United Liberty

Below is a collection of several links that we didn’t get around to writing about, but still wanted to post for readers to examine. The stories typically range from news about prominent figures in the liberty movement, national politics, the nanny state, foreign policy and free markets.

• U.S. Twitter Subpoena Is Harassment, Lawyer Says (Bloomberg)
• Assange expects ‘Guantanamo’ or ‘death’ if extradited (The Daily Caller)
• U.S. watchdog for Afghanistan contracting resigns (McClatchy DC)
• In Kabul, Biden promises U.S. support beyond 2014 (Washington Post)
• New York City Puts Salt On The Chopping Block (NPR)
• Restaurants could be food stamp option for some (North County Times)
• Fred Upton, Rust Belt revolutionary (Washington Post)
• The Limits of Libertarianism (The American Conservative)

Below is a collection of several links that we didn’t get around to writing about, but still wanted to post for readers to examine. The stories typically range from news about prominent figures in the liberty movement, national politics, the nanny state, foreign policy and free markets.

Not long after Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) told the media that House Republicans would hold a vote to to repeal ObamaCare before the State of the Union, incoming-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor announced that they would bring the legislation to the floor on Wednesday, January 12th:

House Republicans plan to fulfill a campaign promise and hold a vote next week on repealing the healthcare reform law.

The incoming House majority leader, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), announced Monday that the vote will take place on Jan. 12, one week after Republicans take control of the House.

Republicans posted the two-page legislation Monday night on the website of the House Rules Committee, in keeping with their pledge to post bills at least 72 hours before they come to the floor for a vote. A procedural vote on the bill will occur Friday, Cantor’s office said.

GOP leaders pledged to “repeal and replace” the healthcare law, but the House will not vote on a separate replacement bill next week. Instead, lawmakers will consider a resolution that instructs three committees to report healthcare legislation. The resolution sets 12 goals for the bill, including lowering healthcare costs and premiums, increasing the number of insured Americans and “to provide people with pre-existing conditions access to affordable health coverage” - a key, popular element of the Democratic healthcare law. The bill, according to the resolution, must not “accelerate the insolvency of entitlement programs or increase the tax burden on Americans.”

With the 112th Congress set to convene in just a few days and tax hikes on pharmaceutical companies and new restrictions on health savings accounts (HSAs) as a result of the law passed last March took effect at the beginning of the new year, Republicans are promising a legislative assault on ObamaCare before the President Barack Obama gives the State of the Union at the end of the month:

“We have 242 Republicans,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.” He added, “There will be a significant number of Democrats, I think, that will join us. You will remember when that vote passed in the House last March, it only passed by seven votes.”

Upton, whose committee will play a key role in the GOP’s effort to roll back the law, said that he believes the House may be near the two-thirds majority required to override a presidential veto.

“If we pass this bill with a sizeable vote, and I think that we will, it will put enormous pressure on the Senate to do perhaps the same thing,” he said. “But then, after that, we’re going to go after this bill piece by piece.”

Upton specifically called out the requirement for businesses to complete 1099 tax forms, the individual mandate and the amendment on abortion introduced by Michigan Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak. “We will look at these individual pieces to see if we can’t have the thing crumble,” he said.