A Word From Dennis Kucinich
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncUWFRYn8nw 450 300]
Comments »Top Conservative Group Club For Growth Urges House To Vote Against Hurricane Sandy Relief
“Two days after Republican infighting swirled around House Speaker John Boehner’s unexpected decision to pull a Hurricane Sandy relief bill from a potential floor vote, a top conservative group is urging the House of Representatives to vote against the bill.
The House is expected to vote today on the first part of the bill, a $9.7 billion flood insurance bill. Andy Roth, the Club for Growth’s vice president of government affairs, said in a statement that the federal government should not be involved in providing flood insurance.
Here’s the group’s full statement:
The Club for Growth urges all members of the U.S. House to vote “NO” on the bill to expand the National Flood Insurance Program’s borrowing authority by $9.7 billion. Consideration of the plan on the House floor is expected to occur today. This vote will be included in the Club for Growth’s 2013 congressional scorecard.
Congress should not allow the federal government to be involved in the flood insurance industry in the first place, let alone expand the national flood insurance program’s authority.
As we have said in a previous key vote alert, the proper way to address disaster relief is to release the funds in installments to make sure the resources are spent wisely. They should also strip out all immaterial line items, and fully offset all expenditures with spending cuts elsewhere. Serious reform would also include a way for the states to take over the responsibility for future disaster relief funding so that accountability is more localized.
Our Congressional Scorecard for the 113th Congress provides a comprehensive rating of how well or how poorly each member of Congress supports pro-growth, free-market policies and will be distributed to our members and to the public….”
Comments »General Wesley Clark: Wars Were Planned – Seven Countries In Five Years
US: WE INITIATE TERRORISM TO CREATE TERRORISTS TO
OVERTHROW GOVERNMENTS
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC1Mepk_Sw 450 300] Comments »OUTGOING GOP REP: WE HAVE ENOUGH VOTES TO UNSEAT BOEHNER
“Outgoing Louisiana Republican Rep. Jeff Landry told Breitbart News there are at least 17 GOP members who plan to unseat House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday, and Boehner may resign on Wednesday evening during or after a GOP caucus meeting.
Landry, who lost his bid for re-election in a member-member race to leadership-sponsored Rep. Charles Boustany, told Breitbart News that “if they don’t got 20, they’re so close to 20 – they’re close.”
Landry said another member organizing the effort told him they’ve got at least 17 – which is the bare minimum needed to unseat Boehner. “They’re somewhere between 17 and 20,” Landry said in a phone interview. “I think they’re trying to get to 25.”
Landry added that that another member told him “there’s a pretty good chance Boehner will resign at the conference tonight.”
Ron Meyer from American Majority Action made a similar claim. “I have confirmed with a group of Congressmen that Speaker Boehner will not be elected Speaker tomorrow,” Meyer said in an email to reporters. “He will either resign or be forced out tomorrow.”
___
** UPDATE — Boehner is now making concessions in what AMA’s Meyer says is an attempt “to try to save face.” The Hill reports he told Republicans he won’t negotiate one-on-one with President Barack Obama anymore. …”
Comments »The Fed is Once Again Far From Reality
Most of us do not need a reminder that the Fed and the government in general always seem to get math, facts, and estimates wrong.
Here is a comparison of what the fed said compared to reality in regards to economic forecasts.
Classic fed speak:
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM_RnA2GIwE 450 300] Comments »House Fails to Take Up Sandy Aid Bill
“WASHINGTON—In a surprise decision, the leadership of the House of Representatives said late Tuesday that there would be no more votes in the chamber until a new Congress is sworn in, dealing a major setback to the effort to quickly pass a $60 billion measure aimed at helping the Northeast rebuild after superstorm Sandy.
The news that there would be no votes on Wednesday came just hours after lawmakers from the Northeast expressed optimism that a deal was in place to bring the measure to the floor Tuesday night or Wednesday.
But just after the House approved a bill averting the so-called fiscal cliff, the Republican leadership made clear to members that the 112th Congress was ending. The move drew a parade of Northeastern representatives from both parties to the House floor to express outrage.
“It is with an extremely heavy heart that I stand here almost in disbelief and somewhat ashamed,” said Rep. Michael Grimm, a Republican from Staten Island. Mr. Grimm said that for the first time, he was “not proud of the decision that my team has made.”
Comments »
Fiscal Cliff 2.0 on Deck
House to Hold an Up-Down Vote, Bush Tax Cuts To Be Extended, See How Much Your Taxes Will Go Down
Tentative Deal Reached on the Fiscal Cliff, Tax Issues Only, No Spending Cuts
T-Minus 10 Hours: Obama’s Speech on the Fiscal Cliff
Start of speech: DOW up 63, NASDAQ up 35, Gold up $23, WTI up $0.93
“Good afternoon, i realize the last thing you want to hear on news years eve is another speech from me.
Preventing a middle class tax hike has been my priority.
We are close, but hopeful we will get tit done.
The middle class, business’s and the economy can not afford a tax hike.
Members of congress have not gotten an agreement done. But we are here with middle class families to tell them to get it done.
Over the past couple of months, my preference would have been to have grand bargain that takes care of the deficit so we could focus on the economy. We will have to do it in stages and solve this problem one step t a time.
We need to do more above the progress already made.
A proposed deal would extend unemployment insurance.
We need to focus on growing our economy, infrastructure,
We also have automatic spending cuts that go in effect tomorrow. They have an impact on defense and other programs.
Any deal would have to address automatic tax hikes on the middle class.
Any deal with automatic cuts must be balanced.
I want congress to balance these spending cuts and the revenues have to be a part of the equation.
We will also have to reduce our deficit in a balanced manor.
The tax code has to be reformed in order to help with liabilities.
If republicans think i will finish the job of deficit reduction only through spending cuts, well this would hurt seniors and students…this is why we need the wealthy to help out with taxes.
The most immediate priority is to stop taxes from going up tomorrow.
We are close, but we are not there yet.
At this point i will be spending new years in D.C.
The people who are with me here today & the people who are watching today, need congress to be focused on American folks looking for a fair shot. They expect their leaders to work hard for them.
Happy new year.”
After speech: DOW up 32, NASDAQ up 29, Gold up $20, WTI up $0.46
Proposal thus far puts tax threshold at 39% for $400k incomes on individuals and $450k for couples
Comments »
Hurricane Sandy Pork Barrel Spending
“One out of every $20 spent in a new bill to aid victims of Hurricane Sandy will go to “non-relief-related pork,” says American Majority Action Spokesman Ron Meyer in an email to Breitbart News.
On Friday, the U.S. Senate passed a $60.4 billion bill that contains expenditures for areas that were unaffected by the storm, including $2 million roof repairs for Smithsonian Institution museums, $150 million for Alaskan fisheries disasters, and $58 million in taxpayer dollars to plant trees on private property in areas where Sandy never touched down. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) attempted to remove the $150 million fisheries “pork” spending from the bill, but his amendment was defeated. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) tried to strike down the tree subsidies but his amendment failed as well.
“It’s disgraceful to load a bill like this that has good motives, that has good intentions that is going to help people, with pork,” said Mr. Meyer on Fox Business. “Why are you putting your own projects in it? It’s disgraceful. It’s typical of Washington.”…”
Comments »LAZY, DO NOTHING, OVERPAID, ABSENTEE CONGRESS FAT CATS
“If the job of Congress is to pass laws, then the 112th Congress is the laziest in modern history. Of the 6,600 bills introduced, lawmakers passed only 231—and only a couple handfuls are pending. At least 45 of the successful bills involved the naming of federal buildings, while many others were similarly insignificant, such as six commemorative coin bills and five correcting “technical errors” Congress made in past legislation.
In comparison, the 111th Congress passed 383 bills, and the one before it passed 460.
Less than 70 real bills went to President Barack Obama’s desk for signing, and he signed every one, with nary a veto. This paltry productivity means the 112th Congress will be the least productive in modern history. Even the 80th Congress, which President Harry Truman branded the “do-nothing Congress” in 1948, passed 906 bills, more than three times as many.
The 104th Congress of 1995-1996 (also controlled by the GOP), which passed only 333 laws, used to be the least productive session of Congress, according to the U.S. House Clerk’s Office, which has records dating back to 1947…”
Comments »On the Matter of Entitlements
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty8onuh_5DM 450 300]
Comments »A Very Important Note on the Senate
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbn3wr_MQu4 450 300]
Comments »The Latest Update on the Fiscal Cliff Talks
“The Democrats made several key concessions yesterday in the Fiscal Cliff negotiations.
As a result, the two sides are absurdly close together. If we don’t get a deal at this point, the entire country will be justified in being outraged.
Here’s the Democrats’ latest offer, as reported by Lori Montgomery and Paul Kane of the Washington Post:
* The Democrats agreed to raise the income threshold for tax increases to $450,000 a year (couples) from the prior $250,000. The Republicans are insisting on $550,000 threshold. This is a massive tax cut for almost the entire country relative to the rates that will otherwise take effect on January 1. (So agree on $500,000 already and call it a day.)
* However, to the Republicans’ chagrin, the Democrats insist on raise capital gains and dividend taxes to 20% on households over $250,000 and reducing some of the allowable deductions. Importantly, this, too, is a massive tax cut relative to the scheduled changes, which would boost dividend taxes to 40% on incomes over $250,000.
* The Democrats conceded on the estate tax: They’ll keep the threshold for taxable estates at $5 million, with a 35% rate over that level. This, again, is a massive tax cut over current law, in which the threshold will drop to $1 million with a much higher rate.
* The Democrats’ offer would permanently protect middle-class households from the Alternative Minimum Tax. No details on how this would work.
* On the spending side, the Democrats’ offer would delay the “sequester” (automatic spending cuts) until 2015. This would cost an estimated $200 billion. But it would avoid the cuts to the military budget that the Republicans are so desperate to avoid.
* The Democrats would also extend unemployment benefits for a year, extend farm subsidies for a year, and avoid a 27% cut in Medicare payments to doctors. The Republicans say they want offsets to these spending cuts.”
Comments »Obama Will “Put His Full Weight” Behind Gun Control in 2013
“President Obama on Sunday said he would make gun control a priority in his new term, pledging to put his “full weight” behind passing new restrictions on firearms in 2013.
“I’m going to be putting forward a package and I’m going to be putting my full weight behind it,” Obama said in an interview aired on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I’m going to be making an argument to the American people about why this is important and why we have to do everything we can to make sure that something like what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary does not happen again.”
Comments »Fiscal Cliff Negotiations Remain Hopelessly Deadlocked
FEINSTEIN DROPS GUN BILL BEFORE POLICE GIVE REPORT ON NEWTOWN SHOOTING
“The Connecticut State Police report regarding the deadly mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School will not be released for “several months,” spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance said over one week ago.“There is no further information to be released by the Connecticut State Police at this time.”
Despite the lack of information about the Newtown gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, or how he managed to get the weapons from his mother Nancy Lanza, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) introduced an updated version of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban bill to Congress on December 17.
Feinstein’s office did not respond to an inquiry as to why she did not wait for a police report to be released with so many facts yet unknown. For example, numerous claims have been made that Mrs. Lanza even attempted to secure her weapons before her son used them to commit mass murder. Newtown Police told Breitbart News that the department could “neither confirm nor deny” that Mrs. Lanza did not at least attempt to secure the guns her son was reported to have used.
Breitbart News’ AWR Hawkins points that the Feinstein Assault Weapon Bill is actually a handgun ban.
[T]he details of the ban betray a gun grab that includes semi-automatic pistols that use “a detachable magazine” and have “one military characteristic.”This can only mean that the most popular handguns in the world for both civilian and military use are being targeted. These would include Glocks, Sig Sauers, Smith & Wesson M&Ps, H&K, and Colt, yet would by no means be limited to these handguns alone.
Senator Orrin Hatch (R – UT) told Breitbart News on Thursday to put him “down as someone who supports the second amendment.”
“It’s an ‘express amendment’ of the Constitution. I look at all these provisions that have been conjured out of thin air as constitutional maw,” he chided. “Here’s one that’s right there in writing in the original Constitution and it’s been time honored all of our lives and people just want to amend it at will? Give me a break.”
“I don’t support this ban because they are not assault rifles,” Hatch continued.” They are configured to look like them, but they’re regular rifles. I support the second amendment. Frankly, I think this is a complicated situation. First of all, who doesn’t grieve for all the people over the years? Who doesn’t want solutions? It’s not as simple as banning guns that look like assault weapons.”
Comments »Obama’s Speech on the Fiscal Cliff
“Still want to get this done.
The hour for immediate action is here.
Every American’s paycheck would get considerably smaller.
Just had a good conversation with congressional leaders. I’m optimistic a deal can still get done. If a deal can not get done, i will bring a proposal for an up and down vote.
If we can get a majority in the house and the senate then we can get a deal done.
Americans will not have patience for a self inflicted wound.
The housing market is recovering, but that could be derailed as paychecks get smaller.
The unemployment rate is improving.
I want to repeat that we had a constructive conversation today.
If a deal is not cut, senator Reid has been instructed to create a proposal to insure that taxes do not go up, unemployment insurance is available, and that middle class families get help.”
Comments »
