The first rule of communications is getting the message right. A March 11, 2014 op-ed by former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt appearing in the Los Angeles Times provided a unique glimpse into how messaging used by politicians can shift over time. The editorial detailed the push in the 1990s by former Alaska Senators […]
STELA Takes Center Stage at Hearing
The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology is slated to hold a hearing on the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act of 2010 (STELA) on March 12, 2014. This hearing opens a window of opportunity to discuss outdated regulatory schemes, such as retransmission consent agreements, and must-carry provisions of the Cable Act […]
Obama’s 2014 SOTU: Epic Fail
In his fifth State of the Union address (SOTU) delivered to Congress on January 28, 2014, President Obama failed to utter a single word regarding government waste or the growing national debt, and threatened to continue acting as a “Congress of One,” legislating through the increased use of executive orders. He not only failed to identify a significant cost-cutting proposal or promote an effective pro-growth policy, he also offered only a laundry list of new government spending programs. The speech was long on self-congratulation and short on accomplishments because the President has little to preen about.
The Article One President Strikes Again
On Monday afternoon the Obama administration issued the final regulation for the implementation of the employer-shared responsibility provisions under the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. The regulation again delays the employer mandate to provide health insurance to employees and corresponding fines for non-compliance until 2015 or 2016, depending on the size of the employer. Here’s […]
Declaration of Dependence
A February 4, 2013 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report confirmed what taxpayer watchdog groups such as Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) have been warning about for years: Obamacare is an unprecedented disaster for every American’s personal health and the country’s economic health. CBO reported that 2.5 million people, a historically high number, will leave the […]
Disturbing News on Medicaid from Oregon
Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) in 2010 objected to the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of Medicaid, a “partnership” between state governments and Washington to provide healthcare to the poor, knowing at the time that the price tag would be prohibitive and it would put the federal and local governments in charge of millions of Americans’ […]
More Transparency for Obamacare
Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed the Exchange Information Disclosure Act (H.R. 3362) by a bipartisan vote of 259 to 154. This is the second of two bills that bring more transparency to exactly what is happening with respect to security and actual enrollment in the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. I wrote […]
Problem Identified, Solution Needed
“The problem isn’t that we don’t know what the problem is, the problem is that we [members of Congress] don’t act,” Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) stated in testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on January 9, 2014. Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) President Tom Schatz echoed Sen. Coburn’s comments in his testimony […]
Maryland, My Maryland
On Sunday, January 12, the Washington Post wrote a highly critical article of the Maryland Health Connection, the state’s website for its health insurance exchange. The website has been a disaster since October 1, opening day for all the Obamacare exchanges. On the following Tuesday, the government official in charge of implementing the exchange, the state’s Lt. Governor Anthony G. Brown […]
Transparency Bills for Obamacare
Today, the House passed H.R 3811, the “Health Exchange Security and Transparency Act.” The bill would require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to notify Americans within two days of learning that personally identifiable information has been compromised or breached on the Healthcare.gov website. It passed by a vote of 291 to 122, […]