Eye on Freedom

$436 BILLION! In Tax Credits For Insurance Companies In The Senate Health Bill

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:44:14 +0000

Total tax credits payable directly to insurance companies included in the Senate health care bill, according to the Congressional Budget Office score and language in Section 1412(c) of H.R. 3590 (page 291).

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Gates “Clarifies” U.S. Iran Policy In Riyadh After Biden Fails In Israel

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:06:05 +0000

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates arrived in Riyadh Wednesday, March 10, flying in unexpectedly from Kabul in Afghanistan, after the Saudis demanded urgent clarifications of the Obama administration’s Iran policy. The demand followed the failure of US Vice President Joe Biden’s talks with Israeli leaders to resolve their differences on Iran.

As a result, two senior US officials are visiting to Middle East capitals at the same to under pressure to deal with the Iranian nuclear question.

Gates was closeted with Saudi rulers although it was as recently as Feb. 15 that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Riyadh and explained Washington’s strategy on Iran to King Abdullah and several senior Saudi princes. But she failed to allay her hosts’ intense concerns that the US was doing enough to abort Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Then on Sunday, March 7, US Centcom Commander Gen. David Petraeus, asked by a CNN interviewer, whether countries in the Persian Gulf wish to see a US military attack on Iran, said: “…there are countries that would like to see a strike, us or perhaps Israel, even…”

In Israel, where the media are obsessed with the slightest Arab or Palestinian utterance, none cited the US general’s comments.

Biden Asserts U.S. Supremacy Over Israeli National Security

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:02:55 +0000

It was first noted when Biden called on president Shimon Peres, his first meeting with an Israel leader. He then explicitly warned Israel against venturing to attack Iran without prior American permission.

Even the oft-repeated American commitment to Israel’s security was delivered with a notable reservation: I can promise the people of Israel that we will confront every security challenge that we will face, said Biden. This statement ruled out unilateral Israel operations in its defense. Forget unilateral, he was saying; from now “we” make the decisions about the level of “security challenge” facing Israel and how to “confront it.” And there is no false modestly about who the senior decision-maker is to be in this “alliance.”

Jerusalem was also taken aback by the US vice president’s assertion that Iran was isolated as never before. A distorting prism appeared to be held up by the Obama administration to justify its backtracking on painful sanctions for Iran. These sanctions were explicitly promised by the White House to Netanyahu and defense minister Ehud Barak in return for Israel’s consent to hold back from striking Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The Biden visit to Israel, therefore, far from meeting its avowed goal of smoothing over the differences between the Obama administration and Israel, has left Jerusalem more distrustful than ever.

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Senators Obama and Biden Voted to Filibuster Health Insurance Choice and Competition

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:58:01 +0000

Obama & Biden Voted to Filibuster Small Business Health Plans:

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=2&vote=00119

Despite a majority (55) of the Senate voting to move forward, Obama & Biden helped kill the bill.

Small Business Health Plans – Cloture:

Motion to invoke cloture (thus limiting debate) on the Frist, R-Tenn., substitute amendment that would allow small businesses to pool their employees to provide group health insurance coverage by amending Title I of the Employee Retirement Security Act of 1974 and the Public Health Service Act. It would allow the plans to bypass many, but not all, state benefit mandates. The substitute would reduce the underlying bill’s allowable disparity between the highest price and the lowest price charged to different groups for insurance premiums.

May 11, 2006

Motion rejected by a vote of 55-43:

Republicans 53-1

Democrats 2-41

Independents 0-1

Meanwhile, CBS News reports, “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters Tuesday that Republicans ’should stop crying’ about the possible use of the parliamentary procedure known as budget reconciliation to pass a health care reform bill. Reid said reconciliation had been used 21 times since 1981, mostly by Republicans when they were in control of the Senate for the passage of items like the Bush tax cuts” (Montopoli, 2/23). Still, The Boston Globe reports that Republicans are saying the fact that Democrats are discussing reconciliation on the eve of a planned bipartisan health summit Thursday is sending mixed messages.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters Tuesday that Republicans ’should stop crying’ about the possible use of the parliamentary procedure known as budget reconciliation to pass a health care reform bill. Reid said reconciliation had been used 21 times since 1981, mostly by Republicans when they were in control of the Senate for the passage of items like the Bush tax cuts

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Pelosi: “We Have To Pass [Health Care] So You Can Find Out What Is In It”

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:39:21 +0000

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Hearing Delayed for Obama Judicial Nominee Who Supported Serial Killer

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:04:52 +0000

The Senate Judiciary Committee has postponed the hearing for a controversial Court of Appeals nominee after the panel received a letter from a home-state prosecutor blasting the candidate as a judicial loose cannon and after Republicans raised concerns about bias in favor of sex offenders.

U.S. District Court Judge Robert Chatigny gained notoriety in 2005 for his role in trying to fight the execution of convicted serial killer and rapist Michael Ross, also known as The Roadside Strangler, whom Chatigny had described as a victim of his own “sexual sadism.”

His conduct in that case, which included threatening to go after Ross’ attorney’s law license, as well as his ruling in 2001 against sex offender registries created under Megan’s Law, has caused a commotion among Republicans on the judiciary panel.

“I’ve never seen conduct like this,” said a Republican source. “I’m shocked that the White House vetted this guy … and still put him up for a judgeship.”

Fannie and Freddie Omitted From Senate Financial Reform Bill

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:03:20 +0000

That makes sense since they were at the root of the financial crisis.

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Democrats Pair ObamaCare With Student Lending Reform

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:17:32 +0000

Senate Democratic leaders have decided to pair an overhaul of federal student lending with healthcare reform, according to a Democratic official familiar with negotiations.

Socializing home mortgages worked so well for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, why not socialize student financial aid while socializing medicine?

Anyone still need convincing about that “bolshevik plot?”

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Justice Department Hires Al Qaeda Lawyers and Forgets to Tell Congress

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:21:14 +0000

Would most Americans want to know if the Justice Department had hired a bunch of mob lawyers and put them in charge of mob cases? Or a group of drug cartel lawyers and put them in charge of drug cases? Would they want their elected representatives to find out who these lawyers were, which mob bosses and drug lords they had worked for, and what roles they were now playing at the Justice Department? Of course they would — and rightly so.

Yet Attorney General Eric Holder hired former al-Qaeda lawyers to serve in the Justice Department and resisted providing Congress this basic information. In November, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee sent Holder a letter requesting that he identify officials who represented terrorists or worked for organizations advocating on their behalf, the cases and projects they worked on before coming to the Justice Department, the cases and projects they’ve worked on since joining the administration, and a list of officials who have recused themselves because of prior work on behalf of terrorist detainees.

Iran Begins Cruise-Missile Production

admin — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:46:29 +0000

Iran announced Sunday it has started a new production line of highly accurate short-range cruise missiles, which would add a new element to the country’s already imposing arsenal.

Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, Iran’s defense minister, told Iranian state TV that the cruise missile, called Nasr 1, would be capable of destroying targets up to 3,000 tons in size.

The minister said the missile can be fired from ground-based launchers as well as ships but eventually would be modified to be fired from helicopters and submarines.

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