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GOP Congressman Serves Up a Steaming Plate of ‘I-Told-You-So’ over Obamacare and the Shutdown (+video)

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Photo Credit: Gage SkidmoreCongressman Raul Labrador isn’t unrepentant for the Republicans’ role in the fight over Obamacare that lead to the government shutdown — especially since the White House has unilaterally delayed multiple portions of the law since its implementation.

“There wasn’t a single Republican that wanted to shut down the government,”Labrador said in an exclusive interview with The Daily Caller. ”We all knew that on October first there was a new healthcare law that was going to impact every American and that was the only opportunity we had to do a fight on Obamacare.”

Labrador mocked Democrats for fighting so savagely against GOP proposals only to clamor for the very changes that the GOP was requesting as soon as President Obama’s signature piece of legislation went into a tailspin.

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The (Really) Do-Nothing Congress

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Photo Credit: ReutersSen. Tom Carper had been wavering over the “nuclear option” for days — until one of his colleagues issued a blunt judgment of Congress.

“My colleague said, ‘It’s hard to imagine it getting much worse because we’re not getting anything done,’” the veteran Delaware Democrat said. “If there was an a-ha moment, that was probably it.”

Indeed, the 113th Congress is on track to go down as the least productive in history — a legacy that may be cemented after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid gutted the filibuster on presidential nominees by deploying the “nuclear option.” Republicans say the unprecedented move will make them even less likely to cooperate with Democrats — not that there’s much collaboration to begin with.

So far, this Congress has only enacted 49 laws, the fewest since at least 1947, when the Congressional Record began tallying legislative activity on a yearly basis. In fact, the 80th Congress — famously dubbed the “do nothing” Congress by President Harry Truman — enacted 388 public laws by July 1947.

In the last 66 years, there are just four occasions in which fewer than 100 laws were enacted by a similar point in the legislative calendar. And two of those instances were in the last two Congresses, with the previous Congress making just 62 laws through November 2011.

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Fox News Poll: 65 Percent Want Congress to Keep Investigating Benghazi Attack

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Photo Credit: REUTERSAs the House Select Committee on Intelligence meets with witnesses to the Benghazi attack, Americans by a two-to-one margin want Congress to continue to investigate the Obama administration’s handling of the terrorist attack that killed four Americans including a U.S. ambassador.

A just-released Fox News poll finds 65 percent of voters want lawmakers to keep investigating what happened in Benghazi. While that’s still a majority, support is down from 71 percent who felt that way six months ago (June 22-24, 2013).

Click here for the poll results.

About one third oppose Congress continuing to investigate the attack (31 percent).

The 2012 attack took place at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi on the anniversary of September 11.

Witnesses to the attack are expected to meet behind closed doors this week with members of the House Select Committee on Intelligence.

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Lawmakers Making Thousands, Funding Lavish Trips from ‘Slush Funds’

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Photo Credit: REUTERSMembers of Congress are routinely using campaign committees as a personal “slush fund,” according to a detailed report by “60 Minutes.”

The report found that lawmakers are using what’s known as “Leadership PACs” to fund trips to high-ranking golf courses, NFL games and other destinations – and are even personally making money off the PACs by lending to them and charging steep interest.

In the most egregious examples, CBS’ “60 Minutes” found that Rep. Grace Napolitano, D-Calif., loaned her PAC $150,000 – and made $228,000 over a 12-year period by charging 18 percent interest.

Napolitano admitted to doing it, and an ethics watchdog said the practice is technically legal. In fact, the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington found at least 15 cases where politicians were making loans to their campaign funds.

Napolitano, though, conceded she wasn’t giving campaign donors the details of her personal loan. “Well, you don’t go out and publicize that, but they know that I had a campaign debt,” she said.

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NBC/WSJ Poll: 60 Percent Say Fire Every Member of Congress

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Photo Credit: J. David Ake / APThrow the bums out.

That’s the message 60 percent of Americans are sending to Washington in a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, saying if they had the chance to vote to defeat and replace every single member of Congress, including their own representative, they would. Just 35 percent say they would not.

The 60 percent figure is the highest-ever in that question recorded in the poll, registered in the wake of the government shutdown and threat of the U.S. defaulting on its debt for the first time in history. If the nation’s debt limit is not increased one week from now, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew warns that the entire global economy could be in peril.

“We continue to use this number as a way to sort of understand how much revulsion there is,” said Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, who conducted the poll with Republican Bill McInturff. “We now have a new high-water mark.”

The numbers reflect a broader trend over the last few years. Americans have traditionally said that while they might not like Congress, they usually like their own representatives. But that sentiment appears to have shifted.

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Wall Street Shrugs off President, Focuses on Congress

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Photo Credit: APWhen it comes to worrying over a possible debt default, Wall Street is brushing off President Barack Obama’s warnings and focusing its attention instead on Congress.

Investors say they currently view the words and deeds of Congress as having more power to move markets because the president is not viewed as being intimately involved in the ongoing fiscal negotiations — more of a spectator in chief as the House and Senate fight over how to break their impasse.

“The financial markets seem to believe at this point it’s really in the hands of the House and the Senate,” said Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist with Deutsche Bank. “In other words, I think the market’s focused more on what might be happening between [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid and [Speaker] John Boehner than the president.”

This dynamic was on display in recent days as Wall Street tried to parse Washington’s jawboning.

Last week, Obama cautioned that Wall Street should be seriously worried that Congress may fail to raise the debt ceiling, saying in an interview with CNBC that markets “should be concerned” and that “this time it’s different.”

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Poll: Only 10 Percent Approve of Congress, 10 Pt Drop Since Beginning of September

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Photo Credit: Breitbart

Photo Credit: Breitbart

A new poll released Monday found Congress has only a 10 percent approval rating.

The low rating represents a 10-percentage-point-drop since the beginning of September and comes as a government shutdown looks likely. CNN/ORC International poll conducted the survey.

Nearly 90 percent of those polled disapprove of Congress, the highest disapproval rating CNN has ever recorded.

People have also grown increasingly bitter with congressional leadership.

“House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the two party leaders at the center of the budget negotiations that may lead to a shutdown, have become more unpopular since May, and both are facing the highest unfavorable ratings they have ever received in CNN polling,” CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said.

Read more from this story HERE.

$5.25 Million For Senate Hair Care And 21 Other Ways Politicians Are Living The High Life At Your Expense

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picture - Barack-Obama-John-Boehner-Nancy-Pelosi-Harry-Reid-Mitch-McConnell-300x300If you want to live the high life, you don’t have to become a rap star, a professional athlete or a Wall Street banker. All it really takes is winning an election. Right now, more than half of all the members of Congress are millionaires, and most of them leave “public service” far wealthier than when they entered it. Since most of them have so much money, you would think that they would be willing to do a little “belt-tightening” for the sake of the American people. After all, things are supposedly “extremely tight” in Washington D.C. right now. In fact, just the other day Nancy Pelosi insisted that there were “no more cuts to make” to the federal budget. But even as they claim that things are so tough right now, our politicians continue to live the high life at the expense of U.S. taxpayers. The statistics that I am about to share with you are very disturbing. Please share them with everyone that you know. The American people deserve the truth.

According to the Weekly Standard, an absolutely insane amount of money is being spent on the “hair care needs” of U.S. Senators…

Senate Hair Care Services has cost taxpayers about $5.25 million over 15 years. They foot the bill of more than $40,000 for the shoeshine attendant last fiscal year. Six barbers took in more than $40,000 each, including nearly $80,000 for the head barber.

Keep in mind that there are only 100 U.S. Senators, and many of them don’t have much hair left at this point.

But hair care is just the tip of the iceberg. The following are 21 other ways that our politicians are living the high life at your expense…

Read more from this story HERE.

Congress: Hillary’s Benghazi Investigation Let Top Officials Escape Blame

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Photo Credit: Getty

Photo Credit: Getty

The State Department’s investigation into the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi was not independent and failed to hold senior State Department officials accountable for the failures that led to the death of four Americans, according to a new investigative report compiled by the House Oversight Committee.

The Administrative Review Board, chosen by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, unfairly placed the blame for the terrorist attack on four mid-level officials while ignoring the role of very senior officials in Clinton’s State Department for decisions about security in Benghazi, according to the new report led by Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA). Also, the structure of the ARB and the culture in Clinton’s State Department raised questions about the independence and integrity of the review, according to Issa’s committee.

“The ARB blamed systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies within two bureaus, but downplayed the importance of decisions made at senior levels of the Department. Witnesses questioned how much these decisions influenced the weaknesses that led to the inadequate security posture in Benghazi,” the report stated. “The ARB’s decision to cite certain officials as accountable for what happened in Benghazi appears to have been based on factors that had little or no connection to the security posture at U.S. diplomatic facilities in Libya.”

The Daily Beast first reported in May that the four officials removed from their jobs and placed on administrative leave as a result of the State Department’s ARB report on Benghazi had never been told what they were accused of, never been given any opportunity to appeal their punishments, and never were officially fired. One of the officials, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Ray Maxwell, had little to no role in Libya security policy and was not even alleged to have been connected to the security failures leading up to the Benghazi attack.

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“Impeachment’ Cited By Growing Number In House Of Representatives (+video)

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Photo Credit: Examiner

Photo Credit: Examiner

A 15th member of Congress has discussed the impeachment of Barack Obama, noting that he’s confident the U.S. House, if it came to a vote, “would probably impeach the president.”

The comments come from Rep. Bill Flores, R-Texas, who was speaking at a recent town hall meeting.

“I’ve looked at the president. I think he’s violated the Constitution. I think he’s violated the Bill of Rights,” he said.

He said at some point a decision must be made, and he said, “I think if the House had an impeachment vote it would probably impeach the president.”

But he noted the 46 members of the GOP in the U.S. Senate, where an impeached president would be put on trial.

Read more from this story HERE.