5 Ways the Immigration Bill Is Like Obamacare
Congress rammed Obamacare through without many Members even reading the bill. Now it’s applying that same frantic, complex, pie-in-the-sky legislating to immigration. The similarities are frightening.
1. Extreme Costs
The Government Accountability Office now projects that under the most realistic scenario, Obamacare will add $6.2 trillion to the primary deficit over the next 75 years. That’s a staggering figure, especially considering the fact that President Obama pledged in 2009, “I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits—either now or in the future.”
The Gang of Eight’s immigration plan granting amnesty to those unlawfully in the U.S. will cost already burdened American taxpayers more than they can bear. When he last crunched the numbers during the 2007 amnesty debate, Heritage’s Robert Rector calculated that a general amnesty would cost some $2.5 trillion—after considering what legalized immigrants would likely pay in taxes and receive in government benefits and services. His updated research on the latest proposal, due out soon, is likely to find a higher price tag in 2013.
2. False Promises
Remember President Obama’s promise that “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it”? That’s just one of the most famous (or infamous) broken promises of Obamacare. The Congressional Budget Office projects 7 million people will lose their employer-sponsored coverage by 2022 because of the law.
On immigration, Heritage President Jim DeMint told CNBC’s Larry Kudlow this week: “I’ve heard a lot of promises about bills that have gone through Congress. …The only thing that I know about this bill is that it’s going to give legal status and eventual citizenship to those who came here unlawfully. The rest are just promises.” One of those promises is border security—as Heritage’s James Jay Carafano explains, the bill would not actually secure the border.
3. Have to Pass It to See What’s In It
Nancy Pelosi wasn’t kidding when she said Congress would have to pass Obamacare “to see what’s in it.” That’s because the bill gave federal agencies free rein to write regulations that would become the real-world version of the law—and even though it passed in 2010, the regulations are still being written today.
The immigration bill does the same thing—it gives over congressional authority to federal agencies, allowing unelected bureaucrats to think up all the details later.
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4. Piles on Already Broken—and Broke—Entitlement Programs
Obamacare plans to add millions of people to the Medicaid rolls—the largest expansion ever to this problematic program, which is already unsustainable and needs vital reforms.
Likewise, the immigration bill would add millions to the number of people on various taxpayer-funded benefits, from Medicare and Social Security to welfare. As DeMint said, “These programs are already broke. Our country is already $17 trillion in debt. This will be a net loss, a huge cost to taxpayers.”
5. Perks for Special Interests
Whenever the legislative process turns fast and furious, Members of Congress start loading on special-interest deals that are less likely to be noticed in the chaos. Obamacare was full of favors for Big Labor. Now, the immigration bill is carrying all sorts of special-interest goodies—not to mention a bonanza for immigration lawyers.
This isn’t the way Congress should make laws. It’s only making the same mistakes all over again—and we’ll be paying for them.
http://blog.heritage.org/2013/05/02/morning-bell-5-ways-the-immigration-bill-is-like-obamacare/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell
Obama Nominates Penny Pritzker for Commerce Secretary
Hyatt heiress raised more than $900,000 for Obama's two campaigns
“Penny understands that just as great companies strengthen the communities around them, strong communities of skilled workers also help companies thrive,” Obama said Thursday.
Pritzker is the chairman and chief executive officer of PSP Capital Partners, an investment firm, and its affiliate, Pritzker Reality Group. She has an estimated personal wealth of $1.85 billion.
Pritzker chaired the president’s 2008 finance team and delivered a haul of more than $900,000 for Obama’s two campaigns, according to the New York Times. Pritzker also personally wrote a $250,000 check for the president’s inauguration this year.
The nomination is not a surprise. Pritzker was considered for the position in 2008, and resigned her position on the Chicago Board of Education last month, fueling increased speculation she would be Obama’s commerce pick.
Notably, Pritzker has had a number of flare-ups with unions last year, and in the past, told Obama in 2009 that she opposed legislation for union-backed card check.
Despite a less prominent campaign role in 2012, Pritzker flew on Air Force One last summer–the same day the largest national hospitality workers union announced a global boycott of Hyatt Hotels.
As a Chicago school board member, Pritzker was also a target last year of striking teachers. Thousands of teachers protested outside a Hyatt hotel during last year’s strike.
“We know Penny Pritzker has a long and storied history as an anti-labor and anti-worker kind of boss,” Chicago Teachers Union financial secretary Kristine Mayle told the Chicago Tribune last month. “Her policies adversely affect working families. She has worked to close schools and destabilize neighborhoods, and we hope she does a better job in her new position, if she gets it.”
The commerce position has been vacant since former Secretary John Bryson resigned last year, following a car accident.
http://freebeacon.com/obama-nominates-penny-pritzker-for-commerce-secretary/
Obama Taps Billionaire Chicago Insider Panned for ‘Shady’ Background For Commerce Dept.
....But her background comes with some questions.“She and her secretive family have been caught up in some pretty dodgy commercial ventures including but not limited to dodging taxes and running a bank that specialized in subprime mortgages,” The Atlantic notes.
The report continues:
Back in 2008 when she was “widely reported to be a leading contender for commerce secretary,” The New York Times laid down some difficult truths about Pritzger. It’s true that 53-year-old woman — then just 49 — has managed a number of businesses in her career. Unfortunately, one of them was Superior Bank which, in The Times‘s words, “focused on bundling subprime mortgages into securities, the practice that later helped set off the current financial crisis.” Oops.
That bank went under in 2001, but not after the Pritzker family agreed to pay $460 million in damages to depositors. Her involvement in Superior Bank would be trouble enough in a Senate confirmation hearing, but Pritzker’s family is also well known for their tax avoidance techniques. Borrowing The Times‘s wording again, “The Pritzkers were pioneers in using tax loopholes to shelter their holdings from the Internal Revenue Service, and many of their dealings have never been made public.”
These and similar allegations may hold up the confirmation process.
In fact, as noted in the above, her “shady” background was the reason she removed her name from consideration when she was nominated for the gig in 2008. Or, you know, Congress can choose to ignore these issues and move forward with the nomination of one President Obama’s chief fundraisers.
Pritzker is a lifelong Chicagoan who has known Obama since the 1990s and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for both his presidential campaigns.
She personally generated roughly $745 million for the 2008 Obama campaign and brought in another $53 million for the inauguration, according to the Financial Times.
She was his finance chairwoman in 2008 and served as co-chair of Obama for America 2012.
She was a fearless leader for his candidacy “who never wavered, never waffled and cracked the whip with grace and good cheer,” the president said.
Obama selected her for his 16-member Presidential Economic Recovery Advisory Board in 2009. When his administration let that board expire, Obama included her in his 26-member Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.
Pritzker has led several companies and currently serves as chair of investment firms Pritzker Realty Group and Artemis Real Estate Partners. She’s also on the board of the Hyatt Hotels Corp., the chain co-founded by her father.
She resigned from the Chicago Board of Education in March as she was being vetted for the Commerce nomination.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/05/02/obama-taps-chicago-insider-to-head-commerce-department/
Obama's $2.5M Hotel and 'Vehicle Rental' Tab on Last Mexico Trip
As the White House first announced in March, Barack Obama is scheduled to visit Mexico and Costa Rica later this week. The trip is billed as "an important opportunity to reinforce the deep cultural, familial, and economic ties that so many Americans share with Mexico and Central America." And at yesterday’s White House press conference, the president stated that he is "very much looking forward to taking the trip down to Mexico" this week.But the trip won’t exactly be cheap for taxpayers, assuming the costs mirror those incurred by the American taxpayers for President Obama's last trip to Mexico, for the G-20 summit in June 2012. According to recently discovered documents relating to the costs of that trip, taxpayers paid nearly $2.5 million for hotel and “vehicle rental.”
The first government document is a contract with a travel agent for the hotels required for the president's delegation and entourage for the conference:
The accompanying Justification and Approval (J&A) document estimates the
total cost at $1,889,388.60, with a maximum payout of $2,078,327.46.
The document does not give details concerning the number of rooms or
other special requirements. It notes the usual security concerns and
time constraints that apply to such VIP trips, but also lists this
additional restriction imposed by the Mexican government:
The second document relates to transportation needs for the presidential delegation for the G-20 visit.
The J&A accompanying this contract estimates the cost of transportation-vehicle rental at $630,760.00 with a maximum of $693,836.00, and also notes that the same company, Operadora Transtur, which had been contracted for an earlier visit to Los Cabos by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and was the best value:
Both contracts were approved in late May 2012, a few weeks before the trip, but were not posted on the fbo.gov website until more recently. Although members of the president's travel party arrived in advance of the president and departed later, President Obama himself stayed in Mexico two nights.
Regarding the president's upcoming trip, the Washington Examiner reported that there has been some speculation that the true motives for the trip may revolve more around the president's push for immigration reform. And at a White House meeting on Monday with Latino leaders, President Obama discussed his upcoming trip to Mexico and Costa Rica. The readout of the meeting provided by the White House concluded with, "At the meeting, the President made clear that immigration reform continues to be a top legislative priority this year."
The second document relates to transportation needs for the presidential delegation for the G-20 visit.
The J&A accompanying this contract estimates the cost of transportation-vehicle rental at $630,760.00 with a maximum of $693,836.00, and also notes that the same company, Operadora Transtur, which had been contracted for an earlier visit to Los Cabos by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and was the best value:
Both contracts were approved in late May 2012, a few weeks before the trip, but were not posted on the fbo.gov website until more recently. Although members of the president's travel party arrived in advance of the president and departed later, President Obama himself stayed in Mexico two nights.
Regarding the president's upcoming trip, the Washington Examiner reported that there has been some speculation that the true motives for the trip may revolve more around the president's push for immigration reform. And at a White House meeting on Monday with Latino leaders, President Obama discussed his upcoming trip to Mexico and Costa Rica. The readout of the meeting provided by the White House concluded with, "At the meeting, the President made clear that immigration reform continues to be a top legislative priority this year."
Report: Two Accused Tsarnaev Accomplices are in US Illegally
Two of the three men taken into custody today in connection with the Boston marathon bombings are being charged with obstruction of justice, having allegedly helped destroy or hide evidence that could further implicate their friend, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The two non-citizens are also in the United States unlawfully, and one even managed to re-enter the country in late January despite his illegal status. CNN's Jake Tapper reports, first on the apparent crime itself:A U.S. government official tells CNN that the three students in law enforcement custody Wednesday are two students from Kazakhstan, Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, and another student, U.S. citizen Robel Phillipos. The official says that their case reveals more holes in information sharing. Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov are being charged with obstruction of justice. Complaints from the U.S. Attorney Office say they helped destroy evidence that might further implicate Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the April 15 terrorist attacks at the Boston Marathon, namely disposing of a backpack containing fireworks and a laptop belonging to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The complaints say Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov "admitted that they agreed to get rid of [the backpack] after concluding from news reports that Tsarnaev was one of the Boston Marathon bombers."
That final, important detail differs from their previous claim that they agreed to ditch Dzhokhar's items without understanding the full context of his request. Allahpundit explains why that excuse wouldn't have washed anyway: "There’s really no innocent explanation for doing a friend a solid when he asks you to throw his computer in the trash right away and no, he won’t be around for awhile to do it himself." Onward, to the immigration angle:
Kadyrbayev, Tazhayakov and the third student were interviewed by the FBI on Friday, April 19, four days after the bombing, after law enforcement learned the identity of the Tsarnaev brothers. The interview, the official said, lasted late into the evening and into Saturday morning. But there wasn’t enough evidence to charge them with a crime. It wasn’t until the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement division heard about the interviews later on Saturday that they realized Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov were not currently of legal immigration status, and ICE officials went to pick them up and detain them.
The first US government official told CNN that at an immigration court hearing this morning, the court learned that Tazhayakov returned to Kazakhstan in December 2012, and his status with U. Mass-Dartmouth was terminated on January 3. Yet somehow he was allowed to return into the U.S. on January 20. “They shouldn’t have let him in,” the first official told CNN. “Bells should have gone off.”
They shouldn't have, but they did. How many more of these "bells" also haven't gone off across the country, one must wonder? Which brings us to our political Rorschach test of the week: Do these new developments prove that immigration reform is urgently needed, or that we should slow things down and view the effort more skeptically? Both sides of this debate will seize on today's report as vindication for their agenda, but it'll be interesting how the public reacts. 'Gang of Eight' supporters will point out that their bill mandates beefed up visa tracking at entry/exit points across the country, which theoretically would have blocked Tazhayakov from re-entering the US a few months ago. Opponents will correctly note that a robust regime of increased visa enforcement was passed by Congress 17 years ago (and reaffirmed several times since), but hasn't been properly enforced. Pass all the laws you want -- if the federal government can't or won't enforce them, what's the point? To that end, it looks like Marco Rubio is inching closer to backing more stringent border security measures these days, admitting candidly that his own bill probably doesn't stand a chance of passing the GOP-held House. And since we've already touched on two hot-button issues in this post -- terrorism and immigration -- why not toss in a third? Seventy percent of Americans support the death penalty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev if he's convicted, including large majorities of Democrats, Independents and Republicans. The only group that's even close to evenly split? African-Americans, with a 52/43 spread in favor of executing the terrorist suspect.
UPDATE - In case you missed it yesterday, the Tsarnaev family reportedly received more than $100,000 in taxpayer-funded welfare assistance over the years, including $5,500 in college aid for Tamerlan. You're welcome, guys.
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2013/05/01/report-two-accused-tsarnaev-accomplices-are-in-us-illegally-n1584388
Jay Carney: Hey, Benghazi happened a long time ago
Via the Free Beacon, here’s Carney doing his own version of Hillary’s “What difference, at this point, does it make?” wave-off of an attack that killed a U.S. ambassador and three others. By “a long time,” he means seven and a half months. The Newtown murders happened four and a half months ago; the Aurora murders happened nine and a half months ago. Both were highly germane to goings-on on the Hill last month. Is there a different standard for foreign policy? The first alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria occurred in December, a week or two after Newtown, so maybe Carney’s inadvertently previewing O’s next big “red line” dodge. Sure, Assad might have gassed some people. But it was a long time ago.What he really means here by saying it happened “a long time ago” is that hearings have already been held such that any whistleblower who wants to speak to Congress has had plenty of time to do so. Which is nice, but doesn’t answer the whispers in the press about diplomats being intimidated into silence; as Erika noted earlier, Darrell Issa is promising “new facts and details that the Obama administration has tried to suppress” at the next hearings, which may or may not relate to suspects in the attack.
http://hotair.com/archives/2013/05/01/jay-carney-hey-benghazi-happened-a-long-time-ago/
Stupid college liberal activist fakes rape threat from a conservative and gets caught
This one should go in the book "Stupid Liberal Tricks." A University of Wyoming female liberal activist faked a Facebook message from a conservative where she was threatened with rape.
A well-known female liberal blogger and radio host at the University of Wyoming (UW) is being accused by police of fabricating a rape threat against herself to appear as if it came from a conservative.
The obscene message directed at activist Meg Lanker-Simons was posted on a college "crush" Facebook page earlier this week and immediately ignited outrage from the college community.
"I want to hate f**k Meg Lanker-Simons so hard. That chick that runs her liberal mouth all the time and doesn't care who knows it," it read. "I think its hot and it makes me angry. One night with me and shes gonna be a good Republican bitch," the post reads, according to a screenshot.
Before the post was removed, Lanker-Simons commented on it and on her own blog, calling it "disgusting, misogynistic, and apparently something the admins of this page think is a perfectly acceptable sentiment."
She also encouraged the poster to seek help at the UW Counseling service and ends with the advice:
"Instead of focusing on how angry and turned on me 'running my mouth' makes you, perhaps you should listen instead. You might learn something."
But on Monday, The University of Wyoming Police Department issued a citation to Lanker-Simons for "interference" for "false statements she made to the UW Police Department," according to a UW statement referred to by Laramie Boomerang Online.
"Subject admitted to making a controversial post on UW Crushes webpage and then lied about not doing it," according to the citation.
The University of Wyoming also confirmed a statement that the police had ""obtained substantial evidence verifying that the offending Facebook post came from Lanker-Simons' computer, while the computer was in her possession."How dumb is that? Instead of going off campus and using a computer at a coffee shop, or going to the library and using one there, she used her own personal computer to send a message to herself.
The young lady gained some noteriety in 2010 when she successfully sued the university for yanking an invitation for Bill Ayers to speak.
But the stupidity is just beginning. A Facebook page has sprung up declaring that Lanker-Simons is innocent:
Since police cited her, supporters have a constructed a Facebook page entitled "Meg Lanker-Simons is innocent."
"Meg Lanker-Simons is innocent we believe what she did was justified and deserves not to be held accountable for her accusations we stand behind you sister," reads that page's description.Yes, I suppose lying to police and smearing conservatives is "justified" - if you're a totally whacked out liberal with the morals of an alley cat and possess the critical thinking skills of a marmoset.
First Black President Makes Racist White Woman's Dream Come True
Is Barack Obama really black? His love affair with the taxpayer-subsidized abortion provider Planned Parenthood suggests he has it in for his own people. Why doesn't he care that PP's founder was a radical racist eugenicist?Last Friday, Obama became the first sitting president to address a Planned Parenthood national conference. In his introductory remarks, Obama paid homage to a "health clinic" (one of his many euphemisms) which opened in Brooklyn "nearly a hundred years ago." Since he was being careful with language, Obama didn't bring up PP's founder, Margaret Sanger, who along with her sister and a friend started the Brooklyn clinic he referenced.
Perhaps the current Kermit Gosnell horror trial in Philadelphia made Obama reticent to speak on an unrevised history of abortion rights. But the truth is that Sanger established the American Birth Control League (ABCL) in 1921 -- the antecedent to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America -- and preventing births was only half the picture.
Fortunately, Sanger left a paper trail a mile long regarding her racist and eugenicist desire "to eliminate the stocks that are most detrimental to the future of the race and the world" ("The Cruelty of Charity" from The Pivot of Civilization, 1922). And she was able to attract the financial support of the children and grandchildren of white men like Rockefeller, Ford, and Carnegie, who funded her anti-black projects from the beginning.
Just how bad were the card-carrying socialist Sanger and her wealthy pals?
In 1921, Sanger organized the first American Birth Control conference in New York City. The three-day gathering featured "prominent scientists, physicians, demographers, and eugenicists, as well as social workers, birth control advocates and socialites."
Members of Sanger's ABC League board and the future PPFA included Dr. Adolphus Knopf of New York Medical Hospital, who spoke of the "black and yellow peril in America," and Lothrop Stoddard, who met and interviewed both Adolf Hitler and Josef Goebbels in 1939.
Stoddard, a Harvard-educated historian/journalist, spent four months observing the population policies of the Third Reich. He admired the Nazis for "the most ambitious and far-reaching experiment in eugenics ever attempted by any nation." Stoddard's 1920 book entitled The Rising Tide of Color Against White World Supremacy led to his contention that the ultimate solution to social problems was eugenics. He expounded on this in his 1926 work Scientific Humanism. Stoddard was also a frequent contributor to Sanger's Birth Control Review.
In 1930, Sanger invited Dr. Eugen Fischer to her home in America. Fisher's racial hygiene theories would eventually lead to the extermination of millions by the Nazis.
In 1932, Sanger penned a Peace Plan which included stopping the immigration of all Catholics, Jews, and other feebleminded people; segregating those who refused to be sterilized by forcing them to live the rest of their lives on farms under work instruction; and the keeping of other anti-social groups on these farms until they had been reformed.
In April 1933, a month after Hitler came to power, Sanger published a special issue of her Review. It focused on eugenic sterilization. Professor Ernst Rudin, who later worked with the Nazis on their Human Genetics program, wrote an article for the edition.
One of Sanger's most audacious initiatives began in 1939. A memorandum, "Suggestions for Negro Project," made its way to her desk from Dr. Clarence Gamble, the director of the Birth Control Federation of the South. Sanger made it clear she did not want her racist motivations to be exposed, so she worked to enlist black preachers to carry the birth control message into Southern black communities.
The marketing plan worked. By 1947, black leaders throughout the country gave their blessing to Planned Parenthood.
Dorothy Height, abortion activist
The radical activist Dorothy Height, who died in 2010 at the age of 98, was one of those leaders.
In a tribute to Height after her death, Ms. Magazine ran a piece by Loretta Ross praising the activist's unflinching support of Roe v. Wade and abortion rights for black women.
Ross claimed that Height was never afraid to use the "A" word and in the same article directly tied Height to Sanger's Negro Project of 1939. Ross stated that "prior to Roe, she [Height] had supported Margaret Sanger's campaign to provide birth control to the African American community that had requested such services."
The African-American Ross, who served on the DC Commission for Women in the 1970s and 1980s, probably never heard of Sanger's subversive plan involving the "extermination" of the black race; otherwise, she might not have included Height's historical connection to Sanger.
Since communism and abortion go together, Height was also memorialized by the Communist Party's executive vice president, Tyner Jarvis, who called her "the matriarch of the movement...a remarkable leader...a militant fighter...whose life work stretched from the New Deal through the 2008 election of President Obama."
In her 2005 memoir, Height admitted to attending communist meetings throughout her activist years. "Among the communists were some of the best minds that I had ever come upon. The tactics I learned from them have something to do with my staying power today," she wrote.
Height believed that abortion rights and civil rights were closely linked. She was a regular speaker at every major march for abortion rights from 1970 until her death. Obama, the most openly pro-abortion president ever, openly wept at her funeral.
In 1942, Sanger's ABC League changed its name to the less Nazi-ish-sounding Planned Parenthood Federation of America. By that time, sterilization laws and ridding societies of the "morons who are increasing and multiplying" (Sanger, The Pivot of Civilization) didn't go over so well with a public becoming aware for the first time of Hitler's Final Solution. Reports coming out of Nazi Germany involving the same intellectuals and scientists writing for Sanger's Review in the 1930s required a different marketing strategy.
Obama, abortion, and eugenics
Progressive white ruling-class elites have been obsessed with controlling the populations of black, brown, and yellow people since the early years of the 20th century. In his speech, Obama mocked pro-life policies that will "turn back the clock" to the '50s. Yet, he has no problem condoning Planned Parenthood's racist policies that take us all the way back to the 1930s.
Who would have imagined that the first black president would be the one to make a racist white woman's dream of a future without people of color come true?
Here's the evidence. The abortion statistics in the black community are off the charts. From the National Black Catholic Congress:
Do you know what the leading cause of death in the African American Community since 1973 is? Think about it for a minute. It happens 1452 times a day in our community. It has taken over 13 million Black lives within the last 30 years. It has taken 1/3 of our present population. What is it? ABORTION!
Don't believe it? Well, you don't have to, but you would be a fool not to because the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has provided the tragic statistics. According to the CDC, since 1973, the year of the Supreme Court Decision Roe vs. Wade, 13 million (13,000,000) African American lives have been lost to abortion.
Sanger's 100-year war on minority women is the result of elites like Barack Obama who continue to hail her organization as a champion of women's rights instead of an advocate for abortion and selective breeding.
The Brooklyn Museum has an exhibit entitled The Dinner Party, which uses place settings to show the achievements of 1,038 feminists in history who have influenced the women's movement.
The museum's website describes Margaret Sanger's plate as "painted with bright red glazes that evoke the female reproductive organs and the blood that is involved in the reproductive process...the runner for Sanger's place setting...within the illuminated 'M' is a fettered mother and baby inspired by a quote from Sanger that reproductive freedom would free women from 'motherhood in chains.'" To women like Sanger, a baby can be a ball and chain.
At last Friday's conference, attendees laughed when Obama ridiculed the anti-abortion laws recently enacted in a few states: "When you read about some of these laws, you want to check the calendar; you want to make sure you're still living in 2013," the president said.
Well, the audience members are among the lucky ones still living in 2013, unlike the 13 million black babies killed as a result of Sanger's Planned Parenthood agenda.
When Obama says, "I'm going to be right there with [Planned Parenthood] fighting every step of the way," he identifies more with progressive white power elites than he does with blacks.
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