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Senate Republicans pitch ObamaCare alternative on eve of presidential address

Seizing on the public's continued anxiety over the ObamaCare rollout, a trio of Republican senators on Monday unveiled a sweeping alternative proposal they say would gut the law's mandates and taxes while preserving consumer protections. 
Sens. Orrin Hatch, of Utah; Tom Coburn, of Oklahoma; and Richard Burr, of North Carolina, announced their plan one day before President Obama delivers his State of the Union address. It is his first such address since the launch of the state and federal health care exchanges. 
The GOP proposal, dubbed the Patient Choice, Affordability, Responsibility and Empowerment Act, would repeal the president's marquee legislative achievement while instituting new reforms the senators say would give states and individuals more flexibility and purchasing power. 
"Americans deserve a real alternative, and a way out," Coburn said. 
Under the plan, insurances companies would not be able to impose lifetime limits on patients and would be required to allow dependent coverage up to the age of 26, as ObamaCare currently does. The Republican proposal would address the issue of pre-existing conditions by creating a new "continuous coverage" standard that would prevent any individual moving from one insurance plan to another from being denied on the basis of a pre-existing condition so long as that individual was continuously enrolled in a health plan. 
The requirements on individuals to buy insurance, and on mid-sized and large businesses to provide it, would be repealed. 
Senate aides describing the proposal acknowledged there's little chance of movement in the current Congress, where Democrats control the Senate and have resisted all Republican-led House attempts to repeal or chip away at ObamaCare. Still, the aides said they hope continued public dissatisfaction with the way the law is being implemented might shore up the efforts of Hatch, Coburn and Burr. A new Associated Press-GfK poll shows that while negative perceptions of the new exchanges have eased, 66 percent of Americans say the rollout is not going well. 
"The American people have found out what is in ObamaCare -- broken promises in the form of increased health care costs, costly mandates and government bureaucracy," Burr, a North Carolina Republican, said in a statement. "We can lower costs and expand access to quality coverage and care by empowering individuals and their families to make their own health care decisions, rather than empowering the government to make those decisions for them." 
While the House has introduced and passed dozens of bills to repeal some or all of the health care law, as a minority in the Senate, Republicans have struggled to get votes on ObamaCare-related bills or amendments. They have instead focused on highlighting what they describe as flaws in the law during speeches or press conferences. 
In their most notable legislative assault on the law, Republicans late last year tried to defund the law in a standoff that fueled a partial government shutdown. Democrats consistently have hit the GOP for criticizing the law without offering a comprehensive alternative -- something the Burr-Coburn-Hatch measure is surely aimed at countering. 
Their proposal calls for the targeted use of tax credits to help individuals buy health care. Employees who work for a small business with 100 or fewer employees would be able to receive a credit while those whose annual income is 300 percent of the federal poverty level could receive an age-adjusted refundable tax credit to buy health coverage. Small businesses would also be allowed to band together and purchase insurance, even across state lines. 
To help offset the costs of the plan, the senators would maintain ObamaCare's cuts to Medicare and also eliminate the unlimited tax exclusion of employer-provided health coverage, instead capping the employer's tax exclusion at 65 percent of an average plan's cost. 
There is currently no official estimate of the bill's cost. However the group said it is designed to be "roughly budget neutral" over a 10-year period. 
Under the plan, Medicaid reforms would enable eligible individuals to opt out and take advantage of a health credit to purchase coverage, while enrollment would be capped. Federal funds would be distributed to states according to the number of low-income individuals at or below 100 percent of the federal poverty line but would reflect demographic and population changes, according to the senators. 
Rounding out the plan would be a series of medical malpractice reforms and disclosure rules that would require insurers to list covered items and services as well as any limitations or restrictions. Eventually, the senators said they hope to work with colleagues and introduce formal legislation to implement these reforms. 
"It's critical we chart another path forward," said Coburn, a medical doctor. "Our health care system wasn't working well before ObamaCare and it is worse after ObamaCare."

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.