From the "We Told You So" section of Drawnlines Politics:

No wonder a majority of Americans favor Obamacare repeal! The bad news keeps pouring in on top of President Obama's landmark legislation. This week we learned that some 30 percent of businesses plan to cancel their health benefits for one reason: Obamacare.


This news is particularly unsettling to Democrat lawmakers after a tsunami of other poor findings. The law has already proven to: raise costs, take away people's current insurance plans, ration care, raise the deficit, and curry favor to liberal political allies. Not to mention that whole speed bump we call The Constitution. Ouch!

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Pam Bondi -- Post Session "Report to the People" from The Victory Group on Vimeo.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi sent out a video this week, highlighting the many victories related to her office. The AG's office worked with the legislature to secure both partisan and bipartisan victories during the 2011 session. According to the Republican Party of Florida, "Bondi's legislative agenda included support for bills to stop prescription drug abuse, ban a dangerous new drug, separate the restoration of civil rights from requirements for occupational licensure, and affirm that no Floridian should be compelled by government to purchase health insurance." Pam Bondi has proven her mettle in short order. She deserves tremendous credit for landing these exciting victories on behalf of Florida.

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Fox News: Pelosi Caught With Hand in Obamacare Waiver Jar

by Nick Stone of Drawnlines Politics:

Today, I'm calling on congressional Republicans to abolish all waivers to Obamacare.  If the plan is good enough for everybody else, then it's good enough for Democrat special interests.

President Obama urged passage of his health care plan on two basic premises: to cover all Americans, and to reduce the costs of medical care.  Even before the law passed, experts warned that Obamacare would achieve neither of those goals and in fact could make America worse off on both counts.  Since its passage, the Obama administration has been issuing exemptions to the law, many requested by the same interests that lobbied for its enactment.  As the latest round of Obamacare waivers was released, we learned that 20 percent went to Nancy Pelosi's district in San Francisco.

According to The Tennessean, 1372 Obamacare waivers have been granted already.  It turns out that many have actually been requested by liberal activist groups, unions, and Democrat lawmakers themselves.  While millions of small businesses and employees brace for the impact of the president's health care plan, the Department of Health and Human Services is letting Obama's liberal allies off the hook.  But if the president's allies thought America needed Obamacare, then why wouldn't they want to participate in it now?

I call on Republican lawmakers to pass a bill requiring that "until such time as Obamacare is repealed in its entirety, all waivers or exemptions to its mandates shall be null and void."  If the president's health care system is good for America, then it's good for his allies.  But if it is too burdensome for Nancy Pelosi's district, then it's too burdensome for us all.

Update: The Heritage Foundation asks this morning, How About a National Obamacare Waiver?

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This and other news available 24/7 on our Facebook Page:

• Kurt Browning returns as Secretary of State.  Governor Rick Scott appointed Browning, who served in the position, to oversee Florida elections.  Browning is a strong advocate for strict voter ID matching and against so-called "Fair Districts Florida."

• Pam Bondi takes over the fight against Obamacare.  In Wednesday's WSJ, Bondi says that if Obamacare is constitutional, then there are virtually no limits to the grip of federal control.

• Boehner Takes the Gavel:  The end of the Pelosi era took place this week as a sarcastic Nancy Pelosi handed the gavel of power over to a weepy incoming Speaker John Boehner.

• How Gays Can Save the GOP:  One writer talks about how a gay infiltration of the Republican Party could benefit both factions and change attitudes.  Could it work, and would it be a good idea?

•  Obama policies driving up fuel prices. Where is the outrage?  As gas prices top $3 a gallon again, the Obama administration has cut supply and increased our dependence on foreign oil.

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by Nick Stone of Drawnlines Politics.

If you don't think the Obama administration is completely out of control and radical, then you are simply not paying attention.

Weekend news from none other than the New York Times says that the Obama White House is now admitting that penalties and fees associated with the recent health care reform package commonly known as "Obamacare" do indeed constitute a new tax on American families.  As if the package wasn't already deeply unpopular, this should surely warm Americans right up to the idea.

The stunning reversal might not seem like news at all to many, but let me recall this poignant exchange between the president and George Stephanopoulos:



So after several promises to NEVER increase ANY taxes on families making under $250k, why would the president now go out of his way to change talking points and sell Obamacare as a tax?  Oddly enough, the answer might be that a new tax is the only way to argue that Obamacare is constitutional.

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum reminds voters at every stump speech that he was the first to legally challenge the constitutional legitimacy of Obamacare, and that without a so-called "severability clause" the entire bill is taken off the books if any part of it is deemed unconstitutional.  With dozens of states joining Florida's federal law suit, the White House is understandably shaking in its boots.

The White House and congressional allies had argued that under the Commerce clause of the constitution, the federal government has broad authority to regulate interstate commerce including the purchase of health care.  However, conservatives have counterpunched that never in history has the government been allowed to force the purchase of a private good.  Nor, they argue, has the government been able to define the absense of a purchase (e.g. not buying health insurance) as an example of interstate commerce.  McCollum always seems confident that this argument will fail in court and Obamacare will be overturned.

To save its pet project, the White House appears to have bit the bullet of unpopularity that all new taxes bring.  President Obama has strategically now pivoted to arguing that the federal government has broad authority to create and collect new taxes, and that includes Obamacare taxes.  However unpopular, this argument may be Obamacare's last hope...

The desperate move also shows us the Ace up the sleeve of a power-thirsty administration hell bent on enacting its agenda, party and country be damned.  This is a radical, out of control government.

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