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Video: Krauthammer Says Obama’s ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Crisis Executed With Ruthless Skill To Fracture GOP

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(DC) On Thursday’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer criticized President Barack Obama for his ruthlessness in the fiscal cliff negotiations, suggesting his aim is to break House Republicans and not solve the fiscal cliff.

Krauthammer also said the president is not as well-positioned as it seems, nor is the GOP as poorly positioned as some people think.

“I do begrudge what he’s done in this fiscal cliff talks,” Krauthammer said. “It’s been very clear from the beginning that he had no intention to solve the fiscal issues. He’s been using this, and I must say with great skill and ruthless skill and success, to fracture and basically shatter the Republican opposition. The only, you know, redoubt of the opposition is the House. And his objective from the very beginning was to break the will of the Republicans in the House and to create an internal civil war, and he’s done that. How did he do it? By always insisting from day one after the election that Republicans had to raise rates. There’s no reason at all to get the revenue that he needed and that the speaker was offering him that you had to raise rates.”

“Obama himself, as you know, said last July — July 2011 — you can get $1.2 trillion by eliminating loopholes, which is exactly what Republicans offered him,” he continued. “So why did he insist on the rates? He said that is what he will insist upon, and that was the ultimatum. He did that because he knew it would create a crisis among the Republicans, and it did. So right up until now Obama has what he wanted, which was a partisan, political success. He’s been less worried about the fiscal issue for two reasons. Number one, he does not care about debt. He hasn’t in the four years. And number two, he thinks he’s a political winner if we go over the cliff. He thinks he’s holding all the cards.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Time For a Yard Sale? Selling Excess Property Could Net Government Billions (+video)

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When families face a budget crunch, they have but a few options — spend less, make more or starting selling stuff.

So why doesn’t the federal government do the same?

Given the current state of the country’s finances, many are wondering if it is time for the federal government to sell what it doesn’t need — basically, hold a yard sale.

The federal government is sitting on billions in assets that are either sluggish or just dead weight. That includes federal land, buildings and other structures. Two years ago, President Obama’s deficit commission identified 64,000 buildings and structures that it deemed excessive, underutilized or vacant and recommended should be sold.

“So instead of raising taxes, which takes money out of the economy and lowers economic activity, we ought to be looking at selling federal assets,” said Myron Ebell, with the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: Senator Rand Paul Says We Should Not Send Congress Any More Money, ‘They’re Not To Be Trusted’

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Americans would do well to heed the advice of Senator Rand Paul. He says that Congress has managed our money so poorly that they don’t deserve to be trusted with any more.

Now you know why many in Washington are not Rand Paul fans, to say the least. But you also know why you should be. He’s on the side of the US taxpayer.

With the so-called ‘fiscal cliff’ just days away and the President demanding more revenue, it is unlikely the Senator will get many takers on his plan when it comes to votes in Congress.

See video below:

Video: Rick Santelli Goes Off During CNBC Interview, Fed, Congress, President ‘Don’t Have a Clue’

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During a discussion on the so-called fiscal cliff on Thursday, Santelli grew louder, eventually shouting into the camera and overpowering CNBC contributor and trader Jim Iuorio, who was attempting to hold back laughter.

“The Fed doesn’t have a clue, neither does the president, neither does Congress … Neither does Tim Geithner, who gives a speech about the debt ceiling. I’d like to see if he could count to a million, much less 16.4 trillion!” Santelli shouted.

Clearly Santelli, like many Americans, is panicking as the fiscal cliff deadline nears.

This is certainly not the first time Santelli has lost his cool live on air. At this point, he has become something of an on-air ranting legend. Colleague Carl Quintanilla said that Santelli admits to having “blown a gasket” on Thursday’s show, but it’s clear that this is just the kind of gasket-blowing that has made Santelli famous.

The segment ends with an amused Joe Kernan saying, “Don’t hold back, Rick.” Santelli responds, “I never do.”

Poll: Majority Expect Recession in 2013

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photo credit: donkey hotey

A majority of voters believe that a recession is likely next year regardless of whether lawmakers reach a last-minute deal to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” according to a new poll.

A full 70 percent of voters told the conservative-leaning pollster Rasmussen they expect a recession next year if Congress fails to stop the tax increases and spending cuts that are set to begin in January.

But even if lawmakers take action before the end of the year, 54 percent believe a recession is coming in 2013, with 26 percent rating that outcome “very likely.”

Read more from this story HERE.

The Tea Party Has Not Yet Begun to Fight

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If the Tea Party has been weakened by the November election, why are the mainstream media expending so much effort attacking it?

The latest attempt is today’s front-page article by the New York Times, which alleges that the Tea Party is turning to “narrower” issues and suggests, none too subtly, that Congress should stop paying attention to it.

As proof, the Times offers the fact that Republican leaders “have embraced raising tax revenues in budget negotiations, repudiating a central tenet of the Tea Party.” It ignores the fact that Republican leaders could not muster the votes in the House to pass those proposals.

To the great frustration of the mainstream media and the GOP establishment alike, the Tea Party continues to hold the line against tax hikes and new bailouts. It also won a significant victory with the recent passage of right-to-work legislation in Michigan.

These are not “narrower” issues: they are the most fundamental issues concerning the nation’s fiscal health and economic future. It is the Times and the liberal gentry that it serves who cling to narrow, often contrived issues such as the co-called “war on women” to maintain their political clout. The ailing, indebted Times hates the Tea Party precisely because it is serious about economic realities the left would prefer to deny.

Read more from this article HERE.

State Governments To Share the ‘Death Tax’ Loot If Feds Go Over Fiscal Cliff

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Falling off the “fiscal cliff” is a bad thing, right? Not necessarily for some state governments that could begin collecting more in estate taxes on wealth left to heirs if the United States goes over the “cliff,” allowing sharp tax increases and federal spending cuts to take effect in January.

In an example of federal and state tax law interaction that gets little notice on Capitol Hill, 30 states next year could collect $3 billion more in estate taxes if Congress and President Barack Obama do not act soon, estimated the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank.

The reason? The federal estate tax would return with a vengeance and so would a federal credit system that shares a portion of it with the 30 states. They had been getting their cut of this tax revenue stream until the early 2000s. That was when the credit system for payment of state estate tax went away due to tax cuts enacted under former President George W. Bush.

With the return of the credit system next year as part of the “cliff,” states such as Florida, Colorado and Texas — which have not collected estate tax since 2004 — could resume doing so. California Gov. Jerry Brown has already begun to add the anticipated estate tax revenue into his plans, including $45 million of it in his 2012-2013 revised budget.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Threatened Boehner With ‘Public Shaming’ Over Fiscal Cliff Negotiations

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President Obama allegedly threatened Speaker John Boehner with a public shaming if he held up a compromise on the fiscal cliff negotiations.

Mr Obama reportedly said that he was willing to blame the failed negotiations on stubborn Republicans in either his inauguration speech or the state of the Union if the two parties were unable to reach an equitable decision.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Mr Obama made the threat a number of times, and though nothing has been formally decided as the deadline looms one week from today, the move would be a drastic one, and seen by many as a divisive way to head into his second term.

One of the points where President Obama became frustrated with Mr Boehner came when the Speaker said that he expected some show of gratitude or concession after he reportedly handed over $800 billion from tax revenue earnings.

That was promptly shot down by the President, with him allegedly retorting: ‘You get nothing. I get that for free.’

Read more from this story HERE.

Poll: Boehner Now Less Popular Than Pelosi

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photo credit: donkeyhotey

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) now ranks as the least-liked congressional leader, with just 31 percent of voters holding a positive opinion of the Republican leader and more than half — 51 percent — saying they view the Ohio congressman unfavorably.

That’s the first time in several years that Boehner has slipped below House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the Rasmussen survey. The Democratic leader held a 37 percent favorability rating in the poll.

The poll was released Friday, just hours after Boehner was unable to rally Republican support behind his “Plan B” proposal, intended to secure additional leverage in “fiscal cliff” negotiations with President Obama. And it comes just a day after President Obama’s approval rating in the Gallup daily tracking poll hit 56 percent, the highest mark for the president since October 2009.

Boehner’s slipping popularity likely comes from voters’ wariness with Republicans as the deadline to reach a debt deal approaches.

In a Pew Research poll released earlier this month, 53 percent said they would blame the GOP if the crisis was not resolved, versus just 27 percent who said they would blame Democrats.

Read more from this story HERE.

House Republicans Circulate Plan to Oust Boehner from Speakership

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Several conservative House Republican members are contemplating a plan to unseat Speaker John Boehner from his position on January 3, Breitbart News has exclusively learned. Staffers have compiled a detailed action plan that, if executed, could make this a reality.

The Republicans, both conservatives and more establishment members alike, are emboldened after the failure of Boehner’s fiscal cliff “Plan B” on Thursday evening. Dissatisfaction with Boehner is growing in the House Republican conference, but until now there hasn’t been a clear path forward.

Those members and staffers requested anonymity from Breitbart News at this time to prevent retaliation from Boehner similar to what happened to those four members who were purged from their powerful committee assignments a few weeks ago. Their expressed concern is that if Boehner knew who they were, his adverse reaction toward them would be much more brutal than losing committee assignments, such as a primary challenge in 2014 by a leadership-sponsored candidate.

The circulated plan is a comprehensive multi-step process.

According to the plan as drafted, the first step is to re-establish the election of the Speaker of the House by secret ballot, rather than by a public roll call vote. That’s because the members who would oppose Boehner, if there ended up not being enough votes to achieve their desired result or if Boehner scared via threat or coaxed via prize some of the opposition into voting for him, would be sitting ducks for retaliation in the near future.

Read more from this story HERE.