Sunday, March 2, 2014

Issa, House GOP investigative committee say Lerner will testify in IRS scandal hearing


Former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner, a central figure in the IRS scandal, will appear before Congress on Wednesday after refusing to testify last year on the matter, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said Sunday.
Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, told “Fox News Sunday” that Lerner’s lawyers have indicated she will testify before his committee, after saying last week that she would not.
“It’s going to be a good, fact-finding hearing,” he said.
Issa said he didn’t know why Lerner’s lawyers changed their mind, but suggested Lerner testifying was “in her best interest,” considering the recent evidence the committee had gathered.
Later in the day, Lerner attorney William W. Taylor disputed Issa’s claim, saying his client would not testify.
“As of now, she intends to continue to assert her Fifth Amendment rights,” Taylor told Politico. “I do not know why Issa said what he said.”
Taylor’s statement was follow by a release from the oversight committee that stated Taylor had confirmed in writing that his client is willing to testify but wants to delay the hearing by one week.
“We have informed Mr. Taylor that Ms. Lerner may make her request for a delay on Wednesday when she appears for the hearing,” said committee spokesman Frederick Hill.
Issa and Lerner’s attorneys also have argued about whether she is protected under the Fifth Amendment from having to testify.
In May 2013, Lerner invoked the amendment right during her first-and-only appearance before the House committee, but only after she said during an opening statement that she broke no laws.
Lerner resigned last year from her post as the agency’s director of tax-exempt organizations.
The House committee continues to investigate the IRS in its 2012 targeting of Tea Party groups and other politically conservative organizations trying to get tax-exempt status.
Congressional investigators are trying to determine who exactly gave the orders for IRS agents to target the groups.
Issa said Sunday that Lerner was “in a powerful position and could have been acting alone.” Congressional documents also suggest that she was under political pressure to orchestrate the targeting.
However, safeguards against such situations should have been in place and Congress should work to put in “more checks and balances,” he also said.
Last week, Lerner attorney William Taylor said his client would testify on Capitol Hill only if compelled by a federal court or if given immunity for the testimony.
Taylor stated his position in a letter to Issa. He was responding to a letter Tuesday from Issa saying, in part, that Lerner’s testimony remains “critical to the committee’s investigation.”

Disincentivizing Work and Hurting Seniors: The Reality of Obama's Agenda

As we enter March, the nightmare that is Obamacare continues to seek and destroy the pocketbooks of hardworking Americans.
Just recently, Americans have learned that the law will "reduce the American workforce by the equivalent of 2 million full-time workers in 2017," according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office.
The Obama Administration, quick to dismiss the CBO's report, said it is "subject to misinterpretation." However, President Obama has previously cited the CBO to generate support for his healthcare bill, and subsequently warned about those who "now suddenly are ignoring what the CBO says."
Strange how the Obama Administration's support for the non-partisan office simply vanished once it was determined that Obamacare "creates a disincentive to work."
We have also learned other ways that Obamacare negatively impacts the employment outlook in this country. For starters, a small business owner recently profiled in The Wall Street Journal said that "she doesn't plan to hire more workers since it would create an administrative burden for eventually complying with the law."
Additionally, The New York Times reported last week that "Cities, counties, public schools and community colleges around the country have limited or reduced the work hours of part-time employees to avoid having to provide them with health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, state and local officials say."
These stories offer a glimpse into how the Affordable Care Act is really affecting everyday Americans' employment opportunities; even if Harry Reid thinks these stories are "untrue."
These data have demonstrated that the Obama Administration does not deserve the American people's trust when it comes to healthcare, and this dupery is found in their policies towards America's seniors as well.
As former CBO Director (there's that pesky CBO again!) Douglas Holtz-Eakin recently chronicled, "Obamacare financed its assault on existing insurance arrangements in part by $156 billion over 10 years in direct cuts to Medicare Advantage plans."
This is bad news for America's seniors.
Per Holtz-Eakin's group, the American Action Forum, millions of seniors will be subject to plan cancellations, fewer plan options, higher premiums, reduced doctor networks and higher overall out-of-pocket costs for Medicare benefits as a result of these cuts.
Seniors will be exposed to even more risk from the disruption caused by President Obama to Medicare Part D. Milliman recently calculated that "Up to 50% of Part D plan choices may be eliminated or materially changed during 2015 and 2016 based on provisions in the Proposed Rule using assumptions derived from survey responses."
It's not fair to American seniors that their healthcare is raided by the Left in order to help pay for the failed program that is Obamacare. The disastrous policy ideas from liberals have shown that they don't work in real life. Here we have a great opportunity for conservatives to show the American people smart policy that helps lowers costs, improves access and actually helps their everyday lives.
Follow John Murray on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jmurraydc

Key vote postponed for controversial Justice nominee Adegbile


The Senate has postponed a key vote Monday on the controversial nominee to head the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department, Fox News has learned.
Supporters of nominee Debo Adegbile would have needed a simple majority of 51 votes Monday to clear the way for a final vote. But the procedural vote was canceled because of a snowstorm forecast for Monday, the same day most Capitol Hill lawmakers return from their home states.
The vote has been rescheduled for midday Tuesday. If Adegbile clears the procedural vote then, after another short debate, a final vote in which he would again only need a simple majority of 51 votes to be confirmed will take place.
Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., joined others in his concern about Adegbile’s support for convicted Philadelphia cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Adegbile is facing criticism for his role in 2009 in getting Abu-Jamal's 1981 death sentence overturned during his time as acting director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. 
“The vicious murder of Officer [Daniel] Faulkner in the line of duty and the events that followed in the 30 years since his death has left open wounds,” Casey said Friday. “After carefully considering this nomination and having met with both Mr. Adegbile as well as the Fraternal Order of Police, I will not vote to confirm the nominee.”
Adegbile's death sentence has been commuted but he remains in prison.
Widow Maureen Faulkner told Fox News she is gratified at the decision by Casey to vote against the nomination of Adegbile and that she plans to continue to lobby members of the Senate to take a similar stand.
Among the others who have expressed their objection to the nomination is GOP Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey.
“The murder was not a random street crime,” Toomey and Philadelphia District Attorney R. Seth Williams recently wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece. “Abu-Jamal was an ardent supporter of the "MOVE" organization -- a racist, anarchist group founded in Philadelphia in 1972. The group's radical positions included encouraging violence against police.”

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