Kevin McCarthy Drops out of Speaker Race

/3 Comments/in , /by

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has dropped out of the race to succeed Speaker John Boehner, a shocking move that throws the House into chaos.

The move came without warning as House Republicans were in a closed-door meeting to select their nominee for speaker, with McCarthy’s wife and kids in the room. Boehner subsequently postponed the vote.

“I think I shocked some of you, huh?” McCarthy told reporters following the decision.

Boehner is poised to resign at the end of the month. There is no clear successor who can overcome the deep divisions in the party and win the post. An influential group of conservatives endorsed a long-shot candidate, Rep. Daniel Webster, on Wednesday, placing McCarthy’s ability to win the House floor vote later this month in doubt.

“If we’re going to unite and be strong, we need a new face to do that,” McCarthy said, adding that he did not want to win the race on the House floor with only enough votes to squeak by. (Read more from “Kevin McCarthy Drops out of Speaker Race” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

This Is Who the House Freedom Caucus Has Endorsed for Speaker

/3 Comments/in , /by

By Tal Kopan, Deirdre Walsh and Ted Barrett. The House Freedom Caucus, an influential group of conservatives, will back Florida Rep. Daniel Webster for speaker, several lawmakers said following a Wednesday afternoon meeting — a blow to Rep. Kevin McCarthy in his bid for the position.

The decision is a major rebuke to the House leadership under Speaker John Boehner, and McCarthy, the current majority leader looking to win the speaker’s job.

Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, said it took several votes to determine the winner of the endorsement. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, had “some support,” McCarthy had “no support” and Webster had the most support, he said.

Thursday, the Republican conference will vote on who to nominate as their speaker candidate. But that vote only requires a majority — and the crucial hurdle for McCarthy will be whether he can get 218 votes on the floor when the full House votes October 29.

“It’s a healthy debate we’ll have a vote on the floor and in conference tomorrow,” McCarthy said Wednesday. “Just like going through any other primary – (it) will be the power of ideas.” (Read more from “This Is Who the House Freedom Caucus Has Endorsed for Speaker” HERE)

____________________________________

Right Flexes Muscle Ahead of Speaker Vote

By Scott Wong and Cristina Marcos. The conservative House Freedom Caucus on Wednesday endorsed little-known Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.) for Speaker — a bold move that raises serious doubts about whether Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy can cobble together the 218 votes on the House floor he needs to be promoted.

McCarthy, a five-term California Republican, is expected to easily win the nomination when House Republicans huddle at noon Thursday to pick a successor to outgoing Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).

But the true test will come Oct. 29, when the House holds a public roll call vote to formally elect the next Speaker.

The Freedom Caucus, led by Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), holds enough votes to essentially veto a McCarthy Speakership, though it’s unclear whether all members would cast their ballots the same way.

No one can be elected Speaker unless they win 218 votes. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Obama’s Refugee Resettlement Plan Could Stir Battle With States

/1 Comment/in , /by

The Obama administration’s pledge to absorb thousands more Syrian and other refugees could run headlong into resistance from state and local officials worried about whether their communities can handle the influx.

Federal officials announced last month they plan to take in at least 10,000 refugees from Syria over the next year, and a total of 100,000 refugees from around the world by 2017 — up from 70,000.

While Republicans on Capitol Hill have raised concerns about whether refugees from Syria will be adequately screened for terror ties, local officials are worried simply about whether they have the resources to take them.

“It’s a fiscal issue,” said Peter Steele, a spokesman for Maine Gov. Paul LePage. “You can only pay for what you can afford, and those funds should be going to the most needy citizens in our state.”

Refugees granted entrance to America often move around the country, tapping services and funds from local communities as they go. They get benefits ranging from food stamps to traditional welfare to housing to language classes. Refugees also receive over $1,800 per person in cash once in the U.S. (of which $750 goes to a resettlement agency contractor). (Read more from “Obama’s Refugee Resettlement Plan Could Stir Battle With States” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Carly Fiorina Added to Koch Brothers’ Short List

/4 Comments/in , /by

Carly Fiorina has officially made it onto the short list of candidates being considered by the Koch Brothers’ network of donors — potentially opening the door to a deep pool of money.

Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, the Koch brothers’ umbrella group, which includes a sprawling network of conservative donors, confirmed to ABC News that Fiorina is one of the five candidates on the donor network’s watch list.

“Governor Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina and Senators Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio are leading a thoughtful and substantive discussion on the issues and we look forward to hearing more about their vision for the country,” Freedom Partners spokesman James Davis told ABC News.

Fiorina’s addition to list serves as a signal that her newly attained top-tier status is being taken seriously by conservative donors and will likely mean increased access for Fiorina to Freedom Partners’ deep-pocketed donors.

The news also comes after Reuters reported earlier this week that the Koch Brothers were taking a “serious look” at Fiorina following her strong debate performances and subsequent jump in the polls. (Read more from “Carly Fiorina Added to Koch Brothers’ Short List” HERE)


Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Senate Democrats Preparing Legislative Package to Curb Guns

/2 Comments/in , /by

Senate Democrats are preparing a legislative push to curb guns, a week after a mass shooting at an Oregon community college refocused attention on the nation’s toll of firearms deaths.

Republicans controlling Congress have shown scant interest in restricting guns and the Democratic effort has little chance of success. But their drive could keep the issue alive during next year’s elections, driving up support from sympathetic voters and contributors while complicating GOP senators’ re-election campaigns in some closely divided states . . .

Democrats said their effort would include broadening federal background checks, now required only for sales by federally licensed firearms dealers, to cover all purchases at gun shows and online. A bipartisan version of that plan, opposed by the National Rifle Association, was blocked in 2013 by Republicans and a few Democrats, months after the fatal shooting of 20 students and six staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. (Read more from “Senate Democrats Preparing Legislative Package to Curb Guns” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Leadership End Game: Anyone but McCarthy

/1 Comment/in , /by

By the end of this week we will know if there is any constructive purpose to the existence of the House Freedom Caucus. If they can’t block the less articulate version of John Boehner from ascending to the speakership they as might as well close up shop.

As we noted last week, the problems with the Republican Party run far deeper than the woes of John Boehner. They certainly will not be solved with this leadership election. But one thing is clear: The GOP base is demanding a change in course, and simply promoting another rung of repudiated leaders—the deputy arsonists of Boehner’s five-year inferno—up one notch on the totem pole will not satisfy those demands. An outcome that allows McCarthy and Scalise, baggage and all, to climb the ladder of leadership is unacceptable.

So what is the end game? There are, after all, only a few dozen conservative members and they lack the votes to elect one of their own to the speakership.

Conservative members must understand that this was never about electing one of their own. It’s about using their leverage to overrule the next in line and force a complete change in leadership, however imperfect the new candidates might be. With more than 30 members committed to opposing McCarthy, the House Freedom Caucus can use its leverage to veto this colossal mistake.

It is quite clear that McCarthy will garner well over 124 votes in the conference election on Thursday, securing a majority of the GOP conference in support of his election on the House floor. But given that all the Democrats will presumably vote for Pelosi, if all of the Republicans who vote for Jason Chaffetz or Daniel Webster in conference commit to doing the same on the House floor, McCarthy will be denied the majority. This will have the effect of delaying the election and adding another dimension of significance to this race. As conservatives, we all understand that choice and competition perfect the outcome, and by making it clear that the“next in line” is unacceptable, the Freedom Caucus can open the door for even more candidates to toss their hats in the ring, lay out their vision for the House and what issues are important to them. A drawn out speaker election, no matter the ultimate result, is a win for conservatives who wish to be heard.

At this point, chaos is our best friend. No conservative believes that we are one leadership election from the Promised Land. What ails this party cannot be cured without electing a principled and fearless conservative to the presidency. But for now, the least we can do is elect a vanguard until 2017, someone who will focus on issues conservatives care about and who does not owe his position to the existing corrupt system, but to the conservatives who created a path for an unlikely upstart.

Some conservatives believe Kevin McCarthy will toss them a few bones as it relates to “process” rules in return for obtaining their support. But how could the man who artfully worked the existing system to his advantage—who thrives off the power structure we seek to upend—ever work for us?

What sort of insanity has possessed those who would give McCarthy and Scalise, the very leaders who shepherded the Planned Parenthood funding through the House, an immediate promotion?

House conservatives were elected for a reason and it’s time for them to use their leverage to fulfill the mandate from their constituents to change leadership. If they think McCarthy qualifies as change they will learn the hard way from their voters that he is merely a cloddish version of everything they despise in Washington. (For more from the author of “Leadership End Game: Anyone but McCarthy” please click HERE)

Watch a recent interview with the author below:

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

See the Photo of Ben Carson That Has Gone Massively Viral- One Look and You’ll Know Why

/30 Comments/in , /by

By F. Peter Brown. Presidential candidate Ben Carson has been outspoken about his faith, communicating it in a way that has drawn mass appeal, especially among social conservatives.

Carson was recently in the spotlight, coming under attack for saying that he would not advocate for a Muslim running for President of the United States.

Now Carson has produced a meme with the #IAmAChristian hashtag that has gone massively viral: there were more than 1 million likes and 173,000 shares on Facebook as of Sunday night. He created it in response to the school shooting in Oregon.

Photo Credit: Facebook

Carson posted on both Twitter and Facebook a picture of him holding a sign saying “I am a Christian” with the icthus (Christian fish symbol) below it.

According to reports by several survivors, the gunman in the Oregon shooting asked people if they were Christians before shooting them. If they answered ‘yes’, they were shot in the head. If they instead answered ‘no’, they were shot in the legs.

Carson frequently holds a Facebook Q&A session, answering various questions sent in by the American people. That night Carson decided to call it off, saying he thought it was “inappropriate” in light of the shooting. (Read more from “See the Photo of Ben Carson That Has Gone Massively Viral- One Look and You’ll Know Why” HERE)

__________________________________

Ben Carson on Oregon: ‘I Would Not Just Stand There and Let Him Shoot Me’

By Alan Rappeport. Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who is a leading Republican presidential contender, has intensified his defense of gun rights in response to last week’s Oregon campus massacre, arguing that the Second Amendment is more sacred than spilled blood.

He also suggested that the victims should have had the courage to attack their assailant and accused President Obama of politicizing the tragedy by embracing the families of the dead.

In a Facebook question-and-answer session Monday night, Mr. Carson tried to show empathy with victims by recalling that two of his cousins were killed in the streets and that, as a doctor, he had removed many bullets from the bodies of gunshot victims. But he said the right to bear arms was paramount . . .

And on Tuesday, Mr. Carson’s suggestion that he would have fought back in the face of an attack like the one in Roseburg, Ore., went viral, drawing widespread rebuke from his critics and reviving questions about his candidacy.

“I would not just stand there and let him shoot me,” Mr. Carson, who has been surging in recent polls, said on Fox News. “I would say: ‘Hey, guys, everybody attack him! He may shoot me, but he can’t get us all.’” (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Biden Himself Leaked Word of His Son’s Dying Wish

/3 Comments/in , /by

Joe Biden has been making his 2016 deliberations all about his late son since August.

Aug. 1, to be exact — the day renowned Hillary Clinton-critic Maureen Dowd published a column that marked a turning point in the presidential speculation.

According to multiple sources, it was Biden himself who talked to her, painting a tragic portrait of a dying son, Beau’s face partially paralyzed, sitting his father down and trying to make him promise to run for president because “the White House should not revert to the Clintons and that the country would be better off with Biden values.”

It was no coincidence that the preliminary pieces around a prospective campaign started moving right after that column. People read Dowd and started reaching out, those around the vice president would say by way of defensive explanation. He was just answering the phone and listening.

But in truth, Biden had effectively placed an ad in The New York Times, asking them to call. (Read more from “Biden Himself Leaked Word of His Son’s Dying Wish” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Here’s the Fastest Growing Language in the U.S.

/1 Comment/in , /by

By Julia Hahn. Data from the United States Census Bureau show that languages spoken in Muslim countries are surging into U.S. households due to rapid growth in immigration from Muslim nations.

The Census Bureau’s 2014 American Community Survey (ACS) reveals that Arabic and Urdu – Pakistan’s national language– are the fastest-growing foreign languages spoken at home, according to a new report by the Center for Immigration Studies.

After five decades of large-scale immigration, a record 63.2 million U.S. residents, or more than one-in-five, speak a language other than English when at home.

Previous reports have shown that the United States is now the second largest Spanish speaking country in the world. But the new census study shows that the fastest-growing foreign languages, in percentage terms, are languages spoken by immigrants from Muslim-majority countries.

Between 2010 and 2014, there was a 29 percent increase in Arabic, a 23 percent increase in Urdu, and a 9 percent jump in Persian, which is spoken in Iran. (Read more from “Here’s the Fastest Growing Language in the U.S.” HERE)

_______________________________________

Record 63.2 Million Non-English Speaking Residents, Surge in Arabic, Chinese, Spanish

By Paul Bedard. More than one in five U.S. residents speak a language other than English at home, a record, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

In an analysis of the recent Census American Community Survey, a huge surge was recorded in those who speak Chinese, Spanish, Arabic and Urdu, Pakistan’s national language.

The report from the Center for Immigration Studies documented the growth of immigrants in the United States and provided evidence of concerns new immigrants are slow to assimilate into American culture, namely by speaking English at home.

According to the Center’s analysis released to Secrets Tuesday morning, in 2014, a record 63.2 million U.S. residents — native-born, legal immigrants, and illegal immigrants — spoke a language other than English at home. That represents a surge of 16.2 million since 2000 and 1.4 million just since 2013.

Overall, wrote the Center’s Steven A. Camarota and Karen Zeigler, the number of non-English speakers has doubled since 1990. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Trade Deficit Balloons to $48.3 Billion

/1 Comment/in , /by

By Akin Oyedele. The trade deficit swelled to $48.3 billion in August, according to the Department of Commerce.

Economists had estimated that the trade deficit, or the excess of imports over exports, increased to $48 billion from $41.81 in the prior month. Core imports rose 2.6%, driven by consumer goods.

“In one line: Horrible; trade is set to be a significant drag on Q3 GDP growth,” wrote Pantheon Macroeconomics’ Ian Shepherdson in a client note.

Shepherdson added that exports have not yet recovered from the West Coast port disruptions earlier this year.

The goods and services deficit has increased 5.2%, or $17.6 billion year-to-date. (Read more from “Trade Deficit Balloons to $48.3 Billion” HERE)

____________________________________

Deal Reached on Pacific Rim Trade Pact in Boost for Obama Economic Agenda

By David Nakamura. President Obama hailed the historic 12-nation Pacific Rim trade deal completed here Monday as an accord that “reflects America’s values,” but within hours the administration had turned from the negotiating table to selling the agreement on Capitol Hill, a reflection of the harsh political climate the controversial pact is expected to face in Congress.

Obama pledged that the ­Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the largest free-trade agreement in a generation, would open new markets for U.S. goods and services and establish rules of international commerce that give “our workers the fair shot at success they deserve.”

But almost immediately there were signs of the tough fight ahead to win final ratification from Congress next year. Lawmakers from both parties criticized the pact as falling short in crucial areas, raising the prospect that the White House could lose the support of allies who had backed the president’s trade push earlier this year.

“Closing a deal is an achievement for our nation only if it works for the American people and can pass Congress by meeting the high-standard objectives laid out” by lawmakers in the spring, said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. “While the details are still emerging, unfortunately I am afraid this deal appears to fall woefully short.”

Monday’s announcement that trade ministers had reached consensus on the deal, after five days of negotiations, started the clock on the final stages of winning approval from national legislatures. The United States, where the 2016 presidential campaign is underway, is not the only nation where political turbulence could affect completion of the deal. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.