CEI Today: Suing the IRS, EPA abuse of power, E-Verify reform

SUING THE IRS - MICHAEL CARVIN & SAM KAZMAN

Forbes: As Obamacare Draws Near, Lawsuits Against IRS May Exempt Millions

In more than half the country, the implementation of ObamaCare has been premised on a patently illegal regulation—a lawless “quick fix” designed by the Administration to circumvent the fact that roughly two-thirds of the states have effectively chosen to “opt out” of the Affordable Care Act’s intrusive mandates.  A new lawsuit, recently filed by us in federal district court in D.C., will expose that flaw in ObamaCare’s very foundation, vindicating the right of these “refusenik” states to shield their citizens from an overreaching federal government. > Read more

> Interview Sam Kazman

EPA ABUSE OF POWER Globalwarming.org: EPA Demonstrates IRS-like Bias on FOIA Requests Executive branch overreach involving deliberate attempts to silence critics of the administration has become a pressing issue. Several revelations have come to light this week threatening to further cloud the Obama Administration’s claim of being “the most transparent administration in history.”  With the IRS facing allegations of deliberately targeting conservative groups, and the Department of Justice facing intense scrutiny for secretly monitoring the Associate Press, the executive branch is finding itself under siege from an onslaught of scandals. Now, something new can be added to the pile. According to CEI Senior Fellow Chris Horner, EPA has, in a sign of political bias, denied FOIA Fee Request Waivers requested by conservative groups. > Read more See also: Rep. Whitfield Discusses CEI’s Battle With EPA on House Floor WSJ: From the IRS to the EPA? Washington Examiner: EPA waives fee requests for friendly groups, denies conservative groups Daily Caller: GOP congressman chastises EPA on conservative FOIA requests

E-VERIFY - DAVID BIER Diverse Coalition Supports E-Verify Reform This week, an ideologically diverse coalition of 44 organizations led by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, National Small Business Association, American Civil Liberties Union, and Service Employees International Union called on the U.S. Senate to vote in favor of a bipartisan amendment proposed by Sens. Al Franken (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT) to the E-Verify portion of the Senate immigration bill (S.744) that would require the government to meet a specific accuracy standard for the system. > Read more > Interview David Bier

More in the news... Gina McCarthy’s Responses to Sen. Vitter’s Questions Part II: Fuel Economy Regulation of the Day 230: The Temperature of Beer Coalition Urges Policymakers to Reform the “Terrible Twelve” of Farm Policy DOJ Spectrum Plan Is Not Supported by Economic Theory or FCC Findings

COMING SOON! Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State DID YOU KNOW? The most recent Small Business Administration (SBA) evaluation of the overall U.S. federal regulatory enterprise estimated annual regulatory compliance costs of $1.752 trillion in 2008. Earlier SBA reports pegged costs at $1.1 trillion in 2005 and at $843 billion in 2001.

CEI ANNUAL DINNER & GALA FEATURING THE HONORABLE RAND PAUL JUNE 20, 2013 cei.org/ceidinner

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website, cei.org, and blogs, Globalwarming.org and OpenMarket.org.  Follow CEI on Twitter! Twitter.com/ceidotorg.

Freekeenenews - City of Keene Files Lawsuit Against Robin Hooders

City admits in its suit that Robin Hooding is legal and that they have been writing far fewer tickets as a result. 

In a lengthy lawsuit (you can read a copy of it here) the attorney for the City of Keene claims that Robin Hooders have been "harassing", "intimidating", "taunting", and "interfering" with the city's parking enforcement agents.  (Learn about Robin Hooding here.)  However, at the same time they admit there is nothing within the current law that allows them to do anything about Robin Hooders.  Strange, considering there is a harassment charge in the law that surely the Robin Hooders could be charged with, if they were actually harassing the enforcers.  No Robin Hooder has been charged with harassment.  Ironically, in the city's own filing their job description for parking enforcer claims the enforcers must "endure verbal and mental abuse" by the public.  (Again, that's not what is happening, but even it if were - it's part of their job description!)

The City of Keene is asking the court to enact a 50ft "safety zone" around the parking enforcers, where no Robin Hooder would be able to be.  Six individuals have been named in the lawsuit filed last week in Cheshire Superior Court including Robin Hood James Cleaveland and yours truly.

Interestingly, in the suit the parking enforcers admit in their affidavits that they have been writing fewer tickets than in the previous period of time before the Robin Hooding started in earnest.  Also the city attorney believes that if the injunction is not ordered by the court that the parking enforcers may quit their jobs and the city agents are worried they will not be able to find employees to replace them.  The entire document is a testament to the effectiveness of the Robin Hooding effort.


Feel free to get in touch with me if you have questions or would like to interview an activist,
Ian Freeman
Blogger, FreeKeene.com

CEI - Small Business Owners Sue Over IRS Obamacare Power Grab

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 2, 2013 - A group of small business owners and individuals in six states today are suing the federal government over an IRS regulation imposed under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), which will force them to pay exorbitant fines, cut back employees’ hours, or severely burden their businesses. Complaint can be viewed here.

The Affordable Care Act authorizes health insurance subsidies to qualifying individuals in states that created their own healthcare exchanges. Those subsidies trigger the employer mandate (a $2,000/employee penalty) and expose more people to the individual mandate.  But last spring, without authorization from Congress, the IRS vastly expanded those subsidies to cover states that refused to set up such exchanges.  Under the Act, businesses in these nonparticipating states should be free of the employer mandate, and the scope of the individual mandate should be reduced as well.  But because of the IRS rule, both mandates will be greatly enlarged in scope, depriving states of the power to protect their residents.

Michael Carvin, partner at Jones Day, who co-argued the Supreme Court Obamacare cases in March, 2012 and who represents the plaintiffs in this lawsuit, stated: “The IRS rule we are challenging is at war with the Act’s plain language and completely rewrites the deal that Congress made with the states on running these insurance exchanges.”

“Agencies are bound by the laws enacted by Congress,” said Sam Kazman, general counsel of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI).  “Obamacare is already an incredibly massive program.  For the IRS to expand it even more, without congressional authorization and in a manner aimed at undercutting state choice, is flagrantly illegal.”  CEI is coordinating the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs are filing suit for a number of reasons.  One business can only afford to employ some full-time workers without providing health insurance, another wants to convert its employee health insurance to a completely consumer-driven health plan, and several individual plaintiffs (most of them self-employed) object to paying for costly insurance packages that they neither need nor want.

“Contrary to the clear language in the Affordable Care act, government is directly impeding my ability to design a quality affordable health plan for my employees,” said Chuck Willey, M.D., one of the plaintiffs and head of Innovare Health Advocates in St. Louis, Missouri.  “The IRS will extra-legislatively extend this onerous benefit requirement (which will increase premiums and costs of care) and impose the employer penalty in states with federally-run exchanges. I maintain the right to choose my own employees' health plan without government intervention into its benefit design and without penalty.”

Thirty-three states have exercised their congressionally-created option to not create an exchange in order to spare their businesses from the employer mandate. The IRS rule, however, deprives them of this choice.

“The IRS cannot rewrite the law that Congress passed,” said Tom Miller, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “Its regulation expressly flouts the statutory text of the ACA, the intent of Congress, and the reasoned choices of 33 states.”

“The Obama administration plans to tax, borrow, and spend more than half a trillion dollars in clear violation of Obamacare, yet still says Obamacare is ‘the law of the land,’ said Michael Cannon, director of health policy at the CATO Institute. “The courts should stop the administration before it starts imposing these illegal taxes on millions of individuals and employers in January.”

This legal complaint, available here in pdf, seeks to strike the illegal IRS rule, arguing that the agency has no power to rewrite an essential part of the law. The suit is being filed in federal court in the District of Columbia.


> View the complaint

Josiah Bartlett Center - Budgets, NH Unemployment, and the MTBE Lawsuit

Weekly Update from the
Josiah Bartlett Center

Keeping you up to date on our latest research
on the issues impacting New Hampshire

NH Budget Should be Fixed, Not Punted

New Hampshire’s budget experiences the greatest difficulty when short-term fixes solve nothing and merely delay decisions by creating a bigger hole for future legislatures to fix. A budget based on gimmicks and one-time unusual events does nothing to solve anything.

Every New Hampshire budget requires some decisions about which programs can be afforded with existing revenues and which must be curtailed. The weighing of competing options is the whole point of a budget. Programs are never evaluated in and of themselves. Instead, they are weighed against competing alternatives and the resources available... Click here to keep reading.

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NH's Newest Revenue Scheme: Sue the Unpopular!

On the MTBE Verdict

New Hampshire is getting really good at the shakedown.

Last week, a Merrimack County Superior Court jury found Exxon Mobil liable for contaminated well water with the gasoline additive MTBE and awarded the state $236 million, easily the largest jury verdict in New Hampshire history... Click here to keep reading

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NH Unemployment Falls in March

But not for the right reasons

Sound familiar? New Hampshire’s unemployment rate dropped from 5.8% to 5.7% in March, but not due to increased employment. According to the Household Survey Data, the number of unemployed fell by 360 people, resulting in the .1 percentage point drop. However, the number of employed residents increased only by 20, while the labor force shrank by 340... Click here to keep reading.

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The State's Online Checkbook

JBC's Transparency Project

With the budget process underway here in Concord are you curious where all that money is spent? Look no further than NHOpenGov. We have data on every last check the state wrote going back to 2009.... Click here to start looking!

RLCNH - lawsuit claiming that HB 1297 prohibits a partnership exchange as a type of state exchange

A lawsuit claiming that HB 1297 prohibits a partnership exchange as a type of state exchange may be worth pursuing. Also, Gov. Hassan should not be doing anything without first getting approval from the Oversight Committee we created. If you approved a partnership with the condition of a Memo of Understanding, then quite simply, that MOU is required before the governor can move forward, regardless of what the feds say.

UPDATED: Legislative panel refuses to endorse health insurance exchange provisions

www.unionleader.com

CONCORD — New Hampshire has been awarded a $5.3 million federal grant to help implement a health i...