House Addresses IRS Abuse of Conservative Orgs | Sen. Harry Reid And Dems Not Regretful For Calling All Americans Liars Who Report Obamacare Horror Stories

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Today in Washington, D.C. - Feb 27, 2014:
The Senate reconvened at 9:30 AM today and resumed consideration of S. 1982, Democrats’ veterans benefits bill.

Last night, once again, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) filled the amendment tree to prevent any Republican amendments to the veterans bill, also blocking a vote on bipartisan Iran sanctions legislation.

At 2 PM, the Senate will vote on a motion to table the amendments Reid used to fill the amendment tree. If the motion is successful, it would open the bill up to amendments.

Following that vote, the Senate will vote on a motion to waive a budget point of order against S. 1982. If the motion gets the 60 votes necessary, there will be 4 more votes: cloture on the substitute amendment to the bill, a vote on adopting that amendment, cloture on the underlying bill to cut off debate, and then on final passage of the bill if all the previous votes are successful.

If the motion to waive the point of order does not get 60 votes, that all the cloture motions will be withdrawn and the Senate is expected to turn to votes on nominations.

The House reconvened at 10 AM.  They will be considering:
H.R. 2804 — "To amend title 5, United States Code, to require the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs to publish information about rules on the Internet, and for other purposes."
H.R. 3193 — "To amend the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 to strengthen the review authority of the Financial Stability Oversight Council of regulations issued by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, and for other purposes."

Yesterday the House passed:
H.R. 1944 (353-65) — "To protect private property rights."
H.R. 3308 (Voice Vote) — "To require a Federal agency to include language in certain educational and advertising materials indicating that such materials are produced and disseminated at taxpayer expense."
H.R. 3865 (243-176) — "To prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from modifying the standard for determining whether an organization is operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare for purposes of section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986." Note: 176 Democrats voted against protecting 501(c)(4) orgs from being bullied and politically harassed by the IRS under the Obama white House agenda.

On passage of H.R. 3865, Speaker Boehner said, "The people’s House voted to protect the First Amendment and stop more of the same IRS overreaching that is currently under congressional investigation. The taxman has no business targeting citizens for their political views. None whatsoever. On behalf of every American fed up with the IRS’s antics, I call on Senate Democrats to allow a vote on this bill immediately.”

As background, Americans for Limited Government has identified that the IRS proposed regulation, published in November 2013, severely restricts the activities of (c)(4)s — including even mentioning the name of any politician, such as a member of Congress. However the rules are only being applied to limiting the free speech of conservative organizations. Consider, the new rule does not apply to similar 501(c)(5) labor organizations, which in 2012 spent more than $772 million on elections and lobbying.

The Service Employees International Union led the political spending charge with almost $114 million in political activity, according to official filings submitted to the U.S. Department of Labor. Not including SEIU and AFL-CIO spending (each of which have significant public employee membership), the top public employee unions spent more than $144 million on political activity and lobbying with AFSCME alone totaling more than $70 million in expenditures.

Last night, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell appeared on Megyn Kelly’s show on Fox, reacting to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) declaration on the floor earlier in the day that “there’s plenty of horror stories being told” about Obamacare and “All of them are untrue.”

Leader McConnell said, “I was actually on the floor when he said it. He basically called my constituent, Angela, here’s the letter I got from her—she lost her doctor—Angela from Owensboro, lost her doctor. He basically called her a liar, what nonsense. These people all across America — who are losing their policies, whose premiums are going up, whose co-payments and deductibles who are going up, whose jobs are being lost — are not making this up! And no amount of Harry Reid calling everybody a liar changes the facts. Why in the world would people call us with these stories if they're not true?”

Kelly followed up, “Now you have the Senate Majority Leader calling all of these Americans, regular Americans, who just happen to be speaking out about their experiences—negative experiences as it happens—liars.” Leader McConnell noted, “Harry Reid called President Bush a liar, too, a few years ago. I mean, he must think everybody who disagrees with him is a liar. And it’s astonishing behavior, certainly doesn't lend credit to the Senate, particularly for the majority leader of the Senate, who’s supposed to be the most significant Democrat in the majority, to use this kind of language. I don’t think it helps the Democrats and it further underscores, I think, Megyn, their desperation. They’re desperate because every single one of them provided the vote that passed Obamacare. It’s been a disaster for the country and they're afraid they’re going to pay the price for it this November.”

After all, members of Congress have been flooded with letters from all corners of the country about the hardships Obamacare has been causing them. Are they all lying? What about the news reports from The New York Times down to Americans’ local TV stations? Are those reports lies? As Leader McConnell said, the idea that these are all made up is simply “nonsense.”

Kelly wondered, with Reid later returning to the floor to attack stories of people appearing in ads about Obamacare, “Will this have a chilling effect, do you think, on other Americans who just want to come out and tell their stories?” Leader McConnell responded, “I don’t think so. I think people are just going to be twice as angry about it, to see the majority leader calling them a liar. I think it’s going to embolden more people to come forward. We know these tragic stories are occurring all across the country, we hear about them every day, and I don’t think they’re going to be intimidated by Harry Reid.”

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