Policy Papers
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Americans Don’t Trust Disgraced IRS to Fairly Enforce Obamacare
It has been more than a month since the American people first learned that the Internal Revenue Service unfairly targeted certain groups seeking tax-exempt status. As Congress intensifies its oversight and investigation into the IRS’s improper actions, anger all across the country is reaching an all-time high. One recent poll shows 68 percent of Americans believe the IRS targeting was purely motivated by politics, not tax policy. Americans now doubt the self-proclaimed most transparent... Continue Reading
June 5, 2013
The President Plays Politics with the D.C. Circuit
Yesterday, President Obama announced three nominations to judgeships on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. In presenting these nominations, the President righteously claimed there was no reason – “aside from politics” – not to have an up-or-down vote on each of them. Unfortunately, the President’s pecksniffery ignores the recent history, including his own, of Senate Democrats blocking nominees. Moreover, the President’s blind obedience to the... Continue Reading
June 4, 2013
Supreme Court Update
At the private conference of the Supreme Court on June 20, the Supreme Court is scheduled to choose whether to consider the case on the President’s unconstitutional recess appointments – something Senate Republicans urged the Court to do. The Court is also expected to issue important decisions before its current term ends later this month. Case Name Question for the Court Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin This case addresses the question of affirmative action. For the first... Continue Reading
June 4, 2013
Democrats Play Politics on Student Loans
If Congress does not act before July 1, the interest rate paid by college students on subsidized federal Stafford loans will return to 6.8 percent. Bipartisan solutions have been offered to simplify the interest rate structure, but Senate Democrats are standing in the way. Federal Stafford Loans and Interest Rates As a political strategy, Democrats promised in 2006 to cut student loan interest rates in half -- to 3.4 percent. The rates applied to subsidized and unsubsidized federal Stafford... Continue Reading
June 4, 2013
Social Security Trustees: Take Action “As Soon As Possible”
On May 31, the Social Security trustees issued their annual report on the financial status of the program. Their findings confirm that Social Security is in such financial trouble that delaying reform is not an option. In 2033, Even the IOUs Are Gone Social Security’s combined trust funds will be completely depleted in 2033. This means that even the Treasury bonds held by Social Security – IOUs Washington has given itself – will be gone, and Social Security will have to rely... Continue Reading
June 4, 2013
UN: “Reasonable Grounds to Believe That Chemical Agents Have Been Used [in Syria]”
Today the United Nations Human Rights Council released its most recent report on the conflict in Syria. Noting that “the conflict in Syria has reached new levels of brutality,” it found “there are reasonable grounds to believe that chemical agents have been used as weapons” in Syria. It further assessed, “war crimes and crimes against humanity have become a daily reality in Syria.” It also found the “transfer of arms” to Syria — as Russia is... Continue Reading
June 4, 2013
Medicare Remains on Fast Track to Bankruptcy
On May 31, the Medicare Trustees issued their annual report on the financial status of the program. The report outlines a program damaged by the Obama Administration’s health care law and on the fast track toward bankruptcy. Administration officials claimed the health care law improved Medicare’s financial outlook. Slower health care spending was a factor pushing the trust fund’s insolvency date back two years – until 2026. However, the health care spending slowdown is... Continue Reading
May 23, 2013
Health Care Law Mandates Force Employers’ Hands
The President’s health care law contains a mandate requiring employers with 50 or more employees to offer government-approved insurance or pay a tax. Employers that do not offer health coverage will pay a $2,000 tax per worker. Employers that offer health insurance deemed unaffordable (the cost is more than 9.5 percent of the employee’s family income) will pay a $3,000 tax for every full-time worker who gets a subsidy in the exchange. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the... Continue Reading
May 21, 2013
NLRB “Recess” Appointments Rebuked Again
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled last week that another unilateral appointment by President Obama was unconstitutional. The decision -- NLRB v. New Vista -- agrees with the reasoning of U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. That court ruled in January, in the Noel Canning case, that the President’s authority to make recess appointments is limited to inter-session recesses of the Senate, and not intra-session recesses. “If the Senate refused to confirm a... Continue Reading
May 21, 2013
CFPB: Unaccountable and Unrestrained
Senate Democrats will try to push for a vote this week on Richard Cordray to be the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director. Senate Republicans are pushing for commonsense solutions to an unaccountable and unrestrained bureau. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) raised concerns since its creation due to its unprecedented investigative and regulatory authority, its lack of accountability, and the unparalleled authority placed in its sole director. A recent action by the CFPB to... Continue Reading
May 21, 2013
CBO Confirms Obama Budget Shirks Responsibility
Last Friday, CBO released its estimate of the President’s budget, which showed $1.1 trillion in reduced borrowing. That is significantly less deficit reduction than the President’s claim of $1.8 trillion when he released his budget just last month. CBO also shows almost all of the deficit reduction is through higher taxes. The President’s budget would raise nearly $1 trillion in taxes to pay for canceling the nearly $1 trillion sequester. This is nothing new from President... Continue Reading
May 21, 2013
On Obamacare, the IRS Can’t Be Trusted
When Americans hear about the unraveling IRS scandal, they might not automatically think of their health care. But they should. The health care law was allowed to stand by the U.S. Supreme Court only because it was determined to be a tax. Enter the IRS. The IRS now has an Affordable Care Act office, headed by the person who led the IRS’s tax-exempt office. The tax-exempt office is where targeting of non-profit groups, based on politics, took place. But the ACA office cannot actually be... Continue Reading
May 16, 2013
The Road to Peace in Syria Runs Through ... Moscow?
If it wasn’t clear that President Obama’s policy on Syria is simply bizarre, Secretary of State John Kerry’s hat-in-hand trip to Russia last week should lay bare the reality. Asking Russia to support U.S. interests in Syria is like asking the fox to guard the hen house. Russia and the United States announced last week they would host an international conference on Syria. It was originally supposed to be held by the end of May; it now looks like it won’t happen until June.... Continue Reading
May 15, 2013
The Sebelius Shakedown: Private Sector Asked to Fund Obamacare Implementation
Last Friday – May 10 – The Washington Post reported that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had “gone, hat in hand, to health industry officials, asking them to make large financial donations to help with the effort to implement President Obama’s landmark health-care law.” The article explained that “[o]ver the past three months, Sebelius has made multiple phone calls to health industry executives, community organizations and church groups... Continue Reading
May 9, 2013
What President Obama Won’t Tell Women About His Health Care Law
At the health care law’s March 2010 signing ceremony, President Obama predicted that “all of the overheated rhetoric over reform will finally confront the reality of reform.” Three years later, the American people are faced with the reality of President Obama’s health care law. Rather than admit his law costs too much and fails to work the way he promised, President Obama just keeps trying to sell it. The White House will hold an event on Friday to promote the law’s... Continue Reading
May 7, 2013
Reid Sequester Bill Is Unserious
Before the recess, and in the midst of the FAA debate, Majority Leader Reid introduced and placed on the Senate calendar S. 788, a bill to cancel the sequester. Instead of a serious debate about priorities, this bill proposes a fake offset – the war spending gimmick – for the higher spending that results from canceling the sequester. Unfortunately, Senator Reid has misled the American people in his attempts to portray his bill as common sense and a responsible way to budget. It is... Continue Reading
May 7, 2013
Obama vs. Obama on Guantanamo
President Obama said at his press conference last week that he was “going to reengage with Congress” on Guantanamo. The President’s history on this subject has been more of a debate with himself over how he wants to proceed and whether Guantanamo is really an issue of governance, or still just a campaign issue. At his April 30th press conference, the President said: “When I was campaigning in 2007 and 2008, and when I was elected in 2008, I said we need to close... Continue Reading
May 7, 2013
Minimum Wage Increase Is Bad Economic Policy
The President is again pivoting back to the economy by launching a series of trips on his economic plans, a focus of which will be raising the minimum wage from the current $7.25 an hour. The first trip will be this Thursday to Austin, Texas. Earlier this year, in his State of the Union address, President Obama called for increasing the federal minimum wage to $9.00 an hour – an increase of 24 percent – stating that “this single step would raise the incomes of millions of... Continue Reading
May 7, 2013
We Need More Jobs
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment rose by 165,000 last month, and the jobless rate fell to 7.5 percent. These April gains favored retail and business services industries, while other major sectors of our economy continue to struggle. Job growth has not been consistent or broad-based enough for the Federal Reserve to pull back in its buying of $85 billion a month in long-term bonds. A broader “real” measure of unemployment, the U-6 rate, increased last month to... Continue Reading
May 7, 2013
On Obamacare: “Glitches or a train wreck? Bet on the wreck.”
Week after week, hardworking taxpayers anxiously watch as policy experts and the private sector confirm the President’s health care law costs too much and fails to work the way Democrats promised. In the meantime, President Obama and Washington Democrats scramble to explain to the American people why their lofty health care promises are not matching reality. President Obama Clueless Regarding Health Law Impact Senate Democrats spent last week lamenting that they created a health care... Continue Reading