Archives for February 2016

The latest round of embarrassing federal data breaches struck the very agencies charged with protecting us, evidence one leading member of Congress believes is proof that throwing money at a problem doesn’t solve much unless there’s accountability to go with it.

Last week, the personal data of some 20,000 FBI employees and more than 9,000 Department of Homeland Security workers was released.

Days later the story took on additional embarrassment when authorities arrested the perpetrator, a 16-year-old boy in Great Britain.  The teen said he gained access to the information through weak security in the Department of Justice email system.

House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C., says this case offers another sobering national security reminder.

“It shows two things.  One is that no agency is immune from the attacks.  But, more specifically, in spite of spending some $80 billion a year in IT provisions, that that money is not necessarily directed towards not only the most up-to-date encryption but cyber defenses,” said Meadows.

As the details of the attacks on the FBI and Homeland Security emerged, President Obama spelled out his prescription for shoring up U.S. cyber security efforts.

“I’m announcing our new Cybersecurity National Action Plan, backed by my proposal to increase federal cybersecurity funding by more than a third, to over $19 billion. This plan will address both short-term and long-term threats, with the goal of providing every American a basic level of online security,” wrote Obama in the Wall Street Journal.

“First, I’m proposing a $3 billion fund to kick-start an overhaul of federal computer systems. It is no secret that too often government IT is like an Atari game in an Xbox world. The Social Security Administration uses systems and code from the 1960s. No successful business could operate this way,” he added.

Meadows agrees that U.S. infrastructure is badly in need up an upgrade and that will cost money, but he says just spending more money isn’t going to solve the problem.

“Some $80 billion is spent annually on IT.  That doesn’t include some of those offline budget items that some would suggest is another 20 billion.  A hundred billion spent and yet what we’re seeing is the resources that could be deployed have not been,” said Meadows.

“We found that tools were available for use yet weren’t turned on,” said Meadows, who will be holding hearings on the subject soon.  “It’s time that we not only get serious about it but we have to be more prudent in where we put our resources.”

Meadows believes the president is serious about beefing up our cyber defenses but two major problems are impeding any progress.  The first is simply the realities of Washington.

“Obviously, bureaucracy and politics get in the way of almost everything in Washington, D.C.  So to suggest that did not have a role would be disingenuous,” said Meadows.

But he says there are some more deliberate sticks in the mud too.

“Where we have a real breakdown is with some of our CIO’s, our chief information officers,” said Meadows, noting he was particularly unimpressed with testimony following the massive breach at the Office of Personnel Management in 2015.

He says across the government the performance levels are very poor.

“We give them a grade and most agencies got an ‘F’ initially.  So we’re not only going to be tracking this on a quarterly basis but holding hearings every sixth months to make sure that we make progress,” said Meadows.

The congressman says achieving results all comes down to a simple concept.

“It’s really more accountability from an oversight standpoint, but also making sure those doing a good job are rewarded and those who don’t actually are held accountable,” said Meadows.

And improving competence and performance, says Meadows, starts with appreciating the scope of the threat.

“My trouble with so much of this is that the attacks continue to come on a daily and hourly and minute-by-minute basis.  Yet, what we’re doing is assuming we’re immune to those attacks from our foreign enemies,” said Meadows.

If the federal government, at all levels, truly committed to addressing the cyber threat, Meadows believes it wouldn’t take long to put us on much more solid footing.

“There’s enough, not only financial resources, but commitment there that we could see drastic improvement in a very short window, six to nine months,” said Meadows.

Meadows says the FBI and Homeland Security breaches only intensify an existing commitment from congressional Republicans to protect the American people and their information.

“Chairman (Jason) Chaffetz and myself are committed, both at the subcommittee level and the full committee, to continue to keep the pressure on until we get this problem resolved so that all Americans and our federal records can rest assured that we’re being vigilant about it,” said Meadows.

Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review mourn the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and remember him as faithful to the Constitution, a towering intellect and a larger than life personality.  They also shake our heads as the Republican front-runner uses the latest debate to say Planned Parenthood does wonderful things for women – except for the abortions – and that 9/11 was George W. Bush’s fault and that he lied to get us into the Iraq War.  And they express disgust at the left’s horrific reaction to Scalia’s death and the instinct by some on the right to conclude that Scalia’s death was the result of foul play.

House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price is defending his decision to dismiss President Obama’s final budget proposal without a hearing because it spends too much, taxes too much and never balances.

Price, R-Ga., says instead Republicans will focus on crafting a budget that balances in the coming years and addresses Social Security and Medicare, which are careening towards disaster.  He’s also optimistic federal spending will not end up in a bloated omnibus package at the end of the year.

On Tuesday, Obama unveiled a $4.1 trillion budget that Price finds completely unacceptable.

“Thank goodness it’s his last budget because we can’t stand many more,” said Price.  “This is the first budget any president’s proposed that spends over $4 trillion in a year.  He continues to be married to an incredible degree to raising taxes.  He wants to raise taxes by $3.4 trillion, including putting a ten dollar per barrel tax on oil.  That is one of the most regressive taxes he could come up with.”

He says the bad new doesn’t end there.

“(It’s) continuing  to increase the deficit, continuing to increase the debt.  It never, ever, ever balances.  As such, it doesn’t address the challenges that this country faces,” said Price.

Price and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi, R-Wyoming, made headlines even before the Obama budget was unveiled by announcing their committees would not hold hearings on it.  While Democrats and many media outlets cried foul, Price says his critics have short memories.

“This is pretty curious.  The president has been ignoring Congress for seven years so one time when we stipulate that his budget has no chance of proceeding, they get all excited and exorcised,” said Price.

How did he know the budget wouldn’t worth the time to consider it?

“The president has introduced budgets before.  We’ve heard them before.  In fact, we’ve had votes on the floor of the House.  The last two times they voted on the president’s budget when it came of the floor of the House, it received a grand total of two (votes) out of 435 members,” said Price.

He says the GOP priorities will be clear in drafting a budget blueprint.

“We will be addressing our concerns to strengthen and save Medicare and Medicaid, to make sure we provide appropriate resources for our men and women in uniform.  This is a very dangerous world and we need to make sure they have the resources they need to protect us.  Then get us on the path to balance so we can get to a balanced budget and getting on that path to paying off the debt,” said Price.

Price says getting the spending under control will require two paths.  First, he says Congress needs to reign in discretionary spending and points out current discretionary levels are lower than what was spent from 2008-2010.

The much bigger, more complicated obstacle is mandatory spending, but Price says not much can happen until there’s a president concerned about the spiraling debt of entitlement programs.

“If nothing is done right now, which apparently is the president’s plan because they haven’t proposed anything.  If nothing is done to save and secure and strengthen those programs, those programs go broke,” said Price.

Republicans won control of Capitol Hill in 2014 and vowed to restore “regular order” last year, by which spending bills individually rather than rolling them into one giant bill offered at the deadline for averting a government shutdown.

That didn’t happen.  Individual bills started moving through the House but went nowhere in the Senate after Obama insisted on higher spending across the board and Democrats filibustered the GOP legislation.

Ultimately, an omnibus bill was easily approved in both the House and Senate that funded Obama priorities from Planned Parenthood to sanctuary cities to the implementation of the Iran nuclear deal.  In exchange, Republicans were able to end the export ban on crude oil and make many tax breaks permanent.

Despite the same president and the same margins in the Senate, Price is crossing his fingers that regular order can proceed this year and save taxpayers money by bringing transparency and scrutiny to every bill.

“Speaker (Paul) Ryan has had exactly those conversations with not just Mitch McConnell, the majority leader in the Senate, but with Harry Reid, the minority leader in the Senate.  In fact, the president has committed to beginning to move the appropriations process in through regular order,” said Price.

 

Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review like the “Office Space” inspired Ted Cruz ad criticizing Hillary Clinton.  They also slam Donald Trump for saying conservatives are a big part of the problem in Washington.  And they elaborate on Hillary’s list of unappealing options to derail Bernie Sanders.

The results of the Republican and Democratic primaries in New Hampshire set the stage for a showdown in South Carolina but also send an unmistakable “wake-up call” to to the political establishment in both parties.

The outsiders had a very good night Tuesday.  Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and Donald Trump scored landslide wins respectively and Sen. Ted. Cruz, R-Texas, defied expectations by finishing in third place.

While getting less than a third of Trump’s vote total, Cruz still edged Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who had been expected to finish second in New Hampshire.  He also bested Jeb Bush, despite being outspent $36 million to $800,000.

As the race shifts to the Palmetto State, Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., says the voting thus far shows people in both parties are fed up with business as usual.

“Not only Trump’s victory but Bernie Sanders’ victory underscores the frustration that most Americans have with Washington, D.C.  They know our country is headed in the wrong direction, that Washington, D.C. is broke.  They’re just desperate to find someone who’s saying, ‘Let’s turn over the apple cart and start all over again,'” said Meadows.

“People want straight talk.  They want somebody to be able to tell it like it is.  Even if they don’t agree on some of the issues, they’re going to reward those who call it like it is.  That’s why we’re seeing Donald and Bernie and Ted Cruz perform so well,” said Meadows.

While those three candidates may be light years apart ideologically, Meadows says they are tapping into the same disgust.

“When you calculate all of their votes, it ought to give Washington, D.C., a real wake-up call in terms of the job that they’re doing,” said Meadows.

Meadows is the second-term lawmaker who filed the motion to vacate the speaker’s chair in the House of Representatives last year, a move that ultimately triggered the resignation of House Speaker John Boehner.  Meadows is endorsing Cruz in the 2016 campaign.

As the remaining Republicans tangle vie for the nomination, Meadows says the outsiders have a distinct advantage over the candidates considered more acceptable to party leaders.

“It’s important for us to return the government to the people and to the will of the people and restore that confidence and trust.  It’s going to be difficult for anybody who is running in the establishment lane to accomplish that,” said Meadows, referring to Rubio, Bush and Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio.

Some advocates for the likes of Trump and Cruz believe that the jumble in the middle of the GOP pack in New Hampshire is good for the outsiders because it will now be weeks or longer before the top establishment candidate emerges.

Meadows disagrees.

“I look at it very differently.  The quicker we can get down to two or three candidates and look at each one of them on their own merits, the easier it is to focus on the strengths and weaknesses of each potential presidential nominee,” said Meadows.

But just as one establishment candidate may ultimately emerge, either Cruz or Trump has to eventually elbow the other out of the race.  Meadows says Cruz is the right choice.

“It’s one thing to talk the talk.  It’s another to walk the walk,” said Meadows.  “He’s been in the fight.  He’s not only willing to say it on the campaign trail, but I’ve seen him actually do it here in Washington, D.C.,  and has come under tremendous ridicule.  Whether it’s in front of a camera or behind the scenes in a private office, Ted Cruz is the same guy.”

“He’s someone who’s willing to fight to restore our constitutional principles and, with that, make sure the voice of the American people is the number one priority here in Washington, D.C.,” said Meadows.

South Carolina polls conducted in January suggest Trump had a sizable lead at the time.  More polls will come soon, but Meadows is confident Cruz will do well.

“I know Sen. Cruz has a great ground game there that has been in place for many many months and has been reaching out on a one-on-one basis all over the state,” said Meadows, who will work on behalf of Cruz in South Carolina.

As for the general election, Meadows is again defying conventional wisdom by rejecting the nation that Sanders would be easier for the Republican nominee to beat given his open embrace of “Democratic socialism.”

He believes Hillary Clinton is very vulnerable.

“I think if Hillary is the nominee, the baggage that she brings makes her a greater drag on that Democratic side of the aisle than anybody else,” said Meadows.

Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review discuss the exit of Carly Fiorina from the GOP race and how she made the race better.  They also discuss the revelation that a State Department aide to Hillary Clinton told a reporter how he needed to write a story previewing a major Clinton speech – and the reporter dutifully complied.  And they discuss the undemocratic super delegates that dominate the Democrats’ nominating process.

Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders crushed their opponents and conventional wisdom Tuesday night in New Hampshire, as Democratic female voters abandoned Hillary Clinton in favor of Sanders and Trump easily won the women’s vote despite his reputation for being crude towards them.

On Tuesday, Trump took 35 percent of the Republican vote.  Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, was a distant second at 16 percent, with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, finishing third.  Exit polls show Trump dominated among all demographics, including women.  Trump won 33 percent of the female vote in a nine-candidate race.  Kasich had 16 percent, followed by Jeb Bush with 12 percent.

Those numbers follow Trump’s famous feud with Fox News Channel anchorMegyn Kelly over Trump’s derogatory statements about various women over the years and over Kelly herself.

Women in New Hampshire didn’t care.

“They’re not taking to the fainting couches and I think that’s one of two reasons why Trump is doing okay with women,” said Independent Women’s Forum Senior Fellow Gayle Trotter, who attracted national attention in 2013 for her passionate defense of the second amendment before the U.S. Senate.

“Women are tough and they understand that politics is not beanbag.  They’re maybe slightly offended by some of things that he’s said, but they really care that he is tapping into these issues that seem to be pressing on our nation right now.”

Trotter says Trump also scores points with women for another unspoken reason.

“His other secret weapon are the women who are very successful and accomplished, who are going on the campaign trail for him.  Exhibit A is his daughter, Ivanka,” said Trotter, noting Ivanka is over eight months pregnant.  “He particularly noted Ivanka and said that she had been to seven events politicking for him.  She is a great ambassador for him.”

So will Trump’s reputation ever catch up with him?  Trotter doubts it.

“It’s hard to imagine.  This is the only politician I’ve ever seen who uses a media firestorm as a campaign strategy.  Not only does he say all of these kind of outrageous things, he embraces them.  He is excited and proud of saying them,” said Trotter.

She says Trump appears immune to the controversies that normally sink campaigns.

“It’s hard to believe that he could really say anything worse than he’s already said or if he did that it would have any kind of backlash on him.  All the political pundits and prognosticators said there’s no way he could recover from any of these comments.  He’s proven them wrong time and time again,” said Trotter.

On the Democratic side, observers assumed Hillary Clinton would cruise to the nomination thanks to a stranglehold on the women’s vote.  She did score a 55-44 margin among Democratic women in Iowa, but Sanders won a majority of female voters in New Hampshire by the very same margin.

Trotter says Hillary’s blatant and repeated playing of the gender card is turning women off.

“I think she really feels this nomination is owed to her for all of the time she has put in.  Every time she goes out on the campaign trail, she’s talking about how hard she has worked.  That does not seem to be resonating with Democratic voters who want to be inspired,” said Trotter.

She says Sanders is hitting that note with the Democratic base.

“Bernie Sanders is something very different than what we’ve seen in Washington.  He is connecting with voters across the country.  On top of that, he is offering something very, very different than what Hillary Clinton is,” said Trotter.

Sensing that female support was slipping, Clinton told a debate audience last week that Sanders could not label her as “establishment” because she was a woman and a woman has never been president.  Trotter says that was a telling moment.

“That’s such a silly statement.  That was, I think, the most defining moment of that debate.  She’s a woman who has been in the corridors of power for decades,” said Trotter.

She says that line is in complete contradiction to the rest of Clinton’s case to Democratic voters.

“She is also trying to run on the idea that she’ll be a third term of President Barack Obama.  She’s trying to have it both ways and I think the young women who are dissatisfied with the establishment are dissatisfied with that answer.  It doesn’t answer’s Bernie Sanders’ criticism,” said Trotter.

Trotter says another colossal mistake was Hillary and her surrogates trying to shame women away from Sanders.  Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told supporters there was a special place in hell for women who don’t support each other.  Feminist Gloria Steinem told HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” that young women backed Sanders because young men did.

“Those comments do not help Hillary Clinton.  There are a lot of young women who expect there will be a woman president one day in their lifetimes, but Hillary Clinton is not the women they want to be commander-in-chief,” said Trotter.

On Wednesday afternoon, Republican Carly Fiorina suspended her campaign after poor showings in Iowa and New Hampshire.  In her Facebook announcement, Fiorina offered a very different vision of feminism than the one pitched by Clinton.

“To young girls and women across the country, I say: do not let others define you. Do not listen to anyone who says you have to vote a certain way or for a certain candidate because you’re a woman. That is not feminism. Feminism doesn’t shut down conversations or threaten women. It is not about ideology,” wrote Fiorina.

“It is not a weapon to wield against your political opponent. A feminist is a woman who lives the life she chooses and uses all her God-given gifts,” Fiorina added.

Trotter says Fiorina should be commended for her campaign.

“I think it’s great that she participated.  I think she had a great message and a lot of really strong policy proposals.  But I think not being on that debate stage really killed her campaign,” said Trotter.

She says the contrast between Clinton and Fiorina shows the hypocrisy of the liberals.

“Maybe if Gloria Steinem and Madeleine Albright had really put into practice their own philosophy of standing up for women and campaign for Carly Fiorina, we might have seen some difference,” said Trotter.

“Of course they were never going to do that, because it’s never about being a woman.  It’s about having the proper ideology.  That’s the key for leftist feminists,” said Trotter.

Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review like that Michael Bloomberg is now publicly discussing a possible White House bid – a move that would seem to benefit Republicans.  They also slam Jeb Bush for wanting to overturn the Citizens United decision after his Super PAC blew through $120 million with nothing to show for it.  And they discuss some of their frustrations with the first in the nation primary.