Washington, DC – Today, Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) issued the following statement after the House, in a bipartisan vote, passed H.R. 5, the “Protecting Access to Health Care Act,” which repeals the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB):

“On the eve of the second anniversary of the Democrats’ health law, the House again took action to dismantle a dangerous Washington power grab that puts 15 unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats between seniors and their doctors.  This is a victory for seniors, people with disabilities, and the doctors that provide care for them.  If left in place, these bureaucrats could meet in total secrecy and make decisions that would threaten seniors’ access to health care.  I urge the Senate to follow suit and stand up to ensure that doctors, patients, and families have a voice in their health care decisions.”

This week, House Republicans released their budget resolution, which was approved by the Budget Committee yesterday.  The budget resolution includes a proposal to implement comprehensive tax reform that:

1. Consolidates the current six individual income tax brackets into just two brackets of 10 and 25 percent;
2. Repeals the Alternative Minimum Tax, which currently threatens 31 million middle-class families with higher taxes; and
3. Reduces the corporate rate to 25 percent and moves the U.S. from a “worldwide” to a “territorial” tax system that puts American companies and their workers on a level playing field with foreign competitors and encourages investment and hiring here at home.

A Wall Street Journal editorial commented that the plan “creates a tax system far more conducive to faster job creation and greater investment.”  That is certainly true, and those sentiments are echoed by job creators and free market advocates across the nation.

National Association of Manufacturers (NAM):
“Manufacturers have consistently said that the federal budget is an opportunity to lead.  The budget proposed today offers fiscally responsible tax policy that spurs growth and job creation.”

National Retail Federation (NRF):
“The National Retail Federation welcomed tax reform provisions included in a budget proposal released today by House Republicans, saying the plan shows bipartisan support is building for tax reform that would boost the economy and help create jobs.”

National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB):
“By simplifying the tax code, eliminating the Alternative Minimum Tax and creating two new individual tax brackets at 10% and 25%, the Ryan budget is helping small-business owners to get back on their feet.  This focus on individual rates will help job creators more clearly predict their tax burden going forward, allowing them to focus more on growing their business and helping the economy.”

National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA):
“Unless steps are taken to reform the tax code on a comprehensive basis, businesses will lack the certainty and financial strength needed to flourish.  NRCA calls on Congress to adopt pro-growth policies like the Ryan budget that will allow businesses, regardless of their size or structure, to grow and create jobs.”

Reducing America’s Taxes Equitably (RATE):
“Lowering the corporate income tax provides a real opportunity for bi-partisan cooperation on an issue that is critical to the competitiveness of our economy.”

Americans for Tax Reform (ATR):
“There are lots of good spending cuts and reforms at its heart, but there’s also a great, pro-growth tax plan Congressman Ryan developed with the House Ways and Means Committee which should not be overlooked.”

The Heritage Foundation:
“[The] budget lays out substantive policy choices, cutting spending, reforming entitlements, and avoiding tax hikes.  It also outlines a tax reform that would strengthen the economy and by implication further strengthen government finances through organic revenue growth.  It represents real progress toward tackling the nation’s fiscal and economic challenges.”

“You’re only willing to defend certain women. You’re only willing to take a moral stand when you know your liberal supporters will stand behind you. But what if you did something radical and wildly unpopular with your base and took a stand against the denigration of all women, even if they’re just single moms? Even if they’re Republicans?” writes Bristol Palin in an open letter to President Obama, which asks when he’ll reach out to comfort her, as he did when Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke was called a vulgar name by Rush Limbaugh.

“Mr. President, when should I expect the call?” asked Miss Palin, who racked up several insults over the years from HBO host Bill Maher, a million-dollar donor to the Obama re-election campaign.

“I’m not expecting your super PAC to return the money. You´re going to need every dime to hang on to your presidency. I’m not even really expecting a call. But would it be too much to expect a little consistency? After all, you’re president of all Americans, not just the liberals,” she adds.

“Interesting that the Dems thought they had a big winner on this whole ‘war against women’ thing, but it’s the people on the right who are gleefully keeping it alive now,” observes “Instapundit” and Pajamas Media contributor Glenn Reynolds.

President Obama famously promised during the debate over his $2.6 trillion health spending law that, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health plan,” and that it would “slow the growth of health care costs for our families, our businesses, and our government.”  However, a major survey recently conducted by the Willis Human Capital Practice, that’s simply not the case.

After speaking with more than 2,300 small and large employers nationwide, the new survey found that the bureaucratic health spending law is making it worse, saying onerous, Washington-dictated mandates will drive up costs and ultimately threaten their employee’s current coverage of choice.

Take a look at what this latest study found:

INCREASED COSTS FOR EMPLOYERS:
The Willis survey found, a majority of the employers who have quantified their compliance costs estimate increases of at least 2 percent to more than 5 percent to their health plan costs due to the health law.

HIGHER COSTS FOR EMPLOYERS:
The Willis survey found that nearly two-thirds of the employers will be forced to pass increased costs from the health law to their employees in form of higher premium contributions.

YOU CAN’T KEEP WHAT YOU HAVE:
The Willis survey found that only 30 percent of the employers were able to maintain the grandfathered status of their health plans – 40 percent fewer than what the Administration promised in the “grandfathering” regulation.

LESS EMPLOYER INSURANCE:
The health law took more than $500 billion from the bankrupt Medicare program to finance a new entitlement program which will provide subsidies for families making as much as $90,000 in the new exchanges. The Willis survey found that due to the costs associated with the new law, employers – despite their desire to maintain their current health plans – will shift their focus to government-subsidized exchanges.

This major survey is just more proof that the health spending law continues to erode the private health insurance system which provides quality coverage of choice to more than 160 million Americans. With every passing year, more and more Americans will continue to be pushed into government-run programs like Medicaid and tax-payer subsidized exchanges.

The MSM has already told us that the recent murder spree of a US soldier on several Afghan civilians has put up a barrier between the US and Taliban. We are told that there was a peace process being discussed, and now it has been ruined because of the actions of one soldier. We were told the same thing after the recent Koran burning.

As you can see from this update from the AP, nothing could be further from the truth.

Seconds after the Afghan president’s brothers stepped outside the village mosque where they had been attending a memorial ceremony Tuesday for 16 civilians allegedly killed by a U.S. soldier, the Taliban opened fire.

An Afghan army soldier protecting the two men — part of a high-level government delegation that was visiting one of the two villages where the killings took place — was shot in the head almost instantly and died.

In retaliation for the murder of Afghans, the Taliban took out their vengeance on Afghans?

Multiple US soldiers were killed in retaliation for the burning of paper, and now they are killing each other in retaliation for their own people being killed.

Does anything here sound sane and reasonable?

The soldier who committed these acts suffered a brain injury in Iraq and obviously has a mental issue from this injury and PTSD. This is something that could easily explain his irrational behavior.

What excuse does the Taliban have?

Jim Billimoria, Michelle Dimarob, or Sarah Swinehart(202) 226-4774

Washington, DC – Today, Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) sent a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner asking the department to provide a detailed explanation for its projected $111 billion increase in spending for health insurance exchange subsidies (premium tax credits) in the Democrats’ health care law.  The increase, which was included in the FY2013 budget proposal, reflects a 30 percent increase over the FY2012 budget proposal.

Camp questioned Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sebelius about the requested increase during her February 28 testimony before the Ways and Means Committee on the FY2013 budget.  Similar questions were also raised yesterday during an Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health hearing, where Secretary Sebelius also testified.  No conclusive explanation was provided on either occasion.  Since the subsidies are administered through the Treasury Department, Camp requested that Secretary Geithner provide an explanation on the HHS budget request.

During Tuesday’s hearing and again today, Camp questioned why the increase was so much larger than it was just one year ago.  He called on the Administration to address whether the request might be a result of higher than expected premiums or a loss of private insurance and stated:

“When you compare expected spending on the subsidies from this year’s budget to last year’s budget over the same time period, the amount of growth is nothing short of explosive.  This suggests either premiums are going to be more expensive than the Administration predicted, more workers will lose the insurance they have through their job, or a combination of the two.  The question for this Administration is, which is it?”

For a copy of the letter click here.

Facts Are Stubborn Things: How the President’s Medicaid Policies are Threatening Education Funding

Today, President Obama lectured Governors across the country to invest more resources in education.  “…the fact is that too many states are making cuts to education that I believe are simply too big,” he said during a meeting with the National Governors Association (NGA).

Unfortunately, the President forgot to mention that his own policies with respect to the Medicaid program are straining state budgets and draining critical resources from education.

Governor Heineman (R-Neb.), the Chairman of the NGA this weekend said, “The overall fiscal condition of states has improved, but governors are very concerned about the growth of Medicaid as it consumes an increasing share of state budgets.  Medicaid’s rapid growth could result in less funding for education…”

Former Governor Bredesen (D-TN) has previously said, “I can’t think of a worse time for [the health care law] to be coming … nobody’s going to put their state into bankruptcy or their education system in the tank for it.”

A report from the NGA last fall indicated that states are still struggling from the effects of the economic downturn and are “feeling the squeeze from the demands for spending from both local and federal governments.”  The report specifically noted the challenge that, “spending on Medicaid is expected to consume an increasing share of state budgets and grow more rapidly than state revenue growth.”  It further said in fiscal year 2011, Medicaid consumed approximately 23.6 percent of state budgets while elementary and secondary education consumed just 20.1 percent.

Let’s take a look at the facts:

The President proposes to increase Medicaid spending:  The President’s FY 2013 Budget  proposes spending $4.37 trillion on the Medicaid program over the next 10 years, and by 2022, this represents a 35 percent increase in program spending when quantified as a percentage of the U.S. economy.  These spending increases include the health care law’s Medicaid expansion, which constitutes the largest expansion of the program since it was created in 1965.

The President’s health care law contains mandates that are already bankrupting states:  The President’s so-called “stimulus” package and health care overhaul contained an onerous mandate on the states, the Medicaid maintenance of effort requirements, that prevent states from making basic program integrity reforms to eligibility.  Senator Hatch has called for repeal of these mandates.

The Medicaid expansion in the President’s health care law will crowd out education spending:  The President’s health care law imposed unrealistic new Medicaid spending mandates on the states.   In fact, half those newly insured under the President’s health care law will be enrolled in Medicaid.  A Hatch-Upton report last year found that this Medicaid expansion will force states to spend at least $118 billion through 2023 – spending that will drain state resources from education.

The President has proposed making it more difficult for states to lower Medicaid spending on providers:  The Obama administration has proposed taking flexibility away from the states by forcing them to ask permission from Washington whenever they believe it necessary to lower spending on Medicaid providers.

Just one of the many flawed policies in the President’s health care law will cost states $13.6 billion through 2023:  According to a new report by Milliman, the health insurance tax will costs states $13.6 billion starting in 2014 because its costs will be passed through to state Medicaid programs.  In the same period, it will cost the federal government $24.8 billion in higher Medicaid spending.

Bottom line, the combined effect of the President’s policies has already been a major factor in forcing states to make cuts to education.  According to a recent report, 37 states invest less per student in this school year than they did last school year, 30 states are investing less than they did under the previous administration, and 17 states have slashed funding on a per-student basis by more than 10 percent before the recession.

The best way for this administration to help states have adequate resources for programs, like education, would be to give them more flexibility with the Medicaid program.

Incredibly funny video from the Daily Show.

The Association of Opinion Journalists (the new name of the National Conference of Editorial Writers) has a project to restore civility to public discourse.

Froma Harrop, the group’s president, recently compared the tea party to al-Qaida in a syndicated column, and apparently does not see the irony.

Options traders, get your free Corporate Earnings trading signals. Sign up for our newsletter here.

CBS News has a neat article about how we are still destroying Haiti two years after the terrible earthquake.

But the economy of rice in Haiti says everything about the condition the country is in. The US government subsidizes and “donates” ton after ton of rice in Haiti and in so doing has through the last several decades completely undercut Haitian rice farmers and left them destitute and migrating into cities where they live in hovels that were destroyed by the quake.

As recently as the early 1980s, Haiti was producing just about all of its own rice. Now more than 60 percent is imported from the US, making it the fourth largest recipient of American rice exports in the world. That was before the quake and now with donated rice coming in as well, Haiti is even more awash in rice while American agribusiness makes billions of dollars every year through generous government subsidies.

There is perhaps some bitter irony here that the subsidies were promoted in large part by President Clinton to help his home state of Arkansas, the largest rice producing state in the US, thereby crippling a sector of the economy in Haiti where Clinton has worked so tirelessly to help with the recovery.

There you have it folks. Big government decides to help people, and in doing so, continues to kill them.

Government subsidies turn small issues into insurmountable catastrophes.

Washington, DC – Today, the National Taxpayer Advocate issued its 2011 Annual Report to Congress.  In response to the release of the report, Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Charles Boustany Jr., MD (R-LA) released the following statement:

“Today’s Taxpayer Advocate report provides a glimpse into the challenges facing taxpayers as they struggle with a broken tax code.  Nearly 50 pages of the report outline the different ways that the tax code has grown more complex and confusing over the years, reaffirming the need for comprehensive tax reform.  The Ways and Means Committee has taken an active role in laying the foundation for comprehensive reform, and as Chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee, I intend to continue our IRS oversight activities to ensure limited resources are efficiently allocated, taxpayer rights are protected, and opportunities for fraud are reduced.”