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Manchin: ‘We Haven’t Been Successful’ in Changing Afghanistan: ‘Time to Leave’

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/J. Scott ApplewhiteSen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) says it’s time to “rebuild America, not Afghanistan.” He and three other senators want Congress to debate a continued U.S. military presence in that country after 12-plus years of war:

“If military might or money would change that part of the world, we’d have changed it by now,” Manchin told a news conference on Thursday.

“We haven’t been successful nor do we believe we will be successful. That’s my deep-rooted commitment to getting out of this part (of the world) and basically protecting America, making sure that harm doesn’t come to any Americans, and we’ll do whatever it takes to protect them.

“But an occupation — that is not our goal. It’s not what we do well, and it’s not been proved successful at all. So again, I’d say if military might or money would have changed that part of the world after 12 years, we’d have changed it, and we haven’t. So it’s time to leave.”

Manchin on Thursday joined fellow Democrat Jeff Merkeley (Ore.) and Republicans Mike Lee (Utah) and Rand Paul (Ky.) in introducing a resolution that says Congress should vote on the Obama administration’s reported plan to keep 10,000 American troops in Afghanistan for another ten years.

Read more from this story HERE.

Democrat Sen. Manchin Breaks Ranks to Back Individual-Mandate Delay

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia broke ranks with fellow Democrats and said he’d support a stopgap spending plan that delays the individual-mandate in President Barack Obama’s health-care law.

“There’s no way I could not vote for it,” Manchin said at a Bloomberg Government breakfast today. “It’s very reasonable and sensible.”

The individual mandate is the linchpin of the law that requires most Americans to purchase health care through government-run insurance exchanges. Republicans, led by a group of newcomers in the House, are pushing to dismantle the health- care law and are using a ticking clock on a possible Oct. 1 government shutdown as leverage.

The Democratic-led Senate will vote in coming days on the stopgap spending plan and before sending it back to the House will remove language that defunds Obamacare. Obama and House Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, have said they won’t support using the budget to change the health law.

Read more from this story HERE.

Manchin: Gun Control Bill to be Reintroduced

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Photo Credit: Ryan StantonBy Associated Press. One of the architects of failed gun control legislation says he’s bringing it back.

Sen. Joe Manchin on Sunday said he would re-introduce a measure that would require criminal and mental health background checks for gun buyers at shows and online. The West Virginia Democrat says that if lawmakers read the bill, they will support it.

Manchin sponsored a previous version of the measure with Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. It failed. Read more from this story HERE.

Taking Dead Aim at Joe Manchin’s Pathetic Voting Record

By Daniel Horowitz. Do you want to know the definition of pathetic? It’s someone who aggressively brandishes his pro-gun credentials in a campaign commercial, and then proceeds to invest his time into expanding gun control laws. In other words, Joe Manchin is pathetic.

Just how unpopular is Obama with the voters of West Virginia? He lost all 55 counties last year in the general election, and 41% of Democrat primary voters to a man sitting in jail. That’s why Joe Manchin lacks the moxie to air a commercial saying, “I’m Joe Manchin, and I approve this message because West Virginia needs a senator who will stand with Barack.”

Instead of manning up and letting his constituents know he is a gun-grabbing, Obamacare-supporting leftist, Joe Manchin ran a TV ad depicting himself shooting a rifle – taking “dead aim” – at a cap and trade bill. Now he is working indefatigably to pass gun control, even after his bill was defeated. During the gun debate, he also voted against an amendment that would have required a judicial ruling to determine if a veteran is dangerous before he is banned from buying guns. I’m sure the many veterans in West Virginia would appreciate that. Read more from this story HERE.

Turncoat: Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms Endorses Compromise Gun Control Bill

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Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

In anticipation of Senate votes this week on a proposed expansion of criminal background checks for firearms sales, one gun rights organization broke with the powerful National Rifle Association on Sunday to urge support for a compromise drafted by Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.).

The endorsement by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms — which calls itself the second-largest gun rights organization in the country, behind the NRA, claiming 650,000 members and supporters — is one of several moves over the past few days that have provided a boost to the hopes of proponents of background checks.

While leading gun-control advocates — including President Obama and New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) — back the bipartisan proposal, the announcement of support Sunday from the Citizens Committee reveals that substantial parts of the bill are viewed as “wins” for the gun lobby, including provisions that would prohibit a government registry of gun ownership and make it easier to transport and market weapons across state lines.

Though news of a split in the usually unified gun lobby cheered gun-control advocates, the gun lobby can count other probable wins in the current debate, such as the likely defeat of legislation to limit military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. Now, an expansion of background-check requirements for gun sales is considered the most likely major achievement.

Initially, gun-control advocates hoped for a requirement for background checks of individuals purchasing a gun under most any circumstance. Currently, background checks are conducted only for purchases made from licensed gun dealers. The compromise measure, drafted by Toomey and Manchin, would require background checks for currently exempt online and gun-show sales but not for most other private transactions.

Read more from this story HERE.

'DC Intervention': Tea Party Group to Pressure Rubio on Immigration, Toomey on Guns

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The Tea Party Patriots organization is planning protests on Tuesday at the home state offices of several Senators that the group argues are in need of an “intervention” for being sucked up into inside-the-Beltway politics, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA).

The group is targeting Rubio on immigration reform and Toomey on gun control.

“Two Senators in particular are facing Tea Party pressure, as they should–Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Pat Toomey (R-PA),” Tea Party Patriots said in a release. “Both of these men were elected thanks to Tea Party support, yet Senator Rubio is the star spokesman for a secretive, small group working on a bill that purports to address illegal immigration and the entire US immigration system as a whole. This bill is already 1,500 pages and no one outside the small working group has read it, meaning legislation that will affect our security, spending, taxes, culture, education, welfare, jobs, etc. is being crafted without input from most of our Senators or the American people. Not only might the legislation be bad policy, it has already gone outside of the normal process.”

“Meanwhile, Senator Toomey is the man who gave opponents of the 2nd Amendment the best chance they’ve had in decades to violate the Constitution,” Tea Party Patriots added.

Read more from this story HERE.