House Democrats McIntyre and Kissell Join Republicans With “Yes” Vote To Repeal Obamacare

The vote in the U.S. House today was 244 to 185 to repeal Obamcare. Five House Democrats joined Republicans. Two are from North Carolina and both are in heated races for re-election.

Five Democrats ended up defecting Wednesday. Reps. Mike Ross, D-Ark.; Dan Boren, D-Okla.; Mike McIntyre, D-N.C.; Larry Kissell, D-N.C.; and Jim Matheson, D-Utah, all voted yes. 

In a show of party unity, all Republicans voted for the bill. 

Now that Chief Justice John Roberts has deemed the Obamacare penalty is a tax that Congress has the right to pass and impose, the tax can also be repealed.

Irreparable Harm To Whom?

Mississippi abortion clinic owner Diane Derzis is very worried about the harm she believes will be caused to women  if her abortion clinic is closed down for failing to comply with a new state law. It’s a pathetic, sad irony. I’m wondering if Ms. Derzis has ever once worried about the girls and boys she and others help eradicate from this world.

Another Example Of Government Picking Winners And Losers

In Washington DC, a limo service known as Uber was targeted by a DC councilwoman whose goal was clearly to shield taxicabs from competition. The DC crowd used Twitter to express its displeasure and the councilwoman backed off the proposed legislation that would increase the price of the limo service. That’s an interesting story on its own, but what’s more important is the root of the story: An elected official was seeking to pick a winner in the marketplace — the taxicabs — and thus create a loser in the marketplace — the limo service. That is completely inappropriate. The marketplace decides winners and losers, and consumers benefit because their buying decisions incent improvements to service and rates. Government should stay out of it.

Interior’s Inspector General On Hot Seat Over Role In Deepwater Drilling Moratorium

Tomorrow’s meeting of the Council of Inspectors General for Integrity and Efficiency should be fascinating. The panel has agreed to investigate the actions of the Interior Department’s Inspector General Mary Kendall for possible conflict of interest. Here’s what has raised eyebrows:

USA Today first reported in May that Kendall had attended meetings where top Interior officials discussed drafts of a peer-reviewed report on deepwater drilling. Kendall later was called on to investigate after the White House edited the report to suggest inaccurately that the deepwater engineers who peer-reviewed the report agreed with the moratorium — a potential violation of a federal law meant to protect scientific data from political interference.

He Was Right The First Time

The Weekly Standard’s Steve Hayes writes about the president’s policy proposal of raising taxes.  Here’s what the president said about tax hikes in 2010:

On January 29, 2010, with an economy he described as “somewhat fragile,” Obama said that the “consensus among people who know the economy best” was that raising taxes was one of two ways to damage the economy. At a House Republican retreat in Baltimore, Maryland, Obama rejected a Republican proposal to freeze spending at pre-stimulus levels and warned against the “destimuluative effect” of tax hikes.

Now it’s re-election time and the president wants to hike taxes on the people liberals deem “the rich.” Those “rich” folks include many of the very people who create the private sector jobs Americans desperately need. Sadly, jealousy is a powerful political tool and the president may well “win” the argument about the dastardly “rich” people.

What a shame.