By Rand Paul
Obama acts as though we no longer have a Constitution
The Senate on Wednesday approved President Obama's pick to lead the nation's Medicare agency, sending it a permanent leader for the first time in several years as the nation inches closer to sweeping health care reforms. Marilyn B. Tavenner enjoyed bipartisan support at the committee level before the full chamber voted, 91-7, to confirm her as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Over $2 trillion will be poured into Obamacare over the next decade but even that won't be enough, so the government is going to private health care companies and even lobbyists with a begging bowl.
Top federal lawmakers say the time has come to overhaul the way physicians are paid under Medicare, a long-standing problem that encourages medical providers to offer more procedures instead of seeking to improve the quality of care.
Sen. Max Baucus, Montana Democrat, may be leading the current investigation against the Internal Revenue Service, heading hearings about the agency's admitted targeting of certain conservative-minded nonprofits.
While President Obama said Monday that he is withholding judgment on the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups, angry congressional leaders from both parties aren't waiting — they plan to begin hearings on the matter this week.
A senior Senate Democrat has joined the GOP chorus that for days has blasted the Internal Revenue Service for targeting conservative groups, with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus saying Monday he plans to investigate the beleaguered agency over the matter.
The health care law has the look of a plan that isn't coming together, and the administration appears unable to foresee the outcome and stay a step ahead of the potential mess.
While President Obama keeps pounding away to get votes to pass gun restrictions in the Senate, pro-Second Amendment supporters are pushing the upper chamber in the opposite direction. Sen. Tom Coburn introduced two amendments to strengthen the rights of gun owners and keep the federal government in check.
Big Apple Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his band of rabid gun snatchers have targeted their victims, taken them hostage and will start bumping them off one by one. Time for negotiation has passed.
Like rats abandoning a sinking ship, Senate Democrats are furiously fleeing the coming disaster that is "Obamacare."
The 2014 election battle for control of the Senate will affect just about everything the upper chamber does this year and next, because it could take just a handful of upsets to put the Republicans back in charge.
It’s not too premature to now say that President Obama’s second-term agenda is adrift — that is, if he ever had a really well-thought-out agenda to begin with.
It's not too premature to say that President Obama's second-term agenda is adrift — that is, if he ever had a well-thought-out agenda to begin with.
President Obama's top health official tried Thursday to stanch Republican lawmakers' complaints about the federal health care law amid growing concerns from both sides of the aisle that the administration is facing a "train wreck" as it prepares to go live with key parts of the system next year.
Sen. Max Baucus, who as chairman of the Finance Committee guided Obamacare down the tracks in the U.S. Senate, is changing his tune now that he's about to retreat into Montana to hide in placid retirement. He sees "a huge train wreck coming down" with the implementation of President Obama's health care takeover. Now he tells us.
"That's Marilyn Tavenner," he said on the Senate floor. "She doesn't give up. That's the kind of leader we need at CMS, believe me."
Sen. Max Baucus, one of the primary authors of the law, has declared its implementation a potential "train wreck."
