Barack Obama News
Read news, analysis, and commentary on Barack Obama, his administration’s legacy, and his continuing impact on national debates.
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- News
Students, Parents Ask Court for Permission to Halt Implementation of Obama’s Bathroom Mandate
A group of parents and students in Palatine, Illinois, who are suing the federal government over the Obama administration’s transgender bathroom policy asked a federal court on Wednesday to grant the school permission to ignore the new mandate. “Children are not guinea pigs,” a memorandum filed with the motion for a preliminary injunction states, “and they…Kelsey Bolar -
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House May Follow Senate, Advance Appropriations Bill That Spends More Than Obama Requested
The White House has threatened to veto the House’s energy and water appropriations bill, which spends more than President Barack Obama requested, but contains provisions that restrict government power. This week the House will consider the $37.5 billion spending package, which spends $259 million more than the level enacted in 2016 and $168 million above…Philip Wegmann -
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3 Ways Conservative Lawmakers Should Fight Obama’s Bathroom Directive
On May 13th, the Obama administration issued “guidance” to school districts across the nation purporting to require them to allow biological boys unfettered access to girls’ lockers, showers, and bathrooms or risk losing federal education funds. On the same day it issued a new Obamacare regulation requiring federally-funded physicians, hospitals, and insurers to assist or…Ryan T. Anderson -
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20,642 New Regulations Added in the Obama Presidency
The tide of red tape that threatens to drown U.S. consumers and businesses surged yet again in 2015, according to a Heritage Foundation study we released on Monday. More than $22 billion per year in new regulatory costs were imposed on Americans last year More than $22 billion per year in new regulatory costs were…James Gattuso -
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Obama Raided $500M for Zika to Finance UN’s Green Climate Fund
Last week, the Senate passed legislation to address and prevent the spread of the Zika virus. However, the Senate failed to pay for it, and instead approved a $1.1 billion “emergency” spending supplemental bill that is not subject to the budgetary caps that were agreed to last year. While congressional inattention to the budget crisis…Sen. James Lankford -
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House Policy Leader Seeks to Block Obama’s School Bathroom Directive
The Republican mobilization against the White House’s transgender bathroom directive has started. A bill introduced by Rep. Luke Messer, R-Ind., would block the Obama administration’s guidance pushing public schools to allow students to use the restrooms of their choice. The bill, Messer told The Daily Signal, would return control of the issue to the state…Philip Wegmann -
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Obama’s Latest Executive Overreach Is in Medicare
The Obama administration has proposed regulatory changes in payment for Medicare Part B drugs. They’re looking to impose a broad, multi-year change through a demonstration project. Medicare demonstrations routinely test payment or delivery models in pilot programs, make a report to Congress—and lawmakers then either enact or reject the model as a statutory basis for…Robert Moffit -
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Congress Aims to Give Debt-Ridden Puerto Rico a Free Pass as Long as Obama Wants
A House committee released the third draft of a bill aimed at helping Puerto Rico address its debt crisis. The Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Security Act (PROMESA) has drawn praise from Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., quite an achievement for a Republican speaker. However, bipartisanship does not guarantee good policy. Stay of Litigation The…Rachel Greszler -
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Obama’s Overtime Rule Tried at IBM, and It Didn’t Work
Juggling work and family life is hard. On Wednesday the Labor Department made it even harder for millions of salaried workers. The administration’s new overtime regulations will effectively turn them into hourly employees. The regulation won’t increase their earnings, but it will greatly reduce their control over their schedules. The Fair Labor Standards Act requires…James Sherk -
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73 House Republicans Sign Letter Demanding Answers on Obama’s Bathroom Directive
The largest conservative congressional caucus is calling into question the legality of President Barack Obama’s transgender bathroom directive for schools. Chairman Bill Flores, R-Texas, is encouraging Republican Study Committee members to sign on to a letter, pushing the Departments of Education and Justice to detail how, and on what authority, they plan to enforce the…Philip Wegmann -
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3 Ways Conservative Lawmakers Could Respond to Obama’s Bathroom Directive
The Obama administration’s bathroom directive, ordering local school districts to allow transgender students to use the restrooms of their choice, has caught congressional Republicans off guard. The response has been a mix of pessimism, frustration, and a call for the states to defy the directive at the local level. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., ventured into…Philip Wegmann -
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A Former Transgender Person’s Take on Obama’s Bathroom Directive
President Barack Obama, the titular head of the LGBT movement, has added to the firestorm of confusion, misunderstanding, and fury surrounding the transgender bathroom debate by threatening schools with loss of federal funding unless they allow students to join the sex-segregated restroom, locker room, and sports teams of their chosen gender, without regard to biological…Walt Heyer -
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Lawyer With Firm That Won Freddie Gray Settlement Is Next Obama Judge Up for Senate’s OK
President Barack Obama has not been able to move his Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, through the Senate but Republicans continue to advance the president’s lower court nominees. The chamber on Monday is set to take up the nomination of Paula Xinis, a partner and senior trial attorney at Murphy, Falcon & Murphy—the Baltimore law…Philip Wegmann -
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NC Lawmaker Calls Obama Administration’s Bathroom Bill Attacks ‘Appalling’
RALEIGH, N.C. — A North Carolina state senator fired back at U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch after she compared the state’s bathroom bill to Jim Crow laws and likened it to state-sponsored discrimination. “Frankly, I find it appalling that someone from North Carolina would work so hard to hurt the state where she’s from,” state…Kelsey Bolar -
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Obama Unilaterally Rewrites Law, Imposes Transgender Policy on Nation’s Schools
All across America, parents, teachers and local school districts have been having conversations about how best to accommodate the privacy and safety concerns of transgender students while also addressing the privacy and safety concerns of other students. Solutions were found, such as the creation of new single-occupancy restrooms and changing facilities for transgender students while…Ryan T. Anderson -
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Senate Appropriations Bill Spends More Than Obama Requested
The U.S. Senate’s first spending bill of 2016 allocates $261 million more than President Barack Obama requested and lacks significant conservative amendments, but it still sailed to passage Thursday in the Republican-led chamber. An overwhelming number of senators on both sides of the aisle approved the energy and water development appropriations bill, by a vote of…Philip Wegmann -
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UNC Students Fight Back Against Obama Administration Bathroom Lawsuit
A group of students at the University of North Carolina are fighting back against the Obama administration’s civil rights lawsuit against the state this week by filing a lawsuit of their own, alleging that the federal government is forcing them to choose between their educational pursuits and personal privacy. “Our clients, the students, are between…Kelsey Bolar -
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Why Obama Is Wrong to Focus on Hiroshima
History remains very much alive in East Asia. Millennia of invasions, occupations, and subjugation form the foundation for present-day perceptions. The predominant calamity for many in this regard is the 20th century war precipitated by the Japanese attempt to impose a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere on its neighbors. The second World War, or “The…Bruce Klingner -
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NC Conservatives: Obama Administration Using Children as ‘Pawns’ for LGBT Agenda
North Carolina conservatives are fighting what they call “bullying” after the Obama administration threatened a lawsuit against the state. The Justice Department is threatening to sue North Carolina over a law that allows private businesses to set whatever bathroom policies they like for transgender people, but mandates that biological sex will determine access to government bathrooms….Kelsey Bolar -
- Opinion
Obama’s Zika Request Can Be Paid for With Ebola Funds
On Feb. 22, President Barack Obama requested an emergency supplemental appropriations bill to respond to public health concerns of the Zika virus. The request includes a total of $1.885 billion in additional funding in excess of the $518.491 billion in total base nondefense discretionary budget authority already available for fiscal year 2016. If the president’s…Paul Winfree