Posts

Cromnibus Moves Forward: $1.1T Bill Financing Government Crosses First Hurdle

/14 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Greg Nash

Photo Credit: Greg Nash

by Associated Press

Republicans have muscled a $1.1 trillion bill financing government agencies through the House after President Barack Obama phoned Democratic lawmakers and urged them to back the measure.

The House approved the measure late Thursday by 219-206.

The compromise bill keeps agencies funded through next September.

Many conservatives opposed it because it did not block Obama’s recent executive actions on immigration.

Read more from this story HERE.

__________________________________________________________________________

Omnibus Bill Keeps Welfare Spending at Massive Levels

By Rachel Sheffield

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty. Since that time, annual means-tested welfare spending has increased by 16-fold, now costing taxpayers nearly $1 trillion a year. And the omnibus bill keeps spending at this sky-high level.

The means-tested welfare system is massive and is the fastest growing part of government spending. The federal government currently operates roughly 80 means-tested welfare programs that provide cash, food, housing, medical care and social services to poor and lower-income Americans. Nearly one-third of Americans receive benefits from at least one of these programs.

Food stamps is one of the largest of the welfare programs. Its cost has jumped dramatically over the last decade or so, doubling from less than $20 billion in fiscal year 2000 to about $40 billion in fiscal year 2007. By fiscal year 2012, costs doubled again to nearly $80 billion. The omnibus keeps food stamp spending at historically high levels: $82 billion.

Read more from this story HERE.

The Government Owns Over 623 Million Acres. Why Does It Need More?

/2 Comments/in , /by

Insatiable ¬– that would seem to be the word that best describes the appetite of some in Congress and their friends in the environmental community.

Congress has added over 450 pages to the defense authorization bill to designate wilderness, create new parks, designate Wild and Scenic Rivers and fund National Heritage areas – things that have nothing to do with national defense.

special_federal_land_ownership_chart1_1467-741x1024 (1)

Yet for some, even this enormous helping of green pork is not enough. Several members of the House of Representatives are pushing for far more, seeking to gift the environmental community with a reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The LWCF was enacted in 1965 to take offshore energy development revenues and use them to buy private land and turn it into public parks.

Read more from this story HERE.

Congressman Exposes Secretive Obama Program to Strangle Politically Out-of-Favor Businesses

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Bill Clark / Newscom

Photo Credit: Bill Clark / Newscom

Calling a secretive government operation to strangle politically out-of-favor businesses “more dangerous” than the IRS targeting scandal, a congressman with a background in banking is preparing to introduce legislation to kill the Obama administration initiative.

“I believe this activity is probably more dangerous and more disastrous than that of the IRS scandal because this is running people out of business for no reason and it’s harming livelihoods, incomes [and] families,” Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., said today in an interview with The Daily Signal.

Luetkemeyer, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, was comparing the Department of Justice’s Operation Choke Point to the Internal Revenue Service’s much-reviled targeting of tea party and other conservative groups.

Operation Choke Point seeks to cut off the financial lifeblood of payday lenders and other industries the Obama administration doesn’t like by pressuring banks to close their accounts with such businesses.

The government contends that Operation Choke Point combats unlawful, mass-market consumer fraud. However, a congressional report revealed that the initiative’s targets include legal businesses such as short-term lenders, firearms and ammunition merchants, coin dealers, tobacco sellers and home-based charities.

Read more from this story HERE.

U.S. Congress Examining Deal Between NSA Official, Ex-Agency Chief

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: REUTERS / YURI GRIPASA Senate committee and an outspoken U.S. Congressman are seeking further information about a deal under which a top National Security Agency official is being permitted to work part-time for a private company run by the spy agency’s former director.

The Senate Intelligence Committee has requested a copy of an “internal review” which NSA said last week it had opened into an arrangement under which Patrick Dowd, the spy agency’s chief technical officer is being allowed up to 20 hours per week for IronNet Cybersecurity Inc, a congressional official said.

IronNet is a venture created by retired Gen. Keith Alexander, who stepped down as NSA director in March.

Under the arrangement, which Reuters first reported on Friday, IronNet, not NSA, will pay for the time Dowd spent working for the firm. It could not be determined whether Dowd has actually begun working for Alexander.

Read more from this story HERE.

Congress in No Rush to Return for ISIS War Authorization

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Tom Williams / CQ Roll Call By Matt Fuller.

The United States has begun a bombing campaign in Syria, but don’t bet on Congress returning to Washington to vote on a new war authorization anytime soon.

Shortly after airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria started, some lawmakers started pushing again for an authorization vote. But so far, leaders aren’t gearing up to bring their members back to town.

Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., tweeted Monday night it was “irresponsible and immoral” that congressional leaders had chosen to recess for nearly two months instead of debating and voting on war. And the ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, released a statement saying it’s “time for Congress to step up and revise the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force in a way that supports the targeted actions underway, but also prevents the deployment of American ground forces that would drag us into another Iraq War.”

Van Hollen tweeted that Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, should call the House back to debate a new Authorization to Use Military Force.

Boehner’s office deferred to the White House when asked about the issue.

Read more from this story HERE.

___________________________________________________________________

Pentagon: New airstrikes target refineries used by ISIS in Syria

By Chelsea J. Carter, Barbara Starr and Gul Tuysuz.

U.S. and coalition warplanes pounded ISIS positions in eastern Syria on Wednesday, targeting what a Pentagon official described as mobile oil refineries being used by the so-called Islamic State terror group to help finance its operations.

The latest round of airstrikes were aimed at cutting off money flowing to ISIS, which makes up to $2 million a day from oil produced by the mobile refineries, Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, told CNN.

Fighter jets from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates flew alongside U.S. aircraft during the operation, hitting 12 locations, Kirby said.

While the U.S. military was still assessing the outcome of the attacks, Kirby said initial indications suggest the strikes were successful.

“We are very confident we hit what we were aiming at, and we caused the damage we wanted,” he said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama's ex-Press Secretary: ‘It’s Not Going To Be A Good Year For Democrats’

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Daily CallerFormer White House press secretary Jay Carney said Sunday that 2014 is “not going to be a good year for Democrats, by definition.”

The former White House spokesman appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” panel to discuss the 2014 midterms in one of his first appearances on the network since joining on as a contributor.

Read more from this story HERE.

Spying, Lying and Torture: Obama, CIA, DOJ vs Congress

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: CNSNews.com / Penny Starr

Photo Credit: CNSNews.com / Penny Starr

In some respects, the recent admission by CIA Director John Brennan that his agents and his lawyers have been spying on the senators whose job it is to monitor the agency should come as no surprise. The agency’s job is to steal and keep secrets, and implicit in those tasks, Brennan would no doubt argue, is lying.

Yet in another respect, this may very well be a smoking gun in the now substantial case against President Barack Obama that alleges that much of his official behavior has manifested lawlessness and incompetence. It is hard to believe that the president did not know about this but not hard to believe he would look the other way.

In the post-9/11 world, Congress has become a potted plant, ready to give any president whatever he wants, lest it appear less than muscular in the face of whatever danger the president says is lurking in the dark.

About four months ago, California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, went to the Senate floor and accused the CIA of committing torture during the presidency of George W. Bush and of spying on the committee that she chairs as it was examining records of that torture. Brennan responded by denying both charges and leveling his own — that investigators for the Senate Intelligence Committee had exceeded their lawful access to CIA records and that that constituted spying on the CIA.

Brennan even got his predecessor, George Tenet, under whose watch Feinstein claimed the torture had occurred and the attacks of 9/11 took place, to deny vehemently that his agents had committed torture. With this mutual finger-pointing, both the CIA and the Senate Intelligence Committee reported each other to the Department of Justice, which promptly punted.

Read more from this story HERE.

House Staffer Arrested for Carrying Concealed Weapon at Capitol

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: iStock Image

Photo Credit: iStock Image

A staff member for a Pennsylvania congressman was arrested Friday for carrying a concealed weapon inside the Capitol complex.

A Capitol Police spokeswoman said Ryan Shucard, press secretary for Rep. Tom Marino, R-Pa., entered the Cannon House Office Building at 9:15 am carrying a Smith & Wesson 9 mm handgun and magazine. The weapon, which wasn’t loaded, was discovered during a routine X-ray security screening required of all congressional staffers.

Shucard was immediately taken into custody and arrested without incident, said police spokeswoman Lt. Kimberly Schneider. He was charged with carrying a pistol without a license, which is a felony.

Read more from this story HERE.

Waves of Immigrant Minors Present Crisis for Obama, Congress

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: REUTERS / JOSE LUIS GONZALEZTens of thousands of children unaccompanied by parents or relatives are flooding across the southern U.S. border illegally, forcing the Obama administration and Congress to grapple with both a humanitarian crisis and a budget dilemma.

An estimated 60,000 such children will pour into the United States this year, according to the administration, up from about 6,000 in 2011. Now, Washington is trying to figure out how to pay for their food, housing and transportation once they are taken into custody.

The flow is expected to grow. The number of unaccompanied, undocumented immigrants who are under 18 will likely double in 2015 to nearly 130,000 and cost U.S. taxpayers $2 billion, up from $868 million this year, according to administration estimates.

The shortage of housing for these children, some as young as 3, has already become so acute that an emergency shelter at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, has been opened and can accommodate 1,000 of them, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said in an interview with Reuters.

The issue is an added source of tension between Democrats and Republicans, who disagree on how to rewrite immigration laws. With comprehensive legislation stalled, President Barack Obama is looking at small, administrative steps he could take, which might be announced this summer. No details have been outlined but immigration groups are pressing him to take steps to keep families with children together.

Read more from this story HERE.

EPA Lied To Congress About Delaying Major Climate Rule

/7 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: REUTERS

Photo Credit: REUTERS

Documents reveal that Environmental Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy may not have told lawmakers the truth when she said new climate rules were published in a timely manner.

The EPA published its so-called New Source Performance Standard (NSPS) for power plants in early January, more than two months after it was submitted to the Federal Register. Furthermore, the EPA announced the standard, which would effectively ban coal-fired power plants, in late September.

Republicans have alleged that the delay in publishing NSPS was politically motivated, arguing that the Obama administration’s actions will push the finalizing of the costly rule until after the elections this fall.

“Based on this sequence of events, it appears that the delay in the proposal’s publication may have been motivated by a desire to lessen the impact of the President’s harmful environmental policies on this year’s mid-term elections,” Oklahoma Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe wrote in a letter to McCarthy.

Inhofe wants to know why there was a delay. Did it originate within the EPA or within the White House’s Office of Management and Budget?

Read more from this story HERE.