Obama Administration Wants to Party on the Internet Like It's 1934

Internet invented in 1934 by Paul Otlet

 Seton Motley, Contributing Author: Eighty years ago. The depths of the Great Depression. Democrat President Franklin Delano Roosevelt blindly flailing around, throwing ever more government-centric “solutions” at the growing list of problems. Each new centrally-planned effort making matters worse – and the Depression last longer.

Remember, Ladies and Gentlemen, Hideki Tojo ended the Depression – FDR elongated it by more than a decade.

Begat in all of this failed government uber-action was the Communications Act of 1934. The anniversary of which current Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler just decided to celebrate.

Eighty years ago today, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Communications Act of 1934, creating the FCC – so what’s throwing a party for all the past FCC chairs, commissioners and key staff.

We’ll move past the fact that the Barack Obama Administration is commemorating the creation of a now ridiculously overreaching entity that a great many people – including a former Commissioner or two – think should no longer exist.

Because there’s an even more bizarre dis-honorarium potentially afoot. Chairman Wheeler is contemplating applying the woefully antiquated regulations of the 1934 Act – to the ultra-modern, state-of-the-art, constantly-evolving Internet.

In other words – the Chairman is considering Title II Reclassification of the the World Wide Web.

FCC’s Tom Wheeler Says He’ll Ask For Public Comment On Whether It’s Appropriate To Reclassify Broadband

Putting it up front and center, and asking for public comment on the use of Title II reclassification (which would make broadband providers subject to common carrier rules) is a big deal. Wheeler …stated that he’s really committed to this….

Because the Chairman wants to party like it’s 1934. Because certainly law and regulations written eighty years ago are apt and easily applicable to the 2014 fast-forward Web, right?< Why does Chairman Wheeler want to go back to the future – without the future part? Because in true failed FDR fashion – he wants to throw a gi-normous government “solution” at a non-existent problem.

As an entrepreneur who started companies that offered new programs and services to cable companies, I was subject to being blocked from access to cable networks

Note the lawyerly wording – Wheeler was “subject to being blocked.” Because he never actually was blocked. No one ever has been.  Even the most ardent Title II Reclassification proponents begrudgingly admitted that. To fix that factual problem, the Left warped and broadened beyond all recognition their definition of what “blocking” is.

To a very large extent, this experience has been the backbone of my long-time support for the Open Internet.

Note the lawyerly phrase change – “Open Internet” rather than Network Neutrality (NN). Because we Internet defenders have now rightly defined Net Neutrality – so they had to come up with an alternative term.

Chairmen Wheeler’s Internet Reclassification Party will be very sparsely attended. Most of even the most ardent of Leftists have long thought it to be a terrible idea.

302 members of Congress said No – a large bipartisan majority.

So did more than 150 organizations, state legislators and bloggers.

Seventeen minority groups  (that are usually almost always in Democrat lockstep).

And many additional normally Democrat paragons.  Including several large unions:

•   AFL-CIO
•   Communications Workers of America (CWA)
•   International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)
Several racial grievance groups:
•   League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)
•   Minority Media and Telecom Council (MMTC)
•   National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
•   Urban League
And an anti-free market environmentalist group
•   Sierra Club

So when you add in that we already know this:

Net Neutrality: The Kid Sitting By Himself in the High School Cafeteria

Is it any wonder that that kid’s dorkier, slower, fatter big brother – Title II Reclassification – is going to throw a party and no one is going to come?

The companies that have already invested trillions of dollars to build the Internet into the free speech-free market Xanadu we all know and love – certainly won’t attend. They’ll take their massive coin and find much less inhospitable places to invest it.

And where will that leave us Web users? Staring at Chairman Wheeler in his strap-on pointy hat – playing Pong on his Commodore ’34.

And praying for 28K dial-up.
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Seton Motley is the President of Less Government and he contributes to ARRA News Service. Please feel free to follow him on  Twitter  /  Facebook

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Supreme Court: Unconstitutional To Compell Disability Caregivers To Join Public Sector Unions

Today the Supreme Court by a 5-to-4 vote in Harris v. Quinn, said that an Illinois requirement that home health aides help cover a union’s cost of collective bargaining violates their First Amendment right to free speech.

The case had prompted widespread concern among public-sector unions because Illinois had deemed the aides, who are paid by the state, to be public employees. But writing for the court, Justice Samuel Alito said home care workers are different from other types of government employees because they work primarily for their disabled or elderly customers and do not have most of the rights and benefits of state employees.

Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens commented on the decision:"The Court decided that the state of Illinois unconstitutionally placed home caregivers for people who received disability Medicaid payments into public employee union, and that the state should not deduct union dues from the payments those caregivers received. The Court did not take the broader step of overturning a previous decision — Abood v. Detroit Board of Education — that allowed public employee union dues to be deducted from all employee paychecks whether they consented to join the union or not.

"While we are disappointed that the Court failed to end the practice of forced public employee union conscription, the decision today ends the abhorrent practice of union allied politicians dictating that those caring for 'the least of these' have union dues deducted from their support checks.

"The unions provided no services for these caregivers, yet their avarice in gaining state sanctioned theft of taxpayer dollars dedicated to helping offset the costs of caring for those most seriously disabled is unconscionable.

"If these unions and their legislative henchmen would go so far as to take money from the disabled, can there be any doubt about their greed when it comes to stopping commonsense reforms and cuts that help cities and states balance budgets? Public employee unions should be ashamed that this issue ever came before the Supreme Court, and people with disabilities and their caregivers everywhere will hopefully be on notice that these public employee unions are their enemies."

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Passing The Smell Test . . .

. . . Using the Liberal Media Bias Mask.

 Editorial Cartoon by AF "Tony" Branco

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Obama Continues his Attack on U.S. Energy

 Alan Caruba, Contributing Author: The delay of the Keystone XL pipeline is a perfect example of the way President Obama and his administration has engaged in, not just a war on coal, but on all forms of energy the nation has and needs. Even his State Department admits there is no reason to refuse its construction and, as turmoil affects the Middle East, there is an increased need to tap our own oil and welcome Canada’s.

The latest news, however, is that Canada has just approved the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project, a major pipeline to ship Canadian oil—to Asia.

The pure evil of the delay is compounded by the loss of the many jobs the pipeline—that will not require taxpayer funding—represents to help reduce the nation’s obscene rate of unemployment and to generate new revenue for the nation. That’s what oil, coal, and natural gas does.

Less visible has been the out-of-control Environmental Protection Agency that has, since Obama took office on January 20, 2009, issued 2,827 new final regulations totally 24,915,000 words to fill 24,915 pages of the Federal Register. As a CNSnews article reported, “The Obama EPA regulations have 22 times as many words as the entire Harry Potter series which includes seven books with 1,084,170 words.” Every one of the EPA regulations affects some aspect of life in America, crushing economic development in every conceivable way.

The worst part of the EPA regulation orgy is the fact that virtually all of it is based on a hoax. As reported by James Delingpole, a British journalist, “19 million jobs lost plus $4,335 trillion spent equals a global mean temperature of 0.018 degrees Celsius. Yes, horrible but true. These are the costs to the U.S. economy, by 2100, of the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory war on carbon dioxide, whereby all states must reduce emissions from coal-fired electricity generating plants by 30% before 2005 levels.”

Citing a study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Delingpole reported that the new regulations will cost the economy another $51 billion annually, result in the 224,000 more lost jobs every year, and cost every American household $3,400 per year in higher prices for energy, food, and other necessities.”

This is an all-out attack on industry, business, and the use of electricity by all Americans.

There is absolutely no reason, nor need to reduce “greenhouse gas” emissions, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2), a gas on which all life on Earth depends because it is to vegetation what oxygen is to all living creatures. It is the “food” on which every blade of grass depends. More CO2 means more crops and healthier forests.

The EPA’s regulations would yield“Less than two one-hundredths of a degree Celsius by the year 2100.

Disastrously, even the Supreme Court—the same one that signed off on Obamacare as a tax—has not ruled against the EPA’s false assertions about CO2. In late June, however, it did place limits on the EPA’s effort to limit power plant and factory emissions blamed for a global warming that does not exist. The Earth has been cooling for seventeen years, but the Court ruled that the EPA lacked authority in some cases to force companies to evaluate ways to reduce CO2 emissions.

As Craig Rucker, the Executive Director of the free market think tank, CFACT, points out, “The Court served notice that the Executive Branch cannot unilaterally write its own laws. This is an important principle. However, the United States still remains fated to suffer most of the economic damage EPA’s regulations will cause. True reform will require congressional action.”

Thanks to the lies that have been taught about “global warming”, now called “climate change”, in the nation’s schools to a generation of Americans, and the deluge of lies about the environment that have been repeated in the nation’s media, too many Americans still do not make the connection between the use of the nation’s vast reserves of coal, oil and natural gas, and their personal lifestyles and the nation’s economic growth.

The attacks on the energy industries by environmental organizations have been attacks on all Americans who turn on the lights or drive anywhere. Their mantra has been “dirty coal” and “dirty oil” along with lies about the way energy industries contribute billions to the nation’s revenue in taxes.

An example of these attacks have been those directed against “fracking”, the short term for hydraulic fracturing, a technology that has been in use for more than a half century and whose development has generated a boom in natural gas these days. Claims about fracking pollution have no basis in fact.

A new book, “The Fracking Truth—America’s Energy Revolution: The Inside, Untold Story”, by Chris Faulkner is well worth reading for the extraordinary way he explains fracking and the facts he provides about energy in America. It is published by Platform Press.

America has huge reserves of coal, oil and natural gas. “This phenomenon of energy abundance and efficiency,” says Faulkner, “makes it almost a certainty that the cost of powering our nation—already a bargain by international standards—is going to become even less of a burden for our economy for many decades to come.” But not if the EPA and other Obama government agencies such as the Department of the Interior have their way.

One example: “According to the American Petroleum Institute, at least 87% of our federal offshore acreage is off-limits to drilling. API commissioned the consultancy Wood Mackenzie to assess the foregone offshore opportunity in specific terms. The upshot: Increased access to oil and gas reserves underlying federal waters could, by 2025, generate an additional 4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, add $150 billion to government revenues, and create 530,00 jobs.”

“In fact, since 2007, about 96% of the increase in America’s oil and gas production occurred on private lands in the United States. Meanwhile, oil and gas production on federal lands declined to a ten-year low in fiscal years 2011-2012.”

Who is forcing coal-fired electricity plants to close? The Obama administration. Who is denying access to vast reserves of coal, oil and natural gas on federal lands? The Obama administration. Who continues to lie about “climate change” pegged to carbon dioxide emissions? The Obama administration. And this is happening as China and India cannot build new coal-fired plants fast enough and Europe abandons wind and solar energy.

Who is the enemy of energy, current and future, in the United States? Barack Obama.
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Alan Caruba is a writer by profession; has authored several books, and writes a daily column, Warning Signsdisseminated on many Internet news and opinion websites and blogs. He is a contributing author at ARRA News Service.

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Tags: President Obama, Obama administration, War on U.S. Energy, gas, oil, coal  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Victory for Hobby Lobby: Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Freedom

Below are a few comments and reviews of today's announced Supreme Court 5-4 decision regarding Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp.

Image via Heritage Action

Christine Rousselle, of Townhallcom summarizes: In a victory for religious freedom, the Supreme Court ruled today 5-4 in favor of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. in the case Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (formerly named Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby

The case concerned the HHS Contraception Mandate, which mandated that employers provide certain forms of contraception at no cost to their employees.

While still a legal victory for Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp., the decision is limited to closely-held for-profit corporations, not non-profits such as Little Sisters of the Poor. The decision is also strictly limited to the issue of the contraception mandate, not other medical practices.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote in his majority opinion:
This decision concerns only the contraceptive mandate and should not be understood to hold that all insurance-coverage mandates e.g., for vaccinations or blood transfusions, must necessarily fall if they conflict with an employer's religious beliefs. Nor does it provide a shield for employers who might cloak illegal discrimination as a religious practice.Alito was joined in his opinion by Justices Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, and Kennedy. Kennedy also wrote a concurring opinion, detailing how the government already has programs in place to pay for birth control. Justice Ginsburg wrote the dissent, joined by Justices Sotomayor, Breyer, and Kagan.

Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp. both claimed that the mandate violated their religious freedom. Both companies believe that certain forms of contraception induce abortion, which violates the religious convictions of their owners.

The Supreme Court is now adjourned until October.

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Miscellaneous Source Comments on today's SCOTUS decision:
U.S. Congressman Steve Scalise (R-LA), newly elected House Republican Whip applauded today’s Supreme Court decision to defend religious freedom in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby. The Court decided that closely held corporations can opt out of providing contraception coverage as required under the Obamacare contraception mandate.“Today's Supreme Court ruling is a resounding victory for the Constitutional right of religious freedom,” said Scalise. “The Obama Administration clearly overstepped its constitutional authority by mandating that family-owned businesses would have to violate their personal religious beliefs under threat of federal fines just to comply with Obamacare. The contraception mandate violates one of the fundamental rights laid out by our Founding Fathers in the Constitution. I applaud Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood for standing up for the religious freedom rights of all Americans.”U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR) released the following statement after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that closely held corporations with religious objections can refuse to pay for abortifacients in the case of Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby.“This nation was founded on the right to freely practice one’s religious convictions. Americans shouldn’t have to abandon those protections simply because they own a business. And yet, that is exactly what the Obama Administration tried to force on businesses like Hobby Lobby and Conestoga under this mandate. Thankfully, the Justices thought otherwise and preserved the right for business owners to object to overbearing government mandates that would violate their religious beliefs.”Boozman, a strong opponent of Obamacare, has long argued that the Obama Administration overstepped its authority by trying to force employers with religious objections to comply with a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate that runs counter to their beliefs.

In October 2011, Boozman joined 27 other Senators in asking HHS to redraft the Required Health Plan Coverage Guidelines for Women's Preventative Service to make them consistent with the principles of respect for human life, individual liberties, and personal conscience.

On February 8, 2012, Boozman requested HHS take immediate action to reverse that decision. Additionally, he cosponsored S. 1467, the "Respect for Human Rights of Conscience Act," and S. 2043, the "Religious Freedom Restoration Act," in the 112th Congress, which would have protected freedom of conscience and prohibited the government from imposing mandates on religious employers.

On March, 2014, Senator Boozman and U.S. Representative Randy Forbes (R-VA) authored a joint op-ed in National Review that argued the HHS mandate violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).

Jim DeMint, President, Heritage Foundation said: "Conservatives won a victory today. This morning's Supreme Court ruling in the Hobby Lobby case was a win for religious freedom, a win for limited government, and a crucial setback for Obamacare. For conservatives across the country, and anyone who supports the Constitution of the United States, today is a good day. This victory is a testament to Heritage’s 600,000 members across America who have continued to stand up for conservative ideas and timeless truths. But even as we celebrate, we must remember the wisdom of Heritage Founder Ed Feulner: In Washington, there are no permanent victories and no permanent defeats, only permanent battles."Kerby Anderson, host of the Point of View radio talk show, had this to say about today’s Supreme Court ruling:“I am thrilled that the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties. The government does not have the right to force companies to pay for abortion-inducing drugs. This was a victory for religious liberty and for the Religious Freedom Restoration Act."

“I am, however, disappointed that this was a narrow 5-4 ruling. And I am disappointed at the biased media coverage of this case. That is why we at Point of View will continue to fight for those issues that affect your faith, your family, and your freedom. We will tell the truth about what is at stake in issues affecting life, marriage, and family.”Family Research Council  (FRC) praised today's ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding religious liberty and protecting the conscience rights of family businesses who object to being forced to pay for the coverage of sterilizations, contraception and drugs that have the potential to destroy an unborn child. FRC President Tony Perkins comments via a video

Gary Bauer, Campaign For Working Families, shared additional insights regarding today's decision:"Just to be clear, this case was not about contraception. The Green family, which owns Hobby Lobby, did not object to contraception. An attorney representing the Green family noted that the insurance plan offered to Hobby Lobby employees covers 16 out of 20 forms of contraception -- just not the four abortion-inducing methods demanded by Obamacare. And, clearly, the Obama Administration believed it could demand even more.

"While we celebrate this victory, the fact remains that four justices on the Supreme Court, including the two appointed by Obama, evidently share his narrow view of America's first freedom and were willing to trample the religious liberty of millions of Americans in order to advance their radical pro-abortion agenda.

"This narrow decision, with four liberal justices eager to go the wrong way, is a stark reminder to every man and woman of faith that their religious liberty is hanging by a thread. That fact should turn each of us into an activist. If the wrong individual is elected president two years from now, and if we suffer through another four years of left-wing radicalism, the country given to us by our founders will be gone.

It would be a terrible mistake to assume that the battle over religious liberty is over. Quite the contrary. The left and its allies are attacking our values non-stop. Bakers, florists, photographers are being forced to participate in same-sex weddings. That fight is still very much alive and was not addressed in today's narrow opinion.

"The left has critical mass. The attack on faith is not coming from just big government. Remember how the business community forced Arizona Governor Jan Brewer to veto legislation protecting religious liberty? We must remain vigilant."

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Tags: Supreme Court, SCOTUS, Hobby Lobby, Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp, religious freedom, Obamacare, HHS Contraception Mandate, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Obamacare's Other Provisions Still Hurting Americans: Premiums Going Up, Networks Narrowing, Physician Shortages Expected, Info Lacking For Patients

Today in Washington, D.C. - June 30, 2014
Today the Supreme Court released their decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby. The issue in the Supreme Court case is that the Obama Administration is trying to force Hobby Lobby's owners to provide abortion-inducing products that violate their religious beliefs. Hobby Lobby's owners are not demanding that those products be banned or that anyone (including employees or customers) be prohibited from buying or using them. Hobby Lobby's owners just do not want to insure items that violate their religious beliefs.

In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled that the Obamacare contraception mandate violates protections for freedom of conscience. Hobby Lobby's owners will not have to choose between their business and their faith. The Hobby Lobby decision is narrowly tailored to the particulars of this case, and does not dismiss the idea that the government has a fundamental compelling interest in mandating abortion coverage.

The Senate at noon held a pro forma session & will do so again on Thursday at 1:30 PM. Senate will will return for legislative business on Monday, July 7th.

The House at 11:30 held a pro-form session. They will hold another pro-forma meeting at Noon on July 3, 2014. The House will return to take up legislative action on July 8th.

Reacting to the Supreme Court’s decision ruling in favor of Hobby Lobby’s challenge to an Obamacare mandate, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said, “Today’s Supreme Court decision makes clear that the Obama administration cannot trample on the religious freedoms that Americans hold dear. Obamacare is the single worst piece of legislation to pass in the last 50 years, and I was glad to see the Supreme Court agree that this particular Obamacare mandate violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).”

Unfortunately, the many other provisions in the unpopular health care law continue to support Leader McConnell’s statement that “Obamacare is the single worst piece of legislation to pass in the last 50 years.” Bloomberg News noted last week in an article titled “Obamacare Premiums Are Going Up—Here's Why” that “[p]remiums are expected to rise in eight of the nine states where insurers have submitted 2015 rates for approval.”

Obamacare plans themselves continue to suffer from confusion, bad information, and red tape. The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that “[m]ore complaints are surfacing as patients start to use their new coverage bought through Covered California, the state's health insurance exchange. ‘I thought I had done everything right, and it's been awful,’ said Jean Buchanan, 56. The Fullerton resident found herself stuck with an $8,000 bill for cancer treatment after receiving conflicting information on whether it was covered. ‘How am I going to come up with that much money?’ Insurers insist that pruning the network of doctors is a crucial cost-cutting measure . . . . ‘These narrow networks are making a huge difference in terms of affordability,’ said Mark Morgan, president of Anthem Blue Cross, a unit of industry giant WellPoint Inc.” In another example, the Times writes of “Tom DiCioccio, 64, of Oceanside [who] faced a similar predicament after getting diagnosed with cancer in his lymph nodes. The retired shoe designer owes nearly $20,000 for his cancer surgery this year after Blue Shield switched him into a policy with fewer providers. The insurer covered his care at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on his prior plan, and he said Blue Shield never advised him of any major changes. Like many consumers, he said it was nearly impossible to get information from the company's call center or website.”

According to the LA Times, “Nationwide, about half of all exchange plans feature narrow networks, according to consulting firm McKinsey & Co., which has closely tracked the new insurance market. In forming tighter networks, insurers tried to persuade doctors and hospitals to accept less money in exchange for a higher volume of Obamacare patients. Los Angeles pediatrician Danelle Fisher said she couldn't afford the 30% pay cut offered by Blue Shield. She would have received $68 instead of $97 for a routine office visit for a patient with a PPO policy. Fisher decided she could not accept Covered California insurance but thought other Blue Shield patients would not be affected — a common misperception among doctors and patients. Blue Shield's new terms also applied to patients with individual policies outside the exchange.”

On top of all this, USA Today reports, “Federally funded programs will add at least 2,300 new primary care practitioners by the end of 2015, but the funding for at least one of those programs is set to expire at the same time, contributing to a massive shortage of doctors available to treat patients — including those newly insured through the Affordable Care Act and Medicare. The U.S. is expected to need 52,000 more primary care physicians by 2025, according to a study by the Robert Graham Center, which does family medicine policy research. But funding for teaching hospitals that could train thousands more of these doctors expires in late 2015. Population growth will drive most of the need for family care doctors, accounting for 33,000 additional physicians, the study says. The aging population will require about 10,000 more. The Affordable Care Act is expected to increase the number of family doctors needed by more than 8,000, the study says.”

Meanwhile, insurance companies are finding other predictable but unfortunate outcomes to Obamacare. The Wall Street Journal reported last week, “People enrolled in new plans under the health law are showing higher rates of serious health conditions than other insurance customers, according to an early analysis of medical claims, putting pressure on insurers around the country as they prepare to propose rates for next year. Among those health-law marketplace enrollees who have seen a doctor or other health-care provider in the first quarter of this year, around 27% have significant health issues such as diabetes, psychiatric conditions, asthma, heart problems or cancer, the data show. That is sharply higher than the rate of 16% for last year's individual-consumer market over the same time frame, according to the data, which was supplied by Inovalon Inc., a health-technology firm that receives medical claims directly from nearly 200 insurers that are its clients. . . . The findings provide the clearest picture so far of the health status of those who bought plans under the Affordable Care Act, and show a sharply bifurcated consumer insurance market—with sicker, and costlier, people in health-law plans and healthier people sticking with previous coverage. Insurers say that dynamic could drive up premiums for many health-law plans next year, because the Obama administration recently announced that it would allow the grandfathered coverage to linger into 2016, if states and insurers choose. . . . The rate of documented health conditions is ‘a good leading indicator of where medical costs are going,’ said Dan Rizzo, Inovalon's chief innovation officer. Though insurers don't yet have a complete picture of enrollees' health, Mr. Rizzo said the firm believed the 16 states provide a ‘representative mix of the experience of health plans’ nationally. . . . [S]ome insurers say enrollees so far appear less healthy than they had projected. ‘It's even worse than what we thought,’ said Patrick Getzen, chief actuary for Blue Cross & Blue Shield of North Carolina. ‘We're seeing more chronic conditions than we would have expected,’ he said, and that will ‘put pressure on the 2015 rates.’”

And The Washington Post, pointing to a report from “a trio of academics from the University of Pennsylvania,” writes that it “shows that women age 55 to 64 will face a huge spike in cost when they go out to buy individual insurance on the federal exchange. These women bear the brunt of the increased premiums and out of pocket expenses after the Affordable Care Act. . . . After crunching the numbers, they found that people who buy the bronze or silver plans on the federal exchanges will spend a moderate amount more . . . on premiums and out of pocket expenses than they did before the health reform took effect. However, that average figure masks a huge redistribution of the costs to older women from nearly everyone else. Total expected premiums and out of pocket expenses rose by 50 percent for women age 55 to 64 — a much larger increase than for any other group — for policies on the federal exchanges relative to prices that individuals who bought individual insurance before health care reform went into effect. . . . ‘It’s likely because they are being averaged in with younger women who have much higher expenses associated with childbearing and with older men who didn’t take care of themselves. Community rating redistributes against the relatively healthy,’ [Mark Pauly, one of the authors of the study] explained.”

Obamacare is a mess. It has taken existing problems with the American medical system and exacerbated them while inserting ever more government bureaucracy and red tape. Premiums are going up, Americans are facing smaller networks of providers, and information about those networks is more difficult to come by, leading to confusion and uncovered medical expenses. Doctors and hospitals are being reimbursed less, forcing them to accept fewer patients and insurance plans and there won’t be enough of them to meet the greater demand created by a growing and aging population and the incentives created by Obamacare. The mix of patients in Obamacare plans is skewing towards those needing more care, which will again drive premiums up and the regulations in Obamacare are forcing many healthier people to pay much more, including older women.

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Celebrate Independence Day By Opposing Government Tyranny

 by Dr. Ron Paul:   This week Americans will enjoy Independence Day with family cookouts and fireworks. Flags will be displayed in abundance. Sadly, however, what should be a celebration of the courage of those who risked so much to oppose tyranny will instead be turned into a celebration of government, not liberty. The mainstream media and opportunistic politicians have turned Independence Day into the opposite of what was intended.

The idea of opposing — by force if necessary — a tyrannical government has been turned into a celebration of tyrannical government itself!

The evidence is all around us.

How would the signers of the Declaration of Independence have viewed, for example, the Obama Administration’s “drone memo,” finally released last week, which claims to justify the president’s killing American citizens without charge, judge, jury, or oversight? Is this not a tyranny similar to that which our Founders opposed? And was such power concentrated in one branch of government not what inspired the rebellion against the English king in the first place?

The “drone memo,” released after an ACLU freedom of information request, purports to establish the president alone as the arbiter of who is or is not a terrorist subject to execution by the US government. There is no due process involved, just the determination of the president. Thus far the only American citizens killed by the president are Anwar al-Awlaki and his teenaged son, but the precedent has been established, according to the memo, that the president has the authority to kill Americans he believes are terrorists.

Even the New York Times, which generally backs whatever US administration is in power, is troubled by the White House’s legal justification to claim the authority to kill Americans. A Times editorial last week concluded that:...the memo turns out to be a slapdash pastiche of legal theories — some based on obscure interpretations of British and Israeli law — that was clearly tailored to the desired result.I agree with the New York Times’ conclusion that, “[t]his memo should never have taken so long to be released, and more documents must be made public. The public is still in the dark on too many vital questions.”

Coincidentally, in addition to the “drone memo” released last week, a broader study of the US use of drones was also released by the Stimson Center. The study, co-chaired by Gen. John Abizaid, former U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) commander, concluded that contrary to claims that drones help prevent wider conflicts by targeting specific individuals, the use of drones “may create a slippery slope leading to continual or wider wars.”

In fact, the study concluded, the use of drones overseas is likely counterproductive. “Civilian casualties, even if relatively few, can anger whole communities, increase anti-US sentiment and become a potent recruiting tool for terrorist organizations,” the study found.

Seven years ago I wrote in an Independence Day column:Only the safe-guards and limitations that are enshrined in a constitutionally-limited republic can prohibit a nation from lurching toward empire...I hope every person who reads or hears this will take the time to go back and read the Declaration of Independence. Only by recapturing the spirit of independence can we ensure our government never resembles the one from which the American States declared their separation.On Independence Day we should remember the spirit of rebellion against tyranny that inspired our Founding Fathers to set out our experiment in liberty. We should ourselves celebrate and continue that struggle if we are to keep our republic.
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Dr. Ron Paul, Chairman of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, is a former U.S.Congressman (R-TX) for 21 years. He twice sought the Republican Party presidential nomination for President. As a MD, he was an Air Force flight surgeon and has delivered over 4000 babies. Paul is an active writer on political and economic theory. He is known for his criticism of American foreign, domestic, and monetary policies, the military–industrial complex, the War on Drugs, and the Federal Reserve. He is also known for his love of country, government complying with the U.S. Constitution.

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What Economic Recovery?

 Alan Caruba, Contributing Author: You have to know that the Obama administration has run out of excuses for destroying the U.S. economy when it starts to blame it on the weather.

According to the Commerce Department, the economy based on its Gross domestic product--the value of its goods and services--fell at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.9% in the first quarter of this year. That was the largest recorded drop since the end of World War II in 1945!

The June 20 edition of The Wall Street Journal’s article, “Economy Shrank Rapidly in First Quarter” led off by reporting that “Weather disruptions at home and weak demand abroad caused a contraction in the U.S. economy in the first quarter, renewing doubts about the strength of the nation’s five-year-old recovery.”

What recovery? When the economy stays in the basement for five years you are looking at an on-going stagnation based on too much government interference with growth, the decline of the nation’s middle class, the lack of new start-up businesses, and the reluctance or inability of consumers to spend money, if they have any to spend.

In May, writing on his blog, Economic Collapse, Michael Synder pointed to “27 Hugh Red Flags for the U.S. Economy” noting, for example, that according to government numbers, “everyone is unemployed in 20 percent of all American families.” The other indicators include:

# Sales for construction equipment were down 13% in April and have been down for 17 months in a row.

# During the first quarter of 2014, profits at the office supplies giant, Staples, fell by 43.5%

# Foot traffic at Wal-Mart stores fell by 1.4% during the first quarter of 2014.

# It is being projected that Sears will soon close hundreds more stores and may go out of business altogether.

# Existing home sales have fallen for seven of the last eight months and seem to repeating a pattern witnessed back in 2007 prior to the last financial crash.

# The home ownership rate in the U.S. has dropped to the lowest level in 19 years.

You do not have to be an economist to understand that President Obama’s economic policies are flat-out failures that include a “stimulus” that wasted billions of taxpayer dollars without stimulating the economy, nor that having a $17 trillion debt means anything other than a nation teetering on a massive economic collapse.

In May, CNSNews reported that “A record 92,594,000 Americans were not in the labor force in April as the labor force participation rate matched a 36-year low of 62.8 percent, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.”

This is not my definition of a “recession” although we are told that it ended in 2009. This is a “depression” for millions of Americans. The labor force participation rate has gone from 63.5% to 63.3%, the lowest since 1979, but the Obama administration keeps telling us that it is “improving.”

Consumer spending is down. Exports are down. Employment is barely increasing. The only thing that is up is inflation.

Edward C. Prescott, a 2004 Nobel Laureate in Economics and Lee E. Ohanian, a professor of economics UCLA, writing in the June 26 edition of The Wall Street Journal, noted that the declining GDP rate was “the worst productivity statistic since 1990. And productivity since 2005 has declined by more than 8% relative to its long-run trend. This means that business output is nearly $1 trillion less today than what it would be had productivity continued to grow at its average rate of about 2.5% per year.”

“Lagging productivity growth is an enormous problem because virtually all of the increase in Americans’ standard of living is made possible by rising worker productivity.”

The Obama administration would have you believe that the economic decline in the first quarter was due to a harsh winter. They will be blaming it on a hot summer come autumn.

This is an administration whose main theme these days is the threat of “climate change”, but it has nothing to do with the climate and everything to do with vast government spending and borrowing, an explosion of regulations that have slowed or stopped the creation of new businesses, a “war on coal” that is forcing a decline in the production of electricity, and a widespread perception that the President is the worst to have held office since the nation began.

There is no recovery. There is a return to the factors that led to the 2008 financial crisis. Government entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that bought up all the sub-prime mortgage loans and packaged them as assets are still in business. Credit card companies are reaching out to sub-prime users, signing them up. Nobody seems to learn anything from the past, even if it is the recent past.

If the control of the U.S. Senate cannot be wrested away from a Democratic Party led by Harry Reid and a GOP increase in the U.S. House that was led by Nancy Pelosi until the 2010 elections cannot be achieved in the forthcoming November elections, the President’s continued attack on the economy—which includes a massive increase in illegal immigration—the nation’s economy will remain tenuous.
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Alan Caruba is a writer by profession; has authored several books, and writes a daily column, Warning Signsdisseminated on many Internet news and opinion websites and blogs. He is a contributing author at ARRA News Service.

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Tags: economy, trouble, economic recovery, Alan Caruba, warning signs To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Obama Administration New EPA Regs Are 38 Times As Long As Biible

The Gutenberg Bible, published in two volumes in 1455.

by Ali Meyer, CNS News: Since President Barack Obama took office on Jan. 20, 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued 2,827 new final regulations, equaling 24,915 pages in the Federal Register, totaling approximately 24,915,000 words.

The Gutenberg Bible is only 1,282 pages and 646,128 words. Thus, the new EPA regulations issued by the Obama Administration contain 19 times as many pages as the Bible and 38 times as many words.

The Obama EPA regulations have 22 times as many words as the entire Harry Potter series, which includes seven books with 1,084,170 words. They have 5,484 times as many words as the U.S. Constitution, which has 4,543 words, including the signatures; and 17,088 times as many words as the Declaration of Independence, which has 1,458 words including signatures.

Using the Regulations.gov website and the Federal Register itself, CNSNews.com found 2,827 distinct rules published by the EPA since January 2009 covering, among other things, greenhouse gases, air quality, emissions and hazardous substances.

The Federal Register publishes documents, including proposed rules, notices, interim rules, corrections, drafts of final rules and final rules. The CNSNews.com tabulation included only final rules from the EPA.
To get an approximate word count for each EPA rule in the Federal Register, CNSNews.com evaluated a few random rules from the 2,827 EPA regulations published since Obama took office, and calculated an approximate average of 1,000 words per page. From this, CNSNews.com calculated that the 2,827 final EPA rules that have been published in the Federal Register so far take up 24,915,000 words.

This is only an approximation because some pages in the Federal Register carry more words than others, and some regulations end in the beginning or middle of a page. For example, one of the regulations was five-pages long and totaled 5,586 words, an average of 1,117 words per page.

The Harry Potter book series.

Another regulation was three-pages long and 3,150 words, which averaged to 1,050 words per page. another rule was four-pages long and 4,426 words, or an average 1,106 words per page.

“The broader question of whether the Obama Administration’s EPA is “overreaching” in its regulatory effects has not gone away. Critics both in Congress and outside of it regularly accuse the agency of overkill,” states a Congressional Research Service report, EPA Regulations: Too Much, Too Little, or On Track?

“EPA’s actions, both individually and in sum, have generated controversy,” the CRS report states. “Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have expressed concerns, through bipartisan letters commenting on proposed regulations and through introduced legislation that would delay, limit, or prevent certain EPA actions.”

Yet, EPA proponents are fighting for more rules. “Environmental groups and other supporters of the agency disagree that EPA has overreached. Many of them believe that the agency is, in fact, moving in the right direction, including taking action on significant issues that had been long delayed or ignored in the past. In several cases, environmental advocates would like the regulatory actions to be stronger,” said the CRS report.

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Support for Common Core Has Fallen Dramatically

Editorial Cartoon by AF "Tony"Branco

Rasmussen Reports: Support for Common Core among Americans with school-age children has fallen dramatically, as more now question whether the new national education standards will actually improve student performance.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 34% of American Adults with children of elementary or secondary school age now favor requiring all schools nationwide to meet the same Common Core education standards. That’s an 18-point drop from 52% in early November of last year. Forty-seven percent (47%) oppose the imposition of the national standards, compared to 32% in the previous survey. Little changed are the 19% who are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here).

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Tags: Common Core, Rasmussen Reports, fallen support, poll To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Obama's Insane Illegal Immigration Policy

 by Newt Gingrich: The flood of children coming to the United States is a much worse and more alarming story than you might imagine.

This disaster is a direct result of deliberate Obama administration policy that encourages illegal immigration. In August 2012 the administration announced, basically, that it would not deport most children who come to the United States illegally.

By any reasonable standard, the Obama policy is insane and the results were predictable. This is a humanitarian crisis that the President himself created.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security held a hearing this week which made vividly clear just how deliberate and how crazy this policy is and how disastrous its results are going to be--for the United States as well as for the children who are leaving their parents and dangerously entering the country on their own.

These charts tell the story.

(Source: Mark Perry, Carpe Diem)

(Source: Mark Perry, Carpe Diem)

(Source: Mark Perry, Carpe Diem)

(Source: Mark Perry, Carpe Diem)

It is clear the Obama administration policies are insane if their goals are really to stop illegal immigration and honest, effective border control.

Instead, it appears to be a deliberate policy of maximizing the number of illegal immigrants allowed to stay in the United States. Any suggestion that these are mostly political refugees is a lie.

Consider this from Chairman Goodlatte's opening statement:A May 28, 2014, Rio Grande Valley (RGV) Sector Intelligence Report tells a story that is strikingly different than the claimed humanitarian crisis the administration paints as responsible for the surge. The report summarized interviews conducted with hundreds of apprehended Central Americans minors and quite frankly paints a very different picture of the situation.

According to the report, when these individuals were asked why they made the journey to the United States, approximately 95% indicated that the main reason was to take advantage of the “new” U.S. “law” that grants a “free pass” or permit (referred to as “permisos”) being issued by the U.S. government to women traveling with minors and unaccompanied alien minors. While no new law has been enacted, the truth is that this administration has dramatically altered immigration enforcement policies. The timing of the change in policies correlates closely with the steep uptick of individuals showing up at the border. Apparently, word has gotten out that once encountered by Border Patrol agents and processed, thanks to this Administration’s lax enforcement policies, one will likely never be removed.Goodlatte went on to cite:In addition to simply not pursuing removable aliens, DHS has been granting hundreds of thousands of these individuals administrative legalization and work authorization. DHS does this under many guises, invoking doctrines with esoteric names such as “deferred action” and “parole-in-place”. The net effect of these policies has been described by former ICE Acting Director John Sandweg -- “If you are a run-of-the mill immigrant here illegally, your odds of getting deported are close to zero . . . .” Apparently, those arriving at our borders now know this.

Indeed, Father Heyman Vazquez, the director of a migrant shelter in Mexico, told news outlets that children and families are encouraged to cross into the U.S. illegally because they think they will be given amnesty. Vazquez said, "I remember a little boy of 9 years old and I asked if he was going to go meet someone and he told me ‘No, I’m just going to hand myself over because I hear they help kids." In addition, like so many others across Central America, Robin Tulio, a 13-year-old, said his mother believed that the Obama Administration had quietly changed its policy regarding unaccompanied minors, and that if he made it across, he would have a better shot at staying. In the meantime, Central American media touts an open door to the U.S. for minors and families.If you have any doubt consider that the Obama administration is deliberately encouraging this surge in illegal immigration, consider that instead of focusing on controlling the border and stopping people from entering illegally, we now have our government using our tax money to hire "escort services for unaccompanied alien children."

You may think I am making this up, but you can see the actual Homeland Security solicitation here. It’s pretty clear from the document that the federal government intends to take care large numbers of children who enter the country illegally. It certainly explains the 2,232 percent increase in unaccompanied minors crossing the border since 2009.

This is truly madness. And it is terrible for the children involved, who will be separated from their families and vulnerable to all sorts of threats.

Senators John Cornyn and Marco Rubio this morning introduced a resolution calling on President Obama to state publicly that new unaccompanied minors illegally crossing the borders will not be eligible for his “deferred action” from immigration law. Such a statement from the President might begin to ease this extraordinary humanitarian crisis he created.

Call your representatives and senators and demand that they change the law and get the border genuinely under control.
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Newt Gingrich is a former Georgia Congressman and Speaker of the U.S. House. He co-authored and was the chief architect of the "Contract with America" and a major leader in the Republican victory in the 1994 congressional elections. He is noted speaker and writer. The above commentary was shared via Gingrich Productions.

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Tags: President Obama, illegal immigration policy, Newt Gingrich To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Ways and Means Subpoenas IRS Emails To Other Federal Offices

Fairfax, VA - Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement praising House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.) for subpoenaing the missing IRS emails to other federal offices, including the White House:"We are pleased that the House Ways and Means Committee is stepping up its game, and searching for the missing Lerner and other IRS emails on the servers of other federal departments, agencies and offices, including the White House, Department of Justice, Department of Treasury, the Federal Election Commission, and others. Unless there was a massive cover up, the missing emails should still be on those servers.

"When the administration again stonewalls these requests, Chairman Camp needs to be prepared to enforce these subpoenas in federal court. Waiting for Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor or the U.S. Attorney's Office to enforce contempt citations is no longer a valid course of action."

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Tags: Ways and Means, subpoenas, IRS, emails, Federal Agencies To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Ethanol An Environmental Disaster

Editorial Cartoon by AF "Tony" Branco

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Hillary's Book Tour, aka, Foot in Mouth Tour

Editorial Cartoon, AF "Tony" Branco

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Tags: Hillary Clinton, book tour, Foot in Mouth Tour, editorial cartoon, AF Branco To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

IRS Emails Show Lois Lerner Suggested Audit of GOP Senator

by Melissa Quinn, The Daily Signal, Heritage Foundation: New emails obtained by Congress show IRS official Lois Lerner, acting on misdirected correspondence, suggested auditing a Republican senator who has been critical of the Obama administration on a range of issues.

The House Ways and Means Committee yesterday obtained emails discussing Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, between Lerner, then head of the Internal Revenue Service’s tax-exempt organizations division, and several colleagues.

The emails indicate Lerner received an invitation that was intended for Grassley. The event’s organizers offered to pay for Grassley’s wife to attend, which drew Lerner’s attention.

A message Lerner sent to several other IRS officials shows she suggested the agency audit Grassley because of the proposed compensation.

“Looked like they were inappropriately offering to pay for his wife,” she wrote. “Perhaps we should refer to Exam?”

“Exam” is IRS jargon for considering an audit.

Matthew Giuliano, an IRS manager at the time, shot down Lerner’s suggestion. He said the organization’s offer to pay for Grassley’s wife was “not prohibited on its face.” Instead, he suggested the IRS wait for “(i) Grassley to accept and attend the speaking arrangement, and (ii) then determine whether [name redacted] issues him a 1099.”

A 1099 is a form taxpayers must file with the IRS if they receive income from a source other than their employer.

>>> IRS Violated Law With Missing Emails, Top Archivist Says

Attention to Lerner’s obtainable emails come as the House Ways and Means Committee continues to investigate her involvement with inappropriate IRS targeting of tea party and conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.

Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., called Lerner’s attention to Grassley another example of her using her position at the IRS to target conservatives.

“We’ve seen a lot of unbelievable things in this investigation, but the fact that Lois Lerner attempted to initiate an apparently baseless IRS examination against a sitting Republican United States senator is shocking,” Camp said in a statement. “At every turn, Lerner was using the IRS as a tool for political purposes in defiance of taxpayer rights”

According to Grassley’s office, the senator declined the unnamed organization’s invitation to attend the event. Grassley said of Lerner’s emails:
This kind of thing fuels the deep concerns many people have about political targeting by the IRS and by the officials at the highest levels. It’s very troubling that a simple clerical mix-up could get a taxpayer immediately referred for an IRS exam without any due diligence from agency officials.Grassley is a member of the Senate Finance Committee, which is among congressional panels probing the IRS targeting scandal.

>>> IRS Admits Wrongdoing, to Pay $50,000 in Leaking of Marriage Group’s Tax Return

In a statement to Fox News, the IRS said it does not conduct audits based on the recommendations of one person:
As a general matter, the IRS has checks and balances in place to ensure the fairness and integrity of the audit process. Audits cannot be initiated solely by personal requests or suggestions by any one individual inside the IRS.Republicans have grown increasingly frustrated with the tax agency after it notified Congress two weeks ago that it had lost two years of emails from Lerner and several other officials. The agency blamed the missing correspondence on a hard drive crashes.

The time period of the lost emails — from January 2009 to April 2011 — covers the months when Lerner and the IRS are accused of targeting tea party groups.

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told Congress last week the crashed hard drives were destroyed after computer experts were unable to retrieve the contents.

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Tags: Irs, emails, Lois Learner, suggested audit, GOP Senator, Sen. Vharles Grassley, Republican Iowa To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

James Madison: The Indispensible Founder

“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents. … If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one. … The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. … The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government. … There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” ~ James Madison
 Alan Caruba, Contributing Author: When people are asked to name the Founding Fathers of the nation, they usually reel off Washington, Adams, and Jefferson, the first, second and third Presidents in addition to their earlier role in guiding the Revolution to success.

Occasionally, someone who, like myself, loves history will add Madison, the fourth President, but Lynne Cheney’s new biography of Madison rightly identifies him as the man most responsible “for creating the United States of America in the form we know it today.” It was Madison who guided the process by which the Founders arrived at the Constitution, contributing the fundamental principles it incorporated and writing the Bill of Rights, amendments that ensured its ratification by the original states.

Cheney’s biography, “James Madison: A Life Considered” ($36.00, Viking) benefits not only from her scholarship, but from her facility with the written word, making it a continual pleasure to read for a book of 563 pages, including its notes, bibliography, and index. If you were to set aside the summer to read just one book, this would be the one I would recommend.

If Cheney’s name rings a bell, it is because she is the wife of former Vice President Dick Cheney, but she is also a Ph.D. who has been studying Madison since 1987 when she was a member of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the Constitution. These days she is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

The Cheney’s reside in Wilson, Wyoming. She is making the rounds of radio and television shows to promote her book and, most notably, interviewers tend to ignore her book in order to pry an opinion out of her about current events and politics. One gets the feeling that most did not read her book.

Those short in stature and, compared to the other Founders, quite young, all who came to know him swiftly developed a profound respect for his intellect and his knowledge of how governments were structured with some succeeding while others failed. When Madison spoke, they listened. There were in those days “factions” (which today we call political parties) that opposed his and the other Founder’s views.

“Jefferson,” wrote Cheney, “would later say that it was a wonder that Madison accomplished so much as he had, given that he faced ‘the endless quibbles, chicaneries, perversions, vexations, and delays of lawyers and demi-lawyers’” and Madison himself was often struck “by the way that ‘important bills prepared at leisure by skillful hands’ were treated to ‘crudeness and tedious discussion’, and he had seen legislative tricks of the most blatant sort.” So the politics of Madison’s time was not unlike much of today’s.

After the Constitution was written to replace the failed Articles of Confederation it needed to be vigorously defended. America benefited greatly from the fact that its population was highly literate and it was the Federalist papers, a series of essays mostly written by Madison was the way its principles and protections were explained to the public. Chaney notes that the Federalist essay that would eventually become most famous was the first one Madison wrote.

“In Federalist 10, published November 22,1787, he set forth the failures of ‘our governments’ (rather than ‘our states’ where, after all, the Constitution would be ratified), noting the instability and injustices that had caused good citizens across the country to increasingly distrust those governments and feel ‘alarm for private rights.’”

These alarms are reflected in our times by concerns that the President is bypassing Congress to govern by executive orders, is failing to enforce laws with which he disagrees, and that we have a Department of Justice and an IRS that cannot be trusted to apply laws fairly, acting against groups and individuals with whom they disagree such as the Tea Party movement and other conservative organizations. A rogue agency such as the Environmental Protection Agency is so out of control that Congress must at some point exert powerful restraints on it.

What is remarkable about Madison’s time was the fact that he, Jefferson is lifelong friend, and Adams, all lived long lives unlike the bulk of the population. Madison would devote his life to the creation of our extraordinary government and, throughout the early presidencies including his own, to ensuring the existence of the new nation, challenged as it was by Great Britain, first during the Revolution and then in the War of 1812.

On his last day as President, Madison vetoed an improvements bill, “arguing as he had since the days of The Federalist that the general government did not have general powers. It had specified powers, and recognizing its limits was essential to ‘the permanent success of the Constitution.’”

Chaney wrote that Madison understood that “if the limits the Constitution imposed on government were unrecognized, ‘the parchment had better be thrown into the fire at once.”, but Madison was all about protecting the Constitution and the new nation. For that he is owed the gratitude of all the generations that have followed him.

It is now our responsibility to protect it because freedom and liberty always have domestic and foreign enemies
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Alan Caruba is a writer by profession; has authored several books, and writes a daily column, Warning Signs disseminated on many Internet news and opinion websites and blogs. He is a contributing author at ARRA News Service.

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Tags: Lynne Cheney, new book, biography, James Madison, The Indispensible Founder, Alan Caruba, Warning Signs To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!