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« on: November 20, 2013, 04:04:52 PM » |
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The Patriot Post Wednesday Digest 11-20-2013
From The Federalist Patriot
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THE FOUNDATION
“The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.” –James Madison
GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
The Writing Is on the Wall
It has been obvious for some time that ObamaCare is full of lies, and that one of the primary lies was this: “You can keep your plan. Period.” Barack Obama “apologized” for this “misstatement,” while other Democrats are torn between arguing Obama said nothing wrong and asserting that they knew all along that you couldn’t keep your plan.
The latter group is far closer to the truth. Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy unearthed a brief1 filed by the Justice Department in Priests for Life v HHS that acknowledges and argues for regulations that would cancel millions of insurance plans: “Even under the grandfathering provision, it is projected that more group health plans will transition to the requirements under the regulations as time goes on. Defendants [the government] have estimated that a majority of group health plans will have lost their grandfather status by the end of 2013.”
As for Obama’s “fix”2 – allowing state insurance commissioners to decide whether insurance companies in their state can extend cancelled policies through next year’s elections – it quickly turned from illegal farce to unwanted flop. Insurance commissioners in Washington, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont and Minnesota (all blue states) have already declined to participate; more will undoubtedly follow. Georgia’s commissioner called it a “political stunt,” but promised to do everything he can to help Georgians kicked off their plans.
Meanwhile, user data at Healthcare.gov remains at “critical risk,” according to congressional testimony from an IT expert Tuesday. An inspector general report warned over the summer about the lack of security testing, and, in August, 14 attorneys general demanded a delay of the launch in order to address security issues. Evidently the site is no better seven weeks after its launch, but the administration continues to offer nothing but Jedi mind tricks: “This is not the security vulnerability you’re looking for.”
Worse, Henry Chao, the deputy chief information officer for Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), estimates that 30% of the website still hasn’t been built. And that includes the payment system, which brings up another question: If people can’t pay, is anyone actually enrolled? Political considerations alone pushed HHS to proceed with the Oct. 1 rollout, but they badly miscalculated because ObamaCare will continue to fail and it will continue to bring Democrats down.
It wasn’t long ago that Obama was bragging that when opponents saw how well the “Affordable” Care Act worked, they’d quit calling it “ObamaCare.” After its calamitous rollout, however, it’s Democrats who are quietly dropping the term. The word is disappearing from Healthcare.gov and Democrats' websites, as well as from TV talking points and speeches. Nancy Pelosi even corrected David Gregory for using the term on NBC. But Democrats can’t erase the term “ObamaCare” completely; it is the writing on the wall.
ECONOMY, REGS & TAXES
Around the Nation: Oil Boom, Ethanol Bust
In good news from the energy independence front, the International Energy Agency (IEA) recently announced that by 2015, the U.S. will top Russia and Saudi Arabia as the world’s leading oil producer and, in the next 20 years, will near energy independence. We first reported this story5 last month, but this month we highlight that the boon is due in large part to the success of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in tapping vast reserves in North Dakota and Texas. Long the nemesis of environmental zealots, fracking is not only safely reducing reliance on foreign sources of energy but is also continuing to disprove the alarmist claims of the environmental lobby.
Meanwhile, in other energy news, the EPA is finally facing facts regarding its green-lobby-appeasing renewable fuels standard and has proposed a reduction to the standard for 2014. The move is all but an admission that the mandate – which requires that 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel be blended into the nation’s gas supply by 2022 – is bad policy. Indeed, shrinking demand for gas has led to a scenario in which the increasing ethanol-to-gas ratio threatens to damage automobiles. The environmental lobby is naturally (pun intended) calling the move6 a “capitulation to the oil companies.” In truth, the move is a capitulation to facts. And although the EPA’s step is a small one, it’s a step in the right direction.
NATIONAL SECURITY
Department of Military Readiness: Are We Ready?
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel recently said in a speech, “As we look out across the strategic landscape, the United States military will remain an essential tool of American power and foreign policy, but one that must be used wisely, precisely, and judiciously.” The problem is that the commander in chief is not wise, precise or judicious regarding anything to do with military readiness or purpose, opting instead to cut, conduct social engineering experiments and remove God from the equation7.
Hagel admitted that Obama’s military spending cuts have left our military in a precarious state. “We may have to accept the reality that not every unit will be at maximum readiness, and some kind of a tiered readiness system is perhaps inevitable,” Hagel said. “This carries the risk that the president would have fewer options to fulfill our national security objectives.” As Brian Slattery of the Heritage Foundation rightly points out8, “‘Tiered readiness’ is a term the military uses to rationalize budget cuts without admitting they are less capable as a result.”
Slattery also quotes U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Raymond Odierno, who warned, “This is the lowest readiness levels I’ve seen within our Army since I’ve been serving for the last 37 years.” Unfortunately, that lack of readiness is just the kind of “fundamental transformation” Obama seeks – to knock our military and our nation down a few pegs because we’re not really exceptional in the world.
The bottom line is as our first president, George Washington, explained in his First Annual Address: “To be prepared for war, is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.”
CULTURE, SCIENCE & FAITH
Village Academic Curriculum: Common Core Curses
In the past five years, this country has seen more government-sanctioned race and class baiting than ever before. These tools have been used to silence opposition to the Obama administration’s position on everything from terrorism to taxes. The recent inflammatory statements made by Education Secretary Arne Duncan are just the latest chapter in that political curriculum.
In the face of mounting (and, as it turns out, diversified) opposition to the federal education Common Core program, Duncan remarked, “It’s fascinating … that some of the pushback [against Common Core] is coming from, sort of, white suburban moms who – all of a sudden – [realize] their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were.”
Duncan has since been labeled a bigot because his comment was belittling to parents of all races. It was based on several offensive presumptions: first, that the education system’s problems are race and class-based; second, that white suburban moms are fine with a subpar education system as long as their children are insulated from it; and third, that race plays a role in a parent’s level of sophistication with regards to education. The underlying presumption, of course, is that Big Government must take a larger role in education in order to save the rest of us.
Clearly, Duncan expected his statement to divide and conquer the opposition. Instead, it solidified it. The coalition questioning increased federal control of education through Common Core is made up of people across religious, political, racial and class spectrums. And, as it turns out, people of all ages as well. “I don’t like it,” one fourth grade girl said of Common Core, “because it seems like they are just teaching us to take the test.” How, one wonders, would Duncan seek to discredit her? |
