Freedom Line Blog

Below is the latest from Michael Ramirez:

In a letter sent to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Senator Mitch McConnell and other members of the Republican leadership threatened to block some of President Obama’s nominees until HHS lifts its gag order on private health insurance companies.

The gag order was put in place after Senator Baucus and others complained about a mailing Humana Inc. sent to seniors warning that the health care reform proposals advancing in Congress could result in cuts to Medicare benefits.   

McConnell’s office put out a release with excerpts from his interview on Fox News’ Your World with Neil Cavuto, during which he dicussed the letter and issue.  Below are some of those excerpts:

I sent a letter to the Secretary of Health and Human Services signed by the Republican Leadership. They have 10 vacancies of people they are trying to get appointed to the administration. None of those people will get through the Senate easily until they lift the gag order. None of these people make it through the Senate without extensive debate until they lift the gag order and allow the First Amendment to function for everyone in this country, including people who just happen to be doing business with the federal government.”

I think the Democratic majority is undeterred by the facts. The facts are that they are trying to cut Medicare. They certainly are cutting Medicare Advantage as well they are going to have a $500 billion cut in Medicare over the next 10 years. They are acting like they are not. Nobody believes that the director of the CBO has illustrated what they are doing. It is astonishing.”

Other Republican leaders who signed the letter include:  Senators  Jon Kyl, Lamar Alexander, John Thune, Lisa Murkowski, John Cornyn, Charles Grassley and Mike Enzi.

From USA Today:

The $787 billion economic recovery package … is stimulating growth in the federal government as agencies hire thousands of workers and spend millions of dollars to oversee and implement the package, according to government records and spokesmen. … That’s helped fuel the continued growth of the federal government, which increased by more than 25,000 employees, or 1.3%, since December 2008…”

Have no fear:  John Berry, head of the federal government’s Office of Personnel Management, says the increase is small and temporary.  Believe that, then there’s a bridge in Brooklyn for sale with your name written all over it.

In related news, the Labor Department this morning reported that the number of newly laid-off workers seeking unemployment benefits this week was 530,000.  While the number was less than economists expected, that brought the total number of jobs lost since December, 2008 to nearly 4 million, most coming from the private sector.  This, despite Congress’ passage of the $787 billion taxpayer-funded stimulus bill.

CNSNews.com is reporting that “House Republicans are seeking a congressional investigation and information from the White House to determine whether the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) pushed politics in a conference call with potential grant recipients.”

The issue erupted when Andrew Breitbart, of ACORN-video fame, published details of the call on his Big Hollywood website in which the White House allegedly worked with NEA officials to encourage its grant recipients to push Obama’s top policy priorities, including health care reform, cap-and-trade and other issues.   

According to Rep. John Kline (R-MN), ranking member of the House Education and Labor Committee:

The Lobbying Act and the Hatch Act are there to make sure we do not see government personnel and assets used for political purposes. … It does appear laws were broken. I want to work within the jurisdiction where I have it, which is the ranking Republican on the Education and Labor Committee.”

In addition, Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA), ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has sent a letter to Obama Sr. Advisor Valerie Jarrett at the White House asking her to provide more information about the conference call, including:

• A full and complete list of all participants on the August 10, 2009 conference call.
• A full and complete explanation of how invitees to the conference call were selected.
• A full and complete description of any consultation of, or opinion provided by, the Office of the White House Counsel or any other advisor regarding the legal implications of the August 10, 2009 conference call specifically and/or the relationship between the White House and NEA generally.
• A full and complete description of how the conference call was arranged, including which White House staff initiated contact with, or were contacted by, NEA staff, the role of the White House Office of Public Engagement, and the role of the Corporation for National and Community Service.
• A full and complete explanation of the White House’s expectations for call participants.
• A full and complete list of, any material produced by call participants in response to the August 10,2009 conference call.

Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, is leading the effort on the Senate side.

The Boston Globe is reporting that Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick will announce his choice to fill U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy’s seat on an interim basis.  He is schedule to make the announcement at a press conference at 11:00 a.m. 

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Paul G. Kirk, Jr., who served as an assistant to Senator Kennedy from 1969-1977, appears to be the choice. 

Earlier this week, the Massachusetts legislature changed state law to permit Governor Patrick to appoint an interim Senator, but the legislature stipulated that the Governor would have to wait 90 days or, alternatively, declare an “emergency situation” to name Kennedy’s successor immediately.  Not surprisingly, the Governor is choosing to do the latter.

Seemingly upset about everyone picking on their favorite community organizing group, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) want to know if Conress’ efforts to stop ACORN from receiving any more federal funds are, get this… constitutional.

Specifically, Conyers and Frank have submitted a formal request to the Congressional Research Service (“CRS”) asking it to analyze the ACORN defunding measures recently passed by the House and Senate to determine “their possible unconstitutionality and whether they could constitute an unlawful bill of attainder.” 

In addition, the two Chairmen want CRS to analyze the “recent ‘sting’ activity concerning ACORN” — referring to the brilliant videos commissioned and released by Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com —  including a run down of  “federal and state laws that could apply to such videotaping and distribution of conversations without the consent of all parties.”

And they wonder why Congress’ job approval ratings are in the dump.

Majority Leader Harry Reid this morning didn’t mince words in warning Senate Republicans that if they don’t get behind “health care reform” soon the Dems will use a procedural maneuver to pass it on their own. 

If we can’t work this out to do something within the committee structure, then we’ll be forced to do reconciliation.”

Reid has threatened to use budget reconciliation — a procedural move that requires a simple majority vote for passage rather than the traditional 60 votes needed in the Senate to pass most bills —  before, but some have warned that such a move could backfire.  The Majority Leader’s “bipartisanship, we don’t need no stinking bipartisanship” moment this morning, however, made it clear that public opposition be damned, Reid is prepared to ram Obama’s government-run health care experiment down the throats of the American people no matter what it takes.

Given Reid’s anemic job approval ratings in Nevada, it appears he’s thinking he’s got nothing left to lose.

Since its inception in the mid ’60s, the National Endowment for the Arts (“NEA”) has received billions in taxpayer dollars. 

Here is a link to its Congressional appropriations by year (through 2007), as they’re disclosed on the NEA website.

Below is a snapshot of taxpayer funding for just this decade alone:

Here is NEA’s FY 2010 appropriations request totaling $161,315 million.

Following the news that the White House has been colluding with the National Endowment for the Arts (a public agency) to enlist artists to become propaganda tools for the President’s agenda on health care, the environment and other issues, we thought it would be prudent to remind readers that Congress earmarked $50 million for the NEA in the so-called Economic Stimulus Bill passed back in February.

According to a new Rasmussen Reports survey, Members of Congress have surpassed those evil, greedy, no-good Corporate CEOs as having the least respected job in America.

Just one-out-of-four Americans (25%) have a favor[able] opinion of members of Congress. Seventy-two percent (72%) view them unfavorably. There’s some intensity in that perception, too. Only four percent (4%) have a very favorable view of congressmen, while 37% view them very unfavorably.

Even 56% of Democrats have an unfavorable view of Congress although their party controls both the House and the Senate. Of course, their opposition pales next to the 86% of Republicans and 81% of adults not affiliated with either party who have an unfavorable opinion of Congress.

Topping the list for most respected profession are small business owners, with 94% of respondents claiming to have a favorable opinion of them vs. a mere 3% who expressed an unfavorable opinion.  Journalists finished fifth out of the nine professions asked about with 43% viewing them favorably vs. 54% unfavorably.

I wonder how President Obama would rank the professions asked about in the Rasmussen Reports survey?   He must least respect those “greedy Corporate CEOs”  for making profits and creating jobs, right?  Or, does Obama least respect those small business owners who stand to lose most from the policies highest on his agenda?  

Then again, maybe Obama agrees with the public and their unfavorable view of Members of Congress, who failed to ram through his cap-and-trade and government-run health care schemes by the beginning of August as he demanded?   No… he must least respect those biased journalists.  How dare that Stephanopoulos press him on the fact that his health care tax is a tax when he says it isn’t a tax, because if it were a tax he again would be breaking his promise not to raise taxes on people making less than $250,000 per year?

It appears that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus failed to get the White House memo about tax increases not being tax increases prior to drafting his latest version of ObamaCare.

During yesterday’s now-infamous exchange with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, President Obama insisted that the provision in Baucus’ bill that taxes families up to $3,800 annually for failing to get health insurance (aka the “individual mandate”) is not a tax increase and therefore does not violate his oft-repeated campaign promise not to raise taxes on the middle class.

Hat tip to Chris Frates and Mike Allen of Politico for pointing out that the first sentence of Page 29 of the Baucus bill reads: “The consequence for not maintaining insurance would be an excise tax.”

But that’s not all. According to Frates and Allen:

And the rest of the bill is clear that the Finance Committee does, in fact, consider it a tax: ‘The excise tax would be assessed through the tax code and applied as an additional amount of Federal tax owed.’

So who’s lying now?

Here’s a hint: The President and his Administration are trying the same sleight of hand trick with regard to Cap-and-Trade … oops, Cap-and-Tax.

ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis debated Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA), one of the organization’s strongest congressional critics, this morning on Fox News Sunday.

The Senate Finance Committee has posted all 564 proposed amendments to Chairman Baucus and President Obama’s health care bill.

• Summary of 180 amendments concerning the delivery system for health care  — here.

                    Actual text of above amendments — here.

• Summary of the 284 amendments dealing with “exapanding coverage” — here.

                    Actual text of above amendments — here.

• Summary of the 100 amendments dealing with financing — here.

                    Actual text of above amendments — here. 

In this week’s Freedom Minute, CFIF’s Renee Giachino reminds the politicians in Washington that America deserves the truth about health care reform legislation.

Following the release of the bunker-busting ACORN videos, more than 130 House Republicans sent a letter to President Obama yesterday urging that the Federal Government cut off all funding to and sever all ties with ACORN. 

Dear Mr. President:

We write to you today in the wake of new reports of potentially criminal activity involving associates of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) to respectfully request that you use your authority to publicly disclose and terminate all federal funding to ACORN and its affiliates.  It is evident that ACORN is incapable of using federal funds in a manner that is consistent with the law.  Immediate action is necessary to ensure that no additional tax dollars are directed to ACORN.  Simply put, ACORN should not receive another penny of American taxpayers’ money.

Congressional pressure, coupled with the impact of recent media reports, prompted the U.S. Census Bureau on September 11 to end its partnership with ACORN.  We support this decision by the Census Bureau, and believe it is vital that all other federal agencies with ties to ACORN follow the Census Bureau’s example by severing all ties to ACORN and its affiliates, whether those ties consist of partnerships or the awarding of federal funds, including federal funds distributed through state and local governments from federal block grants.

This is a matter of common sense and respect for taxpayer dollars.  Last year, millions of Americans were outraged to learn their tax dollars were being used to subsidize an organization linked to multiple instances of voter registration fraud and other illicit activity.  An analysis of federal data by the Office of the Republican Leader determined that ACORN has received more than $53 million in direct funding from the federal government since 1994, and has likely received substantially more indirectly through states and localities that receive federal block grants.

The Census Bureau has made the commendable decision to sever ties with ACORN, and it is now critical that all remaining federal entities with ties to ACORN do the same.  We ask that you use your authority to ensure that all federal funding of ACORN is publicly disclosed and terminated immediately.  To facilitate this effort, the Republican staff of the Oversight Committee has compiled a complete list of the corporations that form the ACORN Council, and we would be pleased to share it with you and members of your administration.

We thank you for your attention to this request.

View the letter, with signatures, here.

Kudos to Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota.

CNSNews.com is reporting that Pawlenty sent a letter today to the director of the Minnesota Commission of Management and Budget with orders to stop all state funding to ACORN. 

The report reads, in part: 

“The letter cites recent reports of questionable behavior and potentially illegal activity by ACORN and states that they are of great concern to the governor and underscores the recent vote by the U.S. Senate to ban federal funding to ACORN, which also reflects those concerns,” Pawlenty spokesman Alex Carey told CNSNews.com.
 
In the letter, the governor directs Hanson to stop all state funding to ACORN, unless the state is legally obligated to continue funding. No precise dollar amount is available, Carey said.
 
“In addition, the letter directs” the commission “to conduct a thorough review of the state’s relationship with ACORN and to report back to the governor with his findings,” he said.

Read the full CNSNews.com report here.

According to a new IBD/TIPP survey of 1,376 randomly selected practicing physicians from across the country, a whopping 45% of doctors “would consider leaving their practice or taking an early retirement” if the health care “reform” plan being pushed by Congress and the President passes.

Here are some other highlights of the survey, according to Investors Business Daily:

• Two-thirds, or 65%, of doctors say they oppose the proposed government expansion plan. This contradicts the administration’s claims that doctors are part of an “unprecedented coalition” supporting a medical overhaul.

• More than seven in 10 doctors, or 71% — the most lopsided response in the poll — answered “no” when asked if they believed “the government can cover 47 million more people and that it will cost less money and the quality of care will be better.”

Senator Olympia Snowe, one of three Republicans who have been negotiating with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus on a health care reform compromise, is urging the President to take the public health insurance option “off the table.”  On CBS’s Face the Nation yesterday, Snowe said Obama “should take it off the table.”

In addition, Senator Susan Collins is out there claiming that she wouldn’t even support a “trigger” for the “public option,” an idea floated by Democrats last week.  Collins correctly argues, “The problem with the trigger is it just delays the public option.”

Senate Democrats have been courting both Senators in an effort to pass a bipartisan bill – something that will be next to impossible without Snowe and Collin’s support.  Without any Republican support, Democrats may have to resort to the nuclear option of the health care debate, which is to use budget reconciliation rules, if they insist on a public option as part of a final package.   Budget reconciliation would only require 51 votes for passage. 

Following the taxpayer uproar, including the protests over the weekend, they may want to think twice about that.

The official count, according to early news reports, is 60,000 people who have turned out for the 9-12 march on Washington.  But tune in to Fox News and I am pretty sure you’ll agree that it looks like a lot more.

Of course, House Democrats tried their hardest to diminish the significance of this event before it even started.  According to FoxNews.com, a House leadership aide penned a memo to fellow Dems warning that 2 million people could show.  The strategy?  Float a ridiculous number and anything less is failure.

These so-called leaders in Washington just don’t get it.  It is not a Democrat vs. Republican thing.  It’s not about which major political party can score the most political points.  This is about a bunch of ordinay people standing up for the principles on which this great country was founded. 

In addition to the 60,000 plus who have turned out in D.C., tens of thousands more are gathering in large cities and small towns across the country.  The more Washington politicians continue to play games and ignore the voice of the people, the larger this grassroots movement gets… and rightly so.

During his speech to a joint session of Congress this evening, President Obama will again endorse the idea of a government-run public health insurance option.  This, according to some staffers in Congress and despite the public outrage against it.

In doing so, many insiders have hinted that while Obama will make a soft endorsement of the controversial provision, he is also likely the hedge his bets to leave open the possibility for further negotiations with Congressional moderates. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the other hand continues to insist that a public health insurance option must be part of any final bill in order for it to pass in the House of Representatives.  Pelosi continues to get a lot of heat from progressives in her caucus (as many as 100 of them), who claim they will vote “No” on any bill that doesn’t include the government-run public option.

After a heated August recess on the health care issue, the Kabuki Dance that the President performs tonight should be interesting.  As Congressman Mike Pence, Chairman of the House Republican Conference, stated this morning, “The American people have spoken. Tonight we’ll see if Washington is listening.”

We’re not holding our breaths.