Archives for September 2012

A few years ago, Congress passed a series of amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).  The goal was to enhance efforts to spy on foreign terrorists as they plotted against our country on foreign soil – especially in light of immense technological advances since the original FISA was passed in 1978.  Now those enhancements are up for renewal in Congress.  California Rep. Dan Lungren serves on the Judiciary Committee and is a string supporter of renewing the provisions.  He says the amendments to FISA have been critical in gathering and analyzing intelligence that protects our nation and smokes out our enemies.  Lungren insists the laws do not infringe on the rights of Americans or anyone on American soil.  He expects some resistance in Congress but believes the provisions will be renewed.  Lungren adds that the recent attacks on Americans in Libya and Egypt demonstrate the need to retain the best possible intelligence tools.

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Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review are appalled by the deadly attacks by radical Muslims in Libya and the assault on our embassy in Egypt.  They are also disgusted by the weak U.S. response to the mobs.  And they unload on the media for their stupid questions to Mitt Romney in the wake of horrific violence.

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In the wake of the 9-11 attacks, the flaws in our intelligence system were greatly scrutinized.  Former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra says our intelligence is far better and America much safer thanks to the renewed focus on human intelligence and not just a reliance on superior technology.  Hoekstra also details the ongoing challenge of protecting our nation from radical threats within our borders.  Hoekstra is also the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan against incumbent Democrat Debbie Stabenow.  He discusses the intensifying fight over big looming cuts to defense and intelligence spending and what national security issues would have his attention if elected.

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Last year, the bipartisan debt ceiling agreement called for a so-called super committee to find trillions in spending cuts to help offset a hike in deficit spending in the present.  The super committee went about its work, knowing that if it failed to reach a consensus, huge automatic spending cuts would be inflicted upon defense and Medicare spending in 2013.  Of course, the committee failed, and now those massive cuts are looming.

House Republicans are now trying to reverse the sequestration cuts to defense spending and apply the cuts to other domestic programs, including the food stamp program.

Louisiana Rep. John Fleming is a member of the House Armed Services Committee.  He strongly opposed last summer’s debt ceiling deal over the damage sequestration could do to the military and because he was not interested in giving the green light to huge annual deficits.  He says Speaker John Boehner and other Republicans were naive to trust President Obama and the Democrats in agreeing to the super committee and in putting half a trillion dollars in defense spending on the line in addition to another $500 billion already cut from the national security budget over the next decade.

Fleming says the cuts would reduce our Navy to capacity we had back in 1915.  He says other branches would be at their weakest since before World War II.  Fleming is also a doctor, and he explains how the Medicare cuts will impact doctors and other service providers.  He says that preserves benefits for Medicare patients but that won’t help much when providers refuse to see them because they aren’t being reimbursed for the care they provide.

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Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review are glad to see polls of likely voters tightening again.  They also sigh as Mitt Romney gets a bit squishy on Obamacare.  They share their thoughts on news President Obama is not present most of the time for the daily intelligence briefings.  And they reflect on the 11 years since 9-11.

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Earlier this summer, President Obama quietly signed an executive order waiving the work requirements from the 1996 Welfare Reform Act.  Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney quickly launched television ads slamming Obama for gutting a successful program.  Obama, a number of “fact check” organizations and now President Clinton are slamming Romney for badly misleading the public on what the Obama administration did.

So who is right?

Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation wrote the work requirements for the 1996 legislation.  He says Obama is blatantly breaking the law because the law explicitly states that no president could change the work requirements, since those were the heart and soul of the reforms.

Last week, former President Clinton told the Democratic National Convention that the changes made by Obama came at the request of Republican governors and actually required more work.  Rector takes dead aim at both contentions.  First, he says no Republican governor asked for the waiver.  It was actually a career welfare bureaucrat in Nevada.

Rector also says the increased employment referenced by Clinton is a joke.  He says the percentages involved would easily be achieved through cleaning up the welfare rolls.  In the meantime, the other 98 percent of able-bodied adults on welfare would have no work requirements – just as it was before the reforms from 1996.

Rector says Clinton’s defense of Obama on welfare is the equivalent of a snake oil salesman for welfare and is nothing more than a sham.  He also points out that Clinton vetoed welfare reform twice and was urged to veto it a third time but relented out of fear of losing to Bob Dole.  And Rector notes that the liberal wing of the Democratic Party strenuously opposed welfare reform in the 1990s and have fought to reverse the work requirements ever since.

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Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review believe the outrageous demands of the Chicago teachers unions could be a good issue for Mitt Romney.  They also cringe as Obama gets a small convention bounce and a five point lead.  And they try to make sense of Joe Biden’s encounter with a female biker in Ohio.

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John Gizzi of Human Events is back from both political conventions.  He reports that the race was a dead heat before the conventions and says it probably still is.  Gizzi tells us why Democrats love Bill Clinton quite a bit more than Barack Obama and whether Clinton’s well-regarded speech will actually make much of a difference in November.  Gizzi also examines the impact of another lackluster jobs report coming one day after Obama’s speech.

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Medicare is becoming a major issue in the 2012 campaign as Republicans accuse President Obama of raiding the entitlement program to pay for Obamacare.  Democrats claim the changes have strengthened Medicare.  Meanwhile, the Capitol Steps are examining another way to lower the cost of care late in life.

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Greg Corombos of Radio America and Charles Cooke of National Review Online are pleasantly shocked at how unimpressive President Obama’s speech was Thursday night.  They also shudder at another terrible jobs report.  And they shake their heads as reporters are encouraged to donate to Obama using fake names at the Democratic convention.

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