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Archive for March, 2014
March 14th, 2014 at 1:34 pm
Could Obama Neuter Putin by Increasing Natural Gas Exports?

That is the interesting idea being floated by commentators looking for ways to halt Russia’s military adventurism in Ukraine.

If direct military intervention is off the table – and at this point it’s hard to imagine the Obama administration going that route – then exporting America’s vast new reservoir of liquefied natural gas to Europe could be a way to deter Russian aggression in the region while at the same time strengthening our allies.

Gazprom, a huge state-controlled gas provider in Russia, supplies much of Europe. Hesitancy on the part of some European governments to respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is tied to Russia’s use of Gazprom to raise prices or restrict access when confronted with political situations it does not like. Increasing United States exports of its natural gas stock to Europe would diminish this threat substantially, allowing America’s European allies to take a more assertive stance against further Russian force.

In order to wean Europe off of Russian gas, President Barack Obama “should order the Energy Department to expedite authorization for roughly 25 liquefied natural gas export facilities. Demand all decisions within six weeks. And express major U.S. support for a southern-route pipeline to export Caspian Sea gas to Europe without traversing Russia or Ukraine,” writes Charles Krauthammer.

This solution puts an abundant natural resource to work for America’s national security interests, and also increases the number of domestic production and manufacturing jobs. The only hitch is that it requires President Obama to commit his administration to an energy policy opposed by liberal environmentalists. That alone probably dooms an otherwise win-win alternative to direct military intervention or sitting pat while Russia reconstitutes the Soviet Union. If so, it’s more confirmation that current Oval Office decisions are based more on pleasing special interest groups than helping domestic workers or our foreign allies.

March 14th, 2014 at 11:49 am
ObamaCare Will be a Major Campaign Issue in 2016

The latest ObamaCare delay guarantees that the law’s arbitrary implementation will be a huge issue in the 2016 presidential campaign.

“The change was included in last week’s announcement that the government would let people keep otherwise out-of-compliance health plans for another two years,” reports Fox News. “Buried in the official memo was a line giving people whose policies were canceled a ‘hardship exemption’ through October 2016.”

That means no who qualifies for this exemption has to pay a fine under the individual mandate until President Barack Obama is leaving office.

Talk about forcing someone else to do make all the hard decisions. Because of the current president’s refusal to shoulder the burdens of implementing his own law it seems like a certainty that the campaign to succeed him will be dominated by questions he can’t bear to answer now.

In short, get used to ObamaCare being a flashpoint in our politics for a long time to come.

March 14th, 2014 at 11:30 am
Liberty Update
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Center For Individual Freedom - Liberty Update

This week’s edition of the Liberty Update, CFIF’s weekly e-newsletter, is out. Below is a summary of its contents:

Senik:  The High Price of Michelle Obama’s Food Nannying
Lee:  Free Market Royalty Act Modernizes Outdated Music Regulations and Levels the Radio Playing Field
Ellis:  Union: ObamaCare Will Kill Our Health Plan by 2017

Video:  “A Smidgen of Corruption” at the IRS
Podcast:  ObamaCare from the Eyes of a Canadian Healthcare Refugee
Jester’s Courtroom:  Making Waves

Editorial Cartoons:  Latest Cartoons of Michael Ramirez
Quiz:  Question of the Week
Notable Quotes:  Quotes of the Week

If you are not already signed up to receive CFIF’s Liberty Update by e-mail, sign up here.

March 14th, 2014 at 9:16 am
Podcast: ObamaCare from the Eyes of a Canadian Healthcare Refugee
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Shona Holmes, a leading patients’ rights advocate who fled Canada to seek life-saving medical treatment in the United States, discusses how universal health care does not end suffering, it just redistributes it, and how access to health insurance does not equal access to healthcare.

Listen to the interview here.

March 12th, 2014 at 5:33 pm
House Hearing Offers Opportunity to Combat Internet Piracy through Voluntary Measures
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On Thursday, March 13, the House Judiciary Intellectual Property (IP) Subcommittee will conduct a hearing regarding the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA’s) “notice and takedown” provisions.  It provides a critical opportunity for lawmakers to promote modernized, voluntary and much-needed initiatives to better execute the DMCA’s objective of sustaining the most open Internet environment possible while also combating piracy and IP theft.

Congress passed the DMCA over 15 years ago to simultaneously allow the Internet to flourish while ensuring that the IP rights of creators would be safeguarded, and wrongdoing prevented and punished.  The law’s notice and takedown provisions established the procedures for aggrieved creators to alert service providers that illegal content was being distributed by wrongful actors, and creating a “safe harbor” from prosecution for the service providers who follow the law.  When Internet entities receive takedown notices or discover violations themselves, they must remove the infringing material and terminate the accounts of flagrant actors when appropriate.  Seems fair enough.

Unfortunately, those provisions haven’t sufficiently fulfilled the DMCA’s goal of combating piracy.  In particular, Section 512 of the law, which sought “strong incentives for service providers and copyright owners to cooperate to detect and deal with copyright infringements that take place in the digital networked environment,” has instead too often provided shelter for violators because other actors haven’t taken sufficient efforts to stop infringement.  Property rights are no less sacred on the Internet than elsewhere, and theft is theft.

Fortunately, Congress can help correct the situation. Voluntary measures such as the 2007 User-Generated Content Principles, and the 2013 Copyright Alert System offer some helpful initiatives that ensure an open Internet while also protecting creators against rampant theft.  All stakeholders can pursue agreement on how to identify and address flagrant offenders, standardized technical measures such as filtering can be discussed, legitimate sites can be promoted in search results while illegitimate sites can be minimized and notice practices can be modernized and streamlined.  As another example, the Copyright Alert System (CAS) through which the music and film industries, along with the five largest Internet service providers, inform consumers about online piracy and direct them toward alternatives has received positive feedback to date.

Again, a wide array of voluntary, beneficial measures can be addressed and pursued.  What Congress shouldn’t do, however, is follow the defective advice of so-called “libertarian” and “conservative” opponents of IP rights employing flatly false scare tactics while turning a blind eye to piracy.  By working together, all interested parties can ensure continued Internet growth and enjoyment, while better protecting creators and innovators against unfair theft of their works.

March 12th, 2014 at 11:10 am
HHS Discovers One ObamaCare Deadline It Can’t Delay

And it just so happens to be the most crucial.

With only 4.2 million of the original 7 million Obamacare exchange enrollees confirmed, officials at the Department of Health and Human Services were asked yesterday whether they would extend the March 31 deadline.

“We have no plans to extend the open enrollment period,” responded an HHS official, according to the Weekly Standard. “In fact, we don’t actually have the statutory authority to extend the open enrollment period in 2014.” (Emphasis added)

Of course, none of the controversial Obamacare delays are rooted in the law’s statutory text. When pressed for an explanation of how the enrollment deadline is different from the extra-legal delays of the individual mandate, employer mandate, small business exchange, Cadillac tax and thirty other extensions, the HHS spokespeople had no credible response.

The question remains, though, Why not extend the enrollment period in order to get more sign-ups? My guess is that broadening the enrollment timeline would quickly destroy the Obama administration’s ability ever to impose another deadline. As we saw last week with the second yearlong delay allowing non-compliant individual plans to continue, once an exception is made the firmness needed to impose a new drop-dead-date disintegrates. Rules become subject to whim not reason.

And make no mistake, if the Obama administration folds on this deadline the whole logic of Obamacare crashes and burns. If there is no penalty for non-enrollment then there is an incentive for each person to wait until he or she gets sick before buying health insurance. To participate on an Obamacare exchange an insurance company must accept whoever wants to buy a plan. Insuring sick people at the point of sale is no longer insurance since every purchaser needs the service immediately. For Obamacare to work as designed, however, the law and its insurance company partners need a majority of people paying for benefits only a minority will access.

That’s the real reason the Obama administration won’t delay the March 31 enrollment deadline. It can’t afford to.

March 10th, 2014 at 4:33 pm
California Lawmakers Agree to Raise Gas Prices 40 Cents-Per-Gallon

With California’s tax policy, the only certainty is that consumers will lose money.

The latest example is the growing fight over whether to include fuel distributors in the Golden State’s controversial global warming regulatory scheme. Doing so would subject them to the same cap-and-trade system applied to industrial facilities, and could add between 12 – 40 cents-per-gallon to fuel purchases within the next year. The leading alternative would opt for a flat 15 cent-per-gallon carbon tax, which grows to 40 cents by 2029.

In short, California lawmakers have agreed that gas should cost an additional 40 cents-per-gallon. They’re just torn over how long to wait before imposing it on taxpayers.

This is what passes for deliberation in a state dominated by tax-and-spend liberals.

No wonder the middle class is fleeing in droves.

March 10th, 2014 at 2:58 pm
Today’s “Your Turn” Lineup
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Join CFIF Corporate Counsel and Senior Vice President Renee Giachino today from 4:00 p.m. CDT to 6:00 p.m. CDT (that’s 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. EDT) on Northwest Florida’s 1330 AM WEBY, as she hosts her radio show, “Your Turn: Meeting Nonsense with Commonsense.”  Today’s guest lineup includes:

4:00 CDT/5:00 pm EDT:  Cameron Seward, Heritage Foundation Program Manager – President Obama’s Budget;

4:30 CDT/5:30 EDT:  Shona Holmes, Canadian Healthcare Refugee – ObamaCare and Patient Rights;

5:00 CDT/6:00 pm EDT:  Bruce Herschensohn, Political Commentator, Professor at Pepperdine University School of Public Policy and CFIF Board Member – The Situation in Ukraine and Foreign Policy; and

5:30 CDT/6:30 pm EDT:  Troy Senik: FLOTUS and Food Labels and Why is the Middle Class Leaving California.

Listen live on the Internet here.   Call in to share your comments or ask questions of today’s guests at (850) 623-1330.

March 10th, 2014 at 9:16 am
Ramirez Cartoon: The Obama Budget
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Below is one of the latest cartoons from two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Ramirez.

View more of Michael Ramirez’s cartoons on CFIF’s website here.

March 7th, 2014 at 11:00 am
Liberty Update
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Center For Individual Freedom - Liberty Update

This week’s edition of the Liberty Update, CFIF’s weekly e-newsletter, is out. Below is a summary of its contents:

Senik:  On Foreign Policy, An Unteachable President
Lee:  Obama’s 2015 Budget Rejects Compromise, Cements Disastrous Legacy
Ellis:  Honest Medicare Reform Impossible So Long as President Refuses to Follow the Law

Podcast:  Understanding the Federal Debt Ceiling
Jester’s Courtroom:  McMental Anguish

Editorial Cartoons:  Latest Cartoons of Michael Ramirez
Quiz:  Question of the Week
Notable Quotes:  Quotes of the Week

If you are not already signed up to receive CFIF’s Liberty Update by e-mail, sign up here.

March 7th, 2014 at 8:39 am
Why It’s Getting Harder to be a Liberal
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In an interview with CFIF, Robert Knight, Senior Fellow at the American Civil Rights Union, discusses the growing list of issues and failures liberals are trying to spin for the Obama Administration, from ObamaCare to foreign policy, and why it’s getting harder every day to be a liberal.

Listen to the interview here.

March 6th, 2014 at 10:59 am
STELA Reauthorization: An Opportunity for Pro-Market Reform
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On December 31, 2014,the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA) is set to expire.  The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology is in the process of reauthorizing the law, and that provides a critical opportunity for pro-market reform by modernizing anachronistic regulations like retransmission consent agreements and must-carry provisions of the 1992 Cable Act.

So what is STELA, and why should conservatives and libertarians care?

Well, when the Cable Act became law in 1992, the prevailing concern was that cable operators might somehow employ monopoly power to block local broadcast stations in their home areas.  Accordingly, the Act tipped the scales in favor of broadcasters by granting them the right to guaranteed carriage or the right to compel cable operators to pay stations for consent to retransmit their broadcasts to local subscribers.  STELA, enacted in 2010 and due to expire at the end of this year, essentially maintained many of those outdated rules.

Today, more than two decades later, the television marketplace is much more competitive and no longer resembles the 1992 state of affairs.  Consumers now possess innumerable options in channel selection and the means to access them, from cable to fiber optics to online to multiple satellite and cable providers.  Yet despite that evolution, the government-imposed advantage for broadcasters remains.  Multi-channel video programming distributors (MVPDs) like cable, satellite and fiber providers are prohibited under current outdated regulations from disconnecting service during sweeps week, but broadcasters remain free to do the same thing during such events as the World Series in which the local team is playing.  Thus, broadcasters maintain government-created negotiating power through the retransmission consent rules, and are guaranteed a place on cable companies’ basic tier.  That tipping of scales has resulted in consumers suffering service disruptions and cost increases.

Fortunately, the opportunity has arrived for Congress to do something about it, and allow greater negotiating balance and a more even playing field.   As part of STELA reauthorization, Congress can at the very least jettison the prohibition against MVPDs disconnecting service during sweeps week if necessitated by a negotiating impasse with intransigent broadcasters, as well as broadcasters’ government-granted right to placement on cable companies’ basic tier, which it appears ready to do.

The federal government simply shouldn’t be playing favorites or tipping the scales in an industry as dynamic as this, and STELA reauthorization provides the perfect opportunity to correct those existing defects.

March 5th, 2014 at 9:08 pm
Ramirez Cartoon: The Red Line Part II
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Below is one of the latest cartoons from two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Ramirez.

View more of Michael Ramirez’s cartoons on CFIF’s website here.

March 4th, 2014 at 6:05 pm
Newest ObamaCare Delay Further Politicizes Medicine

The Hill is reporting that the Obama administration will extend for an additional year the ability of insurance companies to offer consumers plans that do not comply with Obamacare requirements. The current one-year extension is set to expire in October of this year, about a month before the 2014 midterm elections.

It is universally acknowledged that the reason for the extended extension is so that Democrats up for reelection can avoid having to explain to voters why the cheaper insurance plans they like are being canceled and replaced with more expensive options.

As one insurance industry source told The Hill, “I don’t see how they could have a bunch of these [cancellation] announcements going out in September, [n]ot when they’re trying to defend the Senate and keep their losses at a minimum in the House. This is not something to have out there right before the election.”

When the legality of a person’s health insurance depends on the timing of a political campaign, it’s obvious that health care has become politicized.

But while subjecting millions of Americans’ insurance plans to the expediency of a political party is certainly bad, the fact that no year seems to be a good year to fully implement Obamacare offers something like a silver lining. The whole point of terminating non-compliant insurance plans between October 2013 and January 2014 was to inflict maximum damage a year before voters went to the polls. The thinking was that other issues would eventually overshadow the anger and price spikes, allowing Democrats to avoid the consequences of entrenching their favorite policy.

Going forward, it’s hard to see how the Obama administration won’t become addicted to its own avoidance behavior. Though barred from seeking a third term in office, Obama will be under enormous pressure from Hillary Clinton and other Democratic presidential candidates, as well as members of Congress, to continue delaying enforcement until after the 2016 elections. After all, letting Obamacare go into effect will provide Republicans with a perfect campaign issue. Why not keep it off the table?

However, if that’s the tack they take it paves the way for another GOP line of attack – If Obamacare is too horrid to live with before an election, it certainly can’t be tolerated after.

After years of politicizing medicine by not enforcing its own law, the Obama administration may succeed in convincing Americans that Obamacare isn’t worth the pain it will inflict.

March 3rd, 2014 at 1:42 pm
ObamaCare’s War on Work

Up to 38% of people who qualify for Obamacare exchange subsidies may have to pay some or all of the money back to the IRS. That’s because the amount of subsidy dispensed is based on a sliding scale. As income rises, the amount of subsidy decreases. In practice, many people who currently qualify for a subsidy could wind up paying back the amount if they earn just a little bit more in income.

“At biggest risk are people who annual household income put them near the thresholds where the Obamacare subsidies make steep declines,” explains AEI expert Scott Gottlieb. “These cliffs are steepest for those people who earn 150% of the federal poverty level (family of four earning $35,000 in annual household income); 250% (a family of four earning about $55,000 annually); and 400% (a family of four earning about $95,000 annually).”

The upshot of this is that people may become much more sensitive to family budgeting since their financial stability depends on which side of the subsidy wall they fall. The downside of course is that we’re likely to start seeing people decline job promotions and salary hikes to avoid becoming a net loser at tax time.

As I’ve noted before, Obamacare’s War on Work is just beginning.