Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review applaud CNN’s Jake Tapper for asking tough questions of a Palestinian spokeswoman and calling her on her lies. They also shake their heads at President Obama’s latest smug dismissal of claims he’s abusing his power. And they have fun with the rumors that a Germany vs. Argentina World Cup final is turning Pope Francis and Pope Benedict into rivals.
Another Obamacare Court Showdown
While critics of the employer contraception mandate celebrate last week’s victory at the Supreme Court, another looming legal decision in Washington has the potential to gut the most significant components of the entire Affordable Care Act by declaring the majority of health care subsidies illegal.
“This is a really serious one that goes to the heart of the law because it’s all about subsidies. If these subsidies aren’t legal, then all of Obamacare is really called into question,” said Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute, a leading health policy research group.
Attorneys and activists on both sides of this debate are awaiting the ruling of a three-judge panel on the D.C. Court of Appeals in the case of Halbig v. Burwell. The plaintiffs contend the health care law plainly states subsidies are only to be granted to those who enroll through state exchanges. However, as the result of a 2012 Supreme Court decision, 36 states opted out of that responsibility and the federal government filled the gap through its infamous exchange at healthcare.gov.
Turner says the law is clear about how subsidies are to be distributed and this potential court disaster is largely the result of the haphazard way the law was passed in the first place.
“This law was very sloppily written and never intended to go into effect as it was done. Because of a lot of behind-the-scenes maneuvering, we wound up basically with a draft as the law. Well, the law says that the subsidies for health insurance can only be distributed through state exchanges,” said Turner.
“That means that the folks in the 36 states that did not establish an exchange are not getting legal subsidies. It blows a hole through the middle of Obamacare. That means if the exchanges are not available, there’s no way to enforce the individual mandate or the employer mandate,” she said.
Losing subsidies would mean substantially higher premiums for millions of people, but how exactly could it trigger the implosion of the key mandates? Turner says it’s all in the numbers, noting that billions in subsidies and the family budgets of four to five million Americans are potentially at stake in this decision.
“On the employer mandate first, the law says that employers are only subject to the fines and penalties if any of their employees were to get a subsidy for health insurance through the exchange. If there’s no exchange through which they can get a subsidy, then employers are off the hook for the employer mandate,” said Turner.
“Individuals are not required to purchase health insurance if the cost to them for the premiums would be over a certain percentage of their income. I believe it’s about 8.5 percent. What this would mean is that people would then be faced with the full cost of their [premiums], not their subsidized cost. Eighty-seven percent of people getting health insurance through the exchanges are getting subsidies. They would then have to pay the full cost. For the great majority of them, that would be over the 8.5 percent of their income. Therefore, the individual mandate would not apply to them,” she said.
The decision is expected any day from the three-judge panel. Turner was in the courtroom in March when oral arguments were heard. She says the judges seemed to think the law is clear on how the subsidies are to be provided.
“It really sounded to me like the judges were saying, ‘You know, this is what the law says.It’s not up to us to change the law. If it needs to be changed, you need to go back to Congress to do it. If it says that Congress only thought the subsidies were only going to go to exchanges established by states, you can’t distribute them through an exchange established by the federal government,'” said Turner.
Turner is cautiously optimistic in a 2-1 decision in favor of the plaintiffs. Even if that happens, she says there would still be a long road to final resolution of this case, possibly starting with the full D.C. Court of Appeals.
“This is the court that the president has been stacking with liberal appointees. I think there would not be a win in a full en banc hearing, but there are two other challenges to this, one in Oklahoma and one in Indiana that have not been decided either. If either one of those were to say that the subsidies are not legal, then you have a split. The Supreme Court would have to hear it, possibly next term,” she said.
According to Turner, any rebuke from the D.C. Court of Appeals would sting the administration, especially in the wake of a string of defeats at the end of the latest Supreme Court session.
“It really challenges the administration’s modus operandi in deciding they’re going to take the law into their own hands and rewrite the law when it suits them. If a court slaps them and says you’re not allowed to do that, as the Supreme Court has done thirteen times, then I think that it really is going to trim their sails and make it more difficult for them to make these extra-legal changes going forward. It’s going to be harder and harder for them to make this law work because the law is so fundamentally dysfunctional,” said Turner.
Three Martini Lunch 7/10/14
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review are pleased to see justice served in the case of now imprisoned ex-New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. They also hail a new story by Mollie Hemingway that delineates the ignorant and arrogant liberal media. And they groan over the new movie suggesting Dan Rather was the wronged hero in the controversy over the false documents and George W. Bush’s military service.
They’re Not Going Back
Texas Rep. Michael Burgess says border officials told him most children detained after illegally crossing the southern border will never be sent home and he says federal officials need to be diligent to ensure deadly diseases are not allowed to run rampant after being brought across the border.
Burgess is a career physician. Last week he visited an alien intake location in Wesleco, Texas, and a detainment center at Lackland Air Force Base. While there he learned the government has very different plans than the Obama administration’s stated policy of vowing to send people back to their home countries.
“What I was told on the border last week was that as high as 70-75 percent of these individuals will be remaining in the United States. I don’t know quite what the disconnect is between what the president’s statements are and the statements I was hearing from people in customs and border control, FEMA and the federal agencies that are charged with taking care of these folks,” said Burgess.
Burgess says the U.S. is capable of caring for the tens of thousands of border crossers on a very temporary basis. He says if this were the extent of the illegal migration wave it would be daunting enough, but he points out we’re only at the tip of the iceberg.
“The problem is what happens the next day, and the next day and the next day. From what I could see of the pipeline, there is no letting up. These numbers are not going to recede. It is going to take some time for those that have already started to transit. Even if you were able to stop people at the southern Mexican border right now from coming across, there are a lot of people in the pipeline,” said Burgess.
“There are a lot of people being held in stash houses in Mexico on the other side of the Rio Grande. There is going to continue to be this pressure on our services, on our resources and on the border. That is the bigger problem here.”
Another immediate concern is the possibility of diseases breaking out in the U.S. Reports of tuberculosis, swine flu and scabies have been common over the past few weeks. Georgia Rep. Phil Gingrey, also a longtime doctor, fears some of these diseases could spread too fast to be contained. Burgess says threat certainly exists, but he says there’s no indication that will actually happen.
“Potentially it is a very big issue. What I have encouraged people at the agency level is to please take this seriously. Don’t be dismissive. Don’t try to minimize. At the same time, you want to be truthful with people and if the actual incidences of these illnesses is low, then by all means be truthful about it,” said Burgess.
“But don’t tell people there’s no possibility of tuberculosis coming across the border because you know that’s not true. When you’ve got 56,000 people streaming across the border in six months’ time, guess what? There are some things that are going to come along for the ride,” he said.
Burgess has held numerous meetings on the potential health risks posed by the migrants. In addition to his recent visits to the pair of Texas facilities, he’s conferred with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Office of Refugee Relocation.
“I’ve been very involved in the last month in this process because I want people to be on the level about this. I don’t want there to be unnecessary alarm, but at the same time people do need to use good sense,” said Burgess, noting that issues like scabies are not life threatening but other diseases detected certainly do.
Burgess says processing of the tens of thousands of the people is s cumbersome process. He says after being taken into custody, the illegal border crossers go to an initial facility like the one in Wesleco, where as much can be learned about the people as possible. Then they are flown to a separate facility to have their health evaluated. Finally, they are sent to a temporary detention center like he saw at Lackland Air Force Base.
However, not everyone stays within the system. Burgess says he has heard of some intake locations that are simply overwhelmed and the illegals leave and look for assistance in the nearest towns.
Unlike some members of Congress, Burgess was granted access to the two facilities, but he says his activities in both places were very restricted by government officials and no cameras or recording devices are permitted inside.
The congressman says President Obama should “see what I saw” at the detention facilities, including many children being locked inside individual cells. He also says Obama has an obligation to implore Central American leaders and parents not to send their kids to the U.S.
“He must go publicly, directly to the people in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico and tell the parents in those countries, ‘Do not send your children across the interior of Mexico to come across the Rio Grande into Texas. Do not send for your children if you are in this country and you have children back home. Do not send for them through this coyote system that has been developed,'” said Burgess.
Burgess also says Obama needs to get tough on Central American leaders to do much more in securing their own borders and not allowing children and families to be prey for human smugglers.
Three Martini Lunch 7/9/14
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review react to the Republicans choosing Cleveland for their convention site in 2016. They also rip the Obama administration for blaming Israel for the protracted freeze in the quest for Middle East peace. And they laugh at Harry Reid suggesting Clarence Thomas is white and that the Senate can override the Supreme Court’s HHS mandate decision.
Eyewitness to Border Mayhem
A filmmaker with extensive knowledge of the current border crisis says this chaos is exactly what President Obama wants and planned for and he says the current media fixation on abandoned children means criminals, drug smugglers and terrorists are coming to the United States without even being noticed.
Dennis Michael Lynch directed and produced “They Come to America” and “They Come to America II” and has extensive, daily contact with U.S. Border Patrol agents about the true state of our southern border. He says there are essentially four groups of people pouring across the border: families of various sizes, unaccompanied minors, drug smugglers and career criminals and terrorists. Lynch says while the media focuses on the kids, really bad people are easily slipping into the country.
“I can tell you from the people I speak to in the Border Patrol who are in the intelligence unit, they have told me that gang members are receiving as much as $50,000 per head to bring a person through. Those people are typically from the Middle East or from China,” said Lynch, who predicts the people waltzing into the country will perpetrate an attack on the U.S. that will rival or exceed 9/11.
“You will absolutely see terror attacks. They may not come in the form of airplanes crashing into buildings, but they’re going to come in different ways: water treatment plants, electrical grids. You name it, it is there for the possibility of taking,” he said.
President Obama is urging Congress to approve $3.8 billion in new funding that he says is designed to expedite deportation, while critics contend there’s a lot more about prolonged care for the detainees than there is about deportation in the legislation. Lynch isn’t buying anything Obama is saying at this point.
“This president has no intent of sending anybody home, just like he didn’t intend for you to be able to keep your doctor if you liked your doctor and just like he knew that there was no video that would spur a terrorist attack in Benghazi. If you believe what he says right now, I have a desert to sell you,” said Lynch.
According to Lynch, this crisis is exactly what Obama wanted to happen.
“He is enjoying what he is seeing down at the border. That is why he’s trying to work now with the UN to try to get war refugee status for these children. That’s why he’s sending them across the country and just releasing them,” he said. “This is not about reform. That’s all rhetoric. This is about fundamentally transforming the country.”
Lynch even alleges that this is the biggest legacy of this administration, topping even the massive overhaul of the nation’s health care system.
“Everybody always thought that Obamacare was his baby, that Obamacare was going to be his legacy and how he wanted to transform the country. I say no. That is just a really heavy insurance policy that the next president could repeal, or alter, or change or lessen the damage on businesses. When you turn around and let this many people into the country, when you give amnesty or give an executive order that says they can work and stay in the U.S., you can’t repeal people. You can’t deport 20, 30, 40 million people with a pen. This is what transforms a country. This is what Obama wants,” he said.
In addition to asserting Obama wants to make these people citizens and have them voting Democratic for generations through an endless flow of federal benefits, Lynch says this is about moving America closer to the poorer nations of the world.
“I think he does want to put the United States of America on an equal playing field with the rest of the world. I think he’s doing that, because the more people we take in from the third world, all it does is weaken every part of our country. It weakens our health care system, our schools, our finances, you name it. It increases the welfare state,” said Lynch, who elaborated on the immediate impact on our schools.
“From a health and school perspective, I don’t think America is really going to understand what is taking place down on the southern border, not only now but over the past six, eight, nine months to a year. When school starts again in September, people are going to be amazed by how many kids are coming in who do not speak English. I mean the schools are going to get flooded,” said Lynch.
Based on his conversations with Border Patrol officials, Lynch described how this new border crisis was carefully orchestrated.
“When you speak to Border Patrol agents like I do, you hear from the Border Patrol agents that they are beside themselves due to the fact they cannot enforce the law,” said Lynch, noting the federal government announcednew orders in January not to turn anyone away.
“They were told by the station head, ‘Going forward, we are not going to capture and deport. We are going to capture and release,” he said. “That’s when the whole thing started with them taking in families , doing a quick look over, which really is just ridiculous, and then taking them to a bus station so they could go to somewhere in the USA,” he said.
That same month is when the Department of Homeland Security is known to have sent out Requests for Information on the cost and feasibility of escorting newly arrived illegals to various locations around the country.
In addition to the threat this presents to the nation, Lynch says it is having a horrific impact on the morale of the Border Patrol.
“These guys are at an all-time low. I talk to them every day. They send me pictures. Guys are leaving the department. They say they’re just not doing it anymore. These guys are overpaid taxi drivers. They give illegal aliens the transportation they need from the border to the Border Patrol Detention Center and then to the bus depot. How would you like to have that job? These guys signed on to protect America, and all they’re doing is driving a fancy taxi,” said Lynch.
Three Martini Lunch 7/8/14
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review react to Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar fearing the border crisis will be President Obama’s ‘Katrina moment.’ They also discuss Democrats trying to couch the transportation funding impasse as another GOP-triggered shutdown. And they recoil as Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz predicts Mitt Romney will run for president again in 2016.
Israel Must Stop ‘Those Bloody Terrorists’
Retired Israeli Brigadier Gen. Elihu Ben-Onn says Hamas kidnapped and murdered three teenagers in an attempt to free “bloody terrorists” held in Israeli jails, and promises his country’s response will continue until Hamas decides to stop firing rockets into Israel or they are stopped by force.
Ben-Onn also says there is no credibility left among the Palestinians to restart any peace process and suggests it’s time for the United States to start punishing terrorism by reducing foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority.
The international community is imploring Israel to show restraint, but Ben-Onn says that’s impossible as long as Hamas keeps attacking southern Israel.
“In the last 48 hours, Israel suffered more than 200 rockets that were launched towards Israeli communities and settlements inside the state of Israel,” said Ben-Onn, noting that over 1,000 reservists have been called up by the government.
“We are talking now about ground forces that might go again inside Gaza in order to stop those rockets from falling on Israeli cities, communities and villages,” he said.
He says this latest conflict will end when the rockets stop flying into Israel – no matter what it takes to make that happen.
“The situation is very tense now, because if Hamas will not stop shelling Israeli villages and cities, I believe ground forces will have to go in to stop them,” said Ben-Onn.
Casualties appear to be very light, although firm numbers are difficult to find. Ben-Onn says if lives have been spared, the Israeli missile defense known as “Iron Dome” deserves much of the credit.
“Thank goodness we have Iron Dome. This is a wonderful system that can stop the rockets on the way. In the last 48 hours, they intercepted more than 21. Thank goodness they didn’t reach the civilian targets in Israel,” he said.
Rockets are not the only sign of ongoing terrorist efforts to attack and destabilize Israel.
“Last night, another tunnel that was [dug] from the Gaza strip to Israel was found and seven Hamas terrorists were killed inside while they tried to continue digging toward Israel and again tried to kidnap Israelis along the border,” said Ben-Onn.
For Israelis, that is the exact motive believed to be at work in the recent killing of three Israeli teenagers. They were found murdered after going missing in Gaza three weeks earlier. Ben-Onn says the search for the boys brought a nation together, even though many feared the worst.
“For 18 days, all Israelis prayed that we would find them, but it was quite clear to all of us that the reason they were kidnapped is in order to try to release those bloody terrorists from Israeli prisons,” said Ben-Onn, who says radical Islamists are constantly looking to create conditions for a prisoner exchange, citing the 2011 release of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners for Israeli POW Gilad Shalit.
Reports from Israel suggest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is taking heat from his political right. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman believes Netanyahu is being too soft and suggested to reporters that he and his party could no longer remain part of the ruling coaltion. Ben-Onn says Lieberman is well known for his grand pronouncements but is highly unlikely to leave the government and force new elections. He suspects the more likely scenario is Lieberman trying to establish himself as the next prime minister whenever Netanyahu decides to step down.
All of this comes on the heels of Hamas being welcome back into the Palestinian Authority by Mahmoud Abbas and the rest of the Fatah movement. Ben-Onn says that gesture alone speaks volumes.
“If Hamas is the partner of Fatah, what kind of future are we looking at with the Palestinians? The fact they have a joint government together is a bad sign for a peace agreement. That’s the reason why most Israelis have the feeling that the leader of the Palestinians, Mahmoud Abbas, is too weak and he cannot deliver the goods. And behind our back, he’s signing an agreement with Hamas,” said Ben-Onn.
A growing number of American political figures and activists insist that Hamas being welcomed back into the Palestinian Authority without renouncing terrorism or acknowledging Israel’s right to exist should mean an end to any U.S. foreign aid to the Palestinians. Ben-Onn largely agrees.
“Maybe (the U.S.) should give a clear threat that if Hamas will not change their policy and Fatah will still keep them in the coalition, the United States should really consider the possibility to downsize, to cut part of the financial aid in order to tell them that’s not the direction towards peace,” said Ben-Onn.
“The direction is to come to the negotiation table, speak face-to-face to each other. Find the solution at the negotiation table not on the battlefield, not relying on those bloody terrorists from Hamas,” he said. “The United States should make it very clear that if they don’t talk and find solutions, they should suffer.”
Three Martini Lunch 7/7/14
Radio America’s Greg Corombos and Jim Geraghty from National Review discuss the news that the leader of ISIS sports an expensive wristwatch, going against his own anti-Western and anti-indulgence rhetoric. They review the news, revealed by Edward Snowden, that the NSA is collecting baby pictures, selfies, and resumes from normal, everyday people. They close by laughing over Hillary Clinton’s continued denial of her wealth as she states that her speaking fees go to her personal foundation.
Gohmert Rips ‘Monarch” Obama
Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert says President Obama is acting like a monarch in unilaterally changing immigration policy and threatening to do it again on a grander scale.
The congressman says Obama is personally responsible for the surge of illegals, including unaccompanied minors, across our southern border, and Congress should begin a process of withholding funding for any department of government that refuses to enforce the existing laws.
In a White House Rose Garden statement on Monday, Obama ripped congressional Republicans for refusing to approve comprehensive immigration reform and said they left him with no choice but to pursue reform on his own.
“I would greatly prefer Congress actually do something. I take executive action only when we have a serious problem, a serious issue, and Congress chooses to do nothing,” said Obama.
While the president may be frustrated, Gohmert says Obama surrendered the authority to make or change laws the minute he left the legislative branch of government.
“He didn’t run for the legislature. He left the legislature and ran for president. Legislating is not an option for him unless he wants to destroy our Constitution or create a constitutional crisis, which he is quickly moving us toward,” said Gohmert.
In the same Rose Garden statement, Obama stated he is asking Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Attorney General Eric Holder for recommendations on what he can do on immigration policy through executive action.
If Obama makes good on that promise, Gohmert says House members need to take swift and decisive action.
“The founders gave us the power of the purse. It’s going to take a lot of courage to stand up to the president and say we’re going to start defunding anything that you care deeply about that’s not important to the American people,” said Gohmert, who wants to start by removing funding for the attorney general’s office and rescinding salaries for anyone held in contempt of Congress.
“We need to start eliminating any money for any federal agency or department, including the White House, that is not following the law. Then you get their attention. That’s what the founders anticipated. I know our Speaker (John Boehner) says we’re only half of one-third (of the government). Well, we’re the most important half of the appropriations process. If we don’t agree to an appropriation, it doesn’t happen. It’s time we took a stronger stand in that regard,” said Gohmert.
Obama also claimed on Monday that comprehensive immigration reform was an urgent priority because the present surge of illegal immigrants is proof that our existing laws are very confusing to people yearning to live in the U.S. Gohmert says that analysis is exactly backwards.
“The current rules are confusing because the law is very clear and yet the president came out and announced, like a good monarch would, that he didn’t like the law and so he pronounced new law. ‘If you meet these requirements, then we’ll let you stay here. So I have spoken, so shall it be.’ That’s what monarchs do. So because of that, it is confusing. The law itself is not,” said Gohmert.
In addition to its alleged failure to enforce existing immigration and border security laws, Gohmert says the government is actively thwarting other laws and putting American lives at risk.
“Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, they are engaged in human trafficking. So if you get into this country, then you are transported to other parts of the country. If you have a parent who is here illegally, then Health and Human Services, which is no longer about health, and Homeland Security that is no longer about security will engage in human trafficking and help you violate the law by getting you illegally wherever you want to go,” said Gohmert.
The congressman made headlines earlier this week by telling radio host Sean Hannity that the U.S. is on the road to becoming a third world country. He elaborated further on that characterization, noting that the warehousing of kids and adults does not represent a modern society and neither does the practice of letting people with communicable diseases roam around our country. But he says there is an even greater concern that smacks of a third world regime.
“One of the things that makes a third world country a third world country is that they don’t follow the law and they don’t enforce it fairly. There’s graft. There’s corruption. Officials can be brought and they can be bribed. They will do whatever they want. We have people fleeing countries like that to come into the United States because we have been observing the rule of law for the most part. We do try to apply it fairly across the board. Then once they get into this country, then they say, ‘We want you to become like our country and quit enforcing the law,'” said Gohmert.
Gohmert’s solution to the surge across the border is to enforce existing law to the fullest extent and stop people from entering the country and them back to where they came from. He says history proves this works.
“Border Patrol men can’t afford to say it on the record because of their jobs, but what I heard from them over and over is, ‘We had a problem with Brazilians coming in when they got word we wouldn’t send them back. Once we were allowed to send a few families back, it stopped immediately,” said Gohmert.
As for the tens of thousands who have just arrived, Gohmert says basic compassion should apply in terms of feeding and providing other immediate needs, but he says they simply need to be told they can’t stay and then escorted out of the country.
“You say, ‘You’re not coming in legally. Our laws means so much. That’s why our economy is better than yours, because we apply the rule of law. We can’t let you destroy the economy by forcing us to quit following the rule of law. Therefore, we are sending you back,'” said Gohmert.
“It would require some manpower, some expense to send people back, but nearly as much as the damage to our country would be by letting people come in just willy nilly as they wish to,” he said.
Obama is also asking for Congress to approve two billion dollars in new spending to provide better temporary shelter and to set up more judges and courts to process the cases of the illegal immigrants.
Gohmert sees no need for aliens caught illegally crossing the border to get a day in court.
“No, they don’t need to be in court. What should be done is what’s called a turnaround. If you attempt to come in to get on our soil and you’re caught at the border, then you’re turned around and sent back. You don’t need a judge to hear your case. If you did not come in legally and have the proper papers, you go back. You go back to where you came from. That ought to be what we do,” said Gohmert.
In the final analysis, Gohmert says the current crisis is a result of the federal government not doing its job in protecting our borders. He says there’s no reason to work with Obama on immigration legislation as along as the president thumbs his nose at the current laws.
“Once we have a president who agrees to follow the law, shows us he will follow the law, then we can get a reform package. There’s no sense in reforming anything until the president is willing to follow the law. The courts have made clear that it is up to the federal executive branch to enforce our immigration laws,” said Gohmert.