Dems Believe Income Inequality To Be Winning Issue In November

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Democrats aren’t wasting any time tackling an issue they are convinced will help them this election year: income inequality.

One of the Senate’s first votes upon returning to Washington from its holiday break Monday will be on a bill reviving emergency unemployment benefits that lapsed at the end of 2013.

The vote marks the first concrete step by Democrats toward a populist economic platform ahead of the November elections. The inequality campaign will intensify later in the year with a push in the Senate to raise the federal minimum wage that will be synced with President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech, which is expected to dig heavily into the issue of economic disparity.

The focus on income inequality builds on the economic themes Obama successfully harnessed to beat Mitt Romney in 2012. Democrats believe they can win again by spotlighting the growing divides between the rich and poor and daring Republicans to oppose legislation aimed at benefiting low-income Americans.

“Our Republican colleagues should take note. Certainly we’re going to build on the progress we’ve made to reduce the deficit, but it is no longer the most important issue that we face,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in laying out Senate Democrats’ agenda for the coming year. “Issues like job creation, minimum wage and unemployment insurance are going to weigh on the minds of voters far more than Obamacare by the time the 2014 elections roll around.”

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Hill Democrats, Republicans Set 2014 Agendas with Midterm Elections in Mind

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Congressional Democrats and Republicans sharpened their political knives Sunday as lawmakers return to Washington this week to begin executing legislative agendas designed to help their respective parties in the November elections.

The first major battle will likely be over restoring long-term unemployment benefits, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scheduled to hold a preliminary vote Monday on the issue.

“The first thing we want to get done is extend unemployment benefits,” he told Fox News on Sunday.

The benefits were not included in a two-year budget deal Congress reached before adjourning for winter break, but not before House Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, made clear the money will not be restored unless offset but other spending cuts.

The White House is also applying pressure on congressional Republicans, issuing a statement on New Year’s Day that said President Obama supports the bipartisan Senate bill to reinstate benefits for the 1.3 million Americans who lost the insurance in the new budget deal.

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SCF Invests Big in Mitch McConnell’s Challenger

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The Senate Conservatives Fund has invested nearly $1 million in the candidacy of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s GOP primary opponent, the group said Friday morning.

SCF spent about $535,000 promoting the candidacy of Matt Bevin in Kentucky and passed along another $450,000 to the tea party candidate, nearly half of the group’s candidate investment last year. Bevin will need all the help he can get in taking on McConnell, who had nearly $10 million on hand as of October.

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With Pro-Life Rally Plans, RNC Delivers Big Statement on Abortion

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Photo Credit: Associated Press

Photo Credit: Associated Press

In an unprecedented show of opposition to abortion, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is delaying the start of the party’s annual winter meeting so he and other committee members can join the March for Life on the Mall, The Washington Times has learned.

Mr. Priebus, a plain-spoken Greek Orthodox lawyer from Wisconsin, will join members of his party’s national committee and thousands of other abortion opponents in the annual right-to-life march scheduled for Jan. 22, the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that declared abortion a constitutional right.

“I saw that there was a real interest among a significant portion of our members to attend and support the Rally for Life,” Mr. Priebus said in an email to The Times. “This is a core principle of our party. It was natural for me to support our members and our principles.”

Mr. Priebus, in his second term as elected chairman of the Republican National Committee, chose to delay the start of the four-day winter meeting of the GOP governing body, also scheduled in Washington, to allow himself and RNC members to attend the march. The delay is unprecedented for a major U.S. political party, several state Republican Party chairmen and other RNC members said in telephone interviews.

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Sarah Palin’s Resolution: Call Out ‘Lapdog’ Media

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Sarah Palin has a New Year’s resolution — to be “more aggressive” in calling out the media for “practicing lapdog laziness.”

In a Facebook post on Saturday, the former Alaska governor and one-time vice-presidential nominee railed against the media for standing behind President Barack Obama, even after the revelations about the National Security Agency’s spying programs.

“Hey reporters, we know that once Barack Obama got elected you bailed on keeping government accountable; you’ve been abject failures there,” Palin wrote. “Case in point: Nixon’s presidency was over once reporters busted him for allowing his people to spy on political opponents. Today, the Obama presidency’s hallmark is spying (in addition to violating economic and Constitutional liberties), for which you celebrate Barack Obama. Transparently hypocritical, much?”

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Government Intrudes Into Virtually Every Aspect of Our Lives

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Photo Credit: Newscom

Photo Credit: Newscom

No matter how we label ourselves — conservative, liberal, moderate or none of the above — we all must grapple with the ever-expanding size and scope of government.

America has reached a tipping point. The federal government has grown exponentially, not just in spending, but in its reach. Government intrudes into virtually every aspect of our daily lives, from the type of toilet we can buy, to the mix of fuel we put in our cars, to the kind of light bulb we can use.

Government policies have stifled domestic energy production while pouring billions of tax dollars into alternative-energy subsidies, reflecting the elitist, “progressive” faith that bureaucrats can pick winners and losers better than individuals making voluntary decisions in their own interests can. Unelected bureaucrats have been empowered to stipulate what health services we will purchase, and how and from whom we will receive them.

Excessive government intervention not only limits individual freedoms, it stifles entrepreneurial creativity and job creation. It locks the poor into a lifetime of dependency and poverty. And it limits the ability of hard-working Americans to enjoy upward mobility.

The federal government also dominates in spheres of activity traditionally reserved to the states. This leaves little or no room for state-level innovation in areas such as education, transportation, health care, welfare and even law enforcement.

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Mitt Romney Says That if it Were His Choice, Russia Would Not Be Hosting the Olympics (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Former Gov. Mitt Romney said today “were it my choice,” Russia would never have been awarded next month’s Winter Olympics — let alone any future Summer Olympics — because of the political message it sends.

“But it’s not my choice. They are a player on the global stage. They have a right to make their bid. But, they do strain the view of people like myself as to their leadership and their characterization of the Olympic spirt,” Romney told FOX News Sunday host Chris Wallace.

Russia got the green light to host the games from the International Olympic Committee in 2007. Romney indicated his concerns are more the political message that was sent rather than the logistical success of the games, though he also questioned the cost.

Pointing out that the 2014 Winter Olympics’ $51 billion pricetag is more money than was spent on all previous winter games combined, and that Putin signed a law last summer empowering police to arrest anyone who shows tolerance toward gays, Wallace asked Romney, “At some point, does the country hosting the Olympics … does that country’s values undercut what the Olympics are supposed to be all about?”

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Ken Ham Announces Creation/Evolution Debate With Bill Nye ‘The Science Guy’

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Photo Credit: Christian News

Photo Credit: Christian News

Well-known apologist Ken Ham and outspoken evolutionist Bill Nye have agreed to a public creation-versus-evolution debate in early February.

Nye was the popular host of the children’s TV show Bill Nye the Science Guy, which was produced by Disney during the 1990s. An outspoken evolutionist, Nye was also featured in a YouTube video last year titled “Bill Nye: Creationism Is Not Appropriate For Children.”

“Denial of evolution is unique to the United States,” Nye says in the video, which has received nearly six million views. “…When you have a portion of the population that doesn’t believe in [evolution], it holds everybody back, really.”

Nye, who was recognized as the “2010 Humanist of the Year” by the American Humanist Association, claims that the “whole world” becomes “fantastically complicated” and “a mystery” for those who do not accept evolution—rather than “an exciting place.” Furthermore, he predicts that, “in another couple centuries,” the creationist worldview “just won’t exist,” saying “there’s no evidence for it.”

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Lieu to Introduce Bill to Ban State from Assisting Feds with Warrantless Spying

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Photo Credit: Senator Ted Lieu

Photo Credit: Senator Ted Lieu

Senator Ted Lieu (D-Redondo Beach) will introduce a bill tomorrow, Monday, Jan. 6, 2014 to ban state agencies and officials from assisting the federal government in certain components of its spy activity on Californians. If enacted, the ban would also apply to corporations that provide services to the state.

“The National Security Agency’s massive level of spying and indiscriminate collecting of phone and electronic data on all Americans, including more than 38 million Californians, is a direct threat to our liberty and freedom,” Lieu said in a press release issued today. Tomorrow is the first day of the 2014 legislative session.

The issue of massive spying came to light after Edward Snowden, a computer specialist with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA), leaked classified information last year showing the extent to which the federal government spies on its citizens. The Obama Administration downplayed the leaks but eventually admitted the process needed to be “reviewed.”

In support of his bill, Lieu says, “Records show the director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, Jr., initially lied to Congress and denied the existence of NSA’s blanket phone surveillance of all Americans. Multiple media reports regarding NSA activities have now caused Clapper to admit he lied and that the NSA has, in fact, been collecting phone information on all 317 million Americans for years. A federal judge recently declared the NSA’s blanket phone monitoring program to be unconstitutional, calling the dragnet ‘near Orwellian.’

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New York State Next to Loosen Marijuana Laws

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Photo Credit: Michael Nagle for The New York Times

Photo Credit: Michael Nagle for The New York Times

Joining a growing group of states that have loosened restrictions on marijuana, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York plans this week to announce an executive action that would allow limited use of the drug by those with serious illnesses, state officials say.

The shift by Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat who had long resisted legalizing medical marijuana, comes as other states are taking increasingly liberal positions on it — most notably Colorado, where thousands have flocked to buy the drug for recreational use since it became legal on Jan. 1.

Mr. Cuomo’s plan will be far more restrictive than the laws in Colorado or California, where medical marijuana is available to people with conditions as mild as backaches. It will allow just 20 hospitals across the state to prescribe marijuana to patients with cancer, glaucoma or other diseases that meet standards to be set by the New York State Department of Health.

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