Category: Congressional & Government Reform
Trump’s First State of the Union Address
In marked contrast to his predecessor who loved the sound of “I,” Trump said “We” – a lot. Maybe that’s the reason Trump’s approval rating climbed to its highest level since taking the oath of office a year ago. By … Continue reading
Can the Census Bureau Survive a November Election Surprise?
It is very troubling that according to Crudele, “more than a hundred data-gathering computers were missing from the Philadelphia region of Census the month before the last Presidential election. Some were supervisors’ computers that could have easily been used to change economic results, including the unemployment rate. Census has refused to explain how the computers went missing.” Continue reading
The IRS Targeting Scandal’s Threat to Constitutional Government
A faction whose passion to “transform” America in radical ways loses any sense of fairness or respect for the rule of law. At the center of the scandal is Lois Lerner, the IRS Director of Exempt Organizations. The House voted Lerner to be in contempt of Congress. Only six Democrats voted for the bill, again demonstrating the partisan nature of the scandal. The Obama Justice Department has refused to enforce the contempt charge. The GOP members of the House Ways and Means Committee have asked the new Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, to take action… Continue reading
What’s Behind Those Pre-Election “Rosy Scenario” Unemployment Reports?
The last U.S. Labor Department unemployment rate report before a major election once again recently reported a big drop just below a significant milestone. The rate which is based on the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey dropped from 6.1% in August to 5.9% in September in just one month. It is the first time the unemployment rate has fallen below 6% in more than six years.
The Closing of the Presidential Mind – Part 3: Unveiled Ignorance – ObamaCare and its Roots
President Barack Obama’s most famous policy initiative has proved to be, arguably, his most divisive and politically damaging. ObamaCare has become at once his calling card for a high rating from liberal historians and a political albatross. As the impracticality of the system has met with the reality of consumers’ everyday needs, the administration has been forced to change the rules governing the nation’s health-care system seemingly every day. The legality of these edicts has been questionable at best; they ensure that the health-care sector, one-sixth of the nation’s economy, is governed by the daily caprice of the nation’s chief executive.
Nevada Cattle Rancher Standoff Far More Complex than Simple Lawbreaking
Cliven Bundy claims that he inherited “pre-emptive grazing rights’ on federal land because his ancestors kept cattle in the Virgin Valley since 1877, before the Department of the Interior was created. However, by continuing to graze his livestock on federal land for over 20 years after he stopped paying fees in 1993, Bundy may have acquired “prescriptive rights;”
Is the Obama administration corrupting the U.S. Census to save ObamaCare?
The Obama administration has made major changes in a U.S. census survey, the Current Population Survey (CPS), so that it will make ObamaCare look better on the critical question of whether it is reducing the number of uninsured Americans. A New York Times report last week kicked off the latest controversy over how the Obama administration will do everything it can to save the controversial program including manipulating the numbers.
‘Wastebook 2013’ Lists The Most Awful Government Spending
Every year, Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) issues an annual oversight report featuring the top 100 ways the government wastes money. “Wastebook 2013” lists nearly $30 billion of taxpayers’ money that was squandered last year.
Ending the Filibuster
On November 21, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid followed through on threats to use the so-called nuclear option to overcome Republican opposition to President Barack Obama’s nominees to executive and judicial positions. Fifty-two Senate Democrats and independents voted to repeal the traditional filibuster powers of the Senate minority party for executive and judicial nominees.
Media Bias and Conservative Setbacks in the Federal Shutdown
Following a fortnight of partial federal government shutdown, as Washington returned to business as usual, media and political analysts took the news space and air time formerly ceded to reporting the situation to assessing winners and losers in the national confrontation. Few had little good to say about Republican leaders in Congress, and just as few judged their efforts successful. Rush Limbaugh and other conservative media opinion leaders, in particular, roundly condemned the agreement to reopen federal agencies and institutions without concessions from President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress.
Nullifying the Federal Leviathan
With its polarizing policies on a range of hot-button issues, the Obama administration has sharply divided the American electorate. This has breathed new vigor into federalism, as these initiatives have invited a backlash at the state level on a comparable array of issues. In turn, these challenges to federal authority have resurrected hoary theories of such luminaries as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and largely forgotten political figures at the very opposite end of the ideological and historical spectrum where the current president sits.
The IRS Tax Refund Mill for Illegals
Since the imposition of the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), whereby individuals residing within the borders of the United States, yet ineligible to receive Social Security Numbers have been able to file tax returns, widespread fraud has gone unabated. This according to the 2012 report (Reference Number: 2012-42-081) issued by the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).
Debt Reduction Comes Back into Style
For most of its existence, the Republican Party has championed rigorous fiscal conservatism. Balanced budgets, aversion to federal debt, “pay-as-you-go” government: These were the mainstays of Republican governance at both the federal and state level for over a century. Republican leaders who became heroes of their party made fiscal responsibility a hallmark of good government.
Biometrics, Visas and Immigration Reform
Last week, the “Gang of Eight” scored their first win in their drive to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws. Three weeks of hearings and debates finally produced, on May 21, a vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee to approve an immigration reform bill that has riled conservatives and yet stands likely to win approval from the full Senate.
Reform Promises Must be Kept
Christmas Eve 2009 was not that long ago. That day, after much backroom dealing, a party-line vote by Senate Democrats gave the country the gift of ObamaCare. President Obama’s trademark legislation charges the IRS and federal government at large with overseeing every doctor, patient, and health insurance plan. With even its most ardent supporters now describing ObamaCare…
Was the Obama Administration’s Furlough of Air Traffic Controllers Necessary?
In the midst of the federal “sequester” spending cuts last month, was the Obama Administration’s furlough of air traffic controllers really necessary? Some politicians insist that they were, but here are four facts that lead to a resounding “NO.”
Today’s Nuclear Power Moratorium
Gone was the finding that a mined geologic repository “will be available by the years 2007-2009 . . .” It was replaced by the NRC’s “reasonable assurance that at least one mined geologic repository will be available within the first quarter of the twenty-first century . . .” This was reasonable in 1990 because the official Yucca designation was relatively new, and focus had been lost between the 1982 and 1987 versions of the NWPA…
$19 Billion in Pure Government Waste this Year and Growing
Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) issued his annual report on government waste this week.
