Elon Musk emailed Obama EPA director on her pseudonym account, begging director for special help

From John Fund at Fox News:

. . . But on December 13, 2012 the EPA’s assistant inspector general announced he would conduct an audit into Jackson’s use of private email accounts under the alias “Richard Windsor” to conduct official government business. 

Chris Horner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute had brought a lawsuit to make 12,000 of Jackson’s “alias” emails public. Before that could happen, Jackson announced she would be leaving office on December 27, 2012 – apparently with the strong private encouragement of the White House. 

It took three more years of litigation to get all of Jackson’s private emails released. We now know that her alias email accounts were her prime method of doing business. 

One of the more infamous emails involved the billionaire inventor and businessman Elon Musk begging Jackson on her false-identity account for an emergency assist for his already heavily subsidized Tesla Motors. Musk wanted Jackson’s EPA to give Tesla a “certificate of conformity” that other companies had to formally apply for. 

Jackson quickly brought in top EPA aides, asking “what can be done?” Within hours, the certificate was approved and Jackson wrote to her senior aides: “Done. Elon replied to say thank you.” . . .

Even the New York Times notes that Obama's unilateral decision making is drawing all the lobbyists to the White House

Big surprise here.  If the president has all the poser because he can make laws on his own, why should lobbyists bother with Congress.  From the New York Times:

. . . the process of drafting what will likely be the only significant immigration changes of his presidency — and his most consequential use of executive power — has been conducted almost entirely behind closed doors, where lobbyists and interest groups invited to the White House are making their case out of public view.

Mr. Obama’s increasingly expansive appetite for the use of unilateral action on issues including immigration, tax policy and gay rights has emboldened activists and businesses to flock to the administration with their policy wish lists. It also has opened the president, already facing charges of executive overreach, to criticism that he is presiding over opaque policy-making, with the potential to reward political backers at the expense of other interests, including some on the losing side who are threatening to sue. 

“We look at what they’ve been doing with executive action and are deeply concerned, and have focused a lot of our energies on how we can roll back these things,” said Geoff Burr, the vice president of federal affairs for Associated Builders and Contractors, whose member companies do 60 percent of federal construction jobs. 

Mr. Burr said an executive order issued by Mr. Obama last month that would block companies with a history of workplace violations from receiving federal contracts had prompted his group to contemplate “the virtues of a litigation strategy.” . . .

Apparently, Obama thinks it is OK for him to unilaterally make these changes because he is now talking to others about his changes.

White House officials say Mr. Obama has been inclusive as he looks to wield his authority, reaching out to an array of lawmakers, experts and business leaders for a wide range of perspectives to inform his plans for executive actions. . . .

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen on the hot seat

In response to Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa asking about IRS Commissioner John Koskinen's earlier promise to the committee in March to turn over all documents.
Koskinen engages in some amazing double talk about what he meant by his promise that there would be no problems with him turning over all the promised emails: "I never said that I would provide you emails that we didn't have."

Ending Democracy in the US?: Evidence of Obama's corruption in using IRS to destroy political enemies becomes too much to ignore

At this point the evidence clearly points to political appointees in Washington, DC coordinating the IRS to target conservatives.  The fact that the Obama administration has just as clearly hid this information and also stymied investigations at every possible point is evidence of what lawyers would call "a guilty mind."  Using the power of government to destroy his political enemies is surely what happens with governments move towards dictatorship.  In this case, with the IRS not granting tax exempt status to conservative groups, it made it much harder for Obama's opponents to organize and raise money.  Who knows how much of a difference this made in the 2012 elections, but the Obama administration was apparently willing to take a huge political risk so they must have throughout that this was important for them to do.

Without competitive elections and government putting its heavy hand on one side of the scale, those in power can pretend that they live in a democracy without actually living in one.

Fox News has some of the new emails that have just been released available here.  From Mediaite:

The Daily Beast columnist Kirsten Powers suggested that Congress simply submit Freedom of Information Act requests when they ask the administration to release documents. “It’s kind of hard to believe that they couldn’t have figured out that D.C. was involved in this,” she added.
“It gives lie to the administration claim that this had nothing to do with the election, nothing to do with targeting opponents of the administration,” Krauthammer submitted.
“This is a major abuse of power,” he continued. “They covered up for two years and now they say, ‘Hey, dude, two year old story.’ So it’s old news.”
He concluded by asking if the media would cover the story as he saw it, evidence of the White House “misleading America and covering it up.” . . .

Note that one of the articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon included his alleged misuse of the IRS. Article 2 of the Articles of Impeachment was carefully framed to charge that Nixon “endeavored to obtain from the Internal Revenue Service, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, confidential information contained in income tax returns for purposes not authorized by law, and to cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigation to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner.”

The key word here is "endeavored."  Nixon's efforts with the IRS were clearly disturbing, but they were also remarkably unsuccessful.  In University of Wisconsin–Madison historian Stanley Kutler's history of Watergate entitled "The Wars of Watergate," he mentions only one person who was audited for three years: Washington Post attorney Edward Bennett Williams.  Information had been acquired on others, but nothing was apparently done with it.  Indeed, Nixon's White House complained about their inability to do what they wanted.  For example, Nixon henchman Jack Caulfield noted that the IRS was a “monstrous bureaucracy…dominated and controlled by Democrats.”

What do Democrats know about what will happen to the Keystone Pipeline that they aren't publicly telling others?

I know that this article hits the corruption issue, but the other issue is whether Senator Kaine knows something about whether Obama is going to ever approve the pipeline.  Has Obama let a former DNC chair in on some inside information?  From Fox News:

Democrats who oppose the Keystone XL pipeline have thousands of dollars invested in direct competitors to the company looking to build the pipeline, public records show. 

A recent environmental assessment by the State Department was seen as a step toward the pipeline’s approval, but Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., remains opposed to its construction.
“In my view, there is now enough evidence to conclude that construction of this pipeline is not in America’s long-term interest,” Kaine said in a statement on the review. 

The freshman Democrat has between $15,000 and $50,000 invested in Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, according to his most recent financial disclosure. Kinder Morgan is looking to build a pipeline that would directly compete with Keystone. 

Kinder Morgan is considering expanding its Canadian pipeline infrastructure with an expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline, which carries oil sands crude from Alberta to refineries and export terminals on Canada’s west coast. . . .

Obama setting record rate of appointing campaign donors to ambassadorial posts

From Fox News:

. . . A string of gaffes by some of his recent nominees has thrust the Washington practice of appointing donors to foreign posts back into the spotlight. The administration faced difficult questions from the press last week, for instance, after Obama's nominee to Argentina admitted he'd never been there.  

But a look back at how Obama's appointments stack up to those of his predecessors shows it's not just business as usual -- if anything, the current president is using diplomatic gigs to reward bundlers and contributors seemingly more than ever.  

The American Foreign Service Association, which tracks ambassadorial appointments, has found that in Obama's second term, more than 53 percent of these appointments were political. Less than half have come from the career Foreign Service pool.  

"Obama is pushing the envelope," Christian Whiton, former State Department adviser in the George W. Bush administration, told Fox News.  

The United States is just about the only major democracy that still uses diplomatic posts to routinely reward political friends. Historically, less than a third of these appointments have been political in nature. Under former President Bill Clinton, 28 percent were political; under former President George W. Bush, that number was 30 percent.
Under Obama, the number has climbed to 37 percent overall. By the time he leaves office, it could well be higher. . . .

Greta Van Susteren: Obama should spend his own money on giving his wife a birthday gift, especially when it costs $800,000

Corporate donors give to Democrat think tank in hopes of buying political protection

So much for the notion that corporations are conservative, they are interested in making profits and that depends more and more on political decisions.  From the WSJ:

President Obama is calling in the political cavalry, notably John Podesta, who was Bill Clinton’s White House chief of staff before he became America’s most powerful unelected liberal by founding the Center for American Progress. So it’s instructive to inspect the list of corporate donors that Mr. Podesta’s think tank released last month.
Mr. Podesta founded the alternative to the Heritage Foundation in 2003, but it has long resisted disclosing its donor list. The motivation to do so now seems to be that it would be embarrassing to keep mum amid the current Democratic political campaign against businesses that give to conservative candidates or causes. All the more so with Mr. Podesta in the West Wing. . . .
Whatever the motive, the list of 58 corporate donors is revealing about the ways of the modern regulatory state. It certainly blows apart the myth that corporate America is “conservative” in any modern political sense of that word. It’s more accurate to say that Fortune FT.T +8.00% 500 CEOs think they must buy political protection from the left. So it’s no surprise to see the list is heavily weighted toward the most politicized parts of the economy.
Health insurers are there in force (eight), befitting their new role as public health utilities. That includes the insurance lobby, America’s Health Insurance Plans, whose silence amid the make-it-up-as-you-go start of the ObamaCare shows it is now essentially a business partner of the Obama Administration. . . .

Did the Obama administration doctor unemployment data to help him win reelection?

For the Obama administration to have done something this outrageous rand this dangerous, they must have believed this data made a difference in the presidential race.  I had been asked by reporters about whether the unemployment data was rigged, but I said that I couldn't believe that was the case because it would eventually be detected and the consequences of being caught would be tremendous.  From The Hill:

“The allegation that data gathered by the Census Bureau is being manipulated for any reason is extremely serious. The Oversight Committee has jurisdiction over the Census Bureau and will be thoroughly investigating these claims,” he said in a statement. 

Farenthold chairs the Oversight subcommittee with jurisdiction over the census. A bureau representative did not respond to a request for comment. 

The unemployment rate is calculated by the Labor Department based on survey data of 60,000 households, conducted by the bureau. 

The Post report claimed that a census employee fabricated data for survey respondents he could not contact. The employee, Julius Buckmon, told the publication he was told to do so by superiors, and the report claims there were multiple employees doing the same. . . .

Obama administration pressing insurance companies not to release exchange signup numbers

There has already been plenty of news regarding Obama administration pressure on companies.  Previously they were pressuring companies not to talk about the data errors in the system.  Now comes word of more pressure on companies not to release the number of people signing up for the program.  From INFORUM:

The Obama administration asked North Dakota’s largest health insurer not to publicize how many people have signed up for health insurance through a new online exchange, a company official says. 

During a Monday forum in Fargo for people interested in signing up for coverage via the exchange, James Nichol of Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota told the crowd his company received the request from the federal government earlier Monday. Nichol is a consumer sales manager for the company. 

Still, a spokeswoman from Blue Cross Blue Shield says about 14 North Dakotans have signed up for coverage since the federal exchange went live Oct. 1. That brings total statewide enrollment to 20 – less than one a day. . . . 

An official from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, one of the main the federal agencies handling the federal marketplace, would not directly address questions about the request made of Blue Cross Blue Shield, including whether other insurers were also asked to keep quiet about enrollment. . . .

Obama intimidation of companies they regulate, thuggish behavior and corruption

Who knows what these insurance companies really believe.  Everyone is upset about IRSgate, but that is only the tip of the iceberg.  It is also an argument for why government shouldn't have this much power because that power will be abused.  From the Wall Street Journal:  

Health-department officials have pressured insurers to refrain from commenting publicly about the problems, according to executives at four health plans, who asked not to be named. . . . .

Two weeks ago I was talking to a fairly prominent person in the health care industry and he told me that Kathleen Sebelius was again pressuring health care companies that her department regulates to make donations to help out Obamacare.  The above quote was actually in reference to companies not 

Emerging errors include duplicate enrollments, spouses reported as children, missing data fields and suspect eligibility determinations, say executives at more than a dozen health plans. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Nebraska said it had to hire temporary workers to contact new customers directly to resolve inaccuracies in submissions. Medical Mutual of Ohio said one customer had successfully signed up for three of its plans. 

The flaws could do lasting damage to the law if customers are deterred from signing up or mistakenly believe they have obtained coverage. 

"The longer this takes to resolve…the harder it will be to get people to [come back and] sign up," said Aetna Inc. Chief Executive Mark Bertolini. "It's not off to a great start," he said, though he believes the marketplaces are "here to stay." . . .

If companies can't comment publicly about what they really believe about Obamacare, what else can they not comment on?

From CBS News:

Corruption: White House discussed closing monuments with Park Service Director

One might think that this would be big news.  Using government resources for purely political goals seems like corruption to me.

REP. JOHN MICA (R-Fla.): I think nothing has resonated more with the public than to see an open-air monument such as the World War Two memorial, and closeby, the Martin Luther King memorial. It just seems that common sense did not prevail. Did you, now, you aid you take full responsibility for that action, is that correct? 

JONATHAN JARVIS, NPS DIRECTOR: That's correct. 

MICA: And did you discuss this with the Secretary of Interior at any time? 

JARVIS: Yes I did. 

MICA: And did she -- you didn't discuss it with anyone in the White House, did you? 

JARVIS: Several times on the phone with the White House, I presented, with the Secretary, my decision. But it was never the reverse. There was never information coming in. 

MICA: So you discussed with officials in the White House, your action, and you also discussed it with her.

A giant political slush fund for Democrats that will have real privacy concerns: Obamacare navigators

Money to "community groups" and "advocates" sure seems like From The Hill newspaper:

. . . The Health and Human Services Department (HHS) announced $67 million in funding for “navigators,” which are people and community groups who will help people make sense of their options under the healthcare law. 

HHS had initially said navigators would receive $54 million in grants, but officials said they pulled an extra $13 million from the healthcare law’s prevention fund to help broaden the reach of the program. 

“Navigators will be among the many resources available to help consumers understand their coverage options in the marketplace,” HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a press release. “A network of volunteers on the ground in every state — health care providers, business leaders, faith leaders, community groups, advocates, and local elected officials — can help spread the word and encourage their neighbors to get enrolled.” 

All told, more than 100 organizations in 34 states received grants on Thursday. . . .

Meanwhile, this ramp up is cutting corners on security, which was probably too weak in any case.  Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi set off the alarm on Friday.

Bondi said that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is making it easier for someone to be hired as a so-called navigator, cutting back on background checks and eliminating a fingerprinting requirement, which could make it easier for a person’s private information to fall into the wrong hands. 

“Because of time constraints, HHS [is] cutting back on the requirement to become a navigator, meaning they're not going to be doing background checks. They're not going to be fingerprinting these people,” said Bondi in an interview with Fox. 

“And it's more than navigators. It's people that assist the navigators. Now, these navigators will have our consumers throughout the country's most personal and private information — tax return information, Social Security information. And our biggest fear, of course, is identity theft.” . . .

Note also the earlier information on how these "navigators" will be given access to the data hub with all sorts of sensitive information.

The massive, centralized database will include comprehensive personal information such as income and financial data, family size, citizenship and immigration status, incarceration status, social security numbers, and private health information. It will compile dossiers based on information obtained from the IRS, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the Veterans Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, the Social Security Administration, state Medicaid databases, and for some reason the Peace Corps. The Data Hub will provide web-based, one-stop shopping for prying into people’s personal affairs. . . . 

The hub will be used on a daily basis by so-called Navigators . . . .

Obama uses taxpayer dollars to fund left-wing labor protestors?

It looks like the Obama administration helped give this labor union group some seed money to help get it started.  From Reason magazine:

Labor activists using tactics adopted from the Occupy Wall Street movement are crashing restaurants across the nation in an effort to raise wages for workers – and they’re getting taxpayer money to fund the effort. . . . 

According to tax filings for ROC United, the parent organization that has launched the smaller chapters operating in many cities, the group got $180,000 in government grants during 2010 and another $60,000 in similar grants during 2011. 

The organization’s budget was about $1.72 million in 2010 and $2.65 million in 2011 – meaning taxpayer dollars accounted for a little more than 5 percent of their operating costs.  

Other funding for ROC’s initiatives comes from the usual left-wing sources, including grants from the Tides Foundation, a group that also gets tax dollars from the federal government, as a previous Watchdog.org investigation uncovered.. . .

How government corrupts even how companies raise money for projects

Democratic Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe figured out how to raise money for this "green" car company: get approval for foreigners to get US citizenship in exchange for $500,000 investments.  He apparently had no problem name dropping important Democrats to put pressure on bureaucrats to expedite the approval process.  You have to wonder how strong an investment is when you have to get them this type of government favors in return for the investment.  Possibly it isn't too surprising that McAuliffe's car company had been a bust.  Given that this was occurring during the Obama administration, it also raising additional questions of corruption involving other Democrats.  From the Associated Press:

The electric-car company headed until last fall by Democratic Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe and a sister company led by the brother of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are under federal scrutiny over how they used a foreign investor visa program.

. . . The inquiry is related to their use of a Department of Homeland Security program that grants permanent residency to foreign investors who invest $500,000 or more in economically struggling areas for ventures that create American jobs. . . .

"I have been extremely frustrated by the USCIS approval process," McAuliffe wrote to Doug Smith, a Homeland Security assistant secretary on July 28, 2010. "You should be aware that Senator Warner and other Members of Congress have made inquiries on this project." . . .

Years' worth of emails and other correspondence between McAuliffe and other GreenTech executives and Virginia Economic Development Partnership first reported by AP in December showed that VEDP staff under Democratic and Republican governors showed company officials a variety of sites in economically depressed Virginia regions. But the Virginia officials never got answers to questions about company operations and became skeptical of the investments-for-visas EB-5 program as a cornerstone of GreenTech's financing.

The Obama administration scandal that is being ignored, Kathleen Sebelius pressured firms she regulated for donations

The Obama administration is arguing that Sebelius' behavior was perfectly legal.  After all, who would be concerned about government officials calling up and pressuring the companies that they regulate for donations?  Fortunately, Republicans are giving this some attention.  From Fox News:

Congressional Republicans on Thursday escalated their call for an independent investigation into whether Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius broke the law when she sought donations from private companies for an independent ObamaCare project.  

Three top Senate Republicans wrote a letter to the HHS inspector general asking his office to launch a probe. It follows a previous GOP call for a review by another internal watchdog, the Government Accountability Office.  

At issue is Sebelius' effort to solicit donations and other assistance from various charities and executives for a nonprofit group that is helping sign up people for benefits under the federal health care overhaul.  

HHS argues the practice was legal, since the Public Health Services Act allows a secretary to seek funding for nonprofits operating in public health.  . . .

Obamacare as Democrats own private piggy bank to fund political causes?

Stuart Taylor has a tough piece here on additional abuses in Obamacare. From Forbes:

A little-noticed part of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act channels some $12.5 billion into a vaguely defined “Prevention and Public Health Fund” over the next decade–and some of that money is going for everything from massage therapists who offer “calming techniques,” to groups advocating higher state and local taxes on tobacco and soda, and stricter zoning restrictions on fast-food restaurants.

The program, which is run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has raised alarms among congressional critics, who call it a “slush fund,” because the department can spend the money as it sees fit and without going through the congressional appropriations process. The sums involved are vast. By 2022, the department will be able to spend $2 billion per year at its sole discretion. In perpetuity. . . .

Storm gathering to force Eric Holder to resign

From Jake Tapper at CNN:

The House Judiciary Committee is investigating whether Attorney General Eric Holder lied to Congress earlier this month, according to CNN's chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash.
"In regard to potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material – this is not something I've ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be wise policy," Holder testified before Congress on May 15.
But some are pointing out that the attorney general would have signed off on a search warrant on Fox News reporter James Rosen's personal email account. The search warrant was obtained in part because there was probable cause to believe Rosen had broken a law or acted "at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator."
"The Department of Justice has really overstepped the bounds,"said First Amendment expert Floyd Abrams, author of upcoming book "Friend of the Court: On the Front Lines with the First Amendment."
"Accusing a reporter of being a criminal, of violating the espionage act no less, for doing nothing more or less than asking questions of a government official ... That's usually called journalism, not espionage," said Abrams. . . .

Jonathan Turley has this op-ed in USA Today:

In the end, Holder was the best witness against his continuing in office. His insistence that he did nothing was a telling moment. The attorney general has done little in his tenure to protect civil liberties or the free press. Rather, Holder has supervised a comprehensive erosion of privacy rights, press freedom and due process. This ignoble legacy was made possible by Democrats who would look at their shoes whenever the Obama administration was accused of constitutional abuses.  

On Thursday, Obama responded to the outcry over the AP and Fox scandals by calling for an investigation by ... you guessed it ... Eric Holder. He ordered Holder to meet with news media representatives to hear their "concerns" and report back to him. He sent his old sin eater for a confab with the very targets of the abusive surveillance. Such an inquiry offers no reason to trust its conclusions.The feeble response was the ultimate proof that these are Obama's sins despite his effort to feign ignorance. It did not matter that Holder is the sin eater who has lost his stomach or that such mortal sins are not so easily digested. Indeed, these sins should be fatal for any attorney general.

From Fox News:

“It seems to me clear that the actions of the department have in fact impaired the First Amendment,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said earlier this month. “Reporters who might have previously believed that a confidential source would speak to them would no longer have that level of confidence.” . . . 

On the other side of the aisle, liberal pundit Bill Press has joined in the call to remove Holder, tweeting that he should be fired. 

Joe Trippi, a Democratic strategist and Fox News contributor, said what makes the recent criticism different from the Republican-led grilling over Fast and Furious, which was linked to the fatal shooting of a U.S. Border Patrol agent, is the bipartisan outcry.
“You're starting to see Democrats join Republicans to call for (Holder's) resignation,” Trippi said. “Whenever you see both sides doing that, it means there's real trouble. It doesn't mean he's in trouble of having to be forced out or resigned yet. It means it's a lot more serious than other events he's had to take on.” . . . 

More on how the Obama administration uses government power to target its political enemies

Nixon may have had his enemies list, but Nixon had nothing on Obama in the number of government agencies that he was willing to use and the lengths that he was willing to go in harming those he disagreed with.  From Investors' Business Daily:

The inexplicable raid nearly two years ago on a guitar maker for using allegedly illegal wood that its competitors also used was another targeting by this administration of its political enemies.
On Aug. 24, 2011, federal agents executed four search warrants on Gibson Guitar Corp. facilities in Nashville and Memphis, Tenn., and seized several pallets of wood, electronic files and guitars. . . . Gibson was accused of using wood illegally obtained in violation of the century-old Lacey Act, which outlaws trafficking in flora and fauna the harvesting of which had broken foreign laws.
In one raid, the feds hauled away ebony fingerboards, alleging they violated Madagascar law. Gibson responded by obtaining the sworn word of the African island's government that no law had been broken.
In another raid, the feds found materials imported from India, claiming they too moved across the globe in violation of Indian law. Gibson's response was that the feds had simply misinterpreted Indian law.
Interestingly, one of Gibson's leading competitors is C.F. Martin & Co. According to C.F. Martin's catalog, several of their guitars contain "East Indian Rosewood," which is the exact same wood in at least 10 of Gibson's guitars. . . .
Grossly underreported at the time was the fact that Gibson's chief executive, Henry Juszkiewicz, contributed to Republican politicians. . . .
By contrast, Chris Martin IV, the Martin & Co. CEO, is a long-time Democratic supporter . . .

Obama's fourth scandal: Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius using her position to force those she regulates to give money to Obama campaign

Using the threat of regulation to force those being regulated to give money to Obama sure sounds like thuggish behavior.  I suppose that Obama will again claim ignorance of this, but Sebelius has gotten in trouble before on these issues.  He might claim outrage, but he didn't publicly reprimand her earlier.  From The Hill newspaper:

House Republicans have widened their probe of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius by asking the country's largest health insurers for information on her fundraising for a nonprofit group promoting ObamaCare. 

Leaders on the Energy and Commerce Committee said Friday they have written to 15 insurance companies and other groups asking whether Sebelius had contacted them to solicit funds for ObamaCare's implementation.  

Companies should hand over any internal communications that document conversations with Sebelius or discussions about her request, including emails, lawmakers wrote.  

The Sebelius probe began when news broke that she was petitioning major healthcare players to contribute to Enroll America, a group tasked with educating the public about its new health coverage options under healthcare reform.  

Republicans have denounced the effort as a "shakedown" that will line the pockets of Obama supporters and former administration officials now working to promote the Affordable Care Act. . . .