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GOP Thwarts New Try to Restore Unemployment Benefits

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Photo Credit: Reuters Senate Republicans narrowly blocked the advance of legislation to restore benefits for the long-term unemployed on Thursday for the second time in less than a month, and Democrats said they intended to call yet another vote on the issue.

“We’re one Republican vote away from restoring unemployment benefits for 1.7 million Americans,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said.

The White House called the outcome disappointing.

The measure called for a three-month renewal of an expired program that provided up to 47 weeks of federal benefits when state-paid aid runs out, generally after 26 weeks. The cost was estimated at slightly more than $6 billion over a decade. It would have been offset by lowering pension obligations for some companies, a step that would have increased their taxable income.

The vote was 58-40, two shy of the 60 that backers of the measure needed to prevail. That understated the measure’s true support, because Reid sided with opponents at the last minute in a maneuver that will permit him to have the issue reconsidered under the Senate’s rules.

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Senate Republicans Pitch ObamaCare Alternative on Eve of Presidential Address

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

Seizing on the public’s continued anxiety over the ObamaCare rollout, a trio of Republican senators on Monday unveiled a sweeping alternative proposal they say would gut the law’s mandates and taxes while preserving consumer protections.

Sens. Orrin Hatch, of Utah; Tom Coburn, of Oklahoma; and Richard Burr, of North Carolina, announced their plan one day before President Obama delivers his State of the Union address. It is his first such address since the launch of the state and federal health care exchanges.

The GOP proposal, dubbed the Patient Choice, Affordability, Responsibility and Empowerment Act, would repeal the president’s marquee legislative achievement while instituting new reforms the senators say would give states and individuals more flexibility and purchasing power.

“Americans deserve a real alternative, and a way out,” Coburn said.

Under the plan, insurances companies would not be able to impose lifetime limits on patients and would be required to allow dependent coverage up to the age of 26, as ObamaCare currently does. The Republican proposal would address the issue of pre-existing conditions by creating a new “continuous coverage” standard that would prevent any individual moving from one insurance plan to another from being denied on the basis of a pre-existing condition so long as that individual was continuously enrolled in a health plan.

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McConnell: We Won’t Treat Debt Limit Bill ‘Like Some Kind of Motherhood Resolution’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says Republicans will not give President Obama the unconditional debt-limit bill he wants:

“I think for the president to ask for a clean debt ceiling, when we have a debt the size of our economy, is irresponsible. So we ought to discuss adding something to his request to raise the debt ceiling that does something about the debt — or it produces at least something positive for our country,” McConnell told “Fox News Sunday.”

McConnell said President Obama is “unreasonable” to suggest that Congress treat his debt ceiling request “like some kind of motherhood resolution” that everyone would approve unconditionally.

He said a Keystone pipeline measure is “a good example” of something that could be attached to debt limit legislation because it would create jobs for the American people.

“The House of Representatives will initiate the discussion on the debt ceiling increase; they probably will have other ideas.”

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Beware of the Left-Wing-Funded “Main Street” Republicans

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Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

What do George Soros, labor unions and money-grubbing former GOP Rep. Steven LaTourette all have in common? They’re control freaks. They’re power hounds. They’re united against tea party conservatives. And they all have operated under the umbrella of D.C. groups masquerading as “Main Street” Republicans.

LaTourette heads up the so-called “Main Street Partnership,” which claims to represent “thoughtful,” “pragmatic,” “common sense” and “centrist” Republican leadership. Reality check: The pro-bailout, pro-debt, pro-amnesty, anti-drilling group founded by former liberal New York GOP Congressman Amory Houghton includes three liberal Senate Republicans (John McCain, Mark Kirk and Susan Collins) and 52 center-left House Republicans. LaTourette himself is a self-serving Beltway barnacle who held office for nearly two decades. Now he’s leveraging his new tea party-bashing platform to benefit a family-operated lobbying business.

The New York Times shed light on LaTourette’s tangled web of GOP establishment outfits last week. But that story just scratched the surface. As the paper reported, the Main Street Partnership is a nonprofit group that charges members up to $25,000 per year to rub elbows with Washington’s rich and powerful. The Main Street Advocacy Fund and the Defending Main Street SuperPAC are political satellites planning to amass $8 million to bolster Republican liberals and moderates facing tea party challengers in 2014. McDonald Hopkins Government Strategies is LaTourette’s lobbying firm.

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CNN Chief Jeff Zucker: Fox News is Biased, Shills of GOP

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Photo Credit: AFP

Photo Credit: AFP

CNN Chief Jeff Zucker might not be very good at getting ratings for his Nielsens-challenged network, but he’s great at hurling insults. On Friday, Zucker tried to diminish both the Republican Party and Fox News by alleging that the GOP is being run out of Fox.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus was having none of it, firing back at Zucker to let him know that Fox News is not the GOP’s mouthpiece. “Hey Jeff Zucker, we’re the Republican Party and we speak for ourselves, pal,” Priebus tweeted. “Have a great weekend.”

At a Television Critics Association event on Friday, Zucker alleged that “the Republican Party is being run out of News Corp. headquarters masquerading as a cable news channel” without acknowledging that he runs a network that accused former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin of being responsible for the attempted murder of Gabby Giffords without any evidence whatsoever. CNN has been repeatedly called out for its left-leaning biases that masquerade as “objective” news, which is why the network’s primetime ratings hit a 20-year low last year.

It’s an interesting strategy Zucker has: trash the Republican Party and, by extension, all Republicans.

Though Zucker tried to paint Fox as a network that shills for Republicans, Americans do not think so, as more Democrats and independents watch Fox News than CNN and MSNBC. In addition, though Americans once went en masse to CNN to get information about breaking news, that is not the case anymore. Fox News regularly outpaced CNN in ratings when breaking news or tragedies–like the Boston Marathon Bombing–consumed the news cycle last year.

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Bosses More Likely to Be Republican and Conservative

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

Bosses are more likely than workers to identify as Republican and conservative, according to analysis released by Pew Research Thursday.

Pew Research surveyed 2,002 adults from Oct. 7-27 and found that bosses are more likely to identify as members of the Republican Party, with 53 percent of bosses saying “they are Republican or lean to the GOP.” Just over a third (34 percent) of bosses identify as members of the Democratic Party, while most workers (44 percent) identify as Democrats.

Roughly four out of 10 or 43 percent of bosses (and 37 percent of workers) identify as conservatives, while 34 percent of the bosses identified as moderates (and 33 percent of workers). The smallest group was those who call themselves liberal: 17 percent of bosses and 21 percent of workers.

Just over half the bosses (54 percent) had household incomes of $75,000, whereas only 32 percent of workers had salaries at or above $75,000. In part, each of these differences is attributable to age.

On average, bosses are about eight years older than workers (47 vs. 39), so as a group they are further along in their careers.

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Hill Democrats, Republicans Set 2014 Agendas with Midterm Elections in Mind

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Congressional Democrats and Republicans sharpened their political knives Sunday as lawmakers return to Washington this week to begin executing legislative agendas designed to help their respective parties in the November elections.

The first major battle will likely be over restoring long-term unemployment benefits, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid scheduled to hold a preliminary vote Monday on the issue.

“The first thing we want to get done is extend unemployment benefits,” he told Fox News on Sunday.

The benefits were not included in a two-year budget deal Congress reached before adjourning for winter break, but not before House Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, made clear the money will not be restored unless offset but other spending cuts.

The White House is also applying pressure on congressional Republicans, issuing a statement on New Year’s Day that said President Obama supports the bipartisan Senate bill to reinstate benefits for the 1.3 million Americans who lost the insurance in the new budget deal.

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Republican Senators Rally Behind Abortion Ban

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Photo Credit: Lauren SchneidermanRepublican senators facing primary challenges are rallying behind the most exhaustive congressional push to restrict abortion rights in a decade.

Eleven of the 14 GOP senators up for reelection next year support a new bill to ban the fraction of abortions that take place after 20 weeks of fetal development.

A nearly identical bill passed the House this summer. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who is fending off four opponents on the right, introduced the Senate measure on Thursday.

“In light of medicine and what we know about the unborn child in 2013, is it time to do more [to stop abortions]?” Graham asked. “We expect a robust debate.”

The bill stems from an assertion that fetuses feel pain after 20 weeks, and follows the murder conviction of Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, whose trial drew attention to the practice of late-term abortion.

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Hardcore, Constitutionalist Lawmaker: Time to Sue Obama Over Amnesty

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Photo Credit: Gage SkidmorePressure is mounting on the House of Representatives to pass the Senate immigration bill, but Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, says the Senate plan is unconstitutional and is not nearly focused enough on border security.

House Republicans met Wednesday to get a sense of where the members stand on immigration and what the GOP strategy should be.

Rep. Stockman told WND Republicans don’t feel much pressure to pass the Senate bill. He said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has not submitted the bill to the House because he knows the GOP believes it’s unconstitutional.

“The bill is unconstitutional because Article 1, Section 7, says quite clearly that all taxes are to be started in the House, not in the Senate,” he said. “The thing is loaded with taxes, loaded with pork, so Harry Reid to my knowledge has never sent it over to the House.”

The congressman said if Reid does submit it, the House GOP will request a point of order on the alleged constitutional violation. He believes that would be followed by the House “blue-slipping” the bill.

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John Bolton: Christie Decision to Hold Special Election ‘Mind-boggling’

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Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

Former Ambassador John Bolton says he’s perplexed at New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s surprise decision to hold a special election to replace late Sen. Frank Lautenberg instead of appointing a Republican.

“I’m mystified by this decision,” Bolton told “The Steve Malzberg Show” on Newsmax TV.

“It is just mind-boggling and it will expose him to criticism from nearly everybody — and that’s what happens when you make a decision that’s too cute by half.”

Christie on Tuesday set a special election for October to fill the seat of Lautenberg, a move that could cost taxpayers as much as $20 million. He will appoint someone to temporarily fill in, but hasn’t said who yet.

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