Posted on 05/07/2015 6:44:28 PM PDT by WXRGina
If you live in a state like South Dakota, you’ve become used to “Republicans” selling out the Constitution, the rule of law, and the American people on ObamaCare.
We’ve seen our former governor and newly minted U.S. Senator RINO Mike Rounds, our current governor RINO Dennis Daugaard, and a host of other “Republican” leaders in state government sell us out on ObamaCare.
And we’ve seen “Republicans” in Washington D.C. sell us out on ObamaCare, with one of the biggest surrenders a couple of years ago when they had a chance to defund this unconstitutional monstrosity before it ever got rolling.
Now National Review reports our elected representatives in Washington–and not just the usual Democrat suspects–selling out the taxpayer on illegal ObamaCare subsidies to give themselves taxpayer-funded subsidies they aren’t lawfully entitled to.
The rumors began trickling in about a week before the scheduled vote on April 23: Republican leadership was quietly pushing senators to pull support for subpoenaing Congress’s fraudulent application to the District of Columbia’s health exchange — the document that facilitated Congress’s “exemption” from Obamacare by allowing lawmakers and staffers to keep their employer subsidies.
The application said Congress employed just 45 people. Names were faked; one employee was listed as “First Last,” another simply as “Congress.” To Small Business Committee chairman David Vitter, who has fought for years against the Obamacare exemption, it was clear that someone in Congress had falsified the document in order to make lawmakers and their staff eligible for taxpayer subsidies provided under the exchange for small-business employees.
You might be surprised at one of the people who has been standing in the way of getting to the bottom of this lawless betrayal of the taxpayers:
though it seems an issue tailor-made for the tea-party star and Republican presidential candidate, Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.) refused to lend his support. And when the Louisiana senator set a public vote for April 23, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his allies got involved.
“For whatever reason, leadership decided they wanted that vote to be 5–5, all Republicans, to give Senator Paul cover,” one high-ranking committee staffer tells National Review. “So they worked at a member level to change the votes of otherwise supportive senators.” Four Republicans — senators Mike Enzi, James Risch, Kelly Ayotte, and Deb Fischer — had promised to support Vitter, but that would soon change.
Senate staffers, according to a top committee aide, reported seeing Missouri senator Roy Blunt make calls to at least two Republican committee members, lobbying them, at McConnell’s behest, to vote no on subpoenaing the exchange. By the time the committee was called to quorum, Enzi, Risch, Ayotte, and Fischer voted no.
“We deserve to know who signed that application, because they are robbing taxpayers,” said Michael Cannon, Director of health-policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute.
No kidding. These fatcats work for us, the American taxpayer…or they used to, under the U.S. Constitution. But I suppose it was just too much of a hardship for these Washingtonians to shell out the cash (we’re talking about taxpayer-funded subsidies of between $5,000 and $10,000 per person) that average hard-working Americans have to come up with for themselves. But with government workers already outpacing private sector salaries, why should we start expecting government employees to stop padding themselves (at taxpayer expense) now?
It appears Rand Paul has gotten more than a little too cozy with his fellow Kentucky senator RINO Mitch McConnell. A man who once seemed to be a real conservative, his behavior over the past couple of years has looked more like a RINO than a real Republican. Fallen in with a bad crowd? Sure looks like it.
So exactly what sort of exception or loophole did these scoundrels exploit?
The White House scrambled to find a way to allow congressional employees to keep those subsidies. In Washington, D.C., only the small-business exchange allowed them to do so. After secret meetings with House speaker John Boehner in 2013, President Obama instructed the Office of Personnel Management to allow Congress to file for classification as a small business, despite the fact that the law defines a small business as having no more than 50 employees and the House and Senate together employ tens of thousands.
I know. It’s hard to believe that a dedicated, selfless hardcore conservative like John Boehner would join with Barack Obama and other liberals to sell out the taxpayer and the rule of law this way (sorry, had to go puke after using the word “conservative” in conjunction with the name “John Boeher”, I’m okay now), but it’s true.
These guys actually have the audacity to claim that a workforce of 2 million (that’s about how many people work for the federal government) qualifies as a “small business.” I wonder if they’d allow a free market business with 75 employees to claim that 25 of them actually work for another company, so they don’t have to play by the same rules imposed on everybody else.
When will the American people wake up and stop empowering these liberal enemies of the American people–regardless of the letter after their name–to sell out their freedoms and their prosperity? Obviously it didn’t happen last year; too many conservatives were too desperate to elect “anything but a Democrat” to congress based on the lies from these fake Republicans that they would, contrary to their records, actually behave like Republicans if we sent them to Washington.
America is about done for, thanks to liberals from both parties, and American voters who are too naive or too lazy to insist on better than absolute crap-candidates. It may be too late to avert this impending national train wreck, but if it isn’t, will this kind of duplicity finally be enough to fire up Americans enough to get them to throw these self-centered nest-featherers out?
I like this scandal. Watergate began as small news item in the back pages. This illegality could put Mitch “Benedict Arnold” McConnell in jeopardy. It couldn’t happen to a better RINO political hack. Mark Levin speculated today that McConnell has his fingerprints all over this.
How Five Republicans Let Congress Keep Its Fraudulent Obamacare Subsidies
[snip] Rand Paul (R., Ky.) refused to lend his support... “For whatever reason, leadership decided they wanted that vote to be 5-5, all Republicans, to give Senator Paul cover,” one high-ranking committee staffer tells National Review. [/snip]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3287442/posts
Because an Obama or a Hillary is way more preferable - credibility problems aren’t a rare thing here.
The “Dakotas” have a history of minting and sending Spineless PRICKS to DC.
Well then perhaps you’d care to explain the practical differences Of a Democrat liberal legislating communism and destroying America and Republican Liberals legislating communism and destroying America through their capitulation.
Barack Obama could have done NOTHING without all the love and political support of the GOP. FR is a daily chronicle of Republican capitulation. They never say no and the article here have shown over and over how they tell and promise one thing to America and give another to Barry.
So please don’t insult anyone’s intelligence with the disproven “Barry is worse” meme because without GOP support he’s nothing. A spoiled child can’t be a little tyrant without the parents empowering their every whim.
Ever notice how some folks here have only the negatives to offer? An article claims that young people aere likley to renounce/oppose the Dems in 2016 and hte comment is something to the effect of, "Too bad they won't be going anyplace better". Or how, their assessment of any small victory is that it won't make any difference anyway". Kind of like finding a glass that's approaching half-full status and knocking it over so they can deem it just plain empty.
I guess it's a good thing we didn't have WWII commanders like such folks. Most of the soldiers would have eaten their guns after the "pep talks" prior to some pivotal and gruesome battles. "Men, we've been tasked with taking that patch of ground because it will deprive the enemy of a base and it will increase our own base for future victories. Oh hell, what am I talking about? The fact of the matter is that we've lost a lot of battles here and there, lost a lot of good men, and nothing has really changed. Taking this piece of land will be horribly tough and we will lose many of you to enemy fire because they fight really hard. Even if we win, we will lose o lot of you and it won't make any difference in the big picture anyway. If any of you wish to opt out, now's the time - we're all tired and I repeat, it will not make a damn bit of difference.
It seems that most of their input is designed to discourage, dishearten, and demoralize our side of the aisle and that folks from the other side of the aisle that may be lurking around have to get some warm tingly feeling when they read them.
The real iron is, that if they had been around during WWII and had the opportunity, they wouldn't have hesitated to take out Tokyo Rose (if they hadn't already declared the whole shebang a loss and become her cohorts).
If you're too tired and discouraged to fight a long and protracted battle, stop cutting down the efforts of those who would at least make an effort, and get the hell off the field - it's probably the most useful you can be.
Enlighten me as to any inaccuracies in my comment. Or are you of the belief that blowing smoke up our own hindquarters about the GOP and it’s negative impact on America through continued liberalism is our path to political salvation?
I am constantly amazed at how people consistently choose to pretend the ‘elephant’ in the room is something other than what it is. Do you believe that by moving away from one group of destructive politicians/philosophy and into the control of their ideological equals is in some manner a good thing? Do you feel that by pretending the GOP brand of liberalism is superior to the Democrat brand and therefore should be embraced by the millenials? Do you feel that ‘happy happy, Joy Joy” talk is what we need more of instead of recognizing issues for what they are?
Granted that some victories will have zero to minimal effect. The thing is that if you add enough of them together, you get a beginning of a positive effect. If you just decide it isn't worth it, you sign off on America's death warrant. It took the Dims over 60 years of concerted and relentless effort to get where they are - it will take a long time to get the tide moving back in a meaningful way.
I'm donating time and money to Cruz - I also realize, that with the current mix in the Senate and House, even he will be facing a lot of barriers and a uphill battle - probably won't achieve as much as we would hope unless he goes a bit lawless too. Many will be disappointed - that doesn't mean he's not worth supporting and fighting for.
I am fully aware of the issues and the current situation and the infidelity/treason of "our own Party", and all that it means - I refuse to discourage those who may have their eyes open enough to be gearing up for a long fight with small advances.
I'll leave you alone now.
No, it’s designed to make folks WAKE UP. If you think we are ever going to move in a positive direction by ignoring the problems, that’s not ever going to happen.
If you accept that what I say is true then it makes little sense to acknowledge a truth and then pretend it doesn’t exist so that everyone can just carry on repeating the same insanity and then crying their eyes out when they learn actions have consequences.
Is there a solution in there? Let's say we're aware of the problem, but our options aren't what we would hope for - do we just concede another round? What do you think would be useful towards getting on the right track. Something that we the people/voters can do because we can't count on the establishment to change all on its own.
I've suggested that we invest time and money to support the best candidates we can find - even "meddling" in other State elections for Senate/Congress with more time and money. I believe we can start to change things a candidate at a time, but only if we can actually pull together by devising individual battle plans and uniting to make it happen.
It will take positive leadership and active followership vs. just pointing out every ill at every chance. Does a person in the ghetto get out by waking up every day and enumerating everything that sucks about the situation or would he get out faster if he were to have a plan to get some education and put up a concerted effort to do positive things instead of wallowing in the muck?
I'm aware of how bad things are, and how they got there. If I were to wake up every morning and rehash the list, I wouldn't find much to live or hope for. I choose to look for possibilities. Else, i become a part of the problem and it has over a 100 million parts already.
Al;ways happy to hear someone else's idea of what might work.
The solutions are in pretty much all my posts. All I’m doing is repeating what conservatives used to believe. Stop the stupidity of voting in and supporting ANY people that are liberals. Voting in, supporting, empowering...anything that puts evil people in powerful places. People that aren’t ‘there’ can’t be liberal ‘there’.
Conservatives have become like spoiled children lacking any sense of strategy or any bigger picture beyond the one immediately in front of their face. They ‘feel’ that electing a Romney is always the correct solution over an Obama when both are fundamentally the same guy as shown by their records. You can use Mitch or Jonbon or any of the other RINOS instead of Romney as well. WE tried and tried to tell people what would happen because their records and their associations clearly showed what would happen. Worse yet, Mitch and Jonbon outright told people what they intended and people reelected them anyway...now they cry the blues and bemoan the fact that they got what they demanded. The heart bleeds. Woe are they.
None of this is rocket surgery. Play stupid games, you’re gonna win stupid prizes. And the stupid games when a pol stands there and says “I’ll govern like a liberal” and someone says NuH UNH!!!!, stomps their widdle feetses and votes for them are the problem.
Stop doing that. Some of us don’t think seeing that requires standing on the shoulders of giants. Just as it is pretty obvious that we aren’t going to ‘win’ every election every time even when we do all the right things. It’s obvious that one has to accept responsibility for what they do and what they caused before we can collectively can move to correct what they caused, lest we repeat the mistake.
When a child screws up, the first thing a parent does is tell them what they did wrong and why. Because many conservatives behave politically and vote like children, they need to be told what they did wrong and why, otherwise they bull onward defending their poor choices, repeating them, ensnaring more people in their destructive patterns and compounding the problems they created.
No one appointed me hall monitor but since no one else/few others are willing to say it and go to the wall over it, I do. Because it needs to be done.
Solutions:
BELIEVE IN SOMETHING AND KNOW WHY.
Be willing to stand behind your beliefs and not compromise your way into liberalism just to say ‘WE WON!” because we all live in the result of conservatives and other right wing voters doing that.
Don’t vote for liberals. Ever. Especially Republican Liberals. There is no such thing as lesser evil. Learn it, live it, love it.
Get behind the pol you strongly agree with and don’t hedge bets like this was a TV poker tournament. If there is no pol running you strongly agree with, write one in you do. See “Believe in something and stand behind it” above.
Stop trying to out-unicorn unicorns with magical thinking about holding feet to the fire. No one ever does because after we vote, we are all but powerless to alter our initial decision.
Stop handing 3 figures a month to the propaganda divisions of Team Democrat known as Dish/Cable. Use the money to better educate yourself and/or support a candidate that supports constitutional values. Get a hobby to fill your idle hours. You’ll live, I swear.
Stop denying reality. Facts are easy to determine in most cases. Magical thinking and rationalizing why facts are something other than facts is what liberals do.
Learn the definition and possible usages of the word ‘No”.
Employ them without fear or regret.
Do not fear the word ‘Purist”. the opposite of purity is corruption. Pick one and go with it.
Stop pretending that men running to known liberal groups for large swaths of funding are conservatives or will govern as conservatives. Donations are vote buying. Accept it.
Stop pretending that peoples ‘in office’ records or out of office decisions/actions have no bearing on what they will do tomorrow. 180 degree turns on core issues are a 100% accurate predictor a pol will turn on you when the price is right to do so.
Stop providing aid, comfort and outlets for people that deny any of the above. They are not conservatives. Everything above used to be a foregone conclusion. It’s all Conservatism 101 stuff. Has been forever. The problems began when we ignored it.
” When a child screws up, the first thing a parent does is tell them what they did wrong and why. Because many conservatives behave politically and vote like children, they need to be told what they did wrong and why, otherwise they bull onward defending their poor choices, repeating them, ensnaring more people in their destructive patterns and compounding the problems they created.”
Rough definition of insanity.
” Stop trying to out-unicorn unicorns with magical thinking about holding feet to the fire. No one ever does because after we vote, we are all but powerless to alter our initial decision.”
Goood....”after the fact” is meaningless!
” Do not fear the word ‘Purist”. the opposite of purity is corruption. Pick one and go with it.”
This is doubtless one of the DUMBEST “copouts” liberal Republicans try to use as a weapon to silence conservative FReepers. Another one I hate as much is trashing Reagan to make their favorite candidate look good. True slimeball move, and intellectually contemptible.
“Stop providing aid, comfort and outlets for people that deny any of the above. They are not conservatives. Everything above used to be a foregone conclusion. It’s all Conservatism 101 stuff. Has been forever. The problems began when we ignored it.”
Great post, Norm.
Over the past 6 years, many of us have torn this issue apart 6 ways to Wednesday. Not one excuse that the lesser evils invent has ever withstood even the most casual scrutiny and yet they just repeat the same stupidZ over and over and over.
Sure, occasionally one of the duller ones gets a flash of brilliance and posts a pic of Yosemitie Sam on a dragon. I get that. Yosemitie Sam on a dragon stands as a big stumbling block for us I admit, (I mean that is some hardcore stuff right there!) but we manage to overcome even that ‘big gun’ of the lesser evil philosophy.
Maybe someday people will understand for themselves why I am convinced that 60% of America is clinically insane.
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