Conservatives likely to lose education reform battle in Congress

House Republican leaders handed conservatives a small victory on Tuesday by allowing votes this week on amendments to an education bill that will let states ditch federal education programs, and let parents opt out of federally required testing. --But the debate shaping up in Congress is likely to yield legislation to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) that rejects more conservative language in favor of legislation that could end up passing with significant Democratic support. That means conservatives may end up either shooting down the final bill, or watching it pass over their objections.

Read more at Washington Examiner

Related: COMMUNISM IS ALIVE AND WELL - YOUR FREEDOMS SET TO EXPIRE SOON by Charlotte Iserbyt Read More......

RS: An Open Letter to Senator Marco Rubio

RED STATE, By Daniel Horowitz (Diary), April 24, 2013

Dear Senator Rubio,
As the public finally gets an opportunity to read and analyze the bipartisan gang of 8 immigration bill, it is clear that there will be some irreconcilable differences between your vision of immigration reform and that of many conservatives across the country. However, we should all agree that this is an extremely consequential bill and must go through a long process – one which will allow all points of view to be heard.

Several months ago, you promised Rush Limbaugh that you would never be part of a process “that comes up with some bill in secret and brings it to the floor and gives people a take it or leave it.” Unfortunately, the process that has commenced thus far is ostensibly a ‘take it or leave it’ approach. Read more at Red State... Read More......

Oregon Senate Bill 71: Relating to drones; and declaring an emergency

Summary of SB 71 (Current Version): Imposes restrictions on use of drones by private parties and public entities. Creates various crimes for unauthorized use of drones. Punishes by maximum of 20 years' imprisonment, $375,000 fine, or both. ✧ Directs Department of State Police to establish registry of certain drones used by public bodies. ✧ Permits Oregon Department of Aviation to issue licenses for use of drones. ✧ Declares emergency, effective on passage. Read more...

2013 Regular Session
Current: In Senate Committee Read More......

Senate passes insider-trading bill

Aiming to restore voters' faith in Congress, the Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill Thursday that makes clear it's illegal for members of Congress, their staffs and many executive-branch employees to trade stocks and other securities based on inside information learned on the job. Read more at CNN... Read More......

NumbersUSA: 10 Sweeping Victories in the House

NumbersUSA Newsletter, 6/3/2011 (Re: IMMIGRATION) - [Excerpts] We didn't have just 1 victory in the House of Representatives this week, BUT 10 VICTORIES IN ALL!!! ∴ In fact, every immigration amendment vote to the 2012 Homeland Security spending bill the past two days went our way. ∴ Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado wrapped and delivered a great present to us when he requested a roll call vote on his amendment to end the 287(g) local enforcement program. His amendment was defeated with broad bi-partisan support with 75% of the votes cast opposing his amendment!

Read Roy [Beck's] detailed descriptions of all the votes.

All in all, the House passed amendments to:

• set aside funding for Border Patrol to eliminate look-out posts along the U.S.-Mexico border;
  
• set aside funding to hire additional Shadow Wolves who track down smugglers along the border;
  
• reallocate funds to increase funding for the 287(g) program by nearly 20%;
  
• reallocate funding to increase support for the Law Enforcement Support Center;
  
• ensure that funding provided in the spending bill is used to enforce existing federal law requiring the detention of illegal aliens who are violent criminals awaiting deportation;
  
• withhold funding from cities that have sanctuary city policies in place;
  
• prohibit the Administration from offering amnesty through "deferred action";
  
• require all DHS contractors to use E-Verify to check new hires; and
  
• reallocate funds to build cell towers providing full service along the entire U.S.-Mexico border.

For any of our activists who are concerned about the federal budget and homeland security, all of the amendments are budget neutral and only reallocate funding that was set aside for executive management of the department. Read More......

Arizona passes strict illegal immigration act

LA TIMES, 4/13/2010 by Nicholas Riccardi - Arizona lawmakers on Tuesday approved what foes and supporters agree is the toughest measure in the country against illegal immigrants, directing local police to determine whether people are in the country legally. Read more at the LA Times... Read More......

Some Republicans Say Open to US Climate Change Bill

CNBC (Reuters), 4/13/2010 - Some prominent Republican senators expressed openness Tuesday to a U.S. climate change bill that might be introduced next week and that would need bipartisan support to have any chance of advancing. Read more at CNBC...

Article mentions Republican Senators Lamar Alexander, Scott Brown and Lindsey Graham. --bc Read More......

Obama's private army in health care bill?

Judge Andrew Napolitano discusses a two-page portion of the health care bill dealing with a 6,000 person army of regular and reserve doctors. This part of the bill went without debate before the vote. The judge questions the purpose, the constitutionality of such an army, who wrote the bill and who is responsible for this part of it?

(Hat tip: Stella Guenther) Read More......

Morning Bell: Red Tape Rising

HERITAGE FOUNDATION/THE FOUNDRY, 4/5/2010 - Just three days after President Barack Obama's health plan was signed into law, AT&T announced that due to an obscure tax change in the bill, the nation's largest telephone company would take a $1 billion hit to its bottom line this quarter. According to health benefits analysts this tax law modification would shave as much as $14 billion from U.S. corporate profits. While it would have been better had these tax losses been made more public before Congress voted, at least these tax charges are transparent and easily quantifiable enough to get noticed by the American people. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of the hundreds of new regulations that the federal government will enforce as it tries to implement Obama's redistributionist health agenda. Read more at The Foundry... Read More......

Look what Harry Reid Hid deep in the Health Care Bill

FROM J. Nelson (via email/2/28/2010) - THIS IS TRULY SHOCKING!!!! PRAY THAT GOD WILL CONTINUE TO PROTECT US AND GIVE WISDOM AND INSIGHT AND PROTECT US FROM TYRANNY! ∴ Buried in his massive amendment to the Senate version of Obamacare is Reid's anti-democratic poison pill designed to prevent any future Congress from repealing the central feature of this monstrous legislation! ∴ Beginning on page 1,000 of the measure, Section 3403 reads in part: " it shall not be in order in the Senate or the House of Representatives to consider any bill, resolution, amendment or conference report that would repeal or otherwise change this subsection." ∴ In other words, if President Barack Obama signs this measure into law, no future Senate or House will be able to change a single word of Section 3403, regardless whether future Americans or their representatives in Congress wish otherwise!

Note that the subsection at issue here concerns the regulatory power of the Independent Medicare Advisory Board (IMAB) to "reduce the per capita rate of growth in Medicare spending." That is precisely the kind of open-ended grant of regulatory power that effectively establishes the IMAB as the ultimate arbiter of the cost, quality and quantity of health care to be made available to the American people. And Reid wants the decisions of this group of unelected federal bureaucrats to be untouchable for all time.

No wonder the majority leader tossed aside assurances that senators and the public would have at least 72 hours to study the text of the final Senate version of Obamacare before the critical vote on cloture. And no wonder Reid was so desperate to rush his amendment through the Senate, even scheduling the key tally on it at 1 a.m., while America slept.

True to form, Reid wanted to keep his Section 3403 poison pill secret for as long as possible, just as he negotiated his bribes for the votes of Senators Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Bernie Sanders of Vermont behind closed doors.

The final Orwellian touch in this subversion of democratic procedure is found in the ruling of the Reid-controlled Senate Parliamentarian that the anti-repeal provision is not a change in Senate rules, but rather of Senate "procedures." Why is that significant? Because for 200 years, changes in the Senate's standing rules have required approval by two-thirds of those voting, or 67 votes rather than the 60 Reid's amendment received.

Reid has flouted two centuries of standing Senate rules to pass a measure in the dead of night that no senator has read, and part of which can never be changed. If this is not tyranny, then what is?

DON'T SIT BY AND LET THIS HAPPEN IN THE DARK!!! FORWARD TO EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST!

Note: For what it's worth, NeutralSource.org refutes this claim citing a 12/29/2009 Washington Examiner.com opinion piece as partially false. Read More......

CAPMAG: What the health care bill actually says...

CAPITALISM MAGAZINE, 12/5/2009 by John David Lewis - Excerpt from What The "Affordable Health Care For America Act," HR3962, Actually Says:

In many ways the bill is a convoluted, uncoordinated list of compromises between thousand of legislators, legislative aides, and lobbyists. Yet the bill has two main thrusts, with one central meaning. The first thrust is a massive increase in government power. The second is the total rejection of the free market. The central meaning of both is the repudiation of individual rights. No longer will Americans have the liberty to preserve their own lives in the way they judge best from now on, they will have to conform to government controls on the most intimate details of their lives.

Read More......

Sen. Jim DeMint takes on Sen. Jeff Merkley over HC bill provision

CNSNews.com, 1/5/2010 - Senate Health-Care Bill Provision Would Make it Impossible for Future Congresses to Repeal Parts of Bill: A provision deep within the Senate’s 2,000-page health-care overhaul bill would make it impossible, once approved, for the legislation to be repealed or changed by future Congresses -- a provision that a Senate Republican and a conservative analyst say is unconstitutional.

On page 1,020, the bill states: “It shall not be in order in the Senate or the House of Representatives to consider any bill, resolution, amendment or conference report that would repeal or otherwise change this subsection.”

The provision appears in Section 3403 of the Senate bill, which creates an Independent Medicare Advisory Board (IMAB). The objective of the board would be to “reduce the per capita rate of growth in Medicare spending,” which has ballooned in recent decades. The IMAB would recommend changes to the Medicare program to limit its spending growth -- recommendations that would automatically go into effect unless Congress votes to block them. Read more for the DeMint (R-SC)-Merkley (D-OR) exchange...

Notes: 1) IMAB is what Sarah Palin referred to as "Death Panels." Kudos to Sen. DeMint. 2) Sen. Merkley will hold a town hall meeting on Jan. 15. Please see Events Calendar --bc Read More......

Neb.'s Nelson sees backlash on health reform plan

MYWAY, 12/20/2009 by Margery A. Beck - OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - It was the concern of Nebraska's Republican governor over expanded Medicaid costs in the proposed Senate health care overhaul bill that led to a compromise to cover his state's estimated $45 million share over a decade, U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson said Sunday. ∴ Gov. Dave Heineman "contacted me and he said this is another unfunded federal mandate and it's going to stress the state budget, and I agreed with him," the Nebraska Democrat said. "I said to the leader and others that this is something that has to be fixed. I didn't participate in the way it was fixed." ∴ But Heineman expressed anything but gratitude, saying he had nothing to do with the compromise and calling the overhaul bill "bad news for Nebraska and bad news for America." ∴ "Nebraskans did not ask for a special deal, only a fair deal," Heineman said in a statement Sunday. ∴ That criticism is only a taste of what Nelson has received since announcing Saturday that he would become the 60th vote needed to advance the landmark legislation. Read more at My Way... Read More......

Pattern of Corruption: Bob Creamer, Architect of ObamaCare

BIG GOVERNMENT, 12/2009 by Capitol Confidential - Before left-wing activist Bob Creamer escorted his wife, Illinois Democratic Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky to the Obama state dinner, before he penned his blue print for the socialist agenda from his federal prison cell, before he committed felony bank fraud and was indicted on 34 counts involving misuse of $2.4 million, this Saul Alinsky disciple reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars from a campaign finance scam that illegally funneled money from deep-pocket Democrat donors and labor unions to targeted congressional campaigns. Read more at Andrew Breitbart's Big Government...

Capitol Confidential: Anonymous sources in the halls of power at the federal, state, and local levels. Big Government double-checks their stories and provides them the cloak they need to reveal the truth.

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IMPORTANT NOTE: A report on Robert Creamer's 2006 book, Listen to your Mother, Stand Up Straight! How Progressives Can Win, has been moved to Pattern of Corruption: Robert Creamer's blueprint. Read More......

Senate to debate health care overhaul

NATIONAL POST, 11/21/2009 - WASHINGTON: A broad healthcare overhaul was poised to clear its first U.S. Senate hurdle Saturday as the last wavering senators said they would vote to begin debate on the legislation, giving Democrats the 60 votes they need. ∴ Democrats Blanche Lincoln and Mary Landrieu ended days of uncertainty and said they would support a procedural motion Saturday to open debate to reform the US$2.5-trillion healthcare system -- the Senate bill's first crucial test vote. Read more at the National Post... Read More......

Healthcare Reform: Legislation That Helps, Not Harms

11/05/2009 - Health Care: House Republicans have introduced their own reform bill (Summary.pdf). Unlike the Democrats' legislation, this plan would actually keep the promises Barack Obama made in the 2008 campaign. Read more at IBD... Read More......

8 Questions about health-care reform: Update

WASHINGTON POST - Last week, the Senate Finance Committee voted 14 to 9 to approve its health reform bill -- the fifth legislative committee to pass reform legislation. Here's a rundown of where things stand -- and what to expect in coming weeks. Read more at the Washington Post...

Hat tip: John H. Detweiler
John says, "Seems to be a reasonable summary of the situation." Read More......

McConnell Statement on Finance Committee Proposal

10/13/2009 PRESS RELEASE from the Office of Senator Mitch McConnell - ‘The fact is, this proposal will never come before the Senate’ ∴ WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following statement Tuesday regarding the Finance Committee vote on partisan health care reform:

“Sen. Snowe called me this morning to let me know that while she continues to have serious, substantive policy reservations with this proposal, she wanted to keep the process moving. I share her concerns about the direction of this bill once it leaves the committee, and her call for transparency before we vote to proceed to any bill on the floor.

"The fact is, this proposal will never come before the Senate. But what we do know is that the bill written behind closed doors here in the Capitol will be another 1,000-page, trillion-dollar Washington takeover. We know it will slash a half-trillion dollars from seniors’ Medicare, add new taxes and raise premiums. That’s not reform.” [Emphasis added]

Read More......

Representatives who vote for government-run health care should use it

Congressman John Flemming (R-LA) asks, "Will members of congress who vote for government-run health care use it?" ∴ "Over the past few weeks, members of Congress and the American people have come to know the details of the Administration's proposed health care plan. Call it whatever you like, I believe this proposal is nothing more than government-run health care. As a physician, I am amazed at the number of bureaucrats in this House who are quick to claim a government-run health care plan is the reform this country needs. In response to this, I have offered a resolution (H. Res. 615) that will offer members of Congress an opportunity to put their money where their mouth is, and urge their colleagues who vote for legislation creating a government-run health care plan to lead by example and enroll themselves in the same public plan."

To express your opinion, go HERE. From Congressman Flemmings website, you may download a letter to send to your congressman and view a list of U.S. Representatives who currently support Rep. Flemming's H. Res 615.

Under the current draft of the Democrat healthcare legislation, members of Congress are curiously exempt from the government-run health care option, keeping their existing health plans and services on Capitol Hill. If Members of Congress believe so strongly that government-run health care is the best solution for hard working American families, I think it only fitting that Americans see them lead the way. Public servants should always be accountable and responsible for what they are advocating. Read More......

Inside the Monstrous Obamacare Bureaucracy

CREATORS.COM (A Syndicate of Talent), July 2009 by Michelle Malkin - If you think government is too big and too costly, wait until Obamacare kicks in. The Congressional Budget Office put the price tag of the House Democrats' health care takeover plans at $1.5 trillion over 10 years. But the CBO's fine print included a telltale caveat:

"We have not yet estimated the administrative costs to the federal government of implementing the specified policies, nor have we accounted for all of the proposal's likely effects on spending for other federal programs."

You don't need an accounting degree or clairvoyant powers. The administrative costs and spillover spending effects will be astronomical. Look at existing federal programs. In 1966, the Office of Management and Budget put the total taxpayer costs for Medicare at $64 million. In 2011, Medicare costs are expected to balloon to nearly $500 billion. Medicaid cost $770 million in 1966. By 2011, that program will cost taxpayers an estimated $264 billion. The Virginia-based Council for Affordable Health Insurance estimated that the administrative expenses of both programs last decade were 66 percent higher than those of private sector health insurance companies. Read more at Creative.com... Read More......