The Right Lane update 2.27.13

The pursuit of Constitutionally grounded governance, free markets and individual liberty

"There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily." --George Washington

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Brewer: Release of Hundreds of Illegals Ahead of Cuts 'Height of Absurdity'  By Todd Beamon

Arizona officials — from the statehouse to Capitol Hill — were outraged on Tuesday at the Obama administration’s release of hundreds of illegal immigrants held in local jails to save money as huge budget cuts loom.  “I’m appalled to learn the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has begun to release hundreds of illegal aliens from custody, the first of potentially thousands to soon be freed under the guise of federal budget cuts,” said Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who has long battled the White House on immigration matters. “This is pure political posturing and the height of absurdity, given that the releases are being granted before the federal sequestration cuts have even gone into effect.” In Pinal County, about 70 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, Sheriff Paul Babeau said that the release of hundreds of detainees over the weekend was “outrageous and unacceptable because there’s a direct and immediate impact to public safety of families in my county.”  “These are criminal illegal's,” Babeau said. “They were headed for deportation — but now, they have received a budget pardon.” A president behaving badly - like a child would when they don't get their way!!

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Special insurance program for the sick suspends enrollment

(Reuters) - The Obama administration on Friday said it would stop enrolling new beneficiaries in a special $5 billion insurance program for people with pre-existing medical conditions, because of rising costs and limited funding. The news comes a day after a top U.S. healthcare official told lawmakers on Capitol Hill that the administration is grappling with financial difficulties but determined to keep the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP) operating in 23 states and the District of Columbia through 2013. PCIP was established in 2010 under President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law to provide coverage for sick people unable to find it in the private insurance market. The program is designed as a bridge to January 1, 2014, when legal restrictions barring discrimination over medical conditions come into force. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a notice on Friday saying it would suspend new enrollments beginning on Saturday to "help ensure that funds are available through 2013 to continuously cover people currently enrolled in PCIP."  "The program has a limited amount of funding from Congress," the notice added. About 100,000 current PCIP beneficiaries are not affected by the change, which follows more than two years of escalating enrollments and outlays. Twenty-seven state-run PCIPs will suspend new enrollments after March 2, HHS said.

The news underscores the financial costs involved in covering people with pre-existing conditions, including many with costly chronic diseases, as the $2.8 trillion U.S. healthcare industry prepares for sweeping reforms that analysts say could bring higher health insurance costs.  Shocking, literally shocking.  Who would have ever thought!

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Rand Paul on Sequestration - a little uncommon sense

You've heard the Chicken Little's in Washington, D.C. screaming at the top of their lung to scare as many Americans as possible over impending sequester "cuts."  They want you and me to believe that if federal government spending increases $2 trillion over ten years - instead of $2.1 trillion - the sky really will fall!  Bill, my U.S. Senate office just returned 20% of our budget to the U.S. Treasury - and I didn't have to let a single staffer go.  In fact, we've just put together a plan (which I've included for you below) that shows the President how he can easily implement this year's sequester cuts without incurring a single job loss.
The truth is, the sequester was the President's idea. He endorsed it. He passed it with votes from his party. Now, he wants you and me to believe sequester will result in economic Armageddon for America.
Of course, "ObamaCare" might. His outrageous spending very well could. But you and I both know a smaller INCREASE in the rate of spending growth than what the tax-and-spenders would like is not a cut.
And if President Obama would focus on eliminating government waste, there are plenty of places where he could find the money to implement sequester without losing any jobs, including:

*** Stopping the hiring of new federal employees. Our federal workforce is bloated. But we can increase efficiency without firings. In 2011, roughly 62,000 people ended their careers with the government. By not replacing people who leave, we can save hundreds of billions over ten years;

*** Bringing federal pay in line with private-sector pay. According to the Congressional Budget Office, government employees make 16 percent more than private sector counterparts. I don't believe there's any excuse for any federal employee to be making a dime more than someone in the same job in the private sector;

*** Reducing federal employee travel by 25%. Every year, the federal government spends $9 billion on federal employee travel. When many Americans are cutting back on their own travel budgets, we can certainly cut back on employee travel;

*** Focusing military research on military needs. Unfortunately, the Pentagon is not immune to waste. They even spent $5.2 million on goldfish studies to see if we could learn about democracy from goldfish;

*** Requiring competitive bidding for federal contracts. By ending laws that force the federal government to pay bloated Davis-Bacon wages and requiring bidding to take place, we can save billions;

*** Cutting taxpayer handouts to foreign countries by 50%. We spend more than $40 billion a year on foreign aid. When we're dealing with a budget crisis here at home, it's only responsible to bring this money home. This provision would eliminate half the foreign aid budget.

This roadmap I've laid out for you does implement the incredibly small sequester "cuts" without costing a single job.  I know this can be done because I've done it in my own Senate office.

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The President Has the Legal Power to Avoid Spending Cut Damage….So, What’s His Problem?

And when the Republicans opened the seventh seal of the sequester, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black and the stars fell unto the Earth; and our nation’s ability to forecast severe weather, such as drought events, hurricanes and tornados, was seriously undermined. Lo, and the children were not vaccinated, and all the beasts starved in the zoos, and the planes were grounded.

Or so President Obama and his Cabinet prophets have been preaching ahead of the automatic budget cuts due to begin Friday. The bit about the weather is a real quote from the White House budget director. But if any of these cataclysms do come to pass, then they will be mostly Mr. Obama’s own creation. The truth is that the sequester already gives the White House the legal flexibility to avoid doom, if a 5% cut to programs that have increased more than 17% on average over the Obama Presidency counts as doom.

According to Mr. Obama and his budget office, the sequester cuts are indiscriminate and spell out specific percentages that will be subtracted from federal “projects, programs and activities,” or PPAs. Except for the exemptions in the 2011 budget deal, the White House says it must now cut across the board regardless of how important a given PPA is. Food inspectors, say, will be treated the same as subsidies for millionaire farmers.

Not so fast. Programs, projects and activities are a technical category of the federal budget, but the sequester actually occurs at the roughly 1,200 broader units known as budget accounts. Some accounts are small, but others contain hundreds of PPAs and the larger accounts run to billions of dollars. For the Pentagon in particular, the distinction between PPAs and accounts is huge. This means in most cases the President has the room to protect his “investments” while managing the fiscal transition over time.

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Our Government is Worse than the Mob by Gary DeMar

When my business partner and I started Godfather Politics we had the mafia in mind. The mafia is not much different from the way our government works. When my oldest son was about four, we were at the check-out line at a Blockbuster video store when he noticed a video-tape display promoting The Godfather trilogy. “Dad, are these about God?,” he asked. A reasonable question from a four-year-old given the title and his always curious nature. Knowing that he would not care to hear a long retelling of the plot, I summed up the storyline by telling him that The Godfather saga was about an alternate form of government. The leaders are like politicians who start out caring for people but later exploit them. That was enough for him. All he could say was “Oh.”

The man standing behind us in line overheard our conversation and made the following comment. “I never thought of it that way, but you’re right. Don Corleone is a lot like today’s politicians. He’s the man in charge. He grants political favors. He makes and enforces laws. He even collects taxes. The Mafia is run like a government.” The government as a mafia regime was confirmed to me when I visited the ‘Mob Museum’ in Las Vegas. It tells the story of how crime bosses came to power in the United States.

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Only 41% View Economy As Fair to Those Willing to Work Hard

Most Americans may believe a middle-class lifestyle is within reach, but they still question the fairness of the economy to those who are willing to work hard. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 41% of Likely U.S. Voters think the U.S. economy is at least somewhat fair to people who are willing to work hard, while 53% disagree.

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Universal Preschool: Just Another Unnecessary Program From Government by Tad Cronn

President Obama’s recent push for “universal” preschool should worry parents everywhere. Not only is it an effort to further remove children’s development from the control of their parents, but there’s little reason to suggest that it could provide any real benefit to the kids. When have you ever known a government program, particularly when it comes to education, to work the way it is supposed to?

A study published in late December by the Department of Health and Human Services found not only does the government’s Head Start program, which was launched in 1965, not provide any lasting benefits, but it actually puts children behind in some ways.  The program is intended to help children from poor families prepare for school. The study commissioned by Congress evaluated 4,667 elementary school children, both those who had gone through Head Start and children from similar circumstances who had not been in the program. What the study found, or rather didn’t find, was striking.

Not only did the students not show any measurable scholastic advantage by the third grade, but they did worse in math than students who had not gone through Head Start, and they had a more difficult time with social interactions. Who's values and principles do you want your children to have?  Yours or some set determined by a group of bureaucrats?

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"Liberty is not to be enjoyed, indeed it cannot exist, without the habits of just subordination; it consists, not so much in removing all restraint from the orderly, as in imposing it on the violent." --Fisher Ames, Essay on Equality, 1801

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