Policy Papers
The Timeline
U.S. Treasury cash outflows and inflows are lumpy – varying significantly day to day. Over the next several weeks: Government spending will average approximately $10 billion a day for ongoing programs. Government receipts will average approximately $7 billion a day, primarily remittances by employers and payroll taxes (does not include corporate tax payments that are made quarterly; last received in September). Significant Dates Sources: CBO and the Bipartisan Policy Center Continue Reading
October 11, 2013
HealthCare.gov: An Inexcusable Train Wreck
President Obama’s bungled health insurance exchange rollout has been all over the news. This week, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer commented, “They had three years to get this ready. If they weren’t fully ready, they should accept the advice Republicans are giving them, delay it for a year, get it ready and make sure it works.” Even information technology experts who support Obamacare viciously condemned the HealthCare.gov user experience saying, “It appears the people who... Continue Reading
October 9, 2013
Senate Democrats Block Bipartisan CRs
Since the government shut down last week, the House has sent to the Senate twelve individual CRs. These bills would open up different parts of the government right now – including parks, the National Institutes of Health, and many more agencies. The President and Senate Democrats have insisted that they will not pass the House’s clean appropriations bills for individual functions of the federal government (with the exception of the bill paying our military). Last week, fifty-seven... Continue Reading
October 8, 2013
Obamacare Exchanges: System Failure
For months the Obama Administration claimed that Obamacare’s insurance exchanges would be tested, secure, and ready to start enrolling people on October 1. The President promised they would work just like Amazon.com. Last Tuesday, the exchanges went live. Americans quickly discovered that Obamacare exchange shopping did not resemble Amazon. Customers experienced a laundry list of system failures: exchanges not opening on time or launching at all; long wait times online and at call... Continue Reading
October 8, 2013
Debt Limit Often Used for Reforms
The President keeps saying that he will not negotiate on the debt limit. He also leaves the false impression that there have never been negotiations with Congress over the debt limit on “issues that have nothing to do with the budget and nothing to do with the debt.” The Washington Post fact-checker gave the President four Pinocchios on that claim. Negotiations have actually occurred many times on the debt limit. From 1978 to 2013, the debt limit has been raised 53 times.... Continue Reading
October 8, 2013
Obamacare: Not Settled Law
A recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report confirmed that President Obama signed 14 laws that amend, rescind, or repeal components of his health care law – and also delayed at least five key provisions of the law by administrative fiat. While the President and Washington Democrats say Obamacare is settled law, that’s not the case. The President has unilaterally rewritten the law on five different occasions. Consumer Out-Of-Pocket Costs Cap Delayed In 2009, President Obama... Continue Reading
October 8, 2013
Policy by the Numbers
The “most transparent Administration ever” has the country guessing on the number of the week. Americans want to know how many people actually got health coverage during the first week of the Obamacare exchanges. The Administration says the number of enrollees won’t be coming anytime soon. Other recent numbers [or lack thereof] that also have policy implications. Continue Reading
October 8, 2013
Supreme Court Update
Today the Supreme Court begins a new term. With 53 cases currently on the docket, and many more expected to be heard this term, the Court will take up questions ranging from the First Amendment to the Senate’s role in the appointment process. Campaign Finance Today, in McCutcheon v. FEC, the Court will consider the constitutionality of contribution limits that a person can make during a two-year political cycle. Under current law, the contribution limit is $48,600 to all candidate... Continue Reading
October 1, 2013
Obama Must Accept Debt Limit Reforms
Congress will begin debate this month on the President’s sixth debt limit increase in his five years in office. The need to strengthen and secure entitlement programs for the future is greater than ever. Instead of refusing to negotiate, the President should accept that our country can no longer avoid a bipartisan agreement to reform entitlements. If he is unwilling to seriously deal with our country’s debt, Congress is left with little choice but to use the debt limit to force him... Continue Reading
October 1, 2013
Reid Ran the Clock, Shutting Down Government
It is now 11 days since the Republican-led House of Representatives passed a bill to keep the government open. Since that time, Harry Reid’s Democrat-led Senate has been running the clock on passing a continuing resolution. This is an emergency, yet Senate Democrats are showing no urgency in passing a compromise bill that would keep the government open. Continue Reading
September 26, 2013
Arms Control: Questions for Rose Gottemoeller
Today the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing on the nomination of Rose Gottemoeller to be the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. Ms. Gottemoeller currently serves as the Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance. She was the lead negotiator of New START. Senators and the American people should expect her to answer some important questions. Future Arms Control With Russia: A Treaty on... Continue Reading
September 26, 2013
Obamacare Limits Patient Choice and Coverage
President Obama and Washington Democrats first sold their health care law as the best way to reduce the cost of care. When it became clear that many people would see huge price increases for insurance, the Administration changed its sales pitch. Prices might not be lower, but the coverage would be better. It turns out, the revised story is no more true than the original one. In an effort to keep premium costs down and increase consumer plan options in the government exchanges, insurers... Continue Reading
September 24, 2013
Obamacare Exchange Opens Door to Fraud and Identity Theft
“Fraudsters are poised to take advantage of widespread confusion over the Affordable Care Act – also known as Obamacare – to steal Americans’ credit cards, Social Security numbers and other personal information.” -- McClatchy Newspapers, 7/21/2013 The Obamacare Exchange Monster Graphic source: Citizen's Council for Health Freedom The insurance exchanges created by the Democrats’ health care law are scheduled to open in just one week. So far, implementation... Continue Reading
September 23, 2013
FCC’s Dishonest “Net Neutrality” Regulations
In December 2010, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), on a 3-2 party line vote, adopted its Open Internet Order – often referred to as the “net neutrality” rules – that reversed the longstanding policy choice to leave the Internet unregulated. The misguided decision subjects Internet providers to heavy-handed regulations. Proponents of the rule claim it is needed to protect consumers, promote innovation, and ensure the Internet continues to flourish. The... Continue Reading
September 19, 2013
Obamacare Exchange Opens Door to Identity Theft
In just 12 days, Obamacare’s health insurance exchanges open for enrollment. When people use an exchange to apply for health insurance, they will have to provide sensitive personal data – such as Social Security numbers, household income, and other tax return information – which is then entered into a Federal Data Services Hub. Unfortunately, recent news has called into question how good the Data Hub, and other parts of the Obamacare system, will be at protecting this private... Continue Reading
September 19, 2013
On Syria: “There are a lot, a lot, a lot of details that still have to be sorted through”
The United States and Russia, without any participation from Syria, have agreed to a framework purporting to lead to the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons program. The agreement is essentially a proposal for a decision to be adopted by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Executive Council, which would then be put into effect by a U.N. Security Council Resolution. It is a decision requiring Syria to comprehensively declare within one week its entire... Continue Reading
September 18, 2013
CBO Warns Again on Debt, Democrats Silent
This week the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its annual report on the nation’s long-term fiscal outlook. Washington Democrats should learn some key lessons from the report. Debt Unsustainable, Despite Democrat’s Tax Increases CBO assumes that revenue reaches 18.5 percent of GDP in 2023 and continues to rise to 19.7 percent in 2038. This may be overly optimistic, as average revenue over the past 40 years has been 17.4 percent of GDP; and during that time period revenues... Continue Reading
September 17, 2013
Five Years Later: Obama Still Making Excuses on Keystone XL
TransCanada submitted its application for a permit to build the Keystone XL pipeline on September 19, 2008. Five years later, President Obama still grasps for excuses to reject it. In June, the President raised the bar for the application when he announced the “net effects of the pipeline’s impact on our climate will be absolutely critical” in determining whether he would approve it. In July, he sneered at the jobs the pipeline would create as a “blip relative to the... Continue Reading
September 17, 2013
Stacking the D.C. Circuit
Majority Leader Reid has made clear his designs to switch the majority of judges on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The dwindling caseload on the D.C. Circuit, however, does not warrant the confirmation of more judges to that court. So why the insistence on adding judges to a court that doesn’t need it? Simple: President Obama and his political allies do not like many of the recent decisions handed down by the court, and they recognize that changing the majority of... Continue Reading
September 12, 2013
Barrasso: Obamacare Continues to Hit Middle Class Americans
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) talked about how the President’s health care law is hurting the middle class by making it harder for Americans to find full-time work and increasing health insurance costs for families across the country. Excerpts of his remarks: “I come to the floor today to talk about a new CNN poll. And the CNN poll came out yesterday that said that support for the President's health care law appears to be waning.... Continue Reading