RESPONSE ACTION NETWORK 12/13/2014

Here is your weekly update on the politics and policies affecting our liberties. Obamacare's heavy toll on Senate Democrats With the crushing defeat of Louisiana Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu in the state's run-off election, it's worth looking back at what happened to the Democrats who voted for Obamacare in 2010. Back then, they had a filibuster-proof 60 members. But in the years since, half of those Democrats are now out of office: . . . many senators who voted for Obamacare lost re-election battles in which they were hit hard for their support for the law and other Democrats were forced to retire because they had no hope of getting re-elected given their support for the law. A total of 16 Senators who voted for Obamacare either failed to win reelection or declined to run for reelection and had their seats turned over to Republicans. The rest either . . . Read The Full Article ▶ Pentagon releases list of hardware it's given to local police For nearly two decades, the Defense Department has managed the 1033 program that transfers used military equipment to local law enforcement agencies.  Recent stories about the amount and types of military hardware finding its way into police hands have raised serious questions about usefulness, need and oversight. Now, the Pentagon has finally made available a list of just what it's given to police departments across the country. But it didn't come easily: As recently as October, the department's Defense Logistics Agency, which manages the equipment distribution effort, rejected Freedom of Information Act requests for a detailed accounting of what equipment has been given to whom. The agency provided only county-by-county information about the donations. Then, on Nov. 21, the Pentagon . . . Read The Full Article ▶ Obamacare and the doctor shortage There are a lot of myths about Obamacare, but there is also one rock-solid truth: having health insurance does not mean you will get health care. Part of the reason? America is running out of primary care physicians: A survey this year by The Physicians Foundation found that 81 percent of doctors describe themselves as either over-extended or at full capacity, and 44 percent said they planned to . . . Read The Full Article ▶ Another instance of gangster government Nevermind enforcing the law or tracking down the real bad guys. The Department of Justice and the FDIC have teamed-up to target businesses they just don't like through something called "Operation Choke Point." It's a program we've written about before. But new evidence from a congressional investigation shows how closely the two federal agencies worked together, and how subjective their criteria were for targeting certain companies: Emails revealed regulators knew “that FDIC examiners are injecting personal-value judgments into the examination process” of the banks they oversee. In one such exchange, a regional FDIC supervisor told . . . Read The Full Article ▶ Harry Reid blames Obamacare for Democrat wipe out How bad has the finger pointing within Democratic circles gotten since their wipe out in the mid-term elections? So bad that even Harry Reid is blaming Obamacare for his party's misfortunes. In a New York Times article, Reid says: In hindsight...it was easier to see how damaging the mismanaged rollout of the Affordable Care Act exchanges had been. “We never recovered from the rollout because . . . Read The Full Article ▶