Boehner, McConnell Agree to Let Obama Borrow Another $2.4 Trillion

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House Speaker John Boehner (R.-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R.-Ky.) have reportedly agreed to give President Barack Obama the authority to borrow as much as an additional $2.4 trillion—thus allowing him to get past the November 2012 election without having to seek another increase in the legal limit on the federal debt.

A pleased President Obama announced the deal in a briefing at the White House press room at 8:40 p.m. on Sunday.

“Most importantly,” Obama said of the deal, “it will allow us to avoid default and end the crisis that Washington imposed on the rest of America. It ensures also that we will not face this same kind of crisis again in six months, or eight months, or 12 months. And it will begin to lift the cloud of debt and the cloud of uncertainty that hangs over our economy.”

Neither Obama, nor Boehner, nor McConnell released the details of the deal on Sunday evening.

The New York Times reported that the money to increase the debt limit would come in an initial installment of $900 billion followed by a second installment of $1.2 to $1.5 trillion. The first $900 billion would include an immediate $400 billion to allow the government to pay its immediate bills. Both the initial and second installment, according to the Times would be subject of disapproval votes by Congress which would cancel the debt limit increases, but that these disapproval votes would be subject to a veto by President Obama—meaning that both houses of Congress would have to vote by two-thirds majorities to prevent the debt limit increases from happening.

Read More at CNSNews By Terence P. Jeffrey, CNSNews.com

Deconstructing the Revenue Side of the Debt-Ceiling Deal: Yes, There’s a Real Threat of Higher Taxes

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Politicians last night announced the framework of a deal to increase the debt limit. In addition to authorizing about $900 billion more red ink right away, it would require immediate budget cuts of more than $900 billion, though “immediate” means over 10 years and “budget cuts” means spending still goes up (but not as fast as previously planned).

But that’s the relatively uncontroversial part. The fighting we’re seeing today revolves around a “super-committee” that’s been created to find $1.5 trillion of additional “deficit reduction” over the next 10 years (based on Washington math, of course).

And much of the squabbling is about whether the super-committee is a vehicle for higher taxes. As with all kiss-your-sister budget deals, both sides can point to something they like.

Here’s what Republicans like:

The super-committee must use the “current law” baseline, which assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire at the end of 2012. But why are GOPers happy about this, considering they want those tax cuts extended? For the simple reason that Democrats on the super-committee therefore can’t use repeal of the “Bush tax cuts for the rich” as a revenue raiser.

Here’s what Democrats like:

There appears to be nothing in the agreement to preclude the super-committee from meeting its $1.5 trillion target with tax revenue. The 2001 and 2003 tax legislation is not an option, but everything else is on the table (notwithstanding GOP claims that it is “impossible for Joint Committee to increase taxes”).

Read More By Dan Mitchell

We’ve Been Played for Saps, Folks: Boehner Bill Will Become Reid Bill

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RUSH: I think we’ve been played for a bunch of saps, I mean not us exclusively, I just mean the whole country, the Republican Party, ruling class. I’ll explain as uncomfortable as it is and as grading as it is, I’ll explain as the program unfolds it’s great to have you here as always telephone number if you want to be on the program. 800-282-2882. The e-mail address [email protected].

Where are we on the debt deal? I suspect that most of the people, and this is what a lot of people are relying on, “Just finish it!” A lot of people are sick and tired of hearing about it, let’s move on to something else. “I’m tired of talking about it. Can’t we do something that’s fun? What the hell is going on?” I understand the sentiment. Yesterday or last night the Republican leadership succeeded in getting Allen West to flip and vote for the Boehner plan or to commit to it. The same thing with Paul Ryan, and I’ve had a lot of e-mails: “What’s Allen West doing? I can’t believe Allen West, of all people.” These Democrats, folks, you have to understand who we’re dealing with here. This whole thing with Debbie “Blabbermouth” Schultz going on the House floor and accusing West of wanting to cut Medicare and Social Security and all that in the south Florida district, and you remember the contretemps that begin with West responding to it and so forth. They have put his re-election into play and, of course, they’ve got the media on their side down here in south Florida.

So all over the media is the allegation that Allen West wants to do all this damage to senior citizens and so forth so that’s how his vote gets — I’m guessing. I haven’t spoken to him. But I think that’s a large part of it. Now, as we all know the Boehner bill is not ideal. It’s another one of these eight hundred, nine hundred, I don’t even think it gets to a trillion, but let’s say it does, a trillion dollars in cuts over 10 years, the debt limit raised immediately so the spending occurs immediately, but it re-invites the debt limit debate all over again in a few short few months and in fact there is from the Daily Caller today a story that says the GOP is stealing Christmas. The Democrats are going back to the Gingrich that stole Christmas theme from the Clinton days. And here’s the story from the Daily Caller: “GOP Aims to Gut Christmas, White House Alleges — House Speaker and national grinch John Boehner is planning to spoil Christmas, White House officials are claiming, as they try to head off passage of Boehner’s two-stage debt ceiling bill.”

They don’t want to head off passage of the Boehner bill. They want the Boehner bill to pass in the house. There’s a trap essentially that’s being set, and I noticed that there’s an AP story, and way down at the AP story: “In fact, Boehner’s plan has enough in common with Reid’s — including the establishment of a special congressional panel to recommend additional spending cuts this fall — that Reid hinted a compromise could be easy to snap together,” between his nonexistent bill and the Boehner bill. What does that mean? What it means is that over in the Senate Reid really doesn’t have a bill. He’s got an idea, but he doesn’t have a bill. And what he’s put forth as an idea hasn’t gotten all that much support. But here comes, let’s say the House, and Boehner doesn’t have the votes in the House yet according to Politico. And this is key. That was as of 9:30 this morning and they’re going to be working the Republican caucus all day long before the vote tonight. But, as of now, Boehner doesn’t have the votes for his bill. But let’s assume he gets the votes. The Boehner bill then goes to the Senate where it’s dead on arrival. There are 58 senators that are going to vote against it, by design. However, they’ve got a bill over there now.

So Dingy Harry can take the Boehner bill and tweak it and rewrite it, make additions to it, take some things out of it, play with it however he wants, and get enough votes from Democrats since it becomes the Reid bill, and then it gets sent back to Boehner in the House looking nothing like his bill, but the rationale for passing the Boehner bill in the House is we’ve got to do this, the time is up, we’re not going to get blamed. So if Reid monkeys around with the bill that he gets from Boehner, and it passes in the Senate, with whatever changes that are not favorable to us, of course, they throw it back in Boehner’s lap, and then the pressure is going to be back on Boehner. Okay, do you sign the Reid bill? Do you pass it? Do you get your guys to vote for it and send it to Obama, basically a Democrat bill. That is what a lot of people — and I sign on to the theory, too — this is one of the traps that’s being set. The Boehner bill is essentially being used to be a foundation for a nonexistent as of yet Reid bill. And thereby the Boehner bill becomes the Reid bill, therefore Democrat bill all in the absence of an Obama plan. No Obama plan at all in this.

Read More at RushLimbaugh.com

Bachmann on Boehner Debt-Ceiling Plan: ‘I Will Not Be Casting My Vote for That Bill’

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At the National Press Club on Thursday, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who is running for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, said she would not support House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) plan to raise the debt ceiling or any other proposal that increases the debt limit, which is currently set at $14.29 trillion.

“John Boehner now has a second alternative as you have heard of,” said Bachmann. “I will not be casting my vote for that bill and we [the House] will be casting our votes later this afternoon. I cannot. I am committed to not raising the debt ceiling. My colleagues may give the Speaker that vote today.”

She went on to dismiss the fiscal year 2012 spending cuts in Boehner’s plan as minimal.

“If this bill goes through today, that’s a cut of approximately $22 billion in spending,” she said. “We all know the numbers — that’s perhaps one estimate says two-and-a-half days of spending. Let’s get serious. Let’s get serious.”

Boehner’s plan raises the debt limit but also reportedly cuts and caps spending by $917 billion over next decade – $22 billion in FY2012 alone, according to an analysis by the House Budget Committee.

Read More at CNS News By Edwin Mora, CNSNews.com

Did Palin Urge Freshmen to Vote Against Boehner Plan?

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Is Sarah Palin swaying tea party conservatives to vote against House Speaker John Boehner’s debt plan?

The former Republican vice presidential nominee put an enigmatic comment on her Facebook page Thursday afternoon that seemed to warn freshman Republicans in the House that they just might face primary opposition if they cave in to demands by their party to raise the debt ceiling, The New York Times theorized.

“All my best to you, GOP Freshmen, from up here in the Last Frontier. Sincerely, Sarah Palin,” she wrote. “P.S. Everyone I talk to still believes in contested primaries.”

Just two hours later, House Republican leaders were forced to postpone the vote on their proposal to increase the debt ceiling at the last minute, apparently facing a revolt among some of those very members.

In her 4:03 p.m. Facebook posting, Palin wrote that “I respectfully ask these GOP Freshman to re-read this letter and remember us “little people” who believed in them, donated to their campaigns, spent hours tirelessly volunteering for them, and trusted them with our votes. This new wave of public servants may recall that they were sent to D.C. for such a time as this.”

Read More at NewsMax Newsmax.com

Angle to McCain: Wait a minute, you campaigned for me in 2010. Now you’re insulting me and the Tea Party?

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Sen. John McCain, R-AZ, blasted opponents of the Boehner plan yesterday, borrowing a phrase from a Wall Street Journal editorial that described such opposition as representing “the kind of crack political thinking that turned Sharron Angle and Christine O’Donnell into GOP Senate nominees.”

Angle has now released a response, which, among much else, reminds McCain that in the end the Hobbits actually won the day and saved the world. The former Nevada GOP senate nominee called herself a “TEA Party Hobbit.” This could be the start of a new branding movement among Tea Partiers:

“One man in Washington, who chose Sarah Palin to be his VP running-mate and came to Nevada to campaign for me last year in the Senate race against Harry Reid, is now promoting attacks against TEA Party activists, ordinary American citizens, and fiscally conservative members of Congress – all of whom are adamantly opposed to continuing the deficit-spending strategies proposed by some congressional members and the president.

“Ironically, this man campaigned for TEA Party support in his last re-election, but now throws Christine O’Donnell and I into the harbor with Sarah Palin. As in the fable, it is the hobbits who are the heroes and save the land. This Lord of the TARP actually ought to read to the end of the story and join forces with the TEA Party, not criticize it.

It is regrettable that a man seeking dialogue, action and cooperation for votes on the floor of the United States Senate has only one strategy to achieve that effort: name-calling. Nice.

Read More at the Washington Examiner By Mark Tapscott, The Washington Examiner

Concealed Carry Would Have Kept Norway Safe

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How long would the Norway gunman have lasted in Texas or any state where concealed-carry laws are on the books? I ran a survey while on a cruise: in Texas, 3 minutes; in Montana, 7 to 8 minutes; in Arizona, 2 minutes; and in Nevada, 3 to 5 minutes.

Had Norway not surrendered to the anti-self-defense nuts, and allowed Norwegians to protect themselves by legally carrying guns, the massacre might well have been prevented. There’s a lot of truth in the old adage that if guns are outlawed only outlaws will carry guns.

That was certainly true in Norway where Anders Breivik, a lone gunman, launched his assault on youth campers of Utoya Island. According to press reports he fully expected Norway’s special forces to swoop down and stop him at any minute. It didn’t happen. Faced with unarmed victims he was given plenty of time to kill 68 innocent people who could not defend themselves. Had just one of them been armed, Breivik could have been stopped dead and lives would have been spared.

Moreover, if anyone had paid attention to Breivik’s rants they would not have been surprised when he acted on them, especially since Breivik had preceded his attack by setting off a car bomb in the heart of Oslo.

Tragically, Norway’s anti-gun hysteria resulted in laws restricting gun ownership by law-abiding citizens, leaving them exposed to gun violence at the hands of criminals such as Breivik, who simply ignore anti-gun ownership laws. Despite the Second Amendment, which protects American citizens’ rights to access to guns for self-protection, the Constitutional right of citizens to bear arms is under constant assault.

Read More at Floyd Reports By Michael Reagan, Floyd Reports

Why the Tea Party is unyielding on the debt ceiling

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The liberal media have gone to warp speed in their defense of President Obama and their attacks on the Tea Party. We are “extreme” and “dangerous.” Republicans are “afraid of” the Tea Party. And more.

The narrative in the media is that Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner were close to a deal last week that would have resolved the debt-ceiling crisis. It would have allowed for continued borrowing and more “revenue,” the euphemism of the day for tax increases. And the Tea Party said no.

The Tea Party did say no. Unfortunately, Boehner is not listening to those who elected him and is now pushing a plan with almost nonexistent budget cuts.

Why is the Tea Party intransigent on the debt ceiling? Why is the Tea Party pushing congressional Republicans so hard that we have a crisis?

As the founder of Tea Party Nation, I feel confident in saying that the Tea Party understands what so many in Washington seem to have forgotten: We do not have a debt crisis. We have a spending crisis. There is only one way you get to a debt crisis — you spend too much money.

Read More at The Washington Post By Judson Phillips, The Washington Post

Republicans: Don’t fall for elites’ fear mongering

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The playbook of the Washington establishment is getting old and almost boring.

Play No. 1 is this: Pass billions in unfunded new programs. Tell everyone we will take care of them from cradle to grave. Subsidized food, medical care, housing, and if your employer goes broke like General Motors or AIG, we will step in with a safety net to rescue the businesses with government loans and grants. The criterion for help and rescue is: Does your support come our way at election time?

Play No. 2 is this: If the American people rebel and say we don’t want to pay anymore for Congress’ wasteful government spending, tell Americans that if they don’t capitulate, the end of the world is upon us. And give “destruction day” a specific deadline for added fright power. This time the date is Aug. 2, 2011 – the day the world will end unless you support our out-of-control foolish spending.

Then the theatrics begin. The media are mesmerized and cued to play their well-honed part in the playbook. Weeks of reporting commence on all of the terrible results from failing to fully fund the government elite’s pet programs. Here are some of the outcomes we have heard referenced resulting from a failure to raise the debt ceiling: Unemployment will skyrocket. Thousands of businesses will shut down. Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan will be abandoned without ammunition, pay or a way home. Your credit-card interest rate will double or triple. Your mom won’t get her Social Security check. Your local hospital will close. All stocks on the NYSE will suddenly fall to zero with massive bankruptcies filling the courts. Farmers will stop planting crops. The supermarket shelves are soon empty. One pundit even predicted mass psychosis if Los Angeles doesn’t get its monthly shipment of anti-depressants. He claims one-third of the population is on the government-subsidized pills.

Wow, no wonder John Boehner and the Republicans roll over and fund everything the Washington establishment desires. They would be personally responsible for the end of America, the starvation of 300 million people and the shutdown of your cable TV.

Read More at WorldNetDaily by Floyd and Mary Beth Brown, WorldNetDaily

Going Galt without even knowing it

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A blogger named David McElroy recently wrote of a Birmingham (Alabama) businessman who,after listening to a room full of moochers and leeches piss whine and moan about the evils of business, publicly threw in the towel regarding his attempt to open a new coal mine.

David compared what happened to a scene right out of “Atlas Shrugged” and then mused,“But I wonder how long it’s going to be before businesspeople really do start walking away and deciding it’s not worth doing business in America today. Or is it already happening and we just don’t know it?”

Well,David,it’s going on right now all around us and we do in fact know all about it. I have a good friend from high school who was drafted in the Vietnam era,then earned his civil engineering Bachelor of Science degree afterward at N.C. State via the GI Bill. He started his own construction company, and has run it ever since, directly employing dozens of people and spending millions annually on equipment and materials, thereby employing countless others. Until now; until Obama was elected.

The bottom fell out of the economy under Obammunist economic policies,and then Obamacare de-exempted small construction companies from the 50-employee exemption as demanded by the unions so they could kill all non-union construction companies. Well it worked.

My friend said he was finally fed up and was finally able to say what Obama has demanded that all productive people must say, namely,“I have enough money”. He said he figured he had worked hard all his life, saved his earnings, and it was finally it was time to enjoy his savings. My friend fired all his employees,gave away all his equipment (which was fundamentally worthless anyway since everyone else was dumping their equipment too) and retired. Like many who enjoy the work they do,he probably would otherwise have died with his boots on,contributing to society right until the end. But Obammunism forced his hand,and for him personally it was a good thing because he is developing health problems,and in the not-too-distant future would have eventually been unable to enjoy his hard-earned savings.

Read More at Coach is Right  By Basil Irwin, Coach is Right