The Obama administration may have an early Christmas gift for their Big Labor friends. In recent months union leaders have repeatedly voiced their concerns with President Obama’s health care law. At a September convention in Los Angeles, members of the AFL-CIO approved a resolution describing the health care law as “highly disruptive” to multiemployer health care plans. The Obama administration f... Read more »
President Obama has intoned "if you like your health plan, you can keep your health plan" hundreds if not thousands of times. Sometimes he has even added that "no one will take it away, no matter what" or "nothing will change, period." But now that reality is repudiating the President's unequivocal promise, Democrats want you to know that there was always a secret footnote: If you're losing a hea... Read more »
By Chairmen Fred Upton, John Kline, and Dave Camp After more than three years and billions of taxpayer dollars, President Obama’s health care exchanges are scheduled to open for business this week, but don’t expect much fanfare out of the administration. Although the president insists that everything is “working the way it’s supposed to,” a former HHS official has already warned that we will see ... Read more »
As more unions express frustration with the president’s health care law, the Obama administration went to great lengths to silence the concerns of one major national union. In Los Angeles, the AFL-CIO has endorsed a resolution critical of ObamaCare. In the article below, The Hill reports the White House and at least one top administration official called unions leaders “expressing a desire that [t... Read more »
The Department of Justice recently filed a lawsuit to stop the state of Louisiana from implementing a private school choice program to help low-income students trapped in failing public schools. House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-MN) is among those who have voiced concerns about the administration's action, stating, “Private school choice programs provide students ... Read more »
The drop in the unemployment rate in August to a 4½-year low was hardly cause for celebration. The rate fell because more people stopped looking for work. More than 300,000 people stopped working or looking for a job. Their exodus shrank the so-called labor force participation rate — the percentage of adult Americans with a job or seeking one — to 63.2 percent. It's the lowest participation rate ... Read more »
By Avik Roy A few weeks ago, I discussed the fact that labor unions have been increasingly vocal about their objections to certain provisions of the Affordable Care Act. Obamacare will “shatter not only our hard-earned health benefits, but destroy the foundation of the 40 hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class,” wrote three labor leaders in July. Now, according to a repo... Read more »
Congressional Republicans and business groups on Tuesday demanded information about who made the decision to delay the healthcare law’s employer mandate. White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett announced early this month that businesses would have an additional year to comply with the mandate, which requires organizations with more than 50 full-time workers to either provide insurance to worke... Read more »
The chairmen of a pair of House subcommittees want to question the Obama administration's regulations chief over the decision to delay a key component of the Affordable Care Act. For Howard Shelanski, the June 23 grilling would be a baptism under fire, since he reported for duty less than a week ago. Shelanski began work as director of the little known but influential White House Office of Inform... Read more »
The Senate is set to consider on Wednesday the Keep Student Loans Affordable Act, in what could be the chamber’s only reaction to the recent doubling of a low student-loan interest rate. We are all for taming college costs. But lawmakers should reject this pathetic non-solution and put their effort instead into finalizing a compromise plan that is well within their reach. The Senate vote is on wh... Read more »
