THE FOUNDATION
"[Rights] are not annexed to us by parchments and seals. They are created in us by the decrees of Providence, which establish the laws of our nature. They are born with us; exist with us; and cannot be taken from us by any human power, without taking our lives. In short, they are founded on the immutable maxims of reason and justice." --John Dickinson, A Warning to the Colonies (Of the Right to Freedom; and of Traitors), 1766TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS
'Stop Whining' and Take ObamaCare
Rep Anna Eshoo (D-CA) told Republicans at a hearing debating a GOP proposal allowing people who like their insurance plans to keep them to just stop whining and swallow this part of ObamaCare. "Your plan is whining. Your plan is suing the president and using taxpayer dollars," she said, changing the subject to another part of Washington drama. Outside the Beltway, we call this an ad hominem attack. She continued, "I hope no more 'Saturday Night Live' whining is brought up in legislation because it's not attractive, it's not truthful, and it really does not fit with the dignity of the American people." And if anyone knows about dignity, it's Democrats. Rep. Cory Gardner (R-CO) noted that the 335,000 people in his state who had their health insurance plans canceled because of ObamaCare are "not whiners." But those people can always seek health insurance on the $840 million federal health exchange. More...Comment | Share
Lerner Called Conservatives 'A--holes'
House Republicans released an email conversation from former-IRS official Lois Lerner showing that she had, according to her lawyer, a few "opinions" about the GOP. When another IRS official, whose name was redacted, wrote complaining of conservative radio shows in November 2012, Lerner replied, "Great. Maybe we are through if there are that many a--holes." Lerner continued the email thread, pounding out on her BlackBerry, "So we don't need to worry about alien terrorists. It's our own crazies that will take us down." It's not hard proof that Lerner targeted Tea Party groups seeking tax exemption, but its proof enough she couldn't do her job without bias. More...Comment | Share
Left Hopes for Cease-Fire as Israel Battles Extinction
The sound bites this week about the Israeli conflict show exactly what's at stake. In a video clip released by the Middle East Media Research Institute, a unnamed Islamic cleric in Gaza giving a sermon on the Hamas television channel Al-Aqsa TV shared the ultimate goal of Hamas: total extermination of the Jews. "Our doctrine in fighting you [the Jews] is that we will totally exterminate you," the cleric said. "We will not leave a single one of you alive, because you are alien usurpers of the land and eternal mercenaries." Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will destroy the tunnels of Hamas, regardless of anything else. "I won't agree to any proposal that will not enable the Israeli military to complete this important task for the sake of Israel's security," he said. And back in the states, the Democrat challenger to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Alison Lundergan Grimes, told a Kentucky newspaper, "The Iron Dome has been a big reason why Israel has been able to withstand the terrorists that have tried to tunnel their way in." Um, we don't think that's how the Iron Dome works, or that Netanyahu can declare "mission accomplished" just yet.Comment | Share
Police Commissioner Wants More Firearm Restrictions
Boston Police Commissioner Bill Evans explained on Boston Public Radio that ordinary Americans don't need weapons like shotguns and rifles. "For the most part, nobody in the city needs a shotgun, nobody needs a rifle," he proclaimed. But it's not just shotguns and rifles Evans is worried about. "I want to have discretion over who's getting any type of gun," he added, "because public safety is my main concern, and as you know, it's an uphill battle taking as many guns off the street right now without pumping more into the system." No amount of gun confiscation addresses the real crisis -- cultural rot and statism fostered by Democrat poverty plantations. If liberals were truly concerned about public safety, they wouldn't be treading on your constitutional rights. More...Comment | Share
Sequester Baby Boom
Washington has a minor baby boom on its hands nine months after the government shutdown October 1 to 16. The halls of Washington may have closed, but Washington staffers kept busy, putting down their BlackBerries and iPhones to pay attention to their significant others. Now, The Washington Post is reporting the maternity wards around the District of Columbia are more crowded than usual. For example, the Post reported, "Nurses at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, Md., were making ... jokes this month, when births in the first half of July increased from 265 in 2013 to 385 in 2014." The story prompted Brian Williams of NBC News to ask, "How long until someone on television points out that during the shutdown, folks in Washington were doing at home what Washington has been accused of doing to the American people?" More...Comment | Share
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RIGHT ANALYSIS
House Takes Obama's Advice to 'Sue Me'
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In Federalist No. 47, James Madison warned that the "accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands ... may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny." Opposing Obama's tyranny is of the utmost importance.
“No member of this body needs to be reminded of what the Constitution states about the president’s obligation to faithfully execute the laws of our nation,” House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said. “No member needs to be reminded of the bonds of trust that have been frayed, of the damage that’s already been done to our economy and to our people. Are you willing to let any president choose what laws to execute and what laws to change? Are you willing to let anyone tear apart what our Founders have built?”
Obama promptly responded by announcing another executive order to, in the words of White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer, "crack down on federal contractors who put workers’ safety and hard-earned pay at risk."
On the campaign stump halfway across the country, Obama mocked the suit. “They’re going to sue me for taking executive actions to help people," he crowed. "So they’re mad I’m doing my job. And by the way, I’ve told them, 'I’d be happy to do it with you. The only reason I’m doing it on my own is because you’re not doing anything.'" By which he means yielding to his leftist agenda. He added, "Stop being mad all the time. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop just hatin' all the time."
Let's be clear: The president's job isn't "taking executive actions to help people," and Obama's craven reframing of the subject is contemptible. His job is to support and defend the Constitution and to faithfully execute the law.
Pfeiffer likewise belittled the effort, saying, “The House of Representatives just took a vote -- and it wasn't to raise the minimum wage, put in place equal pay, create jobs, or reform our broken immigration system. Instead, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives just voted to sue the President for using his executive authority. This lawsuit will waste valuable time and potentially millions of taxpayer dollars.” Translation: Instead of happily going along with the Democrat agenda, Republicans actually want to pay attention to a dusty old parchment.
That said, the lawsuit is an unprecedented, narrow and possibly doomed-to-fail effort by the minority party to slow the train of repeated injuries and usurpations of a power-hungry administration. A decision could take months if not years, and it may not have the desired effect.
It's also somewhat ironic that the GOP is suing Obama for refusing to implement ObamaCare by the letter of the law when Republicans want to repeal it. On the other hand, Democrats simultaneously insist it's the "law of the land" and have no problem with Obama ignoring, changing or delaying it.
Meanwhile, Democrats are practically begging Republicans to impeach Obama, raising millions of dollars off their phony scam, and they were more than happy to recast the lawsuit as part of that alleged effort. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) frantically warned, "This isn't about this lawsuit. This is about the road to impeachment." DNC Chief Debbie Wasserman Schultz called the lawsuit a "prelude to the potential for impeachment," and insisted Democrats will continue to raise money on it.
Unfortunately, Republicans in the House are limited in what they can do to roll back Obama's unconstitutional actions. They have been able to slow legislative overreach, but without the Senate, they're handicapped to reverse anything. If Republicans can successfully highlight Obama's lawlessness and frame the lawsuit as being rooted in true concern for the faithful execution of the law and constitutional exercise of power, voters will reward them in November. If not, they're just helping Democrats raise money.
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Congress's Veterans Affairs Band-Aid
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It’s all part of a $17 billion plan to reform the Department of Veterans Affairs announced earlier this week by House and Senate negotiators. Unfortunately, in many ways, the plan is less reform and more repeat of the status quo that favors government bureaucrats at the expense of our veterans.
Now, you’ll likely hear the spin that Congress is actually cutting VA bonuses, but the rhetoric hides some unpleasant truth. The House had, indeed, voted 421-0 last month to eliminate $400 million in bonuses to the agency. But move past that pro-veteran sound bite, toss in the Senate and that lovely word “compromise,” and you get a proposal with no real reform for the agency and $360 million in yearly bonuses back on the table.
When it comes to the accountability of VA employees, the legislation may appear to tackle this problem head-on by authorizing the VA secretary to fire or demote senior executives for “poor performance and misconduct.” Oh, but wait. Those same executives can then appeal the firing or demotion, and the case would go to the Merit System Protections Board, which would have 21 days to issue a ruling. (A firing wait list, if you will.) Unfortunately, 21 days is a kite dream as MSPB itself abides by a 120-day timeframe and still remains inundated with thousands of appeals stemming from last year’s mandatory furlough of some government employees.
Add to this the fact that the “Senior Executives Association” naturally opposes the firing provision. Apparently, the threat of immediate firing for ineptitude is appropriate for private industry but not for government employees. (This gives a whole new meaning to the idea of entitlement reform.)
To add to this problem, as many as 13,000 VA employees are being overpaid -- a problem that won't be so easy to fix.
Perhaps most pernicious, though, is the bipartisan proposal actually may encourage fraudulent reporting of VA wait-list times -- the very issue that put the agency in the hot seat to begin with. CNBC reports, the proposal provides "[e]mergency funding to give veterans who can't get a medical appointment at the VA the option to receive non-VA care." But this care must still be coordinated through the VA, and in order to get care outside the VA network, veterans must first prove VA wait lists are too long. In other words, the emergency funding is tied to the provision of evidence that the VA is failing -- hardly something the agency will want to tout, as America has already learned the hard way.
The House passed the bill 420-5 Wednesday, so it heads to the Senate for deliberation before the August recess. What large-scale opposition would there possibly be to a bill that demonstrates the persistent unwillingness among our elected officials to address our nation’s problems? Instead, they provide a Band-Aid to our veterans and a bonus to bureaucrats.
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For more, visit Right Analysis.
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TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS
- Victor Davis Hanson: Obama and the Road Not Taken
- Arnold Ahlert: Lois Lerner's Vendetta
- Ann Coulter: The Loophole Is Obama
- Cal Thomas: WWI, the Not So Great War
- Rebecca Hagelin: Does Marriage Matter?
OPINION IN BRIEF
Plutarch (c.45-125 A.D.): "What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality."Historian Victor Davis Hanson: "Over the last five and a half years, America has had lots of clear choices, but the administration usually took the path of least short-term trouble, which has ensured long-term hardship. ... When occasional decisions must be made, the U.S. usually chooses the easiest way out: withdrawals, concessions and appeasement. Behind these assumptions also lie the administration’s grave doubts that the U.S. has in the past played a positive role in postwar affairs, or that in the present and future America can claim the moral authority -- or has the resources -- to confront aggressors. In 2017, Obama may well leave office claiming to have reduced our military while avoiding conflict during his tenure. But will he also be able to assure us that China, Iran and Russia are less threatening; that the Middle East, the Pacific and the former Soviet republics are less explosive; that our own border is more secure -- and that America is safer? To paraphrase the poet Robert Frost: Two roads diverged in the world, and we always took the one of least resistance -- and that has now made all the difference."
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Columnist Arnold Ahlert: "It is not beyond the realm of possibility that Lerner’s emails exist, that they contain no more incriminating information, and that IRS officials who hid the revelation about their destruction are waiting to spring a politically-calculated trap aimed at blowing the investigation out of the water. If that possibility sounds conspiratorial, Americans should ask themselves if a year ago, they could have imagined an Obama administration abetting human trafficking by allowing a wholesale invasion of our Southwest border, and shipping thousands of illegal aliens around the nation -- in secret. When the one rule that governs the implementation of one’s agenda is 'by any means necessary,' all things are possible."
Fred Thompson: "A Democrat Senator caught plagiarizing claimed it happened because he had PTSD 7 years ago. I don't buy it. He wouldn't have been able to get a diagnosis from the VA that fast."
Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team
Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform -- Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen -- standing in harm's way in defense of Liberty, and for their families.
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