$5 Billion Obamacare Slush Fund Corruptly Buys Influence and Votes

Through previously secret clauses in Obamacare, Obama and the Democrats are corruptly buying votes with billions of our taxpayer dollars. It’s an outrage that should not be tolerated by the American public.

The Early Retiree Reinsurance Program (ERRP), buried deep within the leviathan legislation, provides $5 billion to private companies, states and labor unions that is to be used for the payment of health insurance for those who are retiring and are under age 65. Not surprisingly, a significantly disproportionate amount of the money is going to unions, and companies and states that are strong supporters of the Democrats. Some is even going to the "mainstream" media (the Left) which, of course, doesn't hurt with regard to even more positive, gushing press coverage of Obama and the Democrats.

Such a slush fund is corrupt, intolerable and a massive waste of taxpayer dollars. Furthermore, this has nothing to do with the need for healthcare reform and everything to do with influence peddling.

This is yet more evidence of the depravity and duplicity of too many of our politicians (largely Democrats), the inherent problems of a large government and why it needs to be radically downsized, and the wasteful spending of the government. It adds another reason why Obamacare must be vaporized.

Washington Post and CBS receiving money from Obamacare slush fund
Matthew Boyle    The Daily Caller    04/06/2011

Two mainstream news organizations are receiving hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars from Obamacare’s Early Retiree Reinsurance Program (ERRP) — a $5 billion grant program that’s doling out cash to companies, states and labor unions in what the Obama administration considers an effort to pay for health insurance for early retirees. The Washington Post Company raked in $573,217 in taxpayer subsidies and CBS Corporation secured $722,388 worth of Americans’ money.

“It is fine with me if they continue covering the ObamaCare debate,” said Rep. Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, in an e-mail to The Daily Caller. “When NBC used to cover energy issues, they identified themselves as a subsidiary of General Electric. CBS and Washington Post just have to disclose that they are subsidiaries of the Obama Administration.”

The ERRP, which Republicans call a slush fund, provides taxpayer money to Obama administration-selected states, companies and labor unions with already-in-place early retiree health insurance programs, and aims to make certain that their employees who retire early still have health insurance coverage before they reach Medicare eligibility age. Almost $2 billion of the $5 billion fund, which was supposed to last until 2014, has already been distributed to corporations. New projections expect the funding to run out before the end of 2012, if not sooner.

At a Friday morning hearing, the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, chaired by Rep. Cliff Stearns, Florida Republican, asked Center for Consumer Information & Insurance Oversight (CCIO) official Steven Larsen for how the administration decides who gets a slice of the $5 billion pie – and how the application process works. In his response, Stearns referred to the fact that corporations like General Electric, Verizon and AT&T in addition to several labor unions were getting taxpayer funding.

Stearns was not impressed. “This program is providing ‘free’ money to corporations, states, unions, and pension plans,” the Congressman said in an e-mail to TheDC. “In addition, the Washington Post and CBS received funding under this program. How can the Washington Post and CBS be impartial on the issue of health care when they received funding under the health care law?”

CBS Corporation spokesman Gil Schwartz told TheDC that newsroom employees, like any other CBS employees, are indeed allowed to take the taxpayer subsidies.

“Yes they are,” Schwartz said. “Why wouldn’t newsroom employees be allowed access to that money like all other CBS employees?”
CBS gets the money from the government, then provides early retirees with health insurance.

Though no current newsroom employees can benefit from the ERRP funds, they could retire early and still benefit from the money – or any newsroom employee who has retired since Obamacare became law could benefit from it too.

The Washington Post declined to comment. “We have no additional information to provide you other than what you have,” Post spokeswoman Rima Calderon told TheDC.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told TheDC she couldn’t disclose information about applications or disbursements for specific companies.

In addition to CBS Corporation and the Washington Post Company, recipients of ERRP funding include the United Auto Workers union, which secured $206,798,086 in taxpayer money, AT&T, which took in $140,022,949, and General Electric (GE), which raked in $36,607,818. GE has made headlines recently for not paying any U.S. taxes last year. IBM got $12,989,690 in taxpayer money.

Verizon pulled $91,702,538 in taxpayer cash, too, and General Motors received $19,002,669. More than $6 million went to different Teamsters groups nationwide, and millions more went to the United Mine Workers, United Food and Commercial Workers, the AFL-CIO and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

http://dailycaller.com/2011/04/06/washington-post-and-cbs-receiving-money-from-obamacare-slush-fund/

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Democrats’ Hysteria to Miniscule Spending Cuts

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The Budget Pie: A Visual of the Government’s Spending Issues

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Democrats Irresponsible and Not Serious In Addressing Severe Budget Deficits

We are nearing the precipice of a financial apocalypse in this country but you would never know it just by listening to the demagoguery of the Democrats. They can’t spend other people’s money fast enough (translated: the taxpayers). No pork project or expenditure to them is frivolous.

Despite massive increases in spending under Obama and Congress when both chambers were controlled by the Democrats, they refuse to agree to even a miniscule 1.7% reduction - $61 billion out of $3.6 trillion. Apparently, this figure has been reduced to about one half in order to avert a government shutdown. That would translate to around a 1.8% reduction in the spending deficit for just this one year!

This is essentially a rounding error – an unacceptable compromise which illustrates their total lack of responsibility and concern for America, our way of life and standard of living. It also confirms that their first interest is getting re-elected.

We should work to make sure that it doesn’t happen at their next election.

Shutdown? Why are we still discussing the 2011 budget?
Greg Richards April 01, 2011

The 2011 budget should have been passed by last year's Congress. The 1974 budget law requires that the budget for this fiscal year be passed by October 1 of last year.

The Democrats were in power last year. The entire government was under the control of the Democrat Party. In the Senate, the Democrats had a supermajority. In the House, the Democrats had a controlling majority. Their guy was in the White House.

Passing a budget could arguably be said to be Congress' primary duty apart from declaring war. But last year, we saw the contempt in which the Democrat Party holds the public. The Democrats ran away from their duty, a duty they accepted - indeed sought - by running for office.

But the Democrats did not want to run in the elections of November 2010 on their record, on their stewardship of the affairs of State. Instead they chose to be derelict in their duty to the country.

Now, under the goad of the Tea Party, the Republicans, having retaken control of the House, are insisting that the government institute a budget for fiscal 2011, which has already half gone. In the face of a $1.6 trillion deficit which is occurring, be it noted, in the absence of a national emergency even if in the context of poor economic performance, the Republicans are seeking to cut $61 billion in spending, a paltry 1.7% of the total budget and 3.8% of the deficit. And what do we find? We find the Democratic Majority Leader of the Senate Harry Reid attempting to marginalize the Tea Party, whose presence is the only reason that he is being forced to do his duty!

Let's review:

1. The Democrats, by abandoning their duty on the budget last year, have already shown that they have no respect for their responsibility to the country.

2. The Democrats certainly have no respect for Republicans and will not act in the interests of collegiality.

3. Therefore, the only thing that motivates Democrats in Congress is access to power. The only force that is going to move them is the fear of losing that power. What we know and they don't is that the citizenry is now aroused. It is fearful for the future of the country under the unmodulated profligacy of the Democrat Party in Washington.

So, let's treat the Harry Reids with the contempt they deserve. Reasonableness is not going to move the needle anyway. Let's do what is necessary to save the country and put the Dems to the test of public obloquy if they choose to continue their irresponsibility from last year and stand in the way of prudence and necessity.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/04/shutdown_why_are_we_still_disc.html

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Congressional Republicans Are Seeking A Balanced Budget Amendment

Congressional Republicans are continuing a welcomed pattern of pursuing fiscal responsibility by the federal government – just what the voters charged them to do. Their political counterparts and their ideological antithesis, the Democrats, instead are plotting to sabotage talks on federal spending and speciously blame and attack the Republicans. Their philosophy is that there can really never be too much spending.

Prudently, the Republicans are resurrecting the idea of a balanced budget amendment in order to force restraint in spending and taxation. They are conflating ideas from the past with new ones to create a Constitutional Amendment that will facilitate this.

In the end, they will irrefutably show that they are the party of fiscal responsibility and restraint so that the taxpayers can keep more of what they earn and all of us can enjoy a higher standard of living.

Budget Balance By Law
Investor’s Business Daily   03/28/2011

Fiscal Policy: The balanced budget amendment idea has lain dormant for years. But Republicans are bringing it back. In a day when runaway spending is running away faster than ever, we need a mechanism to rein it in.

GOP leaders expect in the next two weeks to introduce to the public a balanced budget amendment that they believe will fix the profound debt and deficit problems that lawmakers have created for the taxpayers. Done correctly, a balanced budget amendment might do just that.

Congressional Republicans had planned to announce their intention to amend the Constitution in the middle of the month, but decided to wait for a few weeks until they could come up with a bill they could all support.

Once lawmakers have agreed to a piece of legislation, the GOP will go public with it — and the promise is the process will be highly transparent.

In other words, Congress won't have to pass the amendment before everyone finds out what's in it.

"We will have a genuine rollout," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, guaranteed Human Events, "so the American people can know what we're doing and they can call, and email, and fax, and demand their senators and congressmen support it and create a true grass-roots effort."

While there are competing versions of the balanced budget amendment among Republican lawmakers, Human Events reported last week that the likely final version of the amendment will:

• Cap spending at 18% of GDP. Under President Obama, spending has soared to 23.8% (fiscal 2010) and 24.7% (current fiscal year) of GDP.

• Allow federal spending to exceed federal revenue only when two-thirds of both chambers approve a specific dollar amount beyond government income.

• Prohibit tax hikes to balance the budget unless two-thirds in both chambers vote to override the limitation. The significance of this can't be overstated. Any amendment that enforces a balanced budget without such a restraint would only make matters worse. A large number of Democrats and a few soft Republicans would be giddy at the prospect of endlessly raising taxes.

• Require increases in the debt limit to be approved by three-fifths of both chambers.

• Force the president to submit a balanced budget each year to Congress.

In return for allowing the debt ceiling to exceed its current $14.2 trillion threshold, the GOP is demanding that Congress vote on a balanced budget amendment.

Should Republicans get their vote, and two-thirds of each chamber approve the amendment, it will go to the state legislatures. It must then be ratified in three-fourths of the states to be added to the Constitution.

To get it through the House, Republicans will need help from Democrats. Their 49-seat majority does not reach the two-thirds level required to approve an amendment. But a balanced budget amendment bill introduced this year by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., has 215 co-sponsors, with 13 Democrats among them.

The GOP will also need help from Democrats, who have 51 of the 100 seats, to move it through the Senate. With votes from all 47 Republicans, the amendment will have to attract support from 20 Democrats.

While the numbers would indicate that passage in the Senate is unlikely, the prospect isn't entirely hopeless. Human Events notes that there are four Democrats who voted for the balanced budget amendment in 1997 who still serve in the Senate.

Democratic Sens. Mark Udall — who has offered his own balanced budget amendment — and Claire McCaskill — who has pushed for a 20.6% of GDP cap on spending — are two others who might vote for another balanced budget amendment.

But even if it gets hung up in one or both chambers, Cornyn still believes that the balanced budget amendment will at least be a useful guide to politics.

"I think the voters would know," he told Human Events, "with very stark clarity, who is for a balanced budget and who is not."

Typically all anyone needs to know about where a politician stands on a balanced budget is party affiliation. But maybe the shocking behavior of the Obama spending machine will clear up some Democrats' thinking. For those who refuse to learn, there are the elections of 2012.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/567387/201103281851/Budget-Balance-By-Law.htm

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