Party of the rich: In Congress, it's the Democrats

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are the party of the rich, right? It's a label that has stuck for decades, and you're hearing it again as Democrats complain about GOP opposition to raising the minimum wage and extending unemployment benefits.

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But in Congress, the wealthiest among us are more likely to be represented by a Democrat than a Republican. Of the 10 richest House districts, only two have Republican congressmen. Democrats claim the top six, sprinkled along the East and West coasts. Most are in overwhelmingly Democratic states like New York and California.

The richest: New York's 12th Congressional District, which includes Manhattan's Upper East Side, as well as parts of Queens and Brooklyn. Democrat Carolyn Maloney is in her 11th term representing the district.

Per capita income in Maloney's district is $75,479. That's more than $75,000 a year for every man, woman and child. The next highest income district, which runs along the southern California coast, comes in at $61,273. Democrat Henry Waxman is in his 20th term representing the Los Angeles-area district.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco district comes in at No. 8.
Across the country, Democratic House districts have an average per capita income of $27,893. That's about $1,000 higher than the average income in Republican districts. The difference is relatively small because Democrats also represent a lot of poor districts, putting the average in the middle.
Democrats say the "party of the rich" label is more about policies than constituents.

During the 2012 presidential election, Republican nominee Mitt Romney declared, "We're not the party of the rich. We're the party of the people who want to get rich."

The famously wealthy Romney also uttered a more famous quote about the 47 percent of Americans who pay no federal income tax.

"My job is not to worry about those people," Romney said in a secretly taped speech at a private fundraiser. "I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

In the election, Romney carried only one income group: people making $100,000 or more, according to exit polls. But when it comes to Congress, the rich districts like their Democrats.

The 10 richest House districts:

___

New York 12

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Democrat

Per capita income: $75,479

___

California 33

Rep. Henry Waxman, Democrat

Per capita income: $61,273

___

New York 10
Rep. Jerry Nadler, Democrat
Per capita income: $56,138
___
California 18
Rep. Anna Eshoo, Democrat
Per capita income: $ 54,182
___
Connecticut 4
Rep. Jim Himes, Democrat
Per capita income: $50,732
___
Virginia 8
Rep. Jim Moran, Democrat

Per capita income: $50,210

___

New Jersey 7

Rep. Leonard Lance, Republican
Per capita income: $48,556
___
California 12

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Democrat

Per capita income: $48,523

___

New York 3

Rep. Steve Israel, Democrat

Per capita income: $47,991

___

Virginia 10

Rep. Frank Wolf, Republican

Per capita income: $47,281

___

Source: Census Bureau.

Debate over ObamaCare far from over as signup deadline nears

           The deadline to sign up for ObamaCare is Monday, but the roiling, years-long debate about enrollment numbers and practically every other aspect of President Obama’s signature health care law appears far from over in this politically-charged election year.
The White House said Thursday that more than 6 million Americans have signed up for private insurance plans since October 1 through the federal and state ObamaCare exchanges -- a major accomplishment toward the White House’s goal of 7 million enrollees by March 31, considering the disastrous start.
On Sunday, ObamaCare supporters were on television championing the law’s recent successes, particularly the late-enrollment surges, including 1.2 million visitors Saturday to the federal site.
“The law's working,” said White House senior adviser David Plouffe. “This was a seminal achievement.”
But as Plouffe told ABC’s “This Week” the number was really closer to 10 million when including Medicaid and children's health-care signups as well as Americans who went directly to private insurance companies, Republicans continued to question those numbers and why others have not been made public.
“They are cooking the books on this,” Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, told “Fox News Sunday.”
Beyond questioning the publicly-announced numbers, Barrasso and fellow Republicans want to know why the administration has not released such information as whether premium costs will increase when enrollment resumes Nov. 15, and on how many younger Americans have enrolled to cover the health care costs of older enrollees. Other questions include how many enrollees have paid for their insurance premiums; will people be forced out of insurance deemed sub-standard by ObamaCare; will people be allowed to keep their doctors; and how many of enrollees were previously uninsured, consider a major goal of the law was to help them.
Barrasso’s seemingly hard-hitting remarks were in fact nothing new for Republicans, who have opposed the Affordable Care Act since Obama proposed it in 2008 and have since fought to both repeal the law, signed by Obama in 2010, and punish the Democrats who have supported it.
The relentless attacks appear to have taken their toll, despite what Democrats say.
“I think the Republican playbook of just repeal ObamaCare, repeal ObamaCare, repeal ObamaCare gets tougher as more and more people get health care,” Plouffe said Sunday. “I think smart Republicans understand that.”
However, the real possibility that Republicans will win six seats in November to take control of the Senate is largely the result of several incumbent Senate Democrats having to defend their support for ObamaCare.
And a Fox New poll released last week showed 56 percent of Americans surveyed oppose the law, compared to 40 percent who support it, numbers consistent with polls by The Associated Press and others.
Beyond the Republicans' repeated predictions that ObamaCare would be a drag on the entire economy, particularly on job-creating small businesses, the law’s first real problems began on October 1, the start of enrollment, when the high volume of prospective customers exposed glitches in the federal and several state websites, resulting in crashes, delays, lost applications, misinformation and a variety of other problems.
Though an all-out, 24-hour-a-day intervention finally got the federal site working several weeks later, several of the 17 state-run sites – particularly Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon and Vermont -- never fully recovered.
Early projections for those five states were to sign up a combined 800,000 Americans for private health insurance coverage by March 31, 11 percent of the Obama administration's original target for national enrollment.
Yet with just one day to go before the six-month enrollment period ends, achieving 25 percent of that target would be considered a success.
Officials in those states have botched their handling of the process so badly that they already are looking beyond Monday's deadline to the next enrollment period starting in November.
Overseers of Nevada Health Link, for example, have called that state's program a "full failure" and a "catastrophe."
Though the overall 6 million-plus number is close to the initial projection by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Republicans and other ObamaCare critics point out that the president has made dozens of changes to the law through waivers, deadline extensions and other executive actions including some that appear to go beyond the scope of his powers.
The most recent came Wednesday with the White House announcing that Americans who have unsuccessfully tried to enroll by March 31 now have until mid-April.
While Obama has aggressively sought out 18- to 34-year-olds, some of the more recent reports show most of the enrollees are 35 and older.
Yet the bigger question is perhaps whether the law has indeed helped insure at least some of the estimated 48 million Americans who previously did not have insurance or couldn’t get it because of a pre-existing condition.
The most recent finding by the often-cited McKinsey & Company show 27 percent of enrollees were previously uninsured and that roughly 75 percent of those who signed up for private insurance under ObamaCare have paid their premiums.
Five Senate Democrats including Mark Warner of Virginia, in a possible attempt to help themselves in difficult races, last week proposed fixes to ObamaCare.
In addition, Angus King, Independent-Maine, acknowledged on “Fox News Sunday” that the administration needs to be more transparent about the numbers and told Barrasso that he would co-sponsor legislation with him “so people can know exactly who is covered and who is not covered by the various policy options.”
Barrasso told Fox News: “What Angus is offering in his legislation only nibbles around the edges. It doesn't get to the fundamental flaws of the president's health care law. The Democrats are unnerved. .. I've looked at this 10 different ways. This health care law is not fixable.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Nuclear

GOP donors reportedly working to draft Jeb Bush for 2016 presidential run

     A group of top Republican donors have reportedly begun an intense effort to draft former Florida governor Jeb Bush into the race for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016.
A Washington Post report quotes one major donor as saying that the "vast majority" of the top 100 givers to 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney would back Bush in a nomination fight. 
The report also claims that a hard press has begun to get Bush into the race because conservative leaders and longtime Republican operatives are concerned about the electoral viability of New Jersey governor Chris Christie and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. Christie's standing and poll numbers, both nationally and among Republicans, have been damaged by the ongoing investigation into whether he knew of access lane closures to the George Washington Bridge ordered by his staff as apparent political retaliation. 
On the other hand, Paul's libertarian views on matters like surveillance by the National Security Agency and his perceived softness on foreign policy has also raised red flags in the GOP establishment. Paul's victories in straw polls at the Conservative Political Action Conference and the Northeast Republican Leadership Conference earlier this month may also have been a factor in the renewed push for a Bush candidacy. 
Earlier this week, Bush met privately with casino magnate and GOP donor Sheldon Adelson and addressed the Republican Jewish Coalition's senior members at a dinner held Thursday at Adelson's company airport hangar. The Post, citing a donor in attendance at the dinner, reported that the crowd of about 60 guests applauded when one told Bush, "I hope you run for President in 2016."
Bush, the brother of former President George W. Bush and the son of former President George H.W. Bush, served two terms as governor of Florida between 1999 and 2007. After leaving office, his name was put forward as a possible Senate candidate in 2010 and a presidential candidate in 2012. However, despite the rumors, Bush has remained out of political life.
Bush's advisers told The Post that the former governor was not actively exploring a candidacy and would not make a decision on running until the end of this year.

BEYOND REPAIR: Maryland expected to ditch $125M ObamaCare exchange

 A NEW REPORT SAYS Maryland will abandon its glitch-ridden ObamaCare website and replace the health exchange using technology from Connecticut's marketplace, with Gov. Martin O'Malley saying an announcement will be made next week on the future of the exchange.

Krauthammer: Obama's More Miss America Than World Leader on Russia

President Obama’s foreign policy naïveté is more like a Miss America contestant than the leader of the free world, says The Washington Post's Charles Krauthammer.
Under Vladimir Putin, Russia has "run rings" around the United States, "from the attempted ingratiation of the 'reset' to America’s empty threats of 'consequences' were Russia to annex Crimea," Krauthammer writes.
Urgent: Do You Approve of Obama's Handling of Foreign Policy? Vote Here
Obama's Pollyanna approach to world matters fails to grasp Putin’s long-held anti-America beliefs, according to Krauthammer, and is only the latest in Obama’s international missteps.
The president has characterized Russia as a “regional power acting out of weakness,” a grave miscalculation.
“Where does one begin?” Krauthammer asks. “Hitler’s Germany and Tojo’s Japan were also regional powers, yet managed to leave behind at least 50 million dead.
“Numberless 19th- and 20th-century European soldiers died for Crimea. Putin conquered it in a swift and stealthy campaign that took three weeks and cost his forces not a sprained ankle. That’s ‘weakness’?
Obama's purported "consequences" for Russia's invasion and annexation of Crimea are laughable, he opines. The defiant Russian leader is stuck in enmity of decades past, he says, noting that Putin's referenced the early 20th Century Russian Revolution in his railing speech following his country's seizure of Crimea.
And, Krauthammer says, Putin has made no secret of his next targets: Kharkiv and Donetsk and the rest of southeastern Ukraine.
Obama's minimization of Russia and the potential problems it could cause "makes his own leadership of the one superpower all the more embarrassing."
Not only does it allow Putin to make a mockery of the U.S., it diminishes America’s reputation at a time when credibility with other nations matters greatly, according to Krauthammer. Obama’s "fanciful thinking" of diplomacy over action could cost America dearly.
"What are the allies thinking now?" writes Krauthammer. "Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, and other Pacific Rim friends are wondering where this America will be as China expands its reach and claims. The Gulf states are near panic as they see the United States playacting nuclear negotiations with Iran that, at best, will leave their mortal Shiite enemy just weeks away from the bomb."

Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/crimea-vladimir-putin-charles-krauthammer/2014/03/28/id/562364#ixzz2xIegEdpF
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Obama urges Putin to pull back troops from Ukraine border in phone call

President Obama told Russian President Putin during a phone call Friday that the U.S. strongly opposes Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine, and urged him to pull back his troops from the border.
The White House said in a press release that Putin called Obama to discuss the U.S. proposal for a diplomatic solution in Ukraine, which Secretary of State John Kerry has presented to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The release said Obama asked Putin to deliver a written response to the proposal, and the two agreed to have Kerry and Lavrov meet again.
Obama also urged Putin to avoid further military provocations in Ukraine, and to pull back the troops that Russia has on the Ukraine border. Obama said Ukraine's government is pursuing de-escalation despite Russia's incursion into Crimea.
The call comes as Ukraine's government and the West are concerned about a possible Russian invasion in eastern Ukraine.
The Associated Press contributed to this report

Corruption probes hitting Dems across the country

A wave of corruption arrests and investigations is roiling Democratic politicians, posing a potential image problem in an election year. 
The latest were a pair of arrests earlier this week, snagging Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon, who later resigned, and California state Sen. Leland Yee. The latter involved a tangled web of allegations including claims that the gun control-pushing lawmaker tried to connect an undercover agent with an international arms dealer. 
So far, these cases are confined to the state and local levels, so it remains to be seen whether Democrats running in the congressional midterms will be tarnished. 
In fact, the only major arrest of a U.S. congressman since the beginning of 2013 was that of a Republican, Florida Rep. Trey Radel, who was convicted for cocaine possession and resigned early this year. Each party typically is careful to throw stones when the other side finds itself on the wrong side of the law, because corruption and other misbehavior is a bipartisan problem. 
For every Anthony Weiner, there's a Mark Foley. 
But since Radel's October arrest, the bulk of the corruption cases have involved Democrats. 
In California alone, Yee's case marked the third arrest or conviction in as many months of a state Democratic official. 
State Republicans, who have been struggling to regain their political footing, have sought to capitalize on the wave of criminal charges as a way to undo Democrats' dominance in the Legislature. Republicans have repeatedly tried to expel Sen. Rod Wright after he was convicted of perjury and voter fraud in January for lying about his legal residence in Los Angeles County. Democratic leaders have blocked those efforts. The state Senate, though, voted Friday to suspend all three of the lawmakers in trouble. 
The other, Sen. Ron Calderon, was indicted on federal corruption charges in February. Prosecutors say Calderon accepted about $100,000 for himself and family members in exchange for promoting legislation to expand Hollywood tax credits and protect the interest of a hospital that benefited from a provision of the workers' compensation law. 
Then came Yee, whose alleged activities were more befitting Hollywood than his San Francisco district. 
The criminal complaint contained dramatic details about Yee's alleged efforts to connect an undercover agent with a firearms dealer. 
"Do I think we can make some money? I think we can make some money," the senator allegedly said in one of the meetings. 
The cases, while involving local politicians, have put powerful Democrats in an awkward position. 
U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California joined a growing list of officials on Thursday in distancing themselves by demanding Yee's resignation. The Democratic leader of the state Senate, President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, warned Yee to resign or face suspension by his colleagues, saying "he cannot come back." 
Cannon, meanwhile, was ensnared in an FBI sting and faces federal corruption charges alleging he accepted more than $48,000 in cash, airline tickets, a hotel room and a luxury apartment from undercover agents posing as real estate developers and investors. Cannon, while not a household Democratic name, led the city that hosted the Democratic National Convention in 2012. 
On top of that case, Rhode Island House Speaker Gordon Fox said Saturday he was resigning from leadership and would not run for re-election, a day after federal and state authorities raided his Statehouse office and home as part of a criminal investigation that they would not detail. 
The Friday raids were carried out by the U.S. attorney's office, FBI, IRS and state police. Boxes of evidence were carried off after agents spent hours at both his home and office. Officials will not say whom or what they are investigating. 
The 52-year-old Providence Democrat, who became the nation's first openly gay House speaker in 2010, said he planned to serve out the remainder of his term through the end of the year, but that "my personal focus going forward will be on my family and dealing with the investigation." 
Meanwhile, in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol, the mayor of the District of Columbia, a Democrat, is facing his own problems. A U.S. attorney claimed earlier this month that Mayor Vincent Gray knew about an illegal, $668,000 "shadow campaign" that helped propel him into office four years ago. Despite denials from the mayor, who has not been accused of a crime, the revelation further damaged him ahead of next week's primary. 
"I think the question politically is whether it becomes emblematic of the national party," said Mary Katharine Ham, a Fox News contributor. "And that, to some extent, depends on media coverage. In, for instance, 2006, there was the drumbeat against Republicans was this culture of corruption; and that, to a large extent, was effective because it was so consistently covered in the media."

Obamacare

Holder says feds will recognize Michigan gay marriages despite state decision

Attorney General Eric Holder said Friday that the federal government will recognize about 300 same-sex marriages performed in Michigan before a federal appeals court halted them, despite a decision by Michigan's governor not to recognize those unions. 
The decision means federal benefits will be extended to those couples -- including the ability to file taxes jointly, get Social Security benefits for spouses and request legal immigration status for partners. 
"These families will be eligible for all relevant federal benefits on the same terms as other same-sex marriages," Holder said in a statement. 
The announcement Friday morning is Holder's latest entry into the state-level same-sex marriage debate. Holder did the same thing in Utah, where more than 1,000 same-sex couples got married, before the Supreme Court put those unions on hold in January after a federal judge overturned the conservative state's same-sex marriage ban in December. 
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman struck down Michigan's gay marriage ban. 
Four counties then took the extraordinary step of granting licenses on the Saturday before the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a temporary halt. The stay was extended indefinitely on Tuesday. 
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder afterward called the marriages performed last weekend legal but said Michigan won't recognize them. 
Snyder, who is a Republican, acknowledged that same-sex couples "had a legal marriage." But because of the court's stay, he added, the gay marriage ban has been restored. The governor's move closed the door, at least for now, to certain state benefits reserved solely for married couples. The American Civil Liberties Union has said more than 1,000 Michigan laws are tied to marriage. 
Holder cited Snyder's statement in his own on Friday. 
"The Governor of Michigan has made clear that the marriages that took place on Saturday were lawful and valid when entered into, although Michigan will not extend state rights and benefits tied to these marriages pending further legal proceedings," he said. "For purposes of federal law, as I announced in January with respect to similarly situated same-sex couples in Utah, these Michigan couples will not be asked to wait for further resolution in the courts before they may seek federal benefits to which they are entitled." 
Seventeen states and Washington, D.C., issue licenses for same-sex marriages. Since December, bans on gay marriage also have been overturned by courts in Texas, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Virginia, but appeals have put those cases on hold. 
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Critical part of ObamaCare website still not fixed

Even as the Obama administration struggles to deal with the approaching end of open enrollment for health care exchanges, one critical part of the website has yet to be fixed.
Earlier, administration officials had predicted ObamaCare could be seriously jeopardized if the key back end of healthcare.gov were not fixed ahead of the March 31 enrollment deadline.
The back end of the website is the two-way connection between the government and insurance companies aimed at telling each other who signed up for what.
"Insurance executives just see this as a major nightmare," says Robert Laszewski of Health Policy and Strategy Associates. "I mean, when are we finally going to be able to reconcile all the data, to know who is really covered, who is really paid, and what the insurance companies should be paid for?"
Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, raised concerns over it at a recent hearing with Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
“The number that's really important," Doggett said, "is not how many people have enrolled, but how many people have paid their premiums that are actually getting in exchange-base coverage. A number," he said pointedly, "we've never been given."
Former Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Holtz-Eakin says,"Nobody knows.There remains no clear information about who has paid the premium and as a result, who the insurance companies need to get reimbursed for."
Though some analysts believe the administration knows a lot more than it is saying, officials deny having any reliable information.
Industry sources and surveys show that while officials boast 5 million sign ups, about 1 million of them are not paying premiums, and therefore not officially enrolled.
The administration hired the firm Accenture in a no-bid contract to fix the site after a previous contractor failed, arguing in official documents last December that there was no time for competing bids,since mid-March was a key turning point in the law, and any delay would, as the document put it, "... result in financial harm to the Government..."
It even went so far as to say that "... the entire health care reform program is jeopardized” by any failure of the back end, and it laid out a list of things that could go wrong, including "Inaccurate issuance of payments to health plans which could seriously put them at financial risk; potentially leading to their default and disrupting continued services and coverage to consumers..."
"This had to get fixed right now," says Laszewski. "Well it's past 'right now', it's - you know we're into March and we don't have the back end of the system done, we don't have the ability for insurance companies to be paid, we don't have the ability for reconciliations to be done."
Those reconciliations include who has really signed up, who has paid, and if the subsidies are accurate -- something officials say they don't currently know.
Sebelius tolda congressional committee recently,"people are buying a product in the private market. As soon as we have accurate information, we will give it to you but we do not currently have information about how many people have paid."
Officials now tell Fox News, however, that the dramatic language predicting possible disaster is "no longer an accurate assessment"because they're using temporary workarounds with insurance companies.
But the companies themselves say a reckoning is coming ... that could cost them tens of millions of dollars when the books are finally reconciled. And that could take months, well after insurance companies have to set new rates for 2015.

'Not educated': Reid blames Internet ignorance for ObamaCare extension

   SENATE MAJORITY LEADER Harry Reid, attempting to explain the Obama administration's latest decision to extend a key ObamaCare deadline, says people just 'are not educated on how to use the Internet.'

Bar

Obama administration extends health care enrollment deadline

The Obama administration will grant extra time to Americans who say they are unable to enroll in health care plans through the federal insurance marketplace by the deadline set for the end of March, Fox News confirmed Tuesday.
All consumers who have begun to apply for coverage on HealthCare.gov, but who do not finish by Monday, will have until about mid-April to ask for an extension, federal officials told the Washington Post.
The Washington Post reported that users will have a chance to check a box on the website indicating they tried to enroll before the deadline, though the government will not try to determine whether the person actually made an effort to sign up.
"This is probably the first of many (extensions)," Chris Stirewalt told Megyn Kelly Tuesday on "The Kelly File."
"This is the first nod to a dire political situation," Stirewalt added.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus pounced on the extension, calling it another delay for a "failed health care law."
“Another day, another ObamaCare delay from the same Obama administration that won’t work with Republicans to help Americans suffering from the unintended consequences of the Democrats’ failed health care law," Priebus said in a statement. "Democrats in leadership may say they are doubling down on ObamaCare but you have to wonder how many more unilateral delays their candidates running in 2014 can withstand.”
Many states and the federal government experienced technical problems with the enrollment websites, but implementation of the federal Affordable Care Act has been a relative disaster in Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon and Vermont.
Rather than focusing on meeting enrollment targets, officials in those states find themselves consumed with replacing top officials, cancelling contracts with software companies, dealing with state or federal investigations, and spending tens of millions of dollars on fixes and new contractors. The core of the problem has been the difficulty in building an online health insurance marketplace that syncs up with myriad state and federal databases.
Early projections for those five states were to sign up a combined 800,000 Americans for private health insurance coverage by March 31, 11 percent of the Obama administration's original target for national enrollment. Yet with just days to go before the six-month enrollment period ends, achieving 25 percent of that target would be considered a success.
Overseers of Nevada Health Link have called that state's program a "full failure" and a "catastrophe." Some officials have suggested dumping Xerox, which was awarded a $75 million contract to develop the system.
While Xerox remains on the job, a state board earlier this month approved up to $1.5 million to hire another tech firm, Deloitte Consulting, to assess the Xerox system and recommend fixes.
Last month Nevada officials cut their target enrollment from 118,000 to 50,000 and conceded that meeting even the lower goal would be a challenge. That drew the ire of board members, who lashed out about the thousands of people who will remain uninsured after Monday's deadline.
"These are not numbers. These are people throughout the state who don't have health insurance," said Lynn Etkins, an attorney and vice chairwoman of the board overseeing the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange.
A week later, Nevada exchange executive director Jon Hager announced his resignation to pursue "new opportunities."
It is a similar story in Oregon, where the exchange's executive director and two officials who oversaw the early technology development resigned. As of last week, 47,000 Oregonians had signed up for private insurance, less than a quarter of initial projections for the full enrollment period.
The exchange's website was so badly bungled that applications at the beginning had to be processed manually, a process that remains partially in use. Cover Oregon has withheld $26 million of the $160 million billed by Oracle, which designed the website.
The federal Government Accountability Office has announced an investigation, and a state-funded audit released last week found a failure by the exchange's managers to heed reports of problems, poor communication and what it described as "unrealistic optimism." In announcing results of the audit, Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber said he was angry and disappointed in a process that had caused so much confusion and uncertainty among consumers.
Maryland's exchange crashed at the start of open enrollment on Oct. 1 and has been rocky ever since. The exchange's initial executive director, Rebecca Pearce, quit two months into open enrollment, and last month Maryland fired the state's prime information technology contractor, Noridian Healthcare Solutions, after paying it $65 million.
U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, the only Republican in Maryland's congressional delegation, called for a review by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services into how $250 million in federal money was used in the botched exchange. The department's inspector general informed Harris that it will conduct the review.
"I mean, this is an immense amount of money on a project that I think in the end, if I were betting right now, I would bet that they will abandon the Maryland exchange and either import another state exchange like Connecticut's that works or go to the federal exchange," Harris said.
In addition to making major fixes, Maryland officials are considering whether to adopt technology developed by another state, join a consortium of other states running their own exchanges or partner with the federal exchange.
In Massachusetts, where health care reform implemented under then-Gov. Mitt Romney was used as a model for President Obama's Affordable Care Act, officials announced earlier this month that they were cutting ties with CGI Group Inc. The Montreal-based firm also was the lead contractor on the troubled federal health care website that operates in 36 states.
CGI was hired last year under a $68 million contract to develop a website transitioning Massachusetts' previous health insurance program to reflect requirements under the federal law.
But technical problems quickly led to a backlog of 50,000 paper applications, a pile that has since been whittled to about 21,000. The state hired Optum, another health care technology firm, to come up with short- and long-term solutions for the website, for which it was to be paid at least $16.4 million through the end of March.
"The picture we are painting is that we have a long way to go," said Sarah Iselin, a health care executive hired by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to oversee fixing the website. "We are not going to sugarcoat anything."
With its politics dominated by Democrats, Vermont was an early supporter of the Affordable Care Act. While the state has had some success with enrollments, its state-run exchange also continues to be plagued with problems.
The latest official numbers released by the Obama administration show that 24,300 people had signed up for individual plans through the exchange by March 1. That compares to the administration's original projection of 45,600 by that point in time.
As recently as Tuesday, the online marketplace still could not handle enrollees reporting a change of marital status, job or other circumstance. Participants must contact the exchange's customer service line to report those changes.
Gov. Peter Shumlin, a Democrat, has repeatedly said he has been disappointed with the rollout of the exchange website, which drew widespread criticism after it went live last fall for being slow and not allowing users to correct mistakes.
The portal could not process premium payments online until earlier this month.
Vermont Republican leaders have asked for an investigation by federal prosecutors and are hoping to capitalize on the exchange's problems by targeting Democrats, who control both houses of the state Legislature, in this year's elections.
"People are just disgusted with it," said Rep. Brian Savage, the assistant House minority leader.
The governor's spokesman, Scott Coriell, said the exchange has been making steady improvements and that enrollments have been picking up rapidly as the deadline approaches.
Some states, including Nevada, are giving consumers extra time to get through the process if technical problems prevented them from completing their enrollment by Monday. As of last week, only 22,000 successfully purchased private coverage in Nevada.
In all five states, officials are trying to limp through the end of this year's signup period while focusing on fixing problems so the exchanges run more smoothly when the next open enrollment period begins in November.
Nevada officials said they will push Xerox for improvements and await the assessment from Deloitte, but officials concede there will be a lot on the line.
"We can't go through this again," Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval said. "We're not going to wake up every morning seeing stories of Nevadans who can't navigate through the system; that aren't getting insurance cards; the gentleman who had a heart attack who is still sitting in limbo not knowing what his status is.
"This has cascaded to absolute worst-case scenario."

‘Revolving door’? Ties between consultancy, gov’t raise questions about Benghazi probe

Meet Beacon Global Strategies.
The online bios for its founders and managing directors suggest no group knows more about the Benghazi terrorist attack and the Obama administration's response. Yet the consulting firm has deep ties to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others involved in the controversy – ties so intertwined with the administration and Capitol Hill that they raise questions about an upcoming hearing where former CIA Acting Director Mike Morell is slated to testify.
"It is like a revolving door on steroids," Bill Allison, whose Sunlight Foundation is a nonprofit that supports government transparency, told Fox News, adding that Washington's “revolving door” is a bipartisan problem.
"Republicans have gone through the revolving door, Democrats. … It says an awful lot about Washington and how hard it is to really be independent in Washington.”
READ BEACON'S REGISTRATION AS AN LLC
Morell, who also is a national security analyst for CBS News and has a book deal, joined the Beacon firm after retiring from the CIA last year. In doing so, he joined an organization already stacked with ex-government officials. Among them is Philippe Reines, whom the New York Times magazine recently described as Clinton's "principal gatekeeper." According to Beacon’s website, Reines traveled to more than 110 countries with the then-Secretary of State as part of her senior team.
Another employee, Jeremy Bash, was a former chief of staff to Leon Panetta at both the CIA and Defense Department. Andrew Shapiro was a Clinton policy adviser at the State Department whose portfolio included ridding Libya of shoulder-launched missiles called MANPADs. 
And it includes Republican J. Michael Allen, who was a former majority staff director for the House Intelligence Committee, headed by Republican Rep. Mike Rogers.
In November 2012, Morell testified before the House Intelligence Committee in a closed session about Benghazi, when Allen was still staff director. In May 2013, Morell testified for a second time in a closed session about Benghazi and the so-called talking points – the administration’s flawed public narrative initially blaming a protest for the attack, which killed four Americans.
Morell now is expected to testify for a third time in early April before the same panel -- the House Intelligence Committee, where his colleague Allen once worked -- after Republican allegations he misled the Senate Intelligence Committee over the talking points. The next hearing is expected to be public.
READ J. MICHAEL ALLEN'S FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
Business records reviewed by Fox News show that in April 2013, Beacon Global Strategies registered as an LLC. 
Congressional rules require immediate notice to the ethics committee when a senior Hill staffer, who earns more than $120,000, negotiates for outside employment. Allen falls into this category.
A Nov. 19, 2012 Memorandum to all House Members, Officers and Employees, posted on the Ethics Committee website states:
"Certain House staff must notify the [Ethics] Committee within three (3) business days after they commence any negotiation or agreement for future employment or compensation with a private entity. Staff subject to this disclosure requirement are those employees of the House who are paid at or above an annual rate of $119,553.60. …”
"The term 'negotiations' connotes 'a communication between two parties with a view toward reaching an agreement' and in which there is 'active interest on both sides.'”
It adds: "Employees also should avoid situations that might be viewed as presenting even a risk that the individual might be improperly influenced by personal financial interests."
Disclosure forms, obtained by Fox News from the congressional clerk's office and written in Allen's handwriting, state that he filed with the ethics panel in July -- almost three months after Beacon registered. Fox News asked Allen when he began informal discussions with Beacon, as opposed to formal negotiations for employment, and whether at the time of Morell's May 2013 testimony, Allen was aware the former deputy director of the CIA might join Beacon.
In light of Morell's upcoming testimony, and given the apparent discrepancy between Morell's November 2012 and May 2013 testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, Fox News also asked Allen what steps he took to further investigate whether Morell had misled lawmakers.
After exchanging emails over a four-and-a-half hour period, Beacon Global Strategies LLC provided a lengthy statement to Fox News on behalf of Allen. While not providing specifics, Beacon provided "the overall timeline of the firm’s formation and the subsequent personnel actions."
While Allen is listed on the website as a founder, Beacon's statement indicates he was not approached until two months after its registration.
The statement said:
"This firm was founded on the strong belief that keeping America secure must be a nonpartisan endeavor, and is dedicated to acting in a truly bipartisan manner. We not only adhere to all governing ethics rules and laws, we strive to go above and beyond those requirements and hold ourselves to the high ethical and professional standards we did throughout our decades serving in government. As for the timeline: this company was formally created by the three original partners in April of 2013. Mr. Allen was approached at the end of June, at which point he filed a ‘Notification of Negotiations or Agreement for Future Employment’ with the US House of Representatives Committee on Ethics. He subsequently filed a ‘Statement of Recusal’ with the same committee. Upon accepting the offer to join the firm in July, he promptly and fully disclosed such to Congressional officials. Mr. Morell was not approached until November. Therefore, nobody could have been influenced by events that were not yet planned and had not yet occurred."
Fox News spoke Monday with Rogers, chairman of the committee, who underscored the fact that no congressional panel has done more to investigate Benghazi than his -- and that Morell is now being recalled for a third time, where, in an open forum, all issues can be addressed, including allegations that Morell misled the Senate Intelligence Committee. 
As for Beacon, in a September interview with Defense News shortly after the firm launched, Reines indicated it may be a temporary stop. "In terms of going back in, I think we all want to, but we also know that life doesn't necessarily work out so cutely."

Watergate Revisited? A hard look at the Obama-Nixon comparison

Is Barack Obama acting like Richard Nixon?
As someone who lived through the massive criminality and mendacity of Watergate, I take these comparisons seriously.
The shorthand “Watergate” stands for more than what the Nixon White House dismissed as a third-rate burglary at Democratic headquarters; it encompasses other break-ins, wiretaps, tax audits, hush money, cover-ups and perjury that sent many administration officials to jail and drove a president from office.
So for some on the right to accuse the current president of Nixonian behavior is a heavy charge indeed.
Here’s how Victor Davis Hanson frames it in National Review:
“Nixon tried to use the Internal Revenue Service to go after his political enemies — although his IRS chiefs at least refused his orders to focus on liberals…
“Nixon ignored settled law and picked and chose which statutes he would enforce — from denying funds for the Clean Water Act to ignoring congressional subpoenas.
“Nixon attacked TV networks and got into personal arguments with journalists such as CBS’s Dan Rather…
“Nixon wanted the Federal Communications Commission to hold up the licensing of some television stations on the basis of their political views…
“Nixon went after ‘enemies.’ He ordered surveillance to hound his suspected political opponents and was paranoid about leaks.”
Pretty bad stuff, right?
Now Davis lays out the particulars against this administration:
“The IRS? So far, the Obama-era IRS has succeeded in hounding nonprofit tea-party groups into political irrelevancy… 
“The FCC? According to FCC commissioner Ajit Pai, Obama’s agency, until outrage arose, had planned ‘to ask station managers, news directors, journalists, television anchors and on-air reporters to tell the government about their “news philosophy” and how the station ensures that the community gets critical information.’…
“Enemies? Federal authorities jailed a video maker for a minor probation violation after the Obama administration falsely blamed him for causing a riot that led to the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi in September 2012…
“Going after reporters? Obama regularly blames Fox News by name for its criticism…
“Ignoring the law? The Affordable Care Act as currently administered bears little resemblance to the law that was passed by Congress and signed by the president. Federal immigration law is now a matter of enforcing what the president allows and ignoring the rest.
“Wiretaps? Well, aside from the electronic surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency, the Obama Justice Department secretly monitored Fox News reporter and sometime critic James Rosen.”
The problem with most of these examples is there’s no evidence that Obama ordered, or knew about, these efforts. And that’s very different from Nixon, who as we know from the secret tapes, would talk about breaking into the Brookings Institution.
One prominent exception would be the surveillance of journalists such as those at the Associated Press and Fox’s James Rosen. Obama may not have personally known in advance, but his attorney general, Eric Holder, did.
Perhaps one day evidence will emerge that the president or his top aides encouraged the IRS Cincinnati field office to crack down on conservative groups, but so far there’s no proof.
The FCC’s aborted effort to question TV newsrooms about bias and philosophy was incredibly boneheaded and disturbing, but there is no sign of White House involvement—as opposed to Nixon’s FCC challenging the licenses of two Washington Post stations.
Did Obama order the filmmaker jailed? He rips Fox all the time, but he has sat down with Bill O’Reilly twice.
It is troubling that the president keeps unilaterally changing the implementation of ObamaCare. But it was George W. Bush who ramped up the practice of “signing statements” that reserved his right to ignore parts of newly passed congressional laws. (The House on Wednesday passed an "enforce the law" act on a largely party-line vote, and the administration is threatening a veto.)
Criticize Obama all you want. Davis has a point that civil libertarians who railed against Republican presidents have given Obama a pass (on such issues as NSA surveillance, I would add). But Nixonian conduct is an awfully high bar to clear unless you can show that a president personally condoned lawbreaking.

No special prosecutor for IRS scandal: Here’s the back story

Conservatives are up in arms over the Justice Department’s refusal to name a special prosecutor in the IRS scandal.
And that’s basically how the media covered it, as an Eric Holder vs. Ted Cruz argument.
But there’s some important history here that helps explain why the Obama administration is, in effect, able to investigate itself. And it’s a debate that goes to the heart of public confidence in government.
The attorney general’s office disclosed its decision in a letter to Cruz, saying the appointment is “not warranted” there is no “conflict of interest” in the Justice Department pursuing the case. The letter said the probe is being conducted by “career prosecutors and law-enforcement professionals…without regard to politics.”
The Texas senator fired back that Holder’s department is abandoning a “bipartisan tradition of the Department of Justice of putting rule of law above political allegiance.”
So how can the administration be trusted with such a sensitive probe? The reason Holder was able to make that decision goes back to Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.
Nixon was essentially pressured into allowing the appointment of a Watergate special prosecutor after his attorney general resigned and he needed Senate approval for a successor. The new AG, Elliott Richardson, named Archibald Cox, who proved so aggressive that Nixon had fired him (after Richardson and his deputy refused to do so and quit) in the infamous Saturday Night Massacre.
Public sentiment toward special prosecutors was favorable after Cox’s successor, Leon Jaworski, completed his work. Jimmy Carter pushed through a 1978 ethics law that included a provision for naming more neutral-sounding independent counsels. When allegations were made against a range of top federal officials, the attorney general was required to recommend such an appointment by a special three-judge panel, unless a preliminary inquiry found the charges to be “insubstantial.”
Ronald Reagan opposed extending the law, and it was narrowed in 1983. But a spate of high-profile investigations -- against Carter aide Hamilton Jordan, Reagan’s Labor secretary Ray Donovan, and Reagan’s attorney general, Ed Meese -- resulted in no charges.
Along came independent counsel Lawrence Walsh, who launched the $48-million Iran-contra investigation (into charges that money from U.S. arms sales to Iran was improperly diverted to Nicaraguan rebels).  Most Republicans wound up hating the law, believing that Walsh had too much unchecked power and was out of control.
After the Supreme Court upheld the law's constitutionality, Republicans helped filibuster the law to death in 1992. But Clinton signed a new version into law two years later -- and independent counsels pursued several of his Cabinet members. After Ken Starr’s investigation of the Whitewater land deal morphed into the Monica Lewinsky investigation, Democrats hated the law as well. It expired in 1999 without much fuss from either party.
That means every administration now gets to make the call on whether to call in an outside prosecutor not under Justice Department control.
When the IRS inspector general found improper targeting of conservative groups in the Cincinnati office, Obama called the conduct “inexcusable.” Last month, though, he told Bill O’Reilly there was not a “smidgen of corruption” in the IRS.
The problem is the same one that gave birth to the post-Watergate law. If Justice finds no higher-ups were involved in the IRS misconduct, would that finding have credibility with the public? Would an outside probe have more credibility, or spiral out of control?
With the independent counsel law dead and buried, we’re not likely to find out.
Nate Silver Gives GOP Nod
The data whiz who called President Obama’s election and has now moved to ESPN just gave the Republicans a favorable forecast for November.
Nate Silver says the GOP has a 60 percent chance of taking control of the Senate.
  Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington.

Hillary Clinton Distances Herself From Obama

Just over a year after leaving her job as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton has offered views on foreign policy that analysts said seem part of an effort to distance herself from the Obama administration as she prepares a possible 2016 White House run.
In appearances this month, Clinton struck a hawkish tone on issues including Iran and Russia, even while expressing broad support for the work done by Obama and her successor as secretary of state, John Kerry.
Clinton said in New York on Wednesday night she was "personally skeptical" of Iran's commitment to reaching a comprehensive agreement on its nuclear program.
"I've seen their behavior over (the) years," she said, saying that if the diplomatic track failed, "every other option does remain on the table."
Just two weeks earlier, Clinton was forced to backtrack after she drew parallels between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler at a closed-door fundraiser. In comments leaked to the media by a local reporter who attended the event, Clinton said Putin's justifications for his actions in the Crimean region were akin to moves Hitler made in the years before World War Two. "I'm not making a comparison, certainly, but I am recommending that we can perhaps learn from this tactic that has been used before," she said the next day at an event in Los Angeles.
As secretary of state, Clinton was a key player in a U.S. effort to reset relations with Russia, a policy that critics say now appears to be a glaring failure.
Clinton's recent rhetoric on Iran and Russia is part of a renewed focus on foreign policy for the former first lady and New York senator, who is widely considered the Democratic presidential front-runner in 2016 if she chooses to run.
She has been giving speeches across the country since leaving the State Department, but Wednesday's address was her first on-the-record event in recent months focused solely on international relations.
"Secretary Clinton is distancing herself a bit on foreign policy matters from the administration recently," said John Hudak, a Brookings Institution fellow and expert on presidential campaigns. "This is a pretty standard practice for anyone looking to succeed the sitting president, even within the same party."
"It's one of the first steps for her to say, 'We're not the same candidate,'" he said.
Clinton's office did not respond to questions about the issue.
Creating space between her position and Obama's is a "smart move," said Hank Sheinkopf, a New York-based Democratic strategist who worked for the 1996 presidential re-election campaign of Hillary Clinton's husband, Bill Clinton.
"The present administration is in a no-win situation with Russia, with Syria and in the Middle East," Sheinkopf said before Clinton's New York speech. "Making a distance from them can only help."
During her four-year tenure in the State Department, Clinton helped lead the charge on imposing strong sanctions on Iran, which she mentioned in her New York speech to a pro-Israel audience - including several Democratic lawmakers - at an American Jewish Congress dinner honoring her.
In late January, Clinton sent a letter to Carl Levin, Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, calling herself a "longtime advocate for crippling sanctions against Iran," but urging that Congress not impose new sanctions during negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program.
She said that like Obama, she had no illusions about the ease or likelihood of reaching a permanent deal with Iran following an interim agreement reached under Kerry.
"Yet I have no doubt that this is the time to give our diplomacy the space to work," a stance she reaffirmed on Wednesday.
Republicans have promised to make Clinton's State Department record an issue if she runs for the White House, focusing on the 2012 attacks on a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, were killed.
The Republican National Committee has condemned Clinton's handling of the Benghazi assault, suggesting in a recent research note that "Benghazi is still the defining moment of Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State."
Some political analysts see her toughening rhetoric as more than a campaign tactic, and fitting with her foreign policy statements before joining the Obama administration. They said that could broaden her appeal to voters if she chooses to run, a decision she has said will not come until the end of this year.
Clinton, while a senator, voted in 2002 for a resolution authorizing U.S. military action against Iraq, a position that hurt her with liberal primary voters in her losing battle with Obama for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
"Making a credible and forceful case for America's place in the world - that's the kind of thing she's likely to say and continue to say," said Josh Block, a former Clinton administration official and now an executive at the Israel Project in Washington. "Those are messages that will resonate with Democrats and independents, as well as some Republicans." (Editing by Peter Cooney and Douglas Royalty)

Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/foreign-policy-president-run/2014/03/22/id/561085#ixzz2woRpDGz3
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Facing tough Senate races, Reid, fellow Dems turn their attack on Koch brothers

  Political attacks on the Koch brothers have emerged as a key, practically everyday part of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his Democratic Party’s 2014 election strategy -- accusing the wealthy conservative donors of trying to buy elections and block aid to Ukraine.
The attacks began in earnest last month when the Nevada Democrat in notable floor speeches accused Charles and David Koch of being “un-American” and “trying to buy America” and continued straight through this week.
“Across the country Republican Senate candidates are embracing a dangerous agenda that’s good for billionaires like the Koch Brothers and bad for nearly everyone else in the country,” the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said Thursday in announcing a record-breaking February fundraising haul of $6.8 million.  
That Democrats would attack the Kochs, or mount a counter-attack, is to be expected, considering how their money was instrumental in helping conservative nonprofits assist Republicans in taking the House in the 2010 midterm elections. Furthermore, Reid argues the Kochs are really trying to "buy" elections to advance their self-serving corporate interests of lower taxes and less regulation.
In this cycle, the brothers have already given a reported $30 million to nonprofits such as Americans for Prosperity to help pay for attack ads on ObamaCare and against incumbent Senate Democrats, as they try to defend their party’s six-seat majority in the upper chamber in an increasingly tough political environment.
The group has already spent a reported $700,000 in ads against Arkansas Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Pryor, who is trailing challenger and Arkansas GOP Rep. Tom Cotton by 3 percentage points, according to an averaging of polls by nonpartisan RealClearPolitics.com
The Koch-backed attacks have also extended into a money war with the pro-Democrat group Senate Majority PAC, which spent a reported $3 million on ads on tough Senate races in Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Michigan and North Carolina and drew a sharp response.
On Friday, Philip Ellender of Koch Industries told Politico the ads marked “the latest round in a series of attacks and attempts to silence private citizens who dare to disagree with the policies of the Majority Leader and the [Obama] administration.”
Ellender also said Reid specifically has decided to focus on “intimidating political opposition and squelching dissent,” instead of creating jobs and improving the lives of Americans.
Republicans, though, are hardly the only ones benefiting from the political spending of well-heeled backers.
Former hedge fund manager and California billionaire Tom Steyer reportedly is planning to spend at least $100 million (half of it his own money) on attack ads this year against candidates who aren’t supporting efforts to address climate change.
And until recently, even some moderate Senate Democrats were enjoying donations from the Koch brothers’ political action committee. But as that money shifted directions, Democrats stopped holding their tongues.
Charles Koch, 78, and David Koch, 73, inherited a small oil company from their father. They expanded worldwide into chemicals, textiles, paper and other products, building a hugely profitable and privately held conglomerate.
Long active in conservative politics, they seized on the 2010 Citizens United court ruling that allows unlimited corporate spending on political campaigns, often without disclosing donors. They helped found Americans for Prosperity, which reported spending $122 million on elections in 2012. In addition, Charles Koch helped start the Washington-based Cato Institute in the late 1970s. The family has given millions to the Libertarian-minded think tank over the years but was involved in a public dispute with leaders several years ago.
As part of the Democratic offensive this year against the brothers, and the apparent attempt to keep criticism about them in the news cycle, Reid and fellow Senate leaders last week suggested the brothers are behind congressional Republicans agreeing to support a Ukraine aid package only in exchange for delays in IRS rules that would impact the political activities of nonprofits like Americans for Prosperity.
Reid returned to the Senate floor last week to say that when Republican senators rush to defend the Koch brothers, they are also defending the brothers’ “radical philosophy.”
He challenged Republicans by asking, “Is even one of you willing to stand up and disavow the Koch brothers’ radical agenda?”
Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter has publicly defended the brothers, saying at a recent town hall meeting that they are “two of the most patriotic Americans.”
“God bless the Koch brothers," said Vitter, according to YouTube video posted by trackers American Bridge. “They’re fighting for our freedom.”

Louisiana bans use of welfare benefits for tattoos, lingerie, jewelry

BATON ROUGE, La. –  Louisiana welfare recipients will be prohibited from spending the federal assistance at lingerie shops, tattoo parlors, nail salons and jewelry stores, under new limits enacted by state social services officials.
The Department of Children and Family Services announced the emergency regulations late Thursday. They cover the Family Independence Temporary Assistance Program — commonly known as welfare benefits — and the Kinship Care Subsidy Program.
Both programs pay cash assistance to low-income families for items like food, clothing and housing.
DCFS Secretary Suzy Sonnier said the agency decided to ban the use of electronic benefit cards, which work as debit cards, at stores that don't sell items that are considered basic needs for families.
"This rule will not affect families who currently use the program as intended, which is to provide food, shelter and clothing for families," Sonnier said in a statement.
About 3,500 households in Louisiana receive welfare benefits, and about 2,400 households get kinship care subsidies, according to the department. Average payments are $192 per month for welfare and $419 a month for kinship care.
The emergency regulations come a week after WAFB-TV in Baton Rouge reported that an Ascension Parish lingerie store posted a sign noting that it accepted the welfare benefits card along with most credit cards.
Also barred in the latest restrictions from taking welfare debit cards are video arcades, bail bond companies, cruise ships, psychics, adult-entertainment businesses, nightclubs, bars and any businesses where minors are not allowed.
Violators of the new regulations will stop receiving welfare benefits for a year for a first offense, two years for a second offense and permanently for a third offense, according to the social services department.
The department also said it is seeking to enact the restrictions in law and allow the state to fine retailers who don't follow the guidelines. Rep. Chris Broadwater, R-Hammond, will sponsor the bill for consideration in the current legislative session.
"I hope that we can meet the spirit of intent of the program while also ensuring that state and federal tax dollars are being used appropriately," Broadwater said in a statement.
Last year, the social services agency enacted new regulations that banned the spending of welfare money on cigarettes, alcohol and lottery tickets. Those regulations also included prohibitions on the use of a welfare electronic benefit card at liquor stores, gambling sites and strip clubs, as required under a recently-passed federal law.
Tracking violations may be difficult, however, because the welfare money can be taken off the electronic benefit card as cash through an ATM. Social services officials said they rely on businesses and the public to report suspected violations.

Issa subpoenas ATF over 'mismanaged' gun operation

Rep. Darrell Issa has subpoenaed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for information about what he calls a "dangerously mismanaged" program, which originally was launched to get crime guns off the street. 
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which Issa chairs, has been looking into complaints about the program for months. Under the operation, ATF agents set up storefronts in multiple cities to try and entice criminals to sell their crime guns, unwittingly, to the government so they could be traced. But their tactics and missteps, including using mentally disabled people, drew criticism.   

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Issa, R-Calif., claimed this week that the ATF has stonewalled him by withholding documents and shown a "complete lack of cooperation." 
"I have no choice today but to issue the enclosed subpoena," he wrote to ATF Director B. Todd Jones. "... The time for hollow promises is over." 
Details on problems with the program first emerged last January, when The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported on missteps in Milwaukee under the program known as Operation Fearless. In that operation, thousands of dollars in merchandise, as well as several guns, were reportedly stolen from ATF agents. 
Details of other similar operations in other cities later emerged, including claims that one operation was located across the street from a middle school. House committees are now investigating, on the heels of the controversy over the botched anti-gun trafficking Operation Fast and Furious. 
ATF agents, though, have defended the storefront program, saying lawmakers overstate the problem. 
"Putting this into context, there were deficiencies with the storefront operations, but there have been many successes and it still remains a viable technique when managed well," ATF Deputy Director Tom Brandon told lawmakers recently. 
The operation in Milwaukee, despite its flaws, resulted in dozens of arrests.

notorious fraudster was behind costly EPA regulations

Another Democrat ??

John Beale, the former EPA official who fooled his bosses into believing he worked for the CIA, was deeply involved in crafting costly environmental standards which still are having an impact today -- though he came into the job with little, if any, environmental experience. 
The details were included in a 67-page report from Republicans on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, which claims the fraudster's role should now throw those rules into question. 
The report is the product of months of research into the case of Beale, a top official in the Office of Air and Radiation, who was sentenced to prison in December for defrauding the agency with his CIA lie. It details Beale's role in crafting an aggressive regulatory approach which the report dubs the "EPA Playbook." 
"Ultimately, the guiding [principle] behind the Playbook is the Machiavellian [principle] that the ends will justify the means," the report says. 
Sen. David Vitter, R-La., top Republican on the committee, said in a statement that the study "connects the dots between John Beale and the numerous air regulations that he's responsible for." 
The EPA already has come under scrutiny for failing to act earlier on warning signs about Beale's behavior and fraudulent activity. But the report also calls into question the regulatory work Beale had done over an EPA career that began in the late '80s -- and its lingering impact on businesses today. 
"The product of his labors have remained intact and have been shielded from any meaningful scrutiny, much the same way Beale was protected by an inner circle of career staff who unwittingly aided in his fraud," the report says. "Accordingly, it appears that the Agency is content to let the American people pay the price for Beale and EPA's scientific insularity, a price EPA is still trying to hide almost twenty years later." 
Beale was first brought on as a career employee by his friend Robert Brenner in 1989, after a stint working as a consultant for the agency. According to the Senate GOP report, he had no environmental experience, and his federal legislative experience was limited to an unpaid internship for a senator. Yet he was brought on at the maximum pay level for an employee of his kind -- at a level typically reserved for people with 20 years' experience, according to the report. 
In 1995, Beale and Brenner apparently began working on what are known as National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for Ozone and Particulate Matter (PM). This was a far-reaching process to regulate pollutants in the air -- the push to regulate Particulate Matter covered small particles ranging from smoke to soot to fumes to dust. According to the report, Beale and the rest of the agency ran with the project. 
"Under Beale's leadership EPA took the unprecedented action of proposing standards for the two pollutants in tandem and aggressively tightened the standards to controversial levels," the report said. 
The report goes on to argue that the 1997 standards that resulted "set in motion" the way the EPA issues regulations under the Clean Air Act. The report alleges that this included "inflating benefits while underestimating costs." 
Asked for comment on the Republican report, EPA spokeswoman Alisha Johnson acknowledged Beale's role in the air quality rules but noted he was among many people involved in that process. 
"While Mr. Beale did work on the rules mentioned in the report, he was just one of a large number of people from a number of disciplines across the Agency who provided input on those rules," she said in an email. Those rules, she noted, for the most part were upheld by the courts. 
"Since that time, both standards have been re-reviewed and re-issued by the EPA," Johnson said. "The standards followed the routine open, transparent and public process, providing opportunities for public and interagency review and comment prior to their finalization." 
Despite Republican accusations, the agency defends its air quality standards as firmly grounded in science. 
The Senate GOP study details specific regulations that relied on these standards, including the EPA's controversial regulations on coal-fired power plants. Amid these and other rules, dozens of power plants have been slated for retirement in recent years. 
The report says the air quality standards have also been used to defend 32 major rules since 1997, which together account for billions of dollars in costs to U.S. businesses. 
The so-called "playbook" for implementing EPA rules began during the 1997 process, and allegedly included inflating benefits of proposed rules, as well as using a controversial tactic known as "sue-and-settle" -- where a "friendly" group sues the agency and settles on "mutually agreeable terms." The report says Brenner and Beale were behind that "playbook." 
Republicans argue in the study that Beale reached the "pinnacle of his career" during that 1997 process, and used that status to defraud the agency for years. 
The inspector general's investigation, which later uncovered the fraud, found Beale received improper bonuses until 2013 -- the improper bonuses ended up totaling about $500,000.  This, while he was taking off time supposedly to work for the CIA. 
Since the fraud was made public, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy has been credited by some with initially flagging Beale's activities and expenses. EPA bosses say they were duped by his CIA story, despite the warning signs. 
An EPA spokeswoman said earlier that Beale "went to great lengths to deceive and defraud the U.S. government over the span of more than a decade" and the agency has "put in place additional safeguards to help protect against fraud and abuse related to employee time and attendance." 
Brenner retired from the agency in 2011.

Medical group that backed ObamaCare warns obscure rule could hurt doctors

The largest doctors group in the country is raising alarm that an obscure ObamaCare rule could stick them with the tab for patients who skip out on paying their premiums. 
The American Medical Association, which originally supported the Affordable Care Act, warned the rule could pose a "significant financial risk" for doctors and hospitals, and on Wednesday blasted out guidelines to help members try and avoid those costs. 
At issue is a 90-day "grace period" which lets patients who are not paying their premiums keep coverage for 90 days before it can be canceled. 
Under the rule, insurers are responsible for paying any claims during the first month of that period -- but not necessarily for any claims during the final 60 days. 
"Managing risk is typically a role for insurers, but the grace period rule transfers two-thirds of that risk from the insurers to physicians and health care providers," AMA President Ardis Dee Hoven said in a statement. 
The concern from physicians comes on top of widespread concerns from the insurance industry about the mix of new customers being signed up for coverage under the newly launched health insurance exchanges. The deadline for that coverage is March 31, and so far the Obama administration is lagging behind its enrollment projections. 
But while insurance companies worry about having to take on costlier patients, medical practices are worried what happens when those patients stop paying their insurers. 
The AMA has been urging the Obama administration to tweak the rules so that insurers are at least required to notify doctors as soon as a patient falls behind on insurance payments. In the interim, the guidelines sent out Wednesday were meant to help doctors and hospitals "minimize" those risks -- by, among other things, closely tracking grace-period notifications and checking whether state laws allow insurers to deny claims during these periods. 
The main concern is that insurers could be allowed to place all claims incurred during the last 60 days in a "pending status" -- and then deny them if coverage ultimately is canceled. 
But the administration argues that the grace-period rule is limited. It only applies to people who already have paid one month's premium, and requires insurers to tell doctors "as soon as practicable" when a customer is falling behind. 
"Grace periods are important to ensure that consumers aren't dropped from coverage, especially for those experiencing economic challenges," said Alicia Hartinger, spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. "It is also important to us that providers know in a timely fashion whether their patients are in a grace period or not." 
One possible -- and controversial -- solution for hospitals is for them to help struggling patients pay their premiums. But, as the AMA guidelines noted, the Department of Health and Human Services has strongly advised against this and threatened to take action if necessary.   
The AMA said doctors "should exercise extreme caution" before even discussing that possibility with patients.

California city approves highest-in-state $12.30 minimum wage

RICHMOND, Calif. –  A San Francisco Bay Area city is on track to have the highest minimum wage in California.
The Richmond City Council voted 6-1 on Tuesday in favor of an ordinance that would raise minimum hourly pay in the city to $12.30 an hour by 2017.
That would be nearly $2 more than San Francisco's current minimum wage, which is the highest in the region.
The state minimum wage is set to increase to $10 an hour in January 2016.
The Contra Costa Times reports that most of the 30 or so residents who spoke at the Richmond council meeting were in favor of raising the minimum wage.
But at least one business owner said it would make it difficult for him to add jobs.

(Bailey) Is this going to be for the legals or illegals ?

Russia

White House backs off surgeon general nominee push amid Dem resistance

With the midterm elections looming, vulnerable Democrats may be moving even further from the White House by refusing to support yet another of President Obama's hand-picked nominees. 
The latest nominee facing trouble with Senate confirmation is Dr. Vivek Murthy, a Harvard Medical School physician and a strong political ally, tapped for the post of U.S. surgeon general.
The White House is still backing its controversial nominee but acknowledges that officials are “recalibrating” their strategy -- amid vocal GOP opposition, waning support from Senate Democrats and concern about back-to-back defeats. Earlier this month, the administration failed to win Senate support for its nominee to lead the Justice Department’s civil rights division, Debo Adegbile.
Like Adegbile, Murthy is facing strong opposition on several fronts. The nominee is being targeted by the National Rifle Association for his support for gun control. Such opposition has created a tough situation for Senate Democrats facing re-election a year after the NRA led efforts to defeat Obama’s push for new firearms restrictions. 
As a result, the White House doesn’t want to create more problems for vulnerable Democrats by asking them to take a hard vote now. 
“Dr. Murthy is a dynamic, entrepreneurial practitioner who had dedicated a lot of time, energy and passion to health and wellness,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday. “But after the confirmation vote of Debo Adegbile, we are recalibrating the strategy around Dr. Murthy’s floor vote.” 
Adegbile had strong Democratic support before the vote earlier this month. But seven Senate Democrats joined all 44 Republicans in blocking the nomination, angering the White House.
The National Fraternal Order of Police led the effort to block the Adegbile nomination, mounting a campaign against him over his advocacy on behalf of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer.
There reportedly are 10 Senate Democrats who will not vote for Murthy because of the NRA opposition. 
Alaska Democratic Sen. Mark Begich, a lifetime NRA member seeking re-election this year, is on the record about his position.
"While the Senate has not yet scheduled a vote on Dr. Murthy, I have already told the White House I will very likely vote no on his nomination if it comes to the floor," Begich wrote constituents, according to his office.
Begich has also expressed concerns about the 36-year-old Murthy's political advocacy and inexperience as a practicing physician.
Murthy is backed by a long list of medical groups and if nominated would be the country’s first Indian-American surgeon general.
However, the NRA says his support for gun control, including a letter he sent to Congress last year following the fatal Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, raised questions about whether he is motivated by science or politics.
Murthy sent the letter as president of Doctors for America, a group he co-founded and that supported Obama's plans for health care reform.
Whether the White House will postpone the vote until after the November elections remains unclear.
“We will make assessments about how and when to move forward accordingly,” Carney said.