Posts

GOP House Leadership to Support Amnesty?

/1 Comment/in , /by

On Fox News Sunday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) did not deny the House Republican leadership will support an “overall path to legalization” for all of the country’s illegal immigrants. Though not offering specifics, Cantor told host Chris Wallace that the House would be addressing the immigration issue and “would take a position” on the question after the August recess.

When repeatedly asked whether the House will vote on a bill to put at least 11 million illegal immigrants on a “path to legalization,” Cantor said the House Republican leadership has not made “any announcements about the schedule” and emphasized the House was “not going to be bringing the Senate bill up.” He also said the House Republican leadership was “going to take a position” “because we know the system is broken” and “we want to fix it.”

Cantor acknowledged that Committees in the House have already passed piecemeal immigration bills that deal with things like border security and guest workers and said, “we will have a vote on a series of bills at some point, and it will deal with a variety of issues.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Sanford Is Frontrunner in S.C. House Race, But Says Political Return ‘Humbling, Difficult’

/0 Comments/in , /by

South Carolina’s unpredictable political universe is now in full orbit with a special election next month that features 18 congressional candidates including a former governor and two first-timers with celebrity last names.

That former Republican Gov. Mark Sanford is an early favorite for the seat he held from 1995 to 2001, despite having had an extra-marital affair while in office, is no surprise.

The open seat is in the conservative 1st congressional district, in largely conservative South Carolina. Furthermore, only Sanford appears to have the kind of political name recognition to raise enough money over such a short period.

“We’ve got a tight time frame, and Sanford’s name ID allows him to be the frontrunner,” said Republican strategist Adam Temple, who has worked for South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint and on Arizona Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign.

Sanford told FoxNews.com this week he’s so far been humbled by the experience, with everybody from fellow state Republicans to everyday voters appearing ready to give him another shot at elected office.

Read more from this story HERE.

Boehner Must Go

/17 Comments/in , , /by

photo credit: donkeyhotey

It’s not possible for Republicans to dump Barack Obama in the next four years. They have blown their opportunity to do that. But the next best thing they can do right now is to dump John Boehner as speaker of the House.

Though Boehner has been portrayed in the media as some kind of hardliner who is intransigent and unwilling to compromise, the truth is that he is the opposite. He is an appeaser. He is an enabler. He is an accommodationist.

Boehner began waving the white flag of surrender to Obama soon after Republicans made him speaker in 2011. Since all spending bills need to originate in the House and because the Republican majority in the House has had absolute power to freeze spending, Boehner was dealt a powerful hand to keep Obama in check. Instead, he folded. Not only did he fold repeatedly, he even signaled before negotiations about spending ever began that he intended to fold.

He has repeatedly dismissed the idea that freezing the debt limit was a political option. That’s like unilaterally disarming before one’s enemies.

But it gets worse.

Read more from this story HERE.

House to Defy Ozone Treaty, Allow Sale of Asthma Inhalers

/3 Comments/in , /by

photo credit: net_efektThe [U.S.]House is looking to pass legislation this week that would legalize the sale of 1 million asthma inhalers, which were banned from drugstore shelves this year in order to comply with an international air quality treaty.

Republicans are expected to call up H.R. 6190, the Asthma Inhalers Relief Act, on Tuesday. The bill would allow the sale of about 1 million remaining Primatene Mist inhalers, despite a ban on the sale of this product since the end of 2011.

Primatene Mist had been used by asthma sufferers for decades, but it was banned under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, and also the Clean Air Act. Supporters of the ban have said Primatene Mist contains chlorofluorocarbons that deplete the ozone layer, as well as a drug, epinephrine, that is now seen by some doctors as less effective against asthma.

But supporters of the product say people still rely on Primatene Mist for asthma attacks, and that the ban takes away the only effective over-the-counter product for people with asthma.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved the bill by voice vote in August and said passage would allow the remaining 1 million inhalers to be sold.

Read more from this story HERE.