altogether different.
But now the audacity of the mainstream media demanding their is no connection between what Bill has done to women over they years, and what Hillary did to protect him, and now how the media is demanding we can't make any connection between these two resulting collateral damage to Hillary, is beyond just bias, this is a breech of the first amendment and criminally an attack on the American people's intelligence.
But given that the people did elect Mr Objma twice knowing full well who he is and what he has done to damage this country, does beg the question of the ability of the American people to make rational decisions, even when those decision directly effect their personal security.
The 'Long Blue Line' Between Community & Criminals : Who Knew?
Something to think about for the black community - the only protection they have against those that what to marginalize them is the police. And yet they are demonized as killers and haters of black people.
True, some in the 'long blue line' are criminal, but there are far more in the 'long black line' that is doing everything in their power to keep them intimidated and poor so they have no other options for success other then to cower in fear for having the audacity to believe they have free speech. Chicago?
If this sounds familiar, look no further then the Muslim community where they hide in fear of being killed if they speak out against the jihad that seeks to destroy the American society demanding Islamist Shreya Law. What are the options for the Muslims?
In reality the only option that these communities have is to stand and deliver no matter the consequences. It's about freedom to chose. Once this is lost, all is lost. Remember those that stood against unbelievable odds back in 1776? They paid for their ideas with their lives..
"Freedom means having nothing else to lose".
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Hillary's New Man On the Street - Baba : Collateral Connections
I find it interesting that so many among us cannot connect the dots that Baba's sexual activities does have collateral effect on Hillary as they are a team and they have always have been.
While Billy is sexually abusing women while he held public office, Hillary ran interference to shield him from public scrutiny.
So why is it that Billy isn't suppose to seen as Hillary's operative? A select member of her campaign and a sign post for all to see what direction she will be taking our country while she and Bill steal the taxpayers and other fools blind.
Choose To Be Used AND Abused : Bernie And Hillary
Given the message here, and if the truth be known by the millions that live in la la land of lies and deception dropped on them by the progressive socialists liberal democrat media that toes the line for the politics of the democrat national committee, why would they, the people being abused by these high office criminals vote to bring more harm to themselves and their country?
Is this so hard to understand?? Is this like rocket science? These two, among others in the collective, are right up front about who they are, they aren't trying to hide what they plan to do to us all, and they even explain how they will changes our society into a socialist nightmare they firmly believe is for our own good. And yet, the millions line up ready to drive themselves into the oblivion of poverty and pestilence .
How does this happen in the greatest country in the world? Is it stupidity, laziness or just plain ignorance? Worse maybe, it's a collective mental illness.
How Culture Is Debased by Liberal Secularism(Video) : Eric Metaxas Explains
Great video on how culture determines behavior and by not having adequate exposure to a free exchange of ideas, the culture has been stolen and debased.
The main stream media has become a complete functioning arm of the progressive socialist liberal democrat secular collective, and thereby manages what many in the population ever hear or see concerning religious teachings, and therefore know very little about how religions can and do provide stability for a vibrant and open culture.
Eric Metaxas Explains Why a Secular, Liberal Culture Is Bad for America
Bestselling author and talk radio host Eric Metaxas calls religious freedom the core of America’s freedoms.
In an interview with The Daily Signal, Metaxas addresses why a secular America is inconsistent with the Founders’ vision and how culture has far-reaching consequences in politics. We also discuss the role of undercover filmmaker David Daleiden and how his videos of Planned Parenthood have reshaped the abortion debate.
Unfair Courts Identifited - Listed : "Hellhole" Court Systems Unfair
I wonder why the Objma administration is against Tort Reform? Could be that trail lawyers are one of the progressive liberal democrat's biggest donators to their political campaign coffers after the labor unions and public employee unions?
Here Are the 9 ‘Most Unfair’ Courts for Civil Lawsuits
Melissa Quinn / @MelissaQuinn97
In nine courts around the country, trial lawyers and judges work together in extracting large sums of money from people who may not deserve it, according to a new report. By taking advantage of tort laws, the ease with which civil justice cases are tried in these “judicial hellholes” can lead to higher costs of medical services and health care, and goods and services, and have a negative impact on innovation, the American Tort Reform Association found.
The group examined courts across the nation and determined which civil courts, or “judicial hellholes,” were the most egregious in applying “laws and court procedures in an unfair and unbalanced manner.” Many of the civil courts singled out by the organization lean heavily in favor of the plaintiff, according to the report, and demonstrate what the American Tort Reform Association views as a bias against defendants in civil cases. “When we’re talking about free markets and economic prosperity, one of the biggest drags in terms of cronyism is where you’ve got lawyers and judges in various towns across the country that are in collusion to use their legal authority to unfairly extract money from people who don’t deserve it using the tort law," Andrew Kloster, a legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal. “That raises costs across the board for everybody.”
The American Tort Reform Association advocates for reforming the civil justice system and warns that abusing tort laws can lead to increases costs in a variety of industries. “Tort reform is an attempt to return the tort system to its economically efficient foundations of helping to keep private wrongs out of the criminal system, to cheaply and quickly adjudicate private wrong to allow business growth,” Kloster said. “When you have a place without tort reform, you have have a drag on that growth. It’s a hidden tax.”
Specifically in the realm of health care, Kloster pointed to the effects that medical malpractice lawsuits can have on the price of insurance and medical services. Doctors must have insurance to protect from lawsuits involving patients who may not be able to prove that their harm was related to the one doctor’s procedure. The ease with which patients can bring lawsuits against their former doctors—specifically in “judicial hellholes”—ultimately affects consumers. “To account for the fact that there are these ‘judicial hellholes’ across the country, insurance companies raise the rates for covering doctors, and that’s passed along to customers,” Kloster said.
In part through its list, the American Tort Reform Association also seeks to push back on the influence trial lawyers have on state legislatures. “[O]ur ‘Judicial Hellholes’ program since 2002 has been documenting troubling developments in jurisdictions where civil court judges systematically apply laws and court procedures in an unfair and unbalanced manner, generally to the disadvantage of defendants,” Tiger Joyce, president of the American Tort Reform Association, said in a statement.
Here are the “judicial hellholes” identified by the American Tort Reform Association.
Here Are the 9 ‘Most Unfair’ Courts for Civil Lawsuits
Melissa Quinn / @MelissaQuinn97
In nine courts around the country, trial lawyers and judges work together in extracting large sums of money from people who may not deserve it, according to a new report. By taking advantage of tort laws, the ease with which civil justice cases are tried in these “judicial hellholes” can lead to higher costs of medical services and health care, and goods and services, and have a negative impact on innovation, the American Tort Reform Association found.
The group examined courts across the nation and determined which civil courts, or “judicial hellholes,” were the most egregious in applying “laws and court procedures in an unfair and unbalanced manner.” Many of the civil courts singled out by the organization lean heavily in favor of the plaintiff, according to the report, and demonstrate what the American Tort Reform Association views as a bias against defendants in civil cases. “When we’re talking about free markets and economic prosperity, one of the biggest drags in terms of cronyism is where you’ve got lawyers and judges in various towns across the country that are in collusion to use their legal authority to unfairly extract money from people who don’t deserve it using the tort law," Andrew Kloster, a legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal. “That raises costs across the board for everybody.”
The American Tort Reform Association advocates for reforming the civil justice system and warns that abusing tort laws can lead to increases costs in a variety of industries. “Tort reform is an attempt to return the tort system to its economically efficient foundations of helping to keep private wrongs out of the criminal system, to cheaply and quickly adjudicate private wrong to allow business growth,” Kloster said. “When you have a place without tort reform, you have have a drag on that growth. It’s a hidden tax.”
Specifically in the realm of health care, Kloster pointed to the effects that medical malpractice lawsuits can have on the price of insurance and medical services. Doctors must have insurance to protect from lawsuits involving patients who may not be able to prove that their harm was related to the one doctor’s procedure. The ease with which patients can bring lawsuits against their former doctors—specifically in “judicial hellholes”—ultimately affects consumers. “To account for the fact that there are these ‘judicial hellholes’ across the country, insurance companies raise the rates for covering doctors, and that’s passed along to customers,” Kloster said.
In part through its list, the American Tort Reform Association also seeks to push back on the influence trial lawyers have on state legislatures. “[O]ur ‘Judicial Hellholes’ program since 2002 has been documenting troubling developments in jurisdictions where civil court judges systematically apply laws and court procedures in an unfair and unbalanced manner, generally to the disadvantage of defendants,” Tiger Joyce, president of the American Tort Reform Association, said in a statement.
Here are the “judicial hellholes” identified by the American Tort Reform Association.
- California
- New York City Asbestos Litigation
- Florida
- Missouri
- Madison County, Ill.
- Louisiana
- Hidalgo County, Texas
- Newport News, Va.
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
Illegal Immigration Surging : Mr Objma Promising Action
To think that Mr Objma will do anything to system the flow of illegals into our country has to be ready to accept that insanity that is the new norm for all government agencies.
As the progressives socialist liberal democrats have stated this week trying to explain Mr Objma's failure to stem the chaos around the world and domestically as, 'meetings are scheduled to find solutions'. 'See, are hearts are in the right place, we really really care'.
After 7 years of progressive socialist liberal democrats in control of the government and the resulting chaos everywhere, is it a good idea to elect more progressive liberal democrats? Think about this by next November.
What’s Driving the Latest Surge of Illegal Immigration From Central America
Josh Siegel / @SiegelScribe
In a reprise of the humanitarian crisis of summer 2014, rising numbers of Central American children and families are crossing the Rio Grande Valley into Texas, causing a reckoning over whether the U.S. is facing a “new normal” of illegal migration from countries facing violence and poverty.
Though the U.S. is better prepared to handle the influx compared to last time, immigration experts caution that the problem is likely to sustain beyond a surge, with many of the cases from last year yet to be adjudicated in overburdened immigration courts and more coming.
“It’s honestly the next chapter in an ongoing crisis,” said Wendy Young, president of Kids in Need of Defense, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that represents unaccompanied children in deportation proceedings. “We are wondering what comes next. There is a reality to this situation that we need to wrap our head around. ”Here’s what’s coming now: In October and November, more than 10,500 children—mostly from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras—crossed the U.S.-Mexico border by themselves, a 106-percent increase compared to the same period last year. In addition, more than 12,500 family units (usually a mother with her children) have come that way since Oct. 1, representing a 173-percent increase over the same time last year. These numbers are still smaller than the summer of 2014, when more than 10,600 unaccompanied minors crossed the border just in June.
But the spikes are causing alarm because crossings of the southwest border had declined after Mexico began better enforcing its borders—with help from the U.S.—and the Obama administration pursued a public awareness campaign in Central America discouraging people from migrating. The timing is also surprising because peaks in illegal immigration usually occur during the summer, when the weather is more bearable.
The positive trends have proven temporary impediments to opportunistic smugglers who have found new routes into the U.S. and desperate people willing to risk more for the chance at a better life.
“This may be the new normal,” said Marc Rosenblum, the deputy director of the U.S. immigration policy program at the Migration Policy Institute. “Everything that was going on in 2014 that caused people to flee is as bad or worse now. Violence in El Salvador is worse, the whole region is amidst a two-year drought, more families are experiencing food insecurity, there’s political turbulence in Guatemala. Those are strong pressures that will cause people to try to get here.”
Under pressure to respond to the surge more efficiently than last time, the Obama administration is adding at least 1,400 beds for unaccompanied children, opening three shelters this month, including two in Texas, according to The New York Times. After children from Central America are apprehended by the Border Patrol, the Department of Health and Human Services is required to shelter them until it can find a sponsor in the U.S.—usually a parent or other family—for them to stay with. In addition, an omnibus government spending bill signed earlier this month contains money for the hiring of 55 immigration judges to handle a backlog of 463,627 pending cases (as of November) in immigration courts nationwide, according to Human Rights Watch.
All Central American children must have their cases heard by an immigration judge.
Family units get a hearing before a judge too if they pass a “credible fear” interview with an immigration official pledging to their hope for asylum. According to Rosenblum, half of the cases that began in immigration courts in 2014 are still pending, and two-thirds of cases brought this year are unresolved. “We still have such poor capacity to quickly adjudicate claims,” Rosenblum said. “Waits at immigration court remain very long. Very few are deported back, and few cases are resolved quickly.” Border officials argue that a factor fueling the current surge is a reduction in detention of women and children required by federal court rulings from this year.
The decisions found that two detention centers in Texas that the Obama administration opened last summer failed to meet the standards of a 1997 settlement agreement for facilities housing children.
While the government is appealing, an official with the Department of Homeland Security told The Daily Signal that the administration is taking steps to comply with the order, and that “family residential centers are more and more functioning as processing centers for interviews and screenings.”
Though the official could not comment on the nature of the compliance due to the ongoing litigation, Rosenblum and other immigration experts say the government is detaining families for less time, releasing them in three weeks or less to pursue their asylum claims in immigration court. Chris Cabrera, the vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union for Border Patrol agents, told The Daily Signal that immigrants from Central America seem to be responding to the new detention procedures. “I would say it’s a major reason we’re having the surge because people know we won’t detain them and are going to release them,” said Cabrera, who is a Border Patrol agent stationed in McAllen, Texas. Cabrera said the women and children usually seek out the Border Patrol, rather than hide from them, to ask for asylum protection. He said nearly all of them are claiming they have a credible fear of returning to their home country.
Cabrera contends that the extra resources required to process the women and children leave officers without the manpower to secure the border, although the Texas National Guard is still patrolling the Rio Grande Valley in an extension of a mission that began last year. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, has also ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to increase its patrols at the border. “To say this is the new normal is the wrong answer,” Cabrera said, responding to officials who have referred to the surge this way. “It’s an admission of defeat that this is what we should accept. I don’t accept it. This should not be the new normal, and we need to secure this area.”
In a move to bolster immigration enforcement, the Obama administration next year will begin to conduct a series of raids targeting Central American families who have come to the U.S. illegally since the beginning of 2014.
According to The Washington Post, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents would target adults and children who have already been ordered removed from the U.S. by an immigration judge—meaning they did not qualify for asylum—for deportation. Most of these people likely came here during the 2014 border surge. More than 100,000 families from Central America have arrived in the U.S. since last year.
David Inserra, a homeland security expert at The Heritage Foundation, believes the Obama administration’s plan to deport certain Central American families is meant to disrupt the momentum of the latest surge. “People see that a prior wave came to the U.S. illegally, and many of them have not been removed,” Inserra said. “That’s why I think the Obama administration is saying, ‘Something is off.’ When there is greater enforcement, you are discouraging more people from coming illegally.”
Immigration experts insist that the challenge is deeper than security. “It’s hard to stop by just catching and deporting people,” Rosenblum said. “The answer in the long run is to help Central America fix itself.”
Seeking a more enduring solution, Congress and the Obama administration included $750 million in year-end spending to help Central American countries combat poverty, gang violence, trafficking, and government corruption, and to improve border security and social programs. Michelle Brane, the director of the Migrant Rights and Justice Program at the Women’s Refugee Commission, called the aid to Central America a “positive step.” She says two-thirds of Central American women with children try to flee internally before trying to come to the U.S. “It’s a pretty grueling journey,” Brane said. “A lot of people are saying, ‘Why would a mother put their child through that?’ Look, I am a mom. You don’t take kids on a horrible, dangerous journey unless you feel there’s no choice.”
As the progressives socialist liberal democrats have stated this week trying to explain Mr Objma's failure to stem the chaos around the world and domestically as, 'meetings are scheduled to find solutions'. 'See, are hearts are in the right place, we really really care'.
After 7 years of progressive socialist liberal democrats in control of the government and the resulting chaos everywhere, is it a good idea to elect more progressive liberal democrats? Think about this by next November.
What’s Driving the Latest Surge of Illegal Immigration From Central America
Josh Siegel / @SiegelScribe
In a reprise of the humanitarian crisis of summer 2014, rising numbers of Central American children and families are crossing the Rio Grande Valley into Texas, causing a reckoning over whether the U.S. is facing a “new normal” of illegal migration from countries facing violence and poverty.
Though the U.S. is better prepared to handle the influx compared to last time, immigration experts caution that the problem is likely to sustain beyond a surge, with many of the cases from last year yet to be adjudicated in overburdened immigration courts and more coming.
“It’s honestly the next chapter in an ongoing crisis,” said Wendy Young, president of Kids in Need of Defense, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that represents unaccompanied children in deportation proceedings. “We are wondering what comes next. There is a reality to this situation that we need to wrap our head around. ”Here’s what’s coming now: In October and November, more than 10,500 children—mostly from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras—crossed the U.S.-Mexico border by themselves, a 106-percent increase compared to the same period last year. In addition, more than 12,500 family units (usually a mother with her children) have come that way since Oct. 1, representing a 173-percent increase over the same time last year. These numbers are still smaller than the summer of 2014, when more than 10,600 unaccompanied minors crossed the border just in June.
But the spikes are causing alarm because crossings of the southwest border had declined after Mexico began better enforcing its borders—with help from the U.S.—and the Obama administration pursued a public awareness campaign in Central America discouraging people from migrating. The timing is also surprising because peaks in illegal immigration usually occur during the summer, when the weather is more bearable.
The positive trends have proven temporary impediments to opportunistic smugglers who have found new routes into the U.S. and desperate people willing to risk more for the chance at a better life.
“This may be the new normal,” said Marc Rosenblum, the deputy director of the U.S. immigration policy program at the Migration Policy Institute. “Everything that was going on in 2014 that caused people to flee is as bad or worse now. Violence in El Salvador is worse, the whole region is amidst a two-year drought, more families are experiencing food insecurity, there’s political turbulence in Guatemala. Those are strong pressures that will cause people to try to get here.”
Under pressure to respond to the surge more efficiently than last time, the Obama administration is adding at least 1,400 beds for unaccompanied children, opening three shelters this month, including two in Texas, according to The New York Times. After children from Central America are apprehended by the Border Patrol, the Department of Health and Human Services is required to shelter them until it can find a sponsor in the U.S.—usually a parent or other family—for them to stay with. In addition, an omnibus government spending bill signed earlier this month contains money for the hiring of 55 immigration judges to handle a backlog of 463,627 pending cases (as of November) in immigration courts nationwide, according to Human Rights Watch.
All Central American children must have their cases heard by an immigration judge.
Family units get a hearing before a judge too if they pass a “credible fear” interview with an immigration official pledging to their hope for asylum. According to Rosenblum, half of the cases that began in immigration courts in 2014 are still pending, and two-thirds of cases brought this year are unresolved. “We still have such poor capacity to quickly adjudicate claims,” Rosenblum said. “Waits at immigration court remain very long. Very few are deported back, and few cases are resolved quickly.” Border officials argue that a factor fueling the current surge is a reduction in detention of women and children required by federal court rulings from this year.
The decisions found that two detention centers in Texas that the Obama administration opened last summer failed to meet the standards of a 1997 settlement agreement for facilities housing children.
While the government is appealing, an official with the Department of Homeland Security told The Daily Signal that the administration is taking steps to comply with the order, and that “family residential centers are more and more functioning as processing centers for interviews and screenings.”
Though the official could not comment on the nature of the compliance due to the ongoing litigation, Rosenblum and other immigration experts say the government is detaining families for less time, releasing them in three weeks or less to pursue their asylum claims in immigration court. Chris Cabrera, the vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union for Border Patrol agents, told The Daily Signal that immigrants from Central America seem to be responding to the new detention procedures. “I would say it’s a major reason we’re having the surge because people know we won’t detain them and are going to release them,” said Cabrera, who is a Border Patrol agent stationed in McAllen, Texas. Cabrera said the women and children usually seek out the Border Patrol, rather than hide from them, to ask for asylum protection. He said nearly all of them are claiming they have a credible fear of returning to their home country.
Cabrera contends that the extra resources required to process the women and children leave officers without the manpower to secure the border, although the Texas National Guard is still patrolling the Rio Grande Valley in an extension of a mission that began last year. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, has also ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to increase its patrols at the border. “To say this is the new normal is the wrong answer,” Cabrera said, responding to officials who have referred to the surge this way. “It’s an admission of defeat that this is what we should accept. I don’t accept it. This should not be the new normal, and we need to secure this area.”
In a move to bolster immigration enforcement, the Obama administration next year will begin to conduct a series of raids targeting Central American families who have come to the U.S. illegally since the beginning of 2014.
According to The Washington Post, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents would target adults and children who have already been ordered removed from the U.S. by an immigration judge—meaning they did not qualify for asylum—for deportation. Most of these people likely came here during the 2014 border surge. More than 100,000 families from Central America have arrived in the U.S. since last year.
David Inserra, a homeland security expert at The Heritage Foundation, believes the Obama administration’s plan to deport certain Central American families is meant to disrupt the momentum of the latest surge. “People see that a prior wave came to the U.S. illegally, and many of them have not been removed,” Inserra said. “That’s why I think the Obama administration is saying, ‘Something is off.’ When there is greater enforcement, you are discouraging more people from coming illegally.”
Immigration experts insist that the challenge is deeper than security. “It’s hard to stop by just catching and deporting people,” Rosenblum said. “The answer in the long run is to help Central America fix itself.”
Seeking a more enduring solution, Congress and the Obama administration included $750 million in year-end spending to help Central American countries combat poverty, gang violence, trafficking, and government corruption, and to improve border security and social programs. Michelle Brane, the director of the Migrant Rights and Justice Program at the Women’s Refugee Commission, called the aid to Central America a “positive step.” She says two-thirds of Central American women with children try to flee internally before trying to come to the U.S. “It’s a pretty grueling journey,” Brane said. “A lot of people are saying, ‘Why would a mother put their child through that?’ Look, I am a mom. You don’t take kids on a horrible, dangerous journey unless you feel there’s no choice.”
The Votes Are In, Polls Show First Place for Wife of the Year!
I guess it time to had out the awards that matter in this dangerous world to recognize those individuals that have contributed to the stability that is required to maintain, not only the national social integrity, but to bring some desperately needed stability to the home.
Here, as nearly all of the polls around the country have shown, is the unanimous first place choice for Wife of The Year!
Here, as nearly all of the polls around the country have shown, is the unanimous first place choice for Wife of The Year!
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
America Burns While Mr Objam Jets On Vacation : "I Am The Greatest"
He has shown mental delusions of grandeur and has acted on those mental defects - he is psychotic to the point that what ever he says is law. His words are law. But he himself has refuted this by saying what he says is "just words" as he moves the population into a state of profound obedience and staging ignorance of realty.
I think Mr Objma has been listening to Muhammad Ali too much, "I am the greatest".
Hillary Has Sleepless Nights : Comic Relief
Did it matter that the Clintons had more the 22 scandals while they were in the White House for 8 years that cause her sleepless nights? And their criminal efforts to gather $billions for the Clinton Crime Family /Foundations while Secretary of State causing her to have sleepless nights? Oh and her private email server used to hide her criminal actives cause sleeps nights from concern she was breaking the law? Yikes.
Hillary sleeps like a baby after a full day of satisfying indulgences. She is a progressive socialist liberal democrat in the first order or worse if that's possible. But given the history of the Clintons, there is no limit to their ambitions for money and power. They are moral less, soulless and shameless, their motto is, as it is for most progressive democrats for getting and keeping power, 'by any means necessary'. There are no limits.
DOJ Stops Sharing From Seized Property/Cash : DOJ Budget Short Falls???
Interesting topic. On the one hand, local authorities have been supplementing their budgets with their share of the forfeitures, but it seems the prospects for abuse is or could be made worse as the amount of money that can be taken increase, even if the law to do so doesn't cover all methods in that collection.
But it's a good why, under the law, to provide the needed cash to support local law enforcement agencies, but at the same time it seems a slippery slope for abuse as well. Then to, as the Objma administration making its move to stop sharing the proceeds from this endeavor, and taking it all back to Washington, claiming that their budget short falls require the DOJ to end the sharing raises questions. Remember, Paul Ryan's 1.4 $trillion dollar budget gave the progressive socialist democrats everything they wanted and much more.
And given how the Objma administration has shown it has no limits as to how it operates, whether within the law or in abject criminal actions, the justice departments move to take all of the forfeitures for themselves doesn't pass the smell test.
And given the history of Mr Objma over the last 7 years, this actions to take all of the proceeds back to Washington, leaving the states high and dry is just business as usual. Destroying states rights, issuing hundreds if not thousands of useless regulations to reduce personal options for success and freedom, and the outright unconstitutional actions for Mr Objma's "fundamental change" to stay on track is the order of the day.
Justice Department Halts Program Allowing Law Enforcement to Split Proceeds of Seized Cash, Property
Melissa Quinn / @MelissaQuinn97
The Justice Department is halting a controversial program that allows law enforcement to keep most of the proceeds of cash and property they seize from Americans under federal law, sometimes without charging anyone with a crime. Now the law enforcement community, which benefits from the program, is pushing back against the Justice Department, saying its decision could have negative consequences on public safety.
Just days before Christmas, the Justice Department announced suspension of its “equitable sharing” program. In a letter to state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies, the department said it is deferring payments to the agencies because of cuts to its budget, deepened in the spending package passed by Congress earlier this month. “The department does not take this step lightly,” M. Kendall Day, head of the Justice Department’s asset forfeiture and money laundering division, wrote in the letter, adding:
Under equitable sharing, local and state law enforcement agencies seize property and cash under federal forfeiture laws and receive a sizeable portion—up to 80 percent—of the proceeds from what they say are assets tied to crimes. Opponents of civil forfeiture view law enforcement’s use of equitable sharing as a way to circumvent stricter state forfeiture laws. Civil forfeiture is a tool that gives law enforcement the power to seize property and cash if they suspect it is connected to a crime.
According to a November report from the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm opposing civil forfeiture, state and local law enforcement agencies received $4.7 billion in forfeiture proceeds from 2000 to 2013 through the Justice Department’s program. Law enforcement agencies contend that civil forfeiture is a vital tool needed to combat drug trafficking and money laundering.
In letters to President Barack Obama, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and congressional leadership, the leaders of six law enforcement groups, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the National Association of Police Organizations, warned of the consequences that ending such efforts would have on the communities they serve. “Given the remarkable success of this program, the provisions approved by Congress and the [Obama] administration are both baffling and disappointing. The suspension of equitable sharing payments may cause some agencies across the country to reconsider their ability to participate in joint task forces with the federal government,” the law enforcement officials wrote, adding:
Though law enforcement organizations have said suspension of the program limits the tools at their disposal, civil forfeiture opponents are cheering the Justice Department’s decision. “Law enforcement revealed that its true interest in forfeiture is policing for profit—not public safety,” Lee McGrath, legislative counsel for the Institute for Justice, said in a statement. He continued:
Despite law enforcement’s ardent support of civil forfeiture, recent reports show that police are seizing property from individuals and never charging them with a crime. In response, some states have moved to reform their asset forfeiture laws and, in some cases, limit law enforcement’s participation in equitable sharing.
In New Mexico, for example, Gov. Susana Martinez signed legislation earlier this year allowing state and local law enforcement to transfer property to the federal government only if it is worth more than $50,000, effectively ending the state’s participation in equitable sharing. Before passing reforms to its civil forfeiture laws, New Mexico received more than $41 million in equitable sharing proceeds from the Justice Department from 2000 to 2013, according to the Institute for Justice. The organization ranked Rhode Island, New York, and California among the worst for their use of equitable sharing, saying the three states received more than $1.3 billion through the Justice Department from 2000 to 2013.
But it's a good why, under the law, to provide the needed cash to support local law enforcement agencies, but at the same time it seems a slippery slope for abuse as well. Then to, as the Objma administration making its move to stop sharing the proceeds from this endeavor, and taking it all back to Washington, claiming that their budget short falls require the DOJ to end the sharing raises questions. Remember, Paul Ryan's 1.4 $trillion dollar budget gave the progressive socialist democrats everything they wanted and much more.
And given how the Objma administration has shown it has no limits as to how it operates, whether within the law or in abject criminal actions, the justice departments move to take all of the forfeitures for themselves doesn't pass the smell test.
And given the history of Mr Objma over the last 7 years, this actions to take all of the proceeds back to Washington, leaving the states high and dry is just business as usual. Destroying states rights, issuing hundreds if not thousands of useless regulations to reduce personal options for success and freedom, and the outright unconstitutional actions for Mr Objma's "fundamental change" to stay on track is the order of the day.
Justice Department Halts Program Allowing Law Enforcement to Split Proceeds of Seized Cash, Property
Melissa Quinn / @MelissaQuinn97
The Justice Department is halting a controversial program that allows law enforcement to keep most of the proceeds of cash and property they seize from Americans under federal law, sometimes without charging anyone with a crime. Now the law enforcement community, which benefits from the program, is pushing back against the Justice Department, saying its decision could have negative consequences on public safety.
Just days before Christmas, the Justice Department announced suspension of its “equitable sharing” program. In a letter to state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies, the department said it is deferring payments to the agencies because of cuts to its budget, deepened in the spending package passed by Congress earlier this month. “The department does not take this step lightly,” M. Kendall Day, head of the Justice Department’s asset forfeiture and money laundering division, wrote in the letter, adding:
We explored every conceivable option that would have enabled us to preserve some form of meaningful equitable sharing while continuing to operate the program and meet our other fiscal obligations. Unfortunately, the combined effect of the two reductions totaling $1.2 billion made that impossible.Day said he remained confident that temporarily suspending the program will allow the Justice Department to reinstate payments to law enforcement, writing that by “deferring equitable sharing payments now, we preserve our ability to resume equitable sharing payments at a later date should the budget picture improve.”
Under equitable sharing, local and state law enforcement agencies seize property and cash under federal forfeiture laws and receive a sizeable portion—up to 80 percent—of the proceeds from what they say are assets tied to crimes. Opponents of civil forfeiture view law enforcement’s use of equitable sharing as a way to circumvent stricter state forfeiture laws. Civil forfeiture is a tool that gives law enforcement the power to seize property and cash if they suspect it is connected to a crime.
According to a November report from the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm opposing civil forfeiture, state and local law enforcement agencies received $4.7 billion in forfeiture proceeds from 2000 to 2013 through the Justice Department’s program. Law enforcement agencies contend that civil forfeiture is a vital tool needed to combat drug trafficking and money laundering.
In letters to President Barack Obama, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and congressional leadership, the leaders of six law enforcement groups, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the National Association of Police Organizations, warned of the consequences that ending such efforts would have on the communities they serve. “Given the remarkable success of this program, the provisions approved by Congress and the [Obama] administration are both baffling and disappointing. The suspension of equitable sharing payments may cause some agencies across the country to reconsider their ability to participate in joint task forces with the federal government,” the law enforcement officials wrote, adding:
The effects of this decision are far reaching and not only a disservice to law enforcement, but also to the public they are sworn to protect.In a separate statement, the National Sheriff’s Association said the Justice Department’s decision will hinder law enforcement agencies’ ability to do their jobs. “While Congress and the president vacation in peace and tranquility, law enforcement knows all too well that the criminals, terrorists, and criminal aliens do not take a holiday,” the group said. “Those seeking to do us harm can rest easier knowing one less tool can be used against them.”
Though law enforcement organizations have said suspension of the program limits the tools at their disposal, civil forfeiture opponents are cheering the Justice Department’s decision. “Law enforcement revealed that its true interest in forfeiture is policing for profit—not public safety,” Lee McGrath, legislative counsel for the Institute for Justice, said in a statement. He continued:
The recently enacted Consolidated Appropriations Act does not stop police and prosecutors from chasing criminals. They’re frustrated because Congress put on hold their chasing cash. … Many police, sheriffs and prosecutors want to circumvent state laws because outsourcing forfeiture litigation to the federal government is lucrative.Those opposing civil forfeiture and the equitable sharing program warn that they provide a perverse profit incentive to law enforcement and flip the presumption of innocence on its head. Additionally, in many states, the proceeds of cash and property forfeited go directly into the agencies’ own coffers.
Despite law enforcement’s ardent support of civil forfeiture, recent reports show that police are seizing property from individuals and never charging them with a crime. In response, some states have moved to reform their asset forfeiture laws and, in some cases, limit law enforcement’s participation in equitable sharing.
In New Mexico, for example, Gov. Susana Martinez signed legislation earlier this year allowing state and local law enforcement to transfer property to the federal government only if it is worth more than $50,000, effectively ending the state’s participation in equitable sharing. Before passing reforms to its civil forfeiture laws, New Mexico received more than $41 million in equitable sharing proceeds from the Justice Department from 2000 to 2013, according to the Institute for Justice. The organization ranked Rhode Island, New York, and California among the worst for their use of equitable sharing, saying the three states received more than $1.3 billion through the Justice Department from 2000 to 2013.
Monday, December 28, 2015
Primary Voters Divided by Preference on Issues : Interesting Poll Results
Interesting stuff on voters in the coming primaries - the divide is huge between progressive democrats and Conservative Republicans.
Television Gone Crazy & Distrubing : AgentX
The be honest and positive, one can't be negative all the time, it's so easy to be so, we did watch several Christmas programs that were worth watching.
But having said that, I have to go back to the negative as one show that we watched, regrettably so, was beyond being just bad, it was appallingly bad. In fact it was disturbing.
We watched I believe was the premier show for AgentX on TNT. I won't go into any gruesome details other then to say it was a secret agent program that was under the control exclusively and secretly by the Vice President of the United States, and if that's not bad enough, the authority to this is spelled out in our Constitution in Article 5 that he or she can do what ever is necessary to use this agent to protect the country from evil doers.(There is no Article 5 specifying such nonsense).
Getting right to the problem here is the protagonist, antagonistic as well?, the evil doer, a pretty woman, murders in cold blood, three or four police officers while escaping solitaire confinement. and then is chased by a somewhat comical like agentx, in the best tradition of 'Get Smart', that uses humor while in the throws of the hunt for a kidnapped girl, saves her, it's always a girl, but eventually confronts the evil doer in a pitched battle where he is romped on stomped on but in the end captures her, and returns her to solitary confinement only to have her blow the cell door off the hinges with explosives smuggled into by other evil doers and escapes again, killing I suppose untold number of police.
There has to be something very wrong when the killing of police offers at point blank range and treating it like a skit on Saturday Night Live begs thinking our society has become lost in a careless depravity like never before. Little wonder then why this kind of thing might be something for a person that does not have a firm grip on realty would believe that such killing. would not have consequences in real life.
4 Reasons To Not Vote For Hillary : It's About History
I don't think we need any more information then this to not vote for Hillary or any other progressive liberal democrat as they all bought into Hillary's story even though they knew she was lying!
This can't be that difficult to understand. But wait, worse, on some poll, Hillary is the most 'liked' woman in the country. What? And who is the most liked man, surprise surprise, Objma!
Franklin Graham Bolts GOP : GOP Lost It's Way!
Well Franklin isn't the only one that finds the GOP in need of real leadership. And as the talk goes, this spending bill might be the beginning of the end for the Grand Old Party. There is a lot of intense debate as to where the party is going, especially now as the hope for a new direction under the new speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, has floundered or worse.
By the way, what's going on with the Conservative Caucus that everyone thought was going to the new guide for GOP success? More failure to deliver? Is the main trust for the Conservatives now 'to get along, go along?' so it's more important to 'reach across the isle and compromise' then to stand on principle.
Why Franklin Graham Is Leaving the GOP
Kelsey Harkness / @kelseyjharkness
Less than one week after Congress passed a massive year-end spending bill that failed to strip Planned Parenthood of its taxpayer dollars, evangelist Franklin Graham announced he is leaving the Republican Party. “Shame on the Republicans and the Democrats for passing such a wasteful spending bill last week,” Graham wrote Monday on Facebook. “And to top it off, funding Planned Parenthood!”
Graham, CEO of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, said Republicans’ failure to defund Planned Parenthood is an “example” of why he is declaring himself an independent.
“This is an example of why I have resigned from the Republican Party and declared myself independent,” Graham wrote. “I have no hope in the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, or Tea Party to do what is best for America.”
In declaring his separation from the Republican party, Graham referenced a string of undercover videos that came out this year showing Planned Parenthood employees discussing the sale of body parts from aborted babies. Graham compared the actions in those videos—which some claim were highly manipulated—to Nazi concentration camps. “Seeing and hearing Planned Parenthood talk nonchalantly about selling baby parts from aborted fetuses with utter disregard for human life is reminiscent of Joseph Mengele and the Nazi concentration camps!” he said.
The undercover videos, produced by the Center for Medical Progress, sparked calls by conservatives to defund Planned Parenthood of the more than $528 million it receives in taxpayer dollars. The majority of that money comes from federal reimbursements it receives through Medicaid contracts.
Planned Parenthood has denied any wrongdoing, calling the videos “heavily edited” and “secretly recorded.”
Conservatives made stripping Planned Parenthood of its taxpayer dollars a top priority this congressional year yet failed to include any defund provisions in the year-end spending bill.
Read More: How Your Senators Voted on the Government Spending Bill
Democrats praised the $1.1 trillion omnibus spending as a “good compromise,” highlighting the more than 150 conservative policy riders that they were able to “nix” from the final agreement.
“In addition to nixing more than 150 GOP riders, the final agreement will secure major progressive policy successes,” wrote Adam Jentleson, Minority Leader Harry Reid’s deputy chief of staff, on Twitter.
After the spending bill passed, Planned Parenthood touted in a press release that the budget deal included “no new harmful policy riders on women’s health.” At the end of his post declaring his separation from the Republican party, Graham called on Christians “across the country to pray about running for office where they can have an impact.”
By the way, what's going on with the Conservative Caucus that everyone thought was going to the new guide for GOP success? More failure to deliver? Is the main trust for the Conservatives now 'to get along, go along?' so it's more important to 'reach across the isle and compromise' then to stand on principle.
Why Franklin Graham Is Leaving the GOP
Kelsey Harkness / @kelseyjharkness
Less than one week after Congress passed a massive year-end spending bill that failed to strip Planned Parenthood of its taxpayer dollars, evangelist Franklin Graham announced he is leaving the Republican Party. “Shame on the Republicans and the Democrats for passing such a wasteful spending bill last week,” Graham wrote Monday on Facebook. “And to top it off, funding Planned Parenthood!”
Graham, CEO of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, said Republicans’ failure to defund Planned Parenthood is an “example” of why he is declaring himself an independent.
“This is an example of why I have resigned from the Republican Party and declared myself independent,” Graham wrote. “I have no hope in the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, or Tea Party to do what is best for America.”
In declaring his separation from the Republican party, Graham referenced a string of undercover videos that came out this year showing Planned Parenthood employees discussing the sale of body parts from aborted babies. Graham compared the actions in those videos—which some claim were highly manipulated—to Nazi concentration camps. “Seeing and hearing Planned Parenthood talk nonchalantly about selling baby parts from aborted fetuses with utter disregard for human life is reminiscent of Joseph Mengele and the Nazi concentration camps!” he said.
The undercover videos, produced by the Center for Medical Progress, sparked calls by conservatives to defund Planned Parenthood of the more than $528 million it receives in taxpayer dollars. The majority of that money comes from federal reimbursements it receives through Medicaid contracts.
Planned Parenthood has denied any wrongdoing, calling the videos “heavily edited” and “secretly recorded.”
Conservatives made stripping Planned Parenthood of its taxpayer dollars a top priority this congressional year yet failed to include any defund provisions in the year-end spending bill.
Read More: How Your Senators Voted on the Government Spending Bill
Democrats praised the $1.1 trillion omnibus spending as a “good compromise,” highlighting the more than 150 conservative policy riders that they were able to “nix” from the final agreement.
“In addition to nixing more than 150 GOP riders, the final agreement will secure major progressive policy successes,” wrote Adam Jentleson, Minority Leader Harry Reid’s deputy chief of staff, on Twitter.
After the spending bill passed, Planned Parenthood touted in a press release that the budget deal included “no new harmful policy riders on women’s health.” At the end of his post declaring his separation from the Republican party, Graham called on Christians “across the country to pray about running for office where they can have an impact.”
John kerry Demonstrates Ignorance : Climate Change!
What ever the subject that John Kerry attempts to debate, he will not disappoint us, he will deliver a screed of nonsense and appalling ignorance of the subject. How about the rationality of the Iranian nuclear deal? Where is the common sense or logic?
John Kerry Proves He Doesn’t Understand Climate Science
David Kreutzer / @dwkreutzer
In an interview at the close of the recent Paris climate conference, Secretary of State John Kerry scolded Republican senators for saying out loud that the next president may not be a big supporter of President Barack Obama’s climate policies. Kerry asserted voters won’t allow a change, “I don’t think they’re going to accept as a genuine leader someone who doesn’t understand the science of climate change and isn’t willing to do something about it.”
But Kerry disproves his own theory. In a widely covered speech in Jakarta, Indonesia Kerry gave an absolutely cringe-worthy explanation of CO2 and global warming. Of course the press totally ignored his bizarre CO2 science lesson:
His notion that the Earth has had a steady temperature for “literally millions of years” is also way off base. This National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration webpage shows temperatures have bounced around by 10-25 degrees Fahrenheit ten or so times in the last 800,000 years.
Kerry dismissively lecturing climate skeptics brings Emily Litella to mind. Emily was Gilda Radner’s “Saturday Night Live” character whose bad hearing led to impassioned, but hilariously misguided, editorial responses.
Who knows what Kerry’s aides were thinking as he recited his mixed-up ozone lecture in the carbon dioxide forum? You can almost imagine them trying to catch Kerry’s attention, “Psst! We are talking about CO2, not O3.”
John Kerry Proves He Doesn’t Understand Climate Science
David Kreutzer / @dwkreutzer
In an interview at the close of the recent Paris climate conference, Secretary of State John Kerry scolded Republican senators for saying out loud that the next president may not be a big supporter of President Barack Obama’s climate policies. Kerry asserted voters won’t allow a change, “I don’t think they’re going to accept as a genuine leader someone who doesn’t understand the science of climate change and isn’t willing to do something about it.”
But Kerry disproves his own theory. In a widely covered speech in Jakarta, Indonesia Kerry gave an absolutely cringe-worthy explanation of CO2 and global warming. Of course the press totally ignored his bizarre CO2 science lesson:
“I know sometimes I can remember from when I was in high school and college, some aspects of science or physics can be tough – chemistry. But this is not tough. This is simple. Kids at the earliest age can understand this.He probably should have stopped with “physics can be tough.” His “a quarter-inch way up there” absolutely does not describe CO2 in the atmosphere. It seems what Kerry had in mind is a very abstract representation of the ozone layer. This may have been relevant a long time ago in a debate far, far away, but it is not a description of CO2 in the atmosphere.
“Try and picture a very thin layer of gases – a quarter-inch, half an inch, somewhere in that vicinity – that’s how thick it is. It’s in our atmosphere. It’s way up there at the edge of the atmosphere. And for millions of years – literally millions of years – we know that layer has acted like a thermal blanket for the planet – trapping the sun’s heat and warming the surface of the Earth to the ideal, life-sustaining temperature. Average temperature of the Earth has been about 57 degrees Fahrenheit, which keeps life going.”
His notion that the Earth has had a steady temperature for “literally millions of years” is also way off base. This National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration webpage shows temperatures have bounced around by 10-25 degrees Fahrenheit ten or so times in the last 800,000 years.
Kerry dismissively lecturing climate skeptics brings Emily Litella to mind. Emily was Gilda Radner’s “Saturday Night Live” character whose bad hearing led to impassioned, but hilariously misguided, editorial responses.
Who knows what Kerry’s aides were thinking as he recited his mixed-up ozone lecture in the carbon dioxide forum? You can almost imagine them trying to catch Kerry’s attention, “Psst! We are talking about CO2, not O3.”
ObjmaCare's Largest Coop Fails : Regulated Into Failure
More bad news for ObjmaCare and it's forced ideology of centralized power to answer all questions for all people. If the $600 million that was lost by Health United wasn't enough to scared the hell out of the rest of the insurance industry, New York's problems for not having properly laid out the requirements needed to make the system work is a wake up call to the other exchanges, that is if they needed another one to understand the catastrophic results of big government imposing it will on the free market.
How Overregulation Led to the Collapse of Obamacare’s Largest Co-Op
Melissa Quinn / @MelissaQuinn97
A new report examining the collapse of Health Republic of New York, Obamacare’s largest co-op, said its failure—which may lead to a $265-million loss of taxpayer dollars—can be attributed in part to heightened regulatory control by the state.
According to the analysis from the Albany, New York-based Empire Center, a “breakdown” in oversight from the state Department of Financial Services and artificial cuts in Health Republic’s premiums may have led to the ultimate failure of the consumer operated and oriented plan, or co-op.
Of the 23 co-ops created under the health care law, just 12 remain.
“The rapid rise and costly fall of Health Republic Insurance of New York … is a cautionary tale for policymakers in Albany as well as in Washington,” the report’s author, Bill Hammond, wrote. “Despite heavy federal subsidies and robust enrollment growth, Health Republic lost money at such a clip that state regulators forced it to shut down as of Nov. 30, on barely two months’ notice.”
Health Republic, one of 23 co-ops implemented under Obamacare, sold the cheapest plans available on New York’s state-run exchange and enrolled more than 200,000 customers in coverage. According to the Empire Center, Health Republic offered consumers broad networks, and its plans were significantly cheaper than those sold by competitors like UnitedHealthcare and Aetna.
As a result of its low premiums, Health Republic experienced significant losses in 2014, as its customers’ medical claims and administrative costs outpaced the revenue it was bringing in through premiums.
To remedy its losses, Health Republic requested a 15.4 percent increase in rates for individuals and 5.9 percent increase in rates for small group plans in 2015. The state Department of Financial Services, though, approved lower rate-hikes, which the Empire Center said squeezed the market.
“Although Health Republic’s premiums were already among the very lowest in the state—and though its financial report showed it was losing money—the fledgling company did not escape the state’s rate-setting knife,” the report said.
Health Republic did not immediately return The Daily Signal’s request for comment. For 2016 coverage, Health Republic requested a 14.4 percent rate hike for individual plans and a 20 percent increase for small group plans. The state lessened the hike for individuals to 14 percent, and approved Health Republic’s request for small group plans. Like many of the other 23 co-ops—which received a total of $2.5 billion from the federal government—Health Republic relied on money from Obamacare’s risk corridor program to boost its bottom line. The risk corridor program sought to limit the risk for insurers in the market.
According to the Empire Center, Health Republic requested $243 million from the risk corridor program. However, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced in October it would pay just 12.6 percent of the requested payments. As a result, Health Republic, along with seven other co-ops, announced it would be closing its doors after experiencing significant losses and receiving lower-than-expected payments from the risk corridor program.
“Had New York’s regulators ordered higher rates for Health Republic from the beginning, the company could have avoided some of the steep losses that made it so dependent on risk-corridor funding,” Hammond wrote. “While it’s unclear that such action would have been enough to save the company, DFS’s rate-cutting, in retrospect, was unquestionably productive.”
Health Republic closed its doors Nov. 30, leaving some of its 215,000 customers to find coverage for a month—or go without—and secure new insurance for 2016 through the state-run exchange.
“If the goal is making health coverage more affordable, the surest way to achieve that objective is not for the state to impose price controls, but for it to roll back its own high taxes and costly coverage mandates,” the report said.
How Overregulation Led to the Collapse of Obamacare’s Largest Co-Op
Melissa Quinn / @MelissaQuinn97
A new report examining the collapse of Health Republic of New York, Obamacare’s largest co-op, said its failure—which may lead to a $265-million loss of taxpayer dollars—can be attributed in part to heightened regulatory control by the state.
According to the analysis from the Albany, New York-based Empire Center, a “breakdown” in oversight from the state Department of Financial Services and artificial cuts in Health Republic’s premiums may have led to the ultimate failure of the consumer operated and oriented plan, or co-op.
Of the 23 co-ops created under the health care law, just 12 remain.
“The rapid rise and costly fall of Health Republic Insurance of New York … is a cautionary tale for policymakers in Albany as well as in Washington,” the report’s author, Bill Hammond, wrote. “Despite heavy federal subsidies and robust enrollment growth, Health Republic lost money at such a clip that state regulators forced it to shut down as of Nov. 30, on barely two months’ notice.”
Health Republic, one of 23 co-ops implemented under Obamacare, sold the cheapest plans available on New York’s state-run exchange and enrolled more than 200,000 customers in coverage. According to the Empire Center, Health Republic offered consumers broad networks, and its plans were significantly cheaper than those sold by competitors like UnitedHealthcare and Aetna.
As a result of its low premiums, Health Republic experienced significant losses in 2014, as its customers’ medical claims and administrative costs outpaced the revenue it was bringing in through premiums.
To remedy its losses, Health Republic requested a 15.4 percent increase in rates for individuals and 5.9 percent increase in rates for small group plans in 2015. The state Department of Financial Services, though, approved lower rate-hikes, which the Empire Center said squeezed the market.
“Although Health Republic’s premiums were already among the very lowest in the state—and though its financial report showed it was losing money—the fledgling company did not escape the state’s rate-setting knife,” the report said.
Health Republic did not immediately return The Daily Signal’s request for comment. For 2016 coverage, Health Republic requested a 14.4 percent rate hike for individual plans and a 20 percent increase for small group plans. The state lessened the hike for individuals to 14 percent, and approved Health Republic’s request for small group plans. Like many of the other 23 co-ops—which received a total of $2.5 billion from the federal government—Health Republic relied on money from Obamacare’s risk corridor program to boost its bottom line. The risk corridor program sought to limit the risk for insurers in the market.
According to the Empire Center, Health Republic requested $243 million from the risk corridor program. However, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced in October it would pay just 12.6 percent of the requested payments. As a result, Health Republic, along with seven other co-ops, announced it would be closing its doors after experiencing significant losses and receiving lower-than-expected payments from the risk corridor program.
“Had New York’s regulators ordered higher rates for Health Republic from the beginning, the company could have avoided some of the steep losses that made it so dependent on risk-corridor funding,” Hammond wrote. “While it’s unclear that such action would have been enough to save the company, DFS’s rate-cutting, in retrospect, was unquestionably productive.”
Health Republic closed its doors Nov. 30, leaving some of its 215,000 customers to find coverage for a month—or go without—and secure new insurance for 2016 through the state-run exchange.
“If the goal is making health coverage more affordable, the surest way to achieve that objective is not for the state to impose price controls, but for it to roll back its own high taxes and costly coverage mandates,” the report said.
Capitalism's Achievements : Hard Work, Innovation & Technology
What a good start to the week by trying rationally to understand how we got were we are as compared to the rest of the world. Is it capitalism or something more, less or not at all?
Power Line’s Chart of the Week: The Achievement of Capitalism
December 27, 2015
Herewith a new Power Line feature: Chart of the Week. Because data. Also innovation. Scheduled to appear on Monday or Tuesday each week.
I have been looking forward for a long time to the last in Dierdre McCloskey’s trilogy about capitalism (a term she dislikes) that began with Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce, and Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can’t Explain the Modern World. The third volume, coming out next year from the University of Chicago Press, is Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World.
These are dense but well-written and easy-to-read books, rich with insight. Above all they attempt to explain the phenomenon of this chart:
McCloskey’s summa is directed in part against the economic pessimism of both left and right that thinks robust future economic growth is unlikely. But understanding how this explosion of prosperity happened is surprisingly elusive, and McCloskey rejects a lot of the monistic explanations. McCloskey explains her summa thus:
Power Line’s Chart of the Week: The Achievement of Capitalism
December 27, 2015
Herewith a new Power Line feature: Chart of the Week. Because data. Also innovation. Scheduled to appear on Monday or Tuesday each week.
I have been looking forward for a long time to the last in Dierdre McCloskey’s trilogy about capitalism (a term she dislikes) that began with Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce, and Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can’t Explain the Modern World. The third volume, coming out next year from the University of Chicago Press, is Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World.
These are dense but well-written and easy-to-read books, rich with insight. Above all they attempt to explain the phenomenon of this chart:
McCloskey’s summa is directed in part against the economic pessimism of both left and right that thinks robust future economic growth is unlikely. But understanding how this explosion of prosperity happened is surprisingly elusive, and McCloskey rejects a lot of the monistic explanations. McCloskey explains her summa thus:
The trilogy chronicles, explains, and defends what made us rich—the system we have had since 1800 or 1848, usually but misleadingly called modern “capitalism.” The system should rather be called “technological and institutional betterment at a frenetic pace, tested by unforced exchange among all the parties involved.” Or “fantastically successful liberalism, in the old European sense, applied to trade and politics, as it was applied also to science and music and painting and literature.”The simplest version is “trade-tested progress.” Many humans, in short, are now stunningly better off than their ancestors were in 1800. And the rest of humanity shows every sign of joining the enrichment.
A crucial point is that the greatly enriched world cannot be explained in any deep way by the accumulation of capital, as economists from Adam Smith through Karl Marx to Varoufakis, Piketty, and Cowen have on the contrary believed, and as the very word “capitalism” seems to imply. The word embodies a scientific mistake. . .Well, if you want to know more of her answer, read the whole thing (five pages, PDF file). Better still, order up all three volumes of the Bourgeois series.
Hear again that last, crucial, astonishing fact, discovered by economic historians over the past few decades. It is: in the two centuries after 1800 the trade-tested goods and services available to the average person in Sweden or Taiwan rose by a factor of 30 or 100. Not 100 percent, understand—a mere doubling—but in its highest estimate a factor of 100, nearly 10,000 percent, and at least a factor of 30, or 2,900 percent. The Great Enrichment of the past two centuries has dwarfed any of the previous and temporary enrichments. Explaining it is the central scientific task of economics and economic history, and it matters for any other sort of social science or recent history.
What explains it? The causes were not . . .
Sunday, December 27, 2015
Criticism Outlawed by Right of Power : Who Are They?
How simple is this to understand especially when you watch the news and who is screaming racism? Another saying that is ripe for the times, 'know the truth and it will set you free'.
Christmas Party Goer Has No Regrets? : The Morning After
United States Army Warrories : K-9 Soldiers
And in the end between partners, " Greater
love hath no man(partner) than to lay down his life for his friends".
Saturday, December 26, 2015
IRS Incompetence Rages On : Corrupt and Out Of Control
As the corruption and incompetence increases at the IRS, it should be easy to make significant changes to improve the ability of this organization to become efficient. At the same time if you believe there will be anyone will to make these changes at all, I have this nifty bridge I can sell you, cheap.
IRS Costs Taxpayers $46 Million in Suspect Refunds
Natalie Johnson / @nataliejohnsonn
The IRS incorrectly issued more than $46 million in refunds for tax year 2013, government inspectors discovered. The Treasury Department released an internal audit Monday faulting a computer programming error and ineffective monitoring for the tens of millions in taxpayer dollars mistakenly refunded for returns covering tax year 2013.
The mistakes and shortcomings at the Internal Revenue Service could incorrectly drain up to $230 million from the Treasury during the next five years if left uncorrected, according to the report.
The review by the inspector general for tax administration found that the programming error overrode the IRS’ two-week processing delay placed on tax returns flagged as potentially fraudulent, automatically releasing over $27 million in returns before the IRS could verify the claims.
The inspector identified another $19 million in potentially fraudulent refunds doled out because of improper screening by IRS agents. In a formal statement, Inspector General J. Russell George said:
Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., criticized the mistakes as “another reminder that the IRS is mired in incompetence and mismanagement.” Black, who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, called for the resignation of IRS Commissioner John Koskinen after a series of “stinging reports” revealed malpractice in the agency. In a statement Monday, she said:
IRS Costs Taxpayers $46 Million in Suspect Refunds
Natalie Johnson / @nataliejohnsonn
The IRS incorrectly issued more than $46 million in refunds for tax year 2013, government inspectors discovered. The Treasury Department released an internal audit Monday faulting a computer programming error and ineffective monitoring for the tens of millions in taxpayer dollars mistakenly refunded for returns covering tax year 2013.
The mistakes and shortcomings at the Internal Revenue Service could incorrectly drain up to $230 million from the Treasury during the next five years if left uncorrected, according to the report.
The review by the inspector general for tax administration found that the programming error overrode the IRS’ two-week processing delay placed on tax returns flagged as potentially fraudulent, automatically releasing over $27 million in returns before the IRS could verify the claims.
The inspector identified another $19 million in potentially fraudulent refunds doled out because of improper screening by IRS agents. In a formal statement, Inspector General J. Russell George said:
While the IRS has made important strides in its programs that prevent the issuance of fraudulent refunds, our auditors found that it is not always ensuring that tax examiners timely complete their verification work before releasing refunds.If the programming error isn’t fixed, it could result in the IRS’ issuing $135 million in mistaken refunds over the next five years, the audit concluded. Inspectors predicted the agency could release another $95 million in incorrect refunds “because tax returns are not being verified as required.”
Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., criticized the mistakes as “another reminder that the IRS is mired in incompetence and mismanagement.” Black, who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, called for the resignation of IRS Commissioner John Koskinen after a series of “stinging reports” revealed malpractice in the agency. In a statement Monday, she said:
Just last week, my colleagues voted over my objections to give this bureaucracy another $290 million in the bloated omnibus bill. Only in Washington is this kind of ineptitude rewarded with a bigger check. … Taxpayers have every right to be outraged by the dysfunction at the IRS—I know I am.The audit, dated Nov. 12, recommends the IRS fix the computer error and implement a process that ensures tax refunds flagged as potentially fraudulent are held until an IRS examiner has properly vetted the claim.
Changing The Voting Age to 16 : Why Stop There?
What a great idea, having 16 year olds voting to raise taxes, build a city commuter trolley system, installing new judges or increase spending for the military. Given that he main focus for most 16 year olds is the opposite sex and pimples. Why stop at 16, why not 10 years olds? At 10 they won't be distracted by nature or body changes.
And just think how effective it will be to educate these youngsters in our unbiased educational system as to what is important in our community, their state or even the country. These youngsters are untainted empty vessels ready to be educated, directed, managed and willing participants who will eagerly enter into the world of politics, electing individuals to lead the people to success and prosperity.
Just imagine how fast 16 year old girls will be willing to drop their social activates to go door to door for local political commitments. Hey, just think what their impact would be on national security?
Is a 16-Year-Old Mature Enough to Vote? This Campaign Thinks So.
Leah Jessen / @_LeahKay_
A new campaign is striving to engage young people politically by lowering the voting age.
Vote16USA is “dedicated to exploring the notion of lowering the voting age to 16 in cities and states across the country,” Scott Warren, co-founder and executive director of the organization Generation Citizen, told The Daily Signal. “We want to have a conversation in this country about what the best age for voting is,” Warren, 28, said, pointing out that his organization, which launched the effort, does not have any “political bent.” “We need innovative solutions to figure out how we can get more people to participate in our political process.”
A report released by the group last week notes that 36 percent of eligible voters participated in the 2014 midterm elections. In the same election, 20 percent of 18- to 29-year-old voters actually voted. This was the worst voter turnout in 72 years, it said, and the lowest turnout for young voters on record. “Generally, right now, there is definitely a lack of interest and excitement, especially among young people, in politics,” Brandon Klugman, an American University senior who is Vote16USA campaign coordinator, told The Daily Signal.
‘Foolish Idea’?
Organizers calculate that lowering the voting age would drive schools to approach civic education more effectively. “We shouldn’t be lowering the voting age if we’re not also teaching young people to participate,” Warren said.
The movement is not without critics. “This is a foolish idea,” said Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow for The Heritage Foundation, who manages the think tank’s Election Law Reform Initiative. “Sixteen- and 17-year-olds have neither the experience, the judgment, or the maturity to make decisions in the voting area,” von Spakovsky said. He added:
‘A City Issue’
The campaign to lower the voting age spread to San Francisco and Washington, D.C., and organizers are exploring other cities around the country. “We think that this is a city issue,” Warren said. “We don’t want this to be federal government telling states and cities what to do. We want cities to decide this on their own.” Warren said 16- and 17-year-olds participating in local elections makes sense, but that he is not a “huge fan” of voters that age participating in federal elections.
“There are 10 states where local cities can change their laws so that 16- and 17-year-olds can vote in local elections,” he said. “That’s what we want to pursue right now.” Generation Citizen has identified these 13 states as having cities that most feasibly could change their voting laws, usually through a city charter amendment: California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Washington, and Wisconsin.
Vote16USA cites two Maryland towns, Takoma Park and Hyattsville, as examples of places that have lowered the local voting age to 16 in recent years.
Heritage’s von Spakovsky points out that Takoma Park is also a place that allows non-citizens to vote. “It is not an example I would urge anyone to follow,” he said. The voting age in the United States was lowered from 21 to 18 with ratification of the 26th Amendment in 1971.
One Family’s Experience
“The issues on the local and the state and the federal levels—all those issues affect young kids,” Darrell Beauchamp, a father of two, told The Daily Signal. “They can take an interest in those issues and learn about them without necessarily having to vote.” Beauchamp’s two children, ages 16 and 12, take a keen interest in politics. During summer vacation this past year, the family became actively involved in learning about the political process firsthand. They’ve traveled to see 17 senators, governors, and other politicians speak. On multiple occasions, they jumped in their car and logged over 330 miles from their hometown of Wales, Wis., to attend events all over Iowa, site of the first presidential caucuses. “There’s plenty of ways that people of any age can be engaged [in the political process.] … You don’t have to vote just to be involved in it,” Beauchamp said. “I think my kids are a real good example of that.”
Having some doubts about 16-year-olds voting, Beauchamp said he is in favor of keeping the voting age at 18:
And just think how effective it will be to educate these youngsters in our unbiased educational system as to what is important in our community, their state or even the country. These youngsters are untainted empty vessels ready to be educated, directed, managed and willing participants who will eagerly enter into the world of politics, electing individuals to lead the people to success and prosperity.
Just imagine how fast 16 year old girls will be willing to drop their social activates to go door to door for local political commitments. Hey, just think what their impact would be on national security?
Is a 16-Year-Old Mature Enough to Vote? This Campaign Thinks So.
Leah Jessen / @_LeahKay_
A new campaign is striving to engage young people politically by lowering the voting age.
Vote16USA is “dedicated to exploring the notion of lowering the voting age to 16 in cities and states across the country,” Scott Warren, co-founder and executive director of the organization Generation Citizen, told The Daily Signal. “We want to have a conversation in this country about what the best age for voting is,” Warren, 28, said, pointing out that his organization, which launched the effort, does not have any “political bent.” “We need innovative solutions to figure out how we can get more people to participate in our political process.”
A report released by the group last week notes that 36 percent of eligible voters participated in the 2014 midterm elections. In the same election, 20 percent of 18- to 29-year-old voters actually voted. This was the worst voter turnout in 72 years, it said, and the lowest turnout for young voters on record. “Generally, right now, there is definitely a lack of interest and excitement, especially among young people, in politics,” Brandon Klugman, an American University senior who is Vote16USA campaign coordinator, told The Daily Signal.
‘Foolish Idea’?
Organizers calculate that lowering the voting age would drive schools to approach civic education more effectively. “We shouldn’t be lowering the voting age if we’re not also teaching young people to participate,” Warren said.
The movement is not without critics. “This is a foolish idea,” said Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow for The Heritage Foundation, who manages the think tank’s Election Law Reform Initiative. “Sixteen- and 17-year-olds have neither the experience, the judgment, or the maturity to make decisions in the voting area,” von Spakovsky said. He added:
If they [Generation Citizen] believe individuals that young are mature enough to make such decisions, then obviously that same group must also believe that the drinking age should be lowered to that age, and that the age at which folks can volunteer to join the military and fight for their country should also be lowered. If they don’t agree to that, then their position makes no sense. If you are mature enough to vote, then you must be mature enough to make other decisions like this about drinking and military service.Warren said it’s a “slippery slope argument” to compare the appropriate ages for driving, voting, military service, and so on. “What we’re saying is that lowering the voting age to 16 makes sense, given the fact that we want more people to participate, given the fact that we want to educate young people to become citizens,” the Generation Citizen leader said. “For me, this is really about how do we get young people excited about politics.”
‘A City Issue’
The campaign to lower the voting age spread to San Francisco and Washington, D.C., and organizers are exploring other cities around the country. “We think that this is a city issue,” Warren said. “We don’t want this to be federal government telling states and cities what to do. We want cities to decide this on their own.” Warren said 16- and 17-year-olds participating in local elections makes sense, but that he is not a “huge fan” of voters that age participating in federal elections.
“There are 10 states where local cities can change their laws so that 16- and 17-year-olds can vote in local elections,” he said. “That’s what we want to pursue right now.” Generation Citizen has identified these 13 states as having cities that most feasibly could change their voting laws, usually through a city charter amendment: California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Washington, and Wisconsin.
Vote16USA cites two Maryland towns, Takoma Park and Hyattsville, as examples of places that have lowered the local voting age to 16 in recent years.
Heritage’s von Spakovsky points out that Takoma Park is also a place that allows non-citizens to vote. “It is not an example I would urge anyone to follow,” he said. The voting age in the United States was lowered from 21 to 18 with ratification of the 26th Amendment in 1971.
One Family’s Experience
“The issues on the local and the state and the federal levels—all those issues affect young kids,” Darrell Beauchamp, a father of two, told The Daily Signal. “They can take an interest in those issues and learn about them without necessarily having to vote.” Beauchamp’s two children, ages 16 and 12, take a keen interest in politics. During summer vacation this past year, the family became actively involved in learning about the political process firsthand. They’ve traveled to see 17 senators, governors, and other politicians speak. On multiple occasions, they jumped in their car and logged over 330 miles from their hometown of Wales, Wis., to attend events all over Iowa, site of the first presidential caucuses. “There’s plenty of ways that people of any age can be engaged [in the political process.] … You don’t have to vote just to be involved in it,” Beauchamp said. “I think my kids are a real good example of that.”
Having some doubts about 16-year-olds voting, Beauchamp said he is in favor of keeping the voting age at 18:
I would be concerned with it, just knowing where I was at when I was 16. Kids at that age are just so impressionable. I would be bothered by having kids that young voting. I think it raises some interesting issues for teachers, probably, too. If you get an unethical teacher, they might start trying to influence kids more in the classroom and try to directly influence their votes. I think it creates a lot of different problems and potential conflicts in that regard.Beauchamp’s 16-year-old son, John, has a different opinion on the voting age. “I think that the people who are really interested in politics, like me, should have some sort of say in this,” John told The Daily Signal. “Because it’s frustrating how we have to pay taxes and we get to work, but we can’t vote.” John, who pays taxes on his wages as an employee of Goodwill, said he would like to be able to participate in local elections. “I definitely am looking forward to being able to vote,” he said.
Friday, December 25, 2015
God Bless Our Freedom : Merry Christmas
I wish you all a very merry Christmas. Today a child is born to ensure that we all have a chance to renew our hope for the future that will bring a new direction for our selves and our country. May God bless you and your families and may He bless our country with His grace.
Thursday, December 24, 2015
Islam Recruiting Children to Kill Infidels : Mr Objma's Silence is Deafening
Why not allow thousands of Islamic Muslims into our country as Mr Objam says, to deny them access to our lives, 'it's not who we are'.
Mr Objma believe it's important to demonstrate how we are willing to sacrifice few lives to the Islamic cause of establishing a caliphate in America and subjecting everyone to knee the Allah.
Remember Mr Objma saying the 'call to prayers in Islamic countries is the most beautiful sound on earth'.
Really? Maybe it's just to hard to maintain the lie for so long.
Speaker of The House Bearing Gifts : Omnibus Bill Destroys the Republic
Poll Finds Democrats' In Delusional Universe : Who Knew?
More evidence that progressive democrats are unable to make decisions base on realty. The history is clear and concise for all to see, all that is needed is to understand and believe this is who they are.
Why is this obvious and stark reality so difficult for so many in our country to understand?
Benghazi Murders : A Bump In The Road for Hillary?
Stop and think about this for a minute, when you realize the gravity and diabolical consequences of this, and now one is asking us to reward her with the most powerful office in the world, how will she not do catastrophic damage to our country and world that is already engulfed in chaos because of the other individual in this picture, Mr Objma?
Are we willing to reward psychotic criminal behavior that will totally end our way of life? These are not nice people. If nothing else, history has taught us that.
Progressive Socialist Democrats : The Same Today, Tommorw, - -
As I have stated on other occasions, I believe they are different people, a species apart from those that have an ability of recognize reality and then act accordingly.
The progressive socialist liberal democrats have a different DNA that will not allow them to be rational. That is, the inability to make decision based on black and white facts. They live in a world that is delusional and implausible which makes them mostly diabolically harmful to themselves and those that surround them.
And given how many there are of them in our government, and the millions that vote them into office over and over again, they are harmful to the entire country.
Lambeau Field's Patriotic Show : ESPN Opts Out?
I wonder why ESPN decided to opt out of showing this other then it doesn't meet the agenda that most of the other major media has?
(author unknown)
Those who attended the game said it was extremely emotional to see the entire bowl of the stadium turn red, white and blue. It took 90 workers two weeks to get all of the colored card boards mounted under each seat. Each piece of card board had eye slits in them so the fans could hold up the colored sheet and still see through the eye slits. Every seat had to have the proper card, with no mistakes, to make this happen.
Lambeau Field
This is what ESPN failed to show you Monday night. Apparently, they thought their commercials were more important than showing this scene for about 5 seconds.
This is what ESPN failed to show you Monday night. Apparently, they thought their commercials were more important than showing this scene for about 5 seconds.
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Washington Post Attacks Republican Children : Who Cares?
So this is the face of the new progressive socialist liberal democrat party(Collective)? Is this really her and the 'monkey business' from the Washington Post?
Apparently they have no problem trying to destroy the Palin kids, but that's okay - they're Christians and Republicans. No one cares.
Welcome to the grade world of democrats and what good reason to vote for more of them.
What is good reason to read the Washington Post?
Mr Objma Golfs While the world burns : What World? Burning?
And now, for something completely different, the leader of the free world golfs while the country and the world burns.
California Gov 'Moon Beam' Denies Laws of Nature : Tryranny A Workable Solution
 |
| California Gov Brown at the climate change talks in Paris |
What a great example of how a person can deny the forces of gravity and common sense, logic and the law of unintended consequences.
And as one might expect from the comments from the good governor of California Moon Beam, the man is mentally unstable, impulsively delusional. But he does have an excuse, he is a progressive liberal democrat. They are not like the rest of us in the real world were the laws of nature apply.
California Governor Hails ‘Coercive Power of Government’
Rob Nikolewski / @Watchdogorg
California Gov. Jerry Brown raised some eyebrows while attending the U.N. Climate Summit in Paris this month, proclaiming that the “coercive power of the central state” is needed to promote good public policy, specifically when it comes to a cleaner environment.
Taking part in an onstage presentation with billionaire and climate activist Tom Steyer, Brown said government regulations force companies to adopt clean technologies.
After Steyer mentioned business frameworks, Brown said, “Tom, you used the phrase ‘policy.’ Good policy. But I want to unpack that term a little bit. Inside the policy, you need a law. You need a rule. You need the coercive power of government to say, ‘Do this.’ Now, you have to be wise and don’t say something stupid or order something stupid, but the fact is, the regulations supported by the laws drive innovation.”
The Sacramento Bee reported that Brown later urged a small crowd to “never underestimate the coercive power of the central state in the service of good.” “You can be sure California is going to keep innovating, keep regulating,” the 77-year-old Democrat said. “And, shall I say, keep taxing.”
The Brown administration has been aggressive in instituting stricter environmental laws and regulations in California.
In October, the four-term governor signed legislation calling on California to generate half of its electricity from sources such as solar and wind by 2030. At the same time, the law mandates that homes, offices, and factories double their energy efficiency. Such moves have prompted opposition from the energy industry, saying they will raise utility bills and gasoline prices, and Brown’s comments in Paris drew a swift reaction from critics, who seized on the “coercion” remark.
“Gov. Brown’s statement is a frank admission that politicians and government in the U.S. are out of control,” said Dan Kish, senior vice president at the Institute for Energy Research, a public policy organization that calls for free-market solutions on energy policy. “The governor bragged about the ‘coercive powers of government’ and how his state would keep regulating and taxing. The United States was formed to put citizens in charge of their lives by putting a fence around government power and control,” Kish said in an email to Watchdog.org.
“Gov. Brown has shown he thinks people should be inside the fence, with government, and their crony business partners, using its coercive and taxing powers to make them do what the politicians say, and it’s illustrative he is doing it at the Climate Summit in Paris. This is how freedom is lost and tyranny and coercion prevail.”
Brown led a California delegation in Paris that includes Steyer; Senate President Pro Tem Kevin De León, D-Los Angeles; and other state legislators. Brown made the remarks in a discussion about reducing greenhouse gas emissions. “This is an art and a science,” Brown said. “You have to push business further than they want to go, but within their capacity to reach it.”
Clean power companies have long been criticized for their reliance on federal and state subsidies and tax credits, with the bankruptcy of California-based solar company Solyndra used as a prime example. The U.S. Department of Energy awarded Solyndra $536 million in loan guarantees prior to the company’s collapse in 2011.
Green energy advocates have defended the subsidies, arguing that fossil fuel industries have long received tax credits and that government help is often a necessity to launch companies that require large start-up costs.
“Just as with any other major economic transition—the Industrial Revolution, the Marshall Plan, the fall of Communism—there is a role for government policy, finance and investment in speeding the adoption of the new, while easing the phaseout of the old,” Kate Gordon, vice chair at the Paulson Institute, said in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal earlier this year.
At a news conference in Paris, K.R. Sridhar, CEO of the fuel cell technology company Bloom Energy, said it would be wrong to single out renewable companies, saying that taxpayers pay for highway and road maintenance that benefits gasoline-powered cars.
Clean technology, the Bee quoted Sridhar, only needs a “helping hand,” not a permanent subsidy. “For us,” Sridhar said, “it’s a feeding bottle and not an addiction bottle.”
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