Video: Fox News’ Chris Wallace Rips into Treasury Secretary Jack Lew: ‘Your History is Wrong,’ Obama’s Refusal to Negotiate is ‘Unprecedented’

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Photo Credit: YouTube ScreenshotBy Oliver Darcy.

Fox News’ Chris Wallace grilled Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Sunday, repeatedly asking him questions regarding the president’s refusal to negotiate with Republicans in Congress over the budget.

“I know the direction is bad,” Lew said about what would happen if the U.S. government defaulted on its debt. “There is a range of how bad. It is irresponsible and it is reckless to take that chance.”

“Despite these stakes, the president is refusing to negotiate,” Wallace countered, noting presidents have negotiated with Congress in the past over a variety of topics. “What’s unprecedented is not Congress tying strings; what’s unprecedented is a president refusing to negotiate.”

“Frankly, I think your history is wrong,” Lew said.

“With all due respect, your history is wrong,” Wallace responded. “This has happened over and over again, and presidents have negotiated.”

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Treasury Secretary Lew: Congress ‘Reckless’ if Debt Ceiling Not Raised

By Greg Richter.

Saying that the U.S. government is “just too important to the world,” Treasury Secretary Jack Lew urged Congress to raise the country’s debt ceiling by an Oct. 17 deadline because he has “run out of tricks” to keep it operating past that date.

Lew said it will be “dangerous” and “reckless” for Congress to pass an October deadline without raising the government’s borrowing limit.

Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Lew said he has been using “extraordinary measures” to make room to borrow money since the United States hit its debt ceiling in May.

“I have no more,” Lew said he wrote in a letter to Congress last week. The government has $30 billion of cash on hand, but on any given day it can have a $50 billion-$60 billion positive or negative cash flow.

“It won’t last very long,” he said of the reserves.

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John Kerry On Special Forces Raids: Terrorists ‘Can Run But They Can’t Hide’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: GettyU.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Sunday that a pair of U.S. military raids against militants in North Africa sends the message that terrorists “can run but they can’t hide.”

In raids in Somalia and in Libya’s capital, U.S. special forces on Saturday struck against Islamic extremists who have carried out terrorist attacks in East Africa. They captured a Libyan al Qaeda leader allegedly involved in the bombings of U.S. embassies 15 years ago.

After a fierce firefight, a U.S. Navy SEAL team in Somalia aborted a mission to capture a terrorist suspect linked to last month’s Nairobi shopping mall attack.

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Failed Navy SEALs Raid on Somali Target Could Bolster Al Shabab (+video)

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Photo Credit: Mohamed Sheikh Nor/APA commando unit from the US Navy’s Seal Team Six launched an amphibious raid on a Somali town, but failed to confirm a capture or kill of their Al Shabab target, suspected to be linked to Nairobi’s Westgate mall terror attack.

The operation could have opposite its intended result of discouraging further attacks. Analysts warn that even earlier successful targeted strikes against Al Shabab, a Somalia-based Islamist militant group, failed to curb the group’s capacity to carry out international terror attacks, and that failed missions could in fact bolster its support and recruitment.

The predawn raid Saturday came unstuck when the US troops were faced with heavier-than-expected return fire, and pulled out to avoid civilian casualties, two security sources said. No Americans were injured.

Although the target was not named and officially described only as “high-value,” US officials suggested the raid was “prompted by Westgate”.

Saturday’s mission took place in Baraawe, an Al Shabab stronghold 110 miles south of Mogadishu, where US Special Forces carried out a daytime raid in 2009 to kill Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, wanted in connection with earlier terrorist strikes in East Africa.

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New York Police: Bikers Stomped on SUV Driver (+video)

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Photo Credit: QuotableKidneyAbout a half-dozen bikers accused of beating an SUV driver last weekend used their helmets to attack him and kicked his head and body as he lay on the ground, New York police said.

Police said one of the bikers — Robert Sims — also stomped on the driver’s head and body, according to a detective’s criminal complaint.

Sims was one of two bikers who turned himself in to authorities on Friday. He has been charged with attempted assault, gang assault and criminal possession of a weapon.

According to police, Sims can be seen in a video going after the SUV.

The driver of the SUV suffered two black eyes and cuts on his face and side, requiring stitches, the criminal complaint said.

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Mike Lee: He and Ted Cruz Faced ‘Demeaning’ and ‘All-Out Attack’ from GOP Colleagues (+video)

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Photo Credit: Gage SkidmoreSenate Republicans furiously attacked Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Utah Sen. Mike Lee behind closed doors and leaked details of an off-record meeting to the media to harm the two senators, according to Lee.

Lee divulged some of the details of a closed-door meeting on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show on Friday, since he said much of it had been leaked to the media by his own colleagues.

“[N]ormally, I don’t comment at all on closed-door meetings between Republican senators,” Lee said. “It’s a pretty strict rule we follow. But one exception I’ll make is circumstances like this, where contents of the meeting were leaked deliberately by several of my colleagues and leaked in a very one-sided way. I’m happy to tell you about it here.”

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Peter Schiff Warns of U.S. Depression (+video)

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Photo Credit: Gage SkidmoreAmerican investment broker, businessman, author and financial commentator Peter Schiff warns us that we are in worse shape now economically than we were just before the 2008 financial crisis, which we still have yet to recover from.

“I think the U.S. has been in a depression or a recession for the entirety of the Obama presidency,” Schiff said. “I think there’s going to be a depression, but I don’t think it’s going to be global.”

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Issa: Benghazi Attack Result of Hillary Clinton’s Reckless, Ill-Advised ‘War on Terror’ Policies (+video)

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Photo Credit: Chris MaddaloniResponsibility for the September 11 Benghazi assault and the deaths of four U.S. citizens — including Libyan ambassador Chris Stevens — lies personally at the feet of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa.

“The investigation really is now not about what we know, but about how we can prevent abuse of security before the fact, how we respond during the fact, and how we hold people accountable after the fact for deliberate misinformation — if you want to be kind — [and] outright lies, if not,” said Issa, who serves as head of the Oversight and Government reform committee.

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Blue Ridge Parkway Inn’s Act of Defiance to Feds Lasts About 2 Hours (+video)

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Photo Credit: Jon Ostendorff

Photo Credit: Jon Ostendorff

At a spot 5,000 feet above sea level and 20 miles from the nearest town, an innkeeper decided Friday to defy the federal government and reopen his lodge.

That stand lasted about two hours as National Park Service rangers blocked the entrances to the privately run Pisgah Inn on the Blue Ridge Parkway after owner Bruce O’Connell decided to reopen his dining room, gift shop and country store at noon Friday for lunch. The federal government had forced the inn, in a leased building on federal land, to shut down at 6 p.m. ET Thursday at the height of fall foliage — and tourism — season.

The inn normally is open April 1 to Oct. 31.

O’Connell said Wednesday he would rebel against the order to shutter after seeing World War II veterans reopen their memorial in Washington when barricades blocked the entrances. But he had backed down by the Park Service deadline to close Thursday.

“Conscience, conviction. That’s about it,” O’Connell said of his decision to reopen after thinking about the situation overnight. He said he would take guests for the weekend as long as the doors were able to remain open.

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Obama to GOP: ‘If You’re Being Disrespected, It’s Because of That Attitude You’ve Got’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP/Charles Dharapak

Photo Credit: AP/Charles Dharapak

President Obama lectured Republicans about their “attitude” problem on Thursday, telling an audience in suburban Maryland that Republican “extremists” are the only thing standing in the way of a “yes-or-no vote” on a continuing resolution to fund the federal government.

He quoted a House Republican as refusing to be “disrespected” by failing to “get something” out of the CR vote.

“If you’re being disrespected, it’s because of that attitude you’ve got — that you deserve to get something for doing your job,” Obama said. “Everybody here just does their job.”

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Boehner: ‘This isn’t Some Damn Game’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) urged Republicans to stick together Friday at a closed-door conference meeting, leaving for another day talk of a possible “grand bargain” to end standoffs over the government shutdown and raising the debt ceiling.

“This isn’t some damn game,” Boehner told reporters after the conference, angrily responding to reports that the White House thought it was winning the showdown.

Lawmakers emerging from the meeting said Boehner told his colleagues they are locked in an “epic battle” with President Obama and Democrats on the shutdown, and vowed they would not “roll over.”

They said Boehner sought to hype up his conference a day after reports emerged that the Speaker has told some members he would not allow the country to default and is willing to bring legislation to the floor that would depend on Democratic votes for passage.

Speaking to reporters, Boehner continued the recent GOP strategy of casting Republicans as the party interested in talking, and blaming Democrats for stonewalling them.

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