Washington, D.C. -- Alex Bastani, president of the local 12 chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), told union members that they are filing a complaint against the Department of Labor that may develop into a class action lawsuit.

AFGE is affiliated with the AFL-CIO, a mega-union that has endorsed President Obama, but parking rate increases at DOL have Local 12 up in arms against the Obama administration. 

"Management has made it clear that it intends to move forward on July 1st with the parking increase without the involvement of the Union and despite any hardship expressed by the employees," Bastani wrote to union members in an email obtained by The Washington Examiner.

The union is angry about losing a $35 per month parking fee as the DOL turns management of its parking spaces over to a private contractor. "The eventual contractor will charge 'slightly below' the average Washington rate of '$220 to $260/month,'" The Washington Examiner's Paul Bedard explained, per Labor Department official  Al Stewart's announcement of the change.

"We will be filing a complaint with the Federal Service Impasses Panel requesting an order that the United States Department of Labor be compelled to bargain with us over its decision to contract out the parking, [and the] increase in rates," Bastani told members.

Local 12 will also attempt to haul the Obama administration before the Federal Labor Relations Board, and may file a civil lawsuit against the Labor Department. "We will also explore whether a class action can be filed pursuant to the Rehabilitation Act for those employees who are disabled and park in the Frances Perkins Building Garage," Bastani wrote.

In the meantime, they will organize more public protests.

 

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney insisted to reporters on Air Force One today that President Obama has "demonstrated significant fiscal restraint” and applied a “balanced approach.”

Near the end of his analysis of the new NBC/WSJ poll, NBC News Senior Political Editor Mark Murray writes:

Given all of these different elements – the president’s approval rating, attitudes about the country’s direction and economy, doubts about the challenger – this presidential race looks very similar to the 2004 one between Bush and Kerry.

According to the May 2004 NBC/WSJ poll, Bush’s approval rating was 47 percent (Obama’s is 48 percent); just 33 percent thought the nation was headed in the right direction (33 percent say that now); and approval of Bush’s handling of the economy was at 41 percent (Obama’s is 43 percent).

And also in May 2004, Bush was leading Kerry by three points, 48 percent to 45 percent (Obama is now leading Romney by four points).

If Obama’s supporters are pinning their hopes for reelection on a replay of 2004, they are setting themselves up for some big disappointment. Here are just some of the big differences between ’04 and ’12:

’04 was a foreign policy election: According to Gallup, the war in Iraq was by far the most important issue to voters in the 2004 election. The exact opposite is true today. Switching out your Commander in Chief in the middle of a war is just a different question than replacing a president whose economic policies are failing.

’02 was not a mirror image of ’10: President Bush's party gained ground in the ’02 election. Obama's lost ’10 in a landslide. The defeat of Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., in the Democratic primary, the rise of the netroots and their preferred candidates, Sens., Jim Webb, D-Vir., Jon Tester, D-Mont., all happened in 2006, two years after Bush was reelected. The Tea Party rose and got organized much faster. Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, lost his primary in 2010. The Tea Party has already sent Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., to Congress. The base of the Republican party is simply far more organized and united now than Democrats were in ’04.

Economic growth: At the core of almost every presidential election model is economic growth. In 2004, the U.S. economy grew by 3.5 percent. According to the CBO, the U.S. economy is projected to grow by just 2 percent this year.

Obama is simply in far, far worse shape today than Bush was in 2004.

Campaign 2012
Florida: A new Quinnipiac University Poll shows Romney is now beating Obama 47 percent to 41 percent in Florida. Just two months ago, Obama led Romney in the same poll 49 percent to 42 percent.

Around the Bigs
Reuters, “Fiscal cliff” could cause U.S. recession: The wave of tax hikes and spending cuts set to occur January 1st, would likely push the United States economy into recession in the first half of next year, the Congressional Budget Office warned on Tuesday.

ABC News, South Carolina AFL-CIO Leader Bashes Nikki Haley Pinata: Donna Dewitt, the outgoing president of the South Carolina AFL-CIO,has been captured on video bashing a pinata of South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley’s face. Dewitt told ABC News she has no regrets about the incident.

The Washington Post, Iran, U.N. reach tentative deal on Tehran’s nuclear program before key talks: Iran has agreed in principle to pull back the curtain on some of its most secretive nuclear research, U.N. officials said Tuesday, a concession that came hours before negotiators from the Islamic republic were due to begin crucial talks with six world powers on curbing its nuclear program.

The Wall Street Journal, J.P. Morgan Exposed on Right Flank: JP Morgan’s trading loss has stoked frustration among Republicans—who haven’t forgotten that it donated mostly to Democrats last election cycle.

The New York Times, Facebook I.P.O. Raises Regulatory Concerns: Just days before Facebook went public Morgan Stanley and other firms started reaching out to their clients to dial back expectations for the Internet company.

Righty Playbook
Judicial Watch has obtained DOD and CIA records showing that the Obama administration has given unprecedented access to a filmmaker working on a movie lionizing Obama for allowing Navy Seals to kill Osama bin Laden. The movie is due out in October.

The Economist‘s Will Wilkinson writes, “If he’s smart, Mr Romney will argue that Mr Obama’s apparent inability to see the relevance of business experience to government just goes to show why he can’t be trusted to achieve either the goal of sustained economic growth.”

At National Review, Phil Klein advises conservatives to keep the pressure on Romney and buy his new e-book, Conservative Survival in the Romney Era.

At Bloomberg, Ramesh Ponnuru advises Romney to make his health care tax benefit a full credit, not a deduction.

At Pickpocket, Amanda Carpenter details how Obama is spending your tax dollars promoting his own agenda.

Lefty Playbook
Salon‘s Steve Kornacki makes the case that Obama should be attacking Romney over Bush, not Bain.

The New Republic‘s Jonathan Cohn explores why Massachusetts’ individual mandate did not create the same backlash that Obamacare’s did.

Talking Points Memo‘s Sahil Kapur reports that Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., is praising Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., for his “sincere conversion” on immigration reform.

Team Romney fires the latest salvo against Obama for suggesting that this year's presidential election would be all about Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital.

Is it all about Bain? Or is it about the economy?

 

Mitt Romney has finally pulled ahead in Florida accorrding to a new Quinnipiac University poll.

Gov. Mitt Romney holds a 47 – 41 percent lead over President Barack Obama in Florida, where 63 percent of voters say the president’s support of same-sex marriage will not affect their vote, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.  Another 25 – 11 percent of voters, including 23 – 9 percent among independent voters, say Obama’s support of gay marriage makes them less likely to support his candidacy.

Romney's support is up substantially from a May 3 Quinnipiac poll that showed the race tied between him and Obama.

Ted Kaczynski, the "Unabomber" currently serving a prison sentence for domestic terrorism, has a "very rational" critique of modern society, according to a University of Michigan professor who corresponds with Kaczynski.

"The reason why he sent the bombs was not so much because he thought killing people would do any good, the reason was that it gave him the leverage to force the publication of [his] manifesto," David Skrbina, a lecturer at U of M-Dearborn, told The Chronicle of Higher Education. "In a sense he had this larger cause, which is a noble cause. If it turns out to be true that there is this vital threat to the planet or to humanity, there'll be no doubt that kazcynski was right, that the technological system is a kind of mortal threat."

Skrbina -- after corresponding with Kaczynski over the last nine years -- published their letters, essays written by the Unabomber from prison, and the original manifesto that the Washington Post published in 1995 in consultation with the FBI's investigation into the bombings, in a book called Technological Slavery. In the introduction, Skrbina denounced the terrorist attacks that killed three people.

But he clearly admires Kaczynski, nonetheless. "[H]e was one of the few people who had the guts to stand up and say [that technology is a mortal threat], and to say that only the most radical action against the system can protect us from these worst possible outcomes," Skrbina explained. "So, it may yet turn out to be true that he was a prophet and potentially a kind of savior of humanity and the planet."

When a student challenged Skrbina for teaching Kaczynski's writings, the professor defended himself by comparing the Unabomber -- favorably -- to President Obama. ""If I wanted to be sarcastic, I'd say our president kills people all the time, why should we listen to a murderer called Barack Obama?" he asked, rhetorically. "But we do. OK, it's a different context and different circumstances, but there's a kind of parallel there."

The Chronicle notes that some students "are clearly fans and take class after class with the professor, appreciating the way he raises questions others shy away from." Skrbina himself tends to minimize the use of technology when possible.

 

President Obama
 

Obama, Romney tied as race heats up
 

By 2-to-1 Americans say they are worse off under Obama
 

Dem Rep. Clyburn: Bain engaged in ‘raping companies’


Obama Camp Says Clyburn’s ‘Raping’ Comment Is Inappropriate


Obama campaign: Free stickers for young voters!
 

Obama's grand miscalculation with Catholics‎


Mitt Romney


Romney Adviser: ‘You Can’t Hate Job Creators but Love Jobs’


Are Bain Capital attacks actually helping Romney?


RNC ad: Obama camp lied about contacting Booker


Former venture capitalist Sen. Warner defends Bain


Bruce Willis: Mitt Romney 'an embarrassment'


Veepstakes:

Mitch Daniels would 'disconnect the phone' if Romney called with VP offer


Vice President Biden

Biden: Tea Party stopped us from growing economy


Biden attacks Romney on Bain

 

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., has moved to implement the budget proposed by President Obama, which failed to receive a single vote in Congress and violates the current law on spending limits, according to Senate Republicans.

"We have Members of Congress that take it as a personal challenge to see how they can defeat, get around, and spend more money than they're allocated," Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said on the Senate floor this afternoon. "The American people are being misled in this attempt. We're not following the Budget Control Act."

Sessions was referring to his discovery that the fiscal year 2013 spending levels that Conrad filed with the Congressional Record exceed the cap on spending set by current law.

"The filed outlay aggregate for fiscal year 2013 is not consistent with CBO's baseline but, instead, appears to reflect the higher outley level for discretionary spending in the President's budget request (as estimated by the CBO)," Sessions, the Ranking Member on the Senate Budget Committee, wrote in a letter to Conrad today. "The President's budget was voted down unanimously by the Senate."

The spending level filed by Conrad flouts the Budget Control Act (BCA) of 2011 -- the law passed at the end of the debt ceiling fight last year -- is $14 billion higher than current law allows, based on the Congressional Budget Office's estimates, according to Sessions.

Obama's budget failed the House by a vote of 414-0 on March 29, 2012. His budget failed in the Senate by another unanimous vote of 99-0. For the third year in a row, Senate Democrats chose not to produce a budget of their own, despite a legal obligation to do so.

"I request that you review your allocations and re-file the enforceable levels and related committee allocations at amounts that are consistent with CBO's March 2012 baseline, as required by the BCA," Sessions concluded in his letter.

 

 

President Obama's spokesman sidestepped a question about the president having a "reverse Sister Souljah" moment as Democrats repudiate his Bain attacks, but defended Obama for criticizing Mitt Romney's business career.

"No," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said in the press briefing when asked if Obama is "angry" at the Democrats -- such as Mayor Cory Booker and former Gov. Ed Rendell, D-Pa. -- who have criticized Obama for attacking Romney over Bain Capital supposedly destroying jobs.

"He's running as a businessman who can do for american what he did in private equity," Carney said. "I think Americans would expect that that credential deserves some scrutiny."

Vice President Joe Biden also attacked Romney today. "[M]aking money regardless of the consequences for the workers, the companies they acquire, the communities that get wasted, is another question," he said. "It's not the president's job." Biden added that the president has to look out for "the common good."

The reporter's term, "reverse Sister Souljah," refers to the 1992 campaign when then-candidate Bill Clinton repudiated Sister Souljah for saying, "If Black people kill Black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?" during the Los Angeles race riots.

Via the Columbia Free Times

Vice President Joe Biden attacked Mitt Romney over his history as an executive at Bain Capital, arguing that his experience in private equity renders him unfit to serve as president.

"When they succeed and the company succeeds, they make money," Biden said today in New Hampshire.  "When the company they got involved with fails, they make money." He added that "making money regardless of the consequences for the workers, the companies they acquire, the communities that get wasted, is another question," saying, "it's not the president's job."

The Obama campaign has targeted Romney for some investments made by Bain Capital that involved workers being laid off, but that tactic backfired somewhat when Newark Mayor Cory Booker -- an Obama campaign surrogate -- called for Obama to suspend the "nauseating" attacks on Bain.

"If you look at the totality of Bain Capital's record, they have done a lot to support businesses to grow businesses and this to me, I'm very comfortable," Booker said Sunday on Meet the Press. "The last point I'll make is, this kind of stuff is nauseating to me on both sides. It's nauseating to the American public. Enough is enough, stop attacking private equity, stop attacking Jeremiah Wright. This stuff has got to stop."

Biden responded to "the guy they quote now" -- referring to Republican counter attacks -- but it wasn't clear to whom he was referring (several Democrats have criticized Obama over the Bain attack in recent days). But Biden echoed Booker while defending the anti-Romney ads.

"When Romney says were bashing private capital, it's not true," he said. "Your job as president is to promote the common good. That doesnt mean the private equity guys are bad guys."

 

 

Vice President Joe Biden admitted to a group of supporters in New Hampshire this afternoon that the President would have been able help the economy "much, more" if the Tea Party hadn't taken the House.

The RNC releases a new video, suggesting that Obama campaign press secretary Ben La Bolt lied about their response to Newark Mayor Corey Booker after his comments on Meet the Press.

After indicating that the campaign did not ask him to retract his statements, Booker admitted to Rachel Maddow on MSNBC that he did speak with the campaign after he made his controversial comments.

You may have seen the headlines about Crossroads GPS' upcoming $25 million ad buy:

National Journal, Super PAC to Launch $25 Million Ad Buy Attacking Obama
U.S. News, Super PAC Dishes Out $25 Million for Anti Obama Ads
Talking Points Memo, Republican Super PAC Launches $25 Million Ad Campaign Against Obama

There's just one problem: Crossroads GPS is not a Super PAC. It is, like the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a 501(c)(4), not a "political action committee" or "PAC."

In fact, Crossroads GPS sister organization, American Crossroads, which is commonly referred to as a "Super PAC," isn't even a PAC either. Here is how the Federal Election Committee defines PAC:

The term "political action committee" (PAC) refers to two distinct types of political committees registered with the FEC: separate segregated funds (SSFs) and nonconnected committees. Basically, SSFs are political committees established and administered by corporations, labor unions, membership organizations or trade associations. These committees can only solicit contributions from individuals associated with connected or sponsoring organization. By contrast, nonconnected committees--as their name suggests--are not sponsored by or connected to any of the aforementioned entities and are free to solicit contributions from the general public.

"Super PACs" are neither SSFs nor "nonconnected committees."

But if "Super PACs" aren't PACs, what are they? Well, if this were 2004, we would probably just call them "527s," which is what the media called the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group that election cycle. But while "527" would be an accurate label of Super PACs, it would not be very descriptive. "527" refers to the section of the tax code governing all political entities; PACs, candidates, and the parties included. The technical term the FEC uses to describe "Super PACs" is "Independent Expenditure-Only Committees" ... not as snappy.

Crossroads GPS, on the other hand, is a non-political, non-profit. They do not have to report to the  FEC at all. They do, however, have to file to the IRS. This April GPS reported that they raised $76.8 million through the end of last year. That dwarfs the $24.4 million "Super PAC" American Crossroads has in the bank.

Are President Obama's Bain Capital attacks actually helping Mitt Romney?

Obama seems to be running out of folks who believe he is waging a war against lobbyists.

Is the Medicare/Medicaid waste and fraud cup half full or half empty? The latest reports from the office of Inspector-General Dan Levinson can be read either way. Take, for example, his auditors' findings on the billing practices of South Miami Hospital (SMH).

This South Miami facility is a 381-bed acute care hospital that received "approximately $116 million for 9,695 inpatient and 43,524 outpatient claims for services provided to beneficiaries during calendar years (CY) 2009 and 2010 based on CMS’s National Claims History data," according to the HHS IG.

The audit examined 69 inpatient and 76 outpatient claims worth $4.2 million. Here's what the HHS IG found when its auditors looked over those claims:

"The hospital complied with Medicare billing requirements for 85 of the 145 claims we reviewed. However, the hospital did not fully comply with Medicare billing requirements for selected inpatient and outpatient claims," the HHS IG said.

"Specifically, of 145 sampled claims, 60 claims had errors, resulting in overpayments totaling $468,323 for CYs 2009 and 2010. Overpayments occurred primarily because the Hospital did not have adequate controls to prevent incorrect billing of Medicare claims," the report said.

In other words, more than 40 percent of the audited claims contained errors. Extrapolate that to the $116 million in Medicare funds received by SMH during the covered period and it could involve something like $45 million in incorrect reimbursements by the government.

Does that suggest intentional fraud at some level or bureaucratic regulations so cumbersome and difficult to understand that high error rates are impossible to avoid? Or some of both factors?

For more from the HHS IG, go here.

Then there are those Power Mobility Devices (PMD) for elderly and handicapped persons that are regularly advertised on cable TV channels. Whenever government offers to pay for such a product, odds are a lot of people - not all of whom actually need it - will want to get in line for it or to be the supplier.

So, the HHS IG took a look at one such supplier, Marquis Mobility of Canton, Ohio, which supplied 1,140 PMDs between June 6, 2006, and June 30, 2009, for which the government paid the firm $3.9 million. Here's what the IG found:

"Of the 200 randomly sampled claims, 157 claims met Medicare requirements, but 43 claims did not. Specifically, Marquis Mobility did not provide adequate documentation to support the medical necessity of PMDs for 26 claims, all required documentation for 9 claims, and properly completed physician orders for 8 claims."

As a result, the HHS IG calculated that Marquis Mobility owed the government more than $680,000 in reimbursement for the improperly completed claims that represented almost a third of all those examined by the auditors.

Again, the question is whether the high error rate results from incompetence or malice on the part of the claim filer or is it a rotten fruit of excessively complicated bureaucratic regulations?

For more on the PMD issue, go here.

 

 
 

"Are you young, American, and for President Obama? We have a free sticker for you," the Obama campaign sent out via the President's Twitter account.

Judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals plan to vacation in Hawaii on the taxpayers' dime, but they might see their budget cut by Congress as a result.

"Ultimately, the Congress has the power to appropriate money, and we need to evaluate the judicial branch budget request in light of some of these expenditures," Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., the Ranking Member on the Senate Budget Committee, told Fox and Friends.

Sessions and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, have asked the court to consider cancelling the Hawaii conference, which will cost $1 million "and provide a chance for judges to partake in yoga, snorkeling and dance lessons," according to The Hill.

The conference shows the need for Congress to consider cutting the judicial branch's budget, Sessions argued. "The sooner we get the message down to the lowest level of government that this country's got to change the way we handle the taxpayer's money, the better off we'll be," he said.

 

Vampires have been hot sellers for the entertainment industry for years, and now it appears another kind of blood sale is about to generate some big bucks. Only this time, the blood is real and it came from former President Reagan.

It is in the form of residue in a vial originally used to transport a sample of Reagan's blood to a Columbia, MD., lab for analysis in 1981 following John Hinckley's nearly successful attempt to murder the chief executive.

A British auction house is offering the vial to the highest bidder this week on behalf of the son of the lab technician who obtained it after tests were completed. According to the man, who has remained anonymous, the woman asked her boss at the lab if she could keep the vial and accompanying paperwork and was told she could.

The highest bid this morning, according to ABC, is just under $10,000. Bidding will close Thursday.

The man - whose parents are now deceased - claims to have contacted the Reagan Library foundation to inquire about its interest in buying the vial. A library official allegedly conferred with the National Archives, Secret Service and other federal agencies regarding their interest in the vial.

The library offical then said none of the government agencies were interested, but the family would like for the vial to be donated to the Reagan foundation. The son said no, he preferred to sell the vial. The Reagan library is now understandly angry and considering its options.

Items of historical interest regularly show up in high-dollar auctions, of course, but this appears to be the first time for a vial of a former president's blood to do so. Regardless of such considerations, though, it's hard not to view this proposed sale without dismay.

The rightful owner of the blood residue is the president's widow. The man who now possesses the vial containing the blood ought to do the decent thing and give it to Nancy Reagan. If he declines to do so, then, whether the vial sells for 10 cents or $10,000, it will literally be blood money.

Mark Tapscott is executive editor of The Washington Examiner. Prior to becoming a journalist, he was a political appointee during President Reagan's years in the White House.