Sweetness. COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department was wrong to block South Carolina from requiring voters to show government-issued photo identification to vote, the state’s top prosecutor argued in a lawsuit filed Tuesday. Enforcement of the new law, passed by state lawmakers last year, “will not disenfranchise any potential South Carolina voter,” Attorney
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South Carolina Sues Obama Regime Over Holder’s Decision To Block Voter ID Law…
It is “unacceptable that HHS fails to maintain accurate financial records and fails to adhere to federal law designed to protect taxpayer dollars from mismanagement and waste,” Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., wrote in a Monday letter to the department’s secretary, Kathleen Sebelius. (HT:Federal Times) The USG may not appear to have a very tight wrap on how and where it’s dollars (expropriated or borrowed) get dispersed. This is particularly true when the US Senate has gone over 1,000 days without the benefit of an actual budget resolution instead of a legislative gimmick that relieves them of that responsibility. However, in the street-level reality inhabited by people who actually handle government funds, tight and exacting regulations do exist. One very important one is The Anti-Deficiancy Act which is described below. The Anti-Deficiency Act prohibits federal employees from • making or authorizing an expenditure from, or creating or authorizing an obligation under, any appropriation or fund in excess of the amount available in the appropriation or fund unless authorized by law. 31 U.S.C. § 1341(a)(1)(A). • involving the government in any obligation to pay money before funds have been appropriated for that purpose, unless otherwise allowed by law. 31 U.S.C. § 1341(a)(1)(B). • accepting voluntary services for the United States, or employing personal services not authorized by law, except in cases of emergency involving the safety of human life or the protection of property. 31 U.S.C. § 1342. • making obligations or expenditures in excess of an apportionment or reapportionment, or in excess of the amount permitted by agency regulations. 31 U.S.C. § 1517(a). (HT: Gao.gov) It seems the accounting firm of Ernest and Young has audited the books at HHS. This occurred in response to HHS identifying and declaring several violations of the Anti-Deficiancy Act. The audit turned over several large rocks and found even more things that stunk in the books of the HHS. At present, HHS reports $500M in discrepancies between what they admit to have spent and what the US Treasury agrees that they were authorized and should have spent. Ernest and Young claims the discrepancy involves an additional $900M that the HHS does not currently adequately account for. Sen. Coburn and Rep. Boustany want to know exactly who in HHS made these regrettable “oversights” and if they were related to the American Affordable Care Act. The Members of Congress in question apparently don’t believe that not reporting $900M in spending is an acceptable methodology by which healthcare can become more affordable. The rest of us shouldn’t either. But then again, when the US Senate cannot even be bothered with debating and formulating a budget for over 1,000 days, it’s not exactly surprising to see mid-level bureaucrats honoring Federal Budgetary Jurisprudence in the breach.
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Secretary Sebelius, Meet The Anti-Deficiency Act.
Communist killer Che Guevara made an appearance. Occupy Oakland protesters hold a sign and a flag during an anti-police march against the Oakland Police Department in Oakland, California February 4, 2012. (REUTERS/Beck Diefenbach) Video via Breitbart
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Video: Occupy Oakland Holds “F*ck The Police” Rally…
That makes one person. Via Daily Caller: White House spokesman Jay Carney today declared that President Barack Obama has full confidence in his controversial Attorney General Eric Holder, despite the controversy over the department’s “Operation Fast and Furious” international gun-running program. “He absolutely stands by the attorney general and thinks he’s doing an excellent job,” Carney said during a midday press conference
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Carney: Obama Thinks Holder Is “Doing An Excellent Job”…
RedState Morning Briefing February 2, 2012 Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge. I’ll be filling in for Neal Boortz today. You can listen live from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Neal’s (and my) flagship radio station, News Talk WSB out of Atlanta by going to http://wsbradio.com . You can call in during that time by dialing 1-877-310-2100. 1. The National Review’s Candidate Won’t Stop Digging 2. Sixty-Five to One: It’s Not That Complicated 3. The Government is Playing Hide and Seek With Airfare Taxes 4. The Earmarxists are Back ———————————————————————- 1. The National Review’s Candidate Won’t Stop Digging It is days like today that make me thankful I think they all suck. At least I’m thankful I’m in the firmly not Romney camp. Having told us only Romney was viable (with half-nods to Huntsman and Santorum) and having trotted out Elliot Abrams to smear Newt Gingrich with out of context quotes, even National Review is having trouble defending their candidate today. This morning Mitt Romney said he wasn’t concerned about the poor. The poor, after all, have food stamps and Medicaid. But don’t worry. If the safety net is broken, Patrician Mitt Romney will fix it so the poor can stay comfortably poor. After all, just look what he did in Massachusetts. The poor can now wait 44 days to get in to see a doctor. Excelsior! After making sure we all understood the poor were for the Democrats to be worried about, Romney decided to keep digging his hole even bigger. By the end of the day, Jim DeMint had to rebuke him. Romney, digging his hole deeper, said his remark needed more context. The context, according to Romney, is that we have government programs to keep the poor . . . well . . . poor but comfortable. Please click here for the rest of the post. 2. Sixty-Five to One: It’s Not That Complicated Political analysts have a need to sound expertly and important when it comes to elections. They have to go in depth and explain artfully and deeply why someone won and someone lost. It was the debates. It was the ground game. It was the strategies. It was the likability versus dislikability of the candidates. On and on they go. What gets danced around is the money. Money is usually why candidates win or lose. Candidates with the highest favorable name ID usually win. To do that takes lots of money and lots of ads. For all the hoopla about Mitt Romney’s victory in Florida, it really is not that hard to understand. All you need to understand is the ratio 65 to 1. Please click here for the rest of the post. 3. The Government is Playing Hide and Seek With Airfare Taxes When purchasing a product or service, we all like to see the itemized list of charges – one that separates the cost of the purchase from the share going to Uncle Sam through the form of taxes and fees. Needless to say, government bureaucrats don’t like that. They desire that we remain blissfully ignorant of government’s burden on our everyday lives. This is one reason why they concocted the withholdings scheme for income tax collection. Now, they are expanding their tentacles into commercial taxes so they can obfuscate the magnitude of taxes and fees on airfare purchases. Without much fanfare, the Department of Transportation (DOT) enacted a rule which requires airlines to ensconce all government taxes and fees in a single total advertised price with the fare. For example, if you purchase a $350 plane ticket with $50 of taxes and fees, the DOT is demanding that the airline advertise the price as $400. Airline passengers pay over a dozen taxes and fees on any given airplane ticket, but the government doesn’t want us to know that. The rule was finalized last April, but only took effect last week. Please click here for the rest of the post. 4. The Earmarxists are Back It’s another week in the Senate, and there’s another battle over earmarks. Senators Toomey and McCaskill are proposing an amendment to the STOCK Act (“insider trading bill”S. 2038) to permanently ban earmarks in the Senate. Not surprisingly, there is pushback from Harry Reid…and a number of Republicans as well. As always, there are those who argue that earmarks are just inconsequential “drop in the bucket” expenditures; that we must focus on more impactful issues. Please click here for the rest of the post.
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Morning Briefing for February 2, 2012
