The Capitol Steps break out a pair of their Christmas parodies, including a look at Vice President Joe Biden’s proclivity to say the wrong thing and the enthusiasm building around New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Steps impressionist Mark Eaton joins us as we listen to “Muzzle Joe” and “We Need A Little Christie”.
Three Martini Lunch 12/20/13
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review cheer President Obama allowing some people kicked off their health coverage by Obamacare to skip paying the individual mandate tax. They also discuss reports that healthcare.gov was such a security risk that administration experts advised shutting it down for repairs – but were overruled. And they discuss a new poll showing Americans still blame George W. Bush for the economy more than they blame President Obama.
Protecting Churches in the Marriage Fight
Roughly a third of U.S. states have legalized gay marriage and the federal government is helping to advance the homosexual agenda in numerous federal policies, but Utah Sen. Mike Lee is leading a congressional counter-offensive designed to protect churches and other religious institutions from being forced to perform same-sex ceremonies.
“What we want to do is make sure that religious institution, churches, synagogues and other entities, are able to maintain their own religious freedom and enable them to define marriage in the manner that they deem fit without the threat of adverse action being taken against them by the federal government,”said Lee, lead sponsor of the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act.
The vast majority of jurisdictions that have legalized same-sex marriage have included language in their laws to provide freedom of conscience for religious institutions and protect their right not to endorse activity or ceremonies contrary to their faith. Lee says more needs to be done.
“The federal government is also a significant entity in all this and we know that there is a practice of federal officials sometimes taking adverse action against people that they disagree with either for political reasons or otherwise. We want to make sure that we create this care-out to provide that protection,” said Lee, who asserts Democrats should have no problem with this legislation since they claim to respect the rights of churches and synagogues to adhere to a traditional definition of marriage.
Lee admits there aren’t many reports of the government harassing churches right now, but suggests there is great concern that could come pretty soon.
“It’s not necessarily pressure that they’re feeling acutely right now. It’s pressure that they know could be coming, especially as more states move in the direction of opening up their marriage laws. This is something people view as a preventative step towards addressing he kind of religious discrimination that could occur,” he said.
The senator says there are a number of ways the legislation could protect religious institutions, but primary goal with the bill is to protect the tax-exempt status of religious institutions.
“Losing the tax-exempt status is probably the number one concern of churches as they look to what could happen here. Presumably there could be other decisions as well. There could be decisions related to someone’s ability to enter into a contractual agreement with the federal government. There are an almost infinite number of possibilities. My job is to try to prevent that and I think that’s something that the American people support,” said Lee.
Three Martini Lunch 12/19/13
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review are pleased to see Democrats saying Hillary Clinton will need to run as a Washington outsider who can change the way people perceive Washington – much as Pope Francis has changed the way people view the Vatican. They also unload on the free speech police for condemning the star of Duck Dynasty for views on homosexuality. And they rip liberal elitists who think it’s OK to lie to businesses to get bigger discounts.
Recipe for Heartache & Disaster
As the Senate moved towards final passage of the budget compromise, 33 Republicans staunchly oppose the plan, including Utah Sen. Mike Lee, who says the math just doesn’t work.
Three Martini Lunch 12/18/13
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review cheer the news that Utah Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson will retire, paying the way for a GOP pickup and a win for rising star Mia Love. They also worry that Dems may have a good chance to pick up a House seat in Virginia, now that Frank Wolf is retiring. And they react to Barbara Walters admitting Obama supporters really thought he was the next messiah.
Obamacare Misery Abounds
Despite recent assurances to the contrary, the federal health care exchange is still not transmitting the correct information to insurance companies and personal information is still at great risk.
Furthermore, the administration is now strongly urging insurance companies to provide coverage for people who have enrolled, even if they have paid none or only some of their first month’s premium.
On Monday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney tried to stress that the widely reported technical problems with healthcare.gov were largely a thing of the past when asked if people would actually have coverage by January 1.
“What I can tell you is that we are working overtime to make sure that every 834 form is accurate when it goes to the issues at the back end problems that existed. I think you’ve seen a lot of reporting on how those back end issues have been addressed and continue to be addressed,” said Carney.
“First of all, he’s talking in gobbledygook. How on earth are the American people, who are desperate about losing their health insurance, going to understand that answer, said Galen Institute President Grace-Marie Turner, who also rejected the notion that the problems getting accurate information to insurers are now solved.
Turner testified earlier this month before the House Ways & Means Health Subcommittee. She and the other panelists discussed the possibility of patients thinking they had coverage come January but not actually being insured because of the data problems.
“One member asked me, ‘What are the chances that’s going to happen to somebody?’ I said 100 percent. There are going to be people who think that they are covered. People who have filled out paper applications, there is no way that it’s physically possible to get those paper applications through the website and approved to get people to pay so that they are covered as of January 1,” said Turner.
She also says the problem stems from major technical holes in healthcare.gov.
“The part of the website where you check out and you put in your credit card information and you actually pay for what you have selected, that part of the site isn’t built yet. So insurance companies are having to bill directly and find the people. The forms are not accurate and don’t have all the information they need. They’re having to call individuals to try to get the information they need if they know who they are,” said Turner.
Some state exchanges are working better, but Oregon’s has not enrolled a single person and the District of Columbia exchange, where many congressional staffers are forced to enroll, has been found to withdraw two months worth of premiums from some bank accounts.
As a result of these many problems, the Obama administration is strongly urging insurance companies to provide coverage for patients, even if they have received no payments.
“It’s just outrageous. It is exactly like telling Amazon that if somebody has something in their shopping cart and they haven’t pressed ‘pay’ yet, send it to them anyway. That’s exactly what the administration is saying to the health insurance companies. ‘Pay for this care and trust us. We’ll pay you back later,'” said Turner.
“Even worse, the HHS regulations that ordered this are basically saying to the health insurance companies, ‘If you don’t comply, we may not allow you to participate in the exchanges in 2015.’ They could be kicked out if they don’t give away health care for free,” she said.
“It’s crazy. The administration is just desperate and it’s doing desperate things because they have created such a mess,” said Turner.
Three Martini Lunch 12/17/13
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review cheer a federal judge for calling the NSA’s massive data collection as unconstitutional and almost Orwellian. They also react to Jay Carney being unable to guarantee that people who pay pay their Obamacare premiums by Monday will have coverage on January 1. And they discuss the story of the highest paid EPA employee taking months off at a time and claiming he was with the CIA, when in fact he was just taking really long breaks.
Slowing the Police State
A federal judge on Monday declared the National Security Agency’s metadata gathering program “indiscriminate” and “arbitrary” and will likely be ruled unconstitutional.
Judge Richard Leon minced few words in denouncing the NSA’s strategy of gathering as much phone, internet and other data in case it’s ever needed as part of a criminal investigation.
“I cannot imagine a more ‘indiscriminate’ and ‘arbitrary invasion’ than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval,” said Judge Leon in his ruling on Klayman v. Obama. “Surely, such a program infringes on ‘that degree of privacy’ that the Founders enshrined in the Fourth Amendment.”
Leon further stated the NSA appeared to be engaging in a direct violation of the Fourth Amendment’s guarantee against unreasonable search and seizure, that the plaintiff would likely win on the merits and they had proven “irreparable damage”.
The ruling will not take effect anytime soon, however, since Leon is staying his own decision in anticipation of a Justice Department appeal to a higher court.
Nonetheless, Leon’s ruling has civil liberty champions very upbeat.
“I think it’s very significant because it’s very clear under the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment says that the government can’t do surveillance and a policeman can’t touch us unless they have actual evidence we’re doing something illegal,” said John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute and author of “A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State.”
Whitehead believes Judge Leon was too kind to the NSA in allowing the program to continue while the case is decided in higher courts, although he understands why Leon acted the way he did. Whitehead says it is vital for governments to have probable cause before gathering personal data on any American.
“If not, we’re back to the days of the general warrants, and that’s why we have a Fourth Amendment. The British would execute a general warrant and they would search everybody’s home to see if they could find something that someone was doing illegally,” said Whitehead, who noted Leon rejected the government’s argument that the metadata program clearly helped to foil many terrorist attacks.
“I think if the judge sticks to his guns and makes the NSA show some actual facts. If they’re alleging something, they should have to show the facts. If not, I think it is absolutely a clear violation of our rights,” said Whitehead.
“I think we need to slow this train down. I think the government knows if they have facts, they should be able to listen in and check out and see if there’s some kind of evidence showing a terrorist attack. But doing my phone messages and my text messages or yours, that’s clearly unconstitutional,” said Whitehead.
Whitehead is very confident that an examination of the NSA’s activity through the lens of the Fourth Amendment will yield a victory against the government, but he says that’s not necessarily how this case will ultimately be decided.
“It definitely depends on the judge you’re before. We’ve had cases with the TSA for example. We challenged some TSA policies over the body scanners and all the searches they were doing. The judge actually said he ruled in favor of the TSA because there was a secret order. No one ever saw the secret order,” said Whitehead.
“That’s the kind of instances we get into, but if we live in a secret police state, my feeling is that if the wrong person gets into power, people are going to get into a lot of trouble and historical regimes show that. I do hope that the right kind of judge hears this case and we stay very consistent with our constitutional freedoms,” he said.
Three Martini Lunch 12/16/13
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Betsy Woodruff of National Review discuss Bob Woodward’s contention that President Obama is toxic to congressional deals and Congress does much better without him. They also react to the government admitting that 15,000 people who paid their Obamacare premiums are nowhere to be found in the records of insurance companies. And they groan as Donald Trump creates another stir over a possible run for office – this time for governor of New York.