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Congress Exempt From Several Federal Laws - (www.nytimes.com) While Congress is moving to explicitly apply insider trading laws to its members, lawmakers are exempt from provisions of other federal laws.
In 1995, the House and Senate passed the Congressional Accountability Act, which did apply many civil rights, labor and workplace safety statutes to the legislative branch. Congress is still exempt from:
—The Freedom of Information Act.
—Investigatory subpoenas to obtain information for safety and health probes.
—Protections against retaliation for whistleblowers.
—Having to post notices of worker rights in offices.
—Prosecution for retaliating against employees who report safety and health hazards.
—Having to train employees about workplace rights and legal remedies.
—Record-keeping requirements for workplace injuries and illnesses.
Welfare Drug Testing Bill Withdrawn After Amended To Include Testing Lawmakers - (www.huffingtonpost.com) A Republican member of the Indiana General Assembly withdrew his bill to create a pilot program for drug testing welfare applicants Friday after one of his Democratic colleagues amended the measure to require drug testing for lawmakers. "There was an amendment offered today that required drug testing for legislators as well and it passed, which led me to have to then withdraw the bill," said Rep. Jud McMillin (R-Brookville), sponsor of the original welfare drug testing bill. The Supreme Court ruled drug testing for political candidates unconstitutional in 1997, striking down a Georgia law. McMillin said he withdrew his bill so he could reintroduce it on Monday with a lawmaker drug testing provision that would pass constitutional muster.
American health care is already socialized - (www.slate.com) At the end of 2011, the remarkable innovator Donald Berwick was forced to resign as the recess-appointed head of Medicare and Medicaid, a casualty of Republican-led opposition to his confirmation. An outspoken fan of the United Kingdom’s single-payer system, Berwick was portrayed by critics as a socialist who once commented that “excellent health care is by definition redistributional.” In 2010, for example, Republican leaders of the Senate Finance Committee grilled him about whether he “still distrusted the free market” and made it his goal to “make health care rationing the new normal.” The furor over Berwick reflects a broader, fundamental disagreement over the nature of health insurance. Should it be “social” insurance, with which financial risk is leveled between those who are ill and healthy, so the carefree twenty-something and diabetic elderly man pay equally into the system?
Obamacare protecting small businesses from large premium hikes - (www.latimes.com) The Obama administration Monday called on a health insurance company in Pennsylvania to reduce what it is charging small businesses, using a tool in the new healthcare law for the first time to pressure insurers to restrain rising premiums. Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services determined that Everence Insurance Co.'s plan to raise rates on about 5,000 people in Pennsylvania by nearly 12% next year is unreasonable. That rate is not justified by what the insurer was expected to pay out in medical claims in the state, said Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. "We're calling on the insurance company to immediately withdraw this rate and provide refunds or credits to any beneficiaries who have already paid the unreasonable amount," Sebelius said, promising that the Everence review would be "the first of many" to come.
On Foreclosures, Uncle Sam Courts Investors - (www.wsj.com) On Wednesday, a U.S. housing regulator invited investors to submit initial applicationsto bid on pools of foreclosed properties owned by Fannie Mae, the government-controlled mortgage finance company, as part of a new pilot program. The goal is to help stabilize the troubled housing market by turning properties into rental units. Similar programs are expected to be launched by Fannie Mae’s sibling company, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Administration, the government-controlled mortgage insurer.
Great overview of where we are - (www.jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com)
Invisible Hand vs. the Regulator - (www.credoaction.com)
Turning the Buffett Rule Into Law - (www.nytimes.com)
Low Capital Gains Tax Rate Leads to Loss - (www.fcnp.com)
Getting back to the gold standard - (www.marketwatch.com)
Fraudulent Debt = Counterfeit Money - (www.oftwominds.com)
The Perniciousness of ZIRP - (www.gonzalolira.blogspot.com)
Neo-liberal era is a thinly disguised corporate welfare state - (www.macroresilience.com)
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