From the (normally) radically leftist CNN, of all places.
Excerpt:
White House officials have pressured insurance industry executives to keep quiet amid mounting criticism over Obamacare’s rollout, insurance industry sources told CNN.
After insurance officials publicly criticized the implementation, White House staffers contacted insurers to express their displeasure, industry insiders said.
Multiple sources declined to speak publicly about the push back because they fear retribution.
But Bob Laszewski, who heads a consulting firm for big insurance companies, did talk on the record.
“The White House is exerting massive pressure on the industry, including the trade associations, to keep quiet,” he said.
Laszewski, who’s been a vocal critic of Obamacare, said he’s been asked by insurance executives to speak out because they feel defenseless against an administration that is regulating their business — and a big customer.
[…]Insurers, he said, warned the White House that the regulations would lead to discontinued policies.
“One of the things I think is clear here is the Obama administration has no trust in anything the health insurance industry is telling them about how to run a health plan,” Laszewski said.
Top Internal Revenue Service Obamacare official Sarah Hall Ingram discussed confidential taxpayer information with senior Obama White House officials, according to 2012 emails obtained by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and provided to The Daily Caller.
Lois Lerner, then head of the IRS Tax Exempt Organizations division, also received an email alongside White House officials that contained confidential information.
Ingram attempted to counsel the White House on a lawsuit from religious organizations opposing Obamacare’s contraception mandate. Email exchanges involving Ingram and White House officials — including White House health policy advisor Ellen Montz and deputy assistant to the president for health policy Jeanne Lambrew — contained confidential taxpayer information, according to Oversight.
[…]Federal employees who illegally disclose confidential taxpayer information could face five years in prison.
[…]Ingram appeared before Rep. Darrell Issa’s House Oversight Committee Wednesday and claimed she could not recall a document that contained confidential taxpayer information.
[…]Issa has requested unredacted copies of the emails, citing a prohibition from misusing Section 6103 “for the purpose of concealing information from a congressional inquiry.”
Ingram headed the scandal-ridden IRS office responsible for overseeing tax-exempt nonprofit groups before leaving to head the agency’s office in charge of Obamacare implementation.
I am not confident that any of the people responsible will face justice. Unless the Republicans are elected, all of this is going to be swept under the rug. Certainly, the media has no interest in holding the government accountable.
That’s a video of Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at a Democrat press conference. The Republicans in the House have passed a multitude of bills to fund critical areas of government, but the Democrats have rejected them all. This time, a CNN journalist asks about one bill that funds NIH research to cure cancer. Watch the video!
Washington Free Beacon has the transcript for those who can’t see the video: (H/T Letitia)
DANA BASH: You all talked about children with cancer unable to go to clinical trials. The House is presumably going to pass a bill that funds at least the NIH. Given what you’ve said, will you at least pass that? And if not, aren’t you playing the same political games that Republicans are?
HARRY REID: Listen, Sen. Durbin explained that very well, and he did it here, did it on the floor earlier, as did Sen. Schumer. What right did they have to pick and choose what part of government is going to be funded? It’s obvious what’s going on here. You talk about reckless and irresponsible. Wow. What this is all about is Obamacare. They are obsessed. I don’t know what other word I can use. They’re obsessed with this Obamacare. It’s working now and it will continue to work and people will love it more than they do now by far. So they have no right to pick and choose.
BASH: But if you can help one child who has cancer, why wouldn’t you do it?
REID: Why would we want to do that? I have 1,100 people at Nellis Air Force base that are sitting home. They have a few problems of their own. This is — to have someone of your intelligence to suggest such a thing maybe means you’re irresponsible and reckless –
BASH: I’m just asking a question.
So Harry Reid must be in charge of health care, and that it is worth letting children die of cancer. He can’t trust you and I to earn our own money and buy our own health care in a free market – he has to choose how much much we can earn and how much health care we can pay for. And if a few hundred or a few thousand or a few million children have to die in order for him to get that control over our lives, then so be it. It’s a very telling glimpse into the mind of a socialist. How dare you question his authority to control your life? You’re irresponsible and reckless to demand answers from your betters, you peon. You should be grateful for Harry Reid’s wise oversight.
Shutdown doesn’t hurt you? Then they’ll make it hurt you
In fact, the Democrats are so worried that none of us will care about their stupid shutdown of government that actually have barricaded off public memorial monuments to keep world war II veterans from visiting them!
Obama barricades open-area war memorial to keep veterans out
Fortunately, Republican legislators like Michele Bachmann and Louie Gohmert intervened to make sure that veterans who had traveled to Washington to visit the monument were allowed in. They smashed the barricades down and let the veterans inside.
Michele Bachmann:
Republican congressman Pete King even distracted police to sneak some of the veterans in. The “Park Police” explained that they might press charges against the Republican legislators for breaking down the barricades to let the vets in. That all happened on Monday, but on Tuesday, the Democrats decided to pay union members to protest against the world war II veterans for breaking into the memorial area. I wouldn’t believe that this happened, except that there is a video.
WINTERY KNIGHT 