Live Oversight Hearing: ‘White House Narratives on the Iran Nuclear deal’

May, 17, 2016 by nicedeb

The House Oversight and Reform Committee led by Rep. Jason Chaffetz is holding a hearing this morning titled, “White House narratives on the Iran Nuclear Deal” to examine the process by which the Obama administration negotiated the Nuke deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Obama’s Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes was invited to appear before the committee, but late last night, the White House declined, citing Executive Privilege. (Which of course, WH spox Josh Earnest told reporters last week, would not be an issue.)

BACKGROUND:

On July 14, 2015, Iran and the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China, and Germany finalized the JCPOA, also known as the “Iran Nuclear Deal.”

The JCPOA is intended to ensure Iran’s nuclear program is used for purely peaceful purposes, in exchange for a broad lifting of sanctions.

President Obama asserts the JCPOA represented the most effective means to ensure Iran cannot obtain a nuclear weapon.

Critics of the agreement expressed concerns that the extensive sanctions relief would give Iran additional resources to extend its influence in the region. Critics also assert the lifting of a U.N. prohibition on arms sales to Iran or arms exports by Iran, and on Iran’s development of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, will set the stage for Iran to emerge as a key regional actor.

In an interview with David Samuels of the New York Times on May 5, Ben Rhodes discussed the process by which the White House presented the JCPOA to the public

WITNESSES AND TESTIMONIES

Name Title Organization Panel Document

Mr. Michael Rubin Resident Scholar The American Enterprise Institute Document

Mr. Michael Doran Senior Fellow Hudson Institute Document

Mr. John Hannah Senior Counselor Foundation for Defense of Democracies Docume

Name	Title	Organization	Panel	Document
Mr. Michael Rubin	Resident Scholar	The American Enterprise Institute	Document
Mr. Michael Doran	Senior Fellow	Hudson Institute	Document
Mr. John Hannah	Senior Counselor	Foundation for Defense of Democracies	Docume

No – Really? Obama Amnesty Will Allow Illegal Immigrants to Vote (Video)

February, 13, 2015 by nicedeb

A new revelation about Obama’s executive amnesty has all of Washington wearing their “shock faces.” A giant loophole that no one could have ever foreseen, will allow illegals to vote in American elections.

The Washington Times reported:

President Obama’s temporary deportation amnesty will make it easier for illegal immigrants to improperly register and vote in elections, state elections officials testified to Congress on Thursday, saying that the driver’s licenses and Social Security numbers they will be granted create a major voting loophole.

While stressing that it remains illegal for noncitizens to vote, secretaries of state from Ohio and Kansas said they won’t have the tools to sniff out illegal immigrants who register anyway, ignoring stiff penalties to fill out the registration forms that are easily available at shopping malls, motor vehicle bureaus and in curbside registration drives.

Anyone registering to vote attests that he or she is a citizen, but Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted said mass registration drives often aren’t able to give due attention to that part, and so illegal immigrants will still get through.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris W. Kobach said even some motor vehicle bureau workers automatically ask customers if they want to register to vote, which some noncitizens in the past have cited as their reason for breaking the law to register.

“It’s a guarantee it will happen,” Mr. Kobach said.

Here is Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) questioning of Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted about voter fraud, yesterday:

In a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform joint subcommittee hearing, Rep. Jim Jordan, OH-04, questions Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted about voter fraud, and how President Obama’s executive actions on immigration could further undermine voting integrity.

During a House Oversight Committee hearing Thursday, Secretaries of State Kris Kobach from Kansas and Jon Husted of Ohio warned that a loophole in President Obama’s executive action on illegal immigration could lead to millions of non-citizens obtaining the ability to vote in U.S. elections.

“I want to bring to your attention my concern that the President’s recent Immigration Accountability Executive Actions will make it more difficult for elections officials to determine if all voters meet the primary standard for voting – U.S. citizenship. I am not here to debate immigration policy or the President’s executive actions. However, I am here to emphatically say that we cannot follow both the federal law and the executive action and ensure the integrity of the elections process without further assistance from Congress and the Obama administration,” Husted said in prepared testimony. “For an estimated four to five million non-citizens, the President’s executive actions provide access to Social Security numbers and driver’s licenses. These are the same documents that federal law requires the states to recognize as valid forms of identification for voter registration. Under federal law, anyone with a valid Social Security number or driver’s license number can register to vote, provided they attest that they are a U.S. citizen. However, there is no way for us to validate this citizenship statement, since under the executive actions previously undocumented non-citizens will have access to the same documents as U.S. citizens. The issue becomes especially complicated in states like Ohio where millions of dollars are spent on third – party voter registration drives where no election official would be present to make clear the eligibility requirements for voting.”

Here’s Immigration hawk Senator Jeff Sessions fighting his own Republican colleagues on the Senate floor earlier this week.

Video: Gowdy Calls For Cutting Budgets As 47 IGs Complain About Being Stonewalled

February, 4, 2015 by nicedeb

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a hearing Tuesday to look into allegations of obstruction from a stunning number of government watchdogs. 47 Inspectors General are accusing the Obama administration of stonewalling their investigations. Three of them were on the panel and and the rest of the IGs were in the room watching.

This was Rep Jason Chaffetz’s first hearing as the new Chairman of the committee.

Via The Washington Examiner:

The Peace Corps, Environmental Protection Agency and Justice Department inspectors general each argued to members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that some of their investigations had been thwarted or stalled by officials who refused to release necessary information to their offices.

Committee members from both parties doubled down on criticisms of the Justice Department’s lack of transparency and called for solutions to the government-wide problem during their first official hearing of the 114th Congress.

“If you can’t do your job, then we can’t do our job in Congress,” Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told the three witnesses and the scores of agency watchdogs who also attended, including the Department of Homeland Security and General Service Administration inspectors general.

Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department’s inspector general, testified that the FBI began reviewing requested documents in 2010 in what he said was a clear violation of federal law that is supposed to grant watchdogs unfettered access to agency records.

The FBI’s process, which involves clearing the release of documents with the attorney general or deputy attorney general, “seriously impairs inspector general independence, creates excessive delays, and may lead to incomplete, inaccurate or significantly delayed findings or recommendations,” Horowitz said.

You can watch videos from the hearing, here.

Trey Gowdy went On the Record with Greta Van Susteren Tuesday night to talk about the hearing.

These “independent auditors” are entitled to all documents and materials they request per statute, but they’re being stonewalled by the Regime.

Asked by Greta what could be done about the stonewalling, Gowdy answered, “you have to hit them in the only place anyone in Washington ever feels and that’s the back pocket. Get the appropriators in the House and the Senate involved and say if you don’t comply with this statute, we’re going to cut your budget.”

Gruber and Tavenner On The Hot Seat (Updated With Videos)

December, 9, 2014 by nicedeb

Jonathan Gruber and Marilyn Tavenner on Health Care Law Enrollment:

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Marilyn Tavenner and MIT economist Jonathan Gruber are testifying before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee about enrollment issues with ObamaCare.

Happening now. Watch here or here.

Via Fox News:

One of the architects of ObamaCare is in the hot seat Tuesday as Republicans call him before Congress to explain his controversial statements boasting how the law’s authors took advantage of the “stupidity of the American voter.”

Jonathan Gruber’s appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee also marks one of Rep. Darrell Issa’s last, high-profile shots at the health care law before he hands over his chairmanship next year.

Issa, R-Calif. — who has led the committee through controversial probes of the Benghazi attacks, the IRS scandal and more — will lead the questioning of former health adviser Gruber on Tuesday. Gruber, an MIT economist, recently apologized for saying Americans’ “stupidity” was vital to passing the health law in 2010.

Lawmakers also have obtained videos that show Gruber saying the act was written in a “very tortured way.”

Issa told Reuters the public deserves an explanation from Gruber. “If you can’t trust what he says, and what he says he’ll do, to get votes and trick the American people into voting for something, then can you trust his analytics?” Issa said of Gruber.

Rumor has it Grubs will plead the 5th. We’ll soon see.

UPDATE:

Well, Gruber is testifying and it’s glorious.

Issa, not known for his tact asks: “Are you stupid?”

Via GOP Rapid Response: Jonathan Gruber Repeatedly Refuses To Disclose How Much He Earned From ObamaCare:

Trey Gowdy, after quoting some of Gruber’s more obnoxious statements about deceiving the American public, asked, “all of these quotes that I just read to you – you didn’t mean a single one of them?”

Marilyn Tavenner, the administrator at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), had asked the House oversight hearing to testify about the health care law’s enrollment figures Tuesday on a panel that did not include non-government witnesses — namely Mr. Gruber, the economist called to explain his caught-on-tape remarks about the “stupidity” of American voters and how Obamacare made it through Congress.

AoSHQ: Gruber Lawyers Up Regarding How Much Money He Made From Governments Advising on ObamaCare

Bowling With Ebola

October, 24, 2014 by nicedeb

So – a doctor in NYC was diagnosed last night with Ebola.

Greta Van Susteren reviewed his itinerary at GretaWire:

He got back from West Africa last Friday and has been moving around the city and coming in contact with many since returning from West Africa. His temperature was taken at JFK when he returned per the Obama Administration new port entry rules. He passed. Now read on:

I realize it is difficult to protect the nation from ebola, but, at the very least, the American people should not be slicked into feeling safe from a procedure that is grossly inadequate.

If you watch ON THE RECORD at 7pm, you know I have more than once pointed out the obvious: the Obama Administration’s airport entry tests for people arriving from Africa is both ridiculous as inadequate and falsely lulls American people into feeling safe, that something is being done to protect them. At 5 airports, passengers’ temperatures are taken as an ebola test. Here is the obvious problem with this – assume this:

Day#1 – passenger gets ebola in West Africa

Day #5 (?) – gets on a plane from West Africa to USA and has NO SYMPTOMS. Passenger arrives at one of the 5 airports and gets temperature taken and TEMPERATURE IS NORMAL. Passenger continues journey into the United States.

Day 18? – passenger develops fever (symptom of ebola.) Passenger obviously within the 21 day incubation period. PASSENGER, NOW IN USA, HAS EBOLA and is CONTAGIOUS.

The day before he went to the hospital, Dr. Craig Spencer and his live-in girlfriend Morgan Dixon went out on the town – which included a subway ride to the BOWLING ALLY.

Via Charles C. Johnson of Got News, the hipster couple “exposed New Yorkers in two different boroughs to ebola during their night out on the town.”

They are both registered Democrats with a history of working in public health.

Both Spencer and Dixon are professional do gooders according to their LinkedIn and professional websites. Spencer boasts a degree from Columbia’s University Mailman School of Public Health, according to his since deleted LinkedIn page.

So why did health care professionals decide to go bowling just days after Spencer returned from Ebola-infected Guinea?

Doctors Without Borders had already announced nine deaths from Ebola and sixteen infections. Why didn’t Spencer take his sickness seriously?

I think the answer lies in the first five words of the above paragraph.

Drudge once again has linked to the disinformation-monger Alex Jones, who is claiming that Ebola patients are being “disappeared.”

But anyone who has been closely monitoring the news, has to be suspicious that the least transparent administration in our nation’s history is trying to cover up inconvenient Ebola news – not so much to avoid panic – but to protect Democrats in the midterm elections.

Paul Rahe of Ricochet also wonders if there are other cases out there that are being swept under the carpet.

My first instinct is to suspect such claims. But, over the last few years, we have been misled time and again, and I could easily imagine the Obama Administration, in a panic, directing the CDC to hide as much as possible.

Like everything else about this administration, I suppose, the truth will eventually come out — after it is politically irrelevant.

Meanwhile, unlike last week’s Ebola hearing, Republicans on the Oversight and reform Committee came to their hearing, this morning, armed with the facts to assail HHS for its inadequate preparation for and response to the disease.

Some highlights:

Rep Darrell Issa DESTROYS CDC At Ebola Hearing. CDC Has Been Giving False Information:

Rep Jim Jordan DESTROYS Dr Lurie For Wasting Money On Puppet Shows Instead Of Ebola Vaccine:

Trey Gowdy vs Dr Lurie On Ron Klain Being Qualified For Ebola Czar. Ebola Hearing:

Rep. Trey Gowdy Grills Secret Service Director Julia Pierson (Video)

September, 30, 2014 by nicedeb

Secret Service Director Julia Pierson appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Tuesday morning to answer questions about recent White House security breaches.

Pierson’s appearance before the committee were her first public statements about how an Army veteran armed with a knife, was able to jump the fence on Sept. 19 and bust into the White House where he made it all the way to the East Room before he was stopped.

Initially, we were told that Omar Gonzalez had been stopped right inside the front door.

Pierson, who took over as director of the Secret Service 18 months ago, was also questioned closely about a 2011 incident in which the agency failed to recognize that the White House had been struck by several rounds of gunfire until damage was found days later by staffers.

Rep Gowdy’s focus was on that earlier shooting incident:

In a tense exchange with Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., Pierson acknowledged that evidence of the gunfire was not discovered until three to four days after the attack. Ultimately, a White House housekeeper discovered broken glass on the Truman Balcony.

“Can you tell me why a housekeeper found the evidence and your agents did not?” Gowdy asked. “Why not search every inch of the White House? This is just processing a crime scene; this is not high math. Why wasn’t it done?”

“It was not as thorough as it needed to be,” Pierson responded..