Nov. 26, 2019
Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.
Hunter Biden may have to pay back the millions he made, which were stolen from the people of Ukraine, under U.S. law
Once the
Democrats and their quislings inside the bureaucracy learned that the President
was looking into the Ukrainian natural gas company, Burisma, accused of
stealing from the Ukrainian government during the Viktor Yanukovych
administration, that had funneled millions to Hunter Biden, they knew they were
in trouble. You see, Hunter Biden could owe the millions he made in Ukraine
from Burisma back to the people of Ukraine. Under 22 U.S.C. Section 8904(a):
“The Secretary of State, in coordination with the Attorney General and the
Secretary of the Treasury, shall assist, on an expedited basis as appropriate,
the Government of Ukraine to identify, secure, and recover assets linked to acts
of corruption by Viktor Yanukovych, members of his family, or other former or
current officials of the Government of Ukraine or their accomplices in any
jurisdiction through appropriate programs….” Ukraine has expanded his office
looking at the theft by Burisma and the company’s head, Mykola Zlochevsky, of
stealing $33 million from the country’s central bank. The monies are all
fungible, so it is likely Biden profited from this alleged theft while at
Burisma, even if it was years later. Were it just using the office of the
Vice-President to protect his son’s highly questionable “business dealings,” it
would have been bad enough. But now we learn that Hunter and another scion of
the elite were neck deep in the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility
(TALF) program, as Rosemont Capital benefitted from the program to the tune of
$130 million. The Bidens should give the money back.
Cartoon: Misgivings
Happy
Thanksgiving from Elizabeth Warren and Mitt Romney.
Video: John Bolton thinks presidents can end treaties w/ allies, but not military aid to non-treaty allies?
Former National
Security Advisor John Bolton and the State Department have all taken the position
that presidents can terminate treaties under their inherent executive power under
Article II of the Constitution, even with military allies. But when it comes to
ending or even reviewing military aid to Ukraine, a non-treaty ally, the
administrative state wants to say the President lacks legal authority.
Surprise medical billing should be addressed by independent neutral third party boards, not price fixing
If you have ever
used an out-of-network medical provider under your health insurance, whether
for an emergency or just for additional services, it is possible you have
received a surprise medical billing, often costing far more than if the
provider had been in-network. It can even happen if you’re at an in-network
facility but the physician was out-of-network. Fortunately, there are
alternatives to government rate setting. U.S. Rep. Phil Roe (R-Texas) has a
bill that would address the issue of surprise medical billing utilizing neutral
third parties, called independent dispute resolution. Sens. Bill Cassidy
(R-La.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) have similar legislation in the Senate. This
approach is used in states as diverse as Texas and New York, with great success
and lets patients focus on their lives. In states where this is not the case, patients
are often left to be the ones to resolve billing disputes by acting as a
go-between for doctors and insurance companies.
Hunter Biden may have to pay back the millions he made, which were stolen from the people of Ukraine, under U.S. law
By Bill Wilson
The one, overriding impression that Democrats, media and the left have left on many Americans after two weeks of the “impeachment” circus” is not what they intended. They have left the unmistakable impression of fear; near-panic levels of terror. And from what is now seeping out, they have every reason to feel this way.
You see, their con-game is about to be exposed. The merciless corruption and venal disregard for the American people that has become their entire operating model is on the verge of being dragged through the streets for all to see and ridicule.
At every turn, the true matter before the nation is becoming more and more obvious – the deep and systemic corruption that the Obama administration imposed on America, the disdain of the American people by the globalist elite, and the desperation to hide the facts from the public even at the cost of the legitimacy America’s most central institutions.
The list is long. From the vile action of the communist-supporting John Brennan of Obama’s CIA to the likely criminal “leadership” of the FBI under Comey, to the globalist hit-squad at the State Department, the picture is one of arrogant disregard for the law, an almost adolescent rebellion against the nation that has given them so much. And while the list of violators is long, it is fitting that the crux of the current debate starts with the outright, open corruption of the Biden family, especially Hunter Biden.
Hunter Biden is the essence of the modern leftist movement; self-important, narcissistic to the extreme and greedy beyond words. Once the Democrats and their quislings inside the bureaucracy learned that the President was looking into the Ukrainian natural gas company, Burisma, accused of stealing from the Ukrainian government during the Viktor Yanukovych administration, that had funneled millions to Hunter Biden, they knew they had to double down. And in classic fashion, Democrats and the left have engaged in an orgy of casting accusations against other people of their own worst crimes.
Hunter Biden could owe the millions he made in Ukraine from Burisma back to the people of Ukraine as a part of an asset recovery process under U.S. law. Under 22 U.S.C. Section 8904(a): “The Secretary of State, in coordination with the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Treasury, shall assist, on an expedited basis as appropriate, the Government of Ukraine to identify, secure, and recover assets linked to acts of corruption by Viktor Yanukovych, members of his family, or other former or current officials of the Government of Ukraine or their accomplices in any jurisdiction through appropriate programs, including the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative of the Department of Justice.”
And now we know the new Ukrainian Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka has expanded his office looking at the theft by Burisma and the company’s head, Mykola Zlochevsky, of stealing $33 million from the country’s central bank. The monies are all fungible, so it is likely Biden profited from this alleged theft while at Burisma, even if it was years later. It looks like he was hired to keep this investigation from happening, so giving the money back is the least the younger Biden could do.
Were it just using the office of the Vice-President to protect his son’s highly questionable “business dealings,” it would have been bad enough. But now we learn that Hunter and another scion of the elite were neck deep in the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) program, as Rosemont Capital benefitted from the program to the tune of $130 million.
TALF is the very definition of corporatist theft, a scheme hatched in the early days of the Obama regime that funneled tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars to favored actors of the political class.
The scam worked like this. A group of “approved” investors went to failing banks and bought asset-based securities. The “investors” would put up as little as 5 percent of the purchase price while the Federal Reserve — the taxpayers — paid the rest. But over the course of the term of the security, 100 percent of the payments went to the investors, nothing to the public. And when the deals failed — when the income did not support repayment of the loan, the investors were allowed to just walk away, pay nothing!
It was a license to loot. And ole Hunter was in on the deal from Day One. "This is a great example of the suspicion of many Americans that these bailouts were used to benefit connected insiders while ordinary Americans went broke," said Tom Anderson, director of the Government Integrity Project at the National Legal and Policy Center, an organization that was critical of TALF at the time.
The establishment powers that be do not want the American people to get a clear view of the depth of corruption that has infected our nation — under both Democrat and Republican administrations. That is what the impeachment scam is all about – a massive cover-up of a system that is in free-fall, Love him or hate him, nobody can deny that the great contribution of Donald Trump has been — and God willing will continue to be — the exposure of this venality.
Hunter Biden should be made to pay back any money he got from Rosemont that depended on U.S. taxpayers, and any money he got from Burisma, which was stolen from the people of Ukraine. As the circus continues into the next act, everyone should remember that none of this is about Donald Trump. This is an excise of self-loathing by a corrupt establishment best exemplified by the Biden mob.
Bill Wilson is the President of the Market Research Foundation and a former board member and former President of Americans for Limited Government
Cartoon: Misgivings
By A.F. Branco
Click here for a higher level resolution version.
Video: John Bolton thinks presidents can end treaties w/ allies, but not military aid to non-treaty allies?
To view online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFXII0hpenE
Surprise medical billing should be addressed by independent neutral third party boards, not price fixing
By Robert Romano
If you have ever used an out-of-network medical provider under your health insurance, whether for an emergency or just for additional services, it is possible you have received a surprise medical billing, often costing far more than if the provider had been in-network. It can even happen if you’re at an in-network facility but the physician was out-of-network.
President Donald Trump said in May that he is committed to ending the practice.
Unfortunately, some of the solutions being pursued by House Democrats under House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) are anything but, and instead will result in onerous government rate setting for out-of-network providers, which can do a lot more harm than good. California has a similar law.
Shant H. Garabedian, D.O., an emergency medical physician, writing for the Tennessean on Aug. 30, finds that the Alexander proposal “would establish set rates for physician reimbursement also known as benchmarking — a solution supported by the insurance lobby. His proposal would allow insurance companies to set physician payment prices by cancelling previously negotiated contracts and essentially forcing physicians into new contracts with unsustainably low rates.”
The result? More hospital closures in Tennessee (and everywhere else), which is already a major problem, making it impossible for residents to reach a hospital in time when there’s a real emergency and every minute counts. These days, physician shortages are becoming a greater problem as well, especially for rural communities.
Fortunately, there are alternatives to the Alexander approach. U.S. Rep. Phil Roe (R-Texas) has a bill that would address the issue of surprise medical billing utilizing neutral third parties, called independent dispute resolution. Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) have similar legislation in the Senate.
This approach is used in states as diverse as Texas and New York, with great success and lets patients focus on their lives, instead patients are often left to be the ones to resolve billing disputes by acting as a go-between for doctors and insurance companies.
A third party board would take the issue out of the hands of the insurance companies, whose goal is to have the government regulate prices, driving medical providers out of business, and create a competitive, negotiated price system.
Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning issued a statement favoring the independent third party solution: “The problem of surprise medical billing has become a hot topic in Washington, D.C. but government rate setting is an unacceptable solution. When there’s a dispute between doctors and insurance companies, patients should not have to resolve it, which is why Congress and the Trump administration should consider an approach that institutes an independent, neutral, third party system for billing dispute resolution that will put patient needs first. That way, families can focus on their care rather than completing bureaucratic tasks just to access benefits, or worse being stuck with a surprise billing that cannot be paid.”
Manning concluded, “When New York and Texas agree on something, then perhaps it might just be a common sense, bipartisan solution that can be used to address surprise medical billing.”
Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.
