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martes, febrero 19, 2013

Obama pins blame on Republicans for looming cuts, as fiscal hawk warns of 'failed presidency'

President Obama pinned the blame on Republicans Tuesday for looming spending cuts that may be triggered by what was originally a White House proposal -- while a former leader of the president's deficit commission said it's Obama who's on the path to a "failed presidency" if he can't tackle the debt. 
The president spoke Tuesday at the White House, urging Congress to come up with a short-term fix to cancel sweeping cuts to defense and other programs set to hit March 1. 
"These cuts are not smart. They are not fair. They will hurt our economy. They will add hundreds of thousands of Americans to the unemployment rolls," Obama said. "This is not an abstraction -- people will lose their jobs." 
The president ticked off a host of expected repercussions should the $85 billion in cuts for this year take effect. He said Border Patrol, emergency responders, FBI agents, airport controllers and others would all face cutbacks. He said teachers would be laid off by the thousands and America's military would be degraded. 
As he has before, Obama urged Congress to pass a stopgap to allow for more time to pass a bigger package. But, with Congress out this week and many lawmakers resisting another attempt to kick the can on the cuts, Obama tried to cast Republicans as the ones responsible. 
Obama suggested their resistance to his calls to pass a "balanced" package -- by closing tax loopholes for top earners and big corporations -- is the hold-up. He asked whether Republicans are willing to let hundreds of thousands of people lose their jobs "just to protect a few special-interest tax loopholes." 
He blamed the current stalemate on "partisan recklessness and ideological rigidity." 
House Speaker John Boehner, after Obama talked, claimed Obama was merely reinforcing what Republicans have been saying -- "his sequester is the wrong way to cut spending." Boehner and others note the so-called sequester -- which set up more than $1 trillion in sweeping spending cuts if Congress failed, as it did, to reach a compromise on deficit reduction -- originated in the White House. 
"But once again, the president offered no credible plan that can pass Congress -- only more calls for higher taxes," Boehner said.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney acknowledged that the idea was originally "put forward" by the White House. But he said the White House only pitched it as an "absolute necessity" in 2011 to avoid default over the debt ceiling, and noted Republicans "embraced" it at the time. 
Shortly before he spoke, Obama was also dealt a blunt warning by former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson, who co-chaired the president's deficit-reduction commission. 
Simpson warned that Obama "will have a failed presidency" unless he deals "honestly" with entitlements, saying programs like Medicare and Social Security must be dealt with in order to get the country on a sustainable path.  
"If he wants to leave it alone and not deal with those two biggies, forget the rest of the stuff -- he'll have a failed presidency," Simpson told Fox News. 
While Obama says opposition to tax hikes is holding up a deal, Republicans say Democrats' resistance to major changes to entitlements are a big part of the problem. 
Simpson and Erskine Bowles, the former co-chairmen of the president's deficit-reduction commission who for years have been urging Washington to stop kicking the can, got in front of the president early Tuesday morning to push a plan of their own. 
"Over the medium and long-term, our debt is projected to continue growing faster than the economy. It is simply on an unsustainable path," they said in a statement. 
The two fiscal hawks pitched a plan to avert the looming spending cuts -- heavy cuts to defense and other programs that they describe as "abrupt" and "mindless" -- and instead enact a $2.4 trillion deficit reduction plan over 10 years. 
A quarter would come from changes to health care spending, a quarter would come from closing tax loopholes and the rest would come from spending reductions including a stingier adjustment of Social Security's cost of living increases. 
On tax reform, the plan presents a middle ground -- by using the savings from closing loopholes to both lower rates and bring down the deficit. By contrast, Obama has pushed to use that savings mostly to reduce the deficit, while Republicans have pushed to use it to bring down rates. 
Simpson and Bowles cast their plan as building on the proposal from the president's deficit commission -- a plan that Congress never adopted and Obama never fully endorsed. 
Obama, fresh off a three-day Florida golfing trip, pressed his own case during the event at the White House Tuesday morning. Emergency responders, a group of workers the White House says could be affected if state and local governments lose federal money as a result of the cuts, joined him. 
The $85 billion in cuts, known as the sequester, will start taking effect on March 1 unless Congress acts. The White House says the sequester could derail an economy still suffering from high unemployment and sluggish growth. 
Obama wants to offset the sequester through a combination of targeted spending cuts and increased tax revenue. The White House is backing a proposal unveiled last week by Senate Democrats that is in line with the president's principles. 
But that plan was met with an icy reception by Republicans, who oppose raising more tax revenue in order to offset the cuts. GOP leaders say the president got the tax increases he wanted at the beginning of the year when Congress agreed to raise taxes on family income exceeding $450,000 a year. 
The Democrats propose to generate revenue by plugging some tax loopholes. Those include tax breaks for the oil and natural gas industry and businesses that have sent jobs overseas, and by taxing millionaires at a rate of at least 30 percent. 
Some Republicans, including House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., have advocated plugging loopholes, but as part of a discussion on a tax overhaul, not sequestration. 
"Loopholes are necessary for tax reform," Ryan said Sunday on ABC's "This Week." `'If you take them for spending, you're blocking tax reform and you're really not getting the deficit under control." 
The sequester was first set to begin taking effect on Jan. 1. But as part of the "fiscal cliff" negotiations, the White House and lawmakers agreed to push it off for two months in order to create space to work on a larger budget deal. 

jueves, febrero 14, 2013

Corporate Socialism

By Laika 
www.cosmosmith.com
Well, who would've imagined... now we have Republicans and Democrats joining hands in a great demonstration of bipartisanship and amazingly quick action by the usually gridlocked Congress... for what? Corporate Socialism in America! Working folks lose their jobs (outsourced abroad), can't pay their mortgages, lose their homes, and its tough luck. Big creditors on Wall Street get a $700 billion bail-out courtesy of the taxpayers. I thought capitalism was supposed to be about natural market forces, smart businessmen making sound investments and being rewarded with profits that trickle down... creating jobs, paying wages, stimulating consumer spending.... Now we have the federal government subsidizing failed financial institutions. With this $700 billion bail-out on top of the Iraq war debt, my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will all be paying for it with their taxes (if the whole house of cards does not come tumbling down soon). Why the sudden urgency, you might ask? Hmmm... the election in six weeks might have something to do with it, maybe?  At last we have something liberals and conservatives can agree on.  Bye bye Free Market Capitalism; hello Corporate Socialism.

domingo, febrero 10, 2013

BUDGET TALKS: Dems, GOP Far Apart as Cuts Seem 'Inevitable'

Congressional Democrats and Republicans appeared far apart Sunday on a deal to avert $85 billion in federal spending reductions next month, with a top House Republican saying the cuts appear “inevitable.”
The automatic cuts, known as sequester, kick in March 1 because the parties have failed to agree on a less-drastic plan to cut the federal budget and deficit.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told “Fox News Sunday” that Democrats remain steadfast about tax increases being part of the deal but remain open to spending cuts.
“What we do need is more revenue and new cuts,” the California congresswoman said.
Pelosi said Democrats were “not talking about raising taxes,” but want to close tax loopholes, including those for U.S. oil companies.
She also argued Democrats have made $1.6 trillion in cuts over the past two years and suggested the bigger solution to the country’s economic problems is job growth.
Her argument is similar to the one President Obama -- who also has suggested stopping sequester with a mix of tax cuts and spending cut -- is expected to restate Tuesday during his State of the Union address.
“We need a big, balanced, bold proposal,” said Pelosi, arguing more jobs result in more revenue. The interview was taped last week.
However, Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole said fellow House Republicans will “absolutely not” accept tax increases as part of a deal, which would trigger the cuts to federal defense and discretionary spending.
Cole told ABC News’ “This Week” that the president refused to agree to spending cuts during the recent, so-called “fiscal cliff” negotiations so Democrats are not getting revenue increases now.
“I think (sequester) is inevitable, quite frankly,” he said.
Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain also said Sunday that Republicans don’t want tax increases, considering they just agreed to end more than $1 trillion in income tax breaks, but suggested he might be open to closing some tax loopholes.
He also urged both parties to work together to avoid sequester, which will result in big cuts to the defense budget and roughly $1.2 trillion in total cuts over the next decade.
“I’ll take responsibility as a Republican, but we’ve got to avoid it,” said McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. “The world is a very dangerous place.”

miércoles, febrero 06, 2013

Rubio to deliver GOP response to State of the Union

washingtonpost
Marco Rubio’s selection to deliver the Republican response to President Obama’s State of the Union cements the Florida senator’s role as a first-among-equals when it comes to the future leaders of the party, and sets up an intriguing dynamic over the next few years between Rubio and the man he almost certainly wants to replace.
Marco Rubio. AFP/Getty Images
Marco Rubio. AFP/Getty Images
That Congressional Republicans chose Rubio to carry the party’s flag is, frankly, not at all surprising. It’s no secret that Rubio is the single most marketable product in the Republican party today;  he’s young (41 years old), Hispanic and conservative without being frightening to voters outside of the party base. He is also, without question, the most gifted communicator in the party — a natural ability that evokes, dare we write it, Barack Obama. (For more on Rubio’s abilities, check out the piece we wrote following his speech at the Republican National Convention speech.)
“He is the most natural communicator in put party since Reagan, and I’ve not said that of anyone before,” said Ed Gillespie, former chairman of the Republican National Convention of Rubio. “When he speaks it’s like someone tapped a tuning fork. He just hums.”
Rubio is, to be blunt, the obvious choice — particularly with his recent leadership on a compromise immigration reform measure, a piece of legislation that is of massive import to the GOP’s future political prospects.
The more intriguing narrative that unspools from the choice of Rubio is how Tuesday night’s speech likely kicks off a period in which the GOP puts the Florida senator forward as its de facto foil to President Obama.
The simple truth is that the national Republican party lacks a leader at the moment, someone who can effectively articulate a counter-message to the one Obama is delivering to the country.
For much of 2011 and 2012 that role was occupied by House Speaker John Boehner thanks to the GOP’s majority in that chamber. But Boehner was always a bad fit.
First, Boehner’s prime concern was, is and always will be the care and feeding of what has become an increasingly conservative Republican majority in the House. Boehner’s messaging, therefore, was always calibrated to the 200+ House Republicans, not the American public writ large.
Second, Boehner isn’t — and, to his credit, doesn’t claim to be — a communicator on the level of Obama. He is blunt and occasionally short-tempered, traits that are of value when leading a group like House Republicans but are less useful when trying to re-brand the GOP for moderate and independent voters across the country.
Third, Boehner’s failure late last year to round up votes for his so-called “Plan B” during the fiscal cliff debate — a proposal that would have exempted all but those making $1 million or more from a tax increase — proved that he lacks the sort of control over his caucus required to lead it, let alone the Republican Party.
The leadership vacuum caused by Boehner’s struggles has contributed in no small part to the seemingly catch-as-catch-can approach the party has taken to its political tactics and strategy over the last few months.
On the fiscal cliff and the debt ceiling, the party backed down for fear of picking a fight it couldn’t win with Obama. On immigration, a handful of Senate Republicans (including Rubio) looks to be moving forward but with no signoff from the House majority on the idea of a path to citizenship for undocumented workers.
Enter (at least in theory) Rubio. In addition to his natural political skills, Rubio has also proven decidedly deft at navigating between the tea party and the GOP establishment during his brief time in the Senate. That decidedly rare skill — Boehner, Mitt Romney, John McCain and many others lack it — coupled with the sense that Rubio is the person best positioned to put a Republican back in the White House in 2016 — could well provide the momentum he needs to be the GOP’s answer, figuratively and literally, to President Obama.
Now, with all that said, it’s important not to overstate the import of the Republican State of the Union response. Most of these responses are forgotten almost as soon as they are delivered. And while the political world loves to cite Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s weak performance in 2009 as a sign of how much damage a poor speech can do, is there anyone who thinks Jindal’s prospects as a 2016 candidate have been materially affected by that speech?
What’s clear from Rubio’s selection as the State of the Union responder is that the national Republican Party both recognizes his ability and understands its own need to begin to elevate a national messenger to contend with President Obama over the next few years. Rubio has long been the expected inheritor of that role; his State of the Union response formalizes it.

Parece que a Joe Garcia no le gusta la pelota

By hernandez01
Pensar mal es de pícaros, sin embargo, un viejo sabio (como casi todos los viejos cubanos que vivieron la era pre tiranía), alguna vez me dijo: “a veces hay que pensar mal para que te sorprenda el bien, que cae mejor y hace menos daño…”
Debo regresar al sistema encuestas del Nuevo Herald, esta vez, de la sección deportiva, que es una de las que “bien baila”, por la tendencia a destacar los logros “de los equipos Cuba” y de “los atletas cubanos” con tanta rutina que aburre, incluso por medio de informaciones desde La Habana que no editan, con evidente carácter proselitista procastrista.
¿”Cree usted que los Marlins mejorarían con Jeb Bush como dueño”?, una aparente inocentada, pero solo aparente…
Las “encuesticas” del diario miamense deben estar clasificadas como mediciones de popularidad que, según “los números que arrojen”, las tomarían como base los “tanques pensantes” del partido demócrata, que deciden igualmente la política pro castrista a imponer en Estados Unidos (posiblemente fuera también), para determinar el rumbo de los acontecimientos en la batalla por el poder zonal-nacional.
Sería una soberana estupidez y un error de proporciones catastróficas, aceptar que, detrás de la “proposición” al público para que opine y considere la habilidad del hijo menor del Héroe de la 2da Guerra Mundial y ex presidente George sr, como parte de un grupo comprador (es un rumor) del equipo de casa, prevalezca la “generosamente infantil” opción de seleccionarlo por su buena voluntad y por la decencia del ex gobernador para mejorar el club que, nadie lo dude, si sucediera, lo haría championable en una temporada y media.
Resulta que el periódico no es reconocido por tener una actitud de condescendencia con nada conservador; resulta que miles de veces intentaron barrer el piso con el mismo individuo al que, hoy, ponen en una balanza como digno de confianza y credibilidad con respecto a la posible salvación de uno de “los símbolos de Miami”; el mismo al que tuvieron que dispararse durante dos períodos, porque su capacidad, su limpieza y su proyección social, además de su condición patriótica heredada, se les convirtió en valladar insalvable para sus instintos carroñeros.
¿Cómo el partido demócrata dejó pasar la oportunidad de presentar otro grupo que incluyera a los mandamases de la FNCA, con Joe entre ellos, para piquetear (propagandistamente) contra Jeb, que así habría que haber visto el lance si se “tiraban”?
Bueno, tal vez “se les fue”, tal vez no lograron el equipo comprador que necesitaban… sin embargo, me da la impresión de que este survey de popularidad, está dirigido a analizar el número de personas a tener en cuenta que crea que Bush está capacitado para hacer cosas importantes, inteligentes, decentes y con la firmeza de un… presidente, no del club, sino del país, que son otros cinco pesos.
Después y, a partir de lo anterior, iniciar la preparación de la propaganda sucia pertinente a largo plazo a que acostumbran, tanto el Nuevo Herald como toda la media antiamericana, tal vez el 95 % del país, ratificado hace poco por datos reveladores de Donald Trump por los mecanismos para proteger a Obama.
Joe García no podrá ser nunca ni un “soñador” con la silla presidencial de Estados Unidos, pero Jeb Bush sí.
Al modo mío de ver las cosas, si se presentara a elecciones-2016, sería el más formidable candidato posible para desbancar al antiamericanismo que rige el destino del mundo hoy desde la Casa Blanca.
Para conocer cuántos confían en la Florida (estado de importancia en elecciones generales) en la capacidad de Jeb Bush para arreglar lo que casi nadie puede, lo que han convertido en un patiñero indecente y corrupto quienes han hecho valer su instinto antipopular con abuso de poder, es que se producen encuesticas como esas.

Jeb Bush Closer to 2016 Run

www.theatlantic.com
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will speak for the first time at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, a clear sign that he is mulling a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.

The American Conservative Union, which sponsors the conference, announced Tuesday that Bush will address the group, set for March 14-16 in National Harbor, Md., just outside Washington. Bush has been invited by the group to speak at CPAC several times, but this will be his first appearance.

“We are pleased to announce that my friend Gov. Jeb Bush will be a featured speaker at CPAC 2013,” ACU Chairman Al Cardenas said in a statement.

“We look forward to welcoming him to the CPAC stage for the first time in March.”

Bush served as Florida governor for two terms and since leaving office in 2006 has been vocal about the Republican Party’s need to reach out to minorities. He’s also been critical of the Republican Party’s failure to embrace comprehensive immigration reform and made education policy a key priority during his time leading Florida.

News that Bush will take the stage at the conference comes as The National Review reports that Bush this week is meeting in Washington with a number of cabinet members of his brother, former President George W. Bush. When asked to comment directly on the rumors the meeting was tied to a forthcoming run, Bush would only say the meeting was about education policy.

Bush was one of the nation’s first governors to push through comprehensive education reform. Florida’s plan has since been modeled by 36 states.

President Obama trying to checkmate the Republican Party

GOP Blasts Obama Stopgap Fix

 
President Obama is running into a buzzsaw of Republican criticism that his latest call for a stopgap fix to avert automatic budget cuts is an unserious proposal that would once again lock in permanent tax hikes without addressing the country's spending.
The president is heading to Annapolis, Md., Wednesday to sell that and other policy proposals to Senate Democrats at their annual retreat. With Congress facing a March 1 deadline before sweeping defense and other cuts kick in, Obama on Tuesday said the best thing to do if they can't meet that deadline is to pass a package of "spending cuts and tax reforms" that would push off the deadline for a "few more months."
But Republican leaders roundly rejected the idea.
"It's just more of the same," House Republican Leader Eric Cantor told Fox News.
Cantor and others accused the president of once again "kicking the can" on the debt crisis -- and further, they claimed that after the fiscal-crisis deal yielded a tax rate increase on top earners, Obama and his Democratic allies are trying to squeeze in more tax hikes in lieu of spending cuts.
Republicans also want to replace the indiscriminate spending cuts set to hit March 1. But they want to replace them with other spending cuts.
"(Obama) wants to continue down the path of insinuating that somehow taxpayers have got to put more and more money in, when the problem is spending," Cantor said, urging the president to "lead" on the issue of passing a comprehensive replacement bill.
At issue are the spending cuts set into motion by the 2011 deal to raise the debt ceiling. As part of that deal, Congress teed up more than $1 trillion in defense and other spending cuts unless lawmakers found an alternative that achieved similar deficit reduction. They didn't. Lawmakers, as part of the fiscal crisis deal at the end of 2012, delayed the automatic budget cuts for two months. The next deadline is March 1.
Obama, in a brief statement Tuesday at the White House, urged Congress to give itself time by passing another stopgap.
"There is no reason that the jobs of thousands of Americans ... not to mention the growth of the entire economy, should be put in jeopardy just because folks in Washington couldn't come together," Obama said
Noting that Congress is currently working on a broader package, Obama said "at the very least we should give them a chance to come up with this budget instead of making indiscriminate cuts now that would cost us jobs and significantly slow down our economy."
The move, though, raised renewed concerns among Republicans that Obama, after winning tax hikes on top earners during the fiscal-crisis talks, would push anew for more tax increases.
"We believe there is a better way to reduce the deficit, but Americans do not support sacrificing real spending cuts for more tax hikes," House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell accused Obama of wanting to "delay" the cuts "for a few months with more permanent tax hikes at a time when American families are already feeling the pinch of the Obama economy."
He called on the president to propose "significant spending reforms."
"The clock is ticking. It's time to get serious," McConnell said.
Obama is not calling for increases in tax rates, like the kind enacted in the fiscal-crisis deal. Rather, he wants to close loopholes and deductions to raise revenue.
But while Obama wants to use that revenue to close the deficit, some Republicans say that revenue should be used to in turn lower rates and boost the economy.
"I'm disappointed the president today attempted to unilaterally change the terms of the debate on tax reform," Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said in a statement. "Tax reform does not mean closing loopholes to solely pay down the deficit.  Tax reform means closing loopholes to primarily lower rates for working families in order to promote economic growth, which has the effect of increasing tax revenues for the federal government."
Meanwhile, lawmakers across Capitol Hill are putting out dueling proposals to deal with the March 1 deadline.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus, a group of liberal House Democrats, on Tuesday unveiled a bill that would cancel the looming spending cuts and replace them with tax hikes. It would also cut $300 billion from the Pentagon and divert it to "job creation."
House Republicans are sure to oppose the bill.
Republicans on the armed services committees in both chambers are expected to unveil a proposal of their own on Wednesday.
The automatic cuts add up to roughly $1 trillion over 10 years. While many lawmakers are still committed to achieving that level of deficit reduction and more, the fact that half the cuts hit the Pentagon -- which is already dealing with cutbacks -- and the other half hit domestic programs favored by Democrats has made the current course unpalatable in Washington.
For more than a year, though, lawmakers have been unable to figure out an alternative that is amenable to both sides.

lunes, enero 21, 2013

ALERT: CBS' Dickerson to Obama: 'Go for the Throat' of GOP

A column published on Slate.com over the weekend urged President Obama to "pulverize" and destroy his Republican opponents -- even "go for the throat" -- in order to "cement his legacy."
The words of advice, though, didn't come from a Democratic strategist or a former member of the president's inner circle.
The nearly 2,000-word playbook came from CBS News' political director John Dickerson.
Dickerson, who also works as chief political correspondent for Slate, had some unusually harsh words for the minority party as Obama takes the oath and launches into his second term.
To hear Dickerson tell it, Republicans have proved so intransigent that Obama's only option is to obliterate them. The subhead on the article said, "Obama must declare war on the Republican Party" if he wants to transform American politics.
"There's no indication that the president's clashes with House Republicans will end soon," Dickerson wrote. "The president who came into office speaking in lofty terms about bipartisanship and cooperation can only cement his legacy if he destroys the GOP. If he wants to transform American politics, he must go for the throat."
Dickerson went on to describe the strategy of picking off and cultivating a few Republican allies as "the old way."
"Obama's only remaining option is to pulverize," Dickerson said. He wrote that Obama's attempt to build a "post-partisan" Washington didn't work, and in his second term Obama has the chance to "hasten the demise of the old order" of the GOP by "increasing the political cost of having the GOP coalition defined by Second Amendment absolutists, climate science deniers, supporters of 'self-deportation' and the pure no-tax wing."
The advice comes despite the eventual willingness of the Republican Party to allow tax increases on top earners, as part of the recent fiscal crisis deal.
Republicans have also eased off their opposition to raising the debt ceiling, proposing a three-month extension while a budget is debated.
Dickerson was named CBS' political director in November 2011.
Representatives from CBS News have not yet responded to requests for comment.

sábado, enero 19, 2013

GOP Hits Snag With No-Pay Plan

House Republicans might run into a snag in trying to suspend congressional pay as a way to nudge budget negotiations along: the U.S. Constitution.
As part of a proposal to raise the debt limit for three months, the House GOP would suspend pay for members of Congress unless both the House and the Senate pass a budget blueprint for the next fiscal year.
The measure plays to public disaffection with Congress, which has been locked in a bitter spending battle, and appeals to the small-government wing of the Republican Party, which doesn’t like government spending to begin with. It is also a dig at Senate Democrats, who have gone for years without adopting a budget plan.
The problem is that immediately withholding pay from lawmakers may be unconstitutional. The 27th amendment states no law changing compensation for members of the House or the Senate can take effect until after the next House election. That means a law, even if it were to clear the Democratic-controlled Senate, which is a long shot, could not be used to withhold pay for almost two years.
To read more from The Wall Street Journal, click here >>

viernes, enero 18, 2013

KRAUTHAMMER: How to Save the Republican Party

FoxNews.com/ By Charles Krauthammer
davidbrin.com
WASHINGTON –  It has become conventional wisdom that Republicans are suffering an internal split that President Obama is successfully exploiting to neuter the Republican House. It is not true, however, that the Republican split is philosophical and fundamental. And that a hopelessly divided GOP is therefore headed for decline, perhaps irrelevance.
In fact, the split is tactical, not philosophical; short-term, not fundamental. And therefore quite solvable.
How do we know? Simple thought experiment: Imagine that we had a Republican president. Would the party be deeply divided over policy, at war with itself in Congress? Not at all. It would be rallying around something like the Paul Ryan budget that twice passed the House with near 100 percent GOP unanimity.
In reality, Republicans have a broad consensus on program and policy. But they don't have the power. What divides Republicans today is a straightforward tactical question: Can you govern from one house of Congress? Should you even try?
Can you shrink government, restrain spending, bring a modicum of fiscal sanity to the country when the president and a blocking Senate have no intention of doing so?
One faction feels committed to try. It wishes to carry out its small-government electoral promises and will cast no vote inconsistent with that philosophy. These are the House Republicans who voted no on the "fiscal cliff" deal because it raised taxes without touching spending. Indeed, it increased spending with its crazy-quilt crony-capitalist tax "credits" -- for wind power and other indulgences.
They were willing to risk the fiscal cliff. Today they are willing to risk a breach of the debt ceiling and even a government shutdown rather than collaborate with Obama's tax-and-spend second-term agenda.
The other view is that you cannot govern from the House. The reason Ryan and John Boehner finally voted yes on the lousy fiscal-cliff deal is that by then there was nowhere else to go. Republicans could not afford to bear the blame (however unfair) for a $4.5 trillion across-the-board tax hike and a Pentagon hollowed out by sequester.
The party establishment is coming around to the view that if you try to govern from one house -- e.g., force spending cuts with cliffhanging brinkmanship -- you lose. You not only don't get the cuts. You get the blame for rattled markets and economic uncertainty. You get humiliated by having to cave in the end. And you get opinion polls ranking you below head lice and colonoscopies in popularity.
There is history here. The Gingrich Revolution ran aground when it tried to govern from Congress, losing badly to President Clinton over government shutdowns. Nor did the modern insurgents do any better in the 2011 debt-ceiling and 2012 fiscal-cliff showdowns with Obama.
Obama's post-election arrogance and intransigence can put you in a fighting mood. I sympathize. But I'm tending toward the realist view: Don't force the issue when you don't have the power.
The debt-ceiling deadline is coming up. You can demand commensurate spending cuts, the usual, reasonable Republican offer. But you won't get them. Obama will hold out. And, at the eleventh hour, you will have to give in as you get universally blamed for market gyrations and threatened credit downgrades.
The more prudent course would be to find some offer that cannot be refused, a short-term trade-off utterly unassailable and straightforward. For example, offer to extend the debt ceiling through, say, May 1, in exchange for the Senate delivering a budget by that date -- after four years of lawlessly refusing to produce one.
Not much. But it would (a) highlight the Democrats' fiscal recklessness, (b) force Senate Democrats to make public their fiscal choices and (c) keep the debt ceiling alive as an ongoing pressure point for future incremental demands.
Go small and simple. Forget about forcing tax reform or entitlement cuts or anything major. If Obama wants to recklessly expand government, well, as he says, he won the election.
Republicans should simply block what they can. Further tax hikes, for example. The general rule is: From a single house of Congress you can resist but you cannot impose.
Aren't you failing the country, say the insurgents? Answer: The country chose Obama. He gets four years.
Want to save the Republic? Win the next election. Don't immolate yourself trying to save liberalism from itself. If your conservative philosophy is indeed right, winning will come. As Margaret Thatcher said serenely of the Labor Party socialists she later overthrew: "They always run out of other people's money."

DEMS ON FENCE? Senate Dems Won't Commit To Assault Weapons Ban

Read >>

miércoles, enero 16, 2013

Will Obama destroy the Republican Party?

GOP Fires Back at Obama Gun Plan

President Obama's sweeping plan to address gun violence was met Wednesday with swift and stiff resistance by gun rights advocates and conservative lawmakers, setting up a tense debate that will be held on the airwaves, in congressional hearing rooms and in communities across America.
The package proposed Wednesday is the most comprehensive in decades. The president called for a new, tougher assault weapons ban and a 10-round limit on magazines, as well as legislation to bar the possession of armor-piercing bullets and require criminal background checks for nearly all gun sales.
Separately, he approved 23 executive actions while calling for additional funding to address mental health and school security.
The movement comes in the wake of last month's school massacre in Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults were killed.
"If there's even one life that can be saved, then we've got an obligation to try," said Obama, joined at the White House by four children who wrote to the president following the Newtown, Conn., tragedy.
But several lawmakers said the president's proposals in large part would not have prevented a shooting like the one at Sandy Hook Elementary School. They accused the president of glossing over potential factors like the entertainment industry and the country's mental health system, making clear that the legislative proposals could face an uphill climb.
"Nothing the president is proposing would have stopped the massacre at Sandy Hook. President Obama is targeting the 2nd Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens instead of seriously addressing the real underlying causes of such violence," Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said. "Rolling back responsible citizens' rights is not the proper response to tragedies committed by criminals and the mentally ill."
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said the proposals would merely invite "drawn-out court battles."
"Instead of a thoughtful, open and deliberate conversation, President Obama is attempting to institute new restrictions on a fundamental constitutional right," he said.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, in a written statement, said: "Guns require a finger to pull the trigger. The sad young man who did that in Newtown was clearly haunted by demons, and no gun law could have saved the children in Sandy Hook Elementary from his terror."
But both sides of the debate were preparing Wednesday for a drawn-out national debate. The National Rifle Association is preparing to launch a major ad campaign and has already started running one ad. The group said Wednesday it would work with Congress on a "bipartisan basis" but that "attacking firearms and ignoring children is not a solution to the crisis we face as a nation."
The NRA said: "Only honest, law-abiding gun owners will be affected, and our children will remain vulnerable to the inevitability of more tragedy" as a result of the administration's plan.
On the other side, a group founded by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was wounded in a 2011 mass shooting, and her husband, Mark Kelly, has gotten involved in making the public case for gun control. Kelly and Vice President Biden, who led the president's anti-gun violence task force, met Wednesday in Washington.
A handful of Democratic lawmakers have already proposed gun-control bills, though Obama on Wednesday did not endorse any specific piece of legislation. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy said he plans to start holding hearings in two weeks on the issue.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who intends to introduce a gun-control package next week including an assault-weapons ban, on Wednesday praised the president's announcement.
"He was exactly right when he said 'weapons designed for the theater of war have no place' in our society. I couldn't agree more. These weapons have one purpose: to kill the most people in the shortest amount of time possible," Feinstein said.
The leaders of the House and Senate declined to issue any definitive statements on Wednesday. "House committees of jurisdiction will review these recommendations. And if the Senate passes a bill, we will also take a look at that," said Michael Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner.
In the Senate, Democratic Leader Harry Reid said: "I am committed to ensuring that the Senate will consider legislation that addresses gun violence and other aspects of violence in our society early this year." He thanked the task force for the "thoughtful" ideas and said "all options should be on the table moving forward."
The president, immediately after making his remarks, signed nearly two-dozen executive actions -- a step that has stirred objections from lawmakers who have warned Obama not to overstep his bounds.
Unilaterally, Obama on Wednesday directed federal agencies to share information with the federal background check system; proposed new rules to let law enforcement run full background checks before returning a seized gun; ordered the Centers for Disease Control to research causes of gun violence; required law enforcement to trace guns from criminal investigations; and took other steps. Obama also is nominating the ATF's acting director, Todd Jones, to lead the agency permanently.
The most controversial elements of the president's plan, though, continue to be the proposals he wants Congress to pass.
The call for universal background checks would extend to gun shows and private sales, with "limited" exemptions for "certain transfers" among family members and other situations. The administration plans to give private sellers guidance on how to run background checks as soon as possible.
The president also wants to commit $4 billion to hiring more police officers and to pass new gun trafficking laws to explicitly prohibit straw purchasing.
The White House plan addresses school security, as well, urging Congress to help schools complete emergency plans; proposing an initiative to help schools hire up to 1,000 resource officers and mental health professionals. and proposing new training for teachers to recognize mental health issues among young people. Obama also plans to beef up mental health insurance coverage by executive action.

martes, enero 15, 2013

Obama Refuses To Negotiate With Those Holding 'A Gun At The Head Of The American People'

Barack Obama
AP
Brett LoGiurato
In the final press conference of his first term, President Barack Obama warned he would not negotiate with Republicans who he said were holding "a gun at the head of the American people" over raising the country's debt ceiling.
Obama's near hour-long news conference focused heavily on two topics: the looming need to raise the country's borrowing limit and the White House's plan to curb the nation's rash of gun violence.
Throughout his press conference, Obama urged Congress to raise the debt ceiling without any fanfare. It came on a morning when Politico reported that some House Republicans are willing to test the limits of defaulting on the nation's debt in order to force spending cuts from Obama. 
Sometimes, Obama did that more colorfully than others.
"I'm happy to have that conversation," Obama said of future deficit-reduction talks. "What I will not do is have that negotiation with a gun at the head of the American people."
Later, he compared it to a "dine-and-dash" situation at a restaurant.
Obama said not raising the debt ceiling would be a "self-inflicting wound on the economy," delaying payments to Social Security beneficiaries and veterans.
"I want to be clear about this," he said. "Raising the debt ceiling ... simply allows the country to pay for spending Congress has already committed to. The debt ceiling is not a question of authorizing more spending.
"The full faith and credit of the United States economy is not a bargaining chip," Obama added. "The financial well being of the American people is not leverage to be used. To even entertain the idea of this happening, of America not paying its bills, is irresponsible. It is absurd."
Signaling another revenue fight, Obama said that future deficit-reduction must be done in a "balanced" way with a mix of tax revenue and spending cuts. He noted that he was open to "modest adjustments to programs like Medicare."
"The issue here is whether or not America pays its bills. We are not a deadbeat nation. ... There's a very simple solution to this. Congress authorizes us to pay our bills."
The White House has ruled out getting involved in raising the debt ceiling, ruling out the options of minting a trillion-dollar platinum coin and the 14th Amendment as possible work-around solutions if Republicans refuse to raise the nation's borrowing limit.
Obama stressed that raising the ceiling was Congress' responsibility — saying twice that "we are not a deadbeat nation" that should be arguing about whether to pay its bills.
"There are no magic tricks here. There are no loopholes. There are no easy outs. ... The consequences of us not paying our bills would be disastrous," Obama said.
Obama blamed Republican skittishness on raising the debt ceiling on various "suspicions" — he suspected himself that their insistence on spending cuts was not about debt reduction alone.
"It seems as though what is motivating this from the House Republicans is more than debt reduction," Obama said. "They have a vision about what government should and should not do. They are suspicious about government policy commitment to make sure that seniors have decent health care as they grow older. They have suspicions about Social Security. They have suspicions about whether government should make sure that kids in poverty are getting enough to eat or whether we should be spending money on medical research."
In response, House Speaker John Boehner challenged Obama to come up with "meaningful action" to reduce future spending.
“The American people do not support raising the debt ceiling without reducing government spending at the same time," Boehner said in a statement.
"The consequences of failing to increase the debt ceiling are real, but so too are the consequences of allowing our spending problem to go unresolved. Without meaningful action, the debt will continue to act as an anchor on our economy, costing American jobs and endangering our children’s future. The House will do its job and pass responsible legislation that controls spending, meets our nation’s obligations and keeps the government running, and we will insist that the Democratic majority in Washington do the same.”
In his press conference, Obama also touched on the White House's planned steps to combat the nation's recent rash of gun violence. Vice President Joe Biden is expected to deliver his recommendations on Tuesday, and Obama said he would present the recommendations sometime this week.
"My starting point is not to worry about the politics, my starting point is to think about what works, what makes sense," he said. He hinted that a renewed assault weapons ban and limits on high-capacity magazines are things that continue to "make sense."
"Will all of them get through this Congress? I don't know. ... If there is a step we can take that will save even one child from what happened in Newtown, we should take that step," Obama said. He added that he could "accomplish" some measures through "executive action," specifying it was related to "how we gather data."
He also went after the pro-gun lobby for "ginning up fear" of gun-grabbing in the wake of the White House's planned proposals.
"It's unfortunate. But that's the case," Obama said. 

domingo, enero 13, 2013

We're now one step closer to America's coming civil war

ozarkteaparty.com
By  
The New Year has started with a monstrosity of a budget deal, one that proves that neither political party, Democrats or Republicans, is really serious about controlling the growth of big government.
But soap opera dramatics about fiscal "cliffs" and sequestration shouldn’t deflect from where President Obama is really taking this country. Consider this story from the Wall Street Journal a few days before Christmas:
“Thousands of people in several Argentine cities ransacked supermarkets for a second day in the latest challenge to President Chistina Kirchner, who is struggling to revive a weak economy...In the central city Rosario, two people were killed during the incidents and 137 people arrested.
Washington's Republicans and Democrats alike have become the toll collectors on the road to serfdom
“The violence puts Mrs. Kirchner in a difficult position as the poor are [her] core constituents...Her government spends billions of dollars a year to help low income families, including free health care...[Yet] Argentine activists who claim to represent the poor traditionally block access to supermarkets in the month of December to demand free food and other items...The latest events were some of the worst acts of looting and vandalism in years.... Local media showed dozens of men, women, and children hauling away televisions, refrigerators, and food.”
Some have said my warnings about a coming civil war between makers and takers are exaggerated. It’s true that Argentina’s politicians have been waging class warfare since Juan and Eva Peron–and they aren’t fazed when it turns bloody. Obama and the Democrats are relative newcomers to the game. But Argentina reveals who really suffers when those who create a nation’s wealth get mugged by those who spend it–as just happened this week in Washington.
It’s the poor and the middle class, the very ones big government says it’s trying to protect.
And sadly that’s where Mitt Romney had it wrong.
That 47 percent of Americans who get unemployment benefits, Social Security disability checks, Medicare and Medicaid, and government student loans, aren’t the real takers. Like the rioters in Rosario, they’re just pawns in a perennial battle between those who see wealth and prosperity as something created by hard work, ingenuity, and innovation in a free market system–or something to be doled out by government.
Experience teaches that those who believe in free markets are right. The November election and the budget deal, however, show that the other side is winning, and winning big.
Since 1970, America’s public sector has exploded as a percentage of GDP, rising to almost 25% last year. While the national unemployment rate hovers at the 8% mark, government worker unemployment rate is a cozy 3.8%. Sixteen percent of America’s workforce now work for government. By the time the Obama administration ends, we won’t be that far away from Argentina’s 21 percent.
Yet as an economic and social enterprise, government creates nothing.
Far from adding to people’s standard of living, government is the number one cause of poverty in this country. It forces those who depend on its largesse to live hand to mouth, with no time or money to plan for the future. They become unable to fend for themselves---and increasingly resentful of those who can.
When the economy tanks and the government checks have to shrink, their only alternative is to take to the streets. That’s what happening in Argentina, and in Greece; and that’s where the growth of government is taking us here, as this current budget deal increases handouts–and more and more Americans are finding that an unemployment or Social Security disability check is their only life line.
Washington’s Republicans and Democrats alike have become the toll collectors on the road to serfdom–and the road to Rosario.
How far down that road depends on how our private sector rallies in 2013 after two numbing defeats, first on November 7 and then on Capitol Hill this week.
It needs to explain to that 47 percent that when big government wins, we all lose–and that this nation won’t survive if it does.

America is watching 'War of the Roses' 2013-style starring Obama and Boehner

Painting by Henry Payne in 1908 [Wikipedia]
By  
The most famous talked-about couple in Washington needs serious therapy. No, not Michelle and Barack – I’m talking about the  President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner.
Watching those two guide the country through difficult times is like witnessing "The War of the Roses" – the film variety. 
Unfortunately, instead of the relatively trivial matter of managing household finances, our elected leaders need to come together on solving our country’s dire fiscal problems. Most immediately, they need to raise the nation’s debt ceiling.
As with many troubled couples, these two cannot agree on money matters. Like a wife ignorant of the family’s finances, Obama wants ever more and ultimately ruinous spending. Boehner is the stern husband trying to talk sense.   
As with many troubled couples, these two cannot agree on money matters. Like a wife ignorant of the family’s finances, Obama wants ever more and ultimately ruinous spending. Boehner is the stern husband trying to talk sense.   
Beyond philosophical disagreements, and adding to their inability to function well together, Messrs. Obama and Boehner do not appear to have a high regard for each other. This is disastrous in marriage, and in politics. In "Blink," author Malcolm Gladwell introduces psychologist John Gottman, who claims that after only fifteen minutes of observing a couple, he can predict with 90% accuracy their chance of a successful marriage. (Really, I’ve always wondered why don't more young hopefuls don’t sign up for this?)
What are the signals? He ascribes most marital failures to the presence of four behaviors: defensiveness, stonewalling, criticism and contempt. 
It is hard to come up with four words that more appropriately describe the relationship between the House Speaker and the president, who have regularly indulged in angry phone calls, pouting and blame-throwing. There is one reaction, though, that is determining, and that is contempt. As Gottman explains, “...if I speak from a superior plane, that’s far more damaging, and contempt is any statement from a higher level.”
Does anyone doubt that President Obama speaks from a higher plane? That he is dismissive of John Boehner?  Do we imagine that John Boehner is enthralled with the president? 
The Speaker reported recently that Obama told him, “we don’t have a spending problem.” Boehner was not only exasperated, he was also incredulous. After four years of trillion-dollar deficits on his watch, after suffering the first U.S. credit downgrade in generations, having been on the receiving end of stern warnings from the IMF of the sort usually reserved for countries like Zambia, and with every reasoned analysis projecting fiscal Armageddon if Medicare is not brought to heel, how could the president not recognize the urgency of bringing long-term entitlements spending under control?
Boehner’s explanation is that President Obama is “so ideological himself”, as he told the Wall Street Journal’s Stephen Moore, and that he is “unwilling to take on the left wing of his own party.” It’s hard to say which the Speaker considers worse.
When Boehner tried to press his concern about excessive U.S. spending, Obama reportedly replied, “I’m getting tired of hearing you say that.”  How very Marie Antoinette.
As in most marital spats, there are hints of affections straying. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has played, perhaps, the “other woman”, to pursue this analogy. Christie was charged with introducing candidate Mitt Romney at the GOP convention -- perhaps the most important speech at the Republican gathering –- testament to his stature in the party. 
He spent that coveted spot mainly talking about himself, and giving but mildly enthusiastic support for his party’s hopeful, planting seeds of doubt in the minds of some that he was the GOP’s best bet for 2016. However, his standing took an even greater hit when he bear-hugged (literally and figuratively) President Obama in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Coming as it did just before the election, the Sandy love-fest, and Christie, are blamed for boosting Obama’s image at a critical moment.
More recently, Christie savagely criticized the Speaker’s failure to ram through the relief bill so needed by New Jersey and other states badly damaged by the hurricane. Christie’s attack, on the heels of the dalliance with Obama, has helped dim the public’s view of Boehner, further trimming his negotiating ability.
The Speaker Boehner has determined that he will forgo any more closed-door negotiations with the president, considering them “futile.” The president, in return, has vowed not to negotiate over raising the debt ceiling. More and more Obama has turned to executive orders to carry out his agenda – including most recently threatening to use that means to enact gun controls. The relationship, as poor as it was, appears to be on the skids. This is not entirely good news for the country.  
Is it time to bring in marriage counselors? One team that might help the fractious twosome is former Senators Simpson and Bowles. This bipartisan duo, after all, was asked by President Obama to come up with a long-term plan for putting our nation’s finances in order. They did a bang-up job of putting everything on the table, and proposing measures that both right and left found odious. That was the virtue of their plan, which remains the best blueprint – or at least the most intelligent starting point -- for putting our house in order. 
Numerous House Republicans in the past couple of days have proposed taking up the Simpson-Bowles plan; Texas Representative Steve Stockman has said he would introduce it as a bill in the House. Unfortunately, Obama dismissed the plan as readily as a shopaholic housewife scorns a budget; the plan was DOA.
Indeed, it is of course not just DC’s most talked-about visible power twosome duo that is having difficulties. The entire extended body politic -- GOP and Dems alike – cannot communicate.They talk right by each other on important matters like reining in our spiraling entitlements obligations, how we are going to rebuild our outdated infrastructure, the best way to rationalize our immigration system and improve our public schools, how to simplify and improve our tax code, how to reboot job creation and make sure our institutions are protected from cyberthreats. 
We have real problems, and a legislative body – and White House – that seems unable to get the nation’s business done. As a result, Americans are ever more anxious about our future. They say politics makes strange bedfellows. Sadly for the country, Beltway insiders have apparently taken a vow of chastity.  

viernes, enero 11, 2013

Top Senate Dems Urge Obama to Take Unilateral Action on Debt Ceiling

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
If President Obama were to break the impasse with Republicans over raising the debt limit by taking unilateral action, such a move would have the potential to set off a firestorm of controversy and spark a protracted legal battle.
Top Senate Democrats say, go for it.
The White House has dismissed talk that Obama would rely on unusual measures to raise the nation's debt limit without Congress' approval, but administration officials also have warned that the country could default on its debt and trigger a new economic crisis if lawmakers don't increase the limit on borrowing.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is among those urging Obama to consider options like invoking the 14th Amendment to the Constitution to find ways around the $16.4 trillion legal cap on government borrowing. The amendment states that the "validity of the public debt of the United States ... shall not be questioned," which some lawmakers believe permits a way out of the debt limit jam.
The government hit the debt limit last month and is juggling the books to buy additional time for Congress to act. But those moves only buy a few weeks of wiggle room, which requires Congress to act -- likely by mid- to late-February -- to avoid a market-quaking default on U.S. obligations.
The White House has said emphatically that it does not believe that the 14th Amendment permits Obama to ignore the debt cap on U.S. borrowing, though it considered the question during the 2011 debt crisis.
"There is no Plan B. There is no backup plan," White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday. "There is no alternative to Congress raising the debt ceiling."
A letter to Obama on Friday from Reid and Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., doesn't mention the 14th Amendment, but aides to the senators said that's what they have in mind in urging the president to consider unilateral action.
"We believe you must be willing to take any lawful steps to ensure that America does not break its promises and trigger a global economic crisis -- without congressional approval, if necessary," the letter said.
Battling House and Senate leaders have made virtually no progress on a strategy for legislation to lift the debt cap. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, insists that any debt increase be matched by equivalent spending cuts. Obama, buoyed by his re-election victory, says he won't negotiate as he did in 2011, when he traded a $2.1 trillion debt increase for tight spending limits on agency budgets and automatic, across-the-board spending cuts if a congressional "supercommittee" failed to reach a budget agreement.
"Senate Democrats cannot ignore their responsibilities for political convenience -- and the American people will not tolerate an increase in the debt limit without spending cuts and reforms," said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel.
The impasse has people on both sides scratching their heads over how it will be resolved. The anxiety is such that some on the left are urging Obama to mint a coin worth perhaps $1 trillion to be deposited at the Federal Reserve and drawn upon to meet government obligations.

jueves, enero 10, 2013

Is Ted Cruz Eligible to Run for President?

legalinsurrection.com
In a testament to Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s (R) star power, Politico recently questioned whether Cruz would ever be eligible to run for president.
It is a question many have asked after Cruz started to gain momentum in his Texas Republican Senate primary against Texas Lieutenant Gov. David Dewhurst. 
Cruz was born in Canada to an American mother (who was born in Delaware and had lived in the country for at least ten consecutive years) and a father who was born in Cuba. 
There is no legal precedent for Cruz’s case, which is why people on the right, left, and in legal circles have been curious about whether Cruz would be in fact eligible to run for president. 
The U.S. Constitution states that only a “natural born Citizen” can be eligible to run for president. 
As Yale law professor Bruce Ackerman told the publication, “The question ultimately is, What do we mean by a natural born citizen?”
“The problem is, no one knows what a natural born citizen is,” agreed University of California, Davis law professor Gabriel Chin, who argued in 2008 that Sen. John McCain was not eligible to be president.
Advisers to Cruz told the publication that “because his mother had U.S. citizenship at the time of his birth, it transferred to him on foreign soil.”
“Ted is a U.S. citizen by birth, having been born in Calgary to an American-born mother,” a Cruz spokesperson told the publication. 
Temple University law professor Peter Spiro told the publication Cruz would have a “very strong argument” that he qualifies under the definition. 

The Difference between Embracing Bipartisanship and Eschewing Obsessive Partisanship


The recently passed fiscal cliff deal was heralded by the media as a "bipartisan compromise".  Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein emphasized that the deal needed a "bipartisan basis". Republican Senator John Boozman called the bill a "bipartisan solution" that would "tackle the financial troubles are country is facing". The bill ultimately received a total of 125 Republicans and 219 Democrats between both the House and Senate. The bill indeed was bipartisan, but what was the price of bipartisanship? Eighty percent of the revenue from the bill will go to President Obama's cronies through incentives and subsidies. The Congressional Budget Office ultimately determined that the touted "balanced approach" really meant that there would be 10 dollars in tax increases for every dollar in spending cuts leading to an additional $4 trillion in deficits.Additionally, the payroll tax holiday expired as part of the deal. It is indeed arguable that the tax holiday shouldn't have existed in the first place, as the holiday could contribute to the insolvency of Social Security. However, allowing that tax holiday to expire while claiming that the deal didn't "raise" taxes is a disingenuous claim by politicians pretending to champions for the middle class while 77% of Americans see less money in their paycheck. In order to face the political reality of a looming, media declared fiscal cliff that would have meant deep across the board spending cuts and tax increases, Congress ignored the fiscal reality of our present and future to spend more... but bipartisanship!
The media has touted the bipartisanship of both President Obama and Governor Chris Christie in recent months as well. President Obama has chosen to appoint former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of Defense. Hagel supported Obama 2008 candidacy and has taken some stances on Iran and Israel that have made many leery of him as a Defense Secretary. Following the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, Governor Christie embraced and praised President Obama's response while more recently trashing Republicans for ultimately waiting a few days to pass a clean bill for Hurricane Sandy aid, rather than the pork laden bill that Christie preferred. Both of these politicians "sacrificed" in their bipartisanship--Obama his partisan stance for his policy stance and political friendship and Christie his party's purported conservative platform for his political advantage.
Abandoning a party platform (i.e. principle) for the sake of party happens often in politics. It's called obsessive partisanship. Congressman Paul Ryan joined in the aforementioned "bipartisanship" when he voted for the fiscal cliff deal, noting that he "had the guts to vote for it" and that allowing this plan to pass meant that "now we can finally debate spending". However, when Congressman Ryan had the opportunity to "debate spending" when President Bush was in office, he didn't. As I have written before:
He is an intelligent Congressman who has shown leadership in the House on the budget and making strong stances against Obamacare, particularly the IPAB---the unelected board of bureaucrats tasked with managing how Medicare pays. Ryan has served as a Congressman in Washington DC since 1999 and worked for House members for several years during the early and mid 1990s as well. However, despite his strong stance against the Obama administration's profligate spending, he also supported the TARP bailout during the Bush administration and the auto bailout set in motion during the Bush administration.
Paul Ryan is just one example. Individuals on both sides of the aisle are guilty of obsessive partisanship. When President Bush raised the debt ceiling, then Senator Obama called it "a failure of leadership", only to raise the debt ceiling himself in his first term. He is poised to raise it yet again. This is obsessive partisanship. It's one thing for a liberal or a conservative to vote or govern according to his or her principles. It is another thing to abandon one's alleged principles for the sake of party or political expediency.
Thankfully, there are some individuals who have eschewed obsessive partisanship for the sake of maintaining their principles. Sarah Palin is a prime example:
She had garnered a reputation for bucking her own party-- calling out the Alaska GOP chair for doing party business on state time, taking on and defeating an incumbent governor in her own party, cleaning up the ethical mess caused by that incumbent she defeated, and even suing a GOP presidential administration to enable energy development in Alaska.
There are other examples as well. Just this week former Illinois Republican gubernatorial candidate, Adam Andrezjewski filed a lawsuit against Republican comptroller Judy Baar Topinka to make the state of Illinois checkbook publicly available. Topinka had earlier denied Andrezjewski's organization's (For the Good of Illinois) FOIA request. He is suing a member of his own party for the sake of making a state in fiscal shambles more transparent. Making state spending publicly available was embraced by Governor Palin as well and is an example of obsessive partisanship eschewed. When Governor Palin launched that effort in Alaska in 2008, it was praised by both Grover Norquist and Democrat Ralph Nader. She willing exposed the spending she signed into law at the risk of political criticism.
This why pro market, pro transparency populism needs to be embraced. Americans have become jaded to politics where their kids' futures are put in jeopardy because politicians in Washington want to play kick the can for the sake of their own political expediency. Politicians too often point the finger of blame and broken promises only to find that when they point fingers they have three pointing back at them. Is a pro market, pro transparency approach to governance idealistic? Perhaps. Do we deserve it? With our propensity to vote the same folks into office election after election, maybe we don't, but America's future does deserve it. We can't continue to sacrifice our fiscal reality for the sake of our bipartisan, but obsessively partisan political reality.
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Retratos de fusilados por el Castrismo - Juan Abreu

"Hablame"

"EN TIEMPOS DIFÍCILES" - Heberto Padilla

A aquel hombre le pidieron su tiempo

para que lo juntara al tiempo de la Historia.

Le pidieron las manos,

porque para una época difícil

nada hay mejor que un par de buenas manos.

Le pidieron los ojos

que alguna vez tuvieron lágrimas

para que contemplara el lado claro

(especialmente el lado claro de la vida)

porque para el horror basta un ojo de asombro.

Le pidieron sus labios

resecos y cuarteados para afirmar,

para erigir, con cada afirmación, un sueño

(el-alto-sueño);

le pidieron las piernas

duras y nudosas

(sus viejas piernas andariegas),

porque en tiempos difíciles

¿algo hay mejor que un par de piernas

para la construcción o la trinchera?

Le pidieron el bosque que lo nutrió de niño,

con su árbol obediente.

Le pidieron el pecho, el corazón, los hombros.

Le dijeron

que eso era estrictamente necesario.

Le explicaron después

que toda esta donación resultaria inútil.

sin entregar la lengua,

porque en tiempos difíciles

nada es tan útil para atajar el odio o la mentira.

Y finalmente le rogaron

que, por favor, echase a andar,

porque en tiempos difíciles

esta es, sin duda, la prueba decisiva.

Etiquetas

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La columna de Cubanalisis

NEOCASTRISMO [Hacer click en la imagen]

NEOCASTRISMO [Hacer click en la imagen]
¨Saturno jugando con sus hijos¨/ Pedro Pablo Oliva

Seguidores

Carta desde la carcel de Fidel Castro Ruz

“…después de todo, para mí la cárcel es un buen descanso, que sólo tiene de malo el que es obligatorio. Leo mucho y estudio mucho. Parece increíble, las horas pasan como si fuesen minutos y yo, que soy de temperamento intranquilo, me paso el día leyendo, apenas sin moverme para nada. La correspondencia llega normalmente…”

“…Como soy cocinero, de vez en cuando me entretengo preparando algún pisto. Hace poco me mandó mi hermana desde Oriente un pequeño jamón y preparé un bisté con jalea de guayaba. También preparo spaghettis de vez en cuando, de distintas formas, inventadas todas por mí; o bien tortilla de queso. ¡Ah! ¡Qué bien me quedan! por supuesto, que el repertorio no se queda ahí. Cuelo también café que me queda muy sabroso”.
“…En cuanto a fumar, en estos días pasados he estado rico: una caja de tabacos H. Upman del doctor Miró Cardona, dos cajas muy buenas de mi hermano Ramón….”.
“Me voy a cenar: spaghettis con calamares, bombones italianos de postre, café acabadito de colar y después un H. Upman #4. ¿No me envidias?”.
“…Me cuidan, me cuidan un poquito entre todos. No le hacen caso a uno, siempre estoy peleando para que no me manden nada. Cuando cojo el sol por la mañana en shorts y siento el aire de mar, me parece que estoy en una playa… ¡Me van a hacer creer que estoy de vacaciones! ¿Qué diría Carlos Marx de semejantes revolucionarios?”.

Quotes

¨La patria es dicha de todos, y dolor de todos, y cielo para todos, y no feudo ni capellaní­a de nadie¨ - Marti

"No temas ni a la prision, ni a la pobreza, ni a la muerte. Teme al miedo"
-
Giacomo Leopardi

¨Por eso es muy importante, Vicky, hijo mío, que recuerdes siempre para qué sirve la cabeza: para atravesar paredes¨Halvar de Flake [El vikingo]

"Como no me he preocupado de nacer, no me preocupo de morir" - Lorca

"Al final, no os preguntarán qué habéis sabido, sino qué habéis hecho" - Jean de Gerson

"Si queremos que todo siga como está, es necesario que todo cambie" - Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

"Todo hombre paga su grandeza con muchas pequeñeces, su victoria con muchas derrotas, su riqueza con múltiples quiebras" - Giovanni Papini


"Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans" - John Lennon

"Habla bajo, lleva siempre un gran palo y llegarás lejos" - Proverbio Africano

"No hay medicina para el miedo" - Proverbio escoces

"El supremo arte de la guerra es doblegar al enemigo sin luchar"
- Sun Tzu

"You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother" - Albert Einstein

"It is inaccurate to say I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office" - H. L. Menken

"I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented" - Elie Wiesel

"Stay hungry, stay foolish" -
Steve Jobs

"If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert , in five years ther'ed be a shortage of sand" - Milton Friedman

"The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own life, but that it bothers him less and less" - Vaclav Havel

"No se puede controlar el resultado, pero si lo que uno haga para alcanzarlo" -
Vitor Belfort [MMA Fighter]

Liborio

Liborio
A la puerta de la gloria está San Pedro sentado y ve llegar a su lado a un hombre de cierta historia. No consigue hacer memoria y le pregunta con celo: ¿Quién eras allá en el suelo? Era Liborio mi nombre. Has sufrido mucho, hombre, entra, te has ganado el cielo.

Para Raul Castro

Cuba ocupa el penultimo lugar en el mundo en libertad economica solo superada por Corea del Norte.

Cuba ocupa el lugar 147 entre 153 paises evaluados en "Democracia, Mercado y Transparencia 2007"

Cuando vinieron

Cuando vinieron a buscar a los comunistas, Callé: yo no soy comunista.
Cuando vinieron a buscar a los sindicalistas, Callé: yo no soy sindicalista.
Cuando vinieron a buscar a los judíos, Callé: yo no soy judío. Cuando vinieron a buscar a los católicos, Callé: yo no soy “tan católico”.
Cuando vinieron a buscarme a mí, Callé: no había quien me escuchara.

Reverendo Martin Niemöller

Martha Colmenares

Martha Colmenares
Un sitio donde los hechos y sus huellas nos conmueven o cautivan
Bloggers Unite

CUBA LLORA Y EL MUNDO Y NOSOTROS NO ESCUCHAMOS

Donde esta el Mundo, donde los Democratas, donde los Liberales? El pueblo de Cuba llora y nadie escucha.
Donde estan los Green, los Socialdemocratas, los Ricos y los Pobres, los Con Voz y Sin Voz? Cuba llora y nadie escucha.
Donde estan el Jet Set, los Reyes y Principes, Patricios y Plebeyos? Cuba desesperada clama por solidaridad.
Donde Bob Dylan, donde Martin Luther King, donde Hollywood y sus estrellas? Donde la Middle Class democrata y conservadora, o acaso tambien liberal a ratos? Y Gandhi? Y el Dios de Todos?
Donde los Santos y Virgenes; los Dioses de Cristianos, Protestantes, Musulmanes, Budistas, Testigos de Jehova y Adventistas del Septimo Dia. Donde estan Ochun y todas las deidades del Panteon Yoruba que no acuden a nuestro llanto? Donde Juan Pablo II que no exige mas que Cuba se abra al Mundo y que el Mundo se abra a Cuba?
Que hacen ahora mismo Alberto de Monaco y el Principe Felipe que no los escuchamos? Donde Madonna, donde Angelina Jolie y sus adoptados around de world; o nos hara falta un Brando erguido en un Oscar por Cuba? Donde Sean Penn?
Donde esta la Aristocracia Obrera y los Obreros menos Aristocraticos, donde los Working Class que no estan junto a un pueblo que lanquidece, sufre y llora por la ignominia?
Que hacen ahora mismo Zapatero y Rajoy que no los escuchamos, y Harper y Dion, e Hillary y Obama; donde McCain que no los escuchamos? Y los muertos? Y los que estan muriendo? Y los que van a morir? Y los que se lanzan desesperados al mar?
Donde estan el minero cantabrico o el pescador de percebes gijonese? Los Canarios donde estan? A los africanos no los oimos, y a los australianos con su acento de hombres duros tampoco. Y aquellos chinos milenarios de Canton que fundaron raices eternas en la Isla? Y que de la Queen Elizabeth y los Lords y Gentlemen? Que hace ahora mismo el combativo Principe Harry que no lo escuchamos?
Donde los Rockefellers? Donde los Duponts? Donde Kate Moss? Donde el Presidente de la ONU? Y Solana donde esta? Y los Generales y Doctores? Y los Lam y los Fabelo, y los Sivio y los Fito Paez?
Y que de Canseco y Miñoso? Y de los veteranos de Bahia de Cochinos y de los balseros y de los recien llegados? Y Carlos Otero y Susana Perez? Y el Bola, y Pancho Cespedes? Y YO y TU?
Y todos nosotros que estamos aqui y alla rumiando frustaciones y resquemores, envidias y sinsabores; autoelogios y nostalgias, en tanto Louis Michel comulga con Perez Roque mientras Biscet y una NACION lanquidecen?
Donde Maceo, donde Marti; donde aquel Villena con su carga para matar bribones?
Cuba llora y clama y el Mundo NO ESCUCHA!!!

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