Insider Report
Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Obama's Mileage Standards Imposed 'Without Regard to Cost'
2. New ACLU Campaign Targets Religion in Schools
3. Iran: U.S. Missile Defense Can't Shield Israel
4. Social Security Payments Hit All-Time High
5. Report: U.S. Squanders 30 Cents of Every Medical Dollar
6. We Heard: Congress on TV, Joe Biden
1. Obama's Mileage Standards Imposed 'Without Regard to Cost'
The Obama administration has rolled out its new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards — requirements that will eventually cost Americans as much as $11,000 more per car.
The new standards, which are opposed by Mitt Romney, would boost automobile fuel standards from 29.7 miles per gallon now to 35.5 in 2016, then to 54.5 in 2025.
"These fuel standards represent the single most important step we've ever taken to reduce our dependence on foreign oil," President Barack Obama said.
"It'll strengthen our nation's energy security, it's good for middle-class families, and it will help create an economy built to last."
CAFE requires automakers to calculate average fuel economy for all the cars in their fleets. That means large vans and SUVs that get poor mileage must be offset by high-mpg sedans, electric cars and hybrids.
But a new report by the Republican House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform cited emails showing that the CAFE agreements were negotiated behind closed doors with a small group of automakers, in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act.
Referring to the tens of billions of dollars in automaker bailout money spent by the Obama administration, the report stated that "the administration's investment in GM and Chrysler gave it great leverage to force the companies to improve fuel economy without regard to cost."
Consumers, however, are likely to regard cost. According to the Center for Automotive Research, the price of a car will increase by $4,000 to $11,000 by 2025 compared to 2008 prices.
As a result, fewer people will buy new cars and the automobile industry will suffer, while prices for used cars are likely to rise.
"Fuel-saving technologies are anything but a bargain unless the price of gasoline is far higher than it is now," says economist Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of "Regulating to Disaster: How Green Jobs Policies Are Damaging America's Economy." She also served in the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush
"In Europe, where gasoline prices range from $7.25 to $8 per gallon, people buy small, fuel-efficient cars. But this is because of fuel prices, not CAFE standards."
The standards will affect safety as well, because lighter cars are more dangerous in collisions. A survey of more than 1,000 engineers by Ward's Automotive concluded that "stringent fuel economy requirements like those set for 2025 will be impossible to meet without sacrificing the safety of the vehicles."
Furchtgott-Roth points out that with the higher car prices, Americans will keep their old cars longer, and old cars generally produce more tailpipe emissions.
"If energy security is the rationale for CAFE standards, America needs to increase production of domestic oil, gas, and coal, invest in more refinery capacity, and build nuclear power plants," she adds.
"These are major components of Romney's energy plan, yet the Obama administration has been noticeably slow on all these."
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2. New ACLU Campaign Targets Religion in Schools
The South Carolina chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has launched a campaign it claims is intended to "strengthen religious freedom" in the state's public schools.
But the "Religious Freedom Goes to School" effort focuses almost entirely on what students and teachers can't do in school, not what they can do to exercise their religious freedom, conservatives complain.
The ACLU chapter says in the last two years, it has received complaints that include "in-class prayer led by teachers, the distribution of Bibles to students, prayer and scriptural readings at graduation ceremonies and athletic events, coach-organized and coach-led prayer at football practices," and "opening prayers at school board meetings."
Such activities violate the Constitution, the ACLU asserts.
The ACLU of South Carolina says it "sent letters to all public schools in the state encouraging them to review their policies relating to religion and requesting information on these policies. In addition, an online survey is available for students, families or employees who wish to report possible religious freedom violations."
An ACLU spokesman said the "Religious Freedom" campaign "aims to protect and strengthen the religious freedom rights of all students, regardless of faith or belief."
But Erin Leu, a spokesperson for Liberty Institute, complained: "One thing I noticed about the campaign is that there is a heavy focus on what the school cannot do and there's less of a focus on what the students can do for their religious rights."
Chris Gacek of the Family Research Council told CNSNews.com that the ACLU "claims neutrality, but they want a state that's secular and opposed to the inclusion of theistic messages."
"I think it represents part of an ongoing process in various ways for organizations with left-wing ideologies to exert influence and control, to gain power over the way schools are administered."
The Liberty Institute is trying to "stop the widespread assault" on religious freedom in public schools with the launch of its Angela Project, which includes the distribution of "Know Your Religious Rights" kits to students and parents.
In a statement issued before the new school year began, Liberty Institute warned: "In just a few weeks, some 45 million students across our nation will be going back to school. And that means new attacks on students' religious liberty from the ACLU, liberal judges and misinformed school and government officials."
And the Institute seeks to "stop the systematic persecution of students of faith by first educating all involved — students, parents, teachers, principals, superintendents and school boards — as to what the law actually allows regarding the free exercise of religion."
The Angela Project is named for Angela Hildenbrand, the valedictorian of her class at a high school in Castroville, Texas, who was told by a court that she could not say words such as "Lord" or "Amen" in her graduation speech prayer.
But an appeals court judge reversed that ruling and Angela was able to pray openly during her graduation speech.
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3. Iran: U.S. Missile Defense Can't Shield Israel
A top Iranian military official said Iran is set to unveil a "domestically produced" cruise missile capable of reaching Israel and being launched from land, sea, and air.
And he dismissed the U.S. deployment of missile defense systems in the region, saying they could never overpower Iranian missiles, Iran-based Press TV disclosed.
Dubbed "Meshkat," the Iranian cruise missile was announced by Deputy Defense Minister Mehdi Farahi. With a claimed range of 1,242 miles, the missile could easily reach Israeli cities, including Jerusalem, according to the Tehran-based Mehr News Agency.
Farahi told Press TV that the weapon will serve as "the upper hand of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran."
"The Meshkat cruise missile will have submarine-, ground- and air-launched properties and could also be fired from a warplane."
Farahi warned that deployment of an American missile defense system aimed at thwarting Iran won't succeed.
"We hope that nothing would happen. But if any confrontation is to take place, they will see how their claims will turn out to be groundless," he said.
The commander of the army's air defense force said earlier that Iran has built about 30 percent of a missile defense system it is developing in place of the Russian S-300 system Moscow refused to sell to the Islamic Republic.
The Iranian government has been continuing its bellicose rhetoric against Israel. In August supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei once again threatened Israel with destruction, saying he was confident "the fake Zionist [regime] will disappear from the landscape of geography."
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4. Social Security Payments Hit All-Time High
New data from the U.S. Treasury reflect the long-feared pressure on the Social Security system from growing numbers of retiring baby boomers.
By the end of August, the federal government had already paid out a record annual amount in Social Security benefits during fiscal 2012, $594.6 billion — even though there was still a month left in the fiscal year, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released on Thursday.
In August, a record 45,505,287 retired workers, their spouses and dependents were receiving Social Security benefits.
In fiscal 2011, which ended on Sept. 30, 2011, the government paid $591.4 billion in benefits from the Old Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, the most the government had ever paid in Social Security benefits in any fiscal year since the Social Security program started paying benefits in 1940.
So the government paid about $3.21 billion more in benefits in just the first 11 months of this fiscal year than it paid in all of record year 2011.
As recently as 2007, benefits totaled $479.7 billion.
The Social Security Administration in 2012 has also spent $3.1 billion in administrative expenses, and $4.1 billion to the Railroad Retirement Account, for a total of nearly $602 billion.
Payments for federal disability insurance benefits have also hit an all-time annual record in just the first 11 months of fiscal 2012.
Through the end of August, the federal government had paid $129.1 billion in benefits from the federal disability insurance trust fund. Through all of fiscal 2011, the government paid $128 billion in disability benefits.
In fiscal 2007, the figure was $97 billion.
The Social Security Administration reports that in August, a record 8.76 million American workers were collecting federal disability payments, and nearly 2.2 million spouses and children of disabled workers were collecting benefits.
That made for a record 56,291,797 Americans in August receiving Social Security or disability benefits, up from the previous record of 56,188,736 set in July.
Outlays for Social Security retirement and disability payments so far this fiscal year total about $723.7 billion, more than the $601 billion spent by the Department of Defense.
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5. Report: U.S. Squanders 30 Cents of Every Medical Dollar
The American healthcare system wastes more than $750 billion a year — about 30 cents of every medical dollar — through unneeded care, paperwork, fraud and other waste, according to a new report from the Institute of Medicine.
The influential Institute, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, is an independent organization that advises the government, and its report was prepared by an 18-member panel including doctors, business people, and public officials.
The report identifies six major areas of waste: unnecessary services ($210 billion a year squandered), excessive administrative costs ($190 billion), inefficient delivery of care ($130 billion), inflated prices ($105 billion), fraud ($75 billion), and prevention failures ($55 billion).
The $750 billion a year wasted is equal to more than 10 years of Medicare cuts called for by Obamacare.
Inefficiencies also cause needless suffering, according to the panel. By one estimate, 75,000 deaths might have been averted in one recent year if every state had delivered care at the quality level of the best performing state.
"American healthcare is falling short on basic dimensions of quality, outcomes, costs and equity," the report stated.
To illustrate the inefficiency of American healthcare, the report said that if home building were like healthcare, carpenters, electricians and others would work from different blueprints. If shopping were like healthcare, prices would not be posted and could vary widely within the same store, depending on who was paying.
"The threats to Americans' health and economic security are clear and compelling, and it's time to get all hands on deck," said panel chairman Mark D. Smith, president and CEO of the California HealthCare Foundation.
"Our healthcare system lags in its ability to adapt, affordably meet patients' needs, and consistently achieve better outcomes. But we have the know-how and technology to make substantial improvement on costs and quality."
Among the suggestions from the panel: Improve coordination among different service providers, reform payments to reward quality instead of reimbursing after each procedure, use technology to reinforce sound clinical decisions, and educate patients to become better consumers.
"It's a huge hill to climb, and we're not going to get out of this overnight," said Smith.
"The good news is that the very common notion that quality will suffer if less money is spent is simply not true. That should reassure people that the conversation about controlling costs is not necessarily about reducing quality."
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6. We Heard…
THAT Sen. John McCain leads all members of Congress in appearances on Sunday news shows so far this year.
The Arizona Republican has appeared a total of 15 times, including four times on "Meet the Press," three times each on "Face the Nation" and "State of the Union," and twice on "This Week," according to figures from Roll Call last updated on Sept. 11.
The GOP vice presidential candidate, Rep. Paul Ryan, has appeared 13 times, and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz leads all Democrats with 10 appearances.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Reps. Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann, and Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, have all appeared at least seven times.
THAT Vice President Joe Biden misspoke again during an appearance at an Ohio school, mixing up his "states" while addressing a university crowd.
He said: "That's why for those of you struggling to send your kid to school or to college or to keep your kid in a college, whether that's a community college or a Wayne State University."
Unfortunately, Biden was speaking at Wright State, not Wayne State.
The crowd shouted "Wright State," and Biden corrected himself.
Wright State is located in Dayton, Ohio, while Wayne State is about 230 miles away in Detroit.
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