Those concerned about U.S. sovereignty have worried that Democrats would try to ram certain UN agreements — the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) — through the Senate during the lame-duck session following the November elections. What they may not have anticipated, however, is that they would try to sneak those treaties past their colleagues by other means.

The Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute says that’s what Sen. Richard Durbin attempted during a sparsely attended session on the evening of Sept. 20. C-FAM reports: “With just a few people on the Senate floor, [Durbin] tried to pass the Disability treaty by unanimous consent.” Had he succeeded, the treaty would have been ratified with no recorded vote. Fortunately, Sen. Mike Lee was there when Durbin tried to pull this stunt — and put a stop to it.

For all his talk about cutting the deficit, President Barack Obama has been anything but shy about spending taxpayers’ money lavishly — and not just on favored political constituencies. According to the Daily Caller, last year taxpayers had to fork over a whopping $1.4 billion just to pay the expenses of the president, his family, and his staff.

The Government Accountability Office found that prior to the Department of Health and Human Services' July memorandum granting waivers of welfare work requirements, HHS had consistently held that it did not have the authority to grant such waivers.

In what his attorney called “a huge victory for food freedom,” a Minnesota farmer was acquitted by a jury of the “crime” of distributing unpasteurized milk to members of a food cooperative.

On September 20, “after a three-day trial and more than four hours of deliberation,” reported the Minneapolis Star Tribune, “a Hennepin County jury found Alvin Schlangen not guilty of three misdemeanor counts of selling unpasteurized milk, operating without a food license and handling adulterated or misbranded food.” Each count carried a maximum sentence of three months’ imprisonment.

Mitt Romney said it's "a compliment" when President Obama calls him "the grandfather of ObamaCare." Yet RomneyCare, the prototype for ObamaCare, has hardly been a rousing success.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has announced a new “wellness program” for all city employees and their spouses (or domestic partners or civil-union spouses). “Our program will change lives, make our workforce healthier, and save taxpayers money,” Emanuel said.

The program, called Chicago Lives Healthy, is technically voluntary; but those refusing to participate in it will be penalized $50 a month per covered adult. In other words, it’s only voluntary if a couple wants to forego $1,200 a year.

Did the Obama administration, in waiving work requirements for welfare recipients, violate the law? According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congress’ investigative arm, the answer is yes.

In response to a request from Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, and Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the GAO examined whether the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) July 12 Information Memorandum concerning the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program violated the Congressional Review Act (CRA). The CRA requires federal agencies to submit all new rules to both houses of Congress and the Comptroller General, who heads the GAO, for review — and possible disapproval — prior to their taking effect. HHS did not submit its memorandum for review; it merely informally notified Congress on the very day the rule was issued.

Federal agencies have spent $500,000 for 1,000 trendy, ergonomic office chairs, a fraction of which were actually needed for medical reasons.

Amid all the cheers and jeers for the 2012 Republican Party platform, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) let slip the truth about that document: He hasn’t read it, and he doesn’t know anyone who’s ever read it or any other platform.

The United States has spent over $200 million on a highly effective missile defense system and plans to spend nearly $700 million more on it — yet U.S. troops in the field, including the highest-ranking military officer in the land, are still largely at the mercy of insurgents’ rockets. Why?

The answer is that U.S. taxpayers have been shelling out big bucks for the defense of a foreign country; and that country, in turn, has been unwilling to disclose to Washington the details of the missile defense system it is funding. All the while, a company owned by that same country’s government is raking in profits manufacturing and selling the system.

The country in question is Israel, and the missile defense system is called Iron Dome.