Study: Most sponsors of minimum wage hike bill don't pay interns

While congressional Democrats want employers to adhere to a proposed increase in the federal minimum wage, a new analysis shows most bill sponsors are not so generous with some of their own workers. 
The Employment Policies Institute found that 96 percent of House and Senate sponsors of the minimum wage bill do not pay their interns. That includes lead bill sponsors, like Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, according to the study. 
As a whole, most members of Congress -- whether they support an increased minimum wage or not -- do not pay interns. But the Employment Policies Institute argues that the practice shows "sponsors are legislating with a 'do as I say, not as I do' approach." 
President Obama is expected to reiterate his call for an increase in the federal minimum wage in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night. 
The unpaid intern is somewhat of a fixture on Capitol Hill. An Atlantic piece over the summer on the practice noted that lawmakers often cast those sought-after positions as educational and resume-building experiences. 
At the same time, some lawmakers have made the leap and begun to pay those workers. The EPI study found that Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Mark Begich, D-Alaska, and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., are among the lawmakers who pay at least some of their interns. 
The minimum wage bill would increase the federal minimum from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour, over two years. Supporters note the federal minimum has not increased since 2009, and argue working Americans need the extra money. 
"American businesses, American workers have [been] doing the right thing. Washington needs to help them," White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer told "Fox News Sunday."  He said items like raising the minimum wage would help the country "make tremendous progress." 
But critics, like EPI, claim that raising the minimum could have an adverse effect, discouraging businesses from hiring more workers at a time when the government is trying to spur job growth. 
"The minimum wage is mostly an entry level wage for young people," Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell told "Fox News Sunday." "We have a crisis in employment among young people right now, and generation 18 to 30, people that got out of college, are finding there are no jobs for them. The last thing we want to do is have even fewer jobs for younger people."

Secret abortion fees hidden in ObamaCare premiums, lawmakers say

Insurance companies working under the Obamacare umbrella have secretly added a surcharge to cover the cost of abortions, an apparent violation of federal law that forbids the practice, congressional leaders charge. 
Consumers signing up for insurance in an Obamacare exchange won't find a single sentence telling them that they will pay at least $1 a month to fund abortions.
"The president promised when the health care bill passed that it would not cover abortion. We knew that was an empty promise as the bill stipulated a $1 a month surcharge for plans that covered abortions," said Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa., who chairs the House's Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Health. "On top of that ... it's near impossible to decipher which plans include abortion and at what cost!"
To fix this, a House bill will be introduced this week to demand full disclosure and a separate itemized premium. It also will prohibit federal subsidies for Obamacare insurance plans that cover abortion. That bill, HR-7, or the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," will be introduced by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
On Oct. 9, Rep. Chris Smith, R-NJ, introduced a bill on the disclosure issue, which now has been folded into the broader HR-7. Smith is co-chairman of the Bipartisan Congressional Pro-Life Caucus.
Aides with both Pitts and Smith have researched numerous Obamacare policies and have yet to find any mention of abortion.
"We can't find any insurance plans where this is disclosed," said Andrew Wimer, communications director for Pitts.

Sen. Paul: Dems should recall Clinton's intern scandal

Democrats should remember President Bill Clinton's sexual affair with a White House intern before turning their criticism to Republicans' attitudes toward women, Sen. Rand Paul said Sunday.
"He took advantage of a girl that was 20 years old and an intern in his office," said Paul, R-Ky. "There is no excuse for that, and that is predatory behavior."
Paul's invocation of intern Monica Lewinsky comes as Democrats have been redoubling their efforts to paint the GOP as a party that stands opposed to women on issues such as contraception, abortion rights and equal pay. In the wake of losing back-to-back presidential elections, the GOP has tried to improve its outreach to female voters, who reliably support Democratic candidates.
The GOP's efforts stumbled this week, when former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee linked women's "libido" and government-sponsored birth control while addressing the Republican National Committee. While Huckabee said Democrats were the ones who were patronizing to women, his comments spun out of control, and Democrats quickly seized on the phrasing to underscore their campaign.
Paul, rejecting the criticism of the GOP, said Democrats should look at their most recent former president and his infidelity. Clinton's sexual relationship with Lewinsky was among the reasons the House cited in voting to impeach Clinton in 1998. The Senate acquitted him.
"Someone who takes advantage of a young girl in their office? I mean, really. And then they have the gall to stand up and say, `Republicans are having a war on women?"' Paul told NBC's "Meet the Press."
Paul's remarks come as he weighs a presidential campaign in 2016 -- an endeavor that could bring him face to face with former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, if she, too, decides to run for the White House.
Paul said that Bill Clinton's infidelity shouldn't be used against Hillary Rodham Clinton if she seeks the Democratic nomination for president. "Now, it's not Hillary's fault," he said.
But of the Clintons, he added "sometimes it's hard to separate one from the other."
Paul's comments track with what his wife said about Bill Clinton in a recent profile.
"I would say his behavior was predatory, offensive to women," Kelley Ashby told Vogue, adding that Lewinsky affair should complicate his return to the White House as first gentleman.

In weak economy, working-age people emerge as new face of food stamps

 
A SLOW ECONOMIC RECOVERY, high unemployment and stagnant wages are contributing factors as working-age people, for the first time, now make up a majority in U.S. households that rely on food stamps — suggesting that government spending on the $80 billion program may not subside significantly soon.

Pro-life activists march in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO –  Many thousands of anti-abortion protesters from across California marched through downtown San Francisco on Saturday, calling for restrictions on a medical procedure that was legalized more than 40 years ago.
A massive and diverse crowd of protesters rallied in front of City Hall before marching down Market Street to Justin Herman Plaza for the 10th annual "Walk for Life West Coast." They chanted "Pro Life" and carried signs that read "Defend Life" and "Women deserve better than abortion."
On Wednesday, thousands of abortion protesters participated in the annual Walk for Life rally in Washington, D.C. to mark the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized the procedure.
San Francisco police did not immediately provide an official crowd estimate, but at one point marchers stretched across more than a mile of Market Street, the liberal city's main thoroughfare.
High school senior Nancy Castellanos came to San Francisco on one of six buses of worshippers from St. Peter's Catholic Church in Dixon, about 70 miles away. She believes the laws need to change to make it harder to get an abortion.
"I am 100 percent, completely against abortion," Castellanos, 17, said. "If you don't want the child, there's always adoption."
John Paine, 52, arrived with people from his church group in Visalia in California's Central Valley, after making a 3 1/2-hour drive to San Francisco on Saturday.
"I'm ashamed that my country sanctions the killing of the most defenseless of its citizens," Paine said. "Human life in all its stages is sacred and should be protected."
A small group of pro-abortion rights activists protested the march on Market Street, holding signs that read "Abortion on demand and without apology."
Anna Wilson, 20, a commercial artist who lives in San Francisco, said she participated in the Walk for Life march two years ago, but said she's since changed her stance on abortion.
"I realized I was looking at it in a real childish way," Wilson said. "I'm not pro-abortion. Nobody's pro-abortion. But I am pro-choice. I think that women should have every single choice available to them, as much as men do."
Supervisor David Campos introduced a resolution last week opposing the dozens of "Abortion Hurts Women" banners that organizers hung from street lamps on Market Street. The resolution says "the prominent display of false anti-abortion statements on public property on Market Street misrepresents the City's support for reproductive health, rights and justice."
Over the last several decades, anti-abortion groups have focused on placing relatively small restrictions on abortion, especially in conservative states with Republican-dominated legislatures. But lawmakers in those states are under increasing pressure from activists to take stronger action to limit abortion.
But California, which has a Democratic governor and Legislature, expanded abortion access last year with a measure that allows nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and physician assistants to perform a type of early abortion.

Politico Ignores Bio-Gate, Declares Wendy Davis 'Most Judged Woman In America'

Friday, Breitbart News reported that Politico has thus far published only three stories on Texas gubernatorial candidate and Democrat rising star Wendy Davis being caught fabricating her life story as a single teenage mother who put herself through school. The fact that Politico has shown almost no interest in the Davis scandal did not stop the left-wing outlet from running a lead piece Saturday that declares Davis "The Most Judged Woman In America."

Judged where, exactly? Certainly not on the pages of Politico or the mainstream news media.
Moreover, the piece is written by Liza Mundy, who identifies herself as the program director at the New America Foundation. What Politico does not disclose, though, is that the New America Foundation is a left-wing organization -- left-wing enough to attract the son of George Soros to its board. Politico is obsessed with every move anyone with the last name Koch makes, but not so much when it comes to a Soros-affiliated writer at their own site.
Let's give credit to Politico, though. Propaganda-wise it is a master-stoke for the left-wing outlet to almost completely ignore the Davis scandal and then lead with an article that paints her as a martyr to something that never happened.
As always, it is important to remember that although it is a left-wing outlet, Politico disguises itself as objective. But objective outlets do not devote 50-plus stories to a stupid comment and 3 to someone fabricating for a year the narrative that helped make them a star.

No, Mr. Obama, we don’t dislike you because you’re black

America, we have an egotistical, delusional president. He has convinced himself that he is disliked by many Americans because he is black. 
In a lengthy interview with New Yorker magazine editor David Remnick the president tells him, "There’s no doubt that there’s some folks who just really dislike me because they don’t like the idea of a black president. Now, the flip side of it is there are some black folks and maybe some white folks who really like me and give me the benefit of the doubt precisely because I’m a black president."
President Obama’s approval rating has fallen badly in the national polls. His ratings are historically low. The second lowest in modern history at this point of a presidency. Lower than Bush. Lower than everyone but Richard Nixon.

I don’t dislike Obama. I dislike his beliefs and his policies.

Here come the excuses. Obama desperately wants to believe it’s all because he’s black. Because if he didn’t have that excuse, it would have to be based on his performance.
When Obama blames "some folks" for not liking him because he's black, he refers to conservatives and white Americans. I’m an unapologetic member of both groups.
It’s an interesting excuse.
If we disliked him for the color of his skin, that would excuse his failed performance as president. How convenient. That would excuse everything he’s done to damage or destroy American exceptionalism, capitalism, and the U.S. economy.
If this was about race, it would excuse his dismantling of the economy. It would excuse the 92 million working-age Americans not in the workforce.
It would excuse all-time record lows for workforce participation. It would excuse tens of thousands, and in some cases, hundreds of thousands of Americans dropping out of the workforce every month.
It would excuse the fact that only crummy, crappy, low-wage part-time jobs are being created because of Obama’s policies.
If this was about race, it would excuse Obama taking the formerly greatest health care system in the world and plunging it into crisis and confusion.
It would distract us from seeing his failed ObamaCare web site that cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
Or his blatant lies about keeping our health insurance if we like it. Or his lies about the middle class not being taxed to pay for 30 million new patients.
Or his lies about the quality of care remaining the same, even though we’ve added 30 million new patients, with no new doctors.
Or his lies about prices going down, while our rates are going through the roof, and his own IRS predicts health insurance will cost the average family a staggering $20,000 per year by 2016.
If this was about race, it would excuse his lies about wanting to create jobs for middle class Americans while he’s made conscious decisions to hire foreign companies (who rely on cheap foreign labor) to build and fix the defective ObamaCare website.
If this was about race, it would excuse his never ending spending and debt.
Or the damage he’s done to middle class Americans -- the doubling of gas prices, the all-time record highs for electricity, the jobs he’s destroyed by not approving oil drilling, or fracking, or the Keystone Pipeline.
Or using the EPA to try to put coal industry completely out of business.
It would excuse his using the power of the IRS to persecute Tea Party groups and conservative critics (like me), while allowing the IRS to hand out fraudulent tax refunds to illegal immigrants claiming fake dependents not even living in the United States.
It would excuse four dead American heroes in Benghazi, a refusal to send help while they were fighting for their lives, and a blatant cover-up before the election.
But putting all that aside, let me point out a few inconsistencies in Obama’s allegation against conservatives:
First, I don’t dislike Obama. I dislike his beliefs and his policies.
Second, last I checked Obama is not just “black.” He’s half white, born by a white mother, raised by white grandparents.
Third, I’ve been consistent my entire life. I’ve been a true blue conservative patriot since age 3, when I handed out campaign literature for Barry Goldwater, in my father’s arms. I judge people by their political beliefs and policies, not the color of their skin.
At the age of 11, I despised the policies of ultra-leftist Presidential candidate George McGovern. His beliefs and policies were almost identical to Obama’s today. Did I hate white Midwestern men?
In 1980, as a student at Columbia University, I despised the policies of President Jimmy Carter, whose policies were almost identical to Obama’s today. Did I hate white Southern men?
Today, I despise the policies of ultra-leftist politicians like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Do I therefore hate white Mormons and Italians?
Lastly, I can think of many Jewish Democrats whose policies I despise. The first one that comes to mind is Debbie Wasserman Schultz, whose statements often make me physically ill. Does that mean I hate Jews? That’s pretty funny, because I’m Jewish.
In each case a Republican conservative like me despises the political beliefs and policies of people I believe now, or believed back then, to be extreme, radical, socialist, economically ignorant, and damaging to America and capitalism.
No, Mr. Obama, we don’t dislike you because you’re black. But we do despise your policies, your lies, and your destruction of the greatest country, economy and middle class in world history.

3 Million People Have Now Enrolled in ObamaCare

ObamaCare hit 3-million enrollees on Friday — still short of the number the administration had hoped for by the end of December — but reached only by including enrollees who have not yet made their first payment.

The insurance industry traditionally considers someone enrolled when they pay their first month’s premium.

Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services reported 24% of the 2.2 million enrollees through Dec. 28 were between ages 18 and 34.  The Affordable Care Act’s survival depends on younger, and presumably more healthy, enrollees to sign up for care to keep insurance pools balanced.

Under the ACA, every individual in the country has to have insurance by April 1 -- the end of open enrollment period -- or they will face a  $95 fine, or 1% of their annual income for failing to comply.
“We are encouraged that millions of people have been enrolled in Marketplace or Medicaid coverage since October 1, and will work to give millions more Americans the peace of mind that comes with health security in the months ahead,” Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Marilyn Tavenner said in a release.
Devon Herrick, senior analyst at the National Center for Policy Analysis, says the report continues to leave out two key statistics:  premium payments and demographics.
“We knew and assumed that as we got closer to the first of the year, more people would go online, especially as the administration ironed out the bugs in the exchange software and website,” Herrick says. “It does make sense that as they can, more people will go online.”
But fears of adverse selection, which is when older and sicker people making up the majority of enrollees, remains.
“The administration seems to be quietly worried about that as well,” he says. “Hopefully the late enrollees are younger people.”