By KARL ROVE

A primary task for the new Republican House majority is to undo as many of the pernicious effects of ObamaCare that it can. One of these effects is the spectacle of employers going hat-in-hand to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for waivers from some of the law’s more onerous provisions.

In September, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius began granting waivers to companies that provided workers “mini-med” coverage—low-cost plans with low annual limits on what the insurance will pay out. This followed announcements by some employers that they would have to drop these plans because they did not meet the new health law’s requirement that 85% of premium income be spent on medical expenses.

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Associated PressHHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius

By early December, HHS had granted 222 such waivers to provide mini-med policies for companies including AMF Bowling and Universal Forest Product, as well as 43 union organizations. According to the department’s website, the waivers cover 1,507,418 employees, of which more than a third (525,898) are union members. Yet unionized workers make up only 7% of the private work force. Whatever is going on here, a disproportionately high number of waivers are being granted to administration allies.

Then, on Dec. 21, Ms. Sebelius announced that insurance companies seeking rate increases of 10% or more in the individual or small group market must publicly justify the hikes under standards set by her department.

Insurance regulation has traditionally been a state responsibility, and 43 states must already approve proposed insurance-rate increases. ObamaCare does not authorize HHS to deny rate increases, but the agency said that if a state “lacks the resources or authority” to conduct the kind of review the agency wants, it will conduct its own.

This proposed regulation will erode the states’ dominant role in insurance regulation, centralizing more power in Washington. The HHS announcement also mentioned that it will set different thresholds of what constitutes an “unreasonable” increase for every state by 2012.

The Obama administration’s behavior to date suggests that it will not hesitate to take care of its friends. The Senate Republican Policy Committee’s health policy analyst, Chris Jacobs, points out that the administration has already given an extravagant gift to the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons), a key player in passing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The AARP provided a big chunk of the $121 million spent on ads supporting the bill’s passage, as well as $21 million on lobbying in 2009, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. HHS’s proposed regulations on Dec. 21 exempted the AARP’s lucrative “Medigap” plans from the rate review and other mandates and requirements.

The AARP and other Medigap providers can require a waiting period before seniors with pre-existing conditions have to be covered. Insurers covering those under 65 cannot.

The AARP is also exempt from the new law’s $500,000 cap on executive compensation for insurance executives. (The nonprofit’s last CEO received over $1.5 million in compensation in his last full year, 2009.) It won’t pay any of the estimated $14 billion in new taxes on insurance companies, though according to its 2008 consolidated financial statement, it gets more money from its insurance offerings than it does from dues, grants and private contributions combined. Nor will it have to spend at least 85% of its Medigap premium dollars on medical claims, as Medicare Advantage plans must do; the AARP will be held to a far less restrictive 65%.

It’s not hard to connect the dots. The Obama administration is using waivers to reward friends. On the flip side, business executives will be discouraged from contributing to the president’s opponents or from taking any other steps that might upset the White House or its political appointees at HHS.

This is not what people had in mind when candidate Obama promised in his acceptance speech in August 2008 to undo “the cynicism we all have about government.”

In a speech at the University of Iowa last March, the president heralded health-care reform as “a new set of rules that treats everybody honestly and treats everybody fairly.” Determining whether that is true will be another task for House Republicans. They have an obligation to look into this matter, and Mr. Obama can hardly object. It was former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, whom the president frequently quotes, who wrote in 1913 that sunlight “is the best of disinfectants.”

Mr. Rove is the former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush.

With the closing of the 2010 election cycle, there are have been many victories and gains to herald for our State, but there has also been a significant loss.  There is no equation that can quantify the loss of knowledge, experience, and commonsense leadership that exits our fair State and, specifically, Piscataquis County with the retirement of Senator Douglas M. Smith a life long resident of Dover-Foxcroft.  While the loss has been tempered by the election of a strong conservative successor, Maine will not soon see the equal of the legal and political mind of Senator Smith.

After graduating from Foxcroft Academy Class of ‘65, he received his Bachelors in International Affairs and Political Science from the University of Maine in 1969.  He secured his law degree from the University of Maine Law School in 1974.   It is more than impressive to note here that, while doing his post-graduate studies, Doug Smith was elected to the House of Representatives.  He served from 1970 to 1976, during which time he was appointed to the Legal Affairs Committee (2 years), Appropriations and Financial Affairs (4 years with 2 as House Chair), and Joint Select Committee on Forest Resources (Chair).  In 1975 he began his own private Law practice, which he operated for 5 years before merging with the Bangor based firm Eaton Peabody.  He continued to practice Law for 26 years.  He again entered public service as Judge of Probate from 1979 to 2006.  In 2006, Doug Smith ran for Senator of District 27.  He won and has served with distinction until his recent retirement this past year.

Doug Smith began his political career as a Democrat.  He grew more and more uncomfortable with the anti-business and anti-private sector platform of the Democrat Party.  In the early 1990’s, the weighty decision was made to leave the Democrat Party.

Upon his enrollment in the Republican Party, many would have characterized Mr. Smith as a Moderate.  His strong passion for business growth and fiscal sanity soon accelerated a marked evolution in his beliefs towards Conservatism.   He quickly formed a friendship and allegiance with Paul Davis, perhaps the most Conservative politician in the State of Maine.  Together, they soon established themselves as one of the more powerful duos of advocacy for Conservative principles in the State.

Representative and former Minority Leader Paul Davis describes Doug Smith a good man, a wise man and one of a kind.  He further describes the Senator as a gentleman who worked for the best of Piscataquis County.  Senator Smith understood, Davis says, better than most what it takes to revitalize an economy and the “bitter medicine” that entails.

Representative Pete Johnson of Greenville said in my phone interview with him that he regarded Senator Smith as the “best Senator the State of Maine had”.  He admired the way the Senator could analyze issues and translate solutions into ready to work legislation.  Much of his work was trampled by the Democrats who were in the majority and preferred to seek out more ways to inhibit job growth, over-regulate business, and stifle the Maine economy than to create viable working solutions.  Perhaps, it would be in the best interest of the new Republican majority to resurrect some of the legislation of this great legal mind whose primary passion was the betterment of his beloved State.

On a personal note, this columnist first met the Honorable Douglas M. Smith at the Piscataquis County Courthouse as a young teenage boy who came to plead his case that Maine State Troopers had unfairly targeted him for speeding.  As I stood before the Judge, which is now my personal nickname for him, a certain State Trooper named Paul Davis flanked me, to my left.  I had barely spoken the customary “I’ve been framed, I’m innoce….”, when the Judge looked at Trooper Davis for his opinion.  Trooper Davis simply cleared his throat, the gavel slammed, quite harshly I might add, and I was unceremoniously marched out of the room to pay my fine.

It would be Senator Smith, a few years later, who would tag me with the nickname Andy Torment, to which Paul Davis maintains a gleeful sworn duty to make sure it sticks.  Humor aside, I am so thankful to have Doug Smith as a friend and mentor.  I am always impressed at his keen ability to immediately find the root of the problem and find a commonsense solution.  His calming influence during the stressful times in campaigns was a walking training session.  He will be sorely missed.  I am thankful that he has promised to continue to make himself available to Piscataquis County and the State in an advisory capacity, but he is still, in the estimation of many, irreplaceable.  Thank you, Doug Smith, for your sacrifice and service to Maine.

President

Napolitano Visit Aimed at Beefing Up Afghan Border Security, Customs

By Mike Levine

Published December 31, 2010

| FoxNews.com

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KABUL, Afghanistan — During an unannounced New Year’s Eve visit to Afghanistan, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano traveled to the country’s mountainous border region near Pakistan to see first-hand her department’s efforts in the war effort there.

“Seeing is worth a thousand words,” Napolitano said after the tour, to which Fox News was granted exclusive access. “This all involves safety and security in this part of the world. And that is something that has direct connection as well to the United States.”

She described her department’s role in war-torn Afghanistan as a “complement” to the military operations there.

Her agency has about two dozen officials in Afghanistan, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Customs and Border Protection officers, and Border Patrol agents. Many are training Afghan security forces to manage their country’s borders.

Although the Afghan government receives most of its money from foreign allies, customs fees and tariffs account for more than half of the money Afghanistan generates on its own. Increasing that revenue flow is a top priority for U.S. officials working to stabilize the chaotic country.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano eats lunch Dec. 31 with troops at Torkham base near the Pakistan border.

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Earlier Friday, Napolitano and her staff met with Ambassador Karl Eikenberry at the U.S. embassy in Kabul. Hours later, a fleet of military helicopters took Napolitano, her staff and a Fox News crew to Torkham Forward Operating Base, about five miles from Torkham border crossing, a main access point for supplies coming through Pakistan to NATO forces in Afghanistan.

At the base, she ate lunch with some of the troops who protect her agency’s officials in the war zone. She called it an “honor.”

The trip to the border region culminated with a helicopter flight over the Torkham border crossing. Getting to the crossing by ground was deemed too dangerous.

In May, according to Pakistani reports, security forces at Torkham crossing “defused an explosive device fitted to a container taking supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan.”

Nearly three months ago, Torkham crossing was shut down for 11 days by Pakistan after a U.S. helicopter strike in the border region killed two Pakistani soldiers. The crossing was reopened after American officials apologized, but during the shutdown about 150 trucks were destroyed and many people were injured as they became easy targets.

Nevertheless, U.S. officials described the Torkham area as generally not hostile toward the U.S. military.

Officials said the growing Homeland Security presence in Afghanistan is the product of an effort launched under the Obama administration. Officials say it is part of a “vision” from the late U.S. envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke, who sought to include more federal agencies in the war and nation building effort here.

In early November, customs and border officers and agents from Homeland Security’s investigations unit conducted a one-week workshop for 44 officers from Afghan law-enforcement agencies, training them on the interdiction and investigation of cash smuggling. Such criminal activity funds terrorist and criminal organizations.

In January 2010, a “Customs Academy” opened in Kabul, training as many as 200 recruits in an effort to turn the Afghanistan Customs Department into “a modern service,” as the U.S. embassy put it in a press release.

In addition to the Homeland Security officials already on the ground in Afghanistan, several more are expected to land there over next month. Those ranks don’t include the more than 50 former CBP officials hired privately to support the DHS mission there.

Napolitano was expected to ring in the New Year with U.S. personnel at the embassy in Kabul. A bonfire was being prepared as of early Friday evening.

The New Year’s Eve trip was Napolitano’s first to Afghanistan since joining the Obama cabinet.

She was in the country once as Arizona governor.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/12/31/napolitano-visit-aimed-beefing-afghan-border-security-customs/#ixzz19nI55tNf

From the Iowahawk Congressional Outplacement Services

A select quote:
“Psychological studies tell us a lost re-election campaign is the single most stressful event in the life of a congressional incumbent, even topping the indictment of a campaign contributor or an appearance at an unscripted town hall meeting. Also, a ballot box layoff is, next to death, the second-leading cause of leaving Congress. The good news is that there are positive, proactive steps you can take to reduce stress and smooth your transition to your new life in the great unknown outside I-95.”

For your holiday pleasure read it all at:

http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2010/12/so-you-lost-your-election.html

And also this lapidary metaphor from a Russian emigre:

“Some heads contain an enormous number of facts that never bind with one another to form a fertile soil from which original ideas will grow. Each piece of information exists independently from the others, all of them continuously shifting and rolling around like grains of sand, forming ephemeral dunes in the lifeless deserts of their minds…..Every new whiff of wind or shaking of the head tosses the sand in more quirky patterns, forming new whimsical outlines. As previously covered facts are exposed and facts once exposed are concealed, a semblance of new ideas will emerge without any true change in content.”