The Socialists Worked Through the Holidays--- Big Time

The 111th Congress, the most unpopular Congress in the recorded history of the United States with an all time low approval rating of 11%, ended last week with a flurry of legislative activity that set a record for a lame duck Congress. They couldn't have done it without the help of their Republican Senator friends who are listed at the end of the posting.  The leftist media is delighted and eager to make the case that last week’s events portend a new era of bipartisan accomplishment, led by the White House, that will extend into the 112th Congress. In typical Obama fashion, while America was celebrating their holidays his henchmen and women were very busy demonizing, regulating, and confiscating.

The real action was in the agencies: Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)  Here is where the true picture of how the Obama Administration will advance their agenda in 2011 was displayed last week.

The most damage was probably done in HHS.  First the NY Times discovered that what Sarah Pallin called the "Death Panels" was back and being enforced., It was stripped, but in typical Obama fashion, the provision was expanded and sneaked into Medicare.  The defeated provision called for reviews every 5 years between patient and doctor to "educate" the patient on end of life decisions in an attempt to control costs and limit care.  The provision sneaked into Medicare now calls for annual reviews in which the government will pay doctors for these "educational" services.  HHA Administrators had warned their employees against letting these provisions leak to the press, and to prepare explanations there were leaks.  HHS responded to the press reports by blaming the Bush administration which they said put these provisions into Medicare in 2003, a complete and typical Obama lie.  The 2003 provision created a one time meeting with a doctor and patient when the patient entered the Medicare program.

Then on Tuesday, the HHS unveiled new price controls for the health insurance industry. Using new powers granted by Obamacare, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that starting next year, health insurance companies must receive permission from the Obama Administration before they can raise rates by more than 10 percent. Meanwhile Obamacare forces insurance companies to increase their coverage dramatically.  This is to regulate Insurance Companies out of business so they can confiscate or take over all of Health Care just like the admired  system in Cuba. This is only one of thousands of new powers Obamacare granted the HHS. Left unchecked, there are many new health care regulations to come.

Later on Tuesday, the FCC released its “net neutrality” rules, which will allow the federal government to begin regulating the Internet. This despite opposition from Congress and a contrary federal court ruling. Dissenting FCC commissioner Robert McDowell described the unprecedented power grab last week: “Nothing is broken that needs fixing."  After demonizing Conservative Talk Radio (Rush Limbaugh) Obama wants to get control of the Internet early realizing that left operating in a free market environment it could be a huge obstacle like talk radio for a Socialist takeover of the government.

Then on Thursday the EPA announced that it will begin regulating power plants and oil refineries in an attempt to stop global warming. The new regulations will seek to cut greenhouse gas emissions by making it more expensive to turn fossil fuels into energy. The State of Texas has taken the EPA to court and the EPA responded by calling Texas a "renegade" state for not adhering to regulations that would drive up energy costs and increase our dependence on foreign oil and Algore sun and wind.  But the Obama Administration did not stop there. Later in the day, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that the Bureau of Land Management was issuing new rules that would make it harder to develop natural resources on government-owned land. Both of these measures will not only drive up the cost of electricity but will also make us more dependent on foreign sources of energy.

The ability of the Obama Administration to step up their leftist agenda even after it was thoroughly “shellacked” at the polls is not an accident. It is the purposeful design of the Socialist movement, which has been working to undermine the Founders’ vision of our republic for over a century now.

The Heritage Foundation predicts, "This will be the fight of 2011: the unelected central planning 'experts' (including the Czars) of the Obama Administration versus the newly elected House of Representatives and state and local governments. The people are not powerless. Congress still has the power of the purse and can withhold funding for implementing Obamacare or writing global warming regulations. There is also the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to review and overrule regulations issued by government agencies. State and local governments can also thwart the federal administrative state by asserting their rights whenever possible. We can return power from Washington back to the people. Saying good-bye to the 111th Congress is a great first step."

Oh yes, the list of Republicans Who Supported the Socialist Regime in Voting to Weaken Our Military and National Defense:
(Listing only those who will still be in office in 2011)
• Lamar Alexander – TN
• Bob Corker – TN
• Lisa Murkowski – AK
• Johnny Isakson – GA
• Scott Brown – MA
• Thad Cochran –MI
• Susan Collins – ME
• Olympia Snowe – ME

Think about about it, and then get really mad, and then get ready to hold our elected officials feet to the fire,

Jim