HEALTHCARE:
Obamacare spending leads to a higher budget deficit so far in 2015
“The Congressional Budget Office reported Wednesday that the federal government saw a higher budget deficit in the first half of fiscal year 2015 compared to 2014, and said higher spending due to Obamacare is part of the reason. CBO said the budget deficit was $430 billion in the first half of fiscal year 2015, a $17 billion increase. While there were several contributing factors to that increase, CBO said spending on Obamacare was a significant change from 2014 to 2015. First, CBO said Medicaid spending rose by $31 billion from October 1 through March 31 compared to that same period a year earlier. CBO said that increase was seen because Medicaid spending under Obamacare didn’t kick in until January 2014, partway into fiscal year 2014, but that spending was in effect for the entire first half of fiscal year 2015. Under the law, Medicaid eligibility was expanded by most states, which led millions of people to sign up for the program that provides health services to low-income families. Secondly, CBO measured Obamacare subsidies that help people buy insurance, and found they have grown by six times over the last year. In the first half of 2014, $2 billion was spent on these subsidies, but in the first half of 2015, $12 billion was spent. Those two spending changes alone accounted for $41 billion in new spending, more than the total net $17 billion increase. Without the Obamacare spending increases, the total budget deficit would have fallen from 2014 to 2015. CBO noted that both government receipts and government spending were up 7 percent in the first half of the fiscal year compared to last year. But because spending was higher than receipts, spending grew faster and led to a $17 billion increase in the budget deficit. While the budget deficit is $430 billion halfway through the fiscal year, that doesn’t mean the total deficit for the year will be $860 billion. For example, tax receipts collected in the current quarter are expected to led to a temporary budget surplus. CBO’s last projection is that the total budget deficit for 2105 will be somewhere around $500 billion….”
http://www.theblaze.com/blog/2015/04/09/obamacare-spending-leads-to-a-higher-budget-deficit-so-far-in-2015/
Big layoffs at Obamacare group
“The group founded to promote Obamacare has let about half its staff go. Over the last few years, Enroll America conducted an organized campaign to spread the word about new health coverage provided under President Obama’s healthcare law. But with year two of enrollment coming to an end, the group is shuttering 100 jobs, the group confirmed to the Washington Examiner. Founded by Affordable Care Act advocates with close ties to the White House, Enroll America has held events around the country aimed at persuading Americans to sign up. The group wasn’t intended to operate forever, but it is scaling back sooner than some advocates had expected. Enroll America President Anne Filipic announced the changes in a piece published by Morning Consult on March 13, where she said the group would reduce its staffing and start focusing more on training existing community groups and health providers to publicize health coverage. “We envision a day when our organization is unnecessary because we’ve made enrollment outreach and support an institutional reality in communities across the country,” she wrote. The drawdowns are taking place now because the uninsured rate has dropped to a historic low after millions of Americans signed up for health care coverage under the law, according to Filipic. She wrote that for now, the group will retain a staff of more than 100 people who will work with more than 4,600 partners around the country and will maintain offices in 11 states including Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas. Enroll American spokesman Justin Nisly said the layoffs had been planned to take place once the second year of Obamacare enrollment ended. “These changes were done in a thoughtful way, and were planned to coincide with the end of the second open enrollment,” he said…”
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/big-layoffs-at-obamacare-group/article/2562751?custom_click=rss
ObamaCare sign-up group cuts staff as mission shifts
“Enroll America, the main outside group seeking to sign people up for insurance through ObamaCare, is cutting its staff and budget as it shifts its role. The number of staff members has fallen from a peak of around 260 during the first sign-up period in 2013 to around 135 now as it heads toward the third period this fall, the group said. As recently as February, at the end of the last sign-up period, 230 people were on staff. The group says that after achieving success in attracting direct sign-ups, it is shifting to a more indirect role of helping local community organizations. But there are also questions about funding. Politico first reported the details of the staffing cuts on Thursday and that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is ending grants that had made up almost half of Enroll America’s funding. The foundation gave grants of $13 million to Enroll America in 2013 and $10 million in 2014. Katherine Hempstead, director of the foundation’s health insurance programs, told The Hill on Thursday that there is a possibility that Enroll America could still get a grant. “Nothing’s off the table,” she said. But she also said the foundation is shifting away from its focus on enrollment as millions of people have now signed up. “As millions of people have taken advantage of these opportunities, it’s increasingly important to look at the value of the insurance,” she said. That means helping people understand their choices in the market now that they have insurance, with information on aspects like out-of-pocket costs, she said. Enroll America spokesman Justin Nisly referred questions about the grants to the foundation. But Enroll America President Anne Filipic said in a statement that the changes were long-planned. “We always knew that our staff size would need to peak during the first open enrollment period and that – now that the remaining pool of uninsured is millions smaller than it was two years ago – we wouldn’t need the same massive team to reach the remaining pool of the uninsured,” she said in the statement. Indeed, in March, Filipic wrote an op-ed referring to staffing changes and laying out a more indirect role for the organization…”
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/238353-obamacare-sign-up-group-cuts-staff-as-mission-shifts
A Note on ‘Obamacare Pinching the Poor’
“In response to this post, several readers have accurately pointed out that a page of the IRS website, posted on March 25, clearly states that, “If you are not required to file a tax return and don’t want to file a return, you do not need to file a return solely to claim this exemption.” Unfortunately, this highlights another problem with Obamacare implementation — the contradictory and confusing information on compliance. The chart directly below the text on the IRS website indicates that the only way to claim this exemption is on the tax return, consistent with the information on the healthcare.gov site. Interestingly, neither of these sites contains any sort of citation as to the source material for these statements. One can only assume that the information provided therein is intended to paraphrase the relevant regulations. So, what does the law actually say on this point? The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published final regulations on exemptions on July 1, 2013. The filing threshold exemption was finalized at 45 CFR 155.605(g)(3) and, according to a CMS September 18, 2014, memo, “applies to an individual who was not required to file an income tax return for such calendar year because his or her gross income was below the filing threshold, but who nevertheless filed a return, claimed a dependent with a return filing requirement, and as a result, had household income exceeding the applicable return filing threshold.” This exemption would be claimed on the tax return. The September 14 guidance goes on to say that “any individual who does not have enough gross income to met the minimum threshold for having to file a tax return also should be entitled to a hardship exemption,” and provides that the Secretary, by virtue of her own authority, is providing that this should be the case, “regardless of whether they file a return and regardless of whether they claim a dependent.” While it is commonplace for agencies to publish guidance as to interpretation or the agency view of its enforcement obligation, in this case, the guidance is actually in conflict with the letter of the regulations. Even the author of the memo acknowledges that mere guidance does not in itself change regulations that have been finalized after proper notice and comment: “CMS intends to propose to amend 45 CFR 155.605(g)(3) in this regard to include this hardship exemption in future rulemaking.” It appears that no such rule change has yet been proposed, never mind finalized. So, while the language cited from the IRS website does, in fact, accurately reflect CMS’s intentions, it appears that neither site accurately portrays the rather narrow filing threshold exemption currently provided for under the regulations as they stand….”
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/note-obamacare-pinching-poor_914208.html
Obamacare repeal hopes hurt if Republicans fail to pass budget by deadline
“Congressional Republicans are likely to miss an April 15 deadline the law sets for passing a unified budget, with lawmakers set to return from a two-week break on April 13, with plenty of differences still to hash out between the House and Senate over everything from the size of spending cuts to revamping Medicare. A unified budget would be Congress‘ first since 2009 — a plan that helped ease passage of Obamacare — and Republicans hope this one will create a path to repealing that same law, as well as eliminating annual deficits within a decade. Analysts said reaching a final deal between House and Senate Republicans, who control both chambers, should be relatively easy, both because of the number of areas where they agree, and because a final deal is necessary for Congress to have a chance to use “reconciliation,” which is the budget tool that would help repeal Obamacare while sidestepping a Democratic filibuster in the Senate. “It will be viewed as a test of whether they can govern,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Both chambers call for repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the official name of President Obama’s health law, though the plans keep the revenue from Obamacare tax increases. Both plans also pump $96 billion into war spending as a gimmick to boost the Pentagon budget without breaking the budget caps Congress and Mr. Obama agreed to several years ago. The House plan, written by Budget Chairman Tom Price, Georgia Republican, calls for spending $5.5 trillion less than currently projected over the next decade, while the Senate plan, written by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming, would spent $5.1 trillion less — a difference analysts said should be easily bridged when the two chambers meet in a conference committee…”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/9/obamacare-repeal-hopes-hurt-if-republicans-fail-to/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS
Health care coalition demands better data from Obamacare
“Insurers, a tech company and advocacy groups banded together Thursday to demand that Obamacare provide better data to consumers on price and quality, saying it’s easier to compare hotel rooms than it is to choose between health care plans. With the U.S. poised to spend roughly $40 trillion on health care over the next decade, the “Clear Choices” initiative said it wants consumers to have more control over that spending so that they know if they’ve chosen the best doctor for their needs, or how much a major procedure will cost. “Consumers have the right to know what they’re buying. It’s pretty simple,” said Joel White, president of the Council for Affordable Coverage. The group, which counts major insurer Aetna and seniors advocacy group AARP among its members, said it hopes to join a growing effort on Capitol Hill to make claims data widely accessible, particularly to the analysts who crunch the data and drive changes in the marketplace. Data are a big part of Obamacare, with analysts saying more information means better choices. But there’s also a danger of consumers being overwhelmed, particularly by data they may not have the knowledge to evaluate. The Obama administration in 2013 released data on what various hospitals charge Medicare for common services, exposing major differences. For example, a hospital in New Jersey charged $30,000 less to implant a pacemaker than one about 20 miles away, and there was an ever greater price gap for gall bladder surgery between two Florida hospitals down the road from each other, a New York Times analysis found at the time…”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/9/health-care-coalition-demands-better-data-from-oba/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS
Kasich hopeful lawmakers will OK Medicaid expansion funding
“Ohio Gov. John Kasich said Thursday that he’s hopeful state lawmakers will approve money to support an expansion of Medicaid after fellow Republicans jettisoned the idea from his last budget. The governor’s $72.3 billion, two-year spending blueprint sets aside funds to help cover the more than 500,000 low-income Ohioans who enrolled in the expanded federal-state health program. Kasich told reporters at a Statehouse event Thursday that he was optimistic about the expansion’s continuance. “I couldn’t conceive of a half a million people all of a sudden waking up one day and having no health care coverage as provided under this program,” the governor said. Kasich’s administration extended Medicaid eligibility in 2013, as allowed under President Barack Obama’s health overhaul. The Democratic president’s law calls for Washington to pay the full cost of the Medicaid extension through 2016 and 95 percent in 2017, so Ohio would have to kick in $120 million during the new biennium to support the state’s share…”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/9/kasich-hopeful-lawmakers-will-ok-medicaid-expansio/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS
Meet the group persuading states to block Medicaid expansion.
“The D.C.-based advocacy group Americans for Prosperity has poured more money and resources than anyone else into convincing Republicans around the country to repel state efforts to grow the federal health insurance program for the low-income and disabled. It has pelted swing districts with mailers, filled the airwaves with paid advertising, sent volunteers door to door and hosted town hall meetings in a concentrated effort to sway legislators away from approving Medicaid expansion, which is a key way Obamacare extends health coverage to the poor. The group won’t disclose how much money it has spent in total on the effort. But it’s “in the millions,” says AFP President Tim Phillips. “From the very beginning, we turned to a state-by-state effort to stop the expansion of Medicaid,” Phillips told the Washington Examiner. “Medicaid expansion and Obamacare has been the issue we’ve worked on more than any other single issue.” His group’s success has been striking this year. Attempts to expand Medicaid in Tennessee, Utah, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho — which at first showed promise — have been blocked so far, and now Florida Gov. Rick Scott is showing some new skepticism even though he’d previously supported it. Obamacare’s offer of Medicaid expansion is one of the few parts of the Affordable Care Act that has won some Republicans over. A handful of Republican governors have joined Democrats in growing the program — and accepting the federal money that comes along with it. Twenty-eight states have expanded Medicaid, and more appeared poised at the beginning of 2015 to join them…”
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/meet-the-group-blocking-obamacares-medicaid-expansion/article/2562731?custom_click=rss
Medicare program gets harder to cut
“Medicare Advantage is becoming entrenched and harder to cut as support for the insurance program grows in both parties and enrollment numbers climb. The Obama administration has repeatedly proposed cuts to the program, but has twice backed away under pressure from the health insurance industry and lawmakers from both parties. Opposition appears to be growing. Only 22 senators signed letters opposing the administration’s plan to cut payments under the program in 2013. The number grew to 40 last year, and 53 in 2015. Medicare Advantage was backed by former President George W. Bush and approved by a Republican Congress in 2003 to introduce more competition in the insurance market for seniors. Under the program, the government contracts with private insurance companies to provide coverage for seniors. Instead of the government directly paying doctors under Medicare, seniors who choose Medicare Advantage select a private insurer that then pays for services…”
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/238280-healthcare-program-gets-harder-to-cut
Two maps explain how much the Supreme Court could damage Obamacare
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/04/09/two-maps-explain-how-much-the-supreme-court-could-damage-obamacare/
After Major Reforms, How Is the VA Doing Caring for Patients Now?
“It has been about a year since the extent of the issues at hospitals caring for veterans was revealed, and since then major reforms have been instituted. But how are they playing out now? The Associated Press took a look at the data and found that wait times for patients at facilities run by the Department of Veterans Affairs is largely the same as it was before and, in some cases, the number of patients waiting more than three months for an appointment has nearly doubled: “Nearly 894,000 appointments completed at VA medical facilities from Aug. 1 to Feb. 28 failed to meet the health system’s timeliness goal, which calls for patients to be seen within 30 days. That means roughly one in 36 patient visits to a caregiver involved a delay of at least a month. Nearly 232,000 of those appointments involved a delay of longer than 60 days — a figure that doesn’t include cancellations, patient no-shows, or instances where veterans gave up and sought care elsewhere. […] The AP examined wait times at 940 individual VA facilities from Sept. 1 through Feb 28 to gauge any changes since a scandal over delays and attempts to cover them up led to the resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki in May and prompted lawmakers to pass the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act in August. The analysis included all VA hospitals and outpatient clinics for which consistent wait time data was available. It excluded residential treatment centers, homeless dormitories and disability evaluation centers. Data for individual facilities were not available for August…”
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/04/09/after-major-reforms-how-is-the-va-doing-caring-for-patients-now/
IMMIGRATION:
Calling White House `Disingenuous,’ Judge Refuses To Lift Injunction On Immigration Plan
“A federal judge’s ruling blocking the Obama administration’s plan to give extended residency permits to millions of illegal immigrants includes harsh criticism of government lawyers who, he said, misled him to his face in a January hearing about whether those permits were already being issued. In a pair of rulings Monday, U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen based in the border city of Brownsville, Texas said there was no reason to lift the injunction against the President’s plan to grant “deferred action” status to some 4.4 million immigrants who arrived in this country as children or who are the parents of legal residents. This was hardly surprising, since there is no risk the government will suffer irreparable harm by delaying action, while Texas and 26 other states say they would incur extra costs immediately as they accommodate millions of newly legal residents under the administration’s Deferred Action for Parents of Americans program. “Normally you’d only see a court issue a stay if somebody is trying to maintain the status quo,” said Paul Virtue, a partner with Mayer Brown in Washington and former chief counsel of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. “The status quo is there is no DAPA rogram.” There is, however, the DACA program, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and Judge Hanen accused Obama administration lawyers of misleading him in a February hearing about whether that had been expanded. In a second order, Hanen stopped just short of sanctioning the government but ordered extensive discovery into who knew what when lawyers told him DACA had not been ramped up. At a Jan. 15 hearing to consider the states’ request for an injunction blocking DAPA and expansion of DACA, Justice Dept. attorney Kathleen Hartnett repeated assured a skeptical Judge Hanen that the government wouldn’t expand DACA until Feb. 18 at the earliest…”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2015/04/09/calling-white-house-disingenuous-judge-refuses-to-lift-injunction-on-immigration-plan/
TEXAS FEDERAL JUDGE ACCUSES DOJ AND DHS OF DECEIVING COURT: ORDERS FULL DISCLOSURE OF DOCUMENTS
“Judge Andrew Hanen has issued a scathing written rebuke directed at government lawyers and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for their misrepresentations made in the case filed against President Obama’s executive amnesty plan. He has ordered the Government to produce related documents by April 21st. He also warned the government against destroying any of this evidence. Hanen is the federal district judge in Brownsville, Texas, who denied the U.S. Government’s request to remove the block of Obama’s amnesty plan on Tuesday. Texas and 25 other states (Plaintiff “States”) filed a motion asking for early discovery asserting that federal lawyers and officials of the DHS made misrepresentations to the Court. These misrepresentations related to Obama Administration executive actions extending from two to three years, the period of work permits and quasi-legal status granted to individuals under the President’s 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA). The subject of the motion was a pleading filed with the court on March 3rd entitled “Defendant’s Advisory.” In it, the United States Government wrote that it took certain actions prior to the Court’s injunction: Defendants file this Advisory to inform the Court of certain actions that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) took pursuant to the November 20, 2014 deferred action memorandum at issue in this case before the Court issued its preliminary injunction on February 16, 2015. Defendants do not believe that the preliminary injunction requires them to take any affirmative steps concerning those pre-injunction actions, but Defendants nevertheless wish to ensure that the Court is fully aware of those actions…”
http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2015/04/08/texas-federal-judge-accuses-doj-and-dhs-of-deceiving-court-orders-full-disclosure-of-documents/
EXCLUSIVE – SPARKED BY EXECUTIVE AMNESTY, TED YOHO MOVES TO DEFINE IMPEACHABLE OFFENSES
“In an effort to draw a line in the sand against further executive actions by President Barack Obama, Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) is preparing to introduce a resolution defining the House of Representative’s understanding of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” the Constitution’s standard for bringing impeachment proceedings. “We are laying a red line. This is the Rubicon. They are forewarned: do not cross this line,” Yoho said in an interview. The bill’s introduction is the most aggressive move toward impeachment by any House Republican. The tactic, while constitutional, has generally been shunned as counterproductive by the GOP even as outrage has grown over President Obama’s use of executive authority. The resolution, which cites the Federalist Papers in its “findings” section, lists “failing to take care that the laws be faithfully executed through signing statements or systematic policies of non-enforcement” and “substituting executive agreements for treaties” as two of eleven potential high crimes and misdemeanors the House would be declaring “impeachable.” Other impeachable offenses would include initiating war without congressional authorization, spending funds in defiance of appropriations laws, and refusing to comply with congressional subpoenas for documents of testimony “issued for a legitimate legislative purpose.” Yoho, whose bill opposing executive amnesty passed the House in December, said he is constantly asked by constituents what he is doing to “stand up and hold this president accountable because he’s trampling on the Constitution.” The Florida Republican said he consulted with numerous academics and other experts on proposals that could help Congress protect its constitutional authority against presidents that have increasingly encroached on it in recent decades. His sources include Bruce Fein, a civil liberties lawyer who has advocated impeachment for the last several presidents and Judge Andrew Napolitano, a libertarian law professor and Fox News analyst…”
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/04/09/sparked-by-executive-amnesty-ted-yoho-moves-to-define-impeachable-offenses/
Dems Misuse Supreme Court Precedent In Pro-Amnesty Court Brief
“Yesterday, 181 of the 188 Democrats in the House filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the federal government’s attempt to appeal Judge Hanen’s recent amnesty-injunction. The Democrats, identifying themselves in the letter as “representatives of diverse communities,” attempt to set out a legal argument as to why Judge Hanen’s carefully reasoned, 123-page opinion should be set aside. The brief follows (and largely mimics) an open letter published last month by four of the most prominent open-borders law professors in the country. From the outset, the brief should strike some as curious. Most of its signers, of course, voted for the DREAM Act, a bill that Obama pushed through by fiat after it was rejected for the 24th time by a majority in Congress. By casting a vote in the House for amnesty, they’ve demonstrated that it is they, as members of Congress, who have the sole authority in setting immigration policy. As law professor Nicholas Rosenkranz said in testimony before the House Judiciary in 2013 (one of the brief’s signers, Rep. John Conyers, was Ranking Member at the time), “[DACA] has a distinctly legislative character. It is not a decision [] in a particular case [] that enforcement is not worth the resources; rather it is a blanket policy which exactly mirrors a statute that Congress declined to pass.” Still, the Democrats in their brief allege that “Congress granted the DHS Secretary with complete discretionary authority to enforce the Immigration and Naturalization Act.” But if the Democrats truly thought it was legal for the Secretary and Obama to push through DACA and then DAPA, why did they bother voting for the DREAM Act in the first place? If the Secretary already has the authority to issue deferred action benefits to anyone he pleases, why would Congress go through the legislative process of debating whether or not to give him that authority? And if that authority is truly so widespread, why doesn’t the Secretary apply blanket amnesty to all 12 million illegal aliens in the country instead of the 1.8 million done under former Secretary Napolitano in 2012 and the 4.1 million Secretary Johnson is purporting to do now. Either the signers of yesterday’s brief aren’t the sharpest cohort of House Democrats we’ve ever seen or they’re the most cynical. Or both…”
http://dailycaller.com/2015/04/09/dems-misuse-supreme-court-precedent-in-pro-amnesty-court-brief/
Federal judge slams Obama lawyers in immigration case
“A federal judge has issued a scathing rebuke to lawyers for the Obama administration in a case involving the president’s unilateral immigration action. In an order issued Tuesday night, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, who had put a temporary hold on the action, not only refused to lift the hold — he also came very near to accusing administration lawyers of flat-out lying to him. The administration’s assertions in the immigration case have been “misleading,” “troublesome,” and “belied by the facts,” Hanen wrote. “Any number of federal judges, given this misconduct, would consider striking the government’s pleadings.” Doing so would effectively end the case altogether, and Hanen wrote that he had decided not to take that action because the issues at stake are of great national importance. The case was brought by the attorneys general of 26 states seeking to stop the president’s decision to grant quasi-legal status and work permits to millions of illegal immigrants. The controversy that angered Judge Hanen involved the timing of the president’s new measures. Administration lawyers told the court that the first part of the president’s action, expansion of DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, was scheduled to begin Feb. 18, 2015. The second part, known as DAPA, or Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, was scheduled to go into effect in mid-May….”
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/federal-judge-slams-obama-lawyers-in-immigration-case/article/2562687
Senators demand probe into guest-worker program, American layoffs
“They agree on little else in the immigration debate but Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions and Democratic Sen. Richard J. Durbin teamed together Thursday to ask the Obama administration to investigate the guest-worker program for high-skilled foreigners, fearing it’s being abused by companies desperate for cheaper labor. The program, known as the H-1B visa, is used by science and technology firms to fill out the ranks of computer programmers and engineers, but has been controversial with American workers in those fields, who argue there are more than enough people already in the U.S. who are qualified for those jobs. Mr. Durbin and Mr. Sessions said they’ve seen reports that some U.S. companies lay off American workers and then replace them with foreign contractors through the visa program — which would amount to illegal discrimination against the U.S. workers. “We respectfully request that you investigate the unacceptable replacement of American workers by H-1B workers to ascertain whether SCE or any other U.S. companies that have engaged in this practice, or the IT consulting companies supplying those companies with H-1B workers, have violated the law,” the senators said in their letter to the Justice, Labor and Homeland Security departments. Employees of Southern California Edison, or SCE, told Congress last month they were laid off but had to train their replacements — who were H-1B visa holders. Congress has approved 85,000 H-1B visas this year, with 20,000 of them reserved for foreigners who got advanced degrees from U.S. universities. The application window opened on April 1 and closed within a week, when more than enough applications had been submitted. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will now randomly select which applications will be chosen…”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/9/senators-demand-probe-guest-worker-program/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS
SENATORS DEMAND INVESTIGATION INTO ALLEGED GUEST WORKER VISA ABUSES
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/04/09/senators-demand-investigation-into-alleged-guest-worker-visa-abuses/
REPORT: 39,000 CHILD MIGRANTS, 35,000 FAMILY UNITS EXPECTED THIS YEAR IN SECOND BORDER SURGE
“Although the Obama administration has adopted a range of efforts to stop Central American children from illegally coming to the U.S. — including implementing a program to fly them here instead — a new report projects 39,000 unaccompanied minors and 35,000 family units will be apprehended at the southern border this fiscal year. In a report issued by the Migration Policy Institute, author Marc R. Rosenblum uses apprehension data collected for the first five months of FY 2015 to project that the number of unaccompanied minors apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border will be less than last year’s surge of 68,551 but still more than twice FY 2011’s number, when just 15,949 unaccompanied minors were apprehended. Like the prior year, unaccompanied minors from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Mexico are expected to make up the largest populations of apprehensions. MPI also projects that the apprehensions of family units in FY 2015 will also be less than last year but still more than years before the 2014 border surge. “While attention has focused on unaccompanied child arrivals, even more dramatic growth occurred in FY 2014 in the number of apprehensions of people within family units,” the report reads. The report continues, “[f]amily unit apprehensions grew from 14,855 in FY 2013 to 68,445 in FY 2014—a 360 percent increase. Based on reported apprehensions during the first five months of FY 2015, MPI projects total family unit apprehensions for FY 2015 to be about 35,000, assuming current trends continue.”…”
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/04/09/report-39000-child-migrants-35000-family-units-expected-this-year-in-second-border-surge/
Report: 39,000 immigrant kids coming to U.S.
“About 39,000 immigrant children are expected to enter the country illegally as unaccompanied minors this federal fiscal year, reaching the second-highest level of that migration since 2008, says an analysis issued Wednesday by a research group in Washington, D.C. The estimate by the Migration Policy Institute, a nonprofit that studies the movement of people across international borders, is based on apprehension figures issued by U.S. Customs and Border Protection for the first five months of the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, 2014, and ends Sept. 30. Many of the children coming from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala likely will be resettled where there are established Central American communities, such as Long Island’s Nassau and Suffolk counties, said Marc Rosenblum, the report’s author…”
http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/report-more-unaccompanied-minors-on-the-way-into-u-s-1.10218313
America needs to curb immigration flows
“It is time for an honest discussion of immigration. The first “great wave” of U.S. immigration took place from roughly 1880 to 1930. During this time, according to the Census Bureau, the foreign-born population doubled from about 6.7 million to 14.2 million people. Changes were then made to immigration law to reduce admissions, decreasing the foreign-born population until it fell to about 9.6 million by 1970. Meanwhile, during this low-immigration period, real median compensation for U.S. workers surged, increasing more than 90 percent from 1948 to 1973, according to the Economic Policy Institute. In the 1960s, Congress lifted immigration caps and ushered in a “second great wave.” The foreign-born population more than quadrupled, to more than 40 million today.
This ongoing wave coincides with a period of middle-class contraction. The Pew Research Center reports: “The share of adults who live in middle-income households has eroded over time, from 61% in 1970 to 51% in 2013.” Harvard economist George Borjas has estimated that high immigration from 1980 to 2000 reduced the wages of lower-skilled U.S. workers by 7.4 percent — a stunning drop — with particularly painful reductions for African American workers. Weekly earnings today are lower than they were in 1973. Yet each year, the United States adds another million mostly low-wage permanent legal immigrants who can work, draw benefits and become voting citizens. Legal immigration is the primary source of low-wage immigration into the United States. In other words, as a matter of federal policy — which can be adjusted at any time — millions of low-wage foreign workers are legally made available to substitute for higher-paid Americans…”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/slow-the-immigration-wave/2015/04/09/c6d8e3d4-dd52-11e4-a500-1c5bb1d8ff6a_story.html
Activists Unite To Turn Illegal Immigrants Into Democratic Voters
“A coalition of immigration activists, community organizers and unions are rallying around a comprehensive strategy to create millions of new Democratic voters by defending President Obama’s executive orders on immigration and helping illegal immigrants. The Committee for Immigration Reform Implementation is training “navigators” and volunteers to connect and educate legal and illegal immigrants, and to register as many voters as possible who will support President Obama’s immigration policies. In a series of power point presentations obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation, the coalition outlines their strategy to train volunteers who will then register voters, help illegal immigrants determine the best path to what could eventually be citizenship, and work to defend Obama’s executive orders on immigration. A slide titled “Path To Power” breaks down the number of illegal immigrants, legal immigrants, naturalized citizens and citizens with foreign-born parents, and the percentage of each eligible for citizenship or who qualify for benefits under Obama’s executive orders:..”
http://dailycaller.com/2015/04/09/activists-unite-to-turn-illegal-immigrants-into-democratic-voters/
IMMIGRATION ACTIVISTS TO TRAIN ‘COMMUNITY NAVIGATORS’ IN EXEC. AMNESTY: ‘PATH TO POWER’
“A series of powerpoint presentations from the Committee for Immigration Reform Implementation sheds some light on how groups supportive of President Obama’s executive amnesty are strategizing to get people to sign up and defend the president’s actions. “Once the applications are out, the best defense of the programs will be huge number of applications for [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] and [Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents],” reads one of the powerpoint slide. The powerpoints are part of a curriculum for what the coalition of immigration activists calls community navigators to help prepare people up for executive amnesty. “Community navigators (or promotores) are volunteers who receive specialized training to provide quality immigration services for their communities in an empowering and effective way. The Committee for Immigration Reform Implementation (CIRI) has developed a curriculum for organizations to use to train navigators who will be engaged in outreach, organizing, screening, document preparation, and/or application assistance related to administrative relief implementation,” reads the program’s description. It’s slated for April 13. “The training has been fully vetted by the CIRI subcommittee on regional coordination, as well as the CIRI steering committee. We will introduce the model and discuss how it can be adapted for various contexts and demographics,” it adds…”
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/04/09/immigration-activists-to-train-community-navigators-in-exec-amnesty-path-to-power/
U.S. CITIES ‘SECRETLY SELECTED’ FOR IMPORTING MUSLIMS
Requests for information often ignored, stymied
“With Muslim immigrants streaming into the United States at a rate of 100,000 per year, some of the communities targeted for new arrivals are seeking information on their new neighbors, only to be frustrated by federal bureaucrats and their hired contractors. How does a city get on the U.S. State Department’s list of 190 communities selected for refugee resettlement? How can cities find out who will be coming and when? What services will they use, and what will be the cost to taxpayers? And, the granddaddy of all questions: Can the communities be assured that foreign nationals with ties to ISIS, al-Shabab and other Islamic terrorist groups won’t slip through the government’s porous screening process posing as “refugees”? The answers to these questions are simple. Very little information is available. And there are no guarantees that some very bad apples won’t arrive in your town, says a leading expert on the refugee resettlement program. On March 16, Ann Corcoran, author of the Refugee Resettlement Watch blog, spoke at a national security summit in Columbia, South Carolina, hosted by former Defense Department analyst Frank Gaffney. A few days before that conference, on March 9, a story broke in the local Spartanburg newspaper that World Relief, one of the nine resettlement agencies that works under contract with the federal government, was planning to open an office in Spartanburg. When an agency like World Relief opens an office in a city, it means refugees will be arriving soon. There are no public hearings or announcements in local media, Corcoran said. Typically a story will appear in the local newspaper just before or after the first arrivals appear in town…”
http://www.wnd.com/2015/04/u-s-cities-secretly-selected-for-muslim-immigration/
Immigrants now account for 1 in 11 blacks in USA
“A wave of immigration from the Caribbean, Africa and Latin America is reshaping the USA’s black population, new findings show, with no sign of ending anytime soon. About one in 11 blacks in America are foreign-born. The figure is expected to rise to one in six by 2060. The group is still fairly small compared with the numbers of Asian and Latin American immigrants who arrive each year, but it “has been a big part of the black immigrant story at least since 2000,” said Mark Hugo Lopez of the Pew Research Center, which released the findings Thursday. Using U.S. Census Bureau data, Pew found that a record 3.8 million black immigrants now live in the USA, more than four times as many as in 1980. Overall, there are about 42 million immigrants in the USA. Taken as a group, black immigrants — the vast majority of them from the Caribbean and Africa — now comprise nearly 9% of the nation’s black population, three times their share in 1980. The group is expected to continue growing rapidly: According to Census projections, nearly 17% of USA blacks will be immigrants by 2060. “That’s a big change, particularly when you take a look at Asian and Hispanic populations in the U.S.,” Lopez said. “Their foreign-born shares are actually declining.” But for Africans in particular, their share of foreign-born population is expected to rise…”
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/04/09/pew-african-immigrants/25521471/
Man arrested in Pinal County has been deported 20 times
“Authorities say a man arrested after a high-speed chase in Pinal County is a native of Mexico who has been deported 20 times. County Sheriff’s officials say 26-year-old Genaro Cisneros-Delgado is being held on a $50,000 bond on suspicion of felony flight and endangerment. They say Cisneros-Delgado took a sheriff’s deputy on a 30-mile chase on Interstate 10 last Friday night and speeds reached more than 100 mph Authorities say Cisneros-Delgado crashed through a locked gate outside a Sun Lakes retirement community before stopping the vehicle and fleeing with three passengers. Sheriff’s officials say Cisneros-Delgado and the other three are in the country illegally and he was smuggling them into the U.S. Cisneros-Delgado was jailed and the other three have been turned over to the U.S. Border Patrol for processing…”
http://ktar.com/22/1823390/Man-arrested-in-Pinal-County-has-been-deported-20-times
Illinois Gov Cuts Funds to Immigrants, Funerals for the Poor
“On the Friday before Easter, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner froze $26 million in social service and health grants as part of his plan to plug a $1.6 billion hole in the budget, The Associated Press and Chicago Tribune report. Immigrant advocates, who stand to lose more than $3 million in aid, worry this will hurt their efforts to provide legal assistance and language training across the state…”
http://www.newsweek.com/why-illinois-slashing-funding-immigrant-aid-320422
Allentown joins cities backing Obama immigration reforms
“Allentown is among 73 cities and counties that have signed a legal brief supporting President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration. Those immigration changes – which could allow up to 5 million undocumented immigrants with longstanding U.S. ties from being deported – have been temporarily halted by a federal judge. Up to 55,000 undocumented immigrants could qualify in Pennsylvania, according to one estimate. Allentown and the coalition of cities, which includes Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and State College, are filing a friend-of-the-court brief urging a federal judge to allow the immigration policies to be enacted. The local leaders argue that delaying the deportation relief would be harmful to families, to law enforcement priorities, and to local economies. Allowing the unauthorized residents to stay and work legally would improve public safety and increase local tax revenue, they added. “Continuing to delay implementation of the President’s executive action on immigration hurts our economy and puts families at risk,” said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who led the cities’ response with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. “Cities are where immigrants live, and cities are where the President’s executive action will be successfully implemented.”…”
http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/capitol-ideas/mc-allentown-joins-cities-backing-obama-immigration-reforms-20150406-story.html
SCOTT WALKER STANDS UP FOR AMERICAN WORKERS AGAINST ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ON ‘HANNITY’
“Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has gotten the message from the GOP base that immigration is an important issue—and that it’s not all just about securing the border, but also that American workers need to be protected. In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday evening, Walker showed he’s grown leaps and bounds on the issue of illegal immigration—and the effect it has on the economy—saying for the first time he’s going to stand up for American workers against corporate interests lobbying for a massive increase in cheap foreign workers. Hannity mentioned previous criticisms of Walker on immigration before asking him about his border trip with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. “I went to Texas to the border with Governor Greg Abbott who offered,” Walker responded. “I’m going to go back to Arizona and New Mexico and maybe to California with local and state officials there as well, but in Texas in particular Greg Abbott showed me with the men and women on the ground from the local level to the state level to even some of the fine men and women who work for the federal government and they show that we’re just being overrun, that this is an issue of safety, of security, national security, it’s ultimately an issue of sovereignty.” “If the United States was being attacked in one of our water ports on the East or West Coast, we’d be sending in our military forces, and yet we’re facing some of the same challenges with international criminal organizations, the cartels that are trafficking not only drugs but weapons and humans and we need to step up and be aggressive,” he explained. “That means securing the border with infrastructure, with technology, with personnel and the federal government’s got to lead the way. We can’t expect the border states to do this alone. The federal government needs to step up and act.” The most impressive part of Walker’s answer came at the end, where he didn’t just leave the issue at border security—he said that’s just step one, but after that’s completed there needs to an immigration policy that serves the national interest and protects American workers from cheap foreign labor that forces like the Chamber of Commerce, major labor unions, and other elitists are pushing for. He used language that sounds like it came from Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the immigration populist who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest—and specifically noted that wages of “American workers” must be protected….”
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/04/09/scott-walker-stands-up-for-american-workers-against-illegal-immigrants-on-hannity/
3 big immigration questions the GOP 2016 field must answer
“…Here are some of the biggest outstanding policy issues the candidates will need to resolve before the election’s out:
What exactly is “amnesty”? The most explosive word in the entire debate is “amnesty,” a word that has no agreed-upon meaning and that even the most pro-reform Republicans and Democrats say they don’t support anyway. It’s a useless phrase that tells voters nothing about policy and is largely meant to reassure conservative voters in the hopes they won’t read the fine print and ask any further questions. Does it mean, as hardline anti-immigration activists argue, entertaining any legal status for undocumented immigrants at all rather than deporting them en masse? Then even Ted Cruz is for amnesty. Does “amnesty” mean, as reformers argue, providing a path to citizenship that doesn’t include a background check or penalties? Then President Obama is against amnesty. Rand Paul’s new campaign website is a perfect case study in how to deploy “the A-word” while winking to reformers at the same time. His issues page on immigration begins with a denunciation of “amnesty” in the title and first sentence, then goes on to add that “before issuing any visas or starting the legal immigration process, we must first ensure that our border is secure.” If you’re not following the immigration debate closely, you might not even get that he’s referring to visas and a “legal immigration process” for undocumented immigrants already in the United States. For candidates like Scott Walker, who recently ruled out a path to citizenship, the biggest question is what they plan to do instead with the 11 million undocumented immigrants still in the country without tripping their definition of “amnesty.” Would they endorse legal status short of citizenship? Or does everyone have to leave?
What does “secure the border first” actually mean? A typical line from candidates is that they favor (or at least won’t rule out) legal status for undocumented immigrants – but only after the border is secure. Sen. Marco Rubio, for example, has made this his fallback position after previously backing a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill. But what does a “secure border” even mean? Congress has doubled the border patrol multiple times over the years and Rubio’s Senate bill would have doubled it once again while adding an array of new enforcement measures into the mix as well. Nor have previous rounds of border measures proved ineffective: The total estimated number of undocumented immigrants in the country has actually decreased in recent years. The most recent Pew survey put the population at 11.3 million last year, down from a peak of 12.2 million in 2007, and holding steady over the last several years…”
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/3-big-immigration-questions-the-gop-2016-field-needs-answer
Congratulations to Scott Walker
“Scott Walker has taken some hits on immigration, including here at NR. But he did well on Hannity last night when he was asked about his trip to the border. He enunciated a position on immigration that is very sound, and expressed a concern about workers and wages that almost no other prominent Republican (besides Jeff Sessions) ever does. I’m hoping we hear more from him on this, and that other candidates follow suit: …we need to step up and be aggressive. That means securing the border with infrastructure, with technology, with personnel, and the federal government’s got to lead the way. We can’t expect the border states to do this alone. The federal government needs to step up and act. And you can’t be talking about anything else until you do that. Once you do that, then we can talk about enforcing the laws by using an effective e-verify system for all employers, one that works for small businesses, farmers, and ranchers, and making sure that any legal immigration, no amnesty, any legal immigration system we go forward which is one that ultimately has to protect American workers and make sure American wages are going up. That’s the way we prosper for every hardworking American in this country. (emphasis added)…”
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/416732/congratulations-scott-walker-rich-lowry
SPENDING/BUDGET/ECONOMY:
The FCC Estimates Its New Rules Will Contribute Over $100 Million to the U.S. Economy. Really.
“The FCC is required by the Congressional Review Act to provide an economic assessment of its new Open Internet Order to the Office of Management and Budget. Despite injecting a heavy dose of uncertainty on the communications industry, the FCC estimates that its new rules will contribute more than $100 million to the U.S. economy. How did it come to that figure? Through smoke and mirrors. In a bit of hand-waving, the FCC claims that the “impact on the economy flows from the virtuous circle, whereby an open Internet fosters innovations at the edges of the network, driving increased consumer demand for broadband, which, in turn, fuels broadband investment.” The FCC’s argument boils down to this: By promoting the “virtuous circle,” the 2010 Open Internet rules caused a ton of investment at the core and the edge of the network; by resurrecting the 2010 rules, the FCC’s 2015 rules will keep these investment trends in place. Let’s grant the FCC its circular theory. What about the empirics? The FCC credits the 2010 Open Internet rules, which were vacated by the D.C. Circuit in January 2014, for increasing broadband capital expenditures “from $64 billion in 2009 to $75 billion in 2013, an average of $2.75 billion annually.” The FCC also credits the 2010 rules for (1) a 100 percent increase in venture capital financing in “Internet-specific” business from 2009 to 2013; (2) spawning Apple AAPL -0.08%’s iPad in January 2010 (never mind that the 2010 Order was not released until December 2010); (3) a 115 percent increase in app use in 2013; and (4) a 175 percent in online video services from 2010 to 2013…”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/halsinger/2015/04/09/the-fcc-estimates-its-new-rules-will-contribute-over-100-million-to-the-u-s-economy-really/
FEMALE UNEMPLOYMENT WORSE UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA
“The official female unemployment rate is 4.9 percent, according to data released earlier this month by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. At a similar point in his presidency, the rate under President George W. Bush was 4.5 percent. Breitbart News earlier reported that the number of women leaving the workforce is at an all time high. And according to CNS News, the labor force participation for the past month was 56.6 percent, a 27-year low. However, the female unemployment rate is slightly better than the male unemployment rate, which sits around 5.1 percent. James Sherk, an expert in labor economics at the Heritage Foundation, said the difference between the male and female unemployment rate is the type of occupation. “Men are much more likely to work in construction and manufacturing jobs than women,” said Sherk. He said during the economic downturn, about half the job losses came from the construction and manufacturing sectors. He added that usually government employment is not affected by an economic recession as much as other sectors, which gives females a slight advantage since usually more females work as teachers and government employees. Carly Fiorina, former HP CEO and possible 2016 Republican presidential candidate, said the Obama Administration’s policies have disproportionately hurt both main street and hurt women. “It’s a tragedy that 3 million women have fallen into poverty in the last 6 years and 1 million fewer women are working under this President,” said Fiorina. She added that Obama’s policies have “strangled community banks that provide most of the loans to families and women-owned businesses. They crush the small businesses that create most of our new jobs with taxes and regulations until only the big, the powerful and the wealthy can survive.”
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/04/09/female-unemployment-worse-under-president-obama/
Appropriations bills to dominate House agenda
“The House will begin consideration of bills to fund the federal government when members return to Washington from the spring recess. In a memo to House Republicans on Thursday, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said the first appropriations bill for the upcoming fiscal year will hit the floor the last week of April. The first appropriations measures on tap will be for the Department of Energy, as well as military construction and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. The House can now move to the annual appropriations process after passing its budget resolution last month. House and Senate negotiators have been working on a compromise budget between the two chambers over the congressional recess and are expected to reconcile the two blueprints. Appropriators will need the final agreement to provide guidelines for spending limits. However, under the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, neither chamber can move forward with floor consideration of appropriations bills for the upcoming fiscal year before May 15 until the final budget is adopted. A conference report on the budget resolution is expected to hit the House floor upon its completion, McCarthy said. The first two appropriations measures headed to the floor are among the easiest of the 12 annual bills to pass. Both bills will be considered under a process that allows members to offer an unlimited number of amendments. Separately, McCarthy said the House “may” vote on a reauthorization of the Patriot Act at the end of this month. Key provisions of the law will expire at the end of May, meaning a bill would hit the floor well before the deadline. Among the provisions set to expire is Section 215, which the National Security Agency (NSA) has used to authorize the bulk data collection of Americans’ phone records. “These provisions, which expire at the end of May, are necessary to maintain the U.S. Intelligence Community’s ability to monitor the communications and activities of foreign terrorists who seek to attack the homeland,” McCarthy wrote.
The House also plans consideration of cybersecurity legislation during the week of A