Amanda Terkel

aterkel@huffingtonpost.com

Patrick Svitek

patrick.svitek@huffingtonpost.com

GOP Lawmakers Divided On Keeping Obamacare's Young Adult Insurance Provision

Posted: 07/03/2012 8:41 am Updated: 07/03/2012 2:02 pm

Erin Mershon, Greg Rosalsky, Cole Stangler, Nate Willis and Jeffrey Young contributed reporting.

WASHINGTON -- Congressional Republicans may not have been happy about the Supreme Court's ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act, but many of their children probably are.

According to an analysis by The Huffington Post, dozens of Republicans who want to repeal Obamacare have adult children who are allowed to stay on their parents' health plans thanks to the law, which extended this benefit nationwide. Many of the lawmakers' children are employed and on their own health care plans, but others continue to take advantage of their parents' coverage.

"He [My 24-year-old son] is on his health plan right now -- on his mother's plan -- but again, that wouldn’t weigh in on where I stand on the issue," said Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) last week, before the Supreme Court handed down its ruling. "Again, I just think the whole thing needs to be scrapped. And I don’t even want to think about certain provisions yet."

But Walsh and his GOP colleagues are soon going to have to start thinking about which provisions they want to keep if they are going to try to repeal Obamacare. Republicans are almost completely unified in wanting to get rid of the health care law, but they are significantly more divided on what a plan would look like going forward -- and whether they should keep some of the law's most popular provisions.

On Sunday, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Republicans would not require parents' health insurance plans to extend eligibility to adult children if Obamacare is repealed. Walsh demurred when asked if he supported maintaining the provision. “No, I don’t know that I do. I don’t know that I do," he said. "I don't know where I am on that, and that's a lousy thing to say. My oldest is 24. That doesn’t matter to me, though, irregardless of that." Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.), however, wants to keep it.

"There are good things in the health care bill, and that's one of them," said Amodei, who has a 25-year-old daughter with her own health insurance. "I haven't talked with anybody who thinks that's something we ought to get rid of." "I support it. Oh, sure. ... It would be [incorporated] in any Republican proposal," added Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), whose 22-year-old son is a full-time student.

So far, Republicans have not put forward a comprehensive alternative plan to Obamacare, focusing mostly on talk of "patient-centered reforms" that allow the "market to work." While three large health insurance companies promised to keep covering adult children on their parents' plans regardless of the Supreme Court ruling, many children would have lost coverage if the court had struck the law down.

Since the Affordable Care Act became law in March 2010, the share of Americans aged 18 to 25 without health insurance dropped to 23 percent from 28 percent. Before the law was passed, 34 states had enacted laws that extended eligibility for adult children to stay on their parents' health plans, according to a study published in the journal Pediatrics and conducted by researchers at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. But as the National Conference of State Legislatures noted, many of these states had tighter restrictions on the age and other eligibility requirements for dependents than are in the Affordable Care Act.

After Colorado, New Jersey and South Dakota enacted mandates for young people in 2005 and 2006, young adults reported increases in health insurance coverage, more physical exams, a greater likelihood of having a primary care physician and fewer occasions when they went without medical care because of costs than their counterparts in 17 states that do not mandate insurance coverage for that age group.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) has at least one of his daughters on his health care plan (he isn't sure about the second). He said he liked the provision. He believes, however, that the market would have provided the extra coverage for adult children, even if the Supreme Court had struck down the Affordable Care Act.

"They're going to continue that [provision] anyway," he said. "I think the insurance companies have all kind of decided that that's an okay thing. They were in our office, they've been in our office in the last few weeks."

The reason that health insurers began widely offering such benefits, however, is because Obamacare mandated it. The provision proved to be extremely popular with the American public. Without the law in place, it's unclear how long insurers would continue to offer such coverage, since they would no longer be required to do so.

Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Va.) has a 21-year-old daughter on his health care plan, which his spokeswoman noted was not the federal plan that members of Congress receive. He has declined federal benefits -- including health insurance and retirement -- and instead has coverage through a private insurance plan that he pays for through his business, Freedom Automotive.

Rigell was not elected until 2010, after Congress had already voted for health care reform, but he would like to see it repealed going forward. Still, he also said he supports the provision covering young adults.

"I think that is a good provision," he said. "There are parts of the Affordable Care Act that I support."

Rep. Bob Turner (R-N.Y.), however, was less sure.

"I haven’t really thought too much about this," he said. "I do know, whether your kid is 22 or 26, who’s gonna pay for that? Is it everybody pays for that or is it the person who has the kids pays for it? So I'm gonna let this sort itself out when we get through the bill."

"I don't think this is going to be one of the biggest drivers of things -- that particularly," Turner said. "High-risk pools, portability such important issues. This one has some merit, but I don't consider this one important."

Lawmakers who want to both keep their children on their health plans and repeal the Affordable Care Act could face political problems, as has Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.). Brown has said his 23-year-old daughter is still on his health care plan, despite his opposition to Obamacare.

"Of course I do," he replied when the Boston Globe asked him whether he keeps his daughter on his plan.

Elizabeth Warren, Brown's Democratic challenger, immediately hit him with charges of hypocrisy, with a spokeswoman saying, "He says he likes being able to keep his daughter on the family health insurance plan; what he doesn't say is that he voted to stop other parents from doing the same."

Sam Stein

stein@huffingtonpost.com

Mollie Reilly

mollie.reilly@huffingtonpost.com

Mitt Romney: Individual Mandate 'Is A Tax'

Posted: 07/04/2012 1:22 pm Updated: 07/04/2012 1:36 pm

WASHINGTON -- Contradicting his own top campaign adviser, Mitt Romney on Wednesday declared that the individual mandate contained in President Barack Obama's health care law is, indeed, a tax and not a penalty against those who refuse to buy coverage

"I said that I agree with the [Supreme Court']s dissent, and the dissent made it very clear that they felt [the individual mandate] was unconstitutional," Romney said in a released clip of a CBS News interview. "But the dissent lost. It's in the minority. And now the Supreme Court has spoken. And while I agree with the dissent, that's taken over by the fact that the majority of the court said it's a tax, and therefore, it is a tax."

Romney continued: "They have spoken. And there's no way around that. You can try and say you wish they decided a different way, but they didn't. They concluded it was a tax. That's what it is."

Romney also sat down with CNN for an interview, during which he repeated the new campaign line. The Supreme Court, he said, ruled that the mandate is a tax, "so it's a tax, of course, if that's what they say it is."

The remarks are a complete 180 from those made by two top advisers to the Romney campaign in recent days. Spokesperson Andrea Saul, two days ago, said that the governor "thinks [the mandate] is an unconstitutional penalty," not a tax. Top aide Eric Ferhnstrom, that same day, emphatically declared that the campaign did not believe the mandate was a tax.

"The governor believes that what we put in place in Massachusetts was a penalty and he disagrees with the court's ruling that the mandate was a tax," Fehrnstrom said in a Monday interview with MSNBC's "The Daily Rundown."

The comments from Romney, delivered during his July 4 break in New Hampshire, also clearly gave way to the counter-argument that, by his own definition, he raised taxes during his time as Massachusetts governor. The individual mandate, after all, is the concept that Romney helped spearhead as part of the health care overhaul in the Bay State. The penalty that citizens in his home state were subjected to should they opt not to buy insurance is greater than those levied under Obamacare.

The early clip of the CBS interview, however, doesn’t make clear if Romney was asked to address the mandate he signed into law and whether he now could be declared a tax-raiser. A request to the Romney campaign for the full transcript was not immediately returned. It is unclear when the network will air the interview.

The Romney campaign's abrupt reversal comes as conservatives pressured the candidate to use the Supreme Court's ruling -- which held that the mandate was constitutional under Congress' taxing power -- as a cudgel to attack the president. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus went so far as to openly break with the campaign's position, declaring that the individual mandate is a tax.

An Obama campaign official said a comment on Romney's remarks was forthcoming.

Mike Lee, Utah Senator, Warns President Obama's Reelection Means $6.60 Gas While Experts Scoff

First Posted: 03/ 7/2012 2:53 pm Updated: 03/ 7/2012 4:12 pm

WASHINGTON -- Republicans hit the accelerator on Wednesday with their charges that President Barack Obama is to blame for high gas prices, with one senator making the extreme claim that the president's reelection will push costs to $6.60 a gallon.

“When President Obama took office, gas prices were about $1.85 per gallon," said Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). "Now that they're up to about $3.75 per gallon, we can see a steady increase. Over this 38-month period of time of his presidency so far, gasoline prices have risen on ... average of about 5 cents per gallon per month."

"This is staggering when you think about the fact that if he's reelected," Lee said, "it's a total of an additional 58 months. With that increase, gas prices will be up at around $6.60 per gallon."

Experts have said that $5-a-gallon gas is an apocalyptic price level that is extremely unlikely to be seen.

They are even less impressed with Lee's estimate.

"It's a shameless, irresponsible statement," said Fadel Gheit, an oil and gas analyst at Oppenheimer and Co. "I've been in the oil business 30 years, and I've never heard his name since he became an oil expert."

Gheit explained that about 75 percent of the price of gasoline comes from the price of oil, and the price of oil is skyrocketing because of speculation and fears about the possibility of war spreading in the Middle East.

About the only way that prices could spike as high as Lee has estimated would be if the United States attacked Iran soon.

"All this war talk is putting a 30 percent higher price on oil," Gheit said. "One third of the oil price right now is totally unjustified. The more war talk, the more we're going to pay at the pump."

"Everyone is saying bomb, bomb, bomb Iran. Let's do that if you're prepared to pay $6 a gallon," Gheit added. "Bombing Iran will give us $6 next summer. We don't have to wait for the election. We can do it sooner."

While Lee's prediction was the most dramatic comment, he is just the latest Republican to blame Obama for high gas prices, saying that they're the result of the United States not producing enough oil on public lands.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) made the same argument on the Senate floor just minutes before Lee, adding the extra dig that Obama wants gas prices high, in spite of the president's assurance on Tuesday that no commander in chief wants high gas prices in an election year.

"When it comes to the rising cost of gas at the pump, it’s my view that the administration’s policies are actually designed to bring about higher gas prices," McConnell declared, asserting that the "burdensome" regulations restrictions on drilling and the recent rejection of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada are to blame for high prices.

McConnell did not mention global unrest or speculation, as did oil analyst Gheit.

"If we stopped speculation, tomorrow we would pay 50 cents a gallon less at the pump," Gheit said, adding that if the uncertainty over Iran were removed, the price of oil would be around $80, with correspondingly lower gasoline prices.

Drilling more would do nothing, however.

"We've been increasing our oil production for five years," Gheit said. "The industry has been doing a very good job," he added, agreeing with McConnell that the president should not claim credit for increased supplies.

Still, extracting even more would not affect price at the pump "one iota," Gheit said, explaining that oil is traded on an international market and that even if war fears and speculation were not issues, OPEC still can change price.

"The easiest thing for OPEC is to reduce production," Gheit said. "They would rather cut production by 5 percent than lose 20 percent of the price."

He also pointed to another factor affecting price that McConnell and Lee ignored -- a cut in gasoline refining capacity by oil companies.

"We shut down three refineries in the last three months -- 710,000 barrels a day are gone, evaporated," he said, by way of explaining why gas prices have risen even as demand has fallen.

Gheit's opinions are hardly unique. At a recent hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, on which Lee serves, James Burkhard, the director of the Global Oil Group at IHS CERA, decribed how the U.S. oil production has seen a "great revival" since 2008, with oil production higher in 2011 by some 1.4 million barrels a day.

Numerous media reports, including those by WSLS after and Washington Post have debunked claims that prices can be lowered by getting more crude from the United States.

And other experts have told The Huffington Post in the past that if nearly all restrictions were relaxed on U.S. drilling, it might have a modest impact on prices in about five years because the United States does not have a large enough supply to quickly affect prices of the commodity.

Michael McAuliff covers politics and Congress for The Huffington Post. Talk to him on Facebook.

Rep (R) Allen West, Others Face Challenges In 2012 House Races

By DONNA CASSATA   02/25/12 09:10 AM ET  

WASHINGTON -- Call it basic political math. Twenty-five new seats put the Democrats over the top in the House, giving them back the majority they lost two years ago. Republicans acknowledge they'll lose some seats, but maintain they will remain in charge. Ten 10 races to watch in the coming months that could provide some clues to the outcome on Election Day:

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DEMOCRATS

Georgia 12th Congressional District: Can four-term conservative Rep. John Barrow survive in the Republican South?

California 24th: If eight-term Rep. Lois Capps wins, Democrats could be on their way to significant gains in the state, a boost to their shot of winning the House.

Utah 4th: Six-term Rep. Jim Matheson is a regular GOP target in this solid Republican state, but the U.S. Chamber of Commerce likes his voting record.

North Carolina 7th: The GOP-drawn maps are a nightmare for Democrats in the state. Can eight-term Rep. Mike McIntyre, another conservative, continue the minimal Democratic presence in the South?

New York 26th: First-term Rep. Kathy Hochul lifted Democratic spirits last year with a win in a special election. Republicans are looking to take the seat back.

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Top of Form

Bottom of Form

REPUBLICANS

Illinois 11th: Seven-term Rep. Judy Biggert is a top Democratic target after the party drew political boundaries to its liking. She could face former Rep. Bill Foster, who lost in 2010.

Florida 18th: The outspoken and well-funded freshman Rep. Allen West switched to the district and immediately drew Republican challengers.

Colorado 6th: New district lines make it tougher for two-term Rep. Mike Coffman.

California 7th: Defeating nine-term Rep. Dan Lungren is one part of the Democratic calculation to winning big in California.

New York 13th: First-term Rep. Michael Grimm has been dogged by questions about his fundraising and business practices in a district that includes Staten Island and part of Brooklyn.

MSNBC Fact Checks Gingrich's Lying About POTUS' Concerns Over Gas Prices

Posted: 07 Mar 2012 06:00 AM PST

After Newt Gingrich's extremely long, lie packed speech on Super Tuesday the panel covering election night at MSNBC actually did some fact checking on one of Gingrich's lies, that President Obama said he only cares about gas prices because it will harm his chances of being reelected.

Newt Makes False Claim About Obama On Gas Prices:

Speaking at his victory party Tuesday night after winning his home state of Georgia, Newt Gingrich falsely claimed President Obama was "worried about higher gas prices because it will make it harder for [him] to get re-elected."

Here's Newt's full comment:

The president was right the other day. He's so nervous about gasoline prices and energy, that he's done two major speeches. I thought today, in one of the most shallow and self-serving comments by a president I've heard in a long time, he was candid in his press conference. He said, you know, I'm really worried about higher gas prices because it will make it harder for me to get re-elected. I did not make this up. It was just nice to know that the president once again has managed to take the pain of the american people and turn it into his own personal problem.

But President Obama didn't say that.

Here's what he really said at today's White House press briefing, directed at Fox News reporter Ed Henry, who asked the president if he actually wants gas prices to go even higher so he can "wean" the American people off fossil fuels.

Ed, just from a political perspective, do you think the President of the United States, going into reelection, wants gas prices to go up even higher? … Is there anybody here who thinks that makes a lot of sense?

Karoli posted President Obama and Ed Henry's little exchange from earlier here -- Fox News' Ed Henry Smacked Down By President Obama During Presidential News Conference.

Rep (R) Michele Bachmann: Welfare Recipients Getting Lap Dances A Bigger Issue Than Unemployment Benefits

The House and Senate both approved a payroll tax cut bill on Friday that would extend unemployment benefits through 2012. But according to Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), the extension is hardly the bill's crowning achievement.

"They're extending unemployment, too, but the big thing that we get is no longer can a welfare recipient walk into a strip club and get money out of an ATM machine to pay for a lap dance," she told conservative radio host Mark Levin on Thursday night. "Now, I'm not making this up. That's the big thing that we get out of this bill."

According to the bill, welfare recipients won't be able to use government-issued debit cards to get cash through ATM's at strip clubs, casinos or liquor stores. The ban is similar to one included in a House bill proposed earlier this month by Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.).

Questioned by Levin whether this use of welfare funds was a major problem, Bachmann replied, "Welfare recipients across the country, Mark, have been using their welfare cards -- they look like credit cards, it's a debit card. They get these debit cards, they can walk into a casino, they can walk into a liquor store, they can walk into a strip club and if there's an ATM machine in there, they can use their welfare card, draw down the money and use it to pay for gambling, lap dances."

Speaker (R) John Boehner: 'Some Of The Dumbest' People In America Are Members Of Congress

The Huffington Post   Alana Horowitz First Posted: 03/11/2012 11:57 am Updated: 03/11/2012 3:49 pm

Great news, America! Some of the dumbest people in the country are leading your nation, according to Speaker of the House John Boehner.

"We got some of the smartest people in the country who serve here, and some of the dumbest. We got some of the best people you'd ever meet, and some of the raunchiest. We've got 'em all," he said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

He also touted his own achievement in Congress

"There's nobody who tried harder last year with the president to do the right thing," he said. "There's nobody who walked further out on a limb than I did to try to get him to do the right thing."

Boehner's comments referred to last year's contentious debt talks. The months-long saga resulted in a bitter struggle between Democrats and Republicans, as well as between Obama and GOP leaders. Obama once blamed Boehner for the talks falling apart after the Speaker walked out in the middle of a meeting.

As Politico reports, Boehner has been facing serious backlash from fellow Republicans who have recently vowed to kill his massive highway bill.

Way to go Mr Speaker, you are so right, you guys spend most of your time raising money for future campaigns and the rest on vacation. Someone from your office was calling on the President to come back to Washington to go to work. Just for your edification the White House travels with the President but of course you knew or did you? How does it feels residing over a "do nothing congress". You guys should return your checks because you are not working for the Americans people. 

Sarah Palin: Obama Is Bringing Back Discrimination From 'Days Before The Civil War'

The Huffington Post  |  By Mollie Reilly Posted: 03/ 9/2012 11:12 am Updated: 03/ 9/2012 11:12 am

Sarah Palin weighed in Thursday on a video of Barack Obama embracing the late Professor Derrick Bell, stating during an interview that the clip revealed that the president is "bringing us back...to days before the Civil War" when racial discrimination was prevalent.

In an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, Palin discussed Obama's affiliation with Bell, a former Harvard professor who passed away last year. A video released earlier this week showed Obama, then a student at Harvard Law School, praising Bell at a rally in support of the university hiring more minority faculty.

"He is bringing us back...to days before the Civil War, when unfortunately too many Americans mistakenly belived that not all men were created equal," she said. "What Barack Obama seems to want to do is go back to before those days when we were in different classes based on income, based on color of skin."

Earlier in the show, Palin accused Obama of "trying to divide" the country, "based along lines of gender, of religion, of income, even of race," citing the president's association with Bell.

"Look at his embracing of Derrick Bell, the radical college racist professor whom he...embraced literally and figuratively asking others to open their hearts and minds to the radical agenda of a racist like Derrick Bell who believed that white men oppress blacks and minorities," she said. "And Barack Obama, evidently at least at the time, believed what Derrick Bell believed."

The 1991 footage in question was touted as game-changing by conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart at CPAC, weeks before he unexpectedly passed away. However, the clip was also included in a 2008 PBS special, and has made few waves outside of conservative circles.

At the time of the video, Bell had announced he would take an unpaid leave from Harvard until the school brought a woman of color onto the law school's tenured faculty. Bell was also a strong advocate of critical race theory, which posits that racist beliefs underly many of the country's legal foundations.

Palin and Hannity also discussed the Rush Limbaugh-Sandra Fluke controversy, as well as President Obama's phone call to Fluke after the conservative radio host called her a "slut" on air. According to Palin, it was hypocritical for Obama's super PAC to accept money from comedian Bill Maher, who has made inflammatory comments about the former Alaska governor.

"It's dirty money that he has now provided Barack Obama's campaign," Palin said in reference to the $1 million Maher donated to Priorities USA, the Obama-supporting PAC. "I don't know how Barack Obama can sleep at night if he really thinks about Sasha and Malia and the treatment of some women today, how he can accept that dirty money."

Palin added that it "shouldn't surprise us" that Obama's group would take Maher's money, stating that he has "never" been "who we would describe [as] a man of valor."

Senator (R-FMR) Santorum: Separation Of Church And State 'Makes Me Want To Throw Up'

Rick Santorum on Sunday took on separation of church and state. "I don't believe in an America where the separation of church and state are absolute," he told 'This Week' host George Stephanopoulos. "The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country...to say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes me want to throw up."

The GOP candidate was responding to comments he made last October. He had said that he "almost threw up" after reading JFK's 1960 speech in which he declared his commitment to the separation of church and state.

Santorum also on Sunday told Meet The Press host David Gregory that separation of church and state was "not the founders' vision."

The GOP candidate has been doubling down on religious rhetoric in an effort to court evangelical voters ahead of Super Tuesday. Last week, he questioned Obama's spiritual beliefs.

"[Obama believes in] some phony ideal, some phony theology ... not a theology based on the Bible, a different theology," he said.