Tag Archives: John Boehner

May 14, 2013 · 8:42 AM

10 things you need to know today: May 14, 2013

Angelina Jolie at a conference in London in April.

The Week

1. LAWMAKERS SLAM JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FOR SPYING ON AP
Lawmakers from both parties sharply criticized the Obama administration late Monday after The Associated Press revealed that the Justice Department had spied on some of its reporters. The AP said officials obtained two months of telephone records — on more than 20 cell, office, and home lines — in an apparent attempt to crack down on internal leaks. The AP called the move a “massive and unprecedented intrusion.” House Speaker John Boehner said Justice “better have a damned good explanation.” [Fox News, NPR]
………………………………………………………………………………

2. MINNESOTA BECOMES 12TH STATE TO ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE
Minnesota’s Democrat-controlled state Senate has approved a bill allowing same-sex couples to marry. The state House has already signed off, and Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, is expected to sign it into law on Tuesday, making the state the 12th in the nation to legalize gay marriage. The measure’s success marked a stark reversal over two years ago, when the legislature was controlled by Republicans who tried to write the state’s ban on same-sex marriage into its constitution. [Reuters]
………………………………………………………………………………

3. GOSNELL FOUND GUILTY OF MURDER
A jury found Dr. Kermit Gosnell guilty of three counts of first-degree murder for killing three babies born alive after botched abortions. He was also convicted of manslaughter for the death of a patient from a drug overdose. Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty as the case’s sentencing phase begins Tuesday. Anti-abortion activists have used the trial as a rallying cry; abortion-rights supporters called it a reminder of why women need access to safe, sanitary care. [New York Times]
………………………………………………………………………………

4. OBAMA COUNTERS CRITICS OVER BENGHAZI, JOINS THEM OVER THE IRS
President Obama, facing mounting Republican criticism on several fronts, on Monday dismissed GOP questions of his administration’s handling of September’s attacks in Benghazi, Libya, as a partisan “sideshow.” Obama, however, joined angry politicians on the right and left in slamming the Internal Revenue Service for singling out conservative groups for special scrutiny. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Obama was displaying “faux outrage” over the IRS scandal, which he said really proved Obama is “drunk on power.” [New York Times, Real Clear Politics]
………………………………………………………………………………

5. BOATS CAPSIZE FLEEING STORM IN MYANMAR
Several boats carrying as many as 150 people reportedly capsized near the western coast of Myanmar, a United Nations agency said Tuesday. The boats were ferrying members of the country’s long-suffering Muslim minority away from low-lying areas ahead of the potential arrival of Cyclone Mahasen, a storm that could hit parts of Myanmar and Bangladesh later this week. The boats were battered by high seas Monday night. Rescuers have recovered some bodies, but some passengers reached land. [CNN]
………………………………………………………………………………

6. VERMONT DECRIMINALIZES POSSESSION OF SMALL AMOUNTS OF POT
Vermont lawmakers on Monday gave their final approval to a bill that decriminalizes possession of up to an ounce of marijuana. Under current state law, a first time conviction for misdemeanor pot possession carries a sentence of up to six months in jail. The new legislation, which Gov. Pete Shumlin plans to sign, replaces the criminal penalties with a $300 fine. Shumlin said now the state’s police can “focus their limited resources” on more addictive drugs. [Times Argus]
………………………………………………………………………………

7. TWO MEN ARRESTED IN MURDER OF MALCOLM X’S GRANDSON IN MEXICO
Mexican police on Monday arrested two men for last week’s beating death of Malcolm Shabazz, the grandson of Malcolm X. The suspects, David Hernández Cruz and Manuel Alejandro Pérez de Jesús, were waiters at a Mexico City bar where Shabazz, 28, was killed in an apparent dispute over an excessive ($1,200) bill. Shabazz, who lived an erratic life after setting a fire that killed his grandmother when he was 12, was in Mexico to support a labor activist recently deported from the U.S. [New York Times]
………………………………………………………………………………

8. JOYCE BROTHERS DIES
Pioneering TV psychologist Joyce Brothers died Monday in New York City. She was 85. On her 1950s TV show, Brothers addressed personal topics that had rarely, if ever, been discussed on television. She published 15 books and wrote a syndicated column that kept her in the public eye for decades. She became a fixture in popular culture with cameo appearances on Happy Days, The Simpsons, and other TV shows, and visited Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show nearly 100 times. [USA Today]
………………………………………………………………………………

9. POLICE NAME SUSPECT IN NEW ORLEANS PARADE MASS SHOOTING
New Orleans on Monday identified a 19-year-old man, Akein Scott, as the suspect in a shooting that injured 19 people, including two 10-year-old children, at a neighborhood parade on Sunday. As the city’s residents expressed outrage, tips pointing to Scott poured in after police released photos from a surveillance camera showing a young man firing into a crowd. Three of the wounded remain in critical condition, although all were expected to survive. [Reuters]
………………………………………………………………………………

10. JOLIE REVEALS SHE HAD A DOUBLE MASTECTOMY TO PREVENT CANCER
Angelina Jolie, 37, revealed in The New York Times that she underwent a preventive double mastectomy this year after learning she carries a “faulty” gene that sharply increases her risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer. The Academy Award-winning actress said her mother died of cancer at age 56, and she wanted to be proactive for the sake of her children. “I am writing about it now because I hope that other women can benefit from my experience,” she said. [New York Times]

1 Comment

Filed under 10 things you need to know today

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

May 12, 2013 · 6:13 AM

Boehner And McConnell: Our Way Or We Break Medicare

Boehner And McConnell: Our Way Or We Break Medicare

Boehner And McConnell: Our Way Or We Break Medicare

Despicable bullies come to mind when I see how members of Congress will stop at nothing to get their way…

TPM

Your big Obamacare story of the day is that John Boehner and Mitch McConnell won’t recommend commissioners to the Independent Payment Advisory Board — a panel designed to contain Medicare spending — as the law asks them to.

This isn’t a huge surprise given how, er, eager Republicans have been to smooth Obamacare implementation in general. But it’s more revealing, and just as ironic, as their other efforts to break or hinder the law before it takes full effect.

It’s not just that Boehner and McConnell hate Obamacare and it’s not just that they’re hypocrites about spending. What they’re saying with their actions is that if they can’t convert Medicare from a single-payer into a private insurance system, they’d rather the whole thing collapse under its own weight. President Obama’s and Paul Ryan’s Medicare plans both envision budget caps for Medicare — the difference is that Ryan wants to let private insurers enforce it while Obama leaves the task to providers, with IPAB as a backstop. The parties are actually in about the same place fiscally with respect to Medicare, but unless reaching a more sustainable trajectory means privatizing the program, Republicans will try to keep it unsustainable.

Unfortunately for them, the story’s not that simple. The GOP can’t straightforwardly nullify or hobble IPAB by withholding or blocking nominees, the way it can and does with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the National Labor Relations Board. The IPAB can seemingly function with fewer than 15 confirmed members, and even if Senate Republicans filibuster all nominees, the ACA includes a backstop that basically allows the Health and Human Services Secretary to act as a one-woman payment board. So just as states’ rights-loving governors are ceding their sovereignty to the federal government instead of setting up insurance exchanges of their own, Boehner and McConnell are effectively handing power to the executive branch in lieu of doing what the law asks them and maintaining influence over the policy.

Now that may not be a power that the Obama administration wants to exercise. And its not one that’ll necessarily remain in Democratic hands forever. So it’s not a perfect alternative to IPAB. But it’s also not a win-win for Boehner and McConnell. The GOP base might appreciate it, but it’s probably counter to their substantive interests.

Related articles

Comments Off

Filed under Budget Cuts, Medicare, Obamacare

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

May 9, 2013 · 5:04 AM

House Republicans and extortion for the sake of extortion

Pitch perfect assessment…

The Washington Post – Post Partisan

Today’s news is about Republican leaders in the House scrambling around to find something that they can blackmail Barack Obama and the Democrats with, so that they can threaten to crash the economy with a government default unless they get it.

Kevin Drum and Brian Buetler interpret this as Republican irresponsibility on the budget. Greg Sargent points out that it’s even worse — Republican leaders in the House, including Speaker John Boehner, have already admitted that they aren’t willing to really force default, so they’re refusing to negotiate for now because they’re waiting until they can threaten to blow up the economy even though they admit they really won’t.

House Speaker John Boehner (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Well, maybe.

I say: It’s worse than that!

As I read this, it’s not really about Republicans demanding debt reduction and using the best leverage they have available to get it. Nor is it about Republicans demanding tax reform — their other possible demand — and using the best leverage they have to get it.

No, it’s the other way around. The House crazy caucus is demanding not debt reduction, not spending cuts, not budget balancing, but blackmail itself. That’s really the demand: The speaker and House Republican leaders absolutely must use the debt limit as extortion. What should they use it to get? Apparently, that’s pretty much up for grabs, as long as it seems really, really, big — which probably comes down to meaning that the Democrats really, really don’t like it.

In other words: I think Greg is correct, and the speaker has decided that he doesn’t actually want to blow past the debt limit. But now he has to find some way to do it without losing his job. And that means satisfying the significant chunk of his conference who demand maximum nuttiness at all times, either because they really believe in it or because they’re terrified to allow any space at all between themselves and those true believers.

It’s the extortion that’s the point. Not the policy.

 

Related articles

Comments Off

Filed under Benghazi, GOP Leadership, Republican Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

May 8, 2013 · 1:08 PM

John Boehner Opens Mouth, Inserts Foot, and Insults The Troops In Spectacular Fashion

I think we need to look at John Boehner as an inanimate Howdy Doody type puppet and his puppet masters are the Tea Party in Congress.  Not that Boehner was ever an astute majority leader anyway…but the new crop of 2012 Tea Partiers have him on strict lock-down.  Anything John Boehner says is not his own thought.

PoliticusUSA

John Boehner opened mouth and inserted foot in a spectacular fashion when he told Bloomberg that paying back China was a higher priority than paying the troops.

Related articles

3 Comments

Filed under John Boehner

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

April 11, 2013 · 12:08 PM

Obama Bets Social Security Cuts That The GOP Won’t Accept His Tax Increases

This pretty much echos (in much more detail) my post from a few days ago…

Addicting Info 

Social Security Card

President Obama may be using the chained CPI as a gambit to get political leverage against Republicans for 2014 and beyond, even if he doesn’t realize it. Despite that, many people, particularly those on the left, are upset with President Obama’s decision to tie Social Security to a chained consumer price index (CPI), because it amounts to a cut in Social Security payments overall.

However, while the chained CPI is in his budget proposal, so are increased revenues from closing tax loopholes, something GOP leaders have been adamantly opposed to ever since the fiscal cliff.

Social Security payments are currently tied into the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), which means that payments increase as the CPI-W. According to theWashington Post, the CPI-W does not reflect the substitutions the average consumer makes for products and services as prices on those things increase. A chained CPI does, and thus, increases at a lower rate.

The reason changing the way Social Security payments are calculated to a chained CPI is so maddening, and why it reduces payments, is because it assumes that inflation isn’t actually happening as fast as the CPI-W says it is. So Social Security payments could eventually fall far enough behind cost of living that people would be unable to make any ends meet on Social Security. Furthermore, it’s possible that calculations regarding rising cost of living could just as easily be underestimating those increases, rather than overestimating. If this is the case, a chained CPI would be even worse for people on Social Security.

The concept has been batted around since the fiscal cliff debacle, when members of the GOP said that this type of action on the so-called “entitlements” could get them interested in revenue increases. At the time, it sounded like some halfway decent compromise might be possible, but now, the GOP has pulled back, with Mitch McConnell (R-KY) saying these reforms “are modest,” and John Boehner (R-OH) repeating his familiar refrain of no more revenue.

The Daily Beast discusses a twist in this, which is the way the chained CPI is a political gambit for Obama. He reaches out with cuts in Social Security, which the Democrats don’t want, and insists on new revenue as part of the deal. Republican leaders follow Boehner and others, refuse the revenue, and Obama gets to say, “I tried, but they won’t work with me.”

Author Michael Tomasky believes that Obama has a genuine belief that the GOP will eventually come around on revenue increases and put forth a real effort to compromise on deficit reduction, however, he also thinks that what will actually happen is the above, simply because the GOP keeps saying, over and over, that Obama got his revenue in the fiscal cliff deal, and therefore we are done with that and all there is left to discuss is spending cuts.

Tomasky is likely correct in his prediction. Another part of the chained CPI concept deals with tax brackets; the CPI-U, which is what is actually reported as “inflation,” is what the government uses to adjust tax brackets so that people don’t get pushed into higher tax brackets merely because of inflation. Under the chained CPI, the tax brackets would change more slowly, and the phenomenon known as “bracket creep” could become more common.

Grover Norquist, of Americans for Tax Reform and the Taxpayer Protection Pledge fame, calls this a tax increase, and he’s right. It would result in a tax increase on Americans over time, but more quickly than the current system.

“Bracket creep” is only part of the revenue in Obama’s budget; he still wants to close loopholes and reduce deductions for the highest income earners, something that the GOP is, and has been, adamantly against for practically forever. When these are paired with the tax increases the chained CPI represents, it does seem less likely that enough will favor Obama’s budget proposal to get it through.

The Washington Post article quotes the president as saying, “If you’re serious about deficit reduction, then there’s no excuse to keep these loopholes open.” But the GOP won’t accept closing loopholes, they won’t accept eliminating deductions, and they pretty much won’t accept anything that means increased revenue anymore, unless that revenue goes to pay for more tax cuts.

With Democrats strongly opposed to a chained CPI, and Republicans strongly opposed to more tax increases through closing loopholes and eliminating deductions for high-income earners, it’s not especially likely that his budget proposal will pass. But Tomasky’s prediction remains the likeliest: Obama’s offering an olive branch, trying to find middle ground, and GOP leaders are still balking because of the tax increases. His budget won’t go through, and not only will we not see a chained CPI, but he’ll get to point at Republicans as the stubborn ones behaving in their obstructionist manner, since he’s going against his party’s wishes to find some way to make something happen.

Related articles

 

6 Comments

Filed under Budget Cuts, Chained CPI

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

April 10, 2013 · 5:12 PM

‘Tea Party’ is over: Ex-activist says racism, hypocrisy killed the movement

teaparty-main.jpg

Tea Party protest…

That’s one man’s opinion and I respect that.  I’m taking a “wait and see” approach.  The 2014 mid-term elections will tell us for sure…

The Griot - Opinion by Phil Russo

I always defended the Tea Party against charges of racism. And then last week, someone with whom I am Facebook “friends” posted something extremely racist and I called her out on it. Immediately, her friends jumped down my throat, calling me a liberal and saying I wasn’t a real tea partier, despite the fact that I was one of 10 people on the first Tea Party conference calls back in January of 2009.

That was just one of many wake-up calls.

Sadly, what began as a genuine opportunity to make this country more free has deteriorated to racist name calling, fear of anyone with brown skin, and an irrational focus on Sharia law.

A chance for Libertarians to reform the GOP

Nobody has been a bigger supporter of the Tea Party than I have been.

In Orlando, I think we had one of the best organized groups.  Along with Cincinnati and Houston, Orlando was one of the cities that saw the biggest rallies, the most active tea partiers, and attracted the biggest names to speak at our events.  When the left would point to the one nut-job in a crowd of 6,000 with a racist sign and call all 6,000 people racists, the more Libertarian tea partiers like me, would always use ourselves and our groups as examples of of the real, average tea partier.

At our events here in Orlando I met people who said they had never come to a political rally.  Even when the left insisted that the Tea Party was just a bunch of GOP activists, I knew better. The people I talked to at our rallies were usually more independent.  Of course there were lots of Republicans and some even more conservative members of the Whig Party and Conservative Party, but there were also lots of Libertarians, independents, and Constitution Party members.

I always felt like the Tea Party was going to be the chance for Libertarians to do two things:

First, I thought it was a golden opportunity to show Republicans the hypocrisy of their platform.

Secondly, I thought it was a great chance for us to talk to apolitical, independent folks who were genuinely angry about the bank bailouts: folks who work for a living or own a small business and felt like, “hey, I employ 25 people and no one is going to bail me out.  To hell with GM and Lehman Brothers!”

These are people who vote for president every four years but don’t vote in midterm elections. They don’t really care if gays get married or if college kids smoke pot.  They also do not want to have their paychecks confiscated to pay for Obamacare.  They voted for the GOP in 2010 and made John Boehner Speaker of the House.

Continue reading here…

Related articles

 

4 Comments

Filed under Tea Party

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

· 12:55 PM

Republicans move the budget goal posts again

Official portrait of United States House Speak...

It looks to me that no matter how much President Obama acquiesces to GOP demands, he’s damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t (from both sides)…

The Week

President Obama’s months-delayed budget was finally released today, and it’s being sharply criticized from both sides.

Liberals suggest the president is a “sellout” for proposing cuts to Social Security and other entitlements by using a “Chained CPI” calculation, while Republicans are falling back on their familiar “tax-and-spend liberal” attacks.

John Avlon sees this political posturing as a good sign, noting that the budget “is not a positional bargaining document, designed simply to rally the base at the outset of negotiations.”

While it’s possible the White House is trying to triangulate its way to a “grand bargain” on the budget, what’s striking is that Obama has given Republicans exactly what they’ve asked for — and it’s still not good enough. Republicans remain unwilling to consider additional revenues as part of any package.

In the midst of the “fiscal cliff” negotiations last year, an aide to Speaker John Boehner told Bloomberg that the GOP leader wanted to include a Chained CPI calculation even more than he wanted other entitlement cuts, such as raising the Medicare eligibility age.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) explicitly told the Wall Street Journal that if Obama offered a Chained CPI calculation for entitlement benefits, Republicans would consider finding additional revenue.

Said McConnell: “Those are the kinds of things that would get Republicans interested in new revenue.”

To the annoyance of many liberals in his party, Obama included the Chained CPI in his budget.

But as Greg Sargent correctly points out, the GOP has moved the goal posts: “And so we have a moment of clarity in this debate once again: There is literally nothing that Obama can offer Republicans — not even things they themselves have asked for — that would induce them to agree to a compromise on new revenues.”

Related articles

1 Comment

Filed under Chained CPI, White House Budget

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

April 7, 2013 · 6:24 PM

Is the GOP Sincere in Denouncing its Bigots?

Good question…

Alternet

There has been an outcry from some GOP members concerning GOP bigotry. But the sea change may be much less than meets the eye.

In a week’s time the wide range of what was once considered routine GOP bigotry was on full display. Dave Agema, a former West Michigan state representative, and Republican National Committeeman called gays “filthy homosexuals.” Next, Alaska Rep. Don Young blurted out the epitaph “wetbacks” in discussing the immigration issue. Then 23 members of the so-called White Student Union attended the Conservative Political Action Conference where its leader tacitly endorsed segregation and even slavery.

In times past, the silence from the GOP officials and rank and file would have been deafening. It would have reconfirmed the standard knock against the GOP as a party of Kooks, cranks misanthropes, and, of course, bigots. But in each of the three cases, there was an outcry from local GOP officials, bloggers, and GOP campus groups. They publicly denounced the bigotry, and in the case of Young, House Speaker John Boehner, Arizona and Texas Senators John McCain, and John Cornyn, and Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus blasted Young’s remarks.

At first glance, this seems a signal that the GOP recognizes that it’s widely considered the party of bigotry, and that it’s willing to do something about it. But the sea change may be much less than meets the eye. Many top GOP officials are still mute on its party’s bigots. The official record still stands that no top GOP official aggressively and consistently denounces the bigoted remarks or acts by a GOP operative, representative, or senator.

The RNC in its near 100 page blueprint for reaching out to minorities, gays and young people did raise faint hope that the GOP may indeed have finally woke up that America is changing, and it can’t win national offices anymore solely with conservative white male Heartland and Deep South voters, or through the use of the crude race baiting. But this hope ignores the GOP’s horrible history of dealing with its blatant bigots and bigotry. The pattern was on ugly display in 2002 when then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott touched off a furor seemingly touting the one time pro-segregation battles fought by South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond. It took nearly a week for then President George W. Bush to make a stumbling, tepid disavowal of Lott.

In the next decade, a legion of Republican state and local officials, conservative talk show jocks and even some Republican bigwigs made foot-in-mouth racist cracks that invariably got them in hot water. Their response when called on the carpet was always the same: They make a duck and dodge denial, claim that they were misquoted or issue a weak, half-hearted apology. Each time, the response from top Republicans was either silence, or if the firestorm was great enough, to give the offender a much-delayed mild verbal hand slap. Lott was dumped from his Senate Majority Leader post, but soon got a top post back as Senate Minority Whip after a kind of, sort of mea culpa.

The bigger dilemma for the GOP when the bigots of their party pop off is that they remain prisoners of their party’s racist past. It’s a past in which Republican presidents set the tone with their own verbal race bashing. President Eisenhower never got out of the Old South habit of calling blacks “nigras.”

In an infamous and well-documented outburst at a White House dinner party in 1954, Ike winked, nodded and whispered to Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren that he understood why white Southerners wouldn’t want to “see their sweet little girls required to sit in school alongside some big black buck.”

Continue reading…

Related articles

Comments Off

Filed under GOP Radicalism

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

· 12:34 PM

10 things you need to know today: April 7, 2013

The Week

U.S. delays missile test amid North Korea tensions, Michigan and Louisville advance to the NCAA championship, and more in our roundup of the stories that are making the news and driving opinion

1. U.S. DELAYS BALLISTIC MISSILE TEST 
Amid reports that South Korea expects North Korea’s missile launch to be “days away,” a senior U.S. defense official confirmed that the Pentagon delayed an intercontinental ballistic missile test that was scheduled for next week at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The official says Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel decided to postpone the test because of ongoing tensions with North Korea. According to the source, the test was “long planned and was never associated with North Korea to begin with,” but “given recent tensions on the Korean Peninsula, it’s prudent and wise to take steps that avoid any misperception or chance of manipulation, so the test has been postponed.” The U.S. will conduct another test soon, the senior defense official said, adding that the U.S. “remains strongly committed to our nuclear deterrence capabilities.” [NBC News]
………………………………………………………………………………

2. SEVERAL STATES CONSIDER NEW GUN TAXES
Cook County, Ill., this month began collecting a $25 tax on gun purchases, and at least six states are considering new taxes on firearms or ammunition as a way to help pay for the consequences of gun violence. These states are studying whether to tax gun and ammunition purchases as a deterrent to gun ownership, a measure that detractors denounce as a violation of Second Amendment rights. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle says the tax won’t necessarily serve as a deterrent to gun buyers, but “it’s an acknowledgment that we as a society pay a terrible price for the proliferation of guns.” Other states testing similar taxes and regulations include California, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Maryland. [Reuters]
………………………………………………………………………………

3. SIX AMERICANS KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN ATTACKS
Six Americans and an Afghan doctor were killed in attacks on Saturday in southern and eastern Afghanistan. This marks the deadliest day for U.S. citizens in Afghanistan this year. Included in the death toll is what is believed to be the first U.S. diplomat to be killed in Afghanistan since the war began. The attacks occurred on the same day that U.S. General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in Afghanistan for a visit aimed at assessing the level of training that American troops can provide to Afghan security forces after international combat forces complete their withdrawal at the end of 2014. The deaths bring the number of foreign military forces killed this year to 30, including 22 Americans. [Guardian]
………………………………………………………………………………

4. OBAMA WON’T IMPLEMENT ROMNEY-LIKE BUDGET PLAN
President Obama is willing to compromise on the budget, but he won’t yield to Republicans who want to enact a plan that looks like Mitt Romney’s, White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said on ABC’s This Week. It’s Obama’s hope that Democrats and Republicans can “come together and work to try to find a compromise,” whether that happens through talks with House Speaker John Boehner or getting enough Senate Republicans on board to force a deal, Pfeiffer said. Some details of the president’s 2014 budget proposal were released Friday ahead of the full rollout on Wednesday and have drawn opposition from the right and the left. But Pfeiffer suggested that’s a sign of the president’s seriousness. [Politico]
………………………………………………………………………………

5. IRAN NUCLEAR NEGOTIATIONS REACH INCONCLUSIVE END
Iran and six world powers failed to reach agreement Saturday on how to reduce fears that Tehran might use its nuclear technology to make weapons during a summit in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Expectations that the negotiations were making progress rose as an afternoon session continued into the evening, but comments by the two sides after they ended made clear that they fell far short of making enough headway to qualify the meeting as a success. ”What matters in the end is substance, and we are still a considerable distance apart,” Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s head of foreign policy, told reporters at the end of the two-day talks. Sec. of State John Kerry has since defined the timetable for continued nuclear talks with Iran as “limited.” [Huffington Post]
………………………………………………………………………………

6. PASTOR RICK WARREN’S SON COMMITS SUICIDE
Evangelical Pastor Rick Warren’s son Matthew committed suicide on Friday, according to the Warren family. Warren delivered the news to his congregation in an emotional letter. ”At 27 years of age, Matthew was an incredibly kind, gentle and compassionate young man whose sweet spirit was encouragement and comfort to many,” Warren, the popular author of The Purpose Driven Life, said in the letter. “Unfortunately, he also suffered from mental illness resulting in deep depression and suicidal thoughts.” As a pioneer of the megachurch movement, Rick Warren looked to translate traditional evangelical messages to a wider audience. The pastor gave the invocation at President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration and penned The Purpose-Driven Life, a Christian self-help guide that became a mainstream best-seller. [CNN]
………………………………………………………………………………

7. JINDAL’S POPULARITY DWINDLES IN LOUISIANA
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, one of the nation’s most prominent Republicans and a possible 2016 presidential candidate, has fallen out of favor with local voters, and his bold plan to scrap the state income tax is running into trouble. Jindal was re-elected to a second term with two-thirds of the vote in 2011, but his Louisiana approval rating was down to 38 percent in a recent poll, worse than Democratic President Obama in one of the most conservative states. The poll suggested voters think he is spending more time traveling outside the state and burnishing his credentials for a possible White House run than tending to local matters. [Reuters]
………………………………………………………………………………

8. NASA PLANS TO LASSO ASTEROID CLOSE TO THE MOON
NASA is planning for a robotic spaceship to lasso a small asteroid and park it near the moon for astronauts to explore, according to Florida Sen. Ben Nelson. The robotic ship would capture the 500-ton 25-foot asteroid in 2019. Then using an Orion space capsule, now being developed, a crew of about four astronauts would nuzzle up next to the rock in 2021 for spacewalking exploration. Nelson, who is chairman of the Senate science and space subcommittee, said Friday that President Obama is putting $100 million in planning money for the accelerated asteroid mission in the 2014 budget that comes out next week. The money would be used to find the right small asteroid, which would help NASA develop the capability to nudge away a dangerous asteroid if one headed to Earth in the future. [Politico]
………………………………………………………………………………

9. FORMER GEORGE W. BUSH FAITH LEADER, LATER CRITIC, DIES
J. David Kuo, an evangelical Christian who was a leader in President George W. Bush’s faith initiative but who later became a critic of it, died on Friday at the age of 44. Kuo’s wife, Kimberly, said the cause was brain cancer, which was diagnosed 10 years ago. As deputy director of Bush’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, Kuo helped implement Bush’s promise to link the nation’s religious groups with the delivery of social services. But Kuo left the administration after two years. He later wrote that the faith office did not receive the billions of dollars that Bush had pledged and said the White House had used the office as a political prop. [New York Times]
………………………………………………………………………………

10. MICHIGAN, LOUISVILLE TO PLAY IN NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
The University of Michigan advanced to the NCAA national championship game with a 61-56 victory over Syracuse in the Final Four on Saturday night. Michigan will be going for its first national title since 1989 when it faces Louisville on Monday at the Georgia Dome. Louisville defeated its unexpectedly fierce competitor, Wichita State, earlier in the evening, to advance to the championship game. [ESPN]

 

1 Comment

Filed under 10 things you need to know today

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

April 6, 2013 · 10:31 AM

Liberals fuming over Social Security cuts in Obama’s budget proposal

Barack Obama, pictured here on February 15, 2013, will become the first serving US president to receive Israel's presidential medal (AFP)

Barack Obama, pictured here on February 15, 2013, will become the first serving US president to receive Israel’s presidential medal (AFP)

Regarding President Obama’s Budget Proposal:  It’s been said that President Obama is an excellent chess player.  In my opinion, there’s a method to his madness when dealing with this extremely dysfunctional Congress.  Sometimes it’s worth looking at this situation through a more pragmatic lens.  I believe that the POTUS knows they will not accept his offer because he is asking for revenue (raising taxes on the wealthy) in exchange for these cuts.  However, whatever his next step is, he can truthfully say he offered the social cuts they had been asking for.

It would be great if Progressives were not so damned reactionary and simply analyzed the situation…but hey, that’s just my opinion.

The Raw Story

President Barack Obama will make key concessions to Republican foes next week when he unveils his US budget that proposes cuts to cherished entitlement programs, the White House said Friday.

Obama’s fiscal blueprint slashes the deficit by $1.8 trillion over 10 years, in what a senior administration official described as a “compromise offer” that cuts federal spending, finds savings in Social Security and raises tax revenue from the wealthy.

Republicans led by House Speaker John Boehner are opposed to new tax hikes, after the president secured $600 billion in increased tax revenue in a year-end deal.

Boehner’s party controls the House of Representatives, and passage of the president’s budget is unlikely if it contains new tax revenue provisions.

But Obama’s concession to conservatives in the form of reduced cost-of-living payouts for Social Security benefits could revive consideration of a deficit-reducing “grand bargain” that has proved elusive in recent years.

Such cuts to public pension programs and public health insurance for the elderly — seen as sacred cows for Obama’s Democrats — have been longstanding demands of Republicans.

“While this is not the president’s ideal deficit reduction plan, and there are particular proposals in this plan like the CPI (consumer price index) change that were key Republican requests and not the president’s preferred approach, this is a compromise proposal built on common ground,” the official said.

Obama is willing to “do tough things to reduce the deficit,” but only in the context of a package that includes new revenues from the wealthy, the official added.

Liberals immediately fumed that Obama appeared to be caving in to Republicans, with the group Democracy for America worried about the “profoundly disturbing” proposal for Social Security cuts.

Independent Senator Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats, warned the move would slash $120 billion from Social Security benefits over 10 years, and pledged to “do everything in my power to block” Obama’s so-called “chained CPI” proposal.

Even moderate Congressman Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, told MSNBC television that he has “serious concerns” about its impact on seniors.

The White House insisted that the Social Security cut was part of a recognition of the need to make some painful changes in federal programs in order to reduce spending.

“This isn’t about political horse trading; it’s about reducing the deficit in a balanced way that economists say is best for the economy and job creation,” the administration official said.

Obama’s new revenues will draw in part from capping retirement savings plans for millionaires, and closing some loopholes that benefit the rich.

The annual budget deficit is projected at 5.5 percent of gross domestic product for the fiscal year ending in September. Under the Obama budget, that would decline to 1.7 percent of GDP by 2023.

Combined with the $2.5 trillion in savings already achieved since negotiations in 2010, the Obama budget would bring total deficit reduction to $4.3 trillion over 10 years, slightly higher than the overall goal agreed to by both parties for stabilizing the national debt.

But Boehner warned that Obama had “moved in the wrong direction” by making skimpier entitlement cuts than he had offered in negotiations with Republicans last year.

And “if the president believes these modest entitlement savings are needed to help shore up these programs, there’s no reason they should be held hostage for more tax hikes. That’s no way to lead and move the country forward,” Boehner said.

Related articles

3 Comments

Filed under U.S. Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , ,