Sanders Clinton Cartoon

Senate report: Illegal immigrants benefited from up to $750M in ObamaCare subsidies

Illegal immigrants and individuals with unclear legal status wrongly benefited from up to $750 million in ObamaCare subsidies and the government is struggling to recoup the money, according to a new Senate report obtained by Fox News.
The report, produced by Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, examined Affordable Care Act tax credits meant to defray the cost of insurance premiums. It found that as of June 2015, “the Administration awarded approximately $750 million in tax credits on behalf of individuals who were later determined to be ineligible because they failed to verify their citizenship, status as a national, or legal presence.”
The review found the credits went to more than 500,000 people – who are illegal immigrants or whose legal status was unclear due to insufficient records.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services confirmed to FoxNews.com on Monday that 471,000 customers with 2015 coverage failed to produce proper documentation on their citizenship or immigration status on time – but stressed that this does not necessarily mean they’re ineligible.
“Lack of verification does not mean an individual is ineligible for financial assistance, but only that a Marketplace did not receive sufficient information to verify eligibility in the time period outlined in the law,” CMS spokesman Aaron Albright said.
The Senate report also accused the administration of lacking a solid plan to get that money back – and predicted that in the end, the IRS will be “unable to fully recoup the funds.”
“The information provided to the Committee by the IRS and HHS reveals a troubling lack of coordination between the two agencies ... and demonstrates that the IRS and HHS neglected to consider how they would recover these wasteful payments,” the report says.
Under the law, the feds can dole out these payments on a temporary basis if a recipient’s legal status is unclear, but are supposed to cut off funding and coverage if the recipient does not later come up with the paperwork. Up to a half-million “ineligible” people, according to the report, applied in this way -- with their credits paid in advance to the insurers. The IRS, though, is supposed to get overpayments back from the individuals themselves.
The Senate report, based on a review launched by committee Chairman Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., derisively describes this approach as “pay and chase.”
In other words, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services pays credits and subsidies to the insurance companies on behalf of the applicants – and the feds then “chase” after any overpayments to ineligible people once they are discovered.
“This ‘pay and chase’ model has potentially cost taxpayers approximately $750 million,” the report says. The 500,000 individuals in question have been removed from coverage, according to the findings, as the government seeks to get the money back.
The Senate report says the IRS and HHS initially failed to coordinate on a plan for recouping funds, and claimed that a subsequent plan from the IRS to recoup the money is still “ineffective and insufficient.”
In a July letter to Johnson, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen assured that the agency is “committed to identifying and efficiently addressing” improper payments. He reiterated that anyone “not lawfully present” who enrolls for ObamaCare coverage “must repay” the advance premium credit payments, and would be breaking the law if they don’t.

Wife of ISIS leader charged in US in death of American hostage Kayla Mueller

WASHINGTON –  The wife of a senior Islamic State leader who was killed in a U.S. raid last year has been charged in federal court with holding American Kayla Mueller hostage and with contributing to the aid worker's death, the Justice Department said Monday.
Nisreen Assad Ibrahim Bahar, also known as Umm Sayyaf, admitted after her capture last May that she and her husband kept Mueller captive along with several other young female hostages, according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case. U.S. officials have said that while in custody, Mueller was repeatedly forced to have sex with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State group
The criminal complaint, filed in federal court in Virginia, charges Umm Sayyaf with conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terror organization, resulting in death.
The case comes one year after Mueller was confirmed dead by her family and the Obama administration, though it's not clear when or if Umm Sayyaf will be brought to the U.S. to stand trial. The 25-year-old Iraqi woman, who was captured last year, is currently in Iraqi custody and facing prosecution there. Her husband, Abu Sayyaf, a former Islamic State minister for oil and gas, was killed last May in a Delta Force raid of his compound.
"We fully support the Iraqi prosecution of Sayyaf and will continue to work with the authorities there to pursue our shared goal of holding Sayyaf accountable for her crimes," Assistant Attorney General John Carlin, head of the Justice Department's national security division, said in a statement. "At the same time, these charges reflect that the U.S. justice system remains a powerful tool to bring to bear against those who harm our citizens abroad. We will continue to pursue justice for Kayla and for all American victims of terrorism."
Mueller, from Prescott, Arizona, was taken hostage with her boyfriend, Omar Alkhani, in August 2013 after leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, Syria, where he had been hired to fix the Internet service for the hospital. Mueller had begged him to let her tag along because she wanted to do relief work in the war-ravaged country. Alkhani was released after two months, having been beaten.
According to the FBI affidavit, Mueller was transferred in September 2014 along with several other female captives from an Islamic State prison to the Sayyafs. The couple at times handcuffed the captives, kept them in locked rooms, dictated orders about their activities and movements and showed them violent Islamic State propaganda videos.
After her capture last year, according to the affidavit, Umm Sayyaf admitted she was responsible for Mueller's captivity while her husband traveled for Islamic State business.
The Justice Department's case echoes earlier assertions from U.S. intelligence officials, who had told Mueller's family that their daughter was repeatedly forced to have sex with al-Baghdadi.
According to the affidavit, Umm Sayyaf said that al-Baghadi would occasionally stay at her home and that he "owned" Mueller during those visits, which the FBI says was akin to slavery.
A Yazidi teenager who was held with Mueller and escaped in October 2014 said al-Baghdadi took Mueller as a "wife," repeatedly raping her when he visited. The 14-year-old Yazidi girl made her way to Iraqi Kurdistan, where she talked to U.S. commandos in November 2014. Intelligence agencies corroborated her account and American officials passed it on to Mueller's parents in June 2015.

Bill Clinton ramps up attacks on Sanders as NH primary nears

Bill Clinton has transformed from grandfatherly statesman to attack dog in a matter of days, aggressively going after Bernie Sanders on the campaign trail as the Vermont senator poses a rising threat to Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton's bid.
“When you’re making a revolution, you can’t be too careful about the facts,” Clinton said at a Milford, N.H., event Sunday, a swipe at Sanders’ call for political upheaval.
He followed up Monday at an event at Manchester Community College,  accusing Sanders of demonizing anyone who disagrees with him.
“We can’t get in a place where we’re so mad that we demonize anyone who is against us, where we can’t have an honest discussion about health care, where anyone who is on the other side is part of a mystical ‘establishment,’” Clinton said.
The tone marks an abrupt change from how the former president has conducted himself on the stump so far. Until this past weekend, his remarks largely were limited to talking about his wife’s biography, punctuated by tales of their dating life and how she has made everything she touches better.
But with New Hampshire's primary just days away and Sanders holding a strong lead, the former president's role has changed.
At Sunday’s event, Clinton painted Sanders as a foolhardy candidate whose proposals aren’t paid for and whose supporters include misogynists.
“People who have gone online to defend Hillary and explain why they supported her, have been subject to attacks that are literally too profane often, not to mention sexist, to repeat,” Clinton said.
Sanders has since disavowed such attacks against Clinton, saying “it's disgusting.”
On health care, Clinton accused Sanders of not having a plan that was properly accounted for.
“The New Hampshire I campaigned in really cared that you knew what you were doing, and how it was paid for,” Clinton said.
“For 20 years, Hillary’s opponent had a different plan, which he called single payer but it’s really 51 payer as states have to pay 14 percent of it,” Clinton said, before accusing Sanders of dropping the plan within 48 hours after he was questioned about it.
“Is [that] good for America? I don’t think so.” Clinton said.
Bill’s barbs have allowed the former secretary of state to take a softer stance against Sanders, telling supporters in Manchester that “Senator Sanders and I share a lot of the same goals,” before saying the difference between the two is the ability to get things done.
“I haven’t just talked, I haven’t just given speeches, I’ve passed legislation,” she said.
The former president’s latest barbs have echoes of 2008, when Clinton acted as attack dog against then-Sen. Barack Obama. Criticizing Obama’s claims on his Iraq war stance, Clinton called it the “biggest fairy tale” -- a put-down that was interpreted as a broad-brush slam on Obama’s quest to become the country’s first black president.
Later in South Carolina, Clinton got the name “hatchet man” for his attacks on Obama.

Republican governors make possible last stand in NH primary as voting begins

Residents of three small New Hampshire towns cast their ballots in the Granite State's first-in-the-nation presidential primary just after midnight Tuesday, kicking off what could be a make-or-break day for several Republican campaigns. 
With votes in from residents of Dixville Notch, Millsfield and Hart's Landing, the GOP race was a three-way tie. Businessman Donald Trump, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz each had nine votes. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie followed with three votes, while Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and former Florida governor Jeb Bush each had two. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former HP CEO Carly Fiorina each garnered one vote.
On the Democratic side, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders led former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by 17 votes to nine.
In a statistical oddity, the candidate who receives a plurality of the Republican vote in Dixville Notch (population: 12) has been the GOP nominee in every election cycle since 1968. This year, Kasich won the town's vote, 3-2, over Trump.
With Trump leading by double digits in most New Hampshire polls, the big question entering the primary was whether the relentless attacks against Rubio during and after Saturday night’s Republican debate would be enough bring the surging freshman Florida senator back to the pack in the race for second place.
The three top current and former governors in the GOP race – Christie, Bush and Kasich -- were shut out of the top spots in last week's Iowa Caucuses and are now fighting to mount a comeback in New Hampshire.
Christie, for his part, has been unrelenting in questioning Rubio’s readiness and authenticity. At Saturday’s debate, he slammed the senator for repeatedly reciting anti-Obama “talking points”. He repeated the criticism Monday night in an appearance on Fox News' "The Kelly File".
"You can't repeat the same thing over and over again," Christie said. "[Is Rubio] going to do that sitting across from [Russian President] Vladimir Putin? There's no substance there."
"He's a nice guy, he has talent," Christie continued," [But] he's too young, too inexperienced and he has served not one day in a position of management in his entire life."
Rubio, though, has dug in and continued to repeat his criticism of President Obama that drew Christie’s scorn.
"People said, 'Oh, you said the same thing three or four times.' I'm going to say it again," Rubio said Monday in Londonderry.
“As far as that message, I hope they keep running it. And I'm going to keep saying it because it's true," Rubio said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” "Barack Obama … said he wanted to change the country. He's doing it in a way that is robbing us of everything that is special.”
Speaking on Fox News, Bush said he’s also going to continue taking on front-runner Trump, as he did during Saturday’s debate.
“He’s not a conservative; he doesn’t have the temperament to be president and whenever I have the chance to describe what I think about him, I’m gonna do it,” Bush said Monday
Bush hammered Trump on Saturday for his broad support of eminent domain – and Trump's past attempt to use it to take a woman’s property for a project in Atlantic City. During that dispute, Trump tried to “shush” Bush, but was booed by the audience.
Bush pointed to that exchange in questioning how Trump would do in a general election race.
“You think he’s gonna shush Hillary Clinton?” Bush said. “He would lose.”
Trump saved his harshest attacks Monday for Bush as well as Cruz, who bested him in Iowa. When an audience member at a rally in Manchester shouted out an insult directed at Cruz — a vulgar term for "coward" — Trump repeated the term and jokingly reprimanded the woman.
Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler responded via email, saying, "Let's not forget who whipped who in Iowa."
"Jeb is having some kind of a breakdown, I think," Trump told CNN Monday, calling Bush, the son and brother of presidents, a spoiled child and an embarrassment to his family. "I think it's a very sad situation that's taking place."
Kasich, meanwhile, has taken a less confrontational approach in the race, casting himself as a uniting force and touting his economic record as governor. The Ohio governor has seemingly pinned his hopes on New Hampshire and said Sunday he’s going in strong – while stressing he also has substantial resources on the ground in states like South Carolina and Nevada.
Kasich also criticized Jeb Bush over an online video that criticized Kasich for expanding Medicare and what the Bush campaign called his "liberal record" in Ohio compared to Bush's two terms as Florida governor.
"I'm really disappointed in Jeb," Kasich told "The Kelly File". "It's, look, I mean, he's taken the very low road to the highest office in the land, and he's been negative all along, but that's okay."
Carson and Fiorina also are looking to do better than they did in Iowa, but have struggled to even break into the middle tier in Granite State polling.