House GOP leaders back limited path to legal status for illegal immigrants

 Bailey Comment: GOP is now Caving in!

House Republican leaders on Thursday endorsed a limited path to legal status for some illegal immigrants, in a move Democrats said could open the door to a deal on comprehensive immigration legislation.
The position was included in a document released by party leaders during their annual retreat in Maryland. The "standards for immigration reform" document ruled out a special path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
Instead, it said immigrants living here illegally could remain and live legally if they pass background checks, pay fines and back taxes, learn to speak English and understand U.S. civics, and can support themselves without access to welfare.
But GOP leaders made clear that border security must be improved first.
"None of this can happen before specific enforcement triggers have been implemented," the document said.
Nevertheless, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., a big advocate for immigration legislation on the Senate side, said the announcement could smooth the way for a deal on legislation. The Senate passed an immigration bill last year.
"While these standards are certainly not everything we would agree with, they leave a real possibility that Democrats and Republicans, in both the House and Senate, can in some way come together and pass immigration reform that both sides can accept. It is a long, hard road but the door is open," he said.
The House GOP document is sure to meet resistance from some rank-and-file members, and skeptical Republicans on the Senate side.
In advance of the House Republican retreat, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, delivered a 30-page memo to all House Republicans challenging their expected stance.
Sessions told members of his party they must "end the lawlessness -- not surrender to it" -- and they must defend the legitimate interests of millions of struggling American workers.
In his memo, Sessions warned of the negative impact of the House immigration proposal on U.S. workers, taxpayers and the rule of law. His analysis said increasing the number of immigrants would hurt an already weak economy, lower wages and increase unemployment. He cited White House adviser Gene Sperling's comment earlier this month that the economy has three people looking for every job opening.
House Speaker John Boehner, in remarks obtained by Fox News, told Republican members Thursday that the guidelines they announced "are as far as we are willing to go."
"I have been clear that I oppose the massive, flawed immigration reform bill passed by the Democratic-controlled Senate. I've been clear that the House will not take it up or engage in negotiations with the Senate on it," he said. "We will address this issue in a step-by-step, common sense fashion that starts with securing our nation's borders and enforcing our nation's laws."
He added: "Nancy Pelosi said yesterday that for her caucus, it is a special path to citizenship or nothing. If Democrats insist on that, then we are not going to get anywhere this year."
Among the other planks of the House GOP "standards" was a statement that, "We must secure our borders now and verify that they are secure."
It called for a "zero tolerance policy" for illegal border crossers "when immigration reform is enacted."
The document also backed improving the system used to verify the immigration status of workers, and said the legal immigration system needs to be overhauled.
"Every year thousands of foreign nationals pursue degrees at America's colleges and universities, particularly in high skilled fields," the document said. "When visas aren't available, we end up exporting this labor and ingenuity to other countries. Visa and green card allocations need to reflect the needs of employers and the desire for these exceptional individuals to help to grow our economy."
The document opened the door to a temporary worker program, and, significantly, threw support behind a DREAM Act-style program. The Obama administration has already, on its own, allowed young illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children to stay in the country for now -- which is what the DREAM Act would have addressed.
The GOP document backed that goal, for those who meet certain criteria and either serve in the military or get a college degree. "It is time to provide an opportunity for legal residence and citizenship for those who were brought to this country as children through no fault of their own," it said.
The document also made clear that "criminal aliens, gang members and sex offenders" would not be able to seek legal status at all.

IRS customer service leaves millions of calls unanswered

Have a question on your tax returns? Don't ask the IRS. Bailey Comment : "Unless you owe them money"!
As tax day looms, an annual watchdog report to Congress finds that the agency is falling short when it comes to answering Americans' questions about the convoluted tax code.
The National Taxpayer Advocate found only 61 percent of people seeking to speak with a customer service representative last year got through to anybody -- leaving nearly 20 million calls unanswered.
The report largely blamed budget cuts, and lamented the impact the poor customer service is having on taxpayers.
"At the risk of vast understatement, it is a sad state of affairs when the government writes tax laws as complex as ours -- and then is unable to answer any questions beyond 'basic' ones from baffled citizens who are doing their best to comply," the report from National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson said.
The study detailed how customer service has steadily declined over the past several years, including at its 400 "walk-in sites." In fiscal 2014, the office said, the IRS will only answer "basic" questions at those sites during filing season. And it will not answer any questions, "even basic ones," after April, even for filers who got extensions.
"In addition, the IRS will discontinue its longstanding practice of preparing tax returns for low income, elderly and disabled taxpayers who seek help," the report said.
With the erosion in services, wait times have gone up. In fiscal 2004, callers were left on hold for just 2.6 minutes. Today, the average wait time is nearly 18 minutes.
Some taxpayers resort to writing letters to the IRS with their questions. The agency received 8.4 million such letters last year, but more than half were not answered by the end of fiscal 2013, the report said.
The problems stems in large part from budget cuts. The training budget has, according to the report, gone from $172 million a few years ago to $22 million. The workforce itself has fallen from 95,000 full-time workers to 87,000.
"Thus, the IRS not only has fewer employees than four years ago, but those who remain are less equipped to perform their jobs," the report said.
As the IRS is reluctant, like other agencies, to simply lay off employees in the face of budget cuts, it has targeted areas like training for cuts.

FACT CHECK: Obama and Medicare premiums

WASHINGTON (AP) — It seems to be something of an occupational hazard for President Barack Obama: When he talks about his health care law, he's bound to hit a fact bump sooner or later.

So it went Tuesday night, when he declared Medicare premiums have stayed flat thanks to the law, when they've gone up. As for an even bigger theme of his State of the Union address, the president's assertion that "upward mobility has stalled" in America runs contrary to recent research, while other findings support him.

A look at some of the facts and political circumstances behind his claims, along with a glance at the Republican response to his speech:

OBAMA: "Because of this (health care) law, no American can ever again be dropped or denied coverage for a preexisting condition like asthma, back pain or cancer. No woman can ever be charged more just because she's a woman. And we did all this while adding years to Medicare's finances, keeping Medicare premiums flat, and lowering prescription costs for millions of seniors."

THE FACTS: He's right that insurers can no longer turn people down because of medical problems, and they can't charge higher premiums to women because of their sex. The law also lowered costs for seniors with high prescription drug bills. But Medicare's monthly premium for outpatient care has gone up in recent years.

Although the basic premium remained the same this year at $104.90, it increased by $5 a month in 2013, up from $99.90 in 2012. Obama's health care law also raised Medicare premiums for upper-income beneficiaries, and both the president and Republicans have proposed to expand that.

Finally, the degree to which the health care law improved Medicare finances is hotly debated. On paper, the program's giant trust fund for inpatient care gained more than a decade of solvency because of cuts to service providers required under the health law. But in practice those savings cannot simultaneously be used to expand coverage for the uninsured and shore up Medicare.

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President Barack Obama delivers the State of Union address before a joint session of Congress in the …

OBAMA: "Today, after four years of economic growth, corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher, and those at the top have never done better. But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled."

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President Barack Obama gives his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday J …

THE FACTS: The most recent evidence suggests that mobility hasn't worsened. A team of economists led by Harvard's Raj Chetty released a study last week that found the United States isn't any less socially mobile than it was in the 1970s. Looking at children born between 1971 and 1993, the economists found that the odds of a child born in the poorest 20 percent of families making it into the top 20 percent hasn't changed.

"We find that children entering the labor market today have the same chances of moving up in the income distribution (relative to their parents) as children born in the 1970s," the authors said.

Still, other research has found that the United States isn't as mobile a society as most Americans would like to believe. In a study of 22 countries, economist Miles Corak of the University of Ottawa found that the United States ranked 15th in social mobility. Only Italy and Britain among wealthy countries ranked lower. By some measures, children in the United States are as likely to inherit their parents' economic status as their height.

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OBAMA: "We'll need Congress to protect more than 3 million jobs by finishing transportation and waterways bills this summer.  But I will act on my own to slash bureaucracy and streamline the permitting process for key projects, so we can get more construction workers on the job as fast as possible."

THE FACTS: Cutting rules and regulations doesn't address what's holding up most transportation projects, which is lack of money. The federal Highway Trust Fund will run out of money in August without action. To finance infrastructure projects, Obama wants Congress to raise taxes on businesses that keep profits or jobs overseas, but that idea has been a political nonstarter.

The number of projects affected by the administration's efforts to cut red tape is relatively small, said Joshua Schank, president and CEO of the Eno Center for Transportation, a think tank. "The reason most of these projects are delayed is they don't have enough money. So it's great that you are expediting the review process, but the review process isn't the problem. The problem is we don't have enough money to invest in our infrastructure in the first place."

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OBAMA: "More than 9 million Americans have signed up for private health insurance or Medicaid coverage."

THE FACTS: That's not to say 9 million more Americans have gained insurance under the law.

The administration says about 6 million people have been determined to be eligible for Medicaid since Oct. 1 and an additional 3 million roughly have signed up for private health insurance through the new markets created by the health care law. That's where Obama's number of 9 million comes from. But it's unclear how many in the Medicaid group were already eligible for the program or renewing existing coverage.
Likewise, it's not known how many of those who signed up for private coverage were previously insured. A large survey released last week suggests the numbers of uninsured gaining coverage may be smaller. The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index found that the uninsured rate for U.S. adults dropped by 1.2 percentage points in January, to 16.1 percent. That would translate to roughly 2 million to 3 million newly insured people since the law's coverage expansion started Jan. 1.
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OBAMA: "In the coming weeks, I will issue an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay their federally funded employees a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour, because if you cook our troops' meals or wash their dishes, you shouldn't have to live in poverty."

THE FACTS: This would be a hefty boost in the federal minimum wage, now $7.25, but not many would see it.

Most employees of federal contractors already earn more than $10.10. About 10 percent of those workers, roughly 200,000, might be covered by the higher minimum wage. But there are several wrinkles. The increase would not take effect until 2015 at the earliest and it doesn't apply to existing federal contracts, only new ones. Renewed contracts also will be exempt from Obama's order unless other terms of the agreement change, such as the type of work or number of employees needed.

Obama also said he'll press Congress to raise the federal minimum wage overall. He tried that last year, seeking a $9 minimum, but Congress didn't act.
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REP. CATHY McMORRIS RODGERS of Washington, in her prepared Republican response: "Last month, more Americans stopped looking for a job than found one. Too many people are falling further and further behind because, right now, the president's policies are making people's lives harder."

THE FACTS: She leaves out a significant factor in the high number of people who aren't looking for jobs: Baby boomers are retiring.

It's true that a large part of the still-high unemployment rate is due to jobless workers who have given up looking for a job. There are roughly three people seeking every job opening, a circumstance that can discourage others from trying. But one big reason people aren't seeking employment is that there are so many boomers — the generation born in the immediate aftermath of World War II — and therefore more than the usual number of retirements.

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Associated Press writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Christopher S. Rugaber, Joan Lowy, Sam Hananel and Tom Raum contributed to this report.

EDITOR'S NOTE _ An occasional look at political claims that take shortcuts with the facts or don't tell the full story.

King Obama

 

'WITH OR WITHOUT CONGRESS': Obama hits road after vowing action

 After vowing in his State of the Union address to use the power of the pen to pursue his agenda in 2014, President Obama once again is hitting the campaign trail to tout his proposals – while countering criticism that his presidency has entered a lame-duck phase.  

The president on Wednesday will launch a multi-state, post-speech tour. He’ll visit a Maryland town just outside Washington before traveling to the Pittsburgh suburbs. From there, he travels to Wisconsin and Tennessee on Thursday.
The stumping comes after the president offered a mixed message in his State of the Union address – he made clear he’ll sidestep Congress “wherever and whenever” he can to tackle economic issues but also lowered his sights for what is achievable at this stage in his presidency.  
In his State of the Union address, Obama stopped short of proposing any sweeping new initiatives. He renewed his call for Congress to approve an immigration overhaul “this year,” but for the most part narrowed his focus to smaller-ticket items he’s vowing to do on his own.
Urging a “year of action,” he pitched what he called “concrete, practical proposals” to boost the middle class and build “new ladders of opportunity” for others to enter it.
“Some require congressional action, and I’m eager to work with all of you,” Obama said. “But America does not stand still – and neither will I.  So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that’s what I’m going to do.”
The speech reflected a president struggling to advance his agenda partway through his second term, in the face of a divided Congress, flagging public support and several controversies. Instead of flatly declaring what will be achieved in 2014, the president said “let’s see” where both parties can make progress.
Thematically, Obama focused his remarks on income inequality and American workers. He argued that the economic recovery largely has benefited those “at the top” while leaving many Americans struggling to break into the middle class.
He offered a mixed prescription for those economic ills.
Advisers had signaled ahead of the speech that the president in 2014 will rely more on executive actions to pursue portions of his agenda, with the understanding that passing anything controversial through Congress is an uphill battle. Obama took a first step in that direction on Tuesday, announcing he’ll approve an increase in the minimum wage for new federal contract workers, from $7.25 an hour to $10.10.
Among the other executive actions Obama is vowing to take is a plan described as “starter savings accounts.” Obama said he’d launch “myRA” accounts to help people save for retirement – under the rough outline of the plan, the accounts would be offered, via employers, through a Roth IRA account and backed by the government. The initiatives also include a review of federal job training programs, a partnership with CEOs to help long-term unemployed, and partnerships with tech companies to improve web connectivity in the classroom.
Obama also said "I'll act on my own" to streamline the bureaucracy for key infrastructure projects.
On gun control as well – which featured prominently in last year’s address, only to stall in Congress – Obama said he’d keep trying “with or without Congress to help stop more tragedies from visiting innocent Americans.”
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., speaking on Fox News, complained afterward that Obama was taking a “my way or the highway” approach by saying he’d bypass Congress, sounding more like a “bully” than someone looking to work with lawmakers.
But the president would still need Congress’ support for major agenda items, including an increase in the federal minimum wage for all workers, one of his top priorities.
Obama renewed that call on Tuesday night, telling Congress: “Say yes. Give America a raise.”
He further urged employers, as well as states, to raise their wages with or without Congress.
The president also called for Congress to extend long-term unemployment benefits, and expand the earned income tax credit for workers without children. On education, he renewed a call for Congress to help ensure universal pre-K for 4-year-olds.
While some of Obama’s future executive actions may be modest in scope, House Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday cautioned Obama not to overstep his bounds. “We have a Constitution,” Boehner said, warning that if he goes too far he’ll hit a “brick wall.”
Meanwhile, in the official GOP response, Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers urged the president to join Republicans in fostering a more pro-business climate.
“We hope the president will join us in a year of real action by empowering people -- not by making their lives harder with unprecedented spending, higher taxes and fewer jobs.”
Obama delivered the State of the Union as he struggles in his second term to achieve the kind of legislative victories he notched in his first.
The past year has seen the administration thrown off course by controversies and other setbacks, ranging from the exposure of the government’s widespread surveillance activities to the problems with the ObamaCare launch.
Though Obama’s address focused largely on the economy and wages, the health care law remains a major challenge in 2014. The administration has worked to address widespread technical problems with the federal insurance exchanges, but lawmakers are still voicing concerns about the financial stability of the system. Some Republicans also tried to draw attention to the law’s downsides by bringing as their guests Tuesday night Americans whose coverage was negatively affected by the law.
Obama did offer a defense of his health law toward the end of the address. He stressed that the law prevents Americans from being dropped from or denied coverage over a preexisting condition, and said Americans “aren’t interested in refighting old battles” on the law.
To Republican critics, he said: “Tell America what you’d do differently. Let’s see if the numbers add up. But let’s not have another 40-something votes to repeal a law that’s already helping millions of Americans like Amanda. The first 40 were plenty.”
Obama left foreign policy for the end of his address, defending his administration’s decision to engage Iran in nuclear negotiations while acknowledging there is more work to do in the fight against terrorism.
“While we have put Al Qaeda’s core leadership on a path to defeat, the threat has evolved, as Al Qaeda affiliates and other extremists take root in different parts of the world,” Obama said. Obama vowed to keep working with allies to “disrupt and disable” those networks.

Firewood 4 Sale

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."