Archives for November 2011

On Tuesday, the Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Health voted along party lines to repeal the CLASS Act – a long-term insurance program that even the Obama administration admits is fiscally unsustainable and will not enact.  So why did this program implode before it even started?  Why are Democrats still defending it?  What changes need to be made to long-term insurance?  And what does scrapping CLASS do to the bottom line of Obamacare?  We discuss it all with Texas Rep. Michael Burgess, a member of the subcommittee.

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Greg Corombos of Radio America and Daniel Foster of National Review Online differ over whether the eviction of ‘Occupy’ protesters in three American cities is a good thing.  They also marvel as a New York judge overrules the city and the park owners by allowing the demonstrators to return.  And they sigh as Herman Cain offers another rocky response to a question on foreign policy.

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On Monday, the Supreme Court announced it would hear arguments on whether the individual mandate in the president’s health care plan is constitutional.  It will also hear an unprecedented five and a half hours of arguments.  Georgia Rep. Tom Price tells us why he believes the court will overturn the mandate and possibly the entire law.  Why does Price call health care bureaucrats ‘reckless’ for continuing to implement countless new rules while the health care law is litigated throughout the nation?  And what are Republicans ready to do to address health care concerns if the mandate and the rest of the law get struck down by the court?  We discuss it all with Rep. Price.

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In August, government agents raided the Gibson Guitar Corporation on the premise that it was illegally using wood from India.  The Feds said they were enforcing Indian law, but India said Gibson was doing nothing wrong.  So what happened?  Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz says the government reinterprets the laws of other nations and then enforces that different interpretation.  He says that leaves business owners trying to comply with multiple versions of thousands of laws – and that’s how a lobster merchant ended up in prison for eight years for packaging his product in cardboard.  How bewildering is all this for business?  And why is Juszkiewicz aligning himself with the Right on Crime initiative?

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Greg Corombos of Radio America and Daniel Foster of National Review Online are happy that the Supreme Court is finally taking up the individual mandate within Obamacare.  They are disgusted by revelations that members of Congress are growing their personal fortunes based on insider information.  And they shake their heads at how CBS divided time among the candidates at the latest GOP debate.

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As part of the recent debt ceiling agreement, lawmakers agreed that if one chamber approved a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution the other chamber would vote on that same plan.  Next week, House Republicans will bring forth their proposed amendment – the very same amendment that passed the House but fell one vote short in the Senate back in 1995.  So what does this version of the amendment prescribe?  Should conservatives be worried that spending is not tied to a percentage of the economy?  Can this pass?  We ask Virginia Rep. Bob Goodlatte, who is leading the push for the amendment in the House.

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Virginia Rep. Scott Rigell represents southeastern Virginia, one of the heaviest concentrations of military veterans in the country.  How does he describe a district so rich in military involvement and appreciation?  What have he and other generations of his family gained through their time in uniform?  And what does he see as the role of Congress in supporting our active duty forces and veterans?  We discuss it all with Rep. Scott Rigell.

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Retired U.S. Army Brigadier General James “Spider” Marks served this nation in uniform as an Army Ranger for 30 years.  On this Veterans Day, why does he say joining the service was the best decision he ever made?  What are his thoughts on the current generation of service members that he had the opportunity to command?  We ask Gen. Marks, who also tells us about the Call of Duty Endowment – which is designed to help returning war veterans find the job training and placement they need in a tough economy.

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Greg Corombos of Radio America and Dan Foster of National Review Online like that a Balanced Budget Amendment is headed for debate in the House.  They also slam President Obama for delaying the Canadian pipeline project – a no-brainer for job growth.  They have mixed reactions to Rick Perry’s self-effacing response to his debate flub.  And they pay tribute to America’s veterans.

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John Gizzi of Human Events says Mitt Romney looked the most polished and most presidential at Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate.  He also weighs in on the impact of Rick Perry’s brain freeze and whether Herman Cain did a good job of staying on message or was overly tedious.  Gizzi also explains where the increasingly bitter Solyndra investigation seems to be headed, how close Italy is to insolvency and how close Israel is to a preemptive attack on Iran.  And Gizzi offers some final thoughts on the lives of Andy Rooney and Joe Frazier.

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