The Patriot Post Daily Digest 1-15-2014

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The Patriot Post Daily Digest 1-15-2014
From The Federalist Patriot
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Daily Digest

Jan. 15, 2014

THE FOUNDATION

“Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence; true friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks and adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.” –George Washington, Letter to Bushrod Washington, 1783

TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS
More Executive Orders on the Way

For most of his time in office, Barack Obama has frequently taken executive action rather than waiting for congressional legislation. He complains that “we can’t wait” for Congress, and brags that he’s “getting things done” this way. This week he once again renewed his promise to do something about jobs via executive orders: “We are not just going to be waiting for a legislation in order to make sure that we’re providing Americans the kind of help that they need. I’ve got a pen … and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward.” Not only is this approach becoming his standard operating procedure, but he also seems increasingly to view himself more as a monarch than a president.

Another Rebuke for Obama

The DC Court of Appeals on Tuesday unanimously struck down the Obama FCC’s unilateral imposition of so-called “net neutrality” rules on Internet providers. The FCC acted when Congress didn’t, a pattern all too familiar in this administration. The Wall Street Journal explains, “Net neutrality travels under the guise of ordering Internet service providers like Verizon and Comcast not to discriminate against content providers. In reality it’s a government attempt to dictate how these providers must manage their Internet pipes and how much they can charge companies for using those pipes.” The ruling undoes one of Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign promises for the second time. We could go for a lot more of that.

See – ObamaCare ‘Works’

At least one sector of American business won’t suffer substantial losses from the skyrocketing costs of ObamaCare: big insurance companies. First, $1.07 trillion will come their way either directly or indirectly over the next 10 years to help reduce premiums for lower income people. Unfortunately, the machinery to pay those subsidies isn’t quite ready for implementation yet, so smaller companies may suffer untenable losses. Second, a section of the ACA about which Barack Obama has remained mute guarantees insurers a 75% reimbursement for all their loses that exceed 102% of their planned annual outlays. This subsidy will last three years, after which insurers are expected to raise rates as they see fit. The government will pay this largesse out of ObamaCare’s $63 billion annual “Belly Button Tax” assessed on almost every insured belly button (including dependents). And they said ObamaCare couldn’t work.

Mass Shooting Rhetoric Shot Down

Northeastern University criminology professor James Alan Fox and co-researcher Monica J. DeLateur recently published an extensive new study taking a detailed look at mass shootings in America over last four decades. As one would expect, their findings mostly contradict the Left’s narrative concerning the need for expanded gun control: “Mass shootings have not increased in number or in overall death toll, at least not over the past several decades,” based on statistics from the FBI. They also found that so-called “assault” rifles are hardly the weapons of choice. In fact, between 1982 and 2012, perpetrators used handguns, revolvers and/or shotguns 75.4% of the time. That doesn’t quite fit the narrative, does it? (Source1.)

Feinstein’s Moment of Truth

A recent report by The New York Times clearing al-Qaida of initiating the terrorist attack in Benghazi even has some on the Left raising eyebrows. Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is among those questioning the Times' analysis: “I believe that groups loosely associated with al-Qaida” directly orchestrated the attack, Feinstein said. She even rejected the administration’s initial claim that the debacle was in response to an anti-Islam video, adding, “It doesn’t jibe with me.” Nor does it jibe with ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans who perished that fateful night. If only Feinstein were as quick to admit the obvious truth about mass shootings as she is concerning terrorism.

For more, visit Right Hooks2.

RIGHT ANALYSIS
Thrown Under the Omnibus

With the legislative branch of the federal government divided as it is, getting work accomplished is much like herding cats. For example, one of the most basic functions of Congress is to enact a budget for the following fiscal year, but over the last decade or so the nation has increasingly relied on giant “omnibus” spending bills as stopgap measures to avoid the dreaded government shutdown. The latest case is a $1.1 trillion discretionary behemoth that serves as a compromise no one really likes but both sides will likely vote for in order to keep the government going for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

Negotiated through the appropriations chairs of both the House and Senate – Rep. Harold Rogers (R-KY) and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), respectively – the headline restorations went to the failed federal Head Start program3, which is now back to what’s considered “full funding,” and a 1% raise for federal workers. But the TSA will endure a $336 million cut, and not all veterans were given back the pension cuts they lost in a previous budget deal. So we can fund a worthless preschool program but not veterans benefits. That reflects extremely poor priorities on Capitol Hill, but what else is new?

Congress continues to get itself into this position year after year because members can’t seem to pass the dozen or so departmental appropriations packages in a timely fashion. Normally spring is the time the budget begins to come together, but in an election year political posturing and thoughts of re-election seem to take precedence.

So around the middle of September we will probably go through all this again just to push the day of reckoning past the election, and the cycle of uncertainty and deficit spending will continue. It’s a heck of a way to run a country.