Companies that criticize Obamacare had better be careful...

A number of companies who have announced that Obamacare will dramatically increase their costs have been ordered to appear before Congress to defend their statements.

So much for free speech!

From the Washington Examiner:

...On Capitol Hill and in the White House on Monday, Democrats were fuming over a series of announcements that started Friday from Fortune 500 firms saying their bottom lines will take huge negative hits because of changes in tax law mandated by Obamacare. That hit in turn means lower profit projections. Caterpillar estimates, for example, that Obamacare will cost it $100 million; John Deere faces expenses of $150 million; 3M, $90 million; AK Steel, $31 million; Valero, $20 million. And then there's AT&T, which is marking its balance sheet down by a whopping $1 billion. All in all, the Wall Street Journal estimated a $14 billion haircut for these corporations...

BREAK

...According to the American Spectator, top White House advisers reacted with angry phone calls to the corporations in question. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., issued harassing document requests and demanded that the chief executive officers appear before his committee next month to answer for their sins. These corporations, which legally owe an honest reckoning to their shareholders, are only doing their duty by restating projections. By contrast, Waxman and many of his fellow Democratic leaders in Congress have used every government accounting and budget gimmick at their disposal to deceive Americans for the last year about the true costs of Obamacare. These Washington politicians have no business lecturing CEOs on honesty in accounting...

Full editorial

Congressman Dan Lipinski put principle above party

Perhaps the only bright spot in the ongoing health care reform debacle is the fact that my congressman, Dan Lipinski, was one of 34 Democrats to vote against the bill, and the only Illinois Democrat to do so.

Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass interviewed Rep. Lipinski for today's paper. Some excerpts:

..."It was rather lonely, yes," Lipinski said of voting against President Barack Obama's federalized health care agenda. "But I could not vote for a bill that would change the status quo on funding for abortion."

By voting "no," Lipinski has put a target on his back for smears from the White House staffed by the guys from Chicago.

"There were aspects of the president's package that I liked. Helping people get insurance, that sort of thing. But we weren't really voting for health reform. We were voting for a bill that is financially unsustainable. And I couldn't support that bill," he said.

As a Roman Catholic against abortion, he's formally a pariah among most Democratic elites. And predictably, he's been attacked by unnamed White House sources in media reports...

AND

..."People have asked me, ‘If it was good enough for Stupak, why wasn't it good enough for you?'" Lipinski said. "The executive order most likely will be overturned by the federal courts. The order does not trump the law"...

AND

..."It's not just about being against something, it's believing that every individual deserves dignity and respect, whoever they are, at whatever stage of life they're in," Lipinski said. "That is something I hear my Democratic colleagues say. And I say that it's self-evident that the individual is there at conception."

Lipinski has degrees in mechanical engineering, economic systems, and political science. He's not a biologist.

"We know that at conception, the genetic code is there, for a unique individual. This is not something that is just a religious belief," Lipinski said. "If you look at what we know about reproduction, you can see it"...

Full story

Notre Dame student newspaper rejects column by Professor Charles Rice

Notre Dame's student newspaper recently rejected a column submitted by ND law professor emeritus Charles Rice. The topic: the Church's teaching on homosexuality.

Rice has been writing a regular column (every other week) for the Observer since 1992 and is the author of the 2009 book, "What Happened to Notre Dame?"

See the following links for details:

1. The email exchange between Rice and the editor of the Observer can be found here.

2. The rejected column can be found here.

3. William Dempsey's op-ed on the subject in the Washington Times (Mr. Dempsey is President of the Sycamore Trust) can be found here.

4. The Sycamore Trust looks at the history of tensions over the issue of homosexuality at Notre Dame - here.

Healt Care Reform Signed into Law

Source: Michael Ramirez, Investors Business Daily