Free Republic

Andrew Slavitt, a former executive at the technology company tasked with saving HealthCare.gov and current second-in-command at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, was granted an ethics waiver by the Department of Health and Human Services to begin working with his former company immediately.The waiver was granted despite Republican lawmakers’ concerns about Slavitt’s potential conflict of interest. The Daily Signal revealed those concerns in a story yesterday.Slavitt, a former OptumInsight/QSSI group vice president, left the company last month to work as the principal deputy administrator at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which runs Obamacare and HealthCare.gov. His...

t they do best: Go on strike. By 1988, the company had lost a number of high-dollar contracts, and the end of their beginning was clearly at hand. In the decade to follow, their competitors warmly embraced America’s newfound fascination with the civilian market, concealed carry, and home defense. Colt, on the other hand, decided to take a more pragmatic approach. And, by “pragmatic”, I mean “liberal” approach: A wealthy industrialist, from the heart of a non-gun-owning Manhattan family, decided he could steer the company to better times. With a man who knew nothing about guns at the helm, Colt...

I thought TARP was the sleaziest-ever example of cronyism and corruption in Washington. The Wall Street bailout rewarded politically well-connected companies, encouraged moral hazard, and ripped off taxpayers. Heck, it was so bad that it makes the sleaze at the Export-Import Bank seem almost angelic by comparison. But I may have to reassess my views. One of the provisions of Obamacare allows the White House to give bailouts to big health insurance companies. You’re probably wondering why these big firms would need bailouts. After all, didn’t Obamacare coerce millions of people into becoming involuntary customers of these companies? That should...

The U.S. government has created a widely popular song about the "death train" to discourage Central Americans from risking their lives in pursuit of the amnesty that they believe awaits them across the U.S.-Mexico border. The Daily Beast reported that "La Bestia" is a hit song in Central America that is a part of America's propaganda campaign to let Central Americans know about the dangers of the "death train," which is also called "the beast." “Migrants from everywhere, entrenched along the rail ties. Far away from where they come, further away from where they go,” the song informs Central American...

n December 2013 Ukrainians rose up against the government of Viktor Yanukovych, who had won the 2010 presidential elections. Since he fled Kyiv last February journalists and pundits form the West have declared the Ukrainian revolution to be a geopolitical revolution or a pro-EU revolution; while propaganda from Moscow tries to paint the Ukrainian revolution as a fascist putsch. They are all wrong! The spark that lit the Ukrainian revolution was Yanukovych’s rejection of a trade pact with the European Union, yet the reason for the revolution was the population’s despair with the most omnipresent, all-encompassing and brutal system of...

Sen. Mark Kirk’s (R-Ill.) office said the centrist senator has no plans to co-sponsor bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank. The move comes after Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced Senate Democrats would organize a vote on reauthorizing Ex-Im, a top priority for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups, soon after the July 4 recess. Schumer’s move highlights how renewing the Export-Import Bank is becoming more of a partisan issue. Republicans are divided over renewing Ex-Im, with Tea Party conservatives arguing the bank’s financing of loans and loan guarantees is a form of crony capitalism best left...

A handful of former EU officials and an outgoing top MEP have landed jobs in industry sectors that they legislated on. The cases highlight what pro-transparency experts describe as a “revolving door” where policymakers are hired to work for private companies with a vested interest in EU-level legislation.Last October, two consultancy firms hired João Pacheco. Pacheco was at that time the European Commission’s deputy director of agriculture. Today, he is the director for European markets AFJ and associates in the US. He is also president at the Brussels-based JSPacheco-International consultancy firm. …

CLINTON CAN’T STOP GAFFES ON CRONY CAPITALISM Can Hillary Clinton, who says she and her husband went on from being “dead broke” in 2001 to rake in an estimated $155 million, run for president as the nominee of a party that is obsessed with income inequality? No problem, she told The Guardian, because the Clintons pay their taxes. The Democratic 2016 frontrunner dismissed the idea that voters would see a corporate-connected candidate with a nine-digit income in the past decade as part of the problem: “‘But they don't see me as part of the problem,’ she protests, ‘because we pay...

WASHINGTON — Prosecutors are gathering evidence for a grand-jury probe into whether congressional staff helped tip Wall Street traders to a change in health-care policy, an indication the long-running investigation has entered a more serious phase. Public documents show federal law-enforcement officials and the Securities and Exchange Commission are seeking records and other evidence from the House Ways and Means Committee and a top congressional health-care aide, Brian Sutter, staff director of the Ways and Means Committee’s health-care subpanel. The probe was sparked by a 2013 Wall Street Journal report that detailed how health-insurance stocks jumped moments before the government...

There’s only “one member of the Republican Party” holding up reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, according to Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer: Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas. “I don’t think there’s any doubt [he's] the one holding it up,” the Maryland Democrat told reporters at his weekly press briefing Tuesday morning. “It’s not an impression. It’s a fact.” Hoyer went on to say that House GOP leaders, particularly outgoing Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, want to reauthorize the institution designed to help U.S. companies finance goods for sale overseas. The two lawmakers actually worked closely together at the...

Energy: As a big Dem donor talks of pipeline terrorism, new federal reports warn that killing Keystone XL will overburden rail transport of oil and result in more frequent and deadlier environmental disasters. Environmentalists who claim that the Keystone pipeline from Canada represents an unprecedented environmental threat ignore that the pipeline would pose no greater danger than the more than 50,000 existing miles of safely operating pipeline already crisscrossing the U.S. They also ignore the very real and growing environmental danger in the only viable alternate for transporting oil — by rail. Keystone would not only carry oil from Canada...

Joe Weisenthal June 9, 2014 Goldman's top economist, Jan Hatzius, just said the words we've been wanting to hear for five years. He believes the economy is now growing at an above-trend pace. Goldman's own proprietary current activity indicator (CAI) is showing its fastest growth since the crisis, and though he acknowledges that some of the strong May activity is the result of a snapback from a tough winter, he says that even without that snapback we're still growing at a strong rate. Here's his statement: Despite the 1% drop in real GDP in the first quarter, we believe that...

Are on the way. . . . It is major news that the European Central Bank has instituted negative interest rates for member banks. This could soon spread to the US and also to consumer accounts. If so, you would find money taken out of your bank account each quarter unless you spend it. The idea is that if low rates are not yet persuading you to spend, then why not punish you even more for saving. To make this more effective, there would also be a push for all electronic money, to keep you from stashing any away...

Pastor Joel Osteen is open about his disapproval of gay marriage, but he does not want his opinion to define his whole ministry. During a talk with Osteen and his wife Victoria, HuffPost Live’s Marc Lamont Hill asked him if gay marriage goes against the rules of Christianity.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) -- About four years ago, the Google team trying to develop cars driven by computers - not people - concluded that sooner than later, the technology would be ready for the masses. There was one big problem: No state had even considered whether driverless cars should be legal. And yet this week, Google said it wants to give Californians access to a small fleet of prototypes it will make without a steering wheel or pedals. The plan is possible because, by this time next year, driverless cars will be legal in the tech giant's home state.

Gummit don't work good. That conclusion, often that inelegantly expressed, seems to be more and more common, not only in the United States but around the world. It is certainly the verdict of John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge in their new book "The Fourth Revolution: The Global Race to Reinvent the State," although expressed, as you might expect from the editor and business editor of the Economist, in far more urbane language. Their thesis is that the state has been reinvented three times in the last 400 years, and needs reinvention once more. The first revolution they name after Thomas...

An environmental advocacy group backed by hedge fund tycoon Tom Steyer is set to unleash a seven-state, $100 million offensive against Republican "science deniers" this year, a no-holds-barred campaign-style push from the green billionaire that could help decide which party controls the Senate and key statehouses come November. The Steyer-backed outside group, NextGen Climate, has billed itself as a progressive, pro-environment counterbalance to the wealthy oil and gas industry -- as well as the primary foil to the pro-business Koch brothers and their well-funded conservative donor network. The outfit, launched last year by the San Francisco billionaire, has already pledged...

Anyone out there still believe that the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) has anything to do with improving health care, or making it affordable? The original claim was that ACA was all about getting those poor uninsured people insured. As I have stated many times, had they done this, it would have been admirable, and would have had my support. Except, that was never the goal, and besides, they were far too stupid to accomplish that anyway. Instead, the ACA has become a massive crony capitalism boondoggle whose only beneficiaries are the usual suspect health care parasites—in this case largely health...

It’s bad enough that American taxpayers have been repeatedly fleeced by President Obama’s many failed “green” projects, now the commander-in-chief is dedicating an extra $2 billion—on top of $2 billion already dispersed in 2011—to make federal buildings in the United States energy efficient. It’s a necessary expense to protect the planet, according to the global warming movement spearheaded—and largely funded—by the U.S. government and much of the international community. This particular investment will cut carbon pollution by more than 380 million metric tons, according to a White House announcement. That’s equivalent to removing 80 million cars from roads for a...

Hunter Biden, the younger son of Vice President Joe Biden, will be joining Ukraine’s largest private gas producer, the company announced in a statement. “The company’s strategy is aimed at the strongest concentration of professional staff and the introduction of best corporate practices, and we’re delighted that Mr. Biden is joining us to help us achieve these goals,” Alan Apter, Burisma Holdings’ chairman of the board of directors, said in a statement, which was reported by The Moscow Times on Tuesday. Biden, joining the board, will be in charge of the legal unit, the company said and will provide support...