In POLITICO, Grover Norquist urges Republicans to vote now to repeal the special interest-driven government takeover of the health care industry. “Republicans have two years — until the next election — to vote on specific reforms”, says Norquist.  … “If the legislation was chock full of really popular ideas the Democrats would have passed them one at a time and crushed the Republicans for opposing each wonderful section. They did not…If they were they just might have been passed as stand alone legislation during the decades of Democrat control of Congress and enacted years ago… Obama, who promised to have all legislation debated in conference before America and C-SPAN cameras, would have done what he promised. Instead, for reasons one can surmise, he chose to ram the 2,000+ page unread behemoth through without public inspection.”

Grover Norquist’s op-ed “Repeal About Taxes, Not Just Health Care” is featured in today’s Investor’s Business Daily.   Norquist writes, “What many people don't realize is that ObamaCare is one of the largest tax hikes in American history, coming in at about $1 trillion in the first full decade of implementation. Repealing it is likely to be the biggest tax cut coming out of the House this year…In order to pay for ObamaCare's massive expansion of government, the law raises or creates two dozen taxes…Repealing ObamaCare is not simply about getting the government out of our lives. It's also about getting it out of our wallets.”

In The Washington Examiner ATR’s Christopher Prandoni shows how “Congress Holds Half a Million Jobs Hostage”.  Prandoni points out that “Democrats’ first major move was to pass the massive $800 billion stimulus bill. Democrats argued that the economic downturn necessitated government intervention; that the stimulus would create 4 million jobs keeping the unemployment rate below 8 percent…Failing to meet their own benchmarks, the national unemployment rate quickly rose to double digits and news stories about waste, fraud, and abuse … [Speaker Pelosi] argued that passage of the Democrats’ health care bill would “create almost 400,000 jobs immediately.” Much like the White House’s promised stimulus jobs, the health care jobs never materialized, leaving Americans with higher taxes and historic levels of government spending...The past two years codified what most Americans have known all along: our government cannot create jobs or wealth, only the private sector can. Representatives looking to drag down the unemployment rate should remove the handcuffs from our job creators, America’s oil and natural gas producers.”

“The EPA just can't help itself” by Christopher Prandoni in The Washington Examiner.  “Not content with backdooring the unequivocally unpopular cap-and-trade legislation through regulating carbon emissions, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has looked to further cripple American energy producers, manufacturers, and businesses by blanketing the industries in bureaucratic uncertainty. Last Thursday, the EPA revoked a permit it issued more than three years ago for the Spruce No. 1 Mine in Logan Country, West Virginia citing the Clean Water Act… The EPA ruling has brought the Spruce Mine to a standstill and will in all likelihood scuttle the project and the workers it employed… Businesses, manufacturers, public works agencies, and energy producers are wondering if they could be the EPA’s next target. The threat of legal fees and rescinded building permits is enough to keep businesses on the sidelines deterring investment until the fog clears… This debate is no longer about the Clean Water Act or the Clean Air Act, it is about whom will dictate energy and climate policy in America: the EPA or Congress.”