Presumptuous Politics

Sunday, October 19, 2014

CDC Cartoon

GOP faces possible House loss in Michigan stronghold after incumbent loses primary, nominee branded 'foreclosure king'

House Democrats are not expected to make big gains in the midterms, but they are optimistic about winning a Republican-held seat in Michigan in the aftermath of a nasty GOP primary in which a “foreclosure king” defeated an incumbent portrayed as a “Santa Claus impersonator.”
Lawyer and businessman Dave Trott trounced incumbent Rep. Kerry Bentivolio in the party’s August primary, but not before a Tea Party group labeled him a “foreclosure king.”
Democratic nominee Bobby McKenzie, a former State Department counter-terrorism analyst, has seized on the attack line and is now essentially tied with Trott, according to an internal campaign poll by San Francisco-based Tulchin Research.
Leading pollsters are still giving the edge to Republicans in the race for Michigan's 11th District, which is outside Detroit.
But Bentivolio, who admits to dressing up as Santa, has started a write-in campaign as an independent candidate and will likely take votes from Trott.
Political observers say Bentivolio got into Congress in 2012 essentially by a fluke, so there was little surprise that he would lose this year’s primary.
When five-term GOP incumbent Rep. Thad McCotter was disqualified in a ballot-signatures scandal and resigned in July 2012, Bentivolio lost in September to a Democrat in a special election to fill the seat for a few months.
However, a month later he won the race for the full term as the only qualified Republican on the ballot.
Within months of arriving on Capitol Hill, Bentivolio was already being targeted as one of the House incumbents most likely to lose in 2014.
Such predictions were in part based on Bentivolio’s meager war chest being no match for the deep-pocketed Trott, a Duke law school graduate who purportedly spend more than $2 million on his 2014 primary victory.
“Even I figured he’d win,” Bentivolio told FoxNews.com. “How do you compete against that?”
Still, the most significant expenditure in the entire race appears to be the primary ad paid for by the Tea Party-affiliated Freedom’s Defense Fund that hits Trott, whose family-run law firm processes foreclosures for lending institutions.
“Foreclosure King Dave Trott evicted 101-year-old Texan Hollis from her Detroit home of 65 years,” the narrator says in the 30-second spot. “Stranded and in a wheelchair, she was dumped on dangerous, rainy streets. … all to line the pockets of greedy Dave Trott.”
Trott announced after the primary that he was selling his stake in the practice, in an apparent attempt to soften the criticism.
But it’s unclear whether he remains part of other related businesses, which combined with the law firm are considered by critics to be the biggest “foreclosure mill” in Michigan.
The Trott campaign did not return calls seeking comment.
Though Trott has the backing of such establishment Republicans as Mitt Romney, Bentivolio says he was undermined largely by the leading state Republicans.
“You’re supposed to help a freshman congressman,” said Bentivolio, an Iraq veteran, former reindeer farmer and auto designer. “But they did everything in their power to undermine my seat. … I guess I didn’t go to the right schools.”
State party leaders reportedly didn’t even support his successful 2012 bid, instead backing a former state GOP senator’s write-in campaign.
The Michigan GOP party on Thursday made clear its role in 2012.
“We always support out incumbents, but we stay out of primaries,” party spokesman Darren Littell told FoxNews.com. “We thank the congressman for his service.”
The Tea Party-backed Bentivolio also argues he passed conservative-minded legislation while in Washington and even had the backing of House Speaker John Boehner, whom he said commended him for knowing when to vote with the caucus or for his district.
Bentivolio says he was okay with Trott’s attacks during the campaign, but felt he went too far by criticizing him on social media after the primary.
He said he appealed to Trott to knock off the attacks, then tried to quiet him with threats of entering the race before deciding on the write-in campaign.
“I warned people,” Bentivolio said. “I worked in Congress and on Ronald Reagan’s election. And they call me a ‘newcomer?’ I got news for them.”
He said the attacks included a whisper campaign that questioned his military awards.
“And now I want my reputation back,” said Bentivolio, still rankled that dressing up as Santa at charity events for children would be used against him.
Trott campaign manager Megan Piwowar said to The Associated Press about Bentivolio’s write-in effort: "If he wants to disrespect the overwhelming number of voters, that's his choice."
McKenzie campaign manager Tony Coppola thinks the race has tightened because of the combination of Trott’s questionable business practices and Democrats having a good candidate.
“Bobby tried to make the country safer at the State Department, and the Republican candidate put 100,000 families out of their homes, 80,000 by his own admission," he said. "That’s a stark contrast.”
Coppola points out the race also has another potential spoiler, Libertarian candidate John Tatar who got 2.7 percent of the vote in the 2012 race for the seat.
Still, Coppola says the campaign is sticking with the same strategy that got McKenzie this far, despite the late-stage changes.
“We’re going to talk to voters,” he said heading into the weekend. “We’re going to knock on 10,000 doors. We’re going to make 10,000 phone calls.”

Maryland to delay legal effort to recoup $55 million for state's failed ObamaCare site

Maryland officials reportedly have agreed to delay court action seeking $55 million from the primary contractor for the state’s problematic ObamaCare website.
Officials from Maryland’s health care exchange in April fired the contractor, Noridian Healthcare Solutions, and vowed to seek court actions to recoup the money.
Both sides have struck a temporary deal so state officials can focus on the second year of ObamaCare enrollment that starts Nov. 15, according to The Baltimore Sun.
A spokeswoman for Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley told The Sun that officials are still "evaluating claims that we may pursue in litigation."
The first ObamaCare enrollment, on Oct. 1, 2013, got off to a disastrous start, marked by an overwhelming public response that crashed the federal site, HealthCare.gov, and several state-run sites.
President Obama, angry and “frustrated” by the start of arguably his biggest legislative accomplishment, made sure the software problems were essentially fixed after the first several weeks by hiring industry experts to work around the clock to write better computer code and fix software bugs.
But at least two state-run sites -- Maryland and Oregon’s -- had to scrap their failed, multi-million dollar, online projects.
Oregon has moved online customers to the federal site after software bugs and other technical problems kept the state from fully enrolling a single customer online.
The problems and transition is estimated to cost state and federal taxpayers at least an additional $85 million -- including $50 million to manually enroll thousands of customers and $35 million to Deloitte Consulting to salvage the faulty technology.
Maryland officials have decided to replace their technology, instead of fixing the system or like Oregon joining the federal exchange system.
They have hired Deloitte Consulting, which has successfully run the Connecticut exchange. The effort is expected to cost $43 million.
The decision also comes just weeks before Election Day for Democratic nominee for governor Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, who was O’Malley’s point man for ObamaCare.
Maryland and contractor Noridian have blamed each other and subcontractors, including IBM, for the problems.
The decision to delay action also came amid an ongoing inspector general’s probe, which was requested in February by Maryland GOP Rep. Andy Harris.
"Millions of dollars were wasted because of a lack of oversight by Lieutenant Governor Brown, and now the state must try to recoup some of the money he allowed to be sent to companies who couldn't deliver," Harris told The Sun. "The federal investigation should provide critical information about how taxpayer dollars were wasted and whether fraud occurred."
Justin Schall, Brown's campaign manager, said: "It's disappointing that congressman Harris would mislead the people of Maryland and play political games with a federal investigation."
Thirty-six states are part of the federal exchange, and there are 14 state-run sites.
The president crafted the legislation to help an estimated 30 million uninsured Americans get coverage.
The administration reached its goal of enrolling 6 million people by its self-imposed March 31 deadline. And right now, 7.3 million people have enrolled in marketplace plans, paid their premiums and have access to insurance, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Losing the War on Coal: One Virginia town's painful decline

APPALACHIA, Va. – Roger Whited doesn’t have to think back too far to remember when Main Street was alive with bustling shops and offices, teeming sidewalks and even traffic jams, all thanks to the industry that was the lifeblood of this tiny mountain town and countless others like it.
But six years into what many term the Obama administration’s “War on Coal,” Appalachia’s main thoroughfare is a tableau of boarded-up buildings, empty storefronts and dilapidated homes. Those who still mill about on streetcorners are looking for jobs, not places to spend their paychecks.
"I remember when the downtown area was more vibrant -- streets were packed and businesses were open,” said Whited, who teaches high school social studies in Wise County. “There was the hotel and Bessie's Diner, which was a popular place to get a meal. There were several other restaurants, but now the only place that serves food is a gas station.”

"There were several other restaurants, but now the only place that serves food is a gas station.”- Roger Whited

For generations, coal powered not only Appalachia’s homes and the lights on Main Street, but also the local economy. The salaries paid by companies like Cumberland River Coal Co. were enough to afford the trappings of a middle class, if hard-won, lifestyle. Men and women who toiled in the mines spent their money downtown and sent their kids to the local schools.
But the Obama administration’s tough regulations on coal-fired electric plants, combined with other market forces, have left the future of coal – and the people, companies and towns that depend on it – in doubt. The administration is seeking to reduce carbon emissions at coal-fired plants by 30 percent by 2030, a goal that industry officials call unrealistic. New plants are too expensive to build, and older ones are too costly to retrofit, they say.
"If somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can,” President Obama said in January 2009, shortly after taking office. “It's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted.”
Even as the nation endured a recession, followed by years of sluggish economic growth, coal towns like Appalachia reeled from policies dictated in Washington. As coal-fired plants closed, demand for coal plummeted. In 2011, Appalachia’s lone high school closed, a casualty of low enrollment.
In July, Arch Coal, parent company of Cumberland River Coal Co., announced plans to idle its mine in Appalachia and lay off 213 workers, a devastating final blow to the town of 1,800. That followed a similar move by A&G Coal Co., once one of the region’s biggest employers.
Miners who hung onto their jobs know their paychecks are numbered.
“You wake up every day wondering if you’ll have a job the next day,” Brandon Lawson, of nearby Big Stone Gap and a miner for six years, told the Bristol Herald Courier. “I’ve seen it [the decline of the industry] coming a long time ago.”
Tucked away in the mountains from which it takes its name, Appalachia is just a 30-minute drive from the Kentucky state line. It was one of many settlements that sprang up around mines. Those clusters became known as “coal camps,” where housing and services were all operated by the coal companies in the arrangement made famous in Tennessee Ernie Ford’s classic 1955 hit.
Coal towns that flourished became full-fledged municipalities, like Appalachia, which was founded in 1898. As mining became safer and wages rose, Appalachia and surrounding towns became symbols of success of small town America, a rural answer to Detroit. Hospitals, schools, restaurants and shops sprang up, all fed by the trickle down from “King Coal.”
There is no end in sight for the current decline, according to a report by Downstream Strategies titled, "The Decline of Central Appalachian Coal and the Need for Economic Diversification."
“Coal production in Central Appalachia is on the decline, and this decline will likely continue in the coming decades,” states the 2010 report, which predicts production, which peaked at 290 million tons in 1997, will amount to less than 100 tons in 2035.
Many have moved away from Appalachia in search of work in recent years. Other breadwinners, reluctant to shatter the family bonds built over decades, spend their weekdays in far-off locations, sending money home and visiting on weekends or whenever they can. In Appalachia, they call it the “Suitcase Brotherhood.”
James Hibbitts was an upper middle-class banker in Appalachia back when there were loans to be made. Now, he works throughout the week for a natural gas company in Pennsylvania, some 375 miles away, returning for a few days when he can in order to be with his family.
“I am torn between the place I call home and the travel I am having to do to provide for my family, he said.
Environmental and liberal groups say there is no “war on coal,” only policies aimed at reducing pollution. They say many factors have contributed to the downturn in places like Appalachia, and the key to their turnaround is adaptation.
"The Appalachian coal market is confronting a perfect storm of mature coal resources, abundant and low-cost natural gas, deflated global coal prices, an influx of coal from Colombia and other countries, and competition with coal from other parts of the United States," said Alison Cassady, director of domestic energy policy for the Center for American Progress. "It does not help to blame the EPA and ignore the more fundamental market forces at work."
Rick Mullins, a local business owner in Appalachia and former state Senate candidate, agrees to some extent. He said the area has many attributes that could aid in a turnaround, but says federal aid is needed.
“What we are going to have to look to in the future is diversification,” Mullins said. “Owing to the unique history and natural beauty of the region, other avenues of employment could involve promotion of tourism in the region.
“If we could attain some kind of federal assistance in order to level the playing field, it would help greatly,” Mullins added.
Whited is not sure the Appalachia he grew up in will ever come back.
“I've got some good memories when things were better,” he said. “A lot of people had money and times were much more prosperous than they are now. Now there's really none of that, and it's empty for the most part.
“It's sad."

Saturday, October 18, 2014

2014 Candidates Cartoon

Ferguson officer feared for life, report says

WASHINGTON – The police officer who fatally shot an unarmed 18-year-old in a St. Louis suburb last summer has told investigators that he was pinned in his vehicle and in fear for his life as they struggled over his gun, The New York Times reported.
Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson has told authorities that Michael Brown reached for the gun during a scuffle, the Times reported in a story posted on its website Friday night. The officer's account to authorities did not explain why he fired at Brown multiple times after emerging from his vehicle, according to the newspaper.
The Times reported that the account of Wilson's version of events came from government officials briefed on the federal civil rights investigation into the Aug. 9 shooting that sparked racial unrest and weeks of protests, some of which turned violent. Wilson is white and Brown black.
Wilson confronted Brown and a friend while they were walking back to Brown's home from a convenience store. After the shooting, Brown died at the scene. Some witnesses have told authorities and news media that Brown had his hands raised when Wilson approached with his weapon and fired repeatedly. An independent autopsy commissioned by the family says that Brown was shot at least six times, including twice in the head.
The Times reported that Wilson has told investigators that he was trying to leave his SUV when Brown pushed him back in and that once inside the vehicle the two began to fight. Wilson told authorities that Brown punched and scratched him repeatedly, leaving swelling on his face and cuts on his neck, the Times reported.
Wilson, who had been patrolling Ferguson for nearly three years, was placed on leave after the shooting. A state grand jury is considering charges against him.
The Justice Department is investigating the Ferguson Police Department for possible civil rights violations, including whether officers there use excessive force and engage in discriminatory practices. Two-thirds of Ferguson's 21,000 residents are black but only three of its more than 50 police officers are black.

Dems tie Ebola woes to budget cuts, conservatives say ‘nonsense’

Congressional Democrats and allied groups are ramping up claims that the Ebola response is suffering from a budget crunch, even as Republicans and independent fact-checkers question the argument.
The latest call came Thursday from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who demanded that lawmakers return to session to revisit the budget.
“The Appropriations Committee should return to Washington immediately and convene hearings to discuss and debate the issue of funding levels for NIH, CDC and related agencies in light of the public health challenges posed by the Ebola virus,” she said in a statement.
Others have suggested Republicans specifically are to blame for problems with the Ebola response.
On Oct. 12, the Agenda Project Action Fund released a political ad called “Republican Cuts Kill,” which according to the group, has been scheduled to air in Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, and South Dakota – all states with high-stakes Senate elections in November. The ad juxtaposes pictures of dead bodies and body bags in West Africa with Republican lawmakers like Sens. Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz, and Rand Paul.
“Like rabid dogs in a butcher shop, Republicans have indiscriminately shredded everything in their path, including critical programs that could have dealt with the Ebola crisis before it reached our country,” said ad producerErica Payne, founder of the Agenda Project Action Fund.
The talking points were spurred by statements made by National Institutes of Health head Dr. Francis Collins to The Huffington Post on Oct. 10.
"Frankly, if we had not gone through our 10-year slide in research support, we probably would have had a vaccine in time for this that would've gone through clinical trials and would have been ready," Collins said. He added that some therapeutics to fight the virus "were on a slower track than would've been ideal. ... We would have been a year or two ahead of where we are, which would have made all the difference.”
But fact-checkers and number-crunchers say the actual budgets do not bear out claims that Republicans have starved research for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and NIH through the Obama administration.
“Claims that CDC and NIH have not had enough funding to do Ebola research are nonsense,” said Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute.
At the CDC, funding has remained relatively steady.
Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler notes that the CDC budget has “bounced around” $6.5 billion every year of the Obama administration.
In both 2013 and 2014, it was Congress that boosted the funding after the administration had proposed scaled-back budgets.
According to reports, when the 2014 budget was passed in January, the CDC’s budget rose to $6.9 billion, $567 million more than it received in 2013 and more than the agency anticipated, as the president only requested $6.6 billion.
While it appears stagnant from 2009 numbers, it is still double the budget the CDC was getting in 2000 ($3.4 billion), Edwards points out.
With NIH, the numbers have edged up from $28.5 billion in 2006 to $30.14 billion in 2014, Kessler said. That’s technically an increase – but with inflation, it’s more like a cut.
But Kessler also points out that NIH was given an extra $10 billion in stimulus funds in 2009.
While neither agency was getting all the money it wanted, Kessler points out that what happened in the last few budgets was not a “slash and burn” by Republicans, but a tug-of-war between Congress and the president which culminated in the 2013 sequestration cuts. Those cuts, including a $1.5 billion cut to NIH, affected all government agencies indiscriminately.
“There’s no doubt that spending has been cut, or at least failed to keep pace with inflation, but the fingerprints of both parties are on the knives,” Kessler wrote in The Washington Post Fact Checker.
Kessler gave the Democratic allegations that Republican budgets were at fault for the poor Ebola response four “Pinocchios,” and called them “absurd.”
Edwards said a better way to connect the budgets with the Ebola crisis is to look at how the money is being spent. Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal complained in a recent op-ed that “in recent years, the CDC has received significant amounts of funding. Unfortunately, however, many of those funds have been diverted away from programs that can fight infectious diseases, and toward programs far afield from the CDC’s original purpose.”
On that note, Republicans are trotting out various NIH funding projects they say show questionable – even wasteful – spending.
“It’s funny that the Democrats are quick to point fingers when it’s been this administration pushing the CDC to spend time and resources on bike lanes and farmers markets instead of prioritizing national security and the health of Americans,” Republican National Committee spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said.
The Washington Free Beacon rounded up several projects ranging from $53,202 for studying sighs to more than $2.4 million for developing origami condoms.
“The bigger story here is that the president and the Democrats have once again been leading from behind on an issue that Americans are concerned about.”
But where there is money on Capitol Hill, there’s mandated oversight, and if members of Congress are quick to point fingers, they might want to point some of them back at themselves, said Edwards. Their job includes making sure the agencies have what they need, and are spending it on their stated priorities.
“Not enough blame is put on the congressional committees,” he said, “which are supposed to be conducting oversight of these agencies.”

Senior Republicans criticize Ebola 'czar' choice for lack of medical background

Senior Republicans on Capitol Hill Friday criticized Ron Klain, President Obama’s choice to be “Ebola czar,” as a figurehead with no health background.
“Given the mounting failings in the Obama administration’s response to the Ebola outbreak, it is right that the president has sought to task a single individual to coordinate its response, “said Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “But I have to ask why the president didn’t pick an individual with a noteworthy infectious disease or public health background?”
Klain, a longtime political hand, served as chief of staff to Al Gore and Vice President Joe Biden but has no apparent medical or health care background.
A White House official said Friday that Klain comes to the job with "strong management credentials, extensive federal government experience overseeing complex operations and good working relationships with leading members of Congress, as well as senior Obama administration officials, including the president."
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called him an "excellent choice."
But criticism came swiftly from the Republicans.
“The United States’ handling of the Ebola virus here at home has left Americans across the country petrified about the preparedness and response efforts, said House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich.” The public is desperate to believe that we will be safe from Ebola’s spread. I was glad the president got off the campaign trail to finally focus on Ebola, but with this appointment of a 'czar' with no health background, he just got right back on.”
Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, added, “This appointment is both shocking and frankly tone deaf to what the American people are concerned about. Installing yet another political appointee who has no medical background or infectious disease control experience will do little to reassure Americans who are increasingly losing confidence with the administration’s Ebola strategy.”
Both Upton and Murphy called for immediate travel restrictions to halt the spread of the disease.
Said one senior GOP congressional source, who asked not to be identified, “I think it’s a bizarre pick. He may have a good reputation as manager within the Democratic party. But Republicans see him exclusively as a political operative who’s been at the heart of the some of the most partisan events of the past two decades.”
Rep. Tom Price,R-Ga. and a doctor himself, accused Obama of "making an unserious gesture at an incredibly serious moment.”

Sunday, October 19, 2014

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Saturday, October 18, 2014