Free Republic

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, number 4 in House GOP Leadership, said the effort by conservatives to defund ObamaCare is "not realistic." She advocated a piece-meal approach to repeal, delay or defund individual provisions of the sweeping health care overhaul. The debate will likely dominate discussions within the Republican caucus when Congress returns next month. “To get the entire bill repealed, or defunded, is probably not realistic,” McMorris Rodgers said. “But I do think there are provisions in the law that we can get delayed, or provisions in the law we can get defunded.” The government's spending authority expires on September...

Kimberley Strassel of the Wall Street Journal reports on a growing movement of anti-Obamacare activists to get the GOP to force a one year delay in Obamacare implementation rather than attempting to shut down government - which won't work to defund the law anyway and could have political consequences. A swelling coalition of conservative activists-card-carrying members of the "repeal ObamaCare" campaign-are lighting up the movement with a different approach. The plan aims to leverage public support, play on Democrat weaknesses, and, most notably, sidestep a shutdown fight that would damage the GOP even as it failed to kill the law....

The delay in implementation of ObamaCare's employer fines won't keep them from growing between now and when they finally hit in 2015. Each year, the fines will grow in line with the growth in average per-person health insurance premiums relative to 2013. Here's the problem: Average wages generally grow slower than health premiums, and the wages of low-income workers lag average wage growth. That means the penalties will gradually loom larger and larger relative to wages for modest-skilled workers, giving employers a bigger incentive to cut them to part-time. Even if health premiums grow at an average 3.5% annual rate...

House Speaker John Boehner today announced that the House will take votes next week on a one-year delay to both the employer mandate and the individual mandate in the president’s signature health care law. Boehner’s vow was instigated by the Obama administration’s decision last week to postpone implementation of the mandate for businesses. Thursday, the speaker ticked off examples of the types of people who would have to overcome the burden of the mandate – young professionals with student loans, single parents and families – and contrasted their struggle with financial companies, government contractors and big banks who stand to...

O-B-A-M-A-C-A-R-E, the president's signature first-term legislative achievement, may spell another round of political trouble for many Democrats, who have some new explaining to do, thanks to the White House. Whether employers are eagerly sidestepping a key provision for another year (as many learned they would after a concession Tuesday night from President Obama) or House Republicans persist in voting to repeal the whole law (which they’ve done nearly 40 times), it’s clear the Affordable Care Act continues to exist under a cloud more than two years after its enactment. “This is a setback for the administration and for Democrats,” Jim...

ST. LOUIS — With drugs needed for lethal injection in short supply and courts wrangling over how to execute prisoners without them, Missouri's attorney general is floating one possible solution: Bring back the gas chamber. In court filings and interviews this week, Attorney General Chris Koster noted that Missouri statutes allow two options for executions: lethal injection and death by gas. Koster's comments come amid his growing frustration over the Missouri Supreme Court's refusal to set execution dates until lethal injection issues are resolved. "The Missouri death penalty statute has been, in my opinion, unnecessarily entangled in the courts for...

GOP gloats over Obamacare delay By: Jason Millman July 2, 2013 08:31 PM EDT Obamacare opponents on Tuesday had a “We told you so” moment. As the Obama administration announced a one-year delay in the employer mandate, leading Republican lawmakers and political strategists painted the decision as an admission of the law’s failures – and a blatant attempt to shield Democrats during the 2014 elections. “Delaying the employer mandate is a clear admission by the Administration that the health care law is unaffordable, unworkable and unpopular,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said in a statement. “It’s also a cynical political ploy...

On Tuesday, I offered my opening thoughts about the surprise decision by the Obama administration to delay a central element of Obamacare that requires employers to provide insurance the federal government deems acceptable or pay penalties. Over at Cato, Michael Cannon argues that the delay in the employer mandate necessitates a delay in the rest of the law, because of the way it interacts with another core provision. One of the main ways that President Obama’s health care law plans to expand insurance coverage is by offering subsidies for individuals to purchase insurance on government-run exchanges. There are a number...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Physicians could face dramatic financial challenges for treating patients who receive health coverage through the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) exchanges starting next year. Insurance companies will not process claims on patients who haven't paid their premiums in 3 months, leaving doctors on the hook to recoup payment directly from the patients. The ACA provides a 3-month grace period to individuals who haven't paid their premiums, and the provision could prove problematic for physicians, said Elizabeth McNeil, vice president of federal government relations at the California Medical Association (CMA) in Sacramento. Plans will hold off on processing claims...

Asked by Politico’s Roger Simon whether President Obama has the authority to delay the election, White House spokesman Jay Carney said, “I don’t know.” The correct answer is no, as a matter of law and good sense. … In 2004, the Congressional Research Service published a paper examining the possibility of postponing elections. It turns out that various allowances can be made to states in the event of emergencies or disputes to hash out the results of a Presidential election, at least in time for the Electoral College to meet in December. But the CRS paper is unequivocal on one...

The Associated Press WASHINGTON — The presidential election is Nov. 6, but it could take days to figure out the winner if the vote is close. New voting laws are likely to increase the number of people who have to cast provisional ballots in key states. Tight races for Congress, governor and local offices also could be stuck in limbo while election officials scrutinize ballots, a scenario that would surely attract legions of campaign lawyers from both parties. "It's a possibility of a complete meltdown for the election," said Daniel Smith, a political scientist at the University of Florida. Voters...

CHICAGO, July 26, 2012, (Operation Rescue)—New documents released in the Tonya Reaves tragedy reveal a timeline leading to her death that clearly shows Planned Parenthood delayed summoning emergency care for the dying woman for five-and-a-half hours after a severely botched abortion. At 11:00 a.m. on Friday, Reaves received a second-trimester dilation and evacuation (D&E) abortion at Planned Parenthood, located at 18 S. Michigan Ave. in Chicago. After the abortion, Reaves suffered bleeding. The bleeding continued at Planned Parenthood for five-and-a-half hours before a Fire Department ambulance finally took her to Northwestern Memorial Hospital at 4:30 p.m. according to a report...

A cat escape caused a four-hour delay for an Air Canada flight Thursday as airline staff in Halifax struggled to get the feline from its hiding place in cockpit wiring. (Jan. 27) [Associated Press]

LONDON (Reuters) - A weaker sun over the next 90 years is not likely to significantly delay a rise in global temperature caused by greenhouse gases, a report said Monday. The study, by Britain's Meteorological Office and the university of Reading, found that the Sun's output would decrease up until 2100 but this would only lead to a fall in global temperatures of 0.08 degrees Celsius. Scientists have warned that more extreme weather is likely across the globe this century as the Earth's climate warms. The world is expected to heat up by over 2 degrees Celsius this century due...

The White House is delaying for one week the release of President Obama's budget for the 2013 fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, a decision that administration officials say was based on "the need to finalize decisions and technical details" but which Republicans say is a direct violation of law. "This will mark the third time in four years the president has missed his statutory requirement to present a budget on time, while trillion-dollar budget deficits continue to mount. As the president announces another missed deadline, tomorrow marks the 1,000th day Senate Democrats have gone without any budget at all,"...

Obama delays budget for 2013 By Erik Wasson - 01/23/12 02:08 PM ET President Obama will release his 2013 budget one week late, an administration official said Monday, the third time the administration has missed the legal deadline. Under the law, the budget is to be released on the first Monday in February, but the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will be releasing the 2013 budget on Feb. 13. The Obama administration also delayed the release of the budget last year, waiting until Feb. 14. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said the delay is symptomatic of a...

MADISON, Wis. -- Wisconsin residents have overwhelmed the state Justice Department with so many concealed weapon permit applications agency officials say they probably won't meet deadlines for issuing approvals this month despite pulling dozens of employees from other tasks to help.

The inevitable appears about to take place: The Obama administration is said to be considering a manoeuvre that would save it from having to render a decision on the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Alberta until after the presidential election next year. The [external] Los Angeles Times reports: The Obama administration is considering a move that could delay a decision on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline by requiring sponsors to reduce the project’s environmental risks before it can be approved, according to people with knowledge of the deliberations. The step might put off a decision until after the 2012 election...

A top Palestinian official said Wednesday that President Mahmoud Abbas would accept no political delays on his bid for membership in the United Nations, rejecting mounting pressure from the United States and France to first return to negotiations with Israel. The Palestinians plan to submit their letter of application on Friday when Abbas is to speak to the U.N. General Assembly, but he faced a withering lack of support as the world body opened its annual meeting. President Barack Obama said there could be no "shortcuts" in the quest for Middle East peace, a message that was echoed by French...

President Barack Obama and other administration officials are considering releasing a photo of Osama bin Laden's corpse on Tuesday, according to a report. Also being considered for release are videos from "helmet cams" of the Navy SEALS elite team that carried out the operation in a town just north of Islamabad, Pakistan, ABC News reported. The troops captured the mission on tape wearing the helmet cameras. "We are looking at releasing additional information, details about the raid as well as any other types of material, possibly including photos. We want to understand exactly what the possible reaction might be to...