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Fiscal Cliffhanger

December 2, 2012 by 1 Comment

Financial cliff SC Fiscal Cliffhanger

“Read my lips: no-new-taxes”, famously said George H W Bush, one of my favorite presidents. He raised them, and it’s argued that this action cost himself conservative votes during his unsuccessful reelection bid.

Tax hikes are a Republican no-no. At least theoretically.

Conservative icon Ronald Reagan is accused of signing the biggest tax increase in American history: $85.3 billion! This 1982 move isn’t usually associated with his great legacy.

Raising taxes usually means job producers horde assets, hide them overseas, and fire employees- a lot of them! Some businesses simply close their doors, bid workers farewell, and morph into new enterprises.

Congressional Republicans anxious to look good after the Obama reelection victory seem poised to ignore dire consequences and raise taxes to benefit themselves- not Americans with big legislative salaries and astronomical perks.

Caught in the crossfire are a (barely) working class and (almost out of) business owners crushed in a vice grip squeezing economic lifeblood out with no regard for their survival.

Big name Republicans on Capitol Hill are talking compromise with Obama, from Speaker of the House Boehner on down.

Brent Bozell, Media Research Center founder and premiere organizer of conservative fund raisers, has threatened to have donors stop funding congressmen who support this tax increase and the GOP itself.

Very ominous.

I’m interested to see how this fiscal cliffhanger turns out.

Will Republicans push conservatives and the country off the fiscal cliff to save themselves when the 2014 mid term elections roll around?

Stay tuned, broke fans- same broke time; same broke channel.

 

Cap Black, The Hood Conservative & One Man Tea Party. warns:
” Wear a parachute cuz I think the GOP on Capitol Hill will push us off the fiscal cliff to save their careers!”
(504) 214-3082

Help Cap Black Promote Patriotism!

–
” Be your OWN Superhero!”

 

Photo credit: healthreformexplained.com/fiscal-cliff/

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Could Republicans Lose The House?

September 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment

us capitol building SC Could Republicans Lose the House?

The new Politico/GWU/Battleground poll seems to me, from a quick perusal of its internals, to have produced solid and non-quirky results consistent with several other surveys. It has a D+3 sample, and shows an Obama margin of 3 on the presidential ballot test and a 1 point Democratic edge on the generic congressional ballot.

Which raises the question: Is the conventional assumption that Republicans will continue to hold the House sound?

It may not be. Two other recent likely voter polls have produced an R+1 and a tied generic congressional ballot. So let’s say that right now the congressional ballot is tied. The closest we’ve come to an even national popular vote for the House in recent years was in 2000, when Republicans had a narrow popular vote margin of .3 percent, and ended up with a narrow 221-212 margin in seats. An even popular vote tends to translate into pretty even results in seats split between the two parties. In the wave elections of 2006, 2008, and 2010, by contrast, the parties’ popular vote margins ranged from 6 to 8 percentage points. The middling GOP majorities of 2002 and 2004 were based on national popular vote margins of more than 2 1/2 points.

Read More at The Weekly Standard. By William Kristol.

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House Takes Up Waiver Of Border Environmental Laws

June 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment

us capitol building SC 300x199 House Takes Up Waiver Of Border Environmental Laws

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-controlled House moved toward approval Tuesday of a bill that would allow the Border Patrol to circumvent more than a dozen environmental laws on all federally managed lands within 100 miles of the borders with Mexico and Canada.

Supporters say the measure is needed to give border agents unfettered access to rugged lands now controlled by the Interior Department and Forest Service. Laws such as the Wilderness Act and Endangered Species Act often prevent agents from driving vehicles on huge swaths of land, leaving it to wildlife, illegal immigrants and smugglers who can walk through the territory undisturbed, they said.

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, said the restrictions have turned wilderness areas into highways for criminals, who not only bring in drugs but also abuse and rape women and leave behind thousands of tons of trash.

“Drug traffickers couldn’t care less about environmental sensitivities,” he said. “The removal of these criminals from our public lands is a value to the environment as well as the mission of the land managers.”

But opponents, including hunters, conservationists and Hispanic advocacy groups, call the bill a heavy-handed fix that guts important environmental protections. They also question whether the measure is needed along the vast Canadian border, where there is scant evidence that illegal immigrants are hiking through national parks or wilderness areas in an attempt to slip into the U.S.

Read More at OfficialWire. By Matthew Daly.

Filed Under: News From The Web Tagged With: ,

House Republican Leaders Plan Summer Tax Cut Vote

May 29, 2012 by 4 Comments

Eric Cantor 2 SC 300x167 House Republican Leaders Plan Summer Tax Cut Vote

The House will vote this summer on continuing wide-ranging tax cuts first enacted under President George W. Bush, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Friday as the GOP sharpened its plans for confronting Democrats on one of the election’s top issues.

In a memo to fellow Republican lawmakers, Cantor said the House would vote on extending those tax cuts before leaving Washington for its August recess. Without congressional action, tax rates on wages, dividends, capital gains and other earnings will rise and most Americans will face higher taxes.

In one of the defining partisan disputes of recent years, Republicans want to keep those tax cuts — first enacted in 2001 and 2003 — for all taxpayers. President Barack Obama and Democrats oppose renewing the tax cuts for the highest earning Americans, though they haven’t agreed among themselves yet where the cutoff should be.

The House vote will be symbolic because Democrats running the Senate are sure to block a bill cutting taxes for the rich. Senate Democrats haven’t decided yet whether to hold votes this summer or fall on extending the tax cuts, and whether the reductions should be renewed for people earning up to $250,000 or $1 million annually.

The two parties are expected to get more serious about working toward legislation that would actually become law after the elections, with the details dependent on who captures control of the White House, House and Senate.

Read More at OfficialWire .  By Alan Fram, AP.

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House Showdown Looms Over Indefinite Detention

May 18, 2012 by Leave a Comment

us capitol building SC 300x199 House Showdown Looms Over Indefinite Detention

A showdown looms in the House over whether to end the indefinite detention without trial of terrorist suspects, even U.S. citizens seized within the nation’s borders.

Democrats and tea party Republicans lobbied their colleagues furiously ahead of Friday’s vote, arguing that indefinite detention gives the executive branch extraordinary power that violates Americans’ constitutional rights. Opponents insisted that any change in the law would weaken national security and coddle terrorists.

The divisive issue was playing out as the House considered a $642 billion defense budget for next year. Final passage of the legislation was expected Friday afternoon.

The spending blueprint calls for money for aircraft, ships, weapons, the war in Afghanistan and a 1.7 percent pay raise for military personnel, billions of dollars more than President Barack Obama proposed. House Republicans abandoned last summer’s deficit-cutting plan that was worked out with Obama, embracing a budget that adds $8 billion for the military while slashing funds for some safety-net programs for the poor such as Medicaid and food stamps.

The White House has threatened to veto the bill, citing a long list of objections. The bill snubs the Pentagon’s budget that was based on a new military strategy that shifts the focus from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to future challenges in Asia, the Mideast and in cyberspace. The bill spares aircraft and ships slated for retirement, slows the reduction in the size of the Army and Marine Corps and calls for construction of a new missile defense site on the East Coast.

Read More at OfficialWire. By Donna Cassata.

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House Passes CISPA, Threatens The Internet

April 27, 2012 by 5 Comments

John Boehner SC 300x199 House Passes CISPA, Threatens The Internet

The House’s solid bipartisan vote for a cybersecurity bill sends a message to the Senate: Now it’s your turn to act.

Ignoring a White House veto threat, the House approved the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, which would encourage companies and the federal government to share information collected on the Internet to help prevent electronic attacks from cybercriminals, foreign governments and terrorists.

The vote Thursday was 248-168, with 42 Democrats joining 206 Republicans in backing the measure.

Congressional leaders are determined to get a cybersecurity bill completed this election year but that may be difficult. The Obama administration and several leading Senate Democrats and Republicans want a bill that would give the Homeland Security Department the primary role in overseeing domestic cybersecurity and the authority to set security standards. The House bill would impose no new regulations on businesses, an imperative for Republicans.

In the coming weeks, the Senate will try to proceed on its bill by Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, who have said the House bill is inadequate in protecting against cyberattacks. Senior Senate Republicans, such as Sen. John McCain of Arizona, argue that Homeland Security is ill-equipped to determine how best to secure the nation’s essential infrastructure and has introduced his own bill.

Read More at OfficialWire. By Donna Cassata, AP.

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Did Your Congressman Vote For CISPA (i.e. The End Of Internet Freedom)?

April 27, 2012 by 2 Comments

John Boehner 3 SC 300x199 Did Your Congressman Vote For CISPA (i.e. The End of Internet Freedom)?

The 248-168 roll call Thursday by which the House passed legislation encouraging companies and the federal government to share information collected on the Internet to prevent electronic attacks from cybercriminals, foreign governments and terrorists.

A “yes” vote is a vote to pass the bill.

Voting yes were 42 Democrats and 206 Republicans.

Voting no were 140 Democrats and 28 Republicans.

X denotes those not voting.

There are 3 vacancies in the 435-member House.

Read More at OfficialWire

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House Moves Ahead With CISPA, Despite Criticism Of The “Cybersecurity” Bill

April 26, 2012 by 1 Comment

us capitol building SC 300x199 House Moves Ahead With CISPA, Despite Criticism Of The Cybersecurity Bill

House Republicans are pushing ahead with legislation to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure and corporations from electronic attacks despite Obama administration objections that the legislation fails to protect Americans’ civil liberties.

The House begins work Thursday on the bill designed to address the cybersecurity threat by getting the private sector and government to share information to thwart attacks from foreign governments, terrorists and cybercriminals. Although the information sharing is voluntary, civil liberty groups fear the measure could lead to government spying on Americans.

The administration objections run deeper.

“The sharing of information must be conducted in a manner that preserves Americans’ privacy, data confidentiality and civil liberties and recognizes the civilian nature of cyberspace,” the administration said in a statement Wednesday. “Cybersecurity and privacy are not mutually exclusive.”

The administration also complained that the bill’s liability protection for companies that share information is too broad and argued that the Homeland Security Department should have a primary role in domestic cybersecurity. In its current form, the administration said, the president’s advisers would recommend a veto.

Read More at OfficialWire. By Donna Cassata.

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