By Jim DeMint

Members of the House of Representatives are scheduled to vote Thursday to repeal all of Obamacare. Given that the House voted to repeal the law last year, some commentators and observers have questioned the need for another repeal vote.

However, the scandals coming to light over the last week perfectly make the case for why Congress must eradicate the law from the statute books.

On Friday, the Internal Revenue Service finally disclosed that it had spent years targeting tea party and other conservative groups, delaying their applications for non-profit status and giving those applications additional scrutiny – solely because of those groups’ political beliefs.

Also on Friday, The Washington Post revealed that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius personally asked health industry groups to contribute to Enroll America, a pro-Obamacare front group working to “educate” the public about the law’s supposed benefits.

While we don’t yet know all the details about these scandals, we do know that the IRS grossly abused its power at a time when Obamacare grants it massive new authority. The Treasury Department’s Inspector General has said Obamacare represents “the largest set of tax law changes in 20 years,” with at least 42 provisions adding to or amending the tax code.

Obamacare taxes most people with health insurance, and most people without health insurance. Likewise, the law taxes many employers who provide health insurance, and most employers who don’t provide health insurance.

Obamacare’s heavy reliance on the IRS seems somehow fitting, as the entire law relies on a scheme of government controls and regulations to work its will on the health care system. The law imposes price controls on insurance companies and extends a system of price controls for pharmaceutical companies. Obamacare also places a board of unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats at the center of its plans to control health care costs.

A 2010 Congressional Research Service report found that the number of new bureaucracies “that will ultimately be created” by Obamacare “is currently unknowable.” Little wonder that Vice President Biden boasted shortly before the law was passed, “We’re going to control the insurance companies.”

That’s what Obamacare is about. It’s not about health care. It’s about government control and power. And the record of this Administration shows its willingness to use this power in arbitrary and harmful ways.

Secretary Sebelius’s recently disclosed fundraising campaign tried to make an end-run around Congress, forcing private companies to give money for a pro-Obamacare marketing campaign that Congress itself has refused to fund.

It isn’t the first time the secretary has skirted the law, either. HHS’s infamous waivers, the majority of which went to individuals in union health plans, weren’t mentioned in Obamacare. And in recent weeks, Democrats who support the law have criticized the secretary for taking funds from other programs to fund Obamacare implementation.

Just like the IRS, HHS has also targeted the First Amendment rights of private organizations. In 2009, the department applied an infamous “gag order” on Medicare Advantage plans, ordering them not to communicate with seniors about how Obamacare’s cuts to Medicare Advantage would affect their coverage.

If past experience is any guide, IRS and HHS could use their newfound Obamacare powers to target their political opponents. Will individuals who choose not to buy insurance under Obamacare’s mandate find themselves subjected to government audits?

Will corporations who choose not to “donate” to Sebelius’s fundraising campaign find themselves targeted by Obamacare regulators – or even the IRS itself? Given the events of the past week, few can answer these questions with an unequivocal “no.”

There’s one easy way to stop the rot, and that’s to repeal Obamacare once and for all. At a time when this week’s revelations show how the government has abused its existing powers, it’s exactly the wrong time to give the government yet more authority. Congress should instead focus on repealing Obamacare and restoring freedom.

This piece originally appeared in The Washington Examiner.

Hat tip: The Heritage Foundation

They’re trying to find bullets for their customers at Stockpile Defense and the store’s sister school, where 50,000 people are trained every year in firearms handling. Shelves that once held the most popular calibers, like .22 and .45, are bare. There are waiting lists as long as two months and students are requested to bring their own ammunition. Pre-orders are no longer allowed.

“We’re buying everything we can find and we still can’t bring in enough.”

- Steve Warholic, employee at Stockpile Defense

“We’re buying everything we can find and we still can’t bring in enough,” said Warholic. “It’s a constant battle.”

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A new report by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Institute (GAI) finds that President Barack Obama has spent 3.6% of his total work time throughout his presidency in economic meetings of any kind.

The study, titled “Presidential Calendar: A Time-Based Analysis,” based its findings on the official White House calendar, Politico’s comprehensive presidential calendar, and media reports through March 31, 2013. The study defined the president’s work week as a six-day, 10-hour-a-day time period.

“You should know that keeping the economy growing and making sure jobs are available is the first thing I think about when I wake up every morning,” Obama said in 2011 to an audience of UPS workers. “It’s the last thing I think about when I go to bed each night.”

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Podcast

Bryan Suits

Bryan Suits is an American war veteran of three military conflicts in Kuwait, Bosnia, and Iraq, and has been a talk radio host for more than 10 years. He has hosted talk-shows for radio stations in Seattle, WA: KIRO (AM) and KVI, and in Los Angeles: KFI AM 640. Suits was born in Honolulu, Hawaii and grew up in Washington. He was heard weekday afternoons on KOGO-AM/FM in San Diego until Friday, February 17, 2012. Suits can be heard on KFI on Saturday evenings from 8:00 to 10:00 P.M. PST. He lives and broadcasts from the Seattle area.

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Dark Secret Place airs on Sat nights from 8 till 10pm.

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Navajo Code Talker Albert Smith, 88, has died, according to his family. Smith was born on Dec. 13, 1924 and was Salt People Clan, born for Black Streak Wood People Clan.

He enlisted on April 1, 1943 at the age of 15. He served with the 4th Division Battalion, 23rd regiment during World War II. He served in the Marshall Islands, Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima.

Smith was the brother of Navajo Code Talker George Smith, who died in the fall of 2012. The brothers joined the military together.

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“Millions of immigrants living illegally in the United States could earn a chance at citizenship under a sweeping Senate proposal to be released Tuesday that would represent the most ambitious overhaul of the nation’s immigration system in three decades,” the Washington Post‘s David Nakamura wrote.

Nakamura added later in the piece that the bill “would allow most undocumented immigrants who arrived in the country before Dec. 31, 2011, to immediately gain ‘registered provisional’ status after paying a $500 fine and back taxes, provided they have not committed a felony or three misdemeanors.”

Nakamura noted that illegal immigrants could apply for “permanent resident status” after 10 years and after paying more fees, and could apply for U.S. citizenship three years later–a path to citizenship that would take about 13 years total at a minimum, a path Nakamura said some Senate staffers say “could take longer in some cases.”

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According to a source with knowledge of these matters, a terror alert “gives authority for full mobilization of law enforcement resources to feds, state and locals.” The source told Breitbart News that the administration is supposed to issue such an alert out of the National Counterterrorism Center, via NTAS, but no such alert has been issued after the bombings in Massachusetts.

Describing the NTAS on a Frequently Asked Question page, the Department of Homeland Security says:

When there is credible information about a threat, an NTAS Alert will be shared with the American public. It may include specific information, if available, about the nature of the threat, including the geographic region, mode of transportation, or critical infrastructure potentially affected by the threat, as well as steps that individuals and communities can take to protect themselves and help prevent, mitigate or respond to the threat.

When she announced the new NTAS system’s development in a January 2011 speech, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the system would issue alerts providing Americans with as much information as possible about a terrorist attack as soon as possible.

“When we have information about a specific, credible threat, we will issue a formal alert providing as much information as we can,” Napolitano said then, according to CNN. “The alerts will be specific to the threat. They may recommend certain actions or suggest looking for specific suspicious behavior. And they will have a specified end date.”

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