Archives for September 2013

Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review are pleased to see the New York Times trumpeting more bad news from Obamacare.  This time it’s the revelation that customers will get very few choices for care in exchange for lower premiums.  They also condemn the terrorist attacks in Kenya and Pakistan – and specifically the targeting of Christians by Muslim extremists.  And they slam President Obama for using his eulogy to the Navy Yard victims to push for gun control and claim that if we care enough about the victims then we’ll support his policies.

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House Republicans passed a continuing resolution on Friday that would fund the government at current levels while completely defunding Obamacare.  But Democrats are demanding a ‘clean’ resolution and a hike in the debt ceiling with no strings attached.

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Greg Corombos of Radio America and Kevin Williamson of National Review are impressed by Rep. Trey Gowdy’s grilling of Benghazi investigation co-chairman Adm. Mike Mullen.  They also rip Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu for telling constituents that members of Congress and their staffers are not getting special treatment on Obamacare.  And Kevin offers his very unvarnished assessment of the New York City mayoral race.

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On September 20, 1973, the final U.S. prisoners of war were freed from the infamous Hanoi Hilton in Vietnam.  Four decades later, former POW Orson Swindle shared his memories of his mission gone wrong, surviving captivity, the perseverance of his fellow prisoners and the sweet taste of freedom.

So what comes to mind first for Swindle on this important anniversary?

“Certainly the joy of freedom.  You never know what it is until you’ve lost it and 600-700 of us experienced losing it for a very, very long time,” said Swindle.  “When I hear people bemoaning the difficulties of these times.  They don’t know anything about what difficulties really are.  This group of people overcame obstacles that are somewhat unparalleled in our history.”

Then-U.S. Marine Corps Captain Swindle flew more than 200 sorties against the enemy while flying in a Vought F-8E Crusader.  He was flying his last scheduled mission when he was shot down on November 11, 1966, over Quang Binh Province.

“They had just shot down two Air Force F-4’s on the target area.  As soon as we got there, I was not leading the flight.  I was flying wing on another pilot and we maneuvered to make runs on the target.  He couldn’t see the target, couldn’t find it.  I saw it.  I rolled in on the target, dropped the bombs and pulled off and got hit underneath the aircraft and lost hydraulic controls in the airplane.  It doesn’t fly very well that way,” said Swindle.

“I couldn’t even read my instruments so I have no idea but I can roughly guess (I was) probably about 2,000 feet and going down at a very fast rate.  I had to just get out of the airplane.  There was nothing else do to,” he said.

Once he parachuted to the ground, Swindle was immediately taken into custody by enemy forces.

“I violated one of the cardinal rules of being an attack pilot.  Don’t dare jump out of the airplane over the target you just bombed.  They were just a wee bit angry to say the least.  I was pretty brutally treated, which was commonplace back in those days,” said Swindle.

Swindle says the horrific treatment he received in those first years of captivity was pretty standard for U.S. POW’s.  And he adds the effects of that torture are still felt by the survivors every day.

“Pretty much all of us have very restricted shoulder movement.  Raising our hands above our head is rather difficult.  We suffer a lot of arthritis, mostly skeletal type and nerve-ending damage.  I have spinal stenosis and numbness in my hands and my feet, but all in all I’m probably one of the luckiest people you’ve probably ever talked to,” said Swindle.

Compared to their Vietnam contemporaries who were not prisoners of war and even returning soldiers today, the vast majority of those held in the Hanoi Hilton came home remarkably well-adjusted.  Swindle and many of his fellow prisoners give the credit to Commander James Stockdale for keeping the men organized and hopeful.  Stockdale’s leadership is chronicled in the new book,”Lessons from the Hanoi Hilton: Six Characteristics of High-Performance Teams” by Peter Fretwell and Taylor Baldwin Kiland.  Swindle extolled Stockdale in the book and in our interview.

“Jim Stockdale was just a remarkably intelligent man, but he was a leader who led by total example.  He spoke softly but firmly.  He set the example and he was incredibly courageous.  Just being around him was uplifting,” said Swindle.

“In the book there’s an accounting of my first ‘meeting’ with him and it was whispering under a door to him after he’d been badly tortured.  I told him six years later when we were finally face-to-face, ‘Talking to you that Sunday afternoon a long time ago in the Spring of ’67 probably helped save my life.  You were that much of an inspiration to me and the rest of us.  We just want you to know how much we admire and appreciate what you did for us.  Just a great man and a great friend,” he said.

Stockdale was thrust onto the political stage as Ross Perot’s running mate in 1992.  His performance in the lone vice-presidential debate prompted some to turn Stockdale into something of a punchline.  Swindle was spokesman for the Perot campaign.

“He never should have been in that role.  That was not Jim Stockdale by any stretch of the imagination,” said Swindle.  “He is just an incredible intellect.  In fact, the two people he was engaged in the debate with (Dan Quayle and Al Gore), if you put all their intellect in one container, it would be somewhat like a thimble up against a mountain.  Jim Stockdale was just a brilliant man.  They have no idea the nature of his character, the depths of his belief system, his fortitude.  He never should have been in that environment .  He did it out of friendship to Ross Perot.”

Swindle says the greatest legacy of the prisoners 40 years later is the astounding success they achieved in the military, in public service, in law and business in addition to raising families.  He says the bond is as strong as ever 40 years later.

“They;re dear friends of mine and I have a great love and affection for all of them,” he said.

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Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review are intrigued by a new web video from John Boehner that rips Obama for refusing to negotiate with Republicans on fiscal issues while warmly receiving talks with Vladimir Putin.  They also debate whether conservative lawmakers are wise or foolhardy to insist on defunding Obamacare as part of funding the government after September.  And they react to an unsettling anti-Obamacare ad about the dangers of the government getting involved in health care.

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Conservatives in the House of Representatives are unveiling legislation they plan to push to replace Obamacare and provide real health care affordability and access to the American people.

The plan is titled “The American Health Care Reform Act,” and is the work of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), the 188-member coalition of House conservatives.

“The big problems before Obamacare were that is cost too much and access was limited.  Yet, since Obamacare, those problems are even worse.  Costs are much higher and access is even more limited, ” said RSC Chairman Steve Scalise of Louisiana.  He says the additional problems created by Obamacare, including doctors leaving the profession and Americans losing health plans they like, make it impossible to fix the new laws.

“We actually begin by repealing Obamacare because we do think you need a clean slate if we’re actually going to go and fix problems and then we work on things that get a competitive marketplace, which doesn’t exist today,” he said.

The RSC reform plan starts with removing the barriers to purchasing health insurance across state lines.  It also allows for association health plans, so small businesses can pool together in order to receive better rates often reserved for larger firms.  Individuals could also band together to find better rates.

Tax reform is also a major aspect of the bill, providing assistance for individuals to shop broadly for their coverage.  Scalise says that option could save a lot of people a lot of money.

“One of the problems right now with buying your own health care, if you find a health plan that’s better than your employer’s care, your employer is able to deduct the cost of health care.  But you as an individual can’t deduct that same plan if you buy it on your own.  It makes health care much more expensive if you go outside your traditional employer model,” said Scalise.  “So by equalizing that and allowing individuals to have the same ability to deduct health care that companies enjoy, you actually lower costs and can give families more options than they have today.”

Other features include medical malpractice reform, expansion of Health Savings Accounts, provisions to help patients with pre-existing conditions and an end to taxpayer dollars being used to pay for abortions.

So why are House conservatives bringing forth this plan now as opposed to championing it during the original debate or more than three months before most of Obamacare kicks in?

Scalise says many of these ideas were promoted during the debate in 2009-2010 but Democrats had the numbers to pass their version.  Since then, he says Republicans have focused on repeal of Obamacare as well as individual parts of the plan.  By the time 2012 came around, the party essentially waited to see if Mitt Romney would defeat President Obama and take the lead on changing the health care laws.

The other news on the Obamacare front Wednesday was House Speaker John Boehner’s decision to allow a House vote on a continuing resolution to fund the government past the end of the month at existing rates while completely defunding the new health care law.  Scalise welcomed the news enthusiastically.

“I’m glad that the Speaker is bringing a bill that a lot of us in RSC pushed for, that we wanted to tie defund and delay or Obamacare to the CR.  This is something we’ve been asking for for weeks.  Our leadership listened and has responded to the members in the House,” said Scalise.

“It shows that we want to fund government.  We want to fund the essential running of government, but we also believe that the president’s health care law would be bad for our country,” he said.

Democrats say Republicans are willing to shut down the government over their fixation on Obamacare.  Republicans say any government shutdown would be a result of the Democrats’ insistence on defending a failing program.  Scalise says the GOP should have the upper hand in the debate because it actually has a bill to fund the government and Democrats do not.

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Greg Corombos of Radio America and Eliana Johnson of National Review cheer an upcoming House vote to defund Obamacare but are skeptical of how committed Speaker Boehner is to the idea.  They also rip the CIA for suspending a Benghazi survivor because he wouldn’t sign a non-disclosure agreement.  And they shake their heads as the liberal media use the AR-15 as the poster child for gun control but when it’s confirmed there was no AR-15 involved in Monday’s shooting, they claim the type of weapon doesn’t matter.

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Major changes need to be enacted in conducting government and contractor background checks and in evaluating those who already have clearance, according to Lt. Gen. William G. “Jerry” Boykin in the wake of Monday’s horrific murders at the Washington Navy Yard.

Boykin, who is executive vice president at the Family Research Council, is also blasting the Obama administration for its handling of Syria, saying the president bungled an already wrongheaded policy and is now actively supporting Syrian opposition forces engaged in genocide.

Twelve people were murdered at the Navy Yard Monday morning.  Authorities eventually took down the alleged shooter, 34-year-old Aaron Alexis.  Since Alexis had valid credentials for entering the installation, Boykin says this latest tragedy shows the background check system in serious need of reform.

“It is very difficult to get a security clearance in most cases but in this case his emotional problems, his mental illness as well as his history were not a factor.  Why was that?  Why were those things not considered in granting him a security clearance?” asked Boykin, who says recent attempts to add scrutiny to the background check process were pilloried on Capitol Hill.

“People like Michele Bachmann asked that somebody investigate how Huma Abedin, who had a clear connection to the Muslim Brotherhood through her father, mother, brother and even her own previous employment.  They were just scalded by the media as well as their comrades in Congress for questioning how she could have gotten a security clearance.  This is a big problem and these security clearances need a better process that ensures that we’re not getting people with mental illness and people with criminal backgrounds walking around with a clearance that gives them access, not only to information but also, in many cases, to facilities,” he said.

The general also advocates great vigilance in monitoring people who already have security clearance and suspending or revoking that clearance if troublesome indicators arise.

Boykin also sees a larger cultural trend that puts us at greater risk.

“I think a lot of it goes to this whole attitude of tolerance.  We’re taking it a bit too far here,” he said.

The Obama position on Syria is also galling to Boykin.  He is not at all impressed by the diplomatic deal struck between the U.S. and Russia that requires Syria to declare the extent of its chemical weapons arsenal within a week and destroy it by the middle of next year.  Boykin says that goal is pure fantasy.

“(Syrian President Bashar al-Assad) stays in power because he has chemical weapons.  He is not going to give those up.  It is nonsense, a thousand tons of chemical weapons and you think his inventory is going to be accurate?  You think he’s really going to turn those over?  You think he’s going to disassemble production facilities that would allow him to make more?  That is not going to happen because when he loses those chemical weapons, he has no ability to stay in power there.  This is a farce,” said Boykin.

Boykin says Assad would be in peril without the weapons because his Alawite sect makes up a small percentage of the Syrian population and are hated by Sunnis and Shia alike.

Secretary of State John Kerry says the threat of force remains on the table if Assad fails to comply.  Boykins sees that as an empty threat.

“I put about as much credibility in that as I did the threat of a red line,” said Boykin.  “This is an administration that has, frankly, gotten in over its head and is looking for any way out right now and the Russians as well as the U.S. Congress have given him a way out.”

Boykin is disgusted by Obama’s reversal of U.S. policy in his decision to arm the Syrian resistance, which is comprised in large numbers by Al Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood and other radical elements.  He says the U.S. is bankrolling the slaughter of innocent people, particularly Christians.

“What we’re doing by arming these people is we’re contributing to the genocide of the Christian community,” said Boykin.  “As bad as he is, Bashar al-Assad has allowed the Christians there to live in peace.  What these people are determined to do is to destroy every Christian village, kill as many Christians as they can and run the rest of them out of the country.”

Boykin says the U.S. is repeating the same mistakes that led to persecution of Christians by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the murder of four Americans in Benghazi.

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Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review discuss the need for more attention on mental illness and enforcing existing laws that should keep them from getting guns.  They also rip gun control advocates for pushing their agenda while the crisis was still unfolding and making another push to restrict the rights of law-abiding gun owners.  And they shake their heads at the media  mistakes from Monday’s shootings – especially identifying a man as the shooter only to find out he wasn’t.

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Congressional Republicans should absolutely fight to defund Obamacare in a fight over funding the federal government and President Obama has no right to demand a debt ceiling extension without Republicans demanding spending restraint in return, according to South Carolina Rep. Mick Mulvaney.

Current government funding expires at the end of September.  The GOP is divided over whether to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government at current spending rates across the board or to fund everything at current rates while completely defunding Obamacare.  Many conservative members of the House and Senate are pushing to cut off funds, while leadership has been very cool to the idea.  Mulvaney says starving Obamacare makes perfect sense and there are enough members committed to this course of action to force the issue.

“I don’t think the support exists within the Republican Party now to not fight.  We have to fight,” said Mulvaney.  “It’s not just folks you might think of ordinarily, the extreme right wing of the party.  It’s a lot of the guys more in the center who are hearing from their districts back home that folks don’t want to fund Obamacare.  I can’t imagine us not dealing with Obamacare in some fashion as part of this discussion.”

With Democrats controlling the U.S. Senate and President Obama likely to veto any funding bill that removes funding from Obamacare, Mulvaney admits it’s an uphill climb.  But he says conservatives might able to make some progress through this maneuver and it shouldn’t be that hard to explain to the public.

“The marketing there is very simple.  We don’t want to shut the government down.  We should send a bill over to the Senate and the president that says we’re going to keep every single part of this government open, except the part of it that doesn’t exist yet in Obamacare.  We do lousy messaging most of the time.  That’s why we might even be able to win,” said Mulvaney.

“We might be able to get some wins.  For example, we might get the IRS out of health care.  We might be able to change the rules on the conscience provisions within the HHS mandate regarding employers who object to contraception and abortion based upon their religious principles.  We might get rid of this IPAB.  We might get rid of the medical device taxes.  There’s a lot of small victories we could get, but we’re not going to get them if our opening bid is to fund the whole bill,” he said.

By mid-October, regardless of how the budgeting battle unfolds, the debt ceiling will be breached and another major battle is expected.  President Obama is trying to head off a repeat of 2011 by saying he refuses to make any concessions in exchange for a debt ceiling increase because he contends paying America’s bills should not be held hostage to demands of spending restraints.  That position is a non-starter for Mulvaney.

“You hate to diminish the office of President of the United States by calling him silly, but that’s just silly.  We negotiate everything on this.  You don’t get to impose your will.  You’re not a dictator.  You’re not an emperor.  We negotiate everything in Washington, D.C., and for him to say he’s not going to negotiate this is one of the more absurd things I’ve heard him say out of a lot of absurd things I’ve heard him say,” said Mulvaney.

“If he’s serious about it, it means he wants to tank the entire economy, which is just bizarre.  I’m surprised that more people are not calling him out on that.  We have always used the debt ceiling for improving our spending condition.  It’s the one time when people get a chance to step back and say, ‘Why do we have a debt problem?’  This is our chance to at least make it a little better,” he said.

Obama and many other Democrats contend that nearly $17 trillion in debt and much more unfunded liabilities is not a threat to the economy as long as annual debt comprises a small enough percentage of the gross domestic product.  Mulvaney finds that approach appalling.

“I’ve run numbers that say within my lifetime, under some fairly reasonable assumptions, every single penny that we take in as a nation will go to one thing and one thing only and that is interest payments on the debt,” said Mulvaney.  “You tell me if that’s dire.  I think we both know that it is.”

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