Tag Archives: John Boehner

The Obamacare “Death Panel” Is Real: Republicans Refusing To Appoint Serving Members

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Before It’s News May 13 2013

One of the most politically intense fights over the Affordable Care Act was over the creation of the Independent Payment Advisory Board, infamously dubbed a “death panel” by Republicans during the 2010 elections.

On Thursday, Republican House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell signaled that they would keep working to keep opposition alive by doing everything they can to impede the board’s implementation.

The two leaders wrote a letter to President Barack Obama, notifying him that they would not be submitting any recommendations to the panel because of their opposition to it and to the law in general.

Here’s the relevant part of their letter explaining why they aren’t offering any recommendations:

In order to allow supporters to claim that the law’s Medicare cuts would be realized in the future, it tasked IPAB with reducing payments to providers or eliminating payments for certain treatments and procedures altogether. These reduced payments will force providers to stop seeing Medicare patients, the same way an increased number of doctors have stopped taking Medicaid patients. This will lead to access problems, waiting lists and denied care for seniors.

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John T. Bennett ~ Sen. Inhofe: GOP Could Impeach Obama Over Benghazi ‘Cover Up’

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DefenseNews May 10 2013 (Thanks, Gerald)

Sen. James Inhofe says the GOP could impeach Obama over Benghazi ‘cover up’ (Staff file photo)

WASHINGTON — A senior U.S. senator says Republicans could impeach President Barack Obama over what he is calling a high-level cover up of the administration’s handling of the deadly Benghazi attacks.

Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., on a nationally syndicated radio show Thursday accused Obama of overseeing “the most egregious cover up in American history” to avoid potential damage on Election Day.

As more details about the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, emerge, Inhofe said “people may be starting to use the ‘I word’ ” before long.

The host of the show, Rusty Humphries, then asked: “The ‘I word’ meaning impeachment.” Inhofe replied: “Yeah.”

Republicans on Capitol Hill allege Obama and his top national security aides knew before the two-pronged attack that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans was over that militants linked to al-Qaida were responsible. GOP lawmakers and pundits say there is proof the president and his aides collaborated on a decision to withhold that information in public statements immediately after the attack.

The reason? Obama was in the homestretch of a re-election campaign, and a major plank of his argument for a second term was a severely weakened al-Qaida.

“If people thought his Middle East policy was a failure,” that could have altered the results of the November 2012 presidential election, Inhofe said.

“They didn’t want it to come out at that time,” Inhofe said, referring to Obama and his aides. “Clearly, by definition, a cover up.”

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Greg Hunter ~ Weekly News Wrap Up November 23 2012 [Video]

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USA Watchdog

A cease-fire was announced earlier this week in the Gaza-Israeli conflict.  Fighting lasted longer than a week and claimed the lives of 140 Palestinians.  Israel counted five dead and more than a dozen wounded.  It is not the “durable outcome” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was seeking, but at least the bloodshed stopped.  The only question is how long will it be before the shooting starts again.  This is a cease-fire, not a peace accord.  There was significant destruction on both sides as Hamas was firing hundreds rockets as far as 47 miles into Israel.  The rockets are supplied by Iran and are getting more and more deadly and powerful.  Likewise, the Israelis inflicted heavy damage through air strikes in Gaza.  Hamas agreed to a cease-fire as Israel was getting ready to invade Gaza to stop the rocket attacks.  Nothing has been settled.  They just stopped shooting for a while. Egypt was instrumental in arranging the cease-fire.

The conflict has wider Middle East implications for war.  Hamas is supported by Iran, and, now, Egypt is also backing Hamas.  The Muslim Brotherhood took control of Egypt in the last election.  Many, including the FBI, think the Muslim Brotherhood supports terrorism, although the U.S. does not list it as a terrorist group.  Could Egypt now be drawn into a conflict with Israel?

We are still careening towards that so-called “fiscal cliff” of automatic tax increases and mandatory spending cuts if a deal is not reached in Congress before the end of the year.  Now, Speaker of the House John Boehner says even President Obama’s health care plan should be on the table for consideration.  This is the President’s signature legislation of his first term.  I find it hard to believe the President, fresh off a re-election victory, is going to do much dealing on this point.  Everyone thinks a deal will be reached, but who knows.  The U.S. is short on cash, long on debt, and there is no real fix in sight.  We might get another can kick.

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Jerry Seper & Stephen Dinan ~ GOP Sues To Force Obama Compliance On Fast And Furious

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Washington Times | August 13 2012

House Republicans on Monday asked the federal courts to intervene and force the Obama administration to turn over documents from the botched Fast and Furious gun-walking operation, escalating what had been a simmering constitutional crisis.

House Speaker John A. Boehner said President Obama and his team were ignoring a congressional subpoena — something the courts have long recognized as valid — and said lawmakers were left with no choice but to ask the third branch to referee.

“By stonewalling Congress and ignoring a contempt order, the Justice Department has left the House no choice but to take legal action so we can get to the bottom of the Fast and Furious operation that cost border agent Brian Terry his life,” Mr. Boehner said.

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Sharyl Attkisson ~ Republicans Prepare Contempt Citation Against Eric Holder Over Fast And Furious

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CBS News | April 27 2012


(CBS News) — House Republicans investigating the Fast and Furious scandal plan to pursue a contempt citation against Attorney General Eric Holder, senior congressional aides told CBS News.

The resolution will accuse Holder and his Justice Department of obstructing the congressional probe into the allegations that the government let thousands of weapons fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

The citation would attempt to force Holder to turn over tens of thousands of pages of documents related to the probe, which has entered its second year.

For months, congressional Republicans probing ATF’s Fast and Furious “Gunwalker” scandal – led by California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, have been investigating a contempt citation. They’ve worked quietly behind the scenes to build support among fellow Republicans, since it could ultimately face a full House vote.

CBS News has confirmed that House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, was provided a 48-page long draft by Issa, who heads the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

“While there are very legitimate arguments to be made in favor of such an action, no decision has been made to move forward with one by the Speaker or by House Republican leaders,” a Republican leadership aide told CBS News.

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Greg Hunter ~ Budget War Threatens America’s Survival

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USA Watchdog | April 4 2012

President Barak Obama gave a speech to newspaper executives about the recently passed Republican budget in the House of Representatives.  It proposes to cut spending by more than $5 trillion over the next ten years.  Yesterday’s speech was, basically, a declaration of war against the GOP and its vision of the government’s budget.  The President said, “This Congressional Republican budget is something different altogether. It is a Trojan horse disguised as deficit reduction plans. It is really an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country. It is thinly veiled social Darwinism. It is antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity and upward mobility for everybody who is willing to work for it. A place where prosperity doesn’t trickle down from the top but grows outward from the heart of middle class.”

It didn’t take long for the Republicans to fire back.  The AP reports, “House Speaker John Boehner said Obama is resorting to ‘distortions and partisan potshots’ — while standing behind policies that the speaker says ‘have made our country’s debt crisis worse.’  And a Mitt Romney spokeswoman says Obama’s in no position to lecture about ‘responsible federal spending.”  Folks, it is officially “game on,” and every American should be scared speechless about this budget showdown.  It is unlike any the nation has ever faced.

The country has never been more in debt, and this comes at a time when countries like China are shunning U.S. Treasuries.  There are more than 12 million “officially unemployed.”  (The unofficial is 22 million.)  Home prices are falling despite near record low mortgage rates.   The BRICS nations are actively seeking an alternative to the U.S dollar for settlement of trade, which could threaten the dollar’s reserve currency status.  We are threatening financial war with any country that trades with Iran, and the nation is facing yet another shooting war in the Middle East.  The only question is will it come before or after the election.

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President Obama Richly Deserves to Be Dumped

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John R. MacArthur | Common Dreams
December 14 2011

John MacArthur

OPINION | As evidence of a failed Obama presidency accumulates, criticism of his administration is mounting from liberal Democrats who have too much moral authority to be ignored.

Most prominent among these critics is veteran journalist Bill Moyers, whose October address to a Public Citizen gathering puts the lie to our barely Democratic president’s populist pantomime, acted out last week in a Kansas speech decrying the plight of “innocent, hardworking Americans.” In his talk, Moyers quoted an authentic Kansas populist, Mary Elizabeth Lease, who in 1890 declared, “Wall Street owns the country.. . .Money rules.. . .The [political] parties lie to us and the political speakers mislead us.”

A former aide to Lyndon Johnson who knows politics from the inside, Moyers then delivered the coup de grace: “[Lease] should see us now. John Boehner calls on the bankers, holds out his cup, and offers them total obeisance from the House majority if only they fill it. Barack Obama criticizes bankers as fat cats, then invites them to dine at a pricey New York restaurant where the tasting menu runs to $195 a person.”

As it happens, Moyers’s remarks anticipated the trenchant question posed in an interview by another prominent liberal, Barbara Ehrenreich, just after billionaire Michael Bloomberg and mayors of other cities cleared public spaces of Occupy Wall Street protesters: “Where in all this was Obama? Why couldn’t he have picked up the phone and called the mayors of Portland and Oakland and said: ‘Go easy on these people. They represent the anger and aspirations of the majority.’ Would that have been so difficult?” Well, yes, particularly if your principal occupation is shaking down bankers and brokers for campaign donations on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

By now it should be obvious that the system, and the Democratic Party, run Obama, not the other way around. Under this arrangement, the president carries out his duties as pre-eminent party functionary — fundraising being at the top of his list of responsibilities — and defers on legislation, leaving it to corrupt Democratic barons such as Sen. Max Baucus (D.-Mont.), devoted friend of the insurance, pharmaceutical, and banking crowd and sworn enemy of reform.

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Does the U.S. Have the World’s Best Health Care System? Yes, If You’re Talking About the Third World

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Wendell Potter | Common Dreams
November 29 2011

A little more than a year ago, on the day after the GOP regained control of the House of Representatives, Speaker-to-be John Boehner said one of the first orders of business after he took charge would be the repeal of health care reform.

“I believe that the health care bill that was enacted by the current Congress will kill jobs in America, ruin the best health care system in the world, and bankrupt our country,” Boehner said at a press conference. “That means we have to do everything we can to try to repeal this bill and replace it with common sense reforms to bring down the cost of health care.”

Boehner is not the first nor the only Republican to try to make us believe that the U.S. has the world’s best health care system and that we’re bound to lose that distinction because of Obamacare. I’ve heard GOP candidates for president say the same thing in recent months, charging that we need to get rid of a President who clearly is trying to fix something that doesn’t need fixing, something that isn’t broken in the first place.

Well, those guys need to get out more. Out of the country, in fact. They need to travel to at least one of the many countries that are doing a much better job of delivering high quality care at much lower costs than the good old USA.

If they’re not interested in a fact-finding mission abroad, then perhaps they might take a look at two recent reports before they make any other statements about the quality of American health care.

Last week, the 34-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation (OECD) released the results of its most recent study of the health care systems in its member countries, including the U.S., plus six others, for a total of 40. And those results are illuminating.

If Boehner and his fellow Republicans had characterized the U.S. system as the most expensive in the world, they would have been right on target. But they would have been way off base by calling it the best.

The OECD report is just the most recent evidence that Americans are not getting nearly as much bang for the health care buck as citizens of most other developed countries — and even some countries in the developing world.

The OECD found that the United States spends two-and-a-half times more on health care per person than the OECD average. The U.S. even spends more than twice as much as France, which many experts contend has one of the best health care systems on the planet.

The average expenditure per person in the U.S. is $7,960, a third more than in Norway, the second highest. The OECD average, by comparison, is just $3,233. (It is $3,873 in France.)

Here are some reasons why: Hospital spending is 60 percent higher than the average of five other relatively expensive countries (Switzerland, Canada, Germany, France and Japan); spending on pharmaceuticals and medical goods is much higher here than any of the other countries; and administrative costs are more than two-and-a-half times the average of the others.

It was not all bad news for us. We’re number one in the five-year breast cancer survival rate and number two (behind Japan) in the five-year colorectal cancer survival rate. We’re also number one in costly knee replacements and number two (again behind Japan) in the number of MRI units per million people.

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Congressional Perks: Lawmakers’ Most Surprising Benefits

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Corbin Hiar | Nation Of Change
November 25 2011

It’s seemingly been a pretty rough autumn on Capitol Hill. Last month, the public’s approval rating for Congress dropped to 9 percent, the lowest ever, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll.

But there’s still plenty for the nation’s lawmakers to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Being a member of Congress remains a surprisingly sweet gig.

In addition to the power to shape policy and public discourse, legislators get great health care and retirement benefits, hefty salaries with annual cost of living increases and the incumbency-boosting ability to blanket constituents with mail touting their achievements.

But there are many less-publicized perks that come along with the job. Here are a few to keep in mind the next time you hear politicians refer to themselves as “public servants.”

Capitol Hill Conveniences

Members of Congress have long been treated as a class apart at the Capitol.

For years there were members-only parking spaces, elevators, dining rooms and exercise facilities to which all legislators — past and present — enjoyed lifetime access. Former lawmakers could also return to the floor of the House or Senate whenever they liked.

In the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandal, access to these privileged places was curtailed in 2006 for ex-members of Congress who registered as lobbyists. This meant that Bennett Johnston, a former Democratic senator from Louisiana turned lobbyist, could no longer frequent Bennett’s Court, the nickname given to the members-only tennis court in the Hart Senate Office Building.

These changes have led to some apparent confusion among former legislators. On the first day that the 112th Congress met in January, lobbyist Bob Livingston, a former Republican Representative from Louisiana and friend of Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, was asked to leave the House floor. “I was under the impression that opening day and the State of the Union were days when I, as a lobbyist, could indeed go on the floor,” Livingston told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “When I was informed that I was mistaken, I left.”

Airport Amenities

Lawmakers’ perks aren’t limited to the legislature. Airports and airlines — the profits of which can be heavily impacted by decisions made on the Hill — also pamper politicians.

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Shouldn’t Americans Repair America’s Infrastructure?

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By Jim Hightower | Nation Of Change
November 7 2011

Listening at last to his inner FDR, President Barack Obama is going straight at the Know-Nothing/Do-Nothing Republicans in Congress.

At a rally in September on a bridge connecting Rep. John Boehner’s state of Ohio to Sen. Mitch McConnell’s state of Kentucky, Obama challenged the two GOP leaders to back his plan for repairing and improving our country’s deteriorating infrastructure. “Help us rebuild this bridge,” he shouted out to Boehner and McConnell. “Help us rebuild America. Help us put this country back to work.”

Yes, let’s do it!

However, in addition to the usual recalcitrance of reactionary Republican leaders, another impediment stands in the way of success: many of the infrastructure jobs that would be created could end up in China.

Holy Uncle Sam! How is this possible?

It’s due to a trap door that was built into the Buy American Act. This 1933 law gives preference to U.S. companies bidding on major infrastructure projects. However, it allows the general contractor to opt out of this requirement if the difference in U.S. and foreign bids is significant. This is no theoretical concern, for it’s already happening.

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The Tea Party Pork Binge

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By Daniel Stone (The Daily Beast) | Reader Supported News
October 31 2011

Guess what the conservatives who brought the nation to the brink of default this summer do in their spare time? Ask for government handouts. (An investigation into Tea Party pork.)

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the Republican leadership’s tether to the Tea Party, flutters the hearts of the government-bashing, budget-slicing faithful with his relentless attacks on runaway federal spending. To Cantor, an $8 billion high-speed rail connecting Las Vegas to Disneyland is wasteful “pork-barrel spending.” The Virginia Republican set up the “You Cut” Web site to demonstrate how easy it is to slash government programs. And he made the Department of Housing and Urban Development the poster child for waste when he disclosed that the agency was paying for housing for Ph.D.s.

But away from the cameras, Cantor sometimes pulls right up to the spending trough, including the very stimulus law he panned in public. Letters obtained by Newsweek show him pressing the Transportation Department to spend nearly $3 billion in stimulus money on a high-speed-rail project – not the one he derided in Nevada, but another in his home state. “Virginia … will demonstrate that this historic investment in rail will create jobs, reduce congestion, spur economic growth and improve our environment,” says a letter he signed with other Virginia members in October 2009, cribbing President Obama’s own argument for the stimulus.

Cantor signed several such letters, including an earlier one seeking rail funds a month after he went on national television attacking the Vegas project. He also signed a letter in October 2009 seeking $60 million to build commercial ships, some likely along Virginia’s coastline. As for his bashing of HUD, until last year he owned as much as $50,000 in preferred stock in a real-estate company that receives federal housing assistance from the department.

As the government showdown over debt continues – the so-called congressional supercommittee negotiating cuts has been floundering for weeks – Newsweek found about five dozen of the most fiscally conservative Republicans, from Tea Party freshmen like Allen West to anti-spending presidential candidates like Rick Perry and Ron Paul, trying to gobble up the very largesse they publicly disown, in the time-honored, budget-busting tradition of bringing home the bacon for local constituents.

The stack of spending-request letters between these GOP members and federal agencies stands more than a foot tall, and disheartens some of the activists who sent Republicans to Washington in the last election.

“It’s pretty disturbing,” says Judson Phillips, founder of Tea Party Nation, when told about the stack of letters from members, many of whom he supported in 2010. “We sent many of these people there, and really, I wish some of our folks would get up and say, you know what, we have to cut the budget, and the budget is never going to get cut if all 535 members of Congress have their hands out all the time.”

Many of the letters seek to tap the stimulus, clean-energy loans, and innovation grants – programs the same Republicans have accused Obama and the Democrats of using to bloat government and jeopardize America’s future. And these fiscal conservatives often used in their private letters the same arguments they pan in public.

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