A top Senate Republican expressed only guarded optimism Sunday about a potential grand bargain with Democrats based on the budget President Obama submitted that includes entitlement reform but additional tax increases.
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/politics/~3/UR_1FYQJ22w/
By The Huffington Post News Editors
This wasn’t the Republican reaction, of course, to a budget that was pre-dead on arrival, dismissed in advance by House Speaker John Boehner and disdained by the Tea-spooked Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who couldn’t take yes for an answer when the president called for the entitlement changes McConnell had previously promised “would get Republicans interested in new revenue.” Aside from the fiscal fallout of a failed budgetary process that could slow the economic recovery, the episode points to a likely and grim outcome of these two years—that not much will emerge living or lasting from this Congress.
Read More…
More on Republicans
From: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/14/democrats-obama-budget_n_3081261.html
By Bruce Watson
Filed under: Unemployment, U.S. Government, Government Spending, Barack Obama, Saving
At its heart, sequestration isn’t all that complicated: The idea was that, unless Congress could agree on a responsible, intelligent way to balance the budget, deep, across-the-board cuts would go into affect, hitting most government programs. The plan was simple and brutal, the legislative equivalent of a parent’s ultimatum: Play nicely together or I’m taking your toys away. And, to continue the metaphor, Congress refused to play well, its toys were taken away, and billions of dollars of automatic cuts went into effect. Cruel, sure, but as the old saying goes, you have nobody to blame but yourself. Especially because in this case, the “parents” are the same entities as the “children” — the Congress.
In the days since sequestration has started to take hold, however, a rising trend has gripped Congress as a large number of legislators have expressed what TPM’s Brian Beutler calls “Sequestration NIMBYism” — the idea that cuts are fine, as long as they don’t touch the programs that these legislators actually care about. As Beutler puts it:
“Sequestration is intended to be indiscriminate. It requires federal agencies to reduce spending by a certain percentage on each of their programs and activities. That means all House and Senate members are likely to see some consequences in their districts and states. But when those consequences materialize, Republicans either blame the administration or plead for special treatment.”
Beutler cites a few examples, including Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who is complaining about the National Park Service‘s decision to close campgrounds in his state, and Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.), who is angry about the closure of an airport in his district. Thune, notably, was not all that energetic about avoiding the sequester: In mid-February, he downplayed the likely impact of the cuts, noting that they only represented about 2 percent of the federal budget. Given his position as chairman of the Senate Republican conference, this wasn’t just an idle comment: Thune was an important player in the decision to avoid a budget compromise.
Thune has also led a group of Republican senators in an attack on one of the most visible sequestration cuts: the decision to dramatically scale back White House tours. The move, which was undertaken as part of an agreement between the Secret Service and the President, will save an estimated $74,000 a week, or almost $4 million a year.
It isn’t hard to see why the Obama administration and the Secret Service decided to stop White House tours: The Secret Service had to swallow sequestration cuts just like every …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
As the administration prepares to furlough meat inspectors because of the sequester, it continues to pursue a “partnership” with the Mexican government to “raise awareness” about food stamps. When a top Senate Republican proposed cutting off funds for that program last week, Democrats on the Budget Committee shot it down.
Filed under: Economic Recovery, U.S. Government, Government Spending, Barack Obama, Budgeting, Economy
By DAVID ESPO
WASHINGTON — Over dinner at a swank hotel a few blocks from the White House, Republican senators wanted to know if President Barack Obama would support a gradual increase in the age of eligibility for Medicare, set at 65 since the program’s inception more than four decades ago.
The president hedged, according to several at the event, recalling the discussion on a cost-saving change to Medicare that most if not all leading Democrats in Congress adamantly oppose. One later recalled that Obama “drew no bright line” in opposition, but the lawmaker came away believing that the president “would be very resistant” even if it might unlock a long-sought deal to reduce deficits and an ever-growing federal debt.
That lawmaker and some of the others describing what occurred in the meetings spoke on condition of anonymity, noting that the sessions were supposed to be private discussions.
The politically fraught moment came at the outset of Obama‘s widely publicized recent string of meetings with rank-and-file lawmakers. The unusual commitment of presidential time netted public praise from his most implacable critics and was supplemented by numerous conversations among lawmakers and senior White House aides.
No breakthroughs were anticipated and none emerged, and for all the warm talk, House Speaker John Boehner delivered a tart summation.
Seeking Common Ground
“Republicans want to balance the budget. The president doesn’t. Republicans want to solve our long-term debt problem. The president doesn’t,” he said, while adding it was incumbent on all sides to seek common ground.
Across the hours, there were moments of levity — and an expression of gratitude to Arizona Sen. John McCain for his service to the nation on the 40th anniversary of his release from a prisoner of war camp in Vietnam.
Evidently the food was pretty good, too.
One presidential aide left a meeting with the Senate Republican rank and file toting a carry-out bag from lunch that featured lobster salad and blueberry pie with ice cream.
“Ultimately it’s a matter of the House and the Senate … getting together and being willing to compromise,” the president said as he departed the Capitol on Thursday.
Obama’s Popularity Waning
Even on that point, Republicans disagree. Over and over, they told Obama, he must lead, tone down the attacks on them and lean on Democrats to accept concessions in benefit programs. Over and over, he told Republicans that if he is to make concessions on Medicare and elsewhere, they would have to agree to higher taxes.
On that, there was little if any give, particularly with Republicans noting that Obama‘s approval ratings have recently begun receding for the first time since his re-election.
At the dinner at the Jefferson Hotel more than 10 days ago, Republican …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
By Tim Powers
This is a theory that I have put together to make the case for Obama seizing power. First, lets look at the facts.
Obama has issued many executive orders pertaining to peacetime Martial Law, he has control of drone strikes against American citizens on US soil, and he signed the National Defense Authorization Act into law. Reasons for his actions: unknown.
The Department of Homeland Security has recently purchased millions of rounds of ammunition and 7,000 assault rifles. Reasons for these actions: unknown.
Obama recently had top-secret construction done on the White House (and, using Sequestration for an excuse, has stopped all White House tours, even though Donald Trump has agreed to pay for them for the rest of this fiscal year.) Reasons for these actions: unknown.
When Obama and Congressional Democrats discussed Amnesty for illegal aliens, an idea for a possible path for citizenship was for illegals to serve in either the US military, Peace Corps, or Americorp for a period of two years; and then citizenship would be granted.
Homeland Security, using Sequestration for an excuse, has started to release illegal alien CRIMINALS without deporting them. The reason for this action: unknown.
Do you have the picture yet? My theory is that Obama is building his civilian army against Americans using illegal aliens, supplied with arms from DHS, with a promise of full citizenship in the NEW USA. After his opposition is either eliminated or imprisoned, of course. The White House will become the new Presidential Palace. This is the only plausible reason for these actions that I can come up with. I sincerely hope that I am wrong. As always, stay safe and be aware of your surroundings.
Photo credit: Dave Merrick
Former Florida Republican Gov. Jeb Bush on Sunday downplayed talk that his immigration plan undercuts Senate Republican efforts and said he’s more focused now on solving the country’s problems than positioning himself for a 2016 presidential run.
By The Huffington Post News Editors
* Obama‘s dinner invitation qualifies as groundbreaking
* Schmoozing with Republicans is a departure for president
By John Whitesides
WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) – A winter storm all but closed down Washington on Wednesday, but hopes for a political thaw sprouted across the U.S. capital.
In a city gripped by partisan gridlock, President Barack Obama‘s plans for a private dinner with a small group of Senate Republicans on Wednesday night – and a trip to Capitol Hill next week to speak to their entire caucus – qualified as groundbreaking.
Obama‘s personal touch, something he has been criticized for lacking, also included a series of recent calls to Republican lawmakers as the White House seeks allies for a grand budget deal that includes higher taxes and an overhaul of federal health programs.
At the same time, Republicans have promised not to shut down the government at the end of the month and a few have shown a new willingness to find a long-term solution to the perpetual budget wars – even if it means new taxes.
After Obama‘s re-election and Republican losses in the Senate and House of Representatives in November, bipartisan groups of lawmakers have been working to craft broad agreements on two of the president’s other top second-term priorities – immigration and gun control.
“There are certainly hopeful signs recently on both sides,” said Trent Lott, a former Senate Republican leader who has been praised by the Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for reaching across the aisle while in Congress. “There are some calmer, cooler heads taking over.”
Pent-up frustration over the lack of policy achievements in Congress in the last two years – along with poll numbers in the low teens for lawmakers in Congress and approval ratings dipping below 50 percent for the president – also might have helped generate some political movement.
But analysts and some congressional aides in both parties cautioned against reading too much into the warming …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post
(CNSNews.com) – Washington has a “spending addiction,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “We are exploding our spending. We’ve added $6 trillion to the national debt in just four years. We’ve got to begin to cut spending, and we promised the American people we’d do it a year-and-a-half ago, and we’re going to do it.”
McConnell said the “modest reduction of 2.4 percent in spending over the next six months is a little more than the average American experienced just two months ago” when the payroll tax holiday expired, resulting in reduced paychecks.
“By any objective standard, cutting 2.4 percent out of $3.6 trillion is certainly something we can do,” McConnell insisted.
“I’m absolutely confident we’re going to reduce spending (by) the amount of money that we promised the American people we would in the law the president signed a year-and-a-half ago. We have said we are open to discussing how to reconfigure those spending reductions without raising taxes.”
McConnell said he hasn’t heard a single Senate Republican say they’d be willing to “raise a dime in taxes” to resolve the sequester impasse.
Read More at CNS News . By Susan Jones.
Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore (Creative Commons)
By The Huffington Post News Editors
WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday he favored replacing deep, across-the-board spending cuts set to begin on Friday with a more flexible approach that would be carried out by President Barack Obama’s administration.
“I would be happy to give the president more flexibility and rely on the agency heads” to decide which specific programs should be cut to achieve $85 billion in reductions between March 1 and September 30, McConnell told reporters.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid swiftly batted down the idea, saying that tax increases must be part of any replacement for the so-called sequestration.
By The Huffington Post News Editors
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has called House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell about the looming spending cuts set to kick in on March 1.
The calls are Obama‘s first in weeks to top Republicans in Congress. They come as both parties remain in a stalemate over how to avoid across-the-board automatic cuts that would trim $85 billion from most government accounts.
WASHINGTON — Florida Sen. Marco Rubio will give the Republican rebuttal to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, providing a direct message to a growing Hispanic electorate that shunned the GOP in last year’s election.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced the selection of Rubio on Wednesday, calling him a strong advocate of conservative principles.
Rubio will speak after Obama’s prime-time address before Congress, offering a counterweight to the president’s agenda. The high-profile speech gives Rubio a broad national audience for a party that lacks a true standard-bearer after Obama’s re-election.
Boehner called Rubio “one of our party’s most dynamic and inspiring leaders. He carries our party’s banner of freedom, opportunity and prosperity in a way few others can.”
Read More at OfficialWire . By Ken Thomas.
WASHINGTON (OfficialWire) — Republican Sen. John McCain, a sharp critic of Chuck Hagel’s nomination as defense secretary, said Monday he will not support a filibuster of President Barack Obama’s pick, even though he declined to say whether he intends to vote for confirmation.
“I do not believe a filibuster is appropriate and I would oppose such a move,” McCain told reporters Monday, two days after Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell raised the possibility of forcing a showdown vote.
In the fiercest exchange of Hagel’s confirmation hearing last week, McCain questioned the nominee about the Iraq war and whether he was right or wrong in opposing an additional 30,000 U.S. troops in 2007. The Arizona senator said he still has questions on the nomination and “was not happy with his (Hagel’s) failure to answer a really simple question.”
But McCain insisted he would not support use of the filibuster, a procedural tactic which can derail a confirmation vote and which can be stopped only by the votes of 60 of the 100 senators.
Read More at OfficialWire . By Donna Cassata.
From Wisconsin to Pennsylvania, Republicans who control legislatures in states that supported President Barack Obama are considering changing laws that give the winner of a state’s popular vote all of its Electoral College votes, too. They instead want Electoral College votes to be divided proportionally, a move that could transform the way the country elects its president.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus endorsed the idea this week, and other Republican leaders also support it — suggesting that the effort may be gaining momentum.
There are other signs that Republican state legislators, governors and veteran political strategists are seriously considering making the shift as the GOP looks to rebound from presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s Electoral College shellacking and the demographic changes that threaten the party’s long-term political prospects.
“It’s something that a lot of states that have been consistently blue that are fully controlled red ought to be looking at,” Priebus told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, emphasizing that each state must decide for itself.
Democrats are outraged at the potential change.
Obama won the popular vote with 65.9 million votes, or 51.1 percent, to Romney’s 60.9 million, or 47.2 percent, and won the Electoral College by a wide margin, 332-206 electoral votes. It’s unclear whether he would have been re-elected under the new system, depending upon how many states adopted the change.
While some Republican officials warn of a political backlash, GOP lawmakers in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are already lining up behind proposals that would allocate electoral votes by congressional district or something similar.
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he “could go either way” on the change and doesn’t plan to push it. But he said it’s a reasonable issue to debate and that he prefers that leaders discuss it well before the next presidential election.
“It could be done in a thoughtful (way) over the next couple years and people can have a thoughtful discussion,” Snyder said.
Republican leaders in the Michigan Statehouse have yet to decide whether to embrace the change there. But state Rep. Peter Lund, a Republican who introduced a bill to change the allocation system two years ago, said some Republicans might be more receptive to his bill this year following the election.
“We never really pushed it before,” he said, adding that the bill wasn’t designed to help one party more than the other.
Democrats aren’t convinced. And they warned of political consequences for Republicans who back the shift — particularly those governors up for re-election in 2014, who include the governors of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, among others.
“This is nothing more than election-rigging,” said Michigan Democratic Chairman Mark Brewer.
Each state has the authority to shape its own election law. And in at least seven states — Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida and North Carolina — Republicans control both chambers of the state legislature and the governor’s office.
Already, Maine and Nebraska have moved away from a winner-take-all system to one that allocates electoral votes based on congressional district.
“This is a concept that’s got a lot of possibility and a lot of potential,” said Washington-based Republican strategist Phil Musser, acknowledging that the debate would “incite different levels of partisan acrimony.” Musser also predicted that more pressing economic issues would likely take priority in most Republican-led statehouses.
In Pennsylvania, Senate Republican leader Dominic Pileggi this week renewed his call for the Republican-controlled Legislature to revamp the way it awards electoral votes by using a method based on the popular vote that would have given Romney eight of the state’s 20 votes.
Democrats quickly criticized it as partisan scheme.
“It is difficult to find the words to describe just how evil this plan is,” said Pennsylvania state Sen. Daylin Leach, a Democrat. “It is an obscene scheme to cheat by rigging the elections.”
Gov. Tom Corbett, who supported a related proposal from Pileggi last year, had not seen the new plan and could not say whether he supports the new version, the Republican governor’s spokesman Kevin Harley said.
In Wisconsin, Republican Gov. Scott Walker has said that changing how electoral votes are allocated was an “interesting idea” but that it’s not one of his priorities, nor has he decided whether he supports such a change.
It’s gotten a lukewarm reception in the Republican-controlled Legislature as well. No proposal has been introduced yet and no lawmaker has announced any plans to do so, but the state Assembly speaker, Robin Vos, first proposed the change back in 2007.
“I am open to that idea,” Vos said in December as lawmakers prepared for the start of their session. “But I would have to hear all the arguments.”
All 10 of the state’s Electoral College votes went to Obama last fall under the current system. If they were awarded based on the new system, the votes would have been evenly split between Obama and Romney.
Democratic Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett sent an email plea urging people to sign a petition against the change: “We can’t sit silently by as they try to manipulate the democratic process for political advantage,” Barrett wrote. “We can’t let them attack the very democratic institutions and rights that others have sacrificed so much to gain — just because they don’t believe they can win in a fair election fight.”
So far, Republicans have only advocated for the change in states that have supported Democrats in recent elections. The view is predictably different in states where the Republican nominee is a cinch to win.
“The Electoral College has served the country quite well,” said Louisiana GOP Chairman Roger Villere, who doubles as a national party vice chairman.
He continued: “This is coming from states where it might be an advantage, but I’m worried about what it means down the road. This is a system that has worked. That doesn’t mean we can’t talk about changes, but we have to be very careful about any actions we might take.”
