Obamacare IRS subsidy fiasco shows what happens when legislators punt their responsibilities

An observation specifically about the writing of the Obamacare Law:

…So that’s what happened: in between the “conceptual language” and the actual legislative text, some experts who were writing the law thought it was a good idea to try to coerce states into creating their own exchanges by withholding tax subsidies from the federal exchanges. The actual legislators who voted on the legislation didn’t know how the law would work, but they trusted the experts they hired….

…Tom Carper (D-Delaware), who also served on the Senate Finance Committee,insisted that the legislative language wasn’t important:

“I don’t expect to actually read the legislative language, because reading the legislative language is among the more confusing things I’ve ever read in my life.”

So, the Senate Finance Committee voted on “conceptual language” that established subsidies for exchanges without mentioning who those subsidies would apply to. They then hired experts, as Baucus said, who did intend for subsidies not to apply to federal exchanges, and those experts plainly wrote the law in the way that it wouldn’t apply to federal exchanges. Democratic leadership then refused to post the legislative text for people to read in an adequate time period before passing the law, and as a result, Congress voted on legislation that was written by people who, yes, intended for tax subsidies only to apply to state-established exchanges…

But that’s NOT the main problem. 

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Interview: Jane Cormier by Ellen Kolb of Leven for the Loaf for NH State Senate District 16

Ellen Kolb has been a guest on GrokTALK! several times and we’ve had a splendid time.  She also runs Leven for the Loaf – a solo blog that concentrates on issues surrounding the Right To Life.  She had the opportunity to interview former NH State Rep Jane Cormier who is now running for NH State Senate in District 16 (and GraniteGrok Approved!) – reposted here at the ‘Grok by permission:

Jane Cormier’s neighbors elected her to the state legislature in 2012. She earned the Republican nomination for the seat the hard way, defeating an incumbent. She did it as a political newcomer, in a year when many GOP candidates were clobbered. Not a conventional candidate, by any measure. Proudly pro-life, too.

This was no “stealth” candidate. Jane Cormier was (and is) right up front about who she is and what she believes. “Being outspoken, telling the truth, has no ‘R’ or ‘D’ attached,” she said to me when we spoke recently.

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Jeb Bradley just lied to his constituents

Like all politicians, NH State Senator Jeb Bradley sends out eblasts all the time.  Now that it is campaign season, everyone should be expecting a whole lot more from all the candidates.  So, why the title?  I think I know – and I believe that Bradley makes it glaringly obvious (reformatted, emphasis mine) in this eblast that came to my attention recently:

Jeb Bradley NH State Senate District 3

Dear Friends:

Today my Democrat opponent attacked me in a letter to the editor for standing by my pro-jobs, pro-taxpayer principles.

He attacked me for supporting business legislation requested by a large employer in Conway, for working for pension reform that reduces the unfunded pension liability and protects property taxpayers across NH, and for supporting more educational choice and opportunities for parents and students.

I am proud of my record.  I have led efforts to kill tax and fee increases introduced by the liberals the Senate,

Er, what about the HUGE tax increase that you just gave us? 

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3,000 REFUGEES BEING RELOCATED TO DOVER

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

 3,000 REFUGEES BEING RELOCATED TO DOVER

A proposal is being presented to the Dover City Council about the imminent relocation of up to 3,000 refugees from the Congo to the City of Dover NH. This would propose a 10% population growth in 6 years.

The proposal is believed to have a plan to move 100 families (each containing between 3-5 members) each year to Dover from now until the community “surrenders” and requests the flow to stop (similar to Manchester, NH and Lewiston, ME) but the [Federal] Government decides when enough is enough and NOT the local community. The Federal Government would support these families for only 8 months and then its up to the community and state to bear the financial burden from that point.

We encourage you to come and learn the facts from fiction for yourself:

 Wednesday August 13th, 2014

7:00pm

Dover City Hall

Council Chambers

Some immediate questions of concern: 

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Obamacare: ramifications of yesterday’s IRS / Federal Court decisions. Rule of Law vs Rule of Intent

As I had put up here, yesterday was a significant day where two high Federal Courts came down in two diametrically opposite results :

  • The DC Circuit Court of Appeals (acknowledged to be the #2 Court in the land) – upheld the Rule of Law as written; the IRS cannot give subsidies to those that enroll in an Obamacare policy while logged into a Federal site; ONLY in an Exchange that was set up by an individual State.
  • The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals – upheld the Rule of Intent and not as the black and white words actually used in the statute.   Instead of sticking to the wording, those judges decided that they could go by the intent of the Democrat Party in writing of the Law.

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A bureaucracy that openly plots to overcome Congress’s oversight…

We have seen the IRS stall Congress over the targeting of TEA Party groups to silence / harass them before the 2012 Presidential election – specifically the emails of Lois Lerner.  We have seen that the EPA has done the same thing (“we lost the emails”….we had disk crashes”) .  DOJ has done the same over Fast and Furious (and now, Operation Choke Point).  We see the same recalcitrance now with ICE over the invasion of illegal alien kids – no one knows exactly how many, lower level govt and communities are not told when they are just bussed or flown in (many diseased, and many are not “kids” but mid to late-teens, and if the pics are to be believed, gang members).  It goes on and on.

Here, we see signs that the IRS coverup is starting to unravel:

These words are appropriate: 

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Given the situation that Russia’s Putin has put Obama into….

Obama says 80s want their policies back

…Putin has made Obama’s words to Mitt Romney during the debate “the 80s called and they want their policies back” look stupid, hollow, mocking, trite, and callow.

Schnadenfreude.  And for those of you who are trying to forget those “triumphalism words” (gee, wasn’t that the term you Dems used against Romney??), here’s a little reminder:

(cartoon H/T: Liberal Logic 101, video H/T: Instapundit)

Oh, and there is this from Time Magazine….80s anyone? 

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EPA – not just the IRS trying to influence the outcome of the 2012 Presidential Election

EPA BustedMark Levin is a well known and fiery Conservative talk show host and author.  What is less well known is that he also heads up the Landmark Legal Foundation and it has an ongoing FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) lawsuit against the EPA for all materials that mentioned the delaying the release and enactment of regulations concerning CO2 “pollution” standards simply for political reasons: announcing them before the election might have changed the results of the election once the general public learned of the draconian decrees and how it would affect them and their families.  We are now seeing the results – a larger and larger number of coal using electrical plants are being shut down due to the EPA using its regulatory power to institute a “cap and trade” system that Congress decided that it would not do.  How can a mere agency have the power to totally up end our lives when Congress decided that it shouldn’t?   But that is the Obama Administration, not just waiting, but IGNORING the other Branch of Government.  Or worse – deciding that he can be both the Legislative and Executive branches combined – a set up leading to tyranny.

The heads up from Instapundit that Levin is asking for sanction as it looks like the EPA, just like the IRS, has destroyed materials & emails that could have proven his assertions:

“Landmark Legal Foundation today asked Federal District Judge Royce Lamberth to sanction the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for destroying or failing to preserve emails and text messages that may have helped document suspected Agency efforts to influence the 2012 presidential election.”

The entire Presser is after the jump (emphasis and reformatting mine).  It is well worth to review the words of Thomas H Crown again:

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GrokTV: Jane Cormier house event – NH House Candidates

One of the things that Michelle McManus was adamant about was that she wanted an event where all of the candidates at her home were those that her town could actually vote for.  Here are the candidates that are running to be the next folks running to be the NH State Reps from Bow and Dunbarton:

  • NH State Rep JR Hoell (seeking re-election)
  • John Martin (first time candidate)
  • Bill Kuch (first time candidate)

  

            JR Hoell                                                                          John Martin

Bill Kuch

Previous videos:  

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GrokTV: Jane Cormier house event – Marilinda Garcia, Jim Adams, closing remarks

And the last post with the last videos from this past Sunday’s home event at the McManus’s residence.  Here we have:

  • Marilinda Garcia (candidate for the NH GOP nomination for US Congress, CD-2)
  • Jim Adams (candidate for the NH GOP nomination for NH Executive Council)
  • Closing remarks (Jane Cormier, Susan Olsen)

  

Marilinda Garcia                                                     Jim Adams

Closing Remarks

Previous videos:  

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Blogline of the Day – Asses and jawbones

“I hear that seven Hamas terrorists were killed yesterday by an IDF soldier armed only with a replica of Obama’s jawbone.” For those of you on the Left (since poll after poll confirm, you are amongst the most unchurched and therefore, amongst the most Biblically illiterate), the assumed Biblical reference is here: Judges 15:16)   … Read more

GrokTV: Jane Cormier house event – Jane Cormier (NH State Senate) and Senator Bob Smith (US Senate)

Given that the event was for and organized by Jane Cormier in her run to unseat the Republican Establishment’s choice in the primary for NH State Senate, Dave Boutin (who most unRepublican like voted FOR an increase in the gas tax and voted FOR enlarging NH State Government ever by voting for Medicaid Expansion).  Here she makes it quite clear that values matter, that Principles matter – not the Party.  Jane believes that our State is headed in the wrong direction and that by actually implementing the conservative and Liberty & Freedom agenda, it can be turned around:

Also speaking at the event was former US Senator Bob Smith (who is running against both Scott Brown and Jim Ruben in the 2014 Senatorial Primary).  He, too, believes that Conservative values as espoused in the Constitutions (US & NH) and the NH GOP Platform need to be implemented – that decades of ignoring them have brought our country to the peril that now faces it.  Plain speaking, willing to take questions from anyone and answering them directly (favorable or unfavorably), he certainly is the person that NH should be looking at:

 

Previous videos: 

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Scott Brown: remember, he was the vote that gave us Dodd-Frank (the Obamacare of the finance world)

From Daniel Horowitz, a reminder of what a horrible mess Dodd-Frank is.  Remember, the “Frank” part was Barney Frank, the uber Leftist Congressman from MA!

Here are some of the worst aspects:

Too Big to Fail: – Title I of the bill created a new permanent bailout regime, the Financial Stability Oversight Council.  This institution would vitiate the bankruptcy process and allow the government to take over any entity that it deems vital to the rest of the economy.  In other words, it consummates “too big to fail” as a permanent policy, the very policy this bill was supposed to fix.

Volcker Rule – The Volcker rule ostensibly prohibits regular banks from investing their own money by engaging in bond trading.  It also prohibits banks from holding more than a 3% stake in private equity funds.  Just this part of the bill is 300 pages long!  It will take hundreds of new Keynesian jobs just to enforce, interpret, and comply with the rule.

CFPB – The bill created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFBP), which will limit the choices of consumers in financial markets, making it harder and more expensive to obtain credit.  This unaccountable agency will operate autonomously within the Federal Reserve and will not be subjected to congressional appropriations or oversight.  It is essentially the “death panel” of the financial sector, with control over bank accounts, mortgages, and student loans.

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BREAKING NEWS: US Appeals Court rules against Obama / IRS on their rewriting of tax subsidies in Halbig vs Burwell.

The Halbig vs Burwell, where the IRS decided that ALL Obamacare Exchanges could issue tax credits / subsidies (as opposed to what the law actually said, which was that ONLY State built Exchanges, not Federal ones, could issue those credits / subsidies to lower Obamacare premiums).  This is HUGE!  From the Washington Examiner: In a case … Read more

GrokTV: Jane Cormier house event – Andrew Hemingway (candidate, NH Gov.)

After the Intro Ceremonies were completed, the first speaker of the afternoon took the mic: Andrew Hemingway.  A young man age-wise, he has been active in Conservative politics for years and is now running for the NH GOP nomination for NH Governor in a primary match up against the NH GOP Establishment wing’s Walt Havenstein. Take … Read more

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