Friday, December 13, 2013

Obamacare: HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius warned about being criminally charged with obstruction of justice

One Citizen Speaking...

Obamacare: HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius warned about being criminally charged with obstruction of justice

Posted: 12 Dec 2013 04:17 PM PST

It is about time that the Congress of the United States fulfilled its duties and stops allowing the Obama Administration to stonewall their inquires in an effort to “run out the clock” on criminal liabilities and/or destroy pertinent documents. There are serious questions regarding the ability of President Obama to delay inquiries by falsely declaring “executive privilege” and shifting this matter into the courts where it may take years to litigate. There are also serious questions about President Obama’s potential use of “Presidential Pardons” to absolve any and all participants of criminal charges should they be brought by Congress.

Here is the warning shot on Obamacare. Criminal obstruction of justice is a very serious matter, and an impeachable offense …

December 11, 2013

The Honorable Kathleen Sebelius
Secretary
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
200 Independence Avenue SW
Washington, D.C. 20201

Dear Madam Secretary:

The Committee is conducting oversight of the Obama Administration's implementation
of the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as ObamaCare.

Pursuant to the Committee's oversight I requested relevant documents from several companies that contracted with the Department of Health and Human Services for work related to theHealthCare.gov website.

The Department subsequently instructed those companies not to comply with the Committee's request. The Department's hostility toward questions from Congress and the media about the implementation of ObamaCare is well known. The Department's most recent effort to stonewall, however, has morphed from mere obstinacy into criminal obstruction of a congressional investigation.

In a December 6, 2013, letter to Creative Computing Solutions, Inc. (CCSI), the Department claimed that the company is contractually precluded from producing documents to Congress. The letter further stated that the Department will respond to requests from Congress on the company's behalf. It is my understanding that CCSI was not the only contractor to receive a letter like this.

The letter to CCSI stated that the company is:

[N]ot authorized to disclose to third parties information collected or maintained by or on behalf of a federal agency, including information collected, or information produced during security testing.

* * *

If you receive a request for this information from Congress, CMS will respond directly to the requestor and will work with the requestor to address its interests in this information.

The Department's instruction not to cooperate with congressional investigators relies on language in the contract with CCSI which precludes contractors from sharing certain data with third parties. Moreover, the Department explicitly forbids the release of documents without authorization from CMS.

That argument-that the language in the contract between the Department and a private company supersedes Congress' constitutional prerogative to conduct oversight-is without merit. In fact, it strains credulity to such an extent that it creates the appearance that the Department is using the threat of litigation to deter private companies from cooperating with Congress.

The Department's attempt to threaten CCSI for the purpose of deterring the company from providing documents to Congress places the officials responsible for drafting and sending the letter on the wrong side of federal statutes that prohibit obstruction of a congressional investigation. Obstructing a Congressional investigation is a crime. Section 1505 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code states, in pertinent part:

Whoever corruptly, or by threats or force, or by any threatening letter or communication influences, obstructs, or impedes or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede the due and proper administration of the law under which any pending proceeding is being had before any department or agency of the United States, or the due and proper exercise of the power of inquiry under which any inquiry or investigation is being had by either House, or any committee of either House or any joint committee of the Congress, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 5 years or, if the offense involves international or domestic terrorism (as defined in section 2331), imprisoned not more than 8 years, or both.

The federal obstruction laws reflect the fact that Congress' right of access to information is constitutionally based and critical to the integrity and effectiveness of our oversight and investigative activities. For that reason, it is widely understood that private citizens and companies cannot contract away their duty to comply with a congressional request for documents.

Furthermore, the Department's instruction to CCSI and other contractors not to respond to congressional document requests runs afoul of a federal statute that prohibits interfering with an employees' right to furnish information to Congress. Under that statute, any effort to enforce a contract that prevents a federal employee -- or in this case, a contractor -- from communicating with Congress is unlawful.

The Committee takes any effort to obstruct or otherwise interfere with its investigations very seriously. I request that you direct all employees in your Department to cease obstructing the Committee's investigation of the implementation of the ACA through HealthCare.gov.

It is my expectation that you and your staff will have no further communication with the contractors in question regarding the Committee's requests for documents and information.

I remind you that an October 30, 2013, subpoena issued to you -- which remains in effect-- would capture the information that I requested from contractors.

The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is the principal oversight committee of the House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate "any matter" at "any time" under House Rule X.

Full letter source with footnotes and references: Oversight Committee

Bottom line …

Kathleen Sebelius should have been fired years ago when it became apparent that her department knew that the President of the United States and other top elected and appointed officials were lying to the American public in order to gather public support for unilateral legislation that was unconstitutional and passed using a “rules trick” of the Senate. There is so much corruption of the legislative process by the progressive socialist democrats, that I suggest that everyone who voted for this bill is complicit in a criminal fraud on the citizens of the United States and that there are provable damages to millions of American citizens whose lives have been disrupted by the so-called Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – whose very name is a lie. Not to mention the lobbying and special interest corruption – and the transfer of millions of dollars to political entities that are little more than community organizers for the progressive socialist democrats.

We need to toss all of the progressive socialist democrats out of office – with the exception of one of the most honest men in Congress, Bernie Sanders (I-VT) who has openly identified himself as a socialist and who caucuses with the progressive democrat socialist party. And, to pursue “truth in advertising,” perhaps we should re-label the progressive socialist democrats as the Communist Party of the United States?

-- steve

OBAMA AIDES TRYING TO KEEP OBAMA FROM APPEARING TO COMMIT AN IMPEACHABLE OFFENSE?

Posted: 12 Dec 2013 04:06 AM PST

Already President Obama’s actions have marked him as being impeachable for violating his oath of office (perjury), apparent involvement in attempts to obstruct justice by falsely claiming “executive privilege,” and various violations of the United States Constitution.

So why am I not surprised when his surrogates are trying to spin President Obama’s temporary amnesty program – which is in clear violation of existing United States laws and a usurpation of Congressional law-making powers – by claiming that President Obama is not the one committing the crime?

White House Director of Domestic Policy, Cecilia Muñoz, a radical socialist who worked as the Vice President for the Office of Research, Advocacy and Legislation at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) which disclaims the La Raza motto of “Por La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada" ["For the Race, everything, outside the Race, nothing"] …

Muñoz, however, downplayed Obama’s role in the amnesty. “The president doesn’t have the authority to suspend deportations. … That was a action by the Department of Homeland Security, and it was a use of its enforcement authority,” she claimed. <Source>

Vice President Joe Biden, gaffe-prone Obama apologist …

Vice President Joe Biden was part of the video conference, and he also played down Obama’s role: “It is not the president saying, ‘I’m changing the law, you can stay.’” “He doesn’t have the authority to say that,” Biden said. <Source>

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck …

Obama will extend amnesty for young illegals, says top White House aide
President Obama will extend his mini-amnesty for young illegals, said Cecilia Muñoz, White House director of domestic policy.
“As long as this president” is in power, “you will be able to renew your deferred action,” Muñoz told one questioner during an online question-and-answer session on immigration conducted via Skype.
So far, Obama’s deputies have granted the two-year “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” amnesty to at least 567,563 illegals, giving them the right to get jobs in every state, get drivers’ licenses in some states, to enroll in school and to receive government aid. Only 21,162 illegals have been rejected. Roughly 11 million illegals are living in the United States.
Obama’s two-year amnesty will start timing out in 2014, shortly before the midterm elections.
Munoz’s promise of another mini-amnesty may torpedo the White House’s closed-door to push the House leadership to pass a very ambitious business-backed immigration bill, similar to the bill passed by the Senate in June.

You cannot trust President Obama or his cadre of progressive socialist democrats …

Numerous GOP legislators already say they can’t strike an immigration bargain with Obama becausethey don’t trust him to enforce curbs on immigration. Also, polls show swing-votersstrongly oppose provisions to boost the inflow of foreign workers.
Obama granted the mini-amnesty even though Congress voted down similar proposals. Roughly 20 million Americans are underemployed or unemployed. Wages have been stalled for several years, and many Americans are forced to take low-skill, low-wage jobs.

At a time when legal Americans, blacks and young people are losing entry-level jobs to illegal aliens, President Obama wants to exacerbate the problem by making their employment legal …

Up to 1.9 million illegal immigrants could be given work permits under Obama’s policy, according to an August 2013 report by the Migration Policy Institute. That’s triple the original estimate of 800,000 announced by the government in June 2012. Read more at: Obama will extend amnesty for young illegals | The Daily Caller

Bottom line …

President Obama and his Congressional cohorts see absolutely nothing wrong with flooding the country with people likely to vote for progressive socialist democrats and enlarge the size and scope of government with their reliance on government entitlement and assistance programs.

The sad truth is that Barack Obama is a socialist, if not an outright communist. He is the most lawless President in history, putting Richard Nixon and his famed secrecy to shame. He has absolutely no legislative or policy experience and has apparently extended former President Bush’s policies to the nth-degree, distorting and manipulating to serve his radical progressive socialist agenda. The man cannot be trusted with the safety and security of America and Americans. He is about dividing, rather than uniting. He is about destruction rather than construction. And, he and his radical progressive socialist democrats need to be held in check by a change in Congress. We need to throw the progressive socialist democrats out of office to restore the Constitutional checks and balances provided by our Founding Fathers.

Barack Obama promised openness, transparency, and accountability. He has delivered lies, cover-ups, and inflicted pain and suffering of millions of Americans with Obamacare. Can we even begin to believe that he can control the influx of illegal aliens with an allegiance to a foreign sovereign power and re-create their ethnic Crapistan in our country.

Believe what you will – but Obama looks at the American people, smirks, and reads his lies of his TelePrompTer like any other actor playing a role.

-- steve