July 23, 2012: The Bay County Bulletin

UPCOMING EVENTS—County Convention: Thursday, August 16, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. at the Bay County Building (call to convention). Dennis Poirier: A fundraiser is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, August 2. Details will come in due course. Summer Picnic (date change and time adjustment): The summer picnic will be Tuesday, August 13 at Bigelow Park from 6 to 9 p.m. Joe Davis: A fundraiser is scheduled for Tuesday, August 21. Details will come in due course.

We the People Picnic: A friendly reminder to all of our Patriots - Tuesday, July 24 we will begin the evening with a picnic under the pavilion at Williams Twp. Park at 5:30 p.m. Our regular monthly meeting will be in the hall at 7 p.m. We hope you can join us for both but if you are double-booked we will also take you for one or the other!

If you would like your fundraiser or other event put in the Bulletin, please e-mail the details to chair@baycountygop.org.

GLENN SUSPENDS CAMPAIGN, BACKS DURANT: Republican U.S. Senate candidate Gary Glenn, a social conservative backed by elements of the tea party movement, suspended his campaign and announced he will support rival Clark Durant in the final 2 1/2 weeks before the August 6 primary. http://on.freep.com/MrERsR

Hoekstra's 2Q fundraising triples Durant's: Former U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra had a nearly 3-to-1 fundraising advantage in the second quarter over Clark Durant, his chief fundraising rival in the GOP race for U.S. Senate. Hoekstra, the frontrunner in GOP primary polls, ended the quarter with nearly $1.7 million in cash on hand after raising $734,407 in net contributions in the second quarter this year. He'll face Durant, co-founder of Cornerstone Schools; Randy Hekman, a former judge and administrative pastor; and Gary Glenn of Midland, who earned the backing of a coalition of Michigan tea parties in the Aug. 7 primary. Durant has $1.4 million in cash and raised $272,844 in the second quarter. http://bit.ly/O9lZyV

BAD ECONOMY TAKING ITS TOLL ON OBAMA: The first round of polls is out after President Obama's Bain attacks against Mitt Romney and the results aren't good news for the White House. By themselves, the national toplines are discouraging enough - Romney holds a (statistically-insignificant) 47 to 46 percent lead in the new CBS/NYT poll, and the president is stuck at 47 percent in the just-released Fox News and NPR poll in 12 battleground states. http://bit.ly/MtRuSv

BIRTHWEEK: Monday. Justice Anthony Kennedy. Tuesday. José Valverde. Thursday. Mick Jagger. Sunday. Alexis de Tocqueville, Ted Lindsay.

FIRST-PLACE TIGERS SWEEP SOX, Miguel Cabrera clubs 300th homer: Why just win a series when you can sweep it. Charging into first place on Saturday, then adding a game to their lead on Sunday, the Tigers applied the finishing touch to a three-game sweep over the Chicago White Sox with a 6-4 triumph at Comerica Park. The Tigers lead the Sox by 1.5 games in the AL Central. http://bit.ly/NqrtXW

July 16, 2012: The Bay County Bulletin

CALENDAR: Tom Wassa Fundraiser: Tuesday, June 17 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Bigelow Park in Bay City. Cost is $15/person, $25/couple and $30/family. The menu includes brats and hot dogs, sides and beverages.

Dennis Poirier: A fundraiser is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, August 2. Details will come in due course.

Summer Picnic: The summer picnic will be Tuesday, August 14 at Bigelow Park from 7 to 9 p.m.

Joe Davis: A fundraiser is scheduled for Tuesday, August 21. Details will come in due course.

THE RAMBLER AMERICAN: DETROIT -- Is Michigan about to flip for Mitt? Let's stipulate that by the word flip we are not talking about heedless somersaults of ecstasy. This is not that kind of place, and Mitt Romney is not that kind of candidate. Michigan is not particularly flighty. Up north they take their fishing so seriously they pursue it in forbidding wintry conditions. In Ann Arbor and East Lansing, the gridiron game is played with stern, nearly religious devotion. No one doubts that, despite its resurgence, there aren't many laughs in the auto industry these days, and the state of Detroit is no laughing matter. http://bit.ly/OtAYjl

Health care on agenda when Michigan lawmakers return this week: Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and his fellow Republicans could find themselves knee-deep in health care issues Wednesday when lawmakers briefly return after a five-week break. Snyder needs to get reluctant House Republicans on board with his efforts to create an online site where individuals and small businesses can comparison shop for private health insurance. He'll also likely be comparing notes with GOP legislative leaders over whether it will be a good idea in 2014 to extend Medicaid to around 500,000 more low-income residents with the help of $2 billion annually in federal aid. http://bit.ly/NbjZrz

George Shultz: Memo to Romney — Expand the Pie: George Shultz has one of the most preposterously impressive résumés in recent American history. World War II Marine (1942-45); distinguished academic economist; business executive; secretary of labor (1969-70); director of the Office of Management and Budget (1970-72); secretary of the Treasury (1972-74); chairman of Ronald Reagan's economic transition team; and the secretary of state (1982-89) who wound down the Cold War. He's also been an active adviser to GOP leaders including George W. Bush in the years since. And, as I just learned, he's not a bad singer either. bit.ly/M1seC8

Sunday Shows: Obama Says Washington 'Feels as Broken as it Did Four Years Ago': On today’s Sunday shows: President Obama says Washington “feels as broken as it did four years ago” and addresses the need for a second term; the presidential campaigns clash hard over Mitt Romney’s business experience at Bain Capital, and when he retired from the company; pressure builds on Romney to release more tax returns; and Michelle Obama says where she’d like to vacation. bit.ly/M1tLZ0

July 2, 2012: The Bay County Bulletin

Now that #SCOTUS has upheld #ObamaCare, we must redouble our efforts to #repealandreplace by taking back the Senate and electing @MittRomney
— Bay County GOP (@BayCountyGOP) June 28, 2012

"The Affordable Care Act's requirement that certain individuals pay a financial penalty for not obtaining health insurance may reasonably be characterized as a tax. Because the Constitution permits such a tax, it is not our role to forbid, or to pass upon its wisdom or fairness."
—Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. (Opinion of the Court)

COURT BACKS OBAMA ON HEALTH LAW—In a Surprise Ruling, Chief Justice Sides With Liberals to Uphold Insurance Mandate; Republicans to Press for Repeal: Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. joined the Supreme Court's four liberals Thursday to uphold the linchpin of President Barack Obama's plan to expand health coverage to nearly all Americans, a surprise conclusion to a constitutional showdown. The ruling clears the way for the biggest revamp of America's health-care system since the 1960s—and sets the stage for a renewed political fight over its merits. By a 5-4 vote, the court held the law's mandate requiring Americans to carry health insurance or pay a penalty valid under Congress's constitutional authority to levy taxes. The financial penalty for failing to carry insurance possesses "the essential feature of any tax," producing revenue for the government, Chief Justice Roberts wrote.

But the court handed a consolation prize to the 26 largely Republican-led states that challenged the health-care overhaul—and opened a new door to their resistance. It ruled that the federal government could not expel states from Medicaid if they refused to go along with the expanded eligibility for the federal-state health program that is part of the health-care law. http://on.wsj.com/QDaCiL

THE ROBERTS RULES—The Chief Justice rewrites ObamaCare in order to save it.: Thursday was destined to be an historic day for American liberty, and it was, though the new precedent is grim. The remarkable decision upholding the Affordable Care Act is shot through with confusion—the mandate that's really a tax, except when it isn't, and the government whose powers are limited and enumerated, except when they aren't. One thing is clear: This was a one-man show, and that man is John Roberts.

The Chief Justice ruled that ObamaCare's mandate violated the Commerce Clause, joined by the Court's conservative bloc, but he also said that the mandate fell within Congress's power to tax, joined by the Court's liberal bloc. In practice this is a restraint on federal power without real restraint—and, worse, the Chief Justice had to rewrite the statute Congress passed in order to salvage it. The ruling will stand as one of the great what-might-have-beens of American constitutional law. http://on.wsj.com/QDevnV

ROBERTS SWITCHED VIEWS TO UPHOLD HEALTH CARE LAW: Chief Justice John Roberts initially sided with the Supreme Court's four conservative justices to strike down the heart of President Obama's health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act, but later changed his position and formed an alliance with liberals to uphold the bulk of the law, according to two sources with specific knowledge of the deliberations. Roberts then withstood a month-long, desperate campaign to bring him back to his original position, the sources said. Ironically, Justice Anthony Kennedy - believed by many conservatives to be the justice most likely to defect and vote for the law - led the effort to try to bring Roberts back to the fold. http://cbsn.ws/KULhRr

"The Court today decides to save a statute Congress did not write. It rules that what the statute declares to be a requirement with a penalty is instead an option subject to a tax. ... The court regards its strained statutory interpretation as judicial modesty. It is not. It amounts instead to a vast judicial overreaching. It creates a debilitated, inoperable version of health care regulation that Congress did not enact and the public does not expect."
—Justice Antonin Scalia (Dissenting Opinion, joined by Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel A. Alito, Jr.)

Gov. Snyder signs next Michigan budget into law: Gov. Rick Snyder on Tuesday signed into law a roughly $49 billion state budget that includes increased funding for education and public safety, while paying down debt, tucking away savings and granting a small tax break to individuals. This is the second year in a row Snyder and the Legislature delivered the state budget well ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline. The new budget year starts Oct. 1. http://bit.ly/LBEbMX

Republican state senator considering a 2014 challenge to Carl Levin: A Republican state senator said Tuesday he is considering a 2014 challenge to U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, a Detroit Democrat. Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw Township, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, confirmed his interest in the race in an interview with the Free Press after attending Gov. Rick Snyder's signing ceremony for the 2013 state budget. http://on.freep.com/N3jPQM

BIRTHWEEK: Tuesday. Amy Carl. Wednesday. President Calvin Coolidge, Lisa Valentine. Thursday. Huey Lewis, Sen. Roger Wicker. Friday. Nancy Reagan, President George W. Bush. Saturday. Doc. Severinsen, Ringo Starr. Sunday. George W. Romney, Toby Keith.