Policy Papers
December 2013 Unemployment Report
December 2013 Unemployment Rate: 6.7 percent Unemployed Americans: 10.4 million “Real” Unemployment The “real” unemployment or U-6 rate is 13.1 percent for December 2013, unchanged from last month. This is the total percentage of unemployed and underemployed workers. The “real” number of unemployed Americans is 20.6 million. These are people... Continue Reading
January 9, 2014
Obamacare’s Error-Plagued Roll Out Continues
Four years after the President sold Obamacare by making one empty promise after another; the percentage of Americans who want the law repealed continues to rise. During the past 14 weeks, bureaucratic mismanagement, gross incompetence, and calculated deception have come to define the Administration’s disastrous Obamacare roll out, affecting Americans all over the country. Rather than admit their law fails to work the way they promised, Washington Democrats are trying to change the... Continue Reading
January 8, 2014
2014 Policy Calendar
January 7, 2014
More than 5 Million Health Insurance Cancellations in 35 States
Source: AP and other media reports The Administration Still Won’t Say: How many paid their first month’s premium, making them fully enrolled? Who are the enrollees, demographically? How many people will not have access to their same doctor? Continue Reading
January 7, 2014
Job Creation Is the Best Solution for Unemployed Americans
The Senate is debating S.1845, legislation to extend the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) Program until April 1, 2014. The extension would be retroactive to the end of 2013. The bill also extends for three months the emergency changes made to the permanent Extended Benefits (EB) program to provide 100 percent federal funding, compared to the 50-50 cost sharing between states and the federal government under permanent law. The authorization for the “temporary”... Continue Reading
December 12, 2013
Why HealthCare.gov Metrics Matter
An internal Health and Human Services (HHS) memo, dated September 5, 2013, listed the Administration’s projected Obamacare enrollment targets at 494,620 for October and 3.3 million by December 31. On the eve of HealthCare.gov’s launch, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius upped the ante, setting seven million sign-ups by the end of March as what “success looks like.” So what are Obamacare’s successful enrollment rates? According to HHS’ October report, only... Continue Reading
December 11, 2013
Reviewing the Renewable Fuel Standard
Enacted in 2005 and expanded in 2007, the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) requires that an increasing amount of ethanol and other biofuels be added to America’s transportation fuel supply. Policymakers believed that mandating the substitution of oil-based fuels with biofuels derived from corn, switchgrass, wood, waste, algae, sugar, and fats would reduce oil imports, mitigate carbon emissions, and boost agricultural production. But under today’s energy paradigm, the RFS mandate has... Continue Reading
December 10, 2013
Dems’ Filibuster Fraud
On November 21, Majority Leader Reid broke his promise not to employ the nuclear option when he and Senate Democrats eliminated the filibuster on nominations. They did so based on what Senator Hatch once described as a filibuster fraud. They did it in an attempt to divert attention away from the Obamacare nightmare, and to ensure that the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will be able to rubber stamp the President’s agenda. Rather than abandon their extreme, liberal, agenda in favor of... Continue Reading
December 10, 2013
HealthCare.gov Headaches Continue
Last week the Administration issued a dubious Obamacare progress report claiming HealthCare.gov now “runs smoothly for the vast majority of consumers.” Just 10 weeks after the website’s disastrous rollout, President Obama declared victory – suggesting that the worst of HealthCare.gov’s problems are fixed. In fact, the Obama Administration’s eight-page progress report, comprised mostly of charts, makes unsubstantiated and often vague claims, while leaving key... Continue Reading
December 10, 2013
December 2013: Policy by the Numbers
The key number last week was 10 percent. According to the Obama Administration, one in 10 enrollees in the federal exchanges will have some type of error. This means people who think they have insurance may not really. Other recent numbers that have major policy implications. Continue Reading
December 6, 2013
November 2013 Unemployment
November 2013 Unemployment Rate: 7.0 percent Unemployed Americans: 10.9 million “Real” Unemployment The “real” unemployment or U-6 rate is 13.2 percent for November 2013, a decrease of 0.6 percentage points. This is the total percentage of unemployed and underemployed workers. The “real” number of unemployed Americans is 20.7 million. These are people who... Continue Reading
December 3, 2013
Tip of the Iceberg
November 22, 2013
The Fundamental Shift in Senate Operation
“[T]he proper way to change Senate rules is through the procedures established in those rules, and I will oppose any effort in this Congress or the next to change the Senate’s rules other than through the regular order.” -- Majority Leader Reid, January 27, 2011 Yesterday Senate Democrats took the brute force approach to governance and decided that it now only needs a simple majority vote to allow for confirmation votes of executive and judicial nominees. In so... Continue Reading
November 22, 2013
The Obama Administration’s Blatant Incompetence
In the months leading up to HealthCare.gov’s launch, Obama Administration officials claimed that the Obamacare exchanges would be tested, secure, and ready to start enrolling people on October 1. Despite repeated warnings that the Federal Data Hub and other website components were not ready for primetime, the Obama Administration insisted it was “on track.” Just 19 days before the exchanges went live, the Administration’s Chief Technology Officer, Todd Park, declared that... Continue Reading
November 21, 2013
Reid: Breaking Promises and Grabbing Power
“There is no way that I would employ or use the nuclear option. I want every Republican to hear that.” Majority Leader Reid, 2009 Today, Majority Leader Reid and Senate Democrats – 33 of whom have never served in the Senate minority – eliminated the filibuster on judicial nominations in the Senate by the very method Reid twice promised he would not use. Why? For the immediate and temporary political purposes of diverting attention from the national Obamacare... Continue Reading
November 20, 2013
Ending Democrats’ Drive for More Debt
As the budget conference committee seeks to produce a bipartisan budget resolution, the nonpartisan CBO has reported on options to reduce the deficit. Several of their findings would be good starting points, if Democrats can get over their insistence in raising tax rates. Chained-CPI This more accurate inflation measure was included in President Obama’s fiscal year 2014 budget proposal. It accounts for the fact that people change the products they buy in response to changes in prices. This... Continue Reading
November 19, 2013
Policy by the Numbers
Healthcare.gov launched seven weeks ago, and going into this week the White House says there are still 50 priority fixes needed for the website. Now the White House has lowered expectations on the “vast majority of users,” saying “roughly 2-in-10 won’t get through the system.” “That is absurd. First, it’s another broken promise. The president and his advisers responded to the disastrous rollout last month by vowing to deliver an Amazon.com-quality... Continue Reading
November 19, 2013
Obama Administration Rigs the Market Against Coal
The Obama Administration seeks to set unattainable carbon emissions standards to ensure that no new coal-fired power plants are built in America. The Administration has been writing rules that create new market conditions to discourage coal use. Then, trying to shield itself from criticism, it cites the new market conditions as justification for additional rules. And it cooks the books of the rules’ cost-benefit analysis by including a fabricated “social cost of carbon.”... Continue Reading
November 19, 2013
Obama’s Fake Fixes, Special Deals, and Delays
Under extreme political pressure from his own party, President Obama reluctantly stepped into the White House briefing room last week to address the millions of Americans who lost their insurance plan due to the Democrats’ health care law. The President announced the Department of Health and Human Services will use its dubious administrative “enforcement discretion” to “fix” Obamacare by allowing some people buying health insurance in the individual market to keep... Continue Reading
November 19, 2013