Chad’s Morning Brief: Ted Cruz Says 2016 Campaign Should be a Referendum on Obamacare, FBI Rounds Up ISIS Suspects, and Other Top Stories
Your Morning Brief for June 26, 2015.
Focus on Obamacare in 2016?
In the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling on Obamacare subsidies, Ted Cruz released a statement criticizing Republican lawmakers and calling for 2016 to be a referendum on Obamacare. Cruz also stated that those candidates who don't make the campaign a referendum on Obamacare should step aside.
“Today’s decision in King v. Burwell is judicial activism, plain and simple. For the second time in just a few years, a handful of unelected judges has rewritten the text of Obamacare in order to impose this failed law on millions of Americans. The first time, the Court ignored federal law and magically transformed a statutory ‘penalty’ into a ‘tax.’ Today, these robed Houdinis transmogrified a ‘federal exchange’ into an exchange ‘established by the State.’
“As Justice Scalia rightfully put it, ‘Words no longer have meaning if an Exchange that is not established by a State is ‘established by the State.'' He also said, ‘We should start calling this law SCOTUSCare’ – I agree.
“If this were a bankruptcy case, or any other case of ordinary statutory interpretation, the result would have been 9-0, with the Court unanimously reversing the Obama administration’s illegal actions. But instead, politics intervened.
“For nakedly political reasons, the Supreme Court willfully ignored the words that Congress wrote, and instead read into the law their preferred policy outcome. These judges have joined with President Obama in harming millions of Americans. Unelected judges have once again become legislators, and bad ones at that. They are lawless, and they hide their prevarication in legalese. Our government was designed to be one of laws, not of men, and this transparent distortion is disgraceful.
“At the same time, crocodile tears are flooding our nation’s capital today over the Supreme Court’s decision to illegally rewrite Obamacare, which has been a disaster since its inception. But one day of faux outrage from the Washington Cartel won’t fool the millions of courageous conservatives across our country. They know the Republican leadership in Washington is quietly celebrating the Court’s decision. If they believe this issue is now settled so they don’t have to address it, they are sorely mistaken.
“Every GOP candidate for the Republican nomination should know that this decision makes the 2016 election a referendum on the full repeal of Obamacare.
“I have made repeal of this disastrous law a top priority since the first day I arrived in the Senate and have made its repeal central to my campaign. Any candidate not willing to do the same—and campaign on it every day—should step aside.
“The Court adopted the IRS’s blatantly unlawful reading of the statute to make subsidies available to individuals on federal exchanges, when Congress expressly provided the opposite.
“After today’s ruling, Obamacare will now be responsible for imposing illegal taxes on more than 11 million individuals and for burdening hundreds of thousands of businesses with illegal penalties on their workers, killing jobs, and further slowing economic growth. President Obama’s health care law remains deeply unpopular and is harming countless Americans by increasing costs and worsening the quality of care.
“I remain fully committed to the repeal of Obamacare—every single word of it. And, in 2017, we will do exactly that.”
If only Republicans would have listened to that advice in 2012!
This is where Ted Cruz shines and where he is able to energize his base. Cruz has been fighting to repeal Obamacare since day 1 and has taken heat from Republicans because of his persistence. If I had to guess, yesterday's ruling will help Cruz as he makes his case to Republican voters.
FBI Rounding Up Terror Suspects
While many have been concerned over a flag lately, the FBI has been busy tracking and rounding up suspected terror suspects according to Bloomberg.
The FBI has been rounding up more potential "lone wolf" terrorists, Congressional leaders and the Justice Department say, in response to the perception of a mounting threat of domestic attacks inspired by the Islamic State.
Since the thwarted attack on a "Draw Mohammed" conference in Garland, Texas, on May 3, the Justice Department has announced the arrests of 10 individuals it says were inspired by and supporting the Islamic State. The lawmakers say there have been more arrests that have not yet been announced.
They say the FBI has shifted its approach toward arrests rather than keeping suspects under surveillance, and is also targeting individuals thought to be planning attacks in the U.S., unlike the bureau's past focus on volunteers preparing to join ISIS's fight abroad.
"Lately, we have seen an uptick in the number of arrests of ISIL followers who were planning violent acts in our homeland," said John Carlin, the assistant attorney general for national security. "ISIL, differing from some other foreign terrorist organizations, has demonstrated that they see value in mobilizing sympathizers anywhere in the world."
The spate of arrests comes in response to what Congressional leaders and the Justice Department say is a mounting threat that radicalized Americans will attempt low-tech, lone wolf attacks in the near future. Lawmakers see the changes as necessary because the Islamic State uses social media so effectively to radicalize Americans and because the group is getting better at using encryption to shield its communications with new recruits.
Good job and good luck to the FBI. Getting these people off the streets is a good thing. It is sad that some Americans are turning to ISIS for a variety of reasons. If the FBI has proof that these suspects are turning to ISIS, the suspects should be treated as not only terrorists but traitors.
Other Must Read Links:
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