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Harry Reid Blames GOP for Helping Russia Invade Crimea

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Photo Credit: AP / Max VetrovSenate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Monday that Republicans may have helped Russia annex Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in a surprisingly sharp attack ahead of a test vote on a bill authorizing more U.S. sanctions on Russia and $1 billion in loan guarantees to Ukraine.

Outlining the Senate’s agenda after a one-week recess, the Nevada Democrat said the first item would be the Ukraine bill that Republicans blocked just before lawmakers went on break. He urged Republicans to consider “how their obstruction affects United States’ national security as well as the people of Ukraine” and said their delay of any congressional action “sent a dangerous message to Russian leaders.”

“Since a few Republicans blocked these important sanctions last work period, Russian lawmakers voted to annex Crimea and Russian forces have taken over Ukrainian military bases,” Reid said. “It’s impossible to know whether events would have unfolded differently if the United States had responded to Russian aggression with a strong, unified voice.”

Reid’s charge comes despite widespread support among Republicans and Democrats in Congress for providing Ukraine with much-needed economic assistance and hitting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government with sanctions.

And GOP Senate aides noted the House has passed different legislation, meaning the Senate bill could not have become law before recess anyhow. They blamed Reid and Democrats for blocking the Senate from taking up the House legislation.

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Cruz: GOP Should ‘Continue to Defend Life’ and ‘Defend Traditional Marriage’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: APSenator Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), a potential presidential contender in 2016, said the Republican Party needs a “big tent” that embraces centuries-old “American values” to succeed, adding that the GOP “should continue to defend life and that we should continue to defend traditional marriage.”

Cruz made his remarks during a Mar. 18 interview with the Des Moines Register, where he was asked about Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who recently said that for the Republican Party to grow and recruit more young people, it needed to “agree to disagree on social issues,” specifically homosexual “marriage.”

Cruz was asked whether he agreed with Sen. Paul’s view. The senator from Texas said, “Look, I am a conservative. I’m a fiscal conservative. I’m a social conservative. I think we’ve seen that in order for the Republican Party to succeed, we need to be a big tent. We need to embrace American values. American values that have been present in our country, have been present in every small town, every small business, every family for centuries.”

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RNC Chairman: GOP’s Current Primary Process “A Complete Disaster.”

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Photo Credit: AP / Ben Margot Planned changes to the Republican Party’s presidential selection process are part of a rebuilding process that will strengthen the GOP brand and hopefully make its presidential nominee more competitive in 2016, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus told California Republicans on Friday, calling the GOP’s current primary process “a complete disaster.”

Priebus said shortening the primary process by moving up the national convention at which the nominee is typically selected to June and cutting the number of debates are “not an establishment takeover. This is using your brain. Everything’s not a conspiracy.”

“I think a traveling circus of debates is insanity in this party,” Priebus told about 200 delegates. “We’re proposing to have fewer than 10, and this time around, we’re going to pick the moderators.”

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Amnesty is a Vote-Killer for GOP, Says WashPo Poll

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller A new poll by the Washington Post shows that amnesty is a vote-loser for GOP legislators.

The poll of 1,002 adults shows that pluralities of independents and moderates oppose candidates who support amnesty, which was euphemistically dubbed “a path to citizenship” by the poll designers.

The poll showed that 41 percent of independents and 37 percent of moderates were less likely to vote for an amnesty-backer.

Only 28 percent of independents and moderates said they were more likely to vote for a candidate who backs amnesty.

The poll showed legislators’ support for amnesty inflicted a 12-point penalty from registered voters, 28 points from white people who did not go to college, 14 points from middle-class people who earn between $50,000 and $100,000, and even a few points from college grads, people who earn over $100,000 and people who earn less than $50,000, the poll also showed that the GOP’s opposition to amnesty doesn’t lower their one-in-four support among Latinos.

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Unlikely GOP Tax Plan the Result of Changing Politics

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Photo Credit: AP/J. Scott ApplewhiteThe tax reform plan from Michigan Rep. Dave Camp was unimaginable as a Republican document just a few years ago, the result of a shifting political landscape that has seen the triumph of President Obama’s tax message and the influence of conservative populism.

The House Ways and Means Committee chairman sought a blueprint that was impervious to charges that it would benefit the wealthy and burden the middle class. That was a direct reaction to the beating Republicans took on the issue in the 2012 presidential contest, with Obama’s “fairness” pitch to increase taxes on the so-called wealthy resonating better than GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s traditional Republican proposal for across-the-board cuts to stimulate economic growth.

Breaking with GOP orthodoxy, Camp also wanted a plan that, while lowering tax rates for all income brackets, received a “revenue neutral” score from Congress’ nonpartisan accounting agencies. Camp wanted to avoid potent Democratic attacks that tax cuts increase the deficit and cost Washington money it needs for cherished programs. Republicans had long dismissed the concept of paying for tax cuts on the grounds that they create jobs and boost revenue, while asserting that the government’s money belongs to the people and reducing their tax load shouldn’t require offsets.

Camp’s draft has received perhaps the most attention for proposing to simplify the tax code by scaling back typically politically sacred exemptions, such as the mortgage interest deduction popular with voters and the housing industry. For years, Republicans — including Camp — promoted these carve-outs as crucial economic drivers. But in a nod to the Tea Party’s sway with House Republicans, Camp was liberated to target a host of breaks the conservative grassroots deride as “crony capitalism.”

“We have to recognize the [political] environment we’re in today, and the fiscal circumstances we’re facing, and take all that into account,” said Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee who had a hand in writing the Camp plan.

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Conservatives’ Frustrations Mount with GOP Establishment: Compromise Trumps Principle

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Photo Credit: Charles DharapakProminent Republicans see no evidence that their party’s electoral successes have advanced the cause of limited government and moral governance.

“Today, our party’s leaders act like thermometers measuring the temperature of the electorate. We need to be the thermostats and set the temperature,” said Rob McCoy, pastor of Calvary Chapel, a few minutes’ drive from the Reagan presidential library in Simi Valley, Calif.

For Republicans like Mr. McCoy, who is running for a state Assembly seat, the national party has racked up decades of compromises that have led to relentless government expansion, ever-increasing spending growth, continually mounting national debt and growing intrusiveness into the private lives of Americans.

From her George Mason University’s Mercatus Center office in Arlington, Va., economist Veronique de Rugy looks at the objective evidence of the Republican Party’s effect on limiting government.

“Every president has spent more total real dollars in his last budget than in his first,” she said, noting that Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson increased spending by 38 percent, but George W. Bush, twice elected on a conservative Republican platform, increased spending by 53 percent during his presidency.

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GOP Lawmakers Introducing “Preserving Welfare for Needs Not Weed Act”

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Photo Credit: Ed AndrieskiRepublican lawmakers plan to introduce legislation next week aimed at preventing the misuse of the food stamp funds amid reports that welfare debit cards have been used to withdraw cash at ATMs at marijuana dispensaries in Colorado.

The “Preserving Welfare for Needs Not Weed Act,” is expected to be introduced on Monday by Colorado Republican Reps. Dave Reichert, Scott Tipton and Cory Gardner, KDVR.com reported.

The bill would add pot dispensaries to the current list of locations where states must block welfare electronic benefits transfer (EBT) cards from being used for purchases or ATM withdrawals, Reichert’s office told the station.

KDVR.com reported last week that at least 19 different dispensaries allowed electronic benefits transfer withdrawals inside their pot shops in January. Public records obtained by the station showed 56 transactions, totaling nearly $4,000.

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Rand Paul – An Early GOP Presidential Front-Runner

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Photo Credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFPRepublican strategists like to say the party’s next nominee needs to hail from the GOP’s gubernatorial ranks. It’s a response to how unpopular Washington is—particularly the party’s congressional wing—and a reflection of the party’s strength in holding a majority of governorships. But another reason for the gubernatorial focus is to sidestep the one formidable candidate that gives the establishment heartburn: Sen. Rand Paul.

Make no mistake: The Kentuckian scares the living daylights out of many Republicans looking for an electable nominee capable of challenging Hillary Clinton. At the same time, he’s working overtime to broaden the party’s image outside its traditional avenues of support. The 2016 Republican nominating fight will go a long way toward determining whether Paul is the modern version of Barry Goldwater or at the leading edge of a new, more libertarian brand of Republicanism.

“That’s the big challenge—is America ready? I think that Rand and his small-L libertarian Republicanism can break through,” said Paul’s longtime adviser Jesse Benton. “He’s a fundamentally better messenger than Barry Goldwater—[Goldwater’s 1964 campaign slogan] ‘In your heart you know he’s right’ is not very compelling. Rand is a wonderful communicator, and I think a message of individual liberty can build wide support.”

Either way, Paul’s brand of politics is a distinct departure from the party’s traditional moorings. His occasional sympathy for Edward Snowden puts him on an island within the party. His critique of the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance techniques and noninterventionist views on foreign policy are gaining some conservative followers, but are still outside the party mainstream. Many conservative foreign policy hawks could sooner support Clinton than Paul in a 2016 matchup.

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Conservative Hollywood Activist to Challenge GOP Rep. Paul Cook

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Photo Credit: Newsmax With some Republican House members under fire from tea party-backed insurgents, one of the more intriguing primary contests is between freshman Rep. Paul Cook of California and Rodney Lee Conover, a writer and longtime conservative activist in the entertainment community.

Cook was elected in California’s Eighth Congressional District in 2012 with the backing of outgoing Republican Rep. Jerry Lewis. A former state assemblyman, Cook has generally voted a conservative line. His district encompasses much of California’s Inland Empire, the area east of Los Angeles that has been a Republican stronghold despite California’s trending blue.

By voting for the continuing House resolution that funded Obamacare, Cook, 70, opened himself up to dissatisfaction from the right and a challenge in the June primary.

“Along with the funding of Obamacare and voting to cut military pensions, the congressman also opposed [California Republican] Rep. Tom McClintock’s bill to rein in the excesses of the National Security Agency,” Conover, 54, told Newsmax.

“These are critical issues, and he’s on the wrong side of all of them,” Conover said.

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Video – Allen West Inspires: What the GOP Should Stand For

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Photo Credit: Shark TankWest gave a short, yet inspiring portrayal of what the Republican Party stood for. West said that the GOP did not stand for the Grand Ole Party anymore, but that it stood for Growth, Opportunity and Prosperity.

We believe in the individual. We believe in the indomitable American spirit. We believe in individualism and entrepreneurship that can cause us to be here together in this great hall, that can allow a young man from the inner city from Georgia to stand before you tonight. That is who we are.-Allen West

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