National News

"Organized labor spends about four times as much on politics and lobbying as generally thought."

...Abercrombie and the governors of American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas (CNMI), and Guam have signed a partnership agreement to assist the region in identifying coastal and ocean management priorities....

Lie Number Five: Health Reform Is Going to Make Medicare More Efficient....

The debate in Tampa this week raised a number of issues....

The resolution asks for the federal government to “consult with our tribal governments and indigenous communities for guidance in all policies that affect our way of life ....

Full text of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s remarks to the Republican National Convention on Aug. 30 in Tampa, as prepared for delivery.

"People are really eager to go to convention and get everything going." -- David Chang, State GOP Chair

Heritage defense experts call Obama's defense strategy "a strategy of hope": "a hope that big wars are a thing of the past; a hope that America's allies will do more; and a hope that fewer resources do not jeopardize the lives of American soldiers."

Since the passage of President Obama's health care law, hospitals are increasing their size by acquiring private practices.

I accept the duty to help lead our nation out of a jobs crisis and back to prosperity- and I know we can do this....

A survey by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) in July revealed that small businesses' top three concerns were taxes, regulations, and poor sales.... 

...according to the law's supporters, EMR adoption will yield cost savings. This conclusion, however, has not been definitively proven....

Federal subsidies in fiscal year 2010 for solar-generated energy were $775.64 per megawatt hour and $56.29 per megawatt hour for wind....

“This new Anti-Bullying Policy Yardstick helps schools identify which policies are driven by a narrow political agenda...."

Obama declared in his Saturday radio address that his proposed reforms “won’t touch your guaranteed Medicare benefits. Not by a single dime.”  This is incorrect. Obamacare cuts $716 billion from Medicare over the next 10 years....

Progressives admit to being "deeply suspicious of the claim that a health care system dominated by powerful vested interests and mystifying in its complexity can be tamed by consumers who are strapped for time, often poor, sometimes uneducated, confused and afraid." But just how valid are these concerns?

...this year marks the 100th anniversary of another Republican Convention embroiled in political drama of a different nature....

We must honor the promises we made to Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries and to those nearing that age," said Governor Lingle. “Our kupuna should not fear that their payments could be stopped or reduced during their lifetimes.”

Marco Mangelsdorf, who co-owns a company in Hawaii, ProVision Solar Inc ... has been fuming since he received a $138,000 tax bill in June from U.S. Customs, 250% more than what he paid for a shipment of Chinese panels he received in February ....

Governor Linda Lingle, candidate for Hawaii’s open U.S. Senate seat, called on the Republican National Committee to consider the diverse opinions of Party members related to a woman’s right to choose before adopting a proposed platform plank....

Since Heritage's Robert Rector and Kiki Bradley broke the story on July 12 that the Obama Administration had gutted the work requirements from the 1996 welfare reform law, the Administration has denied it.

California, Hawaii, Iowa, and New York today have been awarded Level One Exchange Establishment grants, which provide one year of funding to states that have begun the process of building their Exchange....

...the CBO said that if Congress does not act, the economy will shrink by 0.5 percent, and the unemployment rate will spike to 9.1 percent....

...under federal law, the U.S. Energy Department has to deem the exports in the national interest before these companies are granted permission....

Nearly one-third of America's doctors are already opting out of treating Medicaid patients—because their costs often outweigh what the program pays for care....

"These laws were often rooted in a naïve faith that patient consent, rather than underlying structural protection, is the be-all and end-all of patient protection." -- Big Brother

CAGW named Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye and Ranking Member Thad Cochran its August 2012 Porkers of the Month for including a $380 million earmark for the wasteful and widely-criticized Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS)

The health care system can't possibly deliver on the huge increase in demand for primary care services -- there aren't enough doctors....

Ryan v Obama on Medicare: Surprisingly, there's very little difference between the two plans.

The subsidy is already equivalent to 50 percent to 70 percent of the wholesale price of electricity. And that isn't the only special-interest treatment wind producers receive....

...a federal database of health-related breaches showcases an unsettling new strain of opportunism that is emerging as criminals try to exploit the industry’s shift to digital medical records....

Similar to health maintenance organizations (HMOs), ACOs are designed to bring hospitals, physicians and insurers together to reduce health care costs ....

Under rules proposed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), some working-class families would be unable to afford family coverage offered by their employers, and yet they would not qualify for subsidies provided by the Affordable Care Act....

GASB considered changes to address this issue. Recently, it approved a slate of reforms for this exact purpose, yet their changes could actually make things worse by omitting essential changes....

They have also increased the proportion of outlays gobbled up by administrators, says The Economist....

‘Impossible lack of diversity’ reflects ideological intimidation on campus....

She sponsored 49 bills between her election in 2006 and 2012, and zero have been passed into law.* We ask the people of Hawaii to join us to ‘do the math’. It all adds up to zero.”

What happens to our society if we lose all electricity? A new TV show premiering next month, Revolution, will explore that question....

Honolulu hosts 55 of America's 81 living Medal of Honor recipients this fall at the 2012 Medal of Honor Society Convention. Recipients from World War II up to the current conflict in Afghanistan will be in attendance.

Residents of Hawaii, Utah, and South Dakota were the most likely to be "thriving" in the first half of 2012 based on how they rate their lives today and their expectations for their lives in five years. Residents of West Virginia and Maine were the least likely to be thriving.

Medicare.gov is publishing quality-of-care and patient- satisfaction information on more than 4,000 hospitals around the country that participate in Medicare and Medicaid.

Taxpayers will lose even more on the auto bailout than previously thought, as the Treasury has just revised its estimate upward to $25 billion. This may still underestimate the losses to come....

After this long and difficult struggle we are told that all criminal charges are dismissed, even though some of the accused had already pled guilty....

Obamacare has already "ended Medicare as we know it."

Last night...our opponent immediately turned to name calling and finger pointing to define us. But that is exactly what is wrong with politics today. There are too many politicians who just want to point out problems and too few who want to find solutions.

That's the number of American people who approve of the job that Congress is doing, and my opponent is one of the ‘12-percenters,’" Governor Lingle said.

Between 1999 and 2002 Hanabusa short changed the Hawaii ERS--launching today’s multi-billion dollar Hawaii pension crisis. Now she’s lining up with the most unpopular politician in Hawaii—Neil Abercrombie—in support of his efforts to gut the Hawaii Prepaid Health Care Act.

"Our way of life is being threatened because of the failure of D.C. politicians like my opponent. They failed Hawaii and they failed America. She failed us," said Governor Linda Lingle.  "She put her political career and her party ahead of the people."

At Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell's direction, Alaska's major oil and gas producers and pipeline company TransCanada have shifted focus from a big pipeline to the Lower 48 to one leading to an LNG export plant in Southcentral Alaska....

“I have held hundreds of town-hall meetings in my district explaining why we have to take bold reform steps, and I’ve found treating people like adults works.  All those ads pushing elderly woman off the cliffs don’t work anymore if you lay out the problem.”