One other Obama scandal to watch

On top of everything else, the House Energy and Commerce Committee announced on Monday that it will probe Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ efforts to shake insurance companies down for cash, to help “educate” the public about the ObamaCare disaster it hates.

That would be the same ObamaCare that will employ the corrupt Internal Revenue Service as enforcers.  What else does anyone need to know about it?

Those congressional subcommittee hearing rooms are going to be steaming like short-order grills for the next few months.

 

REPORT: HEALTH PREMIUMS TO SOAR 400%…

It was all sold as a lie about costs from the beginning.

ObamaCare Costs To Zoom…

Internal cost estimates from 17 of the nation’s largest insurance companies indicate that health insurance premiums will grow an average of 100 percent under Obamacare, and that some will soar more than 400 percent, crushing the administration’s goal of affordability.

New regulations, policies, taxes, fees and mandates are the reason for the unexpected “rate shock,” according to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which released a report Monday based on internal documents provided by the insurance companies. The 17 companies include Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Kaiser Foundation.

So much for bending the cost curve down … ehhh! Nothing in life is ever free, no matter who is telling you the lies.

 

Markey: GOP’s climate-bill revision is downright “Orwellian”

Actually isn’t it Orwellian to try and pass off an obvious hoax as truth???

Did I misread that, or did an elected U.S. representative just refer Republicans’ efforts to scale back the Obama administration’s ever-encroaching regulatory “climate change” regime as “Orwellian”? Because, correct me if I’m wrong, but…

Or·well·i·an

[awr-wel-ee-uhn]

adjective

of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or resembling the literary work of George Orwell  or the totalitarian future described in his antiutopian novel 1984  (1949).

As in Green is the new Red …and it seems to me that the only thing “Orwellian” here is the rate at which President Obama has increased the federal government’s regulatory authority, most specifically by catering to environmentalist special interests and expanding the power and scope of the Environmental Protection Agency. From The Hill:

A liberal Democrat says House Republicans have summoned the spirit of George Orwell’s 1984 by dropping language about climate change from their bill to thwart regulations that affect the coal industry.

“I am not surprised that House Republicans would decide to throw any reference to climate change down a legislative Orwellian memory hole. This has been the most anti-environmental House in history,” said Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. …

The bill to block climate rules, sponsored by Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), has now been rolled into a larger package to curtail White House policies that Republicans contend will harm coal mining and coal-fired power generation.

It takes aim at a number of other Environmental Protection Agency air pollution rules; restricts planned EPA rules governing management and disposal of coal ash, a waste product from coal plants; and restricts potential Interior Department rules on coal-mining wastes; among other provisions.

Yes, the environmentalist movement has long since infiltrated the federal bureaucracy, is steadily and exponentially presenting more barriers to economic growth, and is systematically killing off jobs and entire industries it has oh-so-wisely and magnanimously decided it doesn’t like, all at the cost of making Americans and the world poorer and choking off innovation; but the free marketeers are the ones who are being Orwellian.

Riddle me this, Rep. Markey….

Ahead of election, House Republicans set for aggressive push against Obama

The House Judiciary Committee plans to storm back into Washington, D.C. as Congress comes out of its summer recess with a Wednesday morning hearing examining President Barack Obama’s “abuse of power.”

It’s the latest attempt by House Republicans to take an aggressive stance against the Obama administration in the final weeks ahead of the election.

The House Ways and Means Committee is drilling into how the Treasury Department terminated the pensions of 20,000 non-union Delphi salaried retirees during the 2009 auto bailout. House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa remains intent as ever on his quest for justice in the Operation Fast and Furious scandal. And, House Energy and Commerce committee Republicans are planning on continuing to draw attention to the failures of Obama’s green energy programs – with emphasis on Solyndra — as they’re moving forward with new “No More Solyndras” legislation.

According to Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee, who is scheduled to visit the House side and testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, the hearing has a packed agenda aimed at confronting the Obama administration over its “unconstitutional” uses of power.

Among other things, Lee’s office said in a release forwarding information that was provided by the House Judiciary Committee, the hearing will focus in part on the president’s “prosecutorial discretion” — or administrative DREAM Act — immigration policies
.

‘No More Solyndras’ Act

At least the Republicans are trying to stop the treasury raids by Obama and his looney energy policies. The stupidity of it all, kickbacks to donors, just throwing taxpayer money at problems does not work. It has to stop. Obama is turning America into a third world country, with loans like these …

The crony capitalism involved in the Obama administration’s Solyndra scandal that left taxpayers on the hook for a half billion dollars in government-backed loans must not be allowed to be repeated, Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., tells Newsmax.TV.

“The title of the bill is ‘No More Solyndras’ and it has three major components,”

Stearns said.

“The first is, we do away with the program so no more loan guarantees like this can occur. The second thing is we make sure there are no more subordinations so that the Department of Energy can’t bring in, for example, hedge funds and permit them to get access to taxpayers’ funds and taxpayers are no longer part of the process.”

With the increasing federal deficit, it’s time to start examining where taxpayer money is going and how it is being spent. Republicans have targeted the Department of Energy’s questionable loan programs for renewable energy companies with the ‘No More Solyndras’ Act. The DOE program began at the end of the Bush administration, but under the Obama stimulus it exploded, with $47 billion more in loan granting authority.  The DOE loan guarantee problem lies in the fact that there has been little to no oversight and monitoring of the loans and how the money was being spent. Even worse, there is no definitive reason as to why certain companies were chosen for the loans in the first place.

The ‘No More Solyndra Act’, introduced in the U.S House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee by committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) would disband the loan program, stop the Energy Department from issuing any loan guarantees for applications received after 2011, and set new guidelines and standards for applications and loans already awarded. Under the ‘No More Solyndras Act’, all loan guarantees under DOE consideration must be reviewed by the Treasury Department before awarded. This draft bill also states that if the Department of Energy chooses to make a guarantee against the Treasury’s decision, they must submit a report to Congress detailing their decision. ‘No More Solyndras’ also mandates that the DOE consult with the Treasury Department if any loan guarantees require restructuring. The draft bill also calls for the prevention of “subordination” of the taxpayers to private investors. This last point is in reference to the fact that in past cases the Department of Energy put private investors ahead of taxpayers in terms of being repaid in the case of a bankruptcy. This Act also calls for an economic analysis to be run on each individual company to ensure their project is viable. Investigations by various organizations and agencies have found that many loan guarantees were pushed through even after the DOE suggested pulling the companies funding.

It is not that renewable energy doesn’t deserve a chance to compete with natural gas and other forms of energy, but it does need to compete fairly. Right now we are throwing billions of dollars in loans, grants, and subsidies at an industry that cannot effectively compete on its won’t. Even with DOE throwing billions of taxpayer funds into alternative energy companies their profitability and competitiveness is falling. Until the technology is there to effectively, efficiently, and affordably produce renewable energy, we need to stop wasting the taxes paid by hard working Americans that result in jobless, bankrupt companies.

A draft of the ‘No More Solyndras’ Act passed the Energy and Power House subcommittee yesterday and is expected to come to a full committee hearing and vote soon.  If passed it will receive a bill number and be introduced to the House of Representatives, where Stearns (R-Fla.) hopes a vote will occur before the August recess.

Freedom works report.

Democrat Global Warming Hoaxers Demand Capitol Hill Hearing

The fires were mostly lightening caused, with some human fire starters involved. The fire detective will figure it out.

How about we figure out what happened to Al Gore’s warm blanket, around earth’s equator.

You know, when it snows, there are no hearings.

Via The Hill, which gets the headline right: “Dems use wildfires to call for hearings on climate change.”

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), a top House Democrat, is urging the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Republican majority to hold a hearing that explores links between climate change and extreme weather.

The request, spelled out in a letter Friday, is a sign that Democrats and environmentalists hope to translate the recent record-setting heatwaves into political momentum for efforts to battle global warming.

It asks Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) to convene a hearing “on the recent wildfires and extreme weather events the United States has experienced and the role global climate change played in these events.”

Waxman, the committee’s top Democrat, notes that Republicans have declined repeated requests over the past year to hold hearings on climate science.

How about a hearing on how Obama bureaucrats canceled crucial aerial tanker contracts, which was spotlighted on June 20?

How about a hearing on how Clinton-era roadless regulations have increased wildfire risks in Colorado and across the West?

How about a hearing on how critical air support sat grounded while the fires raged?

Nope. Can’t have reality-based factors intrude on Inquisitor Henry Waxman’s narrative. The Dems’ actual goal isn’t truth or accountability, after all. It’s Green Kabuki Theater.

Time to feed the hoax, the snows have gone. One thing to consider, there is no way to stop the next glaciation period. It’s been part of Earth’s climate change ever since plate tectonics closed off the Panama ocean circulation. That happened about 3 plus million years ago, and snow-ball earth has happened every 100,000 years or so. What are we going to do when 1000s of feet of ice are advancing on New York city. It will happen.

The Truth Has No Agenda: Top Democrat Waxman: “The Economy Has Not Recovered… I Think It’s a Depression”

Locally there have been construction projects, yes that’s private construction that shuttered within six months of Obama taking office. The rusting steel beams are still sitting there, years later. All the contractors did was move there tools offsite, to where I don’t know.

But now it’s spreading. The truth about our doing fine is now permeating everywhere. But Rep Waxman? Who knew.

After three years of hope-and-change this is what we get…

A trillion dollar deficit, a $16 trillion national debt and a depression.

Even top Democrats admit Barack Obama’s economic policies failed. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) told CSPAN today, “The economy has not recovered… I think it’s a depression.”

And, just think, that’s before the ObamaTax kicks in on the middle class!

ObamaCare: Emails Reveal Secret Obamacare Deal With Drug Companies

Well image that, secret under the cover deals being made with drug companies, to get their support of Obamacare. And why didn’t we know this before they voted? hmm, I think you know.

One of the recent developments, the drug companies were in bed with the administration, just hidden from the people.

House Republicans releasing emails and documents on dealings between the White House and the drug industry before the national health care law’s passage.

Yet months into his presidency, Obama cut a deal with Tauzin’s lobbying group, and did so behind closed doors – a violation of his pledge to broadcast all health care negotiations on C-SPAN. And to tell the truth also … something sorely lacking with our Barrack Huessein Kardasian President.

To protect the drug companies profits, drug re-importation never made it into the final legislation. And you pay and pay some more to the what you thought was Obama evil big company’s. Nope it’s just the way crony capitalism is supposed to work.

Read the GOP memo and supporting emails here.

The dirty deals surfaces:

White House on Solyndra layoffs: ‘No es bueno’

Just a few days before the 2010 mid-term elections, the White House knew that things were going very badly for taxpayer-backed solar-panel firm Solyndra, newly released internal emails show.

The emails, part of a document dump late Friday, showed a White House aide wrote on Oct. 27, 2010, to the then-director of energy and climate change policy.

“Here’s the deal — Solyndra is going to announce they are laying off 200 of their 1200 workers. No es bueno,” aide Heather Zichal wrote.

Second Energy Department-backed company goes bankrupt

Massachusetts company that received a $43 million Energy Department loan guarantee last year filed for bankruptcy Sunday, a step certain to fuel criticism of federal green energy financing in the wake of the solar company Solyndra’s collapse.

The Hill reports:

Beacon Power Corp., which develops energy storage systems, filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.

Beacon Power had received federal loan guarantee to help build an energy storage plant in Stephentown, New York that began operating in January. The Treasury Department’s Federal Financing Bank provided the loan.

Beacon sought bankruptcy protection two days after the White House ordered an independent 60-day evaluation of the Energy Department’s loan programs aimed at ensuring effective management and monitoring.