Attorney Generals to HHS: “The Illegal Actions by this Administration Must Stop

Eleven Attorney Generals wrote to the Department of Health and Human Services accusing it of illegal executive actions.
The seven-page letter, marked Dec. 26, pointed specifically to President Obama’s healthcare “fix” which he announced in November:

The fix is flatly illegal under federal constitutional and statutory law. We support allowing citizens to keep their health insurance coverage, but the only way to fix this problem-ridden law is to enact changes lawfully: through congressional action.

The United States Constitution’s Take Care Clause found in Article II, Section 3 states the President "shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed."

Not only did Obama disregard the faithful execution of his signature legislation, but he ignored the Constitution by not getting the permission of both houses of Congress before putting into place a new rule, according to the Attorney Generals.

More broadly, we are deeply concerned that this Administration is consistently rewriting new rules and effectively inventing statutory provisions to operationalize a flawed law. And the irony, of course, is that the changes being put forth to fix the disastrous exchanges will ultimately destroy the market and increase health insurance premiums for consumers who played by the rules.
The undersigned Attorneys General support allowing citizens to keep their health insurance coverage. However, the only way to fix this problem-ridden law is to enact changes lawfully: through congressional action. The illegal actions by this Administration must stop.

Ken Cuccinelli of Virgina, Greg Abbott of Texas, Buddy Caldwell of Louisiana and Patrick Morrisey West Virginia were among those to sign the letter.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/sarahjeanseman/2014/01/05/attorney-generals-to-hhs-the-illegal-actions-by-this-administration-must-stop-n1771551

John Stossel ,Common Core, Common Core, like public school, public housing, the U.S. Postal Service, the Transportation Security Administration, etc., are all one-size-fits-all government monopolies. For consumers, this is not a good thing.

My TV producers asked our Facebook audience to vote for a topic they'd most like to hear discussed on my year-end show. The overwhelming winner, for some reason: the education standards program Common Core.


Most Americans don't even know what that is. But they should. It's the government's plan to try to bring "the same standard" to every government-run school.

This may sound good. Often, states dumb down tests to try to "leave no child behind." How can government evaluate teachers and reward successful schools if there isn't a single national standard?

But when the federal government imposes a single teaching plan on 15,000 school districts across the country, that's even more central planning, and central planning rarely works. It brings stagnation.

Education is a discovery process like any other human endeavor. We might be wrong about both how to teach and what to teach, but we won't realize it unless we can experiment -- compare and contrast the results of different approaches. Having "one plan" makes it harder to experiment and figure out what works.

Some people are terrified to hear "education" and "experiment" in the same sentence. Why take a risk with something as important as my child's education? Pick the best education methods and teach everyone that way!

But we don't know what the best way to educate kids is.

As American education has become more centralized, the rest of our lives have become increasingly diverse and tailored to individual needs. Every minute, thousands of entrepreneurs struggle to improve their products. Quality increases, and costs often drop.

But centrally planned K-12 education doesn't improve. Per-student spending has tripled (governments now routinely spend $300,000 per classroom!), but test results are stagnant.

"Everyone who has children knows that they're all different, right? They learn differently," observed Sabrina Schaeffer of the Independent Women's Forum on my show. "In the workplace, we're allowing people flexibility to telecommute, to have shared jobs. In entertainment, people buy and watch what they want, when they want." Having one inflexible model for education "is so old-fashioned."

No Child Left Behind programs were an understandable reaction to atrocious literacy and graduation rates -- but since school funding was pegged to students' performance on federally approved tests, classroom instruction became largely about drilling for those tests and getting the right answers, even if kids did little to develop broader reasoning skills. So along comes Common Core to attempt to fix the problem -- and create new ones.

Common Core de-emphasizes correct answers by awarding kids points for reasoning, even when they don't quite get there.

A video went viral online that showed a worried mom, Karen Lamoreaux -- a member of the group Arkansas Against Common Core -- complaining to the Arkansas Board of Education about complicatedly worded math problems meant for fourth-graders. She read to the Board this question: "Mr. Yamato's class has 18 students. If the class counts around by a number and ends with 90, what number did they count by?"

Huh?

But I could be wrong. Maybe this is a clever new way to teach math, and maybe Lamoreaux worries too much. Unfortunately, though, if Lamoreaux is right, and the federal government is wrong, government still gets to decree its universal solution to this problem.

Promoters of Common Core say, "Don't worry, Common Core is voluntary." This is technically true, but states that reject it lose big federal money. That's Big Government's version of "voluntary."

Common Core, like public school, public housing, the U.S. Postal Service, the Transportation Security Administration, etc., are all one-size-fits-all government monopolies. For consumers, this is not a good thing.

With the future riding on young people consuming better forms of education, I'd rather leave parents and children (and educators) multiple choices.

Despite Common Core, Schaeffer pointed out that this year did bring some victories for educational freedom. "We saw new education tax credit programs and expansion of tax credit programs in numerous states -- Alabama, Indiana, Iowa and others. Education Savings Accounts expanded in other states; voucher programs expanded."

This is good news. Vouchers, Education Savings Accounts and tax credits create competition and choice.

Planned Parenthood is, without a doubt, the single most threatening force in the nation today when it comes to family stability, sexual health, and self respect among young people.

FILTHY: obscene, vile, impure, indecent, lascivious, lewd, pornographic, raunchy, vulgar
In other words, not a very nice wish for the new year. But that is exactly what Planned Parenthood is offering our children.

Not too long ago a mother wrote to me: “I am very concerned that, by using an abstinence-only approach to educating our young people, we are doing them an extreme disservice and they will be unprepared for the real world. How do you feel?”

My answer usually ruffles feathers, but it goes something like this: 

The teaching of virtue in today’s society is rare but as we know, when purity is the cornerstone of a young person’s practices with himself or with others, there is no need to sink to the level of teaching sex in the classroom.
The problem is many parents sell their kids short, believing that a young person cannot practice self control, and thus on their behalf such parents fall into the Planned Parenthood trap. Shame on those parents who do this.

Planned Parenthood is, without a doubt, the single most threatening force in the nation today when it comes to family stability, sexual health, and self respect among young people. Take, for example, the Hawaiian Pono Choices curriculum, “a culturally responsive teen pregnancy and STI (sexually transmitted infection) program.”

This program is one of many Planned Parenthood-inspired school programs, yet it does anything but inspire healthy attitudes toward the sexual identity of the human being. Indeed, among the consultants working on the program with Planned Parenthood and the University of Hawaii is Making Proud Choices. According to the Wednesday STOPP Report, “Making Proud Choices is a curriculum that targets African American youth, ages 11 to 13, and pays them to participate in the program. Making Proud Choices teaches children that sex is ‘fun and pleasurable when a condom is used and [students] are taught how to incorporate this belief into role-play scenarios.’”

Tito Montes, president of the Hawaiian Republican Assembly, wrote this about Pono Choices:

Understanding the political agenda of the pushers of Pono Choices—the people and organizations behind this curriculum—explains everything. Adults who perceive themselves as “really sophisticated” will undoubtedly feel that abstinence-oriented sex education is naïve because “kids are going to have sex no matter what.” Hipster educators scoff at the notion that you can set clear, unmistakable boundaries for behavior. They laugh hysterically at the idea that parents can be trusted to raise children in modern society. The rallying cry of “government knows better” cuts across every department, agency, and program, whether county, state, or federal. But when the Democrat-run public education system gives multiple green lights to this Pono Choices program and dares to cite conformity with state law as justification for the program’s continuation and expansion, one must ask: Is there really a state law which legislates that it’s a great idea to maximize the sexual rights and activity of children? Of course not!

In other words, a filthy new year for the children of Hawaii IF Planned Parenthood gets its way.

As if this were not bad enough, we have learned of the Planned Parenthood cell phone app for 12-year-olds that sends the message that “having sex feels good.” If you don’t believe this incredible piece of news, go to the Planned Parenthood Facebook page and read about it for yourselves—that is if you can stand to wade through the stuff that I honestly think is Grade A pornography masquerading as education and humor.

So if you accept the argument that we are doing young people an “extreme disservice and they will be unprepared for the real world” if we demand an end to the perversions being taught as sex education, perhaps you should think again.

Do the children of this nation really deserve a filthy new year, or do they deserve instead the opportunity to experience the mental, spiritual, and physical benefits of a lifestyle based on virtue?

In my mind, the answer is a no-brainer.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/thanks-to-planned-parenthood-a-filthy-new-year-for-our-young-teens?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=e6fa963506-LifeSiteNews_com_US_Headlines_06_19_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0caba610ac-e6fa963506-397605257

Anti-life and anti-family forces have made progress and very much control the UN machinery, however Against all the odds, abortion is losing at the UN

Pro-abortion forces have spent hundreds of millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of man-hours in the past twenty years and they have not advanced their agenda even a single syllable past what they got at the Cairo Conference in 1994.
Let that sink if for a moment, because it is something that haunts the days and nights of the UN Population Fund and the International Planned Parenthood Federation. They have dedicated a significant portion of their lives to establish an international right to abortion and all they have achieved is vague language on reproductive health and rights that most countries soundly reject as having anything to do with abortion. They are no nearer to an international right to abortion than they were when they began.

What’s more, they have even begun to see their slight gains fade. Two years ago the UN hosted the 20-year review of the Rio Conference on the environment. Delegates rejected language related to reproductive rights. Hillary Clinton denounced the outcome document as did many other pro-abortion figures including Nafis Sadik, former head of the UN Population Fund.

In the past several months the UN Population Fund has hosted regional conferences in preparation for the upcoming negotiations for new development goals and the 20-year review of the Cairo Conference. These stage-managed regional meetings are full of radical pro-abortion language. How have these documents been received by delegates in New York? With polite disdain.

The other hot-button issue at the UN in recent years has been the attempt to make “sexual orientation and gender identity” new categories of non-discrimination in international law. Delegations have opposed this not because they hate gays but because they know that gays are already protected in international law and that these efforts are really about advancing things like gay marriage and gay adoption, things that most of the world rejects.

Click "like" if you are PRO-LIFE!

They have utterly failed to gain any real ground on this question. The best they have achieved is a PR campaign run by the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights and a “study” of violence against gays run out of the human rights office in Geneva.

The coalition against this effort in the General Assembly is substantially larger than the pro-life coalition so prospects of making any real progress are miniscule.

Anti-life and anti-family forces have made progress and very much control the UN machinery, however. They control the various agencies like the UN Population Fund, UNICEF, the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and the various human rights bodies that interpret and try to enforce treaties. They control all these and have made great progress in advancing their agenda through them.

Though they have very little to show for their efforts, these forces show no sign of letting up. This is why the UN remains one of the most important battlegrounds in the global fight for life and for family.

It is quite remarkable to think that a small band of largely unknown groups and individuals have delivered such an ongoing defeat to some of the most powerful forces in the world.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/against-all-the-odds-abortion-is-losing-at-the-un?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=e6fa963506-LifeSiteNews_com_US_Headlines_06_19_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0caba610ac-e6fa963506-397605257

More pro-life laws passed in last two years than in the previous decade, pro-abortion study finds There were 205 pro-life laws passed 2011-2013, but only 189 from 2001-10.?

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 3, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – According to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion think tank with connections to Planned Parenthood, 2013 was a banner year for pro-life legislation, capping a three-year trend that saw more laws passed limiting abortion than in the previous 10 years combined.

According to the group's year-end report, 205 new abortion restrictions became law in the last three years, 70 in 2013 alone, making last year second only to 2011 as the most pro-life year across the state legislatures since Roe v. Wade.

In the decade 2001-2010, only 189 similar restrictions were enacted.

“This legislative onslaught has dramatically changed the landscape for women needing abortion,” the report’s authors stated. “The overwhelming preponderance of legislation concerning abortion was aimed at restricting access to the procedure.”

The report went on to attack four types of pro-life laws that the authors said “dominated the legislative scene during 2013: abortion bans, restrictions on abortion providers, limitations on the provision of medication abortion, and restrictions on coverage of abortion in private health plans.”

In particular, the group objected to two early abortion bans passed by Arkansas and North Dakota, states that they accused of “overtly flouting the standard established byRoe v. Wade.” In Arkansas, the state legislature overrode the governor’s veto to enact a ban on all abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy. In North Dakota, a “fetal heartbeat” law banned all abortion after a baby’s heartbeat can be detected, something Guttmacher’s researchers admitted “generally occurs at about six weeks after a woman’s last menstrual period.” Both laws are currently being challenged in court.

Click "like" if you want to end abortion! 

Additionally, the group lamented the introduction of 11 separate pain-capable unborn child protection bills, three of which passed during 2013 (in Arkansas, North Dakota and Texas). Nine states now have such laws, which ban abortions after 20 weeks based on mounting scientific evidence that babies at that stage of development have nervous systems developed enough to recognize and feel pain – an assertion the report’s authors dismissed as a “spurious belief.”

Guttmacher’s researchers also complained about increasingly tough safety regulations around the country aimed at holding abortion facilities to the same standards as other outpatient surgical facilities. The report’s authors call the improved safety standards “TRAP laws” (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers), and say the new regulations are “onerous and irrelevant” and “designed to discourage medical professionals from providing abortion and make it impossible for clinics to remain open.”

A total of eight states tightened restrictions on abortion centers last year, many in the wake of a string of shocking court cases, clinic closures, and undercover videos showing the lax or nonexistent safety standards that appear to be the rule at such facilities – including West Philadelphia’s “House of Horrors,” where abortionist Kermit Gosnell bothkilled and maimed patients, as well as murdering babies born alive after botched procedures, a crime for which he is now serving three consecutive lifetime sentences.

Another target of Guttmacher’s ire was a trend toward limiting or banning so-called “telemed” abortions, in which abortionists prescribe dangerous abortion drugs by video conference or phone, without a physical exam and with no in-person follow-up.

“Despite the fact that telemedicine is rapidly gaining acceptance as a way to expand access to [abortion],” the group’s authors wrote, “over the course of the year, seven states (Alabama, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, and Texas) enacted laws effectively banning the use of telemedicine for medication abortion. In addition, the Iowa Board of Medicine adopted regulations prohibiting the use of telemedicine for medication abortion.”

The group also blasted states for moving to require abortionists to follow FDA guidelines when prescribing abortion-inducing drugs, which limit the prescription of abortifacients to the first 49 days of pregnancy and require a physical examination by a doctor. The reporters called the FDA protocol “outdated” and complained that it was inconvenient for abortion-minded women, both reducing the window of time for them to obtain chemical abortions as well as forcing them to make “an extra trip to the clinic” to ensure their safety.

Other pro-life laws objected to by Guttmacher’s researchers included bans on insurance coverage and public funding for abortion, parental consent laws, waiting periods, ultrasound, and counseling requirements, and even a conscience clause passed in North Carolina allowing health care facilities and medical professionals to refuse to participate in abortions. The group even complained about laws aimed at stopping sex-selection abortions, calling such laws a “problem-and-solution mismatch.”

http://www.lifesitenews.com/mobile/news/more-pro-life-laws-passed-in-last-two-years-than-in-the-previous-decade-pro

The top-10 pro-life and pro-family stories of 2013 that made you weep, shout, curse…and share

January 3, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The list of 2013’s top 10 most-read articles, opinion pieces and blog posts on LifeSiteNews.com covers a lot of ground, from heart-warming stories that revealed the beauty of life and the humanity of the unborn child, to grisly tales of the macabre that shocked readers and exposed the true face of the culture of death. 

In any case, each of these stories somehow resonated with our readers, to the point that they felt compelled to share them with their friends and family, ensuring that hundreds of thousands – or, in one case, over a million – people read them and were exposed to the pro-life and pro-family viewpoint. 

And so, without further ado, the list of the ten most-read stories of 2013, in descending order, with the first two or three paragraphs, and then links to the original: 

10) Why my support for abortion was based on love…and lies - Jan. 24, 2013

When I was younger, I was always particularly shocked when I heard about societies where it was common to abandon or kill unwanted newborns. In college I once read a particularly graphic description of a family in ancient Greece "discarding" a newborn baby girl. I was shocked to the point of breathlessness. I was also horribly confused: How could normal people be okay with this, let alone participate in it? Nobody I knew would do that! Were people that different back then?!

Because of my deep distress at hearing of things like this, I found it really irritating when pro-lifers would refer to abortion as "killing babies." 

Read more here...

9) Marriage one man and one woman for nurturing children: Pope Francis’ first encyclical - Jul. 5, 2013

In his first encyclical letter, released this morning, Pope Francis has reiterated that marriage is a union of one man and one woman for the procreation and nurturing of children.

This lifelong pledge is possible only in the light of a greater plan for marriage, he said: “Promising love for ever is possible when we perceive a plan bigger than our own ideas and undertakings, a plan which sustains us and enables us to surrender our future entirely to the one we love.”

Read more here...

8) Abortionist who kept 36 bags of aborted babies in storage unit found dead - Nov. 25, 2013

Authorities say an abortionist with a history of tax evasion, botched abortions, and unusual disposal of aborted babies has died.

Police found the body of Dr. Joseph Booker Jr., 69, at his home Thursday night after relatives complained they could not reach him. Investigators said Booker suffered a stroke and drowned in his shower in his Madison, Mississippi, home.

Read more here...

7) Archbishop prays while topless gay activists shout curses and douse him with water - Apr. 23, 2013

In an astonishing display of gentleness in the face of a vile attack, the head of the Catholic Church in Belgium, Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard, remained calmly seated with eyes closed in prayer Tuesday as four topless women attacked him with shouts and curses and doused him with water.

It’s not the first time the bishop has been attacked for standing up for the Church’s teachings on homosexuality and expressing his concern for those who live the homosexual lifestyle.

Read more here...

6) Korean pastor fighting epidemic of abandoned babies with anonymous ‘Baby Box’ - May 28, 2013

Lee Jong-rak is a Korean pastor in South Korea. A simple man with a huge purpose, Pastor Jong-rak saw a devastating problem. He thought of a way he could change it, and he became a prophetic voice to his society. His story is a story of faith. A story of hope. A story of love. And when you hear this heroic tale, you just may never be the same.

Lee Jong-rak is the creator of the Baby Box. His Baby Box is the first and only box in Korea that is for collecting abandoned babies who are physically or mentally handicapped or are just unwanted by their mothers.

Read more here...

5) ‘They’re already born, but they might not know it yet!’: amazing video of newborn twins goes viral - Nov. 15, 2013

A video of a set of newborn twins being bathed by a nurse in France has taken Youtube by storm, earning over 4.2 million views in the space of just a few days.

The nurse, Sonia Rochel, says the babies were only a few days old when she gave them a type of immersive bath using warm water that she says causes babies to move as they would in the womb.

When these twins were immersed in the water, they clung to each other in a tight embrace, their eyes closed peacefully.

Read more here...

4) Horror: Violent mob of topless pro-abort feminists attacks praying men defending cathedral (VIDEO) - Dec. 2, 2013

Extremely disturbing video footage from Argentina shows a mob of feminists at a recent protest attacking and sexually molesting a group of Rosary-praying Catholic men who were peacefully protecting the cathedral in the city of San Juan from threats of vandalism.

The women, many of them topless, spray-painted the men’s crotches and faces and swastikas on their chests and foreheads, using markers to paint their faces with Hitler-like moustaches. They also performed obscene sexual acts in front of them and pushed their breasts onto their faces, all the while shouting “get your rosaries out of our ovaries.”

Read more here...

3) Our 19-week son lived only minutes after birth, but has touched thousands (PHOTOS) July 2, 2013

Friday June 14th did not turn out as I expected.

I started the day enjoying a pedicure with the bride to be and very good friend Megan along with her mom Cathy and all of her bridesmaids. We had an enjoyable lunch and ran a few errands and then were headed home to start preparing for the rehearsal. Starting on the Tuesday before I had some mild spotting.

It was never anything much and dark brown, a normal pregnancy occurence. I never had any pain at any point. On Friday I noticed that the spotting started to turn a little more pink. When I returned home to gather all of my camera equipment for the rehearsal I decided to call my midwife to see what she thought of the spotting just for my own peace of mind. I knew I was going to be on my feet a lot the next day, probably about 12 hours.

Read more here...

2) Jury awards couple $50 million in ‘wrongful birth’ lawsuit - Dec. 16, 2013

A jury in Washington has awarded a whopping $50 million settlement to a couple that says, if they had known their five-year-old son would be born with a genetic defect, they would have aborted him.

Brock and Rhea Wuth sued Valley Medical Center and the Laboratory Corporation of America (LabCorp) for the “wrongful birth” of their son, Oliver.

The couple, both of whom are teachers, had their child tested in utero for any genetic abnormalities. Tests conducted by LabCorp said the child would have a 50-50 chance of being born without any issues.

Read more here...

1) That Victoria’s Secret baby is just the tip of a disturbing trend - Oct. 17, 2013

Today the body of a baby was discovered in the bag of a 17-year-old teen suspected of shoplifting at a Victoria's Secret store in Manhattan. People are rightly shocked by this event.

However, what if I told you that this sort of thing is happening routinely, all across the country, as well as in other parts of the world? And that the only reason that it's making national headlines this time is because the discovery of the baby's body was at a Victoria Secret store, which gives the story that extra bizarre twist, with just a hint of weird sexuality, that will grab attention?

Take a look at the following list...which is far from complete. I've simply compiled some of the most shocking, and most recent incidents.

Read more here...

http://www.lifesitenews.com/mobile/news/top-10-most-read-articles-of-2013

Secret court approves three more months of NSA phone snooping?

The secret court that oversees the nation’s intelligence activities renewed its approval of the National Security Agency’s telephone-records program on Friday, granting the government a new three-month window to collect data on all Americans’ phone calls

.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s office announced the court’s ruling in a statement, though officials didn’t make the ruling itself public, saying it was going through declassification procedures.

The decision marks the 36th time the program has been approved by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

“It is the administration’s view, consistent with the recent holdings of the United States District Courts for the Southern District of New York and Southern District of California, as well as the findings of 15 judges of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on 36 separate occasions over the past seven years, that the telephony metadata collection program is lawful,” Shawn Turner, spokesman for Mr. Clapper, said.

Last month a federal judge in the District of Columbia ruled that the NSA’s phone-records program was likely unconstitutional, but another federal judge in New York concluded the opposite. The Obama administration has said it is appealing the adverse ruling.

In his statement Friday, Mr. Turner said the Obama administration is willing to consider changes to the NSA program “while still maintaining its operational benefits.”

Under the NSA program, the agency collects the time, duration and parties involved in most calls placed within the U.S. The agency stores that data for five years, but says it doesn’t query the data unless it is investigating a specific terrorism case, when it delves into the data to see who a suspect is calling, who those associates are calling, and who that second round of associates is calling.

A White House review, released last month, was harshly critical of the program, saying the NSA shouldn’t store the data but rather should leave it with telephone companies, only accessing the data when analysts have a specific articulable reason. The White House review was also critical of the secret court that has repeatedly upheld the NSA’s snooping program, saying the judges could benefit from having an adversarial process and citizens should have an advocate to argue their interests to the court.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/3/secret-court-approves-three-more-months-nsa-phone-/#ixzz2pT0uupWx
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

TARP Was Bad, but the Looming Obamacare Bailout for Corrupt Insurance Companies Could Be Worse?

I hate to dredge up bad memories so early in a new year, but we need to remind ourselves of the awful TARP bailout of 2008.

Our financial system had gone out of whack because of bad monetary policy from the Federal Reserve and unsustainable housing subsidies from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Some financial institutions gambled on thegovernment’s misguided policies and got caught with their pants down when the bubble burst.

But rather than let those companies fail and use the sensible and non-corrupt “FDIC resolution” method to recapitalize the banking system, we got a taxpayer-to-Wall-Street bailout.

Or, from the perspective of the big banks, they got a very good return on their campaign contributions (read Kevin Williamson if you want to get upset about this disgusting form of cronyism).

Well, as Yogi Berra might say, it’s deja vu all over again.

Except now the fat cats lining up at the Treasury door are the big health insurance corporate titans. They got in bed with the White House to push Obamacare and now they’re worried about losing money now that it’s becoming more apparent that the American version of government-run healthcare doesn’t work any betterthan the British version.

Charles Krauthammer warns us about what may happen in his Washington Postcolumn.

 …there’s a Plan B. It’s a government bailout. Administration officials can’t say it for political reasons. And they don’t have to say it because it’s already in the Affordable Care Act, buried deep. First, Section 1341, the “reinsurance” fund collected from insurers and self-insuring employers at a nifty $63 a head. (Who do you think the cost is passed on to?) This yields about $20 billion over three years to cover losses. Then there is Section 1342, the “risk corridor” provision that mandates a major taxpayer payout covering up to 80 percent of insurance-company losses.

At this point, you may be wondering why there’s bailout language buried in the Obamacare legislation.

The simple answer is that politicians always love to accumulate power, and the insurance industry probably lobbied very hard to get this back-door access to our money.

But maybe the White House knew that Obamacare would be unstable and they needed a bailout option to keep the system from totally unraveling. Particularly when it seems that the Obama Administration is arbitrarily changing the system every other day.

 First, it postponed the employer mandate. Then it exempted from the individual mandate people whose policies were canceled (by Obamacare). And for those who did join the exchanges, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebeliusis “strongly encouraging” insurers — during the “transition” — to cover doctors and drugs not included in their clients’ plans. The insurers were stunned. Told to give free coverage. Deprived of their best customers. Forced to offer stripped-down “catastrophic” plans to people age 30 and over (contrary to the law). These dictates, complained an insurance industry spokesman, could“destabilize” the insurance market.

So what does all this mean? It’s not good news for Big Insurance.

 Shrinking revenues and rising costs could bring on the “death spiral” — an unbalanced patient pool forcing huge premium increases (to restore revenue) that would further unbalance the patient pool as the young and healthy drop out. End result? Insolvency — before which the insurance companies will pull out of Obamacare. Solution? A huge government bailout. It’s Obamacare’s escape hatch. And — surprise, surprise — it’s already baked into the law.

This sounds depressing, but Krauthammer suggests that there could be a way of derailing a bailout before it begins.

 …the GOP needs to act. Obamacare is a Rube Goldberg machine with hundreds of moving parts. Without viable insurance companies doing the work, it falls apart. No bailout, no Obamacare. Such a bill would be overwhelmingly popular because Americans hate fat-cat bailouts of any kind. Why should their tax dollars be spent not only saving giant insurers but also rescuing this unworkable, unbalanced, unstable, unpopular money-pit of a health-care scheme? …Do you really think vulnerable Democrats up for reelection will vote for a bailout? And who better to slay Obamacare than a Democratic Senate — liberalism repudiating its most important creation of the last 50 years. Want to be even bolder? Attach the anti-bailout bill to the debt ceiling. That and nothing else. Dare the president to stand up and say: “I’m willing to let the country default in order to preserve a massive bailout for insurance companies.” …Who can argue with no bailout? Let the Senate Democrats decide: Support the bailout and lose the Senate. Or oppose the bailout and bury Obamacare.

I hope his political judgement is correct, though I suspect the statists (and theirecho chamber in the media) would portray any effort to amend the debt limit as a sore-loser attack on Obamacare.

But if it’s a simple no-bailout message, perhaps that would be sufficiently popular to overcome the political establishment. As Krauthammer points out, the legislation could be very simple: “Sections 1341 and 1342 of the Affordable Care Act are hereby repealed.”

Let’s close today’s post with some good Obamacare cartoons. We’ll start with Eric Allie’s amusing look at how the White House is measuring success.

Nice gimmick, huh? You pass a law that destroys people’s existing insurance policies, then you claim victory when some of them sign up for more expensive Obamacare insurance.

Next we have Nate Beeler welcoming the new year.

Chip Bok’s cartoon is somewhat optimistic in that he’s suggesting that Obamacare may unravel.

And Gary Varvel mocks the moving goalposts of Obamacare.

Lisa Benson congratulates the President for winning Politifact’s Lie of the Year Award.

Michael Ramirez hints that the President may not be in a position to enjoy his multi-million dollar Hawaiian vacation.

Last but not least, Scott Stantis warns us that Obamacare violates the Hippocratic Oath about doing no harm.

P.S. Under no circumstances should you feel sorry for the insurance companies. AsI noted the other day, they endorsed Obamacare and actively lobbied for its passage. They deserve every bad thing that might happen to them.

P.P.S. It’s hard to find much humor in this situation, but perhaps this funny “bailout application” could be updated to make it easier for big insurance companies to rape and pillage taxpayers.http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/danieljmitchell/2014/01/04/tarp-was-bad-but-the-looming-obamacare-bailout-for-corrupt-insurance-companies-could-be-worse-n1771668/page/full

5 Myths Propping Up the Obama Presidency How many will crash by November 2014?

Barack Obama’s approval rating is at its lowest point in his five-year tenure. Imagine where it would be if the establishment press treated him the way it did George W. Bush.

The president’s media apparatchiks are propping up what remains of the president’s popularity with five myths.

1. The economy has become strong, and is getting stronger.

Media reports have been calling recent job gains “robust.” Hardly. 2013′s estimated job growth of almost 2.4 million is still only 60 percent of what was achieved annually on a population-adjusted basis for a full six years during the 1980s. (See chart below.)

Job growth should be far greater, because there is still so much ground to make up from the disastrous POR (Pelosi-Obama-Reid) economy-driven recession of 2008-2009.

It’s bad enough that payroll employment is still 1.3 million below its January 2008 peak. It’s worse that employment in the Household Survey is 2 million shy of where it was in that same month. If we’re lucky and this plodding progress continues, it will have taken almost seven years for that more comprehensive measure of employment to return to where it was before the recession began — and several more years, if ever, before a recovery in employment catches up to eligible adult population growth.

Almost 40 percent of the reported economic growth during the first three quarters of 2013 came about because of inventory build-ups. Tentative results from the recent Christmas shopping season show that consumers haven’t been buying enough to significantly deplete those stockpiles. That does not bode well for production during the fourth quarter or early 2014.

2. The government’s finances have stabilized.

We’re supposed to be impressed that the Federal Reserve will only be creating $900 billion a year in funny money instead of $1.02 trillion. The truth remains, as outgoing Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress in July, that without this historically unprecedented level of artificial stimulus, “the economy would tank.”

The Fed’s decision to barely taper its stimulus to $75 billion per month from $85 billion is really a vote of no confidence in the government’s ability to survive on its own. Before the taper, the Fed was financing $540 billion, or about half, of the government’s annual trilion-dollar 2012 deficit (the rest goes into sopping up mortgage-backed securities). The taper only reduces that to $480 billion, which is about 80 percent of the government’s projected fiscal 2014 deficit. This means that Bernanke & Co., soon to be Janet Yellen & Co., believe that precious few others want to own additional Treasury securities. They are probably right.

3. Obamacare will work out.

Most of the impact of Obama’s “Lie of the Year,” better described as a five-year series of dozens of lies — that “if you like your insurance plan, doctor, medical provider, and drug regimen, you can keep them” — has yet to hit home.

We have no idea how many of Obamacare’s vaunted 2 million enrollees will actually pay their premiums.

We have no idea how many will game the system by paying a single month’s premium and then milking the system at insurers’ and providers’ expense for another 60-90 days, as regulations now permit.

We have no idea if the government will ever be able to build the infrastructure elements it from all appearances deliberately chose not to build, including but certainly not limited to a legitimately secure web site and a system for paying tax subsidies to insurance companies.

We have no idea whether several states, e.g., Iowa, Maryland, Oregon, and others, can recover from their own calamitous rollouts.

We have no idea what the extent of the government-caused — and I would argue, likely government-orchestrated — chaos will be once patients who believe they have enrolled and are covered show up at doctors’ offices and find out they aren’t.

Finally, we have no idea how big the health insurance industry’s shortfall will be once it begins paying out claims. That there will be a shortfall is a virtual certainty, because Obamacare’s enrollees have from all appearances been older and sicker than the general population, and the program has utterly failed to sign up healthy young people in sufficient numbers. Whatever the deficit is, I certainly hope that people who should know better stop calling it a “bailout” when the government has to reimburse the industry. Though they seriously erred in failing to fight the law before it was passed, this disaster is not their fault.

4. We’re running out of time to stop global warming.

Even though we’re at 17 years and counting of no net increase in global temperatures, the Environmental Protection Agency still acts as if warming is settled science, and silences any dissent against dogma. Companies are being driven out of business and workers are losing their jobs because “scientists” would rather rely on faulty computer models than look out their windows.

5. Our “smart diplomacy” is holding our enemies at bay.

The administration continues to slavishly adhere to a long list of naive ideas about foreign relations.

In the real world, Iran continues to make progress towards possessing nuclear weapons. North Korea continues its attempts to deliver such weapons. The situation in Iraq, the war we won in 2008, is decaying. China and Russia are clearly emboldened. The White House and Secretary of State John Kerry are either okay with all of this, or clueless. Meanwhile, our military is being depleted and demoralized.

It seems likely that by fall the public, despite the press’s best efforts to cover up and obfuscate what’s really happening, will figure out that two or more of these five myths are utter fictions. This will make congressional and senatorial elections especially dangerous endeavors for Democrats and leftists throughout the land. Just how dangerous depends on how aggressively the president’s opponents work to expose the truth and overcome their annoying go-along, get-along tendencies.

http://pjmedia.com/blog/5-myths-propping-up-the-obama-presidency/?singlepage=true

Common Core haters are ‘misinformed,’ says New York ed commissioner.your a liar, Common core is progressive, socialist, perma-victim propaganda, designed to brainwash the young of this country.

After hosting dozens of forums all over the state of New York on the subject of Common Core — and listening to the concerns of skeptical parents and teachers — Education Commissioner John King still believes that opposition to the controversial standards is based on “misinformation.”

In a letter to New York education administrators, King wrote that he was still confident that Common Core would improve schools.

“We know that moving forward with the Common Core is essential: study after study shows that our students lag behind in the knowledge and skills required for their future,” wrote King. “The Common Core standards, designed by teachers and education experts from across the country – and shaped by many New York State educators – will help us do better.”

He also wrote that schools where Common Core has already been implemented were already showing signs of improvement.

“Students in these Common Core-inspired classrooms benefit from meaningful and lasting learning,” he wrote.

King attempted to sell this message at forums held in different locations around the state over the last few months. The meetings often became contentious, as numerous critics accused education bureaucrats of ignoring concerns about the steep costs of implementation and new wave of standardized testing required by Common Core. Skeptics include conservatives fearful of a federal takeover of education, and teachers unions worried about preparing kids to pass more tests.

King’s public meetings on Common Core ended briefly in October after he grew tired of the constant criticism. But this only emboldened those who said he wasn’t receptive to criticism, and the forums resumed.

Though King wrote that he is eager to address some of the concerns raised at the forums, his message remains that the critics just don’t get it.

Some of the concerns expressed at the forums were based on misinformation,” he wrote.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/01/01/common-core-haters-are-misinformed-says-new-york-ed-commissioner/#ixzz2pHPTJvtl

felt death’: Abortion worker became pro-life after seeing face of baby being aborted

nyone can make a new beginning – it doesn’t matter what you’ve done, or what mistakes you’ve made – anyone can turn around and dedicate themselves to doing the right thing going forward.

Dec. 31, 2013 (LiveActionNews.org) - In 2008 The Population Research Institute published a testimony from the former medical director of an abortion clinic whose name was given as Zlata. Although she had been so committed to abortion that she worked in the clinic for six years, Zlata now considers herself pro-life. She tells her story:

“I remember assisting, once in particular, in the operating room at the clinic where I had been a medical assistant for six years. I was standing behind the doctor and could see everything as he was performing an abortion on a woman who was 20 – 22 weeks pregnant.”

At 20 weeks, the baby is fully developed. He or she weighs about 9 ounces and is about 10 inches long. She has fingers, toes, a face, and every organ a newborn baby has, including, if female, a uterus and ovaries of her own. Her voice box has developed to the point where she goes through the motions of crying. She is able to taste, and in one experiment, babies around her age were shown to drink less amniotic fluid when poppyseed oil was added to it, making it taste bitter. She has been able to hear since 14 weeks after conception, she responds to touch and may be able to feel pain. You can see a moving 4D sonogram picture of a 21-week-old baby here. In the sonogram, you can clearly see the child’s face.

According to the clinic worker:

“I could see the baby’s face. I don’t know how to describe what I felt at that moment. I realized that we just killed a human being. But at the same time I thought: it is legal, so it must be all right. But my whole being was just screaming against what I just saw. I felt death. I was ashamed and confused as I was staring at the bloody parts of the baby. I can even say I felt the presence of the devil. It was very disturbing. My mind was so blinded by the darkness in it I was unable to do anything.

Sometimes I think about that day and feel that I should have run away, or tried to stop this madness. What were we doing, as medical professionals, as human beings? What happened to our hearts? Where was our compassion?

If this baby had been born prematurely at 20 – 22 weeks it would have had a chance to live. I thought, “People, think about what are you doing. What am I doing?” Think about the consequences of this abortion. Imagine this is you. Imagine you are in the most secure place you could be, in your mother’s womb. You have no idea how cruelly your life will end, how you will be torn to pieces. We betray our children. We interrupt their precious lives so abruptly, so unexpectedly. You think abortion brings relief, but instead it brings emptiness, shame, pain, regret, feelings of death. For six years abortion was the way I put bread on my table. For six years it was my life…”

This clinic worker has examined her conscience. She has shown great courage in facing up to her past work in the clinic. The emotional strength that she has displayed by coming forward with her story is something that should be appreciated by all pro-lifers. It is so easy to anesthetize one’s conscience. No one wants to admit to others, or to themselves, that they have done something wrong. When clinic workers come forward, we need to support and accept them.

The clinic worker finishes her testimony by saying:

“This is only the beginning of my story. My heart is burning more and more to tell everyone the truth. You are going to be hearing from me many, many times. I pray that God, the only God that we all have, will open your hearts and give you wisdom and passion to stand up and speak up! WAKE UP, WORLD! WAKE UP!!!”

I hope that everyone reading this will be inspired by her courage and enthusiasm. She is just one of many examples of how a heart can be changed and a life turned around. Anyone can make a new beginning – it doesn’t matter what you’ve done, or what mistakes you’ve made – anyone can turn around and dedicate themselves to doing the right thing going forward. I hope that if there is anyone reading this who hates clinic workers and feels that reaching out to them is a waste of time, that you reconsider and find compassion. Never give up on anyone.

Sarah Terzo is a pro-life author and creator of the clinicquotes.com website. She is a member of Secular Pro-Life and Pro-Life Alliance of Gays and Lesbians. You can reach her at https://www.facebook.com/sarahl.terzo.

Reprinted with permission from LiveActionNews.org. 

http://www.lifesitenews.com/mobile/news/i-felt-death-abortion-worker-became-pro-life-after-seeing-face-of-baby-bein