Issa, House GOP investigative committee say Lerner will testify in IRS scandal hearing

Former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner, a central figure in the IRS scandal, will appear before Congress on Wednesday after refusing to testify last year on the matter, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said Sunday.
Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, told “Fox News Sunday” that Lerner’s lawyers have indicated she will testify before his committee, after saying last week that she would not.
“It’s going to be a good, fact-finding hearing,” he said.
Issa said he didn’t know why Lerner’s lawyers changed their mind, but suggested Lerner testifying was “in her best interest,” considering the recent evidence the committee had gathered.
Later in the day, Lerner attorney William W. Taylor disputed Issa’s claim, saying his client would not testify.
“As of now, she intends to continue to assert her Fifth Amendment rights,” Taylor told Politico. “I do not know why Issa said what he said.”
Taylor’s statement was follow by a release from the oversight committee that stated Taylor had confirmed in writing that his client is willing to testify but wants to delay the hearing by one week.
“We have informed Mr. Taylor that Ms. Lerner may make her request for a delay on Wednesday when she appears for the hearing,” said committee spokesman Frederick Hill.
Issa and Lerner’s attorneys also have argued about whether she is protected under the Fifth Amendment from having to testify.
In May 2013, Lerner invoked the amendment right during her first-and-only appearance before the House committee, but only after she said during an opening statement that she broke no laws.
Lerner resigned last year from her post as the agency’s director of tax-exempt organizations.
The House committee continues to investigate the IRS in its 2012 targeting of Tea Party groups and other politically conservative organizations trying to get tax-exempt status.
Congressional investigators are trying to determine who exactly gave the orders for IRS agents to target the groups.
Issa said Sunday that Lerner was “in a powerful position and could have been acting alone.” Congressional documents also suggest that she was under political pressure to orchestrate the targeting.
However, safeguards against such situations should have been in place and Congress should work to put in “more checks and balances,” he also said.
Last week, Lerner attorney William Taylor said his client would testify on Capitol Hill only if compelled by a federal court or if given immunity for the testimony.
Taylor stated his position in a letter to Issa. He was responding to a letter Tuesday from Issa saying, in part, that Lerner’s testimony remains “critical to the committee’s investigation.”

Disincentivizing Work and Hurting Seniors: The Reality of Obama's Agenda

As we enter March, the nightmare that is Obamacare continues to seek and destroy the pocketbooks of hardworking Americans.
Just recently, Americans have learned that the law will "reduce the American workforce by the equivalent of 2 million full-time workers in 2017," according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office.
The Obama Administration, quick to dismiss the CBO's report, said it is "subject to misinterpretation." However, President Obama has previously cited the CBO to generate support for his healthcare bill, and subsequently warned about those who "now suddenly are ignoring what the CBO says."
Strange how the Obama Administration's support for the non-partisan office simply vanished once it was determined that Obamacare "creates a disincentive to work."
We have also learned other ways that Obamacare negatively impacts the employment outlook in this country. For starters, a small business owner recently profiled in The Wall Street Journal said that "she doesn't plan to hire more workers since it would create an administrative burden for eventually complying with the law."
Additionally, The New York Times reported last week that "Cities, counties, public schools and community colleges around the country have limited or reduced the work hours of part-time employees to avoid having to provide them with health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, state and local officials say."
These stories offer a glimpse into how the Affordable Care Act is really affecting everyday Americans' employment opportunities; even if Harry Reid thinks these stories are "untrue."
These data have demonstrated that the Obama Administration does not deserve the American people's trust when it comes to healthcare, and this dupery is found in their policies towards America's seniors as well.
As former CBO Director (there's that pesky CBO again!) Douglas Holtz-Eakin recently chronicled, "Obamacare financed its assault on existing insurance arrangements in part by $156 billion over 10 years in direct cuts to Medicare Advantage plans."
This is bad news for America's seniors.
Per Holtz-Eakin's group, the American Action Forum, millions of seniors will be subject to plan cancellations, fewer plan options, higher premiums, reduced doctor networks and higher overall out-of-pocket costs for Medicare benefits as a result of these cuts.
Seniors will be exposed to even more risk from the disruption caused by President Obama to Medicare Part D. Milliman recently calculated that "Up to 50% of Part D plan choices may be eliminated or materially changed during 2015 and 2016 based on provisions in the Proposed Rule using assumptions derived from survey responses."
It's not fair to American seniors that their healthcare is raided by the Left in order to help pay for the failed program that is Obamacare. The disastrous policy ideas from liberals have shown that they don't work in real life. Here we have a great opportunity for conservatives to show the American people smart policy that helps lowers costs, improves access and actually helps their everyday lives.
Follow John Murray on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jmurraydc

Key vote postponed for controversial Justice nominee Adegbile

The Senate has postponed a key vote Monday on the controversial nominee to head the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department, Fox News has learned.
Supporters of nominee Debo Adegbile would have needed a simple majority of 51 votes Monday to clear the way for a final vote. But the procedural vote was canceled because of a snowstorm forecast for Monday, the same day most Capitol Hill lawmakers return from their home states.
The vote has been rescheduled for midday Tuesday. If Adegbile clears the procedural vote then, after another short debate, a final vote in which he would again only need a simple majority of 51 votes to be confirmed will take place.
Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., joined others in his concern about Adegbile’s support for convicted Philadelphia cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Adegbile is facing criticism for his role in 2009 in getting Abu-Jamal's 1981 death sentence overturned during his time as acting director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. 
“The vicious murder of Officer [Daniel] Faulkner in the line of duty and the events that followed in the 30 years since his death has left open wounds,” Casey said Friday. “After carefully considering this nomination and having met with both Mr. Adegbile as well as the Fraternal Order of Police, I will not vote to confirm the nominee.”
Adegbile's death sentence has been commuted but he remains in prison.
Widow Maureen Faulkner told Fox News she is gratified at the decision by Casey to vote against the nomination of Adegbile and that she plans to continue to lobby members of the Senate to take a similar stand.
Among the others who have expressed their objection to the nomination is GOP Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey.
“The murder was not a random street crime,” Toomey and Philadelphia District Attorney R. Seth Williams recently wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece. “Abu-Jamal was an ardent supporter of the "MOVE" organization -- a racist, anarchist group founded in Philadelphia in 1972. The group's radical positions included encouraging violence against police.”

Costs of ObamaCare bungles start to add up, with Maryland first at about $30.5M

Maryland could end up spending as much as $30.5 million as a result of a glitch in its ObamaCare website, as the Obama administration steps in to help states with problematic exchanges.
Because of Maryland’s defective exchange, the state cannot determine whether customers remain eligible for Medicaid, according to a report by state budget analysts released Thursday.
As a result, the state has agreed with the federal government to a six-month delay in determining eligibility, meaning that payments will continue to be made to customers who are not eligible until the system is fixed. The delay will cost the state $17.8 million in fiscal 2014 and $12.7 million in fiscal 2015, the analysts estimated.
On Friday, the Obama administration said it would suspend some Affordable Care Act rules to help the 14 states with their own ObamaCare sites, particularly Maryland, Massachusetts, Hawaii and Oregon, which have had the most problems.
The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services plan, completed a day earlier, states the federal government will help pay for “qualified” health-insurance plans for customers in those states who because of “exceptional circumstances” had to buy plans outside of ObamaCare exchanges, as reported first by The Washington Post.
The administration made the change before the end-of-March deadline for Americans to enroll in ObamaCare this year.
In Maryland, the exchange cannot convert income data from the existing Medicaid enrollment system into a calculation needed to review whether enrollees are qualified “because of a variety of system architectural flaws,” according to budge analysts.
The exchange has been plagued by computer problems that have made it difficult for people to enroll in private health care plans since its debut Oct. 1.
State officials have decided to stick with the exchange through the open enrollment period that ends March 31 but is evaluating alternatives with an eye toward the next enrollment period that begins in November.
Among the possibilities is adopting technology developed by another state, joining a consortium of other states, partnering with the federal exchange or making major fixes to the existing system.
Thirty-six states use the federal HealthCare.gov site, which crashed and had other major problems in the first two months of enrollment.
The Maryland report said the state may need to develop an interim solution while a long-term solution is being developed. However, that process would likely take at least nine to 12 months, pushing up against the next open-enrollment period.
The report also states the development of the exchange was “a high risk undertaking” from the outset, in large part because of contractors woes, tight deadlines, constantly evolving requirement and its need to interface with work-in-progress federal databases.
The administration changes this week are not the first to ObamaCare, to be sure.
In November, Obama helped Americans about to lose policies because they didn’t meet new minimum requirements by allow the substandard plans to be sold through the end of this year.
And administration officials has twice this year given medium- and large-sized employers more time to offer health insurance to most full-time workers.
However, the change this week is significant because it marks the first the time the federal government has agreed to help pay for policies bought outside the new exchanges.
The coverage in the outside policies would have to be comparable to those offered on the exchange. And customers would have to start paying premiums, then get the subsidies after the state exchanges could determine their income eligibility.
Maryland Health Benefit Exchange official told The Post earlier this week that roughly 7,000 applications are stuck in state’s system, but all of them might not need insurance and that officials were still looking over the administration’s offer.

Real people with real problems refute Reid's claim ObamaCare 'horror stories' untrue

Despite Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's claim earlier this week that ObamaCare "horror stories" weren't true, there are plenty of real people out there with real problems.
Reid managed to ignite a firestorm when he accused those who complain about canceled policies and higher rates under ObamaCare of flat-out lying.
"There's plenty of horror stories being told,” he said. “All of them are untrue, but they're being told all over America."
Tell that to Linda Deright, who told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto,"There must be six million of us, then. I think we should just call ourselves the liars' club."
Tom Gialanella of Seattle says he got a letter last fall canceling his old policy and laying out details of his ObamaCare option.
"My premiums would increase approximately 61 percent,"he says. I went from $891 a month to $1437 a month and also my deductibles all doubled."
Jeff and Victoria Haidet of North Carolina had been in a high risk pool, an expensive form of coverage for those with serious health problems, but found ObamaCare even more expensive.
"We were a little shocked to see that one come back at even higher rate than what our high risk insurance pool was. That rate came back at$950 a month for the policy, which had higher deductibles than what we had in the high risk pool," Jeff said.
All of which prompted Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell to say, " These people across America, who are losing their insurance, whose jobs are being lost, are not making this up. And no amount of Harry Reid calling everybody a liar changes the facts."
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who has given 11 speeches laying out horror stories from his constituents, also challenged Reid's accusations.
"I guess you think the active imagination of Missourians is just running wild because they're contacting our office constantly telling about higher premiums, higher deductibles, insurance they used to have that worked, and insurance that doesn't work," he said.
Those who feel they have been misled or find themselves forced to pay more than before are hardly a rarity. Some 6.2 million had their policies canceled last fall, many pushed into more expensive plans.
The Congressional Budget Office also recently found that ObamaCare will force two of three small businesses to pay higher rates than they do now and even many Democrats talk about the need to fix the law.

2013 Waste List

Taxpayer dollars fail to reform struggling schools  - $7,300,000

$7.3 million were wasted on struggling school districts that failed to implement educational reforms.

Is there a double standard for political gaffes?

In politics, the dreaded foot in mouth gaffe is an occupational hazard.The casual statement, the careless snipe, the outdated phrase that bypasses the brain’s "sensitivity” filter can wound or even doom a public figure, especially if the offender happens to be conservative.
The relative scant attention paid to such faux pas from left-leaning offenders suggests a double standard may be at work.
This week offered several examples. Vice President Joe Biden, a presumed presidential candidate, fired off yet another quip that some say played off an offensive stereotype of African-Americans and basketball.
At a Black History Month event attended by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson ,a former NBA player, Biden said, "I told the president, next game, I've got him. I may be a white boy, but I can jump."
Perhaps because Biden is perceived of as the gaffe machine that keeps on giving, or perhaps because his folksy demeanor gets him a pass, he is seldom held to account for such indelicacies.
More troublesome is a remark by Alex Sink, the Democratic House candidate in Florida's 13th Congressional District,who made a reference to Latinos in a recent debate that smacked of insensitive stereotyping - one that got little attention outside of a few conservative news outlets.
"We have a lot of employers over on the beaches that rely upon workers, and especially in this high-growth environment, where are you going to get people to work to clean out hotel rooms or do our landscaping," she said.
Also this week, UN Ambassador Samantha Power sent out a bizarre and grotesquely insensitive tweet about Daniel Pearl , the Wall Street Journal reporter who was beheaded on video tape by al Qaeda leader, Kalid Sheik Mohammed. "Daniel Pearl's story is a reminder that individual accountability & reconciliation are required to break cycles of violence," she wrote.
The Twitterverse briefly lit up, prompting a correction from Power, which still left critics scratching their heads. It read, "Correction: @DanielPearlFNDN's work is a reminder that individual accountability + reconciliation are required to break cycles of violence."
Also this week, Donna Brazile, the Democratic National Committee's vice chairwoman, tweeted out this embarrassing blunder in advance of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer's veto of a controversial anti-gay rights bill: "Dear Arizona Republicans: Just so you know -- you've already lost this argument 50 years ago --You don't get to decide who sits at the lunch counter."
The tweet was accompanied by a grainy old photo of African-Americans seated at a segregated lunch counter.The tweet garnered no reaction until Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds saw it, and promptly tweeted that it was "The Lie of the Year." Brazile apparently forgot that segregation proliferated in the South under Democratic Party rule.
In each of the above cases, the offenders walked away virtually unscathed. Some analysts say when Republicans commit similar offenses, their careers are almost always damaged, sometimes beyond repair.
Tim Graham of the Media Research Center says swift retribution for GOP gaffes is a product of the left’s control, not just of media, but of the culture - from film, to music, to academia, to the publishing world and beyond.
"One of the ways these gaffes become so powerful," Graves says, "is that news media doesn't just notice once. It notices it again and again and again and they head into movies, into pop lyrics into late night skits, Saturday Night Live, they take a gaffe and absolutely try to immortalize it."
The New York Times on Friday reported that "Republicans have called Wendy Davis, a Democratic candidate for Texas governor, “Abortion Barbie,” likened Alison Lundergan Grimes, a Senate candidate from Kentucky, to an “empty dress,” criticized Hillary Rodham Clinton’s thighs, and referred to a pregnant woman as a “host.”
The Times story finds that Democrats virtually salivate over such GOP mistakes. Emily's List, the political action committee that supports pro-choice female candidates, has raised $25 million this election cycle. Every time a Republican inserts foot into mouth, Emily's List's fundraising arm springs into action, and the cash register starts ringing.
Republicans do the same, but as the Media Research Center's Graves tells Fox News, " our megaphone is not as big."